Stainless Steel Fox

"Cloudius." He smiled. "I did say, but I guess you're a bit nervous. Truth be told, so am I." He noticed a griffon join the pegasus teacher at the front. "As to where I'm from, same place as him. My parents worked at the embassy in Talonopolis, so I grew up there. I've only been back in Equestria for a few months. How about you?" He idly scooped a small ball of cloud from the ground, and started crafting it with a wingtip, slicing, teasing out and sculpting with a deft pinion feather. Unfortunately, in the process, it uncovered his blank flank to his new acquaintance. (OOC: I think your comments are about right. Introduction posts are always longer than usual. I'd say a good regular post, part of a dialogue is 2 or three sentences. Of course, if you want to set a scene, or show some inner monologue in your character, it can run longer.)

Cloudius came into the classroom, holding his wings tight against him. Cloudsdale was amazing, an entire city built of clouds. While Talonopolis had been inhabited by Griffons, they preferred to use more conventional materials, and growing up there had meant he'd had few chances to see proper pegasus architecture. He'd gotten here a day early, mostly so he could take a tour around the city. Cloudsdale's primary industry might be weather production, but it's age and importance had given plenty of time and money for beautification. Givenhis own lifelong interest and talent for cloud sculpture, it was amazing to see the works of old masters in real life. Rodein's Little Earth Pony, the Celestine Chapel, Da Pinion's glorious Sforza Pegasus, crafted with such care and craft that it had yet to show any decay or sublimation despite it's centuries of existence. But that wasn't why he was here. He was lanky for a pony, even a pegasus, as if someone had taken a regular pony and stretched him in all directions. This included his wings, which were longer and more flexible than most. While they were a great help in sculpting, thay made him slower than most pegasi, and unmaneovrable, though he could glide with the best of them. Talonopolis hadn't had any specialist flight clinics, at least for pegasi, so now that his family had finished their tour of duty at the embassy, and moved back to Canterlot, they'd arranged for him to board here in Cloudsdale and go to Flight Camp. It was the first time he'd been away from his family. He missed his parents, and especially his adoptive little sister Clawee, but he was looking forward to making new friends, as there had been few families with ponies his own age at the Embassy, and none had stayed at long as his. He moved up to the group just as a white and green patched pegasus broke the ice. "uh... Hi. I'm Cloudius" Another thing his extra long wings were good for was covering his flanks, literally. He wanted to see if he could make some friends before they found out that his flanks were as bare as a new-born foal. It wasn't fair, he'd known all his life that his talent was cloud sculpting, but his flanks didn't seem to notice. He'd heard all the nasty slurs and jokes, but he hoped at least a few ponies here would see beyond the flanks to the pony behind them. He tried to strike up a conversation with the pegasus filly. "So, what's your name?"

Do we have Shirefield (Sheffield), Manechester (Manchester), Mareseyside (Merseyside), Buckston (Buxton), Bridlington, Derby, Sutton Coltfield (Sutton Colefield), Alfalfafreton (Alfreton), Saddleford (Sandleford)... I have the advantage of living in Derbyshire.

I would have thought the equivalent of artillery would be pie throwing catapults. After incidents like the great caking at the grand galloping gala and the range war in Appleoosa, I'm surprised boxes of cakes don't require a concealed carry licence.

Sample characters (Not based on any-pony in particular) Twilight Star - Female unicorn with purple coat and indigo mane and tail. Cutie-Mark: Crimson six pointed star. Occupation: Poni Knight, and protege of Celestia Prime. Has an adopted machine intelligence called Spike. Hobbies: History, Computers, Astronomy. Skills: Researcher, Programmer, Diplomat, Hyperspace Masters licence. Custom upgrades: Extra memory, upgraded processors, encyclopedia software, low power rear hoof thrusters. Rainbow Boost - Female pegasus with blue coat and rainbow mane and tail. Cutie mark: Rocket with rainbow jet trail. Occupation: Asteroid miner/Clearance expert. Hobbies: Space racing, orbit diving. Skills: Normal space ship, small craft and personal pilot licence, demolitions. Custom upgrades: Twin fore-hoof plasma blasters, Full space upgrade, personal theme music library. Pin-E 3.141 - Female Land Pony with pink coat and darker pink mane and tail. Cutie mark: Balloon with a crossed spanner and screwdriver underneath. Occupation: Aeronautics engineer and inventor. Hobbies: Inventing, building cool flying things, cake making, partying. Skills: Mechanical, aeronautical and Systems engineering, cooking. Custom Upgrades: Forehoof multi-tool kit. Low power front and rear hoof thrusters, motorbike upgrade. * * A rod is folded up inside each inside foreleg on both front and rear hooves. They fold down and lock together, then expand a collapsable metal wheel with the shaft as the axis, providing a wheel between the fore-hooves and another between the rear hooves, turning the pony into a motorbike.

