Read It Later Reviews #80 – Sugarcube in the Corner, Cart-ography, Regrets, ∩∩Θπ ~ Ö ~ ÇHΓΩ/\/\É, Dear Friend · 6:59pm Sep 9th, 2017
It seems that the hurricane season is well upon us; between Hurricane Harvey two weeks ago, and Hurricane Irma demolishing several islands in the Caribbean, while two more wend their way around the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, there’s quite a bit of atmospheric excitement. Combined with the terrible fires out west and a big old earthquake off of Florida, we’ve really got all four of the elements well and truly covered.
I hope you all are staying safe. And maybe even looking for some fun stories to read.
That last thing, at least, is something I might be able to help with.
Today’s stories:
Sugarcube in the Corner by WishyWish
Cart-ography by Estee
Regrets by Donnys Boy
∩∩Θπ ~ Ö ~ ÇHΓΩ/\/\É by Shortskirtsandexplosions
Dear Friend by Estee
Sugarcube in the Corner
by WishyWish
Drama, Sad, Tragedy, Slice of Life
8,069 wordsEnter Painless - a young resident physician at Manehattan East Side Memorial Hospital who drew the short lot, and ended up working through Hearth's Warming. With the city caught in the grips of a blizzard that weatherponies are still trying to get under control, the night is boring, the decorations contrived, and the coffee is as bitter as his sensibilities.
Tonight, Painless has a single, pointless task assigned to him - To keep the company of a lonesome, unconscious stallion who is essentially already dead. In so doing, a young doctor will learn that medicine is about more than scalpels and technique.
It's also about mending broken hearts.
Why I added it: Present Perfect recommended it.
Review
Painless is a resident at a hospital. He’s very good at medicine, but he sees his patients as things to be treated rather than as actual people.
His boss, Doctor Poultice, assigns him to go sit in a room and talk to an unconscious, dying stallion – Carrot Cake, who was hit by a cart while in Manehattan, many miles away from the rest of his family.
Painless sees this whole affair as pointless – Carrot Cake is already effectively dead, there’s no hope of recovery, what difference will him sitting in the room make? Heck, why is Carrot Cake even on life support? With all the damage done to him, he’s probably already a vegetable, and even if he’s not, they’re still basically beating on a dead horse, with no hope that his family will even be notified through the blizzard raging outside, let alone reach the hospital before Carrot Cake succumbs to his injuries.
But as he goes through the stallion’s belongings – as much out of boredom as out of searching for something to say – he comes across a few letters, and sees just how much the dying stallion has to live for.
This is not a happy story, but it is still something of a glurge fic. We get a bit of an arc, as we see Painless’s barriers between him and his patient get torn down, and a lesson from Doctor Poultice in the more people-oriented side of dealing with death, but ultimately it is meant to be heartwarming despite the tragedy, as we see how much love there is between Carrot Cake and his family, and that even though Carrot Cake is going to die, there’s still love there, no matter how far away they might be.
If I had a complaint, it would be that this story feels a bit transparent in being a vehicle for what it is. Painless is exactly what he needs to be for the story, and while this isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, he didn’t feel like he had much of an existence beyond the piece. And if you don’t like glurgy pieces, I suspect this might set off your glurge detectors rather badly by the end.
Still, I can’t really complain too much. It has a good bit of emotional impact to it, enough to make me tear up a little bit even if it was kind of transparent in its manipulation of my emotions, and if you’re in the market for a more bittersweet kind of caring, this is likely to be right up your alley.
Recommendation: Recommended.
Cart-ography
by Estee
Slice of Life
11,498 wordsShopping carts cost money. Nopony outside the staff at Barnyard Bargains seems to understand that. Carts are taken deep into Ponyville, repurposed for any number of activities, never seen again... and Mr. Rich is sick of buying replacements. So it couldn't hurt to use a few new magical and mundane methods of keeping them around, could it? No harm whatsoever possible?
The two-word answer: 'It's Ponyville.'
Why I added it: Estee is a good writer.
