My Little Pony V: Art of the Thread

[darthbobcat]

Not even really well-written ones? I'll admit I didn't have high hopes for it, but The Party Never Ended was a really great fic to me.

Generally, no. Sure, it resulted in some fun music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9RkT...feature=relmfu

But I'm generally not interested in the romantic exploits of teenage horses. (Says the guy whose third fic, if he makes it, will be about his OC wanting to romance Rarity) (Shut up, text boxes, you're making me look bad.)

There are some specific reasons that I avoid most shipping fics, but if you want me to go deeper into it than that, PM me. I don't feel like going into it in public.

[Gaelbert]

Ok, thanks. I thought it was unlikely, but I've lived with cats and it seemed like only a small exaggeration of reality.

[EsperDerek]

I'm not actually annoyed by this typo, but I am amazed how consistently it happens, and how it only started happening with this particular fandom.

Is there some guy named Thangol out there? Is he my evil opposite? Do I have to kill him to get the rights to my name back?

Damn you, Thangol! One day, we shall have a reckoning!

Perhaps Thangol is working with whoever EsperDark is to bring down the ruination of mankind.

(Man, I really hate it when I typo someones name, both for that, and because in real life people insist on spelling my name as 'Derrick'. I'm not a piece of oil machinery!)

[SaintRidley]

I'm not actually annoyed by this typo, but I am amazed how consistently it happens, and how it only started happening with this particular fandom.

Is there some guy named Thangol out there? Is he my evil opposite? Do I have to kill him to get the rights to my name back?

I think I did it simply because my brain never processed it as a lower case Q, what with no u following it.

[Irbis]

Perhaps Thangol is working with whoever EsperDark is to bring down the ruination of mankind.

*glares at Esper and his evil ally, Iribis, whoever he is*

Edit - BTW, I checked now and Thanqol is one of the last ponies who can say something about their name being botched :P

(Man, I really hate it when I typo someones name, both for that, and because in real life people insist on spelling my name as 'Derrick'. I'm not a piece of oil machinery!)

Huh, funny, where I live no one would use that instead of 'Derek'.

[Trobby]

Draft one of my little side project is finished; link because I exported at around 800 pixels. Not entirely satisfied with the eyes, which is bad because they're the most important part. Suggestions appreciated.

I need to review some Python now, so the time-lapse image probably won't go up this morning...which means it's quite possible it won't go up for a while since it should be lower priority than the Pony Week banner. Which is to say ... no promises on delivery there.

General suggestion when trying to work with eyes: Use a reference. Twilight might work for this one, or maybe even Rainbow Dash if you're going for less-refined, more excitable/youthful eyes.

Further suggestions: Maybe make her 'nose' a little smaller. It looks a bit oversized at the moment. Also, I'd make her expression a frown rather than a smile, since she's being caught at a bad time.

But...I really adore this. <3~ And I totally understand it taking lower priority.

And I like the cutie mark you chose for her.

[PhoeKun]

All this discussion of names makes me glad mine is so easy to spell. Now if only people could pronounce it. (I have had that 'it's "foe kon", right?' discussion hundreds of times in the last couple of years. No. Not it is not. Where did you get that idea? Rawr.)

Re: Worth of the Franchise, Worth of the Derivative Works - As others have said, the thing that it's important to keep in mind is that none of the creative content from the fanbase would exist if we weren't attracted to something in the original work. There's a lot to love about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and that's more or less in spite of everything. Hasbro in particular has a reputation for being not only willing but insistent upon turning out schlock at minimum cost because they assume their targets don't care. And everything Lauren Faust is doing with them is somewhat new and scary, and they're holding it back in the semi-safe zone while she does her best to produce the show she wants. And that's all perfectly fine. Maybe the show won't hit all of the buttons us grown up folks are looking for, but it doesn't have to. Season 1 can't do anything more to cater to us than it already has; the thing's been written and finalized for months. All they can do is go in and derp a few eyes in post production.

Do I want them to cater to this unexpected older fanbase? I'm not sure I do. Not entirely, at least. I know it's not the prevailing opinion among bronies, but I for one feel the quality of the show increased dramatically after it entered the slice-of-life episodic format, and when introducing friends to the show I am constantly having to beg them to keep going after the pilot because it changes so much and I swear you'll see why I like this show if you'll just watch Ticket Master and now I'm stream of conscious writing, whee.

