Casey Pones

I'm still kind of new here. How do we submit stories?

Do I just past the text in here or attact it somehow and in what format?

I never knew Halloween until I was 7 or 8. 

My family lived in the British countryside, I never heard of Halloween or trick or treating. I don't know if it wasn't that big a thing in Britian back then or due to the location.

Then when I was 7 my father took a job that relocated us to the Netherlands. I ended up in the American School of the Hauge, (They had a large American population there.) It was there that I was introduced to Halloween. This school and it's community really did Halloween well.

They converted the gym's weight room into a pumpkin market.

We had a school-wide costume parade, even the staff got in on it, one year our principle turned up in a Donald Duck costume, the kind you see walking around Disney Land.

And parents would volunteer to hand out candy. We had these official routes between houses and they would be supplied with shop-sized boxes of candy. There was so much costumed foot traffic, they didn't bother to close the doors. 

And let me tell you I was hooked, on all of it. I remember the air seemed to tingle on those nights.

When my family moved back to Britain I got culture shock, from my own culture. For some reason there simply wasn't any Halloween in my area. Every year I'd try to recapture that magic and fail. Sometimes my family would find some kind of "Halloween event" nearby but they were pretty pathetic. Eventually I moved to a city, tried attending Halloween events at local bars but it wasn't the same.

Then one year I decided to just stay home, couldn't be bothered anymore. Suddenly that evening, there was a knock on my door. I couldn't think who it could be and I put the chain on the door before opening. To my surprise it was 3 children saying "Trick or treat." I was completely taken aback by this. I ran back inside looking for something to give them, all I could find was a packet of plain digestive biscuits. Soon after I'd handed them out, there was another knock with more trick-or-treaters. It was the best Halloween I'd had in years. I don't know if this had only started recently in my neighbourhood or if I'd just missed it by going out each year.

Since then, each Halloween, I stay at home and hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters in my neighbourhood. I dress up my front garden with decorations, there have been a few teething problems over the years but I've been getting better. I also put on a were-wolf mask and scare the kids when I open the door. This year I happened to see some teenagers on their way to a big even in costume. I handed out my left-over candy to then and they said I was "an icon," they said how I'd brought back their childhood memories. And the day after, I actually got a think you letter from on of the families who visited me.

After years of Halloween lost to me, I found a place in it again. 

On 2025-10-31 at 4:06 PM, Dusk Haven said:

This night — this Nightmare Night, this Halloween — is, at its heart, a time to face and even celebrate fear. I’ve had many fears in my life, and I still have many to face. Beneath the modern festivities and costumes lies a long history: a pagan celebration of the turning year, later shaped into a Christian day of remembrance for the saints. But through every version of it, the theme endures — it’s a night when the things that frighten us seem to live again.

Well said, most people just seem to think it's "costumes and candy." They don't know the complex history and meanings of this holiday. It has meaning, just not as direct or obvious as Christmas or 4th of July.

What you posted was beautiful and moving. I wish I could say I had a connection to Halloween like yours. 

One of my favourite episodes is Luna Eclipsed. I love how they introduce Nightmare Night. Not only is it a nice piece of world building but I'm impressed by how they took a Holiday with traditions that most find confusing and create a parody that takes those traditions and gives then a clear and direct meaning.

Lastly, as Americans introduced me to Halloween, I'd like to introduce you to perhaps the best Halloween special ever. This clip is from the British sitcom Bottom, the episode Terror. No one did TV violence like these 2.

UPDATE.

I just got my blastercorn today and I am blown away with it's fire power!

I've never had anything like an x-shot or nerf before, the toy guns of my youth were probably powered by a rubber band and had hardly any range to speak of.

But this thing, I can sit at the and of my living room and fire through the kitchen door, hit the kitchen wall and it still has enough reach to keep going! 

Malabite.

It's a combination of malachite, a type of green crystal. And overbite.

"Who cares about dumb unicorns anyway?"

You're the one who's dumb, calling it a unicorn when it's clearly an alicorn. 

6 hours ago, Dreambiscuit said:

This thing looks so fun and funny! I gotta get me one of these! Even the wings work! I like foam missile guns but they never had this kind of style and silliness. I’m all in.

Here's a perfect lightsaber for the job! (Not quite as good as the real thing). 

 

The foam is strong with this one.

1 hour ago, Snoopy Fan said:

It kind of looks like Zipp

Guess that makes it a zip-gun 

Last night I was playing some YouTube videos on my phone and an ad started playing. Apparently a toy company called Zuru has just made a pair of alicorn foam-dart guns!

Behold the Blastercorns!

At first I was 100% sure it was an ad for Fortnight, it looked just like a skin they would have introduced and it even the actions of the characters looked like a typical videogame.