Review
In the magical land of Equestria, a shopping cart is a rather different affair from in the real world. For one thing, ponies are ponies, and thus, cannot stand and push from behind very easily, but are better suited for pulling – well, unless they’re unicorns anyway (the cheaters), or Lyra the weirdo.
Moreover, they don’t have cars. And that means that it is rather practical to take a shopping cart home with you with your purchases to bring it home, unless you hauled in a cart yourself…
And once you’ve taken it home, it is kind of handy…
Of course, Mr. Rich retrieves them whenever he can, as do his employees, leading to more than a few awkward confrontations with the locals. So when one of his new employees goes on cart retrieval duty for the first time, and a certain pair of inventors come along with what seems like a lovely idea, said employee is all ears, and more than happy to buy something that might help.
Because, really, what could go wrong with a spell that would make a cart drive itself back to the store anyway?
This is a rather silly story, but silly in an Estee sort of way, which means that there is a certain air of resignation about it, as well as a heaping dollop of cynicism. That bad things are going to happen is inevitable; that worse will happen afterwards goes without saying. And that equine stupidity will play a major role… well, it is an Estee fic.
This is something that I think some folks will enjoy, though. The idea is, at its core, rather cartoony, as are some of the various mishaps, and they certainly are painted with a rather charmingly broad brush as we see things bounce from one problem to the next. Mr. Rich is nicely characterized here, and the supporting cast is decent enough, even if they are very Estee interpretations thereof.
The biggest problem with this story is its length; it is 11k words long, but it could have (and should have been) thousands of words shorter. It, as with many Estee stories, somewhat belabors the point at time, and is slow-paced at several moments, and while the extra text at times serves to give us a better understanding of Mr. Rich, at others it simply is bloated.
Still, if you think the idea of ponies “helpfully” coming up with ideas about how to fix Mr. Rich’s shopping cart problem, only for said solutions to fall apart, is a fun idea, you may enjoy this story’s core. But watch out for the pacing.
Incidentally, while this story is marked as a sequel to Barnyard Barge-Ins, there’s no need to read that story; this is a stand-alone piece.
Recommendation: Worth Reading if you don’t mind slow pacing.
Regrets
by Donnys Boy and Professor Piggy
Romance, Slice of Life
4,152 wordsRarity and Applejack go out for a fun night on the town with their friends, but when Rarity's flirtatious tendencies flare up, the evening rapidly turns into something more serious than either of them expected it to be. A RariJack story.
Why I added it: I read it a long time ago, and Donnys Boy is a good writer.
Review
Rarity flirts a bit with Thunderlane in the hopes of him getting his little brother under control. If Rarity were single, this wouldn’t be a big deal – but Rarity isn’t single. She has a marefriend, and a rather unhappy one at that.
She knows Rarity isn’t cheating on her. Knows Rarity isn’t that kind of mare. But still, seeing Rarity flirt with someone else hurts. After all, touching someone, flirting… you’re not supposed to do that with anyone but your lover, right?
This is a story about a kind of sad conflict between Rarity and Applejack; not the kind that ends in shouting and screaming, but the kind of hurt that’s quiet and deep, as you wonder whether or not you can really trust your lover, and just how special you really are to them – and whether your lover understands something that really, truly matters.
This is a simple story, but that’s not a bad thing – it focuses on one thing, one idea, the idea of how Rarity’s habit of using flirting to get her way could hurt her lover – and it explores what it means to Rarity, as well as how much it can hurt someone else, and then ties itself up.
The descriptions here really work well; we get some nice descriptions of Rarity and Applejack’s body language and feelings, both in a tactile sense and otherwise, and it works to keep us in the scene. They help to really fill out the emotionality of the situation, and to give us a greater depth of appreciation for how they’re feeling at any given moment. It is a story about a conversation, but it uses body language to greatly increase its impact.
I gotta admit, if I was a jealous man, I’d be jealous of Donnys Boy’s ability to do this. But on my oath, I’m not a jealous man.
Just one who likes this story.
Recommendation: Worth Reading
∩∩Θπ ~ Ö ~ ÇHΓΩ/\/\É
by shortskirtsandexplosions
Romance
9,721 wordsAfter a magical mishap renders Rarity temporarily blind, Twilight Sparkle agrees to help her around the Boutique, utilizing a fancy spell that allows Rarity to see a simple outline of the world around them. It's just a gesture of good friendship; absolutely nothing more.
