Ponyfic Roundup 140: Best Filly Edition

Read it Later story count: 479 (-9)

Time for a Roundup dealing solely in stories (eight of them) featuring my second-favourite pony. It seems she didn't have a tag of her own here – that has now been changed! One omission I haven't been able to fix (yet) is the absence from PR of ocalhoun's Scootafic One in a Million. I wanted to include it in this edition, but I simply ran out of reading time. It remains high on my to-read list and will certainly be reviewed in the next few months. Here's what I did manage:

Foundations by PaulAsaran
A Taste of the Good Life by Eakin
Autumn's End by Martian
Best Young Flyer by bookplayer
Scooterloo by PonyManne215
My Only Sunshine by Queen of Everything
Mothers by KnightMysterio
One Awesome Mom by moguera

★: 2 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 4 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0

Foundations by PaulAsaran
Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash
Slice of Life; 9k words; Oct 2014; Everyone

A big change is coming. For Scootaloo, it's a sign that all the good things in her life are about to go away. Everypony says she's looking at it in the wrong way, yet the only pony who can ease her mind is the one she can't talk to.

I saw where this was going quite early on, which made the story's (apparently deliberate) evasiveness about what was happening a little irritating. Even so, it's quite a nice (and now [AU]) look at change and growth in the relationship between Scoots and Rainbow. My favourite part was a chat between Dash and Fluttershy, who is very satisfyingly written. A strong three. ★★★

A Taste of the Good Life by Eakin
Scootaloo and OCs
Romance/Slice of Life; 71k words; Sep–Nove 2013; Teen

A down-on-his-luck chef from Manehattan moves to the rural town of Ponyville as part of a get-rich-quick scheme. But he gets a bit more than he bargained for.

One of the more original takes on Scootaloo living alone, this fic's strongest point is the relationship between central character Main Course and Scoots herself: if you want Scootalove, here it is. As the Teen rating suggests, though, it's more complicated than that, and the other main OC is a very interesting character. Of the canon ponies, Rarity is particularly good: you'll cheer for her more than once. There's a surely deliberate episode parallel that's surprisingly not highlighted, but the fic's main problem is the absence of the sequel (or at least extended epilogue) it's crying out for. That leaves a background but significant character hanging in a way that just doesn't ring true and stops this quite managing a four-star rating, but it's still a high three and will reward the read. ★★★

Autumn's End by Martian
Scootaloo
Slice of Life; 1k words; Oct 2012; Everyone

A little story of joy found in fallen autumn leaves.

There's not much to this, and it's a little overwritten in places, but I identified with Scoots' trip into the woods here. If you've ever had a place you go that's special to you, even if it's nothing much to others, you will too. This one left me with a smile on my face, which sneaks it into the threes. ★★★

Best Young Flyer by bookplayer
Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash
Comedy/Romance; 33k words; Jun–Oct 2012; Teen

Scoot trains with Dash to be Best Young Flyer, but could something more develop?

One: this was written before "Sleepless in Ponyville" aired. Two: Scootaloo is an adult. Three: she has sex with Rainbow one chapter in. If you can't cope with that, bail out now. If you can stick with it, though, this is very much worth the read. It's not particularly deep, and the comedy isn't of the laugh-out-loud type very often, but it's leagues ahead of most sex comedies around here. (It should surely have a [Sex] tag; did that not exist in 2012?) Scootaloo's job as a junior flight trainer is very nicely portrayed and there's another good Fluttershy supporting role. Minor but nice thing: the narrative uses "Scoot" and "Dash" almost throughout, which keeps the pace up. The ending isn't quite as interesting as I thought it was going to be, but nevertheless this is recommended. I really didn't think I'd like a fic with this setup so much, so I'm rather impressed. ★★★★

Scooterloo by PonyManne215
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle
Adventure/Slice of Life; 1k words; Apr 2012; Everyone

Scootaloo is made fun of for not having her Cutie Mark. She has no friends and is alone in her life.

Before you do as I did and go "Huh?" at that description: this is set before "Call of the Cutie". Scoots' parents have left her for what seem to be very thin reasons, and she's sort-of looked after by her usually-absent Royal Guard big brother. It's just not very interesting, a problem compounded by... well, an example: there's a knock on Scoots' door. So she gets out of bed, washes her face, brushes her teeth, combs her mane, looks in the mirror and only then answers the door. Um. ★

My Only Sunshine by Queen of Everything
Scootaloo and OC
Sad; 3k words; Sep 2012; Everyone

A mother's job is to protect her foal's life, even If it means loosing her own.

Scootaloo is separated from her mother on a winter walk by a tree fall. Her mother looks for her, increasingly desperately, as the snow falls. The writing is really purple (sample: "the white noise of wind through the forest of blank pillars") which is a shame, as there's the germ of a fairly good sadfic in here somewhere. It's also a shame that any real emotion the ending might provide is drained by the use of full song lyrics for a lullaby. Plus it has one of my pet peeves: "defiantly" being used for "definitely". Grr. ★

Mothers by KnightMysterio
Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash and Gilda
Slice of Life; 9k words; Jan 2012; Teen

Scootaloo asks Rainbow Dash a shocking question, one which causes her to start questioning herself.

We get to the question almost immediately, so it's no spoiler for me to say that it's to ask Dash whether she'll take part in the Mother's Day games with her. (Because Scoots is, guess what, an orphan.) The story then concentrates on Rainbow's feelings, and I like that she goes to see Gilda as well as her own dad – who's okay, apart from some annoying exposition dialogue. We even eventually meet Fluttershy's mother, who is... not quite what she eventually proved to be in canon. This fic does show its age in several places, and Pinkie's characterisation is one-dimensional even for 2012. A reasonable two in the end, but probably only for committed "orphan Scoots" fans these days. ★★

One Awesome Mom by moguera
Scootaloo, Derpy, Dinky, Mane Six and Other
Alternate Universe/Slice of Life; 7k words; Jul 2014; Everyone

Scootaloo's mom comes home for a visit. Why doesn't Scootaloo want anypony to know?

A refreshing family setup here: Scoots lives with Auntie Ditzy (and Dinky). It turns out that her mother is somepony famous, and this is a fun bit of silliness as long as you don't inspect it too hard. We get "I just don't know what went wrong", Dinky being called "Muffin" and the use of "Mare!" as a replacement for "Man!" (I half-wish that had caught on, actually.) I can't make myself credit even pegasi eating fish, though. There's also some LUS, but I smiled at this one. That's worth something – a three, in fact. ★★★

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Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: another mixed bag of fics. Maybe even involving ponies. You never know!