brianblackberry

My great-aunt has suffered and survived a brain hemorrhage. She's refusing to take blood pressure medications so she may have another one at any time...

My deepest condolences SilverSwirl.

Martini smiled warmly at the tired forest ranger at her bar, “My name is Martini Paradise, but you can just call me Martini, and I'm glad to hear that nopony needed rescuing in the forests tonight. Of course, being brave enough to search for ponies to rescue, well, that makes you as brave as any weather pony, so don’t you sit here in isolation now because you don’t think you're good enough to hang with the rest of ‘em, you hear, brave Wind Rider?” Martini winked, hoping that her little pep talk helped in some small way to the pegasus whom, she felt, was being far too modest.

“Rainbow Dash?” Martini guessed the white unicorn must be referring to the rainbow maned pegasus mare - who else among that trio could it have been? Still, she was acting more like a fangirl than some famous type. “Sooo… Not to sound too much like some out-of-touch backwoods pony from the Pinto, but why is Rainbow Dash so famous?”

But before he could answer, the three pegasus ponies from the entrance finally came up to the bar to order. “Sure thing hon! Coming right up!” Their order wasn’t complicated in any way; in fact, it was so routinely simple that she gathered the mugs for the cider without even looking, while floating the pitcher, glass, and plates of pies over in front of each customer. As the food and water was settled down before the three ponies, Martini tilted each of the mugs as she poured the cider in so it would run down the side, then just as it reached the end, she straightened the mug to create a big, impressive foaming head, the rich cider scent wafting out ...

Martini trotted back to the trio, floating the mugs of hard cider and their rich and foamy tops with her, placing them in front of the Wonderbolt and his two admirers. “There you go, three frosty hard ciders; courtesy of that fine gentlestallion over there!” Martini smiled as she nodded towards Pocket Change.

Any particular reason I wasn't added?

Just again:

ping111 - ping111

Added.

Cheerilee felt rather embarrassed about being late to the birthday party - she always stressed punctuality when it came to arriving for class. A birthday party, of course, had no rules when it came to tardiness, but she should always be setting an example for when the ponies of tomorrow were being taught the general skills they would need to be productive, engaged, and well-learned citizens.

She was a little surprised she'd been invited, but Apple Bloom and her friends had gone out of their way to make their teacher feel more appreciated; even if the results were very mixed. She knew they honestly cared, which brought a tender smile to her face as she approached the open barn door. It was a very special compliment to have students that loved her so much, even when she had to be strict for them.

Cheerilee found a party in full swing as she came in, recognizing so many of the guests: students from her class, older ponies from around town that Cheerilee had seen around, and Abby's immediate relatives - though she blushed at seeing Abby's big brother. In the center of it all was Applebloom, all full of smiles and excitement, Cherrilee waved to her with a big grin, "Hello, Apple Bloom, and Happy Birthday!"

Yah know there are like 2 maybe 3 that have effected me.

1) My original OC Moonlite Frost was originally not accepted because she had heard of Rarity and wanted to make a dress like that.

The rule is OCs cannot personally know cast, although it is alright to have heard of cast and know them by reputation.

Cheerilee felt a bit better when Zecora took over caring for the unconscious blue earth pony. Even with the knowledgeable zebra at her side, she still felt profoundly uneasy over the whole situation. Of all of the field trips she'd ever had, and all the crazy antics her students had caused during them, never had she ever had a pony actually faint because of it; definitely one for the diary. "Thanks, Zecora; I'll leave her in your much more capable hooves; I need to check on the rest of the class and hope to Celestia poor Caramel here doesn't want us bucked off of her farm as soon as she awakes."

She trotted over towards the pile of hay where the shaking little green tail of Reno was sticking up. He must have hid in the hay out of fright; an odd place to hide with a fire, but no doubt the little colt didn't think that far into it when he sought shelter from his fears. Poor little guy, he just needed reassurance that it would be alright. Cheerilee spoke in her most cheerful, reassuring voice, smiling. "Reno? It's Miss Cheerile. You can come on out, now, the fire is gone. It was only the one tree and we got it all out! There is no fire left, I promise." It couldn’t hurt to appeal to his colt pride also, “plus I do need you to watch our little long eared friend for me. I know you can do it..”

Remington was awake, which was one less concern for Cheerilee. All the other foals, including Timid Star and his historic bad luck, were not any worse for wear; in fact, they all seemed ready to make apple juice. Even Caramel managed to awaken; thank Celestia for Zecora. Maybe things would work out after all. Only question really remaining was who started the fire in the first place! Once Reno is coxed out of the hay, she’d have to find out.

