Ponythread LV:55 Ponythread learns Agility!

[Darius Kane]

I'm gonna leave this here:

Spoiler

Show

[Thanqol]

So I'm going to be at PAX 2013 in Melbourne. Booked up and everything.

If any of you chumps are man enough to come to always sunny australia then hit me up for some kind of meetup/room lodging/supernatural mind meld. If I get enough people in one room I'll run a session of Diamonds and Guns.

[Soras Teva Gee]

I'm gonna leave this here:

Spoiler

Show

I disagree I think Luffy would be far too amazed by a talking pony to care that she was pink.

Now Sanji... yeah.

[Trixie]

Marine legs for both front and back legs. Now I'm disappointed in myself for not thinking of that.

*Looks at his unused unloved Space Marine starter army that was only bought because the starter kit (two small armies, a rule book without all the fancy stories and things, and dice/templates etc) cost less than the hardcover rulebook*

Excuse me for a minute...

I think it's just greenstuff and copper wire on legs?

Although shoulder pads and bolters can be definitely useful.

Also, I wish they sold starter kit where I live :(

[Kyouhen]

I think it's just greenstuff and copper wire on legs?

Although shoulder pads and bolters can be definitely useful.

Also, I wish they sold starter kit where I live :(

No no, looking at the picture from that link you had posted it's definitely legs with shoulder pads at the top. Probably from those jump pack troops the marines have to get some of those poses. I think that's a Dark Eldar hair for the tail too...

[Darius Kane]

I disagree I think Luffy would be far too amazed by a talking pony to care that she was pink.

Now Sanji... yeah.

The comic is a parody of One Piece (Chopper as a pony should tip you off), that's why Luffy is acting out-of-character.

[Grif]

i didn't see any real need to

Damn. Thank you for reminding me that EN still exists.

[t209]

i didn't see any real need to

I wonder what will happen if they met Space Wolves Brony?

[Trixie]

No no, looking at the picture from that link you had posted it's definitely legs with shoulder pads at the top. Probably from those jump pack troops the marines have to get some of those poses. I think that's a Dark Eldar hair for the tail too...

I dunno, I have these, and it looks pretty normal?

Compare:

Spoiler

Show

[Kyouhen]

I dunno, I have these, and it looks pretty normal?

Compare:

Spoiler

Show

Huh, so that's how those ones were made. Nice. But I was talking about this one.

[Soras Teva Gee]

The comic is a parody of One Piece (Chopper as a pony should tip you off), that's why Luffy is acting out-of-character.

Yes and didn't I just specify that I disagree with their interpretation for the parody?

[Darius Kane]

Yes and didn't I just specify that I disagree with their interpretation for the parody?

But it is kinda the whole point of the parody comic (there are multiple strips) that the characters act different. There's no "interpretation", it's intended. That's what "parody" means. So you can't technically disagree, but you can simply say that you don't like it.

[Pokonic]

I'm gonna leave this here:

Spoiler

Show

......Makes me wonder if Pony Pony Fruits are viable......

[Darius Kane]

......Makes me wonder if Pony Pony Fruits are viable......

There was a Horse Horse Fruit. Dunno if horse and pony are different enough to justify two separate fruits. There's precedence though - multiple fruits for different races of cats (there was a cheetah and a leopard) and canines (a wolf and a dog). So I guess it would be possible that there is a Pony Pony Fruit.

[Pokonic]

There was a Horse Horse Fruit. Dunno if horse and pony are different enough to justify two separate fruits. There's precedence though - multiple fruits for different races of cats (there was a cheetah and a leopard) and canines (a wolf and a dog). So I guess it would be possible that there is a Pony Pony Fruit.

Pony Pony Fruit: Alicorn Model?

[Maxtronaut]

Just wanted to say that my little sister bought me 4 blindbag ponies today. She's a bit awesomer now.

[Kd7sov]

But it is kinda the whole point of the parody comic (there are multiple strips) that the characters act different. There's no "interpretation", it's intended. That's what "parody" means. So you can't technically disagree, but you can simply say that you don't like it.

Au contraire!

