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@the new episode

I think I'm going to like this new writer.

@serious business

Yeah, I dunno what he was expecting.

Well let's see.
First I Play a Violent video game or watch an R Rated Action or horror movie.
Second I grab a Sprite and head to bed.
Third I wait for my cat to jump on my chest while I sleep and start purring in my face only to throw her off and listen to her walk away purring the whole time (it's a ritual, shut up)
Fourth I have some fucked up dream, none of them are good in anyway, sexy or pony related. They're not nightmares so I classify them as fucked up dreams.
Fifth I wake up thanks to my cat licking my face (she's just waiting for the day I die in my sleep so she can eat my face, that jerk) and get into the shower at 7:00 AM.
Sixth I enjoy the fuck out of this shower, just stand there under the hot water for a good 5 to 10 minutes. Then the Shampoo, then my Old Spice 'Swagger' body wash then I add my facecream (bad acne breakouts run in my family. Thanks to this I have been acne free for….a year or two.)
Seventh I sit in the bathroom drying off before shaving (I keep a goatee, no one wants a neckbeard) while pondering the meaning of life and why I love ponies. Do I love Poni because they're cute or are they cute because I love Poni?
Eighth I go eat some breakfast my girlfriend made, now considering we're both only 20 years old her cooking can use some work. So she makes Waffles and browned scrambled eggs.
Ninth My girlfriend heads off to work and now I have the apartment to myself.
Tenth I put on a nice snazzy suit while I wait for the momentous occasion (or in the case of Mysterious Mare Do Well…I get my hopes up)
Eleventh I lie down on my couch and turn on the Hub(HD) on my 72 inch. Then my cat comes by and curls around my arm. I usually throw her off as well (it's a tradition)
Twelfth I watch Pone.
Thirteenth I take my time to reflect on new pone. Do I like it? Do I dislike it? Do I hate it? This is when I find out.
Fourteenth I go on the internet and I talk about how Rainbow Dash is best pone.
That's my tradition.

Rainbow Dash is best pone.

To avoid giving too much away:

I like silly episodes. This was a silly episode.

I like it very much.

You want more?

Oh fine.

There, I said my peice and had it under a spoiler tag so Verbose doesn't get an aneurysm.

To be honest, I was pretty impressed. I haven't been really happy with any of the episodes lately (while last week's was okay, it wasn't great in the slightest. Too contrived of a resolution for my tastes), but this one was actually pretty good. It just worked for MLP, you know? The show has always been a good one for "simple plan" type plots that become increasingly more ridiculous and complex (see: Lesson Zero, off the top of my head) and this was one of them that worked perfectly. Plus, Corey Powell has proven he knows how to write Spike well, and the sheer number of continuity nods didn't hurt either.

I've gotta say, though, I don't know how Fluttershy hasn't figured out that her rabbit's a HUGE BITCH.

"Keep Calm And Flutter On" WAS a great episode, some of you guys just haven't realized it yet.

"Just For Sidekicks" was also enjoyable overall. Spike was acting like an idiot again in a couple parts, but seeing his greedy side pop up a second time was interesting. I have to say though, I agree with Burning, two Spike episodes is excessive. We could've done without "Spike At Your Service," this one was better.

What else. Angel was very nicely in character, and as I suspected, he was the primary troublemaker among the pets. Plenty of continuity to go around as well of course, and… and…

All right, forget it. This:

Practically canon. Priorities, people, come on.

It's late. I'm gonna talk new episode.

Can't complain. I really enjoyed it. In fact, it probably my favorite Spike episode so far. What did I learn from this episode? The Crystal Empire before: 1000 year old lost civilization. The Crystal Empire now: tourist attraction with a train station and a gift shop.

Yeah, considering it's still inhabited, and the fact that they kinda want to open up to the world, it was inevitable.

Still, they must have had some hell of an advertising campaign. Its been… what, a month?

Yeah, at this point, I beginning to wonder if its because their economy would be sunk if nobody knew about them; and Tourism is a great way to fix that.

@nothing in particular, just chatter

I wasn't going to watch the new episode today. Instead trying to focus my time on Starcraft since I recently entered into my first tournament and had to remain on call during the tournament process

How did the tournament go? Wonderful…for the other team. Me and my team completely got our arses wiped and entered no brackets.

