My Little Pony XXXV: The Thread Everypony Should Know

[the_druid_droid]

[Jayden is the Griffon/Forces Mage. Charger is the Earth Pony Martial Artist. Mask is a coward in a mask]

Mask: Flawless *nom* victory.

I suddenly have this image of Mask as a hobo...

[Thanqol]

I suddenly have this image of Mask as a hobo...

I made an iteration of Mask for a Mage tabletop that fell through, and that's essentially what she was. Travelling con artist who faked being wealthy because it made her feel better about herself.

There was a lot of Trixie in that iteration.

[Terry576]

Agraffajag I just got back from the Brony Meetup (San Fransisco Edition) and apparently PEOPLE FROM THE FORUM WERE THERE

(I was the person who had a grey hoodie and took off his shoes and sat in the cold cold sand for a while.)

Meetup was pretty awesome. We had a bonfire going for a while, and then the fire died after we threw glowsticks and other random stuff into it.
also people burned christmas trees nearby a lot

And now I shall either retreat into lurking or ACTUALLY STAY AND POST

[Soras Teva Gee]

Quick new pony don't let 'em leave!

On an unrelated note ponythread, did you know Dash was the fastest thing alive?
Its some kinda crime this doesn't have more views.

[Dexam]

What could Pinkie Pie possibly do to hurt me?

What could she do? What could she do?!

She could throw the greatest, fantabulous, most funneriffic party Equestria has ever seen and invite everypony... except you.

If that doesn't hurt, I don't know what would.

Quick new pony don't let 'em leave!

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We're called "pony thread" for a reason, right?

Have some awesome pony noir:

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Show

Source, for massive download.

[Dirtbag]

Agraffajag I just got back from the Brony Meetup (San Fransisco Edition) and apparently PEOPLE FROM THE FORUM WERE THERE

(I was the person who had a grey hoodie and took off his shoes and sat in the cold cold sand for a while.)

Meetup was pretty awesome. We had a bonfire going for a while, and then the fire died after we threw glowsticks and other random stuff into it.
also people burned christmas trees nearby a lot

And now I shall either retreat into lurking or ACTUALLY STAY AND POST

I thar!

Welcome to the pony thread!

I hope to see you around more! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

And if you would like, come join us in the IRC! We always like new ponies!

[Gaelbert]

Agraffajag I just got back from the Brony Meetup (San Fransisco Edition) and apparently PEOPLE FROM THE FORUM WERE THERE

(I was the person who had a grey hoodie and took off his shoes and sat in the cold cold sand for a while.)

Meetup was pretty awesome. We had a bonfire going for a while, and then the fire died after we threw glowsticks and other random stuff into it.
also people burned christmas trees nearby a lot

And now I shall either retreat into lurking or ACTUALLY STAY AND POST

Hey there! You might want to watch out, people from the internet are creepy.
Small world though, huh?
I was the guy in the pea coat.

[otakuryoga]

So, all that brought up an interesting question. If you use telekinesis as your primary manipulative apparatus - as unicorns and Jalyrkieons do - what would a gun designed for you, look like?

Specifically, what would you do for a trigger? The design constriants would be entirely different to those of monkey-fingers, so what would you use? (And unlike the show, we're assuming it doesn't have to be recognisable by young audience.) A button? A lever? And where would you put it, considering you'll be holding it with TK? (Or rather, where would it be best to put it?) I must admit, for once I am at something of a loss and would definately like some suggestions.

assuming somewhat parallel evolution(bows-->crossbows-->guns) i would see a lever type trigger like on early crossbows being used and stayed with since they wouldnt need to place a trigger where its easy to grab with a finger while your hand is wrapped around the butt

what i see happening as guns were developed....
i think a shotgun would be the normal/basic weapon rather than an autofire type....
reason being with tk you can hold the gun anywhere---so above you makes the most sense...faster to rotate it to engage targets behind or to your side than if you have to move the gun around your own body to get a shot...but if its above you you dont have fine aim therefore a spread of buckshot makes more sense than a single bullet..and of course you CAN always put the shotgun in front of you to aim better
you can of course still have aimed weapons that they hover in front of them(sniper types)--but i see the "grunts" having the shotguns
basic design would be like our current tube mag fed shotgun without the stock

as for current weapons....hmmm, lets see how well i can put into words what i envision
i see 4 shotgun barrels grouped with some structural support between them...the "triggers" on the "inside" part of the assembly so almost impossible to use for non-tk since the "outside" part consists of the mags for each barrel...from where they feed into the chamber each mag gently spirals around the outer edge of the barrels to the muzzle area(think something like the feed lines for a vehicle mounted mini-gun..able to feed rounds even if not perfectly straight)

this gives the overall weapon a basic tube shape..easy to store since you need not make any special considerations for odd shaped magazines (except xtras of course) on a starship a basic "hole in the wall" or a half pipe cutout in the wall(magnetized to hold the weapon in zero-g) will work

with 4 barrels you have the options of single/double/or quad fire
or separate munitions in each barrel(law enforcement for example could go with beanbag rounds/pepper balls/buckshot/slug for breaching doors)
and who knows what special rounds the military would have developed

[Terry576]

Hey there! You might want to watch out, people from the internet are creepy.
Small world though, huh?
I was the guy in the pea coat.

