Forums / Discussion / General

(I find it tragic how few pictures there are of Metal Luna. Everyone noticed her rocking out, but almost no one drew her that way. What's up with that?)

@Popper
I really suck in these kinds of situations so I have no idea what to say…
Have a cupcake.

Hope you feel better about things soon.

ONLY ELEVEN HOURS UNTIL SCOOTALOO'S FIRST NEW APPEARANCE SINCE MARCH!

…
What do you mean 'other characters?'
…
Oh, yeah…
I guess they're fine, too.

Related: It's DeadParrot when he realized that Scootaloo actually doesn't speak in this episode and it's somehow all about Apple Bloom.

…Um… Lets assume that the fic in question already has quite a few ways to create an Alicorn.

The question is more making the character itself be… not horribly contrived in the process.

The best I can come up with is a genetic mash up "Test Tube Baby" of Luna and Celestia made to… Compensate for Luna's absence… Before Celestia figured out how to do it all herself.

The resulting Mutant gets put in temporal stasis for a while… That is, until the facility breaks down (long after its abandoned).

Having few experiences of its own, it learns about the outside world via the internet. And thus ends up having most of her interaction once leaving be similar to a fan-girl meeting her heroes.

…And I'm still not sure if that sucks or not. But then again, all my fan-fics and Fan-comics end up turned to 11 on the crazy scale, so that make's it a rather … tame back-story in comparison.

Edit: And by "quite a few ways to create Alicorns" assume it's like there's a grab bag of plot devices so long, it begins to look like Marvel Comics… Or DC Comics.

@X

@Verbose
Clearly you missed the spoilers:
<div class=spoiler title="Totally Legit Spoiler. Like, Totally.">

Okay, okay, have a REAL SPOILER

@ZeroBlue4
Well, I'm no expert when it comes to that kind of stuff. However, since you seem to be familiar with DC universe, maybe make it something like Doomsday is to Superman. Have a clone of one of the known Alicorns that was created by another group (evil, or at least fearful of Celestia/ Luna if certain events happened in the future). You could either have the idea that the other Alicorns are the enemy implanted, or that something like this was planned, but didn't happen before events that caused the project to stop. That's just an idea, and I think would make more sense than Celestia just forgetting about this project IMO.

Oh no, you got me to start writing fan fiction. I told myself when I entered this fandom I wasn't going to do that. Shame on you ZeroBlue4.

@Jacob
In my head canon, Celestia pretty much doesn't actively remember anything from a certain time ago unless she gets a reminder to jog her memory. Not so much "Permanently forgotten" so much as it just "slipped her mind… for a thousand years."

So it takes a letter from Twilight to remind her that her sister is coming back and she should gather the champions of the elements…

…Discord's mischief to remind her to renew the seal on Discord…

…And a vague reference about something important returning to the northern front reminds her that there is a crystal empire is out there.

The Crystal ponies aren't the only ones that can forget for a while until their memory is jogged. In fact, its truth in television I'd wager.

At this point, her forgetting about a project isn't out of the question…

…And even before I turned "Forgetful Celestia" into my head-cannon, my main comic had a gag where Celestia forgot to return control of a Hero's Guild to Luna after her return.

This is a really long rant for one sentence of your comment isn't it?

Edit: Don't expect me to post again for another 6 hours or so. I'm gonna take a nap now so that I can catch the pony streams and stuff. So… Wake up again at 10 PM here…That'd be like… 6 AM for the Americans on this board? I need to get my time-zones sorted.

@ZeroBue4 I can completely understand why Celestia would forget that kind of stuff. it all happend 1000 years ago. I can barely remember what happened last week. Just because you can live for 1000 years doesn't mean you can remember 1000 years.

<div class=spoiler title="SPOILER: NOT FOR THOSE WITH A WEAK HEART">
<div class=spoiler title="No, seriously. This could quite possibly kill you.">
<div class=spoiler title="I am warning you. Turn back now.">
<div class=spoiler title="Nested spoiler buttons are fun!">
<div class=spoiler title="Okay, fine. Here it is. Prepare your heart.">

I can't possibly imagine surviving this episode.
The D'AW levels are just… too… high!
I mean, good Lord, that animation is just the pinocle of cute!
ONLY SEVEN HOURS!

