My Little Pony XXXI: The Great and Powerful XXXie!

[SiuiS]

Metal Mask: *Goes and cries in the Corner Booth of Despair*

It's ok, the corner booth gets the best service! The usual server, Hénrí, loves his job, Nd his clients. And makes a mean AMF.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Hangon. Wait. I'm standing here, at midnight, in the rain, outside Parliament House, after pretending to be a wizard, talking with a guy in a lab coat about ponies. I could not make this up."

"Aren't you glad you decided to be my friend?"

Oh hey, you actually bought the lab coat? Cool.
The scrub store won't sell to me. I freak them out >>;

:D

Brony zero! Typhoid Jahkaivah! Pony ftagn!

So. Ya'll know how I'm running the singing event at BroNYcon January, right? Well, I got an audition from someone insane enough to want to take both Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie's sections, which totals well over three-quarters of the expected set list.

However.

Her singing is pretty dang good, she sounds quite a bit like Pinkie.

Anypony want to listen and give me their thoughts?

She's not bad. She tries a bit to hard for some of the notes, but I can't put a hooftip on it. I suspect she can't get her voice quite as high as Pinkie can. Still, the inflection is there for most of Pinkie's personality.
Is there a related Fluttershy link?

As ANOTHER note for BroNYcon. I am going to be doing a hotel room. I am paying the full price, Friday and Saturday night. And I am welcoming as many ponies as I can fit FOR FREE. Right now I have seven ponies in the room, and I can at least fit three more. So if rooming space is keeping you from coming in January, don’t let it. You are more than welcome to crash with me, even if it is floor space.

D:

D:)

DDDDD:)

January is so close Now! Aaaagh! I don't know if ... No, I'm sure I won't be able to go. Why capitalism! Why do you taunt me with your succulent riches and then steal them away with petty workplace politics!?

Ah well. If it comes up again in 2013, provided the world doesn't end first I'll make it a birthday gift to m'self.

Well Pinkie Pie moves so fast and uses raw, mundane energy to teleport of all things, so she needs that insane calorie intake just to keep up with her daily activities.

Indeed. Pinkie Pie is like me as a youth; 4,000 calorie diet, dangerously underweight. All child teeth gone by like, age nine.

You haven't lived until you look at your sweaty out of breath friend on the twelth or thirteenth hour of some rigorous activity and ask why they're being such a party pooper!

Suddenly my bum knees make so much more sense. Stupid degenerative tissues.

"I wanted to, but he wouldn't let me! Some nonsense about 'public places', and 'investigations of gross incompetence' or something like that!"

Oh come on! Really, T fox? Either you laugh it off ad a joke you set up for the guy, or you point out that he's reporting on the deep green pony talking to a magazine and who does he think Human Resources is going to side with?

That was a hard joke to make. Separating you into Jade and Titanium is counterintuitive.

...:<

Aww, sad now. I don't even have the context for it. I just have somepony frowning at me.*

I'm seriously considering it. I mean, I feel so much more comfortable online as a filly, and come to think of it I always have.

Deja vu?

*Snrk* Pinkie PiuiS.

Oddly fitting!
Which makes this old piece...

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Somewhat prophetic, non?



SHE'S STARING INTO MY SOUL

DISCLAIMER FROM THE BRONY COMMUNITY: Please do not actually name your daughter Scootaloo. Your precious little Scootaloo may bite your finger off in retribution.

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle remain useable. Research into Scootaloo as a middle name is urgently underway, though it is too early to speculate on end results.
Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle have not been evaluated by the FDA. Use at own risk.

I love you so much for reposting this every single time. I'm so busy lately I never catch page 1 anymore.

Hey, yeah! What happened to you being low man on totem pole so not having to handle most of the tickets?

Oh well. Our loss! Though it means I'm not gonna be able to directly iterate with most of you guys unless I get a chance to change to a morning or day schedule.

Hm...

Sorry Metal Mask! It was late at night and my brains weren't working! I didn't mean to leave you off the list of Midnight's daughters... great, I'm gonna get bopped for this. And I think this killed comments on the pictures. -(Sighs)-

Oooooh that's what he meant. Sorry, I got my masks confused.
This is the one who resolves problems with biscuits, not the one who was banished to the moon until he made out with Natalie Portmare.

And I commented! I just don't have much to say except for drilling you on how you color things. Is it vectored? Do you use penstrokes for coloring, or a fill? Is shading a separate layer compressed downward, made transparent, or a direct color change to the original? How much of the work we see is post-production rather than preproduction or production?

GYAAAHHH!!! It buuurrrrns, it buuuuuurrrrrrrnnnssss. Sheesh! Owowowowow! That's what I get for sharing pictures! Evil ponies! Ow!

Awww...

*flame-proof's the poor spider*

Giant boots you'll have to handle on your own. Or, wait, maybe not. *gives the spider bashing soak*

...but...but... I have a foal with Braeburn!

