Ponyfic Roundup 436

Read it Later story count: 96 (-1)

Words read this week: 40,638

Have any of you fine folks read D G D Davidson's A Mighty Demon Slayer Grooms Some Ponies? I'm debating with myself whether to read it for a Spotlight at some point. The fic has been marked "on hiatus" for a decade with the last chapter unpublished, so normally the answer would be no, but there's a blog post by the author which apparently does at least provide a full final scene. Also, the ides of an extended G1/G4 crossover set on Earth and with a [Dark] tag intrigues me. Still, 90k words is a lot for me. I dunno, really. Anyone? Today's fics are one mid-length story and four quickies:

Not All Peaches and Cream by Garbo
Felt Heart by Tchernobog
The Line by Axan Zenith
Possibly, Probably, Positively Platonic by DualSoul1423
Confessions in a Canterlot Statuary by Daffodil

★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 4 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

My Little Repeats 140: "Where the Apple Lies"

"Granny's going to report us all for using that logo, isn't she?"

S6E23: "Where the Apple Lies"

8 Oct 2016

My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 6.9

The one with eye-bandaged Derpy

Thoughts: A bit of a step up from "P.P.O.V.", though not enough to bring it above "quite good" territory. Big Mac is great value here, with the largely flashed-back plot allowing him to say plenty for once. He and Applejack spark off each other nicely as siblings – although it's odd that neither Apple Bloom nor her parents are anywhere to be seen, which makes you wonder about the exact time this is set. Filthy Rich is better here than his human analogue in Legend of Everfree, though I still don't know what he sees in Spoiled Milk. (Brilliant name, though it raises even more questions about pony naming conventions...) It's another good-looking ep, with plenty of fun touches to enjoy in the background, not least 80s Cheerilee! Granny seems very broadly characterised, but I suspect she knows more than she's letting on. Not a thrill-a-minute episode, but a character-focused one with a pleasantly laid-back pace. I still rather like it, and I'm happy for it to keep its three.

Choice quote: Granny Smith: "I'm sorry, Applejack, but you's just gonna have to un-promise."

New rating: ★★★

Next time, it's "Top Bolt", an episode which is largely seen (including by me) as one of the best of this era of the show's run. I am certainly looking forward to watching this ep again.

Ponyfic Roundup 435: mushroompone Edition

Read it Later story count: 97 (+1)

Words read this week: 33,706

It's been a while since I wrote a Roundup spotlighting a single author. In fact, it was PR 364 in October 2021, when I reviewed five stories by Lets Do This. As with LDT, mushroompone's account dates back only to 2018 (although apparently they've been around since 2013) and I've been somewhere on the scale from pleased to blown away by what I've read from them so far. Womb (PR 405) in particular was extraordinary. Of today's five, two were deliberate picks: The Head as the author's most recent story and Debt to Society as a Scootafic. The others were chosen randomly. Off we go!

Comet Day by mushroompone
The Great Hearth's Warming Bird Count by mushroompone
The Head by mushroompone
Debt to Society by mushroompone
Symbiosis by mushroompone

★: 0 | ★★: 0 | ★★★: 3 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 1
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

Non-Pony: I've started that His Dark Materials reread blog

 I'm not going to make a habit of posting non-MLP stuff here, but I did say that I'd give a heads-up when I started this, so here it is. It's on my Dreamwidth and you can use this DW tag to see all the relevant entries. As I've only just started Northern Lights, which is the first book of the trilogy, there aren't many just yet!

GPT-4 and Claude+ write ponyfic

It seems that if you log into Poe.com, you get one free query to each of the new GPT-4 and Claude+ engines in each calendar day. Given the vital importance of Pony, I chose to use today's free query to re-run the test I gave ChatGPT in December. I used exactly the same prompt as I did then, so you can compare the outputs of each model.

Prompt: Please write a My Little Pony story in which Fluttershy and Rarity discuss a sensitive issue over a cup of tea. The two ponies are very long-standing friends and trust each other completely. Both of them are quiet conversationalists, so the conversation should have a restrained emotional tone. However, the much brasher Rainbow Dash barges into the cottage halfway through.

Ponyfic Roundup 434

Read it Later story count: 96 (-3)

Words read this week: 54,228

Not a bad word count this week by my standards, although around two-thirds of that total comes from a single fic. Quite a varied selection of stuff today, and that's the way I usually like it – although, if you cast your eyes down to the end, you'll see that there'll be an author spotlight edition next time. Here's what I've got for you all now, though:

Luna Thinks the Sun is Made of Custard by Art Inspired
Beautiful Lives by Impossible Numbers
Bigger Than Any Heart by Coltured
In Markmoriam by FanOfMostEverything
The Perfect Little Village of Ponyville by McPoodle

★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

My Little Repeats 139: "P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)"

🎵 And I know that my hat will go on... 🎵

S6E22: "P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)"

1 Oct 2016

My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 6.8

The one with Rarity confronting a giant crab

Thoughts: Quite a fun episode for the most part, but one severely let down by its feeble ending, one that's become almost legendary – largely for the wrong reasons. It's so disappointing to come off quite an enjoyable ride and find out that "Ha, it's a bunyip who eats cucumber sarnies and who we'll never see again" is the best these writers can do to round it off. Okay, it's just about given clues in the episode, but come on. That's not the only irritation, either: as just one example, Applejack late on sounding surprised that Pinkie bringing a pile of games was intended for her friends. The Rashomon-style approach is quite nicely done, and allows the animators to go to town once again: compare the ship's flag to British Columbia's. Twilight does some fairly good work on friendship, though I'm iffy about her outright lying to the others to get them to arrive together on the pier. No doubt that Arrrplejack steals the show, though! All in all, I think this is more a highish two than a three for me now.

Choice quote: Rarity: "Oh, don't worry dear. Luxury cruises never sink."

New rating: ★★

Next time, it's on to "Where the Apple Lies". A slightly strange episode, that, and one which I had mixed feelings about back in the day. I suspect that might still be the case, but we shall find out.