Read it Later story count: 404 (-4)
This was planned and the stories read well before my recent Derpy-related post – yes, even the first story below – but it's a nice coincidence. I thought it was about time I had a themed edition of PR again, and Derpy was the winner of the Great Pony Lottery. Which was not in any way fixed. *cough* Here's this week's bunch o' fics:
Too Good For Us by Skeeter The Lurker
The Corners of (Our) Eyes by Daemon McRae
Let a Smile be Your Umbrella by Pascoite
Beep, Boop, I Will Destroy You! by NightWolf289
Insufficient Postage by Razgriz57
Today, Tomorrow, and Forever by ChoppersTopHat
★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 3 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Too Good For Us by Skeeter The Lurker
Derpy
Sad/Tragedy; 1k words; Apr 2013; Teen
We took who she was, and rejected her.This little story dates from the S3-S4 hiatus, when it looked as though Derpy might be written out of the show altogether. It's very much of its time and feels like a museum piece now that Derpy has been back with us for several seasons. By its author's own admission, it was written at 3am and not edited before submission. If you can deal with all that, it's moderately cute and heartfelt, I guess, though fandom-as-narrator feels a bit silly. Scrapes a two as a mildly interesting window into the past, but there's not a lot of actual story here. ★★
The Corners of (Our) Eyes by Daemon McRae
Derpy and Roseluck
Dark/Horror/Thriller; 23k words; Jan 2014–Oct 2016; Teen
Ditzy Do's eyes aren't broken. There's nothing wrong with her. She's just watching something. Something in the corner of your eye. For Goddess's sake, don't look.A horror fic starring Derpy? That got my attention, and I'm glad I stuck with it. There's enough space for the story to breathe so that you have to wait for the full, well, horror of the situation to be revealed – but when it was, it certainly gave me enough chills. The prose is rather uneven, with some distracting mistakes – maybe related to how long the story took to write – so you're going to need to be invested in the plot to get the full impact. I'm a little iffy about how well this story fits Ponyville, but again it wasn't a deal-breaker for me. On the three/four boundary, but I'm bumping it into the higher category because its pacing is good and because it (eventually) actually scared me. ★★★★
Let a Smile be Your Umbrella by Pascoite
Derpy and Twist
Slice of Life; 3k words; Jun 2015; Everyone
Caught in a rainstorm again, Derpy trudges off toward home. But along the way, she finds somepony down on her luck as well, somepony who very much reminds Derpy of her own childhood. It was a good day.It's no spoiler to say that that somepony is Twist. This was just what I needed after that last fic: something cute, warm and fuzzy. Derpy's discussion with Twist about being different clearly does them both good, and the whole thing generally stays just the right side of crossing over into "Very Special Episode" territory. There's even a nice reveal about Twist's family. My one real complaint is Derpy's slight "Stranger Danger" mindset on a few occasions: "hugging a child she didn’t know that well probably wasn't a very good idea" feels rather out of place to me for canon Ponyville. It's only a small part of the story, though, and as a whole this is a heartwarming read. ★★★
Beep, Boop, I Will Destroy You! by NightWolf289
Derpy and OC
Comedy/Slice of Life; 13k words; Mar 2015; Everyone
A day in the life of a young Derpy. What adventures are to be had? What friends are to be made? And most importantly, what will die in hellfire?In which filly Derpy escapes the (caring) clutches of Sir Respectable Butler the Fourth, inevitably known to his young charge as "Butt", and goes off to be a robot. This is really "Slice of Adventure", but blah blah tag restrictions blah blah knighty whine moan. :P Anyway, it's mostly nice, gentle fun, though rarely laugh-out-loud funny. I'm a bit iffy about the relaxed attitude taken to petty theft on a couple of occasions. Butt has a background story of his own, involving the nice mare at the dress shop where Derpy gets her robot "costume". There are occasional hints of something darker in the background, especially after another canon filly joins the action, but for the most part this is cute stuff. ★★★
Insufficient Postage by Razgriz57
Derpy
Comedy; 1k words; May 2014; Everyone
Derpy is delivering the mail when she encounters a small problem, and she's determined to figure out what it is.Cute little comedies are among the most common types of Derpyfic, and here's another. It follows the well-trodden "that escalated quickly" path, but it does so with good humour – in both senses of the term. Certain ponies' characterisation is a bit of a stretch in a canon fic, but the tale is funny enough to get over that; Celestia is a god example. The ending is nice, too. ★★★
Today, Tomorrow, and Forever by ChoppersTopHat
Derpy, Dinky, Spike and Twilight
Sad/Slice of Life/Tragedy; 3k words; 2011*; Everyone
Dinky notices her mother acting strangely one day. Why is she throwing her a party out of nowhere? And why does she seem so sad? The answer will change the lives of both mother and daughter forever.* Fimf publication date Oct 2015, but A/N makes it clear the fic was written during S1. We're in tearjerker territory here, and you may well see the end coming some way out as I did. Back in 2011, popular fanon held that Derpy often spoke in a "word salad" way, which feels weird to those of us who post-date that era. Derpy's clear and affecting love for Dinky is the best reason to read this, but the reveal in particular is so divorced from what we'd expect these days that it may be hard to enjoy entirely. ★★
Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: It'll be back to a lucky dip, including stories about Bon Bon and Trixie. (Not in the same fic, I'm afraid.)
I've added "The Corners of Our Eyes" to my read-it-later. I always enjoy a good scary story, and it's been too long since I got stuck into a proper fic.
ReplyDeleteThis has definitely been unofficial Derpy week! Even before today, your other blog post was a coincidence, as I watched a fan animation featuring a prominent Derpy scene last Saturday.
"Scary" might not be quite the right word, but "unsettling" certainly is. At least to me, but I'm pretty feeble when it comes to horror. :P
DeleteAlso last night, I watched a blind reaction to "Slice of Life", so even Derpier! :D
Beep Boop is not the greatest story ever, but it is chock full of joy at its own premise. Filly Derpy is adorable, as she should be, and the fact that she calls him "Butt" never failed to amuse me. Also, unusual friendshipping!
ReplyDeleteConsidering I usually find butt jokes tiresome, I was impressed that I found "Have you seen my Butt?" so funny in context. :D
DeleteA couple of other people got that "stranger danger" thing, too, but it's not really what I intended. I wonder if people are projecting their own knowledge of the real world? Anyway, it's just meant to say that if some random pony came up to another, struck up a conversation for 5 minutes, then hugged them, I think it might seem a little strange. In fact, I'll bet it's happened in the show. Pinkie's likely randomly hugged someone and gotten a strange look for it, even though ponies would give her some leeway as just something she does. For any other pony, though, they'd wonder what motivated it, more as a personal space issue and less of a van driver promising candy.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if people are projecting their own knowledge of the real world?
DeleteI think that's probably what I did, yes. It was very much an immediate reaction, rather than something that came to me only later. What did come to me later was wondering whether the regular town mailmare would really be a stranger to anypony much in any case.
Oh, and the only difference between AugieDog and Baal Bunny is that Baal bunny is where the write-off entries go.
ReplyDeleteAha. Thanks! I probably did know that, but if so I'd forgotten.
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