Ghost Mike's Ponyfic Review Monday Musings #85 · 5:00pm Oct 23rd, 2023
As reported by Equestria Daily, Gillian Berrow recently disclosed at Ponycon Holland that one contributor to the minimal direct generational crossover in G5 is that Discovery Family still partially owns show content rights to G4. Worth remembering that Hasbro only partially owns FiM’s base tv channel – the rest formerly belonged to Discovery and now Warner Bros. Discovery after the 2022 merger. Which means that they are owed some pony whenever a G4 character like Twilight appears onscreen.
Trying to parse the behind-the-scenes decisions from this is tricky, but I’d wager Hasbro might have anticipated the G5 series airing on the channel during early development, thus making this a non-issue. Or possibly the fee only became larger after the Warner/Discovery merger, which they would have gotten wind of enough time before it happened in April 2022 to scale back on direct appearances of G5 characters in the show. Either way, a sane person would assume this wasn’t a known thing from the start, otherwise they wouldn’t have committed to a generation with some crossover… right? Then again, knowing some of the decisions on G5 on both a creative and financial level, possibly.
In any case, unless this is just a short-lived temporary thing, it does put a spanner in my long-held theory that the future G6, off Hasbro’s continued financial troubles, would do the safest-to-an-executive thing and be a reboot of G4. Food for thought.
Two different things in the opening blurbs, and I still have a big ‘un about the fic today before getting to them! What madness is this? 
But yes: after over a year-and-a-half, and several offhand mentions of it, I am finally including novel-length Ponyfics in Ghost Mike’s Ponyfic Review Monday Musings™ (👻). Not 100K behemoths, but novels nonetheless. There won’t be any set regularity as to their inclusion going forward, though I do intend to have them semi-regularly, to get some off the bookshelves, if nothing else.
The main reason this took so long was debate over how to approach them. Do I just do reviews, but longer? Should they get solo weeks that don’t hold back on spoilers, akin to Louder Yay’s Spotlight weeks or Present Perfect’s VS Fic Recs (though the latter is meant for big fandom classics, which doesn’t always mean a longfic). Complicating it was the way I write reviews, not getting overtly bogged down in just discussing the incident. That’s all well and good for fics up to novellas, but for longer fics can feel like you’re giving them short shift. And I felt out of practice just giving over added paragraphs to plain ol “this happened here, and this is how I felt about it”.
After some wrestling, I think I reached a level I’m happy with for this fic. It’s a longer review than usual, but not by much, and as an experiment, I’ve kept some extra spoiler-y thoughts hidden after the fact (I dunno how well this worked, might not continue it). It came out well otherwise – which does mean the two other reviewed-and-waiting longfics I wrote on the older system will feel quaint when I publish them – but hopefully it’ll make for a good read.
Enough of a preamble, no? Here’s that fic, along with four others. And yet this week still didn’t break my record for most words in a week. 
That remains with my “some of my favs” week back in March for the series’ one-year anniversary (and one of the Ancestral Tribute review weeks last year, albeit off featuring eight stories). Breaking that will have to fall to the next week with a Ponyfic novel!
This Week’s Spectral Stories:
Everypony Writes a Round Robin by The Hat Man
The Starving Heart by Vasar Huineo
The Moonstone Cup by Cyanide
The Sum of Our Parts by Aquaman
Visit from the past by soniana-draws
Weekly Word Count: 71,081 Words
Everypony Writes a Round Robin by The Hat Man
Genre: Comedy/Random
Mane 6
1,764 Words
February 2016Reread
Twilight hit upon the idea for her and her friends to try sharing the writing of a story, where each of them would write a part of it, then the next would take over until they’d all had a turn. Known as a Round Robin, they’re now gathered to hear the final result. It’s sure to be… interesting.
For all that the direction with this is very expected, this is pretty funny stuff where everypony shines through their prose. After Twilight’s comparatively grounded opening depicting a mare heading to a castle to meet someone important, you can expect everypony to play into their heightened personalities in both expected ways (Rarity, Rainbow Dash), expected ways that still push beyond for wonderfully-timed comic bits (Pinkie) or in rather unexpected ways (Fluttershy). And the capstone to the fic-within-the-fic, as well as the bookend outside that story, are really fitting too.
