Read it Later story count: 95 (+1)
Words read this week: 25,066
The Lessons Left Unlearned by Donnys Boy
Stop Number Twelve by Casketbase77
Twilight Sort-Of Kills Her Friends by Mad Hattie
Perdition by Odd_Sarge
Solitude for the Modern Businessmare by Fahrenheit
★: 0 | ★★: 0 | ★★★: 3 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 1
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.
The Lessons Left Unlearned by Donnys Boy
Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie
G4; Slice of Life; 3k words; Feb 2014; Everyone
After the events of "Filli Vanilli," Pinkie Pie approaches Fluttershy with apologies. But when Fluttershy probes into just why and for what Pinkie is apologizing, Pinkie finds out that there are quite a few friendship lessons she has still
Yeah, the shortdesc cuts off in the middle of a sentence – because it's a copy of the longdesc shoved into a space with a tighter character limit. Fortunately the story itself is more carefully written. Many people (including me) were uncomfortable with Pinkie's behaviour towards Fluttershy in "Filli Vanilli", so I liked the idea of seeing what a good writer could do with the setup. This fic provides quite an interesting answer: the way Pinkie relates to Fluttershy is explored somewhat, and there are some nice bits of characterisation. (One part about smiles foreshadows a slightly later canon episode, too!) It's worth noting that Donnys Boy revised the way some of the other ponies behaved after initial feedback, so early comments about their passive-aggressiveness need not put you off. Not a bad look at all at how the two principals may have patched up their differences after the episode was over. ★★★
Stop Number Twelve by Casketbase77
Maud Pie and Vinyl Scratch
G4; Drama/Slice of Life; 8k words; May 2022; Teen
Maud Pie keeps her burdens under wraps. A gloomy bus ride sits her still as a statue, waiting for stop number twelve. But when a familiar face prances aboard, her facade cracks.This is a quite remarkable character piece. Lots of readers and reviewers have found this Maud to be both unique and perfectly fitted to the pony, and I'll be boring and agree. The bus ride provides a framework on which the narrative hangs, as various (and varied) side characters come and go and interact with Maud. One – Vinyl – is more than a side character, with a past link to Maud's life that is teased out slowly but interestingly. Vinyl's own backstory here is one I'm now surprised I haven't seen much before. But this is Maud's story, gradually uncovering several mysteries about her, not least why she always wears that frock. It's not completely free of irritations – I'm not the first reviewer to find the bus driver's cigarettes a little un-Equestrian. But still... Maud's characterisation here is so extraordinarily compelling that such quibbles seem trivial. This fic blew me away; it deserves much more attention than it's had. ★★★★★
Twilight Sort-Of Kills Her Friends by Mad Hattie
Twilight, Mane Six and Celestia
G4; Comedy/Random; 2k words; Mar 2017; Everyone
Twilight Sparkle decides to kill her friends. But, like, in a non-permanent 'you'll thank me for this later' kind of way.
Random comedy stories can sometimes end up being incoherent messes. Happily, this fic avoids that. It doesn't hurt to have a striking opening involving Rainbow waking up in a shallow grave (yes, this is indeed reasonably E-rated). Twilight, being an alicorn, is immortal. Cue the usual worries about outliving her friends. Fortunately, she can make them immortal too – but only by killing them first! They have somewhat mixed reactions to this, with some fun bickering and absurdities that certainly brought a few chuckles. It's a ridiculous story, but it's a funny one too. You could do a lot worse if you have a few minutes to spare for some idiocy. ★★★
Perdition by Odd_Sarge
Applejack and Apple Bloom
G4; Dark/Drama/Mystery; 1k words; Feb 2023; Everyone
Ponyville, Equestria. Population: 2.
A strange, highly atmospheric short whose questions are far from completely answered by the end. I'll freely confess that I don't fully understand it, although I suspect that I'm not really meant to. Applejack and her sister seem to be the only remaining living ponies around, but with a job to do regarding the spirits of their fellow equines. The cold, dark setting inevitably makes one wonder about whether Nightmare Moon is involved somewhere, but who knows? Open-ended and thought-provoking without being insubstantial, so a highish three here. ★★★
Solitude for the Modern Businessmare by Fahrenheit
Rarity and Ms. Harshwhinny
G4; Romance/Drama; 10k words; Aug 2016; Everyone
A wild romp around Canterlot with Equestria's most professional Inspector is hardly ladylike behavior. Crashing a party, trespassing, and evading the law with said Inspector aren't any better. Rarity can't quite bring herself to care.
Narrated in first person by Rarity, this is a tale of Hearts and Hooves Day. It opens with Rarity frustrated at her inability to finish off a dress. When she heads out into the dark streets, she spots a mare at a bookshop window. It turns out to be Ms Harshwhinny, and after some talk the two head off on the town. Not any old night: this involves a trip to the palace, some law-breaking (you read that right) and just the right level of wordiness to feel fitting for a Rarity story. Indeed, her eye for detail is a lovely feature of this fic. There is one word I had never heard of and had to look up,¹ which broke the flow a tiny bit, but it was a minor bump in the road. Points for a use of "pegasister" that wasn't horribly jarring, though. I won't spoil the ending, but like the rest of the fic it works for the characters. Good stuff. ★★★★
¹ "Turnt". We just don't use it at all in the UK.
