My Little Pony XIX: I Emptied Your Thread

[Brazen Shield]

Well, okay then. But it's still no fair deal, since Braz counts for at least 3 good fillies, or 7 medicore, or 14 bad ones.

^>>>^ aww. Thanks~
And then there are the fantastic fillies, like Phoe and Lixie and filly!SiuiS~

[MCerberus]

The world must feel monocle! We must make this the next art meme before Bloomabuse becomes a thing.

[Kindablue]

The world must feel monocle! We must make this the next art meme before Bloomabuse becomes a thing.

Bloomabuse is canon. They kick trees to harvest apples.

[MCerberus]

Bloomabuse is canon. They kick trees to harvest apples.

Why wood you mention that tree? Now we're going to get sappy puns all day.

[Brazen Shield]

Why wood you mention that tree? Now we're going to get sappy puns all day.

Well, I ,for one, am stumped: why would that cause sappy tree puns?

[Aotrs Commander]

*skullpalm*

Sometimes you just can't win. I've spent ages trying to work out what the abbreviation of a Soviet version of EVA would be (writing a briefing for a wargame tomorrow, and yes, this is the kinda length I go to as a matter of course)., using translators and wiki and all sorts... and I finally found out that in both Russian and English, Electronic Video Assistant is basically the same words with the same letters (romanised at any rate), meaning it too would be EVA, with pretty much the same pronouciation...

[TheAmishPirate]

Well, I ,for one, am stumped: why would that cause sappy tree puns?

Stick around and you might see for yourself.

[EsperDerek]

Well, I ,for one, am stumped: why would that cause sappy tree puns?

I think you'd better leaf, before someone gets barking mad.

[Kindablue]

I apologize. Can you guys stop now?

[tonberrian]

Thistle be fun.

[Gamerlord]

Gamerlord disapproves -9000.
STOP WITH THE PUNS!

[Brazen Shield]

I think you'd better leaf, before someone gets barking mad.

Aww, don't be such a stick in the mud~

[dromer]

*skullpalm*

Sometimes you just can't win. I've spent ages trying to work out what the abbreviation of a Soviet version of EVA would be (writing a briefing for a wargame tomorrow, and yes, this is the kinda length I go to as a matter of course)., using translators and wiki and all sorts... and I finally found out that in both Russian and English, Electronic Video Assistant is basically the same words with the same letters (romanised at any rate), meaning it too would be EVA, with pretty much the same pronouciation...

Soviets made a point to differentiate their acronyms from American ones. Furthermore, most Soviet acronyms were designed to make the thing in question sound more imposing. Perhaps you could try Video Surveillance Assistant?

[TheAmishPirate]

*skullpalm*

Sometimes you just can't win. I've spent ages trying to work out what the abbreviation of a Soviet version of EVA would be (writing a briefing for a wargame tomorrow, and yes, this is the kinda length I go to as a matter of course)., using translators and wiki and all sorts... and I finally found out that in both Russian and English, Electronic Video Assistant is basically the same words with the same letters (romanised at any rate), meaning it too would be EVA, with pretty much the same pronouciation...

Coming from somepony who speaks a bit of Russian: Which 'E' was it? There's two of them. One is pronounced "Eh" and the other is pronounced "Yeh". The 'V' is also pronounced differently ("Veh") and 'A' sounds more like "Aah".

On more pony-related news, I think I'm going to be able to get something done for WTG this week, but it'll be close. Also not as well-edited. But I've accepted that anything I write in only a week few days is going to need significant edits before I even think about submitting to ED.

[Brazen Shield]

Coming from somepony who speaks a bit of Russian: Which 'E' was it? There's two of them. One is pronounced "Eh" and the other is pronounced "Yeh". The 'V' is also pronounced differently ("Veh") and 'A' sounds more like "Aah".

@-@ okay! Okay! I'll stop. Please don't bring out any more letter sounds.

[erikun]

@-@ okay! Okay! I'll stop. Please don't bring out any more letter sounds.

That was certainly a random comment.

[TheAmishPirate]

@-@ okay! Okay! I'll stop. Please don't bring out any more letter sounds.

Apparently, the cure for world pun peace is...in-depth discussion of the Russian language?

...I think I might have to do science to this.

EDIT-AT-BRAZ: The ninjas seemed to get the joke just fine.

[Brazen Shield]

That was certainly a random comment.

