Ponythread LV:55 Ponythread learns Agility!

[Saposhiente]

Trying to calculate the number of pony-related posts on GITP. So far I have ~115,000 posts in pony-related threads, but am unsure on the number of pony posts outside of pony threads. Anyone have an estimate/idea?

[Grif]

Sure, though I'll have to see how to package these bites together. I've got several megs of *.wav files here. Playback quality is a little varied due to the episodes coming from different sources (i.e. streaming vs. TV vs. etc.)

The original files would be fine. I was just lacking the capability to actually splice out the sound waves myself.

Thank you so much.

[Anarion]

Trying to calculate the number of pony-related posts on GITP. So far I have ~115,000 posts in pony-related threads, but am unsure on the number of pony posts outside of pony threads. Anyone have an estimate/idea?

This thread moves pretty fast and we try fairly hard to keep it focused here. However, are you counting the April Fools joke? That had a couple of separate threads running. Outside of the that, I would guess this thread's pony posts outnumber everywhere else by maybe 10 to 1. With the vast majority of outside posts being people talking about pony characters, designs, or references in video games.


And speaking of video games, it's time for a ponythread X-com update.

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Dear Princess Celestia,

Well...this is awkward. Remember how I said all the recruits were named Thanqol and their names kept changing? Well, one of them kinda...didn't change ((read: I got lazy)) and he's kinda my highest ranked soldier now. Major Thanqol Thanqol has quite the kill streak, and would you believe that he can actually fire rockets accurately? I know! Me neither, but there it is. Unfortunately, he's not psionic, so I'll eventually have to rotate him out. This is also a sad day, as he is the last Thanqol I shall ever have. By reaching major, he has enabled me to purchase better basic training and now all new recruits start as squaddie rank, which previously eliminated their Thanqol identities. I shall never have a rookie again. Let us salute all the many Thanqols who have died to bring us here today...I lost count, but I think it's about 15 or so.


Now, on to other news. Two more months have passed. My ranks have been decimated. Rebuilt, then decimated again. I haven't suffered a full squad wipe, but Captain Grif had to abort a UFO boarding after a series of cyberdisks and berserkers ripped apart the remainder of his squad. Captain Grif valiantly passed away from over 5 direct plasma shots in the very next mission, using his own body to shield the VIP we were sent to rescue. I was a fool princess. If I had just waited to cross that bridge, everything would have been different. But war...war never changes.

It felt just the same when Soras Teva Gee passed away, overwhelmed by mutons, and when One Tin Soldier, Phanton Fox, and Kairaven fell in the line of duty to a new strain of heavy floater armed with powerful plasma rifles.

Bleakbane served with me for a short while as well. He led the charge in the alien base and single-handedly captured the sectoid commander, unlocking the secrets of pisonics research for our entire team. Alas, he too has passed from us. His spirit departed his mortal soldier's form when that form was bisected by a sudden rush of three chrysalids. He took down two with him before he was buried under a rotting mound of claws and spines. We put down his revived corpse with all due fury and have strung up a series of chrysalid trophies and taken several shots of whiskey to remember his valiant deeds.

Oh Princess, there are so many, I'm not sure I can keep track of them all. Deadly was shot after moving out too far to throw a grenade, though her throw enabled the rest of the squad to take down the mutons and live. TvTyrant was cut down by massed enemy fire and Kyouhen sacrificed himself to finish off a cyberdisc, ensuring it's demise by getting so close that he was caught in the explosion.

But in all the madness, we somehow put satellites up over the entire planet! Excet Egypt, they withdrew from the council and I'll be damned if I lift one finger to save their rotting sphinxes and pyramids. Sorry, what was I saying? Right, satellites everywhere else. The entire world is behind us, not a single nation is even near panic, and we've advanced our research to the most powerful types of armor and weapons. Our squad just acquired ghost cloaking suits, and our snipers are like angels of death raining plasma from the skies.

But the best news, is we just unlocked the secrets of the pony mind. Major Eakin, recently promoted, has tested positive for psionic potential. Due to a former injury that has weakend his will, I can't say that he'll be the most powerful psionic pony to walk Equestria, but he is the first, and his gift represents our chance at ultimate victory against the aliens.

