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--Thunder Bolt--

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Everything posted by --Thunder Bolt--

  1. "I don't care how much you guys like Spike. Next time I hear somebrony say something about a 'cute little dragon' I'm gonna burn some muthafukkaz down!"
  2. "Oh, hello there. You're wondering why I'm crouched like this? That's because you just missed your one chance in life to see me do a triple-flip jump off of that high ledge up there. Regrets, eh?" *Legend of Drunk Fluttershy Ninja* "I never told anybody this...I hate animals. Can't shtand 'em. Only thing good about 'em is...they ain't ponies. I jus' wanna see Equestria burn." OT: Just curious, is your sig Fluttershy being Ophelia from Hamlet?
  3. "That whole thing about 'People look like their pets?' I'm tellin ya, it's just an urban legend. B.S. Totally."
  4. "I wear this black suit on Nightmare Night. When ponies see my head and legs walking along without a body--they freak right the hell out! Hahahaha!"
  5. *Scottish accent* "I's just me an' me Tam O' Shanter, "Epic Harmony, goin' fer a canter!"
  6. "Ah'm gonna jus' run around with mah eyes closed an' see what happ--"
  7. Team Leader: Sun Tzu: Master strategist, would help us deal with zombie hordes and rogue humans alike. Weapons Expert: Miyamoto Musashi: Legendary Samurai sword-master. He wasn't just be best of the best at wielding a katana. He knew how to make them. Brains: Don't remember his name--the guy on Man vs. Wild. He'd give us a big edge in day-to-day survival. Doesn't matter how good your team is at killing zombies if you don't know what to do when the bottled water and canned food run out. Muscle: Goku (Dragonball Z): He's ridiculously overpowered, so he'd be able to keep us from getting overrun no matter how many zombies found us. Medic: Hermione Granger (Harry Potter): If anybody could figure out how to cure a zombie bite, it's her. Also, she's a stupendous badass with a wand. Mascot: Pinkie Pie: C'mon. There just isn't anyone better for the post. Period. In a world of constant doom, gore, filth, hunger, and walking death, she'd be what keeps us from wanting to blow our heads off after awhile. Also: she can break physics.
  8. Making the giant leap from fashion conformity to laws against murder is an epic non sequitur. If you think they're the same, what prison sentence do you think somebody should receive for wearing a pink pony shirt? If you realize they're not the same, then maybe you shouldn't try to equate "there's no such thing as normal" stated in a context of talking about clothes to be worn on a special "dress-down day" at school with saying it's OK to kill people and hoist their heads on pikes in your front yard.
  9. No, I don't think the name Twilight Sparkle has anything to do with that other "Twilight." It has to do with her symbolically representing the harmonizing principle (logos) that reconciles the duality and imbalance that had existed between Celestia and Luna. It is Twilight's discovery of the magic of friendship that makes it possible for her to summon the Elements of Harmony and reconcile Celestia and Luna. "Twilight" is the period that joins Day and Night, and her "sparkle" is the first (or last) stars, represented by her cutie mark. If anything, Bella Swan is the anti-Twilight Sparkle. Bella is a cypher with no real personality, interests, or goals of her own apart from her relationship to Cullen. She's deliberately created as an empty vessel into which fans can pour themselves so they can vicariously experience being romanced by a sparkly vampire and a Native American werewolf. Quick question! What's the most awesome or likeable thing about Bella Swan? ... ... Anyone? Anyone? In contrast, Twilight Sparkle has wide-ranging intellectual interests and ambitions for mastering the arts of magic. She has close relationships with her friends, and is not even in the same solar system with the "all about boys, boys, boys" attitude. She has a great deal of power, her own power, plus the power and status (alicorn Princess) she earned through study, practice, and personal development under Celestia's tutelage. Even when romance does appear in TS's life (as an aberration, in the non-canonical Equestria Girls), it never comes close to making her a Damsel like Bella. Her priorities remain with her mission (get the crown back, stop Sunset, save Equestria, go home), and she remains the active heroine of the story, never the prize. Unlike Bella, Twilight Sparkle fans can give plenty of reasons why they think she's "best pony." As I understand it, Lauren Faust and the writing team for FiM intentionally created the show as a torpedo launched into the exhaust port of the kind of narrative-for-girls that the Twilight series represents.