A cryptic review, aye, so it probably sounds rather bland and typical. And the fic is completely and utterly unambitious, with even its subversions borne out of nothing but wanting to have a good time. Yet it is pretty darn fun and relaxed, with a rather effective writing voice for each pony. As a quick li’l writing gimmick piece, it goes down very easy and is quite satisfying. Plus, even as a gimmick, there isn’t a mean bone in its body, with a rather sweet and sincere tone, especially in the final bookend, that makes it resonate better than if it were the pure snarky and ironic comedy you’d expect from the premise.
Rating: Pretty Good
The Starving Heart by Vasar Huineo
Genre: Romance/Drama/Sad (w/Sex, mentioned)
Changelings
2,174 Words
September 2019Reread
What was once a relationship full of love and passion is now one of falsehoods and deceit on both ends. But not for the reasons you think: the stallion can tell his wife’s love isn’t there, because he can’t taste it. He knows not why, but as he needs it, he has little choice but to cheat on her, to keep himself alive.
Already, that’s a compelling premise, and it’s not the only part; it becomes clear quite quickly that the changeling’s love for his military wife has been the real thing for a long time, and thus it pains him to do what he must. Indeed, curiously, while the fic is a pre-“Canterlot Wedding” one and incorporates the usual nodding to preparing for it, it is focused far more on our changeling’s life as a pony, even as he debates what secrets of his kind he might sacrifice for the safety of the wife that doesn’t love him. In the plethora of agent changeling stories before that two-parter, even ones where they have genuinely fallen for their source of love, this one’s content is marked out.
What really makes this story stand out, though, is the prose. It’s remarkably efficient in a way that boosts the content, from an opening consisting of short, clipped sentences that fully show the unacknowledged fracture between both ponies (it passes the “opening hooks the reader” test with flying colours), to even the “normal” bits with the stallion’s lover and later reporting to his own kind dealing in a kind of brittle briskness that makes the dense incident really stand out. All coming to a head with the final scene. It’s still hard to believe this short fic has so much happen and has it all land so hard – I have rarely felt for a changeling so much.
Even with a Seattle’s Angels featuring in 2020, this story is criminally underread (granted, from an author who wrote this and one other fic then vanished). I was curious as to how I found and favourited it before: now I’ve reread it, while I’m not sure I’d call it a favourite (I’ve read a lot more since then!), it is a must-read, no matter how many pre-“Canterlot Wedding” Infiltrator Changeling fics you’ve looked at in your time.
Rating: Really Good
The Moonstone Cup by Cyanide
Genre: Adventure
Twilight, Luna, Trixie, OC
61,073 Words
November 2011-July 2012 (finish date isn't absolutely clear)Reread
One quiet day in Ponyville, Luna shows up to tell Twilight that she is sponsoring the young unicorn to enter the Moonstone Cup, the bi-annual tournament for the most powerful and skilled magicians the world over, a sporting event to keep the peace between Equestria and the other nations of magical species. Twilight is only too ecstatic to compete, if understandably nervous, though she has her friends around for moral support. With spectator attendance much higher than normal, off the word that the Element of Magic who defeated Nightmare Moon and Discord is partaking, and the world’s most powerful mages all competing, it’s set to be quite the spectacle…
Rereading this fandom classic was weird, as it took a few chapters before I realised my memories of a 2011 novel-length fic with a magic tournament was instead recalling the back part of Of Mares and Magic (not hosted on Fimfiction: I recall it is prominently a Twilight/Trixie story, mind). Thus, this was basically a fresh read. Something I’m grateful for, it’s not often you fully get that when rereading a novel-length fic.
My short blurb (for a 61K fic) is fitting, both for how quickly this story gets going, and the simplicity of its pitch being a virtue. There’s just enough fanfare about the tournament to sell the spectacle and get us excited without prolonging the main attraction, the banter and chemistry between the Mane 6 as they navigate their celebrity status in the buildup is light and breezy fun, and the cast is in perfect Season Two personality mode, with Twilight nervous enough to not aim higher than winning the Young Adult age bracket in her naive, dorky manner. Trixie is naturally present as a competitor too, but the story doesn’t pretend like her attitude or wanting to best Twilight is the main attraction, just a side dish. The worldbuilding is in that delectable early fandom style, with griffons that control magic, powerful dragons (that shapeshift to pony size indoors), and a magical relation to Diamond Dogs, ghuls, being the main featured species of note, all having enough featured and implied lore about themselves and their cultures so they don’t just feel like ponies in other bodies. Is it largely window dressing, but it’s effectively so.
