My Little Pony: Friendship is MAGIC!

[raudorn]

I see, I'm in the right fandom.

and read 450k+ words in two weeks,

What did you think of Fallout: Equestria and FO:E Project Horizons?

I didn't read those yet. Maybe I'll give 'em a try. So far I've read:

Friendship is Optimal (that one was the hook to this specific black hole of modern culture)
Ad Adsurbum
On the wings of Angels
Wrong Hospital Niko Bellic
The Tale of Gaius Ninefingers
Myou've gotta be kidding me
For Queen and Country
The Unicorn at Hogwarts
The next level of your studies
Stargate Equestria
The BIG comes to Town
The Brony Guard Unlimited
Timelords and Terror
The kindness of strangers

That's a strange scatter shot across genres, but that's the result of reading the tvtropes recommendations late at night. I really should know better.

[Weeks]

So, was it worth it? Reading all those fics, I mean.

[raudorn]

Yes, otherwise I would not have read them. Sure, some of them got a bit tedious and most are not even finished, but I give fanfics the benefit of the doubt. I hold all literature to one standard alone: The ability to communicate ideas and concepts.¹ With that, fanfics, even absurd ones like the GTA/FIM crossover, have the advantage over all professional works that they are not bound by their commercial success and get directly to the core of beaming crazy maddening ideas into my mind. But, uh, that's a bit beside the point. The point being: Fanfic fun, more please!

¹ Yes, that means I hate poetry. Poetry is the devil!

[Weeks]

That's kind of a terrible standard

[raudorn]

It serves me well. And it's the only one I found that reliably models my opinion about literary works. The work is stalling about minute details? Bad. Nothing is explained? Bad. Cardbord cut-out world building? Bad. Previously unexplored concepts? Good. High quality wordsmithing? Good. Makes me think? Good.

[The Scyphozoa]

"Season 4 this winter."
This better be worth it.

[Game_boy]

Do you like song lyrics, then?

[raudorn]

I don't quite consider them a literay work, unless they are supposed to stand alone. In that case they are like poetry: Not my thing (I don't "get" them). But this is starting to turn off topic, so maybe let's move this to the Books forum?

Has anyone seen the Brony documentary? It looks nice, but I'm waiting for the downloadable release on amazon.
Edit: Oh, apparantly they accept paypal, that's slightly more convenient than waiting for amazon. I'll report back soon.

[The Scyphozoa]

I saw about 30 seconds of the animation at the beginning and couldn't keep going.

[CDRW]

I saw about 30 seconds of the animation at the beginning and couldn't keep going.

That's too bad, because the animation quality has increased steadily and noticeably across all three seasons and actually puts down a lot of the complaints that you can't do good animation with Flash.

[The Scyphozoa]

Uhm...no, I meant the documentary. There's animation at the beginning of the documentary, with John De Lancie singing. I watched that, and I couldn't keep going.

[CDRW]

Ah, my bad. Reading comprehension and perception check fail.

[The Scyphozoa]

You must not have noticed the extremely conspicuous link bar under my post either...

[raudorn]

I think the animation shorts (and short they are) are among the better parts of the documentary. Overall decent, slightly overdrawn at times and the part in Germany seemed badly edited in comparison to the rest. 6.5/10
I was surprised how important the fandom and community are to the people in the documentary. I admit that a few weeks ago I thought this show to be meme mill with more appeal than other shows. And I still think it is, albeit with more values than just fun and giggles. At the very least, oversaturation has not set in yet.

[PatrickRsGhost]

I watched the documentary, and I was laughing at John DeLacie singing. I think part of it was that it reminded me so much of the classic Disney short Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom featuring the singing owl teacher and bird classroom.

Also, did you notice how his eyes got all "Discordish" at one point?

[raudorn]

Yeah, around the part where he was looking into the class and asking if he "missed anypony else". Some of the background ponies looked suspiciously like fanmade characters. I'm sure they snuck in one or two of them. They did mention fanworks by name, so it's not much of a stretch.

[PatrickRsGhost]

Manely he mentioned the more popular fanworks, the ones that have been circulated around just about every Brony community, whether on Reddit, 4chan, Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere.

