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[SigmasonicX]

MLP reference in Doctor Strange: Monsters Unleashed #1.

Metal Gear Friendship - Short animation somewhat related to Metal Gear Solid.
MLP version of "Fight Song" - Not the biggest fan of the original song, but this is still neat. Twilight's voice is pretty far off, though.

Impressive pixel art gifs
Pixel Luna
Pixel Celestia

Trying a fan art event again tomorrow.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Alright, another fan art event. Let's just do the first variation one again, since that worked out well and it has been a while.

I'll start things off by posting an image of a single character. The next poster posts a picture of that character and another one. Then, the poster after that posts a picture with the second character (without the first) and a different character. And so on. Characters can't be repeated. So, I could post Twilight, then the next person could post Twilight and SciTwi, then the next person posts SciTwi and Sunset Shimmer, then Sunset and Celestia, and so on. More than two characters are allowed in an image, but you have to say who the second character is.

Starting off, Fluttershy.

 

[PaulloDEC]

That "Metal Gear Friendship" video is really well animated; up there with JanAnimations work in terms of authenticity I think.

I can't deal with those "fans do impressions of ponies singing pop songs" videos, though. I don't cringe easily at MLP fan stuff, but those get me big time. And I actually don't mind the original song in this case,

Spoiler

mainly because they used it in a pretty cool promo for Supergirl

.

Alright, another fan art event. Let's just do the first variation one again, since that worked out well and it has been a while.

I'll start things off by posting an image of a single character. The next poster posts a picture of that character and another one. Then, the poster after that posts a picture with the second character (without the first) and a different character. And so on. Characters can't be repeated. So, I could post Twilight, then the next person could post Twilight and SciTwi, then the next person posts SciTwi and Sunset Shimmer, then Sunset and Celestia, and so on. More than two characters are allowed in an image, but you have to say who the second character is.

Starting off, Fluttershy.

Lovely style on that piece.

Digging into my archive for this one:

 

[SigmasonicX]

That "Metal Gear Friendship" video is really well animated; up there with JanAnimations work in terms of authenticity I think.

I can't deal with those "fans do impressions of ponies singing pop songs" videos, though. I don't cringe easily at MLP fan stuff, but those get me big time. And I actually don't mind the original song in this case,

Spoiler

mainly because they used it in a pretty cool promo for Supergirl

.

Fair enough. Generally, I'm not a big fan of most fandom songs because they tend to be tangentially connected with the show, and singing in character at least enforces a connection with the show.

Lovely style on that piece.

Digging into my archive for this one:

Next is Spike

Also, on a brief look, the Tumblr blog the image is from is pretty cute. Note that it ships Twilight and Luna.

 

[DemWalls]

That "Metal Gear Friendship" video is really well animated; up there with JanAnimations work in terms of authenticity I think.

It's undoubtedly good, but I think there's still something off about it, though I can't say for sure if that's just BrutalWeather's style and they do it on purpose.
Jan's works are basically indistinguishable from the show, and the fact that he did everything by himself is truly impressive, he must be some kind of robot. Looking at his channel, where there are other animation experiments (like one in the South Park style), maybe he's "just" good at copying, but boy, he's really good at that.

PS: Sorry if I don't continue the game, but I can't really go look for an appropriate image at the moment.

 

[SigmasonicX]

So Spike isn't that popular, huh? To make things easier, you can search on Derpibooru for art using this search query: spike, <INSERT CHARACTER>, NOT screencap, NOT idw, NOT comic, NOT official, score.gte:20

That last part removes things with a low number of votes, so it should filter out the particularly weak stuff (though it will also remove newer stuff). You can increase it to a higher value to filter out more.

 

[ShinySylvee]

Oh didn't realize that this thread was getting posts again.

When you mentioned Twi-Luna shipping Sigma I knew what you were referring to. For those that don't know two artists (one of whom is the guy Sigma was posting) are both creating tons of art for an imagined marriage between Twilight and Luna. Both of them combined have probably created over 30 pieces of art over the event. Most of the stuff has been posted on the MLP subreddit which is how I found out about it. I think the idea of a massive fandom event that several content creators are contributing to is a pretty cool idea and that I've never been a person that really got into shipping but the whole event has been pretty weird to me. It probably doesn't help that I just find Twi-Luna to be a pretty forced pairing as the two have never really bonded on-screen and don't appear to have much in common.

Don't know where I was going with this. Have some pony. (Next character is Starlight)

source

 

[SigmasonicX]

I hadn't realized this was a big fandom event. Those used to be more common, and the Ask Pony blogs generally would cross over a lot, though that wasn't necessarily a good thing. I remember there was a good Ask the Cutie Mark Crusaders blog with show-accurate art, but it went into this long tangent into a crossover event about house haunted by Slenderman, and I wasn't a fan of that.

Anyway, next is Sunburst. And yes, there is a decent amount of variety in characters he's depicted with in fan art.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Anyway, next is Sunburst.

Took a while to find one I liked:

Moondancer is next.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Next up is Pinkie Pie

Luna's Therapy Visit - Another in the series of DRWolf therapy sessions
In my occasional showcase of "normal" PMVs, here's Something I Need

New Overwatch character Orisa has a skin labeled "Twilight"

Yeah, probably a reference.

