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Fhaolan

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  1. Fhaolan

    Hurricane Fluttershy

    By Fhaolan,

    See * for disclaimer
     
    Hurricane Fluttershy (March 24th 2012, 22 minutes)
     
    Summary: Cloudsdale needs water, and Rainbow Dash needs every pegasi to join into the effort, even Fluttershy.
     
    Reference to an actual mule. That surprises me, actually. Mules are specifically the offspring of a male donkey and a mare. The offspring of a female donkey and a stallion is a 'hinny'. Technically they are infertile not because they are the offspring of two different species, but because the two parents have differing numbers of chromosomes which make it unlikely for the pairs to line up properly. It *can* happen though to have a fertile mule or hinny. Mules are considered far more intelligent than donkeys or horses, interestingly enough.
     
    Interesting that this meeting is at the library, and not the town hall. You'd think the town hall would be more suited to this kind of thing.
     
    Call back to the 'I'd like to be a tree' thing that became a meme. We've reached the point that episodes are referencing throwaway lines from it's own series.
     
    Heh. I remember watching these Info-Films back in primary school. Yes, some of them were in black and white. The Ontario school system was stuck in the 50's for twenty years.
     
    So they actually have a measurement of 'wingpower'.
     
    Question is, is this considered modern film, or is this an antique even to the ponies? I have a projector that looks pretty much exactly like that stored away, along with a bunch of 8mm films that my mother made when she was a teenager on holiday in Europe in the early 60's. Pretty much unwatchable as she had a tendency to pan *with* the bus... light speed away!
     
    Any case, ponies are aware of at least black and white moving pictures with sound, and this particular film was definitely animated rather than 'live'.
     
    Ponyville isn't always the water source for Cloudsdale, it moves around. Probably as Cloudsdale moves, as Fillydelphia has to be a significant distance away from Ponyville, yet both supply water for Cloudsdale.
     
    This is implying that Fillydelphia, while having a significant pegasi population, has a lower turnout for the water-raising task than what Rainbow Dash is trying to pull off here.
     
    Pony pox. Right.
     
    Flight camp, which we saw before with the Cutie Mark Chronicles.
     
    Anemometer. Odd that pegasi aren't familiar with a standard wind speed measuring instrument. Here they've been around since the 15th century, and were developed pretty much simultaneously all around the world (including the Mayans).
     
    Thunderlane put out 9.3 wingpower and RD put out 16.5 wingpower, both on a sprint with no real warm-up. And RD honestly thinks all the pegasi can put out 10.0 wingpower with serious effort. Thunderlane puts out 11.0 after training, which RD calls impressive. So what exactly is the measure of *one* wingpower? Horsepower is the measure of the amount of work a draft horse (not a riding horse or a pony) can put out steadily. It's pretty obvious that one wingpower is not the average output of one strong pegasis, but some much smaller value.
     
    Interesting behavior from RD. She pawed and struck out with her back hooves at the air with upset frustration. This is a standard horse move that I've seen often when a horse is prevented from reaching something.
     
    Okay, either Fluttershy is actually understanding the animals 'speech' or she's talking to herself using the animals as proxy. Given the way Fluttershy normally works, I'd say she's actually understanding, which means the animals do talk just with a different language. Which throws the dividing line between animal as 'sophont' out the window.
     
    Feather flu, as different from Pony pox. Feather flu sounds like a pegasi-specific disorder.
     
    Cool horn.
     
    I'm not sure the math on all this wingpower works out, with the value dropping from 1,000 to 800 with the loss of 10 ponies? But I get the feeling the wingpower scale isn't directly proportional.
  2. Fhaolan

    Governor of Ponyville

    By Fhaolan,

    I was going to talk about the pony’s categorization and treatment of Monsters, but every time I sat down to write it all out, I came up with half a paragraph of text. I honestly thought I’d be able to do more with that, so I’m going to delay that topic for a bit in hopes of developing more material.
     

     
    In the meantime, let’s talk about government. Specifically local, or Ponyville, government.
    In my episode notes I regularly mention Ponyville’s government, so what have we gathered so far:
     
    Ponyville’s Town Hall is a huge structure that dominates the main square. It’s a typical hall, but large enough to accommodate a good chunk of the population of Ponyville, as seen when Nightmare Moon crashed the Summer Sun Celebration at the beginning of the series. Likely there are offices on the top floors above the ‘hall’ itself. The ponies regularly use the hall for celebrations and events, and surrounding it is what passes for Ponyville 'Downtown' district, with the public market and most of the businesses that have their own buildings, such as the Spa, shops, boutiques, etc. It's possible that the town hall is also the Ponyville courthouse, but we have nothing to support that.
     
    The town’s government is headed by Mayor Mare, and it is implied that there are at least two others involved, a pony with a gavel cutie mark who is likely a judge, and a pony with an open scroll who is likely a town councilor. The judge character is apparently named Lady Justice according to the collectable card for her, and the councilor has been labeled by fans as William Wright, although there is some confusion as ponies with similar appearances but different cutie-marks or coat colors appeared in other episodes.
     
    Western governments usually break down into three branches, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. As I’ve said in other venues, those that keep the law, those that write the law, and those that argue the law. Exactly how this is implemented varies wildly, but the divisions are pretty solid. In this case we have the Mayor (Executive), the Councilor (Legislative), and the Judge (Judicial). While normally the town council would have several members given the population of Ponyville, the ponies are by nature more herd-orientated than humans and may not need as many representatives as we do. In which case it’s entirely possible the town council is in fact just these three ponies. Or these three form a Privy Council, with other less influential members being the full council.
     
    Schools normally fall under local or state government as well, but we only know about the one school in Ponyville. Given the population of Ponyville, it wouldn’t be surprising for there to be other schools, unless they really do adhere to the old late 1800’s style of education that I talked about in a previous entry. As such Cheerilee is an employee of the town council, and if there is only one school she may even be on the full council itself. Heck, for that matter Rainbow Dash is likely a government employee as Ponyville’s top weather pony, although that job may be military. Again, I’ve talked about that previously.
     
    For that matter, libraries nominally fall under local government, which brings us to Twilight Sparkle, who even before becoming an alicorn had a strange position in local government.
     
    Twilight Sparkle is the town librarian. Sort of. She rarely seems to do anything librarian-ish, other than regularly re-arranging the library so that nobody else can find anything. And the only ponies we see using the library *as* a library are Twilight’s immediate friends like Rarity and Rainbow Dash (for Daring Do books). The rest of Ponyville seems to studiously avoid going into the library unless they want Twilight to do something for them.
     
    She was concerned about missing a meeting with the Ponyville Hay Board, not a meeting *for* the Board. Which means she doesn’t think of herself as being on the Board itself, but is critical advisor for them. While most food boards are nominally marketing boards that are used as central advertising agencies sponsored by the government, most act as price and supply regulators, and are also funding sources for alternative usage of the products. The example most people know about are the various Milk Boards across several nations and states, which outside of advertising milk also act as a regulatory agency for quality and price, and often sponsor new milk product manufactories. In this case the ‘Hay’ board is likely also responsible for price, distribution, and ensuring supply of feed grass, timothy, rye, fescue, alfalfa, clover, oat, barley, wheat, all of which are considered ‘Hay’. Obviously Hay is being treated as an absolute staple food that it is critical to maintain the supply of, and so the government is taking steps to ensure it.
     
    Back to Twilight, in most situations that call for local government running special events and festivals, Twilight is front and center either organizing the event or fronting it. Royal visits, seasonal ceremonies, etc., all seem to have Twilight involved. Usually with Mayor Mare sitting off to the side, visibly frustrated by the situation, and trying to direct Twilight off onto other paths that would allow the Mayor to have nominal control. However, the Mayor rarely if ever takes direct action against Twilight.
     
    Twilight’s position as Librarian appears to be by decree of Celestia back in the first episode. Likely this is a position employed by the town council, and they had to accept the pony Celestia sent them. Added to the fact that she appears to be Celestia’s only personal student and protégé, Twilight is more than just the Librarian. She is the direct appointee of Celestia, and the local government thinks of her as Celstia’s representative.
     
    This is all before the ‘Princess Twilight’ events. She was already in effect the Governor of Ponyville. It is unlikely this is official, and it’s entirely probable that Twilight is naïve enough to have not noticed. It is for this reason that the upgrade to Princess isn’t much of a shock to Ponyville. They were basically treating her as an extension of Celestia anyway up until that point, so no real change from their point of view.
     
    What will be interesting to see is if we ever have an episode for an election in Ponyville. It’s not guaranteed that Mayors, Judges, and Councilors, are elected officials. They can be, even historically in monarchies. Mayors, for example, have been elected officials in England ever since King John (of Robin Hood fame).
  3. Fhaolan
    See * for disclaimer
     
    My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Live (Live Action, July 24th 2011, 30 minutes)
     
    I don't expect much here. But I did the G3 live show so...
     
    The costumes are the same style as the G3 The World's Largest Tea Party, but they don't really seem as well made. It may just be because we're a lot closer to them, or that the camera is now underneath them where in the previous outing the camera was above them.
     
    The Grand Galloping Gala happens once a year. And *all* the ponies of Ponyville are invited now.
     
    And all of Ponyville are split up into teams of three. That stage doesn't look large enough to take more than three of those costumes at a time, so that makes sense.
     
    This is putting the Grand Galloping Gala in the spring, after all the seasonal chores were done. I think.
     
    Twilight's cutie mark is only on one side, which is consistent with at least some of the toys, but not the animated show.
     
    Wait, Applejack is responsible for the applebucking, and it must be done before the end of fall. Uh... I thought we were worried about... I'm confused as to what season we're dealing with now.
     
    The Wonderbolts are promoted as Princess Celestia's exclusive acrobatics team.
     
    The title music goes on with an empty stage, that's not really a good choice of stagecraft. You should never leave a lit stage empty for that long unless there's a specific in-show reason for it.
     
    We've got a weird blending of G1 'silly pony' AJ and G4 'responsible' AJ. And she's billing herself as being the loyalist of ponies. That's odd.
     
    I'm not sure these lines are recorded by the actual show voice actors or imitators. The recording I'm watching has some odd distortion that could be throwing me off. AJ's voice especially is weird.
     
    Rainbow dash is injured? And the seasons move fast enough that there isn't enough time for her to heal before the Winter Wrap Up.
     
    I... this is a weird blending of the entirety of Season 1. And the scenes are requiring those costumes to perform movements there is no way they can do. I normally *try* to avoid talking a lot about the quality of these episodes/shows beyond little jokes and the like, because I am not qualified to be a critic, but this one is a mess that even I can see. Why the heck are they pulling out Pinkie's Share/Care song? It's not really relevant here.
     
    What? We were in fall a second ago, and now we're in the dead of winter without any form of scene change? The hell?
     
    That sounded like a cow. What? Applejack doing Pinkie's Giggle at the Ghostie song... why? What? I'm so fucking confused.
     
    And now we're at the end of winter, again without a scene change or anything to indicate time passing. And yep, Rainbow Dash isn't healed enough to fly.
     
    And the Winter Wrap Up song, in three part harmony not being edited in any way to make sense in context. Twilight still has her lines about not knowing what to do, despite having already being put in charge of the team and the restriction on her magic coming out of nowhere.
     
    Ahhhhh! Now the Gala song, without Fluttershy, Rarity, or Pinkie Pie on stage as they only seem to have Twilight, AJ, and RD puppets, but they've singing their lines anyway as if they are there. I just... wow.
     
    That was... horrible. The only way to make sense of this script is to have watched all of Season 1 in order to fill in context not shown on stage. Yet if you do that, you'll be even more confused because they've *changed* the context in significant ways. The actors (both voice and puppeteers) did the best they could with what they were given, but it's pretty obvious they didn't put anywhere near the funding into the puppets, set, or script that this actually needed to pull of this story.
  4. Fhaolan

    Sonic Rainboom

    By Fhaolan,

    See * for disclaimer
     
    Sonic Rainboom (February 18th 2011, 22 minutes)
     
    Summary: Rainbow Dash is to compete in the Best Young Flyers Competition, but gets an unexpected challenge from a friend.
     
    Manipulating clouds without actually touching them, but just from speed. That's the 'trick' part, I assume.
     