You had the coolest pea coat ever.

Your glasses were also pretty awesome. Not as awesome as the dude who had made a replica of Vinyl Scratch's, but pretty awesome.

[Rebelhero]

Mask: Ha! Joke's on you! I have no pride!



Charger's hoof touches the pie flung in her direction, and instantly it dessicates into sand as the purified water is extracted from it's structure! The water revolves around Charger once, then extends out into six tentacles of liquid, each of which snares a different pie. The pies are then thrown at Ido simultaneously from different directions!

If there is a bright side to this, it's that some of the sand got in Charger's eyes, momentarily distracting her!



[Jayden is the Griffon/Forces Mage. Charger is the Earth Pony Martial Artist. Mask is a coward in a mask]

Mask: Flawless *nom* victory.

*facehoof* all i did was start a food fight. *sulks*
We COULD rain baked Alaskas on them...
What good would that do?
Baked Alaskas are on fire.
.....Do it.
FIRE! *giggles*

[Pendulous]

Ep 12 comic of awesomeness.

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Isn't that a Simpsons reference?

[TheWordofTruth]

Sup guys, new to the forum, heard about it form the meetup. i was the dude in the beenie

[Aotrs Commander]

Oh, hear's a scary thought: there is not a visable external trigger. Thanks to there telekinesis, they could handle very large guns above there back, or, if nessisary, connected to a harness on there back.

Such a gun might seem strange to another creature, but they quickly figured out if the apponent could not use there weapons without modifing them they could not use it themselves. They, in fact, use a piller-like object inside the gun as the "trigger", pushing and pulling on it to fire and reload, respectivly.

@AotRS: I agree with what was posted above. If I were an intelligent telekinetic I would make military hardware only another telekinetic would be able to use, especially if my enemies were unlikely to have access to TK.

This line of thinking assumes that unicorn telekinesis can go through solid objects. It could work like D&D spells where you need a line of effect to the object manipulated with telekinesis, in which case the firing mechanism could be finely manipulated but would still have to be external. In that case I would suggest some kind of pressure plate that looks more or less identical to the rest of the surface and has a small and very delicate safety so that if the weapon were lost, it would be quite difficult to reverse engineer it.

I think you're all ascribing rather too much weight to "make a weapon that my enemy can't use" as opposed to "weapon that is most erganomically designed for our anatomy."

(I mean, if you were really concerned about enemies stealing your weapons, it make more sense to genetically code them; certainly a space-flight race would have enough technology to do that, and it'd arguably use less effort that designing the entire weapon around the fact. Notably, most races out there don't worry about their kit being nicked as a major weapon design issue, and far more about making it efficiently kill people so they aren't alive to!)

Let's take it back a step. Most energy weapons (assuming the Jalyrkieon use energy weapons on the ground, I haven't decided yet) are gun-shaped, because they are developed from firearms. So, what then would a firearm that the Jalyrkieon would have used in the wars on their homeworld, pre-space flight, have looked like?

I mean, I know the basics of the mechanics of firearms and how they work, but what I don't know is what the actual gears-and-levers that translate the pull of the trigger to drop the hammer look like, and whether, given TK, there would be a more straight-foward way to do it.



The trouble with what you, suggest, Anarion, is that a pressure plate like that seems to me to be a bit vulnerable to getting knocked by accident in the messy terrain of an actual ground-combat engagement. It also seems to me, fuelled with a knowledge of how stupid people can be, even in a military environment, that "hiding" the trigger for yout weapon seems like a recipe for disaster. Somehow, it's going to come back and bite you, probably in a way you don't expect.

But I would agree an external trigger would most likely be best; my assumption is that reaching inside stuff is not easy (be it vehicles, buildings or people) unless you're in higher levels or power, so on that basis it probably wouldn't be all that practical.

(I'm assuming that Jalyrkieon armour (and I intend the infantry to be power armoured, as I reckon I might even be able to model that!) probably, like our own, has some component that is designed not to block the TK (a different material coating the horn or something would probably do it.)


