skbl17

I remember playing Club Penguin years ago, and the countless days I'd spend playing some of the games, decorating my igloo, and fearing the day I'd get the message that my membership had expired. 

It's hot and humid. Garden variety thunderstorms all over the place. Typical August weather, in other words.

The only language I can speak fluently is my native language, English. I understand the structure of German and know a lot of the words, but there are still a lot of times where I have to look up the definition myself.

I'm currently learning Japanese.

Because she's also a Gravity Falls fan!

EDIT: Ah, this is one of the horrible truths of MLP Forums, the moment when two users post at the same time and you don't notice after you hit "reply".

After making a quick stop at a phone booth to call a tow truck for the disabled police cruiser outside, Bright Idea walked deeper into the bazaar. The rain had ground the outdoor merchant booths to a halt, but the indoor shopping center was still bustling with regulars and tourists. The tourists would usually stop and stare, a few would even take pictures, but most of the regular visitors paid no heed.

She couldn't blame the tourists for staring, though. Alicorns were more prevalent on the two countries of the Hoofnea Peninsula than elsewhere, yet they made up under 0.01% of Port Impala's population. In a city-state of 4.9 million residents, there were only 350 or so alicorns. Plus, none of them were really all that special in the grand scheme of things; Bright Idea was an elected mayor with limited constitutional authority over the affairs of the city, a far cry from the godlike powers and authority of the Equestrian princesses that visitors normally think of when they hear the term "alicorn".

Eventually, the exhausted alicorn came upon a restaurant near the end of the Bazaar. Opening the door to head inside, she noticed it was almost full. Many different ponies and even a few zebras were sitting around, some chatting, some looking out the window, and a few were even listening to music. There were some tourists as well, she could tell because most of them were staring.

She couldn't blame them, but it's not like she enjoyed it.

A nearby waiter spotted her. "Good afternoon Ms. Mayor. Table for one?"

"Yep, table for one. Do you have a window seat?"

Nodding, the waiter led Bright Idea to her seat.

There are many factors that could be used to explain why viewership is down in the United States.

The first is, of course, the way pay television operators program Discovery Family on their lineups. Earlier, Steven Universe was brought up as a show that regularly gets hundreds of thousands of more viewers compared to MLP. While that is true, keep in mind that Steven Universe airs on Cartoon Network, a channel that is available on even the most basic of cable packages. Discovery Family is less like Cartoon Network and more like Disney XD in this regard; cable, satellite, and IPTV companies tend to place Discovery Family on higher and more premium channel tiers than Cartoon Network.

Second, Discovery Family doesn't promote MLP the way its predecessor Hub Network did. There were times when The Hub/Hub Network did feel like "MLP Network", where they went out of their way to promote the show, from promos to social media to ponified versions of popular songs. Discovery Family still promotes MLP, but not to the same extent.

Third, more and more people are "cutting the cord" and dropping subscription television altogether. This is not just a problem with MLP viewership, but television viewership in general. As pay television providers and content creators continue to jack up monthly rates by adding under-the-line fees, the average cable package has become more and more expensive over the last few years. With the growth of online streaming and on-demand services such as Sling TV, Roku, Netflix, and Hulu, the need for pay television is decreasing. In fact, I'd wager that live sports are the only thing keeping cable television services afloat, but even that could be on its way out as companies like ESPN, FOX Sports, and the WWE are all experimenting with separate streaming services that are not dependent on having a cable subscription.

Of course, that is not to say that MLP is dying, it just means that content delivery methods - both legal and illegal - have changed since 2010, and Hasbro hasn't been able to keep up with the changes and adapt to this new digital media environment. That should not be read as an indictment on MLP, but a sign that Hasbro needs to find new ways to get MLP to online viewers. I'm surprised Discovery and Hasbro haven't launched a "TV Everywhere" like streaming and catchup service for pay TV subscribers. There were episodes up on Hubworld, but the full episode clips went away after Hub Network relaunched as Discovery Family.

On a normal day, Bright Idea just flies back to her office. Sure, she couldn't fly too fast, as she'd probably outfly the special police officers who were "protecting" her from the street. On a normal day, she wouldn't have to head back so early. Tropical showers are nothing new in Port Impala, so the citizens have gotten used to it by now. Visitors...not so much. On a normal day, she'd just grab her umbrella and fly back, assuming the rain wasn't too heavy.

