My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club

[b_jonas]

Pony returns August 5th, according to TVGuide. Not a long hiatus if true.

Yay! I guess it will return with the two episodes we've already seen (E12 and E13) though, right?

Update: I re-watched E13

Spoiler: S7 E13

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and wow. It's even better the second time. It's such a sweet story.

I wonder how much detail Twilight Sparkle or Pinkie Pie knew about the feud and the Apple's parentage, since they have studied geneology.

Anyway, now I want to see awesome fan-art about the double tree.

Spoiler: drawings

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Nice drawing of the apples sitting in front of the double tree, by Reflex-Pony


Painting of Bright Mac and Buttercup kissing under the double tree, by NorthernLights8

[t209]

Yay! I guess it will return with the two episodes we've already seen (E12 and E13) though, right?

Update: I re-watched E13

Spoiler: S7 E13

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and wow. It's even better the second time. It's such a sweet story.

I wonder how much detail Twilight Sparkle or Pinkie Pie knew about the feud and the Apple's parentage, since they have studied geneology.

Anyway, now I want to see awesome fan-art about the double tree.

Spoiler: drawings

Show

Nice drawing of the apples sitting in front of the double tree, by Reflex-Pony


Painting of Bright Mac and Buttercup kissing under the double tree, by NorthernLights8

Yeah never noticed that, even as someone who don't like Pears.
Also

Spoiler: real life Pear Butter

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[DigoDragon]

She who controls the coffee, controls the world.

Spoiler

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Apparently Crispy Creme is having some sort of donut promotional today, because the line of cars for donuts was backed up to the highway and I have not seen a line that long since Disney during the winter holiday.

[Aotrs Commander]

Dang, you just can't catch a break this season, can you? D:

Or at all, round this end, apparently. Dad discovered the caravan fridge has gone again yersterday. At least it was the caravan fridge, not the main one - but it broke just before we last went away last month, before he and Mum are away for the weekend this week.

Heck, even my Shapeways order that came today had a one busted model in it I'm having to get re-printed...



Still, last year was worse. Better equipment failures of all stripes than someone having a stroke again, I am right?

[Rater202]

Still, last year was worse. Better equipment failures of all stripes than someone having a stroke again, I am right?

Correct. Things can be replaced, even if it's difficult, but the same cannot currently be said for brain functions or the lives of loved ones.

Spoiler: You ship Sparity, right?

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[DigoDragon]

Still, last year was worse. Better equipment failures of all stripes than someone having a stroke again, I am right?

That I certainly agree with. Unless the words 'Of Genius' or 'Of Good Luck' follow immediately after, strokes are not fun things to witness.


Episode 10 (Royal Problem) cute art I saw~

Spoiler

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[Aotrs Commander]

We're continuing to have a good run - Dad tells me the caravan loo has pakced up again. so that's another thing they have to fix...



Still picking away at Vicky 2 (in between a bit of CK2 and me having a stab at the point and click Desponia games as well). I'm slowly chipping away at the European nations around me and I think i'm finally starting to clsoe the ridiculous industry gap between me and Britain (though - at last - I've solidly cemented myself in the lead of Great power.) Only six more years to go before the big rush for Africa (1870)...

[DigoDragon]

Pegasi are unrealistic.

Meanwhile, short-mane Flutters~

Spoiler

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[Rater202]

Meanwhile, short-mane Flutters~

Under normal circumstances, this would have stopped my heart.

But I'm still just so giddy from the latest Kingdom Hearts III Trailer.

[Deadly]

Pegasi are unrealistic.