Google defines parody (and I didn't actually know it would) as "an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect." Exaggeration and distortion overlap at some points, but they are not the same.

Wiktionary defines it as "a work or performance that imitates another work or performance with ridicule or irony". Again, nothing about changing anything in particular.

Dictionary.com defines it as "a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing". I think we're getting less and less specific, but there's one more to go.

Merriam-Webster Online defines it as "a literary or musical work in which the style of an author or work is closely imitated for comic effect or ridicule".

A case could certainly be made that none of those definitions precludes changing who the characters are, but it's certainly not an integral or required part of parody.

[Balmas]

Just wanted to say that my little sister bought me 4 blindbag ponies today. She's a bit awesomer now.

Say, around 20% more awesome? (It's a very different thing than 20% cooler, though the uninitiated may think otherwise.)

[Darius Kane]

Pony Pony Fruit: Alicorn Model?

Doubt it. There might be a Unicorn and Pegasus Model (Mythical Zoan Types), but you can't have two Devil Fruit powers, unfortunately.

[Dirtytabs]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuB5XFqW5PE&t=2m20s

EVERYONE! (Trixie and Tectonic Robot at least!)

Team Fortress 2 recently updated for Halloween.

They threw in a reference to ponies/bronies.

[Soras Teva Gee]

But it is kinda the whole point of the parody comic (there are multiple strips) that the characters act different. There's no "interpretation", it's intended. That's what "parody" means. So you can't technically disagree, but you can simply say that you don't like it.

What Kd7sov said I second. Parody is not widely accepted as equalling a blank slate, or not and being a successful one.

So yeah its not that it completely doesn't work but I feel it would have been stronger for the more serious men of the the crew to play the manly rejecting part, then the comedic inversion where being OOC would work with Zoro and Sanji frolicking happily.

(And also this is art, its all about interpretation. )

Doubt it. There might be a Unicorn and Pegasus Model (Mythical Zoan Types), but you can't have two Devil Fruit powers, unfortunately.

Models: Unicorn, Pegasus, and Earth pony would all be normal zoans (common ponies) with Alicorn being the mythic zoan model having all three.

EDIT:

So the Hub gave EqD a promo.

Nice to know they do still care.

(Non-spoiler detail this confirms we will be getting a two-part premiere. A whole hour of glorious fresh pony)

[Maxtronaut]

Say, around 20% more awesome? (It's a very different thing than 20% cooler, though the uninitiated may think otherwise.)

Well, if each blindbag she bought counted for a 5% increase in awesome, than yes.

[Darius Kane]

So yeah its not that it completely doesn't work but I feel it would have been stronger for the more serious men of the the crew to play the manly rejecting part, then the comedic inversion where being OOC would work with Zoro and Sanji frolicking happily.

Again, it is the whole point of the parody to portray the characters differently.

[Anarion]

X-com Ponythread. The final installment. This is going to be a long one, I'll try and space it out. Also, please forgive me everypony, but I derped and didn't write down all the nicknames or screenshot my memorial wall before the final mission and classic ironman doesn't let you go back past that point, so I don't know how to record it. I do have a list of all the names, but not the nicknames unless I randomly happen to remember them.

Spoiler

Show

Dear Princess Celestia,

Please, send all your blessings to Colonel Blastech. Declare a holiday for him! A festival, something. He volunteered to use his psychic talents on the ethereal device, and when we invaded their ship and it was about to destroy the whole planet, he stayed behind and piloted it safely into space before it self-destructed. Colonel "Zed" Blastech, we will never forget you or your sacrifice.

I guess, I guess I should back up. It's been a long few months, hasn't it?

The Overseer UFO
This is about where I left off. Many soldiers had already died, but I still had a core team. Eakin sniping, and Deadly, Soras, and Diego Havoc II I believe. We tried to board the ship, but there were these new mutons. They had heavy armor and heavier plasma weapons. Too heavy for us. We killed most of them, but then there was something else. A large purple alien with an atrophied body and a humongous head. It didn't walk, but levitated off the ground. It took control of Thanqol, if I'm remembering right, and it shot Diego. We tried to withdraw, but it blasted Eakin out of the sky and the elite muton killed off another. And then, there was something else...something worse.