On a normal day, she wouldn't be stuffed in the back of a black police car by her security detail, but here she was, the Mayor of Port Impala stuffed like a criminal into the back of a police car. Security wasn't supposed to do that unless something's endangering national security, civil defense, or the very peninsula itself. Yet all she saw was a heavier-than-usual storm.

"So gentlecolts, care to explain why I was shoved into this police car again?"

One of the security ponies turned around to explain.

"Yes, Ms. Mayor. The Minister of Civil Defense all but barged into your office and asked to see you. He said it has something to do with an important topic relating to national security, and needed to see you as soon as possible. Once he told us what the topic was about, we had to get you, as there's no time to waste."

All Bright Idea could do was look a bit exasperated. "And what could that topic be?"

"One word: hurricanes."

The incredulous look on Bright Idea's face was replaced with one of shock. "Did you just say...hurricanes?"

No no no no no, the now-frightened Mayor thought. There hasn't been a hurricane here in 86 years! The city isn't prepared for something like that! Too many ponies and zebras will die, and there's nothing that I'll be able to do to help them. No no no no...

Bright Idea was pulled out of her thoughts as the security pony pulled out a map of the city and everything within a 100 mile radius. "Yes. The good news is that based on current wind patterns, the Climate and Weather Office does not expect catastrophic impacts in the city, as the worst of it will strike our southern neighbor, Grand Hoofnea. However, the CWO still expects some wind and some rain."

The shock on Bright Idea's face was replaced with closed eyes and a smile. Of course, this wasn't necessarily a good smile, as it didn't take a close observer to notice her right eye twitching. No, she was hiding something far worse than incredulity.

"Wait, how much wind and rain is 'some', exactly?"

As the police car approached the Seaside Bazaar on the way to the CWO office, the security pony knew what was coming next, but answered the Mayor so as to not break from protocol and basic decency. "Um...four inches of rain and 30 mph winds?"

There was a sigh. Whether or not the pony speaking with the ticked-off Mayor, the pony driving the car, or the other pony sitting shotgun were genuinely relieved or just preparing for the cascade of events to follow will never be known.

Bright Idea activated her magic. Within seconds, the car came to a sudden and dramatic stop near the southern entrance to the Seaside Bazaar, sending the three officers forward. One of the officers hit the hard back of the driver's seat, knocking him out. The pissed off Mayor blew the passenger door off its hinges before stepping out. She didn't do anything else to the car or the dazed ponies inside, but she made a mental note to berate the Minister of Civil Defense later.

Seeing that the rain had let up, she thought about going to her office to have a word with the minister, but considering that she was in front of the Seaside Bazaar, Bright Idea decided that it would be unwise to angry tell off a government minister on an empty stomach.

Still very much ticked off at the security personnel, the CWO, and the minister, but too hungry to care any longer, she entered the Bazaar, hoping to get a good bite to eat...and call a tow truck for the now-disabled police car outside.

What I do is I click my username on the black bar (yours should say 'Guardian Braveheart'), click "My content", then when that page loads, click "Pages" on the left side of the screen. You should then see your OCs.

This is from a post I made on another forum, but everything here is still 100% correct.

1) The measurement system. Where did it all go wrong? We were one of the original signatories to the Metric Convention, Congress allowed use of the metric system in 1866, and in 1975, Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act. It seemed that we would move along to metric alongside the rest of the world! That wasn't the case; the voluntary nature of the switch, apathy, the elimination of the Metric Board in 1982, and Congress's rejection of US DOT efforts to switch to metric in the 1990s killed the metrication effort in this country (well, outside of Hawaii).

I understand not forcing private businesses to switch; it's in the nature of this country for the government to not tell private industry how to run their businesses. But why extend the exemption to public services (public schools, emergency services, roads, NWS, etc.)? Our biggest and most appreciated national service, the U.S. military, made the switch, and they're just fine. I fail to see why we can't have a gradual (say, fifteen-year) switch to metric in all public institutions.

2) Politics. Our electoral system favors two parties (FPTP/plurality voting), and despite the near lack of difference in our two major political parties, voting for a third option only spoils the result, thus leading to quite a bit of antipathy towards voting third party, in addition to an increase in voter apathy in general. We need a fairer electoral system that doesn't lock candidates out just because they're not GOP or Dem.

In addition, the rampant use of lobbying and donations of campaign dollars from wealthy donors and large corporations unduly influences our political system. We need to move to either a capped campaign finance system (each candidate can only spend a max of x dollars) or a publicly-funded system, where each candidate gets x dollars and that's all they get.

