My Little Pony VI: MUFFINS!

[invinible]

What to help me continue this:

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On Wild Bill's farm, something rattles a pony's nerves.

A human woman yells, "Phillip come quick! Your pony is nervous!"

Phillip arrives on the scene.

Phillip asks, "What's wrong MacGuffin?"

MacGuffin answers, "There is something scary over there." while pointing to a spooky black light in the forest.

The human woman responds, "That pony can speak English? And here I thought it was just your over active imagination for the past 16, Phillip."

Phillip replies, "Of course she can, Janet. Anyway, I'm off to check out that black light."

Janet returns, "But do I tell your dad if he gets back before you do? And he will be back as he has taken vacation from his army duty right now."

Phillip counters, "Just say that I'm checking out a possible threat to the farm. He will understand."

Phillip heads towards the spooky black light.

until it could be sent in as an official potential real G.I.Joe/My Little Pony cross-over episode?

Hmm, I never heard it was slang, I thought it was normal word

But then again, English is my third language and I still struggle with it.

That's alright. English is my first and only language. And I still have trouble with it.

[darthbobcat]

What to help me continue this:

Spoiler

Show

On Wild Bill's farm, something rattles a pony's nerves.

A human woman yells, "Phillip come quick! Your pony is nervous!"

Phillip arrives on the scene.

Phillip asks, "What's wrong MacGuffin?"

MacGuffin answers, "There is something scary over there." while pointing to a spooky black light in the forest.

The human woman responds, "That pony can speak English? And here I thought it was just your over active imagination for the past 16, Phillip."

Phillip replies, "Of course she can, Janet. Anyway, I'm off to check out that black light."

Janet returns, "But do I tell your dad if he gets back before you do? And he will be back as he has taken vacation from his army duty right now."

Phillip counters, "Just say that I'm checking out a possible threat to the farm. He will understand."

Phillip heads towards the spooky black light.

until it could be sent in as an official potential real G.I.Joe/My Little Pony cross-over episode?

Sadly, there are all sorts of rules and regulations that keep that from being likely. Whether it's TV writers who need to be represented by agents or unions to be considered, comic book companies that refuse to look at submissions related to properties they license or different productions being done by different animation studios, the odds of a fan written crossover becoming reality are practically nil.

Now, if you want to develop it as a fun fanfic... I'm less than useless, since I've only seen a grand total of 10 GI Joe episodes in my entire life, most of them from the 80s.

Incidentally, Eau de Cobra is some of the funniest TV I've ever watched.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82Mz2i12_ZQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6deo...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJFG6...eature=related

[Irbis]

Deine Englisch ist besser am mein Deutsch.

Actually, mein Deutsch says you should corr... Eh, whatever, I haven't used it for so long I might be wrong

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Anyway, despite voices telling I'll criticize this Ep... it was okay-ish. Bland, forgettable, but not that bad. In hindsight, Dragon/Aloysius created a composite substitute for antagonist today, a small amount of conflict, which saved it. Without them, it would be 20 minutes of nothing.

IMHO, people call this episode poor because it highlights all the things wrong in the MLP - sanitized dialogues, little conflict/tension, slow action, and forgettable plots - all the things that normally save them, characters, interactions between them, acting, songs, action - were absent. As if it was made to show my points by subtraction :P

And I was a bit shocked by how many people called 'spiked punch' risque. Adding little % to fruit juice is risque?

But then again, my country has second highest alcohol production per head in the world, yo

[darthbobcat]

Actually, mein Deutsch says you should corr... Eh, whatever, I haven't used it for so long I might be wrong

Oh? Sorry, I'd gotten the impression you were German from somewhere. What's your first tongue, out of curiosity?

[Irbis]

Oh? Sorry, I'd gotten the impression you were German from somewhere. What's your first tongue, out of curiosity?

Probably because German is my second language?

If you want to, I can ask real German next door. Though, I can already say you used English grammar instead of German (lack of declination).

