Recommended Story Reviews #19 – That’s All, Mate for Dash, Twilight Eats a Hamburger, Heart to Heart, Twilight’s List · 6:49pm May 4th, 2018
Sorry folks, it’s been a while since I posted a review set. So I figured I’d start us back off with some of my favorite stories that I haven’t reviewed yet, before I start waving my cane at the kids to get off my lawn.
Today’s stories:
That’s All by Archmage Ludicrous
Mate for Dash by AppendingFic
Twilight Eats a Hamburger by PonyTom
Heart to Heart by Crosis
Twilight’s List by Kits
by Archmage Ludicrous
Slice of Life, Hat Fic
1,559 words
A vignette regarding a pragmatic pony.
Why I reccommend it: A simple and sweet hat fic.
Review
Pinkie Pie is bouncing around Ponyville without really thinking about it, bringing her usual cheer to her friends – and because everypony in Ponyville is her friend, that’slot of cheer!
Of course, not paying attention to where you’re going has its disadvantages, too – like when you knock your friend’s hat off her head into the Ponyville River.
You know, the hat.
You might think that this is one of those old hatfics, but it is really a story about Pinkie Pie and Applejack, and how they operate.
This is a sweet story, and while it is very simple, it does exactly what it needs to do before getting out of the way.
Recommendation: Recommended.
by Appendingfic
Romance
18,805 words
Rainbow Dash begins looking for romance, seeking advice from all of her friends, But Applejack's a little on edge, and nopony seems convinced that Rainbow knows what she's doing. Will this end in heartbreak or a happy ending? And will Princess Celestia ever get to banish somepony to the moon?
Why I recommend it: It is one of my favorite AppleDash stories.
Review
Dating all the way back to 2012, this is an oldie but a goodie.
Rainbow Dash is making progress towards being a Wonderbolt. But she is already wondering what is next after that. I mean, she’s the most awesome pony in Equestria, but there always has to be another goal to fly towards, right?
This, of course, leads Rainbow Dash into thinking about other areas of her life, and she quickly settles on dating. She’s awesome, she looks awesome, clearly she should be able to find a boyfriend, right?
But she has never had a date in her life, but a pony like Rainbow Dash isn’t about to admit that out loud to just anyone. So she goes to ask Applejack for some advice. Sure, she might not be the most romantic of ponies, but she’s almost as awesome as Rainbow Dash is (plus, Rarity would probably just give her a makeover anyway).
But Applejack seems to be a bit put off by the idea of Rainbow Dash dating. I wonder why?
This is a rather amusing AppleDash fic, as Rainbow Dash spends the whole story trying to figure out just what she wants – and who she wants to date – while driving poor Applejack (and the rest of her friends) up the wall with her general obliviousness. And while Rainbow Dash is oblivious, she is also trying, and let’s face it – someone who is trying and failing, and is oblivious to the reason why, is pretty fun to watch.
But this isn’t a comedy fic – rather, it uses comedy in service of the plot alongside more emotional moments as Rainbow Dash struggles with what she really wants in a partner, her sexuality, and the consequences of charging ahead heedless of what consequences might come.
The humorous bits work well with the emotional core of Rainbow Dash struggling to find what she wants, and the whole thing ends up being a single and pretty coherent narrative despite the many seeming diversions from Rainbow Dash seeing what’s in front of her. A journey of a thousand miles might start with a single step, but it can’t end with one, even if it does end right back where you began.
Recommendation: Highly Recommended.
by PonyTom
Comedy, Random, Ponies Eating Meat
4,848 words
Twilight told her friends of her adventures in the Human world, but she didn't tell them everything. One dark secret haunts her still.
Hamburgers are delicious.
Why I recommend it: It makes me giggle.
Review
Twilight Sparkle has special ordered a package all the way from the Griffon Empire. It’s vitally important that no one else know what she’s up to.
Because, you see, within lurks a terrible thing, which is the key to a terrible secret.
Twilight remembers the world she went to, the human world, and the delicious food she ate there.
And she wants more of it. But no one can know.
Especially not Fluttershy.
This is a silly little story about the deliciousness of meat. It veers back and forth between being silly and seemingly playing things straight, only to subvert our expectations once more, each time funnier than the last. It is exactly as long as it needs to be, and while perhaps the build up to the final punchline takes a bit longer than it should, it works well on the whole and, even all these years after first reading it, still makes me giggle.
Recommendation: Recommended.
by Crosis
Slice of Life, Sex, The Talk
8,288 words
There was a question... and Spike wanted the answer. The curiosity of it was gnawing at his little dragon brain like gerbils in a vat of candy corn. In desperation, he turns to Cadence for help, and she's more than happy to assist.
After all, it's just a simple question. What's the worst that could happen?
