My Little Pony XXII: Surprise!

[Kurgan]

I dunno why, But I want Rainbow Dash to say something which Charlie Sheen has said.

I have tiger's blood yo!

Anyway, I went for my first day of Sixth Form College today. Murphy's law was in full effect. I don't think It could of gone worse.

That is no good. On the plus side, things will most likely get better. Good luck with the rest of it!

Sorry, did not see your post earlier. Good luck!

Good luck!

Thanks!

Good luck!
Though now I can't help but wonder if there is a limited amount of luck we're capable of wishing to people each day. By giving you some luck did I just reduce the amount of luck Esper has?

Thanks.

I see it as Pony Thread has a limited Luck Pool (LP), and when each poster wishes someone luck, it is drained by X LP points. If the Luck Pool drops to 0, no luck is transferred, otherwise it will work like a charm. The LP is fueled by us burning through pages, so the faster we post, the more LP we regain. The maximum LP level is determined by the number of active posters on the thread.

Something like:

LP = Active Posters (AP) * Arbitrary Number (AN)
LP Rejuvenation = Number of Posts (NP) / Time (T)


Also, first day went well thanks! Now just....15-20 weeks to go!

[MBI]

That is no good. On the plus side, things will most likely get better. Good luck with the rest of it!

The main problem was the fact that my school year doesn't actually start until tomorrow.
Somehow, I read wed 7th as tues 6th. Repeatedly.

[MCerberus]

The main problem was the fact that my school year doesn't actually start until tomorrow.
Somehow, I read wed 7th as tues 6th. Repeatedly.

I'm still waiting for next week for the last quarter of my associate's to start. It's driving me...

Well I'm already ponysane.
Muffins?

[Kurgan]

The main problem was the fact that my school year doesn't actually start until tomorrow.
Somehow, I read wed 7th as tues 6th. Repeatedly.

Oh god, I've done that. Twice. One year I showed up for class after Easter/Passover break, only to find out I was a day early. Another year I was taking a summer class, and showed up a day before classes started.


EDIT:

I'm still waiting for next week for the last quarter of my associate's to start. It's driving me...

Well I'm already ponysane.
Muffins?

Well, at least you aren't being driven cupcakes.

[Gadora]

Has anyone heard when on the seventeenth the new episode is supposed to air? I'm really hoping that Frontier's built in TV guide search thing is wrong, because I just flat out dislike the idea of getting up at six in order to watch ponies.

[MCerberus]

Well, at least you aren't being driven cupcakes.

They're made with a special ingredient.


Cinnamon.

[Capt. Ido Nos]

*From within a massive pile of bb code, imagedumps, half-constructed airships, and innumerable cowboy hats, Capt. Ido finally breaks free into the sunlight*

*actually it's raining, he realizes*

Holy APPLES that took a while to work through! I chose a heck of a weekend to not pay attention to the internet! And of course it would coincide with SiuiS and Braz coming back with their amazing Megaposts

Phew! So, fifteen pages and several hours later, let's get down to business! To DEFEAT. THE HUNS.

You forgot their blatant refusal to take our money, instead developing strange abominations for the sole purpose of making us boggle at their inability to have one of the toy makers actually look at scenes from the show to model off of.

Hasbro exec: How is our toy coming along?
R&D: shapeless, off color and poorly distributed, sir.
Hasbro exec: and our shirt deals?
Distributor: still not off the drawing board, sir.
Hasbro exec: good, good...

All according to plan.

I'll put my hat in with the rest of them saying that I would pay SO MUCH money if I could have a real-to-show RD to call my own. And when I build my Pantheon of Cartoons, MLP:FiM's spot is reserved among the greats. Right now I'll have to console myself with mini-dash that I keep in my desk.

Oh goodness I thought I was the only one!
I'm still adapting to this whole "I am wholely able to find stuff on my own" thing. Most of my youth was spent being actively discouraged from looking into things. It's ingrained enough now that I sometimes don't even notice the behavior.

Though I'm sure you're far more proficient at google than I. Didn't mean to infer you possessed similar levels of brainwash XD

I'm still having trouble figuring out if I've legitimately found something first, or if it's been posted like ten pages ago. This place moves soooo darn fast.

Ahhh, the good old days, when an intravenous coffee drip was optional and not necessary for my continued existence ;D

That's some nice Mgguiver-ing though, Cap'n. Good work!

