) Disney saw fit to re-release The Phantom Menace in cinemas for one week for the film’s 25th anniversary (only two weeks off). It almost slipped my mind until today, hence Monday Musings being a few hours later (advantage of a Bank Holiday, peeps – a freeGhost Mike's Ponyfic Review Monday Musings #17 · 5:01pm Jun 27th, 2022
Something a bit unusual this week. I’ve had more and more review stories pile up on my backlog lately from an Ponyfic audiobook reader that isn’t Scribbler, and I figured, why not do an edition of exclusively fics read by them? It gives me the chance to also talk about the quality and quirks of their readings. That reader being StraightToThePointStudio.
They’re a unique entity in this game; a male fic reader that reads all the character voices by himself, and rather than let the female voices that comprise 90% of MLP characters sound male like in an abridged series, he puts on female voices. Ones that actually fit and sound near-perfectly natural. I haven’t listened to his earliest readings (he started in November 2018, and the earliest I’ve listened to is from April 2020), but either at the start or along the way, he got using modulation software to smooth over the voices he puts on down to a science. While you are keenly aware everything is being done by one person, as there's overlap between voice types (Zipp and Luna are near-indistinguishable, while other comparisons have semi-frequent overlaps), that’s to be expected to a degree. Perhaps it’s a good thing he almost exclusively tackles small, short fics, which naturally have less characters, as confusion in cases like this can happen with larger casts present at once. Otherwise, though, the actual voicing and acting is near-immaculate. We’re talking quite close to actual published audiobooks here, albeit ones still using light atmospheric background music.
There’s one major quibble: I do, on occasion, wonder if he’s reading these from a long text file rather than the original formatted stories, as apart from being just a smidge too fast on the whole and occasionally lacking appropriate pauses, scene breaks don’t get pauses any larger than those afforded in between regular paragraphs. While the fact that his individual chapters rarely cover enough material to include a scene break means this isn’t as big a problem as it could be, it’s still something of an issue, one of those “hold up” moments where you have to check the fic as you’re listening to have full context. Which breaks the immersion, never nice. Makes it not quite a guarantee of a fic you can listen to while multitasking and still get the full experience. And the occasional sign of rushing these via a line being said by the wrong character (a Zipp line said by Hitch in today’s first fic), or a word being replaced with a similar one (unicorn for alicorn in today’s final fic).
Regardless, he’s generally very good, and if he slowed down a bit and took a little more time with these readings, I wouldn’t have a bad thing to say against them. Course, being locked into a new-video-every-day mode as a result of being (seemingly) reliant on Patreon backings of almost €600 a month would necessitate doing these quickly. And I mean quickly; fic readings will pop up literally one day after the fic is published, scheduled for a premiere four or five days later. This is also to account for most chapters longer than 20 minutes (or a little over 3,000 words) generally getting split in two, because of a daily upload commitment. But sure, even if that makes the excess outros when you’re listening to a playlist more immersion breaking, one’s gotta make a living, don’t they? 10K subscribers alone doesn’t pay the bills!
Anyway, so: one or two rough edges, but very impressive in many key areas, not least a male impersonating female voices and it not feeling conspicuous. I’ll be frank, a lot of the fics he tends to read are newer, frivolous ones that are a bit too lightweight or flimsy for me to bother with most of the time, so Straight’s readings are not likely to be commonplace here by any stretch. But his work will pop up now and again.
Anyway, how’s about we see some of those fics? His readings also give me space to mix G5 stories with G4 ones for the first time in one of these blogs; we got a pair of G5 stories, one G4/G5 story, and two G4 thousand-word contest entries. Not a bad assortment at all! Links for multi-video readings go to the playlist of the parts.
This Week’s Spectral Stories:
How to Hug Your Pegasis by NavelColt
The S-Regimen by NavelColt
Did You Have To Go That Far? by iAmSiNnEr
Laundromat by Admiral Biscuit
Izzy and the Moonlit Garden by Sledge115
Weekly Word Count: 26,937 Words
How to Hug Your Pegasis by NavelColt
Genre: Slice of Life/Comedy/Drama
Pipp, Zipp, Hitch, Queen Haven
9,299 Words
March 2022Listened to via StraightToThePointStudio's readings
For Zipp, the worst day of the year has arrived: Siblings Day! Whatever it means for others, for her it just means another livestreamed game of cat-and-mouse as Pipp pursues her relentlessly for some wholesome sister cuddling. And this year, the pop star’s efforts are so relentless that Zipp ropes Hitch into helping her stay low.
