Batbrony

Good afternoon everypony! First of all, I need to issue an apology for taking so long to get these contest results posted. In my defense, I've been super busy with job hunting (a long, frustrating process), but that still doesn't excuse how ridiculously long it has taken to get these up. With that out of the way, let's get to the contest results themselves! Sadly, we only had 4 entries this time around, so all four of them place in the contest and will be ranked here. Thankfully, the entries themselves were all very enjoyable, and I highly recommend everyone to check them out! I want to give a big thank you to the folks who were kind enough to take the time to write fics for our contest and also displayed a lot of patience with the judges (especially myself) in getting the results up and posted. I'll contact you all personally when I know who will be doing your art prize. With that said, let's begin. Winners First Place: Compersion by Etolia If there was any fic more worthy of first place than Rainbow Shells, it was Compersion. Etolia offers readers a sweet, sad, romantic, and compelling fic featuring Buffy, Viola, and Azura struggling to make a very unusual kind of relationship work. Yes, in case you were wondering, this fic is indeed about a polyamorous relationship, and before you think that raises a red flag, no, it's not about being "sensual". This fic actually approaches its subject matter quite maturely, dealing with the struggle that goes into making such a relationship work for all parties involved. It's a sequel to Setting the Rift and is largely about Viola and Buffy, but with a pretty fair dose of Azura thrown in there as well. All are wonderfully characterized and Buffy is absolutely adorable through and through (as she should be). Overall, this is a truly worthwhile fic and most deserving of getting first place and your time to read it if you get the chance. Wonderful job Etolia, and congratulations on your well-deserved win! Second Place: Rainbow Shells by Silver Letter Returning to Poniverse once more, Silver Letter gives us a super solid fic starring Pixel Wavelength and Buffy as they take a vacation to Sweetie Shores, as well as Azura as she follows their exploits in the midst of DJing for her radio show. This was probably the most fun fic out of all of our entries and offers some great shenanigans from Pixel, Buffy, and Azura all around. As usual, Silver Letter's characterization of Pixel is spot on and offers readers the chance to see her further grow, not to mention it's always fun seeing the perspective of an older character like her (remember, she is middle age after all, with a husband and family) as opposed to most of the other Poniverse mascots, who range from late teens to young adults for the most part. I found Azura to be particularly enjoyable as well since we get to see her working as an actual radio DJ for most of the fic, something which most of the other entries largely did not offer, and his handling of dialogue in these scenes is masterful, it very much sounds like a behind the scenes look at an actual radio DJ. This fic's got sand, surf, and ponies in the sunshine having fun and learning valuable lessons, what more could you want? Definitely worth a read a most certainly worthy of second place! Third Place: Radio Station Dilemmas by John29 The third place winner of our contest gets a special shout-out for the extra efforts he went to in putting this fic together. John29 made a lot (and when I say 'a lot' I mean A LOT) of edits to his fic in the course of submitting it to our contest and I commend him for all the hard work and time he put into making his fic as good as he possibly could. The fic itself stars Azura Peavielle, PVL's mascot, in the midst of solving a mystery at a radio station involving herself, the Mane 6, Spike, and Discord. While a bit repetitive at times, the fic overall is very enjoyable and has some very solid characterization, of both its sole OC and the show-canon characters. A very solid fic all around, I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in Poniverse mascots, and once again, great work John29, thank you for all the hard efforts you made. Fourth Place: Apocryphal thoughts by Shadowboltwriter Our fourth place winner features Wordplay and the rest of the mascot team embarking on an adventure to protect Equestria's Internet! While definitely an ensemble fic, all the same Wordplay is most certainly the main character, and in it we see him dealing with some feelings of angst and inadequacy, uncertain of the larger role he plays in Poniverse besides being good at roleplaying. While a little rough around the edges as far as spelling or grammar goes, this is a fun and brisk read, and most definitely worth your time. Give it a read if you get the chance, and a big shout-out to Shadowboltwriter on the enjoyable fic!

