Dunes

Hey! Started working on this app, and I wondered - is this a family of a specific species of pony? The little dudes in your profile don't seem to have horns, so I'm guessing they're either earth ponies or pegasi. Or are they a mixed bunch? I reckon I'm going with earth pony, just so any mystical mumbo jumbo she comes up with doesn't get written off as unicorn magic, at any rate.

The show had been, for lack of a better word, a disaster. More accurately, disaster had slammed right into awful, hit its head, and been sick on the shoes of calamity. What hadn't gone wrong? The backup dancers had backed up right into each other, the lighting effects turned into lighting defects, the duet was more like a du-not, and she wasn't even going to think about the wardrobe malfunction. Whose bright idea was it to put doves in the dress, again? It might have been hers, she really couldn't remember. A lot of punch went around at that particular meeting. Sapphire Shores was simply in a bad mood. She knew her die-hard fans would love her no matter what she did, but all the catcalling and booing brought with it far too many flashbacks of her dingy bar gigs back in the day. Besides, they'd all paid good bits for their tickets, and they got... that performance. Shameful. She didn't even want to think about the scathing reviews that were doubtless going to be in the paper that morning. And so she sat in a tavern, the name of which she hadn't even bothered to catch on the way in, brow furrowed in thought. The tan pony was wearing a simple suit and ruffled tie – far removed from her normal, fantastic feats of fashion – and a pair of sunglasses despite the dimly-lit establishment. She didn't particularly care if anypony recognized her or not; she simply didn't feel like getting her dazzle on tonight. She hummed to herself as she stirred her otherwise-ignored drink with its straw. As the fresh memories of her recent embarrassment burned in her mind and on her cheeks, she reacted the only way she knew how. “[colour=#0000cd]Oh honey, you gonna know,[/colour] [colour=#0000cd]You gonna know disaster,[/colour] [colour=#0000cd]Sooner or later it's gonna show,[/colour] [colour=#0000cd]Gonna show its face – it's you it's after.[/colour] [colour=#0000cd]Hold out your hooves and take it,[/colour] [colour=#0000cd]Or just smile and fake it, [/colour] [colour=#0000cd]Either way, oh, either way, peanut,[/colour] [colour=#0000cd]It's gonna hit you 'fore you know what's what[/colour][colour=#0000FF].[/colour]” It was relatively quiet. For her, anyway. Less quiet was the glass she knocked over and shattered as she finished her final crescendo. Emphatic hoof motions were not the brightest idea in close quarters with glass around, she realized. A perfectly awful end to a perfectly disappointing night. Sapphire walked over to the bar, looking for a bartender to ask for a broom, and bumped into somepony. Maybe the sunglasses had been a bad idea, too. “[colour=#0000cd]Oops. I'm so sorry, sugar. It's been one of those nights.[/colour]”

Hmmm, yeah, I'd probably have to go with At the Gala, too. Though I loooved Art of the Dress. But I've generally been pretty impressed by the musical stuff happening in the songs in this show. Normally songs in a kids' show make me cringe, but there's some nice musical stuff going on in this show. I do listen to fan music more often, though. (I listened to Sunshine and Celery stalks on repeat all day at work the day after I found it. )

