My Little Repeats 38: "Family Appreciation Day"

One of my favourite visual gags in all of S2

S2E12: "Family Appreciation Day"
Written by Cindy Morrow
7 Jan 2012

My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 8.0

The one with bunny costumes.

Thoughts: A slightly odd mixture of an episode, but more works than doesn't. My least favourite part is actually the extent of the details of the zap apple jamming. A lot of time and detail is spent here, and it does eventually start to feel a bit like padding. At least the character interaction is good, as you'd expect from Cindy Morrow. The big attraction of this ep comes in the last third, when we find out that Granny Smith was there at the founding of Ponyville itself; her sepia-toned reminscences are by far the best bit of the episode. Granny is even more stereotypically elderly than she usually is at this point even allowing for the fact that her strange rituals are meaningful, and it does get a little irritating. The CMC are pretty fun, though. We meet Filthy Rich, who seems a better sort than his daughter – and we get our first look at the Timberwolves, though they're easily scared off by Granny. Probably four stars for the olden-days parts, two for the zap apple stuff and three for the general bits around the edges. It's therefore another three overall, though quite a high one because of the importance of that new lore.

Choice quote: Scootaloo: "What are you, a dictionary?"

New rating: ★★★

Next up is "Baby Cakes", which has long held the dubious honour of being my least favourite episode in S2 – and indeed one of my least favourite in the entire pre-Twilicorn run of the show. Can it pull off a miraculous recovery this time around?

Ponyfic Roundup 293

Important bit first: as I trailed last time, I have a story by paperhearts in this week's PR. Sadly he was recently admitted to hospital with that bastard virus. So very best wishes to you, paperhearts, and I hope you're on the mend soon.

Read it Later story count: 207 (-2)

Last week, I mentioned how much I was enjoying the fine, sunny weather. Well, yesterday it rained pretty much all day and the temperature struggled to get above 7 °C. Welcome to April in England, I suppose. Three ponyfics for me to have a look at this time around, and they are:

My Beloved Student, Sunset Shimmer by Jondor
Not an Adult by Sapidus3
Hearts on the Table by paperhearts

★: 0 | ★★: 0 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.

Important announcement: Yay

Fluttershy Vector 35 - Flowers and Butterflies by CyanLightning
( CC by 3.0 )

It is Fluttershy Day.

That is all.

Sounds of 2013: Nos. 84 to 80

PonyFest 2.0 on Saturday was a very enjoyable occasion, even if internet iffiness meant I only caught parts of some of the fanfic panels I was interested in. And even if US-targeted scheduling (which is fair enough for a US-based con!) meant most of us over here had to miss the end as it finished about 6 am UK time. Anyway, now we're going back to the year of my first convention (BUCK 2013) and as ever the inclusion criteria are:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the artist
Rule 2: Available from a third party, with reason to believe the artist is fine with this
Rule 3: So famous that it would be plain silly to leave it out
Rule 4: Being unlisted is not, on its own, grounds for exclusion

All five songs make it through the filter this time, and they are:

84: TeiThePony – Flying With The Rainbow (VIP Mix)
83: The Living Tombstone – Pinkie's Brew (remix)
82: The Living Tombstone – Neverending Strife (remix)
81: MandoPony – When I Find My Wings
80: Feather and The Combine – Pilot Light

More past the page break, as you'll already know if you've been following these posts.

PonyFest 2.0 today!

Whoops, forgot to mention this. They've really gone to town this time on both the guest list (Lena Hall, M. A. Larson, AKR etc etc) and the schedule (an entire writing track!) and the fun fuf begins at 3pm UK time! The con is Discord-based, and you can find all the info on the official website.

Just because I can

( Text link )

Judging by the comments on my review of "Hearth's Warming Eve", I seem to be just about the only person around here who actually likes "The Heart Carol". Well, I do. And the extended version even more so. I had been looking for a nice PMV of it, but I couldn't find anything that really grabbed me. I did, however, find 174UDSI's remix of the shorter, show version of the song. I find this one rather catchy as well, so there. :P

My Little Repeats 37: "Hearth's Warming Eve"

This glorious scene provided me with a ponyfic chapter title!

