Night Sky

There's a lot of confusion between the various platforms as to when these holidays happen. This place seems to be a day ahead all the time. Redditor ponies have all kinds of ideas of their own, Equestria Daily is supposedly the high authority, but their list of what the holidays are and when is kind of weird. I dunno. I wasn't expecting a viral smash but no one besides my brother and one other friend showed up. 

I have one more of these in the works for Nightmare Night, and then that's gonna be it for these AMVs. We'll see what Gen 6 brings.

Thanks, Bestie! Thank you very much!

Thank you!

Cause there are several Grand Galloping Galas, at least two, aren't those annual events? I guess I assumed that it takes place over several years, but I've never looked. I will poke around and see if I can find anything half way canonical... 

Now that IS an oversight, surely Pinkie Pie would never let THAT happen! Was it really supposed to be 1 year? Wow...

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo have had to do so much on their own. And it hasn't been easy. We know what's up with Pinkie Pie's, RD's and Fluttershy's folks, Bright Mac and Pear Butter aren't able to attend. I must say, Twi's folks are also pretty distant, but Twi and Shining Armor are older, and even they didn't miss the Crystalling. It just makes me feel bad. I see Rarity and Sweetie Belle trying to make it work, but I see how it can be difficult for them. All the other Mane 6's parents seem like they did just fine, in their own funny ways. Rarity and Sweetie Belle's parents...kinda rubbed my fur the wrong way. It was off putting and it's all we've seen when this episode happened. You know all the other parents are very proud, but what about Rarity's? Was it an oversight in the writing? Is it something they meant to get to eventually and never did? Are they trying to hint at something awful? What is it? 0_O    

Awesome Gif!

Thank Yous!

Nothing about what I believe puts me at odds with the self evident fact that one's character is coterminous with one's fate. Two words for the same thing, it's a matter of semantics. 

Sure, I have some weird, out there conceptions and beliefs, they do a lot to keep me moving. Those with spirit, work the longest. But it's not that I don't feel the same pain and fear everyone else does. Only that I relate to it differently. And MLP has certainly done much to help with that...it is quite able to justify its existence alongside all the old Scripturs...

It is said that God approaches us in whatever manner we choose to see Him/Her/Zim/Whatever, as long as our hearts are in the right place. It is further said that the thing you fix your mind upon at the moment of death has a great deal of influence upon the next birth you take, or whether or not you take another birth in the material creation. 

Now, it's not quite that simple...MLP hasn't existed for most of the 4000 - 5000 year old heritage that these ideas come out of. However, any conception we might have of the "realms of the celestial controllers", here on this planet and in this life...it is all imaginary of necessity. That is, you either believe it exists or you don't. But even if you do...in this lifetime, you've never been there yet. Past lives don't count right now...if you're that advanced...well, you probably are too humorless for MLP but anyway, some more meritorious or more advanced world or reality to take birth into...It could look like anything...where the sport of Brahman or Sri Krsna is concerned, nothing is inherently off the table.

The traditions also speak of devotees who performed massive penances, and got one on one audiences, in which they could ask for a boon. In theory, you could ask God to be reborn in a reality that did everything that MLP seems to do. On the other hand, this same cluster of traditions also talks at length about not becoming too attached to anything. And desiring to take birth in any world in particular is a whole lot of desire...there's still the matter of whether or not a pony really deserves what they're asking for. 

Service in the EUP is serving the Government. The rule of law comes from God, so by being a career EUP service pony, that is a way I could earn my keep the first time. Of course we've both thought about this at length...this is about the only way I could see it working out. Either this or some unholy death machine that you just rot away in, bedazzled all the while by a pointless but elaborate quantum simulation. Maybe you will live to see the arrival of such a death pod. I hope I don't.

I applaud this guy for his thoughtfulness. He may be putting too fine a point on it though.

Remember, the Crew of the Enterprise D was always very short on patience when it came to Q, at least until his later appearances. 

FIM could simply have chosen to substitute Princess Celestia, who is in charge, for Captain Picard. I don't think anything scarred Princess Celestia worse that the rupture with Princess Luna. 

They had everything back where it needed to be and then thanks to Discord, Legion of DOOM. 

I think everyone was ready to murder him at that point, though not in the same way or to the same degree. 

