Ghost Mike's Ponyfic Review Monday Musings #49 · 6:00pm Feb 13th, 2023
Mixed February for this spirit so far; been perpetually under-the-weather for two weeks now, just enough to take regular painkillers. I’ve had it worse, but it’s always gone quicker than this. On the other hand, good experiences with friends lately, what it’s all about, and while I haven’t made much of any progress on the writing front lately, the torch is still burning on the development cycle. So, not much, but not nothing.
Otherwise, finally got stuck in with Pokémon Scarlet despite having it since Christmas, and while there are quite a share of growing pains and I think I prefer Legends Arceus as a whole, it’s very invigorating and a wonderful breath of fresh air to the franchise in many ways. Loving the split-path free-for-all triple campaigns, loving many of the new designs (a hammer blacksmith fairy? Yes please!), loving how this encourages Pokédex completion and makes it desirable in a way it’s rarely been (and I say this as a Pokédex player over the years; of course, Legends Arceus got there first on this front), loving many of the quality-of-life improvements, and so on. There’s still plenty ways in which it falls short next to contemporaries in its genre (and also, the open world has a lot of pointlessly empty space; the whole map could and should have easily been a solid 30% smaller), but I approve of the game. Were it not for how sub-optimised it is on a performance level (the thing annoying me most being the white bar on the left screen side every time there’s a camera transition – come on, preventing that’s Game Engine 101!), it’d be a contender for the top tier of Pokémon games. Come on, The Pokémon Company, Nintendo delays game releases to perfect them all the time, look at Breath of the Wild and the upcoming Tears of the Kingdom!. Stop fixating on a new generation every three years and a new main game every year, Game Freak can’t keep up. Either that, or hire another top-tier developer to co-produce. Your franchise sales won’t suffer, and the card game and anime can do fine with an extra year.
Oh, and I finally saw Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Yeah, it was very slow crossing the pond. But everything you’ve probably heard about this sleeper hit is true: very clean, efficient character writing that gets rather psychologically dark and real, and great at ensuring character beats compliment the plotting and action and vice-versa; unexpectedly funny with only minor baggage of the old anti-comedy of the Shrek franchise; crackerjack adventure pacing that makes it all skip by like a dream and never gets boring; dazzling non-photorealistic visuals with an amazing kinetic camera and use of frame rate variance and stylised lighting that makes the action setpieces sing like an anime masterpiece.
And yes, the Grim Reaper wolf and amazing depiction of a panic/anxiety attack that have been doing the rounds on social media, they’re worth the hype. Easily the best major American animated movie in several years. For me, probably since… How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World? Maybe even since Spider-Verse. Can’t recommend enough.
Well, that was a random assortment of anecdotes. Worth sharing, though. As for Ponyfic, if there’s one new year’s ambition I’ve been somewhat slack on, it’s having longer stories in here: due to themed weeks and other obligations, this is only the 2nd week this year with a story over 25K in length and where the quintet exceeds 40K. Must buckle down, all those novellas and novels in the backlog aren’t gonna review themselves! Got one novella this week, anyway.
This Week’s Spectral Stories:
Sometimes Never by Blueshift
Police Navidad by Georg
Changelings, Changelings, Everywhere by Benman
Belle and Cortland by garatheauthor
Smiling Flowers by TheBrianJ
Weekly Word Count: 43,156 Words
Sometimes Never by Blueshift
Genre: Slice of Life
Celestia/Luna
1,952 Words
July 2014
In the wake of Luna’s return from the moon, it’s time for her and Celestia to have a slumber party. Snacks, spinning the bottle, roasting marshmallows, just like old times. There’s nothing they want more right now.
Short fics like this that look to be atypical feel-good fluff pieces, but turn out to be something else altogether, are the bane to review, because spoiler policy forbids from talking about the interesting parts. On the other hand, that elevates this particular fic so much, colouring the seemingly normal material to that point in a totally different context. It achieves an emotional catharsis without mugging for it, and neither is the end result total despair, with there still being some lingering hopeful sentiment when all is said and done.
