Bramble Rose

I wrote a fanfic called Friendship is Epic where Twilight, Doctor Whooves, and Derpy travel to a dark, Mad-Max styled future of Equestria...

I'm so very glad that my suggestions helped so much! *^_^* You had most of the great ideas, though, I just tidied them up a bit! I'm glad you are happy with the result!

(Approved by Diego Havoc before posted) Doctor Whooves gave a small smile as he saw Lyra trot up. "Well, there you are, then!" he said cheerfully. "Glad to see all three heroines are safe and sound." He was glad for the help in getting the two unicorns up into the wagon, being as gentle as possible while doing so. "But I honestly have no idea why the clockwork left. That was very peculiar. They're not supposed to be able to get scared - just to follow orders from the proper authorities. And there hasn't been a proper authority for centuries." Once he got the two incapacitated unicorns into his cart, he looked over them worriedly, but it seemed they were just exhausted. A healthy bit of rest, and they would be good as new. "Right, then!" he said cheerfully to Lyra. "And now, if you would help me, your talents are *just* the sort of thing I need!" He led her to the clockwork pony, and they spent the next hour or so dismantling it. Doctor Whooves relied, for the most part, on a scratched and well-used screwdriver, but he spent even more type guiding Lyra in exactly what he needed. He would point to a section of the contraption with his screwdriver, and Lyra would duck her head, her horn glowing softly as it let out a whistling noise. At Doctor Whooves' suggestions, she modulated the tone up or down, giving it more or less intensity, until it resonated just right with the gear assembly, loosening them in place so that the earth pony could remove them easily, or popping open internal compartments that had previously been locked to get access to the more sensitive bits and pieces. By the time they were finished, Doctor Whooves' suggestions were extremely few and far between as Lyra got the trick of it, the two working almost as one pony with no need for words. Eminently cheered up, Doctor Whooves trotted with a merry spring to his step back to the cart, his saddlebags filled to bursting with gears and flywheels, springs and gearboxes, of gorgeous and ancient craftsmanship. They spent the next half a day with Doctor Whooves pulling the three-wheeled cart upstream, pausing every so often to glance at the manavane attached to the corner of his cart. For the most part, the manavane stayed pointed firmly at Lyra, who was sitting in the back of the cart with the two other unicorn ponies, playing gentle harp music to help them to relax. Doctor Whooves, though he was unused to pulling his cart around so much, nonetheless kept enough of his breath to laugh and joke with Lyra, telling her grand and surely impossible tales of his past adventures, asking after her loves in life, and flirting outrageously, playfully, and insincerely with her, just so he could glance out of the corner of his eye and see her smile. When the manavane suddenly pulled away from Lyra and pointed, instead, firmly at the river, Doctor Whooves came to a stop. "There we are," he said with relief, letting himself out from under the harness. "Now we simply wait for our sleeping beauties to wake up. I have a plan, but I need to ask them some questions, and we'll need all three of you up and running." At least, sitting directly on top of a ley line, the exhausted unicorns should find themselves restored quite quickly. While Lyra continued to care for the two sleeping mares, Doctor Whooves went to work. Opening a chest in the back of the cart, he dug around inside till he found what he was looking for - a spare cart wheel! He hammered it firmly into place, then took his fresh bag of spare parts and a toolbelt, and crawled underneath the cart, whistling merrily, *almost* in tune with Lyra's harp playing. it wasn't long before he was covered in grease and oil, and other, stranger fluids, getting himself quite thoroughly filthy as he worked at patching up the damage done to his precious cart.

Oh my goodness... It's... It's... it's a Hearth'swarming MIRACLE! *gathers up as much as he can carry* Why can't I carry all this wool! Thank you, so much! Thank you! Thank you!

You should see some of the *cliffside* golf courses over in Scotland. Seriously. Like, "Please make a 200 yard drive over this gaping chasm down to the crashing waves 80 feet below to the green that's out on that peninsula over there, then take the long way around to actually reach the green."

