Scythe

Listening to Rain Maker the mare realized something important - very important - she didn't mention when she just talked to everypony. Even though they all turned away from her already and were talking to each other she was sure this one thing was important enough to interrupt them. [colour=#0000ff]"Excuse me"[/colour], she said, waiting for everyponies attention, [colour=#0000ff]"even though we are all eager to get the medal, fly as fast as we can, be better than the ones before us or trying to have a wonderful adventure that we can talk about with our children - never forget one thing: Have fun doing so."[/colour]

Nocturna was happy to see that the ponies around her got along with each other so well, even though they all seemed to be eager to show off. [colour=#0000ff]"Of course Rain Maker!"[/colour], she replied happily, looking forward to spending some time in their air finally. Flying was so casual most of the time, but there were moments, moments like this, when it seemed to be special again and Nocturna loved that. A sigh was to be heard from her. [colour=#0000ff]"I totally forgot what direction I was supposed to go, tell me again please"[/colour], all the attention made her think about things different from the trick she wanted to perform so she forgot what half of what Rain Maker said. Others might be scared to ask, not so Nocturna - screwing up infront of her new friend would be worse than asking a simple question; nevertheless there was the urge to justify her bad memory in her: [colour=#0000ff]"All this sudden attention caught me offguard and I got a bit ... overwhlemed."[/colour]

Okay an update from my side: As some may or may not know I am slowly leaving Canterlot. That means I will still maintain those RPs, be part of it and answer regulary - in other words: Nothing has changed! I just won't start new ones! So please keep calm and enjoy them while they last. For the delay I am sorry, my creativity is not at it's best currently.

Seeing the mare she got to know recently Nocturna quickly felt confident again - at least one face that wasn't foreign to her. [colour=#0000cd]"Oh hey Rain Maker, I already wondered where you've been, thought you couldn't wait for this to start?"[/colour], her voice was still marked by her unsureness and it sounded like a bad excuse not to deal with what she just told everypony. A loud sigh later she finally got it into her head that if this is journey is going to start somewhere soon she has to take the role assigned to her. [colour=#0000ff]"Okay everyone, I think we are all here because we want our Descent Medal, right? So in order to be able to attend this challenge we need a leader. I am not sure why they picked me for that, but I do not mind doing this so we can all have this chance to gain what we want."[/colour] Her false self-confidence turned into real self-confidence, at least partially. The mare flapped her wings and lifted herself up into the air with her side-bags, which contained food, water and a blanket. [colour=#0000ff]"In ten minutes we are allowed to start, so get ready. You might want to take this chance to talk to everypony, we might need to rely on each other."[/colour]

The mare giggled at the remark of Rain Maker - what she said could indeed be true, Nocturna did not only train hard, but she also had a great teacher, sometimes she wished other would have that advantage too, so many teachers at the flight school don't have the right motivation to bring out the best in their students. "[colour=#0000cd]Maybe[/colour]", she commented towards Rain Maker before looking back at the red mare who seemed to look specifically for her. Training Guru? Rare days? What was she talking about? There aren't really that much events in the Colosseum and mostly it serves as a gym for most pegasi. The former bugged her more though. "[colour=#0000ff]I am not quite sure who said that but I sure as hell ain't a training guru, I do fly for a living, so I know what I am doing, but I'm not a teacher if that's what you mean. Nevertheless, if you are here to fly with me, I see no reason why we shouldn't fly as a group of three.[/colour]" She added a swift smile to emphasize her friendly intentions.

The other application is going to be filed away by my request and Rosewind gave me the okay to set this one to ready - so I gonna do that, just clarifying if someone asks why I have 2 Ready Apps for a few minutes.

Well, it is ready, but my Symphony App is still not approved and thus I cannot set this one to ready.

Don't count on me, when I am down, I am much further down than you and I will drag you with me. What you need is a happy personality who cheers you up.

I know what a SVG file is... just that you missspelled it made me wonder. ^^

I think your rage is just a manifestation of your fear. I know what you feel, I'm completely alone too, crying about it more often than it would be good for me. I can only give you one advice: Ponies will not always cheer you up. Depending on what got you down they might make it worse. If you notice they do, think about something else, but that's not the only thing that helps. You can always remember the good sides of ponies and it will cheer you up. Unlike you I don't get mad at being alone, I'm just sad - I can't tell you what's more horrible though.

