My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club

[Aotrs Commander]

More bad news for you all, I'm afraid...

Because tomorrow is an early start and I had nothing better to do, I did the ground work preparation for Bleakbane Plays: Aotrs-Com 2. (Yes, actual ground-work, including me Commiting an Art, so you can imagine the terror this is going to bring.)

Of slightly two minds whether to leave this on ponythread ('cos we don't talk enough and there WILL be ponies involved) or to do a seperate thread...

[Pilum]

Good luck commander, and I hope it goes well for you; i think it lost a bit of ... intimacy? in the move from the uni as it was. The hall at Castle D just made it feel like a glorified car boot sale which... I suppose that's what con's are, ultimately, but Original Triples and the Worlds didn't feel like it, perhaps because they were so split up in various rooms which as big as they were, were not basically a converted warehouse.

Tangentially horse related, I think Hasbro must be 'feeling' the movie over here, I've never seen so much pone merch in general shops as in the last few weeks (including flipping advent calendars IN OCTOBER grumble bah humbug mutter). Still trying to decide whether to 'borrow' a friend's daughter or to just say "stuff it, I'm a 41 year old man who goes to almost every animated movie as it is, who are you to judge? And a medium Sprite please."

[Pi Pie]

More bad news for you all, I'm afraid...

Because tomorrow is an early start and I had nothing better to do, I did the ground work preparation for Bleakbane Plays: Aotrs-Com 2. (Yes, actual ground-work, including me Commiting an Art, so you can imagine the terror this is going to bring.)

Of slightly two minds whether to leave this on ponythread ('cos we don't talk enough and there WILL be ponies involved) or to do a seperate thread...

I would enjoy reading your play through, so please post it on this thread.

Tangentially horse related, I think Hasbro must be 'feeling' the movie over here, I've never seen so much pone merch in general shops as in the last few weeks (including flipping advent calendars IN OCTOBER grumble bah humbug mutter). Still trying to decide whether to 'borrow' a friend's daughter or to just say "stuff it, I'm a 41 year old man who goes to almost every animated movie as it is, who are you to judge? And a medium Sprite please."

I would suggest going to the show even if you are worried about how people will see you. In my show (Thurday 7:00 pm) we had 3 families of woman with 2 girls, woman with 2 girls, and man and woman with 2 girls plus myself. No one looked at me strange. In the next showing at 9:30 pm, there was one man waiting for our show to end.

When I saw Rainbow Rocks in the theaters, there were 2 girls ~12ish years old. They were excited that there was a brony watching the show and gave me a hoof bump which was awesome.

Spoiler: More movie thoughts, spoilers

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It seems strange that ponies seemed so rare in each of the places that the Mane 6 travel. We know that ponies travel a lot (look how much background ponies get around).


Also, where were Shining Armor and Flurryheart in the movie. Shining Armor's shield could have easily stopped the invading army.

They could have used Flurryheart as the fourth alicorn in the evil ritual. However, they might have been scared of trying to capture her since she seems highly capable with her magic of mass destruction.

Which leads to the sad though that the most powerful alicorn may be the 3 month old baby.

[Spamotron]

Spoiler: The Storm King's Fate

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It occurs to me that Twilight, Starlight and Rarity have all displayed sophisticated mending spells. The hardest part of bringing him back would be locating all the pieces and assembling them correctly. Then any high level spellcaster could restore him. Of course it's hard to justify why anyone would. Without his army and artifacts he's just another dude.

[Derjuin]

Spoiler: Post-Movie Feelings

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Spoiler: Post-Movie Thoughts

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I really dig the animation style. It looks fantastic when you actually see everything moving. Tempest's airship looks so much better in the actual movie vs. the previews. While it's a little annoying that once again the plot hinged on the other princesses being neutralized so that they can't do anything, I really enjoyed the mane6's journey through Beyond Equestria.

Everyone keeps saying that the various animal-people don't feel like they fit, but oddly I feel opposite. They fit as strange creatures living outside the comfort zone of ponies, and they have their own (hacked together) society. I feel like having the inhabitants of the desert city be something we're used to (griffons, etc) or be something similar wouldn't feel alien enough to really have ponies stand out as being unwelcome.

Grubber was a pretty excellent piece of comedy to play off of Tempest's super seriousness. Rarity's ham was excellent, and very easily stole the scenes she participated in. However, I loved every performance in this - it was pretty much what I expected, except better in basically every regard. While the plot wasn't necessarily complex, I still had fun with it.

In regards to Twilight's flip out post-seaponies, I believe it's because of how the journey so far (in her eyes) had gone. At every turn she and her friends are defeated, and she feels responsible for not only picking up the pieces and putting it back together, but also making sure it doesn't happen again. And it keeps happening. The last time it happens, she's not just failing her responsibility in making sure it didn't happen again, but was the root cause of it happening - instead of it having happened TO them by an outside force she's trying to fight, she's directly responsible for the incident. It's entirely possible she feels like she's doing more than the others in trying to save Equestria and finally snaps. She starts the journey already burdened by multitudes of stress over the festival, and everything else just surmounts from there.

WRT Capper and cats: Diamond Dogs and Winona comes to mind as a strictly-show-canon example of it already existing.

RE Credits: Pointy ponies!!

Spoiler: Storm King's Fate

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Maybe just a gag, but in the credits there is a scene where the Storm King's statue is reassembled (incorrectly) on the dance floor and falls apart, and its eyes move. Probably just a gag.

