Fanfic Spotlight #34 · 10:06am May 18th, 2015
Welcome again to our fanfic spotlight. You all know Everfree is less than two weeks away, so let's just get to the stories!
This week, Filthy Rich faces the fact that his daughter is a bully, we're given a deep look into a multi-facted Chrysalis, and everything falls apart when Fleetfoot is temporarily put in charge of the Wonderbolts Academy.
Numbers
by Pastel Pony
Words: 2,347 Complete: Yes
Recommended by Asylum1388
Numbers is a short-story about a father finding out that his daughter is a bully and trying to come to terms with it. It begins with a parent/teacher conference, and ends with some solitary introspection.
Where this story comes through is the realism. Filthy Rich’s denial, anger, and eventually, despair are told from a first-person perspective, which is no easy feat. Where the story really shines though is the soul-searching towards the end. The scene is short — too short, in fact — but still done better than I’ve seen in most other attempts.
Overall, it’s a decent fic with a powerful message; definitely worth the couple minutes it takes to read.
Queen of Queens
by JawJoe
Words: 15,000 Complete: Yes
Recommended by Silver Flare
Silver sits in the dark in front of his computer, his features pale in the glow of the screen. His eyes scan left to right in a steady rhythm, sifting through jumbled masses of words. Hours slip away unnoticed, measured breaths and the hum of fans merely adding to the stillness. As dawn makes its approach, something changes. The breathing stops for a moment. Silver’s eyes widen, pupils dilating in spite of the harsh glare. Slowly, he nods to himself.
There are few things I love in pony fiction more than changelings. There’s just so much intrigue one can sling about with a race of ponibugs that can metamorph into other creatures. While many authors have written their own versions of changelings, most portrayals boil down to two categories. Either the changelings are misunderstood, huggable little scamps who’ve been given a bum rap, or they are soulless, dangerous bugs ripe for squishing. JawJoe, however, understands that these popular pony villains are not so easily summed up.
This story follows the life of one familiar changeling queen, birth to death. The changelings within have history, culture, art; all the finest expressions of soul and being. Expect many of their works to sweep you away with their vivid grandeur, for these creatures are immortal, knowing no natural aging or death. Every last one of them, given a life without violence, will live for millennia. Well, all of them except for one. And when you are the mortal ruler of an immortal host, you crave one thing above all others.
To be remembered.
Queen of Queens blew me away with sheer, mind-numbing perspective. The changelings absolutely rely on their succession of mortal queens to evoke change in their lives, to prevent and ward against stagnation. This view of changeling society unspools on such an epic scale that it seems to dwarf Equestria and its Princesses entirely. Further, the changeling perspective on pony society itself is even more eye-opening. Ponies appear fleeting, shallow, crude and awash with imperfections. Set in such a magnificently imagined world, Chrysalis becomes perfectly understandable without losing one iota of her villainy. It’s quite the literary feat.
It’s a story written for a contest, so cuts had to be made to skate under the 15,000 word limit (Barely!). The descriptions become less exciting and vivid as you progress, partly due to the main character’s development (also partly the word limit). If you’re looking for a story that rehashes the season two finale, you’ll only find six short lines here about that almost-perfect day. But if you’re looking to broaden your worldview and maybe take a good, long look at the other side of the fence... Queen of Queens may very well change your entire perspective.
Finished, Silver rises from his chair in one fluid motion. He dons a light jacket, grabs his keys and steps through his front door and into the crisp dawn. Shadows flee the encroaching light as the sun rises, bringing clarity to the darkened corners of the room. Light glints off the fake leather of a cheap computer chair. It caresses the mounds of a plush and comfortable-looking sofa. And it refracts through thick tendrils of emerald resin clutching the far wall.
Records of an Academy Disaster
by Fahrenheit
Words: 9,277 Complete: Yes
Recommended by Xepher
From the outside, the Wonderbolts are highly disciplined flight crew. Inside the academy though, things aren't always so well managed. This is the story of how things go hilariously wrong when Fleetfoot is left in charge of things.
This story is another great example correspondence-driven storytelling (the other recent one being our contest winner, Letters from the Capital.) Here, the author goes above and beyond though, not only writing the letters and other records, but actually making unique and interesting images of them. The story is revealed in everything from hoofwritten diary entries that are nearly unreadable, to formal memos complete with Wonderbolts letterhead and seals.
Artistry aside, the story itself is a humorous look into how little mistakes and the best of intentions can add up to full scale disaster. The story isn't deep, but it does a good job of making the characters stand out from one another, and the style of writing from each certainly helps in that.
Overall, it's a rather quick read with a few good laughs, and uses the added visual details to show more to the story, without really distracting from the words themselves.
That's it for this week, then, in nine days, I fly up to Seattle for Everfree Northwest 2015. Hard to believe we're almost there. We'll have three more stories for you next weekend though, and I hope I'll see some of you in person after that. Until then, remember: the Spectral Wolf fears only fire.
--Xepher, Asylum1388, and Silver Flare
