Ponyfic Roundup 172: It's Me Nono, Small Robot You Know

Read it Later story count: 398 (nc)

I'd quite like to have more time to relax with ponyfic, but right now I'm even busier than I was last week, so I'm doing fairly well even to fit three stories in. Never mind; here's today's little selection.

Special Delivery by ILurvTrixie
Finding My Wings by DaringDo-Productions
Tuesday by MrEnter

★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0

Special Delivery by ILurvTrixie
Derpy, Celestia, Dinky, Luna and CMC
Romance/Slice of Life; 13k words; Apr 2014; Teen

Derpy and Celestia are both very prominant figures in Equestria, but somehow manage to fade into the background. Surely that's where the similarities end. (Random Romance Mar2014).

This is a Derplestia story, which fact alone makes it stand out. Happily, it's a fun and cute one, and not one where the pairing seems forced just for the sake of ticking it off a list. It feels a little older than its age – there are several S1-style "my little ponies" from Tia – but that's no real fault. My favourite thing about this fic is the interesting explanation it gives for Derpy's cutie mark. Least favourite? Dinky's wildly varying maturity level: she's supposed to be a little filly, yet uses phrases like "You looked entirely too serious." There's also some LUS and odd semicolon use, plus Derpy's given a speech from World of Cardboard which does feel shoe-horned in. Celestia is fine, if not all that interesting, while Blueblood is amusing in that special Blueblood way. The CMC are cute on the whole, but the inclusion of Gamer Luna is, again, strange for a 2014 fic. A mixed bag, then, but an oddly cute ending pushes it up into the threes. ★★★

Finding My Wings by DaringDo-Productions
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash
Random; 2k words; Mar–Apr 2013; Everyone

Fluttershy had always been the weak one, bullied and mocked. But she needs to find her wings, maybe with the help of a certain rainbow-maned filly.

This story (which is actually [Slice of Life], not [Random]) is based on the Aviators song "The Fear of Flight", which I've always loved, so of course it attracted my attention. The story, though, is a bit disappointing. I like Rainbow's protectiveness towards Fluttershy, and the ending is cute if predictable. However, the pace is far too fast: the fillies become friends pretty much instantly and there's no time for their friendship to develop naturally. This would have been much better had the author not made it quite so fast-paced. ★★

Tuesday by MrEnter
Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Spike
Slice of Life; 4k words; Mar 2014; Everyone

Spike ends up repeating the same horrible day again and again

Yes, that MrEnter – he did write a few ponyfics years ago, and at one time had plans to write many more. This story is, as the summary suggests, a time loop tale, and again this is an old-fashioned fic in its structure: there's even a letter to Celestia at the end. Spike is the best reason to read this – he's very Spike for the most part, especially in his mixture of grumbling and inventiveness. Twilight is pretty unpleasant to him at times, which may or may not put you off, and Pinkie's Pinkieness is turned up to 11. It's also slightly odd to have Pinkie baking pasties, which I'm not sure are very common in North America. On the two/three boundary, but I'm nudging it over the line for Spike. ★★★

---

Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: frankly, I'll be doing well if I've had time to read anything much by then!