Hippo

The first episode of season 2 is part 1 of a 2-parter.

The link below leads to a half-written leaked script of that episode. The script was leaked months ago, so the actual script/episode might have changed things since then and it doesn't spoil the second part/episode. Still, for those of you who are really curious for Season 2 stuff, feel free to check the screencap.

Spoiler filter and no hyper-linking just in case.

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/9985/1313985624358.png

nb4 Nightmare X Discord, lol

Applejack heard Pinkie's yell deep in the forest, but she didn't understand what she was yelling. "Pinkie! Is that you!?" The forest grew dark enough for Applejack to lose her sense of direction slightly. "Light? What light? It's so dark, I can't see the darndest thing."

After the short exchange in the dark labyrinth, Applejack listened to hear a response from Pinkie. But at the moment there was nothing. She wondered if something had happened to her, or that maybe something was about to happen to herself. As Applejack perked her ears in all directions listening for anything recognizable, she began to notice all of the little noises the Everfree infests every day. Owls' hoots crowed louder, crickets chirped more rapidly, and the wind whistling through the trees howled a ghost-like presence over Applejack. Applejack trembled. But before she could run and escape into any direction, she heard a loud screech coming from the direction Pinkie Pie was probably yelling. It stunned Applejack and she was petrified of whatever was making the mysterious racket. Animals scurried out of the bushes towards her, fleeing the scene, and the trees swayed back and forth and clapped at her misery.

And then a light. A bright light illuminated further in the forest. It glowed and revealed everything around Applejack that was already there in the dark. This must have been the light Pinkie Pie was warning me about, she thought. "Goodness gracious! The laught!!!!" Applejack ran into the opposite direction as fast as she could turn. But seconds later, the light moved from her six to another location in the corner of Applejack's peripheral vision. Changing direction again, Applejack was unsure which way to retreat as she had already lost her bearings and didn't see any trace of her own tracks to follow back out of the forest. Applejack's heart pounded double time.

Then, without warning, light appeared from the ground where Applejack was standing. "What in the hay?" Applejack began running in place as the light around her got brighter and brighter. During these split seconds, Applejack's life flashed before her eyes. She remembered seeing apples on the counter of the country house's kitchen, her filly self trying to reach them. She remembered the first day Winona came to the farm as a newborn puppy. She remembered her first applebuck season, when Big Mac helped her push the cart in the rain. And she remembered her best friends, all helping her during last applebuck season when Big Mac hurt himself. It was all a blur, but Applejack understood it perfectly. She knew that soon she would be dead.

In a flash of light, Applejack cupped her hoofs over her face and laid down on whatever she was standing on. Applejack felt a shock through her entire body that lifted her from her lowered position. Applejack stood up straight in the new location she was standing. She had no idea where she was. Her eyes crossed as her vision was temporarily impaired, and her senses were intoxicated from her experiences with the light.

"Wha- What happened? Where am ah?" Applejack squinted with her eyes to try to see who was standing in front of her. All she could see was three pink ponies, three yellow unicorns, and 3 zebras all talking in rhyme. She could not hear easily what they were saying to her.

I demand a recount! The ballot was too confusing!

Imagine if it ends up a tie again.

Tie-tie breaker?

This IS the tie tie-breaker!

If it ties again, we'll just flip a jangle.

I still can't believe 26 people voted Sonic Rainboom over Party of One.

Name: Sugar Rush

Sex: Male

Age: Stallion

Species: Earth Pony

Pelt Color: Pear Green

Mane/Tail/Markings Color & Style: Both mane and tail are messy and mane is like a mullet. Purple, solid color throughout, A couple shades lighter than his twin brother’s mane and tail.

Eye Color: Light Brown

Cutie Mark: Sugar cane reed.

Physique: Very fit workhorse, slight bulge near not-so-commonly used muscles

Roleplay Type: Mane

Occupation: Sugar cane farmer.

Motivation: Sugar's motivation is to find new ways of applying his sugar knowledge to all kinds of ponies, while at the same time maximize his profits with his newly founded farm, Sugar Cane Corral.

Likes: Sugar, sugar cane, anything with sugar, activities that require heavy movement, discovering things, having playful adventures.

Dislikes: Dullness, non-sweetened foods, card games, anything that requires patience.

