Ponyfic Roundup 316

Read it Later story count: 183 (nc) 

Hey, would you look at that? I'm back up to three fics this week! Life outside the world of Pony continues much as it has done for many months now. Pretty dismal, in all honesty. Certainly lonely. However, ponyfic has been doing its usual thing of giving me at least brief moments of escape. Here are this week's three fics:

On Wings of Love by ocalhoun
Vengeance by Shaslan
Open to All by Casketbase77

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

On Wings of Love by ocalhoun
Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash and Twilight
Slice of Life; 4k words; Feb 2014; Everyone

Scootaloo has a good day. She deserves it.

A long while back (PR 161) I reviewed this author's One in a Million, which did rather put Scootaloo through the wringer. ocalhoun wrote this story to make up for that. This time around, Scoots isn't bullied or the victim of racism. Instead, she gets to achieve her dream of real flight – thanks to the "butterfly wings" spell Twilight used for Rarity back in S1 of the show. After that, this is really little more than Scootaloo doing tricks, bonding with Rainbow Dash and annoying Diamond Tiara. But you know what? That's just fine. There's not much of a story here, but if reading "Scootaloo has a good day" in the description made you smile, then this probably will too. ★★★

Vengeance by Shaslan
Chrysalis
Dark; 1k words; Oct 2020; Everyone

For some ponies, friendship is magic. For others, it is a curse. Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings, is freed from stone, to find herself once again the Queen of nothing.

The first-person thoughts of Chrysalis as she flies away after her S6-finale defeat. We get some insight into her thought processes, which is interesting, and there's a definite sense that her story is not over – at least, not in her own mind. There's hatred for Starlight and contempt for Thorax, too. The downside is that Chrysalis's thoughts seem a little superficial at times, and the dark undercurrents of her mind aren't really explored much. The reason is doubtless that it was written to a time limit for a contest. Considering this was done in 40 minutes, it's rather impressive – but I would certainly rather have read the same thing by the same author but without that constraint. I think that might have been pretty memorable. ★★

Open to All by Casketbase77
Fleetfoot and Breezies
Comedy/Slice of Life; 1k words; Aug 2020; Everyone

The Wonderbolts don't bar any creature from trying out for their team, so something like this was bound to happen eventually.

Set a little in the future, this light, fun fic sees Fleetfoot interviewing a prospective Wonderbolt – a breezie! He did excellently on the history test... but not quite as brilliantly on the practical sections. Fleetfoot isn't looking forward to telling him. This is simply a bit of silliness, and those looking for a deep exploration of Equestrian inter-species relations won't find it here. It did make me smile several times, though I didn't like the way the end Author's Note (a section readers often overlook) is actually more of a bonus chapter. Call it one! A high two even so. ★★

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Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: stories reviewed should include OnionPie's What Is Left.