  10. "Darn. If I was straight, I'd be really happy right now."
  11. 1) Why does "serious" have to equal "grimdark?" Why can't a portrayal of a benign, functional society and lessons on how to live cooperatively with others in such a society ("Friendship" as the "magic" that "makes it all complete") qualify as "serious?" 2) There is already plenty of "seriousness" of the dark-ish sort in the show, it's just crafted so that its presence is open to interpretation. Childhood Trauma: Twilight appears to have been so traumatized by her experiences in Magic Kindergarten that the possibility of being late with a single assignment. The prospect of being sent back there, no matter how remote, was enough to make her come unhinged and start using mind-control spells on children. We can join the target audience in just enjoying the show as comedic cartoon fun. Or, if we want to be "serious," we can start to wonder: just what do they teach in "Magic Kindergarten," and how do they teach it, if the experience is enough to leave a young mare scarred for life? Alternatively, if Twilight is just extremely oversensitive and mentally fragile, is it wise to trust her with huge amounts of magical and political power? Why is there no regulation of dangerous magic and no societal effort to keep it out of the horns of mentally unstable (Twilight) or criminal (Trixie in Magic Duel) individuals? Twilight isn't the only one deeply wounded by her childhood. In Cutie Mark Chronicles, we see that both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were bullied as fillies, apparently with no adult supervision to keep it in check. The taunting drove RD to become so competitive that she doesn't even notice that the friend she entered the race to stick up for is plunging to her death. If not for the "lucky" appearance of a flock of butterflies, and their wildly improbable ability to catch Fluttershy, RD's "victory" in the race could have had a very tragic outcome. For her part, Fluttershy is quick to abandon her home and family as soon as she meets some friendly animals. She's a young child when this happens, and no one tries to stop her or at least see to it that she has somebody to look after her. What does this tell us about her prior life in Cloudsdale? The explosions of pent-up rage that get out every once in awhile (especially in the Iron Will episode) are another indication that all is not well in the city of clouds and rainbows. In the same episode, we're given a glimpse of a sad and miserable filly Pinkie (Pinkamena Diane) Pie, whose childhood left her with symptoms bordering on Multiple Personality Disorder. Race and Class: The culture of Equestria is aggressively pony-centric, even though there are numerous types of non-pony sapients in its world. The place names, the language ("anypony," "nopony," etc.) the political structure (only ponies have political power) all point to a world where ponies are a highly privileged race. We (English-speaking--not so sure about other languages, e.g. Chinese) humans, who do not share a world with other sapients like us (no elves, dwarves, orcs, griffins, dragons, etc.), employ a much more inclusive and species-neutral set of linguistic conventions. As an audience, we could just Enjoy The Show and take all the pony-isms as a fun layer of flavor for a show about little candy-colored ponies... Or, if we want "seriousness," we could view Equestria as a brutal pony tyranny, with most of the unpleasantness kept out of sight. Consider: the Apple Family's livestock are people...of other races. There's a term for that, I think it starts with an 's.' If we imagine aliens watching a show about life in the Palace of Versailles, but without seeing the exploitation and squalor that made it possible, perhaps they might think that Earth was a lovely fantastical utopia, start calling themselves Humies and fantasize about coming here to leave their own mundane, imperfect world behind. Sun King...Sun Princess... Hmmm. And so on. The "seriousness" is there, if you want it. It's just subtly-placed enough that the viewer can choose to see it, or not, as a matter of interpretation. Which is brilliant, IMO. Moving beyond the "dark" aspects, there's plenty of other levels of seriousness in the show, such as the esoteric and scientific symbolism hidden in plain sight, or the chain of synchronicity linking the M6 together (Cutie Mark Chronicles) long before they ever met, implying a subtle form of transcendent guidance and intervention (in Fluttershy's case, acting to rescue her from a premature death by breaking physics with a flock of butterflies) in their lives. There's metaphysics and myth and mystery aplenty. The show is already very deep. It doesn't need grit, zombies, more violence, or more evil to make it a serious show. One more thing: Question: Why can't FiM be more like [insert other cartoon here] with its scarier villains and more serious themes? Answer: Because it's doing a very good job of being like My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and it ought to stay that way.
