Wednesday 17 April 2019

Ponyfic Roundup 246

Read it Later story count: 255 (-5)

Not a lot to say today, so let's get straight to the stories. Three of them for your consideration today. (And I mean "for your consideration" in its straightforward sense, not in its "please give me an Oscar" sense.) Off we go.

Hell on Wheels by SaddleSoapOpera
Forbidden Melodies by Regocomics
We're Eggspecting! by Jay Bear v2

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

Hell on Wheels by SaddleSoapOpera
Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Rarity and Zecora
Drama/Slice of Life; 5k words; Jul 2017; Everyone
Scootaloo’s best chance to fly at last comes at a steep price.
Scootaloo has clearly got desperate about being able to fly, because she's enlisted the help of a very dangerous piece of Equestrian magic – one we've seen in canon. As a result, she is now the proud possessor of vast wings, vast speed – and to go with them, a vast ego. Realising the worrying truth of what's going on, Rainbow and the others try to get through to her, but they succeed only in getting under Scoots' skin. A different approach is called for. The one big surprise (to me, at least) was the way the story ended – I liked it quite a bit, but it does depend on some fairly specific and fairly recent (in 2017) show knowledge to understand some of the reasoning behind it. Scootaloo fans should lap this up, as long as they can deal with the filly behaving like a jerk for quite some time. ★★★

Forbidden Melodies by Regocomics
Octavia, Celestia, Luna and OCs
Drama/Sad/Slice of Life; 10k words; Sep 2014; Teen
Preparations halt when Princess Celestia forbids the playing of the Equestrian national anthem at a concert after a copy of its original is discovered to still exist. Despite her warnings, Octavia Melody endeavors to uncover the truth.
The above description explains the setup pretty well, but one thing you'll also quickly discover is that Octavia is married to a "nocturne" named Steeplechase. It's not explained exactly what a nocturne is, but he seems to be basically a batpony. I rather enjoyed the way that this relationship was treated largely matter-of-factly, with Nocturne's special characteristics only rarely making a difference. Anyone who's read much fanfiction is likely to guess quite early on roughly where the story's heading, but some of the details are still nicely thought out. My biggest problem with this fic was the writing itself: passages like "a rare instance of the always stoic mare tumultuously gobsmacked" abound, especially early on. They really are tiring to get through – and though things do improve noticeably later in the fic, by then the damage has been done. ★★

We're Eggspecting! by Jay Bear v2
Silverstream and Gallus
Romance/Slice of Life; 5k words; Feb 2019; Everyone
Silverstream and her husband Gallus are going to be parents! Everyone is so excited about their egg. Well…almost everyone.
Something I haven't seen before: a story dealing with two of the Young Six but set when they're, well, not so young any more. They're now poised to become the first hippogriff/griffon parental pair for centuries, though that aspect is kept nicely understated for the most part. Gallus is coming to realise some truths about marrying into royalty (Silverstream being Princess Skystar's cousin), but is that the only reason for his behaviour? As many of you will know, I'm a big Y6 fan, and I really enjoyed this slice of married life for the two ex-students. I thought both principals were very well characterised, and their domestic interactions were convincing. The ending was nice, too, being both touching and amusing. Good stuff all round! ★★★★

Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: The largest Martian rock octopus ever to write a novel about broccoli will be giving an exclusive interview to Louder Yay! Either that or I'll be reviewing a few more ponyfics. One or the other.

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