VelvetDivan

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/193672/sisterhooves-social-deleted-scenes Did you ever wonder what Rarity went through preparing for the Sisterhooves Social race? Wonder no more! Rarity wades through mud, grape juice, egg yolk, and a certain freckled farmer's attempts at encouragement, all in the name of sisterhood. While we all know how it turned out, you may not know how close Rarity came to calling it quits during the harrowing ordeal. Only love for her sister could help her stay the course.

Well, there's a difference between poor characterization, and taking a character in a different direction. I remember one fic (a Scoota-orphan one) that depicted Mr. Cake as a pretty nasty guy when it came to keeping sorts he regarded as unsavory out of his shop. He actually attacked Scootaloo with a broom. I couldn't read a fic featuring Mr. Cake without being mad at him, for weeks. He remained his canon-self around actual friends/paying customers, so while many of us might feel behavior like that goes against his nature, we've never seen him in a situation like that in the show. It's possible he would react that way, showing a different side of himself. As long as we can suspend disbelief, the writer can get away with it. Other fics just don't have a good grasp on the characters, their personalities, quirks, and their motivations, so the cast come off 'wrong' or worse: everyone feels like the same character with different names. Other writers who are just starting out make the mistake of not digging deeply enough into the characters, and their own copies of the ponies ring hollow. They'll fixate on superficial characteristics (Rainbow Dash's competitiveness, Twilight's love of books) and decide that's enough to set the characters apart. Two-dimensional characters are poor vehicles for plot, and a good way to drive off readers.

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/148909/sweet-apple-acres-for-sale-by-owner Applejack has tried everything she can think of to turn things around at her family farm, but every month brings disappointing sales and further expenses. She feels the weight of responsibility for the farm and its imminent failure bearing down on her harder every day, and every failed attempt to fix things drives her deeper into depression. Old habits kick in, and friends' searching questions are deflected, sidestepped, and eventually even answered with outright lies. Sweet Apple Acres, the Apple family, and even the Elements of Harmony are all in greater danger than all but one mare knows, or will admit. (This story began as my 2013 Nanowrimo novel, and it took me almost a year to finish revising it to a point I felt comfortable calling it finished. I hope you'll give it a shot and let me know what you think.)

In case anyone's into the whole silly MLP RP scene on twitter, I'll leave my newly-minted account link here. http://twitter.com/VelvetDivan My couch-smithing carpenter stallion's off to try to make a living in Ponyville!

Agreed, you really need to work in colloquialisms and the occasional rustic saying. You don't want her to come across as a total hayseed, because she isn't, but she does move in those circles and she's picked up a lot of lingo that more urban creatures would describe as quaint or 'charming.' Or even 'colorful' occasionally, if you worked her up to the point of cursing. Here are a few links that might yield some useful phrases for us...or not. o,O http://www.examiner.com/article/southern-isms-50-of-the-funniest-southern-expressions-and-colloquialisms (Some of these are indeed...colorful.) Lot of repeats in here from the link above, but a few gems, like 'I'm feeling as low as a toad in a dry well.' http://usadeepsouth.ms11.net/southmouth.html More useful: a dictionary of southern slang, http://littlerock.about.com/cs/southernlife/a/aasouthslang.htm Less about accent and more about vocabulary, here's some pruning vocabulary if AJ ever gets technical about the trees she's bucking: http://www.homeorchardsociety.org/article/49/ General apple orchard operation information, which isn't terribly useful vocab-wise, but could be useful making AJ sound like she knows what she's talking about. http://naturescompanion.net/article-archive/winter-articles/7-starting-your-own-orchard http://fruit.cfans.umn.edu/apples/beforeyoustart/ Just keep in mind her production season is probably longer than we could expect given the pony-controlled weather.