[Adderbane]

Still trying to decide whether to 'borrow' a friend's daughter or to just say "stuff it, I'm a 41 year old man who goes to almost every animated movie as it is, who are you to judge? And a medium Sprite please."

Thanks to advice from the thread, I took the "stuff it" route, and it turned out fine.

Spoiler: Movie Thoughts

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I wasn't sure about the animation style changes, but they seemed a lot less noticeable in the movie than in the trailer.

Derpy saving Twilight was a nice touch. Would've been nice to see Shining Armor in that fight. Poor guy never gets much chance to shine.

It's a good thing Tempest was the main villain for most of the movie; she was pretty menacing unlike her boss and minion. Wild electrical discharge from her horn is a pretty cool power. That ravager guy from Guardians of the Galaxy 2 must be pretty jealous.

They definitely tried to cram way to many new settings into one movie. I suspect the merchandise department is to blame. Got to show the new toy sets. That merchant with a display of unicorn horns was super creepy though.

Overall: This isn't Rainbow Rocks, but I'm still glad I saw it.

[t209]

Spoiler: About the animal people in MLP

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The one who enslaves ponies to make more magic potions in G1.

[b_jonas]

When I saw Rainbow Rocks in the theaters,

What? But EG2 Rainbow Rocks was a TV film. I didn't know they'd show it in the cinema too.

[DigoDragon]

Spoiler: The Storm King's Fate

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It occurs to me that Twilight, Starlight and Rarity have all displayed sophisticated mending spells. The hardest part of bringing him back would be locating all the pieces and assembling them correctly. Then any high level spellcaster could restore him. Of course it's hard to justify why anyone would. Without his army and artifacts he's just another dude.

Spoiler: Pony: the Movie

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I don't know that anyone with high magic could restore him. The staff was used to restore others, so at minimum I think it would take all four alicorns to do it.

Was amusing the Storm King couldn't remember that word.

Spoiler: Post-Movie Thoughts

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Grubber was a pretty excellent piece of comedy to play off of Tempest's super seriousness.

WRT Capper and cats: Diamond Dogs and Winona comes to mind as a strictly-show-canon example of it already existing.

Maybe just a gag, but in the credits there is a scene where the Storm King's statue is reassembled (incorrectly) on the dance floor and falls apart, and its eyes move. Probably just a gag.

Spoiler: Pony: the Movie

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1. Two words for you: Sponge. Cake.

2. Now that's a group that would be neat to see on the big screen. A Diamond Doc city.

3. Probably a gag. Credit scenes are a blurry area when it comes to labeling what happens as canon or not. Like, take the credits from Wall-E and you could probably get most to agree it's canon.

Thanks to advice from the thread, I took the "stuff it" route, and it turned out fine.

Yeah, no judgement or anything. The lady who took my ticket apparently either was used to it or a fan herself.

I even wore my Doctor Whooves shirt, so... ^^;

Spoiler: Movie Thoughts

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good thing Tempest was the main villain for most of the movie; she was pretty menacing unlike her boss and minion. Wild electrical discharge from her horn is a pretty cool power. That ravager guy from Guardians of the Galaxy 2 must be pretty jealous.

They definitely tried to cram way to many new settings into one movie. I suspect the merchandise department is to blame. Got to show the new toy sets. That merchant with a display of unicorn horns was super creepy though.

Spoiler: Pony: the Movie

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1. Yeah, loved Tempest. Well written in that she doesn't make any really bad choices or mistakes in pursuit of Twilight. She knows not to hold the idiot ball. Good bad pony.


2. Well at it's core Pony is a merch driven thing so yeah. Agreed.

[zimmerwald1915]

What? But EG2 Rainbow Rocks was a TV film. I didn't know they'd show it in the cinema too.

EqG1 and 2 had limited theatrical releases. TV-only releases began with EqG3.

[Adderbane]

Spoiler: Once Upon a Zeppelin

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Yet another episode that seems to be aimed at the fandom somewhat. This is becoming a regular occurrence.

Let's face it, Stargazer's behavior isn't too far off the mark. Glad Twilight patched things up with him in the end.

7/10 Enjoyable, but not great.

[Aotrs Commander]

Day one down. Pretty busy, which was a good sign (i.e. the show wasn't going to drop dead). We only made one bound, partly because talking to folk (i.e, the actual point) and partly because 68 elements is a frack-lot to get through. While aethetically it was a good idea to throw the Herosines and Jalyrkieons at the Aotrs, the one down side is you forget now many little bits and turrets and putting said on vehicles that actually entails.

(Photos will follow - probably tomorrow, depending on how knackered I am when we get back after day two.)

[DigoDragon]

Spoiler: Once Upon a Zeppelin

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Okay, you win a contest you don't remember entering? Come on, ponies, that's how scams work! I've actually gotten a letter that tried to scam me into a fake contest prize. I was savvy enough to ask about the contest details and the phone call didn't last past that. ;)

Anyway, random thoughts: Skies of Arcadia and ponies! I'm telling you, could totally work! It is nice to see where Twi get's her OCD for organization from. Cute to see the family together and interacting. Something we don't get a lot of outside the Apples (and that one time Rarity's family). Twi's mom is a hoot. ^_^ She seems to be a fun having pony.

Oh hey, there's Iron Will again, in all his assertive muscly-- oh. my. Celestia. You could grind meat on that thing.

Okay, Iron Will just stole the episode when he jumped off the ship. The parachute of him with the bits. Too funny. I died. No saving throw. And Shining gets a nice little line about that to wrap it up. Heh, yeah... overal an alright episode. Not much to it, but it's nice to see the Sparkle family interacting together.