Our engineers also created a new ship. They call it the firestorm, a combination of our high speed interceptors with alien propulsion and shield systems. And we have supplemented it with an EMP cannon, capable of crushing even the most powerful alien ships. How do I know this? Because as I write you, our firestorm stationed in North America just took down the largest alien ship we've ever seen: a battleship. I am sending in my best team. The aliens won't know what hit them.

Vigilo Confido.

Your faithful commander,
Anarion

[BlasTech]

Feel free to add me to the roster if you need any more cannon fodder Anarion

I'm currently save-scumming my way through a Classic Difficulty play using the Mane 6. So far none have died (although the closest I had was three critically wounded in one mission).

What terrifies me is that four of them have tested positive for Psi potential. Twilight and Rarity were no-brainers, and Fluttershy was kinda expected given her STARE.

But then Pinkie Pie manifested it as well ...

[Balmas]

Feel free to add me to the roster if you need any more cannon fodder Anarion

I'm currently save-scumming my way through a Classic Difficulty play using the Mane 6. So far none have died (although the closest I had was three critically wounded in one mission).

What terrifies me is that four of them have tested positive for Psi potential. Twilight and Rarity were no-brainers, and Fluttershy was kinda expected given her STARE.

But then Pinkie Pie manifested it as well ...

What loadouts are you using? I'd expect Pinkie Pie is a heavy with some sort of cannon, correct?

[Anarion]

Feel free to add me to the roster if you need any more cannon fodder Anarion

I'm currently save-scumming my way through a Classic Difficulty play using the Mane 6. So far none have died (although the closest I had was three critically wounded in one mission).

What terrifies me is that four of them have tested positive for Psi potential. Twilight and Rarity were no-brainers, and Fluttershy was kinda expected given her STARE.

But then Pinkie Pie manifested it as well ...

Pinkie Pie was my second best psionic unit by total willpower. My best was Scootaloo, but she was kind of a cheat because I started Scoots as a rookie after I'd bought the iron will upgrade, so Scootaloo ended the game with a base 105 will without psi armor.

Also, make sure to name a character Lyra. It ensures that she'll be a butt-kicking psionic supersoldier.

What loadouts are you using? I'd expect Pinkie Pie is a heavy with some sort of cannon, correct?

I had her as shotgun assault in heavy armor. No particular reason really, I just thought that having Pinkie Pie sprinting full speed at the aliens might terrorize them into the leaving the planet.

[Gadora]

Feel free to add me to the roster if you need any more cannon fodder Anarion

I'm currently save-scumming my way through a Classic Difficulty play using the Mane 6. So far none have died (although the closest I had was three critically wounded in one mission).

What terrifies me is that four of them have tested positive for Psi potential. Twilight and Rarity were no-brainers, and Fluttershy was kinda expected given her STARE.

But then Pinkie Pie manifested it as well ...

You know of her Pinkie Sense and are surprised when she turns out to have psionic ability?

[Deadly]

Read it, don't have much to say except that I thought it was pretty good.

Glad to hear it

Gave it a read.

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I thought it was pretty good. Loved that you came back around to the 'eat their hearts' thing. It was kind of an odd part until the end there. Just noticed a few grammar problem things.

Right near the beginning you had "road winded its way through the fog." It should probably be "road wound it's way through the fog." You used winded again somewhere later too. Otherwise I don't see anything wrong with it.

Fixed, and thanks

So I just finished reading Squeak

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The biggest problem is the sudden jump to using Trixie instead of Lunamoon. Mouse should have had a suggestion of how Lunamoon doesn't roll off the tongue or something. As is it's just a random jump.

Still that's a pretty minor problem. I'm not entirely sure what age Trixie is in this story either. When I started I had her pegged at around Diamond Tiara's age.

Some changes did seem random like the turn to a white mane instead of sapphire blue.

Over all it's pretty cool and I did enjoy it though.

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Glad you liked it.