It’s not too surprising when things escalate quickly.
I’ve only touched a couple of NavalColt’s one shots, and none of his larger works, but I gather his writing forte is a mixture of sibling relationships, bonding fluff pieces and characters hugging. Unsurprisingly, this story dabbles in all three, moving from the initial setup to Pipp unwisely enlisting her Pippsqueaks’ assistance in locating the Crown Princess, to an escalating chase, to it reaching a collision point, and then to a makeup chapter. It’s a fast-paced one for sure, at least until that last point.
Really, this last point divides the fic cleanly in two, and not just in word count. The first half holds nothing back in embracing Pipp’s extravagant content creator personality, played up almost to parody levels, and while there is sincerity and depth to the moments with Hitch and Zipp, it’s still at cartoon-level depths. It’s frivolous and shallow to the point of redundancy, and while some of that is obviously the point and for contrast, it’s a bit much. It’s fun fluff, but light, shallow fluff.
Then the second half comes along, and it actually probes into the difficulty of even a mostly-positive relationship between two siblings who have drifted apart and operate on totally different wavelengths. As filtered through playful pony hugs, naturally. You’d never believe NavelColt was an only child, the depiction and nuance to the beats is really quite something (course, with his debut fic being a bonding fluff piece between Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo, he’s had lots of practice). What sets even this apart from other Zipp/Pipp fics is that it’s not quite the strained relationship the film depicted, but a potential expansion on it that just feels right (we’ll have to see whether it still fits with forthcoming canon), though being post-film, it doesn’t conflict either.
NavelColt clearly has writing chops galore when it comes to writing heartwarming bonding with meaning and depth, and I look forward to reading more from him. Only two things hold this fic back from a Really Good rating. The aforementioned whiplash in tone and pacing between the two halves, while the point of course, would work better if the first half was toned down a bit more, allowed to breathe, felt of the same place as the second half rather than being off just a bit too much. Then there’s a fourth chapter of what the sisters’ future quiet bonding moments of intimate cuddling are like. There’s nothing wrong with this. In fact, I approve of a brief epilogue post-reconciliation, but it completely mangles the pacing and flow to have a whole 2.2K appended to the prior 7.1K. Not just the principle or word ratios, it even goes for a multi-scene flow that feels like its own story, or a snapshot from another one. Were it kept to one short scene, it would serve its purpose beautifully. As it is, it makes the fic end somewhat softly, mid-loading its best material.
Rating: Pretty Good
The S-Regimen by NavelColt
Genre: Drama/Slice of Life
Pipp, Zipp
3,500 Words
May 2022Listened to via StraightToThePointStudio's readings
Sibling traditions are a funny thing. No matter what’s going on, when circumstances arrive that dictate they be upheld, you uphold them. It’s the same for Pipp and Zipp; every time Pipp comes down with a head cold, Zipp drops everything to look after her, cuddled up on a couch watching tv. So when Zipp is so distant with her research into flight the next time this happens, so much so she neglects her sister, Pipp is more than a little hurt, wondering what’s happening to their family.
Not strictly a prequel piece to How to Hug Your Pegasis, it’s totally timeline independent, but it follows the same headcanon of the sisters’ relationship, so it might as well be. Like that fic, while the bond between the two sisters is undeniably a strained one, it’s still far more positive than the norm, by intent. This is nice once again, taking good pleasure in the fact that they do undeniably love and treasure each other very much, and both feel hurt when circumstances over the years have made them drift apart a little, not knowing how to broach it until it’s gone far. Pipp more than Zipp; there’s some nice incorporation of how single-minded Zipp gets when she has a goal, but quickly admits her mistake when confronted by Pipp in tears. That this first half is peppered with Pipp’s recollections of their routine from years past make it all the more probing.