I've never owned or played with foam-dart guns in my life but I've decided to get one of these for my birthday. If nothing else it'll be a great conversation starter at MLP meet-ups and conventions! By the way, did you know that the reason toy guns always have an orange muzzle is because it's required by law to show police it's not a real gun? Notice the orange horns. I think it's kind of funny they still have to add them to indicate this is toy gun. And I like how they actually made it work with this design.

On 2025-10-16 at 7:16 PM, Snoopy Fan said:

I could imagine Wrigley Field being a famous buckball stadium.

Is has pegasi playing there, so they could call it Wing-ly Feild

3 hours ago, Otaku-sempai said:

Not to be confused with either Whinnyapolis or Whinnypeg. 

That actually might be confusing.

Admittedly I didn't do anything other then put existing footage to existing music. But I've still wanted to do this for a while.

1 hour ago, MidnightFire1222 said:

Would something like Chicoltgo be too much?

It might be acceptable but I think the Whinny City fits a lot better.

Right now I'm working a project I've had in mind for a while now. A music video of the Frank Sinatra song "My kinda town" using footage from MLP, particularly images of Manehattan.

I know Manehatten is the Equestrian equivalent of New York not Chicago but FIM doesn't have a Chicago.

So just for fun I though I'd ask the community, what would the Equestrian version of Chicago be like? What pony puns and parodies would it have? What would the landmarks be called?

Personally I know next to nothing about Chicago, I've never been there, so I'm putting it to you.

All I can think of is it would be called Whinny City and terrorised by the infamous mobster Al Capony.

The living room, the name says it all. But technically the bedroom is a close second. 

I live in the UK, Ponycon is taking place on the 3rd and 4th of October.

I was looking forward to it but when I went to get my ticket I was horrified to find it was sold out. 

I know this is a long shot but, if you're going to UK Ponycon 2025, do you have a spare ticket? Did you get a ticket but decided not to go or found you couldn't?

Please let me know.

Also, this situation is making me think of the episode Ticket Master.

“Democ­ra­cy is the worst form of gov­ern­ment, except for all the oth­ers.” - Winston Churchill.

"Every nation gets the government it deserves" - Joseph De Maistre

Doc "Roads? Where we're going we don't need... roads."

Marty "Where are you going Doc? Back to the future?"

Doc "Nope, already been there." 

I've heard that tv shows these days get cancelled on a whim because executives have too much power.

Or because it's a way to avoid certain taxes.

Well today I was walking through a big bus terminal, a lady asked which one went to the airport. 

I didn't know but I pointed out the information centre to her.

I think it was a little after the first Equestria Girls film came out.

I had been vaguely aware of the show but dismissed it as for girls. Then I saw this MLP pokemon parody video on YouTube which led me to the barn raising song and I found myself drawn in. It wasn't long after that I started binge-watching the entire series.

I live in Liverpool, UK. People from here are called "Scousers," "The Scouse" or "Liverpudlians."

Originally I was born and raised in a part of the UK called Wales, specifically north Wales. I don't know if that part has a regional term, except for the Welsh.

I do know people from some other parts of the country are called Jordie's or Cockneys.

I don't really want to answer the OP's question. But I would like to share some interesting thoughts someone else has made on this topic.

The YouTube channel Tale Foundry analyses stories along with common/interesting ideas that come up in stories. In this video they analyse a common idea that crops up in our era's stories and seems to be held by many people... that immortality would be a curse. But they put forward an interesting opinion about why that is.

Is it that immortality is horrible? Or is it just sour grapes?

Right now, I'm replying to a thread on an MLP forum.

Well there a few in my neighbourhood who know me, albeit casually. I often go on walks around my neighbourhood and some people have seen me enough times to recognise me and I stop and talk for a while. They seem very friendly and nice.

But the people who live on either side of me are another story.

As soon as since the lady next door moved in she started making these unreasonable requests and blaming me and my house every time something goes wrong at her house. She calls me a terrible neighbour. What's more her sister and brother-in-law live directly opposite me and always back her up.

Imagine the Hoofeilds and McColts but one family lives on both sides of the other.

I'm a night owl and a sleep later then most, so for me mealtimes are something like this...

Breakfast 10 or11am

Lunch 4 or 5 pm

Dinner 10pm

Sound weird but at least I can avoid the mealtime rushes when eating out.

When I was a child, there was this café inside a shopping centre my family went to often.

They had milkshakes so thick you could stand your straw straight up in them and it wouldn't fall over.

But every time I when there I had a slice of this apple tart they had. And one time I sat down and the waiter just plonked a slice down in front of me without even asking.