Read It Later Reviews #13 – Nonagon’s Ultra-Short Bite-Sized Pony Fics, The Song of My People, A Recipe for Sweet Music, Celestia Uses an Online Dating Website (The Ponytrician Guest Chapters), Wings · 9:52pm Mar 25th, 2015
The Ponytrician encouraged me to read a bunch of his stories, and I ended up reading so many that I was already most of the way to a review. Four of the five stories today are comedies, with only Not_A_Hat’s Wings being a non-comedic piece.
The stories I read today:
Nonagon’s Ultra-Short Bite-Sized Pony Fics by Nonagon
The Song of My People by The Ponytrician
A Recipe For Sweet Music by The Ponytrician
Celestia Uses An Online Dating Website by RainbowBob
- Though When he Does, He Delivers the Goods by The Ponytrician
- Many Bothans Died to Bring You This Chapter by The Ponytrician
- Come and See by The Ponytrician
Wings by Not_A_Hat
Nonagon’s Ultra-Short Bite-Size Pony Fics
by Nonagon
DrabblesUltra-short stories with friendship that's magic. Can you dig it?
Why I added it: Present Perfect recommended one of these and it made me chuckle.
Review
Drabbles are 100 word stories; all of these are even less than that.
Almost all of these are essentially one-note jokes; either you will chuckle at them, or you won’t. Clocking in at such short lengths, there is little to be said about them individually, and if one does not suit you, you have spent little time on them.
If you like little jokes using the MLP cast, these might be up your alley, but I can’t really recommend them otherwise; that is all they are. There isn’t anything especially deep here, just a bunch of silly one-shot comedy.
My favorite was probably “The Great Camping Trip Disaster”:
"Oh no!" Rarity cried as she swooned over the torn, emptied food bags. "We've nothing to eat! We'll starve!"
Wordlessly, the others gestured to the expanse of wild grasses, shrubs and flowers surrounding them.
Rarity turned a shade of green to match. "We'll starve," she repeated, a little more emphatically.
They sort of petered out a bit towards the end, once they get to inverted joke week, but enough of these are good enough to make you chuckle to be worthwhile.
Recommendation:
The Other Draconequus: Worth reading.
The Song of My People
by The Ponytrician
Slice of Life, FeghootOn a diplomatic mission to the Zebra lands, Princess Twilight learns something about communication.
Why I added it: The Ponytrician recommended it to me.
Review
Princess Twilight talks to Golden Charm about the Guild of Town Criers in Zebrecia.
This is a cute little story full of world-building, and it really exists for no purpose other than the very final line. You will likely want to punch me after you read this, but I liked it.
Recommendation: Worth Reading, but see genre.
A Recipe for Sweet Music
by The Ponytrician
Romance, ComedyLyra and Bon Bon have been dating for a few months now, and Lyra decides that it’s time that they moved in together.
Why I added it: The Ponytrician recommended it to me.
Review
The description pretty much tells you what you need to know; the ever-irresponsible Lyra has finally struck gold and one of her songs got picked up. And with that extra money, it means that she and her marefriend can finally buy a place together…
This story is a bit telly in places, particularly when there are little tells associated with the dialogue which the dialogue should have carried for us. There are lots of cute little inerchanges, but that’s all they are – cute. None of them really quite managed to rise to the level of “I laughed”, and as such there was a sort of sense of weak amusement around the story, all the way through to the joke that gets explained at the end of the story.
I wasn’t as fond of this as I was of The Song of My People; while it was more consistent in its humor, it didn’t really have the kick of his other piece. If you’re looking for a mildly funny piece, this is at least that, but if you’re looking to actually laugh (or groan), you probably are better off elsewhere.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
Celestia Uses An Online Dating Website
by Rainbow Bob
Sex, Romance, Comedy, Crossover, Slice of LifeTired of Luna's constant nagging, Celestia agrees to give internet dating a try. Using the website www.notforeveralone.com, Luna helps Celestia go on dates with potential immortal suitors. Shouldn't be too hard to find true love, right?
