Ghost Mike's Ponyfic Review Monday Musings #70 · 6:00pm Jul 10th, 2023
I have quite the habit of timing my finishing of a video game – be that the main campaign, 100%’ing it, or just to the goal or stop point that I’m satisfied with: whatever I’m gunning for at the time – right as the next game that will be my big one for a while comes out. I’m sure that’s hardly unique, many folks probably do the same, especially when direct sequels of the game they’re currently playing are on the horizon. But it can take many forms, I find.
For simple starters, last year I finished my Path of Solitude goal and Alpha Living Dex in Pokémon: Legends Arceus in late December, after Scarlet had come out but before Christmas when I planned to start it (I ended up not doing so until February for other reasons). Nearly a year prior I finished almost everything (read: not the Battle Tower and contest achievements) in Brilliant Diamond just before Legends Arceus, though given the two-months-and-change between those games’ releases, that was common to many folks.
But it’s not just a Pokémon thing either: way back in 2014 when I got into Kirby, there was a solid three-year period of me timing the finishing of one old game with the release of a new one, usually to facilitate the continued bouncing between genres the puffball is known for). And neither it is franchise-divided either; I’ve bounced from hardcore Metroidvania Hollow Knight to relaxing with one of my favourites in Super Mario Galaxy off the Super Mario 3D All-Stars compilation, quite a jump in genre and gameplay. It comes in all sorts! 
I bring this up because, as I’ve mentioned before, one of my off-again on-again gaming tasks over the past year has been setting satisfactory personal bests for all the Time Trials in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (by satisfying, I mean more or less as good as I feel I can do after breaking the track in, usually trying to be a meaningful number of seconds over the staff record and reasonably impressive next to the world record, if still well trailing it of course – though on one of the shorter tracks I’m less than five seconds off!). Which, as there’s 80 tracks now off the Booster Course Pass DLC, and you have two speeds in regular and 200cc, making for 160 effectively, is no small feat. Here’s the irony: we had known Wave 5 containing the next eight courses was coming later in Summer, yet only as I was gearing up last Thursday for my final track of the 80 did I hear it had a release date drop – of this Wednesday. Meaning when I wrapped up on Friday, I only had five days before the next lot!
No real point to this, whether I delve in with it right away or wait a while (though as mentioned, it is an on-again off-again task as it is, not always major). Just found it humorously ironic, as I do. Being honest, I like having it as a fallback break between games that I do in one go as my main focus. Other than keeping busy with games and chipping away at my backlog faster than it grows, I’m happy.
Off one kind of playtime, onto another with Ponyfic. You will notice the short word count, carryover of trying to keep my backlog of stockpiled reviews from shrinking until I get it back up. And also a lot of Rereads – to keep focused, I’m being more bullish in just plucking fics out of my hefty backlog there to read now, long as the type of fic and length fits my schedule at that moment. I am, at least keeping up the trend of one lengthier fic among the shorter ones, so both I and you have something with the potential for a longer, deeper tale each week.
This Week’s Spectral Stories:
Panic buying by Mica
Randomus Draconicus by Raugos
If You Can't Beat 'Em… by horizon
Rules for Dee by Casketbase77
In Quiet Moments by Krickis
Weekly Word Count: 25,420 Words
Panic buying by Mica
Genre: Comedy/Slice of Life/Random
Mane 6
1,612 Words
March 2020Reread
Pandemics are hard for any species to take, and ponies are no exception. In the wake of an unprecedented new virus spreading across Equestria, with ponies panic buying to prepare themselves for the time ahead in isolation, six particular ponies (and one child dragon) find their true personalities come out when scrambling to get the things they can’t do without.
Thankfully, this COVID-19 reaction fic isn’t as formulaic as all that: each of the six vignettes on the Mane 6 takes different approaches befitting their personalities, and after the first with Twilight and Spike, eschew focusing on the panic buying itself. They run the gauntlet in styles too while all remaining consistent enough under the ironic comedy banner, from Twilight’s typical flustered panic and Spike’s stoic deadpan, to the lunacy of Rarity and Pinkie’s sections, to the grounded calm of Applejack’s (she definitely deals with this situation best), to Rainbow Dash making surprising good. Though Fluttershy houses my favourite, with the particular way her timid nature plays up feeling so on point.
