It’s time to look at more delicious and malnutritious stories!

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Webisode 2: Trixie’s Winter Wrap-Up
Written By: Blackbelt

SYNOPSIS:

It’s Winter Wrap-Up Day, and Trixie couldn’t care less. But when she’s forced to assist Rarity with making nests, will she discover the terrible secret of Ponyville’s last day of winter?

REVIEW:

Much like “The Night After,” “Trixie’s Winter Wrap-Up” is a short piece about Trixie dealing with Winter Wrap-Up. Unlike the episode, however, Trixie actually gets a job with Rarity, rather than just getting to wander about and find something useful to do. Rarity is her usual hammy self, the tradition about not using magic is brought up like the racist sack of lies that it is, and at the end of the day, Trixie learns that she should have never bothered to get up. And that’s pretty much the end.

OVERALL RATING: Okay

While there are a few smile-inducing moments here and there, this is mostly a pretty basic story. Much like “The Night After,” it’s very much on the short side, so if you want to see Trixie be inherently better than Twilight at nest building, Rarity pulling fainting couches out of nowhere, and the mayor being useless, this is definitely one worth looking at. And even if you aren’t, it’s still worth at least a glance over.

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Story 4: Griffin Over the Line
Written By: Emeral Bookwise

SYNOPSIS:

Rainbow Dash’s best friend, Gilda the griffon, has come to Ponyville for a visit. Of course, a “visit” from her basically amounts to a series of malicious pranks, all while Dash shirks her job. With Ponyville suffering under these foul feathered fiends, can Raindrops (and Trixie!) save the day?

REVIEW:

“Griffin Over the Line” is basically the premise of “Griffon the Brush-Off,” but without Pinkie Pie there to serve as the restraining bolt keeping Dash in check. As a result, Dash and Gilda’s pranking spree takes on a much darker and mean-spirited tone, to the point where Rainbow herself is just inches away from becoming a Complete Monster for almost the entire first half of the story. This is by far her at her absolute worst in this universe; literally the only redeemable trait on display here is her refusal to prank Fluttershy, despite Gilda pressuring her to do so and the episode showing her perfectly willing to squirt her in the face until Pinkie stopped her. She also tries to step in just before the finale, but her attempts are so utterly weak that it feels like she just doesn’t care either way.

The main character this time is Raindrops, a pony I knew nothing about before learning of the Lunaverse’s existence. In fact, outside of a tumblr, I’m pretty sure this universe is one of the very tiny works to use her in any capacity, let alone a starring role. The gist of her character here is that she’s perpetually pissed and growing more enraged by the minute by Dash and Gilda’s antics. The rest of the cast make appearances as victims, while Trixie gets involved right towards the end. Unfortunately, I never really got into Drops as a character here, and it wasn’t until “Tales of Ponyville” that she really turned around in my eyes and became a fully-defined pony.

That being said, this is still a very good story for the most part. The pranks are surprisingly inventive in their cruelty, and Trixie and Drops work off each other fairly well in all their scenes. Raindrops is barely suppressing the urge to redecorate her house with Gilda’s innards, while Trixie doesn’t bother to get involved until she becomes a victim as well. The best part, however, was their attempts to deal with the two. That whole sequence was hilarious, well-done, and highly enjoyable. And Trixie’s revenge against Rainbow Dash was perfectly executed.

If I could offer one more bit of criticism, I was not particularly fond of the ending. Gilda gets off incredibly easy, especially after she tried to murder Trixie. The whole story honestly just comes to a halt, with Gilda leaving after a good fight with Raindrops, Drops herself storming off in a huff over losing her temper, and Dash being the only one to get any sort of comeuppance. While I’m not adverse to having Gilda able to make return appearances, I was left very empty by how things concluded.

OVERALL RATING: Good/Excellent

About the only things holding this story back are the ending and my usual quibbles with M6 characterization. Otherwise, this story comes highly recommended. If you want to get into Raindrops as a character, then read both this and the first chapter of “Tales of Ponyville” to get a complete view.

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Story 5: File Under ‘I’ for ‘Impossible’
Written By: Fizzy Orange

SYNOPSIS:

Trixie is feeling overwhelmed by her paperwork, and decides to hire an assistant. After a series of disastrous interviews, however, she meets Moondancer, a pony who seems absolutely perfect at everything. What she doesn’t know, however, is that Moondancer is actually a…thing called Zizanie, and has other plans for our heroine…

REVIEW:

This is the first story to really focus on one of the Lunaverse’s more contentious (to me, anyway) original creations: the Night Court. You remember all those rich douchebags from “The Best Night Ever” and “Sweet and Elite?” Imagine if each one of them also had a dozen knives aimed at every other pony’s back at all times, and you’d have a fairly accurate portrayal of Equestria’s government. I’ll talk about it more in detail once we get to the first season’s Big Bad – it’s only here to provide a justification for the villain – but for now, I’ll just say I don’t particularly care for a lot of the Night Court stories. This is one of the few exceptions.