Good old days indeed! Caffeine is one of the very real things that very really got me through my last year and a half of my computer science degree. Liters of Dr. Pepper, cases of Foosh, gallons of coffee... I didn't even DRINK coffee until my senior year! It was actually a barganing chip when I approached a professor about a possible overload of coursework: "Hey uh, I've had more cups of coffee in the last day than I've had hours of sleep, and I don't drink coffee. Since then, I straddle the line of need-versus-want, so I try and run caffeine detoxes every other month or so. It's hard, but worth it!

No, it makes sense. I myself seem almost unable to actively read fanfiction. It takes actual physical effort to start; even opening the page and staring at it wont help sometimes.

And I love reading the stuff! I do. It's just... So hard to get going, sometimes.

As much as I love alternative interpretations or logical and consistent extensions of characters, I just CANNOT get myself to read fanfiction. It's just... it's a wall I can't get over. I think "hm, maybe I'll reaNOPE". Dunno why. Drives my near and dear brony brother up the wall sometimes, I think haha.

Fabulous. Took me a spell to find the second reference; I was looking too hard. Good comic.
For the D&D stuff, it's all in how you want to handle things. But games tend to be more fun when the experience flows, and the party is in constant fear of it's life, limb, and in danger of spilling a couple drops.

Glad you liked it! It was a ton of fun to draw, and also hide those away haha. It's how I work my bronihood out in the public sphere: blatent to those who know, indecipherable gibberish to everyone else

note:literally as I was typing the next paragraph, a friend im'd me to ask me about the meaning of the /)^3^(\ thing I'd been using on twitter. Here is the transcript:

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Friend: question for you
me: yes?
Friend: what does this emoticon represent: /)^3^(\
i have seen you use it a few times
me: haha
it's like a * glee * face
you have the ^_^ eyes
Friend: right
and the 3 mouth?
me: and the /) (\ are hands to the head
it's just a silly mouth
Friend: ooh
ok
me: almost like you're smooshing your face in
Friend: i get it
yeah
me: "so awesome"
Friend: did you make it up, or is that one you found?
me: it's one that i've found :P
Friend: mk
: )
i wondered about it the last time you used it a ways back
forgot about it
then saw you use it today, whcih reminded me
me: okay ^^
glad to help!

Oh, we had a blast in D&D, no doubt. Once we found out that we were in no obvious danger of permadeath due to our Groundhog Day loop time things, the one thing that we did spend a lot of time and energy worrying about was losing all our loot, which we specifically couldn't keep due to our Groundhog Day loop that was keeping us alive

I dunno. The difference between predestination and predictable outcomes is fundamentally one of choice. You can't prove there is choice, but you can't prove there isn't choice either.

Only thing there that gets me is "if there is no truth". Truth is a label used to apply to something Which exists despite human perception, not because of it.

Okay, I didn't intend to quote this, but I saw it as I was picking through the Megaquote, and now I'm going to have to go back and find this discussion, because it looks *really* interesting =0

Oh yeah, chainsaw guns and ponies. September is going to rock.

Seriously, this is shaping up to be a fantastic September! I'm looking at MLP season 2, mythbusters season 10, Minecraft Adventure update, my 8 month work project launches TOMORROW, and several other items of note. Also TF2's been giving me good drops!

Are y'all alright? That's some pretty serious potential disaster real estate you're sittin' on, there.

Also, poor Washington monument.

I'm fine! We're all fine! The nuclear powerplants down at Lake Anna were less than 10 miles away from the epicenter, but they had little to no damage. They did a lockdown immediately and as far as we know, nothing bad happened. Incidentally, Lake Anna is an awesome place. They pump the lakewater for the reactor coolant from one end of the lake, and pump it back into the lake on the other end. You literally have warm and cold ends to the lake.

The Washington Monument isn't leaning so bad, but it looks like it's closed indefinitely until they can get it all fixed up. It's a shame, they spent so much time and money on the restoration project maybe a decade ago...

Maccy gonna die the way he lived.
*moves straw from left side of mouth to right side*
Eeeyup.

Brilliant

What have you been watching?

HD videos on YouTube! I'm not a complete animal My HD channels are just random and huge numbers, so I never really bother to scroll down that far. Besides, I have like 250-260 as all the regular good ones (including Disney XD, Nicktoons, Boomerang, and now the Hub) clustered together for my viewing pleasure. But! Now I know, and have seen the proper glory of an HD live MLP broadcast. There was even a Derpy in it!

I'll let you in on a rather frightening secret.
Pony David Bowie is NOT a Pegasus.

