Ghost Mike's Ponyfic Review Monday Musings #46 · 6:00pm Jan 23rd, 2023
I don’t really talk about my personal life here, except in the abstract, and that’ll be the same today. But an intro that didn’t mention the below would feel really fake to me right now, like I was trying to tell myself it didn’t matter.
Last Monday, my grandad, who had been in the hospital already for a more minor reason, started suffering badly, with his kidneys basically ceasing to malfunction. He had been in and out with checkups and recoveries over the last handful of years, and has gone through such things as an appendix removal and getting a hearing aid, among others. But this was severe enough that the relatives there called just about everyone, and those of us able to come down did so that very evening. He had been agitated and delirious from all the medication beforehand, unable to sleep, but by the time I saw him, he was sleeping, and that continued through to the visit tomorrow, when he was moved to a palliative ward.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, he passed away, at age ninety-two.
Rosary and wake, removal and funeral followed on the following three days. Shaking hands at the removal took three-and-a-half hours alone, that’s how well-known he was (though this was the kind of town where folks go even if they don’t know the deceased). The funeral was even streamed, as had become custom during COVID (and I hear the quality was clear enough that every word could be heard, quite a departure from the growing pains such things experienced in 2020). Me, my siblings and cousins partook in various duties throughout; for me, this included doing a Payer of the Faithful and helping to lower the coffin into the grave. The high influx of guests also included tons of relatives I hadn’t seen since pre-COVID, so the more normal chatting around and after the proceedings kept us busy enough.
Despite my intense emotion and affection for my hobbies, and ease with those who share said hobbies, when it comes to folks outside that, I find empathy hard. Of course I was affected by this, and when I wrestled with the choice of seeing him like this or keeping the prior memory of him at Christmas as the last one, I did break down. And of course, everyone there knows I care. But relative to most folks at the funeral, I was relatively collected, more being sad than feeling sad. Other than the aforementioned decision, I didn’t cry throughout the whole week.
I’m not sure how to feel about that. I guess we all have our own way of grappling with these sorts of things. And considering everyone, even the medical experts, had said he would probably be gone years ago, maybe I’d just already made my peace with it. It’s a new experience for me; the only other relative of a similar or smaller family tree distance I’ve had pass that I actually remember was my granny on the other side, and similarly, that experience passed quicker than I would have figured.
My grandad was still fully there mentally, right to the end, and had continued working on the family farm he started in his youth through to last summer in some capacity. He raised six kids that were the first in the family to ever go to college, all now married and spread across the world. He bore witness to over a dozen grandkids all flourishing in secondary school, college or the working world, and about whom he was so proud. He played plenty of sports at a high county level in his day, was a founding member of a county farming board and remained there for thirty-eight years, and was a revered local with a very strong legacy and level of respect. But more than anything, he was one of the most gentle, generous, morale-boosting and uplifting souls I’ve ever known. Always looking after any of us when we visited, always happy to see us. Always proud of us. And always gifting us with money even when we were adults, often doing it hush-hush even though everyone knew. I had virtually nothing in common with him, but my dad, even when Grandad was still here, assured me that simply being in the room with him did wonders. So even if I definitely didn’t do as much with him as I could have in recent years, when I did see him, it did good, for both of us.*
* This was more or less my contribution to a mini-eulogy of memories every grandkid had, recited by my brother.
For me, that is overriding the sadness. I don’t think I was alone there either; much was said on his fulfilled life both by the priest and us all, and many, myself included, felt it was a sendoff he’s have approved of (with some comical nitpicks befitting his character, of course). So, while many were sad and some were tearful (more at the removal when the coffin was open, naturally), the atmosphere wasn’t overly mournful. Life goes on. Even if it hasn’t fully sunk in yet in some aspects, I’ll be fine. And he’d want us to carry on fulfilling ourselves.
Having gotten through that, though I’m sure you’ll all appreciate why I needed to say it, and what it says not about him, but about me, I’ll leave you with some Ponyfic reviews. Good thing I prepare these way in advance! Here’s a regular batch of five.