For a then-timely-now-dated fic (40 months on, just over half the views on this still come from its month of publication, only fifteen days), this works rather well even now. Helped, of course, by such conditions being enough of a memory that we can largely look back on them without shuddering. This doesn’t fully transcend above its limitations, but it acquaits itself quite well within them.
Also, there’s an on-point nod to Scootertrix the Abridged Series, which as the best FiM abridged series by far (sorry, Friendship is Witchcraft; take out the pretty solid songs, and on balance, you’re just kind of okay, on average), tickled me something silly in just the right way.
Rating: Decent
Randomus Draconicus by Raugos
Genre: Slice of Life (Alternate Universe)
Twilight, Spike
3,738 Words
July 2015Reread
What if the most unlikely set of contrivances didn’t go off at the Friendship Summit, thus causing no massive damage to the central hall? Why, that would mean, when Twilight woke of her own accord near sundown, she would find everything in tip top shape, Spike having taken care of everything. Just with the added wrinkle of him having abused the privilege of doing things under her name. When she sets out to dress him down for this, and finds out the reasoning, it’s not quite what she expected.
On the one hand, it’s a fixfic for a deeply problematic episode, so even an AU without the stupid contrivances still has to roll with and reconcile how much the base premise and disrespect from everyone dumped on him, leaving rather a sour taste (as Ragnos notes in the author’s note, “Princess Spike” was basically a worse version of “Secret of My Excess”). On the other hand, it’s a fixfic for a deeply problematic episode, so it can really get at aspects of the characters. Which wins out?
I’d say the solid side wins out, though not overwhelmingly. The fic leans rather hard on Twilight overemphasising that Spike spent state funds on all the personal expenses he dished on himself, and the potential fallout from it. While it’s done in a in-character manner, as is her shelving it when she finally gets Spike to open up about the way he was treated and how he felt, it does still subscribe, if on a softer level, to the streak of meanness that made the episode itself dour. And a motif of Spike having feral-like instincts when pressed on the matter, while conceptually appropriate, is overcooked in how it plays out.
Grapple with that, and the rest is quite solid. Some fun touches like what the incidental guards with dialogue get up to liven things up, rather necessary in a downbeat fic like this (I’m guessing the Drama tag didn’t come along until later in 2015; Raugos, no time like the present for an extra revisionist genre tag 
). A calm before the storm of Twilight approaching Spike outside the palace has some very affectionate imagery, and their talk largely hits the right points, as does Twilight balancing her takeaway of Spike doing the wrong thing for the right reasons.
The main shortcoming it has as a takeaway is that the end moral or point really doesn’t have much to say beyond Spike not being a nobody like the others said he is. That’s it: appreciated and true, but no real extra layers. This left the end result rather soft, and thus while it’s an above-average fixfic, it doesn’t quite transcend the lack of imagination that pervades most of them. Even so, it’s solid enough, if plain. Least relative to the quality fics Raugos is known for. But it is a reaction fixfic two days after the episode aired; given that time in the oven, it’s more than serviceable.
Rating: Decent
If You Can't Beat 'Em… by horizon
Genre: Comedy/Random
Twilight, Starlight
1,190 Words
August 2015Reread
Some friendship problems are hard enough to solve on their own as it is. Throw in persistent annoyances on the side, and you do not have yourself a happy Twilight. Thus, she is not pleased by Starlight shadowing her everywhere, nor claiming she’s a “reformed” villain. Eventually, the blow has to fall.
Short and silly little crackfic, the kind that leans at least somewhat into the character being both omnipresent (when it won’t derail the story) and meaner/snarkier than in canon. It makes no pretence to substance, just building off the first encounter with Starlight to more one with shorter word count, building up the tension on Twilight’s part as they happen in more ridiculous places. So the structural escalation is solid. Only at the end does it lose the needle, with a punchline that, while I do get, just sort of happens and hangs there limply for a reaction.
Even as-is, the approach taken not being even somewhat grounded kept my enthusiasm muted, but a weak ending leaves this one rather middling for me. But it’s so quick and zipply-paces, and that ending is up to taste as much as anything, that I can understand folks still vibing with it. Somewhat.