 

[SigmasonicX]

DP, but here is a fan animation called "Different view of reality", showing an alternate version of the Equestria Girls story where Twilight follows Sunset into another pony world. It's four and a half minutes long. It's overall pretty neat, but some is a bit self indulgent (

Spoiler

Pinkie using a Portal gun

) and as an alternate world, it isn't too interesting.

Also, Episode Rewatch: Suited for Success. The fact that ED isn't actually making an editorial for these anymore makes it someone pointless to link now, but whatever.

This episode stands out as one of the early episodes with an aggressively girly premise that surprises you with its quality. Somehow, there I was watching a fashion show toward the end of the episode and enjoying it. A lot of people point out this episode as the one where Rarity became a very likeable character for them, but for me, it took until around "A Dog and Pony Show". I mean, I appreciated what the show was doing with her, but I still wouldn't have considered her a favorite character until that second episode. The song is great, and I recall noticing the subtext of it also applying to animation ("Make sure it stays within our budget") on my first viewing.

If there's one big flaw of the episode, it's that the scene where the girls decide they don't like the first versions of the dresses isn't handled very well. After the dresses are revealed, it cuts to their unimpressed reaction as if we were also supposed to find them unimpressive, leaving the audience confused if they didn't see what was wrong with the dresses. I think it would have been better if the girls were actually impressed by them, but then one of them says that it isn't quite what they hoped for and they have some small suggestions. Then the others say the same thing. And then we get the rest of the episode as usual.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Next up is Pinkie Pie

Pinkie achieved. Next is Maud, or if you're feeling brave, Gummi/Boulder.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Was going to have Trixie next, but came across this. Next is Coco Pommel.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Oh shit, the "La Da Dee" PMV got a longer version! The original had the library tree, so this adjusted to have the castle. Overall, I think I prefer the conciseness of the original, but this is nice.

I'll end the fan art event on Saturday. Hopefully it doesn't end with Coco; remember, she got a ton of fan art when she was introduced, and has appeared with tons of characters, not just Rarity.

 

[SigmasonicX]

No one? Alright fine.

Could have posted just Coco and Fluttershy, but art with just them is all shipping.

And now with that event over, I have a huge backlog of other art.

At the Gala with the Princess - There really should be more art with this set of gala dresses.
Figurine of my avatar
Another nice NCMares figurine
The Wonderbolts

Flutterhoodied
Pretty Princess
Aquarius - Remember those official zodiac ponies that were popular for a while? I still wonder what was behind their creation.
Falling in Love - In an alternate world, this could have been the random shipping art to close out this fan art event.

Trilight
Daisy Chains
Equestrian gateway - Super detailed, so look at the full version
Friendship is Magic - Also super detailed. This is actually a combination of a bunch of art from this artist, much of which was posted earlier

Sparkly Princess - Potential new avatar!
Celestia hates swans
Zecora
Nature of the Moon - Also detailed

Too Cute Too Furious
Journey - Also detailed
Gabby Portrait

 

[PaulloDEC]

Love Celestia and the swan, as well as your new avatar candidate. I really like it when people draw Twilight's hair sticking up around her cheeks for some reason.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Just read the newest chapter of that fanfic I've brought up before, The Enchanted Library. If there's one thing I can give this author credit for, she's damn good at emotional manipulation.

As a refresher, this story is an AU where the princesses other than Cadance were sealed away by Discord thousands of years ago. In the present, Rarity discovers Twilight's library and she appears as a ghost-like figure. After a rocky start, Rarity is able to get Twilight to open up and brings more ponies to meet her, and after about 20 long chapters of slow burn romance (with adventures mixed in), Rarity and Twilight are openly in love with each other. Which brings us to recent events.

Spoiler

After an adorable fluffy chapter where everyone has a sleepover at Twilight's library, Rarity and the others have gone to meet the descendant of Princess Cadance, hoping to get her aid in finding a way to release the princesses. After getting past bureaucracy seemingly designed to stop anyone from meeting her, and oddly getting help from Discord, they are finally able to present her with evidence that Twilight exists and where she can be found.

At the start of the story, there were rumors that Discord cursed Cadance and all of her descendants to never be able to find where the other princesses are, and rumors differed about how this worked. Others have since suggested that her descendant simply doesn't care about finding them, and may even be working with Discord, which is what Rarity came to suspect. Then the other shoe drops. It turns out that the curse is real, and it spreads to anyone who tries to help them find the princesses. And now Rarity and the others have it, so it will be impossible for them to find Twilight's library again.

The chapter ends before they get back to Ponyville, so it's not 100% confirmed the curse is real, but the author's comments indicate that she's going through with it. She says, paraphrased, "People asked me if I really spent 20 chapters building up Twilight and Rarity falling in love. The answer is no, I spent 20 chapters building up splitting them apart." I have to say, well played. But still, (insert Code Geass Nina screaming face).

EDIT: You know what, going to ramble more.

