--Thunder Bolt--

Once, IRL.  I was in an elementary school costume contest, dressed as King Tutankhamun.  I won a prize (don't recall if it was 1st, 2nd, whatever) and was called up as "the little Egyptian girl."  What's funny about this is that I was wearing the nemes headdress (the most common and recognized "pharaoh" headgear), carrying the crook and flail (the scepters you see held crossed over the chest)--and most importantly, the false beard, lol.  I was wearing a robe, and had some eye makeup and jewelry for authenticity, but still...

Swift Quill is gonna be so sad when he wakes up and finds out this was just a dream.

I was pondering pony evolution and kinda started developing a headcanon, that Alicorns were the original pony species, which later specialized into the other three types, and that when a pony turns into an Alicorn, they're re-activating inactive Alicorn genes that remain in the pony genome (plus, magic for the insta-change).  Then I was wondering why pegasi would be a specialization, since Alicorns already have wings, and it occurred to me: most of the time we see Alicorns in the air, they're being pulled in chariots by pegasi.  In "Feeling Pinkie Keen," Celestia falls out of the sky after Pinkie started twitching.  But she's a winged creature.  Why would she fall?

But, what if Alicorn wings are more for display than for true flight?  Celestia and Luna frequently hold their wings out and to the side (especially when seen from the front) rather than folding them like pegasi do when they're on the ground.  Alicorn wings are much larger than pegasus wings relative to body size, so they would take much more musculature to flap (especially high-speed like RD and Scootaloo do).  If Alicorns have about the same wing musculature that pegasi do, their wings would be oversized and ungainly in flight, like walking in swimming flippers.  Thus, when the pony evolutionary tree split, pegasi ended up with smaller, nimbler wings for fast, powerful flight.

Can anyone think of an episode where we see Celestia or Luna flying strong under her own power?  I can't think of one, but then I haven't watched all the episodes multiple times like some of you.

Do you have any age limits for characters?  I would like to join with an "ancient Egyptian" Alicorn.  She (probably "she") would be a former ruler, since ancient Kemare't ("Kemet" + "mare" = "Kemare't") is apparently in ruins, as shown in the novelized adventures of Derring Do (the Indiana Jones mare in the book RD read in the hospital).  But, Alicorns are immortal, so s/he could still be around.

Can I be the Alicorn?  I was wanting to create an Egyptian-themed Alicorn character for another roleplay when I saw the link to yours.  I'm a huge Egypt nerd.  Unfortunately, I'm at work, and my Egyptian language dictionaries--and graphics creation tools--are at home, so I can't name the character (probably "her" unless you're specifying a male monarch) and make her image yet.  Well, I could borrow a historical name like Hatshepswt or Amenemhet or something.

If you or other players want, I can provide quasi-authentic Egyptian names for your/their OC's.  E.g., if you want to have an OC named "River Lotus," I could look up words for "river" and "lotus" in ancient Egyptian and provide a few name options to choose from.  Given an extra day or three (to access the scanner at work) I could provide hand-written hieroglyphics of the name.  I can also advise on hieroglyphic cutie marks if desired.

A couple things:  "Pharaoh" is a Hebraization of "Per-a'a," meaning "Great House."  It was a reference to the Royal palace and a network of temples that were involved with administration of the country.  It was used as a synonym for the monarch the same way Americans use "the White House" to refer to the President of the U.S..  They had other words for "king" or "queen" (my dictionaries are at home ), but "Pharaoh" became the title we use because it's what the ancient Hebrews used, which ended up in the Bible.

I could probably look up some more accurate names for "Nile."  The Egyptian deity of the Nile was Hapi (which would be pretty good for an FiM-like game!), and that's probably the most common word they'd have used for the river itself.  "Hile" would probably be what the Greek ponies (if we want Greek ponies) would call it.  In our history, the Greek names for Egyptian places, deities, etc. became the ones we use because the Greeks became more directly influential on Western culture than the Egyptians.  E.g., Anpu became Anubis, Djehwty became Thoth, Khufu became Cheops, Wset became Isis, etc..

Also, the location of ancient Kemare't ("Kemet" plus "mare" = "Kemare't" ) would probably not be in Equestria proper, but somewhere closer to Saddle Arabia.  A pony Ancient Egypt is quasi-canonical, since its ruins were featured in the novelized adventure of Derring Do (the Indiana Jones mare in the book Rainbow Dash was reading in the hospital).

Did I mention that I'm an Egypt nerd?