Spoiler: Once Upon a Zeppelin

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Yet another episode that seems to be aimed at the fandom somewhat. This is becoming a regular occurrence.

Let's face it, Stargazer's behavior isn't too far off the mark. Glad Twilight patched things up with him in the end.

7/10 Enjoyable, but not great.

Spoiler: Zeppelins!

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At least Twi's tag-a-long wasn't too creepy. Could have been worse.

[Spamotron]

Spoiler: Once Upon a Zeppelin

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Looking around pony sites on the interwebs it seems the big disagreement is about Iron Will's behavior. Some say he was acting completely above board and it was Twilight Velvet's own fault for signing the contract without reading it. Others say he stayed within the letter of the law while breaking its spirit and was extremely manipulative. What does the playground think?

Just a heads up but links online have appeared for all the remaining episodes of S7 in a substantial leak. Beware of spoilers.

Edit: Word is spreading that derpiboru is crawling with unmarked spoilers.

[Adderbane]

Spoiler: Once Upon a Zeppelin

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Looking around pony sites on the interwebs it seems the big disagreement is about Iron Will's behavior. Some say he was acting completely above board and it was Twilight Velvet's own fault for signing the contract without reading it. Others say he stayed within the letter of the law while breaking its spirit and was extremely manipulative. What does the playground think?

Spoiler: Zeppelin

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When your defense is "You didn't read the fine print" I think it's safe to say you misrepresented something pretty thoroughly. While it may not be a legal responsibility to ensure the other party understands everything about the contract, I'd say it is an ethical one to make sure they have the gist of it. Twilight Velvet certainly didn't.

[Aotrs Commander]

Okay, so much for Aotrs-Com 2 the intro bit tonight...! 60GB is a frack-ton to download, and it'll be another long day tomorrow...!

[Pendulous]

I blame the combination of college football and new episodes of My Hero Academia coming out on Saturday, but I'm now two weeks behind on new pony, and I'm not sure I'll watch today's. Not to mention I don't intend to watch the movie anytime soon, and staying active is...hard.

That being said though, I'm wondering something. Is this link of the original MLP bible legit? https://imgur.com/a/ecZPp

Also not sure how long this has left, but Peter New and some other cast people are streaming Overwatch and taking donations for hurricane relief and the Las Vegas victims https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBN...wRnOOsGmg/live. More hanging out and doing random stuff than playing.

[Appleshy1973]

Once Upon A Zeppelin was so worth the long wait.

[digiman619]

I learned my lesson last season. I'm not going to spoil myself with the leaks and am going to watch it when they actually air.

[Draconi Redfir]

just watched s7 e20. and all i have to say is:

"Dissapeared without a trace" confirmed as pony-talk for "died"

[Pendulous]

New episode:

Spoiler

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Twilight's parents have new voice actors.

Also, I don't like how they did Iron Will at the end. Before, his services were honest, they just didn't produce the expected results. This turns him into a second version of Flim and Flam.

[Rater202]

New episode:

Spoiler

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Twilight's parents have new voice actors.

Also, I don't like how they did Iron Will at the end. Before, his services were honest, they just didn't produce the expected results. This turns him into a second version of Flim and Flam.

Spoiler

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I would like to point out that, except in Fluttershy's specific case, it's basically impossible to take advantage of that "You don't have to pay if you're not satisfied" clause of his program from his original appearance.

Either the seminar fails to make you more assertive and the big, muscly macho minotaur intimidates you into paying anyway(possibly without even trying,) or yu stand up for yourself and refuse and he can point out that you're being assertive and thus it's ridiculous for you to not be satisfied.

In fact, considering that he's shown thinking really hard about what Fluttershy said to get out of paying,
the contract/fine print thing might be the end result of having someone manage to weasel out of paying him thanks to the wording of an informal verbal contract.

[b_jonas]

Warning for everyone. Apparently the rest of season 7 (E23, E24, E25, E26) has been leaked (non-spoiler article on Equestria Daily). Be very careful with spoilers around the internet. (Update: more non-spoiler article on Equestria Daily, it's even worse than we thought.)

The movie was shown in cinemas two days ago in some countries, and E22 released in TV yesterday, both as planned. If you do watch E22 or any of the later episodes, or the movie, please use keep using spoiler tags on this thread for everything that might spoil those.

(I will watch E22 later today, and I don't know when I'll watch the rest yet.)

zimmerwald: thank you fro the info re EG1 and EG2.

[DigoDragon]

Spoiler: Once Upon a Zeppelin

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Looking around pony sites on the interwebs it seems the big disagreement is about Iron Will's behavior. Some say he was acting completely above board and it was Twilight Velvet's own fault for signing the contract without reading it. Others say he stayed within the letter of the law while breaking its spirit and was extremely manipulative. What does the playground think?

Spoiler: Zeppelin

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I think using Twilight and Cadance for a themed cruise without securing their permissions is pretty darn shady. Possibly illegal. Extra shady points for being a manipulative jerk to Twilight with a guilt trip that cruise-goers will be disappointed if he turned the ship around. Yes, Velvet should have read the contract carefully, but the contract was flawed to begin with, so I think it ultimately falls on Iron Will.

Edit: Word is spreading that derpiboru is crawling with unmarked spoilers.

The ending to the season finale as an unspoilered gif being a big one.

That being said though, I'm wondering something. Is this link of the original MLP bible legit? https://imgur.com/a/ecZPp

Let's see, lists the three pony types. Earth ponies have the shortest description. Says they don't have magic and tend plants...

