Ghost Mike's Ponyfic Review Monday Musings #103 · 6:00pm March 4th
Eventually I’ll have to contend with these yearly anniversaries getting a day further off each time (or two, Leap Year and all), as I started on March 7th. Price to pay for committing to a fixed day in the title, eh? But that day isn’t yet (likely next year, where I’ll have it three days after rather than four before, to be closer). Right now, it’s here. Folks, Ghost Mike’s Ponyfic Review Monday MusingsTM has been going on two years now. 
I’ve teased a bit in recent weeks about having a theme properly ready for this, unlike the scramble for one at the 100th blog three weeks back. And that is true – it’s the same as last year’s, where as a personal treat, I picked five of my favourite fics to review. Same deal here: showing examples of what can really grab me when all the details coalesce into something wonderful. Some expected and some outliers. One quite the outlier. One fic is a new read too, showing even after six years of reading the things, I’m still finding ones that latch their way into my heart.
It’s a pick-me-up needed for both the blog and myself. 2023 was not a good year for me, and even the standby of Monday Musings plugging away transitioned into not being quite the unbridled joy it had been the prior year. This has particularly shown itself in 2024 thus far, where on top of the usual conundrum of balancing between fun hobbies and active projects and ultimately doing little of neither, I’ve been consistently reading Ponyfic at a slower pace than I've been posting about it. Right now, the backlog is the shortest it’s even been in ages in word count, just shy of 200K. And even that’s only after just finishing the novel for later in the month. Granted, this is following several weeks of longer word count stories (weekly average for the year thus far is almost 49.9K), so I can easily counterbalance this with some shorter weeks for a while. But it’s still concerning, for both the short-term and the long-term.
I won’t lie, folks: Ponyfic reviewing, as of late, has sometimes had shades of obligation milieu crawling about it. As my reliable fallback to not feel like I’ve wasted my evening/day/week, it’s distressing, to say the least. And, unlike when I’ve raised milder such instances of this with other things… I don’t really know what to do about it. 
I wonder if the blog treading water has something to do with it? I don’t mean in terms of growth or audience, though that is true: all the regular commenters were already here a year ago, and the views the blogs get in a week is still basically in the same slightly-under-150 range as then. Also my follower growth in that first year was 69, but was only 44 in this second year, a good indication, in Fimfic’s first up year in a decade, that once the initial excitement of a new regular Ponyfic reviewer wore off, they're just picking up the odd straggler. Not that I do it for the views or followers, but extra motivation does help a bit. Also, that I just missed the 150-follower threshold I was hoping towards the end to hit for this anniversary doesn’t help. 148, so close…! 
But that’s largely tangential, I’m referring more to the content and engagement of the blogs themselves. Take out Author Spotlights becoming irregular and covering a novel monthly (plus the current aberration of being mostly reread fics), and I don’t know anyone but myself could tell you how they’ve changed in the last year. Which… I guess could be it? Stagnation does often lead to dwindling enthusiasm. It certainly isn’t because of my stance on newer fics – output could stop today and I’d still have older content to cover for ages. Even if we say 95% of all fanfics on Fimfiction aren’t worth it, and I was razor-sharp with only picking the remaining five percent, that’d still leave at least another four years here.
Maybe it’s okay to not have all the answers at once. Possibly, stagnation on my Ponyfic adventure novel is bleeding over, given the shared commonality (I can say, often when I’ve had a bad week and want to do something to salvage it, it’s near-always the Ponyfic reviews, because I don’t want to fall behind on something that has public expectations). I know the novel’s getting closer and closer to the phase where enough work will be done (over half is already) that the rest will snap into place more easily. But it just ain’t there yet, despite having so many pieces, and many of them being killer that I can’t wait to share with the world. 
You know, that got glum for a while there, didn’t it? And on a week like this. This isn’t a facade of positivity, but I do remain very grateful to each and every one of my readers. I’d have packed this in long ago without you guys. 
Do I still wish I could more easily engage with others outside of this blog, and they with me (and I don’t just mean judging contests, that’s just one such example)? Of course. But dealing with not wanting to feel like a burden to others isn’t easy, and it’s very true for one as privately unconfident and who fears he’s a hack as myself.
Regardless, I’m very appreciative: it’s easy for praise and followers to bounce off coming from the masses, but it means a lot coming from people you admire and respect, people you consider equal or above you, people you look up to. Which genuinely applies to every regular commenter. Do I sometimes get the feeling I come across as a bit remote and aloof, and not the genuinely friendly and chummy spirit I’d prefer? Yeah, on occasion. But neither person nor phantom can control how others perceive him, can he? 
Hopefully you’ve learned that bit more about your favourite ghost host today, and if any of you still thought of me as just “the fifth and final active Ponyfic reviewer” (I don’t object to being the least-known – all the others have being doing it since when Fimfiction had tons more readers, have written tons of fics to boost their following, or both), well, ideally a bit more springs to mind now when you think of Ghost Mike. I’m hoping being more earnest here (not that I’m never not earnest, but more openly so) doesn’t read as cringe when I look back over it, or to you guys. 
