My Little Pony |OT| An adventure that never will end

fony · Sep 2, 2018

SigmasonicX said:
Quoting this from the season 8 thread if you missed it.
SigmasonicX said: ↑

Alright, so EtcetEra Hangouts is being removed, and instead there will be an Entertainment board, with Hangouts threads being split up between EtcetEra and Entertainment. This means that both this thread and the community thread will be on the same board, which is a bit awkward. For now, the best route is probably to continue to split discussion as is. That is to say, the community thread will include discussion of community events like streams and RPs along with fanfic discussion, and the season 8 OT will discuss the episodes, comics, and non-fanfic fan content. When season 9 comes around, we'll try a combined thread that covers all topics, assuming this board change lasts.

I'd like some feedback about that, actually. Would you guys be upset about fanfic discussion and episode discussion in the same thread? What about discussion of things we stream, which include a lot of non-Pony stuff?

I'm slightly in favour of keeping two separate threads. But then again, I don't browse by forums anyway.

SigmasonicX said:
Well this is interesting. MrNumbers is converting The Mare Who Once Lived on the Moon into original fiction, and in the process, changed the genders of some characters. He talks about that in the link. I was unconvinced about the changes going in, but once he describes them, they do make sense. I am curious about how he'll handle the things that weren't explored much because they relied on familiarity with the show. I particularly wonder how he'll handle the Elements of Harmony in this version.

Huh. I'm surprised at both the conversion and gender swaps. Thinking about it, re-picking genders does make sense if its not FiM related anymore.

SigmasonicX · Sep 3, 2018

Well, that entire discussion is moot now.

About halfway through Past Sins, getting through chapter 11. Here's what we said in the chat. Note that Sylvee spoils later events if you care. This goes on for a bit, so I'll have to split it.

SigmasonicXToday at 8:57 AM
Alright, going to actually read Past Sins now https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jTrcxbye9NPKHn9Iqp0AVHwdb9a11WVpxuudQZKMqkk/edit?usp=sharing
Reading the season 1 version
Surprised the cover artist is still around https://www.deviantart.com/dreatos
SigmasonicXToday at 9:03 AM
Didn't expect Twilight to be captured in the prologue. Not much of a prologue, then, really.
Ogodei-KhanToday at 9:06 AM
Twilight's a Princess now. All Princesses must be captured or you don't have a story
SigmasonicXToday at 9:06 AM
Season 1, though
I find myself reading the villain's lines in Chancellor Neighsay's voice.
Celestia taking initiative? Now I know this is a season one fic!
CappyToday at 9:20 AM
v_v
SigmasonicXToday at 9:32 AM
It's interesting to see how the characters and narration feel the need to tie everything that happens back to events in the show. Rarity compares Twilight getting captured to the Diamond Dogs incident. The narration compares Twilight's locator spell to Rarity's gem finding spell.
Twilight going back into the Everfree Forest just a day after cultists captured her and took her there, and after Spike brings up the cockatrice turning her into stone in "Stare Master", just to retrieve some books, is some season 1 fandom Twilight.
Almost instantly, Twilight's mind began to jump to the worst case scenario, much like it had done when Fluttershy had taken Celestia's pet, Philomena.
Oh come on!
Philomena isn't even relevant here!
Reminded of the flavor text of this card https://img.scryfall.com/cards/large/en/isd/127.jpg?1517813031

What would have been a nice and pithy line is ruined by over explaining.
SigmasonicXToday at 10:20 AM
Alright, with Era back, taking a break from the fic... before I even finish chapter one.

[...]

SigmasonicXToday at 11:46 AM
Alright, now that that's done with, back to Past Sins.
Tried to bump the thread as early as possible to see if it could catch any post-reorg-unreorg attention
Weird, there are links to YouTube videos in this story
CappyToday at 11:52 AM
:o
family guy-esque cutaways?
SigmasonicXToday at 11:53 AM
It was to explain a reference to rubbing on the rims of wine glasses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwCR1FpbnhQ
CappyToday at 11:53 AM
:o non-pony cutaways
SigmasonicXToday at 11:53 AM
Which is... why?
It wasn't even relevant
CappyToday at 11:54 AM

SigmasonicXToday at 11:55 AM
Finished chapter 1. Twilight is acting like an idiot and not telling Celestia about Nyx, meaning there's going to be a part where this all blows up in her face.
Story isn't bad or anything so far, to be clear.
UberTagToday at 11:55 AM
Twilight acting like an idiot... are you sure one of the show writers didn't pen this?
SigmasonicXToday at 11:55 AM
Though I'm being lenient on stuff I can identify as "early fandom mistakes"
CappyToday at 11:57 AM
Ohhh slam
SigmasonicXToday at 11:57 AM
Well, going out of her way to hide that she found a possible reincarnation of Nightmare Moon because she thinks Celestia will destroy her is a bit OOC even for panicky Twilight
CappyToday at 11:57 AM
Uber with the dunkington!
SigmasonicXToday at 12:05 PM
In the story, Twilight decides to claim Nyx is her cousin, reasoning that she doesn't talk about her family so no one would know better. Funny how this turned out to be canon in the season 2 finale.
SylveeToday at 12:51 PM
All I know about that story is that Nyx is a meme on /mlp/ for shitty ocs
SigmasonicXToday at 12:52 PM
Halfway through chapter two, she's just "generic filly".
But I know more stuff happens with her

[...]

SigmasonicXToday at 12:54 PM
Rarity went from frightened of Nyx to being obsessed with her design and wanting her to go out with her Nightmare Moon eyes undisguised pretty quickly
SylveeToday at 1:01 PM
That story cover art is pretty edgy
SigmasonicXToday at 1:04 PM
It's a story for ADULTS after all
SylveeToday at 1:06 PM
I can't get over Twilight being hanged
SigmasonicXToday at 1:06 PM
One of the GAF posts discussing the story mentions the author said that's figurative and won't actually happen.
So it's a common thing people noticed back then
SylveeToday at 1:09 PM
ummmmmmmm, I don't know if I should say something. I read through the synopsis
SigmasonicXToday at 1:10 PM
I don't care about the story, so spoil away
SylveeToday at 1:10 PM
That definitely happens
All the stuff on the cover is from the book
SigmasonicXToday at 1:10 PM
So the author lied then
CappyToday at 1:12 PM
rip twilight
SylveeToday at 1:12 PM
I don't know how the book actually reads
But the plot sounds like pretty bad fanfiction
SigmasonicXToday at 1:13 PM
Just introduced the mulberry teacher in chapter 3(edited)
SylveeToday at 1:14 PM
What's funny is that the author apparently tried to rewrite some of the story in response to people complaining about Nyx being a Mary Sue
And what they did was have some of the students in the school hate her for being so amazing at stuff instead of all of them liking her
CappyToday at 1:14 PM

?
SigmasonicXToday at 1:14 PM
Yes, that's why I'm reading the older version
SylveeToday at 1:14 PM
C- you tried
SigmasonicXToday at 1:15 PM
It's

CappyToday at 1:16 PM
why does "beetle" look like a ladybug
hmm i guess they are beetles
SigmasonicXToday at 1:16 PM
Ladybugs are yeah
SylveeToday at 1:17 PM
I think the number one sign you have an overpowered villain is if the Elements of Harmony don't work on them
Because in the show the Elements/Tree are basically the strongest thing in existance
UberTagToday at 1:19 PM
(Starlight Glimmer excepted.)
SylveeToday at 1:19 PM
Starlight didn't defeat the literal elements of harmony though, she just beat the Mane 6
CappyToday at 1:19 PM
what's the tier list
SigmasonicXToday at 1:21 PM
Mole at top
SylveeToday at 1:21 PM
Something like:
Tree/Elements
Full power Tirek
Twilight with Alicorn Magic
Discord
Love
Sombrero
Chrysalis after sexing up Shining
Fuck
Forgot the mole
CappyToday at 1:21 PM
Aya?
SigmasonicXToday at 1:21 PM
He wouldn't get that reference

Giant moles are top tier, moles that are anime girls are worse than trash
UberTagToday at 1:23 PM
http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/9500000/Aya-and-Rei-super-gals-9597033-640-489.jpg

CappyToday at 1:23 PM
what about the vines
and the windigoes
i need match ups
UberTagToday at 1:24 PM
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uCJYhmVomjw/hqdefault.jpg

CappyToday at 1:24 PM
vines vs tree/elements is a clean 10 -0(edited)
SigmasonicXToday at 1:26 PM
Moles don't have big eyes
Failure even as a mole
CappyToday at 1:27 PM
v_v
too much bully of aya
she has it bad enough already
SigmasonicXToday at 1:27 PM
I think we scared away Sylvee
CappyToday at 1:28 PM
Anime vs Sylvee is also a clean 10 - 0
UberTagToday at 1:28 PM
That's an ironclad rule.

1
SylveeToday at 1:31 PM
I was reading stuff
But the anime didn't help
CappyToday at 1:32 PM
the skurinu
SigmasonicXToday at 1:32 PM
In the story, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are being bullies. Back in the days when they were the least redeemable characters.
CappyToday at 1:33 PM
now they're the least existing characters >_>
SigmasonicXToday at 1:33 PM
And now they just came over to play with Nyx, Twilight lets them go, and Nyx doesn't think to tell her they were bullies despite having no reason to hide it
UberTagToday at 1:37 PM
Starlight Glimmer not taking Diamond Tiara under her wing is a missed opportunity. Especially after they made it clear that DT has a crone for a mother.
SigmasonicXToday at 1:37 PM
Now Twilight is reminded they are bullies and remembers them making fun of Apple Bloom in "Call of the Cutie". Funny how the actual show just has Applejack be oblivious about this despite being present for that too.
In "Family Appreciation Day"
CappyToday at 1:38 PM
the show is kind of super terrible about that sort of continuity >_>
SigmasonicXToday at 1:39 PM
While reports of such things are rare, exceptionally magically inclined unicorns were said to be able to perform a rage shift where their anger feeds into their magic and causes a physical change to their bodies. Twilight had experienced one such rage shift when she was trying to understand Pinkie Pie's sixth sense, and today would be the second occurrence.

Mane and tail set ablaze by her rage-driven magic, eyes glowing red, and her coat a bright, angry white, Twilight glared down at Diamond Tiara like she was a pony of the apocalypse.
God, I forgot how so many stories tried to canonize Twilight's Rapidash form from "Feeling Pinkie Keen"
SylveeToday at 1:46 PM
The bigger problem with DT is that they reformed her purely so the CMC did something important enough to warrant them earning their cutie marks, and the writers had no plans/clue what to do with DT after that.
Most of their other reformed villains have gone better
Outside of some of the non-movie EQG villains
SigmasonicXToday at 1:49 PM
I'm sure we'll see a lot more of Vignette Valencia.
... Wait, did she even get reformed?
SylveeToday at 1:50 PM
They kept it ambiguous so little girls can play her as either a face or a heel

UberTagToday at 1:52 PM
https://derpicdn.net/img/2016/3/5/1102568/large.png

SigmasonicXToday at 1:57 PM
Still, as the filly looked up at the long-forgotten castle, something began to bubble up in her mind. Nyx tried to force whatever it was away, tried to clear her head, but the blurry images and voices persisted, playing out inside her head.

"Oh, my beloved subjects. It's been so long since I've seen your precious little sun-loving faces."

"What did you do with our Princess?"

"Whoa there, Nelly!"

"Why, am I not royal enough for you? Don't you know who I am?"

"Ooh! Ooh! More guessing games! Um... Hokey Smokes! How about Queen Meanie? No! Black Snooty, Black Snooty!"
Another pet peeve, when referring back to previous events, including the jokes

SylveeToday at 2:02 PM
The jokes are essential to the scene
ESSENTIAL
TrigonometrizeToday at 2:02 PM
QUEEN

MEANIE
SigmasonicXToday at 2:04 PM
Also annoyed that Applejack's line is there too.
SylveeToday at 2:05 PM
To be fair that whole scene has a lot of tension-breaking stuff in it
Because it was the first episode so they still had the kiddie gloves on
SigmasonicXToday at 2:05 PM
It was the author's choice to include all that, but yeah, first episodes
"And I know your mother's got to be worried too, Scootaloo," Twilight remarked.

"Oh no! My mom is going to flip!" the orange pegasus realized.

"Hey, don't worry, Kid; I've got you covered," Rainbow Dash said, giving Scootaloo a noogie. "I know your mom. How about I fly you home and explain everything?"
In the anti-Scootabuse phase, I see
This is clearly meant to push back on the orphan Scootaloo that's hated by Rainbow stuff
UberTagToday at 2:08 PM

I like this alternate universe where I have parents. Can I visit?
SigmasonicXToday at 2:11 PM
"That's her, Daddy!"

Twilight's eyes hardened as she saw Diamond Tiara standing on her doorstep, this time accompanied by an older stallion. He had a grayish-violet mane and a complementary grayed red tone coat. He was substantially sized, though not as large as Big Macintosh. He had a cutie mark of a jeweled necklace and jeweler's eyepiece. His azure eyes were turned down in a hard glare set directly upon Twilight.
Oh shit, Buff Filthy Rich

Oh shit
Below the portrait, set into the picture's polished wooden frame, was an engraved plaque.

Sir Spell Nexus
Headmaster of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns
The villain is in education too!
I was right to imagine Neighsay's voice for him.
Another link, this time to show the design of a random character http://images.wikia.com/mlp/images/e/ef/Bastion_Yorsets.png
What an interesting design!
(The image is gone)
SylveeToday at 2:38 PM
Joke's on you, that's his Cutie Mark
CappyToday at 2:52 PM
wait
a minute
SylveeToday at 2:55 PM
I'm waiting
CappyToday at 2:56 PM
oh sorry i was getting a drink
this is me being super pedantic (as usual)
buuuuuuuuuuuuuut
starlight said that trixie's better than twilight at "magic" but didn't twilight beat her using that
SylveeToday at 2:57 PM
Magic Duel was a mistake
SigmasonicXToday at 2:57 PM
Well Twilight doesn't make it her day job
CappyToday at 2:58 PM
i actually really dislike Magic Duel too >_>
i would've preferred a Moondancer-level treatment of Trixie rather than the outsized- magic-villain-obsessed-with-Twilight treatment(edited)
SylveeToday at 2:59 PM
Trixie in Magic Duel doesn't really feel like Trixie, it's generic evil villain with a hate boner for Twilight(edited)
TrigonometrizeToday at 3:02 PM
ALICORN

(plot device)

AMULET
UberTagToday at 3:03 PM
The amulet was the villain in Magic Duel.
SigmasonicXToday at 3:04 PM
Most of Past Sins chapter 6 is just the pilot recreated by fillies in a play
Pretty boring
UberTagToday at 3:04 PM
Just like the book in Inspiration Manifestation is the villain and not Rarity.
And how like none of the Equestria Girls villains are actually villains because they're merely possessed by similarly evil artifacts.
SigmasonicXToday at 3:05 PM
Except the Dazzlings
UberTagToday at 3:05 PM
Yeah, they're the exception.
SigmasonicXToday at 3:05 PM
Unless their gems turn out to be evil
UberTagToday at 3:05 PM
Starlight Glimmer was a legitimate villain, though. No evil artifact horseshit there.

I'm just that special.
CappyToday at 3:07 PM
Sunset was evil on her own too
UberTagToday at 3:07 PM
This is true.
Or at least the original Sunset was before they retconned her into this other character who feels completely separate and distinct from her.

Evil pony Sunset actually still exists. She swapped out with Dougworld Sunset when nobody was looking and infused her with alternate memories.
SigmasonicXToday at 3:26 PM
Diamond Tiara's father is part of the evil cult
Taking up the orange juice glass, Nexus titled the glass up to his mouth. With a few swift gulps he emptied the glass, shaking his head after he had finished. The perfectly chilled juice was delicious, but when drunk quickly it gave the unicorn a brain freeze.

The momentary discomfort, however, helped focus Nexus's mind. There was now a need for both subtlety and haste to ascertain who the filly truly was before Celestia could act in a way to make such an investigation impossible.
Can have blood rituals, but NO ALCOHOL
So much of this story is so... menial.
SylveeToday at 3:36 PM
Isn't it supposed to be slice of life combined with epic stuff?
SigmasonicXToday at 3:36 PM
Yeah, but it's like setting up a fair and nothing interesting happening.
"Yeah! Turn Fluttershy into a tree."

"W-why would you want me to be a tree?" asked Fluttershy, looking incredulously at Pinkie Pie for her incredible suggestion.

"Because, this one time, on a train, I got talking with Rainbow Dash and Twilight, and, for some strange reason, Rainbow thought you were a tree, even though you obviously aren't. But then you said you'd like to be a tree," Pinkie Pie answered Fluttershy before turning her excited blue eyes back to Nyx. "So can you turn her into a tree? "
MEMES
UberTagToday at 3:37 PM
This is just horrid writing.
Why are you subjecting yourself to this, Sigma?
SigmasonicXToday at 3:38 PM
It's one of the most important brony documents and it's still very popular, tho
UberTagToday at 3:39 PM
So is Fifty Shades of Grey.
My point stands.
SylveeToday at 3:40 PM
I mean Suicide Squad is basically required media
SigmasonicXToday at 3:48 PM
"Twilight, you okay? Yer lookin' mighty pale," said a deep voice on Twilight's right.

The unicorn was snapped out of her spiraling thoughts as she looked up at Big Macintosh, who had a moment free from customers to check on the pair.

"Oh... yes, sorry... I'm fine. Just... just a little light-headed."

"You want another apple?" he offered kindly.

"No, no thank you, Big Macintosh," the unicorn replied. "Uh, have they started the afternoon activities?"

"Don't think so, but I reckon it's going to start right soon," Big Macintosh answered, the straw in his mouth twitching as he spoke. "Saw Applejack and Apple Bloom headin' in that direction."
Talking Big Mac
Hmm, pretty sure he was already established as not talkative in season 1.
He only ever talked much in "Applebuck Season"
Maybe like with Scootaloo, this is intentionally pushing back against a common fan assumption
Pinkie Pie's frown quickly turned back to a sinister smile, her turning her head in another direction. "Don't worry about it, Dashie; now the spy is trying to run away from me again, and nopony can run away from Pinkamena Diane Pie."
MEMES
SylveeToday at 3:57 PM
Pinkamena wasn't a psycho killer, daily reminder
SigmasonicXToday at 4:02 PM
Alright, first OP Nyx moment. She's playing tug of war with the CMC against four older colts. They pull in the CMC, but then Nyx uses magic to cast multiple spells quickly in a row and defeat them.
SylveeToday at 4:03 PM
That one specifically was apparently edited later to make some people frustrated at her
Although I feel like the better solution would be to remove it altogether
SigmasonicXToday at 4:04 PM
We already saw in "Fall Weather Friends" that ANYTHING GOES in pony tug of war.
Only Applejack was upset about Rainbow flying
Oh shit, the villain knows The Stare.
And it's definitely The Stare, because Fluttershy made sure to give a detailed explanation to all readers that haven't bothered to watch "Stare Master" I guess
CappyToday at 4:08 PM
this author doesn't really know their audience, i guess >_>
SylveeToday at 4:08 PM
I think they just REALLY wanted to make sure everyone got the reference
CappyToday at 4:09 PM
it's not fun if you explain it
SylveeToday at 4:09 PM
ur not fun

CappyToday at 4:09 PM
nyxnyxnyx
SylveeToday at 4:12 PM
Oh, Sigma. Is the main character actually a bug thingy that can turn invisible?
CappyToday at 4:12 PM
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ;-;
i guess technically they would have a bug thingy
as a devotee
SigmasonicXToday at 4:16 PM
"Learning from experience," Rarity offered softly, staring into her own cup of tea. "Taking care of Sweetie Bell the past several years and running my boutique without any help, it's forced me to learn many things the hard way... at least since mother and father..." Rarity trailed off, the end of the sentence dying in her throat.
RIP Raridad and Rarimom
UberTagToday at 4:17 PM
Sweetie Belle has no parents. Scootaloo has parents. What a weird alternate universe this is.
SigmasonicXToday at 4:17 PM
So to recap, yeah that
UberTagToday at 4:17 PM

I have an 'E' at the end of my name. This is clearly an imposter.(edited)
SigmasonicXToday at 4:18 PM
TBF, it did take a while for people to get consistent about that, I remember
It's spelled with an E later in the chapter
I wouldn't be too hard on the typos, since those presumably did get fixed in the 2012 revision
Apple Bloom leaned in, lowering her voice. "Tell us something you've never told any other pony."

Nyx blinked in confusion and titled her head to one side. "Like what?"

Apple Bloom shrugged. "Anything."

"Yeah, just make it something cool," Scootaloo added.

"Well, I can't really think of anything to tell you, but..." Nyx fell silent and glanced back at her vest. "There... is something I can show you."
Jesus Nyx that's really all it takes?
(She's been hiding her alicorn wings)
SylveeToday at 4:27 PM
She showed Twilight
Fricken cheater
SigmasonicXToday at 4:42 PM
Great idea Celestia, follow this guy's advice to bring Nyx to him to cast a spell to supposedly look into her mind without telling Twilight what you're doing.
SylveeToday at 4:43 PM
Typical Student Teacher relationship
SigmasonicXToday at 4:45 PM
Alright, chapter 10, this is supposed to be when shit gets real™
Celestia actually does tell Twilight what she's doing TBF
Though she still thinks it's a good idea to leave Nyx alone with Evil Pony.
SigmasonicXToday at 5:02 PM
And she handles taking Nyx away from Twilight in the worst possible way
With Nyx bawling and crying for mommy (Twilight). You'd think not upsetting the potential force of evil would be a priority.
Nexus offered no words in reply as they moved across the hall. In the center of the grand space the ritual had been constructed. Four stone columns stood in a perfect square around a central point, torches burning at their tops. Unicorns that Nexus had brought in to aid with the spell, secret members of the Children of Nightmare, fed their magic into the columns, causing them to glow with ancient runes.

"How does this spell work, Nexus?" Princess Celestia asked quietly as she watched her guards place Nyx in the center of the elaborate ritual, placing her gingerly on a single, soft pillow.

"You need not concern yourself with the mechanics," Nexus assured the princess. "The spell will handle all the work. All you need to do is stand in the center and feed your magic into the columns. When the spell has enough built up energy, it will activate."

Princess Celestia nodded, striding into the center of the ritual while all the unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies that were working moved to the sides of the room. Nexus was the only one that stayed close, standing just on the edge of the spell circle as he watched her with slate gray eyes.
So Nexus's justification to Celestia was that this was a zebra spell.
And Celestia doesn't find any of the actual spell's set up odd.
SylveeToday at 5:05 PM
"How does this spell work?"
"You don't need to know"
I trust the guy don't you?
SigmasonicXToday at 5:06 PM

Among those who had been waiting in Ponyville were Night Wind, Gray Gale, and Stonewall, Nexus's lieutenants. Joined by them was another in armor, a thin earth pony with a regal blue mane and a gently turned mustache. To the locals, he was known as Horte Cuisine, a waiter at a local restaurant. However, to the Children of Nightmare and Pinkie Pie, he had been a spy at Nyx's school.
Now the author went too far! He made the random waiter evil!
From "The Ticket Master"
Wait, Nexus went out of his way to get Nyx away from Twilight, but he ends up teleporting back to Ponyville anyway?
Nightmare Moon is revived through Nyx and her very first act is to get revenge against Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon
I suppose I'll stop after chapter 11.
Princess Celestia thought back, and began to scrutinize every recent memory she had of Spell Nexus. Surely there had to have been a clue. Surely there had to been a sign of his treachery, yet she could not remember a single instance of doubt. Spell Nexus betraying her would be like Twilight Sparkle betraying her; it just didn't seem possible.
AS TRUSTWORTHY AS TWILIGHT
SylveeToday at 5:21 PM
Ok, who's more trustworthy
Twilight or Applejack?