Yeah, seems legit.

New episode:

Spoiler

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Twilight's parents have new voice actors.

Spoiler: Zeppelin

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Did they speak before? I don't recall them having voices before.

[Pilum]

Spoiler: Zeppelin

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Did they speak before? I don't recall them having voices before.

Spoiler: Zeppelins? Hmph, if ponies were meant to fly, the princesses would have given us ... oh.

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I don't know about her dad, but at the end of the Flurry Heart premiere, they meet at the train station and her mum is blatantly Tara Strong being a bit less 'young' than Twilight .

Have to agree with those disappointed about Iron Will, definitely veered off to the Jerk Side there. Also can't help thinking that, ironically, Twilight's only making matters worse by TRYING to be Friendly Princess. Attention did wander a bit during it, I wouldn't call it bad though, just a bit... dull.

Also Twilight as Princess of Middle Management re-confirmed. Obsession with scheduling, whips up a mean PowerPoint, and has no backbone whatsoever

As ever, personal opinion etc.

[b_jonas]

Watching the new episode of yesterday, S7 E22.

Spoiler: S7 E22

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S7 E22 Once upon a zeppelin

From the TV guide description, it sounded like Twighlight Sparkle was trying to sell out by using some of her fame (from E14), and has to balance that with family time. Now you probably remember that Twilight has already managed to balance her family life with her other duties in S4 E11 and S7 E3, and I have several co-workers who also do that all the time (my supervisor just had his first child born a month ago), so I'm optimistic here.

Thoughts as I watch.

• Haha! “Deep fried gems.” Great parody of real life people who actually deep fry every possible food, including food that makes absolutely no sense to deep-fry. There's a page on TvTropes for that, but I won't link it.
• (Twilight got a letter where her parents invite her for a zeppelin course vacation. Twilight doesn't want to go because she's busy, but Spike tells her he must go.) Oh nice. Spike's really a number one assistant here. He'll succeed replacing Princess Twilight in every way that he failed in the controversial S5 E10.
• (During opening credits song.) The whole concept of zeppelins, per se, is so obsolete that I don't think I've ever met them in real life. I just meet them through fiction, including webcomics like xkcd, Irregular Webcomics (in the storyline that plays before World War 2), and Order of the Sticks. The last of these three will probably be the most relevant for MLP. Order of the Sticks uses zeppelins the same way as Star Wars uses spaceships: basically they need a story that takes place on a ship, but put it in the air instead of on sea. In MLP, there's probably enough magic to make zeppelins work the same way. I mean, several episodes have already used the Twinkling Ballon, which always goes to wherever the ponies want it to go, so it's effectively already a zeppelin, even if not called as such.
• (Ponies board the zeppelin in what looks like Canterlot.) Wow, what a big zeppelin! Is that a living air leviathan that lifts that? Even still, that balloon seems too small for the size of deck it has. And what are those grey cones below the balloon?
• Look! One of the passengers has a compact camera with a pretty large lens.
• Grey cones turn out to be loudspeakers, and Iron Will or a student of him welcomes the ponies aboard. And yes, zeppelin is definitely magical. There's no way it could fly with that small balloon alone. And it has flapping wings too.
• Twilight's parents explain that they got this free vacation under suspicious conditions. Must be one of those product advertisment tours organized for old people.
• (The announcer announces that you can see Cloudsdale from the ship, and that it's a famous town because Twilight Sparkle once visited it.) Ah, I see! So the suspicious invite is because of Twilight Sparkle. This will be interesting.
• “We are now high enough to see all of Canterlot, even the royal tree where Princess Twilight and her brother Shining Armor were born!” No no, they were born in the Friendship tree in the Everfree forest. It even has Twilight's cutie mark. Of course, you don't want to fly there with a zeppelin, because the weather isn't controlled by the ponies.
• “On our route north, we will pass the spires of the Crystal Empire, where Princess Cadance rescued her Alicorn baby Spike from a monster made of fire!” No no. The baby Jack-Jack could protect himself from the monster made of fire just fine. Princess Cadence was there, to defeat the robot whose armor was so tough nothing could scratch it. Good strategy though, Iron Will, because Princess Twilight will want to step up and correct every little bit of misinformation now.
• Hahahaha! Ponies in Princess Twilight costume.
• Iron Will: “The assertiveness seminar market dried up”. Hehe. Iron Will started a new business. (Talks to Twilight's family privately.) And he is doing it quite well.
• Princess Cadence: “As much as I want a family vacation, I don't think I could entertain all these cruise ponies.” You don't have to. That's Iron Will's task.
• Confetti!
• (Princess Cadence takes Flurry away from the annoying other parents.) Ah yes. Trust on Princess Cadence to manage the situation.
• Remember back at the end of S5 E12, when unicorns wore helmets with a hole for their horn? Both Twilight's cowboy hat and Twilight's mom's helmet here looks like there's not enough space under for the horn.
• (Twilight is angry.) There's no need to blame everyone else, Twilight, if you can't manage your vacation. I didn't like my ski trip with my parents much either, but it was short, and I agreed to it because it was a reasonable sacrifice to make for my family. This year, I won't go to a family ski holiday, even though they did offer again.
• (Twilight realizes that too.) Good.
• (Iron will points to the contract and jumps with a parachute. Twilight celebrates with her family.) Well, Iron Will could have handled that a bit better, but this was a good exit too. In the end, everyone managed to come out of this trip well.
• The episode was a bit disorganized, but that's realistic for such a vacation I guess, even if it's all scheduled by Iron Will and Twilight. Average episode or a bit better, I think.

