Read it Later story count: 92 (nc)
Words read this week: 27,285
Penance by Bicyclette
Just Want A Hug by SilverStar7
My Little Songfish by BlackWater
Dark Sunset by pabrony83
Asking a Favor by Tinybit92
★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 3 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.
Penance by Bicyclette
Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer, Sci-Twi and Zipporwhill
G4 EqG AU; Romance/Dark/Sci-Fi; 9k words; Apr 2023; Teen (Suicide/Self-Harm, Death)
As the years passed in Juniper Montage's mirror, Starlight found a way to give its inhabitants an escape. One she could never have for herself.
You'll need to have seen the EqG specials Movie Magic and, especially, Mirror Magic for the setup here to make proper sense. In this AU, Juniper isn't stopped at the end of Mirror Magic and so she ends up as (and credit to Bike for this not sounding laughable) "Her Cinematic Majesty" and those she don't like end up in the Void. Starlight uses the Memory Stone to create a shared dream – but will they ever go beyond that and actually escape? One of the few uses of Zipporwhill in a fic, and an interesting one as well. The stakes build and so does the creepiness factor; if you don't find your skin crawling at least once, you're stronger than me. (This doesn't have a [Horror] tag, but...) There is plenty of shipping and ship-adjacent content (it was written for a contest) in which Starlight, Sci-Twi and Sunset all play key roles. This fic has a relatively poor thumbscore (+52/-13) but I suspect the sheer darkness of it all plays a part there. When you have a floor made of ponies... well, you'll find out whether that's literal, figurative or something else. I was both horrified and impressed. ★★★★
Just Want A Hug by SilverStar7
Sunset Shimmer and Fluttershy
G4 EqG; Sad/Slice of Life; 1k words; Apr 2019; Everyone
Shortly after being accepted by Twilight's friends, Sunset begins to wonder if they are just being nice or if she is really their friend. She goes to Fluttershy to ask for a strange favor: will she give her a hug?
This fic is exactly 1,000 words long, although it pre-dates the Thousand Words contests. I appreciate that, against some expectation in this fandom, it isn't a shipfic and indeed doesn't even tease romance. Despite its brevity this fic took a little while to grow on me as I read, but what got me in the end was the sheer sincerity. (Anyone older-fandom than me remember the "New Sincerity" days?) Sure, it's a very simple story that doesn't contain much beyond what the shortdesc says, but it does it calmly and cutely. I think that shades it into the three-star band. ★★★
My Little Songfish by BlackWater
Dazzlings and Mane Seven
G4 EqG; Comedy/Slice of Life; 10k words; Apr–Sep 2017; Everyone
The Dazzlings revert to their true forms after their defeat. Half fish, half equine. One problem: they're small.
In a week of sometimes quite dark fics, it's nice to have this little piece of light relief. The first thing the sirens have to deal with is the lack of water, but fortunately the Manes are around to sort out that. Fluttershy in particular, who is as you would expect in her element dealing with critters in need. A fun moment with Sonata too, but there isn't really enough material here to fill a tale of this length, and the ending is a tad on the uninvolving side. Cute enough, but a mid-upper two is probably its appropriate place. ★★
Dark Sunset by pabrony83
Sunset Shimmer and Mane Seven
G4 EqG AU; Romance/Sad/Tragedy; 5k words [but see below]; Nov 2017–May 2018; Teen (Gore, Suicide/Self-Harm, Death)
It's a normal day at CHS, right? So why is everyone ignoring Sunset Shimmer?
(Only the first chapter, a bit over 3k words, is the current story.) This fic is now listed as an official sequel to Twilight's Last Gleaming, but that fic was only released a fortnight ago so I read Dark Sunset as a standalone. It's rather a spoiler to say what the (at least, surface-level) answer to that question in the shortdesc is, but suffice to say I guessed it early on. A later question is somewhat left hanging, but it's possible that's addressed in the more recent fic. What's more interesting to me is the character work here – perhaps my favourite scene is a sadly beautiful one in which Fluttershy comforts Sunset. Not everything works quite so well: Pinkie hugging someone because she forgot they had broken ribs is really quite hard to credit, certainly by this point in G4. An older version of this fic is included as a chapter, but after reading it I agree with the author that the new one is a noticeable upgrade. A three, albeit a moderate one, with that Flutters scene part of the reason. ★★★
Asking a Favor by Tinybit92
Sunset Shimmer, Rarity and Sweetie Belle
G4 EqG; Slice of Life; 3k words; Jan 2015; Everyone
Sunset needs someone to help fix her jacket, and she only knows one person who sews clothing. Unfortunately, she doesn't feel she deserves to be asking favors just yet. Rarity explains that, with friendship, favors don't need to be earned.
This story probably gives away a bit too much in that shortdesc, although as it's not an AU fic it's the way you'd expect a simple slice-of-lifer like this to go. This is reformed Sunset (completely reformed; this isn't a "struggles against her old self" type of fic) and the enjoyment mostly comes in seeing her nervous, halting encounter with a truly heartwarming depiction of Rarity's true generosity. A nice diversion into cutie marks, too; human!Rarity doesn't know what they are at this stage. A little Lavender Unicorn Syndrome ("the fashionista" etc), but not that much. All in all a nice, warm piece that I'm happy to award a three-star rating. ★★★
No particular theme next week, unless "stories I'd like to get around to reviewing" counts as a theme! One I won't be covering, although I originally hoped to, is CaptainPipsqueak's The Day After. Checking now, I see that since I added it to my list (long, long ago) the author has disabled both ratings and comments, and other than in exceptional circumstances I don't review fics where that's happened. I've replaced it with a story by Bad Horse that I've considered reading and then shied away from time and time again over the last decade. Now I'm publicly committing to it. Here's the revised list:
The Joy Hive by TheDriderPony
Counting Crows by VashTheStampede
Why Celestia Never Helps... by Huk
Pony Play by Bad Horse
Whatever I Shall Meet On The Road by astrolatryy
I was kinda hoping you'd say "tad(pole) on the uninvolving side."
ReplyDeleteAnd now I wish I had!
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