Spoiler

The thing about it is, I'm pretty sure Twilight and Rarity will still end up together happily, but I know what this author is capable of in between. It's perfectly within my expectations of her to make it so that they don't reunite for 40 years, or maybe Twilight is released by some descendant of Sweetie Belle (since Rarity was too heartbroken to ever marry) and Twilight visits Rarity on her deathbed. Or maybe the author will be nice and make only three years pass before they reunite. I don't expect anything below the scale of years. Meanwhile, Twilight has no way of knowing why Rarity is no longer visiting, so she can only imagine she was killed, and she's all alone in the library. There is the out that Pinkie wasn't present at the meeting with Cadance's descendant, so maybe she could be used to correspond with Twilight, but it's more likely that the curse will be spread to her too, and she'll be cut off from Luna.

This is twice this author has made me dwell a long time on one of her works.

 

[Fat4all]

To anyone who likes/liked ImaToonLink(Viva Reverie)'s stuff:

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Horses. It's very self-referential, packed with his past characters. Very good parody, high quality stuff and uses several different art styles.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

 

[Sciz]

EDIT: You know what, going to ramble more.

Spoiler

Given Mono's various comments about how this fic as a whole is only part one of two, I can't see the separation lasting terribly long in-universe. Part one pretty much has to end with Twilight being freed, unless the overall narrative arc really takes a hard left. Which is possible, but if that were going to be the case then the last chapter would've been a good place to end it, instead of still having a good deal of Act 3 to go yet.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Spoiler

Given Mono's various comments about how this fic as a whole is only part one of two, I can't see the separation lasting terribly long in-universe. Part one pretty much has to end with Twilight being freed, unless the overall narrative arc really takes a hard left. Which is possible, but if that were going to be the case then the last chapter would've been a good place to end it, instead of still having a good deal of Act 3 to go yet.

Spoiler

Honestly, at this point, I'll be disappointed if they aren't separated for more than a year >_> Anyway, there are a couple of directions it can go, but Act 3 will almost surely resemble that part of Hikaru no Go where (Hikaru no Go spoilers)

Spoiler

Sai disappears and Hikaru spends a ton of episodes depressed, looking around for clues as to where he went. He never finds him.

 

[DemWalls]

Yeah, not a fan of Monochromatic's works. Just find them "sadness & drama for sadness & drama's sake", mostly, with little else going for them. But many people seem to like them, so who am I to judge?

Speaking of fanfiction, for some reason yesterday I happened to read a couple of short gore/sex fics, you know, the typical nasty stuff. I'm not impressed or upset by such things, so the only reaction they elicited was more like:

 

[SigmasonicX]

Yeah, not a fan of Monochromatic's works. Just find them "sadness & drama for sadness & drama's sake", mostly, with little else going for them. But many people seem to like them, so who am I to judge?

To be fair, she writes adorable fluff scenes well. But yeah, the drama can be a bit much at times. I said previously that "Injuring Eternity" affected me emotionally, but I also complained that Twilight still being so heartbroken a thousand years later about Rarity dying didn't ring true. Like, emotions resurfacing when she went to the past would have been fine, but I didn't like the implication that she was basically miserable before the trip. And outside of that, a lot of stories follow the pattern of either Twilight or Rarity getting unreasonably worried about the other not liking her, or otherwise refusing to stay together for a dumb reason, which is easily resolved by just talking to each other. The worst of these is that story where they refuse to date because it would upset Spike. But it mainly seems to be her older stories that are like this; the more recent ones aren't as bad about it.

As for many people liking them, I don't think Monochromatic is particularly well known, it's mainly just me bringing her up >_>

Writing this got me to look through her list of fics again, and I thus noticed some of the story collections had updates I missed, including a "The Enchanted Library" side story where she outright states in an author's note (relates to previous spoilers)

Spoiler

that Twilight will be released from the library in Act 4

, so I guess that's that.

Anyway, backlog dump.
PMV - "Something I Need" - Not particularly special, but it's decent.
2Snacks remade the first Two Best Sisters Play episode, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Ask Frigid Drift #3
When you're a filly - Slower paced but cute video

Silver Quill reviews Friends Forever #8, which reminded me of just how good this issue is. I should reread it later.
Update for the Dreaming Derpy fangame. I really need to get around to playing this sometime.

Starlight Glimmer Cutie
Favorite place
Princess Celestia
Perihelion

Sweet Cadance
Belle
JoyBoy Advance
Big Brother Best Bulletin Board
Arrival - Super detailed

 

[DemWalls]

As for many people liking them, I don't think Monochromatic is particularly well known, it's mainly just me bringing her up >_>

Well, relatively speaking, at least. The Enchanted Library, for example, has ~2300 votes, as many comments, and nearly 20000 views, which is way more than many other works.
That said, I'm far from being a FIMFiction aficionado, so maybe I'm just talking nonsense.

 

[Sciz]

Well, relatively speaking, at least. The Enchanted Library, for example, has ~2300 votes, as many comments, and nearly 20000 views, which is way more than many other works.
That said, I'm far from being a FIMFiction aficionado, so maybe I'm just talking nonsense.

