Read It Later Reviews #77 – Where Your Heart Is, The Tail End of It, “Why do all our new adversaries rhyme with each other?”, Scootalift, Starry Night · 3:58pm Jun 2nd, 2017
They say that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
In the end, though, I generally find it more like rolling a rock down a hill – once you get started, it is a lot easier to keep going.
Today’s stories:
Where Your Heart Is by Cloudy Skies
The Tail End of It by ShortSkirtsAndExplosions
”Why do all our new adversaries rhyme with each other?” by Estee
Scootalift by Estee
Starry Night by AShadowOfCygnus
Where Your Heart Is
by Cloudy Skies
Romance
32,160 wordsIn the aftermath of one of Pinkie's parties, an innocent query leads Dash to question why she's still living with Pinkie Pie. Why does she feel trapped when there's nothing holding her back?
And how many buildings can Pinkie Pie destroy before insurance companies stop covering 'acts of Pinkie Collateral Damage Pie'?
Why I added it: Cloudy Skies is a good writer.
Review
Where Your Heart Is is set in the same verse as Where Earth Meets Sky, but while it makes some very minor reference to that story, I’ve mostly forgotten the events of Where Earth Meets Sky, but I was able to follow along with this story just fine. The only real “weird thing” that the story takes as a premise is that Applejack and Fluttershy are in a romantic relationship at the start; it is a minor aspect of the story, but it might niggle at people a bit.
The premise of this story is that after Rainbow Dash destroyed her own cloud house in order to make rain for Applejack’s fields, she moved in with Pinkie Pie at Sugarcube Corner. She keeps putting off rebuilding her cloud house, until one fateful day, when Twilight somewhat innocently (but perhaps with some inkling of an idea) asks Rainbow Dash why she hasn’t rebuilt her cloud home yet. This puts Rainbow Dash in something of a tailspin, as she realizes simultaneously that she is “stuck” with Pinkie Pie as long as she doesn’t have her cloud home, but also kind of wants to stay there.
Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie herself is put off by Rainbow Dash suddenly and abruptly deciding to rebuild her cloud house. Was it something she said? Was it something she didn’t say? Did she only stay for those special imported rainbow sprinkles, and now that they’re gone, so is Rainbow Dash?
This is really one of those “two characters are in love but don’t understand that they are in love” stories, and I have to admit, despite the premise actually giving them something of a reason for it (they were living together, and got comfortable in that state), it is still something of an Idiot Plot, albeit a somewhat reasonable one.
Pinkie Pie is reasonably well-characterized here, and ultimately ends up being the protagonist of the story, pursuing Rainbow Dash as Rainbow Dash struggles and fails to really figure out what is wrong with her. She is the primary actor and mover of the plot, and there is definitely some of her trademark humor in this story. The story, on the whole, has reasonably solid prose, and there’s some pretty fun dialogue in it in places, particularly around Pinkie Pie.
The thing is, though, after reading it, I have to admit to being left unenthusiastic about it. I read about half of it, took a break, and then read the other half, and I wasn’t really left feeling like I was on tenterhooks to finish it.
But why? It is hard for me to really put that together.
Was it the length? It was kind of long for what it was, and it did feel kind of repetitive at times – I felt like two or three of Rainbow Dash’s scenes were kind of samey in terms of action and emotional tone. There’s a fair bit of in-character procrastination by both Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie in terms of Not Addressing Things. But at the same time, at least some of that made sense, and helped the audience at least get a sense of them avoiding the issue.
But I think the biggest issue was simply that I never felt like I had a good grasp on why I should be cheering for the two of them. They seemed to be comfortable living together, but at the same time Rainbow Dash was feeling kind of trapped for no good reason, which is hardly a healthy sign, and both clearly struggled with the communication thing. Is that something I want to be cheering for? It didn’t quite feel like it was ever truly resolved – while the particular issue was, the underlying issue of lack of communication out of fear and discomfort never ultimately felt like it got fully resolved.