@Pokonic Thanks for the thought on the names, but I'mma gonna stick with my idea. (There will be something like 40-50 names to come up with, by the time I've done the fleet, more if I do the ground force. (With the models I've got already, plus the class names, there's already about twenty-three, and the fleet's not even half done!)

I would a slide system. it would be very hard to hold and aim, slide and fire for anything without TK to use these weapons. Also, sliding back (assuming balistics are being used) would act as the release for shells. Slide all the back for automatic fire, half way for Burst. also then the sides are in place it helps enviorment-proof the weapon, allowing for for say, desert warfare, or aquatic insertion. I imagine the weapons to be long and slim, not needing all the hand holds and stocks and weight balancing that human weapons need.
I also imagine these "ponies" would design there weapons for improvization, easily swapping out pieces to mod their weapons as needed, or even combine them into bigger ones. Such as taking 2 mid range rifles and turning them into a sniper rifle.

Ah, now that's two very interesting ideas.

A slide-trigger is one I hadn't thought of, and that does make a lot more sense. (It's basically be something like a pump-action shotgun, only the pump and action would be smaller but the actual trigger, I imagine. If nothing else, it'd look good!) Mechanically that would seem to be simple - it's as simply as a trigger, more or less, and the motion would be easily adapted, so it would make sense for even (say) flintlock weapons.) It'd likely be as reliable as a trigger, I'd say, in terms of environmental issues. (At the moment, I think that's the leading idea. I have a feeling I know whose syllables are being nicked first...!)

Customisable weapons is another very novel idea, which I would not have thought of. They could basically carry extra bits in their "saddlebags" (for want of a proper term), along with the ammo and such. (Given they basically have four arms that aren't connected to them that only get as tired as human arms when holding stuff, and they are quadrupeds, I'm assuming their carrying capacity is probably double that of a regular hominoid, in terms of weight carried and bulk (especially since some of it will be free-floating).

assuming somewhat parallel evolution(bows-->crossbows-->guns) i would see a lever type trigger like on early crossbows being used and stayed with since they wouldnt need to place a trigger where its easy to grab with a finger while your hand is wrapped around the butt

what i see happening as guns were developed....
i think a shotgun would be the normal/basic weapon rather than an autofire type....
reason being with tk you can hold the gun anywhere---so above you makes the most sense...faster to rotate it to engage targets behind or to your side than if you have to move the gun around your own body to get a shot...but if its above you you dont have fine aim therefore a spread of buckshot makes more sense than a single bullet..and of course you CAN always put the shotgun in front of you to aim better
you can of course still have aimed weapons that they hover in front of them(sniper types)--but i see the "grunts" having the shotguns
basic design would be like our current tube mag fed shotgun without the stock

as for current weapons....hmmm, lets see how well i can put into words what i envision
i see 4 shotgun barrels grouped with some structural support between them...the "triggers" on the "inside" part of the assembly so almost impossible to use for non-tk since the "outside" part consists of the mags for each barrel...from where they feed into the chamber each mag gently spirals around the outer edge of the barrels to the muzzle area(think something like the feed lines for a vehicle mounted mini-gun..able to feed rounds even if not perfectly straight)

this gives the overall weapon a basic tube shape..easy to store since you need not make any special considerations for odd shaped magazines (except xtras of course) on a starship a basic "hole in the wall" or a half pipe cutout in the wall(magnetized to hold the weapon in zero-g) will work

with 4 barrels you have the options of single/double/or quad fire
or separate munitions in each barrel(law enforcement for example could go with beanbag rounds/pepper balls/buckshot/slug for breaching doors)
and who knows what special rounds the military would have developed

Hmm... I can see shotguns maybe being additionally effective in Jalyrkieon civil conflicts (larger target profile verses area attack that doesn't require so much aiming), and as aforementioned, the pump-action trigger seems like it might work. But the trouble with shotguns is they are ultimately short-ranged and poor armour penetrators. By this stage in their technology, the Jalyrkieon would have had to move to more conventional ranged weapons, as fighting people with laser rifles, full body armour, and occasionally, shields, means you'd be down to "charge to melee" ranges, which is generally a Bad Idea. (Shotguns in the military tend to be in the "it's part of melee assaults" range, rather than shooting range. (And it very actually is in the rules we use.))

I'm not convinced on the "rotate to face any direction" arguement, though. You could rotate any weapon to fire in any direction as easily... And if your argument is that you don't need to look (very hard) at what you're shooting at...well, I frankly shudder to imagine what the amicide casualty rates for the Jalyrkieons would be. The very last thing you want is for your soldiers to ever start shooting weapons without aiming properly, especially when you get to a point where you're dealing the professional armies!