Finally, there's the polarization, which has become irrational in the last few years. It's getting more and more difficult just to have rational political discussion in this country; just look at what's happened on this very thread. Nobody wants to listen to others' opinions, and the few that do proceed to insult the other person just for having an opinion.

3) Infrastructure. It's utterly unacceptable that what it takes some countries (and no, I'm not talking about China or the Persian Gulf states) just a few years and a billion dollars to build, costs us billions of dollars and decades just to finish. Is it the unions? NIMBYs? Corrupt contractors? Property laws? That's not even mentioning our lack of infrastructure investment in this country (outside of roads, but even they're in variable shape). We used to be a leader in building infrastructure; subways, highways, roads, airports, internet, you name it; we led the world. Nowadays, we all seem...content...with what we have, and the few of us who try to raise this issue get called "socialists".

4) The irrational, fear-mongering, hysterically partisan media. The media is private, so we can't do much about this outside of bolstering PBS and NPR, which is practically a political non-starter. While there are obvious exceptions, I've noticed that in countries with established, editorially independent, and strong public service broadcasters, the media tends to be far less irrational, hysterical, and partisan. That's not the case in every country with such a system (the UK has the Daily Mail and the Sun, for example,) but it is in most.

5) Public education. We throw so much money at schools, but it either all ends up in the pockets of a few big corporations or corrupt school officials or it all ends up being for naught. Parents need to be more involved in their students' education, and teachers should be more free to experiment with how the material is presented to students. Oh, and we need to stop with the creationism/intelligent design stuff; in secular public schools, established science needs to be taught to the students, that includes stuff like evolution.

6) Our foreign policy. Sure, we're supposedly the "most powerful" country in the world. Aside from perks like the reserve currency, what has that gotten us? Illogical foreign wars...oops, I mean "police actions", the associated trillions of dollars in debt, and a growing anti-American stance in quite a few foreign countries. I favor non-interventionism; let us engage with the world economically and in humanitarian terms, not for the sake of military adventure!

That's just a small sampling of things I HATE about this country.

Well, what's Storm Song's personality like? What does her cutie mark represent? I think it would be easier to come up with a backstory from there.

interesting..... i think it would be perfect for my character to get some slice of life development.....   https://mlpforums.com/page/roleplay-characters/_/isaac-swiftheart-r8638(ps: i know he's a bit young so could we make him 16 just for this roleplay)

I was actually about to bring up his age, but it's good that you're willing to do something about it.

Approved. Welcome! 

(This is a double post, but meh.)

So, I'm actually working on a map of Port Impala that will go in the factbank when it's finished. The map will include points of interest, subway lines, the seaport, ferry lines, roads, rivers, land, parks, colleges, shopping centers (like the Bazaar,) and more. It's going to be a pretty complex map, but I think it'll be all worth it! 

12:41 PM local time

The rain's really coming down.

As the raindrops continued to strike the window, all Compass Meridian could think about was the way weather worked in Port Impala. He recalls reading about a theory - "climatological sovereignty" - in which every individual country can decide how weather should work: naturally, or artificially? Port Impala was a mix of both: there were weather schedules, but tropical thundershowers were also a fact of life, especially during the summer months.

This storm was just a bit too violent to be an artificial work, so it was probably just one of those natural thunderstorms.

Okay, enough about the weather, there's nothing I can do about it. I wonder what's on TV?

Finding a small remote control on one of the nightstands, Compass picked it up with his magic before using it to turn the TV set on. After a brief burst of static on the screen, the TV complied. Flicking through the channels, he didn't seem to find anything of interest.

"Let's see...hoofball, debate, soap opera, another soap opera, commercial about some big event, drama, dra-WAIT!" 

Not wasting another second, Compass flipped the TV back to the channel that had the commercial. Would it be something big? Something new? Something exciting?

'...and so, for the low ticket price of =L= 9.95, you can come and see all kinds of never-before-seen feats of acrobatics! Not just your regular leaps or spins, but all kinds of crazy tricks! If you get hungry, there will also be food! Come to the Seabreeze Arena this Sunday for Cirque du Monde! It will be an event you'll never forget!'

Tomorrow! First weekend in Port Impala and something exciting is already happening! Of course, it wasn't free, so Compass probably wouldn't make it. He was practically broke enough as is, and he wouldn't be able to get much money during the semester. The little money he had was "for emergencies only", and wasn't to be overtly spent on "frivolous stuff".

Darn.