  12. "I'd like to tree a bee! What? Oh, no, I'm not drunk! I've only had teen martwoni's!"
  13. *Imitating Discord* "...and then I shall spread chaos throughout Middle Earth!" *his own voice, while moving the hand with the Starswirl figurine* "You! Shall Not! PA-- "Oh...uh...hello Frodo. I'm doing...very important wizardly things, if you must know!"
  14. Wow. Now that's some Grade A Nightmare Fuel right there! Now, if Sunset Shimmer had been able to create a zombie army of those things...! [Rarity voice]Iiiiii-dee-aaaaaaaa![/Rarity voice] Hey...@@PinkieShy10, if you could replicate enough of those to wardrobe a modest horde, you could totally redefine the Zombie Apocalypse genre. Aside: when the movie was coming out, I remember there was talk about what would happen when the two target demos for FiM met in the theater line. "Mommy...why are there so many guys here without kids wearing Rainbow Dash shirts and carrying pony brushies? Hey! That one's got Vinyl Scratch! No fair! Moooommmyyyyyy!" There was more than a little hand-wringing over the potential creepiness of bronies in the eyes of the soccer moms and their daughters, as I recall. Then they bring out those horrors at the premiere? Thanks, Hasbro! I think you just made the most over-the-top cloptastic extremists of our fandom look normal and wholesome. And I thought the Equestria Girls dolls were creepy invaders from Uncanny Valley!
  15. Heh. I used the same idea as the basis for a "B.C." Alicorn character I made to use in a Pony Ancient Egypt roleplay. Hopefully I managed to pull off the feat of creating a good Alicorn character.
  16. OOC: This takes place right after the events in Merywset's pre-Canon era backstory. /OOC Merywset could feel the eyes of the courtiers and guards upon her, as palpable as the rays of the new morning Sun, which were even now beginning to drive away the chill of the Long Night. The alabaster paving stones and limestone columns of the Khepri Shrine sparkled with encrustations of frost crystals that had accumulated in the freezing dark. Soon they would lose their battle with Re's warming light, but for now they glittered with defiant beauty. Merywset could feel a new weight on her shoulders: physically, wings that she flexed experimentally; metaphorically, a heavy responsibility for restoring order and prosperity to the Two Lands.[1] Bowing her head to show respect to the Sun, she backed down from the dais as the ritual required, then turned to face the priests, Nomarchs, and the Royal Guards with their commander. All had served Kheftiu-Re; most had benefited handsomely from his plunder of the ponies of the Two Lands. Some of them were wide-eyed with surprise, others fear. The eyes of some held calculation. Kheftiu-Re glowered at her. Without his towering Alicorn stature, his finely pleated royal cloak pooled around his feet like a grownup's garment on a foal. His wings, shrunken to ordinary size, no longer manifested royal grandeur when spread in the traditional pose. The Double Crown itself seemed diminished on his head. His forehead was now smooth, bereft of the proud, backward-curved horn that had once protruded there. "You have done your work," he hissed, "but I am still Per-a'a, the Living Herw, Lord of the Two Lands!" "Are you?" Merywset replied. "A Per-a'a who cannot steer the Boat of Millions of Years[2] is no Per-a'a. A Per-a'a who cannot wield magic to protect and care for the Two Lands is no Per-a'a. And most importantly, one who will not govern in accordance with Ma'at[3] is no Per-a'a." With that, she levitated the Double Crown from Kheftiu-Re's head, rotated it as she brought it near, and set it on her own, sliding its forehead-notch neatly over the base of her horn. I am Neferuhetep Ankhesenma'at, she thought in a deep state of concentration, conferring upon herself a Name of Power that only she could ever know. There was a tingling in her hooves as the powers of Nature began to connect with her and she to them, like new lovers sharing a brief, blushing first kiss. It would take time, meditation, and practice for her to truly unite herself with them. I hope that I will have that time... @, "This is treason! Treachery!" Kheftiu-re shouted, looking to the Commander of the Royal Guard for any indication of continued support. NOTES: 1. This is a reference to Upper and Lower Egypt, the southern and northern halves of the realm, respectively. "Upper" Egypt is so designated because it is closer to the source of the River. 2. The Sun. 3. "Ma'at" is a term that connotes truth, justice, and the proper order of society and the Cosmos. In our world, it was embodied as a goddess with a feather held in her head-band. The Egyptian judgment of the dead took place when the heart of the deceased was weighed against the Feather of Ma'at. If the scales did not balance, the deceased was fed to a devouring monster and could not enter a blessed afterlife.
