Ponyfic Roundup 387

Read it Later story count: 89 (-3)

This post is a few hours late this week owing to technical derpiculties. For which read, Logan managed to delete his entire write-up just as it was about to be scheduled and has therefore had to redo the lot from his notes this afternoon. Go Logan. Anyway, four fics as usual this week. One that's quite a bit longer than a non-Spotlight story here tends to be, plus three quickies. Shall we get moving? Might be a good idea...

How to Friendship a Comet by Fylifa
The Cruelties of Friendship by SomeGenericPonyNameHere
A Bit of a Kick and Spice by SirNinji
Scholar's Mate by Undome Tinwe

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

How to Friendship a Comet by Fylifa
Twilight, Luna, Celestia, Starlight Glimmer and Mane Six
Romance/Adventure/Drama; 33k words; Apr–May 2017; Teen

A comet heads towards Equestria and Twilight is bidden by the other Princesses to move it into orbit. Problem is, she has no idea how.

This is a story that FanOfMostEverything might have submitted to his fellow Royal Canterlot Library judges for induction had the RCL not ceased operations. Set during the later part of S6, the fic sees Twilight – still not completely at ease with alicornhood and with Rainbow still giving her some flying lessons – having a week to sort out the comet's orbit. Is this some kind of test? Is there a threat to Equestria? Twi, of course, worries about everything. Fortunately she has her budding pupil Starlight (herself still new to friendship) plus Celestia to help – but more especially Luna. This is where the [Romance] tag comes from: there is some restrained TwiLuna, though this isn't a shipfic in the foreground sense. I like the characterisation here, with elements such as Pinkie's family background giving her knowledge of rocks and Applejack coming up with a particularly useful earth pony analogy for what Twilight needs to do. Fluttershy's friendship with Discord is also relevant to a certain extent, but there are also some more profound thoughts: "friendship is magic" isn't just a slogan in Equestria, after all... There are a few minor irritations, such as a particularly egregious Lunaspeak failure ("In this booketh", for shame!) and persistently using "millennia" as a singular, but nothing that seriously gets in the way of the story. You can see much of the ending coming from some way out, but the journey remains enjoyable. Oh, and the title will make sense when you're done. Recommended. ★★★★

The Cruelties of Friendship by SomeGenericPonyNameHere
Discord, Celestia and Fluttershy
Sad/Tragedy; 1k words; Jun 2016; Everyone

Discord is left behind to live with memories of his dearest friend.

Discord rages against the unfairness of the world after the loss of Fluttershy. That's pretty much the plot. It's more of a scene than a fully rounded story, but the way Discord's angry anguish comes through seems fairly convincing, though with such a personal subject everyone is likely to have their own ideas about that. Celestia's appearance late on gives Discord somepony to bounce his emotions off, but this is really something close to a monologue. I rather like the way that Discord's emotions are so mixed, that he knows they're so mixed, and that that too contributes to his upset. Perhaps too slight for those looking for a story with more progression, but since I don't mind it being a simple scene it nudges into the threes for me. ★★★

A Bit of a Kick and Spice by SirNinji
Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Spike
Comedy/Random; 1k words; Dec 2014; Everyone

Pinkie has created a cupcake with a special ingredient. Something to give it a bit of a kick, possibly too much.

Twilight is puzzling over the organising for Winter Wrap Up, so Pinkie stopping by with a new cupcake creation might be considered a nice distraction. The snag is, it's a bit on the spicy side – Pinkie's contacts over in the Zebra lands might have something to do with that. Still, there's always Spike to give it a go... if you're already smiling, this may be worth a look. This is really a one-joke story – "Twilight eats a very spicy-hot cupcake" – but it's quite pleasantly written and Spike has a fun closing section. A little LUS at times (there's even a literal "the lavender alicorn" in there). The end A/N makes fairly clear this was a block-breaking story, and it kind of reads that way in its straightforward vignette of Equestrian life. Passes the time, at least. ★★

Scholar's Mate by Undome Tinwe
Flurry Heart and Cozy Glow
Romance/Drama; 4k words; Feb 2022; Everyone

Flurry Heart hosts a chess tournament for her hoof in marriage. Cozy Glow intends to win on her own terms.

Unusual character tags, eh? This fic was written for a FlurryGlow shipping contest, and it sees the two of them (now young mares) as a couple, scheming together to set up the aforementioned tournament as a way of getting their thus-far-secret engagement out into the open. Flurry seems to be a ruler now, though Twilight isn't even mentioned so it's hard to be sure. You do wonder, with Cozy having clearly escaped her stone confinement, what might have happened to Twi... but moving swiftly on! Flurry and Cozy both end up determined to lose their chess tournament and they push their considerable scheming skills to the limit in trying to do so. A modicum of chess knowledge will help with this story, knowing what check is, how pawn promotion works, etc. However detailed expertise is not needed and only in the chapter titles do we find specific moves notated. Naturally, the Scholar's Mate. Nicely done, and a high three that I think anyone who even vaguely likes either chess or these two characters will enjoy. ★★★

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Next time, I hope that stories reviewed will include SaddleSoapOpera's tale of the first rule of Discord and what the young Celestia and Luna did about it, A New Age.