My Little Pony XCIX: Leakier Than A Changeling Bathtub!

[Alabenson]

I finished Princess Celestia Sleeps In, thanks for the recommendation whoever waved it at me. I'm really engrossed in it - it's rolling and thoughtful and deliberate and patient, and it deftly breaks up its scenes with constant cuts to building tension and action beats. I also think it has one of the best portrayals of Princess Luna I've seen in fiction. So often people write her like she's just kind of cool, if a little weird, but here she's genuinely difficult. I can't wait to get into the sequel.

Bit of a fair warning regarding the sequel Onto the Pony Planet, it's still ongoing and there's usually a multi-month wait between new chapters. That being said, if you need something to tide you over I'd recommend Silver Glow's Journal by the same author.

[b_jonas]

To be fair, only 5 exist in canon, and only one of them has been shown to be in a relationship. Is it possible that Celestia has had at least one lover over the past millennia?

Right, five definite alicorns.

Flurry Heart is still a baby, too young for a serious relationship. Cadence is an alicorn of love, with a crystal heart cutie mark and all, who has found love herself, and sang “as love finds a place in every heart” two seasons later. Then there's Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, who are definitely very old, and have a rather mysterious history. If I understand correctly, the supplementary material says that they were still children when the rest of their tribe of alicorns disappeared, so they were the last two known remaining alicorns at the time, and they were chosen to be the princess of the unified nation of ponies at a young age. I have suspicions that Princess Celestia has deliberately hidden documents about the history of Equestria. I have also speculated that Princess Celestia had a partner, and they had a daughter Sunset Shimmer, but now Princess Celestia has lost her partner and has a rather strained relationship with Sunset. After "Forgotten Friendship" it's hard to know what to think, and the whole idea was a rather unlikely baseless speculation anyway, inspired only by Lois Lowry's Giver and the two sun cutie marks rather than any reasonable agreement from the MLP story. Princess Luna has spent a thousand years of exile on the moon, likely alone, and has been busy working out some remaining personal problems and working hard since, so she's probably not yet ready for a serious relationship. In any case, being supreme rulers of the whole Equestria certainly makes them a bit difficult to find partners. Twilight Sparkle is a bit young and immature, despite of the power she's got, and will likely find a partner later, but that probably won't be shown in the show.

Then there's a few more candidates that are probably not real alicorn creatures:

• Granny Smith if she's a secret alicorn;
• Rarity with wings in S1 E16,
• Princess Erroria, the pegasus filly (yellow coat, purple single-colored mane, blue iris) who appears with a horn and wings in Twilight's fantasy about magic kindergarten in S2 E3, probably as an animation error;
• Pinkie Pie in an alicorn costume in S3 E13;
• Rarity as a breezie in S4 E16
• Discord, who normally has a horn, an antler, and a mismatched pair of wings, even when he says “Maybe they should make me an Alicorn princess” in S4 E25;
• the alicorn Patronus of the Rainbooms together in EG2;
• Big Mac as an alicorn in his dream in S5 E13;
• Derpy in a Princess Twilight costume in S5 E21;
• human world Twilight Sparkle's Midnight Sparkle demon form in EG3 or Sunset Shimmer's winged phoenix power form in the same;
• dragon lord Torch and other horned and winged dragons in S6 E5[/url]; and

Spoiler: S7

Show

• the Pony of Shadows in S7 E25.

[Pi Pie]

<If by some chance a writer of My Little Pony reads this, please do not use these as suggestions>

There is also a chance that other alicorns could be found in other locations. As the My Little Pony movie shows, there are a lot of places that ponies have not been or have not visited in a very long time.

Here is my best guess of places that ponies had not visited in generations prior to the start of Season 1. This is by no means exhaustive.

• Everfree Forest
• Zebra lands
• Hippogryph lands
• Dragon lands
• Yak Yakistan
• Changeling hive, although it is unlikely that an alicorn was hanging around
• Crystal Empire
• Griffonstone
• Breezie lands
• Hoofields and McColts
• Storm Kings' empire, although again unlikely for an alicorn to be hanging out there
• Spoiler: S8 spoiler

  Show

  Kirin lands

Any of these places could have 1 or more alicorns hanging around that Equestria just didn't know about.

It is also possible that there could be an alicorn incognito walking around Equestria without people noticing. Princess Twilight walks around and is only noticed some of the time despite also saving the world multiple times (although less so lately).

