Ponyfic Roundup 549

Read it Later story count: 90 (nc)

Words read this week: 25,278

Well, would you look at that? A Ponyfic Roundup actually going up on the correct day! Here's to hoping this will happen again next week – although I wouldn't advise holding your breath on that score. Here's today's slate of stories. And yes, there's one story I've had to rate "N/A" this week, for reasons I'll explain when I get there.

The Princess and the Reaper by DrakeyC
Rot by Mister E
My house, My say by Felfox
After Glow by TheDriderPony
No Need For Words by Whirring Gears

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

Sounds of 2016, nos. 50 to 46

We're into the top half of the chart, yay! The Equestrian Trot 100 for 2016 has already thrown up plenty of interest, so I'm looking forward – as I hope are you – to finding out what we'll get this week. Here's the usual reminder of my inclusion rules:

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 had to skip one track last week – and I'm sorry to have to say that I had to do the same this week. It's frustrating, but what can you do? Here are the four songs I am able to feature today:

50: PrinceWhateverer ft. Wubcake & NRGPony – So Long
49: The Wasteland Wailers – Broken Wing Recital
48: oodorato2 – トワイライト Sunshine Remix
47: PrinceWhateverer ft. Milkymomo – Frailty
46: skipped

I missed out on the waffle here last time, so I'm going to indulge myself a little bit more this week. I really do think the music scene for this fandom should be more appreciated outside it than it is. While plenty of fandoms have a few great songs created by fans, this fandom has well over a decade of them. That's quite remarkable. Anyway, let's continue...

My Little Repeats 195: "Sounds of Silence"

At this point, the Phantom's outfit parts to reveal... Pinkie Pie

S8E23: "Sounds of Silence"

29 Sep 2018

My original rating: ★★★★

IMDb score: 9.1

The one with sudoku

Thoughts: Kirin time! Now, to me kirin are a bit like Luna. (Stay with me on this.) I like them, but I don't share the utter adulation for them that half the fandom seems to. Fortunately, their big episode here – Gregory Bonsignore's only FiM writing credit – is a good one. The kirin/nirik¹ have an interesting concept and design. Applejack and Fluttershy make a good Map team, though Twilight's excitement about their being the first repeat Map team is never followed up. Autumn Blaze (voiced by Rachel Bloom) is a nice character and her song is plenty of fun. The moral is surprisingly solid for this late in the show's run. The crazy ticket office clerk is amusing. Downsides: Flutters insisting the kirin needed to be eternally silent isn't great. The plot is a tad predictable, and the story itself is actually not that packed with action. But I enjoyed the watch a lot. I think, as with "What Lies Beneath", it still just about scrapes a four. But no, I'm still not obsessed with kirin. Sorry!
¹ Fans often give the plural form as "nirik" too, but in the episode both that and "niriks" are used, more than once each. 

Choice quote: Twilight: "Sorry, Fluttershy – flanks don't lie." [Cringey, but funny with it.]

New rating:★★★★

The next episode is "Father Knows Beast" – and if I give that four stars, scraped or otherwise, you can probably safely assume that Logan has been quietly replaced by... dunno, really. But by something. From here, it's definitely a "get this one out of the way" episode. But I will give it a fair chance!

Ponyfic Roundup 548: Spotlight on The Witch of the Everfree

Read it Later story count: 90 (-2)

Words read this week: 56,028

Let's just ignore Muggins here having everything ready to go and not clicking the mouse button hard enough late on Wednesday night and not checking the next morning, shall we? Good. Time for another look at a longer ponyfic today! This is a tale that I'd never even heard of until recently, despite its nearly 40,000 views – but the author has a decent record and "alternative Sunset history" fics can often be interesting. This one has a notable difference from many, as I'll get to in a minute...

The Witch of the Everfree by MagnetBolt
Sunset Shimmer, Mane Six and Celestia
G4 AU; Slice of Life; 56k words; Mar 2015; Teen

My name is Sunset Shimmer. I am the strongest unicorn in all of Equestria, and my life is over. I'm in hiding and on the run, and I have no idea where to start putting things back together.

The difference I alluded to above? In this AU fic, which begins a short series, Sunset never went through the mirror. She's hiding from Celestia in Equestria itself. Along the way she interacts with the Mane Six, including a particularly interesting experience with Twilight. She meets Zecora in the Everfree Forest. And that's not the last of it. Sunset narrates herself, and so you do have to question narrative reliability – which is fine, considering just who is narrating. The chronology is grounded in the fact that the original sonic rainboom happens quite early in the story, meaning that the Mane Six are fillies just beginning to make their own way. But this is Sunset's tale – pony Sunset, remember – and her characterisation and development are satisfying pretty much all through. Even though it's an AU, you feel a clear link with the canon Equestria Girls character, but changed by her environment, which is as it should be. We even find out where that leather jacket comes from in this universe! There are some quibbles, such as Zecora's dialogue being a bit ropey sometimes, and the occasional meta can threaten to get in the way although it never quite does. I liked this a good deal, more than I thought I would to be honest, and it shades into the fours as a result. ★★★★

As usual, major spoilers lurk beyond this line!

UK PonyCon is (very nearly) completely sold out!

Yeah, I know Ponyfic Roundup still awaits, and it will be here tomorrow – but this news has taken precedence. UK PonyCon is very nearly completely sold out, a mere twelve days after tickets went on sale! As I write this on Thursday evening, All Weekend, Saturday and Sunday tickets are now sold. The only ones left on sale are purely for the music event on Friday night. If you want to be part of UKPC 2025, that really is now your only remaining option. At £15, the tickets aren't going to break the bank, either.

Why has the convention sold out in record-breaking time? I think it's a combination of several reasons. The largest is surely the significantly reduced capacity of this year's venue over the (unavailable) Nottingham one. The fact that tickets didn't go on sale until 12th July gave people time to save up, so more bought instantly than usual. A new venue adds a frisson of excitement. We're just starting to see G6 hints appearing. But mostly I think it's that reduced capacity. But even so, twelve days. Wow. 

Sounds of 2016, nos. 55 to 51

Some big news from UK PonyCon: Weekend and Saturday tickets are sold out already! The lower capacity of this year's venue (which was not the con's first choice) has been a major factor. Sadly the early sell-out of full-weekend tickets (not since 2018 has this happened in July) has caught out a couple of my friends, who just weren't able to buy in time. As I type, Friday-only and Sunday-only tickets are still on sale, but even they probably won't last that much longer.

Returning to music, today we round off the lower half of the Equestrian Trot 100 chart for 2016. As usual, I'll give a quick reminder of my inclusion criteria, of which Rule 1 is always the most important:

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. 

Last week I was able to feature everything. Not this time, sadly.

55: Foozogz – Acceptance
54: The Wasteland Wailers – Dare Master
53: skipped
52: JoinedTheHerd – Out On My Own (remix)
51: Metajoker & Respin – Become

You know what? No waffle here this time. Music awaits!