Leaving on that cliffhanger question.

SigmasonicX · Sep 3, 2018

SigmasonicXToday at 5:22 PM
I suppose I'd trust Applejack to tell me that something happened, but not to actually get something done.
SylveeToday at 5:22 PM
Bro what if you had low water pressure?
SigmasonicXToday at 5:23 PM
Twilight would have just magicked the water into submission
SylveeToday at 5:23 PM
Twilight would have had to read books to figure out what to do, AJ already knows
SigmasonicXToday at 5:25 PM
Plus as we can see, Twilight would kidnap my child and use them to revive an ancient villain, so AJ probably wins in the end.
SylveeToday at 5:26 PM
(Pretend AJ winking at the end of Grannies Gone Wild is here)
AJ always wins
You're reading the original version right? So Celestia was trying to kill Nyx or whatever?
SigmasonicXToday at 5:31 PM
She said that if she was still Nightmare Moon, she strongly implied she'd kill her, yes.
SylveeToday at 5:32 PM
Hope she packed some Sentry Wards, heyo. Up top Cappy(edited)
SigmasonicXToday at 5:32 PM
What was changed about that in the revision?
SylveeToday at 5:32 PM
She says that it's alright if she is but wants to test it anyway
So basically there's no real point in testing it in the revised version
But it still happens because otherwise there wouldn't be any reason to leave her with Nexus
SigmasonicXToday at 5:35 PM
Ah right, I did hear there was a clumsy attempt to address criticisms like that.
SylveeToday at 5:36 PM
The two big ones that are listed are that and some of the students not liking her at school
SigmasonicXToday at 5:36 PM
You know, Luna here doesn't actually read that different from how she's portrayed in later seasons. If anything, I suppose the season 2 revision to make her sound more like she does in "Luna Eclipsed" would have overcompensated.
SylveeToday at 5:37 PM
Luna Eclipsed is really weird going back to it because she never acts like that anymore
SigmasonicXToday at 5:38 PM
There is the perfectly valid explanation that she got used to modern times, at least.
SylveeToday at 5:39 PM
And all of it took place after Luna Eclipsed but before Canterlot Wedding, and she had made no progress before that episode?
SigmasonicXToday at 5:40 PM
She sounded pretty "Luna Eclipsed"y when she yelled at Twilight to stay inside.
SylveeToday at 5:41 PM
And when she asked if she missed anything
SigmasonicXToday at 5:42 PM
Nightmare Moon Nyx is all like, "Yeah, but do we have to be so mean about conquering the world?"
Which raises the question of why she wants to conquer the world at all if she's like this.
SylveeToday at 5:43 PM
Character motivations are for dummies
She still has to be adorable when she's taking over the world
SigmasonicXToday at 5:45 PM
Nightmare Moon turned her back on the training dummies, and began to walk towards teh door. "Good, and I want one of the training dummies that looks like Twilight Sparkle brought to my bed chamber as well, and it is to be intact."

Oh wow
I'm just sitting here laughing
SylveeToday at 5:46 PM
What I don't get reading on is that at one point the Everfree Forest tries to invade Equestria because Celestia isn't in control anymore. At that point Nyx has given up on the whole night thing and is trying to do the right thing, but refuses to let the Sisters free out of fear of consequences. I would think that the whole invasion would be a scenario to force her to let the princesses out to save Equestria, but she's so awesome that she repels the attack by herself. So much for that
SigmasonicXToday at 5:46 PM
Did the author really not see what that looked like?
SylveeToday at 5:46 PM
Also that's pretty spicy
We're not BIOLOGICALLY related
Since we're not related it'll be ok
SigmasonicXToday at 5:48 PM
Nyx's cupcakes were frosted with a simple vanilla frosting, but Scootaloo tried to frost hers so each one would have a rainbow on it. The result of her endeavors, however, was all the frosting colors got mixed together to make a dark, purple frosting. Scootaloo was disappointed, but in the end the cupcakes still tasted good, and that was what mattered.
Frosting doesn't work like that
SylveeToday at 5:50 PM
Don't let logic get in the way of symbolism
SigmasonicXToday at 5:50 PM
"Here we are testing our latest batch of plants that can grow under eternal moonlight. We initially focused this research on agricultural plants such as grains, fruits, and vegetables. Those plants were finished some time ago, and we're ready to begin replanting Equestria's fields, gardens, and orchards with the new plant breeds."
This was before Lauren Faust said that plants would have grown fine during the eternal night, I suppose.
Also how are there so many scientists and researchers in this cult?
Like what do they expect to actually be better under Nightmare Moon?
SylveeToday at 5:51 PM
I do think it's explained at some point
So there's that
SigmasonicXToday at 5:52 PM
It was like a piece of her memories was missing: the memories surrounding her motivations. She knew she had those motivations, she knew what they were. Yet, when she tried to remember those motivations directly, what they felt like and why they had driven her, it was like she was grasping at nothing.
Motivations partially addressed, I guess
SylveeToday at 5:53 PM
It's a stupid explanation that introduces stuff just to make the plot actually function at a basic level, but it is explaned. Being not evil or being evil?(edited)
Also so much for stopping for the day

SigmasonicXToday at 5:56 PM
No, I just finished chapter 11, where I said I'd stop.
And I'll just go ahead and copypaste this chat in the Hangouts thread.
SylveeToday at 5:57 PM
Hooray my lame Dota 2 joke can be immortalized for the world to see

Anyway, Sunday stream followup. We watched the following.
1. No Second Prances
2. All Bottled Up
3. On the Road to Friendship
4. The Simpsons season 28 episode 6 - There Will Be Buds
5. Super Gals episode 24
6. Revolutionary Girl Utena episode 3-4

We were joined by ahoyhoy , who hadn't seen the later seasons of the show, so the MLP episodes were all new for him. It was nice watching them with someone like that. I actually had loading problems for the first two episodes, but everyone else enjoyed them, and the bits I saw were good.

UberTag was really excited to show the Simpsons episode to ahoyhoy, since it's a later season Simpsons that he considers good. I never followed along with Simpsons enough to keep track of the characters, so it was interesting seeing people say, "Oh, I didn't realize these two characters got back together," and such. It was pretty odd seeing Homer be so responsible, with him being unwilling to go to a strip club, but he had some pretty funny moments, like when he's chatting with Marge on a smartphone then yells for her to hide and tosses the phone into a drawer. It was a pretty enjoyable episode overall.

The Super Gals episode featured the classic "believing fortune telling too much" story with Ran going to great efforts to avoid her boyfriend due to bad luck. While amusing, it was also pretty frustrating; at least Ran only accidentally forgot to tell him about the fortune and didn't do it deliberately.

With Utena, we watched two episodes. I was told by Uber that episode 4 had a big cliffhanger and thus we should wait to watch 4 and 5 together, but he was fine with it in the end. The cliffhanger turned out to be misremembered, and it wasn't that impressive. Anyway, the episodes themselves were fine, focusing more on comedy. And slapping. Lots and lots of slapping. I hear it only gets worse in that regard as the series goes on.

We watched the following YouTube videos.
1.Double Trouble (PMV) - YouTube
2.Monody - Trixie x Twilight x Starlight PMV - YouTube
3.[MLP Comic Dub] Why Starlight Wasn't in the MLP Movie (comedy) - YouTube
4.[French] MLP:FIM - We're Friendship Bound (Trxie and Starlight Song) - YouTube
5.[PMV] Beautiful Life - YouTube
6.[PMV] A Story Told (The Count of Monte Cristo) - YouTube
7.[PMV] Descendants 2 - Ways to Be Wicked (Discord, Starlight, Tirek, Trixie) - YouTube
8.Magic Lessons [Animation] - YouTube

SigmasonicX · Sep 7, 2018

Stream announcements.

On Friday, we're just watching doubles of the anime.
1. Super Gals 25-26
2. Utena 5-6

Notably, although Super Gals is 52 episodes long, the English dub only covered the first half. Thus, the second half of the series is sub only.

On Sunday, it's Scootalove Day!

232093__safe_artist-colon-marminatoror_edit_rainbow+dash_scootaloo_just+for+sidekicks_season+3_sleepless+in+ponyville_adventure+in+the+comments_animate.gif

(Second highest rating on Derpibooru, BTW.)

1. Sleepless in Ponyville
2. Flight to the Finish
3. Parental Glideance
4. The Washouts
5. Fate/Zero episode 1

With Parental Glideance being our first repeat episode, but I felt it was appropriate. Plus it's been close to a year since we watched it anyway. And there's some relevance to the new episode.

Chained Prometheus really wanted to start Fate/Zero, so why not, we're starting it. I'm thinking it will take Super Gals' place for a bit, since this is the perfect break point. We'll be watching the English dub of that. The first episode is double length, so that's why we're only watching that.

Chained Prometheus · Sep 7, 2018

SigmasonicX said:
Chained Prometheus really wanted to start Fate/Zero, so why not, we're starting it. I'm thinking it will take Super Gals' place for a bit, since this is the perfect break point. We'll be watching the English dub of that. The first episode is double length, so that's why we're only watching that.

I'm so pumped to get Fate/Zero started. Right up there with Utena as one of my favorite shows ever.

Let's get this party started!!!

SigmasonicX · Sep 12, 2018

New Crimson Lips chapter, and here's what I wrote as a review.

Very interesting. Rarity Princess Beautiful in the garden was adorable, especially that bit where she felt the trees should have been honored by her presence anyway. I love the idea that Rarity tried to model herself after Celestia. And nice touch with Rarity only acknowledging the girl was her after she was changed by Celestia's magic. I'm very curious about what could have led to the current situation.

And yes, feel free to go down this rabbit hole [of examining Celestia as a mother figure to Rarity].

Stream followup.

On Friday, we just watched the normal anime episodes, finishing off the dub of Super Gals with episodes 25 and 26. The former gave a glimpse of Miyu's pretty terrible mom, and to my shock, actually advanced her and Yamato's relationship. The latter episode was another personality swap episode with Ran, intentionally repeating a lot of the same gags, but unlike before, this seemed like a completely valid path for her character to take, becoming a no-nonsense detective solving the oddly large number of crimes that just happened to start then. Some were pretty disappointed when this came to an end.

We ended up watching three Utena episodes: 5, 6, and 7. We had a good laugh making fun of Miki trying to come up with noble reasons for wanting to duel Utena for Anthy when he really just wants to smash. Also, uh, red hair guy macking on his sister completely out of nowhere. Not quite sure this is the order these episodes happened in, but next was, uh, that one girl fighting Utena to prove miracles don't exist after slapping Anthy for no particular reason. I was surprised to see Miki just casually hanging out with Utena. Green haired kendo guy tried to get in on the casual hanging out action, but he was rightfully ignored; no Anthy slappers allowed. Though I expect Miki and probably even Utena will get around to that at some point. Anyway, it was interesting to see Utena basically lose the fight except for some really good luck. I wonder if there's some magic or something behind that. Last was a comedy story involving... Nanami I think her name was. I know I'll be spoiled if I look up character names. Anyway, it was pretty good and had a boxing match with a kangaroo. Overall, Utena is definitely more comedic than I expected so far.

On Sunday, we watched the following.

1. Sleepless in Ponyville
2. Flight to the Finish
3. Parental Glideance
4. The Washouts
5. Fate/Zero episode 1-2

All the MLP episodes were good. I had forgotten a lot about the first two, including the entire fact that Luna was involved in the former somehow, and Ms. Harshwhinny and Dash being professional in the latter.

Fate/Zero was pretty hard to follow for much of the first (hour long) episode, especially with all that talking. I've never watched or read or played Fate/Stay Night, but I was familiar enough with Rin and Sakura from when art of them and others was all over the place in the aughts, so it was nice seeing them pop up. There were some interesting moments, like when Kirei and Kiritsugu were both talking about each other to I assume set up their rivalry. The second episode (half hour) was much easier to follow and featured nice moments like Alexander the Great the Rider learning about the modern world and the Assassin getting owned by the Archer. Oh, and the opening is quite good.

We watched the following YouTube videos.
1.G3 Intro - YouTube
2.Scootaloos Party - YouTube
3.MLP: Meet the Scout (Scootaloo) - YouTube
4.MLP Animatic "I'll Keep Trying" (Scootaloo Sings) - YouTube
5.MLP Baby Comic Dub - Feeding Scootaloo (Comedy) - YouTube
6.My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - The Washouts - If MLP was Johnny Test - YouTube
7.PMV - Scootaloo Underground - YouTube

The latter caused a lot of confusion for one person who wasn't aware of Sonic Underground.

SigmasonicX · Sep 13, 2018

Read just two more chapters of Past Sins, getting through chapter 13. Here's how the chat went. Also includes a bit of "Castle Mane-ia" discussion.

SigmasonicXYesterday at 11:46 PM
Going to finish it properly tomorrow (hopefully) but I'll go ahead and read chapter 12 of Past Sins now
"Ah can't believe Nyx turned out to be Nightmare Moon. It... it just makes about as much sense as a blue apple," Applejack commented.
Not an out of character line or anything, I just find this funny
Twilight knew why she had done it, why she had been willing to let Celestia take Nyx away, and the truth was tearing up Twilight's insides like a parasprite in a basket of apples.
Really needed that reference there
TrigonometrizeYesterday at 11:53 PM
This fanfiction exists inside the world of the ongoing show guys

It's doing things we've never seen before
SigmasonicXYesterday at 11:56 PM
The ponies all have their Elements of Harmony with them. I thought that was weird at first, but then I remembered it wasn't established that Celestia was keeping them until season 2. The human versions keeping their gems with them at all times makes way more sense (even if it took Mirror Magic for them to realize to do that).
September 13, 2018
SigmasonicXToday at 12:06 AM
Jesus, Twilight sneaks into Nightmare Moon's new castle, sees the villain Spell Nexus being escorted by guards and assumes he was kidnapped, and then "rescues" him and explains her entire plan to him.
And done for today
Well, yesterday

[...]

SigmasonicXToday at 5:29 PM
Given that I'm only now starting to read Past Sins again, probably won't finish it today after all.
Much like the time she became the Shadowbolts to tempt Rainbow Dash, Nightmare Moon had divided herself into multiple clones that then took on the shape of other ponies.
I don't really object to the reference in this case, because this isn't often thought of as one of Nightmare Moon's powers.
But also, it's weird that it's presented as effective as it is here. For one thing, the Shadowbolts didn't actually do anything.
And once Rainbow decided not to join up with them, they didn't do anything to impede their progress further, which implies they couldn't.
CappyToday at 5:37 PM
posting that screencap... rip thread
SylveeToday at 5:38 PM
"For one thing, the Shadowbolts didn't actually do anything." I mean they were an extension of Nightmare Moon and she didn't do anything either

CappyToday at 5:39 PM
and a good parallel to the wonderbolts
(cause they also don't do anything)
SigmasonicXToday at 5:41 PM
Hey, they shaved Giant Spike that one time
SylveeToday at 5:41 PM
I said it before, but the whole Everfree thing felt like a setup where she was forced to free Celestia and Luna to protect Equestria despite being afraid of the consequences she will face for it
But instead she's just super awesome and solves it herself
CappyToday at 5:45 PM
i like that in the Nightmare Moon future things seem to be alright but just kinda austere
SigmasonicXToday at 5:50 PM
[Celestia] had indulged in cloud cake a few too many times over the past week. The pegasus-made dessert was her great weakness, at least when it came to food.
Cake meme before it ever appeared in the show
Or at least I'm pretty sure this entire fic was completed before season 2 aired.
SylveeToday at 5:52 PM
I though that meme came from the Philomena episode
SigmasonicXToday at 5:53 PM
Did it? I thought it was from "Ponyville Confidential"
Nightmare Moon's magic surged, and in the air beside her a magical blade took shape. It was forged of what looked like black metal that shined and flashed like calm water beneath the night sky. While alicorns were very powerful, they were not truly immortal. Their strength came from the amount of magic they held, and the best tool to counter that magic was a weapon of pure, compressed mystic energy, much like the sword Nightmare Moon now wielded.
Alright, now we're talking!
Mary Sue sword time!
CappyToday at 5:55 PM
fight magic with magic
SylveeToday at 5:56 PM
So the only way to defeat Alicorns is to be as powerful as one and make an object that can defeat them?

CappyToday at 5:57 PM
how many times was this mystic energy folded
it's important
SigmasonicXToday at 6:00 PM
872222222222259024895087307580324034725408924 times, clearly
So Nyx banishes Celestia to the sun, which I found odd at first since Celestia used the Elements of Harmony to banish Nightmare Moon to the moon, but then I remembered, isn't it canonically the case that Celestia was in fact sent to the sun or moon in the pilot? When she didn't show up at the Summer Sun Celebration.
CappyToday at 6:02 PM
i think she was hiding
SigmasonicXToday at 6:03 PM
It's like those scenes in movies where the rich guy abandons his party guests to go into the safe room alone.
SylveeToday at 6:03 PM
She was hiding yeah. She's only imprisoned in the alternate history version
CappyToday at 6:04 PM
if she had tried to help she would've gotten bopped as per yuzh(edited)
SigmasonicXToday at 6:05 PM
Luna felt the air catch in her chest, and with a few furious flaps of her wings, she surged forward towards the castle. She dove into the courtyard, and did not land nor slow down. Instead, she threw open the castle doors with her magic and soared through the hallways. It was something Celestia was unable to do because of her size, but Luna was still small enough that her wingspan fit inside the corridors.
That's a weird detail.
Celestia too chubby to fit in the hallways
CappyToday at 6:05 PM
v_v
SigmasonicXToday at 6:07 PM

This is why you must eat your fiber, sister. Pineapple skins and banana peels, that is the true path!(edited)
CappyToday at 6:11 PM

You're not the boss of me!
SigmasonicXToday at 6:16 PM
Nyx defeating Celestia and Luna was less silly than I expected, since she fought them separately. Celestia was holding back after realizing she was more Nyx than Nightmare Moon, and Luna wasn't fully powered (though I don't think the season 2 rewrite can have the same justification). What is silly is Nyx continuing to try to take over despite everyone telling her it's dumb and her clearly not being that into the idea.
Nexus having some form of control over her would have justified this a lot more.
SylveeToday at 6:17 PM
TFW you have to take over the world but don't want to

CappyToday at 6:18 PM

Celestia's always holding back, so her losses don't count!

Luna refers to this tactic as "Johns"
:moonbuttlaugh:
SigmasonicXToday at 6:20 PM

I was holding back because I know that good will prevail, but I don't want to be the good that does it.
Beneath that moon, the Mayor of Ponyville, Ivory Scroll, moved up to the podium set on the veranda of the town hall.
CappyToday at 6:20 PM

I thought it was because you weren't "good" enough
SigmasonicXToday at 6:21 PM
Before it was established her name was Mayor Mare.
CappyToday at 6:21 PM
o_o
SigmasonicXToday at 6:21 PM

No, dear sister, trust me. One day...
Are you o_oing at the mayor's name being Mayor Mare?
CappyToday at 6:22 PM
no the fanfic name
SigmasonicXToday at 6:23 PM
Yes, it's so much weirder than Mayor Mare

The crowd quickly parted and made a path, much like they did the day Nightmare Moon first returned.
Now this callback is completely unnecessary.
CappyToday at 6:24 PM
i didn't realize her name popped up so late in the actual show
SigmasonicXToday at 6:25 PM
I don't think they mention it in the actual show until, like, season 7.
No wait, season 5.
It must have come up in "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows"
SylveeToday at 6:25 PM
Man if only they actually cut away to that scene happening in the show. It'd be like Family Guy
"Remember the time when Pinkie Pie called Nightmare Moon names?"
Transition
SigmasonicXToday at 6:27 PM
I remember back in season 4 some people got upset they did a cutaway gag in "Castle Mane-ia", where Pinkie explained she was testing the new school bell and it cut to her banging her head inside it.
TrigonometrizeToday at 6:28 PM
that gag was good tho who would get mad
SigmasonicXToday at 6:29 PM
The show might become Family Guy

CappyToday at 6:29 PM
sometimes good gags don't get the recognition they deserve (#real-pics)
SylveeToday at 6:29 PM
I feel like Castle Mane-ia is probably the best Haber episode ever
TrigonometrizeToday at 6:30 PM
You like it more than Cutie Re-Mark?
SylveeToday at 6:31 PM
I mean Re-Mark is pretty cool, but Mane-ia is probably a higher quality episode overall in that there's less wrong with it
SigmasonicXToday at 6:31 PM
The rumbling then rose to a terrifying cacophony, as if the world was splitting in two. At the same time, the first spire continued to rise higher and was joined by others. Soon a whole castle had risen up into view, casting a harsh shadow and looking down upon Ponyville like a giant ready to strike.

When the castle had fully risen and the rumbling had stopped, Nightmare Moon looked down and savored the shock and horror on her subjects' faces. "Yes, ponies of Ponyville, your eyes do not deceive you. For the time being, Canterlot shall remain the administrative capitol of Equestria, but Ponyville shall be the true heart of this kingdom. It is here, in your town, that both I and my castle find a home, and Ponyville will know prosperity unmatched as it slowly becomes the beating heart of Equestria."
How Twilight's Castle appearing really went.
We got Trixie!