What's so special about Page 109? Is it referring to a sexual act I'm not aware of ?:(

Anyway, news from Twitter. Constantly insulting Mitch Larson (MLP Scriptwriter) on twitter has caused him to want to meet me and possibly murder me in vengeance:

In other news, gigatoast will be pleased to know that Jayson Theissein likes Screwball:

Also, this tweet by Andrea Libman scares me:

Most likely she was linked this image but the very small possibility that she browsed /mlp/ is disconcerting

Hello my subjects! I must confess I have one hell-of-a linky to share with you today. For you see I have stepped into the next plane of existence, I have evolved past the mortal realm of simple brony artist and have taken my first timed steps into my new life as A GAWD-DAMN BRONY ANIMATOR!

Aforementioned one hell-of-a linky!

Well that is true, considering the amount of regular fan art there is.
Nevermind (apparently nevermind isn't a word on Firefox), you can't really find R34 just by searching it if it has tons of fan art.

Everything is not different.

You may animate now but..

Art….Art never changes.

Wait, I thought Snake went on about how war specifically has changed (for like nine hours), you're thinking of Fallout. Y'all gotta get your references straight!

Those two have been parodied together for so long that I can't even get them straight :/

As a note related to a previous question…

Has anyone ever done anything with the various "Glitch" Alicorns? Those ones that are supposed to be animation errors of something?

Or with the "extra merchandise" Alicorns?

Or that one Princess that shows up in a book in "hearts and hooves day"?

For those that don't remember, I'll put them behind a spoiler tag or two… Cause this may take up a bit of screen room.

<Img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rCAzVK-TxLQ/TzK4GG5yT4I/AAAAAAAAeH4/W6D_Gu26P5o/s640/127864+-+Alicorn+applejack+celestia+fluttershy+french+Leon+leon_is_now_canon+magazine+pinkie_pie+prince_blueblood+rainbow_dash+rarity+spike+the_professional+twilight_sparkle+vladimir.JPG>
"http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8eiatG52X1qcoci5.jpg">

(Is it weird that I think the Alicorn in the hearts and hooves day book is kinda cute?)

As an unrelated side note, my afternoon nap was quite refreshing; thanks for asking. I'm now ready to see an episode in the dead of night that will probably be airing in daylight hours for the rest of you.

It's a good thing I am born of darkness, or this might be taking a bit of a toll on my body.

@ Zeroblue4, outside of the ones you listed, the only other ones I can think of were a few of the royal guards in the Royal wedding (they have horns and little bit of a wing outline can be made out) and a toy that I think was intended to be the daughter of the Royal couple. Unfourtunatly the only image I can find off the top of my head for the latter is one that was making fun of how scary the toy is, and I don't remember her name.

@Jacob

I tried to post images of the guards and the pink Alicorn kid. But something screwed up somewhere.

I know her name. It's "Skyla" I believe I recall.

I think the name fits… she looks like some kind of dream cloud thingy. You know, those things gen 5 Pokemon games have been using.

So… What is this going to be the princess of I wonder? Some kind of sky kingdom? Kingdom of the Sylph/Cloud Ponies?

Eh… I find Leon to be more interesting. I mean… Leon has the body of a filly, but has the feet patterns of a male, and has a tomboy haircut ripped straight from Rainbow Dash.

Seriously, I want you guys to be seriously confused about whether that's a Filly or a Colt. You deserve to be.

This is probably the only time a non pony image works here:

@Zeroblue4, I do think her name was Skyla. I don't know if they have plans for her in the show, or if it was just another bit of Mech that Hasbro wanted to sell that has no effect on the story.
As for Leon, he is pretty much completely non-canon as far as the show is concerned, so I wouldn't worry to much about it. I'm pretty shure, though, that he is a he.

Zeroblue wrote:

(Is it weird that I think the Alicorn in the hearts and hooves day book is kinda cute?)

HEAD CANON INCOMING!

Perhaps its a he. But considering the gender neutral language used when referring to him/her, I'm not so sure.

I'm not going to lie, one of the main reasons I want to think of Leon as a she is partly because there haven't been any tomboy Princesses yet. And considering the world of MLP is kinda loose about how a girl should behave, isn't it likely that such a line of thought may extend all the way up to the throne?

I mean, the mane 6 has a fairly even split between more tomboyish and androgenous attitudes vs girly attitudes. I know that it's a stretch to lump androgenous in with tomboy, but when the pony in question (Twilight) has just as much reservation about doing things a bit too girly as the tomboys, even from episode 1 (running away from Rarity's dress ups). I think I'll make an exception.

