6-Star Reviews Part 46: Nocturne

To read the story, click the image or follow this link 

When I was cleaning out my desk drawer today, I found a doubling cube from a backgammon board.  Which wouldn't be too strange, except that I'm pretty sure I don't own a backgammon board, and haven't for years. Where did this thing come from?  I'm kind of a messy person by nature, but it hasn't been that long since I tidied up around here.

My review of CupcakesNom's Nocturne, after the break.

6-Star Reviews Part 45: Sweet Apple Capers

To read the story, click the image or follow this link

I love mythological references as much as anyone (and more than most, probably), but I know I'm not alone in feeling a little unnerved by the casualness with which Tartarus was introduced into MLP canon.  Do the "monsters" imprisoned therein include Cronus?  Maybe that's why Celestia and Luna are princesses and not queens: Cronus and Rhea ruled together, and Cronus ate each of his children (the alicorns) as they were born, until Luna was able to escape and overthrow him, freeing her siblings from his belly and imprisoning him for all time.  So they still hold the titles themselves, but are banished and powerless so long as Cerebus guards the gates of... wait, uh-oh.

Then again, maybe that isn't the direction the show's writers are going with this.  Call it a hunch.

The RPGenius's Sweet Apple Capers: a review, after the break.

6-Star Reviews Part 44: Simply Rarity

To read the story, click the image or follow this link

Rarity time!  Following close on the heels of Carousel, we have another origin-type story.  Find my review of Somber's Simply Rarity after the break.

6-Star Reviews Part 43: A Study in Rainbows / The Hound of Ponyville

To read the story, click the image or follow this link

This post actually contains two separate stories.  After waffling a bit, I decided to post both together; even though the second story stands completely separate from the first, they are so similar in tone, writing style, and characterization that I really don't have enough to say about The Hound of Ponyville that isn't true of A Study in Rainbows to justify giving it its own post.  I will, however, rate the two independently.  When I come across sets of stories like this in the future, my decision to post them collectively or independently will be based on a combination of how well they stand alone, and how much I have to say about one story that isn't true of the other.

Totally not influencing my decision in any way is the fact that multiple visitors to this blog will be lining up outside my door with baseball bats if I don't hurry up and get to my review of Simply Rarity.

Thanqol's A Study in Rainbows and The Hound of Ponyville, after the break.

Episode Talk: S2E19, Putting Your Hoof Down

It's been a while since I've done one of these, but I felt the need to stick my foot in my mouth.

More so than usual, that is.

Anyway, some two-days-after reaction to the latest episode, after the break.

6-Star Reviews Part 42: Carousel

To read the story, click the image or follow this link

I just recently discovered that there's a reality show/contest to find the best tattooist in America.  Every week the tattooists have to put a particular style of tattoo on a volunteer client, and the worst one gets sent home.  Now I'm not the sort to run out and cover my body in indelible ink, so it's true that I just don't understand the appeal in the first place... but where do they get these volunteers?  Who offers to have their body permanently marked up by reality show contestants?  That just sounds like eight different flavors of bad idea to me.

On what I assume to be a completely unrelated note, I present my review of Vanner's Carousel.