This Week’s Spectral Stories:
A Ballad of Eeyup and Nope by ambion
A Hearth's Warming Fanfic by Tennis Match Fan
What Happens Next by Bandy
Business in the Front, Party in the Back by Tumbleweed
Frozen by Aquaman
Weekly Word Count: 45,102 Words
A Ballad of Eeyup and Nope by ambion
Genre: Slice of Life
Big Mac, Mane 6, CMCs
33,219 Words
September 2012-October 2013Reread
All over Equestria, sibling rivalry knows no bounds. Which is how Big Mac finds himself accepting a bet from Applejack to go a whole day without saying the two words that compromise the majority of his speaking. The reward, she does three days of his chores. The failure, dancing in embarrassing attire in town. As he mills around Ponyville for this day, encountering many faces in new contexts, it proves to be an interesting day for reasons above and beyond this challenge.
That sounds like an awfully thin scenario for 33K, so it is certainly good that this is used as the basis for an original view of Big Mac’s life (best described as ‘straight stallion to crazy mares’, but, like, done well), with varied subplots or at least viewpoints for many side characters popping up throughout. Even among Season 2-3 stories, there’s a delightful quaintness to the proceedings, from a CMC incident that Big Mac intends to flip into a positive before they get into trouble, to Rainbow Dash being unrelenting in everything, to Twilight being obsessively meticulous as only she can, to calmer interludes from Cheerilee and Rarity, to Granny Smith being her wise reflective self, to an… interesting take on Pinkie. A moment of silence for the conspicuously absent Fluttershy.
The writing here is hard to describe, but very satisfying. Big Mac’s reactions and thoughts perfectly capture his gentle and firm nature, and everypony else is no less accurately portrayed. But it’s the interactions that really sell the fic, they just flow organically and are ever-pleasant to read and bask in, with witty descriptions being no less pleasured as we purr our way through a strange yet simultaneously placid day in Ponyville.
This leads me onto my big gripe with the fic, which is that, for all that everything has a purpose either in the moment or for the end result, the way ambion goes about the story progression is far too meandering, that were it not for the fics’ other strengths, it would have lost my interest. Sometimes, this has a purpose, and the way characters are weaved in and out of scenes is very impressive, but just as often, it seems to be the casualty of, in the author’s own words, “flying by the seat of their pants”. While this approach worked for the first 10K or so, by the halfway mark, the cracks were showing. The CMC subplot goes nowhere, Twilight’s side-story is too absent for most of the story relative to the focus it’s given at the end, and while the depiction of budding Appledash chemistry is done magnificently and provided an unexpected diversion mid-story, it just doesn’t mesh with the rest of the fic’s tone or goals (that it doesn’t mesh with the plot is immaterial for this fic, for the good subplots don’t either). I think were this to be sustained, the fic would need to be close to 10K shorter, or more openly embrace this shaggy structure, rather than flirting between it and a subtle yet definitive railroad. Or be openly random, though I wouldn’t want that, given how subtle and nuanced the character work here is under the comedy and light hijinks.
Thus, a paradox: with a more solid structural plan (only the interactions really disguise how little happens in most scenes, with how Big Mac observes things unable to fully smooth this over for a fic this long), this could have been absolutely fantastic. As it is, while the end takeaway is pleasant and impressive, the more well-rounded fic it could have been nags at me. The writing and characterisation and interaction strengths here are too noteworthy to not earn this a recommendation, but those more willing to roll with a pervasive structural shagginess, and enjoy the ponies we know and love just being themselves, and nothing more, for a sizeable novella, will get the most out of this.
Rating: Pretty Good
A Hearth's Warming Fanfic by Tennis Match Fan
Genre: Random/Slice of Life
Starlight Glimmer, Twilight
1,391 Words
May 2016Listened to via GutiSerenade's reading
In the aftermath of the celebrations at Twilight’s castle, Starlight gets to thinking about how some of the characters in the tale she was told were similar to ponies she knows, not just in name but sometimes in physical description too. She sets out to investigate and… well, what she finds wasn’t what she expected, let’s put it that way.
Setting aside the terrible spoiler-y title, what we have here is an exercise in Starlight being her over-analytical and nosy self, and a weirdly overdone-yet-also-underdone attempt to make ponies fanfic writers. I say underdone before it doesn’t go too far with this, presenting it as a thing, and then ending the story, not commenting more than superficially on the weirder aspects.
