Ancre

No, no, no, and no.

The last two weeks had been very stressful for the poor zebra. Palace plans, propers manners, equestrian etiquette, cooking technique, there was just so many things to learn ! It was just a little too much for Hiss the zebra mare, who had had a lot of trouble meeting Ruby Red's expectations. Or perhaps it was just the way the chief maid and her pet dragon were. Neither of them ever looked very satisfied of their students. Even now the dragon was looking at them disapprovingly, maids standing still and silent was not a good thing it seemed. And Hiss could do nothing but sneer inwardly. “You may think you're special my dear, But I'm the biggest lizard here !” The other maids were getting impatient, and started to talk to each other. Curious, the zebra remained silent, but raised an ear to listen … Edit : I forgot ! Hiss : Favor, 6, Stress 0/10

Hiiii ! Welcome here ! Your avatar is quite fun !

Hiiii ! Welcome here ! I hope you'll have fun !

HIIII ! Welcome to the forums ! I hope you'll have fun here !

I loved it ! It was a pretty cute episode, with a lot of fun stuff in it. The fans are going to make a lot of fun pictures and stories out of all this new material (and are already doing it). We've seen Rarity's parents ! They're oddly fitting. I think the show creators couldn't have made them better. I love them !

HIIII ! Welcome to Canterlot, I hope you'll have fun here !

“I'm Whirlwind !” the pink filly proudly introduced herself after Ardent Fate's declaration. “I'm the flying Dutchmare, the terrible pirate queen of the Seven Skies, terrorizing the ponies of Equestria in my flying ship !” she made up the spot, with the appropriate swings of her sword to punctuate her sayings. “And in Equestria, ponies carve faces in pumpkins for fun, Ardent Fate ! That's the point. You carve pumpkins, you put on a creepy décor, you tell each other ghost stories, like the one of the headless horse that looms in this very pumpkin field !” she continued with a grin, trying to explain the point of the celebration to a pony who had obviously never heard of it. “The pumpkins are not really possessed by evil spirits, but ponies puts a lot of work into them, so they're not going to be happy if you want to squash their work. You've never, ever, ever spend some time carving a pumpkin ? Or doing something for Nightmare Night ?” she added. “You don't have a lot of fun in your life ...”

Bumble Buns was happily wandering around, looking at the different games and stalls here and there. She was dressed as a bee, with fake little antennas in her mane, bug-like wings attached to her body, and black stripes painted over her body. She even had a little dart tucked in her tail. It wasn't the most complicated of all costumes but it worked well, and she liked it. She was looking at a game of apple bobbing when a pony disguised as a Wonderbolt next to her suddenly screamed in her ear. Surprised and frightened, the honey-like mare jumped away and fell on the ground. What was going on ? Once the commotion has passed, she looked at the pony who scared her without meaning it. A little foal dressed as a skeleton pony had played a little prank on him, surprising him by jumping on his back, and was now talking with him. Relieved, Bumble Buns let out a gentle laugh. The foal just wanted some friends to spend the time in this festival ! “Well, you've sure scared me as well, little one !” she introduced herself in the conversation. Perhaps she could spend time making new friends as well !

The three ponies were walking warily through the forest. Leafdancer added her magic to Gold Rush's magic, using her affinity with the plants to clear a way through the vegetation. It was useful to have a druid tagging along, thought the warrior, impressed. Unfortunately for the little ponies, the spell brought to light the monster hidden under the trees : it was a gigantic, three-headed dog, towering upon them. Each of its glowing eyes showed nothing more than hunger and a taste for bestial brutality, and the cerberus was growling threateningly, eager to feast on the ponies tonight. But Thunderhoof wasn't going to let it eat them without a fight. He stepped forward, brandishing his sword in a threatening manner, ready to strike at any moment, clearly unafraid. “Go back, monster, go back to the forest !” he growled. In his back he could hear the wizard Gold Rush muttering something about course of actions and plans and waiting before proceeding. “This thing will jump on us at any minute !” he answered, his eyes still fixated on the monster, his sword still high. “Think, and think fast, my friend ! I can get his attention while you two focus on blowing his head away, or tie him with forest foliage, or magic him down in another way !"

South Sudan have no problems about being recognized as an independent country though, even by (north) Sudan. Kosovo on the other hand had difficulties asserting its independence (I'm not sure, but I think Serbia still doesn't recognize it ?) even if it is pretty much settled now. Transnistria, Abkhazia ? They still have difficulties being recognized as independent states. Like a few others (Puntland and Somaliland (theoretically independent from Somalia) comes to mind), for various reasons. So they're not listed as independent states yet. Edit : Wikipedia article on the subject !

... I've been sick most of the week after that too. So, no progress done yet. But there will be soon ! Sorry for the delay.

