My Little Pony XX: Appletastic Treats

[Deadly]

Looking at this again I realized something.

I can't for the life of me figure out who spawned Rainbow Dash. Seriously. She's the only pony with a mane anywhere near that colourful. All the other ponies are lucky to get 2 colours, with a choice few getting 3. Dash is outright cheating. Does she actually have siblings? Do they share the obscene numbers of colours that she has? Who were her parents? I think I just figured out what I want to see in Season 2: An explanation of any kind for Dash's insane hair.

Well, there is one other with rainbow hair... she just happens to be a princess. Maybe she had a little fun with a pegasus once, and left the child on somepony's doorsteps because the truth couldn't be known.

[Trixie]

In Australia, we have Black Swans. They will straight up murder you. I remember one time, on the shores of the lake, a swan had made it's nest right next to the bike path. And if you wanted to walk along that bike path you had to get by the swan which stood right in the centre, wings flared and hissing like it was trying to spit acid at me. It seemed an unwise location to build one's nest, all told, but the swan didn't seem particularly bothered by the idea of having to attack every single human being who wanted to use that path for the next few months.

And this is thing was coming for me, a twenty one year old dude, with a glint in it's eyes that said 'I've killed better men than you'. It brought back earlier memories of a time when I was feeding black swans with bread, and they decided to bite my hands, get me to drop the bread, and then feed themselves.

Eh, these we have here (big variant of white swan) are lazy beggars who mob people for food, usually. But then again, throwing them bread become sort of pasttime and some of them don't even bother to travel south anymore, staying in winter despite them being serious, relying on feeding to carry them through worst spots.

Whoops, I think I might have sounded a bit too harsh in describing the Silmarillion. For the record, I did enjoy reading it, but it is a substantially more difficult read than the LOTR trilogy. I think I'll need to reread it just to remember the details because so much happens in it.

My only problem with it is how it absolutely established Elven superiority. Of course, that whole "Anything humans can do, Elves can do better" is the very reason why Elves are my least favorite fantasy race now. (Heck, in 3.5, that isn't even usually true mechanically, but that doesn't stop the fluff from acting like it is. )

Um... bit of a rant there. So... Dwarves. They are awesome. Gandalf agrees with me too; notice how he brought 13 dwarves with him, but not a single Elf.

Also, The Hobbit is my favorite Tolkien work.

Eh, I meant that there are bits of Silmarillion that are above LotR's average. There are very dry ones, too, granted. I just sort of skipped them :(

And yes, Hobbit is the nicest, IMHO. Fun fact - it had initially nothing to do with LotR, Tolkied edited it to tie both stories

I think I do prefer to work with vectors over working with pencils and paper. I do have two questions though. I already have Inkscape, but are there any other programs that are better that I should know about? And, are there any good tutorials floating around for those programs?

Corel Draw is very good, though, its Adobe counterpart will probably have interface closer to Flash. I wouldn't learn anything on open source programs, though, except in a pinch.

... okay I lied. I have to get in on the "where does Dash's hair color come from" conversation. After this, seriously, gone.

I think that Dash makes more sense when you consider that at the very least there is one other pony in the world who has multicolored hair naturally: Twilight Sparkle. No wait; there's also Bon Bon. And doesn't Lyra have a color stripe?

...There's really obvious example you missed there :E

Though, maybe Rainbow hair is a highly recessive trait, like real life violet eyes (... Dash gets violet eyes AND rainbow colored hair? She is just a mass of recessive traits!).

So, wait, Rainbow Dash is...

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Liquid Snake?!

Though I'm now imagining a burly, tough minded pegasus father (think Boxie Brown) with a rainbow colored crew cut. Maybe rainbows just run in the family.

...you know, it would be sort of ironic if Rainbow- (or at least Bi-) colored hair actually marked straight ponies

(On an unrelated tangent, at least her name makes sense now. How, in Gen 3, somepony who was basically Rarity got the name "Dash," I'll never understand.)

...Isn't 'Dash' also 'To add an enlivening or altering element' which old one did rather well?

