Ghost Mike's Ponyfic Review Monday Musings #9 · 5:00pm May 2nd, 2022
Devil Rarity: "Now that we’ve got an audience hook, line and sinker with these Ponyfic reviews, it’s time for Phase 2 of the Grand Master Plan: Influencer Imprintation!"
Pinkie Pie: "Really?"
Angel Rarity: "Without a doubt, my confection-devouring friend! Focus your efforts on spreading the word, and get hip and down with the current Ponyfic trends! Neglect the reviews themselves, and raise the ratings! Raise them all to Excellent!"
Pinkie Pie: "Oh! If you say so!"
Devil Rarity: [yanks Pinkie back before she can leave] "Oh please Pinkie Pie, never in a million years would I drop my standards. Nor focus so much on art that is just words on a page. And especially not with such verbal baloney."
There goes April, folks. Wonder what Summer 2022 will have in store for us? Hopefully better things for the world at large. Working on some Ponyfic for this ghost, ideally. Watch this space, that’s all I’ll say for now.
In other news, after it being on my radar for ages, having easy access via Netflix, and knowing the show has a definitive end (announced, anyway, but only half a season left to air), I finally gave DC Super Hero Girls a shot. And honestly? It’s pretty darn good. Dunno why I waited almost four years since seeing the preview short that played before Teen Titans Go! To The Movies (which is also lowkey much better than one would expect).
It’s the most obvious thing in the world to say, but it really does feel a lot like Faust’s seasons of FiM, and not just for sharing the creator, having M.A. Larson as Story Editor, and getting a few FiM writers onboard (in the twenty-five episodes I’ve watched so far, Larson and Faust co-author four, he wrote four alone, and G.M. Berrow and Cindy Morrow pen one each; Nick Confalone pops in later on), even if it’s mostly different writers. Heck, it even goes beyond featuring a six-cast ensemble of young female characters as genuine non-cringey role models with distinct personality types. Of course, there’s far more edge to the writing and storylines, given the genre and slightly older target audience. But the cadence of the writing, the vibe of how lore shorthand is used at the margins, the way “pair up two characters” episodes are constructed (which are far more common here, given the 11-minute runtime), it really does feel right at home. Especially for someghost like myself, who studied intensely the roots and transitions from Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends into the early writing of FiM, and this gives me the same thrill, of similar ingredients used differently but familiarly. Obviously it’s not giving me the “go beyond watching it” thrill, but it’s slotted in nicely as side-watching material around mealtimes and the like. Ideal with short episodes!
A couple of points I think help it hit better: it hits a balance of being very newcomer-friendly to those who don’t have a working knowledge of all the main superhero universes, which is a rarity in this day and age. I’d never heard of Zatanna before watching this show (I cannot say whether I would have seen odd episodes in which she appeared in some older Batman/Justice League/DC cartoons and just forgot, or missed them altogether), and yet that wasn’t a hindrance at all. But it’s also great at using shorthand of common facts everyone will know to breeze by exposition, a good notion since this reimagines the central characters and various villains as teenagers, and relocates most of them to Metropolis. Beyond that, it gets roughly equal mileage out of hero vs. villain stories and more low-key ones with comic conflicts, doesn’t rub its moral lessons in too much, and is quite remarkable as constructing plots suited to 11-minute nuggets while keeping the pacing and comic timing lively. And for all the main characters are largely broad archetypes (with Supergirl, Bumblebee and Zatanna being very close matches to Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Rarity especially), they’re engaging enough to carry the show.
No, it’s nothing to write home about, but I’m genuinely enjoying it for what it is and look forward to watching it piecemeal over the next while. A rarity for both superhero and Cartoon Network shows these days. It’s just light fun, and that’s all one needs sometimes. If you’ve been sitting on it, I’d recommend giving it a shot.
I do wish Tara Strong wasn’t just using her Twilight voice for Batgirl though, it’s all kinds of distracting (it also popped up in a bit part in the recent Kid Cosmic, as one of three agents that the original voices of the Powerpuff Girls got to play). Especially for a voice actress who used to be very good at making her main iconic voices distinguishable. Though I suppose she plays more headstrong young females nowadays then the 2000’s, where she largely played young boys.
With the recommendation done, let’s get back to the familiar equine team of six females that we all know and love. Plus an assorted supporting cast. Still in a mode of less fics while I build the backlog back up, but the word count’s as stable as ever.
