My Little Pony C: Friendship Carries On

[Manga Shoggoth]

Recommendations are certainly welcome!

Stories with a comedic bent would be most appreciated, but I’m happy to take a look at more dramatic or tragic pieces (the three aren’t mutually exclusive after all ).

One does wonder what sort of pony fiction an immortal undead sorcerer creates in their free time!

Well...

Let's start with Bleakbane's stuff: The Heart of the Matter (my favourite of the two) and Mourning Sickness, which bears mention for the horrible pun.

Having exposed our resident Lich to sufficient embarassment, I will go into hiding (I need the sleep badly),and will try to post some more suggestions tomorrow.

[BlueHamsterBean]

Well...

Let's start with Bleakbane's stuff: The Heart of the Matter (my favourite of the two) and Mourning Sickness, which bears mention for the horrible pun.

Having exposed our resident Lich to sufficient embarassment, I will go into hiding (I need the sleep badly),and will try to post some more suggestions tomorrow.

Many thanks: I'll take a look at these.

...We're not gonna get CON drained for this are we?

Sleep well!

[Manga Shoggoth]

OK, having slept off yesterdays disasters, and sorted out most of todays, here's a little starter for 10:

Estee produces a lot of good work (Tryptich being the very long central plank of the work), but here are some shorts to get some of the style:

100% Move = 50% Fire - Twilight needs to move out of her old digs in Canterlot, but is dragging her heels. Fortunately she has five good friends to help.

Pinkie Pie Vs. The Soufflé - The Cakes take three days off to take the twins to see their grandparents, leaving Pinkie in charge of the bakery.

A Total Eclipse Of The Fun - Luna wants an eclipse to celebrate the second anniversary of her return. What could possibly go wrong? Caution: includes quantum, and also the world's most incompetent counterrevolutionary cell.

Georg is all over the spectrum, but has a few pieces worth reading. Some starters:

Three Tail Hairs - Raindolph is a rapidly failing student wizard approaching Finals. His final project is to create a wand. All he needs to complete his project is three tail hairs from an adult unicorn. (This story has the distinction of being a MLP/Harry Potter/Original cross and one of the few Human in Equestria stories that I actually like.)

The Travelling Tutor and the Librarian - A lighthearted look at education, young love, dating and buckets of water in the face in that most normal of all small towns, Ponyville. (Has two sequels, The Travelling Tutor and the Diplomat's Daughter (a passable story) and The Traveling Tutor and The Royal Exam (which is hilarious)).

A Princess by Any Other Name - Cadence attempts to change her name. Guest-starring Dotted Line from Ghost's stories.

The First Time You See Her - How various people react to HRH Princess Cadence over time. Over a lot of time.

And from the Misc pile:

The Doom that Came to Tambelon - All Starlight Glimmer has to do is foalsit Flurry Heart for one night.

Nosflutteratu - Twilight was never like this.

[BlueHamsterBean]

OK, having slept off yesterdays disasters, and sorted out most of todays, here's a little starter for 10:

That’s quite the extensive list! 0.0 This should keep me nice and busy for a while: thanks!

Here’s hoping the remaining disasters aren’t too trying...

I’ve read A Princess By Any Other Name as part of my perusal of the Equestrian Civil Service series. Nothing like 550 pages of red tape to test a being’s capacity to act as the embodiment of love, no?

[Rogar Demonblud]

The Doom that Came to Tambelon - All Starlight Glimmer has to do is foalsit Flurry Heart for one night.

Just reading this much was enough to get my homeowners insurance cancelled.

[Aotrs Commander]

Having exposed our resident Lich to sufficient embarassment, I will go into hiding (I need the sleep badly),and will try to post some more suggestions tomorrow.

I mean, it's not like it isn't something I wouldn't have done myself, if I hadn't been so busy killing aliens by the bucket-load foir the past couple of days...

[Adderbane]

That’s quite the extensive list! 0.0 This should keep me nice and busy for a while: thanks!

There's an incredible amount of good stuff to go through. My "Favorites" bookshelf on fimfic has nearly 3M words among the stories, and that's just the longer, multichapter stories that I loved enough to reread from time to time. As Shoggoth said, Estee, Georg, and Skywriter (who wrote the two Cadance stories on the list) are a good place to start, having written many good stories across a variety of genres. Rune Soldier Dan and Eakin are two others with a lot of good works. Fimfic has a very good tagging system; simply enter your favorite characters, maybe a genre tag, and sort by rating to get some ideas. You'll want to make liberal use of the "Read-it-later" feature. Some thing catches your eye, just add it to the list.