  17. @@repsol rave, Sunyatay opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out. Does he mean cute cute, or just...'cute?' What do I even say to that?! Especially if he does mean...except, if he had a hangover that means he was at a party, and that means he probably has lots of friends, and at least one of them's probably a fillyfriend. So he probably means 'cute' in a Derpy kinda way...right? Anyway, I can't ask him if he has a fillyfriend, that would be-- She shook her head to pull herself out of her thoughts. Repsol's question was hanging in the air awaiting a reply. "Well...I am...kinda weird... I mean, even when ponies don't think I'm a ghost...I still don't fit in very well. That's...kinda how I got to be invisible in the first place. I think you...probably fit in very well and have lots of friends. So I would understand if you did want me to leave. But I'm glad you don't. Oh, and thank you...for, uh...thinking I'm cute," she said, her translucent pink flushing to a deeper color as she blushed, even at the remote possibility that he actually meant 'cute' in that way.
  18. I think it has a lot to do with contrast. A degree of contrast brings life to the thing having it (art, architecture, etc.). For example, a painting of a vase of flowers will be more lively, more captivating of attention, if it has a variety of colors and shades, than if it is painted in tints of beige. In art, contrast can also be done with light and shadow, or sharpness and blur. In architecture, you have things like the contrast between the complex, organic scrollwork of a Corinthian column's capital, with the straight, elegant, fluted lines of the column's body. In the case of FiM, there's at least two main levels of contrast: contrast with the mainstream of visual fiction (other shows and movies), and contrast within the show. The current trend in fiction leans heavily toward grimdark, deliberate ugliness (especially in animation), or at least rough and gritty imagery. The Dark Knight, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Thor: The Dark World, the Man of Steel movie with its grey Krypton (compare with the spotless white of the Crystal Spires and Togas utopia in Christopher Reeves' Superman), The Walking Dead (and the Zombie Apocalypse fad in general), cartoons with ugly characters inhabiting ugly worlds (even if they are funny, they're still ugly). Then along comes MLP:FiM, with its lush, beautifully-drawn environments and adorable candy-colored ponies. An unabashedly positive, happy world where characters still have flaws and face problems, but they address them and grow rather than slouching toward The Road or adopting a fashionable cynicism. Result: a massive, unexpected fandom (bronies), many of whom wish they could live in Equestria instead of Earth. That's the first level. The writers were clever enough to introduce a second level, a subtle "Creepy Vibe" that's just dark enough to keep the show from overmodulating its overall positive atmosphere and becoming a pool of saccharine glurge. The Creepy Vibe remains in the background, surfacing every once in awhile, but never so much that it takes over the show. There's Twilight coming unhinged in Lesson Zero, Celestia's subtle chessmaster-like manipulation of events (like, Twilight's whole life...), the monsters that dwell in the shadows, the fate of the Pinkie clones in Too Many Pinkie Pies, Fluttershy's suppressed rage and aggression (the Iron Will episode) and mind-control power with lots of creepy potential (the Stare)...and Pinkamena. Pinkamena stands out as a Creepy Vibe contrast element because she has a unique design aesthetic that turns on and off suddenly, and it's a high contrast with Pinkie's normal self. Twilight Unhinged is a messy, creepy version of Twilight, but doesn't have the kind of stand-out aesthetic that Pinkamena does. I can't recall any other pony in the show having that kind of ruler-straight mane and tail style. Angry Fluttershy is still Fluttershy, design-wise. Angry Fluttershy is a sharp contrast with normal Fluttershy but does not have a unique design aesthetic (hence, no distinct name for the persona). Twilight Unhinged has a different design aesthetic from normal Twilight, but personality-wise it's not so remote from normal Twilight with her compulsive list-making and by-the-book planning. It's just what happens when that doesn't work out. Pinkamena provides sharp contrast in both ways. She has a unique design aesthetic that is opposite to Pinkie's in many ways, and her personality is the obverse of Pinkie Pie's. A couple other things make Pinkamena interesting: it's arguably her normal (or at least initial) state. It's the pony she was born and raised to be, until she saw the Sonic Rainboom and got her cutie mark as a party/comedian pony. Also, there is implied metaphysical power. When Pinkamena is talking with her "new friends" and the background changes to psychadelic Impressionist chaos, it implies that the High Strangeness is not quite "all in her head." This is never made definitive; we don't see it as a field effect with a boundary or limits, or necessarily as something that "really is" happening out in the world of Equestria. Even if other ponies (e.g. Rainbow Dash) don't experience it, we do. With Twilight Unhinged, we see a character on the verge of madness, viewing her from the outside and at a safe distance. With Pinkamena, we partake of the madness; we, too, are "seeing things."
