Ghost Mike's Ponyfic Review Monday Musings #77 · 5:00pm Aug 28th, 2023
It was for the best to take Author Spotlights off a set schedule. The last few in June, when they were almost done, came out far better for it, with fics chosen for that purpose and reaching a conclusion about the author’s style over the “eh, five fics that happen to be written by the same guy, why not” approach prior. Some time away reinvigorated the approach, so by that same criteria, here it returns, with Lucky Dreams.
[I’m sure there’s some meaning in there somewhere about an author of that name being featured for the seventy-seventh Monday Musings. I won’t tell you that it was just a coincidence of scheduling, but I won’t tell you that it’s not either. 
]
This didn’t start out as such, though. For a few months now, I’ve been trying to assemble select fics for a themed week on children’s stories. Because, despite Friendship Is Magic being a children’s show, even when our fics are E-rated, as over 51K of the active ones are (34.51% of the site’s 150K), and even if they are appropriate for children in content, they are being written for the fandom, and in a prose style not optimised for children. Actual children’s stories here are a rare breed, and even rarer are the good ones. Also extending the search were stories that looked to fit the criteria, but after reading them, didn’t quite.
I began noticing that several stories I’d picked were from the same author, but of course that wouldn’t do, so I kept looking. But after a while, it was clear this search would take even longer before it turned out five stories where most of the rest didn’t pale in comparison to this author’s one. So, the idea got retrofitted into just an author spotlight, but still retaining the original goal to a degree.
See, Lucky Dreams has been around since 2012 and hasn’t written many stories considering (only 17, though with the caveat that he has privatised some of his really early works, and a few other unfinished fics), but almost all of them are children’s stories. Normally an author sticking so close to the same style would get rather homogenous and repetitive, but he, amazingly, turns out to be really, really good, both at his style and varying it just enough so that while you might be able to separate his stories into sub-categories, you can’t lump than a few together. Perhaps the low story number is due to not wanting to repeat himself, or only writing when struck by the right idea: either way, he’s an author you likely won’t go wrong with picking a fic at random. Even better is that, while I ended up reading these mostly from the more recent backwards, the earlier entries, while softer, would still have ranked as strong against anything else.
One thing’s for sure: this author could make a fair shot at going professional with this kind of quality, even in the cut-throat market that is children’s literature. He’d have a better shot than many, anyway.
The nature of these stories does mean a very low wordcount this week. So I made that a strength, and added in two more, bringing us to seven stories today. Very fitting for Lucky Dreams, eh? Another reason I didn’t add more, was to preserve more of Lucky’s work for my own reading pleasure (and reviews here) in the future. Which, after you look through these seven, you’ll see why.
Lucky Dreams’ sporadic output means only a modest follower count, and except for a few early EqD featuring hits, back when that meant gangbusters for your views, so his fics are rather underread for their quality. Making this spotlight all the more appropriate! Hopefully you’ll agree.
This Week’s Spectral Stories:
In the Place the Wild Horses Sleep by Lucky Dreams
Cursed Be He That Moves My Bones by Lucky Dreams
The Starlit Promise by Lucky Dreams
Yes, Apple Bloom, there *is* a Santa Hooves by Lucky Dreams
A Light in Dark Places by Lucky Dreams
We Are All Made From Silence by Lucky Dreams
Supper of Scootaloo Stew by Lucky Dreams
Weekly Word Count: 20,583 Words
In the Place the Wild Horses Sleep by Lucky Dreams
Genre: Adventure (w/Human)
OC, Luna, Mane 6
2,746 Words
July 2014Listened to, on a 2nd read shortly after the first, via PresentPerfect's reading
Little Mia’s day is at an end, and she has been sent off to bed. But that’s not enough, to end now would be rough. She’s determined to run with a wild horse, that would be quite the course. And in sleeping with her mind fixated on such a wish, she’ll find it granted by the pony whose mane has stars that swish.
Okay, after I beg for your forgiveness for inflicting what I’m sure was a terrible set of rhymes on your poor ears, allow me to gush. The child-like narration and poetry perfectly encapsulate the whimsical, dreamy, ethereal fantasy vibe of many of the best childhood children’s books (well, the 20th century variety, anyway).