There is a lingering dilemma, where it is to its benefit that it is so short, so the ordinary fluff that starts the piece out doesn’t outstay its welcome. Yet on the other end, the twist basically just happens, and the fic ends. So the idea is a little stronger than the certainly-still-strong execution. So there’s still a little slightness to this. But purely for being so much more than its deceptive packaging, it deserves no less than a hearty recommendation. After all, it is from Blueshift.
Rating: Pretty Good
Police Navidad by Georg
Genre: Slice of Life
OC
5,595 Words
December 2022
When a very special visitor that may or may not have broken some violations makes a surprise stop at the Ponyville police station, on Hearth’s Warming Eve no less, it certainly catches Police Chief Miranda Rights off guard, though she hides it well. This is doubled when the guest sidesteps her inclination to return to the matter at hoof, stating they are there with gifts. Both for the station at large, and for her.
If you don’t recognise Miranda Rights (never mind the pun), she’s an OC from Estee’s works, the Ponyville police chief frequently beleaguered with all the chaos that goes from from the Bearers’ hoofwork, among others. Myself, I’ve read a few works she’s popped up in (I have, to clarify, only read standalone side stories in Estee’s Tryptych Continuum), and can see why she’s quite the fan favourite, a wonderfully offbeat mix of cynicism, practicality, snark and dedication. I gather that our present author Georg sought to take the concept of government-assigned temporary stand-ins for the Mane 6 while they are out on missions from Estee’s works, mix it with their own older story The Traveling Tutor and the Librarian, and write a fic that at least somewhat feels like an Estee story, while still being his own: the result is the ongoing The Substitute Librarian. Finally, our story here today was written not just as a gift to Estee, but to the character of Miranda Rights, for putting up with so much in The Substitute Librarian.
Obviously any story written purely to give something nice to a character normally dealing with the polar opposite of that could only be a labour of love, and aside from this work being thankfully standalone, like most of Estee’s works (there’s nothing relevant that isn’t inferrable reasonably easily in this work itself), that’s what stands out most here. Miranda never ceases to focus both her words and her minds on the legal matters at hoof, even as the Santa-esque visitor constantly only speaks about what the chief cares about, what she gives to others, and that she deserves to be treated herself just the one time. Watching her tip back-and-forth, as the story progresses, between entertaining these notions or humouring (well, not humouring, really) what is likely a drunk or mad visitor is part of the fun. But for what amounts to a pony spin on Jolly Old Saint Nick, it’s also warm and fluffy enough, especially with some of the side rapport between Miranda and her deputy Nitpicky.
Ultimately, as fics written to treat a fictional character go, this is a solid if not exactly top-tier one. But between the right tone, good pacing, and honed writing talent of Georg, it lands well. This will resonate most strongly with those who are already familiar with Miranda Rights, naturally, but as this transplant is far less cynical than Estee’s works, it may even do for those who want more unabashed idealism than that verse provides.
Rating: Pretty Good
NOTE: The pony in the profile pic, a pony cop from The Gift of the Maud Pie in Manehattan, isn’t what Chief Rights looks like. Apart from being a unicorn, it’s actually relevant in some stories that she’s a darker blue than Luna, to the point she’d almost blend in at nighttime were it not for the uniform. Georg had to make do with the one cop in the show. Weird: you’d think, given the popularity of Estee’s works and the character, that someone would have made fanart of her…
Changelings, Changelings, Everywhere by Benman
Genre: Comedy
Mane 6, Chrysalis
3,497 Words
August 2012
The unthinkable has happened; one of Twilight’s friends is a changeling! Yet she claims to have always been a changeling, and that she didn’t replace anypony. As the others scramble to puzzle this out, it turns out this isn’t the only pony who’s always been a changeling. Not by a long shot…
You notice the lack of a random tag? Yeah, that’s a lie. This story is completely and utterly ridiculous, with the expected punchline of everypony in Ponyville being a changeling coming not even halfway through the fic. And it only gets even more absurd at that point, with groups of changelings revealed to have planned madcap things that dare you to try and make sense of them. And so on, which I won’t spoil. Benman does deserve credit for modulating the pace as the fic progresses, getting faster as it gets more absurd, so it all builds to a climax.
