Ponyfic Roundup 235: An Alpine Village Pastor

I find I'm avoiding the real-world news more and more these days and taking refuge in colourful, magical escapism, so maybe that will give me a bit more time to read ponyfic. That's the ideal, at any rate, though something is bound to turn up to ruin it. Still, we'll see how things go.

Read it Later story count: 279 (+1)

Four stories again this week. If I can just get my count up to five a week and keep it there, I'll be very satisfied. They're all short fics again, though I do have a couple of longer tales I'd like to review before too much longer. We'll see how that goes, too, but for now here's what's on offer:

Hoardsmiths by Skywriter
Rainbow Dash and the Feather Flu Vaccine by JapaneseTeeth
The Cipher by Baritone
Transdimensional Zoology by AbsoluteAnonymous

★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 3 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.

Hoardsmiths by Skywriter
OC and Other
Slice of Life; 3k words; Feb 2013; Everyone

They are the Hoardsmiths. And they are completely insane.

And what they do is to make tributes to the local dragon. But not in the way you'd expect from that sentence. In truth, it may be stretching this a little to call it a "story" in the conventional sense, though it reads like one and has the excellent writing you'd expect from Skywriter. It's really more of an allegory, and one with a fairly obvious fandom relevance that holds up even now in 2019, though it's perhaps a little less original than it once was. Whether you appreciate this sort of thing will probably have a large bearing on whether you like the story. I do to some extent, but clever allegories tend to make my brain hurt. As such, a top-end three from me, but others will definitely feel it deserves more. ★★★

Rainbow Dash and the Feather Flu Vaccine by JapaneseTeeth
Rainbow Dash, Twilight and Nurse Redheart
Comedy/Slice of Life; 4k words; Jun 2014; Everyone

Rainbow Dash is required to get vaccinated for Feather Flu before she can enroll in Wonderbolt Academy. Unfortunately, she really really really hates needles.

Not a lot that really needs saying here beyond that description. This is a light, unchallenging comedy that makes for easy tea-break reading. The interplay between the characters is nice and there are some fun callbacks to the show. A good option for when you just want some ponyfic to relax with. ★★★

The Cipher by Baritone
OC
Sad/Slice of Life; 1k words; Apr 2016; Teen

When a colt reflects on his life, he ponders his future and where it all went wrong.

Not exactly a feel-good story, this fic shows the plight of a pony who hasn't found his special talent, and who doesn't appear to be getting much support from his family. Baritone says it was written in an hour for venting purposes and given that it's fairly readable, with the odd interesting idea. However, the author's reason for writing it also causes its problem: it's basically one long complaint, doing no more than scratching the surface of the unfortunate colt's situation. ★★

Transdimensional Zoology by AbsoluteAnonymous
Angel, Winona, Gummy, Opalescence, Owlowiscious [and Tank]
Random/Slice of Life/Alternate Universe; 4k words; May 2012; Everyone

A story about an alternate universe where the pets of the mane six are actual ponies.

This author published their last story on Fimfiction in June 2012, but they left behind some very readable ponyfic. This is an example of the interesting ideas often found in AA's work. What's nice is that the ponified pets don't just take on the personalities of their show-canon owners, but instead keep their own as much as possible. Angel fans like me may be irritated by his portrayal, but I suppose only two months after "Putting Your Hoof Down" it made sense. The fic is bookended by short sections in canon Equestria, which place what lies between in context. ★★★

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Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: stories reviewed should include Friendmaker by Lets Do This.