Ponyfic Roundup 495

Read it Later story count: 95 (+2)

Words read this week: 26,730

Here we go! A day late, but today marks the final standard edition of Ponyfic Roundup for quite a few weeks. This kind of lucky dip will return with PR 501, but we'll be into August before that happens. As such, if you enjoy the mix o' fics type of Roundup, then you'd better make the most of today's! I'm sure you'll find something interesting in this little lot:

Why-Hole by Decaf
My Path by Silver Moon
The Piper at the Gated Lawn by AugieDog
Derpy Tries out for the Wonderbolts by I Vicious I
Time by Fallowsthorn

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

One-day delay to Ponyfic Roundup 495

Nothing terrible, just a matter of too much stuff happening at once and things getting on top of me a little bit. I'd have had to rush to get PR 495 out by the end of tomorrow, and I think that would be disrespectful to the authors whose fics I'm covering. So, Thursday this week. Back to Wednesday, all things being well, next time though – and that one will be the start of my run-up to PR 500.

Sounds of 2014, nos. 65 to 61

Yikes – it's been a fortnight since the last one of these! My usual shower of medical appointments has been partially to blame, but so has my general disorganisation. Anyway, let's get on. Once again, these are songs that charted (on the Equestrian Trot 100) in 2014. Some were released earlier. As ever, here are the criteria for a song's inclusion:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the/an original artist.
Rule 2: Available from a third party, with reason to believe the artist is fine with this.
Rule 3: So famous that it would be plain silly to leave it out.
Rule 4: Being unlisted is not, on its own, grounds for exclusion.

I'm delighted to say that every one of this edition's songs is still available on its creator's YouTube channel, and that means no skipping is needed. Yay! Here's what's coming your way:

65: TAPS ft. Nexgen & Rhyme Flow – Another Mare
64: Sim Gretina – Make a Wish (remix)
63: AcoustiMandoBrony ft. EileMonty – Generosity
62: Aviators – Ashes
61: P1K ft. Turquoise Splash – Crystal Heart

Past the jump break, you'll find YouTube embeds of this edition's five tracks, as well as a short paragraph with information and a few thoughts of my own. Here goes...

Ponyfic Roundup 494

Read it Later story count: 93 (nc)

Words read this week: 28,591

Another week, another waffly intro post. Not a lot to chat about here, other than that I've finally been starting on a years-old plan to play some retro racing games, starting with the (not really unjustly) forgotten GT Racing '97. Defining "retro" is tricky, since where do I draw the line? I mean, Assetto Corsa (2014) certainly doesn't count as retro, while anything from the DOS era certainly does. But then, Grand Prix Legends (1998) is a modern sim in many ways but not in all. I think I shall have to take the approach I do with ponyfic: picking games because they interest me. And talking of ponyfic...

Recurring Dreams by Lunatone
Krastos' Krew by Masem
Run for the Skyline by Rambling Writer
Conundrums by Reviewfilly
Even More Awesome Than Me by Emotion Nexus

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

New story by me: Take a Bow

Actually I published this a few days ago, but I wanted to wait until after the contest it was written for (the Dialogue Only Contest) had passed its closing date and I was therefore definitely not going to edit it any further. Now it has, so:

Take a Bow by Loganberry
Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and OC
G4; Adventure/Drama; 1k words; Teen (Violence)

Fluttershy and Applejack arrive in the nick of time to rescue their friend from a potentially terrible fate. The way it happens might be considered shocking – it certainly startles AJ – but as ever in Equestria there's a story behind it...

An entry for the Dialogue Only Contest.

Yeah, I know it's not a great longdesc, but I'm as rusty on those as I am on various other aspects of ponyfic writing and I was getting close to the deadline. Still, I am mightily relieved to have published my first full-length story since July. I don't intend to leave it another 11 months, as the Thousand Words Contest III is also something I want to enter. As the bottom line of that longdesc suggests, this contest required you to use only dialogue to tell a story. I found it very hard work, but also pretty interesting.

Meet my fellow reviewers!

PaulAsaran has started including a little section at the bottom of his fortnightly review blogs (see below) in which he links to several other active ponyfic reviewers. He doesn't just link to their profile pages, either, but directly to their most recent reviews. I think this is a great idea and I keep thinking I should copy it, but as ever I tend to forget. So I'll do it here!

abrony-mouse: Random Recommendations in <50 words #19 (irregular)

Ghost Mike: Ghost Mike's Ponyfic Monday Musings #117 (weekly)

PaulAsaran: Paul's Thursday Reviews CCCLIX (fortnightly)

PresentPerfect: Fic recs, June 2nd! (irregular)

TCC56: It is Recommendsday, My Dudes #168 (weekly)

Have I missed anyone? Let me know and I'll include them! I'm after frequent ponyfic reviewers here, not people who occasionally make a blog telling everyone they liked a specific story.

