My Little Pony XXXIX: There is no Pegasus Mafia!

[otakuryoga]

yeah the change to and from DST used to be the same as everyone else until last year or year before when they moved the change around to
"help save the planet" http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/3623/applejackliar.png

[Deadly]

yeah the change to and from DST used to be the same as everyone else until last year or year before when they moved the change around to
"help save the planet" http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/3623/applejackliar.png

Really? Dammit, as if time zones weren't messing things up bad enough

Good thing they're pretty quick about getting the new episodes uploaded

[Pokonic]

Perhaps The Hub are using Pony Logic. Either that, or Pinkie Pie is the new CEO. Knowing her, she probably put Derpy in charge of scheduling.

" I just dont know what went wrong!"

[erikun]

Ah yes, I'd forgotten that the U.S. decided to change when daylight savings time happens. Quite silly, but I can't exactly pretend like it doesn't happen.

Re: Season 2 Episode 21 (Dragon Quest)

Fun episode. I liked it better than Secret of My Excess and Owl's Well That Ends Well. I think that will be all from me for now.

[Nameless]

" I just dont know what went wrong!"

This mental image amuses me. http://i.imgur.com/2lTPE.png

[Kairaven]

OMG, I still had Hub up and they showed a clip of the next episode during commercial!

it was awesome... and now I need a forward-time machine.

[Deadly]

Wohoo for Youtube and quick uploading.

New Episode, first thoughts
I guess Fluttershy never got over her fear of big dragons.

Really, Rarity? If that's some of your best work on that custume, I think you need a new special talent :smalltongue:

Hehe, loved the "one of Crackle's cousins" part.

Oh, and I'd love to see Celestia kick that dragon's tail to show him up.

Phoenixes! Oooh... and now Twilight has a dragon, a phoenix and an owl living with her. Sure hope she's not planning on getting any more pets/assistants, because we're already barely seeing Owlowiscious any. Will we see this phoenix again, I wonder?

Nice episode, good to see Merriwether Williams write one that (hopefully) won't be torn to shreds. I was getting kinda sad for her.

[Anarion]

Hehe, Derpy as a Hub television manager. Needs fan art.

New episode thoughts
I think that was the best of the Merriweather Williams episodes for certain. She made use of Fluttershy's new assertiveness (and slight hints of FlutterDash shipping with the whole butterfly migration thing) and then had a fairly internally consistent episode. The lesson was similar but not the same as Sweet and Elite, since that one was more about remembering where you come from and this one was more about how self-identity is distinct from physical traits.

I also liked that they reused the red and green dragon models from previous episodes, as that added a fair bit to continuity as well.

Twilight's magic got a nice bit of definition here as well, as we saw that
1) her teleport doesn't have much a range limit since she got all the way back to Ponyville
2) teleporting more than one target or teleporting moving targets (or some combo of both) is hard.
2a) Specifically, 3 running ponies and a dragon all moving at the same pace is just about at the limit of Twilight's abilities.

Phoenixes living in the wild was interesting. I wonder how they protect their nests during the dying and rebirth period. Maybe they stagger each other so that one parent is always at full power?

Anyway, good overall episode that showed that Spike is a good guy and that the ponies will always look out for him. Too bad we didn't get to see Rainbow Dash tangle with some airborne dragons before Twilight ported them out, but oh well.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Wait... the new episode already aired? :smallfrown: Did they change the schedule again?

No same time its been for awhile now.

Oh wait... Daylight Savings Time in America.

[MCerberus]

Episode:

It seems like Spike's big motivation is that he's worried about the 'friend zone' with Rarity.

[Nameless]

Wohoo for Youtube and quick uploading.

New Episode, first thoughts
I guess Fluttershy never got over her fear of big dragons.

Really, Rarity? If that's some of your best work on that custume, I think you need a new special talent :smalltongue:

Hehe, loved the "one of Crackle's cousins" part.

Oh, and I'd love to see Celestia kick that dragon's tail to show him up.

Phoenixes! Oooh... and now Twilight has a dragon, a phoenix and an owl living with her. Sure hope she's not planning on getting any more pets/assistants, because we're already barely seeing Owlowiscious any. Will we see this phoenix again, I wonder?

Nice episode, good to see Merriwether Williams write one that (hopefully) won't be torn to shreds. I was getting kinda sad for her.

I'm in that awkward faze I get into every Saturday; To watch the episode on Youtube now? Or to wait until someone's uploaded it in half-decent quality so that I can actually appreciate the animation. DAMN YOU pixelated 360p! >_<

[Deadly]

I'm in that awkward faze I get into every Saturday; To watch the episode on Youtube now? Or to wait until someone's uploaded it in half-decent quality so that I can actually appreciate the animation. DAMN YOU pixelated 360p! >_<

I don't mind the bad quality for my first viewing, because I always watch the new episodes three or more times during the evening and the first time I just watch it for the plot :smallbiggrin: I can appreciate the animation and details on my second and third viewings.

[Nameless]

I don't mind the bad quality for my first viewing, because I always watch the new episodes three or more times during the evening and the first time I just watch it for the plot :smallbiggrin: I can appreciate the animation and details on my second and third viewings.

I've done this before, but hear that is a Fluttershy episode. FLUTTERSHY. It requires full appreciation first time round.

[Pokonic]

Interesting note:

Anyone else think they missed the chance for a epic brick joke when they had the Dragonshy dragon breath on him, rather than the green one a few feet away?

[MCerberus]

Interesting note:

Anyone else think they missed the chance for a epic brick joke when they had the Dragonshy dragon breath on him, rather than the green one a few feet away?

You mean the two dragons so far seen in this show other than spike got in a fight and 'accidentally' assaulted the jerkwads in the trench?

[Deadly]

I've done this before, but hear that is a Fluttershy episode. FLUTTERSHY. It requires full appreciation first time round.

Fluttershy? It's a Spike episode.

Anyway, I find that I can't pay attention to the animation and details when I'm also following the plot anyway. So I barely notice the bad quality.

[Bayonet Priest]

New episode:

Ohmigod Crackle is best dragon :smallbiggrin:

Also Spike has a pet phoenix, this is cool.

And Dash at the butterfly migration was hilarious

[Soras Teva Gee]

For those interested:

Hurricane Fluttershy clip (http://derpyhoovesnews.com/hurricane-fluttershy-preview/)

That I'm guessed aired. Imma have to stop watching rewinds and start watching reruns.


Interesting note:

Anyone else think they missed the chance for a epic brick joke when they had the Dragonshy dragon breath on him, rather than the green one a few feet away?

Yes, yes I do

[Beacon of Chaos]

Hey. I've been lurking around here for a while now, but decided to make my prescence known in order to comment on this picture.
Welcome!
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/eede1d8f1abe2cf860c902818c54beda/112059%20-%20animated%20pinkie_pie.gif
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/5497d7fa9e7d1e47bfb3f391ea28bb9f/106459%20-%20caption%20fluttershy%20Hubble%20rainbow_dash%20 roflbot%20welcome_to_the_herd.jpg


Ah, I thought I saw it referred to as a dub. Yes, boku is acceptible although slightly masculine for girls to use and fits Rainbow well.

My comments still apply to BrazilDash though.
Brazilian Dash is male?


Say it out loud.
...Oh, I see.

Eh.


I don't mind the bad quality for my first viewing, because I always watch the new episodes three or more times during the evening and the first time I just watch it for the plot :smallbiggrin: I can appreciate the animation and details on my second and third viewings.
You-

Nah... too easy.

New episode:
Pretty good episode I thought. A very good episode for Spike, and some really good stuff for the mane 6, well, except Pinkie (who has been stealing the spotlight for the past few eps anyway) and AJ. Glad to see Fluttershy is getting the hang of this assertiveness thing (and she's pretty tough to knock down Rainbow like that!). Pity she hasn't gotten over her fear of dragons though. Phoenixes are pretty damn awesome. No wonder Celestia has one.

Speaking of the pony princess, interesting that the dragons knew her, but weren't particularily afraid. I wonder what was in that letter? It was clearly directed to Spike.... Maybe it was along the lines of:

Dear Spike,

I just thought I should warn you, don't go on the dragon migration. It'll suck.

Love Princess Celestia

Also, best line:

"I thought you were pretty nutty, but I've done plenty of nutty things!"

"WE KNOW!"

http://i.imgur.com/EAqtS.png

[MCerberus]

Another thought about the episode
Dragons seem to be better parents than what many fans assumed.

There appeared to be a lot of them making sure that the kid dragons don't do anything too stupid, yet letting them play and take lava baths. They also seemed to have provided a hoard for the youngsters to eat.

[Deadly]

For those interested:

Hurricane Fluttershy clip (http://derpyhoovesnews.com/hurricane-fluttershy-preview/)

Future episode
So apparently the rain for all of Equestria comes from one little reservoir. It seems Equestria is not a terribly big place.


New episode:
Speaking of the pony princess, interesting that the dragons knew her, but weren't particularily afraid.

Today's episode
I think they referred to her as just "a pony princess", correct me if I'm wrong. So I would imagine that just as ponies know nothing about dragons, dragons know nothing about ponies.

[Athaniar]

European Daylight Savings starts... 27th, I think? Anyway, next week's will also be affected.

Episode thoughts:

Dragons (at least adults) are awesome! Phoenixes are awesome! Assertive Fluttershy is nice.

Was a good episode. Not one of the best, but good.



For those interested:

Hurricane Fluttershy clip (http://derpyhoovesnews.com/hurricane-fluttershy-preview/)

Next Episode:

That is one epic preview.

...But what is up with that bodybuilder pony? That guy looks scarier than the jelly pony.

[Selpharia]

Oh, "Crisis system" is what that set of characters means. That was driving me nuts. That was a pretty good comic, almost perfectly in line with typical Luna/Celestia relations.
]

It's actually something like Extraordinary Times Moon Movement System, but I shortened it to sound a little better.

New Episode

I think this was the best Spike episode so far, since he wasn't holding an idiot or personality shift ball for the duration. Spike/Rarity was cute.

[Pokonic]

Another thought about the episode
Dragons seem to be better parents than what many fans assumed.

There appeared to be a lot of them making sure that the kid dragons don't do anything too stupid, yet letting them play and take lava baths. They also seemed to have provided a hoard for the youngsters to eat.

Well, the nicest dragon we have seen so far still tried to roast a youngster. Also, they could probably just go into any hole in the ground in equestria and scoop up a months worth of snacks for there kids. Still, the distinct lack of dragons rending eachother limb-from-limb over that hourd makes me wish to think that dragon magic, much like baby ponies, can be barely controled by a young dragon. Hence, why all the teens are not hulking out over those gems.

Anyone else wants to think that the Dragonshy Dragon (didn't the fandom name him Basil?) is the parent of the lead teen (lets call him Paprika, because thats a funny name) , for the sake of unifing fandom?

[Nameless]

Fluttershy? It's a Spike episode.

Anyway, I find that I can't pay attention to the animation and details when I'm also following the plot anyway. So I barely notice the bad quality.

Then the internet lied to me. I thought two Fluttershy episodes within such a short space of one another was to good to be true. ._. (unless there's another Fluttershy episode on the way and I'm getting mixed up. This Hurricane Fluttershy might be it, but I refuse to watch the preview. )

[Anarion]

It's actually something like Extraordinary Times Moon Movement System, but I shortened it to sound a little better.

New Episode

I think this was the best Spike episode so far, since he wasn't holding an idiot or personality shift ball for the duration. Spike/Rarity was cute.


New ep
Yeah I think this is a really good point. Spike's motivation was consistent throughout the episode, but he didn't even have to think long about protecting the phoenix egg. That shows quite well that he's a good person. No inordinate stupidity or character derailment.

[Gamerlord]

Then the internet lied to me. I thought two Fluttershy episodes within such a short space of one another was to good to be true. ._. (unless there's another Fluttershy episode on the way and I'm getting mixed up)
Next week's episode will be a Fluttershy/Rainbow Dash episode.

So, episode thoughts:
A Merriweather episode that isn't bad? It's a miracle! I thought it was quite good, though it was a shame we didn't get any world building. Also, that Phoenix baby is going to be important at some point, my troper-sense is tingling.

[Nameless]

Next week's episode will be a Fluttershy/Rainbow Dash episode.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/haplo3k/Reaction%20GIFs/excited-MLP-Fluttershy-Canttalksqueaking.jpg

[Soras Teva Gee]

BY EPISODE!

Dragon Quest:
Best Spike Episode but he's still got the lowest tier episodes of the Mane characters

On the whole a good but only okay episode. I liked it but it lacked any particular shine. The theme seemed to be "Boys Vs Girls" as represented by Ponies and Dragons. C'mon a belching contest, wrestling, belly flop contest, its a collection of stereotypically male activities. I'm kinda a mixed result because while certainly we all know it okay to like girly things I wish there had been some explicit sympathy for the dragon's activities too. Yes raiding a nest too kill an unborn phoenix or two is horrible, however the rest was still essentially harmless.

I just think a little bit of spin would have helped, remember when Spike said he didn't want any of the girly frou-frou stuff in Ticket Master. Now he's proud of wearing an apron. Yes there's a lot of good for those into its okay to break gender sterotypes, but I think the boy end of the spectrum could have used some of the "that's okay" spelled out this episode too.

Note despite this rant I still liked the episode. Finally acknowledging Spike's lack of wings gives me hope he can grow them. Phoenixes are apparently an crossbreeding of trolls and awesome. And now Spike has his own companion. They need to do another pet episode, seriously.

Hurricane Fluttershy:

Well Deadly they did say this season right? So it could just be for a short period of time. However you probably have something of a point I but I'm not meteorologist enough to guess what the sort of relative volumes one would need here.

I'm just glad to see Rainbow apparently taking charge of something. And already some great gags to see

Ponyville Confidential and MMMystery on the Friendship Express:

What the last two episodes before the finale? Yep well apparently that puzzle game is loaded with spoiler pics from all these episodes and here's a gallery. (http://imgur.com/a/zIUJd#0)

However this one in particular for our upcoming whodunnit...
http://i.imgur.com/18N3w.png

...combined with the title tells me all I need to know right about the episode's plot.

The cake... they ated it... all of them.

Seriously its obvious right? But still I'm betting on some great viewing material out the sure trainwreck of Twilight and Pinkie playing Watson and Holmes. And I'm sure the shippers will too.

Plus Pony Joe, a Griffin(?), Matilda and an easy Visual Pun, yay!

Also inb4 Portal jokes

Nothing big that might be from Ponyville Confidential but some promising bits.

[Pokonic]

So, episode thoughts:
A Merriweather episode that isn't bad? It's a miracle! I thought is was quite good, though it was a shame we didn't get any world building. Also, that Phoenix baby is going to be important at some point, my troper-sense is tingling.

That baby? It's going to pester the other bird in the house to no end,and eventualy ends up in the part-time care of the other flaming bird that Spike knows.

Also, Dragons have been seen to not rend each other limb from limb, and that wings grow in as they age. Also, scale color might have to do with there fire color, and none where shocked when the letter popped out from his breath, so dragon's might use there breath for that exact use.

[Athaniar]

BY EPISODE!
However this one in particular for our upcoming whodunnit...
http://i.imgur.com/18N3w.png

...combined with the title tells me all I need to know right about the episode's plot.

The cake... they ated it... all of them.

Seriously its obvious right? But still I'm betting on some great viewing material out the sure trainwreck of Twilight and Pinkie playing Watson and Holmes. And I'm sure the shippers will too.

Plus Pony Joe, a Griffin(?), Matilda and an easy Visual Pun, yay!

Also inb4 Portal jokes

Nothing big that might be from Ponyville Confidential but some promising bits.
Future Episode:
Heh, fun to see another griffon. This episode looks rather cool.

[AlterForm]

New Ep
2) teleporting more than one target or teleporting moving targets (or some combo of both) is hard.
2a) Specifically, 3 running ponies and a dragon all moving at the same pace is just about at the limit of Twilight's abilities.

New Ep (Dragon Quest)
It's like trying to shoot a bullet with a smaller bullet, blindfolded, while riding a horse!

Also, +1 @ Crackle.

[Deadly]

Dragon Quest, on dragons
A thougth occured to me. It seems like all the dragons we have seen so far are male. Maybe there is a reason for that. Perhaps all female dragons live in one place and the great dragon migration is really all about male dragons setting out to mate. That's why there weren't any very young dragons aside from Spike in the migration, that we saw at least. This could explain why these dragons didn't recognize Spike as one (unless they were just having fun with him, which is quite likely), maybe they had never seen a lot of baby dragons because baby dragons live with the females until they grow up and go off into the world.

It could also explain their generally bad behaviour. They're basically a bunch of men and adolescent boys out from under the "watchful eye" of the women :smalltongue:

Dragon Quest, on birds
The female phoenix (at least the most feminine-looking one to me) looks more like Philomena than the male phoenix. Was Philomena's gender ever identified? I always assumed it was male, but now I'm not sure.

Dragon Quest, on Spike
So at the end, we see this
http://i.imgur.com/AvdiS.png
Why is Spike taped on to the picture there? He's been with Twilight from before she knew her friends, before she moved to Ponyville, so... I can't make sense of that picture.


Dragon Quest, on music
Just wanted to say I loved the raw background music in this one.

[Pokonic]

Dragon Quest, on dragons

Dragon Quest, on Spike
So at the end, we see this
http://i.imgur.com/AvdiS.png
Why is Spike taped on to the picture there? He's been with Twilight from before she knew her friends, before she moved to Ponyville, so... I can't make sense of that picture.



It's the only picture Twilight has that has all the ponies he considers family (Celestia is more like a super-powerful grandparent inhis eye, nice but distant) in a group, and as such he put his picture in there to make it so that he has a photo of all his "family".

"Sniff"

[Athaniar]

Dragon Quest, on music
Just wanted to say I loved the raw background music in this one.
Dragon Quest
This. I want the background music from when Spike travelled so much.

[Kairaven]

Dragon Quest, on dragons
A thougth occured to me. It seems like all the dragons we have seen so far are male. Maybe there is a reason for that. Perhaps all female dragons live in one place and the great dragon migration is really all about male dragons setting out to mate. That's why there weren't any very young dragons aside from Spike in the migration, that we saw at least. This could explain why these dragons didn't recognize Spike as one (unless they were just having fun with him, which is quite likely), maybe they had never seen a lot of baby dragons because baby dragons live with the females until they grow up and go off into the world.

It could also explain their generally bad behaviour. They're basically a bunch of men and adolescent boys out from under the "watchful eye" of the women :smalltongue:

Dragon Quest, on birds
The female phoenix (at least the most feminine-looking one to me) looks more like Philomena than the male phoenix. Was Philomena's gender ever identified? I always assumed it was male, but now I'm not sure.

Dragon Quest, on Spike
So at the end, we see this
http://i.imgur.com/AvdiS.png
Why is Spike taped on to the picture there? He's been with Twilight from before she knew her friends, before she moved to Ponyville, so... I can't make sense of that picture.


new episode Response

1: Interesting theory, could make a good fic, in parody nature documentary style. Equestria Geographic perhaps.

2: Yes, Philomena is a she, Celestia used "she" and "her" when referring to philomena.

3: That looks like Twilight's birthday party in canterlot during Sweet & Elite, which Spike wasn't at. But I thought it was something that there are a lot of main 6 pictures but very few included Spike.

[Deadly]

It's the only picture Twilight has that has all the ponies he considers family (Celestia is more like a super-powerful grandparent inhis eye, nice but distant) in a group, and as such he put his picture in there to make it so that he has a photo of all his "family".

"Sniff"

Just seems odd that Twilight wouldn't have any pictures of them all, including Spike, together. I mean, unless he really is rather ignored by them.


new episode Response

1: Interesting theory, could make a good fic, in parody nature documentary style. Equestria Geographic perhaps.

2: Yes, Philomena is a she, Celestia used "she" and "her" when referring to philomena.

3: That looks like Twilight's birthday party in canterlot during Sweet & Elite, which Spike wasn't at. But I thought it was something that there are a lot of main 6 pictures but very few included Spike.

You know, now that I think about it I'm not sure why I ever thought Philomena was male. I'm not even sure I ever did before now, for some reason the realization that she's a she just struck me as surprising today. Strange.

[Copper]

New Episode Thoughts
I really liked the premise. It basically seemed to me like Spike was questioning his own masculinity after growing up in a girl-dominated culture. This seemed very realistic and also very interesting. I loved the travel montage, but as soon as we got introduced to the younger dragons... I lost interest. I wanted them to be portrayed in a more subtle and strange way, so that it was truly alienating for Spike. Instead the dragons was just portrayed as stereotypical teenage boys. The resolution was obvious, and their personalities just seemed lazy. Also, since I was seeing the whole episode through the lens of gender (Ponies= girls, dragons= boys) I found the fact that the way ponies deal with scary dragons is running very disappointing. I mean between two unicorns and Rainbow Dash, those ponies could probably kick the dragons' butts! Anyway, interesting premie, overall disappointing episode.

[Beacon of Chaos]

New episode
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/6f928060fd70dda07c8f84e384612e82/150885%20-%20Dragon_Quest%20rainbow_dash%20rarity%20twilight _sparkle.png

[Pokonic]

Just seems odd that Twilight wouldn't have any pictures of them all, including Spike, together. I mean, unless he really is rather ignored by them.



You know, now that I think about it I'm not sure why I ever thought Philomena was male. I'm not even sure I ever did before now, for some reason the realization that she's a she just struck me as surprising today. Strange.

1. Well, Spike usualy never goes with them on there trips. Last time he went with them to a unfamilier place was,what, Appleussa?

2. It's the trolling. Rarly are the jokers in a childerens show female.

@Kairaven
"And here we have the noble griffon, currantly grooming. Let's see what she is doi-"

"Hey, jerkoffs! How did you get into my house! Get out!"

"This female is startled by our advancment, lets close in for a cleaner sho-SNAP-oh Celestia, my wings!"

[Lix Lorn]

Episode
I liked it.
The dragons were kinda... well, obvious. Pure stereotype. Plus, even the jerkiest of teenage boys wouldn't be asses to a baby they don't know.
Apart from that it was great, and phoenixes in purefire mode was cool.

[thubby]

new ep thoughts
im going with "called it"
that aside, why no pinkie and AJ?

[BlasTech]

Dragon Quest, on Spike
So at the end, we see this
http://i.imgur.com/AvdiS.png
Why is Spike taped on to the picture there? He's been with Twilight from before she knew her friends, before she moved to Ponyville, so... I can't make sense of that picture.



Newep

I like to think he's always the photographer. I know there are precious little photos of me around for just that reason :P

I liked the New ep, enough to put it at the border between mid and top tier. Dragons were a little stereotypical male, but given all the strong male ponies we've seen, not to mention the whole message of RD that being a girl =/= being girly, I saw them less as stereotypical males and more as stereotypical jerk teenagers.

Did want to see the ponies beat the stuffing out of the dragons, especially after what is now my favourite line in the show. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK7Q-AFhdXs&feature=related)

Only other thing that bugged me slightly was the egg, kept thinking back to the fanfic It Takes A Village, and thought spike should've wanted to give the egg back to its parents, but I guess the idea was that they flew off and left it behind?

To make up for the spoiler about new-ep, have some non-spoiler pictures


http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/76d1af8b43c0576129d314005b326467/150929%20-%20artist%3Agiantmosquito%20Bonbon%20heartstrings% 20irish%20Lyra%20lyra_heartsrings%20st._patrick%27 s_day.jpg
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/92d948931380468f2ef36c09f8f599e7/150950%20-%20Alicorn%20artist%3Astein225%20covered_by_150965 %20deleteme%20duplicate%20luna%20princess%20scener y%20Stars.png
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/ddfc620f177b9b2ce830c9db42e02714/150941%20-%20tagme%20twilight_sparkle.jpg
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/1d9caf7281535d69e8b14beef17e57cc/150933%20-%20iroh%20pinkamenia_diane_pie%20pinkie_pie%20uncl e_iroh.png
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/065/4/4/luna_by_imanika-d4rwd82.jpg
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/050/2/d/celestia_by_imanika-d4qah2i.jpg

Large
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/f3f0d3fb213753cd70f3b223251bfbac/150985%20-%20tagme.png

[Kairaven]

okay, seriously, the best thing in this Episode?:


Crackle the dragon. Second! Best! Dragon! Evar!

seriously he's about to replace Trogdor in my heart as best dragon.

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/da8aa377b0cd0ced0e1b528b2acba1b3/150813%20-%20artist%3ADraikJack%20Crackle%20Crackle_is_the_b est_pony.png

[Beacon of Chaos]

Newep

Did want to see the ponies beat the stuffing out of the dragons, especially after what is now my favourite line in the show. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK7Q-AFhdXs&feature=related)
Oh gods yes, that was amazing. Rarity actually being threatening and awesome came right outta nowhere and I loved it!


okay, seriously, the best thing in this Episode?:


Crackle the dragon. Second! Best! Dragon! Evar!

seriously he's about to replace Trogdor in my heart as best dragon.

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/da8aa377b0cd0ced0e1b528b2acba1b3/150813%20-%20artist%3ADraikJack%20Crackle%20Crackle_is_the_b est_pony.png

New episode:
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/7a3eb34b3a8c1366a9237ffa6463314b/150807%20-%20artist%3Akarzahnii%20Crackle%20derpy_hooves%20D itzy_Doo.png

Crackle needs to be in the background of every episode from now on.

Come to think of it, was Derpy in this episode?

[Pokonic]

okay, seriously, the best thing in this Episode?:


Crackle the dragon. Second! Best! Dragon! Evar!

seriously he's about to replace Trogdor in my heart as best dragon.

