), I do love fussing over stats where anything of interest is concerned, Fimfic included. Happily, I’m not alone (because duh Ghost Mike's Ponyfic Review Monday Musings #47 · 6:00pm Jan 30th, 2023
As some of you know, ever since Friendship Is Magic ended, I’ve been gradually rewatching the show. From Season 4 onwards, I’ve more or less kept pace just ahead of Loganberry’s My Little Repeats watch-along. And let me tell you, rewatching Seasons 4-6* at this slow of a pace has proven quite the contrast to how I initially binged the show’s then-seven seasons in 53 days following the release of the movie.
* My rewatch of the earlier seasons was heavily compromised and flawed to the point I no longer stand by most of 2019/20 takes of those episodes; I’ve reassessed some of them since, but need a full rewatch for the lot.
It’s not quite akin to how you all experienced it when it was new, being the same pace if you had the show airing weekly with no breaks, more or less, but it’s a pretty close approximation if the show had been airing weekly with only sporadic week-long breaks. Bit like an anime, actually! For many of these episodes, it’s only now I’m forming absolute, solid, definitive takes I can stand on indefinitely or near-indefinitely. And for Season 6, which I’m nearing the end of, what I’ve found is that it’s inconsistent, yet in a consistent manner. Gets a ghost thinking, you know. Thinking enough to reach for it as a Ponyfic review blog opener, though not because he’s got nothing else to waffle on about, no sir! 
This is primarily in the layout and ordering: the first and last quarters are the roughest, with rickety two-parters and the episodes heaviest on status quo changes and/or Starlight “Josh Haber’s Creator’s Pet” Glimmer; meanwhile the second and third quarters are honestly not too different from Season 5, just maybe with a slightly higher ratio of sloppy or weak episodes, but even here, you get runs of a few really solid episodes here and there. Yet it’s also in the content: as many noted at the time, the season was very half-hearted at integrating the changes to the status quo into things, one reason Season 7 was felt to be a step up for at least rolling with this. Fully half the episodes could be timeline-set in a prior season, and several others only have one small detail or visual tying them to this one. There are all manner of behind-the-scenes reasons as to this, primarily struggles between the top writing staff wanting to push newer characters over the Mane 6 to Hasbro’s perfectly-reasonable resistance against this, but that’s for another day.
What’s weird is, what was largely considered a bit of a shortcoming at the time by the fandom is actually the main reason I now find Season 6 mostly watchable, and mostly just normal light seasonal rot you see in any show and which is weatherable for the first season where it happens. Because a lot of the time, it’s just an episode-by-episode thing, and while it’s consistent enough that it’s clear the show’s writing had degraded, even for the better episodes (I just watched “Buckball Season” and quite enjoyed it once again, yet found a pervasive stiffness in the dialogue, exposition and flow that kept it back from being the great episode it very much could have been), it’s not yet depressing, outside of the status quo episodes. That would change with Season 7’s wider incorporation of newer characters and inability to satisfy with most of them, to say nothing of the last two seasons’ outright hostility to what came before. But that’s for another day, and unlike the above, not one in this space. 
Mm, I did have a lot to say there. Maybe I should do a reflective blog once I’m through Season 6. Going to cut the rewatch off at Season 7, in any case. The above was calm and collected, but touching on the last two wouldn't be! Also still need to do that “one cut moment/scene from every Season 5 episode” post, that’ll be good!
From the show to fanfic, we’re here to explore the characters beyond the shackles of a TV-Y toy commercial cartoon anyway. From comedy and slice of life all the way through to tragedy. Got the tonal adjusters ready? You may well need them today.
This Week’s Spectral Stories:
B.B.B.F.F.B.R. by 8686
Loss by Kaylee
Reconnection by Rune Soldier Dan
Applejack Takes a Math Test by Fattymagee1
The Only Day by naturalbornderpy
Weekly Word Count: 32,511 Words
B.B.B.F.F.B.R. by 8686
Genre: Slice of Life
Applejack, Twilight, Shining Armor, Big Mac
21,255 Words
November 2013Reread
Ever since Twilight moved to Ponyville, her brother has been so busy he’s never had the chance to come by for a visit. Finally, now, shortly into her ascent to an alicorn, he’s managed to eke out a few days just for a casual visit. If only it wasn’t for his visit coinciding with Twilight misunderstanding her friend Applejack’s relationship with her own brother, concluding she has a much better sibling relationship, and Shining Armor finding himself roped into competing against Big Macintosh, a stallion he’s never met. It’ll take quick understanding and an even better rapport between Shining and Big Mac to reconcile this, and get their siblings to see sense.