Why I recommend it: Cadance trying to explain the concept of love to Spike in a way that doesn’t get her in trouble.
Review
What is love?
It seems like a simple question, but a young Spike isn’t sure how to broach it. Sometimes, it seems like a good thing; other times, it gets thrown in ponies’ faces. They seem to be so sensitive about it, and he doesn’t want to say something that would upset somepony.
But there’s somepony who can surely explain it to him. After all, Cadance is the Princess of Love. All he has to do is manage to make an excuse so that she’s babysitting just for him and not for Twilight, so he can talk to her about it and get a real explanation.
Cadance thinks he’s a bit young for such things, but she knows that punting it off on someone else would be kind of unfair. And it is kind of her thing, after all. She just needs to avoid a few minefields…
This is a slice of life piece that ends up taking the form of an escalating comedy at the end, as poor Cadance increasingly gets cornered in on her explanation of love and types of love by the curious young Spike. The talk about love ends up going in a direction that Cadance desperately doesn’t want it to, as she does not want to be responsible for giving a young but quite bright Spike the wrong ideas. Watching Cadance flail about while trying to divert Spike is funny, and watching figurative bricks get tossed up into the air and knowing they are hanging over Cadance’s head, waiting to come down on her, is just enjoyable.
If the idea of a teenaged Cadance desperately not wanting to get in trouble for saying too much to Spike seems like an amusing idea to you, this story is apt to be right up your alley.
Recommendation: Recommended.
by Kits
Romance
48,653 words
Twilight Sparkle prides herself on following and sticking to her plans, but she isn't as organized as everypony thinks. Her master list, the plan for her life, has an item that she has never been able to check off; and the time has come to fix that. How hard can it be? All she needs to do is go on a date and get a kiss.
Why I recommend it: It is one of my favorite TwiDash stories.
Review
Twilight loves her lists. Her daily checklist, her weekly planner… and of course, the longest list of all, one she started many years before, One Hundred Things Every Filly Should Do.
She’s managed to tick off ninety-nine items from her list, but item number fifty six (Go on a date, obtain first kiss) has eluded her. She had added it to the list on a whim, really, but it was the only thing left, and Twilight being Twilight, she wants to finish off her list.
Twilight being Twilight, this is, of course, solved by even more checklists:
Make a list of friend’s traits
Decide on whom to date
Ask friend out. Note: this may require additional research
Go on a date. A list of activities will be required
Repeat steps one through four until kiss is obtained
Finish original list
Talk to Pinkie Pie about party
(see standard Pinkie Pie Party checklist)
Of course, Twilight doesn’t really expect any of her friends to go on a real date with her – the list doesn’t specify that romance has to be involved. She makes a list for each of her friends, and despite Applejack seeming like the more logical choice, there’s just something about Rainbow Dash that makes it impossible for Twilight to not choose her.
So her path is set! Ask out Rainbow Dash tomorrow, after Rainbow practices her latest flying routine. It’s not as if the pegasus might space out after practice, miss most of what Twilight had to say, and think that Twilight is asking her out on a real date, right?
As a short getting-together romance novel, clocking in just north of 40,000 words, this story works really well. While not a comedy, this story makes excellent use of humor. The story alternates back and forth between Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle’s point of view, and Rainbow Dash’s point of view in this story is not only spot on, but it is absolutely hilarious. From not understanding what “pruning trees” means to her general rampant ego that is checked (both intentionally and inadvertently) by Twilight, Rainbow Dash is a delight in this story. Her thinking that it is a real date and her general playful nature sets the story up quite well, and because Rainbow Dash isn’t the type not to give everything 110%, things end up developing quite nicely.
This story’s greatest strength is in showing why the two characters would be interested in each other. We get a lot of fun insight into the mentalities of the characters, as well as the particular things that they’re attracted to in each other – sure, Twilight makes her list at the start, which is of course a good start, but we also get to see how Twilight actually comes to appreciate some aspects of Rainbow Dash’s nature as a romantic partner on their date. We see the spontaneity break Twilight out of some of her excessive bouts of introspection or getting worried about the “pretend” date being too real, or little things going wrong, and we see lots of moments where Rainbow Dash makes Twilight’s day a bit brighter or pulls her a bit further out of her shell.
But we also see why Rainbow Dash would be attracted to Twilight – confidence, excellence, snarkiness, and some of Twilight’s qualities being both aggravating and endearing, which is a fun mixture of emotions that actually works really well to show why someone can both get annoyed with and fall in love with someone at the same time.
All of this works really well, and we get nice moments throughout the date that show off both the characters’ talents, as well as how they can impress each other.