I’m not sure yet what to do with the Ponyfic reviews past the next month and change. I’m hoping I’ll get a second wind, but am looking for something else. Nothing’s struck yet, though. If drastic action is needed, I’ll let it be known before it has to happen. Hoping that won’t be necessary – it would be a shame if this had to stop being weekly or cease altogether so soon! Even if I know folks would understand, it wouldn’t feel right. Another casualty to my difficulty with long-term commitment. 
So, I wholeheartedly welcome suggestions and tips.
With that, I’ll leave you with this quintet of special fics. Expectedly, there’s nothing recent in here, with the newest fic being from 2017, and everything else from 2012-2015. Though whereas last year’s selection of hand-picked favourites set a then-record for most words in a week, at 84K, mostly off the difficulty of really short fics to stick as a top favourite, this week is far closer to the recent average, at 51K. Guess it is possible for short one-shots to leave that strong an impression every now and then! 
While I think I’d pick more from last year’s than this year’s in a dead-heat (it was first and had a bit more choice), this year fared even better in the ratings, with only one fic not making the top rating. 
Ain’t no way any week’s ever beating that without deliberate manipulation on my part!
This Week’s Spectral Stories:
The Lazy Dragon of Dragonvale by Georg
Whom the Princesses Would Destroy... by GhostOfHeraclitus
What About Twilight? by alarajrogers
Roaming by Skywriter
Lost Cities by Cold in Gardez
Weekly Word Count: 51,093 Words
The Lazy Dragon of Dragonvale by Georg
Genre: Slice of Life
OC, Star Swirl
2,961 Words
October 2017Reread
There was once a lazy dragon. This dragon was so lazy that he was not bothered to find a town to pillage for gems and gold. Instead, after settling down for a nap in a nice, large valley, he decided to make one.
Honestly, I could have relied on my memories of this fic and still produced this review, but it never hurts to revisit a story this good. The prose and actual events therein is perfect children’s fable, melding from the perfectly balanced semi-omnipresent narrator to the dragon’s logic and thoughts as he reacts to every slow, small development over time, to the “parent reading to their kid” cadence of the dialogue of the ponies that gather to build the village. The pacing and structure are perfect, somehow making both a slightly-too-long middle and an abrupt ending feel essential to the flow and effect of the piece.
If there was one thing I didn’t really remember after coming back to this, it was the other layers of the story. The dragon becoming less lazy without even knowing it as he does tasks to help the ponies build the village, and later coming to consider them properly his own, that I never forgot. But it’s the neat ways this slots into FiM canon, from a pony that only the cover art, character tag and vague description identify as Star Swirl playing his negotiator role, to how subtly it’s a post-unification story of Equestria’s olden times of the ponies coming to work together. Whatever it would be no less fantastic as its own original fiction with hardly any changes, there is still that extra level on which this works as part of FiM, without ever feeling like those tiny elements are shoehorned in to make it so, as some such stories sometimes have.
More than anything, it’s just so effortless, cosy, warm and fun, guaranteed to remind you of whatever the best children’s fables you read or had read to you as a kid (okay, yes, it wouldn’t stick out from the crowd much on an actual bookshelf of such, but getting even this quality in Ponyfic is a full-on miracle). Small wonder that it’s superstar author Georg’s Top Rated story, despite him having written for over five years before this. Plus, a near-permanent mainstay in the site’s Top 10 for over five years now (it was 4th when Loganberry reviewed it in April 2018, and it’s 3rd currently – the immediate aftermath of the odd dislike over the years likely made it dip slightly, but never for long). Stories like these just inspire love and joy.
Rating: Excellent
Whom the Princesses Would Destroy... by GhostOfHeraclitus
Genre: Comedy/Slice of Life
OC, Celestia
19,758 Words
October 2012Listened to via Scribbler's reading
NOTE: This is the only fic this week not a reread. Which has actually been an average rating so far this year (only 8 of 55 fics covered in 2024 were new to me), but felt particularity worth highlighting, given the theme of some of my personal favourites. Very tough to get in there the longer one goes on, after all!
The Princesses may rule Equestria, but it is the Equestrian Civil Service that keeps it running. They report and file everything that may be needed again (and dispose of that which is better to not be available when needed), they get the bills paid, and they ensure that, no matter the crisis, once the dust has settled, normalcy will resume. Which doesn’t mean said crises don’t cause chaos. The latest hullabaloo? Twilight Sparkle’s surprise visit to Canterlot to visit Celestia, a nightmare locked to set off all manners of frustration. For Dotted Line, secretary to Her Highnesses’ government, it’s not a normal day, whatever his resignation to its events may indicate. If only his thermos wasn’t empty of tea.
Now, a look into the bureaucracy behind how the Equestrian government/Canterlot palace might not sound like the most original idea out there by 2024. And running down a laundry list of some of the things that happen – ponies believing Twilight’s visit indicates Celestia will make a new alicorn ruler out of her (which yep, hits differently now relative to her then-unicorn self here), misdirection of press ponies, an overdose of condiments locking Twilight’s tower off, leftover magic summoning interdimensional abominations, and a hypothetical talk of private info leaking to the papers – might make it sound rather predictably unpredictable. Delightful and kooky, but not a masterpiece.
