Dunes

Faust has zero involvement in Season 3.

Besides that, it's highly likely to be fake.

Huh! I guess I forgot for a minute that people have photoshop. >.> Whoops.

Either way, I think everybody in the pony fandom pretty much knows any given ship is never happening.

I went down with the SS Korrasami, I'll go down with this ship too. >:[

Sapphire raised an eyebrow, smirking. She didn't know much about Fancy, but she knew that probably wasn't it.

Nice hat trick, she thought. Literally, even.

The ponies around them seemed to be warming to their little duet. Not only that, the sparse nighttime crowd seemed to be thickening, and a few windows had been thrown open. A city guard was bobbing his head and smiling. Sapphire's smirk widened to a grin, seeing the mare Timbre sang to blush as soon as Timbre turned away. She was going to have to step up her game.

She dipped her head at Timbre as he passed off the chorus to her. It might be hard to top fancy hat tricks without her pyrotechnics team and backup dancers, but a pony doesn't need to be a unicorn to make magic happen.

Making eye contact with the smiling guard, she reached a hoof out to him. When he offered his in return, she grabbed it, and she reared up to her back legs, swinging him to her front. She threw her other hoof over his shoulder, and shimmied side to side on every other downbeat. “That ma-are, it's crazy, she's got me seein' hazy. That ma-a-are, so fi-ine, I'm gonna lose my mind.”

She dipped her shoulder in and back out again on the start of each measure. The guard was a bit of a stiff dance partner, but he seemed to be going along with it. She flashed a grin at him, hoping he'd know to brace himself. “I just can't get to sleep at night --” she sung, sweeping forward with him on each syllable. With a hoof wrapped around him, she pulled him in closer, all the while bobbing to and belting out the beat, “-- that girl's gone and shone me the light.” With the last few notes, she spun the guard outwards in a spiral, mirroring the movement herself.

She spun gracefully to land again on all fours. The guard landed less gracefully. She smiled at him and tipped her tiny hat.

Sapphire flashed an eager look at Timbre. Your turn.

((I know I'm not quiiite following the song structure, but I didn't feel like repeating bits for some reason!))

It's hard to go wrong with Nirvana. This actually isn't one of my favorites of theirs, though. I do like the lyrical structure, but I think it's just a little bit too Nirvana mellow for me to listen to it a lot, unless I'm in the mood. But the thing that's bugging me is probably the compression of the recording; it looks like an old VHS. It's a mellow, subtle kind of song and loss of dynamic range is not doing it any favors. I'm sure it was great live. But it is still Nirvana, so, good times. 4/5.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emogqey7DxQ

n-no i'm not obsessed, shut up

OOO I love filling out questionsss.

What other fandoms are you a part of? Doctor Who, and Avatar (both The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra). And, heck, I'll admit it -- furrydom, to a lesser degree.

How long have you been with them? Doctor Who, since high school. I had no patience for sci fi until I had foot surgery my freshman year of high school and had noooothing to do. And my mom thought it would be funny to make me watch the 1996 movie while I was on heavy painkillers. (The movie was not good, but Paul McGann was great.) Then she started me on the Tom Baker episodes and I was hooked.

I'm pretty sure people in the next county over could hear the fangirl screech when they announced they were rebooting the series.

Avatar, for a shorter time than MLP even! I hadn't even watched it until earlier this year and was instantly hooked.

Furries I ended up with kind of as an accident. I drew animal people as a kid (as 10-year-old, not only were people hard to draw, they were boring to draw), and I had friends who also drew animal people, and we sort of collectively ended up finding people who also drew animal people. So, furries. I was way more into it in middle and high school than I am now. I try to fight the feeling on occasion, but a combination of going to art school and furries being the punching bag of the internet shamed me into other pursuits. :<

What has your experience been with other fans of this fandom? Pretty awesome. Granted, I mostly bop around Canterlot and EQD on occasion, but for the most part the people I've met have been respectful and well-behaved. I occasionally see fallout of Tumblr-drama on the ask blogs I follow, but when is there not Tumblr drama?

In your opinion, how do your other fandom(s) compare to the Brony fandom? I love Avatards like I love my bronies. And I honestly prefer bronies to most Whovian gathering places (though individuals are pretty cool, one-on-one). It seems like there's a lot of negativity in the Doctor Who communities I've found.

Despite being the whipping boy of the internet, furries are pretty cool for the most part. Some are into some weird things, and also into oversharing, which is a terrible combination, but I've met my fair share of really chill and awesome ones.