I'm in the midst of writing a fanfic starring Applejack, and because I find her accent one of the most endearing things about the character, I've been working phonetically-spelled words (as well as truncating others with an apostrophe) into her dialog to reflect her accent. I don't want to overdo it, her accent isn't overwhelming, but I want readers to hear AJ in their heads when reading the lines I've written for her. Reading a few topics on FiMFiction however, it seems there's a good bit of push-back against this practice, and some people would prefer you write cleanly, leaving the accent and any drawl totally in the reader's mind. What do you think? Would you prefer to see AJ's accent spelled out somewhat, or does that distract you? Examples of replacements: I = Ah I've = Ah've Going = Goin' What are = What're Along those lines.

While I did enjoy it, I think you constrain yourself artistically too much by trying to hunt for scenes that literally reflect the song's lyrics, especially in the first portion of the video. I think you'd end up with a more powerful, cohesive video by sticking closer to your theme/setting (in this case Canterlot, and anything that evokes desert/oasis/faded luxury/quiet menace) even if it meant the scenes you showed seemed to ignore the lyrics. Scenes that exhibit the spirit of the song resonate just as powerfully if not moreso than literal lyric-matching, as entertaining as that can be sometimes. I loved the clip of Spike tossing away the menu after Gustav rattled on about not having the wine. That was worth a departure. Very nice timing.

Just learned of a new one today, called Candy Box. http://candies.aniwey.net/ It's ascii art based, and definitely a feel-your-way-through sort of game, but it seems interesting. Lots of 'oh neat, now I can do THIS' moments.

The name isn't just a name either. The game mocks pretty much everything and every one at some point. Hippies, frat boys, Trekkies, furries, Linux enthusiasts, Harry Potter fans, Twilight fans, Whovians, the list is endless and so are the puns. They add new quests and areas, and upgrade old quests/areas with fair regularity. Did I mention the game has an absurdly rich crafting system? You can craft food, booze, weapons, armor, accessories, familiars, potions, and more. There's a wiki to help you out if you get stuck, but helpfully, the game keeps track of the recipes you've discovered already so you needn't figure out what you had to combine to make eggnog, all over again.

What are some free in-browser games you bronies enjoy? I'll post a few of my favorites. www.kingdomofloathing.com is my top favorite. It looks terrible, with stick-figure art and so on, but that's intentional. The writing is hilarious. Usually I can convince people to try it based on the character classes you can play, alone. Seal Clubber, Turtle Tamer, Pastamancer, Sauceror, Accordion Thief, and Disco Bandit. It's a game with a lot of replay potential, because when you finish the main questline you have the option to 'ascend' and reincarnate, potentially keeping one of your skills from your first playthrough. You can give yourself handicaps in subsequent playthroughs that will give you greater rewards if you finish *that* playthrough. Like most of these games, you can pay real currency for in-game items if you wish, but you're limited in how much progress you can make each day regardless. While there's no multiplayer as we'd tend to think of it, there is optional PvP, and you can join a clan/guild, and clans can purchase access to clan dungeons, which you cooperatively explore/conquer...though each player still plays on their own. The interface doesn't provide a way to form a party. http://www.unlok.ca/wayward/ A graphical rogue-like, this game reminds me a lot of Minecraft with its crafting system. Give it a try, wander around. Try not to let a giant spider kill you. http://www.minethings.com/miners/index/+127523 (That's my recruit link. If you don't want me to get any kickbacks, just use www.minethings.com ) is a veeeeeeery slow-paced mining game. Not terribly exciting by any stretch, but if you like the excitement of unearthing who-knows-what and think you have the patience, give it a try. I've never seen a game this slow before, and at least you don't have to pay much attention to it! http://www.erepublik.com is an...electronic republic. There are elections, constant wars, and factories pumping out goods everywhere. It was more of an interesting idea when it started, when politics was actually something approaching *real* politics and the parties apparently had different ideologies, but it's still a bit fun. This one really pushes you hard to spend money to get ahead.