It’s all here; the whimsy of youth without speaking or pandering to its target reader; the clear moral that’s an organic extension of the events so naturally it breathes like silk and which resonates more poignantly than you could predict; the persavine flux between emotions of the perspective child yet which often carries a peculiar melancholy that makes the story all the more enveloping; the cadence of rhyming with good scansion and unfussy yet near-perfect prose that really captures that child-like wonder, and so on. All that’s missing are the illustrations along the way (though the author-made cover art gets us quite a bit of the way there), to the point this story really feels like you need to read it out loud – it is, in essence, the kind the parent looks forward to reading to their child more than the child does to hearing it.
Oh, and not only is it an absolutely wonderful children’s story, it’s easily one of the least-intrusive Human in Equestria tales I’ve ever read. I confess a slightly shaky middle (which the author admits was the roughest section to write) and odd decisions as regards the Mane 6’s appearances did pick away at me, as did some spots where the prose slipped and muddled the immersion, but those are the only complaints I can levy against this. Even the unnecessary coloured text isn’t obtrusive. Sure, a little tweaking would make this an effectively perfect children’s Ponyfic (and one that requires minimal fiddling to be an original story, frankly), but even as it is, this is phenomenal, and one you all owe yourself to try out. Even if I cannot go as far as others have (Loganberry once claimed this was his favourite Ponyfic for several years, though I don’t know if he still does), I completely understand and am on board with its acclaim. The gap between what the story sounds like and what it is to read is mind-blowing.
Rating: Excellent
Cursed Be He That Moves My Bones by Lucky Dreams
Genre: Slice of Life
Sweetie Belle, Rarity, OC
1,894 Words
April 2016
Staying overnight in the hospital all on your lonesome is never fun. Left alone to her thoughts in the dark, empty room with only moonlight streaming in the window for company, Sweetie Belle is nonetheless braced to wait out the boredom. There’s just an extra complication involving the ghost trying to spook her…
It’d be hard to imagine a story that more perfectly embodies the purity of FiM. There’s nothing remotely scary even to the intended audience in this children’s fable (at least, in terms of lasting beyond the moment), where a voice claiming to be a ghost lurking in the closet tries to spook Sweetie Belle first with her being alone, then with the joy of getting to visit her own funeral later. Wisely, what Sweetie is there for or how severe it is is left ambiguous; all that matters is her getting courage from her memories, standing strong against the ghost, and when it shows vulnerability, sharing love and care with it. Which is just what our kind want (👻), so I approve even beyond the reading experience it provides.
All this is enlivened by wonderfully whimsical, comfy prose and turns of phrase Lucky Dreams likes to employ in his true children’s stories, from the song lyrics springing from the title (itself a clever Shakespeare nod) to the way Sweetie Belle’s kin give her comfort without her seeing them to the way the ghost’s proper form appears. It’s not showy or overly ambitious as some of Dream’s other works are, but it is never not effective. And at the perfect length for a quick bedtime story, this is very hard to find much fault with. Like most of their work, it’s a great starting point to an all-too rare type of story in Ponyfic, and an even rarer one to be done well, that is done wonderfully. Not as blow-you-away as the first one here today, but little is: point of fact, I’d say that this can be read in less than five minutes makes it the best introductory fic.
Rating: Really Good
The Starlit Promise by Lucky Dreams
Genre: Slice of Life
Celestia, OC, Nightmare Moon
2,597 Words
November 2018
“The stars shall aid in her escape” said the prophecy concerning Nightmare Moon, and no more. Thus the few ponies that even came across the prophecy and took it seriously didn’t consider the meaning of those words. Turns out, they’re more literal than you think, as a young filly star finds out when her wise father divulges that he and his brethren are set to unlock the moon in a year’s time…
Third fic, third knockout. However, this one is not quite so transparently a children’s story, though it would still be a great read for the little tykes. While it would definitely work as an abstract atmospheric piece, it is instead at least somewhat literal, with the two featured stars are described in such a manner that will no doubt put in one’s mind constellations in the shapes of a stallion and his filly talking to each other against the canvas of space.
This ends up working really well, lending a gentle approachability to the concept without robbing it of its ethereal awe and mystique. This small-scale story set against the fear of a potential apocalypse (once the father has made the filly aware that the eternal night she thinks would be great would spell doom for the ponies) lends enough horror to the piece to make it not just be the wonders of the night sky, yet still let it be the prominent takeaway.