I guess it might be amusing if one hasn’t read tons of stories like this, but awkward flow, control of Starlight’s personality and perspective, and a few ill-timed and unfunny jokes throughout leave it all rather lacklustre. Maybe Starlight superfans will like it.
Rating: Weak
What Happens Next by Bandy
Genre: genres
Twilight, Celestia
5,732 Words
April 2013Reread
Listened to via Scribbler's reading
Celestia has never seen the whole notion of Equestria united on one issue as strongly as they are now – in confusion, bewilderment and suspicion – to Twilight’s ascension to being an alicorn. Celestia must now face the impossible task of trying to provide satisfactory answers to their questions, knowing full well they do not exist beyond the initial press release that caused the uproar in the first place.
Context is important here: this came out only two months after Magical Mystery Cure, and presumably to remain future canon compliant, and more importantly, not generate extra aggravation, it’s awfully non-committal; we don’t get any answer for why Twilight ascended beyond destiny, nor anything about said destiny, not even inside Celestia’s head. Perhaps this ambiguity is meant to mean something else, but honestly, it just made me almost side with the reporters bombarding Celestia with questions, who keep asking what this means in different ways, only to get the same circular answers. Yet the fic is still too much from Celestia’s POV and viewpoint to feel like it’s not on her side.
It does fare better at capturing the general chaos of political manoeuvring in a situation like this, which would be enough to carry the story, except that I also don’t vibe with its headcanon; Equestrian ponies would not be this fearful nor this critical of Celestia, not without extra details we’re not privy to, and this story seems to fully support that Celestia “made” Twilight an alicorn, given this terminology is used even by Celestia herself, nor does she ever rebuff it.
I dunno, I didn’t regret my time reading it, but it just felt like a time capsule that frustrated me nearly as much as it kept me reading (or, well, listening).
Rating: Passable
Business in the Front, Party in the Back by Tumbleweed
Genre: Comedy/Random/Slice of Life
Rarity, Applejack
2,254 Words
September 2016Listened to via Scribbler's reading
Rarity has almost finished preparing a restock of gear for her Manehattan boutique when Applejack pops by with some much-needed nourishment. Glad for a little break, Rarity insists Applejack join her. All is well until Applejack takes off her hat, revealing her new haircut. A crime against ponykind that must be rectified immediately.
Once the plot setup is out of the way, this is little more than Rarity having all manner of over-the-top reactions to Applejack’s new mullet. You already know if this is something you’ll like or not. As I understand it, though, Tumbleweed is quite good at quirky little stories that slightly exaggerate the character as depicted in the show, generate some silly little interplay and intersperse laughs among the way (I’ve read a few of their stories before, but not recently enough to recall the contents). This one shows that off fine, with the dialogue of the two charmingly amusing and the comic chemistry between the two fine.
It’s a really simply scenario that thankfully doesn’t outstay its welcome, even if the ending, while suitably amusing and especially wry now in a post-It Isn’t the Mane Thing About You is a little soft (though because of that, I found the reading to drag it out simply by the medium change, through no fault of its own). Not a bad vignette for a handful of minutes.
Rating: Decent
After an untold age sealed in magical stone, Cozy Glow is freed. Of course, Cozy has no intentions of allying with the young alicorn who freed her, nor her hapless plan to oppose the tyrannical Princess Twilight, and the first chance she gets, betrayal is on the cards. And this time, her hoof was true. Just not in the way she expected.
Probably because of her supposed filly-age, Cozy Glow is often paired with Flurry Heart in post-FiM stories (okay, in 43 stories at the time of writing, but that’s still 7.29% of the stories the brat’s tagged in), and because Flurry Heart is nearly a blank slate once she grows up, there is quite a variety of directions the pair can be taken in, but most of them slot into a more evil Flurry, or at least more antihero than usual. Given my general apathy for Flurry and distaste for Cozy, I can’t admit to having read many, but I’ve read enough, usually of the shorter variety, to still get a feel for their usual dynamic. And this ain’t it. For that alone, this fic would earn my respect; that it’s done well with effective character minimalism where appropriate and biassed narrator to boot, and in the time limit crunch of Everfree Northwest’s Iron Author, is even more impressive. It’s easy to see how this won.
