My Little Pony XCIX: Leakier Than A Changeling Bathtub!

[Aotrs Commander]

https://img00.deviantart.net/7c74/i/2015/220/3/8/tubling_by_pony_berserker-d8678ox.png

Trixie's Great and Powerful Guide v3.0!
Bleakbane'd Edition

Brief Introduction

MLP: Friendship Is Magic is a reboot of the MLP franchise by Powerpuff Girls artist Lauren Faust. The show's writing and production engendered a large fanbase outside of the intended target audience.

This long-running thread is not only a place to discuss MLP, both official releases and the vast array of fanworks, but has become a mini-community in and of itself.

> Isn't this a show for little girls?

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.

> If I want to get into the show, where do I start?

A good starting point is to watch the episodes in order. The show is available on Netflixs in many countries, but, at a pinch, can usually be found with some searching one youtube or dailymotion. Search for "Friendship is Magic Episode 1" and you should find the series pretty easily.

Alternatively, you can ask ponythread itself for a few choice episodes; we're always happy to help!



***

General Links

Friendship is Magic Wiki (http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/My_Little_Pony_Friendship_is_Magic_Wiki)

Pony News: Equestria Daily (http://www.equestriadaily.com/) | Derpynews (http://derpynews.com/)
Discussion Forums: Ponychan (http://www.ponychan.net/chan/) | Allspark MLP (http://http://www.allspark.com/forums/forum/67-my-little-allsparkle/)
Pony Emotes: FiM Emotes (http://kefkafloyd.imgur.com/J8S59) | MC's Emotes (http://gitpmcerberus.imgur.com/ponymote) | GD's Emotes (http://gadora.imgur.com/seekret_pony_projekt_1/1)
Pony Images: Ponibooru [RIP] | 20% Cooler (http://twentypercentcooler.net/) | Derpibooru (http://derpibooru.org/)
Know Your Meme: Ponies! (http://knowyourmeme.com/search?q=pony)

Ponythread New Episode Spoiler Policy
To allow everyone time to be able to catch up on a new episode, we ask that everyone please spoiler all discussion of upcoming and new episodes until at least two days after it airs. (I.e., if the new episode is on Saturday, please keep eveything in spoilers until Tuesday.

In the case of official MLP comics, ponthread policy is to always discuss them in spoilers, on the basis that, for example, ponythreaders in the UK do not get them until some weeks later.


Art Links


The specific colour values used for the ponies can be obtained from the Friendship is Magic Wiki (linked above) on each pony's wiki page, under the "more info" dropdown.

Tutorials:

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

Ponythread Learns to Draw II

The Creator

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

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

Deviant Art Links:
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/)
Shinepaw (http://shinepawpony.deviantart.com/)

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

Some Nice Pictures:

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)

Media

Official Youtube Channels:

My Little Pony Channel (=https://www.youtube.com/user/mylittlepony/videos)
Hasbro Studios Shorts (https://www.youtube.com/user/HasbroStudiosShorts/videos)

Pony AMVs, Games, Music and more
Equestria Daily Media (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Media)

Equestria Girls
Equestria Girls Episode guide compilation (https://www.equestriadaily.com/2018/02/equestria-girls-overall-episode-guide.html)

Comics:

Equestria Daily comics (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Comic)

CSImadmax (http://csimadmax.deviantart.com/gallery/27895270) | Metaponies (http://gavalanche.deviantart.com/gallery/29877487)

Fanfiction

Fimfiction (http://www.fimfiction.net/)
Equestria Daily archive (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/09/eqd-super-simple-archiver-test.html)

GitP Fic Authors:

AmishPirate (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20TheAmishPirate) | Darth BC (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20Bobcat) | Deadly (https://www.fimfiction.net/user/adcoon): 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) | DigoDragon (http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Digodragon) | EsperDerek (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20EsperDerek) | Grif (http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Grif) | Juntao (http://www.fimfiction.net/story/103601/from-equestria-with-love) | PhantomFox (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20PhantomFox) | PhoeKun (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20Phoe) | Raz Fox (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20Raz_Fox) | Thanqol (http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20Thanqol)
Aotrs Commander (http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Aotrs%20Commander) | Dexam (https://www.fimfiction.net/user/The%20Ponytrician) | Silfir (http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Glimmerglaze)


Same Old Ponymotes:

Original Batch
http://i.imgur.com/0bxcP.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/0bxcP.png
http://i.imgur.com/0yCfw.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/0yCfw.png
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MCerberus
http://i.imgur.com/01zSq.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/01zSq.png
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Crazy!Twi
http://i.imgur.com/r63WE.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/r63WE.png
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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://i.imgur.com/rs4hd.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/rs4hd.png
http://i.imgur.com/PBYX5.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/PBYX5.png
http://iambrony.dget.cc/mlp/gif/liarjack_da_avatar_by_metalbeersolid-d4bc9sj.gifhttp://iambrony.dget.cc/mlp/gif/liarjack_da_avatar_by_metalbeersolid-d4bc9sj.gif
http://image.spreadshirt.com/image-server/v1/designs/11497743,width=100,height=100/Brony-Brohoof-v3.pnghttp://image.spreadshirt.com/image-server/v1/designs/11497743,width=100,height=100/Brony-Brohoof-v3.png

Seekrit Pony Projekt
1-20
http://i.imgur.com/03Pwr.png[noparse]http://i.imgur.com/03Pwr.png
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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
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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
125-136 (Sweetie Series)
http://i.imgur.com/Jg8wb.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/Jg8wb.png
http://i.imgur.com/9KKKz.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/9KKKz.png
http://i.imgur.com/KjRiq.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/KjRiq.png
http://i.imgur.com/pteUs.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/pteUs.png
http://i.imgur.com/o0V8z.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/o0V8z.png
http://i.imgur.com/mUwFV.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/mUwFV.png
http://i.imgur.com/T9hVn.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/T9hVn.png
http://i.imgur.com/EkuTB.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/EkuTB.png
http://i.imgur.com/lVPd8.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/lVPd8.png
http://i.imgur.com/0GUM4.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/0GUM4.png
http://i.imgur.com/cCNvw.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/cCNvw.png
http://i.imgur.com/4mTcY.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/4mTcY.png


Anti-Spoiler Measures
Each post has a "spoilers" drop down, in case you don't want to always show spoilers, but would like to control it on a page-by-page basis.

To automatically all remove spoiler blocks, log in (you must have a forum account) and select:

Forum Actions => Edit Profile

Scroll down to the bottom of the Page and select Yes where it says Automatically Show All Spoilers.


Past Threads:

I - Because Friendship Is Magic
II - Now About 20% Cooler
III - The Great & Powerful Thread
IV - Friendship is Sufficiently Advanced Technology
V - Art of the Thread
VI - MUFFINS!
VII - The Grand Galloping Thread
VIII - Friendship is Music
IX - The Best Thread Ever
X - We Trot 'til We Drop
XI - "Mmph!"
XII - No One Can Groove Like the Girls with the Hooves
XIII - Fast/Fine/Fierce Thread
XIV - Boots on Hooves / Bikinis on Top
XV - The Greater and Powerful-er Thread
XVI - There's a Pony for That!
XVII - Call Upon the Thread Ponies!
XVIII - Perfect Isn't Easy
XIX - I Emptied Your Thread
XX (a) - Untitled
XX (b) - Appletastic Treats
XXI - A Very Minty Thread
XXII - Surprise!
XXIII - It. Is. ON!
XXIV - Now About 200% Longer Than Firefly
XXV - Au Contraire, Mon Ami!
XXVI - Applebloom to Zecora!
XXVII - Eternal Chaos comes with Chocolate Rain
XXVIII - In the Crazy of 40.000 Posts, There is Only Pony!
XXIX - The Spoilers have been DOUBLED!
XXX - Trixie Treats!
XXXI - The Great and Powerful XXXie!
XXXII - Find a Ponythread, and Soarin' the heck out of it!
XXXIII - Happy Birthday Pony(thread)!
XXXIV - There is Pony of it, no exceptions!
XXXV - The Thread Everypony Should Know
XXXVI - Superponies Everywhere!
XXXVII - We Should Have Learned [Something] By Now!
XXXVIII - Nopony Expects Sponish Pinquisition!
XXXIX - There is no Pegasus Mafia!
XL - The Plot Thickens!
XLI - Riots, Riots Everywhere!
XLII - Life, the Universe and Ponies
XLIII - Season II Ruined My Fanon!
XLIV - This Thread is Going to be Perfect!
XLV - Reign Of Terror
XLVI - *ROBOT TAKEOVER*
XLVII - Ponibooru, We Hardly Knew Ye...
XLVIII - I say Ol' Chap, how about those Equestrians?
XLIX - I Have Done Nothing Productive All Day!
L - The L is for Love!
LI - FE
LII - 525.600 Ponies!
LIII - Stashing Ponythreads Around in Case of Ponymergency!
LIV-E Long and Pony!
LV:55 Ponythread learns Agility!
LVI:S Has Left the Playground!
LVII - You Must Construct Additional Pinkies!
LVIII - Ponythread does not trust Wheels!
LIX - Is Very Proud Of You
LX - 60 Ponythreads? That's an Academy record!
LXI - Discord's Thread For Reformed Spoilers
LXII - Friendship Gives you Wiings!
LXIII - R63? We Have NO IDEA What That Is...
LXIV - Haute Couture and Huge Crustaceans!
LXV - Stand Back, I'm a Registered Princess!
LXVI - What Would Celestia Not Think?!
LXVII - Summer of Love and Tolerance!
LXVIII - Wondercolts don't do drugs!
LXIX - Only Slightly On Fire!
LXX - How many licks to get to the Center?!
LXXI - These Ponies Are Little!
LXXII - A Headcrab Full of Friendship and Joy!
LXXIII - Luna's Sordid Dreams? I'm Not Googling That...
LXXIV - Hats Are Technology!
LXXV - Go Go Power Ponies!!
LXXVI - 'P' is for 'Ponythread'!
LXXVII - Playground's Permanent Party Ponythread!
LXXVIII - I Cun Speek Breezeee!
LXXIX - Double Princess Now Canon
LXXX - Pony Princess Powers Activate!
LXXXI - All Of These Ponies Are Crazy!
LXXXII - Popular Teenagers Are Not To Be Trusted
LXXXIII - The Hub is Dead, Long Live the Hub!
LXXXIV - That's Not Canon Yet!
LXXXV - And that's how Equestria was made!
LXXXVI - Too Suggestive for Ponythread!
LXXXVII - Horses Riding Horses!
LXXXVIII - They told me not to Ponythread, but I didn't listen!
LXXXIX - Ponythread Perfect! Yaks no Smash!
XC - My Little Pony XC-OM: Enemy Un-pone
XCI - RETURN OF THE REIGN OF TERROR PARTY HOUR
XCII - Suggestive Horse Noises
XC(OM2)III - Resistance is Magic
XCIV - It's A Working Title!
XCV - I am (Finally) Become Pancakes!
XCVI - Long Live the King
XCVII - Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
XCVIII - Still Haven't Caught Up on Season 7!





[/spoiler]

[Pi Pie]

(Yeah, it was a small ship, so it got done fast.)


I like the color on the corvette.

Most of the ships that you have created recently seem to follow the same pattern with engines in back, bridge on top of engines and presumably weapon systems and shielding in front. Do you have any ships that radically change that paradigm?

For example, imagine a ship that uses gravity manipulation to accelerate instead of propelling particles and relying on Newton's 3rd law. You could lock onto a large heavy interstellar object (like a sun or black hole) and pull yourself to that object. With this setup, the engines could be located anywhere on board the ship since the entire vessel would be pulled towards a target equally.

There are also the ship designs that use sun sails although that would not be practical for a war ship.

[Aotrs Commander]

I like the color on the corvette.

Most of the ships that you have created recently seem to follow the same pattern with engines in back, bridge on top of engines and presumably weapon systems and shielding in front. Do you have any ships that radically change that paradigm?

This is all one fleet, so it follows the same design paradigm. (Moreover, one that is similar to the Xyriat Hegemony:

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-ZzbV4bs/0/bc865024/X3/OtherPartizan%202017%20Xyriat%20start%2001-X3.jpg

from which the Xygritt technology diverged from.)

(And you will have seen the Wodefs and Phystyulons from the photos from the weekend.)




For example, imagine a ship that uses gravity manipulation to accelerate instead of propelling particles and relying on Newton's 3rd law. You could lock onto a large heavy interstellar object (like a sun or black hole) and pull yourself to that object. With this setup, the engines could be located anywhere on board the ship since the entire vessel would be pulled towards a target equally.

There are also the ship designs that use sun sails although that would not be practical for a war ship.

The Jalyrkieons (the welsh-pony sized telekinetic carnivorous tetracorns) - more properly, I should say "Plenadian," really - use gravitonic propulsion technology (combined with effective-mass-reduction fields) primarily derivied from their telekineis and as such, do not have engines that work via emission.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-WGPMFbT/0/c16b03fe/XL/Sirifef%20v1%20launching%20craft-XL.png

Which is about as close as you get sensibly get to that idea, because at the point you can make tractor beams with enough range to be able to pull yourself towards stellar objects, you'll have found better ways of moving through space.

Otherwise, you need engines at the back for efficiency of movement - and most non-teleport FTL requires physical forward movement - and bridges tend to be at the top or front if visible (as on the underside, they tend not to be visible).

For the most non-standard layout, you have the Stone Portals (though even they need engines at the back).

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-nVrXcCK/0/4bd358a9/X3/Stone%20Portal%20Fleet%201-X3.jpg

[meto30]

https://orig00.deviantart.net/2885/f/2018/234/0/4/equestria_daily_artist_training_grounds_29a_by_met o30-dckuo4w.png
https://orig00.deviantart.net/838a/f/2018/234/9/7/royals_gonna_party_by_meto30-dckw94y.png

The 29th prompt asked me to "redo an old piece". The second page is a redo of the following semi-old drawing that some of you good people of the Ponythread might remember.

https://img00.deviantart.net/6c0b/i/2016/003/1/4/tiandriel_and_the_royals_on_a_wild_night_out_by_me to30-d9mkutp.jpg
There was a lot of comments on the old one that the ponies looked too thin; this picture represents the height of the "Andalusian" phase of my Pony art style, and the comments influenced me to re-calibrate the body shape of my ponies into something more "fuller". The resulting style, what I call "Meto 2016", still remains more-or-less in place now, and can be seen represented in the re-do above for easy comparison.

[zimmerwald1915]

https://orig00.deviantart.net/2885/f/2018/234/0/4/equestria_daily_artist_training_grounds_29a_by_met o30-dckuo4w.png
https://orig00.deviantart.net/838a/f/2018/234/9/7/royals_gonna_party_by_meto30-dckw94y.png

The 29th prompt asked me to "redo an old piece". The second page is a redo of the following semi-old drawing that some of you good people of the Ponythread might remember.

https://img00.deviantart.net/6c0b/i/2016/003/1/4/tiandriel_and_the_royals_on_a_wild_night_out_by_me to30-d9mkutp.jpg
There was a lot of comments on the old one that the ponies looked too thin; this picture represents the height of the "Andalusian" phase of my Pony art style, and the comments influenced me to re-calibrate the body shape of my ponies into something more "fuller". The resulting style, what I call "Meto 2016", still remains more-or-less in place now, and can be seen represented in the re-do above for easy comparison.
Is that a bustle that Twilight is wearing in the second panel? I can't really tell.

[digiman619]

Huh. I just realized that I've named two threads (or rather came up with a name that was used for them) and both were about changelings. Wonder if that means something.

[Rater202]

Thingy what to make the thread easier to track.

some people have speculated that Lightning Dust was deliberately trying to get Scoots hurt to hurt Rainbow by proxy.

I think she's enough of a sociopath but I don't think she's that actively malicious.

[DigoDragon]

(Yeah, it was a small ship, so it got done fast.)

That's what she said.
https://img00.deviantart.net/82c5/i/2014/018/c/e/sunny_spitfire_by_spittfireart-d72r4m3.jpg



Huh. I just realized that I've named two threads (or rather came up with a name that was used for them) and both were about changelings. Wonder if that means something.

Shh! You're not supposed to give away the game! :smalltongue:
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/445/340/2c5.png



Thingy what to make the thread easier to track.

some people have speculated that Lightning Dust was deliberately trying to get Scoots hurt to hurt Rainbow by proxy.

I think she's enough of a sociopath but I don't think she's that actively malicious.

She was very insistent that Scoots do the trick and had zero concerns about safety. That tastes like intent on my plate.

[Alabenson]

She was very insistent that Scoots do the trick and had zero concerns about safety. That tastes like intent on my plate.

I read that more as not caring about anything other than the show than actual malice. Lightning Dust may not have actively wanted Scoots to get hurt, but she didn't particularly care if she did and may have figured that it would make for a great show either way.

Thinking about it, though, what I would have liked to see from the end is having Lightning Dust called out by the other Washouts, essentially having them point out that being reckless with their own safety is one thing but risking somepony else's being a step too far.

[Topaz]

Topaz' Traditionally Tardy List of Pony tabletop RPGs:

Hasbro's Officially Licensed My Little Pony Friendship is Magic TRPG --

Tails of Equestria, from River Horse (http://riverhorse.eu/our-games/my-little-pony-tails-of-equestria/) PDF via DriveThruRPG (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/263319/My-Little-Pony-Tails-of-Equestria--The-Storytelling-Game?term=tails+of+equestria&test_epoch=0) (Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/TailsofequestriaMLPRPG/))

Stand-alone Games --

D20 Based:
Courage is Magic (2.2 The Moon Sets Edition!) (http://littlelunamoonmatron.deviantart.com/art/Courage-is-Magic-2-2-The-Moon-Sets-576512647) (Very Heavily Modified D&D4 based)
Heroes of Equestria (http://torturedartist745.deviantart.com/art/Heroes-of-Equestria-MLP-FIM-RPG-300487764) (D&D-ish)
Pony Tales: Aspirations of Harmony (http://ponytales.forumotion.com/) (d20 meets Final Fantasy style)

D6 Based:
Magic of Equestria (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XonNuwLn9OXMUT8aY8ktm64Gw5mNldANMCk2hxWuw2w/edit#heading=h.7c9jm6popo9) (a system in progress designed for play-by-post)
My Little Pony: Roleplaying is Magic, Season Four (http://www.roleplayingismagic.com/)
Pony Tales the RPG (http://catspaw-dtp-services.deviantart.com/gallery/39628312) (Open d6 based)
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, The Roleplaying Game (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2zrjqXYhlMcN2Q0M2VmNmMtY2I4Mi00YjA1LTg3NDctYzQ2Z GZiMDQ3ZGFk/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1) (Older game using a D6 dice pool)
Puzzles and Ponies (http://puzzlesandponies.deviantart.com/) (Simple 1d6 game)

D10 based:
Sereg's Pony RPG (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KyPWVXT93Zz8LiZawFxl6kUy0OrdlQYcBBXo-Sv6GKw/edit?pli=1) (D10 dice pool)

D100 (percentile dice) based:
Fallout: Equestria RPG (http://foerpg.blogspot.com/)
Older, different Fallout:Equestria RPG (http://foerpg.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout:Equestria_RPG_Wiki)
Fallout: Equestria PNP (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fsNLwKTWEt0pawFWLRzBtEPfvDQGitGPh8NN3Zk0xo4/edit?pli=1#)

Multiple die type based:
Seeds of Harmony (Translated from Italian) (http://velgarn.tumblr.com/SoH_Material) (Discussion on the Equestria Daily Forum) (https://forums.equestriadaily.com/index.php?/topic/5530-seeds-of-harmony-pnp-rpg/)
My Little Heroes AKA Hooves of Heroes (Original ODT file) (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-UYVjBngS1bbkZPZURZeEo2M28/view?pli=1) (PDF version) (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9S4SDvgQOFZWXNmeHFabXA5MzA/edit?pli=1)
Ponies: The Roleplaying Game (http://msfhwraith.deviantart.com/art/Pony-RPG-First-Draft-289542812)

Dice Pool Based (Ubiquity System):
Roan – Pulp Adventure RPG (https://roanrpg.com/) (Commercial "Equine Action Adventure in a world of Pulp Fiction")

Playing card based:
Friendship is Magic, the Tabletop RPG (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192468) (GitP forum)

Commercial Card-based Dungeon Adventure Game:
Buck: Legacy (http://buckcardgame.com/)

Supplements for existing systems --

Ponyfinder, a commercial Pony-based Campaign Setting for Pathfinder (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/125583/Ponyfinder--Campaign-Setting) (Main book, has many supplements)
Pony Races for Pathfinder (Old) (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MTe-vJ44LNepZAT3Eqta5qkxntS8nefLDBpNAf4lFMI/edit)
2012 Fan Pony-Pathfinder thread on Paizo forum (http://paizo.com/forums/dmtz52pj?Prisons-and-PoniesPonyfinder-Feedback-needed#41)

The Ponyfinder Setting Book for D&D 5th Edition (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/196772/Ponyfinder--Campaign-Setting--Dawn-of-the-Fifth-Age)
Planeshift:Equestria, a Pony sourcebook for D&D 5th Edition (https://harby94.deviantart.com/art/Planeshift-Equestria-735655214) (New version 1.10)
Roleplaying in Equestria for D&D Fifth Edition (http://cheezedoodle96.deviantart.com/art/MLP45E-Dungeons-and-Dragons-With-Ponies-490872927) and associated Bestiary (http://cheezedoodle96.deviantart.com/art/45E-Bestiary-509595168) and Artifact book (http://cheezedoodle96.deviantart.com/art/MLP-45E-Artifacts-of-Equestria-637675868)
Digo's Pony Races for D&D 5e (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O1Tbgtc66NKq7bgAsYCL5XN9xjQI-hMDJheBuzuqfiY/edit?pli=1) (Discussion on GitP (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?435720-My-Little-Pony-Races-for-D-amp-D-5e))

Ponies for D&D 4e (https://tradwiki.foxxtrot.net/index.php/Pony)

Dungeons & Dragons: Friendship is Magic (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-OfetQXp_GcWW5ZZk91d3NOb1k/edit?usp=sharing&pli=1) (Ponies for D&D 3.5)
Pony Races for D&D 3.5 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182994) (GitP forum)
Ponies! My Little Pony: D20 adaptation (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=12296.0)

The Conversion Bureau (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XTIaphB0TEF-lqfJpNpPv_-aJ2Al-GErMtVEKEX8FxQ/edit?pli=1) (uses Microlite 20)

Rarity's Marvelous Wish-Granting Chapeaux (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?723865-Chuubo-s-MLP-FIM-Rarity-s-Marvelous-Wish-Granting-Chapeaux) (RPGnet forum, FiM using The Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG (https://www.facebook.com/chuuborpg).)

The Savage World of My Little Pony (http://giftkrieg23.deviantart.com/gallery/30436047) (uses Savage Worlds)

My Little Pony meets Exalted tumblr (http://tabletop-friendship.tumblr.com/)

Shadowtrot by Digo Dragon (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TFhVVeeO3tLqh54yTvjfg8vSiMApEpO-fa8CWjOMf74/edit?usp=sharing) (uses Shadowrun 4e) (Original Nightmare Run (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LOuIkf_znWXX8ThyW9h9C_hmiHKNSvNWpSuyhBh5KVg/edit?pli=1))

The Mane Six for FATE Accelerated (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?692218-%28FAE%29-Pimp-My-Our-FAE-Characters!&p=16879846#post16879846) (RPGnet forum)

MLP:FiM for Burning Engine/Mouse Guard (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N_EM9zHOwJ3VL2WY5DsQ0kf8STuNi6n_4t6jsSMkNEY/edit?pli=1) (Discussion on RPGnet (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?709683-Mouse-Guard-BW-MLP-Litany-of-Responsibilities-o-Winter-Wrap-Up-Winter-Wrap-Up!-o))

Unknown Ponies: Failure is Awesome (http://lurkingrhythmically.blogspot.com/p/unknown-ponies-failure-is-awesome.html) (uses Unknown Armies)

Don't Rest Your Hooves (http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Don%27t_Rest_Your_Hooves) (uses Don't Rest Your Head)
Don't Hate Your Friends (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?648876-DRYH-My-Little-Pony-FIM-Don-t-Hate-Your-Friends) (Don't Rest Your Head hack, RPGnet forum)

My Little Legend (http://www.ruleofcool.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/My-Little-Legend.pdf) (uses the Legend RPG (https://s3.amazonaws.com/det_1/Legend.pdf) from Rule of Cool RPGs)

Ponies for Oz (http://fdouglaswall.blogspot.com/2013/04/adventures-in-equestria.html) (uses Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road)

Further contributions and updates welcome!

[t209]

I read that more as not caring about anything other than the show than actual malice. Lightning Dust may not have actively wanted Scoots to get hurt, but she didn't particularly care if she did and may have figured that it would make for a great show either way.

Thinking about it, though, what I would have liked to see from the end is having Lightning Dust called out by the other Washouts, essentially having them point out that being reckless with their own safety is one thing but risking somepony else's being a step too far.
I agree with you on that.
Also the fact that one of them had sustained injuries might help out with empathy as well.

[DigoDragon]

Thinking about it, though, what I would have liked to see from the end is having Lightning Dust called out by the other Washouts, essentially having them point out that being reckless with their own safety is one thing but risking somepony else's being a step too far.

Endangering Dash's friends, although not intentional, was what killed her original dream of being a Wonderbolt, so that should have been a big lesson for Lightning. I didn't think she'd allow Scootaloo to do something that dangerous, especially as a filly. If she was looking to steal Dash's fangirl, that's one thing I could buy, but endangering that fangirl didn't seem like a Lightning thing to do.

But apparently the writer didn't think that way, so I'm left to scratch my head and dislike how this episode turned out toward the end.

[Alabenson]

Endangering Dash's friends, although not intentional, was what killed her original dream of being a Wonderbolt, so that should have been a big lesson for Lightning. I didn't think she'd allow Scootaloo to do something that dangerous, especially as a filly. If she was looking to steal Dash's fangirl, that's one thing I could buy, but endangering that fangirl didn't seem like a Lightning thing to do.

But apparently the writer didn't think that way, so I'm left to scratch my head and dislike how this episode turned out toward the end.

I'd say the key phrase there is that Lightning Dust getting booted out of the Wonderbolts should have been a big lesson for her. Watching the episode, I got the distinct impression that Lightning Dust saw the problem as the Wonderbolts being too cautious rather than any of the fault laying with her. As for Scootaloo, I can see Lightning Dust's though process being something along the lines of "Sure, this would be dangerous if somepony else put it together, but everything will go fine since I set it up and everything I do is awesome."

[Pilum]

I'd say the key phrase there is that Lightning Dust getting booted out of the Wonderbolts should have been a big lesson for her. Watching the episode, I got the distinct impression that Lightning Dust saw the problem as the Wonderbolts being too cautious rather than any of the fault laying with her. As for Scootaloo, I can see Lightning Dust's though process being something along the lines of "Sure, this would be dangerous if somepony else put it together, but everything will go fine since I set it up and everything I do is awesome."
"besides, you don't want to be as boring and dull as the rest of 'em do you?"
"(Terrified foal noises)"
"Yeah thought not. You're way cooler than that! You'll knock 'em out kid" (launch)

I see on EQD that the Danes have beaten the Ozzie's to the punch for the next episode tonight and new phone not having the spoiler tag set up properly yet apparently (sigh) means I have a decent clue as to the main character.
Rockhoof?
I must admit that I'm half-tempted to break the embargo and watch it, even though I have NO knowledge of Danish just so I can hear Norse Horse in the original Viking!!

[Pi Pie]

General question for Ponythread since we have a lot of changeling fans here, why do changelings need to change their forms to get love?

In their original buggy, not butterfly form, changelings could be quite cute. See pictures below.

And ponies seem fairly tolerant and understanding in general. Why didn't the changelings just walk into a town and get the love from the ponies naturally? If you combine their entrance with a musical number, then they would guarantee success.

https://pre00.deviantart.net/5164/th/pre/i/2014/278/2/8/itty_bitty_changeling_by_lorehoshi-d81octq.png

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/d/dd/FANMADE_DJ_Pon-3_found_a_changeling.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120502014728

https://img00.deviantart.net/3cd2/i/2016/233/5/4/baby_thorax_by_siggie740-daerzcq.png

[zimmerwald1915]

And ponies seem fairly tolerant and understanding in general.
What? Ponies are in the main skittish and xenophobic enough to support a thriving industry based around the manufacture and sale of white hoods.

[Douglas]

General question for Ponythread since we have a lot of changeling fans here, why do changelings need to change their forms to get love?

In their original buggy, not butterfly form, changelings could be quite cute. See pictures below.

And ponies seem fairly tolerant and understanding in general. Why didn't the changelings just walk into a town and get the love from the ponies naturally? If you combine their entrance with a musical number, then they would guarantee success.

https://pre00.deviantart.net/5164/th/pre/i/2014/278/2/8/itty_bitty_changeling_by_lorehoshi-d81octq.png

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/d/dd/FANMADE_DJ_Pon-3_found_a_changeling.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120502014728

https://img00.deviantart.net/3cd2/i/2016/233/5/4/baby_thorax_by_siggie740-daerzcq.png
Reminds me of the fanfic story Trixie And Her Amazing Pet Changeling (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/342710/trixie-and-her-amazing-pet-changeling), where a changeling stumbles into a way to do exactly that - despite paranoid witch hunt levels of changeling phobia among the ponies.

[Thanqol]

What? Ponies are in the main skittish and xenophobic enough to support a thriving industry based around the manufacture and sale of white hoods.

I have to agree with this. The ponies in the show are dumb, panicky and easily-lead fools who need dedicated academies to learn the basics of friendship. Chancellor Neighsay is explicitly seeking to impose export controls on friendship lessons lest it endanger Equestria's geopolitical dominance.

[meto30]

Is that a bustle that Twilight is wearing in the second panel? I can't really tell.
Something similar, yes. It's a small ridge on her dress similar to the back end of a saddle, inspired by the use of saddles as fashion accoutrements in pony culture. It helps make her plot-line a bit more visually interesting.