After dropping by 100 points in my rating I was bound to be utterly depressed for the rest of the week.

But then I remembered that there's still an episode of poni to watch and came back to it. After watching cute poni for another 22 minutes I suddenly don't care about my shameful defeat. It's good to know that this show can still cheer me up and take my mind off matters.

In this episode, Spike focused too much on his rewards without heeding his responsibilities, blundering away all his reward as a result. Each loss demoralized him and led to more critical mistakes

This reminded me of myself today.

I was focusing too much on boosting my rating without really having fun with the game, blundering all my rating away as a result. Each loss was demoralizing and led to more critical mistakes.

Funny how a story can speak to you in your own unique way

I need to make a note: If I end up in that situation where my winning streak runs dry and I start to get frustrated: Don't throw yourself into more potentially frustrating situations. Just take a break and watch poni

@Zeroblue

Speaking of pony economy, did you notice how much you can buy with just one tiny gem? The CMC used a ruby, probably no more than a few dozen grams in wieght by the looks of it and purchased factory grade machinery and the man[pony]power to move it.

Either the dollar value is massively deflated or Spike just ate someones entire life savings.

The crystal empire probably doesn't need tourism influxes to support its economy. It's built out of money, that's why all those ponies are there.

@Unrelated obligatory image

@phoneix

lol yeah, that part with winona threw my sides into orbit

Also filly scout was adorable. Looks like they've named her tag-a-long.

So guess where I was all day today!

Go on, guess!

Yeah, I got a random invitation to spend the day at Disneyland and took it.
Waking up to a great pony episode (even if it focused on just about everyone except the ponies) then spending 11 hours at a theme park.
Good day, good day…

Had to take this picture:

All I could hear was "Can you imagine a see-through arcade?!"
Sadly, it was not actually see-through and, in fact, it was not even an arcade at all.
Just a gift shop.
Ah, the remnants of an age gone by…

Actual episode stuff to come tomorrow probably.
For now, I must sleep before I collapse in my chair.

BlueScreen:

Speaking of pony economy, did you notice how much you can buy with just one tiny gem? The CMC used a ruby, probably no more than a few dozen grams in wieght by the looks of it and purchased factory grade machinery and the man[pony]power to move it.

Either the dollar value is massively deflated or Spike just ate someones entire life savings.

The crystal empire probably doesn’t need tourism influxes to support its economy. It’s built out of money, that’s why all those ponies are there.

Yeah, I speculated before the episode on Rarity's gem-finding being the only way that Twilight and the others can get their hands on all these gems (Twilight figured the spell out though so free pass there.)… But now that I think about it, the fact that Rarity is willing to give out a few gems here and there to all her friends to feed spike, as well as the fact she sells dresses practically made of nothing but gems and never seems to become rich… Rarity really must be the element of Generosity.

Because if she actually got full price for those dresses she makes, she could have an entire Castle built for her by now. (Zoning permit laws not withstanding)

Quick Edit: Also, new point, the fact that the Crystal Empire is Practically made of money is probably more true when the fact that they themselves don't need all that crystal, but everyone else does. And they kinda need to buy other stuff they need more than Crystals. Thus, the Tourism thing is just so they can get people to know they exist and spread word so they can do business, rather than a way of gaining income.

@Zeroblue:

I really don't think Rarity is the only one who can find gems.

I mean, she's good at finding them but I doubt she's the only supplier.

@burning_phoneix: In that aspect, I always thought Spike would work like a pig that hunt truffles…

Anyway, nice episode. Good to see that the pets back. And Zecora too.

^ This is the best Dash face in all of the series. Yes, even better than the "So awesome" face.

It not only presents the character interactions that I love so much, but Dash's face in particular is so wonderfully conflicted with clashing emotions.

You know she likes it.

This Dash, I like. Corey Powell wrote the characters so well here (Rarity might have been a little shallow and not generous, but hey, I can't like everything.)

And BP (and others,) spoilers are only for before the full episode has aired. If the episode has aired, then there's no need to spoiler your discussion. People who haven't seen it yet should just avoid the thread until they can get around to viewing it.
 