    There's a video somewhere on YouTube about a young fellow trying to put physics on the sonic rainboom. It's fun. In any case, the 'cone' you're seeing is the bow shock wave starting to form something equivalent to a Mach cone. The so-called sound barrier is mainly due to the fact that wave drag (drag produced by shock waves) exceeding the drag from the air's viscosity at the speed of sound, causing lifting bodies to behave differently. It gives the impression of hitting something as a sub-sonic-designed plane suddenly seems to fall out of the air because it's no longer generating enough lift to stay up. Being 'bounced' off the bow shock wave is probably an extension of pegasi unconscious cloud-walking abilities (as they can sleep up there, that ability has to be unconscious).
     
    Rainbow Dash hates doors.
     
    Cloudsdale, and the Best Young Flyers Competition. In most real life competitive events like this, Young means teenage or equivalent. This reinforces the idea that Rainbow Dash, the first of her class to get a cutie-mark, is probably the youngest of the Mane 6 by one or two years.
     
    Twilight doesn't know what a Sonic Rainbow is, and Pinkie says she's not seen one before. Showing how rare this trick is. Yes, this is contradicted later in the series, but likely Pinkie simply didn't make the connection between what she saw previously and the Sonic Rainboom concept.
     
    I was a roadie for a vaulting team (gymnastics on horseback) a couple of years back, as my wife was the coach, and one of the girls there was much like Rainbow Dash. Similar voice, athletic, but with a lack of confidence that led to putting up a front of ego.
     
    Flutterpony!
     
    So there's a spell to let non-pegasi walk on clouds. Which starts to wander into areas of magic being 'the solution to everything' and reducing the value of non-spellcasters.
     
    Weather factory, where they actually manufacture snow, rainbows, clouds, etc.
     
    Doctor Whooves! Yay! Pegasis? What? Usually regeneration produces more difference in appearnce than just the addition of more limbs... Though the voice is also different.
     
    And Derpy, of course.
     
    Icarus, of course.
     
    The Wonderbolts need more practice at this kind of thing.
     
    Nice detail in that Rarity never got the cloudwalking spell.
  5. Fhaolan

    Education in Equestria

    By Fhaolan,

    I’ve talked about parts of this all over the forum, this is really just assembling it all into one place.
     
    What do we know about the education system of Equestria?
     
    We know that Ponyville has a one-room schoolhouse that appears to only have one class and teacher. No other schools or teachers are referred to within Ponyville. The expectation seems to be that foals will start school before gaining their cutie-mark, but will gain it at some point while in school. Lessons include regular reading, writing, and arithmetic, as well as general history and other subjects that seem geared towards giving the students opportunities to find their special talents.
     
    We know that Twilight attended a special school: Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, for which she had to pass an entrance exam, and was apparently still attending in some way when she was sent to Ponyville by Celestia in the first episode. It was during the exam that she gained her cutie-mark, and Twilight specifically said that she was late in getting a cutie-mark. This gives us a vague time-frame for this advanced school. Out-of-show, the various creative staff have mentioned that both Trixie and Sunset Shimmer were at one point students at this same school, but all three were in different ‘years’ so as to not encounter Twilight directly at any point.
     
    We know of the Wonderbolts Academy which is attended by full adults, which gives the impression of a military training facility. I really handled that one back in the third part of my first worldbuilding essay here. In summary, in order for the Wonderbolts and their Academy to really be the Equestrian equivalent to the Blue Angels, Red Arrows, or Snowbirds (three different military stunt teams), then the weatherponies, including Rainbow Dash, are likely members of the Equestrian equivalent of the Army Corps of Engineers.
     

     
    What can we do with this?
     
    The foundation here is the one-room school. This follows a similar model as the rural one-room schoolhouses found in America in the mid 1800’s. This works quite differently than modern schools, which debuted in the early 1900’s, so it might be a bit puzzling for people. At that time, the ‘class’ wasn’t divided by age. All students would get the same lessons, but the older students would be expected to complete more elaborate versions of the same exercises and assist the younger students. For example, a common textbook in poorer districts would be an almanac, a compilation of weather predictions, informative articles on farming, as well as ‘important’ historical and literary excerpts. (As school supplies were purchased locally, there would be high variation from region to region depending on the funds being made available to the school.) A lesson would be reading a section of the almanac. Young students would be concentrated on simply identifying letters, slightly older students would be reading the words themselves, while the older students would be attempting to understand the concepts and finding uses for the ‘lessons’.
     
    Ponyville gives the impression of being a wealthy rural district with a significant sized town, so they’re not as limited and have many more resources available. However, the idea is the same in that the class is not divided by age. These schools would only have the students for four to six years, depending on how quickly the individual student moved through the lessons, and then they would go on to further education depending on their parent’s personal means.
     
    The poorest students would simply be released to be laborers. Those with some money or connections would become apprentices for skilled laborers, such as carpenters, smiths, and the like. At this point the apprentice system was highly regulated, with ‘masters’ needing to be certified by their guild-equivalent before being allowed to take on apprentices.
     
    If however the student had serious funding or better connections, they would move to a more advanced school. Usually a boarding school in a big city. These would have actual classes separated by entrance year, and cover more esoteric lessons like comportment, rhetoric, literature, music, history, and the like. These could be called ‘secondary’, ‘high’, ‘finishing’ schools, or a variety of other names. This schooling would normally last another six or so years, and the graduates of this would go on to apprenticeship in more white-collar jobs like business, medical, law, government, etc. Or go on to the final pass at a College or a University (which at the time were collections of Colleges that were sharing resources), which was considered to be a superior substitute to the advanced apprenticeship system as you would be exposed to a wider range of opportunities than if you were tied to a single master.
     
    This is why the advanced degree in modern universities is called a ‘Master’ degree. At one point that was the minimum requirement for a person to call themselves a Master and take on apprentices/students in those subjects.
     
    Anyway, Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns very much resembles one of these secondary schools, going directly into a College. Twilight will have actually been in a primary school prior to taking the exam, and was either truly late in getting her cutie-mark, or was precocious/annoying enough that her parents brought her to the entrance exam early. Or both. The episode gives the impression that if Twilight hadn’t experienced that magic surge that she wouldn’t have gotten into the school. However, the test of hatching the egg was more like the various interview questions high-tech industries used to give, where they don’t expect you to know the answer. They’re more interested in how you approach the question. They probably didn’t expect her to actually hatch the egg, they just wanted to see what she would do when *trying*.
     
    Rarity likely attended a Finishing School as well in Canterlot, which is why her accent doesn’t match her parents or Sweetie Bell. Students of secondary education at this time usually were taught ‘comportment’ which includes etiquette, speech patterns, and so on. In England, students ended up with what’s called Received Pronunciation accents. In America, it was ‘Mid-Atlantic’ accents which is what happens when Received Pronunciation moves across the water to America and is blended with the normal East Coast accents. Rarity’s accent goes away when she’s really stressed, at least in earlier seasons. She seems to be getting more proficient and not losing it as often now.
     
    A final note on this, it’s interesting that Twilight, upon arriving at Ponyville moved directly into the library and became the official librarian with no fuss or bother. It’s not even mentioned what happened to the prior librarian. It’s possible that the library system is considered part of the education system in Equestria. Royalty tends to have personal projects that they have official and immediate control over. Celestia appears to take a personal interest in the education system (having her own schools, and having personal students), so likely she exercised that immediate power to appoint Twilight as Ponyville librarian without having to go through the regular ‘I’m the Princess’ hoopla that must follow her everywhere else.
  6. Fhaolan

    Suited for Success

    By Fhaolan,

    See * for disclaimer
     
    Suited for Success (February 4th 2011, 22 minutes)
     
    Summary: Rarity is in a bind, promising custom clothing for her friends who have completely different ideas on what they want.
     
    As I, and many of my friends, compete in historical clothing designs shows, this episode is a bit near and dear. Especially since several of those friends became Bronies after having watched this one.
     
    Back to the Grand Galloping Gala.
     
    Rarity's fine control over her telekinesis is pretty impressive.
     
    I agree, that's horrible coloring for Twilight.
     
    Does Rainbow ever use the door?
     
    The Art of the Dress song has some hidden bits in it. Rarity sings about how important facing is, which is indeed very important for clothing. Easy to screw up with some fabrics, but damming under lights. Mention of a jewel neckline, which is a rounded neckline above the collarbone, as opposed to a bateau neck (or boat neck) that doesn't cover the collarbone, or a scoop neck which reveals cleavage. Rainbow's headdress is to 'lock into the crest', which is a horse term for that specific part of the mane. Rainbow, despite the art style, must appear quite muscular if Rarity is concerned that a blousing train will make her look like a tank.
     
    Again, Rarity's telekinesis is really impressive. She can maintain lift and detail control over a lot of different objects. And bolts of fabric are quite heavy on top of that, so she's not lacking in power.
     
    Ungrateful little... Sorry.
     
    Fluttershy lists a lot of issues here. The armsscye may in fact be tight, but that's neither a middy collar nor a shawl lapel in any way. The pleats actually are slightly uneven but almost unnoticable unless you're looking for it. Toille in this context is a cheap linen cloth used to test patterns. Backstitch is a needlepoint stitch used for outlining, while topstitch is a decorative or reinforcing stitch run parallel to, but not directly on the hem or seam, but the blanket stitch is a structural edging stitch only used on heavy materials. They have completely different purposes and can't really be interchanged without changing the fundamental stitch. With respect to fashion Pret-a-Porter means 'off the rack' or factory made clothing, whereas Haute Couture means custom made without using sewing machines or sergers. There is actually no 'style' for haute couture, it's how the clothing is constructed completely by hand.
     
    In other words, Fluttershy just spouted a collection of rather insulting nonsense. As much as that scene was probably supposed to show that Fluttershy has actual fashion knowledge, it actually plays like she reads too many fashion magazines without understanding the actual terms. Which, now that I think about it, is representative of some customers I've dealt with for my wife's custom shop.
     
    Yup, this whole episode is a pretty accurate depiction of how the custom clothing business runs.
     
    Turntables, remote controlled spotlights, and the microphone Spike is holding is a 1950's style.
     
    Yes, those outfits are in fact horrible.
     
    And now we have the payoff on the Fluttershy sewing rant. The payoff is fine, but the rant itself is still weird.
     
    The real dresses are picking bits and pieces from a variety of appropriate styles, ranging from 1550 up to modern fashions, without tipping over into the stupid 'high fashion' nonsense that some people get caught up in. Applejack's outfit is... odd. Mainly the pointy-toe and heeled boots on just the front feet, which looks weird and must be unbalancing. And again with the saddle. I'm not convinced of the grape cluster on RD's neckline either, but likely that's a triangular cluster of jewels and should have more glitter to them. Other stand-outs is Twilight's Tudor high spread collar as worn by Mary I of England, and Pinkie Pie's 1960 tiny pillbox hat as worn by Jackie O.
  7. Fhaolan

    Fall Weather Friends

    By Fhaolan,

    See * for disclaimer
     
    Fall Weather Friends (January 28th 2011, 22 minutes)
     
    Summary: Applejack and Rainbow Dash compete for best pony.
     
    Applesnack. I like that nickname.
     
    They're throwing horseshoes, which seems natural, but that brings up an odd point. Horseshoes, especially the ones drawn here, are meant to be nailed to the hoof to keep them from chipping or wearing down too fast on rocky ground. Modern horseshoes are also used to correct growth issues with the hoof, like braces are for teeth. That's got to be really awkward to do to yourself, so they'd need to have some other pony do this to them like a farrier does in real life. It's not like a pedicure, as there's a lot more health issues with messing that up. So it's possible they'd treat their farrier in a similar way we treat dentists (to bring it back to the braces thing.)
     
    A lot of the roofs in Ponyville are thatched, did I mention that one before? Takes a lot of skill to thatch a roof.
     
    Rainbow was actually quite a bit insecure at first when the competition started.
     
    I love the way it turns into a massive spectator sport.
     
    Running of the Leaves is the fall equivalent to the Winter Wrap Up, just not quite as important culturally.
     
    They have a lot more control over that balloon than they would in real life.
     
    "I like pickles?" Best response to Pinkie.
     
    This particular forest is 'White Tail Wood'. Referring to white tail deer? We've not seen deer in this show yet.
     
    Ah! Sap buckets. That's.... weird, actually. Sap collection is normally done in the spring, not in the fall, as you want to get the sap as it rises in the tree. The trees normally store starch in their roots and stuff, preparing for winter. Over the winter those starches are converted to sugars, which then gets shoved up the tree in the spring, which is what you're tapping for. In the fall you might collect resin, but that's done from coniferous trees, not deciduous and you don't use taps for it. I'm a little confused as to what's going on here.
     