If Leon turns out to be a female, I will squee so hard at there finally being a tomboyish princess in this fandom to work with.

…If she shows up in canon show. I will squee harder…

…but if the mere mention of Leon is completely forgotten by Hasbro, the MLP;FIM team and everyone else. I will Fan-Fic so hard.

Erm… that came out wrong. (Or did it?)

I'm feeling a lot better now…had a good rest, and got some advice…

Thank you all for being buddies

Alicorns, you say?

Well, I do think about that, Zero

For one, I think King Sombra pretty much eliminated the need that an alicorn was the de facto equine leader. He proved that even a unicorn was able to rule a kingdom (and according to Celestia, a really powerful/necessary one too).

Another thing I liked to re-point-out is Chrysalis and her changelings…

…all have wings and a horn. I know, different race, but still an equine one. That's what we're looking at. Equines , not necessarily ponies (in fact, we see four different equine groups in the series so far: regular ponies, crystal ponies, zebras, and changelings). This practically proves alicorn-like species can be subservient too.

So what are alicorns?

One theory I put forth is that its simply a genetic mutation. The fact you have wings and a horn is peculiar, but you're not exactly a god. The reason why Celestia and Luna are the way they are is because they overthrew Discord and inherited some sort of power that made them immortal leaders of the land.

A bit like the Mandate of Heaven in China. The rulers are the sole rulers and hold all the powers of one (in this case, it includes immortality in Equestria) until such a time when they are unworthy of the position and are overthrown by the next rightful ruler(s) (Discord beaten by Celestia + Luna), and these new ones inherit the same mandate.

This also explains Cadence, being a powerful, but not exactly to par with her aunts, being. Hell, Shining Armor was able to generate a shield that defended all of Canterlot up to his wedding, Twilight has also shown abilities in shield making, so that rules out its "an alicorn thing".

Another theory that can be used in conjunction or replace it is that the alicorns (or just Celestia and Luna's family) are a bloodline. Like the Targaryens of A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) or Mongols and Manchus to China. Foreign rulers who have held the position of ruler of a nation for a long period of time, a sort of dynasty.

However, that mention of Cadence (being denoted to love and all) does mean that there's possibly something to being an alicorn. However, he specialty may just be a result of her special talent for which she got her cutie mark, rather than a god-like attribute

So in short; being an alicorn doesn't exactly make you a god. But you're pretty special nonethelss

@PopperFett the Mandalorian Brony, I don't know if Chrysalis and the changelings are Equines. They certainly are Ponyoid (pony equivalent of humanoid), but the resemblance may be due to convergence rather than having the same origin. Of course, this is looking at it being a zoology major.

Also, your version of "pony group classification seems a little odd. I felt it was more Earth (possibly including Crystal ponies), Pegasus (including Luna's bat guards), Unicorn, Alicorn (which may not be a true biological distinction, as we don't know their exact origin), Zebra, Donkey, and mules
Of course, now we have some sort of sea pony in the book series, so that may need its own grouping as well.

Edit: Also: A-Teamesque sound track FTW!

In a way, I'm surprised that anyone is still trying to say that Cadance is a different kind of alicorn than Celestia and Luna, but then I remember that headcanon still reigns supreme for most.

Let me just point a couple things out here. No one but Cadance has EVER cast a spell of any kind as large as the "love and light" shield in the S3 premier, except maybe Discord. Despite the fact that it was related to her talent, it was still far larger than anything Shining Armor or Twilight had ever made, and theirs was a different kind of force field anyway. And if you try to blow that off as her special talent, just remember that moving celestial bodies is the special talent of the royal sisters, so you would be effectively blowing off their ability as well. I'd say it's a fact that Cadance is indeed on the same tier as Luna and Celestia, but much younger, therefore not nearly as knowledgeable.

I think it's pretty clear that every established alicorn in the show has a tendency toward much stronger magical ability than an average unicorn. But in Shining Armor, Twilight, and Sombra, we see that it's not impossible for a normal unicorn to have massive innate power as well.

That means the only major distinction between alicorns and other ponies is slow aging, and I've argued before that this may be due to genetics as well.

@Verbose

So, did that actually interfere with watching the new episode?

Related to the new episode (or at least the stream of it.)

It seems like someone claiming to be part of /v/ invaded a few of the live streams. Funny in itself, but when people started praising their attempts, /v/ was clueless. So it was likely another board or another site altogether.

Two trolls for the price of one.
 