Mouse does talk about names earlier, and being called unflattering names by others. At the end he also expresses dislike of her name, although he doesn't say he doesn't like it, he just grimaces every time he speaks her name or says it in a disapproving voice. Maybe these things are easy to miss, I guess.

I didn't want him to just say "Call yourself Trixie, or something", I kinda wanted to hint that at this point he didn't really have to tell her anything, that his influence was complete enough that he could just give a little hint and she'd do it on her own.

The white hair was originally meant to be a side-effect of the possession and not a conscious choice. I couldn't quite work that out in the time I had, and I think it works quite nice as more of a corruption and betrayal of who she is and where she comes from. She's changing herself, the pony she is and the pony that her family and friends know and love. Same with the name, and of course personality. It's all about her no longer being Lulamoon at all.

As for her age, I pictured her as somewhat older than Diamond Tiara. Probably fresh out of school, so adult but a very young one.

[Thanqol]

All right, all right, this series gets my endorsement.

"Blue Twilight!", ahahahhaha

[Trixie]

Speculation on Season 3

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How would Shining Armor and Cadance's kids will turn out to be?
A. Baby Alicorn (half god more trouble for pinkie)
B. Just a unicorn.

I got this one!

[Aotrs Commander]

awww, no comment on my pre-emptive strike?

Only 'cos I missed it 'cos I've been mostly skimming...

So, yeah, what you said.



Birthday off to better start than last year, at any rate...!

And speaking of video games, it's time for a ponythread X-com update.

*snerk*

You seem to be getting through more minions than I do on the original, and I was sending Peons out completely unarmed...!

That's because you're playing on e- *WHAM* because it's your birthday and you're awesome!

[BlasTech]

What loadouts are you using? I'd expect Pinkie Pie is a heavy with some sort of cannon, correct?

This is the newer Xcom, so loadouts are limited and mostly defined by class.

Current loadouts;

Twilight - Psionic, (Also assault class, but she's all about the magic)
Rainbow Dash - Assault, close combat damage specialist.
Applejack - Support, Suppression with a bit of medicing.
Fluttershy - Support, sprinting and healing. (Tempted to give her Archangel Armour). Her psionic powers will be panic inducing and mind control to match the stare.
Pinkie Pie - Heavy, specced as rocketeer. Much Party Cannon and explosions.
Rarity - Sniper. She'll just sit down the back, looking pretty, and blasting folks with her plasma rifle.

Pinkie Pie was my second best psionic unit by total willpower. My best was Scootaloo, but she was kind of a cheat because I started Scoots as a rookie after I'd bought the iron will upgrade, so Scootaloo ended the game with a base 105 will without psi armor.

Also, make sure to name a character Lyra. It ensures that she'll be a butt-kicking psionic supersoldier.



I had her as shotgun assault in heavy armor. No particular reason really, I just thought that having Pinkie Pie sprinting full speed at the aliens might terrorize them into the leaving the planet.

Pinkie Pie was fairly senior before I got that upgrade, and her willpower is at 91 without the psi armour ... compared to Twilight's measly 89!

I knew she had psi potential the minute she reisted an etherial's mind control.

Thanks for the tip re: naming though. I'll have to roll up some of the other cast!

[Deadly]

Birthday off to better start than last year, at any rate...!

Happy Birthday! Have an awful, evil Rarity birthday comic

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And something nicer

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[DigoDragon]

I know I've not been around much of late, but I just got my commission in from Inkwell. Thread? Meet White Wind.

Es muy bueno!
Nice commission result, I do like it. I wish I had the money to commission such talent to do some characters. But well... my financial situation is a major reason why I'd move the family to Equestria and start over.
Yeah, I am an artist and I could just draw the ideas myself, but I always enjoyed seeing my ideas rendered in other artistic styles.

The original files would be fine. I was just lacking the capability to actually splice out the sound waves myself.

Thank you so much.

What I'll do tonight is see about packaging a sampling of some files and get it to you somehow so you can see if its what you need/want. You want to PM me an email or something? I can try sending through email.

Happy Birthday! Have an awful, evil Rarity birthday comic

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Wow, that *IS* evil!