As for my opinion, this and Spike at Your Service have been two of my favorite episodes. Great replay value, lots of fun interaction between characters, and light plots that don't try to make My Little Pony into some grand production or an adventure that they don't have time to fully flesh out in one episode (if you don't have the time, then I don't think you should get fancy and compromise the episode because you had to rush things. Good things still come from rushed episodes and two-parters, but…ehhh…)

I personally liked this episode, it was nice and fun and unlike Spike at your Service I didn't want to turn it off after a few minutes (In defense Spike at your Service got off to a very bad start with the nonstop schtick of Spike suddenly being the most clumsy being in ponyville got boring after 10 seconds. Luckily the episode got SO MUCH better after the rest of the Mane 6 started getting involved, I particularly liked how Merriwether finally found out how to write Rainbow Dash without making her a total douche the entire episode.)
I was hoping for an episode involving the pets since I met my two best favorite pets. Tank and Gummy, this is that episode and I'm alright with it. Didn't expect less or more with this episode so I'm not disappointed. Of course my favorite parts of this episode had to be (If you couldn't guess) RD and Tank's interactions, it shows that best pony Rainbow Dash is a caring pet owner and knows how to take care of tank (and give a proper warning to everyone else about the helmet).
The whole time watching this episode reminded me of all those people saying they should make an episode about the background characters (which I think would just be a big 'meh' to me) and how the premise would be, the Mane 6 go somewhere and then the Background ponies take over (boy I bet /mlp/ would "love" that episode).

All in all one of the better episodes this season. Which is definitely going to make any Season 3 Marathon anyone wants before Season 4.

P.S. Sorta Related What the hell is this, Littlest Pet Shop gets a longer season than MLP?! Well I reckon this shorter season was obviously only made so they can Syndicate the show.

Why.
And who are you.

New topic is random-ass pictures.

AJ doesn't even math.

@DeadParrot

Lucky…

Anyway, hope you had loads of fun. I am a huge Disney park junky. I go a lot. In fact, I've lost count.

Anyway, good for you!

@Dan's ship

Canon.

@Filly Scout

Again I ask, why on earth are the Cutie Mark Crusaders not in this organization? Heck, they probably teach those fillies how to get their cutie marks…

Just saw the episode. Really good. I laughed a lot, found a lot of moments adorable, and didn't think anybody was too out of character. I tend to enjoy slice-of-life episodes like this more than the episodes like Wonderbolt Academy, because the humor factor is one of the show's big draws for me. And this episode had a lot of it. This new writer's good in my book.

Now, regarding the gems, I'd say that not every gem is exactly the same value. That big green gem could be less valuable than the little red gem, entirely because its a different type. Size doesn't really change much if the gem is a piece of shit. Unless, of course, you're Spike, and you eat them. I doubt he cares whether that diamond is valuable, he'd rather have a massive lump of quartz the size of his head.

So, I don't think it's entirely too far-fetched to say that little red gem could buy the hair-dryer while the others weren't anymore valuable. Besides, that hair-dryer may have only been a few hundred dollars.

I mean, the CMC could afford Mr. Breezy's junk easily, before. Maybe he's just so wealthy that he sells all his stuff at really low prices.

And, yes, I just said Mr. Breezy sold the hair-dryer. Fans and shit, you know?

Haven't watched the episode, so I ain't giving a damn 'bout what y'all is sayin'.

Just though I'd pop in and announce that I figured out how to export half-decent .gifs from Flash, how to do magicky effects, how to recolor things a bajillion times faster and how to make Flash builds that can be used for many more things.

Vinyl and Octavia and swords and blood, as well. Shamelessly making it my avatar at the same time!

So…
Anyone up for the weekly livestream?

COME ON IN!
Playing the new episode first obviously, but open to anything else after that.

You know, you can just post on his wall. No need to post here.

Popperfett wrote:

@Filly Scout

Again I ask, why on earth are the Cutie Mark Crusaders not in this organization? Heck, they probably teach those fillies how to get their cutie marks…

Dunno, maybe they think the scouts are too nerdy for them?

What exactly are we talking about this time?
I'm too tired to look through your posts like a good person.

