My Little Pony XCIX: Leakier Than A Changeling Bathtub!

[Aotrs Commander]

Can we please get a little more on-topic?

Fanfic: I have really enjoyed "If wishes were ponies". I never expected a HP / MLP crossover, especially one that uses normal muggle earth as well (i.e. -- not just a "Harry goes to Equestria" story) to be that good. And, ... After reading HP:MoR, I think canon Dumbledore really was that ... blind to history/tradition / not thinking of what else could be done.

As a veteran of seven/eight years since ponythread VI, I can assure you that this is typically on-topic for ponythread, especially for the drought perod between seasons. Arguably more so than a lot of times, actually...

[Spamotron]

Can we please get a little more on-topic?

Fanfic: I have really enjoyed "If wishes were ponies". I never expected a HP / MLP crossover, especially one that uses normal muggle earth as well (i.e. -- not just a "Harry goes to Equestria" story) to be that good. And, ... After reading HP:MoR, I think canon Dumbledore really was that ... blind to history/tradition / not thinking of what else could be done.

A recent fanfic that could use some love is Carabas' Foals and Mortals. The Ponyville Foals put on the Hearth's Warming Eve play. Then Ponyville happens to the play. It's worth reading for Carabas' take on Dinky alone. For example I think ATORS Commander will relate to her a lot.

[Forum Explorer]

Can we please get a little more on-topic?

Fanfic: I have really enjoyed "If wishes were ponies". I never expected a HP / MLP crossover, especially one that uses normal muggle earth as well (i.e. -- not just a "Harry goes to Equestria" story) to be that good. And, ... After reading HP:MoR, I think canon Dumbledore really was that ... blind to history/tradition / not thinking of what else could be done.

So I read something called if Wishes Were Ponies, but it didn't have anything to do with HP. It was a pretty straightforward Djjin story really.

[otakuryoga]

Can we please get a little more on-topic?

po n yponypo ny pon ypon ypo nyponyp onyp onyp, onyp onyponyp onypony po nypo Nypon yponypon ypony pon yponyponyp, ony pony'p onypo onyp on yp

[Forum Explorer]

Well while we are on the subject of fanfics, here's another bit that I wish was canon

Ocellus, being shaken by Smolder—dragons weren’t very good at hugs—

The idea of Ember just awkwardly picking up a pony and shaking them at arms length and thinking that's a hug makes me laugh so much.

[Aotrs Commander]

*skulldesk*

Remembered to get dow Mum's gluten-free Christmas cake so we don't forget to eat it, checked the "best before" date... 22nd of November 2018.

WHAT.

A... Christmas cake... that foes out of date (for what "best before" is worth) five weeks before Christmas, not even in December?

The actual frack.

Somewhere, Pinkie is slamming her head into something hard.

[t209]

*skulldesk*

Remembered to get dow Mum's gluten-free Christmas cake so we don't forget to eat it, checked the "best before" date... 22nd of November 2018.

WHAT.

A... Christmas cake... that foes out of date (for what "best before" is worth) five weeks before Christmas, not even in December?

The actual frack.

Somewhere, Pinkie is slamming her head into something hard.

Well, the thing is that your cake might be edible.
The Best Before is not usually an expiration date.

[keybounce]

So I read something called if Wishes Were Ponies, but it didn't have anything to do with HP. It was a pretty straightforward Djjin story really.

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/406...es-were-ponies

Just in case there are two stories with the same name on different sites.

[Forum Explorer]

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/406...es-were-ponies

Just in case there are two stories with the same name on different sites.

the ... at the end is likely what threw my search off.

[b_jonas]

And as for cakes.

Announcer: Have you ever wondered why Pinkie Pie moved out from her family's rock farm? Do you know why Pinkie Pie reacted so sensitively when she found out that Rainbow Dash likes every kind of sweets she's been baking her except for the pies? Do you want to find out what all the Pies were tactfully not bringing up during the Apple family's visit for Hearth's Warming Even? If you do, stay with us and find out after the advertisment break!

Announcer: Today in our show we have here with us two guests who represent the opposing positions in the eternal debate that has almost caused the Pie family to break up. Everyone in the audience please welcome our two guests: Limestone Pie and Pinkie Pie!

Announcer: Limestone Pie, can you please summarize to us your positions in the debate?