TrigonometrizeToday at 6:34 PM
WRONG "CAPITAL"

SylveeToday at 6:35 PM
Wait, so did she just will a castle into existence?
SigmasonicXToday at 6:36 PM
The castle was already there, but underground.
CappyToday at 6:36 PM
?
why would
SylveeToday at 6:36 PM
?????????????????
CappyToday at 6:37 PM

SigmasonicXToday at 6:37 PM
The cultists had Diamond Dogs make it.
CappyToday at 6:37 PM
is she choosing ponyville because nyx likes it
SigmasonicXToday at 6:37 PM
Now Sylvee, if you weren't reading a summary, you'd know all this

No, the cultists chose it because it's close to the Everfree Forest.
SylveeToday at 6:38 PM
How could the summary leave out the fucking underground castle?
SigmasonicXToday at 6:40 PM
You mentioned before a part where the Elements of Harmony don't work on Nyx. I'm assuming it's referring to the part I just read, where they had Trixie sub in for Twilight and it didn't work for precisely that reason.
CappyToday at 6:41 PM
:o
subbing in characters before the show did it!
SylveeToday at 6:42 PM
It mentioned that, but I feel like canonically the Elements would have found another way to defeat her. Except maybe not so then she would have learned to IDK what she actually learned.
SigmasonicXToday at 6:43 PM
The Elements didn't work when they subbed in Spike for Rainbow (and everyone was a jerk).
SylveeToday at 6:44 PM
But that was so Twilight could learn to friendship and magic
CappyToday at 6:44 PM
he's pretty loyal too
SylveeToday at 6:44 PM
And Dragons are incompatible with the elements
Until they are
SigmasonicXToday at 6:44 PM
At that,Trixie used her magic to summon a smoke screen before she ran away as fast as her hooves would carry her. It was the same kind of retreat she had made after the Ursa Minor incident, and the display left most of Ponyville's residents groaning.
More unneeded comparisons!
CappyToday at 6:44 PM
you really make this fic feel like wall-to-wall explicit references
SigmasonicXToday at 6:45 PM
There are fewer than at the start of the story, at least.
CappyToday at 6:46 PM
The fabled Ursa Minor incident, when snips and snails endangered a town to see a cool trick
SigmasonicXToday at 6:48 PM
"But... but I can't go to the gallows!" Rarity wailed in a panic. "I just can't! Who will...who will look after Sweetie Belle? I'm... I'm the only family she has left."
Oh right, forgot about that
CappyToday at 6:48 PM
everyone is orphans
TrigonometrizeToday at 6:48 PM
"and then the Nightmare Moon attacked Twilight with a spell so powerful, it had five times the impact of the piano that fell on Twilight while she was observing Pinkie Pie from Ponyville brush in S1E15 'Feeling Pinkie Keen'"
SigmasonicXToday at 6:48 PM
That's some power
CappyToday at 6:48 PM
the Feeling Pinkie Keen incident
described in Twilight's memoirs of the event, At the Whims of Pinkie Sense
SylveeToday at 6:50 PM
I like how Rarity's more afraid of leaving Sweetie Belle alone then actually dying
SigmasonicXToday at 6:51 PM
And that's chapter 13 down. Yeah, definitely not finishing this today.
CappyToday at 6:53 PM
Unlucky thirteen?

And stream announcements. I think I won't put Super Gals on hiatus after all. That said, I think I will cut it back to just one episode a week to allow the other series to progress. Also, it does seem like there's interest in being able to watch the full Sunday stream without subs. As such, Fate/Zero will be the only anime on Sunday, until we finish it. Except on weeks we don't watch anime on Friday.
So Friday would be:
1. Super Gals episode 27
2. Utena episodes 8-10

As for Sunday, I don't think there's a particular desire to watch both "Campfire Tales" and "Shadow Play", so I'll just show the latter since that covers all the Pillars.
1. MLP - Shadow Play parts 1-2
2. MLP - A Rockhoof and a Hard Place
3. Big Hero 6 episode 3 - Big Roommates
4. Fate/Zero episodes 3-4

Nali · Sep 13, 2018

SigmasonicX said:
Read just two more chapters of Past Sins, getting through chapter 13.

This is all vaguely familiar, but I'm coming to realize that my standards have risen dramatically in the intervening years since it was published.

SigmasonicX · Sep 16, 2018

So after I announced the Friday schedule, I got feedback that we definitely needed to watch Utena episode 11. And then if we're watching that episode, we might as well watch episode 12. In the end, it was all Utena, no Super Gals. To sum up, we watched Utena episodes 8-12, finishing the first story arc (or so I'm told).

First was a comedy episode where Utena and Anthy switch bodies. It had the strange issue of both being too out there and not being out there enough. The situation was absurd, but no one really cared that much. It didn't help that the animation didn't seem to be able to keep up with the wacky moments. Funny moments included Miki continuing to be thirsty, green guy getting dunked on, and Nanami being attacked by elephants, though the latter went too far when they appeared on surfboards. The other viewers, who had watched the show before, commented they completely forgot this episode existed.

Next green guy continued to be trash, but we got an unexpected flashback with Utena meeting him and Touga when she was younger and her parents died, and apparently we got a bunch of foreshadowing when he tried to bring Anthy to the dueling area and then the castle did some things. After that, green guy was kicked out of school, leading to a hilarious moment where Touga promises to take care of his journal and proceeds to toss it into an incinerator. Nanami becomes a duelist, turns out to be a kitten murderer, and then loses her duel pretty easily despite being in the opening, though she does catch Utena off guard by attacking even after losing.

Last was the part the others were excited about. Utena fights Touga, loses, and then is shocked when Anthy completely changes her interests to match Touga's and appears to no longer care about her, as is the nature of the rose bride. Anthy's absence breaks Utena enough that she starts wearing a normal uniform! In the end, she gets her groove and Anthy back. This was definitely the most interesting set of episodes so far. I was going to say it's odd that Utena rescued Anthy without coming to understand what Anthy actually wants, meaning it was purely selfish, but I suppose she needed to learn to be selfish when it comes to Anthy first. Anthy disabling the power boost spell on the sword while Touga was using it shows who she favored, but I don't think Utena made the connection.

I was asked my thoughts about the first arc, and it's hard to say really. If I didn't know it's supposed to be a great series, I probably wouldn't have found this first arc that interesting, TBH. But with that, I'm able to focus more on the enjoyable bits. Part of it is really how it's inconsistent what the characters care enough to question and what they just ignore. Like Utena doesn't like the rose bride thing, but doesn't question pulling the sword out of Anthy, and doesn't seem to view everyone slapping her as a big deal. I'm hung up on the slapping bit because I feel like if Utena cared about Anthy at all, like the first thing she'd do is deal with the slapping. At least pull an Applejack and make her wear a helmet.

DrForester · Sep 16, 2018

The first arc really serves as a character introduction.

Second arc builds on that, and fleshes out the supporting cast.

Final arc is the grand finale.

SigmasonicX · Sep 18, 2018

Finished Past Sins yesterday. Due to the chat length, I'll post this separately from the stream followup and in two parts.

SigmasonicXYesterday at 10:20 AM
Back to reading Past Sins, on chapter 14. The CMC are sneaking into Nyx's castle (the one that rose out of the ground in Ponyville)

The nearest unicorn cook, the one who had been preparing the fancy food, trotted over to the silver plate cover. He picked up the lid magically, and looked beneath it. He expected to find some ruined food, but there was nothing there. Confused, the cook lifted his eyes, and noticed the pantry door was open.

Curiosity getting the best of him, the chef used his magic to open the pantry door while he kept the serving dish lid in the air beside him. He looked all around the pantry, but when he saw nothing out of place he looked back at the other chefs and shrugged. With no apparent explanation for where the lid had come from, the chefs in the kitchen went back to their tasks, writing off the event as a mystery.

The chef that currently held the mysterious plate cover went back to work as well. He picked up a particularly large plate, which was laden with a number of sugary desserts, and after wiping the bottom rim of a lid with a cloth, he placed the lid over top the desserts. The chef then gently set the now covered plate on the bottom of the serving cart before returning to his cooking.

"Whew... nice move, Scootaloo," Apple Bloom whispered.

In the last possible moment, Scootaloo had grabbed her two friends and dove out of the pantry. The serving lid had come down right on top of the trio, and before the chef could investigate, the three fillies had pressed their legs against the lid's interior sides. By doing that, the trio managed to keep themselves inside the lid, even as it was lifted off the ground.

That seems unlikely.
So the lid was large enough for three fillies to fit in the top, pressing their legs against the sides, for the chef to not see them after he lifted it up and cleaned the rim, and for a plate of desserts to fit underneath them without issue.
Also, magic and all, but there would be a weight difference.
The tray itself seemed unnecessarily big for the number of desserts that were set out across its surface, but the crusaders didn't notice this as they were soon distracted by the food itself.
OK, that explains it, great job.
Oh it's been a while, there's another link in the middle of the story. This time it's to some tie in art, at least. https://www.deviantart.com/dreatos/art/Storytime-243971842

Nyx imprisons the CMC under Spell Nexus's advice despite not wanting to. It's hard to understand why she bothers listening to him.
CappyYesterday at 10:46 AM
N E X U S
Nexus.
SigmasonicXYesterday at 10:48 AM
Is that a reference to something?
CappyYesterday at 10:49 AM
Spell Nexus
>_>
SigmasonicXYesterday at 10:51 AM
Ah

Lots of references to morning and night, despite it supposed to be an endless night.
SigmasonicXYesterday at 11:13 AM
"It is an honor to be in your presence, your Majesty," the stallion began. "I am Boxxy Brown, and this is my wife Cloud Kicker."

I was about to say season 2 reference, but I keep mixing up Cloud Kicker and Cloudchaser
https://derpibooru.org/297085

Cloud Kicker
Introduced in the first episode
https://derpibooru.org/482755

Cloudchaser, introduced in season 2's "Hurricane Fluttershy"
Incidentally, Cloudchaser has more than twice as many images as Cloud Kicker

"We'd," Boxxy Brown began. He choked a little on his words but forced them out all the same. "We'd like to know if our daughter can come home."

The shout Nightmare Moon had been preparing in response to another request for a sun died, and she arched an eyebrow in confusion. "Who is your daughter?"

"Scootaloo, Your Highness."
CappyYesterday at 11:19 AM
:o
SigmasonicXYesterday at 11:24 AM
Alright, so after seeing that an eternal night actually sucks, Nyx brings the day back and sets things to normal. Now it just feels like the story is continuing for the sake of continuing.
Oh, Nyx is still ruling and Celestia and Luna are still imprisoned to be clear.
Nyx is realizing she just wanted to be loved and she doesn't have to follow Spell Nexus, and... still four more chapters, one of which is super long.

"As a member of the crusaders and the Queen of Equestria, I hereby declare you an official member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Now you can play with Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle all you want," Nightmare Moon told her.

"Really?" Twist asked in disbelief. "Even though I already have my cutie mark?"

"Being a Crusader isn't just about finding your own cutie mark," Nightmare Moon told her. "It's about helping a friend find their special talent, and who better to help a friend get their cutie mark than a pony who already has hers?"

Predicted the post-season 5 Crusaders
CappyYesterday at 11:32 AM
what a twist
SigmasonicXYesterday at 11:33 AM

Alright, now we get to the part where Twilight is about to get hanged from the cover art that someone in the first GAF community thread said the author said wouldn't actually happen in the story.
I suppose the art showed the rope taut, when in the story, Nyx teleports her away before that happens.
CappyYesterday at 11:47 AM
:o
NYX DAGGER
SigmasonicXYesterday at 11:48 AM
Honestly, there isn't much interesting to say about these chapters, even to make fun of them, which is why I'm not posting much.
CappyYesterday at 11:48 AM
why did they hang twilight
SigmasonicXYesterday at 11:51 AM
Spell Nexus was angry that Nyx was growing soft, and he blamed her.
CappyYesterday at 11:51 AM
Harsh v_v
SigmasonicXYesterday at 11:51 AM
He used mind control magic to make Twilight attack Nyx to justify it.
CappyYesterday at 11:52 AM
Now I want you to describe the nature of that attack, but I don't want to distract too much >_>

[...]

SigmasonicXYesterday at 11:53 AM
Nightmare Moon nuzzled Twilight's neck reassuringly. "Twilight, no, whatever they did to you, it wasn't your fault."

"I'm sorry... that I ever found you in the forest."

In but a single breath, Nightmare Moon felt the atmosphere in the cell change. The panic and fear she felt for Twilight was replaced with dread, and within moments of that last, whispered word escaping Twilight's lips, Nightmare Moon felt a searing pain in her right shoulder.

She jumped back, stumbled, and fell onto the floor of the cell. She looked back at her shoulder, where a large gash was now visible. It was painful, one of the few times Nightmare Moon had felt physical pain since her resurrection. And this pain was caused by Twilight.

Looking back at Twilight, Nightmare Moon saw her getting up from her cot slowly. The anti-magic ring that was supposed to be around her neck was lying lying on the pillow of her cot, and in the air beside her head, Twilight a thin magical dagger. It was a much smaller version of the spell Nightmare Moon used to form a sword to fight Celestia, but that didn't make it any less dangerous.

While Twilight is being hanged, Nyx teleports her away, and then realizes she was under mind control.
CappyYesterday at 11:55 AM
:o a smol alicorn tanto dagger
SigmasonicXYesterday at 11:56 AM
It's also a pretty dumb mind control spell to use here, because it made Twilight obedient to Spell Nexus and Nightmare Moon, so when Nyx asked her about the spell, she told the truth about it.
Oh right, Sylvee did mention there was an explanation for why so many ponies were so gung ho about the endless night, including top scientists and politicians. It all comes down to just one guy, Spell Nexus, wanting it and using mind control on everyone else.
TrigonometrizeYesterday at 12:00 PM
Mind control, the most interesting plot device we can all agree
OrcastarYesterday at 12:01 PM
I dunno, amnesia is pretty interesting too.
CappyYesterday at 12:02 PM
did she ask who removed the ring
TrigonometrizeYesterday at 12:02 PM
I'm surprised amnesia doesn't get used for more fish-out-of-water stuff. At least in all the stuff I play, it's for le mystery
I say "I play" because Japanese games love that shit
SigmasonicXYesterday at 12:05 PM
Nyx just asked what happened, and that led to Twilight explaining that Spell Nexus came into the cell, placed the mind control spell, removed the ring, and taught her the magic dagger spell.
CappyYesterday at 12:06 PM
oh, i figured maybe that would be the reason she felt something fishy was happening , but she's just soft!
Spell Nexus was right!
SylveeYesterday at 12:07 PM
Bro there's no actual bad people in Past Sins, bust people getting mind controlled
SigmasonicXYesterday at 12:09 PM
Spell Nexus found the entrance to the throne room shut when he arrived, and no guards standing watch. It was ominous, and it sent a pleasant shiver down his spine. The silence, the cold, the ever present sensation of danger; this was how the castle should have felt since day one. This was the castle of Nightmare Moon.

... So he didn't actually want guards around?
Indeed, like Sylvee said, it turns out Spell Nexus was under mind control too.
From Nightmare Moon's lingering magic, which is different from the lingering magic that created Nyx I guess.
Ah, we got linked music for this boss encounter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMMSL9znTmc
YouTube
SilentWeaponsIII
Let's Listen: Castlevania SOTN - Door To The Abyss (Extended)
CappyYesterday at 12:15 PM
he wanted the castle to feel dangerous

SigmasonicXYesterday at 12:22 PM
It turns out Nexus cast a sealing spell on himself before the nightmare energy (my term) took him over, which is why he had to gather up other energy instead of doing the Nightmare Moon resurrection thing on himself.
But the seal wasn't complete enough to prevent him from using the energy to mind control people.
CappyYesterday at 12:27 PM
believe it
SigmasonicXYesterday at 12:29 PM
Nyxuto, I'm on my way
Nyxuto, I'll be OK
Oh, the story finally remembered Diamond Tiara's father was part of the cult.
Though it's just to show his mind control breaking.
CappyYesterday at 12:32 PM
is it Filthy Rich
or some other invention(edited)
SigmasonicXYesterday at 12:32 PM
Nah, still season 1. I posted about him before, he was described as looking like Big Mac but smaller.

[...]

SigmasonicXYesterday at 12:34 PM
That reminds me, the first chapters introduced several named cultists with basic quirky personalities, but they haven't appeared in a very long time.

"Diamond Tiara, Sweetie, it's time for dinn-" Diamond Tiara's mother began. She poked her head out the front door, but then froze. She looked at the stallion her daughter was hugging, and her own eyes began tearing up.

"Regal... Regal Cut, is that you?"
CappyYesterday at 12:39 PM
i didn't need to know that about him >_>
SigmasonicXYesterday at 12:42 PM
"Naw, we ain't here for anything like that. Though, I gotta say, the critters here in the Everfree Forest sure seem more riled up than usual. I swear I saw something that looked like a wolf on my way here."

"A lupus minor is what you saw, I have no doubt. I too have noticed them lingering about. For several days now the forest has not been at ease. There are far too many monsters linger amongst these trees."

Oh right, this is before timber wolves
So Nyx steps down as ruler, but Celestia and Luna still aren't released. And still a couple chapters to go.
CappyYesterday at 12:45 PM
baby wolves

SigmasonicXYesterday at 12:47 PM
Four chapters to go, in fact. All the big epic threat stuff has been resolved, meaning there should just be Nyx making up with everyone. But as Sylvee keeps going on about, there's still going to be a random Everfree Forest attack, which I guess is what takes up the rest.
Ditzy Doo was doing her best to shield her daughter, Dinky, from the huge hydra head that was licking its lips mere feet in front of them.
Going with Ditzy
SigmasonicXYesterday at 1:03 PM
Come to think of it, I'm surprised it took this long for her to show up.
SylveeYesterday at 1:04 PM

Not using her actual name Muffins
SigmasonicXYesterday at 1:05 PM
That actually didn't happen until season 4, I think.
She wasn't in any merchandise during season 1 and 2, and there was that season 3 scare where she didn't show up at all until a cameo in "Magical Mystery Cure".
Then it was season 4 or 5 that she started getting toys, where she was called Muffins (or just a muffin picture)
Nyx realizes she can't handle all these monsters on her own, but then makes shadow clones.
CappyYesterday at 1:09 PM

SigmasonicXYesterday at 1:17 PM
Nyx regains everyone's trust because of this. Still three chapters left and the Everfree Forest thing is resolved.
So I don't know what else could take up the remainder.
Twilight and Nyx have made up, and she decides to release Celestia and Luna. Looks like the remaining two chapters are basically just resolution.
CappyYesterday at 1:35 PM
is she still nightmare moon through all of that
SigmasonicXYesterday at 1:36 PM
She's still in her Nightmare Moon form right now, yes. I do know from looking at the cover arts of the sequels that she reverts to a filly at some point.
SylveeYesterday at 1:37 PM
Isn't she like less then 2 years old?
SigmasonicXYesterday at 1:37 PM
If you're wondering, the sequels appear to be the later two parters except Nyx is there too.
She's a few months old at most.
SylveeYesterday at 1:37 PM
No one was weirded out that she's pretty much a baby ruling an entire kingdom?
SigmasonicXYesterday at 1:38 PM
Well, she does have a thousand years of memories from being trapped in the moon.
Plus, you know, she didn't look like a baby.
SylveeYesterday at 1:38 PM
Thousand year old filly
Where's all the Nyx porn?
SigmasonicXYesterday at 1:38 PM
Next Fire Emblem character
She was a popular fan art subject, so I'm sure there's some.
Oh right, Nyx is the name of a Fire Emblem character.
Who is actually an ancient sorceress who looks like a little girl.
CappyYesterday at 1:40 PM
yeah Nyx is a greek goddess so they're around in a few things
SigmasonicXYesterday at 1:42 PM
Yeah, I just meant I made the Fire Emblem joke then realized she actually was a Fire Emblem character that fits the joke.
SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:00 PM
"While it is true that the magic is an important part of the Elements of Harmony, it is but another source of power. The strength of the elements come from the ties that bind, for it is through those that the power of the virtues you and your friends represent can come together."

Applejack tilted her head to one side in confusion. "The ties that what now? I don't recall us bein' tied together when we first used the elements."

Applehorse do not understand metaphors(edited)
CappyYesterday at 2:02 PM

I'm just always thinking about being tied up with my friends
SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:02 PM
Alright, looks like this chapter is just Luna going around asking everyone what they think about Nyx and if she deserves a second chance.

"If I may be so bold, Princess, it's my personal opinion that you can never be absolutely sure about anything, at least when it comes to ponies."

"What makes you say that, sugarcube?" Applejack asked.

"Why, personal experience of course," Rarity said with a toss of her head. "Remember when I made you your gala dress? I was so absolutely certain you'd all love the first dresses I made, but... well, you recall how that turned out."

Callback! Haven't had one of those in a while.
SylveeYesterday at 2:04 PM
Really glad there was a chapter dedicated to all the show characters talking about how great the author's OC is
SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:08 PM
"Yet Rainbow Dash brings up a valid point, Fluttershy," Luna said, defending Dash's side of the argument. "There are many in Equestria that undoubtedly want to see Nightmare Moon punished, if only for the things we have laws for."

"And stealing a princess's pet phoenix is probably against the law too, but Celestia forgave me for that," Fluttershy argued with a rare firmness in her voice. "Nyx is not a bad pony, she just made a few bad decisions and she's fixed everything she did wrong without anypony asking her. We should forgive her."
CappyYesterday at 2:08 PM

SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:08 PM
Another callback, though I guess less egregious. Fluttershy's logic isn't great, though.
SylveeYesterday at 2:10 PM
Does anyone mention that she continued to imprison Celestia and Luna purely because she didn't want to deal with the consequences of her actions?
SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:12 PM
Rainbow mentions that Celestia and Luna were imprisoned, but not the second part. TBF, I think only Twilight knows about that part.
CappyYesterday at 2:12 PM
do they all know that Twilight was almost executed
SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:13 PM
No one brought it up. I think it was only the cultists who saw that happen.
SylveeYesterday at 2:13 PM
No one would find it weird that she stepped down from being leader of Equestria but didn't return the princesses until way later?
SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:14 PM
I'm sure they found it weird, but I don't know how characters in the story would interpret it.

Celestia bent her head down, bringing it next to Luna's as she smiled. "Forgiveness. Truly, if there were meant to be a seventh Element of Harmony, it would be an Element of Forgiveness. I will work to earn my forgiveness for what I've done."

The show crew have stated that Sunset's element, if she had one, would be empathy, and Starlight's would be glimmerness.
SylveeYesterday at 2:15 PM

Not sure that last one is true...
CappyYesterday at 2:16 PM
she's so empathic
what with her magical empathy power >_>
SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:16 PM
That was the joke answer they gave before the real one, but I don't remember what the real one is.
It probably was forgiveness, really.

Luna nodded in understanding, and shut her eyes as she listened as the last traces of the Nyx's words faded. She then took in a deep breath, and when Luna next opened her eyes, both them and her horn were glowing.

"Then, Nyx, I lay my judgment upon you."

End of the penultimate chapter
Oh boy what a cliffhanger I wonder what will happen

Leaving on that cliffhanger.

SigmasonicX · Sep 18, 2018

CappyYesterday at 2:17 PM
I hope she blasts her to pieces
I guess there are times i'd like a pony to blast someone, who knew
SylveeYesterday at 2:19 PM
https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/...+8_spoiler-colon-s08e14_adventure+in+the.webm
SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:19 PM
At the far end of the room stood Princess Luna, but she had undergone a drastic transformation. She had grown as tall as Celestia and her hair, while still the same color, glistened like a creek swirling beneath the night sky. It had also grown much longer and now flowed freely, as if caressed by a non-existent breeze.
SylveeYesterday at 2:19 PM
Gotcha covered cappy
SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:19 PM
Oh hey, I guess season 2 started.
CappyYesterday at 2:20 PM
that wasn't one of those times >_>
SylveeYesterday at 2:20 PM
Pretend that Starlight is Luna and Discord is other Luna
CappyYesterday at 2:21 PM

(edited)
SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:21 PM
"I took back what was mine," Luna answered, gentleness rather than harshness infused in her words. "The power Nyx possessed was never her own. Nexus's spell gave her the portions of my power that remained in the shreds and supplemented what was missing by drawing in raw magic from Equestria itself. I took most of that magic for my own, since it was mine to begin with, and I dispelled what remained so that I would leave Nyx the way she was before the cult ponynapped her.

"I also," Luna continued, her gaze shifting to the passed out filly, "took back the memories that never should have been hers. The memories of being trapped in the moon and everything that happened before you found her in the Everfree Forest. She will know that she had those memories at one point, but she will not be able to clearly recall anything beyond that. She will, at best, remember the facts about our shared past, the same facts that anypony else would know.