What, really?

I mean, I'm not surprised. *First you were dating him, then engaged, then married! Each time Braeburn was brought up you were farther along the path.
I guess, seeing it's been so long, I'm just surprised we aren't hearing about said foal moving back home and you helping them with their student loans.

CUUUUTE.
...also... did we ever work out who the other mother was? Or father. (Yeah, that's gonna happen)
I'm sure I was one of the candidates. xD

Nope! Though if we do, I'd prefer it happen in Fic form rather than just a decision and declaration.

I am reading Rainbow Factory. Why am I reading Rainbow Factory. Somepony please stop me. I haven't read the bad part yet. I can still be saved. I can still not read it. I can still not ruin rainbows for myself for the rest of my life. But I can't stop myself.

Somepony save me, please...

Welp the small text makes it seem serious.
*tackles you backward in time* Stop reading!

This is news.

Aye. Just roll with it, though! If neither Lix nor RazBraeburn have said anything before now, there's probably a reason. TIME ASSASSINS

Stupid grimdark, there's only one cure for this

Scootahugs!

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I was gonna call Bull (because he loves making fun of some of our posts) but then I opened the spoiler.

Scootahugs are awesome.

WARNING! Large image, but totally worth it!

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HAIL ERIS!

Nice. Hey Braz. Hit me.

:? *shrug*
*punch*

Oki Doke! Now that that's outa the way...
That's an attractive Draconequus.

D:< *punch*

OW! Heeeey, why'dja do that for?! You already hit me!

That one didn't count.

I've been dating him for aaages. ^_^

I think I even vaguely remember allusions to having a foal, too. *shrug* my memory is weird.

Now, now, you two. It was an honest mistake. Oooh, I know! The Sisterhood Social is coming up soon! Why don't you two compete?

Good Gracious, Your Ser-- Er, Midnight! Do you know what you've done? you said compete...

You didn't say work together in the social! Mask is probably forging adoption papers as we speak and plotting to take out all the other ponies so it's just her and Aurora in a climactic final round showdown!

You're a brilliantly awesome pony, no matter what. A very cute filly, too.

Hurr?

*Midnight whistles innocently.

Like this? Am I doing it right?

Why can i never picture Dinky as a girl? keeps coming out as a boy to me.

This is relevant to my interests.

Oh my...
...
Hmm, when you put it that way, maybe I should give ponies a bit more warning before launching my metal self at them

<.< *>.>

Or wear these fluffy shoulder pads and torso pillow!

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Yeah I don't really have anything else to contribute, sorry. That was just too perfect of an excuse to post that.

Zevox

Actually, that's a really cool tumblr. Thanks!

This is nothing compaired to how this thread used to move. The IRC channel we have has really slowed this thread down (Thank Celestia). There was times when we'd go through half a thread through a single evening if we got particularly frisky.

Yeah, it was like perfect poster synergy. We actually slowed down whenever we tried to be fast. But some of the natural pacing we set would blister your backside, gobbled or not!

I have a few questions to ask that have been buzzing around my head the past few days about ponies in general and wanted the thread's opinions on them.

1. What is Celestia's power level as far as unicorn magic goes? (someone get the joke out of the way) Personally I feel her power is directly related to the sun as all special talent linked magic is and therefore she may not be as powerful as people make her out to be.

2. Why do the ponies have the term 'fillyfooler' as the word for lesbian? It seems too negative of a word and people are just grabbing what they've seen in our world as the norm for them. Ponies don't share what made same-sex relationship such a taboo for humans, would say more but I think it would end up violating forum rules. Fillyfooler and coltcuddler just sound too derogative for the setting.

3. Pertains to the leaked song:

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I'm really curious what's going on where pinkie is singing a song that to me amounts to helping a pony in a depressed mood.*

Side note, am I the only one that can see Pinkie going into a child's ward in a hospital to sing it to them and just brighten their day?

Twixie picture, just because:

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Celestia is subtly beyond unicorn magic. I do believe she included herself in her statement to Twilight; Dame Sparkle has more raw talent than even Celestia herself.

That being said, experience and nuance count for a lot. Luna didn't use magic for her weather effects, they happened like facial muscles. Unconsciously. Celestia and Luna are less ponies, and more Equinomorphic representations of natural forces. There is no sun without Celestia, there is no moon without Luna. They are night and day, respectively. Like Amaterasu and Onotangu.

Fillyfooler only has the negative connotations given to it by the reader; I myself find it kinda cute. Same with coltcuddler.
I think the creation of new terms was specifically so as to avoid tying pony relationships to human ones. It's like saying hand; calling a pony a lesbian pulls the lens back, and makes you remember you are viewing something by degrees of separation.

And that settles it. Trixie has a ridiculous haircut.