And the main attraction, the feats of magic and then the duels, deliver really well too. The main pitfalls common to fight scenes in Ponyfic are avoided in such a manner as to make them satisfying. It helps that they are well-paced and don’t overstay their welcome, but largely it comes down to a lot of logical thought being put into the magic system, each fight establishing a key component or strategy on one of both participants’ sides, and following that to success or failure (or adaptation), giving the viewer a logic to follow beyond “blast them until they cannot fight”, and proper narrative momentum and escalation. And the techniques in such duels often come back later, usually employed by Twilight after seeing her opponent use them.
With all that, this story was purring along great at a relatively low stakes, engaging enough that I barely noticed the technical flaws. The more serious undercurrents that started popping up didn’t feel like they were turning the story into something else either. It was almost exactly what I wanted from a unpretentious old-school adventure short novel fic, breezy yet exciting, and just a good time.
I can’t point to a specific moment where this changed, as it was certainly a gradual thing, but I’d say eight chapters in, almost halfway, is where it started to happen. Possibly it’s just that this approach could only sustain a novella, I won’t rule that out. Political issues and animosity in the background becoming more prevalent, eventually taking over and turning the final act into a totally different story, is certainly a part of it. A larger part is that Twilight’s arc starts getting rather grim, obsessed with an aspect of her character that wasn’t not present to then, but certainly not in any manner that would serve as the impetus going forward. It takes some very odd directions, and leads to the careful magic and fight systems from earlier being thrown out the window (the final tournament fight is such a madcap yet lethargic deus ex machina I wouldn’t know how to describe it even if it wasn’t too far in for spoilers).
More than anything, the light tone that remains present is rather ill-equipped to give all this any oxygen, so the story starts descending into a pretty toneless list of incident, something that gives the impression of depth and nuance but doesn’t have it. It’s enough that I started counting the chapters left and wondering what could happen now the tournament was nearly over. This continues all the way through to the end, with subplots and things of focus going in and out with wild abandon. Finally, the epilogue tries to narrow things back to a small character focus, with the big fallouts (not least the after fate of a major enough chaacter) not even getting a mention.
Naturally, the story losing the needle like this also makes the writing’s issues leap out a lot more (close repetition, weak word choice, you name it), though it’s still mild enough by the standards of old fics like this. It’s most noticeable in the Trixie side chapters that pop up around where the story started falling for me – on top of adding almost nothing we don’t know and just being a wallowing exercise (you could cut them and lose 6.6K with only a few hundred extra words needing to transition to the main chapters), the prose and character voicing is the worst here.
I will give the fic this, the characters remain mostly consistent throughout even when the plot doesn’t. Twilight’s friends fall into their clichés more with time, but I suspect that’s just because they stick with the lighter style from earlier. Trixie doesn’t lapse over to the Mane 6’s side even as she develops, and manages to hit the balance of being talented at magic in a way that is credible from the show as it existed at the time. The Princesses are believable, and most of the OCs Twilight faces and meets are fun and interesting, even when they become cogs in the unwieldy plot later on.
The maths of the dropoff point may certainly make this story seem like a disappointment. It’s not; even when it drops off from the heights of the first 40%-odd, it’s mostly readable, just inconsistent, and the goodwill does carry it through before it becomes a drag, even as Twilight’s arc gets weird and out of place with the modest, logical progress of a small fish in a big pond it started out as. The worldbuilding and lore of the larger Equestria is interesting enough without even taking the focus away from Twilight (as well it shouldn’t), the setpieces largely thrilling and never repetitive, and when the fic is on point (as it still in for chunks of the back half), the technical writing and story shortcuts/choices don’t intrude on the experience.
On balance, I can’t do more than mildly recommend it as a flawed experience for reading now, but it’s easy to see why it was such a hit. And if you’re given to fight scenes, especially magic duels, done well, or this kind of early-era tone of story/worldbuilding/adventure, with a pleasurable lightness of touch? You’ll adore more than enough to justify it.
Rating: Decent
A few extra thoughts marked for spoilers:
- An example about the kind of weird, inexplained turns the story makes. It eventually pivots to Twilight being a special chosen one who can use magic without ever having to cast spells – most highlighted in the tournament's final battle – and is the most powerful being in Equestria (a stark contrast to the tone during the qualifier rounds!). To the point that, at the story's end, Celestia is going undercover in Ponyville to teach Twilight how to control her new abilities. And, sure, whatever, shonen anime plot armour and powerful abilities from nowhere, you see that in fics centred on powerful magic all the time, but while it does use Twilight's burst of magic during her entrance exam as the gestation for her holding back for fear of losing control, we never get any sense of what these abilities are.
