R4 (Reactions, Reviews, Reference, Redirection) #0008

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Here are five slightly edited old reviews:
Two Ponies by Twilight Snarkle
The Celestial Mechanics In Midsummer by Twilight Flopple
Just Words by device heretic
Applejack’s Bar by Alaborn
A Lot to Think About by Skywriter

Two Ponies by Twilight Snarkle
(story link) (my original review)

Unlike the previous two, this is a pretty sad story. Less in flavor with the show and more in the same vein of some of the fan fiction I’ve really liked. Sad, but with a touch of happiness in places. The only characters from the show that pop up are Celestia and Luna at the end, and Ponyville is a location for some scenes, but other than that it’s all original stuff from the author. A story about love, devotion, art, and, well, that’s about it. It doesn’t have any deep message. Just a slice-of-life across generations about a few ponies who meet each other. Gave me an emotional kick for sure, but nothing really to say about it in any detail. At least not without spoilers and generally just going through the story moment by moment, which I don’t really want to do. Extremely well-written, sad, but not depressing.

The Celestial Mechanics In Midsummer by Twilight Flopple
(story link) (my original review)

Another slice of life somewhat sad one. Not sad in that anything bad happens, but just a hint of it as we get to see what both princesses are like when they are thinking about the way things used to be. The viewpoint switching between Celestia and Luna, a bit awkwardly in places, but well written. Mostly just them thinking about all the time that has passed since they were just young sisters together and how duties and mistakes have made them drift further apart. What made this story on the sad side for me is that there really isn’t any resolution. Not that there was any conflict, but the whole ‘just talk to your sister already’ thing just kept running through my head as I read it.

That’s about it. Was well written, except for not doing a better job indicating when the first-person perspective shifts from one sister to the other in the narrative, and very sweet.

Just Words by device heretic
(story link) (my original review)

A short bit of fiction from the same author who did Eternal, which was pretty much designed for me to like and succeeded wildly. It is still one of my favorite pieces of fiction and certainly in the top three best My Little Pony fan fictions I’ve read. Sadly, I did not like this one quite as much. Or even as much as his other story I really enjoyed Dictated, Not Read. Not that this story is bad. It is excellent written and managed to paint a interesting picture of Celestia and Twilight. It just clashed too much with my own view on the two of them, which was built up mostly from the previous stories of his I have read. So not sure if I just missed some of the subtle clues he put in those other stories, or if he just writes from different ideas for relationships for each story.

Also the story has a fairly sad ending. Not that something sad happens, but just the general tone of it is sad. I certainly don’t plan to read it again, but reading it the once was an emotional experience. Just like my personal headcannon more. Plus there was a bit too much raw negative emotion in the story itself. Something I feel is out of place in MLP. Bad emotions, fine, but soften them a bit and make them a little more diluted.

Applejack’s Bar by Alaborn
(story link) (my original review)

This story got points from the very beginning for giving Big Macintosh dialogue that wasn’t just the running ‘yep/nope’ gag that gets overused in the show. Otherwise it was a decent story. A little weak in some places. Could easily be a episode of the show, but as-is it would be one of the weaker ones. The idea has potential the author just wasn’t able to get full use out of. I also liked the idea that the mane six occasionally might date, or get asked out, with the implication that it’s just not something that the show focuses on. Just a minor background detail that doesn’t come up because it’s just not that important when the mane six are hanging out together.

A Lot to Think About by Skywriter
(story link) (my original review)

Okay, I think I’ve read too many stories that have the ‘Celestia thinks she needs to be perfect for her subjects’ idea in them. I’m becoming something of a snob about that particular theme. I really like the concept, which the start of this story uses, but I’ve seen it enough times before that this time just feels a bit flat. Just not quite as well done as some of the other times I’ve seen it done extremely well. In this story it is just a background detail during the start of the story so it just doesn’t get the same level of depth as I’ve liked in previous examples. Though it did involve a scene that made me picture Celestia as a hardworking, but incompetent, farmpony. So that’s a big plus.

In a bigger sense this story was too short and relied too heavily on the twist revealed at the end. Well, not the end exactly. If you watch the wedding finale of season 2 of the show you already know the twist. If you haven’t watched that finale than you won’t know what is going on.

The show had some glimpses at other parts of the mythos/history of this version of the MLP world that seemed really interesting. Making me wish that those stories had been written and I could read them already. I’ve now read the beginning and the end of the whole Cadance in Cloudsdale storyline and it seems really cool. Just the actual stories about those events haven’t been written yet.

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