Yeah, that term really makes me instantly thing "pedophile", you know, since filly is a pony child...

I still insist that filly is a cognate for girl, and you only use it to mean girlchild when the context applies to it. Else how could we let full grown women use the girl's room?

I gotta point out, I never got the whole 'Celestia is a physical god' thing either...I mean she's got a spell to move the sun, which is also her special gift...that's not exactly indicative that she can do OTHER stuff beyond what any generic unicorn could do with their magic.

No, but breaking a Savant's over-powered magical coercion across a group points towards skill precision, which is what we value. The wizard who solves his problems with bigger and more fireballs isn't as "powerful" as the one who can control the combustion of a field so that only, say, the dandelions go up in smoke and the rest is fine. Even if the firenukeball wizard generates more thermal energy.

I have to say though, knowing the setting, the implications of the openin story and fairytale land, how can you not view Celestia and Luna as functionally Kami or Langvaettr?

DerpyDash

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No reason, just cute.

Blah. I can't ship Derpy. It feels... Weird to me. Wrong.
Time to overly examine my gut reactions again.

I actually miss that.

I kinda do too? I mean, I enjoy being able to look around the playground more now, but... It's not the rate of content. The quality of posts has minimally decreased; everypony just seems tired, stressed, rushed. The Idylwild feel is almost gone.

Though we seem to be on an upswing! That's always nice

I kinda do as well but I find myself actually reading more of the posts now than I used to. I used to just skim without paying much attention in order to keep up, now I can actually weigh in on a discussion from time to time. That's just me though, I know plenty of ponies were able to keep up just fine and I kind of do miss the blazing ridiculous speeds this thread used to get up to. I think we could find a happy medium between the current slowness and our ultimate peak speeds of a month or two ago.

Indeed. Equilibrium will assert itself. Dynamic balance is the best balance.

Ah. That's how, I wasn't in the thread back then.

You weren't? I guess it was later on that your mustachioed mug became commonplace.

Actually, quite the opposite. I took leave day on Friday and meet a few friends and relatives over the weekend and was back on Sunday night. I just posted yesterday since when I tried to catch up the new thread just showed up. And so far this has been an acceptable busy week. Still don#t have time to catch up on the last thread past post 900.
And thanks for asking! And how's your live been the past weeks?

Interesting! I actually commend you for that. I want to take a small break from the Internet entirely, but I need a day off first. Saying "I'm not gonna go on the pony thread" and then working all day just ends with me feeling guilty for caving in and going on the Ponythread. I wanna spend the day with mah filly, y'know? It's also good to see your work isn't overwhelming you. And don't worry about catching up; a lot of the jokes we make are ephemeral, really. They're fun, but not vital. That's the upside to the IRC- we are getting in the habit of putting important stuff here, and doing silly interactions that are technically just clutter over there.

Though I plan on dragging some of the clutter with me, kicking and screaming. Like, did you know that Starry Notions has some hard-and-fast limits, that my anthropomorphic form doesn't? Like one is a self-incarnating entity, and the other is a standard(ish) mortal pony? Yeah, I forgot that until after I was killed by a chest burster. With no way to come back.
Oops.

Luckily, mad science! And Raz_Fox with a magic contract.

Aaand... My month has been weird. I've worked the last 35-38 days solid, anywhere from 8 to 14 hours a day. I'm starting to slip up on dumb things, like staying open an extra hour because I somehow got 23:00 into my head as 10:00 pm. That and a small crises of self, which I resolved in the usual manner of ignoring it until my background processes got to work on it.

Overall, not too bad! But not very pony. I'm running at like, between 50-70% capacity. 63.7% more pony that a non-Brony, but it could be better, Y'know?

Haha. I've gotten whiny and expositional in the last few days XD

Awesome. I'd switch mare for Pony, to keep the rhythm, though.
Now, to wait for the Cover Version to hit youtube...

Tempted. But then I'd have to get a YouTube account, and I think video or voice recordings are on the list of internet NoNos right now. Still... Only reason I didn't tackle Always a Filly is because I didn't know the tune.

Give me time...

(I'm working on it between last-minute review snippets for an exam, although the lyrics are pretty non-specific to begin with, so it's tempting to not change much at all)

Can't wait for the rest, mate!

Good good, then I am not alone.
I believe Unicorns all seem to have access to Light, too.

Light seems to be less a spell and more a focused byproduct; mental flexing. I can use my arm and the bicep will stand out, or I can flex it specifically and it stands out a lot; the difference between standard illumination and specific light magic.

I think all unicorns have potential for magic. I think all ponies have potential for magic. I don't think they all have the aptitude, resources, or training. Rarity isnt a "spell caster" by definition, despite how she uses so many magical effects. Twilight on the other hoof, is. Trixie is intriguing, because I put her in the 'non-spellcaster' camp. She's a savant who didn't really apply herself, and lacks book learnin'.