Ashton

Posting As per request.

Very bad case of timing of a server error. I was not banned. Sorry for scaring everyone.. *shame*

NEW COMIC POSTED!

Feedback on the last panel is requested, I'm not too happy with Dash but the other item I added is 100% original work of mine that I tried to make fit the shading scheme of FiM and Think something looks off about it...

Welp, as expected, I cant log in anymore...

I guess this means Rainbow Dash and Spitfire are avalible again

If blitz logs in again in the next few days (I doubt he will) tell him I unlocked all the chests, including my vault and it's all his now.

If blitz doesnt show up, give it all to Jim

If jim doesnt want it (I seem to recall him saying something about not wanting freebies) give it ti vinyl/Lychan

Whoever gets it, PM me and I'll tell you how to get to the vault where all my diamonds and such are stored.

Been great playing with you all!

And remember, Hoarding = Bans! Dont try to collect more than 1 stack of anything!

I went ahead and uploaded #3 to the tumblr. Starting on Wed I will be uploading NEW comics every Wed/Sat (unless I get too far ahead of myself, then I'll do Mon-Wed-Fri, but I dont expect that to happen)

He may have been lower on the list because he wouldn't have been as much fun to corrupt.

lol, I have a feeling that this was atleast a little bit of his reason

You did not clarify in your prior post, I think anyone on the outside looking in could easily misunderstand your comment as "I would bring trixie back as a main character just to **** up all the fans and watch the flame wars as the fandom tears itself appart!" And that is what I based my post around. (Many of the points you made were the same ones I made - I said many times I'd love to see just a reference to her at some point so we know that she didn't commit suicide)

FiM and Hasbro are two very seperate entities (made obvious by the inacuracies in most of the earlier FiM toys) I firmly believe Hasbro Inc doesnt give two trots about the show, if it was nothing mroe than a single tone being played for 22 minutes, but sold the toys, they would be happy. Meanwhile the FiM writers dont really care about selling toys (I remember one was upset in May the Best Pet Win at having to include the "photo shoot" segment because Hasbro wanted to sell a "Dress-up Rainbow Dash" toy that, all things considered, was less than logical in canon)

My personal estimate is that there is a minimum of 2 callbacks to earlier episodes in each new episode (possibly more) some are extremely minor, like a background item, some are very blunt and in-your-face (most obvious being Sonic Rainboom and Cutie Mark Chronicals where the whole plot is a callback) I personally find this is a wonderful way to handle the series since they didnt want it to be heavily arc-based (even if I personally would prefer tightly serialized, I know it would never work with the target demographic)

trixie's status has been argued many ways. I like to think that Snips and Snails are not so much 'friends' as 'toadies' and she would gladly sacrifice them in the name of revenge. However, to be fair, despite writing her as a manipulative *******, I did give her a chance not to pass the moral event horizon and even have a redeption story (cheesy as it is, yes, I tried and even made her an additional "secondary" element of harmony - the element of Redemption) but in the end, I was very unhappy with it and felt like I'd forced her into a mold she didnt fit. Everyone has their own interpretation of the characters.

would she take a spork and brutally murder twilight? No. would she humiliate twilight, blackmail her, and overall make her life a living hell, even if it means releasing and taking into her own body an eldrich abomination? oh yes she would!

Now would either of those happen in Canon? Unlikely. (I wont discount whatever 'force' made Luna into NMM taking over trixie, but I'm gonna be shocked if the plot heads that way) Would they use Trixie in a utilitarian way to advance a plot? That's quite possible, though I think after the explosion over Luna, they're specifically avoiding her. Maybe she'll show up in the series finale, since they'll no longer have to worry about angering the fans then.

hi hi

Is that some sort of spiderman 3 reference? I'm not sure I get what's going on.

O_o please explain how you got that from the comics I posted...

No, it's a crossover with FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I'll be explaining some of the significances later (since Dash has to explain them to the other mane 6 who have no clue about FMA) but for now, yeah, it's a little hard to understand unless your familiar with FMA

Ah, forgot he sometimes didn't wear the jacket. (Althought that I remember it, he was missing it for a significant amount of time toward the end of brotherhood, eh?) But still, I think missing the white trimmings on the shirt definitely attributed to lack of resemblance (now that I know what I'm looking at, I still can't see similaritie's between Dash's and Ed's outfits D: ).