Is MLP your primary, or secondary fandom? Primary. Avatar's looking to be a close second. I've loved Doctor Who for longer than both combined, but I'm not nearly as involved with the community.

And of course, would you like to see more interaction between the MLP fanbase and your other fandom(s)? Do you think the increased interaction would be helpful to either/both? I've seen Korra!ponies and it pleases me immensely. And, duh, Doctor Whooves! There's so much Doctor Who/MLP interaction. It's fantastic, like bananas.

It'd be nice if there were less resentment/"KILL IT WITH FIRE" attitudes towards furries, but that goes for the whole internet basically. I don't necessarily consider myself a furry so much as someone who draws them on occasion, but the furry community is where I did a lot of my artistic growin'. I got a soft, fuzzy place in my heart for it.

This is the first one I've been on in a while. I think the last one I did was on the forums for Blackblood Alliance (a webcomic that I'm not sure is even still going), like... six years ago. It was talking dogs basically. >.>

The only one I did before that was a friends' forum called TekniKats, probably... ten years ago? Giant, colorful cats with magical powers. I'm sensing a theme here, haha.

I like Canterlot! I hadn't RP'ed in the longest time, and then pony mania hit and I just had to do something other than talk about it. So, pony RP! The expansive world just lends itself so well, and I like how nice it all is here. :3

I keep kind of wanting to find somewhere for Avatar (ATLA or Korra, or both) too, but real life keeps getting in the way of here often enough, and I don't know how hard I'd have to look to find somewhere without a bunch of godmode powerplayers anyway. -.-

Crystal struggled to come up with more insults. It was late and she was tired, which was the sort of thing that could either result in insult greatness, or...

“YOUR MOM... Uh. IS A POOP HEAD. TOTAL POOP.” She scowled, aware of how lame she sounded. But if Manehattan teaches a pony anything, it's to really mean every insult. “THE POOPIEST.”

Every insult, even the really bad ones.

Crystal squinted into the darkness. She saw the unicorn get in a pretty good kick at one of the coyotes. Kicking! Maybe I should try that, she thought. It might be marginally more useful than shouting at them.

The coyotes were rallying. They did not sound happy. Crystal decided against kicking coyotes for future reference. She backed up as things happened around her; it was a little too dark and a little too fast for her to really be able to tell what was going on. But they ended with Milky brandishing a fiery log. This could only mean good things; Milky knew what she was doing. Milky had a good head on her shoulders in a dangerous situation.

"There's only two kinds of 6-limbed creatures in Equestria and that's insects and dummies. And I don't see any feelers, so that kind of narrows it down!"

Thud. The log lay burning on the ground. Milky was stomping off. “Uh.”

The coyotes edged forward, sensing an opening but still cautious of the flames. “Uh. Milky?” The kicked one limped towards her, a little faster and a lot angrier than the others. “Milky?!” Crystal was failing to keep the despnation out of her voice.

The coyotes were far too close for comfort. No time to think. Crystal grabbed the burning log with her mouth and swung it in an arc, singing the fur on the right side of her face. “GAH,” she shouted, wincing in pain. She dropped the log, rubbing her face with a front leg. Her face throbbed with the heat. But coyotes probably hurt a lot more.

Face full of the scent of burnt fur, she grabbed the log again and ran in a furious, wobbly circle. She was half trying to scare coyotes, and half trying to avoid the flame herself.

Maybe if she tried to set one on fire, the rest would get the message

She ran straight for the limping coyote. “EERHE COYROH'EES,” she shouted, voice muffled by the log. “EEEERHE PFUPPFY PFUPPFY.”

(Nicely done with the French! That is some dedication. And I'm finally back, after a month of job hunting, moving, and a car accident. Sorry you had to wait so long!)

Sapphire tilted her head, pleasantly surprised by the bouncing beat. After a night full of soulful serenades, the quick jazz was a delightful change of pace. She closed her eyes for a moment, listening to Timbre’s voice echo off the buildings and cascade down the lane, nodding her head to the beat. She wondered what he was saying; she only knew a couple words of fancy. ‘Femme’? He must be singing about a mare. The other words were a complete mystery. Isn’t roux a kind of soup thing…? She scrunched up her nose in contemplation.

She looked around. The ponies around them had definitely stopped to take notice. Some of them looked confused, others looked drunk, but a few of them had smiles on their faces. Bringing music to the unsuspecting townsponies; this is what it was all about.

Timbre’s voice stopped, and she saw him grin at her and motion with a hoof. It took her a moment to remember why the music stopped. Oh, shoot!