This is the fic most responsible for getting 8686 on the map, and still their best-rated. It remains well-deserving of that, to the degree I’m fighting turning this review into a laundry list of its strengths. All the usual strengths of their other lowkey slice-of-life fics – remarkable characterisation, deft character interactions, and an all-too rare encapsulation of the show’s inviting comfiness even in situations where the content would suggest otherwise – remain true and present, and if anything are even stronger. It’s that last point that really sticks, though, because this manages to put across some daft decisions and storytelling purely on the strengths of the characters, such that even now, when I know there’s hefty author manipulation for a few story points, they never feel out of place. The moments where the characters know full well they’re being ridiculous with the rivalry, yet can’t find it in themselves to back down, pay off great dividends here.
The fic certainly strikes strongest through the main arc of Twilight and Applejack learning more about their own sibling relationships, and each other, via the other’s brother, to the point that, at heart, it’s really a TwiJack friendship fic. But the depiction of the brothers should not go unmentioned. Neither is a new take, with Big Mac being wise and philosophical beyond belief underneath his short replies, and Shining Armor being a hard-working workhorse when called upon from his years of military work, whilst remaining a genial goofball. Add in a good side role for Spike, and pretty crackerjack pacing that avoids the rare sluggishness that occasionally affects 8686’s pieces, and you’ve got a wonderful piece.
This is my 4th time reading the fic, and it’s never lost an ounce of effect in that time. I’ve probably done a poor job selling it, especially for remaining cagey about the story beyond the setup, but the fic’s pleasures are so warm and entrancing that it’s one of the great comfort food friendshipping/sibling ponyfics out there. Even if I recognise it’s not all that deep, not next to some of 8686’s dramas, any fics that can work fantastically time and time again deserves recognition. A must-read even for those adverse to fics on material this lightweight.
Rating: Excellent
Loss by Kaylee
[The story had no cover image, but Scribbler's reading did]
Genre: Dark/Sad/Tragedy (Alternate Universe, w/Mature)
Derpy, Dinky Hooves, Fluttershy
1,085 Words
August 2016Listened to via Scribbler's reading
Life doesn’t always go as planned. Sometimes, you just get minor speed bumps. Other times, horrible things happen to ponies who don’t deserve them. As Derpy has just experienced firsthand.
Derpy miscarrying Dinky is basically the whole story here (we’ll overlook that it’s not a miscarriage when there’s only a month of the pregnancy left). And while the M rating is a bit much, the tags aren’t; this is a grim, tough read (or listen). But a competently-executed one; Derpy’s depression as she reflects on what happened isn’t of the “melodramatically mugging for sympathy” variety. And that makes this all the more potent, which is good, as the fic is sparse in prose and things to offer otherwise.
There really isn’t much to it, but between capturing the overwhelming despair one feels at losing their child before she’s even born, and the story’s end, it got me hard in the moment. Dunno if that qualifies as a recommendation – generating sadness does not necessarily equal art – but it counts for something.
Rating: Decent
Reconnection by Rune Soldier Dan
Genre: Romance/Slice of Life
Queen Haven, Alphabittle
2,044 Words
December 2022
On the second Wishentine post-reunification, Queen Haven finds herself in Maretime Bay, waiting for a meeting, pondering many things. Chief among them the mixed names for the holiday, and the old title of “Hearth’s Warming” that it used to have when all ponies lived together. Now that time is growing closer, it’s about time she wrapped up some of the pieces she abandoned in her past.
Yet again, I must wonder how it took me this long, nearly a year into the review blogs, to touch on an author this well-known and who is also a friend around these parts, and one whose work I’ve read (mostly shorter one-shots) I have really liked. Hopefully Dan’s cool with it, as well as his debut here being an seemingly-unassuming Jinglemas G5 fic. Thankfully, it’s no cash-in.