Rating: Passable
Rules for Dee by Casketbase77
Genre: Mystery
Rainbow Dash, OC, Starlight Glimmer
4,713 Words
June 2023(Standalone & Untagged) Sequel to Be Yourself – Reviewed here
The little pegasus filly known only as Dee follows all her mom’s rules. Chiefly hiding when anyone visits, keeping her sweater over her wings at all times, and never uttering that name. But the random visitor today isn’t just anypony, but a scary, strong unicorn with intense questions for Mom. Questions about Dee. Questions that have her convinced she can’t just wait in her room for the blow to fall.
Off Casket mentioning he was mere days off publishing a semi-sequel when I did an Author Spotlight on him last month, I fast-tracked said fic for a look in (and also, because I want to splice his newer works alongside rereading the older ones onto the schedule). His prior story Be Yourself centred on a Rainbow Dash clone created via a Rainbow Dash superfan via alchemy yet having escaped, eking out a living via painting by mail-order until Spike happens by to pick up an order in dragon. Fittingly, this is more a different take on the concept that is linked only in some continuity nods: here, we instead have a young, timid pony who realised their mistake and, after generating a tiny Dash (why she’s a barely-not-a-toddler isn’t explained, to the fic’s benefit: I headcanon it as the result of a spell from a less powerful unicorn) raised her honestly, if fearfully.
The actual story itself alternates between perspective scenes of the young Dee and the visiting Starlight, confident she’ll find a Dr. Frankenstein type, to the point of being internally high and mighty about getting to play hero and shut down the kind of thing her past self might have done. And thus very stumped when she cannot find any sign of the perpetrator being anything like that. These perspective shifts are very strong, wading deep in Starlight’s biases and beliefs even as they crumble around her, while demonstrating tastefully through both show and tell Dee’s worldview and upbringing. All lending tragedy and tension, on top of the verbal and physical tics of the young questioned unicorn. Considering what the fic is a metaphor for, and what such a situation of someone coming to take your child away could be compared to, it’s potent stuff.
This all dosn’t quite compensate for this being rather predictably linear in its execution and beats, save perhaps for a portion of the ending (and it’s not an ending that elevates the story more than marginally over if such a point hadn’t been there). Plus, for all that the Dee segments wing lots of excitement, and the personality fragments and past implications we get for her mom go a long way, the Starlight-focused parts end up being rather circular, at least when her hero syndrome is milked as much as this is. It’s weird for me to argue against her retaining traits of her old self this strongly, but it can’t help but feel artificial to propel the plot.
That said, being gripping and compelling while managing the balancing act of being long for one of Casket’s snippets, all while being just as tightly woven and deftly paced as his usual-length entries, is no small feat. His first story on the concept holds together better and doesn’t have one character’s material being softer, but otherwise, this is a worthy thematic companion. And perfectly readable on its own, if you’re coming to it fresh. If you end up liking it, give Be Yourself a go too!
Rating: Pretty Good
In Quiet Moments by Krickis
Genre: Romance/Slice of Life
Nurse Redheart, Fluttershy
14,167 Words
October-November 2017Reread
Redheart loves being head nurse at Ponyville Hospital. Taking care of everypony is very rewarding and means everything to her. Yet it’s something she hasn’t been consistent in keeping up; when her beloved pet skunk gets sick and she takes the poor dear to Fluttershy for recovery, the animal expert is quick to detect that the little mammal isn’t the only one Redheart’s been neglecting, and not all problems are to do with physical health.
For years now, I’ve seen constant praise for Krickis’ fics, prominently her mega novels Looking Glass, Inner Strength, and associated sequels, spin-offs and continuations, loosely forming a series called Who We Become (a romantic drama soap opera with Equestria and the human world having their own timelines that sometimes intersect, I gather, though it seems Looking Glass, regarded as the magnum opus by many, is more of a psychological drama). Naturally, I’ve yet to look at any of it, between the length of the fics, the romantic soap opera angle, and half of them (actually, a little more) being, well, Equestria Girls. But off the praise for the author’s ability to do character drama, it did leave me most curious. So when I came across this fic, and noticed I’d read it before, it seemed like a prime candidate to get a look in with.
Not quite. The lack of a Drama tag isn’t incidental – this is almost pure fluff with virtually no conflict or plot beyond that apparent from the long description and my teaser above. Which isn’t a problem in principle, yet in reading the fic, it became clear long before Krickis admitted as such in the Author’s Notes that writing such (relatively) weighless content exhausted her.