Another must-read however, is vdrake's Changeling of the Guard; in which a exiled drone accidentally enlists in the Royal Guard of Canterlot (well before the Wedding, incidentally). Three thousand upvotes is hard to get this far past the fad days of the fandom; and this story deserves every one.

[BlueHamsterBean]

I mean, it's not like it isn't something I wouldn't have done myself, if I hadn't been so busy killing aliens by the bucket-load foir the past couple of days...

So no CON drain then; phew.

There's an incredible amount of good stuff to go through. My "Favorites" bookshelf on fimfic has nearly 3M words among the stories, and that's just the longer, multichapter stories that I loved enough to reread from time to time...

That’s... incredible to be honest. Boy do I have a lot of summer reading now!

Thanks for the advice too; I’ll be sure to remember the save for later feature!

Another must-read however, is vdrake's Changeling of the Guard; in which a exiled drone accidentally enlists in the Royal Guard of Canterlot (well before the Wedding, incidentally). Three thousand upvotes is hard to get this far past the fad days of the fandom; and this story deserves every one.

This sounds absolutely hilarious; I can’t wait to take a look: thanks!

[Miltonian]

Thanks! I remember: you helped put together quite the compelling story.

I mean, you made Chryssi in all her horrific glory somewhat relatable somehow (the side chats between the PCs in her cell helped; she obviously has... trust issues to put it mildly).

And I’m not saying it’s alicorns, but (insert ancient aliens meme here)

Oh, you read the whole thing! That does bring a smile to my face.

...And yes, the answer was totally alicorns. It was based off the line that the 'stars will aid in her escape' coupled with the four stars that appear around the moon when Nightmare Moon does, in fact, escape.

[BlueHamsterBean]

Oh, you read the whole thing! That does bring a smile to my face.

...And yes, the answer was totally alicorns. It was based off the line that the 'stars will aid in her escape' coupled with the four stars that appear around the moon when Nightmare Moon does, in fact, escape.

Well, I actually only read up until the point when the laser dragon (I forget his name at the moment) downed the players’ aircraft heading into the wastes to take the fight to Hyper Thought. (And I would have put the embarrased emoji here, but I forgot how to code it, and I’m on my phone.)

I got distracted by the vicissitudes of daily life as one does, though I intend to finish it at some point (speaking of summer reading...)

I inferred the alicorns bit from the evidence presented thus far (and I caught the inspiration too: a neat explanation for Nightmare Moon’s escape!)

I mean, when Sirius was defeated, he turned into a skeleton with glowing eyes... and Twilight said the same thing happened to her temporarily when she found out she was immortal after an assassination attempt... Coincidence? I think not!

[Aotrs Commander]

Whelp, finished my second X-Com 2 run.

Comparing statistics to Aotrs-Com 2 was interesting. a lot of it was much the same, but it took me longer to knobble the first chosen this time; but conversely, I got to colonel faster (despite thinking I was doign worse).



78 missions - only two more than last time supposedly, but a staggering 200 more aliens killed for some reason...! (Mayhaps I was more thorough about killing the reinforcements completely - could be helped by me starting out with the order that halts the timer while you're concealed...)

Hayalyn Haelarial blew Bleakbane's kill-count out of the water (and her sniper buddy probably got as many...)

It was interesting, playing with a (points-set) Not Created Equal, but with a mod to allow two extra squad slots. I used a lot more soldiers, but it spread the XP a bit thinner. (That said, I had three more colonels and unlike last time, the other six or so were pretty much all captain and above and most majors.) It was a bit self-balancing around the middle, because more soldiers on missions meant more tired soldiers, so I absolutely had to get a full two dozen set-up so I could rotate through through them. Though once I got over the hump, it was much easier.

I apparently did nearly +50% the posters (which is odd, considering I didn't intentionally do them more often than it was offered - could be just I had a lot more folks!) The addition of the community pose pack mod was probably the single best thing.

In fact, by biggest wish for X-Com 3 is being able to have three lines of proper text, so there can be a proper back-and-forth (since I tend to use the posters as more dialogue between the characters...)