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/da8aa377b0cd0ced0e1b528b2acba1b3/150813%20-%20artist%3ADraikJack%20Crackle%20Crackle_is_the_b est_pony.png


Heh, she looks like something from Fosters. From the bumby hide to those eight little feet.


..........

Waitaminutenow.

[Deadly]

Newep

I like to think he's always the photographer. I know there are precious little photos of me around for just that reason :P

Ah, that does make sense actually... thanks

[Mando Knight]

Doing this as I watch:
Crackles? Nice gag that kinda-justifies the terribly obvious costume.

"Whoever makes the biggest lava splash is the ultimate dragon!"
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100103155805/yugioh/images/a/a2/BlueEyesUltimateDragonJMP-EN-ScR-LE.png

[Aotrs Commander]

New episode initial reactions:

Bwahaha! Awesome! And hilariously funny! The Crackle gag was priceless!

Spike has a pet, like the rest of the Mane cast now - and fraggin' phoenix as well. So I say to you, FIE! FIE on all your Spike-ends-up-sad-and-alone stories! Because Spike has a companion as long-lived as Celestia's! Huzzah! Stick that in your sniper rifle and smoke something! (I have been playing to much ME3 haven't I?)

Rarity does seem very fond of Spike, doesn't she? (Dash, surprisingly, as well. They did always seem to click fairly well, in my opinion...) Now, is it merely co-incidence that this episode had his sister/mother figure and the two ponies I reckon to be his best match so terribly concerned...? Probably, but it was interesting nonetheless. (RD's loyalty streak shining though at any rate.)

Those dragons are not only jerks, but flat-out Evil. Casual murder of sentient children? Wow. That's pretty dark even by my standards... Even if one ascribes phoenixes to that sort of semi-animal level that Pokemon seem to be dipicted as, that's still... surprisingly dark.

Methinks Spike should have gone and found some other dragon to talk to other thatn Evil Frat Boy dragons. Also, aside from the casual Evil, they were pretty crappy villains as villains go, far too steriotypical.

Also stupid. Hey, dragon fratboy fraktards, that "sissy" Princess could kick your sorry arses all the way to the moon and back, probably literally. Rasing the freaking SUN mean anything to you? No? Oh, they totally need their arses kicking. (It totally would have been hilarious if they found out ponies have superpowers when Twi, Rarity and RD kicked their asses, because make no mistake, the ponies would have won that scuffle hooves down!)

Speaking of that, aww, lookit Rarity all ready to get her hooves violently messy in dragon inards for her Spikey-Wikey. I'm going to totally stand by that one as Evidence, so there!

(In seriousness, it could be interpreted either way, it's ambiguous enough. At any rate, this episode makes it clear that at the very least, Rarity considers Spike a very close friend.)

I also liked that Spike didn't just go completely gaga when being... "complimented" by Rarity at the start. I think his reaction was actually far more realistic, than if he'd just done the hearts-in-eyes-mindless-drooling that usually gets protrayed in fanfic typically. Bonus points for that.

One has to wonder what that letter from Princess C was.

And also what the dragons were migrating for, and by heck, for a rare an unusal creature, wow were there a lot of them. One assumes that was like the global population. Council of dragons, maybe? While the youngsters play, the elder dragons discuss state affairs or something? Were they are females there at all? Were those the only young dragons there?

This also would seem to indicate that dragons do not have a nation as such, as many fanfics have them, but live more like traditional dragons, mostly solitary. And this goes with something I've said before - Spike likely won't grow up to be like other dragons, won't grow old to become some sort of lesser, wild mostly instinct-driven creature like the other older dragons we've seen, because he's been raised by ponies (and so long as he keeps a lid on his Greed Growth). Spike is very much a social creature, and that makes to sad, old Spike stories jsut more unecessarily bleak.

I really liked this episode, overall, ranking up there in my short list of favourites. Two cracking Spike episodes this season...really can't complain!

Edit: Post-thread commentary...


episode review:
- and baby phoenix... more additional pet? not sure what I feel about that. I feel that if Spike were to have a pet, he should probably have something more unique.

On the other hand, it gives him a pet with no expiration date - one, that, like Philomena, can stay with him for centuries is he lives that long. I think that was a good call. The fact it's a flame-based inherently magical creature makes it several shades more awesome that everypony else's pets (yes, even Tank.)


Hehe, Derpy as a Hub television manager. Needs fan art.

New episode thoughts
I think that was the best of the Merriweather Williams episodes for certain. She made use of Fluttershy's new assertiveness (and slight hints of FlutterDash shipping with the whole butterfly migration thing) and then had a fairly internally consistent episode. The lesson was similar but not the same as Sweet and Elite, since that one was more about remembering where you come from and this one was more about how self-identity is distinct from physical traits.

I also liked that they reused the red and green dragon models from previous episodes, as that added a fair bit to continuity as well.

Twilight's magic got a nice bit of definition here as well, as we saw that
1) her teleport doesn't have much a range limit since she got all the way back to Ponyville
2) teleporting more than one target or teleporting moving targets (or some combo of both) is hard.
2a) Specifically, 3 running ponies and a dragon all moving at the same pace is just about at the limit of Twilight's abilities.

Phoenixes living in the wild was interesting. I wonder how they protect their nests during the dying and rebirth period. Maybe they stagger each other so that one parent is always at full power?

Anyway, good overall episode that showed that Spike is a good guy and that the ponies will always look out for him. Too bad we didn't get to see Rainbow Dash tangle with some airborne dragons before Twilight ported them out, but oh well.

Big kudos for using the teleport, because we'd have all been saying "why didn't Twilight just teleport" if she hadn't - and extra bonus points for showing her strength and skill improving.

I also noted Fluttershy's new-found confidence. That and her bit with the windows really stole the pre-credit section!


Dragon Quest, on dragons
A thougth occured to me. It seems like all the dragons we have seen so far are male. Maybe there is a reason for that. Perhaps all female dragons live in one place and the great dragon migration is really all about male dragons setting out to mate. That's why there weren't any very young dragons aside from Spike in the migration, that we saw at least. This could explain why these dragons didn't recognize Spike as one (unless they were just having fun with him, which is quite likely), maybe they had never seen a lot of baby dragons because baby dragons live with the females until they grow up and go off into the world.

It could also explain their generally bad behaviour. They're basically a bunch of men and adolescent boys out from under the "watchful eye" of the women :smalltongue:

Dragon migration as a "lads holiday?" That's a very interesting idea - I'd have to say, given that aside from the Evil Fratboys, as the rest of the dragons seemed to be mainly lying around (and not conversing/mating/etc) that seems a fairly plausible reason. I kind like it actually...


Oh gods yes, that was amazing. Rarity actually being threatening and awesome came right outta nowhere and I loved it!

Yes. Very much yes. I felt almost as vindicated by that line as by the falling scene in Secrets of my Excess.

[Lix Lorn]

More episode thoughts, some inspired by lichy
Hmm. Speaking of the bad end stories, isn't spike pretty close to Celestia anyway? Doesn't make sense.

Also, these dragons still seem more talky than grown up dragons. How does greed growth factor into them?

And yes. That Rarity line=awesome. And they woulda won.

[otakuryoga]

Dragon Quest, on dragons
A thougth occured to me. It seems like all the dragons we have seen so far are male. Maybe there is a reason for that. Perhaps all female dragons live in one place and the great dragon migration is really all about male dragons setting out to mate. That's why there weren't any very young dragons aside from Spike in the migration, that we saw at least. This could explain why these dragons didn't recognize Spike as one (unless they were just having fun with him, which is quite likely), maybe they had never seen a lot of baby dragons because baby dragons live with the females until they grow up and go off into the world.

It could also explain their generally bad behaviour. They're basically a bunch of men and adolescent boys out from under the "watchful eye" of the women :smalltongue:



one of the teens did ask him if he made the migration riding his mothers back. and there were enough body types(especially among the teens themselves) that i dont think we can determine sex that way like with ponies


New episode initial reactions:

Bwahaha! Awesome! And hilariously funny!

/snip

somehow i knew we would get a "liked this episode" response from you....

[Aotrs Commander]

somehow i knew we would get a "liked this episode" response from you....

Was kinda obvious, given the subject matter, wasn't it?

[Pokonic]

New episode initial reactions:

General praise, as expected...


Those dragons are not only jerks, but flat-out Evil. Casual murder of sentient children? Wow. That's pretty dark even by my standards... Even if one ascribes phoenixes to that sort of semi-animal level that Pokemon seem to be dipicted as, that's still... surprisingly dark.

One has to wonder what that letter from Princess C was.

And also what the dragons were migrating for, and by heck, for a rare an unusal creature, wow were there a lot of them. One assumes that was like the global population. Council of dragons, maybe? While the youngsters play, the elder dragons discuss state affairs or something? Were they are females there at all? Were those the only young dragons there?

This also would seem to indicate that dragons do not have a nation as such, as many fanfics have them, but live more like traditional dragons, mostly solitary. And this goes with something I've said before - Spike likely won't grow up to be like other dragons, won't grow old to become some sort of lesser, wild mostly instinct-driven creature like the other older dragons we've seen, because he's been raised by ponies (and so long as he keeps a lid on his Greed Growth). Spike is very much a social creature, and that makes to sad, old Spike stories jsut more unecessarily bleak.


Woo boy, plenty of nice points here.
1. Even worse, the only other phoenix we have seen was inteligent to the point of understanding trickery and could gain pleasure from it. Heck, she could feel shame. Smashing there eggs would be clearly evil, no argument.

2. "Dear Spike, I would like to remind you that the GDM is for dragons who already have grown there wings, not for young, upstanding dragons such as yourself. You can join in next time, but for now stay with your friends this one time."

3. Well, yes, a migration generaly implies a world-wide surge of a species in a single event. Going from the fanon idea that dragons actualy have varied "tribes", the fact that all the adults from the show so far have the same general shape makes more sence. Hence, it's a gigantic gathering of male dragons from every part of the world, from the bulky ones from the south to the bottom-heavy equestrian varity to the lanky long-horned buggers from the north, ect.

Also, it makes sence for such long-lived creatures to gather to a spot once a century to abandon the regular territory instinct, forget about the whole "kill everything in sight" rule, and try to exchange news and information with others while the ones who are just starting to fly are getting familer with there generation, for the sake of trying to form positve bonds between them. Also, going by Dragonshys mention of "100 year naps" it seems that all the adults are waking up and are meeting together to see how the other adults fared for the last two centuries.

4. Hey, I would like to make a case for Spikes greed-growth. You know how the teens, while utter jerks, where not trying to kill eachother in a frenzy of growth and such for that pile of gems? (This part is for Lix)My guess is that, like pony babys, baby dragons have little control of there inherent magical abilitys. Hence, spikes growth was just a natural dragon thing that was inhanced wayyyyy over the normal limit, and as such his brain kind of fried out and started acting rather brutish. Normal dragons would normaly just get slighty bulkier, but Spike got bloody huge.

Also, yeah, he is not going to turn out like the arse from Owls Well. First and formost, he has a family that will not try to eat him. Second, thanks to his natural "dragonish thoughts" not being part of his bringing-up, he is going to turn out to be a very sociable wrym as he grows older. Celesita is not just letting Twilight mearly bring up another creature: she is letting her bring up what will eventualy be a few generations down the line a very powerful creature that could shape ponies lives with a single snort.

[Aotrs Commander]

Woo boy, plenty of nice points here.
1. Even worse, the only other phoenix we have seen was inteligent to the point of understanding trickery and could gain pleasure from it. Heck, she could feel shame. Smashing there eggs would be clearly evil, no argument.

2. "Dear Spike, I would like to remind you that the GDM is for dragons who already have grown there wings, not for young, upstanding dragons such as yourself. You can join in next time, but for now stay with your friends this one time."

3. Well, yes, a migration generaly implies a world-wide surge of a species in a single event. Going from the idea that dragons actualy have varied species, the fact that all the adults from the show so far have the same general shape makes more sence. Hence, it's a gigantic gathering of male dragons from every part of the world, from the bulky breeds from the south to the bottom-heavy equestrian varity to the lanky long-horned buggers from the north, ect.

Also, it makes sence for such long-lived creatures to gather to a spot once a century to abandon the regular territory instinct, forget about the whole "kill everything in sight" rule, and try to exchange news and information with others while the ones who are just starting to fly are getting familer with there generation, for the sake of trying to form positve bonds between them. Also, going by Dragonshys mention of "100 year naps" it seems that all the adults are waking up and are meeting together to see how the other adults fared for the last two centuries.

4. Hey, I would like to make a case for Spikes greed-growth. You know how the teens, while utter jerks, where not trying to kill eachother in a frenzy of growth and such for that pile of gems? My guess is that, like pony babys, baby dragons have little control of there inherent magical abilitys. Hence, spikes growth was just a natural dragon thing that was inhanced wayyyyy over the normal limit, and as such his brain kind of fried out and started acting rather brutish. Normal dragons would normaly just get slighty bulkier, but Spike got bloody huge.

Also, yeah, he is not going to turn out like the arse from Owls Well. First and formost, he has a family that will not try to eat him. Second, thanks to his natural "dragonish thoughts" not being part of his bringing-up, he is going to turn out to be a very sociable wrym as he grows older. Celesita is not just letting Twilight mearly bring up another creature: she is letting her bring up what will eventualy be a few generations down the line a very powerful creature that could shape ponies lives with a single snort.

Dragons in general seem to have rather a lack of regard for other creature's lives don't they? That one in Dragonshy was arguably the nicest, since he didn't actually try and murder anypony in cold blood...!

(Actually, if you think about it, the hydra was pretty Evil too, since that had enough intelligence to laugh at (one of it's own head's) pain, and that was cheerfully trying to eat Twilight and co... However, that might merely be the level of "animal" intelligence in Equestria (i.e. same level as Angel or Opal).)

I think comparing the phoenixes to Pokemon seems about right, actually; treated as more than animals, but not quite as full members of society; at least as slightly unequal partners (almost like children in some regards.) Smashing their eggs is very definitely unquestionably an act of Evil. Especially for no other reason that casual kicks and giggles.

Which makes those fratboy dragons arguably on the same level as Discord (maybe worse, depending on how harshly you view him) on the Evil scale, and therefore among the most evil dudes we've seen on the show, period. The hydra and co might get a "pass" for being "animal" intelligence - but those guys certainly don't. Whether or not they are aware for how horrid what they are doing is, is immaterial - given that the implication is this isn't the first time they've pulled this!

So, perhaps we're seen the first canon serial killers in a My Little Pony show! Y'know, for kids!

(Because a lot of kids will make the connection; I noticed that kind of thing even at a young age...)

[otakuryoga]

on spikes egg and todays episode
since we saw him and twilight researching every book in the library and finding zip
i hope they dont just forget about this...maybe come back to it later date with a mention of the princess looking into it after getting a letter and setting someone to find out the tale of his egg

[mikeejimbo]

New Episode:

Until we found out that the egg was for smashing (for no apparent reason), I have to admit I felt that the raid was morally ambiguous. Even though dragons eat gems, we've seen Spike eat other things, and besides, phoenix eggs might have gem-like qualities. So I got to thinking, that's not really anything worse than what normally happens in the animal kingdom. There are plenty of animals that eat eggs from the nests of others for their livelihood. Why do we give them a pass because they're not sentient? If they were sentient, but still ovivores, it would just be instinct for them.

Now, it's clear that the eggs were not for eating, and I liked how Spike made the right decision in the end. However, I'm still not willing to paint the dragons as Evil quite yet. Phoenixes might be the dragons' natural enemies. They might compete for food or territory, and again, I don't think it's any worse than what happens in nature. (And also again, it's not as though sentience overrides all instinct.)

Just idle thoughts.

[Pokonic]

Dragons in general seem to have rather a lack of regard for other creature's lives don't they? That one in Dragonshy was arguably the nicest, since he didn't actually try and murder anypony in cold blood...!

(Actually, if you think about it, the hydra was pretty Evil too, since that had enough intelligence to laugh at (one of it's own head's) pain, and that was cheerfully trying to eat Twilight and co... However, that might merely be the level of "animal" intelligence in Equestria (i.e. same level as Angel or Opal).)

I think comparing the phoenixes to Pokemon seems about right, actually; treated as more than animals, but not quite as full members of society; at least as slightly unequal partners (almost like children in some regards.) Smashing their eggs is very definitely unquestionably an act of Evil. Especially for no other reason that casual kicks and giggles.

Which makes those fratboy dragons arguably on the same level as Discord (maybe worse, depending on how harshly you view him) on the Evil scale, and therefore among the most evil dudes we've seen on the show, period. The hydra and co might get a "pass" for being "animal" intelligence - but those guys certainly don't. Whether or not they are aware for how horrid what they are doing is, is immaterial - given that the implication is this isn't the first time they've pulled this!

So, perhaps we're seen the first canon serial killers in a My Little Pony show! Y'know, for kids!

(Because a lot of kids will make the connection; I noticed that kind of thing even at a young age...)

1. Yeah, he was actualy decent as far as "antagonists" go. I mean, if someone woke me up from what is supposed to be a nice, long nap, you would be a mite cranky! The one from the Everfree, even, could be excused for having to be paranoid to even live in the place. This is a area with a plant that could turn your scales the consistancy of jello and with lion-scorpian hybrids that could easly rip off a few scales or two, not even factoring in the stinger. Heck, for all we know, going from Dragonkinds general ignorance of there own young, he might have thought that spike was a Baslisk or something.

2. Yeah, causal murder is kind of expected from teens in horror movies, not in a childs cartoon. If dragons grow up with such arses, no wonder they eventualy turn out into child-murderers.

[Weimann]

S2E21Can I get an amen, brothers? After the rather average fare the last episodes have served me, I really felt this one. As always, I tend to actually like the secondary characters more than the ones it's actually about, and I must be honest: Rarity gives even Pinkie Pie a run for her money as best backup pony. Not only do they get her relationship with Spike just right (she really likes him, but not that way; or at least, she can't let it become that way, because how would that look?), but the "I'm more into fashion" scene had me in literal stitches. The voice acting there was some of the best in the series yet, I swear.

That isn't to say Rarity stole the show, because I don't believe she did, even if Spikes part could have been better. While I'd had hoped that we'd get some more world-building in terms of dragon society and culture rather than your common teen jerks proof of manhood ritual thing but with dragons, the ending was strong if predictable. Spike held his own in this episode, and I hope we'll be seeing Peewee again (on the note of continuity, Fluttershy's outburst in the beginning could be seen as continuity from Put Your Hoof Down, but I'm not sure it is; she's not being assertive, she's panicking, which she has done before).

In conclusion, dragons and phoenixes, hell yeah. Spike's a bro.

Edit: But still, it's notable that the Spike really didn't learn much about dragons in general, just that his heart had its home in Ponyville. Which wasn't really the mission he set out for, was it? He already knew that, it wasn't like he wasn't going to come back. In terms of learning about dragons in general, he really only got a very small and biased data set.

[legomaster00156]

Hey, out of curiousity, if dragons dive into lava, why in the world are they intimidated by pheonix flames?

[Mewtarthio]

1. Yeah, he was actualy decent as far as "antagonists" go. I mean, if someone woke me up from what is supposed to be a nice, long nap, you would be a mite cranky! The one from the Everfree, even, could be excused for having to be paranoid to even live in the place. This is a area with a plant that could turn your scales the consistancy of jello and with lion-scorpian hybrids that could easly rip off a few scales or two, not even factoring in the stinger. Heck, for all we know, going from Dragonkinds general ignorance of there own young, he might have thought that spike was a Baslisk or something.

S2E21:
Paranoia isn't really necessary, since we know that Spike could potentially hit a Greed Growth spurt. The Everfree dragon might have severely outclassed Spike, but the baby dragon could have transformed into a serious threat behind his back. Of course, he still could have just driven Spike off rather than repeatedly attack with intent to kill, so he's not entirely justified in his behavior.

Also, does the "Butterfly Migration" mean that Flutterdash is now canon?

[Pokonic]

Hey, out of curiousity, if dragons dive into lava, why in the world are they intimidated by pheonix flames?

Seems that magical fire hurts. Spike is scared of any other dragons flame, for instance.

[Thanqol]

Episode:

Excellence. Every moment spent in the Crackle disguise was just flawless. Rainbow Dash maintains best dragon status.



Dragon Quest, on birds
The female phoenix (at least the most feminine-looking one to me) looks more like Philomena than the male phoenix. Was Philomena's gender ever identified? I always assumed it was male, but now I'm not sure.


Celestia did refer to Philomena as 'she'.


Dragon Quest, on music
Just wanted to say I loved the raw background music in this one.

Oh yes, memories of Gilda.


okay, seriously, the best thing in this Episode?:


Crackle the dragon. Second! Best! Dragon! Evar!

seriously he's about to replace Trogdor in my heart as best dragon.

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/da8aa377b0cd0ced0e1b528b2acba1b3/150813%20-%20artist%3ADraikJack%20Crackle%20Crackle_is_the_b est_pony.png


This forever.


New episode initial reactions:

Also stupid. Hey, dragon fratboy fraktards, that "sissy" Princess could kick your sorry arses all the way to the moon and back, probably literally. Rasing the freaking SUN mean anything to you? No? Oh, they totally need their arses kicking. (It totally would have been hilarious if they found out ponies have superpowers when Twi, Rarity and RD kicked their asses, because make no mistake, the ponies would have won that scuffle hooves down!)

You sure? Because elder dragons can be assumed to have life expectancies well beyond a thousand years if they're prepared to just bunk up and sleep for hundreds at a time. The sun is probably a recent innovation for them as a culture. There'd be plenty of dragons around who were alive when it was forged. Moreover, they eat gemstones and live in caves, they don't need photosynthesis and plant matter, the sun could go out and it wouldn't affect their society in the slightest.

And I take a more conservative view of Celestia's power; while she could totally defeat a full grown dragon or two there's no way she could take on a dozen or more. If she had that kind of power she could have solo'd Discord without need for the Elements.

Dragons are pretty invincible. That's kinda their concept.


S2E21:
Also, does the "Butterfly Migration" mean that Flutterdash is now canon?

Yes and forever.

[Ravian]

New Episode:


Now, it's clear that the eggs were not for eating, and I liked how Spike made the right decision in the end. However, I'm still not willing to paint the dragons as Evil quite yet. Phoenixes might be the dragons' natural enemies. They might compete for food or territory, and again, I don't think it's any worse than what happens in nature. (And also again, it's not as though sentience overrides all instinct.)

Just idle thoughts.


Actually in alot of mythology I've read this may be the case, accordingly the Phoenix is a natural enemy to serpents (this was also used by JK Rowling with Fawkes against the basilisk) and most mythology define dragons as a type of serpent. So there is likely a type of cobra mongoose empathy. Spike and PeeWee could probably be the first friendly relation ever documented between a dragon and a Phoenix

[thubby]

Hey, out of curiousity, if dragons dive into lava, why in the world are they intimidated by pheonix flames?

magic damage?

[Bayonet Priest]

more new ep
And yeah, once again Rarity is best pony. Seriously, every time something pushes her she shows that she is best pony. Douchbag fratboy dragons giving her Spikey-wikey a hard time? She'll tear them to pieces. Best pony ever.

Twi's mass teleport was awesome too though, and I loved the phoenixes.

[TheAmishPirate]

My own Episode thoughts:
This episode just plain sat right with me. When I got to the premise, I was anticipating fanon torn to shreds left and right. But instead, they kept things at the right level of vague; not specific enough to ruin stuff, and enough detail to play with. For the ponies, I'm glad they didn't use Pinkie Pie here. Poor girl's been taking overtime for the comic relief lately. Great performances from the three that followed him. As for little Spikey-wikey, he's dead-set on showing us all that he can handle an episode on his own. Provided he's supervised, of course. :smalltongue:

My only real complaint is the over-stereotyped teenage dragons. Seriously, that just made me wince. In a show filled with great characters, lazy choices like that stick out like a sore thumb. I did count a few times when they could've acted to the true stereotype and didn't, so I guess it wasn't completely bad. And I also appreciate that the adult dragons seemed...well, adult. If all the dragons were acting like the teens, then some tables would've been flipped.

And on another note, I initially felt like I wanted to see the ponies tangle with the dragons, but on reflection, I've changed my mind. For one, having the girly ponies beat up the stereotypical frat boy dragons probably would've taken the underlying message too far. Second, having the dragons lose would seriously undermine the thought that dragons in this world are a serious threat at all ages (barring hatchlings).

In any case, I enjoyed this one. Glad to see that Merriweather Williams seems to have found her mark.


Another thought about the episode
Dragons seem to be better parents than what many fans assumed.

There appeared to be a lot of them making sure that the kid dragons don't do anything too stupid, yet letting them play and take lava baths. They also seemed to have provided a hoard for the youngsters to eat.

On parent dragons:
I completely missed that. I just noticed the adults were acting responsible, never thought that they'd be watching the youngsters.


New episode
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/6f928060fd70dda07c8f84e384612e82/150885%20-%20Dragon_Quest%20rainbow_dash%20rarity%20twilight _sparkle.png

Poor Rainbow Dash. When it will be Rainbow Dash's turn to be the new Rainbow Dash?


Newep

Did want to see the ponies beat the stuffing out of the dragons, especially after what is now my favourite line in the show. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK7Q-AFhdXs&feature=related)


New episode:
Yes. My goodness yes. Rarity continues to be a best pony.

[MCerberus]

New episode:
Yes. My goodness yes. Rarity continues to be a best pony.