I have... well... two first languages. Sort of. It's complicated, but then again, I lived 20 km from the border, I sort of had to :P

[darthbobcat]

Probably because German is my second language?

If you want to, I can ask real German next door. Though, I can already say you used English grammar instead of German (lack of declination).

I have... well... two first languages. Sort of. It's complicated, but then again, I lived 20 km from the border, I sort of had to :P

That'd be great, actually. I'm so hopelessly out of touch with it, and I'm taking Spanish classes right now, so my German grammar is probably going all to hell.

Also, I love this art.

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[Welf]

Deine Englisch ist besser am mein Deutsch.

That "am" really confuses me. Where does it come from?

And here the translation:

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Nicht wenn sie Deutsch sprechen! Heute ist es Dienstag und das hat kein "y!"

I exchanged the "es" for an "das" assuming it refers to "Dienstag", stating that "Dienstag" has not the letter "y" in it.

One thought on new episode:

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We now have the confirmation that there are predators and that they murder other animals. We even saw (fake) blood in the episode. The censors must have been lulled into sleep by the cuteness of the CMC and young Fluttershy last episode.

[darthbobcat]

That "am" really confuses me. Where does it come from?

One thought on new episode:

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Show

We now have the confirmation that there are predators and that they murder other animals. We even saw (fake) blood in the episode. The censors must have been lulled into sleep by the cuteness of the CMC and young Fluttershy last episode.

In retrospect, I realized my mistake. I was thinking of "am besten" (best), which doesn't apply to Besser, and I put it in the wrong place at that.

On the other hand, this episode confirmed FFF SO hard, so I am willing to forgive it for being mediocre.

[Irbis]

Also, I love this art.

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Who is that? Derpy... Carrot Top... and?

[Mando Knight]

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And I was a bit shocked by how many people called 'spiked punch' risque. Adding little % to fruit juice is risque?

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It's produced IN AMERICA... where there's laws against advertising alcohol during a kid's show and the legal drinking age is 21. Slipping in an alcohol reference during an Edutainment show is tricky unless you're dropping some anvils about alcohol abuse.

[Welf]

In retrospect, I realized my mistake. I was thinking of "am besten" (best), which doesn't apply to Besser, and I put it in the wrong place at that.

On the other hand, this episode confirmed FFF SO hard, so I am willing to forgive it for being mediocre.

Thank you for satisfying my curiosity.

Also I translated the text in your spoiler, see my post above that I just edited.

[darthbobcat]

Who is that? Derpy... Carrot Top... and?

I don't know. You're right on two of them. I thought the unicorn was Lyra at first, but I don't recognize a unicorn with a strawberry cutie mark.

Edit: Also, thanks for the translation. Would it still be Das for Donnerstag?

[TheAmishPirate]

Something that's been bugging me about the new episode:

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Doesn't the owl have to sleep during the day? I feel like that point would have solved a lot of the conflict, as Spike would still have his work during the day, and Owlyface (because heck if I can remember that name) would work during the night. Spike could have still been jealous of the owl's help, but later realized that he still was important. Meh, thinking too much about a show with talking unicorns, I suppose.

Oh gosh I've posted in a pony thread what have I done

EDIT: Well, since I'm here, I might as well post this:

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[Mewtarthio]

Just out of curiosity, I wonder how many people go to Twilight's house daily. Isn't it supposed to be the public library?

It's not that unusual. Rarity and Pinkie both live in their places of business (Pinkie Pie doesn't even own her place of business). That's half the cast right without a dedicated building for living quarters.

It appears that ponies, as a rule, don't have houses. The only exceptions we've seen are Applejack (who owns all of Sweet Apple Acres and can therefore easily set aside a bit of land for a home), Fluttershy (who lives in an undeveloped area on the outskirts of Ponyville; works fine if your job is caring for woodland creatures and you dislike social interaction, but anyone else would consider that a lousy piece of real estate), Zecora (Fluttershy times a thousand), and Rainbow Dash (lives in the sky, so doesn't have to compete with two-thirds of the pony population).