The men call it a sectopod. I shudder when I hear the word. These abominations of flesh and machine tower above the soldiers. They fire a beam of pure destruction at a speed you wouldn't believe. They can blast a swath of ground twice before our ponies can even fire. I thought we could run, but it had a plasma cannon ready, and it mowed us down as we tried to escape. There were no survivors princess.

For a month, there was no overseer UFO on my radar. I brought down a few smaller scout ships, and tried to build up a new team. Thinking Cap, Bleakmane and the Ponithid, DigoDragon, Amishpirate II. After a month the overseer UFO reappeared, but it went over Europe and I didn't have a firestorm there to intercept it. I tried to use a regular interceptor, but it was too slow and we lost the ship again. Back to the grind, back to the regular UFOs, slowly researching and builidng up our forces. We all had titan armor, and then archangel armor so that our troops could hover and fly. After two months, we were ready. We blasted the UFO open as we took down the basic mutons, and then unloaded rockets and grenades into the elites. We rushed the sectopod and brought it down in a fusillade of shotgun and sniper fire. Finally, we surrounded the ethereal and brought it down. I had hoped for a capture, but it wasn't worth the risk. The psionic explosion as the creature disintegrated was...beautiful.

The ponies out on the mission came back with some sort of strange glowing sphere that had been protected on the overseer UFO. We weren't sure what it did, but it was clearly psionic. How sad that my only psion, Eakin, was killed. Subsequent testing did not reveal another. I despaired.

The Battleship

That last part was a bit of a skip. This is where I left you in my last letter princess, and the battleship happened first. We had brought down this huge ship and were about to invade. I had high hopes. Our team was skilled and experienced working together. It wasn't enough though. I made a mistake princess, I sent the assaults to flank, and when we were ambushed by mutons and heavy floaters the assaults couldn't make it back in time. I watched my ponies get shot down in a fighting retreat. The squad was wiped out, and the ship took off. We had detected some kind of fusion technology, but it was lost to us.

After the Overseer UFO
What to do, Princess? I had a small team, but that was practically it. After the losses from the battleship and the first attempt on the overseer most of them were dead. We shouldered onward with a feeling of dread. My ponies continued to fail their psionics testing.

Then, disaster. An abductor ship landed with its full complement of crew. 17 aliens, all of them elites. We couldn't leave it though. We destroyed the sectopod and the cyberdisc, albeit with some damage. But by this point all of our ponies had the best plasma weapons and the best armor, primarily titan. Wiped out to the last pony again, Princess. They called my name as they died. But whether it was to beg for help or to curse me, I cannot tell.



I thought that was it. I was ready to give it up, princess. But I trudged onward. A simple abduction and a scout ship. I was out of ponies, so I drew on other sources. The names of mages and changelings that I had known in other worlds

I sent in twin snipers, and an assault. There was one pony left, or a changeling maybe. His name was blastech. And sniping with him was a soldier named Amun. Kalina Rogers was on assault, and Tessen and Turing on defense. They were all I had left, I'd killed all the others. I could see them, each death like a dagger in my side, twisting a little tighter, digging a little deeper. But that made me careful, I could feel that dagger reminding me of the pain that was waiting, and so we went slowly. We built back up. With the elerium from the scout ships, I built ghost armor. We captured an ethereal.

Racing to them temple ship

We finished the chamber in our base to house the ethereal device. And at about the same time the team was building up, there was a breakthrough. With all the world behind me, I had been able to afford a huge number of soliders, and systematically tested the new recruits for psionics whle keeping my core team in combat. At last, we found one. But not just one, oh no no no. After that, I had enough soldiers, I felt it was safe to send my snipers in for testing. Both positive. And Kalina, my assault, also positive. In one fell swoop, I had 4 psionic troopers, some already promoted. They were like gods on the battlefield, princess. We went carefully, building up their powers. I was sick and tired of pointless losses.

With a core team in place, we started winning. The first time that Blastech mind-controlled an elite muton and had it turn its alien grenade upon its allies...I knew we had something different.

