Ghost Mike's Ponyfic Review Monday Musings #61 · 5:00pm May 8th, 2023
I had hoped it would be ages before I did another Author Spotlight on an author who had passed away (with the exception of Darth Link 22, who left us a little over a year ago, and is on the queue). Life is cruel, unfortunately, and so this spot in the queue is a spotlight on the fics of Level Dasher, who, despite a hospital surgery to remove a tumour, had cancer spread uncontrollably, finally taking him 15 days ago.
As I am not especially active round Fimfiction outside of my close circles, he’s another I had almost no direct interaction with, just the odd comment on someone else’s blog. But apart from many close friendships he’d formed here over the years and being a frequent face around Jinglemas in both the writing and running departments the last few years, he was the sort who seemed to always be eternally kind, good-natured and helpful even when dealt a bad hand. And it’s equally clear he left a huge impact on many folks, from the nearly 150 comments on his blog by his brother announcing his terminally ill state and then his passing. Not least that his close friend NavelColt, whom I consider a friend myself (
) has, with Level’s brother’s blessing, taking the mostly-finished last unpublished chapter of Navel’s 200K fic A Daughter and her Dragon, to finish and upload it as a special feature on his own website. You don’t do that unless you really had a close bond with someone. And it’s the best kind of tribute.
It can’t compare, but I’m gonna do what I do best, and pay further respects to him by featuring some of his fics. Relative to most authors around for just over a decade, he didn’t have a large output, seeming to be known more for community contributions and editing/pre-reading for others. And even of his twenty-five fics, once I shifted out the incomplete ones, those tied up in a mini-universe of related stories, a few based too heavily on others’ fics to be read as standalone, and the very early fics clearly not representative of him as a writer even just a few years later, that left only about half his library available. And all really short – one thing that became evident quickly was that Level Dasher favoured writing short fics, often fluff pieces or exercises on something that inspired him. Most clocking in at under 2K. So I made the decision to expand this and feature ten fics. Even so, the cumulative word count is barely over 20K. Be prepared for a lot of quick fics.
I won’t deny, some of these were hamstrung either by being reaction pieces to a context long gone, or crying out to be longer, more in-depth takes on the subject. But even with those there was a gentle sincerity that made them agreeable, and in the pieces without those issues? Really warm and intimate results. Level clearly put himself into everything he wrote, and that carries a lot of these fics to greater heights. Coupled with the short length of all of these, if any appeal to you, no reason not to read them.
This Week’s Spectral Stories:
The Greatest Gift Is You by Level Dasher
ALREADY?? by Level Dasher
Come See the Cuddlebug by Level Dasher
More Than Muscle by Level Dasher
The Anniversary Anomaly by Level Dasher
A Risky Bet by Level Dasher
Hitting the Big Time by Level Dasher
Not Alone Anymore by Level Dasher
Ships and Snowball Fights by Level Dasher
The Pink Side of the Mind by Level Dasher
Weekly Word Count: 20,779 Words
The Greatest Gift Is You by Level Dasher
Genre: Slice of Life
Celestia, Luna, Other
3,499 Words
December 2020Reread
Listened to via Gabishy's reading
A lot’s changed in Equestria since Princess Luna returned, which means time to catch up with the current day and age. With her first Hearth’s Warming since returning fast approaching, and her first in Canterlot Castle altogether, perhaps familiarising herself with the modern decorating traditions, public and private, with Celestia as a guide, might be a good start.
To its credit, this story isn’t your typical “Luna can’t readjust to everything that’s changed” angst piece, even among the fluff. That is an element, of course, but largely purring along as the subtext for most of the fic, and only expressed at the forefront near the end for as long as fits for the characters. Befitting this being for Jinglemas, it is mostly a feel-good fluff piece, with Luna as timid yet appreciative that just fits with her earlier Season 1 design and (limited) personality. We get her learning of how modern decorating works, understanding Celestia’s private tree trimming, the pair sharing objects and their own traditions, and reassurement from Celestia that all is fine.