After what seemed like an eternity, the bus finally arrived at the exchange students' destination: the University of Port Impala's Exchange Hall. While it's usually important to be careful with luggage, the students - and indeed, some of the supervising staff - were anything but careful; they just wanted to get out of the heat and humidity.

Every student checked in at the hall's lobby, a large, open area with connections to the surrounding halls leading to the study areas, lounges, and the dorm rooms themselves.

Compass unlocked the door to his room, set down his luggage, and took in the surroundings. There were two beds, but one of them would be unoccupied - his to-be-roommate pulled out of the exchange program at the last minute. In the back was a door leading to the restroom, shared with the dorm room next door. There was a desk with a chair and a lamp, two wardrobes, a mirror, a sink, a large window, and two nightstands, also with lamps on them. It seemed more like a hotel room than a dorm room.

There was also a television. It didn't seem as large as the seaport monitors, maybe 24 inches? Bulky too.

Looking out the window, Compass noticed that there was a building thunderstorm to the northeast. He couldn't use his magic to determine how fast an object was moving, but it didn't take magic to know that it wouldn't be long before it hit the city. It would probably be cooler after it passes, so maybe he could get some exploring done later...if time allows.

Going to bed; it's 5:03 AM where I am.

Going through immigration wasn't too difficult. The immigration officials checking passports and identification were quick, if a bit tired. It was late morning, so maybe they were just waiting for their lunch break. Right?

After picking up his luggage, Compass Meridian walked past some retail shops, waiting areas, and a bank of new "television monitors" before leaving the port terminal. As soon as he walked outside, it felt like walking into a sauna! For starters, it was definitely the wet season; the humidity was off the charts, and the temperature wasn't getting any cooler. Sure, back in southern Equestria humidity was a problem in the summer, but it was never like this!

At the very least, the shuttle was already loading at curbside. The bus looked nice and modern on the outside. Unfortunately, as Compass got on, some of the other students were already complaining to the driver about the lack of AC...er, lack of an active AC, that is. The radio was on, but none of the students really cared about that.

"It's hot and humid, and it ain't gettin' any colder!"

"Agreed. Mr. Driver, would it be too much to ask you to turn on the AC?"

"I don't know how much more of this humidity I can take.."

As the bus pulled away from the terminal, the driver could only turn around and look at his passengers with a look of disgust. "Look, I know you all are new here, so let me tell you one thing. This is a tropical city and it's the middle of summer - of course it will be hot and humid in the afternoon! Also, I'm not using no buckin' AC. Y'all will use paper fans like Celestia intended!"

There was a collective groan. Some of the students took mental notes to - if they ever meet her in person - ask Princess Celestia whether she really intended for paper fans to be a thing.

Looking out one of the windows, Compass decided to use some of his magic to see where they were. Closing his eyes and concentrating, his magic silently scanned the city-state before creating a mental map of the place, buildings and addresses included.

Size wise, Port Impala's fairly large for a city, about 304.1 square miles, he thought as he scanned his mental map. Let's see...we're heading 2.12 degrees south of east...still 4.4 miles from the university. Beaches, obviously. Nearest international border...Grand Hoofea...20.61 miles away from our current location. This city apparently has a subway system, that's cool. Mayor's office is 5.432 miles away.

Soon, his magic faded away as Compass reopened his eyes. There was too much information to take in; he wouldn't be able to finish before they got to the university! He settled on looking at the city's surroundings.

Well, Port Impala was a city, all right. There were skyscrapers not too far away, probably the downtown area. The highrises seemed to go on a fair distance; it's no Manehattan, but this city is definitely no slouch in the size department. There was a market nearby; ponies were selling wares, food, and souvenirs. The sign said, "Seaside Bazaar". Hmmm...sounds a bit exotic. The houses seemed stereotypically tropical, but they looked as if they were solidly built.

What really piqued Compass's interest was the tall radio tower placed behind the skyscrapers.

Wonder what broadcasts from there, Compass thought. Maybe some of that new "television" stuff he'd heard about came from there.

In my first post, I said that I'd be detailing the setting in a series of blog posts. Similar to the detail posts in the Equestria Forward OOC thread, the series (Port Impala Factbank) will describe Port Impala's society, culture, media, communications, politics, security, and climate in vivid detail. The first post is just an overview, showing some numbers.

"Mayor? But the only alicorns I know of are royalty."
 
