I wasn't prepared for this

Sorry for stealing your line, Twilight! But I am genuinely startled that On the Wrong Track has been so much read. With 751 views at the time of going to press, it's my third most read fic in the last five years, with only The Book of Ended Lives and the inevitable Starlight Repeatedly Teleports into Custard beating it on that score. Yes, OtWT got featured, but I'm also surprised a Feature Box entry has that much influence in 2021.

Not that I'm complaining! It's nice that a reasonable number of people still want to read my stories, and what's particularly gratifying is that I've seen interest shown in some of my older and – frankly – better fics, too. No, 751 views isn't much in the great scheme of things, but every little helps in actually getting me to write something else before another two years have gone by. With enough practice the rusty patches may eventually start shining up a bit, too.

My Little Repeats 80: "Twilight Time"

And when you do smile, Scoots, you look faintly disturbing

S4E15: "Twilight Time"
Written by Dave Polsky
22 Feb 2014

My original rating: 7/10 (=★★★)
IMDb score: 7.6

The one with nachos

Thoughts: A somewhat unusual episode here, in that we have Twilight's Princess status being a factor but her not being the focal point of the episode. Instead, it's the CMC. It's a real shame the talents they display here were largely forgotten about after they got their marks in S5, but it's nice to see them at least once. Sweetie Belle is a bit of an overconfident pain for a bit while she's had her head turned by ideas of the high life. Apple Bloom is, as she quite often is, the voice of reason, while Scootaloo is somewhere in between. It doesn't make that much sense that Twilight was suddenly a huge celebrity, given she'd been a Princess for a while and everypony had known her for ages, but oh well. And Diamond and Silver didn't really get a comeuppance for their manipulative behaviour, either. However, we did get nice character stuff with the Crusaders, and we did get Twilight dealing with being put under pressure from an unexpected quarter. (Note to certain future ep writers: you can do that without her freaking out.) I have no clue where Twilight's terrible table manners came from, as they weren't a running theme in the show. But all in all, it was a pleasant watch. I think the three stars I gave this one in 2014 can stay.

Choice quote: Sweetie Belle: "Relax. I got this."

New rating: ★★★

Next up is "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies", which I originally thought was decent but much of the fandom thought was pretty bad. We'll see which side I'm on these days!

Ponyfic Roundup 344

Read it Later story count: 143 (-2) 

Fresh from the excitement (if that's the right word) of seeing other people commenting on one of my stories, I'm now returning to commenting on other people's stories. Three of them as usual this time, although one seems to have decided it needs the space for about four separate titles:

A Stallion for the Time Being by Sharp Spark
NO NO NO NO NO WE HATE HIM WE ALL HATE HIM GOSH DARNIT NO JUST DON'T by Aragon (because of course it is)
Fireproof by Raugos

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

New story by me: On the Wrong Track

The next Ponyfic Roundup has been bumped to tomorrow because, well, me actually publishing a story is more newsworthy. At least, it is on this blog. The last story I put out was Raising the Baa, which appeared in, er, July 2019. Of course I know that some authors always publish only at rare intervals, but in those cases a lengthy gap would be considerably less noteworthy. In my case, this is the longest I've ever gone between ponyfics. Anyway...

On the Wrong Track by Loganberry
Twilight and OC
Comedy/Slice of Life; 2k words; May 2021; Everyone
Following the retirement of Celestia and Luna, Princess Twilight Sparkle is now the unquestioned and undisputed ruler of all her land – including the transport networks. That means the major rail strike now looming will be all her fault.

This new story is very much in the "bit of silly fun" category. Don't go expecting anything like The Book of Ended Lives or even More than Alive. Unsurprisingly given the date of my last fic, On the Wrong Track is the first time I've written Ruler Twilight. She probably wishes I hadn't, though I haven't really changed her much from the Princess Twi I knew before. I'm just relieved to have got something out there after all this time. At the very least, I hope that a few people will get some gentle enjoyment from it.

Oh, and it seems that my new story got featured. This is not exactly of major importance, and it's even less so these days, but I mention it nevertheless as it's only the second fic of mine ever to reach the Feature Box. (The first was Where They Understand You.)

UK PonyConline report, part 4 (Sunday) – My Little Ponion

The customs at UKPC never fail to amaze me

After a quick welcome back from the con staff, Sunday began with the second round of StormBlaze's Art Storm. Some of the same artists were back, with one or two newcomers who hadn't appeared on Saturday. It was a nice way to ease back into the convention, and Stormy was as ever a very good host. There was even the odd picture of Fluttershy mixed in there, which is something that rarely goes amiss, I feel!