Well, while the level of views and hype this fic comes in on is absurd for anything to live up to, it does as good a job there as one could ever hope for. Makes me regret that I took almost two years to read another fic by GhostOfHeraclitus! But it truly is a smile-inducer from beginning to end, bouncing around a few focal ponies tackling the mundane and the absurd and finding a way to make politics funny without being (too) unrealistic. That’s the most surprising thing, that this isn’t exaggerated to the point of randomness such fics often go for, yet is even funnier for it.
The prose has a mixture of charm, wit and timing, and even the cynical asides don’t end up being too much so: the fic does stand by its mission statement that these civil service ponies do keep the country running, making for that rare story where the comedy and the intent support and boost each other rather than being diluted from sharing space. As for the type of comedy, the fic certainly starts off not unlike Yes, Minister (if obviously not as cynical), all dry asides about the twisted dysfunctional logic that keeps the place running and the worst aspects one just soldiers on though. Though it doesn’t overuse that mode of joke; Discworld-style Pratchett writing becomes more commonplace later on (the matter-of-fact labels used for an interdimensional beast being a key example, as well as a sentient after-effect), along with several clever references, and others I don’t have a label for, but made me laugh all the same. The footnotes suffer slightly from being buried in a bonus chapter, but add just as much to the comedy as anything else.
20K might sound like a lot to sustain for a fic like this, but by bouncing around a few key and colourful characters, and making even the bit players all having their own quirk, it keeps the several plot strands at work here always interesting and at the bare minimum, mirthful (and frequently more). How many of them are resolved is especially worthy of praise. I don’t know I necessarily walked away with stars in my eyes (it is a fic possible to get overhyped on), but it’s hard to imagine a much better fic on this topic around, and that’s just as true now as in 2012 (unless Twilight being a unicorn bothers you). I can’t wait to read GhostOfHeraclitus’ two other fics on this topic with some of these characters (one a one-shot, one a compilation).
Rating: Excellent
What About Twilight? by alarajrogers
Genre: Slice of Life
Twilight, Discord
14,906 Words
November 2015Reread
She may have finally diffused the tension and hurt from being left out of a fun time with her friends, but Twilight still has a chip on her shoulder regarding one particular chaotic creature. Now she’s visiting Discord to find out why he made her the subject of such ridicule and subjected her to such personal attacks. And why he got her friends to exclude her in the first place. Discord, never one to take such things lying down (he prefers lying up, backwards and sideways all at once) has his own theory… one which cuts rather deep to Twilight’s core.
This both is and isn’t a fixfic to “What About Discord?”, and I think that’s to its benefit (I certainly don’t like that episode, but wouldn’t go nearly as far as the “top contender for the worst in the first five seasons” consensus). It’s doing its level-headed best to provide logical reasons for how both players acted there, throwing neither one under the bus. More importantly, it threads the balance between writing Discord well and sensibly (by his logic) and making the relationship between him and Twilight really, really true. Many a fic have tried their hand at the whole “address them actually getting on and not just rubbing each other off” thing, and most of the time, it either doesn’t work, is full of convenience or contrivances, or compromises their characters to do so. Not here. Especially with Twilight’s “what it means to be a princess” dilemma still fresh enough, there’s actual character dilemmas here beyond the surface.
And that’s before the story even gets to the double whammy of how Twilight’s friends act differently when she’s not there and that being why Discord was able to properly get on with them, and whether Twilight really considers Discord a friend. With the story’s conclusion making the latter not at all what it seems, totally flipping the trap the episode itself fell into.
There are a few caveats, like occasional references to the author’s other fics, which are mostly though not fully unobtrusive. More notably, there’s also the fact that the fic is basically just one long conversation (with a chapter break at a good cliffhanger), and while Discord’s visual playfulness is certainly present, the fic quite often lapses into talking heads for paragraphs of dialogue. It’s good dialogue, so the fic doesn’t drag, but it is a bit of a belaboured one, and given how much of its runtime is still Twilight arguing with Discord, there is a level of patience required to fully gel with it. Certainly, a more streamlined version would be welcome.
Make no mistake, though, this fic excels at many things. Addressing an episode’s sins the right way, TwilightxDiscord friendshipping (the conclusion really does make the fic, otherwise it’d be interesting but largely dry), deeper layers of friendship and how we act depending on who exactly is present. It’s enough that this fic is that rare thing (though pretty common today ): a fic from my legacy Favourites list that gets to stay there. Well played, chaotic god.
Rating: Really Good
Family dinner for Clementine Apple and her husband isn’t quite what it used to be, with their children all off doing their own thing these days. She’s proud of them, but it doesn’t mean it can’t get a bit lonely at times. She’s just sitting down for another meal, when the house’s one phone rings. It’s Applejack, who’s been away at college for several months now, yet she’s strangely maudlin, all the more so once she confirms she’s talking to her mom.