Not a whole lot that makes it to the 20k mark, relatively speaking. Certainly a fair number of fics out there that are well beyond that, but they've also almost all had several more years to accrue hits and notoriety.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Speaking of fanfiction, for some reason yesterday I happened to read a couple of short gore/sex fics, you know, the typical nasty stuff. I'm not impressed or upset by such things, so the only reaction they elicited was more like:

I'm not sure I'll ever understand the appeal of transforming a property beyond recognition like that. If gore and sex are what you're into, what was it you liked about MLP to begin with?

2Snacks remade the first Two Best Sisters Play episode, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Man, I love the way 2Snacks animates these things. Super professional with fantastic lighting/shadowing.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Not a whole lot that makes it to the 20k mark, relatively speaking. Certainly a fair number of fics out there that are well beyond that, but they've also almost all had several more years to accrue hits and notoriety.

OK, I guess "The Enchanted Library" at least is decently popular, but certainly not at the level that you could expect a random fan to know about it like with "Fallout: Equestria" and the like. Though I can't imagine we'd get stories of that popularity again.

I'm not sure I'll ever understand the appeal of transforming a property beyond recognition like that. If gore and sex are what you're into, what was it you liked about MLP to begin with?

Part of it is the challenge of, "Hey, look at how gross I can make this! I bet you can't finish it!", part of it is intentionally trying to shock fans. Many of these stories, at least early on, were written by people who weren't fans to troll the fans.

 

[Jay RaR]

I'm not sure I'll ever understand the appeal of transforming a property beyond recognition like that. If gore and sex are what you're into, what was it you liked about MLP to begin with?

Some people just like taking characters from an IP and write them into genres those characters would never be in, probably out of creative boredom or to satisfy their personal desires.


I should really write a story on there one of these days.

 

[Village]

I'm not sure I'll ever understand the appeal of transforming a property beyond recognition like that. If gore and sex are what you're into, what was it you liked about MLP to begin with?

For real psychological answer:
When you humanize shit, people start viewing it as human.
Thazzit.

I mean its more complicated and my friend wrote a paper about it, but that's the just.

They most likely liked mlp in a more normative sense, then other stuff happened .

 

[DemWalls]

OK, I guess "The Enchanted Library" at least is decently popular, but certainly not at the level that you could expect a random fan to know about it like with "Fallout: Equestria" and the like. Though I can't imagine we'd get stories of that popularity again.

You said it, FO:E's another matter altogether. A different IP, almost, and it certainly wasn't my intention to draw any comparison to it. Although, recently I've found out that some fans don't even know what Past Sins is, so... nothing's to be taken for granted.

 

[Rhomega Beta]

For the Vernal Equine-ox, SF Debris reviews MLP episodes: The Cutie Mark Chronicles, The Ticket Master, and A Canterlot Wedding. http://sfdebris.com/videos/animation/mlpspecial3.php

 

[SigmasonicX]

For the Vernal Equine-ox, SF Debris reviews MLP episodes: The Cutie Mark Chronicles, The Ticket Master, and A Canterlot Wedding. http://sfdebris.com/videos/animation/mlpspecial3.php

"The Ticket Master" is an odd choice.

* Chuck complaining about songs just makes me want "Magical Mystery Cure" more.
* He forgot a lot of stuff covered in previous reviews, but I suppose I can't blame him.
* Kind of surprised that Chuck viewed the fillies as being teenagers. I mean, it's a common theory that that's what age they are meant to be, but that's mainly based on the "cutie marks = puberty" thing.
* Some of the jokes seem to show that he isn't actually aware that the Grand Galloping Gala appears in an episode.
* Also kind of surprised he didn't make the Disney comparison with "This Day Aria".
* I laughed at the political message joke.
* The next set of MLP episodes will be Rainbow Dash themed? I wonder what that would entail, if no season 4+ stuff will be included. I'm guessing "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" will be one of them. Still, that means even more time before "Magical Mystery Cure".

 

[DemWalls]

So, Duo Cartoonist decided to move on from anything pony. I wasn't their biggest fans, and if I were them I'd have finished "Choices" just to go away with a bang, but it's their decision, and I respect it.

I'm not sure how I feel about them leaving because, apparently, if you want to become a professional animator, you basically can't put anything pony-related in your portfolio, as many (most?) employers tend to look down on them. Just my two cents, if something is "technically" impressive (and DC's works definitely are), who cares what the subject is, unless it's something truly problematic.

 

[SigmasonicX]

So, Duo Cartoonist decided to move on from anything pony. I wasn't their biggest fans, and if I were them I'd have finished "Choices" just to go away with a bang, but it's their decision, and I respect it.

I'm not sure how I feel about them leaving because, apparently, if you want to become a professional animator, you basically can't put anything pony-related in your portfolio, as many (most?) employers tend to look down on them. Just my two cents, if something is "technically" impressive (and DC's works definitely are), who cares what the subject is, unless it's something truly problematic.

I hadn't thought about that, but it unfortunately makes sense. It's a shame that animation recruiters have the same bias as everyone else.

 

[PaulloDEC]

So, Duo Cartoonist decided to move on from anything pony. I wasn't their biggest fans, and if I were them I'd have finished "Choices" just to go away with a bang, but it's their decision, and I respect it.

I'm not sure how I feel about them leaving because, apparently, if you want to become a professional animator, you basically can't put anything pony-related in your portfolio, as many (most?) employers tend to look down on them. Just my two cents, if something is "technically" impressive (and DC's works definitely are), who cares what the subject is, unless it's something truly problematic.

