Ponyfic Roundup 296

Read it Later story count: 209 (+2)

Four fics today! Let's see what we've got... hmm, is that a "1" we see in the five-star section this time around? I think it is, you know... it is! It is! And now you're all excited, I'd better not keep you waiting any longer. Here's this week's slate:

It Ain’t Easy Being Pinkie by Blueshift
Royal Decorations by Monochromatic
Crossing Over by Alaborn
There's a Monster Under the Stairs by Grimm

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

It Ain’t Easy Being Pinkie by Blueshift
Pinkie and Breezies
Comedy/Random; 3k words; Apr 2014; Everyone

Every pony in Ponyville is different., but some are more different than others. Everyone knows that Pinkie Pie is unique. But not how unique...

This is a highly entertaining bit of ridiculousness, made all the more fun by the fact that its inspiration is... well, spoilers. It's named in the end A/N. It turns out that Pinkie Pie is in fact controlled from the inside by... well, think of Inside Out or the old "Numskulls" Dandy strip and you'll be sort-of not quite wrong. Things get sillier from there, to the point where I have a note saying simply, "what the hay". No real downsides, barring a Scootachicken joke late on. You do probably need to be on board with this particular type of Blueshiftery for this to be worth a three-star rating – but I like it, so it gets one. ★★★

Royal Decorations by Monochromatic
Rarity and Twilight
Romance/Slice of Life; 2k words; Dec 2014; Everyone

After Rarity finds Twilight's fake crown, Twilight realises that decorating the Hearth's Warming Eve tree is a rather difficult task when Rarity is too busy pretending she's a princess to do any decorating.

What fake crown? Why, the one Sunset Shimmer had, of course. The author describes this as "RariTwi fluff" and it's impossible to argue. If you enjoy that ship, or at least like me are not actively opposed to it, you'll probably find this little story cute and warming and undemanding. It's a story to curl up with by the fire on a cold evening, or to read in the garden with a cool drink on a warm afternoon. I read this fic in my physical copy of The Mono-Logues, where it's the opening story; I am assuming the online version is identical to that printed one. ★★★

Crossing Over by Alaborn
OC, Twilight, Mane Six, Celestia and Discord
Adventure/Comedy/Human; 28k words; Apr–May 2012; Teen

John Lockhart cares for a certain fictional world more than his own. Too bad he'll never go there...

This is the first in a series about a... brony in Equestria? No. Because JL is not a brony. The fictional world he loves is that of Harry Potter – so when a portal brings him to Equestria, he's not especially happy about it. After a while, he comes to realise he's not the only modern human who's done the same thing... Lockhart ends up with Twilight (literally "with", not in any romantic way) and they try to work out how to get home. This is quite interesting and the S2 setting is pleasant: Twi is a unicorn who lives in a tree library, for a start. For some reason she's referred to as "Twilight Sparkle" the entire way through, even after Lockhart knows her pretty well, something I found immensely grating after a while, but on the whole the writing does its job. It helps that John is a fairly likeable character, admittedly. There's perhaps a bit too much "Look how much geeky stuff I know!" at times and if you don't happen to know Harry Potter very well, or indeed several other bits of popular culture that appear, you may not get all the references. I think with that chopped down a bit (probably a "kill your darlings" thing) this could have been a three. As it is, a high two that might still be a three if you love rather wordy geekiness. ★★

There's a Monster Under the Stairs by Grimm
Derpy
Dark/Horror; 5k words; Apr 2020; Teen (Violence)

Derpy's father says there's a monster in the basement. He says she must never go down there or it will gobble her up. She decides to investigate anyway.

This fic won the Barcast "Halloween in April" contest, and I'm not surprised. It's told by Derpy herself, in first person, and she sounds much more like a real kid than many such fics do. There's a sense of real unease from the start, wondering what Derpy's daddy really does or wants or even is, and atmosphere is something this fic does very well indeed. The fact that we learn everything through Derpy's narration – there's no direct speech at all – makes things feel all the more personal and intense. There's a clever use of a teddy, not to mention several occasions where a single line says an awful lot. The fic also has a brilliant last line. An OC fairly early on is a bit dull, but that character is suited to their role. This is a story where you keep on wondering long after you've finished reading it; skimming down the comments, nobody seems to have interpreted things quite the same way I did, which is perhaps interesting. I don't read all that much horror, so I guess those who do may have seen something like this before – but I found this fresh, and loved it. It's creepy as all hay in so many ways. ★★★★★

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Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: stories reviewed should include Snake Staff's Together Forever.