    And suddenly Celestia! How the heck can someone that large, and a princess, move around without anyone noticing that she's there?
  8. Fhaolan
    Once Upon a My Little Pony Time (G3.5 Webcast, 2009, 2x 10 minutes)
     
    Here we go with another odd G3.5 experiment. We're dealing Flash animations produced by a different animation studio: Kunoichi.
     

     
    Over Two Rainbows
     
    Summary: Sweetie Belle arrives in Ponyville for the first time.
     
    Early flash animation style, kinda odd but fascinating.
     
    Flashback... Oh god. Newborn ponies.
     
    Ahhhh! Hasbro actually *paid* for this? They didn't even bother animating the mouths.
     
    This has to be a new continuity, as they're talking about the first time Sweetie Belle came to Ponyville, and these characters are younger than when the earth ponies met the unicorns in the prior continuity.
     
    Uh. What?
     
    Sweetie Belle was spontaneously created by two rainbows crossing. Okay. That's new.
     
    They know about Unicornia.
     
    Sweetie Belle is demonstrating a variety of random magic. Growing flowers, bubbles, cleaning clothing.
     

     
    So Many Different Ways to Play
     
    Summary: Pinkie Pie and Cheerilee have to cope with watching a high-energy Scootaloo.
     
    Okay, they've animated the mouths now.
     
    Who's this? Pinkie Pie's mother? She has a similar cutie-mark to Pinkie, but they're heart balloons.
     
    Wah? Low-level nightmare fuel, there.
     
    Pinkie Pie's playhouse has a working sink.
     
    I'm getting really weird signals as to how old these ponies actually are. Pinkie & Cheerilee, despite being treated as completely independent by their parents, are still in diapers and are crawling around. And Scootaloo, who has to be at least 9 to 11 months younger (depending if they're using human or horse gestation periods) is doing the exact same thing.
     

     
    And that's it. I'm done. As far as I'm aware, that's all the My Little Pony prior to Friendship is Magic.
     
    Now I have to decide if I'm going to continue on with G4. Since I'm not really 'reviewing' these episodes, I'm just watching them to pull out any worldbuilding ideas out of them, I'm not sure I can really add anything that other people haven't already.
     
    However, there is more than just the episodes to G4; there's the live show, and the comics, so there's lots of material to grind through.
     
    In any case, I have to do my G3.x summary in the worldbuilding blog.
  9. Fhaolan

    Doctor Whooves

    By Fhaolan,

    This one’s a bit different. I was originally planning on an article about the education system in Equestria for Monday, but I decided to do an early posting on a different topic. This isn't really 'worldbuilding', but it's my blog post, so I'll break my pattern when I want to.
     
    It’s the 50th Aniversary of Doctor Who, and the start of Season 4 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. @@CITRUS KING46 suggested doing a top 10 Doctor Who episode list to commemorate the occasion, and I honestly thought about it. I was struggling to pick out 10 best out of the ridiculous number of episodes in Doctor Who, when I decided to go a different route.

    Doctor Whooves is pretty much why I’m in this fandom. I was curious about MLP, given the various PMVs rolling around, but it was fan-created Doctor Whooves that pulled me in. A character that exists simply because some fan thought that a background pony had a superficial resemblance to one of the actors portraying the Doctor. So I’m going to present the list of Doctor Whooves productions (not just stories, but entire series/authors/artists) that I recommend watching/listening/reading for a variety of reasons. And then I’m going to talk about *my* version of the character because my ego demands it.
     
    For purposes of this post, I'm going to assume everyone who's bothering to read this far is familiar with both Doctor Who and Doctor Whooves, at least in passing. If you want me to write more about any of the topics I cover in the blogs, foundational essays or expansion essays, just let me know and I'll do my best.
     

     
    Radio Plays – These are technically ‘videos’ but really they’re audios, with still frame pictures at best. They’re in the order I found them, not indicating preference, because I don’t want to indicate preference.
    With Derpy as the companion. This is the first one I ran across. It’s a bit sillier than the others in this category, but it goes appropriately dark when called for. It also takes a bit to get moving, as the first set of episodes is spending a bit too much time with the ‘Doctor learning to be a pony’, before getting to the adventure for my liking. But that’s just my personal preference.
    - With Twilight as the companion. I like the voice acting in this one, and there are quite a few audio episodes, relatively speaking, to keep you busy. Plus it’s by the same people as the Vinyl Scratch Tapes, which is one of the best MLP Radio Plays I’ve heard.
    - With the Mane 6 as more vague companions. This one has potential, but they seem to be having some production and technical issues that is making it difficult for them to produce what they really want. I’m keeping an ear open to it, though.
    - With Trixie as the companion. This one’s brand new. I only found it this week, in fact. I think they could have broken it up a bit into episodes, and there are a few shaky bits, but the Doctor and Trixie are very distinct and have what I consider good characterizations that should keep me interested.

    There’s also a potential one done by @ that is actually for a pony version of the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood. I have high hopes for this one. Possibly because my wife tells me she's auditioning for a voice actress role in it.
     

     
    Tumblers – Basically comic strips, but set up in an odd way, usually with interaction between the readers and the characters via ‘asks’. For me, these are more about the art than the story, as most of them take so long to do a story that I forget what the story actually is by the time the next posting occurs. 
    Clockwise Hooves - Love the art here. So complex.
    Doctor Whooves and Rose - Not many postings, but I like the clean art style.
    Time Out with Doctor Whooves - This one’s a bit odd, as it’s someone doing art overtop of someone else’s ask blog? I get a kick out of the art though.
    Ask Lovestruck Derpy - I normally don’t like Doctor/companion romance that much, mainly because it’s often handled very badly. Especially in the actual Doctor Who show. But this one’s cute.


     
    Videos – These are just fun little things that I find amusing. They’re mostly audio clips from the actual Doctor Who series, with pony clips or animation overtop, but they’re amusing.


    MLP: The Doctor Regenerates



     
    Fan Fiction
    The Three Whooves - Paleo definitely has the right ‘voice’ for the three Doctors here.
    Source Material - this is a sequel, but the original story is not a Doctor Whooves one.
    The Doctor Gets Wasted V2 - I just find this one amusing.
    Doctor Whooves and the Terror of Tartaurus – Yes, yes, this one’s mine. I’m putting it in there. I'm allowed.


     
    Fan Art
    This is Where it Gets Complicated - Edowaado has an entire comic series in here, with Lyra as a companion, which is such a good fit I wonder why I hadn’t thought of it before this.
    The Grieving Companion - @@CITRUS KING46’s art style is so very original, lively, and unique to him. Which is really what art should be.
    Doctor Whooves Plush - This is one of the best plush versions of Doctor Whooves I've seen.
    Doctor Whooves Mini-Plush - Too cute!

    As a note, I’m not entirely sure why these ended up with 4 entries in each category. It was not planned.
     

     
    My Doctor Whooves
     
    The Doctor that I wrote about in my fanfiction is a bit different from others I’ve seen in the fandom. First off, no, that one story is not the only one I’ve written. It’s just the only one that’s complete enough to publish. The rest of them are plotted out to one extent or another but are not complete in any way. I have a two-tier story arc that follows what the classic series often had as a season with 26 episodes in total, the first one started in that one story (four episodes) is followed up in Doctor Whooves and the Cutie Makers (six episodes), Doctor Whooves – Astereon (six very vague episodes), Doctor Whooves and the Spaniel Mane (four episodes), and ending in Doctor Whooves and the Monsters of Manehattan (another six not really well thought out episodes). Which is then followed up with a ‘special’, which I haven’t got a name for yet. The second season is a vague idea which ends with another special that finishes the bigger story arc.
     
    But I’m having trouble concentrating on writing fiction. Which is why I have this WorldBuilding blog, in an effort to force myself to write *something* on a regular basis.
     
    One difference I have is that my version’s companions are very good friends with the Doctor, but there is no ‘romance’ there. Not because I’m against romance, or shipping, or the like, I'm actually all for romance in general, but that’s not the story I’m interested in telling with the Doctor. Those companions will likely have romance occur to them, but not with the Doctor. Not yet at least, as I’ve not come up with a compelling romance story concept for the Doctor himself. The story of Rose in the new DW series really soured me on the idea of the Doctor in a romantic relationship, because to be honest it was handled so very badly. Rose as a character became very unlikable over time, with her increasingly arrogant, self-centered, and self-serving nature that it just irritated me.
     
    Another difference in my case is that I actually know exactly why and how the Doctor ended up in Equestria, and that is informing his characterization for me. There’s a reason, and one that prevents him from returning to his regular dimension. I’m not going to reveal it, because that’s kind of the point of the second ‘season’. But in any case he *is* the Doctor from the TV series, and while he wasn’t aiming for Equestria specifically, he did very deliberately travel through ‘The Land of Fiction’ (as seen in the second Doctor’s adventures The Mind Robber) to get where he is.
     
    Most of you are familiar with the idea of parallel dimensions. I’m applying the concept of orthogonal dimensions as well. I figure not all dimensions line up nicely. I envision the majority of them being more like a pile of pick-up sticks. They may touch on occasion, but they’re not in any way parallel, and they may even be in 'motion' relative to each other. The more ‘angled’ the dimension it is, the harder it is to travel to. And the Doctor wanted to get as far away as possible.
     
    This will prevent me from bringing in villains/monsters from the Doctor Who series into my stories, beyond some *really* heavy hitters who could duplicate the Doctor’s feat of breaking across multiple dimensions. But I’m willing to accept that. If I want to bring something
    over, I’m going to have to work for it.
     
    I didn't start with 'the Doctor arrives in Equestria' because honestly I don't have a story there. I decided to go with the other style of starting in the middle of the story, because honestly that's how most people start with the Doctor. Even I'm not old enough to have seen the first episode when it was broadcast. I started with the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, and I had to figure out what was going on by myself as things were relatively unkind to new fans back then. The internet didn't exist, so there was no way to quickly look stuff up, and trying to work out the right questions and the right people to ask wasn't that easy especially since I was in Canada, far enough away from England that I would be dealing with secondary and tertiary sources at best.
     
    So in my continuity, by the time of Tartaurus, the Doctor has already been travelling with Derpy for at least a couple of adventures. In later adventures I intend on mentioning that at least some of the Mane 6 know about Time Turner's real identity. (And I'm using Time Turner as his fake Equestrian name the same way he tended to use John Smith whenever he *had* to use a name on Earth.) All this in an effort to recreate the 'feel' I had when I started watching Doctor Who back in the seventies.
     
    Oh, while I'm on the topic I'm using the name Derpy instead of Ditzy because my wife thinks Derpy sounds more English while Ditzy sounds more American. I personally have the headcannon that her full name is Ditzy Derpy Do, but then I find alliteration, just like puns, amusing.
    Anyway, this is not the David Tennant Doctor, despite the superficial resemblance. For me, this is a completely new Doctor, from far ahead in the Doctor’s personal time-line. Yes, past the 12-regeneration limit. I’m certain that will get addressed in the real series soon, maybe even tonight in the 50th Anniversary special, and I’m sure they’ll have some gobbledygook that will allow the Doctor to break the old limit. But from a plotting perspective I really do believe there still needs to be a true limit. Some point where the Doctor believes he really will end. Otherwise there is no threat, no risk.
     
    And that’s where Doctor Whooves comes in. He doesn't know much about this dimension he's found himself in. He talks a good game, and pretends to know what's going on to reassure his companions, but except for some books he's stolen from Twilight's library, he's making it up as he goes along based on the strange 'real world' references he keeps running into. He doesn't know whether he can actually regenerate anymore, and he's about to find out that while he's adapted to the new dimension, the TARDIS isn't doing quite as well.
     
    But the most important part of the Doctor is his personality, or specifically the twists each Doctor has. They're all the same person, but different aspects of his much larger personality get rotated to the fore every time he regenerates.
     
    My version of the Doctor is more cautious than before, more willing to run away before he finds out what's going on. But at the same time he wants to know *everything*, meet *everyone* no matter who or when they are. He hates not knowing something, and this is a new universe full of things he doesn't understand yet. But more importantly, he wants people to save themselves as much as they can. The victims have to stand up, they have to fight, or at least they have to really, truly *try*. He'll be the distraction, the focus for the villain to concentrate on. He'll loan knowledge, strength, inspiration, whatever is needed. He'll be instrumental, but he won't do it by himself. He refuses to be the irreplaceable man.
     
    Because that's how he failed before.
  10. Fhaolan

    A Charming Birthday

    By Fhaolan,

    Generation Three didn't have a series as such. It's a collection of shorts and specials that were released direct to VHS, VCD, and DVD, usually packaged along with certain playsets and other toys. We have a completely new animation studio involved, Sabella Dern Entertainment or just SD, along with a new art style and setting.
     