Replies about S7 E22.

New episode:

Spoiler

Show

Also, I don't like how they did Iron Will at the end. Before, his services were honest, they just didn't produce the expected results. This turns him into a second version of Flim and Flam.

Spoiler: S7 E22

Show

Oh dear. I remember all the endless debates on this forum about Flim and Flam.

Spoiler

Show

I would like to point out that, except in Fluttershy's specific case, it's basically impossible to take advantage of that "You don't have to pay if you're not satisfied" clause of his program from his original appearance.

Either the seminar fails to make you more assertive and the big, muscly macho minotaur intimidates you into paying anyway(possibly without even trying,) or yu stand up for yourself and refuse and he can point out that you're being assertive and thus it's ridiculous for you to not be satisfied.

Spoiler: S7 E22

Show

Sure. Iron Will was doing something similar to a well-known very old paradox about Protagoras and his student, especially the variant Raymond Smullyan recounts in Some Interesting Memories part 1.

Spoiler: Zeppelin

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I think using Twilight and Cadance for a themed cruise without securing their permissions is pretty darn shady. Possibly illegal. Extra shady points for being a manipulative jerk to Twilight with a guilt trip that cruise-goers will be disappointed if he turned the ship around. Yes, Velvet should have read the contract carefully, but the contract was flawed to begin with, so I think it ultimately falls on Iron Will.

[Twilight's parents] Did they speak before? I don't recall them having voices before.

Spoiler: S7 E22

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Yes, Iron Will was definitely at fault for doing this. On the other hand, Twilight totally deserved it for being such a sucker to allow Iron Will to push her that way. Even if she really wants to be a popular princess and spend her time to make all those ponies happy, then she should have at least sat down with Iron Will and make a new detailed schedule for programs for both the other ponies and herself, and stick to it when Iron Will wants to push her to anything she didn't agree to, rather than just make a vague deal with Iron Will without details. Both sides were clearly at fault here, but in the end it managed to work out without too much trouble.

Twilight's parents spoke a few lines in S6 E2, after their granddaughter got crystalled. They complained about the weather and said how lovely the baby is and asked what her name was.

[Aotrs Commander]

Settle in Ponythread, for the "Derby" Worlds was a two-day convention and I actually remembered to take a lot of pictures this time...!

Spoiler: Initial Situation

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Aotrs Brief
Our engagement with the Jalyrkieon Hierarchy on the mining colony of Habrall several months ago was less conclusive than we would have liked. However, the addition of heavier reinforcements, including several Hammer of Hatreds broke the stalemate after the battle of Fizrid.

This has not, however, gone unnoticed. A Herosine force observed the Jalyrkieons and our conflict with them. The Herosine commander appears to have misread the situation entirely. It appears he assumes there is something of great value hidden on Habrall. Which, of the face of it, would be within line with our usual deployment of ground forces – if you discount the fact the world is directly on our borders.

A mid-sized Herosine ground force landed as we were positioning for the final push on the Jalyrkieon occupation forces. They have been… Somewhat less civilised than even the Jalyrkieons were; though for similar reasons, this is not necessarily a bad thing for us. The more rabidly anti-authoritarian fanatics that our enemy’s gun down just makes us look like saviours. We have, in fact, been directly requested by several local authorities to intervene and save them! Which is a somewhat amusingly novel state of affairs!

The Herosines are unfortunately, while misguided, not stupid and are taking no chances. They have arrived bearing a large amount of heavy armour. Worse, they have been smart enough to strike an “enemy of my enemy” deal with the Jalyrkieons. Both sides know they will fall upon each other as soon as we are out of the way, but, rather showing their idiocy, they seem positively delighted at the prospect. But it does not bode well for the relatively small force we have here.

Unfortunately, we were unable to delay the Herosine heavy armour as much as desired, and worse, suffered some losses due to some lucky hits, and the commander withdrew before the Herosine could inflict further damage. However, we frustrated their advance with a few drone ambushes enough for our new Tomb Guardian to emplace the remaining Hammers of Hatred.

The Herosines and Jalyrkieons have joined forces, preparing a major assault. Despite the concentration of our own forces, they out-number us significantly, and we expect this engagement to be very bloody.



Herosine Brief
Our forces engaged in and around the Tver sector managed, through a stroke of luck, to intercept a communications transmission between Jalyrkieon Hierarchy forces. Apparently, one Admiral Tevloyon took a sizeable force to an insignificant world called Habrall, near the border of Army Of The Red Spear space. This pitiful, barely habitable mining world, mostly rock and dust, has a small strip of less than four hundred by one hundred miles at the equator which is inhabited. From there, miners eke out a laughable amount of minerals from the rock.

We at first thought that the Jalyrkieons were merely trying to set-up some sort of forward base. Interestingly, the Aotrs actually sent ground forces to intercept them! While this might, to a lesser eye, have been merely them unwilling to have a hostile military installation so near their borders… But then why not simply bombard it from orbit? What do they care for the lives of neutral miners? No, there is clearly something of value enough to entice the Aotrs ground armies to fight a land war down there.

And you are going to find out what that is!

But this will not be easy. The Aotrs ground force is at least as well-equipped and more advanced than ours. You have thus brought a significant amount of heavy armour. Even that, though, may not have been sufficient.