What? Ponies are in the main skittish and xenophobic enough to support a thriving industry based around the manufacture and sale of white hoods.

I have to agree with this. The ponies in the show are dumb, panicky and easily-lead fools who need dedicated academies to learn the basics of friendship. Chancellor Neighsay is explicitly seeking to impose export controls on friendship lessons lest it endanger Equestria's geopolitical dominance.

Not to mention colonialist-imperialist. Equestrian suzerainty over the known world, use of "Everypony" and "every creature", imposition of friendship lessons on foreign cultures "unable" to save themselves!

https://orig00.deviantart.net/d142/f/2018/236/c/4/equestria_daily_artist_training_grounds_30a_by_met o30-dckxt7f.png
https://orig00.deviantart.net/a69f/f/2018/236/7/d/equestria_daily_artist_training_grounds_30b_by_met o30-dckzrdg.png

[b_jonas]

Not to mention colonialist-imperialist. Equestrian suzerainty over the known world, use of "Everypony" and "every creature", imposition of friendship lessons on foreign cultures "unable" to save themselves! Yeah, that's part of what bothers me as well, although I think I didn't describe it so well, possibly out of fear of crossing the forum rules, possibly because there were so many other things that bothered me about S1 E1..2, such as Twilight forcing all the Mane Six to serve as teachers. Zimmerwald put it a bit better (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22945917).

I also think it's a particularly dirty move to make the school particularly for young children.
> Yes, and the similarities [with Camp Friendship in S7 E21] don't end there. The Friendship School is for kids too, not for adults. Apparently the Mane Six think kids are easier to indoctrinate and deal with. Just imagine the difficulties if they had to convince adults to follow the nice friendship activities they planned. – me on other forum (https://chat.meta.stackexchange.com/transcript/781?m=6805714#6805714)


In any case, here's the conclusion to the ATG2018 series. [Drawing: "EQG Artist Training Grounds, prompt #30: End of the Party", 2 pages, Tiandrel and Sunset bid farewell to Twilight, and leave Equestria through the mirror portal to the human world.] Oh! I see you've taken Thanqol's art criticism to your heart (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23282981) and are now adding detailed shading everywhere in your drawing. This final piece shows it off magnificently. You must be learning a lot from this Training Ground.

[Aotrs Commander]

So... Finished BATTLETECH, so now there is a choice between Age of Wonders III, Spellforce III, Endless Space II, starting a new Pillars II game (really, waiting for more bugfixes) or working out whether I can be arsed to try and make some of my C&C games work. Suggestions, recommendations?

[zimmerwald1915]

Not to mention colonialist-imperialist. Equestrian suzerainty over the known world, use of "Everypony" and "every creature", imposition of friendship lessons on foreign cultures "unable" to save themselves!

Don't forget the violent occupation of indigenous peoples' lands!

Really, the whole species deserves extinction. Preserving it is an unkindness to everyone else.

[Aotrs Commander]

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-PJvXkkr/0/da2ab85b/L/Yrilio%20v1.0-L.png

Appropriately enough, a point-defense frigate.






Really, the whole species deserves extinction. Preserving it is an unkindness to everyone else.

I've been saying that about humans for years...

[DigoDragon]

I have to agree with this. The ponies in the show are dumb, panicky and easily-lead fools who need dedicated academies to learn the basics of friendship. Chancellor Neighsay is explicitly seeking to impose export controls on friendship lessons lest it endanger Equestria's geopolitical dominance.

Geopolitical dominance? Eh... seems like any place ponies go outside their country they're not taken very seriously. Which is odd considering that they control the sun. But on the flip-side of that coin, I guess when your neighbors are Griffinstone (collapsed society), badlands, and tribals, there's not a lot of competition on the political world stage.



General question for Ponythread since we have a lot of changeling fans here, why do changelings need to change their forms to get love?

Because it's really easy to just assume the form of somepony's lover and steal that then to go through all the hassle and work of getting into the dating scene, the awkwardness of Tinder profiles, and trying to strike non-cliche conversations over dinner at some bland restaurant because you're not sure of your date's full eating habits, just for the off chance you might score a kiss. :smalltongue:

[zimmerwald1915]

I've been saying that about humans for years...
And I've agreed. Also for years, though not as many.

[Rater202]

Going by the Movie, Ponies outside of Equestria or other Pony lands are either friends(usually as a result of the Main 6s actions) or livestock--being sold as pets or having their body parts harvested and sold.

[zimmerwald1915]

livestock--being sold as pets or having their body parts harvested and sold.
Klugetown =/= the entire world outside Equestria. That was the mistake Twilight made, I'd hate to see you repeat it.

[Aotrs Commander]

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-VwbPhvL/0/b7878a4d/XL/Gosillix%20v1.0-XL.png

I consider what Pi Pie said and cme to the conclusion that its is all well and good following the hull formula with the ships, but when I did that with the Xyrait and Phystyulons they were more visibly different (accomodating large features makes for interesting hull engineering), so with this and the PD frigate earlier, I've started to play with the base design a bit more.

I actually quite like this one. Bonnie's colour scheme is actually a rather good one - I might even pinch it for another whole fleet...



Forward view showing why the lower missile pods are at a different angle...

Dang, ignore the black cylinder in the bottom, that's the flight stand hole thingy that I forgot to delete then when doing the picture that I've only just noticed when I posted this...!

[Spamotron]

So I see the fad of people pretending they're enlightened knowers of truth about the real GrimDark Equestria as rolled around again :smallsigh: It's early.

Is it me or is Rockhoof's desire for "stone sleep," the darkest the show's ever been since its more or less equivalent to suicide.

[DigoDragon]

Ponies outside of Equestria or other Pony lands are either friends(usually as a result of the Main 6s actions)

That sounds like Equestria's geopolitical leadership was only recent then, if there wasn't much friendliness before the Mane6 arrive. :o

[Rogar Demonblud]

They really have completely wrecked the old order, haven't they?

I wonder how much of the pre-series setting is due to Celestia fighting depression over the whole Luna/Nightmare Moon disaster.

[Forum Explorer]

So... Finished BATTLETECH, so now there is a choice between Age of Wonders III, Spellforce III, Endless Space II, starting a new Pillars II game (really, waiting for more bugfixes) or working out whether I can be arsed to try and make some of my C&C games work. Suggestions, recommendations?

I say go with Age of Wonders 3.

[Pilum]

That sounds like Equestria's geopolitical leadership was only recent then, if there wasn't much friendliness before the Mane6 arrive. :o

Almost as if... The world didn't have any elements of harmony in it... :smallwink:

a very grim episode. While a simple retelling of the old "classical (Barbarian) Hero has no place in a modern world", it felt a bit harder in Happy Pastel Pony Land. Also made sense that Yona would bond with him over it, although my brain did attempt to kill the moment by playing the Police "don't stand so close to me" on the inner jukebox! I blame a colleague and his 'oldies' radio at work.

[Aotrs Commander]

I say go with Age of Wonders 3.

Anything I should know/bare in mind before I start (on the basis that I have never played an age of wonders game before - I picked it up for, what £7:50 in the recent PDX sale).

We're hopefully attepting to copy the HDD today, so fingers crossed...

[Pi Pie]

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-VwbPhvL/0/b7878a4d/XL/Gosillix%20v1.0-XL.png

I consider what Pi Pie said and cme to the conclusion that its is all well and good following the hull formula with the ships, but when I did that with the Xyrait and Phystyulons they were more visibly different (accomodating large features makes for interesting hull engineering), so with this and the PD frigate earlier, I've started to play with the base design a bit more.

I actually quite like this one. Bonnie's colour scheme is actually a rather good one - I might even pinch it for another whole fleet...



Forward view showing why the lower missile pods are at a different angle...

Dang, ignore the black cylinder in the bottom, that's the flight stand hole thingy that I forgot to delete then when doing the picture that I've only just noticed when I posted this...!




That's not a Bon Bon ship. These are Bon Bon ships.

Yes, you brought this on yourself.
https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2015/6/14/916546__safe_shipping_straight_screencap_lyra_lyra +heartstrings_bon+bon_sweetie+drops_flower_daisy.j pg

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-It8liCbdh3I/VmYgDQaFtKI/AAAAAAACdd0/i9RJKPsaq8w/s640/you_are_my_best_friend_by_paulysentry-d8xb30t.png

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mylittlebrony/images/2/23/Tailshake_by_csimadmax-d3w8fxw.png

https://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/u606/Milkmare/lyra_bonbon_snuggles_by_b_neko-d4sue28_zps5be47492.png

https://pre00.deviantart.net/c53f/th/pre/i/2015/194/d/6/lyra_and_bon_bon_together_by_spyro4287-d917pv5.png

Can I request a Lyra colored ship docking with the Bon Bon colored ship?

Also, ship happens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdtTfQJCO2Y

[Aotrs Commander]

Well, after a bit of light faff, it seems we are back in business on the new SSD/HDD, with the old primary now as the backup. Yay.



That's not a Bon Bon ship. These are Bon Bon ships.

Can I request a Lyra colored ship docking with the Bon Bon colored ship?]

Way ahead of you. You must have missed that one the first time around, a week or few ago (between TaviShip and FizzlepopShip).

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-rtxv3pJ/0/e4183b50/L/XygrittGroup01-L.png

[Alabenson]

Well, I finally got around to watching Episode 19;
Honestly, I thought this episode was alright, but I found it very predictable, which was a bit of a letdown since Starlight and Trixie have very interesting chemistry together. That being said, there were a few particularly good bright spots;
- While Trixie's and Starlight's reactions to Twilight/Cadance's friendship chant were entertaining, I think Flurry Heart's expression was even better. That look in her eyes just screamed "Oh dear Celestia what are they doing?". Cadance and Twilight are going to do that chant in public when Flurry Heart is a teenager and it will be absolutely hilarious.
- Trixie and Starlight's friendship song was cute, but I think the visuals were more memorable than the actual song itself.
- Starlight continues her streak of never actually thinking her actions through. Seriously, as much as people complain about Fluttershy learning the same lesson over and over, at least she actually makes some progress.

Overall, I'd probably give this episode a B. It was alright, but it got a little bogged down in the middle and never fully recovered.

[zimmerwald1915]

- While Trixie's and Starlight's reactions to Twilight/Cadance's friendship chant were entertaining, I think Flurry Heart's expression was even better. That look in her eyes just screamed "Oh dear Celestia what are they doing?". Cadance and Twilight are going to do that chant in public when Flurry Heart is a teenager and it will be absolutely hilarious.
Cadance at least will know she's noodging her daughter. Twilight will be sincerely devastated that Flurry finds it embarrassing.


- Starlight continues her streak of never actually thinking her actions through.
Why should she? A Royal Problem taught her to trust and to not examine her instincts, and the writers' favor has ensured and will continue to ensure that they are always on the money. Whatever Starlight does is necessarily right because Starlight is the one doing it.

[Aotrs Commander]

No problems yet, touch wood - so BigMacShip so as not to waste the day entirely...

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-cqLBtRh/0/04159c8c/L/Thulagos%20v1.0-L.png

[Pi Pie]

No problems yet, touch wood - so BigMacShip so as not to waste the day entirely...

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-cqLBtRh/0/04159c8c/L/Thulagos%20v1.0-L.png

The coloring works really well on this one. I think the green accents are what make this one come together.

Comments as we go.
• It looks like we’re getting another episode with a pillar of Equestria. This continuity is nice.
• Professors dropping graduate students on each other. It is great when art mirrors real life.
• Wow, Flash Magnus' training may actually get the Equestrian Guard up from level 1 minions to level 2.
• Spike’s delivery of the news that Rockhoof is going to be turned to stone is great. That is the perfect minion delivery for when a master has gone full evil and is taking over the world.
• Overall, another solid B. There was some nice nods to continuity and world building but nothing amazing.

Back through the thread.

I noticed a few people considered this episode dark because of the potential stone prison. I never found it that dark because it was ponies, and I knew that there was a happy ending. However, it is another example of the true grim dark horror hidden under pony's pastel colors.

I still think the worst was S6E8 A Hearth's Warming Tale or S5E25 The Cutie Re-Mark. In both those cases, there is a story of a rogue unicorn using magic because she does not understand friendship almost leading to world destruction. That means that the world hangs on a razor's edge and could be destroyed any day because of a small mistake.

Also, if you ever compare Warhammer 40k and My Little Pony, there are a lot of potential overlaps.

[Derjuin]

Also, if you ever compare Warhammer 40k and My Little Pony, there are a lot of potential overlaps.


https://derpicdn.net/img/2012/7/4/31903/large.jpg



There were a lot of little things in this episode that really made it fun to watch, especially Twilight's "eh" at the end when Spike asks if she can actually appoint Rockhoof that way. Overall I enjoyed it, solid B+.

[DigoDragon]

Almost as if... The world didn't have any elements of harmony in it... :smallwink:

That was part of my point to begin with. :smalltongue:



a very grim episode. While a simple retelling of the old "classical (Barbarian) Hero has no place in a modern world", it felt a bit harder in Happy Pastel Pony Land. Also made sense that Yona would bond with him over it, although my brain did attempt to kill the moment by playing the Police "don't stand so close to me" on the inner jukebox! I blame a colleague and his 'oldies' radio at work.

Eh, the old barbarian out of time story has been done to death. This one is pretty forgettable. Should get Rockhoof a job in demolitions. No pony thought of that? I did find Yuna kinda cute being all fangirl for Rockhoof.


The Student6 are pretty good in this one. It's a good episode for them And now the Tree of Harmony is officially creepy. Ugh, that sparkly wide-eyed Twilight is gonna haunt me in my sleep later. Friendship lessons by nearly crushing the team griffon! Sure! This cannot possible backfire. :3

Ocellus continues being most adorable. And I was laughing with her in Chrysalis form. That was rather amusing to see Chryssi's face emote like that. Also points to Smoulder for dressing up. That takes bravery.

Cozy Glow still being all Baby Dahl mysterious. Pretty sure she's gonna be the finale villain.

[zimmerwald1915]

Almost as if... The world didn't have any elements of harmony in it... :smallwink:
Why should that matter? The Elements of Harmony are not cosmically important, they are an unintended product of a magical experiment.

[gooddragon1]

I knew I kept it around for something...


https://i.imgur.com/fHkPHRK.png

[Aotrs Commander]

I say go with Age of Wonders 3.

Well, I played the tutorial campaign last night (too late to say anythign then).

My first impression is that is it reminded me of Elemental: War of Magic: Fallen Enchantress: Legendrary Heroes, in the sense that I was going "why I am I not playing that?"

For a game that insists its about war and conquest (the city building is rather shallow), the fact that devs (apparently, as I looked) absolutely insisted you be given no control of how your units deploy because speed and/or because AI is rubbish stands out rather. Especially after playing BattleTech. (Which ALSO doesn't, but also gives you plenty of time to move your units into position before contact. But I guess "combat has to be fast, right?" Fallen Enchantress was just as bad, actually, but the city-building game and quests were more interesting, at least on first blush.

I'm afraid I just think that if I am going to fight battles, they should, y'know, be good battles (see Total War), not a poor compromise between not being Civ and speed. (I mean, both Age of Wonders and Fallen Enchantress are turn-based games! That's fracking easier to deal with, but you don't even get any input in formations in a TACTICAL GAME.)

Out-of-combat healing seems remarkably slow, and I couldn't immediately see any high elf units that healed like apparently you're supposed to field.

The forge was fun - I discovered that right as I was camped outside the enemy throne city, so then spent I don't know how many turns working out the best way to fine-tune my equipment.

The story was... Eh. I was sort of expecting something, given the intro, but it really wasn't.

It is, then... Okay. Bit mardy, and the fact I can't load directly from within the battles (sure, I will allow not saving), but I HAAAAAAAATE it when games lock the main menu out in the middle of a battle. (And, to be honest, not fond of not allowing me to save whenever, since what if I have to go out or something?) But okay enough that I am not totally put-off, if not hugely impressed thus far.

So, I will try the second campaign today and see if outside the tutorials, its better.

But I am not overly surprised that the Age of Wonder forums are apparently mostly dead at this point.

[zimmerwald1915]

I knew I kept it around for something...


https://i.imgur.com/fHkPHRK.png

Image isn't showing. Only works then the URL is copy-pasted into the browser.

[Aotrs Commander]

So, we remembdered that not only are th Crusaders A Thing, that they are allowed to be their own characters AND we remembered Scootaloo?

And we put this in an episode where Rainbow Dash has to be responsible one?

And they have a fight?

NOW we're cooking with plasma.

Yeah, more of this sort of thing, pony.

As soon as they said "we're ex-Wonderbolts," I thought: "Lightnign Dust."

S'been a while. Nice to she's just as bonkers as ever.

And I see Spitfire is once again displaying the cool, level-headed professionalism that makes her the... Actually, why is she the leader again...?

(Though I admit, I actually laughed at her insanity for once.)

So... They never brought up that she's, y'know, too young for any of this, so I take that to mean that she's clearly of legal age to be doing insane thing like this, then.


And now Dash is fangirling Scootaloo.

Yeah, I see where this is going to end up in a few years. Is that the distant sound of some sort of heavy aquatic transport, just beyond the horizon? I'm sure those two last sentences are entirely unrelated.

[zimmerwald1915]

And I see Spitfire is once again displaying the cool, level-headed professionalism that makes her the... Actually, why is she the leader again...?
On come on, that's a persona she's adopting for Scootaloo's benefit at Rainbow's request.

The bit is also a funny SNL reference, which I'll admit colors my appreciation of it.


So... They never brought up that she's, y'know, too young for any of this, so I take that to mean that she's clearly of legal age to be doing insane thing like this, then.
She does have her cutie mark. "Legal ages" are proxies for levels of maturity that individuals may meet earlier or later than they're supposed to. We use them not because they're always accurate, but because they're definitive bright lines and easier to work with than tests.

Cutie marks could easily play the same role for ponies, and may be a slightly better proxy for maturity than age.

Of course, another such proxy would be use of the adult body model.

[Forum Explorer]

Well, I played the tutorial campaign last night (too late to say anythign then).

My first impression is that is it reminded me of Elemental: War of Magic: Fallen Enchantress: Legendrary Heroes, in the sense that I was going "why I am I not playing that?"

For a game that insists its about war and conquest (the city building is rather shallow), the fact that devs (apparently, as I looked) absolutely insisted you be given no control of how your units deploy because speed and/or because AI is rubbish stands out rather. Especially after playing BattleTech. (Which ALSO doesn't, but also gives you plenty of time to move your units into position before contact. But I guess "combat has to be fast, right?" Fallen Enchantress was just as bad, actually, but the city-building game and quests were more interesting, at least on first blush.

I'm afraid I just think that if I am going to fight battles, they should, y'know, be good battles (see Total War), not a poor compromise between not being Civ and speed. (I mean, both Age of Wonders and Fallen Enchantress are turn-based games! That's fracking easier to deal with, but you don't even get any input in formations in a TACTICAL GAME.)

Out-of-combat healing seems remarkably slow, and I couldn't immediately see any high elf units that healed like apparently you're supposed to field.

The forge was fun - I discovered that right as I was camped outside the enemy throne city, so then spent I don't know how many turns working out the best way to fine-tune my equipment.

The story was... Eh. I was sort of expecting something, given the intro, but it really wasn't.

It is, then... Okay. Bit mardy, and the fact I can't load directly from within the battles (sure, I will allow not saving), but I HAAAAAAAATE it when games lock the main menu out in the middle of a battle. (And, to be honest, not fond of not allowing me to save whenever, since what if I have to go out or something?) But okay enough that I am not totally put-off, if not hugely impressed thus far.

So, I will try the second campaign today and see if outside the tutorials, its better.

But I am not overly surprised that the Age of Wonder forums are apparently mostly dead at this point.

Oh yes, the AI is pretty much rubbish. AoW is infamous for how easy it is to trick the AI into being stupid. AoW 3 is slightly better in not being able to win any siege by simply opening the far gate of your base, and letting the enemy run over to it before shutting it in their face until they are all killed by auto-turrets.

But the game itself is alright, though the campaign doesn't make much sense without some knowledge of the first two.

[gooddragon1]

Image isn't showing. Only works then the URL is copy-pasted into the browser.

I see what you mean. I have no idea how to share it then. Here's the url:

https://imgur.com/fHkPHRK

[tonberrian]

Imgur doesn't like hotlinks to gitp. It's against the rules there, and they've blocked it here. Direct url links work.

[Spamotron]

It looks like the Mane 6 need to apologize to Starlight Glimmer. The avatar of Harmony Itself demonstrates that locking creatures up and mentally torturing them until they behave how you want them to is in fact a-okay.

[t209]

That was part of my point to begin with. :smalltongue:




Eh, the old barbarian out of time story has been done to death. This one is pretty forgettable. Should get Rockhoof a job in demolitions. No pony thought of that? I did find Yuna kinda cute being all fangirl for Rockhoof.


The Student6 are pretty good in this one. It's a good episode for them And now the Tree of Harmony is officially creepy. Ugh, that sparkly wide-eyed Twilight is gonna haunt me in my sleep later. Friendship lessons by nearly crushing the team griffon! Sure! This cannot possible backfire. :3

Ocellus continues being most adorable. And I was laughing with her in Chrysalis form. That was rather amusing to see Chryssi's face emote like that. Also points to Smoulder for dressing up. That takes bravery.

Cozy Glow still being all Baby Dahl mysterious. Pretty sure she's gonna be the finale villain.
True, also I think they forgot Applejack and Applefarm again. I mean either he would fit on the farm or actually mess it up again.
Also why is there a General in the navy instead of Admiral? Are they using Japanese "same terms for all ranks" again?
And has the writers heard about "Everyone" after callng out pony who use "creatures" as bigot.

[Aotrs Commander]

Oh yes, the AI is pretty much rubbish. AoW is infamous for how easy it is to trick the AI into being stupid. AoW 3 is slightly better in not being able to win any siege by simply opening the far gate of your base, and letting the enemy run over to it before shutting it in their face until they are all killed by auto-turrets.

But the game itself is alright, though the campaign doesn't make much sense without some knowledge of the first two.

"Alright" is about as much as I'll give it. I got through the first mission of the human campaign, realised (because it was way too late last night) I'd actually clicked "exit" or something and not "continue campaign" and went back to the elf one and have just finished the second.

Yeah.

It is one of those games were it does nothing but play "gotcha." The tactical battles are so painfully poor (direct comparison to BattleTech on one hoof, Total War on another, and Fallen Enchantress on the third) that I have more or less given up and jsut use the auto-resolve. It is REALLY crappy about killing units off. You unit seem way too fragile, and the enmy units way too strong (monsters, anyway, I haven't bothered trying to fight an army where there's more than one stack because URRGH, I cannot be doing with faffing about). It's the range, I think, mostly - even the "long range" stuff is WOEFULLY too short for the map size (the tiny, tiny, map size), so half the time you spend tediously moving units to try and get a shot off at max range (because scattered random deployment is a replacement for AI programming!)

I have found that basically the game punishes you wit excessive casualties for exploring with less than a stack of tier 3 units or two full stacks, and plays gotcha with its armies if you tech up, but that's easier to handle.

So it's a lot of thumb twiddling while clicking "next turn" as you get your one or two starting cities up to the point you can shove out some unit and then send five or six stacks around. (Oh, and even on normal, apparently five stacks to three means you will still take heavy casualties attacking a siege.)

And the campaign, aside from that first mission, takes the forge out of your hands (the most fun I'd had with it), and proceeds to give you very little gear. And apparently hard-locks your character's XP, since I have seen one or two level-ups at best in the two "proper" missions, and neither gave me the race bonuses.

The game is going on Easy, tomorrow, because I might get through the campaigns for the story (such that it is), but...

Yeah.

Fallen Enchantress does a better job of everything except having a story campaign.

Age of Wonders... Doesn't seem to know hat it wants to be. It wants to be a wargame at the expense of being an empire builder - but it SUUUUUUUCKS as a wargame; it has RPG elements, but there aren't enough of them to stand on its own...

Glad I only paid £7.50 for it; with tomorrow, I might get twenty hours out of it, but it is really struggling to grab me.

Suddenly a lot less bother about Age of Wonders: Planetfall.

[Pi Pie]

Thoughts as I go.
• Twilight is discussing the Tree of Harmony, the most powerful artifact known to pony kind and at least partially aware if not sentient. And she is discussing this in class with her students. Does no one think that this would be a bad idea? I know ponies are lax with security (see the royal guard) but come on.
• Twilight makes “root” pun. So terrible.
• I wish Fluttershy was in the tree costume just to talk back to Gallus and freak him out.
• Cozy is so evil. Even when Celestia and Pinkie are trolling, they are not that bad. Ok, well maybe.
• Why would a plumbing grate be in a library? I could understand heating or cooling, but there is no reason to expect water flow in a library. And the off gassing would damage the books.
• She? Smolder is a female dragon? Ok then.
• Ocellus as Chrysalis is very cute. Not quite as cute as Chryallis prance in S8E13, but still cute.
• Tree of Harmony being sentient, confirmed. And now it is a lot scarier.
• Tell the professors about the tree. This is a crisis that could affect the safety and wellbeing of not only Equestria but potentially the entire world. Being worried about one pony being expelled from school is not worth it.
• Overall B+, we get to learn more about the young 6, some nice bonding and probably some good foreshadowing to the finale.

Back through thread.


It looks like the Mane 6 need to apologize to Starlight Glimmer. The avatar of Harmony Itself demonstrates that locking creatures up and mentally torturing them until they behave how you want them to is in fact a-okay.

That is surprisingly on point. Well done.

[DigoDragon]

It looks like the Mane 6 need to apologize to Starlight Glimmer. The avatar of Harmony Itself demonstrates that locking creatures up and mentally torturing them until they behave how you want them to is in fact a-okay.

You know... we never got confirmation if Chrysalis took the elements or not from the tree. So what if in absorbing the Mean6, the tree was tainted with meanness; this would have normally been filtered out by the elements in the tree, but since Chrysalis took them there's no filter and therefore the tree is acting odd? Just an idea.



True, also I think they forgot Applejack and Applefarm again. I mean either he would fit on the farm or actually mess it up again.
Also why is there a General in the navy instead of Admiral? Are they using Japanese "same terms for all ranks" again?
And has the writers heard about "Everyone" after callng out pony who use "creatures" as bigot.

I imagine they'd just have Rock buck a tree across state lines for comedy effect.

I assumed the writers didn't really care about military ranks for this episode. Though props about the movement of the stars. That is true.



Thoughts as I go.
• She? Smolder is a female dragon? Ok then.
• Ocellus as Chrysalis is very cute. Not quite as cute as Chryallis prance in S8E13, but still cute.
• Tell the professors about the tree. This is a crisis that could affect the safety and wellbeing of not only Equestria but potentially the entire world. Being worried about one pony being expelled from school is not worth it.


1) I'm pretty sure they always used the female pronouns with Smolder. But yeah, there's not much to distinguish dragon genders. Eyelashes is pretty much it, isn't it?

2) I'll agree only because watching the real Chryssi prance around was just too darn cute to be legal.

3) I HOPE they say something. >.>

[Topaz]

Imgur doesn't like hotlinks to gitp. It's against the rules there, and they've blocked it here. Direct url links work.

Thank you! I had wondered what happened to my avatar. Now it's on a new host.

[t209]

Thoughts as I go.
• Twilight is discussing the Tree of Harmony, the most powerful artifact known to pony kind and at least partially aware if not sentient. And she is discussing this in class with her students. Does no one think that this would be a bad idea? I know ponies are lax with security (see the royal guard) but come on.
• Twilight makes “root” pun. So terrible.
• I wish Fluttershy was in the tree costume just to talk back to Gallus and freak him out.
• Cozy is so evil. Even when Celestia and Pinkie are trolling, they are not that bad. Ok, well maybe.
• Why would a plumbing grate be in a library? I could understand heating or cooling, but there is no reason to expect water flow in a library. And the off gassing would damage the books.
• She? Smolder is a female dragon? Ok then.
• Ocellus as Chrysalis is very cute. Not quite as cute as Chryallis prance in S8E13, but still cute.
• Tree of Harmony being sentient, confirmed. And now it is a lot scarier.
• Tell the professors about the tree. This is a crisis that could affect the safety and wellbeing of not only Equestria but potentially the entire world. Being worried about one pony being expelled from school is not worth it.
• Overall B+, we get to learn more about the young 6, some nice bonding and probably some good foreshadowing to the finale.

Back through thread.



That is surprisingly on point. Well done.


Sorry about being late but I agree with you on this.
My favorite being Smolder's tea party.

[Aotrs Commander]

Well, dunno whether it was turning the difficultly down, the draconians are just a better race, knowing how the XP system works better and/or having more heroes, but (aside from a couple of moments), AoW3 was a lot more tolerable yesterday, and I even found I was fighting almost all the battles.

We'll see if this hold in the next mission, which appears to goblins...





https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-r3gZJQN/0/a527af79/L/Orilaa%20v1.0-L.png

As only three colours were listed on FiM wiki, I knocked a load off the RGB values to try and get the darker green like her hair outlines - the Xyritt really need a four-colour scheme.

[Draconi Redfir]

I always knew there was something wrong with letting a Filly into a school that is CLEARLY a highschool if nothing else.

[DigoDragon]

Thank you! I had wondered what happened to my avatar. Now it's on a new host.

Maybe it's the NyQuil talking, but this reads like your avatar is parasitic. :smallbiggrin:



Sorry about being late but I agree with you on this.
My favorite being Smolder's tea party.

Here you go, best princess:

https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/7/9/1776665__safe_artist-colon-queencold_smolder_chair_clothes_commission_cup_dra gon_dress_frown_gloves_gown_hilarious+in+hindsight _leaning_long+gloves_pri.png

[zimmerwald1915]

Here you go, best princess:

https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/7/9/1776665__safe_artist-colon-queencold_smolder_chair_clothes_commission_cup_dra gon_dress_frown_gloves_gown_hilarious+in+hindsight _leaning_long+gloves_pri.png

Bronies today. Completely lacking in fidelity, and inevitably drawn to the newest shiny object like changelings to magical blue fire.

