EAngels in the Snow

• MLP: FiM
• Slice of Life

Every year, Minuette keeps showing up in Ponyville just before Hearth's Warming Eve. Why?

• Twilight
• Lyra
• Other
• Minuette

Dafaddah · 3.4k words  ·  58  4 · 1.1k views

• Review of "Angels in the Snow" by Dafaddah
• Summary: Every year, Minuette keeps showing up in Ponyville just before Hearth's Warming Eve. And Twilight soon finds out why
• Story Publish Date: 2018/01/06
• Story Rating: E
• Word Count: 3,400

Angels in the Snow, written by Dafaddah, is a story telling of why Minuette always shows up in Ponyville right before Hearth’s Warming. 

It a simple story, well, in premise. It takes us through a visit of Minuette to Ponyville on the eve of Hearth’s Warming, having met up with her friend Lyra to spend the day together. From hence their plans are complicated with their run in with Princess Twilight Sparkle. The three spend the day together, bonding, catching up, and even leading a small carolling troupe. And in the ending sections, it reveals the reasoning for Minuette’s visit to Ponyville before Hearth’s Warming. A relatively sad one, in which she feels that she shouldn’t intrude on the sanctity of Hearth’s Warming which is spent with close friends and family, which she doesnt count herself in as. Only with some convincing from Twilight does she relent and spend this Hearth’s Warming with her. 

It’s a story that does not fuss around and goes straight to what it wants to tell the reader. It shows the dynamic present between Minuette and Lyra, and places the reader in the hooves of Twilight, the one has mostly been out of the loop on what Minuette does. This act of utilising Twilight as the audience surrogates serves to play two roles. One is to clearly let us gain insight into what Minuette does on the day before Hearth’s Warming, and to secondly, gives Twilight the evidence required for her to move towards her hypothesis regarding what Minuette actually does on Hearth’s Warming. 

From the scenes presented regarding Mineutte’s participation in her various activities, one could tell that she enjoys spending times with her friends. The writing telegrams quite clearly to the reader that she loves it. But it also brings up the question as early on in the story, it establishes that she is planning on leaving for Canterlot the next day. With the setup of the contrast between her enjoyment of spending times with her friends, and the small, almost unnoticed remark about her leaving the next day, it provides a conflict to the story. And the conflict is thus then solved by Twilight moving to confront and ask Minuette at the end of the story, as Minuette is just about to board the train to Canterlot. And from hence it revealed the aforementioned truth, that Minuette saw herself as not part of their close friend network, and that she shouldn’t be there stealing time away from others.

The morale regaled through the story is a simple one. When distancing from your friends with the reasoning of not wanting to steal their time away on such an important time, you have to question if they consider you a friend worth spending with during such times. If it based on assumption, as Minuette does, then as Twilight supposes, it would be to do more damage to oneself’s than the supposed inconvenience of being present would have done. Isolation from friends is of course, never a good thing in most cases. And assuming that you are simply an unwanted part, is determinable to one’s own health. 

From a technical standpoint, the method of conveying the story does so in a very relaxed method. It's hard to describe the way a story flows accurately, but from the observation done, it is a cheerful tone that drags underneath it a heavy weight. As one is strung about the cheerful story of a typical hearth’s warming eve day, one is also questioning the premise of the story, trying to poke holes and figure out why Minuette does this before every Hearth’s Warming. It is done well, and does not overstay its welcome. It entertains yet provides just enough questions that it is enough to make one keep reading.

In terms of the characters, Minuette feels like an alternate version of Twilight. Not in terms of ‘this is what Twilight would be in an alternate universe’, but more of an expression of how Twilight’s earlier isolationism could have manifested in a different way. It’s an interesting take, demonstrating the same problem Twilight had being solved by herself. Which credits to seeing Twilight grow more as a pony since her start in the show. The rest of the characters play second fiddle to the main interactions between Twilight and Minuette. Twilight’s interest in observing her old friend’s actions, and Minuette, enjoying the eve before Hearth’s Warming. These two are the main characters we pay attention and most easily follow along with in the story. The way the dance between these two friends reaches its crescendo at the end of the story, and is nonetheless a nice conclusion to this short story. 

Overall, Angels in the Snow is a pleasant story about our self perception amidst our friends, and the necessity to understand that ‘yes, you are not a waste of space and instead someone we like’. It is well written, nice, and feels like a My Little Pony episode, condensed down into three thousand words. 

TerribleSpeller’s Review Matrice:
[Engagement]: 6/10
[Insight]: 6/10
[Character]: 8/10
[Technical]: 6/10 

[Overall]: 6.5
Recommended to those who want a short MLP:FIM Episode-esque story. 

Thanks for the review and the insights you provide. You’re bang on about why I structured the story that way and how that structure supports the thesis. I was very much aiming to create a story that felt like an episode of the series, and the main idea was to show how Twilight has grown as a pony and her coming to realize the responsibilities of friendship - and not just its magic! You’re are right that the reason I chose Minuette was Twilight’s very long history with her, providing the perfect backdrop on which to highlight this growth.

And yeah, it was meant to be a feel-good story, which is pretty much what most episodes of TV show for kids usually aim for!

Great review!