Good morning everypony, and welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews," the penultimate edition of Season 6!!! Just like last week, we were once again treated to an absolutely delightful episode, albeit far less surprising than last week's was. It was a high flying adventure this morning set at the Wonderbolt Academy, so without further ado let's dive in, this is "Top Bolt"!!! So let's get this out of the way to start things off: I didn't like Sky Stinger. I know some people are shipping him like crazy already with Vapor Trail, and not for entirely bad reasons, but frankly I found him insufferable. This is purely a personal opinion, mind you, I'm not saying you're wrong if you liked him. Really I think it comes down to two things: (1) I found his voice to be grating and annoying in its natural-cocky mode he seemed to slip into every time he spoke, and (2) I've played sports and have known some people like him in real life, which made him all the more insufferable. I think the final factor that made me not come around to him is that less time was devoted to him fixing things than it was to Vapor Trail. Vapor Trail started improving what she needed to fix in her own life for at least half of the episode, if not more, whereas Sky had at best the last third, probably more like the last fourth, to get better. Is that entirely fair of me since it was just a matter of episode pacing? No, not entirely, but the fact remains that we spent far less time seeing Sky in a better light than we did Vapor, and in the end I just didn't really come around to him that much. He's not as bad as Zephyr Breeze was, no way, but he was still plenty annoying all in all. *cough* DOUCHEBAG *cough* You're not a very smart pony, are ya Sky? Besides Sky, however, I really loved everything else about this episode. I love pegasi, I love the Wonderbolt Academy, and I love the pairing of Twilight and Rainbow Dash. Those two, when they're really on their A-game, make for a very fun and entertaining pair, and I love seeing them work together because they have very different ways of approaching problems, as was nicely highlighted in this episode. Twilight's very methodical and much more bookish, whereas Rainbow Dash acts much more based on her instincts, which we saw very much in this episode given the setting where she was very much in her element. As with Fluttershy and Applejack as well as Pinkie Pie and Rarity earlier this season, while these two had their disagreements in the course of solving this friendship problem, they ultimately overcame them and utilized their strengths to the best of their ability in helping out both Vapor Trail and Sky Stinger. Good pep talks, good learning experiences, very mature behavior from both of them all around, which is especially commendable for Rainbow Dash considering what she was like when the show started (Sky was definitely a call back to that, no doubt, very similarly to how Lightning Dust was in Season 3). Overall, I thought that they both had a very solid episode and were just the right amount of wise, entertaining, and adorable. Excited book horse is excited Behold everypony, through the power of science we have made... A RAINBOW DASH!!! The stand out character of this episode was without a doubt Vapor Trail. Oh goodness, I liked this character A LOT. She was adorable (both in her behavior, design, and even voice), she had a very compelling character arc, and all around was just very likable. Like I said before, she definitely had more time devoted to her character arc and development than Sky did, and it definitely paid off for the better in her case. They both certainly had sympathetic backgrounds, heck, Sky's might have been even sadder (although I thought their depiction of the dysfunctionality of a multiple-sibling family was a bit simplistic and exaggerated, it seemed to me more so like maybe their problem was their economic situation more than anything else), but Vapor got the lion's share of time to change and ultimately it made for the more compelling character arc of the two. Her problem was one of self-value, heck, there's even lessons there for victims of domestic abuse who give too much care to their partners (I'm not saying Sky was abusive, he clearly cared about her, just that the parallels were there). She definitely didn't care enough about her own needs, and in the process she actually hurt both herself and Sky as well as a result. So before she could really be there for him, she had to learn how to care about what she wanted for herself as well, besides being around Sky. Given her devotion to him, I can certainly see why people are already shipping those two in earnest, but like I said, this devotion is far more complicated than it appears at first glance since it was at the center of what she needed to fix about herself. If fanfics subsequently come out starring these two, I hope that writers identify this and are able to handle their relationship with the care that it deserves, because it's far more nuanced than people might think at first glance. It was a pleasure getting to see her grow and learn to care about her own needs and wants as the episode went on, in fact, it was my favorite part of the episode, and like I said before I found THAT conflict to be far more compelling in its execution than Sky's own growth and development was. So all in all she was a delightful character to get to know and I would love to see more of her in the future (even if it means we'd see more of Sky as well). Oh my goodness she is too cute I like this pony, she knows her stuff. Also, I seriously can't get enough of that Twilight face Oh no, my heart! THAT IS JUST TOO SWEET!!! I thought that might be a fan playing her, but I had no idea those were the circumstances of her getting