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First for best duo!
Enjoy this conveniently packaged Tuna: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/459048/natural-ones

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>>43667214
>tfw no intelligent responsible mares

>>43667207
I'm very close to finishing the last chapter of my fic.
Wish me the best, Anons!

>>43667369
Hope you stick the landing!

The ITT section is so pitifully tiny this time...

>>43667369
Don't fuck it up.

>>43667430
Had to compromise since there were so many stories for the club this week.

>>43667508
You know you don't have to include the story name in the URL, right?
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/551920

>>43667655
Considering that we are doing multiple stories this week and including the story name in the URL is tradition at this point there's no good reason not to.

>>43667655
Is this one of those Literary Giants we were promised?

>>43668200
>story claims to be about BBC
>has no British telly

I hate myself for not finishing this stupid horror fic sooner. Now I'm scrambling to get it done and won't have enough time to let things properly stew for editing.

>review https://www.fimfiction.net/story/407380/a-matter-of-provenance

6.5/10. Daring tries to get an ancient artifact from the Flim Flam brothers. I nearly skipped this one because Flim and Flam are no where on the list of characters I want to read a fic about, but it was short enough I opted to. It wasn't terrible and I thought it'd be a lot worse, but the comedy tag seemed to be nonexistent. I'm not even sure there was an actual punchline in the story. Still, I'd rather have a comedy fic without much humor than one that tries and fails to do jokes.

>end

>review https://www.fimfiction.net/story/424493/what-makes-you-special

6/10. The author's self insert is sad and mopey she'll never be horseword famous like Daring is. Another distinctive "author is the character" fic, at least this time it's a full self insert instead of Daring getting possessed. The premise feels a little strained and forced, as if one can compare horseword famous authors to characters with writing cutie marks, but it's not that terrible. Might be the best self insert OC fic I've read, in fact.

>>43666187
>it's what I'd do
It's weird they have a form for it for you to fill out. It'd be better if you pretended you were a tourist or something and asked for some sightseeing brochures or business pamphlets. A visitor center would typically have those, but I doubt Ponyville's either big enough or a popular enough of a destination to have built one of those. You could have them all set up in the Town Hall already and just have the guy walk in and grab a couple without even needing to talk to anyone.

>>43666223
>link to the Daring Do fic you wrote?
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/589615/daring-do-and-the-curse-of-avarice (the aforementioned 80k flattening/cartoon physics fetish fic)
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/594974/daring-do-and-the-grimoire-of-gamaltijan ([Comedy][SoL] oneshot featurebait that's technically a sequel to the above. I was able to trick normies into reading a melting fetish fic by forcing the narrator not to dwell on Daring's slowly dissolving athletic body for too long.)

>>43666312
The "Evil Overlord" thing feels too tongue-in-cheek for me and gives the impression this is going to be some kind of comedy about a guy fumbling and bumbling his way along, when the rest of the synopsis feels like its trying to be serious about the plot. Gives me mixed signals about the tone.

>>43669495
does scitwi remain jailbait when she goes to equestria?

>>43669506
No, Equestria is too civilized to send anypony to jail for that.

>>43669584
I can see what anons mean when they say this thread is the Xitter of the board.

>>43669588
>he doesn't know about /jdb/

>>43669506
She did go there so you can judge for yourself.

>>43669596
I regularly clock /fimfic/ posters in there.

>>43669809
It's a shame there aren't consistent older mare threads.

>>43669819
Youth is desirable. "Aging gracefully" is an oxymoron.

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>>43669828
I may have peculiar preferences, but I am not a moron!

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>>43669819
This is the best Luna thread on the board, and it's always up!

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>>43669860
Don't you dare disrespect my wife with such an incorrect claim, you heathen.

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>>43669862
I'm talking about Luna, though.

>>43669506
she aged into a 30 year old mare.

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/595801/taken-in

Decided to give this story a shot anyway. I'm enjoying it a lot. Changeling fics are fun and this is a creative setup.

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>>43670035
Have you read this guy's work?
https://www.fimfiction.net/user/49263/Phoenix_Dragon
I have not seen anyone come close with infiltrator stories.

>>43670203
>FOE
No thanks

Okay, so I sat down and read them all this evening because why not.
Ditch your roots if you want to fit in.

>https://www.fimfiction.net/story/304458/entry-649 + https://www.fimfiction.net/story/452073/dear-diary
In #649 I don't think the author intrigues hard enough for the reader to yearn to decypher that second meaning. It also suffers from being written from a more passive position, from within the haze, from "I don't know what went wrong, but here are some clues I guess".
Dear Diary works much better as the author is much more straighforward with the direction. This gets it out of eldritch horror category and more into something like Faith. We know what is happening, the second layer is in what exactly is happening and figuring it out reveals additional terrible details.
I'm not sure how both fics stand outside of fimfic confines, the back-and-forth with the commenters. Like an ARG to a 2019 game, I guess.

>https://www.fimfiction.net/story/536211/1/rain-party/rain-party
A solid, quite effective end-of-the-world story with an appropriate ending.

>https://www.fimfiction.net/story/587791/probably-not
The premise is strong and the disassociation is shown in an effective way that can be interpreted in a multitude of distressing ways.
However, none of the unique qualities of the story were addressed, instead the author opted for a seemingly rushed otherworldly resolution.

>https://www.fimfiction.net/story/509734/written-in-synthetic-blood
Is okay, but works only because of the identity chosen for the perfect patient.
Replace her by, say, Doctor Caballeron and things fall apart.

>https://www.fimfiction.net/story/418430/after-i-looked-up-the-stars-had-gone-away
There is a decent attempt at suffocation, at isolation. I know that feel when someone's eyes are piercing you with hate, despite nobody being there (especially in a forest).
Underdeveloped though.

Best out of the bunch: Rain Party.
Should've skipped: Probably Not.

>>43670235
It's not Sunday yet, reee!

>>43670262
Fugg, was I supposed to keep these in until Sunday?
Sorry, back from a (checks notes) ten years hiatus.

>>43670268
Yeah on Sunday (always club day) a Rariflag will make an /fsbc/ post and the club posts should reply to that post and then discuss amongst each other

When do you reckon Granny Pie died?

>>43633745
As spoiler-free as possible, I could suggest
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/87224/all-about-rarity as an example of failing to adequately make a character sympathetic. There are more issues with this fic, but I think it's a good example of that specific writing issue.

>>43670203
I have read Fragments. Quite good, actually.

>>43670411
I apologize, I will lurk more for a bit.

Kassaz and the club Rariflag, I hope you didn't forget to vote for Rarity in Miss /mlp/

>>43670864
I don't have a Google account, so I can't.

>>43670864
I am not campaigning in the thread this year (too busy!), but I have done my part.
It'll feel weird when she wins, though, whether in two days or a decade from now. As much as I hate this "meme" and I'm glad that people got better taste, the completely misguided Rarity hate was a small part of /mlp/ culture.