She's not wrong, you know. As much as I love pegasi

[meto30]

The purpose of this question may be a bit clear to those who've known me for some time, but I need to quickly brainstorm a rock band instruments lineup re-imagining for the Sirens and the Rainbooms. The Rainbooms have the canon lineup, aye, but I really am not very comfortable with that, as Fluttershy is basically non-existent in the canon lineup. Also, the relationship between Rainbow and Sunset as having basically the same role designations might need some working out in a more "fleshed out" imagination of the Rainbooms as an actual rock band, and not a school club that practices once or twice a week. I tried doing this on my own, but I kept hitting brick walls that I eventually decided I should pool the collective wisdom of the Ponythread. As I myself have no knowledge about the super-genre outside what little I gathered with K-ON, I can only think on this particular issue with aesthetics in mind. What I do know is that I want a more satisfying way to include Fluttershy, and I am not very happy with Rainbow, Sunset, and Rarity (with her key-tar; I dislike key-tars).

To summarise: Let's brainstorm an instrument lineup for the Sirens and the Rainbooms as a rock band. Maybe separate (9 is a very large number for a band anyway), but right now the basic inspiration is that the Dazzlings are the three vocals while the Rainbooms are the instrumental members, so... let's focus on the Rainbooms. Can't really do much with the Dazzlings on their own due to their very small number and the fact that they have very little canon characterisation to work with.

Reiterating: Fluttershy needs to fit in somehow, with an instrument much more substantial than a.... a tamborine.



PS: If this could make for a more specific context, I am toying with the idea of metal being the genre of choice for this imagining.

[b_jonas]

Spoiler: S7 E13

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Also, I suddenly remembered that there was someone else who had a big problem with pears too.

[meto30]

Spoiler: S7 E13

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I had spent the entire episode thinking "That's not a pear... pears don't look like that," until I realised they were talking about non-Asian pears.

[Deadly]

The purpose of this question may be a bit clear to those who've known me for some time, but I need to quickly brainstorm a rock band instruments lineup re-imagining for the Sirens and the Rainbooms. The Rainbooms have the canon lineup, aye, but I really am not very comfortable with that, as Fluttershy is basically non-existent in the canon lineup. Also, the relationship between Rainbow and Sunset as having basically the same role designations might need some working out in a more "fleshed out" imagination of the Rainbooms as an actual rock band, and not a school club that practices once or twice a week. I tried doing this on my own, but I kept hitting brick walls that I eventually decided I should pool the collective wisdom of the Ponythread. As I myself have no knowledge about the super-genre outside what little I gathered with K-ON, I can only think on this particular issue with aesthetics in mind. What I do know is that I want a more satisfying way to include Fluttershy, and I am not very happy with Rainbow, Sunset, and Rarity (with her key-tar; I dislike key-tars).

To summarise: Let's brainstorm an instrument lineup for the Sirens and the Rainbooms as a rock band. Maybe separate (9 is a very large number for a band anyway), but right now the basic inspiration is that the Dazzlings are the three vocals while the Rainbooms are the instrumental members, so... let's focus on the Rainbooms. Can't really do much with the Dazzlings on their own due to their very small number and the fact that they have very little canon characterisation to work with.

Reiterating: Fluttershy needs to fit in somehow, with an instrument much more substantial than a.... a tamborine.



PS: If this could make for a more specific context, I am toying with the idea of metal being the genre of choice for this imagining.

It's quite common in rock and metal to have two guitarists, often Rhythm and Lead but sometimes with more fluid roles. Iron Maiden currently has three guitarists in their lineup.

Rainbow Dash I think would insist on being Lead Guitar, for the cool factor. I don't think her ego could take anything less than that. Sunset Shimmer is more modest and probably has no problem playing Rhythm Guitar.

Pinkie on Drums, of course, and AJ on Bass seems solid. I'd probably change Rarity to a regular keyboard.

Fluttershy is hard. Aside from singing - probably backing vocals rather than lead vocals due to her stage fright (but if we already have all three Sirens [and Twilight?] singing too ...?) - no instrument really screams Fluttershy to me ... except maybe the harp? But the harp isn't likely to play a very large role on its own. However, more or less unusual instruments are quite popular in modern rock and metal as bands experiment and try to create a unique identity and sound, sometimes based on culture. Violins, all kinds of flutes, harps, oriental or mid-east instruments ... you name it, some band has done it. Bagpipes are surprisingly common (I can name three bands just off the top of my head who use the bagpipes). Often with these bands you have a member who plays several of these minor instruments, because they aren't used all the time. Fluttershy could be a multi-instrumentalist, switching between a handful of different instruments: flutes, pipes, harp, etc.