“The-eh moonlight, shines just right, in-ah her eyes, leaves me blind –” Her hooves had a mind of their own, picking up the beat that Timbre set. She hopped up on the stone fountain, sliding a hoof forward with each syllable. “She got h’self all up inside my miiind, she's sim-ply beau-tee de-fiiined.”

Ending with a flourish, she spun around, sticking out a hoof as she slid to a stop. Round 2!

I AM OFFICIALLY ALIVE NOW.

Chiropractor managed to get my neck back where it needs to be, more or less, and I'm not on painkillers all the time anymore. HUZZAH. So now I am moved, employed, and not constantly in a painkiller-induced haze. Oh lawd. What a month.

Aaa I know I said I would be back on July 31st, and then I totally wasn't.

My roommates and I had a lease lined up, but then that plan fell through, as did the next one, which left us in the position of having to move our entire house to a third-floor apartment in the space of 24 hours on July 31st, when our original lease was up. And then, not three days later, I got rear-ended at a stop light, which left me on some pretty heavy pain meds while my chiropractor and I try to get my pain under control.

I apologize profusely; I wish I had been able to get online and at least give everyone an update, but between the heat exhaustion (plus regular exhaustion) from moving in 105-degree weather and then dealing with insurance claims for me and the car, on top of the pain meds, has just been overwhelming.

Sorryyyyy ;_;

AAA okay. So, I found a job (yay!) and it's full-time (yay!), but my lease at my current place is up on July 31st, so I am in the process of both leasing a new place to live and then moving there. While working full-time.

So, I am gonna say I'm not going to be available for RPs and such until July 31st. Fingers crossed that we get a lease signed and our stuff moved before then and I can come back earlier, but until then, I'm going to be a flurry of packing and paperwork.

Adulthood.

I AM SO SICK OF MOVING

I would, but I am not down for listening to 8 hours of me and my dog snoring and sleep barking.

Even though I'm pretty sure I only did that last part once, personally.

(I woke myself up barking once. I don't know why.)

((Aaa delayed again, sorry. The past few weeks have been a long slog of sending out endless resumes. Job hunting, ughh. ))

Sapphire arched an eyebrow at Timbre, grinning. “A contest, huh? I actually hadn’t thought of that, but I like the way you think.” What could they keep score over? Number of odd looks, number of strange ponies they could rope into dancing, or the first one to get arrested… Maybe not that last one.

Well, maybe it didn’t need to be quite as simple as that. Timbre had some chops, and he was quick on his hooves.

“Alright then, straight-up song contest? Let’s see who can get these sleepyheads and sourpusses goin’.” Sapphire beamed, wiggling in anticipation. “Whaddaya think, full songs, or swap off each verse and improvise? You got any more songs stirrin’ in that noggin?” She backed up a few steps, nodding towards the fountain. "I'll let you start. Let's see what you got, fancy pony!"

This isn't so much a planned break as it is an apology for sluggish replies and a notice that it may continue for a little bit. Roommate and I have less than a month left on our lease, are too broke to lease at a new place, and are basically scrambling to find jobs. Things have been busy and stressful.

I know I'm not in a whole lot of threads right now but I'm sorry to keep folks waiting. Adulthood sucks.

Crystal panted in between verses, still tired after the day's events. Being a Manehattan native had trained her to belt out long strings of obscenities, and this song was almost the same thing, but this was the desert. The desert lacked vendor ponies offering bottles of water and snacks.

So far, the desert kind of sucked.

She was glad of the little filly joining in. It was a song that was hard to escape, and she saw that it was clearly true even out in these parts. Even so, she'd forgotten the next verse.

"Uh... EQ-UES-TRIA GIRLS...

P-P-P-PONY FACE, P-PONY FACE...

I'M... pony and I know it?"

Crystal looked at Arrow and shrugged. "I'm out." She yelled in Milky's direction, her shrill city accent coming out in full. "HEY! Are they gone? I dunno any more songs, but I can insult their mothers for ya! Do you think coyotes speak Equestrian?"

"HEY COYOTES. YO MAMA'S SO HAIRY, SHE LOOKS LIKE A CHIA PET WITH A SWEATER ON." For the first time today, she felt some remnants of her confidence coming back. Deserts, she didn't know so well. Yelling? Yelling, she knew. Yelling, she was good at. Stupid desert. Stupid fire. Stupid coyotes! All that anger boiled up inside of her, settling in a place well-known to all children of Manehattan. She stomped toward the mouth of the cave.