I enjoy Pinkie Dash, but here, I wasn’t really left feeling like I needed for the two of them to kiss by the end of it. I want a shipfic to make me want to see characters together, and in the end, I’m not sure that this quite hit on that.
But maybe it was something else entirely, and my brain is just fastening onto this as a reason.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
The Tail End of It
by ShortSkirtsAndExplosions
Comedy, Slice of Life, Random
3,723 wordsApplejack bites Rainbow Dash's tail off.
Why I added it: I read it a long time ago.
Review
This is a weird story.
Applejack has a long, storied tradition of grabbing Rainbow Dash by the tail to stop the pegasus from flying off and doing something stupid, as the story shows in its opening, flashing back through all of them.
It was really inevitable it would come off eventually.
I’m not even really sure what to say about this story. It is extremely heavily focused on moment-to-moment humor, ranging from more Rainbow Dash’s ill-concealed affection for a certain farm pony to a reference to Hiccups to a joke about putting pony on things that it doesn’t belong on to… well, the whole central premise, and the various fallout thereof.
The whole thing is written in a very whimsical manner, complete with silly descriptions of physical actions and poses. This isn’t something which has a huge amount of buildup to a giant punchline; instead, it seems to insist on being funny the whole way through, jumping quickly from moment to moment and joke to joke, and while there is some buildup to the AppleDash bit, there’s really no way of taking this story seriously.
This isn’t for everyone, but if you’re the kind of person who really enjoys very in the moment comedies with a rather odd premise, this might be up your alley.
Recommendation: Worth Reading.
”Why do all our new adversaries rhyme with each other?”
by Estee
Sex, Comedy, Random
1,528 wordsSeriously. Why?
Why I added it: Estee is a good writer and I wanted to read something short.
Review
This is a pure dialogue story about a bunch of ponies showing up with various rhyming names, and Twilight/Applejack trying to figure out A) what their lame gimmick is and B) dispatching them rapidly.
They even formed an orderly queue!
Honestly, there’s not much to be said about this one. It is all sort of a build up to a frankly anticlimactic punchline, the whole thing is deliberately very non-canon, and the structure is pretty repetitive. In the end, I’m not really left with a great understanding of what inspired this or what the point of it was other than the rather odd running gag that doesn’t seem to have an extrinsic motivation.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
Scootalift
by Estee
Slice of Life
23,080 wordsSnowflake can fly. Scootaloo can't. She's decided her best solution is for him to train her, get her in the air his way. And he'll do anything to make sure that doesn't happen. Because she wants to be strong like him... and that's something he never wants to see another pony go through. And besides, the Crusaders quit on things all the time, which means getting her to drop out should be easy.
But they don't give up on the Crusade...
Why I added it: Estee is a good writer.
Review
Scootaloo wants to know how to fly. She’s upset that she can’t get into the sky, and so she goes to the only other pony with small wings. After all, if he can somehow get into the air with his wings, clearly he can teach her how to fly, right?
But that’s not something Snowflake would ever wish on anyone. He’s a muscled freak, alone, not someone anyone would give a second look at, save one of horror. Sure, he’s strong, and that gets him work.
Fortunately, being like him is hard. It takes a lot of determination to keep working at something as hard and unpleasant as what he did to get into the sky, and he knows that there’s no way that Scootaloo would ever be able to put up with it.
I mean, she’s a quitter, right?
This is mostly a character piece about Snowflake. Told from his point of view, we get to see his view of the world, his view of Scootaloo (which changes over the course of the piece, as he comes to learn just what kind of pony Scootaloo really is, under the continual disasters of the Crusades), his view of bullies, and numerous other things.
And on the whole, it works pretty well at that. Snowflake here is characterized as a soft-spoken, gentle soul who isn’t particularly consistent with canon, but the character presented here is reasonably interesting. He’s been a bit beaten up by life, and in many ways has a rather pessimistic view of things – but he’s not outright negative, just concerned that things might not go all that well all the time. He’s a very determined and driven individual, and he does care about others – about Fluttershy, and by the end of it, about Scootaloo too, who is clearly something of a neglected child here.