While Trixie is usually a jerk, here she’s amazingly awful. Heck, the first scene ends with her implying that Lyra can’t find a job. (This is actually part of a running gag, where Trixie keeps saying that musicians must be poor and can never find work.) The interviews are your basic series of lazy good-for-nothings and brainless applicants, although Pinkie’s exuberance actually did get a laugh out of me. Once Moondancer/Zizanie gets hired, the narrative shifts to Trixie being a Point-Horned Boss, practically torturing our villain until they can take no more of her crap. And at the end, we finally meet Pokey Pierce, her real assistant for the rest of the series to this point. He’s basically the Butt Monkey of the Lunaverse, much like Spike in the baseline.

And what is Zizanie? Well, I’ll let you read that and find out for yourself, but it would be interesting to see that plot point followed up on. Also, this story was written back when Blueblood was supposed to be the season’s Big Bad, a fact that was hinted at since the beginning. And then that other guy showed up and he got knocked down to second banana. And then another one came in and punched him down to third. And then another…and there will probably be another…

I don’t know who to feel sorry for: Blueblood for losing the role he was born to play, or RDD for having his plans taken over by a gardener. Ah well, dangers of a shared universe and all that.

OVERALL RATING: Good

The story is just about the right length for the subject matter, and while there are some jokes that don’t particularly work, this one still has quite a few laughs. Trixie is absolutely hilarious as the worst boss ever, and Zizanie brings something interesting to the table for later. Definitely worth a look.

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Story 6: Ill Communication
Written By: RK_Striker_JK_5

SYNOPSIS:

After another encounter with the annoying pink mass known as Pinkie Pie, Trixie is about at the end of her rope with her. Unfortunately for them all, Dinky inadvertently brought back a basket full of Parasprites, and before long the entire town has become engulfed in the buggers. And as it turns out, Pinkie might be their only hope…if they can get her to talk...

REVIEW:

“Ill Communication” is obviously based on “Swarm of the Century,” and just like that episode, the idea of poor communication is at the story’s core. But where the episode is about the cast not talking to each other and making the problem worse, this story is instead about the importance of listening to others. In some ways, it does approach the problem a bit better than the episode did. In others, however…

Much like “Family Matters,” the story doesn’t really get going until three chapters in. Fortunately, they’re much shorter chapters, but it was still a bit of a drag to get to the Parasprite invasion. It didn’t help that the opening scene with Trixie and Pinkie brought back traumatic memories of Season 2 Pinkie Pie, that foul beast that arose from the hellish depths between seasons. Still, once the swarm starts, things should pick up, right?

Actually…they really don’t, and for one simple reason: the Parasprites are merely Macguffins. You could replace them with anything else, have Pinkie hold the key to defeating them, and the results would have been the same. The episode, on the other hand, placed the emphasis on the Parasprites and the danger they posed, and kept piling on the carnage to keep up the level of suspense. Here, there’s really no conflict, or at least anything that’s meaningful, until the third chapter (of six), and even that gets shoved aside for a mini-arc with Pinkie.

This brings us to that statement I made in the last set of reviews. Honestly, I was exaggerating for humor there; none of the ponies actually call Pinkie a bad pony. (Well, Trixie comes close, but she gets pulled back pretty fast.) Instead, Pinkie tells them that they never listen to her anyway, but uses the worst examples (including the moment in the beginning) to make her point, while our heroes lecture her on the importance of listening to ponies. If they’re going to solve this problem, they need to both talk to and listen to each other, focus on the problem at hand, and finally bring it to a speedy conclusion.

And that should be a good lesson for them both, right? Well it is, but it’s not delivered very well. The moral is incredibly abrupt, bringing the entire story to a halt so they can do what Twilight Sparkle does best. Pinkie barely had a presence in the story to begin with, making only a few appearances and not having much of a chase before getting cornered. And in the end, she gets the lion’s share of the blame for not approaching the ponies – at least one of whom hates/actively detests her – and telling them what’s going on. When it was her friends, it was a major sticking point; here, her not trusting the L6 makes sense. The ending does hint at some kind of growth, but since she’s one of the M6, don’t count on it.

Still, there’s quite a few things to like here as well. Ditzy and Dinky are not quite as annoying as I usually find them, and Fluttershy’s scenes actually made me smile a little. While Pinkie was aggravating to read, I liked the “Muffins vs. Cupcakes” battle she had with Trixie. And when the story stops to focus on the chaos the Parasprites are causing, it’s actually pretty fun. As a whole, though, I didn’t particularly care for this one.

OVERALL RATING: Okay

I can’t call this a bad story, because it really isn’t. The message itself is fairly good, and I liked that RK was trying to address one of the big issues in “Swarm of the Century.” However, it just didn’t click as a story for me. Once the focus was shifted from the Parasprites to Pinkie, the story’s conflict died with it. It’s worth a look if you want an alternative take on “Swarm,” and it does have enough good moments and points to make it an enjoyable read, but I wouldn’t rate it among the universe’s best.

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NEXT TIME ON THE LUNAVERSE REVIEWS:

* An insane Unicorn terrorizes Ponyville. Can it be an ironic role reversal?
* The sirens size up their next meal…and get more than they bargained for.
* Carrot Top solves a burglary and makes a new friend.
* Lyra is offered a gig by her teacher, Octavia. Will Trixie expose the truth before it’s too late?
* A mysterious Alicorn appears, claiming to be Celestia reborn…

COMING SOON TO THIS SCREEN