My Little Pony LII: 525.600 Ponies!

[Alabenson]

Okay. I have now seen the Herdmind's reason, and its beginning.
It was... Absorbing.
I've been watching this thread for a while, avoiding the links and looking at the pictures. I don't know why, but I did.
Then I clicked on one link and saw one episode. I decided to watch the first episode for research. I've watched the show for five full days, reveling in the characters and their depth and motivation, and finally finished it. I was on the line between being a low-level brony or being a regular geek/nerd. Then, I read one magnificent fanfiction, and was instantly moved to the brony side. Congratulations, you've converted me to the Herdmind in five short days. I have a few questions, though, for everypony,before I dive straight in.

One, I use an iPad and cannot view the OC creating guidelines. I don't know what that means, or where the roleplaying has vanished to. I wish to know! For science!

Two, what is the term for a fan of about twelve years of age? Is it a brony, or is there another term?

Third, I tried to put an image here, but it did not appear. Is there something I'm doing wrong? I copied the image and put it in image tags, so I don't see what is wrong...

That said, I'm (possibly) a brony now. Revel in the growing glory of the ever-expanding Herdmind.

Huzzah! IGOR, FIRE THE WELCOME OFCS!
Ook.
The welcome OFCs are down for maintenance? Fine, fire the celebratory OFCs then.
Ook.
OH FOR CELESTIA'S SAKE, JUST PICK A BATCH OF FUNCTIONAL OFCS AND FIRE THEM!

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And big finish

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As a gift of welcome, please take this.

*Presents airship*

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Behold, a newcomer class light frigate. It's not the most durable ship there is, but it packs a punch and boasts decent speeds. Use it well.

And should you ever need to upgrade your weaponry, feel free to visit Professor Boffinspark's House of Mad Science and Party Supplies!

Professor Boffinspark's House of Mad Science and Party Supplies, whether you need a device to splice your DNA in ways nature never intended or the finest quality party supplies in Equestria, Professor Boffinspark's House of Mad Science and Party Supplies has you covered.

And Thats How Tartarus Was Made!


In other news, in order to combat the masked luchador in the general area, not-mouse Silent has taken over the art of sailing. Horribly.

It could be worse. I had to call in El Enfurecido Simio for protection. *points to what is clearly Igor dressed up in a luchador mask and spandex*
OOOK!
What did he just say?
How should I know, I don't speak spanish.
...

[SiuiS]

How will wasting ammunition on you make me more airship?

You tell me, I didn't say anything about ammunition, or waste. Are you telling me you have guns which fire airships? That would give my thresher maw-inator a run for its money, maybe.

I found an old post y'all newbies may be interested in. It's so old it's even green!

Alrigty-dighty, pony in D&D. As far as I can see, you have several choices.

Be a bunch of puns and word-jokes. Use spells, items and phrases that revolve around pony stuff. In which case, Thanqol and the Allfeather-in-absentia would be your go-to folks.

Be a brony.

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There is a feat in a third-party book, called family tradition. you take it at 1st level (and only 1st!) and you pick a class. For the rest of the game, that class can use a different ability score for it's casting than normal. You will pick either strength or constitution. Be a big, imposing biker dude (or similar).

Your tattoo'd arms double as a spell book. Your beard is the envy of dwarves. You own an effigy warhorse, name Harley Davidson. It spews fire. Leadership can be used for the sole purpose of having groupies, to prove your Manliness. Other things to this effect. Be a bad ass.

You will want the Comfort Object flaw. That comfort object will be a pony. At level 3, that pony will become your item familiar, granting you skill bonuses and, even better, bonus experience! (you will have to take the item familiar feat at level 3; this is not part of the flaw). Take a metamagic feat, preferably Craft Wondrous Item. You will bring harmony to the land by using all o that extra experience to make friendship bracelets that have magic powers. Every item you create will be an obvious pony toy. The paladin's augment crystal that allows him to overcome enemy DR? It's a Sticker of Lyra and Bon-Bon snuggling. The bracers of protection are macrame-and-bead charm bracelets saying BFFs 4 ever. Etc.