I don't want to state my personal opinion about his response here as this will get me banned in no time, but I want to say that I intended it to be an open discussion so every member can say how they feel about it. Just because Artax's opinion is more important doesn't mean we should disregard everyones opinion in favour of his. I know the forums isn't a democracy, but does that mean we should simply ignore everyone? If so, then I'm sorry. P.S.: He did NOT adress all of it and especially responded to the RP Helper Rank with exactly the response that I adressed before he even wrote it. Quote: And he wrote: Or in other words I stated "Using the old image is not redundant because [...]" and he said "It's redundant". If he wrote "Thanks for suggestion, kkthxbye. /lock" it would have been the exact same. And here I want to ask again - why can't we have a discussion? A bit of community work?

I post this as blogpost now because I actually want to hear the communities thoughts and not only Artax defending himself. Every day I see new confusion in the introduction forum and from time to time I even get a PM from a new member how to deal with this site. (Here I want to note that I always send them directly to the help staff). I speak out of my own experience when I say that Canterlot is very confusing for a new member, especially those who are careful and want to know what to look out for - like in my case. Before you register you might be looking for the rules. I for example always look for the rules before I register to a forum. But they seem very hidden in the "Extras" tab here. Usually Forums have a sub-forum entirely dedicated to one or two threads that contain the rules. I do not think that would be optimal. Given the strictness of the rules themselves and the handling of those I really advice pointing them out more though. The easier the rules are to access and the more they stand out the more likely it is that people actually read them. (To avoid confusion - I'm talking about the site-wide rules). Next thing I personally came across was the huge amount of guides, guidelines and other "helpful" things here which confused me a lot. Remaking or reworking the guides is not necessary, they are all well-written and good. What people need is an overview. When you register, at the latest, you will be confronted with the three different roleplay areas here. FFA, CO and WoE. (Here I want to point out that these abbreviations have to be avoided at all costs when talking to new members, also the term "Mane RP". Other roleplay specific terms like "canon" or "OC" can be confusing too.) An overview would make it much easier for new members to understand what those areas are for and give them the possibility to decide based upon their personal desire where to roleplay. Then all the guidelines and rules for the WoE area could be linked, listed or otherwise mentioned without adding to the confusion. Especially WoE could need a new guide. The current one (when you click on Extras -> Info, Rules and Guides -> WoE) was written by Artax because noone else wanted to write it (at least that is what I remember from our conversation about it). I think it needs to be more simple and cover other areas than currently. It should give an better and more structured overview of the way a new roleplayers goes. From registering and introducing himself (optional) to creating an application, how it is approved by an RP helper and later an SRP helper and then how you are moved into the roleplay group (which is covered too much for example in the current guide). I hope you don't mind the critique. Then, even if all those issues are solved or don't come up in the first place there will always be questions. I do believe we all understand the hesitation of a new member to ask a probably stupid question in the Q&A area, especially if he thinks it has been asked a hundred times. So what to do? Right, we ask a helpstaff member. I have to say though, that the helpstaff is somewhat "hidden" aswell. If you are on this site for a while you will all know Helix, Rosewind and other famous help staff members, but a new person? The helpstaff list is, for someone not familiar with forums, very hard to access and the members themselves are only identified by the small award in the signature. I also don't see much posting of the list. QuickLime did a perfect example of explaining and linking the helpstaff list in her blog entry (point 3). We have this "RP Helper" Rank with the awesome "RP Help Staff image" which is currently not in use. I think it's a pity, it would make it much easier to identify a member of the helpstaff. ← (Personally I would leave it up to every RP helper if they want to wear this rank or not, simply because someone might don't like it and I don't want to be responsible for forcing it upon them. If I'm not terrible mistaken... for the sake of easier identification a lot would be okay with that, wouldn't you?) The award would obviously stay, since there is a need to distinguish between the normal RP Helper and a Senior RP Helper. One might argue the difference is negligible - it is not. A new member usually tends to categorize quickly. Awards are seens as rather irrelevant. Avatars, ranks and other fancy things on the left are mostly considered interesting if not important. Now to the ease of use of this suggestion a TL;DR/summary: Rules should stand out more and be easier accessable, less hidden The RP areas (FFA, CO, WoE) need an overview, explaining them shortly An overview would also reduce confusion caused by the WoE guidelines WoE needs a new guide, which is simpler and covers certain points more thoroughly Helpstaff should be easier to find and identify P.S.: Alot of this could be easily covered with a good guide as a sticky in the introduction area. (IMO) Also as I am sure there is always something planned already... you could tell me what you are up to.