"Looking at that pony above me with the kickass stripe job, my eyes are green with envy!"

I put my ponies in a box for you, babe

Reference

Where did you learn how to do this?  After spending several hours of frustration with vector tutorials just trying to draw one of those curved pony outlines with the points at the ends before rage quitting, it absolutely blows. my. mind. that people can actually make art this way.  One curved line, that would take me a fraction of a second to do by hand on paper.    Did you take a college course?

One of the Pinkie clones got away...and came back for revenge!

I'm a Cat O' One Tail, but I can still whip you.

You guys know I'm a girl, right?

*facepalm*  Sorry!  I just blindly followed Sneaky into referring to you as "him" instead of clicking your profile to check first.  As someone who identifies as a feminist, I should have known better.  Also, the gender of your protagonist lulled me into the assumption--which was not terribly rational of me, seeing as I'm a male and almost always write female protagonists.   Anyway, my apologies.

Anyway, I can see why my fic comes off as similar to Harry Potter, but that's coincidental. It's actually more inspired by GentlemanJ's "The Journey of Graves," just with mostly pony characters.

Well, Harry Potter is an exemplar of a pretty popular sub-genre: young person who doesn't fit in or is otherwise unhappy in the Real World gets yoinked off to a wondrous magical (or technological) realm where they do belong.  Examples include: The Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Starfighter, Peter Pan, and The Never-Ending Story.  The Transformers movie franchise is pretty much the same thing, except that the mountain comes to Mohammad (the fantasy-world of giant warrior robots comes to the protagonist's world instead of him going to theirs).  Fanfic writers didn't invent this idea, by a long shot.  So, I don't think it's quite fair to single out writers of HiE fanfics for bashing.

I haven't read "The Journey of Graves," so I can't comment on that.

By no means is this a self insert, but I put a little bit of myself in every character to make the flow of their conversations smoother. The human boy character is loosely based on my brother because to me, he embodies many of the traits for what I think of a brony.

 

Sorry if I'm coming off as an attention seeker. The reason I'm posting is because I'm aware that my fic is a tad cliche. I'm sure a lot of us have imagined ourselves in Equestria, so my series is inteded to give my readers a semi-believable adventure for them to explore. Since this is the first time I've ever tried creative writing, I'm wondering if you can tell me how to avoid the common pitfalls found in these types of fanfics.

 

Also, if I'm in the wrong forum, what's the more appropriate place to seek this kind of advice?

I don't think you come off as an attention seeker.  The thought never occurred to me.   I haven't read many pony fanfics so my knowledge of pitfalls specific to that sub-genre is limited.  Here's my idea of some "don'ts" and some things you might want to try:

Don't make your character turn out to be the Chosen One, the long-awaited Bearer of the Seventh Element of Harmony, who was foretold in prophecy to come, save Equestria, and marry [Celestia/Luna/Twilight/Rainbow Dash/Pinkie Pie/all five].

Don't make all the good characters adore him and all the bad characters hate him.  When writers do this, it makes their protagonist the center of the story's moral universe, which causes eye-rolling and groans in the audience.  The other characters in the story should not act as if it's All About Him.  Realistically, each one goes through life as if they're the main character of their own life-story.

Don't make him irresistibly romantically attractive; that's a sure sign of an authorwank character.  I'm looking at you, Bond, James Bond.

Don't make him infallibly right.  He's going on a classic Campbellian Hero's Journey.  He should learn something, grow, change, and become a better person for it.  "Dear Princess Celestia..."

Don't make things too easy for him.  If he turns into a unicorn, he should have to put in a lot of hard work and study before he achieves anything approaching Twilight's level of magical mastery.  If he becomes an earth pony, he should have the Devil's own time trying to figure out how to get the apples to land in the buckets.

Try to break the pattern.  Lots of bronies fantasize about going to Equestria, expecting it to be non-stop awesome.  You could find dramatic hooks in all the ways it might not be.  Maybe the ponies find the human form hideous (our tiny little eyes, monochrome manes, limbs with joints in the wrong places that bend the wrong way, creepy tendriled forelimbs [hands], the downright unnatural way we totter around on our hind legs, and our excessive use of decidedly non-fabulous clothing, etc.).  Maybe he liked Rainbow Dash as a character on the show, but after encountering her in real life, he decides she's an over-competitive prick, and has to work to get along with her (like Rarity and Applejack do when they sleep over at Twilight's).  Maybe he has to struggle with feeling even more awkward than he does at school, as the only human in a world built around small equines.

