Text Review Roundup: "Spice Up Your Life"

Yeah, I know, I know. I completely forgot about this, to be honest. Still, here we go with the final TRR of this half-season. We have a slight changing of the guard as far as text-based reviewers are concerned this time, with a little more churn than usual. On the whole, "Spice Up Your Life" was considered a good episode but not a great one.

Articles of Destroyer – positive (rated 8/10)

Cartoon Amino – positive ("a good way to start off the hiatus")

Derpy News – very positive (graded A-)

Louder Yay – mildly positive ("It's... nice")

MLP Fanatic – broadly positive ("a good episode")

Super Mario Brony Blog – positive (rated four stars)

TheDragonWarlock – fairly positive (rated 8/10)

Thrond Media Pony Corner – positive ("another solid episode")

Ponyfic Roundup 113: Brexit for Breakfast

Given that I'm interested in politics, and that there's been a teensy, weensy, eensy bit of that going on in the UK this week, it probably won't surprise you to know that my reading time has been very limited. Still, I'd hate to deprive my wonderful readers of ponyfic just because nobody currently knows who'll be running the country by breakfast time each day, so here we go. Again, a smaller edition than usual with just four stories, but there's interest to be found.

The Visiting Hour by Horse Voice
The Flower's Dream by FanOfMostEverything
Swine Flew by Blue Print
Of Forecast and Flames by ANearPerfectStudent

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

Pony Music Library 15: "Princess Twilight Orchestral Suite"

This was already in the queue, but with the terrible news that MelodicPony has died at the absurdly early age of 27, it seems only right and proper to bring its feature forward.

( Text link )

What? "Princess Twilight Orchestral Suite"

Who? MelodicPony

Which? Original song

When? April 2013

Why? Orchestral isn't the most popular musical genre in the fandom, but there's some truly wonderful work around even so. MelodicPony was one of the foremost exponents of the arc. He wrote several pieces that I really like, and this may well not be the last MelodicPony track I feature here. This one seems to me to perfectly capture the emotion behind the events leading up to Twilight's ascension, and wonderfully judges the use of just enough segments from several of the canon songs; "Celestia's Ballad" is especially well integrated. Even without the recent tragic news, this is a deeply touching piece.

Comic review: Friends Forever #29: Rarity and Maud Pie

Tony Fleecs's art really does look good these days

Okay, while I wait for my country to disintegrate around me (or not), here's a belated review of the most recent FF comic. I'm pleased to say that the team of Ted Anderson, Brenda Hickey and Heather Breckel have produced a very entertaining adventure story here, a little reminiscent of a tamer Daring Do story in places. Having Rarity and Maud meet at a rock convention is a brilliant idea, one that instantly makes perfect sense. I also like the gimmick of having snippets from Rarity's diary to fill in the gaps around the speech bubbles. The villain isn't one of the greatest and the ending is a little abrupt, but this is plenty of fun, the artwork is pleasant to look at and the whole thing is easy to recommend. ★★★★

UK of Equestria's overall S6A ranking list

Over on the UK of Equestria forums, we asked people to rank the pre-hiatus Season Six episodes from 1-11 (counting the premiere as one). We had 14 responses, not bad for a half-season, and below you can see the mean ranking table. Any episode with an average rating of second or above gets five stars. Then down to fourth, four; down to sixth, three; down to eighth, two; and any episode which scored an overall ranking below eighth is lumbered with a one-star rating.

★★★★★
1. The Saddle Row Review

★★★★
2. A Hearth's Warming Tail

★★★
3. Newbie Dash
4. The Gift of the Maud Pie
5. Gauntlet of Fire

★★
6. On Your Marks
7. Flutter Brutter
8. Spice Up Your Life
9. No Second Prances
10. The Crystalling

★
11. Applejack's "Day" Off

It was noticeable this time how many episodes were considered meh-to-good, with few attracting widespread praise or condemnation. "The Saddle Row Review" was an exception, featuring in all 14 voters' top three; the last episode to be universally liked was "Amending Fences" in S5. The most controversial ep (in terms of having the highest standard deviation of scores) was, a little surprisingly, "A Hearth's Warming Tail". 12 voters put it in their top four... but the other two placed it dead last!

I'm not sure there are really too many other surprises in the list. "Newbie Dash" may have been torn apart by some critics, but that opinion wasn't widely shared here: exactly half of the 14 voters placed the episode in their top four. On the other hand, "Applejack's 'Day' Off" was poorly received, with only one person putting it above seventh. "The Crystalling" only just scraped a two-star rating, too.

Ponyfic Roundup 112: 'Cause When we Vote Together, we get Imprisoned for Fraud

The EU referendum is tomorrow, and as anyone who knows me will already know, I'll be voting Remain. Whether that wins or loses, though, I'll have to put up with the result. The only certainty is that a lot of people will be upset. So here's a mixed bag of ponyfic to cheer everyone up. Possibly. Only four stories today, I'm afraid, as I'm still getting back up to speed after my little break.

My Little A.I. by teamidris
Proofreading Clopfics Sucks by Idiotcornball
Hypothesis of Collusion by Noble Cause
Crusading for Eternity by TooShyShy

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

Episode review: S6E12: "Spice Up Your Life"

"I know smiles – and Rarity's smile? It's just not right"

At last, I have the time to write a review of the final episode of My Little Pony to go out before the mid-season hiatus. This ep was written by Michael Vogel, the guy who absolutely nailed it with "A Hearth's Warming Tail" a few weeks ago, so I was pretty optimistic going in. As I'm a week late, it's probably a bit silly using a break to protect people from spoilers, but I'll do it anyway – so come along with me for a (short) review of the episode.