Ponyfic Roundup 215: Blue Minty Gel

Title explanation: famous 1980s Colgate advert

Read it Later story count: 321 (+2)

I've had very little time to spend reading recently, but I did manage to squeeze in a bit of ponyfic on my phone. I couldn't make it up to five stories this time, but at least I got to read both the fics trailed last week, plus one other. Today we have:

Brotherly Bond by Crash Jet
Apple Knots by BlazzingInferno
Leave All The Lights On by FamousLastWords

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

Brotherly Bond by Crash Jet
Pipsqueak, CMC and OC
Comedy/Sad/Tragedy; 20k words; Jan 2012; Everyone

Pipsqueak remembers his most beloved family member... and the tragic feeling of knowing he's gone...

Before this fic begins, Pip loses his only sibling, something he finds it extremely hard to cope with. Given that I've been there myself, that setup predisposed me to look on the story favourably, but it didn't work out that way. We get a lot of flashbacks, though it takes a long time before we finally find out what happened. One day, the CMC ask Pip to go camping with them. So far, so reasonable. The irony of Scootaloo scaring her camping buddies with ghost stories isn't a problem for a fic this old. What is a problem is that Scoots is horribly characterised and presented as at least a borderline bully. I could have dealt with even that, though, if it were not for the last chapter. Without spoiling anything, Pip does eventually find peace, but he does so in a way that is an almighty let-down and which does nothing for his character. Elements of what happens make sense and are relatable to me, but much of that last chapter is just plain stupid. There are also a trio of talking wolves who I found immensely irritating, though some readers may enjoy them for their mixture of silliness and genuine threat; think the chimera in the show. Technically, the fic is not great, but the problems are rarely too intrusive, though there are about a zillion ellipses. Chris hated this story – a rare reaction from him. I wouldn't go quite that far, but I was certainly greatly disappointed. And frustrated: this could have been so much better, and the glimpses you get of that almost make it worse. ★

Apple Knots by BlazzingInferno
Spa Ponies, Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight and Applejack
Slice of Life; 3k words; Mar 2015; Everyone

Ponies will tell their masseuse all sorts of things, things that not even their closest friends know.

This RCL inductee is one of those fics which could be described as "Simple idea done well". We see Lotus working on her first three guests in turn, all of whom bring up Applejack at some point, and then on AJ herself. I loved the detail about the differing musculatures of each pony type, as well as the little hints of Lotus's own life – impressive, given that she says not one word during the story, though we do read plenty of her thoughts. There are one or two irritations, such as a mildly dull friendship report to Celestia (of a sort) from Twilight at one point. Readers will probably be split on whether not naming one pony's date is effective, especially since 2018 readers may make inferences anyway. (Edit: the question is apparently answered by the same author's Shell Game, which I haven't read.) However, the calm, professional atmosphere of the spa, the clever use of Lotus's job and the interesting world-building overcome the niggles quite easily. ★★★★

Leave All The Lights On by FamousLastWords
Spike and Rarity
Romance/Sad; 1k words; Apr 2014; Everyone

Time and circumstance can break a lot of things, but true love isn't one of them. Spike and Rarity learn this powerful lesson together

This author writes far more Spikefics than most, but this early effort is not one of their finest. Sparity is an established fact from the start, so if that's a deal-breaker, move on now. There's really little to win you over if you're neutral, either, as it's largely a case of "Spike goes away, Rarity is upset, yet true love endures". It's not objectionable, despite a couple of small technical irritations, but it's not memorable either. I've added a much more recent Spikefic by this author to my RiL list, so in due course we'll see how that goes. This one? Probably for committed Sparity fans only. ★★

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Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: stories reviewed should include Georg's Falling Leaves of Oak.