Finished Favorites (50-26) · 7:11pm Dec 10th, 2015
All right, round 3! And there's a lot of good ones in this collection. Speaking of which...
TL;DR. READ NOT AN ADULT RIGHT NOW. SERIOUSLY. DO IT. Oh, and also Perfect for Me, The Twilight Hours, Winds of Change, A Moment in the Sun, Tinnitus, Deep Cover, Unwell, and Plural Possessive once you're done with that.
50. Flitter
"Flitter" is the story of a changeling who'd been living a normal pony life until he was hit by Shining Armor's force field. He's actually a good changeling (IIRC, there was something about the original Flitter dying and the changeling taking over his life to keep his family together?), so it's up to him to convince his old friends and family that he's not out to eat their love like Chrysalis was. It's pretty decent, from what I remember.
49. Perfect for Me
It's a Twilight clonefic. There are many like it, but this one is mine (my favorite, anyway). There's a minimal undercurrent of shipping in it, but all in all, I think it's a pretty decent execution of the idea. Go check it out!
48. Canterlot's Guests
A RariTwi fic. In this one, Twilight has an errand she needs to run in Canterlot, so Rarity engineers it so that she has to go too. That way, Rarity can express her true feelings to Twilight while they're together. That's... pretty much it, as far as I can remember.
47. The Twilight Hours
If you remember my review of "There, They're," you'll recall why I'm so fascinated by this story. Technically, it's about Rainbow Dash being jealous of Twilight eating up Applejack's time, but blah blah, whatever. No, the interesting part to me is the part where Twilight teaches Applejack to read. Call me what you like, but there's something very intriguing to me about seeing someone learn something I've taken for granted all my life.
46. HUMAN: by Twilight Sparkle
What if it was our world that was the Fiction and Equestria that was the true reality? That's basically the High Concept of this story. Twilight decides to write her own story about creatures she calls "humans," and she (with the help of the rest of her friends) ends up writing the history of our universe. It's a cool idea, but the execution isn't fantastic. Still, it's worth checking out, I think. There was also a weird sequel that I only read the first couple chapters of because it wasn't gripping me like this one was. *shrug*
45. Necro-Semantics
I think the text on the picture pretty well explains this one. It's a picture of Celestia hemming and hawing, saying, "The living dead? Me? Goodness, no. Well, not technically, at least." We're all wondering how Celestia's managed to live for thousands of years. This fic answers that with, "She's... a lich? Kinda?" Guess you'll have to read it if you want the full explanation. ;)
44. We Don't Normally Wear Clothes
It's an Equestria Girls fic where Twilight learns why her human form wears clothes. Need I go on? (It's not a mature-rated story, though, so bear that in mind.)
43. Winds of Change
Oooh, this is a Masterweaver story! That explains why I started following them! (Or maybe Steel Soul or "Dance of the Rainbow." I don't remember.) This story is so good, I powered through it across one or two days. It's that one I was talking about, where Rainbow Dash is revealed to be a changeling, and the rest of the cast have to figure out whether they can accept her or not. Like, 80% of this story takes place in that little place between Rainbow's cell and the front of the door where her friends stand and talk to her. The discussion between Rainbow and crew is just so lively and realistic. Seriously, check this one out.
42. A Moment in the Sun
Not content to simply create the Winningverse and make the most popular sex comedy fic on FiMFiction, Chengar Qordath then decided to set up an entirely new ficverse focused on Sunset Shimmer. The Freeportverse all starts with this little doozy, which attempts to explain why Sunset Shimmer left Celestia's tutelage. (Spoilers: it involves Cadance.) Man, this is such a good story, but then it's Chengar Qordath; you knew that already. It's so full of heart and pathos that you'll love every word of it. Only reason it's not in the GHC is because it mostly just works as a vehicle to set up "The Freeport Venture."
41. Celestia Wants to Date Twilight Sparkle
Title says it all. It's a TwiLestia fic, with the added bonus of it being a "practice date blooms" premise that I mentioned before is my favorite. I love the relationship between Twilight and Celestia, even if it's not romantic. This fic, though... to be honest, I don't remember it, but I'm sure it's good! XD
40. Forgery
Another "Lyra wants to meet a human" fic. Only this time, she wants to... make one? Huh. I really don't remember this fic. It's a pretty standard Lyra fic, so... if that's your jam.
39. I'm Sorry, Sis: Scootaloo
...Yet another fic I don't remember. But Scootalove fics are always great, so go read it!
38. Tinnitus
"Let me tell you a story about the bad place." This is a hauntingly sparse story by SS&E, during one of their "nuanced genius" phases. It's a horror story set in an alternate dimension accessed by crawling into the bedspreads at a hospital. You've gotta read it. I don't read a lot of horror, but this one really hit me.
37. Twilight Discovers Literary Analysis
Technically, yes, the title is accurate, but I think a better summary might be, "Twilight discovers she's a fictional character." As someone who's really into post-modern writing, meta humor, and the idea of characters breaking the fourth wall, this story really jives with me. If you're not really that into that, then... I don't know what to tell you.
