Tag Archives: random

naturalbornderpy’s “Princess Celestia’s Newest Arch Enemy”

19 Friday Feb 2016

Posted by in Features

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Prepare for an adorable war on your heartstrings as today’s story marches into the library shelves.

newest-arch-enemyPrincess Celestia’s Newest Arch Enemy
[Comedy] [Random] [Slice of Life] • 4,656 words

When a colt named “Bad Dude” storms into Celestia’s personal study and declares himself as her latest arch enemy, the Princess can’t help but nearly gush from the sight. As perhaps the cutest villain Celestia has ever encountered, she hurriedly calls for Luna to meet him as well.

But is there more to “Bad Dude” than his cute exterior would suggest?

No. No there is not.

FROM THE CURATORS: This story’s path to a feature started — as so many others do — with outside word-of-mouth.  “The clickbait title and blatant appeal to cuteness should have made this story radioactive to me, but when MightyFenrir recommended it, I had to see what that was about,” Horizon said. “What I found was a story that pulled off a surprisingly intricate balancing act between adorable, silly, authentic, and subversive.”

What immediately leapt out at us was the humor that also sent this story rocketing to the top of the Featurebox. “I’m beside myself,” Present Perfect said.  “The Potatoville line is about the funniest thing I’ve heard all week.  This is what reading Progress was like, way back in the day.”  AugieDog was more metaphorical (but no less effusive) in his praise: “Good silly is hard to do.  When we’re all supposed to be sliding and giggling together down the side of Silly Mountain, more often than not we in fact get our sleeves caught on the rocky outcrop of ‘Eh, it’s okay’ or the creosote bush of ‘Yeah, I guess.’  But this one was silly all the way to the bottom.”

It wasn’t just the humor that caught our eye, though — there was also plenty to love about the characterization.  “What makes the story for me is Celestia,” Horizon opined, while Chris said: “Bad Dude may be one-note, but it’s a funny note.”  And the story carried its premise through to a strong ending.  “It manages to pull off a genuine twist without breaking tone,” Horizon said.  “Watching that unfold was the moment that elevated this from ‘enjoyable read’ to ‘RCL feature’.”

Read on for our author interview, in which naturalbornderpy discusses visual drugs, story graveyards, and riding the soup-can gravy train.
Continue reading →

adcoon’s “The Big Butterfly Brouhaha”

24 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by in Features

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

Take a wild, whimsical wander through a fairy tale, a literal fairy tale, in this Friday’s featured fic.

butterfly-brouhahaThe Big Butterfly Brouhaha
[Random] [Adventure] • 14,839 words

“Have you seen a butterfly around here?” I asked Derpy one day. Next thing I don’t even know, we’re saving Equestria from the fairies in Fluttershy’s chicken coop!

FROM THE CURATORS: From the moment, from the moment that you first lay eyes on this story and its unique storytelling, it will be obvious that you’re in for an experience. “I’m not sure if the narrative style is brilliant or completely bonkers (or both), but it definitely fits the spirit of this story,” JohnPerry said.  We weren’t unanimous fans of the style, but the clear consensus was best expressed by Present Perfect: “The appropriate emoticon for this story is somewhere between o.O and :D.  By the second sentence, I was in love.”

That narration is in service of a compelling melding of MLP with an older and wilder mythology. “It’s a fairy tale, at its core, but a vividly Equestrian one — full of the strangely-ruled magic and mysterious fey-creatures which are the hallmark of such tales, but placed carefully in a setting where magic is practically mundane,” Chris said.  That combined with a clever sense of wordplay to engage us with prose as well as plot.  “There were many moments in this story where I found myself caught between a desire to laugh out loud and smack my forehead,” JohnPerry said. “‘The gigglers, now turned yellers, are riding hummers’ was one of them.”

However, despite the story’s wide list of strengths, our commentary kept returning to the narration.  “it sounds like music! It’s astounding!” Present Perfect said.  “The little rhymes, the repetition … there’s a certain timeless poetry about this that doesn’t preclude character or plot.”  Chris agreed: “It’s playful, lively, and shows a delightful interplay between narrator and reader without becoming too condescending or grating.”  In the end, all we could do was marvel — and offer this Random-tagged tale a well-deserved feature. “What amazes me is that there’s so much here that clashes, that by all rights shouldn’t work, yet somehow comes across as very natural,” JohnPerry said. “Discord would be pleased.”