that role! ALL THE FEELS!!! As far as laughs go, this episode wasn't nearly as fun as least week's was, but it was still very funny. The classroom scene was a riot, but honestly my favorite source of humor in this episode was Spitfire. It was a blast getting to see her shooting the breeze with RD as a fellow Wonderbolt, not just a superior, throughout the episode, and the running gag about her loving her job as the Academy instructor was hilarious. Some of the Wonderbolt recruits were pretty funny as well, especially that fan-girl pegasus, and Twilight and RD definitely had their moments throughout. But I think it wasn't quite as funny as last week's episode because there was something undeniably sad about Vapor holding herself back to boost Sky's own ego and Sky being so unaware for so much of the episode that he wasn't the hot-stuff he thought he was. Definitely made for an interesting friendship problem, just not as funny of an episode. Man there was a lot of blowing in this episode... wait... BLOWING HORNS AND WHISTLES, BLOWING HORNS AND WHISTLES, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEANT!!! Overall, this was a solid penultimate episode for the season, and that is not to be taken for granted. My least favorite episode to this day is "MMMMystery on the Friendship Express," and that sullied the otherwise amazing season that was Season 2, coming right at the end right before the season finale. So really, even though this was hardly the best episode we've had this season, I'm just glad that it was good. It's been a great season of MLP everypony, but as with every season, it must come to an end, and next week we close out Season 6. I'm glad to say I have NOT watched the finale despite the early leak, so I'll be going into it fresh next week and cannot wait to do so! Until next time everypony, this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit*

Awwwwww yeah, this older brother LOVES him some good ol' fashioned sibling rivalry! Good morning everypony, and welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews." I'm very happy to say that this morning's episode was surprisingly delightful! Not that I thought, going into "Where the Apple Lies," that it would be bad or anything, just that I didn't really have any expectations for this episode and so wasn't sure what to expect. What we got was something very new, which is quite surprising for a Mane 6 character at this point in the show, ESPECIALLY one as consistent in her characterization as Applejack usually is. Going forward, I would love to see more episodes like this one (more on that later), but for now let's delve into today's episode: this is "Where the Apple Lies." So as I said before, this was an episode unlike most we've ever gotten for the Mane 6, with only a few parallels to it: a backstory episode. I can easily count on one hand the number of similar episodes we've had to this one, episodes like "The Cutie Mark Chronicles," but that episode was an ensemble episode that only gave us short flashbacks for each of the Mane 6. Likewise, we've had flashbacks in other episodes before back to when certain Mane 6 characters were younger, but again, they've never consisted of virtually the entire episode. So really, this was a first for the show: an episode largely devoted to a chapter from a single Mane 6 character's past. In that respect, it was very experimental for the show, and again, for a Mane 6 character that is very surprising at this point. After almost six full seasons of the show, it's obviously getting increasingly hard to find new things or stories to tell with the main characters just because they've learned so many lessons at this point. Frankly Granny Smith's lucky she didn't end up in the hospital for other reasons this ep One obvious solution then to this dilemma? Make more episodes like this one, episodes which delve into the pasts and history of the Mane 6 and also give the writers and animators a chance to show us Ponyville and Equestria in a very different light. In today's episode alone, we got to see a preteen/early teenager Applejack, a teenage and VERY talkative Big Mac (which was both hilarious and bizarre to watch), Granny Smith when she was pretty much raising those two at a much younger age (I assume that either Apple Bloom was an infant OR their parents were out of town at the time and she hadn't been born yet, though the episode did not address that question), a much younger Filthy Rich WITH his fiance of the time, Spoiled Milk (BTW that name is too perfect for her), and many more fun little bits of Ponyville at a different time. A personal favorite cameo of mine was when we caught a glimpse of a presumably teenage Derpy (she had a similar body build it seemed to AJ's) at the hospital speaking with a doctor or nurse with bandages covering her eyes, implying that some type of corrective eye surgery had recently occurred at the time of this incident (a very interesting implication for backstory for a character who obviously hasn't gotten much, being a background pony and all). So obviously, with the rich abundance of new things this episode offered to viewers (and the makers of this episode in getting to put it together), it's clear that we should want (and possibly expect) more episodes like this in the future. They will give us a chance to see old characters who we've become so familiar with at this point in a new light, as well as characters around them, including family members we maybe haven't gotten to see as much from before. Who wouldn't love to see a young Twilight with her parents, Shining Armor, or Princess Celestia in her youth? How about more of a young Pinkie Pie on the rock farm OR better yet, when she first met the Cakes (we saw a young Mrs. Cake (though it was unknown if she was