While not some fandom classic with viewing figures in the five-digits, the fic is still over ten years old, so I won’t handicap myself by not mentioning the gimmick. Though it should be a fandom classic (probably the length is the major obstacle): this hits the perfect blend for a tragedy, using the hokey concept of Equestria Girls to allow for the most organic method for pony Applejack to talk to her parents one last time, and then using the fact that Applejack can’t fully tell her human mom what’s going on to make her more of a mumbling mess, enough that Twi has to come to her rescue on the line before Applejack can compose herself.
It sounds like such an obvious concept, and yet I’d be stumped if another fic in the decade since could top it (especially as this was written in that period between the first two films when the portal was closed for another thirty moons, so other fics could just have pony AJ pop over to meet her human counterpart). It doesn’t adorn itself with unnecessary bells and whistles, but does allow for moments of brevity and wit, largely in the slips of pony lingo AJ and Twi cover up, and Ma Apple eventually presuming her daughter is just drunk. Which, off her own panic relaxing, leads to a tonal blend of sadness and beauty in the final words between mother and daughter that hits far harder than many a melodramatic tragedy could ever hope for.
For all Ponyfic is a regular part of my life these days, and I’ve read my fair share of great stuff within it, it’s not unlike the show for me in that it’s rare for it to truly, powerfully, emotionally stir me. So when such a fic comes along, I take note. So it is here: this time through, thinking of the concept alone was enough to stir up the feels, and the final talk between Applejack and her lost mother’s human counterpart got me good. There’s more to any work of art than how it makes you feel, but this one really does make me feel, and its use of the EqG concept for maximum impact is unparalleled. It’s a nice bonus that, Apple parent names aside (and Ma being a former Orange, as per Season One relatives), this is basically still canon-compliant. Well, minus the EqG Humane Five having graduated school before the second film.
If you’ve never read it – and plenty haven’t, at just shy of 7K views – it’s the rare must-read I implore you to do so. Magnificent stuff.
Rating: Excellent
Lost Cities by Cold in Gardez
Genre: Anthology
Celestia, OC
11,025 Words
May 2013-September 2015Reread
Far, far away from Canterlot, beyond the farthest mountains and a vast desert, a tower sits at the world’s edge. Long since abandoned, it still stands through residual magic, even if time is making its mark on it. It is not the only such locale: elsewhere, there resides a flying mountain of clouds, and far away from them both, a former city is slowly becoming a vast garden. No one ventures to any of them, nor several other scarred remnants of civilization scattered around the world. Yet despite that, they paint a vivid description of their history.
As if I have a single useful or insightful thing to say about the magnum opus of Cold in Gardez, one of the magnum opuses of Fimfic writers. Even my level-headed best will not begin to sell it, and for those who have read it (probably most reading this, though with “only” 16K views, not all, I will presume), I will no doubt be missing much of what makes this work. But I will try. To pay tribute and respect to a work that old the best authors would not royally screw up, if nothing else.
Lost Cities is often described as a scenery porn anthology, and in the strictest sense, that is true (of some chapters more than others). No characters are ever present, and outside of a few choice mentions of Celestia and Luna, nopony is ever mentioned by name (one of the bonus chapters slightly breaks this last part, but in an acceptable way), or ever made out to be a character or anything more than a nameless historical figure, murky wall carving, magnificent statue of stone or marble, and so on. In the sense of what’s happening here and now, it truly is just descriptions of these locales, the parts of them in ruin and the parts still standing, the effect and feel they cast here and now compared to how they once did, and so on.
Typically, people then go on to say this doesn’t have a story at all, and works purely off of marvellously-constructed prose, weaving every still-standing statue and every toppled one together into an inordinate, complex tapestry of words that demands lingering over. This isn’t strictly wrong either: despite being “only” 11K long, it took me nearly twice as long as usual to get through it this time, because I kept having to pause to truly digest what I’d just read, and could feel the effect, the time and the scope of these places.
Yet it is absolutely wrong to say these are story-less descriptions of scenery. Every single one of them is indeed telling a story through the scenery: they are just so committed to that narrative device that the usual expected lapse into just a narrator outright recapping what once transpired never happens (some stretches of the final bonus chapter excepted). It’s all via implication, yet implication that still has a very clear narrative skeleton in its own way.
Take the first chapter, for instance. It’s a masterpiece of scenery porn, yet it still manages to tell a story of a society of unicorns in an atmosphere-breaching tower, and their rise and collapse, all despite most of the “story” being missing. And all via the tower’s remains, with everything you’d think lacking off no illustrations with the text somehow beautifully yet harrowfully communicated with concise wording that further darkens the tone as it goes. In many ways, it’s actually more conventional than you’d think even in the way it’s told, it’s just that everything is through implication. Every answered question raises another, yet by the end, all the ones that really matter have been, and the lingering questions matter a lot less than the mood (Titanium Dragon has a great spoiler-y breakdown of why the first chapter works so well, well worth a read – anything else I’d be saying would just be stealing from him ). All told with razor-sharp prose carefully polished to every evocative word being placed for maximum impact, and often removed: if the story sounds like a slow bore to read, it absolutely is not, with every 2.1K-or-less chapter clipping by at such a dense pace you’re more likely to be winded then lethargic.