Aside: has anyone written an HiE fanfic where the protagonist hates bronies?

Try to find interesting and unusual ways to use canon, and your character's responses to it.  My favorite candidate for Best Fanfic of All Time is Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.  In this story, Harry was not raised by the Dursleys.  Instead, Petunia married a science professor, and Harry is a brilliant child prodigy raised with an intense enthusiasm for science.  So, when he has his first encounter with the Wizarding World, in the form of Professor McGonagall levitating his father and turning into a cat, he freaks right the hell out.  He turns out not to be a fan of Quidditch because the Golden Snitch "violates every sensible rule of game design."  The scene in which he tries to explain this to Ron, after Ron explains Quidditch to him, is quite funny.  Harry-the-scientist is a great foil for the peculiarities of the magical world, and he brings his own full compliment of peculiarities to match.

Try to make sure that the obstacles your character faces are at least as souped-up as he is relative to canon.  "You can't make Frodo a Jedi, unless you give Sauron the Death Star."  If the Diamond Dogs attack Equestria, and your character comes with the knowledge of how to make gunpowder and cyanide gas from his chemistry class, and modern military tactics from being a history and/or wargaming geek, the Diamond Dogs should have some advantages that equal or exceed the protagonist's.

Try to find interesting "what if's" you can use for plot purposes.  What if your character thought that "Too Many Pinkie Pies" was a funny episode and could overlook the issue of Twilight "killing" the Pinkie clones when it was a kids' cartoon, but feels completely different when he finds himself face to face with Twilight in real life?  What if he starts trying to find out why there are so few stallions relative to mares, and discovers that the answer is much more disturbing than he expected?  What if he cant' stand clopfics...but finds himself falling in love with a pony?  What would Poison Joke do to a human?  What if, instead of becoming a pony, he becomes a sheep?  What if his attitude as a brony is "Oh, dear baby Jesus, not another Humans in Equestria fanfic!"...then he finds himself living it?

Whelp, that's all I can think of for now.  If I come up with anything more, I'll post again.

That's wonderful that it made you feel better Makes me happy.

I do.  But I think this Fanfic might take...a while.  xD

I do have a different fanfic though!  A short one!

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/116123/promise-me

OK, this?  This was awesome.  This, right here, is what a canon-compliant fanfic should be.  It reminds me a bit of another one I read about Twilight getting old, and starting to suffer from pony Alzheimer's.  Sad. 

Just one little nitpick:

It wasn’t quite noon yet, but he took the time to make one more thing: a marker. Trotting up to the very first tree he slept under, he split the bark, and formed a protective woody callous. Words engraved themselves in the wood. “I am Brian Theodore Wilson. I am a human from Earth. On f September 3rd 2012, I crossed over from my world, and took the body of a pony. I did not come willingly, but I come in peace. This very spot is where I first took a step (or hoof) into this new world. I bring greetings from the people of Earth, and the 2011 Animie Convention in Minneapolis.“

Otherwise, I think it's pretty well-done so far.  Now I'm curious to find out who the menacing-sounding unicorn is, why she left her horn where someone else could sell it, and what her evil (?) plan is.

@,

Oh, I agree that people should be able to make OC's and ponysonas that I don't like.  I would not want to have Pony Creator hobbled to a canon color palette or have some internal rule-set that produces pop-ups saying "I'm sorry.  You can't do this because it violates the classical canons of pony aesthetics."  I also don't think it makes sense to hate a software program because it allows people to make ponies that look ridiculous to me (but may well be pants-shittingly awesome to their creators and others with similar tastes).  "Wow, that was a crappy fanfic.  Burn all the word-processors!"

WRT your dracopony, it is canonical that a dragon can be romantically attracted to a pony, and that the pony doesn't respond with shock, horror, or revulsion.  There's no powerful social taboo against it or any indication that it is aspiring to the self-evidently impossible, like someone falling in love with a marble statue and hoping to marry it someday.  Thus, a dragon-pony romance is canonically plausible.  Could they produce live, fertile offspring?  Well, Equestria is a place where a unicorn can turn a frog into an orange that can still hop and croak, so I don't see why a dracopony wouldn't be at least plausible, given an application of sufficiently-advanced magic to smooth over any biological incompatibilities.   Your OC's images might rub Motion Spark the wrong way, but I have no problem with 'em.

And really, I'm kind of disappointed by any negative responses to this thread. You don't even give this guy a chance, and you're ragging on him already. Don't negate, offer advice in a positive or neutral way.

