My Little Pony XXXV: The Thread Everypony Should Know

[Trixie]

http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Z0nK_RXaAB4/TwOfeOwFR-I/AAAAAAAAB90/r7TmW-Q1dIY/RT.png


Trixie's Great and Powerful Guide v1.96
--- Edition

Brief Introduction

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is a reboot of the MLP franchise by Powerpuff Girls artist Lauren Faust, currently viewed by (almost) the entire Internet, not only the intended audience. Here is a place where we discuss the joy of friendship.

> My Little Pony? Seriously?

It's a clever show. It has excellent writing, character dynamics, humor, animation, and generally treats kids seriously rather than condescending to them. It has every right to be a 20 minute corporate committee designed infomercial, but it's not.

> Isn't this a show for little girls?

Pixar technically makes shows for little boys, and produce some of the best animation in the world.

> Okay, fine. I'll give it a try. Where do I start?

No Brony could ask for more. I recommend watching the episodes in order. They're all up on Youtube. Unusually, Hasbro seems fine with having the entire series up in public because they've made no move to bring down any of the episodes. Search for "Friendship is Magic Episode 1" and you should find the series pretty easily... Or search for "Sharing is Magic" Google Doc. That is all.

> Okay, I'm going to watch it but this had better live up to the hype!

Whoa, calm down there. The show is light hearted, optimistic fun but it's not for everyone. It's good fun, the community is good fun, and everyone can do with a reminder that friendship is magic but if it doesn't gel for you we'll love and tolerate you anyway. Plus, you might hit the wrong episode. Ask first?

> Iron Hoof/Fan Theories/Shipping/Binding

All in good fun! If it's not your cup of tea, skim it, but this show has triggered a great creative outpouring from the Internet. Pony themed fan-art is abundant and often excellent. See below for some examples.

> Derpy Hooves/Doctor Whoof

Two minor background characters who were adopted as emblems of 4chan. Derpy Hooves is so named due to an animation error in the first episode that had her eyes facing in different directions; 4chan has assigned her the role of Ponyville's mailpony, and her only line so far has been "Muffins". The show's animators are aware of Derpy's popularity and she's shown up a few times recently with her eyes obviously derped. Currently made canon in Feeling Pinkie Keen and in Faust's picture showcased below, Derpy was deemed important enough to appear in storyboards for Season II.

Dr. Whoof is a pony with an hourglass cutie mark; he and his kin save time and space very quietly off camera.


***

Ponytar Artists

Alarra
Alterform
Crown of Thorns
Dirtytabs
Irbis
Kairaven
Khosan
Trixie
...and a lot more besides.

If you do/don't want to be here, please make a note in the thread.

New: Official PonyPic Request Thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217442)!
Old Requests [Archived] (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10616651)

General Resources

Fan Fiction and News: Equestria Daily (http://www.equestriadaily.com/)
Discussion Image Forum: Ponychan (http://www.ponychan.net/chan/)
Pony Emotes: FiM Emotes (http://kefkafloyd.imgur.com/J8S59)
More Emotes: MC's Emotes (http://gitpmcerberus.imgur.com/ponymote)
Also Emotes: GD's Emotes (http://gadora.imgur.com/seekret_pony_projekt_1/1)
Pony Images: Ponibooru (http://ponibooru.413chan.net/post/list)
More Images: 20% Cooler (http://twentypercentcooler.net/)
Know Your Meme: Ponies! (http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic)
Allspark MLP Discussion Thread (http://www.allspark.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=76678&st=0&start=0)

Art Resources


OC Pony Creation Guide:

>How to make OC Pony (http://ponibooru.413chan.net/_images/048648773b808749ecbcd93b7825d545/22629%20-%20original_character_tutorial%20tutorial.png)<
>How to clothe a Pony (http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/10448a8bf5139a93e47ee0ab2185d577/23650%20-%20Touhou%20artist%3Awhy485%20drawing_guide%20fash ion%20guide%20pony%20tutorial.png)<

Deviant Art Links:

Lauren Faust (http://fyre-flye.deviantart.com/)

14 Bis (http://14-bis.deviantart.com/)
ButterSS (http://buttersc0tchsundae.deviantart.com/)
Csimadmax (http://csimadmax.deviantart.com/)
DonKoRR (http://don-komandorr.deviantart.com/)
Irving Zero (http://irving-zero.deviantart.com/)
Johnjoseco (http://johnjoseco.deviantart.com/)
Kloudmutt (http://kloudmutt.deviantart.com/)
Palestorm (http://palestorm.deviantart.com/)
Shinepaw (http://shinepawpony.deviantart.com/)

>Awesome Great and Powerful Trixie (http://kp-shadowsquirrel.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d49ccgo)<

Tutorials:

How to Draw Luna (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1YoOgNwPp4)
MLP Art Guides (http://s1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc361/DJPon-3/)
MLP Colour Guides (http://kefkafloyd.deviantart.com/)

Kloud TV (http://www.livestream.com/kloudmutt)

Concepts:

On the Design of the Mane Cast (http://cdn0.knowyourmeme.com/i/000/107/092/original/122%20-%20applejack%20chart%20fluttershy%20pinkie_pie%20r ainbow_dash%20rarity%20twilight_sparkle.jpg)

Concept art by L. Faust:

AJ/AJ (http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TZPZtv1PUCI/AAAAAAAABPg/aTDHM_vJ3Ek/Applejack-08.jpg)
Pinkie/Surprise (http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TZPZtjpEWrI/AAAAAAAABPc/vlcKpVmK1FY/Pinkie_08.jpg)
Rarity/Sparkler (http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TZPZuba65VI/AAAAAAAABPo/o7oJ1OI4bcE/Rarity_08.jpg)
Twilight/Twinkle (http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TZPZuS8XZtI/AAAAAAAABPs/9CPSE6Je1Y0/Twilight_08.jpg)
Derpy/Ditzy (http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TZPZtusFdII/AAAAAAAABPk/4VbhxajIt1o/Derpy_11.jpg)

Group Shot (https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zPGxLKSxqsI/Tet-724kmrI/AAAAAAAABoc/74J43JjtvVc/mlplegroupruff.jpg)

5 Best Pictures [IMHO]:

TG&P Trixie 1 (http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TYlPoSj31bI/AAAAAAAABKc/yhAESX1bWDU/129879022202-fim_thebestmagic2.png) 2a (http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TYevesc6Z3I/AAAAAAAABJE/wqYR1YU8-xM/129878791125-Magic_for_Friendship.png) 2b (http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TYlPoV0tFSI/AAAAAAAABKg/UIrpK2_XUDk/345%20-%20filly%20flower%20Magic%20noel%20Trixie.jpg) 3 (http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TYevn1UZNyI/AAAAAAAABJI/JQaTPZ7u9kk/1295392718493.png)
Twilight Sparkle 1 (http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TYlQKpEFW1I/AAAAAAAABKo/PJmzRBt_g0o/twilight-%28n1298746506900%29.jpg) 2 (http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TYgEWabUv0I/AAAAAAAABJg/S1emWO9FjbE/1297919269027.png) 3 (http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TYlQAwKvFvI/AAAAAAAABKk/08Q9f1BaGa0/1298478186234.png)
Rainbow Dash 1 (http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TY-tuXX0V5I/AAAAAAAABOE/vPLwNGpCsU8/rainbows_are_awesome_by_adamrbi-d3awtkv.jpg) 2 (http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TY-tugAF4JI/AAAAAAAABOI/RYGrQCZySJo/1298478713223.jpg) 3 (http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TY-tutzFrYI/AAAAAAAABOM/QP22FdlygtA/1299129766866.png) 3.6 (http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TY-vxE-8GgI/AAAAAAAABOY/ktOwjPQ3eiI/130057856759.png)
Fluttershy 1 (http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TZPZiSMaDSI/AAAAAAAABPQ/FNLXj6WE0ss/yofluttershybyarborishd.png) 2 (http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TZPZiUXQlvI/AAAAAAAABPU/SCs7qzer-6E/129860262040.png) 3 (http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_THRVNyZ8xf0/TZPZiWhyIWI/AAAAAAAABPY/r6ClIhygmw0/1297113141466.png)

Pony Games

The most recent one. (http://www.yoyogames.com/games/168448-mlp-fim-the-way-home#)
Pacderpy (http://www.derpyhooves.com/games/pacderpy.html)
Two very similar dash based (http://www.derpyhooves.com/games/dashattack.html) cloud gathering sidescrollers (http://www.derpyhooves.com/games/rainbowdashmini.html)
Pony generator I (http://www.derpyhooves.com/games/custompony.html)
Pony generator II (http://derpyhooves.com/games.php?id=3)
Pony generator III (http://generalzoi.deviantart.com/art/MLP-FiM-Pony-Creator-Beta-210228500)

New: Pinkie licks cupcakes. (http://yeaka.deviantart.com/art/MLP-FiM-Flash-Game-202202384?q=boost%3Apopular%20max_age%3A8h%20frien dship%20is%20magic&qo=22) And a playthrough for it, too. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUy1UtuNet0)
Collect Cupcakes, Lick Ponies! 2.0 (http://yeaka.deviantart.com/art/MLP-FiM-Flash-Game-TWO-202342576)

Nice Fanwork


5AMVs:5Always (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhgzpnTYCXQ)Communism is Magic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJHZ4E9tRHM)Freeze Ray (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMXhEXQSXSw)[BR]I can go the distance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYonN9in668)[BR]PonyCraft 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJbAT1wzS8U)[BR]Still Alive (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za9f1c93FHY)[BR]The G&P Heretic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4szgPK9Rufw)1[B]Equestria Girls EE! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTPqjKk_xCo)[BR]Hub Summer Promo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKjBViIt-y8)[BR]Hop-Skip-Jump [original] (http://soundcloud.com/dannyimusic/mlp1-hop-skip-jump-song)[BR]Smile, Smile, Smile! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFf_rGavnFk)1Old Pony Songs 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHLqc8BSQMg) & 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCpBYLHIEuI)[BR]Ponies! (http://ponyvspony.com/)[BR]5[B]Comics:5The Damn Best Comic (http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/359/5/9/pinkiedeadpool_by_csimadmax-d35ms08.jpg). Ever.And The Prequel (http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/107/1/f/pinkiedeadpool_origins_by_csimadmax-d3e936w.png).[BR]And part two (http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/147/8/b/battle_for_equestria_02_by_csimadmax-d3hdr5c.png).[BR]And three (http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/154/2/1/battle_for_equestria_03_by_csimadmax-d3hz63e.png).[BR]And four (http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/160/a/f/battle_for_equestria_04_by_csimadmax-d3iighp.png).[BR]And five (http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/168/4/0/battle_for_equestria_05_by_csimadmax-d3j5nlu.png).[BR]Six (http://www.deviantart.com/download/256435109/battle_for_equestria_06_by_csimadmax-d48oalh.png) / Seven (http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/252/7/6/battle_for_equestria_07_by_csimadmax-d49cgt7.png) / Eight (http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/252/0/7/battle_for_equestria_08_by_csimadmax-d49dpsp.png).1Metaponies (http://gavalanche.deviantart.com/gallery/29877487).[BR]5[B]ED Fics:5Twilight Sky Over Canterlot (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/04/story-twilight-sky-over-canterlot.html)Sidelines / Midnight's Tale (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/04/conversion-bureau-compilation.html)[BR]World Without Rainbows (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/05/story-world-without-rainbows.html)[BR]Luxury Lotus Spa Follies (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/04/story-luxury-lotus-spa-follies.html)[BR]How Lyra Met Bon-Bon (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/02/story-how-lyra-met-bon-bon.html)[BR]Letters from Bubbly (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/01/story-letters-from-bubbly-1-10.html)[BR]Swayback Mountain (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/01/story-swayback-mountain.html)[BR]And Life Goes On (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/01/story-your-greatest-fan.html)[BR]The Three Notes (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/03/story-three-notes.html)[BR]TGaP Trixie (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/04/story-great-and-powerful-trixie.html)[BR]Antipodes (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/03/story-antipodes.html)[BR]Progress (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/05/story-progress-luna-versus-microwave.html)[BR]Bubbles (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/03/story-bubbles.html)1Pony Drinking Game (http://buttersc0tchsundae.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3cng5n)[BR]|
5[B]Songs:5At The Gala / FR (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQSmihuY5ms)Fluttershy's Lullaby / FR (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmDxuMvnehs)[BR]So Many Wonders / FR (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tbt-Z2RwfM)[BR][BR]The French and Powerful Trixie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcpeVg7yMv8)[BR][BR]At The Gala / PL (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlVRN-qePmA)[BR]Art of the Dress / PL (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clm3GjqncJs)[BR]Winter Wrap Up / PL (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfqIEGb2s5w)5[B]GitP Fics:5AmishPirate (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20TheAmishPirate)1Darth BC (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20Bobcat)1Deadly (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20Adcoon):[BR][BR]Trollestia 1 (http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/200/0/b/trickster_goddess_nr_1_by_adcoon-d40tt3d.png) 2 (http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/201/a/4/trickster_goddess_nr_2_by_adcoon-d414fzw.png) 3 (http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/214/1/3/trickster_goddess_nr_3_by_adcoon-d42h2hx.png) 4 (http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/229/0/d/trickster_goddess_nr_4_by_adcoon-d46vksj.png).1EsperDerek (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20EsperDerek)1Grif:[BR][BR]Pony Effect (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/05/story-pony-effect_23.html)1PhantomFox (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20PhantomFox):[BR][BR]Pride Goes Before a Folly (http://phantomfox7.deviantart.com/art/Pride-Goes-Before-A-Folly-211724143)1PhoeKun (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20Phoe)1Raz Fox (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20Raz_Fox)1Thanqol (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20Thanqol)[BR]

Important GitP Links

Thread I - Because Friendship Is Magic
Thread II - Now About 20% Cooler
Thread III - The Great & Powerful Thread
Thread IV - Friendship is Sufficiently Advanced Technology
Thread V - Art of the Thread
Thread VI - MUFFINS!
Thread VII - The Grand Galloping Thread
Thread VIII - Friendship is Music
Thread IX - The Best Thread Ever
Thread X - We Trot 'til We Drop
Thread XI - "Mmph!"
Thread XII - No One Can Groove Like the Girls with the Hooves
Thread XIII - Fast/Fine/Fierce Thread
Thread XIV - Boots on Hooves / Bikinis on Top
Thread XV - The Greater and Powerful-er Thread
Thread XVI - There's a Pony for That!
Thread XVII - Call Upon the Thread Ponies!
Thread XVIII - Perfect Isn't Easy
Thread XIX - I Emptied Your Thread
Thread XX & Thread XX - Appletastic Treats
Thread XXI - A Very Minty Thread
Thread XXII - Surprise!
Thread XXIII - It. Is. ON!
Thread XXIV - Now About 200% Longer Than Firefly
Thread XXV - Au Contraire, Mon Ami!
Thread XXVI - Applebloom to Zecora!
Thread XXVII - Eternal Chaos comes with Chocolate Rain
Thread XXVIII - In the Crazy of 40.000 Posts, There is Only Pony!
Thread XXIX - The Spoilers have been DOUBLED!
Thread XXX - Trixie Treats!
Thread XXXI - The Great and Powerful XXXie!
Thread XXXII - Find a Ponythread, and Soarin' the heck out of it!
Thread XXXIII - Happy Birthday Pony(thread)!
Thread XXXIV - There is Pony of it, no exceptions!
Thread XXXV - The Thread Everypony Should Know

Operation: Indiscriminate Friendship
Pony Week Discussion Thread
Pony Crime Pulp Fic/Game Thread


Want to Draw? Ponies will help!
Want to RP? My Little Pony: FiM RP Recruitment Thread.
Want to join the list of GitP Bronies (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApgaWduo83XldFhETWUtWm96b1BFS1dHOF84dTBGM lE&hl=en_US#gid=0)?

[Titanium Fox]

Here's the IRC info. First page too, for once!

Titanium Fox & Jade's IRC info:



Good News Everypony!

The #ponythread IRC channel is now online! Below is Jade's handy dandy guide to IRC! And for those who already know how IRC runs, the server and channel information is below the spoiler.


Jade Aurora's Handy Dandy Guide to IRC!
Hi everypony, and welcome! I'm Jade, and I'll be your lovely assistant for this lesson! Not too many ponies are familiar with the Internet Relay Chat protocol, and that's where I'm here to help! For those who don't know, IRC is a chat protocol similar to AIM and MSN, instant messengers we're all familiar with. There's a few things you need to get IRC working, so let's take a look at what they are.

1. IRC Chat Client
2. Server and Server Information
3. Channel Name
4. Brief List of Important Commands

1. IRC Chat Client
So, the first thing you need is a program that can handle IRC. These programs tend to be lightweight, and in some cases can be, or already are integrated into programs you already use every day. For example, do you use the web browser Opera (http://www.opera.com/) or the Instant Messaging Client Pidgin (http://www.pidgin.im)? Then you already have a program capable of supporting your server. If this is the case, you can skip on down to the next section. If not however, you're gonna need to download one.

Personally, I recommend one such as XChat 2 (http://www.silverex.org/news/) or mIRC (http://www.mirc.com/), but it's really not hard to find your own alternative. Just remember, don't be tricked into paying for an IRC client. There are tons upon tons of free options out there.

2. Server and Server Information
Okay, so you've got a program that can run IRC. Now what do you do? Well, first things first you need to do is figure out what server you're going to be connecting to. In our case, you will be connecting to:



This is usually pretty simple. It'll be a different process for each separate client, but they all tend to be pretty similar. There's generally a tools tab, followed by an options tab. There will be a field looking for the server to connect to. Type in what's in the quote box above, enter a username (you don't need to register it if you don't want to, that will be covered in section 4), and you're good to go! It should connect to the main page of the Sorcery IRC server. From there, you can go hunting for your channel.

3. Channel Name
This is a pretty simple one. In our case, the channel name is:



And you know how you join that? Just type into the text box at the bottom of your IRC client "/join #ponythread" and you're in! There's a bit more we can do with chanels though. Say you want to see if there are any other pony related channels in the server. Well, from any window on the Sorcery server, you can type in "/list" to get a list of all of the channels on the server. From there, you can use the "/join" command to join that channel too! Most channels have a # preceding their name, so remember that.

4. Brief List of Important Commands
/msg [NAME] This allows you to send a private message to [NAME].
/msg NickServ This allows you to send a message to the Nickname Server on the Sorcery IRC network. You can type "/msg NickServ HELP" from any window to get help with your nickname. This includes registering a floating nickname, changing the password on your nickname, and other different commands you can check out from there.
/list This allows you to see a list of all channels on the current server.

This list will be edited as time goes on, and more commands become pertinent.

IRC Server Information Standalone:




ATTENTION ONCE AGAIN EVERYPONY.

...Wow, I should probably stop doing that, huh? :smallredface:

We have a mibbit link for those ponies who don't want to download anything! Just click the mibbit link at the bottom of this post and you'll be brought to a web based IRC client, and dropped directly into the chat room.

#ponythread on IRC.Sorcery.net (http://mibbit.com/?channel=%23ponythread&server=irc.sorcery.net)

Also, Trixie, can I request that both this link and the prior post about IRC which includes the Guide and Server information go in the next OP?


It's really not that hard!
You know I hate you, right? I just want that on record.
...This can't be any more embarrassing than that picture Psycho drew of you in Midnight's Leather.
Point.

All you have to do is get a brand new client,
Download it, don't pay!
Next just figure out the server credentials,
So easy, child's play!

Just /join, and you're almost there,
Ponychat is in your future.
Make sure you've got the username you want,
And you'll be in the chat in seconds!

IRC! So quick and easy!
IRC! Don't get so queasy!
IRC! IRC! IRC!

I know where you sleep Titanium.





Hello, everypony! There have been a lot of questions about certain IRC features, and so I was convinced (by myself) to write up a list of FAQs to supplement Jade's guide. Hers includes everything you need just to connect, mine includes some slightly more advanced material. When this is reposted in the new thread, it can either be kept separate like this, or we could just combine them.


Inkblot's Answers to Common IRC Questions!

What does it mean to have a voice?

There are a number of different designations that can be assigned to IRC users, to determine what privileges they hold in a channel. The designation you'll see most frequently is +v, for voice. This is represented in the list of people in the channel by a + before someone's name in mIRC, or the image of a speaker after someone's name on mibbit. What having a voice means is that the user in question can continue to chat unhindered even if the channel is set to +m, for mute!

Setting a channel to mute prevents anyone without a voice from speaking. This is something that we might do if we were to ever be infested by spammy parasprites who were making it impossible to have real conversation, so that then only the ponies we know and recognize could talk.

You can be given a voice by anyone with OP (operator) or H-OP (half-operator) status, the former represented by a @ (or a star in Mibbit), and the latter by a % (or half of a star). These are the people who can kick or ban disruptive users, change channel modes, etc etc. Ops have more privileges in this regards than hops do.



How do I speak using colored font? Or in bold, or italics, or underlined?

This will vary depending on your choice of IRC client.

In Mibbit, it's simple! You just use the "colours" button down at the bottom of the screen, below the chat bar.

In mIRC, pressing ctrl+k will bring up a box showing a number of different colors. You can then choose one and it will automatically enter the appropriate color code. You can then type whatever it was you wanted colored. If you put a comma immediately after your color code, and then enter another color code, the first number will be the color of your text, and the second will be the color of your text's background. For example, ctrl+k - 4,1Testing would result in red font with a black background.

In mIRC, you can also use ctrl+b for bold text, ctrl+i for italics, ctrl+u to underline, and ctrl+o to make any text entered after that point default to normal. Alternatively, you can highlight whatever it is you want changed with your mouse, before entering it, and then use the ctrl+k/b/i/u commands to change just that part of what you had written.

If you use a different IRC client, please consult its documentation, or try Google. We can't help there!



How do I register my nickname?

Registering your nickname is a requirement for you to be auto-voiced or auto-oped upon joining (otherwise, a moderator needs to do so manually). It also allows you to protect yourself from anyone who might try and "steal" it, using your name for themselves. All you need is an e-mail address; just follow these easy steps!

First, type "/nickserv register *DESIRED PASSWORD* *your e-mail*". So, for example, "/nickserv register mypassword123 [email protected]"

Make sure that the e-mail address you entered was valid. Your IRC nickname will be tied to it.

Wait a few minutes, then go and check your e-mail. You should have one that looks something like this:


Hi,

You have requested to register the nickname "PoniesAreAwesome".

Please type " /msg NickServ confirm yLh5NhewS " into your IRC client to complete the registration.

If you don't know why this mail has been sent to you, please ignore it.

This mailbox is not monitored. Replies to this e-mail will NOT get responded to.

Thanks for using SorceryNet

It will be from [email protected], and the topic will be something following the format of "Nickname Registration (YourNameHere)." Just follow the instructions in the e-mail, and you're registered!

After registering, you'll need to confirm yourself each time you log in, by typing "/nickserv identify *insert password here*". You don't /need/ to, but features like auto-op won't function unless you do.



If anyone has more questions, feel free to ask, and I'll do my best to answer.

[Soras Teva Gee]

New ponythead taste, same ponymote filling:

Original Batch
http://i.imgur.com/0bxcP.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/0bxcP.png
http://i.imgur.com/0yCfw.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/0yCfw.png
http://i.imgur.com/1aYkh.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/1aYkh.png
http://i.imgur.com/2c0gc.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/2c0gc.png
http://i.imgur.com/2E2Va.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/2E2Va.png
http://i.imgur.com/2lTPE.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/2lTPE.png
http://i.imgur.com/4sZHM.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/4sZHM.png
http://i.imgur.com/59s2M.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/59s2M.png
http://i.imgur.com/6ZURl.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/6ZURl.png
http://i.imgur.com/9QvF1.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/9QvF1.png
http://i.imgur.com/aRDpW.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/aRDpW.png
http://i.imgur.com/BLHA3.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/BLHA3.png
http://i.imgur.com/BsGGR.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/BsGGR.png
http://i.imgur.com/CXTge.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/CXTge.png
http://i.imgur.com/CYF9U.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/CYF9U.png
http://i.imgur.com/cUkh2.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/cUkh2.png
http://i.imgur.com/DrMmg.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/DrMmg.png
http://i.imgur.com/Dy4NS.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/Dy4NS.png
http://i.imgur.com/d0kUL.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/d0kUL.png
http://i.imgur.com/dB204.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/dB204.png
http://i.imgur.com/dNltC.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/dNltC.png
http://i.imgur.com/EAqtS.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/EAqtS.png
http://i.imgur.com/EvxT1.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/EvxT1.png
http://i.imgur.com/eO5lW.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/eO5lW.png
http://i.imgur.com/etKD7.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/etKD7.png
http://i.imgur.com/eYwWG.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/eYwWG.png
http://i.imgur.com/fhwi8.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/fhwi8.png
http://i.imgur.com/gEfq6.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/gEfq6.png
http://i.imgur.com/gHCeL.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/gHCeL.png
http://i.imgur.com/gMCGS.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/gMCGS.png
http://i.imgur.com/JmPL5.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/JmPL5.png
http://i.imgur.com/jaolo.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/jaolo.png
http://i.imgur.com/jgqXQ.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/jgqXQ.png
http://i.imgur.com/KtAOH.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/KtAOH.png
http://i.imgur.com/kdR94.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/kdR94.png
http://i.imgur.com/LWZja.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/LWZja.png
http://i.imgur.com/LxdwA.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/LxdwA.png
http://i.imgur.com/l00rv.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/l00rv.png
http://i.imgur.com/lI36x.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/lI36x.png
http://i.imgur.com/N2nfK.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/N2nfK.png
http://i.imgur.com/NOiOY.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/NOiOY.png
http://i.imgur.com/Npxit.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/Npxit.png
http://i.imgur.com/nKrHQ.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/nKrHQ.png
http://i.imgur.com/OAaIA.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/OAaIA.png
http://i.imgur.com/o7rww.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/o7rww.png
http://i.imgur.com/pi5Ee.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/pi5Ee.png
http://i.imgur.com/pUT8r.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/pUT8r.png
http://i.imgur.com/RBgwp.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/RBgwp.png
http://i.imgur.com/ROEne.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/ROEne.png
http://i.imgur.com/RsI1d.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/RsI1d.png
http://i.imgur.com/RZwfo.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/RZwfo.png
http://i.imgur.com/SUOfJ.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/SUOfJ.png
http://i.imgur.com/U1RF1.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/U1RF1.png
http://i.imgur.com/UwGCn.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/UwGCn.png
http://i.imgur.com/xJr4u.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/xJr4u.png
http://i.imgur.com/xNUoP.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/xNUoP.png

MCerberus
http://i.imgur.com/01zSq.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/01zSq.png
http://i.imgur.com/1Z2vG.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/1Z2vG.png
http://i.imgur.com/2X8Vx.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/2X8Vx.png
http://i.imgur.com/36YEA.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/36YEA.png
http://i.imgur.com/3jjwj.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/3jjwj.png
http://i.imgur.com/5EqX7.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/5EqX7.png
http://i.imgur.com/CNGSZ.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/CNGSZ.png
http://i.imgur.com/DBY1G.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/DBY1G.png
http://i.imgur.com/Fgxws.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/Fgxws.png
http://i.imgur.com/fLpgR.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/fLpgR.png
http://i.imgur.com/Hfg2x.gifhttp://i.imgur.com/Hfg2x.gif
http://i.imgur.com/HhIbn.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/HhIbn.png
http://i.imgur.com/h4XfE.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/h4XfE.png
http://i.imgur.com/Jn3vj.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/Jn3vj.png
http://i.imgur.com/jNLDQ.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/jNLDQ.png
http://i.imgur.com/KwcDX.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/KwcDX.png
http://i.imgur.com/kpJsp.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/kpJsp.png
http://i.imgur.com/lJFOJ.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/lJFOJ.png
http://i.imgur.com/lSNiD.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/lSNiD.png
http://i.imgur.com/lytME.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/lytME.png
http://i.imgur.com/O6p2H.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/O6p2H.png
http://i.imgur.com/OqjNV.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/OqjNV.png
http://i.imgur.com/oGJH8.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/oGJH8.png
http://i.imgur.com/oRBHJ.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/oRBHJ.png
http://i.imgur.com/ptAf0.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/ptAf0.png
http://i.imgur.com/vZNbC.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/vZNbC.png
http://i.imgur.com/w3dl4.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/w3dl4.png
http://i.imgur.com/XiHXp.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/XiHXp.png
http://i.imgur.com/xk85S.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/xk85S.png
http://i.imgur.com/Z2C9W.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/Z2C9W.png
http://i.imgur.com/Z4XPE.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/Z4XPE.png
http://i.imgur.com/ZLzTn.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/ZLzTn.png
http://i.imgur.com/zFwEx.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/zFwEx.png

Crazy!Twi
http://i.imgur.com/r63WE.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/r63WE.png
http://i.imgur.com/PDKIo.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/PDKIo.png
http://i.imgur.com/viCkZ.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/viCkZ.png
http://i.imgur.com/tuSLw.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/tuSLw.png
http://i.imgur.com/U8SiV.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/U8SiV.png
http://i.imgur.com/ZiOZ1.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/ZiOZ1.png
http://i.imgur.com/xrtxn.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/xrtxn.png
http://i.imgur.com/WcmCY.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/WcmCY.png
http://i.imgur.com/TzVou.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/TzVou.png
http://i.imgur.com/Sy0s7.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/Sy0s7.png
http://i.imgur.com/uvyb4.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/uvyb4.png
http://i.imgur.com/tudfp.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/tudfp.png
http://i.imgur.com/Siwuj.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/Siwuj.png
http://i.imgur.com/sp5Tb.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/sp5Tb.png
http://i.imgur.com/vlJi6.gifhttp://i.imgur.com/vlJi6.gif

Kyouhen Series feat. Ninja Pinkie!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/th_NinjaPinkie.pnghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/th_NinjaPinkie.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/NinjaSurprise.pnghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/NinjaSurprise.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/PinkieSwear.pnghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/PinkieSwear.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/trollestia2.pnghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/trollestia2.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/trollestia.pnghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/trollestia.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/Gummicle.pnghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/Gummicle.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/Gildicle.pnghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/alfalficon1.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/alfalficon2.pnghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Balthasar_Gelt/alfalficon2.png


Misc:
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/272/4/b/liarjack_da_avatar_by_metalbeersolid-d4bc9sj.gifhttp://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/272/4/b/liarjack_da_avatar_by_metalbeersolid-d4bc9sj.gif
Seekrit Pony Projekt
1-20
http://i.imgur.com/03Pwr.png[noparse]http://i.imgur.com/03Pwr.png
http://i.imgur.com/0Mw2v.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/0Mw2v.png
http://i.imgur.com/2u0gC.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/2u0gC.png
http://i.imgur.com/3JXCg.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/3JXCg.png
http://i.imgur.com/3q7O2.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/3q7O2.png
http://i.imgur.com/459jt.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/459jt.png
http://i.imgur.com/4ii5U.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/4ii5U.png
http://i.imgur.com/4XyuH.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/4XyuH.png
http://i.imgur.com/4zrN3.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/4zrN3.png
http://i.imgur.com/6SgQp.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/6SgQp.png
http://i.imgur.com/74j15.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/74j15.png
http://i.imgur.com/7Yvwk.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/7Yvwk.png
http://i.imgur.com/8u4Rl.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/8u4Rl.png
http://i.imgur.com/9SkHu.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/9SkHu.png
http://i.imgur.com/AKUeV.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/AKUeV.png
http://i.imgur.com/Ala5e.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/Ala5e.png
http://i.imgur.com/AruGN.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/AruGN.png
http://i.imgur.com/BgqS5.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/BgqS5.png
http://i.imgur.com/b5xPJ.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/b5xPJ.png
http://i.imgur.com/CEUYj.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/CEUYj.png

21-40
http://i.imgur.com/D4C8X.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/D4C8X.png
http://i.imgur.com/DrSYq.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/DrSYq.png
http://i.imgur.com/dDGKR.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/dDGKR.png
http://i.imgur.com/eCLn3.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/eCLn3.png
http://i.imgur.com/ecXwG.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/ecXwG.png
http://i.imgur.com/erYVj.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/erYVj.png
http://i.imgur.com/ev5Dd.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/ev5Dd.png
http://i.imgur.com/f2s0G.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/f2s0G.png
http://i.imgur.com/G1lsp.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/G1lsp.png
http://i.imgur.com/G5T9W.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/G5T9W.png
http://i.imgur.com/G8QfD.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/G8QfD.png
http://i.imgur.com/GOn25.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/GOn25.png
http://i.imgur.com/g0EB2.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/g0EB2.png
http://i.imgur.com/HKmyu.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/HKmyu.png
http://i.imgur.com/h4OtT.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/h4OtT.png
http://i.imgur.com/hdG5a.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/hdG5a.png
http://i.imgur.com/hdXfp.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/hdXfp.png
http://i.imgur.com/hfXmw.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/hfXmw.png
http://i.imgur.com/hleys.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/hleys.png
http://i.imgur.com/I0AiJ.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/I0AiJ.png
41-60
http://i.imgur.com/iSsYc.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/iSsYc.png
http://i.imgur.com/JBZDO.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/JBZDO.png
http://i.imgur.com/Ji01D.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/Ji01D.png
http://i.imgur.com/jDb4v.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/jDb4v.png
http://i.imgur.com/jhfF7.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/jhfF7.png
http://i.imgur.com/jq6VL.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/jq6VL.png
http://i.imgur.com/KLXX3.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/KLXX3.png
http://i.imgur.com/k7yr1.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/k7yr1.png
http://i.imgur.com/kETPz.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/kETPz.png
http://i.imgur.com/LIUMV.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/LIUMV.png
http://i.imgur.com/LKAKZ.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/LKAKZ.png
http://i.imgur.com/Lz5uj.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/Lz5uj.png
http://i.imgur.com/l6Dif.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/l6Dif.png
http://i.imgur.com/ldfV9.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/ldfV9.png
http://i.imgur.com/lPGoS.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/lPGoS.png
http://i.imgur.com/lT2IO.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/lT2IO.png
http://i.imgur.com/mssk8.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/mssk8.png
http://i.imgur.com/NInKh.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/NInKh.png
http://i.imgur.com/O73if.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/O73if.png
http://i.imgur.com/OPCUO.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/OPCUO.png

61-80
http://i.imgur.com/o1ROT.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/o1ROT.png
http://i.imgur.com/o3OrQ.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/o3OrQ.png
http://i.imgur.com/PgZ79.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/PgZ79.png
http://i.imgur.com/p0HjG.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/p0HjG.png
http://i.imgur.com/pKw2V.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/pKw2V.png
http://i.imgur.com/Qd0KM.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/Qd0KM.png
http://i.imgur.com/QLOYp.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/QLOYp.png
http://i.imgur.com/qxCE8.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/qxCE8.png
http://i.imgur.com/rytqf.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/rytqf.png
http://i.imgur.com/SSEx1.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/SSEx1.png
http://i.imgur.com/s1GzN.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/s1GzN.png
http://i.imgur.com/tFh1l.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/tFh1l.png
http://i.imgur.com/tVg4z.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/tVg4z.png
http://i.imgur.com/twJKI.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/twJKI.png
http://i.imgur.com/us0sn.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/us0sn.png
http://i.imgur.com/uwvgS.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/uwvgS.png
http://i.imgur.com/VgP1Y.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/VgP1Y.png
http://i.imgur.com/VlAck.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/VlAck.png
http://i.imgur.com/VNjBL.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/VNjBL.png
http://i.imgur.com/Vthb5.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/Vthb5.png

81-100
http://i.imgur.com/VYSqq.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/VYSqq.png
http://i.imgur.com/vbM5o.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/vbM5o.png
http://i.imgur.com/W0vnZ.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/W0vnZ.png
http://i.imgur.com/w4Pts.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/w4Pts.png
http://i.imgur.com/RYTpi.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/RYTpi.png
http://i.imgur.com/wQyc8.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/wQyc8.png
http://i.imgur.com/X0pML.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/X0pML.png
http://i.imgur.com/XCdKc.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/XCdKc.png
http://i.imgur.com/XiHdB.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/XiHdB.png
http://i.imgur.com/XzZ1f.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/XzZ1f.png
http://i.imgur.com/xl9dK.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/xl9dK.png
http://i.imgur.com/YecKj.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/YecKj.png
http://i.imgur.com/YWDIv.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/YWDIv.png
http://i.imgur.com/y50oz.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/y50oz.png
http://i.imgur.com/yW4zF.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/yW4zF.png
http://i.imgur.com/ZHvPK.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/ZHvPK.png
http://i.imgur.com/ZOCXB.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/ZOCXB.png
http://i.imgur.com/zhFvk.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/zhFvk.png
http://i.imgur.com/zRC21.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/zRC21.png
http://i.imgur.com/zw5OF.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/zw5OF.png

101-112
http://i.imgur.com/Tqo43.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/Tqo43.png
http://i.imgur.com/MPjbO.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/MPjbO.png
http://i.imgur.com/shj2N.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/shj2N.png
http://i.imgur.com/1h9Zx.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/1h9Zx.png
http://i.imgur.com/EK1lN.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/EK1lN.png
http://i.imgur.com/qW2jc.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/qW2jc.png
http://i.imgur.com/NcSma.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/NcSma.png
http://i.imgur.com/JpnZc.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/JpnZc.png
http://i.imgur.com/fsqkv.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/fsqkv.png
http://i.imgur.com/CgffQ.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/CgffQ.png
http://i.imgur.com/VwCqN.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/VwCqN.png
http://i.imgur.com/hwHGZ.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/hwHGZ.png

113-124 (Luna Series)

http://i.imgur.com/Mm1dn.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/Mm1dn.png
http://i.imgur.com/gN9Ou.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/gN9Ou.png
http://i.imgur.com/rW0xK.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/rW0xK.png
http://i.imgur.com/rzrj5.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/rzrj5.png
http://i.imgur.com/s8D5o.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/s8D5o.png
http://i.imgur.com/lEtTg.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/lEtTg.png
http://i.imgur.com/KXIJq.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/KXIJq.png
http://i.imgur.com/oRdYJ.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/oRdYJ.png
http://i.imgur.com/hNTy5.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/hNTy5.png
http://i.imgur.com/KyWk8.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/KyWk8.png
http://i.imgur.com/ZeYyu.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/ZeYyu.png
http://i.imgur.com/L3ZSw.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/L3ZSw.png



This time a bit somber.

[Pendulous]

Ah, thirty-five. Due to how my brain works, first thing that pops into my head for that number is....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtqY2isVBo4

[Tectonic Robot]

A warning: the rest of this post is really goddamn depressing. If you don't like upsetting things, just imagine that I'm talking about why I've got a tiny Twilight Sparkle next to my bed right now and apologizing to people for letting my PM box fill up, and to Thanqol because I've really got no idea when I'll respond to his marvelous roleplay.

Oh, and, uh, if anyone happens to drop any high-quality Rarity imagedumps, that would be cool. Just saying.

Let me tell you about my little sister, Rarity.

She loved My Little Pony. She got to know all the ponies by name - well, most of them, anyway - and she loved looking at her older brother's vast collection of pony pictures, off his phone. She decided that she was obviously Rarity, that her big brother was Twilight Sparkle, and then named all her four other siblings; she would cheerfully relate, were you to ask her, the plots of various episodes, and little quotes from them. Even though she named herself Rarity, she was as cute as Fluttershy and as happy as Pinkie Pie. She was outrageously happy, overbrimming with it, whenever she wasn't having a Rarity-esque, over-the-top, meltdown. She practically bounced everywhere, and she was always curious, always wanting to help out.

She turned three years old last week. Her birthday party was last Friday. She got to go out and see a show with her dad and all her sisters and she loved it. She was ecstatic; she was similarly so when her big brother Applejack came home from camp, and when her big brother Twilight Sparkle came home, New Year's Eve, after working all day. She was so very, very happy, almost explosively joyful.

Today, to use the metaphor we've been bandying about the thread so much, her song ended. She tried to be adventurous, like her big sister, and there was an accident. She was rushed to the hospital, but soon after, she passed away.

So that's why I've got the little Twilight Sparkle toy she gave me after Christmas sitting on my desk, and why I'm having a little bit of a meltdown right now. Because I'm crying and yet I'm smiling because she smiled and would want me to. Her name was Aimee Katherine, and she was a wonderful little sister, and I'm looking forward to seeing her again one day.