The biggest problem with this story is that it is pretty slow-paced; clocking in at 23,000 words, this is not a terribly short piece, and yet there isn’t that much content here. It feels drawn out in Estee’s characteristic style, though not side-tracked – rather, it just seems to be kind of slow going. And while this does work somewhat with Snowflake’s own characterization of being slow and steady-paced, it still feels kind of long for what it is.
That being said, as a character piece, I did enjoy it. It gave a view into Estee’s view of the character, and it gives us some vision on Scootaloo as well. It is ultimately a pretty optimistic piece, and we get to see the characters bond a bit over the course of the story, as Snowflake takes it upon himself to look after Scootaloo a bit.
If you’re interested in character pieces, and don’t mind slow pacing overly much, this might be up your alley.
Recommendation: Worth Reading.
Starry Night
by AShadowOfCygnus
Drama, Slice of Life
4,437 wordsOne warm summer evening, Twilight finds herself pondering something of a philosophical dilemma. Joined by Applejack and Spike, she tries to give it proper voice, and finds herself debating a question as old as ponykind.
Written in pursuit of that question, not an answer.
Why I added it: I enjoyed Hang so thought I’d read something else by them as well.
Review
Twilight ponders about what a world would be like without alicorns and other god-like beings around, bouncing her ideas off of Applejack.
All in all, this felt more like the conversation someone might have with a friend than something which makes for a terribly interesting story – while it is a fairly reasonable approximation of a kind of rambly philosophical conversation two people might have, stories are not philosophical conversations. Beyond the fact that the audience knows the answer to the question (or at least, one answer to it), the story is really lacking in any sort of proper engagement curve; it is rather flat as a whole, and while the conversation is reasonably in-character, it ultimately doesn’t feel all that satisfying to read. Writing such stories is hard, doubly so when you don’t want it to come off as a screed, and this ultimately didn’t really feel like it went anywhere.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
Summary
Where Your Heart Is by Cloudy Skies
Not Recommended
The Tail End of It by ShortSkirtsAndExplosions
Worth Reading
”Why do all our new adversaries rhyme with each other?” by Estee
Not Recommended
Scootalift by Estee
Worth Reading
Starry Night by AShadowOfCygnus
Not Recommended
I need to get around to actually clearing out my you’re next shelf; that bookshelf’s name is such a freaking lie!
But there’s many things I should be doing.
Still, it was nice getting some stories read and reviewed. It has been far too long since I was in the habit of that, and I do enjoy reading.
I need to get the ball rolling on getting more writing of my own finished.
Number of stories still listed as Read It Sooner: 196
Number of stories still listed as Read It Later: 611
Number of stories listed as Read It Eventually: 2111
Woah you are on fire good sir. Keep up the good work.
Huh, well, to each their own I guess. For me, Where the Heart Is is one of the classic ponyfic romances. It's been a while, so I guess it's time to go reread it (again), but the third act never failed to hit me right in the feels.
That said, we've disagreed on smoochfics before, and I'm sure we will again.
Your reviews are always thoughtful and upfront, and I'm always glad to see them, whether or not I agree.
P.S. Speaking of smoochfics, just wanted to give you a heads up that at some point in the last two weeks, Lion apparently dropped by and stealth-deleted all his fics (including ATRTBU) and nuked his account (now titled "deletedforever"). I was able to pull copies from archive.org (thankfully, it's hard to really ever kill anything on the internet).
4555875
I actually had already saved Buzzkill, A Terrible Reason to Be Unhappy, and Pinkie 'Heartbreaker' Pie on my computer a while ago.
It is too bad that A Terrible Reason to Be Unhappy will never be completed; it was such a great story.
I don't get why people try to cover their tracks like that, though. It seems kind of silly.
I really liked Taken for Granite; I will probably put it in a recommended story review set at some point, but I have a lot of other stories to read first which are novel-length above re-reading that.