Anyway, I'm getting distracted. The quality of fan works is high because the quality of the source material is high. We fill in the gaps because that's our job as contributing fans. And yeah, ok, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash probably aren't secretly in love with each other and I'm probably just spinning my wheels wishing it were so. But my exploration of that relationship is heavily influenced by the show. It all starts there. I just get to fill in the blanks because I have the advantage of infinite time and canvas to paint my picture.

Generally, no. Sure, it resulted in some fun music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9RkT...feature=relmfu

But I'm generally not interested in the romantic exploits of teenage horses. (Says the guy whose third fic, if he makes it, will be about his OC wanting to romance Rarity) (Shut up, text boxes, you're making me look bad.)

I don't think I mentioned it last time you linked that, but those voices really bug me. But maybe that's because I really really liked that song, and that's not in any way shape or form how I pictured that scene. >.>

I think if ever you were going to give a ship a try it should be that one, because it's... well, there's a lot more going on than just ponies in love, and ye gods does it tie together so much better than it has any right to. Feel free to take that endorsement with a grain of salt since I am hopelessly in love with the idea of ponies in love, but I'd like to think that all the years of education and training left me with something of an eye for legitimately well written stories. But, your reasons are your own, and I don't really want to push this farther than I have.

edit: by the way, if you don't mind me asking... what was it that made you give Fluttering Heart a read despite the big gaudy shipping tag?

Oh, and you've got a weird h.k. attached to the end of your post-

YOU!

[EsperDerek]

Anyway, I'm getting distracted. The quality of fan works is high because the quality of the source material is high. We fill in the gaps because that's our job as contributing fans. And yeah, ok, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash probably aren't secretly in love with each other and I'm probably just spinning my wheels wishing it were so. But my exploration of that relationship is heavily influenced by the show. It all starts there. I just get to fill in the blanks because I have the advantage of infinite time and canvas to paint my picture.

Plus, hell, all of this, all of what all of us have said, it really comes straight down to one thing, the most important thing of all.

It's fun!

It's sort of like playing with Legos. Okay, sure, there's the instructions on the box, but sooner or later you're going to take all of your Legos and build the worlds largest tower or a giant mech out of Lego trees or something. You'll enact titanic battles and dramatic adventures that go far beyond the scope of what that Lego set really was intended for.

Because it's fun to do!

It's fun to explore the love between Dash and Fluttershy or have Trixie and Twilight get into a silly misadventure ending up with a foal or a pony trying to tame a bird of prey or whatever else.

And, really, why do anything with your free time if you aren't having fun with it?

[Irbis]

By the way - no one commented on something incredibly pro-Iron Hoof in the last episode?

Consider this - Fluttershy fears flying. She is barely a pegasus. She has connections to the earth. Yet, she says she never was on the ground. Despite being one of the oldest kids in the school. What does this mean?

A) Cloudsdale is obviously unable of growing any food, yet supports enormous population that mostly never touches the ground, kids, workers in its heavy industry, old pegasi, etc.

B) What services they provide? Weather, obviously. Yet, we see no one paying for weather, besides, it would be horribly inefficient with the scale of industry we see. Therefore, some kind of fee/tax paying for it's existence must exist;

C) Since only pegasi can travel to or from it, and given the scale of requirements, there is probably state food distribution, perhaps in a network of factory restaurants, centrally steered, supported by maybe a handful of private enterprises; and not only usual fare, some luxuries must make their way into it as FS knows what 'honey' is;

D) There exist some form of pony segregation, if even FS doesn't get to mingle with the rest of the populace, and besides, Ponyville & Canterlot have segregation just as hard, only slanted towards earth/unicorn ponies (say, CMC apparently have the only filly unicorn in town as member, while Canterlot is filled with them, even having special schools), despite being on the ground;

E) What else is weird? Ah, that pegasi fillies in school apparently get to play very dangerous games without oversight of the teachers; No one tries to save falling FS. Why? Are all the parents too busy working in the factories? Do they make too little money to invest in some sort of rescue service, or even a guardian for the fillies?