Origin and Character Summary: Sugar is a descendant of one of the biggest family trees in earth pony history. The Sugar family of ponies has brought to Equestria all of the major influences that are seen today in bake shops, candy stores, and every kitchen where ponies cook tasty treats with the popularly harvested sugar.

Sugar's grandparents owned land near Ponyville. And on this land, three generations down of earth ponies lived and produced a very profitable farm that grew all kinds of plants that yielded sugar crystals that could be used for all kinds of pony recipes. This popular substance became more popular when several cake shops opened in Ponyville. However, an error made by a weather pegasus who was late to work let a tornado form from a scheduled storm. Luckily, Ponyville was mostly undamaged, but the tornado ripped through the family farm leaving nothing to salvage. After the disaster, the family was forced to count their blessings and attempt to find work and living in other areas all across Equestria. They sold the mutilated farm to rock farmers.

Lil' Sugar Rush was only a young colt without his cutie mark. Him and his twin brother Sugar Crash were told by their family that they had to travel to Hoofington to find new land and make a living. Their parents figured they were old enough to find their own way, even though neither of them had yet to find their cute mark. So Rush and his brother trekked through the Whitetail Wood. On the way, Rush's brother Crash discovered is talent and got his cutie mark. It made Sugar Rush a little jealous and he was beginning to blame all of his problems on everything having to do with Sugar. Crash's cutie mark represented his infatuation with sugar beets and how much he loved growing them. But because the sugar beet came when all hope was lost for Sugar Rush, it was a symbol he demised very much, to the point where he swore off his sugar heritage.

In Hoofington, the two brothers could not successfully find any land. Instead they only found short places to stay and work doing freelance jobs at smaller farms that grew other crops like strawberries and pumpkins. Rush's brother Crash kept getting in trouble for his experiments trying to grow his only crops. Meanwhile, Rush was trying to find his niche growing other crops, but he could never find the energy to do it, or the satisfaction of doing something productive.

Then, on a rash overreaction of rage, Sugar Rush tried running away to solve his problems. His brother Crash chased him to the Hoofington port and found him hiding on a ship getting ready to sail. But before they could get off, the boat sailed away from the mainland. A few hours later, the ship docked at Gallopocous Island and the twins set hoof on a new land of opportunity.

In Coralwood Corral, the twins easily found jobs. And Crash found a cheap piece of land to jump-start his new personal farm. As it turned out, based on his cutie mark and his heritage, Sugar Crash began growing sugar beats. After his first harvest, he gained praise on his products and received pre-orders to get started early on his next crop.

However, Sugar Rush was irritated that his brother would try to grow something that he felt gave his family so much misery. Even after his brother tried to convince him that his sugar beats brought him happiness, Rush was reluctant to even give it a try.

One day, Sugar Rush strolled out of Coralwood Corral and walked along the northern beaches. He began to get hungry and regretted leaving his place without packing any meals to go. So he searched inland for some food when he came across a stalk or reed that seemed to have an eatable inside. He chewed on it after cutting it open. Only after a couple chews, Sugar Rush smiled bigger and bigger as he realized what he was eating. After Sugar Rush sucked on a few hooffuls of the cane and spit out its sugary goodness, he was so happy about what he found that he struck down a few reeds and ran them to his brother's farm to reveal to him what he found.

Surprised, his brother tipped his hat. "We looky what you found. And I see you found somethin' else as well." Sugar Rush was baffled at what he meant, but when he looked back at his own haunch, a tracing of a stalk of sugar cane much like the one he was holding was glowing brightly.

It's been several years since the brothers found their place farming sugar products on Gallopocouos Island. Today, they are the island's leading sugar producers and are greatly involved in the island community. Unfortunately, because of the differences in climate needed for sugar beats and sugar cane, the brothers' farms are on opposite sides of Coralwood Corral. They are constantly looking for pegasus freelancers to help control the weather needed to get the most out of their crops.

Sugar Cane reference:

As Miracle watched the conversation between Robikku and Misty develop, she was distracted by the loaf of rye bread she had left on her back as she trotted over. Grabbing the loaf, Miracle licked her lips and bit off a piece of the bread and began chewing it. The bread was very chewy and took some time for her to swallow. She then took a second bite.