I hope my post didn't convey the impression that I was ragging on [edit: her] or critical of [her] fanfic, since that wasn't my intention. Without reading the fanfic (no link), I couldn't think of any good advice (you managed though ), since I didn't know what was holding [her] up.

And no, I don't say that because I want customers, but it happens that I have sensitive eyes and they hurt when they see a wild monster as simple as that, I rather see a bad drawn unique pony in paper, than a rainbow colored pony ali-zebra with bat eyes and goat horns, no!

lol.  I definitely wouldn't want to RP with that OC, haha.  Unless maybe their writer was really, really good and could pull it off brilliantly somehow...but that's not very likely, is it?  I can see  your point about overly garish and poorly-designed OC's.  Basically the visual equivalent of "Princess TwinkleSparkleSquee is a Galactic Alicorn who's more powerful than Celestia, smarter than Twilight, flies faster than Rainbow Dash, is admired by the Royal Equestrian Marines who are honored to follow her into battle, but she's also more shy than Fluttershy.  Oh, and her weakness is that she's too nice and too good looking; it makes other mares jealous."

Still, I don't really see why PC is to blame for awful OC pictures.  A person can make a garish OC with markers.  Or, if PC was limited to an official canon color palette, they could just go into Photoshop and crank the Hue/Saturation into "velvet picture of Elvis" territory.  I suppose it could be criticized for including the selection of non-unicorn horns, and for some of the "accessories" it offers.

OTOH, my "pony aesthetic sense" is tweaked more by drawn ponies that are weighted down with machine guns, combat knives, blood-spatter and other "grit," or non-canon trappings of modernity (cars, iGadgets, cell phones, etc.) than by the moose horns in PC.  But that's just me.  

Aside: if I was good enough at making a computer do what I want artistically to actually animate my OC's, I probably wouldn't use Pony Creator either.

To be honest, having an LGBT appreciation thread won’t make homophobic and transphobic people understand that queer folk aren't actually trying to brainwash humanity and destroy civilisation.

Wait, isn't "Brainwash humanity and destroy civilization" Item #3 on The Gay Agenda^tm?  Sorry, I seem to have misplaced my copy. [/snark]

If anything, it’ll probably piss ‘em off even more.

You say that as if it would be a bad thing.  I like to use bigot tears for alchemical experiments.

---

I'm a heterosexual male, just stopping by to express support and compassion for the LGBTQI (and any other letters I don't know about) community.  You go guys/gals/whatever other term might fit!  /)*

So if this isn't about openly discussing LGBT issues, and therefor, not effectively combating it, and the title of the thread is called "LGBT Appreciation", which separates "us" from from heterosexual and cisgendered folk, then I can't be blamed for assuming that this is at least partly about making people feel special. 

 

Not being LGBTQ myself, I can't really speak to this from an inside perspective.  My perception though, is that a thread like this isn't to make LGBTQ people feel "special," but to help raise them up to feeling "normal" and "accepted" (especially those who are victims of bigotry in their lives, have to stay in the closet because of parents, etc.).  We heterosexuals swim in a sea of privilege.  Our sexuality is the default.  Watch a movie.  What's the romantic subplot?  The hero gets the girl, or the heroine gets the guy.  You and your partner want to hold hands as you walk down the street?  No one looks at you funny, or hatefully.  Wanna kiss?  Nobody squicks.  You want to adopt or have a child?  Isn't that nice!  Want to get married?  Lovely!  If you're an American, you don't have a whole political party out to insure that you're officially an outcast, by law.  You don't have your nation's loudest and most well-organized religious movements as enemies.  You don't have people using your sexuality as a synonym for stupid and unworthy ("That's so gay!").  You don't have to worry about having people want to beat you up or worse because of the type of person you're attracted to.  You never have to deal with being the only person of your sexual orientation that you know of.  

I suspect that LGBTQ posters here could go on.

In short: they have to deal with all kinds of shit that we are blissfully unaware of, and have to struggle to get a lot of the things we heterosexuals can take for granted.  So, no.  A thread like this isn't to make them feel "special," like a first-grader who just got a gold star.  It's to create a zone where LGBTQ people can have an approximation of the level of unquestioned acceptance we get every minute of every day, without anyone even having to flex their "Love and Tolerate" muscles because no one has to try to "tolerate" us.

