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@BSoD

I especially like how Twi has a copy of "Cuddles 101" hidden under the pillow.

Urk! I got double dose of pony-related diabetes! I should not have looked up the tags "nyxabetes" and "snowbetes" and looked at the cute pictures of them in the DA gallery!

At least it's not as bad as getting shyabetes. It's the deadliest form of pony-related diabetes out there.

Did somebody say "Shyabetes"?

Don't forget these two.

<img src = "https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/12/8/780510__safe_solo_fluttershy_animated_upvotes+galore_cute_sleeping_adorable_chibi_adorable+as+fuck.gif">

<img src = "https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/12/10/782371__safe_solo_fluttershy_animated_cute_flying_shyabetes_4de_description+is+relevant.gif">

Soooo. I was suspended for "Posting a Pony Reaction Image."

Was this Riff-Raff?
Because that would explain it, they suspend people over the stupidest shit, I got suspended for flubbing a joke.

Captain Blubber did it, so yeah it looks like a Riff Raff suspension. Don't worry – those don't mean anything.

Proooobably.

Yay.

@Shyabetes

I'm going to attempt a new topic now because this forum has been flooded with fanfiction for a while and I never have anything to say about it.

Anyway, I've been finding myself in a Lyra and Bon Bon mood a lot recently. Not even in the hawt lesbian action sort of sense (not that it's usually for that reason… I swear…), just because I think it's really cool that the fans of the show were able to go "We want these two ponies to be friends" and the show staff responded with "Sure, why not?" Really seems to fit with the message of friendship the show tries so hard to convey, and with that face-smooshing scene from Rainbow Rocks, I'm getting strong vibes that the creators are more than happy to tease us with the possibility of a "closer relationship."

This sorta bares a lot of similarities to another popular animated show, though. I don't know how many of you keep up with Adventure Time round these parts, but one of the voice actors for the show has confirmed that Marceline and Princess Bubblegum DID used to date, but they can't do more than hint at it on the show because Adventure Time airs in places where homosexualtiy is illegal.

So that got me thinking… all political correctness aside, could MLP canonize homosexualtiy even if they wanted to, or would it be illegal? Does anyone here know? Because this is sorta new to me. I never really considered that this is something they would be literally unable to do, I always just saw it as something they weren't doing because of all those angry moral guardians out there. Is it possible that very-light-aquamarine pony and light-apple-greenish-grey pony will never have their love recognised?!
(For those of you who don't care, have a filly dance party).

clicks no

Well, aren't you fair.

@Crashgordon
Many have wondered why Luna wasn't brought up to speed after being back for a while. Everything from Trollestia to "the elements caused her to recover for a year" has been proposed. I'm rather fond of the idea that Luna's very stubborn and prideful and so declared she'd recover on her own, and Celestia, not wanting to screw up relations with her sister, just let her.

Dash is Dash. That's why no one's complained She wasn't given the nickname of Top C**t for no reason.

Pinkie will only continue her downward slide. You will next get to enjoy her screw with Dash, followed by Cranky.

Stunthead said:

…could MLP canonize homosexualtiy even if they wanted to, or would it be illegal? Does anyone here know?

Legally, they can do whatever the hell they want since it's a US IP made in Canada. It would probably get banned in Russia and some Middle Eastern countries if they did it, due to their laws regarding homosexuality.

Now would Hasbro? Hell no. Multi-billion dollar corporations are very conservative, as in, they don't take unnecessary risks. Soccer moms make up a big part of MLP's profit and putting a political hot potato like that in the franchise would probably be a PR nightmare that would sink a lot of the money. Best to just stay on the gravy train then risk a derailment.

Remember: Hasbro vetoed mirror!Sombra and Katielestia kissing. If they didn't allow that, they're definitely not going to allow slash.

@ Making the magical rainbow music unicorn show even more gay

Oh man, wouldn't that be great.

I think this might be one of those instances where the fanfiction is more accurate than the actual show. But, alas, Hasbro will continue to expect us to believe that not a single friendship horse is even a little bit gay. Frankly, at this point I think they're insulting our intelligence.

