New(ish) music: "Peace At Last" by Arvianth (feat. M-G UniNew)

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I don't cover music very much in this blog, which is actually something I'd like to change a little bit. Music has always been a major part of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, both the show and its fandom. It's probably harder now than it was four years ago for a new song to become well known across the fandom, at least unless it's by an already-superfamous artist like Aviators or BlackGryph0n. There's still some fine music out there, though, including this instrumental by Arvianth (feat. M-G UniNew), released in late September. The piece was inspired by the closing scene of "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?", with Luna at last able to sleep peacefully.

Ponyfic Roundup 79: Following the River of Fics Downstream

A slightly longer edition of Ponyfic Roundup than sometimes today, since for a change I've actually managed to get through more than five stories. There are eight this time – count 'em, eight! And not a single MarbleMac shipfic amongst them! As usual, they're all pretty short, but I hope there'll be a reasonable variety for you guys. Here are the fics I'm covering in this edition:

Scar Tissue by RadiantBeam
But it was for Equestria Darling! by CristalGalaxy
Featured on 08/31/1014! by alexmagnet
Kindred Spirits by Majin Syeekoh

Lunch by Titanium Dragon
Let Your Sprits Fly by Manaphy
Darkly, Through Dreams of Home by Chuckfinley
The Day the Reading Died by DrakeyC

Friendship Games on the big screen

As many of you will already know, Vue Cinemas here in the UK are showing Friendship Games throughout half-term week, ie from now until next Sunday. Prices seem to be around the £5 mark, quite cheap for a cinema ticket these days. I went to see it with my local meetup group in Worcester last Saturday, and there should be a full review in the moderately near future. Suffice it to say for now that I think it benefits from the big-screen treatment, though I still feel that it falls short of Rainbow Rocks.

Also, if you take along the voucher from your confirmation email, you can get a coupon for £5 off Equestria Girls toys at Smyths. (Minimum purchase £15.) I didn't bother as I don't collect those, but if you do it's worth having.

Episode review: S5E20: "Hearthbreakers"

"Pinkie! Are you telling me you forgot the rock cakes?"

It's episode review time again, and as it's late October we naturally have... a Christmassy episode. Well, of course. I can only guess that season five's original broadcast schedule would have had this ep airing in December, but that the mid-season hiatus messed up those plans. Anyway, this one was written by Nick Confalone, whose only previous My Little Pony episode was the okay-I-guess "Party Pooped". Second time round, how did he do? Read on!

Well, this won't do

DemonAngel13 said in one of her blind commentaries that there needed to be an episode starring Coco Pommel and Maud Pie. I agree with her, but as this seems unlikely to happen soon, I went off to Fimfiction to look for a story that had both character tags.

With the exception of one by Sir Hat that's both cancelled and M-rated, there isn't one. I am most upset, to the extent that I may even have to write such a thing myself. Though I probably won't, because, you know, laziness.

Ponyfic Roundup 78: Post-Convention Edition

Be honest: you knew this title was coming, didn't you? Anyway, before I begin: since Titanium Dragon dug his claws into We Who with Songs Beguile, I've had more upvotes (across my stories) than I have for ages. I already knew a TD NR was a badge of honour, but even so! :P As far as Ponyfic Roundup is concerned, it's a fairly short one this week as I haven't been in the best of health. Still, some interesting stories to look at. They are:

An Unepic Pony War in the Non-Distant Future by anowack
Shutdown by Cupcakes
Ice by alarajrogers
Ponies Debate Gun Control by PresentPerfect
Things Better Left Unseen by Take

UK PonyCon makes the mainstream media (again)

This happened in 2013, with a decent Daily Mail article and an iffy Guardian one (yes, it really was that way round), and it's happened again this year. For some reason, the only place I can find the article right now is here on news.com.au, but it's not paywalled, so it's there if you want to have a look at it for yourself.

It's a reasonable article, though it calls the convention "UK Pony Con" and I can't help noticing that the title bar refers to "grown men" even though the headline says "grown ups". There's also heavy emphasis on bronies, even though UK PonyCon is an all-gens, all-fans convention rather than a brony event as such. No, I'm not in it – but several people I know are. :P