Wednesday 28 July 2021

Ponyfic Roundup 353

Read it Later story count: 125 (nc) 

Right, thanks to a friend for giving me a heads-up that I'd forgotten to update this intro section! So, here's a new one. Short but shiny! But mostly short. Three fics for you this week:

Head in the Clouds by Timaeus
Girl Talk by Starswirls Beard
An argument by Xenont

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

Head in the Clouds by Timaeus
Twilight and Rainbow Dash
Romance/Slice of Life; 19k words; Jul 2013; Everyone

After a dispute about the latest Daring Do novel, baking shenanigans, and a very vivid dream, Rainbow Dash finds herself questioning her feelings towards Twilight.

This was written for a TwiDash contest, but the link to that contest's rules is now dead. Anyway, Rainbow starts out this fic by getting annoyed with Twilight because she can't see that Daring Do is meant for Rosetta, the bookish librarian. Can you see where this is going? Of course you can. This is not a fic for you if you want wild swings and unexpected turns, but it is for you if you want a soothing warm bath of fluffy shipping. "Cute" is probably the best word to describe this, with a few fun little scenes (the CMC's attempts at baking...) and Rainbow's dream sequences are nicely turned, too. Not really much to complain about beyond the odd "speedster pegasus". Pleasant, undemanding TwiDashery. ★★★

Girl Talk by Starswirls Beard
Twilight, Celestia and Luna
Comedy; 1k words; Oct 2013; Teen (Sex)

During a meeting in the throne room, Twilight gains a new power she didn't know princesses could have. She has no idea that she doesn't want it.

This one is very odd. As a "newly ascended Twi discovers being an alicorn involves more than she bargained for" fic, there is at least something new here. However, so little is explained that there's a headcanondump in the end A/N... and what you can work out is unpleasant. Actually, reading the Fimfiction comments makes it worse. Definitely not one for Luna fans, as she is characterised in a way I found really unpleasant. Celestia's not much better, either. Twilight is at least not horrible. ★

An argument by Xenont
Rainbow Dash and Mane Seven (EqG)
Equestria Girls/Random/Slice of Life; 1k words; Oct 2018; Everyone

Rainbow Dash gets her band members to do what she wants, forcing them to do a show just to prove that she is the best.

Rainbow is thoroughly unpleasant to all the other Rainbooms and decides she can run the band herself. That's it. That's the story.

To be fair, Rainbow is reasonably well in character and this is apparently intended as the first half of a two-parter, but it's presented as a standalone fic so that's how it gets reviewed. And on that basis, it doesn't really tell you any more than you can read in the short description above. ★


Next time around, stories reviewed should include Celefin's railfic Track Switch – Frankfurt Calling.

6 comments:

  1. Hmm, marked unpleasantness today! :| Good thing you had cute TwiDashery to balance it out some.

    tfw the link to the contest is dead though, that makes me sad for some reason D:

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    1. Yes, I only now notice how many times I wrote "unpleasant[ness]" this week! :P

      It was called something like the "TwiDash Abandoned Fic Contest", so I guessed it was one of those where you're given the start of a story and then have to carry on from there. Not sure, though.

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  2. Huh, tough week. May next week find you back in the good graces of an enjoyable Fluttershy story.

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    1. It happens. And actually, I'm really looking forward to Track Switch. I'm not expecting it to match The Railway Ponies: Highball in my affections, but I do like railfics.

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  3. "Twilight is at least not horrible."
    XD A ringing endorsement if ever I heard one!

    I'm not particularly thrilled by TwiDash, but after the several "clever" fics I've read this week, something pleasant and undemanding sounds very attractive.

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    1. I always try to find something good to say! I can only think of a small handful of stories where my reviews really have been relentlessly negative.

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