Contest Thing and Thoughts on "Surf and/or Turf" · 2:59am Apr 25th, 2018
First off, I participated in a contest event thingy! That's a first, hurr hurr. It was the SpringTime Sequel-Slash-Sandbox Switcharoo, where you had to write a sequel or spin-off of someone else's fan fiction. Here's the group where the stories are so those of you who weren't part of it could check them out.
It was an interesting experience. I got to read some cool fics by the author I was assigned, Erutanlon. I ultimately decided on writing a little spin-off of Brave Nocturne. Did as best as I could, given the information I got from the story and how I could make a few of my headcanons work within that universe, but it's nice to finish it (even if I feel like melting into a puddle from nervousness). I tagged the thing so you guys could see.
On a related note, I was pleasantly surprised by what the person who was assigned me, TheDriderPony, wrote about. As much as I wondered what kind of spin-off someone would make, I didn't think Tomato would have any part of it (you know, being my OC and all). But then there's this cute piece, Accordion to All Known Laws. I don't really care about any inconsistencies it may have with my stuff (hey, I wouldn't blame anyone for avoiding Brotherly Bonding Time, it'd take longer than the duration of the contest to get through all the chapters so far!), I'm just happy that it nails the spirit of the young Cheese and Tomato adventures. 
And of course, I better give you what I thought about last week's episode, "Surf and/or Turf".
I think it's a fun episode with some admittedly cool worldbuilding, both hippogriff and seapony wise. I am leaning more toward the hippogriffs because I think their half-bird, half-horse schtick is really cool, and I find them a little more fun than the seaponies. And frankly, no matter how much I like swimming, I wouldn't want to live in the sea (it kind of unnerves me).
Though, when it came to the Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo's argument, despite my preference for the hippogriffs, I oddly found myself wondering, "What's so special about Harmonizing Heights?" I didn't really see anything different from any other serene, peaceful grassy place that made it stick out... I actually thought it looked like a mess, like a tornado hit. I guess it's the music thing, but it didn't really stick out to me, seeing how television and movies typically have music to set the mood, and I couldn't tell the difference. Admittedly, I was expecting a Sound of Music Reference.
And Scootaloo... yeah, I totally agree with the rest of you, seeing her 'fly' in a sense as a seapony is both heartwarming and heartwrenching. On the other hand, I'm so intensely annoyed that she called turtles "tortoises", just to rhyme with "porpoises". That line in the song really made me want to pull my hair out, because tortoises are land-based! 
Though, in the sense of the episode's conflict being a allegory of a kid torn between his divorced parents... honestly, I don't know how well the episode did. Sure, I've had friends whose parents were divorced, and I have an aunt who divorced, but that doesn't really give me anything to say, since I didn't have personal involvement or even followed along events as they happened (my aunt's divorce and remarriage to another man happened when I was too small to remember). Maybe whether it works or not depends on the person. So, I'm just sitting here like, "Okay, it did that thing."
But, I did have fun watching it. Also, Twilight was cute in this episode, with her "research". 