Before that happens, the fic is strong enough at its goals. The primary goal, or at least the most interesting, relative to the central fluffy romance, is to show Redheart struggling with anxiety and not prioritising her own mental health. Both in the parts with her pet skunk Feverfew and in the sighs, direct and implied, at the hospital, this is expressed with a sensitive degree of thought and nourishment. Doing so without pushing her dilemma into being more than it is – for anxiety comes at all varieties of levels – is no small feat, and while the writing does fall back on overtelling and explaining Redheart’s thoughts and feeling more than is wise, it’s compelling.
It would be remiss to not highlight the character voicing for Redheart is quite good, not at all the more biting and world-weary pony she’s often shown as, yet still with enough edge to her demeanour to keep it from being too much. Her interactions with Fluttershy as the fic progress are warm, sweet and playful enough, if hindered by us not really getting a bead on Fluttershy here: she falls back on conventional depictions of her, and while they are good choices, it’s coasting on reader familiarity. That, or the romance just kind of happens, and while it’s kept firmly in the early stages of interest, not pushing itself, she still gets an interest in Redheart because the fic says so.
All of which, on balance, makes the fic rather enjoyable romantic fluff with sensitive restraint and nuance in its simple goals. Then we get to the big flaw I cited. The back half of the fic, roundabout after Redheart’s second showcased day of work as a contrast to the first, is just slack, with the material being very tangibly gotten through as she and Fluttershy meet up again and talk about themselves. And this is doubly true of the final chapter, which both prolongs and spoils an obvious reveal and ties itself up with a return appearance of a prior character that grinds the momentum to a halt and doesn’t contribute anything; the fic would have fared better with a coda over a full-on epilogue, on top of the often protracted expressions and thoughts throughout (this is every bit a 10K fic in a 14K fic’s body).
While this is a slack telling of its characters and themes, and less than the sum of its parts, the strong parts sold this as distinctive, unusual romantic fluff. One that, outside of how the couple develop interest in one another, sold just as well for me. Which is no small feat! That, or I’m just more partial to unusual pairings that nonetheless seem plausible. At the very least, I would heartily recommend this to those who like romantic fluff, with or without caveats of across-the-board quality.
Rating: Decent
Spooky Summary of Scores:
Excellent: 0
Really Good: 0
Pretty Good: 1
Decent: 3
Passable: 1
Weak: 0
Bad: 0
I'm always achievement hunting, seeking that mythical 100%. In my case, it's more about fully experiencing the ~170 games I already own because I bought more than I could play. It's been working well (42 games 100%-ed so far!), but comes with the major caveat that any game I buy is guaranteed to be a few years old already. I also am playing three different games in any given time period, because if I focus on one exclusively there's a good risk I'll grow tired of it long before I get to those sweet double-zeros.
There's also the fact that some games can't be mastered quickly. Right now I'm caught in a bottleneck. Two of the games I'm playing (Surviving Mars and Ciel Fledge) take forever to master by their very design. The third one (Stellaris) not only takes forever to get individual achievements, but has been getting new content twice a year like clockwork ever since its release and each DLC brings with it new achievements, so it's possible I'll never actually hit 100%, or that if I do it won't be for very long. And that's not even taking into account that sometimes new DLC bugs out old content or reduces the likelihood of the necessary random encounters, thereby making older achievements all the harder to grab (I'm looking at you, Destroy the People of Earth!).
The only story I know from this collection is If You Can't Beat 'Em…, which was... okay. I tend to prefer my humor less crackfic, so I likely would have gotten a lot more out of it had we not ended up in such ridiculous places by the end. But I've read far worse crackfics, so yeah. "Okay".
There was a time where my fixation of 100% every game I had was not only diluting some of them for me, but stopping me playing games I knew I wanted because I also knew they would be too difficult for me to 100%. I've moved past that now (in the aforementioned Hollow Knight, I will likely never finish the post-game arena gauntlet(s)), so while I always try with large determination to finish every game I play, I will know when to stop if it's going too far.
I certainly have a large backlog of games I've owned yet have not yet started, between ones grabbed during sales on Switch and various physical games on my varying consoles, but it's more along the lines of 30-40, not 100+.
For my big Nintendo franchises (Pokémon, Mario, Kirby), I'm usually pretty quick on the newest ones. But for virtually everything else I play, I too am cool about playing games several years old or more, once I feel like it.
