Author Archives: Horizon

DuncanR’s “Appletheosis”

16 Friday Jan 2015

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Go ahead, take just one little bite of today’s tempting tale …

appletheosisAppletheosis
[Comedy] [Slice of Life] • 18,225 words

Applejack, while surveying the border between Sweet Apple Acres and the Everfree forest, stumbles across a perfectly ordinary, garden-variety talking snake. In an apple tree. The mane six, of course, decide to be neighborly.

What’s the worst that could happen?

FROM THE CURATORS: While the title is almost identical to last week’s feature, this is a very different take on the concept of deification: “a story with religious themes, funny and thoughtful in equal turns, and without any super-depressing grim-dark or blatant preaching,” in the author’s own words.  Our reaction was exemplified by Bradel, who assigned it a top score with a simple “Yup.”

Among the features earning this story its feature — and a rare unanimous vote — was its skillful blending of moods. “This is by turns profound, touching, and hilarious.  It packs in a magnificent range of emotions in its 18,000 words, and none of them feel out of place,” horizon said. Chris also cited the exemplary characterization: “The way everypony reacted to the snake’s attempted temptations perfectly highlighted their characters, without falling back on their Elements as stereotypes.  Most stories would have just given us ‘Dash is Loyal/Rarity is Generous/etc.,’ but this one is actually about those ponies, not just some convenient archetype.”

But, most of all, it was the deft touch with which it explored a deep (and sometimes touchy) subject both respectfully and authentically.  As Present Perfect put it: “This is a bizarre confluence of MLP and the Bible (and other mythologies) in a G1-scented wrapper. If I’m not mistaken, it’s also a deconstruction of the silliness of placing human societal constructs into the world of Equestria. And yet it still explores human religious thought. I just stand in slack-jawed amazement as the ponies refuse to rise to bait that would have ensnared the deepest human intellectual, and it all makes sense … the most amazing thing is Pinkie getting into a theological debate and not even knowing it.”

Read on for our author interview, in which DuncanR discusses unwritten endings, Hitlerjack and Applejesus, and the true north strong and proud.
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Daetrin’s “Apotheosis”

09 Friday Jan 2015

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Today’s story is a fandom classic about a journey of discovery — both of the mind and of the heart.

apotheosisApotheosis
[Romance] [Adventure] • 46,300 words

When Twilight is sent with Luna on a diplomatic mission to Draconia, they quickly find themselves somewhere that doesn’t appear on any map, and Luna is lost in more than one way…

FROM THE CURATORS: Although Apotheosis — which is a sequel to the Pony Fiction Vault-featured Off The Edge Of The Map, but features different characters and a standalone plotline — was written in the early days of the fandom, it quickly became clear that it had stood the test of time.  “This one had been on my read later list for ages, and I finally plowed through it the past couple of days. And I gotta say… wow,” JohnPerry said.

While we had some hot debate over the story’s handling of its central romance, there was one issue on which we were unanimous. “You can’t swing a hoof in this story without hitting some truly sublime worldbuilding,” Horizon said.  Chris agreed — “It’s got some of the best, most evocative worldbuilding of any fic I’ve read” — and JohnPerry piled on further superlatives: “These are some of the most vividly described and original settings I’ve ever seen in a fanfic.”

The exemplary construction of the world and its characters — “the basilisk and ouroboros especially,” Present Perfect pointed out — solidly earned this one its feature, but there was a great deal to like beyond that.  “The final chapter is epic as hell,” Present Perfect said.  Horizon praised “the great thematic contrast between Twilight and Luna, reinforcing the long road to redemption Luna has to walk,” and Chris said that “Daetrin’s language use is excellent. … This isn’t just scenery porn.  This fic was a pleasure to read, through and through.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Daetrin discusses silent demons, dancing angels, and seasons of madness.
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iisaw’s “The Celestia Code”

02 Friday Jan 2015

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Dig into today’s story for a rousing archaeological epic.

celestia-codeThe Celestia Code
[Adventure] • 70,356 words

Princess Twilight Sparkle discovers a centuries-old mystery hidden in the Royal Archives. Her investigation leads through layer after layer of deception and misdirection, setting her hooves on a path that seems to be leading to a mysterious secret. Along the way, she learns that some friendships can be very, very strange.

FROM THE CURATORS: Despite its title, this story is “mostly not a Da Vinci Code crossover,” Chris noted.  “What it is is a history-delving adventure, with some touches of mystery and romance on the side.  The result is a story which is often funny, full of forward momentum, and — after a bit of unfocused jumping in the first chapter or two — settles into an engaging mix of action and history.”

