Northern Lights

There's a frantic yelping as the ice vanishes, tossing the timberwolves into the water. but the concern about the heat seems to be valid. There's a series of ominous cracking noises across the ice. Pawing at the surface, the filly notices more chunks of ice falling into the growing hole. "I think I second that motion..." she says, turning on her heels and making a sliding, cantering dash for the nearest part of shore, only shown by the thickening reeds still poking through the grey ice, a series of sharp cracks in the ice hot on her hooves. the heavy equipment bounces in her pack, making her flight even more unstable. Biting her lip, the pony wonders if her ice and snow abilities would work on breaking pack-ice, but she really doubts she could focus fast enough before any crack catches up to her. Luckly, the worst of them seem focused at the centre, where the struggling action of the timberwolves are kicking the ice around their hole to pieces.

[sORRY! I thought I replied to this ages ago ] The unicorn looks up with a preoccupied frown, then her eyes open wide. She hastens to take apart the anenometer [who knew that'd be used in the show!?] and shove it into her saddlebags. The timberwolves back away as the dragon lands, but the largest one starts to slowly stalk closer, head down, eerie eyes glowing and cutting through the gloom of the wintery day. There's an ominous creak from the ice below the pair, and the small pony skitters backwards as, one by one, the pack moves out onto the flat surface, cautious, but determined. "I don't suppose you breathe fire?" gasps the unicorn, her muscles tensing as her body prepares to either dash or fight.

Just at the edges of vision, motion can be seen in the swirling snow. Surrounding the pair, keeping a cautious but deliberate distance, the scraggly outlines of a timberwolf pack can be seen, their wooden forms greyish and particularly twisted looking and skeletal without even the most cursory of leaves the treelike beasts seem to cry out for. Yellows eyes catch the gloomy winter light, as the whistling wind hides the sound of claws on ice. The pony is far too involved with her work to pay any attention, desperately trying to record wind velocities on paper that threatens to blow right off her pad.

Also, No Means No Shy is Best Shy *squee*

I'm adopted, and while I appreciate the whole "you don't need to be a frat boy to be a boy" dynamic, I think I should cover the adoption part of the story, if only because far less people here will have any context for it. Most stories about adopted children use it as a trope to have a quest for your 'true family' and, often, finding out about some secret that makes you special (Harry Potter and the Hercules movie are two examples). And that's all very well and good except the message it inevitably sends is that your real family is your biological one. Most of these stories end up with the child or teen staying with his 'deal's family. This makes for great escapist tween dreck when your family is getting annoying and you want to imagine your alien/wizard/mermaid/devine parents will drop in any second to reveal an amazing ability you have and whisk you away to adventure. But for adopted children it denies the reality of your family and insists that they can't love you nor can you be happy with them. I went through what Spike did. I don't look like any of my family and want to understand myself better. And I am so glad that Twilight was supportive of this. Yes, it looked like they might loose Spike but as his guardian, she wanted Spike to be happy. I was glad the message at the end was supporting adopted families being a real and valid family. I was glad they emphasized that with little Pipsqueak. I am tired of adoptive parents being shown as either abusive or, at best, okay but never as good as the real thing. I suspect Princess Celestia's letter was encouraging Spike on his quest but it might also have been saying where his egg was found. After all, I'm surprised they never asked her.

The ice seems pretty easy to cross for the pony, barring a little slipping and sliding, but from above one can make out the fish slumbering below it, showing it's not as thick as it might be. The small pony seems resolutely cheerful in the inclimate weather, and pauses in the middle of a vast expanse, a nearby rock making for a decent landing spot. She pulls out a simple and sturdy anemometer, setting it up on a clear patch. The device essentially seems to be a series of cups on a cross, to spin around in the wind and measure it's speed. After all, she is out here for science. "Just land for a minute!" she shouts up, "I need to check the windspeed here where there's no trees... it'll be better to show how fast it's going near the mountains." The howling has ceased, though whether that's good or ominous is yet to be seen. It's certainly a very exposed location.

Oh gosh, Becoming Popular if only because of every song on this list, I LISTEN to it a lot. Smile is GREAT too, no doubt, and Find a Pet (which a lot of ponies didn't like here originally). I love Smile but Becoming Popular wins... so close!

Northern Lights seems pretty comfortable with the layout of the forest, at least as far as making it to the edge of the bog is concerned. The winds about them are accented by the occasional howl, which seem to be surrounding the pair from both sides. Luckly, nothing is seen yet through the bare trees and frozen bracken. Checking her compass, the unicorn notes, "I wouldn't worry about the timberwolves. They never go near the bog usually, so once we get there we should be fine." There's a tiny quaver of nervousness in her voice, but she manages to keep it in check. The snow on the ground makes for slow travel, flattening out the dips and rocks of the woods but replacing them with a soft pathless track. It's quite clear from the empty expanse of snow, few animals are active during this sort of weather. Every few minutes the pony seems to stop, check her bearings, and adjust them. The twisted trees look even more unnerving nude of their leaves, and as they skirt past. Keeping more to the edge of the forest, just barely within the borders, they quickly arrive at the far west edge of the bog. The expanse has been changed from the buzzing, muddy summer look to a vast wasteland of dark ice studded with broken reeds and grasses at the edges. Smiling, the pony nods. "See? Nice and flat for half the trip to the mountains. And all the swamp predators are safely asleep this time of year!" A sharp howl to the south makes her jump and skitter forward onto the ice. Slipping a little, she frowns. "I probably should have brought cleats, but the ice here is pretty bumpy and dirty, so it's not going to be so slick. And I guess you can just give me a good push and slide me forward."A few more howls override her cheerful banter, and the pony frowns. "Those wolves never venture this near the bog usually. It's too full of mud and gators and monsters and stuff."