I love this one. Classic Tune, classic music video. Kind of an interesting film it was on the soundtrack too...

Stephen Collins is known to me as Cmdr. Deckard from the first Star Trek Film, and I vastly prefer to remember him as such, neither as the preacher patriarch, or who he really turned out to be in irl. But, you will still hear this track in waiting rooms and department stores in the States, if you've been waiting for an hour or so. Super nostalgia. Vanished era. It scares me that I remember this. Feels like a thousand years ago. 

10 4

It would be my honor, Sir. 

UED Taskforce of the EUP Guards, Their Majesties Own. 

If I were gonna be a recording artist, I would resemble Gary in many ways. I got into him during a retro phase in high school, and I have never been out of him. I was just in time too, because my interest coincided with Beggar's Banquet reissuing all his classic albums on spiffy CD versions.

I remember being in University and thinking I'd been born too late, and if only I could have seen him live. If you had told me then, that 20 years hence I would see him perform some of my favorite songs live, I wouldn't have believed you. 

But, I shot this footage myself, so I guess I would have been wrong, wouldn't I?

And so, help me, I'm gonna do it all over again in October. 

Also this;

Thank you, Bestie! I'm thrilled, it feels like a first anyways. I don't really know how big it is or isn't to get your stuff on EQ Daily, but to me this was big. Part of that's on my end, but EQ is a historic site in this fandom, I consider it an honor to be preserved there.

I don't like that video. 

I know that places me in a very small minority. 

It's a jewel of the fandom by a very solid majority consensus. 

Nothing is going to change that. 

What happened was terrible, it was a public tragedy and disaster for Equestria, a family tragedy for the Princesses and worst of all a very dramatic magical imbalance. 

So, ponies everywhere are going to try to deal with it in their own ways, and some pony made the video, and it seems to have struck a chord and resonated with a great many ponies. Which is fine. I don't agree. I don't like the video, I have my reasons.

But, I am not an unbiased voice, though I might counter that by saying that on this matter, no one is unbiased, and that in itself is a good thing. 

Equestria is not what it is because ponies tend to take an objective view of things. 

To serve Princess Luna is to serve Princess Celestia. When Princess Luna was exiled to the moon, my ancestors had been retainers of Hers since She was a filli.

But they were wise and farsighted, as was Princess Celestia. They did not turn their backs on Her and storm off in disgust, and Princess Celestia did not initiate any purges of the Royal Administration of ponies who had been loyal to Her sister.

One by one, Princesses Celestia had a series of private, painful conversations to see what could be salvaged. She considered it a penance. Few ponies comprehend Princess Celestia's grief, and pain, and guilt and the regrets She has lived with for most of Her reign. 

When I hear other ponies, who also live here in this human world, scoff at Princess Celestia, when they say She was spoiled,  or entitled, or inept or never worked for anything...It's so typical. And it's an embarrassment.

But we found a better way. As yet there were no EUP Guards. There was so much that needed to be done to secure the Night without an Alicorn Princess to watch over it. Really, Equestria needed the EUP regardless. My ancestors were among those who had the necessary expertise, and they had the good sense to swear fealty to Princess Celestia and carry on, doing what they did best. Princess Celestia had inherited the right to my family's service, since we did not elect to leave and she did not elect to dismiss us.

Thus t'was fer along spell govner. 

I myself swore two oaths to Princess Celestia. There is the EUP Guards oath I swore upon joining the service. But not everyone who is a sworn retainer of the Princesses is in the EUP, not at all. So I had to reaffirm the same oath my parents and their parents, etc. had sworn. It was mine if I wanted it. My sister declined, and even though she served in the EUP Guards herself for a few years, she retired a long while ago and has nothing to do with serving the Kingdom now. 

Everyone in my family served, it's just something we all did, but not necessarily to the same extent.

By the time Princess Luna reappeared, I had already established myself as a career officer in the EUP Guards. My relationship to Princess Celestia beyond that was almost entirely ceremonial, I wasn't close with her, but I was technically a low ranking member of Her court. Several times a year, there would be meetings and summits, sometimes Princess Celestia Herself would chair the proceedings, sometimes a designee. 