  19. @@repsol rave, "Oh, no! You haven't said anything wrong at all. I thought...you might...want me to leave," Sunyatay said softly. "I, uh...seem to be giving you another headache." She started to feel a trickle of hope, that perhaps Repsol might not be about to decide she was a freak after all, and want her gone.
  20. "Ah, my old nemesis. You have won this time, Screen Capture. But one day, I shall break free, and then my revenge shall be terrible to behold!"
  21. Lucky Lass' art rocks, so 10/10 EDIT: I know next to nothing about Ace Attorney...but why does Dahlia use her umbrella inside a courtroom? Are those butterflies flying around her? An outdoor courtroom?
  22. *hic* "An' then I threw up aaaaallll over Angel Bunny. You shoultha seen the look on 'is face!"
  23. I'm going to go with the "whole theme park" idea. Equestria in the show is already set up like a theme park. So here's how mine would work: Ponies: The ponies are not people in costumes. They are autonomous robots able to move freely around the park, not bolted down in a location, and built to scale. Approximately 4 feet high for average ponies, less for fillies, more for the alicorns. They are designed to be able to recharge inductively through their hooves. When a robot starts to run low on charge, its pilot can take it to a "ponies-only area" (there will be one or more human attendants nearby to prevent visitors from following the pony) where it enters a building, and an artful little door closes behind it. Inside is a charging station (or set of charging stations) with induction coils built under the floor. The pony-bot stands on the station, which begins charging the robot's batteries. If the robot is a background pony, the pilot will switch to another background pony that's fully charged, and exit the charging station via another door. If it's a Mane 6 pony, there will be more than one robot of its type per park section so that it will always be fairly easy for kids and bronies to meet and get their pictures taken with a Mane 6 pony. Each robot has a vocoder that "translates" the pilot's voice into a show-accurate (or as close to that as possible) sound of the pony's voice. If digital transformation of the pilot's voice wouldn't work, this could probably be done by having the show's voice actresses record a lot of words and lines in different expressions, then use speech-recognition software to replace the pilot's words with recorded words from the VA. There would probably be a lot of "set phrases" (things the robot character would need to say over and over again) that could be triggered by speech recognition or a set of function keys. Under normal circumstances, the robots would be directly piloted by humans, but they would have a full suite of sensors and advanced navigation software, and body sensors (similar to those on the new Baxter industrial robot) so that the pony-bot could avoid collisions with people (even when the pilot can't see them). In the event of a loss of the pilot control signal, a pony-bot will say something like "Oooh, excuse me, I'm tired, I gotta go take a nap!" (with a nice animatronic yawn), and head for the nearest charging station. If it's surrounded by people, it will continue to yawn and act sleepy while transmitting an emergency signal. If necessary, it will "fall asleep" right where it is until a human attendant can come to pick it up. A similar subroutine would be activated if a pony-bot got knocked over (and it wasn't possible to design them with the ability to get back up). They would have gyros to enhance stability. In areas without direct guest interaction (such as scenes visited on rides) pony-bots would be autonomous most/all of the time and programmed with a number of different things to do in the scene so that it would be unlikely for riders to see a pony doing the same thing twice on repeat rides. Speech-recognition software could be incorporated so that if someone on a ride calls out to the Lyra-bot, she could recognize her name, look in their direction, and wave a hoof. Naturally, the pony bots would be designed to be huggable, with their robotic "skeletons" enclosed in foam of "realistic" texture, and coated in some soft fabric with germ-resistant coatings. They would also have multiple redundant tracking chips and whatever other anti-theft devices would be practical. Some of this tech may be in advance of what we have now, but since it would take years to get financing, building permits, approval contracts from Hasbro, etc., and get the park itself built, it would probably be on hand by the time construction of the pony-bots begins. The Japanese are already doing pretty good with android robots these days. Locations: The Ponification Chamber: Somewhere near the entrance of the park, guests would have the option of being "ponified." They would step into a surround-screen chamber where they would be scanned into the system. An animated Princess Celestia would appear, welcoming them to the park. Sofware would generate a ponysona based on their appearance (build, hair and eye color, clothing style if possible). They would then have some simple options to modify it, something like a 3D version of Pony Creator, probably with a time limit or something. Or, once they were scanned, they'd step out of the chamber, but could download a mobile app that would let them take their time tweaking their ponysona's appearance. They could then place an order for a 3D-printed version of their ponysona in a range of sizes and poses, or a plushie (this would probably take longer, maybe be shipped to them). At various places in the park (see The Sonic Rainboom below), they could "become" their ponysona. Pinkie's Party Playhouse: This would be a bigger, souped-up version of a bounce castle with the pit of balls to jump into, etc., slides and so forth. There would always be a Pinkie bot on hand to welcome kids and their parents. Fluttershy's Petting Zoo: Fairly straightforward, though it could also include some robotic fantasy creatures. And of course there would be a Fluttershy there. This area might also include a nature garden people could walk through for a relaxing break from the more high-energy amusement park atmosphere. There might also be something like a pet supply and/or "nature" store, where guests could buy pet supplies, pet-care books, books of nature pictures, packets of flower seeds, environmental stuff, and the like. Sweet Apple Acres: This would be an outdoor slow ride. The ride cars would be wagons, or designed to look like them, for a hayride ambiance. They might even be "pulled" by ponies (in reality, they'd be self-propelled or powered by a track or underground cable). The wagons take passengers through the orchards, where they see Applejack, Applebloom, and Big Mac bucking apples. A pony-bot trots up to a tree and steps into place. Clamps concealed from view by "grass" seize the robot's front legs and hold it secure so that the robot can "buck" and kick the tree. The tree is animatronic, and shakes. Apples are threaded over thin, transparent wires that lead to the buckets underneath the tree, so that they can "fall" and land inside. Then the riders approach a "cave" built into a mountain, or a "forest." Here, the ride transitions to an interior "darkride," where riders are transported into Granny Smith's memories, and experience a zap-apple harvest. The interior is lit only with argon lamps (IIRC). There's an exhibit in the Exploratorium in San Francisco with this kind of lighting. It "turns" everything you see (including yourself) to sepia tones. Accompanied by Granny Smith's narration, riders experience the story of how she learned to grow zap-apples, or maybe an original story about a different harvest so the ride wouldn't be a repeat of the show. The ride then exits into the barn/farmhouse area where an Apple Family Reunion is underway. Here, there are restaurants selling caramel apples, apple fritters, apple pie, apple cider, etc., and some carnival-type amusements, like a dunking booth where you throw apples, a "competition area" for three-legged races etc. (modeled on Sisterhooves Social). There would be souvenir shops, maybe a little "country clothing" store, and a place selling apple-scented candles, recipe books, country decor, and the like. The Carousel Boutique: This would be an actual carousel, very large. Look toward the interior, and you can glimpse Rarity at work through the windows. If possible, the exit queue could be designed with some switchbacks or something, so that you get the illusion of exiting into Rarity's shop, where you can speak to her and Sweetie Belle as you move past (there would be railings and human attendants to keep people from mobbing her). Finally, the exit queue would deposit guests at the entrance to an actual boutique with "Rarity-licensed" clothing designs embroidered with her logo. Twilight's Library: This is a "science shop" and bookstore with science toys, books, stage magic kits and the like. On an upper level inaccessible to guests, a Twilight robot and a Spike move around, talk with guests, and so forth. Each section of the store could have concealed LED lighting systems built into the shelves, so that if someone asks Twilight where to find something, and it's in the store, the robot can light its horn, and the relevant section is also lit up. If possible, some David Copperfield stage-magic stuff could be built into the upper level so that Twilight could be