S2E11: "Hearth's Warming Eve"
Written by Merriwether Williams
17 Dec 2011

My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 8.5

The one with Rarity's tree hat.

Thoughts: A festive episode premiering in December? What is this madness? I'll admit to a raised eyebrow when I saw this episode's 8.5 IMDb rating. Is it that good? For me, not quite, though it's more than decent. This is the ep that introduces the Windigoes, not much used hereafter but certainly an interesting concept. We're told that Starswirl was Clover's personal mentor, and I think it's the first time we see the Equestrian flag. The pageant approach is an interesting and unusual one, and I think it works well. All the Mane Six are fun (Spike gets a bit less to work with), though less so away from the pageant, where for example Rainbow continues her run of being rather annoying in S2. In the play, Applejack as Smart Cookie is probably my favourite with her deadpan asides to the audience. I'm amused that Princess Platinum dubs the land she finds "Unicornia" – a canon G3 place. Daniel Ingram wanted "The Heart Carol" to become a sort of brony anthem. It never quite achieved that, though I like it more than most fans seem to, and I really like the extended version. There are Hearth's Warming episodes I enjoy more than this one, but it's very watchable all the same. A highish three, and perhaps almost a four when I'm in the right mood.

Choice quote: Chancellor Puddinghead: "Can you think inside a chimney?"

New rating: ★★★

Next up is "Family Appreciation Day", which I had little time for initially but gradually grew warmer towards – a bit like "Look Before You Sleep" in some ways. We'll see whether that's continued.

Ponyfic Roundup 292

Read it Later story count: 209 (+1)

The unseasonably warm, sunny weather continues here in the English Midlands. I'm fortunate to have a back garden, so I'm able to enjoy it. A year or so ago, before I had a phone whose screen I could see in bright daylight, it might have been a different matter. Not that I do much ponyfic reading out there, but... four stories in this week's PR. Count 'em! Four!

Hearth's Sparring Eve by Raugos
Rise and Shine by Vasar Huineo
Steel Soul by Masterweaver
Luna Wakes up to Marehood by Fiaura

★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 3 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.

Signal boost: Shu-jeantte

She's been featured on EqD quite a few times, but somehow Chinese artist Shu-jeantte has passed me by until now. (Well, until a few days ago.) Unfortunately she doesn't have anything on a Creative Commons licence, so I can't repost it here, but I assure you a browse of her gallery will be worth your time. This Twilight piece especially caught my eye.

Physical ponyfic books

I currently only possess one dead-tree book of ponyfic (Cold in Gardez's Completely Safe Stories) but what with the current situation, I'm considering buying a couple more. The snag is that not all the options are affordable and practical for those of us living in the UK. Lulu is by far the easiest, but even some of their books are a pain as (using criteria I can't work out) some are only shipped from the US while others are printed over here.

For example, take iisaw's The Celestia Code. The paperback and casewrap versions ship from over here, the hardcover from over there. The latter adds significantly to both cost and postage time, even before you factor in the slower service Lulu is providing at the moment. There's even division between paperbacks: Chris's The Purloined Pony ships from the US, GhostOfHeraclitus's anthology of three Civil Service stories from the UK.

Prices on Lulu are all over the place anyway, with similarly-sized paperbacks costing anything from £4 to £15 before shipping, regardless of whether they contain illustrations, but I imagine that at least is because of authorial decisions. Put it together with everything else, though, and it makes some dead-tree ponyfic vastly more expensive than other dead-tree ponyfic. I'm not in a position to ignore cost entirely when making my choices, sadly.

Anyway, if (and right now it is an if) I get around to ordering any books at all, I'll let you know what I chose. I'm using this list to browse; it may well not be complete, but it's the best thing I've found so far.