Nothing more whatsoever.
Why I added it: SS&E is a good writer.
Review
Rarity has managed to temporarily render herself blind, but fortunately, her best friend, Twilight Sparkle, is happy to come over every day to cast a spell so that Rarity can see. Rarity has an order of dresses due for Sapphire Shores, and blind or not, she must get them done – and it is only with Twilight’s help around the boutique that there is any hope of that happening.
Told from the point of view of Rarity, this is a lovely little story about a mare in love with her best friend. The world is shimmering from Rarity’s perspective; Rarity relishes the beauty in the world around her, not just in a visual sense, but in a tactile and emotional sense as well. Rarity enjoys her bubble bath and is left positively tingly by Twilight’s words, let alone her presence. Rarity’s perspective on her surroundings – and on Twilight Sparkle – does a good job of getting us into Rarity’s rather fluffy mindset, as this is a pony in love, and we feel that love through the descriptions of the world around her, and Twilight Sparkle most of all.
While we don’t necessarily understand Twilight’s feelings for Rarity in the same way, it isn’t a major issue the way the story is set up; this is Rarity’s story, and while we cannot see inside Twilight’s head, and see just what it is that is attracting her to Rarity, her words and actions give us some pretty big hints.
On the surface, this might seem like a fairly simple story about one pony trying to determine what to do about their feelings for another, but Rarity’s point of view sells the emotional content of this story, and makes you want to read more. While Rarity doesn’t see the world as more than an outline, we see so much more in her descriptions of it, the way she thinks about things, and the way she reacts to her friend.
Recommendation: Recommended, especially if you like fluffy romance.
Dear Friend
by Estee
Comedy, Random
1,514 wordsSome scrolls just aren't worth unrolling.
Why I added it: I read it a long time ago, and Estee is a good writer.
Review
Spam, equestrian style. It is amusing enough for what it is, but it is also exactly what it is, no more and no less.
If you think reading pony spam would be funny, and if the idea of reading the sort of things you might get from people like Flim and Flam is funny, this is nothing but that, and is a fine execution thereof. If you want an actual story, this contains no overarching plot whatsoever.
Recommendation: Worth Reading if the premise amuses you.
Summary
Sugarcube in the Corner by WishyWish
Recommended
Cart-ography by Estee
Worth Reading
Regrets by Donnys Boy
Worth Reading
∩∩Θπ ~ Ö ~ ÇHΓΩ/\/\É by Shortskirtsandexplosions
Recommended
Dear Friend by Estee
Worth Reading
May you all stay dry and warm this weekend.
Number of stories still listed as Read It Sooner: 204
Number of stories still listed as Read It Later: 627
Number of stories listed as Read It Eventually: 2150
Wow, 5 for 5! Writers are on point in this batch.
You're going soft!
What the heck is "nnthp-er-shgw[slashes]é"?
4663364
Monochrome, but I think written as if Rarity was trying to read through the spell Twilight cast on her in the story.
I didn't mention it in the review, but the story was written as part of Monochromatic's contest, so I think SS&E was doing something a bit clever there.
Though frankly it was just as mystifying to me until I finished the story and copy-pasted it into my review document.
4663364
You spelled that wrong, those are obviously a pair of lambdas, not slashes. :V
4663434
"Nnthp-er-shgwllé" is actually a thing I can pronounce. Honestly, it's not that much worse than trying to read Hot Shot & Hugh Jelly's adventures.
4663370
Ooooooooh.
Holy moly all 5? How often does this happen, I'm bookmarking this page lol.
4663621
Not very often. Outside of Recommended Story Reviews posts (which are always 100% recommended or above, but also entirely consist of stories I favorited before I started doing reviews), it is quite rare:
Read It Later Reviews #39
Read It Later Reviews #68
Read It Now Reviews #54
Read It Now Reviews #61
4663633
Oh wow, thanks for the list of the others. Now I've got about 25 extra stories to read later...oh boy...