[FiM] The Striped Pony; The Legend of the Brony; The Movie

[Ivan Shmakov]

So, on the fine Saturday morning, I took a walk to a local
cinema to finally acquaint myself with the world of the latest
"My Little Pony" generation proper. (As opposed to the
multitude of worlds of fanfiction it continues to inspire.)

To put it short, I liked it. The story unfolded at a brisk pace
(perhaps even too brisk for the target audience to follow?), and
there was certainly enough plot turns and twists to fill the
time and for the movie /not/ to seem like "an extended episode"
(which is what Meghan McCarthy stated the team would try their
best to achieve; arguably, they succeeded.) Then, however, as a
colleague of mine suggests, the film may have been a tad too
lengthy for the aforementioned audience.

Curiously, the scene of the pirates having their lunch break
reminded me of a certain Russian saying [1], while the
subsequent escape from the airship brought memories of the
Twilight and Farrier fight in "Rites of Ascension" [2]
(or, rather, Twilight's fall from the pirate airship as the
outcome of said fight.)

[1] http://russian.stackexchange.com/questions/1028/
[2] http://fimfiction.net/story/39849/65/

Also to note is the masterful work of Daniel Ingram et al. at
complementing the movie with excellent music and songs; of which
I think it's the villain's "Open Up Your Eyes" song I've liked
the most (for being more "operatic" and less "beaty", perhaps?
I suppose I'm try to buy the album if I find one on CD-DA.)

That said, I think I'm going to remain a loyal fan of John
Williams when it comes to film scores. ("Across the Stars"
being my all-time favorite.) I guess I would've appreciated if
the movie would have a track along the lines of MelodicPony's
"The History of Ponyville" (2013) [3], or (and?) perhaps the
more contemplative Makkon's "Absolution" (2012) [4], but oh well.

[3] http://melodicpony.bandcamp.com/track/the-history-of-ponyville
[4] http://mediafire.com/file/78f75evr9waf8jz/Absolution.mp3

... The final thing to mention is that I've seen a small,
and looking rather faithful to the show, "Princess Luna" toy at
the convenience store I frequent just this Wednesday. (Price
was about 4 USD.) Made me wonder if the availability of the toy
had anything to do with the movie coming out. (Somehow, the MLP
toys I've seen before were larger and looked rather crude.
May have been targetted at a different age, though.)

[And I guess now that I've mentioned that, it makes sense to
cross-post to the mostly inactive news:alt.toys.my-little-pony
just in case. Note that I /do not/ set Followup-To: there, so
please adjust Newsgroups: should it be necessary.]

Now, back to the ponyfiction...


The Striped Pony
by ts_cogwheel (2014-03-06 ... 2014-08-06)
http://fimfiction.net/story/157378/

... Assuming that the world is round, what would the Eternal
Night over Equestria mean to the lands on the opposite part of
the globe?..

This is a story of an individual forced out of her home and
trying to settle in a distant land. A tale of one desperate
attempt at gaining acceptance without compromising one's own
identity.


The Legend of the Brony
by Alpha Scorpii (2012-07-07)
http://fimfiction.net/story/36808/1/

The party thrown for the Cake twins is over, and Rainbow Dash
proceeds to commence the less physically demanding (yet no less
noble) activity of telling scary stories. Somehow, however,
Twilight is reluctant to give any credence to the story of an
ancient being that mysteriously appears in the town time and
again, doing unspeakable things to the ponies therein.

... And these noises in her library at night, surely they're all
natural, and not someone's footsteps?

A story that made me laugh in horror. Hilariously creepy.

PS. Naturally, http://am-1.org/~ivan/fff-2017/ is updated.

--
FSF associate member #7257 http://am-1.org/~ivan/ 7D17 4A59 6A21 3D97 6DDB