There were a bunch of pony historiographers in here earlier who might be able to explain why land is apparently do expensive in Ponyville. Personally, I'd say the ponies are remaining densely packed as a defense against wandering monsters. Lots of extremely dangerous, extremely territorial creatures out there.

So... New Ep: writer: Cindy Morrow.

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Griffon the Brush-Off
Winter Wrap Up
The Show Stoppers
OWTEW

Huh, guess who was right saying decent writers don't work well with money-sawing episodes? :P

Really? I realize that lots of people disliked this episode, but I think it was much more tightly-plotted than Morrow's other episodes. I burned with rage at the "Who?" gag, and Spike's evil form just had me scratching my head and wondering when he was going to start hypnotizing people, but other than that I thought it was solid.

Conversely, "Winter" and "Show" had fairly weak conflicts that mostly served to string vaguely-connected scenes together. "Griffon" had a blatantly unsympathetic antagonist running around antagonizing people unsympathetically, so no one ever had any real internal conflicts to deal with.

Side note: I'm not in the animation industry, so could someone explain why everyone's been saying this is a "bottle episode"? It has a fair number of speaking roles, a variety of locations, a fight scene, a new costume for Spike (with a cape, even), and two new creatures (Owlicious and the Green Dragon--Though granted, the dragon may have just been a pallet-swapped Red Dragon).

I'd also comment on the 'how magic works' posts as I liked them, but unlike nr IV, thread nr V was actually locked, ruining any possibility of easy quoting

Could you try directly linking the post itself? Because I make it a point to not read this thread until I've seen the latest episode, so I've pretty much missed an entire weekend due to Easter celebrations.

[darthbobcat]

Something that's been bugging me about the new episode:

Spoiler

Show

Doesn't the owl have to sleep during the day? I feel like that point would have solved a lot of the conflict, as Spike would still have his work during the day, and Owlyface (because heck if I can remember that name) would work during the night. Spike could have still been jealous of the owl's help, but later realized that he still was important. Meh, thinking too much about a show with talking unicorns, I suppose.

Oh gosh I've posted in a pony thread what have I done

You've become awesome, that's what you've done.

Also, that's the sort of thinking that's fine. I'd wondered about it myself. I assumed that he'd synched up his sleep schedule with Twilight's, while Spike, being a baby dragon, couldn't keep up with them.

It's not that unusual. Rarity and Pinkie both live in their places of business (Pinkie Pie doesn't even own her place of business). That's half the cast right without a dedicated building for living quarters.

It appears that ponies, as a rule, don't have houses. The only exceptions we've seen are Applejack (who owns all of Sweet Apple Acres and can therefore easily set aside a bit of land for a home), Fluttershy (who lives in an undeveloped area on the outskirts of Ponyville; works fine if your job is caring for woodland creatures and you dislike social interaction, but anyone else would consider that a lousy piece of real estate), Zecora (Fluttershy times a thousand), and Rainbow Dash (lives in the sky, so doesn't have to compete with two-thirds of the pony population).

There were a bunch of pony historiographers in here earlier who might be able to explain why land is apparently do expensive in Ponyville. Personally, I'd say the ponies are remaining densely packed as a defense against wandering monsters. Lots of extremely dangerous, extremely territorial creatures out there.



Really? I realize that lots of people disliked this episode, but I think it was much more tightly-plotted than Morrow's other episodes. I burned with rage at the "Who?" gag, and Spike's evil form just had me scratching my head and wondering when he was going to start hypnotizing people, but other than that I thought it was solid.

Conversely, "Winter" and "Show" had fairly weak conflicts that mostly served to string vaguely-connected scenes together. "Griffon" had a blatantly unsympathetic antagonist running around antagonizing people unsympathetically, so no one ever had any real internal conflicts to deal with.