The main list, I intend to keep as a relatively serious-ish list of things we have seen too much of in applications.

Emphsis mine.

He is not saying you cannot have them (although that is true for some of them), he is saying these are common tropes that have become overused or inappropiate.

Its supposed to be fun and silly.

What if the blindness is a completely legitimate birth defect and isn't played for sympathy or for "I took a level in badass"? He's just like everypony else, except he walks with a cane (with magic or something, I dunno) and has to be paid in singles Ray Charles style?

In fact, you did not get your cutie mark by winning a contest, period.

This seems a little harsh. May I ask why not?

Not a real lisssssssst.

Braeburn smiled - he could tell the two stallions were down-to-earth types and were just shy. That was alright, surely there would be more hoedowns for the pair in the future. "Well, we have these hoedowns pretty regularly here in good ol' AAAAPPLELOOSA!!!" He placed his forearm around Straight Arrow's shoulders, "ah'm sure a stallion like y'all won't have any trouble findin' a date for the next hoedown. Or, hey, just take 'em to any of our fun events!" Braeburn just had such a fun time at this hoedown with the first real date he'd had in a while - all he wanted to do was spread the happiness. "Surely there must be somepony that caught your eye, just have the courage to talk to them, show 'em you're interested!" Braeburn gave a friendly wink, hoping that his advice might help the maroon pegasus' confidence.

Braeburn trotted back to Caramel, giving her a broad grin. "Now, shall I escort you back to your fine bistro, darlin'?"

Some cute comic strips starting filly Twilight, Shining Armor and Cadence:

Fixed.

Start off with best pony, Applejack.

I know some people don't like humanized ponies, but I am alright with them, (unless you stick a unicorn horn on their heads, it never looks right... Ever) This version is done in anime style, which I am also alright with.

I think someone is trolling with that package, as you can see so little of it. Scootaloo was an earth pony in G3 and Cheerilee's younger sister, (this remained true trough all the G3 derivatives).

Braeburn still felt pretty defensive in regards to Caramel's comments, and although he didn't want to take it personally, he just couldn't help it to some degree. Buffalo Run was more than just an orchard to him, it was even more than a source of family pride - it was a personal ambition, a dream fulfilled! Even as such, it seemed that them stepping away from everypony for a private discussion just meant everypony kept following along with 'em to butt in. He shared a look of mutual frustrated exasperation with Caramel Apple before continuing.

"Like Ah said, it is good fer th' family! Look at all th' new places Ah jes told y'all our apples will soon get to cuz' of it. That's not somethin' we'd have gotten anywhere else! Jes gotta think long term and not just short term! Every new orchard we've grown done got trees from every other orchard ... it's how we're all one big orchard, one big family!" Of course, he'd committed himself to the idea of the orchard long before he knew of any plans to extend any rails from Appleloosa to new places, but as an argument it sure sounded good. "And y'know that ponies don't work half so hard on a project if'n they're not inspired by it ... y'all have a column for inspiration in those books ah' yers? Ah promise y'all, Buffalo Run will make the family proud! Ah'd get y'all a copy ah th' books with th' next shipment of apples t' Tiny Apple Valley, maybe th' second ... takes time t'copy all them records. But if'n y'all want them fast as possible, then come on out t'see the orchard, see AAAAAPPLELOOSA! It be great for ya cousin Caramel!" Braeburn thought about it for another moment, deciding to toss an extra olive branch, "An' maybe mah new friend, Maximillian Rockefilly, will be there for y'all t'meet!"

Satisfied with his rebuttal, Braeburn turned to Apple Bumpkin, giving a half-laugh and patting her shoulder. "Ah'd love a chance t'talk, Bumpkin! Just you Tiny Apple Valley ponies and me! But round here, steppin' aside for a private moment seems an invite t' all an' sundry t' come follow along an' stick their hooves in!" he laughed quietly, not wanting anyone around to feel hurt by the comment. It was, after all, family, and pretty much expected!

Tried to find a way to fit Apple Fritter in here but couldn't without the conversation being very awkward. She can approach him (or another pony) though

Trixie was shivering from the cold bits of ice that slowly melted into cold droplets of water in her coat, holding her cape close about her in a vain attempt to get warm. Oh, how she wished she knew some heat spell or something similar. She could start something on fire, but that would require leaving the wagon and back into the chilly wind; no thanks! At least the river cooperated with their elaborate plan; its path channeling down the once dry river bed next to them. Her eyes opened wide at the rush of energy flowing through her, as if the wind, but without any physical force to it. Her mane lifted around her as some small amounts of it grounded out through her aura. Trixie had taught herself enough about magic to know that this could only be the ley line following the river, just as Whooves said it would. So he knows a little bit about magic after all. As much as didn't want to admit her new-found respect for his magic knowledge, it gave her some additional hope that this he wasn't *completely* insane.