Definitely the Gala Dress, though I encourage the writing of more stories to make the other two pictures 'useful'.

I'm pretty late to this, but I like the Gala Dress picture too! It works best for the subject, I think.

83. Remember! One mask. Many ponies.
Wait, does this make Metal Mask the pony Phantom?

I can't help but notice that anytime anyone responds to this, the number only increases...

Also, apparently there's a brony list that exists but I can't seem to find it, even in OP. I can always just be straight up blind, this is a possibility that exists.

Oh
Oh man
Oh man, yes
I have a reason to not dislike warforged. I will play a warforged Druid, and I will turn into Thomas the tank engine. And other related monstrosities.
Would you say a steam engine would be more like an elephant, or a rhino? Stats-wise.

Ever since I heard about the wraforged, there is nothing more that I want in this world than to play one of those lovlies. Shapeshifting into Thomas the Tank Engine would be the cherry on top of that delicious rp sundae

- Place your bets Round 2 -

I'm officially putting my 2 bits in for you slipping up on a +/- 24 hour timeframe around whatever thing it was that you needed all of those pony macros. I feel like whatever happens, you're going to have severe pony on the brain immediately before, during, and after that event.

*note: at this point, Ido discovered the third SiuiS post that he specifically wanted to quote, and started softly weeping to himself*

Owloysious. Except the 'ious' looks off. And I can't remember how the real name goes, except for it starting like Aloysious.

I don't have an exact source for this, but I swear I saw a post or screenshot somewhere where someone had asked Lauren Faust if it was Aloysius or Owlysius, to which the answer boiled down to "Well it's Aloysius, but now I totally wish I had thought of Owlysius at the time because that's totally what I would used instead."

So I feel justified in using Owlysius

Try harder, mate. It's under MSPaint Adventures. You probably saw valid links that sounded entirely off-base.
Or at least, that's what I surmise from my own googling of the term. Kismesis is an awesome relationship, but also horrible.

I feel like no matter what, MSPA is always a good thing to have read! And the 4 quadrants make everything more compartmentalizable, once you explain it to points of interest!

I found it quite educational; there is an entire wiki page which exists solely for the purpose of using big made-up words to explain my social interaction scales to people who aren't me.

It's actually kind of... Creepy.
Am I somehow a troll?

Ever since my first exposure to the H*R Wiki, I have been nothing short of impressed at the level of Serious Business that I now expect from fan wikis. It is funny though, to be thinking over troll relationships, and then have that moment where I remember they don't apply to me because i'm not a troll.

Hm. Going by name only, we call that "The Chart". Alternately, we call that "Lix Lorn"

I like to imagine, as opposed to a regular old chart, that a true and proper Shipping Wall will contain the full combinatorial exploration of all possible shipping combinations, with speculation and commentary covering most of these entries. Nepta's wall had all twelve trolls shipped between each other across all four quadrants, and actively updated it with current relationship statuses and current possibilities.

Incidentally, an acquaintance of mine found himself on a shipping wall, paired with Twitter. I don't remember if they were moirails or not.

So, how relaxed is the pony sever? I am... REALLY bad at TF2.

Seriously, if 90% of my equipment wasn't Vintage, and you'd think I didn't pick it up till it was f2p.

I'm the worst at actually checking in on people when they're actually on the Pony Servers (though Trixie is quite the dear at reminding me =p) but I'll try and hop in and give you a hand if you need it! I can say (finally) that I'm not bad at TF2, and I certainly have a lot of head knowledge even if I don't actually use it, so I wouldn't mind giving a few helping hands. Also, I'll try to not backstab you too much because...

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Unless your steam name is Xutran, I need to challenge you to a spy fight.

(TF2: I'm a sublime spy, excellent heavy and medic, passable pyro and fairly terrible at the others).

I think I already have my work...



cut out for me.

A curious game. The only way to win is not to OH GOD THEY'RE SAPPING ME.

I lol'd

You'd think so, I'm stumped how every time we cut it off, it just grows right back up.

Look I'm not going to lie, I set to quote this and I have completely forgotten why. Now it's an hour later and I've lost all context. Quite frankly this scares me ^^;;

That's pretty dang creepy. I will now counter creepy Pinkamina images with sad ones.

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See, she's not gonna cupcakes anypony. She just needs a hug.