Make gratuitous use of Summon Monster spells. Look at the stats, figure out what kind of pony they would be. Write out the statblock for future reference. Don't summon a fiendish scorpion, summon Grass Nipper, the orange pony who grapples with his teeth and stomps rather than stings (the poison being all the muck he tromped through while in the fields). Describe in detail how, at the end of the battle, your pony friend rears and gives you a high-five while Harley Davidson sprays flames in the background dramatically. Electric guitars may or may not begin to play, while the gods poor whiskey down your throat. (/manliness)

[Maxtronaut]

...huh? specifications? you don't have a SoarinxDash?
uh...the hull, You could make it outside, right? kinda like mixing 2 types?
....ehh, which specifications exactly?
(I Kinda tried to add 2 stealth puns there, didn't say they are good XD)

I own, sell, & lead a fleet of AIRSHIPS, not SHIPPING.

HOWEVER, I could SoarinXDash on the foward nose section in a similar manner to 1940s bomber planes. Would you like that?

[maximus25]

Do we have a ponythread D&D game going?

Should we? I think it could be fun.

[Maxtronaut]

You tell me, I didn't say anything about ammunition, or waste. Are you telling me you have guns which fire airships? That would give my thresher maw-inator a run for its money, maybe.

I DEMAND WE HAVE A SHOWDOWN AT ONCE. MY AIRSHIP-INATOR VS. YOUR MAW-INATOR. ALSO, CANTERLOCK.

[Forum Explorer]

Terror Attack 4 or Our Weapons are Useless!

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Dear Twilight,

We just had one toughie mission to handle. The Snakemen launched a full out attack on the city of Lagos. Worst of all we arrived at night. Now it seems to me that the aliens have devised some new sort of ammo cause nothing was dying when we shot it. Even with the Autocannons and our Tank it would take a good three to five shots to drop a single alien.

Despite that the Snakemen were easy to deal with. Just duck and return fire really. Though we did have a few moments where we couldn't hit the damn things. But yeah no big wig. The real problem were these weird bugs they brought along with. If you see these things, watch out! We saw them bring down a human and turn it into some kinda zombie! And they were insanely hard to kill. In fact Spitfire ran out of ammo and had to switch to her pistol! Not only did they make zombies and be nigh invincible but they were quick too. You should have seen it rush up to our tank, tear it to pieces and rush my squad. Luckily we gunned it down before it could reach.

The last and most horrible thing what happens when you kill one of the zombies. The corpse erupts and out pops a new bug monster! Luckily for us most of the bugs rushed us in the open and were easy, if ammo consuming, to kill. The real problem was when a zombie was hiding in a warehouse. We had to assault it from both sides and take pot shots to kill it. Eventually it rushed Daisy who dropped it in the nick of time. Out popped the bug but it was stunned. We all unloaded into it and even with all of our fire power we barely managed to kill it. Good thing too cause it could have killed a good two or three ponies, and I don't want to know if it can turn us into zombies as well.

I don't know if you've heard but Spike's made sergeant! You should have more faith in him, he's done fine. Rarity is pretty jealous of him actually. Still I hope we get those plasma weapons soon. I'd hate to face those bugs again with what we've got.

Your Friend,
Captain Applejack

Well that was mildly annoying. Honestly wasn't that bad though. If it weren't for that last zombie in the building. Stupid thing wouldn't leave and I couldn't kill it in one turn. Actually nothing seemed to want to die this mission. Ended up using a lot of grenades. But yeah seeing the Chrysalid pop out and eat my tank was pretty scary. Then it survived three autocannon shots to the head and I was practically screaming at my ponies to finish it off with their rifles.

[Luka]

I own, sell, & lead a fleet of AIRSHIPS, not SHIPPING.

HOWEVER, I could SoarinXDash on the foward nose section in a similar manner to 1940s bomber planes. Would you like that?

....Oh sorry, Don't blame me! I got confused cuz of Soras and SiuiS!

....Just give me a flying submarine, you know, like a Nautilus-class Corvette, the little ones that are fast, look like a submarine (duh!) and have 2 cannons on the lower sides aiming to the front.
You know them?

You could put them? though I think they already come with them

((

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))

[Maxtronaut]

....Just give me a flying submarine, you know, like a Nautilus-class Corvette, the little ones that are fast, look like a submarine (duh!) and have 2 cannons on the lower sides aiming to the front.
You know them?

Yep! Here ya go!

Sorry about the dark, it's past 10PM where I am.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Soras! Answer me! Will I be able to fight you in the tournament!?!

Unlikely, I have yet to game online (well PBP RP but that's different)

Meahahahahahahhahahaha!

Oh you liked that? Sometimes I delude myself that I will one day be the somepony that discovers the mythic good pun.

