brianblackberry

Overall it was a good movie and a good beginning to the new generation.

Was it perfect? No, the ending was a bit fast and a bit flat, and they didn't really address what happened to Sunny and what she now was.  The main villain (if you can call him that) is very one dimension with no redeeming qualities whatsoever (the best villains are those who honestly feel they are doing the right thing, even if it is the wrong methods or reasons).

Was it good though?  Yes.  The main purpose of this film is to introduce the 'mane five' characters to the audience and it did an excellent of doing this and establishing their personalities, goals, and desires.  The animation is outstanding and the backgrounds gorgeous, with all sorts of subtleties.  It does make me wonder what they will do for the series since was no doubt also expensive.  The voice work, for me, what the best part, as it was top notch.

Of course we have to note that this movie is a sequel to G4, it is explicitly set in the same world is some unspecified future time,and the callbacks to G4 are numerous and important tot he story, it really pay homage to the previous generation.

Of course there are a million questions still the movie didn't address (as this would have impossible in 90 minutes and not the main point).  What are the crystals, who made them and why?  What caused the magic to end? What happened to Twilight? What about places like Ponyville and Canterlot? What of the other species? Well hopefully at least some of these will be addressed in the future series.

Four out of five stars.

On 8/11/2016 at 4:52 PM, LostSanity said:

Now go celebrate. Because I know you all want to.

 

Dude, you have no haters on this site, just saying...  I hope the surgery goes without a hitch and you have a speedy recovery.

Cheerilee had one eyebrow raised with a flat expression as Applebloom commented on how dirty the floor of the school house got in her eyes, the young filly did know that it got that way every day because of the students right?  For Cheerilee, it was a very small price to pay for the fillies and colts education, but it did get cleaned up every afternoon, usually by the students themselves, sometimes as volunteers, usually as part of detention.  “Well Applebloom, since you’ll be so much time after school as part of your willingness to offer your time in lieu of payback the school supplies you ‘borrowed’, I’m sure you’ll do a bang up job of it.  In fact now that you mention your skills at cleaning, I’ll just have to expect no less than the classroom to be in tip top shape before you go home each evening, we wouldn’t want you to feel you didn’t  work up to your usual standard now do we?”  Cheerilee usually wasn’t that demanding of her students in detention, she knew nopony wanted to be there, but since little Abby felt the need to brag while deriding the state of the school house, it was only appropriate to make sure the farmer filly live up to her claim.

She was taken more by surprise when Applebloom talked about how the family loved the idea of a Kissing Booth to go along with the apple sales.   It just didn’t seem like an idea Applejack would be fond of, Rarity perhaps, but Applejack?  Not the apple pony Cheerilee grew up with.  Big Mac even less so, sure he was handsome and all, but he certainly was the shy introverted type, not at all somepony who would go for such an idea;  yet again it wasn’t him that was doing the kissing, which begged a question in Cheerilee’s mind.   “So Applebloom, is the kiss a required part of getting the discount for the apples? If so do you have a choice in whom you kiss?”

Cheerilee could understand Applebloom’s motives and admired the little filly’s devotion to family, indeed it could be said that she was even a little jealous, as she lamented having such a rocky relationship for such a long time with her one and only sister, Cheery Blossom.  This created a small dilemma in the cerise mare’s mind - she wanteded to see such creative initiative and devotion to family pay off, but at the same time she just couldn’t just let Applebloom off the hook, as it would set a bad example.

“I’m happy to hear that you apologize and accept responsibility for what you did”.  In Cheerilee’s mind, Applebloom was no doubt just as sorry for being caught as for what she did, and the filly’s apology was reflective of that, but she was being generous given the situation and offering the Apple filly a way out of getting in even more trouble and possibly ruining Applejack’s day.  Still there was no way Applebloom could get off scot free.  “I’m afraid you’ll have to make up for using the school’s supplies by staying after school for the next two weeks and helping with cleaning duties, that sounds fair don’t you think Applebloom?”

Of course, in her conversation, one oddity Applebloom mentioned off-hoofed was stuck in Cheerilee’s mind, “did you say kissing booth?   Is that something extra on the side to promote the sale?”  She looked bemused; Applejack didn’t seem like the type to set up a kissing booth for extra bits, Rarity perhaps, but AJ?  Never in all her life did Cheerilee recall her doing something so... Flirtatious.  What would have inspired the orchard mare to do such a thing?

