Ponyfic Roundup 365

Read it Later story count: 99 (nc) 

We're back to the usual small hoof-ful of short stories this week. In truth I'm quite glad I've actually managed to get three done. Lots going on at this end, although almost none of it very interesting. What I will note is that M&S muffins are very nice and remarkably good value at a quid each, especially since you don't have to buy a multipack as you do in most supermarkets. Anyway, here are this week's three:

Friendship is Optimal: Terra Online by Raugos
Fluttershy Gets a Shot by Lucky Seven
Gallus Makes A Turkey Sandwich by BootyPopperzZz

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

Friendship is Optimal: Terra Online by Raugos
OCs
Sci-Fi/Slice of Life/Human/Alternate Universe; 9k words; Apr 2021; Teen

Celestia was Humanity's salvation through destruction. Recursive Friction intends to return the favour.

An interesting entry in the Friendship is Optimal Writing Contest. It will work best if you've read the original FiO (PR 80), but I don't think that's strictly necessary. Since Raugos was the author of the classic Integration (PR 24), it's perhaps not surprising that human-turned-pony protagonist Recursive Friction has a nicely drawn changeling partner, Bombyx – partner in the romantic sense – and that the changeling hive plays a significant role here. The bare bones of the setup are that Recursive, upset that Celestia won't turn him back into a human, develops a game within Celestia's virtual world that will allow the human-turned-ponies to, effectively, be human again. It's a great concept, and the last third in particular delighted me. I did find the build-up a bit less to my taste, especially given some of the necromancy and such felt just a tiny bit like reading a D&D game report. Definitely well worth it for dedicated FiO fans, who should probably bump this up to a four-star rating. For me it's a high three. ★★★

Fluttershy Gets a Shot by Lucky Seven
Fluttershy
Comedy/Slice of Life; 1k words; Apr 2016; Everyone

Fluttershy goes to the doctor's office and has to get a shot. She is, of course, terrified.

This is one of those shortfics where the plot is pretty much the short description. It's a gentle smile kind of comedy rather than a raucous laugh one, but that's okay for a Flutterfic. The ending is amusing, too. 'Shy seems a bit too scared for a 2016 story, though, and it frankly stretches credulity that somepony doing her work wouldn't have had her tetanus jab* of all things. That's why this fic only gets a two-star rating in the end: it requires you to believe that Flutters would do something that would either be anti-vaxxy (and she's not that stupid) or just plain reckless in her line of work. If you can get past that, this is a nice short read. I only partially can. ★★
* One of my odder experiences these last two years has been discovering that, in some countries, the word "jab" (often "jag" in Scotland) can have negative connotations. Not the case at all over here; the NHS itself uses it widely.

Gallus Makes A Turkey Sandwich by BootyPopperzZz
Gallus, Smolder and OC
Random; 1k words; Apr 2020; Everyone

Gallus makes the perfect turkey sandwich.

The reason is that he (and the other students) are preparing some of their cultures' food for a School of Friendship assignment. He takes Smolder through all the stages, since the dragon isn't likely to be freaked out by meat the way some of the herbivores might. It's a quiet read with some decent character dialogue, and it's one of those "spend time with the characters" fics that might be better tagged [Slice of Life]. The downside is that it's only barely a story. It's more the author putting an Equestrian veneer on their own favourite sandwish recipe in this world, as the end A/N makes abundantly clear. I mean, it's an inoffensive fic, but I suspect most are likely to get more out of the recipe than the story that surrounds it. ★★

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Next time, stories featured should include Ardensfax's RariTwi romance The Shadow of a Doubt.