[Deadly]

Wow, that *IS* evil!

Yeah, I almost want to write a story where it all works out to a happy ending in the end somehow. But then I remember I have a gazillion other stories I want to write, and I'm behind on next chapter of II because of the Nightmare Night contest.

[Aotrs Commander]

Happy Birthday! Have an awful, evil Rarity birthday comic

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And something nicer

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Thank you!

I probably should feel bad I laughed so hard at the first one, but as both Evil and an older sibling, I don't at all...!

[Soras Teva Gee]

Happy Birthday! Have an awful, evil Rarity birthday comic

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Sweeetie!

That's bad and you should feel bad for posting it! (Not really, but still)

[Deadly]

Sweeetie!

That's bad and you should feel bad for posting it! (Not really, but still)

I like to imagine Sweetie appears in a family who actually love her, with no memory of evil Rarity, and that Rarity henceforth gets struck by a curse of some sort.

[OracleofWuffing]

Trying to calculate the number of pony-related posts on GITP. So far I have ~115,000 posts in pony-related threads, but am unsure on the number of pony posts outside of pony threads. Anyone have an estimate/idea?

The cheap way would be to just type "site:http://www.giantitp.com/forums/ Pony" in a Google search. Looks like they approximate 119,000.

[t209]

Sweeetie!

That's bad and you should feel bad for posting it! (Not really, but still)

I thought

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Rarity love sweetie belle after Sisterhooves Social.

[HalfTangible]

I thought

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Rarity love sweetie belle after Sisterhooves Social.

Putting random spoiler tags around events that happened dozens of episodes ago doesn't really help if you don't mark what episode/season they're for.

Also, Sisterhooves Social has been out a LONG time. I think it's okay to not spoilertag it =p

[Soras Teva Gee]

You ask me spoilers are somewhere this side of the Crystal Empire.

Now the synopsis of the third episode, that's a still a bit of one. Even there I don't know how people can live riveting the rock down like that.

[Tiki Snakes]

Spoiler rule is quite clear. Wasn't it the tuesday after the episode shows, or something like that? There was a specific limit and I don't see any reason to change that rule between seasons.

[Balmas]

I got this one!

Hmm. If that's Cadence's child, then there must have been a bit of a time skip between the wedding and the first episode. I'm betting on Cadence's sister, judging by the size of the filly in the picture.

Happy Birthday! Have an awful, evil Rarity birthday comic

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And something nicer

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That is evil. And also funny.

Somehow, both images remind me of a story called The Secret Life of Rarity. It's actually a good look into the mind of a vengeful serial killer. To see Rarity as such, you need only stretch the imagination a little bit. Check it out.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Spoiler rule is quite clear. Wasn't it the tuesday after the episode shows, or something like that? There was a specific limit and I don't see any reason to change that rule between seasons.

The 72 hour rule was created for while the season was running and I... follow... it for episodes after airing.

Stuff on the side, yeah pretty sure I remember we saying zomg Royal Wedding and the like out loud before hand. I always drew a line about caring about that was say months old.

Stuff we've known since summer, yeah its spoiling nothing to say there's a Crystal Empire with Crystal ponies that we need to save with their history. In song. You really should know that at this point, and if you haven't I'm sorry to be a jerk but you passed the limits of me politely catering to your own ways.

Which I believe I've all said before more then once. Oh the cycles of ponythread.

[Forum Explorer]

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Glad you liked it.

Mouse does talk about names earlier, and being called unflattering names by others. At the end he also expresses dislike of her name, although he doesn't say he doesn't like it, he just grimaces every time he speaks her name or says it in a disapproving voice. Maybe these things are easy to miss, I guess.

I didn't want him to just say "Call yourself Trixie, or something", I kinda wanted to hint that at this point he didn't really have to tell her anything, that his influence was complete enough that he could just give a little hint and she'd do it on her own.

The white hair was originally meant to be a side-effect of the possession and not a conscious choice. I couldn't quite work that out in the time I had, and I think it works quite nice as more of a corruption and betrayal of who she is and where she comes from. She's changing herself, the pony she is and the pony that her family and friends know and love. Same with the name, and of course personality. It's all about her no longer being Lulamoon at all.