This... actually isn't a bad idea! I can't really stand grimdark cupcakes Pinkamena, it's just not her! Now I have a way to fight back

Just thought that for people who don't look at the Brony List I'd give an update. Assuming I've been recording everything properly and no repeats (I think bobcat had a duplicate at one point) we are up to 87(including me) bronies only 13 away from being a whole .2% of the playground.

On a related note with how often people share steam names, for TF2 and the like, the offer still stands to add those to the list.

Yeah I mentioned this earlier but I'll ask proper this time: hey, where is that list?

I also wouldn't be opposed to a steamname list. I do change my name a fair bit, though. (I'll look into that Pony Revolution group too, Trixie!)

I've had to be on the DL concerning pony servers lately. Almost nobody knows about my Pony obsession, and I try to keep it that way. Since a lot of my college friends have a tendancy to just follow me into a server if I'm the only one online, I have to keep my time in pony servers... well I have to keep an eye on how often they find me in there. You can get into random servers all you want on the pubcrawl, but you can only be found in the same circles so many times before conclusions are drawn...

See? That's exactly the kind of stuff I'm talking about!

I absolutely agree You two are amazing.

Ponies had an argument with 4chan, the home of trolls, and won. Love and tolerance, yo.

And this is why ponies.

I decided to switch my avatar up. I don't really have a reason to post otherwise, but I like my Egbert Pony.

Love it! Did you draw it yourself, because it looks great :D

Early bedtime for me, tomorrow is the start of my internship, and I have to be up relatively early. (Though not 4 AM, that's the day after tomorrow, and two days afterwards!) Wish me luck, everypony!

Good luck Esper! Internships can be crazy crazy beasts, but tons of good experience. Here's hoping they give you interesting work!

We made out intern build a bridge the sales pit ordered from skymall

Pluto is the name of the God of the Underworld and Wealth. By reclassifying it as not a planet, both the powers of the Dead and of Money are being weakened. Que financial crisis and drastic decrease in the number of ghosts. The entire thing was set up by communist exorcists.

This disturbingly makes sense... I'm going to have to pencil in "vengeful planet gods" into my worldview now. Huh...

So, it appears I'm no longer safe even in my drams. When I awoke from my meditation this morning, I left a dreamscape littered with GDI Mobile Sensor Arrays and Nod Artillery, (futiley) placed as anti-Lix defenses...

Hurr hurr, drams.

You could always name the Equalizer "Big Mac's Fancy Mathmatics".

Here's what you do. Regardless of which weapons you pick exactly, you go to your pyro loadout:

Primary Flamethrower: "Okey"

Secondary Weapon: "Dokey"

Melee: "Loki"

I believe the proper answer to this is "hiding from you and Lix".

I love you guys so much, have I said that yet?

There will be ponies. So many ponies.

Hmmm, I'm not convinced.

Board Filter: SUCK IT, CLASSICAL LITERATURE!

I'd pay to watch a fight between the metaphysical representations of the board filter and classical literature fight in a cagematch

********

BAM! Slow work day is slow. Three and a half hours later, I am caught the hay UP!

...

Except of course for everyone that has posted since then, and the odd other thing I wanted to say outside of a quote reply but that comes later

Hugs and love, ponythread! Stay awesome

[Strife Warzeal]

The list can be found at the bottom of the opening post or in the first line of my signature.

It is hard to find a picture of something that may or may not exist. I honestly figured that at least a few people would draw GaP Trixie's fireworks pose. I may just have to end piecing together a few things.

[Kindablue]

It is hard to find a picture of something that may or may not exist. I honestly figured that at least a few people would draw GaP Trixie's fireworks pose. I may just have to end piecing together a few things.

You mean this?

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[Capt. Ido Nos]

The list can be found at the bottom of the opening post or in the first line of my signature.

Ah, so the answer IS that I'm blind.

[Strife Warzeal]

You mean this?

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I've decided to just piece together something with a picture I found similar to that but I was hoping there was... actually I'm not really sure what I was hoping for.

And yes Capt. the answer is that you are blind. It is understandable though, not everyone looks at signatures, and honestly how many people that are frequent posters check the opening post.

[Kyouhen]

I also wouldn't be opposed to a steamname list. I do change my name a fair bit, though. (I'll look into that Pony Revolution group too, Trixie!)

I've had to be on the DL concerning pony servers lately. Almost nobody knows about my Pony obsession, and I try to keep it that way. Since a lot of my college friends have a tendancy to just follow me into a server if I'm the only one online, I have to keep my time in pony servers... well I have to keep an eye on how often they find me in there. You can get into random servers all you want on the pubcrawl, but you can only be found in the same circles so many times before conclusions are drawn...

