Chapien

Good Morning,

You have a good application here with a large amount of potential, but I feel it can be expanded and improved in many ways. First, you do mention why he moved away from Manehatten, but not why he chose to move to specifically Canterlot over all other choices, what drew him in to Canterlot in the first place? You also might want to spell check the application, there are a few minor typos (they aren't really a big deal, but dealing with those could be a good idea). Can you clarify roughly how old he was when he got his Cutie Mark? I also feel that the Cutie Mark story could use some expansion and a bit more details and depth added to it. Like I said, it is a good application, but it has expansion - try expanding on it. Can you give us more details on the school project?

I honestly never faced any persecution for being a Brony. In fact, I became a brony because several of my IRL friends were bronies and I inevitably watched it, and most of the friends I hang out with (roughly half) are bronies themselves. However, I do understand persecution in general, and the only advice I can offer is: simply don't care. You like what you like, it shouldn't matter what other people think of you or how other people view you. If they are real friends they won't leave you, and if you are in High School, you have to remember that friendly teasing is inevitable.

Sparks was now thoroughly confused. His hoof was now tied to Pathfinder's, and she was asking if he had muscles. The implications seemed to be that Pathfinder intended for Sparks to dance with them, which was something that Sparks was not good at nor had any desire to get good at.

"Um, Miss Pathfinder... I'm not exactly the greatest dancer, and I'm not entirely sure that this is the proper method to teach someone how to dance," he said with a slight nervous laugh as he tried to pull away from Pathfinder's knot, rather unsuccessfully. Pathfinder had done a great job at tying that note, Sparks noted, and it seemed that he had no choice in the matter anyway.

"Well, of course, everypony has muscles. The question is as to whether or not they are, um, sil'nyj - that is, strong - and I'm not exactly what most would describe as strong, let alone agile," he chuckled again, "In fact, I'm pretty sure that most ponies describe me as clumsy and a bit of a weakling! So, um, you may want to reconsider your most generous offer, Miss Pathfinder."

Sparks leaned against the tree, looking at Valen as he began to turn to leave. "W-wait! I can help!", he said, trying to stand the moment Valen turned to minimal effect, falling back to the ground. He frowned and looked at his legs, wondering if they were broken or if he was simply too nauseous to move properly. He sighed and stopped trying to stand, taking his saddlebag off of his back and setting it on the ground, opening it and digging through his tools.

After a few moments of searching his back, he pulled out a grey, fuzzy, rather warm looking hat out of his bag and promptly pulled it over his head. It was going to be a cold night. Having grown up in the cold North of Stalliongrad, Sparks had come prepared, and, looking around at the other crash survivors, he feared that the others were going to have a very, very cold night indeed.

Fillies and gentlecolts, behold, CANADA PONY!

Heh. I really like the concept of this character, and this is an application well on the way to being approved. But I do have a few questions.

Maple was evidently raised largely in nature and far away from cities. My question is, now that she's grown up, has she visited any major cities or civilization? How does she react/cope to these new situations? Somepony who has lived in the rural areas of the world for all their life often has an interesting reaction to urbanization. Your backstory and cutie mark story is really good; just tell us more about what happened after the fact, tell us more about the rest of her life, what her parents thought of the Cutie Mark, and so forth.

Honestly, I don't really have any major complaints on this application beyond that. Good job!

You make this too easy, darling.

Punch and cookies are nice, but I prefer pizza...

Also, I don't rightly understand pathfinder, I mean, I've watched Spoony and friends play it, but is it any different from DnD?

It's basically a revised version of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, completely re balanced to not be broken. Seriously, in 3.5 you could have a party composed entirely of wizards and not even get touched.

Good Morning and Welcome to Canterlot.com! Please, enjoy our complimentary punch and cookies (located by the door). I too love Warhammer 40k and Dungeons and Dragons (though I greatly prefer Pathfinder).

Yeah. Hearth's Warming Eve rarely pops up as anyone's favorite episodes, and a lot of people seem to just forget about it, despite the fact that I feel it was really well written and had a great song at the end.

Sparks couldn't help but flinch as Pathfinder violated his personal space. He never had been a very touch-friendly, and Pathfinder couldn't seem to stop laying her hooves on him. He couldn't help but flinch and tremble very slightly when she grabbed and sub-sequentially shook him. When Pathfinder moved up to Snowfall, he took the opportunity to slip away from her grasp, heading back to the refreshments table, blindly grabbing a drink with his horn and taking a sip, unwittingly having just drunk a very small amount of the alcoholic variety of Cider. His face contorted a bit and he gagged, quickly spitting the drink back into the glass before dropping it, the glass shattering onto the ground.