Yes, Rarity has officially supplanted Twilight as second-best best pony. The only thing yet to be seen is how much spike takes being her Spikey-Wikey as more than an adorable friend.

Rarity also put the kung-fu beatdown on one pony already this season if you'll remember too.

[Mando Knight]

Another thought...
For it being a Dragon Quest, it felt a bit lacking...

Didn't realize what it was missing until now.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1c/Rockett.jpg

Everyone knows it's not a DQ until there's Slimes about.

[Mewtarthio]

And on another note, I initially felt like I wanted to see the ponies tangle with the dragons, but on reflection, I've changed my mind. For one, having the girly ponies beat up the stereotypical frat boy dragons probably would've taken the underlying message too far. Second, having the dragons lose would seriously undermine the thought that dragons in this world are a serious threat at all ages (barring hatchlings).

S2E21:
I actually found that a little refreshing. It's a bit annoying how common it is for movies and TV shows to portray the proper response to bullying as "Bully them right back even harder!"

Plus, Spike and company had a totally non-violent option available to them (running away). Beating up the dragons wouldn't have accomplished anything except maybe stoking Rainbow Dash's ego, and it risks quite a bit (fail, and they're at the mercy of a bunch of child-killers; succeed, and they've just beaten up some obviously prideful dragons with even bigger parents).


Poor Rainbow Dash. When it will be Rainbow Dash's turn to be the new Rainbow Dash?

IRON WILL can help with that!

[TheAmishPirate]

S2E21:
I actually found that a little refreshing. It's a bit annoying how common it is for movies and TV shows to portray the proper response to bullying as "Bully them right back even harder!"

Plus, Spike and company had a totally non-violent option available to them (running away). Beating up the dragons wouldn't have accomplished anything except maybe stoking Rainbow Dash's ego, and it risks quite a bit (fail, and they're at the mercy of a bunch of child-killers; succeed, and they've just beaten up some obviously prideful dragons with even bigger parents).

New Episode:
Right. The messload of dragons chilling right the heck over there. That is also a valid reason to not get into a fight.

And a bit of a writing update, to show that I'm not slacking off in that department: I feel like I'm close to done with a first draft of the first chapter. Only problem is, I've gone and changed it up so much that my initial introduction of the pseudo-antagonist/rival character (which sets off the whole plot) no longer makes any sense. Gonna take a break, play some Tribes, and see if I can't think of a good way to handle this.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Hey, out of curiousity, if dragons dive into lava, why in the world are they intimidated by pheonix flames?

I don't think they were seriously hurt by it so anymore then by a bright flash of light, but of course bright flash of light.

[Aotrs Commander]

You sure? Because elder dragons can be assumed to have life expectancies well beyond a thousand years if they're prepared to just bunk up and sleep for hundreds at a time. The sun is probably a recent innovation for them as a culture. There'd be plenty of dragons around who were alive when it was forged. Moreover, they eat gemstones and live in caves, they don't need photosynthesis and plant matter, the sun could go out and it wouldn't affect their society in the slightest.

And I take a more conservative view of Celestia's power; while she could totally defeat a full grown dragon or two there's no way she could take on a dozen or more. If she had that kind of power she could have solo'd Discord without need for the Elements.

Dragons are pretty invincible. That's kinda their concept.


Yes. Yes, I am entirely sure.

And that's BEFORE taking into account Celestia's potential goddesshood, that's just running on the fact that she's a pony (and therefore having inherent superpowers) and being freaky high level fom being around for so long, not too mention the thaumatergic boost for raising the sun and moon for a thousand years straight.

Dragons aren't so tough. They are long-lived - but spend most of their time ASLEEP. Age doesn't equal experience. And dragons generally rely far too much on their size and natural resistances rather than skill or effort - and thus far, Equestrian dragons have not demonstrated anything like the level of intelligence of D&D dragons - Spike seems by a large margin the smartest of all of them (perhaps not surprisingly, since Spike has had an education.)

Ponies, on the other hand, can take G-forces that would crush you average vertebrate into powder, can kick through metal when only a few days old, and demonstrate phenominal endurance and strength...

Disqord probably is also a god (do you really see Discord having the slightest trouble with a dragon? I don't.), which is why it required the elements to beat him. Though I suspect Celestia may not be willing to use the full extent of her power unless she absolutely has to, in case she, like, snaps the world in half with Awesome or something.


S2E21:
I actually found that a little refreshing. It's a bit annoying how common it is for movies and TV shows to portray the proper response to bullying as "Bully them right back even harder!"

Plus, Spike and company had a totally non-violent option available to them (running away). Beating up the dragons wouldn't have accomplished anything except maybe stoking Rainbow Dash's ego, and it risks quite a bit (fail, and they're at the mercy of a bunch of child-killers; succeed, and they've just beaten up some obviously prideful dragons with even bigger parents).!

Oh, I agree. Tactically, it may as they say, not have been the best time to kick dragon arse. I'm just sayin' they totally could have...

[Lix Lorn]

broken spoiler lichy.

[Thanqol]

Yes. Yes, I am entirely sure.

And that's BEFORE taking into account Celestia's potential goddesshood, that's just running on the fact that she's a pony (and therefore having inherent superpowers) and being freaky high level fom being around for so long, not too mention the thaumatergic boost for raising the sun and moon for a thousand years straight.

The only high level magic Celestia's been proven to do required her to use the Elements of Harmony. Everything else is conjecture. If Celestia's power stems from divinity then she would only have domain over her portfolio, which dragons predate. Age does have power in divine terms.


Dragons aren't so tough. They are long-lived - but spend most of their time ASLEEP. Age doesn't equal experience. And dragons generally rely far too much on their size and natural resistances rather than skill or effort - and thus far, Equestrian dragons have not demonstrated anything like the level of intelligence of D&D dragons - Spike seems by a large margin the smartest of all of them (perhaps not surprisingly, since Spike has had an education.)

Conjecture both baffling and unfounded. Age may not equal experience but experience does not equal power. Experience could just be the knowledge that you don't mess with the thousands strong race of invincible dragons. Experience could be 'don't fight more than six dragons at once'. When you're immune to damage, older than the stars, and can breathe fire then you don't need skill or effort. That's what being a dragon is about; that's what a dragon is: Utter individual power.

Despite that power, dragons can still fall. But it is the work of armies and artifacts, of singular acts of heroism and inspired genius, of friendship and magic. The point is that many, many obstacles are involved and it's not something even a near divine creature like Celestia would be assured of or undergo lightly.

And you're judging the intelligence of all dragons based on the actions of a small group of teenagers. If you judged humanity by the actions of any given group of teenagers you'd have a casus belli for planetary invasion. The other dragons haven't said much, but Stephen Magnet proves they can be just as glamorous and sophisticated as any pony.


Ponies, on the other hand, can take G-forces that would crush you average vertebrate into powder, can kick through metal when only a few days old, and demonstrate phenominal endurance and strength...

Dragons can cause avalanches by snoring, can resist a direct kick from a pony to the face without flinching, can defeat the Royal Wonderbolts single-handed, can endure multiple high-velocity impacts in a short span without noticeable personal harm, can bathe in lava, and make ponies run in screaming terror. I think you're really reaching.


Disqord probably is also a god (do you really see Discord having the slightest trouble with a dragon? I don't.), which is why it required the elements to beat him. Though I suspect Celestia may not be willing to use the full extent of her power unless she absolutely has to, in case she, like, snaps the world in half with Awesome or something.[/SPOILER]

Individually, I reckon Discord or Celestia could take dragons one on one no problem. I see them having serious problems facing a dozen or more.

And again, the dragons are older than the sun and bathe in molten lava. What is Celestia going to do to them? Crash the sun into the planet? I'm not convinced that would meaningfully hurt the dragons.


Oh, I agree. Tactically, it may as they say, not have been the best time to kick dragon arse. I'm just sayin' they totally could have...

I'd give 'em even odds.

[thubby]

Individually, I reckon Discord or Celestia could take dragons one on one no problem. I see them having serious problems facing a dozen or more.

And again, the dragons are older than the sun and bathe in molten lava. What is Celestia going to do to them? Crash the sun into the planet? I'm not convinced that would meaningfully hurt the dragons.


i think discord could fight a near limitless number of dragons, given time. the nature of his powers make every fight on his terms. if he can kill one on his own, and he got it in his head to exterminate a group of them, he'd pull them apart while they cast at shadows.
the only reason the elements and celestia are even alive is because he wanted to have his fun.

[Thanqol]

i think discord could fight a near limitless number of dragons, given time. the nature of his powers make every fight on his terms. if he can kill one on his own, and he got it in his head to exterminate a group of them, he'd pull them apart while they cast at shadows.
the only reason the elements and celestia are even alive is because he wanted to have his fun.

This is a far more likely and effective way to deal with dragons: Engineer a civil war through puppeteering and hypnotism.

Interestingly, while Discord's demonstrated a great deal of environmental control and magical effects we don't actually know his physical abilities. For all we know, he's vulnerable to being set on fire. For all we know, dragons are highly resistant to magic. For all we know, Discord can't block twelve simultaneous flame blasts. Insufficient data.

[OracleofWuffing]

Man, missing all these new episodes tears me up on the inside. :smallfrown:

I can't speak very much for everywhere else or quality research, but it looks like the McDonald's in my area just ran out of Rainbows Dashes and Pinkies Pies today. Lots of Applejacks and Twilights Sparkles, though.

[Anarion]

Another thought...
For it being a Dragon Quest, it felt a bit lacking...

Didn't realize what it was missing until now.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1c/Rockett.jpg

Everyone knows it's not a DQ until there's Slimes about.

This. One thousand times this. Too bad that thing is practically the Dragon Quest mascot, but they should have snuck it in somewhere.


Yes. Yes, I am entirely sure.

And that's BEFORE taking into account Celestia's potential goddesshood, that's just running on the fact that she's a pony (and therefore having inherent superpowers) and being freaky high level fom being around for so long, not too mention the thaumatergic boost for raising the sun and moon for a thousand years straight.

Dragons aren't so tough. They are long-lived - but spend most of their time ASLEEP. Age doesn't equal experience. And dragons generally rely far too much on their size and natural resistances rather than skill or effort - and thus far, Equestrian dragons have not demonstrated anything like the level of intelligence of D&D dragons - Spike seems by a large margin the smartest of all of them (perhaps not surprisingly, since Spike has had an education.)

Ponies, on the other hand, can take G-forces that would crush you average vertebrate into powder, can kick through metal when only a few days old, and demonstrate phenominal endurance and strength...

Disqord probably is also a god (do you really see Discord having the slightest trouble with a dragon? I don't.), which is why it required the elements to beat him. Though I suspect Celestia may not be willing to use the full extent of her power unless she absolutely has to, in case she, like, snaps the world in half with Awesome or something.



Oh, I agree. Tactically, it may as they say, not have been the best time to kick dragon arse. I'm just sayin' they totally could have...

I agree that Twilight and Rainbow (and Rarity, but mostly the first two) could definitely have taken the young dragons arrayed against them. I doubt they want to be making those kind of enemies though, and someone might have gotten hurt or the phoenix egg broken in the process, so running away was likely the more advisable choice. Fun as it would have been to hit them at sonic rainboom speeds while they were being held in stasis by large-scale telekinesis.

As for Celestia, she's powerful, sure, but I'm not sure raising the sun qualifies her for that much necessarily. That might be a specific ability that isn't related to general ability to kick butt with powerful alicorn magic. We also can't really judge from Discord since he seemed to be infinitely powerful to everything except the elements of harmony and merely choice to give the heroes a chance, which backfired on him. Discord was able to remove pony horns and wings, plus just steal the elements, so he only lost because he wanted to have fun and allow the heroes to win.

My own opinion is that Celestia beats a full-grown dragon 1 on 1, but would lose to an assault of massed dragons as seen in the great dragon migration, and might be strained against more than a couple dragons.

[OracleofWuffing]

This. One thousand times this. Too bad that thing is practically the Dragon Quest mascot, but they should have snuck it in somewhere.
What? No. That is the mascot for the Dragon Warrior series. Certainly, thou art confused. You know, the first game is about thy adventures in the footsteps of Erdrick, which hast always been named Erdrick and shalt always be named Erdrick?

*Covers ears, closes eyes* LALALALALALA NOT LISTENING TO LOGIC AND RATIONAL THOUGHT! AND ALSO THAT REALLY AWESOME DS GAME WITH THE TANKS!

[Triscuitable]

*Glances at UserCP, old thread post-bump-locked*

We're 36 pages in?! :smalleek:

Nevermind, not even going to try anymore.

[AlterForm]

Guys, spoiler labels, please. Is someone going to have to nag the thread at large about this every week? :smallannoyed:

[erikun]

Okay, I'm back, and time to say a bit more about the episode.

Season 2 Episode 21 (Dragon Quest) spoilers
I find this episode nicely placed in the season. After all, Spike's had a crush on Rarity for one and a half seasons. He finally got to admit his feelings in the last Spike-centric episode, and now... Spike is feeling exceptionally conflicted by the attention that Rarity is paying to him. It did an especially good job of highlighting Spike's problems, not to mention his "accomplishments" compared to what he was thinking dragons did.

This is the second episode we've seen using a group of three ponies, rather than the full main six. I think we're likely to see more like this in season three. While the first season kept all six together to show their dynamic, splitting them off into smaller groups keeps every episode from being the zany-Pinkie, impulsive-Dash, background-Applejack theme all the time.

I have to agree with the dragons being a bit too stereotypically boyish. Actually kind of unusual in a show focusing on getting rid of gender stereotypes.


Twilight's magic got a nice bit of definition here as well, as we saw that
1) her teleport doesn't have much a range limit since she got all the way back to Ponyville
Did they? I didn't recognize where they ended up, and was under the impression that she just zapped them to another part of the forest. All they'd need to do would be to get away from the dragons, after all.


Phoenixes living in the wild was interesting. I wonder how they protect their nests during the dying and rebirth period. Maybe they stagger each other so that one parent is always at full power?
Maybe they don't have chicks when one is close to dying? This isn't just a molt; phoenixes likely have a lifespan of 20 years to 100 years, and they don't necessarily need to lay eggs constantly.


I know I mentioned it in the chat, but I think a My Little Dragons show would be fun to watch. :smalltongue: I actually wouldn't be surprised if they pulled out exactly that for one episode, if they wanted to pull off an alternate-dimension story for themselves. The main cast, as boys, and dragons!

How would that work... pegasus ponies as shenlong dragons, unicorn ponies and loredrake dragons, and earth ponies as earth (European) dragons?

[Selpharia]

Celestia v. Dragons

Thanqol, I don't know where you are getting the idea that dragons are older than the sun. Generally the only things older than the sun are cosmic beings, not large, magical reptiles. It sounds very lovely, but I don't think there's evidence for that power level from MLP dragons. They're quite tough an strong, but I don't think they have ever had cosmic power. Not that such a statement affects the possible matchup, because I don't think that Celestia (or even Discord) has that kind of high level divine power either. Celestia does have dominion over her portfolio: the sun, but she does have a definite time scale, she has a "younger" form in the storybook intro, and that was a "mere" millennium ago. She ages on a very different timescale to regular ponies, but she isn't That Which Ever Was And Ever Shall Be. I think she could fairly easily defeat any given dragon, or even five dragons, simply by the assumption that she has as much power as FullPower!Twilight, who could certainly effect a massive change in a (young) dragon, so could probably do battle with an older one. All dragons seem to lack dexterity, and with the well documented speed and agility of ponies, this could make things difficult.

It's also hard to tell how a real pony against dragon duel would go, since we've never seen a situation where ponies attempted to use lethal force on a dragon. The Wonderbolts were mostly harrying, Rainbow was giving a strong, but nonlethal hit, and the ponies fled the teenage dragons.

We've never seen a really wise or canny dragon, and as has been mentioned, I would expect that Celestia would defeat larger numbers of dragons than she could personally battle with a combination of allies, planning and trickery (and Mecha-Luna).

[Soras Teva Gee]

Guys, spoiler labels, please. Is someone going to have to nag the thread at large about this every week? :smallannoyed:

Dragon Quest isn't a spoiler its been out there awhile and nothing that happened in the episode has been discussed.

And we have pages of spoilers tags, far too many.

[OracleofWuffing]

Dragon Quest isn't a spoiler its been out there awhile and nothing that happened in the episode has been discussed.

And we have pages of spoilers tags, far too many.
He's not talking about spoilering the events of those games, he's talking about posts that contain spoiler boxes, with no information about what is within the spoiler boxes. For example, they could be used to show off huge pony pictures that are unrelated to the new episode, or they could contain spoileriffic discussion about the new episode, and we just can't be sure until we click. If you label them, we know you're talking about the new episode, or just posting other stuff.

[erikun]

Dragon Quest isn't a spoiler its been out there awhile and nothing that happened in the episode has been discussed.

And we have pages of spoilers tags, far too many.
I believe he meant that the entire last page was filled with unlabeled spoiler tags. It's pretty much impossible to tell if a spoiler is about the new episode, a future episode, an image, or the Celestia/Dragon discussion without opening them all up - no labels.

[Thanqol]

Celestia v. Dragons

Thanqol, I don't know where you are getting the idea that dragons are older than the sun. Generally the only things older than the sun are cosmic beings, not large, magical reptiles. It sounds very lovely, but I don't think there's evidence for that power level from MLP dragons.

Celestia V Dragons

Uh, that the sun's been around for about a thousand years (depending on how long Celestia and Luna co-ruled before banishment time) and dragons are in the habit of sleeping for centuries at a time. It seems a reasonable inference to me.


They're quite tough an strong, but I don't think they have ever had cosmic power. Not that such a statement affects the possible matchup, because I don't think that Celestia (or even Discord) has that kind of high level divine power either. Celestia does have dominion over her portfolio: the sun, but she does have a definite time scale, she has a "younger" form in the storybook intro, and that was a "mere" millennium ago. She ages on a very different timescale to regular ponies, but she isn't That Which Ever Was And Ever Shall Be. I think she could fairly easily defeat any given dragon, or even five dragons, simply by the assumption that she has as much power as FullPower!Twilight, who could certainly effect a massive change in a (young) dragon, so could probably do battle with an older one. All dragons seem to lack dexterity, and with the well documented speed and agility of ponies, this could make things difficult.

This is really quite rambly and there's half a dozen different ideas here, none of which I contest.


It's also hard to tell how a real pony against dragon duel would go, since we've never seen a situation where ponies attempted to use lethal force on a dragon. The Wonderbolts were mostly harrying, Rainbow was giving a strong, but nonlethal hit, and the ponies fled the teenage dragons.

We've never seen a really wise or canny dragon, and as has been mentioned, I would expect that Celestia would defeat larger numbers of dragons than she could personally battle with a combination of allies, planning and trickery (and Mecha-Luna).

You're making some really big assumptions there (the Wonderbolts were 'mostly harrying' rather than giving their all to fight the giant dragon they were called out to defeat, Rainbow Dash was somehow 'holding back').

[thubby]

This is a far more likely and effective way to deal with dragons: Engineer a civil war through puppeteering and hypnotism.

Interestingly, while Discord's demonstrated a great deal of environmental control and magical effects we don't actually know his physical abilities. For all we know, he's vulnerable to being set on fire. For all we know, dragons are highly resistant to magic. For all we know, Discord can't block twelve simultaneous flame blasts. Insufficient data.

he mind controlled and disabled fluttershy with a touch. nothing would have stopped him from doing something conventional like, saying, stabbing her. and the existence of armored scales implies a weakness in unarmored areas.

but your missing my point. he can exist as multiple beings, in 2 dimensional spaces, and whatever one calls the space between the stain glass (non-existence, pocket dimension?). has either time travel or a pocket dimension, can teleport exception distances if its limited at all, and has near-if-not limitless control over the environment up to and including astral bodies.
there's no way to actually fight him unless he lets you.

how he kills dragons is largely immaterial. if they can be killed by non-chosen-one means, he has the time and mobility to acquire it, and the near omnipresence to use it.

[Selpharia]

Celestia and the Sun/Dragons

Ah, but the sun predates Celestia, as per the unicorns in the Hearts' Warming Eve play raising it as part of their tripartite pact with the unicorns. I will concede that I did make the assumption that the Wonderbolts could have cut Spike''s face or vital organs with the same maneuver that easily cut through his head scales. Apologies for rambling previously.

edit: ninja'd

[D_Lord]

Dragon vs
Well I have no idea about Celestia power level, although I'm in the Physical God camp, but Discord on the other hand. Oh yes Discord could take them all on. All he would have to do it turn the dust in the air around them into posisn joke, they get soft scales, then it just drops rocks on them while teleporting around. Not to say he'll do it that way, he could just flip them or gray them to make them scared silly of him. Or other ways, Discord is way out of their legied

On the other hand next es should be goo.

[Thanqol]

We're outta spoiler territory here.


he mind controlled and disabled fluttershy with a touch. nothing would have stopped him from doing something conventional like, saying, stabbing her.

Yeah there is. It'd be no fun to do that.

You cannot disregard that weakness when talking about Discord. He is utterly incapable of doing boring things. Completely, utterly incapable even when his own life is on the line. He considers a guaranteed victory boring.

If you disregard that weakness then you're not talking about Discord any more and, instead, about some abstract murderdeity.


and the existence of armored scales implies a weakness in unarmored areas.

That's what beds of gemstones are for!

Making the unarmoured areas, what, the eyes?


but your missing my point. he can exist as multiple beings, in 2 dimensional spaces, and whatever one calls the space between the stain glass (non-existence, pocket dimension?). has either time travel or a pocket dimension, can teleport exception distances if its limited at all, and has near-if-not limitless control over the environment up to and including astral bodies.
there's no way to actually fight him unless he lets you.

how he kills dragons is largely immaterial. if they can be killed by non-chosen-one means, he has the time and mobility to acquire it, and the near omnipresence to use it.


You're right; the more I reflect on it the more tenuous my position seems. Any potential counter to him comes from A) His self imposed handicaps B) MacGuffins C) Speculation about the limits of his abilities.


Celestia and the Sun/Dragons

Ah, but the sun predates Celestia, as per the unicorns in the Hearts' Warming Eve play raising it as part of their tripartite pact with the unicorns. I will concede that I did make the assumption that the Wonderbolts could have cut Spike''s face or vital organs with the same maneuver that easily cut through his head scales. Apologies for rambling previously.

edit: ninja'd

> Hearth's Warming I have a very, very dubious relationship with. The story seems about as factual as Santa Claus' backstory.

And even if the sun existed in pre-Celestia times, it can't have existed in pre-pony times - who would have raised it then? Who made it if not Celestia? Was it just a big ball of fire rolling around on the ground Katamari style until somepony slingshotted it into orbit? Is it an actual burning star or just a large fireball? We know there's a paleopony period, during which they had fully established villages and of which a written record survived - that would seem to predate the sun, right?

> If they could, why did they end up in a bucket? Again, royal Wonderbolts sent out to stop a rampaging monster, asses summarily kicked.

[Dexam]

New episode:

http://th02.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2012/077/0/2/crackle_swag_by_pixelkitties-d4t7bof.png


More new episode:

Some actual episode thoughts/theories this time.

Overall impressions: a damned solid episode through-out. It seems that Merriweather William's prior "almost-but-not-quite-getting-it" writing block was lifted for this episode. I would be more than happy to see more of this type of writing.

Random thoughts:
- Flutterssertive!
- Hammy!Rarity is best Rarity... and she will kick your tail if you touch her Spikey-wikey.
- Phoenix chicks are adorable.
- Things you might not have noticed: when Spike is packing his bindle, he has a sandwich and the blanket Applejack gave him for his birthday in "Secret of My Excess". Very nice call-back, animators.

On the dragons presented:
- I've seen a lot of people wondering why there only appears to be male dragons shown. I think I have an answer: look around 7:55 and you'll see that there are three active volcano craters shown. My theory: hatchlings in one crater, male teen dragons in another, and female teens in the third. The volcanos shown are not the final point of the migration, just the creche facilities. The adult dragons are meeting deeper in the mountain range while the younger dragons are watched over by a handful of adults. Spike just happened to wander into the teen males crater.
- Theory on why the teen dragons wanted to smash the phoenix eggs: around 18:10 we see teen Red getting scorched by the adult phoenix flames. So younger dragons at least are threatened by phoenix fire. Alternate theory: phoenixes are the naturally evolved internet trolls of Equestria, and dragons are haters who can't take a joke.

[Selpharia]

The Wonderbolts ended in a bucket. Their mission failed. I am not arguing that they won, merely that a significant possibility for victory existed. Based on their cutting power, that they could have done Spike serious damage. They effectively had a shot to injure Spike before his counterattack and missed. Spike did not. He won.

We have little evidence for the sun existing in pre-Celestia times, we have absolutely no material on pre-pony times. Ponies as a race may have existed for 1100 years, they may have existed for 11,000,000 years. They could even have been created at the same time as dragons. If you take a larger value than the near-minimum value that you assume, dragons lose some of their mythic status. There's no data either way. If you disregard the semi-mythic info that we do have, talking about this becomes pointless, as it is merely competitive imagination.

Since I've been snippy, I'd like to take this time to agree with your point on Discord, and state how much I have enjoyed your fiction, though it's not relevant to the topic at hand.

[Callos_DeTerran]

You cannot disregard that weakness when talking about Discord. He is utterly incapable of doing boring things. Completely, utterly incapable even when his own life is on the line. He considers a guaranteed victory boring.

If you disregard that weakness then you're not talking about Discord any more and, instead, about some abstract murderdeity.