We still took our time. The aliens had ceased their attempts at abduction and instead they sent terror attacks every so often. I lost some ponies. Turing was killed, and I lost several new squaddies. One of my fully trained pisonics, a nameless blank slate with a natural gift, fell to the aliens' fire. One of my best assaults was mind-controlled and killed two of my ponies. But we were winning. And we kept winning. Colonel "Zed" Blastech, colonel Jack "stacks" Hearts, Colonel "Whiskey" Tessen, Colonel Kalina "Cobra" Rogers, Colonel Amun "Pharoah" Ra, and Lieutenant "Xeno" Errant made up my final team. 4 of them psionic, Blastech with a perfect 100 base psionic power and enhancements enough to mind control an ethereal had he wished.

The Temple Ship

That just left the temple ship itself. Blastech volunteered to test the psionic device. As our most powerful psion, it just made sense. But the star of the mission was Kalina "Cobra" Rogers. That dear girl stood face to face with two sectopods and took the brunt of their attacks...and survived! Oh not only that, you see, she had rushed one of them and shot it, and the area attack from the other killed its ally while leaving Kalina alive. We patched her up with medkits and moved on to the final room. Compared to the horrendous sectopods, the so-called "uber" ethereal was laughably easy. Kalina mind controlled one of its Elite muton minions, and then the snipers took its head clean off. They still had several rounds left they didn't even need to use.

And then, disaster. Without the ethereals, the ship began to implode on itself, the control device becoming a black hole. With his psionic powers, Blastech realized that the whole world would be destroyed, and he forced the rest of the squad to safety, piloting the ship into space alone and dieing in the explosion.

Afterthoughts

I have learned many things princess. Killing Thanqols is not always the answer. Sometimes, keeping them alive is the right thing to do. Moving your final soldier into unknown territory is a terrible idea. Sectopods are capable of inspiring physical terror. And ethereals make a very satisfying keening sound when they die. It's important to remember life's simple pleasures sometimes.

And most importantly: losing 62 soldiers makes classic ironman take a god damn long time!

Vigilo Confido

Your faithful Commander,
Anarion

A memorial to the dead, with apologies for a spoiler within spoilers, but it's a long list. I did in fact kill off every single ponythreader or OC that gave their name, some of you twice. Blastech was the only survivor, but he technically died in the ending cinematic.

Spoiler

Show

Otakuryoga
Diego Havoc
Diego Havoc II "Bonus"
Grif
Amishpirate
Amishpirate II
Sylvestor McFly
Balmas "Yeti"
Forumexplorer
Gamerlord
Maxtronaut
Tiki Snakes "Hex"
Pokonic
Colonel Fedora
One Tin Soldier
Phatonfox
Kairaven
Aotrs Commander
Bleakmane (OC)
Ponithid (OC)
Thinking Cap (OC)
Clear Thought (OC)
Paradox (OC)
Tvtyrant
Deadly
Soras Teva Gee
Eakin
Kyouhen
DigoDragon

33 Thanqols or default named rookies/squaddies that should have been named Thanqol if I wasn't too lazy.

Colonel "Zed" Blastech (died saving the planet)

Some OOC thoughts. This was really hard and I think I got progressively more impatient. Anyone who followed Skyscraper Graveyard may have noticed me lament there that I actually worried I was stuck in limbo, unable to lose but unable to build up a squad either. Ghost armor is what ended up saving me. I probably burned all 4 charges on every character in a 6-man squad on some small 7 alien UFOs just to get a bunch of squaddies close enough to enemies to actually have a decent hit chance without dying. Once I had two squadsight snipers airborne with archangel armor and damn good ground (giving them +30% to hit and sight anywhere that my other soldiers could see) I was back in the game, and things started going very smoothly. It still took about 20 missions to get a core team of psionic colonels built up, lengthened a bit by me still losing a couple more important characters along the way.

Even then, I almost blew the final mission by accidentally moving out within sight range of the sectopods. If it had been any character other than a colonel assault that could not be crit and had run and gun (special ability to double move and still fire), I would have probably lost 3 characters on the spot. As it is, my assault survived with 1 hp and I crushed the mission as a result. Yay.

