Ponyfic Roundup 214: Grey Sky Morning

Title explanation: Vertical Horizon song

Here in Britland, we're now long past the end of our heatwave and back to standard British weather. As I type at 4pm on Tuesday, it's overcast, breezy and 21 °C. For reasons which have not yet been entirely discovered, August has almost always been the least summery summer month during the last 15 years or so, and 2018 looks set to continue that trend.

Read it Later story count: 319 (-8)

Well, how about that? Five fics to review today, which is not what I was expecting to happen!

Administrative Angel by horizon
Benign Providence by Haysit T Ganaram
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by sunnypack
More Than Muscle by Level Dasher
You Want to Do What Now? by Nyarlathi

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

Administrative Angel by horizon
Equestria Girls/Drama; 6k words; Jul 2017; Teen

Principal Celestia always has wings in her dreams. So when a magical clash in front of her school sets her phantom wings to itching, her life turns upside down. And she hasn't even heard about Equestria yet.

A lesser writer might have made a horrible, cliché-ridden mess of this story, but fortunately horizon is not a lesser writer. For a start, it's by some distance the best portrayal of the human world's Celestia I've read. So often she's a rather dreary character with little actual life to her. Not here, where her sometimes unreliable narration gives her flawed character life. With very occasional exceptions ("The teen smiles thinly") the fic is also beautifully written – though perhaps too beautifully in places. I think Soge explained this well. The opening is gorgeous, and later there's one stunning piece of wordplay that (unfortunately for me) works better in audio than in text. It also requires you to empathise with Principal Tia and overcome the nagging feeling that she doesn't appreciate how lucky she really is. Personally, I think the parallels with Princess Tia are well enough drawn to make this work. Luna and Sunset are threads running through the tale, as this is Celestia's story first and foremost, but they're not extras and they play their roles very efficiently. This is a story you need to read carefully: there's one conversation in particular that loses its immense impact if you don't realise what's happened. Despite a few minor niggles, a top-end four and heartily recommended. ★★★★

Benign Providence by Haysit T Ganaram
Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Celestia and Gummy
Comedy/Random/Slice of Life; 2k words; Mar 2017; Everyone

Twilight sparkle becomes privy to an unlikely and unusual conversation.

As the [Random] genre tag might have suggested, this is a strange little thing in which Gummy proves to be more than he appears, and though the twist is not especially original it's potentially interesting. I enjoyed some fun Twilight moments, such as her repeatedly forgetting that she no longer needs to be deferential to Celestia. On the downside, it stretches believability too much for a 2017 story that Tia is surprised at one point to find an alligator in Pinkie's mane. The princess knows all the Mane Six quite well enough by now not to be fazed by that. Technically, the fic is rough, with frequent typos including some odd LUS ("the solar diarch") and sometimes even proper names not being capped up. It's also not really all that funny. for a [Comedy]-tagged fic. Scrapes a two for the giggles Twi gave me. ★★

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by sunnypack
Twilight, Spike and Other
Slice of Life; 2k words; Dec 2014; Everyone

Once there was a caterpillar and he was very hungry. Twilight investigates a noise coming from the kitchen. It's a caterpillar and it's very, very hungry.

If you don't know Eric Carle's original then how? you won't get full value from this. Assuming you do, though, this is a smile-inducing take on the book. There's nothing terribly deep or clever here, but it has charm and, if you can ignore some canon that's turned up since the fic was written, a rather satisfying ending – to the main part of the story, anyway. The very short second chapter's humour feels a bit forced; I think the fic would have been better without it. On the strength of the first part, though, this is worth a look. ★★★

More Than Muscle by Level Dasher
Bulk Biceps
Slice of Life; 1k words; Jun 2014; Everyone

We all know his catch phrase, but what do we really know about our favorite muscled pegasus? What else does he have to say?

A very simple fic, just a scene with Bulk talking things out to his psychiatrist. There isn't a lot of meat here, and the piece is largely an exploration of headcanon, though it seems reasonably solid headcanon for 2014, at least. I appreciate the "Hurricane Fluttershy" tie-in later in the story, but there just isn't much memorable in here. Bulk fans could do worse, but you're unlikely to be blown away. ★★

You Want to Do What Now? by Nyarlathi
Cadance and Shining Armor
Comedy/Slice of Life; 1k words; Mar 2013; Teen

Cadance is a mare of many... shall we say, romantic talents. However, these talents lie on the emotional side of things. What will happen when she wants to get a little physical with her husband in the jousting field?

This is a sniggering piece of innuendo-fic, chock-full of phrases like "his long shaft swinging in the air" and "get them back into stiff formation". Unfortunately, even if you like that sort of thing, the description gives away what's actually going on. As such, it's a pretty pointless story all round. I don't find this sort of humour funny, at least not unless it's superbly written, so for me it was simply a (thankfully short) slog. ★

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Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: stories reviewed should include Crash Jet's Brotherly Bond and BlazzingInferno's Apple Knots.