The specifics of the RP would be the player characters have been selected for a special (and secret) mission by Celestia Prime herself. They are to report to the Exploration vessel Fleethoof in Equestron orbit, where the task will be explained to them. Obviously it would be useful to have some space or exploration related skill, but I leave it up to the players to come up with something. Standard cyberware: Built in comm-link, wrap-around holo-visor display. Cyber limbs with digital forehoof extensions. Other upgrades should be suitable to your characters background, and will need to be vetted by me. I'll give the characters I had thought up as examples. Special Traits/Abilities Unicorns can be Poni Knights one of Celestia Prime's special unicorn envoys, primarily a scholar and diplomat, though they can fight when needed. All unicorns can manipulate and lift objects in their immediate vicinity, using a diamagnetic field produced by their horn, though the maximum weight varies from unicorn to unicorn, and connect or 'spike' wirelessly into local compter networks. For high bandwidth, they may plug their horn into an interface port. Poni Knights learn to sense the electromagnetic curents flowing through the universe and even generate a local field that acts like radar, meaning they can sense what's happening around them, or even anticipate opponents moves by sensing the power flowing through robot circuits, or the electromagnetic signals from the chemical reactions in organic nerves. The other power is offensive, they learn to concentrate their electromagnetic power into a containment field to generate and contain a pocket of plasma, an energy lance. It forms as a blade or shaft of light, extending from their horn, and can be used to strike, be fired off as a blast or block and deflect other energy blasts, such as plasma weapons. (Yes, they're pretty much Jedi, but it makes so much sense!) Pegasi have their own special power set. All pegasi can fly atmosphere, but any pegasus with sufficient power can get the upgrades to fly in space. The same gravity control power that allows them to fly and hover also allows them to hold a pocket of air around them. Inertial control combined with thruster engines in their rear hooves allows them to fly in orbit and even between planets, though no-one has invented a personal hyperdrive. Their holo-visor system requires space navigational software, and they must wear a sensor pack to provide their heads up display with the position and velocity of objects in their immediate area. While many space workers will get low power attitude thrusters built into their rear hooves, only pegasi can get full power engines. And while it is possible to get blasters built into fore-hooves, unless you are a Royal guard (who can be of any race or gender), or an asteroid miner, you are unlikely to need them.

The only recent disruption was a century ago, when the Poni Knight Skywalker believed he could run the Empire better then the then twin rulers Celestia Prime and Luna Prime. He was a candidate for Primehood himself, but he didn't quite have the spirit for it. He started a short lived rebellion, and was soon defeated and banished. However, he spent years planning and preparing his revenge, and came back as the core of a battle fortress the size of a small moon, calling himself Unicorn. With a host of subordinate robot warships, he tried to take the Equestron system, but he was fought back by the Royal Guard, and the combined effforts of thousands of other ponies, asteroid miners, armed merchantmen, any ship that could throw a beam, every pegasus that could mount a blaster. At the end, Luna Prime flew into the heart of Unicorn, and destroyed him, but not without sacrificing herself. Peace has returned to the Equestron System and it's colonies, though there are still other star nations like the Griffon Empire with their Birds of Prey, and out and out bandits like the Space Dogs to contend with. But on the whole, it is a time of peace and prosperity throughout the Empire... for now.