I was never terribly fond of Where Earth Meets Sky, though, and I didn't end up overly enamored with this one.
I'm still looking forward to reading Twice as Bright; I've heard lots of good things about it.
4555870
Hah, thanks! Hopefully I'll be able to keep up the productivity.
4555879 Glad to hear. It really was, too. It delved into aspects of relationships and emotional connections that we rarely see addressed. They can be ugly, confusing, and not easily patched up with an apology.
Honestly, I agree with regards to Where Earth Meets Sky. It was cute, but I don't remember much of it aside from that. In terms of pure craftsmanship, I'd say that Taken for Granite is, in fact, probably his best fic, while Lost and Found and Where the Heart Is are my personal favorites of his. Twice as Bright has certainly received a significant amount of praise from the fandom (Tommy Oliver's review revived a lot of interest in it, I think). I'd tend to say it's "good but not great", so I'll be interested to see your take on it.
Also, I'm super jazzed that Cloudy's back and working on a new fic for us as well.
4555888
Yeah, I'm looking forward to whatever they cooked up.
Fair enough. To be fair, we all learn as we write more, and Taken for Granite was the most recent story he wrote as well, so it isn't terribly surprising.
I actually ended up peeking at Taken for Granite and ended up reading a few chapters of it just now.
Okay, once and for all: T-R-I-P-T-Y-C-H.
And once again, you've wound up coming into events in, if not quite reverse order, then at least in something other than a straight line. You met Fajr after Blessing, and now you're coming into Scootalift having already read Unstable Sale (which said Snowflake had been tutoring Scootaloo for a few moons) and A Confederacy Of Dunce Caps (relevant because this story was one of the setups for Mr. Rich reaching the point where he couldn't take Diamond at her word any more).
...maybe the stories actually are stand-alones?
Regardless, dragon flight patterns are weird.
And I'm sorry to hear about Lion. *sigh* I don't know why s/he did it and won't speculate. I just know that there's times when all it really does take is ten consecutive minutes of silent shadows.
4555932
I haven't even read Triptych yet! At all! It is the first thing you wrote and I still haven't gotten to it. Because it is incomplete.
I'm actually down to just needing to read Stupid Direction-Face, Sick Little Ponies (And One Dragon), Goosed!, The Remainders of the Day, and The Bounce Test, and I think I will have read all the Triptych stories other than... well, Triptych, ironically.
I think it is more that a lot of the allusions are... well, allusions. They're not critical to understanding the stories, necessarily, as the context given within the story works for most of them. Some of them (like The Hypocrisy of Tolerance) are direct sequels and do require the previous story for context, but a lot are sort of... interlinked but not critically so?
That said, Unstable Sale definitely felt like it was part of The Continuity. Having read A Confederacy of Dunce Caps made the Diamond Tiara scene make sense, for instance; I think that would have been weird if I wasn't familiar with a lot of your other works.
4555944
Which doesn't change the fact that in the last couple of review columns, you've been spelling it tryptych.
And once again, I'll save you some time: Not Recommended, in letters of fire. I already know the pacing won't work for you -- among other things.
Beyond that, it's a rough patch to predict. I think you'll enjoy SD-F the most, followed by the Rarity short in SLP. But those who try to precog the taste of dragons are most likely to find out how dragons think they taste.
ETA:
That scene had a number of reasons for being present. #1a was probably 'Avoiding death.'
...it may sound like a joke, but a surprising number of people wanted to make sure Cameo was okay. And were decidedly not happy about even a possibility of something having gone wrong.
I can just about freely emotionally wound and traumatize any number of ponies, but if I ever hurt one jeweled scarab...
You keep saying things like this to string me along.
4555954
I don't mean to.
4555888
I accidentally read Taken for Granite today, despite explicitly saying I wouldn't.
I'm really bad at this.
4556531 Mwahahahaha!
Er, ahem, I mean, that's fantastic! You know, Twice as Bright is sitting right next door. How about a twofer?