Yes, the game was a bit glitchy. For instance: I had Legion problems. At some point, even if you've ticked off the Legion royally, a representative is supposed to contact you and give you an item that lets you reach their fort so you have a chat with the head honcho. That dude never made an appearance. So...I used the console to give myself that item, right? It, erm, didn't do a thing. Everyone in the fort wanted to eat my head. So, I used the console to manually change my reputation with the legion. That didn't work either. I was totally unable to pursue any non-violent options or even see dialog with the Legion because of this glitch. It didn't make the game unwinnable, but it did break the chain of how my character had handled things up 'til then, and disrupted a climactic point in the plot. On the flip-side, I really liked how NV's choices were far from black and white morally-speaking. You really had to think hard about whether what you were doing was 'right' or not. You had to adjust your moral frame of reference to match that of someone living in the post-apocalyptic wasteland. You could forgive and forget things which we would scream demands for execution in today's world, and feel okay about it...while on the other hand shooting someone in the face for trying to steal your meager possessions starts to sound totally reasonable.

Someone taught me a simple, horrible-for-you but tasty ramen recipe I've played with over the years. Cook your ramen noodles like usual, but omit the seasoning packet. While your water is boiling, etc. open a can of cream of mushroom soup, and either heat it on the stove (boo, time consuming) or cook it in a covered bowl in the microwave (yay, instant gratification!) Either way you go, add a can of drained tuna to the soup, and some ground coriander (the seeds, not the herbs, for our UK bronies.) When the ramen and soup mixtures are both cooked, drain the ramen (you don't have to get every drop, just make sure it isn't waterlogged) and combine them, stirring well. This is the stage I would add fresh-grated parm or romano cheese if you'd like. The resulting mess looks like BRAINS but it's delicious. If you have company, you can make a casserole version! Follow the above directions but double everything, (don't bother cooking the soup/tuna) and pour the resulting mixture into a rectangular casserole dish. You can add peas, or broccoli florets to make it slightly healthier. Instead of mixing the cheese into it (or in addition to, 6,6 ) top with parm/romano or even sharp cheddar, bake at 350 for 30 minutes, and for the last 5-10 minutes of baking pour on some French fried onions. Watch them carefully, those suckers love to burn. WARNING: this casserole is extremely dense. Eat slowly, or you will find yourself feeling like you've just eaten a cinder block. As Brisineo mentioned, when cooking more conventional ramen you can crack a raw egg into the cooking noodles and it will cook right there with your ramen. Try to add the egg in a slow stream instead of a big plop, or the egg will sink to the bottom of the pot and stick there. x,x

You see a spider on your ceiling or wall near your bed, and keep a wary eye on it, but you lose track of it before bed, and have to sleep, knowing it could be planning an expedition down your throat. Passing a gas station on the way into work, noting a good price and making a mental note to fill up on the way home...but on the way back, the price has jumped 30 cents. The dried-milk crust that forms in the screw-cap threads of milk cartons and flakes off when you open it, or worse, sticks to your mouth when you drink from the carton (I bet most of you do it too, don't lie.) The bananas in Runts candies. Waking up every 13 minutes and staring at the clock the night before something important that YOU NEED to be well-rested for.

Indian - Tikka masala, heaven on a plate. Italian - rigatoni and chicken in a rosa sauce is divine at my favorite restaurant, but anywhere that has its sauces perfected is a treasure. Chinese - Not really sure how exotic Americanized 'Chinese food' actually is these days, but sesame chicken is my medicine. Let's hear it for crab rangoon and hot and sour soup too. Hard to find a decent hot and sour soup though! Lebanese - Chicken schwarma sammiches, with fresh pita bread and hummus on the side. *Drooooooool* West African - 'Ground nut' (peanut) soup, and beef stew. 'Beef stew' you say? That's not exotic! True, but because of the different vegetables and spices used from the region, it tastes quite different from what we're used to, and it's yummy, trust me.