A genius such as yours, however, came up with a masterstroke! You contacted the Jalyrkieon Admiral Tevloyon and proposed a deal. The enemy of your enemy is your servant, as the saying goes! You have agreed to join forces and defeat the Aotrs before they can bring more reinforcements. Then you will split the secret treasures of the world 50-50. You will, of course, stab them in the back as soon as it is turned, and you they will do the same! But there is a peculiar honour in knowing where you stand – the Jalyrkieons are almost Herosine at times…!

Your heavy armour company inflicted serious damage on the small Aotrs delaying force sent to stop you – even the vaunted Hammer of Hatred fell quickly to your attacks! The Aotrs made harassing attacks as they made their way back to the main position.

Your Jalyrkieon allies were not quite so lucky – their commander was killed in an Aotrs Desolation Commando ambush. But even this has a silver lining. The second-in-command is a delightful Jalyrkieon female, who has been very amenable – you found in her very much a kindred spirit, one that you have been vigorously pursuing the boundaries of inter-species relations in their most carnal sense...

You have been in no hurry then; let the Aotrs think their attacks slowed you down. You will crush their force with the sheer weight of forces. You paramour has graciously given you full command and has joined you in your comfortable command vehicle. She herself suggested using her forces as the first wave, to whittle away the Aotrs with numbers, before your superior, shielded troops delivery the final blow!

The Battlefield


Alliance centre



Alliance Left


Alliance Right


Aotrs Centre



Aotrs Left


Aotrs Right

Spoiler: Day One

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The Jalyrkieons started as expected with a frontal charge against the Aotrs position. It was suicidal, but a necessary attempt to begin to try and draw away the Aotrs fire.

Also somewhat as expected, it did not go well.


However, even at this early stage, the Aotrs were having significant trouble with their communications. The Jalyrkieon's Tevqolath and Shyroen heavy tanks rolled up to engage from behind the ridge. They succeeded in destroying one Revenant Spear, but the Aotrs (in one of the few occasions of luck during the battle) managed some lucky kills on the Tevqolaths.


On the Herosine left, the one Equus that had got engaged in the fight was been damaged.



By the end of the day, the Allied effort in continually pounding the centre had taken a severe toll. The engineered positions the Hammers of Hatred had excavated corridors to allow them a field of fire below the ridgeline (which otherwise would have been dead ground, and made them effectively hull-down. But those very positions mean they were also unable to retreat without drawing more fire. The Aotrs targeting software was having seriously problems with Habrall's low G, massively overcompensating and firing all too many shots just slightly too low.

The Herosines managed to get a pair of Psiloi drones on the ridgeline to established targeting locks, and - ironically - hammered the right Hammer of Hatred with the Onager Supertank's vertical launch missiles. Despite the enormous amount of point-defence in play against (down to a 5% hit rate) from such a high angle to-attack, two sets of 24 missiles managed to land a pair of hits, and neutralise both turret and hull (taking out the main generator) of that vehicle, effectively putting it out of the right. The further managed to kill another Revenant Spear due to a lucky hit from a Turma Tank, for the cost of only one Turma Tank in return, and excellent trade-off for the Herosines.

Finally, the Herosines managed to destroy one the Vampires providing air-support.




The Aotrs position was now shaky. The two remaining Hammers of Hatred were back-up only by a single Revenant Spear and were running out of reactions. The Storm Cleavers and other Revenant Spear platoon were tied up covering the flank approaches.

Spoiler: Day Two

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Confidant in his victory, the Herosine Commander retired to the rear of the Turma Command Vehicle to band the Jalyrkieon's replacement commander to the remainder of the battle. While he was engaged in this action of gross perversion¹, leaving the battle in the command of his (unfortunately) highly capable subcommander².

On the Herosine right, the reinforced Equus platoon switched its Screen Drones from point defence mode and forced the remaining Vampire off the hillside...




... though at the low cost of a Screen Drone as the Storm Cleavers slightly deployed to cover across the battlefield.


The relentless pounding on the Aotrs centre continued. The Revenant Spear killed the last Tevqolath, but was itself destroyed by the Shyroens. The one Onager with missiles left now safely unloaded them on to the central Hammer of Hatred, destroying it.

The Hammer of Hatred platoon commander had been burning reaction after reaction of counter fire - having started the day on three (the maximum, after which ever reaction is two leadership), virtually every single one which was a woeful (1 to 3 on D20) miss. When the Onager, flushed with success, sliced its way through the woods with its forward disintegrators to engage it, the Hammer of Hatred FINALLY made the one shot that day (and I think the whole game) that mattered, with a lucky shot that smartly can-opened the Onager.

But the second Onager and Shyroens rolled around, hitting it again, and hammering it to the point the crew abandoned it.

(At this point, we had a first for MG: something at Leadership 16 (which means "the number you need to roll or more on D20") that was still combat-effective, and it was actually only "killed" by the final hit pushing the Leadership up to 17, the actual combat-ineffective threshold (at which point the crew abandon the vehicle). Given that to take off suppressions or reactions or get handshakes (a new turn, basically, of two actions), you need to exceed the LD, you can imagine that you are often basically long-fragged by that point, since your chances of doing any of those actions are quite small. (As, at BEST, if you get the maximum amount of handshakes from commanders - at the opportunity cost of them not going elsewhere - you are only going to get six rolls of the dice per bound. And we only made about three bounds over two days. (Day one was a single bound!)

In reprisal, with the second Onager in sight, the Scitalis Recon Cycle on the high-point moved to turret-down and transmitted a targeting lock to one of the Reign of Angers. Eight Skulls rushed down out of the sky and one hit home with style, destroying the Onager.