Miracle was overweight. She blamed most of this on her depressing episodes she believes are nothing more than strokes of bad luck. But today, Miracle was not depressed. In fact, she was having a rather good day. But even on good days, Miracle would pass into her favorite food providers and buy double orders of whatever she felt like having that day. Miracle ate when she was depressed. But when she wasn't? Well, a pony's gotta eat.

Overhearing half of what the others were saying, Miracle made a hard, uncomfortable second swallow. "Oh! I think I might know where we can find other perytons. The castle garden is usually the place where those kind like the hang out. They sure do like nature stuff. The garden isn't always open, but when it is, I sometimes see them there when I walk by it every afternoon. We should go over there and see if it's open."

I'm not gonna lie, I hate how this topic is 'hidden' in the region forum and is often skipped for the the quick mini-forums to the specific regions. Anyways, it seems like there's lots of good ideas among us. Don't be afraid to start new threads and PM Appleloosans for their character's involvement.

This little settlement will be bigger than Manehatten before you know it.

Applejack rolled her eyes at Granny. Granny may have been feeling spry, but it was Applejack's assessment that her favorite elder needed more help than the older mare thought. Applejack ignored Granny's ill-confidence, however, once Granny mentioned her invitation to the pony with the light turquoise-colored hair. "Friend!?" Applejack shot next to Raindrop and squeezed her midsection with one of her front hooves. "Well, why didn't you say so!? Us ponies at Sweet Apple Acres love making new friends. I'd love to join ya'll fer lunch. We're ya'll gonna eat?"

Applejack paused for a response for approximately half a second. "Ah know! Let's have lunch o'er at Sweet Apple Acres! We have the best fixin's, like apple bread, applesauce, o' course three kinds of applesauce if ya wanna get all technical, 34 kinds o' apples from out lovely orchard, and we just finished making our latest batch of our best Sweet Apple Acre applejuice. Come on down to the farm, where a fresh picked apple and a brand new friend are in the same place." After Applejack finished spieling the farm's slogan, she stood back from Raindrop awaiting a positive response. "That is of course, if you like apples, aheh."

"Thanks," Granola said to Inkwell.

Granola's ears perked up from their previous dropped position. Hearing the mild understandings from the ponies around her helped a little with her coping with the that she failed. Inkwell's sympathy helped even more. Granola hadn't really known Inkwell that much. She had only just casually seen him and his canvas sharing ends of a pen or brush in random places in Ponyville. She admired his sensitivity. On the journey of Granola making some solid friends in Ponyville, her own sensitivity seemed to be the main thing that separated her from 'normal' pony interactions. But Aqua's assessment of Granola's personality was right--she had much to learn.

Granola's ears perked up even more when the hippocamp invited her to the lake with the others, despite giving her a mud bath. Granola stood up more straight. "Oh, yes, I'd love to come. I'll promise you, I wont do anything stupid again, ever!" Granola wanted to tag along. She wanted to repay Aqua, and everypony else for that matter, for the damages done in the incident. At the moment, however, Granola was unsure how she was going to do it. She followed Aqua in the direction she was flopping.

I know this isn't the same thing as favorite character, but I can't help that this vote looks much like a vote between Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash.

No question, Rainbow Dash is MLPFiM's most popular character thanks to memes, character development and the whole "she's a lesbian" thing. But she may not be top favorite amongst pony fans, just more than Pinkie Pie.

I'm not happy the way the polls turned out, but I'm not complaining, I'm whining.

Hmmm...

I didn't actually think of ever having adoptable characters for RP, but it seems that I have found a situation where it would make sense.

I have a character idea for two twin brothers living on Gallaopcous Island. Their names are Sugar Rush and Sugar Crash, and they are both earth ponies who are adults and have their cutiemarks already. I would like to offer Sugar Crash for adoption.

Sugar Crash is a sugar beet farmer. His brother Sugar Rush is a sugar cane farmer. The difference in climates for their crops both causes them to live on seperate farms, one on the west side of Coralwood Corral, and one on the east side. These climate demands are met by opportunistic pegasi that live in and around the area.

Sugar Rush, Sugar Crash's brother (try not to get confused, lol) is extremely hyper. His love for sugar makes him talk really fast and shake while doing small tasks. He always happy about it during his sugar high.

His brother however, Sugar Crash, the one I'm offering for adoption, has the complete opposite affect on him when he consumes sugar. He has an immediate loss of energy and loses his drive and motivation to do anything. He is not sad, however, he just takes his slow moving sugar highs in stride.

