Ponyfic Roundup 291

Read it Later story count: 208 (-4)

The Easter holiday is over, and so instead of sitting around at home I'm... sitting around at home. Ah well, at least I'm getting some ponyfic read. Admittedly I do that anyway, so I can hardly claim it's as a result of changed circumstances. I also waffle on vaguely anyway, so no improvement there either. Isn't it reassuring when some things don't change? Ahem. Let's get on with things. Today I have these three:

Summer Island by Bachiavellian
You Can't Eat Gold by Queen Moriarty
Pinkie Figures It Out! by Twinkletail

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

Summer Island by Bachiavellian
Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and OCs
Adventure; 11k words; Sep 2015; Everyone

Sweetie Belle doesn't believe in seaponies. So Scootaloo takes her on an airship trip to Summer Island to prove her wrong.

First things first: this Seattle's Angels featuree has been overtaken by canon in several major ways, to the extent it might actually be better to read it as an [AU] fic. Happily, it's still really good reading. Grown-up Scoots – we're maybe a decade in the future here – is an airship captain, and not the type who buckles swashes. She's a trader in a world that's pretty peaceful – weather excepted; maritime meteorology doesn't seem to be pegasus-controlled. Adult Sweetie is a highly successful singer, but she's clearly not happy. The two share a voyage and do a lot of talking. I greatly enjoyed their interaction here – Apple Bloom is acknowledged but never appears, incidentally. Bachiavellian clearly knows their way around a sailing boat, and that shows. I think only iisaw's stories have really made me believe in an airship as much as this fic does. As for the seaponies... well, note that publication date. We're talking something closer to G1 "shoo be doo" than the movie or S8. It works, though. In fact, the whole fic is satisfying and solid, and I wish there had been a sequel. ★★★★

You Can't Eat Gold by Queen Moriarty
OCs and Celestia
Comedy/Slice of Life; 3k words; Apr 2017; Everyone

This is the story of how Equestria invented money. From one perspective, at least.

Exactly whose perspective is spoilery, so I'll merely say that it mostly made sense in the end. Anyway, this is a truly bizarre fable, explaining that the money economy came about because of... well, bluntly, because unicorns weren't very nice. Or as clever as they thought they were. It's certainly an original take as far as I'm aware, and it does seem consistent to its own somewhat twisted logic. From memory, Present Perfect adored this fic; I found myself thinking, "Yes, I get the idea!" before we got to the reveal, and the ending – although also fitting – seemed slightly dull. All that said, taking such a ridiculous premise and making it work (allowing, again, for that perspective) and a pretty readable story in its own right deserves a pretty decent rating. So it gets one. ★★★

Pinkie Figures It Out! by Twinkletail
Pinkie Pie, Twilight and Starlight Glimmer
Comedy/Slice of Life; 3k words; Oct 2018; Everyone

Pinkie needs to make Twilight angry. For reasons.

The main snag with this otherwise pleasant fic, somewhat old-fashioned in its domestic focus and low stakes, is that those "reasons" are very easy to twig from pretty early on. At least, they are if your memories of the earlyish days of FiM are fresh enough. What I do like about this is that the author quite believably ties this to a much later canon event, although they don't go into any great depth. It's still an amusing trifle, with Pinkie being pretty Pinkie-ish (again in a somewhat early-series way) but I suspect I'd have found it more involving if I hadn't known what was coming for most of the tale. ★★

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Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: stories reviewed should include Raugos's Hearth's Sparring Eve.