Interspersed with all of this is also their physical attraction to each other, complete with various reminders of being ponies, like noting things about manes or tails or necks, or focus on flanks and legs, as well as all the interesting things cutie marks do while ponies stretch. The physical attraction and flirting works well without getting too hot and heavy, and while the characters are perhaps a bit on the blushy side, it feels like it fits fairly naturally with them taking a renewed look at each other in the context of dating.
And of course the date itself has the anvil of the central conflict hanging over it the whole time – Twilight, while getting sucked into it, is under the belief that it isn’t real, while Rainbow Dash has no clue what is eating Twilight at times, and just works to make it the best date possible, which only makes things harder on Twilight in the end. This works well, and the fact that the anvil doesn’t come crashing down during the date, but after, helps carry the audience’s interest through, even as they’re shaking their heads at what an idiot Twilight is being.
Where this story struggles is in the aftermath of the date, before the anvil drops – the date ends halfway through the story, but in terms of actual events of significance, this story is actually about 3/4ths of the way done. The story spends about three chapters waffling about, setting up Twilight and Rainbow Dash’s second meeting for the anvil to crash down, but these chapters aren’t particularly interesting. Perhaps the weakest part of this story is when Rainbow Dash is running through the date for her friends, which is a recap that the audience just didn’t need to sit through, and which doesn’t really add anything of significance to the plot – we already know Rainbow Dash is into Twilight and is clueless, so this scene really doesn’t do a whole lot for the story.
The end, however, actually works well, even if it is somewhat subversive of the standard formula for a story like this – but indeed, it is perhaps because the ending is subversive of the usual formula that it is memorable. It is perhaps a bit anticlimactic, but it is a different sort of catharsis, and is a logical one for the characters, even if it is perhaps a bit unexpected by the audience.
This is perhaps my favorite romance novel on FIMFiction. It really sells the attraction between the two main characters well, and the overall humorous quality of the text – particularly Rainbow Dash’s portions – combined with the background tension of Twilight and Rainbow Dash having different ideas about what is really going on, works well. It works excellently as a getting together story and, while the pacing might be a bit off in the second half of the text, it all comes together in a satisfyingly fuzzy manner in the end.
If you’re at all interested in shipping, and you haven’t read this story yet, you should definitely check it out.
Recommendation: Highly Recommended, and one of the fifteen stories you should read.
Summary
That’s All by Archmage Ludicrous
Recommended
Mate for Dash by AppendingFic
Highly Recommended
Twilight Eats a Hamburger by PonyTom
Recommended
Heart to Heart by Crosis
Recommended
Twilight’s List by Kits
Highly Recommended
And there we go.
Hope you're all having a good Friday!
Number of stories still listed as Read It Sooner: 226
Number of stories still listed as Read It Later: 671
Number of stories listed as Read It Eventually: 2242
Ooh, this is a thing. I’ve read Twilight Eats a Hamburger, and quite enjoyed it... well worth a giggle or three.
Baby don't hurt me....
4853565
Why did I have a feeling someone would do that?
As for your reviews, Twilight's list is definitely one of the absolute best romance stories on here, another one I love is Transcending Legends, it has a great base for a getting together story but it does lack in some of its execution mostly how short a timespan it is considering what actually happens.
And I guess I'm gonna have to check the others out.
Aw yeah, TD's back. :D That is some high praise for Twilight's List, fully deserved, I say!
4853715
And yeah, Twilight's List is really great.
I really need to review more long stories, but I'm so lazy...
Absolute Anonymous's romance novel was definitely something I enjoyed back in the day, and I should get around to reading it again and putting it in a review set.
Ah, that takes me back.
I could use a good laugh, though. I'll have to save that one for later, because I do love goofy stories.
Oh hell yeah, it's been a while since I've seen you. Nice to see another 5 stories to add to my ever growing Read Later list .-.
Glad you're still around! I hear you're gonna be at Everfree this year.
I wish I was. :(
4853897
Aw! Well, I hope things go well for you regardless down there in California.
I'm going to make a post at some point this weekend announcing what panels I'm on, as I'm on... a bunch, and I didn't know until earlier this evening exactly where I was going to land on some of them.
4853565
But enough talk. Have at you!
Every one of the stories here that interested me (the three non-romance ones) I apparently already read!
4853663
How could I not?
4853965
Very well, then.
orig00.deviantart.net/8e9e/f/2018/127/3/c/thomas_davis___have_at_you___by_admiral_biscuit-dcay1m6.png
4853956
Welp, Present Perfect’s review just made me reread “The Games We Play” (which I have to agree, hasn’t aged as well as I remembered, but isn’t bad either), and now you’re going to make me reread Twilight’s List (which I consider a must-read, anyway).
The horror.
Also, good to see these review blogs going steady.
Edit: I did not regret the reread one bit