((Sorry for the long wait! I had my exit review, and then I had to go and get sick. I'm still feeling pretty awful, so this may not be my best...)) Crystal sat down without much fuss. She might have been vaguely aware that the pegasus was trying to help, but in all probability she was just too weak and dazed to do anything else. Had she been thinking clearly, she might have realized how lucky she was that this pony was a kind one. It would’ve been laughably easy to make off with her stuff and leave her behind. As it was, she just giggled. She wasn’t sure why. She watched with a sort of detached interest as Milky did fly off with her bags. She furrowed her brow, feeling like she ought to be concerned or mad or something. “Hey…!” was about all she could manage to say, though. Her stuff! Where was her stuff going? And why was the ground spinning like that? It was all very peculiar. Then, somehow, she was flying. Had the ground spun so hard it flung her off? That must have been it. Crystal panicked, wiggling her legs in a weak sort of way. She became aware of a dull pressure around her shoulders and looked up. ‘Oh! It’s Milky! That’s… that’s okay then.’ She stopped her feeble wiggling and just went with it. “So this… this ‘s flying?” she managed. “Pretty not bad.” Crystal’s eyes widened as they hurtled towards a… thing. Like a black hole. It got bigger, and bigger, and with it her panic rose. What was that thing? Why was it getting so much bigger? ‘Celestia save us…’ But they entered, and it was darker and cooler in there. It dawned on Crystal that this was a cave. She thought that wasn’t so bad. She started shivering. She thought that was probably bad. She wasn’t sure, but shivering when hot seemed counter-intuitive. Milky gave her water, and Crystal drank as much as she could, but her throat was so raw she had to stop after a few gulps. The blanket was nice. She stopped shivering so much. Milky took off again, and Crystal panicked. “W-wait…” She croaked after Milky’s retreating form. Her head was clearing enough to realize precisely how precarious her position was. Alone, in a cave, in a desert, dangerously dehydrated, and now lacking her only protector. In a vague attempt to protect herself, she started pushing rocks into a sort of little wall. For the first time, she started to feel hopelessly out of her depths.

Thought I'd swing by and leave a couple comments! Quick first thing, you might wanna add a "WIP" tag (or "FINAL" when this is final") in the post tags section of the full editor. Also, I don't believe Ponyville is currently an option for new character residences. But as for the character herself... I really like this concept! A blind singer - I think there's a lot that could be done with that. As for suggestions, I mostly have a couple questions that might guide you to expand on her history a little bit. - How did she get her cutie mark? I can see the connection between her mark and what she does, but how did she get it? Was there a particular event that made her realize singing was her calling? - How else does being blind affect her life? How does she live now? By herself, with family or a loved one? Does she use a guide dog? How does it affect her day-to-day activities and how has she had to adapt, and how has that affected her personality? - I see she is the kind of pony to work hard to help her family, is kind, and she has a bit of an alcohol problem. What else defines her personality? Does she have any quirks, fears, other interests, or other things that make her a unique pony? You say she is kind and dislikes other ponies being bullied -- how does she show this? Is she the kind to comfort another pony after their bully has left, or burst in and intervene? These are just little things to think about in general, to get a feel for how she'll react in different situations. I think you have a really nice start here, and I'd love to see where this goes!

I think the mods are probably busy as of late. They've got quite a few final apps to look through, by the looks of things. The way I see it, a final app sitting there for a while just means there's nothing glaringly obvious that needs to be fixed! I like this guy. I hope he gets approved.

I do feel that the whole "I LOVE YOU OZ" "oh hey girls IM GAY NOW" thing was kind of... badly done. I mean, what? She was genuinely into Oz. There was no way that was written as "I'm just doing this because I'm expected to." Yet they wrote her as completely gay from there on out. Bisexual people exist! It's okay to acknowledge that in media! As for the wicca/lesbian thing... Contrived, probably, but considering the time the show aired, it let them indirectly explore their relationship without offending the censors. I mean, this wasn't that long after Ellen's career was destroyed (for several years, at least) after her character came out on air. Magic was a stand-in for gay when the network wouldn't even allow them to be seen kissing on screen. (But in season six, after Buffy was on a different network, bam! Kiss! ... in the SADDEST EPISODE EVER, but still. Scratch that, that WAS season five when they were still on the WB. Still the saddest episode ever, but as I understand it, the writers did have to fight with the network to let them show any lady-PDA on screen.) But Kennedy. Ugh, Kennedy. Kennedy is evidence that I can love a show and still completely hate parts of it. 9_9 The writing sure isn't perfect, but I still enjoy watching it. And man! I know. I figure I probably irritate people the way I go on about ponies. Because FiM is awesome and I just get so excited, I can't help it.