[Deadly]

Sorry for not keeping much up with Ponythread of late. I'll get back soon, hopefully. Just so many things keeping my mind busy.

I think I saw some new ponies. Welcome!

Onwards to new episode, YAY!

Mare In The Mirror p4: Quadrangles and Inappropriate Music

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P7:

...

Okay that was ace start to finish and I don't have the whisper of a complaint.

P8:

Still managed to read that without tripping up on anything.

P9:

A little expositiony at the start, but that's a quibble, and a recap at that point isn't objectionable because a lot just happened.



Ace scene.


I have to say, last night I was gearing myself up to write something along the lines of "Diluted focus, improper seeding and follow-through mishaps have significantly harmed the strong points of this story, four stars". But these last three parts just worked for me, start to finish; the story's really hit it's stride right here. I really hope the rest of the story keeps up this level of quality!

Nice A little surprised, but in a good way. And I sure hope so too.

[Thanqol]

What could she do? What could she do?!

She could throw the greatest, fantabulous, most funneriffic party Equestria has ever seen and invite everypony... except you.

If that doesn't hurt, I don't know what would.

She wouldn't have the guts.

*facehoof* all i did was start a food fight. *sulks*
We COULD rain baked Alaskas on them...
What good would that do?
Baked Alaskas are on fire.
.....Do it.
FIRE! *giggles*

Mask: Foals! You have fallen into my ingenious trap! Throwing that much fire at my good friend, Jayden, a Forces Mage, is like loading a machine gun and handing it to your opponent! Watch as she turns your best efforts against you!

Jayden: Hmm. I could do that.

Mask: Uh.

Jayden: Or I could watch you dodge burning pastries.

Mask: At least make them have to dodge burning pastries too!

Jayden: Done.

*With a crack of her tail, Jayden doubles the amount of fire currently in her field of vision and scatters it, so at least half is going back towards the two ponies who launched it.

Mask begins running away*

[Rebelhero]

Ah, now that's two very interesting ideas.

A slide-trigger is one I hadn't thought of, and that does make a lot more sense. (It's basically be something like a pump-action shotgun, only the pump and action would be smaller but the actual trigger, I imagine. If nothing else, it'd look good!) Mechanically that would seem to be simple - it's as simply as a trigger, more or less, and the motion would be easily adapted, so it would make sense for even (say) flintlock weapons.) It'd likely be as reliable as a trigger, I'd say, in terms of environmental issues. (At the moment, I think that's the leading idea. I have a feeling I know whose syllables are being nicked first...!)

Customisable weapons is another very novel idea, which I would not have thought of. They could basically carry extra bits in their "saddlebags" (for want of a proper term), along with the ammo and such. (Given they basically have four arms that aren't connected to them that only get as tired as human arms when holding stuff, and they are quadrupeds, I'm assuming their carrying capacity is probably double that of a regular hominoid, in terms of weight carried and bulk (especially since some of it will be free-floating).

This made me quite happy and feel very useful! yayyy.
I spent quite a bit of my childhood drawing (poorly. seriously i was like...10) weapons, and defenses that are beneficial to the solider and unstoppable to the army. Most rather low-tech. (im a team player and value simplicity) however i am also a fan of huge amounts of firepower. as evident through my near worship of Gurren lagann and the designs of Ponyard's ship. and even Skyrocket.

Also, how do you view the TK powers? As a pool spreading out in rings from each horn? or 4 tendril like things coming out of each horn?

Mask: Foals! You have fallen into my ingenious trap! Throwing that much fire at my good friend, Jayden, a Forces Mage, is like loading a machine gun and handing it to your opponent! Watch as she turns your best efforts against you!

Jayden: Hmm. I could do that.

Mask: Uh.

Jayden: Or I could watch you dodge burning pastries.

Mask: At least make them have to dodge burning pastries too!

Jayden: Done.

*With a crack of her tail, Jayden doubles the amount of fire currently in her field of vision and scatters it, so at least half is going back towards the two ponies who launched it.

Mask begins running away*

There is no possible way that those can reach us...we are a mileMMPH *pied*
BAHAHAHAHAHA! You should see what you lookMMPH *pied*
My mane is on fire, isnt it?
Yeah...
Of course you realize, this means war.

[Draconi Redfir]

So you know what i have yet to see? Left 4 Ponies. All eight (nine if you count female boomer) special infected from left 4 dead ponified. Probably with the "4" logo as a cutie mark.

I know i made a request for this in the Pony avatar thread ages ago, but as far as i know no one attempted it. Anyone here willing to take up the challenge?