Naturally, such a thing is light on substance, especially outside of Christmas. That said, the characterisation is strong, especially for Luna (even the typical Old English and royal We usage largely), and the side moments are appropriately cuddly. There’s enough spark to this, and capturing the timeline without relying on the usual overdone early-show Luna tendencies, to make this a reasonably warm li'l fic.
Rating: Decent
ALREADY?? by Level Dasher
Genre: Comedy/Slice of Life
Spike, Mane 6, CMCs
1,385 Words
May 2018
With his molt behind him, Spike is free to be as airborne as his winged friends. And he proves to be quite a natural at it! Both they and the grounded ones are thrilled to bits for him. That is, except for one…
If the release date didn’t make it clear, the Author’s Note states it outright: this was an intentionally quick reaction to “Molt Down”. Or a bandwagon fic, as they’re often called, though Level Dasher was doing this one more out of a curiosity then fishing for traffic. Certainly explains why it performs a “Magical Mystery Cure” and has the new winged character be a natural when they are later shown (in “Princess Twilight Sparkle” and “Father Knows Beast” to still be adapting to it. That’s forgivable.
I’ll admit, I missed the Comedy tag on this, and was expecting a sympathetic treatment of Scootaloo finding out Spike is airborne before her (another case of being jossed later in the season, by her “I can’t fly!” statement in “The Washouts”). Nope, this a humorous take on that, and that only forms at most the back half (really, the last third); the rest is just the Mane 7/Spike being amazed at Spike and having some characteristic reactions and dialogue (laid on a bit thick for Pinkie and Starlight). Then it pivots to the Crusaders (with a reasonable nod to the events of the then-next episode “Marks for Effort” all while attempts to prevent Scootaloo finding out go awry. With the story ending right as Scootaloo pulls a Looney Tunes on herself after finding out.
A story like this needs to be quite funny to work past the initial window of release, and mostly, this is just faintly amusing: characterisation is solid, but a bit absurdly heightened in spots via the piece’s tone for that to truly elevate it. Almost five years on, this is largely just a curio, albeit a faintly amusing one.
Rating: Passable
Come See the Cuddlebug by Level Dasher
Genre: Slice of Life (Human)
OC, Ocellus
2,116 Words
June 2021
The expansion of the School of Friendship has brought in many more creatures over the years. And adjusting to a new environment can be tough on these newcomers, despite or because of the topic of focus of the school in the first place. Good thing the school has its own resident Comfort Counsellor, or as she’s known by word-of-mouth, the Cuddlebug. Because the school’s first human student needs to avail of her…
Truth be told, that the person coming to an adult Ocellus is a human (possibly of the EqG variety, though the cover art and them keeping their form here otherwise mark it as a HiE fic through-and-through) doesn’t change the fic more than marginally in a few lines of filler dialogue. No, this is purely a Cuddlefic like any other, with no real plot or story beyond that which will facilitate characters snuggling against each other for physical and emotional warmth. It’s got a solid premise, at least: a changeling counsellor as a friendship school (an asinine concept, but it is canon…) is a natural leap from the semi-common fandom lore point of changelings’ need & affinity for taking and spreading hugs popularised by NavelColt’s Love Bug stories.
I tease a bit. Within these limited parameters that aren’t a good appeal to me (I love when characters hug, as if my own “physical” form doesn’t make that clear – I just prefer it to happen as part of a story), this is a really solid example of the form, and I can see why it won a 2021 contest for Cuddlefics. Past the organic setup for the proceedings, and it being well-paced, it hits a good balance of keeping the cuddling intimate but wholesome, letting the detail of such moments work, all while having just enough of a skeleton to sustain its 2.1K words, with the human moving between a few impersonations they ask of Ocellus before moving to ask her be herself (a spoiler, perhaps, but I’d be surprised at any reader not guessing that: it’s the right call, anyway). Helps that Level Dasher finds changeling-appropriate ways to describe how emotions taste.