Edit: Alternatively, you could have Fluttershy and Twilight both on violin. The violin works extremely well as a duet, and violins are very popular in modern rock and metal.

Sirens: Vocals
Rainbow: Lead Guitar
Sunset: Rhythm Guitar
Applejack: Bass guitar
Rarity: Keyboard
Pinkie: Drums
Twilight: Violin
Fluttershy: Violin

It's a large band, but the instrumentation seems sound and not unusual (only, in most bands some of the members would play more than one of these instrument)

[DigoDragon]

But I'm still just so giddy from the latest Kingdom Hearts III Trailer.

Never played a single KH game. My only exposure are memes on Tumblr.

She's not wrong, you know. As much as I love pegasi

Aye, her logic is quite sound.

Spoiler: S7 E13

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I had spent the entire episode thinking "That's not a pear... pears don't look like that," until I realised they were talking about non-Asian pears.

Spoiler: S7 E13

Show

I've said something to that effect going the other way. Some anime shows may talk about a food, but not the kind you'd find in the Western hemisphere.

Though clever that her cutie mark is in the form of a jam jar, cause it could be mistaken for applesauce and thus the Apple kids never thought of that.

[Aotrs Commander]

Spent most of the day making a second pass at the cover for AccAtt. Maybe gettin' there. Sorta.


And then Vocky 2. Grabbed a pair of states from the Ntherlands and Spain, and was just winding down before the big colonial rish in 1870, when both Britain and Russia declared containment wars on me, as apparently that added war goal was a strech too far. All my allies broke off their alliances too. Still, i managed to quickly fend of Britain (thanks to a cost but victorious naval battle in the channel) and eventually sink enough of Russia's fleet to get them to back off as well. And now, thanks to the huge amount of colonial power I'd accured - and the conquests where I could - I'm colonising the heck out of everywhere, with only a small fight between me and Britain in a couple of places. Even if they win, I'll have taken the majorit of Africa, though...!

The downside was that little containemtn war stunt came just as i was about to wind down, so of course, I ended up finishing that, and then it was the colonial rush and so I went on further than I intended...

[Pendulous]

Wait. So on August 5th, pony will return, with the two episodes we've already seen anyway?

Ugh.

Have Rainbow defending Fluttershy

Spoiler

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[DigoDragon]

Have Rainbow defending Fluttershy

Spoiler

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"Suplex him! Suplex!!"


Checkout dat OC.

Spoiler: donut steel

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[b_jonas]

In S7 E2, the room operator says

> A group of griffons set the record for the fastest escape.

Do you suppose gryphons would co-operate like that before S5 E8? Is this showing that the power of friendship is spreading in Griffonstone?

[meto30]

It's quite common in rock and metal to have two guitarists, often Rhythm and Lead but sometimes with more fluid roles. Iron Maiden currently has three guitarists in their lineup.

Rainbow Dash I think would insist on being Lead Guitar, for the cool factor. I don't think her ego could take anything less than that. Sunset Shimmer is more modest and probably has no problem playing Rhythm Guitar.

Pinkie on Drums, of course, and AJ on Bass seems solid. I'd probably change Rarity to a regular keyboard.

Fluttershy is hard. Aside from singing - probably backing vocals rather than lead vocals due to her stage fright (but if we already have all three Sirens [and Twilight?] singing too ...?) - no instrument really screams Fluttershy to me ... except maybe the harp? But the harp isn't likely to play a very large role on its own. However, more or less unusual instruments are quite popular in modern rock and metal as bands experiment and try to create a unique identity and sound, sometimes based on culture. Violins, all kinds of flutes, harps, oriental or mid-east instruments ... you name it, some band has done it. Bagpipes are surprisingly common (I can name three bands just off the top of my head who use the bagpipes). Often with these bands you have a member who plays several of these minor instruments, because they aren't used all the time. Fluttershy could be a multi-instrumentalist, switching between a handful of different instruments: flutes, pipes, harp, etc.

