Review #77 - BBBCF, Breaking News and Weather · 2:41am Mar 17th, 2017
Today I have two stories. Yes, only two stories. Did you know these take a very long time to write? I'm not sure how Titanium Dragon does it, but yikes. Anyway, what to promote.
*Read this blog by me - It refers to a contest which I want to participate in, but probably won't. Might just write something like that anyway, but we'll see.
*Twilight And Friends Can't Stop Rhyming - I have yet to actually read this, but it looks pretty great.
On a random note, I now have 30,148 unread chapters across my lists. And while I look forward to them all, I also dread having to read that many pony words. (Considering how the average chapter length is 4,000 words, that would be roughly 120.5 million pony words. {Average chapter length is a guess based on the 350+ stories read so far} ).
BBBCF by horizon
Breaking News and Weather by Pineta
As always, I will put down my recommendations, but I truly hope that you make the choice on whether to read a fic or not yourself.
BBBCF by horizon
(Alternate Universe)
There's a lot of things about Cadance and Shining Armor that never quite made sense: their sudden appearance before the Royal Wedding; their suspiciously convenient suitability as rulers of the Crystal Empire; their oddly abbreviated pregnancy; and even their quick change of heart after Spike asked them to forgive Thorax. Twilight Sparkle knows exactly how deep that conspiracy goes — she was there in the beginning, when her hive's queen created Shining. And she wasn't happy about it.
Review
This one, if I had to name it, would be a slice of life story. It doesn't seem to fit into any genre, but slice of life is the closest. So, Twilight... Twilight is, to put it simply, somepony that plans out her actions, and worries about being found out, and that it won't work. Now, this isn't all she is, but this appears to be the greatest aspect of her in this fic. Celestia, however, is kind of a foil character to Twilight in that she is completely confident the plan will work. Though she, too, is the planning ahead type of pony. All this is ok considering how the greatness is in the plot, not the characters. However, the ending of this one feels a little too plot convenience-y like horizon got tired writing that part. That, or he didn't want to edit it too much from the write-off version. Celestia and Twilight, though mostly Celestia, also assume that Chrysalis will act how they think a little much for my liking.
The greatest weakness in this one then would have to be the pacing. Now, it is alright if you want a short, AU style story, but I feel like this could have been so much more had it been longer. Not much longer, but at least 1k more words.
Recommendation: Worth Reading. (With the issues listed throughout the review, I cannot go quite as high as Recommended. Though it is still pretty good).
Breaking News and Weather by Pineta
(Comedy, Slice of Life)
Rainbow Dash's first sonic rainboom makes headlines across Equestria. Every reporter is out to cover the story from their own angle. Sometimes they get it partly right. She’s going down in history. Maybe.
Review
This one is difficult to do because of the format it's presented in, which is the front page of newspapers over five days. Along with the main story on said newspapers are also interesting side articles, like: refuse disposal, Wonderbolt information, and even Zebras! Now, what makes this format work for me is that 1) the storyline is plausible, 2) the side articles are interesting, and 3) the newspapers featured are modeled after real life newspapers, such as The Daily Mare, which is British inspired. Might as well mention this now, this also has some comedy in how they often have facts wrong and other such things in that regard. Well, that was short. Ah well, that's what happens when you make a story like this. Oh, and this was featured in The Royal Canterlot Library, which you can read about HERE.
The greatest weakness is... I'm not really sure. If I really had to pick something, which I do, it would be that there are not enough newspapers in here. Yes, they do take a lot of time and effort to make, but still.
Recommendation: Highly Recommended, but only if you don't mind the newspaper format. (This was is great, and I did enjoy it a lot, but it could really have used more articles. All in all, I think I'm gonna go read this again).
Thanks for a nice review. Glad you liked it. As it happens I am planning to throw another newspaper or two into the story I am now working on - my entry for the Imposing Sovereigns contest.
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Sweet, man. I'm actively tracking that contest, so I'll be on the lookout for it. Oh, and good luck!
I feel bad for taking so long to find this. I'm always glad to see other people doing reviews, and am rather flattered to be mentioned here!
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First up, huge thanks for the follow dude! Super cool that you're here!
I'm honestly kind of embarrassed that you found one of the oldish (albeit newer style) sets, though. Looking back on it is kind of a big oofta. And now I've been hit with a massive wave of self-reflection and nostalgia xD :P
(For reference, I kinda just refer to everything pre-SA as old)