Hah! Sorry><
I was referring to my stopping with the puns in exchange for the hard to read letter-sounds going away T_T
Other languages confuse me. They're easy to read, but hard to say and understand out loud for me. Adding the "out loud" aspect of the language to the reading part of it just throws me for a loop.
You can ignore me~

MOSTLY I was failing at making a joke~

[the_druid_droid]

Also, a question for anyone who reads it or has read it at any point up to now: what Equestria Daily tags do you feel are most appropriate for this story?

In addition to what's already been said, I'm half-tempted to suggest a [Crossover] tag, although I don't know if that truly applies to crossovers from previous generations of pony...

Charger: Well...

(Warning: Enormous)

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Charger: The Mage book and system is beautiful. It's beautiful! It's a system that requires, rewards, demands and inspires spur-of-the-moment creative genius. It's inspired. Laying out the base principles, there are 10 Arcanum - Death, Matter, Fate, Time, Forces, Prime, Life, Spirit, Mind and Space. These are ranked 1-5. One rank in any of these gives you all the investigation and knowledge gathering spells related to that discipline. One dot in Forces lets you hear radio waves, see infrared, perceive electrical currents running through buildings, everything. One dot in Death lets you determine exactly how someone died, or if they're going to die soon so on and so forth. This makes a Mage an investigative genius with an almost trivial expenditure of effort.

Rank two gives you all the shielding and concealing abilities related to that discipline. Rank three allows you to command it directly (Lightning jumps from wall sockets). Rank four lets you do anything you want to the subject which doesn't change it's fundamental nature (Electricity becomes sound - a lot of electricity will become a lot of sound because it's fundamental nature - LOTS - is unchanged). Five dots lets you Make and Unmake. You're given a phenomenally broad toolset to work with and moment-to-moment genius is what the game is all about.

However, if you read the book in the wrong way, what you'll see is a D&D 3.5 style list of spells - hard, self-contained discrete effects. It's an immensely boring read and can turn you off the entire thing or put binders on your creativity. Some of the spells in that spell list, furthermore, defy uselessness and that list makes some arcanum, notably Prime (the magic of magic) seem ridiculously worthless. What you've got to realise is that this is essentially an enormous errata block. They took all the rules arguments and weird loopholes from Old Mage and clarified them with concrete mechanical effects and consequences, so when a Time mage decides to speed himself up in combat there'll be a frame of reference other than the Storyteller throwing up his hands and saying "I don't know" in a Scooby Doo accent.

So that's my first piece of advice. Look at the spell list through that lens. It's a bunch of examples and an attempt to pre-empt as many rules arguments as it possibly can. The actual magic system in play works like a dream.

The second piece of advice is that a lot of people's brains shut down when they see the word "Atlantis" smeared all over the Mage creation myth. This is the worst creation myth ever. It's presented as utter, true, incontrovertible fact and reads like "Long ago things WERE GREAT until some guy SCREWED UP and now THINGS SUCK". It's absolutely rubbish as a history and misses the point of Mage so badly.

And yet, in a cosmic irony, various sourcebooks take this horrible fail of a creation myth and just by changing the tone slightly make it work, and work spectacularly. Magical Traditions is particularly noteworthy here. It actually spends it's entire first chapter discussing why Atlantis is part of the Mage cosmology, what it can offer your games in actual play, and how to go about removing or re-working it or filtering it through thousands of different mystical lenses and occult traditions and what that will mean. The corebook presents the Atlantis myth as hard fact, and that taints not just the myth but also the Magical Orders descended from that myth.

See, one of the biggest things about Mage is the search for the Truth. The world was broken by the Hubris of Awakened Man, and they separated the Supernal and the Truth and kept it for themselves. They then blinded the eyes of every human being and trapped them in a prison-world. Accepting reality's existence is to buy into the Lie made to keep you down. Giving a single, verifiable, canon meta-myth completely slaps that theme in the face.

If you read Mage wrong, you'll get the idea that it's about fairies and goblins. It's not, it's an incredibly humanocentric cosmos. If you read Mage wrong you'll get the idea the spell system works like D&D 3.5. It doesn't; it's a beautiful system that turns every encounter into a puzzle. If you read Mage wrong, you'll get the idea it's about a war against evil mages. It's not - one of the strangest and most compelling aspects of the setting is how small a role the antagonist factions actually play. The Seers of the Throne, Mages who serve the Lie and bad guys, are outnumbered 2:1 by Pentacle Mages and are rather afraid of all-out war. They much prefer conversation and conversion than gunfights and disappearances.

It's very easy to read Mage: The Awakened wrong. Everypony who has read the book in absence of other context, myself included, was left feeling uninspired and generally rather dreary. But if you have somepony on hand who *gets it* and can explain what it's actually about to you then it'll make so much more sense so much faster. It's absolutely worth looking into. Just remember to look at what it is rather than what it looks like.