I have to disagree with you here, Discord has a weakness but it's his pride, not some inability to do boring things. The entire events of the first two episodes were Discord essentially assuring that ponies couldn't seal him back up again, all of it was to break the Mane Six's harmony so they couldn't use the Elements. His plan fell apart when he assumed mere ponies would be unable to fix their friendship after he went to all that trouble breaking it. Something undoing what he did is inconceivable to him. Staying entertained is secondary...and something he can do at the same time honestly.

[Thanqol]

The Wonderbolts ended in a bucket. Their mission failed. I am not arguing that they won, merely that a significant possibility for victory existed. Based on their cutting power, that they could have done Spike serious damage. They effectively had a shot to injure Spike before his counterattack and missed. Spike did not. He won.

Hm, solid point. But still, the best fliers in Equestria lost hard against one young adult dragon. We've got evidence that there are thousands and thousands of dragons. This all supports my theory which is 'While dragons can be defeated, they cannot be defeated trivially, let alone have their entire race solo'd by the princess'.


We have little evidence for the sun existing in pre-Celestia times, we have absolutely no material on pre-pony times. Ponies as a race may have existed for 1100 years, they may have existed for 11,000,000 years. They could even have been created at the same time as dragons. If you take a larger value than the near-minimum value that you assume, dragons lose some of their mythic status. There's no data either way. If you disregard the semi-mythic info that we do have, talking about this becomes pointless, as it is merely competitive imagination.

You're right, but I can bring this back into my core argument as well: There are a significant number of dragons who have been around longer than Celestia herself, thus implying that they have seniority over her and that she has thereby little inherent claim to be their superior in any sense. If Celestia created Equestria and everything in it that's one thing, and lends a lot of credence to her as an all-powerful deity. If the Dragons were ancient when she was a filly then that's quite another.


Since I've been snippy, I'd like to take this time to agree with your point on Discord, and state how much I have enjoyed your fiction, though it's not relevant to the topic at hand.

I'm always happy to accept off topic compliments! :smallsmile:

[Capt. Ido Nos]

Just swinging in here before my flight to Denver (home of the Broncos) tomorrow to say I love you Ponythread, I love the new episode, and I love this picture:

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/064/9/1/derpy_day_2012__always_on_my_team_by_hyper_piston-d4ruhjh.jpg

[Dexam]

And even if the sun existed in pre-Celestia times, it can't have existed in pre-pony times - who would have raised it then? Who made it if not Celestia? Was it just a big ball of fire rolling around on the ground Katamari style until somepony slingshotted it into orbit? Is it an actual burning star or just a large fireball? We know there's a paleopony period, during which they had fully established villages and of which a written record survived - that would seem to predate the sun, right?


My personal theory on this point, based upon the ponies' love of establishing order upon the natural world, is that the sun always existed (for a given value of "always") but its orbit was completely erratic (my personal theory is that Equestria has a Discworld-style sun that orbits the world rather than the other way around) resulting in days and nights of random and indeterminant length, and seasons were practically non-existant. The paleopony unicorns discovered that by combining their magic, they could influence the path of the sun and moon, and thus were able to establish day/night cycles and seasonal variation.

[thubby]

You cannot disregard that weakness when talking about Discord. He is utterly incapable of doing boring things. Completely, utterly incapable even when his own life is on the line. He considers a guaranteed victory boring.

If you disregard that weakness then you're not talking about Discord any more and, instead, about some abstract murderdeity.


he's discord. you cant tell me you can't contrive a situation where killing an arbitrary number of dragons doesn't serve to destabilize something in the world. killing them doesnt even have to be an end unto itself.
that's what makes discord scary. he'd set 1/2 the planet on fire just to have his fun.

also, the bolded is highly subject to interpretation. i think he thought he had guaranteed victory, and was gloating.

[Thanqol]

My personal theory on this point, based upon the ponies' love of establishing order upon the natural world, is that the sun always existed (for a given value of "always") but its orbit was completely erratic (my personal theory is that Equestria has a Discworld-style sun that orbits the world rather than the other way around) resulting in days and nights of random and indeterminant length, and seasons were practically non-existant. The paleopony unicorns discovered that by combining their magic, they could influence the path of the sun and moon, and thus were able to establish day/night cycles and seasonal variation.

A reasonable series of inferences, and what I'd go with if I had to pick a theory other than the one I wrote about.


he's discord. you cant tell me you can't contrive a situation where killing an arbitrary number of dragons doesn't serve to destabilize something in the world. killing them doesnt even have to be an end unto itself.
that's what makes discord scary. he'd set 1/2 the planet on fire just to have his fun.

also, the bolded is highly subject to interpretation. i think he thought he had guaranteed victory, and was gloating.

He hid the Elements of Harmony in Twilight's house.

In her house.

In the book titled 'the elements of harmony'.

He could have just thrown them into space, but he hid them inside the house of the Element of Magic.

Criminal mastermind he ain't.

*

Definite descriptions are the centre of Russel’s theory, and he uses the technique to break down any sentence into three separate parts. Each of those parts can be tested individually to ascertain the sentence’s validity, e.g.: “Twilight Sparkle is a pony”

1. There is such a thing as Twilight Sparkle
2. There is at most one such Twilight Sparkle
3. All Twilight Sparkles are ponies

This overcomes the problems inherent in referring expressions by allowing us to state that if any of these three is false all three are false. So if there is no entity named Twilight Sparkle then it naturally follows that this non-existent creature is also not a pony.


The Philosophy of language is weird.

[thubby]

as i said, it was subject to interpretation, that's all.



The Philosophy of language is weird.

indeed. though, doesn't the whole "existence is not a real predicate" thing sort of screw up your whole thing?

[Thanqol]

indeed. though, doesn't the whole "existence is not a real predicate" thing sort of screw up your whole thing?

No, metaphor is what screws up the entire thing.

[Pokonic]

How would that work... pegasus ponies as shenlong dragons, unicorn ponies and loredrake dragons, and earth ponies as earth (European) dragons?[/SPOILER]

Hmm....

I think it might be best to split the european dragons in this case into a lighter builded one with wings and a heavy, soild build with none.
"Loredrake" is not often thought of as a dragon steriotype, so lets give them the same slim shape as the pegusi dragons but with facial hair.
The Alicorns have the sole right to having a pure long-type body. Zebras are....whatever Spike is? No, realy. Chance for some hair, (apperently) wingless, and can do some fun stuff with it's breath.

[darthbobcat]

We did another anime review. It was Coyote Ragtime Show. It was... an experience.

Also, if anyone around here has any review requests, we take them. Requests, that is.

Link: Coyote Ragtime Show Review (http://fivepointpodcast.blogspot.com/2012/03/this-time-we-went-into-show-blind.html)

Also, an amusing Pony related link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4keolarX2g&feature=context&context=C47142faADvjVQa1PpcFNtxen8BIG8bdp4C8tDrpXX 97-jPZutZTI=

[Thanqol]

We did another anime review. It was Coyote Ragtime Show. It was... an experience.

Also, if anyone around here has any review requests, we take them. Requests, that is.

Link: Coyote Ragtime Show Review (http://fivepointpodcast.blogspot.com/2012/03/this-time-we-went-into-show-blind.html)

Having listened to two hours and twelve minutes of two guys complaining about things, I'll rain check this for now.

And my requests are unfortunately narrow alongside my knowledge of anime, but I still recommend Fate: Zero as the superior brother to the Fate: Stay Night anime.

[Deadly]

We don't really know a thing about Celestia, or dragons, or Discord. How good of a flier is Celestia? We have no clue. What about dragons, maybe they are terrible fliers? No clue. How tough is Discord, could he take a kick to the face by Applejack and still stand? No clue. How hard is it to raise the sun, could Twilight do it if she tried? No clue. Does Celestia actually raise the sun all on her own, or are there other princesses in other lands who pool together to do it? No clue. Do some dragons have magic or any special powers aside from their breath? No clue. How old is Celestia, aside from older than 1000 years? No clue. What about dragons, aside from at least a few hundred years? No clue. We don't even know how old regular ponies get.

And so on. It's all speculation.

My guess on dragons is that they're nothing but big reptiles with elemental breaths. No unicorn-level magic, probably not terribly agile in flight, just big brutes with three qualities: big, strong and tough, specifically resistant to fire. The ones we've seen, adults and adolescents alike, also haven't been the brightest. Which means Celestia would totally own any dragon's flank on its own. Twilight too. Of course, unless Celestia is actually invulnerable (I'm thinking not) if you get her alone against enough dragons she'll be overwhelmed sooner or later. But that's not terribly impressive, get enough bunnies to stampede and you'll achieve the same. And Celestia likely wouldn't stand alone, whereas I'm somewhat doubtful of the loyalty of dragons.

Oh, and Steven Magnet? Totally not a dragon like the others we've seen. He's a sea serpent. Very different thing.

Basically, dragons in MLP haven't been all that impressive so far. Maybe there are ancient, wise dragon kings out there somewhere who wield magic and could challenge Celestia or Twilight, but the ones we've seen? No way. They're just over-sized reptiles. Spike beating the Wonderbolts also wasn't that impressive, could be a lucky shot, could be they had orders from Celestia not to seriously hurt him, could be they were Wonderbolts rookies (Soarin' and Spitfire weren't among them), could be a lot of things, it being a one-time occurrence.

As for age, heck I'm thinking the big red and green ones we saw in S1 were probably about the same age as Granny Smith (which we can't pin down either).

And as for Discord, I'm not so sure about his powers. Nothing we've seen him do couldn't be easily explained as simple illusions and mind tricks. Breaching Celestia's ward to steal the Elements? Wait in the dark until she opens the door herself, then teleport the Elements out of the box a split second before she shows it to be empty. That's what I'd do. The missing wings and horns? Just a mind trick, they were never gone the ponies just thought so. Ponyville, Chaos Capital of the world? Illusions and tricks. Sun and Moon? A local veil of illusion, outside Ponyville everything was finest day.

At least that's how I choose to explain him. I bet he couldn't actually beat Celestia, but he could use hit-and-run/hide tactics indefinitely to cause her a major headache.

[PrinceAquilaDei]

On the new episode:

I liked it plenty.

Derp highlight of the episode must easily be Twilight saying aloud how you can't find any reading material on dragons because they are so rare juxtaposed with the sight of the sky filled with them (I'm not even whining, I found this amusing in and of itself).

Crackle is a great dragon, by the way.

I kind of wanted Spike to flamesend the pheonix egg to the princess when pressured to crack it, especially if he was able to bluff the others into thinking it had been destroyed and later skulk off to join with the others, it would have been nice to see him outsmart his opponents by himself.

I guess it only works on scrolls though.

[Thanqol]

We don't really know a thing about Celestia, or dragons, or Discord. How good of a flier is Celestia? We have no clue. What about dragons, maybe they are terrible fliers? No clue. How tough is Discord, could he take a kick to the face by Applejack and still stand? No clue. How hard is it to raise the sun, could Twilight do it if she tried? No clue. Does Celestia actually raise the sun all on her own, or are there other princesses in other lands who pool together to do it? No clue. Do some dragons have magic or any special powers aside from their breath? No clue. How old is Celestia, aside from older than 1000 years? No clue. What about dragons, aside from at least a few hundred years? No clue. We don't even know how old regular ponies get.

And so on. It's all speculation.

I'm a philosophy student.

[Deadly]

I'm a philosophy student.

I'm a mathematics student.

Or was, right now I'm kinda slacking off...

[Thanqol]

I'm a mathematics student.

Then we have nothing to discuss.

[Deadly]

Then we have nothing to discuss.

Aww, but we're not so different. Many philosophers are mathematicians and vice versa. Some of the most important and beautiful results in mathematics have been within logic and the philosophy of mathematics; and logic itself can be argued to be a branch of philosophy.

[Sean Mirrsen]

We don't really know a thing about Celestia, or dragons, or Discord. How good of a flier is Celestia? We have no clue. What about dragons, maybe they are terrible fliers? No clue. How tough is Discord, could he take a kick to the face by Applejack and still stand? No clue. How hard is it to raise the sun, could Twilight do it if she tried? No clue. Does Celestia actually raise the sun all on her own, or are there other princesses in other lands who pool together to do it? No clue. Do some dragons have magic or any special powers aside from their breath? No clue. How old is Celestia, aside from older than 1000 years? No clue. What about dragons, aside from at least a few hundred years? No clue. We don't even know how old regular ponies get.

And so on. It's all speculation.Well, we know for sure the ponies do age, and don't normally live for a thousand years. We can make educated guesses on why Celestia is able to raise the Sun herself, and we can be fairly sure from events of the pilot that Celestia is the only one doing it. From some scenes we can see that Celestia isn't an entirely awesome flier, needing some effort to quickly get airborne. Dragons aren't quite bad in the air, as we've seen, but how easily grown ones take off isn't clearly shown. We're fairly certain that dragons at least can have meta-magical powers, with Spike's email breath, but dragons were not shown to be capable of conventional magic. Other points I concur on, no clue indeed, although having AJ buck Discord would fun.


My guess on dragons is that they're nothing but big reptiles with elemental breaths. No unicorn-level magic, probably not terribly agile in flight, just big brutes with three qualities: big, strong and tough, specifically resistant to fire. The ones we've seen, adults and adolescents alike, also haven't been the brightest. Which means Celestia would totally own any dragon's flank on its own. Twilight too. Of course, unless Celestia is actually invulnerable (I'm thinking not) if you get her alone against enough dragons she'll be overwhelmed sooner or later. But that's not terribly impressive, get enough bunnies to stampede and you'll achieve the same. And Celestia likely wouldn't stand alone, whereas I'm somewhat doubtful of the loyalty of dragons.Celestia has been described as "the most magical pony", which is a rather hazy definition. She has the most powerful talent, raising the Sun, which, in her sister's absence, she had somehow managed to use to move the Moon as well. Beyond that, her age, and her stint as a wielder of the Elements, she was never shown to have any actual, y'know, power. She's got intelligence and wisdom, she likely has magical reserves reasonably greater than Twilight's, allowing her to comfortably use her special talent, but when all is said and done her status may simply be due to her specialization. She saves a whole nation's worth of unicorns having to tug a massive nuclear fusion fireball around the sky each day, that alone will get her a seat as Princess. Being immortal (well, technically, just unaging) and reasonably more powerful than any given single unicorn is an extra bonus. So while I concur that Celestia would defeat a dragon 1-on-1, much in the same way Twilight and Co could, if they put their minds to it, I think she would be hard pressed to win against two at once without displaying previously unseen powers, like flinging directed solar flares about or something. We really need an episode about Celestia herself in this show. Or at least a scene of some kind, when a disaster is so great that local efforts by the M6 are insufficient, and the Princess has to step in and show off her actual strength. With maybe a lesson that while your superiors and teachers may not technically be your friends, asking them for help in a time of need is nothing to be ashamed of.


Basically, dragons in MLP haven't been all that impressive so far. Maybe there are ancient, wise dragon kings out there somewhere who wield magic and could challenge Celestia or Twilight, but the ones we've seen? No way. They're just over-sized reptiles. Spike beating the Wonderbolts also wasn't that impressive, could be a lucky shot, could be they had orders from Celestia not to seriously hurt him, could be they were Wonderbolts rookies (Soarin' and Spitfire weren't among them), could be a lot of things, it being a one-time occurrence.Well, aside from them being in a King Kong/Godzilla shout-out and thus destined to lose, and this being a kid's show where actual violence is frowned upon, I think it's just the ponies' mentality, that every living thing deserves to live. If it's a monster out of the Everfree, the right course of action is to drive it back into the Everfree, not chop its head off first and ask questions later. Thus, the Wonderbolts were just hazing Spike, trying to get him to let go of the hostage and drive him away. My impression of that scene was they they expected to be able to smash through the water tower, but maybe underestimated its thickness (or it being made of metal), and got knocked out. This, if anything, showed Spike as being smarter than the average dragon, being able to outwit the Wonderbolt rookie squadron.


And as for Discord, I'm not so sure about his powers. Nothing we've seen him do couldn't be easily explained as simple illusions and mind tricks. Breaching Celestia's ward to steal the Elements? Wait in the dark until she opens the door herself, then teleport the Elements out of the box a split second before she shows it to be empty. That's what I'd do. The missing wings and horns? Just a mind trick, they were never gone the ponies just thought so. Ponyville, Chaos Capital of the world? Illusions and tricks. Sun and Moon? A local veil of illusion, outside Ponyville everything was finest day.

At least that's how I choose to explain him. I bet he couldn't actually beat Celestia, but he could use hit-and-run/hide tactics indefinitely to cause her a major headache.Back in RoH1, Discord is described by Celestia as "a mischievous Spirit of Disharmony", and he later expanded that himself to "Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony". So he's not a god or anything, he's perfectly defeatable, but he is one very nasty opponent for anyone. As a mischievous spirit, he has no specific long-term goals, and as one of Chaos and Disharmony, his primary strengths are exactly what his opponents' weaknesses are. Discord for lack of a better term, is a crazy master of genjutsu. (did I spell that right?) He attacks psychologically, with mind-altering spells and real-seeming illusions, but with a goal not to kill - rather, to sow disharmony, or as it's otherwise known, discord. As a mischievous spirit, that is the entirety of his life goal, he has no care for the world at large, but if he sees the opportunity, he will seize control of it - just to cause discord and chaos on a large scale. His actual magic level is likely far from godlike, probably closer to Twilight's (notice how even before the Elements were powered up, Twilight could negate his powers around her, even turning the ground back to grass), but even if he is significantly weaker than Celestia, he will still beat her (for a given value of "beat", as he's not dealing physical harm), twisting her mind with illusions much in the same way he had done with the main six. The whole thing with the Sun and the Moon flipping out over Equestria could be the result of Discord messing with Celestia and Luna's minds, with Celestia only being able to send the letters because Discord saw no possible harm from this action, or perhaps was coaxed into believing this to be a way to torture Spike (which it was, but only as a secondary effect). All the other things going on in Ponyville were likely equal parts his own doing and the powers of whatever unicorns he got his mismatched claws on, plus a heavy layer of illusions. Even his taking the Elements and putting them away was not any sort of magical teleportation, the Elements weren't even out of the box when it was opened, Discord simply made it seem they weren't there. When the main six stormed off into the Labyrinth and Celestia was otherwise occupied, he simply took the Elements (which, as physical representations of his exact opposite, he probably has only limited control over) and hid them in a place that would be the single dumbest place to put them in, because he wanted them to be found, but he knew that by the time they are found, their wielders would be incapable of using them, thus crushing them further and finally breaking Twilight. He is, after all, not evil. Mischievous, chaotic, somewhat random, a big dumb meanie, but not actually baby-eatingly evil. That is my current stance on the matter.

[Deadly]

Well, we know for sure the ponies do age, and don't normally live for a thousand years.

That's not much, though. Certainly not very helpful in establishing anything at all interesting.


We can make educated guesses on why Celestia is able to raise the Sun herself, and we can be fairly sure from events of the pilot that Celestia is the only one doing it.

Where in the pilot or anywhere is this unequivocally shown? We know she "uses her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn", but as far as I recall it is never explained how, or whether she is alone in doing it. It's probably heavily implied and certainly the first idea any reasonable person would have, but I don't recall anything ruling out that there are others who help her.




From some scenes we can see that Celestia isn't an entirely awesome flier, needing some effort to quickly get airborne.

Where is that shown? And needing a little effort to get in the air doesn't say anything about how she handles herself once there.



Dragons aren't quite bad in the air, as we've seen, but how easily grown ones take off isn't clearly shown.

We've seen them fly steadily in a relatively straight path. That's not gonna blow any minds.

Dragon Quest
And then we've seen one do a single roll in the air, which RD characterizes as a "pretty lame move" although that could just be RD bragging. And one crashed into another, again: mind not blown.

Remind me if we've seen anything actually awesome performed by a dragon in flight.



We're fairly certain that dragons at least can have meta-magical powers, with Spike's email breath, but dragons were not shown to be capable of conventional magic.

We don't actually know that this is Spike's own magic, it could be an effect placed on him by Celestia.


Other points I concur on, no clue indeed, although having AJ buck Discord would fun.

Indeed!


Celestia has been described as "the most magical pony", which is a rather hazy definition. She has the most powerful talent, raising the Sun, which, in her sister's absence, she had somehow managed to use to move the Moon as well.

But we don't know how tough raising the sun and/or moon actually is. Maybe Twilight could do it without much effort. We also don't know what the sun and moon is, it may not be a giant globe of nuclear fusion but... well, could be anything. Could be a giant mirror reflecting lights on the ground, for all we know.



Beyond that, her age, and her stint as a wielder of the Elements, she was never shown to have any actual, y'know, power.

Not much, no. She's shown teleporting and dispelling Twilight's want-it-need it spell. This doesn't tell us much, but does suggest to me that like Twilight she has a talent for magic, and of course she's had at least a thousand years to study it. Also, it's probable that she wore the Element of Magic in her time, although honestly we don't know for sure.


She's got intelligence and wisdom, she likely has magical reserves reasonably greater than Twilight's, allowing her to comfortably use her special talent, but when all is said and done her status may simply be due to her specialization. She saves a whole nation's worth of unicorns having to tug a massive nuclear fusion fireball around the sky each day, that alone will get her a seat as Princess.

We don't know anything about her reserves, again because we don't know how tough it actually is to raise the sun. Probably not the easiest task, but may not be beyond the power any unicorn with a talent for magic.


Being immortal (well, technically, just unaging) and reasonably more powerful than any given single unicorn is an extra bonus.

Again, we don't actually know. Maybe she's just long-lived, like maybe she'll naturally live to be five thousand or something. Or maybe she keeps herself young with magic and eventually time will catch up with her. We don't know.


So while I concur that Celestia would defeat a dragon 1-on-1, much in the same way Twilight and Co could, if they put their minds to it, I think she would be hard pressed to win against two at once without displaying previously unseen powers, like flinging directed solar flares about or something.

Dragon Quest
I suspect directed solar flares wouldn't hurt dragons. I think her advantage would lie in other magics, which I noted above I suspect she has a talent for.


We really need an episode about Celestia herself in this show. Or at least a scene of some kind, when a disaster is so great that local efforts by the M6 are insufficient, and the Princess has to step in and show off her actual strength. With maybe a lesson that while your superiors and teachers may not technically be your friends, asking them for help in a time of need is nothing to be ashamed of.

This I agree with. More Celestia (and Luna!)


Well, aside from them being in a King Kong/Godzilla shout-out and thus destined to lose, and this being a kid's show where actual violence is frowned upon, I think it's just the ponies' mentality, that every living thing deserves to live. If it's a monster out of the Everfree, the right course of action is to drive it back into the Everfree, not chop its head off first and ask questions later. Thus, the Wonderbolts were just hazing Spike, trying to get him to let go of the hostage and drive him away. My impression of that scene was they they expected to be able to smash through the water tower, but maybe underestimated its thickness (or it being made of metal), and got knocked out. This, if anything, showed Spike as being smarter than the average dragon, being able to outwit the Wonderbolt rookie squadron.

Indeed, just goes to show that it wasn't all that impressive and said nothing of the awesomeness of dragons.


Back in RoH1, Discord is described by Celestia as "a mischievous Spirit of Disharmony", and he later expanded that himself to "Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony". So he's not a god or anything, he's perfectly defeatable, but he is one very nasty opponent for anyone. As a mischievous spirit, he has no specific long-term goals, and as one of Chaos and Disharmony, his primary strengths are exactly what his opponents' weaknesses are. Discord for lack of a better term, is a crazy master of genjutsu. (did I spell that right?) He attacks psychologically, with mind-altering spells and real-seeming illusions, but with a goal not to kill - rather, to sow disharmony, or as it's otherwise known, discord. As a mischievous spirit, that is the entirety of his life goal, he has no care for the world at large, but if he sees the opportunity, he will seize control of it - just to cause discord and chaos on a large scale. His actual magic level is likely far from godlike, probably closer to Twilight's (notice how even before the Elements were powered up, Twilight could negate his powers around her, even turning the ground back to grass),

Indeed, mostly what I said. He relies on trickery and illusion, rather than actually changing the world. I think Twilight negating his magic was actually a use of the Elements, but a subtle one perhaps. They were protected by the Elements from his discord, or their minds. They were immune because they had seen through him, so to speak.


but even if he is significantly weaker than Celestia, he will still beat her (for a given value of "beat", as he's not dealing physical harm), twisting her mind with illusions much in the same way he had done with the main six. The whole thing with the Sun and the Moon flipping out over Equestria could be the result of Discord messing with Celestia and Luna's minds, with Celestia only being able to send the letters because Discord saw no possible harm from this action, or perhaps was coaxed into believing this to be a way to torture Spike (which it was, but only as a secondary effect).

See, I prefer to think Celestia wouldn't fall for his tricks. Or at least that he would have to work very, very hard to do so. As above, she'd see through it and know it for what it is. Maybe not being attuned to the Elements would be a disadvantage for her, but still I think he'd rather avoid her and have fun with the little ponies instead.



All the other things going on in Ponyville were likely equal parts his own doing and the powers of whatever unicorns he got his mismatched claws on, plus a heavy layer of illusions. Even his taking the Elements and putting them away was not any sort of magical teleportation, the Elements weren't even out of the box when it was opened, Discord simply made it seem they weren't there. When the main six stormed off into the Labyrinth and Celestia was otherwise occupied, he simply took the Elements (which, as physical representations of his exact opposite, he probably has only limited control over) and hid them in a place that would be the single dumbest place to put them in, because he wanted them to be found, but he knew that by the time they are found, their wielders would be incapable of using them, thus crushing them further and finally breaking Twilight.

