Read it Later story count: 207 (-2)
Last week, I mentioned how much I was enjoying the fine, sunny weather. Well, yesterday it rained pretty much all day and the temperature struggled to get above 7 °C. Welcome to April in England, I suppose. Three ponyfics for me to have a look at this time around, and they are:
My Beloved Student, Sunset Shimmer by Jondor
Not an Adult by Sapidus3
Hearts on the Table by paperhearts
★: 0 | ★★: 0 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.
My Beloved Student, Sunset Shimmer by Jondor
Celestia and Sunset Shimmer
Sad/Slice of Life; 2k words; Oct 2014; Everyone
Princess Celestia is reunited with her former student, almost.Here we have a deleted scene from Rainbow Rocks. The opening part of this story is great, with Celestia discovering that Sunset's long-silent cross-dimensional book-phone thing is calling. I love Tia wondering whether Sunset Shimmer's fall was her fault, and there's a brilliant headcanon for Sunset's cutie mark. Sadly, things aren't quite kept up in the second half of the fic, which rushes along a bit and does rather too much telling. It's still perfectly readable, but it feels rather ordinary by comparison with the first part. ★★★
Not an Adult by Sapidus3
Twilight
Sad/Slice of Life; 4k words; Feb 2015; Everyone
Twilight Sparkle has been living a lie. Everypony told her what a beautiful and accomplished mare she was. Everypony thought she was a responsible adult. They were wrong. She was still just a filly trying to stumble her way through life.The last of 13 published stories by this long-gone author, Not an Adult has the clue to its meaning in its title. It's set in S4 with Twilight a newly-ascended princess but still living in her tree. Twi becomes melancholy as she realises that, despite being nominally an adult, so much is still done for her – she pays no rent for her home, she has no money worries, etc etc. It felt a reasonable thing for that era's Twilight to be bothered by. The stereotypically American mindset of "if you're not totally independent by 19, you're a failure" is lurking in the background, but I think deliberately on the author's part. There are one or two occasions on which the sadficcery is rather laid on with a trowel, but the last line, although not especially original, worked well for me. ★★★
Hearts on the Table by paperhearts
Ember and Twilight
Romance/Drama/Slice of Life; 9k words; Nov 2019; Teen
Dragon Lord Ember and Princess Twilight Sparkle fall in love. Stubbornly and messily.That's right: this is EmberLight shipping, something I'm sure I haven't read before. The fic is set in the Dragon Lands, where Ember is hosting a dragon-pony summit – though we don't actually see the diplomacy. We get some of the preceding shenanigans around the edges, mostly consisting of dragons playing violent games, but the focus is on the two principals. I was impressed by the way Ember was written – tough in an un-ponylike way but without losing her essential likeability, though it was a close call in one or two spots. This is a harder-edged Twilight, too – she doesn't get through the story entirely unscathed either physically or emotionally – although her vulnerability comes through, as does Ember's. Even if she won't admit it. If you can deal with the slightly brutal nature of dragon society, this one is recommended. ★★★★
Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: stories reviewed should include Wanderer D's Consequence.
Well, all of these were very interesting! I'd read paperhearts' one before (get well soon!!) but the others were new to me - though I have a feeling I've seen them all in the Similar or Also Liked boxes on my own projects, oddly enough.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the Sunset one being (*indicates tiny gap between fingers*) THIS close to utterly awesome - but props for at least trying to wrap it up, I'd probably have chickened out and left it ambiguous by just ending it halfway through. And the explanation of her cutie mark is both inspired and super obvious in retrospect, and is my new accepted headcanon!