If you happen to be of a religious persuasion, please pray for my family, especially my parents. I'll muddle through this, but they desperately need your prayers.

Ah, Raz Fox... I told my family about this, and we're all praying for you and your family, mate. I'm so, so very sorry for your loss. I don't have much else to say besides that.

[Grif]

A warning: the rest of this post is really goddamn depressing. If you don't like upsetting things, just imagine that I'm talking about why I've got a tiny Twilight Sparkle next to my bed right now and apologizing to people for letting my PM box fill up, and to Thanqol because I've really got no idea when I'll respond to his marvelous roleplay.

Oh, and, uh, if anyone happens to drop any high-quality Rarity imagedumps, that would be cool. Just saying.

Let me tell you about my little sister, Rarity.

She loved My Little Pony. She got to know all the ponies by name - well, most of them, anyway - and she loved looking at her older brother's vast collection of pony pictures, off his phone. She decided that she was obviously Rarity, that her big brother was Twilight Sparkle, and then named all her four other siblings; she would cheerfully relate, were you to ask her, the plots of various episodes, and little quotes from them. Even though she named herself Rarity, she was as cute as Fluttershy and as happy as Pinkie Pie. She was outrageously happy, overbrimming with it, whenever she wasn't having a Rarity-esque, over-the-top, meltdown. She practically bounced everywhere, and she was always curious, always wanting to help out.

She turned three years old last week. Her birthday party was last Friday. She got to go out and see a show with her dad and all her sisters and she loved it. She was ecstatic; she was similarly so when her big brother Applejack came home from camp, and when her big brother Twilight Sparkle came home, New Year's Eve, after working all day. She was so very, very happy, almost explosively joyful.

Today, to use the metaphor we've been bandying about the thread so much, her song ended. She tried to be adventurous, like her big sister, and there was an accident. She was rushed to the hospital, but soon after, she passed away.

So that's why I've got the little Twilight Sparkle toy she gave me after Christmas sitting on my desk, and why I'm having a little bit of a meltdown right now. Because I'm crying and yet I'm smiling because she smiled and would want me to. Her name was Aimee Katherine, and she was a wonderful little sister, and I'm looking forward to seeing her again one day.

If you happen to be of a religious persuasion, please pray for my family, especially my parents. I'll muddle through this, but they desperately need your prayers.

I'm really sorry to hear your loss and though I'm not a particularly religious person, I'll be praying for you and your family.

...

I don't really know what else to say.

[Dexam]

A warning: the rest of this post is really goddamn depressing. If you don't like upsetting things, just imagine that I'm talking about why I've got a tiny Twilight Sparkle next to my bed right now and apologizing to people for letting my PM box fill up, and to Thanqol because I've really got no idea when I'll respond to his marvelous roleplay.

Oh, and, uh, if anyone happens to drop any high-quality Rarity imagedumps, that would be cool. Just saying.

Let me tell you about my little sister, Rarity.

She loved My Little Pony. She got to know all the ponies by name - well, most of them, anyway - and she loved looking at her older brother's vast collection of pony pictures, off his phone. She decided that she was obviously Rarity, that her big brother was Twilight Sparkle, and then named all her four other siblings; she would cheerfully relate, were you to ask her, the plots of various episodes, and little quotes from them. Even though she named herself Rarity, she was as cute as Fluttershy and as happy as Pinkie Pie. She was outrageously happy, overbrimming with it, whenever she wasn't having a Rarity-esque, over-the-top, meltdown. She practically bounced everywhere, and she was always curious, always wanting to help out.

She turned three years old last week. Her birthday party was last Friday. She got to go out and see a show with her dad and all her sisters and she loved it. She was ecstatic; she was similarly so when her big brother Applejack came home from camp, and when her big brother Twilight Sparkle came home, New Year's Eve, after working all day. She was so very, very happy, almost explosively joyful.

Today, to use the metaphor we've been bandying about the thread so much, her song ended. She tried to be adventurous, like her big sister, and there was an accident. She was rushed to the hospital, but soon after, she passed away.

So that's why I've got the little Twilight Sparkle toy she gave me after Christmas sitting on my desk, and why I'm having a little bit of a meltdown right now. Because I'm crying and yet I'm smiling because she smiled and would want me to. Her name was Aimee Katherine, and she was a wonderful little sister, and I'm looking forward to seeing her again one day.

If you happen to be of a religious persuasion, please pray for my family, especially my parents. I'll muddle through this, but they desperately need your prayers.

Raz, as others have already mentioned, there really are no words at a time like this. You and your family have my sincerest condolences. I wish there was more that I could say... be sure to let your family know that so many of your online friends and acquaintances are sending their love and thoughts to you all during this time.

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/c711c11aebde2cc60d9a29fb377d341b/23807%20-%20hugs%20macro%20rarity%20screencap%20twilight_sp arkle.png

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/bf1a65bec230cbc94794d85d27679a79/93405%20-%20adorkable%20Hubble%20hugging%20hugs%20macro%20r arity%20twilight_sparkle.PNG

[Trixie]

<sigh> Also, sorry to people who voted other thread names, I just... kind of found them too trivial now, and tried to pick something... Neutral? Not... improper? Same with thread image, couldn't find anything fitting, so, left it blank for now...

If you want me to change/use either, just let me know :smallfrown:

[Weimann]

With all due respect to Raz_Fox, here's a repost from the other thread.
Well horseapples. This sucks. (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/01/clarification-on-youtube-stream.html)
Personally, I understand them. I mean, the show is a big hit, they'll be coming out with DVDs and stuff soon from what I hear, and if people can get the show in high quality and for free on the internet, they're less inclined to buy it from elsewhere. Hasbro must protect its IP. I can't faul them for that.

What I do request, though, is a quality way for us non-American fans to purchase it online. From what I understand, the episodes on HubWorld.com is region-locked to America, and while I'm not sure that's the case on iTunes, I hear they are way behind on their updates (but I'll have to check it out before I make decisive statements about that). As for buying the DVDs... yeah, I'm 100% sure they'll only be available dubbed, and if I'll have to import them, it's starting to get too much hassle, not to mention money, to be worth bothering with.

I do hope Hasbro will still allow PMVs, remixes and such to be uploaded onto YouTube.

[Raz_Fox]

<sigh> Also, sorry to people who voted other thread names, I just... kind of found them too trivial now, and tried to pick something... Neutral? Not... improper? Same with thread image, couldn't find anything fitting, so, left it blank for now...

If you want me to change/use either, just let me know :smallfrown:

For my little Rarity?

It is the perfect name.

And I'd personally request some kind of Twilight and Rarity picture. If you don't mind. There were several good ones at the end of the last thread.

@V: That... would work, too.

[Brazen Shield]

Thread name should be

"Rarity is Best Pony"

[Geno9999]

Right then, to start this thread on a more positive note, I have two announcements:
The first is that I have finished Part 4 of The Great and Powerful Unicorn of Oz (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eePKmOVd08jn4kmmnaKU7lpahKlZII-tFpeFv55Xh5g/edit), in which Twilight falls asleep.
The second is decidedly more important than the first;
TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!:smallbiggrin:
http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/b/b9/Pinkie_Pie_Party.jpg

[Pendulous]

Raz, as others have already mentioned, there really are no words at a time like this. You and your family have my sincerest condolences. I wish there was more that I could say... be sure to let your family know that so many of your online friends and acquaintances are sending their love and thoughts to you all during this time.



That's pretty much all that can be said. I am eternally sorry for your loss, Raz.

As I'm not one to save Rarity images (see my intro to this community :P ), here's a video instead of a kind of "best of" from her

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhI6cvwDpQA

[Titanium Fox]

For my little Rarity?

It is the perfect name.

And I'd personally request some kind of Twilight and Rarity picture. If you don't mind. There were several good ones at the end of the last thread.

I second this. Twilight and Rarity for OP Image.

[Tiki Snakes]

With all due respect to Raz_Fox, here's a repost from the other thread.

I'm not sure that it's really such big news. Unless they start actually making any kind of concerted effort, it does just seem to be them doing the bare minimum to be seen as protecting their IP for legal reasons. As various people pointed out, if they really wanted to they could have stamped every trace of episode out incredibly simply using existing Youtube tools.

And even if they did, it wouldn't do anything except make it slightly less convenient for people so inclined to find non-hub sources, whatever their reason for doing so.

More importantly, Raz. I'm really bad at this kind of thing, but I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for your loss. You sound like a close family, hopefully you'll be able to help each other through this.

[Tectonic Robot]

Right then, to start this thread on a more positive note, I have two announcements:
The first is that I have finished Part 4 of The Great and Powerful Unicorn of Oz (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eePKmOVd08jn4kmmnaKU7lpahKlZII-tFpeFv55Xh5g/edit), in which Twilight falls asleep.
The second is decidedly more important than the first;
TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!:smallbiggrin:
http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/b/b9/Pinkie_Pie_Party.jpg

Happy birthday, pal.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Right then, to start this thread on a more positive note, I have two announcements:
The first is that I have finished Part 4 of The Great and Powerful Unicorn of Oz (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eePKmOVd08jn4kmmnaKU7lpahKlZII-tFpeFv55Xh5g/edit), in which Twilight falls asleep.
The second is decidedly more important than the first;
TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!:smallbiggrin:
http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/b/b9/Pinkie_Pie_Party.jpg

Happy birthday! :smallsmile:

[the_druid_droid]

Raz,
It's been a privilege getting to know you through the Pony threads, the PbP games, and IRC silliness. I really do consider you to be a friend, and as so many other posters here have said, my deepest sympathies are with you and your family right now, and you'll be in my thoughts and prayers in the days to come.

I know I can't say or do anything to make things better, but if there's anything I can conceivably do to make things even a little easier as you go through this, don't hesitate to let me know.

-DD

[TheAmishPirate]

Right then, to start this thread on a more positive note, I have two announcements:
The first is that I have finished Part 4 of The Great and Powerful Unicorn of Oz (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eePKmOVd08jn4kmmnaKU7lpahKlZII-tFpeFv55Xh5g/edit), in which Twilight falls asleep.
The second is decidedly more important than the first;
TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!:smallbiggrin:
http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/b/b9/Pinkie_Pie_Party.jpg

Happy Birthday!

And from somebody stuck on the finishing up stage of a fic, congrats on finishing that chapter!

[Nameless]

With all due respect to Raz_Fox, here's a repost from the other thread.

Yeah, I can't seem to be able to watch it on Hubworld and it doesn't show here on TV either. As for the DVD... They're not available in the UK and apparently if I buy one online from the US it won't work on my DVD player. The DVD's don't come out until the seasons are over anyway, so even if they were available here, I wouldn't be able to keep up with the episodes.
So... No ponies for me it seems.

Wow. This sucks. Like, a lot.

[Deadly]

Raz,

I may not have many words to offer, but this is for you and your sister, I hope you'll like it.

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/003/5/b/in_memory_of_rarity_by_adcoon-d4l678v.png

Full size available here (http://adcoon.deviantart.com/art/In-Memory-of-Rarity-277425967)

[Aotrs Commander]

Yeah, I can't seem to be able to watch it on Hubworld and it doesn't show here on TV either. As for the DVD... They're not available in the UK and apparently if I buy one online from the US it won't work on my DVD player. The DVD's don't come out until the seasons are over anyway, so even if they were available here, I wouldn't be able to keep up with the episodes.
So... No ponies for me it seems.

Wow. This actually really sucks. Like, a lot.

With the cheap DVD available from Asda or Tescos, it's often possible for find a code online to make them multiregion; it's a requirement for us, both me and Mum have a huge number of DVDs that are US (or even Austrailian) that would otherwise never have gotten released over here.



I also doubt that the takedowns will (be able to) entirely remove MLP from youtube (or even from other places); WB made a concerted effort to do it with Young Justice, but that doesn't stop everyone from uploading to youtube or even other sites. In practise, it will likely mean that you will still be able to watch the new episode of this season - somewhere - though you might not be able to keep re-watching them for weeks on end.

Incidently, I personally believe that the artificially enforced regionalisation of media is an utterly indefensible idea, regardless of who the company doing it is, be you Hasbro or the BBC or anyone else, not to mention a unilaterally stupid one that not only denies you potential customers, but alienates them as well. Especially since it was introduced for DVDs specifically to try and screw people out of as much money as possible.

When my time finally comes, I will take a very special pleasure in publically disembowling the souls of the people who thought the idea up in the first place...

[Nameless]

With the cheap DVD available from Asda or Tescos, it's often possible for find a code online to make them multiregion; it's a requirement for us, both me and Mum have a huge number of DVDs that are US (or even Austrailian) that would otherwise never have gotten released over here.

That is way too much effort for ponies...
Of course it isn't. http://i.imgur.com/9QvF1.png


I also doubt that the takedowns will (be able to) entirely remove MLP from youtube (or even from other places); WB made a concerted effort to do it with Young Justice, but that doesn't stop everyone from uploading to youtube or even other sites. In practise, it will likely mean that you will still be able to watch the new episode of this season - somewhere - though you might not be able to keep re-watching them for weeks on end.


I certainly hope not. A new MLP episode is quite literally the highlight of my week.

If it does, then I start to wonder what will happen to many of the shows fans who live outside of the US and Canada, and what will end up happening to the community as a whole. Especially if they start taking down all the remixes etc. Not everyone will be willing to buy each episode off iTunes every week.

[Topaz]

I'm very late to this, but I wanted to let Raz_Fox know that one more pony had him in their thoughts.
http://twentypercentcooler.net/data/ac/84/ac84d8639a5528dcd2e82bd854b892ae.gif?1320156881
http://twentypercentcooler.net/data/sample/b5/29/b529003179ef7cab43dc36b61f58afcb.jpg?1314879279
http://twentypercentcooler.net/data/sample/16/3f/163fb80411642ad8619d410398bbf3a1.jpg?1313055245
http://twentypercentcooler.net/data/sample/4f/29/4f29a2aaabf7acbe216b9352e6934446.jpg?1313055242

[Lix Lorn]

Incidently, I personally believe that the artificially enforced regionalisation of media is an utterly indefensible idea, regardless of who the company doing it is, be you Hasbro or the BBC or anyone else, not to mention a unilaterally stupid one that not only denies you potential customers, but alienates them as well. Especially since it was introduced for DVDs specifically to try and screw people out of as much money as possible.

When my time finally comes, I will take a very special pleasure in publically disembowling the souls of the people who thought the idea up in the first place...
Can I help? Please?


I certainly hope not. A new MLP episode is quite literally the highlight of my week.

If it does, then I start to wonder what will happen to many of the shows fans who live outside of the US and Canada, and what will end up happening to the community as a whole. Especially if they start taking down all the remixes etc. Not everyone will be willing to buy each episode off iTunes every week.
Yeah. :smallfrown: I avoid iTunes like the plague.

Also, Raz, for all that it matters all my sympathy. And my mom overheard and sent hers too.

[Titanium Fox]

Raz,

I may not have many words to offer, but this is for you and your sister, I hope you'll like it.

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/003/5/b/in_memory_of_rarity_by_adcoon-d4l678v.png

Full size available here (http://adcoon.deviantart.com/art/In-Memory-of-Rarity-277425967)

This is fantastic Deadly.


With the cheap DVD available from Asda or Tescos, it's often possible for find a code online to make them multiregion; it's a requirement for us, both me and Mum have a huge number of DVDs that are US (or even Austrailian) that would otherwise never have gotten released over here.



I also doubt that the takedowns will (be able to) entirely remove MLP from youtube (or even from other places); WB made a concerted effort to do it with Young Justice, but that doesn't stop everyone from uploading to youtube or even other sites. In practise, it will likely mean that you will still be able to watch the new episode of this season - somewhere - though you might not be able to keep re-watching them for weeks on end.

Incidently, I personally believe that the artificially enforced regionalisation of media is an utterly indefensible idea, regardless of who the company doing it is, be you Hasbro or the BBC or anyone else, not to mention a unilaterally stupid one that not only denies you potential customers, but alienates them as well. Especially since it was introduced for DVDs specifically to try and screw people out of as much money as possible.

When my time finally comes, I will take a very special pleasure in publically disembowling the souls of the people who thought the idea up in the first place...

In all honesty, that really won't make a dent. Even if we can't watch pony in the light of day with Hasbro knowing about it, people on the Internet are resourceful, and have never taken authority saying "no" as an answer. Something will crop up, even if all of the episodes are completely removed from Youtube.

[Anarion]

Incidently, I personally believe that the artificially enforced regionalisation of media is an utterly indefensible idea, regardless of who the company doing it is, be you Hasbro or the BBC or anyone else, not to mention a unilaterally stupid one that not only denies you potential customers, but alienates them as well. Especially since it was introduced for DVDs specifically to try and screw people out of as much money as possible.

When my time finally comes, I will take a very special pleasure in publically disembowling the souls of the people who thought the idea up in the first place...


Can I help? Please?


Can I take point and possibly fire one of the death rays? I really want to fire a death ray at a deserving target.

On a slightly more serious note, I really really think this whole thing is indicative of an old business model that people are finding too hard to update. Region locking comes from the days when every TV and every power outlet differed depending on your country and it makes no sense in the context of modern tech produced for a worldwide audience. Plus, as others have already said, the people that get affected by attempts to control distribution are NOT the savvy internet users, but rather potential new viewers who aren't willing to put in the time to find the episodes because they're not hooked yet.

[Aotrs Commander]

Can I help? Please?

Certainly. I'l make sure to bring an extra etheric blunt rusty spoon...


In all honesty, that really won't make a dent. Even if we can't watch pony in the light of day with Hasbro knowing about it, people on the Internet are resourceful, and have never taken authority saying "no" as an answer. Something will crop up, even if all of the episodes are completely removed from Youtube.

Well, quite.

(Of course, this is exactly what the whole SOPA thing is trying to prevent; though whether it could actually achive that in practise, given reasonable manpower constraints, is a good question (but not to make light of the potential damage it could do, either); but that's a bit political, so aside from mentioning it as I have done, I'll say no more on it.)

[Titanium Fox]

(Of course, this is exactly what the whole SOPA thing is trying to prevent; though whether it could actually achive that in practise, given reasonable manpower constraints, is a good question (but not to make light of the potential damage it could do, either); but that's a bit political, so aside from mentioning it as I have done, I'll say no more on it.)

I'll keep my personal commentary low on this for the same reasons above. However:

SOPA? Stopping things? *Ahem*

BUAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHA.

[Nameless]

This is fantastic Deadly.



In all honesty, that really won't make a dent. Even if we can't watch pony in the light of day with Hasbro knowing about it, people on the Internet are resourceful, and have never taken authority saying "no" as an answer. Something will crop up, even if all of the episodes are completely removed from Youtube.

I think you can actually avoid the whole copyright thing if you mirror the video before uploading it. Not sure how keen I am on watching MLP back to front though.

[Weimann]

Mirroring a movie makes it bypass some of the detection mechanics, not the actual copyright laws.

While I'm certain that there will be some place to watch ponies on the internet still, I still don't feel too good about doing it that way. As long as Hasbro left well enough alone, fine. Now, they've said "oi, don't do that" and I am compelled to oblige. I have respect for the show, I don't want to pirate it.

The thing is, I wish they'd make it easier for me to oblige. The episodes are $2.99 on iTunes for Americans. I could totally pay that if they'd just allow me.

[EsperDerek]

A warning: the rest of this post is really goddamn depressing. If you don't like upsetting things, just imagine that I'm talking about why I've got a tiny Twilight Sparkle next to my bed right now and apologizing to people for letting my PM box fill up, and to Thanqol because I've really got no idea when I'll respond to his marvelous roleplay.

Oh, and, uh, if anyone happens to drop any high-quality Rarity imagedumps, that would be cool. Just saying.

Let me tell you about my little sister, Rarity.

She loved My Little Pony. She got to know all the ponies by name - well, most of them, anyway - and she loved looking at her older brother's vast collection of pony pictures, off his phone. She decided that she was obviously Rarity, that her big brother was Twilight Sparkle, and then named all her four other siblings; she would cheerfully relate, were you to ask her, the plots of various episodes, and little quotes from them. Even though she named herself Rarity, she was as cute as Fluttershy and as happy as Pinkie Pie. She was outrageously happy, overbrimming with it, whenever she wasn't having a Rarity-esque, over-the-top, meltdown. She practically bounced everywhere, and she was always curious, always wanting to help out.

She turned three years old last week. Her birthday party was last Friday. She got to go out and see a show with her dad and all her sisters and she loved it. She was ecstatic; she was similarly so when her big brother Applejack came home from camp, and when her big brother Twilight Sparkle came home, New Year's Eve, after working all day. She was so very, very happy, almost explosively joyful.

Today, to use the metaphor we've been bandying about the thread so much, her song ended. She tried to be adventurous, like her big sister, and there was an accident. She was rushed to the hospital, but soon after, she passed away.

So that's why I've got the little Twilight Sparkle toy she gave me after Christmas sitting on my desk, and why I'm having a little bit of a meltdown right now. Because I'm crying and yet I'm smiling because she smiled and would want me to. Her name was Aimee Katherine, and she was a wonderful little sister, and I'm looking forward to seeing her again one day.

If you happen to be of a religious persuasion, please pray for my family, especially my parents. I'll muddle through this, but they desperately need your prayers.

Raz,

I'm sorry if this makes little sense, but I'm typing this in the middle of crying for you and your family, so I'm probably not thinking straight.

I am so sorry. When I woke up today, the first thing that Jade did was direct me to your post. I've lost important people in my life, and almost lost my father when I was still young...but nothing like this. I love both my sisters dearly, and I know you feel the same about yours, from when we've talked.

Jade actually covered much what I was going to say...I count you as one of my very best friends, someone I care about. You're a fantastic person, and what's happened here...I'm so, so sorry...

You, your family, and Aimee are in my thoughts, and if you need to talk about this, you know how to get a hold of me.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l255/EsperDerek/28684-raritytwilight_sparkle.jpg

[Trixie]

TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!:smallbiggrin:
http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/b/b9/Pinkie_Pie_Party.jpg

*hugs*

Happy Birthday http://i.imgur.com/N2nfK.jpg

[MLPSilverbolt]

I know I'm mostly a lurker, and haven't been around much lately.

But after I found out from Esper about Raz's sister...

My thoughts and prayers, you have them. My son's just a year older than she was, and I can't even imagine how painful it would be to lose him, so young; nopony should have to go through that. :(

*hugs*

[Forum Explorer]

Raz I'm sorry to hear about what happened.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PU1q0W1WkaI/Tv-ILzCLqvI/AAAAAAAAZ38/om2y_M8_39o/s1600/106179+-+artist+carororo+Christmas+color_me+lineart+rarity +sketch+winter.png



http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PAaAr8iAeEw/TvzhtrXjtYI/AAAAAAAAZp8/Xl9TYbv8xTI/s1600/104841+-+artist+Alphonzis+Christmas+opalescence+rarity+ste ampunk+Sweetie_Belle+-+Copy.png



http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JmJ0PULLKvs/TvzhsfwiAPI/AAAAAAAAZpo/9cxF776B44g/s1600/104870+-+artist+madmax+cup+mouse+rarimouse+rarity+rarity_a s_mouse+tea_party+-+Copy.png

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9nMKLlcS4sY/TvpBqOuuRfI/AAAAAAAAZZo/a6euQ9rsnh0/s1600/104321+-+artist+kawiko+rarity+wet_mane.png

[fizmat]

Plus, as others have already said, the people that get affected by attempts to control distribution are NOT the savvy internet users, but rather potential new viewers who aren't willing to put in the time to find the episodes because they're not hooked yet.
Quoted for truth.


Raz_Fox, I don't know what to say! I'm so sorry.
http://ponibooru.413chan.net/_images/4eb1f1079a724fc2fe5fcd8e89e3da95/8342%20-%20artist%20cute%20dress%20filly%20foal%20Kitten%2 0Kitty%20Mud_Bug%20opal%20opalescence%20rarity.jpg

[Beacon of Chaos]

I'm sorry Raz. You have my condolences.

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/4bf23cc0b6e57211b42571e06cab26af/100646%20-%20artist%3A%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AB%E3%83%9D%E3%83%B3%E 5%A4%AA%20beatnik%20glasses%20pixiv%20rarity%20twi light_sparkle.jpg

[Nameless]

Raz,

I may not have many words to offer, but this is for you and your sister, I hope you'll like it.

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/003/5/b/in_memory_of_rarity_by_adcoon-d4l678v.png

Full size available here (http://adcoon.deviantart.com/art/In-Memory-of-Rarity-277425967)

I've only just noticed this....
I think that this should be the image on the first post for this thread unless something else has already been mentioned.

[Soras Teva Gee]

I've only just noticed this....
I think that this should be the image on the first post for this thread unless something else has already been mentioned.

I completely second this notion.

[Trixie]

First, I believe there has been specific request already...

Second, due to parasprite* actions, we're no longer allowed to use a lot of images without very heavy editing, and this falls into one of the forbidden categories, sadly :smallannoyed:

*defined as trying to report everything in OP every few days instead of, say, telling me what is problematic so I can consider changing it :/

[BlasTech]

Ponibooru is way too slow sometimes >>

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/e146e1c240b97783294bc1c4b2ced05a/106212%20-%20artist%3AInvaderPoe%20rarity.png
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/1a625de02a29d189a1a246bb3976e6f8/105883%20-%20artist%3Aloungejase%20fireworks%20new_year%20ra rity%20sleeping%20spike.png
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/d0d986d3a4070f47021e7cf8ce4a9c68/106141%20-%20artist%3Arayhiros%20rarity.jpg
http://th01.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2011/102/a/b/please_rarity__it__ll_be_fun__by_blackgryph0n-d3do3ws.png
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/360/f/1/rarity_and_twilight_by_theelvenchudik-d4k9bz4.png
http://th00.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2011/104/2/f/rarity_filly_by_blackm3sh-d3d331z.png
http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx1j4oNg3z1r6gpo9o1_500.png
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/180/d/8/rarity_by_moongazeponies-d3khy8e.png

Not sure, but the last two might have already been posted.

[Soras Teva Gee]

First, I believe there has been specific request already...

Second, due to parasprite* actions, we're no longer allowed to use a lot of images without very heavy editing, and this falls into one of the forbidden categories, sadly :smallannoyed:

*defined as trying to report everything in OP every few days instead of, say, telling me what is problematic so I can consider changing it :/

Wait what?

[Pokonic]

First and formost, Raz, I am very, very sorry for your sister, and altho I know nothing can be said to ease such pain, I do wish to let you know that you have my condolances, and hope that there are people out there who can help you during this time in RL.



Secondly....


First, I believe there has been specific request already...

Second, due to parasprite* actions, we're no longer allowed to use a lot of images without very heavy editing, and this falls into one of the forbidden categories, sadly :smallannoyed:

*defined as trying to report everything in OP every few days instead of, say, telling me what is problematic so I can consider changing it :/

What?!:smallyuk:

[Gamerlord]

First, I believe there has been specific request already...

Second, due to parasprite* actions, we're no longer allowed to use a lot of images without very heavy editing, and this falls into one of the forbidden categories, sadly :smallannoyed:

*defined as trying to report everything in OP every few days instead of, say, telling me what is problematic so I can consider changing it :/
Wait, this thread has attracted the attention of the ponyhaters? :smallconfused:

[TheAmishPirate]

Have a comic. It will likely include ponies. I hear they are quite popular 'round these parts.

http://schizopie.deviantart.com/art/Jumper-277031881

[Trixie]

<sigh> Since I don't want to break any rules, I'll only say that I sometimes don't believe what people try to report, and since none of these cases were ever raised with me directly, I have to assume they're not done in good faith.

I don't blame the moderation, as it only does its job, but the bottom line is, only about 5% of images currently on Ponibooru are fit to be post in OP without edits now, thanks to above.

In fact, I believe virtually every MLP thread during its duration broke more forum rules than half of this forum put together in the same period, it's just these are minor offences and no one bothers to report/check them.

More details on AIM/Steam, in case anyone's interested.

[Noctemwolf]

so... are things kinda going downhill for Ponythread?

I have read that Raz Fox had a terrible tragedy. Sorry to hear that. I'm sure everyone else has been saying the same thing, but.

Next, I see that apparently ponythread has been breaking rules? I don't really follow the thread, so I'm uncertain as to any specifics. I'm sure those specifics aren't going to be posted so, anyways....

Just popping by to say hi and ask how everyone is doing. :smallredface:

[Mystic Muse]

Raz, here's what I could find of my Rarity pictures that I think you'd like, and a few others that aren't Rarity.

Just back for this one post to help out Raz. Going again now.

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/sisterly_love_by_yoorporick-d3b7cwr.jpg
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/rarity__kemurahan_hati_by_mn27-d3jn3w8.png
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/rarity__s_nap_by_chibi_jen_hen-d3l8veo.jpg
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/rarity_and_sweetie_belle_by_arteenesben-d3h3giq.png
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/rarity_by_14_bis-d36o6jh.jpg
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/opalescence_is_not_amused_by_pastelpony-d45rpo5.jpg
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/jedi_rarity_by_johnjoseco-d3edeqj.jpg
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/book_fort_twilight_by_dreatos-d49p4jw.png
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/8924-raritysupernitro.jpg
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/870-applejackdressfluttershypinkie_pierainbow_dashrari tySuited_For_Successtwilight_sparkle.png
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/37993-Sweetie_Belleartistempty-10cuteraritysisters.png
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/military_is_magic_rarity_by_greenwiggly-d41xab1.jpg
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/31135f65ee5c8fee8cb0b71fe5d9872b-d3jh2ag.png
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/22640-artistbriskbyrarity.png
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/130871913096-i_expect_you_to_be_f.png
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/1301844975648.jpg
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/124c7449a11254e7b95c7ccfde1f1924-d40v7vd.png
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/ArtistTrainingGroundDay30.jpg
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/an_added_touch_by_bamboodog-d3hza8jpng.jpg
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb443/Zernobog888/Ponies/mNyGk.png

[Gadora]

For Raz:

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/215/b/c/one_more_sock_fillies_by_syggie-d43jmgi.png (http://syggie.deviantart.com/art/One-More-Sock-Fillies-247819122)
http://th01.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2011/360/c/8/raritysparkle____sing_with_me_by_waranto-d4k91ro.png (http://waranto.deviantart.com/art/RaritySparkle-sing-with-me-275879220)
http://th01.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2011/102/a/b/please_rarity__it__ll_be_fun__by_blackgryph0n-d3do3ws.png (http://blackgryph0n.deviantart.com/art/Please-Rarity-it-ll-be-fun-204358348)
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/258/a/2/pony_picnic_by_equestria_prevails-d49wuvl.jpg (http://equestria-prevails.deviantart.com/art/Pony-Picnic-258514257)
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/351/e/3/just_one_more_ride_by_johnjoseco-d4jczio.jpg (http://johnjoseco.deviantart.com/art/Just-One-More-Ride-274383312)
http://th02.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2011/344/a/4/rarity_elite_by_mysticalpha-d4i2i27.jpg (http://mysticalpha.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-Elite-272214511)
http://th04.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2011/312/0/c/rarity_and_opal_plushies_by_doxuumu-d4fj5x8.png (http://doxuumu.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-and-Opal-Plushies-267953084)
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/308/9/c/rarity_by_nikkuwalkanov-d4f1pu5.jpg (http://nikkuwalkanov.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-267139085)
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/325/9/1/rarity_wtf__by_kp_shadowsquirrel-d4f576h.jpg (http://kp-shadowsquirrel.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-WTF-267301529)
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/285/9/7/rarity_by_nikohl-d4cm0k0.png (http://nikohl.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-263047248)


http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/274/f/4/rarity_by_angelickitty89-d4bhmfg.jpg (http://angelickitty89.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-261162700)
http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/337/9/b/9b8b937004e7b67272f40cbea3833aff-d4i3v4h.png (http://iexploded.deviantart.com/art/every-pony-should-know-272278097)
http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/252/4/2/animu_rarity_by_nabbiekitty-d49byfg.png (http://nabbiekitty.deviantart.com/art/Animu-Rarity-257539084)
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/268/d/6/simply_rarity_by_bigponymac-d4axfuu.jpg (http://bigponymac.deviantart.com/art/Simply-Rarity-260221062)
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/226/8/3/rarity_by_alu87-d46kf80.jpg (http://alu87.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-252895248)
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/109/b/9/jedi_rarity_by_johnjoseco-d3edeqj.jpg (http://johnjoseco.deviantart.com/art/Jedi-Rarity-205538779)
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/101/b/3/the_art_of_the_dress_by_simbaro-d3dqi7d.jpg (http://simbaro.deviantart.com/art/The-Art-of-the-Dress-204470185)
http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/095/5/3/young_equestrians_by_kefkafloyd-d3dbsfh.png (http://kefkafloyd.deviantart.com/art/Young-Equestrians-203783597)
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/066/5/4/rarity_by_simonda-d3b635x.jpg (http://simonda.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-200158341)
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/038/5/0/cute_glasses_with_color_by_mallorysbeast-d3925q8.png (http://mallorysbeast.deviantart.com/art/Cute-Glasses-with-Color-196615808)


http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/077/2/4/rarity_by_johnjoseco-d3bwq7p.jpg (http://johnjoseco.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-201401269)
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/171/3/1/31135f65ee5c8fee8cb0b71fe5d9872b-d3jh2ag.png (http://bioniclegahlok.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-FiM-214107352)
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/159/c/2/rarity_by_rivenchan-d3ief1w.jpg (http://rivenchan.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-212304308)
http://th04.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2011/136/2/2/rarity_by_ig_64-d3gh0vg.png (http://ig-64.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-209066668)
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/119/9/f/1304120905_rarity___video_link_added_by_supernitro-d3f1lxp.jpg (http://supernitro.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-video-link-added-206667853)
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/129/e/c/nebelmare_by_ponysponsz-d3fyyhv.png (http://ponysponsz.deviantart.com/art/Nebelmare-208223779)
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/329/b/6/rarity_plushie_by_jequila-d4hati3.jpg (http://jequila.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-Plushie-270922971)
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/317/3/1/i_am_rarity_by_honey_laurel17-d4g1mzb.png (http://honey-laurel17.deviantart.com/art/I-AM-RARITY-268814999)
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/322/b/f/rarity_by_kik0thek1ller-d4gj4nr.png (http://kik0thek1ller.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-269631063)
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/175/7/8/mlp_diamond_dogs_by_fauxboy-d3jwq7k.png (http://fauxboy.deviantart.com/art/MLP-Diamond-Dogs-214838192)


http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/067/b/1/sisterly_love_by_yoorporick-d3b7cwr.jpg (http://yoorporick.deviantart.com/art/Sisterly-love-200217627)
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/298/e/6/drama_queen_by_bakura_sama-d4dwb17.png (http://bakura-sama.deviantart.com/art/Drama-Queen-265207003)
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/266/3/8/droidpaper___rarity_by_jdipierro-d4apkaz.png (http://jdipierro.deviantart.com/art/DroidPaper-Rarity-259853579)
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/309/3/3/noontime_nap__by_dreatos-d47n304.png (http://dreatos.deviantart.com/art/Noontime-nap-254698996)
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/347/7/6/queen_rarity_by_valiantrarity-d4j0uub.jpg (http://valiantrarity.deviantart.com/art/Princess-Platinum-Rarity-273817379)
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/149/0/4/rarity_by_artsquid-d3hk4if.jpg (http://artsquid.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-210890967)
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/365/f/3/rarity_by_rayhiros-d4ku22a.jpg (http://rayhiros.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-276859378)
http://th03.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2011/339/c/b/rarity_by_katwarriorss-d4i9ghc.png (http://katwarriorss.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-272539056)
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/001/9/4/mlp__rarity_by_l4rg0_in_miniskirt-d4kx6nl.png (http://l4rg0-in-miniskirt.deviantart.com/art/MLP-Rarity-277005297)
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/363/f/d/rarity_painting_by_esipode-d4kmx9m.png (http://esipode.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-Painting-276526570)


http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/362/7/b/rarity_drawing_by_deilan12-d4kjlup.jpg (http://deilan12.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-Drawing-276371809)
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/210/c/7/i_am_rarity______by_shadowxxsonic-d421unr.jpg (http://shadowxxsonic.deviantart.com/art/I-am-Rarity-245310327)
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/361/a/b/rarity_is_blue_by_pinkispractical-d4keqjk.png (http://pinkispractical.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-is-blue-276144608)
http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/361/0/a/rarity_loves_you_by_pupcakepup-d4kegva.png (http://pupcakepup.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-Loves-You-276132070)
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/346/7/1/rarity_by_ronnietheclownprince-d4ixlmo.png (http://ronnietheclownprince.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-273665472)
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/359/3/e/long_live_the_unicorn_by_macflash2-d4k7h5s.png (http://macflash2.deviantart.com/art/Long-Live-the-Unicorn-275805856)
http://th03.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2011/355/b/1/serious_style_by_pinkiesurprise-d4jqw6a.png (http://pinkiesurprise.deviantart.com/art/Serious-Style-275032162)
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/356/0/2/closed_for_winter_ting_a_ting_by_thedeerwhisperer-d4jwtzh.jpg (http://thedeerwhisperer.deviantart.com/art/Closed-For-Winter-ting-a-ting-275309261)
http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/356/e/2/rarity_by_dutroux-d4jw8g2.png (http://dutroux.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-275281346)
http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/354/1/3/wawity_by_lin_ron-d4jkc07.png (http://lin-ron.deviantart.com/art/wawity-274726087)


http://th03.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2011/357/0/0/rarity_by_ayzuki-d4jz6bq.jpg (http://ayzuki.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-275418566)
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/355/0/3/036f7e7e1015fa70fa812cb26906f08e-d4jt1xq.png (http://gingersnaap.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-275132942)
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/354/e/b/eb8119fb8b6e78f72dbf66ee0100b6b6-d4jnwnq.png (http://maurincl.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-274892822)
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/354/5/3/mlp___princess_platinum_by_tenshichan1013-d4jnt41.jpg (http://tenshichan1013.deviantart.com/art/mlp-princess-platinum-274888225)
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/353/8/2/unfinished_rarity_vector_by_pyropsychzach-d4jm5dj.png (http://pyropsychzach.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-Being-Rarity-Vector-274810807)
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/356/7/4/princess_plarity_by_grimm_michael-d4jhttp.png (http://grimm-michael.deviantart.com/art/Princess-Plarity-274609213)
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/353/4/a/princess_platinum_by_johnjoseco-d4jjfi8.jpg (http://johnjoseco.deviantart.com/art/Princess-Platinum-274683968)
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/352/7/0/good_ol___rarity_by_blablashmo-d4jhcgg.png (http://blablashmo.deviantart.com/art/Good-Ol-Rarity-274586704)
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/352/f/a/rarity__princess_platinun_by_takua770-d4jg27y.png (http://takua770.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-Princess-Platinum-274526782)
http://th00.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2011/350/e/1/rarity_wallpaper_by_bluedragonhans-d4jbamj.png (http://bluedragonhans.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-Wallpaper-274304395)


http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/350/4/4/44c61366064ce1b6614c64333eb9e92a-d4j9003.png (http://groxy-cyber-soul.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-274197315)
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/349/6/5/rarity_wp_by_samagirl-d4j7qm6.jpg (http://samagirl.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-Pic-274138494)
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/350/3/8/ready_for_the_show_by_saturnspace-d4j96xv.png (http://saturnspace.deviantart.com/art/ready-for-the-show-274206307)
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/246/c/6/rarity_by_thevertigomaster-d48ssl2.png (http://thevertigomaster.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-256645046)
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/349/7/0/rarifilly_is_amused_by_dragonfoorm-d4j71nj.png (http://dragonfoorm.deviantart.com/art/Rarifilly-is-amused-274106143)

[PhantomFox]

I'm not sure how to reply to such news. I was going to announce a new project of mine, but it doesn't seem like the right time now. But if you ever need someone to talk to, Raz, I'm here.

[SiuiS]

For my little Rarity?

It is the perfect name.

And I'd personally request some kind of Twilight and Rarity picture. If you don't mind. There were several good ones at the end of the last thread.

@V: That... would work, too.

It's what I would have chosen. *nod*
It's good to see you're up and posting.


Thread name should be

"Rarity is Best Pony"
You're up... And posting?!
Heh.

A little too direct, maybe, but I cannot but endorse the spirit behind it.