UK PonyCon tickets selling fast. Very fast

You know how I often mention that UK PonyCon has maintained serious popularity for so many years? And I mean many – it's the world's longest-running MLP convention, after all! Well, yesterday UKPC put out this blog post, noting that although the Birmingham Conference and Events Centre has its bonuses, one compromise that's had to be made is on total capacity. I don't think the number has been officially published, but most people I speak to expect attendance this year to be around 1,000 rather than the 1,300 of 2024. Anyway, I'll quote the part that stood out to many of us:

For Friday we have sold 55% of our available tickets

For Saturday we have sold 73% of our available tickets

For Sunday we have sold 59% of our available tickets

That's a whole lot of tickets! In fact, it suggests pretty strongly that if you want to attend on Saturday, which of course includes wanting to be there all weekend, you're going to have to get your skates on. (Or roller skates, if you're Hip-Hop, Jazzie or Melody.) Selling out early is not unprecedented – in fact, in 2018 UKPC sold out of everything but Sunday-only tickets in July. But in recent years they've been available almost until the day of the con.

Not this time, methinks! Remember, those percentages were before the flurry of sales that I know the announcement caused. I was one of those, by the way: I took the announcement to heart and bought my own ticket (Bronze sponsor) yesterday, almost as soon as I learnt about the official blog post. I'm very glad I did, because waiting much longer might have ended up turning into waiting for next year!

Ponyfic Roundup 547: Serious Edition

Read it Later story count: 92 (+4)

Words read this week: 24,863

Thanks to Blogger being a bit of a pain, Ponyfic Roundup is slightly late this week. For once it's not my own fault, at least! Anyway, as I noted last month, I once had an edition of PR wherein all the fics had the word "silly" (or variations thereof) in their titles. That being so, I thought, why not have an edition from the other end of the spectrum? And here we are!

Potions Are Serious Business by Rough_Draft
Twilight Sparkle Marries a Book (Seriously, Twilight?!) by ThePinkedWonder
Are. You. SERIOUS?!?!?! by SomeGenericPonyNameHere
Serious about Silly by Grey Faerie
Apples Are Serious Business by housedoc

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

Apologies

Blogger won't post anything with links or formatting in, so PR can't get through. It won't post long stuff or let me use tags either. I've had this before and it's only lasted a day, so hopefully tomorrow! Frustrating when I *didn't* have to delay it for other reasons!

Sounds of 2016, nos. 60 to 56

The heatwave I mentioned last week did come to pass, peaking at 34 °C in my neck of the woods (in Worcestershire). Things have now cooled off significantly, with a high today of just 18 °C; and as I look out of the window a few hours before this post goes up, it's overcast and lightly raining. A good day for sitting indoors and listening to Pony music, therefore. The inclusion rules:

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. 

Last week I could only feature four of the five charting tracks. No such problems this week, and all five are present and correct. They are:

60: 4EverfreeBrony – Bound with Time
59: µThunder & FritzyBeat – Luna's Swing
58: Jyc Row ft. Aloma Steele – Luna's Future (remix)
57: YourEnigma ft. EileMonty – Are We Insane?
56: Pinkie Rose et al – Friendship Through the Ages (cover)

Okay, now that you know what you're facing this week, let's get moving to the tracks themselves. As ever, YouTube embeds here where possible.

My Little Repeats 194: "What Lies Beneath"

"You really wouldn't like to be a tree, whatever Professor Fluttershy says."

S8E22: "What Lies Beneath"

22 Sep 2018

My original rating: ★★★★

IMDb score: 8.3

The one with plumbing diagrams

Thoughts: Not everyone agrees with me on this, but I generally find Mike Vogel to be among the most reliable writers of the later seasons of Friendship is Magic. He largely hits the mark again with "What Lies Beneath", an episode which was extremely popular at the time and which prompted a lot of discussion at the time and probably only faded a bit because of its misfortune in being immediately followed by "Sounds of Silence" and the fandom's kirin obsession. "What Lies Beneath" shows us that the Tree of Harmony is a complete sociopath very powerful indeed, scarily so really. As has often been noted, Smolder faces the terror of being cute at tea parties, while Gallus faces the terror of being crushed to death by rocks. Silverstream and Ocellus's past traumas are more directly addressed than ever before (or since) – though "tell[ing] him exactly what you think of him" prooobably wouldn't defeat the real Storm King. Yona is cute as ever and commands a mighty spider army. Sandbar... well, he's a bit dense, but quite appealing anyway. Cozy Glow's manipulative behaviour is considerably creepier from a post-S9 viewpoint. The (other) students support each other, and that I was very pleased with. In 2018, I thought this was four/five-star boundary. I no longer think it's that good, but it's still highly watchable, even if the Tree is weird. (Mind you, it's not a pony, so why should it think like one...?) Take a star off and it becomes a top-end three, but I'm going to creep it over the line to a low-end four. The students' character moments, their care and compassion for each other, is what does that.

Choice quote: Cozy Glow, to the non-pony students: "Golly, it's so inspiring how relaxed you all are about studying friendship, considering your disadvantage." [Creepy in 2018. Even more so in 2025.]

New rating:★★★★

Next time, it is of course "Sounds of Silence". I am not someone who thinks kirin are the greatest things since sliced bread, so don't expect me to rave on and give it an easy five-star rating. It does have a reasonable amount of Fluttershy in it, however, which is rarely a bad thing. We shall see!

Ponyfic Roundup 546

Read it Later story count: 88 (+1)

Words read this week: 25,683

The news from UK PonyCon has quietened down a little over the last few days, and so this edition of PR is going out on the usual day. Not a lot else for me to say, which is normal. I'm not going to ramble too much, which is less normal. Here's the slate:

Schadenfreude by Daemon McRae
Carry Me Home by PropMaster
Jade's Adventure by Ni-kun
Backstage by Noriko Nakayama
Derpy Explodes at the End of This Story by Brony_Fife

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

Sounds of 2016, nos. 65 to 61

We seem to be facing another heatwave here in Britain – which, don't laugh if you're from Miami or somewhere, means temperatures nudging into the low 30s °C. I'm not really looking forward to it, especially not the warm nights that are humid and uncomfortable for sleeping. (Only about 5% of British homes have air-con.) What I am looking forward to is bringing you all a bit more of the Equestrian Trot 100 chart from 2016! Here's the usual refresher regarding inclusion rules:

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. 

For two weeks now, I've been able to feature all five of the tracks in the relevant segment of the chart. I'm sorry to have to tell you that I can't make it three weeks on the trot. Ah well. Here's what I do have:

65: Aurelleah – Harmony
64: Vylet Pony – Little Dreams
63: skipped
62: Eurobeat Brony – Discord 2015
61: Silva Hound & UndreamedPanic ft. Synthis – The Storm

Time for us to get on to the part of this post that, I suspect, quite a lot of you scroll straight forward to anyway: the music itself!