I'm glad the Arena RP took off so well. Hope the Adventure works fine too... I'm a bit disappointed in the Shadowbolt thread though... well normal with only 4 members I guess. Updated OP.

Every day I see new confusion in the introduction forum and from time to time I even get a PM from a new member how to deal with this site. (Here I want to note that I always send them directly to the help staff). I speak out of my own experience when I say that Canterlot is very confusing for a new member, especially those who are careful and want to know what to look out for - like in my case. Before you register you might be looking for the rules. I for example always look for the rules before I register to a forum. But they seem very hidden in the "Extras" tab here. Usually Forums have a sub-forum entirely dedicated to one or two threads that contain the rules. I do not think that would be optimal. Given the strictness of the rules themselves and the handling of those I really advice pointing them out more though. The easier the rules are to access and the more they stand out the more likely it is that people actually read them. (To avoid confusion - I'm talking about the site-wide rules). Next thing I personally came across was the huge amount of guides, guidelines and other "helpful" things here which confused me a lot. Remaking or reworking the guides is not necessary, they are all well-written and good. What people need is an overview. When you register, at the latest, you will be confronted with the three different roleplay areas here. FFA, CO and WoE. (Here I want to point out that these abbreviations have to be avoided at all costs when talking to new members, also the term "Mane RP". Other roleplay specific terms like "canon" or "OC" can be confusing too.) An overview would make it much easier for new members to understand what those areas are for and give them the possibility to decide based upon their personal desire where to roleplay. Then all the guidelines and rules for the WoE area could be linked, listed or otherwise mentioned without adding to the confusion. Especially WoE could need a new guide. The current one (when you click on Extras -> Info, Rules and Guides -> WoE) was written by Artax because noone else wanted to write it (at least that is what I remember from our conversation about it). I think it needs to be more simple and cover other areas than currently. It should give an better and more structured overview of the way a new roleplayers goes. From registering and introducing himself (optional) to creating an application, how it is approved by an RP helper and later an SRP helper and then how you are moved into the roleplay group (which is covered too much for example in the current guide). I hope you don't mind the critique. Then, even if all those issues are solved or don't come up in the first place there will always be questions. I do believe we all understand the hesitation of a new member to ask a probably stupid question in the Q&A area, especially if he thinks it has been asked a hundred times. So what to do? Right, we ask a helpstaff member. I have to say though, that the helpstaff is somewhat "hidden" aswell. If you are on this site for a while you will all know Helix, Rosewind and other famous help staff members, but a new person? The helpstaff list is, for someone not familiar with forums, very hard to access and the members themselves are only identified by the small award in the signature. I also don't see much posting of the list. QuickLime did a perfect example of explaining and linking the helpstaff list in her blog entry (point 3). We have this "RP Helper" Rank with the awesome "RP Help Staff image" which is currently not in use. I think it's a pity, it would make it much easier to identify a member of the helpstaff. ← (Personally I would leave it up to every RP helper if they want to wear this rank or not, simply because someone might don't like it and I don't want to be responsible for forcing it upon them. If I'm not terrible mistaken... for the sake of easier identification a lot would be okay with that, wouldn't you?) The award would obviously stay, since there is a need to distinguish between the normal RP Helper and a Senior RP Helper. One might argue the difference is negligible - it is not. A new member usually tends to categorize quickly. Awards are seens as rather irrelevant. Avatars, ranks and other fancy things on the left are mostly considered interesting if not important. Now to the ease of use of this suggestion a TL;DR/summary: Rules should stand out more and be easier accessable, less hidden The RP areas (FFA, CO, WoE) need an overview, explaining them shortly An overview would also reduce confusion caused by the WoE guidelines WoE needs a new guide, which is simpler and covers certain points more thoroughly Helpstaff should be easier to find and identify P.S.: Alot of this could be easily covered with a good guide as a sticky in the introduction area. (IMO) This is neither a rant nor a complaint, I wouldn't even call it critique. This is me trying to make things even better than they already are.