Have you tried one of the Chocolate Hammer servers? You can find them in the Steam thread. They aren't pony servers, but they are servers largely populated by Playgrounders. Which means at any given time about half the people online have a pony as their avatar. So yeah, pony love is at the very least not hated on there, and there's enough of a non-brony population that you could safely claim you just like the server.

[Welf]

Overhours and TF2 really cut into my pony time budget. I need to get fired. Otherwise posting will be rare for some time.

Early bedtime for me, tomorrow is the start of my internship, and I have to be up relatively early. (Though not 4 AM, that's the day after tomorrow, and two days afterwards!) Wish me luck, everypony!

I can relate to that

Damnit, my first post on a new thread has reached a new low.

It now starts on page 5.

Oh, real-life, why do you keep me from ponies? /melodrama

And to that.

Nope, the writers don't read fanfics. Assuming you're talking about fanfics getting a shout out. They're literally not allowed to read them due to massive amounts of potential legal issues.

They are not allowed to read them and publicly announce that. That doesn't mean they don't read them. It just means the lawyers will filter anything anything. I think Esper (good luck with internship btw) mentioned once that t takes so long to produce a episodes because the legal department makes sure that there is no copyright or intellectual property infringement.

Getting off track, but you ever dig deeper into what Moby Dick was based off of?

Male genitalia?

Pluto is the name of the God of the Underworld and Wealth. By reclassifying it as not a planet, both the powers of the Dead and of Money are being weakened. Que financial crisis and drastic decrease in the number of ghosts. The entire thing was set up by communist exorcists.

I knew it.

Image Dump: "I've been working all day and ED gave me a good drawfriend to cheer me up" Edition:

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Nice image dump, but I don't get that one. Explanation?

Either that or they think little girls are morons, and won't complain to their parents about the toy those parents bought being crap.

Or they think the parents won't bother to actually relay the complaints. But my pet theory is that they make them subpar because then girls have reason to mod them.

Do you mean these? If you do, then the vectors were made by ShelltoonTV; I just shrunk them to match the size of the Playground's smilies.¹ I'm aware that he's got more up that I need to convert; it's just a matter of finding the time. I've also got permission from another artist to convert vectors into emoticons, but, again, that must wait for when I've got some free time.

How did I miss these? Shame on me.

Sweetie Welf, I gel'd the moustache. At full attention it was 2.5 inches bigger than when not held up by goo. So that's... 22.86cm according to google.

Live is brutal.
But my hair is getting shorter too. When you job is to play around with the software that keeps the tax investigations away and pay checks on time customers expect you to shave.

Hey, thanks! You reminded me of what one of my super tabs was.

1: I have this strange problem. It is only a problem because I like communication and full disclosure with other people.
That problem is, in my mind, there are colors, sounds, shapes and textures that don't exist. Especially sounds. There are dozens of words that I pronounce internally in some form of Master Tongue, that I just can't manage in English so I follow somepony else's example. For example, 'lichemaster' or 'lichegate'. The first five letters are all one consonant, combining a non-phlegmatic "hcgh" like you'd hear in Klingon, and the welsh double L. I don't have enough tongues or throats to make that work.

How can you pronounce "liche" as a consonant? Are we talking about a single sound like "k", or like the longer version "kay", with a vowel? Now I need to either put some wires into your brain to read your mind, or give you mutagen so you grow more tongues.


And now on to murdering some people. I hope Trixie is around. She only shoot me three times in the face yesterday.

PS: Did you know that there is a MLP clone called "Filly Fairies"?

[Kris Strife]

I've decided to just piece together something with a picture I found similar to that but I was hoping there was... actually I'm not really sure what I was hoping for.

And yes Capt. the answer is that you are blind. It is understandable though, not everyone looks at signatures, and honestly how many people that are frequent posters check the opening post.

Which name on Steam is the one used for friend lists?

[Strife Warzeal]

Which name on Steam is the one used for friend lists?

I'm not the best one to ask this because the most I change my name is adding a tag to the end like [GitP] on occasion. I believe it's the one you sign in with essentially.

[Kindablue]

These are seriously cool:

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How can you pronounce "liche" as a consonant? Are we talking about a single sound like "k", or like the longer version "kay", with a vowel? Now I need to either put some wires into your brain to read your mind, or give you mutagen so you grow more tongues.

I think he meant "morpheme"; all the letters run together into a single sound.