Oh, I do that too. I usually know going in if a game is the sort I will keep as a zero-to-100 focus, on put on ice for a while at some point. My discussion above was largely about the main focus at any one time, rather than the sub-games I may have going on alongside it.
Course, that's the big difference here: I've read enough of your intros over the past year and change to know that we are in totally different areas of gaming, and not just because you're almost fully on PC. One reason why I've rarely responded to those aspects of your intro blurbs, no real overlap!
You know yourself.
I think this is a pretty fair assessment of "In Quiet Moments" for most readers. It's the second and last time I decided to do a pure fluff story, for obvious reasons. It was a significant story for me in that it was the one that made me realize I wanted to do more with mental health, albeit from a drama angle. The story was also a gift to my at-the-time girlfriend, and this is the other piece beyond my exhaustion with writing fluff; every choice that may be read by most readers as bland was, in fact, made to tailor it to one person's interests. I'm happy with it in that regard, she enjoyed the story immensely and it helped me grow and learn what to do (mental health stuff) and what not to do (fluff). And as for the pacing, the simple fact is I'm a wordy bitch and I hate writing short things haha, I'm much better at novels
Now, I wish I could solidly recommend you to a work of mine I think is stronger, but as I said I mostly do novels with the occasional short story that usually winds up among my weaker work, and as you indicated, you're not terribly interested in Equestria Girls. If that's not a hard pass and more of a "really has to sell you on it" then I'd recommend, if you were so interested, "Something About Sunset". It's my brand of drama distilled to its most concise form, and it's legit the only shorter work of mine that I think works exceptionally well. But if Equestria Girls is a hard no, then I can only in good conscience put forward "Heart of the Forest", which is a longish story at 50k. I'm very proud of it, though it's an AU and that's not to everyone's taste. You'll see it's marked as a sequel, but it was written first; when that series is complete (I'm periodically working on the third of six stories in that series, Harmony's Chosen) then I think it'd be best to start with "Call of the Mountain". As is, CotM was written to be the intro to a series that only has two stories, and HotF was written to work as a standalone story in case I never got back to the series. Also CotM is significantly less good, I'm afraid... It's fine, but I feel like if you read another story by me that is only fine you'll wind up getting the wrong idea of what I can do hahaha
Regrettably, while I have two other shortish pony stories, I do not think they give a good picture of my writing. And of course, you surely have other things you'd like to read besides my stuff lmao, so I'm just going to leave it at that. I thank you for the review, it made me happy even if it wasn't glowing praise. It means a lot to me that you'd take the time, and I can't help but generally agree with you on the negatives of the story. If you read more of my work, enjoy, if not, then I hope you find enjoyment in other stories you read!
The only games I've ever finished are the ones that were engaging in their story or character aspects. I guess I don't have a slot in my brain for achievement hunting. When YouTube playthroughs became a thing, my game buying dropped off precipitously! Get the story without having to die a hundred times? Sold!
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Same. There are some crackfics I enjoy, but they have to be something very special.
As I said in the story comments ... thank you for the review! This particular story has been pretty divisive and I’m kind of surprised that it has gotten the exposure it has (I ranked it myself as one of my most overrated stories). I appreciate you taking the time, even if it was less to your taste!
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Honestly, that’s not terribly surprising, knowing you – you didn’t strike me as a heavy gamer sort, both for the reason you cite and others.
I don’t play that many games that are huge, story-first experiences, so I can’t say I do this much. I have, however, rewatched playthrough and even cutscene-movie-playlists of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky many times (and also Rescue Team somewhat less often), despite never restarting my save file. Because that is very much a “playing primarily for the story” sort of game! Between that and all the RPGs existing primarily for their story these days (plus other games influenced by this trend), I get the appeal.
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I mean, the perils of a reread tag are obvious round these parts: there’s always a chance it’ll be a story I wouldn’t read now were it not for the obligation. I haven’t crunched the numbers, but I’ll be those stories come out with a lower average rating that freshly nee stories to moi.
And yep, the dissonance between our own opinion and general audience reception and popularity is always a weird one, isn’t it?
I do have one more story of your I read before that will get covered again here soon-ish: Hearth Swarming Eve. I am feeling more positive that it will be to my tastes.
Heh, I'll take it.
I can't believe I cranked that out in such a short time. I must've been pretty mad.
On another note:
Do you count DWK as an abridged series? The dude's stuff is fantastic.