6/5 fool me once, shame on me for lolling at myself.

soon… there will be mutated G3 dancing pony heads in a rip off meme where that head there should be… It should only take a lazy animator about 2 minuites.

@Dan
Yeah, I was in there.
They basically killed the cold opening.
Stream was back in time for the theme song, though.

Can we talk about the episode now?

I like the episode. Babs Seed's voice was a little off from what I was expecting, but not bad. I liked how they beat us to making a sad backstory to explain that she was only a bully because of a troubled past, and it was done realistically IMO. Poor fanfiction writers. Like I added to my prior post, the A-sounding sound track was awesome.

I called it! It happened! I win!

Don't believe me? Here's a few snippits Taken from my little attempt at disscussion of the episode earlier…

Respoilered since some may not have watched the Ep yet.:

Also, did anyone else hear how Bab's voice drops a few pitches when she starts getting all intimidating? (Or is that spoilers?)

When ponies did this…

Bronies did this

When ponies did this

Bronies did…

I just watched it.

Going to travel; can't watch ponies yet

So, trying to find comparable sizes between Canterlot and The Crystal city we saw in S3. Trying to find similar areas (i.e. Minas Tirith for Canterlot). If someone could PM me some comparable measurements of the areas of the force fields Shining Armor produced in S2 and Cadence's in S3, it would greatly be appreciated.

So no one has to go looking for it:

Well what do you know?

Apparently the Doctor has gotten over his hatred of pears in this unverse.
Still likes bow-ties too.

Your soul is mine!

Suddenly, I have I crazy fic idea!

Anyone who hasn't watched the episode yet, watch it, then come back and read the idea.

Feel free to steal that idea.

Find the continuity in this picture.

Click to blow it up.
 
 
I've been impressed with the season so far in terms of continuity. It's starting to feel even more like a universe with actual characters with lives than just a show.

@Verbose
Don't tease me like that, you know my brain can't handle continuity without some kind of major change existing that threatens to change everything forever.

I may as well be a freaking time traveler. For all the sense my brain makes when it jumps tracks; it's like just shuffling a deck of cards.

Excuse the mixed metaphor.

He looks like he got kicked out of his country club and is spending his days fishing public waters now

@Verbose
Oh, I know!
Is it that ponies still seem to be fine with casually murdering fish?

More continuity:

The Foal Free Press's newest photographer is still on the job!

Or it could be that Sweetie Belle still can't make juice without burning it.

You didn't think I meant for it to be that obvious, did you?

All of you go to the back of the class. You have failed at Ponu.

Huh, That must have been the moment the stream was hacked. I didn't get to see jack happen involving stuff between the beginging of the cold opening and after the proper opening. Or between the song, and the CMC's plan.

Time for rewatch!

@Verbose
Was just about to post…


Rarity's dad still likes his stuff burnt to crisp.
They never cease to add the smallest detail, its like they want for us to find it.

I've been feeling sick last night and this morning so I'll keep this short.

I thought it was an alright episode. Truth to be told, CMC episodes are my least favorite. I don't hate them, I just don't like them as much. Still, this was an alright episode. I liked that there was another Star Wars reference.

Cute episode. Babs was okay I guess.

I gotta wonder though – aren't kids going to be more likely to take a "bully or be bullied" message from this over the old and tired "the bully could have been bullied first" one? Not only did I find the latter to be inaccurate half the time when I was growing up but the former presents what could be accepted as an actual solution to the problem – negative as it is – given that babs got bullying immunity and popular friends out of it. I guess they presented "talk to someone you trust" as the right solution, but it wasn't positively reinforced until the end. If I saw this when I was a kid I would have been pretty confused. But I dunno. I generally don't take interest in the lessons of the episodes or how people react to them, I was just wondering if I was the only one who got that idea.

Also I think that was one of the better songs we've heard throughout the whole damn series.

I could just have went to school in the worst place possible, but most of the ones that ever gave me a hard time were… well.

The first one generally had no idea of what was socially acceptable. And generally chose the worst jokes to use and was utterly unapologetic for them…
Second was the same…
And the third…

And it went on.

Generally, all my tormentors seemed to in some way be mentally unstable. Some weird mix of stuff that generally meant they don't care for other humans; and they had the mental maturity of…

(Deep breaths, trying not to get too offensive here. I'm trying my hardest to keep in the righteous indignation.)

