--Thunder Bolt--

"If I could just get my hair to stand up, I'd hold my hands like this and say 'ALIENS!'  I bet I'd be famous!"

"Hi, my name's Ch'ttkh-ssk!t-tch, but you can call me Holey Moley!"

Yes, I'm getting this.  I just sent the other player a PM.  If they want to RP with Atlas, I'll set up a game for the three of us.  If not, I'll set up separate games for Sunyatay and each character.  Do you have a preference regarding Public or Private?

"Thank you...  Sun?" I said.  'Sun' is not really a nickname I'd expect anyone would ever give me.  I'm not exactly...radiant.  But if she's giving me a nickname, that's a good thing, isn't it?  "Yes.  Thank you," I managed.  So what do I say now?  To somebody who's super-athletic and able to kick the hindquarters--hindquarters?--of anybody she wants.  'So, what's it like to never have to be afraid of anything?'  'Where did you learn how to kick like a horse, and oh, there's blood on your shoe...?'  I don't know the first thing about sports teams or kung fu or any of the things that probably interest her, not even enough to ask an intelligent question.  And if I tried to talk to her about cymatics and how 'the music of the spheres' relates to Schrodinger's equation and de Broglie standing waves, she'd probably go 'Boooo-riiiing' and stuff me in a garbage can!  I can't even give her a nickname, because, how do you shorten 'Jewel?!'

I wish...I wish I could just talk to her!

The awkward silence continued until the bell rang and we had to go to our classes.  I waved goodbye and gave her the best smile I could, which was this really brief flicker of a thing because I'm feeling completely rotten for probably ruining the first and maybe only chance I'll ever get for making a friend here.  But I hope she at least understands that I want to be her friend, even if I don't know how. 

So my mind was chasing its own tail, trying to figure out what I couldashouldawoulda said, when I bumped into somebody who just stopped at her locker.  I jolt out of my thoughts and stammer "Sorry" as I back away.  She's a cute redhead with her hair gathered into three ponytails; one on each side of her head, and one in back.  That one is pulled up high so it looks like the upraised tail on one of those beautiful Arabian or Lipizzaner horses some girls like to have on binders or folders.  This...incredibly strong feeling...weird...like having deja vu about someplace you haven't been before...hits me, and it's like I'm seeing her as a horse but still a person, which makes no sense because she still looks like a normal person, but for some reason I feel like I should neigh at her...as if that's the right way to say hello.  Really. 

I try to give her...something like a friendly nod.  Except, instead of a normal nod, I do a neck-bend from the shoulders and toss my head...like a horse.  This is...really starting to scare me now.  Why horses?

@@whitewater lightning, for future reference, when your character is talking to another player's character, please do not reply on their behalf.  That makes it harder for the other player to respond to your post (and vice versa, if they do your character's talking for her).  Instead, you can just stop there and leave the opening for the other player to respond.  The other player should do the same for you.  This makes conversations and other RP interactions more real, since the other player's character has the option to do or say something you don't expect (and vice versa), just like interactions with people in real life.  Taking control of another player's character and writing their dialogue and/or actions is called "godmoding," and it's almost always frowned upon in RP's. 

Another thing to avoid is "railroading," where a player doesn't directly take control of the other player's OC, but writes their post in such a way that the other player doesn't have choices in what their character says and does if they want their response to fit with the railroader's post.  Something like this:

"So, are you going to the big Barn Dance at Applejack's?" Sunset Sparkle asked.  "Great!  Me too!  Is there anypony you'd like to go with?" she asked, winking at Autumn Frost.  "Ooooh, somepony's got a crush!," Sunset said with a chuckle.  "But you're right, Thunder Steed is really cute!  Not my type though.  Good luck!"

Think of it as like a "turn-based" game.  Your character gets an "action" (a chance to say some dialogue and/or do something, like hit a ball in a tennis match), then the other character gets an "action" (their chance to reply and/or react, like hitting the ball back, or missing).  If there's more than two characters in the interaction, it's good to give each player an "action" and let them post before you post your next "action," that way nobody gets left behind.

"Somepony tell me why I'm stuck wearing a helmet that looks like a pool ball!  How am I supposed to be cool like Rainbow Dash in this thing?!"

"My ponytails double as hatchets!"

My reaction to this video is a combination of this:



...and this:



I don't know whether this person is trolling or not (Poe's Law), but there are people who look at the world this way. I have a friend who would believe every single word of this. I've mentioned MLP to her before, and she started talking about how it's full of Satanic Illuminati symbolism, and she's sent me videos of exactly this type claiming to find Illuminati symbols in everything from the classic silent film Metropolis (she winks! Ermagherd! One EYE!) to Lady Gaga. It's not possible to reason someone out of that kind of cognitive death spiral, so mostly I just avoid the subject.