The second half, of them going through this sick foalsitter routine afresh, is… basically just a variation of the same “banter while cuddling close with teenage sister” schtick that How to Hug Your Pegasis’s epilogue chapter consisted of. It fares a little better here, being shorter at barely 1.6K and having a more concrete connection, rather than feeling like an extra story tacked on. Yet despite being essential, and properly tying off the issues raised earlier, it can’t help but feel rote. I look forward to more Zipp/Pipp bonding stories from NavelColt, he’s got quite the knack for them, but he needs to go in a different direction for the ending next time, or risk dilution via repetition.
Course, none of that is as much of an issue to those reading this story independent of the other, or not so close to it. It’s a little less special and standout than How to Hug Your Pegasis, but being more of the same serves it quite well, especially given it’s taking from the stronger second half of that fic.
Rating: Pretty Good
Did You Have To Go That Far? by iAmSiNnEr
Genre: Comedy/Slice of Life
Celestia, Luna
1,000 Words
May 2022Listened to via StraightToThePointStudio's reading
Celestia refuses to let Luna read her private diary. But she has little inkling of the depths to which little sisters will go to poke into their older sister’s private affairs…
Utterly, distractingly predictable even without the spoiler-ific description, yet cute and diverting. It strains less than many stories to fit into 1,000 words, even if it still can’t do much beyond the plot beats and has lots of quick scene changes (I can easily imagine this as an old-school 7-minute cartoon short with some obstacles of hilarious contrivance on Luna’s way to the diary). But the base determination of Luna, and Celestia getting suckered so easy, is funny to watch play out. An amusing if slight little ditty.
Rating: Passable
Laundromat by Admiral Biscuit
Genre: Slice of Life (Human)
OC, Other
1,000 Words
April 2022Listened to via StraightToThePointStudio’s reading
Doing laundry is the worst. It takes too much time, you never quite manage to bring exact change, and there’s nothing substantial to do while waiting. Hence, it’s easy to envy one’s pony neighbour for how rarely they have to do it. That is, until it turns out she can’t wash her blankets.
This is as Admiral Biscuit-y an 1,000-word story as they come; writing stories under 2K is so second-nature for him that this strains not at all with the length, and the only reason I felt dissatisfied at the end was because I wanted more. That, plus it’s not really a comedy and the whole plot is given away by the cover pic and description. Still, a fic like this isn’t really about what happens, but the observations and details along the way. All the usual suspects are here; a human’s observation about how a pony carries themselves, a meet cute when they’re introduced, a culture clash that sets the story in motion (quite a hilarious one this time) and side comments on how the focal subject operates. This last subject never fails to disappoint, and as someone who’s never been to a laundromat in his life (and not just because people would be horrified by coins and laundry putting themselves in, ssh – outside of London they just aren’t a necessity over here), reading the comments that sprung up around such topics is half the entertainment. His stories make learning fun, even outside the fic’s content itself.
While hardly one of his best works (the story’s slightness and nothing happening beyond what the packaging reveals do limit it), this is still an above-average outing from an always-reliable author. Delightful, just what one needs sometimes.
Rating: Pretty Good
Izzy and the Moonlit Garden by Sledge115
Genre: Drama/Slice of Life
Izzy, Luna
12,138 Words
May 2022Listened to via StraightToThePointStudio's readings
From a young age, Izzy has always felt alone. No one else is energetic enough to make for friendly company, and mostly Bridlewood is quite quiet, with even quieter ponies. Then, one day, she sees a strange pony with a dark blue coat, barely visible in the night. Following this almost ethereal figure through the forest, she comes across a secret moonlit garden, and comes to learn about its caretaker, a mare of ages past, who speaks of the days of old, fondly yet with a certain sadness.
Please excuse my word vomit as I try and fail to discuss this story. Bittersweet it may be, but this fic is just lovely. It is a story very nearly always tinged with sadness, whether that be for Luna’s cryptic (to Izzy) loneliness in the early goings, what personally happens to Izzy round the middle, or when Luna decides towards the end to share some of her personal memories of the past with Izzy. And yet, even during these tragedies, it remains a sweet, uplifting tale, with the hopeful and sad elements operating not in isolation, but complimenting each other, leaving no tonal whiplash. After all, real life is like that, sadness one moment, smiles the next, where the prior sadness is still there.
