Ponyfic Roundup 302

Read it Later story count: 201 (-5)

A couple of days late this week, owing to lack of time and – if I'm truly honest – lack of good mood. I don't generally like reading ponyfic when I'm in a rotten mood, although there are some kinds that can cheer me up. I tend to drift towards general undemanding reading (Asterix, for example) to fulfil that role, though. Hmm, I wonder whether anyone's written an Asterix/MLP crossover? I should probably have a look sometime. Anyway, here are today's three fics:

Errors by The Cloptimist
For want of a book by Hoopy McGee
Wrong Side of the Glass by Rosencranz

★: 0 | ★★: 0 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.

Errors by The Cloptimist
Trixie, Diamond Tiara, Derpy, Starlight Glimmer and Filthy Rich
Adventure/Comedy; 20k words; Apr 2019; Everyone

Three unlikely heroines are accidentally sent halfway across the world. How will they get home?

A strange collection of character tags, huh? That's because this was written for the Season 9 bingo contest Shrink Laureate ran, and the prompts The Cloptimist received were Derpy, DT, Pony Politics, Maretonia and Tartarus. From this rather unpromising setup he produces a fun tale. A magical accident leaves Derpy, DT and Trixie alone in the middle of nowhere. They spark off each other nicely, and the difficult balancing act of writing Derpy without her being either stupid or out of character is pulled off with aplomb. It's not a hysterical comedy, but more a gentle chuckler with added world-building for luck. There are two significant problems. One, that a foreign language is represented for quite some while by a sort-of human one (Google-translated Arabic rendered into Latin script) and this goes on for  long enough to get quite annoying. Personal preference, but I dislike Earthly languages being used this way in ponyfic and I criticised one of The Descendant's fics for a similar reason (PR 249). Two, that the ending feels rather rushed – given the word count is 19,996 I wonder whether the contest had a strict 20k limit. (I can't remember.) Don't let that put you off, though. This is still entertaining and very readable. A very high three that could easily have been a four without that rushed ending. ★★★

For want of a book by Hoopy McGee
Twilight, Celestia and Other
Random/Crossover; 6k words; Mar 2015; Everyone

Princess Celestia sends her student, Twilight Sparkle, to the Royal Library to retrieve a mysterious book. What Twilight finds is an adventure she never could have expected.

This fic is set before S1, when Twilight is still Celestia's protégée in Canterlot. The description above tells you about all it's possible to do without any spoilers, so all I can really do is to say that this is a crossover that I think will still work if you don't know the other fandom – but I know will work if you do. I'm not that fond of Celestia as depicted here, who I think is a bit of a pain in the way she treats Twilight (though her approach is similar to that she mentions in the Celie/Spike IDW comic). But anyway, Twi has told the Princess that she doesn't see the value in fiction. Tia sends her off an an irritatingly vague mission as a result. One that could only happen in a library. I'm shading this one into the fours for being such a perfect tribute to... well, that crossover. That may be a little too high a rating for readers who don't get the references, but you're not writing this review. :P ★★★★

Wrong Side of the Glass by Rosencranz
Other and Rainbow Dash
Sad; 7k words; Oct 2012; Everyone

I found myself in the Ponyville hospital this morning. A heart condition, they said...

Remember the pony in "Read It and Weep" who accuses Rainbow of stealing his slippers? This is his story, and it's rather moving. Turns out he's a musician, and one with two major regrets in life, one personal and one professional – though, for a musician, are those really separate at all? His conversation with Dash about grabbing life by the horns makes him re-evaluate things. It's a touching story, with an ending that hits hard if you don't see it coming, though I think it pushes a "don't settle for second-best evarrr" message just a bit too hard at times. ★★★

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Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: stories reviewed should include Impossible Numbers' Beyond the Herd.