Well, Mrs Miggins, at last we can return to sanity. The hustings are over, the bunting is down, the mad hysteria is at an end. After the chaos of a general election, we can return to normal. Assuming, of course, that by "normal" you mean getting back to reading about the manifold strange deeds of pastel-coloured ponies. Five short fics reviewed this week, and they are:
The Writing on the Wall by Horse Voice
Rarity Has a Book on Her Head by Majin Syeekoh
I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Closer-To-The-Sun
The Dragon's Riddle by horizon
Buck that! Bleep this. by Noble Thought
The Writing on the Wall by Horse Voice
Daring Do, OCs and Other
Dark/Adventure; 6K words; Aug–Nov 2012; Teen
Daring Do joins a mission to explore an extraordinarily ancient tomb, but beneath the ground lurks terrible danger. This starts out as a straightforward (though very readable) story of the sort you'd expect from a Daring Do story. That Dark tag is earned later. Horse Voice plays tough with the reader, but plays fair: you could work out what's going on before the (memorable) ending, but I only caught the hints on a re-read. I'm not entirely sold on the main villain's part, and might have preferred the story without them. Certainly recommended, though. ★★★★
Rarity Has a Book on Her Head by Majin Syeekoh
Rarity and Twilight
Random; 1K words; May 2015; Everyone
Twilight goes to help Rarity with a dress fitting and realises that... well, see title. This is a very, very strange and silly story. One or two little bits of tense shifting, and the final line is rather awkward, but it will probably give you at least a brief chuckle. It did me. ★★★
I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Closer-To-The-Sun
Twilight and Fluttershy
Sad; 2K words; Jul 2013; Everyone
Twilight pays a visit to Fluttershy, but finds the cottage empty and the pegasus in tears. I don't find either pony's voice especially convincing, there are a couple of sloppy errors (eg "past away") and starting the fic with "Celestia's sun" doesn't really help. It's not awful, but it's entirely predictable. This was written for a friend of the writer – and it rather shows. For the general reader, this doesn't hold an awful lot. ★★
The Dragon's Riddle by horizon
OCs
Slice of Life; 1K words; Oct 2014; Teen
The ancient Age of Dragons is at an end, and the race's leader challenges other creatures to see if they are worthy to rule the land. I love almost everything about this fable of past times: the world-building in particular. To create such a rich and evocative setting in barely a thousand words is deeply impressive. The dragon's name irritates me very slightly, but this is a clever, enjoyable and very well written short fic that is worth a few minutes of anybody's time. ★★★★★
Buck that! Bleep this. by Noble Thought
Applejack, Apple Bloom, Big Mac and Discord
Comedy/Slice of Life; 2K words; Apr 2014; Teen
Big Mac is protective of Apple Bloom, so tries to protect his little sister from Applejack's *bleep*ing language. I don't really get the point of this story: it's mildly amusing, but seems to be a one-note joke continued for almost 2,000 words. There's one hair-raising typo ("slaked" for "slackened") but otherwise the writing is decent. It's just that the story doesn't click with me. ★★
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