    The exact order of these is... unknown and possibly irrelevant, as many of them only have a year as a release date and I get the impression that there will be little to no carry-over between shorts. So I'm doing some educated guessing.
     
    As a reminder, I'm not a critic. I'm watching these episodes to find any worldbuilding factoids that would be useful in expanding the My Little Pony world with respect to setting, culture, etc. These are the notes I took while watching the episodes, with minimal editing and a few expansions where I paused the video to go look stuff up.
     
    A Charming Birthday (G3 Direct-to-VHS/VCD Short for release with several G3 toys, 2003, 20 minutes)
     
    Summary: It's Kimono's birthday, and the rest of the ponies want to surprise the unsurprisable.
     
    Here we go... Art style is oddly simplified in a way. The bodies now proportioned like G4, but the heads are still G1ish. The black outlines on *everything* is a bit jarring to tell the truth. It looks like the way I draw as I haven't gotten the hang of colored outlines.
     
    Honestly, the architecture reminds me of the main blood elf city in World of Warcraft. Bridges all over the place, random obelisks, manicured 'wild' gardens. The buildings are cartoony versions of timber-frame Tudor, with fish scale shingle roofs which was a popular Victorian style.
     
    For all the simplification of the art-style a lot of effort is put into 'animating' every little bit of it. Every lock of hair is wibbling around.
     
    I'm going to get real tired of Razaroo's speech pattern real quickly. Yes yes yes? I'm aware that this is an actual verbal tic that many people suffer from. Though it's normally 'no no no' as I understand it.
     
    This dessert shop and surround reminds me of Seaside, Oregon. Basically a tourist town with a variety of colourful arcades, docks, beaches, etc.
     
    All earth ponies again, and all mares so far. Well, at least the voices sound like mares. I may be mistaken there.
     
    Razaroo is this generation's Pinkie Pie as the 'party pony' it seems. I know Pinkie Pie exists in this generation, so we'll eventually get to see her.
     
    Wysteria - The Posey/Fluttershy equivalent?
     
    "Have you seen the sun today? It's *absolutely* yellow!" Sunny Daze is looking like best G3 pony so far, if she can say that kind of thing and honestly mean it.
     
    Okay, that's not a little suggestive. No points lost for Sunny there.
     
    Hey Rainbow Dash! Darling!
     
    Hey Pinkie Pie! She knows a lot about a lot of things... uh...
     
    Kimono is rapidly closing in on Sunny Daze as best pony. That sarcasm *drips*.
     
    Random dance number. No song, just a dance number.
     
    There's the ubiquitous hot-air balloon that every generation seems to need.
     
    Jeezus, those are huge flowers.
     
    They're... harvesting rainbows?
     
    Again with the 16th-17th century Alpine-style castle.
     
    Alright, they spent a lot of time introducing ten ponies in this 'short' so very little actually happened.
  11. Fhaolan

    A Very Minty Christmas

    By Fhaolan,

    A Very Minty Christmas (G3 Direct-to-VHS/DVD Special, 2005, 45 minutes)
     
    Summary Minty just wants everything to be perfect, but she lets her accident-prone nature gets the better of her, and she has to travel far to make up for the damage she caused.
     
    Snow doesn't cover the entire ground at Christmas. This means that either there is an ocean nearby or if it's deep in the mainland it's relatively far south (relative to where I normally live, that is.)
     
    Pegasis and earth ponies completely co-existing now. Uh... they've taken flashes from prior shorts and stuck them in here.
     
    Art now has shading, where it didn't before, and no more black outlines. They're all outlined like G4, but the shading is *really* heavy. The framerate of the animation is relatively low it seems, or the copy I'm watching is sampled at a low rate.
     
    Minty has socks on. No comment.
     
    "Here Comes Christmas Candycane". A specific tradition with a magical light-up candycane to give Santa a landmark to steer by.
     
    Woah, scale issues. Suddenly Minty is huge.
     
    Electricity, or something similar, is assumed.
     
    Minty is really obsessed with socks.
     
    Oh dear god. I'm trying very hard to not make a joke here. Was the brony who started this meme aware of this special?
     
    Okay, I'm missing something. Why do all the ponies have a hairbrush hanging by their fireplaces? I'm not familiar with this custom.
     
    "Is she in danger, darling?" "She's Minty, what do you think?"
     
    Okay, we're finally at the north pole. And here we go with the Magic of Friendship, causing all the socks to glow.
     
    So this is the pony version of the hanging your stockings by the fireside. Wow, that was a lot of lead up to that payoff.
  12. Fhaolan

    Shop Talk

    By Fhaolan,

    Shop Talk (G1.5 TV episode, July 31st 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Gossip turns sour when Lance and Ace overhear the girls, and taunt Teddy about a rumor.
     
    That hairdryer... and the jukebox in the background, are actually 50's tech. I don't remember big hairdryers like that still around in the 90's.
     
    Here's another one I think I'm going to have personal issues with. It's looking like an episode about gossip.
     
    I like Sweetheart. She's nice.
     
    Yeah... Lance and Ace are saps.
     
    Heh. Yup. Dangerous.
     
    Ghost of Sticky Wicket? That sounds like an actual story alluded to there.
     
    Is that a video glitch or is Lance actually supposed to sparkle on occasion?
     
    Oh, that's supposed to be glitter. Pity.
     
    So... show for little girls, advocating blackmail as a valid and moral SOP? Not at all what I was expecting.
  13. Fhaolan
    Those that know me will probably be wondering why this essay has taken so long to show up. Mainly this is due to prioritization, enough other people have discussed this topic that I didn’t feel it was that urgent. However, the discussion has reached a point where I am disagreeing just enough with the various conclusions reached that I’ve decided to put this one together.
     
    First, what do we know? There are several references to weaponry in FiM and some of them have interesting features.
     

    The Canterlot guards regularly have spears. Spears are pretty universal weapons known in every culture around the world. Not much to be learned here, other than they are depicted very clearly as hewing spears with broad heads rather than throwing spears (and are too large to be javelins) with narrow piercing heads.
     

    Bow & Arrow cutie marks show up on several crystal ponies, plus one colt in Cherilee’s class named by the fandom ‘Archer’. Archer’s cutie mark is sufficiently stylized that it could be a cupid reference instead of a weapon. However, the crystal ponies’ cutie marks are standard bows and we can assume from that that actual archery is familiar to the ponies. Archery is an odd thing for the ponies, given that it very definitely requires fingers to work normally. There are ways around that, however.
     

    Also during the Crystal Empire episodes, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy have a little go at tilting, sometimes known as jousting. Lances as used in tilting are specialized spears, developed during the transition of jousting between war training and sport. In this case, the lances appear to be mounted right on the armor rather than held in any way. This is… odd, but when jousting became a sport in real life, similar odd things occurred to the equipment. The idea of a knight being winched into place in full armor is from very late-period 'jousting as a sport'. It wouldn't be unheard of during this time (17th century) that a knight would get up onto their horse unarmored, and have his armor assembled around him after-the fact. In the most extreme cases some German knights would be unable to move except for one arm operating the reins, and the armor would be loaded with springs and clockwork so it would make a more spectacular *SMASH* when the collision happened.
     

    Pipsqueak’s ‘pirate sword’. This is a classic cartoon sword, and very obviously a toy. Interestingly, it’s not what is popularly thought of as a pirate sword at all (a cutlass), but what they usually use as a toy knightly sword in most animations. For some reason, they’re always drawn as a leaf-blade, a sort of two-edged machete being very tip-heavy. This is a style of blade in real life that really only occurs when a culture is transitioning from bronze weapons to steel weapons. As a note, wrought iron weapons rarely work as iron is less effective for blades than bronze, providing no advantage. It’s only when steel gets involved do bronze weapons become obsolete. It’s during this transition period that leaf-blade weapons show up. The weapon is used by Pipsqueak as a mouth-tool.
     
    Rainbow Dash’s reference to wanting a pet ‘as fast as a bullet’. Many have taken this to mean that ponies are aware of firearms, which may in fact be true. However, this is not necessarily a reference to guns. Bullets have existed long before guns were invented. Romans were using bullets, and comparing things to their speed, as that’s what the ammunition of slings is called in Roman Latin. Now, I’m not talking about slingshots, but the proper slings that were considered weapons of war and of hunting since pre-history. David and Goliath stuff. Slings are difficult to use, and take a *lot* more practice than pretty much any other weapon out there. In ancient armies, the slingers were usually trained from early childhood.
     

    Pinkie Pie’s party cannon is real reason why ponies are likely aware of firearms. Guns were first invented in China near the end of the 12th century as a development of fire lances, tubes mounted on spears that spewed fire and shrapnel. This technology spread *fast* in medieval times, handguns hitting the Middle East in the early 13th century, and entering Europe in about the late 13th century. Think about that, the concept of crop rotation, knowledge of medicine, and the printing press could take 500 years or more to get from one end of the Eurasian continent to the other, but working firearms and the industry necessary to support them took less than a 100 years to spread over that entire area. Full-sized cannons showed up later in the middle of the 14th century. This is a bit that people usually forget; handguns predate cannons. Mainly because it took a while to figure out how to produce gunpowder in quantities necessary to be able to operate large artillery pieces. Pinkie Pie’s cannon is missing a couple of the indicators of an actual weapon. There are always several reinforcing rings on the barrel of a cannon, to reduce the chance of the case or breech from… exploding to be honest, usually at the muzzle (known as a swell), and where the cannon is mounted on the carriage (known as rimbases), as well as the entire cascable is drawn rather simplified. Of course, being a cartoon drawing of cannon, these details are lost.
     
    So, as far as I can tell, that’s it for weaponry in the series itself. There are several fan-concepts that are fascinating, like ‘wingblades’ that are specialized weapons used by pegasi, but I’ll come back to that later.
     
    Overall, there isn’t much weaponry in Equestria. Despite the fact that there are enough monsters and nasty critters that would justify such. Early depictions of pegasi peg them as militaristic, which carries on into the Wonderbolts training regime. And several ponies are depicted as wearing various states of armor, but those tend to be remnants of ‘a thousand years ago’, indicating that the ponies have not needed any form of warfare in living memory.
     
    Ah, that’s a good point. Weapons aren’t everything in the Armory, there’s armor as well of course. So what have we seen for armor?
     
    Next week!
  14. Fhaolan

    Too Sick to Notice

    By Fhaolan,

    Too Sick to Notice (G1.5 TV episode, July 3rd 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Bon Bon is jealous of her youngest sibling, and pretends to be sick to get attention.
     
    The ice cream shop's interior is actually a rather 50's soda shop, actually, now that I think about it. The outside, having it look like a ice cream cone, is reminiscent of the Twistee Treat ice cream shops built in the 80's which did exactly that.
     
    Bon Bon. In a rather silly hat. Early 20th century flapper interpretation of a 19th century French style. Basically it's the brim of a bonnet, missing the actual bonnet part.
     
    Jeezus, that's a heck of a sneeze.
     
    So is 'baby pony' his actual name?
     
    The baby's cutie mark is an actual baby rattle. What's that going to be like when he grows up?
     
    Every copy ever? Why?
     
    Baaaaa!
     
    Do you even lift? She just picked her sister off the trolley and onto the couch with no effort at all.
  15. Fhaolan

    Out of Luck

    By Fhaolan,

    Out of Luck (G1.5 TV episode, July 24th 1992, 11 minutes)
     
    Summary: Clover decides the teapot she found is a bad luck charm, and finds it impossible to get rid of.
     
    Junkyard. You know, there were a lot of different kid's shows and books centered around romanticized junkyards back in the 70's and 80's. It was definitely a thing of the times.
     
    'Jillion Jangles' Did they name the currency *just* for that joke?
     
    That playhouse was just recently put together. It's not exactly a good job if it's already leaking like that.
     
    Teapot makes a metal noise. That's relatively odd, I'm not aware of many metal teapots. Tea *kettles* yes, but teapots are normally ceramic to hold the heat.
     
    Okay, I remember the that style of salad shooter. If you manage to actually get it to do that, you *are* having bad luck.
     
    Must be a metal teapot, otherwise how can you weld it.
     
    Yeah, that's how actual artists deal with 'connoisseurs'. Let them talk, and just agree with whatever they say. My mum and uncle are both professional artists and that's what they do at the art shows.
  16. Fhaolan
    Alright, I've finished watching the first My Little Pony series: My Little Pony 'n Friends from 1985 to 1987. This involved two TV Specials, a Theatrical release, and a 65-episode TV series (four of which were re-edited versions of the TV specials).
     