Edit: Alternatively, you could have Fluttershy and Twilight both on violin. The violin works extremely well as a duet, and violins are very popular in modern rock and metal.

Sirens: Vocals
Rainbow: Lead Guitar
Sunset: Rhythm Guitar
Applejack: Bass guitar
Rarity: Keyboard
Pinkie: Drums
Twilight: Violin
Fluttershy: Violin

It's a large band, but the instrumentation seems sound and not unusual (only, in most bands some of the members would play more than one of these instrument)

Thanks a lot, Deadly! Twilight is not being considered in this hypothetical roster, but I really like the idea of Fluttershy on Violin. Another friend of mine also greenlighted violins (electic violins, to be specific), and I really like the idea, and the imagined sound of the band being brought up in my mind. I can now proceed with the other members of the band.

The current roster looks like this at the moment.

The Dazzlings: Vocals all. Dagi in goth makeup, Aria in Momsen-esque getup, and Sonata in a costume resembling Babymetal.
Rainbow Dash: Lead guitar, usually lead vocal, backup vocal in this one-time co-op with the Dazzlings.
Sunset Shimmer: Rhythm guitar, usually secondary vocal, no vocal roles in this one-time with the Dazzlings.
Applejack: Bass.
Pinkie Pie: Drummer. Also, the difficulty inherent in transporting drum sets to gigs puts a damper in the plannning process as well, since it partially negates the validity of the initial idea. Do I have her standing next to a collection of boxes?
Rarity: Keyboard. Not Keytar. Keytars are not good to look at in my opinion. Even Hatsune Miku looked silly holding one.
Fluttershy: Electric violin, secondary vocal, has chorus duty on this one-time with the Dazzlings.

I am also trying to dress the members up in rock fashion, but that's also another field that I have very little knowledge in, so I am having to go off a very small selection of bands I do know of. All the members being female is also putting a big wrench into the process.

In S7 E2, the room operator says

> A group of griffons set the record for the fastest escape.

Do you suppose gryphons would co-operate like that before S5 E8? Is this showing that the power of friendship is spreading in Griffonstone?

I think I've seen enough examples to believe neither cooperation nor friendship are prerequisite or symptom of the other. The entire rational choice theory is about cooperation (or coordination) arising naturally out of mutual rivalry anyway. Maybe Griffons put aside their mutual distrust in favour of group-based exclusion behavior or jingoism, even.

[DigoDragon]

Do you suppose gryphons would co-operate like that before S5 E8? Is this showing that the power of friendship is spreading in Griffonstone?

Maybe they were a group of friends outside Griffonstone with a common interest?

Spoiler: They can't all be Gilda

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[digiman619]

In S7 E2, the room operator says

> A group of griffons set the record for the fastest escape.

Do you suppose gryphons would co-operate like that before S5 E8? Is this showing that the power of friendship is spreading in Griffonstone?

While I suppose this could be evidence of Gabby spreading goodwill, I could totally see a gaggle of griffons working together professionally but squabbling personally.

[b_jonas]

I think I've seen enough examples to believe neither cooperation nor friendship are prerequisite or symptom of the other. The entire rational choice theory is about cooperation (or coordination) arising naturally out of mutual rivalry anyway. Maybe Griffons put aside their mutual distrust in favour of group-based exclusion behavior or jingoism, even.

That can be true in some cases, such as if the griphons have to team up to hunt for whatever game they eat. But why would a distrusting unfriendly group of griphons choose to play a cooperative game such as an escape room in first place?

While I suppose this could be evidence of Gabby spreading goodwill, I could totally see a gaggle of griffons working together professionally but squabbling personally.

Gilda, not Gabby. And it's a game, I don't see how it could count as working together professionally. Unless, say, their pony employer has forced them to play an escape room as a team-building exercise (“friendship lesson”).