Agree again, although I might have been a little disappointed if Celestia couldn't see through that so I think I might prefer him teleporting them out. Of course if she could figure out what he did it'd kinda ruin the plot so... yeah. Maybe she figured it out later, off screen.


He is, after all, not evil. Mischievous, chaotic, somewhat random, a big dumb meanie, but not actually baby-eatingly evil. That is my current stance on the matter.

Ah, that discussion. I was staying out of it earlier, but I disagree. Discord is evil, pure and plain. It's just like NMM, people said she wasn't so bad because she didn't go around killing ponies left and right with her own hooves. And Faust IIRC made it a point to explain that she actually would have been seriously bad if she had been allowed to continue on. What with the eternal night causing famine and untold misery and death.

It's exactly the same thing here, especially if we assume Discord actually did change the world and the day/night cycle. With Discord ruling the land, nothing could be relied upon. Crops, day/night, nothing at all. The whole world would crumble faster than under NMM, millions would die not by his hand directly but through his insane whims. Life truly would be miserable under Discord.

[V Junior]

...Hey. So. Coming out the brony closet here. -waves- I didn't know that there was a Brony ITP thread! Why did nopony tell me?!

BTW, quick question: Has anyone made ponies of the OOTSters yet?

[MCerberus]

...Hey. So. Coming out the brony closet here. -waves- I didn't know that there was a Brony ITP thread! Why did nopony tell me?!

BTW, quick question: Has anyone made ponies of the OOTSters yet?

Not quite sure about that, but still.
Welcome (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix7vrluEm4E) to the herd.

[Kato]

Dragon Quest (most Epic title yet) Also: FUS RO DAH! (Yeah, I had to say that)


Episode was fun enough but nothing too special... it is a bit weird to portray a whole species as evil (spike excluded) but I guess it was just that gang or something...

Rarity seemed REALLY into Spike this week.. I lmost thought I was wearing shipping goggles or something...

Also: pet phoenix. Awwww.

[Anarion]

So lots has been discussed already and I don't want to rehash, so I'm just going to focus on Discord. I think one thing to consider with Discord is that his nigh-omnipotent powers might only apply when he acts in character. He is, after all a trickster god. His schtick is chaos, not murder or brutality. I would find it entirely in keeping with his presentation if he were only able to teleport the elements of harmony as long as he presented a way for the ponies to get them back by playing his game. And he quite likely could only remove horns and wings in the context of a competition that he had set up himself and that would prove non-lethal. Under this assumption, Discord might find himself a bit challenged by a feral dragon that just ran straight at him. He could teleport away, but if it wasn't smart enough to play with him or appreciate his work, he might have minimal power over it.
/end speculation


Just swinging in here before my flight to Denver (home of the Broncos) tomorrow to say I love you Ponythread, I love the new episode, and I love this picture:

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/064/9/1/derpy_day_2012__always_on_my_team_by_hyper_piston-d4ruhjh.jpg

Spectacular


...Hey. So. Coming out the brony closet here. -waves- I didn't know that there was a Brony ITP thread! Why did nopony tell me?!

BTW, quick question: Has anyone made ponies of the OOTSters yet?

You'll get a much more proper welcome from others that have the full wagon in organized picture format, but let me extend my welcome as well. This is actually the 39th such thread, but unless you want to watch the slow descent into madness ponysanity of some posters here, don't feel any need to catch up, just jump into the discussion.

And yes, there are OOTS ponies, possibly in the avatar is magic thread somewhere, but my forum fu is weak today (or rather I'm in a bit of a rush at the moment, so no searching). But if you want to flex your art talent, you can always make more. http://i.imgur.com/7Yvwk.png

[MCerberus]

Dragon Quest (most Epic title yet) Also: FUS RO DAH! (Yeah, I had to say that)


Episode was fun enough but nothing too special... it is a bit weird to portray a whole species as evil (spike excluded) but I guess it was just that gang or something...

Rarity seemed REALLY into Spike this week.. I lmost thought I was wearing shipping goggles or something...

Also: pet phoenix. Awwww.


I think dragon teens just go through an evil phase, followed by a centuries-long 'leave me alone' phase. Like it's been stated before, the adults in the situation are being downright responsible parents watching over the volatile angry dragonlings.

[erikun]

I think it might be best to split the european dragons in this case into a lighter builded one with wings and a heavy, soild build with none.
"Loredrake" is not often thought of as a dragon steriotype, so lets give them the same slim shape as the pegusi dragons but with facial hair.
The Alicorns have the sole right to having a pure long-type body. Zebras are....whatever Spike is? No, realy. Chance for some hair, (apperently) wingless, and can do some fun stuff with it's breath.
Huh. I've obviously been exposes to D&D3 for far too long not to realize that "loredrake" did not have a broader meaning. Ah well.

I imagined loredrakes being smaller dragons (drakes, basically) but with, for lack of a better term, "metamagic breath". Shenlong/chinese dragons would be the quick fliers and weather manipulators, while earth/western dragons would be the heartier, mostly land-bound cousins.

A Zecora-alternate that's an adult Spike? That would be quite amusing.


On the new episode:
Derp highlight of the episode must easily be Twilight saying aloud how you can't find any reading material on dragons because they are so rare juxtaposed with the sight of the sky filled with them (I'm not even whining, I found this amusing in and of itself).
S2e21 (sort of)
The sky is regularly filled with comets, meteor showers, rainbows, northern lights, and even stars nightly. This does not impart any special knowledge about how they work, though - just that they are there and exist.


Where in the pilot or anywhere is this unequivocally shown? We know she "uses her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn", but as far as I recall it is never explained how, or whether she is alone in doing it. It's probably heavily implied and certainly the first idea any reasonable person would have, but I don't recall anything ruling out that there are others who help her.
She was shown raising the sun in Cutie Mark Chronicles.


Dragon Quest
And then we've seen one do a single roll in the air, which RD characterizes as a "pretty lame move" although that could just be RD bragging. And one crashed into another, again: mind not blown.
S2e21
That's kind of hard to say. On the one hand, she's clearly impressed. On the other, it's hard to say if Rainbow's comment was due to the move just not being impressive beyond being done by a dragon, or if she was just bragging to herself.

As for dragons bumping into each other, it's thousands of dragons travelling hundreds/thousands of miles in, apparently, a single journey. One or two collisions would be expected; the fact that it didn't really slow either one down is a bit more impressive.


...Hey. So. Coming out the brony closet here. -waves- I didn't know that there was a Brony ITP thread! Why did nopony tell me?!

BTW, quick question: Has anyone made ponies of the OOTSters yet?
Welcome! Have some apples!
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/183/0/4/applebloom_by_darth_franny-d3kr3qu.png (http://darth-franny.deviantart.com/art/Applebloom-216255414)

http://th01.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2012/041/8/d/french_applebloom_by_sirradical-d4p5w58.png (http://sirradical.deviantart.com/art/French-Applebloom-284130044)

http://th00.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2012/016/3/1/applejack_gala_portrait_by_kp_shadowsquirrel-d4mjye0.jpg (http://kp-shadowsquirrel.deviantart.com/art/Applejack-Gala-Portrait-279747288)

http://i.neoseeker.com/mgv/60953-Shadow%20of%20Death/953/50/eyyyup_display.jpg

http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/7831a8f601a2be228ef3b68c5c2a9f2b/7541

[Alabenson]

...Hey. So. Coming out the brony closet here. -waves- I didn't know that there was a Brony ITP thread! Why did nopony tell me?!

BTW, quick question: Has anyone made ponies of the OOTSters yet?

New brony detected, firing welcome cannons
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111128055005/callofduty/images/9/95/Welcome_to_the_Herd.gif
http://gamesprays.com/files/resource_media/preview/welcome-to-the-herd-5420_preview.png
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/053cd012b2dba051f237dca1961f7fef/60554%20-%20Hubble%20applejack%20hypnosis%20welcome_to_the_ herd.gif
http://dash.ponychan.net/chan/files/src/133065780206.jpg
http://images.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw2637-121208_-_animated_applejack_cider_fluttershy_pinkie_pie_ra inbow_dash_rarity_twilight_sparkle_welcome_to_the_ herd.gif

[Metahuman1]

So, just a couple of quick thoughts I wanted to throw out there regarding the latest ep.

So, there now putting it down as Canon that Ponies in Equestria don't know too much about things outside there boarders, did the though occur to anypony else that there might be other things out there not even on the radar yet? Any speculation here?



Did anypony else think it was just a tiny bit odd that Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Twilight didn't appear to make any attempt to grab the other three before taking off even though Rarity took the time to make the costume?

And show of hooves, who else got a chuckle out of seeing Fluttershy assert her right to run the heck away and hide form the dragon migration as opposed to going to watch it in the trenches with the others?


Also, did anypony else mind that it was ok for Rainbow Dash and Apple Jack and Pinkie Pie to mock spike at the beginning about not being a real dragon but it was somehow bad that the other dragons were mocking him?

[Soras Teva Gee]

I believe he meant that the entire last page was filled with unlabeled spoiler tags. It's pretty much impossible to tell if a spoiler is about the new episode, a future episode, an image, or the Celestia/Dragon discussion without opening them all up - no labels.

Which I think if anything illustrates and justifies my hatred of the coding and belief it should be stricken from the board. For encouraging the lazy behavior of just smacking anything into them.

(Hey have I given this rant before, why I think I have!)

[Lix Lorn]

So, just a couple of quick thoughts I wanted to throw out there regarding the latest ep.

Also, did anypony else mind that it was ok for Rainbow Dash and Apple Jack and Pinkie Pie to mock spike at the beginning about not being a real dragon but it was somehow bad that the other dragons were mocking him?
They weren't mocking him. (Except Rainbow.) They were treating him like a little kid, and maybe teasing, but they weren't actively trying to annoy/upset him.
Possibly except Rainbow, and HER actions I was annoyed by.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Where in the pilot or anywhere is this unequivocally shown? We know she "uses her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn", but as far as I recall it is never explained how, or whether she is alone in doing it. It's probably heavily implied and certainly the first idea any reasonable person would have, but I don't recall anything ruling out that there are others who help her.While it is reasonable to assume that there may be others who help her in this task, inasmuch as others are both capable of doing it, and perfectly willing to help (the princess being as highly regarded as she is), I still think that it's a given that someone whose special talent is this one task, and who is ubiquitously referred to as The Princess Who Raises The Sun (though not in that wording), would indeed be the primary driving force beyond it. Moreover, it'd be hard for others to pool strength into one act that isn't, as far as I can tell, actually timed, and happens entirely on the whim of the princess. Especially given occasions like the Summer Sun Celebration, where she takes time to make a public appearance, then raise the sun. On the overall, yes, heavily implied, and other options deemed highly unlikely.


Where is that shown? And needing a little effort to get in the air doesn't say anything about how she handles herself once there.Let's see... we could see only a precious few times when she actually took flight, or was flying at all. She comes in for a (heavy) landing at the end of Pinkie Keen, takes a good few powerful flaps to fly up (although that could be purely for "majestic visage" purposes) in Twilight's flashback during Cutie Mark Chronicles, but she displays a little more agility in Lesson Zero, so there's still more data needed for a decent estimate. I'd say she's no better than a normal pegasus at most, which I guess is still a feat considering her size. I think that overall, she prefers teleporting around, much like Twilight does, or taking the pegasus-carriage, on official visits.


We've seen them fly steadily in a relatively straight path. That's not gonna blow any minds.

Dragon Quest
And then we've seen one do a single roll in the air, which RD characterizes as a "pretty lame move" although that could just be RD bragging. And one crashed into another, again: mind not blown.

Remind me if we've seen anything actually awesome performed by a dragon in flight.Dragon Quest:We've seen that despite their rather house-like size, they still can do the roll - or rather, loop-de-loop, and can easily recover from a midair collision (that was half as likely to be intentional as not, given their usual displayed attitude). The dragon back in Dragonshy didn't seem to need any runway for liftoff either, so considering this flight ability is just as physics-defying as the pegasi's, we can safely label it "magic". Therefore, the dragons are flyers at least on par with a somewhat sluggish pegasus, which, again, considering their bulk, is pretty impressive. Imagine an AC-130 gunship doing a barrel roll, or a loop-de-loop.

Actually, a dragon wouldn't be quite like that, it'd also have chobham armor, VTOL capability, and all of its guns in a single giant turret in the nose. Now imagine yourself going against that thing in a WW2 Spitfire. That's what it'd be like for a pegasus to go against a dragon.


We don't actually know that this is Spike's own magic, it could be an effect placed on him by Celestia.Quite. If so it's just another layer to Celestia's double Batman Gambit. Seriously, Luna may be the night, but Celestia's seemingly-not-plans make her look like Batman.

...

Could they be Batmare Sisters?


But we don't know how tough raising the sun and/or moon actually is. Maybe Twilight could do it without much effort. We also don't know what the sun and moon is, it may not be a giant globe of nuclear fusion but... well, could be anything. Could be a giant mirror reflecting lights on the ground, for all we know.The only real data we have on this is from the Heart's Warming Eve play, and that's rather dubious as far as historic accuracy goes. We could really use some more worldbuilding in that direction, although with the latest advances in freestanding rainbows I somehow doubt we're ever going to see it. We can speculate a little, based on the few shreds of evidence we have, but it's not much, and basically amounts to "it's magic".


Not much, no. She's shown teleporting and dispelling Twilight's want-it-need it spell. This doesn't tell us much, but does suggest to me that like Twilight she has a talent for magic, and of course she's had at least a thousand years to study it. Also, it's probable that she wore the Element of Magic in her time, although honestly we don't know for sure.If you look closely, hers is the element of Generosity, or at least that's the one she still associates herself with. She used them all to seal up Nightmare Moon, so it's a given she had the Magic element too, but all in all I'd say her power is just the effect of her being an alicorn - in the Words of God, "a fusion of all three Pony races". Her "talent" for magic is likely just because she's had all the time in the world to study it.


We don't know anything about her reserves, again because we don't know how tough it actually is to raise the sun. Probably not the easiest task, but may not be beyond the power any unicorn with a talent for magic.We've never seen her exert herself, and we've seen her raise the sun a total of... one time? Two if you count her appearing out of the sun in the pilot. The one time we did see it, it apparently didn't warrant any serious effort or concentration, but I firmly believe this is exclusively a function of her cutie mark talent. Since we know that any unicorn (or a collection of unicorns) can affect the sun, her talent must mean that she is the only one able to do it without considerable effort, which is actually less useful because it devalues what little data we have on how hard it actually is.


Again, we don't actually know. Maybe she's just long-lived, like maybe she'll naturally live to be five thousand or something. Or maybe she keeps herself young with magic and eventually time will catch up with her. We don't know.Eeyup. We could always try to ask Lauren though (on her dA, for instance), she probably had some thoughts on this matter.


Dragon Quest
I suspect directed solar flares wouldn't hurt dragons. I think her advantage would lie in other magics, which I noted above I suspect she has a talent for.DQPhoenix fire seemed to at least inconvenience them, and boiling magma is at most, what, three thousand Celsius? Dragons can be fireproof, but to what extent? The Sun's surface is three times that temperature (IIRC), the photosphere even hotter. If the Sun is not a fusion fireball but a magical construct, then it turns into a magical fire attack, which will definitely hurt them.


See, I prefer to think Celestia wouldn't fall for his tricks. Or at least that he would have to work very, very hard to do so. As above, she'd see through it and know it for what it is. Maybe not being attuned to the Elements would be a disadvantage for her, but still I think he'd rather avoid her and have fun with the little ponies instead.I'd think that he would at the very least try to ensure that Celestia can't interfere with his plan, as it'd take fairly little serious effort from a powerful magical entity such as Celestia (even if she's as low-powered as my theories imply) to throw his plans off kilter. At the very least, Celestia would pretend to be affected, so that she can throw a proper wrench into his works with the accumulated friendship reports, because that was one plan she was counting on to work and she would be afraid that her interfering would mess it up.


Agree again, although I might have been a little disappointed if Celestia couldn't see through that so I think I might prefer him teleporting them out. Of course if she could figure out what he did it'd kinda ruin the plot so... yeah. Maybe she figured it out later, off screen.She likely did figure it out later, but initially she was simply surprised, as she did not expect to become a target immediately. I think it's most likely that he actually snuck the Elements out when the others were occupied with his illusion in the stained glass windows, so that when the Discord in the windows faded, the Elements were already physically gone. Typical genjutsu.


Ah, that discussion. I was staying out of it earlier, but I disagree. Discord is evil, pure and plain. It's just like NMM, people said she wasn't so bad because she didn't go around killing ponies left and right with her own hooves. And Faust IIRC made it a point to explain that she actually would have been seriously bad if she had been allowed to continue on. What with the eternal night causing famine and untold misery and death.

It's exactly the same thing here, especially if we assume Discord actually did change the world and the day/night cycle. With Discord ruling the land, nothing could be relied upon. Crops, day/night, nothing at all. The whole world would crumble faster than under NMM, millions would die not by his hand directly but through his insane whims. Life truly would be miserable under Discord.Yes, his reign would be bad, but you forget - it already was this bad, a thousand-something years ago, and the sight of how bad it was led to the Princesses questing for the Elements and using them to statueify Discord. His reign of chaos would be terrible, it'd be chaotic and miserable for the ponies, but fact is a fact - beyond his own having fun by sowing chaos and disharmony, he simply does not care. Also, chocolate rain is fairly nutritious, and the giant apples are pretty neat. :smallbiggrin: In other words, he is chaotic, but otherwise uncaring. He does not intend to cause death or suffering - the fact that he may, out of pure neglect and in the general spirit of "having fun", do it, does not make him outright evil, except by proxy (as in, he is evil in that the good opposes him). His guiding principle is "mischievous spirit". Nightmare Moon, on the other hand, does fully intend to punish the ponies for a perceived (and petty) slight, by removing their sun and generally being typically villainous. And she does fully intend to do harm, smiting three pegasi guards with lightning within five minutes of her appearance, and trying to kill of seriously injure the main six at least twice during their forest trip. Discord's actions are the equivalent of a guy juggling Superballs in a china shop. Nightmare Moon is an angry ex-employee with a baseball bat who gets taken out by security before he can do serious damage.

...and I won't be surprised if I'm ninja'd a dozen times on some of these points while I am typing this.

[Deadly]

She was shown raising the sun in Cutie Mark Chronicles.


While it is reasonable to assume that there may be others who help her in this task, inasmuch as others are both capable of doing it, and perfectly willing to help (the princess being as highly regarded as she is), I still think that it's a given that someone whose special talent is this one task, and who is ubiquitously referred to as The Princess Who Raises The Sun (though not in that wording), would indeed be the primary driving force beyond it. Moreover, it'd be hard for others to pool strength into one act that isn't, as far as I can tell, actually timed, and happens entirely on the whim of the princess. Especially given occasions like the Summer Sun Celebration, where she takes time to make a public appearance, then raise the sun. On the overall, yes, heavily implied, and other options deemed highly unlikely.

See, my thinking is that they work together and coordinate the raising of the sun/moon, but don't need to be in the same place. So they each rule their own nation, and have a system in place for determining when to raise the sun and moon.

Perhaps there are in fact 4 other princesses, aside from Celestia and Luna. Three coordinate to raise the sun, three raise the moon, none of them can do so without the others cooperating, or perhaps each can exert enough influence to keep the others from doing so (how Luna kept the sun down).

And of course that'd make six of them, six princesses to have wielded the Elements before Twilight and her friends. It goes well with the whole idea of friendship and cooperation.

I know this is a fringe idea, it wouldn't be my first choice for an explanation, but I don't think anything in the show actually rules it out.


Let's see... we could see only a precious few times when she actually took flight, or was flying at all. She comes in for a (heavy) landing at the end of Pinkie Keen, takes a good few powerful flaps to fly up (although that could be purely for "majestic visage" purposes) in Twilight's flashback during Cutie Mark Chronicles, but she displays a little more agility in Lesson Zero, so there's still more data needed for a decent estimate. I'd say she's no better than a normal pegasus at most, which I guess is still a feat considering her size. I think that overall, she prefers teleporting around, much like Twilight does, or taking the pegasus-carriage, on official visits.

Dragon Quest:We've seen that despite their rather house-like size, they still can do the roll - or rather, loop-de-loop, and can easily recover from a midair collision (that was half as likely to be intentional as not, given their usual displayed attitude). The dragon back in Dragonshy didn't seem to need any runway for liftoff either, so considering this flight ability is just as physics-defying as the pegasi's, we can safely label it "magic". Therefore, the dragons are flyers at least on par with a somewhat sluggish pegasus, which, again, considering their bulk, is pretty impressive. Imagine an AC-130 gunship doing a barrel roll, or a loop-de-loop.

Actually, a dragon wouldn't be quite like that, it'd also have chobham armor, VTOL capability, and all of its guns in a single giant turret in the nose. Now imagine yourself going against that thing in a WW2 Spitfire. That's what it'd be like for a pegasus to go against a dragon.

No idea about your comparison there, but I assume you mean it'd be one heck of a feat for the pegasus. I quite doubt that, I'm pretty sure any reasonably well-trained pegasus would do quite well against a full-grown dragon in a flight (not so much a fight).

But, we don't really have enough clues to go by, so it's just my opinion.


DQPhoenix fire seemed to at least inconvenience them, and boiling magma is at most, what, three thousand Celsius? Dragons can be fireproof, but to what extent? The Sun's surface is three times that temperature (IIRC), the photosphere even hotter. If the Sun is not a fusion fireball but a magical construct, then it turns into a magical fire attack, which will definitely hurt them.

Dragon Quest
I think the phoenix fire may have just blinded them more than hurt them. And blackened their faces, but that doesn't have to mean actual damage.

I'm also not completely sold on the idea that Celestia can throw around solar flares and the like. She may have an affinity for fire magic, maybe, but I think that's about it.


Yes, his reign would be bad, but you forget - it already was this bad, a thousand-something years ago, and the sight of how bad it was led to the Princesses questing for the Elements and using them to statueify Discord. His reign of chaos would be terrible, it'd be chaotic and miserable for the ponies, but fact is a fact - beyond his own having fun by sowing chaos and disharmony, he simply does not care. Also, chocolate rain is fairly nutritious, and the giant apples are pretty neat. :smallbiggrin: In other words, he is chaotic, but otherwise uncaring. He does not intend to cause death or suffering - the fact that he may, out of pure neglect and in the general spirit of "having fun", do it, does not make him outright evil, except by proxy (as in, he is evil in that the good opposes him). His guiding principle is "mischievous spirit". Nightmare Moon, on the other hand, does fully intend to punish the ponies for a perceived (and petty) slight, by removing their sun and generally being typically villainous. And she does fully intend to do harm, smiting three pegasi guards with lightning within five minutes of her appearance, and trying to kill of seriously injure the main six at least twice during their forest trip. Discord's actions are the equivalent of a guy juggling Superballs in a china shop. Nightmare Moon is an angry ex-employee with a baseball bat who gets taken out by security before he can do serious damage.

...and I won't be surprised if I'm ninja'd a dozen times on some of these points while I am typing this.

So... if I were to detonate a huge bomb in a public square because I really wanted to see how it looked, because I thought it'd be one kick-ass fireworks display, and just so happened to kill a few thousand innocents in the process as a side-effect, I wouldn't be evil because I didn't do it to kill but just to watch a nice explosion? :smalltongue:

Discord is evil. His motivations don't mean a thing. The things he does, the chaos and discord he creates, will lead to millions suffering and dying. Because he is a sentient being, that is evil regardless of why he did it. Heck, it may even be worse because his only reasons is "for the lulz", he doesn't even try to justify it (not that he could, if you ask me).

[Capt. Ido Nos]

Before I go and fly in yet another flying tin tube in the sky, I leave everyone this wonderful little gift (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG9E00Sa2lg). We're about to welcome a good number of bronies to the herd because of this, get the cider ready.honk

Link to the original art post of the video, btw. (http://caledscratch.tumblr.com/post/19500564093/x)

[Irbis]

She was shown raising the sun in Cutie Mark Chronicles.

To be fair, using a method any old pegasus could copy.

So, little ponies, how do you live without your daily dose of happiness? :smallamused:

[MCerberus]

To be fair, using a method any old pegasus could copy.

So, little ponies, how do you live without your daily dose of happiness? :smallamused:

I believe we've all adapted to release set amounts of happiness of different flavors to make a happiness devoid area more habitable.

Of course for many of us that means spontaneous parties are something you just get used to.

[Anarion]

To be fair, using a method any old pegasus could copy.

So, little ponies, how do you live without your daily dose of happiness? :smallamused:

Bwah, when did? Irbis it has been a looong time since you posted in this thread, when was the last time you stopped by? How goes life? I miss your scathing critiques and between you and Bobcat reappearing, this thread is swiftly becoming an old thread reunion of sorts.

[Athaniar]

...Hey. So. Coming out the brony closet here. -waves- I didn't know that there was a Brony ITP thread! Why did nopony tell me?!

BTW, quick question: Has anyone made ponies of the OOTSters yet?
Welcome! And yes, I think I've seen that, but I don't have a link.

Also, Happy Birthday to Raz!

[BlasTech]

I'm a mathematics student.

Or was, right now I'm kinda slacking off...


I'm a philosophy student.

Couldn't resist (http://xkcd.com/435/) :smalltongue:

[Pokonic]

I imagined loredrakes being smaller dragons (drakes, basically) but with, for lack of a better term, "metamagic breath". Shenlong/chinese dragons would be the quick fliers and weather manipulators, while earth/western dragons would be the heartier, mostly land-bound cousins.

A Zecora-alternate that's an adult Spike? That would be quite amusing.