Maybe I should have stayed up until 5 this morning, just to cath you folks... Not like I got too much sleep anyway.


Right then, to start this thread on a more positive note, I have two announcements:
The first is that I have finished Part 4 of The Great and Powerful Unicorn of Oz (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eePKmOVd08jn4kmmnaKU7lpahKlZII-tFpeFv55Xh5g/edit), in which Twilight falls asleep.
The second is decidedly more important than the first;
TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!:smallbiggrin:
http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/b/b9/Pinkie_Pie_Party.jpg

Congratulations! Mate! One more tick on the clock, aye? May your day Beth's pony-est.


Wait, this thread has attracted the attention of the ponyhaters? :smallconfused:

It's more likely that people from the thread itself didn't like the image, either for content or size constraints, and so reported it. It makes a lot more sense actually, than a random person running by and tagging things.

If there are problems with image parameters that the thread has been ignoring, it should be posted rather than hinted at, however. We all pos images, no reason for us all not to be forewarned and forearmed.


so... are things kinda going downhill for Ponythread?

I have read that Raz Fox had a terrible tragedy. Sorry to hear that. I'm sure everyone else has been saying the same thing, but.

Next, I see that apparently ponythread has been breaking rules? I don't really follow the thread, so I'm uncertain as to any specifics. I'm sure those specifics aren't going to be posted so, anyways....

Just popping by to say hi and ask how everyone is doing. :smallredface:

Ponythread has long skirted the line, an the general feel
Is that, since Nopony said otherwise, it was ok to do so. The exact extent at which something goes from being an abstract comment to a discussion on politics, for example, is way different than I myself thought. Over all, we are still chugging along, but change is a fact of life. If the thread continues to change, I wouldn't say it's good downhill or uphill, per se, unless specifically referencing the thread's velocity.

It's good to see you again, Noctem. That's been more than usual; I believe you checked in at the beginning of the thread last time, but don't recall much from the depths. I am of course behind, but it's good to see old faces y'know?

Those were the days, my friend...


OH! And before I forget. It was either Dexam or Blastech who made their own DVD from a DVR rip... Could that particular pony email me? I want to ask you lots of questions.

[Roninhirox]

A warning: the rest of this post is really goddamn depressing. If you don't like upsetting things, just imagine that I'm talking about why I've got a tiny Twilight Sparkle next to my bed right now and apologizing to people for letting my PM box fill up, and to Thanqol because I've really got no idea when I'll respond to his marvelous roleplay.

Oh, and, uh, if anyone happens to drop any high-quality Rarity imagedumps, that would be cool. Just saying.

Let me tell you about my little sister, Rarity.

She loved My Little Pony. She got to know all the ponies by name - well, most of them, anyway - and she loved looking at her older brother's vast collection of pony pictures, off his phone. She decided that she was obviously Rarity, that her big brother was Twilight Sparkle, and then named all her four other siblings; she would cheerfully relate, were you to ask her, the plots of various episodes, and little quotes from them. Even though she named herself Rarity, she was as cute as Fluttershy and as happy as Pinkie Pie. She was outrageously happy, overbrimming with it, whenever she wasn't having a Rarity-esque, over-the-top, meltdown. She practically bounced everywhere, and she was always curious, always wanting to help out.

She turned three years old last week. Her birthday party was last Friday. She got to go out and see a show with her dad and all her sisters and she loved it. She was ecstatic; she was similarly so when her big brother Applejack came home from camp, and when her big brother Twilight Sparkle came home, New Year's Eve, after working all day. She was so very, very happy, almost explosively joyful.

Today, to use the metaphor we've been bandying about the thread so much, her song ended. She tried to be adventurous, like her big sister, and there was an accident. She was rushed to the hospital, but soon after, she passed away.

So that's why I've got the little Twilight Sparkle toy she gave me after Christmas sitting on my desk, and why I'm having a little bit of a meltdown right now. Because I'm crying and yet I'm smiling because she smiled and would want me to. Her name was Aimee Katherine, and she was a wonderful little sister, and I'm looking forward to seeing her again one day.

If you happen to be of a religious persuasion, please pray for my family, especially my parents. I'll muddle through this, but they desperately need your prayers.

Wish I could say more than what has been said. But I give my condolences and my families hearts go out to you and yours. If there is any more I can do for you feel free to ask and I will do my best to help in anyway possible.


http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/332/3/2/rarity_potrait_by_saturnspace-d4hk0ge.png

http://th08.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2011/346/3/b/something_comes_eleven_by_saturnspace-d4ii8xl.png

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/350/3/8/ready_for_the_show_by_saturnspace-d4j96xv.png

[Noctemwolf]

Ponythread has long skirted the line, an the general feel
Is that, since Nopony said otherwise, it was ok to do so. The exact extent at which something goes from being an abstract comment to a discussion on politics, for example, is way different than I myself thought. Over all, we are still chugging along, but change is a fact of life. If the thread continues to change, I wouldn't say it's good downhill or uphill, per se, unless specifically referencing the thread's velocity.

I have to say that shows a lot of intelligence revolves around in this thread, and not just that. Everything from silly posts to sad posts to intelligent discussion to roleplays of all sort shows a lot of variety and, well, awesomeness.
I cannot think of a better word to say than that.
And that's what I love About all this. It's got everything you would want... including Cartoons ponies!





It's good to see you again, Noctem. That's been more than usual; I believe you checked in at the beginning of the thread last time, but don't recall much from the depths. I am of course behind, but it's good to see old faces y'know?

Those were the days, my friend...

Thank you for the welcome! :smallbiggrin: I check in on occasion, and haven't really been posting. Buuuut, I think I may just start trying a little harder.
('Cause I just moved to California and I have no friends and I am bored as all anything! Gah!)
Well, not the only reason, but... :smalltongue:

[Trixie]

It's more likely that people from the thread itself didn't like the image, either for content or size constraints, and so reported it. It makes a lot more sense actually, than a random person running by and tagging things.

Oh, yes, I agree, someone from the thread doing it makes a lot of sense, actually. Which brings us to...


If there are problems with image parameters that the thread has been ignoring, it should be posted rather than hinted at, however. We all pos images, no reason for us all not to be forewarned and forearmed.

I agree here, too, IMHO, a pony way would be to try to raise the matter, in public or private, and reach consensus, not abuse the system. Well, if he or she isn't a hypocrite and believes in friendship and the other MLP ideals.

Which he or she probably doesn't, really, but hey, I expect the best from people.


A little too direct, maybe

I have to agree here, too, "is" in this context can be seen as quite serious if unintentional insult and/or insensitivity.

For example, since Raz asked for Twi/Rarity OP I was briefly thinking of adding this pic as one:


http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/2ef161eef17ace8d198752e1ae485997/3829%20-%20artist%3Atheartrix%20crying%20human%20humanized %20rarity%20sad%20tears%20twilight_sparkle.jpg

But after considering I discarded the idea, it was about as subtle as arrow to the knee, IMHO :smallfrown:

[Shadow of the Sun]

Raz:

I don't post much. I'll subscribe to one of these threads and never even post in it, or only once. While we don't have much interaction because of that, I do know you, by name and reputation.

This post is hard to make- both due to sorrow, and due to me being a man who prides himself on his eloquence and way with words; in circumstances like this, the things I pride myself on are almost completely irrelevant and leave me. The only thing I have left is sincerity; I hope it's enough.

My thoughts to you, Raz. My heart to you. Every fibre of my being as a decent human...to you.

I am so sorry for your loss.

[Trixie]

TS/RR for Raz:

Pony:

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/742dfa35bcaf4daa207ef3f1cb4ca9fa/84271%20-%20artist%3Asolar-slash%20rarity%20twilight_sparkle%20Twirity.png

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/e1d0aec3cdf9b96e8c92314202897544/96358%20-%20artist%3Alittletiger488%20lesbian%20rain%20rari ty%20shipping%20twilight_sparkle%20wet_mane.png

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/19523362ef9c933517651a0a4297da5a/8042%20-%20artist%3Amadmax%20cute%20easter%20rarity%20twil ight_sparkle.png

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/b695c98f0938032c2ee49c345390746d/16824%20-%20artist%3Aokiedokielowkey%20rarity%20sick%20twil ight_sparkle.png

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/a52d3299d8937aa96ac2407b673c543f/103236%20-%20artist%3Ac-puff%20Christmas%20dress%20outfit%20rarity%20snow% 20sweater%20twilight_sparkle%20winter.jpg

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/1b3bdc68c0b250a89fff836ea0440ff0/100496%20-%20artist%3Ahungrychickens%20Christmas%20rarity%20 santa_hat%20twilight_sparkle.png

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/214b4f3c3d5721d8c632bb75e58eaf43/14752%20-%20artist%3Amadmax%20carnival%20rarity%20teacups%2 0Trixie%20twilight_sparkle.jpg

Human:

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/2a8f6dc62db712fbcd3e558592945fc0/102069%20-%20artist%3Ashaburdies%20Clover_the_Clever%20human ized%20Princess_Platinum%20rarity%20twilight_spark le.jpg

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/f46e931be4a1afb2c53da56ea11975ce/101940%20-%20artist%3AAppleStems%20Christmas%20humanized%20p ettanko%20rarity%20twilight_sparkle.png



And a few links to random extras: cute group image (http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/63714438f25ad25dfc4276debf629b0a/106864%20-%20applejack%20artist%3Adarth-franny%20fluttershy%20pinkamena_diane_pie%20pinkie _pie%20rainbow_dash%20rarity%20twilight_sparkle.pn g), comic #1 (http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/bd91eed85dd21523f9231cff64798adf/79372%20-%20artist%3Aemlan%20comic%20heartstrings%20Lyra%20 mane%20rarity%20twilight_sparkle.png), comic #2 (http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/60ac655e16abe87edecd17e94327934d/106114%20-%20artist%3Alexx2dot0%20fire_ruby%20Link%20rarity% 20spike%20twilight_sparkle%20Zelda.jpg), poster (http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/1eac4bbb8010bb3cf53b0e7dfe6db2dd/93649%20-%20artist%3Asaturnspace%20derpy_hooves%20Doctor_Wh ooves%20rarity%20twilight_sparkle.png).

Also, new OP, and something happy (http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/295/9/0/pony_wave_by_lovemimi-d4dm2gm.gif) to finish this post, hopefully...

[the_druid_droid]

Some more Rarity images:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/bronibooru/sample/3b3e026a493cef2ed2b5f191c0a06390.jpg
http://s3.amazonaws.com/bronibooru/40e9475f9716cc376758c6d73a7b0cd1.png
http://s3.amazonaws.com/bronibooru/67503e1c47a1a8fdf7687fc85be82698.png
http://s3.amazonaws.com/bronibooru/sample/ebc676973207baad65fb64774b1184a0.jpg
http://s3.amazonaws.com/bronibooru/sample/e4a1a0ab44ab91c76a93d7c4a9527350.jpg
http://s3.amazonaws.com/bronibooru/9ecc6fbe0acbc4da10a1c3155a05fedd.png
http://s3.amazonaws.com/bronibooru/sample/0738399ec54d9a649bbd208459f08f07.jpg
http://s3.amazonaws.com/bronibooru/sample/52bd6e59502df548f19cd959a47fa1bd.jpg
http://s3.amazonaws.com/bronibooru/3ef9f1edc2d0bc79bd28c6b98f7793f7.jpg

[Kairaven]

These might be my current most favorite pony fad (http://www.youtube.com/video_response_view_all?v=qEnWvHrfgYE)

[Kindablue]

Rarity:
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/285/b/b/rarity_vector_by_zaeinn-d4cmqm5.jpg
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/215/b/d/bd05262ffe0497a496c6e732d63a4fbe-d3k4dih.png
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/162/3/6/breakfast_at_rarity__s_by_russelh-d3ina9g.png
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/149/0/4/rarity_by_artsquid-d3hk4if.jpg
http://th06.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2010/333/c/9/mlp_rarity_human_version_by_kreoss-d33v8m2.jpg
http://th02.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2011/168/f/8/rarity_by_dreatos-d3j5nh2.png
http://th03.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2011/187/0/8/rarity_sketch_by_fangshaymin-d3l76k3.jpg

Rarity and Twilight:
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/312/4/4/mlp__rarity_x_twilight_by_razzek-d4fiwx0.jpg
http://th03.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2011/333/9/f/rarity_and_twilight_by_muhmuhmuhimdead-d4homgf.png

This video. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQSz6gKdhO8)

[ScionoftheVoid]

Happenstance is a strange thing, that I might visit now, to see this.


A warning: the rest of this post is really goddamn depressing. If you don't like upsetting things, just imagine that I'm talking about why I've got a tiny Twilight Sparkle next to my bed right now and apologizing to people for letting my PM box fill up, and to Thanqol because I've really got no idea when I'll respond to his marvelous roleplay.

Oh, and, uh, if anyone happens to drop any high-quality Rarity imagedumps, that would be cool. Just saying.

Let me tell you about my little sister, Rarity.

She loved My Little Pony. She got to know all the ponies by name - well, most of them, anyway - and she loved looking at her older brother's vast collection of pony pictures, off his phone. She decided that she was obviously Rarity, that her big brother was Twilight Sparkle, and then named all her four other siblings; she would cheerfully relate, were you to ask her, the plots of various episodes, and little quotes from them. Even though she named herself Rarity, she was as cute as Fluttershy and as happy as Pinkie Pie. She was outrageously happy, overbrimming with it, whenever she wasn't having a Rarity-esque, over-the-top, meltdown. She practically bounced everywhere, and she was always curious, always wanting to help out.

She turned three years old last week. Her birthday party was last Friday. She got to go out and see a show with her dad and all her sisters and she loved it. She was ecstatic; she was similarly so when her big brother Applejack came home from camp, and when her big brother Twilight Sparkle came home, New Year's Eve, after working all day. She was so very, very happy, almost explosively joyful.

Today, to use the metaphor we've been bandying about the thread so much, her song ended. She tried to be adventurous, like her big sister, and there was an accident. She was rushed to the hospital, but soon after, she passed away.

So that's why I've got the little Twilight Sparkle toy she gave me after Christmas sitting on my desk, and why I'm having a little bit of a meltdown right now. Because I'm crying and yet I'm smiling because she smiled and would want me to. Her name was Aimee Katherine, and she was a wonderful little sister, and I'm looking forward to seeing her again one day.

If you happen to be of a religious persuasion, please pray for my family, especially my parents. I'll muddle through this, but they desperately need your prayers.

Keep smiling for her, Raz. Every person still with us has enough sadness without holding on to that of those who are not. Carry on their happiness to show you care, otherwise it's just too much to take.

I do not pray, but you and your family have my wish that you can still find some light even in this darkness. I can only hope that's enough.

"Goodbye" is not appropriate here and now, and "see you later" is too chipper for me at the best of times, so I shall say "farewell".

[SiuiS]

address the plank in thine own eye before the speck in your neighbor's, they say.


Oh, yes, I agree, someone from the thread doing it makes a lot of sense, actually. Which brings us to...

I agree here, too, IMHO, a pony way would be to try to raise the matter, in public or private, and reach consensus, not abuse the system. Well, if he or she isn't a hypocrite and believes in friendship and the other MLP ideals.

Which he or she probably doesn't, really, but hey, I expect the best from people.

I will rephrase then.
Trixie, as you now have information on what is and is not allowable in thread based off your experiences, could you please list the guidelines that were broken, without prevarication? So at least some good can come of this and other ponies can avoid being taken to task for the same innocent mistakes.

I also do not appreciate you both evading my question and using a question I directed at you to specifically imply failings on the part of another. It's obvious that you want to call somepony out; it would be better to act in good faith and apply the same teachings you deride this hypothetical other pony for ignoring, than to ignore them yourself and snipe. I'm sure if you pointed hoof, that pony would respond honestly to the question or accusation.

And I would also like to point out a rule that I have belabored before, that several ponies have allowed to slip - that is, I am not specifically calling you out on this one, Trixie, though this right here is definitely covered by it;

Don't bring drama into a thread that did not start on that thread. Nopony/griff/dog/kiitty/lich/penguin wants to sit here awkwardly while drama they aren't familiar with gets pumped around.

So please, if anypony has non-ponythread drama to resolve, resolve it without malice, without accusations, and without having to tie an albatross of ostracizarion around ponythread's or anypony's neck.



I have to agree here, too, "is" in this context can be seen as quite serious if unintentional insult and/or insensitivity.

I'm actually on the fence. I thought I ha deleted that actually... In context it makes plenty of sense, though it would confuse new folks. And I will admit that saying the "is" is the problem is confusing. It could also be seen as insinuative that you bring up an issue with a pony you've had problems with in the past, immediately after emphasizing somepony doing something, whoever he or she is.

We are all (or mostly) adults, yes? We can resolve this in an adult fashion.

Thank you for your time and compliance everypony. Apologies for anything this may stir.

[Kyouhen]

That is...quite possibly the third greatest picture I've seen of anything, ever.

Now I have to ask, what are the first two? :smalltongue:



1For 'tis Bleakbane tradition (dating back to the turn of the millenium) to be making of a purchasement of a Lego set for to be assembléd 'pon New Year's Eve, in honour of the thousands of hours of my youth spent on such things.)

...That is an awesome tradition.




It was old in early '09, I feel.

I never really understood that. The calendar stops. There is no end o the world prophecy, they just stopped adding numbers. It's no more world ending than 2000 was computer-wise. and if it is the end of the world (or of humanity, which is far more likely) then eh. You won't be around to care. Only folks like Thanqol who pre-emptively feel the repurcussions of their actions, and continue into infinity will really have to worry.

Ah well.

The more accurate interpretation (at least I think it's supposed to be more accurate) is that the Mayans believed everything worked in cycles and the end of the calendar would be the end of the current cycle. Not necessarily a doomsday scenario, but definitely one of change. I think I heard something about the last date also being a day of celebration or something. So yeah, it just marks a massive party. :smalltongue:


Happy 2012!

I got to see almost all of season 1 last night. I think that was a pretty nice way to start the new year.

Here's something I found while watching:

http://i.imgur.com/1yS0T.png

Related to our earlier discussions about pony timekeeping, it appears that months in Equestria have around 16 days. From the earlier discussion we know that they have 16 hours in a day too (their clocks generally show 8 marks like ours show 12). I think we had some other numbers related to the length of years, right? Anyway, this made me think that ponies count in either base 4 or base 8 rather than our base 10, which makes sense since they have four hooves and no fingers (you can count to 8 on four hooves if you let one pair of hooves represent 3's and the other 1's)


I'm going to say that we're reading into all of this entirely too much. I'm also going to say that I find it absolutely hilarious that so much of this stuff actually fits. :smalltongue:

*Puts on tinfoil hat*



Shipshipshipship


Silly ponythread and your various beliefs about the OTP. Behold! The true OTP!


Lichie. :smalltongue:




I don't mind people not coming. That's fine, life - and unlife - happens. But I do STRENUOUSLY mind them not telling me they're not coming, especially since each and every one of them had a mobile and email.

And as I'm doing all the sodding DMing until, quite likely the flipping summer, no sorry, more likely October, I'm not feeling very apprieciated at all by my friends at the minute.

*glare*

Tomb of Horrors? Tomb of Horrors. :smalltongue:



Yeah, it does. There's something about this that's bothering me now that Hasbro has confirmed their position, but I'm finding it hard to pin down exactly why it's so upsetting (beyond the obvious "omg no can watch pony!!1!").

I think my issue is that Hasbro is acting correctly for its own interests and its leading to a bad result, possibly for all parties and future products. That usually means there's something wrong with the whole system. Hasbro is a corporation, it has not only incentives to make money but also a legal duty to serve the interests of its shareholders above the interests of anyone else. It knows it can make money by charging for My Little Pony and controlling distribution. But, I'm not sure that it would be in the position to profit from this control without the free spread of the show via Youtube over the last year.

So, the incentive structure of existing copyright seems to be the following: release something new and make it free because otherwise nobody will notice it. Then, when it gets big enough that you can make money, quash all free sources of the IP and charge for it. That's a really crummy system, especially since existing profitable distribution channels tend to be region-locked. Moreover, a system that leads to enjoyable properties be released then removed may eventually lead to lower overall sales in the future because fans will become hesitant to invest themselves into new releases for fear that the thing they enjoy will be taken away.

What the system should have is some way to price discriminate between existing customers who are willing to pay in order to support the media and new/potential customers who will/can only watch the media in the first place over free distribution channels. I'm not sure what this would look like though. Maybe something similar to the bandcamp distribution model, where a certain number of people paying to download the episodes would open up free downloads, or at least free streaming of the episodes via the Hub website? I'm not sure what the best way to do it would be to both maximize Hasbro's profit and give a way for people who would never have paid for the episodes a chance to be introduced to the series.

I would be interested to hear what other people think on the issue, beyond the initial suckiness (plus, if this develops into a paper, I'll be sure to credit the giantitp ponythread).

I'm mostly wondering what effect this will have on the live streams of the episodes. I can get by without YouTube just fine, as long as I can get my pony fix when the episode airs and pick up the episodes elsewhere at a later time.

Overall I find the entire situation fascinating. Hasbro's managed to find themselves an a very awkward situation where they owe their show's popularity to people pirating it, and have let it slide until they've managed to get some DVD deals worked out. Now they have the deals and want to make some money off of them (and by all means if they want to there's nothing wrong with that, I'm sure most of us would love to have a full FiM DVD collection) but have to deal with the PR horrors of denying this unexpected fandom of their primary source of pony. There have been business articles and presentations on how allowing the free YouTube copies of FiM was a great idea, it's a little odd that Hasbro would go against it. I'm eagerly waiting to see where this all goes.

Personally I'm hoping that Hasbro will put up an official FiM YouTube channel and put all the episodes there. I'm hoping that they've had the episodes taken down from YouTube so they could try to force more people to watch it on The Hub instead of waiting around. All they'd need to do is put the episodes on YouTube a day or two after they air and they could probably get a bit of a boost in the number of people watching the episode when it airs.

I'm really hoping people don't decide to follow PonyArchive's oh-so-wonderful example over this though. Hasbro's been good to us so far, and tearing into them for protecting their IP is a poor way to thank them. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, thank them for giving us such a wonderful show, and get my pony fix through some other method. I hear they're on iTunes, maybe I'll go and buy them there.


Oh, there's an easy fix to this free/premium user thing. Resolution. Paid users get high definition high quality episodes, and free users get watermarked and low quality episodes. Hasbro can then simply opt to crack down on distribution of the HQ episodes and leave the 360px ones up for everyone to view. Alternate method is free users have to see advertising, etc.

There's a certain proportion of people who will never pay for anything on the internet. You have to cater to those people because otherwise you get nothing. You also have to make it convenient for those people to upgrade. There's plenty of history for this - free to play video games, TF2, the premium user settings for mediafire and rapidshare. Make money on the upgrades and peripherals.

Technically you don't have to cater to the people who demand free stuff on the internet. I think it was Stardock had said that their method for dealing with piracy was to ignore it. They don't consider pirated games to be lost sales, and they cater only to the people who bother to pay for their games. If everyone's pirating the first-person shooters while people are paying for the puzzle games, they're going to go ahead and make puzzle games. Don't want to pay? You get no voice in how things are handled.

Doesn't really apply as well to this case, and the end result is still the same with pirates pirating and buyers buying. Just less stress over how to stop the pirates when you simply ignore them. :smalltongue:


Right then, to start this thread on a more positive note, I have two announcements:
The first is that I have finished Part 4 of The Great and Powerful Unicorn of Oz (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eePKmOVd08jn4kmmnaKU7lpahKlZII-tFpeFv55Xh5g/edit), in which Twilight falls asleep.
The second is decidedly more important than the first;
TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!:smallbiggrin:
http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/b/b9/Pinkie_Pie_Party.jpg

Happy birthday!
Totally not late. Not midnight yet, so it's still your birthday and as such this totally isn't late!



So please, if anypony has non-ponythread drama to resolve, resolve it without malice, without accusations, and without having to tie an albatross of ostracizarion around ponythread's or anypony's neck.


...I really want to draw this now. I've never heard this 'albatross of ostracization' thing before but my imagination conjured a rather hilarious image based on it.

As for other stuffs, I spent New Years hosting a party. Everyone in the party was participating in some combination of chess, Smash Bros, MTG, drinking and philosophical discussions about memes. There were about 15 people there total. Best. Party. Ever.

Also I made some things today. Because I could.


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34015682/Ponies/RariquestPlains1.png
Not at all pleased with how this one turned out. Curse you fillies! Why must you be so hard to draw?! http://i.imgur.com/xNUoP.jpg



http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34015682/Ponies/PinkieLoseHope.png
This? This I'm pleased with. I decided to try extending the background to cover the original art I didn't like instead of just painting Pinkie Pie completely covering it with this one for practice and am ridiculously pleased with how it turned out. Finally managed to nail most of the proportions too. I think her head still needs to be a little bigger, but otherwise I'm pleased. Of course looking at how well this one turned out only fills me with more rage at the Rariquest one. One of these days fillies, one of these days!


And now if you'll excuse me I need to go look at some happy Pinkie Pie pictures because I hate hate hate drawing sad Pinkie. :smallfrown:

[Anarion]

Tomb of Horrors? Tomb of Horrors. :smalltongue:


Go all out and make it pony-themed, yet equally lethal. Pit trap? Now a drop into a rendition of your favorite song by the CMC. Assorted spiky things? Now pegasi royal guard armor (both solar and lunar versions). Sphere of annihilation? Now sphere of parasprites after Twilight's spell.

[TheAmishPirate]

I think I heard something about the last date also being a day of celebration or something. So yeah, it just marks a massive party. :smalltongue:

LET'S PARTY.
LET'S PARTY.
LET'S PARTY.
LET'S PARTY.
LET'S PARTY.
http://i.imgur.com/Npxit.png


Silly ponythread and your various beliefs about the OTP. Behold! The true OTP!


Lichie. :smalltongue:


Quoted for truth. :smallbiggrin:


Personally I'm hoping that Hasbro will put up an official FiM YouTube channel and put all the episodes there. I'm hoping that they've had the episodes taken down from YouTube so they could try to force more people to watch it on The Hub instead of waiting around. All they'd need to do is put the episodes on YouTube a day or two after they air and they could probably get a bit of a boost in the number of people watching the episode when it airs.

This is what I'm hoping for, only with less of a delay in the episodes. Yes, it's still a pony a week, but those extra days would feel like weeks before/if we ever get used to the delay. Also greater risk of spoilers for the non-Hub folks.


Just less stress over how to stop the pirates when you simply ignore them. :smalltongue:

:smallfrown:

*goes into the "Ignored" pile*



...I really want to draw this now. I've never heard this 'albatross of ostracization' thing before but my imagination conjured a rather hilarious image based on it.

Abatross of Ostrichization?



Also I made some things today. Because I could.


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34015682/Ponies/RariquestPlains1.png
Not at all pleased with how this one turned out. Curse you fillies! Why must you be so hard to draw?! http://i.imgur.com/xNUoP.jpg



http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34015682/Ponies/PinkieLoseHope.png
This? This I'm pleased with. I decided to try extending the background to cover the original art I didn't like instead of just painting Pinkie Pie completely covering it with this one for practice and am ridiculously pleased with how it turned out. Finally managed to nail most of the proportions too. I think her head still needs to be a little bigger, but otherwise I'm pleased. Of course looking at how well this one turned out only fills me with more rage at the Rariquest one. One of these days fillies, one of these days!


And now if you'll excuse me I need to go look at some happy Pinkie Pie pictures because I hate hate hate drawing sad Pinkie. :smallfrown:

These are pretty great. Go find some happy ponies. You've earned them.

[Kyouhen]

[COLOR="Pink"]
These are pretty great. Go find some happy ponies. You've earned them.

Found my happy.


http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx4w31aLfs1qhsvy1o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId =AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1325742113&Signature=EVA%2BqjdaiJWHCz6SvWjSFaaxhis%3D
My favourite pony is also my zodiac. Coincidence? I think not. :smallbiggrin:

[Raz_Fox]

Thank you, everypony. Starting to save Rarity pictures. This... helps.


Raz,

I may not have many words to offer, but this is for you and your sister, I hope you'll like it.

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/003/5/b/in_memory_of_rarity_by_adcoon-d4l678v.png

Full size available here (http://adcoon.deviantart.com/art/In-Memory-of-Rarity-277425967)

Rainbow Dash, the oldest of my little sisters, wanted to make sure that I thanked you, and that I passed along her thanks. She was speechless when I showed her this, then absolutely flabbergasted that a random stranger from the Internet would draw something so beautiful for us.

Thank you so very much. So very, very much.




Found my happy.


http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx4w31aLfs1qhsvy1o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId =AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1325742113&Signature=EVA%2BqjdaiJWHCz6SvWjSFaaxhis%3D
My favourite pony is also my zodiac. Coincidence? I think not. :smallbiggrin:


Apparently, I'm Derpy. Heh.

[Eakin]

Found my happy.


http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx4w31aLfs1qhsvy1o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId =AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1325742113&Signature=EVA%2BqjdaiJWHCz6SvWjSFaaxhis%3D
My favourite pony is also my zodiac. Coincidence? I think not. :smallbiggrin:


I may be born a Cancer, but the Virgo description fit me to a T. Clearly, someone's been tampering with the stars to my detriment

[Thanqol]

Some things.

Long Distance (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Lu-4MmJbfFK4nSPvCQj7paxx_bXKhzvL-h4bp6p0SrY/edit?hl=en_US) update. Still need to rename this fic, due to name being taken. Suggestions and reviews are appreciated.


Also, while vault dredging, I found something I haven't seen in a very long time. I actually wrote this over a year ago, before I'd ever seen My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, as a challenge to myself. Any similarities between this and the show are purely coincidental.

301/1:

Rain hit the windows, thick and muddy like the spray of aterial blood from the planet’s slashed throat. It battered itself against the barred windows so hard it was like someone was pounding on the other side.

“Miss Whitefire, was it?” said the man behind the desk. His tie was a godawful red, standing out against the grey and brown, a sickening offense to the eyes. “We are here to discuss your performance.”

“Yes Mr. Sir,” she said.

Mr. Sir didn’t like informality.

He slowly paged through a large three ring binder, raising his gloved finger to where his mouth should be underneath his grey iron mask before turning each page, as if to lick it. Eventually he arrived at her profile. From across the table, she could see a picture of herself upside down. Her white fur was smudged gray, her red mane was thin and ratty, her gleaming yellow eyes dull and her jaw slack. She looked half way between a blink and a yawn.

“Yes. Miss Whitefire. I would like to inform you that you have the lowest turnover ratio in the department. This is unacceptible. Especially as I personally consider you employee of the month material.” Mr. Sir raised his hand and patted his red tie twice, glove banging against the metal breastplate he wore underneath it. “You are letting everyone down. Including yourself.”

“Sorry, Mr. Sir,” she said, keeping her eyes downcast, focused on the tie.

“Quite,” said Mr. Sir, again raising his finger to his mask before turning the page. “And allow me to express how much your underperformance hurts me, personally. I have Senior Management breathing down my neck, Miss Whitefire. They are personally on my case. I could be demoted. I could be fired. I could lose my job. And it would be your fault, Miss Whitefire. I asked you up here to let you know. Anything bad that happens to me is because you did not work hard enough.”

She hadn’t slept in three days, and had only eaten some musty, dry grass for breakfast this morning. She couldn’t remember the last time she hadn’t skipped lunch.

But his words still cut her.

She would be responsible.

“Yes, Mr. Sir,” she said quietly.

“Exceed Expecations.”

“Yes, Mr. Sir.”

“That’s our mission statement.”

“Yes, Mr. Sir.”

“Have I clearly communicated my expecations?”

“Yes, Mr. Sir.”

“Good. I hope to see great things from you, Miss Whitefire.”

There was a loud BANG from the window. Whitefire jumped to her feet in shock, hooves skidding a little against the concrete floor. “What was that!?” She asked, breathing heavily.

“Probably a bird,” said Mr. Sir. “I don’t like birds.”

*

304/1:

Three days had gone. She only knew it from the wall calendar outside Stargazer’s cubicle. She’d originally had one with the “Hang In There” cat’s picture but management had told her to take it down and replace it with a standard issue one. It had the company logo on it, the circle with the line down the middle, and the text “Exceeding Expectations”. Stargazer had written “By lowering standards” underneath it.

Her inbox was full. It never got more than that, it never stacked up. It never towered. Management policy was that overflowing inboxes were a sign of poor organization. Consequently, he put all the surplus papers in Eclipse’s cubicle. The poor pony could barely move, it was so cramped in there. She used her talent at flying to maintain the “Just In Time” inbox system, giving new papers whenever a box was getting low.

She signed the document, placed it in the outbox, and took the next one.

And then there was that THUMP again.

Whitefire snatched up the stapler in her mouth and swung around, spreading her wings to their full length. She jumped out of the cubicle, ready to fight.

There was nothing there. A few ponies glanced out the doors of their cubicle at the dirty, sleep-deprived pegasus, but quickly went back to work. No one was interested. Whitefire had always been easily spooked.

Whitefire took a few deep breaths and stepped back inside.

She wasn’t hearing things. It wasn’t hallucinations caused by the coffee, or the sleep depravation. There was something in here, something banging and thumping around. And she shouldn’t care because she had work to do and a deadline to meet, but she couldn’t focus on anything else. It was waiting for the hammer to fall. Waiting for the shoe to drop. Her entire body was absolutely tensed, all the time, waiting for the next crash.

She put the stapler down. She took the next page, picked up the pen in her teeth and began writing. Her neck felt ancient and arthrithic. Something was being said over the PA but she could barely hear it. It was as distant and cold as the ticking of the wall clock that loomed over the vast cubicle farm.

*

311/1:

She snorted awake as she was pushed off her chair. Instantly she was up on the walls of the cubicle, crouched and ready for battle. Her blood was up, heart pounding – this was it!

Mr. Sir was going through her desk.

“What –“ she mumbled, brain not registering.

“There is nothing to worry about. Routine security check,” said Mr. Sir, straightening and adjusting his tie, “But I would like to formally reprimand you for sleeping on the job later.” Without further discussion, he walked out of the cubicle, heavy jacket sweeping behind him.

Whitefire shook her head. Her head started to ache, body craving the warmth she’d accumulated by balling up. But she forced herself into the cold and picked up the pen again.

She heard voices outside, Mr. Sir’s and another she could barely remember.

“By lowering standards?”

“It’s a joke.”

“Is Exceeding Expectations a joke to you?”

“No, Mr. Sir, but –“

“Do you not understand the negative impact your act of graffiti could have on office morale?”

“Mr. Sir, it’s just a –“

“I am disappointed in you, Miss Stargazer. I’m going to have to take disciplinary action.”

“No! It was just a joke! I’m sorry!”

“Sorry,” said Mr. Sir, voice filled with regret and disappointment, “is insufficient. Two days training in corporate values, starting tomorrow morning. And your chances of Employee of the Month status are in terminal decline.”

“Mr. Sir, please!” Starfire said, outright begging, but he was already walking out and away, straightening his sickly red tie as he went.

Well, Whitefire thought, one less competitor for Employee of the Month.

*

319/1

Crystal Eyes (pronounced Crystal-lize) spent more time outside than anyone else Whitefire knew. Whenever she needed to find her, she went down to the front door of the office. Crystal was always there, under the roof cover, just out of the rain. Her clear blue coat was splattered by the occasional horizontal flying mud drop. She was smoking, and was surrounded by thousands of cigarette butts. Her bright white eyes were hidden behind bulky black sunglasses. She had a cough like industrial machinery breaking down.

Whitefire shunted the door open and dropped the papers she’d carried down here in front of Crystal Eyes. Crystal gave them a sideways glance, then took another deep puff of her cigarette.

“I’m surprised you came out here,” she said, looking away.

“I need you to sign these,” Whitefire said.

“Would you leave? If you could?” Crystal said, gazing off into the all-consuming rain of cold wet mud.

“What do you mean?” Whitefire said, vaguely unsettled by the question.

“I mean if it stopped raining. I mean if the sun came out.” Crystal said, voice cold and harsh, “I know I would. I’ve even tried making my way through the rain, but I couldn’t get more than a few miles. If we weren’t trapped in this box by this damn eternal rain, would you run?”

She took off her sunglasses. Her eyes were closed, and her head lowered.

“Or would you stay? Would your guilt stop you from leaving? Would you be too afraid of hurting the feelings of that monster that enslaves us to leave?”

Only one small part of that registered in the exhausted mind of Whitefire.

“Crystal Eyes?”

“Yes?”

“What’s the sun?”

Crystal put her sunglasses back on and took a deep breath. She took the pen out from behind her ear, signed the paper and looked back into the storm.

“Go inside, Whitefire.” She said.

Whitefire picked up the papers and walked inside.

*


[That's as far as I wrote; the story itself doesn't end on quite such a grim note in my head]

[Lord Raziere]

Found my happy.


http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx4w31aLfs1qhsvy1o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId =AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1325742113&Signature=EVA%2BqjdaiJWHCz6SvWjSFaaxhis%3D
My favourite pony is also my zodiac. Coincidence? I think not. :smallbiggrin:


*blinks*

huh, apparently I'm Celestia, because I'm a Gemini….weird.

[Deadly]

Rainbow Dash, the oldest of my little sisters, wanted to make sure that I thanked you, and that I passed along her thanks. She was speechless when I showed her this, then absolutely flabbergasted that a random stranger from the Internet would draw something so beautiful for us.

Thank you so very much. So very, very much.

You are very welcome :smallredface:

[Roninhirox]

Right then, to start this thread on a more positive note, I have two announcements:
The first is that I have finished Part 4 of The Great and Powerful Unicorn of Oz (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eePKmOVd08jn4kmmnaKU7lpahKlZII-tFpeFv55Xh5g/edit), in which Twilight falls asleep.
The second is decidedly more important than the first;
TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!:smallbiggrin:
http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/b/b9/Pinkie_Pie_Party.jpg

Sorry I forgot to say happy birthday yesterday I hope it was a good time and I offer you a happy late birthday today.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Silly ponythread and your various beliefs about the OTP. Behold! The true OTP!


Lichie. :smalltongue:



Oh god my brain why you do that.


Found my happy.


http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx4w31aLfs1qhsvy1o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId =AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1325742113&Signature=EVA%2BqjdaiJWHCz6SvWjSFaaxhis%3D
My favourite pony is also my zodiac. Coincidence? I think not. :smallbiggrin:


Big Mac as an Aquarius? I'm A-OK with this.

[Aotrs Commander]

...That is an awesome tradition.

Yes. Yes, it is.


Silly ponythread and your various beliefs about the OTP. Behold! The true OTP!


Lichie. :smalltongue:


If this leads to another glomping, I am holding you totally responsible.

There will be...consequences.

Ooer.


Tomb of Horrors? Tomb of Horrors. :smalltongue:

Tempting - I even have the 3.5 module - but the most infamous trap they already know about. And, with me as the DM, they are, sadly, not quite that stupid and they are very paranoid...


Go all out and make it pony-themed, yet equally lethal. Pit trap? Now a drop into a rendition of your favorite song by the CMC. Assorted spiky things? Now pegasi royal guard armor (both solar and lunar versions). Sphere of annihilation? Now sphere of parasprites after Twilight's spell.

That would require even more input on my part than I'm already doing...




Technically you don't have to cater to the people who demand free stuff on the internet. I think it was Stardock had said that their method for dealing with piracy was to ignore it. They don't consider pirated games to be lost sales, and they cater only to the people who bother to pay for their games. If everyone's pirating the first-person shooters while people are paying for the puzzle games, they're going to go ahead and make puzzle games. Don't want to pay? You get no voice in how things are handled.

Doesn't really apply as well to this case, and the end result is still the same with pirates pirating and buyers buying. Just less stress over how to stop the pirates when you simply ignore them. :smalltongue:

Stardock has, I think, a very sensible attitude to piracy.

When a lot of these places talk about lost sales, they seem to forget the fact that a chunk of the pirates were never going to have paid, like at all, even if it was a pitance, or in the event of magic internet controls that meant you had to pay or go without. Some of them simply have no money, some of them do it for the kicks. As the Stardock CEO said, you can't account for those people in your sales revenue, because you won't have ever been able to make them pay, even if your magic internet controls were up to stopping them pirating whatever, because they simply wouldn't have bought it then, so you wouldn't have got any sales anyway. It's sort-of-but-not-quite like trying to claim lost sales for cars because joyriders nick them or something.