[Capt. Ido Nos]

And yes Capt. the answer is that you are blind. It is understandable though, not everyone looks at signatures, and honestly how many people that are frequent posters check the opening post.

I'm amazed at how much someone can miss things that are in plain sight. I did honestly make an effort to find that list, haha. Oh well! Thanks for pointing it out politely ^^;;

Have you tried one of the Chocolate Hammer servers? You can find them in the Steam thread. They aren't pony servers, but they are servers largely populated by Playgrounders. Which means at any given time about half the people online have a pony as their avatar. So yeah, pony love is at the very least not hated on there, and there's enough of a non-brony population that you could safely claim you just like the server.

Oh, I've definitely favorited... well I thought there was only one ChHa server, but it sounds like there's more? That's definitely been a great server, I've been there a few times already. It kept being empty when I wanted to hop in this weekend though, so that was sad.

About being careful with my friends, I'm talking about them trying to follow me into a LEGEND OF PONIES server, that was password protected with a very ponies-related term. I had even used my pinkie-spy spray in a prominent place in spawn. We were playing online, but I had the straightest pokerface I'd ever run.

Which name on Steam is the one used for friend lists?

I'm pretty sure it's the login name. Like, 75% sure. I'll add mine, and folks can see if it works or not. If it works, let me know who you are so I don't ignore you accidentally.

[Kyouhen]

Oh, I've definitely favorited... well I thought there was only one ChHa server, but it sounds like there's more? That's definitely been a great server, I've been there a few times already. It kept being empty when I wanted to hop in this weekend though, so that was sad.

About being careful with my friends, I'm talking about them trying to follow me into a LEGEND OF PONIES server, that was password protected with a very ponies-related term. I had even used my pinkie-spy spray in a prominent place in spawn. We were playing online, but I had the straightest pokerface I'd ever run.
.

Nice work.

And Pinkie Spy sprays are the best sprays. Mine's a picture of Pinkie that says "FYI I am a Pie". It pleases me.

[Beacon of Chaos]

You could always name the Equalizer "Big Mac's Fancy Mathmatics".

Ooh! I like this one! With the added description "Muddying the issue since Applebuck Season 2010". Nice. Thanks!

I named my strange knife "Love and Tolerance"

Hehe, also good. I saw someone with a strange knife called "Pokey Pierce" a while back.

Here's what you do. Regardless of which weapons you pick exactly, you go to your pyro loadout:

Primary Flamethrower: "Okey"

Secondary Weapon: "Dokey"

Melee: "Loki"

Seriously tempting, though I'd have to kill someone with each weapon once before they would get the reference. That or get them to spectate me for a while.

Oh, something else I'm gonna go for:

1: Get a Madame Dixie and paint it green.
2: Put it on the pyro, along with the Summer Shades.
3: Rename the hat to "Fluttershy's Disguise"

PS: Did you know that there is a MLP clone called "Filly Fairies"?

That sounds terrible.

I must go look it up.

[Pokonic]

Alright, another write up, this time on GEMS!

On Gems, there Magical uses, and there scarcity.

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In Equestria, gems are considered to be many things. While most see them as valuable due to their beauty, and rightly so, others value them for their many magical uses. This is due to one undeniable fact: gems can hold and retain magic better than any other material on the planet. While it is true that anything can be enchanted by the proper spells or runes, none can take in more without disintegrating or warping than a properly cut gem. The exact properties of an individual gemstone cannot be seen without proper identification or the eye of a skilled Geomancer, but only the most common gems have no magical use.

Now, when dealing with magic-enhanced gems, it is always important never to put more magic within it than the first spell cast upon it did. Overloading a gemstone often results in magically-charged wounds that take special care and effort to heal. As such, only the freshest gems should be used in magi craft, but a quick check with a magic-detecting spell should be used just in case.

As for actual magic gems, the one any pony could name are the physical forms of the Elements of Harmony. Along with these artifacts, well known magical gems include the twelve crown jewels of the Sea Queen, a ancient hippocampi queen of ages past, which can purify any body of water with a touch, to the legendary black ruby that is said lay within a pre-historic diamond dog vault in the gray wastes of Preng which is, according to legend, able to allow those who touch it visions of the future but cause madness.

Naturally, there are more common magical gems to be found. Cold-lights have been used by the Goats to light there halls in places that fire would be impractical, and the Deer have made use of seeing-stones hidden into trees to track visitors in there realms for ages. Even if a gem is not magically in powered, they are still of value for arcanests. For a properly cut gem makes for a fine magical focus, and it has become almost a form of art among certain circles about tastefully incorporating large gems into places convenient for unicorn clientele.