Ponyfic Roundup 545

Read it Later story count: 87 (nc)

Words read this week: 25,724

As you'll have noticed, the UK PonyCon news coming out a few days ago meant that I just couldn't find the time to finish writing up my PR 545 post and so there was a blank week. I hope you'll appreciate, though, that UKPC stuff is about the biggest deal there is for fans over here, at least when it comes to the social side of the fandom. I'm back with ponyfic today, though! The stories under review are as follows:

A Chat Between a King and a Prince by PoisonClaw
Oh, For The Love Of... by StoryEdge
The Price of a Smile by Trick Question
According to Plan by Vic Fontaine
Her Best Behavior by Fervidor

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

Sounds of 2016, nos. 70 to 66

Welcome to July, everypony. It's been quite warm and summery here in ol' Blighty, although as I type this the weather has gone cloudy and muggy, which isn't my favourite kind of weather. Anyway, it's time once more to see what the Equestrian Trot 100 chart brought back in 2016. Remember, these are songs that were popular that year; they don't necessarily have to have been first released then. Inclusion criteria:

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. 

Last time, I was able to feature all five of the featured tracks. Same again this week! I love it when a plan comes together.

70: 174UDSI – Sweeeeeep (remix)
69: Archie – Back Again
68: 4EverfreeBrony – Stay
67: OhPonyBoy – The Blob Pad !
66: Aurelleah  ft. Joan Silentio – My Wings Aria

There we go, then. It's about time we moved on to the important part of this post: the songs themselves. Onward!

My Little Repeats 193: "A Rockhoof and a Hard Place"

"I am never known to quail at the fury of a gale..."

S8E21: "A Rockhoof and a Hard Place"

15 Sep 2018

My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 7.4

The one with surfer Pinkie

Thoughts: A clunky pun for the episode title. This was the second of three writing credits for Kaita Mpambara, who began with the amusing "Horse Play" earlier in S8. This is one of those frustrating episodes that has a solid, interesting idea – that Rockhoof finds it harder to adapt to the modern world than the other Pillars – but doesn't always quite get the execution right. That shows up particularly from the end of the second act, when Rockhoof asks to be turned to a statue. This should be an extraordinarily powerful scene – it's not quite suicidal, but it's close for a TV-Y show – but the gravity of it doesn't quite hit home. The episode's pacing is uneven, too, with the section featuring the other Pillars dragging. Bits and pieces: it's a bit much Twilight and Applejack telling Rockhoof off for being a hero when "what we need here is a teacher", given their own approach to their School of Friendship commitments! AJ lampshading the weirdness of hippogriffs having ships is funny, but it doesn't really help!¹ I do like Yona a lot in this episode, and the students in general, really. The resolution of having Rockhoof appointed official storyteller also does seem fitting. I think it's probably right on the two/three border for me these days. I'm not that interested in the Pillars, but even with the issues I mention I think it's just about still a three.
¹ Though iisaw did suggest in 2018 that the ships might be for cargo (or cannons!)

Choice quote: Rockhoof: "I'm, uh, your new Theory and Defence of Friendship teacher."

New rating:★★★

Next time, it will be "What Lies Beneath". In some fans' eyes, this is a contender for the best episode of S8, although a certain even later ep tends to steal the limelight. I remember liking it a lot, although I had very mixed feelings about one particular scene, which I'll get to when the time comes.

UK PonyCon news – venue change reasons and stalls changes

I said in my post on Thursday that one reason UK PonyCon was trusted was that it fronted up when things were awkward instead of hiding. The excellent Reskell (UKPC comms lead) did just that recently. There's now a Stallholder Clarification article, but that title is a little deceptive as there's quite a bit of info in it that's of interest to all potential attendees. It's only really the first section on carer and helper tickets that's narrowly focused. I'd strongly advise you to read the full piece for yourself, but a few bullet points of things that stood out to me:

• UK PonyCon did not choose to leave Nottingham. Rather, Nottingham Trent University (NTU) was not available for the usual UKPC dates and alternative dates offered clashed with other conventions. UKPC doesn't rule out going back to NTU one day; the language used suggests that relations are still good.
• Reasons for the choice of Birmingham venue. There are quite a few of these, but notable is the extremely central location of the Birmingham Conference and Events Centre. It also has better air circulation systems, which will be good news to those of us who were dropping like flies at last year's auction!
• Running UKPC at BCEC costs more than at NTU. This is given as the (main, anyway) reason ticket prices had to increase. We're not going to get fine details since no significant venue wants its contract details in the public domain, but you can make a few more or less educated guesses about why the cost is higher.
• Reduced stalls space compared with 2024. It seems that the available stalls area is significantly reduced this year compared to what NTU could offer. I suspect it's a painful but necessary trade-off for the other advantages that BCEC brings. But it will mean single tables only, and fewer of them, so be prepared.

There is also a concerning section right at the bottom of the post about certain people having taken it upon themselves to contact the venue directly about booking extra space. Please do not do this! It's really important that concerns and questions go through the UK PonyCon team themselves. A con having good relations with a venue is worth its weight in gold. 

Finally, I'd once again like to compliment Reskell's handling of this. This is how you do it. Front up, give details where you can, be polite but clear and firm, keep your head. They're good at this. No names, no pack drill, but we can all think of other events that would not have dealt with this as calmly and speedily. But as a rule, those events don't survive for 21 years...

UK PonyCon 2025 ticket details!

You know how when I posted a revised schedule on Tuesday I said that "[i]f any big news intervenes then so be it." Well, about that...

With exactly 100 days to go until UK PonyCon 2025, last night saw ticket details announced! They will go on sale at 7pm BST on Saturday 12th July. That's still over a fortnight away, but nevertheless the tickets page itself is now live, allowing you to see what you get for your money. I'll put some thoughts after the main bit, for which I'll keep to the format I used in 2024:

I'm using Adult Weekend ticket prices here, since I imagine the large majority of people reading Louder Yay will be buying those. There are also one-day, child and family rates – and a cheaper (£15) option granting entry only to the new-for-2025 Friday night music event. The tiers remain as they were last year, except that Silver numbers fall from 75 to 60 and Gold from five to four. That returns the totals to where they were in 2023.

Standard: £75 (+25% on 2024) – entrance to all days of the convention (including the Friday night music), con book, basic blue lanyard. You can have a personalised con badge if you book by 15th August.

Bronze: £99 (+16%) – nicer lanyard, Bronze sponsor badge, name in con book (if you want it), Bronze button badge, vinyl sticker sheet, £5 donation to UKPC's long-standing charity, the RDA. New for this year is the option to purchase (for £60) the sponsor hoodie, which previously could only be obtained by Silver or Gold ticket-holders.

Silver: £210 (+14%) – priority queue, silver sponsor badge, drawstring bag, Silver/Gold sponsor-exclusive T-shirt, art print, water bottle, wooden pin, two autograph tokens, £10 RDA donation. New for this year is a special guest signing session just for Silver sponsors.