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Is there anything where the Cakes are distant relations of the Pies (like second cousins or so) or am I the first one to load this headcanon?

whatcha writing

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>>43670957
I've seen fanart and AUs that depicts Pinkie as the daughter of the Cakes, either adoptive or biological. I don't know about second cousins, but the idea of making Pinkie related to the Cakes is not a new concept.
However, I do think that making her related to the Cakes, even if it isn't immediate, is super fucking lame. In the show, Pinkie effectively has two family units. With the Pies, even thought they love her, she's still the oddball out. Conversely, she looks more appropriate with the Cakes at first glance, even thought there is no blood relation. I can totally see some rando assuming Pinkie is their daughter and being confused why they named her Pie instead of Cake. I think adding a blood relation takes away from their dynamic.

>>43671076
It definitely seems like she's related to them though, just as a distant relation. She was living with them as a filly and that suggests that her parents, realizing that she was going to be Pinkie, were like "Well why don't we apprentice her to your cousin in that other town?"

>>43671054
I was worried about the front page's rules for submitting an update and a new, separate story back-to-back. Fortunately, I only finished one new chapter of an anthology for Nightmare Night, so I don't need to worry about that anymore.

It's about Tempest Shadow and has accompanying artwork again, nicely.

>>43671085
>It definitely seems like she's related to them though
Why? Because she likes baking? Because of her coloration? That's so surface level.
>realizing that she was going to be Pinkie, were like "Well why don't we apprentice her to your cousin in that other town?"
I still don't see why we need a blood relation for this to happen. It's feels like we're trying to sand down character traits to fit into a tidier box. The way you describe it sounds so cold, even if you didn't intend for it to sound that way. "She clearly gets all that party shit from YOUR side of the family, so let's dump her off at Ponyville."
"Of course Pinkie gels with the Cakes. They're family, why wouldn't it work like that? Of course the families with Cake and Pie as their name are related. Isn't that obvious. Of course fate didn't bless Pinkie with two different families she could express herself around in two different ways. She was just at the perfect spot on a family tree"
It's all so convenient. So demystified. We're sucking away whimsy just to make the story telling easier.

>>43671054
myself being an asshole in a SI
taking a look back through my past experiences in life and cringing as I write

>>43671054
Last chapter of my fic.
For some reason I started thinking of a way it could be better, so now I'm 4,5k words deep into a rewrite. Still about halfway done.
I'm supposed to update tomorrow.

>>43671146
>I still don't see why we need a blood relation for this to happen.
How else are a bunch of amish rock farmers going to know a bunch of bakers well enough to send their pinkest daughter out when she's like middle school age?

>>43671054
A fic where instead of Spike Twilight hatches a young Chrysalis out of an egg.

>>43671264
Now there's a teenage mother I would excuse for going all Lindsay Clancy.

Always wanted something like this and finally someone did it: https://huggingface.co/spaces/OVAWARE/fimfiction-galaxy

Is it just me or is fimfic insanely low-traffic these days?
I drift in and out of this thread so I'm sorry if this has been brought up before.

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>>43671278
How accurate is it?

>>43671278
I can't believe SI made the tunigger become obsolete.

>>43671283
They effectively turned off signups like five years ago and it's been dying anyway

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>>43671263
If you are trying to make this sound any less lazy or hack, it isn't working. You make it sound like the Cakes and Pie HAVE to have been glued to their current locations for their entire lives and could not have formed a bond outside of family ties. You're really saying about a show that has friendship in the title? "Oh, no, our daughter came out all pink and weird and energetic. Luckily I have a cousin the next town over who is into that shit that we can dump her on."
You are swapping out a found family for nepotism. Think about Pinkie from a conception level, focus on season one and two. Think about Baby Cakes and Cutie Mark Chronicles. It would have been so fucking easy to just Pinkie be the Cake's daughter, but there was deliberate choice not to. "Pinkie bonds with the Cakes because they are family" says way less "Pinkie bonds with the Cakes despite not being family."

>>43671272
I'm reworking Chryslertits' personality, as most AUs would. So she's a vain little pervert that likes taking pictures of ponies instead of a succubus spawn of evil.

>>43671297
>Luckily I have a cousin the next town over who is into that shit that we can dump her on
I mean that is precisely what happens with Applejack in her backstory.

This is yesterday's news, but I guess I'm not signing up for AO3 anytime soon:
https://www.otwstatus.org

>Earlier today, we detected evidence of a security incident on AO3. We are still in the early stages of response to this security incident and determining its scope. AO3 will remain down while we continue investigating and addressing what has been found so far. However, we want to make some things clear:

>First, no AO3 data has been deleted. All your works, bookmarks, kudos, etc., are safe.

>Second, while we currently don't believe that the user database was stolen, we are also unable to rule it out. The AO3 database contains account information that may include your username, email address, IP address, and a hashed version of your password.

>We use industry-standard techniques for storing passwords in a scrambled form that cannot easily be reversed. Even so, no hashing method can fully protect a weak or reused password from being cracked. As a precaution, we recommend that you change your passwords on any other sites where you use the same password as on AO3.

>AO3 does not collect real names, so none could be exposed. Additionally, our donor information is held in an entirely separate system and is never linked to AO3, so that data has also not been exposed.

>We will update everyone as our investigation continues; we may be unable to respond to individual inquiries from users. Please keep an eye on our official outlets for updates. Our next update will be posted when we have further information available.

>Our current expectation is that AO3 will be down for a minimum of two weeks; however, it could take up to four weeks. During that time, we may be able to bring the site back up in a degraded state, meaning that not all features will be available and/or the site may be read-only. If we are able to do that, please be aware that we might have to bring the site back down unexpectedly as part of our recovery efforts. We will keep you in the loop for any developments.

>>43671297
Blinkie is so fucking cute bros

>>43671299
>only a hatchling and already a pervert
I see bookhorse's Special Lessons from the Princess were passed on expeditiously.

>>43671308
It's a pervert like bodice rippers and written smut. The taking pictures part is just because she's a weirdo.

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>>43671304
Well Pinkie and Applejack are two completely different characters that say different things about family, so that isn't relevant at all.
But also, if you are referring to Cutie Mark Chronicles, that's not what happened. AJ thought she wanted to live fancy but realized she loved her home life after all when she saw got got homesick and saw that rainbow. What your saying would only be true of Aunt and Uncle Orange were her parents, or if Granny dumped her off on them when she didn't like apple farming and ended up with an orange cutie mark. You somehow managed to miss the mark twice in one sentence.

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>>43671263
>How else are a bunch of amish rock farmers going to know a bunch of bakers well enough to send their pinkest daughter out when she's like middle school age?
Through ponies like Pinkie?
(if nothing else, since there's no reason why Igneous and Cloudy can't just know other ponies)

Pinkie literally got her life philosophy from an older relative.

