Dunes

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 guess not

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.

Awww, sweet.

yeah, I suffered through "Let me tell you how hot Spike is!" way too much. I tried to watch for the Willow/Tara but I didn't care for the writing of it. At the time, I felt the whole "Hey I'm a Wicca lesbian" seemed contrived. Dunno how I'd feel now.

That's why I try and be especially loving and tolerant of my non-brony friends, because I know what it's like to be groaning when someone won't shut UP about a show.

... which I don't

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.

I have several picture that cycle across my screen every hour or so, but this one's my favorite.

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!

For me It was:

" Life is not so bad after all."

At these time, iwas having sucidal thought. Surfing in the internet. I found an episode of MLP:Fim totally love and i laughed a lot and he cheer me up.

Yeah, it sound crazy but MLp: FIM save my life!

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. >.>

So there's nopony like Rainbow Dash around here?

Interesting.

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.

"Did you drink at all since you came here? Here, let's get you out of the sun. I know a cave nearby."

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.

"Come on, you wont make it to the city in your condition."

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.

"W..wait, please. Are you sure the mane was like mine? How can I find those Shadowbolts?"

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.

13 episodes could mean they are only trying to reach broadcast syndication.

On the other hoof, it could also mean that they are testing the waters since many of the writers left along with Lauren and Rob.

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.

"What is a... Shadowbolt? Shouldn't you be more worried about your hut now?"

“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.

Updated and marked as final!

I really like where this character is going! You have pretty much everything a good application needs. You already said that you are working on her personality a bit more, so it seems that you are on-top of everything that needs to be done! Plus your pictures are rather well done, I can't wait to see them finished to be honest with you. The explanation behind the tribal mark is top notch as well. We don't have that many Zebras and it will be wonderful to have you in the Mane RP once the character gets processed through! I shall keep an eye out for a final tag!

~Sage AkA Freddie Freewings

P.S. The Zebra lore went through a major tune up, although not much changed it was made more verbose and descriptive. You might want to take another gander at it to see if it might help you out with anything that you are stuck on! Here.

Oooh, rockin'! That was a cool read. Makes me feel like I should expand on her relations with her family... Right now it sorta seems like her tribe doesn't like her, when really, most of it was "kids can be major jerks sometimes". (Even in a nice place where everyone generally gets along! E.g., Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara.) Her aunt definitely holds a grudge, but there's one of those in every family. I'm gonna put on some tunes and work on this!

Ooh, I just had a thought about this - would a charlatan fortune teller fall under this? Sort of like a spooky con artist? She could be a weirdo aunt or something.

I haven't actually made said pony yet, but I like the idea of a family full of black sheep. (Figuratively speaking...)

Dollhouse was an awesome show, too! It really opened my mind up to technological advancements.

Wow, I can't believe it's over.

Dollhouse yesss. Why do so many of Joss Whedon's series get cut short? FIREFLY. >:[

It gets akward with my friends because they're much bigger TV watchers than I am, a group of them watch Supernatural together every week for example, and I just never was into TV, all my friends would be Browncoats or Buffy fans when we were teens but I was all 'meh'.

I pretty much got into Buffy because my roommate liked it. Growing up, I had friends who loved that series. Specifically, they loved Spike and/or Angel. A lot. Like, "Let me tell you alllll about the hot things that Spike did on the latest Buffy episode!!!!! Even though you don't watch the show!" (They did the same thing with anime. To this day, I still reflexively groan and roll my eyes anytime I hear the word 'bishie'. Or 'Naruto'.) Turned me off of it for a long, long while.

But then my roommate was watching it one day, and it was on a scene with Willow and Tara being all couple-y, and... What can I say? I am a simple woman, with simple likes. Aaand I watched the series from the beginning so I could get to those bits, but fell in love with the show on the way. I can definitely see how not everyone would like it, or would have problems with some of the writing, though.

(The point about Rarity not providing any toys for Sweetie Belle isn't really valid since 1. With all those bags Sweetie Belle brought there had to have been a few toys in her luggage 2. Sweetie Belle was probably hyper focusing and when you hyper focus you could have hundreds of options avalible but if the option you're focusing on isn't avalible, the hundreds of avalible options don't matter).

Heyyy, that's a good point. Growing up, half of the stuff I packed WAS toys. My mom often had to go in my suitcase after I was done and make sure I'd actually packed clothes. What kinda kid doesn't take along at least a handful of their favorite toys? I almost always at least brought a stuffed animal.

That said, there was also something about grandma's house that radiated boredom rays no matter how many toys I brought (probably the fact that it was a lot quieter), so I can see how Sweetie Belle would still be bored, even if she had brought a suitcase full of toys.

This episode made me smile! Also made me realize I was a horrible big sister growing up, dang. >.> I got over it, though; my brothers and I seem to get along pretty well now, at least. (We're even all bronies. I kind of have a rockin' family.) I just wish it hadn't taken me until I moved away to college to stop brushing them off.

I hadn't thought about it that way. I reckon it depends on the individual situation and individuals involved. A lot of my thinking came from the standpoint of the abused having to wonder, "Can I really trust you to never try to hurt me again?"