Gold: £525 (+17%) – all the Silver perks and sponsor hoodie, Britannia plushie, top-table seating at Afternoon Tea, personalised welcome letter, four autograph/photo tokens, £20 RDA donation. New for this year is custom artwork from a member of the UKPC Arts Team in both digital and various physical forms. The Britannia this year is not a Sewpoke one. It's the mass-produced one from last year, but with a fitted-to-size themed shirt (with each buyer getting a unique design) from the highly regarded shadowonthemoon.

There are more perks I haven't listed, especially for the top two tiers, so go and read those on the Tickets page itself if you're curious! (And why wouldn't you be?)

Anyway, thoughts. First, I'm happy and relieved to see tickets announced. Except for the 2021 iteration, which was held in very unusual circumstances as we emerged from the Covid pandemic, this is by some distance the latest tickets have gone on sale since I started attending UKPC over a decade ago. In 2018, the last time the con switched venues, they could be bought before the end of April. So yeah, this is unusually late even considering the fact that the con has a new location.

Prices? Well, I would first like to compliment the UK PonyCon folks on fronting up on this issue in their announcement blog post. One of the reasons (though by no means the only) that this convention is so trusted is that its staff don't try to sweep things like this under the carpet. I also recognise the amount of effort that went into keeping the popular Bronze tier under £100. I think it's probably still the best value tier, as was the case last year. The gap between Standard and Bronze is in fact now very slightly smaller than it was in 2024.

As I said last year, annual rises of roughly 15% are not sustainable in the longer term and have to end before too much longer.¹ But that's the only real note of concern I'm going to sound in this post. So to get back to good things! I'm glad Friday pre-registration is staying; it was an excellent innovation last year. With that and a Friday night concert this year, it may become more challenging to fit in the informal pre-meets that a lot of us really enjoy, but that can be worked out. Of course one unknown is the venue staff. If they're as good with attendees as the Nottingham ones were, we'll be in good shape.
¹ A 15% rise for the next 15 years brings a Standard ticket to £600+ by 2040, four times what it would be with 5% rises. 

At this point it is traditional for me to say that I don't know whether or for how long I'll be able to attend. This year, with the convention in a city that's convenient for me to access, I'm cautiously on the side of "I will be there". The question for me this time will be whether I stay over or commute in each day – or even adopt a hybrid approach, perhaps staying on Friday night but not the much more expensive (in hotel terms) Saturday. That's not something I yet know, but we shall see!

This post is long enough now, I think. I remain of the opinion that UK PonyCon is a wonderful event that is run in a way that reflects very well on the British My Little Pony fandom. It is, after all, the longest-running MLP convention in the world, and you don't earn that status by accident. In the old days, coming of age used to be your 21st birthday. Unless you're an American wanting to buy beer, turning 21 now has less resonance – so I'll borrow UK PonyCon's 2025 theme title and simply say... Adventure Awaits!

Yep, yet another of those meta posts

Honestly, if you've been here any length of time, you probably know what this is without even reading the body text! The lack of a "My Little Repeats" post on Sunday might have tipped you off, too. But yeah, I've run out of time to do stuff again thanks to life being life. Nothing especially bad, just that I've been ludicrously busy and expect to continue being so for a little while yet. (And yeah, this is also why I'm still behind with my Ponyfic Roundup courtesy notes on Fimfiction.)

So here's the deal:

• I have managed to get "Sounds of 2016" out, as you saw earlier today.
• Ponyfic Roundup should be up on Friday or Saturday, with a low-word-count week to follow.
• "My Little Repeats" should happen on Sunday.
• Things should be back on an even keel by this time next week. 

I can't promise any of these (well, maybe the first one) but it's what I currently think is likely. If any big news intervenes then so be it. But one thing I can reassure you all about: I am definitely not losing interest in this fandom. Ponies still rock!

Sounds of 2016, nos. 75 to 71

It's time once again to return to the Equestrian Trot 100 for 2016, which as you may remember actually runs (in terms of voting period) from December 2015 to November 2016. It's the best you're going to get from me, though! Comforming to my usual custom, here are the inclusion rules:

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. 

It's always nice when I can feature all five songs in a week's selection, but it doesn't always work out that way. This time, though, it absolutely did! Huzzah! How many tracks do I receive? [Five. That's kind of the point. —Ed.]

75: Spectra – Welcome to the Show (remix)
74: JoinedTheHerd – I Can Do It On My Own (remix)
73: Forest Rain ft. Luna Jax – Let the Magic Fill Your Soul (cover)
72: Crusader! – Power Ponies GO!
71: Aurelleah & Kadenza ft. PegasYs – Firelight

You can make up your own pre-break waffle here. I'm going straight to the tunes!

Ponyfic Roundup 544

Read it Later story count: 87 (nc)

Words read this week: 42,149

A mini-heatwave is happening here over the next few days, with temperatures nudging the low 30s – notable for England. As it's almost exactly midsummer, there's not much darkness overnight, but what there is, is also pretty warm and humid. It's not the easiest weather to do things in, though I can at least manage reading! A good job too, as this week's word count is the highest for some time, barring Spotlight editions.

The Long Payoff by totallynotabrony
I Want to Dance with Somepony by ThunderChaserCreate
Zephyr Breeze Doesn't Know How To Flirt by alafoel
Pinkie Pie Swear by Annuska
Rainbow Shadow by RainbowShadow [sic]

★: 0 | ★★: 3 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

Sounds of 2016, nos. 80 to 76

Back to 2016 again now, and today it's the final part of the bottom quarter of the Equestrian Trot 100 chart. Look, I have to say something up here, all right? :P Let's start with the usual reminder of the inclusion criteria:

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. 

Last week I had to skip the very last song of the quintet. This time, I'm delighted to say that we're back up to a full complement of five! Here's the full list of tracks:

80: OhPonyBoy – You are Wonderful
79: Silva Hound – Diamonds
78: µThunder – Lost on the Moon (remix)
77: AwkwardMarina – Open Your Eyes (a cappella cover)
76: Aviators – Dragonheart

After the jump break, if you're using a computer to view this page, I'll post the songs and some waffly waffling about them.

My Little Repeats 192: "The Washouts"

The facial expressions are great in this ep: strong without being overdone

S8E20: "The Washouts"

8 Sep 2018

My original rating: ★★★★
IMDb score: 7.2

The one with the limited edition half-eaten tomato sandwich

Thoughts: Nick Confalone is usually a decent choice for a Cutie Mark Crusaders episode, in this case a Scootaloo special, and so it proves here. We have a clearly "rebellious teen" Scoots here, and it largely works. She's no longer obsessed with Rainbow Dash, and that's leaving Dash herself confused and somewhat bereft – obvious analogy of course, but again it largely works. Lightning Dust's part was apparently spoiled in 2018, but you could guess it was coming. It makes no sense that Scoot didn't know about Dusty, though, given "Parental Glideance". Mind you, Scootaloo was superbly animated in her "caught in the middle" role during Dash and Lightning's argument. And, of course, her "I... can't fly!" which was quite something for us fans at the time. Dusty's sidekicks, the Aussie (why?) Rolling Thunder and the well-named Short Fuse, are... mildly fun. Spitfire's rant was inspired by this SNL sketch, and SNL isn't an "everyone will get this" reference in the UK. Twilight, where's the, well, loyalty to Rainbow? And why are you waiting until Scootaloo is potentially going to die before acting? Sod personal responsibility for teenagers at that point. the episode again looks fantastic, with heaps of inventiveness in the stunt setups. A fun episode, but there are enough irritations that four stars was too high. One of those is being cut.