Being less cryptic myself, this piece that follows Izzy through fragments of her fillyhood life as she interacts with Luna has characterisation for the two down pat, especially as regards explaining aspects of Izzy’s personality via her upbringing without devoting direct focus to it. Economical prequeling is always a good thing. But Luna, a character explored near-infinite times more than Izzy, is no worse off. The story leaves lots of details regarding her unstated, even down to whether she’s actually here or not, and if only Izzy can interact with her. Not only does it not lose from these unpresent parts, it actually benefits. It truly is the rare piece solely from one character’s POV that manages to be about them both equally.
This is also one of the best pre-A New Generation character-establishing pieces I’ve read yet. Strong enough that it manages to establish a reason why Izzy didn’t set out for Maretime Bay upon getting the lantern, and why she does later, and they both actually feel organic and right, rather than forced adhering to the film. Add to that the superb technical execution, evoking much lovely imagery (and that of other tones to match), and you’ve got yourself a real gem.
Oh, and it’s also more than strong enough to break through the near-insurmountable barrier that is the G4->G5 connection too, and naturally, that’s by being about the characters rather then the timelines (it also helps that the few concrete G4 events are either very timeline early, or detail-light). So, you know, no issue there. Proof that there are ways to not only get around the generation “connection” but actually make it work. Limited ways, but they exist.
You really can’t go wrong here. Masterful control of tone blending, economical storytelling and character-building, and it ends on just the right note, being all the stronger for not delving into the context here meeting with that after the film’s ending. If you’re anything like me (well, sans the lack of a body), you’ll be invested from beginning to end.
Rating: Excellent
Spooky Summary of Scores:
Excellent: 1
Really Good: 0
Pretty Good: 3
Decent: 0
Passable: 1
Weak: 0
Bad: 0
Tell Your Tale: Commentary Corner
Pipp is about to serve some pineapple cocktails, showing that she’s not completely devoid of worthwhile taste, when she sees that Hitch, Izzy and Sunny are toddlers, speaking gibberish. As she spouts out variants on “What. Is. Happening?”, the trio causes trouble that she has to quickly stop. Though Cloudpuff seems to appreciate the grooming Also, Cloudpuff exists! Not a patch on McSnips-A-Lot in this series, but he’s pretty cute. And no, neither the explanation nor Zipp’s absence have yet been addressed.
Pipp does have the smarts to pull the blinds over the salon’s windows, and try to calm herself and figure out how this could have happened. By this point, the others are making a right mess, and… am I the only one thinking of that Lilo and Stitch: The Series episode where everyone bar Lilo is made a toddler by the Pokémon Experiment of the Week and she has to look after them? Dunno why, this is going more for toddler chaos anarchy in Baby Cakes mode. Anyway, between soap, running water and accessories everywhere, with Cloudpuff being no help, Zipp walks in on pure chaos.
Oh dear. Pipp says “Our friends are fillies!” Baby Hitch coughs, and Pipp adds “and foals!” The writers can’t even… colts, he’s a colt! That old “mare and colt” thing from A Canterlot Wedding was peanuts next to this.
As the royal sisters try to round up the trio, a thought occurred. Normally in a cartoon you’d expect them to carry one baby per arm. And yes, horses, but look at this artstyle, we’d buy it. Yet, consistently, we see the adults needing both forelegs to pick up one foal. Take advantage of your medium, come on!
After Zipp uses her visor she got a few episodes ago to look around, seemingly to no avail, she gets Pipp to calm down enough to take it from the top. Only tells us that she’d had them over for an amazing spa day. Zipp asks about all the weird spa stuff, Pipp takes offence, and by this point Cloudpuff is a weird perversion of lipstick on a rotting pig. Dunno how to feel about that. The sisters are charmed enough to say “Puppy Cloudpuff!” Since he didn’t shrink in size because he’d be too small, didn’t realise he’d gotten younger until now..
On Zipp’s question, Pipp identifies the pink-red stuff as her Totally Natural Fabulous Fruity Face Mask. Which is glowing because… there was a putrid smell in the stuff earlier and she added magic glitter to them. Did that glitter have traces of Twilight in it or something? Age spells are supposed to be notoriously difficult (and no, I don’t need it to line up with G4 magic levels, but if they’re going to insist on connecting the two…). And there goes sympathy and respect for Pipp having to manage these fillies. Oh, and now Zipp can hold more than one foal, because consistency’s for losers and she’s perfect. Well, sort of.
