Ponyfic Roundup 270

Read it Later story count: 235 (+2)

I haven't got anything of interest to report this week, so let's get straight on with the stories. There are four of them on the list today, and they are:

The Only Day by naturalbornderpy
Flood by CalebH
The Sauce Must Flow by Majin Syeekoh
A dangerous bet? by Gadgetphile

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

The Only Day by naturalbornderpy
Applejack and OC
Dark/Sad/Tragedy; 5k words; Jun 2015; Everyone

Today is the worst day of my life. Today is the best day of my life. Today is the only day of my life.

On Wednesday 26th, Autumn Paradise starts work at Sweet Apple Acres. The next day, Wednesday 26th, she does so again. And so on. Yes, this is a time skip story, narrated by Applejack in diary form. In a break from common time-skip practice, Autumn ages as the story goes on. I felt the fic got stronger as it went along and diverged from what you might expect from this subgenre, especially the ending. Its main fault is a common one: the diary is far too precise (especially with long stretches of dialogue) and detailed to convince as a diary. ★★★

Flood by CalebH
Big Mac and Sugar Belle
Romance/Slice of Life; 2k words; Jan 2019; Everyone

Big Mac takes a quiet walk with his marefriend as it rains over Sweet Apple Acres.

This is a simple, quiet story, which is a decent fit for Big Mac and Sugar Belle's simple, quiet relationship. There's not a lot to the story, but as the tale goes on we do get a couple of interesting bits of world-building (notably one about Appleoosan weather). There's a more emotional revelation near the end, though S9 has rendered its details non-canon. A fair few typos that could do with proof-reading out, such as "main" for "mane". Probably mostly a fic for those who want to read sweet, simple SugarMac stuff; a high two. ★★

The Sauce Must Flow by Majin Syeekoh
Raindrops, White Lightning and Derpy
Slice of Life; 2k words; Mar 2017; Everyone

Raindrops find an unidentified bottle of something in White Lightning’s fridge. The two of them try to figure out what it is.

If you're thinking, "Who's White Lightning?" then join the club! She's this pegasus, officially named only on merch. Anyway, we have here a mildly amusing SoL that actually comes across as something two ponies like this might do; there's plenty of good dialogue here. The appearance of Muffins (so named) near the end was where it went downhill for me, apart from an apparent reference to Ye Olde Fandomme days when Derpy's fridge was a source of memes. The last few paragraphs depend for their humour on references I had to look up, and that left me a tiny bit disappointed. ★★

A dangerous bet? by Gadgetphile
CMC and OC
Dark/Human; 2k words; Sep 2015; Teen

The cutie mark crusaders are running for their lives.

At the start of this fic, human (but apparently not EqG) Scootaloo turns up at Apple Bloom's place to ask if she can lend her cash to cover "a huge debt". At AB's suggestion, Scoot looks in the classifieds and finds someone offering money to help with an unspecified task. They're quickly in serious danger. Unfortunately, what could be a gripping fic doesn't really work. The twists and turns of the various worrying ways the OC behaves come pretty much out of nowhere, the Crusaders themselves don't feel like their canon selves, and the OC refers to "a couple of other ponies" – so where actually are we? This is the author's only published fic, and they're none too kind on it themselves in the comments. True, it isn't good, but it's still a shame they (apparently) never had another try. ★

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Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: stories reviewed should include Melon Hunter's Special Relativity.