    Technically my episode-watching blog for this series isn't quite done yet, as the last episodes of the series will be tomorrow, but those episodes are a re-edit of the 'Escape from Catrina' TV Special. Nothing important will be revealed by this episode.
     
    Anyway here are my findings:
     
    This G1 show is set in a series of small valleys in a region of volcanic mountains similar to the Cascade Range on the Pacific coast of the United States. Travel between the valleys is difficult, unless you can fly over the mountains or travel through the extensive underground tunnels. These tunnels are likely former lava tubes due to the volcanic nature of the area. The valleys on one side of the mountains run down to the sea, while the valleys on the other side are cut off by the crystal desert. There is a number of valleys; including Dream Valley, Fluttervalley, Grundleland, and many others. These valleys are populated by a number of creatures, mostly anthropomorphic animals but also humans, elves, and a variety of goblinoids. The population of each type of creature is relatively small, leading to considerable cross-breeding especially between the humans, elves, and goblins in order to maintain any kind of presence. Actually, looking back there's no guarantee the few 'native' humans were actually human at all, given the variation of elf, gnome, svart, goblin, troll, hags, etc. If all of those are considered one race with multiple breeds, similar to the variations within the ponies, then the 'humans' we saw may actually be just superficially human and are actually a variety of these goblinoids.
     
    The valleys of Dream Valley, Fluttervalley, and Mushrump together are called Ponyland. Ponies are not actually native to this place but came from some unknown land at least 500 years ago, and likely longer.
     
    This world is connected tenuously and intermittently to an alternate human world accessed through a rainbow bridge similar in concept to the Bifrost of Nordic mythology. Neither of these worlds are ours, as the events in the pony-occupied world can have a direct effect on the human world and vice-versa when the connection is active. However, the human world is almost identical to ours in the mid-to-late 1980s.
     
    The pony world is set up similarly to the Alpine region of Europe, with a variety of agrarian-based cultures being in close but effectively minimal contact thanks to the mountainous terrain. Each different culture seem to be set at a different time relative to our world, but fall into three distinct groups: Late 11th Century, Mid 16th Century, and Mid 19th Century. Throughout the series, the contact between the humans and ponies involve a technology transfer where late 20th century equipment is slowly brought over into the pony world and made to work via magic. While the people of both worlds initially treat the inhabitants of the other as fantasy, they adapt very quickly to the reality of multiple dimensions. Fast enough that it is unlikely that this is the first time the two worlds made contact with each other and such cultural and technological transfers occurred. If we assume the contacts happened when the clothing and architecture matched, the next contact would be in the early 21st century. Huh. How about that. Of course, that's the time passing in the human world, we have no reference points in the pony world to determine if time passes in both worlds at the same rate when contact is *not* active.
     
    The ponies themselves can be separated into five different breeds, the earth ponies, the unicorns, the pegasi, the sea ponies, and the flutterponies. The first three are definitely breeds, rather than races, as the earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi can interbreed freely allowing traits such as twinkle-eyes to be carried into all three equally. Cutie-marks are present at birth, and are traditionally used to name the pony. This leads to multiple individuals with the same name. Due to the low birth rate, it is highly unlikely to have more than one pony in a each generation with the same name. Pony culture does not use the nuclear family concept, and keeps mares and stallions separate with the stallions being nomadic while the mares are sedentary. In the same vein pony foals are kept in a crèche system and are raised by the mare collective.
     
    The main pony society has no government or other organizational system. They act as a collection of individuals with leadership being appointed on the fly as necessary. Flutterponies on the other hand have a monarchy. Within main pony society the title 'princess' is an antique, nominally given to any individual that is acting as guardian to a magical artifact, and long-term princesses are sequestered to a remote area to protect them. This practice is out-of-date to the point of having become legendary, but those who were exiled in that manner long ago have created their own society in that remote area. They still call themselves princesses, and hold elections to promote one of their number to the title 'queen'.
    The Pony world is suffused with magic. All ponies are capable of using magic to one extent or another, but they require special foci such as wands and other artifacts to do so. Unicorns and flutterponies are born with a built-in foci, their horns and wings respectively, but are extremely limited in what magic this foci can accomplish.
     
    All unicorns can 'wink', which means to phase out and into a limbo sub-dimension. However, physical objects like cages, walls, etc. do not allow a unicorn winked out to pass through them, nor can they carry much load when phasing. Other things are also capable of phasing through the same space the unicorns are winking out to, which can trap the unicorn in this alternate space when they 'pass through' each other. All unicorns also able to master a single other magical ability such as telekinesis or other similar things. Use of these magic abilities require a fair bit of concentration and effort.
     
    Flutterponies' magic seems to be concentrated in breaking down other magical effects and dissolving magic substances.
     
    A large number of magical artifacts exist in the pony world, most based on, or incorporating, crystals in their design. All magic in the regions defined as Ponyland seems to be drawn from a single large gemstone known as the 'Heart of Ponyland' and when that connection is interrupted magic becomes unreliable and dangerous. There are six crowns that are used to reconnect magical artifacts to the flow of power coming from the Heart if the flow is interrupted. The artifacts can do almost anything, depending on the knowledge, aptitude, and will of the wielder, and can be destroyed and recreated.
     
    Using artifacts can cause the personality of the wielder to change in whatever way necessary to lead the wielder to use the artifact more. It's almost like a psychic pressure on the wielder to use the artifact. This may or may not have a negative effect on the wielder depending on the nature of the artifact itself. All artifacts are at least partially self-aware in order to interpret the wielder's wishes.
     
    Magic power can also be drawn straight from a sub-station such as other magical artifacts, unicorns, etc. but this draw usually has a severe negative effect on the sub-station itself.
     
    Next time, we'll talk about how to use this info in G4.
  17. Fhaolan

    Terror of Tartaurus

    By Fhaolan,

    Since I recently got my only MLP fanfic so far actually published (Doctor Whooves and the Terror of Tartaurus. It took a lot longer to get it through editing and proofreading than I had planned, but *shrug*.), I think I'll talk about the specific worldbuilding I dealt with in the story. This breaks down into some sub-topics:
     
    Tartaurus
     
    Tartarus is mentioned in 'It's About Time' as being guarded by Cerberus and containing many ancient evils, which is pretty much what Greek Myth tells us as well. What a lot of people don't know though, is that the actual Tartarus in myth was originally the name of a much older deity who gave his name to his realm, in the same manner as Hel (become Hell), Hades, and many other chthonic deities. In the oldest known Greek myths Tartarus is of the same 'age' as Chaos, Gaia, and Eros. The true primordial Greek deities that gave birth to the next generation, the Titans. Tartarus' realm became the prison of the Titans and other divine creatures that were the enemies of the Olympians, with Tartarus himself as their warden. It is *not* the afterlife, however, it is a prison for demi-god class and higher entities.
     
    What struck me in this episode was the pronunciation Twilight used. She very specifically pronounced it 'Tartaurus' which triggered what little Greek I knew to make me think of Taurus (bull), and thus brought me right around to minotaurs, which I knew existed in the MLP:FiM universe thanks to Iron Will. Since calling them minotaur due to the story of Minos and Asterion wouldn't make much sense in this setting, the idea of the Men of Tartaurus becoming 'minotaur' just followed naturally. I believe some others have made this connection but they may have followed other paths to get there.
     
    The difficulty here was how close Tartaurus had to be to Ponyville for the time took to return Cerebus to Tartaurus to make sense, and still be a location that the minotaurs actually come from as a race. This led to the idea of Tartaurus being an alternate plane of existence, which allowed it to be very far away, and yet very close at the same time. An excellent place to put a prison. MLP as a franchise has had similar alternate planes of existence before, with the Crystal Empire being vanished, and in older generations (G1 specifically); Tambelon the Lost City that was sent to the Shadow World.
     
    As for the ancient evils, as mentioned by Twilight, it didn't seem to contain Discord, Nightmare Moon, Sombra.... So maybe Twilight was misinterpreting things. Evils doesn't necessarily mean creatures as such, but artefacts can count. Things like the Alicorn Amulet and stuff that should be locked away. A Warehouse 13 (for those watching that show), a Warehouse 23 (for those who follow Steve Jackson Games), or just 'The Warehouse' (for Indiana Jones fans), that slowly became a prison over time as ponies (and others) forgot about its original purpose.
     
    So this is how I arrived at Tartaurus, existing on the other side of a portal guarded by Cerberus. A part of the Shadow World populated by minotaurs, guarding a prison that used to be a warehouse of ancient artefacts. The bell of Tambelon being used to maintain the portal between the worlds just for that added kick of G1 goodness.
     
    I also referenced the Twin Kings of Mallus and Amoni. This is meant to parallel the diarchy of Celestia and Luna but in this case using the ancient Sparta model given Tartaurus and Minotaurs' Greek origins. Ancient Sparta was ruled by two Kings simultaneously, each descended from a different son of Hercules. In this case Mallus and Amoni are each descended from the same minotaur Hero that brought stability to the Shadow World, just through different sons (or daughters) of that Hero. The 'Twin' title refers not to the fact that they were brothers, but that they took the throne at the exact same time which is unusual.
     
    Tirek and the Rainbow of Darkness
     
    While Tirek makes a good villain and was surprisingly dark for a 1980's cartoon in the first MLP TV special 'Escape from Midnight Castle', a lot of his shtick is too similar to Nightmare Moon for coincidence. The whole 'the night will last forever' bit. However Tirek made an issue out of transforming *others* with the Rainbow of Darkness, while Nightmare Moon was a shapeshifter herself. This Rainbow of Darkness sounded a lot like an artefact that the ponies would lock away given the chance, and we had Tartaurus for that purpose as above. Tirek was basically vaporized and pulled into the clouds at the end of the TV special. No other centaurs ever showed up in that generation, and his appearance was really a more demonic thing, resembling more a minotaur crossed with a centaur. Which made me wonder about perhaps the Rainbow of Darkness *had* transformed him from a normal minotaur into this creature. Artefacts normally have pretty rough side-effects to balance their power, and the idea that the artefact was linked to a parasite creature that was attempting to manifest through its wielder was born. Thus Tirek became a prior incarnation of this parasite, duplicated when it got a hold of another minotaur.
     
    As a note, the G1 Rainbow of Light became associated to the Elements of Harmony by the characters in the story, but that's not necessarily true. It's just what the characters thought. One of the principles I hold to when building settings and campaigns is that what is written as History is just what the people of the time thought happened. There is no guarantee that is *truly* what occurred, just what they believe occurred. Which brings me to:
     
    Batponies & Sombra
     
    Now the batponies are a hot item in the fandom. They've only made it on screen once, "Luna Eclipsed" and basically they were just props that were discarded once Luna made her awesome entrance. However they've caught the imagination of many Bronies. They could be written off as costumes, but their wings and eyes point to some kind of transformation magic. We know that the Canterlot Guards appear suspiciously uniform in their armour, so the idea that the armour magically makes them all look like the same three ponies is perfectly valid. However, this is kind of an extreme change in appearance, and nobody before or after has that look.
     
    Recently M.A. Larson and Lauren Faust have both said in twitter than their headcanons have the batponies as a separate race. It's not been confirmed in show, but it's pretty safe bet they're a separate breed of pony because of that.
     
    Calling them batponies is a bit off, because bats don't have eyes like that. Like a lot of things, sometimes the wrong name sticks, and it makes people go places in their assumptions that they woudn’t normally. Those eyes indicate something *else*. More draconic than anything. The interesting thing is that we've seen those eyes before on ponies. Nightmare Moon and Sombra.
     
    Nightmare Moon has a bunch of her own problems, but Sombra... there's a possibility there. He has the eyes, and a weird curved horn unlike any other unicorn. In truth, he resembles the Dungeons and Dragons version of a creature called a Kirin, an oriental-style dragon-unicorn with a curved horn, wreathed in flame & smoke, and so on. This is a vague mix of actual Qilin/Kylin/Kirin myths from China, Korea, and Japan that have a variety of different descriptions for this creature.
     
    It's this 'dragon-unicorn' that catches my interest. Combine with 'dragon-pegasi' of the batponies, and we have something interesting here. Not just a sub-breed of pegasi, but an entire alternate set of ponies based off of the originals. Kirin, Batpony, and likely an earth pony variant we haven't seen yet. Throw in the transformational powers of 'Dark Magic' (see the Rainbow of Darkness above), and you have something to work with. Connect it somewhat with the mythology of Nightmare Moon and the existing fanon around the battle between Celestia and Nightmare Moon, and you have a ready-made origin. Putting them in Tartaurus, and you've got an explanation as to why we haven't seen many the same way we've only seen one minotaur.
     