At midday, it was time to face the evil of the UKPC Quiz. Whether in person or online, whether hosted by Archer or Bexi, this has always been a terrifying affair, and so it proved once again. By the end of the G1–G3.5 rounds, my score stood at 6/26. Seven of my answers were "Custard" and two "Batman". I did retrieve things a bit with the final three rounds – on G4, Pony Life and UKPC itself – and finished with 24.5/46. That's good going for me!

After this, I tended to flip between "Rate My Fakie", "Pony Room Tours" and the continuing Pony Town server. Naturally this meant that I missed a lot, but it did give some of the frenetic feel of a con, as well as the classic "Am I missing something great in another room?" feel. A quieter later afternoon, as the Vectors panel didn't interest me much, though I did watch some of the cosplay showcase.

There were more conga lines and general silliness to be had in the UKPC Pony Town server, and I ended up staying in there rather than watching the Euro Conventions panel. It didn't help that I couldn't get the stage screen to work in Pony Town, though for some reason this problem was fixed when I switched from Firefox to Chrome later on. Admittedly I also took a meal break during this period as well!

At 6:15 pm, it was Elley Ray time again. And my sweet Celestia, what an evening that was! In the way only she can, she engaged brilliantly with the rest of us following along on Discord and pulled us into a madcap, absurd, wonderful evening of sheer entertainment. It's hard to put that into words in a report like this, but I'll try to offer at least a small flavour of the... "experience" is the only word I can think of...

Elley Ray, Elley Ray-ing. Plus Ponion Pony by StewArt

...though the word of the evening was "ponions". These are, possibly, maybe, who knows? ponies that are also onions and tell lots of puns. Apparently we all spent an hour or so creating more or less from nothing a new cartoon series (and associated convention theme!) starring the ponions. UK PonionConline was born! Things were flying by so fast that none of us could keep up, but fried ponion rings were certainly suggested as con food. Not containing ponies!

In amidst all the madness, there were other priceless nuggets too. I can't possibly remember them all, but one that stood out was UKPC chair Maz explaining to Elley Ray: a) why everyone in the UK finds it immensely amusing that Apple Bloom not only drinks but sells cider; and b) that (and here I quote verbatim) "for UKPC we specifically tell the bar to stock more cider than they usually would for an event of our size."

Elley Ray's panel was supposed to last an hour, but everyone was having such an incredible time that it went on for twice that, eventually running into the next event on that stage... which was the closing ceremony! Surprisingly perhaps, that did take place, albeit in a shortened form without much beyond the necessary thanks to everyone who'd made UKPCO 2021 such a wonderful experience.

That wasn't, in fact, the end of the story. A couple of musicians took to the stage after the close, one of those being DoTheDaringDew. It so happens that his Snails song "Carryin' My Water" is a staple of favourite of several Worcester meet people, and thanks to... a handily placed shared contact, shall we say... it was the very first track he played that night! After DTDD, though, it was nearly time for me to go. Just a little more Pony Town, then bed.

It had been an excellent couple of days, probably the nearest thing I've ever experienced online to a true convention atmosphere, ahead even of the likes of the PonyFests. Whether we'll ever quite see its like again I doubt, given that running a full online con and an in-person con would be burdensome indeed for the staff. If this was the last full online UK PonyCon, then what a way to go out. Thank you so much, everyone who helped make it what it was!

A quiet moment in the Pony Town Bunny Room

UK PonyCon rescheduled for October

UK PonyCon put out this press release yesterday. It says that, owing to a clash with university needs (the venue is owned by a uni), the convention has been moved to 9th/10th October. We must all hope that circumstances by then are good enough that these dates can actually happen! If UKPC can go ahead, it will be almost exactly two years since the last one, which was in October 2019.

That's the informative part of this post. But to the question "Will you be attending, Logan?" I still can't give a definite answer. In all honesty, I think the odds remain against it, perhaps fairly heavily. I'm not especially worried about my personal safety, since I'm now double-dosed with vaccine and so about as safe as I'm going to be. As such, I doubt that would be a particularly large consideration of mine.