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I wouldn’t, on account of that being, well, a recap largely from a watching narrator rather than being a story featuring the characters we know and love, in a different form, going through a narrative.
Personally, while Totally Legit Recap is pretty darn funny, I find it’s a lot of the same, at least to the point that I don’t really watch more than one every now and then (by the time I became aware of the series, it was over, or more accurately, discontinued midway through Season Nine).
A big part of why I like FiW is that it's short. Scootrrtrix, good as it is (and I'll give no argument there) is a time sink -- all the more so given all the "oh, just one more then" extras they added over the years.
Games... well, you know me, I'm not ever going to be a committed gamer. The closest to serious achievement hunting I've got is getting my GPLRank negative in Grand Prix Legends two decades ago. (I appreciate that will probably mean nothing to anyone reading, but take it from me that it was a big thing in that game's community and that it certainly took me hundreds of hours of game time.)
And oh yeah, the fics!
Not sure there's anything here that's going to make me drop everything and read it at once, but that's just how things go sometimes. I might have given Casketbase77's a read even so, were out not for the fact that I'm about to read a different story of theirs!
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I'll concede the general point, while noting plenty of episodes and spin-off shorts in Scootertrix, especially early on, were basically standalone adventures with virtually no affect on the overall story. It's more serialised than the equivalent FiM episodes its using footage from, no question. But not any more so than plenty of other Abridged series I could name.
Honestly, it probably does come back to taste, when all is said and done.
That said, I suppose that, ultimately, the short length of FiW has contributed to its legacy, making it easy for the casual and curious to dip in, It adds to its mythos, that it petered out (well, okay, it finished gracefully enough) with just 10 episodes and a few associated videos. Similar effect to what some television shows get by deliberately ending a few seasons (especially British ones, where a season is only 6-8 episodes).
If it wasn't clear, buddy, I was very parched for intro blurb topics this week.
Well, chap's a quality writer with over 40 stories to his name and nearly all of them being short, bite-sized ones easy to add onto the backlog. That's not too surprising!
Ack. Took me way too long to notice you gave me another shoutout. I concede that Rules For Dee is less polished than some other snippets. Ironically, I hurried to finish and publish it specifically because I promised you I would. No offense at all with the observation that Starlight has "circular" characterization. If I were to take offense at anything, its your declaration that Scootertrix is the best abridged version of Gen 4. Mentally Advanced Series 4 lyfe.
Also, in case there's any unspoken feelings of obligation, don't feel pressured to find fics of mine to give favorable reviews. I'm proud of my backlog of course, but the Snippet Series does in fact a have a co-author whose equally creative stories sadly don't get the attention they deserve. I blame Str8's overuse of content warning tags. Give their backlog a perusal if you're ever hard up for review material. It's tamer and more fun than the tags indicate.
Keep at it, you busy bee of a content reviewer.
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Aw, you really shouldn't have. Like, you really shouldn't have. I am nothing if not a patient spirit. 👻 Honestly, I'm shuddering if you diluted the fic via rushing it out off the burst I ignited for that author spotlight last month…
Oh, believe me, I'm not. But you notice the Reread tag on most of the reviews here today? I have a bookshelf of stories I read in my pre-rating days (prior to May 2021). Anytime I come across a story with that familiar blue tick mark, I add it to that on instinct. And owning to me doing a binge of most of your fics to that point in early 2021, very nearly half your stories are on my Re-evaluate bookshelf. So I am personally obliged to revisit them. On top of later ones that look interesting.
I do have a personal rule that, outside of author spotlight and grouping linked stories together, I try to not review the same author within a month of last doing so (I also don't publish reviews of new stories until they're a month old), to avoid overcrowding.
I did review Str8aura recently, actually, though it was a smaller Jinglemas entry I'd looked at when it was new, and not one of his snippets.
Considering how close buddies the two of you are, you're in a prime position to convince him to rescind such a habit off the marketing damage it's doing to his work!
[glances at Re-Evaluate and Read it Later bookshelves, which have over 400 stories across 11M+ words]
Just a feeling, mate, but that's not likely to happen anytime soon!
But I will bear in mind your vouching for your friend's Snippets. Funny story, it wasn't until I was assembling your author spotlight last month that I realised, when you cite the two of you as co-authors in your Snippet's descriptions, that you just meant you both write one-shots on the Snippets' theming. I always interpreted it as him literally being a co-author on your work!