Shipping is a delicate subject in any fandom, not just for Bronies, and most of the time has people divided. For the most part, when people think of shipping, they tend to associate it more with fanfics, and with a million dedicated fanbases, there's enough shipping, especially on the internet, to make the US Postal Service blush. There's no real right or wrong answer to it, either. You have people that want that don't like the idea of two characters from a show or series that aren't romantically together canonically suddenly swapping spit, even outright abhorring the idea, and then you have those who argue amongst themselves over which character is best paired with whatever other character. You also have people who are right in the middle of this debacle that couldn't care less.
Today's fanfic is an affectionate parody of shipping in general, but particularly with those craaaazy people that come up with ship pairings like LunaxApplejack or DiscordxCheerilee. (At least one of those is real) Does this deserve a read, even from fans that outright disparage shipping? Short answer: Yes. Long answer: See for yourself after the page break.
Now I can't go into this review without going into my own opinion on shipping, now can I? So with that said, I think there's actually some creativity involved with shipping and shipfics, and generally that's what people want in a story or fanfic: creativity. In a fandom with tons of artists, writers, voice-actors, 2-D animators, 3-D animators, and what-have-you, creativity is what thrives in this fandom and turns it into a beautiful sunflower of awesomeness.
Pictured above: The MLP:FiM Fandom
Back to the actual story now, the description of this fanfic is simple, yet it gives the reader just enough information to let them know what this story will entail:
- "Why won't everypony leave Cheerilee alone about being single?!"
See, in this story, even the ponies in Ponyville are crazy about pairing other ponies with eachother. Something to note is that the only tag this story has is Comedy. You would think that a parody of shipping would at least have some romance in it. Note the lack of a Romance tag on this story, meaning this isn't a major spoiler if you haven't read the story yet. This is just a commentary on shipping, mostly concerning the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fandom's shippings.
The best part of this story is that its a parody done right, as opposed to Changeling, which is an outright blatant imitation of its source material in a boring and poorly-written way. The story even starts out in a subtle way with a simple and brief scene where Cheerilee visits her mother, who like any mother just has to know if their child is married or looking for love or straight or gay or a kleptomaniac nowadays. It shows from her perspective about how pressured she is with finding a mate or "the right one", which I'm sure at least some of you empathize or even sympathize with. I wonder if my parents are reading this right now...Anyway, its a unique and hilarious way of looking at shipping and how an actual character would react to it.
It also doesn't outright tell the audience to leave these ponies alone and never right sinful, horrible stories about characters being in non-canon relationships, though it might appear somewhat preachy and/or meta about what this story is parodying. That's why I call this an "affectionate" parody, mainly because its merely poking fun at shipping. Besides, it even jokes about how every-freakin'-pony is dating/paired with Rainbow Dash. Why is every-freakin'-pony dating/paired with Rainbow Dash, anyway? Isn't she basically the narcissistic jock that tries to up everyone and "prove themselves"? Granted, I do still like her character, but I just find her a tad bit overrated. And with that, I've suddenly acquired at least 100 angry e-mails, so lets talk about something else right now, shall we?
I haven't talked about the grammar or actual writing of this story because there's nothing to bicker about, really. Its nicely written, gives a clear and concise view of what's going on, and the timing on these jokes is nicely executed as well. Its not an over-written masterpiece like Fallout: Equestria, because it doesn't need to be. All this story needs is to get its point across and generally entertain the reader, which I think this fanfic does just fine.
One complaint people may have is the ponies in Ponyville that are crazy about pairing other ponies with each other are acting out of character, but then they'd be missing the point. This is just a joke, people. Learn to loosen up and laugh a little! I don't say this to insult people, but I figure that if someone were to criticize this story in a negative fashion, its most likely because they're either butthurt or stupid. As I've said before, I'm not here to judge. In fact, I'm friends with quite a few stupid people, and they're alright people (aside from the fact that they're pretty goddamn stupid).
Pictured above: a rare sighting of a group of wild Stupids enacting their mating calls.
The one thing that might set people off in this fanfic is that if you were just getting into My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and had no idea who these characters were, you're gonna be a bit confused. That's a given for most fanfiction in all fairness, but to me the best fanfiction can encapsulate and let the reader, whether he or she's aware of and/or familiar with the source material or not, dive right into the story, making sure to give good enough detail about the characters and setting, and even interest them into reading other fanfics. This story, however, is more of an in-joke for Bronies, Pegasisters, and pony fans alike, which is why I'd recommend this story for people who are at least familiar with what shipping is, which shouldn't be hard since I linked the Urban Dictionary definition right up there.
So in short, this isn't the best fanfic to start out with, but its still a damn good read for even the most dedicated of shippers.
(The source for both pictures used in this review can be found here)
[In other news, I'm going to be celebrating my 21st birthday this weekend, so don't expect anymore reviews until next week, guys. Until then, keep calm and read on!]
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