Fic recs, May 20th: Project Get! #17! · 3:38pm May 20th
Hey! :D Welcome back to Project Get!, where I sort my RIL by views and grab the last 10 on the list that aren't sequels, unfinished, or by the same author twice! I've been trying to do this a lot more frequently, but 'frequent' has not exactly described these blogs out of me, has it? D: I dunno if that could change in the near future. I've got outpatient surgery on Wednesday this week, so I'm going to have a decent chunk of time to just sit around and convalesce. Maybe I could get things done then? :B
Who am I kidding? XD I'm not someone who just does things!
Anyway, Jinglemas from last year apparently didn't attract a lot of attention, nor did Ciderfest, and that's a shame! So enjoy these stories, won't you?
H: 2 R: 3 C: 3 V: 1 N: 0 X: 1
Lodged in Las Pegasus by Vis-a-Viscera
Genre: Thriller
This is the last time we try a heist with Misty Fly.
I have to admit, I had a bit of difficulty following this, just because it starts in medias res and there's an early sentence that didn't make sense to me even after a few readings. But what this perhaps lacks in narrative, it more than makes up for with snappy dialogue that keeps the story zipping smoothly forward. And there's some good character work in here, too, especially for Fleetfoot and Misty Fly. Not a lot of comedy? I was definitely surprised to check after the end and see the tag there; I mean, the situation is comical, for sure, there just wasn't a lot of time spent telling jokes or anything. But yeah, not bad, good fun.
Recommended for Wonderbolts Fans
Twiggled Ever After: A RariTwi Exquisite Corpse by SigmaSonicX, WilloIllo, Undome Tinwe, Nonchalant, femikol, and The Red Parade
Sequel to Twiggled: A RariTwi Exquisite Corpse
Genre: Humanized AU/Romance/Comedy/Action/EQG?
Can Rarity and her new friends save Princess Twilight from her captors?
Oh look, it's our contractually mandated exquisite corpse. :V And a sequel, even! I honestly can't complain, the setting for the original was pretty unique and I'm happy to see it again. And, as it turns out, this is a serious improvement over the original! I mean, it's actually good enough overall that it feels like a normal story with a rushed ending and a few things that got lost or scrambled along the way, which might be a detriment overall? Something like 'ponies' showing up in the middle of a chapter, only for the same chapter to turn back to using words like 'woman' is what you normally expect between chapters of an exquisite corpse. But then again, subverting and confounding expectations is what makes this good. I mean, if you read the first one, you for instance likely have an impression of just who Twilight's kidnapper is; just wait till you meet her! Not to mention I was pretty sure I understood the relationship between the previous story's setting and EQG, and I'm fairly certain it actually changes in the middle here, but that isn't quite as amusing as, y'know, forgetting a character exists or completely changing the genre in the middle of the story. :P Still, this was enjoyable enough that I might just not complain when I come to the next exquisite corpse!
Recommended
What Is Given by Dafaddah
Genre: Holiday Special
Lily learns something important about her parents.
Boy, this is… weird. It starts off fairly standard, with the introduction of the incorrectly-tagged Lily, her poverty and how it makes her a laughing stock at her Canterlot school. After some drama, she goes home and gets a tongue-lashing from her evil stepmother aunt, prompted essentially by nothing. Then her uncle shows up to set things straight, but in a way that requires assuming an elementary school student understands in vitro fertilization. c_c Like, there's a distinct tone and register shift between the first half and the second, no matter how you slice it. The final scene has a real disconnect from the rest, and while the information imparted does make for a heartwarming ending, I really would have liked it to linger on the final few lines a bit longer. It's not just any filly who can bounce back from this sort of thing with nothing but compassion, after all. Let us bathe in how remarkable this kid is!