I do wonder how these people think this actually works. Imagine, Lauren Faust sitting down with her creative team, or a musician writing a song, and suddenly there's a knock at the door. Somebody opens it, and in walks a black-robed figure wearing a ruby-eyed baphomet pentacle necklace.

"I am Magister Parnassus. Here is a set of Our symbols that We want you to encode into your production." *wink*

"Y-yes sir, O Great and Powerful, we'll get right on that!" All over the world, through thousands of movies, cartoons, music videos, and artworks, from the street plans of Washington D.C. to the proportions of Chartres Cathedral and Luxor Temple, the Illuminati Adepts make sure everybody puts Their symbols in. Because, you see, they are a Super-Secret Conspiracy that wants to broadcast their existence and "hidden" symbols to the world in every way possible. They're able to micromanage everything from the content of all media to every hiccup of the world economy to political elections to the weather (HAARP, jet contrails), and They've got an Evil Plot to Take Over the World...yet somehow don't seem to realize that they already have. Oh well. Why let self-contradiction get in the way of a perfectly good conspiracy theory?

These symbols don't show up everywhere because they're planted by the agents of some Conspiracy Central. They show up because they're basically the source code of Universe, and/or they're archetypes of human consciousness. Phi (the geometric relation expressed in the pentagram) appears in nautilus shells, pine cones, sunflowers, the shape of hurricanes and galaxies, etc., etc.. The "balance of opposites" (Celestia and Luna) is an archetype that resonates with our attraction to symmetry and embodies nature's tendency to seek equilibrium (the Second Principle of Thermodynamics). I could go on and on, but SasQ has already done amazing work with his marvelous Symbolism thread. I don't necessarily agree with every assertion he makes, but it's a huge feast of fascination. Funny thing is, everything the maker of the video condemns in MLP FiM also appears in the Bible, in spades. Note: The following is not meant as an attack on the sane Christians in this thread:

R34: The Bible haz it! Read the Song of Solomon. If all that stuff about fragrant gardens and breasts bouncing like twin gazelles is a parable about "the relationship of Christ as the Bridegroom to his Church," then Heaven is gonna be a hell of a lot more sexual than uptight folks like this want to admit. On the Dark Side, we have nice, family-friendly stories like "righteous" Lot being seduced by his daughters, and two different versions of a story where a man's concubine gets raped to death after he throws her out to an angry mob, and he cuts her up in pieces, sends the pieces to the other Tribes of Israel so they can mass an army to exterminate the whole tribe that the mob came from.

Mystical Symbolism: The Bible haz it! One example: In the story of "the miraculous catch of fish" (John 21:1-14), Jesus finds his disciples fishing and having no luck. He tells them to cast their net on the other side of the boat, and they haul in a catch that has their net full to bursting. Then the story gives the number of fish: 153. Why 153? If you draw two circles of equal diameter so that the circumference of one touches the center of the other, you get a figure known as the vesica piscis, the "sign of the fish." The ratio of the length to the width of the figure is the square root of 3, also expressed as 265:153. The "Jesus fish" symbol many Christians put on their cars is an out-of-proportion rendering of the vesica piscis. Jesus is also often portrayed standing in the center of a VP in medieval Christian art. Why is this figure important? Starting with a vesica piscis, a geometer can construct the five Platonic shapes and the other key geometrical forms using only a compass and straightedge. In other words, it is the source of the blueprints of the Cosmos. The story of Jesus and the miraculous catch of fish also parallels a story of Pythagoras. The philosopher encountered some fishermen, and made a wager with them: if he could tell them the exact number of fish they had caught, they would have to release them. He predicted the number accurately, and the fish were set free. The Pythagorean tale does not give the number, but anyone trained in sacred geometry would instantly recognize the number 153 in the New Testament story and link it to the vesica piscis, and the teachings of Pythagoras.

Another example: the letters of the ancient Greek alphabet (like the Hebrew and Aramaic alphabets) each had a numerical value. They did not have a separate set of symbols for numbers the way we do. Thus, every word had a numerical value. The Greek spelling of Jesus' name adds up to 888. This is a highly significant number in the ancient canon. .888 is the ratio [logos in Greek] of the whole tone, the mediating bond between the two tetrachords of the octave. It is also the number of the Spiritual Sun, the cosmic principle in the Platonic realm that manifests in the material realm as the physical sun (represented in the canon as 666; thus, the "antichrist" is physical, earthly rule, e.g. Emperor Nero, whose name spelled in Greek adds up to 666, exalted against the spiritual). The Greek alphabet could be divided into three groups of eight letters (hard consonants like "K," breathed consonants like "S," and fully-voiced letters like the vowels). 8, 8, 8, the "Word," or Logos, identified with Jesus in the prologue of the Gospel of John.

