Ponyfic Roundup 487: Spotlight on How We Met

Read it Later story count: 94 (nc)

Words read this week: 49,651

Well look at that, it's Spotlight time again! No 300,000-word behemoth this time, though, but instead a story that clocks in at just under the 50k-word mark. I've read and liked some other Rated Ponystar fics – for example, Treating Her Right (PR 371). How We Met is an old story, something I did bear in mind, but I'm obviously a sucker for Fluttershy/Rainbow backstory or I wouldn't have written Where They Understand You myself all those years ago! Anyway, let's see how this one does.

How We Met by Rated Ponystar
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash
G4; Romance/Slice of Life; 50k words; Feb–Oct 2012; Everyone

A story of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash's relationship from their first meeting to their end

You can probably tell where this is going by the combination of the title, the shortdesc and those genre tags – and you'd be right. This is a story which starts with the two as fillies, although the bulk of the action takes place after they've grown up, got their cutie marks and moved to Ponyville. There are some cute moments and even the mid-story shift from friendshipping to plain shipping isn't too clunky. The writing is generally serviceable but isn't going to win any awards for style, and there are too many typos, awkwardly constructed sentences etc. Also, as PaulAsaran noted, the as-it-was-being-written Author's Notes every chapter irritate more than they illuminate. Not a bad story, but very predictable indeed in its progression. Its age and the author's relative inexperience in 2012 do show and do cost it a bit. ★★

You'll doubtless know this by now, but, expect spoilers beyond this point!

As I said, this is not a story to read if you want thrilling twists and inventive plotting. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash meet as fillies, become friends, get separated, reunite in Ponyville, have arguments, make up, become an item in the end... well, I'm sure you get the idea. This is very much a fic that will better suit readers who want something predictable and (mostly) fluffy with a bit of romance thrown in. If you're a big FlutterDasher then this might well be right up your street. Otherwise, maybe rather less so.

I'm a big FlutterDash friendshipper, seeing the two in a "Hurricane Fluttershy" way, so I was a bit disappointed – if not remotely surprised – that Rated Ponystar chose to take the story in that direction. Skimming down some of the Fimfiction notes suggest that it was a popular move with most of the readership, so I suppose that can be said to justify it. Even so, the shipping itself is predictable, with many of the most obvious shipfic clichés (eg one of them falling in love with somepony else, gasp) happening just about when and how you'd expect them to.

The part where Fluttershy and Rainbow's friendship seems to have been ruined by 'Shy hiding Dash's letter about Wonderbolts try-outs to avoid her (Dash) going away is potentially a good, meaty storyline. I actually like the setup quite a bit, clichéd as it may be – after all, that part of the story is S1-era Flutters and Rainbow. It's a shame it's overdone, since I can't really believe that Fluttershy would decide to go and live in the Everfree Forest forever as a result, but as I say the setup itself is quite nice.

Talking of the somepony else bit, let's look at that. Fluttershy has been dreaming of Rainbow sharing her bed (in an E-rated way, of course) and kissing her. Very shortly after this, just as 'Shy is trying to pluck up the courage to confess her feelings to Rainbow, Dash reveals that she too is in love... but with Applejack! AJ turns out not to be into mares, though, so things may be back on track. This whole sequence is reasonably well done but happens far, far too fast.

Mind you, there is one notable aspect of this subplot that I enjoy, which is the way that the devastated Fluttershy nevertheless resolves to try to help Rainbow with Applejack. It's rather nicely shown how hard this is for her, and yet she still pushes ahead with trying to help Dash, which gives a nice insight into how much she truly wants Rainbow to be happy even if it's at her own expense. If this had been paced more steadily and had lasted a little longer this could have brought some interesting character development.

As with the many small typos (eg "manitcore" several times) the Author's Notes do drag How We Met down a little bit. Normally it's easy to ignore them, but on this occasion we get chat every single chapter, featuring not only the usual early-fandom "I don't own MLP" stuff but also things that are entirely irrelevant to anyone not reading along as they story was being released. The writer seems obsessed with the song "Metalingus" by After Bridge, while here's also the odd weird mini-rant, such as one about how much the author dislikes My Little Pony Tales. Quite frankly, you can skip the lot of the A/Ns.

All in all, as I said in the non-spoilery review paragraph, this is a very old fic – if even uses real-world song lyrics late on, something Fimfiction has banned for many years now – and it shows. It's far from the worst shipfic starring two Mane Sixers that's ever been written, and it does hold up better than some of its 2012 contemporaries in that it's refreshingly free of pointless (and often by 2024 incomprehensible) meta fandom references. There are much worse shipfics out there, it's just that this doesn't do much to stand out from the crowd – plus Rated Ponystar was simply not as good a writer at this point as a little way down the line.

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Okay, it's back to the more common Ponyfic Roundup format of five shorter fics next time around. These will be as follows:

Losing a Rhyme by Original Username
Cozy Glow: FIENDship is Magic by RainbowDoubleDash
New... Friends? by OneLonelyPickle
The Tumultuous Tribulations of Time Turner. by midnighttowboy
Prince Blueblood VS Big Macintosh by MontyCS