[t209]

I always knew there was something wrong with letting a Filly into a school that is CLEARLY a highschool if nothing else.

Then again.
Hiring teachers who already had jobs and lack any teaching credentials.
Appointing three underage children as school professors.
I think that would be the least egregious issue.

[Draconi Redfir]

Then again.
Hiring teachers who already had jobs and lack any teaching credentials.
Appointing three underage children as school professors.
I think that would be the least egregious issue.


Naahh. all that is fine if they just manage their time. and the crusaders are probably more assistants then much else.

Cozy Glow is just evil. I suspect either Chrysalis in disguise, or an agent of Chancellor Neighsay. Either one looking to use the Tree as a weapon of some sort probably.

[Douglas]

Then again.
Hiring teachers who already had jobs and lack any teaching credentials.
Appointing three underage children as school professors.
I think that would be the least egregious issue.
The CMCs are tutors, not professors.

[Rater202]

Naahh. all that is fine if they just manage their time. and the crusaders are probably more assistants then much else.

Cozy Glow is just evil. I suspect either Chrysalis in disguise, or an agent of Chancellor Neighsay. Either one looking to use the Tree as a weapon of some sort probably.

As I mentioned before, according to the Pony Wiki, Cozy Glow is based to some degree on Baby Doll from Batman the Animated Series.

The woman with a genetic condition that stopped her from physically maturing ever as her mind continued to develop, leaving her looking to be five even as she rapidly aproches middle age, who eventually snapped from the stress of living like that, among other things.

so she is most definitely not what as she seems.

[t209]

As I mentioned before, according to the Pony Wiki, Cozy Glow is based to some degree on Baby Doll from Batman the Animated Series.

The woman with a genetic condition that stopped her from physically maturing ever as her mind continued to develop, leaving her looking to be five even as she rapidly aproches middle age, who eventually snapped from the stress of living like that, among other things.

so she is most definitely not what as she seems.
Yeah I remember that episode.
:smallfrown:

[Topaz]

Maybe it's the NyQuil talking, but this reads like your avatar is parasitic. :smallbiggrin:
https://orig05.deviantart.net/853c/f/2012/160/5/b/changeling_pony__5_10_points_by_princesscelestia90 8-d52w59s.png

[b_jonas]

So, I re-read G. Szabó Magda's first successful book, which is perhaps also the darkest (and I mean deeply, not on the surface, because two of the later ones have attempted murders in them), A macskát visszafelé simogatják. This book and the other older ones are such that their mood remains with me for a long time but I forget the story details immediately, which I think is a good thing in a book. So this must have been the first time I've re-read this one after 2014, or else I'd have noticed this little detail before. There's a schoolgirl character in that book who alienates her classmates from each other by telling lies about them behind their back. Just like Sunset Shimmer had done before Equestria Girls 1. (I didn't forget the story of EG1.) The two characters are not otherwise very similar, it's just that they were insecure deep inside and these lies were the only idea they had for how to relate to her classmates. And obviously, by the end of the book, after not much more than the one year with her shinanigans, her classmates catch on to her lies, and the viewpoint character Judit graciously forgives her. And I'm not even sure if I like that part of the book, it seems like sort of a superfluous and shallow plot device, but I could be wrong. Update: and now I'm re-reading Jacqueline Wilson's book Double act (in translation, sadly), because it's slightly similar to A macskát visszafelé simogatják.

[Aotrs Commander]

#66: Eeh. Predicable and not too enthralling.

#67-68: Surprisngly effective. Not especially funny (except for the cover of #68), but #68 in particular did really rather well with Tempest, I though.







https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-QW6h9rL/0/ab85708d/L/Dazzlingships-L.png

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-QcLRXL7/0/def60517/L/Lagranix%20v1.0-L.png
https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-qjXhF8x/0/2b2952a0/L/Isanagas%20v1.0-L.png
https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-PfFchgv/0/bdb51baf/M/Goulonat%20v1.0-M.png

[Rater202]

So, Bleakbane, why do all of the ship in this fleet look like old-timey keys?

[Aotrs Commander]

So, Bleakbane, why do all of the ship in this fleet look like old-timey keys?

Coincidence.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-BfggLsF/0/b6e14995/X2/XyriatFleet-X2.png

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-ZzbV4bs/0/bc865024/X3/OtherPartizan%202017%20Xyriat%20start%2001-X3.jpg

Xygritt Matriarchy technology is derivied from the Xyriat Hegemony, and many of the same principles apply – even the passing similarity of the hull shapes. Like the Xyriats, the Xygritt vessels have a deflector emitter at the front of the ship, serving as shield broadcast hub and GVD focussing lens.

The “blade” at the front is instead the Xygritt’s primary thermal solution to the waste heat generated by elenthnar technology. A solution somewhere between the Xyriat’s ventral thermal exhaust and the radiator blocks as used by the Wodefs or Phystyulons, these structures are principally radiators used to sink off the excess heat.

While the central bulb might at first seem to be similar to the Xyriat’s ventral thermal exhaust section, it is instead the mounting point for the partical beam arrays which serve as the Xygritt navy’s primary point-defense system.

[DigoDragon]

[Dazzling ships]

Slightly disappointed this wasn't what I thought it would be. XD


So not a bad episode overall. Felt a bit short though. We got Flutters and AJ on a little adventure to a new place to meet the Kirin, which are cute lion-y ponies with horns capable of Ponykinesis, but not magic spells. Fair enough and the main Kirin (Autumn Blaze is it?) is a pretty adorable chatterbox. I like how she excused herself to catch fire behind a rock. Pfft, that's comedy.

Why is it all the leaders of these tribes are the tallest ones? It's like, proving that the Irkin had a point. :smalltongue:

[Pi Pie]

Thoughts as I go
• The writers seem to be giving fire to the shipping wars this season.
• “Flanks don’t lie” what an interesting saying.
• The end of the railroad line. That means that they will have a new route built all the way to the Peaks of Peril in time for the next season, about 3 months.
• Applejack, what have we learned about letting Fluttershy finish speaking?
• Yay for assertive Fluttershy making an appearance.
• I like the Kirin design.
• “Ponish”, so we officially have the language of the ponies.
• Applejack is just like so many American tourists. That is why we get such a bad reputation around the world.
• For creatures that have not been visited by ponies for a thousand years (at least recorded) and that don’t speak, the Kirin seem fairly calm about meeting ponies. Also, their understanding of Ponish is impressive. We know that Ponish changed over 1,000 years since Luna had a hard time fitting in.
• So they took a vow of silence because someone used words to hurt another. The Kirin sound like a village of Starlight Glimmers.
• Overall B- They tried to push the lesson about anger a little hard which detracted from the experience. The story was also railroaded to the conclusion. And while I like the Kirin model and some of their magic powers, they were not critical to the story. This could have been just as applicable to a lost tribe of ponies.
• And for those that complain about pony imperialism, this is another time that they brought friendship and harmony to the poor ignorant creatures outside of Equestria in the name of their god, the Tree of Harmony. And that is a good thing since the creatures liked the changes.



Slightly disappointed this wasn't what I thought it would be. XD


So not a bad episode overall. Felt a bit short though. We got Flutters and AJ on a little adventure to a new place to meet the Kirin, which are cute lion-y ponies with horns capable of Ponykinesis, but not magic spells. Fair enough and the main Kirin (Autumn Blaze is it?) is a pretty adorable chatterbox. I like how she excused herself to catch fire behind a rock. Pfft, that's comedy.

Why is it all the leaders of these tribes are the tallest ones? It's like, proving that the Irkin had a point. :smalltongue:

The tallest are the best. See https://www.fimfiction.net/story/410520/1/worlds-shortest-crossovers-the-anthology-series-of-doom/celestia-vs-invader-zim which may be the world's shortest pony fanfic. Also, language NSFW.

[DigoDragon]

Thoughts as I go
• The writers seem to be giving fire to the shipping wars this season.
• “Flanks don’t lie” what an interesting saying.
• The end of the railroad line. That means that they will have a new route built all the way to the Peaks of Peril in time for the next season, about 3 months.
• Applejack, what have we learned about letting Fluttershy finish speaking?
• Yay for assertive Fluttershy making an appearance.
• I like the Kirin design.
• “Ponish”, so we officially have the language of the ponies.
• Applejack is just like so many American tourists. That is why we get such a bad reputation around the world.
• For creatures that have not been visited by ponies for a thousand years (at least recorded) and that don’t speak, the Kirin seem fairly calm about meeting ponies. Also, their understanding of Ponish is impressive. We know that Ponish changed over 1,000 years since Luna had a hard time fitting in.
• So they took a vow of silence because someone used words to hurt another. The Kirin sound like a village of Starlight Glimmers.
• Overall B- They tried to push the lesson about anger a little hard which detracted from the experience. The story was also railroaded to the conclusion. And while I like the Kirin model and some of their magic powers, they were not critical to the story. This could have been just as applicable to a lost tribe of ponies.
• And for those that complain about pony imperialism, this is another time that they brought friendship and harmony to the poor ignorant creatures outside of Equestria in the name of their god, the Tree of Harmony. And that is a good thing since the creatures liked the changes.


I wonder who that old railroad ticket salespony was... poor dude gone crazy living alone.

I feel like "Ponish" was mentioned before, but if not, then yeah, official language by now. Which seems to parallel English across the magic mirror. My headcanon theory is that Celestia first used the mirror centuries ago and stole human ideas to advance the ponies in tech and knowledge. Which explains the human-centric designs of so many things (I mean, sure the easy answer is because humans made the cartoon, but that's not as interesting).

Back on Ponish language, I wonder if Fluttershy can teach other to speak squirrel? Cause I was relly expecting AJ to look at that squirrel at the end and suddenly realize what they were saying by listening to them. Ah well, missed opportunity.




The tallest are the best. See https://www.fimfiction.net/story/410520/1/worlds-shortest-crossovers-the-anthology-series-of-doom/celestia-vs-invader-zim which may be the world's shortest pony fanfic. Also, language NSFW.

Succulent!

[Aotrs Commander]

Guh. The pony episode equence this year is just bonkers.

Still catchin' up...

So, Rockhoof is a combination of Hulk, MCU!Thor and the Shoveller...

Interesting.

Pretty predicatable un til the point he wanted to be turned to stone, which has all kinds of interesting connotations (and was probably behind all the videos I saw talking about the meaning of the episode I spotted while trying to track it down (since EqD didn't have a working link today (settled for one subtitled in Russian, oddly enough)...)

This is sort of really what you'd expect from trying to address a thousand-year gap period, and even then, Rockhoof is still doing vastly far better than should be expected, considering. (I mean, the language didn't even drift much - I shudder to think the amount of effort Celestia must have personally undertaken to keep it in stasis for a millenium. I dunno about you lot but I'd struggle to talk to someone in 1018. Middle-English is hard enough, and we're looking at OLD English at that time-period...)

Why did it not occur to anyone to see if Rockhoof would be of use to the Yaks? I mean, Yona took a huge shine to him, and Yaks do love smashing stuff...?


I loved that little exhangce between Spike and Twilight.

"Can you do that?"

"Eehh..."

Twilight finally using all that royall decree stuff...

[Forum Explorer]

The tallest are the best. See https://www.fimfiction.net/story/410520/1/worlds-shortest-crossovers-the-anthology-series-of-doom/celestia-vs-invader-zim which may be the world's shortest pony fanfic. Also, language NSFW.

Those things are hilarious. I love the Celestia vs Vampires one.


"Good morning, gentlemen."

[Aotrs Commander]

Those things are hilarious. I love the Celestia vs Vampires one.



I love that one so, so, sooo much.

[Douglas]

I love that one so, so, sooo much.
"But it's midnight."
*the sun rises*
"Not anymore."

[Thanqol]

S823 is carried on the back of unbelievably good voice acting, precision comedy and a rockin' musical number. Absolute smash hit, loved it to bits, Autumn Blaze is best pone/waifu of the week, she should get her own spinoff series, etc, etc.

[t209]

S823 is carried on the back of unbelievably good voice acting, precision comedy and a rockin' musical number. Absolute smash hit, loved it to bits, Autumn Blaze is best pone/waifu of the week, she should get her own spinoff series, etc, etc.

I kinda agree.
Also first Applejack to get a focus after many seasons, though not sure Honesty is kind of difficult elements to portray as usual *cough* First episode *cough*.

[Adderbane]

Loved this episode; Starlight and Trixie becoming friends was one of the best ideas the writers have had. Fun song, funny antics, and a nice lesson.

[DigoDragon]

Why did it not occur to anyone to see if Rockhoof would be of use to the Yaks? I mean, Yona took a huge shine to him, and Yaks do love smashing stuff...?

"Can you do that?"
"Eehh..."

I thought about that myself, but they do have a bunch of traditions Rockhoof might not get. Plus, perpetually frozen north so...



Those things are hilarious. I love the Celestia vs Vampires one.

That's the best one. :D



S823 is carried on the back of unbelievably good voice acting, precision comedy and a rockin' musical number. Absolute smash hit, loved it to bits, Autumn Blaze is best pone/waifu of the week, she should get her own spinoff series, etc, etc.

She was one of the attack critters in a lab my local rp group tackled in a Shadowrun adventure. The party managed to befriend her with food and she's now following them around. Has a fear of water for reasons. ;)

The fun part is no one knows where I got the idea from.



Loved this episode; Starlight and Trixie becoming friends was one of the best ideas the writers have had. Fun song, funny antics, and a nice lesson.

Yes, I think Trixie and Starlight have a really good chemistry going. And the episode is just a fun little road trip adventure which the show needs more of.

[Draconi Redfir]

anyone else feel the resolution was kinda rushed? Feels like we only JUST dipped our toe into the "We have a problem" pool before all of a sudden everything was fine and dandy. wouldn't have minded some less time on songs, and more time on conflict.

and Celestia has a new tall-leader wife. also new creature for the freindship school?

[Manga Shoggoth]

• “Ponish”, so we officially have the language of the ponies.
...
• For creatures that have not been visited by ponies for a thousand years (at least recorded) and that don’t speak, the Kirin seem fairly calm about meeting ponies. Also, their understanding of Ponish is impressive. We know that Ponish changed over 1,000 years since Luna had a hard time fitting in.


[QUOTE=DigoDragon;23338794]
I feel like "Ponish" was mentioned before, but if not, then yeah, official language by now. Which seems to parallel English across the magic mirror. My headcanon theory is that Celestia first used the mirror centuries ago and stole human ideas to advance the ponies in tech and knowledge. Which explains the human-centric designs of so many things (I mean, sure the easy answer is because humans made the cartoon, but that's not as interesting).

Back on Ponish language, I wonder if Fluttershy can teach other to speak squirrel? Cause I was relly expecting AJ to look at that squirrel at the end and suddenly realize what they were saying by listening to them. Ah well, missed opportunity.

"Old Ponish" was mentioned in Shadow Play, basically the equivalent of "Old English" (using futhark (precursor to early Anglo-Saxon futhorc) runes, no less! - there's a thorny pun for you). I'd have preferred "Old Equine" myself, but hey - it's not like the kids these days would understand terms like "Equestrian".

[DigoDragon]

anyone else feel the resolution was kinda rushed? Feels like we only JUST dipped our toe into the "We have a problem" pool before all of a sudden everything was fine and dandy. wouldn't have minded some less time on songs, and more time on conflict.

and Celestia has a new tall-leader wife. also new creature for the freindship school?

Yeah, I mentioned that the episode felt short. I can see kirins going to that school too. And getting detention for talking during class. :smalltongue:



"Old Ponish" was mentioned in Shadow Play, basically the equivalent of "Old English" (using futhark (precursor to early Anglo-Saxon futhorc) runes, no less! - there's a thorny pun for you). I'd have preferred "Old Equine" myself, but hey - it's not like the kids these days would understand terms like "Equestrian".

Kids know more than they're given credit for. Especially if they live in a state like mine where horse ranches are still a thing (but if you show them a hockey stick they often guess golf first). :smallbiggrin:

[Aotrs Commander]

Okay, so maybe I was only noticing now, but Cosy Glow is in the class withnthe others. so there IS no younger filles class, which means - as I suspected - she's not young, she's just short.

Aaaand she's splitting the new six up with racism.

TRANSPARENTLY being Evil.

To paraphrase TFS!Cooler, someone answer that phone because

I fracking called it.


I really don't know why the age thing didn't come up, since they are very clearly still in school, the students and friendship university are CLEARLY all quite a bit older than them (until Cosey Glow, also if that's her name why does she have a chess cutie mark, what's the connection?) I'd, in fact, at this point just guess Cosey Glow is just, y'know, short.


Which I'm saying and now that the chesspiece cutiemark would totally make sense for her being an undercover villain and oh my Lichemaster...

If I'm right (and, no, don't tell me, we'll get to it in time)... If I'm right, I am going to be SO SMUG.

*SMUG*

And now a clearly obviously not-Twilight.

That's going to be a manifestation of the Tree, isn't it? And if there is no FANTASTIC explanation why it has never done this ever before, relying inside of being an uncommunicative asshat, I will further stand by being entirely right that the Tree and the Table is a [Richard].

...

Okay, no I don't even need for that, literally ten seconds after I unpaused the episode (yeah, I'm actually writing this DURING the episode today, since so much is just spilling out that I want to say) Magic Tree Manifestation FLIPS ITS [EXCREMENT] over someone saying "friendship is not in our nature" and immediately threatens them with being trapped if they don't pass its test. After its takes it inspiration for doing a test, so frack knows what it was going to do BEFORE that.

Magic Tree is a [Richard] confirmed.

Ye GODS, this episode is making me so frag-damn smug.

*magic tree manifestation teleports everycreature*

...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!

Oh my Lichemaster!

That...

I just...

Making them face their worst fears!?

Y'know, like Sombra's magic door did with dakr magic?

AAAAAH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Confirmed!

Confirmed. SO. UTTERLY. HARD!

Ahahahahahahah!

Good job Mona and Gallus (I keep wanting to call him Grallus, because that's one of the current PCS in Shackled City, so if I slip up you know why) are only afraid and don't have actual proper phobias, innit? Because wow, that couldn't have gone tragically wrong.

And Silverstream has a bit of PST regarding the Storm King and Ocellus does regarding the Changeling's previous history...

Sandbar... I'mma go ahead and wonder if there isn't a degree of those two in particular being chosen because one might wonder if there might be some element "crush on teacher" territory there (seems like they would be good candidates), as well as leveraging the loyalty and generousity elements. Trapping him via his own affablitiy and eagerness to help was interesting, though.

Smolder really got away lightly, which suggests she's actually the most balanced of them, astonishingly.

And tree is suddenly on NOW, conveniantly, after living for a thousand plus and however long before years, only NOW, magically gets the ability to directly communicate.

Allow me to laugh derivisively.

Suuuuuure. I completely believe that,

"Since when does the tree of Harmony traps creatures ina cave with their biggest fears?"

I know, right, Gallus?

And go you, for calling it out!



And there goes Cosy, manipulating them into not telling Twilight.

So much the villain.

And that last line isn't even said ominously, even though it very much is!

Ha!

I'll give 'em credit. Given that you can't be toooo subtle with a children's show, they are going a fairly credible job. The chess-piece cutie mark is a stroke of subtle genius, I'll give 'em that.



Well, clearly I liked this episode, because I like being proved oh so VERY right. One of the better ones, this season, even.

And - FINALLY - I am starting to warm to the new characters a bit, funnily enough when we start to see them as more than just a gestalt character but as individuals, with their own not-inconsiderable neuroses.



Back (a fair distance) through thread...



It looks like the Mane 6 need to apologize to Starlight Glimmer. The avatar of Harmony Itself demonstrates that locking creatures up and mentally torturing them until they behave how you want them to is in fact a-okay.

Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

I know, right!



Cozy Glow is just evil. I suspect either Chrysalis in disguise, or an agent of Chancellor Neighsay. Either one looking to use the Tree as a weapon of some sort probably.

Oh, without any question. I am leaning more towards the former - the cutie-mark and the previous episode lean towards it, but I suppose there's no reason that it can't be both.

[zimmerwald1915]

Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

I know, right!

Starlight did nothing wrong. Ever. Because she is categorically incapable of doing wrong. This is confirmed.

[DigoDragon]

I fracking called it.

I don't think we thought Cozy was anything but evil. I mean, it was kind of obvious from her first episode. :smalltongue:

[Manga Shoggoth]

Kids know more than they're given credit for. Especially if they live in a state like mine where horse ranches are still a thing (but if you show them a hockey stick they often guess golf first). :smallbiggrin:

That was more aimed at the writers than the kids. Kids TV has a dreadful habit of playing it down for children (which in all fairness MLP has tended to avert).

[DigoDragon]

This thread needs more great and powerful pony posts!

https://img00.deviantart.net/9e0c/i/2018/245/1/1/we_re_friendship_bound_by_imalou-dclux0q.jpg (https://www.deviantart.com/imalou/art/We-re-Friendship-Bound-762308522)

https://img00.deviantart.net/8d5f/i/2018/245/e/2/gossip_girls_by_midnightpremiere-dc9wee9.png (https://www.deviantart.com/midnightpremiere/art/Gossip-Girls-742222305)

https://pre00.deviantart.net/b952/th/pre/f/2018/037/f/4/rocket_mare_by_hananpacha-dc2e0n7.jpg (https://www.deviantart.com/hananpacha/art/Rocket-Mare-729607363)

[digiman619]

This thread needs more great and powerful pony posts!

https://img00.deviantart.net/9e0c/i/2018/245/1/1/we_re_friendship_bound_by_imalou-dclux0q.jpg (https://www.deviantart.com/imalou/art/We-re-Friendship-Bound-762308522)

https://img00.deviantart.net/8d5f/i/2018/245/e/2/gossip_girls_by_midnightpremiere-dc9wee9.png (https://www.deviantart.com/midnightpremiere/art/Gossip-Girls-742222305)

https://pre00.deviantart.net/b952/th/pre/f/2018/037/f/4/rocket_mare_by_hananpacha-dc2e0n7.jpg (https://www.deviantart.com/hananpacha/art/Rocket-Mare-729607363)

Not actually a wrestling tag team 0/10. Admittedly, the only pics of Glim Glam and Trixie I can find are anthro and/or suggestive, so I guess I'll have to give you a pass.

[t209]

Anyone here a member of discord?
Just trying to look for pony discord that all of us can talk on.

[Aotrs Commander]

Yay for having to spend basically the entire day (and probably some of tomorrow) looking for alternatives to Shapeways because they are making every indication they are going to bump their prices up something of the order of 200% (at the bottom end) to 50-100% at the other! (So pricing the Shipyards out of business at some point in the future when it goes live for everyone!)

It seems like the new CEO is tacitly trying to get rid of the little consumers and go for big business orders (you know, like Youtube and all the rest). While bafflingly still trying to encourage the shops... But not really customers TO those shops. Or whatever else "sustainable growth" means in a real sense.



I finished the Elf campaign in Age of Wonders 3. Aside from it being at Civ IV levels of gotcha (and I REALLY HATE that you can't quit to the main menu during a battle, that's just stupid), it's holding my interest better. I had a lot more fun with the draconian druid hen he was in charge - actually the elf rogue and human dreadnought (dreadnought especially without the top-teir stuff that make it work) is, I think, the paffest combination I have found so far. Which is a shame, since the elf and human campaigns are centred around those classes, but whatever.

[meto30]

As I've yet to begin my watch of season 8, and almost all discussion occurring in this thread is about current episodes, I find myself scrolling through a series of spoiler boxes that I choose not to open. I've just returned from a business trip in Sydney, and I've come with... not news of Sydney (unless you want to hear about what scholars of Social Studies of Science are up to), but news of a series of artwork I've just completed.

https://orig00.deviantart.net/bb14/f/2018/223/f/3/sunset_shimmer_outfit_studies__rainbow_rocks_by_me to30-dcjuy7f.png
https://orig00.deviantart.net/c158/f/2018/224/c/0/sunset_shimmer_outfit_studies__friendship_games_by _meto30-dcjyfyg.png
https://orig00.deviantart.net/0a13/f/2018/233/0/b/sunset_shimmer_outfit_studies__legend_of_everfree_ by_meto30-dckpgc5.png
https://orig00.deviantart.net/8a54/f/2018/233/3/3/sunset_shimmer_outfit_studies__summer_by_meto30-dckrb00.png
https://orig00.deviantart.net/ae52/f/2018/248/8/e/sunset_shimmer_outfit_studies_bikini_by_meto30-dcm3m1y.png

[Pi Pie]

As I've yet to begin my watch of season 8, and almost all discussion occurring in this thread is about current episodes, I find myself scrolling through a series of spoiler boxes that I choose not to open. I've just returned from a business trip in Sydney, and I've come with... not news of Sydney (unless you want to hear about what scholars of Social Studies of Science are up to), but news of a series of artwork I've just completed.

https://orig00.deviantart.net/bb14/f/2018/223/f/3/sunset_shimmer_outfit_studies__rainbow_rocks_by_me to30-dcjuy7f.png
https://orig00.deviantart.net/c158/f/2018/224/c/0/sunset_shimmer_outfit_studies__friendship_games_by _meto30-dcjyfyg.png
https://orig00.deviantart.net/0a13/f/2018/233/0/b/sunset_shimmer_outfit_studies__legend_of_everfree_ by_meto30-dckpgc5.png
https://orig00.deviantart.net/8a54/f/2018/233/3/3/sunset_shimmer_outfit_studies__summer_by_meto30-dckrb00.png
https://orig00.deviantart.net/ae52/f/2018/248/8/e/sunset_shimmer_outfit_studies_bikini_by_meto30-dcm3m1y.png

Sure, I'll take information about what scholars of Social Studies of Science are up to.

I like the bikini outfit the best. I think it is the pose with the wind blowing in the air that gives Sunset a strong leadership look.

The Legend of Everfree outfit seems off to me. Overall, I think that all of your images have Sunset's thighs and lower legs as being bulkier than I imagine. The Legend of Everfree outfit makes the bulk stand out more than the other outfits.

The Legend of Everfree left image also seems like Sunset's chest is larger than in the other images.

[meto30]

Sure, I'll take information about what scholars of Social Studies of Science are up to.

I like the bikini outfit the best. I think it is the pose with the wind blowing in the air that gives Sunset a strong leadership look.

The Legend of Everfree outfit seems off to me. Overall, I think that all of your images have Sunset's thighs and lower legs as being bulkier than I imagine. The Legend of Everfree outfit makes the bulk stand out more than the other outfits.

The Legend of Everfree left image also seems like Sunset's chest is larger than in the other images.

There were a lot of interesting presentations to watch at the conference. My favourite has to be the one about Nominal paradigms of pesticide governance not effecting the actual practice of pesticide regulators much, in a comparison study between Canada and Australia's respective pesticide control regimes. There was another one that argued that successfully giving robots a social personality requires giving them social vulnerabilities that allows them to communicate non-verbally (the "tells" of human communication). I myself presented a case of Korean bioscientists routinely and consistently pointing towards international consensus building projects as both evidence that there exists consensus that somatic gene therapy is desirable and sufficiently safe to try, and that a double-bind restriction on research in the way the Korean Bioethics and Safety Act does is not necessary. All in all, 4S being so big, there were so many panels going on at once (like, 20 at a time, I think) so at most I could only watch about 5% of all the presentations given at the conference. I went to five panels, the one on visualization technologies as a persuasive tactic being tackled and "democratized", the one on socialization of robots and AI in the context of human society, the one on air pollution governance and citizen science activity regarding them, the one on the transfer of science governance systems across national borders, and a last one that I don't particularly remember the topic of (it was a mix).

The Legend of Everfree picture has a lot of flaws in retrospect - the thighs were a bit over-done on that picture, which is a problem I tired to rectify in the following two pictures (especially the Bikini one). I might redo that picture - I don't do that often as these failures serve as reminders for me to constantly improve ( I prefer not making the same mistakes in similar future pictures) - although the redo might suffer the same problem as the current one did, namely that I don't particularly like the outfit and thus my motivation is relatively lacking.

[Rogar Demonblud]

As I've yet to begin my watch of season 8, and almost all discussion occurring in this thread is about current episodes, I find myself scrolling through a series of spoiler boxes that I choose not to open.

To be honest, that might be for the best. I haven't seen a lot of positivity towards the series this year, and am personally debating if I'm going to jump ship myself at the end.

You art's more interesting than several episodes this year.

[Pi Pie]

To be honest, that might be for the best. I haven't seen a lot of positivity towards the series this year, and am personally debating if I'm going to jump ship myself at the end.

You art's more interesting than several episodes this year.

I would recommend this season. Overall, I'd give it a B. There are not any real standouts but...
the friendship students are fun and interesting and we have some nice continuity nods such as Starlight and Trixie's road trip.

[t209]

Well, sad news (https://kotaku.com/wildstar-developer-carbine-studios-shuts-down-1828862729) for my favorite MMO Wildstar, ponies.
I had fun with it for Rp and lore, but at least it had a good run.
https://pre00.deviantart.net/17e6/th/pre/f/2012/275/f/c/pinkamena_by_theponyisatrue-d5gncn9.png

[DigoDragon]

To be honest, that might be for the best. I haven't seen a lot of positivity towards the series this year, and am personally debating if I'm going to jump ship myself at the end.

At least, in my opinion, there haven't been any huge stinkers in the season. Just a lot of luke-warm and average episodes with a few gems worth talking about.



Well, sad news (https://kotaku.com/wildstar-developer-carbine-studios-shuts-down-1828862729) for my favorite MMO Wildstar, ponies.
I had fun with it for Rp and lore, but at least it had a good run.

I keep hearing about this, but I have no idea what that MMO is. ...I guess that's a hint on why it's shutting down. :smallredface:


Is it just me or are like... 90% of OC pony couples comprised of one unicorn and one pegasus? :smalltongue: Apparently no one brave enough to date earth ponies.