When Snowfall turned back to him, he jumped a little, before taking a quick breath and despnately trying (and failing) to regain his composure. "Oh, n-no need to be sorry, Miss Snowfall! R-really, don't worry about me. After all, I'm eternally in gratitude towards you due to how you helped me in my... prior situation."

He smiled weakly, hoping that Snowfall hadn't noticed the rather embarrassing situation with the drink.

The scene that got the most emotional reaction from me is actually from what I feel to be an extremely underrated episode.

Sparks barely registered Valen's scream, but he felt the airship sliding and new instantly that he had to get out of that ship. His mind, though a bit slow from the shock of the crash, was able to register that the ship had hit land of some sort and that it was sliding off of said land at a rather alarming pace. He quickly jumped out of a nearby broken window, landing outside and rolling onto the ground with a rather painful sounding thump.

He tried to stand up, but his legs wobbled and caused him to fall to the ground, flat on his face. He glanced over to his right and noticed Valen. "O-oh... H-hello... A little help here?" he said, a frown on his face, his entire body trembling.

Apparently his trip home would have to be delayed. A number of things rushed through Sparks's mind. What would happen if he didn't make it to Stalliongrad on time? Would Snowfall fire him? Or... what if he didn't get to Stalliongrad at all? The very thought of never returning home caused Sparks to gag and nearly throw up, but he managed to contain himself, once again attempting to (unsuccessfully) stand.

Sparks couldn't help but grin. It wasn't often that people really cared about his accomplishments, so the sheer amount of attention he was getting from Snowfall and her marefriend honestly excited him.

"Well, I believe I have spoken on just about everything I can in relating to my little box here..." he glanced at the box, still in Pathfinder's hooves, a somewhat worried look on his face, hoping that Pathfinder didn't drop it - or worse.

"But my trip home was... most intriguing! I took an airship. The sensation of flying was very interesting to a Unicorn like me."

He grinned widely. "But not as interesting as the sensation of falling, of course. The ship had a bit of an, uh, accident you could say. Suffice to say, I believe my journey here was far more interesting than this party here."

He chuckled slightly, before realizing exactly what he had just said. Had he really just implied that Snowfall's party was boring? He choked on his own laugh, before coughing, beginning to laugh nervously, a very slight nervous blush on his face.

The airship continued to spin downwards, heading towards the ground at a speed that could only be described as dangerous. Sparks despnately tried to hold onto his seat as he attempted to cast a spell, any spell, to save the ship, his horn only producing pathetic blue sparks rather than producing any actual results. He let out a frustrated groan as he remembered exactly how he had gotten his ridiculous nickname. Sparks had never been the most talented Unicorn in the field of magic, hence why he had turned to technology rather than conventional magic.

He closed his eyes, fully expecting the end to come, before there was a loud crash noise as the ship came to a very abrupt halt, sending Sparks flying over his seat towards the front of the ship.

The ship let out one last creaking noise, before all was silent.

Okay, it's all passed, I should be able to post again today!

I'm sorry about not posting in the past two days, I was otherwise occupied. I shall work on a post immediately, friends!

Well, horseapples. My life got suddenly extremely busy. I will still be able to post, but the quality of my posts and my ability to do my job as a helpstaffer will be limited for the next two days. I will be back full force on Thursday, I promise!

Heights, bugs of all kinds (especially spiders), clowns, and failure. Not sure if the last one counts as a phobia.

Sparks sighed. Could these ponies really be arguing? About what? Nothing too terribly important. He was about to say something, when the plane shook again from turbulence, causing him to fall off of his seat. Although there had been turbulence all day, this particular gust had been far more powerful. Sparks frowned and pulled himself back up, taking a look outside of the window, revealing a sight that caused his hear to sink.

The formerly grey clouds had turned black; a storm was brewing outside. Another large gust of wind struck the ship, and the loud roar of thunder cracked outside abruptly. The sound of rain bouncing heavily off of the windows was audible (and rather annoying, actually). Sparks frowned and said to himself, "Wh-where did this storm suddenly come from..?" before another gust of wind knocked Sparks to the floor.

The force of the wind began to gradually speed up, beginning to actually turn the ship, obviously sending it off course to anyone who was paying enough attention to the movements of the airship. Sparks gasped and climbed to his hooves and began to head towards the front of the ship, aiming to speak with the pilot and ask if there was anything he could do to help (him having only recently finished his NSI training, and most of the parts in the airship were likely of NSI craftsmanship), but he found himself unable to make much ground before the wind sent the ship literally spinning in circles, throwing Sparks against a wall.

"Not good..." he muttered to himself, before he began to feel the sensation of falling as the ship began to lose altitude. "Not good at all!" he said, much louder.

In case it is a little unclear, here is the comparison between the two courses.

https://www.digipen.edu/academics/degree-programs/bs-in-game-design/course-sequence/

https://www.digipen.edu/academics/degree-programs/ba-game-design/course-sequence/

Thanks again for all the help.