Probably the only one that may know for sure is Discord. Which brings me to an interesting observation; Discord has so far not been involved with Flurryheart. I wonder if Flurryheart scares Discord with her power and simple evil prescence.

[zimmerwald1915]

(although less so lately)

The model's been superannuated.

[Forum Explorer]

Otherwise, TIE Bomber (at least worth a mention!), TIE Avenger, Starwing XG-1 Assault Gunboat, Missile Boat and maybe ATR-9 Gamma class Assault Transport.

I was just asking for ships worth looking at.

The Gunboat I think I have, or maybe it's the missile boat. And I suspect the Assualt Transport might not exist. But the others are worth looking at I suppose.

[Aotrs Commander]

I was just asking for ships worth looking at.

The Gunboat I think I have, or maybe it's the missile boat. And I suspect the Assualt Transport might not exist. But the others are worth looking at I suppose.

Right, I can help! In addition to the above, there's also the Skipray Blastboat; later on, the A-9 Vigilance and the Preybird (Though they were generally inferior and replacements for the earlier, better fighters.)

Between that lot, you should have pretty much the best and some chaff for the rebels to waste warheads on...

[Forum Explorer]

Right, I can help! In addition to the above, there's also the Skipray Blastboat; later on, the A-9 Vigilance and the Preybird (Though they were generally inferior and replacements for the earlier, better fighters.)

Between that lot, you should have pretty much the best and some chaff for the rebels to waste warheads on...

Well thanks for the help, I do appreciate it. It's a shame the Skipray doesn't exist in the game, it looks pretty sweet. The Assault Transport does exist, but sadly is too big for conventional play.

[Adderbane]

Spoiler: Father Knows Beast

Show

Decent episode, though I didn't find the premise and antagonist particularly interesting. It was done well though, and I liked all the Spike and Twilight moments throughout it. There were also a lot of nice sight gags and continuity nods, like the Rarity plushie and Starlight in the bathtub.

[Aotrs Commander]

Whelp, after a lot of umming and erring about what to play (I started a Fallen Enchantress game last night, but wasn't feeling it, probably because it stuck me in a crap starting position and I played just enough to take the immediate pang of)... I have a fair lot of choices, of course, though all the PDX games are On Hold Because Next Expansion Is Going To Be Better - Warhammer 2 just plonked itself on that list, too, actually; I am eager to play PF:Kingmaker and Deadfire, but the longer I wait (for patching!) with them the better, so it boiled down to Divinity Original Sin (Enhanced Edition), Endless Space 2, PS:T enhanced, Surviving Mars (PDX clauses apply...) a bit more C&C Generals or War for the Overworld or doign something shorter and more one-shot from ym list of "for a rainy day" of Long Live the Queen or Magic Circle. (Or trying to get Spellforce 1 or another C&C game working...)

In ened end, as I rooted through Steam and Gog, seeing if there was anything interesting, I skimmed through Divine: OS 2 where I read about being and Undead character.

"Righto," says I, "Div OS 1" it is, then, since I have that already (and usual "might as well wait for the sale (better than 20%) as I'm not gonna play it now") symdrome.

I played a bit of Divine Divinity, but I could never get really into it. I did manage Beyond Divinity, and that was fun, if not shatteringly memorable - guess time to see how Larien have improved since then.

(For ages, I thought Original Sin was a Witcher-y sort of single character RPG, not party based, so I sort of glossed over it... Let's see if this time, I can get a portrait (assuming it's not make yer own head, of course...) and voice set which capture the character in my head I go as well as Spellforce 3 did...))

It actually HAS a manual (wow, old school...!), so the first job, is, of course RTFM.

Edit: Oh, it's a TBS. Okay, I can cope... Bit more relaxing after Spellforce 3's RTS/RPG, innit?


Also, I did play for a bit of a while on my Gamecube (also knon as £thing that exluciviely is used for Pokemon Colosseum and Gale of Darkness) today, for the first time in (thanks to ponythread being, like, my own personal archive...!) five years since the dining room telly was nicked. Typical Nintendo, I had to buy a special AV cable, since it refused to work with the exact same cable from my PS2, but worked fine, so I did another 10 battles with Carnage Team in the 100-battle challenge...)

