Ponyfic Roundup 341

Read it Later story count: 143 (+1) 

I apologise for bringing up the weather again... actually, no. I don't. I live in England; what do you expect? Anyway, we've just endured the coldest May Day Bank Holiday Monday (yes, all those words get capitalised) in half a century. Lovely. So once again I've been doing my reading inside, with the fire on. Here's what I've been looking at.

Home Is Where The Harp Is by Blueshift
The Dark Roads by P0nies
The Lament of Sweeney Trot by KenSES64

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

Home Is Where The Harp Is by Blueshift
Lyra and Twilight
Dark; 6k words; Jun 2012; Everyone

Lyra vs the Smooze

This, a little to my surprise, is Blueshift's RCL entry. The surprise isn't because it's not a good story – it is, very much so – but simply because it's not the first I'd have guessed. Life is a Lemon, PR 91, would have been, and I still think that's Blueshift's greatest ponyfic. This one isn't far behind, though. What it does is to take the Smooze we saw in G1, bring it to G4 Equestria, release it as the result of Twilight being careless (again...) and make it a truly chilling threat. And that, this fic does extremely well. It would certainly be worthy of the [Horror] tag had that existed in 2012. A drifting, demotivated Lyra is a great choice as protagonist, and this time Bon-Bon isn't with her (though she is significant). If you looked at the start of this, and then at the end, you might be very sceptical that Blueshift got from one to the other without extensive hoof-wavery. He does, though. This works, and if you want a G4 story where the Smooze is taken more seriously than in "Make New Friends But Keep Discord", then this is it. It should probably be tagged Teen, but that's a very very minor whinge for a great fic. A high four and enthusiastically recommended. ★★★★

The Dark Roads by P0nies
Twilight
Dark; 1k words; Sep 2013; Everyone

Some roads are dark, and some are well lit. Some do nothing but tell you... of what you should already know. Sometimes, things... or ponies are much different than you once have perceived.

(Pre-ascension) Twilight has a nightmare. Possibly. At any rate, she ends up in the Everfree Forest in a bit of a state (points for making Everfree scary!), but the story itself isn't all that startling; certainly the ending is basically similar to any number of other fics. What may be most notable is the writing itself, for example about an entity: "It was abstract, lacking the concrete elements for the scientific study Twilight would delve into. It never felt real, or was it always a simplistic device?" That's going to be a love it/hate it thing for many people, though I fell somewhere in the middle. I can't really justify more than two stars as it reads like what according to the author it is: something written on a whim. Read it if you like P0nies' writing style, just don't expect anything earth-shatteringly new. ★★

The Lament of Sweeney Trot by KenSES64
OCs, Nurse Redheart and Snips
Slice of Life/Tragedy; 1k words; Jun 2012; Everyone

Sweeney Trot runs a barber shop in Ponyville. Most would call his life simple, but he disagrees.

In spite of the name, this is not about a demon barber: the author says the name was just a handy pun. Sweeney, who narrates, suffers a tragedy when his wife is killed¹ and he injured in a balloon accident. Later, a much smaller accident leads to Snips taking a part-time job with the barber. It's a sad though interesting setup, and there's a pleasant enough conclusion. It's all very disjointed, though, jumping from event to event without this feeling like the author was doing it deliberately. That robs us of the chance to truly get to know Sweeney. There are a number of irritating basic technical errors, too (eg "board" for "bored"). One of those fics where a bit more experience – this was the author's first completed story – and a bit of extra care could have given us a more interesting ride. ★★
¹ I assume mention of "closed casket" at her funeral is intended to imply serious injuries. Here in UK-land nearly all funerals are closed casket, so I'm guessing.

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Next time, stories reviewed should include JoeShogun's "Twilight gets The Talk from Celestia" comedy Of Birds and Bees and Awkward Things.