That leads me to my big complaint, and why I think this fic didn’t work for me, apart from the “everyone’s a changeling” fic type not being a default sell for me (I understand this was the only time this author wrote featurebait, and with it having worked, they’re conflicted about that). The minimal and rather repetitive prose description accentuates the length issue: even at 3.5K, this was an exhausting parody for me, with the second structural half just going on and on and on. Maybe it worked better at the time as a parody of these kinds of fics, or to those who lived through that time (I certainly had no context for the phrase “New Larval Republic” until after the fact).
As it is, it’s a madcap thing I enjoyed in parts, but one which definitely shows its age and then some, and probably would have been forgettable enough at the time without the context of the state of other changeling fics. Still, I’ll err on the side of being generous.
Rating: Passable
Belle and Cortland by garatheauthor
Genre: Drama (Alternate Universe, w/Violence & Profanity)
Applejack, Rarity
4,128 Words
July 2020Reread
Just because Applejack and Rarity are bank robbers now doesn’t mean they like doing it; the economic collapse forced their hand. But they are pretty darn good at it, enough to be regarded as the greatest crime duo in Equestrian history and to have five-digit figures on their heads. And as these things usually go down, it all comes to a head in a dusty desert town…
Look at the fic’s title, and notice the initials of the names. If you make the connection, you probably already know where this is going. What’s most unusual is that this fic plays this parody scenario completely straight, and outside of Rarity and Applejack reflecting on the circumstances that led them here, it doesn’t let up. Or, the levity and humour come from poking at Western villains tropes, from the reasons for the locals to not rat out the bank-robbing couple down to scientific details behind the firearms used throughout.
What’s weird is that this almost feels like a hard Alternate Universe, one with a completely different timeline and backstory to facilitate the Western Villains setup, yet the in-universe lore does posit itself as a branch off of the show we all know. I don’t know if this is a good decision, but it doesn’t strip any character and flavour away from the end result, and it’s all interwoven so organically I have to praise it regardless. As a snapshot of RariJack in an unusual “what the” scenario coupled with great exhilaration from this power couple, it’s a funky and energetic dip.
Rating: Decent
Smiling Flowers by TheBrianJ
Genre: Slice of Life/Sad
Cheerilee
27,984 Words
Jun-Sep 2012Reread
A cutie mark represents the personality and special talent of each pony. The flowers on Cheerilee’s flank represent her desire to help her students bloom, and the smiles are the cheer she wishes to bring into their lives. That’s what she’s always said, and it’s what everypony believes. That is, until a string of events forces her to confront the truth of the matter and open up about a carefully guarded secret of hers…
The hook of a pony fabricating their cutie mark story to facilitate what they really want to do is certainly an intriguing one, and Cheerilee is as good a pick for this topic as any (especially in a S2/3 story, when she was most prevalent in the show and even her friendship with Twilight feels right to emphasise and use here). The emotions along the way as she finally opens up to things, showing to others and to herself that she can’t avoid her mark’s true meaning despite her best efforts, and finding proof both in the words and the actions of others that a mark doesn’t define a pony… it’s all expected material, but it works. And the small-town, cosy, relaxed slice of life vibe to the proceedings do a lot to reinforce it.
That’s a sturdy skeleton for the story, but what’s hanging off the bones isn’t quite as solid. It’s very telly, with Cheerilee’s thoughts and the roll-on dialogue of all ponies very rarely leaving things to implication, instead opting to state them outright, often several times in succession. This occurs even with reveals, with the nature of Cheerilee’s lie made apparent in the text long before the point at which it’s actually expressed. It doesn’t just make the fic rather plain, it makes it rather padded too – I won’t quite say this is a 15K fic in a 28K body, but it certainly feels that way for much of its length. This is by no means the most egregious example of an old Ponyfic far ricketier or more padded than it or its subject matter should be, but it is noticeable.
Even on the same note, the story feels rather cyclical at times, what a very roundabout route taken for the flow in many scenes and especially for segmenting the multiple story threads off in their own endings. Add to that some odd decisions – like Silver Spoon filling in Diamond Tiara’s role with the latter absent until the fic’s end for a reason that isn’t actually needed and would have been stronger for both plotlines were it Diamond all along – and Cheerilee’s boss being a boring stuffy figure, and the detriments do nag at this quite a bit.