I don't know. I just looked online and it said that snapshot happened, but I don't know if snapshots equate to 'updates for the server'.

Speaking of ... There was a 'snapshot update' that makes wool grow back on sheep. "In Minecraft Snapshot Update 11w49a, sheep reverted to dropping 1-3 wool when sheared. In another snapshot released by Jeb_ Sheep will now eat Grass and regrow wool." "Notch stated that sheep and possibly other passive mobs will eat grass, then the blocks will become soil blocks.[citation needed] It was also stated that wool will regrow on sheep, and will happen as of Week 49 release 11w49a.[4] Furthermore, as of 11w50a, Sheep also eat Tall Grass [5]" Any plans on including that snapshot update into our server anytime soon? *^_^*

Bramble laughs softly. "Oh, everypony loves mah sire," Bramble said, slipping into a slight drawl as he thinks of the tough stallion who raised him. "He's a hero in th' Borderlands, an' a scoundrel all the high-fallutin' mares sigh after in Canterlot." His vision of his sire might be a *bit* inflated, but that's to be expected. "He always was loyal to mah dam, though. An' raised me rightly, he did. Taught me how tae get by in th' wilds, e'en before ah had mah plant magic. Taught me bout th' world around me, an' how ah fit inter it. Just as if ah din' have a horn and was an earth pony, he taught me how mah place is tae be part of things." He laughs, and his voice slips back through the neutral, slowly moving to a more high-class Canterlot speech pattern as he then is encouraged to talk about the sky yachts, obviously torn between the two worlds of his parents. "But yes, my goodness, the yachts are gorgeous. It's a thing of beauty just to see them floating by, but when you're actually upon them, ahhh... the wind in your mane, the earth flowing by so far below. The captain and crew were so noble, with their fine uniforms, and they seemed so professional. And I always envied the pegasus crewmembers who flew spotter alongside the yachts. Sometimes I wondered what it was like to feel the wind in your feathers... but ultimately, I prefer to have my hooves on the ground. To not feel the earth ley lines sets a shiver, but the parties are to die for. Everypony who's *everypony* has to be on some of those yacht parties, and there's so many possibilities. So many subjects to listen in on - travel, business, scholarly research, the latest races, the latest fashions... I was just a young colt, of course, so my job was to stand around politely at my dam's side, but there were so many things to listen to." He listens to Ginger's description, then, and nods with little canterlot high-class noises. "Oh, quite so, quite so, Miss Mint. Ah find that every pony finds that way to fit into the world around them in their own way... land, sea, sky, magic, to each pony their own place, as suits them." He smiles softly. "It actually rather relates back to what you were saying about your brother, which started this whole conversation in the first place. It's what makes you feel like you belong." He laughed softly. "But if you'd like somepony to help you pick out the right furniture, I'm told I'm a dab hoof at it. Flower arranging, furniture arranging, designing the look and feel of a place... I'm not the best, but I'd be absolutely tickled to be able to help you out."

Purple Haze smiled happily. Yeah, doing stuff together! Her big brae liked hard workers! This was Dawn's chance to make some friends! "Aye, good idea! Oi'm feedin' me class tamorrae, so Oi could really use a few more carrots! Big Brae, woi dinnae ye show him how it's done! Dawn's a roit hard worker, he is!" She pranced over to Dawn, with a cheerful, "But ye'd better leave yer cloak here, or else it'll get dirty!" She nuzzled under Dawn's chin to undo the cloak, then pulled it off of him and offered it to him. "Woi dinnae ye put it up over in th' other room?" As soon as Dark Core was out of earshot, Purple Haze turned worriedly to Carrot. "Oi, Big Brae, ye be careful, wille? Ye're in a bad mood, an' Oi dinnae ken tae why, but Dawn there's a jumpy sort... Oi think he's tryin' tae take care a himself, he dinnae have a big brae like ye, or parents, tae take care a him. We kin talk bout what's got a bramble under yer harness later, but try tae be nice to him? Oi don't want ye tae scare him off by accident!"