Fun, new episode, Karnie. Tis' about Spike, dem pets and the Crusaders in a companion episode to the next one. Felt really season one-ish. All in all, a really fun episode.

Tipity-top~

Ah, well I haven't seen the episode, it didn't really look too interesting at first glance.
I'll see if I can watch it tomorrow….

@DeadParrot222
Sorry I didn't stay long on the stream tonight. Managed to get caught up for the next week on my work though, which is nice.

Sortofnotreallyatallrelatedtothecurrenttopic question:
Does anyone have any headcanon/personal idea on Zecora's nature/background? We've seen she has some sort of idea of how magic works, and can ever perform some herself (Magic Duel), and has some rather deep knowledge of how the world works. Just curious as to what other people think of her.

Does anyone have any headcanon/personal idea on Zecora’s nature/background? We’ve seen she has some sort of idea of how magic works, and can ever perform some herself (Magic Duel), and has some rather deep knowledge of how the world works. Just curious as to what other people think of her.

There's kind of a few D&D analogies here. But The best I can think of is that most unicorns are equivalent to sorcerers. Naturally able to use a small set of Spells they happen to get frequent use out of. They can do this cause the secrets of the Arcane is in their blood.

Meanwhile, wizards don't have magic breed into them, but they've studied enough to utilize magic in some way. However, doing so often carries more restrictions on what can be done and how.

Basically, I think Zecora is a Wizard.

I say that in the broadest sense of the word; as while her being a Wizard is near indisputable, there is some level of question on how exactly one defines it for her… Some have argued she manages to do it by essentially exploiting properties of other things that contain magic in them, and she can't channel magic herself. Others argue she has plenty of magic of her own.

Also, considering a magic charm shop was run by what I think I remember being an earth pony, it's entirely possible that wannabee wizards who aren't unicorns can just buy one of that guys charms and they'll be able to sling spells around.

Does anyone have any headcanon/personal idea on Zecora’s nature/background? We’ve seen she has some sort of idea of how magic works, and can ever perform some herself (Magic Duel), and has some rather deep knowledge of how the world works. Just curious as to what other people think of her.

I think ZeroBlue sorta has a similar opinion to mine. Although I'm not adamantly opposed to the idea that Zecora (or all zebras) have a very basic, latent ability for magic, I tend to believe that Zecora does tricks with magical powders (i.e., dust that structures and moves itself to show the form of an attacking Nightmare Moon when blown) and enchanted items (i.e., a magic cup that refills by somehow multiplying the remaining contents of whatever is in the cup whenever you rub the out edge of it.)

Now as for her background, I tend to believe that she's an outcast from most zebras. Twilight said that zebras come from a land far away (or something to that effect,) so it led me to think that zebras live together instead of being stray equines.

If I were to imagine a land of zebras, then I'd think that Zecora was either interested in magic which wasn't accepted by other zebras (shunned) or she left so she could study magic on her own (scholar.)

I tend to think that it's something of the latter, because she still seems to hold some nostalgia for her home through the paraphernalia of her homeland. So it's not like she wanted to completely remove herself from her home. But then again, maybe there's an element of not quite being like other zebras.

I think about Pinkie here. She's obviously not like her family, but she still likes her family (i.e., Magic Duel as well.) Pinkie has a talent for merrymaking, but it's so distinctly different from what her family has been portrayed as. Pinkie might have left (or was encouraged to leave) in order to do what she does best and be happy with simply returning to visit every once in a while.

I think that Zecora is similar. Her fellow zebras might have seen that Zecora was gifted with wisdom or had knack for magic, but it wasn't something that she could really share with others or hone amongst zebras. So, perhaps at the encouragement and with the blessing of her peers, Zecora left to study and meditate on her own.
 
I do believe that the creators (from Faust to the current writers and directors) will keep that a secret even through the end of the show. I think Zecora (and to a lesser extent, Luna and Celestia in their own ways) is meant to be an enigmatic character that we don't ever fully understand in terms of her actions, speech, or powers. Perhaps I'm just hoping for that. Some things should be explained, like Pee Wee and whatever happened to him (and it was explained really well in the last episode's cold opening.) Some things have better a "effect" when you leave it to the mind of the viewer (target demographic and brony demographic alike.)