Choice quote: Rainbow Dash, to Twilight: "Please tell me you got that stuff so you could rip it up and throw it off a cliff."

New rating:★★★

Another decent score, and though not without its flaws this episode was enjoyable enough for me to feel good about having watched it again. Next up is "A Rockhoof and a Hard Place", an ep which may have a bit more to do. I'm not that interested in the Pillars on the whole

Ponyfic Roundup 543

Read it Later story count: 87 (-2)

Words read this week: 30,385

It's been dry and warm today, but in classic "English weather" style, there's plenty of rain – and perhaps thunder – on the cards for tomorrow. I may have to spend the evening sitting indoors reading ponyfic. I know, how dreadful! Anyway, it's Wednesday and so I'm back again with another edition of Ponyfic Roundup. Here's today's selection:

Hypothetically by _Undefined_
Javelin by McPoodle
Tacet by Jade_Turtl
Numbers by The 24th Pegasus
Twilight Sparkle Has a Type by errant

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

Sounds of 2016, nos. 85 to 81

Now we return to the Equestrian Trot 100 chart for 2016. I haven't really got anything much else to say up here this time, so it's a pretty short introductory section today. Here's the usual reminder of my inclusion criteria:

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. 

We've had two weeks of being able to feature all five tracks in the relevant portion of the chart, but unfortunately the very last song this time wasn't one I could find anywhere online from the actual artist. It's not super-famous, so it has to be skipped. Sorry! Here's what I can feature:

85: FritzyBeat hugs Port Blue – Seagulls
84: GhostXb ft. Wubcake and many more – Unleash the Magic (remix)
83: Aurelleah – Rainbow Factory (remix)
82: Exiark & Chi-Chi – Life Still Left in Me (Club Mix)
81: skipped

All right, now you know what songs await you, let's get to them!

My Little Repeats 191: "Road to Friendship"

This is what I mean about the visuals. So many little details for a short scene.

S8E19: "Road to Friendship"

1 Sep 2018

My original rating: ★★★★
IMDb score: 7.9

The one with the world's longest-lasting cup of tea

Thoughts: With Pinkie's yovidaphone disaster behind us, here's a far more fondly remembered episode, and perhaps one of my favourites from Josh Haber's. Yes, it's StarTrix time! Well, not officially, but even Cadance in an admittedly slightly disconnected early scene openly notes Starlight and Trixie's chemistry together. They really are great together, even when they're bickering for days on end about carrots and juice. I enjoyed the snarkiness of their grumbling. The song is wonderful, and it's nice to see something inspired by a classic musical – reminiscent of the Sondheim homages of the early seasons. We now know "nine [seasons] at least" was indeed foreshadowing! Hoo'far was okay as a guest character, but his not being named in the episode seems bizarre: he's even "that pony from Saddle Arabia" after StarTrix have known him for ages. The pacing didn't quite keep up the snappiness that this kind of plot demands. Buuuuut I still had a lot of fun. Was some of that because I'd come off a short run of poor episodes? Well, yes. I won't deny that. Still, it both looked and sounded superb – all the little details in the inns we saw for only a second each, for example. We didn't see Saddle Arabia (the new animation would have been too expensive, according to Jim Miller) but still. Objectively "Road to Friendship" is probably a high three, but the happiness of really enjoying an episode again pushes it over the line. It can keep its four.

Choice quote: Trixie: "The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn't chant."

New rating:★★★★

That's a bit more like it! If anything this ep has become more popular as the years have passed, perhaps partly since it's one of the last examples in FiM of the successful cementing of a team-up. Of course Starlight and Trixie had worked together before, but this was the ep that truly underlined how good their chemistry was. Anyway, next up is "The Washouts", which being a Scootaloo-heavy episode I naturally liked last time – although not without reservations.

Ponyfic Roundup 542

Read it Later story count: 89 (-2)

Words read this week: 23,630

Before I forget again, I really must note that the excellent Thousand Words Contest is back for its fourth edition. Bicyclette and co have done a superb job in running this since its creation, and the sheer level of interest it's gained even in today's smaller fandom is testament to its popularity. And yes, I shall make every effort to ensure that I have a story in there somewhere! But talking of stories, here are five that I didn't write, and they're the subject of today's PR:

Love Defenestrates by Liquid Truth
Mistmane and the Torii of Time by Impossible Numbers
The Dangers Of Teleporting While Intoxicated by naturalbornderpy
Dinner with Rose by Admiral Biscuit
Reminiscing by Gleaming

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

Sounds of 2016, nos. 90 to 86

It's time we paid another visit to the Equestrian Trot 100 chart for 2016 – though, as I noted last time, it's not quite the full calendar year as its voting period ran from December 2015 to November 2016. Close enough, though! Certainly the closest you're going to get in these parts. Here's the usual reminder of my inclusion criteria:

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 was able to feature all five songs last week, and this time around I can do that again! This is always the best-case scenario, all the more so when – as has happened this week – all the songs remain on their creators' YouTubes and discoverable without much effort. The five this time are:

90: WeimTime – Rainbow Factory (orchestral arrangement)
89: StrachAttack – The Spectacle (remix)
88: OhPonyBoy – Mox Super Jupiter
87: Synthis – Hold Me Close
86: PON3 – Secrets

There we go; now you know what's on the way! Talking of which...

My Little Repeats 190: "Yakity-Sax"

Well, this isn't disturbing at all...

S8E18: "Yakity-Sax"

25 Aug 2018 (previewed by Discovery Family 20 Jul 2018)

My original rating: ★★
IMDb score: 5.3

The one with randomly Irish Lily Daisy

Thoughts: This ep was not in fact hated by everyone from the start. But it had a negative reception overall, sometimes very negative – and if anything it's got worse over time. A few nice touches, such as AJ's callback to "Horse Play". The way Pinkamena gradually gets greyer and greyer. I quite like the Pinkie Pie Appreciation Party, too. But. But. Here we have Pinkie valuing a hobby we've never seen before over her friends. Twilight making a mess of wording the "you're bad at this". Pinkie deciding the best response is to run away to Yakyakistan, saying that without the yovidaphone her life has no meaning. The Manes being unutterably thick about how they need to talk to Maud. And the rotten cherry on the whole stinking mess of a cake, the appalling moral. "Sod everyone else, Pinkie, your personal obsession beats their welfare any day!" So: don't be honest with your friends when they're keeping a whole town awake, just encourage them to annoy everyone even more! Besides, there is a canon silence spell ("Amending Fences") which Twi doesn't even mention. Use that, for Celestia's sake! There's actually a fun episode somewhere in this basic premise. The teeny, tiny snag? This ain't it.