Brian and I are claiming the grasslands past the Froggybottom swamp and the lakes past that as the new site for PONYVILLE! I have the logs, leaves, and books collected necessary to make a tree-library!

... ... ... I ... my sheep. My sheep I was specifically breeding to make WHITE CLOUDS with, so I can build pegasus buildings in the sky. That I had specifically marked with a sign: "WHITE SHEEP", so that people would know not to dye these sheep. That I've practically had to *start over* several times because of people raiding my ranch, *SEVERAL* Ponies causing creepers to blow up part of my ranch while looking at it ... Please don't dye my sheep. TT_TT Now I need to hunt down some skeletons so I can dye some back to white. I'll keep the rainbow ones so I can make rainbows, and pixel art, eventually, and just try to ... expand and make more pens, so I can have lots of white sheep ... but ... please don't dye my sheep in the future. Also kinda surprised to walk out my front door and go, "Oh ... there's a ... there's a *road* in my front lawn." But ah well.

Eeee! Thank you so much!

Doctor Whooves was yelling to Mal as she unloaded her fury into the water via the massive green flames. "Stop! Stop, that won't do anything! Please, you'll hurt yourself!" His voice didn't even seem to be impinging on the unicorn, and he could only watch helplessly as she collapsed before him. And then the Clockwork Ponies were upon them! Blast, he'd been sure they'd gotten beyond their range! And using a pair of wrenches as cuffs? Well, that was ... actually, rather clever. But not allowable. How long would they hold onto their pony captives waiting for the peacekeeping forces that hadn't existed for hundreds of years? And Mal just seemed to ... give up. "Right then!" cried Doctor Whooves, shrugging out of his harness. "Seems you've just made a mistake there, cause just by chance, you just captured my friend within 24 hours of me having a *really bad day*. My cart's ruined, I saw the foal you'd hurt, and I've been feeling pretty useless around all these unicorns. But these hooves?" He charged forward, a manic grin on his face. "Them's mah FIGHTIN' hooves!" And with that, he dropped, spun, head down, hooves up, and bucked that clockwork pony right in the face. Sure, previous ponies who had held his name had been unicorns, or pegasi, and Doctor Whooves knew that he held their knowledge in the extensive library back at his place - a library that had knowledge possibly no other library in Equestria held. Often he wondered if the name shouldn't have been passed on to a pony with more obvious ability to carry out the duties. But as an Earth Pony, he had deep reserves of strength, and every so often he just couldn't take it anymore. The glass shattered, the brass deformed, the delicate innards of the head ground to a halt with springs flying out and gears grinding against each other. Still, though, the clockwork pony held onto Malediction. Somewhere in his awareness, Doctor Whooves heard the booming voice of Trixie announcing her magnificent return, and he filed it away so he could pay attention to it, but right now the blood was rushing in his head, the fire of battle in his hooves. Doctor Whooves struck again, and again, with his hind hooves, battering at the front of the clockwork pony. He'd never noticed his striking hooves sounding like *lightning* before! No, wait, that was probably Trixie. He backed away as he'd finally removed the forelegs of the clockwork pony from the rest of it, the remains of that one clockwork laying there - all because it had refused to let go of Malediction. He looked up, spinning around, to see the rest fleeing back towards the city. ... The maintenance drones? Fleeing? That ... didn't make sense. They couldn't *get* scared. They couldn't get happy, they couldn't get sad, they couldn't laugh at your jokes ... they just followed orders! And the lightning bolts continued to drop amongst them, smashing vital gears, destroying delicate machinery. "Whoah!" he said, softly, to himself, then, "Whoah!" he cried, louder. "They're gallopin' away, that's enough, Trixie! Whoaaaah! You're destroying valuable historical artifacts! We're all OK!" He glanced around quickly. Well, he hoped they were. Where was Lyra? And then Trixie collapsed to the ground. Doctor Whooves stood there a bit uncertain what to do ... both unicorns were just laying there, and he with a broken cart, and still a missing friend. Well. He nodded to himself. Well. Just do what you can. And then do more. First, he took Malediction, getting his head, then the rest of him under her, and lifting her up laboriously into the bed of his cart, the wrenches and fore legs of the clockwork pony still attached to her hooves. Then he went up to the unconscious Trixie and smiled down to her gently. "Needs control," he softly said, "But you really are the Great and Powerful Trixie... such potential." He ducked his head down again, lifting her up gently onto his back, and carried her back to the cart to lay next to Malediction. Now, to find Lyra, and get everypony upstream.