(And you can't stop the really determined ones, because the more you try, the more determined they'll be just to spite you. And the more draconican the attempts to enforce you try, the more you alienate your paying customers, and the more you risk what happened to Spore, which was loads of people pirating it out of protest.)

So, while I'm certainly in favour of some reasonable controls in place that are required to stop the ones who would casually pirate are a good idea, these companies seem to be under the impression they can somehow prevent piracy altogether, as if you can stop people nicking things from shops in the physical world 100% of the time.

Companies would be better served by meeting the customer half-way, which a lot of them are seeming to do less and less at the moment. The whole "customer is right" thing seems to have fallen by the wayside, and big business seems to have forgotten that ultimately, a business does NOT, in fact, exist to make money, they are there to provide a good or service for which they are (fairly) enumerated. (And any business that does think that customers are a resource to be exploited jolly well derserves to go bankrupt, regardless of who they are. (Considering what I'll do on a vey personal level to the managers and financeers who think that when I'm in charge, they should consider that a far more pleasant fate...))




Found my happy.


http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx4w31aLfs1qhsvy1o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId =AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1325742113&Signature=EVA%2BqjdaiJWHCz6SvWjSFaaxhis%3D
My favourite pony is also my zodiac. Coincidence? I think not. :smallbiggrin:


The fact Nightmare Moon is the only evil pony and the one chosen for my star sign is not lost on me...

[SlyGuyMcFly]

The fact Nightmare Moon is the only evil pony and the one chosen for my star sign is not lost on me...

Well duh. Everypony knows scorpios are like, way evil, and stuff.

[Thanqol]

Companies would be better served by meeting the customer half-way, which a lot of them are seeming to do less and less at the moment. The whole "customer is right" thing seems to have fallen by the wayside, and big business seems to have forgotten that ultimately, a business does NOT, in fact, exist to make money, they are there to provide a good or service for which they are (fairly) enumerated. (And any business that does think that customers are a resource to be exploited jolly well derserves to go bankrupt, regardless of who they are. (Considering what I'll do on a vey personal level to the managers and financeers who think that when I'm in charge, they should consider that a far more pleasant fate...))

The role of business is not to provide the best service, but to provide the only service. - Reacher Gilt

It's a mistake to discount the freeloader crowd entirely, though. This is an age of social networking and brand reputation. Growth is exponential and word of mouth is sales. Dominions 3 is high priced and virtually unknown as a game, while equally incomprehensible Paradox titles that go for under $10 on sale bring in reams of players. The bigger the herd is, the more free recruiters and advertising agents you've gotten. Not all of them willing, not all of them paying, but it should be a feature of your business strategy to use them. And some strategic decisions about pricing to achieve market saturation need to be made.

And the single biggest price barrier, an incomprehensible uncrossable barrier, is the $0 to $1 barrier.

You know that Rainbow Dash plushie that went for five thousand dollars? Because it went for five thousand dollars. A plushie went for five thousand dollars - anyway. I will bet you SiuiS' hat that the person who purchased that plushie for five thousand dollars would not even be a part of this fandom if the price to watch an episode was $1 instead of $0.

[Grif]

Found my happy.


http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx4w31aLfs1qhsvy1o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId =AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1325742113&Signature=EVA%2BqjdaiJWHCz6SvWjSFaaxhis%3D
My favourite pony is also my zodiac. Coincidence? I think not. :smallbiggrin:


Yer' kidding. I'm Applejack... wait, that actually does sound like me. Or maybe.

Also, hi. I know I been scarce here, and I'm actually feeling pretty disconnected from the thread at the moment.

@piracy
I believe one of the most successful digital rights management system in place for games at the moment is Steam. And there're many reasons for it, but the chief one is that ValvE does not actively try to screw paying customers over. Much unlike Ubisoft with their 'Always ON' DRM. As far as I can tell, the company always treats its customer very fairly and goes out of its way to support games it does produce. (See TF2 and the long string of updates it had, up to the F2P introduction.) Steam itself isn't a bad DRM program (now at least. At launch it was horrendous.) and does provide a lot of nifty features which I use day in day out. Compare to say, SecuROM or the infamous Starforce (I heard horror stories about Starforce killing your HDD and DVD), Steam is relatively benign, requiring only to authenticate once online before you're free to play offline.

And of course there are those like Stardock and CD Projeckt RED who lean to the absolute extreme and releases their game without any DRM at all. Although I applaud their intentions; I do think that the move hurt them somewhat, since they're so easily pirated and those who might have bought it may end up never buying.

[Thanqol]

Yer' kidding. I'm Applejack... wait, that actually does sound like me. Or maybe.

Also, hi. I know I been scarce here, and I'm actually feeling pretty disconnected from the thread at the moment.

@piracy
I believe one of the most successful digital rights management system in place for games at the moment is Steam. And there're many reasons for it, but the chief one is that ValvE does not actively try to screw paying customers over. Much unlike Ubisoft with their 'Always ON' DRM. As far as I can tell, the company always treats its customer very fairly and goes out of its way to support games it does produce. (See TF2 and the long string of updates it had, up to the F2P introduction.) Steam itself isn't a bad DRM program (now at least. At launch it was horrendous.) and does provide a lot of nifty features which I use day in day out. Compare to say, SecuROM or the infamous Starforce (I heard horror stories about Starforce killing your HDD and DVD), Steam is relatively benign, requiring only to authenticate once online before you're free to play offline.

And of course there are those like Stardock and CD Projeckt RED who lean to the absolute extreme and releases their game without any DRM at all. Although I applaud their intentions; I do think that the move hurt them somewhat, since they're so easily pirated and those who might have bought it may end up never buying.

Steam is a good case of counter piracy in that it's a good service. Cheap, easy to use, non intrusive. I'd far prefer paying $20 for a game on steam than going through the rigmarole of torrent sites, sifting through viruses and prawns, downloading in 14 parts, assembling the components, performing a voodoo ritual to make my computer think that a disc is inserted in a drive - gak that noise, time is precious and they've made it easy for me to give them my money. As a result, they get my money.

EDIT: Celestia help you if you want to patch a pirated game.

[Nameless]

Found my happy.


http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx4w31aLfs1qhsvy1o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId =AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1325742113&Signature=EVA%2BqjdaiJWHCz6SvWjSFaaxhis%3D
My favourite pony is also my zodiac. Coincidence? I think not. :smallbiggrin:


So according to this I'm Applejack and according to the personality test I'm Fluttershy.
So I'm... Appleshy... Flutterjack? :smallconfused:
That's a weird combination.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

So according to this I'm Applejack and according to the personality test I'm Fluttershy.
So I'm... Appleshy... Flutterjack? :smallconfused:
That's a weird combination.

So you're a ship?

[Grif]

EDIT: Celestia help you if you want to patch a pirated game.

Ahahaha. Patch a pirated game? What are you talking about? :smalltongue:

(Being a former pirate means I'm well aware of all the hassle surrounding patching a game. It's not as bad as some might think, but it's still a hassle.)

[Aotrs Commander]

The role of business is not to provide the best service, but to provide the only service. - Reacher Gilt

It's a mistake to discount the freeloader crowd entirely, though. This is an age of social networking and brand reputation. Growth is exponential and word of mouth is sales. Dominions 3 is high priced and virtually unknown as a game, while equally incomprehensible Paradox titles that go for under $10 on sale bring in reams of players. The bigger the herd is, the more free recruiters and advertising agents you've gotten. Not all of them willing, not all of them paying, but it should be a feature of your business strategy to use them. And some strategic decisions about pricing to achieve market saturation need to be made.

Yes, sorry, I meant you should only discount the freeloaders, as you say, in terms of "lost sales" as they likely wouldn't have made you any money in that regard in the first place. You definately should, however, be using the internet-word-of-mouth as free advertising, which is probably as good - and maybe better in some cases, depending on how small your business is - than paying for advertisement.

It clearly works (look at this site, even, let alone stuff like TGWTG, which is entirely internet based).

I think the biggest problem is a lot of the companies still really want to sell through brick-and-mortar stores - which have their place, granted - but there is a reason places like Amazon and ebay take scads of sales. (At one point, is was suggested ebay took as much as 1% of the UK sales expendature.) Notably, we do virtually all of our shopping (even food and such) on the internet, and I've virtually stopped buying things from stores altogether. My hobbies are now more-or-less entirely internet-exclusive in terms of purchases, and have been for some years now. (Amazon makes a mint off me!)


@piracy
Steam itself isn't a bad DRM program (now at least. At launch it was horrendous.) and does provide a lot of nifty features which I use day in day out. Compare to say, SecuROM or the infamous Starforce (I heard horror stories about Starforce killing your HDD and DVD), Steam is relatively benign, requiring only to authenticate once online before you're free to play offline.

I am not a Steam fan, on principle, because, at the end of the day, I want to be able to play the games I've bought ten/twenty years down the line (e.g. C&C, PS:T, BGII). Though I'll admit, Steam is probably much more benign now that when it first went up. On the other hand, I still haven't forgiven the fact that, having bought the hard-copy of Supreme Commander 2, I was not even able to install it until the official release time, which made me absolutely livid. Especially after it made me register the game on Steam before it told me that, so I couldn't, by that point, even send it back. (Now, that may or may not be Value's fault in particular, but it is their system GPG and Squeenix were using, which tells me it's a fundemental problem with the system.)


And of course there are those like Stardock and CD Projeckt RED who lean to the absolute extreme and releases their game without any DRM at all. Although I applaud their intentions; I do think that the move hurt them somewhat, since they're so easily pirated and those who might have bought it may end up never buying.

Ah, you've missed a subtely with Stardock. In order to get the updates and patches and whatnot, you have to use their Impulse downloader (and that's all it is, a downloader that basically finds out what patch you need and downloads the right one), with which you need a registered copy of the game.

Is it immune to piracy? No, but then neither is Steam (I mean, Steam doesn't really even stop the second-hand games market; I bought Last Remnant second-hand, and the chap sent me a password and ID for it, so...) and it has the advantage that it's at least inobtrusive. I thought it was quite a good compromise, actually.

Frankly, the disk-check on (say) ME or DA:O seems good enough for me, optionally with an internet authorisation on install. C&C4's, say, "always online, can't play or save if you're not online" is exactly the wrong way to do it, I reckon...



We do end up on some interesting tangants in ponythread, don't we...?

Mind you, I post frequently, and I have an enormous ability to throw a whole thread off on a tangent with but one off-hand remark...

[Pendulous]

Found the video I was looking for earlier when I linked the Rarity "best of".

Why Tabitha St. Germain is awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV7xf6p1mT4&feature=watch_response

[Thanqol]

Yes, sorry, I meant you should only discount the freeloaders, as you say, in terms of "lost sales" as they likely wouldn't have made you any money in that regard in the first place. You definately should, however, be using the internet-word-of-mouth as free advertising, which is probably as good - and maybe better in some cases, depending on how small your business is - than paying for advertisement.

It clearly works (look at this site, even, let alone stuff like TGWTG, which is entirely internet based).

I think the biggest problem is a lot of the companies still really want to sell through brick-and-mortar stores - which have their place, granted - but there is a reason places like Amazon and ebay take scads of sales. (At one point, is was suggested ebay took as much as 1% of the UK sales expendature.) Notably, we do virtually all of our shopping (even food and such) on the internet, and I've virtually stopped buying things from stores altogether. My hobbies are now more-or-less entirely internet-exclusive in terms of purchases, and have been for some years now. (Amazon makes a mint off me!)

Precisely this. When designing a corporate strategy, you've got to work out how to make the most profit off your market. When to stand tall, like an oak, and when to bend, like a willow. One of the problems with being a company as large as Hasbro is that it's not able to rapidly shift production to meet an unexpectedly huge demand for one of it's IPs. It's also publicly listed and accountable to it's shareholders and has a difficult time judging just how much of it's resources it should bring to bear on this market. They've no doubt done studies and cost-benefit analysis and, as has been said in the past, the amount of money to be made in this opportunity doesn't necessarily warrant their action.

As a management student, I think this is a serious problem with Hasbro's setup. The community has mobilised to do in weeks and months what Hasbro shows no signs of doing a year on, and frankly, the community's making a killing off itself. Those are lost sales. A more nimble company, with more decentralised authority and a corporate culture that encouraged risk taking and rapid response to new trends would be able to capitalise on all that commerce as it was happening.

As it is? The guy who purchased the five thousand dollar Rainbow Dash plushie has no need for a further, mass manufactured, Rainbow Dash plushie. His demand has been met. He is a happy customer. He is not Hasbro's happy customer. Hasbro has therefore seriously missed it's chance.


And in conclusion, if I ruled the world I would do it right, darn it.


I am not a Steam fan, on principle, because, at the end of the day, I want to be able to play the games I've bought ten/twenty years down the line (e.g. C&C, PS:T, BGII).

Hahah, I trust Steam to stay in business for the next ten/twenty years more than I trust myself not to lose the disc. I miss you, Mech Commander 2 :smallfrown:

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Found the video I was looking for earlier when I linked the Rarity "best of".

Why Tabitha St. Germain is awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV7xf6p1mT4&feature=watch_response

Another reminder of why Rarity is best pony. Today keeps on getting better.



Hahah, I trust Steam to stay in business for the next ten/twenty years more than I trust myself not to lose the disc. I miss you, Mech Commander 2

Every now and again I get this deep, intense hankering for some Diablo II LoD. Then I remember I lost the bloody discs and silently curse whichever fateful day it happened on. :smallannoyed:

[Gamerlord]

I am not a Steam fan, on principle, because, at the end of the day, I want to be able to play the games I've bought ten/twenty years down the line (e.g. C&C, PS:T, BGII). Though I'll admit, Steam is probably much more benign now that when it first went up. On the other hand, I still haven't forgiven the fact that, having bought the hard-copy of Supreme Commander 2, I was not even able to install it until the official release time, which made me absolutely livid. Especially after it made me register the game on Steam before it told me that, so I couldn't, by that point, even send it back. (Now, that may or may not be Value's fault in particular, but it is their system GPG and Squeenix were using, which tells me it's a fundemental problem with the system.)
To be frank, whatever computer your using in ten or twenty years probably won't even be able to run those games. And personally, I have more faith in Steam staying in business then I have in myself not misplacing the discs. I miss Diablo II.

[Titanium Fox]

so... are things kinda going downhill for Ponythread?

I have read that Raz Fox had a terrible tragedy. Sorry to hear that. I'm sure everyone else has been saying the same thing, but.

Next, I see that apparently ponythread has been breaking rules? I don't really follow the thread, so I'm uncertain as to any specifics. I'm sure those specifics aren't going to be posted so, anyways....

Just popping by to say hi and ask how everyone is doing. :smallredface:

We haven't been breaking any major rules. Just a lot of what we have done breaks minor ones. Images over 400x400 outside of spoilers, posts discussing real world topics, posts discussing piracy, etc.


Found my happy.


http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx4w31aLfs1qhsvy1o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId =AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1325742113&Signature=EVA%2BqjdaiJWHCz6SvWjSFaaxhis%3D
My favourite pony is also my zodiac. Coincidence? I think not. :smallbiggrin:


YAY I'M RARITY. Wait. About a month ago that would not have been a yay. Ponythread, what have you done to me?!


Steam is a good case of counter piracy in that it's a good service. Cheap, easy to use, non intrusive. I'd far prefer paying $20 for a game on steam than going through the rigmarole of torrent sites, sifting through viruses and prawns, downloading in 14 parts, assembling the components, performing a voodoo ritual to make my computer think that a disc is inserted in a drive - gak that noise, time is precious and they've made it easy for me to give them my money. As a result, they get my money.

Voodoo Ritual? Dude, all you have to do is [Long, Rambled technical explanation]

...So when's the part where you bash your head into the keyboard until it works?


Ahahaha. Patch a pirated game? What are you talking about? :smalltongue:

(Being a former pirate means I'm well aware of all the hassle surrounding patching a game. It's not as bad as some might think, but it's still a hassle.)

Ugh. Yeah, it really is. The thing is though, most older games there's no point whatsoever to patch. Heck, I can count the times I've felt the desire to patch a pirated game on one hoof.

[Kyouhen]

Tempting - I even have the 3.5 module - but the most infamous trap they already know about. And, with me as the DM, they are, sadly, not quite that stupid and they are very paranoid...


And this is where you get evil on them. Take the 3.5 version, then combine it with elements of the 2nd ED version. Heavily favour the 2nd ED one just to make everything more lethal. And if you're talking about the sphere, mix it up a bit. That sphere is now an umbral blot. Stick a few random extremely dark rooms and/or doorways in the dungeon and have it follow them around, hiding in one of the doorways whenever there's a chance they'll spot it. :smalltongue:


Steam is a good case of counter piracy in that it's a good service. Cheap, easy to use, non intrusive. I'd far prefer paying $20 for a game on steam than going through the rigmarole of torrent sites, sifting through viruses and prawns, downloading in 14 parts, assembling the components, performing a voodoo ritual to make my computer think that a disc is inserted in a drive - gak that noise, time is precious and they've made it easy for me to give them my money. As a result, they get my money.

EDIT: Celestia help you if you want to patch a pirated game.

$20? You'd actually pay $20 for a game on Steam? I just wait for the inevitable sale to knock it down to $10. :smalltongue: Which is another reason I love Steam. I just think Steam was the single most brilliant business move any developer could possibly make, and it's hilarious that all the other companies are only just starting to realize that. Seriously, Valve doesn't even need to make games anymore and they're still raking in a massive profit. They have all the time in the world to make sure every last one of their titles are perfect.



I am not a Steam fan, on principle, because, at the end of the day, I want to be able to play the games I've bought ten/twenty years down the line (e.g. C&C, PS:T, BGII). Though I'll admit, Steam is probably much more benign now that when it first went up.


Admittedly, this is a concern. I'm well aware that the possibility exists for Steam to just take off with all my money and laugh. Then again out of 73 games I have on Steam only about 4 of them cost me more than $10. Those sales they keep having do a lot to keep me from being too concerned about losing everything.

[Thanqol]

Voodoo Ritual? Dude, all you have to do is [Long, Rambled technical explanation]

...So when's the part where you bash your head into the keyboard until it works?

That's the part where you find the patched game is incompatible with your mods and you've got to uninstall the game, re-install it, and then re-install every mod in order before you can access your save file again. Oh, and the save file gets corrupted.


$20? You'd actually pay $20 for a game on Steam? I just wait for the inevitable sale to knock it down to $10. :smalltongue: Which is another reason I love Steam. I just think Steam was the single most brilliant business move any developer could possibly make, and it's hilarious that all the other companies are only just starting to realize that. Seriously, Valve doesn't even need to make games anymore and they're still raking in a massive profit. They have all the time in the world to make sure every last one of their titles are perfect.

In Australia, we pay enormous sacks of money for every video game (seriously; Arkham City is going for $100 here. Mirror's Edge used to retail for $100 too). But to answer your question, there are some games I support enough to pay ticket price for; the rest just get nabbed in the sales.

EDIT: okay, even I can see that we're off topic here, so any further banter about Steam by me will be taken outside.

[Aotrs Commander]

To be frank, whatever computer your using in ten or twenty years probably won't even be able to run those games.

Given that I played all three of those in this past year, I'm well into the ten years (and more like fifteen years with C&C) on already, so I will damn well expect to be able to play ME and DA:O in 2022 (given the same amount of (fan-coded) tweaking required in the aforementioned cases.)

Also, given how extremely careful with stuff I am in general (and how much of a horder), the only anypony will get me to part with my gubbins is by prying it is from my cold, not-undead fingers...

[Kindablue]

Voodoo Ritual? Dude, all you have to do is [Long, Rambled technical explanation]

I envy your pedagogical method; it seems so much cleaner than mine...

[Weimann]

Found my happy.


http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx4w31aLfs1qhsvy1o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId =AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1325742113&Signature=EVA%2BqjdaiJWHCz6SvWjSFaaxhis%3D
My favourite pony is also my zodiac. Coincidence? I think not. :smallbiggrin:
Yes, I'm Twilight! Wahoo!

[Titanium Fox]

So, story time from IRC! This is the crhonicles of Rarity in the Pathfinder campaign I was a part of last night.

WARNING: EPIC AHEAD
08:57 RarityPony Because I feel absolutely fabulous!
08:57 RarityPony :3
08:57 RarityPony I played Rarity in a Pathfinder campaign last night in a room with six other Bronies.
08:57 RarityPony It was the best Tabletop I've ever been a part of.
08:57 Kindablue Ha! That's awesome.
08:58 RarityPony Started the night getting ready for the Lunar Night Celebration in the dead of winter. With everypony adjusting their sleep schedules to match.
08:58 RarityPony AJ's walking back to the farm and sees a comet crashing down. Hearing what Twilight used to say about Shooting Stars, she makes a wish for everything to go well and gets back to it.
08:58 Gadora This sounds amazing.
08:59 RarityPony A few minutes later she runs into a pony wearing a tattered cloak with a large, poofy black mane. He neglects to introduce himself, but suddenly... Pinkie Pie.
08:59 RarityPony Right behind him. "HI! I'M PINKIE PIE!"
08:59 RarityPony Poor stallion screams in terror.
08:59 RarityPony She leans right up close and eyeballs him... And then puts a cake before him. "Welcome to ponyville! I made you this!"
08:59 RarityPony Etc, etc.
09:00 RarityPony I kind of kidnapped him into the botique as he walked by and assaulted his tail with FASHION.
09:00 Leo hugs Rarity.
09:00 RarityPony To the point where the screams of pain could be heard at the /Library/.
09:00 RarityPony Dude was obviously hiding something with his hood and mane, but I just acted like I thought he didn't want me to style it.
09:01 Gadora That poor pony.
09:01 Kindablue Obviously.
09:01 RarityPony ...I also attacked Rainbow Dash with clippers when she said my work looked like trash, and could be about 20% cooler.
09:01 RarityPony She beat my CMD but failed the strength check, so she got stuck on the clippers and I snipped a single piece of her mane off.
09:01 Gadora Did Rainbow's mane survive?
09:02 RarityPony He rolled D% and determined that it now looked precicely 67% cooler.
09:02 RarityPony Rainbow proceeded to stare at herself in a mirror for 10 minutes.
09:03 RarityPony ...So anyways. Other than that (And Pinkie Pie testing a new recipie on an unwitting Twilight: "HAVE A CUPCAKE! *Stuff in Mouth* I made it myself! It's mayonnaise! Doo de doo! *Bounce away*)
09:03 RarityPony The rest of the night was rather uneventful.
09:03 Gadora Hm...
09:03 Kindablue Sounds fun.
09:04 Gadora Mayonnaise cupcakes...
09:04 RarityPony So AJ and I are awoken to a scream of "CUTIE MARK CRUSADER ALARM CLOCKS GO!" at 5 PM the next dusk the night Luna was scheduled to arrive for the celebration.
09:04 RarityPony We trot outside and gather the troops to wrangle them under control, and find them at roseluck's place.
09:04 Kindablue You two were sleeping in the same... ?
09:04 RarityPony No.
09:05 RarityPony The CMC woke up in their respective homes, and as each one did they screamed that and ran off to the town center.
09:05 RarityPony Hence why AJ and I were awoken, but nopony else.
09:05 Kindablue Ah, that makes more sense.
09:05 Gadora facepalms.
09:05 Gadora This sounds amazing.
09:05 RarityPony Applebloom is bouncing up and down on the bed, Sweetie Belle is /belting/, and Scootaloo is essentially headbanging an Airhorn in Roseluck's bedroom.
09:06 RarityPony Rainbow sees this, and gets an idea. She flies out of the open window, gets a cloud, and bounces on it. Raining on the CMC.
09:06 RarityPony I /scream/ and roll a 24 on my intimidate check.
09:06 RarityPony Which acted as a 29 to Sweetie Belle.
09:06 Gadora And ruining Roseluck's interior decorating?
09:07 RarityPony Why of course! It's /rainbow/, when has she ever cared about the bounds of personal property?
09:07 RarityPony :3
09:07 Gadora Oh, and it looks like mayonnaise cupcakes exist.
09:07 RarityPony So after all this stops... We're talking jet engine loud, and Roseluck being rained on on top of that... She's still asleep.
09:07 RarityPony And Fluttershy rolls high enough to smell sulfur in the air.
09:08 RarityPony Which Applebloom immediately registers as the smell of used fireworks.
09:08 Gadora Mainly seems to be a substitute for the shortening.
09:08 RarityPony (Wait, they d- Oh god.)
09:08 RarityPony So I panic for the safety of Sweetie and send the CMC to my Boutique with yet another intimidate check.
09:08 Gadora nods.
09:08 Gadora See: http://leitesculinaria.com/2860/recipes-chocolate-mayonnaise-cupcakes-butterscotch-frosting.html
09:09 RarityPony Pinkie volunteers to round up Nurse Redheart... who is also asleep no matter what she tries. And this is Pinkie of all ponies.
09:09 RarityPony My immediate though is that Berry Punch got ahold of everypony... But she's out like a light too.
09:09 RarityPony So I throw detect magic, and see residual energy leading to... a mug.
09:12 Gadora Did you detect a school of magic on that?
09:12 Kindablue Oh my God I found my metronome!
09:12 Gadora is guessing enchantment, if you did.
09:13 Gadora Sorry, I need to duck out for a little while.
09:13 Kindablue Bye, Gads!
09:13 Gadora Shouldn't take long, though.
09:15 Kindablue Do you know about this? https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TLBKNumCC63oC7vpuvbkHNTlfY19IcilQY6Sdlo3m8U/edit
09:15 *** Dexam joined #ponythread
09:15 Kindablue Hello, Dexam!
09:16 Dexam waves.
09:20 Gadora Right, back.
09:20 Gadora Hi Dexam.
09:21 Kindablue Hello, Gads!
09:21 Gadora Dexam, have you seen this? https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TLBKNumCC63oC7vpuvbkHNTlfY19IcilQY6Sdlo3m8U/edit
09:22 Gadora waves to bloo.
09:24 Dexam reads...
09:24 Leo hugs Dexam.
09:25 RarityPony (BACK)
09:25 RarityPony (Sorry about that.
09:25 RarityPony *)
09:25 RarityPony (Work happened. And Heya Dexam!)
09:26 Gadora Not a problem Jade.
09:26 Kindablue Heh, I figured.
09:26 Gadora I figured it was most likely work.
09:26 RarityPony Gadora: I did not. However I did immediately swap to detect poison, which pinged on both Roseluck, and the mug itself.
09:26 Dexam Hey Leo, Hi Jade.
09:26 RarityPony We go back and confront the Stallion, who has introduced himself as "Singing Blizzard".
09:27 RarityPony Rainbow get suspicious of him immediately as she is wont to do.
09:27 RarityPony He shakes his head and his mane moves... Revealing he has half a horn. And with Rainbow up in his face, he's emitting like an aura of cold.
09:27 RarityPony That's apparently enough evidence for Rainbow, who rips the cloak off in one fell swoop... Revealing a blank flank.
09:28 RarityPony He freaks and sprints off into the forest.
09:28 Kindablue What a weirdo!
09:28 Gadora Half a horn? That right there sounds a bit dark.
09:28 RarityPony (There's a good explanation for it, don't worry.)
09:28 RarityPony ...****, I got order of events off.
09:28 RarityPony The horn was revealed the first day, spotted by two or three ponies.
09:29 RarityPony Only reason this is important is that Rarity begins crafting him an Amethyst horn, due to the gem he had on his cloak being an amethyst.
09:29 RarityPony (Read: She has Spike do it because I took Unseen Servant and that was the fluff.)
09:29 RarityPony Anyways.
09:29 RarityPony Rainbow and Pinkie go off to find Zecora, and the other four stick around to look for clues.
09:30 Kindablue I might nod off in a few minutes.
09:30 RarityPony Rainbow starts bringing Zecora back, just as the rest of the group is leaving to find them, and we all meet up somewhere in the everfree when all is said and done.
09:30 RarityPony nods and gives Kindablue a hug.
09:30 Kindablue hugs Jade!
09:30 Gadora hugs the Kindablue, too.
09:30 Kindablue It was nice seeing you! Been a while.
09:30 Dexam updates the care package doc with his idea.
09:31 RarityPony nodnods. "Yeah it really has."
09:31 Gadora I saw.
09:31 Gadora Thank you, Dexam.
09:31 Dexam I've been thinking of getting some of those for myself.
09:32 RarityPony Long story short: Fluttershy tracks Singing Blizzard deep into the everfree, to the site where the shooting star touched down. There's... a metal arch way, and we walk into a monitor on the wall, and Singing Blizzard is taunting us. Rainbow Dash smashes it, because she's Rainbow Dash.
09:32 RarityPony Doors close behind us.
09:32 RarityPony Three paths in front.
09:32 RarityPony Twilight and AJ find...
09:32 Gadora I've got a pair. They're rather high quality.
09:32 RarityPony ->
09:32 RarityPony
09:33 *** Grif joined #ponythread
09:33 RarityPony This is the point where I facepalm. Hard. But yeah. Minature portal puzzle, final fight with Singing Blizzard.
09:33 Gadora waves to Grif.
09:33 +++ ChanServ has given halfop to Grif
09:33 +++ Grif has given voice to Dexam
09:33 +++ Grif has given voice to Miniature
09:33 Grif hello.
09:33 RarityPony Heya Grif.
09:33 Gadora I'd be facepalming, too.
09:33 RarityPony We win the fight through violent generosity.
09:34 Gadora Giving more damage than you receive?
09:34 RarityPony Fluttershy and I lock him down between her Stare and my ability "This is whiiiiiniiiing!"
09:34 Grif I must be missing something.
09:34 RarityPony (My Pony Pathfinder campaign last night.)
09:34 Grif Violence and generosity are incompatible.
09:35 RarityPony However with my ability, I had to wine. IRL.
09:35 RarityPony *whine
09:35 *** Kindablue quit (Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client)
09:35 RarityPony "How coooooould you! Now I'm all cold, and I didn't even bring my boots! And to top it all off my mane is messed up, after everything I did for your taaaaaaiiiiiillllllll!"
09:35 Gadora Grif: Here's what you missed. http://mibpaste.com/Lnvvtb
09:35 RarityPony (Love you Gadora. XD)
09:36 *** Kindablue joined #ponythread
09:36 RarityPony Going on and on, I deal a total of sonic damage to him.
09:36 Grif wait, a pony tabletop? heh
09:36 RarityPony *18 sonic damage.
09:36 RarityPony Yeah, it's being run at BroNYcon.
09:36 RarityPony I helped beta test it.
09:36 Kindablue that wasn't me nodding off that was Chrome crashing. >.>
09:36 Gadora Welcome back bloo!
09:36 RarityPony Yay, Bloo!
09:36 +++ ChanServ has given voice to Kindablue
09:37 RarityPony Rainbow hits him with a Sonic Rainboom, 23 damage, etc, etc. Combat stuff.
09:37 RarityPony Pinkie Pie is singing "You gotta share" for a +2 because Bard.
09:37 Grif Whelp, I'm lost and shall just head off to TF2 or SPAZ
09:37 RarityPony D:
09:37 RarityPony I'm almost done, I promise!
09:38 Gadora bloo: Here's what you mised. http://mibpaste.com/mH8Psb
09:38 Grif it's okay. Don't mind me. I'm pretty much clueless about most of the things discussed here.
09:38 Gadora Before you go, have you seen the care package doc?
09:38 Kindablue Thanks, Gads!
09:38 Kindablue Hello, Grif!
09:38 Grif heya bloo
09:38 RarityPony So turn 3. Luna swoops in and drops off the elements in the middle of the fight and we all put ours on.
09:39 RarityPony Round four, Twilight puts hers on last as we all know is tradition from the show.
09:39 Gadora And, more, and more, I know that lost feeling.
09:39 RarityPony Spike finally arrives with the Amethyst Horn.
09:39 RarityPony I take it, levitate it, and transition from whining.
09:39 Kindablue "Violent generosity." I like that.
09:40 RarityPony "After everything I've done for you, you have the gall to state that you do not recieve kindness here in Ponyville? That you see nothing but ridicule? How /dare/ you. Pinkie appeared with a cake not moments post your arrival, and Twilight put you up in a bed for not a single bit!"
09:40 RarityPony "And after all the hard work I have done creating this? You ungreatful Unicorn!"
09:40 RarityPony She then levitates the horn up, aimed at the nub on his head, and /launches/ it. For a crit.
09:41 RarityPony Ergo: Violent Generosity.
09:41 Gadora The dice like you.
09:41 RarityPony (They /loved/ me last night.)
09:41 Gadora Or at least, they like a good story.
09:41 RarityPony So the horn sticks, and then Twi activates the elements.
09:41 RarityPony Well, my element lights up.
09:42 RarityPony In turn each pony does something, spurned on by my action giving the DM an idea, to exemplify their element.
09:42 RarityPony ./Then/ Twilight activates the elements.
09:42 Grif Funny thing, I decided to name my pet in Dungeon Defender, Rainbow Dash. Too bad it's mostly a personal thing.
09:42 RarityPony Fluttershy's was the best though.
09:42 RarityPony "I go over and pat his head and tell him it's all alright."
09:43 RarityPony DM: "Roll touch. He doesn't want any part of your action."
09:43 RarityPony Fluttershy: "I rolled a three... But if you turn it this way it's a smile! *Squeak*"
09:43 Gadora *snerk*
09:43 RarityPony It was /fantastic/. The game paused for 5 minutes while the rest of the table collected itself.
09:43 RarityPony SHE EVEN FLUTTERSQUEAKED.
09:43 Kindablue lol!
09:44 RarityPony So yes, elements light up, Twilight activates elements, brings Singing Blizzard back down to size.
09:45 RarityPony The cloak he was wearing whips off into the forest as per it's own accord, and the black hole cutie mark on his flank vanishes.
09:45 RarityPony DM: "Roll a listen check."
09:45 RarityPony AJ: 23.
09:45 RarityPony DM: "spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacccccccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! !!!!!!!"
09:46 RarityPony The epilogue involved figuring out what went down. Basically the shooting star was a piece of the portal facility that came down when the Space Personality Core bounced off of the moon and chipped some of it away. WHich brought back some of the essence that corrupted Nightmare Moon.
09:46 Gadora facepalms.
09:46 RarityPony When Singing Blizzard ran into the forest scared and stumbled into the facility... Well yeah.
09:47 RarityPony It was slightly cheezy, but like I said I have /never/ had more fun with a group of gamers.


Given that I played all three of those in this past year, I'm well into the ten years (and more like fifteen years with C&C) on already, so I will damn well expect to be able to play ME and DA:O in 2022 (given the same amount of (fan-coded) tweaking required in the aforementioned cases.)

Also, given how extremely careful with stuff I am in general (and how much of a horder), the only anypony will get me to part with my gubbins is by prying it is from my cold, not-undead fingers...

I'm able to play extremely old games on a top of the line PC right now. It just takes a little work, and a willingness to fight with virtual machines.


I envy your pedagogical method; it seems so much cleaner than mine...

Well if you know how to encode properly... :smallbiggrin:

[tonberrian]

Man, I am so happy I'm a console gamer.

I don't have to worry about all this nonsense to keep playing my games.

[Nameless]

So you're a ship?

I think so, ye--- NO! OOOH NO! Don't you go getting any ideas.http://i.imgur.com/2E2Va.png
*protects Fluttershy with an iron rod*

[Deadly]

I don't have anything to add to the topic of piracy or Hasbro's folly that hasn't already been said. I feel kinda odd, not having an opinion that wildly conflicts with everypony else :smalltongue:

So, uh... have a bit of heresy randomly picked from my most recent dA messages:

(source) (http://snus-kun.deviantart.com/art/Cheerilyra-277515435)
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/003/b/3/cheerilyra_by_snus_kun-d4l84a3.png


Every now and again I get this deep, intense hankering for some Diablo II LoD. Then I remember I lost the bloody discs and silently curse whichever fateful day it happened on. :smallannoyed:

Me too. I think it's the only game I've ever lost, and I have no clue how or when it happened. Even my attempt to intentionally get rid of a bunch of games didn't work. They're still sitting on my shelf, collecting dust, forever unplayed beyond the opening scenes.


Oh, and I'm apparently Pinkie Pie http://i.imgur.com/dDGKR.png

[Soras Teva Gee]

So, uh... have a bit of heresy randomly picked from my most recent dA messages:

(source) (http://snus-kun.deviantart.com/art/Cheerilyra-277515435)
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/003/b/3/cheerilyra_by_snus_kun-d4l84a3.png

Clearly Lyra is the victim here.

[Raz_Fox]

You are very welcome :smallredface:

I sent it to my mother.

She thinks that it's so sweet that she wants it added to the slideshow of Aimee pictures we're making.

[Pendulous]

Man, I am so happy I'm a console gamer.

I don't have to worry about all this nonsense to keep playing my games.


You mean Steam going down every ten minutes? It's getting rather irritating, good thing I haven't played any Steam games for a few days now though.

[Gamerlord]

You mean Steam going down every ten minutes? It's getting rather irritating, good thing I haven't played any Steam games for a few days now though.
I've been playing many Steam games recently, and I haven't been having any trouble. :smallconfused:

[Deadly]

I sent it to my mother.

She thinks that it's so sweet that she wants it added to the slideshow of Aimee pictures we're making.

I'm really glad to hear that your family likes it. If it helps, even a little, that's all I can wish for.

Once again, you have my thoughts, and condolences. I can't imagine how terrible it must be to lose someone like that, and so young :smallfrown:

[the_druid_droid]

I don't have anything to add to the topic of piracy or Hasbro's folly that hasn't already been said. I feel kinda odd, not having an opinion that wildly conflicts with everypony else :smalltongue:

So, uh... have a bit of heresy randomly picked from my most recent dA messages:

(source) (http://snus-kun.deviantart.com/art/Cheerilyra-277515435)
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/003/b/3/cheerilyra_by_snus_kun-d4l84a3.png


Huh. I don't think I've ever seen that particular pairing before...bravo.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

I think so, ye--- NO! OOOH NO! Don't you go getting any ideas.http://i.imgur.com/2E2Va.png
*protects Fluttershy with an iron rod*

*hides the champagne bottle behind his back*

I have no idea what you're going on about.

[Lix Lorn]

Silly ponythread and your various beliefs about the OTP. Behold! The true OTP!

Lichie. :smalltongue:
Trufax.


...I really want to draw this now. I've never heard this 'albatross of ostracization' thing before but my imagination conjured a rather hilarious image based on it.
I was part of a group once which got ostracized by a larger group we'd split off from. Our leader complained we didn't get no ostrich.


As for other stuffs, I spent New Years hosting a party. Everyone in the party was participating in some combination of chess, Smash Bros, MTG, drinking and philosophical discussions about memes. There were about 15 people there total. Best. Party. Ever.
Strip Super Smash Bros. Each death costs you an item of clothing.
I came up with this ages ago and am yet to arrange it. :smalltongue:

Also I made some things today. Because I could.


Found my happy.


http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx4w31aLfs1qhsvy1o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId =AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1325742113&Signature=EVA%2BqjdaiJWHCz6SvWjSFaaxhis%3D
My favourite pony is also my zodiac. Coincidence? I think not. :smallbiggrin:

Bluh.
My second least favourite on the grid.
1 4M D1S4PPO1NT3D. >:?


Well duh. Everypony knows scorpios are like, way evil, and stuff.
Don't believe it, 8a8e. >:::;P

[Eakin]

I am shocked, SHOCKED that there's so much overlap between bronies and gamers! On the Internet no less!

Super psyched for the end of the new pony drought with a new ep this Saturday. Especially since the next several weeks look to be AJ and Pinkie heavy after they were neglected for the first half of the season. It has taken every single ounce of self control not to listen to the leaked pinkie pie song circulating the web.

[Soras Teva Gee]

I am shocked, SHOCKED that there's so much overlap between bronies and gamers! On the Internet no less!

I was shocked to find gambling in Casablanca but the more you know.


Super psyched for the end of the new pony drought with a new ep this Saturday. Especially since the next several weeks look to be AJ and Pinkie heavy after they were neglected for the first half of the season. It has taken every single ounce of self control not to listen to the leaked pinkie pie song circulating the web.

