Batbrony

Rainbow-corn.

OK, welcome back everypony to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews." Gonna try to keep this one on the short side of things since I got some 4th of July activities to get to, so let's get started. Overall, this was a delightful episode! It had good characterization of both new and old characters, some really cool additions to show canon, hearkened back to A LOT of Season 1 bits from the very first episode even, and addressed a good issue very soundly. First of all, I thought Twilight and Spike were both great here. We got to really see Twilight acting on her own as a Princess of Friendship handling an actual friendship problem; even if it was one very close and personal to her, that was still cool to see. Spike was spot on too, very much the lovable and helpful assistant that he is when he's at his best; the fact that he was able, for example, to prevent major awkwardness between Twilight and most of her old friends by reminding her of who they were and helping her track them down was a major plus in his favor here. His old present for Moondancer was also a nice touch that had a very good payoff in the end. Pinkie for the little bit that she was in the episode was of course Pinkie, what's not to love? My favorite bit with her was that of course she knows Minuette, why wouldn't she? Onto the new characters (or, rather, old characters getting characterization for the first time). For starters, I really liked Minuette, Twinkleshine, and Lemon Hearts here. Minuette seems very bubbly and outgoing, possibly even the Pinkie-equivalent of the Canterlot bunch. I know some people were at first worried that she was being a suck up to Twilight, but it really seems like that was her genuine personality, and I like that. We learned some cool canon about Lemon Hearts working as an event planner/organizer at Canterlot Castle, and while Twinkleshine was more a third wheel than anything else, she seemed nice and she has a lovely design. What I liked most of all about all of them was how they were so forgiving of Twilight's past behavior, and in fact hadn't even really cared that she wasn't the most outgoing, they'd just always loved her for the bookworm she was. It highlights rather nicely just how friendly so many ponies in Equestrian society in general are, and that the Mane 6, while certainly exceptional ponies, aren't necessarily unusual as far as how outgoing they are to others. As for Moondancer, aside from her being a cool revival of a G1 character, she was a very effective example on the writers' part of how important early friendships especially are. Seemingly small events when we're young can really effect our entire outlook on things, and how hurt she was by Twilight's absence at her one and only party is a great example of that. And that, furthermore, highlights by extension just how important friendship is at an early age. Having people around you that you trust like that, people you really know care about you for who you are, it helps you learn better how to live in the world, how to thrive and enjoy life to its fullest. It may seem like a well-worn phrase, but it really is true that friends really do often help people come out of their shells, and sometimes our first ones can be the most important in that regard, even if we don't always keep in touch with them throughout our lives. *sigh* I love pony physics. How do they work? Sunglasses: You're doing them right, Minuette Good job, Princess of Friendship! Besides these major elements, I did love having another episode set in Canterlot. It wasn't a terribly funny episode, interestingly enough, but I think that's because it wasn't going for a whole lot of jokes. It had a lot to tell, for one, and it was also handling a fairly serious and complex issue for another, so I think it can certainly be forgiven for not being the most rip-roaringly funny episode of Season 5. There were some lovely locations they went to, the callbacks again to Season 1, both those that were and weren't important to the episode, were very cool and impressive to see, and there might have even been a sighting of Starlight Glimmer in one scene (which I'll have to go back and look for when I rewatch this episode). A bit of foreshadowing, perhaps? Perhaps indeed, but we'll just have to wait and see, now, won't we? Overall, this was a splendid episode. A nice change of pace, I thought, felt very suited for a Twilight episode to her character, I have no complaints about the pacing or execution, all around just a very lovely, solid episode that I can't wait to rewatch. That's all I got for ya'll today guys! To all my fellow American bronies out there, I wish you all a very Happy Fourth of July!!! Later all, I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit* Dun, dun, DUNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!