Knowing I learned how to do pastry and desserts just from my own drive and ambition, I had a person interviewing me comment on that! 1) I have a large tattoo on my chest of my first pet (a budgie) holding up a banner saying fearless. I got it with my first food industry paycheck 2) I won a national writing contest when I was 12 and was supposee to get a book published but flaked out editing it. Everyone thought I was going to grow up and be an author. 3) I started hanging out online back in 1993 when I was 13 so I relate to the foals hanging out here. One kids toy you remember but don't have anymore?

HTC My Touch 4G if I remeber right, called something else in Canada. I basically treat it like a little computer I can incidentally phone & text people with: I'm posting from it right now, and all pony episodes get their first viewing through it for example. I can't afford a laptop so it is super useful. Android gingerbread.

I don't know how I feel about this. Does this read as boy's show morning girl's shows off prime morning time to anyone else?

I'm 155 cm or five feet two inches..

I hate to say this but... Walk? Pick a midway place to meet and walk there perhaps?

The vector concept art for Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.... Which I totally hated at the time. Yep, pre show being aired.

Twilight Sparkle, except I know I'd be FRIEND-ZONED faster then Big Mac with Cherilee. Twilight- "Wow these are tasty roses, I have a book on the magical properties of roses, here, you can borrow it, okay, back to work *door slam*" Me : *buysomeapples!*

I enjoyed this episode, though part of me was going at the end, "see, you CAN have high quality stuff and enough for all of Ponyville if you try hard!" Sure, they had the other ponies helping but they did all that in 45 minutes. It just feels like they take their time as much because they've never needed to push themselves (monopoly) as the quality aspect. Going from the time of the contest, you could reasonably assume 5-6 hours of work would, if they were going at a brisk pace, given enough cider for the town. So I can only assume they really took their time before. And don't get me started on why don't they let people take numbers to come back the next day, or limit one per person. Just feels like the letter should have been "We got complacent and needed a kick in the ass". As for the idea of not being able to keep the farm, they don't need it mortgaged for that to be an issue. It's big and the upkeep costs money. Loosing a very lucrative revenue stream, especially your only one for 4 months a year could easily be fatal. I presume from context Zap Apples are possibly a spring fruit, given foals are in school for the harvest time. If not, it could mean up to half a year before the next fresh apples. Blah blah blah still liked it and appreciated AJ Learning Her Lesson from last episode and Applebucking Season and not being too proud for help.

So many good ones. I'm a big fan of Beauty and the Beast's music: http://youtu.be/IJQr6bmmRt8 and Ursula is CLASSIC: http://youtu.be/8oU85k7oOCo And guys, seriously, all the tears: But there's some really good recent songs too. I adore this one from Princess and the Frog: http://youtu.be/ipmlEDE1uF4 And Tangled is full of good music: http://youtu.be/H_0Y4aSY1hM As for worst, ug, a lot of late Bluth movies. Penguin and the Pebble has some of the worst.. I had to force myself through it.

If I might digress from Bronyness for a moment, I'll mention other fandoms for comparison. When I was a youth, Gargoyles was a cool, short lived show with a major fandom in the teen and adult ages. The last major convention for Gargoyle fans was FIFTEEN YEARS after the show started and TWELVE YEARS after the last episode. The fandom will die back a bit as people find new things (a lot of Gargoyle fans simply began being fans of other shows as well... several I know are big fans of Avatar, many others just transitioned into being in the furry or fantasy fandoms in general) but I don't think anyone has to worry about bronidom vanishing in a year or two. Also, MLP is a long term property of Hasbro. I assumed ponies were dead after they finished making any toys in the early ninties, but they came back three times after that. It might not be FiM, but if you're in for the long haul, there'll be ponies again someday even if this show ends. I assume a lot of the people here are, well, too young to have lived through the lives of several show fandoms already. Just let it happen, enjoy the energy and excitement. When it dies away, it will be time. And never doubt there will remain a core of fans. And don't assume this is a short haul thing. Ten years from now, some of us will still be going to BronyCon or similar.

You might be a MLP fan if: - You know more about Equestrian history than the history of your own country - Artists are suddenly obsessivly followed the second a single pony goes up into their gallery - Clop and Plot are ruined as normal words for you - You're not vegetarian, you're a herbivore... and that's cool now - You never thought you'd like fashion, going to a fancy ball, studying, racing... but then a pony did it and... - You're seriously considering getting a cutie-mark.. I mean tattoo.

Thank you! I'm out in Hanau (20m on the DB to Franfurt) and went into Frankfurt to the Modern Art Museum by myself on Mittwoch last week, but was super disapointed with the price given they had a whole floor closed when I visited. Otherwise been to some inexpensive ones, but the 15.-€ cost to get into town is a limiter, it's why I cut my idea to go to Köln short, my furry friends weren't able to see me and the 50-60€ ticket would clear me out of extra money. Also disapointed at lack of blindbag ponies in the toystores around here, seems like ponies just aren't a thing enough right now. I was hoping to grab some before returning to Canada.

Looks like I won`t be going to Köln after all, so I guess meeting with Davroth is not going to happen.

I guess we can see! Sadly a lot of my other German friends are busy too, not sure why this time of year

I'm taking a two week German holiday starting Monday and just thought maybe some fans here live near where I am visiting. It would be cool to meet international bronies.