Cheerilee had a very flat look on her face as Apple Bloom kept trying in vain to negotiate her way out of trouble.  If only the young filly had acknowledged she had done wrong, and apologized, she would indeed have gotten off quite lightly.  Instead, she was making just digging herself a deeper and deeper hole by trying to bribe her teacher!  "Well, I don't know about the playground - we need some professional supplies for that, to make sure that our repairs don't cause yet another young foal an injury.  But I appreciate that offer of helping fix up some things around the schoolhouse.  I'll be sure to let Applejack know that was your idea when we tell her about how you got in trouble in the first place."

Cheerilee gave a flat look at Applebloom, raising one eyebrow disbelievingly.  “Forgot the paperwork, you don’t say… “  Cheerilee was disappointed, the school wasn’t some sort of byzantine bureaucracy, it was a small town school house with only a couple teachers who reported directly to the town council and the mayor.  They didn’t even have a principle, and the council acted as the school board as well, such was life in a town as small as Ponyville.  In short, it meant that she knew exactly how the school paper’s resources were spent, as she was directly responsible for its budget.

Applebloom’s attempted feint involving guessing how many apples in a bushel only served to display she was hiding something about using the school paper.  “Applebloom… All the requests for use of the school paper go to me directly from you students, there is no middle pony , and I can assure you I got no request from you to use the paper’s resources to print flyers for your apple sale, which wouldn’t be approved of anyway as it would be using school resources for a non-school related activity.”

Cheerilee held her forehood to her face and sighed, counting to ten in her mind with a look of disappointment.  She adored Applebloom, she really did, even with all the mischief the little farm filly and her two besties caused, she adored them all.  Usually their hearts were in the right place, and this time is no exception, but it was also patently wrong!  “Applebloom….  What you did is essentially stealing from the school.  The paper you used, the ink, the printer, that all costs money…  That money comes out of the paper’s budget, which in turns comes out of the school’s budget, a budget that has already been set for the year.  That means we have to cut the budget for the paper, or somewhere else, do you understand?”

Cheerilee hated to be stern like this, especially outside of the school house, even more so on a day off, but she had no choice, this was serious.  What was most important though is that little Abby needed to understand why, and also to be given an opportunity to try and set things right as much as she could anyway.  “So Applebloom, what do you think should be done about this?”

Cheerilee was glad she showed up when she did as a line of ponies, not to mention a single griffon, quickly formed up behind her.  She must have been lucky, arriving during a lull in the storm of apple sales.   With luck no pony, er, no one, would have to wait long, after all buying a bushel of apples should be a pretty straight forward affair.

Cheerilee may not have known most of those in line, but she was very familiar with the Apple family, especially little Applebloom, who cheerfully bounced up to her with her usual enthusiasm and desire for approval, in this particular case, in relation to her hoofmade advertisement flyers.  “Hello Applebloom, I did see the flyers you made, in fact found one placed under the door to my house; I wouldn’t be surprised you went to every single home in Ponyville, you always been a very dedicated and hard working little pony when you put your mind to it.”  Cheerilee looked once again at the line, full of ponies and griffons that didn’t hail from their quaint home town before turning her head back to the red headed filly.  “How far did you manage to distribute these flyers?  There seems to be a good deal of out of town folk here!”  Not that was a bad thing at all, quite the opposite, but it would require some clever campaigning which showed innovation on Applebloom’s part, which Cheerilee wanted to encourage, as long as it didn’t involve any recklessness or the little filly exhausting herself needlessly.

There was one other nagging question in Cheerilee’s mind in regards to the flyers, which most have cost a lot in paper and ink, hopefully it was all part of the Sweet Apple Acres budget but Cheerilee had been to the local printers press lately and didn’t recall seeing any large orders there, she also recalled the proprietor mentioning that ‘thing had been slow this week’.  Cheerilee gave a disarming smile hiding a nagging feeling in the back of her mind, “so Applebloom, how did you manage to make so many flyers?  You must have gotten quite the bargain!  Or did you perhaps get them printed slowly over time in preparation for this day?.”

Cheerilee stretched her legs as she stepped outside her single floor ranch home near the school house.   Since it was a Saturday there were no classes to hold and as luck would have it, no foals to watch for detention.  Her day free, it was a prime opportunity to get a few errands done, one of which was a short list of groceries.  Although she originally intended to get the apples she needed on that list at the local market, the advertisement she found stuffed under the door changed her plans.  If Sweet Apple Acres were going to sell apples wholesale at such a discount, how could any frugal pony not want to take advantage?

