Read it Later story count: 182 (nc)
In the real world, it's been rather an incident-packed week one way or another. Here on Louder Yay, however, we spend as little time in the real world as possible, so it's ponyfic that's our main concern today. Here are the three stories I've read over the last seven days:
Exiles by Coyote de la Mancha
The Blue Feather by TheLegendaryBillCipher
Mittens by breeziebee
★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.
Celestia and Luna
Adventure/Slice of Life/Alternative Universe; 11k words; Jul 2018; Teen (Gore, Violence, Death)
Before recorded history, there was the terrible and primordial Age of Chaos. And in this age, there were two sisters. This is their story.
I found this story both fascinating and infuriating, though it's the former that wins out in the end. The imagination on display here is remarkable, with a great look at what it might have been like for the young Celestia and Luna growing up in the bizarre, dangerous world of Discord's rule over Equestria all those years ago. Heaps and heaps of world-building and really good characterisation of the growing fillies as the years go by (though as the author says in a phrase I adore, "time was soft" in the Age of Chaos). So why only three stars? Because I find the language pretty wearying after a while. The use of verbatim Lewis Carroll is a minus but one I can cope with, but the likes of "Likely thoud'st save us both" and "Canst not leave speaking folk in peace?" do set my teeth on edge when it's like that all the way through. It was too much for me. Discord was very interesting here, at least: not quite the Discord we know from FiM, but an earlier version, and I think it works. Would have been a four had the Early Modern English been toned down just a bit. If you like it as it is, then this may well be a four for you. For me it drops it down to the high threes. ★★★
The Blue Feather by TheLegendaryBillCipher
Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Mr Shy and Mrs Shy
Romance/Slice of Life; 2k words; Jul 2020; Everyone
It's not exactly hard to guess where this is going from the text even before it's explicitly revealed. The best thing about this fic is its world-building, with the blue feather of the title used in a way that is believable for pegasi. If you know the Harvest Moon games you'll know what I mean, but that isn't necessary. The rest of the fic is quite predictable and nothing we haven't seen a thousand times before. Written competently, though, and if you like simple, E-rated shipfics involving this pairing you'll probably find this one reasonably diverting. ★★Rainbow Dash weighs an important question.
Mittens by breeziebee
Lyra and Bon-Bon
Comedy/Random/Slice of Life; 1k words; Nov 2013; Everyone
A pretty run-of-the-mill "Lyra is obsessed by humans" fic here, and for the most part you'll need to enjoy those to have fun with this one – though there is the odd amusing line in the dialogue between Lyra and Bon-Bon. Reasonably well written, though like the last story this won't make your eyes fly open at any point. This came up when selecting a story randomly, by the way: at some point Fimfiction's search finally made that feature actually work after ages of its being broken. ★★Lyra is wearing something strange on her hooves, and Bon Bon notices.
Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: stories reviewed should include TheBrianJ's The Ship-Off.
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