"To put it simply, Twilight, I took back what was mine and mine alone."
And that's how she's a filly again
And how she can act all cute and innocent again
Status quo reversion to the more marketable part of the story!
CappyYesterday at 2:22 PM

I ALSO STOLE HER SENSE OF SMELL
SylveeYesterday at 2:22 PM
Does she have normal eyes now?
SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:23 PM
She hasn't opened her eyes yet, hold on
CappyYesterday at 2:23 PM

This smells so good now.
*chomp*

SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:24 PM

Yes, I no longer smell Twilight's book breath!

Books smell and taste great!

"Twilight Sparkle, I hereby place Nyx in your care. You shall be her legal guardian and it will be your responsibility to ensure that she never again repeat her crimes. You shall watch her as she grows up. I want you to ensure she laughs, plays, learns, lives, and has friends. I ask that you help her enjoy the childhood that was almost lost to her, and make sure she becomes the mare she wants to be."

I know this is to revert things to how they were before, but I can't help but think of that Seinfeld episode.
Where the judge orders George I think to become that guy's butler.
CappyYesterday at 2:25 PM
Princess of Momship
SylveeYesterday at 2:26 PM
She's still like a couple months old
CappyYesterday at 2:27 PM
I know she is probably excited to do it in the story, but that's a pretty big ask >_>
SylveeYesterday at 2:28 PM
Nyx and Flurry could hang out together, they're both babies
SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:28 PM
After sneaking out of the castle, Twilight quickly strode through the empty streets of Ponyville. Upon entering the library, Twilight was thankful to find Owlowiscious wasn't there.

This is because she didn't want to wake anyone, but still, rude
CappyYesterday at 2:28 PM
Who?
SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:28 PM

CappyYesterday at 2:30 PM

Guardianship ended with Owlowiscious, now Nyx is my best ward!
SylveeYesterday at 2:31 PM
Wait, where's Spike in all of this?
CappyYesterday at 2:31 PM
Who?
SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:32 PM
It was night and she snuck past him while he was sleeping.
It's morning now and there's a comedy scene where he's freaking out over Nyx being a filly again.
Nyx got a cutie mark https://www.deviantart.com/alexlayer/art/Cutie-Mark-Nyx-258674977

CappyYesterday at 2:35 PM
She's like a moon knight!

SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:35 PM
Hmm, uploaded September 16, which is one day before season 2 premiered. We definitely didn't know about Luna's design change until later, so I guess Big Luna is just a coincidence.
SylveeYesterday at 2:36 PM
"Protecting loved ones by almost getting them hung and not taking responsibility for my own actions and putting the world at risk because of it"

(edited)
SigmasonicXYesterday at 2:41 PM
"Oh look, Silver Spoon, it's Equestria's 'glorious' queen," Diamond Tiara mocked as the pair noticed Nyx walking up to them, her words dripped with sarcasm. "What do you want, Your Majesty? Oh, wait, let me guess. You want to humiliate us in front of everypony in town, again. Or maybe you want to take my dad away, again."

Back to bullying her after all that happened

Ends with a Dear Princess Celestia

Dear Princess Celestia,

I just wanted to thank you and Luna again for letting Nyx stay with me. While most of Equestria may not be as welcoming to her, I can assure you that, after today's events, Nyx has friends among the ponies in Ponyville. Ponies who are willing to see her for who she is, not who she was.

The one thing that I've learned from raising Nyx is that if anypony wants to change for the better, they can, especially if they have help from good friends. When I first saw Nyx, I was, just like you, afraid that she was Nightmare Moon. Even after I quickly discovered her, at the time, timid personality, I was still afraid of truth, and I realize now that I was actively denying all evidence that pointed to who she really was, just to alleviate my own fears.

And yet, despite all that happened, things didn't turn out as dark as they could have. From what I've heard, even when she was fully resurrected, Nyx didn't act like Nightmare Moon from the legends or the books. The time she spent with me as my daughter, the time she spent with her friends, had changed her for the better.

And if Nightmare Moon herself can become a better pony, then I think anypony can.

Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle
The End(edited)
Now to find videos for the stream
CappyYesterday at 3:14 PM

Whatever Diamond Tiara, your dad has a weird pornstar name.

lol

I'll get you for this Nyx!

So in the end, I found the story rather dull overall. There were some ideas that were appealing, particularly Twilight acting as a mother and there were some interesting bits with Nyx struggling to understand what to do as Nightmare Moon, but so much of it felt rather meaningless. The cult stuff in particular was badly handled, especially when it turned out no one was actually evil and it was all mind control. Nyx kept going along with what they wanted for no reason in particular, when she didn't want to do any of the Nightmare Moon stuff. When she first transformed, she seemed to take some glee in hurting ponies, but that was quickly dropped because we can't make her look too bad. And the Nightmare Moon chapters just went on and on. I will cut it a lot of slack for being an early fanfic, though. There are a ton of direct references to the show and fan memes to show the readers that hey, I, the writer, am one of you guys! In case the fact that this story exists at all wasn't evidence of that.

A lot of reviews praise the themes of redemption and motherhood, but I don't believe those were well handled. Nyx is not Nightmare Moon, as the story goes out of its way to show, so there's no redemption to be had there, and she was too nice as Nightmare Moon and had the excuse of following the cult's orders. And the cultists themselves, again, turned out not to be at fault at all due to mind control. I suppose the theme does apply to Twilight and Celestia for setting off the situation that turned her into Nightmare Moon and feeling regret, but that mainly involved moping around and/or getting captured and wondering how they could have ever doubted the wonderful Nyx. Still, I did think those parts were among the better written ones. As for motherhood, I feel like it wasn't so much Twilight growing into that role and coming to understand what it means for her, as it is she suddenly became a stock mother that's obsessed with her child.

On the subject of Nyx as a Mary Sue... honestly, I didn't have that big a problem with it. Given her nature, it made perfect sense for her to be as powerful as she was, and she didn't do anything too egregious. Well, until the Everfree Forest attacked and she had to show how awesome she was by defeating all the creatures mostly on her own so everyone would forgive her.

As a reminder, I read the original version of the story (well, original completed version, given the author made revisions before completion). This page goes over some of the changes made in response to criticisms, and really, they mostly seem to be for the worse. Particularly, changing the sequence of Celestia taking Nyx away to remove the threat of her dying destroys all meaning to it. I would have liked to know what differences came about from updating the story to match season 2, but the page doesn't cover that much.

From what I can tell, it looks like the cover art of Nightmare Moon and Twilight being hanged is what drew people in, and the old forum posts I wrote about weeks ago demonstrate excitement for the chapters where Nyx becomes Nightmare Moon. Looking at the story's legacy, I usually just see it presented through fan art of Twilight taking care of filly Nyx. The idea of Twilight as a mother and being protective of a potentially dangerous child seems to be what appeals to people the most, and has lasted longer than the Nightmare Moon part.

Still a mostly dull story with a boring looking OC, though.

Nali · Sep 19, 2018

SigmasonicX said:
I started reading a story called My Kind of Crazy, about Pinkie X Skystar, but then I discovered (1) it's Equestria Girls, so it isn't about the characters we saw in the movie, and (2) Skystar here is a normal human who's the daughter of a diplomat, not a mermaid or anything. After the first chapter, I lost interest. It seems like it will be a pretty typical "people from different classes fall in love, high class people don't like this" story, which I'm not particularly interested in.

Thought I remembered seeing this come up a while back.

Got around to reading it tonight, and that's actually not the hook. It's pretty light on external conflict overall—which is good, because Novel Idea isn't very good at it anyway—and a lot more concerned with being adorable and fluffy. Not one of my new favorites, but it was a breezy, pleasant read.

SigmasonicX · Sep 20, 2018

Sciz said:
Thought I remembered seeing this come up a while back.

Got around to reading it tonight, and that's actually not the hook. It's pretty light on external conflict overall—which is good, because Novel Idea isn't very good at it anyway—and a lot more concerned with being adorable and fluffy. Not one of my new favorites, but it was a breezy, pleasant read.

Oh, that's a surprise. I thought for sure that's what the story was going for from the first chapter. Still, it's practically Pinkie X an OC, which I'm not interested in.

Late followup to Sunday's stream, we watched the following. With no changes, for once.
1. MLP - Shadow Play parts 1-2
2. MLP - A Rockhoof and a Hard Place
3. Big Hero 6 episode 3 - Big Roommates
4. Fate/Zero episodes 3-4

The viewers were a bit strange, with two regulars absent and more irregulars than usual.

I mentioned "Shadow Play" was a season finale, so ahoyhoy , who hasn't been keeping up with the show, got confused about how this worked with "Friendship University" until I clarified it was the previous season's finale. He also didn't know Sunburst and asked if he was a harem lead; I said to watch the episode before this. He seemed to follow the episode well enough despite not having seen the episodes leading into it, but maybe he can confirm. I still think this is a pretty good story, Twilight somehow not realizing the Pony of Shadows would be released aside.

I mentioned the stream reaction to "A Rockhoof and a Hard Place" in the season 8 thread.

SigmasonicX said:
Yeah, after rewatching the episode, I enjoyed it a lot more. In fact, it got a universally positive response in the stream; the only other person in the entire chat who actually watched this episode before it was UberTag and he wasn't in this stream (EDIT: oh, and Ogodei). My issues weren't as big, particularly the Pillars not doing as much as I would have liked, and I felt for Rockhoof more.

A lot of people in the stream weren't there for when I aired episode 2 of Big Hero 6 before, and a surprising number of people continue to have never seen the movie. Still, the show is easy enough to follow. The animation in this episode was pretty rough, which didn't give a great impression, but people seemed to have liked it well enough.

Fate/Zero covered the first proper fight, between Saber and Lancer, and it was good. We got more explanations of how things work with the Servants, and it was generally much easier to follow.

We watched the following videos.
1.Legends of the Pony Temple (MLP + LOTHT Temple Run) - YouTube
2.Equestria Girls Dino Rangers (EG PMV) [Legend of Everfree Spoilers!] - YouTube
3.[MLP Comic Dub] The View (saucy comedy) - YouTube
4.MLP:FIM [FULL PMV] Equestria's Story - Legends Never Die - YouTube
5.[PMV] Legend You Are Meant To Be - YouTube
6.Legend of everfree : Miraculous Ladybug (PMV) - YouTube
7.MLP | Smiley Face | Urban Legend - YouTube

With the exception of the comic (which has Rockhoof), I just searched for videos with "legend".

Trigonometrize was here for early in the stream, but missed the last YouTube video. You should definitely check it out; it's very spooky.

~~~

Stream announcements.

Friday will be... more Utena. Probably five episodes. And I got the verdict, episode 13 shouldn't be skipped despite being a recap. EDIT: And verdict changed, I watched it on my own and we're skipping it.
1. Utena episodes 14-18

And Sunday will be Princess Real Estate Day.

1. Castle Mane-ia
2. Castle Sweet Castle
3. What Lies Beneath
4. Big Hero 6 episode 5 - Food Fight - Aunt Cass gets caught up in underground cooking competitions; meanwhile, an evil sushi chef attacks
5-6. Fate/Zero episodes 5-6

Skipping a Big Hero 6 episode.

~~~

Read some fanfics.

Extra Sprinkles by Minds Eye is a short story about Donut Joe's first day running the donut shop, where a young Twilight and Spike run in, also explaining why Spike called him Pony Joe in "The Best Night Ever". It's alright, and it's interesting to see a story about this character, but there isn't much to it. I also thought Joe's reaction to Spike was too over the top.