As proud as she was of the work she'd done, herself, it seemed nothing compared to the Doctor's own self-congratulatory excitement about what they had done. What was he so excited about anyway? All he'd done was "supervise" while the unicorns did all the work! Sure maybe it was his idea and all, but where would that plan have been without the wondrous magic of the Cold and Frozen Trixie!

This "diversion" already had taken far more time then she would have liked, even if it was all for a good cause. At least now she had a story, the story how she, with some loyal followers, defeated monstrous mechanical beasts from the sea! What a boost this would give to her traveling show, as soon as she rebuilt her wagon, and unlike those other tales, it would all be true! Perhaps she could find some pieces of those clockwork ponies to display as part of her wagon ...

Well. Once they were done with the long-lost Royal Library. "So, Doc! Now that you're done playing, the Great and Powerful Trixie believes it is time for you to make those readings you keep talking about! We do have somewhere to be!" She had no clue what readings he wanted to take, but she didn't want to sound like she had no clue in front of the others. Especially Lyra, who no doubt looked up to her - she didn't want Malediction along for the ride, but she wouldn't mind showing Lyra a true adventure ...

I post this for three reasons:

1. Its Applejack and that alone is enough for me.
   
2. I am curious about the story behind this picture; why is she so sad looking! D: *Hugs for AJ*
   
3. The brush! We seen Trixie brush her mane with a normal looking brush because she can just use magic, but what about pegasai and earth ponies? This brush, based on a real horse brush now answers that question!
   

Martini Paradise's face brightened with a ridiculously huge smile. She had to really fight not to giggle at the goofy, saccharine answer she got from the captain. Most likely there was some embarrassing story involving his awkward colt years when he first ran into a princess where he said something facehoof-worthy as a first impression. She didn't think he was avoiding a real answer as much as he was just flirting with the missus in an adorkable sort of way. He was right, though - Cadence was incredibly stunning. There was just some comforting aura about her that was hard to describe, something that just made you think about beauty and love.

The barmare awoke from her contemplating daydream when Cadance spoke her own thoughts on the couple's first meeting along with a quip on secondary school. She let out a soft laugh and agreed, "True enough! Though I never finished secondary school myself, I had ... to leave home." She wasn't sure why she had revealed something so personal - there was just something about the princess that made one comfortable enough to talk about anything.

What Cadance asked for next though gave Martini an eager smile. Something with fire, eh? She doubted the princess meant that literally, but Martini would deliver nonetheless! This bar didn't have quite the right ingredients to make a proper island drink, but she could make do.

Two big, round bourbon glasses floated down from above the bar, as Martini's hooves rummaged in the mini-fridge for the carton of orange juice. She poured the glasses about half-full each, then added pineapple juice for flavor. A colorful bottle of cherry liquor floated down from behind Martini, adding generous doses of color, flavor, and alcohol to the mix, and nearly topping it, and Martini finished it off by dropping several whole strawberries - minus the greenery - into the glasses, along with a number of mini-marshmallows to float on top, soaking up the red-orange liquid to color themselves.

Now was the fun part. Two spoons floated on over, and a deep amber bottle of Amaretto. The amber liquid drizzled over the backs of the spoons and seeped onto the surface of the drinks, while Martini brought down a third glass - this one a pint glass. One last bottle came floating forward - the golden Coltreau. As Martini uncorked the bottle, a rich citrusy scent added to the fruit aroma already floating up from the drinks, and she added only the smallest of splashes into the empty pint glass. All the tools, the bottles, and the ingredients floated back to their places as Martini's telekinesis swirled the splash of Coltreau in the pint glass, coating the sides with its rich, citrusy touch.

She pushed the two glasses closer to her guests. "Sir, Ma'am, I present to you ... the Eruption!" With a spark of her horn, she lit up the pint glass ... the entire glass filled with flame, and a sharp touch took to the citrusy scent wafting around. She poured what seemed just a touch of liquid flame into each of the two drinks, and the amaretto on top blazed into life, lighting up the red-orange liquid within, and half-melting and scorching the mini-marshmallows floating on top, giving it the appearance of molten lava. With a satisfied *thunk*, she set the pint-glass upside-down on the bar, extinguishing the flames within and leaving only their drinks illuminating this side of the bar.