Well, there is one other with rainbow hair... she just happens to be a princess. Maybe she had a little fun with a pegasus once, and left the child on somepony's doorsteps because the truth couldn't be known.

Actually, there's another pony with rainbow hair, supposedly an OC of one of the animators:

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Mmm, Celestia must be really bored these days

[Kindablue]

Actually, there's another pony with rainbow hair, supposedly an OC of one of the animators:

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Mmm, Celestia must be really bored these days

Epileptic tree: she's got primae noctis rights on all the young stallions.


Little Octavia

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Ah, Look at all the lonely ponies
Ah, Look at all the lonely ponies

Little Octavia
Playing her bass as she stands
In the lights of the stage
Turning the page
Looks at the night sky
Asking the stars as she thinks
"Could I ever want more?
What's it all for?"

All the lonely ponies, where do they all come from.
All the lonely ponies, where do they all belong

Little Octavia
Writing the notes of a song
That only one will hear
No one comes near
Look at her working
Plucking her strings in the night
When there's nopony there
Wearing her stare

All the lonely ponies, where do they all come from.
All the lonely ponies, where do they all belong

Ah, Look at all the lonely ponies
Ah, Look at all the lonely ponies

Little Octavia
Stands 'fore the house of the pony
She might once have loved
Maybe still does
Little Octavia
Trots from the place as she
Leaves a small gift at the door
Who is it for?

All the lonely ponies, where do they all come from.
All the lonely ponies, where do they all belong

I'm glad they omitted the "knotting his socks in the night when there's nobody there" line.

[Kyouhen]

I got a shotgun!

In all seriousness, I lurk now because intellectual topics are not my forte.

That said, I absolutely loved LotR... but I couldn't bring myself to finish the Silmarillion. Something about the dry prose absolutely turned me off.

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Your move.

... okay I lied. I have to get in on the "where does Dash's hair color come from" conversation. After this, seriously, gone.

I think that Dash makes more sense when you consider that at the very least there is one other pony in the world who has multicolored hair naturally: Twilight Sparkle. No wait; there's also Bon Bon. And doesn't Lyra have a color stripe?

Though, maybe Rainbow hair is a highly recessive trait, like real life violet eyes (... Dash gets violet eyes AND rainbow colored hair? She is just a mass of recessive traits!).

Though I'm now imagining a burly, tough minded pegasus father (think Boxie Brown) with a rainbow colored crew cut. Maybe rainbows just run in the family.

(On an unrelated tangent, at least her name makes sense now. How, in Gen 3, somepony who was basically Rarity got the name "Dash," I'll never understand.)

See, my main question has to do with the fact that all the other ponies with multiple hair colours still only get half as many as Dash, and even then their hair generally ends up being colours that compliment each other. Dash's hair is everywhere! Not that I'm complaining, I'm mostly just trying to figure out if she's an anomaly or if there actually is a family of Dashes running around somewhere.

Well, there is one other with rainbow hair... she just happens to be a princess. Maybe she had a little fun with a pegasus once, and left the child on somepony's doorsteps because the truth couldn't be known.

I'm joining the general belief that Celestia's hair turned rainbowy because she's really old. That and she still doesn't hit the raw number of colours that Dash has, and her colours still compliment each other.

Actually, there's another pony with rainbow hair, supposedly an OC of one of the animators:

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Mmm, Celestia must be really bored these days

Bwah? Never noticed that pony before...

[Deadly]

Actually, there's another pony with rainbow hair, supposedly an OC of one of the animators:

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Mmm, Celestia must be really bored these days

Huh...

Those colors don't seem to work very well together.

I'm joining the general belief that Celestia's hair turned rainbowy because she's really old. That and she still doesn't hit the raw number of colours that Dash has, and her colours still compliment each other.

Maybe Dash's father contributed the rest.

[Grif]

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Your move.

I raise you the Muffinator.

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[Kyouhen]

I raise you the Muffinator.

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Party time.