There are several tantalising lore concepts at the margins (young stars spend some time as ponies on earth), but this tender portrayal of a father-daughter relationship makes this clever and interesting magical tale tender and personal. This is technically a story where virtually nothing actually happens, yet I doubt anyone will care. Another hit for Lucky Dreams. You probably see by now why I had to stop myself from featuring most of his library today!
Rating: Really Good
Yes, Apple Bloom, there *is* a Santa Hooves by Lucky Dreams
Genre: Slice of Life
CMCs, OC, Applejack, Twilight
2,757 Words
January 2013Listened to via Scribbler's reading
In her letter to Santa Hooves this year, Apple Bloom doesn’t want any presents, not one. All she wants, with all her heart, is a cutie mark. When she gets a typed letter from his workshop stating such a gift is impossible – with an identical one following up on her appeal – her older sister and best friend gets involved with their own letters.
This is very much a story all about the style, but I’ll pay the content more than lip service first, for it deserves that. It is, of course, a pretty standard story of escalation for ponies to get a personal response from a place sending out letters from a corporate entity. Within that framework, it has grace notes of varying tones, from comedy to sadness. The former manage to prevent it from ever being too cloying (their ‘apology’ gift to Scootaloo kills it) while keeping the alternating bittersweet/sweet tone, while the notes on the latter are quite heartfelt – you really get into Apple Bloom’s plight. More importantly, the letters feel like letters; almost none are overlong, and the voice of each one’s writer is well applied, all while still building momentum throughout.
In terms of content, this stronger-than-you-might-expect chain of letters hits a surprise turn about two-thirds in, with a letter to Applejack that really hits hard, but the rest thereafter feels rather convenient and rushed, especially with looping Twilight in for a Season One-style lesson recap. It diminishes it a bit, but not too much
Taken on its own, the story is a charming little thing, if undeniably a much earlier work for the author. But the way it’s told makes it something very special. The letters are actually handwritten and scanned in as photos, and not as some quick thing either; the writing style is varied, the cross-outs feel natural, the visual additions the CMCs make fully real and true, the letters from North Pole Enterprises authentically corporate. This really makes the story, and I can’t imagine reading it any other way (plus, Scribbler’s reading uses the scans as the visuals, so it’s practically reading and listening to it together). You can tell Lucky Dreams agrees, as unlike most old stories relying on pictures, the embedded links have been kept updated and active.
The basic concept and a softer, flatter last chunk than most of it still make me not quite able to give it a Really Good, but I can’t imagine it being much closer. It even works great outside of the holiday season, though I don’t doubt it would work even better during the holidays.
Rating: Pretty Good
A Light in Dark Places by Lucky Dreams
Genre: Adventure
Apple Bloom, Applejack
5,717 Words
October 2015
A really cold winter has Apple Bloom on edge come bedtime, though she won’t let herself admit this to Applejack, even as her older sister sets out a lamp of fireflies. Soon, a dreamscape of oceans, monsters, and a voice hissing in her ears that her brave face is fooling no one all converge on her, leading to the biggest test of them all: being able to admit when you are afraid.
As you might expect, form reflects content once again: here we have a children’s story where the very prose itself has a shimmering quality that makes for a reasonable approximation at the logic of dreams. It’s rarely too elliptical, and thus straightforward enough to swallow, if perhaps not quite so simplified as to fully feel like a publishable children’s story. But for an adult, it hits all the beats; a straightforward moral beautifully told, plenty of unstressed sights that drop in and out without comment, even in the waking world, and very nicely creative descriptions of the sights, the sounds, Apple Bloom’s thoughts, and the rest. There’s enough stylistic flourishes here to make this feel different from the prior four fics.
This poetic whimsy, present even outside of the handful or short poems within, doesn’t quite make for a story I loved or was head over heels for. It is more just a simple thing done creatively (in scenario, it’s not unlike “Bloom and Gloom”, just swapping the cutie mark for a fear of fear), and thus perhaps not an entry point, or one for those only somewhat partial to children’s stories in Ponyfic. But it absolutely continues the author’s streak of thriving instead of being constrained by their story type, and that’s heavily commendable.