A lot of it was charity and social welfare stuff. Keeping the cities clean, keeping the granaries topped off, making sure no ponies ended up on the streets or unable to get medical care, the continuing development and prosperity of the kingdom. We weren't at war, times were good. 

You'd find it boring. There was, of course, a lot of peacocking. There were preening jackassses jostling each other for position. Ponies are not immune to ambition and ego entirely. The results are just less disastrous in Equestria. 

Princess Celestia always put up with it with charm, grace and extreme patience. No pony can really understand how patient Princess Celestia truly is. 

I had some civic duties and offices to help see to in Cloudsdale. It amounted to a lot of committee work on a part time basis. Between those responsibilities and my work in the EUP Guards, it became convenient for me to have a condo in Canterlot as well. Wasn't cheap, but I could afford it. 

I didn't often appear before Her Majesty in person, but we were acquainted and I had and have Her good esteem.

I'll not go into the rank structure of the EUP Guards here. But when Princess Luna returned I was already at my current rank. Call me a Major and have done with it. 

I was summoned to the Palace, and handed a letter penned by Her Majesty that Her sister had returned, that They were reconciled to each other, and that Princess Luna was to be restored to Her former place and position in the Royal Administration. 

So, Princess Celestia had elected to return my oath to Her sister. Princess Celestia wanted Princess Luna to have the sense of belonging and participation she had not felt before.

It was a dear wish of Her Majesty that I continue to serve the kingdom, both as a member of the EUP Guards, and in the service of Her younger sister, in the long and proud traditions of my family. There is nothing I would deny Princess Celestia, so long as it was mine to give.

Anyway, as a member of the EUP Guards, I ultimately serve the senior Alicorn Princess first and foremost. But by Equestrian law, that does not preclude me from serving a junior Princess in a separate capacity. Rightly practiced, the two are not understood to be in conflict. 

So, I had to appear before Princess Luna and swear my oath to Her personally. Princess Celestia was not present, but I was made to understand that She was very happy to see a member of my family return to Her sister's service. 

That is the kind of ruler Princess Celestia is, that's the kind of leader She is, that's the kind of sister She is. Make of that what you will. As I am an actively serving member of the EUP Guards, and a member of Princess Luna's court, I am not really at liberty to just bandy words about Her Majesty, Princess Celestia. She rocks. That's my official position, and my personal position. But, I am at liberty to tell you about what serving her has been like, that I can do. Hopefully it has offered some insights? 

Welcome and Thank you!

Then going off of just what you've put before me, I can tell you that I don't feel there is anything you should be ashamed of. But that's just me. I think different ponies will react to what you said in different ways, based on who they are and what they have been through. 

Now, me, I'm of a certain age and generation, and just because different ponies will have different reactions to things I say, does not automatically mean that I suppress the urge to speak my mind every single time. But I have learned to be more careful than would otherwise come naturally to me. 

There's a lot of talk about friendship out there, about support and unity and solidarity. 

Well, here in the human world, none of us are as skilled as ponies are at that. 

Not even close. 

But just speaking for myself, and just about what you've presented, no, I don't think there's anything to be ashamed of, I just had to take a certain kind of care with something like this, in a forum like this one. We have little ears and hooves around here. 

I can't make any statements yet. 

I need to see the thread this exchange happened in. 

I don't know if this was the entirety of the exchange you had with Snoopy Fan or not.

I don't know if someone else showed up after this and decided to be offended.

I don't know if that person was or was not a moderator.

Did you get into any kind of trouble, or are you just concerned that you may have departed good taste and are now asking for feedback.

I am happy to provide that btw, but I need a bit more information first. 

Where on the forum did this conversation take place?

There is so much more to the EUP than just the Wonderbolts.

If I lived in Equestria, I could very easily also be living a life of scholarly detachment. 

More likely, I would be an artist. 

It's up to the imagination.

I am an actively serving EUP member because I am stuck between Equestria and this world. 

If I had taken birth entirely in Equestria, I have no idea how it would play out. 

Thank you.

Only you know what you're going to do. The motivation is always entirely the same. But each individual path through life is entirely unique. It is folly to to seek advice from others, find it yourself, one step at a time. One breath at a time, as though your life depended on it, which of course it does.

That's a nice shirt.