Ponyfic Roundup 500: Elements Edition!

Read it Later story count: 95 (+1)

Words read this week: 47,849

Well, here it is! Half a thousand editions and more than ten years of Ponyfic Roundup and somehow I'm still going. An absolutely massive thank you to three sets of people, some of whom are in more than one group. First, the writers without whom I wouldn't be doing this at all. Second, those who have interacted with me on my reviews over the years. Third, my friends in the fandom, wonderful people all. Huzzah to each and every one of you!

And now, on to the actual fics for this special edition. I thought long and hard about the theme for PR 500, but in the end I decided to honour the very thing that brought me into and kept me in the fandom: Friendship is Magic's central characters. I don't think I need to explain why I've chosen these particular stories! (By the way, I didn't review an appealing-looking Honesty, by TheLegendaryBillCipher, because it's a crossover.)

Generosity by Richie Richter
Honesty by Agalakachikaboum
Kindness by TwilightSnarkle
Laughter by Derpyx0
Loyalty by Arbarano
Magic by Cromegas_Flare

★: 1 | ★★: 3 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

Generosity by Richie Richter
Rarity
G4; Sad/Slice of Life; 29k words; May 2013; Teen

Every Sunday, Rarity gives back.

Easily the longest fic under review today, this was the author's only story on Fimfiction. It opens with a row between Rarity and Rainbow over some owed bits, then we follow Rarity on a Sunday visit to the struggling city orphanage she quietly but strongly supports. We see quite a bit of the generally nice foals who've ended up there, which is a slightly uncomfortable fit with Rarity's occasional private fantasies about the husband of the orphanage owner or even Big Mac. Rarity's generosity is well on show, though, not merely financially but in the time she spends on reading stories and the quiet encouragement she gives the foals. In truth, the material is stretched a bit thin for 29k words; slicing of a third or so would have created a tauter, more gripping story. An unnaturally long emotional monologue by an older filly latish in the fic doesn't help, and said filly is involved in the unsatisfactorily partial ending.¹ There's the occasional oddity – a mention of the orphanage offering plenty to eat very quickly followed by a note that there was "never enough food", or a mention of ponies with noses in phones. It's a fairly cute tale, but it's too inconsistent in its approach to be more than that. Lowish two, sadly. ★★
¹ The end A/N does hint at a sequel, which may have tied up some loose ends, but this never appeared.

Honesty by Agalakachikaboum
Applejack and Twilight
G4; Slice of Life; 1k words; May 2012; Everyone

Applejack and Twilight get lost in the Everfree forest.

A 1,001-word quickie written on an iPod Touch (remember those?), this turns out to be both interesting and frustrating. "I hate magic" is the first sentence, and we quickly find that Applejack and Twilight have somehow ended up with bodies switched – and, just perhaps, not only bodies. All sorts of interesting possibilities from here, but the fic is simply too short to do anything with them. It's not fantastic technically, but given how it was written I guess it could have been worse. A very quick read, but only barely scraping into the twos for its potential. ★★

Kindness by TwilightSnarkle
Fluttershy and Luna
G4 AU; Sad; 3k words; Feb 2013; Everyone

The Elements are meant to work together. What happens when one doesn't stay?

In this Seattle's Angels-featured AU tale, once Nightmare Moon is defeated, the Mane Six go back to their old lives, Twilight to Canterlot and so on. Fluttershy, meanwhile, is left alone – all the more so since by this time (a few years on from S1) she has lost Angel too. She still has the Element necklace, but she's lacking much else – in particular, friends. I believe that this story is significantly older than it looks, dating from the post-S1 hiatus in 2011.¹ That does show, and you'll have to stretch just a little bit to reconcile this Fluttershy with the pony we're more familiar with now. The Luna who features is definitely the S1 model, too. Allow for that, though, and the power of friendship in Equestria comes through strongly. I really like that aspect, hence the three-star score. ★★★
¹ I've seen this mentioned in several places, but I haven't found the original 2011 upload itself.

Laughter by Derpyx0
Pinkie Pie
G4; Dark/Tragedy; 7k words; May–Jul 2014; Teen (Gore)

Pinkie Pie has always been a be happy-go-lucky pony. One thought changes all that.

By the author of The Royal Olympics (PR 122), but rather less light-hearted than those. In this story, adult Pinkie is devastated by the death of her sister Maud as a filly. Strange, despite no AU tag and the story having appeared after S4's "Maud Pie" went out showing Maud alive and well. Roll with that, though, and there's interest here. Pinkie is tortured by dreams apparently co-ordinated by Pinkamena. At times the exploration of mental health is effective and affecting, and I really like how Pinkie's friendship with Applejack is used. At others it's too scattergun to work. The writing is a bit uneven, with too many irritating Author's Notes. The ending comes out of nowhere, perhaps because this was planned as the first of a series that never happened. I'd like to give this a three for its ambition, but it's just that bit too rough to fulfil its potential. Highish two. ★★
From the longdesc: "Inspired by the song Best Day of My Life by American Authors (Don't ask why, it's a LONG story!)." Irritating – if you don't want to explain, why mention it at all?

Loyalty by Arbarano
Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Spitfire and Soarin'
G4; Sad/Slice of Life; 4k words; Feb 2012; Teen

After being rejected by the Wonderbolts, Rainbow Dash isn't the only one with dark thoughts...

It's interesting how downbeat this week's stories are. Not a deliberate choice on my part! Anyway, the shortdesc above hints at something more than the usual "Rainbow Dash is sad" stuff from a 'Bolts-rejection fic. We get a difference straight away: the pony who comes to see her when she's moping isn't one of the Manes, it's Soarin', whose characterisation I quite like. Then Pinkie gets the wrong end of the stick about Rainbow's reaction to failure and Dash needs to comfort her. (This being an old fic, the two are portrayed as especially close friends.) There's some good stuff here, such as a distinction between Dash being emotional and her being sappy. Like kits, I'm not too keen on Rainbow's front-and-centring of her Element, but this holds up a bit better than many ancient Dashfics and is a nice antidote to all those "Rainbow ends it all because of one failure" stories that tend to make me roll my eyes. ★★★

Magic by Cromegas_Flare
Twilight
G4; Dark; 4k words; Feb 2014; Mature (Gore)

Secrets the relate to the most powerful magic must never be known, and now Twilight has to face this despite her own wishes.

The only M-rated story here, and for a change it's the [Gore] tag rather than the [Sex] one that requires it. In fact, for the first half or so, this fic is more of a dark mystery, as we wonder what it is that Twilight is going to have to undertake. It held my interest reasonably well during this portion. We do find out later what Twi has to do, and it's here that the goriness comes in. The butchery – which, for extra jollity, involves fillies – is not actually quite as explicit as in some out-and-out gorefics, but it's well beyond what I personally can enjoy. I'm pretty much with Present Perfect on this story: the mystery part is somewhat interesting, but my enjoyment took a nose-dive once the brutality set in. This is absolutely a case where my star rating reflects the "Did Logan enjoy it?" criterion I generally go by. If you like this kind of story, by all means go for it. ★

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Thank you for reading! Sure, it wasn't a sensational week, but that wasn't the point. With the excitement(?) of these special editions now over, it'll be back to the normal roundup of five shorter stories next week. These are the fics I've chosen to look at:

A Brush with Pride by abrony-mouse (review requested by author)
Scootaling by GrassAndClouds2
Ragnarok by Pascoite
Daydream at 20,000 Hooves by UnknownError
Radio Ga Ga by Pagemaster