Sounds of 2013: Nos. 89 to 85

Something the little meetup group I'm part of (virtual meetups now, of course) has done for the past couple of weeks is to have a midweek music meet – specifically focusing on Pony music (both official and fandom). It's been a success, and since the members' interests cover a variety of genres and artists, it's been good for discovering new songs as well as enjoying old favourites. More music now, in the shape of the next "Sounds of 2013" post. The inclusion rules are, as ever:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the artist
Rule 2: Available from a third party, with reason to believe the artist is fine with this
Rule 3: So famous that it would be plain silly to leave it out
Rule 4: Being unlisted is not, on its own, grounds for exclusion

Good news! This time around, all five of the next tracks in the chart qualify for inclusion here. Yay!

89: ElectroKaplosion – Snowdrop
88: Glaze – Heartmender
87: Aviators ft. Glaze – Shadows
86: Aviators – From All Sides
85: Aviators – Heartmender (remix)

Rather a repetitive track list in a way, but past the page break you'll find that there's plenty of interest to be had. :)

My Little Repeats 36: "Secret of My Excess"

Spike's hat, LyraBon and Derpy. It's like a meme factory!

S2E10: "Secret of My Excess"
Written by M. A. Larson
10 Dec 2011

My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 8.3

The one with Junebug drinking from the fountain.

Thoughts: Spike episodes were generally unpopular until "Gauntlet of Fire" turned up in S6, but "Secret of My Excess" was to some degree an exception. It starts out very well, with the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" nod in Twilight's reshelving. Then we get into the Sparity – this is one of the most significant canon examples, and as someone who doesn't find it that interesting a crush I get a bit bored with it here. Still, I do like the scene with the two of them during the fall. That segment also has some excellent and funny Rainbow'n'Flutters animation. Anyway, the "dragon puberty" stuff is a tiny bit on the dull side, and I'm thankful it doesn't take up much time – but Spike's rampaging is really quite fun once he properly gets going. And the Wonderbolts fail again! One minor observation: there's a globe in this episode; I think it's the first time we see one. I would probably have given this ep a high two-star rating in the past. I'm bumping it up to three now, though it's certainly still below "Sweet and Elite" in my estimation.

Choice quote: Applejack: "Twilight? Get my rope."

New rating: ★★★

Next up is "Hearth's Warming Eve", which somehow now feels like a relic from an impossibly distant time, more so even than most S1 episodes do. I wonder whether it'll stay that way after rewatching.

Ponyfic Roundup 291

Read it Later story count: 208 (-4)

The Easter holiday is over, and so instead of sitting around at home I'm... sitting around at home. Ah well, at least I'm getting some ponyfic read. Admittedly I do that anyway, so I can hardly claim it's as a result of changed circumstances. I also waffle on vaguely anyway, so no improvement there either. Isn't it reassuring when some things don't change? Ahem. Let's get on with things. Today I have these three:

Summer Island by Bachiavellian
You Can't Eat Gold by Queen Moriarty
Pinkie Figures It Out! by Twinkletail

★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.

Virtual conventions all over the shop!

After the first PonyFest Online! was such a success the other week, perhaps it's unsurprising that there's now a veritable stream of the things. Just in the next few weeks, I know of:

PonyFest 2.0 – 25 April
No details announced yet – but given they managed to get both Peter New and Big Jim Miller as guests for their first iteration, this should be one to look out for.

Midair Pony Fair – 1 May
Expanded from the small Minecraft-based event originally planned into a full-scale virtual con. Guests already announced include Silver Quill, Minty Root and 4EverfreeBrony.

BABSConline – 8/9 May
As with PonyFest, no specifics are yet announced, but BABSCon is such a big name in the fandom that I'd be amazed if their line-up didn't turn out to be pretty special.

Sounds of 2013: Nos. 95 to 90

It's Easter Monday, so here's a Bank Holiday treat – the next instalment of "Sounds of 2013"! Several people have mentioned to me that they consider 2013 to be the year for brony music, and I might well agree with them. Mind you, it was my first full year in the fandom, so perhaps I'm a bit biased there. Anyway, the usual inclusion rules apply:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the artist
Rule 2: Available from a third party, with reason to believe the artist is fine with this
Rule 3: So famous that it would be plain silly to leave it out
Rule 4: Being unlisted is not, on its own, grounds for exclusion

Last time I was only able to feature four of the five tracks, as one didn't meet my criteria. This time? I had to skip two tracks! Oh no! But never fear: I compensated by adding another. So you still get four, at least.

