Eloquence

I don't often make blog entries here, but given that this is on my mind I suppose I'll go ahead and share. I imagine many of you have noticed today's holiday. Perhaps you've observed the holiday by calling your mother, or giving her a gift, or posting something about her on social media. For you all, I'm glad, and I hope you and your mothers are enjoying this day. For me though, Mother's Day is not a nice, pleasant little holiday. The pressure to celebrate my mother, the sight of everyone discussing the importance of appreciating what she's done, is not an easy thing for me to face. For me, it is a sharp reminder of the pressure to love and respect someone who hurt me greatly, who abused me. I do not talk about this part of my life much outside of my closest relationships, but today, I think it's an important thing to share. I know I'm not the only one going through this, and I want others to know that they aren't alone as well. To those going through the same thing as me, I want to tell you that I'm here, that I understand, and that you don't have to feel guilty for not sending flowers or writing facebook posts. You do not owe her, and your feelings are valid <3 To those who do have positive, loving relationships with your mothers, I hope you do celebrate that. You are very lucky to have something so special as that, and you should cherish that every day. That's all I really have for you all. Whatever you have, a loving mother, an abusive one, or no mother at all, I hope you all have a lovely day, even if the holiday is hard for you too. Stay strong my darlings <3

Looks good to me, on to second approval!

@, @@TheClockworkComplex, Hey you two, since the OP hasn't been online here in a very long time I'm going to go ahead and lock this thread. If you want to collab on something, I encourage you to figure that out over PM

Another great character, as would be expected Sending Steel along to second approval

Smoky looks good to me, thanks for taking care of all of those edits so quickly. Your character is now approved

Oh, would you look at that, more dust specks have found their way into my eyes. You know we really should dust this place more often...

@ excuse me while I tear up a little bit. It's not that I'm crying or anything, I just got some dust in my eye. Forums can be very dusty you know. Major congratulations to everyone else on here. I wish I had time to go through and congratulate each of you individually, but I hope you all know that I couldn't ask for better people to work with <3

Smoky's looking great now, we're so close to having him just right to send on his way. I do still notice two things, however. One, I don't really see how an area of minimal light would affect the power of the "saddle blaster", and two, implying that Smoky knows or knew a "memory spell" that can remove memories is too powerful a spell for him in this section. I'd say he should just destroy the blueprints and leave it at that, using a memory spell seems a little drastic either way.

Moving this to the new Past Generations subforum

I think these should be the last few things for him You don’t need to say that his clothes have “no special properties”, as they wouldn’t be expected to. Where you refer to “magical light” you should just say “magic”, as we haven’t heard or seen “magical light” referred to on the show. You say Smoky gets his cutie mark one day at school, and then say he gets it at night some time later. This should be fixed so that it does not say he gets his cutie mark at the science fair. Does Smoky use the laser to demolish buildings before he decides it’s too dangerous and destroys it? This part should be a bit clearer. I like the new spells you’ve added, those are good and fitting for your character. I’ve given the shield a lot of thought though, and I think that having a spell that can deflect other spells and send them back even stronger directly at the caster is too powerful for Smoky. I am fine with him having a shield that can deflect attacks (perhaps something he learned to protect against devices that go haywire), but it shouldn’t really go above that. Just to check on what you want the horn cover to be able to do, is the device meant to act as a sort of magical battery?

His spells do look better, but I think that the weight reduction spell is both overly advanced and not particularly sensible, since telekinesis has been shown to be able to lift very heavy things when used by unicorns who have put a lot of effort into improving the spell such as Twilight. I am also curious as to why Smoky's spells seem to be combat-oriented, when he is primarily an inventor Outside of the spells, I also notice a couple of things to be cleaned up. There is still a description of the body armor in Smoky's appearance despite you having nixed that, and you still mention "magical light" regarding the device in the backstory despite changing it to run on magic-infused crystals. Also, having a technology section isn't really necessary if you do not describe any tech. Perhaps you could put the device from the backstory there?

The propellor won't be allowed, but the armor could potentially work if you can give an explanation for it that really works. As for the spells, they're limited to ensure that characters don't load up on magic and make themselves extremely powerful, as well as being based on the fact that most unicorns on the show don't appear to know very many spells. As for what you have here, I do have a few things to point out regarding the magic. You talk about "magical light" and "absorbing magic from the environment", but these aren't really seen on the show, so what exactly they're supposed to be and whether they would theoretically exist in Equestria is pretty unclear. It would be better not to include these elements. Weaponry is pretty rarely seen in Equestria, so an energy sword doesn't really fit into the world. An offensive beam would be better. Having a shield that can bounce back spells is okay, but increasing their power threefold is a bit much. That should be dialed back some.

Alright, so I took another look at the application, and I do still see a few things to be adjusted in it. First off, the propellor saddle isn't going to be acceptable for EqE, because we don't allow devices that allow flightless individuals to fly as they have not been seen on the show itself (outside of Tank's propellor and a few stunts pulled by Pinkie Pie, who runs on cartoon logic and therefore doesn't count). Second, you say that Gears didn't invent the armor, but he discovered it? I don't know what you mean by that, I'm not sure how one would discover a cloth. I also don't know how he would make the cloth something only he could use. That part of your application will definitely need some clarification. And lastly, you should keep in mind that in the "other" section you will need to include descriptions of any spells Smoky knows aside from telekinesis (and that he is only allowed up to three of them)

Hi Novaburst! I took a look at Smoky Gears as well, and caught a few smaller things for you to adjust before he moves into second approval. You say Smoky is “about as tall as unicorns can be”. How tall can a unicorn be? Does this mean he’s the same height as a character like Sassy Saddles, or taller? Would be better to just say he’s taller than most other unicorns here. You mention Smoky’s eyes glowing while he does magic. From what we’ve seen, a unicorn’s eyes only glow when they use dark magic, so since he doesn’t use dark magic (though he may be learning to), only his horn should glow while he is using magic. In the personality section, it says Smoky “is a pony who loves science, even for a unicorn”. We don’t know that unicorns are any more interested in science than other breeds of pony, so the “even for a unicorn” part should be omitted. You say he dislikes “uptight unicorns”. Does he dislike other ponies that are uptight? Did Smoky invent his armor fabric, was he given it, did he buy it, or did it come to him through some other means? Though he is an inventor, it seems odd that he would create a fabric if he usually works in mechanical devices and magic, so the inclusion of the armor needs some explanation. This isn’t something you have to change, but “Smokey” is how that word is usually spelled. You can certainly spell it as Smoky for his name, but I wanted to make sure you were aware of the correct spelling. If you take care of this stuff, Smoky Gears should be all set

Not really into guys, also you live very, very far away. Sorry Jonas, but I think we're better off as friends <3

Different people respect themselves in different ways. To me, I would be disrespecting my body by hiding it as if I am ashamed, or wearing more clothing when the warm weather makes doing so uncomfortable and potentially harmful. There's a wide variety of ways to love and respect oneself, and I would never want to impose my way upon others for whom it doesn't fit <3

There are lots of people who still choose to dress in such a way that they don't expose as much skin and behave in a way in which their sexuality is not so prominent, which I suppose would fit the popular definition of "modest". Things are just different today because we're moving into an era of greater freedom. People can dress how they want and express themselves how they want, and as long as they aren't hurting anyone they're more likely to be accepted in full than they once were. Personally, I think it's a lovely improvement upon society