Night Sky

Will you help us? We've been watching you. You're not like the other humans. They seem to be after you too? They look like they've been terribly injured. We asked one of them if he needed help, but he tried to kill us. He's been chasing us ever since. We didn't mean to take the Orb, it just appeared in our world. We wanted to ask Baron Alexander about it, but I think he's got something bad planned for all of us. If we work together, I think I know how to stop the Shadow. But we need you!

Thank you, Bestie! Becoming a pony and settling down here in Equestria has been a big step in the right direction, regardless of the fact that the community functions through the internet. I've been involved in many fandoms over many years, MLP isn't the only one that is close knit, but there is no fandom that is as supportive or warm as Ponydom. Beyond that, it's not always just words. Equestria is also about art, music, singing, polished writing projects, cosplay, roleplay and most of all Horse Play. Those of us who discover Equestria are always the better, and less lonely for it. I do wish the conventions could go back to the way they were, I know they still happen on a smaller scale. Part of me wants to believe that when Gen 6 arrives, contrary to what many ponies expect or say now, it will all take off all over again. There's always a chance that Gen 6 will be a great thing, whether or not it is great in the same way that Gen 4 was.

Sometimes I wonder about this myself. It's a compulsion. Sometimes I feel like I'm making right on all of it by turning a post into a TOME. Sometimes it's painful and not a good fit for the topic, but I just can't stop myself. It has something to do with isolation and loneliness, certainly. On the other hand, internet shorthand it not the ultimate evolution of human interaction and discourse. In fact, it is a step in the opposite direction. There, I said it. Some people roll with it. Some of us resist it.

They traveled through history and reached legend, and from there they proceeded into myth. On the left hand side of this image, you will see all of the clues with which Argyle had surrounded himself. I often wonder, could Argyle have possibly known just how ancient Grogar's Bell actually is? Did he really understand what function Mage Meadowbrook's mask had served? Exactly why did he make a Spike stuffed animal for Sunny? Perhaps if they had not killed Argyle off after a whole ten minutes of screen time, some of these questions could have been answered, or at least hinted at. On the right hand side of this image, you will see artifacts which demonstrate how the echo of Twilight Sparkle was a constant presence in the lives of Argyle and Sunny Starscout. Argyle had worn Twilight's cutie mark like a Christian wears a cross. He was no mere scholar or digger. Sunny's journal and knapsack are beautiful pieces of custom leatherwork. Argyle made them with his own two hooves for his daughter to use in her daily life. I wonder if the cutie mark pins on the knapsack's strap looked like medieval coats of arms to the ponies of Maretime Bay. And then there is the lantern, an object which transcends either of the two categories mentioned so far. Superficially, it was as charming and lovingly handmade as anything else that Argyle had fashioned. The real question for which we will never have a decisive answer is, how had Argyle come to be the steward of the earth pony unity crystal? Queen Haven never took off her crown, ever. And it took the possibility of possessing another unity crystal to make Alpha Bittle even consider parting with his own. Let us not forget, after losing to Sunny at Just Prance, he not only refused to part with the unicorn crystal, he tried to seize the pegasus crystal for himself. Their own predecessors must have imparted to Queen Haven and Alpha Bittle some vague, half-remembered and poorly understood sense that these objects were sacred. Argyle took a different approach, but nonetheless practiced a great deal of care and restraint in doing so. He transferred possession of the crystal to his daughter while she was just a filly, without telling her about it before she was ready. Maybe Argyle knew that he might not be around to see her reach adulthood. He didn't want the crystal to be snagged or lost to random chance. Hidden in the lantern, the crystal would be safe in a precious, but humble object from her father, that no rapacious adult ponies would pay attention to, and that Sunny would be unlikely to toss into a dumpster. Clearly, Argyle understood that the universe asks for faith that it will unfold as it should, in its own good time. Bringing about the return of Harmony had been Argyle's life's work, and even though the time was finally approaching, he never tried to hasten its arrival. Argyle must have been the final keeper of an ancient and quiet lineage, that went all the way back to Princess Twilight Sparkle, and her plans for Equestria's eventual renewal. Front and center, they need no introduction from me. They watched over Sunny's life until she was ready to fulfill her destiny, silent totems but effacious nonetheless. Their gaze also reaches right through the screen, and they address themselves to us as well. It is up to each of us to be keepers of whatever it was that they had to say to us individually. In the background Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark sails above a tower of stained glass that colors the pure light of the sun. It has become a transcendental icon, shining resplendently in rays of cleansing bright light, exactly where it belongs.

Vangelis - Heaven.wav

And the paths he must walk are precarious, to say the least:

Congrats. You'll never forget it. I vividly remember my first concert, all the way back in 1999.

These made me laugh, they may well not make you laugh depending. My apologies, you'll have to excuse me. I have some history in my background with the old YTP / YTPMV community, so I can't help but be thrilled by these. Ah, to be a 27 year old making videos like a 14 year old, how I miss those days.

It snowed two days ago, and my brother and I got the driveway cleared without too much trouble. It is snowing again, and you'd have thought we'd done nothing.

I'm thinking that that snow is gonna have to be shoveled once the precipitation finally stops. Goodie.

When you're 86 years old, you might as well do whatever you want to do.

Getting pumped to make my next couple pieces of Pony Art, these are going to be about Gen 5. I am looking to port my creative process to Gen 5. Not going to stop working with Gen 4, but I want to see if my approach can really be ported to Gen 5 successfully. I think it can, and that I can draw out the same things from Gen 5 that I draw out of Gen 4. It won't be entirely the same, but it will be...familiar, and very much worth doing.

I wish I could say that only one friend has done me like that, but it's more than one, let's not get too into how many. I am the problem. I stand by what I feel is right. It isn't even that I say what I mean and I mean what I say, I can be plenty diplomatic. But there are things that I just cannot be persuaded to do or not do. And so a lot of people have just left me behind. Sometimes that happens gracefully, and sometimes not. Sometimes people just move on, some people feel the need to make gestures. It often didn't mean the same thing to them that it meant to me. Gets me into harms way all the time. It hasn't ruined me, but it has certainly baffled me.

I had that as a double CD album back in the day.

I need to wash mine too, and I cannot lie.