Tuesday 26 March 2024

Ponyfic Roundup 483: 2,000th review and 10th anniversary special: Spotlight on The Silver Standard

Read it Later story count: 95 (-1)

Words read this week: 296,450

Okay, okay, I didn't read all those words this week. But I did read them all for this review! It is ten years to the very day since my first Ponyfic Roundup, and The Silver Standard is also my 2,000th PR fic. I didn't plan that the two should coincide, at least not until very recently, but I'm not complaining! Today's fic is the fourth longest I've ever featured on these virtual pages,¹ and as such it took me quite some while to read. Was it worth it? Yes it was. Read on...
¹ After Fallout: Equestria (PR 5), The Life and Times of a Winning Pony (PR 68) and The Immortal Game (PR 154).

The Silver Standard by PatchworkPoltergeist
Silver Spoon, Diamond Tiara, CMCs and Other
G4; Drama/Slice of Life; 296k words; Apr 2015–Apr 2018
; Everyone

Once upon a time, Silver Spoon's life made sense. Now she lives in Ponyville.

For many, perhaps most, MLP fans Silver Spoon isn't a character they spend a lot of time thinking about, except in a vague "Diamond Tiara's sidekick" kind of way. The Silver Standard may well change your mind. A tale running from before S1 of Friendship is Magic until after the events of "Crusaders of the Lost Mark", the fic gives us a far wider and deeper insight into what it's like to be Silver Spoon. The story's length allows substantial sidelights such as a grippingly vicious battle of wills and words at Silver's old school or the gently running mystery of what "battletag" actually is, while other foals such as Dinky "The Dink" Hooves (interestingly portrayed as almost playground royalty) and Berry Pinch are given plenty of development too. Canon events happen all the time – Twilight's ascension, Tirek's attack, the bugbear, etc – but only rarely is Silver front and centre and the story is written to reflect this. Written very well, at that, with consistently excellent character work. A really satisfying read that easily justified the time I spent reading it. Top marks! ★★★★★

As usual with Spotlight reviews, if you continue reading then expect spoilers!

Monday 25 March 2024

Hat Man Reviews

I don't know whether this is a one-off or the start of something more, but it's always great to see new ponyfic reviewers around the place! Well-known Fimfictioneer The Hat Man has posted a fairly detailed review of Bandy's adventure story H A Z E. That's not a fic I've read myself, but I still enjoyed reading The Hat Man's thoughts. The more people putting the time into writing MLP fanfiction reviews, the better!

Wednesday 20 March 2024

Ponyfic 2,000 (so to speak) – Feeble attempts at hype

I did promise/threaten you all that a post like this would be coming! As you'll know if you've been paying even marginal attention, my next Ponyfic Roundup review will be the two thousandth story I have covered! I'm also going to be publishing it on Tuesday 26th, since that's ten years to the day since PR 1. (For the sake of it, the first fic I wrote about was Capn_Chryssalid's The Best Night Ever.)

Now, I am not the only person who knows the story I am about to name as the 2,000th! Why? Because I revealed it at the last Worcester Shires ponymeet. (Come to Worcester Shires for exclusive ponyfic review revelations!) However, I'm pretty sure the number who already know is in single figures... until now. Are you excited, 'cause I'm excited, I've never been so excited— [Oh, get on with it! —Ed.]

Okay, here goes. The 2,000th Ponyfic Roundup review will be a Spotlight for...

The Silver Standard by PatchworkPoltergeist

Wait, what? Logan's been reading a near-300,000-word fic? About Silver Spoon? Surely some mistake? But no! I was told by several friends that The Silver Standard was really good and easily worth the time investment. I therefore decided that it was time to find out whether I agreed – and what better place to publish my thoughts than in a landmark review? You'll see how it fares in just six days' time!

Monday 18 March 2024

Some very early G4 merch!

One or two of you will have already seen this, but I thought it might interest a few others. I found this by accident while looking for very old fandom stuff. It's a video of some of Hasbro's exhibits at the 2010 Toy Fair, an important annual trade-only showcase. Lots of Strawberry Shortcake in there and a little G3.5 MLP, but at 3:45 (and in the video thumbnail!) we get a little time with a few very familiar characters!

This video was uploaded on 17th February 2010, so as of this moment it stands as the oldest G4 video I've ever seen. If you know of anything older, please do let me know in the comments!

Wednesday 13 March 2024

Ponyfic Roundup 482

Read it Later story count: 96 (+3)

Words read this week: 23,796

Four stories only to review today, since that will take me to 1,999 of the things since I started out doing this almost a decade ago. Imagine all the actually useful things I could have done with my life in the time it's taken to write all these posts. But hay, would any of them have been as much fun? Well, okay, probably one or two would, but an awful lot would not. It's mostly been a blast, and it mostly still is. Off we go...

Fly Hard by Aragon
Alabaster by DawnFade
Wake-up Call by Cyrano
Top Edge by Raugos

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

Tuesday 12 March 2024

My Little Repeats 158: "Triple Threat"

"And that's how Equestria was... destroyed."

S7E15: "Triple Threat"

19 Aug 2017

My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 7.2

The one with Twilight's chairs

Thoughts: IMDb ratings are to be treated with caution, but this episode gets a score 0.6 points lower than "Fame and Misfortune". Although fewer people truly dislike it, I'm not sure many people adore it either. Like a large chunk of the second half of S7, it's not an episode that forces remembrance. Thorax doesn't help: the reformed changelings just aren't that interesting, with the occasional exception such as his spiel to Spike about "renegades" (foreshadowing "To Change a Changeling"). Ember is a good deal more fun and certainly has the best of the humour and dialogue, though Starlight has a nice supporting role. The third act feels a little flabby, but it does the job. So does the obvious plot convenience of the Cutie Map summoning Spike in the first place, for that matter. Plus a little Derpy spot. I'll stick with the three-star rating I gave this first time round.

Choice quote: Ember: "I had no idea it was polite to decorate your walls in your friends' favourite foods!"

New rating: ★

Next time, it's "Campfire Tales", in which we'll meet the Pillars for the first time in the show itself.¹ I've never been an enormous fan of either them or this episode, giving it only two stars in 2017. As ever, let's see how it goes.
¹ They debuted in the "Legends of Magic" IDW comic subseries.

Monday 11 March 2024

My most prized Pony possession? Maybe this

On Friday, I asked you fine people what your most prized Pony possession – excluding plushies – might be. I also said that I would reveal my own answer before long. Well, here goes! This wasn't actually the easiest choice for me, partly since I'm not that big on merch and partly since a couple of options had very specific personal significance that wouldn't make much sense to most people. This item, though, is one I do like a lot:

Back in 2012, I was in my first year in the My Little Pony fandom and I very much got caught up in the hype about the then-imminent release of the IDW comics series. So much so that I spent more time in comic shops as a result than I'd done in my entire life up to that point! I went with a great friend to purchase issue #1 in Nostalgia and Comics in Birmingham on release day. That alone would give the IDW series a special place in my heart.

This first edition, though, had a lot of variant covers, more than 20 in the end. I bought a few myself over the next few months, and this is perhaps the most special to me. The Hastings Comics variant of that first issue, signed by artist Andy Price, writer Katie Cook and cover artist Amy Mebberson. I don't care about commercial value (fortunately, as I like reading the comic!) but I am very happy every time I see it on my shelf. So I'll pick this.