No, for me a larger problem is uncertainty. For example, UKPC say they will "publish details of the measures [they're] taking nearer the time of the event." The snag there is that I'd want to know what those measures were before I committed one way or the other. As a simple example, if singing were significantly restricted that would be quite a big minus point for me. Not for everyone, but for me singing is a big part of conventions.

If the measures are not announced until after tickets have been on sale for a while, there's a chance they may have sold out before I feel I have enough information to commit. If that happens, so be it. That may be more likely if capacity has to be reduced and so fewer tickets are on sale – though who knows what demand will actually be? Old assumptions may no longer hold.

Another factor: over the past year we've seen massive advances in online MLP events. There is now far more knowledge and experience about what works and how to make it work than there was in the old days when Horses At Home was the only online con. Attending events online can mean huge financial savings, balanced against the loss of the personal touch and the physical experience.

Indeed, it will be interesting to see whether UK PonyCon itself runs any online stuff during the in-person con. Clearly there won't be a parallel online convention: the level of work required would be impossible. But perhaps there could be a bit of streaming, and something like a Pony Town server might allow people who couldn't attend the con to experience a bit of the community interaction.

Although I do expect significant demand for returning in-person cons like UKPC, I wouldn't be at all surprised if online events continued on at least some scale. After all, not everyone is lucky enough to live in a country which ever has in-person events. Others may not feel ready to return to large crowded events this year even if they're okay with small meets. And so on and so forth.

I'm not ruling out going to UKPC in October. As everyone who's read this blog for a while will know, I have a great deal of time for that convention, and certainly attending would have its attractions. However, as things stand, I think it's quite unlikely that I'll be attending another con before 2022. I suspect I'm going to need to wait for the day when I can plan with some certainty several months out – and we're not quite at that point yet.

Happy belated 10th birthday, "What A World"!

I haven't forgotten about my UK PonyConline reports! All being well, I'll get to Sunday on Monday, if you see what I mean. But for now...

Alex S – What A World

I'm never quite sure whether to include the full stop in Alex S(.)'s name, but for this particular video he did include it in the account name but not in the video name. So take your pick! Anyway, Alex S. was another one of the big names in the early Pony music fandom, with his best-remembered tracks generally dealing in glitch or dubstep or both. I believe this was the first of those big hitters.

The video now on YouTube was only uploaded in 2015, but that's because Alex S. took down his MLP stuff for a time while he was trying to break into the mainstream music business under the name "Andromulus". The track is actually far older than that, and after a bit of searching I found this Mediafire upload of an MP3 of it, which is dated 13 May 2011.

It's a fun track, too. We don't see much Steven Magnet in our Pony music, do we? In fact, this may be the most prominent Magnet Music of the lot. Good job it's so catchy, then! Happy late birthday!

My Little Repeats 79: "Filli Vanilli"

Yes, I chose a HappyShy image. I have precisely no regrets about this

S4E14: "Filli Vanilli"
Written by Amy Keating Rogers
15 Feb 2014

My original rating: 9/10 (=★★★★★)
IMDb score: 8.1

The one with Angel's date

Thoughts: In which Disney Princess Fluttershy becomes Stage Star Fluttershy by way of Mark Two Flutterguy. It's interesting to see S4 Flutters, where she hasn't quite managed the confidence she has a few seasons later but has still moved on significantly from the early days. Her clear "No" to Rarity early on is a good example. "Baby steps" indeed. Actually this is also a very good episode for Rarity, and it's nice to see she and Fluttershy in partnership, something we don't see enough of. After the opening sequence there's only the one song, repeated several times, but it is a catchy number. Some lovely little touches, such as Cheerilee's "swoon", and some ridiculous but funny ones, such as 'Shy's diving suit. Flutterguy is an acquired taste, but I think the joke works here. And then there's Pinkie... I still don't really like how she was written here, though even she has her moments (such as "Aw, but I'm so good at it!" and the turkey call). Obviously the harassment inflicted on AKR from some quarters was disgusting. No excuse. But I still wish Pinkie hadn't been written as being quite so oblivious of Fluttershy's distress. That, and the underused Twi and Dash, do hurt this episode just a tad. But then I remember all the good stuff: Zipporwhill, the Spa Ponies' happy stamping, 'Shy's genuinely scary visions when discovered, the Apples' less than impressed reaction to Goldie Delicious's three billionth cat... I'm probably being too kind to this episode because of HappyShy in a cute sweater at the end, but you know what? Tough. So this is still, just about, a five for me.

Choice quote: Applejack: "Big Mac! You got some 'splainin' to do!"