One example of this can be seen in the crown of the Princess herself. The large jewel incorporated into the crown has is used by the Princess in focusing magic that, if it were not contained and directed by the gem, would cause harm to anything within her spell. However, most spell casters do not have so much magical power that they need a magical focus to avoid damaging objects around them. Rather, they use a gem to "reflect" magical power much like one could reflect and scatter light with one. As such, they are often used when performing delicate rituals that could fail due to magical overload, such as healing rituals.

Equestria is often noted for the huge supply of gems within its borders. It is said by the diamond dog packs that roam the underground that there is nowhere else in the world that has more gems, besides perhaps the mines of the Goats, but these are simply ripe for the taking. Even the dragons have noticed Equestrians gems, and many a young adult without a established territory has found the borders of the land easy living, able to consume as many as they want without resorting to raiding others hoards or plundering the cities of the goats. However, this was not always the case. In fact, it was not before the War of the Nightmare that the great gem fields that the land is known for appeared.

The reason behind this upsurge in gems has been thought to have been anything from a great spell, which explains the pre-cut form they are in, to a great disaster underground, which would explain the prevalence of the gems even in places a spell could not reach. In any case, the only ones who likely know for sure are the princesses, but they are strangely silent on the subject.

The sorta-rough draft on gemstones. Questions? Comments?

[MCerberus]

Nice image dump, but I don't get that one. Explanation?

When spike breaths fire on notes the pop up next to Celestia's face. Mac there is worried about the potential of a log-based concussion.

[Aotrs Commander]

When spike breaths fire on notes the pop up next to Celestia's face. Mac there is worried about the potential of a log-based concussion.

And this is why teleport-fire-breath is awesome! Huzzah!

[Kyouhen]

Ooh! I like this one! With the added description "Muddying the issue since Applebuck Season 2010". Nice. Thanks!

Oooooh, that's a good idea. I was originally thinking that you could give it a description of "One pony plus one pony equals one pony" or something like that, but yours is much better.

[Betropper]

I see you got my name on the list. My steam name is Betrooper if you want to put it on.

Alright, another write up, this time on GEMS!

On Gems, there Magical uses, and there scarcity.

Spoiler

Show

In Equestria, gems are considered to be many things. While most see them as valuable due to their beauty, and rightly so, others value them for their many magical uses. This is due to one undeniable fact: gems can hold and retain magic better than any other material on the planet. While it is true that anything can be enchanted by the proper spells or runes, none can take in more without disintegrating or warping than a properly cut gem. The exact properties of an individual gemstone cannot be seen without proper identification or the eye of a skilled Geomancer, but only the most common gems have no magical use.

Now, when dealing with magic-enhanced gems, it is always important never to put more magic within it than the first spell cast upon it did. Overloading a gemstone often results in magically-charged wounds that take special care and effort to heal. As such, only the freshest gems should be used in magi craft, but a quick check with a magic-detecting spell should be used just in case.

As for actual magic gems, the one any pony could name are the physical forms of the Elements of Harmony. Along with these artifacts, well known magical gems include the twelve crown jewels of the Sea Queen, a ancient hippocampi queen of ages past, which can purify any body of water with a touch, to the legendary black ruby that is said lay within a pre-historic diamond dog vault in the gray wastes of Preng which is, according to legend, able to allow those who touch it visions of the future but cause madness.

Naturally, there are more common magical gems to be found. Cold-lights have been used by the Goats to light there halls in places that fire would be impractical, and the Deer have made use of seeing-stones hidden into trees to track visitors in there realms for ages. Even if a gem is not magically in powered, they are still of value for arcanests. For a properly cut gem makes for a fine magical focus, and it has become almost a form of art among certain circles about tastefully incorporating large gems into places convenient for unicorn clientele.

One example of this can be seen in the crown of the Princess herself. The large jewel incorporated into the crown has is used by the Princess in focusing magic that, if it were not contained and directed by the gem, would cause harm to anything within her spell. However, most spell casters do not have so much magical power that they need a magical focus to avoid damaging objects around them. Rather, they use a gem to "reflect" magical power much like one could reflect and scatter light with one. As such, they are often used when performing delicate rituals that could fail due to magical overload, such as healing rituals.