Pipp quickly realises that since face masks normally make one look younger, she needs to make something that does the opposite and apply magic glitter. The duo quickly make something (broccoli is involved) but have trouble getting the toddlers to hold still so they can apply it. Because Zipp is Miss Perfect, she quickly hits on telling a bedtime story to put them to sleep, about her and Pipp being different but close because of it, and one rotate wipe later, the trio wake up as adults. They think they feel younger in the face, Izzy decides to recommend this to everypony, and seeing Zipp and Pipp half-asleep, Sunny recommends it to them. Cue lame ending laughter, because of course. FiM you ain’t, TYT.
Did the play-by-play read as really lethargic? Good, then I’ve captured the experience of watching the short. This short relies on visual “humour” more than any others thus far, and of course the cheap rigs and budget/schedule are not remotely up to carry it out with more than baseline competent comic timing. Babies being chaotic like this is a pretty one-note joke that wears out its welcome in well less than 300-seconds. Makes Baby Cakes far more respectable, honestly. Zipp and Pipp bonding and working together is nice, granted.
Other than the writing boo-boo of how they get turned into babies (it’s been pointed out to me the magic glitter is probably the same stuff Sunny was scattering everywhere last short and they collected it, but as nothing in this short indicates that when watching it, it still reeks of lazy screenwriting in the moment), and all its implications, there’s little outright bad or aggravating about this short, but there’s almost nothing that gets a positive reaction either, unless one is especially swayed by the cutesy toddler designs (Sunny looks by far the best). Kind of glad that Hasbro executive who demanded more baby content in FiM largely never got his way. This was honestly so dull that I’m putting it lower than shorts with properly aggravating material.
TOLERABLE
- Alicorn Issues (Ep. 14)
- Foal Me Once (Ep. 7)
The Game Is Ahoof (Ep. 12)
"NORMAL"-LEVEL BAD
- Mane Melody (Ep. 5)
- The Unboxing of Izzy (Ep. 6)
- Zipp Gets Her Wings (Ep. 3) * Originally titled Zipp’s Flight School.
- MARETIME BAY DAY 2.0 [sic] (Ep. 11)
Making a Foal of Me (Ep. 15) NEW
BROKEN WRITING IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT
- Sisters Take Flight (Ep. 1)
- IT’S T.U.E.S. DAY [sic] (Ep. 9)
- A Home to Share (Ep. 2)
- Sunny-Day Dinners (Ep. 10)
Nightmare Roomate [sic] (Ep. 4)
VILE WEED
- Dumpster Diving (Ep. 13)
- Clip Trot (Ep. 8)
Thanks for taking such an in-depth look at my stuff!
HtHYP suffered heavily from mid-story syndrome. The third chapter, the emotional climax, was what I wrote first, so that's where all the inspiration really went into. Then I tried to write a story that lead there without turning the whole thing into a long-winded novel, but as you've mentioned, it wasn't perfect with tone.
Then the fourth chapter was something else I'd wanted to depict with these two, but at the time decided to tack it on as an epilogue rather than make it its own thing. This was purely because I didn't have the finances or patience to get another cover art made for another one shot.
I'll own that impatience was my downfall there.
And then, yes, S-Regimen came from the same place the last chapter of HTHyP did. I wanted to look at a 'what if?' scenario where Pipp actually did notice her sister's self isolation in the pursuit of flight. To show Pipp genuinely expressing how much she missed her sister, and how this may have been enough to knock Zipp out of the obsessive drive she had for solving the mystery of flight, and get her to realize how much she'd been secluding herself.
Power of love conquers all, and somesuch other wholesome themes.
It was also an opportunity to explore further how Zipp differs from Pharynx, the other main older sibling I write about. Zipp is not only more tolerant of Pipp's emotional nature but will engage with it when Pipp is upset, even put her sister's feelings over her own. This has been shown several times now in Tell Your Tale.
