Fic recs, November 29th! · 2:42pm Nov 29th, 2015
Time for another one of these! :D I finished up two whole collections this time! When the list gets down under 10 (well, under 12, since I’ve got two each by two different authors), I’ll stop doing these shortfic dumps and use the list the way it’s supposed to be used. <.< As filler.
Illya Leonov has added The Waters of Myinnkyun Harbor to his Lost Cities audiobook!
BTW, Fimfiction passed 300k stories recently! Sadly, number 300k itself is password-locked, so maybe we’ll never know what it was. D:
H: 1 R: 7 C: 5 V: 2 N: 0
One Thousand Flowers by Cold in Gardez
1100th Review of 2015!
Genre: Slice of Life
This is a really fascinating piece about Princess Luna planting flowers. It’s short, but the writing is so evocative, and the ways things are approached, like the fact that Luna doesn’t actually know what she’s planting, are just fascinating. This is absolutely worth the read.
Recommended
Genesis by Esle Ynopemos
Genre: Creation Myth?
So this is like… the story of Applejack, if she were a goddess. It’s weird, but it’s also decently well written. I’ll admit I was waiting for a punchline, but this is entirely straightforward.
Recommended as Light Reading
The Last Line by Chris
Genre: Slice of Life
Twilight helps Spike finish his story.
This is a very economical piece, wasting no words laying out and resolving a scenario. Fans of Spike and Twilight will definitely want to read this because it’s a nice bit of bonding for them, but it’s got a lot to say about writing, too.
Highly Recommended
For Her Own Good by Pascoite
Genre: Drama
This is one of those stories where Applejack tells Apple Bloom to go cut a switch. It takes a different tack than others I’ve read, but it still threw me. Furthermore, it sets up a couple of things, like Apple Bloom’s reaction, that aren’t quite resolved by the end. This might work with more words.
Recommended If You Don’t Mind Corporal Punishment
F=MC^2 by horizon
Genre: Pun-Filled Historical Crossover
Oh god what. I considerably less than even. I don’t, I can’t, I possibly shouldn’t. Read if you can stand puns, it’s actually pretty funny.
Recommended
The Alternate NMM Fight by Wanderer D
Genre: Super-Crossover Shenanigans
Again, I cannot. I don’t even know what half these characters are from. The general idea is funny, at least, though in overall execution, it comes off as a journal post. Might be the pictures.
Recommended If You Have Broad Pop Culture Knowledge
Pinkielight Sparklepie by Ezn
Genre: Crackfic
I can’t adequately describe this, save to say that no joke is left unslung and the whole thing is really funny. If you don’t like shipping, don’t worry, this is all about innuendo and comedy.
Recommended
There Are Many Like It, but This One Is Mine by Nonagon
Genre: Flashfic
A lot of Nonagon’s super-short fics have been good, especially recently. This one, not so much. It’s just a quick statement of something that we know more or less isn’t true anymore, which doesn’t help, but it just doesn’t do much. I mean, I’m more interested in where Dash and AJ are at than anything, but you’re not gonna get that in under 100 words. At least he’s got others that are more worth reading.
Vaguely Recommended
Unnamed Skype Fic 2 by FuzzyFurvert
Genre: Crackfic
I like this less than the last crackfic I read not ten minutes ago. Mostly, I don’t get what’s going on. Moving one’s shadow? Maybe I shouldn’t have had those shots before sitting down to read fanfic. Anyway, there are some funny passages, though the last line bothered me for reasons.
Vaguely Recommended
Mayor Mare’s Peaceful Morning by HoofAndQuill
Genre: Slice of Life
This is a fun behind the scenes kind of story. You get some quiet introspection from Mayor Mare and the insinuation that trouble and chaos follow the mane cast wherever they go. This moves from peaceful to frantic quite nicely, and my only criticism would be a couple early sentences that don’t flow terribly well.
Recommended
Better With a Man by Tall Tales
Genre: Comedy
I’m not honestly sure I know what’s going on in this story. All I can say is that it’s full of innuendo and manliness jokes.
Recommended for Laughs
Last Trump by FanOfMostEverything
Genre: Magic: The Gathering Crossover
Okay, it’s maybe not much of a crossover, but it takes some elements from the game (helpfully linked in-story) to give us a tale of elephants fighting Discord. For all that this is a short piece, it does some heavy world-building, not to mention the good writing as well. This is really cool, and no crossover foreknowledge is required.
Recommended
The Snow Is Falling by darf
Reading by Illya Leonov
Genre: Literary Character Death
This is a really evocative piece written in a fairly subtle manner. The imagery is lovely, Derpy’s connection to the winter landscape is palpable and interesting, and the ending is so subtle you might miss it (unless you read that spoiler). I’m not sure there’s much in the way of purpose here, but I certainly enjoyed reading it.
Recommended
Luna vs. the Photocopier by Admiral Biscuit
Reading by ShadowOfCygnus
Genre: Comedy
So this is about what you’d expect (Andrew Joshua Talon is even invoked in the A/N), but the humor comes from Luna overdoing things and being proud of herself in the end. I was highly amused; I was also drunk. I gotta stop doing this.
Recommended for Laughs
A Sonnet by Twilight Sparkle by AugieDog
Genre: Poem
I can’t remember the last time I identified so hard with Twilight.
Recommended
I think most of the comments you leave in my little compilation are basically just the word: "What?"
I am okay with this.
Oh gosh - lotta interesting ones this time round. Thanks PP!
Yeah, the crossover aspect of that one is largely irrelephant.
Thanks for the new (and so old I'd forgotten about it) reading material!
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I've noticed the same thing on mine.
I just assumed that they were so awesome, Present's mind locked up and left him incapable of leaving more than a single-word query.
...that's my story and i'm sticking to it.
I'm surprised you didn't rate this one lower, as I know that's a topic you don't care to see in stories. This was yet another in a series of stories I've done just to try my hand at something that often gets done badly. So I wanted to see if I could write a corporal punishment fic, and the answer, I guess, is: kinda. This one's still on my "maybe" list of things to revise, lengthen, and publish as one-shots.
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3578498
You people are weird! :P
3578704 Wait until you read "Potato Run"
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The reversal and the fact that it never actually happens stayed my hand. The setup is still pretty standard, though, and I never really got a good feeling for why the breaking of that glass pushed AJ over the edge.
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Wait until you read . . .
Well, actually, what is the craziest thing I've done? I honestly don't know.
3578727 It's been a long time since I read it, but I think AJ got bent out of shape over the bottle because she said she'd repeatedly told Apple Bloom to leave it alone, and AB keeps getting into it anyway.