@Extigex
That's what I thought too, but like I said, the thing that got me thinking about it was the whole Adventure Time bit. That's an American cartoon, if I'm not mistaken. Unless the VA just meant that they wouldn't do it because they didn't want to get banned in certain countries. On one hand, fair enough, on the other hand, maybe the people who enforce those laws should just take this cute little pony's advice…

And yeah, no real doubt that Hasbro won't touch that topic with a 10 foot pole, but a man can dream. There are plenty of people that don't subscribe to the glorious LyraBon master ship in spite of the face-smoosh. THOSE PEOPLE ARE IN DENIAL! I've said it before and I'll say it again, a face-smoosh is about as far as you can go with the hints while still keeping the soccor moms happy. If you aren't convinced now, I don't see what it would take short of a staff member confirming it over a social network account one fateful day.

Oh wow. <a href = "http://www.fimfiction.net/story/229453/all-the-mortal-remains">"All the Mortal Remains" reached 1000 upvotes eight days since it was published (which was on 12/6/14). I haven't read it yet, but I did put it in my "Read Later" list. I'll have to see how good it is and what it's about.

Also, this reminds me of last month when <a href = "http://www.fimfiction.net/story/223684/cards-against-equiniti">"Cards Against Equiniti" reached 1000 upvotes less than a week after it was published. The hype was so real back then; <a href = "http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/398615/wut">the author was really surprised when it reached 700+ upvotes three days after the fanfic was published. I had no idea that a "Cards Against Humanity" parody story would garner so many views, faves, and upvotes.

Yes,

@Luna
By coincidence, I just happened to see a short comic that directly tries to fill in the blanks of Luna's absence until Nightmare Night (as well as a number of other unexplained details).
The writing is a bit funky (non-native Engilsh-speaker) but the art is nice and it fits into this conversation too well to not mention.
Check it out
Use the links on that page to get to parts 2 & 3.

@Lyra/Bon

Yeah, as others have said, there is absolutely nothing legally stopping Hasbro from introducing a relationship like that, but the potential consequences for doing so are riskier than a large corporation like them is likely to want to take.
They would likely get hit with a bunch of bans and boycotts from those groups that oppose homosexual relationships and Hasbro has no interest in losing that potential revenue.
Staying uncontroversial and 'safe' is the best thing for their bottom line.

That said, the wheels of culture are clearly rotating that way, so perhaps we may someday see same-sex attraction become so accepted that it appears in children's programming with minimal backlash.

And speaking of VAs pushing their characters out of the closet:

Ashleigh Ball has posted AppleDash, so yeah!

Oh and as for Lyra and Bonbon specifically, as much as they have clearly become major vehicles for fandom shout-outs, I always feel like their relationship was there before we fans ever latched onto the idea.
The whole idea that they were a couple in the first place came from the fact that they were seen standing next to each other in so many scenes during the first season.
Combined with the multiple unique animations for Lyra and multiple speaking parts for Bonbon, it makes me think that someone (or someones) on the animation team was already treating them with special care from the beginning.
Likely just a layout artist who liked their designs and decided to use them in any scene they were assigned or something innocuous like that.
We picked up on their pattern and a feedback loop of recognition was created.
Pretty cool to see it reach this level.
Maybe someday Ponyville's #1 couple will get to be open about their love.

@TSG: Yeah, I think you've got a point with all of those.

@DP's Comic: Don't want to sound dismissive but I think I'll personally have to give it a miss, it looks a little long for me. Thank you for posting it though, looks like quality stuff and I'm sure a lot of people here will get a kick out of it.

@Gay stuff: Honestly I see the risk of getting banned in other countries but I don't think that would ever really stop them. I mean Russia and the Middle East already don't seem like good markets for Western animation.

The whole backlash thing seems to be what'll do it. It would happen if the support from being progressive about this outweighed the homophobic backlash AND HASBRO KNEW IT WOULD (that's a kicker, they can be pretty dense sometimes) but until both of those conditions are met it won't happen.

And yes I absolutely agree that those bigoted BASTARD governments should eat a dick. A long, hard dick full of cyanide and bleach. But let's share a thought for those aforementioned "soccer moms", shall we? These disgusting, homophobic BITCHES for whom their despicable ideas are seen as "their choice" or "their opinion" or anything other than the unacceptable, unforgivable BIGOTRY that it really is! Quite frankly they should have their kids taken away and given to people who don't have a moral code that got lost here on the way to Nazi Germany or Apartheid-era South Africa, meanwhile those despicable wastes of flesh can have some sense beaten into them until they realize that treated people as less than human purely because of their sexual orientation is nothing but fucking evil and wrong!