This was originally an idea for a fanfic, based on another fanfic I wrote, 'The Yellow Apple Blossom of New Texas' . The premise of the original was that Applejack starts living an alternate life in her dreams in the far future, in a far away place, where the planet of New Texas, floats deep in space. World of three suns, land of precious ore, the Kerium rush brought outlaws, by the score... Basically, the setting for Bravestarr, a 80's space western cartoon by Filmation. Specifically, there was one character that interested me, his sidekick Thirty Thirty. This was an intelligent horse with cybernetic legs that could transform between quadrupedal and bipedal, with his forehooves becoming hands. This allowed him to wave around his Big Fun Gun Sarah Jane, basically a portable plasma torpedo launcher that he wielded like a rifle. Search Thirty Thirty on Goggle images to see what I mean. Needless to say, Applejack was transformed into another Equestroid, much to her dismay. "She'd [Applejack] felt metal, cold against her face, except it had been her leg, she'd felt it move and brush against her eyelids. Sitting up, she looked down at her forearm. It looked like bronze coloured metal armour, the hoof terminating in digits like Spike's, but also made of metal. And she could feel them; flex them, as if they were a part of her, not some shell. That prompted a frantic self-examination. Her legs were also articulated bronze, and ended in normal shaped hooves of the same metal, but her body was still regular flesh, covered by her normal orange coat. She could feel her tail, and her face had a muzzle, though the shape felt different. [snip] Looking at her reflection, her mane and tail were her regular golden ponytails, tipped with red ribbons, but the rest of her was altered. Her muzzle was too big and her eyes too small, though they were the same colours as normal, even down to the white freckles on her cheeks. She felt her muzzle with one hoof, or rather the digits on it. While it looked strange, somehow it didn't look wrong. The shape reminded her of Princess Celestia's. Her body was wider at the front (or rather top given her new posture) than lower down, giving her a slightly top heavy look. The legs seemed fused to the flesh at shoulder and hip, and she noticed her three apple cutie-mark was enamelled on the tops of her bronze flanks. It was as if some-pony had tried to turn her into a human knight from the old filly tales, but stopped half way." I also later in the story Equestroid-formed Pinkie Pie. "Pinkie emerged from behind the screen transformed. She gave it a kick with a hind-leg, and it collapsed, folding back in on itself. She'd now grown to almost Applejack's size, and her proportions had altered to match Applejack's. Her legs were cybernetic, and painted hot pink to match her coat, with three balloon cutie-mark lovingly enamelled on her flanks. But where Applejack and Thirty Thirty's legs were unadorned, hers were decorated. Her hooves were chromed, and every joint had chrome trim dripping off it. Her upper fore-legs had a rounded off square grill and hooded circular head-light on the front, and her hocks extended out into a short tail-fin with a domed red tail-light. If Applejack was part knight, Pinkie Pie was part 1950's Cadillac." While I could simply open the setting as an RP, I thought it might be more fun to create my own setting around the same idea of cybernetic ponies. That's how I came out with: Equestroids! Cybernetic Steeds! Auto-trots wage their battle to defeat the minions of battle planet Unicorn, Equestroids! Do heroic deeds! Equestroids! Cybernetic Steeds! Equestroids! Any similarity to any other Hasbro properties, living dead or robotic is purely confined to the theme song. The setting is the world of Equestron, ruled over by the benevolent Celestia Prime. It is home to three races, unicorns, who's horns allow them to control electromagnetic forces, pegasi, winged ponies who have control over gravity and intertia, and land ponies, who's control of interatomic forces allow them super strength and toughness (so basically their regular powers scienced). All routinely use cyberware, and cyber-limbs that enhance their own. This means they can go bipedal, and have their forehooves deploy hands. They usually have a unique flank-mark enammelled on their hind flanks. They have starships, and an interstellar empire. Equestron is a city-world, and among their worlds are Appleoosine, a twin sun planet, that is one of the breadbaskets of the empire, Bespinto, a gas giant with a habitable air layer of pegasi cloud cities, the dense asteroid fields of the Trojan Belt, a source of minerals and the power crystal energon, and Percheron... well Percheron doesn't have any real distinguishing features, other than that it's a habitable hospitable world. Apart from the three pony species there are sentient machine intelligences, considered people in their own right that usually manifest as solidographic (hard light) avatars. All are fostered by pony families or individuals to provide social interaction, and allow them to grow as people. (More to come)

Desert survival? Are there trade routes across the sands, oasises, sandworms? Are vast cities hidden beneath the shifting sands? Is there in short, a need for a pony who can navigate his way across the trackless dunes, find water and a three course meal under a rock and a patch of scrub brush, and speak fluent camel and dromedary?

Bother, I missed it.

I like it too, but the only approved character I have is a colt. Since this is free roleplay I can create another to fit. Tell me what you want to fill out the group and I'll build an OC to match. I like the idea of being a pegasus, but I can do any pony.