[Thanqol]

I have a fair lot of choices, of course, though all the PDX games are On Hold Because Next Expansion Is Going To Be Better - Warhammer 2 just plonked itself on that list, too, actually

Life is suffering

[Alabenson]

Spoiler: Father Knows Beast

Show

Decent episode, though I didn't find the premise and antagonist particularly interesting. It was done well though, and I liked all the Spike and Twilight moments throughout it. There were also a lot of nice sight gags and continuity nods, like the Rarity plushie and Starlight in the bathtub.

Spoiler: Father Knows Beast

Show

I'd say my favorite moment in the entire episode by far was Twilight's reaction to Spike telling her he has a real parent now. It just managed to tell so much about how she views their relationship without needing any dialogue.

[zimmerwald1915]

Spoiler: Father Knows Beast

Show

I'd say my favorite moment in the entire episode by far was Twilight's reaction to Spike telling her he has a real parent now. It just managed to tell so much about how she views their relationship without needing any dialogue.

Spoiler: Father Knows Beast

Show

How she views their relationship for the duration of this episode. Come the next episode, her view (that is to say, the writer's view) will have shifted to master-servant, or sister-brother, or distant acquaintances. Nothing means anything.

[Alabenson]

Spoiler: Father Knows Beast

Show

How she views their relationship for the duration of this episode. Come the next episode, her view (that is to say, the writer's view) will have shifted to master-servant, or sister-brother, or distant acquaintances. Nothing means anything.

Spoiler: Father Knows Beast

Show

It confirms my pre-established headcannon, therefore I take it as actual cannon

[Spamotron]

I was away when the preview for Nightmare Knights #1 posted so I am reacting to it now.

Spoiler: The shippers are going to go nuts...

Show

... at the fact that Luna visits Twilight's dreams to relax.

[Aotrs Commander]

And I think I finally figured out why in computer RPGs, I have that dispropotionate shift to female characters... While generating the character for D:OS, I realised that, once again, the only choice for the male character was the "generically grizzled, broad-shouldered, lantern jawed" type (major reason why I picked the female in Spellforce 3, actually). Again. And as I fundementally don't do that (I naturally - and perhaps not surprisingly, since skeleton - gravitate to the lighter sort of builds (and, for that matter, casters)), it suddenly make more sense. That's like, two RPGs in a row I had half an idea for a male character and then ditched it immediately because the available aesthetics so hopelessly didn't match.

(Didn't have that problem in PoE/PoE 2, plenty of variety in character portraits and the body plans were not so exaggerated, almost Workshop-y... Be interesting to see what Kingmaker is like...!)

[zimmerwald1915]

I was away when the preview for Nightmare Knights #1 posted so I am reacting to it now.

Spoiler: The shippers are going to go nuts...

Show

... at the fact that Luna visits Twilight's dreams to relax.

Why? Her tone is clearly condescending.

[DigoDragon]

And I think I finally figured out why in computer RPGs, I have that dispropotionate shift to female characters... While generating the character for D:OS, I realised that, once again, the only choice for the male character was the "generically grizzled, broad-shouldered, lantern jawed" type (major reason why I picked the female in Spellforce 3, actually).

More of a Caramel/Braeburn versus Big Mac kind of stallion, eh? I know what you mean.


I love this kirin's color palette.

Spoiler

Show

[zimmerwald1915]

More of a Caramel/Braeburn versus Big Mac kind of stallion, eh? I know what you mean.


I love this kirin's color palette.

Spoiler

Show

Nearly all the kirin rock the Earth tones.

[Adderbane]

I love this kirin's color palette.

Spoiler

Show

Me too, I hope we see the Kirin again.

[zimmerwald1915]

Me too, I hope we see the Kirin again.

Given the time left in the show, we probably won't.

[Adderbane]

So apparently there's a new EQG music video.

[DigoDragon]

So apparently there's a new EQG music video.

Does she know she's wearing a lampshade?

[Excession]

And I think I finally figured out why in computer RPGs, I have that dispropotionate shift to female characters... While generating the character for D:OS, I realised that, once again, the only choice for the male character was the "generically grizzled, broad-shouldered, lantern jawed" type (major reason why I picked the female in Spellforce 3, actually). Again. And as I fundementally don't do that (I naturally - and perhaps not surprisingly, since skeleton - gravitate to the lighter sort of builds (and, for that matter, casters)), it suddenly make more sense. That's like, two RPGs in a row I had half an idea for a male character and then ditched it immediately because the available aesthetics so hopelessly didn't match.

(Didn't have that problem in PoE/PoE 2, plenty of variety in character portraits and the body plans were not so exaggerated, almost Workshop-y... Be interesting to see what Kingmaker is like...!)