Ah, weather manipulation was something I missed. So, would the princesses be like 4th edition gold dragons, with the general blend of traits they have?

The whole zebra-spike thing came off the top of my head, and hindsight shows that it fits well, actualy. Also, to be fair, a poison-joked rhyming Spike would be highly amusing.:smalltongue:

[thubby]

about the whole celestia flying thing.
we may not see her fly much, but her sister certainly does, and it's my understanding new luna (wavy hair etc. instead of regular) is about the same size.

[maximus25]

Before I go and fly in yet another flying tin tube in the sky, I leave everyone this wonderful little gift (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG9E00Sa2lg). We're about to welcome a good number of bronies to the herd because of this, get the cider ready.honk

Link to the original art post of the video, btw. (http://caledscratch.tumblr.com/post/19500564093/x)

I love you forever.

[Metahuman1]

They weren't mocking him. (Except Rainbow.) They were treating him like a little kid, and maybe teasing, but they weren't actively trying to annoy/upset him.
Possibly except Rainbow, and HER actions I was annoyed by.

Generally speaking I tend to think of talking down to somepony, particularly one whom you are already aware is having his share and more of trouble with "coming of age." on the grounds that there younger then you constitutes mocking, but maybe over exposer to certain dregs of humanity at work for two+ years has left me a bit over sensitive to the matter.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Couldn't resist (http://xkcd.com/435/) :smalltongue:

I have serious disagreements with that particular comic gag and charge it with criminal lapse. No Engineers is a crying shame. Oh and that any mathematics' "purity" comes at the removal of its basic connection to reality. Its all well and good to derive the hypothetical basis for imaginary mass, but if that doesn't actually exist it really shouldn't be in with science. Which is not to suggest that math isn't the basic tool of all good science, but its relationship is not plottable in the provided dimensions.

And what the heck are those hack voo-doo head shrinkers doing on there!

Oh Ponies, dem ponies.

[Deadly]

Superloo! (no spoilers, but the awesomeness may kill you)
http://th02.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2012/077/5/b/fly_high__little_one__by_mr_1-d4t6lcj.png (http://mr-1.deviantart.com/art/Fly-high-little-one-290881171)



Couldn't resist (http://xkcd.com/435/) :smalltongue:

I love that one :smallbiggrin:

[Aotrs Commander]

Also, Happy Birthday to Raz!

*pauses headshotting long enough to notice*

It's Raz's birthday?

Oh, Raz, my friend, did you really think you were going to get that past without comment? I don't think so!

Quick, everypony apart from me pile on him!

Happy Birthday!

[Thanqol]

Aww, but we're not so different. Many philosophers are mathematicians and vice versa. Some of the most important and beautiful results in mathematics have been within logic and the philosophy of mathematics; and logic itself can be argued to be a branch of philosophy.


Couldn't resist (http://xkcd.com/435/) :smalltongue:

I was more thinking of this (http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/8661/20090801.gif)


...Hey. So. Coming out the brony closet here. -waves- I didn't know that there was a Brony ITP thread! Why did nopony tell me?!

BTW, quick question: Has anyone made ponies of the OOTSters yet?

They have, it's just somewhere in my 12,000 image strong ponyfolder, I'll find it later.

Also we've been here for a year, we thought you knew.

[PrinceAquilaDei]

Couldn't resist (http://xkcd.com/435/) :smalltongue:

Urgh, are we linking to xkcd now too? Well, Have at You! (http://i.imgur.com/sEevZ.png)

Also, so apparently It's Raz's Birthday now? Cheers Raz,
Would you like a picture? (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/849/happybirthdayk.png/)

[SKarious]

Before I go and fly in yet another flying tin tube in the sky, I leave everyone this wonderful little gift (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG9E00Sa2lg). We're about to welcome a good number of bronies to the herd because of this, get the cider ready.honk

Link to the original art post of the video, btw. (http://caledscratch.tumblr.com/post/19500564093/x)

I'm not sure how this relates to ponies in any way, but that was very good and catchy.
(Would somepony please explain?)

Also, welcome to the herd, V Junior! :smallbiggrin: There are many wonderful people here. Also, there's a space-lich. I'm not sure why, but he's a cool frood.
Try keeping up, this is one of the faster-growing threads here.


New episode:
Ahh, I didn't like it all that much. The opening was great - go assertive Fluttershy!
And the voice acting was great in this one. Haven't noticed it much before, but after some twilight-less episodes, Tara Strong returns from trolling with even more personality for twilight. I'd say VA for Twilight here and in "about time" was excellent. Also Spike's VA was great and believable.

Not-so-good stuff: the teenage-dragons were extremely annoying. Even more than Snips & Snails. Really makes this one an episode I'm not likely to rewatch any time soon. Haven't had that feeling since "Owl's well..".
:smallfrown:

[thubby]

I'm not sure how this relates to ponies in any way, but that was very good and catchy.
(Would somepony please explain?)

Also, welcome to the herd, V Junior! :smallbiggrin: There are many wonderful people here. Also, there's a space-lich. I'm not sure why, but he's a cool frood.
Try keeping up, this is one of the faster-growing threads here.


New episode:
Ahh, I didn't like it all that much. The opening was great - go assertive Fluttershy!
And the voice acting was great in this one. Haven't noticed it much before, but after some twilight-less episodes, Tara Strong returns from trolling with even more personality for twilight. I'd say VA for Twilight here and in "about time" was excellent. Also Spike's VA was great and believable.

Not-so-good stuff: the teenage-dragons were extremely annoying. Even more than Snips & Snails. Really makes this one an episode I'm not likely to rewatch any time soon. Haven't had that feeling since "Owl's well..".
:smallfrown:



listen to the lyrics. it's someone cursing discord for mucking everything up.

also, it was made by the living tombstone, part of the DJ herd.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Before I go and fly in yet another flying tin tube in the sky, I leave everyone this wonderful little gift (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG9E00Sa2lg). We're about to welcome a good number of bronies to the herd because of this, get the cider ready.honk

Link to the original art post of the video, btw. (http://caledscratch.tumblr.com/post/19500564093/x)
Ooh, that's catchy! Saving that one.


I'm not sure how this relates to ponies in any way, but that was very good and catchy.
(Would somepony please explain?)
It's a song about Discord, originally by an artist called Eurobeat Brony, then mixed by The Living tombstone. Here's the original song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDMGv3hNMes&feature=related).

EDIT: Pinkie'd! (can we get an emote for Pinkie in her black catsuit from It's About Time?)

...

*Diego casts mass insanity on Ponythread*
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/9f7d8cebaa301f9d2f179bcfb8ae5d48/149632%20-%20artist%3Aemcee-ironchef%20hands%20multiple_limbs%20oc%20Sophia_Le vant.png

The internet never ceases to amaze and baffle.

Lyra would be so jelly.

[darthbobcat]

New Episode Thoughts:

I hated the opening. Fluttershy being physically violent with Dash makes me just want to slap this script writer with a restraining order on ever writing a script involving Fluttershy ever again. Also, the complete lack of progress after Dragonshy was annoying. My subjective "Fluttershy is ruined now" feeling wasn't helped at all by this episode.

Everything else... well, I just thought it was a boring episode. I just can't get into this writer's style; in her Fluttershy episode and this one, I found myself at minute 15 or so, "... how the hell did 15 minutes pass with so much nothing?"

It's better than Owl's Well, but that is faint, FAINT praise. I also wonder why every time Spike gets an episode from his POV, they add another bird.

Good point: the derp dragon gag. That's all that would make me want to rewatch it, and thankfully that clip was made available out of context.

Also, the dragon designs smacked REALLY hard of How To Train Your Dragon. To the point where it seemed less like the show's typical Homage than just theft.

On the SF Debris scale, where I go 1-10, with 10 being the best of this show and 1 being the worst, this earns a 3 or 4.

[Lord Raziere]

*pauses headshotting long enough to notice*

It's Raz's birthday?

Oh, Raz, my friend, did you really think you were going to get that past without comment? I don't think so!

Quick, everypony apart from me pile on him!

Happy Birthday!

No its not, mine is june 19th, you must be mistaken :smalltongue:

I know that its the other Raz's birthday, I'm just joking around

As for Episode 21……kermeh. There were some funny parts that I can't remember anymore, but the opening made me think that this was gonna be a second fluttercentric episode recycling the fear of dragons thing….
as for Spikes quest……it smacks waaaaaay too much of "manly" tests.
I mean sure I know what kind of show it is and what not but…..I dunno, it seems uneasy to me.
good thing Spike came to his senses at the end. but the new bird was just pointless. and isn't that kidnapping? :smallannoyed:

[TheAmishPirate]

Before I go and fly in yet another flying tin tube in the sky, I leave everyone this wonderful little gift (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG9E00Sa2lg). We're about to welcome a good number of bronies to the herd because of this, get the cider ready.honk

Link to the original art post of the video, btw. (http://caledscratch.tumblr.com/post/19500564093/x)

Niiiiice. Those fit together well enough to be creepy, and it is glorious.

@Lord Raziere: Mind the spoilers. Also, I nearly corrected you on the birthday thing, until I saw the white text when I tried to quote you. :smalltongue:

Happy Birthday, Raz!

[Soras Teva Gee]

New Episode Thoughts:


Also, the dragon designs smacked REALLY hard of How To Train Your Dragon. To the point where it seemed less like the show's typical Homage than just theft.


That's a pretty serious accusation and I honestly don't think it hold up:

While we can argue about artistic influence but really the only thing I see is daring to have more then one type of dragon. I don't think this episode showed as much basic variety though, no wyverns, no two-headed one, all breath fire, and so forth.

[darthbobcat]

That's a pretty serious accusation and I honestly don't think it hold up:

While we can argue about artistic influence but really the only thing I see is daring to have more then one type of dragon. I don't think this episode showed as much basic variety though, no wyverns, no two-headed one, all breath fire, and so forth.

Eh. I calls 'em like I sees 'em. It wasn't all the dragons, just a few, and I might have overstated it. I'm in a bad mood. Still struck me as an obvious influence.

[Pokonic]

That's a pretty serious accusation and I honestly don't think it hold up:

While we can argue about artistic influence but really the only thing I see is daring to have more then one type of dragon. I don't think this episode showed as much basic variety though, no wyverns, no two-headed one, all breath fire, and so forth.

Indeed. However, there are only so many ways for a large winged reptile to look different from it's peers, and going from the shear varity of that movies dragons it's hard to say whether any sort of dragon from FiM was expied from there. I mean, thickish body shapes? Horn variations? Tail shapes? There are only so many ways for the animators to make a creature different from the crowd.

The might be saving creatures like wyverns and linnorms and such for later, tho, hence them not being included in this episode, and multi-headed dragons might make the younger veiwers confused about the Hydra.

[Irbis]

I believe we've all adapted to release set amounts of happiness of different flavors to make a happiness devoid area more habitable.

Of course for many of us that means spontaneous parties are something you just get used to.

I take you don't remember me? :smallamused:

And I still think Wakfu rules :P

[Soras Teva Gee]

Eh. I calls 'em like I sees 'em. It wasn't all the dragons, just a few, and I might have overstated it. I'm in a bad mood. Still struck me as an obvious influence.

Well for a general sort of idea I can see that, it was a good movie:

But specific examples seem a bit of a stretch. I've heard Gronckle for the spiked tail one, but don't see much since a Gronckle look more like a bumblebee then a dragon.


Indeed. However, there are only so many ways for a large winged reptile to look different from it's peers, and going from the shear varity of that movies dragons it's hard to say whether any sort of dragon from FiM was expied from there. I mean, thickish body shapes? Horn variations? Tail shapes? There are only so many ways for the animators to make a creature different from the crowd.

The might be saving creatures like wyverns and linnorms and such for later, tho, hence them not being included in this episode, and multi-headed dragons might make the younger veiwers confused about the Hydra.

My thoughts exactly if you don't break the model you can only do so much.

Crackle was the most distinctive.

In a flash of fridge brilliance I think even what variety we saw was from awkward teenage years. The adults repeated a lot more.

[Raz_Fox]

Welcome! And yes, I think I've seen that, but I don't have a link.

Also, Happy Birthday to Raz!

Yay! I was wondering if anypony would actually post it, especially since I've been rather scarce around Ponythread. Don't worry, I've been following your antics, but I just haven't had too much to say that wouldn't be sticking my foot in my mouth. :smallredface:


*pauses headshotting long enough to notice*

It's Raz's birthday?

Oh, Raz, my friend, did you really think you were going to get that past without comment? I don't think so!

Quick, everypony apart from me pile on him!

Happy Birthday!

Hurrah! The party don't start till the lich rolls in!


Urgh, are we linking to xkcd now too? Well, Have at You! (http://i.imgur.com/sEevZ.png)

Also, so apparently It's Raz's Birthday now? Cheers Raz,
Would you like a picture? (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/849/happybirthdayk.png/)

Yes! I did try to contact you about that on the IRC; let me mullet over and I'll ask you 'bout something.


@Lord Raziere: Mind the spoilers. Also, I nearly corrected you on the birthday thing, until I saw the white text when I tried to quote you. :smalltongue:

Happy Birthday, Raz!

Thank you, thank you. :smallsmile:

[Bayonet Priest]

Happy birthday Raz! :smallsmile:

[Soras Teva Gee]

I suppose I should join the happy b-day party.


(Am I the only one that doesn't care about birthdays, I think I haven't done more then go out for dinner since I was 13)

[Gamerlord]

Happy birthday Raz!

[Selpharia]

Happy birthday Mr. _Fox!

[Anarion]

Happy Birthday Raz!


I suppose I should join the happy b-day party.


(Am I the only one that doesn't care about birthdays, I think I haven't done more then go out for dinner since I was 13)

Meh. I actually broke up with my girlfriend on mine. But the happy wishes from ponythread are quite meaningful, despite (or perhaps because of) the lack of celebration elsewhere.

[RdMarquis]

Yay! I was wondering if anypony would actually post it, especially since I've been rather scarce around Ponythread. Don't worry, I've been following your antics, but I just haven't had too much to say that wouldn't be sticking my foot in my mouth. :smallredface:

Happy birthday! :smallbiggrin:

[Pokonic]

Happy b-day, Raz!

[Forum Explorer]

Happy Birthday Raz!

New episode
I liked this one quite a bit.

FlutterDash is pretty much canon in my books at this point.

I didn't have any real problems with the dragons, not even the teenagers. I didn't think they were that stereotypical either. It just speaks about what dragon culture is about. A dragon is tough and strong and the only thing that matters. They respected Spike when he took abuse that a pony could not survive. They laughed at him because he acknowledged ponies as people. The egg snatching was pretty wrong though it was a twist for me (I though they were just going to steal them and hoard them) but it speaks about the dragon's attitude. What they are doing isn't wrong because they are dragons and the birds aren't. Thus they can do whatever they want to them. Spike flat out tells them their wrong and good for him.

We see this in the other dragons as well. Like big red who took a nap in a place that would destroy Equestria and then wouldn't move until physically assaulted and the Green in willing to kill Spike for trespassing.

I don't know where people are getting that Twilight teleported them all the way back to Ponyville. We didn't see any buildings in that scene if I remember correctly.



On things fighting dragons:

We haven't seen anything do any sort of lasting harm to a dragon. At all. We have seen them do things that ponies cannot survive doing (like eating the baked bads) The Wonderbolts fighting Greed Spike lost pretty badly and that was against a dragon that could not fly.

On Celestia's strength

We know she raises the sun which took a lot of unicorns to do in the past. We don't know how many or how durable she is beyond that. I'm pretty sure the dragons can survive everlasting night however without any problems at least.

On Discord

I maintain that Discord would never physically and directly harm a pony for whatever reason. Even if they were actually trying to harm him he would likely just move considering he can literally shapeshift into whatever he wants. On that note I don't like the interpretation that he is just creating illusions. Everything Discord did was very real including turning his head into a balloon.

On that note I think Discord has two sort of powers

What he does deliberatly like Discording ponies or stealing the elements

and what just happens as his very presence messes with reality. Cotton candy clouds, rains of pie, and the random shifts between day and night he didn't actually do. His existence itself caused that. I like this interpretation because it means even if he didn't do anything he would still need to be sealed away because he causes the natural world to fall apart.


Finally and this is important.

I've just started getting into League of Legends. If anypony is interested in adding me as their friend my account name is ForumExplorer

[Anarion]

*Snip*

On teleporting
The appearance of the area where they ported to didn't seem to match the rocky surroundings of the mountain and nearby forest. It was closer in coloration to the area around Ponyville, which is what caused me to assume that she got them all the way back to town. At the very least, though, it probably covered a fair distance to change the terrain type that much.

I like that interpretation of Discord. It adds a certain sense to when he talks to Twilight and Co. and tells them that he's missing some good chaos. He actually doesn't know what's going to happen and therefore he's not just being sarcastic but rather really wants to see all the different things.

[Capt. Ido Nos]

Happy Birthday Raz! Stay shiny!

[Anarion]

Oh look, someone made a Shimmer Snowflake custom! (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/03/custom-compilation-54.html)

Picture of custom Phoe.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6-32GSp4Oe0/T2Z4byHUT-I/AAAAAAAAD9I/kBzOHeqjQGY/s1600/fCRJ6.jpg

[Forum Explorer]

On teleporting
The appearance of the area where they ported to didn't seem to match the rocky surroundings of the mountain and nearby forest. It was closer in coloration to the area around Ponyville, which is what caused me to assume that she got them all the way back to town. At the very least, though, it probably covered a fair distance to change the terrain type that much.

I like that interpretation of Discord. It adds a certain sense to when he talks to Twilight and Co. and tells them that he's missing some good chaos. He actually doesn't know what's going to happen and therefore he's not just being sarcastic but rather really wants to see all the different things.

On teleporting (new episode kinda)
Sure I get that its a pretty long distance teleported. But all the way to Ponyville is much further then just to the next terrain type, that just happens to be similar to Ponyville's.


In other news Equestria Daily posted what is basically my entire identity summed up in about a minute and a half. Here it is if you are curious. (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/03/awesome-pmv-she-reads-all-day.html#more)

[darthbobcat]

New Episode:

See, to me, what these episodes have been showing me that Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are closer friends than I'd gather from how they act on camera. Does that mean I think there's anything romantic going on there? Nope. People can be close without being canon shipped, but hey, that's me. I know I'm the minority on that front. (sigh).

It does interest me that they keep doing stuff together, though, since by all appearances, Rainbow Dash scares Fluttershy and Fluttershy annoys Rainbow Dash. One of those things where you don't have to be exactly like someone to be their friend.

I guess since they have such different interests, that means that they can be the authority for each other. It's always fun to teach someone about something they have no idea about, and to be taught about something that you have no idea about.

[Soras Teva Gee]

I don't know about that darthbobcat. As far as I'm concerned there is exactly zero shipping among the Mane Six with anypony inside or out of it. Nope not even Spike and Rarity. They are all friends period and end of story, and for that matter all of them seem too busy for romance with anypony.

(Not that I expect this to stop fanfic writers for an instant)

[darthbobcat]

I don't know about that darthbobcat. As far as I'm concerned there is exactly zero shipping among the Mane Six with anypony inside or out of it. Nope not even Spike and Rarity. They are all friends period and end of story, and for that matter all of them seem too busy for romance with anypony.

(Not that I expect this to stop fanfic writers for an instant)

Heh. I can't say a plague on all their shipping houses, given that I've participated in shipping and written fics on the subject (Applejack/Soarin, because it's fun). But I can't say I see the relationships among the main 6 that others see.

[Forum Explorer]

New Episode:

See, to me, what these episodes have been showing me that Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are closer friends than I'd gather from how they act on camera. Does that mean I think there's anything romantic going on there? Nope. People can be close without being canon shipped, but hey, that's me. I know I'm the minority on that front. (sigh).

It does interest me that they keep doing stuff together, though, since by all appearances, Rainbow Dash scares Fluttershy and Fluttershy annoys Rainbow Dash. One of those things where you don't have to be exactly like someone to be their friend.

I guess since they have such different interests, that means that they can be the authority for each other. It's always fun to teach someone about something they have no idea about, and to be taught about something that you have no idea about.

Well that would be the sensible interpretation that is almost certainly correct. Which is exactly why I don't take that interpretation. Shipping is likely the silliest part of the fandom and that's what I enjoy about it.

[Thanqol]

Well that would be the sensible interpretation that is almost certainly correct. Which is exactly why I don't take that interpretation. Shipping is likely the silliest part of the fandom and that's what I enjoy about it.

On shipping:

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/061/e/0/granny__s_rule_by_equinox23-d4rjlkb.png

[Tvtyrant]

I loved the new episode! :D

Is there going to be a new phoenix character do you think?

[darthbobcat]

I loved the new episode! :D

Is there going to be a new phoenix character do you think?

It'll probably appear as often as Owloitious or however you spell that abomination's name.

Though, my reaction to it was "Silly Spike, pets can't have pets!"

[TheAmishPirate]

I can't particularly see a romantic relationship either, but I'm also not going to tell the shippers to stop having fun. Because then they turn their shipping guns upon you and then nobody wins.

I do really enjoy seeing the friendship they share. As bobcat said, the fact that they're so different makes it interesting. I'd like to know what happened to both of them post-flight school. Did random circumstance let Dash get a weather job in the same town that Fluttershy lived? Or did she follow her friend to Ponyville after she decided to stay? Or did they live there all along? I feel like there's an interesting story to be told there.

On a side note, if you like their relationship too, I can heartily recommend Off the Edge of the Map (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/07/story-off-edge-of-map.html). Great adventure, and the writer really nails both of them.

EDIT:


It'll probably appear as often as Owloitious or however you spell that abomination's name.

Though, my reaction to it was "Silly Spike, pets can't have pets!"

New episode:
"What do you mean my familiar can't get a familiar?"

[Anarion]

It'll probably appear as often as Owloitious or however you spell that abomination's name.

Though, my reaction to it was "Silly Spike, pets can't have pets!"

On pets and the new episode
It's interesting that the phoenix didn't get its own episode though, unlike Owlicious. It was a very small thing shown right at the end of the episode. To me, that screams Chekhov's gun, loud and clear. Now maybe they never get around to firing it, but it just seems like the kind of thing that will come up for its very own episode at some point.

[darthbobcat]

On pets and the new episode
It's interesting that the phoenix didn't get its own episode though, unlike Owlicious. It was a very small thing shown right at the end of the episode. To me, that screams Chekhov's gun, loud and clear. Now maybe they never get around to firing it, but it just seems like the kind of thing that will come up for its very own episode at some point.

Maybe. I suspect that at most it'll just be a little background detail when the writers and/or animators and/or show runners think to include it. I'm not sure I like that detail, but eh. Relatively harmless. It was cute, and I do have a cute weakness.

[Thanqol]

Happy Birthday, Raz_Fox. I painted you a picture.

http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/2008/day306.jpg

[Forum Explorer]

Chapter 1
"What?!" Spike coughed spraying bits of sapphire across the breakfast table. Shooting a look of disbelief at Twilight he continued "You want to do more research on the Want it, Need it Spell? Last time you cast that spell you caused all of Ponyville to riot!" Spike practically shouted at Twilight.

"Exactly Spike" Twilight replied, waving a hoof as if to brush away Spike's concerns. "That spell isn't designed to work like that and I want to figure out what went wrong."

"Uh-uh, no way. I don't want to end up as a love crazed zombie." Spike shook his head adamantly.

"Well how about this? I cast an anti-magic spell on you first so you'll be immune and that way you can supervise and make sure things don't get out of hand." Twilight offered

"I don't know Twilight, it still seems like a bad idea"

"Pleeeeease Spike." Twilight's eyes watered up with fake tears and her lip began to wobble.

"Fine, fine. But one more condition! We tell Princess Celestia what we're doing first, so she can keep an eye on things in case I can't handle."

"Alright Spike, take a note.

Twilight quickly dictated her plans for her new project to her assistant.

"Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

Ok Spike send it, and start grabbing books. Lets start with Clover's Compendium of Classic Castings."

--------------------------------------------

Twilight hummed in contentment as she finished reading the last page of the book. Getting up she stretched to work out some of the kinks of staying still for so long. Two weeks of studying had wreaked havoc on her posture.

"Spike? Spiiiike?" She called

"Yes Twilight, what is it?" Spike replied hurrying over from where he was sorting his gem collection

"I've figured out what I did wrong last time!" Twilight said humming some more and doing a little victory dance. Spike couldn't help but smile at her antics.

"So what did you find out?" Spike asked after a few moments.

"Oh right! I figured out that last time I cast the spell I did everything right, except that I used a little bit too much power." Twilight said coming back down to reality.

"How much more power?"

"......."

"Sorry what was that?"

"About a hundred times too much." Twilight admitted sheepishly "The spell is only meant to make the selected ponies love whatever the target of the spell is, not turn them into love crazed zombies."

"So you mean you've always been casting that spell wrong but last time was particularly bad? How are they supposed to act?"

"Apparently completely normally, just as if they had naturally fallen in love. Its all supposed to be very subtle."

".... For some reason that actually seems scarier then the love crazed zombies" Spike's scales clicked as he shuddered.

"Oh Spike you worry too much" Twilight rubbed his head affectionately. "Everything is going to be fine, I just need to cast the spell as a trial and we can study something else. All I need now is a test subject."

"What's this about a test subject? Why would you want to be test somepony? Tests are Bor-ing! I mean I-"

"Ah! Pinkie Pie! Where did you come from?" Twilight shouted, turning around in surprise.