[Aotrs Commander]

This made me quite happy and feel very useful! yayyy.
I spent quite a bit of my childhood drawing (poorly. seriously i was like...10) weapons, and defenses that are beneficial to the solider and unstoppable to the army. Most rather low-tech. (im a team player and value simplicity) however i am also a fan of huge amounts of firepower. as evident through my near worship of Gurren lagann and the designs of Ponyard's ship. and even Skyrocket.

Also, how do you view the TK powers? As a pool spreading out in rings from each horn? or 4 tendril like things coming out of each horn?

It's buried in there somewhere, hang on...

The effect is mostly non-luminescent, though considerable effort from highly skilled individuals can cause the horns and target to dimly glow. (The colour of this glow varies, but is usually white or very pale blue.)

So unashamedly Twilight-like, but generally not visible unless you're in Twilight's weight class (or in very low light conditions, or maybe in mist or fog.)



I spent a lot my childhood drawing too - though almost exclusively starships (well, mostly starfighters if we want ot be picky...) And yes, as it happens, I do still have a lot of those pictures, and some of 'em I've even scanned in...)

[Rebelhero]

[QUOTE=Aotrs Commander;12529505]It's buried in there somewhere, hang on...

[quote=Bleakbane]The effect is mostly non-luminescent, though considerable effort from highly skilled individuals can cause the horns and target to dimly glow. (The colour of this glow varies, but is usually white or very pale blue.)

So unashamedly Twilight-like, but generally not visible unless you're in Twilight's weight class (or in very low light conditions, or maybe in mist or fog.)



I spent a lot my childhood drawing too - though almost exclusively starships (well, mostly starfighters if we want ot be picky...) And yes, as it happens, I do still have a lot of those pictures, and some of 'em I've even scanned in...)

Oh ok, im sure if i reread your background id find the answer to my other question as well XD

[Thanqol]

All right, all right, let's get this finished so we can clear out at least one of my tabs.

Mare In The Mirror Review: p5, the End, My Friend

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Curiously, this here Pinkie/Fluttershy shipping I completely buy.

"I..." Luna was in shock and crying. "I do. I truly do!" Her eyes fell on the mirror. She frowned and her horn glowed, determination in her eyes. "Trixie, I love you, I really, truly love you. I do this only because I love you."

There are a few more points where you use 'frowned' where it's not appropriate. Frowning is such a mild, passive action, more associated with 'oh, where did I leave my keys' not 'my girlfriend is talking to the ghost of a serial killer'.


Incidentally, this story is one of the few times I've actually liked Spike.


*Eyebrows* Okay, when I said I was buying the Pinkieshy ship I didn't expect a skip ahead directly to the marriage.


I feel like the character of Woody Hooves is a good concept not quite properly executed. He's chipper, upbeat, steriotypical cartoon pirate and a hard fit into the atmosphere of dread you've built up. In fact, this entire chapter so far seems almost a deliberate counterpoint to the ominous atmosphere you've been building up.

I'm also not sold on the entire storm sequence; in fact, this chapter seems a bit all over the place in terms of mood. The real strength of this series has always been in madness and the depictions of madness; encroaching insanity. The more physical threats just aren't as, well, threatening as that. Thinking about it, I don't think it's a coincidence that my favourite few chapters were the ones where Trixie legitimately lost it and we explored the consequences of that.

And the problem with this is that if you overexpose pain, loss, suffering and horror in it's cruder and more direct forms, like this pet-killing you've got going, then it dilutes that terrible realisation when you play on the indirect and subtle forms of horror. It's possible to desensitise your audience to suffering, to push them towards the belief that this is a crapsack world where nothing goes right. One of the things that made Fillystata's climax so powerful is that you'd danced around the issue for six parts, never confirming anything until it all hit at the same time. We'd known all along that something was wrong but we didn't want to believe how deep it went. With this freer use of terrible concepts we're braced for each impact.


Also, the character of Manna Sparkle still just doesn't work at all for me. She seems like the least crazy pony in this story, and while that's in part a compliment towards how crazy you've got everypony, it's also a terrible problem for your mad villainess.


*

And I'm done. And gee, there's a lot going through my head about this one.

There are a lot of problems with this story, and I've pointed out and exposited on them all already. But ultimately, it's problem really comes down to diluted thematics. In Creative Writing class, I had one particularly ruthless teacher who'd constantly ask us "What's the core message? What's the heart of the story? What is your story about?". And for me, in this, it's Trixie's insanity and it's potential as a modern retelling of the Nightmare Moon story.