I'm going to post this image. It's a matter of race, but I don't want to disrupt Crazy☾'s topic just yet.

Anyway, I made a massive post about it on Derpibooru, but I want to present it to you later and see what you think about it and the fandom.

The timing of that reply worries me more considering how you "never post here anymore".

Verbose wrote:

To be quite honest, I never really got the whole skin color issue. The deal with all of these is that it's a personal headcanon. One person ships Rarijack, another prevers Appledash (God tier, plesbians don't know their ships). Same for skin color. To some Twilight is white, to others she's black. It's a headcanon, nothing more, nothing less. Why care?

The deal with all of these discussions is the general headcanon issue. Shipping results in shipping wars at times, because people ship the same character with someone else and discuss what is the better pairing. Same for the skin color, only in this area the non-white headcanons are just a major minority. The internet tends to discuss over the most trivial things. But the problem with skin color compared to shipping is that it adds an element of racism, whether willingly or unwillingly. This makes the risk of lenghty discussions higher.

Now then, black Twilight and Hindu Fluttershy are probably the most common non-white headcanons. It's not of great importancy for this post, but as those two are more commonly accepted will result in a lower chance of discussions to come from it.

So yeah, that's all there is to it. People don't get the artist's choice, because it fucks up their headcanon. And to fandoms, headcanons are the bible. It are moments like this that fandoms make me facepalm.

Anyways, you said you made a lengthy post about it on Derpibooru. Care to share? Topics like this are more trivial to me than you, so I doubt I can get a same insight into it as you without some help.

If you would read a summary of the last episode's plot, you would come to the conclusion that you are in for another lame spike episode that's using a more or less standard cartoon plot. But you would be completely wrong, as this show can turn a generic plot into an everlasting grin for more than 20 minutes.

Corey Powell really knows how to write pony, Sleepless In Ponyville was awesome and this episode is just a complete tour de force fun. I hope she writes a couple of season 4 episodes, as she is so good with world building, continuity and getting the characters right. Her episodes have panache.

What's even more surprising is that she manages a large cast of characters here, including the mane 6, Spike, the CMCs and the pets. Even though none of those pets can say a word, all of them have distinguishable characters and different body languages. In episodes like this you realize how well the show manages to convey the mood and reactions via body language. Sometimes it takes an episode that doesn't focus on the ponies to point out another piece that makes the show so special.

Even gummy can show some reactions, but I guess he might be deaf due to Pinkie's antics.

Spike vs Angel reminded me of something:

And does Hasbro sell pony snowglobes?

Anyone see the new episode of Littlest Pet Shop? I liked the part when the baby dragon ate all the jewels instead of baking them.

Anyways, you said you made a lengthy post about it on Derpibooru. Care to share? Topics like this are more trivial to me than you, so I doubt I can get a same insight into it as you without some help.

I did, but I didn't want to disrupt Crazy☾'s proposed topic about the origins of Zecora just yet.
 
Actually, that's part of what I brought up: "To some Twilight is white, to others she’s black. It’s a headcanon, nothing more, nothing less. Why care?"

It's not unique to bronies, but I do think people in Web Culture tend to trivialize issues of race to "Everyon's equal" or "To each, his own." They perpetuate that conclusion to a point that doesn't merit discussion when I think it's interesting to discuss. Easy for me to say being black, and you may hear something similar about sexism from a woman on the Internet. But I didn't want to go there just yet.

It’s not unique to bronies, but I do think people in Web Culture tend to trivialize issues of race to “Everyon’s equal” or “To each, his own.” They perpetuate that conclusion to a point that doesn’t merit discussion when I think it’s interesting to discuss. Easy for me to say being black, and you may hear something similar about sexism from a woman on the Internet. But I didn’t want to go there just yet.

The only issue I have with discussions surrounding social minorities or groups that at times are victimized as "less" is that even those that defend them tend to apply double standards a lot.

I can give examples, but perhaps topics like this are better off in a seperate thread. It's flame war fuel, but given how we've had our share of legit discussion surrounding controversial topics on KYM in the past (abortion, religion, homoseksuality), it can be done as long as we know how to moderate that stuff. But I trust us, so it gets a green light from.