Jayden: Hubris can't possibly be a bad thing! If it was I'd be in trouble!
Charger: Brain spiders.
Jayden: Ha ha ha ha!

Mask: And something pony related to keep this on topic:

I'm starting to really want to check this Mage thing out.

Also, that comic is wonderful!

Esper: we seem to be seriously contemplating breaking into your house with board games. Pray I don't come upon a sudden windfall. Or that I do, whichever is more to your liking.

The more we talk about this, the more I realize I probably would take time off to go play tabletop games with playgrounders and ponythreaders...

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Jayden: Griffon magic. Discuss.

Is that a golden ratio I spy? Which personality is this for, again?

On more pony-related news, I think I'm going to be able to get something done for WTG this week, but it'll be close. Also not as well-edited. But I've accepted that anything I write in only a week few days is going to need significant edits before I even think about submitting to ED.

This feel. I know it.

[Kindablue]

MOSTLY I was failing at making a joke~

Certainly know how that feels.

This feel. I know it.

That was weird. How did you know that I was going to say that?

[the_druid_droid]

That was weird. How did you know that I was going to say that?

Creepy lucky magical precog?

[Lex-Kat]

Hello fellow Pony loving friends. Long time no see.

I'm posting to let those of you interested know that I have started recruitment for:

My Little Pony WW: Return of Nightmare Moon

Thank you, and have a nice day.

[AlterForm]

Wow, it's been ages since I've posted in this thread.

So, I was just wondering. Does anypony here play MMOs, like WoW or Guild Wars? I've seen some MLP guilds pop up on some MMOs like Runescape lately....

Here's a decent list of pony guilds. There might be a thread on like ponychan or something with more. I wish there was a Guild Wars pony guild; my current one has died and I'd love to be able to get something better than a PuG going if only for the WoC content.

[MCerberus]

How does WW/mafia work when you're not in a big group in the same room anyway? It seems rather... odd.

[Aotrs Commander]

Coming from somepony who speaks a bit of Russian: Which 'E' was it? There's two of them. One is pronounced "Eh" and the other is pronounced "Yeh". The 'V' is also pronounced differently ("Veh") and 'A' sounds more like "Aah".

It translated to электронный видео- ассистент, which, accordingly my completely-language-inept looking-up-on-wiki-and-IPA skills, would seem to be fairly similar (at least as pronounced as letters.) I could, of course, be completely wrong, since, as I say, I am completely and utterly crap at languages.

(I've actually got a mate who teaches English in Russia, but I dobt I could get hold of him before tomorrow night, which is why I'm muddling through myself.)

Though I did find according to a translate back, the latter word could also mean adjutant, which I went with, because it sounds more awesome. (Like dromer said...)

If you have any better suggestions, I am ALL ears! (Metahorically.) I really, really suck at languages.

(It is my greatest hope that I never have to play Dreemaenhyll with anyone who speaks latin or isiZulu, as the mangling my "skills" have done to those languages would no doubt bring them to despairing tears...)

[Lex-Kat]

How does WW/mafia work when you're not in a big group in the same room anyway? It seems rather... odd.

You split the day phase into a 48 period, where everyone has that time to get in their votes.

Unlike the RL games I've participated in, there is not nomination, 2nd nomination, defense, and then vote phases.

The players vote, sometimes randomly, for who they are suspicious of. If they have a reason, they usually give it. If others agree, they'll join, which sometimes rolls along into a bandwagon.

Those being voted for can defend themselves at anytime they get on, usually the sooner the better.

At the end of the 48 hour period, the narrator (me) says the day is over, and tallies the votes. Whoever has the most votes, dies.

On occassion, the players ask for an extension of the day, because the debate is really heated. It's up to the narrator to decide if he wishes to do so or not.

After the day phase, the "wolves" have a 24 hour night phase to decide, and PM the narrator, who they wish to kill.

[InkwellPony]

WHEW. Never go for more than 24 hours without checking the thread if it can be helped. Time to play catchup!

Esper! you did it again! i combed through 10 pages of ponysanity JUST to find the end of Midnight Mare.

FAN-FLIPPING-TASTIC
although i do have one thing i would like to point out, to the spoilers, shall we?

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The last excerpt, and the epilogue, its not clear what happens. Is NNM just a voice inside Midnight's head? or did she become the little Navi type fairy?

I love your fics. your ideas, your characters, and even your mini roleplays. And once again you give me the drive to set up Ponen Lagann and get back to work on Ponyard's story.