>>43671286
A brief skim of the code seems to suggest that it's purely semantic search on embeddings: https://huggingface.co/spaces/OVAWARE/fimfiction-galaxy/blob/main/app/engine.py#L733

That means don't expect keyword search to work. It may appear to work on common phrases like "Derpy" but that's probably because the concepts associated with "Derpy" tend to be similar anyway.

>>43671299
She should get along with Cadance because they're both perverts and Cadance is basically a walking buffet for her.

>>43671278
two of the first clusters i randomly clicked on were the daring do cluster and the tuna cluster. i'm taking that as a sign this general is cosmically significant.

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>mfw AO3 fucking dies

>>43671306
As someone who jumps between ao3 and fimfiction FUCK! Guess ill wait 2 weeks for fic updates...

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FsoIn9z3f2wftj2SjdMaDrKd42wPWkxGr3U08BF2jFU/edit?usp=sharing

Daring horror fic's done. Pic relate's going to be the over art since I couldn't get my act together in time to make my own. It's called Daring Do and the Trinket of Time

>Long Description:
Ever since Daring Do’s first adventure, she’d heard about Star Swirl’s Trinket of Time, a magical astrolabe said to be able to time travel—but even more than that, said to be able to alter time itself. None of those time loops or alternate divergent timelines. It warped the very timestream—your timestream. Any mistake you made could be fixed. Any regret undone. Any glory day revisited.
Who wouldn’t get obsessed over such an artifact?

But one must be very cautious. Obsession is a dangerous word when spoken in the same breath as artifact. Just ask her old mentor, Professor Torchlight. His obsession with the ancient Tome of Violare—a dangerous dark magic book from the bloody history of the unicorns—destroyed their friendship a decade ago.

But Daring Do knows all that. She’s careful. She’s cautious. She’s knowledgeable. She knows how to avoid a horror story. It’s easy when dark magic just can’t shut up about it. Now, most of all though, she’s bored. Ever since the Talisman of Truth, adventuring has dried up. There’s been no artifacts for her to find and no days for her to save.

Until her old mentor returns one day with the promise of the grand adventure she’s been wanting her whole life: finding the Trinket of Time. It’s an adventure like any other. What could possibly go wrong? Like with any obsession, quite a bit, it turns out.

>Short Description:
Daring Do has had a long obsession with the ancient Trinket of Time. Who wouldn’t want to be the discoverer of an ancient artifact like that? So when her old mentor offers her the chance, of course she’d take it. If only she hadn’t.

I'll be posting it tomorrow morning when I wake up, so edit now or forever hold your peace.

>review https://www.fimfiction.net/story/105771/the-debt-left-behind

5/10. Daring has a panic attack and spends four months wandering the jungle. Another entry in the "author wears Daring's skin" collection, I knew right from the synopsis I wouldn't like this one. If there's one version of Daring that has never come to mind, even in the wild west era, it's her suffering crippling anxiety attacks, then whinging about it in the jungle. It was surprisingly better written than I'd been expecting, but that OOCness was just a bridge too far for me.

>>43671054
See above. I kicked 4k into this fucking thing today to get over the finish line. Most I've written in a single day in a non-fetish fic.

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>>43671054
I'm pleased with this short story I wrote for Nightmare Night tonight:
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/574592/15/short-stories-about-fizzle-before-she-pops/costumes-and-frights-sweet-and-fun

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>>43672325
>Daring Do’s just not the same since you wrapped up her main reoccurring villains.”
>Not my fault they’re not villains anymore.
How could you do this?

>>43672325
Edgy
3/10 but the dissolving scene is alright at least

I feel like using wizen as an adjective is archaic and it felt kind of jarring but that's a personal preference

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/596158/daring-do-and-the-trinket-of-time
Horror fic's up. Shill time.

>>43670035
Last chapter of this is out. Feels kind of anticlimactic, but also very horror-esq. I enjoyed it overall.

>>43657910
Is Lego Ninjago good? I caught the end of a few episodes years ago.

>>43671306
>Our current expectation is that AO3 will be down for a minimum of two weeks; however, it could take up to four weeks.
Blows my mind. AO3 is a very simple website.

>>43674401
All those porn tags take a lot of work.

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Ponyfics for this feel?

>>43674620
Paul reviewed one where Sunset was Dante and Twilight was Vergil and Flash was Chris Redfield some months ago, look through his 10 or so most recent reviews

>>43674401
Security was breached. You want them to put it up faster without taking the time to make sure it won't be breached just as fast?

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>read about how a historian named Fernand Braudel drafted a 2000 page book in his head while in a nazi work camp
>think about how I can barely even write a one shot short fic

>>43674875
If you are really desperate do hard drugs and you will come up with ideas at the small cost of destroying a few years of your life

>>43674875
I've written thousands of pages in my head, too.
The problem is putting them into actual text.

>>43674931
>Phone
>Google Docs
Just talk.
Just talk and ramble and go back and edit it later
It's what I do when I get stuck.
I just set my phone down and pace around and dictate what's in my mind

I saw this one on the front page, looked at the author, and it was genuinely unskippable.
>review
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/595707/mockery
Snap and Mane investigate a creepy forest, while also trying not to miss Scootaloo's birthday. It goes about as well as you would expect. With AnOrdinaryWriter, I can usually tell what movie we are copying. "Still" copying the movie "Circle" was kinda obvious looking back. There's a bunch of movies about hikers or travelers get stuck somewhere and running into a monster, so I can't call out any specific one. But damn, this one was really good. If you liked the first chapter of "Still" then you will like this one. It's all the good parts from that fic plus more, without all the majors flaws. The pacing here is still solid, as is the character writing. I also really like the monster in this one, serving as a natural counter to our explorers who bite of more than they can chew, as if all their pasts hunts have amalgamated to overwhelm them.
Take it from someone who has The Last Crusade as his bottom 1 episode, endearing an audience to Snap and Mane can be uphill battle. AnOrdinaryWriter somehow won over a hater like me to point where I am actually rooting for these absentee parents. Snap and Mane's dynamic is so good here. They have a strong banter, clear things they agree and disagree on, and you get a very clear idea of their relationship. They aren't saints, and the fic doesn't make easy excuses for them. They are fleshed out character who make decisions and mistakes and fucked up their priorities along the way. Because the character writing is so strong here, it is elevated above being "23k words to torture the two worst parents in Equestria." I am mad this left me wanting for more Snap and Mane. How the fuck did you do that? I'm never gonna get that again.
The violence from "Still" is present here as well, and I feel like it fits better here thematically. It's straight up gut-wrenching. I always feel like horror hits harder when I have a genuine emotional attachment to the lead. Doing that with leads I start off not liking is doubly impressively.
Really glad I read this one. Could not stop once I started.
>end

>tfw a reader misinterprets a scene and you realize it actually might work better than what you were going for
Damn it.

>review https://www.fimfiction.net/story/128395/legacy

4.7/10. Daring and Twilight explore the ruins of a human city destroyed in 1999 by WW3. This one was pretty disappointing. I was hoping for either a Yucca Mountain-type thing or some kind of mystery over what destroyed humanity, but it was all pretty plain and kind of boring. There's no real excitement to the plot or anything to keep you invested in reading it. The writing also seemed a tad amateurish.

