Pony Music Library 10: "Shine Like Rainbows"

iisaw's The Twilight Enigma is complete! This is awesome news, as it means I can stick it on the e-reader to take with me on holiday in a fortnight. :) And now here is some music.

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What? "Shine Like Rainbows"

Who? Daniel Ingram

Which? Rainbow Rocks song

When? September 2014

Why? Because it's lovely. Simple, heartfelt and full of friendship, this is my favourite EQG song of them all. It even inspired me to write a fanfic. The album version has a slightly longer chorus, but the one here is the version seen in the film's end credits. The greatest sadness about this is that those wonderful drawings by Katrina Hadley were never made available as prints. Why, Hasbro, why?

Episode review: S6E10: "Applejack's 'Day' Off"

"I'm gonna fix this episode an' that's all there is to it!"

After the triple hit of Rainbow's elevation, Starlight's musical and Twilight's sweeping, the synopsis and preview for "Applejack's 'Day' Off" seemed to promise something of a more traditional My Little Pony episode. Not that there's anything wrong with those – if you read my fanfic reviews, you'll know I'm quite a fan of slice-of-lifey slice of life. The Fox brothers, who wrote the not-bad-I-guess "The Gift of the Maud Pie", returned, and...

Pony Music Library 9: "My Little Pony Intro (Alex S Glitch Remix)"

I think I've finally thought of how I can do a reading of The Unbearable Lightness of Bucking. My sticking point has been a complete inability to do an Applejack voice – but I may just have a way out. Watch this space! Anyway, music now:

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What? "My Little Pony Intro (Alex S Glitch Remix)"

Who? Alex S.

Which? Show song remix

When? July 2011

Why? I'm not generally a fan of glitch music, but somehow this almost five-year-old remix of the main Friendship is Magic theme has stuck in my head from the moment I first heard it, almost as soon as I entered the fandom in spring 2012. It's one of those songs that I can't really explain my love of, but which I would undoubtedly miss if it disappeared. As it (sort of) did for a while when its creator took down his pony stuff. Happily, he re-uploaded in 2015, and everyone can now enjoy this piece of fandom history, which Alex himself dubs his favourite pony track.

The best and worst episodes from each season of FiM

Something a little different today: me, rambling about stuff on the basis of nothing but my prejudices. Okay, that's not really different, but it's pretty much what a blog's for. Also, the title is misleading: I really mean the episodes I like most and least from each season. These do change over time, so don't be surprised if they don't quite match things I've said in the past. Right, go:

Text Review Roundup: "The Saddle Row Review"

Least surprising news of the week: Titanium Dragon bestowed a "Not Recommended" on Shining Armor's Amour's Armour. I'm now 0 for 3, as our American cousins would have it. Woo-hoo! Mind you, though I confess to being a little disappointed that TD didn't like We Who with Songs Beguile and It Doesn't Matter Now, I really didn't expect anything else this time round. It still bemuses and amuses me that SAAA became popular in the first place, given that it's linguistic silliness more than an actual story. :P

Be afraid. Be very afraid

It's annoyingly hard to find reviews when the episode title includes the word "review"! I hope I haven't missed any really obvious ones, but apologies if I have. There's a new reviewer on the TRR block today, so a big welcome to Thrond Media Pony Corner. Another newcomer, though possibly a one-off, is PonyLaces. As I did last week, I'll include my own review in the list in italics, so people who are only here for TRR don't have to go searching. (Also because if you can't do a bit of gratuitous self-promotion in your own blog, where can you?)

Anyway, the reaction this week from the text-based reviewers is not as ecstatic as it (mostly) was for "A Hearth's Warming Tail", but is still in positive territory:

Batbrony Reviews –  positive ("pure, unfiltered fun" but dislikes Plaid Stripes)

Derpy News – very positive (rated A-)

Louder Yay – positive ("Confalone's best episode to date")

MLEEP Reviews – mixed (rated 8/10 but "the new characters ... weren't that memorable")

MLP Fanatic – wildly positive ("a spectacular episode in every way")

PonyLaces – very positive (rated 9/10)

Ponyland News – wildly positive ("I loved it 100%")

Super Recaps – broadly positive ("one of the better episodes this season")

TheDragonWarlock – mixed (rated 6/10)

Thrond Media Pony Corner – positive ("lightweight ... but ... a lot of fun")

Unleash the Fanboy – broadly positive (rated 8/10; "epically fun ... but some of the stuff here was too unbelievable")

Ponyfic Roundup 108: All Round the Wrekin

Test cricket is back! In inimitable style, the season got under way at Headingley last Thursday with an England batting collapse and the final session washed out by rain. Happily, we annihilated Sri Lanka inside three days in the end. Mind you, it's a bit much expecting them to be able to cope with seaming pitches in northern England in May; just as it is when we get put into bat on a dustbowl pitch in India – as will doubtless happen on this winter's tour.

Oh, and there's some ponyfic to look at, too. Seven stories this week! Nothing amazing or amazingly awful, but nevertheless, here we go:

What If Socks Didn't Work Orally? by Fiddlebottoms
Empty by Inquisitor M
Twilight Verbs Article Nouns by Lapis-Lazuli and Stitch
Twilight Likes to Read, A Lot by Saakra
Heirlooms by Rocinante
Heart's Manifestation by Littlecolt
Portal by Benman

★: 0 | ★★: 4 | ★★★: 3 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0

Pony Music Library 8: "Magic Duel"

It's music time once again, and you don't know how tempted I was to put one of the "Sweep" remixes in here! Maybe one day it could happen... only on The Hub but it really would be pushing it to nominate a piece a couple of days old as a firm musical favourite! Instead, here's something different:

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What? "Magic Duel"

Who? Night Breeze

Which? Original instrumental

When? May 2013

Why? Some genres are better represented than others in our fandom, and it's fair to say that classical piano pieces are firmly in the "others" camp. Happily, this piece by Night Breeze (who these days goes by "Wind Wolf") fits the bill very nicely. Its subject is exactly what its title would have you believe: Twilight's battle with Trixie back in S3E05. The track itself is very pleasing on the ear, with a sound strongly reminiscent of Mozart's music.