    Oh, and as I mentioned in my last author's note of the story, the name Sdukʷalbixʷ is a straight lift from the Snoqualmie Indian tribe local to the Pacific Northwest where I'm currently living. The odd spelling is their interpretation of Roman letters, and it’s not *quite* pronounced Snoqualmie, but that’s how it’s been Anglicized. It does in fact translate to Children of the Moon, and I couldn't resist. While others have called the batponies thestrals, and other names, most of them are lifted from modern fiction (Harry Potter) or constructed new out of pieces of Latin, so I felt no connection to those names.
     
    In any case, the Sdu aren't necessarily connected in truth to Nightmare Moon. As I said before in this essay, it's just what their 'history' tells them, so it's what *they* believe. Even the oldest Sdu in the story is too young to know what really happened, so the only ones who can affirm or dispute their origins are Celestia and Luna.
     
    And we know how much they like talking about the details of the past, don't we? They're not the types to do broad stroke history, aren't they?
  18. Fhaolan
    My Little Pony 'n Friends: The Revolt of Paradise Estate (G1 TV Episodes, 1986, 2x 10 minutes)
     
    Part 1
     
    Why's the ceiling falling down?
     
    The whole building is falling apart. The level of maintenance is horrible. They need an Applejack.
     
    Magic paint.
     
    Ha! Gift pony in the mouth. I can't beleive they did that.
     
    So who was this merchant dude anyway?
     
    But Paradise Estates itself was magic to begin with, wasn't it?
     
    Hey, they have a TV. It seems we're officially switching over to an 80's setting itself. Either that or Megan's been bringing stuff over each time she's visiting.
     
    Yeah, this will end well, I'm sure of it.
     
    More 80's furniture and equipment.
     

    Part 2
     
    So one of the furniture things has a different opinoin from the others.
     
    Seems like a relative of the witches, honestly.
     
    Beezen, is a sorcerer. So... why did he want the pony's home so badly. This had been planned so far in advance, but why?
     
    But a phonograph, not a modern record player. They've got a TV.... wait. What channels to do they get?
     
    For centuries the wand has worked for the socerer. So the socerer, like the witches, have an extended lifespan.
     
    Right, so the buggy's still alive. That's another magic artifact running around now.
  19. Fhaolan
    My Little Pony 'n Friends: Fugitive Flowers (G1 TV Episode, 1986, 2x 10 minutes)
     
    Part 1
     
    Crabs, cutting down trees for some reason.
     
    The crabs has a pseudo-military organization, calls the leader 'Captain'.
     
    Sentient, mobile plants. That are vagely creepy. Flories.
     
    Hey Fluttershy-prototype, Posey.
     
    Prize roses. So they have contests?
     
    Crabnasties. 'The Big Lake'
     
    I'm reminded of a Doctor Who monster from *long* ago, called the Macra.
     
    More than a little creepy.
     
    Crab police.
     
    Fine, they're Triffids.
     

    Part 2
     
    Interesting 'jail' actually. It looks deliberately assembled, in a megalithic style. I wonder if the ponies found it, or made it.
     
    Giant tortoise, to go along with the .... giant spiders.
     
    Yeah, I can see how that turns into Fluttershy.
  20. Fhaolan

    Dues Ex Luna

    By Fhaolan,

    This title works so much better, as Luna is spelled in the Roman manner already.
     
    As I mentioned previously, Luna has a lot more complications in her status than Celestia, mostly due to her imprisonment in the Moon. She wasn't around to object to any change in the way the populace viewed her. Everything I said about Celestia applies to Luna, but there are some additional things I want to mention.
     
    First, I want to briefly address Luna's strange aging between Season 1 and Season 2. Last time I talked about how many creatures in mythology become 'unaging' (not immortal) by mastering transformations to the point that they can appear any age they want and time no longer affects them. If this does apply, then what we saw when the Elements of Harmony stripped Luna of the Nightmare Moon... whatever it was, is actually Luna's base natural form once all transformations are nullified, frozen at the age she mastered shapeshifting so as to become unaging. The way Luna appears later is because that's the way she *wants* to look, an idealized self-image of sorts.
     
    Celestia very likely has an similar natural form. In fact, due to the two of them being unaging, it's entirely possible that they are the same effective age. If they were twins even, Luna could be the 'younger' of the pair; something I know for a fact that twins do make a bit of a deal over. Leading to Luna choosing an appearance of being much younger than Celestia simply because that's how she thinks of herself.
     

     
    The bigger issue around Luna though, is one I've seen raised by Bronies on a regular basis: 'Why didn't anyone remember Nightmare Moon, one the pair of goddesses that previously ruled Equestria and who is the patron of Nightmare Night'.
     
    Here's the trick, I think they did remember. But what they remembered was fragmentary, attributed to different mythological characters, and in many cases plain wrong as her mythology had been filled in by further stories that had nothing to do with her. Euhemerus again, but in a slightly different way.
     
    My thought is that Luna's story was fragmented into at least three or four different mythological characters that the modern ponies simply didn't connect together into a single entity. Those characters being so reduced by this fragmentation that the idea of them actually being a real threat of any kind was gone. They were 'old mare's tales' as mentioned in the first episode, and in many cases a single pony may not even be aware of all the different characters, if any. And only Twilight connected them all up into a single pony because.... well, Twilight.
     
    Let me give a real-life (sorta) example. Everyone knows Jack, right? Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack the Giant Killer, Jack of the Lantern? Sly Jack, Stingy Jack, Jack o' the Pulpit?
     
    The way these stories are told now-a-days, the impression is that they're all different characters who just happen to be named Jack. But in truth, Jack is a base character in fairy tales, the fool, the trickster. When these tales were originally told, they were all supposed to be the same person; Tricksy Jack. But the tales grew in variety and detail to the point that they really couldn't be of the same person because of contradictions between them. Later storytellers would attempt to mix and match different stories to come up with longer tales, but it was no longer possible for *all* of them to be about one person. And now, most people will only know one or two of the stories, and in many cases only partially at that. A recent attempt to recombine all the Jack tales into one person was in the Fables comic series by Bill Willingham, but to do so he had to make Jack and others like him supernatural immortals powered by mortal belief.
     
    For a very on-the-nose example of a story about our Nightmare Night equivalent, that very few people remember yet nearly everyone still follows a tradition connected to it. This is a brief version of the tale of Jack and the Devil:
     

     
    Jack was a nasty piece of work. He tricked the Devil into climbing a tree, and trapped him up there by carving crosses in the trunk of the tree. In return for not taking his soul into Hell, Jack let the Devil back down.
     
    Eventually Jack died, and because he was a nasty person he couldn't get into Heaven. But the Devil wouldn't let him into Hell either because of that promise. Instead, the Devil tossed Jack a piece of burning brimstone to light his way in the world.
     
    Jack hollowed out a turnip, and put the burning brand into it so he could carry it without burning himself.
     

     
    Thus, the ghost of Jack became known as Jack of the Lantern. This was an Irish tale from about 300 years ago, trying to put a Christian spin on why people carve faces in vegetables and light them up to scare away spirits. When people colonized the new world and discovered pumpkins, the name Jack o' Lantern transferred because honestly, have any of you tried hollowing a turnip? Pumpkins are much easier.
     
    In the thousand years of Luna's imprisonment, I propose there were several different characters built out of her legend.
     
    The Sister Lost: A Hero that was Celestia's companion/partner/sister during the Quest for the Elements of Harmony and the defeat of Discord, but who was tragically lost at some point after giving in to her fears and jealousy.
     
    The Mare in the Moon: An anthropomorphized.... actually, we need a new term, one that applies to ponies. Equiipomorphized? A ponified force of nature, controlling the tides and the phases of the moon.
     
    The Night Mare: The patron spirit of Nightmare Night. An evil spirit who stalks your dreams, stealing your soul if you cannot escape.
     
    The Nightmare Moon: A creature that fought Celestia, counted along with Sombra, Discord, and probably others. Not a spirit as such, but a physical monster who was defeated and imprisoned, just like the others of her ilk.
     
    The legends and stories would have sufficient clues for someone like Twilight to put the parts together from disparate sources, but the average pony wouldn't even think of doing it. The stories would have been expanded such that the characters were distinct and to assemble the 'real' story would involve discarding parts of the mythology that had been built around them.
     
    But again, the big problem with this is the same problem as Celestia being made into a goddess when she was originally a Hero. It means Celestia has to sit back *and let people forget her sister*.
     
    It's pretty obvious that she did do exactly that, though. Even if Celestia and Luna are proper goddesses by any definition, in order for the events to pan out the way they did, Celestia would have needed to do *nothing* and allow her sister's story be twisted, torn apart, and mostly forgotten. Probably because she wanted people to forget about the awful things Luna did (as Nightmare Moon), and this is the only way she could think of to achieve that. Disconnecting the various stories from each other, and hoping that the good parts of Luna's story would survive while the rest get shunted off. Basically Celestia yet again trusted that Destiny would eventually produce a solution.
     
    I do like Celestia as a character, and I especially like the way she is performed in the show.
     
    But to be honest, for her behavior with respect to her sister's legend, Celestia is a bit of an ass sometimes.
  21. Fhaolan

    Woe Is Me (Parts 1 to 2)

    By Fhaolan,

    My Little Pony 'n Friends: Woe Is Me (G1 TV Episode, 1986, 2x 10 minutes)
     
    I'm already starting to regret this idea of mine, and I haven't even gotten through the first season of the nominally 'good' generation's series. I'm just not finding a lot of worldbuilding ideas in the later episodes. Yes, they're introducing what might look like new stuff each time, but it can all get categorized into the same dozen slots. Humans are rare, but present, there's a variety of gnome/goblin-types, an assortment of anthropomorphized animals, all with a pseudo-medieval technological setting with odd anachronistic outliers. I'm not sure I can really glean much more from this outside of possibly a basic idea of the geography of Ponyland.
     
    But, I said I was going to do this, so I'm going to try.
     

    Part 1
     
    Woebegone. Another goblin/gnome thing, in late Victorian 'lower class' gear. And a Spike-like dragon.
     
    Aligatorsaurus, not a dragon.
     
    Why are you putting him in the nursery????
     
    Another witch, and implied curses.
     
    Why was he in the chandelier?
     
    Mudslide? maybe?
     

    Part 2
     
    More reinforcement of how much bad luck Woebegone is having.
     
    You don't believe in curses? After all that magic being flung around?
     
    Really? That's daft.
     
    *That's* a witch.
     
    Not... necessarily. There's no guarentee his old village is restored. Whatever the villagers have been doing *since* he left will still be there, and they seemed to be mostly of ass anyway.
  22. Fhaolan
    My Little Pony 'n Friends: Bright Lights (G1 TV Episodes, 1986, 4x 10 minutes)
     
    Part 1
     
    Back to the clamshell stage we've seen before. No piano this time.
     
    Knight Shade honestly looks like Prince in a way, with the jacket, the cravat, the poufy purple hair. It wouldn't surprise me if that was deliberate.
     
    The band look more like KISS, and definitely have the strung-out look that rock bands had at the time.
     
    Huh. Is this the first officially male pony we've seen?
     
    That's a big crowd of things.
     
    Mention of the Moonwalk. Popularized by Michael Jackson in the 1980's, but it's actually been around since the 30's. It was first called Moonwalk in the late 1960's.
     
    Promise their mothers? Again, first indication of family relationships.
     
    Zebra! Anthro one, but still. Zib, Zeb? Something like that. Leisure suit, specifically a 70's style leisure suit.
     
    Village called Rosedale.
     
    Why are they being so creepy? This is more Michael Jackson than Prince, but that whole thing didn't occur until long after this point.
     
    That's a big jump. How did the villains know these three would be any good as backup singer/dancers before now?
     
    Some kind of gas produced by a machine in a bag. It's stolen something, but I'm not sure what.
     
    Lots of standard 80's audio equipment.
     
    Ah, it stole their shadows. That's a pretty standard gambit mythologically.
     
    An entire village of anthro mice called Munchterville. Who trap the adult ponies for no apparent reason. Clothing resembling standard Alpine wear of the 18th century, specifically the Bavarian style with a drop-front lederhosen for the men. In which case it should have been Munchterburg.
     
    Except for the cop and mayor which are far more modern, turn of the century style.
     
    More anthro mice with the rock star.
     