So mind if I divert it a little? I was thinking, I seem to be okay with both lesbian and straight Pony pairings (having examples of both that I "ship") but not really gay male ones.
Honestly I think it comes down to a couple things:
1) There need to be a number of straight pairings, simply to avoid ponies going extinct. Due to the wonky gender ratio, "losing" a couple of females wouldn't be too much of a danger to population growth, but "losing" a couple of males would be pretty devastating.
2) I just flat-out haven't seen any that seem to appeal to me enough to make me want to "ship" them, perhaps stemming from the lack of options.
Also, with some characters I don't want them involved in gay/lesbian stuff because that would be affirming stereotypes (Braeburn or Rainbow Dash, though I'm a little more lax with the latter). Some I'm a little hesitant about because they have canonical interests that make them AT LEAST bi if not outright straight (Rarity, Twilight, Big Mac, Braeburn again, perhaps Rainbow as well), though this one is easily surmountable (by saying they're bi), it still needs to be addressed. Others are married and thus can't be in a same-sex relationship without polygamy, infidelity or gender-bending, which are all blatantly wrong (The Cakes, Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, Twilight's parents, Rarity's parents). Finally some I don't want in any relationships for any reason ever because they're evil and don't deserve love (Queen Chrysalis, Sunset Shimmer, The Dazzlings) and some I'm a little hesitant to ship because I'm not comfortable with them in sexual situations (Cheese Sandwich, Derpy, Doctor Whooves).
Sometimes though I feel like a hypocrite for some of the exceptions I make (like instantly and unwaveringly pegging Braeburn as straight but being okay with some lesbian Rainbow Dash pairings)…
Any thoughts on this? Besides "Trying to defuse a tricky conversation with talk about shipping is like trying to put out a fire with Gasoline"?

I seem to be okay with both lesbian and straight Pony pairings but not really gay male ones.

^Yeah, that's kind of why it bothers me that I feel that way, really.

THIS… IS POST-AL AUTOPSY. The feature here in Pony General where Doc Lethal heads down to the KnowYourMorgue and dissects a post. Let's get the rib spreader out. Today on the cutting table is CrashGordon94's second most recent post.

…can’t be in a same-sex relationship without polygamy … or gender-bending, which are all blatantly wrong

What makes something like Rule 63 blatantly wrong?

…some I don’t want in any relationships for any reason ever because they’re evil and don’t deserve love (Sunset Shimmer)…

I don't know if you saw RR, but Sunset's pretty much deferred to the side of good. She acknowledged what she did was wrong, and helped defeat an even bigger evil. In my eyes, that redeems her.

…some I’m a little hesitant to ship because I’m not comfortable with them in sexual situations (Cheese Sandwich, Derpy, Doctor Whooves).

Okay, this one I can sort of agree with. Seeing R34 of Cheese is kind of unnerving for me because… well, he's really just pony Weird Al when you break it down. Derpy I don't have a problem with because she had to get Dinky from somewhere, right? (Okay, maybe she adopted her…) I'm also not too fond of seeing Discord in R34, but I am fine with him in a relationship (Dislestia shipper here).

This has been Post-al Autopsy. Bag it and tag it.

I've been reading a lot of random, weird, and silly stories lately. I think it's time to break that cycle and read some dramatic, sad, and/or heartwarming fanfics along with some funny ones once I clear the short one-shots out of the way. I already have <a href = "http://www.fimfiction.net/story/229453/all-the-mortal-remains">"All the Mortal Remains" in my "Read Later" list. I'm also considering reading the following:

<a href = "http://www.fimfiction.net/story/25125/the-keepers-of-discord">"The Keepers of Discord"
<a href = "http://www.fimfiction.net/story/99216/forever-young">"Forever Young"
<a href = "http://www.fimfiction.net/story/90647/melt">"Melt" (and its sequel)
<a href = "http://www.fimfiction.net/story/118430/how-to-preen-your-chicken">"How to Preen Your Chicken"

@Jimmy:

What makes something like Rule 63 blatantly wrong?