Recommended If You Like Holiday Specials
Ciderfest 2023 Mane Story Prologue - "Opening" by Nyronus
Genre: Drama/Meta
So for Ciderfest 2023, there was this ARG thing, it seems, and it's all been posted on Fimfiction for us to enjoy. And clearly, not enough of us have, since the opening story is in this blog! This starts out a bit confusing, as we get a line of text, followed by a scene break, then a short, completely unrelated scene, rinse and repeat for a while. It took me a bit to realize I was reading flashbacks, at which point it was easy to orient myself and keep going, and I credit Nyronus' deft hand in making that work. Along with that, we've got good characterization for our protagonist Fizzy Glitch, and while this is only essentially chapter 1 of a story with no continuation — at least not here — the ending is a dramatic crescendo that left me feeling quite excited to continue. :D To that end, I feel like I should start over and review the entire chain of story submissions one day, so for right now, I'm not going to give this a recommendation, and in fact I'm not even going to enter it into my spreadsheet yet, so I can return in the future and do everything then, with a rating for the entire shabang. But I'd call this an easy R, borderline H!
No Rating... Yet
How the Rarity Bestowed Hearth's Warming by Aromatic Brew
Genre: Holiday Comedy
Rarity enacts her scheme to spread holiday cheer on Hearth's Warming Eve.
So here's a cute bit of Hearth's Warming silliness with some genuinely funny moments. :) I found myself thinking that the writing style would make for a good picture book; it's maybe not sophisticated enough to entertain the grown-up reader, but would work great for kids. That is, if not for some of the subject matter. c_c Nothing objectionable, really, but you can decide if you want to explain to your kids why Berry Punch is passed out or what Rarity's comment about Vinyl and Octavia "not being roommates" means.
Recommended for Parents of Young Children, Probably
Wreck the Halls by Hazel Skye
Genre: Comedy
Pinkie Pie gets her sister Limestone a very unexpected Hearth's Warming present.
You ever see a story title and think, wow, why didn't I come up with that? And then get like, really mad about it? XD I'm honestly amazed this author's first story on the site completely ran away with one of the best titles you could ever want. And it's well deserved, too! This is a great little piece of Limestone character exploration, with plenty of Pinkie silliness to counter her. The writing is strong, the surprise is interesting, and I hope this author comes back to write more sometime! :)
Recommended
We're Orna-Meant to Be by PantheraQueen
Genre: Shipping
Rainbow asks Twilight to help with a Hearth's Warming tradition, but not in the way she expects.
I have to wonder how this ended up on my RIL, since, y'know, I'm really not into SoarinDash. <_< And, sorry to say, this story did nothing to help with that, since it makes Rainbow look like literally any girl in a rom-com movie. The situation Twilight shows up for is interesting, and the complication unexpected, but then that's all resolved rather quickly so we can get more mushy stuff. Needs some editing work, too. This one's gonna be of interest to SoarinDash shippers only.
Vaguely Recommended
RSVP by Muramasa
Genre: Emotional EQG
Twilight Sparkle tries to skip out on a party.
Now, I don't know about you, but all I would have had to do to convince myself to read this story was say "Sci-Twi's sad from thinking about the other Twilight". Like, that just revs my phoenix, I need nothing else from a story, and I felt very rewarded for having read this. But if you need something else? Just know that this is a very good story about Sci-Twi being sad because Princess Twi.
Highly Recommended
On Moving and Standing Still by Avellana
Genre: Character Piece
No matter how she tries, she still sees him.
Imma be coy! This is a great, atmospheric and introspective piece about how, when you change, no matter how much you might like those changes, some echo of who you once were remains behind. And echoes suggest things. I will agree with Loganberry that this isn't notably pony, but that's as much criticism as I can really muster. (Quick aside: This could have been allayed by giving us the protagonist's full name. "Siggy" I can imagine standing for many things. Signal Flare? Sigma… uh, Notation? c_c I dunno, but names can tell us a lot about a pony!) Regardless, I think this will be a nice little puzzle for most readers, and if you know, you know. :)
Recommended
Hair by Acologic
Genre: Dark/Mystery
In the dead of night, a pony lurks. He watches. He waits.