I hope you all found this entertaining, and that your horrible deaths (notably Bleakbane's corporeal shell being implanted with Chrysalid eggs) were both amusing and worthwhile.

Just for reference, I killed 62 soldiers here. At the end, it told me the global average soldiers lost: 3.

On the subject of things that we aren't sure were posted, new Rhythm is Magic is out. Here's the original it was based off of.

Not new, but completely awesome. My favorite part is when you can see Fluttershy's tiny pink hadoken in the background behind Pinkie.

So I'm going to be at PAX 2013 in Melbourne. Booked up and everything.

If any of you chumps are man enough to come to always sunny australia then hit me up for some kind of meetup/room lodging/supernatural mind meld. If I get enough people in one room I'll run a session of Diamonds and Guns.

Cosplay as a pony and send pictures.

EDIT:

So the Hub gave EqD a promo.

Nice to know they do still care.

(Non-spoiler detail this confirms we will be getting a two-part premiere. A whole hour of glorious fresh pony)

Promo comment

Spoiler

Show

So, if you freeze-frame, the hair on that pony next to Dash in the race reminds me of Spitfire's hair, but the pony is blue and Spitfire is yellow. Perhaps a cousin or a fan?

Also interesting of them to throw in a Littlest Pet Shop Ad as part of the promo there. That tiny dog really does look like the dog version of Twilight Sparkle. It's uncanny.

[OracleofWuffing]

So the Hub gave EqD a promo.

Completely baseless Season 3 Speculation warning:

Spoiler

Show

Twilight's answer to being able to handle the mission is "No," which is where that picture her VA leaked of a Season 3 script originated.

[Sean Mirrsen]

X-com Ponythread. The final installment. This is going to be a long one, I'll try and space it out. Also, please forgive me everypony, but I derped and didn't write down all the nicknames or screenshot my memorial wall before the final mission and classic ironman doesn't let you go back past that point, so I don't know how to record it. I do have a list of all the names, but not the nicknames unless I randomly happen to remember them.

Spoiler

Show

Dear Princess Celestia,

Please, send all your blessings to Colonel Blastech. Declare a holiday for him! A festival, something. He volunteered to use his psychic talents on the ethereal device, and when we invaded their ship and it was about to destroy the whole planet, he stayed behind and piloted it safely into space before it self-destructed. Colonel "Zed" Blastech, we will never forget you or your sacrifice.

I guess, I guess I should back up. It's been a long few months, hasn't it?

The Overseer UFO
This is about where I left off. Many soldiers had already died, but I still had a core team. Eakin sniping, and Deadly, Soras, and Diego Havoc II I believe. We tried to board the ship, but there were these new mutons. They had heavy armor and heavier plasma weapons. Too heavy for us. We killed most of them, but then there was something else. A large purple alien with an atrophied body and a humongous head. It didn't walk, but levitated off the ground. It took control of Thanqol, if I'm remembering right, and it shot Diego. We tried to withdraw, but it blasted Eakin out of the sky and the elite muton killed off another. And then, there was something else...something worse.

The men call it a sectopod. I shudder when I hear the word. These abominations of flesh and machine tower above the soldiers. They fire a beam of pure destruction at a speed you wouldn't believe. They can blast a swath of ground twice before our ponies can even fire. I thought we could run, but it had a plasma cannon ready, and it mowed us down as we tried to escape. There were no survivors princess.

For a month, there was no overseer UFO on my radar. I brought down a few smaller scout ships, and tried to build up a new team. Thinking Cap, Bleakmane and the Ponithid, DigoDragon, Amishpirate II. After a month the overseer UFO reappeared, but it went over Europe and I didn't have a firestorm there to intercept it. I tried to use a regular interceptor, but it was too slow and we lost the ship again. Back to the grind, back to the regular UFOs, slowly researching and builidng up our forces. We all had titan armor, and then archangel armor so that our troops could hover and fly. After two months, we were ready. We blasted the UFO open as we took down the basic mutons, and then unloaded rockets and grenades into the elites. We rushed the sectopod and brought it down in a fusillade of shotgun and sniper fire. Finally, we surrounded the ethereal and brought it down. I had hoped for a capture, but it wasn't worth the risk. The psionic explosion as the creature disintegrated was...beautiful.