Anyways, rather than being top tier of society; they were at the flipping bottom. And proud of it. They annoyed EVERYONE. They weren't the popular ones, they were literally seen as the…

GRR… I can't say that.

Even the teachers were fed up with them. And I remember an instance where one teacher threw a book at one.

They didn't even seem to care about the negative attention.

… They were like…

OH TO HADES WITH THE MANNERS! THEY WERE THIS GUY!

WHEN YOUR BULLY IS A F***ING CLOWN WITH NO CLUE! IS FREAKING INSANE! AND HAS VIRTUAL IMMUNITY TO ANYTHING YOU CAN DO! MY SCHOOL LIFE SUCKED!

…you have… no idea… how many times… i turned into gilda… when those guys… came near me…

sigh

its over now though. i don't have to deal with those guys anymore.

….and now… i need… to calm… down… i need more ponies…ill just… grab something from pony-mind-bleach…

That was a really nice episode. I think is the first of this season that I really enjoyed, I always enjoy episodes with the CMC. The continuity they make is so cool, even being just small references.
The song was awesome! Really well made
Score: 10

Oh, almost forgot:

Jokes aside, they hit on a solid issue. It is a kids’ show after all, and I think they handled a difficult issue very well.

And I have a big test tomorrow, so don't expect me to be around.

Dat ass.

Anyways, I would like to say that automobiles are now canon.

Meh.

I've never been a big fan of the CMC episodes, I don't know why. As individual characters, I love them; they're great and I love seeing them cameo in non-CMC episodes. When you put them together, however, they're just grating. I had to skip one episode and rewatch it later in my first full watch of the show because I felt like I'd already seen two others that day and I was sick of them.

The song was fantastic. Not only was the song itself great, but the video went with it so well that it was able to make me keep my Youtube tab up, when I'd been switching back and forth the whole time before that. Playing it like a music video instead of a musical song worked out great. I can't wait for the hard rock version they wanted to do, if they get permission to release it. Also loved the callback to the music video format right at the end. One thing, though – I'm pretty sure we'd established Scoots couldn't sing, and she sure did there.

On the other hand, I could predict the story as soon as Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon showed up and Babs joined them. Considering she was obviously bothered by "blank flank" and joined them, I knew right away she was bullied, and when they made the trap, it was even more obvious it was going to be a "trap backfires because the target is in the same situation as the trap setters" kind of climax.

Then there's this:

Oh god the juxtaposition of everything I laughed so hard

EDIT: Just saw this. Nair is gonna be so pissed that it even exists.

WUT? Why are you guys staring at me?

@Twilightlord saying "I’m pretty sure we’d established Scoots couldn’t sing, and she sure did there."

(So I don't know how to chop up quotes properly, so what?)

Well, Scootaloo may not have been able to sing before; however, theoretically, any pony can learn to do a talent they aren't good at, until they become quite proficient at it.

The difference between those learned skills, and their special talents is that the special talents require no learning process to know how to perform the same results as learned skills. And more importantly, when they put extra effort into learning to get the most out of their talent, they can break the known boundaries of ability.

As such, Scootaloo may have learned from Sweetie Belle how to sing. Sweetie Belle seems to have it as a talent, so its not unreasonable. (Although, arguably, Sweetie belle is more of a composer and lyricist.)

Now this calls for some in depth… Just so we're clear on learned skills vs special talents.

Compare, using the skill of "Magic" as an example:
Rarity: If she tried hard enough, she could probably learn to cast a large number of spells, and perform powerful ones. But it would take her years of study. Rivaling Twilight Sparkle would be hard, but not impossible if she had enough time.
Twilight Sparkle: She can perform powerful acts of magic with little effort, in fact, she first does it as a knee jerk reaction. However, she does seem to have trouble with a few spells that involve more complex knowledge of other subjects, such as transmutation, which probably requires knowledge on Chemistry. (Which is a reason she may be studying so hard at… everything. So her ability to perform magic isn't hampered by lack of natural skill in other subjects.)

Of course, this all does make me wonder; is Pumpkin Cake the next magical prodigy? Having magic as a special talent? She does come to use magic a little too easily.

I was really surprised that apple bloom didn't get her cutie mark upon seeing scootaloo's oily imprint of a wrench. You'd think that would be a memo to check herself.

…And… you know. I kinda suspect Applebloom's talent is like… making stuff. Like a mechanic or something. Either that or art. But a mechanist is more in line with what my comic will need from her.

(Which reminds me, one week left of College work before I can get back to my comic.)