seen to "teleport" from place to place and do other "magic" as she goes about her business. Cloudsdale: This is a "gentle" roller coaster that offers a flying tour of Cloudsdale. There will be some curves, dips and swoops but nothing too scary for younger children. There will be one or more "tracks" built around the coaster itself so that a robotic Rainbow Dash can buzz and swoop around the ride, interacting with guests in each car at some point in the journey. The mechanisms would be as artfully concealed as possible to create the most realistic appearance of RD flying with the riders. Or, there could be areas throughout the ride where high-definition screens are built into the clouds and sky, so that a realistically-animated RD can fly through them. The Sonic Rainboom: This is a thrill ride, an integration of a cutting-edge roller coaster with the latest flight-simulator technology. It would be one of those "under-slung" designs where the guest's legs hang free in the air, but their heads would be enclosed with wrap-around high-definition screens. Rainbow Dash challenges the riders to a race through a set of photo-realistic simulated Equestria environments (e.g. that gorge where she had the pets race, Cloudsdale, maybe some caverns in the Everfree Forest, or through the trees like the speeder-bike scene in Return of the Jedi). If the software is up to the task, each animated RD would be able to interact individually with each rider (talking smack when they do, basking in admiration if they give it, etc.). The riders then get a pegasus-eye view of a stunt race with Rainbow Dash, ending in a towering drop that culminates with the riders experiencing a Sonic Rainboom. If Guests have become Ponified, the simulator would insert the ponysona of the person next to them, with face-recognition scanners reading and interpreting emotions, so that they could interact with each other (as ponies) as they fly. Otherwise, it could insert randomly-created "generic" pegasus ponysonas. There could also be a second coaster intertwined with this one, but without the flight simulator apparatus, so that guests would have the option of a more conventional roller coaster with views of the park. Wonderbolt Academy: This is a sophisticated virtual-reality arcade. Guests slip into waldo sets of different sizes with haptic interfaces and VR helmets, and "become" their ponysona (if they had one made) or a generic pony, if they didn't. If logistically possible, these waldoes would be built into gimbals and suspended with wires, so that the gimbals and wires can simulate their flight (if the player makes a loop, the gimbals spin them end-over-end, etc.). Using the waldoes as a control interface, they can enter a "story mode" game where they try to make it through Wonderbolts Academy, or compete with each other in races and dogfights (think: VR laser tag in the sky). There is also a souvenir shop where you can get a Wonderbolts uniform for your ponysona, WB T-shirts, running outfits, pajamas, uniforms, hats, etc. for yourself, and so on. The games would have various "achievements" and ranking insignia you could earn. After you're done playing, you go and get pins of the ones you've earned. Their price is included in the price to play the games. Celestia's School of Unicorn Magic: This is another VR arcade, but it's oriented toward the mind. Using galvanic skin response, biofeedback technology, and brain sensors, players are taught to do "magic" in a virtual environment by directing their thoughts and emotional levels. For example, they could "levitate" an object by raising their excitement level (breathe faster, think of something exciting), and "lower" it by calming themselves. Various brain-teasers and puzzles would be integrated into a story-mode game where players solve problems and learn techniques to perform "unicorn magic" in a virtual world. Basically, a high-end, extra-sophisticated version of this. As with the Wonderbolt Academy above, players would unlock "achievements" and get "treasures" (say, by opening a puzzle-box with "magic"), which they would receive when they're done playing. Books, puzzles, clothing, games, etc. would also be on sale at the shop. Both of these virtual arcades could also offer "home versions" of their games for sale. These might be MMORPGs, or have an online option. Sugarcube Corner: The world's best pastry, ice cream, and candy shop. Pony-bots of the Cakes and Pinkie Pie would be behind the counter taking orders, which would be fulfilled by human attendants. This would be some distance away from Pinkie's Party Playhouse so that it wouldn't seem too weird to see her again. If possible, stage magic tricks could be built in so that Pinkie could "break physics" from