That's the thing, I draw a distinction between the two. Rule 63 like "this is an alternate universe, and Shining Armor is a chick in this one", that's fine by me. No problem at all.
Gender-bending like "Cadance fires a beam of magic at Shiny that turns him into a girl", that's what bothers me.

I don’t know if you saw RR, but Sunset’s pretty much deferred to the side of good. She acknowledged what she did was wrong, and helped defeat an even bigger evil. In my eyes, that redeems her.

I haven't yet, but I know about this and it really makes me mad that they did this instead of just like, blowing her up or something at the end of Equestria Girls 1. Just seems so weak and arbitrary "she's totes a goodie now guise!", bleh…

Derpy I don’t have a problem with because she had to get Dinky from somewhere, right? (Okay, maybe she adopted her…)

Partially because of this, I'm actually totally fine with "Doctorderpy" as a pairing. But really mostly because it does seem to work and have the sort of wholesome family thing going on that fits her.

But when it's something like Rainbow Dash eating Derpy's "special muffin", then I'm all the way back to square one, sitting there trying not to scream.

On an unrelated note:

… CrashGordon, you do realise that quite a few of the Mane 6's major opponents have been redeemed? Indeed, it seems to be a mark of an uitterly evil villain when they don't bother. Sunset Shimmer might have gone bad, but what had she actually done? split up some friendships and accidentally turned into a flaming demon. The simple fact is, the only villains that are killed n MLP are the irredeemable ones- like Sombra. Sunset Shimmer was more like Diamond Tiara- a pain in the ass, but do her actions warrant the death penalty? nope. hence, she could be redeemed.

Yeah, I know that they've done it a lot, it really bothers me actually.
Only one I know of that I can really buy is Trixie, because she was in the right to begin with and her subsequent batshit insanity is from the aftermath of what happened to her, making her genuinely sympathetic instead of this phoney BS most of the converted villains get (Sunset's at the end of EQG1 sounds particularly fuckin' woeful).
I'm just really sick of all this trying to be like "SHE'Z REALLY SORRI GUISE!1" and redeeming them, just seems so fake and forced compared to just doing them in.
Wow, I seem to be particularly pissed off right now, I guess I'm still steamed from some unrelated stuff earlier on today.

On a mostly unrelated note, some selections from the "pure unfiltered evil" tag on Derpibooru:

@ CrashGordon:

Don't forget these:

Any pic related to Twilight Sparkle knocking down a glass of chocolate milk is considered "pure unfiltered evil":

<img src = "https://derpicdn.net/img/2014/10/9/739230/medium.jpg">

<img src = "https://derpicdn.net/img/2014/8/18/702604/medium.png">

Stunthead said:

…as the whole Adventure Time bit…

If I'm not mistaken, it's even bigger than the VAs. There was a pretty big shitstorm a while back when Frederator Studios released a music video! or something that had some slash in it. Cartoon Network had absolutely nothing to do with them nuking it from orbit and one of the producers getting fired.

The moral of the story is leave the shipping to the fandom and keep the clusterfuck out of canon. Something I wholeheartedly agree with.

Deadparrot said:

The whole idea that they were a couple in the first place came from the fact that they were seen standing next to each other in so many scenes during the first season.

Am I the only one who finds that ridiculous? There are hundreds of reasons why two people would happen to be near each other--especially when they live in a small town--that has nothing to do with the sexuals. Also, if memory serves correct, the reason the BPs are usually "paired" is because their color schemes are good contrasts to each other.

Crashgordon said:

Honestly I see the risk of getting banned in other countries but I don’t think that would ever really stop them. I mean Russia and the Middle East already don’t seem like good markets for Western animation.

Hasbro gets a fixed amount of money for overseas distrubtion. That is, the Russian dubbing company pays Hasbro the same regardless as to what the ratings are, so it's always advantageous for Hasbro to license regardless of the market conditions. Making money with zero overhead is always good corporate policy.

It would happen if the support from being progressive about this outweighed the homophobic backlash AND HASBRO KNEW IT WOULD (that’s a kicker, they can be pretty dense sometimes) but until both of those conditions are met it won’t happen.

