Read it Later story count: 131 (-4)
Back to the usual three stories this week. Those of you with long memories may recall that once five fics per week (if they were short) was my standard, and maybe one day I'll get back to that. It's not as if I'm running short of ponyfics, after all! For now, though, it's likely to remain three. How much I like them each time can go all over the place, and I haven't been as lucky this week as I was last; today we have:
Baby, It's Cold Outside by Captain Unstoppable
Heart Filled Picnic by Brian Sheil
Reality From Nightmares by Ashtotron35
★: 2 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 0 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.
Rainbow Dash and Big Mac
Romance/Comedy/Slice of Life; 13k words; Dec 2015; Teen
There are not many things that Rainbow Dash can't withstand. She can take on danger all day long, but when it comes to the bitter cold she is beat. In search of shelter from the cold, she ends up spending the night at the Apples, alone with Big Mac.
Things are getting cold. There are "blizzards the weather team could not control", though we're not told why that is. Rainbow considers which of her friends she could crash with and eventually heads for Sweet Apple Acres – only to find that Applejack, and most of her family, will be away. From here on in, you probably know where this is going, though points for a fairly unusual ship here. Some cute stuff to do with pegasus "nests" (made of clouds, duvets etc) and with Rainbow's forlorn attempts to deny her cute appeal to herself. There's some quite blatant foreshadowing (AJ warning Dash very early on not to "corrupt" her brother), but the main problem is that Rainbow is so clearly interested in Mac the whole way through that there's very little tension, plus in general it reads a bit roughly. A decent two-star rating seems right. ★★
Heart Filled Picnic by Brian Sheil
Big Mac and Sugar Belle [and Other]
Random/Slice of Life; 1k words; Jan 2019; Everyone
Big Macintosh is bringing Sugar Belle over to Sweet Apple Acres for a visit. So, a visitor prepares a picnic for them
This is a scene more than a story, really. What you see in the short description is what you get. The author says he's mostly into G1/G4 crossovers, and that's certainly true here, what with Danny Williams' unexplained presence from the start at Sweet Apple Acres. I think the author was going for simple, sweet and cute, and that does show through sometimes: a mention that the CMC are "giving [Feather Bangs] lessons on how to talk to girls" amused me. However, the fic as a whole is just too rough to be pleasant reading. Characters say strange things ("Picnics sometimes have blankets to sit on" is from Granny Smith), tenses are inconsistent and dialogue tags need work. With a good editor this could become a pleasant bit of fluff, but as it is it's hard to recommend. ★
Reality From Nightmares by Ashtotron35
OC
Dark/Adventure; 1k words; May 2014; Everyone
When Dustwing wakes up in a dark room, he doesn't know whats in store for him ahead.
"I am an awesome brony," the author states in their bio. Well then. Anyway, an intriguing short description, and when it transpires Dust is in for some mysterious challenge, things seem quite promising. Unfortunately what we actually get is a series of really quite nasty tests, including a little torture, death and a frankly creepy kissing scene with a friend. No way should this be rated E. The ending is an unoriginal disappointment, too. Now, this was the author's first story, and everyone has to start somewhere – but we never got to see whether they'd improve as it was their last story too. You can safely skip this one. ★
Next time around, it'll be Ponyfic Roundup 350! I'll be marking the occasion with a Spotlight edition: RandomBlank's "Celestia on Earth... as an actual horse" AU fic A White Mare.
Ouch. Rough batch this week, huh?
ReplyDeleteNormally I always add any fic reviewed here that captures my interest (actually, more often I read it that day), but I think all these are a hard pass for me (the first less so then the other two).
Also, nice to see you closing in on that coveted 100-size threshold for your Read it Later list! By my calculations, based on the rate it’s been dropping this year, you should hit that in late December. A goal to look forward to!
Occupational hazard! If I only ever reviewed the "Great Works" of ponyfic I'd avoid it (well, mostly) but where would be the fun in that? :P
DeleteAs for the 100 mark, it would be easier to reach if people didn't insist on writing interesting new stories the whole time. :D
Gosh. Is this the lowest scoring Roundup ever?
ReplyDelete(The one next week sounds very interesting though!)
There was one some years ago when I chose stories almost entirely at random (using an RNG to pick Fimfiction story numbers) and that didn't work out too well either. It happens!
Delete(And yes. I've been meaning to read that one for ages.)