This is not an accident. The ancient Hermetic sages constructed deity names and "words of power" for use in magical invocations and incantations (the latter often being nonsense sounds whose letters added up to meaningful numbers; "abracadabra" is an example) to add up to significant numbers. The Gnostic solar deity Abraxas adds up to 365, the number of days in a year. When Paul tells us that his savior was given the name Jesus, a "name which is above every name" (Philippians 2:9), he is eluding to this kind of mystical potency. "Jesus" is the Greco-Judaic version of a widespread archetype in the Roman world at the time, the dying-and-rising God-man who unites the spiritual and material realms. Other versions of the archetype include Osiris, Attis, Dionysus, and Adonis. Originally, the death-and-resurrection motif for these older deities was linked to agriculture and the cycle of the seasons, as well as the transformations embodied in day and night. Their religions were celebrated on a community level, to bring fertility and prosperity to the ancient societies that revered them. By Greco-Roman times, these religions were undergoing a change that shifted their emphasis toward individual salvation or enlightenment. These religions are commonly known as "the Mystery Religions," because the core teachings, ceremonies, and mystical practices that brought about salvation were kept secret, reserved for those who had demonstrated sufficient spiritual maturity to be inducted into the inner circle. Allegorical stories embodying the secret teachings were shared with an outer circle as a way of drawing in potential initiates, who would be sorted from the crowd by those already in the inner circle. Jesus is portrayed doing this, when he speaks in parables so that "hearing, they (the people in the outer circle) would not understand," while explaining the meaning of the parables to his inner disciples in private. Christianity did not "borrow" from the ancient Mystery Religions, as some claim. It is an ancient Mystery Religion.

I'm only barely scratching the surface here. Recommended reading:

Jesus Christ, Sun of God: Ancient Cosmology and Early Christian Symbolism, by David Fideler

The Dimensions of Paradise: Sacred Geometry, Ancient Science, and the Heavenly Order on Earth by John Mitchell (this book explains in detail how the dimensions of the "Heavenly City" given in the Book of Revelation detail a geometric canon linked to (among other things) the proportions of the Earth and the Moon.

The Jesus Puzzle by Earl Doherty. See also his website.

The Greek Qabalah: Alphabetic Mysticism and Numerology in the Ancient World by Kieran Barry

A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe: The Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art, and Science, by Michael S. Scheider. This is a very readable basic overview of Sacred Geometry and its relationship to the natural world, architecture, and symbolism.

In MLP: FiM, Twilight Sparkle seems to fill the role of the Logos. She is the harmonizing principle that reconciles Celestia and Luna; Day, Night, and Twilight. She is the Magic that "makes it all complete" (compare with the opening verses of the Gospel of John). Notice how her Alicorn transformation in Magical Mystery Cure is framed as a death-and-resurrection narrative. The other Elements suddenly fire upon her, and she seems to explode, leaving only a scorch in the form of her cutie mark on the floor where she stood. She finds herself in "Heaven" with Princess Celestia, going through the "life-review" that people often claim to experience in "Near-Death Experiences" (NDE's). There, she learns her true nature and destiny, returning to life as an Alicorn Princess who becomes the mediating principle between the other cosmic Princesses and ordinary mortal ponies, represented by the the other Five. She is a member of both groups, thus joining together the celestial and earthly realms.

Five is the number of life and nature. Fivefold symmetry is very common in living forms. Starfish, sand dollars, many species of flowers (fivefold petal symmetry, etc.), the human form (see da Vinci's Vitruvian Man), etc. The pentacle (five-pointed star in a regular pentagon) repeatedly generates the Phi ratio, which has to do with fractal forms in nature (the smaller section is to the larger section as the larger section is to the whole) and the process of growth.

