Ponyfic Roundup 278: Stories, stories everywhere

It's been a while since PR has had a themed edition, so here's one! Today, I'm looking at a hoof-ful of stories by Fimfiction's really prolific authors. There are some excellent writers on the site who have over 100 published fics to their name. The Three Figure Club counts as members the likes of Admiral Biscuit, Estee, shortskirtsandexplosions, Impossible Numbers, FanOfMostEverything... the list goes on. But what about the those prolific writers who aren't so prominent, at least to me? That's what today's Ponyfic Roundup is all about!

Read it Later story count: 231 (+1)

I'll be looking at stories by all four of the writers with over 200 published fics to their name, as well as another with a mere 125. I also chose these five because I know very little about any of them; as I said above, there are some prominent people with this many, but those are more likely to get reviewed here anyway. I avoided M-rated fics, as many prolific authors write a whole bunch of clopfics and I didn't feel in the mood. (I do have one or two M-rated fics fairly near the top of my RiL list, though, so don't worry if you do enjoy finding out about those!)

Care by TwistedCupcake
Boring Equestria by Bendy
The Ballerina and the Figurine by Ponyess
One Minute with a Ghost by Michael Hudson
Applejack Robs a Bank by Some Leech

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

Care by TwistedCupcake (stories published: 440)
Twilight and Pinkie Pie
Slice of Life, 1k words; Sep 2016; Everyone

Twilight hugs Pinkie Pie

The undisputed champion story-publisher of Fimfiction first, with a fic about... well, see that short description above? That's it, really. Twilight decides to surprise Pinkie while the latter is chattering on, and the two ponies end up hugging, giggling and even kissing (not mouth-to-mouth) though that E rating is adhered to and this isn't a romantic fic. It's harmless enough, and I suppose it's cute in a way, but Twilight especially is simply not believably characterised. This feels like two twin filly sisters rather than adult friends – not even close friends, not even in hug-friendly Equestria. There's also virtually no setup or explanation for Twi suddenly behaving in this entirely non-canon way. ★

Boring Equestria by Bendy (stories published: 261)
Twilight
Comedy/Random/Alternate Universe, 2k words; Jun 2014; Teen

Princess Twilight Sparkle wakes up to find herself in an alternate Equestria, where everypony is nice, nothing ever bad happens and everything is just 'perfect'. Naturally the place bores her to death.

Set just after the S4 finale, this story has a premise with a lot of potential, which it sadly doesn't generally live up to. Twi meets another (unicorn) Twi, but there's none of the interplay of Perfect for Me (PR 19). Instead, the unascended Twilight tells Princess Twilight how nice things are in her Equestria, where Sombra and Tirek own a flower shop. Again, this could be the jumping-off point for hilarity, but nothing more is made of it. There's some very odd phrasing, eg "these rectangle shaped objects were known as books"; I think it's deliberately boring, but it's still, well, boring. I do like a few things, such as what UniTwi's library books actually contain. But the story doesn't do nearly enough, and the ending is plain dull. A bare two. ★★

The Ballerina and the Figurine by Ponyess (stories published: 252)
OC, Other, Twilight and Starlight Glimmer
Random/Sad/Slice of Life, 1k words; Sep 2018; Everyone

Alone and lonely, she is crying herself to sleep. A late night, her mother is giving her a gift. The gift to a daughter, the light of day in the darkness.

A first-person fic here, in which a pony confides, in angsty staccato paragraphs, how unhappy she is. In a nice touch, she mentions her dimly-lit room and says, "Maybe I should learn to love twilight" just before she receives a certain music box. Here, the ballerina is Starlight Glimmer, who could be her friend... and then the story ends. It's very frustrating. The fic's narrator is confusing, too, since she says she's not old enough for school yet expresses herself in far more advanced ways than such an age would imply. Punctuation is distractingly odd throughout ("Yet, I dare not make a sound; lest the sound calls forth, that which is worse than the quiet in the dark") and I'm left wondering exactly what this story is for. It comes across as sadfic for sadfic's sake. ★

One Minute with a Ghost by Michael Hudson (stories published: 207)
Twilight and Other
Romance; 2k words; Apr 2015; Everyone

Twilight finds out her castle is haunted by an old friend.

This is a shipfic – a Twilight/Golden Oaks shipfic. More accurately, the spirit of Golden Oaks, after its destruction. "Oaks" arrives in the form of a ghostly pony, but when Twi looks closer, there are... signs of who the ghost actually is. The tree's roots are right there in the Castle of Friendship, after all. I love the concept, and it's one of those where I wonder why I've never seen it before. Twilight having lost all joy in reshelving since her enforced move doesn't convince (did it in 2015?) and there's some slightly unnatural phrasing occasionally, but I still appreciate the originality on display here. If you read one story from this week's selection, make it this one. ★★★

Applejack Robs a Bank by Some Leech (stories published: 125)
Celestia
Comedy/Mystery/Random; 3k words; Feb 2019; Everyone

It's about Applejack robbing a bank, I promise!

Celestia (for it is she!) disguises herself as AJ and goes off to rob a bank, for frankly rather thinly justified reasons. She makes sure to write "Not Celestia" on her name badge, just to be careful. What follows? Cartoon hijinks, as the Radio Times used to put it. There's certainly fun to be had here, and at times there are echoes of Friendship is Witchcraft style humour. It's uneven, though, and there are some truly odd proofreading mistakes – though, this being a Celestia fic, I'm not totally convinced that writing "bandanna" as "banana" was an accident! We also get a brand new piece of LUS: "the lanky alabaster equine". The other thing missing is a really good pay-off: this is another fic with a disappointingly dull ending. A fairly solid two, but it could and should have been more. ★★

---

Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: stories reviewed should include Pascoite's If Memory Serves.