Rating: Pretty Good
We Are All Made From Silence by Lucky Dreams
Genre: Dark/Slice of Life
Scootaloo, Fluttershy
3,341 Words
September 2016
Scootaloo has been staring out the window of Fluttershy’s cottage for ages now, at the Ponyville hospital where she was barred from sleeping at the foot of Rainbow Dash’s bed. She won’t admit her terrors, even though they run deep, and is fully prepared to dismiss Fluttershy wanting to talk it out. However, she surprises her by suggesting the polar opposite: silence.
“Wait a minute, Ghost Mike,” you may be going. “Didn’t we just do a story with one of the CMC getting over their fears via a not-quite-waking-world-out-of-body experience?” Indeed, but while unmistakably from the same author, this is very different, and barely a children’s story at all. First, there’s that the prose leans equally towards auditory experience rather than the peculiar sights that usually form the backbone of Lucky’s works, and it’s utilised just as cleanly and efficiently, in the direction of a kind of pony mysticism via deep meditation. It really could only be done like this.
The other thing is that this redirects Lucky’s endearing, warm and whimsical style towards something rather unnerving and personally penetrating – I don’t mind sharing that I had to pause and take a breath a few times. We don’t even really learn much about the specifics of what Fluttershy has Scootaloo do, just enough to propel the fic along, but the mystery only heightens the experience. Certainly, if there was any doubt about his ability to do something different enough but still unmistakably him, this will quell it.
Much like Scootaloo’s experience itself, this sensory feast isn’t perhaps easy, but it’s very invigorating, enough so to put the curious strangely characterisation of Fluttershy past (it’s not off, it’s just very strong in its “she seems too assured of herself from Scootaloo’s perspective”, even as we know better). A very startling fic, in one of the best ways possible.
Rating: Really Good
Supper of Scootaloo Stew by Lucky Dreams
Genre: Dark/Comedy/Slice of Life
Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash, OC
1,531 Words
November 2015
As big sisters are wont to do, Rainbow Dash brings Scootaloo to visit her Great Aunt Gloom Cloud. Also as big sisters are wont to do, while her auntie is out of the room, Rainbow decides to warn Scootaloo to not misbehave in Bloom’s presence, or she’ll be cooked.
For Lucky Dreams’ one tagged comedy, he really went all in on the black humour, with Rainbow reciting nursery rhyme poems that get more and more delightfully macabre. Imagine the dark whimsy of Hansel and Gretel in a context that isn’t a fairy tale. All lend a delirious contradiction by Rainbow being totally straight-laced apart from the content of the lyrics she’s singing.
It is the kind of fic that banks a lot on this being your thing, and if you’re not having a lot of fun, your mind will likely wander to such things as why Dash is being so cruel (she really should know better with Scootaloo), whether she’s improvising this or had the whole song pre-planned, how much of her attitude towards her aunt is true or just part of the wind-up, and so forth. Me, I have a tough time reading poetry, so while I think the poems are pretty fun, I found it not the easiest read. But Lucky does bridge into this other different type of fic with delightful aplomb and it is a lot of fun, and quick to digest to boot. So it has the potential to be quite the treat.
Rating: Decent
Spooky Summary of Scores:
Excellent: 1
Really Good: 3
Pretty Good: 2
Decent: 1
Passable: 0
Weak: 0
Bad: 0
Ah, Lucky Dreams! A good choice if ever there was one.
reviews so nice you posted them twice
Oh yes, Wild Horses... I should read more of Lucky Dreams' stuff. (Noting the high favorite ratio of what I have read.)
I don't think I've ever been disappointed by anything I read of Lucky's. Great set--and author--to highlight!
Also, it's worth noting that Wild Horses is the deserved lead-off fic in the just-published For the Love of Faust anthology. Personally, I think it's a great tone-setter for the whole book.
so good so good so good!
5744323
). Two of which were so long ago as to lack personal ratings. So really, not even 1/6 of the lot. Not a good look for Casper here…! 
Yep, this fic would be a great starter to such a book!Though I scanned down that list and was stupefied to discover that, of the 53 stories in that book, I’ve only read ten (hey, there’s that number again!
Well, least I have a fallback for when I want a guaranteed quality short story to read now. Or up to 45 of them, personal taste permitting.
or 43, accounting for two of them not on Fimfic (or requiring a password anyway), unless I went to Fimfetch.
