Four things that irritate Logan in ponyfic

Since there's no new MLP:FiM episode this weekend, I thought I'd fall back on a tried and trusted alternative: whinging. My whinge this time is about fanfic. I've now been doing Ponyfic Roundup for more than a year, and certain things come up time and time again, even in some otherwise excellent stories. Some of these are plain errors: some are simply personal preferences. Anyway:

1. Royal Canterlot Grammar
Despite the plethora of guides freely available online, several of them aimed specifically at ponyfic authors, a very substantial number of people still make a complete pig's ear of this. If I had a dollar for every time I'd read "They cometh" or "We canst not" or "I beseech thou", I'd be... well, queueing up at the Post Office to change that big pile of dollars into pounds. But you get the idea.

2. FSBCQD
Full Stop Before Closing Quotes Disease probably has a snappier name, and one that works on both sides of the Atlantic, but I can't think of what it might be. "This is not how you do direct speech." The blogger pointed out. This problem seems much less common in stories by British authors, but I don't know why; I'm sure American schools don't actually encourage their students to do this.

Edit for clarity (31/5 14:55): I'm irritated by examples like the one in italics, where the full stop should be a comma and the next word should not be capitalised. When there are two legitimate sentences – as in "This is correctly written." The blogger pointed to the sentence in question. – then there's no problem at all.

3. "Ah-speak"
Writing Applejack's dialogue necessarily involves some compromises. After all, the show itself had AJ using "y'all" in the singular in its early days. I don't usually mind too much how an author decides to write her speech, but I do find the substitution of "I" by "Ah" spectacularly annoying. If you're writing her dialogue halfway decently, it'll be obvious it's AJ speaking without doing this.

4. Non-canon spellings
Okay, this one doesn't really irritate me (though inconsistency within a story certainly does). But really, where there is an official spelling ("Manehattan", "griffon", etc) what reason is there not to use it? "I prefer it" is no real answer: you could use the same argument to write "Applebloom" in all your stories, and that one irritates the hay out of a lot more people than me!

I could go on, but there are limits to how much I want to complain about ponyfic. Actually, that's a lie: I'm just too lazy to write any more now. :P

Ponyfic Roundup 58: Just Ticking Over

Fact of the day: "any more", "for ever", "per cent" and "apple sauce" are all correct forms in British English. (In theory. Not always in practice these days, grumble grumble.) Anyway, another four-review week, since life refuses to calm down and give me more time to read about pastel ponies. All short fics, though I hope to have something a little bit longer for you either next week or the one after. A fic most of you will have heard of, too. Last week, I gave my first five-star fic for quite some while. This time round? Well... oh, just read on, eh? I'll be reviewing:

Part of a Pantheon by DannyJ
Scootaloo's Mind by mehperson
Who Needs to Talk? by Peter Yellowhammer
Angel's Promise by Starlight Shadow

Comic mini-review: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #30

I'm way behind schedule – again – so I'm afraid this will be a quick one. This is the first half of a two-issue arc from Christina Rice and Agnes Garbowska. The "Ponyville Days" festival is imminent, but an argument about where a historical marker plaque should be situated ends up tearing the town into two rival camps. It's a potentially funny setup, but in the event it's all a bit contrived, and I'm again slightly dissatisfied with Twilight. I don't think this is the best artwork Garbowska has ever produced, either. I really didn't recall much about this comic an hour after finishing it. Next issue may help, but so far this story feels rather meh. A high two. ★★

Episode review: S5E08: "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone"

It's almost like one of those creepy Pop sets...

Episode 99 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic broke the record for the longest-running Hasbro toy-based cartoon series. (Only the US record, I'm told: apparently a Japan-only G1 series ran for much longer.) It's probably fitting, therefore, that this ep was written by Amy Keating Rogers, who was on the show back in Season 1. Given that a) many fans have wanted more griffons and b) there's another mini-hiatus coming up, expectations were high...

Ponyfic Roundup 57: The Heinz Issue

No, I'm not going to be reviewing lots of (or even any) stories featuring baked beans or tomato ketchup. Actually, I'm only going to be reviewing four fics this week anyway, since I've been absurdly busy for one reason and another. I think they make for a reasonably varied selection, though. In reading order as usual, they are:

The Princess of Books by anowack
P3 Project Episode 1: The Emergency by Bookish Delight
Her Final Flight by palaikai
A Voice In The Dark by Blueshift

Comic review: Friends Forever #16: Diamond Tiara & Silver Spoon

Jenn Blake's Sub cover: simple but effective

Villains month is over, and so we're back to nice, friendly My Little Pony characters like, er, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Oh well, looks like there was an extra entry! This intriguing pairing (well, for Friends Forever) brings a new name to the IDW comics: Jenn Blake, who's quite well known for her pony art already, just not drawing a full comic. Jeremy Whitley handles the words, while Heather Breckel is the one with the colours. This comic looked interesting to me; was it? Let's see.

Episode review: S5E07: "Make New Friends but Keep Discord"

"No, I will not use the zip code. What's chaotic about a zip code?"

And we're back! After the seemingly rather pointless mini-hiatus, we have an episode that's been intriguing fans ever since its name was made public. This ep sees the return of Natasha Levinger to writing duties for the first time since the somewhat divisive "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies". Like that episode, this one is heavy on the Fluttershy. Unlike that episode, it's also heavy on the Discord. Past the break for the review!