I need to talk about this story, and may spoil large sections of it. But please, indulge me if you will. (If you won't, check the recommendation and do what thou wilt.) There is a lot going on in this story, and yet I expect many casual readers would be turned off in the first paragraph. Why? Simply put, the writing is very plain and stilted. I grokked rather quickly that it was intentionally so, but one can be forgiven for just assuming the author can't write good and moving on. But the nature of these extremely short, "He verbed." sentences serves a tremendous purpose. In the first chapter, it helps set the tone: once you've immersed yourself in the writing, it reinforces just how wrong everything that's happening is. This pony is off; what he's doing is weird; and the scenario, once you've put the pieces together, is downright creepy as fuck. This tension carries over to the third chapter, where that sense of wrongness is once again on display for a denouement that I'm still puzzling over. While in the second chapter, which consists of Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane sparring, it helps keep the action quick and snappy. Just the fact that Acologic was able to get two facets of usage out of a single, unusual writing style is impressive enough.
Let's go back to that sense of wrongness. This is a story about a pony stalking the mane six. Why? Reasons that might come off as fetishistic, but are ultimately quite opaque. He has essentially a villain monologue in the final chapter, but while he hints at a whole ton, he explains precisely nothing. So one is left with a sense of terrific unease that is never resolved, and that makes for a good horror story. Except that's not really the point. No, if anything, the reason I want people to read this is the code at the end of chapter three. It's referred to directly in the text, and it's definitely not just a simple number-of-the-alphabet replacement cipher, since there are numbers over 26. If there are clues in the story to solve it, I did not notice them. I want eyes on this, people! D: Figure out what's going on here!
Even aside from the ARG aspects, though, this is a really terrific thriller. I can't say I've seen anything quite like it, and it got Acologic a follow out of me. Hopefully y'all will ultimately agree with me. :)
Highly Recommended
That may actually be my fault - this was one of a bracket I blogged about to put focus on the courageous writers who decided their first publish would be Jinglemas. (Wreck The Halls was another out of that set.)
Also an excellent choice with the Muramasa fic.
Gotta admit, the Exquisite Corpse stories sound interesting. It's always fun to see how authors handle those sorts of writing challenges.
I expected Hair to get scant attention because it's a careful, sterile job (which can be off-putting, as you said), so I'm delighted that you've brought a spotlight.
Yeah, I stress that there is a mystery for the reader(s) to solve, and it's certainly got a reward that relates to the story for he/she who solves it.
You've put a smile on my face. Thanks for the review and for the watch, PP. Much appreciated. And thanks also for commenting on the Carl Cornejo stuff in February and motivating me to investigate further. Was good fun, that, albeit writing of a different sort.
Thanks for the review. You’re right that it is somewhat disjointed. I was late into this contest and was assigned a prompt that I suspect had been previously refused. I had to dig deep to come up with a scenario that would fulfill the prompt specified without dropping into a moral quagmire. The result is what it is, and I chalk it up as a learning experience.
I groaned reading that, and I love it.
5781990
I figured it was something like that :) I do often follow other people's recommendations willy-nilly, with no regard for my actual tastes
5782001
they are all, perhaps unsurprisingly, very different creatures, but this two-part series at least has delivered on the basis of its unique setting if nothing else
5782036
I regret only that I am not good at solving puzzles! XD
5782069
honestly, it's another really good title, like Wreck the Halls
I’m glad you liked RSVP so much! Not that it’s new ground for the fandom, but I definitely want to explore the relationship between the two Twilight’s a little further than I did here in a future story — the dichotomy of one being so extraordinary and another less so/in a different way is great story fodder for sure.
Hi! Thank you so much for reviewing my story! I’m really glad you get it (I was a little worried when writing it that it wasn’t clear enough, but I’m glad it got through regardless.) I wrote it in an attempt to process that guilt and curiosity about who I would have been, had my early life gone a little differently. I’m really glad you got something out of it, and thank you again for the review! Gotta check the other stories out now :3
5782509
I think it's a worthwhile topic to explore, especially since you're coming at it from a place of sincerity. :) Can't say I've seen it before!
5782558
That means a lot to me, honestly :) Honestly the best compliment I could ever receive :3
Thanks so much for the lovely review, it's so motivating to see as a new author on the site!
5782811
you better write more! >:|