Choice quote: Pinkie Pie: "Those apple turnovers aren't gonna apple themselves!"

New rating: ★

And breathe. Next time it'll be "Road to Friendship", which isn't a perfect episode by any means but is on another level to this. It's one of Josh Haber's most popular eps, helped by the chemistry of its principal characters and a very catchy song. I liked it a good deal in 2018, and I hope I'll like it a good deal again this year!

Ponyfic Roundup 541: Spotlight on Redheart's War

Read it Later story count: 90 (-1)

Words read this week: 46,081

I've been really looking forward to reading Redheart's War. It's had such a impressive reception, including from multiple reviewers I read and respect, and I've badly wanted to see whether it would hit the spot for me as well. For that reason, I accelerated its progress up my Read it Later queue. I can say right away that I didn't regret that decision. Here's the review!

Redheart's War by SockPuppet
Nurse Redheart, Shining Armor, Celestia, Cadance and Hippogriffs
G4; Adventure/Drama; 46k words; Jun 2020; Teen (Gore, Violence)

A nurse has seen it all. A combat medic has seen even more.

Although this can, as SockPuppet says, be read as a standalone, I strongly recommend having read A Story to Relate To (PR 507) and, especially, The Ponies in the Caves (PR 523) first as certain elements are referred to here. Anyway, this is Nurse Redheart's backstory as a member of Celestia's Own, Equestria's storied elite combat unit. The admittedly fairly thin domestic modern-day framing allows her to tell series of stories about her role, which show a mare of immense character who rises above her doubts to become a hero of her country. There's a lot of blood and guts here, but the emphasis is always on character rather than history, and that's a huge plus. It's an extremely exciting fic, with highs and lows of emotions – one particular very hard-to-read scene had me white with fury and in tears. Its flaws are few and minor, and vastly outweighed by the pluses. I'm not a huge war fic fan, but I now consider this essential, if not always easy, reading. ★★★★★

As usual, major spoilers lurk beyond this line!

Sounds of 2016, nos. 95 to 91

Ready to join me again on a trip into the dim and distant world of, er, nine years ago? At this point in 2016, the last two FiM episodes had been "A Hearth's Warming Tail" and "The Saddle Row Review", so there was a fair degree of optimism around regarding the show. It's the fandom music scene I'm interested in here, though. As usual, the ratings come from the Equestrian Trot 100 chart, whose voting period ran from December 2015 through to November 2016. Here's the usual reminder of my inclusion criteria:

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. 

Last week, I had to skip the very first song (ie no. 100) but the other four could be included. This week, on the other hoof, it's plain sailing all the way, since I can feature all five songs. Woo-hoo!

95: Synthis – Into the Everfree
94: WoodLore – Flowers
93: 4EverfreeBrony ft. Joaftheloaf & Relative1Pitch – Without Me
92: The Wasteland Wailers ft. Brittany Church – When the Sun Comes Back
91: Eurobeat Brony ft. Odyssey – Luna's Future (Euro Cast Mix)

As ever, that marks the end of the introductory waffle. Now it's on to the songs themselves. Woo-hoo again!

My Little Repeats 189: "The End in Friend"

Lyra and Bon-Bon's colour co-ordinated ice creams are a nice touch

S8E17: "The End in Friend"

18 Aug 2018

My original rating: ★★
IMDb score: 6.4

The one with an adorable tiny cloud

Thoughts: To my surprise, when I looked back I found that several prominent reviewers (notably Dark Qiviut) liked this episode in 2018. I wasn't thrilled by it, though, and I'm still not. Another ep with a good and quite rare team-up largely wasted. The setup grates: Gallus tells Rarity and Rainbow they have "nothing in common". Nah, apart from repeatedly saving Equestria together, nothing whatsoever. By the time we get to "banter" things look fairly bad. The story drags horribly to fill a full-length episode. It's contrived in the first place, and Twilight and the students being there as spectators is just weird. The Bufogren is pointless. Good things? Starlight had a pretty solid minor role, which helps. The visuals are excellent – I wonder who'd have believed in 2010 that Flash could look like this? The moral itself isn't too bad. But it takes forever to get there and the setup requires two good ponies to be dislikeable for most of the running time. A two-star rating like the last episode, but this one goes quite a bit lower in that band.
NB: One small and sadly (this being S8) almost certainly unintentional nice touch, pointed out by a friend: real-world horses cannot see reds, so actually magenta and blue gems would appear similar – though Rarity apparently can tell the difference.

Choice quote: Rainbow Dash: "Unless you like tripping with every step, heels on a horse are pretty useless."
Note she says "horse", not "pony". Hmm.

New rating: ★★

Not an unmitigated disaster, but not a great episode by any stretch of the imagination. It would be nice if I had an unquestioned classic with which to follow up, but sadly I haven't. Instead the next episode is "Yakity-Sax". Oh boy. Maybe it'll click with me this time. [Yeah, and maybe you'll win three lottery jackpots in a row —Ed.]

Ponyfic Roundup 540

Read it Later story count: 91 (-1)

Words read this week: 20,712

Not a lot for me to say in my introductory paragraph this week, so I won't bother! Thanks to the lower word count this week, I've been able to get back on track with PR's release date. Four very short fics and one just a bit longer this time around. Here's the list:

"Do wings turn you gay, Headmare Twilight?" by semillon
A Letter to Father by Silvermyr
The Roles We (Are Fated to) Play by AltruistArtist
Lumen de Lumine by Noriko Nakayama
The Only Way is Forwards by Once In A Blue Moon

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

Sounds of 2016, nos. 100 to 96

It's now time to set off on another journey into the past, with "Sounds of 2016". As for the 2015 series, I will be taking chart positions from the Equestria Trot 100. I should note right at the start that this does not quite use the calendar year: it is based on "chart points" from 5th December 2015 to 26th November 2016. These were based on monthly votes, weekly views and weekly likes, but I don't know the precise formula. I assume the eligibility period was so that they could do a big Hearth's Warming special with the list, but I don't know for sure. Anyway, my criteria for inclusion remain as they were:

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. 

It's often the case that some of the songs down in the lower reaches of these charts have disappeared into the ether with the passing of the years, and so it is today. Somewhat disappointingly, the very first song I would have liked to have featured today is one I have to skip. Still, I've managed to find official uploads of the other four, so we're not too badly off! Here we go:

100: skipped
99: PrinceWhateverer ft. CookieSoup – A Place That We Call Home
98: PON3 – We Can Fly
97: Synthis ft. Sora – Insane
96: PON3 – Proxy

The four tracks I can feature will be past the jump break (if you're on a computer) and as ever will include a YouTube embed of the song, a few brief details and if possible a place to buy a high-quality version of the tune. Off we go!