F) Apparently Rainbooms are some sort of special military assets, capable of crushing rocks, disrupt magic, destroy clouds and providing illumination of bombed targets, all in one

[Raz_Fox]

(I have had that 'it's "foe kon", right?' discussion hundreds of times in the last couple of years. No. Not it is not. Where did you get that idea? Rawr.)

Now I feel guilty, because that's the way I sound it out in my head every time I see your name. Despite knowing that it's a diminutive of Phoenix.

YOU!

Now I feel doubly guilty. (Seriously, though, I saw it. I have no idea why or what it was, but it was there.)
h.
k.

[Mewtarthio]

E) What else is weird? Ah, that pegasi fillies in school apparently get to play very dangerous games without oversight of the teachers; No one tries to save falling FS. Why? Are all the parents too busy working in the factories? Do they make too little money to invest in some sort of rescue service, or even a guardian for the fillies?

A pegasus that cannot fly is a useless drain on society. There is no rescue service for pegasi that fall from the clouds as such wretches should have been able to save themselves. When Fluttershy did not reappear, she was presumed dead. No search was made for her body beyond a token flyby to see if they needed to apologize to anyone she landed on. Rainbow Dash and the bullies suffered no legal consequences for their actions.

And, no, her parents didn't make a fuss. You'll notice that neither Fluttershy nor Rainbow Dash have parents in the flashback, despite all other ponies (except Rarity, who's been confirmed Not An Orphan by Word of Lauren) having their own caretakers shown. This is because pegasi children are taken from their parents at birth and raised in the Cloudsdale Community Creche. This limits the influence of those shameful urges ponies have to provide care and comfort to their offspring, no matter how weak or useless.

[Irbis]

And people say it's me who is making this place dark :P

[Kairaven]

A pegasus that cannot fly is a useless drain on society. There is no rescue service for pegasi that fall from the clouds as such wretches should have been able to save themselves. When Fluttershy did not reappear, she was presumed dead. No search was made for her body beyond a token flyby to see if they needed to apologize to anyone she landed on. Rainbow Dash and the bullies suffered no legal consequences for their actions.

And, no, her parents didn't make a fuss. You'll notice that neither Fluttershy nor Rainbow Dash have parents in the flashback, despite all other ponies (except Rarity, who's been confirmed Not An Orphan by Word of Lauren) having their own caretakers shown. This is because pegasi children are taken from their parents at birth and raised in the Cloudsdale Community Creche. This limits the influence of those shameful urges ponies have to provide care and comfort to their offspring, no matter how weak or useless.

So... basically what you are saying is... Pegasus are Spartans.

[TFT]

So, I'm going to tell you guys a funny story that just happened.

I'm reading this thread at the bottom of my schools Student Union between work and classes, and I get one of the Cupcakes remixes stuck in my head.

...Wait a minute, that's not in my head. Someone's apparently playing it!

I look around, and there's a group of two to three people watching one of the cupcake remixes on youtube. It wasn't as a joke either. They then follow up with one of the trailer parodies. I don't notice which one because, well, I just realized there were bronies at my school.

My school just became about 20% cooler.

[darthbobcat]

edit: by the way, if you don't mind me asking... what was it that made you give Fluttering Heart a read despite the big gaudy shipping tag?

'Cause you read my stuff and I wanted to return the favor. I tried that one because the description said it wasn't hard shipping, and I actually don't mind short, unrequited shipping fics (not that it's unrequited in your fanon, but more that in the context of that story, Fluttershy didn't get to have her way). I also enjoyed one someone else wrote based on a picture where Applejack confessed to Rainbow Dash during a rain storm and Dash just wasn't interested.

... man, my tastes are weird. "No stories about ponies in love unless it's unrequited and one pony is miserable."

Edit: As for the "Iron Hoof" implications. I deny them, as always. I'm more inclined to chalk it up to dodgy parenting. After all, it's not like the kids are in school every single day. Much like kids in our worlds will go off somewhere away from adult supervision to do stupid things, the pegasi will run off for dangerous flying races.