Meanwhile, a group of hunter drones was defending against the pair of Appila that had actually made it into the dead ground of the Hammer of Hatred's firing position. They moved to position to transmit targeting locks. The first attempt - to the Scitalis on the high-point again ran afoul of the Aotrs targeting issues. The second attempt, to the Distant Thunder, succeeded. The Distant Thunder destroyed the lead vehicle with a couple of salvoes of Armour Piercing Rocketgun rounds, and disabled the second with a pair of Skulls - the angle of attack making penetrating the side armour of the not-especially-well armoured Applias almost unfairly easy.


(You can just see the smoke rising from the first destroyed Onager in the middle of the forest.



But things were looking grim. The Reign of Angers had expended all their Skulls at this point (I forget what the first one fired them at), and the Aotrs were running out of munitions.

The Scitalis on the high point, with his platoon commander's handshake, required a lock on the last Onager, and transmitted the firing solution to the Storm Cleaver platoon commander (the unit with the most remaining warheads). The Storm Cleaver shared the lock with his platoon, before loosing all four of his own Skulls. Sadly, this time, fate did not smile on the Aotrs, and the Onager suffered no damage and sharply withdrew out of the targeting lock's line of effect, sparing it more missiles.

At this point, Brigadier Frostweaver knew the inevitable. The alliance forces were still significant and the position was untenable. So, he used Gate XV to open a gate from his position to the neutralised Hammer of Hatred, which was, by chance, where the Tomb Guardian was located. The engineering vehicle was even pointing the tractor beam in the right direction, to simply start reversing, grab it and start to push it through. The rest of the next few minutes was the Herosines consolidating their positions and moving up, with the Aotrs smartly setting-up to withdraw in good order.





They left behind only the two Drop Troop squads, who being the elite sort of commando types, dispersed and went to ground - the Brig could rescue them later via Gate when he'd had a chance to recover. (For playability, MG Gate spells are not as easy to cast as in real Unlife, like I could!)

Frostweaver came to the only conclusion he could - the best course of action was to sharply withdraw as fast as possible. the Aotrs would retreat out of the terraformed area - perhaps even off the planet - and just wait until the Herosines and Jalyrkieons tenuous alliance collapsed. (Such as when the Herosine commander would find out that there WAS no secret treasure on the planet.)

The Aotrs left one last present, however. The Herosine commander came to isnpect the battered hull of the remaining Hammer of Hatred (the one rendered combat-ineffective). One of subborndiates, looking around the battered, but stilll reasonably intact vehicle noticed a series of sigils on the main command screen. They watched them for a few seconds, changing. At the point two sigils became one, the Herosine's pattern recognition kicked in.

The commander - being the cowardly sort - made it out, largely through dint of throwing subbornidates out of his way, but the explosion face-planted him into the nearest mud puddle, to shake his fist angrily and curse in tree villainous fashion.



So, a hard-fought battle. I got lucky several times with natural 20s on the penetration (i.e. damage) rolls (and nat 20s discount shields); but conversely was plagued by TERRIBLE shooting otherwise (like, nearly Cybertank levels) and handshake failures with so many natural 1s or multiples of 3 against hull-down target (those hitting the cover, not the vehicle). The opposition had a few 20s - the final hit on the last Hammer of Hatred was from the rockets of the last Onager (on the -3 (weapon - armour) column, the worst possible, where a 19 or 20 was required to do anything).

I reckon that I did not QUITE have enough forces to hold them. I think I could have used a platoon or two of Enragers. The Enragers would have done nothing but park in the city on my left flank (since their ranged attacks are pretty laughable beyond point-blank), but that would have free up the trio of Revenant Spears without otherwise did nothing apart from keep the alliance from transiting up my flank.

I underestimated the Onagers, actually; I worked out that in a one-to-one fight against a Hammer of Hatred, they stand a 40% chance of dying to the first shot, but if they can get a second shot in (the first having easily stripped shields), those vertical launch missiles would marmalise a Hammer of Hatred. (Of course, one-on-one there isn’t as much PD around - but note even with all the PD of my entire army AND both Vampires in AA mode, they managed to kill one!



It was a fairly busy show (one bound on day one is good, it means we spent more time talking to people!) and from the sound of it, we'll be back there next year. While on the one hand, Donington's hall stood empty today (and the chap who made the decision to kick everyone out has been sacked (HAH!)), the show organiser said that he hasn't got his deposit back from them either, so we may well be at Bruntinthorpe for the next few years. Next year, when it's not a panicked hunt for a new venue a few months before the show (since it wasn't easy to find anywhere to a) have the show and b) be free on the already advertised date) venue, they plan to make the show a little less cramped, by moving the competition players to a marque or something.



¹Now, ordinarily, what tow creature get up to on their own time and all that, but let us not forget we are dealing with a Herosine commander who is doing it precisely BECAUSE he thinks it's inappropriate, dirty borderline bestiality (it isn't of course), because he's a Herosine. These people literally have ships called Corruption, Lewd and Licentious, for Lichemaster's sake.


²My mate couldn't make it today for various reasons, despite expecting to come in the afternoon, so my other mate (who is one of MG's co-authors) who was filling in for him ended up playing for the rest of the day. So, good on me for already having previously created an excuse.

Right. Humorous Picture Time...

Spoiler

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Charge of the TwiLight Brigade

Seems about right.

Addendum: the Brig DID unleash one more second weapon to cover his retreat on the enemy commander, curtesy of an Enlarge spell and the secret weapon's own surprising knowledge of Gate spells...