TYT's writing as a whole is nothing to write home about, but it is single-hoofedly championing depicting Zipp and Pipp's relationship in a positive light, which continues to be highlight for me. It shows us how Zipp seems to behave when she's not obsessed with solving some greater problem. She's more attentive of her sister and friends and is largely more caring and thoughtful.
The fact we finally have a sibling relationship where shameless cuddling is arguably possible in canon means I'm going to be inserting it everywhere, naturally.
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The best kind of contagious, that, isn't it? And I'd have noticed you updated your reply here even without the extra alert on The S-Regimen.
With reservations, my friend, with reservations. But as long as its tackled somewhat differently going forward, I'll have relatively little to note.
Far be it for me to weigh in on that… but was using commissioned custom art that much of a deal-breaker? For bigger stories, sure, but that epilogue, isolated, would have been a short one-shot, even shorter than The S-Regimen, I'm sure you could have found existing fanart that would have served. But I haven't been following your progress, development and preferences for years, only since December or thereabouts, so perhaps you have your reasons.
Anyway, a story's strong content being mid-loaded isn't the worst thing, and not that big a deal with a one-shot under 10K. Not worth dwelling on!
Nothing wrong with finding prime character work to develop from objectively bad material. It happened a fair share with FiM, especially towards the end.
Me, the writing of all this (TYT and MYM) is far too weak, with poor technical execution on the animation side of character moments, to provoke more than a "that's nice, I guess" reaction at character moments. Course, I'm not really a fan of Zipp or Pipp to begin with, the latter especially, but you can see I keep that out of the reviews of fics involving them.
Humans have an Achilles heel, ponies have a Friendship heel. Looks like Navelcolt has a Canon Siblings Cuddling heel.
Heya there; nice to meet cha! (NavelColt directed me to this!)
I'm flattered that you decided to do a review on the stuff that I read and the style of such! Tis a big honor and I thank you for the time ya dedicated for all these great authors as well; they do an amazing job!
I also wanna give you a BIG thanks for talking about aspects that I can improve on to ensure that readings are more enjoyable and less rushed! I really do need to slow down and have long enough breaks between scenes to make sure that people can digest it easier! That and I also need to look back more often to make sure that the right lines/words are being said! x3
NavelColt's style on making super-sweet fanfics is such an irresistible treat every time, both from his newer works and older! Definitely one of the most enjoyable times ever had on reading a cuddly fic, that's for sure!
iAmSiNnEr got a knack for comedy and they never seem to disappoint! Each time they come up with something new, it's more than likely gonna put a smile on almost anyone's face!
Admiral Biscuit is simply a master-crafter with human and pony interaction stories; among the many other ones that he writes beautifully! They always seem to have that nice balance of education and entertainment that never gets tiresome!
Admittedly, I haven't seen a lot of Sledge115's works of writing! However, the way every word and sentence is formed feels so articulate and carefully placed makes the whole story feel as if it whisks you away into full-immersion mode immediately! Truly great stuff!
And Tell Your Tale is quite the wild ride! Short stuff like that can be a make it or break it for some people, but it's nice to have just for the heck of it!
Again, I'm very honored that you decided to include me with this blog post and it's friggin' awesome to see ya giving some love to these wonderous authors! They deserve every bit of it! :D
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Really nothing else to say there to be honest. 
My reasoning is that I have untreated OCD and get both enjoyment out of creating all my work with unique covers, and hesitancy over ever not doing so.
Hopefully my future work will be able to do so for you, then.
ooh, the rare Excellent! :D
Clearly, the tradition of the Filly and Foal Fair lives on from Inspiration Manifestation. :B
Maybe they don't want to say "colt" because it's the name of a gun brand? Dumb if true.
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That NavelColt… up to plenty of good as usual!
Ha, you write near-identically to how you speak in your reading outros. Can hear your voice reading this and all. You really are a super-positive chap in and out of your readings. And you're welcome!
Well, speaking speed is an easy thing to point out, and goodness knows it's a weak point of mine. As I say, the barometer I use for it, and other things, is if I can listen to the fic while doing something else and remain able to absorb it all. I'd say, owing to this, the scene breaks and occasional character voice confusion, you're at about 95%. But that's still mightily impressive, no questions.
