VitalSpark

I think it's down again, at least I can't get to it and isitdown says its down.

It's up just fine, but they've switched to a new IP address (a load balancing network), so if your browser or the DNS server you use still has the old IP address cached, you might not see it. Unfortunately most DNS servers cache this kind of data for quite a long time. (Probably around 24 hours — I won't go into details about exactly how this is controlled, etc.) So you may be for a long wait.

 

If you know how to edit your "hosts" or "hosts.txt" file, then you could try adding these lines to force your browser to access the site at the correct IP address:

 

104.20.7.209 www.fimfiction.net
104.20.8.209 static.fimfiction.net

But remember to remove it after a couple of days.

I don't think she will in this episode, but it I would not be surprised if at least one CMC got a cutie mark some time this season. Maybe the episode before the season finale?

Well that's a nice way of thanking me for the toaster repairs.

Mwahahaha!

A week? I would have thought a day or so.

And it's back! Albeit a little slow.

Yay!

EQD really should report on this

While they haven't reported on it, they have mentioned the outage in an article.

As Fimfiction is currently down, I thought I'd post this story here. It's a shipping story with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. They're aged up, but I haven't decided exactly how old. It's still a little rough around the edges; needs a little editing. It's more than a little bit sappy.

 

 

Apple Bloom held Sweetie Belle tight.

After years of travelling the world, coming back to Ponyville for a few nights every few months, Sweetie's parents had decided that it was time to stop wandering. They'd bought a house and invited Sweetie to move back in with them. It hadn't been an easy decision — Sweetie loved living with her big sister, and Rarity had made it very clear that she would be happy for Sweetie to stay as long as she wanted, but she'd missed her parents so much, and decided to go to live with them.

The only problem was that it was in Canterlot. She'd miss her friends, of course, but she imagined she'd be coming back to visit Rarity every school holiday, so she'd have plenty of opportunities to see Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, and Sunny and Peachy, and all of her other friends and class mates. But somehow she knew it would never be the same.

Her friends had been so supportive of her decision. She knew that without their support, she would never be able to get through a change as big as this one. She'd been barely older than a foal when her parents had left to go travelling, dumping her on a reluctant Rarity. She barely knew them really, but her friends, Scootaloo especially, had convinced her that if she didn't take this opportunity to get to know her parents, she might regret it for the rest of her life.

Yesterday, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had even helped her pack her stuff into boxes. Sweetie had caught Apple Bloom staring at her Crusader costume. "You can keep it… if you like… to remember me."

Apple Bloom had sniffed. "Don't be such a sap, Sweetie. Why would I want this to remember you by? You're going to be coming back all the time, right? Canterlot's not far away anyway — I'm sure Applejack will let me visit." She'd stuffed the costume quickly into one of the boxes. "Besides, you'll need it for when you set up the Canterlot division of the Crusaders, right?" Sweetie had nodded.

After weeks of planning and long goodbyes, today was finally the day. The sky was a dark grey, as a downpour had been scheduled for today. The first drops of rain were already splattering the ground.

Apple Bloom remembered when she'd first met Sweetie Belle. How she and Scootaloo had defended her against some bullies. They'd shared cookies and milkshakes, and the three of them had vowed to be best friends and stick together no matter what. And they'd kept their promise, though if truth be told, Apple Bloom had always felt that little bit closer to Sweetie Belle than she was to Scootaloo.

This felt like the last time she'd get to hug her best friend. She remembered the first time. The Crusaders had been having a sleepover at Fluttershy's cottage. Fluttershy had saved them from a near death experience. It had been like water off a duck's back to Scootaloo who had soon been snoring loudly at the other end of the bed they'd had to share. Apple Bloom had been lying awake, unable to shake the images of the forest out of her mind, and then suddenly she'd felt Sweetie Belle hug her from behind. "I can't have you falling out of the bed," Sweetie had said — Apple Bloom was at one edge of the small bed — but they both knew it was about more than that. Apple Bloom had nestled into Sweetie's warmth and they'd both fallen asleep. When she'd woken in the morning, Sweetie was already awake, but still holding her.



That all seemed so long ago now.

Sweetie Belle broke off the hug. Apple Bloom thought she could see tears in Sweetie's eyes, but it might have just been the rain, which was now falling harder. Sweetie hopped into the cart that her parents had hired to help move her stuff, finding a place to sit in the back, between the boxes.

The wheels of the cart began to move, and Sweetie blew a kiss to her friend and waved until Apple Bloom was out of sight. Apple Bloom hadn't said anything. She was leaving, and Apple Bloom hadn't tried to stop her. If Apple Bloom had said one thing — just one thing, then she would have stayed. But deep down, she knew that Apple Bloom didn't love her the way she loved Apple Bloom. Even if she had stayed, she knew that Apple Bloom would never want her the way she wanted Apple Bloom. She nestled down amongst the boxes, with tears rolling down her cheeks.