[Strife Warzeal]

Terror Attack 4 or Our Weapons are Useless!

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Dear Twilight,

We just had one toughie mission to handle. The Snakemen launched a full out attack on the city of Lagos. Worst of all we arrived at night. Now it seems to me that the aliens have devised some new sort of ammo cause nothing was dying when we shot it. Even with the Autocannons and our Tank it would take a good three to five shots to drop a single alien.

Despite that the Snakemen were easy to deal with. Just duck and return fire really. Though we did have a few moments where we couldn't hit the damn things. But yeah no big wig. The real problem were these weird bugs they brought along with. If you see these things, watch out! We saw them bring down a human and turn it into some kinda zombie! And they were insanely hard to kill. In fact Spitfire ran out of ammo and had to switch to her pistol! Not only did they make zombies and be nigh invincible but they were quick too. You should have seen it rush up to our tank, tear it to pieces and rush my squad. Luckily we gunned it down before it could reach.

The last and most horrible thing what happens when you kill one of the zombies. The corpse erupts and out pops a new bug monster! Luckily for us most of the bugs rushed us in the open and were easy, if ammo consuming, to kill. The real problem was when a zombie was hiding in a warehouse. We had to assault it from both sides and take pot shots to kill it. Eventually it rushed Daisy who dropped it in the nick of time. Out popped the bug but it was stunned. We all unloaded into it and even with all of our fire power we barely managed to kill it. Good thing too cause it could have killed a good two or three ponies, and I don't want to know if it can turn us into zombies as well.

I don't know if you've heard but Spike's made sergeant! You should have more faith in him, he's done fine. Rarity is pretty jealous of him actually. Still I hope we get those plasma weapons soon. I'd hate to face those bugs again with what we've got.

Your Friend,
Captain Applejack

Well that was mildly annoying. Honestly wasn't that bad though. If it weren't for that last zombie in the building. Stupid thing wouldn't leave and I couldn't kill it in one turn. Actually nothing seemed to want to die this mission. Ended up using a lot of grenades. But yeah seeing the Chrysalid pop out and eat my tank was pretty scary. Then it survived three autocannon shots to the head and I was practically screaming at my ponies to finish it off with their rifles.

Your problem is using human-projectile weapons, at least upgrade to laser rifles, if not heavy plasma. The laser stuffs does much better against armored opponents. Also, chrysalids are also known as kings of movement, they have stamina and time units in the one-hundred range, if you can see one you are probably in it's range.

Comic:

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[Forum Explorer]

Your problem is using human-projectile weapons, at least upgrade to laser rifles, if not heavy plasma. The laser stuffs does much better against armored opponents. Also, chrysalids are also known as kings of movement, they have stamina and time units in the one-hundred range, if you can see one you are probably in it's range.

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I'm not bothering with laser rifles and going straight to plasma. Which is taking forever to research. Considering I have to research the stupid ammo clips as well.

Cool comic as always.

[SiuiS]

Do we have a ponythread D&D game going?

Should we? I think it could be fun.

I dunno. Play by post games take forever unless you're a jerk. I refuse to play a game that doesn't have a "one post a day, een just to say I'm here keep going, or you lose your turn" rule. I'm in three games, and the one without that rule is still resolving its first round of combat. And it started months ago.

I wouldn't mind a loose amalgam of rules to keep things in line, though, and since pirating Heroscape or or quest or whatever is bad, I'll get DD to post his ideas.

-

Your gun fires airships, my gun fires destroyer-class spaceship destroying serpents? this may end as a stalemate, honestly.

Although watching that again; it was really less impressive and more "high-render remake of Xel'lotath versus Ulyath".

[Silverraptor]

Hey, anyone here know about the group Baloon Party? You know, makers of this song and such?

[Balmas]

You guys have Airships?



..... you guys have Gundams AND Airships!?! Maybe conversion isn't a bad idea....

..... Wait a minute.

OH MY GOD!

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Don't forget the orbital battle stations, the multiple cults, the random destruction of Canterlot via underground nukes (my bad), and the incredible spoilered roleplays!~

Correction, I have the airships. In fact...

I ask ponythread this: May I claim the ponythread element of Airships?

I don't see why he can't be.

And while I have a wing of airships, probably my pride and joy is the Balmas Blimp, a space-capable heavy dreadnaught capable of mounting six flights of advanced fighter drones. It is armed with six Friendship Cannon turrets, and has enough explosives onboard to turn Zebrica into the next Atlantis.

