Reviews

STORY 1

A Night on Deck, by Bad_Seed_72

Golden Vision:

Wow. My first review. I’d like to thank the Academy, Senior TA Plum, and Obselescence’s gigantic pile of—

Oh. You mean I’ve actually got to review this thing? Dang.

Let’s get started, then, shall we?

An interpretation of Blueblood that doesn’t make you want to punch his face in? An OC whose character is neither overblown nor uninteresting? An embedded Youtube link that’s…subtle?

You’d better believe it, because all that and more can be found inside the pages of Bad_Seed_72’s A Night on Deck.

The fic tells the story of Noteworthy, a simple Earth Pony musician embarked on a cruise ship with his two most valued possessions: his saxophone, and a simple photograph. The contrast between the two is interesting; he considers the photo the most important thing that he owns (the saxophone coming in a far-off second), and it’s this juxtaposition of value and sentiment that foreshadows the ultimate choice that Noteworthy must make by the end of the fic.

The plot is simple, and the characters familiar. Blueblood is in top form here: At once both the bored, narcissistic noble and the curious onlooker, he brings a certain agency to the story that’s both refreshing and amusing to watch. His interactions with Noteworthy paint the picture of a stallion in need of something more to life, and it’s interesting to see how he ends up changing by the end. There’s more to life than rags and riches, Blueblood learns, and it’s Noteworthy’s saxophone that ends up showing him the way.

So much sax appeal.

The setting is certainly well-executed; Babs_Seed_72 gives us a clear window into a cruise ship populated by the upper crust. The nobles are grating, and the chefs—frantic to produce dinner for their impatient clients—are extremely entertaining, especially with their “authentic accents.” Ahoy, matey. Fancy some grub?

Where would I be, though, without discussing the protagonist himself? Noteworthy is a familiar archetype: the talented musician fleeing fame for freedom, choosing artistic expression over success. Contrast is once more the paint with which the author covers his canvass, as Noteworthy chooses the simple happiness of a poor harp player in the streets—our very own Lyra Heartstrings—over the professional expression of his best friend, Octavia.

This isn’t a Romance story, but it in many ways resembles one. Noteworthy is driven by a split in his soul between love for Octavia and love for his freedom, and the choice that he must make between the two is what drives the resolution here.

So kick back, relax, and take a bit out of A Night On Deck. The philosophical ideas certainly aren’t hard to swallow, and you may well find yourself asking the waiter for seconds.

STORY 2

Daring Do and the Dark Walk Home, by Mindblower

Golden Vision:

So, Daring Do and the Dark Walk Home. I was the one to bring this up in chat as a probable fic this time ‘round, and I did so for two reasons. One, I’d been searching for a fic for the past hour, and really wanted something to bring in.

My actual face upon finding this.

Secondly, Daring Do is awesome, and so is this story.

Now, I don’t mean awesome in the Michael Bay sense—you won’t find many explosions, gunshot wounds, or cheesy monologues here. What you will find, however, is a remarkable re-interpretation of a character that most of the fandom thinks it has pinned down to a T—namely, Daring Do, Miss Adventure herself.

It’s true that we’ve become used to the idea of Daring as an Indiana Jones analogue: She swoops in, saves the day, and gets the girl—er, ancient artifact. It’s not a hard leap to make, especially considering the fact that Daring Do and the Sapphire Statue resembles Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom much more than it does, say, Crime and Punishment. There’s action, there’s an overblown villain, and there’s temple raidin’ aplenty. What more could an action-adventure fan ask for?

Well, as Mindblower—author of Daring Do and the Dark Walk Home—shows us, there’s a whole new character beyond this idea of the generic adventurer that we’ve yet to discover. The popular image of Daring is that of the heroic archeologist, yet Mindblower paints a different—and in some ways, a more believable—picture. Here, Daring Do is no public-minded do-gooder; she’s a thief, a cat burglar, with more than enough skills to make it through her numerous escapades.

People have criticized good ol’ Indy in the past for being so reckless with the artifacts he uncovers. They might be a bit more incensed at Daring Do, however—rather than giving the priceless treasures she finds to a museum, she sells them on the black market to bring in enough dough to keep her in the black for another day. For this version of Daring, at the end of the day, the most important thing to keep in mind is how much cash she’s got stuffed into her saddlebags, and it’s her latest haul of moolah that brings the bulk of the tension to the titular dark walk home.

Daring’s voice is excellently dark: noir, but without being cliched; paranoid, but without getting on the reader’s nerves. For a pony so apparently amoral, Daring’s ruminations on the demises of her multiple companions, or “cohorts” as she calls them, are remarkably amusing to read through. It may be horrifying to imagine dying a slow death at the hands of bloodthirsty natives as your “trusted mentor” flees the scene, her saddlebags clinking with the treasure you found, but it’s a refreshingly organic look at what the life and mindset may be of a pony who’s devoted her life toward digging through old tombs and temples before robbing them of their ancient riches.