This might be a good starting point for Cloudius, my pegasus colt. His family has just moved back from Aquelia, where he was born, and I had a nominal idea that they'd moved back to Canterlot (dad is Honour Guard V, mother is an sociologist specialising in griffons, they both were long termers at the Equestrian Embassy in Talonopolis). But I guess he can be sent off to school.

Yes, but I was trying to come up with juvenile names for griffons. If not the names I suggested, what as moderator will you allow? If Chick = Foal then we can still have Cub as Colt, but I need a specific equivalent for Filly. Griffon and Griffoness would be the adult forms. Maybe Hen.

Awesome! Though I must say, while it reminded me of Talespin too, it was the Titanium Turkey, not the Spruce Moose that I immediately thought of. I guess they got the idea for that from this Bel Geddes flying wing liner too..

A pity, as i wouldn't have minded having a go at this. Though my idea would be pegasi with weapons harnesses rather than ponies in planes. C'mon, am I the only one who imagines Rainbow Dash on the deck of flying aircraft carrier, hooves locked into a launch catapult, headset and goggles on, saddle packs with 30 mm vulcan guns poking forward, and 'Danger Zone' playing in the background? An earth pony waves her off with a baton clutched in her mouth, and whoosh, she blasts off the front of the carrier with a rainbow contrail.

It's a cool idea. But why specifically ponies? This same idea would work for any group of characters. Not that I'm snubbing it, I want to be a part of it. One Matrix idea might be that they're only ponies in the Matrix, and human outside..Maybe one of the controlling intelligence's idiosyncracies was that it got My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic recordings misfiled as the basic data for constructing it's virtual world, so it's plunged it's crew and passengers into that fitting their avatars to match. I'd assume that the reason for the virtual world is boredom and lack of recreational space. Living all crowded on the ship would quickly drive most people nuts, as there just wouldn't be enough new stimuli to keep them sane. Also resting their real bodies may extend their lifespans, or it may be some form of partial coldsleep, not true cryogenics but hibernation. The body still ages but at a fraction of it's normal rate, and requires much less in the way of resources. To be honest, that last idea would work better for a sleeper ship than a generation ship, or it could be both. Part of the fun would be that they have to solve problems both inside and outside the virtual system.Inside they'd have to adventure in an Equestria-like world, solving quests that would relate to fixing software bugs, while outside, they'd be in human bodies, working on the hardware. Sorry, this is your RP, I'm just inspired by the concept. One thing I'd like to see in a real life pony starship is hippo-pedic tools (things designed for equines not humans). Interfaces should be designed for hooves and mouths.not hands. A seat would be a low cushion you could sit on,or a saddle you could lay long-ways on, possibly with pedal or stirrup-like holsters for your hooves, that double both as as control sticks and seat restraints. If the computer system is partially or totally magic based, I can see every console having a socket a unicorn could plug their horn into to take manual, or rather cornute control of it. Headsets would be designed with around-the-head headbands, and earpieces thet stuck upwards and back to fit pony ear positions. Even food serving would be different, cutlery would be almost useless, and flatware would almost certainly be designed with a wide lip that you could hold in your mouth for carrying. Soup bowls might have a channel in the lip like a spout on a jug, allowwing you to pick it up and tip it to drink. Yes you can invoke the mysterious tactile tractor effect that even earth ponies exert with their hooves to explain more conventional equipment, but I feel that's lazy. Sorry, carry on.

Just a short note, I'm working on a juvenile griffon character who's mentioned in my pegasus submission. I thought the conventional descriptions for juveniles sounded wierd and want to propose an alternative. Griffon foals, colts or fillies don't really sound right. My proposed alternatives are: Foal = Hatchling Colt = Cub Filly = Chick I did consider foal as chick, but I think hatchling works better. All the references I could find agree that griffons do lay eggs, particularly the AD&D monster manual which I think Studio B must have used as their go-to reference for not so random encounters.

Thanks Tenkan, and a big thank you to everyone who's welcomed me. I hope I can provide some good roleplay in return.

Thanks, I will do that. I have read all the guides and so forth, including the character creator one. In fact it was those two bullet points you highlighted that made me wonder. My own feeling is as you have said, 'many things that we would require a machine to do, they do by unicorn magic' (at least I assume that's what you meant), and that it extends to the devices themselves. One of my charatcer ideas was a artisan earth pony called Charger who builds racing chariots, and is fascinated with flying. Cue crazy steampunk flying gizmos and contraptions. But I think I'll stick to characters that don't really need that idea exploring. I have a couple, a pegasus pony colt Cloudius, and his sister the adopted griffin chick Clawey (pronounced Chloe) that should be excellent for exploring the boards. I'll write them up and punt them to the admissions board.