"YO MAMA'S SOOOOO UGLY, WE PUT HER IN THE KENNEL WHEN WE LEAVE TOWN. Wait, that one makes sense. HEY! YO MAMA'S SO FAT, I RAN AROUND HER TWICE AND GOT LOST."

Sapphire grinned at Timbre, wiggling her shoulders in excitement. “It’s one thing to sing where ponies are expectin’ it; it’s another to bring music to ponies had no idea they wanted it.” She grinned and winked at him.

She trotted a little bit faster, keeping an eye out for where there might be a group of ponies. This time of night, it was a mix of law enforcement, drunken ponies making their way home, and a grab bag varied, colorful night denizens.

There was a little area around a fountain, lit by flickering lamps. There seemed to be a few ponies milling around, with the occasional guard patrol. She grinned. “Art’s always a little more interesting to me when it’s in places it’s not supposed to be.”

“Whaddaya say to a little song ‘n dance number?” She beamed at Timbre, her eyes twinkling in anticipation. "Bonus points if you can get a stranger to dance with ya."

Have you checked Failbook? There might be an Alaskan brony group already, you just have to seek it.

All the groups around this mudhole are kinda meh.

I am sad to read that you have met so many mean bronies at your meetups. Who could be mean to Rose?! >:[

There's a DFW group that I keep meaning to go to, but then I keep having to work odd hours and weekends. RESPONSIBILITIES.

H-hey! I might not be working weekends by then! And Austin is not that bad of a drive from DFW!

WANT.

Ooo! Ooo! I have two.

I have a pony ask blog (also linked in my signature). I haven't had any questions in foreverrr so feel free to send some my way.

Aaand I also have a regular personal blog that I put some of my art on sometimes, but is also just some random reblogs I happened to like.

I haven't been as huge into pony with the drought. But I don't blame the drought so much.

I mostly blame Legend of Korra. >.> (AASDADAL:KSD SO GOOD OH GOD I had all of The Last Airbender on Netflix to watch at my whim, and now I'm waiting for new episodes every week like a plebeian.)

That said, pony Tumblrs are where it's at. There are some really awesome ones out there.

(So apparently I've gone for months and months and months without knowing that the forums have a post tracking feature. >.> Hahaha. But the French is fine! Though I wouldn't say no to some OOC translations in a footnote or something, if the mood struck ya.)

As she listened to Timbre’s story, she couldn’t fight the urge to grin. It was just too precious; picturing this artistic stallion as a tiny colt, singing as he weaved around his mother’s workshop. He seemed to struggle with a few words, but somehow that just added to the charm of the story. “Your Equestrian’s fine, hon, you’re good enough at getting your point across,” she said, smiling. “And your mama came to watch your show? That’s so…” she struggled to find a word other than ‘aww.’ She failed. “So… aww!”

“It’s so awesome when parents encourage their foals. 'Cause then we get artists like you!" She nodded at him, smiling. "I dunno what I would’ve done if mine hadn’t, other than get stuck in Hoofington.” Her quick pace slowed a little as she thought what that would’ve been like. She probably would be playing in musty, stinky bars every night. She wrinkled her nose.

Gesturing to the three blue stars on her cream-colored flank, she laughed. “I got this by causin’ a ruckus, as usual.” Each step she took as she pranced along went just a little higher with the memory of it. “I knew I liked music, well enough, and I knew I liked singin’, even back in Hoofington. But I went for so long with no cutie mark!” She tilted her head dramatically and mocked a pout. “I started to wonder if I was gonna get it at all.”

“I came to Canterlot to live with my aunt, though, and then I saw this one singer. She sang, yeah, but that’s not all she did. She was just as much about the spectacle as the music.” Passion was stirring and swirling in her chest as she talked; her voice quavered. “It wasn’t just a performance for listening. It was for seeing, and participating, and dancing, and… and… being.” Pausing for a moment, she found herself blinking back a tear.

She took a breath, recomposed herself. “Anyway, getting’ out of that I just had to put on my own little number. I danced, I sang, I danced with ponies on the street. Pretty sure I wore a plant for a costume.” She laughed. “I had everyone lookin’ at me by the end. Got home,” she pointed a hoof at her mark, “and these babies were there!”

A thought occurred to her. Grinning mischievously, she asked, “You ever do any performance art, Mr. Timbre?”

Hey, I didn't know they turned my entire childhood into a website!

