What I'm writing

As I'd hoped, publishing Sunset's Sales Snag has got the ol' creative juices flowing again at last. SSS is not a particularly good story, though I do like some of its little touches – but I think it's what I needed. As things stand, I have three fics in various stages of preparedness, and they are:

Story 1 – This is the one I'm putting most into, and which may well be my next published story. It includes an idea I've had for a long, long time about Fluttershy – something that others have written similarly, but not quite the way I see it. However, 'Shy will be a secondary character; this is mainly a story about Applejack and an OC. Assuming it works out, this will be my first properly "serious" fic since To Be the Candle from June 2015.

Story 2 – This, on the other hand, is a piece of pure silliness. Rarity has discovered that cricket is played in Canterlot and has fallen in love with the game. She's rather rashly challenged a Canterlot side to a match, which means getting a Ponyville side together. And trying to teach them what cricket actually is. I don't expect this will get much of an audience, but I don't care. Conceived quite a bit before "Buckball Season" appeared, incidentally.

Story 3 – Here I'm in "back to basics" mode again, as I was with The Light that Ignites in the Dark back in December 2014. I want to write a fairly light, fun Mane Six adventure story of the sort that people used to put out years ago. Equestria's increasing fullness, the existence of Starlight, etc mean it's hard to do adventure in the way It's a Serious Business once did, so I'll have to fiddle things. (Not that I'm being that ambitious anyway, but you see the point.)

Text Review Roundup: "Every Little Thing She Does"

"And don't you ever try that wing-removal spell again, you hear me?"

Another week, another episode... though if the UK TV schedules are to be believed, that saying isn't going to hold for Tiny Pop next week! Anyway, last Saturday's ep was very controversial before it arrived. Did it do enough to please the text-based reviewers? Well... in some cases. Some of them hated it, and I mean really hated it. That's Starlight episodes for you, I suppose. Good to see Batbrony back this week, incidentally.

ArthurCrane – positive ("builds on the details we’ve known about Starlight so far")

Articles of Destroyer – slightly positive (rated 7/10; weak middle act but excellent ending)

Batbrony Reviews – very positive ("a really, really solid episode")

Derpy News – very positive (graded A; "great less[on, although] a bit repetitive")

Louder Yay – very positive (four stars; "does both Starlight Glimmer and Twilight a power of good")

MLEEP Reviews – extremely positive (rated 9.5/10; "a magically fun episode")

The Railfan Brony Blog – very negative (rated 2/10; "Starlight once again proves to be a poorly written character")

The Super Mario Brony Blog – really, really negative (minus one star; "I'll just keep hoping that she'll [guess!] be scrapped from MLP for good")

Super Recaps – negative ("[mind control is] just an unpleasant premise")

TheDragonWarlock – mostly positive (graded B+; "a good episode, but not as good as Starlight's previous outing")

Thrond Media Pony Corner – mixed ("Not a misfire, and very admirable for its ambition, but definitely flawed.")

Tiny Pop to show the end of Season Six before Discovery Family?

As reported on Equestria Daily (though for once I knew about this slightly before EQD posted it), the electronic programme guides for Tiny Pop in the UK are showing something very interesting. Namely, that the last four episodes of Season Six are slated to be shown on 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th October. There's also a marathon of episodes 21-26 (but missing 24?!?) listed for the morning of the 9th.

Will this actually happen? Who knows, really? We've had "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks" airing early in some countries – but that was for production-order reasons. We've had Legend of Everfree airing early in Brazil – but that's a movie. I'm pretty sure we've never had an actual Friendship is Magic season finale shown in other territories before Discovery Family has aired it in the US.

Even though I have access to Tiny Pop and will probably watch the finale this weekend if it does go out then, I have slightly mixed feelings. I'm not generally a fan of squashing up new episodes (I don't like "Steven Bombs" much either) and I was also looking forward to UK PonyCon (22-23 October) coinciding with the finale. Still, all we can do right now is wait and see what happens.

Ponyfic Roundup 126: Our Tongues with Songs of Joy

Just the four stories this week; it's been rather busy around here, for one reason and another. The timetable for UK PonyCon has been published, for one thing, and to my great surprise they have two writing panels. I know (slightly) one of the people doing one, but I have no idea who the people doing the other are. I shall try to get to both, and will report back! Anyway, off we go with today's limited selection of ponyfic.

That Changeling's a Pony! by Raugos
Tower of the West by Lasairfion
Butterscotch by Silvermoons1
Relinquishing by Chris

★: 1 | ★★: 0 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 2 | ★★★★★: 0

Most and Least Rewatchable: Season Four

I'm still waiting for it, Pinkie...

Back to a full 26-episode season this time, which makes things both easier and more difficult. I enjoyed S4 on the whole, despite its very variably written Pinkie. Some very good episodes didn't make my top three – although some of the season's low points were pretty darn low. I doubt there'll be a huge amount of controversy over my winning choice this week (I resisted the immense temptation to put "Bats!" at number one), but there may be a little more when it comes to the episodes I rate as my least rewatched, especially from fans of a certain pony...!

Episode review: S6E21: "Every Little Thing She Does"

IT'S NOT... CREEPY

The show's been on a pretty decent streak in this back end of Season Six, and the announcement that Michael Vogel was to write episode 21 set some minds at rest after a teaser trailer that caused considerable controversy. "Every Little Thing She Does" (clever The Police reference there!) was also storyboarder Sabrina Alberghetti's last episode; in recognition of the fine work she's done since S1, I'm giving her a tag this time. Beyond the break, I'll talk a bit about what I thought of the episode.

Pony Music Library 26: "Unleash the Magic"

Writing continues apace on what I now like to think of as Proper Story, which may not work out perfectly but which is already approximately a billion times better than Sunset's Sales Snag. Today, though, it's music that takes my attention, with a song that's only a year old but which I think is one of the finest canon tracks of them all.

( Text link)

What? "Unleash the Magic"

Who? Daniel Ingram, Caleb Chan and Trevor Hoffman (music); Daniel Ingram and Josh Haber (lyrics)

Which? Equestria Girls song

When? September 2015

Why? After the sustained musical excellence of Rainbow Rocks, the third film in the sub-franchise had a hard job living up to it – and it didn't. Although a couple of songs were very good, others did tend to suffer from Ingram Disease, the tendency to overcomplicate music that would be more effective if kept simple. "Unleash the Magic" just works, though, and (as with "This Day Aria") is a great example of how Disney-style villainy can be incorporated into music and still fit in with the world of MLP. Iris Quinn's fine turn as Cinch is wonderfully backed up by the Shadowbolts, with Rebecca Shiochet's eternally fantastic Twilight voice being the icing on the cake.