His style isn't quite for me (most of his older fics I read I shelved in my discontinued Random/Crackfic folder for a reason), but he's doing what he sets out to do. And with such a high follower count for such a recent author here, many would agree with you!
That he is, to the point that even someghost as largely opposed to human stories as myself (and EqG ones aren't exactly a soft spot either) is charmed time and time again by his work. Only real issue is they're not always reviewable, due to doing the same excellent-executed lightweight fluff most of the time. But he's got a niche he excels at, makes sense to stick to it. As he has for close to a decade at this point.
Ignoring earlier cancelled/incomplete work, they've only really written from 2020 onwards, mostly to do with Luna. I've read a few of their fics, and they largely continue the same writing excellence seen with this one. If you're willing to roll with stories in the novelette word range (5K-15K, generally), there's some reading candidates there!
That's nice of you to say, though the authors featured today all have followings that are sizeable (NavelColt and iAmSiNnEr), among the site's best (Admiral Biscuit), or reasonable (Sledge115), and with my relatively small follower count, not really gonna be spreading much traffic to them! Unlike other reviewers, I don't actively try and pick less-followed authors to spotlight, though I do only feature the same author once a month. Mostly this is just me taking the fics I'm reading anyway, and posting my thoughts. Formally. And generating some positive discussion, which is always good.
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Doesn't it just? I can still remember, vividly, my first reaction to that: "Wait… that's like calling it the Child and Girl Fair! Aw, come on!" Real migraine writing moment, that.
Sadly, no. Hitch had a narrated rap over a montage in his detective short Foal Me Once, where he said: "Time to catch this devious colt or mare". Nope, the writer and/or Gillian Berrow was just that rushed or uncaring!
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Fair enough, makes sense. Having restricted myself to using screenshots for my four published stories thus far, with quite some irritation, I can totally understand the impulse and desire for unique cover art which one has full control over to properly represent the content within.
Man, that new episode was a mess. Talk about stretching a single joke out. At least that still means it can't run more than 5 minutes.
Hey, it's nice to see Sledge's story here! I fell in love with it when I first read it, too, and it really nails that G4 - > G5 connection that myself and some others have tried to do.
Sledge has written a lot of good stuff, too, some of which I've reviewed before, so if you want, you should totally check out their other work. I cannot recommend them enough.
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Indeed it does nail that connection, in one of the few ways it can be done well. Or more than well, as is the case here.
As for their other work, I’ve read the 2nd chapter of In Night’s Garden that was entered in Imposing Sovereigns III (rating: Decent), Princess Celestia Really Likes Hair Dyes (rating: Really Good), and have Moonbug and The Dreamwalker’s Lament on my Re-evaluate list. So Sledge115 should appear on the blog again in the future for those two stories, and possibly other fics too.
StraightToThePointStudio does good work. They did one of my stories on their own, and I loved it enough to pay them for a second. Their voices are reallyreally good, and while they hiccup now and then with a misread/mispronunciation it's not at all enough to ruin my enjoyment.
The pacing concern, though, is something I 1000% agree with. A few seconds to take a breath between scenes would do wonders for maintaining immersion. Thus said, I reiterate that I like their work enough to pay money for more.
Never missing a chance to plug:
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I wanna say this has been my primary relationship with all of G5 and the better later half of G4, even back when I first started writing KoLB. I haven't been actively inspired by MLP storytelling since the days of S6 of FiM, tbh. What I have been inspired by since then is the tireless fandom and all of my friends who also still enjoy creating pony content. I find myself inspired by their work, and then I'm struck with another story idea.
The biggest thing though is that MLP as a franchise and a fandom is still a strong medium for me to portray the themes of platonic love and intimacy that I enjoy depicting in a lot of my writing. That's why I'm still here, perfectly and unironically content with cherry picking good moments from characters that are (lately) being utilized in lackluster canonical writing, and using those moments to craft my own. I hope the show writing improves, of course, but I enjoy the characters and the fandom still, and for me that's been enough.
Totally relate to not feeling very excited about the occasional good moment amidst a lot of 'meh', though. We have the opposite feelings on Zipp and Pipp. If we didn't have main cast siblings this gen I might not even be as into G5 as I am.