Trixie's insanity is easily the most interesting part of the story. By far. And, if we take the first truth into account and question everything, then I think the entire globe-hopping adventure is completely unnecessary to that core message. I hate to compare a sequel unfavourably with the first part, but Fillystata did horror a lot better. It was much tighter and self-contained. There were less variables, so the variables all did exactly what you wanted them to do.

This story, you've developed as an author more, that's plain to see, and you've got a better handle on dialogue and character interactions particularly towards the latter half of the story - I stopped picking out flaws in dialogue and thought patterns for the most part. But the core concept is diluted, and the story meanders as a result, and without that singularity of concept and purity of purpose there's nowhere near the same level of atmosphere.

Every time in Fillystata where blood was spilled it was shocking. Almost sexual, how much importance it got. Mare in the Mirror overexposes it, makes us watch the suffering and pain of Fluttershy for chapters and chapters, winds up taking her leg and then immediately redoubles the suffering with the loss of Angel. I actually stopped caring about Fluttershy by that point, and that's terrible.

The core concept of the story is the Mare in the Mirror. Every time you execute that core concept, the story is great. Every time Trixie has a conversation with mirror Twilight, it's great. Every time we're forced to wonder if it's Nightmare or if it really is Twilight, it's great. When Trixie flips out after those conversations, it's great. That's where the story just soars. The rest of it is sometimes good, sometimes bad, but the mirror scenes are consistently great.

And that's where I think the focus of this story should be.

Every other concept is secondary. They may be good concepts, but in this story, the mirror is the better concept.

This has been Thanqol's Review Hour. Next up is Kindablue with the weather.

[Soras Teva Gee]

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We're called "pony thread" for a reason, right?

Have some awesome pony noir:

Spoiler

Show

Source, for massive download.

Dexam I have a best pony stop putting up a credible challenge already!

Though on a different note why do ponies keep mixing Applejack with whiskey?

[Kyouhen]

Jayden: Oh-ho-ho, using a taser on a Forces mage?

*Transforms the electrical energy into velocity, which she then adds to her uppercut counterattack*

Jayden: WALL-SOCKET PUNCH NO-JUTSU!

Bugger, thought that would work. Electricity always got rid of the other ones. Oh well, looks like I'm blasting off AGAAAAAAIiiiiiinnnnnnnnn... *Ding*

-Alien Unicorns-

I've got to stop being impressed by the amount of work you put into the backstory for your games. I really should be expecting stuff like this by now. How long do you think it'll be before any of your gaming group figures out what those things are based on?

So, all that brought up an interesting question. If you use telekinesis as your primary manipulative apparatus - as unicorns and Jalyrkieons do - what would a gun designed for you, look like?

Specifically, what would you do for a trigger? The design constriants would be entirely different to those of monkey-fingers, so what would you use? (And unlike the show, we're assuming it doesn't have to be recognisable by young audience.) A button? A lever? And where would you put it, considering you'll be holding it with TK? (Or rather, where would it be best to put it?) I must admit, for once I am at something of a loss and would definately like some suggestions.

I suppose it would all depend on the type of weapon, the power of their telekinesis, and the differences between the size of the object to manipulate and speed with which said object can be manipulated.

For types of weapons I mostly mean it's firing mechanism. Projectile weapons would still need something to launch the projectile, but energy weapons could be completely different. They could rig up the weapon so that when the energy cell is inserted it just starts firing, and the energy cell itself can sit in a loose compartment that causes it's default position to not be providing energy to the weapon, but can easily be slid into place. They would then fire the weapon by using their telekinesis to rapidly move the cell, causing the weapon to fire. The more skilled they are at using these, the faster they'll be able to shoot. This also has the added benefit of making the weapon completely useless to other races, especially if the energy cell is stored inside the weapon making it so only the telekinesis can reach it.

Pure power could negate the need for several types of weapons completely. If they can throw a spear with enough force to punch through a tank, there's absolutely no value in using most projectile weapons. This would also be beneficial to them as it makes most of their weapons useless to anyone who doesn't have the strength and control to use them as ranged weapons accurately.

The last point is mostly in terms of the design for possible triggers. I imagine most triggers would be buttons, so the weapons would generally be nothing more than a tube. (Again, making it difficult for other races to use effectively) The size of the button would be whatever size is ideal to reach the best possible speed that the weapon can be triggered via telekinesis. Ideally the button would be as small and easily concealed as those annoying little buttons that reset things that you need to stick a pen in to push, or it would be contained inside the weapon so that it's impossible to fire it manually without shooting yourself.

You'll notice my suggestions result in weapons that can't be used by any race without telekinetic capabilities. Having innate telekinesis to the degree the Jalyrkieons have is a massive benefit to them, and their weapons should be designed with that in mind, especially when they can use it to make sure their enemies are incapable of using the weapons against them. You mentioned that they tend to be very well supplied since they're capable of carrying so much more, so it would make sense that they wouldn't want to have a small squad taken down and leave the enemy with several battle's worth of ammo and weapons.

z..z..zombie ponies.....