... Of course, now that I've had time to stew on this, the kid was older by this point, and presumably wasn't in danger of being put under his father's power again, so that does alter the dynamic. Some of my thinking was along the lines of battered wives/husbands going back to their spouses because they're acting nice again, which isn't totally applicable to this situation from the kid's point of view (though it might be from his mother's). I was thinking very much in terms of the danger of future physical threat, but a 20-something (I think he'd be, if I remember the numbers right - I don't have the article open) isn't likely to move back in with his formerly abusive father. From that standpoint, having a lunch with his father wouldn't hurt, but I still don't think it should be something he should've been pressured into doing.

I think, regardless, it would need to take a considerable amount of effort on the part of the abuser to prove, yes, they have changed, and they're not just acting.

... Also don't care for the idea of it being anyone's "turn" to dole out abuse, either.

Maybe it wasn’t smoke, not really. Maybe a nose full of sand just smelled like smoke. Maybe she was imagining things, or maybe… No, Milky smelled it too.

Crystal dropped her bags and galloped towards the scent. She could see a smoke trail, slithering its way up towards the sky. She aimed herself for it, willing her aching muscles forward. She tried to keep from coughing, but the dust still in the air made it difficult. She didn’t know what she’d do when she got there, but she had to know… Had to.

She skidded to a halt, raising a dust cloud around her. Of course.

Of course it was the house. There wasn’t much to burn but the well. Her hindquarters sunk. Then her head sunk. Maybe her mother had been right. Maybe she’d have to go back to Manehattan, with its rain, and nice weather, and firefighters… And stupid snotty ponies who had laughed at her when she said she wanted to start a farm.

She slinked over to the well, her hooves making sad little ‘whuds’ as they kicked up dust. She poked her face in, and sniffed. Water. There was water in there! Maybe she could...

Crack. Something collapsed behind her.

She looked over her shoulder. The cabin wasn’t much more than crumbled embers by now. No saving it.

Crunch.

She stuck her face back in the well. It was nice in there. There were no burning cabins in it. She tried to get a glimpse of the water at the bottom, but it was too dark. She’d left her bags with that other pony, hadn’t she? It didn’t feel like it mattered much at the moment.

She stared into the dark, thinking. Shadowbolts! That was it. Milky looked like someone she’d seen at one of their shows. Maybe she’d been one herself. That would be exciting.

Fwoomph. Something caught fire anew. Yes, the Shadowbolts would be much more exciting than hearing her new cabin burn to the ground. She made the decision to think about that instead.

She looked up, a little dazed, and shouted, “Hey! Were you ever in the Shadowbolts?” She had no idea if the other pony was anywhere nearby.

I understand and comprehend only what I can imagine, as I do not have abuse in my life, fortunately. But I feel that there's a breed of person out there that will make huge mistakes. And these people need forgiveness if they are truly going to change. Sometimes, refusing that forgiveness keeps them from changing. This story, however, I'm sure has a part 2.

That's probably true enough. The only abuse in my life is that my friends have experienced, and I've been there for the fallout. My best friend still has nightmares about it that she calls me to tell me about. Every time my roommate's father calls her, she ends up in tears. So I do tend to get very defensive over abuse victims (maybe more vocally than I need to be - most folks in their right minds generally agree abuse = bad ), because far too many of my friends have been on the receiving end. Thankfully, though, all of my experience is second hand.

That guy oughta be ready to do a lot of crawling, though. But if he's serious and he really has changed, he probably knows that. For all I know, he's ready to try to make it up to his family for the rest of his life. And if that's the case, then I genuinely do wish him the best. But eh! It's all pretty much theory from my perspective - I don't know this kid, or his father.

I wasn't deliberately trying to be persnickety at y'all, so apologies if I came off that way!

I was thinking something along these lines too. I mean, people CAN change. He could've said he didn't want to see his father again... but he could've at least forgiven him, y'know?

I went to a recovery thing for several weeks. Basically, it's a program for "hurts, habits, and hang ups." I remember this one women who had been into like, alcohol and drugs, let her life go and that jazz. Now she's getting help, but her kids, now grown up... don't want to see her anymore. She can't see her grandkids because of mistakes she made. She knows it's her fault, but she's better now. She's changed. She went and got help, something not everybody does or even tries to do.

It doesn't happen all the time every time... but I think forgiveness is the very least a person could do. Nothing can heal that... but I think that some people deserve second chances.

I don't know how easily I'd forgive someone who beat me or my mother. Especially my mother. I'd certainly never trust them again.

If he truly has changed, then he needs to work frickin' hard to prove it; not just show up for a lunch, say sorry, and expect his family to welcome him back with open arms. He should have to face the damage he caused. And if his son never wants to see him again, he should respect that. Leave an open invitation for the kid to come talk if he ever changes his mind, sure. Leave the ball in his court. But I don't think anyone actually owes anything to their abuser.

Forgiveness would be very, very big of the kid, and accepting any healing the man has done would be a nice outcome... But to say the father deserves a second chance effectively places his needs over those of the family he once abused, in my opinion.

EDIT: Re-reading, I feel I should clarify. This is not to say I think the father is irreparably a horrible human being and actually deserves to be shunned forever and ever because of what he did. Just that, in a reconciliation over physical abuse and that inherent abuse of power, all of the power should, by rights, go to those who were abused. Even if it doesn't result in a satisfactory outcome for him. Even if it means they opt never to see him again.

Once someone crosses those boundaries, and breaks that fundamental trust between parent and child (or spouse and spouse) with violence, you shouldn't feel obligated to give them the time of day if you don't want to. Victims of abuse have been controlled quite enough already - any interactions with their abuser should be entirely on their terms.