Ah, it's nice to be back on the rails as regards regular reviewing. I particularly like the fact that I can once again give you lovely readers a peek (hah) at what's going to be on the slate next time around. Still on the light side word-count-wise, but better that than more delays, I think.
Walking you home by Nova Star Sparkle
Flip a Coin and She Smiles by Aragon
The Sunset Room by Foxy E
The Way It Goes Down by heartlessons
YO A FIVE STAR :O Time to move that story from my RIE (read it eventually, what my read-it-now list has become of late) to ARIN (actually read it now!)
ReplyDeleteDonnys Boy and Fahrenheit are two more authors who need more attention these days, for all that I'm pretty sure they've left :c
That's the way it goes with a backlog as large as yours: one Ponyfic reviewer (Casper here :D) gets a top-notch fic onto your RiN/RiE, another accelerates it to your ARiN! :P
DeleteI approve of the bookshelf segeration buddy, as I use something similar, though in my case, my To Read/Currently Reading bookshelf is more to have enough stories at hand (up to ten at a time, usually) to always have something to pluck off for quick reading; I choose at convenience from my RiL and Re-evaluate bookshelfves to fill it back up when empty. This happens less often then you might think, as if I find a curiosity-igniting story, or see it in a blog like this, I will at least consider adding it directly that bookshelf rather then the backlog ones. Length and interest permitting.
Not just two stories I've read, but two stories I was repsonsible for getting to this space in the first place! Neato!
ReplyDeleteAs Stop Number Twelve was an Ghost Mike Excellent, it feels unusual to say, but I think you liked it even more than me! A ★★★★★ will do that. It's certainly an unusual fic for Casketbase77, which I think is the culprit for its low traffic relative to the author's one-shots largely being given to clear the 1K view barrier – it seems too complex and dense to his regular readers' expectations.
With The Lessons Left Unlearned on the other side, it was long enough ago that I don't remember it all that much, and even consulting my original review doesn't refresh my memory much. But we share ratings, so I'll take your fresh appraisal for it!
The two other ★★★ don't appeal to me from their genre and type, but I suppose I will have to give Solitute for the Modern Businessmare a look in! And I am open to a good Mr. Harshwhinny fic as much as the next ghost. If nothing on the level of Rune Solider Dan, of course. :D
That was me. Darn Blogger not remembering my comment type choice after selecting it for replying to PP above…
DeleteI'm not sure "turnt" is a word here either, and I'm a fully licensed Southerner.
ReplyDeletePeek/peak is also one of the homophone mix-ups that rankle me most. Another is complement/compliment, though that's a little more understandable since the different is kind of buried.
I didn't even know it was supposed to be Southern until I read your comment!
DeleteIt's not super common, but I'm surprised how often I read "capitol" when it should be "capital". Admittedly mostly from American writers for obvious reasons, but then that's most of them... :P
Hm, it just sounded southern to me, like pronouncing "ruined" as "rurnt," but maybe it's not. In either case, I don't think I've ever heard turnt before.
DeleteLMAO Solitude was written with very basic, general slang (e.g. "turnt") back in 2016. Not (exclusively) southern vernacular at all. Perhaps some "urban" college kid vernacular, but very much written within the spirit of the Writeoff in an anachronistic fashion! :) Always super interesting to see how things are interpreted afterwards, regardless of intent, though! Thanks so much for the review!!
DeleteYou're welcome! (I'm assuming here that you're the author, and that Blogger has messed up again.) Of course, "spirit of the Writeoff" won't mean much to the majority of Fimfiction readers who've never participated, but your fic succeeded nicely without that knowledge, so all good stuff! (To be strictly across, I have done the Writeoff myself, but only once.)
DeleteThen there is "peak" when it should be "pique"...
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of that, but indeed!
DeleteTwo things I find in so many fanfics that bother me is so much misuse of pegasus/pegasi. It's almost always writing the plural when the singular is the correct word.
ReplyDeleteThe other is respelling a character's proper name because the author is from a different country. Shining Armour, Cosy Glow and Smoulder are some examples of what I mean. If an author wants to write about Shining Armor's shining armour, that's ok. But, don't change his name, dammit.
I'm Whisper Key and can't get this to post under my name...
DeleteI feel somewhat called out by that last bit! :D Though actually the spelling difference was what first have me the idea for that silly little fic, so I can't complain!
DeleteBut yes. Proper names being misspelt (or misspelled, gone to that) really irritate me. "Pinky Pie" is perhaps the I've that annoys me most, though, as that's not even a national spelling thing, just wrong.
Typo in that comment are of course my phone's fault. :P
Delete