I also read The Sun Sets Over the Apple Orchard by Oroboro, recommended as an example of how Sunset X Applejack can work. Sunset comes over to the farm to help out with the harvest, they bond, and then sex happens. The bonding worked pretty well, and the story was overall nice.

~~~

And some chat stories.

This first one follows up both "A Rockhoof and a Hard Place" and the fanfic Past Sins.

CappyLast Monday at 2:36 PM
http://www.halcyonmaps.com/infographics/#/constellations-throughout-the-ages/
Halcyon Maps
Infographics
hey its that hoyLast Monday at 3:18 PM
So that means space exists in their world?
So another point for post apocalyptic theory?
CappyLast Monday at 3:19 PM
I think they're stars in a huge pony's galaxy-sized cosmic mane
SigmasonicXLast Monday at 3:22 PM
Luna changed the constellations specifically to mess with Rockhoof
CappyLast Monday at 3:23 PM

I changed the stars as a joke!(edited)
SigmasonicXLast Monday at 3:32 PM

Your joke led to the destruction of a hippogriff navy ship! This is an international incident!

lol
CappyLast Monday at 3:36 PM

Ω I have crashed--making me the victor!
SigmasonicXLast Monday at 3:38 PM

(pumps money into stocks to recover from crash)

(there is massive inflation as a result)
CappyLast Monday at 3:39 PM

Sister, you've ruined the economy for the last time.

*pushes Luna onto a Moon Pie*
SigmasonicXLast Monday at 3:42 PM

Now that's what I call just desserts!

Technically, it's deserts with one 's'.

Jesus, Twilight.

Hello, I am Moon Pie now apparently.

(drains Luna's power to turn her back into a filly)

Twilight is your mother now. And you are also her butler.
CappyLast Monday at 3:44 PM
oh no, it's N E X U S
SigmasonicXLast Monday at 3:44 PM

Yes, give me that tea.
CappyLast Monday at 3:49 PM

My punishment was more dire than I was expecting.
SigmasonicXLast Monday at 3:49 PM

You shall have company

(now wearing a maid outfit)

...

Yeah, sure

Now that Luna's a filly, time to ship her and Gallus!

That's weird.
CappyLast Monday at 3:52 PM

Yes.
SigmasonicXLast Monday at 3:53 PM

(turns Cadance into a filly)

Oh wow, now I can teach Cadance the sunshine dance she taught me!

There, now it's normal.
CappyLast Monday at 3:54 PM

I think you need to turn Gallus into a filly.
SigmasonicXLast Monday at 3:54 PM

What? No. Why would you even think of that?

Turning a blue character into a filly, who would do that?

Safe!
[The End]
SigmasonicXLast Monday at 4:00 PM

Technically, Maud draining Luna's magic is a reference to Luna draining Nyx's magic, well after Spell Nexus was out of the story. Just wanted to point that out.
CappyLast Monday at 4:01 PM
So you're saying that happened after Spell was cast out of the cast. >_>
SigmasonicXLast Monday at 4:06 PM

And one based on some comic art, and recent Era threads about gentrification.

SylveeLast Monday at 6:45 PM

OrcastarLast Monday at 8:49 PM
If Cadance is the mother, are Luna and Celestia the maiden and the crone respectively?
SigmasonicXLast Monday at 9:34 PM

Dibs

Di--

[...]

September 18, 2018
XzeonLast Tuesday at 8:45 AM
Spooky princess
VillageLast Tuesday at 10:31 AM
too spooky
too spoopy infact
I am calling the police
hey its that hoyLast Tuesday at 11:17 AM

Yall call the spoop popo?
SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 11:22 AM

I was feeling threatened by these ponies cooking. It's lowering the property values.

How could I be lowering property values? I am this country's ruler.

Cooking, though.

That's because I was casting a spell to lower property values and make ponies with white actors uncomfortable, sister.

As part of this neighborhood's HOA, I am not amused.

places entire HOA in dungeon
And there was much rejoicing.
hey its that hoyLast Tuesday at 11:32 AM
HOA = Horse Owners Association

I am the HOA of Ponyville
SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 11:38 AM

places in dungeon

hey its that hoyLast Tuesday at 11:57 AM

Ponyville is a town within the greater realm of Equestria, of which I am the sovereign, making it a monarchy: ruled by one

an HOA is an organization which attempts to exercise unwanted control over local issues which bear little importance, making it a curiosarcy: rule by the nosy(edited)
SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 12:20 PM

starts moving in

...
CappyLast Tuesday at 3:26 PM

It's Ponyville, not Griffonditch, daaaaaaaaaaarling.

Miss Rarity, that's horrible!

Quiet, you pest!

I think Rarity is having one of her moments again

Don't get me started on you, you country bumpkin!
SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 3:28 PM

Now that they aren't in my backyard in particular, I think speciesism is bad.
CappyLast Tuesday at 3:28 PM

Rarity, for the last time, we're from the exact same town!
SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 3:30 PM

Sorry, just feeling some economic anxiety.

opens hipster rock store that draws in more ponies, forcing rent prices too high for non-ponies

All better~

But whatever happened to the culture of this place?
CappyLast Tuesday at 3:32 PM

It hasn't been the same since that nice library exploded.
SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 3:33 PM

eats griffon scone prepared by yaks living 30 miles out from Ponyville

Ooh, that looks nice.
CappyLast Tuesday at 3:34 PM

50 bits.
SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 3:34 PM

rent prices become too high for an owner of three successful clothing stores

becomes forced to commute to her own Ponyville store, which is now owned by

In time, Rarity, Twilight, and all the ponies of Ponyville have to commute from Yakyakistan
Which no longer has any yaks living there.
Soon, every creature left Equestria altogether. Commuting from Dougworld turned out to be much more convenient.

Not in my backyard!
CappyLast Tuesday at 3:40 PM

Scone?
SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 3:40 PM

nom
[You're gonna carry that weight]

Thus ends the tale of what could happen if we aren't careful.

Get out of my face, scaley.
[The End]

This was then followed up by a discussion about race in MLP, which I made a big post about in the season 8 thread.

SigmasonicX · Sep 26, 2018

Late stream followup.

Last Friday was Utena episodes 14-18, covering the first half of the Black Rose Arc. Despite the increase in, I suppose, subversive stuff, this arc also feels much more in line with the typical magical girl formula. Random person gets upset, villain uses these negative emotions to turn them into opponents for the hero, they fight, the hero wins. But mixed in there is a lot more incest; though this is still the time in anime when incest is presented as bad and creepy. The visuals are interesting, and it's nice to see the characters get more development, but in a way, the story feels like it isn't going forward. It feels like this arc will be Utena fighting a bunch of scrubs, and then the plot will progress. Mixed in there is a comedy story where Nanami turns into a cow, which was pretty good.

A recurring event in these episodes is people pulling swords out of previous duelists, like how a sword is pulled out of Anthy. Or so I'm told, because I've never noticed a sword coming out of Anthy. It makes me wonder if this inspired the guitars in FLCL, especially with the characters blushing when talking about it afterward.

During the stream, Chained pointed out the sword coming out of Miki (who was first) was like Anthy's, and I feigned ignorance. He didn't realize I was joking. It's kind of hard to miss.

Also, randomly, whenever I think back on the music that plays during the student council meetings, this is what comes to mind.

On Sunday, we watched the following.

1. Castle Mane-ia
2. Castle Sweet Castle
3. What Lies Beneath
4. Star Wars: Clone Wars season 5 episode 6 - The Gathering
5. Big Hero 6 episode 5 - Food Fight
6. Fate/Zero episodes 5

All the MLP episodes were fun to watch again, and I've forgotten a lot of the particulars of both of the old ones.

Since I mentioned in the MLP season 8 thread that "What Lies Beneath" was inspired by a Star Wars: Clone Wars episode, I decided to show it. Here's what I said in that thread.

SigmasonicX said:
During the Sunday stream, we also watched the Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode I mentioned in my previous post, "The Gathering", which inspired this episode. From that episode, the wookie character and Byph the slug-headed alien both felt similar to Yona. The human character Petro even sounded like Sandbar, though I confirmed he has a different voice actor. For the record, it seems like the stream viewers thought the episode was alright, but the MLP episode was better.

The Big Hero 6 episode seemed to be better received than the last one, and the animation was less obviously stilted. It featured Aunt Cass becoming the Knife Demon Lord of San Fransokyo and being a better hero than the heroes, but alas, there are only so many food themed villains.

There were some stream issues, so we only got through one Fate/Zero episode, this one ending the first big encounter. The fighting was pretty good. I was surprised no on ended up dying,

We watched the following YouTube videos, with "tree" as the theme.
1.(Fixed) Fluttershy's Lament all-kinds-in-one-edition
2. Made by me - My Little Pony x Rush Hour - Carter destroys the Library
3.Twilight tree
4.MLP Season 8 In a Nutshell: Ep. 13 "The Mean 6"
5.MLP:FIM [Animation] "Wrong Apple Tree"
6.Derpy Visits a Christmas Tree Farm (PIRL)
7.Tree Hugger's Psychedelic Adventure [Animation]
8.The "Apple" Tree [Animation]

SigmasonicX · Sep 28, 2018

Friday's stream is headed by Sylvee once again. We're watching a video by Jenny Nicholson, and then two episodes of Dan Vs., one of the other The Hub exclusive series that premiered alongside FiM, often described as a child-friendly Adult Swim cartoon. While Dan continued to have a life in MLP fan content for some time, his show never achieved much popularity.

And with the ponies visiting the previously unseen kirins, Sunday's stream will be... Cultural Imperialism Day!

(Pictured: a dragon having to follow the cultural norms of ponies)

In the first MLP episode, settlers take native land without permission and then go to war, which is resolved by exporting pony culture. Then, a young griffon feels she can't live up to the cutie standards imposed by ponies.
1. Over a Barrel
2. The Fault in Our Cutie Marks
3. Sounds of Silence
4. Big Hero 6 episode 7 - Failure Mode
5. Fate/Zero episode 6
6. Super Gals 27 (sub)

Just to get Fate/Zero back to starting from the odd numbered episode each week. And also to see if this works out better.
Also, skipping another Big Hero 6 episode. The skipped episode has some Gogo development, but I remember the antagonist being annoying. The episode we are watching does feature the return of Globby, but it also sets up the season villain and has a nice moment with Hiro's dead brother.

SigmasonicX · Oct 2, 2018

Stream followups.

On Friday, we watched the Jenny Nicholson video Trapped In A Island With Josh Hutcherson, a fanfic that goes places. It has quite a twist. After that, we watched the first part of Phelous's review of Goodtimes's Beauty and the Beast. I like his stuff, but it didn't seem to get an enthusiastic response.

Lastly, we watched two episodes of Dan Vs.: "Dan vs. the Mall Santa" and "Dan vs. Canada". The first episode felt like it was padded out from a quarter hour to a half hour, but it was alright. The second was good, and according to UberTag, an accurate depiction of Canada. I watched the first two episodes of this show years ago, but never got around to the rest. It really does feel like an Adult Swim show that ended up in a kids time slot somehow, though there was a bit of unexpected mild swearing.

Sunday was Cultural Imperialism Day.
1. Over a Barrel
2. The Fault in Our Cutie Marks
3. Sounds of Silence
4. Big Hero 6 episode 7 - Failure Mode
5. Fate/Zero episode 6-7

Super Gals ended up having issues, and we may not be able to continue it in the stream at all. In that case, we'd just watch it on Crunchyroll individually.

Again, haven't seen the first two MLP episodes in a long time. "Over a Barrel" still has great comedy moments, but the main story is ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. You know, in retrospect, it seems like all the really troublesome season 1 episodes are also among the funniest. "Bridle Gossip", "Feeling Pinkie Keen", and this. And the funny parts are completely separate from the offensive bits. Also, I keep forgetting about all the weird sound effects during the big fight at the end. One new thing is that Pinkie's "You Gotta Share" song is actually kind of offensive in light of recent seasons: she says they have to get along because ponies and buffalo both have hooves and are vegetarians.

In "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks", I somehow forgot about how Gabby was over the top good at everything. About the song, the beginning is weak, but I like it once it picks up. Episode is good.

People seemed to like the Big Hero 6 episode, aside from how unfair the class assignment was. Everyone was surprised they never ended up capturing Globby and retrieving the stolen painting.

The Fate/Zero episodes were interesting, especially bypassing a complex magic security system by just blowing up the entire building, and some neat blob magic. A bit too much child murder for my taste, though.

YouTube videos followed the theme "empire" and "emperor". And also an official Monster Hunter web video with a pony style kirin (not like in "Sounds of Silence", though).

Videos to be edited in later.

EDIT:
1.MLP- Glory to the Solar Empire! - YouTube
2.Age of Empires - My Little Classics, Gaming is Magic - YouTube
3.Emperor's New Clothes (Panic! At The Disco) [MLP PMV] - YouTube
4.MHWorld Shots: HR49 in a nutshell... - YouTube
5.Twily's New School (Ponyfied Emperor's New School intro) - YouTube
6.My Little Pony - Kuzco Dance - YouTube
7.[Collab] Empire [PMV] - YouTube
8.Age of Empires II - My Little Classics, Gaming is Magic - YouTube

And no new Crimson Lips chapter yet, but instead have this fantastic bonus story where they fight ninjas.

SigmasonicX · Oct 5, 2018

Stream announcements.

Friday will be five episodes of Utena once again, closing out the Black Rose arc (or so I'm told). After this point, I think we'll cut back on episodes to allow us to watch October-themed stuff.
1. Utena episodes 19-23

FYI to The Iron Giant , since I'm not sure if you knew to check the stream lineups here.

And Sunday will be Spike Day 2!

1516256__safe_screencap_spike_twilight+sparkle_triple+threat_alicorn_animated_dragon_gif_glowing+frill_panic_sweat_twilight+sparkle+%28alicorn%29.gif

1. Secret of My Excess
2. Triple Threat
3. Father Knows Beast
4. Big Hero 6 episode 9 - The Impatient Patient
5. Fate/Zero episodes 8-9

I was thinking of starting a new series in the Sunday stream, Kaleido Star, but for the rest of the year, I expect the streams to be weird to account for the holidays, so probably not the best time to do that. Perhaps when we get past Fate/Zero episode 13.

Also, read the new chapter of Crimson Lips by Monochromatic. Here's the review I posted.

Loved that scene with Twilight and Rarity, especially the callbacks to the fake chapter. I hope we see what happened after the Sweetie Belle incident that got Twilight and Rarity to hang out like this, though. Twilight's dialogue continues to hint at a morbid end for Rarity, which I'm both looking forward to because I'm sure it will be well written but also not because

Interesting to see more of the Main Six working at Luna's place. I assume Big Mac being there means Applejack is too. Curious to see where this all goes.

We also got a special bonus chapter of The Enchanted Kingdom, just like that bonus Crimson Lips chapter in my last post. This time with vikings.

SigmasonicX · Oct 7, 2018

EDIT: Actual names put in.

Alright, so last night, we watched episodes 19-23 of Utena, thus reaching the first point where I was so confused that I needed everything spelled out for me. But I'll get to that later.

The first two episodes showcased Utena's friend, Wakaba, first introducing her old friend that turned out to not actually be relevant, Tatsuya. It was kind of weird that he was rejected for the Black Rose stuff because he was a good person, when his issue didn't seem that different from the others, but I assume it's largely because he didn't have a connection to a duelist, and maybe there's a connection to the past of the pink haired guy, Mikage, I'm missing. It was revealed Wakaba is letting green haired guy, Saionji, stay in her room. I had forgotten the thing in the first episode with her writing a love letter to him and it getting mocked. Due to technical difficulties, we switched to the English dub for episode 20 on. I remembered Wakaba having a really bad dub voice before, so I was shocked to see her acting was much better here. Uber explained that they changed dub directors after episode 13. That moment where Wakaba and Saionji seem like they'll be romantically involved, and then Saionji asks about Anthy and there's a long pause was hilarious. It was pretty interesting to have Utena win her duel against Wakaba without using the Sword of Dios. Unlike the other Black Rose duelists, she seemed to still have negative emotions bottled up after all that; I wonder if that's connected to not using the Sword of Dios. Saionji looked so happy returning to school; I wonder if he'll ever learn the fate of his exchange diary.

The third episode unexpectedly focused on a background member of Nanami's entourage, featuring some hilarious and stone cold pettiness. It's kind of weird how Touga isn't really saying or doing anything anymore, even in the episode where someone takes his sword.

And the last two episodes featured Mikage's backstory and a fight with him. I noticed that the scene with framed pictures of the Black Rose duelists included shots of the production crew, which was cute. I liked that Utena just punched him when he was trying to justify himself. I suppose I'll start using spoiler tags now.

So what actually happened, I think, is that in the distant past, Mikage burned down a dorm with 100 duelists, including his friend, Mamiya, after getting a ring from Anthy's brother, Akio (who looked the same back then). Then at some point, Akio had Anthy use magic to disguise herself as Mikage's dead friend and encourage him to do the Black Rose stuff. Also Mikage was dead the entire time, I guess.

Now when I watched the last two episodes, I was really confused for the following reasons:
* I had forgotten about that person that was with Mikage during the scenes where they were cultivating the black roses. Thus, I didn't connect that person to the flashbacks. Even when people were explaining these episodes to me, I wasn't remembering this until well after the stream ended, but TBF, everyone was saying "the scenes where Mikage was alone" and didn't mention anything about the black rose cultivating. Plus, thanks to watching the sub for the first Black Rose Arc episode, I assumed that person in the cultivation scenes was a woman and not a man. Well, it did turn out to be a woman, but you know what I mean.
* I assumed Mamiya in the flashback was the man in the castle, because why would so much focus be placed on a character we hadn't seen before? So when characters were talking about his grave, I assumed that was referring to the castle. It didn't help that there was a framed picture of Mamiya in a duelist uniform, which made me think of the man in the castle. I did think it was strange that the man in the castle would be a normal person, and that his sister had lighter skin than him, but I assumed it was an anime style "darker skin = more power" thing, which I was annoyed by.
* I had forgotten that Akio appeared in the flashback.

In the course of having things explained to me, I was told that Akio is End of the World. Not sure if I wasn't supposed to know that yet.

The episodes in this set were good, but it kind of feels like the Black Rose Arc was more to introduce Anthy's brother and what he can do, and that all the actual Black Rose stuff is unimportant to the rest of the series. But I guess we'll see.

Oh, and I read a fan fic, City in a Bottle by Cynewulf. The premise is that Twilight disappeared into a strange space out of time, and Rarity follows after her. However, it isn't an adventure story, but rather one that follows the thoughts of both ponies as they stay in a tower and walk toward the tower respectively, as they consider their romantic relationship and how they view each other. I thought the format was pretty interesting. Here's the review I posted.

I enjoyed this story a lot. It's a nice quiet story examining Twilight and Rarity, and both narrators were written well. The atmosphere was great, with the I suppose you could say uneventfulness only adding to it.

SigmasonicX · Oct 10, 2018

Sunday stream followup, we watched the following episodes.

1. Secret of My Excess
2. Triple Threat
3. Father Knows Beast
4. Big Hero 6 episode 9 - The Impatient Patient
5. Fate/Zero episodes 8-9

It turns out dragons are pretty racist, even more than ponies are to them. As usual, I had forgotten a lot of the first episode. Not as much with the second episode, though I somehow forgot about Starlight's involvement and the chair scenes. All three episodes seemed to be well received.

The Big Hero 6 episode seemed to be well. received too, although the main villain's plan relied a lot on luck and thus didn't really earn the Xanatos style reveal. His name isn't revealed in the show proper for a couple more episodes, but it's Obake (o-bak-e).

I ended up watching Fate/Zero with just one other person. The episodes were good, but it was getting kind of frustrating that no one is dying after being put in mortal danger. Besides the little kids, I mean. It also feels like a lot of these rules like each servant having only one noble phantasm are established just so characters can subvert them for reveals, like it turning out Saber's scabbard can heal.

We watched the following Spike themed YouTube videos. The Rarity ones are Spike's dreams.
1.my little pony Wysteria & Spike - Eitt Lag Enn (PMV) - YouTube - This is the second most viewed Spike PMV
2.Rarity's Daughter [MLP Next Gen Comic Dub] - YouTube
3.I Like You So Much (MLP ANIMATIC) - YouTube
4.[MLP Comic Dub] The True Lifesaver (uplifting) - YouTube
5.MLP: Equestria Girls - 'The Other Side' ft. Rarity Official Music Video - YouTube
6.Kenshiro vs. Rarity [Fist of the North Star x My Little Pony: Equestria Girls] - YouTube
7.Twilight's Backside (MLP ANIMATIC) - YouTube
8.Your Fault (MLP ANIMATIC) - YouTube
9.MLP:FIM Spike X Applejack - (MINI) Tribute - You Belong With Me - YouTube
10.MLP Spike Dragon PMV - Let it Go - YouTube

~~

To fit in a bunch of Halloween stuff, I have to plan out the upcoming streams further ahead than usual, so I'm posting this a bit earlier in case someone has feedback for this week.

Friday, October 12
1. ParaNorman (movie)
2. Utena episode 24

With Utena, we'll have 15 episodes left after this, so in November, we'll be able to finish it by watching five episodes per week for three weeks. Not sure if we'll watch the movie the week after or wait a bit.

Sunday, October 14
1. MLP - School Raze parts 1-2
2. Gravity Falls - Summerween
3. Bob's Burgers - Full Bar
4. Bob's Burgers - The Hauntening
5. Fate/Zero episode 10

Instead of any additional MLP episodes or Big Hero 6, we'll be watching some Halloween episodes. Fate/Zero is included so we can start from an odd numbered episode again next time, but we won't be watching it for the rest of the month.

Friday, October 19
1. X-Files - Post-Modern Prometheus
2. Ghost Stories episode 1
3. Ghost Stories episode 9 (the rabbit one)
4. Ghost Stories episode 12 (the nurse one)

I was interested in showing an X-Files episode. There surprisingly isn't a Halloween episode (or at least one that people include on episodes that are good for Halloween lists), but this one is appropriately Halloweeny and one of the best episodes of the show. Hoping to show some Darin Morgan episodes on some other day. After that, we're watching some episodes of Ghost Stories, an anime that has a parody dub, and we've chosen some of the best episodes. And the first one; I don't remember if that's particularly funny compared to the others.
EDIT: Swapping out episode 1 for episode 13.

Sunday, October 21
The Simpsons - Treehouse of Horror marathon

Uber will be in charge of that.

After that, things aren't as planned out, but it will presumably be more Halloween specials. "Best Gift Ever" will be airing on October 27, but we decided to wait to stream that in December where it would be more appropriate.

SigmasonicX · Oct 18, 2018

Late stream followup.

On Friday, we watched the following.
1. ParaNorman (movie)
2. Utena episode 24

ParaNorman has a great look, once it gets to the horror parts and the ugly human designs start feeling more appropriate, and the climax is fantastic. Unfortunately, I didn't like most of the comedy when I first watched this in theaters and I still don't.

Utena episode 24 was a recap episode. Sort of. It's more like a Nanami episode that cheaped out by using a lot of flashbacks. This was the first dub episode we watched with Tatsuya, and wow, his English voice is way deeper than I would have expected. He was talking about his secret, and I expected his secret to be he was 30. It was a pretty fun episode, going through the effort to add him to the flashbacks so it wasn't a plain clip show.

On Saturday, we watched the following.
1. MLP - School Raze parts 1-2
2. Gravity Falls - Summerween
3. Bob's Burgers - Full Bar
4. Bob's Burgers - The Hauntening
5. Fate/Zero episode 10

We had probably our biggest audience yet, I believe getting up to 10 people.

"School Raze" seems to have been enjoyed well enough.

Most people seem to have seen Gravity Falls in its entirety, but we did have one person who only saw the first two episodes. This is a standalone episode that doesn't tie into the plot, thankfully. I had forgotten a lot about this series already, particularly Mabel's friends and somehow Dipper's Wendy obsession. It was good.

I hadn't seen Bob's Burgers before, and the same applied to one other person. Both episodes were pretty good, with the second being funnier. Compared to other animated sitcoms, it struck me how well the family got along.

Last was a single Fate/Zero episode that was more or less standalone and even fit the Halloween mood, with young Rin going against the serial killer. I had some computer trouble, so I had to watch it on my own later. Rin was pretty cool here.

Videos we watched generally followed a MLP:FiM 8th Anniversary theme.
1.PMV | 1985 - YouTube
2.MLP Season 8 In a Nutshell: Ep. 22 "What Lies Beneath" - YouTube
3.Cozy Glow wakes up feeling so... [My Little Pony x Jojo's Bizarre Adventure] - YouTube
4.1 second of every MLP:FIM episode - YouTube
5.PMV | Black & White (A PMV Collaboration) | Commemorating 8 Years of Pony - YouTube
6.[MLP Comic Dub] Rescue UR Horse (comedy/romance - Rarity/Twilight) - YouTube
7.Alright || MLP 8th Anniversary Tribute by MathematicPony - YouTube

~~~

Upcoming streams.

On Friday, we're watching the following.
1. X-Files - Post-Modern Prometheus
2. Ghost Stories episode 9 (the rabbit one)
3. Ghost Stories episode 12 (the nurse one)
4. Ghost Stories episode 13 (the DaVinci one)

Note that for those who haven't watched one of Sylvee's streams before (ex: The Iron Giant ), I'll be using a similar process as him to show that first episode. I'll be looping another thing using the same method in the stream, so if that doesn't work for you, either follow the steps I PM'd to you or PM me.

We changed up what Ghost Stories episodes will be shown from my previous post.

I don't think we'll get to it, but if there's still interest by the end, I might show episode 2 of Zombieland Saga, a currently airing show. I'm not sure the series will be good overall, since episode 3 was pretty weak, but episode 2 has some great moments and it recaps the first episode well enough.

Then Sunday will be a full blown Simpsons Treehouse of Horror stream, which will be handled by UberTag.

~~~

In fanfic news, The Enchanted Library Sidestories got an update, "Empty Parks". Mono has mentioned in her blog posts that she has to hold herself back from just telling everyone about later events in the story, and it seems she's releasing some of that pressure here. It feels a lot more like a later chapter of The Enchanted Kingdom than a side story. Still, it's intriguing; and just like Mono to put Rarity and Twilight in that situation. In a good way.

One chapter of Crimson Lips came out too. My review:

I'm glad to see more of Twilight and Rarity's early interactions, before the events of the previous chapter. I adore this portrayal of Rarity where she acts cool and mysterious just to hide how incredibly nervous she is around Twilight.

Nali · Oct 18, 2018

Aside from a couple of my tracked stories dropping chapters out of the blue after over a year, I haven't read anything lately. Need to fix that.

SigmasonicX · Oct 18, 2018

Whoops, forgot to post a chat story.

SylveeLast Tuesday at 2:08 PM
Take 2

SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 2:14 PM
That looks better, I guess it was mainly the left side that was bothering me.
CappyLast Tuesday at 2:19 PM
should i add it now
something will have to be removed
UberTagLast Tuesday at 2:20 PM

It clearly still needs a ton of work. Go back to the drawing board.

You're just saying that because you don't want to get whisked away into limbo.

As if you would like it. Besides which... you can't have Discord without Discord. That would be like having a party without Pinkie Pie. It just doesn't fly.(edited)

Well, something has to go.

You're going to keep a generic changeling over me? Really now? Those things don't even exist any more.

<hiss>

Go hiss yourself.

Besides, I have an extremely full docket of activities today. Why, I'm having tea with Fluttershy later tonight!
SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 2:28 PM

has seen little use, really
And I think I'll wait before removing

since I don't think now's the time
Oh wait, we did get the go ahead from AM to remove some other emotes
I propose

UberTagLast Tuesday at 2:32 PM

How I tire of emote culture... <sigh>

eats

CappyLast Tuesday at 2:36 PM

Wow, I love this posta!
UberTagLast Tuesday at 2:39 PM

I have succesfully cheated death once more.

Yay!

and

share

It's Silverstream!(edited)

Oh no!

pounces on

(edited)

I love you guys even more than pasta!

Apparently, we're supposed to go on a class field trip today out to sea. We need to hop on this boat named the S.S. Sylvee.(edited)

I can't imagine why.

OMG!

Oh wait... apparently I've been assigned something else. I won't be able to join you guys.

All according to plan.
CappyLast Tuesday at 2:57 PM
Sylvee was a boat the whole time :o
SylveeLast Tuesday at 2:57 PM
I'm a what now?
UberTagLast Tuesday at 2:58 PM
Sylvee's not a boat... but he does

and

.
SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 3:17 PM

I see how it is. Training my own replacement.
UberTagLast Tuesday at 3:20 PM

I thought I was going to be your replacement.
SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 3:21 PM

Technically she's your replacement.

I'm going to eat this boat.

UberTagLast Tuesday at 3:22 PM

shares stories with

about the alternative universe where she becomes the Princess of Chaos

Sounds like fun!
SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 3:24 PM

I forgot to mention that if I get wet, I turn into a human.

Problem is, I can't swim or fly now.

(entranced by water for some reason)

(scary drowning music plays)

pets Pinkie

rescues Gallus

Thank you, friend whale.

I am no whale.

By coming into contact with a griffon turned into a man, I have become a woman. Who can swim and carry you.

Wow.

continues petting

Now can you get that high quality of story without me?

Wow, look at that thing go! I never realized feathers could be used like that!

You should have been paying attention to my dictation, not the writing!

Though I suppose this means I had your character down pat.

I was listening! In fact... Professor Pie!

pets

This is... awakening something in me.

builds nest in

's hair

Hmm, somehow didn't see that coming.

urk

Seriously, another one?!

Clearly we need some egg education here.

Some egg ucation?(edited)

Not the time, Pinkie! And don't move around! You'll drop the egg!

Now Silverstream, Ocellus here has some experience laying an egg in the school. Usually what happens is you'll hatch a time traveling owl.

Maybe I'm not actually needed around here.

Silverstream, have you read any good books lately?

I did read a great book on indoor plumbing earlier.

Ooh, wow. That'll do it.

cracks

Ah, here it comes!

Wow, that's my baby?
CappyLast Tuesday at 3:51 PM

How many owls does that make?
SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 3:51 PM

We've got a regular aviary!

Come, my child. We have much to teach you of the world's true order.

Who

We. Me and the other time owl.

Who

I told you, me and him!

Who

Don't you start too

retcons away all the owl stuff

That was weird. But fun!

Oh, so that's why Owlowiscious hasn't shown up since season 5.
[The End]
CappyLast Tuesday at 4:07 PM
now we need yona
actually we've needed yona all our lives
CappyLast Tuesday at 4:15 PM
oh and smolder she's alright too
SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 4:16 PM

Please no more egg laying students.
CappyLast Tuesday at 4:16 PM
well she's a baby so it'll be fine probably

[...]

TrigonometrizeLast Tuesday at 5:29 PM
Rarity, that's classist. And not like screw poor people. You're a mammal supremacist
CappyLast Tuesday at 5:38 PM
Egg ternalist

And just read another fandom classic, Hard Reset by Eakin. Twilight traps herself in a time loop while changelings invade, and she has to find a way to save everyone. I'll just post the chat discussion.

SigmasonicXToday at 5:16 PM
Just finished reading https://www.fimfiction.net/story/67362/hard-reset
Fimfiction
Eakin
Hard Reset
Twilight gives her life to stop a changeling invasion. Repeatedly.

It's pretty good! Definitely much better than the last fandom classic I read.
Wasn't keen on that alternate ending, but it is alternate.
If I remember correctly, you said the sequel isn't worth checking out, right Sciz ?
ScizToday at 5:18 PM
not as I recall them, no
they're increasingly unfocused and lack the tight writing and black comedy of the original
the Matrix trilogy is probably a good analogy
SigmasonicXToday at 5:21 PM
Oh, thought there was just one sequel, but I see there are a bunch of them.
ScizToday at 5:21 PM
two direct sequels and a followup to the AU ending
SigmasonicXToday at 5:22 PM
Yeah, none of those seem appealing.
And they're all close to twice as long
ScizToday at 5:24 PM
wordcount bloat tends to be a good sign of an iffy followup
SigmasonicXToday at 5:27 PM
Yeah, what got me to even consider actually reading it when you recommended it was that it was far shorter than I thought it would be.
I had read the TV Tropes page for it years ago, and assumed it was a Fallout Equestria style behemoth.
It spent just the right amount of time on each loop variant and didn't overstay its welcome.
ScizToday at 5:29 PM
mhmm
SigmasonicXToday at 5:29 PM
I did feel like the final loop needed more going for it--compare to Edge of Tomorrow making the final loop wildly different from the others and removing Tom Cruise's ability to go back (until he did, I mean)--but the epilogue made up for that.
SigmasonicXToday at 5:46 PM
Since I might as well just copy this chat instead of rewriting everything for my writeup post, I'll go over one thing I don't like about the alternate ending and it appears the sequels: the idea that that the Elements of Harmony would kill Twilight when she tries to use them (the correct way, with her friends) and they aren't actually forces for good. Even just looking at the first episodes would show that can't be the case, and it just feels needlessly edgy. Plus, in the normal ending, it looked like the invasion was being handled well enough and using the elements was just to prevent too much loss of life, so Twilight could have just left the situation like that and then after things calm down, find a new bearer of the Element of Magic or figured out a way to cancel the spell. The fact that Celestia could detect it showed that was a possibility. Twilight turning evil, especially to the level she does, just doesn't feel like a possibility in this case, and was just there to appeal to Ask Pinkamena fans.
Come to think of it, is Hard Reset the last really famous MLP fanfic, chronologically?
To not end on a sour note, I will say I liked the epilogue a lot. It felt appropriate that Twilight would act the way she did, having trouble dealing with a life that isn't predictable.
Oh right, I guess my question is right there in the middle now

Forcing a timestamp
Well never mind
Come to think of it, is Hard Reset the last really famous MLP fanfic, chronologically?
ScizToday at 5:50 PM
I like the epilogue, but I'm also not at all sure the story needs it
I'd have to check dates as far as fame goes
SigmasonicXToday at 5:52 PM
In the last loop, things went exactly as Twilight predicted, making it not as exciting for the audience. If it was more like the last Edge of Tomorrow loop, I would have been good without an epilogue, but as it is, I did feel the epilogue was needed for a satisfying ending.
It probably didn't need to be as long as it was, though.
About my question, Hard Reset was published after season 3 premiered, and I can't think of anything that got much attention after that, and certainly not after Princess Twilight.
ScizToday at 6:00 PM
I'm inclined to say that TEL is probably the last meaningfully famous story published
lacking the view counts of earlier hits mostly due to lacking as many years of inertia
SigmasonicXToday at 6:01 PM
Eh, while TEL does get a decent amount of fan tributes, I don't feel like it's anywhere near the level of the older fics in popularity.
ScizToday at 6:02 PM
it's three years late to the party, ultimately
SigmasonicXToday at 6:02 PM
Hard Reset arguably got a reference in the show itself, for one thing
Spike saying, "Well that didn't work," in The Cutie Re-Mark when they enter the Chrysalis timeline.
ScizToday at 6:03 PM
there's stuff with higher raw view counts in the interim between them, but nothing that jumps out at me as having endured over time and drawn the attention of the writing crowd at large
I'm willing to chalk that up as coincidence
SigmasonicXToday at 6:04 PM
I could have sworn there was something that made it more likely it was an intentional reference, like from a Twitter post or a convention, but I don't remember what.
ScizToday at 6:05 PM
hm
SigmasonicXToday at 6:10 PM
Well, on a quick look, I don't see anything about it

Also checked to see if this fic was ever mentioned in the GAF threads, and I don't think it was.
But I had completely forgotten about how people wanted Equestria Girls to be out of continuity and hit the reset button at the end.
Full disclosure, I wanted EQG to be non-canon for purely Brad related reasons.

UberTag · Oct 20, 2018

SigmasonicX said:
Then Sunday will be a full blown Simpsons Treehouse of Horror stream, which will be handled by UberTag.

Just a quick reminder that I'll be kicking off the pre-show for tomorrow's stream at 6:00pm Eastern (3:00pm Pacific) with the 1966 special It's a Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. So feel free to pop in early if you want to scope that out before the Simpsons festivities that will immediately follow.

SigmasonicX · Oct 22, 2018

Stream followups.

The X-Files episode "Post-Modern Prometheus" was nice, though the bits I remembered enjoying were mainly toward the end. It seemed like some people didn't get what parts were normal X-Files and what parts were references; in retrospect, I probably should have played a more normal episode sometime before this one. Still, it seems like the response was positive enough. Bigger issue is that some people had trouble playing it, but hopefully we can figure that out. While I'd prefer to just show the more fun episodes in the stream, "E.B.E." might be a good normal episode to show. Even introduces The Lone Gunmen, AKA best supporting cast members, who are in surprisingly few "must see" episodes that aren't two parters.

After that, we watched three episodes of Ghost Stories, with one person who was unfamiliar. The show's dub is hilarious, though heavy on some early 00-isms. Rabbit episode is the best of the lot, but the other two were good too. I had forgotten a lot about this series.

We had time to watch episode 2 of Zombieland Saga after all, with one person who hadn't seen it. He said it was interesting, but he'd have to see more before wanting to watch it on his own, and fair enough. Like I said, I wasn't a big fan of episode 3, and I'm completely prepared for this show to fall flat on its face. Still, episodes 1 and 2 at least are a lot of fun.

Today was UberTag 's Treehouse of Horror stream, and it was nice, despite some stream issues. We didn't watch the episodes in order, so I can't reproduce the list off hand. The only THOH I remember watching before is V, and I got confused because I remembered the inside out gas appearing at the end of the time travel short and not the teachers eating students short. That inside out song freaked me out when I was a kid. In addition to the THOH episodes, we also watched an actual "canon" Simpsons Halloween special and an episode with Kang and Kodos making one of their few "canon" appearances, both from newer seasons. The former oddly felt more like a Fluttershy episode than a typical Lisa episode, but it was still nice. The latter had good bits, but I don't think it worked overall.

There were no YouTube videos, except for one hyping up THOH and a better quality version of the inside out song than what was in the version of THOH V we watched.

About the streams coming up, we'll continue watching Halloween stuff. As I mentioned in earlier posts, we'll hold off on watching "The Best Gift Ever" until December. I'll be taking suggestions for what Halloween/spooky stuff to show, but what I have so far is:

Friday:
Garfield Halloween special
Something Scooby Doo (leaning toward Zombie Island, but I'll take alternatives)

Sunday:
MLP - Luna Eclipsed and/or Bats! (also and/or Scare Master, but that was streamed before)
Tangled - that haunted bar episode and/or the creepy tree painting episode
Reboot - Evil Dead episode
Hilda (new series) - nightmare spirit episode and/or tide pool mice episode and/or poltergeist episode
Unikitty (new series) - spooky board game episode and/or the second Halloween special (I haven't seen the second one)
Teen Titans (new series, but referring to the old one) - that episode where Raven becomes scared and her fears attack everyone

That's what I got as possibilities so far. Feel free to suggest more.