Whether or not this will be given a seperate thread or we'll keep it to just black Twilight, that choice I leave to you as you brought up the topic. But as you said, racism on headcanons is most certainly not only present with MLP, so a seperate thread can be done.

Yay, I can finally write some stuff about the episode!

So, off the bat, PeeWee is gone.

I am a little curious to know why they wrote Spike's pet out like this, even though they did it in a very creative way.
I was kind of hoping to see their relationship grow over time…

I think everyone in existence, even those who have never heard of MLP, had some measurable heart failure when this happened:

Also, this episode had some funny implications for Equestrian society.
It seemed pretty clear from Cutie Mark Chronicles that Spike is older than the CMCs, yet they qualify as chaperones for him?
Apparently, ponies are automatically considered more responsible than dragons or something.
Just an odd thing I noticed while watching.
Eh, maybe the conductor was just a racist because a dragon murdered his parents or something.

The implication of a Girl Scouts-type of organization is awesome and the CMCs must join… now…

Watching the three of them, individually or as a group, attempting to sell cookies is too hilarious of a concept to pass up.
I actually started writing a second fic at one point a long time ago that began with them doing just that.
(Well, it was technically candy bars for a school fundraiser, but same concept)
The CMCs are great characters that you can just point at a situation, give them a simple motivation, and watch the chaos ensue.
Putting them in sales?
Hold on to your hooves.
And bits.

Anyone else watch this episode and subconsciously track all the future RandomMan reaction images?
Because there were a lot.

Bunny's got style.

Rarity is my only supplier!


She's supplies the biggest rocks you'll ever see.

sup my fellow man-colters

@Black Humanized Twilight

For some reason, that idea never made sense to me. And my best Explanation tends to be that Zecora being a Zebra is essentially what "Black" in Equestria would be like.

Other than that, I'd say just about anything goes.

…But my personal Headcanon is something like this:
Twilight→ Japanese
Rainbow Dash→ Spartan
Applejack→ (White) American
Fluttershy→ Some mix of Myan, Japanese, and Italian.
Rarity→ British
Pinkie Pie→ Were-wolf.

Just my head-canon though, and I'm reasonably fine with anything that doesn't conflict with my "Zebra=Black" Hypothesis.

@Race discussion

I agree with Verbose that issues of race tend to be marginalized in web culture and modern culture at large. True, on a biological basis, the distinction between races is trivial, but race as a social construct is far from it. You can't understand the history of the United States or the structure of American society in general without understanding the concept of black people and white people. It'd be like trying to understand a game of football without recognizing a difference between players based on something as trivial as the colors of their jersies. The differences become real because people treat them as real. Now you might argue that this is a bad thing and that we should try to eliminate concepts of race, but it would be foolish to deny their existence just because you disagree with them. Race and racism are more than ideologies, they are social facts.

All that being said, let's examine this idea of trying to apply race to pones. If you're really going to insist on having an argument about which pony would be which race if they were human, then Twilight, the rest of the mane six, and pretty much all of the ponies in the show would probably be white. Why? Because this show is clearly mimicking the contemporary culture of first world western countries, the United States and Canada in particular. The ponies tend to exhibit all the basic traits of this culture without showing any traits that might be associated with any particular race. This means that they should fall into the default demographic for their culture, which is whitey. The zebras and buffalo could be argued African and Native American because they exhibit atypical traits to our standard cultural model which have been strongly linked to those cultures.

So yeah, take that as you will. This entire point is moot because, you know, ponies aren't humans, but anyone who tries to argue why Twilight being black has more backing than just a personal desire to see her that way is just being silly.

Verbose wrote:

I’m going to post this image. It’s a matter of race, but I don’t want to disrupt Crazy☾’s topic just yet.

I did, but I didn’t want to disrupt Crazy☾’s proposed topic about the origins of Zecora just yet.

Too late. Your post had a colorful picture in it, so it caught peoples' eyes more. It's okay, though: I still love you. I'll save the Zecora background topic for a time when there's a lull of new topic activity. It's not a particularly interesting one, so I should have expected it to be drowned out rather quickly.