Ponyfic Roundup 493

Read it Later story count: 93 (+1)

Words read this week: 22,805

And I'm back! Hopefully I'll be able to stay on a weekly schedule for a while now, but I'd better not make any promises. What I can promise, however, is a pretty good crop of ponyfics this week! Not the biggest edition of PR in terms of total word count, but quality trumps quantity and there's certainly plenty of the former on show today. Here we go...

Seasonal Shift Day by darkcyan
There's an Ocean Outside Your Front Door by paperhearts
Singles Combat by MrNumbers
I, Opaline by Rune Soldier Dan
We Are All Made From Silence by Lucky Dreams

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

Sounds of 2014, nos. 70 to 66

After a little bit of a break, it's time for me to return to the 2014 Equestrian Trot 100 chart, which we're now about a third of the way through. Remember, this covers what was popular in 2014, so some songs included will have been released earlier. Also remember, I have four criteria for a track's inclusion:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the/an original artist.
Rule 2: Available from a third party, with reason to believe the artist is fine with this.
Rule 3: So famous that it would be plain silly to leave it out.
Rule 4: Being unlisted is not, on its own, grounds for exclusion.

As happened last time, there is one track that is being skipped as it doesn't meet any of the aforementioned criteria. That still leaves us with four, though! Here's the list for today's edition:

70: WoodenToaster & The Living Tombstone ft. Rina-Chan – Lost on the Moon
69: Sim Gretina ft. Kathy-chan – Daring Do
68: Feather – Leaving Colours
67: skipped
66: Foozogz – Together

Past the jump break, you'll find YouTube embeds of the included songs, together with my rambly waffling. Off we go!

Change of schedule, plus Author Spotlight update

Hello folks. For personal reasons¹ I have been unable to finish up my Ponyfic Roundup post in time to go up tomorrow (Wednesday). As such, I now intend to post that on the 12th and then to return to the usual schedule. I apologise for this but since I was quite possibly going to have a blank week on the 12th anyway, the overall effect will be neutral.
¹ Nothing terrifying, just something extremely time-consuming.

However, I will mention one thing. I've said a couple of times recently that one of the themed posts I will do in the run-up to PR 500 will be an Author Spotlight. I suspect several of you will already have guessed this, especially once I said it was someone who'd done a lot for Fimfiction, but I shall now officially reveal that its subject will be FanOfMostEverything.

I don't yet know exactly which PR it will be, but I expect it to appear in the late 490s. Hopefully that's at least a tasty crumb to be going on with!

My Little Repeats 164: "Marks and Recreation"

I mean, it looks more in keeping than the real one...

S7E21: "Marks and Recreation"

30 Sep 2017

My original rating: ★★★ ("just")
IMDb score: 7.3

The one with haiku

Thoughts: The second of May Chan's two series writing credits, this is a bit more interesting than "Not Asking for Trouble" was. It isn't amazing, though, and it suffers from late-era FiM's confusion about how cutie marks actually work. The CMC, now marked, using "blank flanks" as a neutral term still seems mildly off, too. I do quite appreciate the use of Rumble as a central character, even if his older brother Thunderlane is less interesting. (This makes me wonder why nopony mentions Rainbow's status – in a Scootaloo-heavy episode, at that.) The song is pretty well done, and it's in a pleasingly different style to most MLP music. The assorted foals were fairly nicely chosen, with talents such as, er, painting circles, though Pip is a bit irritating.¹ I see from my old review that I noted Diamond Tiara's continuing absence. That one never stops grating, Hasbro. In the end, "Marks and Recreation" has some nice parts (Sweetie's annoyance with Rumble is another) but they don't quite gel together into a coherent whole. As such, a slight downgrade to a top-end two. Still not too bad for a clear filler episode.
¹ No actual British person in all of history has said, "You're cracking great," I suspect.

Choice quote: Apple Bloom: "Granny always says, some ponies have to find their own hay."

New rating: ★★

The next "My Little Repeats" won't be an episode at all! Instead, it will at long last be my rewatch of the G4 movie. I give fair warning that it may take a few weeks for me to have the time to do this one, not least because of my forthcoming hospital appointment – but fret not, it will be coming when I've managed that. I enjoyed it rather a lot in 2017, despite some grumbles (and yes, Mike, I absolutely will be mentioning Fluttershy! ;) ) and so I hope that will be the case again.