Still fighting my way through the backlog. Writing about pretty good, but not great, short stories is not nearly as fun as reading them. The things I do for my audience of spambots. Or to practice writing, one of those. Another three stories I’ve read recently and my reactions to them after this fancy page break thingy.
A Princess By Any Other Name by Skywriter
This is something of a cross-over with the pony civil service from Whom The Princesses Would Destroy… and that is awesome. Even though there is only three stories that involve them in any way they are one of my favorite ideas to spring out of my fanfic reading. This is also the first fan fiction to have Princess Cadence in it, well, Martial Bliss had a brief bit with her but that doesn’t count since it was just a episode reference and it was really a Shining Armor story.
This was a fun story. Not exactly a comedy in some ways, but did have good surreal humor. The idea of a semi-immortal alicorn divine royalty hitting a unyielding nit-picky bureaucracy had amusing moments. It is a part of a bigger set of stories of which there is only a few others out, one of which I read and will be coming up probably in the next set of short stories.
In Celestia We Trust, All Others Pay Cash by Georg
A silly little story about Celestia dealing with a mundane problem and how even a simple problem becomes not-so-simple when it happens to the divine ruler who raises the sun. I remember another story that mentioned that Celestia is bad with money… I think it was Celestia’s Teeth. Wonder if that is a thing out in the fandom I don’t know about because my only intersection with said fandom is reading fan fiction and checking out cool art online occasionally. Anyway, really good story.
The interesting worldbuilding bit is the idea that Luna was the more level headed and had a team of ponies that looked after her money and invested it, and that the family kept up the tradition throughout all the years she was exiled. Given that she was pretty much a evil tale told to scare little colts that is some dedication. I’m picturing it almost a semi-hidden religious cult.
Was a little frustrated by a ice cream vendor that was a bit rude to Celestia. Even as casual as she is, even in Canterlot I don’t think anyone would be that rude right to her face. Especially when it’s something as simple as a couple of bits for a snack. I mean Celestia could just trade a royal favor or something. But I suppose it needed to be that way to start the story off. The author emphasizing the leader of the state over the divine presence.
This is a more serious one. Pretty much a Twilight character study, though the rest of the mane six are involved. All the characters were done quite well in regards to their personalities of the show. Pretty good writing, but I must admit that it hit me a little harder than the quality of the writing can explain. Part of Twilight Sparkle’s comments at the end during the big catharsis at the end hit a little close to home for me. I’d recommend reading it, but in short the whole idea of just faking emotions is something I struggle with on occasion, just waiting to mess up and hurt someone. So points for a story that manages a personal connection.
No interesting worldbuilding stuff in this story sadly. Much of it takes place in Twilight Sparkle’s old home in (or near) the Canterlot school for unicorn wizards, or whatever the name is. That stuff could have been interesting but the author pretty much just used standard magic-as-technology boilerplate scenery trappings. Security illusions and such. Not bad, just forgettable and nothing to really fire the imagination. This version of Twilight and the world fits into my headcannon just fine, but doesn’t add anything new to my things to think about pile.
The City of Doors 