>end

>review https://www.fimfiction.net/story/129695/daring-do-in-deepest-peru

6.5/10. Daring treks through the jungle, trying to find her way out after her airship explodes. By Rainbow Dash. I'll admit, this one successfully baited me. All it took was the narrator not telegraphing the whole thing right from the start like all the other fics in the "Dash writes Daring fanfic" genre do. Amazing how much better these kinds of fics are when there's a little subtlety in them. It even had some Twidash at the end to round things off.

>end

>review https://www.fimfiction.net/story/151486/i-daring-do

5.5/10. Ahuizotl falls in love with Daring after she destroys his temple in Daring Don't. By Rainbow Dash. This might be one of the last "Dash writes Daring fanfic" stories done. The whole genre died out after Daring Don't and it is kind of creepy she'd write a shipping story about a friend. The plot is a traditional absurdist comedy but like a lot of these, I feel like the comedy needed to really be ramped up. Felt weirdly restrained for such a cracky premise. Then the ending just makes the whole thing feel like a waste of time, like the author was using the Dash thing as an excuse for the whole story.

>>43672764
>How could you do this?
I hate Daring Doubt, too, but I wanted to give things a post-canon feel.

>>43671306
Yeah this really fucking sucks. I don't write and barely even read mlp fanfiction anymore after many years of being into it. Got into a new fanfic scene. So this is miserable right now.

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>>43675286
>Perú
Woo!
I shall read and check how it goes.

>>43674875
Yeah, people from that time and place aren't known for exaggerating.

>>43675702
>>43674875
>In June 1942, suspected of "Gaullist" (i.e. French Resistance) involvement, he was transferred to a camp for special category prisoners (Oflag X-C) near Lübeck, where he remained for the rest of the war.[25] In the camp, he befriended some Catholic clerics[26] and the historian Henri Brunschwig [fr].[27][b] Braudel drafted his great work La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à l'époque de Philippe II (The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II [fr]) without access to his personal collection of books and notes, which forced him to rely in that regard on his prodigious memory.[28][23] According to his own account, the long-time perspective he took was in part a "direct existential" reaction to the troubling war news. By "choosing the position of God the Father himself as a refuge" he sought to assert the "perdurability and majestic immobility" of the Mediterranean against the "fleeting occurrence" of political events which he associated with the "daily misery" of the camp.[23] He sent completed copy books to Febvre in Paris,[c] first apparently through the International Red Cross,[31] and after obtaining written authorisation from the OKW in November 1942 via the German embassy in Paris.[30] He occasionally dispatched books to Febvre as well.[30] He edited his work after his release in 1945 by checking it against the archival material that survived the war in a metal container in the basement of his Paris house.[23] He cut portions from the copy books and re-arranged the text with new insertions, then destroyed the manuscripts – only a fragment gifted to Febvre has survived.[31][32] During the war, his wife and children lived in Algeria.[29]
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Braudel#Career
More complicated than 'just' writing the book in his head, but totally plausible for someone to draft something with little reference material at-hand.

Also, the english article trans-cribed and -lated from the original french article
>https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Braudel#La_guerre,_la_captivit%C3%A9,_la_lib%C3%A9ration_et_la_soutenance_de_th%C3%A8se
so there may be something lost in the change.

>>43670864
Is it still open? Do I still have time to vote against her?

>>43671143
>I was worried about the front page's rules for submitting an update and a new, separate story back-to-back
Why?

>>43675785
Someone like you would get filtered by the verification questions, kek.

>>43674339
The first few seasons are, no idea about after.

>>43675792
No, I'm just too lazy to go check the thread. I've routinely voted against her but this year I was busy and I don't really check the /mlp/ catalog any more because this board is garbage nowadays. Yesterday I was following an event on an actually good board anyway.

>>43675799
>I'm just too lazy to go check the thread.
Which is precisely what I implied.
The questions require a minimum of effort or a medium level of /mlp/ lore knowledge.
That you asked here instead of going over there is why I knew that I was right.

>>43672578
I was expecting something a lot more sexually explicit and low-quality. Glad I was proven wrong with a side of cute.
Going to have to put your anthology on the reading list while I get through my current roster of must-reads.

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Dismemberment and other festivities, in
>/FSBC/

- 649 + Diary
Before reading the sequel, I kind of really like this. The characterization of Rares felt good, the stylized prose was tasty, and the descriptions—oh the descriptions—they are really, really nice. I especially like how reserved the author was with sprinkling in the answers. This is cosmic horror in the more distilled form, and while I'd guess most readers would find the lack of answers off-putting, the horror of reading Rarity's notes and both realizing what is happening to her and, then, seeing her realize it and know she has no other way to continue was super good. I read this fic as the penultimate one, and so far, it's my pick for the best of the bunch. Wonderful. To the favorites you go. Now to read the sequel.
No, wait, someone in the comments said that the object is literally just one of the Dead Space markers, and that's... surprisingly likely to be the case? Huh.
After Diary, I feel more of the above. I liked the fic; I did. I think I still liked the first one more. This was very creepy, and the imagery was super disturbing, but I enjoyed the refined subtlety of 649 a lot. Still, don't take that to mean I disliked this one! It's my second-favorite now, behind 649. The way the fic feeds (You) clearly untrue hints about what is happening is pretty great, especially regarding RD. Between this and the last one, the author did his Lovecraft homework, ha. One more left.

- Rain Party
The writing is solid, and I enjoyed the horror/suspense part of it without loving it. I did not really care for the monsters and the horrible transformations (and I think that, for me, it'd be more effective if those had been just implied), but the first 95% of the story is a pretty good "stuck in a small shelter at the end of the world" horror.
But then comes the ending. I can see what he was doing there, and the overly long A/N explains what (I think) we all knew, but still, I *think* I'd have preferred an ending played straight because the current one is too hard to believe. Like, I don't think CMCs could play-pretend to imagine the horrors that we're being described.
I don't think this happened, but how I read it at first—and what I'd have actually loved to see—was that the "twist" is fake. Please, just imply that AJ is a horrible monster and (like with the 'opened the door' scene earlier), Apple Bloom is getting dragged out into the water in a real end-of-the-world. That would be a really great, chilling ending. The current one kind of flops the tone too bad. Still easily worth the updoot.
Also, I am obligated to be more positive about stories where the rain is the Bad Thing that does stuff to you.

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>>43675953
(2/2) [this time without skipping fics]
- Probably Not
Too short! Gah! I love the horror of Twilight slowly 'slipping' out of the world into this hypothetical quantum space! The first part of the story is probably the scariest horror in this week. But then the second half comes, and it's... meh. Look, the otherworld exploration is sort of pony in how it's eventually handled by Twi, but I don't think the author capitalized on the awesome psychological horror he built up earlier. Instead we get very generic "shadow creatures". Unlike the one above, I did like the normal SoL ending here. I'd probably have disliked it if the second part of the fic was more tense, but with the horror being mostly gone, the sudden friendship lesson both felt appropriate and also somewhat creepy as a "wait, that's it?" kind of thing. Overall, I'm not too high on this one.