Read on for our author interview, in which adcoon discusses loyalty, passion, necessity, and a raccoon-based muffin obsession.
Continue reading →

Loganberry’s “It Doesn’t Matter Now”

27 Friday Feb 2015

Posted by in Features

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, ,

As today’s story reminds us, there are some things in life that are constants — like death, taxes, and Pinkie Pie showing up at the end of the universe.

doesnt-matter-nowIt Doesn’t Matter Now
[Random] [Slice of Life] • 1,334 words

The Spirit Pony is responsible for the End of All That Ever Was. It has always been so. This particular End looks like being a straightforward one – until a certain pink pony intervenes to prevent it happening. Pinkie has a very, very good reason for stopping the Spirit, too…

FROM THE CURATORS: This fun little eschatological romp (and how often do you get to use those words together?) is what it says on the tin: Pinkie Pie at the End of All That Ever Was, stopping the universe from ending because she’s got some unfinished business.  “It’s a fresh subversion of a theme that has been done to death with the show’s immortal princesses,” Horizon said, but we found depth beyond that. “It’s more a look into the power of Pinkie, something that goes beyond crass fourth-wall breakage while still giving her a magic of her own,” Present Perfect said.

One of its core strengths was that clever examination of a pony who is among the most difficult to write.  “I was impressed by the way Pinkie’s character is used in this story,” Present Perfect said.  “It benefits from letting her act in that situation as she does in all situations: like Pinkie.”  Chris was impressed, too: “It definitely speaks to the kind of dramatic whimsy Pinkie’s capable of.  She’s more than just a goof, after all — she takes her goofiness seriously.”

Add to that the strong writing which carried this to a UK of Equestria contest win, and this short little tale sailed through to an easy feature. “It plays with contrast and tone in clever ways,” Horizon said. “It’s got a cute and simple premise which might not carry a longer story, but it packs up enough gravitas to give the ending a satisfying impact.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Loganberry discusses wanderlust, tea, and Egg-Kings.

Continue reading →

ambion’s “Racing Thoughts”

12 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by in Features

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , ,

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.
Continue reading →

FanOfMostEverything’s “Mandatory Fun”

05 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by in Features

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, ,

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.
Continue reading →

Titanium Dragon’s “The Collected Poems of Maud Pie”

11 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by in Features

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

, ,

Today’s story is about rocks.  It’s about lots of different kinds of rocks.  Because not all rocks are the same.

The Collected Poems of Maud Pie
[Comedy] [Random] • 1,018 words

Maud Pie has written thousands of poems.

Here are some of her poems.

They’re about rocks.

FROM THE CURATORS: When you think about Maud’s poetry, if you do at all, you probably don’t think of it as anything more than a gag about Maud’s emotionless obsession with rocks.  This story nails that joke; Horizon said it “works on the level of a character study; it’s a reflection of its dull, singleminded author.”

But there’s more here than just a thousand words worth of dull.  As Chris explained, “it starts off with just enough of what you’d expect to set the rest up as variations on that theme, and Farming Rocks was such a perfect and unexpectedly serious poem that… well, that I remember the name without even clicking the link to the story.”  Horizon concurred: “A piece like “Farming Rocks” sneaks up on you, just when you had your expectations set, and blows you away,” and highlighted several other poems that catch the reader off-guard in a refreshingly thoughtful way.

But whether it’s being stolid or surprisingly deep, the one thing this story always was was entertaining and well-written.  JohnPerry said “the poems themselves are actually really well-written, and do an excellent job capturing the voice of Maud Pie.” Horizon added, “the occasional author’s note, and the author’s contributions to the comments section, both reinforce the voice of the poems”; Chris concluded “These are clever, memorable, funny, and as many other superlatives as you want to throw out there.”  

Besides, as JohnPerry put it when he nominated this story: “it’s Maud Pie. Do I really need to say more?”

Read on for our author interview, in which Titanium Dragon talks about how overrated gold is in the D&D draconiverse, the importance of being an editor, and what he has in common with James McAuley and Harold Stewart.
Continue reading →