Large corporations are like freight trains--they're slow, unwieldy, hard to change course, and when they crash, it's a huge clusterfuck. I don't think we'll see canon slash for ponies for at least a couple more decades. It doesn't matter if they know the backlash will be minimal. They do what they know works (read: makes money) and won't change that outlook unless by necessity. It's the corporate way. It took them thirty years after feminism was in vogue to make a non-pink Easy Bake Oven. It's going to take a lot longer for something as controversial as slash.

There need to be a number of straight pairings…

In a show like MLP, I think there needs to be none. No shipping of any kind, whether straight, gay, crooked, hexagonal, etc. All it would do is ruin the show. They have a hard enough time as it is cramming plots for seven characters into a season, plus any story arcs, plus Hasbro toyset requirements, plus secondary characters, plus new characters, plus world building. It would just waste time better spent on episode plots or world building. In addition, I don't think the writers could pull it off. If they can't even do AJ's parents, how are they going to handle a serious relationship? It would have to be dumbed down and diluted so much for the little girls, it would make it like watered down coco cola--nasty, and unfulfilling.

That's not even getting into the fandom. Avatar had its famous long running shipping war. Just imagine canon pony shipping? You don't really have to. The shitstorm was so bad when Ashleigh Ball posted that pic Deadparrot showed,EQD had to lock its comment section. Then there was the wave of attack fics against users that was posted on Fimfiction when people voiced their opinion of the pic.

Leave canon out of shipping. It'll only spell trouble.

sstabeler said:

…the only villains that are killed n MLP are the irredeemable ones…

Sombra's actually the only one that's died. Chrysalis and the Nightmare are still around (if you want to imply the comics are canon) and Tirek's still alive (just locked up).

but do her actions warrant the death penalty?

She did commit high treason. Back in the days of absolute monarchies (like Equestria), that would get you hanged until near death, castrated, disemboweled, dragged across town, beheaded, your body chopped into four pieces, and your head put on a stick atop the country's busiest bridge.

@BlueParrot: Indeed, I was contemplating posting a chocolate milk pic.

@TSG: I think you're completely misunderstanding my point about minimum straight pairings. What I'm saying is that there needs to be dudes knocking up chicks in order to continue the species. That's it. Really. That's all of it.
No need to show it on the show unless you cover relationships and as far as needing to show it, they've already met their "quota" if there was one because we've seen couples, including ones with kids. But it's the elephant in the room for anything that DOES go in-depth with character relationships and romance.

@CrashGordon94

What I’m saying is that there needs to be dudes knocking up chicks in order to continue the species.

Well… we have the Baby Cakes (Season 2 episode 13 so you haven't watched it yet, right?)

and Princess Skyla sealed away in Hasbro's toy limbo

^Yes, indeed we do.
In fact, I think I mentioned them, or at least their concept, and in passing.

That latest Pony Simulator is hilarious as hell. XD

I love how Discord completely takes over in the simulator and does the simulator on the main human character.

New simulator? Where?

<a href = "https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/881360-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic">Here. (KYM link)

<a href = "http://doublewbrothers.deviantart.com/art/Discord-Simulator-500598260">And here. (Original DA link)

Have fun!

Hmm, lets see what we got here. Muffin, Derpy, Shybetes, more muffin, Lesbian love, pony shaming, just like the 90% of the porn sites random people show to me, and oh, something about a simulator. I would like to know what is that about but since I Am Bread, I can't even look at 'em.

Blue Yoshi said:

And here. (Original DA link)

DeviantART? For a pony simulator? What?

clicks link

Oh, it's a comic thing. I thought you meant a pony thread simulator.

What I’m saying is that there needs to be dudes knocking up chicks in order to continue the species.

…As far as we KNOW.

In theory, much like how science is figuring out how to fuse two girl's eggs together to form a child, there may be in the MLP verse a method of same sex reproduction (most likely between two females).

While I play around with various thoughts on some "optimal" ways that it might be possible with various forms of pony magic… Generally I've figured all two ponies would need to be certain of a child despite a lack of fluid exchange, is for one to instead pour their magic into the other.

After all… A pony's magic likely contains most if not all of the information about the ponies using it. So if you can unleash it, its doable.

For unicorns this seems easy enough. But for the others (E.G. Earth Ponies and Pegasi), I imagine its not too hard, but its probably going to be awkward. Presumably all one has to do is stimulate whatever part of them generates the ether for their own unique magic fueled abilities.