I agree that factory farming is horrific, damaging to the environment, and in fact produces inferior meat. (If you've ever had a real free range chicken, raised out in a yard on nothing more complex than corn, you know that the modern mutant factoryfarm-chicken has virtually no flavor at all.) I agree that in these modern times, it is possible to live a normal healthy life without consuming meat, though I don't think it's practical to do so without supplements, and at this point it can also be extremely inconvenient to try and get veg-friendly options at restaurants and moreso at friends' homes. I have a friend who did long-haul trucking for awhile, and went vegetarian. He ended up having to make most of his food himself in the cab of his truck, because as you might imagine, it isn't easy to stay meat-free when the only places around or open are Waffle House, Steak & Shake, or McDonalds. I saw a LOT of whining in this thread about vegetables tasting lousy. Everypony, you haven't been eating properly prepared vegetables. It doesn't take much in the way of spices, herbs, or a different method of cooking, to turn DREADFUL limp *gray* greenbeans into something you'd actually enjoy eating. Peas? Brusselsprouts? I bet a lot of you are making faces. You've been traumatized by your parent's cooking, most likely. Veggies can taste great, and vegetarians have come up with a lot of recipes that mimic dishes you love, but skip the meat. It's amazing how one can achieve meat-like flavors with things like nuts and mushrooms. In short, try not to hate on veggies so much. It's not their fault someone who didn't know what they were doing cooked them for you. If your parents burned your steak to a crisp every time you had it, you'd probably hate steak today instead of boiled cabbage. Having said all of that, I'm not interested in cutting meat out of my diet. Variety is the spice of life, and though for purely environmental reasons it would be wise of us to eat meat in moderation (and eat higher quality meat, from small local sources ideally) I know it's fruitless to even attempt to push such an opinion on people. Most of us are going to do what's easy, what's cheap, and what satisfies us the fastest. That's why we're still driving gas-powered cars. That's why we're still using coal-burning power plants. The ideal solution in my eyes? Vat-grown meat. We're making great progress towards this, if you've been paying attention to any news about tissue culturing, skin grafts, etc. It's not an easy problem; it isn't a simple matter of culturing muscle cells in a petri dish. What we call 'meat' is a complex arrangement of several tissues, and it's been aged and exercised besides. We will get there in time though, and the new 'ranches' will take up less space, consume fewer resources, cause zero pain and suffering, and will even expand our palate. Imagine eating bear steaks, or lemur hotdogs. There's no guilt anymore, because nothing with a brain died to give you your dinner. The conventional ranches would not all vanish, unfortunately. There will be hold-outs, people who insist the Real Thing tastes better, but it will become more and more of a niche luxury. It's very hard to convince people to change for nebulous ethical reasons, especially when the animals suffering are so tragically un-cute and apparently dumb. Trying to convince them it's for their health doesn't work either, because most of them realize you don't give two ratbums about their health personally, you're just pushing your agenda. Sure, you might have some ethereal wish to see overall health in the world increase, but otherwise? Yeah. It's been said already, but it bears repeating. The number one reason why non-vegetarians dislike vegetarians is their attitude. It comes through loud and clear in the title of this thread and in the tone of the original post. You're not pitching an argument, you're making a demand. You're standing on the stump of righteousness, not making an appeal. It's admirable that you've managed to resist the temptation of meat, and sharing what you've learned--your reasons for your decision--is well and good, but next time I suggest you take the approach of offering your knowledge rather than demanding change.

Tidus, from Final Fantasy X. Hate the voice actor, hate the character, hate his lines, hate his attitude, hate his dim-witted conclusions and justifications... Pretty much anytime he said anything or did anything that I wasn't making him do personally, I wanted to cast firaga on his face.

While you won't be thrilled with System Shock 2's graphics, there are mods available to make it look better than it originally did. Playing it, you'll see the roots of Bioshock. Cameras that alert enemies to your location, hackable turrets/cameras/vending machines, points you earn to distribute among your attributes and skills, keeping you isolated from allies and only allowing communication via radio or through recorded logs... Both games don't allow 'cleared' areas to remain cleared for long, so you're never able to truly relax. You're bound to get annoyed by the inventory management and the weapon degradation feature, but try to stick with it. They *do* add to the game by keeping you desperate, keeping you nervous, keeping you feel unprepared. While there are no Big Daddies, there are plenty of opponents that make distinctive sounds you'll learn to dread...