Need to watch this show.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-YgiL41nC0uU/W5GS6fYb5hI/AAAAAAADG48/M_-1QNiKa7crxfzcfdkoQbPpiM0mxOwFgCHMYCw/s650/Bojackbysorasarah2121536266799846.png

[Aotrs Commander]

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-HK2dWfF/0/bc070f39/XL/NolaaruluSDN%20v1.0-XL.png



Okay, time to pick ponythread's brains, especially them As Can Art (and most especially Meto).

As I have done little useful work this week (thanks to Shapeways) and I just did not feel like starting a moderns thing, I decided I will look ahead to what I would be doing in the convention in March - which is nominally the Phystyulon ground force.

As a break from tradition (and partly becauses sizes), I have thus been attempting to start with infantry.

Relevant description of elenthnar phsiology.

An elenthnar stands about two metres tall. They have four legs, placed at four “corners” of the lower body and structurally similar to a spider’s or insect’s, with a wide span. The legs end with six vestigial toes on the feet. They have two arms, with a five fingered hand and one opposable thumb.

The head is characterised with a foreshortened muzzle, beneath which is a wide, strong maw. There are two small nostrils in the muzzle. While elenthnars have a sense of smell, it is somewhat basic and they rely more on their eyes and ears. They possess two large eyes, which function well in both very bright and very little light, due to a complex series of iris muscles and lenses. They also can see further into the IR and UV spectrum than most baseline HPE races. Eye colour is typically a shade of brown, but may also appear in shades of green, red, orange, pink, grey or blue.

The head has four ears. Two, placed atop the head, are conical and are similar to mammalian ears in form and function. They are fringed with small hairs, the length and thickness with various by individual - and style, since these are sometimes dyed, cut or otherwise adorned. A smaller pair of ears are not as visibly external, but located on the sides of the head, towards the rear. Elenthnar hearing is both more acute and more robust than most humanoid species. In concert with their voices, with effort and training, elenthnars can even use a form of echo-location, though the individuals with these skills are uncommon. Unlike many species with sensitive hearing, elenthnar ears have a high pain and damage threshold and they can tolerate much louder sounds than a most humanoids without discomfort (almost three times the human threshold).

Elenthnars are covered with a thickened skin, but otherwise lack body hair. Their skin is typically a dark-to-tan brown, depending on racial stock. Varying by ethnicity, elenthnars have spots, stippling or striping patterns of muted green. Plain individuals are rare, but not unheard of, though this can be linked to deleterious conditions, including albinism. The elenthnars wear a wide variety of clothing styles, varying by culture and personal preference.

Elenthnars display moderate sexual dimorphism. Males and females are not disparate in size, but have different secondary sexual characteristics.

Like many of Urrot’s creatures, elenthnars are capable of bioluminescence. The primary usage in the elenthnar’s family is for sexual display. Both males and females have two organs which create a bioluminescent pattern on their upper chest areas (the organ is called a nacr in Zoxyriat ), which (in the case of the elenthnars specifically) fluoresces during arousal. The female organs (nacri when being specifically referred to) are larger and more elaborate. These organs are part of the defining features of the elenthnars and their closest relative’s official taxonomic classification (as can be seen in their biological species name).


This is, then pass one.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-QxFkjFC/0/bbf12353/L/ElenthnarPhystyulonTrooper%20v0.1-L.png

This is a human torso, albeit with the proportions changed a tiny bit (more of a suggestion of a chest-bulge, especially if viewed from the side). The legs are approximately spider-formet, though again, I used (for ease) the humananoid leg components, just added and re-scaled a bit.

I know the hands are occulding into the legs a bit, but you can chalk that up to the hands being ina human resting position, combined with the fact that this is, after all, full body armour and sized for 144th scale, and thus chunky proportionately for minimum thicnkess (ditto for the feet looking thick).

Things like the leg joints will a) barely be visible at 144th scale and b) likely covered with extra armour plates (as I do with most body armour), so the joint will be better at finish.

I am... Not terribly happy with the ears on the helmet, but I am not quite sure how they would accomodated. Being sort of fennik-fox-like ears, I doubt the elenthnar would especially appreciate them being pused flat like human hair, but... Well. My first attempt made them look more like MLP pony heads. (Thicking the maw - it's supposed to be wide, after all, helped a bit.) But... I really could use some suggestions on making it look less... Like it is.

(For what it's worth, considering the head fits inside a 2mm cube...)



Edit:

The pause for thought making this post gave me an idea for a different approach for the ear thing:

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-pF8Wz4G/0/8735b628/L/ElenthnarPhystyulonTrooper%20v0.1a-L.png

Better, maybe...?

[Topaz]

Is it just me or are like... 90% of OC pony couples comprised of one unicorn and one pegasus? :smalltongue: Apparently no one brave enough to date earth ponies.

Can't be 90%, I see way too many OC couple pictures with bat ponies in them.

Speaking of "is it me"...
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-bUz1q7aX_d8/W42sAdEMA4I/AAAAAAAALa4/srP58OpbHwA22Sm3t2c6J4z_FQinRLgBQCJoC/w800-h800/gplus162763579.png

[Pi Pie]

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-HK2dWfF/0/bc070f39/XL/NolaaruluSDN%20v1.0-XL.png
Edit:

The pause for thought making this post gave me an idea for a different approach for the ear thing:

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-pF8Wz4G/0/8735b628/L/ElenthnarPhystyulonTrooper%20v0.1a-L.png

Better, maybe...?

My immediate comment after looking at the body was that something else should be done with the ears. The ears seem to be the most interesting feature of the Elenthar and should be emphasized.

I like the second option for the ears more than the full body.

For alternatives, consider the armor for the bat ponies although this leaves the ears exposed.
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111024142843/mlp/images/9/9f/Luna's_guards_S2E04.png

Or consider Nightmare Moon's armor although it has the same issue.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q3RDnVc9meE/Tj20uiMtQvI/AAAAAAAAJ7I/FBwtjd2GrNw/s1600/zerochan.Nightmare.Moon.385584.jpg

Or also consider Batman's armor
https://i.stack.imgur.com/k6ySJ.png




Can't be 90%, I see way too many OC couple pictures with bat ponies in them.

Speaking of "is it me"...
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-bUz1q7aX_d8/W42sAdEMA4I/AAAAAAAALa4/srP58OpbHwA22Sm3t2c6J4z_FQinRLgBQCJoC/w800-h800/gplus162763579.png

That's a nice waifu but not the best. I do not have a waifu, but if I did, she would already be taken.
https://pre00.deviantart.net/5113/th/pre/i/2011/319/e/a/twilight_sparkle_loves_books_by_odstspore-d4gbong.png

[DigoDragon]

Can't be 90%, I see way too many OC couple pictures with bat ponies in them.

So... like 80% then? :smallbiggrin:

Am I in the ballpark?



Speaking of "is it me"...
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-bUz1q7aX_d8/W42sAdEMA4I/AAAAAAAALa4/srP58OpbHwA22Sm3t2c6J4z_FQinRLgBQCJoC/w800-h800/gplus162763579.png

Oh there is and she's so gosh darn cute! I love this episode.

My Shadowrun players have no idea that she's essentially what they found lurking in the storage room and took with them. Hee.

[meto30]

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-HK2dWfF/0/bc070f39/XL/NolaaruluSDN%20v1.0-XL.png



Okay, time to pick ponythread's brains, especially them As Can Art (and most especially Meto).

As I have done little useful work this week (thanks to Shapeways) and I just did not feel like starting a moderns thing, I decided I will look ahead to what I would be doing in the convention in March - which is nominally the Phystyulon ground force.

As a break from tradition (and partly becauses sizes), I have thus been attempting to start with infantry.

Relevant description of elenthnar phsiology.

An elenthnar stands about two metres tall. They have four legs, placed at four “corners” of the lower body and structurally similar to a spider’s or insect’s, with a wide span. The legs end with six vestigial toes on the feet. They have two arms, with a five fingered hand and one opposable thumb.

The head is characterised with a foreshortened muzzle, beneath which is a wide, strong maw. There are two small nostrils in the muzzle. While elenthnars have a sense of smell, it is somewhat basic and they rely more on their eyes and ears. They possess two large eyes, which function well in both very bright and very little light, due to a complex series of iris muscles and lenses. They also can see further into the IR and UV spectrum than most baseline HPE races. Eye colour is typically a shade of brown, but may also appear in shades of green, red, orange, pink, grey or blue.

The head has four ears. Two, placed atop the head, are conical and are similar to mammalian ears in form and function. They are fringed with small hairs, the length and thickness with various by individual - and style, since these are sometimes dyed, cut or otherwise adorned. A smaller pair of ears are not as visibly external, but located on the sides of the head, towards the rear. Elenthnar hearing is both more acute and more robust than most humanoid species. In concert with their voices, with effort and training, elenthnars can even use a form of echo-location, though the individuals with these skills are uncommon. Unlike many species with sensitive hearing, elenthnar ears have a high pain and damage threshold and they can tolerate much louder sounds than a most humanoids without discomfort (almost three times the human threshold).

Elenthnars are covered with a thickened skin, but otherwise lack body hair. Their skin is typically a dark-to-tan brown, depending on racial stock. Varying by ethnicity, elenthnars have spots, stippling or striping patterns of muted green. Plain individuals are rare, but not unheard of, though this can be linked to deleterious conditions, including albinism. The elenthnars wear a wide variety of clothing styles, varying by culture and personal preference.

Elenthnars display moderate sexual dimorphism. Males and females are not disparate in size, but have different secondary sexual characteristics.

Like many of Urrot’s creatures, elenthnars are capable of bioluminescence. The primary usage in the elenthnar’s family is for sexual display. Both males and females have two organs which create a bioluminescent pattern on their upper chest areas (the organ is called a nacr in Zoxyriat ), which (in the case of the elenthnars specifically) fluoresces during arousal. The female organs (nacri when being specifically referred to) are larger and more elaborate. These organs are part of the defining features of the elenthnars and their closest relative’s official taxonomic classification (as can be seen in their biological species name).


This is, then pass one.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-QxFkjFC/0/bbf12353/L/ElenthnarPhystyulonTrooper%20v0.1-L.png

This is a human torso, albeit with the proportions changed a tiny bit (more of a suggestion of a chest-bulge, especially if viewed from the side). The legs are approximately spider-formet, though again, I used (for ease) the humananoid leg components, just added and re-scaled a bit.

I know the hands are occulding into the legs a bit, but you can chalk that up to the hands being ina human resting position, combined with the fact that this is, after all, full body armour and sized for 144th scale, and thus chunky proportionately for minimum thicnkess (ditto for the feet looking thick).

Things like the leg joints will a) barely be visible at 144th scale and b) likely covered with extra armour plates (as I do with most body armour), so the joint will be better at finish.

I am... Not terribly happy with the ears on the helmet, but I am not quite sure how they would accomodated. Being sort of fennik-fox-like ears, I doubt the elenthnar would especially appreciate them being pused flat like human hair, but... Well. My first attempt made them look more like MLP pony heads. (Thicking the maw - it's supposed to be wide, after all, helped a bit.) But... I really could use some suggestions on making it look less... Like it is.

(For what it's worth, considering the head fits inside a 2mm cube...)



Edit:

The pause for thought making this post gave me an idea for a different approach for the ear thing:

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-pF8Wz4G/0/8735b628/L/ElenthnarPhystyulonTrooper%20v0.1a-L.png

Better, maybe...?

As I did some work on Elenthnar physiology before, I decided to give the ear issue a try, although I confess I am not much of a sci-fi buff to really come up with really creative "sci-fi-esque" designs. My concept is more historically grounded in some distant past when the Elenthnar were not spacefarers.

https://orig00.deviantart.net/5dcd/f/2018/250/2/5/elenthnar_helm_designs_by_meto30-dcmalep.png

The idea is that a vertically placed plate element was developed to protect the ears from frontal attack while allowing them free access to sounds coming from many directions. Over time this very distinct element became a more visual than a functional element, as the convenient piece of the helm to decorate and put distinguishing elements on. This was retained in the powered armour designs, although it now functions as a convenient place to put sensory equipment into. It makes the head a lot larger visually, but powered armour isn't really subtle anyway, so I guess it was not much of a negative thing. The ears are housed behind the plate in a confortable, cushioned compartment of the helmet, and the additional sensory equipment in the helmet feed the information back to the wearer in audio cues, so that the wearer is able to gather various combat information through his very sensitive ears.

[Aotrs Commander]

My immediate comment after looking at the body was that something else should be done with the ears. The ears seem to be the most interesting feature of the Elenthar and should be emphasized.

I like the second option for the ears more than the full body.

For alternatives, consider the armor for the bat ponies although this leaves the ears exposed.
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111024142843/mlp/images/9/9f/Luna's_guards_S2E04.png

Or consider Nightmare Moon's armor although it has the same issue.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q3RDnVc9meE/Tj20uiMtQvI/AAAAAAAAJ7I/FBwtjd2GrNw/s1600/zerochan.Nightmare.Moon.385584.jpg

Or also consider Batman's armor
https://i.stack.imgur.com/k6ySJ.png

I noticed this too late last night to comment, and by the morning...


As I did some work on Elenthnar physiology before, I decided to give the ear issue a try, although I confess I am not much of a sci-fi buff to really come up with really creative "sci-fi-esque" designs. My concept is more historically grounded in some distant past when the Elenthnar were not spacefarers.

https://orig00.deviantart.net/5dcd/f/2018/250/2/5/elenthnar_helm_designs_by_meto30-dcmalep.png

The idea is that a vertically placed plate element was developed to protect the ears from frontal attack while allowing them free access to sounds coming from many directions. Over time this very distinct element became a more visual than a functional element, as the convenient piece of the helm to decorate and put distinguishing elements on. This was retained in the powered armour designs, although it now functions as a convenient place to put sensory equipment into. It makes the head a lot larger visually, but powered armour isn't really subtle anyway, so I guess it was not much of a negative thing. The ears are housed behind the plate in a confortable, cushioned compartment of the helmet, and the additional sensory equipment in the helmet feed the information back to the wearer in audio cues, so that the wearer is able to gather various combat information through his very sensitive ears.

(The speed of your artistry (on top of the quality) astounds me, as always. The bottom one, is, more of less, the sort of thing I was aiming for (sort of vaguely Space-Marine-ish), but not doing a terrible good job of, since I don't clothes and I wasn't using a resource to look at. And if you don't know how to do a thing, don't try and do it without a clear idea!)

What I realised is that I haven't really done helmets proper-like. I actually only did the ones for the Aotrs (which I know what they look like) and for the Tarrainian Federation. So, it occurred to me as I looked at Topaz's post (especially Batman), I have not actually looked at any actual helmets.

So first thing this morning, I went and had a look at what Nod infantry wear.

I'm going, I think to try breaking from tradition and scaling the helmet up to three times normal size and then shrink it back down (the skulls on the Aotrs were, after all, done similarly) and have a near-complete redesign.

The crest is a much, muuuuch better way of handling it (I was partly there, I think, with plan B) - and, I suppose, has an added advantage that it can further by altered for future ground forces (since there are at present, four elenthnar powers and a couple more mentioned already).

So that's gonna be today's job.

[meto30]

I noticed this too late last night to comment, and by the morning...



(The speed of your artistry (on top of the quality) astounds me, as always. The bottom one, is, more of less, the sort of thing I was aiming for (sort of vaguely Space-Marine-ish), but not doing a terrible good job of, since I don't clothes and I wasn't using a resource to look at. And if you don't know how to do a thing, don't try and do it without a clear idea!)

What I realised is that I haven't really done helmets proper-like. I actually only did the ones for the Aotrs (which I know what they look like) and for the Tarrainian Federation. So, it occurred to me as I looked at Topaz's post (especially Batman), I have not actually looked at any actual helmets.

So first thing this morning, I went and had a look at what Nod infantry wear.

I'm going, I think to try breaking from tradition and scaling the helmet up to three times normal size and then shrink it back down (the skulls on the Aotrs were, after all, done similarly) and have a near-complete redesign.

The crest is a much, muuuuch better way of handling it (I was partly there, I think, with plan B) - and, I suppose, has an added advantage that it can further by altered for future ground forces (since there are at present, four elenthnar powers and a couple more mentioned already).

So that's gonna be today's job.

Glad to have been of service, Commander, please let me know if there are more visualization tasks that I can serve with.

I am currently working on the preparations for the upcoming fan-comic, which now has a working title: "the Sirens Business". I decided on the comic format because, while it might take a long time to complete, I certainly was more comfortable with my art than I was with my writing. I'll upload all the preparation sketches at once instead of uploading them piecemeal, but right now the Rainbooms are proving to be more difficult than I expected. While they may be "human counterparts" to the ponies, they look rather different, and their faces in addition to their unique outfits required some separate, dedicated practice on my part to draw them comfortably.

Also, Rarity best human.

[Adderbane]

This is probably my favorite episode of the season so far. It was good to see Lightning Dust again, and there was an awful lot of characters listening to what each other had to say, which is rare in most stories. Also, so much great RD/Scoot interaction. 10/10, well done.

[b_jonas]

I am currently working on the preparations for the upcoming fan-comic, which now has a working title: "the Sirens Business". I decided on the comic format because, while it might take a long time to complete, I certainly was more comfortable with my art than I was with my writing. Wow. That's something I'll be looking forward to.

I haven't posted here for a while, because I'm half a season behind watching MLP and haven't been watching any new episodes yet, plus real life is going on, but I have looked at most of the drawings you posted at least, and I still enjoy them.

[DigoDragon]

Aww, Spike and Smolder are fun together. I really did that Smolder can help Spike learn more about his dragon-self and in return Spike helps Smolder understand pony stuff. Great friendship right there.

As for Sludge... ugh... Like, I can understand him being a jerk and using Spike, because typical butt-head dragon, but the fact he's not even Spike's actual dad?! OMG, someone call Starlight to laser-blast him. That was just beyond jerk move. I'm glad Smolder helped set things right. And you go do you with that pillow embroidery, Spike. A pile of pillows is way better than sleeping on cold, hard metal. ;)

Okay episode overall. Just wish we got an actual answer on Spike's parents.

[Aotrs Commander]

Phystyulon Lazer Trooper v 0.2

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-ftbTZWp/0/40232bf7/L/ElenthnarPhystyulonTrooper%20v0.2-L.png
https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-DqHFCf4/0/357743e0/L/ElenthnarPhystyulonTrooper%20v0.2a-L.png
https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-h8VPCxx/0/a65ebf68/L/ElenthnarPhystyulonTrooper%20v0.2b-L.png


Funnily enough, actually looking at helmets (and sacling up to scale down) actually made a massive difference. That actually looks GOOD now, I reckon. (Yes?)

As to the ears, I was trying to work out how to do Meto's crest modelled - and then it struck me. Whay not do two, the other way? I think that worked.

Adding some armour plates also made the whole thing look better (the head actually looked out of place without it).

That seems pretty respectible now. The difficult job then, once i have some weapons, will be posing the damn things. I mean, I have some idea of how to doing walking stuff (from the Yrgynela), but now I have to work out ow an elenthnar would brace. Do they kneel? If so, how? Etc etc. That's a job for next week, though - it took half-an-hour past quitting time to try and get TurboCAD to actually assemble one to try and print that as a test. Every little thing this week.

(I wanted to go try and play C&C Generals, but my new copy hasn't arrived (I lost the old one ages and ages ago and for the last couple onf installs, pinched my mate's copy of the First Decade) - day overdue now. So looks like it's back to trying get that FRACKING MISSION on Age of Wonders 3 that spent two hours yesterday playing "gotcha" - you KNOW how I hate that. Oh, and getbgame design guys - give us a whole campaign where the primary character is a rogue and one with a dreadnought, and then have a long mission in each with the opposite. Because it's not like rogues are basically crap and dreadnought are no flipping use until they get fracking top-tier units which you're not allowed in the first two missions...

*sigh*)

[t209]

Aww, Spike and Smolder are fun together. I really did that Smolder can help Spike learn more about his dragon-self and in return Spike helps Smolder understand pony stuff. Great friendship right there.

As for Sludge... ugh... Like, I can understand him being a jerk and using Spike, because typical butt-head dragon, but the fact he's not even Spike's actual dad?! OMG, someone call Starlight to laser-blast him. That was just beyond jerk move. I'm glad Smolder helped set things right. And you go do you with that pillow embroidery, Spike. A pile of pillows is way better than sleeping on cold, hard metal. ;)

Okay episode overall. Just wish we got an actual answer on Spike's parents.

Remember the movie Joe Dirt, Digo?
Like it turned out that the couple were really Joe's parents, just decided to come back after he turned out to be famous.

[Spamotron]

Damn Cozy Glow is scary.

Ultimately she only loses because the Tree of Harmony freed the Young Six. Some would say that was her own fault because the Tree only bonded with the Young Six because of her machinations in What Lies Beneath. But I'm of the camp that you can only call a person out on mistakes they made based on the information available to them. Cozy correctly identified the Young Six as a potential threat to her plans and executed a low-risk high reward plan to break them up that almost worked if a god like being hadn't intervened. Something impossible to foresee or plan for. It then looks like she made a mistake by losing her cool and ranting at Twilight on her defeat resulting in her being locked up in Tarturus. Then we learn she wanted to be sent to Tarturus to launch her Plan B and her rant was likely partly an act.

So Cozy played everyone involved and made no mistakes, lost only to FiM's equivalent to Divine Intervention and upon losing just rolls straight into her backup plan by again playing the Princesses into doing what she wants.

So far Equestria has been threatened by a Mad Goddess of the Night, a Reality Warper, a Parasitic Bug Monster, an Undead Mage King, a Magic Eating Demon Centaur, a ludicrously overpowered Unicorn Prodigy, a Possessing Shadow Creature from outside reality, the largest and most powerful Army in the world, and of all of them a Small Ordinary Pegasus was the most dangerous.

[Aotrs Commander]

Really, Age of Wonders 3? Really?

After frag knows how many hours to get through mission bloody five of Edward's campaign, the final mission... Is literally the same mission as Sundren's. It's even on the same map! Just you start as Edward, not Sundren.

Well, bollocks to that, then. I'm not fraggin' doing that mission AGAIN, not for the second time THIS WEEK.

Look at the halfling campaign tomorrow, see if the new bits excite me. I might actually play evil, not good this time, for kicks and giggles...

[DigoDragon]

Remember the movie Joe Dirt, Digo?
Like it turned out that the couple were really Joe's parents, just decided to come back after he turned out to be famous.

I never saw that movie.

Dragons don't seem to care about keeping up with pony news, so I figure Spike's fame would be the way his parents would track him down after all these years.

[Aotrs Commander]

Well, Generals arrived today (it might have arrived a day or two ago, actually, the package was black (in the black post-box) not typical amazon cardboard (from a seller) and lying on its side - but whatever. After about an hour of faffing about, following the instructions on CNCNZ or how to install/update it all, I finally googled a solution which was as daft as making an options.ini file in the save game folder manually and pasting something into it. Then both Generals and Zero Hour worked fine.

You gotta love, by the by, that RA2, arguably the best in the series in a lot of respects (though personally, ask me to choose between TS, RA2 for story and Generals for gameplay and I'd be very hard pressed) and is, of course, the one that is nightmarishly difficult to get to work, featuring basically you having to do it manually...!

Sorry Age of Wonders 3, I need to blow up some stuff stress-free!

[DigoDragon]

This season finale is a pretty good example of canon becoming inconsistent when you change your writing staff. More on that later...

Rainbow Dash takes her class on a field Trip and Starlight tags along to use the cloud-walking spell (a nice call back). There's a line said by Ocellus that she's never walked on clouds before, so that's a little piece of worldbuilding there; changelings don't have the inherent ability to Cloud Walk. I believe the only character we've seen walk on clouds besides pegasi is Gilda, so I presume griffons can cloud walk. Anyway, the spell fails and we nearly have street pizza Yuna.

Twilight: "Maybe you cast the spell wrong."

Ouch. Right in the pride there, Twi. This is Starlight we're talking about, the oh-so-perfect all-powerful unicorn that doesn't a jail for being evil. :smalltongue: Pfft, Starlight throwing the line right back at Twi made me laugh. Nicely played Glim. Anyway, so magic in Equestria is fading out and Celestia has the itinerary for today's apocalypse:

Day 1: Unicorns lose their magic.
Day 2: Creatures lose their inherent magic.
Day 3: Artifacts stop working.

Luna mentions that it's getting hard to even raise the moon at night, so I wonder if these days are absolute or relative? Wouldn't in be hilarious if magic couldn't fully drain so long as Celestia doesn't set the sun? Because the days aren't passing? Someone get on that fanfic idea. I'd love to see that as the means to defeat a prophesy.

En-e-way, so the Mane6 leave Starlight in charge while they go to Tartarus and interrogate Tirek. Cosy Glow butters up to Starlight and well, was nice knowing you Starlight (dibs on her kite collection). The Student6 seem to know something's up so they go spy on Cozy. Surprise, she's causing the magic drain. Well, we probably could have guessed considering... but Naysayer shows up to take control of the school while Twi is away and locks up the non-ponies in a dorm room. Sheesh, like everyone thinks controlling the school is power? Equestria power structures are weird. :smalltongue: Remember in A Canterlot Wedding when Twi gets banished to the under-mines at the end of part one, wreathed in flames? I... kinda expected Cozy to do that to Naysayer. But it doesn't happen. Gotta admit, that would be 20% cooler of a "To Be Continued" breaking point, right?

Backing up a little, the Mane6 are near the gate to Tartarus when Pinkie finds out their food spoiled. So here's another neat little worldbuilding bit--those saddlebags come with magic refrigeration. Neat! Baked goods can spoil pretty quickly where I live, so sign me up for two bags when the magic returns. Anyway, here's where show canon takes a bit of a stumble. Applejack makes a great line to the unicorns with "You just have to think like an Earth Pony." And uses some cream to keep the flies away. So when magic is gone, Earth Ponies still got their science and will be just fine.

Except.

Back when Tirek was eating all the magic in his episode, Pegasi flight and Earth Pony strength were said to be magic aspects by Celestia. But throughout this two-parter, none of the pegasi seemed to struggle with flying. Nor Earth Ponies with being strong presumably, but we don't see an example of it. So what gives? Shouldn't flight be lost after Day 2? So yeah, a bit inconsistent there on canon, and probably because different writers are working this episode pair. So, just wanted to point that out.

The Mane6 get past the gates using a fabled magic key artifact which... can only be used once? So, how do you know it can open any door if it only has a one-use life span? I'm guessing that there are several such keys made and they all claim the name, but eh, it's a head-scratcher. Notice the BugBear is caged in here with a bunch of other creatures we've seen harass Equestria? Yeah, Episode 100 is canon. Ha! The So, the Mane6 talk to Tirek and learn Cozy is behind the magic drain. And without magic the Mane6 is trapped in Tartarus forever. As well as Tirek. Forever. With Pinkie Pie.

...Tirek, you're an idiot. :smalltongue:

Twi figures out how to squeeze the last drops of magic from all the monsters here, their "essence" (which splits the chimera creatures into ordinary animals? Um... okay, whatever) and uses it to open the door. Nice plan actually. Meanwhile, Sandbar rounds up the CMC to help free the rest of his friends from being locked in a room (yay Earth Pony crowbar powers!) and while the CMC distract Cozy, the Student6 free Naysayer (pfft, Yuna smashes chair with Nay still in it. That was was funny). Nay goes to get help while the Student6 try to stop the magic drain. Cozy confronts them and tries to seal them in the big ball of magic thingie (and I'm wondering how Starlight goes to the bathroom in there. I mean, it's been like, two days, right?), but their sacrifice gets the other students to turn on Cozy and then the Tree of Harmony does it's Deux Ex Machina thing (that's two points for the tree now saving Equestria).

I wondered if being in that ball of magic thingie when it reverse would hurt Starlight, but nah, she's fine. A little radiation never killed anypony. So magic returns to all creatures and unicorns, Earth Ponies will have to wait to take over the world another day, Tirek gets slapped in the face with his own magic (ha!) and Cozy gets... locked away in Tartarus. Wow. So, Luna is gonna leave a filly in Equestria's highest security prison? Damn, Luna doesn't play around. Twilight must have pulled favors to keep Starlight out of there. What will cozy's parents say?

Naysayer stops being a jerk about non-ponies. That's something I guess. However, I feel like there's something missing... something that bugs me...

Yeah, you know.

Chrysalis.

What they heck happened to her? I guess she didn't get the elements after all? I feel like this should have been her finale, cause Starlight alone at the school would have made for a fine revenge opportunity, and Cozy... I thought she'd be some evil Baby Dahl expy or Chryssi in disguise... but nope. The twist is that Cozy is penpals with Tirek, and Big T doesn't even get out of his cage the entire time. He's thwarted by an annoying pink pony. Eh, an opportunity lost I suppose. We have at one last season to go, so maybe Chryssi will get the big finale of the series. Overall this two-parter was alright. Had some stakes, some good laughs. My one disappointment is watching Tirek chew on the idiot ball when we could of had the Queen of the Changelings doing something cool. I give it a B.

[Aotrs Commander]

Bothing like a sudden BSoD to kill your mood... I was on the last mission of the GLA campaign as well.

As usual, nothing that really gives me any idea what it is... I suspect it might be sound related, to one of the drivers, maybe, or hardware related or I have no idea.

Tedious.



Finale already! Ye gods, this year's schedule is ridiculous to try and work out.

I'm still at least two episodes behind that...

[Rogar Demonblud]

I understand the Mary Dahl/Baby Doll references for Cozy Glow now. Kind of obvious, really.

One of her common tactics in Batman is to work with a bigger villain. Most famously Killer Croc in BTAS. So they were hinting she was an agent for someone else. Chrysalis was a little too obvious a candidate, as well. Tirek never occurred to me.

I might stick around for the next season after all.

[Spamotron]

I know someone is going to bring up the fate of Cozy Glow versus Starlight Glimmer. I'm just going to quote a poster from the Fimfiction reaction thread (https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/827095/s8e25-26-school-raze) because they spelled it out quite well.


knew the Starlight comparisons would come up. For me there's three main points that differentiate them.