Try having listened to it and seeing a Pinkie focused episode coming down the pipe.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Found my happy.


http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx4w31aLfs1qhsvy1o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId =AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1325742113&Signature=EVA%2BqjdaiJWHCz6SvWjSFaaxhis%3D
My favourite pony is also my zodiac. Coincidence? I think not. :smallbiggrin:

Let's see.... Aries. Adventurous, Confident, Courageous, Dynamic and Impulsive.

Wow.

That's so unlike me it's unreal. In fact, I'd even say that it's the exact opposite of me in every way.

I think I'm more of a Libra. XD


So, story time from IRC! This is the crhonicles of Rarity in the Pathfinder campaign I was a part of last night.

WARNING: EPIC AHEAD
That was fun! I might get to play a pathfinder pony game myself soon. I hope it's as good.

Best part: Violent Generosity.


I'm able to play extremely old games on a top of the line PC right now. It just takes a little work, and a willingness to fight with virtual machines.
I've done this before, but for the most part, it's a pain. I still can't figure out how to get Dr. Draco's Madcap Chase to work. :/

[Nameless]

*hides the champagne bottle behind his back*

I have no idea what you're going on about.

Champagne...? I'm not sure I know what I'm talking about now... :smallconfused:

[TheAmishPirate]

Champagne...? I'm not sure I know what I'm talking about now... :smallconfused:

You can't launch any ships without Champagne, silly! I regret nothing! PUNS FOR THE PUN THRONE

[Kato]

Wow.

That's so unlike me it's unreal. In fact, I'd even say that it's the exact opposite of me in every way.

I think I'm more of a Libra. XD


Yeah, I'm nor Rarity either. Well, I guess a ponyscope is no better than any other horoscope :smallwink:

[SlyGuyMcFly]

You can't launch any ships without Champagne, silly! I regret nothing! PUNS FOR THE PUN THRONE

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu55/EvenHuman/just_as_pinkie_planned-n1301251133486.jpg

[Strife Warzeal]

Well duh. Everypony knows scorpios are like, way evil, and stuff.

I wouldn't call myself evil, maybe a bit inconsiderate of others and their feelings but not evil.

[Nameless]

You can't launch any ships without Champagne, silly! I regret nothing! PUNS FOR THE PUN THRONE

http://fim.413chan.net/oatmeal/src/130957316863-amused_is_what_I_am_.gif

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111027012405/mlp/images/7/73/Twilight_not_amused_E9-W9.png

http://fim.413chan.net/fic/src/130751349658-NotAmusedTrixie.png

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/134/0/f/rarity_not_amused_vector_by_takua770-d3gbj62.png

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/213/f/4/pinkie_pie_by_shelmo69-d42eudy.png

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/ee2bb5817ffd39c8e28db62cc8c486af/28989%20-%20bridlemaids%20face%20fluttershy%20not_amused.pn g

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/351/4/5/applejack___not_impressed_by_midnite99-d4jfh34.png

http://i.neoseeker.com/mgv/234495-NB/495/46/angelisstillnotamused_display.png

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/a7c06982b6e7ed4bd05a2376644c9ff7/28672%20-%20not_amused%20spitfire.JPG

[SiuiS]

So you're a ship?

Well, duh~


Yer' kidding. I'm Applejack... wait, that actually does sound like me. Or maybe.

Also, hi. I know I been scarce here, and I'm actually feeling pretty disconnected from the thread at the moment.

Time to IRC and friends with Grif. Awaaaaaaay~



We do end up on some interesting tangants in ponythread, don't we...?

Mind you, I post frequently, and I have an enormous ability to throw a whole thread off on a tangent with but one off-hand remark...

PRESENTATION!


We haven't been breaking any major rules. Just a lot of what we have done breaks minor ones. Images over 400x400 outside of spoilers, posts discussing real world topics, posts discussing piracy, etc.

Uh oh.
Back to the rules then, I suppose, for a refresher >>;



YAY I'M RARITY. Wait. About a month ago that would not have been a yay. Ponythread, what have you done to me?!

What have we done?
what have we done?



Pony.



Voodoo Ritual? Dude, all you have to do is [Long, Rambled technical explanation]

...So when's the part where you bash your head into the keyboard until it works?

Wait wait wait.
Wait.
Wait.

You're telling me all the chicken blood was part of the problem?



Ugh. Yeah, it really is. The thing is though, most older games there's no point whatsoever to patch. Heck, I can count the times I've felt the desire to patch a pirated game on one hoof.

I cannot help but think of the Lyra, thumbs up comic here.

"I can count the number of times on one hoof."
"oh? How many is that?"
"uh, one."

:smallbiggrin:


And this is where you get evil on them. Take the 3.5 version, then combine it with elements of the 2nd ED version. Heavily favour the 2nd ED one just to make everything more lethal. And if you're talking about the sphere, mix it up a bit. That sphere is now an umbral blot. Stick a few random extremely dark rooms and/or doorways in the dungeon and have it follow them around, hiding in one of the doorways whenever there's a chance they'll spot it. :smalltongue:

Oh no, nonono no! You'll frighten the poor dears!

With the exception of every trap you know they will try to exploit, you should replace every trap with a goodie, like a cake or an item or a new spell. Then, you sport with them. "are you sure you don't want to reach into the statues mouth? There's a surprriiiise in there~!"



$20? You'd actually pay $20 for a game on Steam? I just wait for the inevitable sale to knock it down to $10. :smalltongue: Which is another reason I love Steam. I just think Steam was the single most brilliant business move any developer could possibly make, and it's hilarious that all the other companies are only just starting to realize that. Seriously, Valve doesn't even need to make games anymore and they're still raking in a massive profit. They have all the time in the world to make sure every last one of their titles are perfect.

It's an ideological choice. Thanqol cannot in good conscience want good products from a company but not pay what those products are worth to the company. It's rather admirable, too, all things considered.

Which makes me sad for the past, but excited now that has to seems to want my money. Maybe they'll produce products I want? http://i.imgur.com/jaolo.jpg


I don't have anything to add to the topic of piracy or Hasbro's folly that hasn't already been said. I feel kinda odd, not having an opinion that wildly conflicts with everypony else :smalltongue:

So, uh... have a bit of heresy randomly picked from my most recent dA messages:

(source) (http://snus-kun.deviantart.com/art/Cheerilyra-277515435)
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/003/b/3/cheerilyra_by_snus_kun-d4l84a3.png

what nooo lyra belongs to bonbon cheerilee why?!?!?!?! D:)


I sent it to my mother.

She thinks that it's so sweet that she wants it added to the slideshow of Aimee pictures we're making.

Ah, the cat no longer smiles. That's heartbreaking.

Ugh. Words fail me. Brevity then.
You are one of the most inspiring people I have ever met Raz. It's a shame that only grace under fire such as this could show me that. I'm pulling for your family.


I am shocked, SHOCKED that there's so much overlap between bronies and gamers! On the Internet no less!

Super psyched for the end of the new pony drought with a new ep this Saturday. Especially since the next several weeks look to be AJ and Pinkie heavy after they were neglected for the first half of the season. It has taken every single ounce of self control not to listen to the leaked pinkie pie song circulating the web.

... There is a leaked Pinkie Song?

[Gamerlord]

... There is a leaked Pinkie Song?[/color]
Been on the interwebs for some time. It is unknown if it going to be in an episode or if it is some sort of CD special. I cannot comment on it, since I only listened to about two seconds of it before my conscience kicked in and made me close it.

[Eakin]

Strip Super Smash Bros. Each death costs you an item of clothing.
I came up with this ages ago and am yet to arrange it. :smalltongue:

Of all the best ideas, this is THE! BEST! POSSIBLE! IDEA!


There's a leaked Pinkie Pie song?

It can be found right here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgSkyraNq8c). I haven't watched it myself but obviously THE LINK CONTAINS FUTURE EPISODE SPOILERS.

[Deadly]

Lich pony?
(source) (http://hollowzero.deviantart.com/art/Lich-Pony-277635474)
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/004/3/c/lich_pony_by_hollowzero-d4laowi.png

[Topaz]

So, story time from IRC! This is the crhonicles of Rarity in the Pathfinder campaign I was a part of last night.
All my jealous, has it! :smallwink:

The Personality Test says I'm PinkieDash, the Pony Zodiac says Rarity. I like this pick-and-choose thing. :smallbiggrin:

Back to throwing myself at the Fourth Wall. See eveypony laters!

[the_druid_droid]

Let's see.... Aries. Adventurous, Confident, Courageous, Dynamic and Impulsive.

Wow.

That's so unlike me it's unreal. In fact, I'd even say that it's the exact opposite of me in every way.

I think I'm more of a Libra. XD


I am apparently Twilight according to personality tests and astrology...excuse me while I locate my tinfoil hat...


Oh no, nonono no! You'll frighten the poor dears!

With the exception of every trap you know they will try to exploit, you should replace every trap with a goodie, like a cake or an item or a new spell. Then, you sport with them. "are you sure you don't want to reach into the statues mouth? There's a surprriiiise in there~!"


You my friend, are a classy DM *hat tip*


Lich pony?
(source) (http://hollowzero.deviantart.com/art/Lich-Pony-277635474)
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/004/3/c/lich_pony_by_hollowzero-d4laowi.png

Lich pony.

[Bayonet Priest]

@Raz_Fox: I really don't know what to say about this except that I'm truly very sorry for your loss. I've never lost anyone I was very close to but I love my sister dearly and can't imagine what it would be like to lose her. Just hang in there, ok?

[Tiki Snakes]

Strip Smash Brothers does sound like an excellent game. Except, you know, I've no interest whatsoever in stripping anyone who I could get to play smash brothers. :smallsmile:

It's a good concept regardless.

I've not even been tempted by the leaked song. It's not like I ever click the episode summaries either. I've no trouble at all in avoiding spoilers, except where I stumble upon them by accident and that's pretty rare too because I try to avoid areas where such can happen.

Looking forward to some more musical episodes, though.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Strip Smash Brothers does sound like an excellent game. Except, you know, I've no interest whatsoever in stripping anyone who I could get to play smash brothers. :smallsmile:

It's a good concept regardless.

I keep thinking I generally don't have much of 'margin of error' as it were most of the time.

[legomaster00156]

Speculation time! Fancy Pants' special talent. Bronies, begin.

[Noctemwolf]

...So when's the part where you bash your head into the keyboard until it works?


I'm putting this in my signature... I laughed for over five minutes. Give or take, it was hard to pay attention to the clock through my tears. :smalltongue:

[Soras Teva Gee]

I've finally seen a Twilight and Trixie pic I think sums up their relationship:


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-39hN5J8ofbA/TwTGrNVbaVI/AAAAAAAAaPg/FIKOvbSYwgg/s1600/our_final_battle_gif_by_subjectnumber2394-d4l9ywx.gif

Also Row Row Fight da Powah:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-crRxs00cMu8/TwTFEmOvpEI/AAAAAAAAaM4/TxxQdFe59NE/s1600/6ad00928e2b2fb300281b0763531aba5-d4kwg5s.jpg

[Thanqol]

Also Row Row Fight da Powah:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-crRxs00cMu8/TwTFEmOvpEI/AAAAAAAAaM4/TxxQdFe59NE/s1600/6ad00928e2b2fb300281b0763531aba5-d4kwg5s.jpg

Implied Scootashy? There's a new one.

[Athaniar]

Speculation time! Fancy Pants' special talent. Bronies, begin.
Being awesome. That is it.

[legomaster00156]

Being awesome. That is it.
His Cutie Mark is 3 crowns. That... may actually be right.

[Topaz]

Speculation time! Fancy Pants' special talent. Bronies, begin.

I think he's Canterlot's finest business lawyer.

[SiuiS]

Lich pony?
(source) (http://hollowzero.deviantart.com/art/Lich-Pony-277635474)
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/004/3/c/lich_pony_by_hollowzero-d4laowi.png

Colorswap it green and send it backwards in time! I wanna be a skelepone for halloween instead of a Pinkie Pie!


Strip Smash Brothers does sound like an excellent game. Except, you know, I've no interest whatsoever in stripping anyone who I could get to play smash brothers. :smallsmile:

Yeah, it's like a buffet of all the foods you don't like; what's the point?


It's a good concept regardless.

I've not even been tempted by the leaked song. It's not like I ever click the episode summaries either. I've no trouble at all in avoiding spoilers, except where I stumble upon them by accident and that's pretty rare too because I try to avoid areas where such can happen.

Looking forward to some more musical episodes, though.

Yeah, it's weird. I guess I was more interested in conjecturing with everypony, but Nopony seems to care about the song so I don't know if I'll bother with it? I tried before, but getting it to function took longer than my twenty second window of attention, so I gave up. I thought there was maybe a new song.


Implied Scootashy? There's a new one.

We prefer Flutterloo, because it's so much more fun to say u.u

Flutterloo, oh flut-Flutterloo~
<<
>>
<<

HULLABALOO

[AlterForm]

Colorswap it green and send it backwards in time! I wanna be a skelepone for halloween instead of a Pinkie Pie!



Colorswap was easy. Still working on the time travel bit.

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/j4v49ldw8dslt5x/lich_pony_by_hollowzero-d4laowi_recolor_by_AlterForm_for_SiuiS.png?dl=1

[Eakin]

Speculation time! Fancy Pants' special talent. Bronies, begin.

Perhaps his ability is to discover the next big trend/fashion before anypony else. He's open to new ideas no matter where they come from and all the other ponies hang on his every word because they can't bear to be out of fashion a moment longer than absolutely necessary.

[Falconer]

His Cutie Mark is 3 crowns. That... may actually be right.

His special talent is being an aristocrat. 'nuff said.

[PhantomFox]

Finally! We are only a few days from NEW PONY TIME!

Let's have some speculation.

Will this be pure Apple Bloom & Granny Smith, or can it count as an AJ episode? Also, what are your expectations for this? I'm not the biggest fans of the CMC, but I trust the writers, so....

[Eakin]

His special talent is being an aristocrat. 'nuff said.

Well, all the other aristocrats are total jerks. Maybe his special power is noblesse oblige (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noblesse_oblige)

[SiuiS]

Colorswap was easy. Still working on the time travel bit.

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/j4v49ldw8dslt5x/lich_pony_by_hollowzero-d4laowi_recolor_by_AlterForm_for_SiuiS.png?dl=1

Sweet! You're still crazy-awesome, Alterform. Now to hit up the artist and get permission to use it as an avatar. And then get killed and revived (properly this time! You guys in the IRC suck at reviving dead ponies!)

Man, I still remember that freaked out looking orange colt. bezier curves, wasn't he? Good Avvy, that. I'll have to check your signature see if it's still there.

[AlterForm]

Well, all the other aristocrats are total jerks. Maybe his special power is noblesse oblige (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noblesse_oblige)

Which immediately makes me think of Eden of the East (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eden_of_the_East). Which ... hmm. Ya know, not sure I've seen an EotE/MLP crossover yet. Hmmm.




Sweet! You're still crazy-awesome, Alterform. Now to hit up the artist and get permission to use it as an avatar. And then get killed and revived (properly this time! You guys in the IRC suck at reviving dead ponies!)

Please do ask for a copy without the watermark. I'm pretty sure you saw it, but if you had missed it I would have cringed every time I saw you posting with it. And you don't want that.


Man, I still remember that freaked out looking orange colt. bezier curves, wasn't he? Good Avvy, that. I'll have to check your signature see if it's still there.

I'll have you know it was Bayzier Curves. He's an intentionally meta character, and thus the pun is important.



:smallwink:

[TheAmishPirate]

Level 5 adorable hazard inbound.

You have been warned.

http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/15284075205/4/tumblr_lx7hg5TTca1r0biau

[otakuryoga]

ok...this might just be

The

Best

Thing

EVER!
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/5959/Looney-Ponies%3A-Friendship-is-Looney!

Pony/Loony Toons crossover

and a bit late because i aint been around the last 2 days but
all my condolonces and good wishes to you and your family Raz

[Aotrs Commander]

And then get killed and revived (properly this time! You guys in the IRC suck at reviving dead ponies!)

Well, SiuiS, if you want the job done properly, why not ask a professional...?

The Lich pony is exceedingly awesome, by the way. (I didn't comment on it last night, as teh internets were playing up. But actually, when I saw it I immediately thought of SiuiS...)

[Gamerlord]

Finally! We are only a few days from NEW PONY TIME!

Let's have some speculation.

Will this be pure Apple Bloom & Granny Smith, or can it count as an AJ episode? Also, what are your expectations for this? I'm not the biggest fans of the CMC, but I trust the writers, so....
Probably going to be mainly Applebloom & Granny, though Applejack probably will make an appearance. My money is on Granny turning out to be a badass when she was younger. That or having a completely mundane but nevertheless very interesting back story. And since I'm not a fan of the CMC, I'm probably going to dislike it.

[Titanium Fox]

Clearly Lyra is the victim here.

I dunno, Lyra doesn't seem to be fighting it all that hard...


That was fun! I might get to play a pathfinder pony game myself soon. I hope it's as good.

Best part: Violent Generosity.

And the worst part is how well it worked. I seamlessly flowed from whining (for 2d6 sonic damage per round) to essentially *****ing at him, and then assaulted him with violence. The crit gave me 1d4 x2 damage for improvised weapon. Apparently I almost knocked him out with his own horn.


You can't launch any ships without Champagne, silly! I regret nothing! PUNS FOR THE PUN THRONE

QUICKLY! MIDNIGHT! WE MUST GET THE CHAMPAGNE!


I'm putting this in my signature... I laughed for over five minutes. Give or take, it was hard to pay attention to the clock through my tears. :smalltongue:

*Ahem*

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lj7cujXO5r1qafrh6.gif

Wow, I've been sigged. I feel so ridiculously and disproportionately ecstatic!


Finally! We are only a few days from NEW PONY TIME!

Let's have some speculation.

Will this be pure Apple Bloom & Granny Smith, or can it count as an AJ episode? Also, what are your expectations for this? I'm not the biggest fans of the CMC, but I trust the writers, so....

I really hope it's an Applejack episode. Applejack needs more episodes. However, I don't mind the CMC anymore. They've characterized them enough in S2 beyond "These ponies are meant to be annoying to anyone over the age of 3" that I can deal with it. They still rank as my bottom three ponies, but now I don't cringe at them.

Fun fact: I skipped the CMC Performance the first time I went through all of the episodes. Because it was that unpleasant to watch for me.


Level 5 adorable hazard inbound.

You have been warned.

http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/15284075205/4/tumblr_lx7hg5TTca1r0biau

I read that as "Level 5 adorable wizard inbound." and then immediately thought to myself.

"Wait. Is this a level five adorable Twilight or Trixie? Or is this a wizard that casts adorab- RUN FOR YOUR LIFE"

[Dexam]

Level 5 adorable hazard inbound.

You have been warned.

http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/15284075205/4/tumblr_lx7hg5TTca1r0biau

And so SpeccySY continues in the quest to destroy us all via Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie induced cuteness:


http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxbbwtzEbj1r0biauo1_500.png

http://th09.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2012/004/e/a/haters_gonna_hate_by_speccysy-d4lcixl.png

http://th05.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2012/002/3/9/wutshy_by_speccysy-d4l54h3.png

http://th00.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2012/004/2/c/ponytailshy_by_speccysy-d4lcmws.png

[Titanium Fox]

Probably going to be mainly Applebloom & Granny, though Applejack probably will make an appearance. My money is on Granny turning out to be a badass when she was younger. That or having a completely mundane but nevertheless very interesting back story. And since I'm not a fan of the CMC, I'm probably going to dislike it.


And so SpeccySY continues in the quest to destroy us all via Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie induced cuteness:


http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxbbwtzEbj1r0biauo1_500.png

http://th09.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2012/004/e/a/haters_gonna_hate_by_speccysy-d4lcixl.png

http://th05.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2012/002/3/9/wutshy_by_speccysy-d4l54h3.png

http://th00.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2012/004/2/c/ponytailshy_by_speccysy-d4lcmws.png



...SO... CUUUUUUUTTTEEE

[Eakin]

Wow, this "When I'm [X]" meme has produced a LOT of pony videos (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL86C895AA00FFB25B) but I can't find any AJ ones! Poor, under appreciated AJ...

And new Friendship is Witchcraft this afternoon or tomorrow! The anticipation over new pony content has been doubled!

[Gamerlord]

...Any reason you quoted me Titanium? :smallconfused:

[Dexam]

Okay, Ponythread. Here's a short fanfic that took me ages to finish due to constant interruptions, lack of time, lack of energy/enthusiam, and a couple of places totally scrapped and re-written. I don't even have a name for it. It's my first piece of MLP:FiM fan-fiction, and the last time I wrote a fan-fic was about four years ago; so please forgive me for being a bit rusty.

Feedback is appreciated:

Rainbow Dash hovered in the air, sky-blue wings gently flapping as she critically eyed the towering mass of dark cloud before her. She rubbed her chin with a contemplative hoof before zipping over to a cloud bank and plucking off a small tuft of dusky stratocumulus. Judging the best position, she deftly manoeuvred the smaller grey cloud into the near pitch-black giant of cumulonimbus that darkened the sky. As the larger cloud quickly absorbed its smaller cousin, it darkened even further and began to rumble like a sleeping dragon. Flickers of lightning illuminated its interior and a stiff breeze tugged at Rainbow Dash's namesake mane and tail. Nodding with satisfaction, she spiralled downwards to land lightly on the grass next to the pair of ponies seated on the ground.

"Okay, ladies... prepare to be amazed as you become the first ponies in all of Equestria to witness the greatest flying stunt ever performed!" she exclaimed. "I want to hear your best cheering voices."

Applejack doubtfully eyed the grumbling behemoth of cloud. "Y'all sure about doin' this, sugarcube?" the earth pony swiftly clamped an orange hoof against her hat as a stray gust threatened to snatch the broad-brimmed Stetson from atop her yellow maned head. "It looks a mite dangerous t' me."

"Oh, my! D-d-do be careful, won't you Rainbow?" Fluttershy trembled at the sight of the monster cloud, hoofs edging up involuntarily to cover her turquoise eyes. "Eeeek!" She squealed and cowered as a particularly bright flash of lightning crashed within its dark borders.

"Pffft!" Rainbow Dash scoffed, waving a hoof dismissively. "If I want to become the first pegasus in Equestria to win Cloudsdale's Best Young Flier two years running, I need to stay ahead of the competition. I need something new and exciting." She licked her lips and tried in vain to smooth back her spikey multi-coloured mane. "If I can combine a Sonic Rainboon and a Thunderbolt Rush into a single move... BAM!" Rainbow pumped her hoof into the air, causing Fluttershy to squeak and try to hide behind her own mane. "The contest is in the bag. Besides," she said proudly. "Danger is my middle name."

"Really?" Fluttershy asked shyly, peering out behind the pink waterfall locks of her mane. "Because one time in Junior Flight School you told me that your middle name was mmph-mmp-mmf!" The yellow pegasus was abrupty cut off by a sky-blue hoof in her mouth.

"Eh heh heh." Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously. "No need to bring that up. Anyway, it'll be fine - after all, I am the best young flier in all Equestria and captain of the Ponyville weather team."

"Well... if y'all say so, then ah believe in you." Applejack laid a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder. "RD, you get up there'n show that there cloud who's BOSS!"

"Um... yay Rainbow Dash, you rock! Woo-hoo?"

The bright blue pegasus rolled her eyes slightly at Fluttershy's lame cheer, but was grateful for her presence all the same. Pulling her replica Wonderbolt goggles over her eyes, Rainbow Dash tapped hooves with Fluttershy and Applejack for luck, then launched herself into the air with powerful strokes of her feathered wings. Up and up she soared, gaining altitude by punching through smaller clouds until Applejack and Fluttershy were tiny orange and yellow-pink dots at the limit of her vision. The thunderhead, however, was a huge black target against the green earth below and the lighter grey clouds that swirled around it. Rainbow selected the most optimum cloud for her launch point, licked her lips in nervous anticipation, and then dove towards the great black cloud that flickered with inner lightning. Faster and faster her wings beat, steadily gaining the velocity necessary to perform a Sonic Rainboom.

It was as the thunderhead grew closer, filling her vision and distorted by the spectral swirling of the narrowing mach-cone, that Rainbow came to the realisation that she had made two slight but important miscalculations in performing the stunt. Firstly, and of less concern, was that she hadn't accounted for the fact that the smaller, fluffy white clouds that orbited the mammoth storm cloud had slowed her descent, meaning she wouldn't be able to achieve the velocity required to pull off the Sonic Rainboom. Secondly and more importantly, as she pulled into her curved power-dive beneath the thunderhead, she realised that she had forgotten that sometimes lightning can leap from the ground upwards.

"Uh oh…"

A deafening crack of thunder rang out and a jagged bolt of lightning split the sky directly in front of her. For a split second Rainbow Dash’s world became filled with nothing but searing, blinding white light and the sound of ringing in her ears. There was the briefest moment of a tumbling sensation, before all went black.

* * *

Rainbow Dash’s eyes fluttered open. "Wow, that was close one, huh guys?" Silence was the only reply. "Guys? Fluttershy? AJ?" She shook her head to clear it of the slight muzziness that seemed to permeate her senses and took a moment to examine her situation, and she quickly became aware of what a strange situation it was. Firstly, she was lying on her back with wings unfurled; and instead of the lush, soft grass of the meadow beneath her, it was hard, cool, and grainy – something like small pebbles or very coarse sand. Secondly, the towering thundercloud that had been storming overhead in gloomy daylight had been replaced by an unfamiliar night sky that shone with cold, unblinking stars beyond count. Thirdly, in place of the rumble of thunder and the hiss of wind there was a silence that was almost oppressive.

"Okay, joke’s over. Very funny… you can come out now and laugh!" The gloomy silence swallowed her voice as she called out with increasing uncertainty. More memories came skulking back, and Rainbow realised something else that was wrong. Having been struck by lightning more than once before, she expected that she should be sore for days or even weeks, but for some reason there was no pain at all.

Rainbow climbed unsteadily to her hooves and took better stock of her surroundings. Her initial guess had been correct. She was lying on some sort of black, coarse, pebbly sand which glittered in the starlight. The strange sand stretched as far as the eye could see – which was impossible to tell in the strange, featureless landscape and dim light of the star-speckled sky. Rainbow Dash suddenly had the weird feeling that the stars in the sky might not be stars at all, but the endless glittering desert curving up into the sky. She shivered, and wished that Twilight Sparkle were here, with her egg-head book knowledge to explain some of this – though looking around the desolate landscape, she fervently wished that any of her pony friends were here!

Burying the looming feelings of loneliness, Rainbow peered about in the gloom, looking for anything that might provide some clue as to where she was… was she dreaming? If so, it was the weirdest dream she’d had in a long while. At this point, she realised with a slight shock that the unblinking stars were not the only source of illumination here – there was light somehow coming from her!

Rainbow raised a sky-blue hoof in front of her face and observed the faint glow that emanated from it. "Heh… Cool!" she chuckled as waved the hoof rapidly, leaving a soft blue blur of after-vision. One thing was certain – wherever she was now, it was nowhere she could even imagine she would be. Uncertain of what to do next, Rainbow took a closer look at the strange pebbles she was standing on. Idly she kicked at them, sending several flying through the air, leaving sparkly trails in their passing. "Wait…" The pegasus pony bent down for a closer look. The pebbles weren’t pebbles at all; they were diamonds - black diamonds to be precise. "Wahoo! I’m rich! Rarity is gonna be so jealous." She scooped up a double-hoof full of the stones and flung them into the air, letting them rain down with a soft a rattling while she chuckled with glee. The noise felt out of place in the strange stillness, and Rainbow peered about suddenly conscientious of attracting attention. "This is silly," she thought. "There must be a whole desert full of these diamonds here, which makes them practically worthless. And even if I could get some home to Ponyville, I don’t know where here is or how to get to home." With a gentle sigh, she sat down on a Princess’s ransom worth of diamonds and began to think about what to do next. With no obvious landmarks, should she pick a random direction to head in? Should she stay put and hope that somepony came along to explain what in the hay was going on?

After a short period of time spent contemplating, Rainbow suddenly couldn’t shake the feeling that something in the darkness was watching her. She leaped into the air, wings beating and diamonds flung in all directions. "C’mon out, whoever you are! I know you’re there!" Rainbow Dash boxed at the shadows, punching randomly into the darkness with her hooves and calling out to the unseen watcher. "I’m not afraid of you!"

"I KNOW."

The voice was colder than ice; darker than a moonless, starless night; and rang with the echoing silence that follows an avalanche. It poured into Rainbow’s head without bothering to use her ears.

"Wh-who’s there?" The blue pegasus pony gulped nervously. "Show yourself."

A shadow that was slightly deeper than the darkness around it moved forward into the soft nimbus of light surrounding Rainbow Dash, revealing the strangest pony that she had ever seen. It was tall, perhaps as tall as Princess Celestia, robed and completely covered in hooded black cloak that could have been fashioned from liquid night. Intense blue eyes that blazed like falling stars burned within the shadow of the deep hood, and a bone-white unicorn’s horn protruded from inside the cowl. The odd-looking unicorn… no, alicorn, Rainbow corrected herself, noting the tell-tale bulge of folded wings concealed beneath the cloak… raised a chipped, sun-bleached hoof to it’s head and flung back the hood, eliciting a gasp of shock from the pegasus. The face revealed was that of a skeleton, bare white bone with not a scrap of flesh or wisp of hide to be seen. The star-like eyes were even more so than she had first thought, no orbs but instead a pair of miniature blue suns that burned inside of empty black sockets. The mouth was fixed in a permanent smile, a rictus grin that showed too many teeth. The strange alicorn sprouted no mane from it’s shiny pate, just that long white horn that Rainbow now saw was chipped and cracked, as if weathered with great age.

"You’re… you’re…" She stuttered into silence.

"I AM KNOWN BY MANY NAMES; PALE PONY; THE GRIM TROTTER; ENDLESS SLEEP. THE EARTH PONIES OF OLD CALLED ME THE DARK HARVESTER. AMONG THE PEGASAI I AM FINAL FLIGHT. TO THE UNICORNS, I AM THE OMEGA PONY. BUT MOST COMMONLY, I AM CALLED DEATH."

Rainbow Dash swallowed, and somehow managed to summon her voice. "You… you mean I’m dead?!" She whispered in disbelief.

"NOT YET."

"Whew! That’s a relief." She wiped a faintly glowing blue hoof across her multi-colour brow. "For a moment there I thought… wait!" She gave a start, and peered suspiciously at that terrible expressionless face. "Just what do you mean by ‘not yet’? Do you mean that I’m dying?!"

"YES."

"Oh. Well. In that case… See ya!" In a streak of multi-hued light, Rainbow Dash was gone. She had no idea where she was headed; all she knew was that she was heading away. Fast, she flew, faster than she had ever flown before. The sparkling desert below and endless stars above became washed-out blurs in her vision. Why there was no Sonic Rainboom, she had no idea. Maybe it was something to do with the strange air in this place, for she was flying way faster than necessary to pull off a Rainboom.

After an indeterminate amount of time had passed, Rainbow slowed, and finally stopped, touching lightly to the ground in a location that could have been identical to the one she just flew from. For some odd reason she didn’t feel the least bit tired. It was like she could fly forever in this strange place.

"YOU CANNOT OUTFLY ME, RAINBOW DASH; NOT HERE, OF ALL PLACES." Death stepped silently out of the shadows in front of Rainbow Dash. Massive white wings unfurled from beneath his cloak, displaying battered, torn and missing pinions. "THOUGH YOU MIGHT FLY AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT, I FLY AT THE SPEED OF DARK; FOR NO MATTER HOW FAST THE LIGHT MAY TRAVEL, IT WILL ALWAYS FIND THE DARKNESS IS THERE BEFORE IT." The wings folded and disappeared beneath the liquid cloak. Death raised a placating hoof as Rainbow Dash took to the air and prepared to fly again, despite his promises. "PLEASE WAIT," the strange voice intoned inside her head. "I MEAN YOU NO HARM. WHEN I SAID THAT YOU WERE DYING, IT WAS THE TRUTH. ALL THAT LIVES MUST DIE; THE REST IS MERELY A MATTER OF TIME."

Rainbow Dash hovered in the air, forelegs folded across her chest, and she stared suspiciously at Death. "How do I know you’re not going to kill me?"

"I DO NOT KILL." The tone of voice was injured, and just slightly annoyed. "I MERELY FACILITATE THE NATURAL PROCESS BY ESCORTING THOSE WHO DIE ONTO THEIR NEXT EXISTANCE."

"Huh?"

Death sighed. "OBSERVE." Death reached into those undeniably beautiful black robes with a hoof, and pulled forth the weirdest looking hourglass Rainbow Dash had ever seen. The top and bottom bulbs were fashioned like fluffy clouds; a stylised lightning bolt and its’ inverted mirror twin made up the cinch. Incredibly fine multicoloured sand fell in a slow stream from the top to the bottom, and Rainbow noticed that there was more sand in the top bulb than the bottom. "THIS IS YOUR LIFE TIMER, RAINBOW DASH. IT MEASURES THE SPAN OF YOUR CURRENT LIFE, AND AS YOU CAN SEE, YOU HAVE NO SHORTAGE OF TIME LEFT."

"So, exactly how long have I-"

"LET US JUST SAY ‘SUFFICIENT’, AND LEAVE IT AT THAT." The life timer hourglass disappeared beneath the cloak. "DO YOU BELIEVE ME KNOW WHEN I SAY THAT I AM OF NO DANGER TO YOU?"

Rainbow Dash stared somewhat doubtfully at Death. "I guess so," she finally admitted, somewhat grudgingly. "But if I’m not dead, and I’m not dying anytime soon, then what the hay am I doing here?"

"THAT QUESTION IS EASILY ANSWERED, MISS DASH," Death’s cloak billowed dramatically in some unseen and unfelt breeze. "YOU ARE CURRENTLY UNDERGOING A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE."

"Wait, was that a joke?" Rainbow narrowed her raspberry-coloured eyes and glared at the skeletal pony.

"JUST A LITTLE BIT OF HUMOUR, BUT AN ACCURATE EXPLANATION NONE THE LESS." Death replied in that cold monotone voice that apparently didn’t require a mouth or even a tongue. "PLASE FORGIVE MY INDULGENCE… SO MUCH OF MY LINE OF WORK IS SUCH GRAVE UNDERTAKINGS."

She gave Death a flat look, and let that one pass. "Where is 'here' for that matter?" Rainbow pondered momentarily. She was beginning to get an understanding of how this Death pony thought. "And tell me why I am here!" she demanded.

"HERE IS THE THICKNESS OF THE LINE BETWEEN SHADOW AND LIGHT, THE ETERNITY OF SILENCE THAT EXISTS BETWEEN TWO TICKS OF THE CLOCK, THE PAUSE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH WITH EACH BEAT OF THE HEART AND DRAWING OF BREATH." Death noticed Rainbow Dash’s puzzled expression. "THIS IS MY COUNTRY," Death explained simply. "DO YOU LIKE IT?"

"Yes, yes, it’s very pretty." Rainbow Dash exclaimed irritably. She took to the air with a flutter of cerulean feathers, flying up to stare at Death, eye-to-eye socket. "Now stop beating about the clouds and tell me WHY!"

There was an awkward silence, and Death kicked gently at the diamond sand with a fore-hoof. Eventually Death ventured "HAVE YOU EVER HEARD THE EXPRESSION 'FLIRTING WITH DEATH'?"

"Pfft! Of course!" Rainbow Dash said, waving a hoof dismissively. "Ponies say that about me all… the… time…" She trailed off as her brain finally caught up with her mouth, and her jaw sagged in disbelief. Rainbow stared at Death in wide-eyed shock, and got the strongest impression that if the skeletal pony had cheeks, they would be blushing furiously. "You mean - ?"

"RAINBOW DASH," Death blurted. "WOULD YOU GO ON A DATE WITH ME?"

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Wow, this "When I'm [X]" meme has produced a LOT of pony videos (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL86C895AA00FFB25B) but I can't find any AJ ones! Poor, under appreciated AJ...


Every single video on that playlist has the a palette-spapped Wet Mane pic in it.

Not complaining, mind. :smalltongue:


Oh, and I found this here Applejack one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oebwwxzSz14)

[Lix Lorn]

Speculation time! Fancy Pants' special talent. Bronies, begin.


Being awesome. That is it.
Seconded.


Sweet! You're still crazy-awesome, Alterform. Now to hit up the artist and get permission to use it as an avatar. And then get killed and revived (properly this time! You guys in the IRC suck at reviving dead ponies!)
I'm competent at it!

[Topaz]

Finally! We are only a few days from NEW PONY TIME!

Let's have some speculation.

Will this be pure Apple Bloom & Granny Smith, or can it count as an AJ episode? Also, what are your expectations for this? I'm not the biggest fans of the CMC, but I trust the writers, so....
I expect it to be Granny's back story, to be entertaining, and to ruin my fanfic. :smallbiggrin:

And I like the Cutie Mark Crusaders, so that's not an issue for me. I just wish we would get a Scootaloo focus episode.

Okay, Ponythread. Here's a short fanfic that took me ages to finish due to constant interruptions, lack of time, lack of energy/enthusiam, and a couple of places totally scrapped and re-written. I don't even have a name for it. It's my first piece of MLP:FiM fan-fiction, and the last time I wrote a fan-fic was about four years ago; so please forgive me for being a bit rusty.

Feedback is appreciated:
I enjoyed it! I thought you did a good job with characterizing Rainbow Dash as well as the Discworld-esque Death, and no grammatical issues jumped out at me. I hope you keep on with it!

[TheAmishPirate]

Okay, Ponythread. Here's a short fanfic that took me ages to finish due to constant interruptions, lack of time, lack of energy/enthusiam, and a couple of places totally scrapped and re-written. I don't even have a name for it. It's my first piece of MLP:FiM fan-fiction, and the last time I wrote a fan-fic was about four years ago; so please forgive me for being a bit rusty.

Feedback is appreciated:

Rainbow Dash hovered in the air, sky-blue wings gently flapping as she critically eyed the towering mass of dark cloud before her. She rubbed her chin with a contemplative hoof before zipping over to a cloud bank and plucking off a small tuft of dusky stratocumulus. Judging the best position, she deftly manoeuvred the smaller grey cloud into the near pitch-black giant of cumulonimbus that darkened the sky. As the larger cloud quickly absorbed its smaller cousin, it darkened even further and began to rumble like a sleeping dragon. Flickers of lightning illuminated its interior and a stiff breeze tugged at Rainbow Dash's namesake mane and tail. Nodding with satisfaction, she spiralled downwards to land lightly on the grass next to the pair of ponies seated on the ground.

"Okay, ladies... prepare to be amazed as you become the first ponies in all of Equestria to witness the greatest flying stunt ever performed!" she exclaimed. "I want to hear your best cheering voices."

Applejack doubtfully eyed the grumbling behemoth of cloud. "Y'all sure about doin' this, sugarcube?" the earth pony swiftly clamped an orange hoof against her hat as a stray gust threatened to snatch the broad-brimmed Stetson from atop her yellow maned head. "It looks a mite dangerous t' me."

"Oh, my! D-d-do be careful, won't you Rainbow?" Fluttershy trembled at the sight of the monster cloud, hoofs edging up involuntarily to cover her turquoise eyes. "Eeeek!" She squealed and cowered as a particularly bright flash of lightning crashed within its dark borders.

"Pffft!" Rainbow Dash scoffed, waving a hoof dismissively. "If I want to become the first pegasus in Equestria to win Cloudsdale's Best Young Flier two years running, I need to stay ahead of the competition. I need something new and exciting." She licked her lips and tried in vain to smooth back her spikey multi-coloured mane. "If I can combine a Sonic Rainboon and a Thunderbolt Rush into a single move... BAM!" Rainbow pumped her hoof into the air, causing Fluttershy to squeak and try to hide behind her own mane. "The contest is in the bag. Besides," she said proudly. "Danger is my middle name."

"Really?" Fluttershy asked shyly, peering out behind the pink waterfall locks of her mane. "Because one time in Junior Flight School you told me that your middle name was mmph-mmp-mmf!" The yellow pegasus was abrupty cut off by a sky-blue hoof in her mouth.

"Eh heh heh." Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously. "No need to bring that up. Anyway, it'll be fine - after all, I am the best young flier in all Equestria and captain of the Ponyville weather team."

"Well... if y'all say so, then ah believe in you." Applejack laid a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder. "RD, you get up there'n show that there cloud who's BOSS!"

"Um... yay Rainbow Dash, you rock! Woo-hoo?"