The mauve colored mare didn’t even think about the kissing part of the advert as she trotted to the nearby orchard, assuming it was hyperbole on the part of a little filly that was known to exaggerate from time to time, especially when it came to her family.   Besides discounted apples from the best orchard in the land was more than enough motivation, and when she saw the line outside of the stand, it was obvious to her other ponies thought so too.

Cheerilee didn’t recognize several of the ponies in the line, in fact the only one she knew was Fluttershy, who was basically a celebrity in the town due to the adventures she had with her friends, not that you want to inform the shy pegasus of that fact as it always caused her great embarrassment,  in fact Fluttershy would even occasionally flee the scene if the situation was awkward enough.  The other three, a navy blue pegasus, a brick red earth pony with a two toned green mane, and a brown earth pony who’s mane was also green were complete strangers to the school teacher.  Were they new to town or did the ads that were obviously of Applebloom’s creation circulate that far and wide?

Regardless , the line was reasonably short, and it give Cheerilee a chance to converse with the Apple family outside of formal situations involving Applebloom’s schooling, or embarrassingly awkward ones involving spell infused drinks.

I think Ashton has a public pony themed server, the original one is gone and some of us run a private vanilla one.

Oh please, she is Wonderboltsexual.

Wow...

So much has changed in a few years. Like brain cells!

I think the ones in charge of remember the minecraft information vanished off to somewhere.

Don't suppose I'd be able to hop back onto the server again? Kind of curious to see how much has changed

That server is gone. Bramble and I though went and started our own with a few Canterlot peeps.

Have an active admin that is reachable through other means like we do.

Doing practical jokes that are, ultimately harmless, is not griefing. We do practical jokes all the time on our server but we don't ruin other people's work.

Silk Touch - Solves all your broken glass or bookshelf problems.

When you constnatly get lost in your mine, never find the blocks you want, keep getting killed by mobs when you DO find the blocks you want, yeah...

Sorry, but it sounds like you are bored or frustrated with Minecraft because you are not particularly good at playing Minecraft.

I do not understand why people don't set up a simple system in their mines that tell them which way to go for the exit(s). Personally I use dirt arrows in the stone floor to tell me which way to go, you can make them straight or diagonal easily enough, or on walls for going up or down. Others use torches on the walls facing towards the exits, although I don't find this as intuitive.

Always light your mine with torches in regular intervals; I never have mobs in my mines because of this. Run into a dark cavern? Block it off until you are ready to fully explore and light it up (or up to a point and then block off the rest of the dark). Have armor and a weapon! I don't know any overworld enemy that can come close to killing you if you have both.

On our server, the admin will trade difficult to get blocks or resources for other resources you have; we have to get more (30 wheat equals one emerald for example) but ti is worth it when needed.

Also griefer protection with ability to set zones where players cant edit blocks, and banks!

That is why you need to be picky and active in who you let in. We have zero griefing on out server because of that.

People can get bored on Minecraft?

I say go with vanilla dude. We have our server as vanilla and I am perfectly satisfied with it, plus can update immediately.

Guys there IS no Canterlot Server anymore

I thought Ashton created his own public unofficial successor peeps can join.

...oh... I thought you were saying that you two basically were running a new "unofficial canterlot MC server" and that I was encroaching on your server by offering to open mine up for the community...

No, we just started our own, although we have a few Canterlot peeps on there who asked to join.

sorry! didnt mean to step on any hooves, I'll back down.

(though if your interested in adding just a hint more pony, let me know, I'm rebuilding some parts to the old Zap Apple mod, new wood, new foods, etc)

Back down from what?!? Just saying how Bramble and I dealt with the Canterlot server closing, that is all. We love the game too much not to keep playing; the fact we have a server shouldn't alter anything you are doing.

Bramble and I went off and started our own server a ways back because of the Canterlot one sadly closing, been doing well.

Well it is finally that time of the year again! A new season of the show we love, Friendship Is Magic, is finally upon us! So here is the official discussion thread for the first two episodes, which are a two parter: Princess Twilight Sparkle.

This time we are doing things a little different, the thread is open from the beginning instead of time locked to the episode. Also, spoilers and screenshots are welcome, however we ask that they be under the 'Spoiler' tags.

So let's discuss!