And no, they shouldn't always have to make a case for their right to exist against anyone who wants to stop by and trot out religious dogmas derived from Iron Age barbarians who thought the world was flat, or 19th Century Bible fanfic writers.  You and I can debate Equestrian Scholar's position as an intellectual issue because it isn't our sexual emotions and needs that are under attack from stuff like this all. the. fucking. time.  We should not expect LGBTQ people to feel (or perhaps more accurately, not feel) the same way. 

I'm not sure what your question is (what you need advice for).  What are you having problems with?

Somewhat off topic: your description made me think of the start of the Harry Potter series.  Aaaaand, then my twisted mind went off on its own little tangent...  Letters appearing in puffs of belch-scented green smoke inviting Harry to the Canterlot Academy of Unicorn Magic, and his Muggle guardians' mean and desperate attempts to keep him trapped in their world.  Finally they flee to an isolated cabin on a rock outcropping on a stormy night.  Then...the rain turns to chocolate, and Discord breaks in, doing a Hagrid impersonation.

"Yer a unicorn, Harry!"

"What."

"Yer a unicorn!  An' a right good one too, I expect.  Did ye get yer letter from Celestia?"

"Celestia?"

"Oi, ye don't know who Celestia is?!" Discord says, his red eyes giving the Dursleys a menacing glare.  "Bloody Muggles!  Celestia is the Princess of Equestria!  Great alicorn, Celestia..."

I can't disregard General Zoi's hard work at this software, but the wild monsters that escape this piece of code should stay locked and caged. I know I have a lot of advantage because I can draw my own stuff, but even if I wasn't talented, I would still have that will to have an unique pony with an original mane and tail and most importantly, I would make it truthfull to the show. I would learn how to draw ponies in some basic poses, at least.

I disagree.  PC is a tool.  It makes it easier and quicker for people to produce basic pony images more or less in the show's style.  It's not what makes people design "wild monsters," any more than a word processor program makes people write up authorwank OP alicorn OC's and bad fanfics.  Let's say Pony Creator didn't exist.  Then you'd probably be seeing: 1) "Wild monster" OC's, badly drawn, on lined paper; 2) People would develop the skill to draw and vector...and create even wilder "monsters" with the greater freedom those skills would provide.  "Now that I can vector, my new alicorn OC, Jehovah God Almighty, will have an even more amazing neon-striped punk rock mane and tail--with glow and drop-shadow effects--and leopard spots to go with 'em!  BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Something gives me the impression that you think that without PC, people would pay you to design (what you consider to be) tasteful OC's instead of making "wild monsters" on their own.  I think it's more likely they'd pay somebody else willing to make the "wild monster" OC design they want 20% cooler.  Or...colored pencils on lined paper.

I think Pony Creator is a really handy tool.  It's good for tinkering with pony designs and color schemes, and for generating an image when you want to join an RP with a new OC without having to take a few days to vector something first.

Yes, how dare people be creative in a trippy and/or experimental way, and how DARE people not stay completely canon with their non-canon characters!

*Chuckle*  Now you've just given me the idea for a psychadelic pony named Acid Trip.

Next we will be allowing BAT PONIES into our canon, the nonsense that is!

(this reply contains irony)

Maybe that's part of your irony, but if not...Bat Ponies are canon (Luna's charioteers in Luna Eclipsed).  *Brohoof from a fellow Bat Pony player*  (And yes, I did make her current pic in Pony Creator, though I do want to get around to making my own pic).

I've tinkered with the new version a little.  I like the new head-turn feature (the 45 degree angles look a bit weird though), the poseable wings and tails and the zoom feature.  I don't really care too much for the click-and-drag interface, especially with the things that are hidden off-screen ("Where was the wing selection again?"), but it probably just takes some getting used to.  Nonetheless, I am grateful to General Zoi for putting so much work into creating these for us for free.

BTW, for those who don't like the new version, the old version is still available, so far.

Wow, talk about show-accurate plushies!  Thanks, Amazon!

Awash in disorientation, Imojen struggled to think clearly. Should I go with them? If I did, would my time cohere with theirs, or would the dissonance get worse? Cracking her eyes open, it quickly became apparent that she was the only one actually perceiving it. Maybe it's me? she thought. Now that she was tuned into it though, the sensation refused to go away. In fact, it got worse. So this is how Schrodinger's Cat feels. Funny, I don't remember dropping any acid... While the others climbed into the rich guy's car, the demon flew back to his castle, flew off, rigged several nuclear power plants to explode, and returned to his castle...and her body was trying to exist simultaneously in both timelines. What...should I...do?