Side note: I'm not in the animation industry, so could someone explain why everyone's been saying this is a "bottle episode"? It has a fair number of speaking roles, a variety of locations, a fight scene, a new costume for Spike (with a cape, even), and two new creatures (Owlicious and the Green Dragon--Though granted, the dragon may have just been a pallet-swapped Red Dragon).

I figured that it's because our cast of little ponies is still young. They haven't amassed the capital to have both a house AND a place of business, except in places where there's cheap and/or unclaimed land. Twilight is, I imagine, living off the public dole in one way or another (either subsidies from Celestia or taxes for running the library). Give them a few years to amass savings and get better credit ratings and they might have their own places.

Also, Ponyville is a densely populated place, judging from the crowd scenes. That'd certainly drive up property values.

Also, I think they're calling it a bottle episode because there's hints of a lack of care. Honestly, I think they just didn't do as good a job as usual and everyone has a bad day now and again.

[Irbis]

It's not that unusual. Rarity and Pinkie both live in their places of business (Pinkie Pie doesn't even own her place of business). That's half the cast right without a dedicated building for living quarters.

It appears that ponies, as a rule, don't have houses.

Um... since when craftsman living above his shop means no living quarters/house?

If anything, such building is more expensive due to the extra stores.

Really? I realize that lots of people disliked this episode, but I think it was much more tightly-plotted than Morrow's other episodes. I burned with rage at the "Who?" gag, and Spike's evil form just had me scratching my head and wondering when he was going to start hypnotizing people, but other than that I thought it was solid.

Compare that to character interactions in WWU. I sometimes fire it up only to listen to Rarity/Pinkie/Mayor talking to Twilight

Weak conflict? Maybe, but characters made up for it. It was exposition episode, so to say.

"Griffon" had a blatantly unsympathetic antagonist running around antagonizing people unsympathetically, so no one ever had any real internal conflicts to deal with.

Yup. She had so much potential. Still, she, unlike Aloysius, at least did something else than wiping dust :P

Side note: I'm not in the animation industry, so could someone explain why everyone's been saying this is a "bottle episode"? It has a fair number of speaking roles, a variety of locations, a fight scene, a new costume for Spike (with a cape, even), and two new creatures (Owlicious and the Green Dragon--Though granted, the dragon may have just been a pallet-swapped Red Dragon).

Because everything was lifted from other episodes, speaking parts lasted a minute, probably recorded during last episode, dragon had zero unique animations, even owl was lifted from earlier Ep. The only new thing was Spike.

***

Darth, translation for you :P

Nicht wenn Sie Deutsch sprechen! Heute ist Dienstag, und es hat kein "y"!

Though, assuming the latter part of the second sentence means to say that "there is no "y" in Tuesday", I think it would sound more natural to say that more directly, and go with "Heute ist Dienstag, und darin ist kein "y"!" ("Today is Tuesday, and there is no "y" in that!").

I agree, the second version feels much more natural.

[AlterForm]

Wiki article on Bottle Episodes. Or, if you feel like you have entirely too much time on your hands right now, TVTropes version of the same.

[darthbobcat]

Thanks again, Welf and Irbis.

[DeltaEmil]

A bottle episode ought to normally take place mostly at one location, or a set of practically the same places to be called a bottle episode, the purpose most times being to save money.
One could call "Look before You Sleep" a bottle episode. But I don't know if "Owl's well that ends well" could be called one too.

[Irbis]

A bottle episode ought to normally take place mostly at one location, or a set of practically the same places to be called a bottle episode, the purpose most times being to save money.
One could call "Look before You Sleep" a bottle episode. But I don't know if "Owl's well that ends well" could be called one too.

Real life locations. In flash cartoon, you just ctrl + c. Remember that blackboard contents in two different episodes? Or million cloned ponies in last episode?

I also bet you all VA, save for Twilight/Spike (and even this is stretching) were recorded in last Ep. Note that Fluttershy, with her singing scene, has no speaking parts in this one.