[meto30]

Heya, Ponythread, long time no see.

My return to art which happened two weeks ago means that I returned to Pony as well - and that means I'm participating in this year's Equestria Daily Artist Training Grounds! I wanted to share what I've been up to artistically with you.
Note, all the artwork features mostly EQG-form Sunset Shimmer, because that's the overall theme of my ATG run this year.

Spoiler: Five pages of drawings enclosed within

Show

I've also been doing a lot of other drawings too! Anyone here want me to draw something? As long as it's humanoid or pony in shape, I can probably handle it! Feel free to ask. Should be a good way to challenge myself.

[Miltonian]

Well, I actually only read up until the point when the laser dragon (I forget his name at the moment) downed the players’ aircraft heading into the wastes to take the fight to Hyper Thought. (And I would have put the embarrased emoji here, but I forgot how to code it, and I’m on my phone.)

I got distracted by the vicissitudes of daily life as one does, though I intend to finish it at some point (speaking of summer reading...)

I inferred the alicorns bit from the evidence presented thus far (and I caught the inspiration too: a neat explanation for Nightmare Moon’s escape!)

I mean, when Sirius was defeated, he turned into a skeleton with glowing eyes... and Twilight said the same thing happened to her temporarily when she found out she was immortal after an assassination attempt... Coincidence? I think not!

It was certainly no coincidence!

Hi, meto! Good sketches. Far better than I could do. As for a challenge, how does pre-transformation Thorax sound?

[Rater202]

I've also been doing a lot of other drawings too! Anyone here want me to draw something? As long as it's humanoid or pony in shape, I can probably handle it! Feel free to ask. Should be a good way to challenge myself.

To clarify: Is this a commission situation or are you just asking for suggestions for writing practice?

[Manga Shoggoth]

Heya, Ponythread, long time no see.

Welcome back. Good to see you (and your art) again.

[meto30]

Thanks, everypony. No, Rater, this is for practice, and I won't be accepting pay for these. Thorax pre-transformation coming up!

[Form]

Heya, Ponythread, long time no see.

My return to art which happened two weeks ago means that I returned to Pony as well - and that means I'm participating in this year's Equestria Daily Artist Training Grounds! I wanted to share what I've been up to artistically with you.
Note, all the artwork features mostly EQG-form Sunset Shimmer, because that's the overall theme of my ATG run this year.

Those are some nice drawings of Sunset Shimmer! I enjoyed the bits of text too, seemingly interacting with the artist and/or viewer. Makes her seem more lively. ^^

[Rater202]

Thanks, everypony. No, Rater, this is for practice, and I won't be accepting pay for these. Thorax pre-transformation coming up!

An OC of mine is named Ashley Tan-Shin O'Leary. She is mixed race--Her mother was Japanese and her father was himself the son of an Irishman and a Chinese Woman.

She is ten years old, but due to being weak and sickly for most of her life(being able to stand under own own power whenever she wants to was a luxury until very recently.) she is rather short and skinny, and rather light framed: She's been confused for an eight or nine on occasion.

She greatly admires superheroes, especially Spider-Man, and is best described as "cute." Shoulder length black hair in a ponytail, green eyes, features that are best described as "ambiguously Asian"(she didn't know what kind(s) she was until she looked up the meanings of her parents names) with an average complexion. I've described her as button nosed.

She is a colossal geek.

She is also traumatized as hell do to a series of unfortunate events: It started when she was very little and they found out the reason she was sick all the time is becuase she's a mutant: She's a Marvel comics OC, based on the timeline of the main comics. It's mostly a matter of luck that a sentinel didn't rip the roof off her apartment.

Most recently, she got addicted to Alien Cannibalism, went on a rampage when she found out that the man who was indirectly responsible for her parents' murder couldn't be held accountable(and he mocked her over it) and is currently in denial about having ascended to the status of a minor Elder Godling as a direct result of that alien cannibalism.

If you are taking suggestions, draw her asking Fluttershy if she(Ashley) can have permission to rider her(Fluttershy's) bear. She could use the happy.

(If you take this suggestion, a link to wherever you upload your pictures would be appreciated, so I can share it with the forum thread for the story Ashley is from. It'd be wrong to do it without giving proper credit.)

