Ponyfic Roundup 541: Spotlight on Redheart's War

Read it Later story count: 90 (-1)

Words read this week: 46,081

I've been really looking forward to reading Redheart's War. It's had such a impressive reception, including from multiple reviewers I read and respect, and I've badly wanted to see whether it would hit the spot for me as well. For that reason, I accelerated its progress up my Read it Later queue. I can say right away that I didn't regret that decision. Here's the review!

Redheart's War by SockPuppet
Nurse Redheart, Shining Armor, Celestia, Cadance and Hippogriffs
G4; Adventure/Drama; 46k words; Jun 2020; Teen (Gore, Violence)

A nurse has seen it all. A combat medic has seen even more.

Although this can, as SockPuppet says, be read as a standalone, I strongly recommend having read A Story to Relate To (PR 507) and, especially, The Ponies in the Caves (PR 523) first as certain elements are referred to here. Anyway, this is Nurse Redheart's backstory as a member of Celestia's Own, Equestria's storied elite combat unit. The admittedly fairly thin domestic modern-day framing allows her to tell series of stories about her role, which show a mare of immense character who rises above her doubts to become a hero of her country. There's a lot of blood and guts here, but the emphasis is always on character rather than history, and that's a huge plus. It's an extremely exciting fic, with highs and lows of emotions – one particular very hard-to-read scene had me white with fury and in tears. Its flaws are few and minor, and vastly outweighed by the pluses. I'm not a huge war fic fan, but I now consider this essential, if not always easy, reading. ★★★★★

As usual, major spoilers lurk beyond this line!

Sounds of 2016, nos. 95 to 91

Ready to join me again on a trip into the dim and distant world of, er, nine years ago? At this point in 2016, the last two FiM episodes had been "A Hearth's Warming Tail" and "The Saddle Row Review", so there was a fair degree of optimism around regarding the show. It's the fandom music scene I'm interested in here, though. As usual, the ratings come from the Equestrian Trot 100 chart, whose voting period ran from December 2015 through to November 2016. Here's the usual reminder of my inclusion criteria:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the/an original 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 week, I had to skip the very first song (ie no. 100) but the other four could be included. This week, on the other hoof, it's plain sailing all the way, since I can feature all five songs. Woo-hoo!

95: Synthis – Into the Everfree
94: WoodLore – Flowers
93: 4EverfreeBrony ft. Joaftheloaf & Relative1Pitch – Without Me
92: The Wasteland Wailers ft. Brittany Church – When the Sun Comes Back
91: Eurobeat Brony ft. Odyssey – Luna's Future (Euro Cast Mix)

As ever, that marks the end of the introductory waffle. Now it's on to the songs themselves. Woo-hoo again!

My Little Repeats 189: "The End in Friend"

Lyra and Bon-Bon's colour co-ordinated ice creams are a nice touch

S8E17: "The End in Friend"

18 Aug 2018

My original rating: ★★
IMDb score: 6.4

The one with an adorable tiny cloud

Thoughts: To my surprise, when I looked back I found that several prominent reviewers (notably Dark Qiviut) liked this episode in 2018. I wasn't thrilled by it, though, and I'm still not. Another ep with a good and quite rare team-up largely wasted. The setup grates: Gallus tells Rarity and Rainbow they have "nothing in common". Nah, apart from repeatedly saving Equestria together, nothing whatsoever. By the time we get to "banter" things look fairly bad. The story drags horribly to fill a full-length episode. It's contrived in the first place, and Twilight and the students being there as spectators is just weird. The Bufogren is pointless. Good things? Starlight had a pretty solid minor role, which helps. The visuals are excellent – I wonder who'd have believed in 2010 that Flash could look like this? The moral itself isn't too bad. But it takes forever to get there and the setup requires two good ponies to be dislikeable for most of the running time. A two-star rating like the last episode, but this one goes quite a bit lower in that band.
NB: One small and sadly (this being S8) almost certainly unintentional nice touch, pointed out by a friend: real-world horses cannot see reds, so actually magenta and blue gems would appear similar – though Rarity apparently can tell the difference.