- The takes on the species vary. The griffins are cool, with a plausible, respectable reason for raising the dead in their duels, and the featured one is giddy yet mature at the same time. I like the ghuls and them being diamond dogs before they went to seed, and Twilight's first fight against one is a great showcase of the specific spell and escalation narrative techniques mentioned earlier. Plus, they're the only specials with a different gimmick to how they cast spells. But they devolve into exposition dumps that don't mean much.
- The dragons are rather disappointing even as they remain intriguing. Not enough that the dragon queen is forced into the villain of the piece and there's no extra motivation for it (the finale is so much escalation without cause), and she's reverted to an egg that is never brought up again at the end of it all. We don't really learn much about them beyond their long lives, giant size normally, typically old school dragon powers, and that they can shapeshifter to pony forms. Also, it's telling of the whole affair that Spike's backstory is explained to him by the dragon Twilight fights offscreen and is then never raised again beyond his immediate reaction to it: we never learn what happened there.
- Probably my favourite chapter is the pre-trials of everyone fulfilling certain tasks to qualify alongside the rest of their group. Not just because it's early and in the "well-planned" phase of the story's approach to magic, but largely because the balance of Twilight's approach against Trixie's nearby lends it some tension still and fully sells her current "improved, well-researched but still egomaniacal" personality and approach. Though it does lead into Twilight giving herself the wings from "Sonic Rainboom" that remain there all story without comment (don't they burn up in the sun?), to the point she starts feeling like her alicorn self in battle once the collected approach to scripting the duels goes out the window. So it's a mixed bag even then.
- The broad story and world building remains solid, and with a second half scaled way down and made more logical, I'd have adored it. But even there, it's quite solid by the standard of novel-length adventure fics this old.
The Sum of Our Parts by Aquaman
Genre: Romance/Drama
Diamond Tiara, Apple Bloom
2,100 Words
May 2019Reread
A lot has changed for Diamond Tiara since she was a foal. She’s a successful businesspony, hasn’t associated with her mother in years, and has long since made amends with her foalhood enemies, most of all Apple Bloom. Now, though, nursing a drink at an upper-class party, her thoughts drift to one thing that has always been a constant about herself. That’s she a liar: to the world, to other ponies, and to herself.
In one sense, nothing much happens in this story: a now-adult Diamond Tiara just successfully avoids talking to Apple Bloom at this party for the elite. But through her inner thoughts, is it not bereft of a narrative arc, one that gives the lack of action a purpose and end takeaway. Diamond Tiara being a habitual liar who knows she is to the point of not only making excuses to herself for her choices, but knows them in advance, is certainly a bitter but humanising choice. It’s sobering enough in the early going as she both judges and envies others at the party, but really kicks into high gear as she observes Apple Bloom, poorly convincing herself she doesn’t regret taking the plunge with her. The shipping ends up being quite important and crucial to the piece, saying a lot about both ponies even as it is essentially a path not taken.
Along the way, Aquaman dazzles with seemingly effortless use of language, from metaphors and alliteration that unobtrusively make points ring truer, to phrases that show Diamond’s turmoil of regret, love and bitterness alongside her continued lying. And this was written for the time-limited Iron Author competition. You certainly won’t catch my arguing about its tied 2nd place finish! For such a simple, content-light little thing, this is pretty poignant, powerful and compelling.
Rating: Pretty Good
Visit from the past by soniana-draws
Genre: Slice of Life (Alternate Universe*)
Alphabittle, Argyle, Sunny, Izzy
3,970 Words
August 2022
Many years ago, when nopony in Bridlewood had seen a pegasus or earth pony for many moons, Alphabittle met an odd fellow, an eccentric sort who also liked collecting trinkets and was an avid game player. Only catch was, he was an earth pony. And yet, something about him stopped Alphabittle from making a spectacle of getting rid of him, instead discreetly showing him the way out. Though his dream about all pony races getting along one day, that remained insane. It’s not like that would actually happen, much less because of the daughter of this stallion.
I vaguely remember passing on this story when it was new, owing to having read a few stories of the “Argyle meets one of the other pony tribal leaders years before the movie, said pony later realises the connection after the film” type, and this one not looking to bring a whole lot to the table. Having read it now a year later, when such stories directly based on the events of the G5 film are very rare, I can’t say there’s much standout about it, but it’s a competent and sweet fic.