Actually, the Elements of Discord.

Why are you looking at me like that? It develops Derpy, gives many characters a new depth and has evil opposites with depth. What's not to like?

You need to go read the Pony Psychology Series. It's probably the darkest fic I know that stays close to canon, develops everyone with both flaws and strengths. Top that off with the most epic alternate character interpretation of Ditzy you've ever seen, and you've got a winner. Go read it now. I'll wait.

[Soras Teva Gee]

... you guys have Gundams?

This seems relevant:

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[maximus25]

I dunno. Play by post games take forever unless you're a jerk. I refuse to play a game that doesn't have a "one post a day, een just to say I'm here keep going, or you lose your turn" rule. I'm in three games, and the one without that rule is still resolving its first round of combat. And it started months ago.

I wouldn't mind a loose amalgam of rules to keep things in line, though, and since pirating Heroscape or or quest or whatever is bad, I'll get DD to post his ideas.

I think we can manage one post a day minimum.

I mean, it is ponythread after all.

[SiuiS]

Don't forget the orbital battle stations, the multiple cults, the random destruction of Canterlot via underground nukes (my bad), and the incredible spoilered roleplays!~

And other shades besides, if explosions an murder in your pony is an issue.

I don't see why he can't be.

Because he has yet to even mount a rebuttal. I haven't even gotten a "yes-huh!" out of him yet.

I suppose I can let him slide as an element since its hat he aspires to rather than represents And also because I couldn't really stop him in the first place.

And while I have a wing of airships, probably my pride and joy is the Balmas Blimp, a space-capable heavy dreadnaught capable of mounting six flights of advanced fighter drones. It is armed with six Friendship Cannon turrets, and has enough explosives onboard to turn Zebrica into the next Atlantis.

My prize ship was scuttled in the sea of dreams, sunk into a nightmare correct along with tons of other detritus and pasties and arose as a living nightmare, a giant Pinkie Pie head made of evil light, frosting, and broken ships, crawling with undead who live only to serve their progenitor in spreading itself as cotton candy tetacles worm it's way through space, pressing on the other side of the milky way looking for entrance into the waking world.

I also had all my powers stolen by a log due to poison joke. It was... Not my best couple of days.

[Forum Explorer]

I suppose I wouldn't mind playing a D&D game set up by ponythread. Which edition though?


Also UFO 36 or Hoity Toity is the Matrix

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Yo Rainbow Dash,

So we got our second mission today. This time in the desert. Some sweet thermals there I couldn't resist ditching my armor for a bit and pulling some stunts. Wish you here to appreciate it, nopony else on my team quite understands the difficulties of doing a triple backspin.

It was a extermely small UFO so it should have been an easy mission. Instead we got these elite green armored aliens who had some pretty heavy firepower. Toasted our tank with one shot! Still we brought them down we sheer numbers. One wandered into the open and my new coltfriend (yeah you read that right) blasted it with his autocannon. It was still standing even after two direct hits so the rest of us opened fire and brought it down with our rifles.

Attacking the UFO itself was a little touchy. Luckily Zecora implemented plan boom. AKA hit them with grenades til they die. That still wasn't enough, but Flim (or was it Flam?) killed one with a lucky shot. Hoity Toity accidently got himself locked in with the alien. Next thing we heard was a blistering wave of firepower being shot. We prepared to charge in when we heard Hoity Toity return fire! There is no way this pony could be any luckier. Sure he was wounded, but only slightly. I've seen these things shoot. In those tight quarters he should have died. Instead he wounded it some more and Zecora finished it off having run out of grenades to throw.

Keep it cool,
Gilda

[Tvtyrant]

I don't know, if it was D&D I would probably set the different pony clans into their own subsystems. They are too modified by their races to act as normal D&D characters IMO.

Unless you limited all of them to mundane classes, and then gestalted it with a racial class...

[Maxtronaut]

I don't see why he can't be.

And while I have a wing of airships, probably my pride and joy is the Balmas Blimp, a space-capable heavy dreadnaught capable of mounting six flights of advanced fighter drones. It is armed with six Friendship Cannon turrets, and has enough explosives onboard to turn Zebrica into the next Atlantis.

Exactly how many airships are in your wing?

I've got a little over 400 at my disposal, the flagships being the Alliance: Harmony. She's a dreadnought, nothing too special about her, but there are a couple of things about it that you may find interesting.