Apple Bloom watched as the cart rolled away. The tears she'd fought so hard to hold back now flowed freely, as she turned away to walk home, her soaking wet locks clinging to her face.

She thought about the times she'd spent with Sweetie — the crusading, the sleepovers, the camping trips, the singing — and goodness, could that girl sing! The thought of not hearing her voice every day was unbearable. She remembered the tears she'd wiped away from Sweetie's cheeks when Sweetie had had problems bonding with Rarity. Those beautiful green eyes had been so full of sorrow, and Apple Bloom would have done anything to see them twinkling again. She knew she would do anything to make Sweetie happy.

So why had she let Sweetie go? All the reasons she'd come up with when Sweetie had first broke the news that she was leaving seemed so inconsequential now. How could she let her go when she loved her? Because Apple Bloom did love Sweetie Belle, didn't she? More than that, she was in love with her. How had it taken her so long to realize that? How could she let Sweetie go without telling her that?

Apple Bloom turned back, a look of determination on her face. She started to run. She ran faster than she'd ever run in her life. The hard rain lashed at her face, stinging her cheeks as she pounded the road, putting every ounce of her energy into it. Lightning struck in the distance, lighting up the sky. Deafening rolls of thunder sounded, getting louder and louder, but she was not deterred.

She saw the cart in the distance. Sweetie would tell them to slow down so she could catch up, but she couldn't see Sweetie in the back. But the cart just seemed to be moving faster and drawing further away.

Apple Bloom pushed herself harder, feeling her heart straining, drawing on the strength that all members of her family had. The rain whipped against her and the wind drew her pony tail out into a streak behind her as she ran faster than she'd ever thought possible. Slowly she started to gain ground on the cart until she was within shouting distance. Though her chest was heaving, struggling to draw in enough oxygen to keep her going, she managed to shout Sweetie's name.

Sweetie Belle looked up, her eyes full of tears and saw Apple Bloom running alongside the cart. She banged on the front of the cart to alert the driver. "Stop the cart!" she yelled.

The cart slowed down, and Apple Bloom with it, until they'd come to a stop. Sweetie Belle climbed down from the back of the cart and stood beside her friend.

Apple Bloom panted, unable to say a word. The storm continued around them. Sweetie's long pink and lilac curls had straightened out in the rain and were clinging to her body.

Apple Bloom slowly looked up to Sweetie Belle, seeing her sparkling green eyes. "Sweetie," she panted, "I couldn't let you go — I just couldn't — not without telling you something." There was no easy way to say it. Just three words, but three words that could change everything.

Sweetie pulled her into an embrace. She already knew.

@, I think you should read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Not only is it generally a good read, it explores the concept of what we mean by "quality". You might find some answers to your questions in there.

 

 

And yes, I agree. Hopefully, this clown will see that what he did (while annoying) is temporarily inconveniencing at most. I give it a week before FiM is back up, with an undamaged database.

 

A week? I would have thought a day or so.

If you tick the "Other" box, you can end up with some really nice crack ships, like:

 

Tank x Ahuizotl

Scherzo Lesto (Rule 63 Sonata Dusk) x Opalescence

Little Tirek (Age-regressed Lord Tirek) x The Tree of Harmony

Bulk Biceps x Boulder

That is pretty cool. I got Colgate and Lyra Heartstrings

Awesome sauce. I love the spiky-haired background unicorns, though I prefer Amethyst Star over either of those. She's a cutie.

 

 

Colgate and Lyra are almost as good though.

Holy Stromboli, you made that? That's pretty cool.

Yup. I'm a programmer, so that sort of thing is what I do every day. Actually the most time consuming part was assembling the pony data. I considered scraping mlp.wikia.com but there are an awful lot of boring background ponies so I went through them manually to choose the ponies I found most interesting in terms of their appearance or backstory.

I wrote this thingy that has a list of several hundred ponies and it will randomly ship them for you.

 

http://ponypairing.ucoz.com/pones.html

Rarity haters would love for her to be confirmed a stupid pedophile. Spike is a baby dragon

 

It's not quite that simple. In Look Before You Sleep, Spike is said to be away in Canterlot on royal business. In many episodes, including Just for Sidekicks and The Cutie Map, Twilight goes away overnight, trusting him to look after himself. He has a job as an assistant librarian, and generally seems to perform it well. In many ways, he's treated as an adult, or at least as an older teen.

 

Dragons seem to live for thousands of years, so it's quite possible that he might remain a "baby" in terms of dragon physiology until he's hundreds of years old. But that doesn't mean that he won't mentally and emotionally mature a lot faster than that — probably at the same rate as ponies do because he is so absorbed in their culture.