All things considered this whole ordeal with the fire could have been a lot worse. The class' reaction was decidedly mixed between frightened panic, confusion, and helpful, which was to be honest, a bit better than she had expected. They were all just young foals after all, with no experience in dealing with this kind of a situation with except maybe little Applebloom. Still the majority manage to create the line to supply buckets of water. Sadly Cheerilee was making a rather poor showing as an earth pony when it came to tossing the water up, "nuts and shoes!"

Cheerilee felt a nudge to her side and was surprised it was Apple Bumpkin - she had expected one the foals instead with a question, not the all too kind owner of the farm. She blushed, still feeling embarrassed by the whole situation, but bewildered by Bumpkin's kindness and calmness during this accident. It was quickly obvious what the farmer pony's idea was and Cherrilee stood on her hind legs as she grabbed onto the bucket along with Bumpkin and, with a shy yet bright smile, she helped toss the bucket up. This time the water hit its mark spot on, putting out the small flames.

"Glad that's over ... I am so, so very sorry! I will personally make sure that any damage is paid for!" Now she just had to get the field trip back on track. All she had to do is check up on one narcoleptic pegasus, one panicked earth pony, make sure the other owner didn't hurt themselves fainting, and find out which pony even caused this to happen! No problem ... right?

Cherilee grabbed one of the rags nearby with her teeth and dipped it in one of the leftover buckets of water, then trotted over to Caramel, placing the cold, wet rag on her forehead. She wasn't sure what else to do at the moment, but had an idea who did. "Zecora, could you make sure Miss Caramel is alright? I gotta check on the foals!"

One way or another, she was going to end this trip on a high note; she promised apple juice and by Celestia they were going to make some!

It was surreal - awkward and fun - for the shy and reserved earth stallion to sit there and slowly cover the sky blue coat of the alluring mare before him with dye, especially her wings; he never had been this close to a pegasus pony's wings before. As he applied the tan pigment, he was fasicnated at how soft and delicate they were. And he was surprised she trusted him like this.

The moment didn't last as the blue reporter they'd run into before burst into the room - microphone, camera, and all! All Carrot Fields could think was how they were sooooo busted, and all his instincts screamed in his mind to bolt. He couldn't though, as much as part of him wanted to - there was no way he was going to abandon her. Even if she was, at most, an acquaintance, there was no way he was going to let her take all the blame.

Carrot was about to tell the honest truth when Dash spoke first, innocently answering the reporter's question honestly but without revealing their indiscretion. Better still, her excited and eager answers showed that she loved the whole Daring Do ideal as much as he, perhaps even more so! He managed a nervous smile as he listened, it was just so incredibly cute, and it made her cute ... Well, cuter. Egghead fillies were just so adorkable!

Her answer gave him the courage to finally speak up himself, "Aye! Oi'm a roit big fan ah th' books. Oi been collectin' them since Oi was a wee baern, e'en had her posters in me room back 'en!" Carrot pondered for a moment, then continued, "Roit on, th' first shindig fer th' tae of us! we near on dinnae-" Carrot stopped himself short, as he realized he'd almost confessed too much, "well, we're wee taken tae it, roit? Now, we're nae tae lazy onnit, if'n ye catch me." Hopefully the reporter's curiosity would be sated with that!

Martini Paradise raised one eyebrow as she listened to Wind Rider's modest demurring and chuckled softly. "so you were out in the deep, dark forests, in the wind and rain, looking to make sure nopony was stranded in these frightening storms? Maybe you aren't a weather pony but you sound every bit as daring and courageous to me." She levitated the cold pitcher of ice water to the brown pegasus' glass and topped it off. "I think you'll fit in just fine here tonight; I am sure you have a few interesting stories of your own from your patrols of the wooded lands."

Martini's shifted her attention to the hefty amount of bits that floated before her from the one other unicorn in the bar; her own green magic took over from the stallion's yellow magic as she floated the currency to the register. "I'm sure the pegasai here will really appreciate your generosity, and don't worry about having to leave - we do have a few rooms upstairs to rent for those too tired or too woozy to try and get home. You are welcome to one, your bits here more than cover it."

