Ponyfic Roundup 127: More Small Horse!

Big news reported on EQD yesterday: everything but the final, final confirmation of Season Seven of Friendship is Magic! The anonymous quote from Hasbro's PR people doesn't quite come out and say it, but the wording ("Hasbro can confirm that My Little Pony Friendship is Magic is not switching to Netflix for Season 7") is such a strong hint that I would now be very surprised if we didn't get S7. So, assuming there's a 99.9% chance of its happening, when? Who knows?

For now, let's get back to stories that definitely exist. Five of them in the mix today, and unfortunately this wasn't one of the better weeks I've had. Ah well; I loved if every story I read it would be... well, actually it would be great. But it would also make me worry I was trapped in Better Than Life. Onward!

Igniting the Flame of a Rainbow by Rumble
A Stormy Night by Saberking2012
Bar Only the Mind by n
Lyra Beyond the Walls of Sleep by Cynewulf
Rated Arg for Pirates by Aprion

★: 0 | ★★: 4 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0

Igniting the Flame of a Rainbow by Rumble
Rainbow Dash, Soarin, Spitfire, Wonderbolts and Mane Six
Romance/Slice of Life; 35k words; Jan–Jul 2014; Everyone

Soarin feels slightly disheartened at the fact he never got to pay Rainbow back for all she did at the Equestria Games Trials, but now he's found a way to help repay everything she's done for him. What will become of these two?

It was going to take something very special to get me to like a SoarinDash shipfic, and this isn't quite it. The story certainly has its moments – the way Soarin's colleagues in the 'Bolts tease him mercilessly is great – but for the most part it's extremely predictable. Some of the characterisation is rather off (Cadance is surprisingly coarse) and the pacing is weird: Soarin asks if he's going to share Dash's cloud bed way too early. There is some nice phrasing (the final chapter is called "The Ending of Adrenaline") but LUS is pervasive and it's too telly even for me. Dedicated SoarinDashers, sit back and enjoy. The rest of us can probably pass. ★★

A Stormy Night by Saberking2012
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash
Random/Sad/Slice of Life; 1k words; Sep 2016; Everyone

A simple night can change when you have a friend in need. Even something as simple as being there can change a fillies life

I have a huge weakness for FlutterDash friendshipping – and here they're fillies as well, so I was helpless. It's told in first person by a rather odd-sounding Rainbow Dash, and not a lot really happens. It's a very, very simple (but quite cute) scene that's been overly stretched to become a full-length story. It could do with another proofreading pass, as there are a number of small errors. Not a lot really wrong with this; it just doesn't amount to anything much. ★★

Bar Only the Mind by n
Applejack
Adventure/Dark/Random; 2k words; Jun 2012; Teen

Applejack opens a bar. Sort of

From the (only?) one-lettered author comes this really strange dreamscape story. It's one of the few fics I've read that uses tense shifting deliberately, and that combined with other stuff gives it a disorientating, uncomfortable effect that is really quite effective. I'm honestly not sure that I fully understand this fic, so I can't rate it that highly (plus "Applebloom"), but it's like very little else and is definitely worth taking a few minutes for. ★★★

Lyra Beyond the Walls of Sleep by Cynewulf
Lyra and Caramel
Dark; 5k words; Jun 2013; Teen

Lyra has dreams of a Nameless City.

This guy wrote the very good This is a Story You Will Never Read (PR 4) and the superb When the Levee Breaks (PR 49), but this story is a little frustrating. I like the Lyra/Caramel marriage, which I don't think I've seen elsewhere, and the first sentence hooked me – but at times it feels too much like an exercise in writing beautiful prose to the extent that it actively gets in the way of the story. The whole human thing I can just about tolerate, but if only we weren't told so early about the shadows' bipedalism. The other problem is the ending, which is a classic "Is that it?" moment. Still worth reading if you like Lovecraft more than me, but I can't help feeling this could have been so much more. ★★

Rated Arg for Pirates by Aprion
Applejack, Apple Bloom, Big Mac, Granny Smith and Scootaloo
Alternate Universe/Random; 4k words; Sep 2016; Teen

What if the Apple family weren't farmers, but Sky Pirates.

Though this was written before Arrrplejack's appearance in "P.P.O.V.", I was hoping for ridiculous swashbuckling fun, and there is some. It's no The Twilight Enigma (PR 118), but in 4,000 words it was never going to be. Don't expect more than a basic explanation for the Apples' buccaneering careering, and don't expect gentle old Equestria either. There's plenty of death and destruction (at least hinted at) here. My big problem is a horrible scene involving Rarity played for laughs: it's short, but really leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Compared to that, the persistent punctuation errors are unimportant. The story does close quite pleasingly, at least. ★★

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Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: silly theme edition time! In celebration of the (probable) confirmation of S7, I will be reviewing fics with the number 7 in their titles.