Spoiler

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And... Finally (told you there were a lot of pictures, didn't I?) and rare treat. A shot of the entire Aotrs ground force arsenal, which I set-up just for you lot.

Spoiler

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Right to left, back row: Storm Cleaver Assault Striders, Gloombat Multirole Attack Craft (Coldbeam and energy turret variants). Fallen Soul Multirole IFVs, Vampire Lord IFV
Third Row: Revenant Spear MBTs, Scitalis Recon Cycles, Line Infantry platoon, War Droid squads (and War Droid command element) with Devil Storm Light Munitions Vehicle behind, Enrager Heavy War Droids
Front Row: Drop Troop squads (left), Power Troop squad and Hunter Drones (right), with yours truly centre, flanked by Hopereaver (L) and Brigadier Frostweaver (R).

[Pi Pie]

Apparently all of the rest of the episodes for the Season 7 got released, so I have a lot to go through. I will post my reactions later.

Spoiler: Season 8 Spoilers Clip

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e0AquS5KwA

Spoiler: Season 8 Spoilers Reaction

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Yay, our favorite evil bug is back.

Does Chrysalis not remove Starlight, the pony that defeated her evil plan and broke apart the changeling hive?

If Chrysalis is using Thaumaturgy to defeat the Mane 6, I will be disappointed in Twilight. As the Element of Magic, she should know about the risks of letting someone have her hairs, feathers, and blood and should take appropriate measures

Also some videos for your perusal

Fantastic Fallout Equestria PMV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YgqXCoEVqw

Starlight Glimmer singing I am the Bad Guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wax8KF0gqmU

[DigoDragon]

Spoiler: Season 8 Spoilers Reaction

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Does Chrysalis not remove Starlight, the pony that defeated her evil plan and broke apart the changeling hive?

If Chrysalis is using Thaumaturgy to defeat the Mane 6, I will be disappointed in Twilight. As the Element of Magic, she should know about the risks of letting someone have her hairs, feathers, and blood and should take appropriate measures

Spoiler: Season 8

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I would of thought so, but I'm sure there's an idiot ball jammed in one of those leg holes.

My question: how many ponies would know the magic spells to make use of your hair? I can't imagine many, which would mean Twi shouldn't have to be on guard about it with a photographer.

[Pi Pie]

I specifically am not listing the episode names to avoid spoilers for people.

Spoiler: Season 7 E22 Reaction

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Fun little episode. Fans being too pushy is getting to be a boring running joke. Still “B” for some nice family building and sweet scenes.

Thoughts as I go.

Twilight bored of paperwork, heresy.

Too many princess duties to go on a zeppelin. Remember your mentor Twilight and dump the work on your student. That is what being a princess is all about.

Spike really is the best assistant ever.

A relaxing vacation with the baby of mass destruction on board. I can already predict where this is going. (Turns out I was wrong).

“When someone offers you a free vacation, you just sign the paperwork and don’t ask questions.” Further confirming that ponies are a herd species that are easy marks.

Honestly, Iron Will’s business plan is horrible but very smart. Ponies love the princesses and would probably be willing to shell out mountains of bits for a themed cruise + merchandise + everything else. I am actually kind of jealous.

Spoiler: Season 7 E23 Reaction

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Overall “A”. I haven’t laughed so hard in quite a while. It was ridiculous and cartoony, and I loved it.

Only 73 training sessions seems like very few for a coordinated aerial acrobatics group that has its origin as a military organization.

Waking up in bed next to a horse. It is like the Godfather but more disturbing.

This episode actually brings up an interesting point. What should you do if someone gives you a gift that you don’t want?

I have just tended to accept the gifts. Then I try to donate them to charity.

This is actually why I have drastically decreased the amount of gifts that I give around Christmas. I see the gifts not used, and it seems like such a waste.

Spoiler: Season 7 E24 Reaction

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Overall “C”, it doesn’t stand out but it has some good scenes.

Why does Starlight have trouble lifting the luggage but Sunburst does not? I thought it was canon that Sunburst was better at studying but had less raw power.

I thought that they covered the mirror pool with a rock and a big warning sign to keep ponies from doing bad things.

And Starlight broke the seal and ignored the big danger signs. Yep, she is every player in a D&D adventure.

Boulder got doubled in the mirror pool. That was an incredibly subtle joke, and I am glad I caught it. Well done pony.

And there is Starswirl’s Journal.

Spoiler: Season 7 E25-26 Reaction

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Overall "C". It was okay, but the acting and story were a little weak. The timeline nonsense was also a problem.

Wow, I did not think the ponies from the stories were going to come back.

Wait, didn’t we have previous information that Starswirl knew the pony sisters. How does this make sense with the timeline?

The royal pony sisters were too young to understand the danger of the pony of shadows? This almost sets their ages at right at 1,000 years. This takes out several stories that had them as existing for millennia before the founding of Equestria.

Wouldn’t Luna be good at old ponish? She only stopped speaking it ~2 years ago in relative time.

Starlight as the voice of reason. Listen to her, seriously.

The first rule of summoning from Lovecraft, “I say to you againe, doe not call up Any that you can not put downe”.

If Starswirl was in limbo, how did the museum get the bell that Cadence and Twilight saw?

The tree is from the seed… but the sisters used the elements in the tree to stop Discord and… Ow, my brain hurts from the timeline.

Ok, sirens. So that kind of makes Equestria Girls even more canon. That’s good.

How come they can all speak the modern language with no problem? They were gone for longer than Luna.