95: Korw, EileMonty & GatoPaint – This Day Aria (remix)
94: skipped
93: Starborne ft. Forest Rain – Inspiration
92: Flaedr – Celestia's Ballad (remix)
91: skipped
90: ElectroKaplosion ft. ChiChi – Pinkie's Sugar Rush!

As usual, you'll need to come past the page break to see more.

Ponyfic Roundup 290

Read it Later story count: 212 (-6)

After a brief flirtation with actually publishing PR on the correct day last week, I'm back to wobbling around the week like a jelly. Only the two fics to review this time around, although one of them is much longer than I'd normally include in a non-Spotlight post – and it's a story that was once extremely famous. Was it worth the read? You'll see...

What You Can Imagine by darf
Progress by Andrew Joshua Talon

★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0

My Little Repeats 35: "Sweet and Elite"

Oops, I forgot about Ponyfic Roundup! That will be up tomorrow. But now for something completely different.

Is this the first airship scene in FiM? I wish they'd used them slightly more often

S2E09: "Sweet and Elite"
Written by Meghan McCarthy
3 Dec 2011

My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 8.4

The one with Hayseed Turniptruck.

Thoughts: Opal's best episode. Not the thing most people remember, perhaps, but it is – she largely acts as Rarity's increasingly ignored conscience, and I find her very effective. Apart from that, this is definitely a step up from the previous ep. We get to meet Fancy Pants for the first time, and this is what I consider his true personality, not the more annoying, less pleasant version we sometimes see later in the series. It helps that here he's so clearly a cut above the snooty Canterlot elite, and that Trevor Devall's voicing is nearly perfectly English. Fleur is amusing, too. Another significant introduction is Pinkie's Party Cannon, though here it's just a quick visual gag. Twilight's terrible dancing, too, which was alluded to in Equestria Girls but – again – not always retained later on. As for this episode, it's a solid one on the whole, and Rarity's song is both very good and very well suited to her character. So many fun visual touches in the song sequence, too. My only real gripes are that Rarity never really gets a comeuppance for blatantly lying to her friends (though she does suffer for other things), and that Fluttershy would surely have been able to tell that Opal wasn't really sick. This is still very watchable, though, and it's not far off a four-star rating. A top-end three, certainly.

Choice quote: Rarity: "What croquet mallet?"

New rating: ★★★

Next up is "Secret of My Excess", which I've tended to see as a bit of a meh episode. Let's see whether that changes.

Sounds of 2013, Nos. 100 to 96

Back in February, I said I was going to get cracking with "Sounds of 2013", but of course that seems very long ago now. Nevertheless, I think I'd like to set off anyway, since at the very least it should give folks something enjoyable to read. So, here we go! A quick run-down of my inclusion rules, which are the same as the 2012 criteria:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the artist
Rule 2: Available from a third party, with reason to believe the artist is fine with this
Rule 3: So famous that it would be plain silly to leave it out
Rule 4: Being unlisted is not, on its own, grounds for exclusion

I'm featuring just the four tracks on this first day as unfortunately no. 100 doesn't meet my inclusion criteria. You can see the ones that do listed below. Past the page break, you'll get videos and a bit of info about each piece.

100: skipped
99: The Living Tombstone – Nightmare Night (remix)
98: TheDashDub ft. Feather – Never Alone
97: Joaftheloaf ft. Feather – The Hardest Thing
96: Evening Star – Land of Equestria

Please keep reading if you'd like to know more about these songs!