Spoiler: Fan speculation about the Pie family

Show

Limestone Pie: As you know, Iron Will, our family has a proud history going back to hundreds of moons. Most of our family considers it important to follow the traditions set by our ancestors. Foremost among our family legends is the one of the distinguished baker Snow White Pie, whose portrait hangs in a place of honor in our dining hall. As the legend goes, when Snow White was preparing a pie for a family dinner for a feast, she cut deep into her hoof with a kitchen knife while peeling a fruit. The wound got infected and the infection eventually got over the delicate health of Snow White so much that she fell into an eternal sleep from which she could not been woken up. Snow White's mourning family made an oath as one to never eat fruits or vegetables again, an oath that is upheld by most family members ever since.

Limestone Pie: Our family already had a proud tradition of making the finest food, but from that point, many members also studied nutrition research to find the best diet without using fruits or vegetables. To their surprise, our ancestors have found that the wildly held stereotypes that vegetables are healthy and necessary for young ponies is completely untrue. Just two days ago, our father Igneous Rock Pie has received news that his eighth research paper on this topic was accepted for publication in a prestigious journal. The paper shows that our family's thesis still stands up to the scrutiny of the latest findings of nutritional science.

Limestone: The majority of Equestria still remains ignorant about our family's work, and keeps eating yucky turnips and Brussels sprouts with a straight face as if they were delicacies, at least when other ponies see them, and teach this terrible tradition to their fowls. This, however, should be no excuse to my sister Pinkie Pie, who himself is an upcoming baker and is well aware of my grandfather's and father's findings. Pinkie Pie keeps insisting that our mother's cuisine is not suitable for her, and has repeatedly desecrated the kitchen of our mansion by sneaking in fruits and vegetables, until eventually my mother Cloudy Quartz has utterly banned her from the kitchen, which was followed by Pinkie Pie leaving our farm and wandering around Equestria, until she eventually settled in Ponyville.

Pinkie Pie: You've really outdone yourself with that summary, Limestone. But you have presented a slightly unfair picture for our viewers today. So let me explain two important points that Limestone Pie has neglected to mention.

Pinkie Pie: Firstly, you seem to equate the common vegetables with the delicious apples and peaches and watermelons that I'm so fond of. I don't find tubers yucky, but I also never brought any into mom's kitchen. All I brought was the highest quality sweet fruits Equestria has to offer, and at home, I only used them in low quantities as seasoning to bring the best out of the taste of our family's recipe of sweets. It is true that after I moved out, I have extended my taste to include dishes made primarily of fruit, such as delicious apple pies and caramel apples. But even though I disagree with my father's thesis and find fruits and vegetables delicious if prepared well, I never tried to force my own views on the family, and I still follow our family traditions during the occasional visits to our farm.

Pinkie Pie: The other double standard that you're committing is equating my mom's actual cuisine with the theoretical results in dad's papers. Dad argues that the fatty acids provided by the fruits and vegetables can be replaced entirely by a good selection of saltwater fish, and that here in Equestria the industrial contamination of the oceans is so low that one doesn't have to worry about mercury poisoning when you do that. But all mom ever fries are these shiny little rainbow fish which, as you know, don't actually have a high content of the missing essential fatty acids.

Limestone Pie: Dad's paper intends to show that the ponies living in towns can get a nutritionally complete diet even from the poor selections available on their big city markets and restaurants. Here on our farm, we don't have to stoop to that common denominator, because we are blessed with an abundance of fresh minerals to supplement our diet in a way that city ponies could not afford. Our diet is not the same as the one described in the papers, it's actually better. And as for peaches and watermelons, mom has caught you putting orange rind into our rock cakes no less than three times, and I am sure it has happened more than that many times, because I still can't get the terrible smell of the dirty orange peels from my snout after eleven years!

*“‘Ron, you know full well Harry and I were brought up by Muggles!’ said Hermione. ‘We didn't hear stories like that when we were little, we heard Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Cinderella –’ / ‘What is that, an illness?’ asked Ron.” – J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, chapter 7.

Thanks to Roger M. Wilcox for the inspiration.

[keybounce]

That's not enough emphasis. It's

Roger ** M ** Wilcox.

Trust me :-)

What's he been up to lately? Last I heard, he was recording the old song parodies he did from years back, and porting all his old TRaSh-80 games to modern systems.