The little group of adventurers wandered even further in the forest. The trees over their heads closed the skies, the plants around them grew denser and more oppressive. Everypony remained on their guards, growing nervous as the forest slowly closed its jaws on them. The calls for help were getting closer, but nopony could see where they came from. Eventually Gold Rush casted a spell and tried to light the darkness and the moving shapes it concealed. But the dense foliage blocked the magic light and kept secret whatever was circling around the ponies. “I don't like this ...” the warrior muttered, drawing his sword, readying himself for a fight. “Aw yeah !” Bumble Buns the honey mare exclaimed. “A monster ! Bring it on !” (Ooc : Sorry for the waiting ! )

Well it's settled for me ! My family won't be there, and I work tomorrow, so I'm likely to spend the evening watching something on TV (there's an Indiana Jones up at 8.50 pm tomorrow apparently, otherwise I'll just grab a DVD from Tim Burton) and make some pancakes with maple syrup (a rare treat for me !).

I had the same problem as you BlackFang. I was surprised to learn that Côte d'Ivoire is "Cote d'Ivoire" in english too. And it's Malaysia. 141 is not that much, you get it by knowing all the big countries' names and a few smaller ones around. Having the map under your eyes help a lot, and having the countries change color when you guess them right even more. I had a few random guesses too (micronesia is not only a geographical name, it's also a country apparently, yay !) I failed to name a lot of little islands actually, they're hard to remember. Saint-Kitts-and-Nieves, Sao Tomé and Principe, Nauru, states like this. And there are a lot of countries who are in the same situation as Russia (a complicated official name nobody uses and a commonly used name). China comes to mind for example.

I got 141. This is frustrating ! I wasted a lot of time trying to enter various variations of country names. Ouganda is spelled Uganda in english ! Tchad i suspect is spelled Chad ! Some I couldn't even name in english even if I knew where to put them on the map as well as various important points of their history. What is the name for "Cap-Vert" and "Salvador" in english ? Grumpf. I'm going to grumble in a corner ! EDIT : Ah, they give the list of the countries I missed ! So "Salvador" is "El Salvator" and "Cap-Vert" is "Cape Verde". Ok.

Slow. I've been sick most of the week, so I couldn't work on it ; but I have time this wekend so hopefully there will be some progress soon !

"Hihihi !" Whirlwind, dressed as a pirate, with a tricorne hat, a patch on her eye, a sword and a gun, and a peg leg oddly fitting on her stumped back leg, was making funny faces to her reflections in the mirrors around her. "Bleeeh !" She stuck out her tongue and streched one of her cheeks, tilting her head. "Derp derp derp derp !" She rolled and crossed her eyes. "Boooo !" She put on her most evil stare. It was quite a lot of fun to act silly like this, and she accompanied each of her faces with fitting noises. She loved this place ! There were mirrors everywhere, and in fact she was trapped in a maze of mirrors. But the little filly didn't mind. It looked as if she was alone in this part of the labyrinth, and she was having fun trying to see as many reflections of her at once. Some of them even showed distorted images of her - here and there Whirlwind could spot a Whirlwind with very tall legs, or a Whirlwind inflated like a balloon, or a stretched across the place Whirlwind ! And sometimes she walked into the mirrors too. Bunk ! Hey, that was supposed to be a corridor ! But bumps and crashes were part of the fun too ! Slowly the little pink filly walked deeper into the mirror maze.

Whilwind listened to the other filly's explanations, confused. After a long period of silence, the earth pony replied with both assurance and awkwardness that she was a real knight, or at least intending to become one, and that it was the reason she was training in the pumpkin patch, cutting pumpkins in half to learn how to use her sword. She didn't seemed aware that she was in a festival, or even what the festival was about. She seemed out of place. "Er ..." the pink pegasus started, not quite sure where to begin as well. "You know this is the Harvest Spook-Festival right ? You're not supposed to train to be a knight here, but to carve the pumpkins into funny faces and put a lantern inside them so they glow. Like the ones you must have seen on your way here. There's carved pumpkins all over the place, the ponies who organized the place put them on the sides of the road to light the way. But if slicing them in half is fun for you, it's ok !" she shrugged, smiling. "So, anyways, you just came here to train to be a knight ? You want to become a guard then ?" she continued, genuinely curious and confused. "It's the stories about ghosts thay drew you here ? I mean, surely there are better training ground in your knight school or wherever you go to learn to be a knight, no ?" Whirlwind would have continued to drown the poor filly under her questions if she hadn't been interrupted by another pegasus, a grew and white foal dressed as a cloud that looked younger than her. She had come and interrupted the other two fillies the middle of their discussion, wondering if everything was all right. "Hello !" the pink pegasus greeted her, sitting on her gigantic (and unharmed) pumpkin. "Everything's ok," she started to explain, "miss ..." Whirlwind abruptly turned toward the earth pony knight, "hey, what's your name by the way ?" then turned again toward the grey pegasus, "well, she never carved a pumpkin !"