I'm glad to hear that my furriness isn't going to be a problem. I wouldn't be so defensive, but I've had bad experiences elsewhere. Even on youtube by supposed bronies in MLP clips. I'm glad to meet everyone, and hope I can contribute to this roleplaying site. I still need a determination on my tech question though. I can write in the lighting and food mixers as electrical if that's the way the setting goes, but I'd still like the freedom to explore thaumo-tech.

About myself.: Stainless Steel Fox here! Well in Liverpool of the England type. I am in my (very) late 30's and a computer wrangler by day. How did you hear about Canterlot.com?: I don't honestly remember. Equestria Daily possibly. How did you became a fan of FiM?: Saw webcomic writers refer to it, went 'huh, might be good for a lauigh' one sunday afternoon. 7 hours and 17 episodes later, I was a brony. My one favourite main cast pony?: Twilight Sparkle I tried to leave the favorite main cast pony blank. That's because I love them all, and wouldn't want to choose one over the others. But it insistedi choose one. I love Twilight Sparkle for her earnestness, and nerdy but awesome competence. Likewise I love Applejack for her forthright attitude and work ethic. Fluttershy is adorable, when she isn't pulling out her awesome and beating dragoins over the head with it, Rainbow Dash is a top gun in my book, I can overlook her brashness and sometimes jerkass moments for when she pulls out the loyalty and defiant courage. Pinkie Pie is just so much fun, and full of whacky antics, and Rarity makes even finding lost plates dramatic, besides awing me with her artistic skill and her selfless generosity. Asking me to choose one is like asking which finger I want to keep when you chop the rest of my hand off. So, I am a long time fan of cartoons, and anime, and furry cartoons particularly. Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, Talespin, Sonic Sat AM, Swat Kats, I loved 'em all. Anybody doing the maths, yes, just because I went to uni didn't mean I stopped loving cartoons. If any group could understand that, I think this one could. I am also a roleplayer, mainly with dice and paper, both as player and GM. I'm playing in one long running Live Action Role Play (LARP), This also lets out my inner cosplayer, I love dressing up and acting. I've played Zelgadis from Slayers, the Dread Pirate Roberts, No Face from Spirited Away, and Fox McCloud amongst others. And yes, I am a furry (waits for the insta-hate to descend, even on a pony forum where love and tolerance should be the order of the day.) I don't think furrys ruin MLP fandom, (well I wouldn't of course). Not going to rant about this, not here, just check my fanfiction resume to see if you find anything the slightest bit objectionable, especially my MLP fanfiction. Apart from Fox McCloud, I have two other fursuits, an OC samurai rabbit Shirogane Usagi, and my titular avatar Andrew Eisenfox, the Stainless Steel Fox, These are used for conventions, both furry and sci-fi, fancy dress parties, fursuit walks (where a group of fursuiters meet up and walk around a city centre or somewhere to show off their costumes) and _nothing else_. I'm looking forward to playing here, and have some ideas for pony characters. One thing I noticed in the breifings, that electricity exists for basic, 19th century applications, but not for radio communications (there's been no pony Maxwell) or anything requiring a power grid. I was actually harsher in my ideas, that electricity doesn't exist as a technology. All the devices we see in the show that we'd power with electicity (fans, food mixers, turnrtables, power tools and instant lighting) are actually magical items, using motion, sound or light spells inscibed in themby a unicorn artiisan with their horn. It's easy enough to do that the price is more comparable to our current ones, rather than being expensive enough to be restricted to the nobility and rich. If we assume that they power themselves of ambient magic, we get an explanation for the lack of power cords, and if we also assume that the ambient magic flow is limited, we can explain why there are no larger machines, such as self powered vehicles (ambient magic won't sustain them). The limit would probably be the beanie propellor helicopter Tank uses (spoiler for latest episode.) That's why chariots are pegasi pulled (they draw their levitation spell power from the pegasus pulling them), and the only large vehicles are steam engines. Obviously, steam power is in it's infancy and unreliable (which is why the steam train in 'Over a Barrel' broke down half way and had to be towed the rest of the way). Since at least on eof my character ideas involves an artisan, it's kind of important that I figure out the rules here. Would the sort of thaumo-tech I'm describing be a valid concept here?