Not only engaging but memorable: it’s not often that we stop debate to reminisce about the story’s great moments, but those filled our thread.  “What an amazing battle scene in Chapter 22,” Present Perfect said, while Horizon paused his reading after Chapter 8 so he could comment: “Goddamn but that was a glorious chapter.”

We all cited different elements in our search for what made it exemplary, which was a sign that The Celestia Code got a lot of different things right.  “It compellingly wove together a lot of big ideas, and the worldbuilding felt effortless, which is generally a sign of a huge amount of work behind the scenes,” Horizon said.  Present Perfect appreciated the characterization: “You’ve got a well-voiced Twilight who grows as a character over the course of the story.”  While Chris agreed — “Twilight is quick with a quip as narrator, and the vibrantly unique voices used throughout breathe life into the story” — he focused on the bigger picture: “It’s a fast-paced story which is easy to follow despite its mystery elements, and which is funny, clever, and exciting in equal measure.”

That solid execution carried it through some rough spots (such as a lackluster romance subplot) to earn a well-deserved feature.  As Horizon put it, “this is a novel of big ideas, magnificent setpieces and brilliant moments — a summer blockbuster of a ponyfic.”

Read on for our author interview, in which iisaw discusses pony motivations, coyote nomenclature, and the heartbreak of spousal “Best Pony” disagreements.
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The Ponytrician’s “The Truth About Myths And Legends”

26 Friday Dec 2014

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Today’s story will bring some smiles to warm the dark midwinter’s chill.

myths-and-legendsThe Truth About Myths And Legends
[Slice of Life] • 4,211 words

A troubled Princess Celestia, wandering her School for Gifted Unicorns late one night, chances upon her young faithful student Twilight Sparkle, who has problems of her own:

She can’t catch the Tooth Flutterpony.

What possible advice could Princess Celestia give to her upset young pupil, who is desperately trying to prove that an old ponies’ tale is real?

FROM THE CURATORS: “I’d heard good things about this fic going in, and was not disappointed,” Chris said about this sweet coming-of-age tale.  “The author really captures young Twilight as a brainy, over-serious filly… but a filly, first and foremost. … It’s not too silly, not too dramatic, and feels important despite its surface ephemerality.”

There were several factors catapulting this story to its feature, but it certainly didn’t hurt that it melted the hearts of our curators.  “This one is adorable,” JohnPerry said, and Present Perfect agreed: “Gads, but this is precious.”  We also noted its strong characterization — as Horizon put it, the story “derives its feels not from any twist, but from the characters being earnestly themselves” — and its gentle sense of humor.  “There are plenty of clever jokes thrown in, and the ending is a fun surprise,” JohnPerry said.

Ultimately, on the strength of both its storytelling and its themes, this was an easy choice for a heartwarming holiday-season feature.  “This is a story about childhood and innocence, and the titular myth is just the lens through which we see it,” Horizon said.  “But even more so, it’s about two characters flailing for connections, and a moment that brings them together, and that’s the best kind of heartwarming.”

Read on for our author interview, in which The Ponytrician discusses biographical standards, the advantages of not knowing, and ham and cheese.
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Pale Horse’s “Destination Unknown”

19 Friday Dec 2014

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Octavia and Vinyl Scratch are fandom’s classic “odd couple” — and today’s story makes one of them even odder.

destination-unknownDestination Unknown
[Romance] [Alternate Universe] • 4,114 words

Two passengers on a train ride toward an uncertain future. One is a pony. The other only pretends to be.

FROM THE CURATORS: “A little bit of originality can take a fandom trope a long way,” Present Perfect said as we dove into this story, and he was right — Destination Unknown paid off on that promise in spades.  “Vinyl + Octavia is one of the fandom’s most cliché and mismatched pairs, and yet this is a real romance with genuine depth and emotion,” Horizon said.  “This story also made Vinyl more plausible to me as a changeling than as a pony.  It’s rich with little details like the source of her love for dubstep that show a lot of care and craft.  I really appreciate how it plays the two competing clichés off of each other to great effect.”

What sold us on this story was, simply put, the quality of its construction in a crowded field of fanon explorations.  “I think most folks will come away from it with better feelings about fanfiction than they had going in,” Bradel said.  “The execution here is much smoother than I see through most of this fandom.”  Horizon agreed: “This one is simply exemplary on execution.”

