Quinch

And this is where it all went horribly wrong. -grins- He dropped the bags on the floor. The smell should have been the first cue, as he approached his new house. It should have been, if not for the human mind's instinctive reaction to dismiss things that don't make sense - shouldn't make sense, in our narrow, constrained worldview, stretching reluctantly against evidence we finally can't deny. Like evidence of living in a small cottage in another dimension filled with colorful yet intelligent quadrupeds. Or evidence of leaving your house to buy food to replace the one from the party last night, and find your floor covered in feces. "Derpy?" he called, tentatively. "Derpy?!", he repeated, louder, voice now mixed with confusion and anger. Not anger at her, not yet, there was no time enough yet to think about blame, just the shapeless, directionless aggravation of a world turned, if not upside down, then uncomfortably to the side and the nauseating churn in his stomach from the smell of sealed shit. He checked the kitchen. The pony was there - not the gray one, the stupid one, passed out - yes, just sleeping, from what little food was left over from yesterday. The gate to the yard flapped open. "DERRRPEEEEYY!!", he called again, his only response being a flock of annoyed birds erupting from a nearby tree. Apparently, she was nowhere to be found. But how the hell.... the horse, he could get. But it was an indoor animal and he distinctly remembered not drinking enough last night - or at all - to forget his furniture not being wrecked. So this left... What? He needed answers. Or witnesses. Or suspects. Or... Neighsay. He would do that, too, he wagered. He stormed out of the house and tore down the street in the direction where he last saw the self-aggrandizing bureaucratic bully.

....also is it wrong that I want this to be a RP thread now?

Hmmm. Can I take time to gather more evidence before deciding? Also, is it a condition of the situation that it is definitely one of these three options?

What, no mention of BlueBrony? Gotta fix that. {yes, I'm partial to his silly stuff}

Welllll.... How long is a "year"? How much do ponies change over time, physically or mentally? If we go by the idea of one year being one season, the CMCs alone would be in their late teens by now. On the other hand, Granny Smith is officially over a hundred years old and still kicking, if with the occasional hip replacement. So here's a better question - how much is a year worth?

I'd go with somewhere in the middle. I wouldn't call her a genius and more equal parts misguided and driven - apparently she started off with a degree of talent, as evidenced by her cutie mark. Instead, there's pretty heavy hints that some time after Sunburst was sent away, she developed the idea of Equality and pursued both magic and social studies in order to make it happen. If she were merely a genius, however, she would not have made other discoveries along the way, but instead focused on dedicated pursuit of applied magic towards a specific goal - something that also holds the advantage of any progress of knowledge, which is making it obtainable by others as well. As for her thinking she was better than others - it's debatable. The doesn't seem to have held herself above others, or at least not consciously. When she accidentally exposed her cutie mark, she openly {if privately} chastised herself without any apparent insincerity. On the other hand, to believe that your way is better than all others, whether or not it is resisted by those you wish to impose it on does require a degree perceived self-superiority. Her idea itself, though... it depends. When we found her, the only equality she could enforce was to lower everyone down to the collective common denominator, and by doing so, while she strengthened the internal integrity of her society, she would have made all its members much more vulnerable, if not outright helpless against any outside crises, whether they be hostile or environmental. If she {or anyone else, for that matter - she seemed idealistic enough to allow others to outshine her} found a way to elevate everyone equally and simultaneously, I imagine she would embrace the idea, but the problem there is that uniform thinking and abilities would have made that kind of breakthrough impossible from within, and accepting it from outside would expose the flaws of the Equality ideal.

Errr, which rule? Forum rule or topic rule... I'm a bit confused here.

Well.... I do wonder if Starlight would like it, given her... earlier interests, at least out of nostalgia. Rarity might appreciate it, I think, because she does seek beauty and art in everything, Rainbow Dash might enjoy it for the energy, but the rest... don't strike me as something that would enjoy the screaming.

Hmm, here's a question, how's the breeding bit been confirmed? The best argument I can think of is Faust's comment on DeviantArt, but since that wasn't even vaguely mentioned in the show and Lauren hasn't been involved for the past six-and-change seasons, I'm curious where the idea of being confirmed comes from.

Scritching would ensue?