Here is a visual concept of both brothers:

Sugar Crash, the adoptable, is on the right. Typical twin mannerisms like finishing each other sentences and having like interests shall be entertained. However, they, like all twins, have major differences.

Interested?

riverhippo's favorite episodes list, from best to worst:

1. Friendship is Magic Part 1

1. Friendship is Magic Part 2

1. The Ticket Master

1. Applebuck Season

1. Griffin the Brush-off

1. Boast Busters

1. Dragonshy

1. Bridle Gossip

1. Look Before You Sleep

1. Swarm of the Century

1. Winter Wrap Up

1. Call of the Cutie

1. Fall Weather Friends

1. Suited for Success

1. Feeling Pinkie Keen

1. Sonic Rainboom

1. Star Master

1. The Show Stoppers

1. A Dog and Pony Show

1. Green Isn't Your Color

1. Over a Barrel

1. A Bird in the Hoof

1. The Cutie Mark Chronicles

1. Owl's Well That Ends Well

1. Party of One

1. Best Night Ever

It's a 26-way tie for first!

Applejack continued to shout Apple Bloom's name into the dark and dense Everfree Forest. "Apple Bloom!? Are you here!? Apple Bloom!" It was then that she realized what Apple Bloom might have been doing in the Everfree if the forest was indeed where she was. She pondered a bit about where she would go if she was a cutiemark-less little filly wandering in a creepy self-sustaining forest like this one. Applejack couldn't help but be reminded of her younger days, when big brother Macintosh would go out looking for Applejack who was probably playing tag with the young border collie puppy that didn't know how to play by the rules.

And then it dawned on her. Applejack gasped, "Zecora's hut!" Applejack began trotting towards the area she best remembers Zecora's hut being. "That filly is always hangin' out with that creepy Zecora. I wish she would find normal friends like everypony else." Applejack learned her lesson about gossip and rumors back when she and her friends discovered poison joke from the wrong end of the laugh. But, she wasn't willing to let Zecora's creepy persona leave her thoughts just yet. Everything Zecora did still made her feel uneasy about her little sister spending quality time with the zebra. Most of the time, however, encounters with Zecora in Ponyville were pretty routine after all of the idle gossip had passed. More than anything else, it was Pinkie Pie's "Evil Enchatress" song that made Applejack tremble with fear at the time.

Applejack traversed the forest the best she could. The forest was always changing, it seemed. Her path was both retractable and foreign. And the deeper into the woods she went, the less she recognized her surroundings. Nevertheless, she grew very close to Zecora's hut shouting Apple Bloom's name. But Applejack wasn't at the hut just yet.

Arrow paused as Louise LaMare concerned herself towards the overall health of the yellow unicorn filly. "What? Am I hurt?" Arrow wasn't hurt. But she couldn't help but dramatize the events, seeing as the Sheriff was already aware of Arrow's mischievous personality. It took her a a few seconds before she knew what to say. She looked at the Sheriff underneath her in the dirt and then looked up again. "Oh, hurt! Um, yeah, am a little hurt, but," Arrow's eyes enlarged to the size of saucers and her mouth cracked an innocent smile. "I think I'll be okay."

Arrow gave a heart-warming smirk while all of the adult ponies in the area giggled and commented on her adorableness, at the Sheriff's expense. She was playing it coy, however. She didn't want the other ponies detecting her mischief from earlier in the day. It wasn't that Arrow was convinced that everything she was doing was that bad. She just didn't think that pushing pigs off the tops of roofs would pass as something 'cute'.

As the Sheriff dusted himself off and the ponies gathered towards Madam Bistro's cafe, Arrow began her suspicion on the new pony dressed in the finest suit. Why was he here? What was he trying to accomplish? It wasn't like Arrow to be welcoming everypony that hopped off the train like all of the other settler ponies do. She was much more territorial than that. I wonder what this fancy schmancy pony is up to, she thought. I better follow him and find out.

Arrow turned to the friendliest pony in the bunch and asked playfully, "Ooo! Ooo! Can I come to the cafe too?"

The nature of the poll (the bracket) means that for many ponies, this already is a "favorite of what can win" contest. If one episode is polarizing, and another is everypony's second favorite, a case can be made that that second favorite is the most popular, all things considered.