While what you say is definitely a shitty thing, I think it's best for talented animators to stop doing fanworks as early as possible. Using borrowed IP limits their ability to show their work in certain circles, and perhaps worse it limits their ability to profit from it.

It's sad for fan communities to lose talented contributors, but it really is what's best for them I think.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Oh, right, it being fanwork is probably the bigger issue with recruiters.

 

[DemWalls]

While what you say is definitely a shitty thing, I think it's best for talented animators to stop doing fanworks as early as possible. Using borrowed IP limits their ability to show their work in certain circles, and perhaps worse it limits their ability to profit from it.

It's sad for fan communities to lose talented contributors, but it really is what's best for them I think.

I don't deny this, and I don't think it's a decision they've taken lightly.

However, while originality certainly pays off, I don't necessarily see something being a fanwork as a limiting factor. It gives you a well established base without having to do everything ex novo, while still giving the opportunity to show your ability. For example, Jan has done not only MLP, but also South Park, Yoka-Laylee (though this one technically is not a fanwork), etcetera, and hence showed his talent and versatility. DC's real problem, I think, is that anything "big" they've done in the last few years has been about MLP. They definitely could have diversified more and, to be blunt, that's on them. It's kinda funny how they've been doing nothing else for years and then, one day, suddenly they decided "You know, f*ck it all, no more MLP".

 

[PaulloDEC]

I don't deny this, and I don't think it's a decision they've taken lightly.

However, while originality certainly pays off, I don't necessarily see something being a fanwork as a limiting factor. It gives you a well established base without having to do everything ex novo, while still giving the opportunity to show your ability. For example, Jan has done not only MLP, but also South Park, Yoka-Laylee (though this one technically is not a fanwork), etcetera, and hence showed his talent and versatility. DC's real problem, I think, is that anything "big" they've done in the last few years has been about MLP. They definitely could have diversified more and, to be blunt, that's on them. It's kinda funny how they've been doing nothing else for years and then, one day, suddenly they decided "You know, f*ck it all, no more MLP".

I think you're dead-right about diversity in content; I suspect it looks much better to an employer when you can say "Look at all this different stuff I've paid tribute to!" rather than "Look at all these MLP videos!"

Regarding the sudden change-of-heart, I guess everyone hits that point of realization eventually.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Since the project is dead, I suppose I'll actually look at the "Choices" clips on their YouTube channel.
CHOICES PREVIEW (WIP) - YouTube says I've seen this already. Discord's voice is good, and the art is nice.
First Flight - This is a nice song.
Trust in me, Child - I don't think the word "child" is said in this song. Anyway, it amuses me that this guy is a better singer than the actual John de Lancie (at least from "A Glass of Water").
Midnight Frenzy - Cute song, though I don't get the sinister beginning and dialogue interjection.
Preview2 - Oh, this is that first preview, but with Celestia dialogue, and then a more animated version of "Trust in me, Child".
Run Away - Another nice song.

The first preview clip description mentions that this project was never intended to be completed beyond animatics, with some parts fully animated, so I don't consider it much of a shame that it never got completed. Plus, the remaining songs and whatever else has been completed is going to be put up on YouTube, and unlike some other creators, they aren't planning on taking anything down.

Official videos: Flurry Heart's Heartfelt Scrapbook episode 6 (Hearth's Warming Eve) and episode 7 (Nightmare Night)

Fan videos:
Breakfast Burrito - with Sonata Dusk
How to Summon Twilight - with "Roundabout"

Controversy:
Copyright issues with "Nightmare Night" fan song, clarification, I still don't think we know enough for me to give an opinion

Big infographic analyzes the MLP population, and it turns out the male/female ratio is much more even than generally expected, though females still outnumber them. There are other statistics included.

Merchandise - Magic wands and OCs mixed in with official vectors.

Pony History - Turnabout Storm - I remember following along with this series. Did it really start in 2011? Though I recall it ended after season 3, which really made the way Trixie is presented in the story awkward. There's still a fan continuation (of this fan series) coming, right? Anyway, this was an enjoyable series, if not for two huge issues: (1) WAY TOO LONG, and (2) the way Trixie and the witnesses acted was way too sinister for ponies. Oh, and I suppose I wasn't too big a fan of many voices.

The Difference Between Us - a DATING SIM about Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. I haven't played it yet, but it looks cute.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Backlog dump, not April Fools related.

The "Nightmare Night" song controversy has been resolved, more quickly than I expected.
But another fan project has been canceled: the Fallout Equestria animated series, which has been in production for about three years.

Flurry Heart's Heartfelt Scrapbook 8, about Equestria in general. Features Pinkie singing "Equestria, the Land I Love" from Coloratura's episode.
And random decent PMV, "Cold Water".

Comic - Luna Land episode 0.5 - This prologue comic is really good, but I'm not interested in the main comic's premise.