[Gamerlord]

I always thought Dash's hair was an anomaly. Perhaps a Unicorn Mage did it messed up a spell near her vicinity? That or one heck of a recessive trait.

[Trixie]

Bwah? Never noticed that pony before...

It's because she appears for all of 3 seconds in the whole season, specifically running away from Parasprites? Anypony willing to look for the time where in episode exactly?

IIRC, animator said he was bored, he worked alone at night and decided to smuggle quick OC into the frame hoping no one will notice.

[Titanium Fox]

Y'know Thanqol, there's "missing somepony" and then there's "creepy stalker behaviour". Some ponies might say you've crossed that line... other ponies might say you haven't gone far enough.

Let's consult a random sample of one pony and see what they think:

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*facehoof*

Yeah, that's what I thought...

HOLY MASSIVE LYRA BATMAN. @_@
Well, now my desktop background is a /very/ insane Lyra grinning at me... I'm hastening my fall into ponysanity. Not that I'm not already there already.

May your path be straight and your winds fair until we meet again; God keep you and Celestia preserve you, and Luna guard your sleep.

I am totally stealing this next time I need to say goodbye to a fellow brony.

Bye Bobcat. Have fun in Honduras.

*resumes lurk mode*

HE'S LURKING! GET HIM!

... okay I lied. I have to get in on the "where does Dash's hair color come from" conversation. After this, seriously, gone.

I think that Dash makes more sense when you consider that at the very least there is one other pony in the world who has multicolored hair naturally: Twilight Sparkle. No wait; there's also Bon Bon. And doesn't Lyra have a color stripe?

Though, maybe Rainbow hair is a highly recessive trait, like real life violet eyes (... Dash gets violet eyes AND rainbow colored hair? She is just a mass of recessive traits!).

Though I'm now imagining a burly, tough minded pegasus father (think Boxie Brown) with a rainbow colored crew cut. Maybe rainbows just run in the family.

(On an unrelated tangent, at least her name makes sense now. How, in Gen 3, somepony who was basically Rarity got the name "Dash," I'll never understand.)

Recessive trait could explain it. Either that or... *GASP*
GUYS. RAINBOW DASH IS THE TRUE MARY SUE IN MY LITTLE PONY.

I raise you the Muffinator.

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...Who let Derpy get her hands on it first? Whoever you are, I hope you die first.

*Puts on pinkie umbrella hat*

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Party time.

...NOTHING WILL SAVE US NOW!

Who wants a taste of my delicious cupywupycake tank?!

[Trixie]

...NOTHING WILL SAVE US NOW!

Who wants a taste of my delicious cupywupycake tank?!

Do you know what this calls for?!

Tankdump! ...ok, this totally sounded better not said out loud :P

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Rarity, your dress does make Rainbow Dash look like a tank after all

Also, there's very nice image of Pinkie in a tank, by Ottanta, but it's rather grimdark (shows Rarity as a zombie, for example) so I can't link it.

[Titanium Fox]

Do you know what this calls for?!

Tankdump! ...ok, this totally sounded better not said out loud :P

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CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS TANK CAPTAINS GO!

[Grif]

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Party time.

Clearly you have not heard of the Twilight Legion.

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Fear my Power Fist!

[Capt. Ido Nos]

A challenger appears!

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[EsperDerek]

So in honor of bobcat scootalooing off to a different country for a few weeks, I thought I'd share a story of mine, about one of my own trips to a different part of the world.

It's a story of how I could have died from my own stupidity, so you know it's going to be a good one!

I nearly died in a hotel room, all alone, halfway across the world.

And worse, it was all my fault. There's no one to blame for it except myself.

Alright, technically it was a hostel room, halfway up a high rise, in the middle of Taipei. But I was all alone. How I got to the hostel room in the first place is a story in itself-let's just say that it was a misadventure with a job offer that found me there, in Taiwan, trying to get home and ending up waiting for a just under a month for a plane home. However, I decided to make the best of it, and thus, I took in the sights and sounds of Taiwan...you know, such as they are. I still say Taipei 101 is one of the butt-ugliest buildings I have ever seen. Anyways, one day, I decided to go to a water park that I had heard about from another hostel roommate who had left a few days before. I figured it would be a good choice, because it was summer in Taiwan, and being a marine tropical environment, this means hot and humid.