- Synthetic Blood
Feels like it's trying too hard. Oh no, poor android children! I just don't think this fic has any story to tell as-is. It is literally just an opinion stating the question of, "what if we had androids and decided to ethically abuse them to help people?". I WOULD have liked this premise if there was more of an emotional core with DT and Silver, how the former copes, what the latter things, etc. But no; we just get a few crumbs of backstory to pretend that this is a story. The Cozy ending is especially bad. This is the equivalent of emotional shock humor. Kind of bad.

-Stars had Gone
I read this one last, and my first observation is that the other anon was right. This is not a great fic to discuss, and I should've posted this already, so forgive me for being brief. I liked it. I find this 'experiment in atmospheric horror' to have been a success, and I'd like to read something else from the author. The atmosphere is perhaps the best out of all the fics this week (although I'd subjectively put 649 above it due to how the style elevates it). But given the nature of the fic, I should just post now instead of delaying further.

[VOTING]
If (You) want to read more horrorfic oneshots for next week, speak now or forever hold your peace. Otherwise, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming next week. I forgot whether Of the Hive or Clean Slate was supposed to be next (Of the Hive, I think?), and I'll update this with a reply once desu is back up.

>>43675953
Also linking to >>43670235 in case anyone ever goes archive-diving!

>>43675953
huh. that's funny. i think i had the exact opposite take on rain party. good horror is often mysterious, but the horror in rain party felt less mysterious and more arbitrary.
why does the cloud park itself on top of ponyville? so the plot can happen. why does it not run out of rain? so the plot can happen. why does it transform being it touches into abominations? because that's a horror trope the author likes. why do its victims try to convince others to join them? because that's a horror trope the author likes. what's with the equations? again, author likes them.
it's like i can see the strings. it wasn't terrible or anything, but it felt really mediocre.
but honestly, the twist saved it. i could so easily imagine this being a game the cmcs would play, and the resolution gives actual reason to the arbitrary feeling by contextualizing it within the world itself.
it's not "so the fic could happen" or "because that's something the author likes". it's "so the game could happen" and "because that's something the cmcs like".
just grounding these flaws in the world buries them so deep they stop being flaws, even though given the author's note, they definitely are still ultimately a case of bad writing.
i wasn't going to give the fic a like, but the ending convinced me to.

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>>43675953
>>43675959
>Entry #649 + Dear Diary
I mostly agree with you on this one. I really like the format with these, and I really enjoyed Rarity as a narrator in the first. I think aside from that I did like Diary more, mainly because it felt more direct.
>Rain Party
Probably my favorite out of the lot. I peaked at the comments, and looking over the other endings False Door was considering, this definitely feels like the best one. The other two alternative would have been "and then Apple Bloom dies too. The End" or "Here is a massive lore dump. and then Apple Bloom dies too. The End" I think that chosen ending of "The CMC were partying too hard and slap together a bunch of horror tropes that they sounded cool" is the most believable. All these tropes stacked together don't make the most sense, the writing feels too competent not to be aware of that. I enjoyed re-reading after the twist because of that. I like the monster descriptions and the developing horror and the exchanges between the CMC.
>Probably Not
A while back, I vaguely remembered this story as "The time Twilight got so stressed she blocked Spike out of her mind." While there are many Twilight fics that opt to delete Spikes from existence, I have never seen in done in such a literal manner. Jokes aside, I liked most of this story. Twilight's descent is pretty interesting, at least in the first half. The end does feel really "Oh, that's it?" and I still feel like I'm missing something.
>Synthetic Blood
This isn't a story, it's a prompt. A concept, a leaflet. It's getting all of its horror mileage from the concept alone, but I don't have enough investment for the horror here to be elevated above shock schlock. Feels undercooked. Like, "the cow is still mooing" undercooked.
>Stars
Another anon said this was 7k words of atmospheric build up with a so-so ending, and I thought more-or-less the same thing read it the first time, and I still think that on the second read.

>>43675953
I've read Rain Party before. (But I haven't read any of the other club fics before, and I didn't read anything this week.) I thought it was really effective until the final twist. I read the twist as real, and that made it a terrible ending. It destroyed all the atmosphere that the fic had built up until then. I don't think I've ever seen a fic undermine itself so badly.

I disagree that the CMCs couldn't play-pretend the horrors described in the story. What I think you're reacting to is that it's not narrated the way a child would narrate it. If they were play-pretending this, and if an objective third-person narrator could watch, then they'd be running around, screaming and giggling, and then they'd stop while someone got an idea and they listened, and then they'd excitedly run around more and scream and giggle. That's what pretty much every absorbing game of pretend looks like. The way it's narrated is the story they're telling themselves in their minds, narrated the way they imagine it should be narrated. It's like how, when you're writing a story, the story that's in your mind never comes out on the page like you're hoping; except this time, we're seeing what they have in their minds instead of what they can actually communicate.

I agree that a fake "twist" where AJ is actually a monster would be a really effective ending. But that's not what this twist is. Once AJ arrives, it's unambiguous that the CMCs have been pretending. But the ending would only have to be changed a little to make her a monster, and that would have been great. That story would have gotten an upvote from me. This, no way. The ending is that bad.

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>>43670235
>649
>second meaning
Is there one? I feel like the story we're seeing is the full story. Sometimes—a lot of the time, actually—people look for more answers than what exists. The big picture stuff doesn't *really* matter. Like, yes, there was a cult and RariTwi either followed in their hoofsteps to leave Equestria or opened the path and we can see what Rarity did and didn't do in the town BUT what actually matters is how the artifact messes with Rarity's (and Twi's) mind. Like, when you say,
>suffers from being written from a more passive position, from within the haze
I would pretty firmly say that this is the entire point of this fic.
>Dear Diary works much better
I think they're both about as good, and whichever you prefer comes down to style preferences. This story doesn't really have a second layer deeper than the first, imo. The unbirthing horror is pretty plain to see, though I will commend it on the miscarriage angle being pretty effective.
>the back-and-forth with the commenters
E-reader user here, what do you mean? Elaborate pls!

>>Rain
>with an appropriate ending
This seems to be a point of much contention, ha ha.
>>Probably Not
Yeah, agreed; I really wanted it to do something more with the concept.
>>Stars
>Underdeveloped
I am not sure there is more to develop here. It's a bite-sized atmospheric piece without the ambition to be more, I feel.