~~~

On Saturday, I ran an RP: 301 - Nightmare Cake. On Nightmare Night, Smolder meets up with SciTwi, who turns out to actually be a nightmare cake made by Pinkie Pie, who proceeds to attack. Or rather, this is all a take told by Pinkie. No RP next week, but we'll get back to longer ones the week after, hopefully.

~~~

In fic news, I read a story called Rarity Takes Slightly Too Much Klonopin to Stave Off Her Dread Regarding the Inevitable Heat Death of the Universe by Cynewulf. If you can't guess, it's on the wacky side, though there is some seriousness to it. It's actually a continuation of a previous gag story, but I read a bit of that and just didn't enjoy it. Twilight is asked to talk to Rarity after she does what the title says, and Twilight tries to understand why she did it as Rarity talks about random things and acts oddly affectionate. Yes, it's a RariTwi story... or technically RariTwiShy, which does get extra credit from me. If you're wondering, the author takes klonopin, so she's making fun of herself with this story. Note that this became a huge deal in the comment section as someone responded to an innocent question about this with unwarranted insults, resulting in a big fight. Anyway, the story is a fun read. It does end with Twilight and Rarity smooching while Rarity is apparently still under the drug's influence, which didn't sit well with me, though, despite Rarity insisting she's in her right mind.

There was also a new Crimson Lips chapter. Here's the review I posted.

God, this chapter was insanely adorable. I loved the way you described moments like Twilight successfully walking on water and turning to face Rarity. I should have figured this was inspired by "I See the Light".

UberTag · Oct 22, 2018

SigmasonicX said:
Today was UberTag 's Treehouse of Horror stream, and it was nice, despite some stream issues. We didn't watch the episodes in order, so I can't reproduce the list off hand. The only THOH I remember watching before is V, and I got confused because I remembered the inside out gas appearing at the end of the time travel short and not the teachers eating students short. That inside out song freaked me out when I was a kid. In addition to the THOH episodes, we also watched an actual "canon" Simpsons Halloween special and an episode with Kang and Kodos making one of their few "canon" appearances, both from newer seasons. The former oddly felt more like a Fluttershy episode than a typical Lisa episode, but it was still nice. The latter had good bits, but I don't think it worked overall.

For reference, here's a complete breakdown of what was screened...

PRE-SHOW - It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
#1 - Hungry are the Damned {THOH I}
#2 - Oh, The Places You'll D'oh {THOH XXIV}
#3 - Clown Without Pity {THOH III}
#4 - It's the Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse {THOH XIX}
#5 - The Devil and Homer Simpson {THOH IV}
#6 - Terror at 5½ Feet {THOH IV}
#7 - Bart Simpson's Dracula {THOH IV}
#8 - The Exor-Sis {THOH XXVIII}
#9 - Coralisa {THOH XXVIII}
#10 - Citizen Kang {THOH VII}
#11 - Dial "M" for Murder or Press "#" to Return to Main Menu {THOH XX}
#12 - Don't Have a Cow, Mankind {THOH XX}
#13 - Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace {THOH VI}
#14 - The Others (THOH XXV}
#15 - The Shinning {THOH V}
#16 - Time and Punishment {THOH V}
#17 - Nightmare Cafeteria {THOH V}
#18 - Halloween of Horror
BONUS - The Man Who Came to Be Dinner

And I agree with you on your assessment of the bonus episode... although I did largely enjoy the family interacting with one another at Dizneeland and during the flight to Rigel VII. It sort of falls apart afterwards.

SigmasonicX · Oct 26, 2018

Alright, double spooky in Friday and Sunday's streams. Again, no "Best Gift Ever".

Friday:
1. Garfield Halloween Special
2. Scooby Doo on Zombie Island

Sunday:
1. MLP - Luna Eclipsed
2. Reboot season 3 episode 1 - To Mend and Defend - The Evil Dead episode
3. Unikitty - Spoooooky Game (15 minutes)
4. Hilda - The Nightmare Spirit
5.
6.

... Yeah, I admit I don't have this one fully planned out yet.

Mixed in with both streams will be several Halloween shorts.

Also of note, on Saturday at 3 PM PT, we plan on playing a game of Dominion online! Remember to register and play a few games against bots beforehand.

SigmasonicX · Oct 27, 2018

For those who want to join in on Dominion, add Sylvee as a friend. Then you'll be able to see his game and join as a spectator; then he'll make room by removing a bot and you can join.

SigmasonicX · Oct 27, 2018

We ended up playing three games of Dominion, with three people. There wasn't much to do when it wasn't your turn, and Sylvee steamrolled us anyway, so it doesn't look like we'll continue playing this. I'll look into something more collaborative next time.

Ah right, should follow up on yesterday's stream and post what tomorrow's lineup will actually be. We watched the following.
1.Backstreet Boys - Everybody (Backstreet's Back) (Official Video)
2.Betty Boop Snow White 1933 1080p recently restored pre-code.
3.Garfield Halloween
4. Scooby Doo on Zombie Island
5.The Worst Ghost Hunting Show of All Time

Was going to play "Thriller", but I realized that music video is actually pretty long.

You wouldn't think a Betty Boop cartoon about Snow White would be spooky, but it goes places. Pre-Code cartoons were crazy. I knew old cartoons were heavy on every little thing randomly gaining a face and turning out to be alive, but wow, that happened a lot here. This is my first time watching Betty Boop of any kind, and I enjoyed it, particularly that random jazz number that I assume used an actual performance as reference.

After that was the Garfield Halloween special, which was nice. Sylvee hadn't seen any of the old Garfield cartoons, to our surprise, so he hadn't heard Lorenzo Music as Garfield. It was a nice special.

Scooby Doo on Zombie Island was interesting to watch after so long. A bit more boring than I remembered, but still, it had some fun songs and actual corpses and implied death. Velma made a :3 face a lot. Tara Strong voiced one character. Daphne and Fred were pretty annoying here; they are definitely the characters that creators have the most trouble finding a use for, hence Mystery Incorporated giving Fred at least some wacky characteristics. I still need to watch that.

Last was a Jenny Nicholson video describing a pretty odd ghost hunting show where they first get a normal home inspector to look at the haunted houses, and he always finds perfectly normal explanations for the spooky incidents, particularly improperly placed doors and wiring problems. Then they also bring in a psychic and go "both sides mirite", and they never say if the home owners fix the actual door and wiring problems.

As for Sunday, here's the final schedule.
1. MLP - Luna Eclipsed
2. Reboot season 3 episode 1 - To Mend and Defend - The Evil Dead episode
3. Unikitty - Spoooooky Game (15 minutes)
4. Hilda - The Nightmare Spirit
5. Tiny Toon Adventures - Night Ghoulery (hour long)

There will be several TBD shorts (Mickey Mouse, Looney Tunes, etc.) in between everything.

Sylvee · Oct 30, 2018

SigmasonicX said:
You wouldn't think a Betty Boop cartoon about Snow White would be spooky, but it goes places. Pre-Code cartoons were crazy. I knew old cartoons were heavy on every little thing randomly gaining a face and turning out to be alive, but wow, that happened a lot here. This is my first time watching Betty Boop of any kind, and I enjoyed it, particularly that random jazz number that I assume used an actual performance as reference.

It was sort of surreal watching an old cartoon from that era. It's one of the most commonly parodied and referenced eras of animation, but I've never really watched much from back then. It was really weird because I've seen a ton of stuff that looks like that sort of thing before but is obviously trying to pretend to be from there, but this was actually from that era.

SigmasonicX said:
Scooby Doo on Zombie Island was interesting to watch after so long. A bit more boring than I remembered, but still, it had some fun songs and actual corpses and implied death. Velma made a :3 face a lot. Tara Strong voiced one character. Daphne and Fred were pretty annoying here; they are definitely the characters that creators have the most trouble finding a use for, hence Mystery Incorporated giving Fred at least some wacky characteristics. I still need to watch that.

I liked the slower pace at the beginning of the movie. It made it feel like an actual movie rather then just a normal episode stretched out to 70+ minutes. I really liked the setting too. But there were a couple things that sort of bothered me. The conceit of the whole thing is one of the bigger ones. One of the biggest things about the original show is that the scary monsters weren't actually real and were instead people trying to use them to make a quick buck or avoid punishment for a crime. Once you get past the talking dog there's sort of a lesson about skepticism there, but that whole thing is sort of thrown out the window when you establish that actual monsters can be real. It's a reimagining so I can look past that though.

What I think is a little less forgiving is that the gang seem to have little agency in the story and them solving mysteries has almost no bearing on how they actually end up succeeding. The closest part of any of the characters actually figuring out anything on their own is Velma realizing that one of the hosts was lying when they said the other was captured by zombies, but that doesn't even matter because they end up immediately getting captured anyway. They don't figure out that the zombies are on their side, they're told by the bad guys. Pretty much all of the rules as to how the bad guys work and how to defeat them are told to them. Scooby and Shaggy end up interrupting the draining and knocking Velma's doll near her completely on accident, they didn't even know where the rest of the gang was being held or that they were even captured in the first place. And the zombies are helping them purely because they want to get revenge on the bad guys, not because the gang helped them out earlier and the zombies decide to return the favor. Them succeeding largely just feels like they got lucky.

Captain Fish · Oct 30, 2018

The St. James Infirmary musical number was a rotoscoped performance of Cab Calloway who ended up doing a few songs for Fleischer cartoons, maybe we can watch them some other time. I really enjoy the background art during that sequence that goes along with the lyrics.

The Garfield special had a pacing that made it feel like daily strips, with a lot of the jokes having spcae before the set up and after the punchline. The old guy was pretty spooky.
Unfortunately I didn't stay awake through all of the Scooby-Doo stuff.

As for Sunday, it was fun rewatching Luna Eclipsed, it's got some really strong humour in it. It's also really nice visually with the nighttime setting, the decorated town and all the costumed characters. They really nailed it with Chicken Pinkie Pie's mannerisms, and Zecora's outfit is awesome.

The Reboot episode was right from the start of the more edgy era of the show. Bob is lost in the web, Dot is ~~mourning~~ missing him, the viruses have control of Mainframe (for now) and Enzo has to step up as a young guardian with a broken Glitch. I actually really liked these ones where they're still in Mainframe because it still had a lot of the cast around. This episode was fun to return to there's some comedy, the show is looking a bit nicer with improved lighting and shadows. After watching it, I got a big hankering to watch Firewall, which is a really fun episode from that time.

It was my first time watching a Unikitty episode, and it was pretty good. Ditto for Hilda. The animation in the latter was really impressive and the tone in general was really nice.

Tiny Toon Adventures is weird for me in that I remember watching it a lot as a kid, and being fine with it, but whenever I go back I don't get a ton out of it. This special wasn't much different. I mostly noticed now how amazing the animations looked. I had a few laughs, but I think in general the characters aren't really that great. For example, Li'l Sneezer is really weird one, that mostly plays on doing visually impressive reactions to the sneezes. There was a lot of Plucky in the special, which I remember also being the case in the cartoon proper. There was some overlap with the recent Treehouse of Horror stream in the choice of stories that were spoofed: "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (where a character sells their soul to the devil) and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and I enjoyed the Simpsons versions more (I probably feel the same way about the Telltale Heart spoof although that wasn't in the recent stream). I did enjoy the Star Trek references in the 20,000 Feet bit as an out of left field addition.

It did do a great job with the visuals and building suspense. The Abbott and Costello bit really traded well on expressive perturbed faces. And the Telltale Heart bit was genuinely really suspenseful. All in all it was a nice watch.

SigmasonicX · Oct 30, 2018

Sylvee said:
It was sort of surreal watching an old cartoon from that era. It's one of the most commonly parodied and referenced eras of animation, but I've never really watched much from back then. It was really weird because I've seen a ton of stuff that looks like that sort of thing before but is obviously trying to pretend to be from there, but this was actually from that era.

Yeah, it really struck me how much Cuphead got right with the random transformations and such.

Sylvee said:
I liked the slower pace at the beginning of the movie. It made it feel like an actual movie rather then just a normal episode stretched out to 70+ minutes. I really liked the setting too.

Yeah, I liked the beginning and setting, but it got dragged out once they reached the island and we kept cutting to Scooby and Shaggy eating peppers. I'm fine with this having real monsters, since that's better for a movie level event.

Sylvee said:
What I think is a little less forgiving is that the gang seem to have little agency in the story and them solving mysteries has almost no bearing on how they actually end up succeeding.

This is a big part of why I didn't like the pacing later--much of what the characters did wasn't relevant. One thing I liked about A Pup Named Scooby Doo back in the day was that there were actual clues that led to the heroes solving the mystery, though it's entirely possible that if I watch again it'll be "PPOV" bunyip style whale logic.

Captain Fish said:
The St. James Infirmary musical number was a rotoscoped performance of Cab Calloway who ended up doing a few songs for Fleischer cartoons, maybe we can watch them some other time.

Yeah, that'd be neat.

Sunday stream followup, with the other videos included.

*. Bustin - YouTube
*.The Mad Doctor - Mickey Mouse (1933) - YouTube
1. MLP - Luna Eclipsed
*.Popeye the Sailor - Shiver Me Timbers - YouTube
2. Reboot season 3 episode 1 - To Mend and Defend - The Evil Dead episode
*. Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny) - Water, Water Every Hare - Second Gossamer (red monster) short
3. Unikitty - Spoooooky Game (15 minutes)
*. Looney Tunes (Sylvester & Tweety) - Hyde and Go Tweet
4. Hilda - The Nightmare Spirit
*.Alma short film - YouTube
5. Tiny Toon Adventures - Night Ghoulery (hour long)
*.Ghoul Friend | A Mickey Mouse Cartoon | Disney Shows - YouTube

"Luna Eclipsed" was nice to watch again, Pinkie messing everything up and everyone forgetting Luna's good aside. Luna's normal (non-shouting) voice was pretty different from what we hear later, which goes more for a non-shouted version of her shouting voice. I forgot about all the fun costumes.

Of the shorts we watched, the Popeye one was the best. My favorite bit was when Popeye came onto the deck and there were a bunch of skeletons and he seemed more annoyed than anything; I loved him mumble-shouting to one of them, "Hey, what's your name?" as he runs to beat him up. Also Popeye killed the ocean.

The Looney Tunes shorts were good. In retrospect, both shorts were from the same era, so perhaps I should have used the first Gossamer short instead of the second.

Alma is a pretty creepy short film, so I went with that last Mickey Mouse short for a happy ending. Goofy is helpful even as a zombie.

Captain Fish said:
The Reboot episode was right from the start of the more edgy era of the show. Bob is lost in the web, Dot is ~~mourning~~ missing him, the viruses have control of Mainframe (for now) and Enzo has to step up as a young guardian with a broken Glitch. I actually really liked these ones where they're still in Mainframe because it still had a lot of the cast around. This episode was fun to return to there's some comedy, the show is looking a bit nicer with improved lighting and shadows.

I agree that the season 3 episodes that are still in Mainframe are pretty good. It's a lot more serious than before, but there's still a lot of good comedy and you still have Dot, Mouse, Phong, Megabyte, and Hexadecimal (for a bit) around. I also thought Enzo rising up to the challenge was interesting--less so when he became Matrix. About the lighting, the season 2 episode we watched in the stream didn't show as much as an improvement as I remembered, but you could definitely see it here. I can say with certainty that the show looks better in season 3 than Guardian Code does in its CG segments. This also marks the point where you can notice the female character models in particular getting more *ahem* detailed.

You brought this up in the stream chat, and yeah, this is one of those episodes where you can tell being the user must be frustrating as hell when playing a game.

Captain Fish said:
It was my first time watching a Unikitty episode, and it was pretty good. Ditto for Hilda. The animation in the latter was really impressive and the tone in general was really nice.

Glad you liked them! I admittedly haven't been keeping up with Unikitty, but I found it appealing because it's Teen Titans Go style humor without the rampant cynicism. And I still get a kick out of Tara Strong straight up using her Twilight voice for Unikitty.

Hilda is a really solid show and I recommend checking out the entire thing. The two episodes after the ones we watched could have also fit into the Halloween stream.

Captain Fish said:
Tiny Toon Adventures is weird for me in that I remember watching it a lot as a kid, and being fine with it, but whenever I go back I don't get a ton out of it. This special wasn't much different. I mostly noticed now how amazing the animations looked. I had a few laughs, but I think in general the characters aren't really that great.

Yeah, compared to Animaniacs and such, Tiny Toons is much harder to go back to, though this special was fun overall and I'd definitely be up for watching the Summer Vacation special. I agree the animation was fantastic here. It was pretty annoying that with so many segments, more than half of them involved Plucky in a lead role, and most of those also involved Hamton. That said, Plucky is funny and Hamton was a good foil to him. It was surprising that Buster only appeared in one of the segments. I really don't have patience for Babs' celebrity imitation gags, especially when I have no clue who she's imitating. I had forgotten a lot of the characters who appeared here, including Li'l Sneezer and that droopy dog. Many characters just didn't work well for gags, particularly the blue cat whose name I'm blanking on (EDIT: Furball) being too innocent looking to work for slapstick. Meanwhile, Fifi and Shirley got nothing, even though Shirley being psychic would have worked well for a horror short.

Overall, I thought the stream went pretty well. Next time, we're back to normal. Next couple weeks will be finishing up Utena on Friday, and on Sunday we're back to watching Big Hero 6 and Fate/Zero. Also maybe back to Super Gals.

SigmasonicX · Oct 31, 2018

For the first bit of news in this thread after the season 8 thread closing, season 8 will be coming to US Netflix on November 12th!

And now to demonstrate mixing news with fanfic discussion!

Sandbox by Summer Dancer
This was recommended in FimFiction's Royal Canterlot Library (a recommendation series). It's a cute short story of filly Twilight encountering Sunset, who proceeds to subtly and unknowingly shape her future. I thought Sunset scaring her with the Magic Kindergarten story from "Lesson Zero" was a bit much, but otherwise, this did a good job showing the sort of influence she could have on Twilight after a short meeting that neither would remember years later. I liked that Twilight was already not feeling friendship, and Sunset just gave her more of a push in that direction. Still, there isn't too much to this story, but there isn't supposed to be.

An Ordinary Day by alt-tap
Also recommended by the Royal Canterlot Library. This is another short story, just showing a normal day in the life of Fluttershy from her perspective. I can see this appealing to people, but honestly, I wasn't a fan. Fluttershy's grooming of Rainbow while talking about her muscles and smell was more creepy than sweet, and she seemed condescending when talking about the others. Also, despite this presenting itself as a season 2 setting, there's unexpectedly a changeling original character and changeling lore. I don't really have a problem with that, but I found it odd. Still, there is some appeal to this relaxed and zen-like depiction of Fluttershy.

Princess Luna is dead. Again. by Equimorto
I don't remember why I decided to read this. Just saw the description and short length on the FimFiction front page and went for it? Anyway, this is a short and amusing story where everyone thinks Luna is dead but she isn't.

Conversations with Eternity by Sunchaser
I think I might have seen this recommended by FimFiction when reading another story (none of the above), because I don't know how else I would have found a 2013 pre-season 3 story that isn't from an author I was already reading. I had forgotten that Gallopfree was a thing in the early fandom, as the place Doctor Hooves came from (based on Gallifrey from Doctor Who). He doesn't appear here, to be clear. Anyway, Luna goes to Gallopfree, has flashbacks involving good old pre-Princess Twilight alicorn mythology, and talks to a figure known as the Steward of the Well. Luna talks about the Nightmare Moon thing and the Steward says she can forgive herself, while acting mysterious. I found the slice of alicorn mythology interesting, but there's not much to this story, really. Still, it's alright.

And lastly, new chapter of The Enchanted Kingdom by Monochromatic
Here's the review I posted.

Snuggling scene was just as adorable as when it involved pirates attacking.

Hmm, interesting that the Tree of Harmony is involved here. Did we know that already? This fic has mainly used FiM concepts from the first three seasons, so I like noting when things from after that pop up--the Arimaspi mention also counts. It'll be interesting to see why the Tree spread the Elements around like that.

That part where Twilight was spiraling into self hatred after realizing she was wrong about how the Elements worked and Rarity looked really worried was rough. She was acting pretty similar to her rant before she got sealed away for two years.

This chapter was mainly story progression, but there were still fun character moments. I'm kind of surprised Pinkie speaking rock hasn't shown up in the show itself; though I suppose that's more Maud's thing. My favorite part was

"Pinkie!" Rarity cut off. "Write to Dusty Tales immediately and let him know we'll be needing every book he'll give us!"

"Oki-doki!"

"But I have books to give you!" Twilight interjected, and was promptly ignored. "

Poor Twilight, not getting to give her books.

I'm curious to see how Seeking Night will be handled.

Nali · Oct 31, 2018

SigmasonicX said:
I don't remember why I decided to read this. Just saw the description and short length on the FimFiction front page and went for it?

That happens. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes you get trending jokefics like this that aren't all that.

SigmasonicX said:
Sandbox by Summer Dancer
Conversations with Eternity by Sunchaser

I've apparently read both of these, but only vaguely recall the former and don't remember the latter at all. It's weird having a database objectively tell me that I've had experiences that my brain didn't consider significant enough to file away.

SigmasonicX · Nov 1, 2018

Big old Halloween* art dump.
* Not all the art is Halloween related.

First, I'd like to showcase a Halloween crossover between two Tumblr comics (posts in reverse chronological order): SciSet Diary and Ask Human Octavia. It's pretty cute. The former normally uses EQG colors, but switches to human colors for this crossover. All you really need to know is that SciTwi and Sunset are married and have a magic baby.

And egophiliac has posted some designs she made in 2014 for a game that was never made.

More at the link.

1. Applejack and Rainbow - May Your Wishes Come True by Fluttersheeeee on DeviantArt
2.Twilight by uunicornicc
3.Princess Ember by Marbola on DeviantArt
4.Gilda and Smolder in dresses by littlehybridshila
5.Captain Applejack by audrarius

1. Fluttershy - T-Trick Or Treat...| FA by Floofyhoof on DeviantArt
2.Sunset (with Rebecca Shoichet signature) by jadedjynx
3.Adagio Dazzle (with Kazumi Evans signature) by jadedjynx
4.Washouts Scootaloo by dagmell
5. Trixie - October EqG Ver. by rvceric on DeviantArt

1.Cadance by PixelHeartArt on DeviantArt
2. Fluttershy and Luna - 20180509 by yukandasama on DeviantArt
3.HC: Sunburst by Lopoddity on DeviantArt
4. Applejack - Nightmare Apple by HoodieFoxy on DeviantArt
5.Twilight Sparkle on a bed by MinamiKoboyasy on DeviantArt

1.Halloween Pinkie Pie by MinamiKoboyasy on DeviantArt
2.Celestia Luna love by bbtasu
3.Mane Six by bbtasu
4.Cutie Mark Crusaders by bbtasu
5.Witch Pinkie by bbtasu

1.Pumpkin Fluttershy by bbtasu
2.Vampire Starlight by bbtasu
3.Pinkie waving by bbtasu
4.Pinkie flying with tail by bbtasu
5.Vinyl and Octavia cheek squish by bbtasu

1859686__safe_artist-colon-bbtasu_dj+pon-dash-3_octavia+melody_vinyl+scratch_cheek+squish_cute_earth+pony_female_glasses_mare_squishy+cheeks_unicorn.jpeg

1.Pie sisters rocking out by bbtasu
2.Trixie by bbtasu
3.Grumpy Filly Witch Twilight by dino_horse
4.Pinkie and Starlight by dino_horse
5.Rainbow Gala dress by lemonheart

1871992__safe_alternate+version_artist-colon-bbtasu_trixie_equestria+girls_clothes_cute_diatrixes_doll_equestria+girls+minis_skirt_solo_toy.jpeg

1.Raridash Spider-Man by raridashdoodles
2.Raridash wrestling with Suri Polomare and Lightning Dust by raridashdoodles
3.Griffon Raridash by raridashdoodles
4.Knight Rarity rescuing Princess Rainbow from Spike by raridashdoodles
5. Apple Bloom, Celestia, and Luna - Nightmare Night's favorite princess by mailNer on DeviantArt

1871198__safe_artist-colon-raridashdoodles_rainbow+dash_rarity_eyes+closed_female_griffon_griffonized_heart_lesbian_rainbow+griffon_raridash_shipping_s.jpeg

1. Luna - Daily Doodle 867 by Amarynceus on DeviantArt
2. Chrysalis and Luna - Halloween2018 by BegasusTiuBe on DeviantArt
3. Luna - Happy Halloween! by NutellaAkaNutella on DeviantArt
4. Nightmare Moon, Daybreaker, and Twilight - Nightmares by Plainoasis on DeviantArt
5.Run Tempest run! This world is not made for you by Batonya12561 on DeviantArt

1. Autumn Blaze - A feeling of kirin by Tony-Retro on DeviantArt
2. Twilight and Applejack - Graveyard Night by OBCOR on DeviantArt
3. Flutterbat - VampIIra by TheDarkSatanicorn on DeviantArt
4.Witch Starlight by asimos
5.Witchy Filly Twi by Wodahseht on DeviantArt

1.Princess Luna 10 30 2018 by tohupo on DeviantArt
2. Pinkie - Nightmare Night 10 31 2018 by tohupo on DeviantArt
3.Pinkie Pie 10 31 2018 by tohupo on DeviantArt
4. Pinkie and Sunset - PonkSet's Bizarre Adventure by Katakiuchi4U on DeviantArt
5. Sunset - Fatuus by Katakiuchi4U on DeviantArt
6.MLP Cheerilee Plush (commission) by Little-Broy-Peep on DeviantArt

1.Spider Fluttershy by Tony Fleecs (IDW artist)
2.Sexy Fluttershy confused why she got so much candy (animated) by tolsticot
3. RariJack - Flowers for you by LooknamTCN on DeviantArt
4.Sour Sweet by OhieKhe on DeviantArt
5.Incognito Sunset Shimmer by DragonEmperror2810 on DeviantArt

1.Guitar Shimmer by iojknmiojknm on DeviantArt
2.Twilight Velvet for Halloween by iojknmiojknm on DeviantArt
3. Dazzlings - Under Our Spell (Happy Nightmare Night 2018!) by LennonBlack on DeviantArt
4.Spooky Mark Crusaders by thegreatrouge on DeviantArt
5..:Vamp Side:. by The-Butcher-X on DeviantArt

And a bunch of Halloween costume art from JohnJoseco. Just posting the safe ones.
1.Sonata Dusk as Rotty Tops (Shantae)
2.Sonata in Dia de los Muertos costume
3.Fluttershy as Futaba Sakura (Persona 5)
4.Twilight as Wizard (Dragon's Crown)
5.Starlight as Black Canary (DC Comics)

1.Pony Luna as Rosalina (Super Mario Galaxy)
2.Cozy Glow as ???
3.Pony Applejack as Tin Man (Wizard of Oz)
4.Anthro Ocellus as Miraculous Ladybug (same name as show)
5.Sunset as Team Skull member (Pokemon Sun & Moon)

1.Vinyl as Rick (Rick and Morty) with octopus Octavia
2.Sonata as Sailor Moon (same name as show)
3.Pinkie as Spider-Gwen / Ghost Spider (Marvel Comics)

And comic with Twilight, Luna, Applejack, and zombies
Halloween Comic 2018 by Rated-R-PonyStar on DeviantArt

PaulloDEC · Nov 1, 2018

I realise I missed the boat on the Season 8 thread, but regarding Best Gift Ever: how was this so good?!

http:///9RXc.png

...oh, that's how.

Great songs, characters written with wit and charm (by someone who feels like they really know them), lots of great animation and god damn, really well plotted!

What a lovely surprise this was.

Chained Prometheus · Nov 1, 2018

Yeah, I had a blast with the holiday special. I'd say it's probably one of the best love letters to the show and fandom as a whole since Season 5.

SigmasonicX · Nov 1, 2018

While moving the Delta Rune installer to my games folder, I took a look at when my save data for Super Lesbian Horse RPG was made and holy shit that was back in January 2014? In just two months it'll be five years since I finished it! This shocked me because I made a post on GAF reviewing it, and I didn't think it was that long since I joined these threads.

It's a pretty good fan game, BTW. Very silly, but it's very cute (and runs better than what's shown in the trailer, from what I remember) with a surprisingly good lesson about being respectful in relationships. The original upload was deleted, but you can find a reupload here.

1.Art by purmu
2.Art by crispokefan
3.Art by alexanderkrizak

1758126__safe_artist-colon-alexanderkrizak_fluttershy_rainbow+dash_female_flutterdash_lesbian_magical+girl_shipping_super+lesbian+horse+rpg.png

I was surprised to see that the creator is converting this to an original IP.

It looks pretty good! It seems to have the same rough story, at least with not!Twilight building a huge dungeon in not!Rainbow's basement for no particular reason. Demo here, which I haven't played; I generally prefer to stick to final games.

Her Patreon (which I'm now supporting) had a post about the game in late September this year, and her Tumblr is very active (including with frequent pony image reblogs, so no fandom abandonment here), so this is definitely still being worked on.

SigmasonicX · Nov 1, 2018

I have zero fear of double posts in this thread!

New Humble Bundle contains the early IDW MLP comic volumes. I bought this to get the early IDW Jem comic volumes; I was meaning to read those.

The first Equestria Girls movie has been removed from US Netflix. I guess it wasn't so safe after all. Weird that this is gone but nothing else, especially since they added Forgotten Friendship and Rollercoaster of Friendship just recently.

Another art dump.
1. This and next three images have Humane Seven, Starlight, and Juniper - The Haunted House | Halloween 2018 (part 1 of 3) by InvisibleInkDoodles on DeviantArt - Mainly posting this set because somehow Juniper Montage is included
2.The Horrid Hills| Halloween 2018 (part 2 of 3) by InvisibleInkDoodles on DeviantArt
3.The Mysterious Mill| Halloween 2018 (part 3 of 3) by InvisibleInkDoodles on DeviantArt
4. Kirin queen - Queen of Silence by Taiga-Blackfield on DeviantArt
5.Sandbar the Clever by CloudyGlow on DeviantArt

1.King Gallus by CloudyGlow on DeviantArt
2.Silverstream - Gotcha by Dashy21 on DeviantArt
3.Nightmare Night Celestia and Luna by darkest-lunar-flower
4. Autumn Blaze - Backscratcher by Szafir87 on DeviantArt
5. Rarity - The other side by The-Park on DeviantArt

1.Twinkle Sprinkle by SnakeyThingy on DeviantArt
2.Starlight plushie getting ready to play keyboard by nekokevin - And here's the video of her playing music.
3. Pony of Shadows and Somnambula - Hope and Fear by Ruirik on DeviantArt
4. Flutterbat and Applejack - Happy (late) Halloween!!! by MagnaLuna on DeviantArt
5. Smolder - Awesome Holidays by uotapo on DeviantArt
6.Charming Princess Luna by MinamiKoboyasy on DeviantArt

1. Pinkie - Night For Joy by LA-ndy on DeviantArt
2.Nightmare Rarity[+Video] by Jun1313 on DeviantArt
3.Fluttershy and Winterchilla by Villaincorner on DeviantArt
4. Princesses - MLPFiM: Halloween 2018 by dsp2003 on DeviantArt
5. Dazzlings - HALLOWEEN!! by AmazingPuffhair on DeviantArt
6.Pony and EQG Pinkie by uuunicorn23

Comics
MLPFiM EG: What Sunset sees... [Comic] by dsp2003 on DeviantArt - Loss, but cute

Japanese comic where Marble gets minor revenge on Sugar Belle by sazanamibd - Not translated, but easy enough to understand.