All that is just a tiny fragment of why this story truly is one for the Ponyfic ages, and even better then my hyperbolic gushing makes it seem. I suppose, if pushed, I might say the three bonus chapters added across two years after the original four aren’t as strong, both for the directions in story within starting to repeat slightly, the commitment to the technique having the odd lapse not as clearly for deliberate effect that is a win, and for lacking the overarching connections between the initial four that paints a bigger story than them individually. But that’s basically only getting more of a good fantastic thing.
Bottom line, this work of art, between the ghosts of old conflicts, the stories of hopes and dreams among the rubble and still-standing structures, and especially in that fourth chapter wrapping it all up, is every bit as wonderful, awe-inspiring, magical, chilling and moving in its vivid imagery of these gigantic dwellings as you’ve probably heard. One for the Ponyfic ages, and I look oh-so-forward to when I read it again. No wonder many authors went on to do their own take on this “character-less depiction of an empty dwelling lost to time that tells its tale through the description of its current state” concept.
Rating: Excellent
Spooky Summary of Scores:
Excellent: 4
Really Good: 1
Pretty Good: 0
Decent: 0
Passable: 0
Weak: 0
Bad: 0
Well, there's a result! Okay, a consciously biased selection on your part, but even so to come very close to a full slate of Excellents really is quite something. I've read all of those fics, and every one got either (a high) four or a full five stars from me, so not a great deal more for me to say there other than that Roaming was probably the biggest surprise for me. I'm not a huge EqG fic reader, but this? This was simply irresistible, as you also found.
Yep, been there myself, and I sympathise. As you'll know, I have occasionally taken a week off reviewing, sometimes though by no means always for this very reason. I don't know whether such would be either helpful or of interest to you, but in my case it's recharged my batteries sufficiently to bring back the enthusiasm. Reading the odd fic without any intent to publish my thoughts as a review has helped in those off weeks, too. Reading for fun, egad! We reviewers are still allowed to do that sometimes.
The point being that "I must publish a review blog every week" is something I can't do without a single break. So these days, I don't try.
Anyway, happy second birthday to Monday Musings!
Taking a break for as long as you need is completely normal and justifiable! Just get back to it when you're ready
It's beginning hard to imagine the site without your presence and fic coverage.
Ah, some classic picks here. And yeah, don't feel like you're obligated to crank these out if you're not feeling it. This sort of thing is meant to be a hobby If you're not having fun, what's the point? Even I've taken time off from card blogs now and again. (Mostly interseasonal ones in the mid 2010s, but shush.)
What an amazing selection! And all stories I've read!
I agree wholeheartedly about Whom the Princesses Would Destroy, and think the rest in the series are just as good. You have several good reads ahead of you.
What About Twilight? is a different matter, which may be entirely a me problem. I have heard enough perfectly reasonable-sounding explanations to excuse all sorts of bulling, harassment, and social game-playing that I can't buy into this story. Discord's tone and approach seems so familiar because I've seen people undergo the worst sort of deliberate psychological torture and gaslighting, and then be made to look like the unreasonable one in the relationship. This is because the sociopath knows what they're doing and has many pre-prepared and well-rehearsed excuses and rationalizations ready to deploy. The fact that one of the people I'm thinking about committed suicide as a result of such a relationship made me bounce off this story hard. That's not to say alarajrogers didn't do a great job of writing here, they absolutely did. But Discord was such a s#!t-heel in the episode that any sort of apologia for his actions has a nearly insurmountable task ahead of it. (Of course, this is my take on it, and your mileage obviously varied.)
Skywriter's so good that I read this *hurk* EQG fic and really enjoyed it!
Fun fact: I am a absolute Italo Calvino fanboy. That's means a pony homage to Invisible Cities is absolutely my jam. I loved Lost Cities top to bottom, and now that your review has brought it to mind again, I will be going back for a re-read. I love the story-by-implication thing, and think CiG got it dead-on here. It also points up the shallowness of the old "show, don't tell" bit of advice. In this story we aren't shown what happened, we are told through what we are shown, and that subtle complexity adds a huge amount of weight and color to the implied history of these places. Definitely a classic.
It's something I would like as well, but the difficulties of carving out more time to do so and distaste for Discord and ex-Twitter and such make it very difficult. Why does it seem like things were easier back in the days of LiveJournal and fanzines?
5770874
Inside my head as I wrote this: "Folks will have read most of these. Most will have read them all. iisaw will absolutely have read them all (least, by the time you wrote this comment, thanks to a certain Roaming
). That usually happens when it's a lot of high-rating fics. Least I'm not adding to the lad's backlog further!
Reading why you bounced off it, I don't think it's altogether a you problem. I think most of us react poorly to "What About Discord?" because of the cringe humour and sloppy moral that doesn't even really believe in itself. It's enough that the fact of Discord being a toxic troll (which he is) doesn't have a chance to really piss us off (most people got that from the inside joke cringe comedy and "you really had to be there" aspects). And I think, if I wasn't able to mentally foreground how clearly piss-poorly the episode was written and thus mentally detach myself from its implications, most of this fic could run the risk of annoying me.