Still planning on doing this, but my exit review and finals are soon! ... Plus I saw Sapphire Shores was up for grabs and I miiiight have made exciting flailing motions. >.> I miiight have also gone, "EEE!" Apparently she's been available for a while, but I didn't want to take the risk. Want! But yarr! Once things get less crazy, I'm makin' me a sham fortune teller.

Me and my friend got costumes just to take a photo of this. <3 This is mine and has been since March. It's a rough design I drew that I'm kind of vaguely toying around with the idea of getting tattooed somewhere, though I need to make some revisions first (those back legs, argh). And then keep it as my desktop for a few more months to make sure I don't get sick of it. And then have the money for a tattoo, which probably won't happen until after grad school.

^ Y'know, I like it. I keep kind of wanting the Celestia toy I keep seeing at WalMart and Target, but I don't particularly want to pay $20 for an inaccurate toy. -.- Ha! This reminds me. My brother's in high school marching band, and the low brass passes around the Princess Celestia toy, everyone presses the button, and then they say something for good luck before contests. And they apparently all had FiM nicknames. My brother was Applejack. Makes me so proud!

I believe it. For me, there's nights where it's ponies, or drinking alone, and ponies don't leave me with a hangover the next morning. ... Sad, maybe, but my liver's better off for it. >.>

I wish! I love me some RD. But, alas, every time I start working out, with the goal of being just like Xena, Warrior Princess (gahh I want to be her for Halloween! ONE OF THESE YEARS) ... I end up injuring myself. I do have the "procrastinate on work for painting class and finish it in ten seconds flat" thing down, though. For some reason, I'm a lot better at finishing schoolwork for classes I'm not interested in! I love art, which means it gets saved for last. After other homework, cleaning, dog walking, naps... I can knock out an entire acrylic painting in one night, though. And they don't look too bad, neither.

Drink? Oh... Oh, she'd forgotten to do that, hadn't she. That probably wasn't good. This was not turning out to be her day. "Heh. You'd... you'd think I'd have done that, right? When my head was in the well? 'Mma silly pony. Heh. Heheh." Her mouth felt like sand. It tasted like sand, too. Dizzy. Sand. It was weird to think about, sand. Just a bunch of tiny, little rocks. Can't even grow anything in sand. Stupid sand. Dizzy. She stared at it. That sounded serious! She wondered which poor sap Milky was talking to. Whoever it was, they had to be in bad shape. Dizzy dizzy. She looked around; there was nopony else. Oh. She's talking to me. She stifled a giggle. Poorly. By Celestia, she was dizzy. Why was she so dizzy? Some scrap of survival instinct was screaming at her to follow this pony who actually knew what she was doing. Crystal supposed she had better listen. She walked over to Milky, and walked into Milky. Wobbling, Crystal managed to stay upright. "You're a good pony, Milky." She grinned. "Hey! I've never been in a cave before. Are there bats?" The small part of her brain that had been trying to shout sense into her gave up. She was just delirious now.

Somewhere inbetween Applejack and Twilight. I'm a nerd/love learning, prioritize school over almost everything, and socializing doesn't entirely come naturally to me (but I'm usually willing to try). I'm also usually willing to help folks out (sometimes forgetting to speak up for myself), dedicated when I work (sometimes it manages to beat school out for priorities, which I need to fix), a terrible liar, and have just about as much social grace as Applejack. Belching contest at Thanksgiving with my brothers? Yes ma'am.