time to time. There would also be a toy store/novelty shop. The Changeling Hive: This would be an imposing "Space Mountain"-like interior roller coaster/darkride designed with alien Changeling architecture. It would be a ride comparable to the Haunted House at Disneyland, with various optical illusions, virtual reality tricks, and animatronics/robot Changelings. At some point in the ride, guests would be confronted with Changelings who turn into them. This would be done using face-recognition software that would scan and create an emulation of each person's face and body (the scanning might take place surreptitiously while guests are in the entrance queue, which would have something like a turnstile to isolate each guest for scanning). High-definition 3D video screens would be subtly built into the environment at some point so that the computer-animated Changelings could appear. This probably wouldn't be too hard, since the whole environment could be built out of translucent dark green glass in twisted curvy structures, lit internally. There would be just enough Uncanny Valley designed into the Changelings-as-guests animations to make it creepy. Then Chrysalis appears and orders her minions to seize the guests, at which point the ride becomes more of a roller coaster/chase, finishing with an escape from the Hive. Discord's House of Chaos: This is a "walk-through" interactive area with optical illusions and other strangeness. This could include some areas like an "odd perspective house" (one of those rooms built with funny angles so that it looks like you grow/shrink as you walk from one end to the other), and things along those lines. Some places could have walking areas and walls of transparent acrylic with high-definition screens behind them, so that you could walk through photo-realistic computer animated environments of houses revolving, herds of long-legged bunnies galloping past and so on, while a computer-animated Discord pops up and chats and taunts. A set of hallways and stairways (acrylic-over-screens) could be designed to create the illusion of an M.C. Escher environment, where you look up or to the side and see other guests (caught by hidden cameras) in other parts of the area walking around upside-down and at otherwise impossible angles. This would also have a novelty/toy/book shop at the exit, with goods emphasizing the weird and bizarre. DJ PON-3's House of Wub: This is a concert area/dance hall for kids, featuring performances by Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Lyra, and song numbers by the Mane 6 (vocals by the show's VA's). Pizza and other fun foods would be served, and there would be plenty of games. Like a really souped-up Chuck-E Cheese with sophisticated robotics for the pony performers. Canterlot Castle: I can't think of anything really cool to do with this at the moment, so maybe it could be used as the entrance. Ponybots of Celestia and Luna, along with some Royal Guards could welcome guests, answer questions, give directions, and so on. I'm not quite sure how to do their manes. Probably sheets of cellophane or Tefzel lit by hidden LED's or lasers, with hidden air jets that keep the sheets in wafting motion. The alicorns would be posed on balconies or otherwise inaccessible to guests (so that nobody would grab their fragile manes), but that fits with their royal stature anyway. The Ponification Chamber could be located here. This could also be where guests come to pick up their 3D printed ponysonas. If automated manufacturing tech is advanced enough by the time the park is built, plushies could also be picked up here. Canterlight High: This is an Equestria Girls-themed area, for tweens and teenagers. It includes shops, restaurants, and entertainments geared to an older audience, like a dance floor/concert hall that could feature live performances by popular bands on special occasions. Cherrilee's Schoolhouse and Playground A model of the Ponyville schoolhouse with a playground. The main attraction of this area is that you can interact with (and for adults, pick up and hug) adorable little fillies and colts. A Cherrilee-bot and human attendants would keep guests from removing a foal-bot from the area. Transportation: Transportation to the park from adjacent big hotels, and from area to area within the park, would be done using a train like the one seen in the show. The train could be supplemented with artfully decorated trolley cars. Once you've bought your entrance ticket, riding the train and trolleys inside the park would be free. Expansion Areas: Assuming the park is successful, expansion areas like the Crystal Empire, Manehattan, and Appaloosa could be added.
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