Just a few short ones here. Since like 80% of my readers are here because of pony fanfiction, figured I’d keep on commenting on the fanfics I read. Even if I don’t have much to say about each one. Even just a ‘I read this and it was good/bad’ is pretty helpful when getting through the piles of fanfics after all. Might have to start doing them in smaller chunks. Or just start posting the MLP worldbook I’ve been working on. It’s almost finished enough that I need some outside eyes on it after all.
Small-town Charm by Cold in Gardez
Another fun story about how Ponyville is just crazy, but everypony is used to it. Seeing how Twilight Sparkle, who is not a Ponyville native, reacts to a quaint local tradition is hilarious. Seeing the reactions of the rest of the mane six was also fun. Rainbow Dash was good, as was Rarity. I think the story works best from a blank slate, so I recommend you go read it. Don’t want to give spoilers that might soften any of the comedic moments. The ending was quite well done. A little sweet, maybe a bit sad, but not exactly. A shift of tone from the rest of the story, but it works quite well.
Hate you, Love you by Pastel Pony
This one was a short, but well done story. Not sure if I should call this a character study. Another good example of how to have a fan fiction in parallel with events of the show without bumping into canon too much.
This was really good. A character study, of a sort, of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. I’d call it another character study of Pegasi in general really. Much like Thunderstruck, another one I really liked. Reading this I really feel like I understood just how a Pegasus sees the world. Highly recommended. Plus it has a adorable little epilogue that involves squirrels.
Sweet Apple Capers by The RPGenius
This one was really fun. Pinkie Pie versus Winona in a epic struggle for some apples. Author really nailed Pinkie Pie’s character without going overboard, I thought. Even had a good moment from Fluttershy’s point of view, though character voice wasn’t any different for that one. But still got what I consider a good snapshot of ultra-shy Fluttershy’s internal thought process. This story had fun escalation and I’m almost sorry that I didn’t get to see how the last attempt works out. This was also a really good example of how to lightly brush up against the show without really interfering. This is a pretty classic ‘between episodes’ event that happens right after the parasprite disaster, but doesn’t interfere with show canon or events at all.
Wow, this is a older one. I never really look at the post dates, most of the time, but the number on the cover image always catches my eye when I save it for the database. The number is auto-generated by the fimfiction website, as far as I can tell, so the bigger the number the more recent. This one is a while back. Anyway, on to the story.
It was okay, not great. Would much rather have had just a sweet Twilight/Luna slice of life romance. The action/adventure stuff with a evil villain was a bit bland. Bland is okay for a slice of life (relatively, that is) but you need more excitement for dramatic fight scenes. Or dramatic mind-manipulation scenes. During this story my most common thought was ‘The Immortal Game did this so much better’. Plus the chapter that started with ‘this part is pretty dark, you might want to skip it’ was a little disappointing. Once again my meterstick for that sort of think is waaaay off. The ‘dark’ chapter in this story wasn’t as bad as most of the violence scenes in Fallout: Equestria, The Immortal Game, or even Hard Reset.
Lastly, the big fight scene at the end, well… If I had money to bet I’d be that the author has seen Dragonball Z. Or other mainstream fighting anime. It pretty much reads like one of the big fights out of a generic action anime. Which was just kind of boring to me. As I realized when I watched the season 4 MLP premier, I’ve got a pretty high standard of magical fight scenes in my head. Dual Nature had a magical action scene that was ten times as good, and that was just the set-up scene near the start of the story.
Anyway, not bad. Kind of generic in places. Would have worked better as a straight romance slice of life.
The City of Doors 