That was my reasoning when I left vote changing up, anyhow. This is almost like a runoff bracket between the frontrunners now.

Sad to see CM Chronicles go down though. It's my second favorite.

But it's not over yet!!

EVERYPONY! Change your votes towards the Cutie Mark Chronicles. For without them, we have no true basis for the others.

1 hour 7 minutes

WHAT IN THE FLYING--- ....

over 3 episode lengths worth of mistakes? Good god.

And you analyze pont episodes frame by frame???

I'm sorry, but the max number of internets you can win is one.

the first game I ever played was Fast Food for the Atari 2600

In all seriousness, a "fun" event just happened. Perhaps an event that proposes challenges for the ponies, along the lines of the Parasprite invasion.

Ooh! A big mystery? Something shady happened (like an apparent theft, or proprty destruction), and nopony knows the whole story, just little bits and pieces. And everypony has to work together to figure it out.

Like a forum wide game of Mafia? lol

Arrow Plain was soaring. She glided past the Salt Block and whizzed near the schoolyard, zigzagging her way through the alleys that ran perpendicular to Main Street. She dodged empty barrels and flew under the clotheslines that hung in between the buildings in the alleys. She was certainly showing off. Down the main road, she did a few somersaults and landed with her signature move, the Filly Flathoof. But she wasn't done just yet. She continued flying past the Bistro towards the train station, unaware of the new train that was unloading traveling ponies from other regions of Equestria. As she continued flying, she closed her eyes in the excitement of the adrenaline. But her lack of sight crash landed her into an unknown object.

Arrow was making buzzing noises with her mouth up to the point where she crashed. She fell back from running into the other pony, probably an adult that was bigger than her. Arrow stood up quickly and smiled innocently at the pony. As she smiled, the two apple tree leaves strapped to her back fell off. At this point, her imagination left her and her flying dreams were interrupted once again. "Oops...," Arrow re-sized herself back to her silly filly personality.

I don't think enough time was allowed for this poll, it's way too close.

Of course, I wont be happy until Cutie Mark Chronicles is number one anyway, so I guess I'm biased, lol.

Holy Crap!

3 way tie for first after 23 votes.

and the 4th place is behind by only a vote. This is a poll for the ages.

Cutie Mark Chronicles for President.

Applejack sprinted her way to the edge of the Everfree Forest. As she ran, she thought and spoke to herself on her current situation that was unfolding by the dangerous imagination of her mind. She bee-lined to the Ponyville outskirts with her legs, but her brain was spinning in circles. "I swear I don think I'll eva understand that filly! Every tom she feels she's on the verge of gettin' her cutie mark, that lil' runt runs off into territories unknown." Applejack had been looking for Apple Bloom all day. She couldn't find her anywhere on the farm, or in Ponyville. And even though she'd love to think that she and the other crusaders were just playing a massive game of hide-and-seek across Ponyville, she knew that if Apple Bloom ventured for any reason into the Everfree that she would have to search there before long to make sure she wasn't in immediate danger.

Applejack approached the tree line to the Everfree. She angled her hooves against the trail and came to a dust-throwing halt. She looked up at the willowing trees that dropped dark shadows over the damp deciduous floor and dried the inside of her mouth with a stressful swallow. "Well, uh, here it goes. Apple Bloom!? You in here!?" Applejack scurried into the Everfree cautiously, called Apple Bloom's name once every five seconds. Applejack wasn't excited about going into the forest. Even though she had been here a couple times before and proved a few of the legends about the Everfree wrong, she still found the haunting nature to be true and frightening.

I love the fair idea. Very original and FiM-friendly.

I would love to see RP events or 'competitivYe' RP threads involving the Running of the leaves, Pegasus flying competitions, and maybe even an Iron Pony Competition held at its annual location Sweet Apple Acres.

These types of threads would be inclusive of almost everypony who wants in. However, the challenge is organizing such a massive RP and figuring out a way of measuring the competition without contaminating it with favoritism and game mastering.

I've been wanting to start such threads, but I need help with ideas on how to do it.

What do you think?

I'm willing to wager that if it wasn't for the ponies and other characters in this show all having circular large heads, the emoting eyebrows that use often to illustrate mood would hover in midair like some cartoons do.