Spring
Loyalty
Fancy Fitting

Spike the Brave - neat gif
Bottoms up - Baby's out? Alright!
Legend says
Coco Pommel

Derpy's Deli-filly Service
New crack ship! - Coloratura and Songbird Serenade from the movie
Baker pony - Good to see more Sugar Belle art

Secret hobby
Human Fluttershy
Thank you
You'll witness my full power

 

[Jay RaR]

Feels like forever since I looked at fan pony content. I should look at some one of these days.

On another note, today at church I saw a little boy play with Rainbow Dash and Applejack dolls. At first I thought they were pony dolls then regular dolls so I thought "Why is this boy playing with dolls?" And after I clearly saw the ponies, I thought that was pretty cool. I may have seen Princess Cadence but I wasn't sure.

Pony History - Turnabout Storm - I remember following along with this series. Did it really start in 2011? Though I recall it ended after season 3, which really made the way Trixie is presented in the story awkward. There's still a fan continuation (of this fan series) coming, right? Anyway, this was an enjoyable series, if not for two huge issues: (1) WAY TOO LONG, and (2) the way Trixie and the witnesses acted was way too sinister for ponies. Oh, and I suppose I wasn't too big a fan of many voices.

Yeah, this project took a year or two to get finished? lol I enjoyed it as a small AA fan and pony fan. The voices are hit and miss, but I did like Phoenix's voice. The length while long really felt like an end-game AA case, kinda like Rise From the Ashes. Trixie being a jerk was kinda necessary even if she was a bit off character. She was kinda like both Franziska and Manfred so she did feel like a legitimate threat and a major antagonist. Honestly I'm not sure if that fan sequel will ever come out much less than be a decent followup. The poor dude lost his files and lost files to Phoenix's VA lines. I'd hopefully expect something in the summer for something but I'll also be waiting.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Read "A Thousand Roses", a fanfic that Paullo posted about in the season 6 thread. It was pretty fun when the focus was on Twilight's friends sorting the love letters she got, and I didn't like it as much when it shifted to Rainbow's crush on her. I agree with Paullo that I didn't like Twilight choosing to date her despite not really being interested, especially since it came from anxiety about how no one who knew her well saw her as girlfriend material. I don't think Twilight needed to be super enthusiastic to date Rainbow, but she shouldn't have done it out of fear of being forever alone.

That reminds me, it's been about a month since I last checked out "The Enchanted Library". The author said releases would be more sporadic, but maybe a chapter came out. *checks* *there are 3 full chapters and 3 mini-chapters* ... OK, I guess I have some reading to do.

EDIT: Good thing I read these together, because

Spoiler

it was getting pretty dark, and only recovered at the end. It was difficult seeing Rarity straight up go crazy, but at least she's better now, and Pinkie isn't separated from Luna despite knowing about the curse. Now that they know the books are a red herring, will they bother to continue looking for them? I suppose Twilight would still want them back. At least the dreams about Harmony Light definitely aren't a vision of the future, since they relied on another mare finding the books and releasing Twilight; though the amount of time given to them in dreams meant the story would never actually go the, "Twilight is released by someone else when Rarity is old," route anyway.

 

[Rhomega Beta]

I haven't read fanfics in a long time. There were a couple I was following (Princess Luna's Suicide Solutions and To Love The Moon), but those haven't updated in a long time. Others like Within & Without and A Sweet Taste of Cake have ended.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Update for the Dreaming Derpy fangame. I really need to get around to playing this sometime.

Alright, just played the game. Installation is a bit of a pain, since you have to install some RPG Maker stuff too. The sprites look great, but everything else is definitely unpolished. The gameplay is straightforward, but it's pretty fun for what it is, especially given that it's still a demo. I didn't like that you just get a bunch of outfits in the real world basically at once; it would have made more sense to get a new one in each dream world, but that's not how it's handled. The dialogue is decent, with some cute moments.

The combat is serviceable, but a bit repetitive, with every regular enemy acting the same, despite different sprites. I was mostly fine just fighting enemies as I came across them, but I did have to grind a bit to fight the boss in Trixie's dream. I probably should have grinded before the boss in Moondancer's dream, but that level didn't provide any opportunity to, oddly. After that point, in the levels added by the newest patch, the regular enemies give so much XP that bosses aren't a concern. My favorite levels were Moondancer's dream and the noir dream. My least favorite was Vinyl's, because compared to the other dreams, it went too far into fanon territory and cared a lot about shipping.

All together, it took less than two hours to get through all the available content.

Videos
A Glimmer of Hope - Comedy video where Starlight has graduated, and tries to find work in a harsh job market
Great lip-sync to the song "Mr. Roboto"
Official video - Flurry Heart's Heartfelt Scrapbook 9 - Flurry Heart is told of how she almost doomed the world and got her name.

Comic - Crayons - About changelings

And this is neat. A guy made an MLP version of the board game Scythe for his daughter. He appears to be one of the actual people behind the game, so perhaps we'll have an official licensed version in the future.

Fluttershy
Anime 1: Revolutionary Girl Utena
Anime 2: Urusei Yatsura

Celestia
Easter Egghead
Twilight Proudmoore or Jaina Sparkle - a reference to something I don't know

 

[Sciz]

Twilight Proudmoore or Jaina Sparkle - a reference to something I don't know

Warcraft.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Another European comic. Nothing too egregious in the art, other than the new assets looking flat and bad.

