Ponyfic Roundup 223: Con Crud Edition

Read it Later story count: 297 (-1)

The title is pretty self-explanatory this week! As you'll know if you've been reading my UK PonyCon posts, I had an excellent time at the convention. However, the eternal curse of these gatherings has struck me with a vengeance. Hopefully it will only last a few days, but for now it's tough going. Here are this week's three fics:

Living Forever... by Whateverdudezb
Pinkie's Secret Place by M_D_Quill
Be by OleGrayMane

★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.

Living Forever... by Whateverdudezb
Twilight, Celestia and Mane Six
Comedy/Slice of Life; 4k words; Nov 2014; Everyone

A (not really) sad story about Twilight (somewhat) lamenting the (supposed) deaths of her friends.

Who are, of course, not actually dead at all. The reason for Twilight apparently believing they are is revealed a fair way through the story, and I rather like this reveal, which seems like something the S4-era Twi might have done. There are also some fun touches: Pinkie's reasoning about her nature is hilarious. The ending is slightly unusual, too. The fic falls down on two counts. One is that it's very overwritten: we get lines like "One such pony that deigned to do so was the lavender alicorn that stoically..." you get the idea. Linked to this is an irritating amount of LUS. The other is that this turns out to be "part of [the author's] Tutelary Spirit universe", but there is no indication of this before the closing A/N; authors doing this always irritates me. I now wonder whether I've missed something significant as a result. Might well have been a three with these issues tidied up. ★★

Pinkie's Secret Place by M_D_Quill
Pinkie and Mane Six
Random/Human; 1k words; Jul 2012; Everyone

Pinkie needed to do something for her friends, so she took them to her Sepcial [sic] Place

A title to be wary of, but thankfully this is simply E-rated silliness. There's little actual substance to this fic, and you'll see where it's going very early on. It's also not one for those who dislike meta of the sort that was common back in those far-off days. Allowing for its age, Pinkie is fairly amusing, while her friends are quite well characterised. Nothing very memorable happens, though, and the ending is a bit of a let-down. ★★

Be by OleGrayMane
Fluttershy and Twilight
Slice of Life; 2k words; Oct 2013; Everyone

Fluttershy waits for a friend in a meadow. A vignette for autumn where nothing happens.

The author's short description pretty much nails what this is. A gentle, reflective piece that suits Fluttershy's place as its protagonist very well. I particularly like the ending, which seems very 'Shy. I'm not so sure about the delay in naming Flutters' friend, which quickly becomes awkward and is anyway pointless if you've read the character tags. Still, it's a nice character piece once the two do get together. ★★★

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Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: stories reviewed should include Cherax's Sundowner Season.