Ponyfic Roundup 152: The Native Hue of Resolution

Read it Later story count: 452 (-6)

Time for another bunch of stories featuring ponies. Yes, I know this will come as a shock to some of you, but I'm afraid I'm not going to budge where that's concerned. If you want to read about a cute family of aardvarks who accidentally discover something nasty in the termite mound then you're just going to have to do so elsewhere. There's a colourful theme to this week's titles:

The Star in Yellow by Blueshift
Pink Pegasus by AnnonyMouse
White Day by allykitty
What Happened to the Orange Frog? by LordSmokedMeatsandFishes
Blue by Pastel Pony

Legend of the Lavender Alicorn by Grenazers

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

The Star in Yellow by Blueshift
Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Spike, Celestia and OC
Dark; 30k words; Dec 2011–Jul 2012; Teen

Twilight finds a book that drives you mad if you read it

Loosely based on a 19th-century book, this Royal Guard-inducted tale actually turns out to be something of a commentary on fanfiction itself. Despite its great age, it still does this rather well, especially with the main OC. It's difficult to say a lot without spoiling this, as in several ways it doesn't go where you might expect. Indeed, Blueshift himself has added quite a long A/N to the end as a separate chapter, and that's definitely worth reading. The story might have had a [Horror] tag today, though its chills are fairly gentle compared with some. There's a fair amount of humour, as you might expect given the author – perhaps even a little too much later on. Inevitably, it's been overtaken by canon in a couple of places, not least in some of Twilight's attitudes, but I don't think that stops it from being a thought-provoking and in some ways rather unsettling look at Ponyville – and at fanfic writers. I wavered between three and four stars, but the ending pushes it above the line. Also, now I can finally watch the Rainbow Dash Presents version of this! ★★★★

Pink Pegasus by AnnonyMouse
Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash
Comedy; 1k words; May–Aug 2012; Teen

Pinkie Pie + Red Pegasus (Red Bull) = Nuff said

As someone who long ago wrote a story about Pinkie and energy drinks, I couldn't pass this one up. There's not really much more to it than "Pinkie is literally given wings", but it's fun for a while. Unfortunately it's a bit of a mess later on, with annoying narrator intrusion. Just about a two, for the premise. ★★

White Day by allykitty
Rainbow Dash and Moondancer
Romance/Slice of Life; 3k words; Mar 2017; Everyone

Rainbow Dash asks Moondancer for book recommendations after they both reach for the same book.

This is the first RainDancer(?) shipfic I've read, and using books as the mutual interest is fair enough. What lets it down is the breakneck pace, with Dash discovering "attraction out of nowhere" (that's a direct quote) and the ponies going from barely knowing each other at the start to hints of a rather un-E-rated future together by the end. Two stars because the setup itself does intrigue me. ★★

What Happened to the Orange Frog? by LordSmokedMeatsandFishes
Other, Twilight and Pinkie Pie
Comedy/Random; 9k words; Jul 2013; Everyone

Remember that poor frog that was turned into an orange? Whatever happened to it?

This story is set during "Too Many Pinkie Pies", and indeed it intersects with the episode's canon events from time to time. However, this is done from the point of view of the post-transformed frog. It's absolutely ridiculous, with absurdity piled upon absurdity, and that's what kept me reading. While the humour is uneven and I don't really understand what's behind some of the names (Raleigh? Michigan? famous fictional frogs, duh!), it just doesn't let up and I really did want to find out what was going to happen. Almost impossible to rate sensibly, but ★★★.

Blue by Pastel Pony
Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash and OC
Sad/Slice of Life; 3k words; Jan 2014; Everyone

I hung a picture of Rainbow Dash and me on my wall today. My mother cried.

Ah... this one had a particular effect on me for personal reasons that would be spoilery, so bear that in mind. (PM me, eg through Fimfiction, if you're curious.) We quickly discover that Scoots lives with non-abusive parents, which makes a change. However, her mum seems unable to deal with the appearance of Rainbow Dash in her daughter's life. I tend to agree with PaulAsaran in the fic's comments that the pace is too fast for the emotions on display, and for some people that might make the read less satisfying – but parts of this one hit me hard, so it's getting an easy three from me. ★★★

Legend of the Lavender Alicorn by Grenazers
OCs and Twilight [sort of]
Alternate Universe; 3k words; Oct 2013; Everyone

Long ago Equestria was almost destroyed by a large, monstrous beast. When everything else failed to stop the beast, it was a lone lavendar mare that finally defeated the creature.

The framing device here is a future school trip to a museum, although it's disappointingly similar to a present-day one. The real story is the legend told at that museum, which is – of course – the story of Twilight Sparkle. The first half of that is a plain retelling of her life up to her ascension; the second half is the story of a battle against a terrible Canterlot-invading beast. The storytelling style is unfortunately dull, even for the fight scenes, while there are enough basic technical errors to be distracting. ★

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Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: the last PR before we break up for Easter will be a Coco Pommel Edition!