Getting into a car with strangers: a classic Don't Do It move, like starting a land war in Asia or splitting up to explore a scary house with a masked axe murderer on the loose. Trying, all by herself, to stop a really powerful demon who had already (for certain values of "already") accomplished his evil plan...didn't exactly feel like a wiser course of action. Especially with time acting up. Going anywhere near a nuclear power plant? That pretty much had to be the worst idea of all...time.

Huh?!

As her mind teased at the cracks of perception, hints of another world flickered in visions...another self...an American city? Pages, rattling, falling. Cartoon pictures...a car...a castle... Kanji that should have been as readable as the signs and books she read every day, but somehow, wasn't. Crumbling brick storefronts...a wino with a bottle in a brown paper bag...and...no wings? Strange as it was, there was somehow a certain rightness to it. Imojen opened herself to the new sensations and...

...

Mark Sarkozy scratched his scraggly beard and took another pull from his bottle of cheap vodka.

Splat.

Something hit the sidewalk in front of him. A magazine. Not news or fashion though, more like a comic. His eyebrows scrunched together in confusion as ghostly images of the book appeared above it, each a translucent freeze-frame of its falling, manifesting in reverse order. Then: a Japanese schoolgirl? Her school uniform faded in and out over a black leather mini-dress with a weird waving effect, like one of those 'cloaked' spaceships in a Star Trek episode. Also: she had demon wings. The demon-girl phased back and forth through several stages of materialization in a whole different way. Her image seemed to smear and diffract with the occasional prismatic flash, superimposing on and off of another version--more American-looking, in a lacy black Gothic Lolita dress. She looked about as confused as he thought she should be, given her apparent inability to settle down and be one thing or the other.

The bottle of vodka slipped from his fingers and hit the sidewalk with a muffled sound of breaking glass. A bright flash. Mark blinked. The girl in the Lolita-dress was there, solid now, but the magazine fell from her grasp in slow motion, leaving a rainbow-tinged smear behind it as it fluttered to the sidewalk.

Splat.

It landed on its pages, with its cover open. Mark glimpsed a Japanese-style drawing of two girls standing back to back, one with bright pink hair, the other's, straight and black. The goth girl studied the magazine at her feet, quizzically tilting her head. Before she could decide what to do with it, it started to diffract and blur like she had. In a moment, it was gone. The girl looked up, and her big dark eyes met his. Her expression: Did you see that?! Seeing his dumbstruck expression, she smiled, her eyes twinkling, as if she was letting him in on a secret.

A wet slap at his feet. Mark looked down to see a trout flopping on the sidewalk. Slap. Slap. Another on the street nearby, and another; then a wide-mouthed bass.

"Sorry. I don't always get to choose when I make people's lives surreal," she said with a smirk of chagrin. She casually pulled one of those telescoping umbrellas from her backpack and popped it open. Its canopy was slightly misshapen, as if it had endured such a rain before. "You might want to get under cover," she said in a friendly tone, then turned and skipped away...on strange, bifurcated feet in specially-made patent leather shoes that gave them more than a little resemblance to cloven hooves.

...

At a school in an alternate Tokyo, a dropped manga fluttered down to land on the front lawn.

OOC:

Aaaaand exit. Sorry everyone, this game moves way too fast for me to follow effectively. Have fun!

Imojen listened carefully to Angelica and Synangel as they tried, and failed, to describe what happened.  "Memory loss?  I've had...something like that happen to me too," Imojen replied.  "Except, I don't remember what it was that I didn't remember...anyway...maybe I can help.  Gimme a moment to tune in..."  With that, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, opening herself to the subtle currents of magic within and around her.  Drawing her wand, she performed a banishing to clear the space around her, then intoned the incantations of the Middle Pillar ritual.  The magical currents flowing through her began to gather strength and coherence.  She folded her legs up into a lotus position, floating in the air.

With Synangel and Angelica's physical forms blocked out, Imojen could concentrate on observing the subtleties of their auras, especially Angelica's, which was still in flux as her transformation established itself.  Suddenly, the two angels who had left returned, along with a powerful demonic aura she didn't recognize.  As the attention of her inner eye shifted to them, she sensed immediately that something was very wrong. Their vibratory patterns were completely out of sync with the rest of the world, and each other.  As their influences washed over her, she was hit with a tsunami of dizziness and disorientation.