New rating: ★★★★★

Next up is "Twilight Time! Twilight Time! Twilight Time! Twilight Time!"

Happy 10th birthday, "Luna"!

Eurobeat Brony – Luna (NIGHTMARE MODE)

 

Another of the very early fandom classics to have endured turns ten years old today! Eurobeat Brony's "Luna" was first uploaded to YouTube in May 2011. There are two versions, with "NIGHTMARE MODE" pre-dating "DREAM MODE" by a single day. In fact, the two versions are identical for most of their running time, with the Nightmare version simply having a different ending. Personally I prefer the Dream one, but I have to go with Nightmare today as it did get uploaded first!

It's worth noting that, despite what is sometimes suggested, we are not hearing Luna (or indeed Celestia) in this song, but someone else. From the video description: "The lyrics are sung from the perspective of a third-party character who is undergoing a similar situation to Luna during her banishment to the moon. It is neither Luna nor Celestia singing this song."

Ponyfic Roundup 343

Read it Later story count: 145 (-2) 

We're going in the right direction again with the RiL list, albeit not by very much. In this part of the world not a lot is happening that's worth commenting on, though when has that ever stopped me in the past? Since that is the case, though, let's get right on to today's three stories:

A Guide to Magic by bookplayer
Who We Are in the Dark by FanOfMostEverything
Forever by Lynked

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

UK PonyConline report, part 3 (Saturday, second half) – Command and Conga

The Art Storm crew try their hooves at drawing G1 Gusty

On the Saturday afternoon, after a gentle introduction with a "Which Pony are YOU?" quiz (guess!) it was off to the Art Storm. This is a UKPC Online fixture, hosted by StormBlaze, in which half a dozen or so artists are challenged to draw (on camera) a certain character, scene or whatever. These are good artists, the likes of Jowy, StewArt etc, so there's both admiration for their efforts and amusement at some of their decisions.

At 5pm came Mastermind. As with the TV show, this consisted of a specialised subject and a general knowledge round for each competitor. It was quite impressive how much each person knew, even if Ace shocked the world by getting a Sunburst question wrong. (Sorry, Ace, but it had to be said!) The tech failed near the end, which was a shame, but it was certainly a fun game that could be continued both online and at future in-person cons.

Straight after this came what was officially billed as "Q&A with Elley-Ray" but which should really be called The Elley-Ray Show. As anyone who's ever encountered her in any setting will know, Elley-Ray is one of a kind, almost a force of nature in her own right. She spoke movingly about how much she missed two-way conversations, as well as dropping a hint or two about G5. (I got the feeling she may even be voicing someone!)

Mult1C0nG4

That was about it for the formal part of Saturday's schedule for me, as Fallout: Equestria isn't my thing, though I did catch some of Chaosi's "How to Draw Cyber/Synthwave Ponies" panel and that turned out to be more interesting than I'd expected. Thankfully this quieter evening actually allowed me to do a little shopping, something I simply hadn't had the time to get done until then!

Oh, and yes, Pony Town was still very much a thing. For reasons it would be hard to explain (mainly because I don't know – and I was there!) we'd now progressed to forming long conga lines and telling each other terrible jokes. Some of these were bread-themed, since UKPC Online tends to do that. There was also some music that evening, though none of the musicians were a must for me.

As with a traditional physical convention, Sunday's schedule looked a bit quieter than Saturday's. As things turned out, that was true to an extent, but not quite as much as I had expected it to be. Once again I was confused by actually being able to sleep properly, but maybe the muffins were responsible for that. At any rate, the con had been a success so far. Would it continue that way? We'd see!

Next time: evil quizzes, cider revelations, punions and water-carrying

The birth of two fandom legends: PinkiePieSwear's first track turns 10 today!

PinkiePieSwear - Giggle at the Ghostly (Simple Joy Mix)

His first one still available, at any rate. If there were any before this, they've long since faded into obscurity. PinkiePieSwear would go on to create two cast-iron fandom classics, "Flutterwonder" and "Sunshine and Celery Stalks", but this remix of Pinkie's S1 premiere song came well before either of those. It's a simple thing by comparison with some Pony fan tracks, and I'm not sure the transition around 2:40 works that well, but for the most part it's still good listening today.

So, why two fandom legends? Because, as some of you will doubtless have realised as soon as you heard it, the little introductory instrumental phrase was reused a few weeks later by Swagberg (ft. Maros) for the hugely successful "Pony Swag". We'll get to that one on its own 10th birthday in July!