One good sign that we are starting to take baby steps beyond the initial feeling out of fanfiction directions for G5 (limited and uninspiring as they largely are for much beyond fluffy one-shots) lies in how this fic tackled Haven and Alphabittle having met before. Rather than start the story out with a flashback dramatising it, or have such a scene take place in the middle, it instead drip-feeds info about such from their recollections as they talk things over in a café. Whether this was a conscious choice or born out of Jinglemas deadline necessities, it reminded me of how many Sunset fics would state offhand enough about her backstory that slotted in with the common fanfiction depictions, rather than go out of their way to depict the same old, same old. Obviously Haven and Alphabittle having met before is hardly omnipresent (this is only the 8th fic to tag them, though How I Became My Mother also qualifies, as does Finding a Haven, though both only as side elements), but it’s popped up here and there. So that decision gives the fic a nice briskness that suits the conversational tone between the two.
Beyond that, the early reflective paragraphs giving way to the efficiency of the two talking makes for a sturdy contrast and burst of momentum. Haven and Alphabittle have affable chemistry, equal parts cute, flirty and wistful. Between Alphabittle’s changing ways from his game-obsessed self, and Haven reflecting on their place in a society their children changed for them, it’s not lacking for insight.
Really, though, it’s the cadence and rhythm of the dialogue and prose that makes this one stick strongest. Not that I need a reminder that Rune Soldier Dan is quite the competent author, but he elevates a feel-good piece of cute fluff to being halfway substantial and more effective than it would have been otherwise. Quite the nice holiday treat for its recipient, I’m sure!
Rating: Pretty Good
Applejack Takes a Math Test by Fattymagee1
Genre: Comedy/Random
Applejack, Cheerilee, Apple Bloom
3,182 Words
September 2012Reread
Cheerilee shows up to Sweet Apple Acres with some unpleasant news for Applejack. Turns out the farmpony never passed basic mathematics in elementary school. And as all Equestrian citizens are required to understand maths at that level, it’s either pass the test again perfectly, or go back to school. Applejack has totally got this, if by ‘totally’ you mean ‘sweating bullets’.
Another fic I remember reading during my early years here, when the show was still going, it’s certainly not quite as funny as I remember. And it must be conceded, the jokes are largely easy; Applejack had terrible hoofwriting and can barely add and subtract, Cheerilee has a snarky streak about her, and pulls no punches with her retorts to Applejack’s objections nor the test itself, and Apple Bloom is easily pressured by the made-up reason for her older sister studying maths even she has down pat.
But though they are easy jokes, they are structured well, paced nicely, and always come from a gentle place true to the characters, which makes a fic tonally on near-parody territory feel quite apt and believable, at least in reference to itself. Cheerilee in particular is on form here: not a paragon of subtle writing, but just what this kind of fic needs (though her snarky streak is emphasised enough as to push her near OOC territory, so one needs to be willing to roll with a little character destruction for the sake of comedy here). And the jokes that don’t slot into the above categories do surprise in good ways too, so it’s never a distractingly linear experience.
A very slight, simple little jokey fic, but a rather good-natured one. Certainly, I don’t mind AJ being academically challenged here in the way I usually do, even if it is a lazy crutch. An amusing way to spend ten minutes. And that’s not counting the comment debates on one mathematical problem within that really make a mountain out of a molehill, which I found to be a reasonable coda to reading the thing.
Rating: Decent
The Only Day by naturalbornderpy
Genre: Sad/Tragedy/Dark
Applejack, OC
4,944 Words
June 2015Reread
Listened to via Scribbler's reading
Wednesday 26th. Today Applejack has a pony starting temporary work on the farm. Despite well knowing her way around an apple tree, though, this helper seems a little off, a little tense. Even worried. She’s also insisting she’s spent the last two days here, though Applejack can’t remember a darned thing like that.
Yup, it’s a time loop story, one that is more or less playing out the same average beats, with two caveats. One, it’s told from the perspective of someone who doesn’t retain their memories with each loop. And that really makes all the difference. In the early goings, it simply means a different perspective, cutting out much of the usual realisation and leaving it to the margins for viewer implication, as Applejack sees the looper Autumn Paradise go from enthusiastic to confused to worried to frustrated to crazy to beaten, and so on. It’s in the back half, during an uninterrupted chat between the two, that this really hits home in a way I haven’t seen in a time loop story in quite a while, and truly earns the Tragedy and Sad tags. It very nearly moved me to tears, it was that potent.