Why I added it: The Ponytrician recommended the chapter he wrote.
Review
Celestia Uses An Online Dating Website is about Celestia going through the entire dating pool of immortals across every dimension ever. I ended up taking a look at The Ponytrician’s guest chapters; I shall likely review the rest of the story at a later date, but these, at least, made me smile.
Though When He Does, He Delivers the Goods – by The Ponytrician
Celestia sneaks into the kitchen in order to steal some cake in the middle of the night, only for Luna to catch her in the act. Luna is unhappy – she’s been encouraging Celestia to date, and Celestia has been avoiding her for the last two weeks. Luna assumes it is because Celestia has been wanting to avoid being thrown back into the dating pool… but no, it turns out Celestia has actually found someone who might almost be suitable! Nice guy, good with kids, and he has a big bushy beard and nine friends who sometimes join in when things get sexy…
That’s right, she’s dating Santa Claus.
This story is terrible, and is full of terrible mental imagery, and is pretty raunchy on the whole. Neither Luna nor Celestia are especially in-character – though, let’s face it, this is clearly a story that doesn’t care about such things, as it is using the super extreme silly version of the characters for the sake of character destruction comedy, as some folks call it.
I wasn’t sure I was going to like it as I was reading through it, but when I got to the end, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud, so I guess everything was alright in the end.
Many Bothans Died To Bring You This Chapter – by The Ponytrician
You would think this relates to Star Wars, but you’d be wrong. Instead, this chapter is about Celestia going on a date with Q, and thinking that Q was actually Discord (it is the voice, you see. And the snapping. And the rearrangement of reality). You know what, it is an entirely reasonable hypothesis.
Naturally, after accusing him of being Discord, she summons the real Discord… and things go from bad to worse for her romantic evening.
Though, let’s face it – Q and Discord being chums? If they weren’t the same person, bringing them together was the worst date night idea possible.
This story is silly, but it is very random, as Q and Discord tend to be. Consequently, it didn’t really amuse me as much as the Santa Claus chapter.
If the idea of Celestia freaking out on a date with Q amuses you, you might enjoy this more than I did.
Come and See – by The Ponytrician
Celestia goes on a date with Discworld’s Death. His sense of humor leaves something to be desired – or perhaps Celestia’s does, but no matter.
This story is cute, and was definitely written in the style of Terry Pratchett, at least towards the beginning, but it sort of seems to fade out of that towards the end. Still, it is cute enough in its ridiculousness, and it made me smile a bit.
If this story had a single greatest weakness – and it does – it would be that it sort of peters out, with the ridiculousness of the end being less amusing than the rest of the story.
Recommendation:
Though When He Does, He Delivers the Goods: Worth Reading if you like raunchy humor.
Many Bothans Died to Bring You This Chapter: Not Recommended unless you are very enthusiastic about the premise.
Come and See: Worth Reading.
Wings
by Not_A_Hat
AdventureA wanderer drifts out of the desert, looking for freedom.
Why I added it: Not_A_Hat mentioned it in response to a post I made about using Spike’s draconcity to aid in his characterization.
Review
Spike wanders the world in search of true treasure, and eventually comes to meet the old zebra shaman Rishi, a hermit who guards the skystones, a treasure which is said to give a pony – or a dragon – the freedom of flight.
And Spike wants that.
There are two parts of this story – Spike, and the shaman. The shaman is the point of view character, but Spike is the character who has an arc in the story. And yet, I found myself not really caring much for Spike’s arc – I wasn’t terribly impressed by the solution at the end.
On the other hand, I liked the story anyway because the OC Rishi amused me. I liked seeing his point of view on the traveler and his little eccentricities, and his sense of humor – and irony – is definitely the kind I appreciate from wise old hermits.
On the whole, the reason I came to the story didn’t impress me, but the character of Rishi was fun enough I didn’t really mind.
Recommendation: Worth Reading.