UK PonyConline report, part 2 (Saturday, first half) – All hail Mult1C0rN!

Mult1C0rN in all his glory. If that's the right word

Now, normally I make quite an effort to catch the early parts of UK PonyCon, even when it's online and standing in a queue in the rain for an hour isn't a risk. However, this time I missed a couple of hours. I did have a rather good excuse, though, in that I had a pressing appointment at the local Covid vaccination centre. There aren't many things more important than ponies, but one of them happened to arrive on this Saturday! Happily everything went smoothly and I was home again by midday.

Just in time to catch the first highlight of the weekend, the Bad OC Contest! This was organised by people from PoniesOnline (another online con) and was pretty much what it sounded. You won by creating a bad OC, and by winning over the crowd in the UKPC Discord since that was how voting was done. With five entries, there was just time in the one-hour timeslot to allow a round robin format, with everyone's OC pitted against all the others.

And guess what? My OC won! You can see the victorious Mult1C0rN at the head of this post. I find it immensely amusing that my very first win in any convention contest came in one where I had to be as bad as possible. Mult1C0rN was drawn entirely by mouse in GIMP, and this seemed to work quite well as he demolished all competition. It wasn't just about bad visual design, though: a winning Bad OC also needed a Bad Backstory. And yes, I'm going to inflict Mult1C0rN's on you:

Mult1C0rN draws his extreme power level from the multiple transparent horns. They're transparent so he can use them as lightsticks for raves, and he can grow new ones at will simply by shouting, "Multi Multi Multi!" His red body signifies the blood of his enemies and the coloured hooves show his softer side. He can use his massive tail as a sunshade or football scarf as it can change colour.

He has two shapeshifting cutie marks, both almost the same colour as his coat and allowing Mult1C0rN to disguise himself as a blank flank to trick his prey into thinking he's just a harmless colt who happens to have a sick and intimidating design. Although the cutie marks can shapeshift, Mult1C0rN can't. In any case the cutie marks can only change to other shades of red or occasionally black, as no other colour is cool enough.

His head is mostly shaved to take his style points over ten thousand (over nine thousand just isn't enough for him!) but he has a silver mane around the back because silvermanes are wise and know everything. Although most of his coat is red, his legs and hooves are all different colours. This is to reassure other ponies that he isn't Tirek doing a bad cosplay. He wears no horseshoes because he's just too tough for that.

Mult1C0rN most likes to hunt and eat Victoria Sponge cakes from the staff room at Ponyville Schoolhouse. His sworn enemy is Cheerilee, who he hopes one day to defeat in single cake-bat. The best way to anger Mult1C0rN is to mis-spell his name as he is very proud of the numbers in it. His favourite number is twenty-four million, five hundred and sixty-seven thousand, eight hundred and thirty seven.

Start as you mean to go on, that's what I always say

After this extremely entertaining panel, it was straight off to "How to be Ace at Photography 2.0", presented by two good friends of mine, Ace himself and Zenfox. They'd done a similar panel at a previous UK PonyConline, and this was a rather slicker version. Ace's remarkable AJ impression is sadly indescribable. At about this point, also, I finally gave in to entreaties from the Discord to bring Mult1C0rN to the UKPC Pony Town server. This proved to be very interesting!

Pony Town, for those unfamiliar with it, is a 2D pixely game in which you create and control pony characters and interact with others in a simple world, either a public one or (as here) a closed server for a specific event. I'd never played Pony Town before as it didn't sound all that involving, but in the event I ended up spending a good deal of time there during this con. I still don't find it especially deep, and I know I'd get bored if I spent hours every day there, but I will be keeping it bookmarked!

Next time: Stormy Art, conga lines, Elley-Ray and minor meme status

Aaaaand we're back!

It seems that all of Blogger had a problem for a while yesterday. If you tried to visit this blog and got one of those big scary browser messages about a "dangerous site" then that's why. You may have noticed that Equestria Daily (also Blogger-based) went down too. Apologies to anyone who was caught up in this, but as far as I know I'm not dangerous. Probably.

I was going to write the second part of my UK PonyConline report yesterday, but the thankfully temporary problem and my need to investigate it means that it will now have to wait a day or two. You won't want to miss it, though! Well, possibly.

My Little Repeats 78: "Simple Ways"

"If I cover myself in this earth, I can be an earth pony too!"