This Week’s Spectral Stories:
Ember Goes to the Spa by Starscribe
When They Were Young: Chrysalis' First Nightmare Night by Mr101
A Taste of Meat by InsertAuthorHere
Rarity's Rodeo by Somber
Hide me! by Nailah
Weekly Word Count: 29,181 Words
Ember Goes to the Spa by Starscribe
Genre: Slice of Life/Comedy/Random
Ember, Spike, Spa Ponies
8,163 Words
May-September 2017Reread
Becoming the new Dragon Lord is tough enough. Doing so while having opened formal communication with Equestria is unprecedented. And not to a dragon’s strengths – they prefer getting their point across with actions, not words. Success in formalising peace will mean prosperity for both sides, though if Ember has to sit through one more long, tedious meeting, that ain’t happening. If only ponies had some way of unwinding when stressed, some equivalent to a lava bath…
The fic mostly writes itself from the above setup, though I would be remiss to not mention that both Ember and Spike are characterised strongly enough. In the former’s case, we get solid reasoning for her abrasive early behaviour, making it more satisfying as it fades towards the end. And for Spike, we get the best of his more assertive-yet-still-caring post-“Gauntlet of Fire” incarnation. This fic was written before “Triple Threat” aired, and good thing, it’d never have been written in its current form otherwise.
There’s not much else to it, though plot points towards the end are amusing. It’s an enjoyable fluff piece, if hardly exceptional, well worth a read that goes down quick. There are two extra chapters, but they are more minific extensions on the same theme than a proper continuation. The first one loosely follows up, still set from Ember’s POV, while the third jettisons her altogether, keeping just the spa and Bulk Biceps as connecting tissue, oddly enough. They’re enjoyable too, though the stamina does leak out as they progress. Perhaps if read over time akin to how they updated, they work better. Or maybe those more accustomed to minifics will gel with them better. In any case, the fic’s packing is all about the first chapter; the other two, and especially the third one, are side bonuses one can skip and not miss anything. Though they’re still worth reading.
Rating: Decent
When They Were Young: Chrysalis' First Nightmare Night by Mr101
Genre: Comedy/Slice of Life (Alternate Universe)
Chrysalis, Other
4,809 Words
October 2013Reread
After much begging and whining and puppy eyes, the li’l changeling princess Chrysalis finally manages to convince her parents to let her leave the hive for Nightmare Night and go trick-or-treating in nearby New Hoofshire. The catch? An old retired changeling commander had to foalsit her the whole time, something neither she nor him are happy about. And that’s assuming everything goes fine and he doesn’t lose sight of her…
This fic only needed to deliver on just one thing, Chrysalis re-contextualised as an adorable cute child with not a mean bone in her body, going trick-or-treating. It delivers on that front, which is enough to carry it for almost 5,000 words. There’s quite a few good, character-based jokes, it’s all technically sound as long as frequent scene/perspective changes every 500 words or so aren’t an issue, the characters feel convincing even when the prose is clearly transparently prodding them in the story’s direction, and so forth.
For all that, there feels like there’s a lot of untapped potential here. It presents the fact of Chrysalis being cute, but doesn’t do much more than the minimum story requirements throughout, to the point that Chrysalis sometimes feels more like a tween than an excitable kid. It takes fully half the story just to get to the point where Chrysalis’ guardian loses sight of her, and the rest of it plays out with no deviation from the explicitly implied path at that point, skipping any potential issues in the conflict and thus feeling plodding in the resolution. And the cutsey, almost chibi-like vibe to the story naturally means it’s just a fluff piece with no serious considerations of world building beyond that necessary for the story, or fitting it with the timeline. Of course, it is an AU fic, so this is a big, not a feature.
Still, it delivers what it promises, and as long as one can ignore all the dangling potential throughout in-story and other avenues, and is game for a cute Chrysalis going out on Nightmare Night undercover, it’s an enjoyable snack. A fine place for a cutesy fluff piece. Now, I wonder how other Youngverse fics (unconnected except for sharing the premise of revolving around adult MLP characters when they were foals) fare…
Rating: Decent
A Taste of Meat by InsertAuthorHere
Genre: Slice of Life/Dark (Equestria Girls, Human)
Sunset Shimmer, Main 6, Granny Smith
4,839 Words
October 2014Reread
Listened to via Scribbler's reading
NOTE: InsertAuthorHere sadly passed away almost four years ago in June 2018. I did not let that influence my review or rating, but felt it right to acknowledge that here. Rest in Peace.