The ponies out on the mission came back with some sort of strange glowing sphere that had been protected on the overseer UFO. We weren't sure what it did, but it was clearly psionic. How sad that my only psion, Eakin, was killed. Subsequent testing did not reveal another. I despaired.

The Battleship

That last part was a bit of a skip. This is where I left you in my last letter princess, and the battleship happened first. We had brought down this huge ship and were about to invade. I had high hopes. Our team was skilled and experienced working together. It wasn't enough though. I made a mistake princess, I sent the assaults to flank, and when we were ambushed by mutons and heavy floaters the assaults couldn't make it back in time. I watched my ponies get shot down in a fighting retreat. The squad was wiped out, and the ship took off. We had detected some kind of fusion technology, but it was lost to us.

After the Overseer UFO
What to do, Princess? I had a small team, but that was practically it. After the losses from the battleship and the first attempt on the overseer most of them were dead. We shouldered onward with a feeling of dread. My ponies continued to fail their psionics testing.

Then, disaster. An abductor ship landed with its full complement of crew. 17 aliens, all of them elites. We couldn't leave it though. We destroyed the sectopod and the cyberdisc, albeit with some damage. But by this point all of our ponies had the best plasma weapons and the best armor, primarily titan. Wiped out to the last pony again, Princess. They called my name as they died. But whether it was to beg for help or to curse me, I cannot tell.



I thought that was it. I was ready to give it up, princess. But I trudged onward. A simple abduction and a scout ship. I was out of ponies, so I drew on other sources. The names of mages and changelings that I had known in other worlds

I sent in twin snipers, and an assault. There was one pony left, or a changeling maybe. His name was blastech. And sniping with him was a soldier named Amun. Kalina Rogers was on assault, and Tessen and Turing on defense. They were all I had left, I'd killed all the others. I could see them, each death like a dagger in my side, twisting a little tighter, digging a little deeper. But that made me careful, I could feel that dagger reminding me of the pain that was waiting, and so we went slowly. We built back up. With the elerium from the scout ships, I built ghost armor. We captured an ethereal.

Racing to them temple ship

We finished the chamber in our base to house the ethereal device. And at about the same time the team was building up, there was a breakthrough. With all the world behind me, I had been able to afford a huge number of soliders, and systematically tested the new recruits for psionics whle keeping my core team in combat. At last, we found one. But not just one, oh no no no. After that, I had enough soldiers, I felt it was safe to send my snipers in for testing. Both positive. And Kalina, my assault, also positive. In one fell swoop, I had 4 psionic troopers, some already promoted. They were like gods on the battlefield, princess. We went carefully, building up their powers. I was sick and tired of pointless losses.

With a core team in place, we started winning. The first time that Blastech mind-controlled an elite muton and had it turn its alien grenade upon its allies...I knew we had something different.

We still took our time. The aliens had ceased their attempts at abduction and instead they sent terror attacks every so often. I lost some ponies. Turing was killed, and I lost several new squaddies. One of my fully trained pisonics, a nameless blank slate with a natural gift, fell to the aliens' fire. One of my best assaults was mind-controlled and killed two of my ponies. But we were winning. And we kept winning. Colonel "Zed" Blastech, colonel Jack "stacks" Hearts, Colonel "Whiskey" Tessen, Colonel Kalina "Cobra" Rogers, Colonel Amun "Pharoah" Ra, and Lieutenant "Xeno" Errant made up my final team. 4 of them psionic, Blastech with a perfect 100 base psionic power and enhancements enough to mind control an ethereal had he wished.

The Temple Ship

That just left the temple ship itself. Blastech volunteered to test the psionic device. As our most powerful psion, it just made sense. But the star of the mission was Kalina "Cobra" Rogers. That dear girl stood face to face with two sectopods and took the brunt of their attacks...and survived! Oh not only that, you see, she had rushed one of them and shot it, and the area attack from the other killed its ally while leaving Kalina alive. We patched her up with medkits and moved on to the final room. Compared to the horrendous sectopods, the so-called "uber" ethereal was laughably easy. Kalina mind controlled one of its Elite muton minions, and then the snipers took its head clean off. They still had several rounds left they didn't even need to use.