"That's ok !" the yellow mare answered cheerily to the other player. "I'm a warrior, so I should be strong enough to do it, even if you only help a little !" No waiting another moment Bumble Buns rolled the twelve-sided dice. "Uh, a seven. Well, I hope it's enough ..." Thunderhoof gave the end of the rope to the druid Leafdancer and grabbed it too, bracing himself against the rock, ready to pull the magician with all his might. "Ready." mumbled the unicorn in his back. "Set ... Go !" the warrior continued, announcing loudly what he was going to do before pulling the rope.

“Ok then !” Bumble Buns grabbed a dice and rolled it. It turned and rolled and bounced finally gave her a five. “Yay ! Looks like I made it !” Determination shining in his eyes, Thunderhoof took careful steps and climbed over the rock. Once on top he looked around him : they were surrounded by trees and it was difficult to distinguish a path toward the ruins he could see, lost among the thick vegetation. He also couldn't find out the source of the strange sounds they were currently after. Looking down, the warrior saw the wizard take a wrong step and fall. It made him smile, and he shouted at his friend : “I think you do need help indeed !” Rummaging his saddlebags, he found his rope, tossed one end to Gold Rush and grabbed the other. “Use this to help your climbing ! I'll hold, and if you want, me and Leafdancer will pull on our end.”

Dusty, your HLF sub-branch sounds like something out of Wh40k The idea of blasting the sun only works if Equestria isn't on Earth (otherwise, it's a bit silly to blast Earth's sun). I find them a tad too grimdark, but I am curious, please expand ! So, I should go to sleep, but I want to write down stuff ! STRANGER DAYS (it seems this one is the one we're going with ! ) - First off, the attack itself ! As I read the paragraph, people can't get out, but can get in, as there is a lot of refugees that came in, but it's said they're trapped inside. It's an interesting thing to note. What caused the magic radiation ? Does the HLF have unicorns on their sides ? Humans who sacrificed their body for the cause, hoping to change back after perhaps. In that case they must be really annoyed to see that all they managed to do was to accelerate the ponification processus. Or is it that they meddle with new stuff ? Magic experiments ! Or perhaps it's not even the HLF, but a system failure, an act of incompetence, or a sabotage inside the bureau itself, and the HLF is scapegoated. - Second, there's a lot of things to do ! Can ponies still be sent to Equestria, or are they trapped inside the building (but immune to the radiation) ? The text hints that ponies can escape, but having everyone locked up could be fun too. At any rates, there's an overpopulated office to organize and manage, there's repairs and emergencies to attend, there's traitors and saboteurs to find out, there's a monster underneath our hooves to chase away or something, and we should also try to find a way to turn off the barrier that jails us inside. And do something about the magic irradiation. Can we contact Celestia ? (What Would Celestia Do ? xD) Roleplaying-wise, we have a lot of things on our hooves ! Or hands. It's eleven pm and I really should go to bed So I'll put more stuff here tomorrow. I'm not sure my ramblings are interesting though. We could actually start a game with what we've got, if Cherry can improvise a story depending on which way the players go (how will this be organized ? Will we have a gamemaster and players, like the two other crossover rps (my little maid and wh40k) I'm in ? ).

Thunderhoof laughed at Leafdancer's antics. “Jump all you want, friend ! I am not a dancer myself, and I will just climb.” With a sure hoof the warrior started to climb the rocky obstacle, using his strength and endurance to get himself on top of it. It wasn't a gigantic cliff, or a steep mountain side, it was a simple rock, so the exercise shouldn't prove itself too difficult. “Sooo … does that means I have to roll a dice too ? How does it works exactly ?” Bumble Buns asked, not having fully grasped the rules yet. In the middle of his climbing, the fighter turned his head toward his magician comrade. “Hasten, Gold Rush ! We have no time to spare. How are you going to pass that rock ? Do you need assistance ?”

The "thing in the basement" could be a lot of things if you don't want a flesh-eating monster, from a poor lonely eldritch horror who wants friends, to an animal that feeds on electricity, to something Discord-like (chaos !). Or a monster from the Everfree. Or something else. There's a lot of way to make it less grimdark while still keep it adventure-y ! For my part, I'm in ! I don't know what I want to be yet, but as I am thinking about it right now, I'd like to be a pony from Equestria who applied to the Bureaus because of her taste in adventure (and found out that the human world can be too much for her sometimes ! adventure is much less fun in reality !). Though I can be anything depending on what you intend to do CherryRie.