Words read this week: 31,925
A little hint about something I'll be doing after the 2,000th review: I'm currently picking out five stories for a themed edition concentrating on one author. I intend to post that in the nearish future – by which I mean before summer, all being well. No, you won't yet get to find out who will be featured. Other things to come first, such as today's quintet:
Ladybugs Awake by Uz Naimat
The 41-Second Goddess by Bicyclette
"Teach Me Goodness" by Posh
End of Our Story by qiley
Persephone by PresentPerfect
★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.
Ladybugs Awake by Uz Naimat
Twilight, Cadance and Shining Armor
G4; Drama/Slice of Life; 3k words; Sep 2023; Everyone
Shortly after the changeling attack, Twilight and Cadence have a talk.
This story takes place late one night, with Twilight unable to sleep as Chrysalis's words run through her mind. She and Cadance talk about their different but overlapping experiences from the attack. This is pretty much an E-rated exploration of PTSD – indeed, that very term appears in the fic – and the addition of Shining Armor later in the story helps. It isn't deep, which is mildly disappointing, but then as PaulAsaran noted, in Equestria serious changes really can be achieved with a chat and a hug. Top-end two, and it certainly fills a niche. ★★
The 41-Second Goddess by Bicyclette
Pinkie, Discord and OC
G4; Dark/Comedy/Sci-Fi; 4k words; Nov 2020; Teen
What exactly did Pinkie Pie do during the time she held Discord's power? An Equestrian intelligence officer leaves a message to her successor on what little they know so far. Warning: Superintelligences and existentialism
Quite the short description there! Taking inspiration both from a certain scene in "The Ending of the End" and this short piece,¹ the entire fic is the text of that officer's recording. My favourite part of this is the way Pinkie is characterised, an all too plausible way of reconciling her overall show character, that little "TEotE" moment and her being something rather more extraordinary still. Some interesting notes on Discord, too. An amusing short second chapter. I admire this fic but I didn't quite connect with it; I'm sure it's relevant that I'm not a big fan of SCP stuff, which this in some places resembles. You might add a star if you are. ★★★
¹ I don't understand why Bicyclette refers to its author as "good ol' Squiddy". It's not explained.
"Teach Me Goodness" by Posh
Cheerilee and Diamond Tiara
G4; Slice of Life; 22k words¹; Jul 2016; Everyone
Cheerilee bids farewell to her friends and students before going back to school in Fillydelphia.
This is Posh's RCL entry, so I had high hopes – which were fulfilled. This is a very emotionally satisfying story in which we follow Cheerilee's last day and night before departing to study. She leaves telling her students late, perhaps too late, and one foal in particular seems especially hard hit: the still fairly newly post-reformation Diamond Tiara. There's excellent interplay between the two, and though the underlying concept isn't startlingly new, the execution is so solid that this doesn't really matter. Similarly, we all know how much Cheerilee cares, but that's given both depth and structure here. A high four and an easy recommendation. ★★★★
¹ Over a third of the word count is the original Write-off version. It's interesting but not required reading.
End of Our Story by qiley
Twilight and CMC
G4; Sad; 2k words; Aug 2022; Everyone
Twilight recalls the deaths of her friends
A simple story in which Twilight talks briefly about the last moments of each of her fellow Bearers in turn. You do get a fair sense of how much her friends mean to her, but there's nothing terribly surprising here, and by 2022 it had been done a thousand times before. The fic is inspired by the PrinceWhateverer track "Elemental", which I suppose accounts for the otherwise strange complete absence of Spike. ★★
Persephone by PresentPerfect
Ms Harshwhinny and Other
G4; Romance/Slice of Life; 2k words; Dec 2015; Everyone
After months spent on the road for the Equestrian Games, Mrs. Harshwhinny finally comes home to the one pony who makes her feel like herself.
That pony, it's no spoiler to reveal, is a certain Prim Hemline. This is a nicely observed portrait of a moment in domestic life of a really unusual pairing. As the author mentions in her A/N, there aren't many stories about older couples, so that adds a nice extra dimension. It's a quiet fic – apparently it was written for a collection of "plotless" tales – but I think that works in its favour, contrasting nicely with its characters' canon appearances being rather loud and forward. Upper three. ★★★
PresentPerfect's fic is the 1,995th I have reviewed on Ponyfic Roundup. As such, since I want to give the 2,000th story a Spotlight, PR 482 will have a mere four tales to consider. They will be:
Fly Hard by Aragon
Alabaster by DawnFade
Wake-up Call by Cyrano
Top Edge by Raugos
we're number 1995! :D
ReplyDeleteAnd now I can't stop hearing that song in my head! :D
DeleteYay I liked "Persephone" a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if it got rejected from the anthology it was originally intended for because it had too much of a plot, but no harm done, as it's great just how it is. Of course I had to reference this in one of my own stories.
ReplyDeleteI am really glad Posh went with the English title in the revised version. I get put off by foreign-language titles where they're never explained and the fact it's in a foreign language has absolutely nothing to do with the story. You're just asking readers to bounce off it because they can't tell what it's about.
I'm still mad you convinced Posh not to go with the far superior Latin title. >:V I shall never forget!
DeleteI love PrimWhinny (or whatever you want to call it). It's one of those "Why didn't anyone else do this? It's so obvious!" pairings. Would happily read more about them, but nobody seems to have written it apart from this one fic.
Delete@PP What was superior about the Latin title? It was literally the same thing. What about being in Latin makes it better? To my knowledge, Latin has nothing to do with the story either, so there's not a thematic connection, though maybe there is and I never knew.
Delete@Logan Oh, I took PP's suggestion of romance there and ran with it when I borrowed this ship, but it's a B plot.
@Logan It sure seemed obvious to me! :B A trendsetter, I am not.
Delete@Pasco There is something about a Latin title that suggests like, ancient knowledge being handed down from scholar to pupil. It's grand, it's august, it's peerless. Or maybe it's just that "Teach Me Goodness" is weirdly stilted to my ears. :B Maybe a different translation would have sufficed.
Sorry I'm a bit late to the party! I've read the first three fics here, and I'm in full rating agreement once we convert between our scales. I'm a little softer on Ladybugs Awake, finding its E-rated soft approach to its topic didn't quite gel, so more a low-end ★★. 41-Second Goddess is a strong early fic from Bicyclette, and avoids a lot of the easy trappings of many "Equestrian government documents on things concerning the main characters" fics in a way that still allows it to be really funny. And Teach Me Goodness earns its RCL-feature through its great depiction of Cheerilee, Diamond Tiara, and what they'd be feeling in this situation.
ReplyDeleteMyself, I don't mind foreign-language titles for the chapters even just for inside jokes or the author's whim, but for the actual fic, generally prefer they have a proper meaning or connection to the events therein.
Otherwise, hard pass on the utterly rote "Twilight's lost her friends" fic, but the Harshwhinny one seems intriguing. At least, it's as good a candidate as any for finally reviewing one of Present Perfect's fics (yes, I know, giga gasp, how has that never happened).