Divinity Original Sin 2 has a character that you might enjoy. Spoiler free character trailer: https://youtu.be/AwfCTV466_0. I haven't gotten far into the game yet, but he is apparently pretty heavily tied into the main story as well.

Also, in case you hadn't heard, XCOM 2 is releasing a new small DLC tomorrow, and it's free for a while if you have the War of the Chosen expansion.

[Aotrs Commander]

Point in favour of D:OS 1 - loading times (including game start-up) WAAAAY less than a lot of games, including (which I fired up to check things or have played recently) Spellforce 3, PoE 1, Tides of Numerara, X-Com 2.

Points against D:OS 1: a) WHY would you not have the ability to click the map to move the screen?! It has been a feature of EVERY game with a map/mini map (not even just RPGs) for pretty much as long as I can remember, except MAYBE BG 1! No excuses, guys, that was just poor. Making me hunt with screen scrolling to navigate around the large maps is just very tedious.

b) WHY would you make the characters stop moving when you click quicksave? Again, no fracker ELSE does that.

*shakes finger at Larien*

Bad. You can do better. (I should frackin' HOPE, considering the amount of stuff I saw complaining about that former issue when I google it, you DID do better in D:OS 2, else you were just not doing it to be [Richards]...)

Divinity Original Sin 2 has a character that you might enjoy. Spoiler free character trailer: https://youtu.be/AwfCTV466_0. I haven't gotten far into the game yet, but he is apparently pretty heavily tied into the main story as well.

If it hadn't already said you can play as Underad, I'd have been sold. (On looking, you even get to choose which RACE you are before dying - EXTRA bonus points!)

(Bit of Lich reverb might not have gone amiss though, but I won't even nitpick too much, since I so infrequently get to play even WITH something representative of MY demographic for a change... And I'm totally goint to play actual ME for once in D:OS, in't I?)

Also, in case you hadn't heard, XCOM 2 is releasing a new small DLC tomorrow, and it's free for a while if you have the War of the Chosen expansion.

Ironically, speaking of X-Com 2...

Oooh. I had not heard. I had assumed we were pretty much done with X-Com until the foreshadowed X-Com 3.Ta!

[Pi Pie]

Ironically, speaking of X-Com 2...

Oooh. I had not heard. I had assumed we were pretty much done with X-Com until the foreshadowed X-Com 3.Ta!

Warning on X-com 2, the DLC contains some mini missions which help to explain some of the event between the 1st and 2nd game. However, the minimum difficulty is normal, and the missions are on ironman (no save scumming). I know that this will cause our resident lich to raise an eye brow (or bone... whatever that is).

I've started playing it, and the missions are interesting but the chance of losing a soldier is pretty good.



On a different matter, I have lately been thinking about Celestia. In the Season 1-2 era, she was thought of as a master strategist who manipulated Twilight and the Mane 6 to save her sister and then the world a dozen times so that she could eat cake.

However, Season 5 showed that a rogue unicorn (Starlight) could travel back in time, disrupt the pegasus race and doom the world.

Celestia has also been Worfed in the show which further hurts her credibility.

Spoiler: Season 8 spoiler

Show

We also get indications that Harmony (using that term for the tree / elements / god like being) seems to actually be manipulating everything.

Starlight in Season 5 could have been manipulated by Harmony just to show Twilight the importance of friendship and get Twilight off her flank to spread friendship across the world.

If we want to take a very cynical view, Harmony manipulated Celestia into banishing Luna to the moon just to gain further control of Celestia for 1,000+ years.

This makes me think that Celestia is less an effective ruler in her own right. At best, she might be a puppet princess and at worse, just a fortunate pony who benefited from 1,000 years of good luck.

[zimmerwald1915]

This makes me think that Celestia is less an effective ruler in her own right. At best, she might be a puppet princess and at worse, just a fortunate pony who benefited from 1,000 years of good luck.

Gee, really?

[Alabenson]

Warning on X-com 2, the DLC contains some mini missions which help to explain some of the event between the 1st and 2nd game. However, the minimum difficulty is normal, and the missions are on ironman (no save scumming). I know that this will cause our resident lich to raise an eye brow (or bone... whatever that is).

I've started playing it, and the missions are interesting but the chance of losing a soldier is pretty good.



On a different matter, I have lately been thinking about Celestia. In the Season 1-2 era, she was thought of as a master strategist who manipulated Twilight and the Mane 6 to save her sister and then the world a dozen times so that she could eat cake.