Took me a subway and two buses to get to the water park. Arriving at the gates, I looked in my bag, and realized two things:

a) I had forgotten sunscreen.
b) I didn't bring a spare T-Shirt with me to wear.

The damn thing was, I was pretty dutiful before then for being prepared for the sun. THIS time, however, unwilling to ride all the way back and then forth, I said screw it and decided to go without. After all, it was just one day, and I figured I could get away with a minor sunburn.

I feel the need to point that I'm both white, and live in Canada. The second part is important, because while Canada does get pretty hot in the summers sometimes, I completely misjudged how 'hot' hot could be. And humid. So here I am, in a tropical environment, with a body used to temperate climate. Not only that, it was one of the few sunny days that Taiwan gets, so it was even hotter, and I'm completely unprotected. I probably wasn't in the best of health anyways, due to some of the problems that had already happened.

Well, after a few hours-probably around 3-4 PM that day-I was starting to get tired, and I was feeling the sunburn, so I decided to take the ride home, earlier than I thought. Along the way, I was starting to feel worse and worse, a headache and a slight drunken feeling, as well as just altogether feeling absolutely terrible. As bad as I've ever felt. I stopped to stuff some dinner into my belly, as well as having the prescience to drink, I suppose. However, I was starting to feel worse and worse, my mind swimming, as I made my way to the hostel room. I pretty much collapsed when I got there, basically having to crawl to my bed. Dizziness, weakness, and the same sort of feeling you get when you have a fever. I always find it weird how, when you have a fever, sometimes you can feel bloody hot, then bloody cold sometimes.

It only got worse as time went on. Soon my drunkenness turned into something worse. Pretty much full-blown confusion, paranoia, and hallucinations. This was compounded by the hostel-mates I was living with, a pair of South Africans who had been traveling the world, came in. Because of whatever they were talking about (something about meeting someone and a job, as well as leaving the country, if I recall), I became convinced that they were drug traffickers and that they were going to kill me to keep me quiet. I shivered quietly in my bunk, terrified and terribly sick. I can't remember how long they stayed, but one of them asked me something, and I just pretended I was asleep, because I was so afraid that I was going to die if I revealed I was awake. Eventually they left, and, falling in and out of consciousness, only getting up to either throw up or suffer diarrhea, I suffered most of the night, until finally falling into a fitful sleep.

The next day, I woke up, still terribly sick, but the worse was over. That's when I realized what I had suffered, and was suffering from. Heat stroke, which, hey, can kill through cardiac arrest or cause brain damage. I can only offer the fact that I made sure to keep drinking, and the fact that the hostel room was air conditioned, with both kept me cool, and dehumidified the air, allowing my bodies natural perspiration to work. I should have gone to a hospital. I should have called someone. But by the time the worse was happening, all those thoughts evaporated in my head. Needless to say, for the next few days...well, really, for a long time, I was screwed up. The sunburn I got, by the way, was so terrible that if I ever get skin cancer, I'll know why. When it started to peel, whooboy. When I finally got home, my mother, who I got to pick me up, told me later that she nearly started to cry when she saw how terrible I looked.

As a side note, I never saw those guys, who I was so sure were drug traffickers, again after that night. On the last night before I was going to leave, at midnight (I was leaving at six AM), I was called down to the hostel manager, who asked me a couple of things. First, did I have anything to do with those guys-turns out they had skipped out on their bill. I got the distinct impression he was going to try to get some money from me by threatening me with eviction, so I made sure to say that I was leaving in that morning, and saw him visibly deflate when he realized he wasn't going to get anything from me. The second thing? He had heard that the room was dirty, and wanted to know if it was? I claimed that it could do with a bit of vacuuming, but nothing serious. This was a great big damn lie. I had shed so much skin that the entire room was covered in it. It was truly disgusting, and I still feel bad, occasionally, about it, as well as lying about it, but at that time, at that place, I was so screwed up that I just didn't want to deal with it.