 

How long has he been alive? Well, he was hatched by Twilight in the process of getting her cutie mark. Let's say Twilight was about 10 when that happened because I tend to imagine that the CMCs are about 12, and are "late bloomers". Now Twilight is a young adult, say, 20-25 years old, which puts Spike at around 10-15 years old. Because of how he is treated as a mostly mature and responsible character, I'd put him at the top end of that, around 15 years old, perhaps slightly older if Twilight (who, let's face it, is prodigious) was younger than 10 when she got her cutie mark.

 

This wouldn't make Rarity a paedophile — more like an ephebophile, or at worst a hebephile.

 

What I meant is that I don't think Rarity would love someone like Spike.

Rarity indeed won't love Spike, that's a fact.

 

Rarity clearly does love Spike, perhaps as much as Twilight does. She's just not in love with him, or at least does not appear to be.

 

Now, with that all having been said, I don't think Spike x Rarity should be canon — not because I have a problem with that ship in particular, but because I don't think any of the mane 6 should be paired off in the show. As much as I adore pony shipping in fan works, that's not what the show itself is about.

@@Jeric, I imagine it will happen in the same episode that...

 

 

@@AmberDust, can you check your post to the RP. It's not really consistent with what has happened in the RP so far. The banner and tables/chairs are in front of Silver Spoon's house, but Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara took a trolley of tea to Ponyville market to try to drum up a bit more business, so we're not at the house any more. (We probably ought to go back there some time though.)

@, @@Love,

 

 

Sorry, only just noticed your replies here! That would be awesome!

 

@@Aeros Sine,

 

Octavia might be a bit too old to join a band with school fillies/colts, but that doesn't mean she couldn't have a role. Perhaps she's been invited to teach at Ponyville school for a term (Lyra, the usual music teacher, is going to be off work for a month or two, so she invited an old friend she'd met at music school?) and suggests that if the kids are really interested in advancing their musical abilities, they should form a band. And she can be there to guide/coach them?

The problem is that they don't have any purpose in the show whatsoever except for giving the CMC hell. Even in other shows where there are characters who mostly exist to antagonize the protagonists, they often receive development every now and then (for instance, Angelica from Rugrats). But DT and SS haven't.

But even when they're being antagonistic, they do so in a cute manner.

 

Also, watch the part in Twilight Time where they fangirl over meeting Princess Twilight. I defy anybody to hate them after seeing that.

A lot of people saying Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara, which surprises me because I find them completely adorable.

 

In Flight to the Finish they're pretty nasty, I grant you that, but they're much more loveable on their other appearances.

 

Trixie is also lovely. Remember that much of her nastiness in Magic Duel stemmed from the alicorn amulet. If you put that aside, she's arrogant, sure, and prone to exaggeration. But in her line of work, being humble doesn't pay the bills.

Nah.. I fell in love with this.

 

Not sure if joking.

 

But I'm not — I did think she looked totally adorable covered in mud and leaves and pancakes.

Even before the library went boom-boom, Owlowicious wasn't really in the show that often — only when he was relevant to the plot, or they could get a quick joke out of him. I expect he'll pop up again when he proves useful to the writers.

 

I mean, we haven't seen the cake twins in season 5 yet either, but that doesn't mean they've been written out.

I think I might want to stop by.

 

Sure - assuming you have a character approved for Equestria Empire roleplay, just jump in!

((@, @@Kay Dreamer))

Silver Spoon listened to the music and became lost in the sounds and imagery. The haunting music had an almost hypnotic quality to it. "What just happened?" asked Diamond Tiara. Silver Spoon wasn't sure, but by the end of the song, she had found herself craving a cup of tea herself!

Two more ponies had turned up to be served. Silver Spoon looked at them. "I'll be with you in a minute," she said, "I just have a to make a cup for myself first."

Having done so, she served the two customers their choice of tea — the Earl Grey was proving to be a hit with customers so far.

((@@Eloquence, @@Love, @@Shadowking58, @@Derplight Sperkle, @@Red Cedar))

Silver Spoon fidgeted when Applejack arrived. She had had run-ins with Applejack's sister that the farm pony would be sure to know about.

Trying to avoid Applejack, she strolled over to talk to the new arrival, a pegasus she had never met before. "Hi, my name's Silver Spoon," she said, introducing herself. "So do you have any experience with nest building?"

Her ears pricked up when she heard Rarity's name being mentioned. Even though she was Sweetie Belle's sister, that mare did make some fabulous clothes, and have good taste in jewels, and she'd been kind of hoping to spend some time with her. She could have sworn that she'd seen Rarity around earlier, but hadn't any clue where she'd disappeared to.