Intentionally, we don’t get much of a bead on Flurry until the fic’s end, being that this is from Cozy’s viewpoint and she only sees a path out for herself. I am loath to spoil the ending that recolours the fic’s events, except that it really adds extra levels of poignant tragedy to both characters. There is some debate to be had about a decision Flurry makes, something that the comments have had a field day about (its ethical nature is the reason for the 9% dislike ratio), but other than that, this short, blunt and powerfully poignant piece is one even those who can’t stand Cozy Glow should look at.
Rating: Really Good
Spooky Summary of Scores:
Excellent: 0
Really Good: 1
Pretty Good: 1
Decent: 1
Passable: 1
Weak: 1
Bad: 0
Ninety-two? Wow. I can only hope my last remaining grandparent lasts that long. She doesn't take care of herself though, so I have my doubts. Sounds like your grandfather had a rich and rewarding life though, and who can ask for more than that?
I remember really liking Ballad, and indeed it is placed in my highest bookshelf. I do recall being miffed by the Twilight subplot, however, which seemed to come out of nowhere. Still, the fact that I can recall as much as I do is more than enough to indicate how much I liked the story.
My sincerest condolences, Mike. Glad to hear you're able to carry on.
Sorry for your loss, Mike.
As I said to you elsewhere recently, I'm glad the funeral did your grandad justice. A moving tribute to him here, too.
As far as the fics go, count me entirely unsurprised that Aquaman's story ended up the highest rated of this week's bunch. I've usually found his fic a reliably satisfying read. Not sure any of the others this time grab me especially, but that's ponyfic for you. There's always more to discover!
Sounds like your granddad had about as full and rewarding a life as a man could hope for. I'm sorry you had to lose him.
Yeah, as much as I feel that the Evil Child type is solidly grounded in reality, I'm not much for Cozy Glow redemption/vindication/apologia fics. With that said, I did read Aquaman's story (because Aquaman) and enjoyed it very much.
Condolences on your loss.
My own grandfather just turned 92 if I'm not mistaken, and is also in full control of his faculties, but I sometimes find myself thinking what might happen when my last living grandparent finally passes.
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Well, good thing this isn't any of those things then!
Which I'm so not into either. But yeah, Aquaman sure did manage to sell me on a Cozy story that I normally wouldn't bother with (though this was a reread, so yeah), which fits his writing talents. I've read a fair few of his works by now (including his other Cozy/Flurry fic, which tied for the win in the Imposing Sovereigns III contest), though evidently I need to read more. As he's a semi-retired author by now, least the backlog won't expand much! 
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Heh, you say that, I say "gotta use up some of the not-quite-outstanding fics in the reviewed backlog, otherwise they'll clog up and leave us with consecutive underperforming weeks".
But hey, much of a muchness, as they say, buddy.
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To be fair, even now, nearly two months after I actually read it, I do too. So it is certainly a distinctive and memorable fic. Sometimes, one just doesn't feel it as much as others do. But despite its pervasive structural shagginess dragging it down for me quite a lot, its strengths were still more than impressive enough to earn it a Pretty Good. Which is a little harder to reach on my rating scale than on yours! Taste is a fickle friend, but not an unfair one.
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I'm really not one for mourning or mugging for condolences or any of that. I said all this more to be honest with myself than anything. But I'm still young enough that I've hardly had to deal with familial death thus far. Obviously that'll only change more going forward. But, part of life is learning to accept that. Which I have.
Much thanks, my friends.
Plus, when you have that kind of rich and rewarding life, as many of you concurred with, even one mostly in your home country (he travelled largely just to visit his children that had emigrated in the last few decades), it makes it all worth it.
Much thanks, Logan. It was basically a more polished version of what I said to my dad that night, and he was most moved. Hence me using variations/truncations of it when mentioning the matter over the last few days, though none were as polished (or as lengthy
) as this.
For sure, especially as this was my last living grandparent too. My first went nearly fifteen years before I was born, the second when I was three, and the third when I was sixteen. All I can add is, it does have a feeling of the final passing of the torch from that generation, and that's not the easiest thing to digest. But reflecting on the achievements, legacy and warmth makes it more bittersweet than just mournful. Least for me.
Not all folks will be like that.