He had just stepped off the ship, and Compass Meridian's already face-to-face with an interesting find: an alicorn. Apparently though, she wasn't a princess, queen, or anything, but a...mayor? Admittedly, there were a few other students and tourists who also found this interesting. Not everypony did; a few other visitors and returning residents simply walked by and paid no heed to the commotion.
 
Bright Idea laughed, which did calm the gathered crowd down a little bit. "Well, things work a little differently here in Port Impala. For one, this isn't a hereditary monarchy, but a republic. There are elections for almost every position, from dog catchers all the way up to my position of Mayor. However, I only serve at the pleasure of the city legislature - the Commonwealth Assembly - and have many constitutional limits on my power. If I lose the confidence of the legislature, or the citizens decide to recall me from office, I'd have to step down automatically or call new elections."
 
To say Compass was surprised would be an understatement. Constitution? Recall? Legislature? They didn't have any of that in Equestria, because it wasn't necessary for the three princesses.
 
"Where's your bodyguards? Security detail? I don't know how safe it is to be out randomly greeting visitors without having tight security."
 
Bright Idea didn't answer. Instead, she turned around and made some kind of gesture with her right hoof. Seconds later, a dozen or so uniformed police officers emerged from behind counters, benches, and one even descended from the terminal ceiling. They looked like regular police officers. but the color of their uniforms looked darker than those of the regular police officers.
 
"I don't have a 'guard' per se, but the city's police department has a special forces division that's tasked with protecting government officials. On my first day in office, I asked the police chief to abolish the division, but gosh...he's almost like a nagging mother sometimes. He insisted I have personal guards, 300 of them in fact!
 
"We compromised. I'd have a 'guard', but for top officials, not just me, and their numbers would be limited to 40. That way, I'd have a large amount of freedom to meet visitors and mingle with residents, like I'm doing right now."
 
Compass still had other questions, but he spotted a pony holding a sign that read, "UPI study abroad students." Sure enough, he could hear his study abroad director beckoning the students to move along. Aw man, Compass thought. And just when I had more questions.
 
"Study abroad?" Bright Idea asked.
 
"Yes." The unicorn responded. "I'm with a group of students who are here to study in Port Impala this semester. We're not just here to visit the city."

"I see...well, if you have any other questions, you can look them up in an encyclopedia, or if you see me again, we could talk about it. You should also come watch a Commonwealth Assembly debate at some point during the semester."

"I'll do that, and thanks!" Yeah, the debate would probably be boring, but Compass had never seen a national legislature before, and the Princesses never have to defend their decisions and policies before a legislature filled with common folk. It would be something, at least.

The study abroad director began to look impatient, so Compass hurried along. As he waved back to the mayor, he still had many questions, but one thing was for sure: at least he wouldn't be completely bored.

@@skbl17,

 

Thanks so much!  How many more members will you accept until the RP thread is set up? 

The RP thread's already set up (see the link at the bottom of the first post). I'm not going to close signups anytime soon, but I will set this thread to "OOC" instead of "Searching" when signups reach five.

For all intents and purposes though, this is an OOC thread.

332,287...

I wonder, how long will it take to reach one million?

@@skbl17

I apologize if this isn't the place to discuss but, will all your info for Equestria Forward transition to a new OOC if you reboot?

 

And will I have to reapply if you do reboot? Or could you just transfer my entry ? I'm still fairly interested in it.

I don't plan on rebooting EQF. Also, most of the universe's info will likely remain, just in a different OOC thread.

I would be happy to join.  I only have one OC at the moment, so of course I'll go with Fantasy Moon.  Link is in my signature.

Approved, and welcome!

Hey everyone, it's been a while!

Most of you didn't see my blog post from a week or so ago, but I will be leaving this roleplay. I feel that in my three month absence, the RP has advanced way too far for me to keep up. Sorry! 

I am taking my nation and OCs and using them in a different roleplay, so I won't be getting rid of them.

I'd love to take interest. It'd be nice to just to something more free paced.

 

https://mlpforums.com/page/roleplay-characters/_/quarbari-fleethooves-r8230

 

Quarbari in this setting will be completed with his combatant role. As the situation in Saddle Arabia winds down he feels he should take a bit of slight break.

Approved. Welcome, and yeah, I created this roleplay to be an actual slice of life piece, more free-paced and calmer than my other work.

Depends on the author. If you feel your story would be better by sticking to "the canon line" than being completely original, then follow canon.

If the thread title is a question, I prefer to skip the posts and get right to the reply. For roleplays and show discussion, I try to read the entire thread before replying.