1. Starlight in the past wasn't trying to destroy Equestria. She didn't know what her actions were doing, and learning the extent of what she was doing to time broke her mind and set her down the path to stopping.
2. Starlight stopped on her own. If you go back and look at what Twilight said, she doesn't actually offer Starlight anything other than hope. She doesn't offer Star friends, nor does she say she'll be Star's friend. She just offers Star the hope that things could get better.
3. After reforming, Starlight became a student of friendship. Cozy WAS a student of friendship already. For months. She learned enough that she was passing all of her tests with flying colours and was a picture perfect student, and yet apparently none of it stuck. At all. She sat through hours of honesty classes with AJ, acing the exams, and yet she could still effortlessly lie through her teeth without remorse. She knew how important all that stuff was. She just didn't care.

[Draconi Redfir]

currently in the middle of Episode 25. And just want to post this here before it's too late.


Me every time Cozy Glow is onscreen:

https://i.imgur.com/dyGFusi.jpg

Incidentally if anyone knows where i can find that image as a gif, that'd be much appreciated:smallbiggrin:

[DigoDragon]

I understand the Mary Dahl/Baby Doll references for Cozy Glow now. Kind of obvious, really.

One of her common tactics in Batman is to work with a bigger villain. Most famously Killer Croc in BTAS. So they were hinting she was an agent for someone else. Chrysalis was a little too obvious a candidate, as well. Tirek never occurred to me.

Chrysalis seemed obvious because she got an episode half-way through the season showing that she's plotting revenge on Starlight. I had mentioned that when the Mane6 went off to Tartarus, the setup was perfect for Chrysalis to strike Starlight at the school. Nothing in the season pointed at Tirek being behind it all. In fact, how does he even send Cozy glow letters from his prison cell? :smallconfused:

I prefer foreshadowing leading up to the reveal, which is why I was rooting for Chrysalis to show up as the bigger bad.

[Aotrs Commander]

Better get to catchon' up sharpish, since everypony else is coming up on the finale...

This was a GREAT episode.

I mean, fantastic.

AJ and Fluttershy were on top form - the writers remembered Fluttershy has had character development in the last eight seasons, which they don't always.

The Kirin.

Oh my the Kirin. THIS is what we should have more of in the movie. They were great. Their designs were amazing.

A near-pony ananlogue species with their own magic (which was really cool, I loved the way their horn band lit up when they used their fields, and that they had fields like unicorns). And then they have the magic anger transformation, which is also REALLY COOL.

And they even had their species avatar-ruler Celestia analogue (Rain Shadow, was it or something.)

Auumn Blaze was clearly Kirin!Pinkie Pie and she was hilarious. I very rarely take to characters quickly but she had me from that first monologue in a way that quite a lot of the main characters didn't, even.

It was even a nice, different take on the message.

Brilliant.

Like "contender for best episode this season" brilliant.

More of this please - heck, I'll settle for more Autumn Blaze.


(Oh, and the language is offically Ponish. And apparently Applejack subscribes to the English school of thought about Talking To Foreigners. Which is also hilarious.)



Back through thread...



What, no discussion on this one? What? Just a little mention by digo? Really?

Seriously, you ponies?



Oh, Meto, is you haven't you need to watch this one, I need to see you Art the new species therein...



Speaking of Art, did anypony have any addition thought on the revision to the elenthnar infantry last page?

[DigoDragon]

This was a GREAT episode.

I mean, fantastic.

AJ and Fluttershy were on top form - the writers remembered Fluttershy has had character development in the last eight seasons, which they don't always.

The Kirin.

Oh my the Kirin. THIS is what we should have more of in the movie. They were great. Their designs were amazing.

A near-pony ananlogue species with their own magic (which was really cool, I loved the way their horn band lit up when they used their fields, and that they had fields like unicorns). And then they have the magic anger transformation, which is also REALLY COOL.

And they even had their species avatar-ruler Celestia analogue (Rain Shadow, was it or something.)

Auumn Blaze was clearly Kirin!Pinkie Pie and she was hilarious. I very rarely take to characters quickly but she had me from that first monologue in a way that quite a lot of the main characters didn't, even.

It was even a nice, different take on the message.

Brilliant.

Like "contender for best episode this season" brilliant.

More of this please - heck, I'll settle for more Autumn Blaze.


(Oh, and the language is offically Ponish. And apparently Applejack subscribes to the English school of thought about Talking To Foreigners. Which is also hilarious.)



Back through thread...

What, no discussion on this one? What? Just a little mention by digo? Really?

Seriously, you ponies?

Perhaps most ponies are waiting for the North American broadcast, which is on... September 29th I think.

This episode is easily going in my top 3 this season. The kirin are adorable critters, and I still maintain they stole the name Autumn Blaze from local ponythreader RC. :smalltongue: Oh, and the name you're looking for on the kirin leader is Rain Shine. She's cool (https://78.media.tumblr.com/4ad1ab2d4c3659decae717f940b83699/tumblr_peeijdNLhP1t2hzsz_540.png), though I dunno why everyone is stealing Celestia's height shtick for their leadership. Maybe the writer is an Invader Zim fan? My fav color combo kirin goes to that chocolate one with the minty-green (https://78.media.tumblr.com/229c7dd09fddce2d682e85c682a21f12/tumblr_pe0dfrMZ3k1so81ws_540.png) mane.

Interesting that you call the magical manipulation ability "Fields". I call it Ponykinesis, cause that word just sounds cool. anyway, what did you think of Autumn's song? I found it to be a good one.

[zimmerwald1915]

Better get to catchon' up sharpish, since everypony else is coming up on the finale...

What, no discussion on this one? What? Just a little mention by digo? Really?

Seriously, you ponies?
Some of us are waiting on the US release :smallannoyed:

[Rogar Demonblud]

Some of us lack the patience. Or just had a weekend home with the flu.

[Pi Pie]

• Good job offering Rainbow Dash as an instructor. I can respect Spike’s choice not to accept, but it is good that they acknowledged that choice.
• Also, another good point saying that ponies and dragons fly differently.
• Overall a C episode. There wasn’t anything particularly memorable. It would have been better if Sludge was meaner and unapologetic about taking advantage of Spike. Smolder could have just confirmed that dragons are jerks and will take advantage of weak creatures.


• 2 parter. Before even starting, I predict Chancellor Naysayer is going to attempt to shut down the school, the students are going to stop him, the tree of harmony will help, possibly showing the chancellor the error of his way, and Cozy Glow will be confirmed evil (and possible reformed at the end).
• And there is Chrysallis. The eyes and body look kind of like Cadence. I don’t think the body is supposed to be a mash up of the 4 (possibly 5 with Flurry Heart) princesses, but that would have been an interesting touch.
• I know that Yona probably fell through the cloud because of her weight, but I have an alternate theory. What if Yaks are magic resistant and Starlight’s spell wore off sooner than expected. That could give them an interesting characteristic that could be explored later and also explain why Sombra never conquered them.
• And, not confirmed. Darn.
• They at least acknowledge that removing magic would have a problem with the movement of the celestial bodies.
• And what is Cadence doing there?
• I thought that Alicorn magic could not be destroyed thus the problem with Tirek.
• There is one option to potentially protect your magic. Invade Canterlot High.
• Also, you might want to ask Discord what is going on.
• Why do the Mane 6 fall for the door closing behind you shtick? Pinkie Pie at least should know to install a door jam.
• Chancellor Naysayer just installed himself as head of a school, with no prior approval, in a school that does not even recognize his accreditation board? Starlight needs to blast him, hard. Even Discord is not that bad.
• Chancellor Naysayer believes (or at least claims) that the non-pony students stole magic from all of Equestria. And the penalty is to be sent home with their parents. WTF!
• Cozy Glow has the evil villain laugh down. Hopefully she has a better back story than Starlight Glimmer.
• 2nd part
• Why can’t you get word to Celestia? She is only a train ride away. That only takes 1-24 hours as the plot demands.
• Mob rule to kick out Chancellor Naysayer makes a lot of sense, and I fully support this. Maybe Cozy Glow wouldn’t be so bad as Empress of Friendship.
• Pinkie torturing Tirek has to be one of the most beautiful things that pony has done in a long time.
• That was a great ending with Cozy Glow, kind of an Arkham Asylum feel.
• Overall, B+, it was a good wrap up of the season although it was kind of predictable. However, it feels like something was missing. Maybe ponythread can help me figure it out.
• Also, I called everything although it did not happen as I expected.



Damn Cozy Glow is scary.

Ultimately she only loses because the Tree of Harmony freed the Young Six. Some would say that was her own fault because the Tree only bonded with the Young Six because of her machinations in What Lies Beneath. But I'm of the camp that you can only call a person out on mistakes they made based on the information available to them. Cozy correctly identified the Young Six as a potential threat to her plans and executed a low-risk high reward plan to break them up that almost worked if a god like being hadn't intervened. Something impossible to foresee or plan for. It then looks like she made a mistake by losing her cool and ranting at Twilight on her defeat resulting in her being locked up in Tarturus. Then we learn she wanted to be sent to Tarturus to launch her Plan B and her rant was likely partly an act.

So Cozy played everyone involved and made no mistakes, lost only to FiM's equivalent to Divine Intervention and upon losing just rolls straight into her backup plan by again playing the Princesses into doing what she wants.

So far Equestria has been threatened by a Mad Goddess of the Night, a Reality Warper, a Parasitic Bug Monster, an Undead Mage King, a Magic Eating Demon Centaur, a ludicrously overpowered Unicorn Prodigy, a Possessing Shadow Creature from outside reality, the largest and most powerful Army in the world, and of all of them a Small Ordinary Pegasus was the most dangerous.

This, so much this.



This season finale is a pretty good example of canon becoming inconsistent when you change your writing staff. More on that later...

Rainbow Dash takes her class on a field Trip and Starlight tags along to use the cloud-walking spell (a nice call back). There's a line said by Ocellus that she's never walked on clouds before, so that's a little piece of worldbuilding there; changelings don't have the inherent ability to Cloud Walk. I believe the only character we've seen walk on clouds besides pegasi is Gilda, so I presume griffons can cloud walk. Anyway, the spell fails and we nearly have street pizza Yuna.

Twilight: "Maybe you cast the spell wrong."

Ouch. Right in the pride there, Twi. This is Starlight we're talking about, the oh-so-perfect all-powerful unicorn that doesn't a jail for being evil. :smalltongue: Pfft, Starlight throwing the line right back at Twi made me laugh. Nicely played Glim. Anyway, so magic in Equestria is fading out and Celestia has the itinerary for today's apocalypse:

Day 1: Unicorns lose their magic.
Day 2: Creatures lose their inherent magic.
Day 3: Artifacts stop working.

Luna mentions that it's getting hard to even raise the moon at night, so I wonder if these days are absolute or relative? Wouldn't in be hilarious if magic couldn't fully drain so long as Celestia doesn't set the sun? Because the days aren't passing? Someone get on that fanfic idea. I'd love to see that as the means to defeat a prophesy.

En-e-way, so the Mane6 leave Starlight in charge while they go to Tartarus and interrogate Tirek. Cosy Glow butters up to Starlight and well, was nice knowing you Starlight (dibs on her kite collection). The Student6 seem to know something's up so they go spy on Cozy. Surprise, she's causing the magic drain. Well, we probably could have guessed considering... but Naysayer shows up to take control of the school while Twi is away and locks up the non-ponies in a dorm room. Sheesh, like everyone thinks controlling the school is power? Equestria power structures are weird. :smalltongue: Remember in A Canterlot Wedding when Twi gets banished to the under-mines at the end of part one, wreathed in flames? I... kinda expected Cozy to do that to Naysayer. But it doesn't happen. Gotta admit, that would be 20% cooler of a "To Be Continued" breaking point, right?

Backing up a little, the Mane6 are near the gate to Tartarus when Pinkie finds out their food spoiled. So here's another neat little worldbuilding bit--those saddlebags come with magic refrigeration. Neat! Baked goods can spoil pretty quickly where I live, so sign me up for two bags when the magic returns. Anyway, here's where show canon takes a bit of a stumble. Applejack makes a great line to the unicorns with "You just have to think like an Earth Pony." And uses some cream to keep the flies away. So when magic is gone, Earth Ponies still got their science and will be just fine.

Except.

Back when Tirek was eating all the magic in his episode, Pegasi flight and Earth Pony strength were said to be magic aspects by Celestia. But throughout this two-parter, none of the pegasi seemed to struggle with flying. Nor Earth Ponies with being strong presumably, but we don't see an example of it. So what gives? Shouldn't flight be lost after Day 2? So yeah, a bit inconsistent there on canon, and probably because different writers are working this episode pair. So, just wanted to point that out.

The Mane6 get past the gates using a fabled magic key artifact which... can only be used once? So, how do you know it can open any door if it only has a one-use life span? I'm guessing that there are several such keys made and they all claim the name, but eh, it's a head-scratcher. Notice the BugBear is caged in here with a bunch of other creatures we've seen harass Equestria? Yeah, Episode 100 is canon. Ha! The So, the Mane6 talk to Tirek and learn Cozy is behind the magic drain. And without magic the Mane6 is trapped in Tartarus forever. As well as Tirek. Forever. With Pinkie Pie.

...Tirek, you're an idiot. :smalltongue:

Twi figures out how to squeeze the last drops of magic from all the monsters here, their "essence" (which splits the chimera creatures into ordinary animals? Um... okay, whatever) and uses it to open the door. Nice plan actually. Meanwhile, Sandbar rounds up the CMC to help free the rest of his friends from being locked in a room (yay Earth Pony crowbar powers!) and while the CMC distract Cozy, the Student6 free Naysayer (pfft, Yuna smashes chair with Nay still in it. That was was funny). Nay goes to get help while the Student6 try to stop the magic drain. Cozy confronts them and tries to seal them in the big ball of magic thingie (and I'm wondering how Starlight goes to the bathroom in there. I mean, it's been like, two days, right?), but their sacrifice gets the other students to turn on Cozy and then the Tree of Harmony does it's Deux Ex Machina thing (that's two points for the tree now saving Equestria).

I wondered if being in that ball of magic thingie when it reverse would hurt Starlight, but nah, she's fine. A little radiation never killed anypony. So magic returns to all creatures and unicorns, Earth Ponies will have to wait to take over the world another day, Tirek gets slapped in the face with his own magic (ha!) and Cozy gets... locked away in Tartarus. Wow. So, Luna is gonna leave a filly in Equestria's highest security prison? Damn, Luna doesn't play around. Twilight must have pulled favors to keep Starlight out of there. What will cozy's parents say?

Naysayer stops being a jerk about non-ponies. That's something I guess. However, I feel like there's something missing... something that bugs me...

Yeah, you know.

Chrysalis.

What they heck happened to her? I guess she didn't get the elements after all? I feel like this should have been her finale, cause Starlight alone at the school would have made for a fine revenge opportunity, and Cozy... I thought she'd be some evil Baby Dahl expy or Chryssi in disguise... but nope. The twist is that Cozy is penpals with Tirek, and Big T doesn't even get out of his cage the entire time. He's thwarted by an annoying pink pony. Eh, an opportunity lost I suppose. We have at one last season to go, so maybe Chryssi will get the big finale of the series. Overall this two-parter was alright. Had some stakes, some good laughs. My one disappointment is watching Tirek chew on the idiot ball when we could of had the Queen of the Changelings doing something cool. I give it a B.

I agree that giving time as days which are controlled by ponies offers a great loophole.

As an alternate fanfic, what if Luna points out that Celestia could have released her 1,000 years ago? Celestia did not have to wait 1,000 natural rotations of the planet around the sun. She could have made them pass in 24 hours. This could also be a great comic as the two sisters bicker over this argument.

I also agree that Chrysallis should have got something, but I am okay waiting for the next season. However, I expect the season to be all about Chrysallis, 2 part opener 1-2 episodes in the middle raising the stakes and then 2 part end.



Better get to catchon' up sharpish, since everypony else is coming up on the finale...

This was a GREAT episode.

I mean, fantastic.

AJ and Fluttershy were on top form - the writers remembered Fluttershy has had character development in the last eight seasons, which they don't always.

The Kirin.

Oh my the Kirin. THIS is what we should have more of in the movie. They were great. Their designs were amazing.

A near-pony ananlogue species with their own magic (which was really cool, I loved the way their horn band lit up when they used their fields, and that they had fields like unicorns). And then they have the magic anger transformation, which is also REALLY COOL.

And they even had their species avatar-ruler Celestia analogue (Rain Shadow, was it or something.)

Auumn Blaze was clearly Kirin!Pinkie Pie and she was hilarious. I very rarely take to characters quickly but she had me from that first monologue in a way that quite a lot of the main characters didn't, even.

It was even a nice, different take on the message.

Brilliant.

Like "contender for best episode this season" brilliant.

More of this please - heck, I'll settle for more Autumn Blaze.


(Oh, and the language is offically Ponish. And apparently Applejack subscribes to the English school of thought about Talking To Foreigners. Which is also hilarious.)



Back through thread...



What, no discussion on this one? What? Just a little mention by digo? Really?

Seriously, you ponies?



Oh, Meto, is you haven't you need to watch this one, I need to see you Art the new species therein...



Speaking of Art, did anypony have any addition thought on the revision to the elenthnar infantry last page?

For you Elenthar infantry, the helmet looks a little like Mickey Mouse ears to me. Maybe you could break up the ears so that they are not completely round. For example, instead of using a half circle for the ears, put a chamfer on the inside towards the head while leaving the outside of the ears rounded. Maybe also add some raised pyramids or cubes around the ears which could be sensors.

[keybounce]

So what is going on with the episodes?

Last episodes I've seen have been road to friendship (seriously, selling your friend's wagon?) and Washouts (after the NPC had an injured wing, you're still going to consider that thing safe?). Yet you're already posting about the season ending pair?

Also, why was Saddle Arabia close enough to reach in a small wagon road trip? That should have been "far side of the planet away", needing a long ocean trip or something.

And never mind the question of how daylight/night time happens that far from canterlot :-)

[zimmerwald1915]

So what is going on with the episodes?

Last episodes I've seen have been road to friendship (seriously, selling your friend's wagon?) and Washouts (after the NPC had an injured wing, you're still going to consider that thing safe?). Yet you're already posting about the season ending pair?
Some channel in Australia (couldn't tell you which one, but I'm sure Thanqol could) has been airing episodes several weeks in advance of Discovery Family in the US throughout the season.


Also, why was Saddle Arabia close enough to reach in a small wagon road trip?
It isn't? Note that Starlight and Trixie never actually get there. They do get to Somnambula in "southern Equestria," but that's hardly the same thing.

[Adderbane]

It isn't? Note that Starlight and Trixie never actually get there. They do get to Somnambula in "southern Equestria," but that's hardly the same thing.

Well-planned is not how I would characterize their trip, so I wouldn't make geographic conclusions based on their travel arrangements...

[zimmerwald1915]

Well-planned is not how I would characterize their trip, so I wouldn't make geographic conclusions based on their travel arrangements...
Trixie has a line about how it's farther than she's ever traveled, and asks Starlight along specifically because she doesn't think she'll be able to make the trip alone. That the intended takeaway was "Saddle Arabia is far away" could not be much clearer.

And really, a horse-drawn wagon trip on bad roads, when there's a train available (it's Equestria, there is always a train available, even if the track has to figuratively be laid right in front of the characters as they go, as in The Cutie Map and Surf and/or Turf)? The only reason to do that is the romanticism of it - which Starlight in particular is shown getting swept up in before reality comes crashing down.

[Pi Pie]

Trixie has a line about how it's farther than she's ever traveled, and asks Starlight along specifically because she doesn't think she'll be able to make the trip alone. That the intended takeaway was "Saddle Arabia is far away" could not be much clearer.

And really, a horse-drawn wagon trip on bad roads, when there's a train available (it's Equestria, there is always a train available, even if the track has to figuratively be laid right in front of the characters as they go, as in The Cutie Map and Surf and/or Turf)? The only reason to do that is the romanticism of it - which Starlight in particular is shown getting swept up in before reality comes crashing down.

Besides romanticism (and plot) there could be other reasons to take the wagon rather than a train, airship, water ship, teleportation, etc.

Trixie does not seem to have a lot of money. It is possible that transportation especially that far out could be very expensive. Yes, the Mane 6 regularly take the trains but locations like Canterlot are fairly close by and we do not know the relative distances to Appleoosa or Manehattan compared to Saddle Arabia.
Trixie has a lot of props and other stuff. This may be too large to convery in the other transportation or it may be too expensive, see above.


Also, I don't think that the speed of building rail road tracks is unreasonable in Equestria. Seasons 1-3 were in 1 year. How many times was Ponyville rebuilt in that time? I can think of the parasprite invasion, but I know that there were more.

Ponies seem incredibly efficient at building and may just be better than us. Also think of Winter wrap up. In one day, they removed all the snow over a town. In human settlements, we have trouble pushing the snow to the side of a road to clear it for passage, and they removed it all, completely, by hoof. Imagine what they could do with magic.

[DigoDragon]

As an alternate fanfic, what if Luna points out that Celestia could have released her 1,000 years ago? Celestia did not have to wait 1,000 natural rotations of the planet around the sun. She could have made them pass in 24 hours. This could also be a great comic as the two sisters bicker over this argument.

I also agree that Chrysallis should have got something, but I am okay waiting for the next season. However, I expect the season to be all about Chrysallis, 2 part opener 1-2 episodes in the middle raising the stakes and then 2 part end.

The idea of spinning the sun and moon around Equestria 1000 times within 24 hours sounds rather daunting and very dangerous... granted that only makes even better material for a fanfic. >.>

I agree. I would like season 9 to really focus on Chrysalis as the final baddie to redeem/destroy.



The only reason to do that is the romanticism of it - which Starlight in particular is shown getting swept up in before reality comes crashing down.

Heh, the idea that the entire road trip was Trixie's way to just spend quality time with Starlight. And I could see her not planning it out very well to have it lead to where they ended up.



Ponies seem incredibly efficient at building and may just be better than us. Also think of Winter wrap up. In one day, they removed all the snow over a town. In human settlements, we have trouble pushing the snow to the side of a road to clear it for passage, and they removed it all, completely, by hoof. Imagine what they could do with magic.

I imagine that in Canterlot, Celestia just yawns and it's done in 10 minutes.

[keybounce]

That's just it. They don't do it in one day. They complain, but really, when was the last time it was done in one day without magic?

And no, I don't believe that some task lists by an organizer would be sufficient to make it down to one day. Heck, if you had chopped the pond into ice blocks that were too large to melt in one day, it's no longer a solid surface, and you're going to have a hard time chopping it into smaller blocks -- not to mention that Twilight dropped a mountain side of snow down, giving everyone more than normal snow to clean on day 2.

Seriously, the whole idea of "I can do anything if I study hard enough"? That's a Hermione belief :-)

[keybounce]

Trixie has a lot of props and other stuff. This may be too large to convery in the other transportation or it may be too expensive, see above.

Absolutely. It's prop collection and traveling home; it's the pony version of the motor home / rust bucket.


Seasons 1-3 were in 1 year. How many times was Ponyville rebuilt in that time? I can think of the parasprite invasion, but I know that there were more.

It's no different than Japan :-)

[Thanqol]

The season is done!

Hey, remember that time Fluttershy murdered Celestia's bird and was terrified that Celestia was going to banish her, and then lock her in a cage in the place she was banished to? And remember how we all laughed because that was so ludicrously dark it couldn't possibly be reality?

Well, Princess Celestia just did that to a twelve year old.

To be fair, cozy glow didn't like bananas.



My overall assessment of the season is: It was good! Really good, even. The new writers have their style and there were a bunch of rock solid episodes and Trixie and Glimmer's roadtrip is on the Best Ever list. Pony remains a constant in my life and I am entirely happy to continue to watch it every Sunday.

I do still hold the position I've held since, what, season 3 that they should Transformers The Movie the main cast and go all in on one of the two separate replacement groups they've come up with. It seems so weird that they keep designing totally alternate main casts and then not actually taking that to it's logical conclusion - but otoh I guess they're a toy company and they need to move them playsets.

But on the whole I'm actually drifting back into the cartoon horse cosmos orbit after detaching from the fandom side for a while. I actually put pen to paper for a contribution to a collaborative fanfic - I'll post it when it's done but it's the first bit of writing I've done in a long while. I also just read Fractured Sunlight and I absolutely loved it. Sad and beautiful and it's going to send me right back down the fanfiction hole to clear off a bunch of classics I put on Read Later years ago and didn't get around to.

[b_jonas]

Besides romanticism (and plot) there could be other reasons to take the wagon rather than a train, airship, water ship, teleportation, etc. Correct. For example, my parents will be driving a car on a long trip the next month, and they've decided to takie a slower and more expensive route where they sleep one day in a hotel and then take a long scenic whole night ferry ride and pay for a sleeping cabin on the ferry. They do this not mainly because they have to drive less, but mostly because the trip is more enjoyable this way. They find spending the time on the sea voyage enjoyable (and possibly romantic). The journey itself is thus turned to a pleasant vacation for them, not only the time they'll spend in the destination afterwardws. (These answers about why students in the Harry Potter book take a train ride to the school rather than faster forms of transport (https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/188587/4918) is also slightly relevant.)

[Pi Pie]

But on the whole I'm actually drifting back into the cartoon horse cosmos orbit after detaching from the fandom side for a while. I actually put pen to paper for a contribution to a collaborative fanfic - I'll post it when it's done but it's the first bit of writing I've done in a long while. I also just read Fractured Sunlight and I absolutely loved it. Sad and beautiful and it's going to send me right back down the fanfiction hole to clear off a bunch of classics I put on Read Later years ago and didn't get around to.

I'm glad to hear the you enjoyed the season and even happier to hear that you are writing even more fiction.

Other than Fractured Sunlight, do you have any more recommendations? It is that time again when I need to fill up my e-reader with pony.

I am just about finished with The Silver Standard (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/253991/the-silver-standard). It is a story exploring Silver Spoon in depth including her friendship with Diamond Tiara and the other foals. It is well written, properly thought out and follows show canon very well while adding additional details.

[Thanqol]

I'm glad to hear the you enjoyed the season and even happier to hear that you are writing even more fiction.

Other than Fractured Sunlight, do you have any more recommendations? It is that time again when I need to fill up my e-reader with pony.

I am just about finished with The Silver Standard (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/253991/the-silver-standard). It is a story exploring Silver Spoon in depth including her friendship with Diamond Tiara and the other foals. It is well written, properly thought out and follows show canon very well while adding additional details.

Oh, I've got a tonne - my favourites list on Fimfiction is all class-A hits but I don't know how widely you've read. The Moonstone Cup, Equestria From Dust and The Best Night Ever are what come to mind off the top of my head as some of the best-ever picks but I'll check again for you when I'm home.

[Aotrs Commander]

For you Elenthar infantry, the helmet looks a little like Mickey Mouse ears to me. Maybe you could break up the ears so that they are not completely round. For example, instead of using a half circle for the ears, put a chamfer on the inside towards the head while leaving the outside of the ears rounded. Maybe also add some raised pyramids or cubes around the ears which could be sensors.

I did see this, I've just been working on other stuff this last few days... And playing through Generals.

There is something very relaxing, even, with Generals and oh so very satisfying. (Not bad for a game that's fifteen years old... Heck, my oldest campaign saves dated from 2003, which I'm overwriting as I go - they're backed-up anyway, so...!)

I think, in my old age, I can point to the sound design perhaps as a reason. There's just something so right about the overly-dramatic explosions, the fwoosh of the missiles and the rattle of the guns. I would not have said that Generals is my favourite C&C game in terms of fluff or lore or presentation... But there has to be something to be said, as its the only one Ive ever played skirmish maps on considerably.

I think in a lot of way, though, it's a game that matches my playstyle - tank up with defences, get the buildings which give you infinite cash and build ridiculous numbers of superweapons - sod even airstrikes, let alone ground units, I can have orbital bombardment! Nothing quite like eight partical cannons or something one the go, one after another...

(I also REALLY need to get around doing a GLA ground force to go along with the starfleet...)

Before I started on Zero Hour, I went to start the Halfling camapign in Age of Wonders 3. And found that a) Warlord (worse, if anything, than rogue and dreadnought), plus the halfling's ranged units have a lot of "stun everything around the target", which is way less useful because it means I can't use them when engaged by the enemy. And the save/load screen was having a fit, so I thought, "nope, back to Generals!"

[Adderbane]

I'm glad to hear the you enjoyed the season and even happier to hear that you are writing even more fiction.

Other than Fractured Sunlight, do you have any more recommendations? It is that time again when I need to fill up my e-reader with pony.

I am just about finished with The Silver Standard (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/253991/the-silver-standard). It is a story exploring Silver Spoon in depth including her friendship with Diamond Tiara and the other foals. It is well written, properly thought out and follows show canon very well while adding additional details.

What sort of stories do you like? Is there anything you want to avoid? On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the amount of MLP fanfics you've read where 1 is "what's a fanfic" and 10 is "I'm having a hard time finding things I haven't read"

[Thanqol]

What sort of stories do you like? Is there anything you want to avoid? On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the amount of MLP fanfics you've read where 1 is "what's a fanfic" and 10 is "I'm having a hard time finding things I haven't read"

Really good questions actually, adeptly phrased.

[Pi Pie]

What sort of stories do you like? Is there anything you want to avoid? On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the amount of MLP fanfics you've read where 1 is "what's a fanfic" and 10 is "I'm having a hard time finding things I haven't read"

I like a wide variety of fanfics but will tend to avoid bad OC or human in Equestria fics or ones that are poorly edited.

For the rank, I am probably a 7. I don't watch Equestria Daily for the newest releases since I mainly rely on ponythread.

Let me cover the authors and stories that I am currently following.


Chengar Qordath is my favorite author with Lunar Rebellion, My Little Denarians, and the Winningverse.
Starlight over Detrot is a brutal story with some scenes more gruesome than Falloout Equestria. Over the past year or two, it has also just gotten weird. If I was not so tied into the story, I would probably stop following it.
SFaccountant writes some fairly good Warhammer 40K / My Little Pony crossover fics. This helped me to make some toon games on the same subject.
Estee is a very prolific author, but the quality can vary a lot. Five Hundred Little Murders was a fantastic story. On the other hand, Fluttershy as a Sherman tank was not.