Weaponry: 2 multidirectional Friendship laser cannons. Sugar rockets. Pyrocumulus bombs. 4 forward mounted tesla cannons.

Armor: 6" thick adamanetium full-hull plating.

Crew: 400 of the best soldiers in present history. Commanded by me.

Power Source: All 6 Elements of Harmony.

That's just 1 ship, too.

[Tvtyrant]

Exactly how many airships are in your wing?

I've got a little over 400 at my disposal, the flagships being the Alliance: Harmony. She's a dreadnought, nothing too special about her, but there are a couple of things about it that you may find interesting.

Weaponry: 2 multidirectional Friendship laser cannons. Sugar rockets. Pyrocumulus bombs. 4 forward mounted tesla cannons.

Armor: 6" thick adamanetium full-hull plating.

Crew: 400 of the best soldiers in present history. Commanded by me.

Power Source: All 6 Elements of Harmony.

That's just 1 ship, too.

Where in Equestria did you get 2400 Elements of Harmony?

[Balmas]

My prize ship was scuttled in the sea of dreams, sunk into a nightmare correct along with tons of other detritus and pasties and arose as a living nightmare, a giant Pinkie Pie head made of evil light, frosting, and broken ships, crawling with undead who live only to serve their progenitor in spreading itself as cotton candy tetacles worm it's way through space, pressing on the other side of the milky way looking for entrance into the waking world.

I also had all my powers stolen by a log due to poison joke. It was... Not my best couple of days.

Ouch... I have a book in my library about fixing poison joke, though I've yet to actually use it. As for your lost ship... would a kamikaze carrier stuffed full of grenukes be enough to destroy your Nightmare Pink?

I suppose I wouldn't mind playing a D&D game set up by ponythread. Which edition though?

I prefer playing 3.5.

My custom D&D setup:
Pathfinder base classes plus Completes and Tome of Battle. Other books subject to review.
HD: Basically, if you would normally roll a d6, instead roll a d4 and add two. For d8 HD, roll d4+4. d10s become d4+6, and d12s become d4+8. Be aware that this change is applied to monsters as well.
Cleric: Nightsticks do not stack. If you want DMM, either buff your Cha or get Imp turning.
Races: If you can find it, it's probably fair game. Heck, if you want to play a unicorn, we can work something out.

Someone also threw together some Pathfinder Pony races, though I'm unsure of their balance and have not played with them.

[BlasTech]

Thanqooool, are you around? I need your brain!

[maximus25]

I prefer playing 3.5.

My custom D&D setup:
Pathfinder base classes plus Completes and Tome of Battle. Other books subject to review.
HD: Basically, if you would normally roll a d6, instead roll a d4 and add two. For d8 HD, roll d4+4. d10s become d4+6, and d12s become d4+8. Be aware that this change is applied to monsters as well.
Cleric: Nightsticks do not stack. If you want DMM, either buff your Cha or get Imp turning.
Races: If you can find it, it's probably fair game. Heck, if you want to play a unicorn, we can work something out.

Someone also threw together some Pathfinder Pony races, though I'm unsure of their balance and have not played with them.

I was thinking 3.5 as well, or pathfinder. I play both regularly, Pathfinder is more balanced, but there's less stuff to work with. 3.5 is less balanced, but there's tons more material.

I prefer quantity tho, so 3.5 gets my vote.

Also, those pony races were april fools day jokes, notice how it alludes to cutie mark rules on page 35, but there is no page 35.

[Anarion]

UFO 50, terror 7

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Dear Princess Celestia,

Let me keep this one short and sweet.

The Avenger with double plasma cannon is the BEST THING EVER!!!!!

No, it's better than that.

Ethereal terror attacks are not fun. My whole team had flight armor and plasma or heavy plasma kit. We barely made it out alive. Those big tank bug things took an entire team's worth of fire to bring down. We got them though, even if Derpy and Scootaloo panicked the entire battle. Fortunately, they were a little silly. Derpy panicked so much she dropped her gun, so when they finally mind-controlled her, she couldn't shoot anyone this time.

We got the psionic potential of our soldiers in this month. Lyra is a 100!, Bon-Bon is a 97! Truly, the power of love conquers all. Derpy is an 8. All is explained.

Your faithful dentist,
Colgate

I'm not bothering with laser rifles and going straight to plasma. Which is taking forever to research. Considering I have to research the stupid ammo clips as well.

How many scientists do you have? I had 66 on my plasma projects and it still took about a week for each one.