If you’re even somewhat partial to Cuddlefic fics, you’ll love this. Me, it reminds me of NavelColt and Admiral Biscuit’s dabblings in the genre, and within that, it’s a really solid one.
Rating: Pretty Good
More Than Muscle by Level Dasher
Genre: Slice of Life
Bulk Biceps
1,098 Words
June 2014
To most ponies, there isn’t much to Bulk Biceps beyond his physical figure, diminutive wings and catchphrase. Features that make most often shy short of conversing with him. Naturally, there’s a little more to him than meets the eye, and much he’d like to say if ponies were okay with talking with him.
It really is only a little more, alas: this 1.1K slip of a fic has Bulk voicing things out with his psychiatrist, and is light enough on content it needs a bookend leading into the events of “Hurricane Fluttershy” to reach even that length. The headcanon is expected but solid stuff, and I quite liked the connective tissue formed with another character and how Bulk ended up with his current body. But it’s not enough to make this not feel like a headcanon dump exercise.
A fine little fic for Bulk, but outside of big fans of his, there’s just very little substance to make do with here.
Rating: Passable
The Anniversary Anomaly by Level Dasher
Genre: Comedy/Random (w/Sex via innuendos)
Mane 6, Spike, Discord, Starlight, Star Swirl
2,837 Words
January 2018
A routine invitation to a mandatory Pinkie Pie party soon turns loopy when Twilight registers it’s to celebrate a major milestone surrounding her. Especially when it turns out the party isn’t the last surprise…
Boy, is this fic ever random – Level Dasher acknowledges upfront in the Author’s Note that this started as a five-year anniversary fic for them joining the site, developed from it being close to the five-year anniversary of Twilight getting her wings, and through the process, derailed into a assortment of random bits n’ bobs. The kind of fic where characters just show up at the party as it goes on, and bits don’t really evolve from the last so much as they just happen. It makes the fic’s relatively normal start of some reasonable Spike/Starlight chemistry, and even helping Star Swirl out of a jam between scenes, feel perfectly normal and sedate.
Those bits themselves are… y’know, they’re amusing enough. And the fic is short enough that it’s only had room to get somewhat tiring by the end. Still, it’s more just draining and indifferent then anything, with the characters and jokes being zany yet largely lacking in energy. And that’s the good jokes, because many of these are knowingly dumb and terrible, and largely not the good variety. I probably only have myself to blame for reading this one, random fics are dicey for this spirit, but removed of the personal context this was made for, it’s just there.
Rating: Weak
A Risky Bet by Level Dasher
Genre: Slice of Life
Pharynx, Flurry Heart, Cadance, Thorax
2,216 Words
December 2021Reread
A visit to the Changeling Hive for two generals to discuss combat strategies and for two foals to have some playtime goes awry when the pony general and changeling foal come down with a cold and a fever, respectively. Leaving Cadance to fill her husband’s horseshoes and Flurry with no one to play with, the suggestion is floated for Pharynx to watch over Flurry Heart. Something neither is game for, though strong egos soon change that. And come to show that, on Hearth’s Warming, pleasant times can be made out of anything.
For a Breezie Jinglemas fic (extra fics written by volunteers for those who didn’t get their fic written by another for whatever reason) concocted and written in eight hours, this is remarkably sturdy on the mechanical and character side. It manages to thread the balance of having Flurry be a whiny filly without irritating the reader, and having Pharynx transition from grumpy to warmed/impressed by her without dissolving into treacle or feeling overtly modular. Pharynx in particular hits the right level of being the tough, gruff, no-nonsense changeling we know, yet remaining likeable and fun to read both in a situation like this and out of it. That level of character carries this piece quite nicely, from how the two settle things to the end result when Thorax and Cadance return. It’s a hard fic not to smile when reading.
And on the holiday sweetness and general fluff nature, this works really well too, Flurry’s affectionate nickname for Pharynx being an especially neat touch. The only serious flaw for what this fic is trying to do does tie back to who quickly is was written, partially in overly simple and minimal prose for the piece but largely in the middle of the story where the two are together and Pharynx gets closer to her being so quick that the character arc to this feels like it’s still caught in outline mode.