I bet you the forest scene was lifted from Bridle Gossip or Feeling Pinkie Keen (as the ground looks the same colour it had during escape from Hydra), while library was used so many times it just doesn't count.

[Welf]

Edit: Also, thanks for the translation. Would it still be Das for Donnerstag?

No, for Donnerstag you should use "der". Actually you should use "der" also for Dienstag.

I think I'll later have a talk with my mom about grammar. I just spent way too much time thinking about it.

(since the server is busy: the second version from Irbis is maybe better, it gets the point more directly. )

[Entertainer13]

Delish is a pretty common word around my parts (Wisconsin). It's about as much slang as "cool" at this point. I'd really not worry about it.

[Mewtarthio]

Um... since when craftsman living above his shop means no living quarters/house?

If anything, such building is more expensive due to the extra stores.

Yes, I probably could have phrased that better. I mean that working space and living space are housed in the same building, so that a single pony owns less land in terms of how much space they take up on the map. We don't see ponies purchasing a home in the suburbs and then commuting to work. I went with the slightly dark theory that Ponyville has a high population density as a protection against monster attacks, though you could easily argue that ponies have to walk everywhere and therefore keep their commutes as short as possible.

Compare that to character interactions in WWU. I sometimes fire it up only to listen to Rarity/Pinkie/Mayor talking to Twilight

Weak conflict? Maybe, but characters made up for it. It was exposition episode, so to say.

Fair enough. I prefer the more conflict-oriented episodes myself, but to each his own.

Because everything was lifted from other episodes, speaking parts lasted a minute, probably recorded during last episode, dragon had zero unique animations, even owl was lifted from earlier Ep. The only new thing was Spike.

Alright, then. I don't have much of an eye for animation reuse, so I defer to you on this matter. I was comparing it to "Look Before You Sleep," which was more blatantly cheap.

[AlterForm]

Email away for the Pony Week banner. Now to get some work done on this paper so I have time to make a submission for the Friend-off...**grumble**

[darthbobcat]

Email away for the Pony Week banner. Now to get some work done on this paper so I have time to make a submission for the Friend-off...**grumble**

Actually, I do have a proposal for you now. Don't know if you're just moving on without it, or... well, here it is, regardless.

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Panel 1
Rainbow Dash sits in front of a desk, wearing a nice suit. Her hoofs are steepled in front of her.
RAINBOW DASH: My fellow Equestrians. As your duly appointed Best Young Flyer, I come to you tonight to talk about a threat to our very way of life.

Panel 2
Rainbow Dash slips on reading glasses.
RAINBOW DASH: Some ponies in a place called...

Panel 3
Rainbow Dash squints, reading a sheet of paper
RAINBOW DASH: "Pony Chan" have been posting wicked and libelous art.

Panel 4
Dash stands up and points at the reader
RAINBOW DASH: This art implies that I regularly abuse and misuse Scootaloo. This is ridiculous. Scootaloo is a cute little kid and I'm not monster.

Panel 5
Scootaloo is there, covered in coal stains, holding a coal brush and dressed like a 19th century orphan.
SCOOTALOO: I finished out your (cough) chimney, Dash. What else did you want me to do?
RAINBOW DASH (look of shock and horror): ...

Panel 6:
Rainbow Dash looks very scared and embarrassed.

Panel 7:
Rainbow Dash gets a sheepish grin and starts pushing Scootaloo off panel.
RAINBOW DASH: Heh heh heh... kids and their games! That's all. Good night, everypony!
SCOOTALOO: (Coughs piteously)

Rather dark humor that I don't believe in, but potentially funny.

[SiuiS]

It's not that unusual. Rarity and Pinkie both live in their places of business (Pinkie Pie doesn't even own her place of business). That's half the cast right without a dedicated building for living quarters.