Twilight's First Day #26 - This comic has long lost any real direction, I feel, but I still enjoy it.

Flurry Heart's Heartfelt Scrapbook 10 - The Magic of Friendship
Initialize - Decent PMV
Something About Princesses - Comedy video
Ask Frigid Drift #4

Ton of Andy Price art since my last post compiling them. This doesn't go back to the time of the last one, because effort, but this still goes back pretty far.
Angel Wings
Luna and Discord
Winona and Applejack
Diet
MASH
Like a shark
Sunset Shimmer
Public indecency
Best Pony
Monkey poses
Live and Let Brony
Twilight
Rarity
Luna meets Spider-Man
I Dream of Luna
Derpy
Cubs Win
Dr. Crusher
Luna meet the Last Unicorn
Detective Rarity
Amazing New Product
Sleeping Princesses
Big Sister is Watching You

Golden Hour
Fracture
Happy Easter 2017
My Fairy Godmother

Unicorn Frappuccino
Lonely
Readin
Scare Master
Flutterbat

Ridiculous Fluttershy plushie

 

[SigmasonicX]

Fluttershy Day
Hugs?
Discord in Ink
The Forest

Flutter May
Life's Simple Pleasures
Little Star
From the moon with love

Flashlightning - I hate this pairing, but I like Twilight's hair here.
Pie family
Weight of the World
Nose Boops

Comics
In the Friendship is Dragons web comic, a guest artist is doing a potentially interesting series where the characters play Mafia, and it's divided between day portions and night portions you can skip to not be spoiled as to who played what role.
Stable Flight

Pony Girl - Super cute cover and animation of "Barbie Girl" with Twilight and Rainbow Dash.
Two Best Sisters Play Skyrim - This video is made by some Russian fans, not 2Snacks, but it's a pretty good approximation.
Polygon showcases Them's Fightin' Herds - I didn't realize it's actually coming out pretty soon. It's apparently in beta now.
"Friends are Family" PMV - A PMV based on the ending song of Lego Batman.

And now for some history lessons triggered by new videos!

PMV for "Fireflies", the Owl City song - The PMV itself is decent, but it made me realize I was actually more familiar with the MLP parody, "10 Million Fluttershys".
The original song is no longer online, but here's a PMV of "10 Million Fluttershys". And here is the 20% Cooler Version. I can't tell what the exact differences are, but I recall this version being sent around more than the original.

5 year anniversary remix of the Russian Gypsy Jazz remix of "Pinkie's Brew" - There's a lot to unpack from that description.
Here's the original Russian Gypsy Jazz remix from back in 2012.
And here's the extended version of the source song, "Pinkie's Brew", which came from Friendship is Witchcraft episode 4, "Cute from the Hip".
The extended version is from 2011, meaning the original upload of the episode was before that. And that was episode 4. Damn, I keep getting impressed by just how active the fandom was during season 2 and before season 3. And regardless of your opinion of the series itself, it was really impressive how Friendship is Witchcraft managed to crank out songs just as catchy as those from the show.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Time for a shipping post!

The Difference Between Us - a DATING SIM about Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. I haven't played it yet, but it looks cute.

Finally got around to playing this, and it is indeed cute. You play from the perspective of Fluttershy going on a date with Pinkie, confused why Pinkie would ever be interested in someone like her. There are three major routes each with three variations in dialogue, but as the README and description emphasize, though there are points where Fluttershy is worried that the date is going badly, there are no bad endings. The game is extremely user friendly, allowing you to adjust text speed (including to appear instantly), skip past dialogue you've already seen straight to a branch or new dialogue, rewind the game whenever you choose, and more. Plus, it autosaves at each branch, in a different save slot. The art style is unique, and it doesn't work some of the time (see Rainbow Dash), but it really works with Pinkie, and that's the most important part in the end. I didn't go for all the variations, but I did play the three major routes.

The dialogue is good in the sense that nothing ever felt particularly out of character, beyond what's necessary for this premise. The interactions between Fluttershy and Pinkie are cute, with both being nervous in their own ways. A major theme of the story is how different people date in different ways, and there's no one version that works for everyone. It is a bit odd how there are a lot of minor deviations from established canon beyond the central premise that characters only allude to, such as Fluttershy having once dated Rainbow when they were younger, and I don't know what's going on with Twilight's love life. There's one line in particular that I didn't pay much mind to, but after looking at the creator's Tumblr profile, took on much more significance. I think it's neat, but I could see inserting this into an existing character rubbing people the wrong way. It also does that thing fan content often does, where it reinterprets certain events of the show to be more significant than the show itself treats them, which isn't in itself bad, but I know that bothers some people. The game is short, and going through all the variations I was interested in took about an hour. Still, if you are interested in this genre, then I recommend it. I even donated $5 to the creator.

But that's not the end of the shipping. I ended up reading two fanfics today.

Sparkle Date Me! - A Luna/Twilight story that takes place season 2-ish, featuring Luna attempting to ask out an oblivious Twilight. It's cute, if pretty generic. There's a part where Luna asks for dating advice from Fluttershy of all ponies, that I would have liked to have gone on longer. The way Twilight realizes that her dinner with Luna is a date is odd and somewhat forced. There's also an odd moment where the perspective switches to Twilight for a short segment before going back to Luna, when that segment could have easily been done from Luna's perspective. Since I'm apparently capable of ranking heartwarming fluff now, I've seen better, both in the above game and in the Rarilight fics I've read.