[Thanqol]

I like a wide variety of fanfics but will tend to avoid bad OC or human in Equestria fics or ones that are poorly edited.

For the rank, I am probably a 7. I don't watch Equestria Daily for the newest releases since I mainly rely on ponythread.

Let me cover the authors and stories that I am currently following.


Chengar Qordath is my favorite author with Lunar Rebellion, My Little Denarians, and the Winningverse.
Starlight over Detrot is a brutal story with some scenes more gruesome than Falloout Equestria. Over the past year or two, it has also just gotten weird. If I was not so tied into the story, I would probably stop following it.
SFaccountant writes some fairly good Warhammer 40K / My Little Pony crossover fics. This helped me to make some toon games on the same subject.
Estee is a very prolific author, but the quality can vary a lot. Five Hundred Little Murders was a fantastic story. On the other hand, Fluttershy as a Sherman tank was not.


I have developed really mixed feelings about Chengar. Lunar Rebellion is intimidatingly good as a piece of work, and I think that's a lot because the setting and premise inherently fights against Chengar's worst instincts and enables his best ones - if for no other reason than as a historical drama it has to have things happen and, eventually, end. But some of his other stories are just straight up self-gratuitous stagnation. He has this bit he does whenever a young kid on a scene, and that bit always goes on for like half a chapter before he can bring himself to move on from it, and New Life in particular is a long form excuse to never move on from that bit.

He's kind of like Joss Whedon in that regard - Joss Whedon is great, so long as you've got someone standing behind him with a baseball bat ready to hit him when he starts acting too much like Joss Whedon.

[Adderbane]

I like a wide variety of fanfics but will tend to avoid bad OC or human in Equestria fics or ones that are poorly edited.

For the rank, I am probably a 7. I don't watch Equestria Daily for the newest releases since I mainly rely on ponythread.

Let me cover the authors and stories that I am currently following.


Chengar Qordath is my favorite author with Lunar Rebellion, My Little Denarians, and the Winningverse.
Starlight over Detrot is a brutal story with some scenes more gruesome than Falloout Equestria. Over the past year or two, it has also just gotten weird. If I was not so tied into the story, I would probably stop following it.
SFaccountant writes some fairly good Warhammer 40K / My Little Pony crossover fics. This helped me to make some toon games on the same subject.
Estee is a very prolific author, but the quality can vary a lot. Five Hundred Little Murders was a fantastic story. On the other hand, Fluttershy as a Sherman tank was not.


Hmmm...Applejack: Marvelous (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/394469/applejack-marvelous) is off to a good start if you like crossovers.

A Taste of the Good Life (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/134645/a-taste-of-the-good-life) is a nice little Scoolatoo story that might be obscure enough for you not to have read it.

[Aotrs Commander]

For you Elenthar infantry, the helmet looks a little like Mickey Mouse ears to me. Maybe you could break up the ears so that they are not completely round. For example, instead of using a half circle for the ears, put a chamfer on the inside towards the head while leaving the outside of the ears rounded. Maybe also add some raised pyramids or cubes around the ears which could be sensors.

Right, now I'm in a position to have a proper look again:

Having printed one, I forgoot that my printer has a bit of a tendancy to blob at the tip of something, so I'm considering maybe having a horiztonal isc at the top to bury the ear-flanges into that would present a flatter top for the printer. Dunno if that'll look terrible or not, though.



On that note, ponythreaders, I need to work out now how elenthnar sit down down - i.e. what their posture would be; kind of import for vehicles, especially for, say Phystyulon rocket cycles. I have started a thread here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?569083-Alien-Ergonomics&p=23367360#post23367360); if any of you have any suggestions, I would appreciate it.



Edit: Disc looked... Pants, so shelve that one for the moment. Attempt two:

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-tqXmhFh/0/b95564d2/L/ElenthnarPhystyulonTrooper%20v0.25-L.png

Dad rasied an interesting point - he thought the left one was better BECAUSE it looked like ears. Not sure what think about that.

[Pi Pie]

Right, now I'm in a position to have a proper look again:

Having printed one, I forgoot that my printer has a bit of a tendancy to blob at the tip of something, so I'm considering maybe having a horiztonal isc at the top to bury the ear-flanges into that would present a flatter top for the printer. Dunno if that'll look terrible or not, though.



On that note, ponythreaders, I need to work out now how elenthnar sit down down - i.e. what their posture would be; kind of import for vehicles, especially for, say Phystyulon rocket cycles. I have started a thread here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?569083-Alien-Ergonomics&p=23367360#post23367360); if any of you have any suggestions, I would appreciate it.



Edit: Disc looked... Pants, so shelve that one for the moment. Attempt two:

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-tqXmhFh/0/b95564d2/L/ElenthnarPhystyulonTrooper%20v0.25-L.png

Dad rasied an interesting point - he thought the left one was better BECAUSE it looked like ears. Not sure what think about that.

I think the one on the right looks better. It comes together and reminds me of a stormtrooper helmet. It should also be easier to print.


I have developed really mixed feelings about Chengar. Lunar Rebellion is intimidatingly good as a piece of work, and I think that's a lot because the setting and premise inherently fights against Chengar's worst instincts and enables his best ones - if for no other reason than as a historical drama it has to have things happen and, eventually, end. But some of his other stories are just straight up self-gratuitous stagnation. He has this bit he does whenever a young kid on a scene, and that bit always goes on for like half a chapter before he can bring himself to move on from it, and New Life in particular is a long form excuse to never move on from that bit.

He's kind of like Joss Whedon in that regard - Joss Whedon is great, so long as you've got someone standing behind him with a baseball bat ready to hit him when he starts acting too much like Joss Whedon.

I see your point. I think the hardest difficulty is that Chengar releases stories every month (which I love). When doing that, it is harder to keep the flow going. It would be best if the stories would be written completely and then edited to avoid those pitfalls, but that goes for almost every writer.


Hmmm...Applejack: Marvelous (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/394469/applejack-marvelous) is off to a good start if you like crossovers.

A Taste of the Good Life (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/134645/a-taste-of-the-good-life) is a nice little Scoolatoo story that might be obscure enough for you not to have read it.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will look at Applejack: Marvelous.

I read A Taste of the Good Life around 2 months ago and found it a wonderful story with lots of emotional engagement. It also helped to explain the Scootaloo as an orphan without kicking our favorite little chicken.

[Adderbane]

I think the one on the right looks better. It comes together and reminds me of a stormtrooper helmet. It should also be easier to print.



I see your point. I think the hardest difficulty is that Chengar releases stories every month (which I love). When doing that, it is harder to keep the flow going. It would be best if the stories would be written completely and then edited to avoid those pitfalls, but that goes for almost every writer.



Thanks for the suggestion, I will look at Applejack: Marvelous.

I read A Taste of the Good Life around 2 months ago and found it a wonderful story with lots of emotional engagement. It also helped to explain the Scootaloo as an orphan without kicking our favorite little chicken.


A New Sun Rises (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/225989/a-new-sun-rises) is a pretty good Sunset story, that gives a bit more development to Sunset immediately after EQG, though it diverges significantly as time goes on. If you've enjoyed Principal Celestia Hunts the Undead (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/309351/principal-celestia-hunts-the-undead) you'll probably like this one.

Also, I found this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sURc11qquX8)

[Douglas]

Guess I'll join the fanfic recommending spree with some of my favorites.

The Immortal Game (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/1886/the-immortal-game) is a 300k word epic that tells a very serious, very dark, and yet very hopeful story. Celestia's and Luna's parents are freed from long imprisonment, and turn out to be spectacularly bad news, and the Mane 6 ultimately have to lead ponykind to war against them in an intricately detailed story that explores the origins of the Elements of Harmony, Equestria, ponies themselves, and what they are all truly capable of. It really earns the Dark tag, especially in the early parts of the story, but there is always hope and the ending is a happy one.

Mass Effect 2 - DLC: The Equestrian Equation (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/20545/mass-effect-2-dlc-the-equestrian-equation). Mass Effect 2 crossover, obviously. Equestria features as a hidden virtual world holding the last remnants of a race the Reapers wiped out many thousands of cycles ago, which Shepard investigates shortly before the Suicide Mission. The story had a lot of choices in the style of Mass Effect 2 for the readers to vote on while it was still ongoing, and the audience pretty much went full Paragon.

Stardust (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/100455/stardust) is another game crossover, this one with XCOM. No familiarity with the game is required to understand anything. It starts with the canon attempt to reform Discord, but he responds to his release by making a bet with Twilight - convince him that friendship is the strongest power in the universe, and he'll cooperate. She immediately accepts, of course, and he teleports her to early-XCOM Earth in the middle of an alien attack. She then has to convince a somewhat paranoid military organization, which has never before had non-hostile alien contact, that she's friendly and they should help her. Oh, and do this while they're busily fighting off an alien invasion all over the planet.

Harmony Theory (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/48739/harmony-theory). This one's still incomplete, but it's a really good combination of mystery and adventure set in the far future of Equestria, with the Mane 6 appearing one by one for an initially unknown reason.

[Aotrs Commander]

Catching up... (Because by the time the US finale rolls around, if I'm not careful, I'd either have to avoid fimfic or get spoiled anyway as the stuff starts to trickle in...)

From the title and the screenshot on Eqd, I was not sure I was going to like where this was going. But, I got accidently spoiled by a comment near the top as I looked for a link, and for rare occasion, I was pleased and it made the episode more enjoyable. (Mind you, I think I would have picked it up pretty fast the moment Sliudge started bovine-excrementing...)

I thought "why arne't they getting RD to teach Spike to fly?" And they not only answered that, they even went as far as bringing up flight differences between dragons and ponies. I think this was my favourite part of the episode. (And it was was the teaser... Ouch!)

"I wonder being raised as a pony had any other effects?"

Yeah, Spike isn't an asshat.

I mean, so far, we have Ember and Smoulder (who is slowly growing on me) and every other dragon we have met ranges from asshat to actively Evil.

Frankly, Spike, I think you're better off as you are than you ever would have been raised as a "proper" dragon; the best you could hope for was being like Smoulder...

So. This was a Spike episode, actually looking at his parentage. It was not a bad episode, but it was also kind of predictable where it was going to go (with the only concern being what if this deadbeat WAS Spike's actual father). Ye gods, I hope that's not what Spike looks like rown-up. (Mind you, every single times we've seen that, it's ben different, so...!))

I give Pinkie points for excellent manipulation via greed in getting Sludge to DO Stuff.

Smoulder, deserves a lot of credit for being an entirely reasonable individual and calling out Sludge's bovine excrement. Sure, she might be abrasive, but it's clear why SHE is attending the "school;" she's actually got people skills and is actively helpful to Spike, even without prompting. (You might have some options, Spikey, if it doesn't work out with Rarity...)

I winced hard when Spike said "now I have a real parent." Harsh, dude, so harsh.

I suspect they flat-out aren't allowed to say Twilight is his mother (because princesses can't be mums because reasons of marketing, I surmise), but this and the exchange at the end may be as damned close as they can ever get. I salute them for at least trying. (I hope, somewhere, I the unlikely hope the Descendant, wherever he is, sees that bit. But he seems to have just vanished, sadly. I dunno whether he just lost interest or if he's even alive, sadly...)

(Unrelated t this episode proper, but seems pretty evident at this point, Spike is clearly adult enough in all the ways that matter - he's younger than Smoulder, but is still able to be put in charge of a class.)

I swear, Spike's eagerness to wait on creatures claw/hoof and foot really matches up well with Rarity's high maintenance... Heck, it might even be too easy.

Also, one notes, he didn't mess everything up, like he did in Spike and Your Service...



Back through thread:


Aww, Spike and Smolder are fun together. I really did that Smolder can help Spike learn more about his dragon-self and in return Spike helps Smolder understand pony stuff. Great friendship right there.

As for Sludge... ugh... Like, I can understand him being a jerk and using Spike, because typical butt-head dragon, but the fact he's not even Spike's actual dad?! OMG, someone call Starlight to laser-blast him. That was just beyond jerk move. I'm glad Smolder helped set things right. And you go do you with that pillow embroidery, Spike. A pile of pillows is way better than sleeping on cold, hard metal. ;)

Yeah, and considering Sludge literally threw her our with the bathwater...

I'mma hope Starlight goes... (what's the Equestrian equivilent of ape-[excrement]... Horse probably horse, looking at the order grouping) horse-[excrement] on his arse.

(Actually, maybe Justice3442 can do a Sunset is MAD entry on it...)




Okay episode overall. Just wish we got an actual answer on Spike's parents.

I think we kind did, as much as the show can give us, and the answer is "Twilight."

I think we are in, to paraphase Guardians of the Galaxy 2, "she may be your mother, but she ain't your Mum" territory here.

[DigoDragon]

"I wonder being raised as a pony had any other effects?"

More exposure to being shipped in the fandom?



I think we kind did, as much as the show can give us, and the answer is "Twilight."

I think we are in, to paraphase Guardians of the Galaxy 2, "she may be your mother, but she ain't your Mum" territory here.

Okay, I'll rephrase my statement:
I wish we had a definitive answer on who Spike's biological parents are. :smalltongue:


Well, 'father' for Sludge's case, but I recognize Twi is female so the quote doesn't exactly fit. Similar, but not congruent, to borrow a statement from m daughter's homework assignment this past week. Anyway, I know what you meant, I'm rambling at this point due to the local heat melting my brain.

[Rater202]

I'm going to comment that pretending to be an orphan's father to fleece them out of the creature comforts given to them by their adopted family seems especially cruel.

Opinion? Should I feel guilty about editing the Tvtropes pages for my own fics? There's only one other regular editor and they only put in one or two entries per update and I want people fidnin g my stories fro m TVtropes to have an accurate idea of what they're getting into.

[zimmerwald1915]

I'm going to comment that pretending to be an orphan's father to fleece them out of the creature comforts given to them by their adopted family seems especially cruel.
Meh, they'll be back to not-family next episode.

[Adderbane]

I'm going to comment that pretending to be an orphan's father to fleece them out of the creature comforts given to them by their adopted family seems especially cruel.

Opinion? Should I feel guilty about editing the Tvtropes pages for my own fics? There's only one other regular editor and they only put in one or two entries per update and I want people fidnin g my stories fro m TVtropes to have an accurate idea of what they're getting into.

As long as you didn't create the page, I wouldn't feel guilty at all.

[keybounce]

For someone that has read almost no pony fan fic, what would you say are the best ones to read?

[Thanqol]

For someone that has read almost no pony fan fic, what would you say are the best ones to read?

MINE

I'll echo my earlier recommendations for The Moonstone Cup (magic tournament arc) and Equestria From Dust (Celestia mythos), but also for a first-ever I'd call out Best Night Ever which is Prince Blueblood Does Groundhog Day.

[Forum Explorer]

For someone that has read almost no pony fan fic, what would you say are the best ones to read?

I'd start off with something simple and heartwarming.

I suggest Melt (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/90647/melt) a short sweet story about Twilight getting sick.

But if slice of life and that sort of thing aren't your style, then my question for you is what do you like in your stories?

Oh, and I think Sun Princess (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/118727/1/sun-princess/sun-princess) is basically required reading.

[Aotrs Commander]

MINE

This is accurate.

Especially Do Not Serve These Ponies.



Well, can't use the front room still, so let's do this:

Okay, this episode... Did not go where I expected it to go.

At all.


So, magic draining from Eqeustria. That is bad. I mean, like, REALLY bad. Active magic first, then apssive magic (so no more flight for pegasuses and catastrophic deaths when all the cloud cities populations fall to their deaths (we know this, we saw Tirek drain their magic before and simple physics says pegasus ponies can't fly with those wings). And of course, sun and moon become inaccessible. (Hell, it's a wonder Celestia and Luna can even still move them.)

Big stakes, then.

One imagines Discord may be having a very bad day, if his magic turned off like unicorn active magic...

Ahah. And clearly cosey simpled Starlight a mickey finn.

Smoulder, you are definitely growing on me, you have your head screwed on right.

Wow, they really have tiny cages in Tartarus, don't they?

Yeah, I'mma not have sympathy for things - some clearly eldrithc horrors, being locked up in tiny cages in the hell dimension. They earned this, whatever is was, else they'd have already been set free.

Speaking of Tirek, long time no see!

Chancellor Neighsay shos up to be extra bigoted and... He's not behind iit, nor working with Cosey Glow?

Okay. Well, got that one wrong.

Chryssy, then.

Sandbar, congraulations, you just made the cut. The face-heel to get out was obvious, but going to get the CMC? Stroke of genius. Well done, that pony, well done.

And it IS Tirek behind the magic draining, via Cosey Glow.

And there's Starlight, imprisoned in the draining field.

...

COSEY GLOW is the villain herself? She's NOT Chrysalis in disguise?

Really?

Ohhhhh...Kaaaaay.

Show, I tip my hat to you.

I mean, I called her being obviously Evil, but I did NOT see her as being the BBEG in and of herself.

"Empress of Friendship."

Well, I give her a 9/10 for Using The Good Stuff Against Them and 10/10 for the Evil Laughter.

I'm warming to her, actually, now she's showing her true colours. Kinda impressed, actually.

[Adderbane]

For someone that has read almost no pony fan fic, what would you say are the best ones to read?

There are so many good ones I'm too lazy to link individually.

I've got a list: Longer stories (https://www.fimfiction.net/bookshelf/910017/favorites) and shorter ones (https://www.fimfiction.net/bookshelf/925740/short-and-sweet) also, these are pretty good (https://www.fimfiction.net/bookshelf/1014445/triptych-other-estee) (they get a separate shelf since there's so many of them.

A few highlights:

*The One Who Got Away: Canterlot noble gets his own barony; but it's not all it's cracked up to be. Nice peaceful story I go back and reread whenever I'm feeling stressed.

*Trixie and her Amazing Pet Changeling: Exactly what it says on the tin.

*The Changeling of the Guard: Set some time before the series, an exiled changeling accidentally enlists in the Royal Guards. Hilarity ensues. The story starts off a bit slow, but quickly becomes awesome once Topaz is introduced. There is a reason this is one of the highest rated stories on the site.

*The Blueblood Chronicles: I think this is the best Blueblood stories on the site. It involves a romance between Blueblood and one of the least likely characters imaginable.

*Contraptionology!: An older story in the fandom, one of the few that really handles Applejack well as the main character I think.

*Yule in a Donut Shop: Based on a Trans-Siberian Orchestra song. It is fantastic.

*The Writing on the Wall: The only horror story I've liked. Kudos if you figure out what the ponies have found before the reveal.

*Three Letters: What would Twilight think of our world?

*Shipping Sickness: One of the few times this kind of joke works.

*The Dresden Fillies: If you have read the Dresden Files this is a must read; this series is what convinced me to give MLP a chance.

[Aotrs Commander]

Yay! This is more like it. I think this is the best finale since season four.

Ensemble cast - EVERYPONY gets in on it, nd I'm a sucker for that.

Coesy is a great villain, utterly unrepentant. And, with no special powers other than a version of Diamond Tiara's talent - not an outside threat, just a straight pony-gone-mad and this time, without a cheap repentance at the end. (THANK YOU for that, show!)

Hell, they even chucked her into Tartarus at the end! Fitting punishment for what would have been unthinkable carnage and basically the end of pony civilisation as we know it. DAMN RIGHT she was confined to Tartarus! (And this definitely shows that she's young, but not a child - she's just friggin' short.) She was giving me Princess Morebucks vibes by the end.

Hey, Tree of Harmony, well done for getting off your arse and helping! I mean, maybe be you have done that sooner (mind you, I suppose active magic)...

The biggest plothole, I think, is that Coesy was able to set off a complex global magic feat that comparitively easily. (I guess the Tree of Harmony was focal to it, and it is entirely possible Cosey set it up USING the magic of friendship ITSELF to power it), but I am prepared to give that a by (and with the aforementioned, it's not as far fetched as I thought when I started typing anyway.)

Again, I tip my hat to them for using Neighsay as decoy - turns out he's just a bigot (which makes him even sadder...)

Pinkie's handling of Tirek was "pause the video because laughing" good. I love that she's self aware enough to know how to annoy someone... Forever...!

The fact that all the confined monsters are chimeric (in a literal sense, in that they are clearly inherntly magical and sustained by it) - not just the chimera - was a rather interesting piece of worod building. (Not convinced of their innocence, mind (chimera predate on sentient beings, for one).

Excellent pair of episodes; ensemble cast (as I say), world building, some twists even on the obvious twist and a good villain and serious stakes.

More like that, please!


Back through thread:




We have at one last season to go, so maybe Chryssi will get the big finale of the series. Overall this two-parter was alright. Had some stakes, some good laughs. My one disappointment is watching Tirek chew on the idiot ball when we could of had the Queen of the Changelings doing something cool. I give it a B.

I know; was taken aback when Cosey Glow WASN'T Chryssy.

Of course, we are making the assumption... That wasn't their intention with that one episode. Red herring us, the older-guess-the-plot fanbase by sticking that in there - before Cosey shows up, of course - to get us to expect that (which we did) and the surprise us. (Added advantage, keeps her ticking over for future use.)

If they did, it was a stroke of genius because it worked.



Yeah, I was a bit surprised that flight was still around, but perhaps it uses sufficiently little that is (as does earth pony strength) was still ticking over. Notably, in their defence, no-one lost their cutie marks and desaturated, like when Tirek did it (I went and checked). So magic hadn't clearly drained away totallyj ust yet. (If the sun had set, then... Well, the other reason is, the show having literally just reminded the Target Audience that Cloudsdale was a thing this double-episode, avoiding the horror that would have come with that is probably for the best, because you can bet at that age I'D certainly have put two and two together...)






Well, Princess Celestia just did that to a twelve year old.

To be fair, cozy glow didn't like bananas.



No, I don't think so. It's become fairly obvious that Cosey is just mostly short, and not actually any younger than any of the others - friendship university, not school, despite what Twilight called it. (Flim and flam literally did call it that when they were in direct competition, remember?)

The students are clearly college-university age.

Actually assuming she's a cute little kid is part of what gives her her power, so...



I do still hold the position I've held since, what, season 3 that they should Transformers The Movie the main cast and go all in on one of the two separate replacement groups they've come up with. It seems so weird that they keep designing totally alternate main casts and then not actually taking that to it's logical conclusion - but otoh I guess they're a toy company and they need to move them playsets.

I totally disagree - one of the very fastest ways to get me to not care about something is to say "we're going to kill everyone off and replace them with new ones" at which point I say "then I don't care what you're doing anymore, then."

Transformers the movie did a TERRIBLE job with killing the characters off, with the only notable thing - and it was a brave and notable thing to do, though the comics had already done before and would do it ALL THE TIME - being that they did it at ALL.

(And Action force the Movie suffered for it, because they couldn't repeat it with that, since Hasbro had already traumatised children (or, more correctly, exposed them to grief and loss which you should NEVER shield people from, because it can happen to anyone, even a child - my sister died when I was seven, I know) so they weren't allowed to kill Duke, even though they clearly did...)

So, while on the one hand, I applaud them for having the stones to not sanitise warfare, they could have cut down on the "look these guys are dead" scenes and made the deaths matter more (like they did with Prime, the only death they handled properly) and not lost any impact.

[Tange-rant](It's like a tangent, but rantier.)

Especially since in the replacements, Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime was the worst character in the entire of Transformers and the least competant leader.

Hell, even the COMICS couldn't make him not suck - in one future, the Autobots won the war against the Decepticons only to IMMEDIATELY start a new one with each other and Rodimus' reaction (this being caused by him stepping down) was to fall on his knees and cover his face.

Grimlock was a better leader than Rodimus EVER was.

Even the thick-as-a-plank cartoon version.[Tange-rant]

So, coming back from the character death tangent, screw that noise. Make the cast bigger, sure, and split them off into more unique pairings (do and episode with Sweetie and Dash, or AJ and Scoots or Smoulder and Rarity or Spike and Cadance), but putting 'em on a bus slash getting rid of them?

[Expletive] that noise, as hard as possible.



Final word: for all the grief I give Naruto for stuff, the one thing it has ALWAYS gotten right is how to do character death. They die, it's meaningful, and most importantly, it's NEVER forgotten (and you see the character in flashbacks and all sorts (e.g. necromancy)). THAT is how you do character death, not "they dead (probably to show how badass some bad guy is because some new writer that doesn't give a flying frag about the character comes along), sad mourning scene and we shall never mention them ever again."

[DigoDragon]

I know; was taken aback when Cosey Glow WASN'T Chryssy.

Of course, we are making the assumption... That wasn't their intention with that one episode. Red herring us, the older-guess-the-plot fanbase by sticking that in there - before Cosey shows up, of course - to get us to expect that (which we did) and the surprise us. (Added advantage, keeps her ticking over for future use.)

I was even willing to go with Chrysalis and Cozy Glow being partners in this scheme. Tirek I suppose was okay instead, but it still bugs me that his plan for the Mane6 was to trap them in Tartarus. With himself. And he didn't think about how that wasn't what he wanted. :smalltongue:



I totally disagree - one of the very fastest ways to get me to not care about something is to say "we're going to kill everyone off and replace them with new ones" at which point I say "then I don't care what you're doing anymore, then."

Yeah, I do agree with this. A character's death should be an important and focused thing. Not the *bang bag bang* and then foreget the dead business TF the Movie had done. Instead, putting the older cast in Celestia's position of being mentors and just showing up less while new characters get the spotlight seems to better work out. I love all the Trixie/Starlight episodes. The Student6 episodes aren't bad (except for Non Compete Clause because Dash/AJ get way too annoying).

[Thanqol]

I totally disagree - one of the very fastest ways to get me to not care about something is to say "we're going to kill everyone off and replace them with new ones" at which point I say "then I don't care what you're doing anymore, then."

I am flippantly using that phrase as shorthand for 'remove those characters as protagonists', not necessarily standing atop a mountain of bodies. Practically in this context it would just be retiring everyone to background pony duty. I think that the original six are pretty tapped out as far as story ideas go and they have set up and developed two totally independent backup Mane 6's - Team Social Dysfunction (Glimmer, Trixie, Maud, etc) and Team Variety (The friendship students).

I want to see how those dynamics play out and there's not gonna be space for that until the original cast stops sucking up all the oxygen.

[Aotrs Commander]

I was even willing to go with Chrysalis and Cozy Glow being partners in this scheme. Tirek I suppose was okay instead, but it still bugs me that his plan for the Mane6 was to trap them in Tartarus. With himself. And he didn't think about how that wasn't what he wanted. :smalltongue:




Yeah, I do agree with this. A character's death should be an important and focused thing. Not the *bang bag bang* and then foreget the dead business TF the Movie had done. Instead, putting the older cast in Celestia's position of being mentors and just showing up less while new characters get the spotlight seems to better work out. I love all the Trixie/Starlight episodes. The Student6 episodes aren't bad (except for Non Compete Clause because Dash/AJ get way too annoying).

The problem with the student six is that most of the time (Smoulder being more or less the only exception), they appear as a sort of gestault character. It is why I am still not wholey warmed to them, because they just aren't getting individual focus - I think six was too much, too sooner, personally. (Naruto did it better, but it had time to individually focus on all the new additions in the chunin exams - I started literally as the forest of death arc started, so i had NO IDEA who anyone was...!)

They could have killed two birds with one stone - ditch some of this season's early just-adequate episodes, and have an introductory episode for at least a couple of the new characters and do so via some of the existing cast - different character playing off each other. (That's what makes an ensemble cast work, after all).

[Thanqol]

A long time ago I read the ponyfic It's A Dangerous Business Going Out Your Door and I didn't like it. I remember commenting words along the line of 'a 100,000 word buildup to nothing happening' - I recall the story being walking from power-up to power-up and a totally anticlimactic finale where none of those accumulated power-ups really got used.

I'm just now reading the sequel, Besides the Will of Evil. And hoo boy. My previous criticism has been well and truly invalidated - this is what all that was building up to. Everything that I didn't like about the first part has been deftly dealt with in the second and I have been totally sucked into the story. I believe it was AotRS who originally made the recommend those years ago so I need to give him a belated apology - this is really good so thank you for recommending it to me.

[Thanqol]

Behold, my humble return to ponyficcin'! Starlight Glimmer Fixes Everything (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/414811/starlight-fixes-everything), Season Five, episode 109: Cutie Mark Chronicles.

The quality of the stories in this anthology is mixed, but for my money, the best ones are the ones where Starlight Glimmer profoundly misidentifies the source of the problems in the episodes. A lot of episodes have a B-Plot of some kind that tie into and inspire the A-plot, and the best Glimglam repairs are her heading off the A-plot by dealing decisively with the B-plot.

[zimmerwald1915]

The problem with the student six is that most of the time (Smoulder being more or less the only exception), they appear as a sort of gestault character. It is why I am still not wholey warmed to them, because they just aren't getting individual focus - I think six was too much, too sooner, personally. (Naruto did it better, but it had time to individually focus on all the new additions in the chunin exams - I started literally as the forest of death arc started, so i had NO IDEA who anyone was...!)
You'd think they'd learn after introducing the Equal Four and doing nothing with them, or the Shadowbolts and doing nothing with them, or the Pillars and doing nothing with them. . .

[Rogar Demonblud]

I am flippantly using that phrase as shorthand for 'remove those characters as protagonists', not necessarily standing atop a mountain of bodies. Practically in this context it would just be retiring everyone to background pony duty.

Agreed. One of the episodes I like (as in can remember it individually) was Slice of Life, just because it focused on everypony else.

[meto30]

For someone that has read almost no pony fan fic, what would you say are the best ones to read?