The long red coat and the black boots I thought were more obvious, but I will admit that the shirt/socks are a little difficult to match up (in part because, right now in the comic Dash is wearing an all-black sock, while Ed wears a white glove and black long-sleeve shirt, and even when dash changes to white socks they're smaller and less noticable since she has hooves)

I will consider adding in more detail to the shirt. For the moment it's a case of "what do I have I can throw on?" but as it progresses it will become more and more FMA style costume.

I may go ahead and upload #3 tonight, then on Wed post a new comic... hopefully I'll be able to get off my plot and make more comics tonight, and if I get enough inspiration/time I'll move to a 3x a week upload (M-W-F) though I dont see any way in hell I'll be able to make this a daily like I really wish (in part because I'll run out of plot all too soon --- right now there are only 2 more mini-arcs left plus a future one that has to first be 'set in motion')

EDIT:

and BTW, yes, despite the gate image I used up there, I'm following the Brotherhood canon, not the original. (not to say the original wasn't great, I just thought brotherhood was more believeable and a hair more down to earth)

Maybe you should make the link public? You won't get much questions when I'm the only one who knows how to find the blog

I had some reasons, but At this point, I think it's ok.

-link removed-

FiM and FMA... you're an f-ing genius. MOAR! (I hope Dash's outfit isn't a reference to FMA, because I've seen both the original and brotherhood and don't get it D:) Oh, and my easily amused mind finds the last panel in part three ("If it is, then the joke's on me") funny somehow. xD

The only thing that seems off in my opinion is the expression you chose for Twilight in the second part. I think she should look curious, not surprised.

I'm actually amazed how little this has been done! I guess because it's so radical of a difference a lot of people who love anime havn't seen the series yet. (I'm working on some side-art too of Dash-as-Ed in the famous 'poster' of ed and al walking the train tracks, as well as a group image of the mane 6 (and supporting characters) as FMA characters. (Twilight is Roy Mustang ;p lol)

Dash's outfit is a reference to Edward Elric. Ed wears black pants, a black shirt, and black-and-red boots with white gloves and a red jacket. (If you look on the Tumblr you'll see Dash wearing an almost identical, ponified, outfit) This is a sort of evolution for Dash, she will slowly go from just the Shirt and sock to wearing the full edward elric outfit: http://edwardelric.i.../06/edward8.gif (random google image search) The first stage of "shirt and sock" were more or less simply "what do I have in my closet?" but as will be revealed later on, she starts looking for better options.

I'm working on expressions, because these are vectored, I have a much narrower range of poses and options. (this is REALLY evident in the next mini-arc with fluttershy's design) However I hope as time marches on I can get better vectors, and at the same time I hope to eventually get where I can properly draw the ponies by-paw.

Voting is closed. Results:

Find an Inn and offer to work for his night's sleep = 2

Meet Twilight (on good terms), who is there visiting Celestia =0

Meet Twilight (on bad terms), who is there visiting Celestia =1

Find a pony and con them out of money to pay for his food/room. =1

The reason I left that 2nd one in there is because it was my original plot, and I may still use it before DC leaves Canterlot... none the less, his next move will be to find a palce to stay and offer to work for his keep.

I have a very mixed feeling about this "experiment", honestly. After nearly 2 weeks I got a total of 4 votes. While there was a majority (barely) I didnt get nearly as much feedback as I was hoping... I'm unsure if I'll bother with another poll for chapter 3 or if I'll just give up and white it however I see fit, if I cant find a proper solution (or find too many) I might just make a list and roll a die...

I'm going to agree that rarity seems the oldest and most mature (discounting her bouts of Drama, which would place her in a younger age bracket) I think AJ is the same age or close to rarity, considering how responcible she is; basically running the whole farm all by herself (on atleast 1 occasion COMPLETELY by herself!) Fluttershy would be up in the same area too, considering how well she cares for the animals.

As for pinkie, Dash, and Twilight... It's extremely hard to put an age on them, Twilight still suffers from teenage angst often, Dash acts like a HS Football Jock, and Pinkie is, well Pinkie... With her sudden mood shifts, her crazy actions, etc, it's very hard to place an age on her... I know some adults in their late 30s who still act like her...

The CMC I firmly beleive are around 8. If we really pushed it I'd say 10. I'm not too keen on the whole 'cutie mark = puberty' thing, because that just raises more questions than it answers in my mind... though if that is the case I guess 10-12. Of them I think Scoot is the oldest, simply because she seems the larges and strongest (though given how genetics can be, she could just as easily be the youngest) followed by Apple Bloom, and Sweety Belle bringing up the rear. (though this is such a minor difference compared to the Mane 6 that it's VERY hard to pin down for me)

Also just for sake of argument, untill we have an even that can pid down ages better, we have no idea how long the ponies live. After all, Celestia and luna are over 1000 years old, but luna matured in what was likely only a year or so from a filly to a mare (between her return in 102 and her reappearance in Nightmare Night in S2) For all we know that could actually be the average pony lifespan (unlikely but no proof of it)

If we're consistently full when I have it at 8, I'll raise it up to 10.