Yes, the BS certainly has its own strengths, but I am a bit paranoid that I won't get accepted into that program. They ask that you get a 3.0 average in Mathematics in High School, and... the thing is, Freshman year in High School I got an A in math, And Junior year I got a B, but Sophomore year I sort of... kind of got a C in math. So my math GPA is exactly a 3.0 and that's gotten me really nervous about it.

Do what interests you, especially if you hate math. You'll want to get involved in setting up industry connections while you go to school, and connections -- not resume stuff -- is what will ultimately land you a career that you want.

I suppose ultimately that the resume isn't that important. This college has a lot of industry connections. Every Friday, a different Game Design company visits to recruit/build interest, including Valve, Microsoft, Bungie, BioWare, Nintendo, and others. If I go to all of those every Friday, I'm sure I can build connections. And Senior year there is a big career day where every student sets up their own table with all of their work and resume on display, and the companies come to YOU and ask YOU about your work.

Hello everyone!

Well, the time has come. I have one more year of high school left, and the time has come for me to apply to University or College or whatever. And I have immensely good news.

Last weekend, I visited Washington State to visit the college I want to go to (my "dream college", so to speak), DigiPen Institute of Technology. Now, for my field, this school is the best of the best, the top of the line. It is the number one school in the world for Video Game Design; the team that made Portal all went here, and ArenaNet (the company behind Guild Wars) is composed of 51% DigiPen graduates, and Riot Games has a large DigiPen alumni population as well. This is the best of the best; and I meet all the requirements to get in. The school's president said that provided my essays are as good as my grades, I am as good as in. However, I have one problem.

DigiPen is not a normal college (it is private) and as such, you cannot change your major. You must declare it when applying and then it is locked in. The degree programs offered are Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Sound Engineering, BFA in Animation, and finally, the two programs I am interested in, BS (Bachelor's of Science) in Game Design and BA (Bachelor's of Art) in Game Design. And I can't make up my mind between the two.

Here's the thing. Both Game Design programs teach the same thing. I'll be taking the same game design classes in both. Both will lead to similar careers. As far as games are concerned, we learn and take the exact same classes. But in the BSGD program, all of the non game design classes are literally filled with mathematics and programming, whereas in the BAGD, all of the non game design classes are art theory classes and a TON of electives that can be filled with either art or creative writing classes, or even music classes. In the words of the Game Design department lead, "Taking the BSGD is like majoring in Game Design and minoring in Computer Science. Taking the BAGD is a bit like majoring in Game Design and minoring in art or creative writing, depending on what electives you take."

Here's the thing. I'm a great programmer. I'm good at math (I've gotten a B in mathematics classes all my life). I enjoy programming (but despise math with a burning passion). That being said I am also an amazing creative writer and musician (I have played an instrument of some sort virtually all my life, my primary instrument being the Euphonium/Baritone Horn.)... Both programs interest me immensely. Either way I get the same game design education and either way I will ultimately be getting the same kind of career, but I'll have to live with the BS or BA for four years while I am in school.

My father and the leader of the department suggest that I, since I already know coding, I take the BSGD program. It ultimately looks better on a resume and the programming is a major asset these days, while art and creative writing are far easier to work on and improve on your own. Math and coding are a bit harder to do without a class. However, the math in the BSGD program terrifies me. I do not feel like I'll be able to take the Calculus and Discreet Mathematics; though I am good at math, I fear it will consume all of my time and take away from the primary focus of my education, that is to say, the actual game design. The BAGD interests me a lot, because I enjoy creative writing and music and those electives should not distract me from the Game Design and the projects (this school has A LOT OF PROJECTS, most of them involving assembling my own team from students in the other programs and building a game with them), but I am concerned that the BAGD will not look as good on my resume, which is ultimately the most important thing.

So, Canterlot, I ask humbly for your opinion!

Sparks had been simply staring out the window when he heard the horrific noise of a mare whining. He turned around immediately, looking at the Lavender Pegasus about three seats behind him. "Chto? What is going on back there? Is there a problem?" He frowned. He hadn't actually been paying enough attention to hear what the mare was complaining about, but her whining was enough to attract his attention. He frowned as he saw the green unicorn also turning around, wondering if he had been the cause of the mare's distress.

He opened his mouth to say something, before the airship shook briefly. He held onto his seat tightly, sighing in annoyance. This was not an unusual event; turbulence was rather common, especially once they had entered the clouds. Granted, this particular bit of turbulence had been a bit stronger than any of the others, but Sparks didn't think anything unusual of it.

He smiled and chuckled slightly. "Ah... just some turbulence I assume. No more need to be alarmed."

You seem like a rather refined gentleman. My name is Chapien, a pleasure to meet you.