As for her age, I pictured her as somewhat older than Diamond Tiara. Probably fresh out of school, so adult but a very young one.

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I don't know maybe it's the order of the events that bother me. Like perhaps the physical and name changes should happen first then followed by the becoming super arrogant?

Either way works though. It's still a good story either way.

All right, all right, this series gets my endorsement.

"Blue Twilight!", ahahahhaha

You know I've found I have trouble enjoying a parody redub of a show that I've already really enjoyed.

Only 'cos I missed it 'cos I've been mostly skimming...

So, yeah, what you said.



Birthday off to better start than last year, at any rate...!





*snerk*

You seem to be getting through more minions than I do on the original, and I was sending Peons out completely unarmed...!

That's because you're playing on e- *WHAM* because it's your birthday and you're awesome!

Happy Birthday!

Spoiler rule is quite clear. Wasn't it the tuesday after the episode shows, or something like that? There was a specific limit and I don't see any reason to change that rule between seasons.

Unless of course the day the episode is shown has changed. But I don't think it has.


Also which pony would you want as a room-mate?

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[Deadly]

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I don't know maybe it's the order of the events that bother me. Like perhaps the physical and name changes should happen first then followed by the becoming super arrogant?

Either way works though. It's still a good story either way.

Squeak

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I wanted the name to be the last thing, because that's when she definitively goes from being Lulamoon (the nice, innocent filly) to Trixie (the egotistical, megalomaniac mare).

Likewise I felt the hair ought to come towards the end as well, because it too is symbolic of the transformation becoming complete. Mouse is gnawing at her heart from within, turning her more and more egotistic, and then finally it culminates in a complete outward transformation into Trixie. The effect works its way from inside and out ... like insanity and such in general, it usually starts out with things that aren't apparent to those who don't know the person very well, and then progressively gets more and more obvious to others. Sane people don't start out suddenly doing crazy things while sane, and then turning crazy, it's usually the other way around

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced I at least got the basic structure of the story right, but maybe I didn't make my intentions clear somehow.

[Tiki Snakes]

The 72 hour rule was created for while the season was running and I... follow... it for episodes after airing.

Stuff on the side, yeah pretty sure I remember we saying zomg Royal Wedding and the like out loud before hand. I always drew a line about caring about that was say months old.

Stuff we've known since summer, yeah its spoiling nothing to say there's a Crystal Empire with Crystal ponies that we need to save with their history. In song. You really should know that at this point, and if you haven't I'm sorry to be a jerk but you passed the limits of me politely catering to your own ways.

Which I believe I've all said before more then once. Oh the cycles of ponythread.

I have indeed already noticed that you have strong opinions on the subject.
I considered simply boycotting the thread until the tuesday after the first episode airs, actually, but decided against it on balance. Your gleeful spoiling aside, , I was actually mostly saying that it had long since passed the Tuesday after Sisterhooves social.

[Grif]

The 72 hour rule was created for while the season was running and I... follow... it for episodes after airing.

Stuff on the side, yeah pretty sure I remember we saying zomg Royal Wedding and the like out loud before hand. I always drew a line about caring about that was say months old.

Stuff we've known since summer, yeah its spoiling nothing to say there's a Crystal Empire with Crystal ponies that we need to save with their history. In song. You really should know that at this point, and if you haven't I'm sorry to be a jerk but you passed the limits of me politely catering to your own ways.

Which I believe I've all said before more then once. Oh the cycles of ponythread.

I'm one of the few that strictly adheres to the no-spoiler rules then. Really, I don't know anything about alleged crystal ponies.

[Soras Teva Gee]

I have indeed already noticed that you have strong opinions on the subject.
I considered simply boycotting the thread until the tuesday after the first episode airs, actually, but decided against it on balance. Your gleeful spoiling aside, , I was actually mostly saying that it had long since passed the Tuesday after Sisterhooves social.

And I will hold them and preach them until one day the world goes exactly as I please.

And yeah certainly. It became a sled thirty-five minutes ago and all that.