Edit: Her default outfit is a t-shirt and poodle skirt over solid black tights.

[BlueHamsterBean]

Heya, Ponythread, long time no see.

My return to art which happened two weeks ago means that I returned to Pony as well - and that means I'm participating in this year's Equestria Daily Artist Training Grounds! I wanted to share what I've been up to artistically with you.

I've also been doing a lot of other drawings too! Anyone here want me to draw something? As long as it's humanoid or pony in shape, I can probably handle it! Feel free to ask. Should be a good way to challenge myself.

Those are some spiffy pictures of Sunset you drew there! The dialogue was fun (angry Sunset... the following paraphrase came to mind: “do not meddle in the affairs of unicorns, for they are fell and quick to anger”).

If you have the time/inclination, a drawing of a streamlined/sleek-looking version of an Engi from FTL: Faster Than Light would be awesome.

A ponified Engi would be hilarious.

This is oddly specific (and kinda niche), I know; if it doesn’t sound fun, no worries.

It was certainly no coincidence!

Figured

I’ve started reading the IC thread from where I left off. Didn’t get far this week: Love got the ship out of the sand and Scope found someone watching them.

Can’t wait to hear the story behind the EDF’s mysterious observer!

[Forum Explorer]

Heya, Ponythread, long time no see.

My return to art which happened two weeks ago means that I returned to Pony as well - and that means I'm participating in this year's Equestria Daily Artist Training Grounds! I wanted to share what I've been up to artistically with you.
Note, all the artwork features mostly EQG-form Sunset Shimmer, because that's the overall theme of my ATG run this year.

Spoiler: Five pages of drawings enclosed within

Show

I've also been doing a lot of other drawings too! Anyone here want me to draw something? As long as it's humanoid or pony in shape, I can probably handle it! Feel free to ask. Should be a good way to challenge myself.

Those are quite nice. My request would be of Ember in full dragon regalia staring down a challenge to her reign.

[meto30]

So, the things I should be drawing in the next few days are, to list:

• Thorax pre-transformation
• Ashley Tan-Shin O'Leary
• Engi from FTL (maybe ponified)
• Ember staring down a challenge to her reign

I'll get to those as part of my daily art routine! Ashley might take a while to complete, Rater; you've given me quite a task there, to interpret a text description to form a visual representation. XD We could maybe discuss further details to help her be recognisable? She is going into her own special slot. The rest I will do in order as I find time between work and other art stuff (most prominently the Rimworld art I'm doing and the EQD ATG 2020).

I like talking to the subjects I draw, especially in the "studies" (of which ATG2020 is one). Helps me feel their character and depict their personalities better, or at least that's what it feels like to me.

[Rater202]

So, the things I should be drawing in the next few days are, to list:

• Thorax pre-transformation
• Ashley Tan-Shin O'Leary
• Engi from FTL (maybe ponified)
• Ember staring down a challenge to her reign

I'll get to those as part of my daily art routine! Ashley might take a while to complete, Rater; you've given me quite a task there, to interpret a text description to form a visual representation. XD We could maybe discuss further details to help her be recognisable? She is going into her own special slot. The rest I will do in order as I find time between work and other art stuff (most prominently the Rimworld art I'm doing and the EQD ATG 2020).

I like talking to the subjects I draw, especially in the "studies" (of which ATG2020 is one). Helps me feel their character and depict their personalities better, or at least that's what it feels like to me.

Unfortunately, I don't have much beyond what I said other than that she's probably four-foot-two(and, again, light framed and on the skinny side) and that I meant "unitard" not "leggings" when I said solid black tights.

...Basically, there is no 100% official look for her.

If it's easier to draw, she has a superhero costume: Imagine Spider-Man's black suit, but dark blue on gold instead of white on black(so in pencils, the logo and eyes would be shaded). The Spider is highly stylized, with the main body essentially being a fat oval with the top two pairs of pointy "legs" forming right angles pointing up to her shoulders and the bottom two pairs of "legs" pointing down to her hips. Her ponytail pokes out of the back of the mask.

[DigoDragon]

My Shadowtrot project for the Starfinder system is pretty much complete now. I think I've gotten down everything I wanted for it. Now I just have to see if it actually works as intended or we have a boating mishap.

[Miltonian]

Meto! I saw the drawing and I am very impressed! Good job.

