There's apparently been some stuff going on over on EqD with regard to music coverage. This has probably been discussed to death on Twitter, but as I don't really use that any more I remain in blissful ignorance. And you know what? I think I like it better that way. Anyway, from music let us return to ponyfic, and have a look at this week's four fics...
A Wake of Mist and Flame by heliopause
The Tragic Tragedy by Regidar
The Creature by Critic
Legends by Timey-Wimey
★: 1 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.
Celestia and OC
Slice of Life; 14k words; Dec 2012–Jan 2013; Everyone
A day in the life of Princess Celestia, as seen through the eyes of one of her guards.
How much you like this fic will probably depend to a large degree on how you feel about "Chessmaster Celestia" stories, since (POV character) Darillon definitely understands that every little thing the Princess does has meaning – even if he personally doesn't always understand it. Myself, I'm a bit in the middle about such fics. This is a nicely drawn depiction of Celestia in that vein, and I appreciate that she doesn't end up being pretty unappealing as she does in a few too many "Chessmaster" stories. There are some clever little touches (for example a scene on the shifting border with Everfree) and the ending is fairly satisfying. A Luna abacus reference grated, though: that's very old-fandom and seemed unnecessary here. All in all, a highish three for me, but I could easily see some finding it a full star higher or lower. ★★★
The Tragic Tragedy by Regidar
Twilight
Comedy/Random/Tragedy; 1k words; Aug 2012; Everyone
Tragic events occur.
If you recognise the author name, you'll expect something weird, and you get it. This can be read as a satire on the tearjerker stories where everything goes wrong. On the other hoof, it can also be read as a "What did I just read?" tale. Or both. Probably both, if I'm honest. Twilight wanders about being totally miserable and in pain for what the narrative admits is no really sensible reason. Sample sentence: "She [Twilight] shoved him away, accidentally causing him to fall down a cliff, where he died of childhood obesity." Yeah. It's clear from the Fimf comments that quite a few people thought this was great. Maybe things have just changed too much in nine years, or maybe I'm just not wired for this. Gets two stars mainly for maintaining its total ridiculousness for a thousand words, but I'm not in a hurry to re-read this. ★★
The Creature by Critic
Celestia and Luna
Comedy/Random; 1k words; May 2012; Everyone
Luna is terrified of this strange new creature she wakes up to find one day.
Luna sees a mouse and is scared of it. That's basically the story. Celestia spends some time trying to convince her sister that the mouse is not about to destroy the world, but Luna doesn't seem to be all that convinced. Some nice sisterly bonding between the two of them, and this was certainly my favourite part of the fic. A very odd ending, which made me smile somewhat but felt very out of keeping with Equestria – the fic really earns its [Random] tag there. A solid two. ★★
Legends by Timey-Wimey
Derpy and Other
Sad; 2k words; Nov 2012; Everyone
Derpy Hooves ventures into The Everfree Forest and meets a certain stallion who was believed to be a myth...
Another fic going all out for the sad feels, but without the random element. In this story, Derpy has lost her daughter and goes to look for her in the Everfree Forest. Unfortunately something is lurking... there's the setup for a nice little chiller here, and using Derpy in a story like this is an interesting idea. Unfortunately what we actually get is a pretty uninvolving "Slenderman in the Everfree" story with fairly unbelievable progression and quite an unpleasant plot for an E-rated fic. Hard to recommend this one, sadly. ★
Next time, I hope that stories reviewed will include PapierSam's Rainbooms-on-TV satire We Are Forever.
Another interesting if not necessarily stellar crop. The abacus thing would have gone completely over my head as even being a reference, I wonder how many old school knowing winks I've just glossed over in ponyfic because I didn't turn up until much later?
ReplyDeleteProbably quite a few, since even my spring 2012 start was too late to catch some things. Sometimes they just slide past, sometimes they don't.
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