Shoulderponies are awesome, and everybody should have shoulderponies. Because they are ponies. That go on your shoulder. And tell you to do horrible wonderfully awesome things!

I've never put much thought into it before, but Pinkie would be a great Joker...


and an even better Bane.

I disagree. Pinkie Pie is more of a Harley Quinn than a joker. Because I can see her in that outfit. Wielding a giant mallet. Without fingers.

Well, I was specifically looking for a self-representation. The dark types fit me better than fighting (viciousness rather than precision), I've always identified as canine/lupine, I have similar facial profile, and while I tend to hit hard and fast, I dont do so well getting hit. When deciding amongst the specifics, I found these

And considering I wanted a pokémon that represented my personality as well, it was a no-brainer.

But why dark?

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when silver/gold first came out, after I got over my euphoria at having bought the game, I trained every dark type pokémon. I got a feel for how they handle, much like how after a while a MtG player can "feel" how a deck will play by scrolling through the cards.

Tyranitar, the kaiju beast. Sneasel the sneakthief. Murkrow the sad waste of my time, with a neat hat. Umbreon, sleek, impenetrable night, soaking damage and recovering it.

They all feel like the kinds of things I would do (except for Sneasel, who felt a little too malicious for my liking), and that trend continued on into Emerald, where I stopped playing. Shiftry, crawdaunt, sableye. All feel thematic and appropriate. Mightyena, who earned my respect, as I dismissed him for the standard weak early game pokemon fodder.

The dark types have earned my respect. Where there are cool pokemon in each type, Dark is one of those where it's rare that I dislike one, rather than rare I like a bunch of them.

I'm a skitty! Because skitties are cute and awesome and yet normal at the same time. Drearilly normal. Depressingly completely normal.

But yeah, what you did with the dark types, I have done with ghost types over the years...

And Eevees... oh the eevees.

Bred like a thousand of those little rodents and still haven't gotten a single shiney. Darned eevees...

The Final Excerpt does explain your question:

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Remember, Midnight feels Nightmare welling up inside her, trying to speak, and when Nightmare does, it's through her mouth, using her body. Nightmare is a 'voice inside Midnight's head', the shoulder pony idea is just a visual metaphor for that idea.

Thank you so much for your compliments, though, they mean a lot that everypony has liked this so much.

Now I have to goooo! *dashes off to internship interview*

There is something to be said about physical embodiment shoulder ponies though. Namely that they're both cute and huggable. And can be thrown in a tupperware container when bad.

Yeah, but I made a chart, and it clearly shows differently.

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So there.

The Ultimate Showdown of Infinite Crises on Multiple Equestrias at Pinkie's Party of Eternity... and stuff.

[color="darkgreen"]Also, have you ever played Zombies! ? It's a fun game, that's a board game, except it always revolves into an impromptu RP. Most notably, my last game had me trying to hold of the horde whilst attempting to reverse a necromantic ritual, our local slime-ball who we game with because of a small pool of people was trying to drag the only female in the group to the helicopter so he could repopulate the human species, and or resident normal guy snapped under pressure, started singing the ghost busters theme song, and had the largest critical hit streak I've ever seen¹.

I own Zombies! I love Zombies! I even own Humans! Unfortunately, I have never gotten a real chance to play any of it. Bleh.

She had 9 children?

Luna is not as innocent as she looks.

Well, if that annoying prince pony is Celestia's great great great great great great great etc grandnephew... he did have to come from somewhere after all... >.>

Wow, it's been ages since I've posted in this thread.

So, I was just wondering. Does anypony here play MMOs, like WoW or Guild Wars? I've seen some MLP guilds pop up on some MMOs like Runescape lately....

I'm generally too busy for MMOs and such, but I do play a bit of Wakfu beta, and some Terrestria when I have the chance...

but there's already a ponified monopoly

what I actually want to know is what would you envision a MLP boardgame to be.

Eh, Pony Monopoly.... that'd cause some insanity there. I do like how you are not thrown in Jail, but you are banished and then thrown in a dungeon in the place where you were banished to. ^^

Personally, I had a thought for 'The Apploosa Trail'. Oregon Trail ponetized. Weird thoughts.

Anyways, I'm off to recover.

SeechaLaters. ^^

[Kindablue]

I disagree. Pinkie Pie is more of a Harley Quinn than a joker. Because I can see her in that outfit. Wielding a giant mallet. Without fingers.

They also both have either adorable or excruciating voices depending on who you ask.

[MCerberus]

We all know that Pinkie as a Batman villain would be wearing a pink bowler with a question mark on it.

[Lix Lorn]

I find it funny that in my timezone, you're checking the thread one more time before starting your day - at 4:23 am! You seem to defy timezone convention. You're a rebel.

