Nothing much to report today, so I'll get straight on with the list of fics. Three again this week, and they are:
Symphonies Rock by Soap Box
Daring Do Bakes a Cake by Lucky Dreams
Anxiety by Bad_Seed_72
★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.
Symphonies Rock by Soap Box
Vinyl Scratch and Octavia
Comedy/Slice of Life; 7k words; Mar 2015; Everyone
Octavia and Vinyl have a disagreement about classical music.In short, Vinyl doesn't think it's cool. Inevitably, she gets her interest piqued by something that happens accidentally at her club. One things leads to another, and... no, actually she doesn't suddenly become an evangelical zealot for the joys of classical music. In this fic, the two principals are roommates only, and not a romantic couple; it was nice to see that tired old cliché bypassed. This was Soap Box's first ponyfic, and in places it shows – the first track of half a dozen on a record lasts nearly an hour! – but there's more than the odd flicker of amusement to be had here. I didn't find the payoff especially funny, though, which hurt it. Could have been a three with some tidying, but it didn't quite click as it stands. ★★
Daring Do Bakes a Cake by Lucky Dreams
Daring Do and OC
Slice of Life; 6k words; Oct 2012; Everyone
Dinner with Daring Do and her mother.Lucky Dreams went on to become a spectacular author of ponyfic, but this fic from his earlyish days is a bit more of a mixed bag. I like the scratchy relationship Daring has with her mum, though the latter is hardly a sympathetic character. The background to Daring's life is also a little bit different, in that yes she's an archaeologist, but the adventure books are all fiction. The progression of the story feels fine as you read it, and the pacing is solid, but I couldn't help thinking that the LD of a few years later would have hit my emotions rather harder. It's still good, but it's not great. Oh, and this is one of those fics where Equestria has modern tech like computers, if that bothers you. ★★★
Anxiety by Bad_Seed_72
Spike and Twilight
Dark/Sad/Slice of Life; 11k words; Oct 2013; Teen
Recurrent nightmares and newfound anxiety make Spike come face-to-face with his greatest fear. What if Twilight never needed him in the first place?Ouch. Ouch. This one hit me entirely too hard for comfort. Inspired by Sombra's door in the S3 premiere, which shows characters their greatest fears, here we have Spike finding it impossible to rid himself of his own nightmare. If like me you suffer from anxiety in real life, the line "Since when does anypony argue with their own thoughts?" will have a bloody sharp point to it. It doesn't help that Twilight is having to study especially hard and so isn't quite giving Spike the attention he needs. Thankfully, the ending is not bleak; I don't think I could have handled that. Twilight is Twilight, after all. This was Bad_Seed_72's RCL story, and I won't argue with that choice. ★★★★
Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: stories reviewed should include Casca's Scald.
I remember Lucky Dreams. Haven't heard a peep out of them in years: I almost forgot them completely. They were among my early favourites.
ReplyDelete"Daring Do Bakes A Cake"... I remember that one. That takes me back yonks and all. I still remember the "Celestia begins with an S" reference, even after all this time. The fic started with a heavy comedic bent, and then sort of mellowed and became more mellow and softer later on. I remember having fun with the story, but the computer thing still bugs me.
I wonder if Lucky Dreams will ever come back to writing. They were good at it, and filled a specifically endearing family-friendly niche, taking the viewpoints of children very seriously, that I haven't seen catered to all that much.
Damn! I meant to edit this. Sorry about the stylistic awkwardnesses: I hit the submit button too early and didn't realize what I was doing until after it was already published.
DeleteLucky Dreams still writes. He entered a study program for children's stories, which I would assume he's finished by now. I'd like to know what name he writes under so I could see what he's gotten published.
DeleteLooking at Fimfiction just now, Lucky Dreams was online two hours ago as I write. So he's certainly at least popping in from time to time still.
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