[PatrickRsGhost]

So I'm just going to leave the link to Double Rainboom right here in this very post for all to enjoy.

Spoiler:

MLP meets PPG after Rainbow Dash takes a magic potion that enhances one's abilities (steroids?) created by Twilight. Lots of allusions to Captain America, different Cartoon Network cartoons, and other fandoms, if you can catch them.

Edit: Edit video title

[Weeks]

Er you mean Double Rainboom.

[raudorn]

Spoiler:

Well, that PPG crossover was certainly unexpected. I'm not sure if the episode would have been better with or without it. It certainly didn't have much relevance to what was going on in the first half of the episode. Honestly, I'd simply have Rainbow Dash deal with the hubris and destruction. Then again, that maybe would have been a "too typical" MLP episode.

Overall, quite enjoyable. Some of the references were badly integrated (like the trollface) and the pacing was sometimes unusually slow, but I chalk that up to a matter of taste.

Edit: After watching it a second time, I find it less and less enjoyable. Not bad, but lacking.

[PatrickRsGhost]

Er eow mean Double Rainboom.

Aye, ye be right. Fix'd for correct title.

Yeah, it seemed to lack a good plot towards the end there, when Rainbow entered Townsville. Pinkie was of course just being Pinkie. How else would she know the tune to "Yankee Doodle Dandy" when she sang "Yankee Doodle Donkey"? She just might be entering this dimension, but we don't know it, probably because she's able to take on a disguise that allows her to blend in. Her personality can't be hidden, though. If you know someone who is always very happy, bubbly, likes to throw or go to parties, and seems to always find a reason to celebrate, not to mention loves to sing and dance, and eat copious amounts of sweets or pastries, that person may just be Pinkie Pie in disguise.

[Vaniver]

I found it tiresome. Decent for a student project, but...

[The Scyphozoa]

I have heard mostly bad things about it, so I think I'll be skipping it.

[raudorn]

I just stumbled upon the joys of PonyMusic, especially the more agreeable instances of it. I don't know how often this already came up in this thread, but if anyone knows some pieces that tend in the same direction as the following, I'm happy to trade them for, uhm, a warm fuzzy feeling?
Princess of the Sun
At the Gala in C minor
Princess Twilight Orchestral Suite

[Iulus Cofield]

You should check out Rainbow Dash Tylenol.

[ConMan]

I can't access YouTube right now, so I'm not 100% sure what style you're looking for. My taste in fan music is generally pretty similar to my taste in normal music - classic pop/rock, some more modern-style pop, a bit of orchestral and similar instrumental, and very rarely something more electronic, usually more towards ambient or trance than techno or dubstep. With that said, some of the pieces I can recommend are:

Pony Concerto - "Royal Wedding" by Yourenigma (straight-out classical, with motif from "This Day Aria")
Between Fairytales and Happy Endings by PrinceWhateverer feat. Liquid Cobalt and ISMBOFepicly (guitar rock ballad about DerpyGate)
Land of Equestria - Evening Star (Irish ballad/patriotic song)
Love is in Bloom (Remix) by Aviators feat. Yelling at Cats and Hmage (Takes the first verse of the original song, adds extra lyrics and rap and boosts the backing track)
My Cadence by Matthew Mosier feat. Megaphoric and ismBoF (a beautiful duet between Cadence and Shining Armor)
Sweet Apple Acres by Replacer (filk of "Waterloo Sunset" by the Kinks)
The Moon Rises by Ponyphonic (a Nightmare Night Villain Song, one of the absolute classics)
Miles by dbPony feat. EileMonty (Apple Bloom pop rock song)
Home by Aviators feat Poni1Kenobi (I'm not even sure how to desribe this one, but it's about Applejack when she was in Manehattan)
Keep Calm and Canter On by Replacer (an entire album with a general laid back old-school Britpop feel, although there are hints of other genres)

[Jay911]

I haven't listened to a lot of the above stuff, but I have heard the Living Tombstone version of Discord, and the Typography edit of 20 Percent Cooler by Alex S and Lulz. Both of them are regular members of my playlists now.

[Weeks]

The Discord song is awesome, do check it out.