All that would point to this being one for the ages, yet I can’t go quite that far. There are some niggles, such as the pacing getting a little slack in the middle (cutting a few short loops would do the trick), ditto for the prose. The biggest hurdle, however, comes from this being told in journal format. It’s one of those catch-all cases that recites conversations wholesale, making it impossible to be one. Honestly, most of the story has the bulk of scenes playing out in such a way that they could just be Applejack’s recollections after the fact. Yet it keeps poking in just frequently enough to irritate and get under the skin.
Personally, this didn’t come close to ruining an otherwise-phenomenally felt story, but I know this is a deal-breaker for some folks. For me, it’s still an exemplary execution of a common story type, and I’ll remember that far more than the shortcomings.
Rating: Really Good
Spooky Summary of Scores:
Excellent: 1
Really Good: 1
Pretty Good: 1
Decent: 2
Passable: 0
Weak: 0
Bad: 0
I rather regret not making the time to rewatch episodes along with Logan. :/ I mean, I had always meant to watch S6 five years after it aired, but I just... didn't.
And I have to wonder what happened to FattyMagee :O
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I mean, he and I will be moving onto Season 7 round May at this rate, six years after it’s aired. Perfect time to join in with it, even if it would violate some policy of yours to (temporarily) skip Season 6. You’d be surprised; I find it hard to make room in my schedule for series with dedicated timespans on a consistent basis, but can always manage it with Pony, and with very few exceptions, I have watched an episode a week for nearly the past year-and-a-half. Obviously you’ll be busier now with the move and the job-hunting (and then the job), but you never know. It’s doable.
Come on, PP, you know you want to…
An answer lies in the comments both on their profile page and their last blog. Some untoward behaviour involving making hundreds of alt accounts and engaging mass vote manipulation for several stories (presumably their own, though I couldn’t confirm this). Supposedly he was in a crisis and acting very erratically. It all got him a bit. He reportedly came to regret this and allowed himself to be contactable through another user, and hoped to still contribute to the fandom how he could.
Course, that was over four years ago, who knows what he’s up to these days. Hopefully alive and healthy.
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oh! so something reasonable in the realms of internet transgressions :O just simple rampant sockpuppetry, and not, like, being a Nazi, or dead
Ponification of the Gru meme:
Thank you for the review, I'm glad that little bit o' fluff came off well. I hope you poke at more of mine sometime. :3
Is Loss the first M-rated story you've reviewed, Mike? By one of those spooky coincidences, I was reading my review of that from 2017 (here) just a couple of days ago. I had broadly the same reaction: it's effective, but boy is it grim reading. (As usual, I read rather than listened.) Of the rest of your reviews today, B.B.B.F.F.B.R. is going straight on my RiL list: an "Excellent" from you, and by an author I've generally enjoyed the works of. Although it was rated a notch lower, The Only Day is also from a name I can usually rely on, so that'll go on as well.
And as for the S6 rewatch... well... I still intend to speed things up, but the chances of my ever returning to the two-ep-a-week format I started out with seem to be getting slimmer by the day! It would be good, though: you may be bailing after S7 but I won't be, and I'd quite like to finish before the heat death of the universe.
(I have Friendship Games Legend of Everfree to fit in very shortly, too...)
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To my surprise, it is. And none of the 40+ stories I have stockpiled reviews for are M-rated either. Huh. 🤔 Interesting. Like yourself, I’m not adverse to them on principle, but they have to justify that rating in the quality (and as mentioned, this one feels more like a T rating anyway).
For sure, and if you couldn’t tell, this was a story I only experienced due to passing by the reading. It’s good for getting in some short stories while multitasking on other things, but I only tend to do it when they pop up in my path, I hardly ever seek readings out.
It’s a really good one, and as I gather, you’re less bothered by logic fallacies in journal-style storytelling, so you might like it even more than myself.
Honestly, by now, I don’t mind; as mentioned above, for me, this is an effective simulacrum of the one-a-week way you all experienced it way back when, minus the hiatus’, though with the odd break of a week too. It’s taught me a lot about how to approach the show, actually, and I’m glad for that.
Friendship Games, you say? Interesting, didn’t know the 2016 EqG movie got a renaming…
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[As comments can be edited here, if you want to discretely edit your mistake, I’ll remove all this too.
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Nah, leave the mistake in. If I start getting everything right, people may worry what's happened to Logan.
In my tired haste last night, I forgot the most important part:
I'm glad you enjoyed it.