Ponyfic Roundup 264b: Feghoot winners, part 1

NB 11 Feb 23: This was originally numbered 264, but I only recently discovered that I numbered the previous Roundup 264 as well. To avoid a huge amount of renumbering, I have decided to list them as 264a and 264b from now on.

Read it Later story count: 236 (-3)

The Fimfiction Feghoot Festival contest that Super Trampoline ran recently was quite a success, with something like 60 entries in the end. Of those, the large panel of judges (about 30 of them!) chose 11 as worthy of note: five runners-up, three honourable mentions and then the "medallists" (my term). Today, I'll be looking at the runners-up; I'll get to the other six soon. In reverse order of their placing, today we have:

11th: The (Second) Rise and Fall of the Storm King by TheDriderPony
10th: Rarity Dreams of Non-Electric Sheep by Kris Overstreet
9th: Here I am at Camp Sonata by TheDriderPony
8th: What About Mistmane? by bahatumay
7th: Sugarless Gumption by FanOfMostEverything

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

The (Second) Rise and Fall of the Storm King by TheDriderPony
Mane Six, Storm King and OCs
Comedy; 6k words; Jul 2019; Everyone

Even the mightiest can be toppled by a bad enough pun. The Storm King learns this the hard way.

We start off with one of the contest's rare movie-based fics. A point for that, and another one for this being a multi-chapter effort. Less of a point for a "British" character with an accent that was quite painful for this actual Brit to read. (I mean, "Stormy Boyo"???) He could be Ragamuffin in disguise, I suppose. There are mini-feghoots at the close of each chapter, and actually I felt the one after the first was not only very good but better than the rather clunky pun at story's end. Pigs play a significant role, and Napoleon and Snowball are amusing name choices for these hammy characters. Overall, a fun read, perhaps slightly lacking in polish here and there and let down a bit by that ending. A top-end two. ★★

Rarity Dreams of Non-Electric Sheep by Kris Overstreet
Rarity
Comedy/Random; 1k words; Jun 2019; Everyone

Luna does not actually appear in this songfic.

A much shorter tale here, and in fact the story part of it is even shorter, as the final feghoot is expanded to a multi-verse parody of a very popular (non-MLP) song. As long as you recognise its inspiration, it's pretty clever, though if you don't you may be left very confused. (There's another, much shorter, song parody earlier that I loved.) The main problem here is that, in a fic this brief, there's very little room left for any actual story. The long description's "Rarity describes her most recent nightmare to her friends in song form" is about the size of it. Also, this fic reminded me that American English spells "chaise longue" wrong. :P This gets a three from me because I am impressed with the extended parody. ★★★

Here I am at Camp Sonata by TheDriderPony
Scootaloo, Sonata Dusk and OCs
Comedy/Random; 1k words; Jul 2019; Everyone

Scootaloo sends a voicemail home about her terrible time at camp

Another fic by this author! Despite its inspiration, which is gently used in the story itself, this one isn't a songfic, even partially. It's pretty amusing, and the use of voicemail mostly gets around the "letter doesn't sound like a letter" problem we see all too often. (It's still long for that format.) Scootaloo is pretty convincing, too. But... is this really a feghoot? The ending puns seem rather highbrow for that. I'm embarrassed to admit that the other reason I can't give this more than a high two is that I simply didn't get some of those jokes. I got the theme and still didn't work them all out. If you get the lot and find them funny, add a star. Oh, and kirin fans should keep their eyes open. ★★

What About Mistmane? by bahatumay
Rockhoof and Mistmane
Slice of Life; 2k words; Jun 2019; Everyone

Rockhoof teaches his students something fascinating about fellow Pillar of Old Equestria Mistmane.

Here we have Rockhoof teaching the School of Friendship students, or more accurately rambling on and on about his past exploits. He's nicely characterised here, as are the Young Six. The tale has some amusing moments along the way, starting with Smolder's excitement at the possibility of violence in Rockhoof's tales and proceeding from there. The pun at the end is not exactly original in concept, but it is funny. At least, it is to me. The first story here to literally make me giggle out loud. Mistmane isn't all that memorable – but then she isn't in canon either, so it's hard to fault the fic for that. ★★★

Sugarless Gumption by FanOfMostEverything
Pinkie (pony), Pinkie (EqG), Sunset Shimmer and Mane Seven (EqG)
Equestria Girls/Comedy/Slice of Life; 4k words; Jun 2019; Teen

Rainbow Dash makes another ill-advised wager, but this time it's Pinkie who has to put her munchies where her mouth is.

Once again, I have to admit ignorance: I don't understand the (presumed) references in either the fic's main title or its chapter title. Sigh. Thankfully, the story itself is great fun. FOME really makes hay out of the contrasts between CHS-world and Equestria, and the Pinkies are handled excellently: I don't think I've seen the "two characters who are the same but not quite" concept done this well since Perfect for Me (PR 19). There's a little mild meta that doesn't break the story, there's at least one S1 reference... there's even a mention of custard! There is one place where I thought of something the characters apparently didn't, and actually though more than serviceable I didn't feel the ending pun was outstandingly good. But the story is entertaining and lively enough in its own right that I enjoyed this the most overall out of today's batch. ★★★★

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Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: more feghoots!