Well the good news for you is that we've already taken care of that on our end! You're not making a mascot, you're selecting from a pool of mascots that Poniverse already has; read the original post on the first page of this thread again carefully, you'll find all the mascots available to write stories about underneath a spoiler tag about halfway through it. Also, you'll need to create a Fimfiction account in order to be able to submit the story; you can get there by following this link. Hope this helps! MAJOR UPDATE #1: Any writers who were interested in Pony Roleplay's mascots, I have an update for you all. Pony Roleplay has some new information about their mascots, which you will find below. Art may be forthcoming in the future, but for now if you have any questions about their appearance or what pony species they are, or any other questions about them you think might be important, send a message to Fhaolan (who runs PRP) and he should be able to help you out. Wordplay is the stallion depicted in the various artworks, and is the storyteller and RPer of the family. Fair Dice is his fractionally younger twin sister, and is far more interested in the mechanical aspects of RPs, with resolution systems, min/maxing, and so on. The little-seen Road Map is the much older brother who spends his time in the basement running massive, overenthusastic wargame scenarios such as the War of the Sun and Moon, or the Fall of the Crystal Empire. And painting all those miniatures. Can't use unpainted miniatures, you know! That would ruin the experience.

I'm not sure if we'll have cutie marks up (in fact, I'm sure we won't), but like I said, DON'T be afraid to do something with those OR most importantly special talents in general. Even if what you described as a cutie mark were not retained, you might still get the special talent itself down. Also, the only fics that will really, really have to worry about possibly having to revise after the contest are the ones that will win in case the staff needs them to do anything, since the rest won't be canon in Poniverse. Anyways, should be getting the full disclaimer up tonight or tomorrow, so don't you worry.

Feel free to tell a story from another character's perspective so long as the mascot is still a main character. As for copyright disclaimers, we'll be releasing an update soon letting you know exactly what winners have to do in order to be able to accept their prizes, but if you wanted in your story description to cite Poniverse as the owners of any mascots used, that would be great! Keep your eyes peeled for updates in the coming week.

I don't know, maybe, maybe for other ponies they just have really big keys, who knows? Use your-

Well since they are all mascots of Poniverse and its various websites, yeah, in their world computers and the Internet are a thing. Just roll with it, think of it as an alternate dimension of Equestria. If Fallout: Equestria can be a thing, I see no reason why this should be a stretch. Ya know, if you're that crazy about the idea, I say go for it, IF you really want to forfeit any chance for canonization. At the very least you might get an honorable mention if the fic is good enough. P.S. Just make it explicit that you are forfeiting a chance for canonization when you submit it if you write that.

Aw man, sorry about that. This is certainly going to be a trickier contest than usual considering we're going to have to make sure certain aspects line up for these fics, but I have confidence we'll be able to pull it off. Keep brainstorming, maybe you'll come up with something else! Maybe just try to rework your ideas into something that could work for our needs.

OK, I see what you mean there. That would go back to our disclaimer about authors having to make minor changes to their stories if need be. But that should only have to happen if there's something that DRASTICALLY is different between two fics. And yeah, they're in Equestria, just a whacky Equestria where the Internet exists. We'd really rather you didn't make mascots siblings who aren't. If you're really interested in something like that, like I said, hold off just a tad because Pony Roleplay is getting some stuff clarified on their end about their mascot situation which may allow for siblings to be involved with their guys. And as for cutie marks, don't be afraid to play around with that, especially special talent wise. I can't guarantee that how you describe the cutie mark will be maintained as final design, but you should be able to nail their special talents down just fine given their profiles (even if minor changes may need to be made).

Correction, the WINNING fics will be accepted as canon. There's just going to be a single winning fic per character, no 1st, 2nd, or 3rd for each one, that'd mean we'd have at the most 18 winning fics, and that's a bit much.

I don't know, let's see what the readers think, shall we?

Very good, that sounds like an excellent plan!

Ah, very good question. The staff is currently figuring out how to address this situation. What I'll say is that you need to keep your eye out throughout this contest for any important updates we make in this thread, but just as a reminder, we also have so far this disclaimer about them: "Disclaimer: As these mascots are intellectual property of Poniverse.net, judges reserve the right to ask for minor content changes from submissions from finalists." Hope that doesn't come off as too heavy handed, and normally we wouldn't have something like this for these contests, but as these are Poniverse's actual intellectual property, we felt it was prudent to make that clear. Like I said, BE SURE to keep your eye out for updates in the OP and thread as the contest goes along, there will for sure be some changes made concerning the mascots themselves, especially in PRP and concerning their cutie mark status.