It kinda amazes me since when I first joined we had what 3 people max at once? Now we're saying 8 could be common? Not that I'm not happy to see it grow, just amazing how fast it's growing!

I'd bring back Trixie just to see the fan freakout.

I'll be honest, that's a very immature viewpoint. Yes, we're all like discord at times and love to see chaos at work, but think about this:

There are a lot of fans who are on the fence, or just got into the series, a sudden jar like that could send the away before they got hooked enough to buy any merchandise (because, lets face it, the whole point of FiM isn't to entertain, and it isn't to educate, it's to sell merchandise) Not only that, but there are a lot of fans who, with every episode, are unhappy with how it went and it wouldn't take too much to pushed them out of the fandom.

On the other end of the spectrum, what would be GAINED by this? In a slice-of-life series like FiM, Trixie really has no role to play. Had the series been more arc-based she could have been a recurring villian, or a nemesis. As it is, the only thing she might do is serve as a direct foil to Twilight in a "my magic is better than your magic" the same way that AJ and Dash act as foils to each other in physical strength. This gives a couple new storylines and a few new sight-gags but really doesnt add much to the story as a whole.

In short, at this point in the series it would be too big of a gamble to bring Trixie back. There is no solution that will make all of us happy. (Just to point it out, I'm not in the "I Trixie" camp. She's a villian and that's what I'll always see her as) Hasbro's best solution right now is to simply leave her out of the story so they don't anger a large percentage of fans. Truly the only "safe" option *IS* as I suggested and make a reference to her somewhere that's not plot-dependent and really is just a filler or sight gag.

No matter how the do it, if they bring Trixie back, that WILL be the day they jump the shark.

hi hi

Did anyone else see this comic? Its relevant to the topic. (spoilered for hugeness)

That absolutely made my night :') Thank you.

Exactly. Already now, after The Last Round-up, there's an outcry that this one scene right after the intro sequence had the whole show jump the shark. It's not my opinion, though, but some say so.

The writers are letting the fans influence the show quite strongly. It's one thing to let us name a character - there have been plenty of 'naming contests' in dozens of shows over the years, but they're essentially allowed us to completely create and shape a character from the ground up and they pander to us using her (remember Derpy was an art error in 101 - she wasn't technically supposed to even exist) I can certainly understand people's worries, and in a worst-case Scenario, I can see Derpy being a more integral part of the show and becoming a Scrappy.

On the other paw, this is one background character who got a minor promotion in terms of screen time. It's not like this 1 gag left any major change in the overall series. The series 1 finale had a much larger risk, heck 'secret of my excess' was more at-risk because it revealed a MAIN CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP and also they *could* have had spike responsible for destroying the town (since he was) and had him face severe consequences. There are a lot of places that the show could have jumped the shark but didnt. I think this is a minor gimmic (which sadly I doubt will be repeated again for some time - I expect them to go back to the formulaic 'wheres derpy?' for her)

Now, let's take a look at Derpy. Imagine if they shaped an entire episode around, say, a typical day in her life. Or maybe she tries to deliver mail to an Ursa Major. While those might be interesting episodes, adding depth to her would only set up something much worse. Maybe she won't even deliver mail -- what if the creative powers decide to have her as a house painter? The more you try to shape, change, and flesh out the character -- especially a character with heavy fanon -- the more opportunity there is for disappointment. We see this quite often with the wacky canon (and the laments of the hardcore RP crowd), as the elements of the series are -- by design -- quite malleble to the creators. I'm waiting for the day we might see Vinyl/Pon-3 without her glasses; what if her eyes were green instead of red?

This is exactly why I believe we will NEVER see Trixie again. (Though I still say I'd LOVE to see a poster for her or somone comment about seeing one of her shows - just to know she's ok and didnt go commit suiside or something after Twi showed her up) The writers got slapped *HARD* when they expanded on Luna's canon and (obviously) didnt follow the fanon that everyone had set up for her. For this reason Background ponies will, over all, be treated the same way as props and given very little action and what they are given will be minor, unimportant, and wont hurt any Fanon. (I think while the writers are not allowed to read fanfics, I think they are kept abreast of what characters have huge fanons and they try to write around these (fairly easy since we're mostly dealing with BG ponies to begin with) to avoid backlash.)