Its probably a coin toss as to whether stimulating a Pegasi's magic organ requires essentially stimulating their wings to stimulate the organ itself by proxy… Or if straight up sex is enough.

Well… Since I'm doing some theorizing… I may as well mention a moment I had while playing an MMO that ended with me referencing some "fashion theory" I had for ponies. As well as some other related stuff

So there was this one race in the MMO which is basically cat people… And one person was asking how they get their glasses to stay on their head since their ears are in the wrong spot, and glasses are made to rest on one's ears… A similar case can be made for ponies, I'm sure.

My answer was basically that it could use a similar method as to how stockings stay up: just use a bit of silicon or rubber at the tips of the glasses arms, the friction should keep them up just from that. (Though one part I could have mentioned but didn't would be to increase the grip by having the arms use a bit of spring to keep it pressed against the head.)

After a bit of disbelief at my answer, I went and said "I spent a month trying to figure out how to make bras work on a pony. This was an easy answer compared to that."

Though considering my idea for how pony bras work borrows again from stockings via "Garter-belts" using a bit of elastic straps that clip onto the rest of the underwear… I guess that answer wasn't that hard either.

… If there's one thing that was actually harder to make work… It was the "shirt and pants" look. Since I find that the "pant boob" look doesn't look right, and I found myself worrying that if the shirt ever got un-tucked from the pants, than having the pants end before the teats would result in a "wardrobe malfunction".

So far, my best solution for that problem is essentially a "one piece" style thing designed with four leg holes… It would be rather hard to explain the particulars in words, so maybe I'll draw a reasonable approximation later.

My dream has come true. I have found two (old) groups on FimFiction that has "Pony does X" titles in the fanfics. Now I know what to read during winter vacation.

<a href = "http://www.fimfiction.net/group/198269/folder/7464/1/pony-verbs-a-noun">Pony Verbs a Noun
<a href = "http://www.fimfiction.net/group/1400/folder/12380/1/main">Ponies Doing Things

Um… Is this still a thing? I was super hyped about it but I haven't heard a damn thing about it since its first announcement. Do you folks have more info?

@Lunar Protege
The fuck did I just read, dude? I'm voting on the regular 1+1 method, or the god-method.

@Lunar:
No offence dude, but it seems a little convoluted, probably best to just stick to the normal method.

@Kori:
Pony fine-art parody time?

^I just wanted to post a ref, but fine, ART WAR! I will be gentle and I let someone else post more of these.

The fuck did I just read, dude? I’m voting on the regular 1+1 method, or the god-method.

No offence dude, but it seems a little convoluted, probably best to just stick to the normal method.

I take no offense from either of these statements. Mainly cause I seem to like the convoluted and weird.

The alternative is to assume that all the "Magical Lesbian Spawn" fics are pulling such a fact out of their ass.

Then again… Both my explanation and half of theirs is basically "because magic". The only difference is that I got long winded and scientific about it.

To be honest… I'm not the first one to use my explanation. I know one game that uses a similar explanation for how they create "star children", which are basically children born of magic.
That game is called "Conception 2". Which I should note… That its rated 18+.

Funnily enough… They actually do allow you to do this "Star Children" ritual in "gay option" style between two guys… But only with other players, rather than the in-game characters.

…

IN ANY CASE!

I just find the "Magical Lesbian Spawn" tag just the best place for me to get my squee fix.

hi

Art:

(I will never not post this. Now appreciate her beauty, heretics.)

Hello. haven't heard from you in a while

Could it be possible that one stallion can have many mares and that's what keeps the pony population from dropping?

@Lunar Protege: For whatever reason, that Flutterdash baby reminds me of G3 Rainbow Dash…

@Disturbed B: No, because that would be polygamy, perhaps even infidelity and bigamy if he already hooked up with one before sleeping with any of the others…

Beutifull!~ I just love it, just like the fine-art in all of it's aspect.

@CrashGordon
Actually in real life that's what the breeders do, but only if the other stallions are weak, ill, etc.

Maybe for real horses, but MLP Ponies are more like human beings (being sapient and such), so I'm talking about them like so.

hmm, if they are more human like then maybe the most of the stallions are just in another country fighting for….umm, harmony?