    Part 2
     
    Okay, Megan notices the mice kids have no shadows, and they just *guess* the right answer. Huh.
     
    Another magic mirror.
     
    Arabus, a stormcloud wizard.
     
    Greyvale, previously Bright Valley. These ponies are more like horses in design. We're getting a lot of expanded world in this set of episodes. However Knight Shade is definitely still a pony in design, not a horse. Odd.
     
    Zombie horses.... Well, okay, not quite zombies but that's the impression.
     
    Part 3
    Actually, maybe they're not horses, but donkeys. They are bigger than the ponies, but relative to the humans they're well within size for donkeys but not big enough to be proper horses. I don't think their ears are long enough though.
     
    Zeb knows what humans are.
     
    Sounds like Arabus actually eats the shadows.
     
    Wizards and witches always seem to default to weather magic when they run out of ideas.
     
    When did this turn into Scoobie Do?
     
    So they just... leave?
     
    That's an impressive manor house. I swear I've seen that place for real. The windowing of the tallest tower looks like a bell tower, and with the swooped roofing on the towers and the mansard roof on the lower level, I'd say the architecture is Baroque in the Second French Empire period (19th century).
     
    Remind me why the youngest sister is always wandering about effectively on her own?
     

    Part 4
     
    Pegasi are definitely stronger than flutterponies, this one can carry two adult anthro mice.
     
    Manor house is a different color from this angle.
     
    Lighting magic.
     
    Suddenly flutterponies. Hundreds of them. Dues ex machina.
     
    Everyone get's their shadows back. So they weren't consumed?
     
    You know, I expected the wizard to turn into a human or something similar instead of just shrinking down.
  23. Fhaolan

    Dues Ex Caelestis

    By Fhaolan,

    Just as a note, yes I spelled it very deliberately in the title. It may not be accurate Latin, but it does the job I want it to. I think.
     
    I'm going to be walking a line with this entry, and I'm going to be trying very, very hard not to cross it. It's not against this forum's rules to talk about religion, but it's still a very tricky subject and can easily offend people when that is not my goal. At several points I was severely tempted to use current real-world religions and controversial current events as examples. But when looking over the essay a second time, I decided to pull back and use mythology that is old enough that nobody is currently using it as a basis of their faith. While there may be some people who do worship more modern versions of these religions, those forms do not resemble the ones I will use as examples and I hope that anyone who reads this essay understand and accept why I've taken this route.
     
    Are Celestia and Luna Goddesses?
     
    Sort of? By modern definitions of the term, no, not really. But in the way older civilizations defined gods then yes. Very much so. But then, with a bit of stretching of those same ancient definitions all of the Mane 6 could be counted as gods.
     
    Let's deal with the Mane 6 being gods first, just to get that out of the way. I think everyone will agree that they are heroes, and they wield power outside the ken of their nominal peers. Aside from Twilight, that power manifests through the Elements of Harmony, but it can be argued that because the Elements of Harmony were recreated through the Mane 6 after Nightmare Moon 'destroyed' them, then the Elements are now more like physical representations and foci, rather than the actual powersources. But even so, in ancient times anyone who was a hero was a god, by definition. In fact, ancient Greek is where we get the word 'hero', which was the term they used for 'demi-god'. Demi-god is actually a bastardization of Greek and Anglo-Saxon languages and only became a real word relatively recently. Demi-gods were mortals with divine blood in them somehow. It didn't have to be a divine parent, as a divine great-grandparent, adoption by a divine being, or even consuming divine food would work. If you weren't in some way touched by the Divine, you weren't really a Hero. In this case, the Elements of Harmony themselves would count towards the Divine requirement making the Mane 6 all demigods by ancient Greek standards.
     
    But that's one heck of a stretch, so let's drop that as being a bit silly and get back to the real topic. And let's continue with Celestia as the primary subject, just to make things easier than typing out 'Celestia and Luna' over and over again. That and Luna has some odd problems of her own with this topic, which will just confuse things. I don't want to deal with the other alicorns like Cadance and Twilight at all for this one, as it just makes things way too messy and I'm already having problems organizing this essay.
     
    The modern concept of Gods is heavily informed by modern religions. So many people think immortal, omnipotent, omniscient, and often omnipresent as well. Always exists, can do anything, knows everything, is actually everywhere all at once. Again, I think we can all agree that even Celestia is not all of these things. In fact, I don't believe she's any of them. She is not all-powerful as she can be defeated. She's not all-knowing, but she does dissemble very well. To be expected of a being with her amount of experience. And she is definitely not all-present. In fact she seem to go out of her way to be all-absent on occasion. The only one that she seems to display is immortality. But in truth she seems to be demonstrating 'unaging' rather than the technical definition of 'immortal'. She *can* be hurt, and likely even killed, but her physical age is no longer connected to her calendar age.
     
    This is a common theme in many pantheistic religions, such as the Greek, Norse, etc. In most of those mythologies, to become unaging you basically master transformation to the point that you can appear as any age you wish and the passage of time becomes irrelevant to you. In these mythologies a lot of creatures outside the gods have this ability. But then, in these mythologies none of the gods really fall into the modern definition of deities as they too can be killed. With great effort, and usually by each other, but it's very possible. They are also far from being omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent, being far more like mortals with a power boost of some sort and a job that requires that power, possibly even a career path that may lead to greater responsibilities.
     
    This is what Celestia resembles the most, these kinds of deities. However, most of those have an older form where the gods weren't always 'gods' which maps even better to Celestia. Let me use old Irish/Celtic mythology as the model here, but know that similar forms existed in Norse, Greek, and the like.
     
    The history of Ireland is described in archaeological terms as a series of invasions. Starting with the Pretanic peoples who were commonly called Cruthin, or Picts depending on who you asked. They were invaded by the Bolgic peoples, then simultaneously by three separate tribes; the Laigin, the Dommainn and the Gailioin, and finally the Goidelic (Gaelic) showed up, commonly known as the Milesians. All of these were technically Celtic as they all spoke different dialects of Gaelic, but they ranged in cultural development from stone-age to iron-age in technology and considered themselves as distinct peoples.
     
    But take a second look at these events through the lens of Irish mythology: the Fir Bolg and Fomorians (Bolgic) were giants and shapeshifters, the Celtic equivalent of the Titans. Tossed out on their ear by the Tuatha De Dannan (Dommainn) who were gods, the equivalent of the greek Olympians. The Gaelic were the Irish themselves who didn't really 'invade' so much as colonize, integrate, and out breed the previous tribes. The Laigin and the Gailioin contributed other former heroes become deities, like Li Ban and the like. The Pretanics were almost lost completely due to being so far back in history they were barely remembered, remaining as a single deity going by the name of Crom Cruach (Cruthin) which had been reduced to an effectively demonic presence. Rescued from complete obscurity by modern fictional works like Conan, Slaine, and the relatively recent animation The Secret of the Kells.
     
    What happened here was that the heroes of one people became the gods of the people who took over from them, thanks to their stories being 'upgraded' in the telling. King Nuada, the (probably fictional) heroic leader of the Dommainn, became Nuada of the Silver Hand, King of the Gods of the Gaels. The actual gods of the Dommainn, older deities like Lugh the Long Handed and Danu the Mother became the patrons (re: parents) of the new gods. This cycle shows up in many different Western cultures to one extent or another.
     
    In the Equestrian version of this cycle, Discord would be the equivalent of the Fir Bolg, and Celestia and Luna would be the equivalent of the Tuatha De Dannan. 'Modern' ponies like the mane 6 would be the Milesians. To the ponies alive at the time Celestia and Luna took down Discord, the princesses would be heroes and treated as royalty for their heroic deeds. They had power beyond that of the normal (able to move the Sun and Moon, which normally took a team of unicorns according to Hearth's Warming Eve. Plus Celestia and Luna's mastery of a wide range of magic, both light and dark. Finally add in the Elements of Harmony which they likely assembled as part of their Hero's Quest.) and had visible attributes which marked them as demi-gods, or Heroes (with a capital H), which modern culture would call Superheroes.
     
    Over time the history would become stories become mythology, and confronted by their unaging nature, the populace would slowly shift into thinking of them as full and proper deities. This process is called euhemerism, named after a Greek philosopher of the 4th century BC, Euhemerus, who wrote extensively about how mythology was heavily romanticized history, how gods were once heroes, and who were likely based on actual historical figures blown so far out of proportion as to be unrecognizable. He didn't invent the concept, as there were apparently philosophers before Euhemerus who wrote similar things, but he was the first known to apply this philosophy to all mythology in general rather than individual myths.
     
    Ponies had a thousand years to make this mental shift. Even with the social change rate mentioned in a previous blog entry that's plenty of time. To bring in a different mythology, this is like the ancient Greek Heracles, a hero figure with many adventures first mentioned in the 7th century BC who, though he had divine blood (needed to be a Hero) was mortal and in one story did actually die. Slowly he turned into the Roman God of Strength Hercules who, at the end of the 4th century AD when the Roman Empire officially converted to Christianity, stood amongst the other Roman Gods as an full equal. It's the same character, the same person, with the same basic framework of stories being told, but as time passed the stories grew to the point that Heracles the Hero became Hercules the God.
     
    Add to this the concept of the 'Imperial Cult' that occurred in Egypt, Rome, Sumeria, Japan, and many other places, where the King/Emperor/whatever is declared Divine and subject to no mortal authority. Again, this is much the same as the Hero needing to be in some part divine, in this case the definition of King, the leader by divine right, is taken to the ultimate extreme in that the King is by definition a God. This has occurred so many times in history, and even currently, that it cannot be discounted as a possibility here.
     
    Of course, this would assume that Celestia was not actually available to dispute this shift. (Luna wasn't, which is one reason why her story is a lot more complicated.) But then, Celestia is an odd duck and sometimes lets things happen because it suits whatever purpose she has. I don't really peg her as the master manipulator though. Celestia is such a strong believer in fate, leaving so much up to chance that I honestly believe that Destiny is *her* deity more so than Harmony. Yes, she guides, but only minimally. She seems to honestly believe that her role is to not directly interfere with the development of 'her little ponies' unless it's absolutely necessary.
     
    This would be why Chrysalis reacted the way she did when she fought Celestia. At first she honestly thought she was battling a God and that she would get squished immediately. But what she was up against was actually a Hero, a demi-god who had been stripped of many of her powerful weapons (Her sister, the Elements of Harmony, etc.), and who had been relying on her own reputation increasing over time as her primary weapon, a social weapon intended to prevent conflict from occurring in the first place.
     
    Yes, Celestia was, and is, powerful, experienced, and extremely dangerous; with a wide range of magical abilities and resources that puts her firmly in the top tier of heavy-hitters. But by modern standards, she is not a Goddess.
     
    She is a Big Damn Hero.
  24. Fhaolan
    My Little Pony 'n Friends: The End of Flutter Valley (G1 TV Episodes, 1986, 10x 10 minutes)
     
    The first real TV series for My Little Pony was broadcast as part of 'My Little Pony 'n Friends' where a 10-minute MLP episode was followed by a 10-minute episode from another animated series. The first ten MLP episodes were basically a mini-series sequel to the theatrical film. Given the length, it's very likely this was originally the script for another full theatrical film, but given how the first one bombed they instead recycled it into a mini-series.
     
    Summary: The witches need revenge, and find a way by tricking others into stealing a magic artifact from the Flutterponies. The loss destroys Fluttervalley, and potentially all of Pony land.
     
    As the episodes were very short, I'll throw my notes up for the seemingly 10-episode mini-series.
     

    Part 1
     
    Much faster paced intro.
     
    Here we are at Paradise Estates. Actually, how do all the ponies live here? It's not that big, and there were a fair number of ponies before.
     
    Hey pony-who-will-be-Pinkie Pie; Surprise. Adult this time. Last time I thought she was a 'baby'?
     
    Travelling to Flutter Valley, which is now close enough that young ponies can make the trip. But far enough that it's still a 'trip'.
     
    Cupcake is a baker. Indicating cutie-mark/name has a similar meaning as in G4.
     
    One of the young ponies is called a 'baby pony', but Surprise isn't? Either fast maturation, or something else is going on.
     
    Witches again. Dafter than before, even.
     
    Pones must be deaf, or they know the witches are useless and are deliberately ignoring them. They are standing right next to them.
     
    Witches actually achieving something? Weird.
     
    Ponies never late? That means they regularly visit the Flutterponies now in order to establish a pattern of behavior.
     
    Switch to 'utter-flutter'? The what?
     
    Cotton plants?
     