The perspective of Alphabittle as he escorts Argyle late at night through an empty Bridlewood, wrestling with not paying him any heed yet aware they did get on before Argyle’s fake horn was revealed, does a lot for this, and while it is doing familiar stuff in Alphabittle being less depressed than most of the town making him more prone to a good discussion, and a weakness for games the other pony exploits. Argyle is comparatively characterised a little indifferently, but it is competent. Honestly, it’s Sunny in the epilogue that struck me the most: having read the balance of sass and sincerity between her and Alphabittle post movie taken to either extreme, it’s nice to see an appropriate balance of both, and the bittersweet yet hopeful tone throughout, but especially here, does what it sets out to do.
Pretty unremarkable and lightly forgettable, all in all, but it goes down easy and is a G5 fic I’m glad I read. As a bonus, though written by a ESL author, there was no awkwardness in the prose that leapt out, and while some of that could be chalked up to the editor, I’ll praise soniana-draws for their effort and collaborating in the first place all the same.
Rating: Decent
* This is, I presume, only off Alphabittle later getting a daughter in canon, that would make some of his dialogue interactions with Argyle here read a bit funny – the fic isn't AU otherwise.
Spooky Summary of Scores:
Excellent: 0
Really Good: 1
Pretty Good: 2
Decent: 2
Passable: 0
Weak: 0
Bad: 0
Aww, look at you, thinking that 100k words constitutes the status of "behemoth". Makes me wanna pinch your cute widdle ectoplasmic cheeks.
Jokes aside, good on you for trying to find ways to expand into longer fiction. There are certain kinds of stories that short fiction just can't capture, so I imagine this will really expand your potential repertoire.
I look at your review of The Moonstone Cup, then I look at my own review. I realize that if I read it today I'd probably give it a Worth It rating, rather than the PG one I've currently got it listed as. I get the impression I was more generous with my ratings back then.
I really liked The Moonstone Cup, but I read it back in 2014 when a) a lot less time had passed and b) I was very new to reviewing. On my current scoring system I gave it a low four then; I very much doubt I would nowadays. (Actually, even reading my review from 2014, that doesn't read like a four-star review now.) Still, I'm pleased to know that it still has appeal, even if flawed appeal, all these years on.
As for The Starving Heart, I suppose it's possible that you found that one from my review (Feb 2020, about when it got its SA feature) and whatever the case, I gave that one four stars too. I very much liked the way the story kept a focus on Chitin's personal life, despite his being a changeling. I echo your comment that its a must-read within the genre.
I read The Moonstone Cup way back when, as the chapters were being published. I think I gave it a top rating half-way through because of my then ravenous appetite for MORE PONY and the relative scarcity of well-written stories. I do remember not being entirely satisfied at the ending, but not the specifics; it was (relatively) a long time ago. I think that, for me, the clever mechanisms of the early fights and the world-building were something really special. I will never re-read it, but I will enjoy my fond memories of it with the rough edges softened by the fog of time.
I think your review, and the format did it justice. Looking forward to more novel* reviews from you!
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**
* Oh yeah, remind me to recommend some quarter or half-million word fics to you!
** But seriously, The Silver Standard.
5751890
Hm, me thinks this is not the first time you've trotted out the notion of a condescending cheek pinch of your Ponyfic reviewing colleague's non-corporeal cheek on account of him reaching a milestone oh-so-modest for Big Boi Jeremy…
Check. And. Mate., you crafty sod.
Anyway, behemoth for one who reads Ponyfic for less than 10 hours in a week, shall we say. Yes, I read your blog on how you organise your Ponyfic reading.
That said, while I am likely to keep to the kind of word counts one sees in actual published novels, I think, given time, we will see those that inch above 100K too. Just maybe still under 150K. I just won't ever be at or anywhere near the point you're at, where every other review blog seems to have a fic that's 200K+.
I'm sure I've stated it before, but to be clear, I have read lots of Ponyfic novels, both under and over 100K. Sure, the average word count on my Re-evaluate bookshelf (of over 300 stories) is over 21K, tipped by all the chunky stories on it (and that's after I removed plenty I knew I wasn't ever going to reread). It was always just a matter of finding a way to work them into the schedule, and not just for time: the kind of details I like to use in reviews slip from my mind fast. Even most novellas I've read before for a review, I like to do on a free weekend in one binge, to get it all out. So much of the difficulty here was figuring out how many notes to make along the way, beyond just vague "what happened in this chapter" bits.