(also, did that come out as a giant M? I said size 7, but my system is set to force a single font size and I can't see it properly.)

[Rogar Demonblud]

A giant M, flanked by two giant asterisks on either side. Your non-existent eyes would be wet with spectral tears at how well it came out, my skeletal friend.

[DigoDragon]

Well, the thing is that your cake might be edible.

Lot of factors involved, but generally sugar lasts quite some time past that stamped date if you keep it cold. I've had a slice of wedding cake three years after it was made and it was fine because it was kept frozen.

[Aotrs Commander]

Lot of factors involved, but generally sugar lasts quite some time past that stamped date if you keep it cold. I've had a slice of wedding cake three years after it was made and it was fine because it was kept frozen.

It is Christmas cake. Which is not that dissimilar from Christmas pudding, and people used to bury those in their gardens to mature... It is perfectly edible.

Which just goes to show how utterly ludicrous "best before" dates are.

(See also dates on carrots of potatos of merely a couple of weeks, despite they last for vastly longer.)

[b_jonas]

What's he been up to lately?

I really have no clue. I just read a few pages from his on the web, including the one I linked about vegetables. I don't actually know much about him, unlike with some of the other people I occasionally link to.

I have an earlier short text on a pony who hates vegetables before, and while that character wasn't a good match for what I wanted to say about vegetables here, that was the one that gave me the idea to frame this in term of ponies.

(See also dates on carrots of potatos of merely a couple of weeks, despite they last for vastly longer.)

In the cases of potatoes, it really varies by storage conditions IME. Sometimes you can store them for long, but sometime they start to sprout and leak nasty fluids very quickly. It also varies a bit by the breed of potato too.

[zimmerwald1915]

It is Christmas cake. Which is not that dissimilar from Christmas pudding, and people used to bury those in their gardens to mature

Seems like a perfectly Pinkie Pie thing to do.

And yet for some reason all I can think about is lutefisk.

[Aotrs Commander]

Seems like a perfectly Pinkie Pie thing to do.

And yet for some reason all I can think about is lutefisk.

I had no idea what that was, so I had to google it.

You learn summat new every day.

[t209]

Seems like a perfectly Pinkie Pie thing to do.

And yet for some reason all I can think about is lutefisk.

And Bog Butter, Stinky Tofu, and maybe fish sauce.

[keybounce]

Do all of the "CMC attend hogwarts" stories wind up paring Neville with kitchen-destroying Sweetie Belle?

So far, both Magic School Days and If Wishes Were Ponies have done this.

[Aotrs Commander]

*prod* *prod*

See, this is what happens when I don't ramble.



Attmpted to find a birthday Rarity picture of Botty-Pain's birthday party today, since he is such a massive drama queen (as was so very proven today - his alternative nickname is "My Don't Want To" Boy). Failed, and re0used a Derpy one from a while back (since it'd be before he was around, anyway.)



Still, vaguely to to playing Divinity OS 2 again today (rather than enforced watching of Nretlifx (as there's nothing else on) - Little Witch Academia, having done with Seven Deadly Sins plus the movie), to find there is a strong chance that I might have to do the ENTIRE of Act 2 a second time because of one missed companion dialogue flag which seemed purpose-designed to make you miss it (as it triggers at the start of Act 2 and if you talk to someone else first, it disappears, yet if you talk to Sebille first, their flags stay up. Way to really be absolutely either incompetance or inexcusably assinine, Larien.)


And if you don't want me to basically be playing this with a walktrhough every fibve minutes, maybe not make it ridiculously easy to miss things, because, lads, D:OS2 isn't so good Imma spend 107 hours (currently, plus rest of game time) playing it twice in a row; hell, most games count themselves lucky if they get played twice, like, period. VERY few games get that (DK1, War for the Overworld, TIE fighter, PS:T, ME 1, DA:O, C&C (1,2, 3, RA 1,2 and Generals)...)

[Manga Shoggoth]

... hell, most games count themselves lucky if they get played twice, like, period. VERY few games get that (DK1, War for the Overworld, TIE fighter, PS:T, ME 1, DA:O, C&C (1,2, 3, RA 1,2 and Generals)...)