Dense as Diamonds - A Rarity/Twilight story, that in contrast to the above (and most Rarilight fics), involves Twilight trying to confess to an oblivious Rarity. Rarity's dialogue is naturally more entertaining than Luna's, so I enjoyed reading this more than the above. It was amusing seeing Twilight take Rarity on multiple dates without the latter realizing, and it was cute when Rarity realized what was going on, though I wasn't a fan of the surprise kiss. Cadance's inclusion was forced. Overall, well, it's cute heartwarming fluff.

Of the three shipping things I've played/read today, the game is definitely the strongest.

And also on theme, the Legendary Shipping Meltdown thread starts discussing ponies here.

So yeah, somehow I've become the ship captain of PonyGAF >_>

 

[Sciz]

Decently written Flutterpie is incredibly cute and yet never really found a strong foothold in the fandom, to my dismay.

Sparkle Date Me!

I apparently really liked this six weeks ago, although I don't quite remember why, now. Fluff in, fluff out.

So yeah, somehow I've become the ship captain of PonyGAF >_>

it always starts slowly

 

[SigmasonicX]

Happy Mothers Day!
Mother's Day
Mother's Love

Mokihana Princess
Friendship is Magic, Part 1 - Oh, the hairstyle from that Flash Sentry art earlier was from the first episode, I forgot.
Twily
Magic hooves

AU Astral Meetings
Tantabus
Sleeping Luna

Playful
Rarity's Kitsune Cosplay - If I was inclined to use a non-Twilight avatar, I think I'd go with this.
Rara End Tlo

Bunnies funnies - Oh hey, an OC.
Pancakes
Clouds Overflow
Spitfire sketch

Videos
RolePonies - The Main 6 playing DnD, not the "attack the darkness" one, but an original story.
Dub of Luna Land episode 0 - Some voiced parts are weak, others are good.
PMV - Happy Metal Party
Sunlight - Original story with OCs, but there's some nice animation.

 

[SigmasonicX]

A charity resort for children with terminal illnesses, Give Kids the World, opened a pony-themed spa with its own OC.

Them's Fightin' Herds is starting its backer beta on the 25th. Note that you have to sign an NDA before you get to play. I don't think I'll bump up the Gaming side thread until there's more public information. Still, nice to see that there's actually stuff happening with the game now.

Mystical
Embershy
Great and Powerful Jealousy
Moon cat

Phoebe and Her Unicorn comic strip about not!MLP, I believe the first new one since it transitioned to a proper newspaper comic.
Pinkie Tales: Egghead and the Beast - With Twilight playing the role of Belle and a horrifying (intentionally) alicorn OC playing the role of the Beast. This one went too far in the meta territory at parts, but it's still quite enjoyable.

And lastly, in Dena/Cyborcat's review series of MLP on Channel Awesome, she reached "The Last Roundup", and thus, she had to address Derpygate in this retrospective video. Over five years later (holy crap, time flies), it's interesting to look back on the entire situation.

I was there in the thick of it when it happened, commenting on Toon Zone and lurking here and in other places. I didn't really like Derpy's first voice, and while I was glad for the fans, I didn't find her scene that interesting and I was annoyed that it was getting far more attention than the rest of the episode. I did think her voice was uncomfortably close to a stereotypical disabled girl's, and I was disappointed they went in that direction. It was later explained that Tabitha St. Germain thought the character was male, which made the voice more understandable, but I thought it was an unfortunate situation all around.

And then Derpy's voice changed in the iTunes version (I believe it was put up, then taken down, then put back up weeks later with the changes) and beyond, which caused a huge shitstorm. I forget where the information that Hasbro changed Derpy's scenes because of a few particular complaints actually came from, but it led to terrible attacks against fans that were known to have been upset about Derpy's original portrayal. The sites I frequented didn't actually have any of this, as I recall, but there was a ton of complaining about fans acting like this, which really wasn't much better. I thought Derpy's new voice was better, but I didn't like the changes to Rainbow Dash's lines and both of their expressions. During this, I mainly just wanted everyone to move on already.

After that, Derpy disappeared from the series for a while, which did worry me. But then Derpy did appear in the season 3 finale, and she proceeded to appear consistently after that, then she had a major appearance in "Rainbow Falls", and then she had a speaking role in "Slice of Life". So she's doing fine now. Oddly, I remember that people didn't have a strong reaction either way to Derpy's scenes in "Slice of Life". I thought her voice was good there.

In the end, things more or less turned out well for Derpy, other than her no longer being called that in official material. Still, I have to wonder how things would have gone if only Tabitha knew that Derpy was supposed to be female when recording her lines for "The Last Roundup". I remember this being the single biggest moment that the fandom turned on itself, and the last one in general other than that incident with the second IDW annual special about Power Ponies. How many people left the fandom because of this? If this didn't happen, would the fans have turned on themselves over something else later? Would Derpy have kept her name and continued appearing without that break in season 3?