My Little Repeats 188: "Friendship University"

Surely the natural way for unicorns to wear 'em in any case...

S8E16: "Friendship University"

11 Aug 2018

My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 6.5

The one with friendship through sewing

Thoughts: This episode was moderately – but no more – liked by most in 2018. Anyway, here the FlimFlams bring freemium education to Equestria (h/t FOME). Their episodes have never really matched their debut for me, and by now they were becoming rather one-dimensional. Neighsay's approval of their university's "pony-first environment" isn't exactly cheering, either. Starswirl's support act is fun, though, and naive as he is, he does have a point. So, I have to admit, does Neighsay: Twi is reacting as though she had a Tia-given right to have the only friendship school in Equestria. Best thing about the ep? Plainity, surely. She carries that off with real verve. A pity there's the unbelievable bit where FlimFlam don't recognise her even out of disguise. And the other one where nopony notices there's an alicorn in the uni. Still, the final scene with Cozy Glow hits a little harder than it did in 2018. So, too many niggles to get a really good rating, but in truth not as bad as I was remembering. A top-end two seems about right now.

Choice quote: Twilight: "My name's Eyepatch. I have an eyepatch."

New rating: ★★

In the end, "Friendship University" just about managed a passing grade. Next up is "The End in Friend", which I don't remember especially fondly. Maybe that too will have its moments. Join me to find out, same channel but whenever I get round to it!

Ponyfic Roundup 539

Read it Later story count: 92 (+2)

Words read this week: 31,117

Two days late this week, but I think I can be excused that given my need to accompany a relative to a hospital as mentioned in my brief post on Tuesday! Things have calmed down a great deal since, and I'm pleased to be able to bring you the usual selection of five stories. I haven't really got anything else to say, so I'll move on to the story list now:

The Scars of the Past by Lil Penpusher
Hobby Horse by a kobold
The Tower of the Fallen Star by Raleigh
All Our Villains are Horny by billymorph
Night of the Living Plushies by Moonlight Bloom

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

Another PR delay, I'm afraid

Spending the night in a hospital waiting room with a relative will do that to you! Don't worry, it didn't turn out to be anything too terrifying, but there's no chance I'll be ready for Wednesday now. (It's also the reason for no G4 rewatch post this week.) So again, Ponyfic Roundup will be on a Friday this week.

Ponyfic Roundup 538

Read it Later story count: 92 (+2)

Words read this week: 18,252

The hot weather has gone now, although it's still pleasant enough. Not a lot going on in terms of small-scale domestic stuff. People are preparing for tomorrow's VE Day 80 celebrations, but those are mostly of the fairly low-key "put a few Union Flags¹ up" kind. As far as ponyfic goes: as trailed last time, only having five days instead of seven to read this week's stories (and write up their reviews) has meant I couldn't risk having a high word count. I hope that the lack of words will not mean a lack of interest!

¹ The common modern insistence that "Union Jack" is only correct when it's flown from a ship's jackstaff is pretty footling. The term "jack" as applied to flags predates the use of jackstaffs by over a century, as the Flag Institute points out.

Wrong Turn by saarni
Reflection by Moproblems Moharmoney
Fixer-Upper by hoofbeatsoftime
Spike Destroys (Creates) Everything by Surry
The Wealth of the World by very trustworthy rodent

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

My Little Repeats 187: "The Hearth's Warming Club"

Only tangential to this, but relevant to many of us who remember its use at past conventions: Skype has finally shut up shop. I'm sure all of us who went to cons years ago remember what a pain Skype could sometimes be, but it certainly played a significant part in that part of the fandom in the pre-Covid era. Consider this brief comment an acknowledgement of that.

"That means character, students, not random hoof raise! Have you even played charades?"

S8E15: "The Hearth's Warming Club"

4 Aug 2018

My original rating: ★★★★
IMDb score: 7.7

The one with the Mt Eris Board of Tourism

Thoughts: This episode aired on the same day as "A Matter of Principals", and unless you find the Young Six boring or outright off-putting, it's more enjoyable. After the fine "Surf and/or Turf" I expected good things from a Brian Hohlfeld story, and so it proved. A friend noted recently that a good chunk of 2010s TV writers adore referencing The Breakfast Club, so probably this setup wasn't that surprising, but good execution can make almost anything work. Twilight's threat of collective punishment (no holidays for anycreature) really rubs me up the wrong way, but the rest is highly watchable, even if Gallus's guilt is fairly obvious from the start if you think about it at all. I didn't see his sad home life story coming, though. Changeling Hearth's Warming ("Carols carols carols carols carols!") is genius, and the Yak Song is great too. Sandbar's stories are dull, but I just suspect he's doing that deliberately as a deadpan satire on his boring old pony image. This is an episode where my initial four-star rating might be just a tad generous, but "THWC" really doesn't do much wrong, and by mid-S8 that's notable and refreshing. In the spirit of August Hearth's Warming, I'm going to let it stand!

Choice quote: Gallus: "Two whole weeks without classes, how will Ocellus survive?"

New rating: ★★★★

That was an entertaining experience. Unfortunately I now enter a short run of episodes which I don't expect to do so well: "Friendship University", "The End in Friend" and "Yakity-Sax". If any of those get more than two stars from me I shall be pleasantly surprised, but I will as always give them a fair go! First up will be Flim and Flam's time in academia.

Ponyfic Roundup 537

Read it Later story count: 90 (+1)

Words read this week: 30,956

I was in Cheltenham yesterday and it was ridiculously warm. 27 °C wouldn't be at all exceptional for England in the middle of July, but on 1st May it was pretty close to an all-time date record. So, there's the intro. Not very interesting, but then I haven't got a lot to say this week, other than that two days later than usual here's Ponyfic Roundup once again!

All But Two by Caisius
Rivers of Babylon by A Hoof-ful of Dust
Silver String of Love by foxmaster
The Monster We Made by Corah Il Cappo
Twilight Sparkle and the Elements of Bootlegs by TheDriderPony

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

One of those little meta posts

I've been much busier than I'd expected this past week, so this will be one of those times when Ponyfic Roundup needs to be slightly delayed. The current plan is to post it on Friday, then have quite a low word count next week to allow me to return to Wednesday from the 7th. This busy week is also why I'm having a short break before getting going on "Sounds of 2016" – though it's coming soon!

My Little Repeats 186: "A Matter of Principals"

Note: I'm reviewing "A Matter of Principals" now because I'm going by the episode order used in the Wikipedia article. That means "Yakity-Sax" will be treated as episode 18, despite having been previewed (and first seen by me) at the end of the mid-season hiatus. I did go back and forth about this a few times, but in the end I chose to stick with what I'm doing now.

Maybe they should just have made the marmoset a substitute teacher...