While Present Perfect thirded that statement, he went even further — finding the story unexpectedly winning him over.  “The writing is solid, and it’s far more melancholy than romantic,” he said.  “You won’t understand the full gravity of this statement unless you obsessively take notes on my fic recommendation journals, but it’s a ScratchTavia fic I actually like.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Pale Horse discusses crazy lies, dragon development, and following your heart while naked.
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Finding old features

19 Friday Dec 2014

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As a quick administrative note, I’ve created an “Archives” page listing the Royal Canterlot Library’s features alphabetically by author, and provided a permanent link to it on the top navigation bar.  It’s a great way to see what sort of company spotlighted stories keep!

Another great resource worth pointing out is fanfic review blog City of Doors.  Griffin has undertaken the monumental task of collecting and linking reviews from every ponyfic review blog — including the RCL, and its curators — and compiled them into a huge master spreadsheet.  If you’re wondering if your MLP fanfic has gotten outside attention, that might just be the single most informative page on the Internet.

On to today’s feature!

ambion’s “Racing Thoughts”

12 Friday Dec 2014

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A search for love, in all its glory,
Is central to our featured story.

racing-thoughtsRacing Thoughts
[Romance] [Random] • 1,530 words

In a fantastical universe the bastard love-child of Edgar Allen Poe and T.S. Eliot got hooked on ponies.

The resulting poem, pulled through the void, is presented for your reading pleasure.

A (loosely) iambic tetrametric narrative of Twilight Sparkle struggling to understand, accept, and ultimately express, her love for Rainbow Dash.

FROM THE CURATORS: “When I start recommending poetry, you should stand up and take notice,” said Present Perfect, the RCL’s resident curmudgeon, as he brought this story to our attention. “This borrows heavily from the J. Alfred Prufrock school of poetry and excels for having done so. … It all comes down to ‘I hate poetry and I like this.'”

We did take notice — and it broadened our collective horizons, as Bradel affirmed.  “This is probably the first pony poetry I’ve read,” he said. “It’s a lot better than I’d generally expect. The structure lends itself well to the stream of consciousness style, with meter and rhyme scheme shifting in a very natural way throughout the piece.”  Chris agreed: “The pitter-pat flow came through clearly, and the mix of academic language and more conversational tone gave the poem a nice lilt, in addition to making it feel very Twilight.”

That mixture was used to good effect, drawing thoughts of yearning and lust out of a normally analytical character.  The occasional suggestive turn of phrase was a distraction for some of us, but Bradel “found it very endearing. While it’s certainly not out of the ordinary for TwiDash fiction, it provides a few welcome twists in the flow of the poem.”

Overall, Racing Thoughts (which was originally posted as a single complete work, though unrelated poems have since been added to the story) was enjoyable for poetry fans and non-fans alike.  As Present Perfect summarized it: “This guy can poetry. He can poetry good.”

Read on for our author interview, in which ambion discusses noble hobos, signs in the stars, and majestic and subtle ironies.
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FanOfMostEverything’s “Mandatory Fun”

05 Friday Dec 2014

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Today’s story might polka hole in your conception of party ponies.

mandatory-funMandatory Fun
[Dark] [Random] • 2,650 words

The Alicorn Amulet twists its wearer into madness and megalomania. Nopony can wear it without repercussions, both for themselves and others. Nopony is safe. Nopony is exempt.

Still, nopony expected him.

FROM THE CURATORS: One of the best things about fanfiction is that it allows in-depth exploration of ideas or characters that Friendship is Magic only lightly touches — and one of the things we most love about our work is unearthing stories which do so in clever, original ways.  “How is it that this fandom has been given Weird Al Yankovic as a character to work with, and yet this is the first time I’ve read something that makes good use of this golden opportunity?” JohnPerry said.

This tale of Cheese Sandwich’s reign of hilarity terror … hilerror? terrarity? … “is played very straight,” Horizon said, “but it’s narrated by Cheese himself (with all the narrative whimsy that implies), and sweet stars above, the juxtaposition works, like salted caramel ice cream.”  Other curators agreed — “I don’t see the Dark and Random tags together nearly often enough, and I see a story that fits both even less often, but damn does it work here,” JohnPerry said — and found this exemplary in the uniqueness of its reading experience.  “The writing is solid, and I’m coming out of it with a feeling of mixed amusement and terror that I think is perfectly appropriate for what this story said on the box,” Bradel said.  “My brain’s all fuzzy now, but in a very positive way.”