The other things is how well it gets both these characters, the way Twilight twists it around for Discord at the end, and, I suppose, that most of us probably haven't experienced those kind of socio-manipulation tactics you speak of. As it is, there's still a certain level of fantasy detachment present that makes it feel real for the characters without penetrating to be too real for the reader quite so easily. That and it does so many things well that it makes the potential interpretations you speak of not register for most folks, myself included, in a way that detracts from the fic.
I'm spitballing, of course. But those are the main reasons that spring to mind.
You can relax, bud. Even if you hadn't stated this earlier in the same paragraph, being my home territory, there's far less risk of misinterpretation here without me thinking it over first. And in any case, what you felt made enough sense to be valid.
The more I read, write, and write about reading, the more I'm convinced this is what most "who and tell" bits of advice are trying to get at but botch explaining properly. Show by implication and laying out the pieces for inferring, or telling via showing. Showing literally is just description, after all. That balance, especially as CiG pulled it off here, is possibly the biggest reason why it hits so well.
Not surprised to hear you'll be popping back to it. Both on the fic itself and on blogs about it, I saw a fair share of comments indicating people returning to it more than once, and that is super rare for any fanfic. Only happens when it truly clutches onto your soul.
Also, I realise now the irony of covering Lost Cities in a blog of personal favourites. Which tells about as much about me as a reviewer of Ponyfic as saying I like Duck Amuck and What's Opera, Doc? as a connoisseur of cartoons does. But hey, sometimes the consensus is spot-on for a reason.
Livejournal! Now that's a throwback that makes me feel old (yeah, yeah, it's cute that I'm saying that when replying to you, I know
).
Spaces outside Fimfic can be a part of it too (it's remarkably frustrating how often folks I'd like to be more chummy refer to discord servers that sound great but I can't find: of the ones I have, only Aragon's proved in any way worthwhile). Though I largely just meant other blogs here, and was mostly alluding to my ever-present suspicion that I coming off as a bit more aloof and a bit less warm than I'd like. But I suppose it's best to at least try to not get too sucked up in that kind of thinking.
I'm sure all the remaining reviewers have been through this at some point. I know I have. Multiple times. Sometimes I had to take a reading break and just do other things for a while. Fun fact, the only reason I've been so consistent for so long is because usually by the time this burnout hits I'm so far ahead I can afford to take a few weeks off without reading anything at all.
No way to know what you need though. It varies, and sometimes just taking a break isn't the solution. Sometimes I just get hit with a malaise and have to push through it until, somehow, my mood picks back up again. Maybe it's external factors beyond horsewords.
Ultimately, how you proceed is up to you. And I would simply ask: do you enjoy this enough to keep on keeping on?
I am surprised to say that there are two of these I've not yet read. Given that my reserved lists for short stories is now, suddenly, running on empty, I may have to add them. But in regards to the ones I do know, Whom the Princesses Would Destroy... is easily my favorite. I absolutely adore Heraclitus's writing style, and it is a great sadness that comes with the idea that there will be no more tales from the Civil Service.
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), nearly all these fics being highly-read and very well regarded made the likelihood of folks having read them all quite high. But that's okay: personal treat, people like getting reminded of classics they adored, and there'll always be some folks who hadn't touched some of these anyway.
Yep: as alluded to with iisaw below/above (viewer comment orientation depending
It's one of only three EqG fics to date to get the top rating here (the other two are Time and Womb). Ironically, all three share the bonus of actually using the lazy-ass parallel human dimension gimmick for amazing stories that could only be told with this exact gimmick, and which are so emotionally potent, you don't care that it means (
) human horses. It did wonders for us all with this fic, at least: I can see people not adoring it, but it's one of those where I cannot fathom anyone not at least liking it.
It's a tricky comparison, as chunky spotlights excepted, you're mostly (not fully) reading the fics you cover after last week's blog has gone up (and teased them, now you do fic previews). Whereas I am far closer to the PaulAsarans and TCC56s of the world, reading fics constantly (less so than them, of course), throwing the reviews into a stockpile, and plucking out five each week.
The lack of a tighter correlation between what I'm currently reading and publishing means taking a lone week off for publishing doesn't really change much – point of fact, in the past I have nearly or fully taken a week off here and there from reading even as the publishing has gone on. And it did help! But I had a sizeable enough backlog to afford that then, which I don't now and it's harder to get with chunkier weeks in word count these days.
Ultimately, I suppose my main worry is that, if I take a week off, my difficulty with maintaining commitment will make it spiral until the series dies a unceremonious death, and I don't want that. That said, as you're someone who's been playing the game for almost (
) a decade now, even if our approaches and schedules are often quite different, I fully believe you know what you're talking about as far as productive results go. So I'll bear your advice in mind, bud. 
I do that on occasion too: even apart from the rare reread of a fic I already reviewed, I have a Read not Rated folder, though mostly it sees use for short fics I pop into casually, and find at the end that a review would be pointless, either due to poor quality or it being a "more of the same" sort of fic (say, Admiral Biscuit's numerous Pony on Earth/Human in Equestria quickie one-shots). Typically they're so short it'd take more time to write the review than it did to read them.