In no particular order, my recommendations are:
(Any series of fics is listed by the first fic in the series)

Hard Reset (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/67362/hard-reset)
Project Sunflower (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/5170/project-sunflower)
Enchanted Library (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/240255/the-enchanted-library)
Certain Advantages (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/68260/certain-advantages)
Celestia Sleeps In (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/76290/celestia-sleeps-in)
Best Night Ever (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/18087/the-best-night-ever)
Exit Through Canterlot (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/58321/exit-through-canterlot)
Arrow 18 Mission Logs: Lone Ranger (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/13616/arrow-18-mission-logs-lone-ranger)
Fractured Sunlight (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/234937/fractured-sunlight)
A Little Chat (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/334693/a-little-chat)
A Princess, a Magician, and an Exile walk into a Bar (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/374753/a-princess-a-magician-and-an-exile-walk-into-a-bar)
A Draconequus' Guide to Immortality (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/143483/a-draconequus-guide-to-immortality)
The Mare who once lived on the Moon (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/247031/the-mare-who-once-lived-on-the-moon)
The Diary of an Evil Pony (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/92453/the-diary-of-an-evil-pony)
Whom the Princesses would Destroy (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/54117/whom-the-princesses-would-destroy)
Sucker for a Cute Face (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/250132/sucker-for-a-cute-face)


Honourable mentions (I like these as much as if not better than the above list but I do not recommend them for the most part)
Stardust (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/100455/stardust)
Mother of Invention (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/71501/mother-of-invention)
The Celestia Code (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/141549/the-celestia-code)
Anthropology (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/4656/anthropology)
The Sword Coast (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/102126/the-sword-coast)

[Aotrs Commander]

I think that the original six are pretty tapped out as far as story ideas go

Cobblers, dude, cobblers.

Are you seriously telling me, SERIOUSLY, that you can't honestly, genuinely cannot think of any stories to tell with the existant set of characters?

Come on, man, you of all people are better creatively than that.

Here's one I came up with off the top of my head in like, the time it took to walk out the room and back: Rarity, Pinkie and Spike go to Crystal Empire; Pinkie get caught up in the whole Brave and Glorious thing, throwing him hero parties, and Rarity sees a chance to use him as marketing for her new Crystal Empire clothing... And something somethin, it goes horribly wrong, the dangers of fame etc.

That's something I came up with on the fly with no proper thought, even, and I'm CRAP at personal dynamic stuff (seriously, the vast majority of my stories and quests are about events and stuff, not people). I'm sure ponythread could come up with a dozen different better ideas without even really trying. (Even while not dipping in the well of stuff fanfic handles.)

Let ALONE the potential in using disparate membets of said groups and mixing and matching.

Also that tacit aspersion that character growth... Stops. Ever. That people reach a point and never learn anything again; hell, you know this better than probably the rest of us!

On top of even that, characters don't need to change continuously, its okay to have them be same for a bit and just enjoy where they are...



Let us remember that all the new character introduced in Transformers following the movie (or in the comic) were, at best caricatures, if not simply outright crap. Kup was just "old man", Blurr... Can anyone tell me anything about Blurr's personality, other than he is fast? Arcee was marginally better, but she was essentially The Girl One, Hot Rod we've mentioned already...

Heck, despite the efforts of the comic writers, you know what stories were the best one that they gravitated to (in the UK-exlcusive stuff)? The ones where they were about all the old and established characters. There is a reason Simon Furman always went back to Starscream or Grimlock, Wheeljack and Soundwave and Prowl and Ratchet and Ironhide and Jazz and Bumblebee... Because aside from a small handful (like Nightbeat, who Was A Detective), none of the new characters had anything but mostly one character feature to define them from the masses.

TFTM is not a good example of changing the cast, it really isn't. I love TFTM, don't get me wrong, but what resulted from it was by far the weakest season of Transformers (and the future stories of the distant future of over a decade ago were not the comic's best either, aside Target:2006 and that one double-page spread of the biggest battle scene they ever did in the one where Unicron's head landed on Junk).



(Oh, changing the subject entirely, and I'm around now for whatever it was you wanted on Steam chat earlier - no session tonight, campaign ended and thre guy who is running next of away for a couple of weeks, so I'm in Spell Force III for the next while... You confused the hell out of Dad, actually, since I wasn't up yet and he has no idea what Steam chat even was, let alone how to do anything...! Especially as Steam apparently fires up the chat system on boot-up when the Steam client isn't even running at the time, that's just weird.)

[Rogar Demonblud]

Heck, a Pinkie story involving one of her sisters besides Maud would be innovating.

[zimmerwald1915]

Cobblers, dude, cobblers.

Are you seriously telling me, SERIOUSLY, that you can't honestly, genuinely cannot think of any stories to tell with the existant set of characters?

Come on, man, you of all people are better creatively than that.
Thanqol is not working on Friendship is Magic, and it is abundantly clear that the people who are have no idea what to do with their cast. Or with any of the putative replacements, really.

[Thanqol]

Cobblers, dude, cobblers.

Are you seriously telling me, SERIOUSLY, that you can't honestly, genuinely cannot think of any stories to tell with the existant set of characters?

Come on, man, you of all people are better creatively than that.

I can, but there's a but. The reason I pick S3 as my 'these characters have completed their arcs' is because the season was written that way - everypony achieved the things they were building up to, be that becoming a Wonderbolt or a Princess or opening a boutique etc. They've done things since then but they haven't reeeeeaalllly grown that much as people. They've done the things they wanted to do.

This of course is a personal taste thing. My favourite taste in stories is seeing people in moments of change. Glimmer and Trixie are always hits for me because they're currently undergoing the biggest transitions in the show. They're figuring out how relationships work and how to manage their respective egos; they want things and have no idea how to get them, they want to be different people but don't know who those people are.

You could keep episodes going with the original cast going for another six seasons but unless they get onto a new character arc my opinion that they're done as characters isn't really going to shift.


Also that tacit aspersion that character growth... Stops. Ever. That people reach a point and never learn anything again; hell, you know this better than probably the rest of us!

Oh yeah, for sure. I just kicked off Thanqol's Adventures In Vegetarianism. People can get new arcs. The ponies in the show have, even - Twilight's learning to be a teacher is an arc, and probably the strongest of them. But my problem isn't that these ideas don't exist, it's that they're not committing to any of them. Set an entire season in the school with Twilight verses her students until we draw the thread of that out and examine it a bit - awesome. Instead that storyline is playing itself out once every 5-10 episodes. And not everyone's getting one. What're Applejack's feelings about becoming a teacher of all things?

That's my problem with these two backup casts. They made an entire season about assembling Team Social Awkwardness, setting up a bunch of interesting conflicts and problems, and then didn't do anything with it. Like I mentioned, I don't think that pony is currently bad - I think it's good! The animation, voice acting, and individual episodes are all individually better than any of the things that came in the past. But what I think the show is lacking is, like, what does Sandbar want out of life? Or Yuna? What happens when those two butt heads, what's their dynamic even? Why isn't the new season all about the new 36-point dynamic the schoolkids represent?


(Oh, changing the subject entirely, and I'm around now for whatever it was you wanted on Steam chat earlier - no session tonight, campaign ended and thre guy who is running next of away for a couple of weeks, so I'm in Spell Force III for the next while... You confused the hell out of Dad, actually, since I wasn't up yet and he has no idea what Steam chat even was, let alone how to do anything...! Especially as Steam apparently fires up the chat system on boot-up when the Steam client isn't even running at the time, that's just weird.)

Steam itself runs on start up by default, it just stays minimized until you first click the button. There's a toggle for that in options. I'm only online for a limited window a day, if I can't catch you after a few days I'll just toss my question via PM.

[Pi Pie]

Thanqol is not working on Friendship is Magic, and it is abundantly clear that the people who are have no idea what to do with their cast. Or with any of the putative replacements, really.

I think that there are plenty of options for each of the casts.

An adventure to the zebra lands.
Chrysalis and her revenge plot against the Mane 6.
Mage Meadowbrook could give a class on healing.
Have the friendship students interact with each other and learn their cultures with possible conflicts.


For other fanfics, I will recommend 3.

The Life and Times of a Winning Pony (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/28239/the-life-and-times-of-a-winning-pony) us a slice of life story that feels like a sitcom and is wonderfully done.
Five Hundred Little Murders (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/126415/five-hundred-little-murders) involves Fluttershy and her true strength. Warning, this one can provide some emotional impact particularly if you have ever had a pet.
Fallout Equestria (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/119190/fallout-equestria) is the classic of pony fiction. I would not necessarily recommend as an introduction to pony fiction because some of its topics are tough to read. When reading, remember that it was based on season 1, so there are some things that conflict with canon.

[zimmerwald1915]

I think that there are plenty of options for each of the casts.
You would. The people who actually make those decisions would disagree, apparently.

Fanfic recommendations:
Daring Do and the Secret of the Sunken City (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/359413/daring-do-and-the-secret-of-the-sunken-city), along with everything else by 8686, who I consider far and away the fanficcer most adept at writing Pony;

Firebird Dahlia (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/228911/firebird-dahlia);

Better than the Best (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/225803/better-than-the-best);

Synthetic Bottled Sunlight (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/303160/synthetic-bottled-sunlight);

For the Mare Who Has Everything (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/263237/for-the-mare-who-has-everything);

The Other Side of the Horizon (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/324898/the-other-side-of-the-horizon);

Nine Days Down (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/211887/nine-days-down);

Twilight Falls Sunset Dawns (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/194394/twilight-falls-sunset-dawns);

The Enchanted Library (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/240255/the-enchanted-library) and its (incomplete) sequel (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/379911/the-enchanted-kingdom); and

Teatime - a Novel of Twilight and Celestia (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/369457/teatime-a-novel-of-twilight-celestia).

I'll also second The Moonstone Cup (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/3378/the-moonstone-cup).

[DigoDragon]

Agreed. One of the episodes I like (as in can remember it individually) was Slice of Life, just because it focused on everypony else.

I liked that one too. It was goofy and a lot of fun to watch.

I remember using pencils to rewind my old cassette tapes.
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aKeO_nrr8EA/W6BTIuYIzFI/AAAAAAACMl4/Uy3naqA826Q2aN4-GczmO-sxi7YVwu4ywCLcBGAs/s640/memory_tapes_by_mirroredsea-dcn3w1g.jpg (https://www.deviantart.com/mirroredsea/art/Memory-Tapes-764406772)

[otakuryoga]

i'd like to see em do an episode where they show that if your friends are doing something wrong(say being mean to a pony for no reason) you can stand up and tell em off while remaining friends

you know..what boast busters could & should have been

[Aotrs Commander]

*sigh*

So, we got the prints back from the first shapeways alternative - fine.

Starting preparing a webshop there... And found you can only sell models that you have already had printed there.

*looks at catalogue of 300+ models - nevermind issues where you have to do corrections etc*

So, that's not happening.

Contenter two is already more expensive than shapeways. And one of the forum goers has reported that yes, Shapeways told they specifically don't want people to be selling small models, because they aren't making enough money on them. So the price changes are coming (though I will be fascinated to see how many of Shapeway's shops just vanish or lie open, using the storage space with no-one to visit), it seems.

The most hilarious thing? The files I was checking at the other places, where I sprued six tanks together as one part? Shapeways can't even accept that file, because it's too large.

Typical Shapeways. "We don't want the business for small models!" *fails to take into account larger models require larger files*

So even IF they were going to retain customers after fracking them all off, the major option to do so and retain sanity in costs means that we literally cannot make models for them to sell.

(And call me crazy, I don't think there's all that much of a market for large, random shaped decorations with little to no detail.)



So, looks like I'm going to have to cludge for a bit when the price changes go south and print and dispatch stuff myself (something I did NOT want to do - it basically means getting a second printer, if we can) and I might, to possibly my greatest depression, have to make a Shipyards Facebook pae or something, just so I have somewhere to give out email addresses from.

(As I wouldn't know how to begin to create a proper webshop, much less afford for someone to create and maintain it (since you can't be taking chances when eveb my pitiful amount of pennies are involved, I suspect...))


And, to crown it all, my mate isn't coming when we go to the convention on Saturday - I already don't have a table (we only got one, which means it has to be moderns) so now I won;t even have im to natter to in quiet moments. (I mean, if all goes well, we should be chatting to punters all day, but I have no idea what this convention will be like, so...)

[Pi Pie]

*sigh*

So, we got the prints back from the first shapeways alternative - fine.

Starting preparing a webshop there... And found you can only sell models that you have already had printed there.

*looks at catalogue of 300+ models - nevermind issues where you have to do corrections etc*

So, that's not happening.

Contenter two is already more expensive than shapeways. And one of the forum goers has reported that yes, Shapeways told they specifically don't want people to be selling small models, because they aren't making enough money on them. So the price changes are coming (though I will be fascinated to see how many of Shapeway's shops just vanish or lie open, using the storage space with no-one to visit), it seems.

The most hilarious thing? The files I was checking at the other places, where I sprued six tanks together as one part? Shapeways can't even accept that file, because it's too large.

Typical Shapeways. "We don't want the business for small models!" *fails to take into account larger models require larger files*

So even IF they were going to retain customers after fracking them all off, the major option to do so and retain sanity in costs means that we literally cannot make models for them to sell.

(And call me crazy, I don't think there's all that much of a market for large, random shaped decorations with little to no detail.)



So, looks like I'm going to have to cludge for a bit when the price changes go south and print and dispatch stuff myself (something I did NOT want to do - it basically means getting a second printer, if we can) and I might, to possibly my greatest depression, have to make a Shipyards Facebook pae or something, just so I have somewhere to give out email addresses from.

(As I wouldn't know how to begin to create a proper webshop, much less afford for someone to create and maintain it (since you can't be taking chances when eveb my pitiful amount of pennies are involved, I suspect...))


And, to crown it all, my mate isn't coming when we go to the convention on Saturday - I already don't have a table (we only got one, which means it has to be moderns) so now I won;t even have im to natter to in quiet moments. (I mean, if all goes well, we should be chatting to punters all day, but I have no idea what this convention will be like, so...)

I'm disappointed to hear about your continued problem with Shapeways.

I thought that their business model of offering cheap 3D printing was an innovative business strategy. I am surprised that they are pushing back on the web stores since this seemed like a good method of making money for everyone.

As for alternate web stores, Etsy is one option. Deviantart might also allow you to sell the models as sculptures.

Good luck.

[Aotrs Commander]

I'm disappointed to hear about your continued problem with Shapeways.

I thought that their business model of offering cheap 3D printing was an innovative business strategy. I am surprised that they are pushing back on the web stores since this seemed like a good method of making money for everyone.

As for alternate web stores, Etsy is one option. Deviantart might also allow you to sell the models as sculptures.

Good luck.

I am in negotiations with i-materialise as a replacement, so we'll see how that goes.

The daft thing in I think Shapeways wants the shops, but it wants the shops to sell the things that are most profitable for it only.

Never heard of Etsy - had a quick look, but pretty much the first thing it said was the products get listed for four months or until they sell and thus is sort of opposite of what I need. (Imagine having to do a new listing every time someone bought an item, and it would be impossible to buy more than one).

Deviantart only appears to allow you to sell pictures of your model.

Thanks for trying, though!

...

I supose it might be possible to do it via ebay or maybe Amazon, if it really came down to it, I'd not really considered that as an option - might be worth asking about it, if it comes down to that...



In more positive mood, I Won A BattleTech Game this evening.

Yes, one of the players was new, but it's not like my mate (and me, when it came to that) wasn't helping him.

But considering that I missed shooting an assault mech in the rear armour FIVE TIMES in a row, I refuse to feel bad when I stopped rolling attack rolls on a metaphorical D6 and actually a D20.



Also:

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-x3QHRGP/0/cb284cf8/L/HiluxTechnical%20v1.0-L.png

(Gotta do a bit of moderns between the Phystyulon Laser Troopers...)

And I pat myself on the back for at least two people recognising the vehicle make for exactly what it was. I dun A Good Job there.

[t209]

Also:

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-x3QHRGP/0/cb284cf8/L/HiluxTechnical%20v1.0-L.png

(Gotta do a bit of moderns between the Phystyulon Laser Troopers...)

And I pat myself on the back for at least two people recognising the vehicle make for exactly what it was. I dun A Good Job there.


So why would you make hi-tech military with what is equivalent to make-shift vehicles?
Reminded me of Generals also.

[meto30]

This took about twice as long as I thought it would take, which tells me that I probably need a resting period of sorts with my artwork to recuperate and recover the pace... or perhaps that my pace of productivity for July and August was not something I can or should be maintaining.

Anyways, my Rainboom Studies are done. These are not humanized ponies, but rather my interpretation of the Rainbooms of EQG, the human characters who have never been ponies!

https://orig00.deviantart.net/51c4/f/2018/252/6/e/rainboom_studies__rarity_by_meto30-dcmbwpc.png
https://orig00.deviantart.net/a4d7/f/2018/258/c/a/rainboom_studies__fluttershy_by_meto30-dcmefs0.png
https://orig00.deviantart.net/1104/f/2018/260/5/f/rainboom_studies__rainbow_dash_by_meto30-dcmx6ky.png
https://orig00.deviantart.net/f02f/f/2018/260/6/3/rainboom_studies__applejack_by_meto30-dcn34se.png
https://orig00.deviantart.net/2e79/f/2018/260/9/e/rainboom_studies__pinkie_pie_a_by_meto30-dcn5827.png
https://orig00.deviantart.net/1bf2/f/2018/261/7/2/rainboom_studies__pinkie_pie_b_by_meto30-dcn5vsl.png
https://orig00.deviantart.net/2e89/f/2018/263/9/4/rainboom_studies__sci_twi_by_meto30-dcndnt8.png

NOTE: I still haven't even begun watching Season 8... so I can't possibly participate in any of the conversations happening in the thread at the moment. I do remember glimpsing the Commander mentioning me about drawing some of the newest characters - I presume the Kirin - and I'll see what I can do. Still, it will be some time before I actually watch season 8.

[Aotrs Commander]

So why would you make hi-tech military with what is equivalent to make-shift vehicles?

I'm not?

(For a kick off, that's a real one.)


Reminded me of Generals also.

It should do, I was literally quoting it.

[b_jonas]

Anyways, my Rainboom Studies are done. These are not humanized ponies, but rather my interpretation of the Rainbooms of EQG, the human characters who have never been ponies! I like these drawings! Detailed thoughts below, but bear in mind that I'm not good at drawing or critiqueing drawings.

Yes, these are in a much more reasistic style, not cartoonish. It's not surprising that they took you more of time to draw at first.
In general, I like the way you draw the torso, legs, clothing, footwear, and clothing accessories.
I like the style of how you draw the faces, but I find them a bit boring, in the sense that the mouth looks exactly the same (except for iris color) in all six girls, and even the nose and eyes and chin don't have too much variation. I expect that in real girls the face would differ more. Admittedly the individual differences of appearance is based on the MLP:FiM Mane Six, and they do look very similar (because of the low budget when the series was started). The way you draw eyes is not quite realistic, but looks good despite that.
The skin color would likely distinguish the girls more in real life, but that's very hard to draw in this style of drawing, the only way you can hint it are the freckles and iris color.
I find the hair (and the eyebrows and eyelashes) of these girls unrealistic, but that is hard to change, because it must be similar to the mane of the MLP:FiM characters to make them recognizable.
I have slight problems with the appearance of the hands, especially that of Rarity. I'd prefer if the fingers would look somewhat thicker, since these are young girls. Admittedly, hands are hard to draw and hard to critique too.
Aside from that, you have drawn the limbs (arms and legs and feet) excellently. I like both their style and how you added individual differences in the shape of limbs among the girls. The limbs (including the hands) are in a realistic position.
I also like the variation in the clothing and accessories (jewlery, bows, apron, bags, mobile phone, plushie) and footwear among the girls.
Everything in the drawings look nicely consistent between different drawings of the same person, as much as it should, but you added good variations in the pose they're taking.
However, in the first drawing of Applejack, where she leans on a bar counter, I find the relative position of the counter or table, Applejack's body and arm, and the seat, a bit hard to believe. This could be a problem on my end.
I have problems with Rainbow Dash's bicycle. There are no (visible) break handles or gear switch handles or wiring for them; the saddle, Dash's torso, and the frame are in strange positions compared to each other; the back wheel doesn't look round all around and its spokes are unevenly distributed; I'm missing details of shadings or lines in the head tube (the part of the frame around which the handlebar and front wheel rotates), the handlebar, all parts of the frame that are welded; the chain looks too even for something that's made of links on the order of magnitude of a centimeter. However, drawing a realistic bicycle is very difficult and time-consuming, and the time spent on that might not help your drawing people enough.
I don't like Rainbow Dash's bracelet (jewelry on her wrist). Either it's not a type I like to see on Rainbow Dash unless she's in a formal dress, or I don't recognize from the drawing what type of jewelry it's supposed to represent. This, though, is very much a matter of taste, and I'm not competent at jewelry at all.
These drawings are appetizing: there's a soda, a bowl of unknown food, a cup of foamy drink, slices of cake, and waffles. Mmm.
I'm missing Sunset Shimmer from the group, but then it's your choice who you want to study.
I personally would like to see more drawings with a full view of the body, including the legs and footware, but I admit that that both takes more time to draw, and can make it harder to emphasize the important details in the upper body in composed scenes such as comic strips. This is a general complaint, applies to most comics and drawings of human characters I see, not just to your drawings.

[meto30]

I like these drawings! Detailed thoughts below, but bear in mind that I'm not good at drawing or critiqueing drawings.

Yes, these are in a much more reasistic style, not cartoonish. It's not surprising that they took you more of time to draw at first.
In general, I like the way you draw the torso, legs, clothing, footwear, and clothing accessories.
I like the style of how you draw the faces, but I find them a bit boring, in the sense that the mouth looks exactly the same (except for iris color) in all six girls, and even the nose and eyes and chin don't have too much variation. I expect that in real girls the face would differ more. Admittedly the individual differences of appearance is based on the MLP:FiM Mane Six, and they do look very similar (because of the low budget when the series was started). The way you draw eyes is not quite realistic, but looks good despite that.
The skin color would likely distinguish the girls more in real life, but that's very hard to draw in this style of drawing, the only way you can hint it are the freckles and iris color.
I find the hair (and the eyebrows and eyelashes) of these girls unrealistic, but that is hard to change, because it must be similar to the mane of the MLP:FiM characters to make them recognizable.
I have slight problems with the appearance of the hands, especially that of Rarity. I'd prefer if the fingers would look somewhat thicker, since these are young girls. Admittedly, hands are hard to draw and hard to critique too.
Aside from that, you have drawn the limbs (arms and legs and feet) excellently. I like both their style and how you added individual differences in the shape of limbs among the girls. The limbs (including the hands) are in a realistic position.
I also like the variation in the clothing and accessories (jewlery, bows, apron, bags, mobile phone, plushie) and footwear among the girls.
Everything in the drawings look nicely consistent between different drawings of the same person, as much as it should, but you added good variations in the pose they're taking.
However, in the first drawing of Applejack, where she leans on a bar counter, I find the relative position of the counter or table, Applejack's body and arm, and the seat, a bit hard to believe. This could be a problem on my end.
I have problems with Rainbow Dash's bicycle. There are no (visible) break handles or gear switch handles or wiring for them; the saddle, Dash's torso, and the frame are in strange positions compared to each other; the back wheel doesn't look round all around and its spokes are unevenly distributed; I'm missing details of shadings or lines in the head tube (the part of the frame around which the handlebar and front wheel rotates), the handlebar, all parts of the frame that are welded; the chain looks too even for something that's made of links on the order of magnitude of a centimeter. However, drawing a realistic bicycle is very difficult and time-consuming, and the time spent on that might not help your drawing people enough.
I don't like Rainbow Dash's bracelet (jewelry on her wrist). Either it's not a type I like to see on Rainbow Dash unless she's in a formal dress, or I don't recognize from the drawing what type of jewelry it's supposed to represent. This, though, is very much a matter of taste, and I'm not competent at jewelry at all.
These drawings are appetizing: there's a soda, a bowl of unknown food, a cup of foamy drink, slices of cake, and waffles. Mmm.
I'm missing Sunset Shimmer from the group, but then it's your choice who you want to study.
I personally would like to see more drawings with a full view of the body, including the legs and footware, but I admit that that both takes more time to draw, and can make it harder to emphasize the important details in the upper body in composed scenes such as comic strips. This is a general complaint, applies to most comics and drawings of human characters I see, not just to your drawings.


Thank you for your comments! My replies are below.
My style sits... somewhere in the middle of the usual Japanese "anime-esque" style of its mainstream manga and the Korean style favouring ultrarealism in its depiction of limbs. The biggest "Koreanness" of my style would be the contrast between the stylized face and the non-stylized rest of the body. I think a lot of other artists living under the shadow of Japan's subculture scene draws like this... look at the current generation of professional artists drawing for mobile games in the region.
Skin colour is not a really good topic to discuss in this thread, I find, especially considering the rather vocal disagreement I had with the Commander a short while back. No further comments.
All hairstyles and outfits follow closely the canon designs as they are depicted in the latest "Summer" videos featuring the Rainbooms, such as the Rollercoaster of Friendship. Therefore I can take no credit or critique on any of the design elements regarding choices of fashion. I did take some interpretations on what items the vectors are actually depicting, and I've taken some liberties in small details, such as the type of shirt/blouse that Applejack is wearing. Rainbow's "wristlet" is most probably a sweat absorber (a sort of elastic towel), though. It prevents sweat from dripping down to and wetting the hands. Useful for using electronic devices while jogging.
I'll look into Applejack's pose again.
The Bike suffers from both an unwillingness to go into full detail and constant mistakes on my part to depict its components. For one, I totally forgot about the break handles. The saddle however is behind Rainbow's butt, not under it; a racing bike's saddle is too high for someone to stand while still half-sitting on it, or so suggests all reference images I gathered on racing bikes. Riders come off the saddle and stand with their bottoms in front of, not top of, the saddle. That the bike is a racing model is also why the handle is so low.
Again on the bike: it really really really suffers from my unwillingness to spend time on it. Even in the current state that bike took way longer to draw than Rainbow's body did, with the line art taking me about an hour to do. XD
Hands are kinda my biggest problem when it comes to drawing people, and I shall be making a big "Hands study" shortly to rectify the issue. Right now I'm trying very hard to draw "thin and elegant" fingers, which could be a reason why so many of those hands look delicate. I'm more comfortable with drawing thick, segmented fingers, almost like robot hands.
Sunset Shimmer is missing because she did not need a separate study to be made for her, especially considering all the studies I made of her canon outfits right before doing the Rainboom studies. ...I did upload them here, did I not? I think I did.
The studies do kind of "progress" in the level of quality as I go towards the later pieces. I've been drawing only ponies for about a month, and the lack of practice showed, methinks, on the Rarity piece.


I am going over the pieces in detail with my mentor later today, and I'll apply the corrections (both from her input and yours) later in a overall do-over. The Studies were conducted in preparation for a fan-comic, "the Siren Business", and I need all the details precisely nailed down before I begin work on the actual pages. The Studies more or less confirmed that I have a *ton* of issues to work out before I am ready enough to begin on the Siren Business, so I'll be doing a lot of exercises in the near future.

Thank you again for your comments!

PS: Here's the study of Sunset Shimmer in her canon outfits, in case you missed it.

-contents snipped for brevity, check link-

PSS: Desperately looking for volunteers to preread the Siren Business before I begin drawing the actual pages. Right now the story is at its raw stage, with a beginning, middle, and end, but no form, no script, no storyboard. If any of you are willing to help me at one or more of the stages, I'd be honoured and very grateful for the help.

[Manga Shoggoth]

I have problems with Rainbow Dash's bicycle. There are no (visible) break handles or gear switch handles or wiring for them;


Believe it or not, there are bikes that have no brakes or gears (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-gear_bicycle). The pedals are fixed to the wheel (no ratchets) so you brake by pedaling slower/pushing back on the pedals. They are a swine to ride when you aren't used to them. (And probably not road-legal in most countries). Probably not Rainbow's style, though...

Meto: Quite liked the pictures - especially Pinkie's glance at the artist/viewer in the group one.

[Aotrs Commander]

Apparently, both meto and I have been looking at bikes (of a sort...)



Phystyulon Rocket Cycle (v 0.5)
https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-WKLqjMG/0/1649c91f/XL/PhystyulonRocketCycle%20v0.5-XL.png

Thoughts?



Cobnvntion tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes...

[Manga Shoggoth]

Apparently, both meto and I have been looking at bikes (of a sort...)



Phystyulon Rocket Cycle (v 0.5)
https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-WKLqjMG/0/1649c91f/XL/PhystyulonRocketCycle%20v0.5-XL.png

Thoughts?



Cobnvntion tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes...

Not Rocket Skates?

[Adderbane]

Teaser for the next part of Duel of the Fates is up! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p1I_JELS0s)

[Pi Pie]

This took about twice as long as I thought it would take, which tells me that I probably need a resting period of sorts with my artwork to recuperate and recover the pace... or perhaps that my pace of productivity for July and August was not something I can or should be maintaining.

Anyways, my Rainboom Studies are done. These are not humanized ponies, but rather my interpretation of the Rainbooms of EQG, the human characters who have never been ponies!

NOTE: I still haven't even begun watching Season 8... so I can't possibly participate in any of the conversations happening in the thread at the moment. I do remember glimpsing the Commander mentioning me about drawing some of the newest characters - I presume the Kirin - and I'll see what I can do. Still, it will be some time before I actually watch season 8.

Your study on Pinkie Pie is the best. The facial expressions captured he bubbling laughter and happiness which defines Pinkie Pie.

The shading of Rainbow Dash's pants especially the right leg were your best technical work on adding depth to the image.

Twilight with the Sunset Shimmer doll was adorable. Did Sunset Shimmer give that that to Twilight? If not, does Sunset Shimmer know about that?


Apparently, both meto and I have been looking at bikes (of a sort...)

Phystyulon Rocket Cycle (v 0.5)

Thoughts?


What do you mean by rocket cycle? Is the cycle pushed by rockets or does it launch rockets?

The wheels look good and should be able to handle rough terrain well. I also appreciate that you included some basic suspension with the red linkage between the wheels and the frame without getting into the complete details of a full suspension system.

From a practical cycle, it looks like the cycle would be relatively larger than a human motorcycle. This seems driven by the 6 limb biology but would decrease the maneuverability relative to a human motorcycle.