>>43676004
>>43676037 (the Rain Party part)
It never occurred to me to blame the cliches on "CMCs were making it up", but that doesn't make me rate the fic higher. Not because the author also didn't think of that, but because, to me, the actual reading experience matters more than how it's framed. I think we've stumbled onto this point in the past, but I am, for example, totally fine with making a bunch of assumptions "so the plot can happen" as long as they're laid out clearly as basically a ToC to accept when reading the fic. So I wouldn't dock any points for these cliches.
What I *do* mind is how the ending ruins the atmosphere. I get why, but to me, it felt horribly disappointing to get what is really a variation of "it was just a dream, bro" after fairly skillfully upping the tension all fic long. You're bracing for the finale but the fic swings a wet noodle at you instead. This much of a tonal whiplash needs to be meticulously prepared in order to work, imo, and here it was an afterthought that sticks out in the worst way.

>>43676037
I agree with pretty much every single one of your other points, though. Especially Synthetic Blood, yes! That's not a fic.
Also, are you even a fic writer if you've never deleted Spike on purpose?

>>43676044
You've put it much better than I have, but that's precisely my problem with it, how it's narrated and how that makes the twist feel so awful. I just don't want to not upvote it when it's like 5 sentences away from being quite a good fic. Especially when the decision was a deliberate creative choice, only one I vehemently disagree with.

>>43675953
>I read the only fics with an order in the wrong order
wew also I didnt get to the stars or rain party
>1st fic i read is a Fluttershy unbirthing rainbow fic
Wtf
>Duties: Fight the army ants.
Kek
I think I'm glad I read them in the wrong order though. The first one definitely sets the stage for the sequel, but I had a harder time realizing Fluttershy was being controlled because I read them in the wrong order and Fluttershy was barely sane to begin with. Also the 2nd fic was by far spookier. I think Fluttershy having the stare helped and also the ending was way better.
Unfortunately these both have big 'journal entry horror' problems. It comes off as the artifact only ever releases its hold on a pony so they can write in their journal. Rarity seemingly spends 100% of her uncontrolled time writing in her journal and the second she puts the pen down after writing 'I'm definitely sending this letter now fr fr' she just gets controlled again. It's a bit less apparent in Fluttershy's, but again this is because I hardly knew when she was in control in the first place.
Probably not
These are much better journal entries in my opinion. They don't start out as a crazy detailed journal that the character now conveniently keeps, just a checklist which is extremely believable. Then it becomes a journal when Twilight starts not being real and actually plays an important role in the plot.
>Twilight has always been paranoid of this exact thing happening
>other ponies go missing because of door dents too
Kek
>ends with Twilight making new friends and a friendship report
Now this is kino, this one was my fav although I only read 4. I thought it was going to ruin it by saying 'Lightning Ball' was a fake name and she just unleashed niggerman, but it didn't which was a very nice surprise
Synthetic blood
>Doctor, turn off my pain inhibitors

>>43675959
>Too short! Gah! I love the horror of Twilight slowly 'slipping' out of the world into this hypothetical quantum space!
Yeah, the oddities were great and then starting the characters off with Spike was good as well. Definitely could've gone on longer, and I agree that this was the most interesting part
>the sudden friendship lesson both felt appropriate and also somewhat creepy as a "wait, that's it?" kind of thing.
Yeah I liked it, I guess Twilight is one step closer to getting over her phobia
>Feels like it's trying too hard. >if there was more of an emotional core with DT and Silver >The Cozy ending is especially bad.
Yeah agreed

>>43676044
>>43676105
Rain Party's ending reminds me of a blog post screencap I saw years ago about this teacher for creative writing that sent out an assignment for something or other, and a good chunk of the students made "it was all a dream" or "character was in a coma".
The final reflection was that, while they were able to imagine a fantastical world different from ours, those students backpedaled and were afraid to commit.
That's how Rain Party's ending feels. There could be a huge theoretical framework as to why the ending works conceptually, but it doesn't change that it's a rugpull.
I'd much rather it be one final hallucination from Apple Bloom as she dies.

>>43675959
I'd be down for a tad more horror. We usually do Jinglemas fics for a good three weeks. No reason not to have a bit more spookiness.

I think I'll read rain party at some point
>>43670235
>Dear Diary works much better as the author is much more straighforward with the direction. This gets it out of eldritch horror category
Well, I agree in the sense that I liked it more. And I especially think the ending is better than Rarity walking out to sea or whatever. Fluttershy doing some sort of unbirthing ritual to Rainbow to fuse their souls or something and then the ending "It's kicking" is way creepier.
Also wow, standard e-reader things. I just went back to double check the ending and realized all of the blank chapters were supposed to have pictures that are dead links lmaoooo
>However, none of the unique qualities of the story were addressed, instead the author opted for a seemingly rushed otherworldly resolution.
I agree specifically for the part where Lightning Ball takes over communicating with Twilight and says "Oh sorry, that was the 'Chief' being extremely weird and aggressive towards you, I'll take over talking, me, a normal pony." like wtf, who let the chief talk to fucking anybody? What a bad decision. It should've given him a bit of characterization or something and had him say it's worse to be in the middle world than entirely in one or the other so he was in a sense trying to save Twilight or something. But no, he was just a psycho

>>43676037
>"The time Twilight got so stressed she blocked Spike out of her mind."
kek
>This isn't a story, it's a prompt
Yeah, nothing happens

>>43676105
>E-reader user here
I never realized that. Fellow picture un-noticer

>>43676105
>E-reader user here
i take it the faded text in probably not just looked like normal text?

>>43676004
oh yeah. i should probably also talk about the other fics i read too.
>synthetic blood
i agree with what pretty much everyone else is saying. this just isn't a story. there's lots of potential for a story here, but as it is, it just isn't a story. it's barely even horror too.
>probably not
i liked this one a lot.
>spooky anomaly happens to twilight
is a tried and true genre, and this is a good example of it. the specific happenings were appropriately spooky, and progressed well.
i think it pulled the ending off well enough, although it's probably the least interesting part of the fic. i still wouldn't change it much. recontextualizing horror vagueisms into someone who just sucks at communicating is hilarious.
i agree that it probably would have benefitted from being longer, but i don't think it needed to be longer. it's fine as is, it just could have been even better.
>entry, diary, stars
didn't read.

Might I suggest the Star Wars Holiday Special for inspiration? It's like an out of body experience. I could write Pinkie for days.

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>>43676304
>I think I'm glad I read them in the wrong order though.
Obviously I am going to disagree since I'd pretty comfortably put 649 as my favorite fic this week (and the only one to actually go to Favorites), but this is the Lovecraft thing again. 649 is really good cosmic horror, which unfortunately is a genre you don't especially like (to put it mildly). That's why I'm going to take what you said as really high praise for the story.
>>much better journal entries in my opinion
I wouldn't say they're bad (there was only one bad fic this week), but they're so much blander. The style of 649+Diary is really sharp and confident in the character voice. Probably Not was twilight'y, but not nearly as twilight'y in prose as the other two. And imo that clarity of character voice is a big part of what sets apart great journal-style fics from the rest.
>this one was my fav
Oh wow. You really, really liked it. I'd rank them:
- 649 > Diary > Stars > Probably Not > Rain Party >>> Synthetic Blood
With the caveat that Rain Party with a different ending would be around Stars (better/worse depending on the execution of this hypothetical alt ending).