Digo, I am also a fan of this. If you decide to run a game, please do let me know.

[Manga Shoggoth]

My Shadowtrot project for the Starfinder system is pretty much complete now. I think I've gotten down everything I wanted for it. Now I just have to see if it actually works as intended or we have a boating mishap.

Well, it looks interesting, at least. Have fun with the game...

[t209]

So I've been playing Adventure League lately.
One of the players, a Kobold, kinda get me thinking about Spike.

Spoiler

Show

Complete with Apron, but he said he didn't watch My Little Pony. Mostly G1 since he used to work for a large monster (a Chaotic Good Copper Dragon though).

[BlueHamsterBean]

My Shadowtrot project for the Starfinder system is pretty much complete now. I think I've gotten down everything I wanted for it. Now I just have to see if it actually works as intended or we have a boating mishap.

Just read through it all; I love the chatter between trotters scattered throughout the doc (nice FO:E reference under the handless rules ).

I did have a couple questions/observations:
1.) The unicorn’s 1/day magic blast doesn’t say which statistic is used for the attack roll.
2.) The Kirin’s ponykinesis says it uses INT, but Kirin don’t get an INT bonus. Is this a design choice?

Otherwise, it was all crystal clear!

Meto! I saw the drawing and I am very impressed! Good job.

Digo, I am also a fan of this. If you decide to run a game, please do let me know.

I can’t wait to see this rendition of Thorax!
... Where is it posted? (I really need to learn to code the embarrassed face emoji...)

Also, if you feel like taking a risk on a Starfinder newbie, I would also be interested if you end up running a Shadowtrot game DigoDragon.

[Aotrs Commander]

So... And I appreciate that Manga Shoggoth MIGHT be the only one to get the reference, but it just occured to me that, as I rewatch Supergran's second season on DVD, that the titular granny is "Granny Smith." (For the same joke, one suspects...)

And now I'm wondering if our dear Granny is hiding something, and if she's quietly been foiling the Equestrian equivilent of the Scunner Campbell behind AJ and Big Mac's back...

...

Actually, Campbell is a sort of horse, so he probably doesn't EVEN need a ponfied name.



The rest of you. Supergran. Look it up, it's worth being educated on zero-budget mid-1980s British children's telly. (Definitely the theme song, because who doesn't want to hear Billy Connolly sing about how Spider-Man, Batman and Superman are "a bunch of faires" compared to Supergran. For one, you probably couldn't DARE get away with it just on a IP basis these days. Ah, simpler times...)



There's something for you meto, if you get REALLY bored, ponified Supergran and Scunner Campbell. (They both have distinctive outfits, the former especially so as to simplify the whole Stunt Double thing...!)

[DigoDragon]

Well, it looks interesting, at least. Have fun with the game...

Thanks! I'll take Interesting as a capital compliment!

Just read through it all; I love the chatter between trotters scattered throughout the doc (nice FO:E reference under the handless rules ).

The chatter in the Shadowrun books was always my favorite bits.

They were often amusing and informative as they trade conspiracies and info. :3

I did have a couple questions/observations:
1.) The unicorn’s 1/day magic blast doesn’t say which statistic is used for the attack roll.
2.) The Kirin’s ponykinesis says it uses INT, but Kirin don’t get an INT bonus. Is this a design choice?

Thanks for the feedback! I corrected both points. Unicorns now use Int for the attack roll, and the Kirin Ponykinesis should have used Cha (it was a cut/paste oversight).

Also, if you feel like taking a risk on a Starfinder newbie, I would also be interested if you end up running a Shadowtrot game DigoDragon.

Newbie status isn't a big deal for me. When I get the time to put a game together I can let you know!

[BlueHamsterBean]

The chatter in the Shadowrun books was always my favorite bits.

They were often amusing and informative as they trade conspiracies and info. :3

Thanks for the feedback! I corrected both points. Unicorns now use Int for the attack roll, and the Kirin Ponykinesis should have used Cha (it was a cut/paste oversight).

Newbie status isn't a big deal for me. When I get the time to put a game together I can let you know!

Well written flavor text can add a lot to a game.

Happy to help! :D The copy/paste giveth, and the copy/paste taketh away for sure.

Thank you very much! In the meantime, I’ll read through the Starfinder SRD (keeping the modifications to themes in mind)