However, Season 5 showed that a rogue unicorn (Starlight) could travel back in time, disrupt the pegasus race and doom the world.

Celestia has also been Worfed in the show which further hurts her credibility.

Spoiler: Season 8 spoiler

Show

We also get indications that Harmony (using that term for the tree / elements / god like being) seems to actually be manipulating everything.

Starlight in Season 5 could have been manipulated by Harmony just to show Twilight the importance of friendship and get Twilight off her flank to spread friendship across the world.

If we want to take a very cynical view, Harmony manipulated Celestia into banishing Luna to the moon just to gain further control of Celestia for 1,000+ years.

This makes me think that Celestia is less an effective ruler in her own right. At best, she might be a puppet princess and at worse, just a fortunate pony who benefited from 1,000 years of good luck.

I might interpret this a little differently, with Celestia being a fine peacetime ruler and able to come up with clever plans given enough prep time, but she isn't particularly good at handling crises (hence why her Plan A tends to be throw Twilight at the issue and hope for the best) and she doesn't work well under pressure (see how quickly she panicked when having to face nightmares while trying to do Luna's job).

[Aotrs Commander]

Uuurgh. An exciting week of tedium in setting up a catalogue for the shipyards, making spread sheets and re-turreting models... In between, at least, the first major home printing commission (though it's one of my mates, so at least there's no postage to faff about with). And finding Simplify 3D is missing bits of fine detail here and there - less important when Shapeways was going to be the principal outlet (because it was just for us), but more so when the Replicator is going to be creating the end-models... Communication from primary back-up today was a bit ambivilent; they've haven't outright said "yes," and it's possible the email today was just a more general one about setting up a shop unrelated to the negotiations or something.

And it's not going to get better - I have prepared the MG moderns part of my catalogue, but that's only about 25% of the models. And shrinking the photos down (so as not to make the word file ludicrous) is a job that is tedious and time-consuming because of COURSE MS took out right-click "open with" as a batch option ages ago, specifically,. it would seem, to be complete asshats. Which means I have to manually open EVERY SINGLE ONE of my 400-plus model pictures into PSP with open with individually, and then resize and "save as."

*sigh*

Warning on X-com 2, the DLC contains some mini missions which help to explain some of the event between the 1st and 2nd game. However, the minimum difficulty is normal, and the missions are on ironman (no save scumming). I know that this will cause our resident lich to raise an eye brow (or bone... whatever that is).

I've started playing it, and the missions are interesting but the chance of losing a soldier is pretty good.

Oh, that is definitely raising some eyeglows. Ironman-only? Really?

That just dramatically reduced the chane of me playing 'em then.

I mean, why even would you do that?

Firaxis has some rather funny idea about telling you how to play their games.

On a different matter, I have lately been thinking about Celestia. In the Season 1-2 era, she was thought of as a master strategist who manipulated Twilight and the Mane 6 to save her sister and then the world a dozen times so that she could eat cake.

However, Season 5 showed that a rogue unicorn (Starlight) could travel back in time, disrupt the pegasus race and doom the world.

Celestia has also been Worfed in the show which further hurts her credibility.

Spoiler: Season 8 spoiler

Show

We also get indications that Harmony (using that term for the tree / elements / god like being) seems to actually be manipulating everything.

Starlight in Season 5 could have been manipulated by Harmony just to show Twilight the importance of friendship and get Twilight off her flank to spread friendship across the world.

If we want to take a very cynical view, Harmony manipulated Celestia into banishing Luna to the moon just to gain further control of Celestia for 1,000+ years.

This makes me think that Celestia is less an effective ruler in her own right. At best, she might be a puppet princess and at worse, just a fortunate pony who benefited from 1,000 years of good luck.

I think it is more the writing staff have never really considered to any degree (and virtually no-one else has, actually, and if anything, the show is better than most fanfic writers) the actual effects of having a single ruler longer than many Earth nations have been in existance, combined with the tedium of "the Protagonist Must Do All The Things" - nowhere clearer than in the movie.

[Rater202]

I have recently been asked what my Non-Pony OC would be if she were an MLP character.

After I answered I was asked "why not changeling?"

It was weird.

[DigoDragon]

I have recently been asked what my Non-Pony OC would be if she were an MLP character.
After I answered I was asked "why not changeling?"
It was weird.

Well? Don't leave us hanging here. Why NOT a changeling?