Thanqooool, are you around? I need your brain!

Don't we all, BlasTech, don't well all?

Edit: Nearly forgot the pony-related item (well, other than fighting aliens). This thing lists some interesting song statistics. It contains season 3 spoilers partway down (it tells you when), so don't read carelessly if you don't want to see spoilers.

To nopony's suprise, Pinkie Pie does the most singing. To my surprise, Rarity is number two. I was expecting it to be Twilight Sparkle, but apparently Art of the Dress gives Rarity the most airtime singing after Pinkie.

Also, I bet nopony realized that Flim sings for nearly double the time that Flam does.

[Dexam]

Hey, anyone here know about the group Baloon Party? You know, makers of this song and such?

Balloon Party isn't a group, as such. It was a project to get hard-core tracks from the brony community and help raise money to get brony musicians to Bronycon. You can download the albums 100% No Feeble Cheering and After Party for a small fee ($1 each). Well worth it, IMO.

[Aotrs Commander]

Airships.

Heh.



I have decided all this XCom stuff needs a touch of class, so when I begin today, I shall take personal command of the operation, and the Aotrs will show you ponies how it is done¹!



¹Definition of "it" and "done" may vary, side-effects may include death, screaming, death, being on fire, death, death and occasionally extreme death and a sensation of deep confusion. Consult your morticitian before use.

[Anarion]

Airships.

Heh.



I have decided all this XCom stuff needs a touch of class, so when I begin today, I shall take personal command of the operation, and the Aotrs will show you ponies how it is done¹!


¹Definition of "it" and "done" may vary, side-effects may include death, screaming, death, being on fire, death, death and occasionally extreme death and a sensation of deep confusion. Consult your morticitian before use.

I hear sacrificing soldiers to capture live specimens is very efficient and cost effective, though obviously it's a tactic I haven't tried personally.

[Forum Explorer]

UFO 50, terror 7

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Dear Princess Celestia,

Let me keep this one short and sweet.

The Avenger with double plasma cannon is the BEST THING EVER!!!!!

No, it's better than that.

Ethereal terror attacks are not fun. My whole team had flight armor and plasma or heavy plasma kit. We barely made it out alive. Those big tank bug things took an entire team's worth of fire to bring down. We got them though, even if Derpy and Scootaloo panicked the entire battle. Fortunately, they were a little silly. Derpy panicked so much she dropped her gun, so when they finally mind-controlled her, she couldn't shoot anyone this time.

We got the psionic potential of our soldiers in this month. Lyra is a 100!, Bon-Bon is a 97! Truly, the power of love conquers all. Derpy is an 8. All is explained.

Your faithful dentist,
Colgate

How many scientists do you have? I had 66 on my plasma projects and it still took about a week for each one.



Edit: Nearly forgot the pony-related item (well, other than fighting aliens). This thing lists some interesting song statistics. It contains season 3 spoilers partway down (it tells you when), so don't read carelessly if you don't want to see spoilers.

To nopony's suprise, Pinkie Pie does the most singing. To my surprise, Rarity is number two. I was expecting it to be Twilight Sparkle, but apparently Art of the Dress gives Rarity the most airtime singing after Pinkie.

Also, I bet nopony realized that Flim sings for nearly double the time that Flam does.

Cool. I haven't even seen Etherals yet but you're moving at a much faster pace then I am. Actually my goal is to beat the game in the next two months game time. (Which would put me at beating the game before August ends )

I've only got about 100 scientists total and they're split among projects evenly of about 20 apiece.

On that note

Terror Attack 4

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Dear Twilight Sparkle,

Today was a fabulous day! The new plasma weapons are simply darling. The Snakemen attacked a city in South Africa and we repelled them with only two humans dying in the crossfire! The new weapons made all the difference. The Snakemen couldn't stand up to even a single shot and the new guns are so easy to aim that we barely missed at all! Applejack killed two without even leaving the ship!

The only trouble was those bugs. Two rushed our tank almost as soon as it left the ship and ripped it apart! But Applejack went out and blew one apart with her gun. I took out the other and gagged at the smell. Burning bug does not smell good no matter what Applejack says.

The humans were a little upset about the collateral damage though. Spike vaporized three or four lamp posts in a shoot out against a trio of aliens. Applejack and I took flanked them and took two out while Spike finished the third. The other major source of collateral damage was Rose blowing up most of a gas station. One alien was hiding in there and Rose couldn't seem to get the shot. Naturally every miss blew up another one of those filler up thingys.