And holy carp! Server full! You might want to consider raising the limit to 10, Star!

I Had a very productive night last night, next couple comics are finished, though I have to got to find a good tutorial about drawing tears... I think the point got across well enough though...

#2 was posted along with an @Syron yesterday, Wed will see #3, then Saturday will see new comics posted at 2/week every wed/sat (hopefully)

For those wanting a second tidbit, fluttershy appears and we actually get a joke! Not so much funny as herp-derp, but still, it helps since the comic is 99.9% serious (minus the @s that are intended to be funny)

Welcome back 'Blitz' you missed the fun of Pinkie explaining to Dash how it's 'not cool' to have 500 cows in a 20x20 pen! lol ("a pet is cool, so more pets are more cool!")

Season 2 will supposedly have 28 episodes, and the last 3 are a multi-parter apparently. If true, that's about the length of a Direct-to-DVD movie right there.

It's only rumoured right now, though.

I'm reading this as "The final season will have 28 eppisodes and the series finale will be a 3-part"

I hope and pray I'm wrong (Honstly, though, I can see it swing either way depending on how the ratings go. I hear 3 seasons is minimum for syndication, so they could end it there if Hasbro thought they'd get more $$$ syndicating it than showing it on The Hub, but on the other paw, if it's popular enough I can see them keeping it running for 4, 5 or even more seasons. number 3 is often the breaking point though, so many series die in their 3rd season (either due to ratings, or jumping the shark or vice-versa)

Personally, I'm worried 3 will be the last season based on past series, but I'm hoping the influence of the Bronies will make Hasbro decide to continue it. (and I dont mean "continue" as a new genneration that falls back to mindless little-girl stereo-type stories) I honestly cant think of any other series that has had this kind of impact on the world (especially one that's only shown on some obscure cable channel that probably less than a quarter of america pays for)

Original Characters:

Azure "Iggy" Ignine | Jasper Dragon | Cloudy Skies |Creeping Shadow aka Emerald Dream | Sky Pirate Harle Blackclaw | Fleeting Hope | Dunes | Scarlet "Jezebel" Rose | Hale | Singlestone | Starry Void |

Team E.V.I.L.
Twinkle Star | Desert Rose | Electric Shock | Brassy Hammer

FiM Cast:

Twilight Sparkle | Spike the Dragon | Rainbow Dash | Lightning Streak (Wonderbolt) | Trixie Lulamoon (aka "The Great and Powerful Trixie!") | Scootaloo | Pipsqueak | Rarity |

Other (FFA):

Dusk Shine | Scootaroll

Completed Threads:

Sky Pirate Harle Blackclaw

No good deed goes unpunished^STC

(Las Pegasus) Finding new Purpose (Ashton)

Cloudy Skies

A New place for a nap^SCT

Angels on the airwaves^ATC

Jasper Dragon

A New place for a nap^SCT

Angels on the airwaves^ATc

Iggy (Azure Ignine)

A New place for a nap^SCT

Angels on the airwaves^ATc

The Great and Powerful Trixie:

-After School ^(STC)

-Where there's Smoke...^(STC)

Rainbow Dash:

-Leaving the Hospital ^(ATC)

(Las Pegasus) Finding new Purpose (Ashton)

Scootaloo:

-Leaving the Hospital ^(ATC)

(Las Pegasus) Finding new Purpose (Ashton)

Fleeting Hope:

-A voice in the Woods

Dunes

(Las Pegasus) Finding new Purpose (Ashton)

-image storage-

Hale watched the festival as she headed back to her room, but she stopped, there was a new wagon here that hadn't been there when she first passed. She wasnt exactly the most well-read of Pegasai, though she certainly could enjoy a good book as much as anypony. She trotted over and began looking over the stacks to see what kind of literature was being peddled.

Updated

What if you just like flip-flopped them for now since Spike HAS to be up for a minimum of two weeks?

If that's not going to reset the proverbial counter, sure, I can do that, I just was concerned that it was "two weeks from the FINAL of the first app" so if, for example, it took a full week for Dunes to get approved and nobody else applied for the little dragon during that time, I could have to wait 3 weeks to see who gets Spike.

Cherille said "Discord among /Ponies/" She didn't mention any other creature

Wow, somone was paying close attention to the exact wording...

While I dont think that's the case (after all we see the long-legged rabbits, and, as stated, the buffalo-balarinas) not to mention he does random crazy stuff to the environment, I do wonder about that exact phrase... even if your wrong could still be a Chekhov's gun...