If anyone gets to be impressive in their timezone ignoring, it's me. I get up at 3pm my time and stay up til 5am. I am essentially living an american time cycle in England.
BE IMPRESSED. Also hug me.

Oh, hush you. I can assure you, about 2 days late, it has no possibility of bein your fault

Hooray!

Ah, yes. Haven't played one of those games since Stadium, but Black Fog the Haunter was all I needed. Can't even remember who his support was...

And Dark got some good critters. Despite all having high attack, and all their attacks using the (usually shoddy) special stat instead, they rocked. And thy were vicious! Especially beat up. Sneasel'd weakest move, but oh so satisfying

Or maybe it was murkrow who had beat up? I kept him for some reason...

Sneasel. It sucked, but Sneasel had it. xD

Well, I think a lot of pet shops breed their own animals (to a degree). He got confused as to how shipping worked, and mama cat met daddy spaceship in the back room.

The rest was anime history.

I... just... lolwhut. xD
...wait. Cat+spaceship. Where'd the rabbit come from?

Poor Umbreon. I loved you. Sure, you weren't that fast, or strong, but I always played at night and dang did that moonlight heal come in handy.
And how could you forsake an Umbreon? It became an Umbreon because it liked you. It absorbed the moonlit powers of darkness solely to please you, and yet it is now forlorn, tossed away?!
I say thee, neigh! Come Umbreon to play the Endymion to our trainer, forever longing, forever questing, to prove yourself worthy.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I like them now. Not as much as the other evos (Except Leafeon, ick*), but I do like them.

Also, I'd have to know more about the situation to say anything about the daughter going evil. Buuut, given the type and the move set, I think evil is, to a degree, mandatory for us.

Well, thing is, I'm supermassively powerful. Iliana, (the daughter)'s mother*2 is even MORE powerful than I am. Iliana feels inadequate. Since her mother (Ebony, the black furred espeon, as it happens) is an Espeon, she became an Umbreon to have an advantage. Her Motivation, to use the Exalted term, is to defeat her mother in combat. Unfortunately, she's willing to do anything to get the power needed.
ANYTHING.

I think I already addressed the base here, so I will leave off with saying
THAT WAS ADORABLE~!

I need to save those for future use. Wow.

Yay! I think all but one came from the pony thread.

Horsefeathers, she's right. I went from straight-laced "fan fiction is what you call a really crappy sex story" to being a crazy-tolerant, semi-talented drawfriend with a taste for sauce in about a week.

I didn't even come near the thread artifacts, either.*

(Smirks)
I wasn't making it up, you know.

Not invariably. I tend to be good at authority positions, but that's because of a twisted sense of duty, which often requires me to step up and apply for the position.

It's actually a philosophical statement, I think. Don't remember where I first heard it.

Maybe I need to tone down the thread dependence...

.....
Naaaaaah. (cuddles)

Throughout his career, Charizard has been a King of Beasts. I don't know what diamond/pearl or black/white bring to our saurion master race, but I'm pretty sure the glorious Age of Charizard is still in full swing.

Charizard is the Derpy Hooves of the original pokemon fandom. His popularity is eternal.

So, I was just wondering. Does anypony here play MMOs, like WoW or Guild Wars? I've seen some MLP guilds pop up on some MMOs like Runescape lately....

I play WoW. Quite recently, and I play the American version. I have a drunken melancholic mortiphobic deathknight!

Jayden: Charizard is best pokemon. Dissenters will be eaten by Charizard.
Charger: Also Dragonaire.

Dragonair.

I don't know if they changed it or not, but gondra had no elemental weaknesses except Dragon. What do you think of gondra (or whatever Seadra turns into)?

Kingdra. HATE IT. HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT.
It is ugly and inelegant and SO HARD TO KILL.
(fist to sky in true Kirkesque fashion)
CLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIR!

^>>>^ aww. Thanks~
And then there are the fantastic fillies, like Phoe and Lixie and filly!SiuiS~

wha?
I am not fantastic. I am just one of the average awesomes on the playground. The spectacular people are Phoe and SiuiS and DBC and Thanqol and Trixie and various others I can't mention and, outside this thread, people like Serpentine and SMEE and Trobby and the great Roland himself. I am not up there with the spectaculars. ./////////.

I need a picture of a blushing pony hiding under a desk.

*Yes, unlike SiuiS, my asterisks lead somewhere!
I dislike Leafeon, but I did see an awesome fakemon once. I think you'll agree it's prettier.

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Source unknown.

*2 Don't ask.