Read it Later story count: 92 (-5)
Words read this week: 30,840
The Cat-astrophe by Samey90
Heart of Gold by TCC56
She Kills Monsters by chiko
Coronavirus by Thought Prism
The Two Doctors by Silver Needle
★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.
The Cat-astrophe by Samey90
Fluttershy, Opalescence and Sweetie Belle
G4; Comedy/Random/Slice of Life; 1k words; Dec 2024; Teen (Death)
Opalescence is an outdoor cat. Fluttershy is mildly bothered by this.
The newest fic on the slate this week, although its author has been around ponyfic for a long time. Sweetie Belle has been coming to Fluttershy with injured critters for a while. Flutters is unhappy to discover that they've been... found by Opal and makes her feelings known. Sweetie is rather unbelievably dense and there's the odd irritating error ("He was missing half of its head", my italics) but the fic is quite amusing if you can get past that. The ending is slapsticky and references another famous property, but I'm not sure it quite fits the rest of the tale. A mixed bag, then, so two stars it is. ★★
Heart of Gold by TCC56
Gilda and Tree of Harmony
G4; Drama; 3k words; Aug 2021; Everyone
"Harmony, I have come to bargain," shouted Gilda.
Yes, that's the shortdesc. This is post-"Griffonstone" Gilda, and she's come to the Tree to try to get help for her society. As happened in the show, the Tree appears to her in the form of a hologrammatic Twilight, something which rather throws Gilda off. I am impressed by Gilda's commitment to her cause, which at one point reaches truly heroic proportions. She's well characterised in general, especially in how she speaks. I also like the solution she's come up with, which is the reason she's come to the Tree in the first place. There's an issue with the Tree's unawareness of the situation (see Eroraf's spoilery comment) but that aside my only complaint is a lack of Infinite Improbability Drives. ;) I can't think of another story which pairs these two characters, and I'm glad this one does the team-up justice. Top-end three. ★★★
She Kills Monsters by chiko
Rarity and Sweetie Belle
G4 EqG; Adventure/Drama; 15k words; Oct–Nov 2019; Teen (Death)
After losing her sister, Rarity buries herself in her work. Just as lost, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, armed with a personal Ogres & Oubliette's module, try to help the seamstress open more than just her boutique.
This RCL-inducted story is the only one on chiko's account, though even it was deleted for a while. It was runner-up in the Imposing Sovereigns II contest and has an unusual structure: exactly 15,000 words split into 30 equally-bite-sized chapters. Not only that, but we get three interwoven strands: the past before Sweetie's death, the present in the real world, and the fantasy world of an Ogres & Oubliettes module written by Sweetie. This last brings out an important aspect of her personal life. The emotional range here is remarkable, never losing sight of the tragedy but understanding that sad stories can still include laughter. Sibling loss is still often very misunderstood, but as someone who sadly knows what it's like to be in Rarity's position I feel chiko judged this core aspect extremely well. The Belle parents appear from time to time and don't come over especially likeably, which I have mixed feelings about. The actual O&O sessions are fine and interesting, though occasionally some aspect feels slightly underexplained; perhaps the rigid 500-words-per-chapter format does harm it slightly there. I have just enough reservations to keep She Kills Monsters from a top rating, but it's a very easy four. ★★★★
Coronavirus by Thought Prism
OC
G4; Comedy; 2k words; Mar 2020; Teen (Death)
The dread Coronavirus has emerged in Equestria. Meanwhile, Corona Sheen’s life has been rather miserable of late.
I picked this story simply out of curiosity: could a fic on this subject published on that date¹ hold up without the obvious context happening all around? The answer is... kind of. To anyone who was around at the time (which is all of us, granted) there are familiar notes, such as the retail battle for toilet paper. The idea of a pony named Corona being shunned after wrongly being assumed to be the cause is an amusing one, too. On the other hoof, one or two of the lines regarding the virus's seriousness seem undercooked in the light of what actually transpired in our world. Not a fan of the ending, which is pretty out-of-nowhere. Overall, a museum piece now, but not an unreadable one, so a moderate two-star rating is where I've landed. ★★
¹ To be precise, 15th March 2020.
The Two Doctors by Silver Needle
Dr Caballeron and Dr Whooves
G4; Romance/Adventure; 10k words; Nov 2023; Teen
Doctor Caballeron is down on his luck, and just as he's finally found something without Daring Do getting in the way, a mysterious pony calling himself "Doctor Whooves" appears.
This story has a relatively poor +16/-4 thumbscore, but I don't think it deserves that. I'm pretty certain at least some of those downvotes are purely because it's M/M romance. Sigh. Anyway, this fic was written for a shipping contest but the romance, though present, definitely takes second place to the adventure. I'm surprised I haven't seen the two Doctors teamed up before, but Silver Needle makes it work, giving them both deeper characterisation than they get in canon. Their cutie marks' meanings are cleverly worked, too. Of course a priceless golden object (a sundial) is involved, and of course the ancient temple they're in is full of danger. I'd have expected nothing less. Other than the very occasional clunky line (one, inevitably, is about snakes) and the slight suddenness of the relationship's development near the end, I found this a smooth and fun read. Top-end three and props for making this team work. ★★★
Once again next week, I'll be concentrating on stories that have been on my Read it Later list for quite some while. After that, I'll return to my usual mixture and look at some newer and/or much less well known fics as well. For next time, though, this is what awaits:
NYC Title 24 §4-03 by Admiral Biscuit
Lightning Pest by Casketbase77
The Ponies in the Caves by SockPuppet
The Conference Call by Dafaddah
I did say I wanted to get that RiL story count down, didn't I?
ReplyDeleteNot recently, I don't think, though I know it to always be a goal, of course.
To anyone who was around at the time (which is all of us, granted)
Inb4 some new teenage far of Pony comes across this blog post a decade-plus from now and this statement is no longer true. :P
Read Heart of Gold when it was new, though as that was when I was rating stories silently without comment, who knows how I came to the Decent I gave it then. And whoop, glad to see She Kills Monsters pop up. Wasn't totally without reservations myself, so I get it barely missing your top rating too, but still: phenomenal fic from a one-and-done author that can always do with more praise and spreading.
And though it doesn't grab me, glad to see an M/M story rate highly: they're understandably rare and don't deserve to be knee-jerk downvoted by… "conservative" people, being polite.
Next week's a good one! Always love to see a Casketbase snippet (this is one I haven't read too), and you're finally delving into SockPuppet's Redheart stories! As I didn't read that prequel first, could be a useful review for me too.
I didn't quite say I wanted to get it down, no. Though last week I did say I wanted to stop it getting back into three figures.
DeleteShe Kills Monsters is so good that I really regret chiko didn't publish anything else. Well, unless they did but under another name, I suppose.
you're finally delving into SockPuppet's Redheart stories!
Well, I've already covered "A Story to Relate To". That was reviewed (favourably) in PR 507. Looking forward to this one, though.
Ooh, She Kills Monsters! :D That's one of those stories I see the title and get immediately excited.
ReplyDeleteI can understand that. I can't really get excited about it myself, owing to the subject matter being too close to home, but I'm certainly impressed.
Delete