Is the front of the rocket cycle suppose to be clear? Of will it be armored with a heads up display provided to the driver?

[Aotrs Commander]

Back from ChillCon - surprising how nmuch difference it makes having a conevntion only the other side of twon makes.

It wasn't bad, but we we, along with elements of our Derbvy Club and about three unfortunate traders, off in a seperate building to one sie, so we didn't see that many people. To be fair, I wasn't stuck all dat drawing Phystyulon vehicles (like I feared to start with), but it was quiet. (We - and our opps at Derby said, "we might come next year, but not if you put us in there again...")

And, quickly today, the smouldering horror of Humorous Pictures!

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-PJ4FwQn/0/22b71c7d/X3/CMCGLA-X3.jpg

Cutie Mark Crusader, Terrorists Yay!





I'm actually really pleased how well the technicals came out. I just gave the blokes a wash with a flesh wash just to make their colours slightly darker than the sand of the vehicle, and it worked really well!








What do you mean by rocket cycle? Is the cycle pushed by rockets or does it launch rockets?

As in "like a Nod Recon Bike/Attack Cycle/Attack Bike." So the latter.


The wheels look good and should be able to handle rough terrain well. I also appreciate that you included some basic suspension with the red linkage between the wheels and the frame without getting into the complete details of a full suspension system.

Well naturally! I Did the Research, as usual! After looking at various bikes (because motorbikes don't do anything for me, especially, unlike most people) I saw the Dodge Tomahawk and thought "wow, that looks really cool!" Which it does, until you see someone riding then, then it looks really dumb. But I also saw the Lazarat LM 847 and then elected that, yeah, the rocket cycle would be a similar four-wheel hub-steered system (after looking up what hub-steering was and how it worked...) because cool.


From a practical cycle, it looks like the cycle would be relatively larger than a human motorcycle. This seems driven by the 6 limb biology but would decrease the maneuverability relative to a human motorcycle.

Yeah, it is a bit bigger - but course, this is also intneded to be a bigger bike anyway. (It's be smaller if I'd chosen to have smaller wheels, which of course had to push the steering system further out and also smaller if I'd chosen to use more traditional fork steering, come to that. (Or even two wheels, not four...!)


Is the front of the rocket cycle suppose to be clear? Of will it be armored with a heads up display provided to the driver?

It's sort of an armoured windshield, but yes, it is ultimately open. (Not unlike some of the designs of some of the aforementioned Nod cycles.

[keybounce]

What lies beneath just aired.

Now, what is going on with

this evil, nasty "cozy" in a school of friendship? Who is she / what magic is being used to hide her?

Chrysallis doesn't have the long-term planning/patience to pull this off. Everyone else is reformed.


Besides that, why does this one building have the only such grate in all of ponyville? No other building has anything like that ever shown.

[zimmerwald1915]

What lies beneath just aired.

Now, what is going on with

this evil, nasty "cozy" in a school of friendship? Who is she / what magic is being used to hide her?

Chrysallis doesn't have the long-term planning/patience to pull this off. Everyone else is reformed.

No magic required. Some small children are just vile. Isn't that right, Diamond Tiara?


Besides that, why does this one building have the only such grate in all of ponyville? No other building has anything like that ever shown.
Most of Ponyville probably has indoor plumbing and/or central air. It just hasn't been plot-relevant until now.

[DigoDragon]

Besides that, why does this one building have the only such grate in all of ponyville? No other building has anything like that ever shown.

I am curious if it was the tree that made the basement or Twilight has some odd ideas of civil engineering.



Believe it or not, there are bikes that have no brakes or gears (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-gear_bicycle). The pedals are fixed to the wheel (no ratchets) so you brake by pedaling slower/pushing back on the pedals. They are a swine to ride when you aren't used to them. (And probably not road-legal in most countries). Probably not Rainbow's style, though...

My first bike was a single-speed gear where you peddle backwards to brake. ...this causes the back wheel to want to lock up which was great for stopping. In theory.

[Aotrs Commander]

Uuuuurgh.

The RTS part of Spellforce 3 (y'know, a good half of the gae) is SO BAD.

It is trying to make you expand like billiyo, and then promptly - and immediately - sends waves of enemies (which it does NOT appear to spend reources on) at you the second it triggers, for all over the shop. So you can't, in fact, even get your economy off the ground - or expand like it wnats you to. (Like, you dont even get five minutes or anything to even assess what buildings you have. And even doing that is not very easy, due to the cramped maps and not especially visually different buildings (because one wood hut is mostly the same as another.)

In fact, the best way of doing it appears to be gathering whatever units it gives you and bumrushing the enemy capital (kill that and you win) and thus largely obiviating the entire RTs portion of the game.

It's a shame, the rest of the game is quite good.

I'm going to try switching the game to Easy every time it RTS now, as (and I had to experiment), that reduces enemy resistances and drops their damage enormously, so while it won't actually stop the spam, hopefulyl the minimal damage they will do ill buy time for, y'know, actually PLAYING the RTS section.

*shakes head*

[Excession]

My first bike was a single-speed gear where you peddle backwards to brake. ...this causes the back wheel to want to lock up which was great for stopping. In theory.

Yeah my earliest bike had "back-pedal" brakes. They never struck me as a good idea; harder to use, less control, and not there at all if the chain slips off.

A fixed wheel bike (no gears, no brakes, no free-wheeling) strikes me as exactly the sort of thing Rainbow Dash would ride. Harder and more technical to ride, and arguably more dangerous, but the lighter weight and more efficient drive train makes it easier to go fast. They can also be cheaper than fancy road bikes because there's just less stuff there.

[DigoDragon]

Yeah my earliest bike had "back-pedal" brakes. They never struck me as a good idea; harder to use, less control, and not there at all if the chain slips off.

It's one advantage was it never wore down like handle-brakes do. Very low maintenance. Overall that bike was pretty solid. Other than changing a tire once and occasionally washing it, I never had an issue. I gave it away to a cousin when I moved to college (everything on campus was within reasonable walking distance).

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-cWYAhv6vuEE/W6a5w7USx3I/AAAAAAADIvk/mq6Ux82ccqICS-N0SRZK9bFkJVCtq4J6ACHMYCw/s650/IronPonybyAwalex1537653137275.png

[Rogar Demonblud]

That makes a terrifying amount of sense, given how she just will not quit.

[Aotrs Commander]

Galactic Liberation Armada ground force Hyena:

(Modification of ESU T-140 MBT, itself a distant descendant of the anicent T-72A.)

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-GHhnrfc/0/463b251f/X2/GLAHyena%20v1.0-X2.png

Theorhetical selection/ move/attack quotes:

Hyena Tank reporting!
Shredder in the Sand!

Gatling going!

Shred 'em and dead 'em!
So many wrecks, so little time!
Bang bang bang bang! *manical laugh*



(Yes, it's in sci-soviet colours. My CAD aethetic desires only stretch so far - hell, the reason it's in sci-soviet colours not moderns greens is because there was no way I was re-colouring it the first time!)

[Pi Pie]

Galactic Liberation Armada ground force Hyena:

(Modification of ESU T-140 MBT, itself a distant descendant of the anicent T-72A.)

https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-GHhnrfc/0/463b251f/X2/GLAHyena%20v1.0-X2.png

Theorhetical selection/ move/attack quotes:

Hyena Tank reporting!
Shredder in the Sand!

Gatling going!

Shred 'em and dead 'em!
So many wrecks, so little time!
Bang bang bang bang! *manical laugh*



(Yes, it's in sci-soviet colours. My CAD aethetic desires only stretch so far - hell, the reason it's in sci-soviet colours not moderns greens is because there was no way I was re-colouring it the first time!)



This seems like an anti-personnel or lightly armored vehicle tank.

The cylinders on the back look like fuel containers. That seems like a weak point especially for anti-tank infantry weaponry.

[Aotrs Commander]

This seems like an anti-personnel or lightly armored vehicle tank.

The cylinders on the back look like fuel containers. That seems like a weak point especially for anti-tank infantry weaponry.

It's a modifed T-72 with ERA (explosive reactive armour) with a whacking great gatling (which is basically a bit over twice the size of the A-10's GAU-8, but essentially the same proportions) instead of a main gun and quad autocannons instead of a pintle MG (and a re-designed engine block).

I mean, even with ERA, the T-72 is lighter armoured than, say a Challenger 2 or Leopard 2, so you're not entirely wrong, but that's still "lighter armoured" relative to MBTs around...!

The gatling... Well, it's certainly effective on infantry in the same way the A-10's gatling is, in that it will salsa-ify them, but it is definitely anti-armour.

(I mean, it's not a patch on say, the Revenant Spear's railgun and it is weaker than a contempoaries' railgun or even laser cannon, but it is also cheaper, and cheap, not quite as good but still horribly effective IS in the Galactic Liberation Armada's lexicon.

In point of fact, though, their long-range kinetic interdiction defence systems (and thus the attendant ground force weapons that use the same technology) are the only things that is unique technology to the Galactic Liberation Armada - everything else pretty much comes off the black market.)

The cylinders on the back are fuel containers, that's where the real tanks have them.

http://www.militaryvehicle-photos.net/images/pf-military-vehicle/11731.jpg
(In fact, all I did with the Hyena is drop them down, because real tanks don't tend to fight with them on (they can't turn the turret all the way around), but the Galactic Liberation Armada are fragging crazy. (Also, the Hyena has enough ammunition that it explode quite spectacularly, since, again, "safety features" are not words in their lexicon.)

Why do I model the fuel tanks on? Because I didn't, when I did the very first T-150 vehicle1 for the sci-sovs. The mounting points are more vulnerable to damage without the fuel tank on them, and the tanks looked a bit odd, almost naked, without them.



1Nominally based on the T-90, which is a modified T-72 and thay ,odel, being the first time I'd tried passingly modelling something from Earth armour is much cruder than the current T-72 or T-90 models.

[t209]

So found some Frostpunk X Pony Crossovers.
https://twitter.com/frostpunkgame/status/1014768996627906560?lang=en
https://img00.deviantart.net/c238/i/2018/120/3/4/fatal_error___frostpony_by_moonlightstrange-dca8tm3.png
https://img00.deviantart.net/3075/i/2018/119/e/1/frost_pony___crossover_by_moonlightstrange-dca5nqt.jpg
https://pre00.deviantart.net/2947/th/pre/i/2018/189/0/5/frostpunk_by_zocidem-dcgmivm.png
https://pre00.deviantart.net/eddf/th/pre/i/2018/222/3/3/frostpuny___the_overdrive_by_icychamber-dcjs9xx.jpg
Well, furthermore, I think Crystal Empire had one (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DidmEbuVMAEgzaC.jpg:large)...minus need for fuel and "steak tartare".

[DigoDragon]

Was only a matter of time before that Bowsette meme crashed into Pony (https://www.equestriadaily.com/2018/09/bowsette-pony-plushie.html).


So found some Frostpunk X Pony Crossovers.

Frostpunk, huh? I've never heard of the game.


This is a cute Sunset pony:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-laY8GjqPIuA/W6lRdgi2okI/AAAAAAADJWA/b_j1AB9_Qow0eTwnwOXHvDQSlp22aJv_wCHMYCw/s650/Pillowsbymirroredsea1537823089521.jpg

[digiman619]

Was only a matter of time before that Bowsette meme crashed into Pony (https://www.equestriadaily.com/2018/09/bowsette-pony-plushie.html).

Rule 85 must be upheld.

[t209]

Frostpunk, huh? I've never heard of the game.
It is like a city simulator with you having to build a city in frozen wasteland with a giant coal-powered generator providing heat to the surroundings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqEpSOFDXGA
You have to pass laws (mass graves or cemetary, child labors, and the likes) to survive and be aware of frost bites and illness if you work the survivors out in the cold.

[Aotrs Commander]

It is like a city simulator with you having to build a city in frozen wasteland with a giant coal-powered generator providing heat to the surroundings.
*snip*
You have to pass laws (mass graves or cemetary, child labors, and the likes) to survive and be aware of frost bites and illness if you work the survivors out in the cold.

Well, my first question is, with the planet hit by a new ice age, why would you go NORTH? Surely the equator would have been a better option (since it appears to be implied that it's Britain - looked like Big Ben in one of those shots)...

[Manga Shoggoth]

Well, my first question is, with the planet hit by a new ice age, why would you go NORTH? Surely the equator would have been a better option (since it appears to be implied that it's Britain - looked like Big Ben in one of those shots)...

More to the point, the police helmets on the static image...

[Aotrs Commander]

More to the point, the police helmets on the static image...

Guh.

Yeah.

It's been a long day and I'm not long done running flat-out for four hours sorting a load of files for a possibly Shapeways replacement.

[t209]

Well, my first question is, with the planet hit by a new ice age, why would you go NORTH? Surely the equator would have been a better option (since it appears to be implied that it's Britain - looked like Big Ben in one of those shots)...
Well, in the Beta build's intro, they did try to go the equator and Southern Europe.
But things actually got worse when superstorm happened, famine and overpopulation, and became uninhabitable.
And a meteor impact in Patagonia, volcano eruption in Kraktoa and Tambora, the dimming of the sun, or all of the above.

[Pi Pie]

I haven't played Frost Punk, but it seems like an interesting setting.

How would ponies react to a massive global cooling event?

The first obvious answer is magic with alicorns and unicorns trying to fix it.

The pegasi could try to clear the clouds which would increase the sun light and increase the temperature.

The earth ponies could try to push out the snow, dig for coal, and gather food for the others.

Overall, I would give ponies a better chance than humans in a massive global cooling event.

[Rogar Demonblud]

You do remember the canon answer to that question is 'gather a group and sing songs', right?

[Aotrs Commander]

Overall, I would give ponies a better chance than humans in a massive global cooling event.

Well considering it is a fairly high probability they are manually correcting for a catastrophic tide-lock (or even loss of the original stellar bodies) situation, so a natural (as opposed to Windigo) created winter would barely phase them (si long as the sun/moon cycle continues, anyway).

[zimmerwald1915]

You do remember the canon answer to that question is 'gather a group and sing songs', right?
It's also canon that it works.

[Thanqol]

I haven't played Frost Punk, but it seems like an interesting setting.

How would ponies react to a massive global cooling event?

With adorable hats and scarves.

[DigoDragon]

How would ponies react to a massive global cooling event?

The Crystal Empire wouldn't notice. :smallbiggrin:

[Alabenson]

You do remember the canon answer to that question is 'gather a group and sing songs', right?

That and magical rainbow lasers are pretty much the canon answer to every question.

[Pi Pie]

https://img00.deviantart.net/c9e3/i/2012/122/6/1/eaf___weaponised_twilight__tw1_l16h1_turret__by_sm okeybacon-d4y7qnd.png

https://img00.deviantart.net/c166/i/2012/267/c/f/eaf___orbital_friendship_cannon_interface_by_smoke ybacon-d5dh0y7.png

[Aotrs Commander]

I feel I should bring it to the attention of ponythread for anyone, who does not follow Estee, they are having a REALLY crappy time right now. (Like, catastrophically bad.)

If ever there was a time to go to Fimfic and be pony at people, it is now, to Estee.



*takes off deadly serious hat*

In less... terrible news, I had a go with the aforementioned GLA Hyena and reduced the quad cannon size by 10% (well, technically 27.1% volumetrically). Looks much better.

I also spent four straight hours yesterday spruing up a few models as i.materialise (potential Shapeways replacement) wanted to have a proper look. So we shall see what they say.

[keybounce]

Linky?
PleasE?

[DigoDragon]

[Rapid fire pony laser]

Heh, overheat. :3

I found a Pinkie doing a Megaman thing.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7bzazSoXD40/W61NrP91K_I/AAAAAAADJtE/LtuCfxg5QJkCcwboj1KFjjM0Zq_JCZmLQCHMYCw/s650/Pibythegreatrouge1538084127447.png

[keybounce]

Is there a higher-res version of that twilight cannon that is easier to read? If not, can someone transcribe the blue-background text (lower 2/3rds)?

[Pi Pie]

Is there a higher-res version of that twilight cannon that is easier to read? If not, can someone transcribe the blue-background text (lower 2/3rds)?

Here is the link to the Deviantart page
https://www.deviantart.com/smokeybacon/art/EAF-Weaponised-Twilight-TW1-L16H1-Turret-299332777

[Aotrs Commander]

Need some more eyes, again, if you wouldn't mind...

GLA Air Superiority Platform (ASP). (Not quite complete yet, but before I can finish…)


https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-k4wS579/0/c53ab8a8/X2/GLA%20ASP%20v0.8a-X2.png
https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-6zxt7pt/0/7f9a23f2/XL/GLA%20ASP%20v0.8b-XL.png


Which is better?

Top: (Modifed BM-27 hull, with guns in MRLS turret position)

Middle: (Modifed BM-27 hull, with turret moved forwards)

Bottom: (BM-27 hull shortened, wheel base altered.)

[Manga Shoggoth]

Need some more eyes, again, if you wouldn't mind...

GLA Air Superiority Platform (ASP). (Not quite complete yet, but before I can finish…)


https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-k4wS579/0/c53ab8a8/X2/GLA%20ASP%20v0.8a-X2.png
https://photos.smugmug.com/Primary-Gallery/i-6zxt7pt/0/7f9a23f2/XL/GLA%20ASP%20v0.8b-XL.png


Which is better?

Top: (Modifed BM-27 hull, with guns in MRLS turret position)

Middle: (Modifed BM-27 hull, with turret moved forwards)

Bottom: (BM-27 hull shortened, wheel base altered.)


The bottom one looks better, but the top one (with the cannon moved towards the cab plus some ballast at the back) would make more sense as the extra space at the back would handle the recoil. Unless, of course, you have some sort of stabilizers to unfold for actual firing.

[Adderbane]

Really liked the Kirin, especially the talking one who was absolutely adorable the whole episode. This episode probably could've benefited from a longer run time to develop the plot, but they did a good job with what they had. 9/10, second favorite episode of the season after The Washouts

[DigoDragon]

Really liked the Kirin, especially the talking one who was absolutely adorable the whole episode. This episode probably could've benefited from a longer run time to develop the plot, but they did a good job with what they had. 9/10, second favorite episode of the season after The Washouts

Yeah this one is easily top 3 with Road to Friendship on my list (still debating the 3rd one).

Autumn Blaze I think is the talkative kirin? Yeah, so cute! Poor thing having a "Castaway" moment was endearing, and the "Wait right here a moment" to go yell behind a rock and vent her frustration. :smallbiggrin: The song is pretty good too.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Really liked the Kirin, especially the talking one who was absolutely adorable the whole episode. This episode probably could've benefited from a longer run time to develop the plot, but they did a good job with what they had. 9/10, second favorite episode of the season after The Washouts

Yeah this one is easily top 3 with Road to Friendship on my list (still debating the 3rd one).

Autumn Blaze I think is the talkative kirin? Yeah, so cute! Poor thing having a "Castaway" moment was endearing, and the "Wait right here a moment" to go yell behind a rock and vent her frustration. :smallbiggrin: The song is pretty good too.

Applejack and Fluttershy aren't bad in the episode by any means, but Autumn Blaze really nails it. She comes across as the Kirin equivalent of Pinkie Pie. She also manages to pull off a character song that I actually like - When the song started my reaction was heading towards "not another <insert profanasaurus here> Smile, Smile, Smile" only to switch to actually laughing at the "Seriously, there's only so long Sodoku can keep you entertained".

My dislike of a lot of the songs in the series isn't a secret (I'm not a fan of songs in a story), but on the other hand it does make the really good ones something special.

[DigoDragon]

My dislike of a lot of the songs in the series isn't a secret (I'm not a fan of songs in a story), but on the other hand it does make the really good ones something special.

The songs I generally like from the show have been in the early seasons. I dunno if just lot of ideas or I'm just burned out on pony tunes, but... seems like it's harder to remember music past season 3.

[Derjuin]

The songs I generally like from the show have been in the early seasons. I dunno if just lot of ideas or I'm just burned out on pony tunes, but... seems like it's harder to remember music past season 3.

I'll never forget that one catchy song that's in my head (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne7I3ViAzRk).

:smallwink:

:cryeverytime:

[Adderbane]

The songs I generally like from the show have been in the early seasons. I dunno if just lot of ideas or I'm just burned out on pony tunes, but... seems like it's harder to remember music past season 3.

I think MLP uses them pretty effectively to do a lot of exposition or scene setting in a short amount of time.

[keybounce]

MINE


Ok, which ones? It looks like you have several on fimfiction.

(I did not see any on Fanfiction's MLP section.)

[Aotrs Commander]

I think MLP uses them pretty effectively to do a lot of exposition or scene setting in a short amount of time.

I think that's sort of the problem - a lot of the later music is very... Telling A Thing Musically, rather than Being A Song, if you take my meaning. Too expository, if you take my meaning, to be something to be casually listened to, while, say, doing CAD work.

Really, the last songs that I found caught was in Crusaders of the Lost Mar (and I have a particular like of the CMC songs anyway).

[keybounce]

Fan Fic question:

So ... Hard Reset has a sequel, and that sequel has ... three different sequels?!?

What do I read after A Stitch in Time --
The Rein of Queen Twilight Sparkle
You Can Fight Fate
Changing Lives

... FimFiction lists Rein, but it's marked mature, the others are marked teen.

And ... "Sex" + "Gore"?

[Douglas]

You Can Fight Fate is the actual sequel. You should read that one.

I haven't read The Reign of Queen Twilight Sparkle, and I would suggest considering carefully whether you really want to. It is a side story and, as I understand it, it is very dark - it follows the descent into madness and despair of the version of Twilight in the timeline from Hard Reset's alternate ending, and A Stitch in Time's 5th chapter, The Darkest Timeline. It pretty much amounts to watching every shred of happiness and hope get slowly crushed out of the protagonist, I believe, a rather sharp contrast to the recovery and heroism of the main storyline.

Changing Lives is another side story, focusing on Cloud Kicker, and should be read last if you're interested in that.

[Excession]

Really liked the Kirin, especially the talking one who was absolutely adorable the whole episode. This episode probably could've benefited from a longer run time to develop the plot, but they did a good job with what they had. 9/10, second favorite episode of the season after The Washouts

The Kirin, and Autumn Blaze in particular, are the cutest deer/lion/dragon/unicorn things. I like that they didn't move like ponies; outside of walking Autumn was leaping about more like a deer or goat.
https://pre00.deviantart.net/83a1/th/pre/f/2018/261/1/6/hey__wanna_this___by_orang111-dcn66rq.png (https://www.deviantart.com/orang111/art/Hey-wanna-this-764513990)

[DigoDragon]

https://pre00.deviantart.net/83a1/th/pre/f/2018/261/1/6/hey__wanna_this___by_orang111-dcn66rq.png (https://www.deviantart.com/orang111/art/Hey-wanna-this-764513990)

Heh, never tried that it a can. Probably tastes a bit different compared to the glass bottle. And by different I mean "not as good". :smalltongue:

Yeah, I like the little detail on how they move about differently.

[Excession]

Heh, never tried that it a can. Probably tastes a bit different compared to the glass bottle. And by different I mean "not as good". :smalltongue:

I have never seen it in cans actually, only bottles. I used to drink it at my favourite Japanese restaurant, but they closed, and I think they might have been importing it themselves because I haven't seen it elsewhere.

In general I prefer to buy beer in cans. They recycle better, are lighter, and keep the beer fresher by excluding all light and sealing better. I always pour them into a glass to drink though. Japanese beers OTOH seem to be designed to drunk from the bottle; they even use better bottles with smoother edges at the top.

[Aotrs Commander]

So we started a game of Dungeon Crawl Classics today, to give me a week or few's break from DMing. Seven players, three level 0 characters each (2/3 were pre-generated by the DM).

In typical form, we made it through the first session with no casualties. (Of course, unlike a lot of groups, we are far too cohesive - I mean, I've been playing with some of the guys for thirty years! - so there is an outside chance that the DM might be writing an angry letter to the game designers about how the hell is he supposed to deal with twenty-one first level characters, because his players won't bicker among themselves...!

(For my part, my stats immediately indicated "thief-type" with low intelligence... So I immediately decided we'd got to have the ditzy valley-girl-in-fantasy. She's even, approrpiately, a weaver by profession, so there's even the fashion thing, kinda...! (Especially as my favourite character, Helen-Jennifer Silk (Hel-Jen) started out as a Jubilee clone. I only get to NPC Hel-Jen these days, so I am going to make the fricking most out of Hel-Jen-but-thick while I can. So Cutrate Hel-Jen was named Nejleh Linin ('cos y'know, linen is a cheaper material than silk...!))

[Rater202]

I have never seen it in cans actually, only bottles. I used to drink it at my favourite Japanese restaurant, but they closed, and I think they might have been importing it themselves because I haven't seen it elsewhere.

In general I prefer to buy beer in cans. They recycle better, are lighter, and keep the beer fresher by excluding all light and sealing better. I always pour them into a glass to drink though. Japanese beers OTOH seem to be designed to drunk from the bottle; they even use better bottles with smoother edges at the top.

The question is: Is Kirrin an ale or a lager? What style--color, texture, flavors? Is it better cold or room temperature?

(I know a crapload about booze for someone that doesn't touch the stuff.)

[Excession]

The question is: Is Kirrin an ale or a lager? What style--color, texture, flavors? Is it better cold or room temperature?

(I know a crapload about booze for someone that doesn't touch the stuff.)

It's a pale lager. Not substantially different in style to the more common (here at least) Asahi and Sopporo, maybe a little more malt. Best served cold.

[DigoDragon]

I have never seen it in cans actually, only bottles. I used to drink it at my favourite Japanese restaurant, but they closed, and I think they might have been importing it themselves because I haven't seen it elsewhere.

Outside Japanese restaurants, I know of several grocery stores that carry it. It's a bit pricey though.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-T2XxglJ89vI/W7JnazIgRpI/AAAAAAADKCI/ViyyJkOVXUMMUyUBeNIb30eZJX9wyFT5wCHMYCw/s650/bymagnalunaarts1538418540044.jpg



In general I prefer to buy beer in cans. They recycle better, are lighter, and keep the beer fresher by excluding all light and sealing better. I always pour them into a glass to drink though. Japanese beers OTOH seem to be designed to drunk from the bottle; they even use better bottles with smoother edges at the top.

I prefer glass. The taste is definitely different.



Best served cold.

KHAAAAAN (https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/578/289/fa1.jpeg)!!

[Aotrs Commander]

Woo, nothing more exciting than re-organising and archiving all your CAD files, is there?

https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2016/9/24/1257114__safe_screencap_starlight+glimmer_every+li ttle+thing+she+does_bored_cropped_floppy+ears_frow n_pony_solo.png

But sometimes, ya gotta do it. (The MG moderns folder was up to about 400 files, and even after achiving to a new folder all but the most recent construction file for each vehicle, there's still over a hundred models there. You can imagine with four times that number, scrolling to find a particular model was getting hard...) Shaved a good 1.5 gig off (down to six from 7.5!) by clearing out all the chaff files (.dxfs, blender files and the like I had to use to transition from TCAD files to .stl, which we don't need anymore since TCAD now can save to .stl directly).

I might even be able to do some actual WORK this afternoon...

[b_jonas]

Woo, nothing more exciting than re-organising and archiving all your CAD files, is there? I am trying to understand how some income tax rules work. It's starting to look so complicated that I might lose more of my time with the whole scheme than the money I gain from it.

[Alabenson]

I am trying to understand how some income tax rules work. It's starting to look so complicated that I might lose more of my time with the whole scheme than the money I gain from it.

Question, are these American income tax rules or income tax rules for another country?

[Thanqol]

Ok, which ones? It looks like you have several on fimfiction.

(I did not see any on Fanfiction's MLP section.)

Yours Truly is the big emotional hit that everyone loves and made me Internet Famous. If romance and sadness is not your thing, Do Not Serve These Ponies is a straight up comedy and I'm extremely proud of it. A Study In Rainbows is a little dated but it was good enough to put my name on the map. Easy As Lying is my dark twisted psychodrama.

The other stories are cool fun little interludes but only if you find you like my style overall. I do think Rainbow Dash Digs Herself Into A Hole is a damn fine piece of writing though, if you want something in the vein of DNSTP.

[zimmerwald1915]

Question, are these American income tax rules or income tax rules for another country?
Hungarian income tax, surely?

[b_jonas]

Question, are these American income tax rules or income tax rules for another country? They are income tax rules for Hungary.

[Rogar Demonblud]

If they're anything like ours, I weep for your sanity. The only thing everyone in Congress agrees on is that the Tax Code isn't complicated enough.

[Aotrs Commander]

Normal Person Thinking: "Hey, I found some pony stickers my niece gave me ages ago while tidying up the dining room. Cute. Well, much as I appreicated the gesture, I suppose I could chuck 'em out..."

Normal Brony Thinking: "Hey, I found some pony stickers my niece gave me ages ago while tidying up the dining room. Neat! Maybe I decorate a lucnhbox or something, or perhaps do an amusing picture for my local ponythread..."

Bleakbane Thnking: "Huzzah, I found some pony stickers my niece gave me ages ago while completely re-rorganising the dining room! I will use them on my starship boxes to create a pony-based labelling system!

Muhahahahahahaha!

WHAT! No Best Pony! The travesty!

...

Fine, the Aotrs will have to be identified by Celestia, then! But we're not happy about it!


https://orig00.deviantart.net/f473/f/2012/240/4/0/mad_derpy_by_toxic_mario-d5crgra.png

[DigoDragon]

WHAT! No Best Pony! The travesty!

Gee, I wonder which one is Bleak's best pony. :smallbiggrin: [/Sarcasm]


So, I saw this image (https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/12/20/1612311__safe_artist-colon-celestial-dash-rainstorm_bow+hothoof_bright+mac_cloudy+quartz_coo kie+crumbles_hondo+flanks_igneous+rock_mr-dot-+shy_mrs-dot-.jpeg) today, and it disappointed me that none of them are inter-tribe unions. Ah well. At least now we have all six sets of parents from the Mane6. It was the longest time when we had no clue about AJ, Dash, or Flutters.