Ultimately, what sells this bizarre collision of ideas is the strong writing underneath.  “The wordplay is deep, rich, and unapologetic,” Horizon noted, and even pun-hating Present Perfect begrudgingly agreed: “This is the first story I have ever praised for its use of puns.”  Chris appreciated “the reveal at the end, which managed not to render irrelevant everything which had gone before while still playing with expectations — a shockingly rare combination for this kind of story.”  And JohnPerry pointed out another rare feat: “Major props have to go to the author for managing to weave in so many pop-culture and meta jokes without taking away from the tone or ever losing sight of the story,” he said. “That alone is a huge accomplishment.”

Read on for our author interview, in which FanOfMostEverything discusses Lord High Executioners, unponies, partillery, and the metasignificance of Cheese Sandwich’s Cutie Mark.
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CascadeJackal’s “Dream”

28 Friday Nov 2014

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Today’s story is a thing of beauty.

dreamDream
[Sad] • 3,252 words

Sometimes, dreams are all we have. Sometimes, that’s enough.

Hidden deep within a maze, well away from prying eyes, there is a statue. The last great work of an artist long forgotten, her time-worn visage watches the raising and setting of the sun and the moon as though enraptured.

Who created such a marvel, this sculpture of copper and brass, of crystal and cog, and why, is unknown, lost to the mists of time … until now.

This is the tale of a painter and a clockmaker, and the love they shared.

This is the tale of a dreamer, who knew only her dream.

FROM THE CURATORS: Dream is “one part fairy tale and one part adventure, wrapped around lyrical, flawless prose and some really powerful storytelling,” as Present Perfect said, and that combination easily won over our hearts.  “This is one of the best stories I’ve seen in a good, long while,” Chris said.

One of the major contributors to that was a unique and exemplary narrative voice.  “The prose in this is just perfect,” JohnPerry said.  “Never too much detail, never too little, always just the right amount to evoke that sense of awe and wonder that makes it so powerful.”  Chris agreed: “There’s a tricky balance to maintain when writing a story where the narrator is a character, and the author absolutely nails it.  The addressing of the reader at the start evokes just the right sense of fairytale wonder, and the clipped but vivid descriptions call to mind a mix of grandeur and ephemeralness which perfectly complements the tale being told.”

But the story is more than the sum of its prose.  “The ideas tackled are big ones — what is beauty? — and the ending gave me a bunch of feels,” Present Perfect said.  “I was shocked to find out it was only 3,000 words long; it feels so much grander.”  JohnPerry summed it up: “The fact that the author can evoke so much out of so few words is amazing.”

Read on for our author interview, in which CascadeJackal discusses fairy tale situations, villainous infatuations, and appellation combinations.
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8686’s “Eclipse”

21 Friday Nov 2014

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Today’s story will shake things up… perhaps even more than it intended.

eclipseEclipse
[Adventure] • 64,552 words

A recurring nightmare convinces Luna that, since her return, she has never regained her sister’s complete trust. And at the forthcoming Festival of the Eclipse, she decides to make amends with a bold gesture.

But Luna’s solution causes consequences she never anticipated. Consequences the whole world will feel. Now, Celestia and Luna must set forth on an adventure that will take them even into Tartarus itself, and set everything right before it’s too late.

And if they’re lucky, they’ll rediscover the trust they once had a thousand years ago.

FROM THE CURATORS: Often, there’s one particular aspect of a story which catches the eye of all the RCL curators.  Unusually, all of us seemed to find something different to love about Eclipse.  Chris highlighted the worldbuilding that went into the story, saying it “offers an excellently conceived picture of Tartarus which draws upon both Greek mythology and modern theology, and does some simply excellent stuff with dragons, including race relations and general worldview.”  John Perry agreed that the worldbuilding was good, but went on to add, “But more important is the handling of the plot, and that is where this story shines.”  Present Perfect went a third direction, focusing on the characters: “Everything about the dragons was handled superbly,” he said, “from their society to their individual viewpoints, and Valkyrie’s character arc ended up being well wrought.”

But even though we all had different “favorite” story elements, one thing we agreed on was that they all came together beautifully.  “This guy may be one of those writers who’s equally good at everything, as adept at writing Pinkie and comedy as he is action and adventure,” mused Present Perfect, and he wasn’t alone in the sentiment.  “Every chapter left me wanting more,” as John Perry put it.  At one point while reading, Present Perfect even paused to declare, “this is one of the greatest scenes I have ever had the honor and pleasure to read.”

Read on for our author interview, in which 8686 discusses royal readers, the difference between cruelty and indifference, and Alpha and Beta scenes.

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