Happy 10th birthday, "Luna"!

Eurobeat Brony – Luna (NIGHTMARE MODE)

 

Another of the very early fandom classics to have endured turns ten years old today! Eurobeat Brony's "Luna" was first uploaded to YouTube in May 2011. There are two versions, with "NIGHTMARE MODE" pre-dating "DREAM MODE" by a single day. In fact, the two versions are identical for most of their running time, with the Nightmare version simply having a different ending. Personally I prefer the Dream one, but I have to go with Nightmare today as it did get uploaded first!

It's worth noting that, despite what is sometimes suggested, we are not hearing Luna (or indeed Celestia) in this song, but someone else. From the video description: "The lyrics are sung from the perspective of a third-party character who is undergoing a similar situation to Luna during her banishment to the moon. It is neither Luna nor Celestia singing this song."

Ponyfic Roundup 343

Read it Later story count: 145 (-2) 

We're going in the right direction again with the RiL list, albeit not by very much. In this part of the world not a lot is happening that's worth commenting on, though when has that ever stopped me in the past? Since that is the case, though, let's get right on to today's three stories:

A Guide to Magic by bookplayer
Who We Are in the Dark by FanOfMostEverything
Forever by Lynked

★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.

UK PonyConline report, part 3 (Saturday, second half) – Command and Conga

The Art Storm crew try their hooves at drawing G1 Gusty

On the Saturday afternoon, after a gentle introduction with a "Which Pony are YOU?" quiz (guess!) it was off to the Art Storm. This is a UKPC Online fixture, hosted by StormBlaze, in which half a dozen or so artists are challenged to draw (on camera) a certain character, scene or whatever. These are good artists, the likes of Jowy, StewArt etc, so there's both admiration for their efforts and amusement at some of their decisions.

At 5pm came Mastermind. As with the TV show, this consisted of a specialised subject and a general knowledge round for each competitor. It was quite impressive how much each person knew, even if Ace shocked the world by getting a Sunburst question wrong. (Sorry, Ace, but it had to be said!) The tech failed near the end, which was a shame, but it was certainly a fun game that could be continued both online and at future in-person cons.

Straight after this came what was officially billed as "Q&A with Elley-Ray" but which should really be called The Elley-Ray Show. As anyone who's ever encountered her in any setting will know, Elley-Ray is one of a kind, almost a force of nature in her own right. She spoke movingly about how much she missed two-way conversations, as well as dropping a hint or two about G5. (I got the feeling she may even be voicing someone!)

Mult1C0nG4

That was about it for the formal part of Saturday's schedule for me, as Fallout: Equestria isn't my thing, though I did catch some of Chaosi's "How to Draw Cyber/Synthwave Ponies" panel and that turned out to be more interesting than I'd expected. Thankfully this quieter evening actually allowed me to do a little shopping, something I simply hadn't had the time to get done until then!

Oh, and yes, Pony Town was still very much a thing. For reasons it would be hard to explain (mainly because I don't know – and I was there!) we'd now progressed to forming long conga lines and telling each other terrible jokes. Some of these were bread-themed, since UKPC Online tends to do that. There was also some music that evening, though none of the musicians were a must for me.

As with a traditional physical convention, Sunday's schedule looked a bit quieter than Saturday's. As things turned out, that was true to an extent, but not quite as much as I had expected it to be. Once again I was confused by actually being able to sleep properly, but maybe the muffins were responsible for that. At any rate, the con had been a success so far. Would it continue that way? We'd see!

Next time: evil quizzes, cider revelations, punions and water-carrying

The birth of two fandom legends: PinkiePieSwear's first track turns 10 today!

PinkiePieSwear - Giggle at the Ghostly (Simple Joy Mix)

His first one still available, at any rate. If there were any before this, they've long since faded into obscurity. PinkiePieSwear would go on to create two cast-iron fandom classics, "Flutterwonder" and "Sunshine and Celery Stalks", but this remix of Pinkie's S1 premiere song came well before either of those. It's a simple thing by comparison with some Pony fan tracks, and I'm not sure the transition around 2:40 works that well, but for the most part it's still good listening today.

So, why two fandom legends? Because, as some of you will doubtless have realised as soon as you heard it, the little introductory instrumental phrase was reused a few weeks later by Swagberg (ft. Maros) for the hugely successful "Pony Swag". We'll get to that one on its own 10th birthday in July!

UK PonyConline report, part 2 (Saturday, first half) – All hail Mult1C0rN!

Mult1C0rN in all his glory. If that's the right word

Now, normally I make quite an effort to catch the early parts of UK PonyCon, even when it's online and standing in a queue in the rain for an hour isn't a risk. However, this time I missed a couple of hours. I did have a rather good excuse, though, in that I had a pressing appointment at the local Covid vaccination centre. There aren't many things more important than ponies, but one of them happened to arrive on this Saturday! Happily everything went smoothly and I was home again by midday.

Just in time to catch the first highlight of the weekend, the Bad OC Contest! This was organised by people from PoniesOnline (another online con) and was pretty much what it sounded. You won by creating a bad OC, and by winning over the crowd in the UKPC Discord since that was how voting was done. With five entries, there was just time in the one-hour timeslot to allow a round robin format, with everyone's OC pitted against all the others.