I'm the opposite - I tend to play the games I buy many times through. Games like Borderlands gets at least one play-through with each character class (oddly, NWN and the other DnD based games don't, but there's so many character classes and I frequently just get bored with the games). But then, I rarely buy games these days, so I have to get my money's worth.

[DigoDragon]

I'm the opposite - I tend to play the games I buy many times through.

For me it depends on the game. I played Mass Effect just once, but Skyrim like 13 times. Fallout New Vegas about half that of Skyrim. Hard to say how often I'll play a game until I sit and actually play it.

Spoiler: How I stumble into a good game.

Show

[Aotrs Commander]

I misspoke slightly - the previously listed games are the few (aside from stuff like Civ and 4Xs) that I have played more than twice. (Oh, MechCommander 2 can go on that list as well.) Now, mostly this is becaue I play stuff for the story, if we're honest (even, to an extent, the city-builders, which is likely why I have never managed that much time on Cities: Skylines or Banished compared to, say Phaoroah or Tropico 4 (which I completed everything of)), so the only things which get a pass on that are really Civ and 4X/GSG (and that's mostly because they're a lot about planning and making stuff with a defined end-goal).

I've played, I think three games of Civ V (ponythread may even distantly remember the first once, since it was as Pony from a mod and reported here); I suspect I am unlikely to play it again, since my enduring memory of Civ V is breeding Pokémon during between turns and loading screens.

(Beyond Earth isn't something I'm likely to revisit, either.)

Civ 2, 4 and Alpha Centauri probably stand next to DK1 as the things I've played/through most games of.

[Manga Shoggoth]

For me it depends on the game. I played Mass Effect just once, but Skyrim like 13 times. Fallout New Vegas about half that of Skyrim. Hard to say how often I'll play a game until I sit and actually play it.[/SPOILER]

Fallout New Vegas is on the list. Somewhere. Eventually.

I suspect I am unlikely to play it again, since my enduring memory of Civ V is breeding Pokémon during between turns and loading screens.

So many ways of dealing with things... I keep my razor next to the computer because I used to use the 5-minute "Looking for DLC" in the startup for Borderlands 2 to get a shave in.

Civ 2, 4 and Alpha Centauri probably stand next to DK1 as the things I've played/through most games of.

I loved Civ 1, but hated 4. Alpha Centuari, on the other hand, I was playing again over Christmas.

[Aotrs Commander]

So, after three tries because the game was being mardy in the boss fight, I finally got past the end of Divinity Original Sin 2.

Aaaand I... Don't have to replay that act, huzzah, because apparently, the romance trigger is mercifully independant of that missed dialogue trigger and...

...

...

...



...

That was NOT a fade to black.

Unholy fracking crap.

I... Was not... expecting that (not after the other sex things previously in the game).

That was a lot more... Mercedes Lackey than I was expecting.



And now Larien manages with text, to be vastly more VASTLY MORE explict than Bioware ever managed. Or Witcher 3. And with no nudity.

...

Thank the Lichemaster I didn't pick Fane because that would have been kind of horrifying...

(I mean, it was funny with that lizard girl who had an Undead fetish and the running joke that Fane was getting more action than the MC Lohse, but... In detail? *shudder*)

[Topaz]

In Pony TRPG news, the Tails of Equestria official Role-Playing Game is now available for purchase in PDF form via DriveThruRPG. Huzzah!

[Schismatic]

In Pony TRPG news, the Tails of Equestria official Role-Playing Game is now available for purchase in PDF form via DriveThruRPG. Huzzah!

Argh, I've wanted to play a game of this for awhile.

[DigoDragon]

Argh, I've wanted to play a game of this for awhile.

I've been curious to try it out too, but just no time or money for it right now.


I am getting ready to run a Starfinder campaign with my local group, and one of the available races are uplifted horses--essentially intelligent talking earth ponies with cybernetics.

[Schismatic]

I've been curious to try it out too, but just no time or money for it right now.


I am getting ready to run a Starfinder campaign with my local group, and one of the available races are uplifted horses--essentially intelligent talking earth ponies with cybernetics.

I have a RiM 4e game that is kind of like this I'm still writing up, if you're interested....

Very much alpha, and requires more writing up, editing, and more edges. If you want to play a game of ponies (griffons, etc) in an 'arcane-punk' MLP setting.