@ZeroBlue4

I agree on this point (and don't worry, DnD makes plenty of sense to me). Zecora seems to be along the lines of a supernatural shaman. Her innate knowledge of the world is likely no better than an earth pony's, but her extrinsic knowledge is what makes her the wise master of the arcane we know her as. She's likely more worldly than many more academically-inclined unicorns that we see (such as Twilight).

A wonderful example of this is the infestation of parasprites: Few characters other than Pinkie and Zecora knew of their nature, and Celestia herself seemed to have no prior knowledge of them.

@Verbose

It's described as all ponies having a natural magical ability inlaid within them.
The earth ponies usually are very.. earthy, and have a talent for things working with the more mundane parts of every day life.
Unicorns can manipulate the natural balance of the world to work in their favor.
Pegasi can live and work with things that are effervescent in nature.
The crystal ponies seem to have a magic that resonated with a focus (the Crystal Heart) to help their culture as a whole.

As Zecora is currently our only zebra we can work off of, it can be hard to find her culture. Is she exemplary, or extraordinary? She may be like the people of undeveloped countries in our world who have a talent for the sciences and their community bands together to send them to a better life, or a traveler and mystic who left home and has gained a knowledge of the world through her experiences. Considering her hermit-like nature, I think it's more likely the latter. She enjoys guests, but separates herself from others.

Items such as the alicorn amulet point towards magic being accessible to all hoofed creatures in the world. I think it's more an enhancement item than anything though. Trixie would have loved to give herself wings to show off if she thought she could have, but the amulet only made her manipulative magic better. A pegasus wearing it would become a better flyer, an earth pony would become stronger, and so on. The Elements of Harmony (and the seeming nature of crystals and gemstones themselves) could point toward this, as the ponies cannot individually tap into their powers. They must simply become an array that forces itself through the most magically experienced pony of the group, Twilight.

Pinkie Pie can be excused. I think her cutie mark has more to do with spontaneity than partying, which allows her to move freely about the world in ways other ponies and creatures cannot (so long as it's unexpected).

I have an opinion on the race issue, but I haven't formulated it entirely yet. I'll wait for a few more people to present their ideas before I say anything. Should be up later tonight. Key point to it though: Saddle Arabians.

@Pre-Show rituals (I know this is late)

Well, I don't have any pre-show rituals. But I do have the post-show ritual of watching the Military Channel particularly something on Counter-Terrorism. Kind of the opposite of Ponies, imo.

In Coronation News, but unrelated to Poni

RandomMan, prepare thyself for your country is going to get a new monarch.

Lang Leve Koning Willem Alexander!

@Zecora

Personally, I think of her more of like a Yoda or Gandalf-esque figure, but less of an Odin.

I don't think she's a goddess in disguise, but more of a traveling figure that practices magic. She doesn't affiliate herself with a people per say, just as a wise person that has a wanderlust.

Zecora seems to have an aura of mystic about her. She can't directly control magic, but has a vast understanding of it, and also knows how to conjure and teach others about it. At the same time, she seems to know a lot different from Equestrian magic. As in, she teaches Twilight general things about all magic, but at the same time, also teaches her techniques native to her own land, which can be applied (to a good extent and result), in Twilight's own life and lessons.

@ Race

Well, I can say that we can't really define a race for any of them as humans. Though it is very common to find Twilight depicted as black, I've seen another good amount with her as white.

It seems to be more common to depict a character without a defined race as white. I suppose for Twi, someone wanted to defy that common thought, and then it caught on.

But in any case, it really doesn't affect me. It doesn't really matter to me what race they belong to.

And by the way, I would like to see Citra from FarCry 3 crossed over with Zecora

http://farcry.wikia.com/wiki/Citra_Talugmai

Just jumping into the race topic real quick. I personally like to imagine Twilight being black. Why? Well, purple looks really good on black skin as opposed to white. What? Were you expecting some sort of deep explanation as to why I think Twilight holds the characteristics of a black person? As far as skin color goes in my headcanon, I just go with whatever looks best with their color scheme and sometimes I'll take their talents into consideration. For example, ponies like Rainbow Dash or Apple Jack should have tanned skin in my mind because they're sporty, outdoors ponies who are out in the sun all day doing hard work while Fluttershy would have fair skin because it would be reminiscent of Snow White. Sorry I didn't give any deep insight into the thoughts of fans and their headcanon, but I figure I might as well have given my input as to why I see my ponies with certain skin colors over others.