It was still dark, the sun barely lightening the horizon. Nocturna was already present at the entrance into the [colour=#800080]Wind Shear Passage[/colour]. A huge cloud with a small building was flying infront of the gaping maw of the mountain which was the canyon. During the winter days it looked even more scary. In that building the manager of this event was waiting for her, so he could assign a [colour=#800080]supervisor [/colour]to their team, who also acts as leader to bring everypony home safely. [colour=#0000ff]Nocturna [/colour]had to check in at the start of the passage earlier than the rest of the team. Unfortunetaly it didn't go according to plan. Later when the sun was finally peeking over the edge of the horizon the snow was glowing beautifully. The blue mare waited for all of her team to arrive. "Team" - she wouldn't really call it like that. They were a random bunch of ponies and a griffon who all wanted to gain the [colour=#800080]Descent Medal[/colour] for passing the [colour=#800080]Wind Shear Passage[/colour] in three days or less. Some she knew, most she didn't. At least she could be certain all of them are decent flyers - one who wasn't wouldn't attempt this challenge. [colour=#0000ff]"Well guys. It seems like our supervisor is sick and there is no replacement. Nopony else wants to be responsible for a group attempting a challenge like this"[/colour], she bowed her head down in defeat. Was that already the end of the journey? Then suddenly the manager appeared and put a badge on Nocturnas side bag. "I heard you are a Shadowbolt, so I assign you hereby the leader of this group, we will supervise the time differently. Have a nice journey." [colour=#0000ff]"Wait, you cannot just... I cannot take this responsi- ...".[/colour] Before she could properly respond he flew away.[colour=#0000ff] "Oh dear Celestia..."[/colour], she put a hoof on her face and sighed, turning around to the group and looking at them with a puzzled look. They might not be able to see it but Nocturna suddenly felt not that great about the challenge anymore. [colour=#0000ff]"Eh heh... "[/colour], her self-confidence crumbled for the moment.

God, Pinkie Pie made me laugh so hard that episode I had to stop the video because I couldn't listen to it anymore. She absolutely has Youtube-Poop qualities... so random, so unrelated. Super fast crazy plan... - Aaaaaaaand I will wear this mustach. One Question. What? *mustach is on, no word from Pinkie* No! Fine. So hilarious. That made my day.

[colour=#0000ff]"Well Rain, the Shadowbolts aren't so widely known ... yet. I'm trying to make them something great. We are something great already, but you know, famous..."[/colour], Nocturna sighed, this felt terrible for her. If she imagines someone coming to her and telling her about the oh-so-great team they have and they want to make them famous and stuff she would probably laugh at them or think they are doomed to fail and yet she is doing exactly this herself. She cannot let this be uncommented. [colour=#0000ff]"I mean, it's not so much about fame for us. We are all ponies who love to fly, who want it risky, very risky and all of us love to show off. Flying as Shadowbolt gives us with happiness and fulfillment."[/colour] Just as she wanted to follow Rain Maker to perform what she instructed Nocturna heard her name. Turning around she faced a red mare in a flying suit. Maybe a rival from another flying team? Whoever she was, she seemed to know her, so Nocturna moved towards her. [colour=#0000ff]"I am Nocturna."[/colour]

SVD?

[colour=#0000ff]"She seems to be impressed - I just hope it's not just due to her thinking I might be a Wonderbolt, because I have to destroy that dream of hers then"[/colour], Nocturna thought smiling. The mare imagined doing what Rain Maker explained - it didn't sound too difficult. Being used to stunts like this Nocturna was first rather confident that she can do it without a problem, but when she made her muscles ready to try it a bit of doubt grew in her, not enough to destroy her self-confidence, still it was unpleasant. [colour=#0000ff]"Oh I think I have to disappoint you Rain Maker, I'm not a Wonderbolt. I'm a Shadowbolt!"[/colour], that sounded way more proud than it should, [colour=#0000ff]"not that I never tried to get into the Wonderbolts, but you know, they cannot take every good flyer. And I wouldn't mind trying your little stunt there, it sounds like something we do."[/colour]

This is how your griffon OC could look like! Well hey there, I was bored and took the griffon template that is offered quite hidden inbetween the RP guidelines and made a large PSD file in which I can easily and quickly change the colour of every part of the griffon template. With that I created the image above too. If you have a griffon and you want a picture of him that you can use for your application to give people some eye-candy but don't know how to make one - ask me. The PSD file I made is not super high quality and I miss a few features, but I am sure I can quickly make something up. Don't forget, its not necessarily the perfect image of your OC, just so people can look at something. Imagening a character just from description is partially very aggravating and hard. If you want a real good picture of your OC you should rather ask someone who can draw very well. I can only alter the template to your liking.

I wouldn't call it sad ^^ he was a successful stallion, found the love of his life, became famous and somewhat rich - the sad thing is that he is old now. At least you can say he is happy with his life.