"Sugercube Corner, duh. I mean where else would I come from? What a silly question Twilight you already know where I live. So maybe you meant where I came from originally? Well when a mare and a stallion love each other really much-"

"N-nevermind Pinkie! Just what do you want?" Twilight reeled back, a little stunned by the sheer velocity of Pinkie's speech.

"I'm throwing a party and you have to be there! And no buts Twilight, you've spent the last two weeks working on this project of yours and we have barely seen you at all. Besides you have to come! Me and Applejack have finally created Sweet Apple Cider Cupcakes! It has almonds in it Twilight! Almonds!" Pinkie's eyes bugged out a little as she pressed her face up to Twilight's for a second. "Anyways its the first official testing and I want my bestest friends to all be there! Though spoiler alert; the cupcakes are delicious." Pinkie started to bounce around Twilight as she kept talking.

"Applejack and I" Twilight corrected automatically before her brain caught up with Pinkie, "An Apple Cider Cupcake? That sounds pretty good, and I've finished the book research anyways, I just need to test the spell. So yes I'll be there Pinkie!" Twilight said with her stomach slightly grumbling.

"Great, see ya at eight!" And with that Pinkie bounced back out of the library.
----------------------------------

Pinkie's party was a smashing success as always. The music was a perfect blend of classic and modern hits, even featuring the latest hit from OctaviaxScratch Productions. 'Guppy's Pick' Punch was as tasty as ever and this time with 100% less gator! But the real hit of the party were the Apple Cider Cupcakes. Pinkie had thought ahead and baked them in such large amounts that they initially had formed a miniature Ponyville in the middle of Surgarcube Corner. Initially, because as soon as the party began Rainbow Dash had begun devouring them. She had already polished her own home off as well as Town Hall and now was working her way through the cupcake bounty of Sweet Apple Acres. The others had eaten their fair share of the cupcake town and were now just having a good time, either on the dance floor or just talking to each other.

"So what have ya been working on these last few weeks sugarcube?" Applejack asked with a cup of punch balanced on her hat.

"Well remember that Want it Need it spell? I've figured out why it went so horribly wrong last time." Twilight replied.

"An' what's that?"

"I simply used far too much power. Now I'd like to cast it again to see what it the effects are when its working properly. But Spike's already said no and I doubt anypony is willing to let me even try!" Twilight complained.

"Well shucks, can ya blame em? Nopony wants to be a love crazed zombie."

"The spell isn't supposed to that! It's apparently much more subtle but I don't know what that means." Twilight explained hanging her head low in weariness.

Applejack just stared at Twilight. On one hoof she felt bad for the purple mare. On the other hoof, she didn't exactly want to be a love crazed zombie. But if Twilight got too frustrated she might take it in her head to just cast the spell on some unwitting pony. It was Applejack's duty, no her privilege to bite the bullet for all of Ponyville.

"Shoot, Ah think Ah'll regret this but Ah reckon you can cast the spell on me." Applejack volunteered with a gulp.

"Really?!" Twilight beamed at Applejack

"But you promise me right now that if Ah'm actin the least bit odd you'll stop the spell immediately, got it?"

"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye! Thank you Applejack! I promise nothing bad will happen."

Suddenly Pinkie Pie rushed over

"Hi girls! Whatcha talking about? Twilight's smiling so it must be funny or good news! Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me!" She said.

"Applejack volunteered to help me test the new improved Want it Need it Spell. " Twilight explained.

Now all of their friends were crowded around them, talking excitedly.

"Darling are you sure about this? Hearts aren't something you should be trifling with."

"I can't wait! This is going to be so awesome! Seeing Applejack mooning over some object is going to be so funny"

"Good luck, Twilight. Um, do you mind if I watch as well. I-if you don't mind that is.

"This is going to be so much fun! So when are you casting the spell?"

Applejack just facehooved at the attention. Her little favor to Twilight just got turned into a spectacle for all of their friends. At least Applebloom and Big Mac won't be there. She consoled herself.

"I don't see why not. I was thinking of beginning testing first thing tomorrow morning, if that's alright with you Applejack?"

"Sure, might as well get this over with quickly." Applejack replied, her voice muffled by her hoof.

The girls chatted some more, excited about what the morning would bring. Nopony was paying attention to Spike who decided to sneak out and write an emergency letter to the Princess.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun was just beginning to rise as the Elements of Harmony plus Spike made their way outside of Ponyville. Applejack was dragging her "Thanks for saving Ponyville" award. The award was nearly a foot taller then her and made from solid brass. After reaching the lake they stopped walking and Applejack spit the reward from her mouth. Amazing the award stayed up right.

"Alright Twi, mind tellin me what you wanted with mah award?"

"Well I figured that if anything does go wrong then you'll all fall in love with something that is too big to carry easily. That's also why we are all the way out here so no other pony could be caught by the spell."

"Well why are we out here so early? I mean the sun isn't even up yet!"

"Ah didn't ask you to come Rainbow. You could have just slept in!" Applejack retorted.

"Ha! Fat chance AJ! I wouldn't miss this for season tickets to the Wonderbolts." Rainbow Dash grinned at her friend.

"Well lets just get this over with. Ah'd rather not spend all day under this spell."

"Alright, Applejack I want you to focus on the trophy as much as you can, everypony else close your eyes so you don't get caught in the spell."

Twilight bent her head till her horn was only a micron away from actually touching the trophy. She felt the magic well up in her and began weaving the spell. She was taking extraordinary care in making sure that everything was right. After all not only was Applejack trusting her, she'd never live it down if she messed up this spell again. She was just finishing up the very last part of the spell when Luna's Royal Canterlot Voice hit her from behind at point blank range.

GREETINGS TWILIGHT SPARKLE! WE ARE PLEASED TO ONCE AGAIN MEET WITH YOU!

and then everything blew up.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------



Chapter 2

Twilight woke up to an annoying beeping noise. Looking around she noticed she was in the hospital, with the beeping coming from a heart rate monitor. Before she could notice anything else she was suddenly surrounded by her friends, chattering in concern. Before things could get out of control, Nurse Redheart and Princess Luna entered the room.

"Quiet! Some of the other patients are resting." The nurse hissed. The girls muttered some apologies. Giving them one last glare, Nurse Redheart bowed to her Highness and left the room.

"Oh, Twilight. Are you feeling well? We apologies for startling you, it was not our intent to scare you into miscasting the spell." Luna said softly.... well softly for her anyways, which amounted to a normal indoors volume.

"Ugh, what happen exactly?" Twilight asked, still a little groggy from waking up.

"We're not sure darling."

"Yeah, because you we all had our eyes close and Applejack was looking at the award. So we were just standing there with our eyes closed when we heard Luna say hi and then there was a sound like a firework going off too close and when we open our eyes you were lying on the ground and unconscious. But your awake now and everything is better!"

"When you miscast the spell it imploded. The resulting blast knocked you unconscious. We rushed you to the hospital as quickly as we could."

"But Princess, why were you here in the first place?"

"Please Twilight, we would like it if you called us Luna. But to answer your question your squire Spike sent our royal sister a letter informing her of an 'attempt to cast an dangerous spell' that you would perform this morning. Rather then wait for our sister to awaken we rushed over as soon as the Night Court had been dismissed."

"Letter? SPIKE?!"

"Oh-umm I gotta go clean up the library Twilight! Glad to see your awake." Spike ran for the door.

"Oh no you don't!" Twilight tried to teleport him back with her horn. However just some weak sparks appeared and a sharp pain shot through her head "OW, what just happened?"

"You should be more careful Twilight, here have some water" Fluttershy said floating a glass up to her lip.

"Thanks Fluttershy but why did it hurt to use magic?"

"If you don't mind, I'll answer that." The doctor said entering the room. "Now Twilight it appears that as a result of your accident you've sprained your horn. Its not a big deal but I would recommend not using any heavy duty spells and just sticking to basic levitation and movement spells for the next week."

"A week without magic?" Twilight whined

"Come on Sugarcube, you've spent more time then that just readin before. Ah'm sure a week will pass before you know it."

"Yeah I guess your right. So how long till I can leave the hospital?"

"You can leave right now if you'd like. Besides the sprained horn there is nothing wrong with you. Just be sure to come back in a week so I can give you a check up."

Twilight just nodded in agreement. After a few hours of some tedious paperwork she was free to go.

"We'll have to take our leave of you now Twilight Sparkle. Our sister will be wondering why we missed breakfast. Don't be surprised if she decides to drop in on you sometime this next week." And before anypony could even wish her goodbye the Princess took off, flying back towards Canterlot.

"Well that certainly was-"

"Abrupt?" Rarity suggested.

"Yes, thank you. I guess I'll see you girls later?"

The girls said their goodbyes, each promising to drop by later to check up on her. I'm so lucky to have such caring friends. Twilight thought to herself Now I just need to come up for a fitting punishment for Spike.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight was just beginning to reread one of her Daring Doo books when Applejack knocked on her front door.

"Come in!"

"Hey Twilight Ah was wondering if Ah could talk to you for a while." Applejack said

"Sure. What's going on?"

"Well, you see I've been feelin a might odd after you woke up."

"What do you mean by odd?"

"Ah can't focus and everytime Ah think of the accident this morning it feels like my stomach is flip-flopping all over the place."

"And you think its because of the spell?"

"Ah don't know Twilight, but Ah need to be able to focus on mah work. So Ah was hoping you could help?" Applejack couldn't keep the pleading look out of her eyes, despite her best efforts.

"I don't know how I can help. Without my magic I can't even check if you are being affected by the spell or if those emotions are entirely natural. I couldn't even teach another unicorn to cast the spell due to the complexity of the detection spell. Well I'm sure there are some unicorns in Canterlot who could help but you don't really need my help to contact them." Twilight took a deep breath after she finished.

"Uh huh. Your sure there's nothing you can do to help?"

"I guess I could just come down to Sweet Apple Acres and observe you for a while."

Applejack blushed "A-ah wouldn't want to strain you after the accident. Ah'm sure I can just muddle through this on mah own till you get your magic back."

"Oh it won't be a problem at all. I'll just hang around and see if your acting different. Plus I can help you with your chores, so even if you're distracted we'll be sure to finish them together."

"But ah-" Applejack muttered before being interrupted by Twilight

"Come on lets get started!" Twilight called, already halfway out the door. Applejack just nodded dumbly. Shoot, what's going on with me? Now I'm more shy and distracted then ever. I hope Twilight can think of something to help me. Applejack thought to herself as she followed her friend, never taking her eyes off the purple mare for a second.

Meanwhile outside of Ponyville a certain light blue unicorn was taking a break from hauling her wagon around. She sat in front of her most prized possession, a full length mirror gilded in gold.

"Ok Trixie, we've nearly arrived in Ponyville. Its nearly time to implement the plan. Knock em dead, Trixie." She said to her reflection.

"But what if it goes wrong? This is one gig I can't afford to fail!"

"That's just stage fright talking. The Great and Powerful Trixie can do anything! With these new spells Trixie's learned, Trixie can win over all of Ponyville!"

"I don't need to win over all of Ponyville I just need to- Well I suppose some extra practice can't hurt." Trixie interrupted herself and walked back outside, mentally going over her plan one last time.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash was going about her normal weather duties. The weather called for partially cloudy and she was trying to decide just how many clouds that called for and where to put them. The work was tedious and boring so when she heard a loud commotion coming from Ponyville she took the opportunity to investigate and take a break. Flying down she noticed a simple roofed wagon making its way slowly through Ponyville under its own power. Curious ponies surrounded it taking care to stay out of its way as it trudged forward. Rainbow Dash not content with just watching patiently flew up to the carriage and knocked loudly on the wood.

"Hey! Is anypony home?"

There was no response and after a few more tries Rainbow Dash gave up. She headed back up to take a nap instead. Taking one last glance down at the cart she jumped back up when she realized that the cart was headed straight for Twilight's library.

"Oh no you don't." Rainbow Dash flew up to the cart and pushed against it with all her strength. However the cart still made its way towards the library. Soon it had reached its destination and halted a few strides away from the door. Rainbow Dash slowly lowered her hooves, still eyeing the cart suspiciously. The cart suddenly erupted in fireworks and sparklers, the front of it unfolding to form a miniature stage.

"Greetings ponies of Ponyville! The Great and Powerful Trixie has returned!" The mare proclaimed as she appeared in a puff of smoke.

"What the hay do you think you're doing here Trixie!" A singed Rainbow Dash yelled as she flew up to confront Trixie.

"That is no business of yours. The Great and Powerful Trixie is here for one purpose which involves Twilight Sparkle and need not concern anypony else. Now if you'll excuse me." Trixie pushed past Rainbow Dash and knocked on the door to the library. The door was opened almost immediately in response by Spike who had rushed downstairs at the sound of fireworks.

"Trixie! Why are you here?" Spike asked

"Ah you must be Twilight Sparkle's minion Spike. Trixie is here to meet with Twilight Sparkle. Do your mistress a favor and fetch her for Trixie."

"I'm not her minion! And Twilight isn't here anyways, not that she would want to talk to a fraud like you!"

"Yeah that's right! Twilight is ten times the unicorn you are so forget whatever delusional plans you have of challenging her." Rainbow added.

"Trixie will have you know that she has obtained new heights of power that were beyond even her own imagination. Regardless the Great and Powerful Trixie will meet with Twilight Sparkle. If she is not here then Trixie will wait for her return." With that said and a flick of her tail the mare jumped back up on stage and sat down to wait, ignoring the twin glares from Rainbow Dash and Spike.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------


Finished another update on that fanfic.


On the new episode
I don't think the phoenix will get an episode of its own this season or at all really, anymore then I would expect Angel or Winona to get their own episode.

If it has any meaning I think it means that Spike is supposed to be viewed as an equal to the Mane 6 or at least to any other pony. Or that Spike is growing up and maturing.

[PhantomFox]

I should probably do this at the end of the season, but with all the Season 1 vs. Season 2 things going around, I was curious. So I decided to see where my current personal rankings for the episodes are. And by no means is this to imply that the lower tier episodes are bad or not worth watching, but they're not AS good. With such a high average standard of quality, we're still looking at a high subset of an objective rating scale.

Celestia Tier - Episodes of mine that are my personal favorites. The first episodes I go to when in the mood for pony
Dragonshy - Great group dynamics, great humor, and Fluttershy being awesome.
Bridle Gossip - Another great group episode, with lots of great gags.
Swarm of the Century - See above.
Suited For Success - A great song, and showcases Rarity as an artist and more than just The Prissy One
Sonic Rainboom - Dash's best episode by far. Full of Awesome.
Party of One - Who called Pinkie going insane? That's right, nobody.
Lesson Zero - Twilight being hyper-organized, and reminiscent of one of my own works? Yes please!
Sweet and Elite - Masterfully written with everyone in character, a great song, and a very natural flow.
The Last Roundup - Best AJ episode, with lots of great moments.

Great tier - These episodes either have a outstanding scene, or a wealth of quotable moments, or something that puts it above the others. Not my first choices, but right behind them.
Mare in the Moon - Snarky Twilight is best Twilight.
The Ticket Master - The Yakkety Ponies chase scene was the highlight, and Twilight being frustrated is always funny.
A Dog and Pony Show - Rarity's scenes make this an instant hit.
Return of Harmony - Discord is the best villain of the show, hands down.
Luna Eclipsed - An episode that grew on me. Lots of great quotes here.
Sisterhooves Social - I love the race scene, and the conflict is believable on both sides.
Family Appreciation Day - The best CMC episode so far.
The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 - Excelent song, and not a bad plot either. The Flim Flam bros. are to me what Trixie is to others.


Good tier - These episodes have some good points, but not as many as the other tiers, but there isn't anything that bothers me either.
Elements of Harmony - Adventuring isn't as interesting, but the ending is great.
Applebuck Season - Loopy AJ is just plain funny.
Griffon the Brush Off - I appreciate Loony Tunes antics.
Winter Wrap Up - The song is excellent, yes, but I don't like watching Twilight suffer when she isn't doing anything wrong.
Fall Weather Friends - Lots of little good bits, but no one GREAT scene.
A Bird In The Hoof - Lots of good small moments, but no big moments. Points for inspiring Sunny Skies though.
Cutie Mark Chronicles - Backstory is nice, but I'd have liked a storyline.
Best Night Ever - Great song, and some good scenes.
The Cutie Pox - Enjoyable, overall. I love seeing Zecora too.
May the Best Pet Win - Good song, nice competition scene.
Hearth's Warming Eve - Good execution, reminiscent of the players, but not the players themselves though.
Baby Cakes - Not bad for a Badly Battered Babysitter concept.
Read It And Weep - Some good moments in here, mainly Dash's escape scene.
A Friend In Deed - Smile Song is outstanding, but Pinkie being oblivious keeps this from being higher. Still funny regardless.
It's About Time - Pretty good, but needed a bigger dramatic curve.
Dragon Quest - See above.


Okay tier - The episodes are fine, I guess, but don't really have anything going for them personally. There may also be a few flaws that mar the experience otherwise.
Boast Busters - Honestly, I'm not a big Trixie fan. She comes across as annoying to me. The Ursa was cool though.
Look Before You Sleep - The premise just doesn't work for me. It's okay though.
Feeling Pinkie Keen - I'd like to put this higher, but all drama has brought it down some, even though I'm fine with it. Nothing outstanding from it to overcome the stigma though, besides a nice gag or two.
Stare Master - Nothing that Dragonshy didn't do better.
Green Isn't Your Color - I'm not a big fan of Photo Finish, sorry.
Hearts and Hooves Day - Drunk on Love Mac and Cheerilee is just awkward sometimes.
Putting Your Hoof Down - Iron Will was good, but does Fluttershy really think that about Pinkie and Rarity?


Meh tier - Episodes that I don't enjoy. These have little to nothing going for them while having issues that bother me.
Call of the Cutie - The first CMC episode always feels like a bait-n-switch for me. I preferred the Mane Six until the point where the CMC developed their personalities better.
The Show Stoppers - More of the CMC being oblivious.
Over A Barrel - An episode that didn't age well. Some good jokes, but absolutely no coherent plot. The Mane Six cause the main conflict, and do nothing to cause its resolution.
Owl's Well That Ends Well - Lots of Spike being stupid.
The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well - Didn't feel like Ponyville, mishandled moral delivery, Dash has a fanclub?


So what do y'all think?

[MCerberus]

It'll probably appear as often as Owloitious or however you spell that abomination's name.

Though, my reaction to it was "Silly Spike, pets can't have pets!"

ep
Yo ponies, I heard you like pets, so we gave your pet a pet so it can be ignored by the plot while he's being ignored by the plot

As for Flutter/Dash, Dash likely doesn't have enough empathy towards Fluttershy's insecurities for the long-term romantic relationship the shippers are looking at. No Dash, it's not the same unless the butterflies form murder swarms. No Dash, don't startle Flutters. No Dash, mountain of death with giant murderous beast at the top is a legitimate fear.

[Forum Explorer]

@PhantomFox:

Why didn't you rank Secret of my Excess?

The only thing I could flat out disagree with is A Dog and Pony Show. Her scenes were alright but I didn't find them to be anything special.

Besides that I would likely rank them differently but just due to personal preference. Oh and I would count each of the two-parters as one episode.

[darthbobcat]

ep
Yo ponies, I heard you like pets, so we gave your pet a pet so it can be ignored by the plot while he's being ignored by the plot

As for Flutter/Dash, Dash likely doesn't have enough empathy towards Fluttershy's insecurities for the long-term romantic relationship the shippers are looking at. No Dash, it's not the same unless the butterflies form murder swarms. No Dash, don't startle Flutters. No Dash, mountain of death with giant murderous beast at the top is a legitimate fear.



Butterfly death swarms should be a thing.

To quote Bart Simpson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjLtdUitlC8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjLtdUitlC8)

[Tvtyrant]

Another thing from the latest episode:

The interactions between Rarity and Spike were odd. She had an almost possessive quality (as opposed to flirty) to her comments, and she was giving off a weird aunt vibe. While Spike is a young dragon, it seems an odd step sideways for her to treat him as a cute kid with a crush in an episode where he effectively ignores her.

[darthbobcat]

Another thing from the latest episode:

The interactions between Rarity and Spike were odd. She had an almost possessive quality (as opposed to flirty) to her comments, and she was giving off a weird aunt vibe. While Spike is a young dragon, it seems an odd step sideways for her to treat him as a cute kid with a crush in an episode where he effectively ignores her.

Rarity lives on attention. Spike stopped giving her attention, and that's when she wanted it most.

Mares, amirite?

[MCerberus]

Butterfly death swarms should be a thing.

To quote Bart Simpson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjLtdUitlC8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjLtdUitlC8)

This explains fully well Fluttershy's butterfly mark in Friendship is Witchcraft.

[Tvtyrant]

Rarity lives on attention. Spike stopped giving her attention, and that's when she wanted it most.


I suppose we could put it that way, but I feel Rarity gets a bad rap when it comes to attention. I just don't understand here what the writers direction is for their relationship, since she now uses his pet name (and its my Spikey-Wikey) exclusively.

[darthbobcat]

I suppose we could put it that way, but I feel Rarity gets a bad rap when it comes to attention. I just don't understand here what the writers direction is for their relationship, since she now uses his pet name (and its my Spikey-Wikey) exclusively.

Yeah, it's a confusing, "depends on the writer" type thing. I think Rarity likes him as an admirer... and we've known for a whole season now that she isn't particularly great to her male admirers.

... it sorta conflicts with the whole Element of Generosity thing too.

Oh you wacky writers.

[BlasTech]

Pony (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKY6QQ76Qm0&feature=fvst) Pony (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJCL2JvvrAA&feature=related) Pony (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b2zAfp3Jqk&feature=related) Pony (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E16n7k91ADQ) .... Poooonnnneeeeeeee (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftvZFUg4HPc&feature=related)

[Thanqol]

Pony (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKY6QQ76Qm0&feature=fvst) Pony (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJCL2JvvrAA&feature=related) Pony (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b2zAfp3Jqk&feature=related) Pony (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E16n7k91ADQ) .... Poooonnnneeeeeeee (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftvZFUg4HPc&feature=related)

Pony Pony. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGDpheNzh_c&feature=player_embedded)

[BlasTech]

Pony Pony. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGDpheNzh_c&feature=player_embedded)

Pony (http://ponibooru.413chan.net/post/view/152007) Pone (http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/813bee2ca5f79d2d3e87601b0cecfb59/152013%20-%20apple_bloom%20juice%20juice_box%20scarf%20slurp .jpg) Pon (http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/ebe07760f262372f7a28e4ed198c0e8b/146811%20-%20adorable%20artist%3Astardustxiii%20cute%20luna% 20moon.png).

[Thanqol]

Pony (http://ponibooru.413chan.net/post/view/152007) Pone (http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/813bee2ca5f79d2d3e87601b0cecfb59/152013%20-%20apple_bloom%20juice%20juice_box%20scarf%20slurp .jpg) Pon (http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/ebe07760f262372f7a28e4ed198c0e8b/146811%20-%20adorable%20artist%3Astardustxiii%20cute%20luna% 20moon.png).

Pawnee (http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photos-nativeamerican/pawnee%20scouts.jpg)pony (http://www.angelicdreamz.com/assets/images/prolrg2032063_thumbnail.jpg)pawn (http://genuinewitty.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/chess-pawn.jpg)

[Soras Teva Gee]

Fluffy Pony!!! (http://ponibooru.413chan.net/post/view/130664?) C-c-c-combo Breaker!

[DigoDragon]

I suppose we could put it that way, but I feel Rarity gets a bad rap when it comes to attention. I just don't understand here what the writers direction is for their relationship, since she now uses his pet name (and its my Spikey-Wikey) exclusively.

New Episode Discussion:
I interpreted the relationship as being almost... motherly in a way. I guess it makes some sense to go in this direction since Spike is too young to go in a more serious direction.
And since Rarity was practically the last pony to figure out Spike's crush, it might even be that she may be misinterpreting it yet, treating him like an adopted son instead of something serious.

Though I must say, Rarity makes her dragon costumes to last. Resisted that belching contest well enough.

[otakuryoga]

sigh... the hub decided to spam previews of next episode :smallfrown:

[Aotrs Commander]

I'm pretty sure the dragons can survive everlasting night however without any problems at least.

The fact that dragons have eyes means that, yes, actually, they certainly do need light; doubly so since they are clearly diurnal creatures (i.e. active during the day). In fact, the indication is that they, like humans (and presumably ponies) have vision as a primary sense. For one thing, they wouldn't be brightly coloured themselves otherwise, and for another obvious reason, Equestrian gems are brightly coloured, so it stands to reasons dragons developed colour vision for exactly the same reasons primates did, replacing fruit with gems. They also have sterioscopic vision, which bears this out further.

And there has been no indication dragons fly at night, nor possess any kind of echolocation or extra-sensory powers like D&D dragons (nor for that matter, that their senses are any better than ponies); nor have they appear to have any notable adaptions for night flying (e.g. dispropotionally large eyes like an owl's - though granted that is difficult to make a concrete comment on given the art-style - exceptional hearing, or for that matter a better sense of smell (which in any case would be unhelpful as a flying aide). The fact they can sniff out gems doesn't necessarily mean they have an acute sense of smell, merely one attuned to gemstones. Spike certainly hasn't demonstrated apart from that one ability - arguably related to their feeding methods - he has superior or more acute (or sensitive) senses to ponies.

The fact they nest in caves means exactly NOTHING at all. Lots of animals - albiet smaller ones - live in burrows and more nest in caves (e.g. bears in popular culture) without being underground or nocturnal creatures. They have no adaptions for burrowing (i.e. a completely underground existance) at ALL, being clearly all set up for flight. In fact, the indication from Spike is dragons accumulate their hordes by sniffing out the gems near the surface and digging them up. (Note digging =/= burrowing. Giant Anteaters are well adapted to digging, but they are not underground creatures (and are also dilurnal); though they do have a poor sense of vision, they otherwise are perhaps not a vastly poor analogue otherwise.)