Finally one of the humans accused us of killing a human! I've never been so insulted in my life! How would they even know since we're both using the same guns! Ugh, I swear they have no appreciation over here in Europe! I hope they're treating the Princesses with the respect they deserve at least.

Sincerely,
Rarity Unicorn

Seriously I have no idea when I would have killed a civilian. I guess an unlucky stray shot but I didn't even hear a yell. Oh I have started my psionic training so that'll kick in next month. Also I am insanely rich. I've got 8 million dollars and nothing to spend it on.

As for the pony songs I'm not surprised. Rarity has had the most solos besides Pinkie. Rainbow Dash hasn't even had a song to herself at all!

[SiuiS]

Exactly how many airships are in your wing?

I've got a little over 400 at my disposal

I've got a question that may be rude.

Why does this matter?


You think of airship battles, the first thing that comes to mind is usually two ships, with the crews swashbuckling between the two of them. That's neat!
But throwing ships at each other gets pretty cumbersome, and loses out on a lot; what is an interesting story on the personal level because a missed footnote at the scale of 400 ships. Suddenly the actual story stuff involving the crew doesn't matter, it's just about the ships. Which, you know, fine and all, but when you are dealing with a couple ponies, and you rely entirely on a fleet, that is ironically setting yoursel up to lose.

See, there won't be any fleet level engagements. Instead, the only engagements thr show up will be at the personnel level, and while you've got "the best soldiers in history" the other side I likely to be a rag-tag band of heroes, which trump soldiers.

I don't get why do many folks jump Straight to the top, where actual gaming can't happen. The difference between a fleet and an army is when one "target" goes down, I just took out a whole crew instead of a person.

And this may seem like a lecture, but it really is a question! I just wanted to explain my stance so you know what you're answering.

the flagships being the Alliance: Harmony. She's a dreadnought, nothing too special about her, but there are a couple of things about it that you may find interesting.

Weaponry: 2 multidirectional Friendship laser cannons. Sugar rockets. Pyrocumulus bombs. 4 forward mounted tesla cannons.

Armor: 6" thick adamanetium full-hull plating.

Crew: 400 of the best soldiers in present history. Commanded by me.

Power Source: All 6 Elements of Harmony.

That's just 1 ship, too.

What?

Ouch... I have a book in my library about fixing poison joke, though I've yet to actually use it. As for your lost ship... would a kamikaze carrier stuffed full of grenukes be enough to destroy your Nightmare Pink?

Eh, I think it's either having tea peacefully, or stopped existing as anything other than a nightmare. Plus I have doubts about sending friendship-removing ordinance into a plane of existence defined by beig the source of all ponykind's fears and terrors.

heck, no idea why we went there in the first place! I had hoped 'nightmare vortices' would be sufficient to frighten my pursuers. Instead, they rammed me Into them

I prefer playing 3.5.

My custom D&D setup:
Pathfinder base classes plus Completes and Tome of Battle. Other books subject to review.
HD: Basically, if you would normally roll a d6, instead roll a d4 and add two. For d8 HD, roll d4+4. d10s become d4+6, and d12s become d4+8. Be aware that this change is applied to monsters as well.
Cleric: Nightsticks do not stack. If you want DMM, either buff your Cha or get Imp turning.
Races: If you can find it, it's probably fair game. Heck, if you want to play a unicorn, we can work something out.

Someone also threw together some Pathfinder Pony races, though I'm unsure of their balance and have not played with them.

Balance is a myth. All that matters is that everyone is on the same page. Avoid discrepancy.

Or you could actually be a pony. This one is the most rules-intensive during character creation.

Spoiler

Show

Be an awakened pony. Either a template, or the flaw Slight Frame can reduce you to small. As your free feat from the flaw, take the Redhead feat from Ravenloft Player's Handbook. Rename it something like Unicorn magic, so a friend reading the character sheet doesn't call BS.