    Sunstone? Another artifact. Grants eternal summer to Flutter Valley.
     
    Rosedust, Queen of the Flutterponies. Sun Tuesday. They go through this entire thing every Tuesday? Or is this more like Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Tuesday and sometimes Mardi Gras?
     
    Sunstone seems to be the way the Flutterponies control the sun's output. It's not precisely the same as Celestia's control over the sun in G4, but I can see the connection.
     
    Land Pie? Really?
     

    Part 2
     
    Bunches of witches, many of which referenced in the theatrical movie, animated from pictures. I wonder if these are the actual witches using the paintings as transports, or if they are just simulacrums?
     
    A race of sentient bees, led by a Queen Bumble.
     
    Originally from Fluttervalley but were forced out by the Flutterponies.
     
    That's not how you get nectar from flowers.....
     
    Bumble imports stuff to her frozen region known as Bumbleland.
     
    Bee clothing resembles 50's Biker gear, which was based on old surplus military pilot gear.
     
    Furbobs. Four-legged versions of the bushwollies. We needed more kinds of bushwollies? Always disagreeing with each other automatically without thought. So they're political party representatives.
     
    Stonebacks are armadillos and are antagonistic towards Furbobs. So the only reason to introduce Furbobs was to be an excuse for introducing Stonebacks. Huh.
     
    Unicorn magic now can create things, specifically a bubble. Thought that might be just the twinkle-eyed unicorn, Fizzy.
     
    Furbobbia, land of the Furbobs. Yay.
     
    Flutterpony *lands* on a rainbow, and then flies through it. Yes, it's a fake rainbow, but the flutterpony doesn't know that at the time.
     

    Part 3
     
    What a waste of honey.
     
    Sunstone reflects and concentrates the sun, not control it directly. Okay, quite different than I thought.
     
    Hey Ohg. Some day I'll find out how to spell that.
     
    I'm confused, which one is Wishful? Was that one of the ponies, or a bushwollie?
     
    Don't feel bad Spike, you tried. More than the others did.
     
    Utterflutter again.
     
    Not much else really happens in this episode with respect to worldbuilding. Mostly singing about how nice the sun is, and how nasty it is without it. Poor Luna.
     

    Part 4
     
    The bubble from before seems to be a specific ability for this pony.
     
    Okay, yep Wishful is a bushwollie.
     
    Unicorn telekinesis.
     
    Why does every sentient race only seem to be about six individuals at most?
     
    Okay, except for the bees.
     
    What the heck? Some bug thing eating her coat?
     
    Furbobs have access to 'natural' magic. All about harmony healing.
     
    It's dangerous to go alone, take this baby dragon.
     

    Part 5
     
    Sunstone isn't as easy to control as originally billed.
     
    None of the flutterponies think of just eating the honey. Sugar actually has quite an effect on horses, which is why they're crazy for sugarcubes and the like, so that's odd.
     
    More unicorn magic. Making a wind.
     
    The Flutterponies still don't consider themselves part of the 'My Little Pony' cultural grouping.
     
    Morningglory doesn't seem to understand the concept of 'duty'.
     
    Geezus, it melted right through the ground. How hot was that thing?
     

    Part 6
     
    Named bees have four arms and two legs. Unnamed bees have six arms. It's not just sticking shoes on the last pair of arms, because the arms are grouped together, while the legs are away from the arms.
     
    Why are Bumble's clothes falling apart?
     
    Why was the pink pony's horn glowing when talking to the furbob?
     
    Yeah, run... or waddle, I guess.
     
    Rainbow of Convenience. Human world is on the other end of that rainbow.
     
    Okay, this is feeling more like a magic dimensional transfer with that storm.
     
    Weird shooting stars there.
     
    Interesting, the flutterpony doesn't know how to describe Megan as a human. Despite both her and the bee guy both being familiar with witches, who have sufficiently similar appearance to a human that it shouldn't be that hard.
     
    *snicker* "Is that Megan?"
     

    Part 7
     
    Megan's wearing that same weird overalls thing. Blame the 80's.
     
    Roadsigns actually saying 'This way' and 'That way'. It'd be amusing if there were actual towns with those names.
     
    What the heck is that thing? Elephant/mole/shark?
     
    Furbobs can expand/stretch. Odd.
     
    Another set of strange star movements.
     
    Bumble seems confused about Bumbleland being *in* Fluttervalley or not.
     
    Crudely made derrick. No idea what the power source of that is supposed to be.
     

    Part 8
     
    Parley!
     
    Bees can detatch their stingers, and either re-attach or regrow them quickly. Not like actual bees.
     
    Draggle got de-purpled without going back to the volcano
     
    Fizzy creates bubbles, Buttons has telekineses, Gusty has windblowing. Each Unicorn has a single special ability, and telekinesis is considered one ability.
     
    Obvious trap is obvious.
     
    Ohg changes scale pretty often, actually.
     
    Okay. Stonebacks were convinced to help 'offscreen'. Annoying.
     

    Part 9
     
    Not that far underground, the area is filled with steam vents. Bumbleland must be on a high altitude (for the cold), and on a dormant volcano.
     
    Should play this song to North Korea. "Imagine you were friends!"
     
    Utterflutter cools the sunstone.
     
    Witches actually learn from mistakes? What madness is this?
     
    The sunstone is light enough that a healthy young human girl can carry it easily, despite it's awkward size. If it was actually made of a aluminum-silicate compound like most gemstones, it would be well over a hundred pounds at that size.
     
    Yet the flutterponies can't carry the sunstone. Flutterponies are nowhere near as strong as pegasi, as pegasi are capable of carrying a human by themselves.
     

    Part 10
     
    Furbobs are just as much idiots as bushwollies. I can see the relation.
     
    Fluttermagic disintegrates spiderwebs. Or Ohgwebs, whatever.
     
    Bumble's swarm has reduced in size, she's lost a lot of bees with all this.
     
    Heelface turn. That was as fast a 'reform' as Sunset Shimmer.
     
    Sunstone has to recharge before it restore the valley. Why it can't do this tomorrow is a bit vague.
     
    Witches and Ohg repelled yet again. I wonder if they'll show up again, or if that's it for them.
     
    More sun worship. Poor Luna, again.
     
    Human running animation *sucks*.
  25. Fhaolan

    My Little Pony: The Movie

    By Fhaolan,

    My Little Pony: The Movie (G1 Theatrical Animated Film, 1986, 86 minutes)
     
    This one almost did me in. It's not... bad, really? But the pacing is sooooo slow with side quests for both the protagonists and the antagonists, splitting the protagonists into three different groups, etc.
     
    Any case, this film was the only actual theatrical release of My Little Pony until the recent Equestria Girls film. It's absolutely necessary as a bridge between the previous two specials, and the TV series that followed almost immediately afterwards.
     
    This, plus the original Transformers animated movie done at approximately the same time, apparently lost so much money for Hasbro that it caused them to have a complete rethink on animated movies as a whole, switching to direct-to-video outings and cancelling several other films outright. According to my research, this is one of the reasons why many animation grognards dislike My Little Pony out of principle.
     
    Summary: Three witches form a plan to drive the ponies out of their land, and unleash an unstoppable horror upon all. All the inhabitants of Ponyland have to work together to do the impossible, and stop the Smooze.
     
    Anyway, on with my notes:
     

     
    Birds also interacting with rainbow like it's water. So it's the rainbows themselves that have different physical properties than in the real world, not any innate power of the pegasi.
     
    Winter wrap-up-kind of stuff, but with the animals doing it themselves.
     
    "Spring Festival"
     
    Old-style basketball. I remember doing this kind of thing myself with bushel baskets. (I grew up in rural Ontario, Canada in case it matters.)
     
    Another new building, this one a clamshell stage. With a rather distressed upright piano sitting outside right in front.
     
    Maypole, apple dunk. Balloon pop, played by the animals. So the animals are just as sentient as the ponies here.
     
    Volcano. Rednecks? Nope, witches. Two teenagers and their mother. Reeka, Draggle, and Hydia.
     
    Wait, wait. This is important: Ponies a are *new* to the area. Parents of the older witch lived here first. Ponies are not native to this place, they came from somewhere else first.
     
    Lots of evidence that human kingdoms surround the pony area.
     
    Animals are definitely sentient. The skunk talks.
     
    Lamp in the nursery, might be a candle, oil, or gas lamp, but not likely given the cloth lampshade. That means electricity or magical electricity-equivalent (fireflies?)
     
    Standard pencil. Actually kind of a cute easter egg there, since Hasbro was originally a pencil manufacturer.
     
    Volcano of Gloom is the official name of the witch's volcano, which is within visual distance of Dream Castle.
     
    Seaponies and bushwollies again. *sigh* I was hoping for something new, not re-hashed side-characters which serve no real narrative purpose.
     
    Wait, what's with that one pony's eyes? They're red rather than the standard black.Okay, quick pause for research, and that's Fizzy, one of the 'Twinkle-Eyed' unicorns that had gems for eyes. Possible connection to the Crystal Ponies of G4?
     
    Nightmare Heights has more witches.
     
    Smooze?
     
    Mention of a Grundleland on the other side of the Black Mountains that was wiped out by the Smooze.
     
    Ghosts & animated skeletons. Part of a musical number, so probably figurative rather than actual creatures from the setting.
     
    One pony knew what the Smooze was right away. But nobody else did. Magic Star is apparently more well-travelled than the rest of the ponies.
     
    Megan has little siblings. Fast acceptance of the ponies now by these new humans. Very 80's outfit she's wearing, overalls with the sides removed and frills. I remember seeing girls wearing that kind of nonsense at the time.
     
    Smooze is semi-sentient. Sticks to stuff and makes them grumpy.
     
    Lots of action, but is the Rainbow of Light really doing anything against the smooze other than making a mess?
     
    Nope. Ex Machina didn't pay it's Dues this time.
     
    Dream Castle is covered by the Smooze.
    Magical artifacts are *easy* to come by. Let's just go pick up another Rainbow of Light at the corner store.
     
    Smooze seems to be a physical manifestation of Discord's little trick.
     
    That's one ugly plant. Aggressive too.
     
    Back to Moochick.
     
    Not in the magic mushroom anymore, and the rabbit isn't wearing pants.
     
    3D checkers. Fascinating.
     
    Mushrump?
     
    References to Earth. Capri, Egypt, etc. as the Moochick really has an issue with the ponies being homeless. Yet refuses to understand that the ponies just want their old home back.
     
    Tony Randall doing the Moochick really isn't that far off of John De Lance as Discord, really. Sort of a mirror image. It's almost like Moochick is Discord's senile older brother or something. He's not relying on a wand this time around, though.
     
    Moochick creates 'Paradise Estates'. It's probably based on a playset produced by Hasbro, but architecturally is very similar to many southern California homes I've seen. A bit over-decorated, but strip that away and it's a standard adobe and tile estate with a central court surrounded on all sides by a building. Definitely Spanish heritage.
     
    Flutterponies in Fluttervalley
     
    Grundles, a kind of goblin. Amusing, but why are they here?
     
    What now? What's an Ohg? I'm guessing on that spelling, as I can find no other reference to this thing.
     
    Upgraded Smooze actually destructive.
     
    Giant sunflower field on the way to Fluttervalley.
     
    Unicorn teleportation doesn't work with a rider.
     
    Fluttervalley is on the other side of 'Shadow Valley'.
     
    Smooze doesn't seem to affect Spike the way it does the ponies and bushwollies. He's sad his tail's got goop on it, but that's it. Others get all grumpy about life in general, but not Spike.
     
    You know, I expected flutterponies to be smaller. I might be remembering something else from later in the series.
     
    Evil, aggressive trees. Shadow Valley feels a lot like the Everfree Forest.
     
    What te fuc? One eyed spider/crab thingy? That must be Ohg.
     
    Flutterponies have a queen. The Flutterponies are non-interventionalist and don't want to get involved in anyone else's problems. And live in little pagodas in the trees throughout the valley.
     
    Witches were aware of the flutterponies being anti-smooze.
     
    Dream Castle is recovered, and the Rainbow of Light, by the Flutterponies doing aerial cavalry charges. They're a lot more militantly organized than the pegasi have been shown to be.
     
    What? Now the Rainbow gets involved again, and collects up the smooze and witches and mixes them all up, dropping them back in the volcano. Why didn't it do this back in the beginning, if it had that kind of power?
     
    Grundles are given Dream Castle to found a new country. Ponies stay at Paradise Estates. I guess all the other kingdoms surrounding the area aren't going to care about a political upheaval in their neighboring country.
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