If I had one gripe, it would be that the end of the story—the ultimate “twist”—is at once both inconclusive and more than a bit confusing for a reader already invested in this fic. It’s unfortunate that Daring Do and the Long Walk Home finishes on what I can only call “an unbearably fanfic-like note,” but the rest of the story holds up quite well on its own. Mindblower’s narrative is both captivating and evocative, and Daring’s story comes through, surprisingly enough, without seeming too much like mindless exposition.

Should you ever find yourself in a dark alley, then, with alley toughs on your tail and saddlebags of dirty cash on your back, consider picking up Daring Do and the Long Walk Home for a quick read. It may not help you with your plight, but you’ll certainly feel less alone for reading it.

STORY 3

Refrain, by TSTS

Golden Vision:

If any of you have ever taken part in a Writeoff, you’ll know what I mean when I say that they’re as hard as hell to get through. You’ve got a limited amount of time to write what you need to write, and it’s a race against the clock to come up with an idea, form it into something coherent, and then write the damn thing. That’s not even taking into account the editing process, which for many participants is mostly a luxury.

Believe me when I say, then, that NTSTS, writer of Refrain, is no less than a fanfiction savant for his work in the Ponychan Writeoff “Time and Time Again.” Coming in second place to Duncan R—also an excellent author—his piece, Erase and Rewind, NTSTS found the strength within himself to outline, plan, and execute what turned out to be a twenty-five thousand word biography of Octavia’s life. And what an execution it turned out to be.

Refrain is a piece so reminiscent of biographical nonfiction that I looked over my shoulder at least once to see if my AP Language & Composition teacher was standing right behind me. Octavia’s past is both haunting and emotive: From the overbearing mother who rules her daughter’s life with an iron hoof, to Octavia’s final revelation beneath the lights of the Canterlot stage, NTSTS delivers a story whose themes wouldn’t seem out of place in a piece by Steinbeck or Baker.

The reader of such a fic soon realizes that they’re in for a ride: Although action is certainly no focus of this piece—barring one terrifying scene with a much darker subtext—Octavia’s narration of her life holds a gripping tension, both in the simple prose she uses and the song she creates with every word.

For Refrain is, at its heart, a story about a song. Every life, it seems to say, has its music—its assemblage of notes and dynamics that combine to form a concerto not unlike those in a Canterlot music hall. Octavia is forced to confront this truth near the end of the fic, when a jealous competitor calls her playing “the most emotionless piece of music I’ve ever heard.” Though any other pony might have waved this off as a mere symptom of envy, Octavia is shaken to her core. Truly, can a musician call themselves such if they derive no enjoyment from their instrument? What, the story asks us, is the purpose of music?

For fame, Octavia’s mother would tell us. For skill. For remembrance. I’ve seen few characters better written than this mare; as the bass to Octavia’s treble, her mother lends an unpleasant air of reality to the entire fic. At its heart, this story is a war of generations: the mother, determined to live her unspent life through her offspring, and the daughter, who is just as determined to break free.

Yet we see precious little of this rebellious spirit in Octavia, save for the few times when it erupts in a flare of anger and desperation. It’s cathartic to hear her scream over her mother’s platitudes, but as time goes on, the reader is forced to realize that Octavia is fighting a losing war. It’s only at the end of the story, when her mother has been removed from the picture, that Octavia is given the chance to take her first baby steps as her own mare. It’s a chance to celebrate, yes, but it is also a time to mourn—not for the mother, but for Octavia’s lost childhood and uncertain future.

Octavia’s mother is a despicable creature, to be sure, but she straddles the line between disgusting and merely pitiable. The dissonance in her every action shines through this fic like the plunk of a mistuned key, and the oppression she brings into Octavia’s life is truly horrible. The tone for this story is set earlier on, I believe, when a friendly colt asks a filly Octavia if she’d like to play. Turned down by a foal for whom the idea of friendship is as alien as the inner workings of alicorn magic, he says simply, “You’re weird.” Children have a talent for the cruel, yet honest insights that adults seem to lack. For her part, Octavia turns into herself to avoid the world outside, defending the last shards of her soul from her mother’s overbearing spirit.

There is one pony, however, who can bring Octavia back to life—to give her something resembling companionship. Grace Note, her music teacher, is both lovable and funny, playing the Maria Rainer to her mother’s Captain von Trapp. I’ll honestly say that if there was one scene in this story that made me sincerely tear up, it was the moment when Octavia realized that she’d taken her final lesson with Grace Note. The bond between those two is one of the few pieces of sunlight that shine through an otherwise drab, grey world, and its disappearance yanks your heartstrings out and ties them into the shape a treble clef.

Refrain is at once both tragedy and romance; it is the tale of love lost and thrown away, yet it is also the the tale of Octavia’s self-discovery as she emerges, at last, from her mother’s shadow to find her true calling waiting for her outside. It is truly the closest thing to literary fiction that I’ve yet seen on this site—it’s an art piece in itself, singing quietly through its words and characters.

Almost, you might say, like a song.