Sunset Shimmer is a vegetarian. Has been as long as anyone at Canterlot High’s known her. When Rainbow Dash finds out that she never became one, but just always was, she reasons that Sunset needs to try meat. And being Rainbow Dash, she does so by prodding the only ego in school to match her own, and succeeds. Pity this dare takes effect just as the school’s recent budget cuts take effect…
If it were at all possible to come to this fic blind, not even reading the short description, that would be the ideal way to do it. Because once you take the setup foregrounded there out of the way, you’ve only got 40% or so left. This is exasperated by an in media res opening giving way to one of those “how did I get into this mess?” flashbacks setting up the pieces, which leeches any tension or surprises out of the story’s first half. It would have been obviously better to do this in normal chronological order, and the only justification for doing it this way – worrying the reader wouldn’t be hooked and drift away quickly – isn’t justifiable for a fic this short.
All that being the case, this is quite hilarious, enough so that the lack of a comedy tag is questionable. The Rainbooms confined to the sidelines make their few lines count, Granny Smith is pretty snarky as a peripheral character, and the main banter between Rainbow and Sunset keeps the proceedings lively enough. I'm sure many will want to deck Rainbow for her insufferable behaviour before long. Even the aftermath, which gets oddly philosophical as the two leads reconcile, still finds room for some neat asides and suitably biting venom. Though clearly this moralising works for many, judging by the debates and thoughts in the comments. Me, it’s not nearly as lasting as the comedy.
Thus, a conundrum. I think the characterization, comedy, and even the philosophy and moralization, to a degree, make this quite a fun piece worth reading. Had it thought its structure through more, as well as its pacing (sentences tends to be somewhat overlong or superfluous for the tone this is going for, a problem exasperated by the audio reading – word trimming throughout wouldn’t go amiss), we could have a great, minor classic here. As it stands, it’s a diverting read, though one where the highlights stick around much longer. That’s enough.
Rating: Pretty Good
NOTE: The audio reading both boosts and weakens this story. The characterisation and jokes get extra energy from the solid voice cast, but taking a half hour to get through a story where so much of the plot is going through the motions is keenly felt. I still think it's a better experience for those who like experiencing one-shots via audio readings, but it's not a slam-dunk improvement like Scribbler’s audiobooks usually are.
Rarity's Rodeo by Somber
Genre: Slice of Life/Romance
Rarity, Applejack, Mane 6
10,247 Words
January 2015 (on Fimfiction; originally published via Equestria Daily in July 2011)Reread
Applejack is in the middle of practising for the rodeo, when who should show up but Twilight and Rarity. All is well until Twilight remembers that on a certain sleepover during a rainstorm, Applejack dared Rarity to enter the next rodeo, while Rarity dared Applejack to not enter. One pony’s perfectly okay with her end of this, having several wins under her horseshoe already, but the other… not so much.
This is a Season 1 story through and through, in both the chronology, the personalities and attitudes of the characters at the time, and the scope of the world beyond, largely unknown and with the Mane 6 not big focal points quite yet. This does make this quite the dated fic, but I rather liked this myself. One’s mileage may vary.
More notable, though, is the storytelling style, doing its very best to ape the cadence, timing and flair of an onscreen episode, with some romance thrown in. This is generally successful, though some parts are more so than others. An early training montage gets in and out without dragging, using a calendar-crossing motif to mark time in a way that makes it just click. On the other end, the side business with the rest of the Mane 6 (and Spike) just feels superfluous, brushed through in quick summaries that make them less draggy but call to attention the visual medium displacement. Though I supposed it’s just being faithful to many episodes there, having the rest of the cast along for the ride. The actual rodeo itself falls somewhere between the two, for what it’s worth.
This episode-like fic has basically three points of focus. Easily most successful is the baseline characterisation for Rarity and Applejack, the training bringing them closer and establishing new respect, and the spotlight on Rarity struggling with feeling of inadequacy. If there is a quibble here, it’s that there are frequent unexplained references to Somber’s classic fic Simply Rarity, ones which make a point of being understated and the reader not knowing what’s going on. This might have flown better if this were marked as a sequel, even a stand-alone one (hay, maybe it was wherever this fic was originally published back in 2011 – it didn’t come to Fimfiction til 2015, explaining its relatively low traffic and comments), but as it is, it just feels weird. Still, it does work, and if one reads this fic shortly after that one, this issue is obliviated.