~~~

And stream announcements!

On Friday, we're watching five episodes of Utena, 25-29, with the goal of finishing it this month.

And on Sunday, we're going back to a normal-ish schedule. While we have the chance, might as well watch a two parter.

1. MLP - A Canterlot Wedding parts 1-2
2. Big Hero 6 episode 11 - Killer App
3. Reboot season 2 episode 5 - Painted Windows
4. Fate/Zero 11
5. Super Gals 27(-28?)

We're reaching a stretch of Big Hero 6 episodes where I won't skip any for a while.

I feel the need to get through Reboot: The Guardian Code('s first season) and to do that, we need a Hexadecimal episode so we can contrast how she's presented in Guardian Code.

And we're going to start watching Super Gals again! Unfortunately, these episodes never got an English dub, so they'll be sub only.

SigmasonicX · Nov 3, 2018

Yesterday we watched five episodes of Revolutionary Girl Utena, episodes 25-29. I suppose I should start putting everything in spoiler tags at this point.

This set of episodes starts the, uh, Car Arc I guess. I had of course seen that GIF of Akio sprawled out on the hood of his car while it's driving toward the screen, but I never imagined cars would be emphasized this much, or that the GIF was stock footage used when Akio uses a sex metaphor to power up duelists.

Speaking of stock footage, it was interesting that they swapped out all the old ones with new ones. Utena uses an elevator to get to the duelist arena now, while Anthy turns into a tree. Utena can't use the Sword of Dios anymore for some reason (probably Akio), so now Anthy pulls a sword out of her. That guy in the castle dives into Utena in a different way (no justification given for this). And there's new stock footage of them going to bed.

I was surprised they dropped the abandoned dorm setting, since it seemed like there was going to be something important about that place, but I guess not.

Duels have switched to having the opponents have their own Anthy stand-in to pull a sword out, who then hilariously drive around the dueling arena in a car and crash / run over their duelist when the duelist is defeated. Except for Saionji, who didn't have a sword pulled out and had an empty car driving around. The Anthy stand-in driving around is a fun visual, but I think having a bunch of cars embedded into the ground is a bit much, haha. I am impressed that they managed to give each of the Anthy stand-ins pretty nice dresses and hair styles.

As for individual episodes, not much else to say about the Saionji and Miki duel episodes, really. Well, I was pretty shocked to see Touga mention in the former that he's too young to drive, meaning he's only 15. Anime ages, man.

In the middle was a pretty fantastic Nanami episode where she thinks she laid an egg. She struggles with the idea that people will think she's strange for laying an egg, but then concludes all girls lay eggs, but then worries that people will think she's strange for only laying an egg now and she's late, especially when Juri describes her bowling ball and Nanami thinks that's her egg. I assume that's because "ball" and "egg" can both be "tama" in Japanese. Nanami asks Touga if he'd prefer a boy or a girl, and she says she'd prefer a girl, leading to Touga lecturing her about how lesbianism is unnatural. I was pretty surprised Touga would say that, especially given what he's doing(???) with Akio, but I wouldn't place hypocrisy beyond him. He also talked about how he doesn't want someone who lays eggs in his family. I'm not sure if there's a Japanese pun that's not coming through or he literally believed Nanami laid an egg and wants no part of it. Anyway, the egg hatches into Chu-Chu I guess. This is probably my favorite wacky Nanami episode.

We ended with a two parter about Juri and her former fencing captain, Yuka(?). It was all about Juri's complicated relationship with her old friend whatshername (huh, surprised spell check allowed that), with Yuka being a dick to both of them. Then he dies off screen of an illness. RIP, I guess. Interestingly, Utena's duel with Juri ended not when she cut her rose, but rather her necklace with a picture of whatshername. I will say, I am annoyed that duels showed Utena clearly struggling against Yuka and Juri, but then the guy in the castle comes down and she instantly wins. I have to assume at some point he chooses not to come down to help and a big deal will be made out of that.

In Pony news, bottled water event in Thailand has pony statues and billboards.

That's some water.

And it's time to work on the episode guide again! I'd like people to look over what's currently there, especially since I've made several changes since we voted on season 7 episodes. For instance, there's a lot more Equestria Girls coverage, with the movies being upgraded to Important (with the caveat that this is only relative to Equestria Girls), and season 6's "Gauntlet of Fire" has been upgraded to Important, with Ember having appeared in a two parter and that episode having already been Recommended.

I recall people were asking for a do-over with season 5 in particular, so here's what he have right now.

Important:
1-2. The Cutie Map
19. Crusaders of the Lost Mark
25-6. The Cutie Re-Mark

Recommended:
4. Bloom & Gloom
7. Make New Friends But Keep Discord
8. The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone
9. Slice of Life
12. Amending Fences
13. Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?
14. Canterlot Boutique
16. Rarity Investigates!
21. Hearthbreakers

Notable episodes that weren't listed as Recommended:
5. Tanks for the Memories
11. Party Pooped
15. Scare Master
20. The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows
24. The Mane Attraction

And after that, be sure to post what you'd like to see for the season 8 recommended episode list! Here's my list, with the descriptions. Bold and underlined means Important, just bold means Recommended.

801-2. School Daze [SONG]
Following the events of the Movie, Twilight establishes a School of Friendship to bring together ponies, griffons, changelings, yaks, dragons, and hippogriffs. However, Education Chancellor Neighsay believes bringing in other species will only harm ponykind and is looking for just the excuse to shut the school down.

803. The Maud Couple (Pinkie Pie, Maud Pie)
Maud has a new boyfriend, Mudbriar. Despite being very similar to Maud, Pinkie Pie despises him.

804. Fake It 'Til You Make It (Fluttershy, Rarity)
Rarity asks Fluttershy to work at her Manehattan store while she's out, and to handle the intimidating customers, she adopts alternate personalities.

805. Grannies Gone Wild (Rainbow Dash, Granny Smith, Applejack)
Rainbow wants to ride a famous rollercoaster at Las Pegasus, but Applejack forces her to take Granny Smith and her old friends with her and follow a long list of rules.

806. Surf and/or Turf [SONG] (Cutie Mark Crusaders, Twilight Sparkle)
The Cutie Map sends the CMC to the land of the hippogriffs, where they find that Silverstream's brother is unsure if he wants to live on land or in the sea as a seapony, and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo get into a fight over which is better.

807. Horse Play (Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, Mane Six, Starlight Glimmer, Spike)
Twilight holds a school play about Celestia and casts her in the lead role. When Celestia turns out to be a terrible actor, Twilight is afraid to tell her.

808. The Parent Map (Starlight Glimmer, Sunburst)
The Map sends Starlight and Sunburst to their home town, where they have to convince their overbearing parents to get along.

809. Non-Compete Clause (Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Student Six)
Applejack and Rainbow Dash take the students on field trip, but their rivalry threatens to turn it into a disaster.

810. The Break Up Break Down (Big Mac, Spike, Discord, Cutie Mark Crusaders)
On Hearts and Hooves Day, Big Mac overhears Sugar Belle planning to break up with him. He gets advice on what to do from his Ogres & Oubliettes group.

811. Molt Down (Spike, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, Zecora, Smolder)
Spike undergoes the "molt" all dragons experience before they're forced to go out on their own, and he worries he won't be able to stay with Twilight anymore.

812. Marks for Effort (Cutie Mark Crusaders, Twilight Sparkle, Starlight Glimmer)
The CMC try to join the School of Friendship, even though they've already mastered the curriculum . Meanwhile, they help a filly attending the school named Cozy Glow.

813. The Mean 6 (Chrysalis, Mane Six, Starlight Glimmer)
Queen Chrysalis creates evil clones of the Mane Six to exact her revenge, but the clones prove to be harder to manage than she expected.

814. A Matter of Principals (Starlight Glimmer, Discord, Student Six)
Twilight leaves Starlight in charge of the School of Friendship while she and the others are on a Map mission, and Discord takes this opportunity to mess with her.

815. The Hearth's Warming Club (Student Six, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash)
Before everyone leaves for the holidays, a prank ruins the school's Hearth's Warming decorations. While Twilight tries to figure out who was behind it, the Student Six tell each other how their cultures celebrate the holidays

816. Friendship University [SONG] (Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Flim & Flam)
Twilight and Rarity learn of a Friendship University run by the Flim Flam Brothers. While looking for the scam, they learn that they roped in Starswirl the Bearded as a student. After eight seasons, this is the first Rarity / Twilight team up episode.

817. The End in Friend (Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Starlight Glimmer, Twilight Sparkle)
Twilight has her students examine Rainbow and Rarity's day out together to see how such different ponies can be such good friends, only for them to get into a fight and decide they shouldn't be friends after all.

818. Yakity-Sax (Pinkie Pie, Mane Six)
Pinkie becomes obsessed with playing an annoying yak instrument, but when her friends tell her to stop, she falls into despair.

819. On the Road to Friendship [SONG] (Starlight Glimmer, Trixie)
Trixie is invited to perform her magic show in Saddle Arabia and goes on a road trip with Starlight, but their friendship may not last the journey.

820. The Washouts (Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, Twilight Sparkle)
When Scootaloo becomes obsessed with a stuntpony group called the Washouts, Rainbow fears she'll lose her number one fan. Follows up on season 3's "Wonderbolts Academy".

821. A Rockhoof and a Hard Place (Rockhoof, Twilight Sparkle, Yona, Mane Six, Spike)
One of the Pillars of Equestria, Rockhoof, has trouble finding a place in modern times.

822. What Lies Beneath (Student Six, Twilight Sparkle)
During a study session, the non-pony students come to believe friendship isn't in their nature. When they discover a secret chamber under the school, a mysterious being forces them to undergo trials.

823. Sounds of Silence [SONG] (Applejack, Fluttershy)
The Map sends Applejack and Fluttershy to the land of the kirins, where they discover all but one has chosen to never speak, out of fear that hurt feelings could unleash their destructive sides.

824. Father Knows Beast [SONG] (Spike, Twilight Sparkle, Smolder, Mane Six)
A strange dragon crash lands in Ponyville, and after recovering, he claims to be Spike's father. Spike tries to learn how to be a "real" dragon from him.

825-6. School Raze
When magic starts disappearing from the world, the Main Six journey to Tartarus to check if Tirek is behind this, but when the true threat turns out to be closer to home, the Student Six have to step up.

Special - Best Gift Ever (Mane Six, Discord, Cadance, Flim & Flam)
In the first FiM TV special, everyone is worried about getting ready for Hearth's Warming. Applejack suggests a Hearth's Warming Helper where each of them secretly gets a present for just one of them to reduce the load. This has unforeseen consequences.

Depending on how things play out, "What Lies Beneath" could easily get upgraded to Important. Cozy Glow is demonstrated well enough there, so if that's included, we don't have to worry about her introduction.