So, yeah, that's how I could have died alone, halfway across the world. I'm honestly not sure how close I was to death or permanent damage, but I am certain that I should have been hospitalized. It was, and still is, the sickest I have ever, ever been.

So, you know, even I'm capable of incredibly stupid things.

That's why it always makes me laugh when ponies question how Twilight can do silly things.

[Beacon of Chaos]

In Australia, we have Black Swans. They will straight up murder you.

Murderous creatures? In Australia? Surely not!

OHOHOHOHOH!
Has anypony thought of Trixie cereal yet?
"Trix are for the GREAT AND POWERFUL!"

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Do you know what this calls for?!

Tankdump! ...ok, this totally sounded better not said out loud :P

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Applebloom... What are you doing? This is war not a photoshoot! And Sweetie... how are you even balancing on that?

[Titanium Fox]

-Story of doom-

And that's how Equestria was made! Next time I'll tell you the story of how Midnight almost died in a Hostel in Taipei!

(Also god damn Esper. I'm glad you're okay after all of that. And now I want to hear the story of how you ended up at the Hostel in the first place. )

[Beacon of Chaos]

-snip-

Holy cow! That's pretty bad. Glad to know you pulled through, and are hopefully a little wiser for it ;)

We all do silly things from time to time. Sometimes you just have days where you grab the idiot ball and refuse to let go.

Unrelated: Your avatar is so disorienting, as that's my Facebook profile picture.

*draws sword* THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!

Seriously though, I have been thinking about getting a new avatar; one I've drawn myself. I just need to decide on a ponysona first. I think I'm up to five now XD.

[EsperDerek]

And that's how Equestria was made! Next time I'll tell you the story of how Midnight almost died in a Hostel in Taipei!

(Also god damn Esper. I'm glad you're okay after all of that. And now I want to hear the story of how you ended up at the Hostel in the first place. )

Sorry, I only tell "Esper is an idiot" stories every once in awhile, so that one is going to have to wait until another day.

[Thanqol]

So in honor of bobcat scootalooing off to a different country for a few weeks, I thought I'd share a story of mine, about one of my own trips to a different part of the world.

Oh wow. Damn, son.

I think I've worn sunscreen 3-5 times in my life, even though I'm fairly pale myself. I've been burned maybe once or twice. I'm inclined to suggest that the evidence points towards me being non-inflammable (inflammable means flammable? What a country!) but I know better than to dare fate like that.

If we're swapping travel stories, I don't have anything quite as... borderline lethal. I mean, there was the time when I arrived home at the apartment I was renting in New York and found out that the landlord had taken my deposit and moved to California. That was a fun afternoon.

[Gamerlord]

-snip-

Wow,uh,just....wow.
Good thing you're okay after that.

[Kairaven]

~Snip~

I am sure we are all glad you made it so you can now write cute pony stories. Personally, even though I have traveled to a lot of places in the world, all my near-death stories seem to involve vehicals.
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By the way, as a member of the "Knight Crusade of the Celestia Sun" it is my sacred duty to combat the corrupting influence of the various cult. There is only the light! Despite the name "Knight Crusade", the members really only play pranks and frollic in the sunlight.
Hail to the Sun Princess, her high piest/pet Philomena, and her prophet the Sparkle of Twilight!

[EsperDerek]

I also got food poisoning twice on that trip, and had an allergic reaction and respiratory problems to the heavy amounts of air pollution that plague Taiwan.

Also nearly got run over on a couple of points by cars.

So, in other words, I don't advise doing what I did. I'm sure bobcat is smarter than I was.

[tonberrian]

Man, the only travel story I have was being overseas during 9/11.

[Grif]

-snip-

On the bright side, skin cancer is usually due to long term exposure, rather than a one intense shot of UV radiation like that. So yeah, you can cross that worry off your mind if you don't go out often.