The rodeo feels quite lived-in, with descriptions and activities that feel accurate and right (to someghost who’s never been to one, granted), so the main action of the story is engaging enough. A rival pony is a bit more mixed; she starts out as an aggressive individual, but is later painted as having an axe to grind for a legitimate reason – rodeos turned into a laughing stock when she comes from a family where this way of life is a proud heritage, yet not wanting pity. Yet as the story progresses, her role and motivation keeps shifting, with the story undecided how much she matters to the proceedings, and leaving something she does or doesn’t do (we don’t get a 100% clear answer) muddled. Plus, it means the competition is basically a race of two, as no other pony even gets mentioned until the awards. Possibly the story might have felt stronger leaning a little further away from being an episode with a physical antagonist, playing into Rarity’s internal struggles there.
Lastly, there’s the romance. I can see how one might really dig it, especially given the pairing. It is cute and agreeably done, and feels right to the characters. It's rather half-baked, though, with a little blushing and flirting squeezed in alongside the main plot, and then two scenes before and after the final rodeo event that reads as emotional climaxes without adequate buildup to make them soar. Somber admits they were dared to write a shipping story, and while the end result of this element isn’t bad, it doesn’t really excel, largely because the romance aspect is so in awe of itself (I’m sure many can practically hear the musical orchestra soaring during some moments – I know I did).
That’s a lot of critiques for a story that’s still really enjoyable and agreeable, and I do understand why many people really adore it. There’s lots of great elements executed wonderfully here, sharing space with some more mixed ones. If I say the story would have excelled better stripped of the romance and a physical antagonist, that’s only because the remaining elements are on point. It’s equally possible to have those middling elements polished up. Alongside some odd wording and pacing choices at the micro level (with the rival pony’s physical description, for instance, racing by due to having no buildup to her appearance).
Bottom line, this is a good one, even if not quite at the level I remember from when I first read it. Measure your expectations for it not being the sum of its parts, and you’ll quite enjoy it.
Rating: Pretty Good
Twilight’s fans have only increased since she took the throne. On the run from them, she takes refuge with the one pony she most trusts to tell her what to do, who has experience dealing with this level of fame.
I think any story would struggle to get the most out of that premise in barely 1,000 words, but even by that criteria, this is awfully “expanded outline” in a manner that is murder to the building romantic tension feeling organic and earned. In particular, it shifts from Twilight seeking Rarity’s advice to flirting out of nowhere. The setup of rapid chasing fans also feels far more manic and comic than the fic’s main tone, making the cutaways and reminder of them crowding outside the boutique feel odd. And though not a curse on every sentence, a large chunk of the prose and dialogue is stilted and forced, and not just the lines that don’t feel quite right coming out of the characters’ mouths.
There is some cute RariTwi fluff here, but this shows every evidence of being conceived and written in a half hour. The theme of dealing with expectations of fans battles for space with the shipping fluff, and neither really delivers. Not an aggravating piece, but a bland, swiftly forgotten one.
Rating: Weak
Spooky Summary of Scores:
Excellent: 0
Really Good: 0
Pretty Good: 2
Decent: 2
Passable: 0
Weak: 1
Bad: 0
Tell Your Tale: Commentary Corner
The Pipp overflow continues! Not objecting too much, her episodes have been marginally less insufferable than the rest thus far. Let’s see what she’s got. Hopefully not something that’s copying Rarity again.
We start out on… a bunny dancing video… Honestly, this might be the quickest one of these things has set in anxiety for me. Weirdly, it’s animated in 4:3, but is in a vertical phone ratio when we pull out. Make up your mind, compositors!
Pipp then shows it to the others (at least Hitch is at the lighthouse this time!), whose nonplussed reactions mirror my own. Though for me, it’s because it made me realise the title, Clip Trot… is a Tik Tok spoof. Guess it was only a matter of time. She quickly explains that this “Hip Hop Bunny Bob” has like a million hoof taps (of course…). Honey, unless your Tik Tok allows for anonymous taps, or repeats from the same account, that’s a fib. Given your civilisation consists of one city, one town and one forest village with a cumulative population of 50,000 ponies, being generous. Reel it in, sister. Izzy, being Izzy, assumes you’d only need four hoof taps. She also has the audacity to crack a “tough crowd” joke at the lack of applause to her own hoof dance. Writers, come on now, you’re better than… never mind.