"Whaa-a-aaaaa!" she cried, as her concentration snapped and she fell to the ground with a thud.  Imojen scrambled unsteadily to her feet.  A bizarre overload of sensation tried to cram itself into her brain, as if she was simultaneously experiencing each moment in the present, as a memory of a few hours ago, and as a memory from a month ago.  Fragments of memories not her own splashed across her vision: a battle over the wreckage of a mansion.  Destroying the mansion before the battle, while a butler scrambled to rescue a gun collection and drive a number of cars away to a safe location.  Racing across Tokyo from the school to the mansion in a fancy muscle car.  And back again, after the battle.  Shaping blocks of black stone and placing them to form castle walls, battlements, and crenelations on a high, distant mountain summit.  And experiencing all these things, and all of the time it would have taken to do them, as if they'd all happened in the last few minutes, while she, Sole, Synangel, and Angelica had been talking.

"Um...gentlemen?  I think you might be about to break the Universe.  I think it would be a really, really good idea for you to get out of each other's inertial reference frames right.  now.  Get as far away from each other as you possibly can.  Now.  Please?"   
 

I think the person's argument is somewhat premature.  So far, we've seen the Alicorn Princesses reign, but we have not seen them rule.  We do not know what laws, if any, they have decreed.  We don't even know for certain that they have any political power at all.  It is entirely possible that laws and customs are decided entirely on the local level, e.g. Ponyville's no-magic rule for Winter Wrap-Up.  Aside from their cosmological duties, the Princesses could be "spiritual" leaders, more like the current Dalai Lama (not his predecessors, who had actual political power in Tibet) than autocratic rulers.  Given the existence of unicorn/alicorn magic, the Princesses could have built Canterlot themselves, for all we know.  Or, with the cutie mark system, the architects, stonemasons, artisans, etc. who built it could have done so as a giant collaborative art project, the same way Rarity makes dresses for her friends.  IOW, we don't know that its construction was funded by taxes wrung from the forced labor of starving peasants like the Palace of Versailles. 

Or, the Princesses could actually be Divine Right autocrats or Platonic Philosopher-Queens.  We don't know yet.  Season 4 will probably show us some more detail about what being a "princess" in Equestria actually entails, as Twilight learns the job.

As for democracy, it becomes less "democratic" as the size of its institutions scales upward.  Once it requires multiple millions of dollars or more to be a serious candidate for office,¹ "the people" aren't really the ones picking the leaders anymore.  If you're an American,² do you really have much more choice in who the next President is and what policies they'll pursue than the average ancient Egyptian had over who got to be Pharaoh?  Sure, you could make a career out of climbing the ranks of one party apparatus or the other until you become powerful enough to matter, but then an ancient Egyptian could join a Temple and work their way up to being the High Priest of Ptah.  Either way, the ordinary individual has about the same amount of real political influence.

The main difference is that democratic citizens usually have more freedom to organize political movements and protest...for all the good it does these days.  We don't have any indication that Celestia would punish ponies for protesting against her rule, or against some particular decree or action ("No 100-degree days!  Stop sunburns now!" )

NOTES:

1. Obama and Romney spent more than a billion dollars each in the last Presidential campaign.

2. Europeans arguably have more of a voice, since their parliamentary systems allow for multiple political parties, and smaller parties can have more influence on national policy.  Thus, a European with a proportional representation system at least has a better chance of being able to select a party more tailored to their interests, than an American who can choose to vote for one of two massive parties that aren't that different from one another on matters of foreign or economic policy.

While it is fair to say that much of Applejack's character is defined by her family, but it is a bit unfair to say that she dosen't stand out because of that. Her family adds a great to her character instead of retracting much like the spice in a good apple cider, each of them have their own unique personalities which complement each other nicely.

I didn't mean to imply that her family is "bad" in any way as characters.  They're all quite likeable.  I think of it as being like the difference between Nikola Tesla and CERN.  Tesla worked alone, with a lot of individual style and panache, at the end of an age when science was more of an individual affair.  As a result, he's got a whole mythology built up around him.  He stands out as a character.

The people at CERN do better science (apart from AC and radio, a lot of Tesla's ideas didn't pan out), and the Large Hadron Collider is a much bigger, more powerful and impressive scientific device than any of Tesla's.  But who, aside from serious physics geeks, can name any of the people who run it?  However great their personalities might be, they tend to disappear (as far as the public eye is concerned) into a faceless institution.  It's the same way for science in general.  Instead of a Darwin or a Mendel, we have university biology departments and national institutes.  Individual scientists can get famous (e.g. Stephen Hawking or Richard Dawkins) by presenting themselves as spokespersons for science, but the actual work of science is done by teams and institutions.