Crystal stopped walking and looked back at Milky. She sounded... desperate? But the Shadowbolts were becoming famous, and fast! Or infamous, depending on who you asked. They were hard to miss. Maybe word didn't travel so quickly in the desert. "I’m fairly certain, yes. It was rather distinctive looking, like yours. You don’t see something like that every day.” She was suddenly very tired, too tired to care very much what was happening to her. But her newfound apathy for her own affairs let her finally focus on this other pony. Had something happened to her? Or her family? Crystal suddenly wanted everything to be okay for Milky. Everything should be okay for somepony, at least. “I saw them in Manehattan, but they travel, I think. I’m not sure where they’re based, though. You could... visit? Ask around? Tickets are how they make most of their bits - when they go to a town, they tend to be pretty loud about it. They put up posters when they came around, back home.” So tired. She needed to get back to town. She started walking again, hoping the other pony would follow. “Did something happen? Is your family missing somepony? If that’s okay to ask, that is. I think I’m too exhausted to tell whether or not I’m being rude.” The world was swimming in front of her. Yes, she was definitely too tired to do much of anything. She trudged on, trying not to topple over.

I'm hoping it's that, rather than anything more... "the show gets cancelled"-ish. Isn't My Little Pony one of Hasbro's biggest moneymakers at the moment? I can't imagine they'd want to put the cash cow out to pasture while it's still earning.

Crystal watched the pegasus’ attempts to quell the flames. It took some guts to swirl around a burning building like that. Especially with the flames jumping like that. That probably hadn’t been part of the plan. She watched the fire, burning with a new vigor, and felt a little dizzy. Was this what shock felt like? She giggled, despite herself. “My house…” Crystal wobbled over to where the pegasus had landed. Her knees felt oddly weak. She plopped down on the ground. Undignified, probably, but she wasn’t sure how well she’d be able to stand up. She looked at the hopeless, burning wreckage before her, feeling fresh waves of heat wash over her. She looked back at Milky. “I’ve… made an executive decision not to think about it.” She felt woozy. She couldn’t tell if it was the heat, or the feeling of her heart trying to jump out of her ribcage. She sighed, waving a hoof at the crumbling embers. “It’s a lost cause anyway. Thank you, though, for trying. Were you burned?” "Still…” She furrowed her brow. “What worries me is what started it. Did somepony do this? Or did the sandstorm, like… Shoot lightning? Can they do that?” She rested her head on her hooves, feeling hopeless. Maybe she would have to go home after all. Home to Manehattan, with its rain, and nice weather, and fire-fighters... Go home and admit defeat to everyone who’d called her foalish. All those smug looks on their faces… No. She sat up, a shaky sort of determination on her face. She’d make this work. She didn’t get all the way out here just to give up. “It’s kinda silly to build a house out of wood in this climate anyway. It gets so dry, all it takes is one spark. Maybe I can make one of those… mud-house thingies. Puuu-e… Pueblos? Is that right? Do ponies do that around here?” She was trying to keep her voice from wavering. It wasn’t working. She started drawing designs in the dirt with her hoof. She'd figure this out. She started talking as she drew, her voice a little airy and distant. “Oh, but the Shadowbolts. They’re a sort of flying group.” Whatever she built, it’d need to be durable. Maybe baked clay bricks? “They do tricks, and the like. Kinda like another group…” But did they even have clay around there? Would she have to send for it? That seemed a little extravagant. “The, uh, Wonderbolts. But these guys are more extreme. Death-defying stunts and all that.” Maybe if she built a wooden structure, and built around that with clay. Could she build anything with wood? She didn’t know anything about carpentry. Crystal looked up. She’d come back to her plans when she had paper. “Anyway, I saw one of their shows back in Manehattan, and there was a pegasus who had a mane just like yours. Well, except it was blue. I thought you might’ve dyed it, or something, but I guess it wasn’t you after all. Maybe a relative?” Crystal got to all fours and shook the dust off of herself. “I guess I should go get my bags and head back to town. Nothing we can do for this mess right now. You’re welcome to some of the water over there; it’s probably the most valuable thing I have to offer right now.”

Dang! I wonder what they could've done, if anything, if it had been headed straight for us.