Mini-Reviews Round 43

It's the Fourth of July!  Go eat some hot dogs!  Light some fireworks!  Punch an Englishman in the face!  Make sure you apologize to him afterwards, though; Americans have enough of a reputation for rudeness already.

EDIT: I'm also celebrating with this family tradition.  Figured I'd better get a picture of the finished product so you could all appreciate it properly.  Jello: is there anything it isn't good for?

Mini-reviews, below!





Spring is Dumb, by HoofBitingActionOverload

Zero-ish spoiler summary:  Rainbow Dash goes shopping, but definitely not for something for Rarity.  And definitely not because she has something to apologize for.

A few thoughts:  This is how I imagine relationships work in Equestria.  Liberally seasoned with blatant mistakes, but with an uncloying sincerity at its core.  Dash's actions before and during this fic are comically exaggerated, but the core of what she's doing is easy to relate to, and gives this fic's conclusion a charm that a straight comedy would lack.  I absolutely loved this story.

Recommendations:  Unless you're absolutely 100% allergic to main six shipping, you should check this one out.  It's funny, well written, and just a little sweet.



Legality Abnormality, by alexmagnet

Zero-ish spoiler summary:  Twilight comes across a book of Equestria's most bizarre laws--a history which paints Celestia in a rather new light.

A few thoughts:  There's a good idea here, but what I found more than once was that this fic didn't fully utilize its setpieces.  For example, one of the laws Twilight reads about (and which we get to see being enacted, via time-skip) is Celestia making it illegal for ponies to look at the moon, shortly after she banished her sister.  There's great potential there to get into how Celestia's dealing with a traumatic event from a humorous angle, but Abnormality plays it as straight comedy.  That's pretty representative of this fic as a whole: it has a good framework, but it never goes deeper than surface-level jokes.

Recommendation:  For readers looking for a simple, slightly random  comedy, this might be worth reading, but folks looking for a story that invests in its premise will probably be disappointed.



The Tree That Blooms In Darkness, by Cloud Wander

Zero-ish spoiler summary:  The history of the world, as told by the Tree of Harmony.

A few thoughts:  I really liked how this story took the idea of a creator which can't really relate to the trials of the world's inhabitants, and ran with it: what this story shows in few words is how the Tree exists on a plane so far removed from equinity (and life, generally) that, despite a general goodwill toward those creations, its actions aren't always positive as the creatures it's affecting would understand it.  There's a scene involving two diamond dogs near the end which doesn't seem to fit cleanly with the rest of the story (it's much more about those diamond dogs than it is about the Tree, when that focus is unquestionable elsewhere), but what's left is a fic that enjoyably shows an alien intelligence trying to do right by its creations.

Recommendation:  This would be a great selection for fans of the mythic stories and alien perspectives, though those looking for a more straightforward protagonist might be a little put off.