Wednesday 13 May 2015

Ponyfic Roundup 56: Post-Election Ponies

Well, Mrs Miggins, at last we can return to sanity. The hustings are over, the bunting is down, the mad hysteria is at an end. After the chaos of a general election, we can return to normal. Assuming, of course, that by "normal" you mean getting back to reading about the manifold strange deeds of pastel-coloured ponies. Five short fics reviewed this week, and they are:

The Writing on the Wall by Horse Voice
Rarity Has a Book on Her Head by Majin Syeekoh
I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Closer-To-The-Sun
The Dragon's Riddle by horizon
Buck that! Bleep this. by Noble Thought

The Writing on the Wall by Horse Voice
Daring Do, OCs and Other
Dark/Adventure; 6K words; Aug–Nov 2012; Teen
Daring Do joins a mission to explore an extraordinarily ancient tomb, but beneath the ground lurks terrible danger. This starts out as a straightforward (though very readable) story of the sort you'd expect from a Daring Do story. That Dark tag is earned later. Horse Voice plays tough with the reader, but plays fair: you could work out what's going on before the (memorable) ending, but I only caught the hints on a re-read. I'm not entirely sold on the main villain's part, and might have preferred the story without them. Certainly recommended, though. ★★★★

Rarity Has a Book on Her Head by Majin Syeekoh
Rarity and Twilight
Random; 1K words; May 2015; Everyone
Twilight goes to help Rarity with a dress fitting and realises that... well, see title. This is a very, very strange and silly story. One or two little bits of tense shifting, and the final line is rather awkward, but it will probably give you at least a brief chuckle. It did me. ★★★

I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Closer-To-The-Sun
Twilight and Fluttershy
Sad; 2K words; Jul 2013; Everyone
Twilight pays a visit to Fluttershy, but finds the cottage empty and the pegasus in tears. I don't find either pony's voice especially convincing, there are a couple of sloppy errors (eg "past away") and starting the fic with "Celestia's sun" doesn't really help. It's not awful, but it's entirely predictable. This was written for a friend of the writer – and it rather shows. For the general reader, this doesn't hold an awful lot. ★★

The Dragon's Riddle by horizon
OCs
Slice of Life; 1K words; Oct 2014; Teen
The ancient Age of Dragons is at an end, and the race's leader challenges other creatures to see if they are worthy to rule the land. I love almost everything about this fable of past times: the world-building in particular. To create such a rich and evocative setting in barely a thousand words is deeply impressive. The dragon's name irritates me very slightly, but this is a clever, enjoyable and very well written short fic that is worth a few minutes of anybody's time. ★★★★★

Buck that! Bleep this. by Noble Thought
Applejack, Apple Bloom, Big Mac and Discord
Comedy/Slice of Life; 2K words; Apr 2014; Teen
Big Mac is protective of Apple Bloom, so tries to protect his little sister from Applejack's *bleep*ing language. I don't really get the point of this story: it's mildly amusing, but seems to be a one-note joke continued for almost 2,000 words. There's one hair-raising typo ("slaked" for "slackened") but otherwise the writing is decent. It's just that the story doesn't click with me. ★★

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