Ponyfic Roundup 295

Read it Later story count: 207 (-1)

It has not escaped my notice that Ponyfic Roundup 300 is now little more than a month away. Whether I do anything particularly special to mark the occasion remains to be seen – but I am certain that I'd have laughed if you'd told me back in 2014 that I'd be approaching that landmark now. This week, though, it's a plain old regular PR. Let's see if today's three fics can rise above that.

Rail Riders by Vanner
It's Not the Wings by Talinu
Those Who Wield Power by PresentPerfect

★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.

Rail Riders by Vanner
CMCs [and OC]
Slice of Life; 2k words; Feb 2012; Everyone

The cutie mark Crusaders try to get their cutie marks for... being a hobo?

Blast from the past time first up. The CMC are here still at the "test our talents everywhere" stage and have hopped on a train to see what they can find. In that connection, the narrator's aside that "their parents would be worried" reads very strangely today, even if it didn't in 2012. Anyway, they meet a hobo named Rails, who is a mule – although not much is made of that fact and indeed she's referred to in the text as a "pony" occasionally. Rails fills them in on how the life of railway adventure the fillies are expecting isn't always a bundle of laughs and teaches the fillies something about the reality. There's a lot of talking, which is I suppose fair enough given the setting. As a point of historical interest, there are suggestions that the train is an S1-style pony-hauled model, not the Friendship Express type. This fic inevitably creaks a bit these days, but it's still nice sometimes to return to simpler days for the Crusaders. ★★

It's Not the Wings by Talinu
Twilight and Applejack
Slice of Life; 6k words; Feb 2016; Everyone

Twilight is getting used to being an alicorn, but there's still something she needs to get some help with. Fortunately, she knows just the pony to ask, and won't let nervousness hold her back any longer.

That pony is Applejack, and the opportunity arises when both mares are attending a party thrown by Pinkie Pie. Twilight and AJ have a quite in-depth conversation in which Twi reveals that she's been having trouble coming to terms with the earth pony part of her alicorn magic. You don't see many stories at all about this, and it's nice that the subject is treated seriously here. That said, it really is little more than the aforementioned conversation, so you'll probably need to be at least some sort of slice of life fan who doesn't mind a little wordiness to stay invested for very long. Fortunately, I am. The prose could do with a little tightening up in places and the removal of a few bits of LUS, but there's enough that's fresh from the earth pony magic angle that I enjoyed this. ★★★

Those Who Wield Power by PresentPerfect
Celestia and OC
Drama; 3k words; Jan 2017; Teen

A philosophy student puts Celestia to the ultimate thought experiment.

Roblé Rotunda (odd first name, I'd guess a reference to this show I've never heard of It isn't -- see the author's comment here) is said student. He visits Celestia, who is in old-time "my little ponies" speech mode and works well for it, and challenges her to create a rock she can't lift. Celestia's reaction to his challenge, and what comes after, are very nice for those of us who are big Tia fans – though I think the story is really telling us more about Roblé than it is about the Princess. I say "I think" because this fic is one of those that likes to be subtle in its meaning, and while it does succeed in that, I also suspect it may have gone a little too far in that direction for many readers. Celestia may have had centuries to work things out, but I haven't. All I'll say is: when you reach the ending, if your first thought (like mine) is "Is that it?" then it's worth reflecting on the last few paragraphs. Despite that reservation about the perhaps excessive subtlety, a high three and a recommendation for Tia fans especially. ★★★

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Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: stories reviewed should include It Ain't Easy Being Pinkie by Blueshift.