So the indicators are that dragons absolutely would suffer in eternal darkness, same as everypony else, because, lairs aside, they are adapted for a primarily daylight existance. Their food source might not suffer; but we don't know how gemstones form in Equestria, and how or if they fit in the food chain. And we don't know whether dragons can survive on just gemstones (and given they horde so much, there is a possibility that gems could more of a delicacy than a primary food source, like fruit or chocolate or something.) But they certainly, even in the best case scenarios, would find themselves struggling more, given their apparent reliance on (day)light.



1In fact, one could argue that ponies have good adpations for nocturnal vision, with those big eyes - given that natural equines are active around the clock, this is perhaps not unreasonable. And also, as I have said before, goes some way to explain why Luna got so upset, as with the rise of civilisation and technology and so on, the ponies may have moved socitally towards a more diurnal behavior that priorly.

[Lix Lorn]

I can't particularly see a romantic relationship either, but I'm also not going to tell the shippers to stop having fun. Because then they turn their shipping guns upon you and then nobody wins.
You misunderstand.
We lose nothing when we turn our guns on you. :smalltongue::smallamused:

[Forum Explorer]

The fact that dragons have eyes means that, yes, actually, they certainly do need light; doubly so since they are clearly diurnal creatures (i.e. active during the day). In fact, the indication is that they, like humans (and presumably ponies) have vision as a primary sense. For one thing, they wouldn't be brightly coloured themselves otherwise, and for another obvious reason, Equestrian gems are brightly coloured, so it stands to reasons dragons developed colour vision for exactly the same reasons primates did, replacing fruit with gems. They also have sterioscopic vision, which bears this out further.

And there has been no indication dragons fly at night, nor possess any kind of echolocation or extra-sensory powers like D&D dragons (nor for that matter, that their senses are any better than ponies); nor have they appear to have any notable adaptions for night flying (e.g. dispropotionally large eyes like an owl's - though granted that is difficult to make a concrete comment on given the art-style - exceptional hearing, or for that matter a better sense of smell (which in any case would be unhelpful as a flying aide). The fact they can sniff out gems doesn't necessarily mean they have an acute sense of smell, merely one attuned to gemstones. Spike certainly hasn't demonstrated apart from that one ability - arguably related to their feeding methods - he has superior or more acute (or sensitive) senses to ponies.

The fact they nest in caves means exactly NOTHING at all. Lots of animals - albiet smaller ones - live in burrows and more nest in caves (e.g. bears in popular culture) without being underground or nocturnal creatures. They have no adaptions for burrowing (i.e. a completely underground existance) at ALL, being clearly all set up for flight. In fact, the indication from Spike is dragons accumulate their hordes by sniffing out the gems near the surface and digging them up. (Note digging =/= burrowing. Giant Anteaters are well adapted to digging, but they are not underground creatures (and are also dilurnal); though they do have a poor sense of vision, they otherwise are perhaps not a vastly poor analogue otherwise.)

So the indicators are that dragons absolutely would suffer in eternal darkness, same as everypony else, because, lairs aside, they are adapted for a primarily daylight existance. Their food source might not suffer; but we don't know how gemstones form in Equestria, and how or if they fit in the food chain. And we don't know whether dragons can survive on just gemstones (and given they horde so much, there is a possibility that gems could more of a delicacy than a primary food source, like fruit or chocolate or something.) But they certainly, even in the best case scenarios, would find themselves struggling more, given their apparent reliance on (day)light.



1In fact, one could argue that ponies have good adpations for nocturnal vision, with those big eyes - given that natural equines are active around the clock, this is perhaps not unreasonable. And also, as I have said before, goes some way to explain why Luna got so upset, as with the rise of civilisation and technology and so on, the ponies may have moved socitally towards a more diurnal behavior that priorly.

Need is very different then use. For example I don't need my sight but life would be harder without it. From what we've seen of dragons they can go for centuries without food (though in a state of hibernation) and can eat pretty much anything without any negative effects.
new episode
those teenagers were eating only gemstones. You didn't see them going around getting more food did you? Otherwise they would have likely just eaten the phoenix eggs.

Yes life would be more difficult for the dragons without the sun but they would survive where most other creatures would be wiped out.

[Athaniar]

One must remember that the sun disappearing doesn't just mean that it'll be dark outside. Being fiery creatures, I don't imagine dragons will have very fun in an everlasting ice age, and then there's that ominous thing about eternal night meaning evil will reign Faust mentioned at one point (if I'm not misremembering things).

[Forum Explorer]

One must remember that the sun disappearing doesn't just mean that it'll be dark outside. Being fiery creatures, I don't imagine dragons will have very fun in an everlasting ice age, and then there's that ominous thing about eternal night meaning evil will reign Faust mentioned at one point (if I not misremembering things).

However they can bath in lava to keep warm. I suppose that in the end it depends on if they need oxygen to breath.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Yeah eternal night is kinda equivalent to unmitigated ecological disaster.

Why is there debate on the effect of Nightmare Moon on dragons anyways?

[Forum Explorer]

Yeah eternal night is kinda equivalent to unmitigated ecological disaster.

Why is there debate on the effect of Nightmare Moon on dragons anyways?

I don't know but it started with Celestia vs dragons.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Why is there debate on the effect of Nightmare Moon on dragons anyways?

Was wondering that too, having been away from ponythread for a couple of days. Then I just shrugged and said "eh, ponytread".


New Ep.
Average. Nothing all that amazing about it, but nothing really drags it down either. A few amusing gags here and there and a decent story.

[HalfTangible]

Was wondering that too, having been away from ponythread for a couple of days. Then I just shrugged and said "eh, ponytread".


New Ep.
Average. Nothing all that amazing about it, but nothing really drags it down either. A few amusing gags here and there and a decent story.

Twilight is still best pony...

But i now see an argument for Rarity that doesn't involve her singing voice.

"-BUT I'LL RIP YOU TO PIECES IF YOU TOUCH ONE SCALE ON HIS CUTE LITTLE HEAD!!"

[Forum Explorer]

Twilight is still best pony...

But i now see an argument for Rarity that doesn't involve her singing voice.

"-BUT I'LL RIP YOU TO PIECES IF YOU TOUCH ONE SCALE ON HIS CUTE LITTLE HEAD!!"
new episode
Yeah I think this is Rarity's best moment in both seasons.

[Dirtbag]

Happeh Birfday Razzy! :D

[Kairaven]

Hi everypony, today is Winter Wrap Up Day!!!

I wanna belong so I must
do my best today.

'Cause tomorrow spring is here.

[kpenguin]

Can't we just use magic to change the seasons, like in Canterlot? :smallfrown:

[PhantomFox]

The best I have is a wolf goddess to do that kind of thing.

http://youtu.be/P6NnCMGJl1w

[Kairaven]

Can't we just use magic to change the seasons, like in Canterlot? :smallfrown:

No kpenguin, it's tradition.

----------

btw GITP ponywriters, what say we put our heads together and write an show-quality episode for this (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/03/eqd-asks-what-would-you-do-to-have-your.html).

edit: if we get a good enough quality writing, maybe we'll abuse our Blog-princesss connection to leverage our chances.

double edit: which also calls into mind, what is the best way to corrupt beg for favor from our blog-princess? Lyra pics/figurines? Brushies? Ropes?

triple edit: huh, why haven't the expression "let's get galloping!" been used more in pony linguistics. I think the only instance I've seen it used is in Winter Wrap Up.

[PhantomFox]

Perhaps I can talk them into letting me adapt Sunny Skies All Day Long...

[Kairaven]

Perhaps I can talk them into letting me adapt Sunny Skies All Day Long...

we certainly can. But we'll have to condense it to a 22min episode in script form.

[maximus25]

Me and my friend while walking decided to sing winter wrap up. Very loudly.

[PhantomFox]

we certainly can. But we'll have to condense it to a 22min episode in script form.

Condense or expand? I have no idea what the page-to-minute conversion ratio is.

[Kairaven]

Condense or expand? I have no idea what the page-to-minute conversion ratio is.

It would be condense.
From what I remember, SSADL has quite a few scenes that are action orientated, plus conversations in each scene. heck, just the original canterlot premise establishing scene conversation between Luna and Celestia probably takes up close to 3~5 min atleast if not shortened.

edit: well, maybe not that long, probably 2 min, judging by internal speech. with all the action animated. best way to judge is read the lines outloud and throw a 3 sec pause between lines to account for animation.

double edit: best way is to check out the transcripts (http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Transcripts) of actual episodes to judge.

[Anarion]

Can't we just use magic to change the seasons, like in Canterlot? :smallfrown:


No kpenguin, it's tradition.

Maybe where you are at the moment. Here in Boston, the pegasi have worked overtime and it's already fully spring as of yesterday, even upping the temperature to a balmy 70 degrees Fahrenheit. I'd like to declare that winter is officially wrapped up (not that we had much to begin with, except when the East coast dressed up as winter for Nightmare Night).



btw GITP ponywriters, what say we put our heads together and write an show-quality episode for this (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/03/eqd-asks-what-would-you-do-to-have-your.html).

edit: if we get a good enough quality writing, maybe we'll abuse our Blog-princesss connection to leverage our chances.

double edit: which also calls into mind, what is the best way to corrupt beg for favor from our blog-princess? Lyra pics/figurines? Brushies? Ropes?

triple edit: huh, why haven't the expression "let's get galloping!" been used more in pony linguistics. I think the only instance I've seen it used is in Winter Wrap Up.

I think for Phoe, just ask, I'm sure she'll see your message. As for the episode I fully agree that we can make a workable new episode or adaption of somepony's story. I would suggest that we avoid all shipping because doing that in an actual episode, even a fan-made one, would be bad, and that we try to do something that includes all of the mane 6 so nopony feels left out.

[PhantomFox]

Well... someone once did a live (http://youtu.be/aY4R5rmDxJg) reading (http://youtu.be/lJtlEC9-pFU) for me that clocked in at 50 minutes, but a lot of that is prose. If I knew how much time needed to be cut, I could start working on that.

[Kairaven]

I think for Phoe, just ask, I'm sure she'll see your message.

pft, how boring.

*starts making Phoe bribery package.


Well... someone once did a live (http://youtu.be/aY4R5rmDxJg) reading (http://youtu.be/lJtlEC9-pFU) for me that clocked in at 50 minutes, but a lot of that is prose. If I knew how much time needed to be cut, I could start working on that.

I mean the actual conversation lines. At quick judgement, the conversations alone probably clock in around 30+ min, not accounting for action scenes. to avoid conversation heavy episodes, the conversation lines should be around 12~15 min total. (At most.)

[Pokonic]

Over here in the Land of Coal and Caves (better known as Kentuky) we apperently had a spout of crazy pegusi. No, realy.

First it snowed. Than, we got 65+ degree weather. Then, thunderstorms for a few days. Then it snowed again. Then plesant, cloud-free weather for the better part of a week. Then, one of the worst storms I have ever seen happened, doing damage to a lot of homes a county away. Now, it's around 70 degrees and the pollen is getting thicker every day.:smallannoyed:


pft, how boring.

*starts making Phoe bribery package.

A free get-out-of-Lixes-cluches card?

[Beacon of Chaos]

Yay! I was wondering if anypony would actually post it, especially since I've been rather scarce around Ponythread. Don't worry, I've been following your antics, but I just haven't had too much to say that wouldn't be sticking my foot in my mouth. :smallredface:
Oh blast! I'm late again!


~HAPPY BIRTHDAY!~

Ponies and cake is your reward:
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/749c482f1bfa833e11dec2df5ae3f8cb/150172%20-%20artist%3AKeshiMeg%20cake%20pinkie_pie.jpg


A free get-out-of-Lixes-cluches card?
That would be Bleakbane's bribery package, surely?

[otakuryoga]

dont we need to have winter in the 1st place before we can wrap it up?
we got a grand total of 2 inches of snow this year...and it melted all away within 6 hours after it stopped falling...

and Pokonic..where you at?
i am in Ashland up in the NE corner

[TheAmishPirate]

You misunderstand.
We lose nothing when we turn our guns on you. :smalltongue::smallamused:

...you lose the time, effort, and ammunition it takes to fire? Maybe? Just a little?

*gulp*


No kpenguin, it's tradition.

----------

btw GITP ponywriters, what say we put our heads together and write an show-quality episode for this (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/03/eqd-asks-what-would-you-do-to-have-your.html).

edit: if we get a good enough quality writing, maybe we'll abuse our Blog-princesss connection to leverage our chances.

double edit: which also calls into mind, what is the best way to corrupt beg for favor from our blog-princess? Lyra pics/figurines? Brushies? Ropes?

triple edit: huh, why haven't the expression "let's get galloping!" been used more in pony linguistics. I think the only instance I've seen it used is in Winter Wrap Up.

Ooh. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to help with this, but I'd love to help if I can.

RE Sunny Skies: I think you'd need to cut out at least one of the mane six scenes to make it work. I'll give it another browse, hopefully I can see something that can get shortened.


A free get-out-of-Lixes-cluches card?

I would suggest a free "get-into-Lixes-clutches" card, only that doesn't seem to take much effort.

*points to massive shipping cannons trained on the unfortunate pirate*

[Pokonic]

Louisville, actualy. The snow lasted longer down here. The resulting large puddles? Even more so.:smallyuk:

[slayerx]

Flash cartoon of Dr Whooves and Assistant (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/592113)
So Brilliant!

[PhantomFox]

RE Sunny Skies: I think you'd need to cut out at least one of the mane six scenes to make it work. I'll give it another browse, hopefully I can see something that can get shortened.

Fluttershy's is the shortest and most expendable, but has a link to the big reveal at the end. Rainbow Dash's is possibly the best candidate for trimming in that regard.

[Kairaven]

Fluttershy's is the shortest and most expendable, but has a link to the big reveal at the end. Rainbow Dash's is possibly the best candidate for trimming in that regard.

no, I think if you shorten every scene a bit, you can fit all of the main 6 plus luna.

[PhantomFox]

no, I think if you shorten every scene a bit, you can fit all of the main 6 plus luna.

That... can be done I think. Of course, one would need to get this story as the chosen vehicle first...

[Pokonic]

Oi, freshly made pony steampunk here, only fifty-five bits for a one-of a kind mechine that will knock you socks off, ladies and gents... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l3u4F3d3CY)

[AlterForm]

Maybe where you are at the moment. Here in Boston, the pegasi have worked overtime and it's already fully spring as of yesterday, even upping the temperature to a balmy 70 degrees Fahrenheit. I'd like to declare that winter is officially wrapped up (not that we had much to begin with, except when the East coast dressed up as winter for Nightmare Night).

Lucky you. Here in Colorado, I'm just waiting for our annual April snowstorm. Unless someone steals it ...


Over here in the Land of Coal and Caves (better known as Kentuky) we apperently had a spout of crazy pegusi. No, realy.

First it snowed. Than, we got 65+ degree weather. Then, thunderstorms for a few days. Then it snowed again. Then plesant, cloud-free weather for the better part of a week. Then, one of the worst storms I have ever seen happened, doing damage to a lot of homes a county away. Now, it's around 70 degrees and the pollen is getting thicker every day.:smallannoyed:

... like Kentucky, by the looks of it. It fact, it sounds like you stole all of our crazy weather. :smalltongue:

[Gamerlord]

Another clip of this week's episode. *SPOILERS* (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/03/hurricane-fluttershy-clip-number-two.html)

[Kairaven]

another new episode preview video clip (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/03/hurricane-fluttershy-clip-number-two.html) has shown up.

edit: pinkie'd

impression
This episode is looking really good. I have high hope for it, might be Sonic Rainboom good.

----------

SSADL definitely has high potential for normal episode quality. I do want to see if we can come up with something brand new, but converting SSADL is good also. plus, who says we can only submit one piece of script?

[Nameless]

Or was, right now I'm kinda slacking off...

That just makes you a proper student.

[Pokonic]

Another clip of this week's episode. *SPOILERS* (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/03/hurricane-fluttershy-clip-number-two.html)

Dah heck is up with the ripped white pegusi?

Also, spot the pony with the recolor of Twilights hair.

[Gamerlord]

Dah heck is up with the ripped white pegusi?

Also, spot the pony with the recolor of Twilights hair.
Possibly use of steroids with the white pony, he has huge muscles and very small......wings.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

"-BUT I'LL RIP YOU TO PIECES IF YOU TOUCH ONE SCALE ON HIS CUTE LITTLE HEAD!!"

nuEpisode
Rarity's RIP YOU TO PIECES is inarguably the high point of the episode. :smallbiggrin:


Oh, and happy birthday Raz_Fox!

[Pokonic]

Possibly use of steroids with the white pony, he has huge muscles and very small......wings.

That, or he is the first sign of Buffalo/Pony crossbreeding.

...................
Buffasi?
Pegalo?
Abomination?

[BlasTech]

Happy Birthday Razfox!

I threw you a party!

http://images.wikia.com/mlp/images/5/53/CrazyPinkie_S01E25.png

[Soras Teva Gee]

Another clip of this week's episode. *SPOILERS* (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/03/hurricane-fluttershy-clip-number-two.html)

http://i.imgur.com/jaolo.png {Scanning... Scanning... Fabulous Episode has been previewed! The Fun Levels will be at maximum. Chances of enjoyment are 100%!}

[Lix Lorn]

A free get-out-of-Lixes-cluches card?
http://sardonicious.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/c13363d1993030af6f4ea6ce84c549b0.gif


...you lose the time, effort, and ammunition it takes to fire? Maybe? Just a little?

*gulp*
Yes, but it's worth it to see the joy of love given freely via cannon. ^^

[Pokonic]

http://sardonicious.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/c13363d1993030af6f4ea6ce84c549b0.gif


I.....err...confound that adorable pony...it seemed like a good idea at the time? "hides"

[Soras Teva Gee]

I.....err...confound that adorable pony...it seemed like a good idea at the time? "hides"

Don't let her distract you with her gypsy pony pics!

[TheAmishPirate]

Yes, but it's worth it to see the joy of love given freely via cannon. ^^

Joy of love. Right. I wonder if that counts as a "workplace-related accident" if I'm on the forum when I should be working, because I could get some free sick leave out of this...


Don't let her distract you with her gypsy pony pics!

What about diabetes? Are we allowed to get distracted by that?

[SKarious]

Diabetes, you say?
Here, have some (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qqVBc7Ag4Gw/T2aOnZrHgaI/AAAAAAAAEDE/wclL_1pDn-Q/s1600/royal_sisters_sculpts_by_electricmayhem8416-d4sva81.jpg).

A pancreas can grow back, right guys?

[Kyouhen]

Been super busy and don't really feel like digging back through all the pages I've missed, so here's a quick summary of my thoughts on the new episode.
Crackles is best dragon.
It was a little odd seeing an episode with so little pony, but it was still a great episode.
Twilight's really starting to abuse that Teleport spell. Great to see that it actually does take her some effort to teleport long distances though.

Also I made another thing.
http://th09.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2012/079/8/8/tiny_fuzzy_twilight_by_bgkyouhen-d4tedzy.png

[Beacon of Chaos]

Image dumping time!

This spoiler contains Pinkie Pie.
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/fd930c5a1a47d5fddb3eb07a1790cec3/150944%20-%20alignment%20alignment_chart%20chart%20pinkie_pi e.png

Pony ninja
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/c95e51c52a9d56f92d0a46536656148b/144733%20-%20artist%3Arocketknightgeek%20ninja%20silver_spoo n.png

Adorable Woona & Celestia comic
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/01551f5e7c60a7b39c5ffcf70c3d8691/150776%20-%20artist%3AEgophiliac%20baby%20celestia%20comic%2 0Discord%20lineart%20young.png

Heartwarming Luna and Celestia comic
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/23556b0f7c2c9f8de380c73ca5bc87f7/149719%20-%20Alicorn%20Apple_Cobbler%20artist%3Akumkrum%20ce lestia%20comic%20fluttershy%20luna%20princess%20ra rity%20rose%20roseluck%20sisters%20Ursa_Major.png

AJ Anthro
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/9823c5d233ac4a8cbeb1be2a067752ed/150000%20-%20150000%20anthro%20applejack%20artist%3Amandysel ey%20cider%20furry.jpg

Oh Derpy!
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/0e109a66ecc8f281c446456753a59c7b/150128%20-%20applejack%20artist%3AKTurtle%20derpy_hooves%20L yrica%20Orion%20rain%20rarity.jpg

Outlaw Celestia
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/122783e4482bb818e994365fdb2b9066/149752%20-%20artist%3Aslugbox%20celestia%20gun.png

Fluttershy?
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/1af5aa480edee5aa1d8834e09b281d9b/149658%20-%20fluttershy%20meme%20reality%20tree.jpg

Badass infiltrator ponies (and dragon)
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/930b4057e19d9ddaadd013c95a56c692/149651%20-%20artist%3Astupidyou3%20Future_Twilight%20pinkie_ pie%20rainbow_dash%20spike%20spy_cat_suit%20twilig ht_sparkle.jpg

And lastly, some awesome Daring Do
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/9d83eedc6b214adbb7aa7d298f3ceee4/149529%20-%20artist%3Agordonfreeguy%20crossover%20Daring_Do% 20Indiana_Jones.png

[MCerberus]

This spoiler contains Pinkie Pie.
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/fd930c5a1a47d5fddb3eb07a1790cec3/150944%20-%20alignment%20alignment_chart%20chart%20pinkie_pi e.png

Adorable Woona & Celestia comic
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/01551f5e7c60a7b39c5ffcf70c3d8691/150776%20-%20artist%3AEgophiliac%20baby%20celestia%20comic%2 0Discord%20lineart%20young.png
Is best alignment.
Is there any other kind?

[Athaniar]

Oi, freshly made pony steampunk here, only fifty-five bits for a one-of a kind mechine that will knock you socks off, ladies and gents... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l3u4F3d3CY)
I love these ones.


Another clip of this week's episode. *SPOILERS* (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/03/hurricane-fluttershy-clip-number-two.html)
Hurricane Fluttershy
Rainbow is best coach. Bodybuilder pony is creepiest pony.


Also I made another thing.
http://th09.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2012/079/8/8/tiny_fuzzy_twilight_by_bgkyouhen-d4tedzy.png

Nice. ^^

[Soras Teva Gee]

What about diabetes? Are we allowed to get distracted by that?

No expose yourself regularly to cuteness until your pancreas conquers the rest of you body and shamelessly slaves it into producing insulin to combat the constant threat!

I recomend using this (http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/8851b0bb29135147b76974de41bd96a8/72548%20-%20applejack%20artist%3Amixermike622%20featured_im age%20fluttershy%20lauren_faust%20mane_6%20pinkie_ pie%20rainbow_dash%20rarity%20twilight_sparkle.jpg ) or this (http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/d9a6618fa2aa858e382e8d02d6e53683/57427%20-%20adorable%20artist%3Avalcron%20Book_Fort%20featu red_image%20filly%20hnnnnng%20I_want_a_book_fort%2 0lethally_cute%20twilight_sparkle.png) as a catalyst

[Aotrs Commander]

Also I made another thing.
http://th09.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2012/079/8/8/tiny_fuzzy_twilight_by_bgkyouhen-d4tedzy.png


Impressive.


Image dumping time!

This spoiler contains Pinkie Pie.
http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/fd930c5a1a47d5fddb3eb07a1790cec3/150944%20-%20alignment%20alignment_chart%20chart%20pinkie_pi e.png

Further proof Pinkie Pie is Batmanmare...

[MCerberus]

Further proof Pinkie Pie is Batmanmare...

We need to find a picture of Pinkie batmare kicking someone who's eating ice cream.

edit- but I really see Pinkie as pretty solidly CG
Now Rarity is a real scattershot of 'wtf is her alignment'

[Anarion]

Joy of love. Right. I wonder if that counts as a "workplace-related accident" if I'm on the forum when I should be working, because I could get some free sick leave out of this...



What about diabetes? Are we allowed to get distracted by that?

Unfortunately, when Lixie is involved, I'm pretty sure that love falls under "acts of god." You'll just have to accept the full consequences of being struck head on by the shipping cannon(s) and learn to live with your disability.



Further proof Pinkie Pie is Batmanmare...

Beat me to it Lich. Of course, I'd say this is actually evidence that Batman is of the Pinkie Pie alignment, which is obviously the best alignment.



Also, I'd just like to throw out a random thank you to ponythread and ponies in general. In a classic example of one of those situations where you never quite know where life is going to lead you, I attended an in-person pony RPG meetup in Boston yesterday. To my surprise and delight, the store where we met had a single copy of Tome of Battle, which I've wanted for quite a while, but could never bring myself to buy off Amazon/eBay for the typical $50-60 price tag plus shipping. And now I have a copy and am going to force blackmail politely ask my DM to allow me to use it in our current game. Hugs for everyone.

Edit: Oh, and I might have made a new OC and named him Cloak and Dagger. <_< >_>

[OracleofWuffing]

Due to an error I made at McDonald's today, Lily Blossom is the new element of magic and I have the mane six now.

[MCerberus]

Due to an error I made at McDonald's today, Lily Blossom is the new element of magic and I have the mane six now.

That's alright since according to the most recent episode
Twilight is the new Rainbow Dash

[Soras Teva Gee]

I bring you all... Ponyception:

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/079/3/a/ponyception_by_deathpwny-d4tbevx.png