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I love that they put in the Pinkie cannon and the muffin launches. I wanted to post that myself but wasn't sure if people here would appreciate the blood. Personally that's another one of those pictures I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand it's awesome for all the references, on the other poor Dash.

Hm, who would they even use for that kind of style? I'm having a hard time thinking of MLP characters that would fit a play style like that. Gilda maybe?

Zevox

I could almost see Dash being a grappler. Drag the opponent up into the air and just watch them try to fight back.

Oh, hear's a scary thought: there is not a visable external trigger. Thanks to there telekinesis, they could handle very large guns above there back, or, if nessisary, connected to a harness on there back.

Such a gun might seem strange to another creature, but they quickly figured out if the apponent could not use there weapons without modifing them they could not use it themselves. They, in fact, use a piller-like object inside the gun as the "trigger", pushing and pulling on it to fire and reload, respectivly.

Oooohhh... There's a good idea. A weapon that has no automatic components and needs to be manually reset every time. Like a super complicated crossbow. The only way to use it in any efficient manner is to be capable of manipulating half a dozen parts simultaneously.

What could Pinkie Pie possibly do to hurt me?

This.

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Hmm... I can see shotguns maybe being additionally effective in Jalyrkieon civil conflicts (larger target profile verses area attack that doesn't require so much aiming), and as aforementioned, the pump-action trigger seems like it might work. But the trouble with shotguns is they are ultimately short-ranged and poor armour penetrators. By this stage in their technology, the Jalyrkieon would have had to move to more conventional ranged weapons, as fighting people with laser rifles, full body armour, and occasionally, shields, means you'd be down to "charge to melee" ranges, which is generally a Bad Idea. (Shotguns in the military tend to be in the "it's part of melee assaults" range, rather than shooting range. (And it very actually is in the rules we use.))

I'm not convinced on the "rotate to face any direction" arguement, though. You could rotate any weapon to fire in any direction as easily... And if your argument is that you don't need to look (very hard) at what you're shooting at...well, I frankly shudder to imagine what the amicide casualty rates for the Jalyrkieons would be. The very last thing you want is for your soldiers to ever start shooting weapons without aiming properly, especially when you get to a point where you're dealing the professional armies!

Shotguns might be bad, but spray-and-pray in general could still be functional. They can carry all that extra ammo, why not have them dual-wield miniguns? Or quad-wield if they're powerful enough.

Standard infantry with 4 miniguns? Now that's terrifying to deal with.

She wouldn't have the guts.

You foals! It's a trap! He wants a Pinkie Party!

So you know what i have yet to see? Left 4 Ponies. All eight (nine if you count female boomer) special infected from left 4 dead ponified. Probably with the "4" logo as a cutie mark.

I know i made a request for this in the Pony avatar thread ages ago, but as far as i know no one attempted it. Anyone here willing to take up the challenge?

Well, here's the first few. Don't think I've seen any newer ones though.

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First stream I joined had some lag, so I missed the first minute or two, but did I catch something that vaguely references Derpy and Dinky?

[Kairaven]

well, had to post.

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one min in that intro and they drop the confirmed cannon pony geneology on us? O M G

Almost enough to make me forget the g3.5 like baby ponies.

[Kyouhen]

well, had to post.

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one min in that intro and they drop the confirmed cannon pony geneology on us? O M G

Almost enough to make me forget the g3.5 like baby ponies.

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Bugger. Knew I missed something.

Oh Pinkie Pie, why you so silly?
He changed the diapers with his mouth. Ew. Ew. Ew. Excuse me while I grow a horn, I don't want to be an earth pony anymore. I lol'd when he was washing his hooves afterwards though.

[Anarion]

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Pretty good so far. Both unicorn and pegasus traits are recessive. Plus we get info from Twilight that unicorn babies can do random magic once in a while, although it's probably not very strong since we've seen how hard it was for fillies with no cutie marks to do more than a basic light or telekinesis spell.

Also, those babies are 1 month old according to Pinkie's celebratory announcement, so I think that's at least some confirmation that ponies mature at a faster rate than humans do, since 1 month old humans can't walk, much less run around.

Magic use and flight were quite odd considering the difficulties we've seen from filly Twilight, from Snails trying to use a light spell, and from Scootaloo NOT BEING ABLE TO FLY! My guesses at the moment are either
1) Both flight and magic happen at random times for babies but they can't really control it and have to learn it properly when they get old enough to be cognizant.
2) Pinkie Pie was partially hallucinating by the end there.
3) the two cake children are savants and will eventually be the strongest pegasus and the most magical unicorn ever, surpassing both Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle.