Of course, speaking of the other pegasai, she wondered if they were actually planning to order anything. The two mares seemed too enamored of the Wonderbolt stallion among them. She wasn't sure if that rainbow-maned one was just fanfillying or she had some serious romantic crush on him. It could be one and the same, of course - it certainly seemed like that with her own daughter and this same Wonderbolt. Martini chuckled at that last part, imagining Sunrise Beach standing there being jealous of some older mare "competing" for the affections of her dream stallion.

Turned the whitelist back on as peeps that were banned from Brohoof were coming in.

Added Rhodesian and Tenkan tot he whitelist.

kamerad- Rhodesian

Those section headers are adorable! Also, I have a couple of questions:

1) Is there an activity requirement? My connection is limited to my phone for now; I'm trying to get my laptop fixed, but I remember it having trouble with Minecraft. I'll only really be able to participate once I get my gaming rig up here (Ohio to Alaska is a long way!), which probably will not be until the start of October.

2) Filling creeper holes is listed in the rules, for which the penalty is a warn or a ban if they're not followed. Are we then mandated to perform this task, or was this a simple legal oversight?

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk 2

There is no activity requirement, just play when you feel like it.

We would like people to fill the holes as a courtesy; we won't ban you for not filling them, but it be nice if you did.

For those still using XP on older machines you may want to consider using Linux instead as next year XP is gone.

Sure you loose gaming support and netflix support but those would go away eventually on XP anyway or if you installed windows 7.

As for 7 I dont forsee it going anywhere, once 8 flops 7 will get an extended life like XP did.

A lot of people already wont use metro anyway, and it will only sell on newer tablet based computers that are well out of peoples price ranges now.

It should be noted Windows XP Service Pack 3 support doesn't end until April 8, 2014. Until that date, security and other patches will still be regularly updated and offered. As for gaming support, that of course depends individually on the game.

Used Windows XP for quite a long time on my desktops, 2003-2011; but I am happy with Windows 7. For me, when it comes to Windows operating systems, it is a lot like Star Trek movies, where you have a good one, then a bad one, then a good one, rinse and repeat. Windows 98 was decent, Windows ME was awful, Windows XP was great, Vista sucked, and I really like Windows 7, but Windows 8 looks like it would just annoy me.

Braeburn was pleased - the tour had gone exceptionally well. Not only did he get to show off his and, he would argue, Appleloosa's pride and joy, and not only did he manage to win over the newcomers with Appleloosa's charm and beauty, but he also managed to smooth things over with Snowfall. He wasn't really sold on all the vague benefits that having Miss Snowfall apparently approving of his beloved town would bring, but it was obviously important to everypony else in the party. And he much preferred it if mares were smiling than not.

"Well, now our tour of Buffalo Run Orchard is all good and done, and y'all have some ah the best apples in all of Equestria, Ah reckon we can give y'all the grand tour of AAAAAAAPPLELOOSA itself!" Braeburn grinned eagerly. "Well, Miss Bistro, we all rather chipped in to build the clocktower when we first settled AAAAAAPPLELOOSA! At that time, we just had tents, an' the clocktower was the first official building in town, meant to mark the center and be seen by pegasus ponies from a distance t' help them navigate. We all chipped in t' fix it, too, but the difference bein' the buffalo lent a hoof."

With that explanation, Braeburn came alongside the quintet and used his head to push them towards the town, "let's go, thar's a lot to show y'all!"

It's one of those ships that fanon content (specifically some really good art) made me partial to.

Actually I don't even look at canon at all when it comes to ships and why I ship them. It's entirely fanon based. I love ScootaBelle because they're both my favorite characters, their colors mesh well, and quite frankly I have the most fun drawing them together. I know there's no canon explanation, nor would I really want there to be as it'd change the dynamics of the show.

I openly support all shipping for 2 reasons.

1) The very premise behind shipping is love. Two characters however different or unlikely they are loving each other as friends, lovers, etc. The world needs more love, even in the pretend world.

2) Shipping is one of (if not the) most popular rout taken in visual art and writing in this fandom. Art is SO important to me, and anything that inspires others to create gets my support.

I can understand lots of people don't like shipping or think it's silly or gross or dumb (I get the suspicion Shadow doesn't like it very much). That's fine! Power to you! I for one love it.

I don't oppose shipping on principle. Heck if you look at my gallery there are several shipping images, and I understand that it is purely fandom driven. There are certain kinds of ships I find personally revolting (incest ship, child-adult ship), and I dislike the concept some people have that certain ships are the only "legit" ones for particular characters, which is impossible to actually justify. Its ok to have your favorite ship and couple,but don't think it is the "rule" everyone else has to follow.