Summary
Nonagon’s Ultra-Short Bite-Sized Pony Fics by Nonagon
Worth Reading
The Song of My People by The Ponytrician
Worth Reading
A Recipe For Sweet Music by The Ponytrician
Not Recommended
Celestia Uses An Online Dating Website by RainbowBob
- Though When he Does, He Delivers the Goods by The Ponytrician: Worth Reading
- Many Bothans Died to Bring You This Chapter by The Ponytrician: Not Recommended
- Come and See by The Ponytrician: Worth Reading
Wings by Not_A_Hat
Worth Reading
All in all, a fairly decent set of stories; nothing exceptional, but nothing exceptionally bad, either. Your life will not be forever less if you don’t read any of these, but if you choose to read them, you won’t feel like your time was wasted.
Well, unless you hate feghoots and silly little jokes, in which case you’d better stick to Wings and Come and See.
Number of stories still listed as "Read It Later – High Priority": 275
Number of stories listed as “Read It Later”: 1549
I listened to like maybe the first two chapters of that Celestia fic, enjoyed them, then was dismayed to find out there a billion more. D:
2910483
It has 83 chapters.
And is unfinished.
From what I've gathered, it is basically a serial, though.
2910485
Yeah
But it's like... I didn't finish it
And I probably never will D:
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I understand your pain.
You've been saying 'feghoots' waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much recently...
2910964
That's because I've been reading a bunch of them.
I'm a victim of my environment, man.
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Then explain why you aren't glowing green and covered in the blood of children.
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I take baths.
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WELL PLAYED, TD.
WELL PLAYED.
Thanks for taking the time to review some of my stories, and I'm glad that you found some of them to your liking. (Sorry for taking up most of your review, though
)
I freely admit that A Recipe For Sweet Music is very much a bit of quasi-cute fluff with a lame pun at the end, and was never intended to be more than that.
I had to do something with the Craft Disturbing Mental Image feat I took when I leveled up.
Luna and Celestia are terribly out of character for show!Luna and show!Celestia, but very much in line with the rest of the story; though given how bizarrely random this story is at times, that's not saying much. This chapter was my attempt to raise the stakes and one-up RainbowBob.
My only excuse is that I was terribly sleep deprived. Somehow two of John DeLancie's characters managed to invade my brain, and I just wrote down some of the stuff I saw happen in order to exorcise them.
Yeah, the ending was kind of tacked on to tie things back in with the on-going semi-storyline at the time. It could've been a lot better, or left off entirely. Oh well, some people liked it.
Regarding your other reviews: Nonagon's drabbles sound like they might be something I'd like; Wings is genreless? Colour me intrigued... both added to my Read It Later.
Edit: I guess now I can cross "Have TD review one of my stories" off my bucket list.
The Song of My People is so worth it for the ending line. I read it a fair while ago (31w, 2d ago according to my comment timestamp), and to this day I occasionally think back to it and burst out laughing. It wasn't just entertaining, it has had the staying power to cheer me up months later.
Having read all of Dating Website more or less as it was posted, I'm fairly mixed on it. Some chapters are great, but some are iffy, and there's a pretty wide stretch in the middle that has basically ruined Deadpool for me as a character. If I were chased down and forced to recommend a single story of this sort, I'd probably have to go with Cheerilee's Thousand instead.
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No need to apologize; I enjoyed reading through your stuff.
You have two more stories left for me to read (I read the tooth fairy story a while ago) so you may well see that happening sooner rather than later.
Yeah, I haven't read the rest of the collection, but I'm not surprised; they DID feel like RainbowBob's version of the characters.
Wings has no listed genre, but is, I suppose, an adventure story more than anything, though it is more... the end of an adventure.
Nonagon's drabbles are variable in quality, but they're so short that even if you don't like one, it is quick to read and it is really quick to go on to the next one.
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Yes, that's the beauty of a great feghoot; it sticks with you.
And sometimes makes you giggle at inappropriate times.
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2911242
I shall have to come up with a way to ponify a couple of my favourite feghoots...
*commences plotting*
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What kind of monster would do that?
Says the guy who wrote The Legend of Falling Rocks, Buffalo Brave, and who also ponified a joke in the form of Lunch