Equestria is often noted for the huge supply of gems within its borders. It is said by the diamond dog packs that roam the underground that there is nowhere else in the world that has more gems, besides perhaps the mines of the Goats, but these are simply ripe for the taking. Even the dragons have noticed Equestrians gems, and many a young adult without a established territory has found the borders of the land easy living, able to consume as many as they want without resorting to raiding others hoards or plundering the cities of the goats. However, this was not always the case. In fact, it was not before the War of the Nightmare that the great gem fields that the land is known for appeared.

The reason behind this upsurge in gems has been thought to have been anything from a great spell, which explains the pre-cut form they are in, to a great disaster underground, which would explain the prevalence of the gems even in places a spell could not reach. In any case, the only ones who likely know for sure are the princesses, but they are strangely silent on the subject.

The sorta-rough draft on gemstones. Questions? Comments?

Cool. This is my fannon for why the diamond dogs like gems so much


On named items: My dream setup (Although I don't have enough name tags to do so) would be this scout setup:
Primary: It makes your face 20% cooler
Desc: In ten seconds flat.

Secondary (Bonk!): Sonic Rainboom
Desc: THE COLORS.

Melee: SCREAM LOUDER!
Desc: yay!

[EsperDerek]

First day of the internship is over and done with, and I can say without hesitation that I'm absolutely going to be able to handle this.

It's exactly what I was expecting, and that means I'll be able to do it. Move forwards, and continue without faltering.

[Kris Strife]

First day of the internship is over and done with, and I can say without hesitation that I'm absolutely going to be able to handle this.

It's exactly what I was expecting, and that means I'll be able to do it. Move forwards, and continue without faltering.

You know what this calls for, right?

[Gamerlord]

First day of the internship is over and done with, and I can say without hesitation that I'm absolutely going to be able to handle this.

It's exactly what I was expecting, and that means I'll be able to do it. Move forwards, and continue without faltering.

Congratulations!

You know what this calls for, right?

.....the sea ponies?

EDIT: This...is indescribable.
And so is this. Warning: some language.

[Kyouhen]

Cool. This is my fannon for why the diamond dogs like gems so much

Personally I like this explanation.

[VA_ron]

Has anyone heard when on the seventeenth the new episode is supposed to air? I'm really hoping that Frontier's built in TV guide search thing is wrong, because I just flat out dislike the idea of getting up at six in order to watch ponies.

at least you HAVE the option
some of us poor ponies are doomed to wander the earth in misery til the episodes get posted up on youtube

[Geno9999]

I was thinking a little about the aerial combat in Equestria posted earlier in this thread I got some additional ideas...

Spoiler

Show

1: War Sky Chariot
In the first episode, we see Twilight traveling to Ponyville via Royal Chariot (the evidence that this is a Royal Chariot is that Celestia herself uses this mode of transportation in "Swarm of the Century.") In our world, the chariot was an ancient form of troop transportation/heavy weapons platform, so not unlike the modern Tank. Seeing pegasi being able to carry a Chariot adds the powers of flight to the uses, but the general purpose of weapons platform remains the same. Most likely, a Pegasus and 1-2 Earth Ponies/Unicorns would be assigned to one chariot; the Pegasus controls the chariot while the crew mates, such as Earth Ponies armed with guns or rockets or a Unicorn well-versed in the magics of war.

2: Hot Air Balloon/Airship/Zeppelin
What if say, the pegasi collectively rebelled? At glance, Celestia's forces are up the creak, since the pegasi have a major advantage in the sky, and the vehicles demonstrated so far require a pegasus' help in order for it work. Employing mass butterfly wings on everypony is not only inefficient because of the tiring out the unicorns, but also the flammability of wings makes them unsuited for war. Enter, the Airship.
The Hot Air Balloon appears in the MLP opening, and in "Sonic Rainboom" used by Twilight and the rest of her friends. However, we have not seen any planes or similar aircraft in the show. This puts Equestria's tech at around the early 19th century, where the only way to fly is to go on a hot air balloon. A hot air balloon could be used in several ways, such as a troop transport for ponies (enchanted by a walk on clouds spell) to storm a Pegasi city/fortress. The hot air balloon could also be used for deploying allied pegasi, or be used for launching rockets and dropping bombs. It also can be used for scouting, since the higher view is advantageous for spotting approaching enemy armies.
Admittedly, the hot air balloon is a venerable weapon, since a skilled pegasi could rip a hole in the balloon, or it could violently explode if filled with Hydrogen rather than Helium.