36. Early One Morning
I really like this story, in spite of (or maybe even because of) how it screws up. You see, it's a short little story about how Rainbow Dash is trapped in a time loop because she couldn't get Twilight to say yes to a date. Twilight says yes; they go on the date; but that only hooks Twilight into the time loop, too! Dun dun dun! Once I read that, I was excited to see what happened next! But... that's it. The story ends right there. I could write a whole Writer's Workshop about why this doesn't make any sense as an ending (in fact, I've started working on it several times in the past), but in any case, it's a cool premise. Maybe some day I'll write a sequel to it completing it.
35. Magic Ears
This is a great story about Scootaloo discovering she can use unicorn magic by waggling her ears. I think you've gotta read it, too, 'cuz it's just fascinating how it shakes out.
34. Do Not Serve These Ponies
Ah, and this is why I'm following Thanqol. (Either that or because he wrote one of the greatest shipfics on the site, but I'll get back to that.) This one's about Lyra doing something wacky-- wait, don't go! This one's actually quite a bit better than the others! It's not about her being in a house; this time she's in a museum! ...Okay, I'll go on to the next one, now.
33. The Light Killed My Children
This one is... what do I even say about it? It's a poem... speech... thingy about Sombra being trapped in the Frozen North. It's about his motivations, the extent of his power, his rage and suffering and... I dunno. It's pretty weird, so I can't say you should definitely read it, but... I dunno. Check it out if you're up for it.
32. Deep Cover
And this is why I'm following GaPJaxie! (But you should also read a bunch of GaPJaxie's other stuff, two of which I'll be talking about in the next reviews.) This one's the second story in the Actingverse (no relation to my other handle, ActingPower), and in my opinion, it's the best. In this one, Deep Cover, a method actor changeling who plays Applejack, debates the actor who plays Twilight Sparkle about the nature of acting, persuasion, lying, and... strategies for the board game Go? Okay, that sentence has a lot to unpack. You may need to go read "Dressing Room" first to really get it, and you probably have to be a huge nerd to follow a lot of what Deep Cover talks about (like the stuff about Machiavelli's The Prince), but I swear, it's worth it in the end.
31. Advice From Pinkie Pie
Here's my summary of the story: Rarity asks all her friends about sex. They don't know. So she asks Pinkie Pie. She does know. A lot. That's it. So... if you want to read that, by all means. Or better yet, read Seeking Beauty instead. It's still about Rarity and Pinkie, only much more... I don't want to say "mature" and have you take it the wrong way, but it's certainly more developed and interesting. And it's one of my GHCs, so take of that what you will.
30. Horn Marrow
Have I ever used the term "explainfic" before? Basically, it's a fic meant to explain some aspect of the lore that either hasn't been covered in the show or was covered badly. This one basically does that, using the whole "Shining Armor has a horrible horn illness" as a thin veneer to get the real meat of the story here. I'm actually gonna spoil-cover this one, 'cuz I want to preserve the mystery here, but basically, Twilight isn't related to Shining Armor; she's adopted. She's Luna's daughter; it's complicated, go read the fic. Also, Rarity's also adopted? And I think it's implied that she's related to Shining Armor... somehow? So... yeah. This fic. ...Wait a minute, this is by SAPIDUS? Holy-- wait, I haven't explained why that's important. Just a sec.
29. Apple Bloom's Family
Hey, look, another Rashomon story! This one's about who Apple Bloom's parents were. Apple Bloom asks a bunch of her friends and neighbors, and they each give conflicting accounts. Eventually, AJ, Big Mac, and Granny set the record straight. I... don't remember it setting the world on fire (I seem to recall it falling apart a bit at the end), but for what it's worth, you might enjoy checking it out.
28. Not an Adult---READ THIS FIC---
I cannot overstate how much I love this fic. It's about Twilight struggling with adulthood, responsibility, depression, anger, family... This is my life. This is me. I wish I could print this story out, hand it to my family, and make them understand just who I am and why and how I'm suffering. And the ending; O Celestia, the ending. Everything in this fic is just... Sapidus absolutely nailed this one. The only reason it's not in the GHC is because it's so short and sweet. Go read this fic right now!
27. Unwell
And speaking of stories about Twilight struggling with mental illness, "Unwell." This one is so cool. It's... not "dismal," per se, but... contemplative. Slow. Thoughtful, maybe. The scene at the very end where (SPOILERS) Twilight goes off her meds is just so hard to read. You've gotta check this one out.
26. Plural Possessive
And last, let's talk about something with a little more cheer. This story is a silly little romp about King Sombra trying to possess Twilight Sparkle, only instead he accidentally possesses Dinky Doo. So instead of using Twilight's prodigious magic to take over the world, he's helping Dinky Doo with her crush and stopping her bullies. Seriously, it's so goofy, and yet a lot of fun. Go check it out!
One more of these, and them I'm gonna move on to my Grand High Classics. I'll probably slow down to ten at a time instead of twenty-five.
Whelp, I've got more to read tonight.