We get the first real incorporation of Pipp being a social media star, with her wanting them to reenact the bunny video. I appreciate Sunny giving them brief dancing advice, it’s at least consistent with her suddenly becoming a dancing pro against Alphabittle. Even if she’d just regurgitating the advice Pipp gave her then. Sunny does well, Izzy has no self-consciousness, Zipp is doing acrobatic moves, and Hitch is really jigging it. Have I said beforehand that the Just Prance dance-off would have made much more sense with Hitch doing it instead of Sunny? It would give proper resolution to him resolving at the campfire to help (the film had already committed to prioritising the arcs of Sunny, Izzy and him over the pegasi sisters, might as well cross the finish line), and would pay off his bumbling dance during the heist earlier. Minimal writing changes required.
In any case, Pipp gets very authoritative in shutting them down, and I even like the tone of her “I cannot upload that!” to Zipp still doing tumbles after being told to stop and quipping “Yeah! Upload that!” But what’s with Zipp being into dancing and social media stuff? Brain rebelling against that, and for good reason.
Even I was a little surprised at once Pipp started reenacting the bunny dance (complete with cool shades); Zipp pretended she had something to do and zipped off (
), Sunny was slow on the uptake but eventually followed, Hitch right on her tail. And Izzy? When Pipp noticed the others gone, she admitted she couldn’t think of an excuse and flaked in a flash. Yeah, the dance was cringe, but tell your friend, ponies, don’t flake on her for no reason. Poor writing tossing out unacknowledged bad friendship moments left and right – yup, Tell Your Tale all right.
Chalk up another reason why I’m pretty sure Make Your Mark was meant to release first: Pipp, feeling rightfully down from getting abandoned, bumps into Jazz (her employee from two shorts ago), and ropes her into videoing Pipp doing another dance. Their conversation 100% plays out like a character the audience properly knows.
Jazz tries to be polite about its awfulness, but then Posey (also from two shorts ago) interrupts with snark and a voice that doesn’t fit her design or Fluttershy connection at all. All to say the bunny dance is so last week. Great, we got a “so last week” non-joke this soon too. Though the quipp about Pipp living in a cave turns out to have meaning, flashing to them huddling from the rain out in the wilderness. Apparently Hitch’s fault, with the others all wet and glaring, and him fibbing that they’re not lost. Webshow continues to take a dump on the poor guy. Still, especially with Pipp lacking Canternet (
), that sounds like a much better story than the one we’re getting.
Posey’s remark about them waiting for the next big thing gives Pipp an idea. I do appreciate Jazz’s approval and her and Pipp’s pizazz and hoof bump. Cringe, of course, but believable friendship cringe. Anyway, Pipp made a remix video of her friends’ dances duplicated over a psychedelic distorting background, and it’s an instant hit. We get up-hoof cameos from Rocky (the other mane stylist), Dahlia (now confirmed a descendant of one of the flower girls, though McSnips-A-Lot doesn’t appreciate getting absent-mindedly watered while she’s watching – he continues to provide the best moments), some forest critters…
Our first Alphabittle appearance! He’s bluer than I expected, but his bulkier proportions feel right. He does make a grunt as he mimics the dance, but appraisal on his new voice will have to wait, can’t judge a grunt mixed with music. Oh, suppose this means Bridlewood has internet coverage too. Last is Haven, Zoom and Thunder (I got the impression they came to Zephyr Heights permanently too, given Zipp’s Flight School – who needs consistency?). Zoom’s tough personality continues to mean squat in this webseries. And the billboard screen is touch sensitive, given one pegasus on Haven’s command (her voice sounding far more out-of-place then prior shorts) up-hoofs the Clip Trot. Believability, ppft!
Oh, highlight of the short – our first alicorn animation error! Given this episode also missed some of the credits text – yes, seriously – I can’t say I’m surprised even with a decade-plus of animation software improvements (I’m guessing these are done in Toon Boom, but I can’t say for sure).
After Pipp’s friends remark on the video’s popularity, the short remembers that it has lacked a moral, so it conjures up three foals covering the three tribes (not the same ones from the film’s epilogue) deciding which ponies to imitate this week, with Pipp encouraging them to just be themselves. Finally, Izzy gets run into the ground further, breaking the mood with another spastic dance and proclaiming herself a icon. My faint hope they’ll turn her around just died a bit more.
Equestria Girls certainly had its share of social media stories, and wasn’t the worst, and Mane Melody wasn’t atrocious by that standard either. But man, did this one hit all the wrong buttons. The Alphabittle and McSnips-A-Lot cameos (Crab Boi has a voice now too, same actor as Rocky), some of Jazz’s rapport with Pipp, and Hitch getting jiggy were the only things that worked here. And even aside from the story, there’s just too many weird moments that make no sense (seriously, Posey’s voice is so ill-fitting, making her a trendy valley girl). And the new thing is just a coat of paint on the viral hit from a week past, because that’s how social media works! Story even eschewed the moral until the end, which I can’t decide is better or worse than the tonal whiplash we normally get from it popping up with 90 seconds to go. By this point, I’ve given up ranking these, but this would be pretty far down.