The more one can make do with a slack, repetitive and cyclical pace and method of storytelling for the fic’s strong core character material, the more they’ll like it. Even if said nature of the fic does come across as somewhat forced at times, especially for Cheerilee’s characterisation.
Rating: Decent
Spooky Summary of Scores:
Excellent: 0
Really Good: 0
Pretty Good: 2
Decent: 2
Passable: 1
Weak: 0
Bad: 0
Of the two of these I've read, I liked Changelings, Changelings Everywhere a good deal more than you did -- but I have to admit, I think it is true that it's a fic that has aged a good deal. "Of its time" probably sums it up, and I'm sure I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much had I come into the fandom when you did rather than in 2012.
I think we pretty much agree on Sometimes Never, though. Blueshift's combination of silly lightweight comedies and fics that just look like they're silly lightweight comedies means that (if you can avoid spoilers, of course) you're never quite sure which one is going to show up each time, and that helps here. To my mind, definitely better for being so short, fast ending and all.
To be honest, Miranda Rights is a real pain to make show-accurate art of. She's dark and dappled to the point where she's more camouflaged colored than anything, and she practically gets tripped over at night because of that even when she wants to be seen. (So naturally for Winter I gave her a warm white fuzzy coat with four matching white snow boots). The story actually was done before Christmas, but it was not *finished* until weeks later, and I think that helped make it twice as good than if I pushed it. She made an absolute wonderful foil for Green Grass/Emerald in Substitute Librarian, and I could not help but make something nice to pay her and Estee back for the privilege. (Particularly since I've got an upcoming short arc in the works that co-stars her)
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I find you get two kinds of bad ageing when it comes to Ponyfic. There's the more commonplace choices in the writing/story/characters etc. that distractingly remind you of when it was made (anytime I see a fic where Rainbow Dash's middle name is Miriam, my god…), though such things can also be good, depending on what and how they're used (after all, a fic written while a season is ongoing is always going to feel of that place in a way a fic set during that period but written years later won't 100% nail). Then you have cases where the fic's quality was always kinda suspect, but circumstances of its arrival, hitting a niche at the right time or parodying an ongoing trend let it become a well-liked success.
I bring this up because, weirdly, Changelings, Changelings Everywhere is both of these at once. So it certainly feels a different variety of an aged fic to me than those I usually come across, which can be neatly boxed into one of those two categories (Smiling Flowers, for instance, falls purely into the "writing quality doesn't quite hold up" category, though not to the level of ruining it or anything).
And yep, Blueshift sure is a master of comedy and genre/reader subversion. Even if he never returns to write again, as seems incredibly likely, his massive backlog's left me with plenty to look forward to over time, I think. Especially with nearly all of his complete stories being one-shots, I'm basically aiming to read one every month if I can (excepting author spotlight and pairing sequels with their precursors, I try to do this with authors so as to avoid dominance).
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Oh, my aside wasn't about your particular choice of cover art, it works fine, especially as something cobbled from show assets. I was just musing on the lack of ANY fanart of the character at all, given the popularity of Estee's Tryptych Continuum and body of work in general, plus the character herself.
Though given her looking like the night sky (presumably this appearance came about for a plot reason in one of her earlier appearances), dunno what to expect. A Tantabus-looking unicorn cop with a scowl on her muzzle (situation permitting), probably!
While I was writing this review and doing research on the fic's origin, I poked into The Substitute Librarian for a few chapters just to get context on Mirands Rights' use there, and while I was largely only scan-reading the fic, I quite liked what I saw. Dunno if I'll get around to reading it anytime soon, even when it is done (with very rare exceptions, I only read complete fics these days), but just so you know, it looks like a really fun dive into the reality of substituting for Twilight from the POV of a unique personality. It's got this spirit's approval!
wow, I never realized the New Lunar Republic had gotten so non-ubiquitous these days :O
Yeah, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a damn fine film. I've watched it twice now, not counting the single-framing I've done to study the stylization and variable framerate work.
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Don't look a gift pony in the mouth! Just be thankful. Now if Gamer Luna will just fade away, that would be great.