Hap Reviews: Contest Entries 11 · 9:05pm Aug 10th, 2020

Howdy. Quick update first; results are in for the Right Back At It Again contest, so I can get back to reviewing those now. Additionally, Krazy has been doing an AppleDash event; not a contest, but still worth looking at so I'll be taking a gander at a few of those as well. As for my own entry into RBAIA, looks like the judges put it in second place, which isn't too shabby considering I threw it together very last minute.

Onto the stories.

Dasher had been on my radar before the list of finalists went up due to its pretty impressive upvote/view ratio (which I do pay attention to). I put it on hold as it also made it to the finalists, but I had meant to come back to it eventually.

The story itself is about Bon-Bon. The spy Bon-Bon, introduced in 'Slice of Life'. It details her arrival in Ponyville, alludes to the circumstances that led her there, and explores her state of mind during this transition period. Very early on the story impressed me by being tight and efficient. Like a lot of well put-together short stories it inferred a lot of its content rather than showing it directly, preferring to allude to or show snippets of a lot of the context that makes up the story.

I had a mild complaint about pacing; every chapter was under 1K words long, which I felt broke up the story unnecessarily, making an otherwise short story (5.5K words) feel a bit more drawn out than it needed to, and forced an interruption between sections that maybe didn't need to be so obtusely broken up. I can see the argument for it, as it separates out sections and book-ends stages in the story, but personally, I think a horizontal rule would have probably been preferable, at least on a personal level.

I must stress that this is a mild complaint, other than it making progressing through the story a bit jankier than I might have liked, the description and efficiency in the story are strong. The descriptions set up a melancholic tone without being overbearing, and I felt the story had a muted, but flavoursome feel.

Of particular note I was very fond of Pinkie's appearance here. She might only be a side-character in this, but I think a solid Pinkie characterisation is rare enough for me to highlight it. I feel the main attraction is Bon-Bon (Sweetie Drops) who has the most vivid characterisation. Whilst it may possibly be a bit too restrained to really grab my attention, I also did like the natural vibe her relationship with Lyra gave off. It wasn't a cartoonish representation of, really, any character, and I think the tone and efficient writing made that work pretty well.

As a story under 6K words I didn't feel that the story needed a conflict as much as others, but whilst reading I was rather invested in seeing how Bon Bon was going to settle in, and whilst the story didn't really provide any stunning twists and turns, it had a competent presentation and kept me involved throughout, which I appreciated.

Who would like this? This is a short story, and I think more of a mellow 'read it and relax' kind of piece that should do well for you if you're looking for a story that has elements of tortured pasts and struggling to fit in and stuff like that but also is comfortable not going ham on those concepts. It might be too mellow for those looking for something more intense, however.

This story was written for Krazy's Warm and Fuzzies' event, and is therefore AppleDash. Which is fine by me. It's short, clocking in at 2.5K words, so a nice easy short read.

There's some good stuff in the story that I liked. As I started I was a bit worried I was going to get a bit bored of the quite simple, straightforward way of writing descriptions, as I tend to like a little flair here and there, but I found it worked surprisingly well given the context of the dream sequence. The story being short likely also played to its advantage, as I likely also didn't have the time to really get bored of the pragmatic prose. As the dream goes on I quite liked how it shifted nonchalantly, which gave it a surreal touch without being overbearing. It was quite neat.

The concept itself is nothing I've not seen here and there in the past; a shippy dream sequence in which Luna absolutely must make her obligatory appearance. In that regard, it would have been nice to see a bit more get done with the concept, but it's hard to ask for that within the constraints of 2.5K words. Still, it would have been nice to have a bigger takeaway.

The vibe of this story is very much in line with the event it belongs to; it is a very straightforward slice of life and is very easy to digest. In this it accomplishes its goal effectively and without faff. I can see it being a draw for those looking for a shippy story as a form of written comfort food, as it were. I, for one, enjoyed it whilst it lasted.

Who would like this? It's a short, one-sitting AppleDash story that aims to deliver a feel-good slice-of-life and does so well. If that sounds like something that may interest you in the future it's worth adding to your read-later list, because I can't think of any real turn-offs other than if you just plain dislike the pairing. It's an easy read, so easily worth the time to at least check out the next time you want a feel-good fluffy fic in my opinion.

That's all for today. Hopefully one of these stories might interest you. I hope to be able to read through a few more during the week, from a variety of the contests and events I have either taken part in or aim to take part in.

Cheerio gents.