But it's worth considering your notion too: lord knows I approach reading differently when I don't intend to review at the end of it, and it's less pressure.
Indeed. Despite the not-fully-upbeat tone I gave it all, here's to (hopefully) many more!
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I appreciate that, guys. Honestly, I'm well aware few people would even notice a week off, fewer would care, and even fewer would remember. And your assurance does confirm that further.
Mostly it boils down to my aforementioned difficulty with commitment. I wasn't kidding about that: nearly every long-term project or hobby is something I've lapsed out of with enough time, and once I take a short break, most of the time it just leads to that becoming the norm, then longer breaks, then it just dies quietly. So my biggest fear is, if I take some time off, that will happen again here. Which is an issue with no ready-made solution. It's a tricky conundrum for sure.
That's very nice of you to say. Me, I don't think that's nearly true – as I've only reviewed 554 of the 152,133 active fics on the site, if someone is clicking onto a fic randomly, there's only a 1:275 chance I'll have reviewed it (I've always thought, for true recognition, I'd need to hit enough for 1:100, meaning 1,520-odd fics reviewed, which I'd hit in late 2027
). And people still get famous mostly by writing, which I've only done occasionally (all the other still-active reviewers have written enough to be known for that too).
But I get the sentiment, that it's hard for you to imagine it without that. And… that's very nice. Thanks, man.
You? The Derpy of FiCG, maker of magic?
Surely you jest!
Though I suppose my surprise speaks to how little readers will remember such a thing, if given enough time, it's a shock to them when revealed afresh.
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Hence my Dreamwidth, which for those unaware is basically a quieter LiveJournal without (most of) the horrible mess LJ ended up with. I know there are at least two people (including you) around here who at least sometimes read it and occasionally comment, so that's a nice -- if slightly tenuous -- link I have. I suspect that my review blog being off-site and thus my being used to not everything happening here on Fimfiction helps. That said, I would love a few more MLP people to be on Dreamwidth. It's a pity that long-form blogging is such a minority, niche interest now.
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That feels familiar, so I'm sure I've picked it up from your space before. And as alluded to with Logan before, I've done this in the past too. On a smaller scale, but I've been able to go a week without reading easy. It's usually not by intent and I feel guilty about it, though, so it's still not as good. And it's harder now as I have a smaller backlog and am in burnout that has lasted longer than it ever has before.
Possibly some of the latter: I have mentioned my ongoing difficulty with wrestling between casual hobbies and projects ones, feeling guilty about doing one over the other and ultimately doing little of neither. Possibly the Ponyfic reviews are just slipping into that as opposed to be safe in their own bubble a little.
Honestly, if I could just solve being okay with taking breaks and actually allow myself to enjoy them, a lot of this might be solved. It feels promising, anyway. Easier said than done, of course.
I think, for the rest of this month at least, I'll keep at it and see if it is a malaise that picks back up again. It has before, even if they weren't as rough spots as this. We'll see where I stand by April.
Very good question that could only come from one who knows what it's like!
I'm not sure I have a clear-cut answer, though I can confidently say I can't see myself not reading Ponyfic on the regular in the near-future. I definitely enjoy and treasure what it brings me (it has forever ruined fanfic in other fandoms, naturally 
), and I know that, if I stopped reviewing the stuff today, given some time off, I'd find myself drawn to reading the stuff again on the regular quick.
Not an exact answer, but it's an answer, and it is telling enough.
Well, even with my increased average word count (yeah, 50K a week is peanuts to you, I know), I'm sure this corner of Fimfic will remain a reputable short of quality short stories going forward should you need them! And the two here you haven't covered (which was a huge shock to me too) are top-notch additions.
It'll be a disappointment for me too, I'm sure. Given both his fics I've covered got an Excellent, and I'd be surprised if the other two don't as well. But I suppose him being already gone from the site altogether by the time I came along softens the blow slightly. And I do get a satisfaction out of completing an author's library (yet, it has happened here).
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Think you meant to reply to me there bud, not PaulAsaran.
But I do enjoy popping over to your Dreamwidth on occasion, yes. I'm impressed how you're able to post there on the daily too: even if a lot of its small talk, you're clearly engaged by it, which it's no small feat.
I suppose it and Louder Yay being separate from Fimfic, while detrimental for your traffic, is helpful too for you feeling in control of it.
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It certainly is a matter of personal reaction, and not any flaw in the writing, and you (thankfully) get that. There are a few other extremely well-written stories on this site that I have put in my one-star equivalent category because my personal rating system is based entirely on how much I enjoyed the story, regardless of the level of craft involved.
As for more socializing, I guess I should try to carve out some time to hang out in Aragon's Discord. Lot's of great people there. I do carry on discussion threads in PM with a couple of people here, but while that's good for depth, it's a bit limiting as far as breadth is concerned.
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Fixed the link!
And yeah. I mean, just occasionally I do get a little pang that ten years of reviewing here on Fimfiction world surely have produced more comments. But in the whole I like things as they are. I do indeed feel that little bit more in control on my own blog.
Mind you, I think I'd like to get back to blogging a bit on here. Going back to those monthly summaries I used to do, for example.