And guess what? My OC won! You can see the victorious Mult1C0rN at the head of this post. I find it immensely amusing that my very first win in any convention contest came in one where I had to be as bad as possible. Mult1C0rN was drawn entirely by mouse in GIMP, and this seemed to work quite well as he demolished all competition. It wasn't just about bad visual design, though: a winning Bad OC also needed a Bad Backstory. And yes, I'm going to inflict Mult1C0rN's on you:

Mult1C0rN draws his extreme power level from the multiple transparent horns. They're transparent so he can use them as lightsticks for raves, and he can grow new ones at will simply by shouting, "Multi Multi Multi!" His red body signifies the blood of his enemies and the coloured hooves show his softer side. He can use his massive tail as a sunshade or football scarf as it can change colour.

He has two shapeshifting cutie marks, both almost the same colour as his coat and allowing Mult1C0rN to disguise himself as a blank flank to trick his prey into thinking he's just a harmless colt who happens to have a sick and intimidating design. Although the cutie marks can shapeshift, Mult1C0rN can't. In any case the cutie marks can only change to other shades of red or occasionally black, as no other colour is cool enough.

His head is mostly shaved to take his style points over ten thousand (over nine thousand just isn't enough for him!) but he has a silver mane around the back because silvermanes are wise and know everything. Although most of his coat is red, his legs and hooves are all different colours. This is to reassure other ponies that he isn't Tirek doing a bad cosplay. He wears no horseshoes because he's just too tough for that.

Mult1C0rN most likes to hunt and eat Victoria Sponge cakes from the staff room at Ponyville Schoolhouse. His sworn enemy is Cheerilee, who he hopes one day to defeat in single cake-bat. The best way to anger Mult1C0rN is to mis-spell his name as he is very proud of the numbers in it. His favourite number is twenty-four million, five hundred and sixty-seven thousand, eight hundred and thirty seven.

Start as you mean to go on, that's what I always say

After this extremely entertaining panel, it was straight off to "How to be Ace at Photography 2.0", presented by two good friends of mine, Ace himself and Zenfox. They'd done a similar panel at a previous UK PonyConline, and this was a rather slicker version. Ace's remarkable AJ impression is sadly indescribable. At about this point, also, I finally gave in to entreaties from the Discord to bring Mult1C0rN to the UKPC Pony Town server. This proved to be very interesting!

Pony Town, for those unfamiliar with it, is a 2D pixely game in which you create and control pony characters and interact with others in a simple world, either a public one or (as here) a closed server for a specific event. I'd never played Pony Town before as it didn't sound all that involving, but in the event I ended up spending a good deal of time there during this con. I still don't find it especially deep, and I know I'd get bored if I spent hours every day there, but I will be keeping it bookmarked!

Next time: Stormy Art, conga lines, Elley-Ray and minor meme status

Aaaaand we're back!

It seems that all of Blogger had a problem for a while yesterday. If you tried to visit this blog and got one of those big scary browser messages about a "dangerous site" then that's why. You may have noticed that Equestria Daily (also Blogger-based) went down too. Apologies to anyone who was caught up in this, but as far as I know I'm not dangerous. Probably.

I was going to write the second part of my UK PonyConline report yesterday, but the thankfully temporary problem and my need to investigate it means that it will now have to wait a day or two. You won't want to miss it, though! Well, possibly.

My Little Repeats 78: "Simple Ways"

"If I cover myself in this earth, I can be an earth pony too!"

S4E13: "Simple Ways"
Written by Josh Haber
8 Feb 2014

My original rating: 7/10 (=★★★)
IMDb score: 7.4

The one with Spike's fourth-wall break

Thoughts: UK PonyConline delayed this one, so let's get cracking. Not up to "Pinkie Pride" quality, but few episodes are. In all honesty, a lot of this is what we'd come to know and love (or not, depending on preference) as Josh Haberish. A bit of odd characterisation for the sake of laughs: Rarity not knowing how ploughs work is only one of several instances. There's a little gratuitous Derpy and all in all just a general feeling that this ep is here for people to have fun with rather than as a meticulously crafted piece of writing about Equestria. That isn't a bad aim in itself, and indeed it is fun on a slightly superficial level, but I might have struggled to get it above a high two-star rating without the part that "broke Tabitha" – Ms St. Germain's brilliant voice-acting turn as "Country Rarity". The episode is worth watching for that alone, and to be fair the actual moral of being true to who you are is a pretty solid and Pony-appropriate one. I find Trenderhoof himself a bit forgettable, especially as Rarity's infatuation with him comes out of nowhere, but he's not the point. With apologies to Apple Jewel, Country Rarity is the point. As such, this still gets a three.

Choice quote: Rarity on Trenderhoof: "He knows what's going to be hot even before it's tepid!"

New rating: ★★★

Next up is "Filli Vanilli". And if you think I'm going to be calm and non-committal about that one, you haven't known me very long. :D