Ponyfic Roundup 486

Read it Later story count: 94 (-1)

Words read this week: 34,257

In this week's intro, Logan will not be talking about 1960s pop groups. Sorry! Instead, he will mention that he has finally got hold of a £1 charity shop DVD of Titanic. The 1997 blockbuster, not the one with the rapping dog. No, it's not exactly difficult to find, but while I wanted to watch the film (I've never seen it!) I wasn't prepared to pay Amazon or Disney+ subscription prices to do so. Also, this way it's mine. I may report back when I've seen it, but more likely I'll forget. Anyway, today's fics are:

Ambulance Inspection Rejection by SockPuppet
Little Muffin Stand of Horrors by sister_mike
Above All Else by 8686
Sight by Slywolf930
Pieces of Me by DwarvishPony

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

Ambulance Inspection Rejection by SockPuppet¹
Nurse Redheart, Fleur de Lis and OC
G4; Comedy; 2k words; Jan 2023; Teen (Sex)

Ponyville is a special town. Its ambulance requires special equipment.

Fleur, inspecting for the Bureau of Public Safety, is somewhat taken aback with some of the... unusual equipment needed on the town's ambulances. Guess which pony might need intravenous chocolate, for example? This is a pretty silly story and amusingly written, though perhaps leaning a little too hard on innuendo for my tastes, and I'm with FOME in finding one or two of the examples involving youngsters slightly uncomfortable. By no means over my red lines there, just not entirely to my taste. A middling three stars for me, but those who like sex comedy a bit more might rate it slightly higher. ★★★
¹ Collab with Samey90.

Little Muffin Stand of Horrors by sister_mike
Derpy
G4; Random/Slice of Life; 2k words; Sep 2014; Everyone

Derpy sells muffins at a bake sale in Ponyville.

Poor Derpy finds her imperfectly shaped and designed muffins aren't wanted at the market – she's never sold a single one, so when she finds a way to make unique square muffins she goes for it. Unfortunately there's a horrible twist she hadn't counted on. The title gave me an idea where this was going... which wasn't really fulfilled. The action  only happens late on, and there isn't the whole-hearted commitment to absurdity that this really needs. The ending is utterly clichéd, too. Inoffensive and readable, but I prefer the EqG short. As such, only a low two. ★★

Above All Else by 8686
Applejack and Rainbow Dash
G4; Adventure; 24k words; Dec 2014–Jan 2015; Everyone

Applejack. Rainbow Dash. A rivalry for the ages. A friendship for... well, it might not last the day.

Her head full of Daring Do's exploits, Rainbow challenges AJ to a race to determine once and for all who is the most awesome pony in Ponyville. A simple setup that provides a mostly really satisfying character-centric read, albeit one with lots of action to boot. There's real danger in some of the events here – well enough written that you do feel the threat and the tension – but also some surprisingly deep meditations on the nature of friendship. Also one real gut-punch moment. I find one late observation on how close friends/family behave rather strange and irritating, and Dash feels a little too egocentric occasionally even for 2014, but in general if you like "Fall Weather Friends"-style AppleDash friendshipping, you'll probably like this. Don't skip the longish A/N at the end of one chapter – it's effectively a part of the story and is good reading in itself. A lowish four but I still feel confident it deserves that score. ★★★★

Sight by Slywolf930
Other
G4; Sad/Human; 1k words; Mar 2016; Everyone

One human finds himself sitting on a bench at the end of his journey. These are his final moments.

You may read this story's shortdesc and the start of the fic itself and wonder what it's doing on a ponyfic website. Then Twilight appears – it's the story of a man who's been in Equestria a long, long time. As we go on, it becomes clear that we're in the aftermath of a war, though little is ever revealed about its details beyond that Twilight and our human protagonist served in it together. This is reasonably well written, but I struggle to see much of a point to it. ★★

Pieces of Me by DwarvishPony
Rarity and Apple Bloom
G4 EqG AU; Sci-Fi/Slice of Life; 5k words; Sep 2017; Everyone

An android learns about friendship after the apocalypse.

In this case, it's Rarity who's the android. She winds up at the Apple farm and comes to realise that things are a struggle for 'Bloom and co. Being an android rather than a human, she considers whether and how she can help. This is a character piece that does well by both characters and has a lovely bittersweet feel. It also (as FOME says) is the better for being a break from the common post-apocalyptic fashion for bikers and guns. Here we see more down-to-earth, everyday concerns and it works very well. I wanted to know more about this world by the end, which speaks to how much it captured my attention. Even non-SF fans should get something out of this. ★★★★

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A mixed week, but not one without its highlights. Next time around, it'll be Spotlight time – as I said recently, I intend to slightly increase the number of longer fics I cover. This one weighs in at only 50k words, it's from back in 2012 and its reception has been mixed, but its subject matter is always likely to catch my attention:

How We Met by Rated Ponystar