The bright blue pegasus rolled her eyes slightly at Fluttershy's lame cheer, but was grateful for her presence all the same. Pulling her replica Wonderbolt goggles over her eyes, Rainbow Dash tapped hooves with Fluttershy and Applejack for luck, then launched herself into the air with powerful strokes of her feathered wings. Up and up she soared, gaining altitude by punching through smaller clouds until Applejack and Fluttershy were tiny orange and yellow-pink dots at the limit of her vision. The thunderhead, however, was a huge black target against the green earth below and the lighter grey clouds that swirled around it. Rainbow selected the most optimum cloud for her launch point, licked her lips in nervous anticipation, and then dove towards the great black cloud that flickered with inner lightning. Faster and faster her wings beat, steadily gaining the velocity necessary to perform a Sonic Rainboom.

It was as the thunderhead grew closer, filling her vision and distorted by the spectral swirling of the narrowing mach-cone, that Rainbow came to the realisation that she had made two slight but important miscalculations in performing the stunt. Firstly, and of less concern, was that she hadn't accounted for the fact that the smaller, fluffy white clouds that orbited the mammoth storm cloud had slowed her descent, meaning she wouldn't be able to achieve the velocity required to pull off the Sonic Rainboom. Secondly and more importantly, as she pulled into her curved power-dive beneath the thunderhead, she realised that she had forgotten that sometimes lightning can leap from the ground upwards.

"Uh oh…"

A deafening crack of thunder rang out and a jagged bolt of lightning split the sky directly in front of her. For a split second Rainbow Dash’s world became filled with nothing but searing, blinding white light and the sound of ringing in her ears. There was the briefest moment of a tumbling sensation, before all went black.

* * *

Rainbow Dash’s eyes fluttered open. "Wow, that was close one, huh guys?" Silence was the only reply. "Guys? Fluttershy? AJ?" She shook her head to clear it of the slight muzziness that seemed to permeate her senses and took a moment to examine her situation, and she quickly became aware of what a strange situation it was. Firstly, she was lying on her back with wings unfurled; and instead of the lush, soft grass of the meadow beneath her, it was hard, cool, and grainy – something like small pebbles or very coarse sand. Secondly, the towering thundercloud that had been storming overhead in gloomy daylight had been replaced by an unfamiliar night sky that shone with cold, unblinking stars beyond count. Thirdly, in place of the rumble of thunder and the hiss of wind there was a silence that was almost oppressive.

"Okay, joke’s over. Very funny… you can come out now and laugh!" The gloomy silence swallowed her voice as she called out with increasing uncertainty. More memories came skulking back, and Rainbow realised something else that was wrong. Having been struck by lightning more than once before, she expected that she should be sore for days or even weeks, but for some reason there was no pain at all.

Rainbow climbed unsteadily to her hooves and took better stock of her surroundings. Her initial guess had been correct. She was lying on some sort of black, coarse, pebbly sand which glittered in the starlight. The strange sand stretched as far as the eye could see – which was impossible to tell in the strange, featureless landscape and dim light of the star-speckled sky. Rainbow Dash suddenly had the weird feeling that the stars in the sky might not be stars at all, but the endless glittering desert curving up into the sky. She shivered, and wished that Twilight Sparkle were here, with her egg-head book knowledge to explain some of this – though looking around the desolate landscape, she fervently wished that any of her pony friends were here!

Burying the looming feelings of loneliness, Rainbow peered about in the gloom, looking for anything that might provide some clue as to where she was… was she dreaming? If so, it was the weirdest dream she’d had in a long while. At this point, she realised with a slight shock that the unblinking stars were not the only source of illumination here – there was light somehow coming from her!

Rainbow raised a sky-blue hoof in front of her face and observed the faint glow that emanated from it. "Heh… Cool!" she chuckled as waved the hoof rapidly, leaving a soft blue blur of after-vision. One thing was certain – wherever she was now, it was nowhere she could even imagine she would be. Uncertain of what to do next, Rainbow took a closer look at the strange pebbles she was standing on. Idly she kicked at them, sending several flying through the air, leaving sparkly trails in their passing. "Wait…" The pegasus pony bent down for a closer look. The pebbles weren’t pebbles at all; they were diamonds - black diamonds to be precise. "Wahoo! I’m rich! Rarity is gonna be so jealous." She scooped up a double-hoof full of the stones and flung them into the air, letting them rain down with a soft a rattling while she chuckled with glee. The noise felt out of place in the strange stillness, and Rainbow peered about suddenly conscientious of attracting attention. "This is silly," she thought. "There must be a whole desert full of these diamonds here, which makes them practically worthless. And even if I could get some home to Ponyville, I don’t know where here is or how to get to home." With a gentle sigh, she sat down on a Princess’s ransom worth of diamonds and began to think about what to do next. With no obvious landmarks, should she pick a random direction to head in? Should she stay put and hope that somepony came along to explain what in the hay was going on?

After a short period of time spent contemplating, Rainbow suddenly couldn’t shake the feeling that something in the darkness was watching her. She leaped into the air, wings beating and diamonds flung in all directions. "C’mon out, whoever you are! I know you’re there!" Rainbow Dash boxed at the shadows, punching randomly into the darkness with her hooves and calling out to the unseen watcher. "I’m not afraid of you!"

"I KNOW."

The voice was colder than ice; darker than a moonless, starless night; and rang with the echoing silence that follows an avalanche. It poured into Rainbow’s head without bothering to use her ears.

"Wh-who’s there?" The blue pegasus pony gulped nervously. "Show yourself."

A shadow that was slightly deeper than the darkness around it moved forward into the soft nimbus of light surrounding Rainbow Dash, revealing the strangest pony that she had ever seen. It was tall, perhaps as tall as Princess Celestia, robed and completely covered in hooded black cloak that could have been fashioned from liquid night. Intense blue eyes that blazed like falling stars burned within the shadow of the deep hood, and a bone-white unicorn’s horn protruded from inside the cowl. The odd-looking unicorn… no, alicorn, Rainbow corrected herself, noting the tell-tale bulge of folded wings concealed beneath the cloak… raised a chipped, sun-bleached hoof to it’s head and flung back the hood, eliciting a gasp of shock from the pegasus. The face revealed was that of a skeleton, bare white bone with not a scrap of flesh or wisp of hide to be seen. The star-like eyes were even more so than she had first thought, no orbs but instead a pair of miniature blue suns that burned inside of empty black sockets. The mouth was fixed in a permanent smile, a rictus grin that showed too many teeth. The strange alicorn sprouted no mane from it’s shiny pate, just that long white horn that Rainbow now saw was chipped and cracked, as if weathered with great age.

"You’re… you’re…" She stuttered into silence.

"I AM KNOWN BY MANY NAMES; PALE PONY; THE GRIM TROTTER; ENDLESS SLEEP. THE EARTH PONIES OF OLD CALLED ME THE DARK HARVESTER. AMONG THE PEGASAI I AM FINAL FLIGHT. TO THE UNICORNS, I AM THE OMEGA PONY. BUT MOST COMMONLY, I AM CALLED DEATH."

Rainbow Dash swallowed, and somehow managed to summon her voice. "You… you mean I’m dead?!" She whispered in disbelief.

"NOT YET."

"Whew! That’s a relief." She wiped a faintly glowing blue hoof across her multi-colour brow. "For a moment there I thought… wait!" She gave a start, and peered suspiciously at that terrible expressionless face. "Just what do you mean by ‘not yet’? Do you mean that I’m dying?!"

"YES."

"Oh. Well. In that case… See ya!" In a streak of multi-hued light, Rainbow Dash was gone. She had no idea where she was headed; all she knew was that she was heading away. Fast, she flew, faster than she had ever flown before. The sparkling desert below and endless stars above became washed-out blurs in her vision. Why there was no Sonic Rainboom, she had no idea. Maybe it was something to do with the strange air in this place, for she was flying way faster than necessary to pull off a Rainboom.

After an indeterminate amount of time had passed, Rainbow slowed, and finally stopped, touching lightly to the ground in a location that could have been identical to the one she just flew from. For some odd reason she didn’t feel the least bit tired. It was like she could fly forever in this strange place.

"YOU CANNOT OUTFLY ME, RAINBOW DASH; NOT HERE, OF ALL PLACES." Death stepped silently out of the shadows in front of Rainbow Dash. Massive white wings unfurled from beneath his cloak, displaying battered, torn and missing pinions. "THOUGH YOU MIGHT FLY AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT, I FLY AT THE SPEED OF DARK; FOR NO MATTER HOW FAST THE LIGHT MAY TRAVEL, IT WILL ALWAYS FIND THE DARKNESS IS THERE BEFORE IT." The wings folded and disappeared beneath the liquid cloak. Death raised a placating hoof as Rainbow Dash took to the air and prepared to fly again, despite his promises. "PLEASE WAIT," the strange voice intoned inside her head. "I MEAN YOU NO HARM. WHEN I SAID THAT YOU WERE DYING, IT WAS THE TRUTH. ALL THAT LIVES MUST DIE; THE REST IS MERELY A MATTER OF TIME."

Rainbow Dash hovered in the air, forelegs folded across her chest, and she stared suspiciously at Death. "How do I know you’re not going to kill me?"

"I DO NOT KILL." The tone of voice was injured, and just slightly annoyed. "I MERELY FACILITATE THE NATURAL PROCESS BY ESCORTING THOSE WHO DIE ONTO THEIR NEXT EXISTANCE."

"Huh?"

Death sighed. "OBSERVE." Death reached into those undeniably beautiful black robes with a hoof, and pulled forth the weirdest looking hourglass Rainbow Dash had ever seen. The top and bottom bulbs were fashioned like fluffy clouds; a stylised lightning bolt and its’ inverted mirror twin made up the cinch. Incredibly fine multicoloured sand fell in a slow stream from the top to the bottom, and Rainbow noticed that there was more sand in the top bulb than the bottom. "THIS IS YOUR LIFE TIMER, RAINBOW DASH. IT MEASURES THE SPAN OF YOUR CURRENT LIFE, AND AS YOU CAN SEE, YOU HAVE NO SHORTAGE OF TIME LEFT."

"So, exactly how long have I-"

"LET US JUST SAY ‘SUFFICIENT’, AND LEAVE IT AT THAT." The life timer hourglass disappeared beneath the cloak. "DO YOU BELIEVE ME KNOW WHEN I SAY THAT I AM OF NO DANGER TO YOU?"

Rainbow Dash stared somewhat doubtfully at Death. "I guess so," she finally admitted, somewhat grudgingly. "But if I’m not dead, and I’m not dying anytime soon, then what the hay am I doing here?"

"THAT QUESTION IS EASILY ANSWERED, MISS DASH," Death’s cloak billowed dramatically in some unseen and unfelt breeze. "YOU ARE CURRENTLY UNDERGOING A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE."

"Wait, was that a joke?" Rainbow narrowed her raspberry-coloured eyes and glared at the skeletal pony.

"JUST A LITTLE BIT OF HUMOUR, BUT AN ACCURATE EXPLANATION NONE THE LESS." Death replied in that cold monotone voice that apparently didn’t require a mouth or even a tongue. "PLASE FORGIVE MY INDULGENCE… SO MUCH OF MY LINE OF WORK IS SUCH GRAVE UNDERTAKINGS."

She gave Death a flat look, and let that one pass. "Where is 'here' for that matter?" Rainbow pondered momentarily. She was beginning to get an understanding of how this Death pony thought. "And tell me why I am here!" she demanded.

"HERE IS THE THICKNESS OF THE LINE BETWEEN SHADOW AND LIGHT, THE ETERNITY OF SILENCE THAT EXISTS BETWEEN TWO TICKS OF THE CLOCK, THE PAUSE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH WITH EACH BEAT OF THE HEART AND DRAWING OF BREATH." Death noticed Rainbow Dash’s puzzled expression. "THIS IS MY COUNTRY," Death explained simply. "DO YOU LIKE IT?"

"Yes, yes, it’s very pretty." Rainbow Dash exclaimed irritably. She took to the air with a flutter of cerulean feathers, flying up to stare at Death, eye-to-eye socket. "Now stop beating about the clouds and tell me WHY!"

There was an awkward silence, and Death kicked gently at the diamond sand with a fore-hoof. Eventually Death ventured "HAVE YOU EVER HEARD THE EXPRESSION 'FLIRTING WITH DEATH'?"

"Pfft! Of course!" Rainbow Dash said, waving a hoof dismissively. "Ponies say that about me all… the… time…" She trailed off as her brain finally caught up with her mouth, and her jaw sagged in disbelief. Rainbow stared at Death in wide-eyed shock, and got the strongest impression that if the skeletal pony had cheeks, they would be blushing furiously. "You mean - ?"

"RAINBOW DASH," Death blurted. "WOULD YOU GO ON A DATE WITH ME?"


Some thoughts:
You seem to go a bit more into description than is completely necessary at parts. One sentence that stood out for this was:

"the earth pony swiftly clamped an orange hoof against her hat as a stray gust threatened to snatch the broad-brimmed Stetson from atop her yellow maned head"

I think you could get by with:

"the earth pony swiftly clamped an orange hoof against her hat as a stray gust threatened to snatch it from her head"

This may be a more a personal thing, but there is such a thing as over-explaining. I'd ask a few other people if they think the same thing, and edit from there. With that warning given, you certainly have enough good description in this so far. I don't think you ever fail to not describe enough in this; I always had a clear mental picture of the action. Good work.


The plot is interesting. I've seen a death shipping story once, and you're managing without delving as much into the grim stuff as they did; a plus in my book, given the subject matter. I'm definitely hoping you continue this.


I'm competent at it!

Why is it that I can totally see a section titled "Successful Resurrections" on your resume? And why am I now morbidly curious to see what exactly your resume would include? :smalleek:

[Weimann]

Okay, so question for y'all.

As you might be aware, Everfree Radio made a Top 100 Pony Songs 2011 list (http://everfreeradio.com/?p=1447). In the comment field to the related post on Equestria Daily (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/01/top-100-music-list-on-everfree-radio.html), a poster named Hungover asked why Swagberg ft. Maros's Pony Swag (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1HZp4ClFXY) was not even on the list (myself, I expected it in top 10, no questions; it was #1 on Celestia Radio's Top 50 Pony Songs list (http://ponify.me/2012/best-of-2011-album-released/)). One of the list compilers replied:
Hungover: "all of those that don't like ponies, I'ma, I'ma kill you in your sleep" isn't a message either myself, ExplodingPonyToast, or Everfree Radio wanted to endorse.

What? Am I missing something, because I see no such implications in that song. Sure, he's using some harsh language, but MicTheMicrophone's One Trick Pony (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csqp-Mslq_c) made #12 and that's arguably worse. He's also making some feminist comments which I can't quite decipher, but that's not what they hit on (and besides, I think it's a jab at some feminist who argues that the show has too many girls; yeah, that's a major problem -.-').

I'm just asking. What am I missing?

[Titanium Fox]

...Any reason you quoted me Titanium? :smallconfused:

...Whoops. I meant to respond to it, but... Hurp. Just ignore me! :smalleek:

Also. IRC has given me a band name if I ever actually start one like I want. "Waterfall of Whiskey". :smallbiggrin:

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Every single video on that playlist has the a palette-spapped Wet Mane pic in it.

Not complaining, mind. :smalltongue:


Oh, and I found this here Applejack one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oebwwxzSz14)

And another. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m2Z3-g2ORw.) This tune is disturbingly hypnotic.

[MLPSilverbolt]

Okay, Ponythread. Here's a short fanfic that took me ages to finish due to constant interruptions, lack of time, lack of energy/enthusiam, and a couple of places totally scrapped and re-written. I don't even have a name for it. It's my first piece of MLP:FiM fan-fiction, and the last time I wrote a fan-fic was about four years ago; so please forgive me for being a bit rusty.

Feedback is appreciated:

Rainbow Dash hovered in the air, sky-blue wings gently flapping as she critically eyed the towering mass of dark cloud before her. She rubbed her chin with a contemplative hoof before zipping over to a cloud bank and plucking off a small tuft of dusky stratocumulus. Judging the best position, she deftly manoeuvred the smaller grey cloud into the near pitch-black giant of cumulonimbus that darkened the sky. As the larger cloud quickly absorbed its smaller cousin, it darkened even further and began to rumble like a sleeping dragon. Flickers of lightning illuminated its interior and a stiff breeze tugged at Rainbow Dash's namesake mane and tail. Nodding with satisfaction, she spiralled downwards to land lightly on the grass next to the pair of ponies seated on the ground.

"Okay, ladies... prepare to be amazed as you become the first ponies in all of Equestria to witness the greatest flying stunt ever performed!" she exclaimed. "I want to hear your best cheering voices."

Applejack doubtfully eyed the grumbling behemoth of cloud. "Y'all sure about doin' this, sugarcube?" the earth pony swiftly clamped an orange hoof against her hat as a stray gust threatened to snatch the broad-brimmed Stetson from atop her yellow maned head. "It looks a mite dangerous t' me."

"Oh, my! D-d-do be careful, won't you Rainbow?" Fluttershy trembled at the sight of the monster cloud, hoofs edging up involuntarily to cover her turquoise eyes. "Eeeek!" She squealed and cowered as a particularly bright flash of lightning crashed within its dark borders.

"Pffft!" Rainbow Dash scoffed, waving a hoof dismissively. "If I want to become the first pegasus in Equestria to win Cloudsdale's Best Young Flier two years running, I need to stay ahead of the competition. I need something new and exciting." She licked her lips and tried in vain to smooth back her spikey multi-coloured mane. "If I can combine a Sonic Rainboon and a Thunderbolt Rush into a single move... BAM!" Rainbow pumped her hoof into the air, causing Fluttershy to squeak and try to hide behind her own mane. "The contest is in the bag. Besides," she said proudly. "Danger is my middle name."

"Really?" Fluttershy asked shyly, peering out behind the pink waterfall locks of her mane. "Because one time in Junior Flight School you told me that your middle name was mmph-mmp-mmf!" The yellow pegasus was abrupty cut off by a sky-blue hoof in her mouth.

"Eh heh heh." Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously. "No need to bring that up. Anyway, it'll be fine - after all, I am the best young flier in all Equestria and captain of the Ponyville weather team."

"Well... if y'all say so, then ah believe in you." Applejack laid a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder. "RD, you get up there'n show that there cloud who's BOSS!"

"Um... yay Rainbow Dash, you rock! Woo-hoo?"

The bright blue pegasus rolled her eyes slightly at Fluttershy's lame cheer, but was grateful for her presence all the same. Pulling her replica Wonderbolt goggles over her eyes, Rainbow Dash tapped hooves with Fluttershy and Applejack for luck, then launched herself into the air with powerful strokes of her feathered wings. Up and up she soared, gaining altitude by punching through smaller clouds until Applejack and Fluttershy were tiny orange and yellow-pink dots at the limit of her vision. The thunderhead, however, was a huge black target against the green earth below and the lighter grey clouds that swirled around it. Rainbow selected the most optimum cloud for her launch point, licked her lips in nervous anticipation, and then dove towards the great black cloud that flickered with inner lightning. Faster and faster her wings beat, steadily gaining the velocity necessary to perform a Sonic Rainboom.

It was as the thunderhead grew closer, filling her vision and distorted by the spectral swirling of the narrowing mach-cone, that Rainbow came to the realisation that she had made two slight but important miscalculations in performing the stunt. Firstly, and of less concern, was that she hadn't accounted for the fact that the smaller, fluffy white clouds that orbited the mammoth storm cloud had slowed her descent, meaning she wouldn't be able to achieve the velocity required to pull off the Sonic Rainboom. Secondly and more importantly, as she pulled into her curved power-dive beneath the thunderhead, she realised that she had forgotten that sometimes lightning can leap from the ground upwards.

"Uh oh…"

A deafening crack of thunder rang out and a jagged bolt of lightning split the sky directly in front of her. For a split second Rainbow Dash’s world became filled with nothing but searing, blinding white light and the sound of ringing in her ears. There was the briefest moment of a tumbling sensation, before all went black.

* * *

Rainbow Dash’s eyes fluttered open. "Wow, that was close one, huh guys?" Silence was the only reply. "Guys? Fluttershy? AJ?" She shook her head to clear it of the slight muzziness that seemed to permeate her senses and took a moment to examine her situation, and she quickly became aware of what a strange situation it was. Firstly, she was lying on her back with wings unfurled; and instead of the lush, soft grass of the meadow beneath her, it was hard, cool, and grainy – something like small pebbles or very coarse sand. Secondly, the towering thundercloud that had been storming overhead in gloomy daylight had been replaced by an unfamiliar night sky that shone with cold, unblinking stars beyond count. Thirdly, in place of the rumble of thunder and the hiss of wind there was a silence that was almost oppressive.

"Okay, joke’s over. Very funny… you can come out now and laugh!" The gloomy silence swallowed her voice as she called out with increasing uncertainty. More memories came skulking back, and Rainbow realised something else that was wrong. Having been struck by lightning more than once before, she expected that she should be sore for days or even weeks, but for some reason there was no pain at all.

Rainbow climbed unsteadily to her hooves and took better stock of her surroundings. Her initial guess had been correct. She was lying on some sort of black, coarse, pebbly sand which glittered in the starlight. The strange sand stretched as far as the eye could see – which was impossible to tell in the strange, featureless landscape and dim light of the star-speckled sky. Rainbow Dash suddenly had the weird feeling that the stars in the sky might not be stars at all, but the endless glittering desert curving up into the sky. She shivered, and wished that Twilight Sparkle were here, with her egg-head book knowledge to explain some of this – though looking around the desolate landscape, she fervently wished that any of her pony friends were here!

Burying the looming feelings of loneliness, Rainbow peered about in the gloom, looking for anything that might provide some clue as to where she was… was she dreaming? If so, it was the weirdest dream she’d had in a long while. At this point, she realised with a slight shock that the unblinking stars were not the only source of illumination here – there was light somehow coming from her!

Rainbow raised a sky-blue hoof in front of her face and observed the faint glow that emanated from it. "Heh… Cool!" she chuckled as waved the hoof rapidly, leaving a soft blue blur of after-vision. One thing was certain – wherever she was now, it was nowhere she could even imagine she would be. Uncertain of what to do next, Rainbow took a closer look at the strange pebbles she was standing on. Idly she kicked at them, sending several flying through the air, leaving sparkly trails in their passing. "Wait…" The pegasus pony bent down for a closer look. The pebbles weren’t pebbles at all; they were diamonds - black diamonds to be precise. "Wahoo! I’m rich! Rarity is gonna be so jealous." She scooped up a double-hoof full of the stones and flung them into the air, letting them rain down with a soft a rattling while she chuckled with glee. The noise felt out of place in the strange stillness, and Rainbow peered about suddenly conscientious of attracting attention. "This is silly," she thought. "There must be a whole desert full of these diamonds here, which makes them practically worthless. And even if I could get some home to Ponyville, I don’t know where here is or how to get to home." With a gentle sigh, she sat down on a Princess’s ransom worth of diamonds and began to think about what to do next. With no obvious landmarks, should she pick a random direction to head in? Should she stay put and hope that somepony came along to explain what in the hay was going on?

After a short period of time spent contemplating, Rainbow suddenly couldn’t shake the feeling that something in the darkness was watching her. She leaped into the air, wings beating and diamonds flung in all directions. "C’mon out, whoever you are! I know you’re there!" Rainbow Dash boxed at the shadows, punching randomly into the darkness with her hooves and calling out to the unseen watcher. "I’m not afraid of you!"

"I KNOW."

The voice was colder than ice; darker than a moonless, starless night; and rang with the echoing silence that follows an avalanche. It poured into Rainbow’s head without bothering to use her ears.

"Wh-who’s there?" The blue pegasus pony gulped nervously. "Show yourself."

A shadow that was slightly deeper than the darkness around it moved forward into the soft nimbus of light surrounding Rainbow Dash, revealing the strangest pony that she had ever seen. It was tall, perhaps as tall as Princess Celestia, robed and completely covered in hooded black cloak that could have been fashioned from liquid night. Intense blue eyes that blazed like falling stars burned within the shadow of the deep hood, and a bone-white unicorn’s horn protruded from inside the cowl. The odd-looking unicorn… no, alicorn, Rainbow corrected herself, noting the tell-tale bulge of folded wings concealed beneath the cloak… raised a chipped, sun-bleached hoof to it’s head and flung back the hood, eliciting a gasp of shock from the pegasus. The face revealed was that of a skeleton, bare white bone with not a scrap of flesh or wisp of hide to be seen. The star-like eyes were even more so than she had first thought, no orbs but instead a pair of miniature blue suns that burned inside of empty black sockets. The mouth was fixed in a permanent smile, a rictus grin that showed too many teeth. The strange alicorn sprouted no mane from it’s shiny pate, just that long white horn that Rainbow now saw was chipped and cracked, as if weathered with great age.

"You’re… you’re…" She stuttered into silence.

"I AM KNOWN BY MANY NAMES; PALE PONY; THE GRIM TROTTER; ENDLESS SLEEP. THE EARTH PONIES OF OLD CALLED ME THE DARK HARVESTER. AMONG THE PEGASAI I AM FINAL FLIGHT. TO THE UNICORNS, I AM THE OMEGA PONY. BUT MOST COMMONLY, I AM CALLED DEATH."

Rainbow Dash swallowed, and somehow managed to summon her voice. "You… you mean I’m dead?!" She whispered in disbelief.

"NOT YET."

"Whew! That’s a relief." She wiped a faintly glowing blue hoof across her multi-colour brow. "For a moment there I thought… wait!" She gave a start, and peered suspiciously at that terrible expressionless face. "Just what do you mean by ‘not yet’? Do you mean that I’m dying?!"

"YES."

"Oh. Well. In that case… See ya!" In a streak of multi-hued light, Rainbow Dash was gone. She had no idea where she was headed; all she knew was that she was heading away. Fast, she flew, faster than she had ever flown before. The sparkling desert below and endless stars above became washed-out blurs in her vision. Why there was no Sonic Rainboom, she had no idea. Maybe it was something to do with the strange air in this place, for she was flying way faster than necessary to pull off a Rainboom.

After an indeterminate amount of time had passed, Rainbow slowed, and finally stopped, touching lightly to the ground in a location that could have been identical to the one she just flew from. For some odd reason she didn’t feel the least bit tired. It was like she could fly forever in this strange place.

"YOU CANNOT OUTFLY ME, RAINBOW DASH; NOT HERE, OF ALL PLACES." Death stepped silently out of the shadows in front of Rainbow Dash. Massive white wings unfurled from beneath his cloak, displaying battered, torn and missing pinions. "THOUGH YOU MIGHT FLY AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT, I FLY AT THE SPEED OF DARK; FOR NO MATTER HOW FAST THE LIGHT MAY TRAVEL, IT WILL ALWAYS FIND THE DARKNESS IS THERE BEFORE IT." The wings folded and disappeared beneath the liquid cloak. Death raised a placating hoof as Rainbow Dash took to the air and prepared to fly again, despite his promises. "PLEASE WAIT," the strange voice intoned inside her head. "I MEAN YOU NO HARM. WHEN I SAID THAT YOU WERE DYING, IT WAS THE TRUTH. ALL THAT LIVES MUST DIE; THE REST IS MERELY A MATTER OF TIME."

Rainbow Dash hovered in the air, forelegs folded across her chest, and she stared suspiciously at Death. "How do I know you’re not going to kill me?"

"I DO NOT KILL." The tone of voice was injured, and just slightly annoyed. "I MERELY FACILITATE THE NATURAL PROCESS BY ESCORTING THOSE WHO DIE ONTO THEIR NEXT EXISTANCE."

"Huh?"

Death sighed. "OBSERVE." Death reached into those undeniably beautiful black robes with a hoof, and pulled forth the weirdest looking hourglass Rainbow Dash had ever seen. The top and bottom bulbs were fashioned like fluffy clouds; a stylised lightning bolt and its’ inverted mirror twin made up the cinch. Incredibly fine multicoloured sand fell in a slow stream from the top to the bottom, and Rainbow noticed that there was more sand in the top bulb than the bottom. "THIS IS YOUR LIFE TIMER, RAINBOW DASH. IT MEASURES THE SPAN OF YOUR CURRENT LIFE, AND AS YOU CAN SEE, YOU HAVE NO SHORTAGE OF TIME LEFT."

"So, exactly how long have I-"

"LET US JUST SAY ‘SUFFICIENT’, AND LEAVE IT AT THAT." The life timer hourglass disappeared beneath the cloak. "DO YOU BELIEVE ME KNOW WHEN I SAY THAT I AM OF NO DANGER TO YOU?"

Rainbow Dash stared somewhat doubtfully at Death. "I guess so," she finally admitted, somewhat grudgingly. "But if I’m not dead, and I’m not dying anytime soon, then what the hay am I doing here?"

"THAT QUESTION IS EASILY ANSWERED, MISS DASH," Death’s cloak billowed dramatically in some unseen and unfelt breeze. "YOU ARE CURRENTLY UNDERGOING A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE."

"Wait, was that a joke?" Rainbow narrowed her raspberry-coloured eyes and glared at the skeletal pony.

"JUST A LITTLE BIT OF HUMOUR, BUT AN ACCURATE EXPLANATION NONE THE LESS." Death replied in that cold monotone voice that apparently didn’t require a mouth or even a tongue. "PLASE FORGIVE MY INDULGENCE… SO MUCH OF MY LINE OF WORK IS SUCH GRAVE UNDERTAKINGS."

She gave Death a flat look, and let that one pass. "Where is 'here' for that matter?" Rainbow pondered momentarily. She was beginning to get an understanding of how this Death pony thought. "And tell me why I am here!" she demanded.

"HERE IS THE THICKNESS OF THE LINE BETWEEN SHADOW AND LIGHT, THE ETERNITY OF SILENCE THAT EXISTS BETWEEN TWO TICKS OF THE CLOCK, THE PAUSE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH WITH EACH BEAT OF THE HEART AND DRAWING OF BREATH." Death noticed Rainbow Dash’s puzzled expression. "THIS IS MY COUNTRY," Death explained simply. "DO YOU LIKE IT?"

"Yes, yes, it’s very pretty." Rainbow Dash exclaimed irritably. She took to the air with a flutter of cerulean feathers, flying up to stare at Death, eye-to-eye socket. "Now stop beating about the clouds and tell me WHY!"

There was an awkward silence, and Death kicked gently at the diamond sand with a fore-hoof. Eventually Death ventured "HAVE YOU EVER HEARD THE EXPRESSION 'FLIRTING WITH DEATH'?"

"Pfft! Of course!" Rainbow Dash said, waving a hoof dismissively. "Ponies say that about me all… the… time…" She trailed off as her brain finally caught up with her mouth, and her jaw sagged in disbelief. Rainbow stared at Death in wide-eyed shock, and got the strongest impression that if the skeletal pony had cheeks, they would be blushing furiously. "You mean - ?"

"RAINBOW DASH," Death blurted. "WOULD YOU GO ON A DATE WITH ME?"


Wow. Rainbow Dash really HAS been shipped with everypony. http://i.imgur.com/jNLDQ.png

Seriously, I really enjoyed it, and would love to see a continuation. No problems really stood out to me on first read, and I'm usually pretty good at spotting wonky spelling and grammar. Characterization was solid, descriptions were easily visualized, and puns were horrible and wonderful. http://i.imgur.com/XCdKc.png

More please? ^^

I think Death wants Dash to have a much nearer-Death-experience. :smallcool:


Edit: Added one more bit to my review I'd forgotten to include on first submission.

[Dexam]

Okay, so question for y'all.

As you might be aware, Everfree Radio made a Top 100 Pony Songs 2011 list (http://everfreeradio.com/?p=1447). In the comment field to the related post on Equestria Daily (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/01/top-100-music-list-on-everfree-radio.html), a poster named Hungover asked why Swagberg ft. Maros's Pony Swag (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1HZp4ClFXY) was not even on the list (myself, I expected it in top 10, no questions; it was #1 on Celestia Radio's Top 50 Pony Songs list (http://ponify.me/2012/best-of-2011-album-released/)). One of the list compilers replied:

What? Am I missing something, because I see no such implications in that song. Sure, he's using some harsh language, but MicTheMicrophone's One Trick Pony (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csqp-Mslq_c) made #12 and that's arguably worse. He's also making some feminist comments which I can't quite decipher, but that's not what they hit on (and besides, I think it's a jab at some feminist who argues that the show has too many girls; yeah, that's a major problem -.-').

I'm just asking. What am I missing?

What you are missing is the Youtube version of the song differs from the official download version of the song. In particular, the lines:
"Ponies ****ing own, and whoever said they don't should kill themselves. Also, whoever banned ponies from SA... I'm gonna kill you in real life, okay?"

I can understand why Everfree Radio choose not to endorse those particular messages.

[Kairaven]

What? Am I missing something, because I see no such implications in that song. Sure, he's using some harsh language, but MicTheMicrophone's One Trick Pony (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csqp-Mslq_c) made #12 and that's arguably worse. He's also making some feminist comments which I can't quite decipher, but that's not what they hit on (and besides, I think it's a jab at some feminist who argues that the show has too many girls; yeah, that's a major problem -.-').

I'm just asking. What am I missing?

it wasn't an implication, that was one of the aside lyrics swagberg said in the song. Addressed to SA (somethingawful) forum I believe. although in his defense it is rather jokingly said in tone and a poor excuse to use in order to not include the song. There are probably more hidden reason there than we know, but it really doesn't matter all that much in the whole of pony fandom anyway, swagberg is still epic with or without confirmation from everfree.

edit: pinkied

[Lix Lorn]

Why is it that I can totally see a section titled "Successful Resurrections" on your resume? And why am I now morbidly curious to see what exactly your resume would include? :smalleek:
It would be LONG. :smalleek:

[tonberrian]

It would be LONG. :smalleek:

It probably is also NSFW, NSFH, and NSFS.

[Ason]

...is this where one goes to announce his newfound brony-ness?

Having watched the series in its entirety for the first time, spent countless hours on memebase's brony section and been judged by my real life D&D group for thinking friendship is magic, I think it's now official for me. I'm a brony.

Anywho, to make this post worthwhile, I'll tell y'all the story that led to this change. I often work at a religious retreat center, and this past summer, almost all the male staffers and a few of the lady ones took on "Pony Names". I helped instigate this trend by declaring I was Rainbow Dash in an attempt to be ironic when a coworker called me effeminate, but the others really made it take off by actually declaring a "Pony Time" and a "Pony Couch" to see what this show was all about. Now it's at the point where, when we were singing a song with the lyric "Envy, strife and discord cease," another brony and I made eye contact, head nodded in unison about Discord and then had a giggle fit for the rest of the spiritual. Further, my protege at the retreat center has been dubbed Scootaloo in honor of our relationship. If you have a large-ish circle of friends who are bronies, I highly recommend the "Pony Names" trend: it makes for hilarious conversations.

EDIT: And no, we have not named someone Derpy Hooves. We do have a Dr. Whoof though. And our two directors are Princesses Luna and Celestia, though the guy who is Luna doesn't appreciate his new title.

[Forum Explorer]

Speculation time! Fancy Pants' special talent. Bronies, begin.

Being a Magnificent *******. Or perhaps controlling snobs. Or worth recognition.

[MLPSilverbolt]

...is this where one goes to announce his newfound brony-ness?

I'm sure one of the more regular posters will echo this with appropriate image macros later, but... WELCOME TO THE HERD!

Also? Awesome story bro. *brohoof*

[Strife Warzeal]

...is this where one goes to announce his newfound brony-ness?

Having watched the series in its entirety for the first time, spent countless hours on memebase's brony section and been judged by my real life D&D group for thinking friendship is magic, I think it's now official for me. I'm a brony.

Anywho, to make this post worthwhile, I'll tell y'all the story that led to this change. I often work at a religious retreat center, and this past summer, almost all the male staffers and a few of the lady ones took on "Pony Names". I helped instigate this trend by declaring I was Rainbow Dash in an attempt to be ironic when a coworker called me effeminate, but the others really made it take off by actually declaring a "Pony Time" and a "Pony Couch" to see what this show was all about. Now it's at the point where, when we were singing a song with the lyric "Envy, strife and discord cease," another brony and I made eye contact, head nodded in unison about Discord and then had a giggle fit for the rest of the spiritual. Further, my protege at the retreat center has been dubbed Scootaloo in honor of our relationship. If you have a large-ish circle of friends who are bronies, I highly recommend the "Pony Names" trend: it makes for hilarious conversations.

EDIT: And no, we have not named someone Derpy Hooves. We do have a Dr. Whoof though. And our two directors are Princesses Luna and Celestia, though the guy who is Luna doesn't appreciate his new title.

That sounds like you have a quite awesome group of friends, and I'm quite jealous that I only have one full-brony friend(convinced him to join here as DarkReaper) and then one friend who has claimed to like it and has watched a couple of episodes. I wish I had more people to talk about ponies in person with.

[Pendulous]

...is this where one goes to announce his newfound brony-ness?

-snip-


...can I have your friends? The religion retreat thing wouldn't suit me, but still

[Eakin]

And another. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m2Z3-g2ORw.) This tune is disturbingly hypnotic.

I KNOW! It's like youtube popcorn, I just wanna watch a whole handful at a time!


...is this where one goes to announce his newfound brony-ness?

Having watched the series in its entirety for the first time, spent countless hours on memebase's brony section and been judged by my real life D&D group for thinking friendship is magic, I think it's now official for me. I'm a brony.

Anywho, to make this post worthwhile, I'll tell y'all the story that led to this change. I often work at a religious retreat center, and this past summer, almost all the male staffers and a few of the lady ones took on "Pony Names". I helped instigate this trend by declaring I was Rainbow Dash in an attempt to be ironic when a coworker called me effeminate, but the others really made it take off by actually declaring a "Pony Time" and a "Pony Couch" to see what this show was all about. Now it's at the point where, when we were singing a song with the lyric "Envy, strife and discord cease," another brony and I made eye contact, head nodded in unison about Discord and then had a giggle fit for the rest of the spiritual. Further, my protege at the retreat center has been dubbed Scootaloo in honor of our relationship. If you have a large-ish circle of friends who are bronies, I highly recommend the "Pony Names" trend: it makes for hilarious conversations.

EDIT: And no, we have not named someone Derpy Hooves. We do have a Dr. Whoof though. And our two directors are Princesses Luna and Celestia, though the guy who is Luna doesn't appreciate his new title.

That's awesome! Welcome to pony thread. I wish I knew where to find such a high concentration of bronies IRL

[Geno9999]

...is this where one goes to announce his newfound brony-ness?

Indeed this is the thread.
http://d37nnnqwv9amwr.cloudfront.net/photos/images/original/000/223/653/1293755149344-(n1297337026278).jpg

[Pendulous]

Indeed this is the thread.


I just realized through your signature, of what your name "Geno" is from. You are now automatically awesome. Also, the irony of that with using Smarty Pants as an avatar \o/

[Beacon of Chaos]

Ason! Welcome aboard! You're just in time to see my latest image dump! :D

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/ab4d64775b064d3e3506a6babd26ca9a/106874%20-%20applejack%20artist%3Asolar-slash%20Bonbon%20celestia%20derpy_hooves%20fleur_d e_lis%20fluttershy%20luna%20Lyra%20Octavia%20pinki e_pie%20rainbow_dash%20rarity%20spike%20Trixie%20t wilight_sparkle%20vinyl_scratch.jpg

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/a66695eb701fbeb3ce20c7c82272eae1/106907%20-%20Alice_in_Wonderland%20alice_madness_returns%20A merican_McGee%27s_Alice%20artist%3Asaturnspace%20c rossover%20pinkie_pie.png

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/c150cee683e17df8c2a783a22a34c836/106672%20-%20artist%3Aflorecentmoo%20artist%3Araikissu%20rai nbow_dash%20scootaloo.png

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/8702418bca1084b27dba65bc45d87cf3/106514%20-%20artist%3Ajberg18%20comic%20Dragon%20Hybrid%20lu nar_guard%20species%20spike.jpg

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/42cf96e8b694537ede9efb996407fa18/106504%20-%20artist%3Aponygoggles%20celestia%20filly%20pinki e_pie%20rarity.png

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QdxqdaZapOU/TwTFJcJKhRI/AAAAAAAAaOY/X6t2zgrnTB4/s1600/107763+-+artist+fiarel+colored+cute+cute_overdose+morning_ ponies+pinkie_pie.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nb4tXxI1Cco/TwTFFMT85tI/AAAAAAAAaNA/w0eruEU4Vb4/s1600/lesson_on_windegos_by_sliverlynx-d4l811o.png

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/e231460655ef9b410a6242a8351d9ff8/107100%20-%20alcohol%20applejack%20Cocktails%20Cupcakes%20de rpy_hooves%20drunk%20fluttershy%20parody%20pinkie_ pie%20rainbow_dash%20rarity%20song%20twilight_spar kle.jpg

[Titanium Fox]

...is this where one goes to announce his newfound brony-ness?