Griffish Isles rescheduled for November

No real surprise, but the Griffish Isles convention has been forced to abandon its originally planned early May slot. According to a notice on its website, the new dates are 21/22 November. The venue remains the same – the Pyramid Hotel in central Manchester – and Guest of Honour Ian Hanlin has agreed to attend on the new date. Having criticised GI more than once for comms shortcomings in the past, I feel it only fair to commend it this time for the pretty detailed and clear statement put out here. A huge and very welcome improvement.

Of course, we all know that even November is far from certain. It's very unlikely there will be a vaccine for Covid-19 by the autumn, so pretty much all big social events are up in the air even if it's been possible for restrictions to have been loosened a bit. It would be lovely to think that GI could go ahead, but if I'm entirely honest I think the odds are somewhat against it. I would be utterly delighted to be wrong. I enjoyed the con last year, even if I could only make part of it, and it would be nice to think people (not me) could do so this year.

We shall see.

My Little Repeats 34: "The Mysterious Mare Do Well"

Snips is here. Snails has gone to get another dictionary

S2E08: "The Mysterious Mare Do Well"
Written by Merriwether Williams
26 Nov 2011

My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 6.2

The one with the Hoofer Dam. (At least, that's my name for it.)

Thoughts: Okay, here we go. In the early days of the fandom, this episode tended to win "Least Favourite Episode" contests. Its 6.2 score from IMDb is testament to that. Is it that bad? Well... no. It's a mixed bag. On the plus side, it's undeniably entertaining, and there are some very amusing bits. Ghostwriter Spike, for example, and the Batman: The Animated Series-nodding crowd scene. Scootaloo's Rainbow Dash Fan Club opening scene. The score is excellent too. On the debit side of the ledger, not only is Rainbow Dash at her worst in inflated-ego terms, her friends aren't very nice either when they all brag about Mare Do Well in front of her. Ponyville also doesn't feel all that much like the town we know and love – that cliff the pram hurtles towards, for example. When did that turn up? And as for the hydro dam... Fast forward a few years and episodes like this, that don't really get Ponyville, became more common. But for Season 2, this is a mis-step. It's not awful, but it's certainly very uneven and well below par overall. It deserves its rather poor reputation, if not really the actual hate it used to get.

Choice quote: Unnamed stallion: "Excuse me? Do you think you could skip your catchphrase and just hurry up and save us?"

New rating: ★★

Next up is "Sweet and Elite", an episode I've been looking forward to considerably. Several significant debuts coming up in that one!

Whither Pony conventions in 2020?

Note: This post deals with physical conventions. The future for online cons such as PonyFest is very interesting, but it's one I'll perhaps deal with another time.

I thought about writing this a few days ago, but stepped back because I wasn't personally involved in any cons and so wasn't sure I had enough knowledge to make the post worthwhile. But then I thought, no, I should write it because I'm not involved in running cons. That means I don't have any of the NDAs and contractual restrictions they do, and I don't have to negotiate with venues and insurance companies. That being so, I can talk freely about what I'm expecting to happen, not merely about what's been announced for certain. Less specialist knowledge, but also fewer restrictions. So here we go.

First up, we already know that 2020 is not going to be a normal year. Several major conventions have already been postponed until later in the year or cancelled entirely, BABSCon and GalaCon being among the most prominent. There will most assuredly be more. I think we should always bear in mind the immense difficulties facing con organisers at the moment, and not complain that they haven't all announced exact plans this very minute. Any well run con – and thankfully in this fandom that means most of them – will be talking a lot behind the scenes and not doing its negotiations over Twitter.

Lots more waffling to come!

Ponyfic Roundup 289

Read it Later story count: 218 (nc)

And for a change, Ponyfic Roundup actually appears on the right day of the week. Go me. Anyway, I'm feeling quite cheerful right now, having actually managed to get a supermarket delivery slot within the next 47 years. What better way to celebrate than with another little collection of ponyfic reviews? I suppose with a large collection of ponyfic reviews, but you can't have everything. Here goes:

Flashes on the Horizon by Goblin Scribe
Under the Willow by Orbiting Kettle
A Perfectly Ordinary Day in Ponyville by The Equestrian Gentlecolt

★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0