Ponyfic Roundup 534

Read it Later story count: 91 (+2)

Words read this week: 27,058

It's been another week of sunshine and blue skies here, which is really different from the same time a year ago! Last month was the sunniest March in England since modern records began over a century ago, and early April has continued in the same vein. It should last a few days longer before showers start appearing again. Also appearing again right now, the list of this week's ponyfics:

Villains aren't supposed to Die by IGIBAB
Waking Up is Hard Sometimes by RB_
Captain Twilight by Moonlight Eclipse
No Filter by ReedHoarse
The Brave Little Caretaker by Estee

★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 2 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

Villains aren't supposed to Die by IGIBAB
Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow
G4; Sad; 4k words; Oct 2024; Teen (Death)

There's something the Legion of Doom forgot. One of them is not an almost-immortal being.

Several decades on from "The Ending of the End", Cozy Glow has died – and her other two erstwhile partners in crime don't really know how to handle it. There's certainly fun to be had here (despite that [Sad] genre tag) in seeing how Chrysalis and Tirek deal with such an unexpected-to-them event. There's some good harking back to the show, such as a weaving in of the whole "Empress of Friendship" bit Cozy did. The writing is a bit uneven, though – the author is French so writing in a second language, and that does show through a bit, though not disastrously so. Slightly too many overt references, and the last line is very clunky. So one of those mixed-bag fics. That usually means two stars, and so it is here. ★★

Waking Up is Hard Sometimes by RB_
Pinkie Pie
G4; Comedy; 2k words; Aug 2023; Teen

After 10,000 years, one of the Great Old Ones has awoken. Surely this spells doom for Equestria. Surely.

Originally conceived as an Outside Insight contest entry, this fic finally saw the light of day nine years later. Was it worth it? Well, yes, actually. The GOO in question comes to a certain bakery, where a certain pink pony... well, yes. It's Pinkie Pie. She can cope with this kind of thing, can't she? Yup. As befits its oldish-fandom origins, this story will work best if you remember the Cartoon Physics Pinkie we used to see a lot (for example) and the way she was sometimes seen as a kind of Eldritch Abomination in her own right. Silly fun, with that verdict meant as a compliment. High three. ★★★

Captain Twilight by Moonlight Eclipse
Twilight and Celestia
G4 AU; Drama; 1k words; Oct 2023; Everyone

The story of the fearsome Captain Twilight is more mysterious than it seems.

A "silly little one-shot [with] WAY too much lore," says the author, and that's a fair summary. I was actually pretty interested in where this was going, since after all Twilight being a pirate captain can work very well... I can even take Twi calling Celestia "Mother" given that this is an AU. As the author says, though, there is way too much packed into barely a thousand words. Add on an end A/N that rushes through even more of "what would happen after this" and the overriding feeling is (unusually) not that this author bit off more than they could chew, but that they didn't bite off enough. At five or more thousand words this could have been fascinating. As it is, it's rather frustrating. ★★

No Filter by ReedHoarse
Wallflower Blush, Vignette Valencia and Juniper Montage
G4 EqG; Romance/Comedy/Slice of Life; 14k words; Mar 2022; Teen

Wallflower struggles with conversation at the best of times. But when she meets the worst person in the world, Vignette Valencia, she finds her easier to talk to than anyone else.

This won a "committee prize" in the 2022 crackship contest, and quite right too. You'll need to be at least vaguely familiar with who the tagged characters are for this fic to work fully, but assuming that? It's fantastic. That's both because of the way ReedHoarse writes the characters so convincingly, but also because of the sheer fun in the writing (by the end, "Friendship Jail" will be stuck in your head) and the scarily accurate depiction of teen chat slang.¹ The way the core relationship develops feels organic and won me over very well, and it's nicely rooted in EqG world thanks to Sunset and a few others. The ending might divide opinion a little with the way it covers something fairly violent (although nobody actually gets hurt) but overall this is enormous fun. An easy four, which I wouldn't have expected from a fic starring these three! ★★★★
¹ Though using some of that now, er, "in the big 2025" would probably seem antique to today's teens...

The Brave Little Caretaker by Estee
Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and OC
G4; Slice of Life; 6k words; Aug 2024; Everyone

If Fluttershy is talking about having managed seven of something at the same time, then surely she has to be talking about a tail-swat of flies, right? ...RIGHT?

Estee is the author of Five Hundred Little Murders (PR 121) so I was expecting satisfying Fluttershy characterisation. I got that, very much so. The writing is lovely: 'Shy talking "as if [she] had needed to scavenge stray decibels from the air" is wonderful. But the most notable thing here is that we're seeing Ponyville through the eyes of an OC newcomer, and one who is both immensely dislikeable and strangely captivating to read about.¹ You do have to accept that this OC barely even knows who the Bearers are, but Fluttershy's response to her (and particularly to her companion) is just spot on for 'Shy and had me outright cheering. As such, happily recommended. Quite a high four, actually. ★★★★
¹ Described by more than one commenter as a "Karen". I really, really dislike that term. Fortunately the author doesn't use it.

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A really strong ending to this week's slate, wasn't it? I'd love to see more to reward my interest like that next week. Here are the tales that I've chosen to cover in PR 535:

The Same Scenario Repeated Three Times by Seer
Celestia's Prophet by Aegis Shield
Late Night Snack by GrangeDisplay
A Little Bittle of Sunshine by River Road
In His Image by daOtterGuy