S8E14: "A Matter of Principals"

4 Aug 2018

My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 6.4

The one with Limburger cheese

Thoughts: Apart from the preview of "Yakity-Sax" as noted above, part two of S8 began with a double-header, of which this was the first. The whole Mane Six are called away on a map quest, and finally realise how the School of Friendship's setup is stupidly idiotic requires backup in these circumstances. So Starlight is made acting head mare, since Twilight couldn't be bothered to make her deputy to start with. Anyway, the ep gets going with Discord's interference with the selection of substitute teachers.¹ Iron Will's cameo is disappointing, we weirdly don't see Maud teaching at all, and Trixie's appointment is somewhat nepotistic but Discord's "how do you do, fellow kids?" take-off and bananaphone are mildly amusing, if both over-extended. (Pacing is often off by this point, as many have observed. So is dialogue, which doesn't much zing here.) Spike has quite a solid episode, and Starlight does too for the most part. But Discord is far too unpleasant to the students, and what he does to Yona is indefensible. He had that zap coming. I actually do like the idea that Discord feels left out of the School, and after that apology to him I reckon Starlight was clever enough to have it out with him later, away from the rest. But the execution before that rubs me up so much the wrong way that it significantly harms my enjoyment of the episode as a whole. Sadly, another one I'm knocking down to a two, albeit not as low a two as I'd feared.
¹ Supply teachers – though the American term is starting to gain ground in the UK too.

Choice quote: Gallus to Silverstream: "You've been underwater a long time. Haven't you?"
The gap before the last two words sounds weirdly unnatural, but it's still a fun line.

New rating: ★★

Next up, of course, will be the second episode in the aforementioned double-header, "The Hearth's Warming Club". That one was well received at the time, and I know I enjoyed it quite a bit. I hope I do again!

Ponyfic Roundup 536: Comedy Special

Read it Later story count: 89 (nc)

Words read this week: 30,946

Before I get going today, I'd like to acknowledge the fact that DrakeyC has announced their retirement from ponyfic and from fanfic as a whole. A very fine writer, good enough indeed to have been asked to write official MLP content (several of the claymation shorts). I certainly wish them well for the future. Back to the matter in hoof, and today it's all about the [Comedy] tag. I'm looking here for stories that are actually funny, which isn't quite the norm is should be when it comes to this genre marker! Let's see what these fics can do:

Beating the Deadbeat by BikerPon3
Metagaming by Snowday_Pegasus
Starlight Saves Equestria With Custard by hawthornbunny
Lyra's Deepest Secret by Palm Palette
Regarding the Need for Sex Education by GaPJaxie

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

Sounds of 2015, nos. 5 to 1!

Here we are at the grand finale! The top five songs, as voted for by users, in the Equestrian Trot 100 chart for 2015. As a reminder, the tracks don't have to have been released in that year; as you'll have seen if you've been following along, plenty of 2014 songs (and one or two from even earlier than that) have been featured in the 2015 list so far. Now, up until now my inclusion criteria have been as follows:

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. 

However, the top five of an annual chart open internationally is not just anywhere. At that point, I think a song is famous pretty much by definition. As such, Rule 3 applies across the board today. That means every song will be featured, even if it's no longer available officially. As it happens, though, all the songs are still available officially, so it doesn't matter anyway! :P Here's the list:

5: OhPonyBoy – We Dreamt Our Dream
4: Scratch21 ft. EileMonty – Strangers
3: Black Gryph0n & Baasik – Fighting Back
2: WoodenToaster – Prototype VIP
1: MandoPony & Silva Hound – Wild Fire

That's the (not very exciting) build-up finished. If you're reading on a PC or in Desktop Mode, there's a jump break below, but either way beyond this point are the tracks themselves. Read on...

Ponyfic Roundup 535

Read it Later story count: 89 (-2)

Words read this week: 30,861

As I anticipated last week, the endless blue skies have... ended. The weather now isn't awful, but it's much more typical of England in April. That means plenty of cloud, some brisk winds, scattered showers and the like. Just the weather for sitting inside with a good ponyfic! Talking of which, here's what I've been reading recently:

The Same Scenario Repeated Three Times by Seer
Celestia's Prophet by Aegis Shield
Late Night Snack by GrangeDisplay
A Little Bittle of Sunshine by River Road
In His Image by daOtterGuy

★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 0 | ★★★★: 3 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

Sounds of 2015, nos. 10 to 6

It's been quite a ride, but here we are at the penultimate "Sounds of 2015" entry! Yes, I absolutely will be doing the same for 2016 when the time comes, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. As a reminder, this is based on the chart given in the Equestrian Trot 100 for that year, as voted by users – sadly I'm not certain of the precise voting mechanism. My usual inclusion criteria follow:

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. 

We're into the top ten now, everyone! I was going to think about whether I should invoke Rule 3 as a blanket thing at this point in the chart, or just for the top five next time, but in fact that's not an issue as all today's songs are still officially available. Yay for people making my job here easier!

10: Pinkie Rose et al – Friendship Through the Ages (cover)
9: Michelle Creber, Black Gryph0n & Baasik – Getting Stronger
8: Sayonara Maxwell – Cupcakes (remix)
7: Wasteland Wailers – Fly Like You
6: SquareHead – Under Our Spell (remix)

Well, there you are. Usual intro bit over with, so let's get into the music...

My Little Repeats 185: Rollercoaster of Friendship

Look, just be grateful I resisted the temptation to use a pic where they're gazing into each other's eyes!

Rollercoaster of Friendship

6 Jul 2018

My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 6.7

The one with Megan Williams

Thoughts: This just got a three-star score from me first time out. It's where we encounter villain/antagonist Vignette Valencia, who by chance got a look-in last Ponyfic Roundup. Amazingly, a seven-year-old cartoon's social media stuff doesn't come across as unbearably prehistoric now; nice work, Nick Confalone. Valencia's zapping phone thing is silly, but that's okay. The solution to the "white room" problem, though, is idiotically stupid and a significant mark against the special. Vignette reforms much too quickly and easily, but the end song is okay if not amazing. Mostly, though, Rollercoaster of Friendship is remembered for the RariJack shipteasing, of which there is plenty almost from the word go. Just a little FlutterDashing on the side, too. Other notes: (some) Americans pronouncing "caramel" as two syllables always gets me. Vignette's dog being called "Yas Queen" is... strange. The ponying up late on is pointless, but apparently Hasbro demanded it, so... I think my overall view is the same: not quite as good as Forgotten Friendship, but though bitty and imperfect it is still quite fun – and so it maintains its rating as a low-end three.

Choice quote: Sunset: "It's not about the parakeet!"

New rating: ★★★

Unlike in 2018, I don't now have to wait ages for the next Friendship is Magic episode, which is nice. As I said last time, in strict release order the next ep would be "Yakity-Sax" – but although I did watch it early back then, pretty much everyone places it at E18 nowadays. That being so, I will have to put off the misery experience for another time. "A Matter of Principles" will be next on this blog.