married yet at the time) in this episode after all)? A young Rarity and young Applejack in their youth, Fluttershy when she first moved to Ponyville, young Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash growing up in Cloudsdale, there are simply a TON of opportunities presented by this format, so the fact that this episode was made should be very encouraging to all of us as viewers and imply that more episodes like this one may be coming in Season 7 (which we now know as of this week will for sure be made). I don't know about the rest of you, but after how delightful this episode turned out, I for one cannot wait to see more episodes like it next season and hope that the creators seriously consider making more like it! Huh, that... could actually explain how Spoiled Rich, dare I say it, actually looked *gulp* better in her youth I didn't even catch this one, but 80s Cheerilee? That's an AWESOME callback to Season 1!!! Awwwwwwwww, Derpy looks so cute and upbeat despite probably having just gone through a very scary procedure! That's my girl, that's how best background pony (and best pony in general) rolls! So how exactly did this episode unfold? Well, besides some of the delightful bits I mentioned already, we got to see both a hilarious and very entertaining episode which also managed to feel rather important since it highlighted a very important and formative part of Applejack's youth. Since the show has started, we've all known Applejack to be the most honest pony around; I mean, it is her Element of Harmony after all. Only on rare occasions have we seen her lie, and usually when she's been induced to in a magical sense by someone like Discord. This time, however, we got to see not only Applejack lying of her own volition, but also how said lying led her to value honesty so importantly. This episode-type is not new; cartoons which highlight the importance of honesty by showing white lies and fibs getting out of control have been done a whole lot before. It's not always easy to execute them well since they can get redundant, but it worked very well here for a couple of reasons; (1) it was Applejack doing the lying, so it felt very out of character for her, but since it was in her youth it made sense since, at the time, she didn't value honesty in the same way as she does now, and (2) it did the escalation aspect of this episode VERY well indeed. She found new ways to lie and fib, the lies and fibs got increasingly far-fetched and resulted in more and more extreme outcomes, which in turn meant that the episode only got more and more entertaining as it went on. This in turn also meant that, besides seeing Applejack lie, we also got to see a side of her we rarely do: panic-mode Applejack, and as a filly no less. With Big Mac and her constantly bickering as things got more and more out of control as well, as well as poor Granny Smith having no idea what was going on but remaining her usual ornery, cantankerous but also lovable self, as well as Filthy Rich and Spoiled Milk only causing more grief for Applejack as they kept forcing her into going to greater extremes to maintain her lies, this all made for a very fun, entertaining, and consequential episode. It really felt by the end like, yeah, this is something that would lead Applejack to truly value honesty as a core of who she is and what she does, after everything that happened here. I mean, her brother almost got amputated for crying out loud because of her lies! And what's more, it made sense in a way that she let it get out of hoof; for one, she was a teenager at the time, and they tend to buck up at life choices in certain respects, and she also thought that telling the truth would jeopardize her family's business and future well-being because she wasn't confident she could tell Filthy Rich the hard truth in the first place in a way that would maintain their business relations. For all we know, she and Big Mac were bickering so much about who was going to eventually run the Apple family business because their parents may have recently, at that time, passed away and now it was up to one of the Apple siblings to get ready to run Sweet Apple Acres. Behold, Applejack's "cat-coughing-up-a-hairball" impression! It's... well, it's accurate, I'll give it that So all in all, like I said, the mere fact that this episode was largely set in the past is what allowed it to be so balanced in terms of both having a valuable and consequential lesson taught as well as being so highly entertaining. Apple Bloom got to learn both the value of honesty as well as why it means so much to her older sister from AJ herself, we got to see a side of many characters we hadn't before and a conflict in a uniquely presented fashion, and most excitingly of all we now have a new type of episode for the show which I hope we will see more of in the coming season for other members of the Mane 6. Overall, "Where the Apple Lies" was a delightfully enjoyable surprise, one of the best of Season 6 in terms of how it so exceeded the few expectations I had for it in the first place, and I cannot wait to hopefully see more like it in the coming season (or seasons) of this show. That's all I have for you today everypony, until next time this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit*

Good evening everypony! I'm just here to let you all know about the latest updates to my fic, "Batmare Begins"! After a very long hiatus, I've brought back updates to it in a big way; in the last two weeks, I've posted 5 new chapters totaling over 40,000 words!!! I'm always looking for and happy to get new readers, so if you'd like to delve into a crossover that's earnestly trying to make crossing over the MLP universe with the Batman universe (and with Derpy in the titular role of Batmare, no less) work, then please click on the link below where you will find my story! Likes, favorites, and follows are always appreciated, and feel free to leave any comments and questions you may have in the comments section for the fic itself! Thanks for your time everypony, and have a nice evening. Batmare Begins by Batbrony