It appears that ponies, as a rule, don't have houses. The only exceptions we've seen are Applejack (who owns all of Sweet Apple Acres and can therefore easily set aside a bit of land for a home), Fluttershy (who lives in an undeveloped area on the outskirts of Ponyville; works fine if your job is caring for woodland creatures and you dislike social interaction, but anyone else would consider that a lousy piece of real estate), Zecora (Fluttershy times a thousand), and Rainbow Dash (lives in the sky, so doesn't have to compete with two-thirds of the pony population).

There were a bunch of pony historiographers in here earlier who might be able to explain why land is apparently do expensive in Ponyville. Personally, I'd say the ponies are remaining densely packed as a defense against wandering monsters. Lots of extremely dangerous, extremely territorial creatures out there.

I still assert that Ponyville has it's property values affected by it's location; near both the current and defunct Royal capitals, within spitting distance of what is functionally a military school/scout camp combo, a forest full of rare-ish herbs, and access to the full width of the Apple Belt.

Although I so have to admit, the sheer levels of epic monster population is awkward. We can suppose Cloudsdale, a mundane military training facility (as opposed to a magical warfare training facility) was integral to the founding of Ponyville. Frontiers-ponies found a Locus of valuable resources, established fortifications, and a town sprung up around them over time.

It would also explain their non-magic traditions; it's important for a town to distinguish itself when it sits literally in the shadows of the capital estate. Some towns decide instead to embrace the capital's ways as their own, but I've seen this more in media whereas in person the individuation tends to be more important.

Still, the everfree forest contains an Ursa cave and a full grown and completely hidden green dragon. The everfree forest is HUGE, if only so these beasts don't cross territory.

[darthbobcat]

I still assert that Ponyville has it's property values affected by it's location; near both the current and defunct Royal capitals, within spitting distance of what is functionally a military school/scout camp combo, a frost full of rare-ish herbs, and access to the full width of the Apple Belt.

Although I so have to admit, the sheer levels of epic monster population is awkward. We can suppose Cloudsdale, a mundane military training facility (as opposed to a magical warfare training facility) was integral to the founding of Ponyville. Frontiers-ponies found a Locus of valuable resources, established fortifications, and a town sprung up around them over time.

It would also explain their non-magic traditions; it's important for a town to distinguish itself when it sits literally in the shadows of the capital estate. Some towns decide instead to embrace the capital's ways as their own, but I've seen this more in media whereas in person the individuation tends to be more important.

Still, the everfree forest contains an Ursa cave and a full grown and completely hidden green dragon. The everfree forest is HUGE, if only so these beasts don't cross territory.

Well, unless Dragons and Ursas fulfill very different niches.

[Aidan305]

Last chance to voice any corrections to the banner before I start prepping it for submission. (WARNING: STILL REALLY HUGE)

Just as a comment, the My Little Death Knight logo at the top right seems a bit out of place in its current position. Might be better to remove it entirely.

[DeadManSleeping]

re Tons of Evil Creatures:

It seems that the ecology of the Everfree Forest is very balanced. For that reason, none of the horribly dangerous nonsentient beasts leave it for any reason. Clearly, resources are plentiful. Ponyville is safe. Now, going INTO the Everfree Forest is a good way to get your pony butt turned into something's dinner (we must assume that Zecora is pretty awesome, given that she appears to meditate like a martial artist and has a very good grasp on the medicinal sciences). Also, the sentient beings in Everfree are likely problematic from time to time, but it doesn't seem that they have any wish to cross ponies (given that Celestia can see Ponyville clearly with a telescope, that sounds reasonable).

So, yeah, Ponyville proper is one idyllic place to live, barring disasters that seem just as likely anywhere (so far, village idiots bringing a monster into town, and parasprites which also crop up in urban areas like Fillydelphia).

[PhoeKun]

Hey, SiuiS!

...

Our debt is settled.

I have not the slightest idea what to think about this story, or what to do with it from here. But it's written. I'm done. Take it! *collapses*

edit: at 8200 words, this is officially the longest short story I have ever written.