Keep in mind the stories selected for that book weren't specifically chosen as the best ones by those authors (though in some cases, like this one, that did end up being the case). They were chosen more for being early-season show-tone stories.
5744343
Oh, believe me, I gathered that; on top of the specific packaging and long descriptions of many of the stories belaying them being lighter, frothy affairs that weren’t necessarily aiming for being top quality stuff (plus some of the ones I’d read), that even the ones as recent as 2017 sometimes still had Unicorn Twilight in the cover art, a real rarity unless one is going out of their way for such fics, was a giveaway.
My intention was just to consider the fics there; which will actually get read is all down to the fic. But the clarification, even if known, is appreciated. Second opinions are valuable!
The only one I've read is the Santa one - yes it is the common Christmas Special fare, but the character in the scanned letters really bats it home wonderfully.
As for the rest, each appears roughly to be the cutest thing I've ever seen, and a few have been added to the short list. Especially Light in Dark Places - something about low-level winter peril/coziness really appeals to me.
So sorry it took a few days to comment on this – it’s been a helluva week. But wow, what a thing to find when I popped onto Fimfic the other evening!!
Mainly the latter? Most of the fanfics I’ve published since 2012 have been ones I’ve managed to squeeze in between my original children’s books.
Oh my God, this comment
Honestly, there’s part of me that can’t believe this story still gets this kind of reception almost 10 years after I published it. It was a real turning point in my writing, and I’m so darn proud of it.
Always makes me super happy when people say they like The Starlit Promise. I think it’s one of my better ones, and I wish it had done better in terms of readership and stuff. But reviews like this make up for that.
Same deal with We Are All Made From Silence – I just read it for the first time in, gosh, probably over 5 years or something? Yet, even though I'd probably approach it a little differently if I were writing it today, it’s still one of my favourite things I’ve ever written.
Haha! Got that right – really find that people either seem to love or hate this one. I remember putting it in a Scootaloo group way back when, only for one of the admins to remove it within literal minutes!
5744673
Not at all, you're very welcome!
Your works earned you this spotlight, buddy, as did them being rather under-read for their quality, a few breakout hits excepted.
Wait – so you are a real-life author who's actually written officially-published children's books?
Either I missed that, or this fact isn't communicated across your pages nearly as well as it should be, mate. Either way, fair play!
I don't know if I'd go that far – it was a Pretty Good/Really Good edge case for me, and not to my personal tastes as much as many of the others, even if it was pretty phenomenal. But that's why it got the rating it did, for being a blowout of something not as easy a sell for me as most of the others here.
You can thank Loganberry for that – the rest here I picked from your backlog myself, but this inaugural entry came from his praise.
Yeah, it's a little curious it's not even hit 1K views, for a fic over four years old from an author like yourself with a reasonable following and a reputable reputation.
Well, I'm hardly gonna judge you for just wanting to have a bit of random fun with macabre poetry/nursery rhymes! We're all entitled to just go for broke on silliness in our fiction.
5744351
Often it can take a while to see how folks react to reading fics featured here, if indeed I see it at all.
I noticed you went ahead and read several of these a few days after this edition of Monday Musings, and left comments on those stories on how much you enjoyed them. Which warms me too, that they brought you such joy so soon after I recommended them.
5745076
My read it later list is... unfair. Since new things congregate in front, I tend to get to them faster than ones that have been languishing there for years. :p
5745128
Oh yeah, that feeling. It applies to my RiL list a bit too, though there the big thing making mostly recent additions get read first is how most of the fics in there are novel length and thus hard to squeeze in. It really happens with my Re-evaluate list, which is nearly 330 stories thick and similarly tends to prompt me towards picking stories I recently found wi the the ol blue checkmark but no bookshelf tag.
Ah well. Nothing to do for it but keep making baby steps, and chip away at the elephant!
Oh my, and only now do I realise I haven't commented on this! Not that I need to comment on every review blog, of course, but when one actually mentions my name...
It's still there or thereabouts. I still adore it, and The Starlit Promise too -- though In the Place... holds top spot among Lucky Dreams' fics. Given you gave it an Excellent, it's not as if our feelings about it are very different, but yes I think it's probably still fair to say I like it even more than you do. It's glorious.