In a similar way, the Apples make Applejack part of a "they" in a way that the other M6 characters aren't.  This isn't a criticism of their characters, or saying that they don't add to the show.  They just make it so that often when the spotlight does fall on Applejack, she has to share it with others. sometimes including Apples other than the "main" ones, as in the family reunion and the "cowboys-and-Indians" episode.  This creates a "fade-into-the-background" effect.  But that's exactly the way Applejack wants it.  She doesn't want to be the belle of the ball like Rarity, or a famous competitor or hero like Rainbow, or a noted wizard and alicorn princess like Twilight.  (Aside: she probably should have gotten Loyalty, and Rainbow Honesty, since loyalty to others plays a much bigger part in her character)  A lot could be said in favor of AJ's viewpoint.  But, in drama/story terms, it does make a character stand out less.

Though Imojen didn't really have anything against the warrior angel personally (aside from his being a warrior angel), she was relieved to see the last of him and his guns.  He seemed like a hothead inclined to shoot first and ask questions later.  Then Sole started to lead Synangel away.  "Wait, maybe we should see if you can turn her back?  If she wants to be turned back," Imojen said.  "Do you remember how it happened?"

Another thing about Applejack that (IMO) tends to put her in the "best background pony" slot is that she's the only M6 character with a family that isn't sidelined.  All of the others are "on their own," enabling them to stand out.  Rarity's shop is Rarity's; she has Sweetie Belle as a kind of sidekick from time to time, but she's clearly in charge.  Her parents have no part in it.  Twilight runs the Library as her personal wizard-tower.  Her parents and brother appear only in cameos.  Fluttershy's family: nonexistent.  Rainbow Dash: it's her friends who come to see her perform the Sonic Rainboom and visit her at the Wonderbolts Academy.  Pinkie Pie: she's the polar opposite of her family, and they're only briefly seen so far.  In short, they're all set apart from family, individuated in high relief.

In contrast, Applejack is wholly defined by her family.  Her name and talent emerge from her role in the family business.  Her cutie mark story is about her turning away from the idea of achieving her own self-actualization apart from them, and accepting membership in their collective as her core trait.  Compare with the others: Twilight discovers her unique magical potential; her parents cheer her on, but her primary relationship is with a regally-distant Celestia.  Fluttershy discovers that her place isn't with other pegasi (presumably including her family), but on the ground caring for the animals.  Pinkie is released from the bonds of family and conformity to their simple farming life, where she was miserable: the opposite of Applejack's arc.  Rainbow's cutie mark comes from winning a competition in the most dramatic possible way, the epitome of standing out.  Rarity is already apparently on her own and pursuing her dream of high fashion and Fabulosity even before she gets her cutie mark.  Even more than Pinkie, she has defined herself in opposition/contrast to her family.  For Pinkie, it comes as a synchronicity when she sees the Rainboom.  Rarity has already adopted a high-class accent, fashion sense, and career ambition as a blank-flank filly; deliberate choices she's made to define herself on her own terms.  She's not even defined by her cutie mark (gem prospecting); she's truly a self-made mare.

Unlike the rest of the M6, Applejack is primarily defined as a member of a group of background ponies.  She's the only one with elders (Granny Smith and Big Macintosh) who can overshadow her in her primary occupation.  It's difficult, if not impossible, for Applejack to have a plot centered on her vocation that doesn't involve them as equals, if not superiors.  A Rarity-centered episode can focus on her efforts to make dresses for an important event, a Twilight episode on her attempts to master difficult magic, a Dashie episode on a flying competition or the Wonderbolts, a Pinkie episode on her being Pinkie, a Fluttershy episode on domesticating Discord, and each gets the lion's share of the spotlight.  That can't really happen with AJ without the writers making some kind of extra effort to remove the Apples from the picture somehow.  Even so, the nature of AJ's character means she'll be striving to restore the status quo of sharing farm life with the rest of the Apple Family.

Thus, it's much harder to have a true "Applejack episode" that's about her as an individual.  Instead, you get an "Apple Family episode," where family relationships and/or traditions have center stage.  Applejack embodies a conservative value system that places family and tradition ahead of the individual.  So, it's not necessarily that AJ "gets no love," it's that she doesn't value having the spotlight ("love") to herself in the first place.