S4E13: "Simple Ways"
Written by Josh Haber
8 Feb 2014

My original rating: 7/10 (=★★★)
IMDb score: 7.4

The one with Spike's fourth-wall break

Thoughts: UK PonyConline delayed this one, so let's get cracking. Not up to "Pinkie Pride" quality, but few episodes are. In all honesty, a lot of this is what we'd come to know and love (or not, depending on preference) as Josh Haberish. A bit of odd characterisation for the sake of laughs: Rarity not knowing how ploughs work is only one of several instances. There's a little gratuitous Derpy and all in all just a general feeling that this ep is here for people to have fun with rather than as a meticulously crafted piece of writing about Equestria. That isn't a bad aim in itself, and indeed it is fun on a slightly superficial level, but I might have struggled to get it above a high two-star rating without the part that "broke Tabitha" – Ms St. Germain's brilliant voice-acting turn as "Country Rarity". The episode is worth watching for that alone, and to be fair the actual moral of being true to who you are is a pretty solid and Pony-appropriate one. I find Trenderhoof himself a bit forgettable, especially as Rarity's infatuation with him comes out of nowhere, but he's not the point. With apologies to Apple Jewel, Country Rarity is the point. As such, this still gets a three.

Choice quote: Rarity on Trenderhoof: "He knows what's going to be hot even before it's tepid!"

New rating: ★★★

Next up is "Filli Vanilli". And if you think I'm going to be calm and non-committal about that one, you haven't known me very long. :D

UK PonyConline report, part 1 (Friday)

TrainCon! Sort of. This is no. 2999 Lady of Legend

I'll never get this report on last weekend's UK PonyConline done if I don't get on with it, so I'm splitting it into bits. Today's short first instalment deals with the Friday. I hope you'll excuse me if I skim over some of the fine details, since the main event for me was an online "pre-meet" with a bunch of friends – ten or twelve of us, from memory. This wasn't a public event and so I don't think it would be appropriate to go into lots of detail about every little thing that was said. However, I can still give you the gist...

In pre-pandemic times some of us held "TrainCon" as we made our way by rail to our convention hotels and other weekend bases. Obviously this wasn't an option this year, but my local heritage railway is open again now and so I walked down a bit beforehand and saw a steam train or two to get me in the mood. I also made sure I had those nutritional essentials, cider and muffins, on hand. Incidentally, Maz (UK PonyCon's chair) mentioned later in the weekend that, at in-person cons, he has had to tell venue bar managers to stock more cider than they'd normally expect for the size of event. The power of Pony! :D

Convention essentials at the ready!

Around 7pm we leapt onto Discord (poor guy...) for the pre-meet. While it was of course not the same as being there in person in the pub, the first hour or so was so bouncy and fast-paced that it was closer than any other pre-online-con meet I can recall to having the same hyped-up atmosphere. Things mellowed and slowed down a little bit after that, though it was still very pleasant to be sharing the experience and chatting to friends with a convention around the corner.

I didn't stay all that late, I think until about 10 pm. Then I got a bit confused owing to the lack of crowds of football fans and pub crawlers yelling four storeys below my hotel bedroom window, something that is one of Nottingham city centre's less endearing features. (This would have been a bit of a problem in any case this time, as my house only has two storeys.) Still, the pre-meet had been a good start to what proved to be a very memorable weekend indeed...

Ponyfic Roundup 342

Read it Later story count: 147 (+4) 

The biggest increase in my RiL list for a little while – but, well, it was a convention weekend. People at cons will insist on telling me about stories they like and making them sound as though I need to read them, preferably before the end of the day. In the circumstances, I'm quite glad I didn't end up breaking through the 150 barrier again! Anyway, here's today's trio:

Of Birds and Bees and Awkward Things by JoeShogun
Poolside Pandemonium by Knox Locke
NightmareBoss by RainbowDoubleDash

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

A fun weekend!

Or possibly a fuf one, though really that word is for PonyFest. Obviously everyone who attended UK PonyConline¹ will have their own feelings, but for me I would rank it as my outright favourite of all the online conventions I've been to in the year and a bit since in-person cons became impossible. As such, I will be inflicting a con report on you fine people within the next few days. Beware! :D
¹Nobody seems to know the exact capitalisation, so I'll use this for now!

I'm sure the con's chosen charity (the RDA) would still welcome any donations. Info and JustGiving link if you click on "the RDA" just now.