Thankfully, the rest of the piece is strong enough that this only weakens it, rather than cripples it. Certainly one of the better depictions of both of these characters I’ve read, small fluff piece be darned. That it does have a story helps. This feels like a Decent, but something about the characters and chemistry they have here charms me enough for a higher rating.
Rating: Pretty Good
Hitting the Big Time by Level Dasher
Genre: Comedy/Slice of Life
Changelings, Other, Changelings
1,316 Words
April 2017
On the heels of a select group of changelings being integrated into pony society, one of them gets the golden opportunity to be a fill-in actor in Applewood, a role tailor-made for someone like him. He should be getting jobs left and right! That is, except for some confusion caused by changelings’ raw forms being indistinguishable to each other for a pony…
Yet another case of an intriguing concept, that being changelings actors – probably fresher at the time, I’m sure – used for a dumb comedy rather than a deep dive into it. That’s on me, of course; at least this story, while technically in the same universe as Minds Eye’s Integration Universe (four short one-shots of a small group of changelings becoming members of society in Ponyville and Canterlot, written pre-reformation), has no real barrier to entry, long as one accepts changelings having no name by default until they assume one here, and Celestia serving as their employment counsellor at the start. But this is a fic that has telephones widely integrated across Equestria too, that level of fidelity isn’t a goal.
It is more or less a punchline fic, – though not a Feghoot, even if it is a pun of sorts – and a reasonable one at that, tonally like something out of Spongebob. Rest of the fic to that point is zippy and cheerful, zany without being overbearing. So, it works at what it sets out to do. Can’t fault it for that, even if it hasn’t got much beyond changelings being short-sighted as an obstacle to success in this new non-infiltration territory.
Rating: Decent
Not Alone Anymore by Level Dasher
Genre: Slice of Life
Celestia (also Twilight, untagged)
1,124 Words
December 2019
For nearly a millennium, Princess Celestia has spent Hearth’s Warming alone, insistent on the castle staff and guard going home for the holidays. Now, with only a hooffull of years left until ‘she’ returns, all that has changed, thanks to one very special little pony.
Taking the form of a first-personpony reflection by Celestia, there doesn’t end up being much to this piece that Level Dasher wouldn’t notably improve on for the following year’s Jinglemas with The Greatest Gift Is You (right down to a specific holiday tradition!). Especially for the stretch where Celestia reflects, in an unnecessarily cryptic fashion given these are her thoughts, on Luna’s absence and what she’ll do when she returns and Twilight saves her (yep, this has full ‘Celestia planned that 100% from the beginning’ implications). This also ends up requiring quite a few leaps of faith for some of the plot points, primarily but not exclusively on Twilight insisting on staying with Celestia during the holidays.
Course, it is a Breezie fic, and thus assembled super quick, but relative to the freshness, character and delivery done two years later with A Risky Bet,this can’t help but feel rather lacking. There just isn’t much to this beyond comforting yet generic warmth, and even that is tempered by how the fic is almost fully out-of-time reflection, and not with Twilight right there with Celestia. An okay diversion, but a rather unremarkable one.
Rating: Passable
Ships and Snowball Fights by Level Dasher
Genre: Comedy/Slice of Life
Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, Fluttershy
1,115 Words
December 2019
Winter break means all the students have gone home for the holidays. Except for the stragglers, but that isn’t gonna stop the Professors getting roped into a snowball fight against each other. Or, well, three of them anyway; Fluttershy and Rarity have no intention of taking part. Emphasis on ‘no intention’ for one of them.
‘Snowball fight between the Mane 5’ could go any number of ways, though as the giftee wanted an Applejack and Rarity story, they are the focus. Level Dasher stated they don’t consider themselves to be good at writing Rarijack, so they opted for friendship with the more childish Rainbow Dash being the one to push Applejack’s buttons into playing in the first place, with Pinkie as side support that eventually instigates Rarity’s involvement. And from there, you’ve pretty much got the whole fic. Fluttershy excusing herself, plus some pleasant dialogue between Applejack and Rarity on other matters that gives an organic reason for Rarity to get snowball-pelted by the opposition while a neutral party, round out this short package.