Spoiler: Crystal Dreams

Show

Crystal Dreams

In the far future of Equestria, active magical potential is no longer the domain of the unicorn. Crystal implants first designed in the laboratories of the Crystal Empire's Corundum College has redefined existence itself. In time, these new devices were called colloquially 'brain splinters', or splinters for short. Creating new universes of thought that have revolutionized ponykind's ideas of self and being.

In the dark heart of the arcanoscientific future of unbridled potential and a continued evolution of form and function of the mind, an aging Princess Flurry Heart had established a new initiative called the 'Crystal Dreams Service'.

Ponies, dragons and griffons hand-selected to help police a new metaphysical realm to prevent the criminal abuse and misuse of the technologies she herself helped create and could not foresee the social implications of her designs.

Armed with the latest arcanoscientific technologies, they bring order to unlawful new realities of the flesh and mind.

Feel: 'Arcane-punk', mystery, thriller ...

Creation rules:

New Edges:

Cerebro-sensate [5XP]

(Requires 'Splintered')

Can detect, isolate and determine the specific location of specific 'Splintered' character within 100 metres with a Mind-based check.

Crystal Surfing [0XP]

(Requires 'Splintered')

Allows one to penetrate deeper into the Crystal Server beyond the 'surface' (known colloquially) as the 'Sheen'.

Oneiromancer [5XP]

(Requires 'Splintered')

Can create spells with the 'Dream' Subject.

Oz-psion [5XP]

(Unicorn w/ Splintered)

Using their horn as if an antenna they can access the Crystal Server without an oscillator terminal.

Splintered [0XP]

Acts as if Wizardry (without requirements, and in addition to regular Wizardry) but uses Body to determine unique spell creation. Spells created with the Splntered edge must be paid for in fortitude.

Spells created by this Edge must be created at the start of an scene.

Splinter-Psion [5XP]

(Requires Splintered)

Adds +2 to all checks made with the Splintered Edge.

Spell Subject:

'Dream' (+1) - Necessary component of all spells cast when 'Brain Traipsing' (see below) ...

Brain Traipsing:

Any unconscious character (sidelined) with the Splintered edge can have their memories hacked, altered, or walked through. This is not entirely safe as 'dreamphages' begin attacking uncknown consciousnesses invading their host. These dreamphages can be anything, and it is all too often hard to determine what is merely a thought or memory construct and a 'dreamphage'.

You take Willpower damage every minute 'traipsing', and the host's ego (using their Heart attribute) may assail and overcome you with every attempt to access memories.

The only magic that works in Brain Traipsing is those created by Splintered.

Crystal Surfing:

The Crystal Network is a massive server bank of information in both the Crystal City and the city of Canterlot. It is accessed by oscillator terminals ('Ozzies') that vibrate and transfer information wirelessly and at range. Much like a radio crystal oscillator. This is known as 'crystal surfing', or simply surfing for short. There are two layers of Crystal Surfing. You have 'the Sheen', which like a crystal's shining surface is merely the open, always accesible, public and semi-public information network. But below that you have 'the Aphanite' ... the 'crystal that can't be seen'.

It is at the dark heart of the Crystal Network. The crystals beyond the crystal. Those that can access and use the crystal space and shape it to their will. The Aphanite is a metaphysical space some creatures say is actually the true magic at the core of every living thing ... as if a gestalt consciousness that links all living creatures made touchable by the new technologies of the Brain Splinters.

That the Aphanite 'always existed' ... but only now could be reached.

Equestria, 80 years on...

Equestria has flourished over the decades. An arcano-industrial revolution. Pegasi now no longer simply manage the weather, but control the billowing smog of a transformed landmass. A lifetime of protection by the elements of harmony and a reinvigorated E.U.P Guard and the return of the Crystal Empire has bolstered its productivity and swlled the ranks of its intelligentsia. Equestria's open borders and steady relationships with other creatures is reflected in its open trade that has made it a financial and industrial center of a massive coalition of creatures that consolidates its own security. The radical increase in its cosmopolitanism has emboldened immigration and drawn talent the world over to its shores.

