Tag Archives: drama

Bachiavellian’s “Shoots and Roots”

05 Friday Sep 2014

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After love, loss.  After loss, picking up the pieces.  After picking up the pieces, what then?  Today’s story digs beneath Carrot Top’s surface for an answer.

shoots-and-rootsShoots and Roots
[Drama] [Sad] [Slice of Life] • 6,366 words

Time alone can’t heal all wounds for Carrot Top. Sometimes life simply goes on in the worst and best possible ways.

FROM THE CURATORS: The Royal Canterlot Library’s job is to spotlight the fandom’s best, which leads to a lot of reading from established, well-known authors — so it’s always a great feeling when we get to play hipsters and feature a little-known writer with obvious talent.  When Present Perfect noticed in the story’s author’s note that Shoots and Roots was Bachiavellian’s “first real attempt at writing fiction,” the discovery was accompanied by a cheerful expletive. “It’s been ages since I read a story this good and saw that at the end,” he said.  “I haven’t been this excited about a story suggestion since That’s All.”

We found Shoots and Roots exemplary in its “unusually mature take on its core tragedy,” as Horizon put it.  Chris, in his nomination of the story, explained: “It hits the sweet spot between sad and hopeful.  This could easily have been yet another ‘ooh, look at this pony, her life sucks, now feel bad for her,’ but despite Carrot Top getting dealt a tragic hand by life, the story is ultimately about acceptance, growth, and how we can move on without forgetting.”  It’s also about the relationships that strengthen her, as Present Perfect pointed out: “It’s nice to see a story not leave all the emotional bang for the end.  I was left reeling by Derpy’s generous understanding — I get really emotional when ponies are good goddamn friends to each other.”

Ultimately, those friendships make Shoots and Roots’ Slice-of-Life take on MLP a joy to read despite the tragedy. “This is one of those stories that takes something the fandom enjoys doing and makes it real,” Present Perfect said. “What [the Pony Fiction Vault-featured] The Archer and the Smith did for Lyra and hands, this does for Carrot Top, Derpy and Dinky.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Bachiavellian discusses Portal music, helpful mistakes, and recipe-swapping.

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KitsuneRisu’s “Twilight, There’s a Ghost in Your Basement”

27 Friday Jun 2014

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Today’s story is a stirring, inspirational tale about courage in the face of the unknown … or, more accurately, the complete lack thereof.

twilight-ghostTwilight, There’s A Ghost In Your Basement
[Comedy] [Drama] [Mystery] • 8,636 words

Twilight firmly believes that ghosts belong in the realm of fantasy. But after multiple brushes with the supernatural in her home, she turns to the one pony who can help. Now Fluttershy, Twilight and Spike must banish the spirit before it starts flinging her pans and clogging the toilets.

FROM THE CURATORS: “I spent my lunch break today desperately trying not to break out into laughter as I read this story,” Chris said with the vote that earned this story its feature. “Kitsune’s got a way with deliciously ridiculous metaphors which puts a neat little bow on the jokes proper.”  The rest of us agreed.  “It’s certainly funny,” Present Perfect said, “a remarkable example of wordplay.”

It also shone in its thoughtful presentation of the characters. “My goodness, Twilight and Spike had the perfect, funny but real brother-sister dynamic going the whole way through,” Chris said.  Horizon appreciated that more broadly: “There are some magnificent character moments for Twilight that come out of nowhere and leave an impact regardless. … Digging into characters’ heads in a comedy takes some tonal juggling, but it keeps all the balls in the air.”

Our disagreement over this fic centered, of all things, on ladybugs.  “The scene with the ladybug tiptoes over the line from funny into simply bizarre, but it’s that same straight-faced presentation of the absurd that led to some of the moments I found most hysterical,” Horizon said. Chris countered: “By the ladybug’s fourth or fifth mention, the sheer contrast it made to the events proper (and the fic’s dogged insistence on including it) had me nearly in stitches.”  And Present Perfect offered a laconic dissent: “What.”

Read on for our author interview, in which KitsuneRisu discusses Twist, pie, mud, and the unholy fusion of two creatures that should never have seen the light of day.
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ArgonMatrix’s “The Firework Lotus”

13 Friday Jun 2014

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Times change.  Friends change.  But there are some things, as today’s heartwarming story reminds us, that remain constant.

firework-lotusThe Firework Lotus
[Drama] • 16,670 words

The Firework Lotus Celebration, a grand festival which celebrates the dawn of a new year, is a tradition held near and dear to Spike’s heart. But when the winds of change threaten to take this special time away from him, Spike is forced to make a difficult decision. Which is more important: what he knows to be right, or what he feels to be right?

And as Spike soon discovers, it’s a choice best made with the help of some friends.

FROM THE CURATORS: It’s difficult to summarize what it is that gives this story its raw emotional power, as Chris discovered when nominating it: “The only notes I ended up leaving myself on the story were ‘wow,’ ‘super-sweet,’ ‘perfect Spike moment,’ another ‘wow,’ and ‘important theme,'” he said.  But he gave it a second shot: “It’s the kind of sweet but memorable story which sticks with you.  It’s got wonderful, powerful moments scattered throughout, it deals seriously but hopefully with the need for change, and is just generally beautiful.”

The exemplary writing of the story is easy to see from the first scenes, where it follows Twilight, Spike, and the friends and family surrounding them through many years of holidays.  “A shining example of why ‘show, don’t tell’ is such common advice; this is exquisite, exquisite showing, simply playing off the contrasts as the whirlwind of history sweeps around the calm eye of the event itself,” Horizon said.

And even after it unfolds those years and spends most of its length discussing a single, pivotal celebration — with some strange but memorable digressions into the routines put on by the supporting cast — it closes strong with some important and affirming lessons that feel exquisitely and laudably pony. “I love it when stories make me applaud for them,” Present Perfect said.

Read on for our author interview, in which ArgonMatrix discusses Equestrian innocence, authorial road trips, and universal protagonism.
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HoofBitingActionOverload’s “Where Have The Stars Gone?”

30 Friday May 2014

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Today’s story is a look at love and loss, teetering on the brink between eternity and oblivion.

stars-goneWhere Have The Stars Gone?
[Drama] • 2,871 words

What does it mean to be immortal? Celestia has lived for too long. Her memories are old. She has seen many ponies, and many places, and many times, and many stars, and many dreams. She wakes one night to find she does not know the ponies and the stars of today from the ponies and the stars of any other day she has lived. She no longer knows what was real and what was only dreamed.

She desperately searches for the one pony she knows could not have been a dream.

FROM THE CURATORS: This story starts with a compelling premise — “expanding on Celestia’s emotional depth is such fertile ground for storytelling,” as Bradel put it — and then went on to impress us on two different levels.

The first was the skill of its craft of the emotional tone. “This is a really intense, tightly-worded look at immortality and the relationship between Celestia and Luna,” Present Perfect said.  Chris “found the story moving on its own merits … it’s an intelligent look at the pain of forgetting.” And Bradel found its depth inspirational: “There was a moment in this story that made me want to write some non-pony stuff pretty desperately … that alone is enough for a feature.”

Horizon, while dissenting, found another reason to appreciate it.  “You guys are sitting here chatting about the story like it’s some character piece, when it’s really one of the freakiest existential horror pieces I’ve read in the fandom,” he said. “You know everything you appreciated about Alabaster? This is a piece on that forgetting, from the inside, exponentiated by happening to an immortal aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.”

Read on for our author interview, in which HoofBitingActionOverload discusses eggs in the rock basket, and the benefit of picking grey as a favorite color.
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