Also this might not technically count as a fan song, but here's the song used in one of the Hub's adverts. Giddy up!

[The Scyphozoa]

Ohhhhhhhhh, Tombstone Discord.....
Now, I know that it's popular, I just didn't expect people here to like it. I prefer that song over the original, but that's just because I think Eurobeat sounds ridiculous.

I HATE TheLivingTombstone's music. Every sound he uses in every one of his songs just sounds...I dunno, "sickly" is the only way I can describe it. He tends to re-use melodies in multiple songs. He piles on more and more of these melodies onto a single song. His singing is only "pretty bad", but the actual WRITING of lyrics is atrocious. He appears to have no grasp of how English rhythms work and how the syllables are actually supposed to fit the rhythm of the song.

Then again, I listen to stuff I know is shit like Omnipony and (less shitty) Alex S. But I also listen to stuff I know is good like WoodenToaster/Glaze. It hurts a little every time I see both Glaze's and Tombstone's names on the same song.

[Weeks]

Then again, I listen to stuff I know is shit

Why? Does admitting this make you feel cool?

I mean, I haven't listened to them and I might even agree (I merely thought the Discord remix was catchy). I just don't get the apparent masochism

[Soralin]

A handful of stuff:

The ponyphonic ones are really good:
The Moon Rises
Lullaby for a Princess

There a couple a medley covers of various songs that are good, and they have links to the originals, so you can find a bunch that way:
Bronified - Brony Metal Medley
Tsyolin Befriends WoodenToaster - WoodenOverture

Lost on the Moon

[The Scyphozoa]

Then again, I listen to stuff I know is shit

Why? Does admitting this make you feel cool?

I mean, I haven't listened to them and I might even agree (I merely thought the Discord remix was catchy). I just don't get the apparent masochism

It's not masochism. It's just that I'll be enjoying some Omnipony and then think to myself, "Wait a minute, this sucks. I mean this is really stupid," and then go back to enjoying it regardless. I don't want to pretend I have good taste in music, but I also don't want to pretend that I'm oblivious to that.

[raudorn]

You should check out Rainbow Dash Tylenol.

It's like someone made caffeine into a song.

Discord (Living Tombstone remix)

Eyup, that one's pretty good.

[...]

Sweet, thanks for the list! I really like The Moon Rises.

[...]

More good stuff! All according to plan, uh, I mean, excellent!

Thanks for all the suggestions! One WFF for each of you.

[Iulus Cofield]

You should check out Rainbow Dash Tylenol.

It's like someone made caffeine into a song.

It features prominently in my all nighter mix.

[Jay911]

You should check out Rainbow Dash Tylenol.

Oh man, if that kind of stuff counts (I just did as you suggested) - some of the stuff played on Bronystate before an episode's livestream is gold.

1000 PEOPLE CLICKED ON THE SUBSCRIBE BUTTON BY ACCIDENT (and then clicked on it NINE MORE TIMES!)

Fluttershy's Lament (and you owe it to yourself to check the Source Filmmaker re-do)

This one is not pony-related except that it's in the Bronystate playlist on Youtube:

The 4GAG Quartet (over 40+ memes in one song)

[Weeks]

CLOPCORE

[raudorn]

This just keeps getting better and better. I don't think I can get back to regular living, I'll have to live on the internet forever.
I couldn't think of any clever comment, so here is something to drive the crazy home a bit more: YTPMV Orchestra

[Weeks]

This just keeps getting better and better. I don't think I can get back to regular living, I'll have to live on the internet forever.

Welcome to the real world.

[Mat]

Yaay pony music ^_^

Some of my favourites:
Sunshine & Celery Stalks + awesome acoustic cover
Hardware Store
She didn't put those in her BAHG
Appleside
MLP Intro Glitch Remix
Want it need it
Vicious Lies
Rainbow Dash Picked Me
Twilights New Stockings

[Jay911]

This just keeps getting better and better. I don't think I can get back to regular living, I'll have to live on the internet forever.
I couldn't think of any clever comment, so here is something to drive the crazy home a bit more: YTPMV Orchestra

Oh man, I've never been able to find that one - it's not in the 'state playlist but was almost always run before 1000. Thanks.