I have no travel stories of note to share, save for that one time I misplaced my wallet in Vienna. Turns out it somehow slipped into a garbage bin... which my father found. So it had a happy ending.

[WJMill]

I can't for the life of me figure out who spawned Rainbow Dash. Seriously. She's the only pony with a mane anywhere near that colourful. All the other ponies are lucky to get 2 colours, with a choice few getting 3. Dash is outright cheating. Does she actually have siblings? Do they share the obscene numbers of colours that she has? Who were her parents? I think I just figured out what I want to see in Season 2: An explanation of any kind for Dash's insane hair.

She's obviously a descendant of one of the G1 Rainbow ponies. They also appeared in the MLP movie that was never made. (Seriously, this commercial was at the end of the Rescue at Midnight Castle VHS and it NEVER HAPPENED. I remember waiting for it as a kid. :()

EDIT: Actually, there was quite a few G1 ponies that had more than two colors in their hair. Most of the Twinkle Eye ponies did. A lot of the unicorns just had a stripe, but there were whole sets of ponies with multicolored hair aside from the Rainbow sets.

[EsperDerek]

If we're swapping travel stories, I don't have anything quite as... borderline lethal. I mean, there was the time when I arrived home at the apartment I was renting in New York and found out that the landlord had taken my deposit and moved to California. That was a fun afternoon.

Ugh. That might not be borderline lethal, but that can completely screw everything up. That bites.

I am sure we are all glad you made it so you can now write cute pony stories. Personally, even though I have traveled to a lot of places in the world, all my near-death stories seem to involve vehicals.
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By the way, as a member of the "Knight Crusade of the Celestia Sun" it is my sacred duty to combat the corrupting influence of the various cult. There is only the light! Despite the name "Knight Crusade", the members really only play pranks and frollic in the sunlight.
Hail to the Sun Princess, her high piest/pet Philomena, and her prophet the Sparkle of Twilight!

Maybe that's why I *can* write cute pony stories, I really did get brain damage that fried my circuitry to "cute". Maybe that's why I've got Midnight.

On the bright side, skin cancer is usually due to long term exposure, rather than a one intense shot of UV radiation like that. So yeah, you can cross that worry off your mind if you don't go out often.

I have no travel stories of note to share, save for that one time I misplaced my wallet in Vienna. Turns out it somehow slipped into a garbage bin... which my father found. So it had a happy ending.

Well, yeah, I knew that, actually, I was more cracking a joke than anything. A morbid joke, admittedly!

And wow, that's completely lucky.

Man, the only travel story I have was being overseas during 9/11.

One last final fact about my trip-from-hell: The day before my trip home? The London Bombings happened. You can imagine how hard customs was after that.

[Thanqol]

I also got food poisoning twice on that trip, and had an allergic reaction and respiratory problems to the heavy amounts of air pollution that plague Taiwan.

Also nearly got run over on a couple of points by cars.

So, in other words, I don't advise doing what I did. I'm sure bobcat is smarter than I was.

Note to self: Do not visit Taiwan / try to cross the street alongside Esper.

Oh yes! I do have a story of the time when, midwinter England, I decided HOTELS ARE EXPENSIVE, I'M JUST GOING TO BUY A $30 TENT INSTEAD, IT'LL BE GREAT.

On a lighter note, gigantic sky-spanning rainbow outta nowhere the exact instant Rainbow Dash's segment of At The Gala came on today. Being outside occasionally pays off.

[Capt. Ido Nos]

Oh yes! I do have a story of the time when, midwinter England, I decided HOTELS ARE EXPENSIVE, I'M JUST GOING TO BUY A $30 TENT INSTEAD, IT'LL BE GREAT.

Protip: Just setting up a tent on the side of the road MIGHT BE ILLEGAL in some places. Not that I'd know anything about that, nope. Not at all. NOPE.

[Thanqol]

Protip: Just setting up a tent on the side of the road MIGHT BE ILLEGAL in some places. Not that I'd know anything about that, nope. Not at all. NOPE.

So great, you guys. So great.