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I see, and agree. Though with the caveat that, despite reading a lot of fanfic, reviewing much of that, and even writing some myself, my media life doesn’t revolve exclusively or primarily around MLP the way it does for most folks here. So even as I fully enjoy and immerse myself in great fandom writing and interpretations, and my own headcanons and preferences for what’s important to me, I still never neglect how important solid canon material that isn’t problematic is when it comes around. Discussing and analysing animated films/TVs is my mind’s main fallback, after all, a part of me that’s rarely off.
So, you know, I get your viewpoint, I do, and I overlap to a degree, if not altogether.
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Another advocate for Straight, eh? Very good. Especially if that’s enough so for you to commission a reading! And while the small issues (and him largely reading fics that wouldn’t interest me at all) will certainly limit his appearances here going forward, he’ll definitely pop up every now and then.
On the other end: so it’s a plug you’re thinking of, eh?
It’s a good thing I greatly admire you as an author and him as a reader, or you would be in very deep trouble. 
[Consider them added to the list.]
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I'll reply in a bit in more detail (work work work),but thank you for the review
It was a very lovely surprise!
If you'll forgive this bit of self promotion, might I suggest Celestia Regina and The First Second of Eternity as well?
Okay okay, that second one is pretty long as is, and I shan't recommend more personally, conflict of interest and all
But, again, happy to see that Izzy and the Moonlit Garden has warmed your heart, too
Cheers!
Thanks for the review - sorry about the pacing, I had over 700 words to delete on the first draft
I generally like to write quick comedies like these, and I've always had issues slowing down things sometimes.
That being said, I love that you included Sledge, one of my good friends. He's such a good writer and Tuna appreciator, heh.
I'm sorry my style isn't for you; it might be because they're designed to be quick five minute reads to try and give someone whose having a bad day a smile :)
I don't only write comedy, I have a few other AU stories, but due to schoolwork I can't write much nowadays :cry:
But yeah, thank you for taking the time to read these stories; I might just follow more of your reviews!
Now, for a right proper reply. Spoilers!
I like to describe my writing as light gray. It's not too happy, but it isn't heart-crushingly somber either. You can't ignore how things are, because sometimes it is what it is. But the show is a happy, cheerful one, and I strive to keep that in mind.
For example; Izzy lost her mother at an age where she can take care of herself. I didn't want to write her losing her mother as a child because there's sad, and then there's being artificially so. It wouldn't have felt sincere because it's such an obvious route, have her lose her mother and then Luna steps in to raise her.
It's okay to cry, no matter how old you are.
(I also didn't want to tie in Izzy's last name with Luna outside of Luna musing that it's a fine choice. Sometimes things are just the way they are, and I didn't want to contrive it.)
I like being whimsical with a dash of reality
Hence, Luna gently telling Izzy she's too young to travel on her own. Also, kids her age view a two years age gap as huge 
And, aye, being organic is the name of the game. I try my best to avoid, well, things feeling contrived or artificial. I'm glad it landed!
All in all, again, thank you for the review, and I'm happy you've enjoyed it
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Aw, thanks, y'all
I'm very much humbled, what can I say? Glad it's resonated with you all.
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Aw, thank you
I'm gonna have to borrow Jarvy Jared's words, who I think described my prose better than I could; it sings 
I'm glad you liked it, and thanks for the reading! It was a very pleasant surprise and a joy to listen to
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Both smart moves, compadre. Especially the latter - so many things work better without being commented on, something precious few people do these days for fear of the viewer not "getting" it.
And the rest of your responses to my notes as to your writing style were on the money too, from them being a light grey down to the tone singing.
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Thousand-word entries did a number on us all, to be fair.
And I wouldn't say your style isn't for me; I have read a decent chunk of your one-shots, including all of the Twilight Sparkle Explosion stories. But they are certainly not review-friendly stories, due to sticking to a comedic niche with minimal variation. Hardly a sin; Admiral Biscuit does the same, and it's worked wonders for him! As has yours too; 700+ followers this late in the Fimfiction game is bloody impressive!
Aw geez, now I'm just remember my struggles balancing YouTubing while in college (I barely wrote fanfiction during those years, and read comparatively little of it either too). Sympathies, buddy!
And by all means, stick around for more reviews! Somehow, I've fostered a not half-bad little community here, and the discussion's always nice.