I’ve lost my job! My life is ruined! Oh wait, a job. Never mind.

Welcome to the shipping life! I’ll be your obvious romantic destiny for the next 90,000 words.

And I’ll be your cardboard cutout of an antagonist for the next 90,000 words.

And I’ll be a plot device!

I don’t think I can do this job.

You’ll be fine; I’m Xanatos. Now go ship Pony A with Pony B.

I don’t know if I can ship Pony A with Pony B. Oh wait, a deus ex machina has gotten them together. Never mind.
(Repeat OVER and OVER and OVER.)

This is going nowhere fast. It’s time for a secondary plot.

I can’t bring myself to tell Dinky about my new job. I’ve never managed to hide anything from her, but I’ll be able to hide this.
(To the surprise of ABSOLUTELY NO ONE, Dinky FIGURES IT OUT.)

Ha-HA! Memes!

(Suddenly, Ditzy is saddled by CRUSHING DEBT.)

Oh no, I’ve been saddled by crushing debt. Also, I have a tragic backstory. Also, Dinky has never been trained in magic and so her life is ruined.

That’s OK, nothing bad can happen to you in this story, I’m sure you’ll be fine in a couple of chapters.

Rar! I’m the antagonist!

A deus ex machina gave me magic. I’ll handle Cosmic Glow!

And I’ll erase your debt. See, I told you you’d be fine in a couple of chapters. Also, did I mention I’m your romantic destiny?

You were so right about everything.
(They FALL IN LOVE.)

I’m Xanatos.

289090
So I take it that you didn't like it then?

That fic's description always rubbed me the wrong way....

glow wasn't a very well written villan/antagonist. Aside from being an inconvenience, and somewhat unpleasant, she doesn't really do much, up until the the penultimate chapter.

289092 It was pretty painful. It was a series of things happening instead of a story. If the actual shipping had been done offscreen and the story had been about Ditzy and Dinky and Breeze, that would have worked well (and been far shorter). Or, if the ships had been executed well, instead of each one being resolved by some form of deus ex machina, then I would have enjoyed each chapter as a standalone story. As it stands, it was just bland and boring.

The last few chapters were much better, with actual plot and story arc. Unfortunately, it had already been established by then that the author wouldn't allow anything bad to happen to Ditzy, so there was absolutely no dramatic tension of any kind in those chapters. I knew that some deus ex machina would show up to fix everything, and it did.

289108

Although with that said, it did have its occasional moments, and there are far worse fics in the sea.

289169 My beef with it isn't that it's badly written on a technical level. Any individual bit of the story is pretty OK. My beef is that it doesn't do anything. The vast bulk of the words in the story are in tensionless, conflictless ships in which everything is going to work out fine no matter what. If Glow had had an arc, if she'd been more than a cardboard cutout, she would have provided the conflict that the story so desperately needed. When she finally went full oatmeal, I was hopeful that there was going to be a story at last. And then one of the characters--I forget who, now--said explicitly that Glow would not do anything to hurt them; she only wanted to humiliate them. And pffffffft was the sound of my hopes deflating.

Likewise, if there'd been any tension or conflict in the romantic subplot between Ditzy and Breeze, instead of it being telegraphed from the moment he first comes onstage that he was The Official Romantic Interest Character, that would have helped.
Or if there'd been some actual reason for Ditzy not to tell Dinky about her job, instead of just nine chapters or whatever the crap it was of Ditzy going "boy, I should really tell her, BUT I CAN'T boo hoo hoo oh well" and then never giving a real reason for her reluctance, and forgetting all about it for chapters at a time.
Or if Candyfloss had been shown as the puppet master and master schemer that we never see any evidence for other than his own claims.
Or if half the ships hadn't been resolved like so: "Hey I like you." "No way, I like you too." "Sweet, let's go have offstage makeouts!"
Or if, or if, or if...

In my view, ultimately it was the author's unwillingness to do bad things to their characters that was the downfall of the story, because without bad things you can have no conflict and no tension and no character development.

289179

That's fair, I guess.

I always do like authors who pull no punches.

289180
exactly. you're ability as a writer is impacted when you're unwilling to make your characters suffer.

YOU ALL SHUT UP! I AM KEYBOARD SHOUTING AND I LIKED IT! Not going to use the 'qualified editor' card, sheesh.