So... ...how was the trip??? Alright, good morning everypony and welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews"! This week we've got a pretty standard episode, quality-wise at least, with a pretty unique approach to its execution. "P.P.O.V. (Pony Point Of View)" is actually a send-up to Akira Kurosawa's film "Rashomon" (a film I've never seen but read enough up on to know that this is definitely a send up to it), and in that regard it's a pretty clever episode. That said, it's not exactly mindblowing, but it didn't commit any unforgivable errors either, so it was a decent episode all around. Without further ado, let's begin, this is "P.P.O.V. (Pony Point Of View)". Oh sweet, it's the return of the Rarity drama-couch AND Rarity's drama-ice cream, ALL IN ONE EPISODE!!! So the basic idea of this episode, same as with "Rashomon," is that we receive multiple points of view from the main characters, each one of them self-serving and putting themselves in the best light, and obviously not showing the whole picture either/retelling events that happened in a completely accurate light. The idea is that eventually all the different retellings will be cleared up and tied together, and what really happened will come through. Overall the episode does this quite well, although I will admit that, given that they have three different POVs to get through, the episode doesn't have much time to dwell on anything else besides the main events. Don't get me wrong, overall the pacing is fine, but it still felt at times like they were trying very hard to fit a lot into one episode, and I almost would have preferred if they'd limited it to two points of view. But all in all this story device worked, especially since it wasn't a terribly serious episode. Hmmm... not sure if "to sandwich" or "not to sandwich"... hmmmmmmmm... The funnest part of the episode, obviously, was seeing what all the different points of view were, as well as Twilight figuring out what really happened at the end. Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie's distorted recollections were quite entertaining (though it was bizarre in Pinkie's to see herself thinking of herself as the "normal" one of the bunch) and had some very funny references as well (Applejack in Rarity's POV was DEFINITELY a reference to Quint from "Jaws" and I'm pretty sure that Rarity's dress in Applejack's POV was a direct reference to Rose Dewitt-Bukater's dress in her introduction scene in "Titanic"). It was also lots of fun trying to figure out as a viewer what really did happen (there were definitely some things the characters told which seemed like they probably did happen, like Applejack accidentally knocking the cucumber sandwiches into the ocean), and what definitely didn't. That said, besides some of the pacing, the one other issue with this episode was the believability of the conflict. The episode itself tried to confront this by admitting at the end that "even long-time friends can have problems," but that's not the issue. The issue is that this conflict apparently, if this episode is to be believed, almost ENDED Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie's friendship! Now, I know that long-time friendships can deteriorate. However, I have a hard time believing that this particular conflict could have done such a thing! It was just a bad boat trip, nothing more, so yeah, the conflict felt a tad forced. Their reconciliation at the end was nice and all, seeing them all realizing that they all had just wanted to help their friends try something new together, but still, I found myself hard-pressed to buy that this could have actually ended their friendships this far into the show. "Back home we got a taxidermy man. He gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him." "Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies. Farewell and adieu to you ladies of Spain. For we've received orders for to sail back to Boston. And so never more shall we see you again." "Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was." Still, despite pacing and conflict issues, this was an enjoyable enough of an episode. Like I said, it was very entertaining, and the resolution at the end was very nice. It was fun getting to see Twilight exercising her intellect in order to help resolve things (and I don't just mean looking into some books for research, I mean she had to have Spike take notes and then review said notes, and THEN work out how all three POVs fit together), and that sea creature that showed up at the end was ADORABLE!!! The episode was certainly colorful, and it was cool getting to see most of the episode primarily set on the ocean (surprisingly, sea/ocean environments are quite rare to see in this show). Hopefully we'll get the chance to see such a setting even more later on in the show, either this season or, more likely, next season (if the show is renewed for a new season, of course). Overall, this was a good episode. It was not perfect, but it was perfectly likable and didn't have anything really horrible about it, plus it was cool how many movie references and send-ups it made in so many different ways. That's all I've got for ya'll this week everypony, until next time this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit* D'awwwwwwwww, who's a cute sea monster? YOU ARE! YES, YOU ARE!!!

Figured it did, but thanks for the clarification.

Is that 'seriously' being directed at me or Disney, I'm not sure myself? XD