Plain list for copying and pasting.

801-2. School Daze
803. The Maud Couple
804. Fake It 'Til You Make It
805. Grannies Gone Wild
806. Surf and/or Turf
807. Horse Play
808. The Parent Map
809. Non-Compete Clause
810. The Break Up Break Down
811. Molt Down
812. Marks for Effort
813. The Mean 6
814. A Matter of Principals
815. The Hearth's Warming Club
816. Friendship University
817. The End in Friend
818. Yakity-Sax
819. On the Road to Friendship
820. The Washouts
821. A Rockhoof and a Hard Place
822. What Lies Beneath
823. Sounds of Silence
824. Father Knows Beast
825-6. School Raze

Special - Best Gift Ever

Sylvee · Nov 3, 2018

For Season 5, I feel like a case could be made for Tanks for the Memories, although that episode is a lot more polarizing then most episodes. But what really makes no sense at all is Bloom and Gloom being on the list and Mane Attraction not. Bloom and Gloom isn't the worst thing ever but it's an extremely unremarkable episode aside from it sort of fitting into the overarching narrative of the show. It's the ending of the "Luna helps the CMC" trilogy and is the final CMC episode before Crusaders of the Lost Mark. But as a capstone for it I think the episode is pretty unremarkable and isn't worth showing in that regard, and I feel like a "final episode before the big thing that changes the status quo" kind of loses its meaning in the context of a guide that tells people to skip over a ton of the episodes already.

Meanwhile I an really bewildered about how Mane Attraction wasn't on there in the first place. I think it's easily the best AJ episode of all time, features arguably the most memorable guest character ever, has arguably the best song, and is easily a standout episode in a season that's crammed full of standout episodes. Legitimately the first time I read through the episode recommendation list (before I really had any attachment to the community on this forum) I instantly lost any respect I had for it when I saw that Mane Attraction wasn't on there.

Season 8 I think that Sigma's list is mostly right, but I'd swap out Fake it Till You Make It for Horse Play. Memes aside I thought Fake it was a pretty middling and not particularly remarkable episode. And Fluttershy doesn't need another episode, she already has one in Sounds of Silence. Horse Play is the first truly Celestia-centric episode and also helps as a sort of endpoint for Twilight's arc through Royal Problem and Shadow Play. And I think it's overall just a better episode. For everything else I think it's what I would pick. Maybe somebody will make the case for Maud Couple but I didn't really like it all that much.

UberTag · Nov 3, 2018

I'll second Sylvee's suggestion to swap out Fake It 'Til You Make It for Horse Play.

My thoughts on The Maud Couple (and Marks for Effort, as well) have more to do on their significance for introducing Mudbriar and Cozy Glow moreso than their value as standalone episodes. I'd lean more towards Marks for Effort right now IF Mudbriar fails to garner a speaking role in any Season 9 episodes as he's relatively easy to ignore in his recurring appearances right now as he's just doing stuff in the background with Maud.

I do feel Cozy's intro is important in that it highlights how she's able to manipulate other ponies and makes it so she doesn't come out of thin air for the finale. She's a pretty unique villain (filly, non-unicorn, doesn't get reformed, isn't blatantly evil right away) so I think she deserves the extra bit of highlight she garners outside of her brief stint in the already-recommended What Lies Beneath.

Plus, it contributed the Starlight empathy cocoa meme to the world. What's not to love about that?

1755189__safe_screencap_starlight+glimmer_marks+for+effort_spoiler-colon-s08e12_animated_chocolate_empathy+cocoa_female_food_gif_glowing+horn_hot+choco.gif

I'm also prepared to go to war in league with Sylvee to get The Mane Attraction added to the recommended list. Hot damn do I ever love that episode!

The Magic Inside is in my Top 5 pony songs of all-time list. Across the entirety of the show's 8 seasons, the movie, Equestria Girls, deleted songs, you name it... it's that good.

FYI, I think the entire Luna-CMC trilogy is bunk outside of Sleepless in Ponyville. I would happily vote to strip both Bloom & Gloom and For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils of their recommended status. And I adore Sweetie Belle. Hell, I'm not sure any regular aside from me has ever made space for her in their Fave Five list. I just don't care for that ep.

SigmasonicX · Nov 4, 2018

Fair points about "Horse Play" and the CMC Luna episodes. They haven't done anything with Luna and the CMC's relationship, so I'm fine dropping the Sweetie and Apple Bloom episodes from the list. I like them just fine, "Bloom & Gloom" especially, for the record.

About "The Mane Attraction" not getting recommended, here's how the original votes went.

2016 EPISODE GUIDE
Season 5

3. "Castle Sweet Castle" - wookieofdoom, DrForester
4. "Bloom & Gloom" - SigmasonicX, McNum, Rhomega Beta, DrForester, UberTag
5. "Tanks for the Memories" - PaulloDEC, Rhomega Beta, wookieofdoom, DrForester
6. "Appleoosa's Most Wanted" - McNum
7. "Make New Friends but Keep Discord" - SigmasonicX, UberTag, Rhomega Beta, Jay RaR, DrForester
8. "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" - PaulloDEC, McNum, Rhomega Beta, wookieofdoom, Jay RaR, DrForester
9. "Slice of Life" - SigmasonicX, McNum, Rhomega Beta, wookieofdoom, Jay RaR, DrForester
10. "Princess Spike"
11. "Party Pooped" - SigmasonicX, PaulloDEC, UberTag, Jay RaR
12. "Amending Fences" - SigmasonicX, PaulloDEC, UberTag, McNum, wookieofdoom, Jay RaR, DrForester
13. "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" - McNum, Rhomega Beta, wookieofdoom, Jay RaR
14. "Canterlot Boutique" - SigmasonicX, PaulloDEC, UberTag, Rhomega Beta, wookieofdoom, Jay RaR, DrForester
15. "Scare Master" - SigmasonicX, wookieofdoom, Jay RaR
16. "Rarity Investigates!" - SigmasonicX, McNum, Rhomega Beta, Jay RaR, DrForester, UberTag
17. "Made in Manehattan" - McNum, Rhomega Beta, wookieofdoom, DrForester
18. "Brotherhooves Social"
20. "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows" - PaulloDEC, McNum, Rhomega Beta, wookieofdoom, Jay RaR
21. "Hearthbreakers" - SigmasonicX, PaulloDEC, UberTag
22. "What About Discord?"
23. "The Hooffields and McColts" - McNum, Rhomega Beta, wookieofdoom, DrForester
24. "The Mane Attraction" - PaulloDEC, UberTag, McNum, DrForester

7 votes
12. "Amending Fences"
14. "Canterlot Boutique"

6 votes
8. "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone"
9. "Slice of Life"
16. "Rarity Investigates!"

5 votes
4. "Bloom & Gloom"
20. "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows"

4 votes
5. "Tanks for the Memories"
7. "Make New Friends but Keep Discord"
11. "Party Pooped"
13. "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?"
17. "Made in Manehattan"
23. "The Hooffields and McColts"
24. "The Mane Attraction"

3 votes
15. "Scare Master"
21. "Hearthbreakers"

2 or less votes
3. "Castle Sweet Castle" - 2
6. "Appleoosa's Most Wanted" - 1
10. "Princess Spike"
18. "Brotherhooves Social"
22. "What About Discord?"

I try to keep to 14 episodes per 26 episode season, so with the season opening, finale, and "Crusaders of the Lost Mark", that left nine other episodes.The 7 and 6 vote episodes went in as is. From comments, "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows" got votes mainly because it established that Cadance was pregnant, but I argued that this wasn't needed to understand whatever episode she gives birth (and indeed it wasn't) and thus swapped in "Hearthbreakers" because I assumed Pinkie's sisters would be important later and it doubled up as an Applejack episode. After that, there were two slots remaining, which went to "Make New Friends but Keep Discord" to get a Fluttershy episode in, and "Party Pooped" because I assumed yaks would be important later. I later replaced "Party Pooped" with "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" when it didn't seem like they would be. But now they are, so maybe I should put that back?

Anyway, in short, "The Mane Attraction" got left out because I assumed "Party Pooped" and "Hearthbreakers" were more important, and the latter was an Applejack episode anyway.

Season 2 has 15 recommended/important episodes because season 3 only has 6. Since we're considering removing "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils" from season 4's list and there aren't any obvious season 4 episodes to take its place, we could give 15 recommended episodes to season 5 the same way.

So that would mean:
- "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils"
- "Bloom & Gloom"
+ "The Mane Attraction"
+ One free slot

I say we use that free slot for "Party Pooped", since that's the better of the two yak episodes before season 8 and I think it would be good to establish them.

Though looking through the list again, and considering how the guide has evolved, with descriptions for every episode now and such, perhaps it's time I reexamined one of my early ideas. There's Important episodes, and then two tiers of Recommended episodes. I've always felt that 14 per 26 episode season was too much, but we're also leaving out a lot of good episodes. So with two tiers, there would be fewer tier one episodes and the tier two episodes would just be every good one.

Well, I'll figure it out later. This voting would still be useful for that.

~~~

On another note, ED list of pumpkin carvings for this year. Includes Autumn Blaze and Cozy Glow.

Some comics
Sins of the Many by Pony-Berserker on DeviantArt - Comic explaining common pitfalls that fan comics fall into

Twilight and Spike - Transition by SoulfulMirror on DeviantArt

Trixie, Fluttershy, and Angel - Watch Me Pull My Hat Out Of A Rabbit! by TexasUberAlles on DeviantArt

And I read a fanfic called The Tab by Antiquarian. It's a Memorial Day special that takes place in the Sombra Timeline from "The Cutie Re-Mark", but after the war, with Twilight meeting up with her friends (from Magic School in the normal timeline) at Donut Joe's store. It's just a nice story of friends meeting up to talk, and it's pretty well written. The author is pretty big on the military, so he made sure to show that people come out of wars in all sorts of ways. The oddest part was that Lyra is shown as interested in boys, but the author's notes do mention Bon Bon died during the war.

SigmasonicX · Nov 4, 2018

Oh, about today's stream, we just ended Daylight Saving Time, so the stream will be an hour later for those outside the US.

SigmasonicX · Nov 5, 2018

Sunday stream followup. We watched the following.

*.Interrobang Pie - Final Day Area - YouTube
*.Super Ponybeat - This Day Aria (Changeling Mix ft. Odyssey) by Eurobeat Brony - YouTube
1. MLP - A Canterlot Wedding parts 1-2
*.Friendship is Witchcraft- It'll be Ok - YouTube (after part 1)
*.My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Love is in Bloom - YouTube (after part 2)
*.This Spy Aria - YouTube
2. Big Hero 6 episode 11 - Killer App
*.Queen CHRYSALIS is in Control - PMV HD - MLP FiM - YouTube
3. Reboot season 2 episode 5 - Painted Windows
*.This Day Aria: Literal Video Version - YouTube
4. Fate/Zero 11
*.[MLP Comic Dub] Reforming Chrysalis (comedy - Fluttershy/Chrysalis) - YouTube
5. Super Gals 27

Videos we didn't end up watching:
*.[PMV] Starset - Monster (Queen Chrysalis) My Little Pony - YouTube
*.[MLP Comic Dub] Learning Lessons (comedy) - YouTube

We were short on viewers at the start, but more people joined as it went on.

It was nice watching "A Canterlot Wedding" again. Though there are a lot of weird things with the story in retrospect, it's among the best two parters for its focus on Twilight's emotions, the dramatic turns, that first half cliffhanger, great setpieces, one of the most memorable pieces of BGM in this series (and the only one I know of to get a fan remix), and those songs. At three songs and two reprises, I believe this is still the most song-heavy two-parter, with "The Crystal Empire" having two songs and one reprise, and all of them are great. Well, the first "BBBFF" maybe not, but the sad reprise is fantastic. While Chrysalis's defeat is pretty unsatisfying when you describe it, the music, sounds, and animation just make it amazing. As Sylvee pointed out during the stream, there's a big chunk of the episode left after she's defeated, and the time spent on the resolution makes it feel like more of a movie than most other two parters. Things like the lesson we're supposed to learn from this episode don't really work, and this started the trend of Celestia getting her ass kicked to show how strong the villain is, but you just don't care when "Love is in Bloom" starts playing.

Unlike most other two parters, this is about what should be a single relatively mundane event, a wedding, and how the characters react to it, with that particular event ballooning into something bigger, but it ultimately going back to the core of the event. Other two parters, including those by Meghan McCarthy, tend to be more about some big unusual event happening from the start and the ponies just being along for the ride, but it seems like this sort of story is just better suited for the setting and characters. But then again, "The Crystalling" is pretty similar to the description I just gave, and people largely aren't enthused about that. However, that didn't have any songs, and the character emotional focus was on the Sunburst side plot and not Flurry Heart or the storm, I suppose.

We learned that UberTag hadn't seen any Friendship is Witchcraft, so I suppose we should resolve that at some point.

After that, we watched a Big Hero 6 episode that introduces a pretty fun recurring villain, Noodle Burger Boy, and the episode seemed to be well received.

I showed this Reboot episode in order to showcase Hexadecimal, before we watch the The Guardian Code season one finale that's supposed to include her. It involves her gaining control of the Paint program and using it to mess around with everyone. I remembered this episode being good, and indeed it was. It was also way creepier than I remembered; Hex is a seriously great villain. There were a lot of good gags too, particularly with the visuals. Going back to a season 2 episode after watching a season 3 one last Friday really showed how drastic the jump in visual quality was; I was surprised.

We got back to Fate/Zero with an episode where some of the servants just get together and talk, and it was interesting seeing their different views. And then Rider proceeded to summon an entire desert and army, which was neat.

We also got back to watching Super Gals, which is sub only from this point on. Ran's English voice felt pretty close to the original, in attitude at least, but everyone else felt pretty different. Anyway, this episode involved Tatsukichi's younger brother appearing and trying to get a date with Ran, which he gets when he offers to pay for everything. Shenanigans ensue. It's a pretty typical episode, but fun.

I ended the stream there because it was getting late, and I had a pet to feed that didn't care about the time change.

~~~

Monochromatic released two new stories!

A Thousand Words of Noise, which released later but I chose to read first, is a short look at Twilight undergoing a depressive episode and her friends helping her work through it, based on Mono's own episodes.

Twilight didn't know what to say. How easy it sounded, to just not think about things that hurt, but thoughts were all she had.

Thoughts were the only thing that were hers, for better or worse.

It does a great job getting you inside Twilight's head, and it feels perfectly in character that she'd feel this way at times. It's also interesting seeing how the other characters work through bad thoughts. Twilight having major depression is a huge part of The Enchanted Kingdom, if you weren't aware, but this offers a more concise and focused look at that subject.

Flying on Cloud Nine is a Rarity X Celestia story, based in the same universe as the still just starting Tailor of the Crown, but taking place after the chapters that are out. It's a short tale of them at a gala, Rarity wanting to avoid talking to some people, and Celestia letting her ride on her back as she flies from the balcony. It's pretty cute, even if I can't say I'm a big fan of this ship.

Sylvee · Nov 5, 2018

UberTag said:
FYI, I think the entire Luna-CMC trilogy is bunk outside of Sleepless in Ponyville. I would happily vote to strip both Bloom & Gloom and For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils of their recommended status. And I adore Sweetie Belle. Hell, I'm not sure any regular aside from me has ever made space for her in their Fave Five list. I just don't care for that ep.

Sweetie Belle's in my opinion is still a very strong episode, although in some ways it's overshadowed by Sleepless in terms of a CMC+Luna episode, Sisterhooves Social in terms of a Sweetie Belle+Rarity episode, and a lot of Rarity episodes in terms of having a great portrayal of Rarity. But even still I think it's fantastic and it seems to poll pretty well too. If any Season 4 episode should go it should be Twilight Time IMO. I think it's one of the worst episodes of the show and based off the list I think that each of the CMC already get some screentime in the guide with AB in Pinkie Apple Pie, Scootaloo in Flight to the Finish, and Sweetie Belle in the aformentioned episode if it's kept in.

SigmasonicX said:
I later replaced "Party Pooped" with "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" when it didn't seem like they would be. But now they are, so maybe I should put that back?

Honestly I don't feel like the Yaks are something that really have to be established much, they're pretty simplistic and people can figure them out pretty quickly. They're loud, proud, like to smash things, and like Pinkie. The Times They Are a Changeling wasn't recommended for Season 6 and I'd argue that Thorax requires more explanation then the Yaks do and is much more important in the overall story. If that episode isn't on despite its narrative importance (and to be clear I don't think it should be) then we don't need an episode establishing the Yaks.

Personally I'd remove Bloom and Gloom and add Mane Attraction and call it a day but that's just me.

Nali · Nov 5, 2018

I can't remember a thing about Bloom and Gloom, which seems like cause enough to downgrade it.

fony · Nov 5, 2018

Best Gift Ever Special

I thought this was indeed the best gift ever. Haven't had one of these in a while and this is easily my favorite thing out of Season 8.

Great pacing, nice subplots. The reindeers' riddle was a pretty cool reveal, although it isn't as deep as it makes itself seem.

I think by this point, Applejack pretty much just has a grudge against Flim and Flam. Even the overall reasoning in the original SSCS 6000 (a great episode) was a bit dubious to me.

SLH RPG

SigmasonicX said:
While moving the Delta Rune installer to my games folder, I took a look at when my save data for Super Lesbian Horse RPG was made and holy shit that was back in January 2014? In just two months it'll be five years since I finished it! This shocked me because I made a post on GAF reviewing it, and I didn't think it was that long since I joined these threads.

I didn't remember it had a lesson. I remember it was pretty good overall but the middle part was a bit slow, didn't quite keep up the pace of the demo.

Season 8

I don't know what criteria to use to pick recommendations. Here's stuff I like the most from the season.

- 801-802. School Daze
- 803. The Maud Couple
- 804. Fake It 'Til You Make It
- 815. The Hearth's Warming Club
- 819. On the Road to Friendship
- 820. The Washouts
- 822. What Lies Beneath
- 823. Sounds of Silence
- Special - Best Gift Ever

with Best Gift Ever and Hearth's Warming Club probably taking the top spots.

Maybe important for introducing Cozy: 812. Marks for Effort

I don't like Horse Play and still don't, mainly because Celestia is portrayed as really dumb. Otherwise, more episodes about her would be nice though.

SigmasonicX · Nov 5, 2018

Sylvee said:
Honestly I don't feel like the Yaks are something that really have to be established much, they're pretty simplistic and people can figure them out pretty quickly.

Yeah, fair enough, especially with Thorax.

Sylvee said:
Personally I'd remove Bloom and Gloom and add Mane Attraction and call it a day but that's just me.

Sciz said:
I can't remember a thing about Bloom and Gloom, which seems like cause enough to downgrade it.

Yeah sure, leaving "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils" then, and just swapping "Bloom & Gloom" for "The Mane Attraction".

About "Twilight Time", the thought was to recommend an episode where Twilight being a princess actually mattered. Plus it has burger time. It definitely is one of the weaker recommendations, though. And if we remove "Bloom & Gloom", we also remove one of the few callbacks to it.

fony said:
SLH RPG

I didn't remember it had a lesson. I remember it was pretty good overall but the middle part was a bit slow, didn't quite keep up the pace of the demo

During the end segment, Fluttershy becomes angry at Rainbow for saying she (Fluttershy) can't do anything on her own and always needs her help. The characters get split up and then Fluttershy saves Rainbow, whereupon they make up and Rainbow learns to respect her more. This is also reflected by the villains, who are in a bad relationship where the final boss doesn't show respect toward the sub villain despite his devotion, which gets pointed out by the heroes. I might be a bit off with this, but that's the gist.

fony said:
I don't know what criteria to use to pick recommendations. Here's stuff I like the most from the season.

That's fine. What I do is count up votes to see what people find important, and then use that to determine what will be in the guide.

~~~

Since the developer of Friendship is Epic disappeared last year, others working on it are going ahead and making the 2017 build publicly available.

"you can fall under it and not come back on it if you play Applejack."

Trailer from 2016

I hadn't even noticed, but yeah, last update about this was back in early 2017.

And with NaPoWriMo starting, ED has started their author interviews again, this time with Pen Stroke, creator of Past Sins. While I didn't like that story in the end, I did find his point about outlines interesting.

PEN STROKE: In a way, I'd say it's something like being along for the ride along with my characters. It's part of the reason why methods that rely on heavier outlining don't tend to work for me. I've found that once I've laid out clearly what happens in a story, once I know the story myself and all its nuances, I lose some of my motivation to write the story. That's part of the joy I get from writing Fanfiction, or even creative writing in general. I get to tell the story to myself, in some capacity.

Back when I wrote fanfics, I definitely felt like that at times. Heck, that's definitely true with our current RPs in the chat. Tons of things happen just based on what makes sense with what the players are doing, and I often don't have resolutions planned ahead of time, largely because I just don't feel the motivation to plan things out. If I know what's going to happen before I write, then I feel less interest in actually writing. However, as the interview itself notes, you still need some outline to keep on track.

SigmasonicX · Nov 7, 2018

WalMart has MLP gift cards

(blushes)

I read 80 Days 'Til the World's Farthest Shore by Cynewulf, which is about Twilight finding herself in a human world and trying to find her way out. This is in a fantasy steampunk-ish setting, and the story is told from the perspective of a woman student at a magic school who helps her. I liked it a lot! Here's the review I posted.

This was a great story. Like other people have said, it was confusing at first who was narrating when, but I got the hang of it by the second chapter. I did think the descriptions were too flowery and rambly at times, but that worked as a reflection of who Sophie is.

Twilight and Sophie's journey was interesting, and I especially liked how Twilight was portrayed. I didn't realize this was a Far Future Twilight until she revealed that, but this story hits just about everything I like about that concept. Her intelligence and her commanding presence give a feeling of having lived and experienced much, but still with her Twilightness. I like that her journey was spurred on by her friends dying, yet she isn't in constant despair like some people present Far Future Twilight.

I admittedly wasn't too interested in Sophie herself in the early chapters, but she went in an interesting direction at the end. I figured she was meant to be that world's Twilight from early on, especially since a Celestia equivalent existed, but her adventures that were only hinted at are intriguing.

Overall, I'm definitely glad I read this.

Some art (more tomorrow)
Style and Sophistication by VanillaGhosties on DeviantArt

Picnic by Meruprince on DeviantArt

Student Six as MLP historical figures. I posted the first two before
1.King Gallus by CloudyGlow on DeviantArt
2.Sandbar the Clever by CloudyGlow on DeviantArt
3.Aurora Silverstream by CloudyGlow on DeviantArt
4.Mirage Ocellus by CloudyGlow on DeviantArt
5.Knuckerbocker Smolder by CloudyGlow on DeviantArt
6.Yickslur Yona by CloudyGlow on DeviantArt

Comic
Practice What You Preach (MLP Comic) by NoIDAvaliable on DeviantArt

Good PMV

Nightmare Moon themed vocal song
Jyc Row & Felicia Farerre - Night Queen VIP (feat. PrinceWhateverer)

Remix that reminds me of the old Sonic remixes I used to listen to
Tricks up my Sleeve - Arabesque Sympony

My Little Pony |OT| An adventure that never will end

Mod of the Year 2006

Visited by Knack