Choice quote: Rainbow Dash: "Unless you like tripping with every step, heels on a horse are pretty useless."
Note she says "horse", not "pony". Hmm.

New rating: ★★

Not an unmitigated disaster, but not a great episode by any stretch of the imagination. It would be nice if I had an unquestioned classic with which to follow up, but sadly I haven't. Instead the next episode is "Yakity-Sax". Oh boy. Maybe it'll click with me this time. [Yeah, and maybe you'll win three lottery jackpots in a row —Ed.]

Ponyfic Roundup 540

Read it Later story count: 91 (-1)

Words read this week: 20,712

Not a lot for me to say in my introductory paragraph this week, so I won't bother! Thanks to the lower word count this week, I've been able to get back on track with PR's release date. Four very short fics and one just a bit longer this time around. Here's the list:

"Do wings turn you gay, Headmare Twilight?" by semillon
A Letter to Father by Silvermyr
The Roles We (Are Fated to) Play by AltruistArtist
Lumen de Lumine by Noriko Nakayama
The Only Way is Forwards by Once In A Blue Moon

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

Sounds of 2016, nos. 100 to 96

It's now time to set off on another journey into the past, with "Sounds of 2016". As for the 2015 series, I will be taking chart positions from the Equestria Trot 100. I should note right at the start that this does not quite use the calendar year: it is based on "chart points" from 5th December 2015 to 26th November 2016. These were based on monthly votes, weekly views and weekly likes, but I don't know the precise formula. I assume the eligibility period was so that they could do a big Hearth's Warming special with the list, but I don't know for sure. Anyway, my criteria for inclusion remain as they were:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the/an original 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. 

It's often the case that some of the songs down in the lower reaches of these charts have disappeared into the ether with the passing of the years, and so it is today. Somewhat disappointingly, the very first song I would have liked to have featured today is one I have to skip. Still, I've managed to find official uploads of the other four, so we're not too badly off! Here we go:

100: skipped
99: PrinceWhateverer ft. CookieSoup – A Place That We Call Home
98: PON3 – We Can Fly
97: Synthis ft. Sora – Insane
96: PON3 – Proxy

The four tracks I can feature will be past the jump break (if you're on a computer) and as ever will include a YouTube embed of the song, a few brief details and if possible a place to buy a high-quality version of the tune. Off we go!

My Little Repeats 188: "Friendship University"

Surely the natural way for unicorns to wear 'em in any case...

S8E16: "Friendship University"

11 Aug 2018

My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 6.5

The one with friendship through sewing

Thoughts: This episode was moderately – but no more – liked by most in 2018. Anyway, here the FlimFlams bring freemium education to Equestria (h/t FOME). Their episodes have never really matched their debut for me, and by now they were becoming rather one-dimensional. Neighsay's approval of their university's "pony-first environment" isn't exactly cheering, either. Starswirl's support act is fun, though, and naive as he is, he does have a point. So, I have to admit, does Neighsay: Twi is reacting as though she had a Tia-given right to have the only friendship school in Equestria. Best thing about the ep? Plainity, surely. She carries that off with real verve. A pity there's the unbelievable bit where FlimFlam don't recognise her even out of disguise. And the other one where nopony notices there's an alicorn in the uni. Still, the final scene with Cozy Glow hits a little harder than it did in 2018. So, too many niggles to get a really good rating, but in truth not as bad as I was remembering. A top-end two seems about right now.

Choice quote: Twilight: "My name's Eyepatch. I have an eyepatch."

New rating: ★★

In the end, "Friendship University" just about managed a passing grade. Next up is "The End in Friend", which I don't remember especially fondly. Maybe that too will have its moments. Join me to find out, same channel but whenever I get round to it!

Ponyfic Roundup 539

Read it Later story count: 92 (+2)

Words read this week: 31,117

Two days late this week, but I think I can be excused that given my need to accompany a relative to a hospital as mentioned in my brief post on Tuesday! Things have calmed down a great deal since, and I'm pleased to be able to bring you the usual selection of five stories. I haven't really got anything else to say, so I'll move on to the story list now:

The Scars of the Past by Lil Penpusher
Hobby Horse by a kobold
The Tower of the Fallen Star by Raleigh
All Our Villains are Horny by billymorph
Night of the Living Plushies by Moonlight Bloom

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

Another PR delay, I'm afraid

Spending the night in a hospital waiting room with a relative will do that to you! Don't worry, it didn't turn out to be anything too terrifying, but there's no chance I'll be ready for Wednesday now. (It's also the reason for no G4 rewatch post this week.) So again, Ponyfic Roundup will be on a Friday this week.