That being said, all good things have to be paid for. The swelling cities, smaller living spaces, growing corruption. Things are not so simple anymore. Life far faster, with less guarantees, and with each passing year the relative importance of one creature to the growing multitudes is decreasing. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna timelessly rule, though with the passing of 5 of the 6 wielders of the Elements of Harmony, and with no successors yet to be found, they along with Princess Flurry Heart have had to take a more direct and proactive role in dealing with threats to ponykind. Of the 6 original holders of the Elements of Harmony, only Applejack remains, and the recent passing of the Princess of Friendship after a lifetime of service has been mourned worldwide.

Canterlot remains the political heart of the ponies of Equestria, but the greatest boom in terms of prestige and industry has been the carefully administered, mineral-rich land to its north. The Crystal City is a booming metropolis. Some 40 years ago Princess Mi Amore Cadenza had stepped down after carefully safeguarding the Crystal Empire's interests and peacefully Princess Flurry Heart had assumed her throne at the age of 43. A combination of her mother's dutiful, stable rule and growing cultivation of living standards, mixed with Flurry Heart's more 'chaotic' and industrial development-centric pushes, have transformed the Crystal Empire into 78 years of constant, unrelenting economic growth.

Princess Flurry Heart, the Crystal Empire, the Crystal City, and the Corundum College at the center of a growing political power on the world stage.

16 years after her birth, Flurry Heart began attending the then newly established Corundum College. She inherited her mother's capacity for understanding the hearts of ponies and with an upbringing close to the magical crystals from the Crystal Mountains, became adept at their fashioning and understanding. She quickly found her calling in the fields of psychometrics, neuroscience and philosophy of the mind. Princess Flurry Heart was an academic at heart, less interested in court life as she was her studies.

At the Corundum College she made fast friends with Professor Maud Pie, who was offered a tenured position at the College due to her understanding of the magical potential of the crystals of the Crystal Empire. Together they came up with a revolutionary idea. Maud Pie's forays into what would become wireless technologies through radio frequency oscillation of various crystals, combined with Flurry Heart's understanding of neuroscience and crystal magic, lead both of them to an astounding feat that would forever change the world. The 'brain splinters', the 'Crystal Servers' and 'oscillator terminals'.

A means of transmitting and harnasses magical power of the crystals into a wireless network that could be broadcast and accessed by any creature with a brain splinter or an 'ozzie'. Creating an entirely ephemeral, omnipresent magical metaphysical realm that intersects and overlaps material reality.

The arcano-technological leap forward changed everything. Entire new industries were born. Magic became commonplace. New ways to create spells, to study magic, to engage with it, and transmit and exchange information wherever one had an oscillator terminal. It provided new means to access the very thoughts of creatures and created new universes born of the mind and magic itself to traverse. And the Crystal Empire, and the Corundum College, went from a peaceful, wealthy nation and prestigious public university, to a global industrial and research center with adjunct campuses worldwide that attracted the best minds and creative talents the world over.

After 10 years of fostering the new tech firm 'Crys-tech Enterprises', Princess Flurry Heart created a business empire to rival the wealth of the throne she were about to inherit, and solidified that her transition from heir-apparent to ruler went more smoothly than she could have possibly hoped for. But for Flurry Heart, such things were a mixed blessing. She could not remain a prime architect of the movement she herself had created while also being a ruler of a nation. Once Princess Mi Amore Cadenza had stepped down, she went from industry tycoon to public servant.

Unwed and without an heir of her own she has announced that her niece, the Pegasi Sunstone Glow, Duchess of Rainbow Falls, daughter of Flurry Heart's late younger sister, Morning Mists, shall assume the throne. Princess Flurry Heart is already cultivating the Pegasus Princess-to-be about her duties and there has been little challenge to her inheritance of the throne. She is planning to step down as of 41 years of constant political service.

Some bits Tek-War, Shadowrun, Netrunner w/ ponies, etc...

In its current state I'm not comfortable advertising for recruitment. I still need to write up geography, industrial giants, some key allies and antagonists, and a good 50 XP worth of adventures. Give it that true technoir polish.

I was thinking of writing up more edges and spell stuff that are customizable on the fly that are like direct input attack 'software' and rules for intrusion countermeasures, and rules for psionically fighting over the crystal servers as creatures break into corporate conspiracies of magnitude.

I don't necessarily want dark. Dark is annoying. But I do want tense.

[Rogar Demonblud]

And now I'm wondering what happens when you Splinter a yak.