Having watched the series in its entirety for the first time, spent countless hours on memebase's brony section and been judged by my real life D&D group for thinking friendship is magic, I think it's now official for me. I'm a brony.

Anywho, to make this post worthwhile, I'll tell y'all the story that led to this change. I often work at a religious retreat center, and this past summer, almost all the male staffers and a few of the lady ones took on "Pony Names". I helped instigate this trend by declaring I was Rainbow Dash in an attempt to be ironic when a coworker called me effeminate, but the others really made it take off by actually declaring a "Pony Time" and a "Pony Couch" to see what this show was all about. Now it's at the point where, when we were singing a song with the lyric "Envy, strife and discord cease," another brony and I made eye contact, head nodded in unison about Discord and then had a giggle fit for the rest of the spiritual. Further, my protege at the retreat center has been dubbed Scootaloo in honor of our relationship. If you have a large-ish circle of friends who are bronies, I highly recommend the "Pony Names" trend: it makes for hilarious conversations.

EDIT: And no, we have not named someone Derpy Hooves. We do have a Dr. Whoof though. And our two directors are Princesses Luna and Celestia, though the guy who is Luna doesn't appreciate his new title.

*Gaaaaaaasp*

http://gamesprays.com/files/resource_media/preview/welcome-to-the-herd-5135_preview.png

You'll never escape us now...

One of us... One of us... One of us!

[Lix Lorn]

It probably is also NSFW, NSFH, and NSFS.
Possibly.
...what are NSFH and NSFS?

[Zevox]

Possibly.
...what are NSFH and NSFS?
I think "NSFH" would be "Not Safe for Humanity." Not sure on "NSFS."

Zevox

[Gamerlord]

Possibly.
...what are NSFH and NSFS?
I think "Not safe for humanity" and "not safe for school", respectively.

[Titanium Fox]

I think "Not safe for humanity" and "not safe for school", respectively.

Not Safe for Sanity is actually it.

[Soras Teva Gee]

...is this where one goes to announce his newfound brony-ness?

Having watched the series in its entirety for the first time, spent countless hours on memebase's brony section and been judged by my real life D&D group for thinking friendship is magic, I think it's now official for me. I'm a brony.

Anywho, to make this post worthwhile, I'll tell y'all the story that led to this change. I often work at a religious retreat center, and this past summer, almost all the male staffers and a few of the lady ones took on "Pony Names". I helped instigate this trend by declaring I was Rainbow Dash in an attempt to be ironic when a coworker called me effeminate, but the others really made it take off by actually declaring a "Pony Time" and a "Pony Couch" to see what this show was all about. Now it's at the point where, when we were singing a song with the lyric "Envy, strife and discord cease," another brony and I made eye contact, head nodded in unison about Discord and then had a giggle fit for the rest of the spiritual. Further, my protege at the retreat center has been dubbed Scootaloo in honor of our relationship. If you have a large-ish circle of friends who are bronies, I highly recommend the "Pony Names" trend: it makes for hilarious conversations.

EDIT: And no, we have not named someone Derpy Hooves. We do have a Dr. Whoof though. And our two directors are Princesses Luna and Celestia, though the guy who is Luna doesn't appreciate his new title.




http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/8457/mlpassimilated.jpg

WE ARE THE HERD.
LOWER YOUR SHIELDS AND SURRENDER YOUR MEDIA DEVICES.
WE WILL ADD YOUR BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS TO OUR OWN
YOUR SOCIAL LIFE WILL ADAPT TO SERVICE US.

[Weimann]

What you are missing is the Youtube version of the song differs from the official download version of the song. In particular, the lines:
"Ponies ****ing own, and whoever said they don't should kill themselves. Also, whoever banned ponies from SA... I'm gonna kill you in real life, okay?"I can understand why Everfree Radio choose not to endorse those particular messages.


it wasn't an implication, that was one of the aside lyrics swagberg said in the song. Addressed to SA (somethingawful) forum I believe. although in his defense it is rather jokingly said in tone and a poor excuse to use in order to not include the song. There are probably more hidden reason there than we know, but it really doesn't matter all that much in the whole of pony fandom anyway, swagberg is still epic with or without confirmation from everfree.

Ah, I see. Thanks for the info.

I can see where they're coming from, and I agree that those lines could be controversial to put on a high-ranked spot. Still, since he removed them, it sounds more like a case of bad judgement and a failed attempt at a joke than actual intent or even ill-will. From what I hear, the download right now doesn't contain those lines, and certainly not the YouTube song. I never even knew they existed before I had it pointed out, and I think that's true for the great majority.

So yeah, I think Swagberg could have gotten his due. As you say, he's good none the less, but it's always fun to be recognized, and the man deserves it. I'm glad he topped the Celestia Radio list at least.

[MLPSilverbolt]

Ason! Welcome aboard! You're just in time to see my latest image dump! :D

That was an epic dump. I especially loved Pinkamena, Queen of Hearts; Spike and the Lunar Guard (his parents look so cute together!); and Star Swirl the Bearded and Clover the Clever!

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Speculation time! Fancy Pants' special talent. Bronies, begin.

I totally missed this earlier. I reckon it's something like being the Perfect Gentlecolt. He always know what to say and do so that everyone will always be delighted and in awe.

[Athaniar]

...is this where one goes to announce his newfound brony-ness?

Having watched the series in its entirety for the first time, spent countless hours on memebase's brony section and been judged by my real life D&D group for thinking friendship is magic, I think it's now official for me. I'm a brony.

Anywho, to make this post worthwhile, I'll tell y'all the story that led to this change. I often work at a religious retreat center, and this past summer, almost all the male staffers and a few of the lady ones took on "Pony Names". I helped instigate this trend by declaring I was Rainbow Dash in an attempt to be ironic when a coworker called me effeminate, but the others really made it take off by actually declaring a "Pony Time" and a "Pony Couch" to see what this show was all about. Now it's at the point where, when we were singing a song with the lyric "Envy, strife and discord cease," another brony and I made eye contact, head nodded in unison about Discord and then had a giggle fit for the rest of the spiritual. Further, my protege at the retreat center has been dubbed Scootaloo in honor of our relationship. If you have a large-ish circle of friends who are bronies, I highly recommend the "Pony Names" trend: it makes for hilarious conversations.

EDIT: And no, we have not named someone Derpy Hooves. We do have a Dr. Whoof though. And our two directors are Princesses Luna and Celestia, though the guy who is Luna doesn't appreciate his new title.
Hah, that is awesome. Welcome! ^^

[legomaster00156]

So, the general consensus is that Pancy Pants' special talent was rolling an 18 for Charisma at character creation? :smalltongue:

[Soras Teva Gee]

So, the general consensus is that Pancy Pants' special talent was rolling an 18 for Charisma at character creation? :smalltongue:

Srue thinp taht sownds rite. :smallbiggrin:

(I always figure he got the Triple Crown because he's the best of his generation anyways)

[SlyGuyMcFly]

So, the general consensus is that Pancy Pants' special talent was rolling an 18 for Charisma at character creation? :smalltongue:

In a nutshell? Yes.

[Titanium Fox]

So, the general consensus is that Pancy Pants' special talent was rolling an 18 for Charisma at character creation? :smalltongue:

No my friend, he rolled a 19 naturally on 3d6.

[Roninhirox]

Hey was going through my daily webcomics and this came up http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2012/01/05/0339-little-red-riding-pony/ so I figured I would share.

[Tectonic Robot]

I still haven't watched Sweet and Elite. It simply hasn't interested me all that much...

I heard there was an airship in it. That's not true, right?

[Gamerlord]

I still haven't watched Sweet and Elite. It simply hasn't interested me all that much...

I heard there was an airship in it. That's not true, right?
Actually, it's quite true.

[Lix Lorn]

I still haven't watched Sweet and Elite. It simply hasn't interested me all that much...

I heard there was an airship in it. That's not true, right?
YOU ARE NO LONGER MY FRIEND

Okay you are but only just >:(

xD

[BlasTech]

Hey was going through my daily webcomics and this came up http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2012/01/05/0339-little-red-riding-pony/ so I figured I would share.

Ooh, sounds like a pony arc, hope it's good.

Knew that guy was a brony for a while, he's been slipping in small references into the comic and the site for a while now. The first one I noticed was that he'd set up the site's subheading to sometimes change when it was refreshed. And one of those was "Sandra and Woo: Now 20% Cooler".

Also, about a month ago the two "O"'s in Woo sometimes changed to the colours of the Mane6.

Those kind of subtle hints give me a little bit of a kick, it's like decyphering a code or spy signalling or something :P

[Topaz]

I still haven't watched Sweet and Elite. It simply hasn't interested me all that much...

I heard there was an airship in it. That's not true, right?
Screencap under the spoiler:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/RaptorRed/Pony/CanterlotAirship.jpg

[Trixie]

Technically, it's a blimp http://i.imgur.com/N2nfK.jpg

And a magical one, at that, seeing how crudely designed the harness is and how small the size to cabin ratio is. In fact, the design alone speaks volumes about money spent on it, being focused on aesthetic (free upper deck). I don't think we saw better example of how much better off the nobles are than the rest of the pony society :P

[Titanium Fox]

Guys.

I am on an E-Mail chain with the likes of JackleApp, Foozogz, Chain Algorithm, Tarby, and Alex S.

...I've never before felt so included.

*Squee*

[Aotrs Commander]

Guys.

I am on an E-Mail chain with the likes of JackleApp, Foozogz, Chain Algorithm, Tarby, and Alex S.

...I've never before felt so included.

*Squee*

I'm sure I'd be very impressed if I had any idea who those people were...!



Besides, you know ME! What could be more awesome than that don't answer that Hopereaver if you want your inerds to stay inside!

[Titanium Fox]

I'm sure I'd be very impressed if I had any idea who those people were...!



Besides, you know ME! What could be more awesome than that don't answer that Hopereaver if you want your inerds to stay inside!

My Good Lich:
Alex S. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sryqaS07WaU)
Foozogz. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgEml8sG6yI)
JackleApp. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0nWX2U-6Og)

And nopony is more awesome than Lichy for hopereaver's sake!

[Nameless]

Dear Bronies who are also Black Metal fans,

So, uh... I briefly mentioned once or twice that I was working on a Black Metal cover of the FiM opening theme. It's not quite done yet, but here's the instrumental version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLGfu-SltVw&context=C3ba4dd2ADOEgsToPDskKRY3xMCqMhJwZTHr-CfTEi). Low-quality distant guitars as standard. Drowned out screaming and hollowing version coming soon.
Look, I even drew a pretty picture of Fluttershy for everyone. http://i.imgur.com/ROEne.png


...is this where one goes to announce his newfound brony-ness?

Having watched the series in its entirety for the first time, spent countless hours on memebase's brony section and been judged by my real life D&D group for thinking friendship is magic, I think it's now official for me. I'm a brony.

Anywho, to make this post worthwhile, I'll tell y'all the story that led to this change. I often work at a religious retreat center, and this past summer, almost all the male staffers and a few of the lady ones took on "Pony Names". I helped instigate this trend by declaring I was Rainbow Dash in an attempt to be ironic when a coworker called me effeminate, but the others really made it take off by actually declaring a "Pony Time" and a "Pony Couch" to see what this show was all about. Now it's at the point where, when we were singing a song with the lyric "Envy, strife and discord cease," another brony and I made eye contact, head nodded in unison about Discord and then had a giggle fit for the rest of the spiritual. Further, my protege at the retreat center has been dubbed Scootaloo in honor of our relationship. If you have a large-ish circle of friends who are bronies, I highly recommend the "Pony Names" trend: it makes for hilarious conversations.

EDIT: And no, we have not named someone Derpy Hooves. We do have a Dr. Whoof though. And our two directors are Princesses Luna and Celestia, though the guy who is Luna doesn't appreciate his new title.

Now that you are here, you may never leave. http://i.imgur.com/9QvF1.png

[Aotrs Commander]

My Good Lich:
Alex S. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sryqaS07WaU)
Foozogz. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgEml8sG6yI)
JackleApp. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0nWX2U-6Og)

Aha. I may not now be much the wiser, as they say, but I am better informed...

(I did wonder if it was something like that, but one never knows...)


And nopony is more awesome than Lichy for hopereaver's sake!

Damn straight!

Phew. I owe ya one Titanium...

[Lix Lorn]

Besides, you know ME! What could be more awesome than that don't answer that Hopereaver if you want your inerds to stay inside!
*innards

I like being the only person who can get away with that. :smallamused:

[Titanium Fox]

*innards

I like being the only person who can get away with that. :smallamused:

You know, I actively debated it...

[Darthteej]

And a magical one, at that, seeing how crudely designed the harness is and how small the size to cabin ratio is. In fact, the design alone speaks volumes about money spent on it, being focused on aesthetic (free upper deck). I don't think we saw better example of how much better off the nobles are than the rest of the pony society :P

It still amazes me the collective knowledge that bronies have about physics, engineering, and biology.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Now that you are here, you may never leave. http://i.imgur.com/9QvF1.png

Hey that's what multiple tabs are for. One for here, one for EqD, one for PMVs, etc.... so many tabs full of ponies.

[Eakin]

Hey that's what multiple tabs are for. One for here, one for EqD, one for PMVs, etc.... so many tabs full of ponies.

Ever forget to leave at least one neutral-activity tab so you can bounce to it really quick if a non-brony pops up behind you? Nothing gets the adrenaline going like searching your twelve open tabs for something innocent and realizing they're ALL pony.


No my friend, he rolled a 19 naturally on 3d6.

http://chzbronies.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-brony-the-most-interesting-gentlecolt-in-the-world.png

I'm sticking with my second answer of noblesse oblige

[Forum Explorer]

Just read the latest update of Long Distance and wow. Didn't see that one coming. Rarity's letters are the best.

By the way a suggestion for a different name could be Letters from Home. Or perhaps Correspondence.

[Aotrs Commander]

*innards

I like being the only person who can get away with that. :smallamused:

...

You realise he's now just gonna take it out on me, right?

*wham*

Correct.

...squeeble...

[Soras Teva Gee]

Ever forget to leave at least one neutral-activity tab so you can bounce to it really quick if a non-brony pops up behind you? Nothing gets the adrenaline going like searching your twelve open tabs for something innocent and realizing they're ALL pony.

I never do, but then again I have a long long standing policy of only sitting with my flank towards the wall. (What I was using laptops before wi-fi foals!)

[Lix Lorn]

...

You realise he's now just gonna take it out on me, right?

*wham*

Correct.

...squeeble...
...darn.
(Starts working on developing a Secret Spell.)

[SiuiS]

Being a Magnificent *******. Or perhaps controlling snobs. Or worth recognition.

Yes. Being a magnificent dubiously-sired stallion.
And Nopony can argue because I called it! Double-tapsies no-quitsies. u.u


...can I have your friends? The religion retreat thing wouldn't suit me, but still

Apologies for the quibble, but spiritual and religious are different enough that I need to point it out.

And now SiuiS realizes why this post looks so odd; the veryfirst thing he he had quoted isn't there. And then he goes off to look for it, leaving Starry in charge.

HAHAHAHAHA I'M FREE!

On second thought we can greet our new friend later.
... Spoilsport.


I just realized through your signature, of what your name "Geno" is from. You are now automatically awesome. Also, the irony of that with using Smarty Pants as an avatar \o/

I KNOW! It's soooo awesome! /)^3^(\
There is a reason I first greeted Geno999 as an unpronounceable starbeast, after all~


Ason! Welcome aboard! You're just in time to see my latest image dump! :D


http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/e231460655ef9b410a6242a8351d9ff8/107100%20-%20alcohol%20applejack%20Cocktails%20Cupcakes%20de rpy_hooves%20drunk%20fluttershy%20parody%20pinkie_ pie%20rainbow_dash%20rarity%20song%20twilight_spar kle.jpg

Suddenly I fear for my life and liver <<;
Ah well. If I'm going to die of uisce bhatha it may as well be in a pony-related challenge.


Possibly.
...what are NSFH and NSFS?

It's not safe for work, not safe for home, and not safe for safety, methinks. Implying that it's just not safe. Period. Don't look. No seriously. Don't. Good ghandi, droplet, why did you look. Etc.


No my friend, he rolled a [i]19 naturally on 3d6.

Oh my stars I've done that! I rolled charisma like eight times and one of the dice kept coming up cocked, between six and four. Like five times. On the fifth roll I said "if it does it again, I'm keeping it."

I have a Gestalt Bard/Cleric of Lastai with a 21 starting charisma who's never seen actual play. Stupid mean DMs...


I still haven't watched Sweet and Elite. It simply hasn't interested me all that much...

I heard there was an airship in it. That's not true, right?

It's technically incorrect.
There is, however, what looks like a luxury yacht attached to a spell stitched moonwhale.


I'm sure I'd be very impressed if I had any idea who those people were...!

Besides, you know ME! What could be more awesome than that don't answer that Hopereaver if you want your inerds to stay inside!

Well, yes, you are correct. Bleakbane is awesome, top-heap.
But we are talking about coolness and radicalness, here. And let's be fair. You have absolutely no interest in being on the wrong side of ownership, so it's not really a problem.
Urge to see Lich in backwards cap and shades, rising

Hush, you're going to get me in trouble.


Dear Bronies who are also Black Metal fans,

So, uh... I briefly mentioned once or twice that I was working on a Black Metal cover of the FiM opening theme. It's not quite done yet, but here's the instrumental version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLGfu-SltVw&context=C3ba4dd2ADOEgsToPDskKRY3xMCqMhJwZTHr-CfTEi). Low-quality distant guitars as standard. Drowned out screaming and hollowing version coming soon.
Look, I even drew a pretty picture of Fluttershy for everyone. http://i.imgur.com/ROEne.png

Yay~!

Also, nice. Much nicer than I expected, actually; my experience with black metal has been needlessly cacophonous, apparently.
I was kinda worried it would stagger me, actually...

... Seriously, Starry, go play or something. No posting doesn't mean slip stuff in when I'm talking.
But I'm RPing a personal space invader!
Ah said, "Git"!


It still amazes me the collective knowledge that bronies have about physics, engineering, and biology.

The Internet exists so that people with obscure, highly focused niche hobbies can network with other highly-focused niche-hobbyists and not be depressed. And according to broadway, also porn.
But more to the point! What's the point in an obscure knowl edge base if you can't bring it up I casual conversation where it shouldn't be appropriate and somehow fits? Why, without that, we wouldn't get a gigging from collapsing wave functions! And that's terrible.

[Anarion]

Best Newspaper correction ever. (http://boingboing.net/2012/01/05/the-best-new-york-times-correc.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Bo ing%29&utm_content=Google+Reader)



...darn.
(Starts working on developing a Secret Spell.)

Have some mercy. Between the evil pikachu and the constant stress relief punching, there will soon be nothing left.


Edit


But more to the point! What's the point in an obscure knowl edge base if you can't bring it up I casual conversation where it shouldn't be appropriate and somehow fits? Why, without that, we wouldn't get a gigging from collapsing wave functions! And that's terrible.

I sum up my experience in law school as follows: If you haven't made your friends laugh with a joke about the no quartering troops clause in the Constitution, you're not trying hard enough.

[Lix Lorn]

Have some mercy. Between the evil pikachu and the constant stress relief punching, there will soon be nothing left.
Oh, it's a spell for Hopereaver. She occasionally takes my side, after all.

[Anarion]

Oh, it's a spell for Hopereaver. She occasionally takes my side, after all.

Forgive my ignorance, but...Hopereaver is a she?!?!

[Lix Lorn]

Forgive my ignorance, but...Hopereaver is a she?!?!
Yeah, that's what we all said too.
Even Aotrs. xD

[TheAmishPirate]

Alright, true to (half) of my promise made at the start of Christmas break, I have the rough draft of the first chapter of Flowers for Twilight. Six months after my last fic, likely going to be at least double the size, more dialogue than I've ever written, still have some bad lessons learned from excessive RP, and a concept what's made writers I consider far above me say "Good gravy, that's going to be hard."

To say that I could use a little help in the prereading department is a bit of an understatement. :smallredface:

Chapter 1 (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rMjErnESMRg-A61NtoX0475f5WLqPiL0y6YZgd6LM0M/edit?hl=en_US)

Specific questions/concerns for pre-readers:
-What do you think of Twilight’s character here? If you knew nothing about the show, is she strong enough to stand as the main character here?
-How is the dialogue? Too wordy? Too short? Awkward wording? Weird jumps in logic?
-Do you think the flashback fits, or should it be paraphrased?
-Are the other characters good enough? Should Twi give a little more introduction to them? Do they need more physical descriptions?

[sellyme]

Hey! Sellyme here, registered to answer a few things I've seen here.


Okay, so question for y'all.

As you might be aware, Everfree Radio made a Top 100 Pony Songs 2011 list (http://everfreeradio.com/?p=1447). In the comment field to the related post on Equestria Daily (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/01/top-100-music-list-on-everfree-radio.html), a poster named Hungover asked why Swagberg ft. Maros's Pony Swag (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1HZp4ClFXY) was not even on the list (myself, I expected it in top 10, no questions; it was #1 on Celestia Radio's Top 50 Pony Songs list (http://ponify.me/2012/best-of-2011-album-released/)). One of the list compilers replied:

What? Am I missing something, because I see no such implications in that song. Sure, he's using some harsh language, but MicTheMicrophone's One Trick Pony (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csqp-Mslq_c) made #12 and that's arguably worse. He's also making some feminist comments which I can't quite decipher, but that's not what they hit on (and besides, I think it's a jab at some feminist who argues that the show has too many girls; yeah, that's a major problem -.-').

I'm just asking. What am I missing?

It is possible you have the "Radio Edit". This radio edit is, to put it bluntly, bad. They didn't re-write the lyrics like they should have, they just looped some of the lyrics so it repeats them twice, and this sounded horrific.

We were going to put Pony Swag Megamix in the list, and cut out the verse we had issues with, however the list ended up being 7 hours without it, and we decided that 20 minute songs would not help this. This is also the same reason Something Broke by Tarby is not in the list.

To zoom in on about "foul" language: We kinda messed up. Instead of airing the Safe For Work version of One Trick Pony, we aired the original. Unfortunately we didn't have a SFW version of Griffin Metropolis, but we figured that we could get away with that because it was rather early on in the countdown when not many people were listening. The radio station actually IS meant to be PG-13. But as I said, we definitely weren't going to use lines like "**** a ****er", because firstly: We were trying to stick to PG-13 as best as possible, and secondly: That is just bad lyric-writing.


What you are missing is the Youtube version of the song differs from the official download version of the song.
Or that.


There are probably more hidden reason there than we know
Not really. We have nothing wrong with rap (hell, Mic is like... 6 of the top 13), and we were going to include Pony Swag Megamix with a verse or two cut out, but in the end we didn't.

Anywho, I think that's about it. Thank you all for your interest, but if you have any more questions please send them to the email visible in this screenshot, as I won't be checking this thread regularly:

http://i.imgur.com/0LUG3.png

(Took a screenshot to avoid spambots, I get enough emails about viagra sales as it is)

[Thanqol]

I still haven't watched Sweet and Elite. It simply hasn't interested me all that much...

I heard there was an airship in it. That's not true, right?

Seriously, what. It's one of my favourite episodes of all time. How have you not watched it. What. :smallannoyed:


Just read the latest update of Long Distance and wow. Didn't see that one coming. Rarity's letters are the best.

By the way a suggestion for a different name could be Letters from Home. Or perhaps Correspondence.

Thank you, I'm glad to know that worked out.

Hmm, good thoughts for retitling. Nothing I fully want to commit to yet...


Alright, true to (half) of my promise made at the start of Christmas break, I have the rough draft of the first chapter of Flowers for Twilight. Six months after my last fic, likely going to be at least double the size, more dialogue than I've ever written, still have some bad lessons learned from excessive RP, and a concept what's made writers I consider far above me say "Good gravy, that's going to be hard."

To say that I could use a little help in the prereading department is a bit of an understatement. :smallredface:

Chapter 1 (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rMjErnESMRg-A61NtoX0475f5WLqPiL0y6YZgd6LM0M/edit?hl=en_US)

Specific questions/concerns for pre-readers:
-What do you think of Twilight’s character here? If you knew nothing about the show, is she strong enough to stand as the main character here?
-How is the dialogue? Too wordy? Too short? Awkward wording? Weird jumps in logic?
-Do you think the flashback fits, or should it be paraphrased?
-Are the other characters good enough? Should Twi give a little more introduction to them? Do they need more physical descriptions?



On top of that, Spike didn’t go to sleep until late tonight, so-*squeak!*” She rubbed her head, glaring at the offending squeaky toy that fell out of nowhere.

This does not work as an action sequence. Dialogue interruption, results of interruption, explain what interruption is - the sequence is wonked.


She sighed loud enough to catch Rose’s attention. “Fine, you win. Give me an hour or two to get started and I’ll see you there.”

Huh? "You win"? Somehow that doesn't follow from a seemingly legitimate "Oh, that's fine, homework comes first". To win something it must be established as a game.


Twilight didn’t know how Summer Breeze always knew which room would be open, or why the teachers never pushed for stricter locks. Maybe the fact that she could spot her History and Transmutation professors chatting and laughing over by the punch bowl had something to do with it.

I'm noticing a pattern by this point; you make an observation which raises a question, and then you provide an offhand fact that completely redefines the context of the scene. It feels really weird structurally. If two teachers are present at the party, that's a Big Deal and should get way more examination than how Summer secured the room. If you mentioned that piece of information first, the entire question of how she always knew where there were open rooms becomes completely moot and pointless.


Twilight rolled her eyes. “You make it sound like you had to drag me here. I wouldn’t miss one of Summer’s parties.”

This seems out of character for pre-Ponyville Twilight. And I can put together from what you've mentioned to me about this story before that this might be the point, but you have simply not established that this Twilight is different from the show's Twilight. The first time we saw Twilight on screen it was running away from a party to go nerd it up. If you're challenging that, you absolutely must establish that by making the out-of-character cheerfulness consistent.

Twilight must obviously and deliberately act like Not Twilight for us to understand that this is a deliberate decision on your part and not poor writing. This means a major personality change is necessary. There should be some of the Twilight we know there, but it has to be deeply different at the same time. Look at Rainbow's characterisation in Dash Academy for what I mean there.


teleportation lubricant,

hurr hurr hurr


When the unicorn builders finished this room, they had to be dragged off by guards to keep them from playing about in it. A unicorn couldn’t ask for a more perfect playground.

That's a bizarre factoid that doesn't work in this context. A room full of magical stuff, sure, a room to stop magical stuff getting out of hand? For, er, builders? What?

I can see students having crazy spell-offs, perhaps, but... even then I can't see it. Unicorns are limited by more than collateral damage when they want to cut loose. Citation: Twilight's giant spell in Boast Busters didn't look easy. I don't really see what the appeal of a room where you can't accidentally cause a disaster is to a bunch of builders. This does not work on any level, kill it.


Moondancer shrugged and took a sip of punch, nonplussed by their reactions. “Oh, I’ve been here long enough.” Her gaze moved to Twilight, and she unconsciously shifted behind Rose. “So tell me, Sparkle, is it true that this would be your first time with ritual magic?”

Clarify that Twilight's doing the shifting. Also this entire sequence strikes me as really awkward for some reason. Is Moondancer a jerk? Could we... establish that somehow?


Questions for pre-readers:
-What do you think of Twilight’s character here? If you knew nothing about the show, is she strong enough to stand as the main character here?

Twilight's characterisation is a little weak, to be honest. She seems kinda wallflowery in this; she hasn't really demonstrated any big emotions, beliefs or actions. The time she seemed the most alive was in her scene with Celestia. Everywhere else, I'm not sure exactly what you're going for with the character.


-How is the dialogue? Too wordy? Too short? Awkward wording? Weird jumps in logic?

The dialogue doesn't strike me as awkward, as such, but it kind of lacks punch. They're kind of talking about boring things a lot, and nopony's said anything particularly smart or funny. It's small talk. And, again, the one time it really came alive was in Celestia's scene where they're introducing a new, interesting concept that feels like it's about to become really important.


-Do you think the flashback fits, or should it be paraphrased?

I think it was the strongest part of the story.


-Are the other characters good enough? Should Twi give a little more introduction to them? Do they need more physical descriptions?

I have no idea why everypony is so weird around Moondancer.
Rose and Summer, I don't feel like I know enough about. What are their talents? What do they do? What's their Virtue and their Vice? What would their Discorded versions look like? If they had an Element, what would that Element be? What are their favourite colours? If I can't answer questions like these for any given character, I feel like I don't know the character well enough and the author needs to do more.

Overall: Intriguing, but needs stronger characterisation across the board.

[the_druid_droid]

The Internet exists so that people with obscure, highly focused niche hobbies can network with other highly-focused niche-hobbyists and not be depressed. And according to broadway, also porn.
But more to the point! What's the point in an obscure knowl edge base if you can't bring it up I casual conversation where it shouldn't be appropriate and somehow fits? Why, without that, we wouldn't get a gigging from collapsing wave functions! And that's terrible.

See, before I had internet friends, I had to blather on about these sorts of things to my meatspace friends. It is a testament to their saintly restraint that I am still in one piece after boring them to death so often...

<.<


Best Newspaper correction ever. (http://boingboing.net/2012/01/05/the-best-new-york-times-correc.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Bo ing%29&utm_content=Google+Reader)


Yeah, it is.

[Ason]

Thanks for the warm welcome, fillies and gentlecolts!

Any advice on where I should go from here? I'm trying to get into the music, but I'm having a hard time sifting through the rubbish to find the best stuff. As for fan fics, I've been avoiding them all out of sheer terror after hearing horror stories about a few- any advice on where to find some safe/good ones? I've also been enjoying the pictures in this thread. Other things you'd suggest?

Also, I appreciate my first brohoofs. The bronies from my camp job all do neck nuzzles as a way of simulating pony hugs (it's very awkward but funny), but a brohoof I've never received before. *inhales deeply* "yay!"

[legomaster00156]

See, before I had internet friends, I had to blather on about these sorts of things to my meatspace friends. It is a testament to their saintly restraint that I am still in one piece after boring them to death so often...
Can you do that? Can you be bored to death twice?

[Thanqol]

Thanks for the warm welcome, fillies and gentlecolts!

Any advice on where I should go from here? I'm trying to get into the music, but I'm having a hard time sifting through the rubbish to find the best stuff. As for fan fics, I've been avoiding them all out of sheer terror after hearing horror stories about a few- any advice on where to find some safe/good ones? I've also been enjoying the pictures in this thread. Other things you'd suggest?

Also, I appreciate my first brohoofs. The bronies from my camp job all do neck nuzzles as a way of simulating pony hugs (it's very awkward but funny), but a brohoof I've never received before. *inhales deeply* "yay!"

Best Music:
Iamnotacleverpony
I Bring Da Lulz
Alex S

Best Fics:
Raz Fox's stuff (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20Raz_Fox)
Esperderek's Stuff (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20EsperDerek)
Bobcat's stuff (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20Bobcat)
PhoeKun's stuff (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20Phoe)

And my stuff (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20Thanqol) (because self promotion is cool)

For more, check the OP, or browse the Equestria Daily fanfiction archive. Generally EqD has pretty high standards these days, so 'most anything you find there is likely to be solid.

[Forum Explorer]

Thanks for the warm welcome, fillies and gentlecolts!

Any advice on where I should go from here? I'm trying to get into the music, but I'm having a hard time sifting through the rubbish to find the best stuff. As for fan fics, I've been avoiding them all out of sheer terror after hearing horror stories about a few- any advice on where to find some safe/good ones? I've also been enjoying the pictures in this thread. Other things you'd suggest?

Also, I appreciate my first brohoofs. The bronies from my camp job all do neck nuzzles as a way of simulating pony hugs (it's very awkward but funny), but a brohoof I've never received before. *inhales deeply* "yay!"

For music I suggest starting at For the New Lunar Republic and wandering around youtube from there. Rainbow Factory is another good song.

There are also remixes of the actual pony songs. Though those vary in quality and opinion.



For Fanfics it depends what you like

recently the epic crossover with fallout has finished. Fallout Equestria is a popular story that I enjoyed. Its a little dark but no worse and actually quite a lot better then the actual fallout universe. Much darker then the actual pony verse though. Another decent dark fic is Silent Ponyville though in my opinion the latest arc has suffered a severe drop in quality. Not as dark but still kinda dark is Spark (Or with a Spark) Also has LunaXTwilight shipping.

If you want to try some shipping fics some faves of mine are Of Mares and Magic, The Best Night Ever, and Misted Stage (I think that's what it was called) Kindness' reward is very good as well.

For a good OC story check out EsperDerek's work on Midnight. Also has Twixie shipping.

Some lighthearted comedies are: Nightmare's don't last Forever, Progress, and The Ballad of Twilight Sparkle.

[the_druid_droid]

Thanks for the warm welcome, fillies and gentlecolts!

Any advice on where I should go from here? I'm trying to get into the music, but I'm having a hard time sifting through the rubbish to find the best stuff. As for fan fics, I've been avoiding them all out of sheer terror after hearing horror stories about a few- any advice on where to find some safe/good ones? I've also been enjoying the pictures in this thread. Other things you'd suggest?

Also, I appreciate my first brohoofs. The bronies from my camp job all do neck nuzzles as a way of simulating pony hugs (it's very awkward but funny), but a brohoof I've never received before. *inhales deeply* "yay!"

Equestria Daily (http://www.equestriadaily.com/) is a good place to start, as they tend to filter out the awful stuff. Also disturbing or violent fics are labelled with a [Grimdark] tag, so you can avoid them if you like. [Normal], [Comedy] or [Adventure] are probably your best bets for something that'll be easy to get into and decent quality.

You can also check out the opening post of this thread which should have a link to good fan art and fics, including some from threadgoers!

Also, welcome to the herd!


Can you do that? Can you be bored to death twice?

Only through dark magics known only to droid-kind...

[TheAmishPirate]

This does not work as an action sequence. Dialogue interruption, results of interruption, explain what interruption is - the sequence is wonked.



Huh? "You win"? Somehow that doesn't follow from a seemingly legitimate "Oh, that's fine, homework comes first". To win something it must be established as a game.



I'm noticing a pattern by this point; you make an observation which raises a question, and then you provide an offhand fact that completely redefines the context of the scene. It feels really weird structurally. If two teachers are present at the party, that's a Big Deal and should get way more examination than how Summer secured the room. If you mentioned that piece of information first, the entire question of how she always knew where there were open rooms becomes completely moot and pointless.



This seems out of character for pre-Ponyville Twilight. And I can put together from what you've mentioned to me about this story before that this might be the point, but you have simply not established that this Twilight is different from the show's Twilight. The first time we saw Twilight on screen it was running away from a party to go nerd it up. If you're challenging that, you absolutely must establish that by making the out-of-character cheerfulness consistent.

Twilight must obviously and deliberately act like Not Twilight for us to understand that this is a deliberate decision on your part and not poor writing. This means a major personality change is necessary. There should be some of the Twilight we know there, but it has to be deeply different at the same time. Look at Rainbow's characterisation in Dash Academy for what I mean there.



hurr hurr hurr



That's a bizarre factoid that doesn't work in this context. A room full of magical stuff, sure, a room to stop magical stuff getting out of hand? For, er, builders? What?

I can see students having crazy spell-offs, perhaps, but... even then I can't see it. Unicorns are limited by more than collateral damage when they want to cut loose. Citation: Twilight's giant spell in Boast Busters didn't look easy. I don't really see what the appeal of a room where you can't accidentally cause a disaster is to a bunch of builders. This does not work on any level, kill it.



Clarify that Twilight's doing the shifting. Also this entire sequence strikes me as really awkward for some reason. Is Moondancer a jerk? Could we... establish that somehow?



Twilight's characterisation is a little weak, to be honest. She seems kinda wallflowery in this; she hasn't really demonstrated any big emotions, beliefs or actions. The time she seemed the most alive was in her scene with Celestia. Everywhere else, I'm not sure exactly what you're going for with the character.



The dialogue doesn't strike me as awkward, as such, but it kind of lacks punch. They're kind of talking about boring things a lot, and nopony's said anything particularly smart or funny. It's small talk. And, again, the one time it really came alive was in Celestia's scene where they're introducing a new, interesting concept that feels like it's about to become really important.



I think it was the strongest part of the story.



I have no idea why everypony is so weird around Moondancer.
Rose and Summer, I don't feel like I know enough about. What are their talents? What do they do? What's their Virtue and their Vice? What would their Discorded versions look like? If they had an Element, what would that Element be? What are their favourite colours? If I can't answer questions like these for any given character, I feel like I don't know the character well enough and the author needs to do more.

Overall: Intriguing, but needs stronger characterization across the board.


Thanks for the feedback. Fun fact, the flashback scene was written about three months ago, and the rest was written in the last two weeks. The three months ago bit I basically sat down and cranked out in a few hours, the rest I painstakingly worked out over those two weeks. I think that may be a lesson learned about how I should write. A little thinking and planning, then just write the darn thing.

On Characters: The fact that I can't answer some of those questions is a problem. A big one. Before I write or fix anything else, that is getting fixed. Once that's done, I'll try and give the audience a little more introduction to who they are. I know who they are, and thus these scenes make more sense to me, but I'm obviously not giving the audience enough.

On Twilight: I'll take a look at Dash Academy. I was afraid this Twilight wasn't different enough, and it's good to know it isn't just me.

EDIT: Oh right, I have read Dash Academy. That's a fantastic example. *re-studies it*

On dialogue: The main lesson I've learned so far is only to have what dialogue is necessary to the plot. Reading whole conversations is boring. As I worked with this, somehow, even the essential bits were boring. And I couldn't figure out why. Now that I'm realizing I haven't made the characters strong enough, I think once they're fixed, the dialogue will be easier to write. And likely far more interesting.


Also, I'm done with writing out whole chapters without feedback. It burns me out, I think too much, progress is slow, and it partially contributes to weak results like this. A bunch of the stuff you took issue with (The wonky chew toy incident for starters) was leftovers from previous edits. If I just take this one scene at a time, then maybe I can make it better.

[Thanqol]

Also, I'm done with writing out whole chapters without feedback. It burns me out, I think too much, progress is slow, and it partially contributes to weak results like this. A bunch of the stuff you took issue with (The wonky chew toy incident for starters) was leftovers from previous edits. If I just take this one scene at a time, then maybe I can make it better.

That's a conclusion I'm not sure I agree with. See, for me, writing is the same as gaming - it'll succeed or fail during character generation, regardless of how long it goes on after that.

Take the time to make sure everything's pointing in the right direction at the start, and the thing will write itself. Here's some free characterisation ideas and suggestions that come to mind using the material you've already written.



Twilight: Assertive leadership pony, student activist and class president. Strategically smart, excellent at predicting the movements of groups and who's right for each other, but doesn't like getting her hooves dirty. Something of a matchmaker, tries to subtly herd ponies she thinks should be dating together. Likes chess, and her relationship with the game of chess could be a powerful metaphor as the story goes on.

Favourite colour: Gold.

Rose: Twilight's grounded second, a honest hard worker who wants to keep her head down and focus on her own life without getting involved in everypony else's like Twilight. Deliberate parallels to show-Twilight. Withdrawn and cold most of the time, but becomes extremely talkative when discussing work.

Favourite Colour: White

Summer: Flirt and socialite, the pony everypony should know. Also something of a tease, having her eye on somepony already and having minimal interest in other ponies. Despite her breezy attitude and lax attitude to study, she's unquestionably the smartest pony in the room; she just doesn't apply herself to anything. Every so often, she'll make an offhoof comment that betrays an amazingly deep comprehension of the subject matter, but thinks no more of it afterwards.