Six is the number of balanced structure, order...harmony. The hexagon is the silhouette that results from a twelve-around-one closest-packing of spheres. In three dimensions, the centers of the spheres define the Merkaba shape (an upward-pointing tetrahedron intersecting a downward-pointing tetrahedron, a symbol of reconciliation/balance between opposite polar forces). This form is also the basis for the cuboctahedron, a shape Buckminster Fuller called "Vector Equilibrium."  This is the only shape where the lines defining the edges are equal in length to the lines from the center to the outside vertices. In Buckminster Fuller's Synergetic Geometry, these lines represent force vectors, and the Vector Equilibrium is the form in which the radiating, explosive forces (the vectors emanating from the center) are in balance with the tensile, compressive forces (the vectors defining the edges). They are of equal length (that is, magnitude of force) and angular relationship, resulting in a dynamically stable, self-supporting form. The VE is thus a three-dimensional model of harmony, and the structural shape of space itself.

Twilight's cutie mark expresses this using a central symbol of white and fuchsia six-rayed stars superimposed in a way to match the twelve radiating vectors of the Vector Equilibrium. This figure is surrounded by five more six-rayed stars arranged in a pentagonal shape. On her, the form is irregular, perhaps representing the way that the material world does not quite conform to geometric regularity. As I recall however, the scorched form on the floor left by her explosion is geometrically regular. Thus, she embodies the reconciliation/unifying "Logos" proportion between the Five of life and the Six of cosmic harmony.

Nutshell: Twilicorn was planned from the beginning, and (I predict) is here to stay.

Citizen Tiara!

Do I look good in this armor?

If you think the cherries are creepy, you should see the watermelon!

TwiliNinja!

Portal Gun and unicorn magic: more fun than anypony should be allowed to have!

I just had an idea for an RP that could work with your OC, mine, and perhaps some others I've seen.  If you're interested let me know and I'll set up a planning/recruitment thread.  I don't really want to talk about the game idea here because it would be OT for this area of the Forum, but the working title is "Outcasts of the Everfree Forest."

"NO!  YOU NO CAN HAZ MY THREE-BUTTON 'SIMON SAYS' GAME!"

It looks like you're drowning in OC ponies, but you're welcome to use Sunyatay Sutra if you like.  I'll also offer the option of me volunteering to RP her interaction with your ponies via personal message (or not, as you prefer).  I also have an idea for a "musical number" she could be singing when they encounter her (not an actual produced song, it would be written out in verse).  However, after 5 pages of "Oh, you can use my ten OC's!" you've probably got enough ponies already for a seven-book series, lol.  So, I understand completely if you're already full up.

Also, I've read the prologue to our fic so far.  Very well written, and it has a nice "canon feel."

I lick the earwax out of Fluttershy's ears while she sleeps.

Contrarian viewpoint:

Equestrian society is only nice and shiny if you're a pony.  There's a scene (I don't recall which episode) where Applejack, her dog, and Applebloom are herding sheep.  It's a big chase scene with a rousing score, and we see AJ bumping sheep to knock them back into the herd, etc., until they're all ran into a pen with a big "Yee-haww."  Then, as the gate is shut to lock them in, one of the sheep morosely says, "You could have just asked."  That's right: everybody's favorite down-home Suthuhn gal has slaves.  Sapient people she literally treats as livestock.  Even non-slavers are bigoted to a degree that would be shocking to most humans today.  The place names, and even the language itself ("everypony," etc.) are crafted deliberately to exclude non-pony sapients in the most pervasively in-your-face manner possible.  The closest Earth equivalent would be something like, "Welcome to Whiteyville, the most wholesome small town in all of White-opia.  Anywhite would be happy to raise their children here.  It's certainly better than San Fairskinso."  We humans don't share our world with other species that can talk to us, yet we still have more species-inclusive language than the land of love, friendship, and acceptance.

Yes, we humans definitely have our flaws in spades, but we also do some pretty cool shit.  We've walked on our Moon.  We send rovers to distant worlds and build telescopes that can detect planets orbiting other stars.  We build submersibles to explore the deepest oceans.  We create machines that make it possible for ordinary people to fly like Rainbow Dash (airplanes or wingsuits, take your pick).  We have high-bandwidth global communications that don't require some poor dragon cub to get indigestion in order to send a message.  And we make do with a much harsher and more indifferent physics, and no magic or wings.

That said, there are some things we could learn from pony society.  Their emphasis on helping each child find the career to which they are most ideally suited, and an economic system that (somehow) works to make that practical (i.e., Rainbow Dash isn't stuck working in an office cubicle because there are no flying "jobs" available) is one thing that would be nice to implement here, within the limits of the way our reality works.  Among their own kind, the ponies do seem to be more eusocial than humans, most of the time.  On the other hand, the stability and peace of their whole society is dependent almost entirely on the good will of 11 beings: Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Shining Armor, Discord, and the Mane Six.  It does seem to work because the highest-ranked among them are actual benevolent deities.  But that doesn't really mean the ponies are superior to humans, just a lot luckier.