The Redhead feat let's you take one 1st level or two 0 level spells, and gain them as spell-like abilities. There are two versions of gaining Shugenja spells, one Druid spell version, and one bard version. They all let you pick spells as spell-like abilities... The point being that this feat exist in so many forms, in so many books, the DM has to be familiar with one version or another, in case you can't cite some pony on the internet who is feeding you info from books you don't own

Well, there's your unicorn magic. Prestidigitation, Mage hand. Ghost sound... Go hog wild. I was trying to figure out how to get persistent Mage Hand, but it requires cheese. If you and your DM are cool with it, you can have permanent, low-weight telekinesis (Mage Hand) by taking easy metamagic'd persistent sanctum'd earth'd transmutation focus'd Mage hand... Hm. 0 + 6 -1 -1 -1 -1, best I can do is make Mage hand a 2nd level spell... HOWEVER, if you explain the process, explain you want Mage Hand for character who has 4 legs... Or hay. Be a tiny unicorn, take the "Unicorn Magic" feat and any cool DM will (if you don't have a history of munchkinism) will look at you funny and say sure. If you go the sanctum/earth/easy/specialist metamagic route, you might be required to take some of those feats to justify the spell-like ability having them. I'd take metamagic school focus (transmutation) and... Hm. Deflator elf dilettante, maybe? Forgot that one. Looks like you can get a 24 hour Mage hand as a 1st level SLA.

Either way, you end up spending feats for the ability to have hands that touch things in a 30+ foot radius. Not too useful, not really broken, because you can grab things at a distance, but there are weight limits, you can't attack, and can't feel. The pony has +2 str, +2 dex, and +2 con. Intelligence is 3d6, and CHA is 1d3+4 (or -4, if you're willing to average). Shrinking it to small reduces Str by 2, improves Dex by 2, and grants small bonuses and penalties. You would have +2 natural armor and a movement of 40 feet per round. Off-hand, this sounds similar to a hobgoblin, so your DM would probably suggest a +1 LA. Hobgoblin doesn't need it, but it's in the book, so... Aye. Whatever.

So you have 2 flaws, one to make you smaller, one to represent not having hands (and legs face it, there are a LOT of things hands can do that Mage hands cannot. Like give you tactile feedback without putting your face on something potentially dangerous). That last one might be a hard sell, Since lack of hands is just part of the race, but since it's a flavor flaw to get a flavor feat, you'll probably be ok. Anyway, you have room for Improved Familiar, netting you a pseudodragon (eventually). Myself, I see no problem with taking it now and getting Now benefit, but you might. If so, run, endurance, more metamagic to make you feel better about cheesing a 0 level spell into a permanent ability, whatever makes you feel better.

Final bit of race stuff is that, being an awakened pony, you would have 4 hitdice. The best suggestion I've seen is to mechanically get, and fail a save against, 3 negative levels. You have 1 hitdie, and that can be subsumed by class levels (the book says humanoid, monstrous humanoid, and fey only, but giants and undead do it all the time so meh), making you a pony unicorn [class].

For a marshmallow spacebeast, you would do the above, except template shuffle for the ooze type, and pray nothing kills you in the mountains because the rest of the party would find you delicious. Adding pseudonatural for the ability to become a tentacled terror from beyond the veil of Parties is also possible, but... Slippery slope. You go that route and one day you'll join me in an alley, shivering around a trashcan fire, asking passers-by for just enough money for one more roll of 5d6 drop 2 reroll 1s during chargen. Believe me, that's not where you want to be.

Fun fact: the phrase "one day you'll join me
In an alley" activated my phone's GPS function and failed to return a specific address. That's... $&*!ing creepy.

Anyway; look! A way to make a unicorn... That gives you the same results as saying "you're small, you get TK within 30', +4 Dex, +2 con, no hands, speed 40'." pegasi would have flight instead of TK, and earth ponies are screwed completely by the linear fighter quadratic everything else in existence thingy. Sorry AJ, D&D says you suck.

I was thinking 3.5 as well, or pathfinder. I play both regularly, Pathfinder is more balanced, but there's less stuff to work with. 3.5 is less balanced, but there's tons more material.

I prefer quantity tho, so 3.5 gets my vote.

Also, those pony races were april fools day jokes, notice how it alludes to cutie mark rules on page 35, but there is no page 35.

Yeah. Someone I met filled that in, but I don't remember what with.

Airships.

Heh.

Well, 'Airship', 'vessel which resembles a nautical ship in aesthetic but can sail space and withstand tremendous dimensional force', it's all the same really.

I have decided all this XCom stuff needs a touch of class, so when I begin today, I shall take personal command of the operation, and the Aotrs will show you ponies how it is done¹!



¹Definition of "it" and "done" may vary, side-effects may include death, screaming, death, being on fire, death, death and occasionally extreme death and a sensation of deep confusion. Consult your morticitian before use.

Can't wait to see how Star Seargent Derpy performs