Fic recs, July 30th: Horsewords Extravaganza edition! · 5:45pm Jul 30th, 2017

In case you weren't aware, Jake the Army Guy's Horsewords Extravaganza contest announced its winners recently, and the second-place prize was a review from me. (A booby prize if ever there was one.)

But I found myself in a strange dilemma: I'd already written a review of one of the Extravangaza entrants. If I published it, wouldn't that take away the, I dunno, exclusivity of the review-as-prize? I mean, I watch a lot of the contestants, and thus I added all their entries to my RIL. Had I suddenly created a small subgroup of fics I could never, ever review? D: This caused me no end of concern.

Yet fear not, brave reader! For I have devised a solution! The prize review will involve but the single winner, and thus become an exclusive entity, apart from any future review I might write for another entry. Equestria is saved! :V

So, this won't be a vs. post, but I will go a bit further in-depth than I usually do for short one-shots. Without further ado, a look at Propmaster's Teach Me Beauty, Teach Me Grace below the cut. Light spoilers!

The story I have been privately referring to "Beautitatem Doce Me" (very few people will get that) has a simple premise, as shipfics go: Cheerilee is going on a date and comes to Carousel Boutique for a dress; Rarity finds something that's stunning on her, and then they have a "practice" date because Cheers has been out of the field for rather a while. Said practice date, not to mention how great the dress looks on Cheerilee, gets Rarity somewhat flustered and open to an actual date by the end of the story.

I have definitely seen this kind of thing before, especially when it comes to Rarity shipfics. No less than Ribbons and Lace, one of my absolute favorites, has nearly this exact premise, swapping out Cheerilee for Fluttershy. And it makes sense. Rarity is a pony who is obsessed with beauty; she makes it, she appreciates it. It's somewhat circular to have her fall for her own creation, as it were, but when you're trying to ship her, with another mare especially — as she's so far only shown interest in stallions in the show — that premise is a useful springboard to get her interested in your shippee.

What elevates Teach Me Beauty from mere shipping to the realm of romance is the way the characters are written. If I can take a personal tangent for a moment, I've recently had a birthday, one that's finally put me closer to "middle-aged" than "in my twenties". The sense of being old, or at least out of touch with the youth of today, has been hitting me pretty hard over the last couple of months. Point being, when Cheerilee laments that being called "Miss" makes her feel old, I am so there with her. The portrayal of her as an older mare is what really made this story for me, and I went on that tangent to demonstrate that it was due to very personal, very in-the-moment reasons, and might not hit every reader quite so hard. If you're not yet at the age where going "I'm old" and laughing is immediately followed by crushing despair and ennui, just trust me that this story features an excellent portrayal of a person starting to feel their age.

Some of this comes from headcanon, of course. We were told, way, way back at the start of the show, that the mane cast were in their early twenties. Cheerilee has always struck me as older, around mid-to-late thirties, likely due to her position as an educator, not to mention one of the very few ponies in Ponyville who's actually consistently responsible. Oh, and the fact that she was a teenager in the Pony Eighties, which might make her even older. Whatever number you want to hang on her aside, the image of Cheerilee as a lonely mare keenly aware and afraid of her slow slide into spinsterdom is a pervasive one, likely for the above reasons.

Putting this into focus is Rarity's portrayal. She commiserates with being made to feel old when called "Lady Rarity", though it becomes clear as the story progresses that age doesn't affect her self-image in quite the same way it does Cheerilee's (for all that we've seen Rarity lament about feeling or looking old in canon). No, where Cheerilee's arc is wrapped up in her age, awareness thereof, and awareness of how her age makes her look when doing things like buying a dress, Rarity is more involved in being fantastic.

Seriously, if you've ever wondered what people see in Rarity, look no further than this story. Not content to simply be a purveyor of fashion, etiquette or dating advice, she goes far above and beyond the call of duty in regards to Cheerilee. Rarity is a fantastic friend, generous to a fault, and when I say I had a very strong appreciation for Rarity by the end of this fic, realize that I already generally have a very strong appreciation for her character.

Much like Cheerilee, Rarity has always been very self-aware, but her awareness is focused on how others perceive her, again fitting into her love of fashion. Cheerilee lists off a number of her good qualities — being an Element of Harmony, beauty, success — and Rarity laments that it is those very qualities that keep her from the dating field. She is, as she puts it, intimidating, out of the league of quite a lot more ponies than just our humble Cheerilee.

Despite this, she's still a pony, and that's the whole point of this story. Their talk, both during the "practice" date and at the end of the story, draws out her innate humanity. I mean, she's shocked and hurt that Cheerilee lied to her. And yet, Rarity is willing to give Cheerilee a second chance, not only because of her own innate generosity, but because, on some level, she understands Cheerilee, how that lie came from her self-awareness and self-doubts. What they set up is no pity date. This humanity , I wager, is what led this story to its high finish. (Second place out of 40 entries? No small feat!)

So that's a lot about characterization; what about the rest? The only criticism I really have about this story is the two instances of "does", which, being presented as part of Rarity's inner monologue — though not, technically, set off from the narration — kind of work, but could be changed to past tense. Otherwise, the writing moves from "serviceable" to "gripping", which is perfect, since that coincides with the climax. The pacing, I should mention, is perfect, lingering on little but never feeling rushed.

As for the romance itself… Well, technically, there isn't any. There's a healthy array of "Rarity notices how good Cheerilee looks in her dresses", but that's just shippy. The story ends only with the promise of a real date. But if nothing else, I find myself thinking that the two of them will be good for each other. Yes, Rarity's personality is somewhat more flamboyant than Cheerilee's; she's likely to dominate in social situations, but she's also self-aware enough that I think she would be able to mitigate that for her date's sake. If nothing else, even if they don't eventually turn into an item, I think any length of relationship between them will be something neither regrets. And a sense of surety about that outcome is all I really ask for in this kind of story. :)

Teach Me Beauty, Teach Me Grace is a very excellent piece of character writing and not a bad light romance to boot. If you're not interested in romance, it will likely do nothing for you, but Rarity (and Cheerilee) fans might want to check it out anyway. Rarilee is a ship I can't say I've seen before, and this is a great introduction to the concept.

Highly Recommended

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PropMaster

PropMaster #1 · Jul 30th, 2017 · 1 · ·

I had to commission the cover art, because there are only two pieces of Rarilee art that I could find on Derpibooru, and neither of them hit the right tone.

Thank you so much for the excellent review! I'm so glad you enjoyed my story. I had a lot of fun writing this bizarrely underdone ship, to the point that I wondered why they weren't ever shipped together more often. They are a pair of characters who, I think, align fairly convincingly. Ah well, shipping is a fickle and strange thing.

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