Sunyatay Sutra emerged from the Everfree Forest, heading into Ponyville.  Even if she might never be able to join in, at least she could sometimes vicariously enjoy the fun and friendship the other ponies had.  Especially when Pinkie Pie was being Pinkie Pie.  She heard the ever-familiar sound of mean giggling.  Maybe I should go and scare them on purpose! she thought.  It wouldn't be too hard.  Just approach the little snobs, then concentrate enough to become translucent, rear up and light her horn.  A close encounter with "the Ghost Mare of the Everfree Forest" or whatever they called her in Ponyville these days would be more than enough to scare the bejabbers out of some mean fillies.  Sunyatay sighed, letting go of her anger.  Word would spread, and then everypony would be sure she was some kind of horrible monster.  Plus if the victim saw, they'd be scared too.

She was pulled from her thoughts by the sight of a cute unicorn filly headed her way.  By the look on her face, she was probably the one being made fun of.  Sunyatay smiled, though the filly would not see it.  In a sense, she seemed like Sunyatay's opposite.  Even at her most visible, Sunyatay was a soft pink.  The little filly was more than visible--she was bright orange with orange tiger-stripes.  Then Sunyatay noticed that she had wings.  By now a couple other ponies had approached the young Alicorn to talk to her.  Sunyatay sidepassed to stay out of their way as they got closer.  Is she going to the Everfree Forest? she wondered, noting the filly's course.  I'd better go with them, just to make sure she stays safe.

"How can I get a headshot when I'm looking through the gunsights with this eye patch?  'Cause I'm just that awesome, that's how."

Teenage Angry Mutant Cherries!

I would also like to volunteer my mare Sunyatay Sutra if you still have openings.  I can dial down her tendencies toward invisibility and intangibility (see her bio)...or leave her as is if you think a pony that can be mistaken for a ghost would be beneficial for this RP.

[in the dictionary, next to the definition of "Bedroom eyes."]

GAH!  Chrome Ninja!

"'Don't be Evil?'  Who would ever expect evil from sweet little me?"

Why the Fukushima Cherry Blossom Festival went horribly wrong.

I AM A CHERRY BOMB!!!!

*Homer Simpson voice* "Spiiider Pink!  Spiiider Pink!  Does whatever a spiiider thinks!"

Ataaaaaack, of the Killer Tomaaaaaatooooes!

The boy didn't say anything, or react to me at all.  Somehow it felt weirdly familiar.  Like deja vu all over again.  That feeling I had when I ran up to him came back, that it would be normal for him to not see me at all.  But that's nonsense.  Maybe he's humiliated and a girl is the last thing he wants to see--

"Not cool!" someone shouted.  I looked up and saw the bullies turning around to come back, but now they were being confronted by an athletic girl.  One of the boys threw a punch, but before I could even try to figure out what to do, she tore them apart.  Like somebody in a karate movie.  A human tornado of kicks and punches.  Then she was coming right for me.  A force of nature.  What if she really is his girlfriend and and she thinks I'm trying to--

"hi, i saw what happened, and while that area is probably safe, i dont suggest you go there."

Her words didn't really register right away because she was coming at me and there was blood, standing out incarnadine against the white rubber sole of her shoe and people are scary enough when they just want to make fun of me and call me a failure.  I couldn't think at all.  I didn't even know what the boy was doing anymore, I just had to run.  Time to disappear.  But she caught up with me and how did I think I could get away when she's got legs like an Olympic runner so all I could do was back into the lockers and close my eyes and hope that whatever she wanted to do to me would be over soon.

"hey, wait!" i said, catching up. "im not going to hurt anybody but people who deserve it. you, obviously, have enough undeserved **** so ill hang out with you. jason and summer 'aint gonna bother you any more, while im here.

It took a moment for my brain to finally catch up and actually hear what she said.  I cracked my eyes open and looked up at her.  She wants to...hang out...with me?  My mouth opened, but I couldn't make any words come out.  My body just wanted to stay frozen.  You know that scene in Jurassic Park where everybody's trying to stay still so the Tyrannosaurus won't see them move?  Like that.  A big part of me desperately wanted her to just sniff a couple times, then go stomping off in search of other prey.  But I also hoped she wouldn't.  Because maybe she meant what she said.  Concentrate!  I take a breath and try to force my brain to calm down and think of words.  Then make the words come out.

"O-OK.  I'm...Sunyatay.  Sutra."