The main AJ and Rarity material is pretty unremarkable fluff, but the surrounding material, especially the background ‘filler’ provided by Dash and Pinkie, elevate this a little bit. None too shabby.
Rating: Decent
The Pink Side of the Mind by Level Dasher
Genre: Comedy/Random
Luna, Gummy
4,073 Words
December 2021Reread
Being freed from Nightmare Moon would leave anyone eternally grateful. Thus it is that for her first Hearth’s Warming back, Luna wants to give all six of the new Bearers a personal gift. This plan hits a snag pretty quickly when she realises she doesn’t know them nearly well enough to pick anything tailored to them, and while Celestia provides insight for Twilight, that still leaves five mysteries. Thus, Luna avails of her freshly regained dreamwalking powers to observe their dreams for inspiration. Course, starting with Pinkie is bound to lead to some unexpected sights for someone who doesn’t know her. Just not from Pinkie’s dreams directly, but from a stoic baby alligator there.
Both the crack fic pairing (platonic!) of Luna and Gummy, plus the Random tag, would lead one to expect an utterly absurd and rather frivolous fic, especially off some of Level Dasher’s prior effort in that genre. Not so here: though the angle of Gummy being able to dreamwalk into Pinkie’s dreams and notice/communicate with Luna does end up mostly being surface-level once it’s all set up, this ends up being surprisingly grounded and level-headed. This ends up being the fic’s key strength, as it allows the central dynamic of Season 1 Luna in casual Old English mode and calm, eloquent Gummy (from the best part of “Slice of Life”) to flourish. Something about a freshly-returned Luna totally taken aback by Pinkie’s pinkiness and Gummy’s nonchalant attitude about it all keeps the fic lively, all the more important given most of the jokes involve dream variations on memories of Pinkie (some of which we know, some of which we don’t).
This really does end up being the better kind of subdued wacky fluff fic, treating the out-there elements with a cosy comfort and letting a gentle and sincere Luna (with not the faintest whiff of just-returned angst) act as a comfy guide. Enough that all these elements make the very basic level of what happens (the dreams Gummy show and Luna’s eventual takeaway for the right gift is pretty ordinary, with not even the predictable kind of subversion or something with a double meaning) not feel rote. If I got this as a Jinglemas fic, I’d have loved it. Even divorced from that context, it’s a jolly good read that balances tones and sentiment to avoid being bland.
Rating: Pretty Good
Spooky Summary of Scores:
Excellent: 0
Really Good: 0
Pretty Good: 3
Decent: 3
Passable: 3
Weak: 1
Bad: 0
Huh. Not read any of these. Turns out I've only read one story by Level Dasher, and it was an anthology. But he's on my list, so maybe I'll pull one of these recommendations. The Pharynx/Flurry one certainly looks appealing.
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You won't go wrong with either of them.
That one and the Luna/Gummy one were my favs (and two of the three I'd read before); unusually for Jinglemas stories, they lived up to my memory of when I first read them. That's always a good sign.
I've read 2 of his stories, but not any of these. I remember thinking "The Rainbow Pony" was pretty good.
Late to this, but I find his stories to be quite nice. Fluffy tales are really good for light reading to brighten the mood. Too bad that he has to leave all of us too early…
Such a shame…it seems that we've been loosing one fairly good author here at least once per year since 2017…(according to my memory) and he's the second one this year, too…(three if you count a lesser respected or known but probably not much less enthusiastic about creating)
Hope that the rest of us can continue to carry on their memories and live on, keeping the community we love so much alive. These author spotlights really keep sharing about their amazing life with us.
Feel terrible never having gotten to this, not only because it's in honor of LD but because you friend name dropped me.
Thanks for covering his stuff.