Favourite colour: Teal


That's just an example, but from those three paragraphs a dynamic naturally emerges - the protective but distracted leader, the bored genius and the dedicated friend. This also casts Twilight as the active force, Rose as the straight man, and Summer as the failsafe. And moreover, from those paragraphs I instantly knew what each pony's favourite colour would be. And with that information, I feel like I could write plenty of entertaining dialogue without thinking too hard.

[TheAmishPirate]

That's a conclusion I'm not sure I agree with. See, for me, writing is the same as gaming - it'll succeed or fail during character generation, regardless of how long it goes on after that.

Take the time to make sure everything's pointing in the right direction at the start, and the thing will write itself. Here's some free characterisation ideas and suggestions that come to mind using the material you've already written.



Twilight: Assertive leadership pony, student activist and class president. Strategically smart, excellent at predicting the movements of groups and who's right for each other, but doesn't like getting her hooves dirty. Something of a matchmaker, tries to subtly herd ponies she thinks should be dating together. Likes chess, and her relationship with the game of chess could be a powerful metaphor as the story goes on.

Favourite colour: Gold.

Rose: Twilight's grounded second, a honest hard worker who wants to keep her head down and focus on her own life without getting involved in everypony else's like Twilight. Deliberate parallels to show-Twilight. Withdrawn and cold most of the time, but becomes extremely talkative when discussing work.

Favourite Colour: White

Summer: Flirt and socialite, the pony everypony should know. Also something of a tease, having her eye on somepony already and having minimal interest in other ponies. Despite her breezy attitude and lax attitude to study, she's unquestionably the smartest pony in the room; she just doesn't apply herself to anything. Every so often, she'll make an offhoof comment that betrays an amazingly deep comprehension of the subject matter, but thinks no more of it afterwards.

Favourite colour: Teal


That's just an example, but from those three paragraphs a dynamic naturally emerges - the protective but distracted leader, the bored genius and the dedicated friend. This also casts Twilight as the active force, Rose as the straight man, and Summer as the failsafe. And moreover, from those paragraphs I instantly knew what each pony's favourite colour would be. And with that information, I feel like I could write plenty of entertaining dialogue without thinking too hard.

Now that you've gotten me thinking about it, I can only think of one instance where I've written a character this in-depth before using them. Most of the time I write down enough to get started, and then the rest fills in as I play them. This can work (but seems lazy by comparison) in D&D and free-form RP-ing, but in a written work where people have no incentive to like my characters from the start, that's not really a luxury I can afford. I had very short blurbs about each of their characters, but nothing to that level of depth. Thanks for those, it's given me a good starting point for each of them. Plus, I still have Moondancer to fill out, so I'll have the chance to practice this from scratch.

Heh, and here I was starting to doubt whether or not I'd learn anything useful for making games by taking up writing. This echos a lesson my game design professor taught us last term; that with the number of games out there, if your game isn't full and fun enough to hook your player, they have no reason not to go play something else. I guess it's the same way with stories and characters, and if this is the only parallel between the two disciplines, I'll eat my oversized hat.


And to keep things (vaguely) on-topic, here's a FillyPinkie comic:

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/005/e/e/kitchen_nightmare_by_toxic_mario-d4le0hy.png

EDIT: And with that, I'm off to bed. Goodnight Ponythread!

[SiuiS]

Thanks for the warm welcome, fillies and gentlecolts!

you foal, by returning you have walked right into my clutches!

FROM HOME'S HEART I WELCOME THEE!
FOR FRIENDSHIP'S SAKE I DUMP IMAGES AT THEE!

http://ponibooru.413chan.net/_images/06c7d0d2105a1314ea928cadd5a55a09/7961%20-%20animated%20jumping%20scootaloo.gif
http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg143/scaled.php?server=143&filename=130690582868.jpg&xsize=640&ysize=480
http://arch.413chan.net/1288640640381.png
http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb426/AwesomeHolzy/Welcome-to-the-Herd.gif
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/LordRyu/bronies/index.php.jpg
http://ponibooru.413chan.net/_images/0da1a106ff7923e0fb2630d06310c636/12549%20-%20macro%20scootaloo.jpg



Any advice on where I should go from here? I'm trying to get into the music, but I'm having a hard time sifting through the rubbish to find the best stuff. As for fan fics, I've been avoiding them all out of sheer terror after hearing horror stories about a few- any advice on where to find some safe/good ones? I've also been enjoying the pictures in this thread. Other things you'd suggest?

Well, first, this implies you've listened to music you found to be garbage. So let us know which musical you dislike; if you fanatically dislike trance, then even the best trance mix EVER will still suck, to you.

Second, equestria daily is a generally good site. They list what topics a fic covers so you can avoid sad ones, or romantic ones, or dark and scary ones. I would suggest not avoiding romance like the plague however; it's not for everypony, sure, but it's also usually well-written. DarthBobcat's two AJ/Soarin' fics for example, It's Always Sunny In Fillydelphia and Semper Fidelis, are both Ace. Especially Semper Fidelis, which is one of the highlights of the fandom for me, as far as fiction writing goes.


Also, I appreciate my first brohoofs. The bronies from my camp job all do neck nuzzles as a way of simulating pony hugs (it's very awkward but funny), but a brohoof I've never received before. *inhales deeply* "yay!"

That's... That's actually pretty cool, if a touch more intimate than most folks are comfortable with.

I predict this will start to make the rounds in the IRC in about 3 days...

Also
http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee468/WizardPony/5737afae.jpg


Can you do that? Can you be bored to death twice?

Of course. But then you're not just merely dead, but really most sincerely dead.

[Thanqol]

Now that you've gotten me thinking about it, I can only think of one instance where I've written a character this in-depth before using them. Most of the time I write down enough to get started, and then the rest fills in as I play them. This can work (but seems lazy by comparison) in D&D and free-form RP-ing, but in a written work where people have no incentive to like my characters from the start, that's not really a luxury I can afford. I had very short blurbs about each of their characters, but nothing to that level of depth. Thanks for those, it's given me a good starting point for each of them. Plus, I still have Moondancer to fill out, so I'll have the chance to practice this from scratch.

That's exactly it! For a long time, I operated under the 'Make characters up as you go along' school of character design. But then I worked out a new system and every single character I've made since implementing the new system has been astoundingly better than anything in the past.

Most games succeed or fail during character generation; it's true! And that doesn't just mean the main character, or your character; it means the entire group, it's dynamic, and it's structure. Moreover, when introducing OCs to the slightly hostile pony fanbase, you have to be doubly careful; you're being held to a pretty high standard by stepping onto the same pillar as the show ponies.

I'm perhaps more practised in this than anything else that I do, so if you need further help, please ask :smallsmile:


Heh, and here I was starting to doubt whether or not I'd learn anything useful for making games by taking up writing. This echos a lesson my game design professor taught us last term; that with the number of games out there, if your game isn't full and fun enough to hook your player, they have no reason not to go play something else. I guess it's the same way with stories and characters, and if this is the only parallel between the two disciplines, I'll eat my oversized hat.

Oh, you study video game design? Nice. And yes, that's right, I can think of plenty of places the two would overlap (pacing, structure, relief, atmosphere...)

[otakuryoga]

oooooooo, i so wish we could do this............
also...Trollestia gets her comeuppence

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/005/a/0/twilight__s_revenge_by_parallaxmlp-d4le1gq.png

[Thanqol]

oooooooo, i so wish we could do this............
also...Trollestia gets her comeuppence

You haven't thought this through. If we could telefrag people with magic, so could the trolls.

Aaaaaaand noting that down for a Mage game later.

[Dexam]

I enjoyed it! I thought you did a good job with characterizing Rainbow Dash as well as the Discworld-esque Death, and no grammatical issues jumped out at me. I hope you keep on with it!
Thanks! Getting characterization correct is always a primary focus for me when I'm writing. And with enough positive feedback, a Part 2 may be in the works.


Some thoughts:
You seem to go a bit more into description than is completely necessary at parts. One sentence that stood out for this was:

"the earth pony swiftly clamped an orange hoof against her hat as a stray gust threatened to snatch the broad-brimmed Stetson from atop her yellow maned head"

I think you could get by with:

"the earth pony swiftly clamped an orange hoof against her hat as a stray gust threatened to snatch it from her head"

This may be a more a personal thing, but there is such a thing as over-explaining. I'd ask a few other people if they think the same thing, and edit from there. With that warning given, you certainly have enough good description in this so far. I don't think you ever fail to not describe enough in this; I always had a clear mental picture of the action. Good work.


The plot is interesting. I've seen a death shipping story once, and you're managing without delving as much into the grim stuff as they did; a plus in my book, given the subject matter. I'm definitely hoping you continue this.


A good call on being overly descriptive. My fiction writing style tends to be somewhat verbose, and I can get a bit carried away sometimes. I blame being out of practice with my writing, and sizeable portions of it being written when I wasn't particularly in the mood for writing but wanted to make at least some progress.

I did see that there was a Death pony shipping story featuring an OC. I read the first couple of chapters months ago when I first had this idea, to make sure I wasn't retreading old ground; and I decided that that story and my own were different enough to actually get writing.

Also, two votes for a continuation. :smallsmile:



Wow. Rainbow Dash really HAS been shipped with everypony. http://i.imgur.com/jNLDQ.png

Seriously, I really enjoyed it, and would love to see a continuation. No problems really stood out to me on first read, and I'm usually pretty good at spotting wonky spelling and grammar. Characterization was solid, descriptions were easily visualized, and puns were horrible and wonderful. http://i.imgur.com/XCdKc.png

More please? ^^

I think Death wants Dash to have a much nearer-Death-experience. :smallcool:


Edit: Added one more bit to my review I'd forgotten to include on first submission.

:smallbiggrin:

The whole story idea started with the two concepts: "Rainbow Dash ships with everypony" and "Flirting with death". The story evolved from there. And as the Ponythread Element of Puns, I couldn't resist sneaking a couple in there.

Three votes for a continuation. Yay~!


So, the general consensus is that Pancy Pants' special talent was rolling an 18 for Charisma at character creation? :smalltongue:

Actually, on his character sheet under Charisma, it just says "YES". :smalltongue:

Alternatively, "More than yours. Yes, even then." :smalltongue:


Technically, it's a blimp http://i.imgur.com/N2nfK.jpg

And a magical one, at that, seeing how crudely designed the harness is and how small the size to cabin ratio is. In fact, the design alone speaks volumes about money spent on it, being focused on aesthetic (free upper deck). I don't think we saw better example of how much better off the nobles are than the rest of the pony society :P

It could be a dirigible. Depends if the internal structure has a framework, or is merely maintained by gas pressure. Also, it's entirely possible that the airship belongs to Fancy Pants. Look at where they are when Rarity sings "At home at the opera, or a fancy yacht". That's the same airship Rarity launches later in the song. Also, "Fancy yacht" - coincidence? I think not! :smallwink:


Best Music:
Iamnotacleverpony
I Bring Da Lulz
Alex S


Also best music:
Foozogz (a.k.a. Pepper Brony)
Pinkie Pie Swear
Archie V
General Mumble
So Great and Powerful
Keep On Rockin' Brony
Glaze (a.k.a. Wooden Toaster)


*prods Thanqol towards my fanfic*

I'd really appreciate your feedback on this. It's a Rainbow Dash-centric story, so hopefully you'll like it. :smallsmile:

[Thanqol]

*prods Thanqol towards my fanfic*

I'd really appreciate your feedback on this. It's a Rainbow Dash-centric story, so hopefully you'll like it. :smallsmile:

Sure. I'm in a fanfiction reviewing mood recently, partially because I want to build up review karma as Long Distance develops.


Initial thought about description:

Ah, I know this feel. This is the "This is how I would do it" feel. The description in the first part has energy and flow, it's broadly solid, but I have small, hard-to-articulate issues with the precise nature of it. We're well into hand-wavey feel-ie territory here.

You're using elements from the show, quotations and images, but I feel it's almost too on the nose in this regard. You're using everypony's exact words without the entire sentiment behind them that created those words. Your descriptions are solid, but almost a little rigid - a touch too formal.


"Wait…" The pegasus pony bent down for a closer look. The pebbles weren’t pebbles at all; they were diamonds - black diamonds to be precise. "Wahoo! I’m rich! Rarity is gonna be so jealous." She scooped up a double-hoof full of the stones and flung them into the air, letting them rain down with a soft a rattling while she chuckled with glee.

This, for example, feels weirdly out of place. It's something Rainbow might do, but I'm not convinced she'd do it here. My own instinctive response to Rainbow being teleported to a diamond desert dimension would be:

- Asks who's there. Instant flip to aggression.
- Begins flying rapidly, looking for a threat. She'd be mad because she'd assume this was a joke and go into defensive mode, looking for a physical confrontation.
- After satisfying herself that she's not restrained, and that nopony was watching her, Rainbow would slowly start to relax. She'd still reflexively try to play it cool for a while, taking a 'yeah, whatever' approach towards the riches.
- Eventually might briefly indulge in some girlish and silly behaviour tossing diamonds around.
- Would quickly get bored, and then afraid.

What I don't see is Rainbow Dash comprehending the idea of scarcity being the foundation of monetary policy and deciding that because diamonds were common they were worthless. Rainbow Dash is totally the kind to counter financial problems by printing more money.

Neither do I see Rainbow admitting that she's lost, at least until she's walked around for a few hours, found nothing, and is starting to face a breakdown.


And this is the main problem I have with this fic; the reactions aren't quite right, the mindset isn't right, the responses are out of order and I don't find them natural. You're citing from the show more than you're communicating what drives the characters.

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Try taking us through those steps instead; I wager you'll find the progression a lot more natural. Indeed, I'd suggest that structuring the entire story around those five stations would be very powerful; even as chapter headings.


Now, that all said, the conversation with Death was actually a lot stronger than the rest. I think I recognized a few Pratchett lines, particularly dark outrunning light. The ending was marvellous and I completely did not see it coming.

And if I've been quite critical, don't get the wrong idea. This fic passes a lot of my baseline tests; I don't feel the need to go through it line by line and point out inconsistencies, it's very readable and doing well on the first draft scale. The problems I do have with it are unfortunately the wrongthink variety, which necessitates rewrites, rather than the small correction variety. This is a powerful concept you're working with here - I can sense that if you do this right it could be an absolutely fantastic story. I'm going to be unfortunately picky in my attempts to ensure that it works out as fantastic as the concept deserves.


Oh, and protip from somepony who spent two years roleplaying Death in a freeform - the font you want is Copperplate Gothic Light :smallwink: So much more classy than allcaps.

[Dirtbag]

oooooooo, i so wish we could do this............
also...Trollestia gets her comeuppence

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/005/a/0/twilight__s_revenge_by_parallaxmlp-d4le1gq.png

Sad twilight makes me sad. /~\

[Digestive Man]

Found some PMVs of songs I have been hoping would get the pony treatment for a some time now

First one for the SpikexRarity supporters Don't hurt me I like that ship too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaf7HsEmWlU&feature=related

and the others
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL4YXAcVQxs&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHJ6-YnsOyw&feature=related

[Serpentine]

Hey.
Hey guys.
My ex-Boy just had a My Little Pony Facebook status.
The Plan is one step closer to completion.

[Aotrs Commander]

Forgive my ignorance, but...Hopereaver is a she?!?!

I'm not even a Lich at the minute!

*cries waterfall tears*

And in my defense a) she was a Lich to start with and at the time and b) like ever I pay any attention to that sort of thing...!


As for fan fics, I've been avoiding them all out of sheer terror after hearing horror stories about a few- any advice on where to find some safe/good ones?

Fanfic is one of those things that you sometimes have to wade through quite a lot of rubbish, but if you're prepared to do so, you do find the odd highly gifted amatuer (by which I don't mean "untalented") writer's gold.

I can also recommend checking Equestria Daily's archives for the following:

It's a Dangerous Business, Going Out of Your Door
It Takes a Village

(Both of these are long, but I think they are just about my favourites, both are very written (the former exceptionally so).)

Ditzy Doo ad the Blustery Day
Sweet Apple Capers

(Both short, but extremely funny, though you have to be something of a Winne the Pooh fan (and I mean the books, not the daft Disney adaption to make the most out of the aforementioned.)

Past Sins, is, in my opinion, worth a read, though your mileage may vary (it's a fairly hyped-one)

ED's archives are vetted by pre-readers, so most of them are at least readable and are of fairly high quality, though staying away from [Grimdark] and dervivative tags is a good idea if you don't want to encounter anything graphic.

I'm the resident Spirit-Bound Space Lich Commadore by the way. Just thought I should mention that, because if you spend any time at all on this thread, you'll have to put up with me being around and you'll probably get confused otherwise. Just be warned about asking too many questions on that front, as they will get answered; at length and in great detail...


oooooooo, i so wish we could do this............
also...Trollestia gets her comeuppence

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/005/a/0/twilight__s_revenge_by_parallaxmlp-d4le1gq.png

Note to self: contact Twilight and learn spell, applications are enormous...

[SiuiS]

I am sitting in a hatchback in a Jack in the box drive thru. Between me and Brazen is a rolled up pink blanket with Pricness Celestia and Twilight Sparkle on it. We are heading to SFO. We are getting on a airplane to Texas. We will, from there, te on another plane to somewhere in/near new York.

I'm vaguely worried. Saying goodbye to my cats was kinda tear jerking - I had to crawl under the bed to say goodbye to Buttermilk, because our ride scared him. I don't think I'll ever get used to leaving my kids behind on vacation...

But in about 18 or so hours... Pony.

[Kindablue]

I am sitting in a hatchback in a Jack in the box drive thru. Between me and Brazen is a rolled up pink blanket with Pricness Celestia and Twilight Sparkle on it. We are heading to SFO. We are getting on a airplane to Texas. We will, from there, te on another plane to somewhere in/near new York.

I'm vaguely worried. Saying goodbye to my cats was kinda tear jerking - I had to crawl under the bed to say goodbye to Buttermilk, because our ride scared him. I don't think I'll ever get used to leaving my kids behind on vacation...

But in about 18 or so hours... Pony.

Have fun, you two! Take lots of pictures and don't talk to strangers unless they have cupcakes!

[Roninhirox]

Ooh, sounds like a pony arc, hope it's good.

Knew that guy was a brony for a while, he's been slipping in small references into the comic and the site for a while now. The first one I noticed was that he'd set up the site's subheading to sometimes change when it was refreshed. And one of those was "Sandra and Woo: Now 20% Cooler".

Also, about a month ago the two "O"'s in Woo sometimes changed to the colours of the Mane6.

Those kind of subtle hints give me a little bit of a kick, it's like decyphering a code or spy signalling or something :P

I caught the 20% cooler thing but missed the other thing. Also ya excited to see a plot arc with it.


I am sitting in a hatchback in a Jack in the box drive thru. Between me and Brazen is a rolled up pink blanket with Pricness Celestia and Twilight Sparkle on it. We are heading to SFO. We are getting on a airplane to Texas. We will, from there, te on another plane to somewhere in/near new York.

I'm vaguely worried. Saying goodbye to my cats was kinda tear jerking - I had to crawl under the bed to say goodbye to Buttermilk, because our ride scared him. I don't think I'll ever get used to leaving my kids behind on vacation...

But in about 18 or so hours... Pony.

Safe travels. Hope to see you at the con!

[Deadly]

Dear Bronies who are also Black Metal fans,

So, uh... I briefly mentioned once or twice that I was working on a Black Metal cover of the FiM opening theme. It's not quite done yet, but here's the instrumental version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLGfu-SltVw&context=C3ba4dd2ADOEgsToPDskKRY3xMCqMhJwZTHr-CfTEi). Low-quality distant guitars as standard. Drowned out screaming and hollowing version coming soon.
Look, I even drew a pretty picture of Fluttershy for everyone. http://i.imgur.com/ROEne.png

Looking forward to the finished version. The screaming and hollering is what makes or breaks a black metal song, everything else is really just there to blend in and provide backup.

It occurs to me that Rainbow Dash summed up the important aspects of black metal perfectly: Loss of Lots of control, screaming and hollering, and MOST importantly, passion! Yes, that correction is right.

Now I have a fierce craving for Fluttermetal!

[Grif]

That's exactly it! For a long time, I operated under the 'Make characters up as you go along' school of character design. But then I worked out a new system and every single character I've made since implementing the new system has been astoundingly better than anything in the past.

Most games succeed or fail during character generation; it's true! And that doesn't just mean the main character, or your character; it means the entire group, it's dynamic, and it's structure. Moreover, when introducing OCs to the slightly hostile pony fanbase, you have to be doubly careful; you're being held to a pretty high standard by stepping onto the same pillar as the show ponies.

I'm perhaps more practised in this than anything else that I do, so if you need further help, please ask :smallsmile:



Oh, you study video game design? Nice. And yes, that's right, I can think of plenty of places the two would overlap (pacing, structure, relief, atmosphere...)

Interesting observation. It definitely got me thinking on how I write my own fics... (Well, the ones that get written anyway. I find myself struggling with inconsistent characters if I let the thing drift a little too long. Bad, bad habit.)

[kpenguin]

Raz Fox. If you're reading this. I just need you to know.

BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH.

[Tectonic Robot]

Thanks for the warm welcome, fillies and gentlecolts!

Any advice on where I should go from here? I'm trying to get into the music, but I'm having a hard time sifting through the rubbish to find the best stuff. As for fan fics, I've been avoiding them all out of sheer terror after hearing horror stories about a few- any advice on where to find some safe/good ones? I've also been enjoying the pictures in this thread. Other things you'd suggest?

Also, I appreciate my first brohoofs. The bronies from my camp job all do neck nuzzles as a way of simulating pony hugs (it's very awkward but funny), but a brohoof I've never received before. *inhales deeply* "yay!"

Imposition! It's short, very overwritten, and pretty funny.

Also Mort Takes a Holiday, which is currently my favorite fanfiction.

[SiuiS]

Safe travels. Hope to see you at the con!

Oh cool! Well, I know who to look for, but in case your eyes are better than mine, keep a watch for this goober;


http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee468/WizardPony/04dbf6ef.jpg


With the hot fillyfriend right, real world, having a filly would be weird. Hot girlfriend.


Raz Fox. If you're reading this. I just need you to know.

BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH.

No Raz
This march
This time
WE TAKE THE FIGHT TO THEM!

DOWN WITH THE IDES!


Imposition! It's short, very overwritten, and pretty funny.

Also Mort Takes a Holiday, which is currently my favorite fanfiction.

Man, even Tek is getting in on the Fan Fics! See? See go prolific it becomes?
Eeeeexcelent.

[Nameless]

Yay~!

Also, nice. Much nicer than I expected, actually; my experience with black metal has been needlessly cacophonous, apparently.
[color="forestgreen"]I was kinda worried it would stagger me, actually...


Hurray! I haz approval! :3
Nuh, you've probably just been listening to the wrong stuff. It's actually a very varied and wide genre, you see. *puts on glasses*


oooooooo, i so wish we could do this............
also...Trollestia gets her comeuppence

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/005/a/0/twilight__s_revenge_by_parallaxmlp-d4le1gq.png

I lol'd. :smallbiggrin:


Looking forward to the finished version. The screaming and hollering is what makes or breaks a black metal song, everything else is really just there to blend in and provide backup.

It occurs to me that Rainbow Dash summed up the important aspects of black metal perfectly: Loss of Lots of control, screaming and hollering, and MOST importantly, passion! Yes, that correction is right.

Now I have a fierce craving for Fluttermetal!

Hey, that's not true! Distant low quality guitars are very important. I mean, could you imagine high quality guitars that you could hear properly? HA!
Also, there's lots of Black Metal that uses clean vocals.

[Athaniar]

Thanks for the warm welcome, fillies and gentlecolts!

Any advice on where I should go from here? I'm trying to get into the music, but I'm having a hard time sifting through the rubbish to find the best stuff. As for fan fics, I've been avoiding them all out of sheer terror after hearing horror stories about a few- any advice on where to find some safe/good ones? I've also been enjoying the pictures in this thread. Other things you'd suggest?

Also, I appreciate my first brohoofs. The bronies from my camp job all do neck nuzzles as a way of simulating pony hugs (it's very awkward but funny), but a brohoof I've never received before. *inhales deeply* "yay!"
The #1 song you should listen to if you haven't already is Discord (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDMGv3hNMes), but my personal favorite (Discord is second) is the Equestrian National Anthem (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZISo1NFO7AQ).

[Thanqol]

Another Long Distance (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Lu-4MmJbfFK4nSPvCQj7paxx_bXKhzvL-h4bp6p0SrY/edit?hl=en_US) (title pending) update. I'm bearing in on the last exchange; there's only two major letters that are still burning in my head, needing to be written. And I'm going to need to take a bit of a run up before I can tackle those.

[Deadly]

Hey, that's not true! Distant low quality guitars are very important. I mean, could you imagine high quality guitars that you could hear properly? HA!
Also, there's lots of Black Metal that uses clean vocals.

Well, I should have said just "vocals" in general, yes. Because I love clean vocals, better yet if you have a mix where two or more different "voices" complement each other. There's nothing better. Vocals are my favorite instruments.

But I stand by my other assertion, and I think you misunderstand. No, I can't imagine guitars you can hear properly (or rather I can, but then it's a different thing). But that's the whole point. You're not supposed to listen to them, they're not the focus, not the important part (people who play guitar seem prone to feel very important, as if all attention is or should be on them... I disagree). They're there to blend and provide some background noise, what's really the whole focus are the vocals.

At any rate, that's what I focus on, that's what I listen to. I don't listen to the instruments (very often), they're just background noise, heck I wouldn't be surprised if you could replace them with artfully-pieced-together traffic noise, maybe a capella black metal could even work.

Obviously there are exceptions. I do like occasional instrumental parts, but preferably they should remain short, just a little teaser or little bits strewn among the noise that you might pick up on and appreciate exactly because they're like rare pearls. I rarely like long, drawn out guitar solos (in genres where that's common). I get bored.

Drums on the other hand, I don't mind drum solos, or them being more or less dominant. But vocals are still the main focus in general.

And I should note that the very clear drawing of lines between genres has never been something I understood, so when I say "Black Metal" I may be thinking of things that others would classify much more precisely. I don't care for very precise classifications of music. It's all good to me, who cares what it's called?

[Eakin]

Thanks for the warm welcome, fillies and gentlecolts!

Any advice on where I should go from here? I'm trying to get into the music, but I'm having a hard time sifting through the rubbish to find the best stuff. As for fan fics, I've been avoiding them all out of sheer terror after hearing horror stories about a few- any advice on where to find some safe/good ones? I've also been enjoying the pictures in this thread. Other things you'd suggest?

Also, I appreciate my first brohoofs. The bronies from my camp job all do neck nuzzles as a way of simulating pony hugs (it's very awkward but funny), but a brohoof I've never received before. *inhales deeply* "yay!"

*obligatory link to my fan music playlist (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL91E0314487377BAE&feature=mh_lolz)


I am sitting in a hatchback in a Jack in the box drive thru. Between me and Brazen is a rolled up pink blanket with Pricness Celestia and Twilight Sparkle on it. We are heading to SFO. We are getting on a airplane to Texas. We will, from there, te on another plane to somewhere in/near new York.

I'm vaguely worried. Saying goodbye to my cats was kinda tear jerking - I had to crawl under the bed to say goodbye to Buttermilk, because our ride scared him. I don't think I'll ever get used to leaving my kids behind on vacation...

But in about 18 or so hours... Pony.

Arrrrgh I'm jealous. Wish I were going to BroNYcon, but even if I could get over there, they're full up on RSVPs

Oh, and episode 5 of Friendship is Witchcraft (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1uUa8lUIJE) is up for those who follow it

[Nameless]

Well, I should have said just "vocals" in general, yes. Because I love clean vocals, better yet if you have a mix where two or more different "voices" complement each other. There's nothing better. Vocals are my favorite instruments.

But I stand by my other assertion, and I think you misunderstand. No, I can't imagine guitars you can hear properly (or rather I can, but then it's a different thing). But that's the whole point. You're not supposed to listen to them, they're not the focus, not the important part (people who play guitar seem prone to feel very important, as if all attention is or should be on them... I disagree). They're there to blend and provide some background noise, what's really the whole focus are the vocals.

At any rate, that's what I focus on, that's what I listen to. I don't listen to the instruments (very often), they're just background noise, heck I wouldn't be surprised if you could replace them with artfully-pieced-together traffic noise, maybe a capella black metal could even work.

Obviously there are exceptions. I do like occasional instrumental parts, but preferably they should remain short, just a little teaser or little bits strewn among the noise that you might pick up on and appreciate exactly because they're like rare pearls. I rarely like long, drawn out guitar solos (in genres where that's common). I get bored.

Drums on the other hand, I don't mind drum solos, or them being more or less dominant. But vocals are still the main focus in general.

And I should note that the very clear drawing of lines between genres has never been something I understood, so when I say "Black Metal" I may be thinking of things that others would classify much more precisely. I don't care for very precise classifications of music. It's all good to me, who cares what it's called?

Well, the comment I made wasn't intended to be taken seriously, but...
I disagree. Yes, vocals are very important, but I also think the instrumental side is just as important. (...and yes, that includes the bass. You'd be amazed how differently a song sounds with no bass) I like instrumental songs almost as much... if not just as much as songs with vocals. I also don't mind long instrumental parts within songs which have vocals. But then again, I'm a fan of progressive music and quite open minded about music in general. I listen to anything between Classical music, to most forms of Metal and Rock, to Cabaret, Folk, to Industrial and a lot of Electronica, so a lot of what I listen to has no vocals at all.

And now I feel obliged to quote my friend, "Vocalists are to musicians what dolphins are to sea life, they swim in the sea, but they ain't fish."

Which I don't strictly agree with, but it's still funny. :smalltongue:

Also, I only use genre names because it's easier to say "Symphonic Black Metal" then "That music with the symphony and the distant fast guitars with the really fast drumming and the screeching vocals." You know... kinda saves time. :smalltongue: I'm not actually bothered by what genre something is.

[MLPSilverbolt]

Esperderek's Stuff (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20EsperDerek)

Just figured I'd point out that EsperDerek's older stuff hasn't gotten the author tag applied to it yet, so Out in the Cold (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/03/story-out-in-cold.html) and Letters, Letters, Letters (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/04/story-letters-letters-letters.html) won't show up on that page. I definitely recommend reading Out in the Cold before embarking on any of its sequels/spin-offs (Phoe's "Shades of Midnight," Sunset Rose's "Cries in the Autumn Wind," The Mysterious Pony's "Mark of the Magician," and EsperDerek's own "Dreams of Midnight," "Moonlight Over Midnight," and "Midnight and Shimmer's Guide to Dating.").

EDIT: Oh, right, since I'm recommending OITC and its assorted sequels, I should probably put the timeline here. They're scattered across several pages and in some cases grouped together in a way that doesn't entirely make sense...

Order of Publication:
Out in the Cold
Shades of Midnight
Cries in the Autumn Wind
Mark of the Magician
Moonlight Over Midnight
Midnight and Shimmer's Guide to Dating
Dreams of Midnight

Order of Events:
Out in the Cold
Dreams of Midnight
Mark of the Magician (framing story; most of the story itself is a flashback to Trixie's childhood)
Cries in the Autumn Wind
Shades of Midnight (framing story; most of the story is a series of vignettes set at various stages of Midnight's life, from right after her birth all the way up to starting college, and other stories take place within that framework)
Moonlight Over Midnight
Midnight and Shimmer's Guide to Dating

[Deadly]

Well, the comment I made wasn't intended to be taken seriously, but...
I disagree. Yes, vocals are very important, but I also think the instrumental side is just as important. (...and yes, that includes the bass. You'd be amazed how differently a song sounds with no bass) I like instrumental songs almost as much... if not just as much as songs with vocals. I also don't mind long instrumental parts within songs which have vocals. But then again, I'm a fan of progressive music and quite open minded about music in general. I listen to anything between Classical music, to most forms of Metal and Rock, to Cabaret, Folk, to Industrial and a lot of Electronica, so a lot of what I listen to has no vocals at all.

And now I feel obliged to quote my friend, "Vocalists are to musicians what dolphins are to sea life, they swim in the sea, but they ain't fish."

Which I don't strictly agree with, but it's still funny. :smalltongue:

Don't take me too seriously either :smallbiggrin:

And don't get me wrong here, I like just about every kind of music, and I love experimental and different styles. Let me just mention Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (I swear you don't get much more experimental than that, their "Helpless Corpses Enactment", which is awesome by the way, is probably the most mainstream they've ever done) and Diablo Swing Orchestra as a few counter examples. Go listen if you doubt me. I love crazy, silly, different stuff :smalltongue:

But when we're talking black metal and its sub- or closely related genres - extreme metal in general - I feel vocals are probably the most important aspect. In the sense that I can't imagine a lot of such music without vocals, and it's usually the thing I focus the most on while listening. Take your linked song, it really lacks something IMO, and what it lacks are vocals. All the rest? It's nothing without the vocals.

That's not to say instruments aren't important too, or that they can't add something to black metal. A lot of my favorite black metal incorporates non-traditional instruments, and it adds a lot. But without the vocals it would probably still not sound right, whereas you can definitely have black metal with very few instruments and I would even go so far as to say you could leave out one or two of the three primary instruments some of the time.

In other words, I think you can be very experimental with the instrumental line up in black metal, but leave out vocals entirely and you don't really have black metal anymore.


Also, I only use genre names because it's easier to say "Symphonic Black Metal" then "That music with the symphony and the distant fast guitars with the really fast drumming and the screeching vocals." You know... kinda saves time. :smalltongue: I'm not actually bothered by what genre something is.

Fair enough, that sounds like me too :smallbiggrin: I just call it whatever I think fits, and it's probably not always technically correct by certain pedantic standards.

[Gadora]

Well, Raz found out about this the other day, so it would probably be wise to just put this out in the thread so that word can spread more easily.As you know, life recently sent Raz_Fox a tragedy. While we can in no way fix what happened, we, as a community, are trying to let him know that he is loved and cared for.

To this end, we are attempting to assemble a package of gifts for him and his family, but there's quite a bit of organization that needs to come together on this. Additionally, this isn't all that much of a community care package, unless the community is involved.

We're still at the point where we need ideas. If you can help brainstorm, please, come take a look at the brainstorming (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TLBKNumCC63oC7vpuvbkHNTlfY19IcilQY6Sdlo3m8U/edit) we've got going on.

We also need to get things a bit more organized, so we've just created a signup sheet (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nj-ZlKuKyBpQMKfAgxVrE-seyzaj1UQHg4UCPrEkQvg/edit?hl=en_US) so that we can do our best to make sure that nothing slips through the cracks.

If you can help with organizing this whole thing, that's another area where we need help.

[Eakin]

Well, Raz found out about this the other day, so it would probably be wise to just put this out in the thread so that word can spread more easily.As you know, life recently sent Raz_Fox a tragedy. While we can in no way fix what happened, we, as a community, are trying to let him know that he is loved and cared for.

To this end, we are attempting to assemble a package of gifts for him and his family, but there's quite a bit of organization that needs to come together on this. Additionally, this isn't all that much of a community care package, unless the community is involved.

We're still at the point where we need ideas. If you can help brainstorm, please, come take a look at the brainstorming (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TLBKNumCC63oC7vpuvbkHNTlfY19IcilQY6Sdlo3m8U/edit) we've got going on.

We also need to get things a bit more organized, so we've just created a signup sheet (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nj-ZlKuKyBpQMKfAgxVrE-seyzaj1UQHg4UCPrEkQvg/edit?hl=en_US) so that we can do our best to make sure that nothing slips through the cracks.

If you can help with organizing this whole thing, that's another area where we need help.

I think this is a wonderful sentiment, and fully support the effort to reach out to a fellow thread member in their time of need.

However, I think we need to be very VERY sensitive to the needs of the family and not go all out with the pony. We should perhaps preserve the preciousness of the pony paraphernalia by not presenting profligate possessions with pony properties.

Just consider non-pony gestures as well, is what I'm saying. The actual trappings of the show aren't nearly as important as the spirit of community, kindness, and compassion that it's inspired in this thread.

[Nameless]

Don't take me too seriously either :smallbiggrin:

And don't get me wrong here, I like just about every kind of music, and I love experimental and different styles. Let me just mention Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (I swear you don't get much more experimental than that, their "Helpless Corpses Enactment", which is awesome by the way, is probably the most mainstream they've ever done) and Diablo Swing Orchestra as a few counter examples. Go listen if you doubt me. I love crazy, silly, different stuff :smalltongue:

But when we're talking black metal and it's sub- or closely related genres - extreme metal in general - I feel vocals are probably the most important aspect. In the sense that I can't imagine a lot of such music without vocals, and it's usually the thing I focus the most on while listening. Take your linked song, it really lacks something IMO, and what it lacks are vocals. All the rest? It's nothing without the vocals.

That's not to say instruments aren't important too, or that they can't add something to black metal. A lot of my favorite black metal incorporates non-traditional instruments, and it adds a lot. But without the vocals it would probably still not sound right, whereas you can definitely have black metal with very few instruments and I would even go so far as to say you could leave out one or two of the three primary instruments some of the time.

In other words, I think you can be very experimental with the instrumental line up in black metal, but leave out vocals entirely and you don't really have black metal anymore.



Fair enough, that sounds like me too :smallbiggrin: I just call it whatever I think fits, and it's probably not always technically correct by certain pedantic standards.

I can see your point I suppose, and I won't dispute your opinion regarding vocals being the most important aspect in Black Metal. But again, personally, I always feel that there's more that defines the genre then the vocals. Wedard, Winterus and Aggaloch have all done numerous instrumental Black Metal tracks that I wouldn't define any differently.

(Also, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum are pretty awesome :smalltongue:)

[the_druid_droid]

Of course. But then you're not just merely dead, but really most sincerely dead.

You have no idea how happy this made me. I haven't watched that movie in ages...


That's exactly it! For a long time, I operated under the 'Make characters up as you go along' school of character design. But then I worked out a new system and every single character I've made since implementing the new system has been astoundingly better than anything in the past.


Speaking of character designs...I also sometimes struggle with getting enough to get started or to build on, but not being able to flesh out the character in my head. Possibly it's because I'm afraid I'll make a bunch of inconsistent choices, but I don't know. Any suggestions for pushing the characterization deeper? I know you mentioned Virtues and Vices and even Elements, but I have trouble getting to a place where I feel like I'm not just arbitrarily choosing them...


Hey.
Hey guys.
My ex-Boy just had a My Little Pony Facebook status.
The Plan is one step closer to completion.

Huzzah!


I am sitting in a hatchback in a Jack in the box drive thru. Between me and Brazen is a rolled up pink blanket with Pricness Celestia and Twilight Sparkle on it. We are heading to SFO. We are getting on a airplane to Texas. We will, from there, te on another plane to somewhere in/near new York.

I'm vaguely worried. Saying goodbye to my cats was kinda tear jerking - I had to crawl under the bed to say goodbye to Buttermilk, because our ride scared him. I don't think I'll ever get used to leaving my kids behind on vacation...

But in about 18 or so hours... Pony.

Give lots of status updates! I intend to vicariously enjoy the con through your perspective, so keep us up to date *serious stare*

[Deadly]

I can see your point I suppose, and I won't dispute your opinion regarding vocals being the most important aspect in Black Metal. But again, personally, I always feel that there's more that defines the genre then the vocals. Wedard, Winterus and Aggaloch have all done numerous instrumental Black Metal tracks that I wouldn't define any differently.

It's not that I don't occasionally like instrumental music too, it's just not quite the same.

But anyway, we're drifting way off topic here :D I still want to hear your final version, and I definitely want Fluttermetal to be a Thing.


(Also, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum are pretty awesome :smalltongue:)

They sure are :smallcool:


However, I think we need to be very VERY sensitive to the needs of the family and not go all out with the pony. We should perhaps preserve the preciousness of the pony paraphernalia by not presenting profligate possessions with pony properties.

I think it's a wonderful idea too, to show that they are in our thoughts. I did a picture myself, because I wanted to do just that.

However, I can't help but think it's possible to overdo it, that it might end up seeming a little creepy (many of us are random strangers on the Internet, remember) or just a little too much in some way. Especially if it moves from the Internet to the real world (physical presents in the mail). I don't know them, but some people are more OK with such things than others.

I'm definitely not saying don't do it, but do be sensitive. Don't want to smother them or come off as creepy, especially at a time like this. Or for that matter coming off as insincere by the sheer scale of it. Small, personal shows of caring, maybe, rather than big impersonal displays. I don't know.