>>43676311
Yeah, I wouldn't mind it, either!
As always, suggestions are welcome, and I'll try to find some options tomorrow. Expect a vote-post around this time tomorrow. That's kind of late, but oh well.

>>43676351
>than Rarity walking out to sea or whatever
The "or whatever" is doing a lot of work in your post. FS's ending is more gory, but the inevitability of 649's was more chilling to me. I also disagree with the diary thing. FS is pretty much never in control, in the "crazy cultist" mode since the first animal slaughter, but Rarity stays mostly innocent to the end, fighting something that she (as she soon discovers) already knows she can't fight. That exactly is the scary part of it. It operates on a psychological horror + cosmic horror angle compared to the disturbing gore of Diary.
>supposed to have pictures
In one comment the author said that the pics were blank space; this was a hack to have empty chapters. So we're not actually losing content here.

>>43676460
No, that renders properly. 95% of text formatting nonsense carries over to the epub format without an issue. Occasionally authors may do something with font colors that doesn't work 1:1, but even then, it tries to approximate them in grayscale.

>>43676486
>is hilarious.
I don't love the ending, but I do like that it wasn't the secret plan of niggermen to get out like Twianon said. That's such a low-hanging fruit. And like I said earlier, to me it doesn't have the Rain Party issue of the "pony" ending ruining the horror.

Make up some ideas for a fic now

>>43676679
There's a large Farmer's convention going on somewhere and Applejack is taking some of Sweet Apple Acres's best produce there.
Minor adventure as she has to protect her precious cargo all the way until reaching the town.
You can throw in any other Apple Family member you want.

>>43676702
Is she trying to purchase a farming monorail

>>43676709
Gotta get those funds somehow.
Pimping Big Mac to Ponyvillians only gets you so much.

>>43676653
>Star Wars Holiday Special
I've never been able to watch the whole thing. I've sat down to watch it more than once, and I just can't. I can't make it through.

>>43676714
>Pimping Big Mac to Ponyvillians
So that's why there are so many earth pony foals with unusual strength all around town...

>>43676105
>Elaborate pls!
Well, there are gags like the last entry in #649 ostensibly meaning to have #666, or "but what happened to the possum" in Dear Diary, but overall the author was eager to interact on the correct solution with the commenters.
From there we see there is an exact interpretation, though it is not in the actual text, that Twilight was meat, that Fluttershy was sire (and not seed), and the third thing yet unwritten would be about seed.
Not sure if it counts a second meaning, depends on your interpretation of #649, but it's canon.
There's also a bit of sloppiness like "lives on Fluttershy's hooves" that the author had to elaborate on. Turns out the other life is the father of the unborn child that Fluttershy ran off from after the miscarriage and what, he died from it somehow?
All in all that vagueness led to a lot of loose ends that the auther felt the need to pick up, and that's a decision, of course.
It is much more effective though when you can think about things logically and figure out that Fluttershy couldn't really put the whole Dash inside of her and had to chop her strategically for that.

>a point of much contention
I disagree with >>43676044 slightly. The end of the world resolved as play-pretend works for me, and I understand it may not work for others.
Yet, I fully agree with >>43676037 , after about 60% of the story there was a handful of endings to choose from and play-pretend is the best out of them.

>I am not sure there is more to develop here.
If we treat it as a vignette about an oppressive subjective horror, there is to develop if it's substantiated or not.
If it is, we're in a well-trodden territory that hinges on the execution.
If it is not, there can't be any resolution by definition, but there will be echoes of this episode which are very worth a look.

>>43676351
>all of the blank chapters were supposed to have pictures that are dead links lmaoooo
These were supposed to be blank images, so nothing of value has been lost.
If anything, it's creepier now, though in a cyberpunk way, not in lovecraftian though.

>What a bad decision.
This whole unprobability world if the author wanted somehow to switch from horror to a happy end would have benefit from being treated like a world.
For example, an 'Inverted World' scenario of a bubble of negative probability or a negaworld with its own laws would have been so cool.

>>43675959
I'll be delighted to read another batch, post about it in the right time and discuss it with you fellow scholar niggers.

>>43676803
I don't see why you dislike "Apple Bloom dies too" as an ending. I think that would be far better than what the story actually does. It would make the atmosphere actually mean something. As it is, the ending makes the story feel pointless. We learn that the CMCs were just playing the whole time, but we never get the entertainment of watching them play. It's just disappointing.

It would have been so easy to do better:
>It was something big and it was inside.
>"Apple Bloom?"
>Apple Bloom stayed perfectly still, keeping the covers over her head, hoping that she wouldn't be noticed.
>"It's me, Applejack. Your sister." Apple Bloom shivered. The voice was hoarse and unnatural, like it came from something that wasn't a throat.
>There were more steps, heavy ones, unsteady, as if the creature making them were unbalanced. The voice croaked, "I know you're here. It's all right. You're not in any trouble."
>The hoofsteps stopped in front of Apple Bloom's sleeping bag.
>"Everything's fine. Just come outside. I need you to look into the clouds."

>>43676920
Frankly, it's boring.
We all will die.
We all will die ultimately alone, no matter how many people are surrounding us at the moment.
Death is an intimate business.

I treat the text as a brooding overdramatic description of a boring day during which there was a nasty rain, all games were boring and there was nothing for CMCs to do except to safely scare themselves until it's time to go home.
It's kind of like "the floor is lava" but "the rain is made by Umbrella corp".

Indeed, what if we play this premise with "the ground is inexplicably magic lava"?
It will play out almost the same, except for the partially infected by the zombie rain angle.

>>43676951
Boring is better than stupid.

>>43676959
Personally I disagree as boring is anthithetical to why I read fiction.
However, it's indeed better to be rich and healthy than poor and frail, it's better for a fic to be clever and entertaining rather than boring and stupid.
Alas, there are so many 'Whom The Princesses Would Destroy'.

>>43676920
If you knew the CMC were playing from the start, there would be no suspense. By keeping that info until the end, you get to experience how real a game of make-believe is from a child's perspective.
I think the picture it paints is more interesting with that ending. "Let's ration out food like they do in that one comic book. What if the rain made scribble crazy codes? I saw that in a book one time." And is it still above an "but it was all dream" ending because it still happened, in a sense. We just got a narrator that was being fantastical instead of literal.

did fimfic delete a bunch of accounts or what I tried to log in and reset my password on an account I have not used in over a year and nothing so I went to try making an account and now you faggots want me to join a d*cksword to even make an account?

>>43677010
You're checking the wrong email address. People always check the wrong email address. If your account really is gone, well, Discord lets you make a burner account. You can have a Fimfiction account in like five minutes of effort (not counting time spent waiting for knighty to reply) and without compromising your anonymity.

>>43677001
"It was all pretend" really isn't that different from "it was all a dream." Both of them say that everything we just read was pointless. How can there possibly be an ending more disappointing than "it was all pointless"?