As for Fluttershy... I'm not sure there's a way to put a good spin on it. The fact that she made it to early teens (she's older than the rest of them by at least one year and was noticeably taller and lankier than the others... interestingly, this shatters the idea that Rarity is the oldest of them because she most clearly had the same little kid character design as the rest) disproves the Spartan theory. I don't know if her parents were apathetic, if she was getting flight therapy (the same way a kid with a speech impediment gets speech therapy), if the idea of a pegasus living on the ground was foreign to them so they didn't consider the possibility, or what. There was some fundamental mistake made on their part in not helping her explore non-flying career paths. Whether it was excusable or not is pure speculation.

Additional Edit: Also, New PMV! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIo0D...&feature=feedu

[Trixie]

...You know, I'm glad y'all seem to have so nice and deep knowledge of various songs and fanfics, I certainly wouldn't suspect you guys of it seeing how deep silence always reigns when I ask for more links

***

Anyway, since we had this Rarity picture for 4-5 pages now, and since I was already accused of it being too bloody, time for change to something... Soothing. [shoos Rarity off the spotlight]

[darthbobcat]

...You know, I'm glad y'all seem to have so nice and deep knowledge of various songs and fanfics, I certainly wouldn't suspect you guys of it seeing how deep silence always reigns when I ask for more links

***

Anyway, since we had this Rarity picture for 4-5 pages now, and since I was already accused of it being too bloody, time for change to something... Soothing. [shoos Rarity off the spotlight]

Well, most of the songs and fics I discuss aren't necessarily notable enough for the main thing. At this point, my Youtube favorites have to have at least 100 pony vids... you don't want me advocating for every single one of them in the OP or else it'd just get crazy.

Also, d'awww, Fluttershy.

[Trixie]

Well, most of the songs and fics I discuss aren't necessarily notable enough for the main thing.

As opposed to having zero links?

Dammit, I'll have to start actually reading more fics at this rate :P

[Orzel]

Guesses on New Equestrian locations

Sesaddle
Chicacolt
Maredrid
Banghock
Istanbull (Not Coltstaninople)

Yeah
Either I do this or do work.

[darthbobcat]

As opposed to having zero links?

Dammit, I'll have to start actually reading more fics at this rate :P

Next time I read a fic I really really really enjoy, I won't PM you, since your box is often full, but I will put

TRIXIE. PLEASE SAVE THIS LINK. in obvious text.

[Khosan]

Guesses on New Equestrian locations

Sesaddle
Chicacolt
Maredrid
Banghock
Istanbull (Not Coltstaninople)

Yeah
Either I do this or do work.

Don't forget Detrot.

[PhoeKun]

...You know, I'm glad y'all seem to have so nice and deep knowledge of various songs and fanfics, I certainly wouldn't suspect you guys of it seeing how deep silence always reigns when I ask for more links

***

Anyway, since we had this Rarity picture for 4-5 pages now, and since I was already accused of it being too bloody, time for change to something... Soothing. [shoos Rarity off the spotlight]

You know, I will always associate that last Rarity image with Cereal Velocity's A Nightmare to Remember, most probably because it's the cover image, but also because it fits the idea of a feverishly dreaming, semi-tortured Rarity so gosh darned well.

See what I did there?

Don't forget Detrot.

Please forget Detrot. We really don't need the Pony Motor City...

[Gamerlord]

.....New Foal City?

[Gaelbert]

OP pic: D'awwwwww. Fluttershy is amazing.

[Lix Lorn]

Istanbull (Not Coltstaninople)

<3
(kisses excessively)

[Kairaven]

Prancington D.C (Distrct of Coltumbia)

Sun Franciscolt

Flowerida

[Trixie]

[sigh] I wonder if anyone still remembers my today's request for PM/mail :P

[darthbobcat]

[sigh] I wonder if anyone still remembers my today's request for PM/mail :P

If we hit a high page number? Yup. We do.

[AlterForm]

I don't know if her parents were apathetic, if she was getting flight therapy (the same way a kid with a speech impediment gets speech therapy)

Mmmm, smells like fanfic.

[darthbobcat]

Mmmm, smells like fanfic.

Rainbow Dash: Ugh. Look, Fluttershy, you don't like me and I don't like you, but we gotta...

Fluttershy: What? I like you!

Rainbow Dash: You do? What do you like about me?

LATER THAT NIGHT

Rainbow Dash's Mom: So honey, how did helping out Fluttershy after school go?

Rainbow Dash: Awesome! She says she likes my can do attitude!