Read it Later story count: 92 (+2)
UK PonyCon tickets went on sale last night, and perhaps unsurprisingly the top-tier Gold tickets (£370!) sold out within a fairly short time. As I type this the Silver tier is still available from the official ticket shop, though I don't know how many Silver tickets are left. There should (I hope!) be Bronze and Standard tickets available for a while yet. Anyway, let's move on to this week's four stories of small horses. Well, mostly horses, as we'll see...
Princess of the Day by Lets Do This
Rough night by Cackling Moron
I'm Pancake! by Frogmyre
One long eternity by NoGoodUsrNames99
★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.
Twilight, Celestia, Mane Six, Derpy and Cheese Sandwich
Comedy/Drama/Slice of Life; 10k words; Aug 2018; Everyone
"Hold on... What kind of spell again?" "A Princess of the Day spell." Each of the Mane 6 has a chance to step into Twilight's hooves as the alicorn Princess of Ponyville for a day.
I'm Princess Loganberry, I'm feeling quite merry, and I'm frankly very sure my cider is too strong... [Er, Logan? Logan! —Ed.] Oops, sorry. This earlyish Lets Do This fic does not, in fact, take inspiration from that song. Instead, it's quite a traditional fic in some ways, in that it's a self-contained Ponyville story in which we see each of the Manes in turn get on with their brief Princesshood. There are some fun moments here, not least when Rainbow's cockiness comes back to haunt her. The ponies are well in character and there's even some fun singing late on. A few too many minor typos, and Americans' tendency to see "bollux up" as suitable for an E-rated fic will never cease to be hair-raising/hilarious (delete according to taste) for us Brits. But though you wouldn't call this spectacular, our favourite ponies make pleasant enough company. A pretty solid three. ★★★
Rough night by Cackling Moron
[no character tags provided]
Slice of Life/Human; 2k words; Feb 2022; Teen
Human and horse-lady have a rough night, courtesy of child.
A human and a mare are married, or at least a couple, and they have a kid. If that puts you off, read no further as it's a fact of life here from the start. The story is set on Earth and the depiction of a father struggling with a sleepless night due to a young child is nicely done. How Pony is it, though, given that with a few – admittedly significant – exceptions this could have been written about two humans? (Apparently the author didn't name the mare in the tags deliberately, which will amuse some readers and annoy others. There are clues in the text, though.) It's a cute little fic, but in the end maybe this was a bit too real and not quite fantastic enough for my preference in ponyfic. I strongly suspect my top-end two will be lower than some readers' assessments, though. ★★
I'm Pancake! by Frogmyre
Twilight and Other
Comedy/Random; 1k words; Apr 2015; Everyone
Hello my dearest readers! Here at the Ponyville Confidential, we pride ourselves on telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And if you look inside, you'll learn the truth about the so called Twilight Sparkle!
Okay, this one is just ridiculously silly. Remember Twilight's "I'm pancake!" line in S5's "Castle Sweet Castle"? Well, here a dubious investigative reporter at a dubious tabloid takes it upon themselves to find out why the Princess said that. After all, doesn't it indicate that she is an evil pancake alien? This is definitely a fic for those who can (at least sometimes) just roll with ridiculousness. It's light and stupid and would never pass for serious literature, but that's not what it's for. I confess to being just a bit charmed by this one, and its final scene made me smile too. Nudges into the threes for that. ★★★
One long eternity by NoGoodUsrNames99
Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow
Random/Slice of Life/Tragedy; 1k words; Dec 2019; Everyone
Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis. In the garden together. Forever. Just the three of them.
The thoughts of the Legion of Doom members as they spend so many years as statues. A lot of them involve birds and their waste, unsurprisingly if rather clichéd-ly. There's some amusing dialogue here, not to mention a few fun revelations about what the trio have seen and heard during their captivity. As usual, these work best when they're sniping at each other. A few too many irritating little errors (eg "canterlot" right at the start) which is a shame, since (as the author says) it's nice to have a lighter-hearted look at the post-S9 Legion rather than the woe-filled gloom some other fics on the subject can dip into. This isn't especially deep or meaningful, but it would work fairly well as a tea-break story. Quite a high two. ★★
Next time, I hope that stories reviewed will include heliopause's look at Celestia's life through a guard's eyes, A Wake of Mist and Flame.
I'm pancake was such a great moment :D
ReplyDeleteCute and silly. An excellent combination!
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