Update: it seems that so far everypony said they like S7 E13. That's great.

[Kairaven]

Spoiler: My S7E13 reaction

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Me: Wow...It's just...WOW!
DHX/Hasbro: Do you like it? Be honest now.
Me: It's the BEST gift you could've given me!

[Aotrs Commander]

*skulldesk*

*skulldesk*

*skulldesk*

So, another full day spent wrestling with the cover image for Accelerate & Attack. Reasonably satified with the layout, I then had to draw a hand (and you KNOW what my Art is like) and then much more time having scanned that in to tidy it up...

Then trying to work out how to get the image out of TurboCAD, which is larelgy near-impossible every method I tried... The best result (for a given value of "best") was exporting the selection as a maxed-out .png. (I tried PDFs, but CutePDF exported the lines very thick, even at the kost it would export out as at 2400dpi... But that wasn't a problem, since PSP8 refused to port a pdf in over 300 dpi...)

Also, helpfully after an hour ot trying to make a transparent image for the hand. I dsicovered that TurboCAD just goes "yet, that's a vector image, well now it's a raster" and both the option to trace - and the option to bloody CROP an image are only in the Stupid Expensive version). So I am going to have do a load of manual futzing around with the super-imposed hand image in PSP8 after all. (AGAIN, since I did it once before I reaised how crap the initial export of the rest of the thing was).

Not. Going. Well.

(On the plus side, Dad actually finished the final proofing pass, so we're NEARLY done in that regard...)

[Thanqol]

Man I am so out of sync with pony right now. I think I missed an episode or something, and everything was out of order, and now I'm afraid to click on spoiler boxes and it's all confusing and dark and scary.

I'm going to get caught up soon - but most importantly, has there been any good brony music over the past few months that I've missed?

[b_jonas]

Spoiler: S7 E13

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S7 E13 The Perfect Pear has had great effect on me. I'm listening to Bartók's A kékszakállú herceg vára (Bluebeard's castle), the beginning where Judit declares that she has left her family because she loves Kékszakállú, and I'm trying to imagine Bright Macintosh and Buttercup playing the parts. But it just doesn't work, because Bright Mac's voice is not deep enough for the Kékszakállú's singing role. (Buttercup's voice isn't a good match either.)

[digiman619]

Spoiler: S7 E13

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S7 E13 The Perfect Pear has had great effect on me. I'm listening to Bartók's A kékszakállú herceg vára (Bluebeard's castle), the beginning where Judit declares that she has left her family because she loves Kékszakállú, and I'm trying to imagine Bright Macintosh and Buttercup playing the parts. But it just doesn't work, because Bright Mac's voice is not deep enough for the Kékszakállú's singing role. (Buttercup's voice isn't a good match either.)

Spoiler: S7 E13

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You really can't blame that on the episode. though. It'd be like complaining Fluttershy is a bad character because she has pink hair.

[DigoDragon]

Spoiler: S7 E13

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You really can't blame that on the episode. though. It'd be like complaining Fluttershy is a bad character because she has pink hair.

Spoiler: Tangent

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It obviously should be green.

Apparently some XBox programmer (who made a mock error message to test something) likes ponies.

[Derjuin]

Man I am so out of sync with pony right now. I think I missed an episode or something, and everything was out of order, and now I'm afraid to click on spoiler boxes and it's all confusing and dark and scary.

I'm going to get caught up soon - but most importantly, has there been any good brony music over the past few months that I've missed?

I'm feeling the same way. I haven't seen E13 and I don't knwo if I've seen E12 and I forget the numbers now.

As for brony music: I found a bunch that are pretty good. Dunno if you'll like them though.

Frozen Heart by Frozen Night, as part of the Ponies @ Dawn album "Guardians".
Movement II: Evergreen Sanctuary by Frozen Night
Dawnbreaker by Jyc Row
Alicornae album by Jyc Row got remastered
Recall the Time of No Return, again by Jyc Row