And then, disaster. Without the ethereals, the ship began to implode on itself, the control device becoming a black hole. With his psionic powers, Blastech realized that the whole world would be destroyed, and he forced the rest of the squad to safety, piloting the ship into space alone and dieing in the explosion.

Afterthoughts

I have learned many things princess. Killing Thanqols is not always the answer. Sometimes, keeping them alive is the right thing to do. Moving your final soldier into unknown territory is a terrible idea. Sectopods are capable of inspiring physical terror. And ethereals make a very satisfying keening sound when they die. It's important to remember life's simple pleasures sometimes.

And most importantly: losing 62 soldiers makes classic ironman take a god damn long time!

Vigilo Confido

Your faithful Commander,
Anarion

A memorial to the dead, with apologies for a spoiler within spoilers, but it's a long list. I did in fact kill off every single ponythreader or OC that gave their name, some of you twice. Blastech was the only survivor, but he technically died in the ending cinematic.

Spoiler

Show

Otakuryoga
Diego Havoc
Diego Havoc II "Bonus"
Grif
Amishpirate
Amishpirate II
Sylvestor McFly
Balmas "Yeti"
Forumexplorer
Gamerlord
Maxtronaut
Tiki Snakes "Hex"
Pokonic
Colonel Fedora
One Tin Soldier
Phatonfox
Kairaven
Aotrs Commander
Bleakmane (OC)
Ponithid (OC)
Thinking Cap (OC)
Clear Thought (OC)
Paradox (OC)
Tvtyrant
Deadly
Soras Teva Gee
Eakin
Kyouhen
DigoDragon

33 Thanqols or default named rookies/squaddies that should have been named Thanqol if I wasn't too lazy.

Colonel "Zed" Blastech (died saving the planet)

Some OOC thoughts. This was really hard and I think I got progressively more impatient. Anyone who followed Skyscraper Graveyard may have noticed me lament there that I actually worried I was stuck in limbo, unable to lose but unable to build up a squad either. Ghost armor is what ended up saving me. I probably burned all 4 charges on every character in a 6-man squad on some small 7 alien UFOs just to get a bunch of squaddies close enough to enemies to actually have a decent hit chance without dying. Once I had two squadsight snipers airborne with archangel armor and damn good ground (giving them +30% to hit and sight anywhere that my other soldiers could see) I was back in the game, and things started going very smoothly. It still took about 20 missions to get a core team of psionic colonels built up, lengthened a bit by me still losing a couple more important characters along the way.

Even then, I almost blew the final mission by accidentally moving out within sight range of the sectopods. If it had been any character other than a colonel assault that could not be crit and had run and gun (special ability to double move and still fire), I would have probably lost 3 characters on the spot. As it is, my assault survived with 1 hp and I crushed the mission as a result. Yay.

I hope you all found this entertaining, and that your horrible deaths (notably Bleakbane's corporeal shell being implanted with Chrysalid eggs) were both amusing and worthwhile.

Just for reference, I killed 62 soldiers here. At the end, it told me the global average soldiers lost: 3.

I didn't participate, I see. How totally in character for me. ^_^

[BlasTech]

Well, at least I went out in a blaze of glory. *sniffs* So proud.

[Deadly]

Yet another potential S3 episode title is up.

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Title: Spike at Your Service
Air Date: December 29, 2012
Synopsis: TBA

Wonder what it's about. I could see this going several ways, anything from Spike getting too into a butler type role to founding his own business of helping out ponies around Ponyville and neglecting Twilight.

[S3 episode title speculation] Nah man, I'll tell you ...

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Spike becomes a Secret Service agent. Rainbow Dash is SO freakin' jealous when she finds out

[Trixie]

Friendship is... [34 second]

[Nameless]

Hub Promo thing:

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Is it just me, or do their voices sound... different...

EDIT:
*watches again*
They sound a little lower... I think.