Ponyfic Roundup 206: The Piper o' Dundee

Title explanation: Scottish folk song

Right! I'm back from Scotland, as you'll already know if you read yesterday's Pony Music Library post. Time to ease myself back into the wonderful world of My Little Pony fanfiction.

Read it Later story count: 331 (+1)

Just three stories once again this week, but I have plans. I can't promise anything, but I've rejigged one or two things in my schedule that should let me get back up to the traditional five from next week onwards. We shall see. Anyway, today's reviews are:

Bloomberg by ROBCakeran53
Zero Sum by TailsIsNotAlone
Spreading Your Wings by darkstone57

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

Bloomberg by ROBCakeran53
Other [Bloomberg!], Applejack and Braeburn
Sad; 7k words; Aug 2014; Everyone

Mama always told me I were a special tree.

Remember the EqD Outside Insight contest? No? Well, you had to write a story looking at ponies from a non-pony viewpoint. (It's what inspired my own We Who with Songs Beguile.) Anyway, ROBCakeran53 is best known as the author of the half-million-view My Little Dashie (PR 7), but frankly he's written some much better stories – of which this is one. It's a Forrest Gump-ish look at Applejack's favourite tree from its perspective, and it works really well. The well-written slow drawl fits a slow-growing organism, while of the several canon events we see "Over a Barrel"'s opening scene may be the best. Given how long trees live, you can probably guess where some of the [Sad] comes from, but it still works, and even "The Perfect Pear" hasn't rendered too much of it canon-non-compliant. Even though it's a tad one-note at times, I think this was pretty unlucky not to make the final of the OI contest. ★★★★

Zero Sum by TailsIsNotAlone
Starlight Glimmer
Dark/Slice of Life; 1k words; Apr 2015; Everyone

I tried. I tried so hard to make them see, and they turned away. But it doesn't matter. Sooner or later, they will all add up to nothing...and I will still be here. *SEASON 5 SPOILERS*

A story written after the S5 premiere, so unsurprisingly it's not that canon-compliant any more. Even so, it does give a reasonable explanation (for the time) for Glimmy's running away to found Equality Village, as it's called here. Rather too wordy, to the extent that it reads more like a biography than a story at times. That stops it getting a particularly high mark, but it's one of those interesting little curiosities. ★★

Spreading Your Wings by darkstone57
Spike
Slice of Life; 1k words; Jul 2017; Everyone

Spike has reached the end of his adolescence and with it, he begins to contemplate what to do next.

An unfortunately timed review, this! Inevitably "Molt Down" has rendered some of this outdated, but I don't think it harms the fic much. As the summary says, this is about Spike considering whether he really wants to stay with Twilight for the rest of his life. The idea of his going off on a journey of self-discovery is fine, but given he's already been on a full-blown solo adventure in canon ("Dragon Quest") it seems odd to be treating the possibility as something new. There are a few minor technical errors and one more significant geographical mistake. This is a pleasant enough read for Spike fans, even so, but it's not terribly memorable. ★★

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Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: stories reviewed will include Fiddlebottoms' Six Months in July.