Ponyfic Roundup 134: Amethyst Star Edition

Read it Later story count: 496 (+6)

Sometimes she's called Sparkler, sometimes Amethyst, but she's rarely had a turn in the spotlight ("Slice of Life" excepted). This week, I'm looking at five stories that place Amy (or Sparks. Whatever) front and centre, and between them they cover quite a bit of ground. Also, I'm trying desperately to keep my RiL list under 500, and unless I start reading a bit more quickly it's not going to happen. :S

Your horns are Touching by Azure Blackstone
Second Best by Discorded SheepcityUSA
The Perfect Setup by Timaeus
The Pineapple by Mane O War
Pick a feather by Windigo

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

Audio: Logan reviews My Little Pony Season Six

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I don't do a lot of audio stuff, but I have had a couple of people ask me whether I might consider making some. While I will be sticking with text for most things, especially Ponyfic Roundup and reviews of individual episodes, comics, etc, I do like the idea of recording a little bit more. Last year, I produced a short audio review of Season Five, so I decided to do the same again for Season Six. You can see the result above; it's 16'36" long, which hopefully won't be too excessive for those interested to sit through.

In brief, it includes a look at the new writers the show had for S6, a run-down of my favourite and least favourite episodes, a short look ahead to next year and a few comments on the complaints some fans have about Starlight Glimmer. There's even a (thankfully very short) song! You'll note that it's pure audio, with no visuals except the title card. This will not be changing; I'm certainly not going down the facecam route, and I don't want to turn it into a semi-animation. Think of BBC Radio 4, but for bronies. :P

Another One Bites the Dust: The Royal Guard calls it a day

As announced over on Fimfiction, one of the most prominent sources of high-quality ponyfic – The Royal Guard – is ceasing operations with immediate effect. The group's members have found it too much of a struggle to keep going in the face of that blasted Real Life thing, and they're just plain tired.

If anything, I'm impressed that TRG lasted as long as it did: accepting free submissions is, even with today's gently declining numbers, a recipe for being snowed under with stories to consider. Twilight's Library, which admittedly had much lower acceptance standards, ended up being beaten by that problem, and recently there have been suggestions from the EQD guys that they too may be considering moving away from the traditional pre-reader model.

On a personal note, it does take away one of my (slight) ambitions: to write a fic good enough to get into TRG. I submitted two stories – It Doesn't Matter Now and We Who with Songs Beguile – and both were rejected. I will confess to being very slightly irritated about the latter, since I was actually prompted to submit it by the pre-reader who rejected IDMN! Ah well, at least with WWwSB I got to add to my collection of coveted Titanium Dragon NRs.

This means that the Royal Canterlot Library is the most prominent group left standing, and of course they go about things in a very different way. Indeed, I think it's very unlikely indeed that we'll ever again see a free-submissions group rise to anything like the prominence that TRG had, or even that TL had. The ponyfic world is shrinking, albeit remarkably slowly, and fewer people have the time and inclination to work on such a thing now.

The Seattle's Angels group is also still in operation, but aside from them and the RCL, all we're really left with now are a bunch of individual reviewers. Down in the lower reaches of that department is little old me, and while I certainly don't consider stories with the rigour that TRG did, I like to think that what I write is at least of some use to people looking for an enjoyable read. Ponyfic Roundup is going nowhere any time soon.

But farewell, The Royal Guard. You played your part in making My Little Pony a place where at least some writers aspired to standards higher – in some cases, far, far higher – than might be expected of a fandom centred on silly talking horses. Be proud of that, TRG members – and when you remember that you were there, do so with a smile. Pinkie Pie would expect nothing less.

"Welcome to the Show" hits 100 million views!

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Equestria Daily has already reported on this, but I'd like to mark the milestone here too. Letupita725HD's upload of the Rainbow Rocks song "Welcome to the Show" has become the first My Little Pony video on YouTube to manage a nine-figure viewer count. Considering that it's only been on the site for just over two years (uploaded 30 Oct 2014), that's impressive stuff. And in the wake of "You're Gonna Go Far Kid" being blocked, it's also good to reflect on the fact that Hasbro's generally calm response to song video uploads – they simply monetise them – means this one is unlikely to go the same way.

As it happens, it may not be all that long before a second MLP video breaks the 100 million barrier – and this time it'll be an actual pony vid: "What My Cutie Mark is Telling Me", uploaded (it says here) by one "Pinkie Pie", is at the time of writing sitting on 96.8 million views! Weirdly, next up seems to be a different upload of "Welcome to the Show", this one with a mere 74.9 million views...

Now that's a follower collection!

Shrink Laureate, author of the excellent Left Behind (PR 132), has a mere 26 followers on Fimfiction at the time of writing. Not that startling for an author with only five published stories, none of which have over 900 views. But. But. Among those 26 are: AugieDog, RedSquirrel456, Skywriter, Soge and Titanium Dragon. I don't think I've ever seen a writer with such a small total follower count but so many very prominent followers among them. I don't know whether there's a particular reason for it, but I'm impressed!

Comic mini-review: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #48

Celestia: "Hey look, it's a pony comic!"
Luna: "She looks more like a phoney comic to me!"

This is the start of the three-part "Accord" story arc, which will take us up to the landmark #50 issue of the My Little Pony comic. I doubt the series will make it as far as #100, so I really hope this arc ends up being something special. It's certainly got off to a very good start, with a fascinating look at what happens when a strange celestial event turns Discord from a creature of chaos to one of complete order. If anything, he's more frightening in this guise than he was before. The Mane Six play decent supporting roles, but it already seems clear that Starlight Glimmer is going to be Discord's main antagonist here. Andy Price's art, coloured by Heather Breckel, is as expressive and colourful as ever, while Ted Anderson gives us a story that holds the interest throughout. I'm pleased by this one, and if they can keep up this standard for the next two issues, we'll have an arc worthy of its position in the comic series. ★★★★

"You're Gonna Go Far Kid" PMV blocked on YouTube

As I type this on Wednesday morning UK time, a little piece of fandom history is no more. TheSlutfox's Rainbow Dash PMV, set to a speeded-up version of The Offspring's "You're Gonna Go Far Kid" and released in April 2011, was one of the first to make a really major impact. It's certainly not to everyone's tastes, but with over 25 million views in five and a half years, there's no denying its significance.

You'd have been forgiven for thinking that a video that had survived for that long, with that level of exposure, would be safe. But no: for whatever reason, it has, like nearly all other YouTube uploads of the video, been zapped by UMG. Now, when I go there, all I see is the screen above. I know a bit of searching will find it on other sites – but it's not the same. I'm genuinely sad about this.