Random thought I had while browsing the net… How many late nights and early mornings will Twilight have before it all catches up with her?

I can just imagine someone out there eventually making a Fic where after one too many late nights she goes into a coma. And… shenanigans happen.

I just had a sort of epiphany, but I'm not sure

I prefer the term Mare-Man.

@Race I don't like to bring in Race in the matter when we're talking about ponies. I (just like some people of other races) see the ponies in my own race just as a jumping off point, Case in point, it's easier for a white man to think of white characters. It's not about race to me it's about ease cause I don't feel like going into the deepest darkest corners of my mind to come up with some reasons why I think Pinkie Pie might be Brazilian. Personally though if I DID have to pick a race for any of the ponies it would probably be
Twilight = Asian (I seriously don't know why, maybe it's my inner racist white man coming out saying "She's smart and reads books and does math, she's Asian!")
Fluttershy = Eskimo (Yeah this is mainly a joke because when it comes down to it Fluttershy is the one I honestly could never give a flying feather about when it comes to race.)
Pinkie Pie = Pink…..it's in her fucking name!
Applejack = Southern white folk.
Rainbow Dash = Either white or black, yeah don't ask.
Rarity = Either black or white, Yeah again don't ask. I mainly think of her as white because well…she's actually the only WHITE pony they have in the Mane6. I also like to think of her as black only because there's a few pictures of Rarity as a black woman that when I looked at it I thought "Wow that actually looks alright for her"

@The next episode. It sucks, they've been screwing with my schedule at work. They gave me a day off tomorrow when I normally have days off on Saturdays and Sundays. Now I'm afraid I'll have to work on Saturday and I'll miss my Pone. If Kewln00b misses his pone bad things will happen, bad things.

Guys, is it just me, or has Spike's personality gone down the crapper this season?

Also Fluttermac forever.

I have to say that I feel pretty much the same way about skin tones for humanized versions of ponies. If any of the humanizations were to be black then I think Twilight is the best fit due to her already dark tones and her personality. Twilights personality isn't stereotypically black (unlike Zecora who goes out of her way to overstate her heritage, she even raps) but it's not hard to apply black culture to her personality

The rest of the ponies, considering their attitudes and personalities just all scream "white chick". Especially Fluttershy and AJ who are stereotypically white. Although AJ is probably tanned.

I've seen humanization art of Twilight being Asian, Caucasian and Indian and while all of them could fit just as well, the concept of her being African american seem to resonate the best.

Of course all of this is in regards to humanisation. Outside of that concept: the only races I recognize in ponies is Pony, Unicorn and Pegasus. I find it extremely implausible that ponies would differentiate each other by fur color when absolutely all of them are colored differently like a bag of sprinkles

I've noticed that too. His personality has been pretty inconsistent too.

@Spike
I guess that his portrayal in "Spike at Your Service" is the main problem here. All episodes that are written by Merriweather Williams show a certain progression. Usually a single character trait of the episode's protagonist is isolated and intensified from scene to scene until it escalates. For instance RD's bragging in MMDW, Fluttershy's assertiveness in PYHD and even Lightning Dusts recklessness in WA work this way. That's the reason why I don't really enjoy most of her episodes, they follow all the same route and have a very pregnant pattern. This route also hurts the character progression and development, Spike had his klutzy moments from time to time, but he was completely and utterly useless in SAYS in order to drive the plot.

The portrayal in the last episode was much better in comparison, because it featured the established dragon greed and a bit of Spike's cunning nature from "Owl's Well That Ends Well". There is also a progression from both episodes. He is fighting the greed that is deep routed in the dragon nature, he trusts Owlicious now and he is not really scheming anymore, especially not to hurt others. So I think that his character was quite consistent here. SAYS is a different thing and really steps out of the line, which is very striking now, as both episodes are so close.

@Verbose
I think that it's an interesting topic and I would really like to see the promised post. So care to share?