Ponyfic Roundup 538

Read it Later story count: 92 (+2)

Words read this week: 18,252

The hot weather has gone now, although it's still pleasant enough. Not a lot going on in terms of small-scale domestic stuff. People are preparing for tomorrow's VE Day 80 celebrations, but those are mostly of the fairly low-key "put a few Union Flags¹ up" kind. As far as ponyfic goes: as trailed last time, only having five days instead of seven to read this week's stories (and write up their reviews) has meant I couldn't risk having a high word count. I hope that the lack of words will not mean a lack of interest!

¹ The common modern insistence that "Union Jack" is only correct when it's flown from a ship's jackstaff is pretty footling. The term "jack" as applied to flags predates the use of jackstaffs by over a century, as the Flag Institute points out.

Wrong Turn by saarni
Reflection by Moproblems Moharmoney
Fixer-Upper by hoofbeatsoftime
Spike Destroys (Creates) Everything by Surry
The Wealth of the World by very trustworthy rodent

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

My Little Repeats 187: "The Hearth's Warming Club"

Only tangential to this, but relevant to many of us who remember its use at past conventions: Skype has finally shut up shop. I'm sure all of us who went to cons years ago remember what a pain Skype could sometimes be, but it certainly played a significant part in that part of the fandom in the pre-Covid era. Consider this brief comment an acknowledgement of that.

"That means character, students, not random hoof raise! Have you even played charades?"

S8E15: "The Hearth's Warming Club"

4 Aug 2018

My original rating: ★★★★
IMDb score: 7.7

The one with the Mt Eris Board of Tourism

Thoughts: This episode aired on the same day as "A Matter of Principals", and unless you find the Young Six boring or outright off-putting, it's more enjoyable. After the fine "Surf and/or Turf" I expected good things from a Brian Hohlfeld story, and so it proved. A friend noted recently that a good chunk of 2010s TV writers adore referencing The Breakfast Club, so probably this setup wasn't that surprising, but good execution can make almost anything work. Twilight's threat of collective punishment (no holidays for anycreature) really rubs me up the wrong way, but the rest is highly watchable, even if Gallus's guilt is fairly obvious from the start if you think about it at all. I didn't see his sad home life story coming, though. Changeling Hearth's Warming ("Carols carols carols carols carols!") is genius, and the Yak Song is great too. Sandbar's stories are dull, but I just suspect he's doing that deliberately as a deadpan satire on his boring old pony image. This is an episode where my initial four-star rating might be just a tad generous, but "THWC" really doesn't do much wrong, and by mid-S8 that's notable and refreshing. In the spirit of August Hearth's Warming, I'm going to let it stand!

Choice quote: Gallus: "Two whole weeks without classes, how will Ocellus survive?"

New rating: ★★★★

That was an entertaining experience. Unfortunately I now enter a short run of episodes which I don't expect to do so well: "Friendship University", "The End in Friend" and "Yakity-Sax". If any of those get more than two stars from me I shall be pleasantly surprised, but I will as always give them a fair go! First up will be Flim and Flam's time in academia.

Ponyfic Roundup 537

Read it Later story count: 90 (+1)

Words read this week: 30,956

I was in Cheltenham yesterday and it was ridiculously warm. 27 °C wouldn't be at all exceptional for England in the middle of July, but on 1st May it was pretty close to an all-time date record. So, there's the intro. Not very interesting, but then I haven't got a lot to say this week, other than that two days later than usual here's Ponyfic Roundup once again!

All But Two by Caisius
Rivers of Babylon by A Hoof-ful of Dust
Silver String of Love by foxmaster
The Monster We Made by Corah Il Cappo
Twilight Sparkle and the Elements of Bootlegs by TheDriderPony

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