>>43677026
how am I checking the wrong email if I searched my emails and the only email I have was sent to that email please have slightly more confidence in me anon I was spending the whole day switching everything to new emails and organizing things and no d*cksword is asking for phone numbers and IDs now if you try making burners which does that not defeat the whole reason I am being forced to use a d*cksword now if I could make a burner? that being said I tried getting a reset email and one never came and yes I checked spam it is just all so convoluted imo

>>43677050
only email from fimfic was sent to that email*

Stepping over diaperfags, futafags and other illiterate niggers, let's continue.

>>43677048
The crucial difference is that the dream experience is passive.
It just happens, it may be influenced by this or that, but ultimately it's dream logic that governs it.

Play-pretend is an active self-delusion.
The player chooses to interpret things this or that way, there is an innate logic, unless the narrator is an absolute schizo.

We can't in good conscience analyze a dream, but we can analyze a game.

>>43677050
Are you in one of those countries where Discord requires ID now? I can make a burner with no ID or verification or anything like that, but I think that's not allowed in some countries.

I assume you know your old account name. You should be able to look yourself up on Fimfiction if you search by user. Can you find yourself?

Also, you should try to learn about punctuation.

>>43677094
Except for the ending, there's nothing in the story that distinguishes it from a dream. Nor is there anything that distinguishes it from reality. There's nothing to analyze. Nothing in the story gives us any insight into what the CMCs are thinking while they play. And we know that for a fact because of the author's note.

>>43677098
Murica is in a weird limbo where d*cksword is basically pushing it on its own because some states are forcing it already. I tried looking myself up and found nothing, but I 100% have an account creation email and used it to read a few things a while back. If it is gone it is gone I figured I would ask if there was some kind of purge and bring up the account creation stuff being convoluted because I am frustrated idk.

>>43677127
There was an account purge, but it was intended to only delete bots. If you wrote stories, or blogs, or made bookshelves, or left comments, then you shouldn't have been purged. If you did none of those, then maybe you were caught by it. In that case, all you can do is make a burner Discord account.

>>43677137
Yeah, I only made one to read nsfw stuff so that is unfortunately what must of happened.

>>43677147
You don't need an account to read NSFW stories. Just go to your settings and check "View Mature". It's a per-browser setting, nothing to do with your account.

>>43677124
I disagree in general, but agree in particulars.
The play-pretend angle could have been played with much better.
A/N supports my feeling from reading, the author was in search of the ending rather than had "wow, what disturbing games can fillies play when they have no Sims to drown the whole family in pool in".
But in general I disagree, there is much that differentiates "it's a dream" from "it's a play-pretend". The latter is much more examinable, but puts a higher load on the author.

>>43677163
Are you discussing a hypothetical story about pretend play? I think that could be good, but it's hypothetical. I'm focused just on Rain Party. I don't think Rain Party has anything in it to examine. The "higher load" that you bring up is real, and this author failed.

>>43677171
Yes, I'm sperging about
>"It was all pretend" really isn't that different from "it was all a dream."
I claim it is materially different.

Regarding 'Rain Party', I liked it the most out of this bunch, but I can see why you deem it unfit.
It is not a superbly made story.

>>43677149
I had planned to maybe get into writing too, but that is good to know, thanks.

>>43677197
I have to stick with my previous opinion. A story with an "it was pretend" twist ending is not materially different from an "it was a dream" twist ending. A story could consciously make use of the fact that something is pretend in a way that's not a twist ending. It could have a frame that sets up pretend sections or have meta moments or lots of other things. Those could be good. I don't think an "it was pretend" twist ending can be.

>>43675959
I wanna read and club Clean Slate but I won't have time next week, so it would be cool if you guys started Of the Hive for now

>>43675959
I wanna read and club Clean Slate but I won't have time next week, so it would be cool if you guys stayed with the horror one-shots or started Of the Hive for now

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>>43675286
You made it to the box.
'grats.

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I'll take 4th place in the M box.

In related news, I don't think I'm winning that horror contest. One of the reviewers thought "The story was great" but gave it a 5/10 because he didn't like the formatting of the scene breaks. And I thought I was being harsh with the Daring reviews.

>review https://www.fimfiction.net/story/458049/cease-desist

4.5/10. An OC writes a Daring Do book and she has to go and C&D him. This is another of those "oh, that was a reference to another fic" stories and is a prequel to the Smoke and Mirrors one. Like its successor, it's kind of boring and not all that funny. Can't really be SoL, either, since this is an OC and he's got a pretty boring life as it is.

>end

>review https://www.fimfiction.net/story/454141/daring-do-and-the-exotic-aquatic-temple

4/10. Daring and Spitfire explore an underwater ruin and have sex. I don't know why I read this. I guess I figured I'd try out an anthro pornfic because I was hitting everything else. It was interesting how much the clothes and nudity factored in compared to >full hooves. Daring's outfit was only really a part of the inflation/fattening fics where its destruction showed how fat she was getting. Here, the entire first half the fic is dedicated to them getting stripped nude for the sex. The sex itself seemed pretty bog standard. Didn't even really seem much different from the full hooves versions I've seen. There were just more fingers getting shoved into folds.

>>43675953
>/FSBC/
I didn't read any of the others, but I will die on the hill that Rain Party is the best horror oneshot on Fimfiction. It's the only one that stands out to me and I remember years later thanks to the unique and very pony-like ending I guess the horror tag waives that for some people for some reason. Take it out or pull a double subversion and it just fades into another one of the hundreds of confusing, bleak "what's going on/what the fuck was the weather team thinking?" end of the world magic monster fics that has plagued the horror tag since 2011.

>>43676679
>Dash files the wrong weather form and now has to figure out what to do with eighty tons of acid rain.
>Twilight files the wrong form with the Canterlot Archives and now has a ten thousand year old dark magic book to add to the Treebrary's catalog.
>AJ files the wrong form with the Planning Commission and now has to build a two hundred foot water slide.
>Rarity files the wrong form with her fabric supplier and now has a hundred square yards of white fabric after Labor Day. How dreadful.
>Pinkie files the wrong form with the Bureau of Runes, Taffies, and Staring Contests and has to rope Fluttershy into a taffy eating contest.
>Fluttershy files the wrong form with the Wildlife Service and now has to put on a vaudeville show with her squirrels to prove they're not rabid.

>>43678598
Thanks!

>>43678555
Higurashi reference?

>>43676959
So you choose to have it be both boring and stupid, instead of even attempting to be clever or fun?

>>43675786
I just wanted to maximize their time on the front page is all.

>>43675946
Thank you, I hope you enjoy the other chapters. That story works well with the commissioner wanting cute moreso than anything else, for the most part. With that story, I'm most constrained by staying within the word budget, but I think I do a good job; that happens to be the longest chapter in the story so far.

>>43667214
This was cute, very goofy little one shot. Not sure why it's not marked Teen though, I was expecting it to get a bit more explicit.

What is the age of consent in equestria?