Do not read this thread if you mind spoilers! I've been a fan of System Shock 2 since I played the game five years or so ago, and it scared the pants off me. I didn't get around to playing Bioshock until recently though, and I've been making my way slowly through the first game. The plasmid system was an interesting replacement for the PSI abilities from SS2, and the plasmids are streamlined enough that I was encouraged to use those abilities more than I ever bothered with SS2's PSI powers. While I do kind of appreciate not having to struggle with inventory management in Bioshock, it was one of the elements from SS2 that made me feel like I was struggling in a survival situation, keeping with me just what I needed most. I had to make painful decisions at times, leaving behind weapons or resources. The only way this is reflected in Bioshock is the limits on how much ammo or how many items you can carry. As far as the environment goes, Rapture is radically different from the Von Braun. There was almost nothing 'beautiful' about the sterile corridors of SS2's starship, or its crippled laboratories and blood-smeared deck plates. Still, most of the ship looked like with a week's cleanup using a small army of janitors and engineers, it would look as good as new. You were following right on the heels of the trouble that had transpired there. Rapture on the other hand was a *mess* that was beyond salvaging, both socially and physically. While I would hardly call the more interior sections, the shabby apartments and steelworks-esque underbelly beautiful, every time you found a porthole, a window, or a tunnel looking out into the sea it was like an (ironically enough) breath of fresh air. There was grandeur in some of the environments, and you could feel for Ryan, seeing how run down and overrun with crazed Splicers the sites had become. Rapture was far darker, literally, than the Von Braun. There are more shadows for enemies to lurk in, and you barely ever saw any of your opponents in full light. It's only gotten worse as I've reached the escort portion of the game, donning the Big Daddy suit, restricting my vision. (Yes, I haven't yet finished the game.) As far as the plot goes, I was expecting to be betrayed, quite possibly by Atlas, but the mechanic of the betrayal was a total shock. Ryan's death was grisly, possibly the most visceral death ever dealt out at the hands of a character I controlled. Not the most violent, but the death in which I could *feel* every blow that caused it, and it meant something. It wasn't just 'one more' body on my way towards the finish line. In System Shock 2 you never kill anyone who isn't beyond redemption, and though you are deceived, you're always in control of your own actions physically. With all the cybernetic implants it's almost surprising SHODAN didn't have a degree of direct control over you near the end, but that avenue wasn't explored in the game. I could blather on, but does anyone have any thoughts to share about the two games?

I hear you, Silverhoof. My special talent is definitely writing, but secondarily I also have pretty serious patience, allowing me to do things like painstakingly research details for a project, or cut excruciatingly-tiny bits of tape while masking an object for a paint job. Also, I can stuff a tennisball in my mouth and close my lips over it, so no trace of it is visible. o,o

I was struck yesterday by an idea for a fun electronics project. Take a ring similar to this, http://www.etsy.com/listing/126725377/dr-whooves-ring-time-turner-mlp-fim Bore a tiny hole in the face of the ring, install a photoelectric sensor and hook that to a programmable sound chip and speaker. (You can cannibalize them from 'talking' picture frames and such if you don't want to order expensive parts from catalogs.) When you brohoof someone while wearing the ring, the darkness of their knuckles against the ring triggers the sensor and thus the chip, playing a 'clop' sound. I'm not positive I can fit all of that into a ring, even a chunky one, so my next thought was to go with a bracelet, but then the triggering mechanism has to change, unless you actually connect it to a ring with a wire, disguised or not. I suppose you could manage something clever with a RFID tag to make it wireless, but I foresee that causing more problems than it solves. What do you think? Are there any electronics experts out there? Any ponies with a soldering-iron cutie-mark?