Also, considering the high degree of strength demonstrated by the Cake children (knocking off faucet and Pound Cake pushing himself out of taped down box) either ponies really are superhuman, he's a future olympic weightlifter, or Pinkie Pie really was hallucinating part of that.

[Pendulous]

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Steven Wright joke.

[Castel]

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And then Pinkie Pie reaffirmed her position as best pony.

[Kyouhen]

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Incoming Scootabuse. She's never going to live this one down.

Aaaaand there's what I missed of the intro. I love how Mr. Cake doesn't even seem to fully believe that's how it works. Or doesn't seem to get how it works that way.

Also so much Pinkie singing! I am a happy pony.

[Deadly]

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So... pony genetics, at least in part. Nice enough.

Ok, so I'm gonna say it, there's no way Scootaloo can't fly. She just prefers no to.

That unicorn foal sure is magical, though. Could just be one of those surges Rarity mentions at the start, of course.

Seemed like a nice enough episode. As always, need to watch it a few more times.

All right, all right, let's get this finished so we can clear out at least one of my tabs.

Thanks for taking the time to review this. So, finally, my own thoughts and response (spoilers, obviously).

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I totally agree with your final assessment of the story. It's something that has really made it hard for me to write this story, because I made two terrible mistakes from the start. First, I didn't plan the story, I just went right ahead and began writing.

I had a basic idea and I may have had some clues of where it was supposed to go, but I never wrote it down or worked out the details. Which meant that after the first few chapters I kinda forgot what the original plan was, and instead ended up reinventing the plot for each chapter. I think, given how seriously flawed that approach was, it turned out better than it had any right to do.

The original plan involved a long adventure into Zebra land. After chapter 5 and all the critique I got about the griffon part, which people seemed to find too unrelated to the plot, I kinda became afraid of straying off the path even briefly. After that I slowly realized what you pointed out, that I needed to stick to the core of the story, but by then I had initiated so many things that needed to be wrapped up before I could move on to the real heart of things.

Nowhere, do I think, is this more evident than in chapter 12, the most recent one. That entire chapter is one big, desperately rushed attempt on my part to wrap up all the unimportant parts and get the characters back to the matters at hoof: Trixie's insanity and the mystery of filly Twilight. The sunken city replaced zebra land, because it was faster to get to and avoided a long, unimportant trek which would have been boring and pointless to the extreme.

It's going to be good from now on, I feel. At first I felt like I had no idea where I was going, then when I finally figured that out somewhere around chapter 8 (I think), I had so many things I had to dredge through to get back on track. Now I finally feel I'm there and ready to write the story I should have written from the start. It's a bit of a pity that it's happening so late.

A lot of the problems with the characterizations come from that same mistake; I didn't plan out anything. But I made another mistake. I tried to juggle way too many characters. I've learned that it's a LOT harder to handle more than two, maybe three characters. I think Fillystata had a huge advantage because I had only Trixie and Luna, occasionally Twilight, as main characters. Mare in the Mirror has a lot, and giving them all their share of the stage is HARD.

I became really sorry that I took the animals with me, I constantly struggled to give them a part in the story and they just felt like dead weight. However, I hasten to say that I didn't simply drown them to get rid of them. I'd like to remind you of what every villain should know: Don't trust that someone is dead until you see the body, and even then you should be skeptical.

I'm not going to say too much, but I will say that I didn't want to cheapen Twilight's death in Fillystata by killing off everyone in this story. That's been one of the few things I've known from the start. That's not to say that someone won't die along the way (or that some of the animals aren't dead), but I am conscious about it.

Manna, the storm, and hopefully a lot of other things, will hopefully get the attention they deserve in the following chapters.


You've given me a lot of good ideas and perspectives. Your thoughts in NMM and the griffons were interesting and not something I'd considered before. My problem is that I know what's going on and all, so I've never had a problem not thinking of canon NMM (who I'll agree is anything but scary).

I also agree that the exposition, especially by Manna, could have been done way better. Again, a problem in part of poor planning.


Anyway, I'm really glad for the thoughtful review. It's really given me some nice ideas and hopefully will help me a lot with the final part, which I do think will completely outshine the first twelve chapters.

[Altaria87]

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Well, my first thought upon learning that two earth ponies can have a unicorn and a pegasus was that it means that Dinky being Ditzy Doo's child now has a canon, non-adoption explanation.

Also, while not the best episode ever, the episode was still fun and had a good lesson for the target audience.