It's still something I haven't fully solved yet, so we're bound to see some growing pains going forward (or back, with the next two novel reviews having been written before this one: I wanted to start stronger
). But it's a start, as they say. I still abide by only reading Ponyfic as a hobby and not letting it take over my week, so as much as I do miss being able to just jump on a lengthy fic and read it as fast or as slow as I want with no worries, this suits me fine too.
All that said, yes, I am happy about getting to read stuff beyond short-form fiction again, even though I am at the point where I don't like needless padding and protracted stories (or series) in my novels either. No matter how much fun it can be to get swept up in a series of books/fics.
I privately wonder (and chuckle), when folks like yourself, Logan or Present Perfect read a review here (plus TCC56 or Chris, on the rare occasions either of them pop by), how frequently you check your own old review as a refresher and to compare. More than one might think, if the sample size of me doing the same in reverse is anything to go by!
Aren't we all? As I've been reading Ponyfic for four years by the time I started (and fanfic in general for another nine on top of that), I think I phased out of that overly generous phase quicker than most, but I was susceptible too. In any case, I do bear it in mind whenever cross-referencing a fic I've read and looking at reviews you or others did very yearly in your Ponyfic review careers (for you, that means 2015/16).
5751891
Yeah, even with your conversion chart, whenever I'm looking ay a review of yours that old, trying to parse the score, relation to the meat of the review, and liken it to the Loganberry reviews of time doesn't often match up! But we all go through that, I'm not gonna hold nearly-ten-year-old reviews against anyone.
For sure, and if there's one advantage of reading Ponyfic novels, it's that even if the overall rating is middle-of-the-road, the strong bits occupy that much larger a portion of reading time. The opening 40% feels more impressive here than it would for a 15K one-shot, in other words, and that means not only is this a very enthusiastic Decent, but the Really Good parts stick with you greatly. Reviewing is not an exact science, and in this case, that's meant in a good way.
I'm almost certain I did get it from you, on initial read at the time, this being a reread. I think by the time I was really aware of Seattle's Angels as something I should follow, they were closing up shop, alas.
5751900
This is a good point; I can't say it's overtly well-written, but it's written well enough to mostly suffice, and when you're wrapped up in the material, that's enough.
They are indeed: as I outlined to Logan below, regardless of the scientific numeracy of ratings, a hefty chunk of a novel being standout and leaving a lasting impression can mean a lot more and really stay with you.
For mixed-but-with-some-great-highlights long-form fiction (and more than a few movies), that's often the best way to be, I think.
I can, at least, confirm I have read it; it was one of the first Ponyfic novels I read during COVID, and what a pick-me-up it was.
Rare is the long, long slice of life novel that wouldn't be far better off cut way down, but that fic's just at top form pretty much the whole time, no matter how low-key it may often be. Its 300K length means I may never find enough time to reread it for a review, but I'll never forget it.
If I ever consider something mad like "top fics I don't have time to reread but are so great you should read them anyway" (it's a working title!
), The Silver Standard will be a prime contender, believe you me.
5751900
People keep on telling me how good that is. At 296k words it would be the fourth longest fic I'd ever reviewed,¹ but I suspect I will eventually weaken. On the other hand, people used to say that about Through the Well of Pirene and I have to shame-facedly admit to DNF-ing that. In theory my read is still "On Hiatus", to use Fimfiction terminology, but whether I'll ever get back to it I don't know.
¹ After The Immortal Game, The Life and Times of a Winning Pony and the inevitable Fallout: Equestria.
5751907
I'm in the same boat as you with Through the Well of Pirene. I gave that story 30,000 words before I dropped it. It just wasn't doing it for me, even though that's the point in the story where Equestria becomes a bigger focus. I just didn't care about the (human) characters enough to continue.
5751907
It's funny you should mention those three, because they are ones I read chapter-by-chapter as they were being published (before I swore off reading unfinished fics) and I really doubt that I would have started in on them otherwise!
5751909
I wonder if there isn't a strong introvert/extrovert dynamic at work with a lot of the "fandom classics" that people either hate or love? Just a thought.
5751902
Guilty as charged. I looked through my Top Favorites shelf because of the Moonstone review, and had several WTF? moments.
5751907
Well, one of the really good things about it is that you'll know within a chapter or two if you're going to like the story or not. I put off reading it for a long time because, on the surface, at least, it was very much not my jam. Once I got into it, I couldn't put it down.
5751902
For this blog and all others I read, that's also one of the first things I do. If I've read a story, there's a good chance I have notes on it, so I go dig those up to refresh my memory of how much I liked it. Sometimes I can even find notes of what pre-readers said about it.