(... Let's be honest, it's my adulthood too. I don't want to think about how much I've spent on this dog this year alone. -.-)

Those furries are called "otherkin" and yes they're cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

As I recall, there's kind of a crowbar separation between furries and otherkin. Otherkin see therianthropy as a religion/spirituality thingy, whereas furries just think it would be fun to draw themselves as/dress up as a fox or something. Otherkin thus don't care for being lumped in with the furry crowd. At least, that's how it was back when I was into the furry community, I don't know if the tides have changed lately.

I used to be pretty into it! Talking animals made me like cartoons way more than cartoons that just had people in 'em as a kid, and that kinda stuck. Combine that love with a general inability to draw humans as a middle schooler, and the furry community was a godsend for me. Gave me a place to draw stuff I liked to draw and was okay at without having people go, "why does that man have a dog head?" I've since expanded my artistic horizons, and my friends who were into it moved on, so I haven't had much of a reason to stick around over the past several years. Still have a soft spot in my heart for it, though.

The furry community is a little different than, say, the Brony community, since most of the content is fan-generated. There's some media that they latch onto (like Disney's Robin Hood, or Tale Spin, and stuff like that) but there's no one single franchise that brings them together. It's more the concept of talking animals/talking animal-people that brings them together, so there's a lot of variation in what gets produced.

And, yes, fursonas are basically ponysonas, but furries instead of ponies. Sometimes they ended up being a character unto themselves, other times they were just, well... fuzzy versions of the artist. I always thought it was amusing when they ended up having basically the same personality as the artist, but with animalistic quirks.

I may or may not have had one.

Yes, that is a tiger/dog with a mohawk. I was fourteen when I came up with it, so sue me. (Ahaaha definitely wasn't fourteen when I drew that, though.)

The piercing yips of the coyotes froze Crystal in place. They were close. The pepper spray wouldn't work in here, she knew, which left...

Which... left...

Nothing. She'd had one pretty good idea about how to protect herself out here, and it wasn't going to work in the cave.

She felt Arrow let go of her leg and yell something. Crystal felt compelled to move to defend the filly, but she was completely unable to move. She stared, wide-eyed into the dark for the shapes she wouldn't be able to see. A little voice in the back of her head piped up. I would be dead now if not for other ponies. I would be dead twice if not for other ponies. She swallowed and flattened her ears. How useless was she?

A thud jolted her out of her melancholy. She would try to be... not completely useless. Weren't sounds supposed to scare off coyotes? What kind of sound would scare off a coyote?

She closed her eyes, imagining herself in Manehattan again, yelling at crazy cab drivers. She took a deep breath, and belted with all of her might...

“E-QUES-TRIA GIRLS, WE'RE PONY-FABULOUS,

FAST, FINE, FIERCE, WE TROT 'TILL WE DROP!

CUTIE MARKS REPRESENT -

NOW PUT YOUR HOOVES UP -

AO-AO-AH OH, AO-AO-AO-A-OH!”

'Singing' would have been an overly generous term for what came out of her mouth. 'Banshee shriek' was closer to the mark. She had no idea if it would scare off wild animals, but there was no way they'd want to come any closer, either.

((Shoot, sorry this took so long! Been doing a lot of family stuff with my brothers both graduating and lost track of how many days had gone by!))

Ah, so he was still trying to break into the music industry. Sapphire nodded, a sympathetic look on her face. “Yeah, I remember how that is. It’s not a whole lot of fun, scraping by.” She paused to toss several bits in the direction of the barmare. “Tell you what, I’ll ask around. Dunno if my label’s interested in jazz acts, but they might know who is. You’re good though. One way or another, I got a feeling you’ll make it.”

She trotted through the door, raising an eyebrow at the state of the door. “Man, I dunno if bars in general are getting drunker or if I’m gettin’ more sober as time goes on, but either way I don’t think I wanna know how they got the door handle sticky. Thanks for holdin’ it open.” The cool night air was a welcome change from the damp, smelly stuff inside. She took a deep breath and let it out again, glad of the change in aroma.

She tilted her head at Timbre's question and smiled. Everypony always thought she was from someplace fancy. “Nah, I’m not originally from Canterlot. I was born and bred in Hoofington. My daddy used to work unloadin’ the docks.” She laughed, gesturing at her well-tailored, expensive clothes. “Not that you’d guess by looking at me now. My aunt let me stay with her once I figured out I had a taste for the musical. Not a huge music scene in Hoofington.”

Energized by the fresh breeze, she was practically prancing as they walked. “Y’know, anytime I come across musical types, I like to ask – how’d you get your cutie mark? When did you know music was your thing?”