UK PonycOnline returns this weekend!

UKPC returns on Saturday and Sunday! Of course, we're now all pretty used to online conventions, but UKPC is always a special one for me. As such, I will be attending it as much as I can. I have an unavoidable commitment on the Saturday morning, so I'll sadly have to miss the first bit of the con. It should be all systems go for the other day and a half, though! :D

As a quick reminder for anyone unfamiliar: this is an all-ages, all-generations convention which welcomes collectors, bronies and anyone else with a love for My Little Pony in their heart. And, as always, the convention will be raising money for the RDA¹, which has been UKPC's chosen charity for many years and is to say the least an extremely worthy cause.
¹Riding for the Disabled Association

The con's online store is now open, too. Worldwide shipping! (But then, what would the Pony fandom be without worldwide shipping...?)

Ponyfic Roundup 341

Read it Later story count: 143 (+1) 

I apologise for bringing up the weather again... actually, no. I don't. I live in England; what do you expect? Anyway, we've just endured the coldest May Day Bank Holiday Monday (yes, all those words get capitalised) in half a century. Lovely. So once again I've been doing my reading inside, with the fire on. Here's what I've been looking at.

Home Is Where The Harp Is by Blueshift
The Dark Roads by P0nies
The Lament of Sweeney Trot by KenSES64

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

Which FiM episode do you consider overrated, and why?

Back in early March, I asked which episode people considered underrated. That post produced a pleasingly active comments section. I said at the time that at some point I'd ask the same question for overrated episodes. Here goes, then:

Which episode of Friendship is Magic do you think is overrated?

As before, you have very nearly a free hand in deciding what's meant by "overrated" in this context. Just bear in mind that it's not the same as "worst". I'm going to keep nearly the same rules as before, but there is one addition:

* Try to pick only one episode. I know it's tough. That's part of the fun!

* I mean full-length show episodes, not films or shorts. "Best Gift Ever" counts.

* Double-length premieres/finales count as one, so they're eligible.

* "The Last Problem" is not eligible. It's simply too darn easy a choice. :P 

You can interpret "overrated" however you want to. I very much don't want to give hard and fast rules here. You can pick an element that you think is overrated now, one that was overrated a lot in the past, whatever floats your boat. :)

Naturally it's only fair that I give my own reply too: "Magic Duel". I never much cared for Trixie, until she teamed up with Starlight several years down the road. I didn't find "Boast Busters" a classic either, but this was so uneven. Zecora's Jedi training was the highlight for me, that and a couple of one-liners (eg the "wheels" quote). Much of the rest... wasn't. I don't especially like the way M. A. Larson wrote Fluttershy, either. For me, it's a reasonable episode, but nothing like the classic some fans consider it.

So there's my answer. What's yours?

My Little Repeats 77: "Pinkie Pride"

Yes, yes, Derpy – but how many noticed Rainbow playing with Tank in the background?

S4E12: "Pinkie Pride"
Written by Amy Keating Rogers
1 Feb 2014

My original rating: 9/10 (=★★★★★)
IMDb score: 9.1

The one with live action

Thoughts: This one is sheer pleasure. In a season where Pinkie is written pretty unevenly, "Pinkie Pride" shows her at her very best, giving her a depth of character some other eps don't allow her to display. "Weird Al" Yankovic is the show's first guest star since John de Lancie, and he gives as good as he gets. Cheese and Pinkie spark off each other very well, but there's also plenty of emotion here. The scene where Pinkie pretends to be fine when Twilight visits is heartbreaking, especially that watering can. Meanwhile, the songs range from decent ("Cheese Confesses") to really good ("Pinkie the Party Planner", "Pinkie's Lament") though it's a fair point to say the visuals – which are superb throughout – often complement them greatly. And though not a real song, Cheese Sandwich nicking "Smile" is truly hilarious. It's also clever that Cheese's party stuff is generally bigger and flashier than Pinkie's, which ties in nicely to the others being starstruck by him. Oh, and there's filly Derpy in a flashback as well. All in all, one of Amy Keating Rogers' triumphs – and she had a few of those over the years. All rounded off with custom closing credits music. Easily the best "key" episode, and one of the best of the whole series.

Choice quote: Cheese Sandwich: "I was ready before I was born!"

New rating: ★★★★★

Next up is "Simple Ways", an episode I remember for Tabitha St. Germain's voice work and not a lot else. I'm open-minded going into this one.