Oh, and that bunny song is a very irritating earworm. Curse you, Tell Your Tale songwriters!
Ah, yes, I recall Rarity's Rodeo. I recall the OC competing against Rarity as the highlight, at least for me. I certainly didn't see all the negatives you did.
As one who has been to a few rodeos before (I is a southern boy, after all, complete with indecipherable accent), I can acknowledge that the story did indeed represent rodeos fairly well.
Please, stop reviewing my stories.
5654831
Well, negatives is a strong word. Nitpicks and observations, more so. I think I found in reading it that it wasn't quite the Excellent fic I'd recalled, so I spent more energy and words figuring out why than I would normally do. But I still fully see why many do love it, and I like it quite a bit myself. Those observations don't take away from that. I see old fandom classics and mini-classics hold up far worse all the time, so this fared better than most. And yes, it may have only been published here in 2015, but given its origin elsewhere, it counts as a oldie for the purpose of this thought experiment.
Reassuring to know! I do always love when a piece of media presents a culture foreign to many (or, well, some in this case), but makes it feel right and inviting even without a point of comparison. Glad to know my hunch was true. We don't exactly have rodeos or rodeo analogues this side of the pond!
5654843
If you ever decide you'd like to experience one, do it in Houston around February/March. You can get the full experience in a single trip.
You forgot to put Somber's story in the list up top. Unless it's one of those things you can only see if you enable dark mode... which I wouldn't put it past a ghost to do.
5654860
Nope, just a slip in coordinating.
Fixed now. Thanks for pointing it out.
>hoof taps
<.<
Thanks for the reviews! My list is so long that I don't add anything that isn't "Excellent", "Highly Recommended", or "Why Haven't You Read These Yet?", but it's also good to know what to avoid.
TYT Ep. 7 is the low point of the series so far. In a world of magical talking ponies, a shallow story that could be told with generic Teen Girl Squad™ characters is a complete waste of effort. The unibunnies are fun only if one knows of al-mi'raj, the murderous Arab folklore version:
i.ibb.co/7yKyZK1/Qazwini-Bordeaux-ms1130-fol54r-rabbit.jpg
5655039
I'd be much the same; if I were looking at these reviews, and just looking for stuff to read for fun, I'd keep myself to Excellent and some of Really Good (personal interest permitting), with lower-tier fics sometimes getting a look in if they're a quick read. So can't blame you for that selectiveness, I've got close to 300 fics to get through myself! Though as I use a seven-tier rating system, as opposed to the five-tier system employed by Present Perfect and PaulAsaran, that makes that top tier all the more selective.
Funny thing is, my backlog of fics to read and review has far more stuff I've read before (usually years ago) than fresh content, and I've committed to properly reading them all again. They're certainly a contributor to some of the odder fics, and sometimes lesser fics, that will pop up here. From the days of a more naive spirit, alas… Were I picking purely fresh stuff, where I'd be more selective, we'd see a higher balance towards at least the top half of tiers here.
Aye. I said as such above, but didn't want to repeat the point, because it's so obviously a bad, creative-less idea. Even in the far less fantastical G5, it's an especially sore sticking point. I'm sure, if I bothered to rank these shorts, this would be last (with the crammed-in pilot episode probably being second last, though why bother ranking the dregs).
Yup! Pity the loose – very loose – connection to that vicious horned hare wasn't enough to spark some life into that aspect here, alas.
5655045
Oh yeah! This is a critical factor for me* as well, but probably more exclusionary in nature. That's why you won't find any
Slightly Magical Teen Girl Squad™Equestria Girls stories on my list, regardless of recommendations. I have, on occasion, read top-rated horror, sad, porn, or tragedy tagged fics, but I've almost always regretted doing so.Conversely, I have read and enjoyed some objectively poorly-written fics if they accurately target my interests. Fortunately, my horrible dyslexia makes me immune to most common typos and mangled grammar. As long as the underlying story is good, I can deal with a clunky execution. Unfortunately, bad Early Modern English is like fingernails on a chalkboard for me, and some otherwise good fics drop down the scale because of mangled Luna-speak.
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* And for most people, I suspect. Content trumping execution is the only reasonable explanation for the success of some popular media.