Bramble Rose smiled happily to Douglas' advice on financials. "That's what my sire always told me, too! So yeah, I'm just putting aside as many bits as I can! And taking on little side jobs here and there... I've never been out sailing on the water, but my dam used to take me out onto airships for her parties, and it was lovely! I know just what you mean by majesty." He smiled to Ginger Mint. "I never got to actually do any of the sailing, though! Those big sky yachts were way too expensive! That must have been so fun! But you shouldn't feel as if such dreams are bad ... I mean, yeah, I want to travel, and see the world, but I also want to ... " His violet cheeks darkened redly as he blushed. "You know, find that special somepony, who I can share it all with. It's not nearly as fun if you don't have somepony to share it with." He rubbed at his chin again, still thinking on the 'travelling for work' idea, his eyes straying up towards that blank white poster-back on the wall... then he looks back to Ginger Mint. "And it's not a problem taking advantage of serendipity, but my sire always said, "A pony makes their own luck!"

I am planning a city in the clouds. Whether or not it's "cloudsdale", well ... but I have already begun breeding white sheep for cloud material...

Hey there, everybody... I know it's not immediately apparent that those marshlands are settled by Yours Truly, but my underground gardens do spread out underneath the marshy surface, and my mines are deep below, and I have been carefully cultivating the forest up there. So please observe the basic niceties - repair your creeper damage, replant trees, and don't leave hanging trees where you only cut off the bottom part of the trunk. It's very frustrating to me when I come up, blink in the bright sunlight, start to move out, and discover a whole lot of craters and that half of my trees are gone. It especially saddens me when an especially tall and venerable tree has been half-cut down, and has little branches floating around everywhere because someone decided to start chopping it down but didn't want to go up there and finish the job. If you're going lumberjacking here, please cut down the little trees, thank you. I'll go ahead and start popping some signs around, and some pumpkin lanterns for atmosphere, so that it's a little more apparent that this is a natural reserve. I hereby declare it ... the Froggybottom Natural Reserve!

"I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I float." I like this character idea, though it bounces around a little between the geeky and the zen distractedness. It's really lovely, though. The part that *hit* me was when she hit the zenith, and everything came in on her, the sense of beauty. That's a feeling that ... people spend their lives trying to find. Or find again.

Purple Haze giggled softly at Sunrise's bubbly gleefulness. She didn't even have a chance to say anything, not really, and she doubted Sunrise would even notice. Soarin, huh? Carrot had her make a pie for Soarin'! She was ready for this! She was worried for her friend PeeBee, but she didn't know what to say. Especially since she had to draw a picture of the Wonderbolts for her big brae! She settled in with her blue crayon held in her mouth - they always wore blue, after all! The first wonderbolt in through the air was easily recognizable. Carrot had a picture of her on the wall of his workshop! He really thought spitfire was pretty! She smiled as she leand forward and doodled on the piece of paper on her desk, quickly drawing a sketchy outline of a pony. She started swapping out crayons, drawing little yellow stripes on the legs, and adding a bright orange hair and tail. She was so excited - Carrot would love this! Then the second pony came in! She didn't recognize him, but she drew a stallion on the page. She thought the other wonderbolt was going to be Soarin'! Oh well, no big deal. She drew happily, her eye flitting between the Wonderbolts and her sheet of paper.