I think it's very natural to feel 'lost in the woods' now and then. Maybe you'll end up reducing your output, focusing on writing, or just not being as active on the site (hopefully temporarily
). Certainly as an author I've gone through spates of that too, and while I've never taken a magnifying glass to myself I'm more than certain my output isn't as high as in the past. It's all good. Do what you like and the rest will follow.
For this week's: I usually prefer 'cozy' stories for my own reading and The Lazy Dragon is that in spades. Just a delightful little story, very 'pony-like' in that it's friendly, calm, and nonviolent. Like the kind of fairytale that would really exist in their universe. I'm less familiar with the others, though I know Roaming by reputation (and frequent comparisons to my own Apples in the Mirror). Skywriter is a reliably good author, and while I've only read his comedies, those have enough drama for me to trust him with serious matters completely.
Tangentially related, if "Use of EQG as a funhouse mirror to Ponyland resulting in soul-searching and conflicts" is something that works for you, Horizon's Administrative Angel is an amazing take on that with Celestia and Luna.
EDIT: If you're craving more connections, I'm on a few pony-focused discords, you can DM me for them if you like.
I feel blessed that my mere children's story stands in such august presence as Ghost and Skywriter. I actually wrote it for my grandson who had just been born, and I realized I didn't have anything I could read to him for a bedtime story, and I tested it out by reading to my mother, who was 95 at the time.
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Don't put it down: it was the kind of children's story that, even thinking about it now, inspires me more than most to want to try a Ponyfic in that mode someday too.
Well, you've written some pretty august works yourself, my friend.
And what a lovely reason to write such a story: I knew you were of that generation, but not that it extended to being a granddad. And an equally wonderful way to test it out too. Hearing of its gestation made me all warm and fuzzy inside.
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Well, the writing one isn't likely: both in prior fanfic and other avenues, I've learned that while I enjoy writing and am quite good at it, I'm not an on-command sort. I do it when a story demands to be written and won't let go, and that's about it. Outside of this adventure novel, and Jinglemas, I'm happy enough mostly reading unless I get struck for a killer one-shot. Which, you know, it might happen!
And even if I reduced the frequency of Monday Musings, I don't see myself being less active on Fimfic. It's very much a "check several times a day" sort of place for me.
Because I couldn't help myself (
), I took a brief glance. You're actually more active in number of stories than you've ever been, with just over half of your stories (24 of 47) being from the last four years alone. Just almost all one-shots, with only Octavia's Last Night and your final Hunts the Undead fic (itself basically an episodic anthology, I am aware) broaching 20K. So you're writing less words, but more stories. Seems to be going well enough, I'd say.
I know, yeah. It's just… well, it's not always easy, I suppose. It rarely is, point of fact. I've been given some pointers and guidance here, anyway, and I think your general advice to try to not sweat it, do what feels right and feels good, and it'll follow is sound. If I can commit to that (and that's not a guarantee, but I can try), it's a start.
I adore cozy stories too: most of them are just so disposable as to fade instantly from the mind, so there's been less of them here lately. Finding the gems of that genre like this make it all worth it, though. It feeling like it could be a fairy tale/children's story in Equestria, without ever feeling the need to call attention to it, is just one of many of its merits.
Ha, you'd have to be pretty tone-dead to miss others making that comparison, yep (myself included
)! Hopefully if or when you do read it, it'll be a slam dunk for you too.
Well, with the caveat that, like anything, it requires a lot of author skill to pull off. And even then, it still usually takes endorsements to sell me on it. It's more that it has to potential to reach levels when the chronic EqG liabilities for me are turned into active strengths, as opposed to simply sidelined or mitigated.
As for that particular fic, I think I've seen it around before. Honestly, it's like a lot of horizon fics, in that the topic often still doesn't appeal to me (the cover art conjures the kind of weird fantasy I usually don't like), but that many grade-A endorsement can't be ignored. Especially two of my peers, Loganberry and PaulAsaran, echoing my "skeptical"/"easy to muck up" sentiments but being blown away when all is said and done. I've added it to the list.
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That makes a lot of sense - back in my earliest days I was committed to churning a 2-4k word chapter every 2-4 weeks, now it's a 2-8k word story every 2-4 months. I have another such one-shot about to drop, a chapter story in the pipe that likely won't go over 20k, and lordy boy how bazingo do I have two longer stories I want that just have not been able to get off the ground, including one that's been in the ol' noggin for several years that I started and scrapped three times, In my old age I lean less to pretentious drama and more to feel-goods. (Octavia's LN being an exception), so I'm starting to wonder if that one's just not meant to be.
I get the concern about not wanting to stop since it'll just become a new habit that sticks. At the same time, going until you burn out isn't helpful either, so it makes for a fun dilemma.
I read every week, I'm just bad at commenting.
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indeed.
For a very operatic definition of the word "fun",
I make no judgments, still often lurking in other spaces myself.
My words on regular commenters was in no way pointed at those who don't but still read. After all, this is all just fic reviews, and if one doesn't have anything in the opening blurb to respond to, and hasn't read any of the covered fics, there's typically precious little to say. You're fine, my friend. 