Mana Hooves

I have not voted yet because my hated pony(ies) of choice are absent from the ballot. Said ponies are Flim and Flam. They're annoying. They're evil. They're JERKS.

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXxP_-XaKrk Yeah, I know, it's not exactly "short", but every second of it is adorable. There's only one cuter filly... EDIT: On a totally unrelated note, is it just me, or are filly Fluttershy's legs much longer than average?

It might on a more neutral forum, but you're going to get roughly a 90% vote for Rainbow Dash here. Still, we know what Dash's top speed is. Has anyone figured out Sonic's?

I may be totally misinterpreting the question, but this seems a rather weird one. The thing about time-structure theories and why none of them have been proven or disproven is that they only matter in the event of time travel. Last I checked, top scientists still haven't quite figured out how to make time travel work*. In any region of time that isn't "time-machine'd" to, there is no difference between current time-structure theories. Add to this that the very concept of time travel is extremely complicated, and the fact that children's shows are generally designed to be simple enough for their audience. As a result, few children's shows even feature time travel, and so determining the time-structure of their settings is impossible. *Actually, we have, but only partially. Time travel to the future is actually a rather simple concept, but it's near-impossible financially. It requires reaching speeds close to the speed of light for an extended period of time, which requires insane levels of energy, which requires gargantuan levels of fuel, which requires more money than I think even exists. Also, it's a one-way street; if you don't like the future, the only thing you can do about it is go even further into the future. Which, again, is a lot of money. Lastly, I'm not even sure a human pony can survive such speeds. Surprisingly enough, she doesn't. As random as she is, she's scripted to be random in the precise ways that she is random. Now please, don't get me started on the concept of randomness. Otherwise, I'll be here all day. (Long story short: "Random" means being arbitrary enough to be completely unpredictable.)

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS MANY REFERENCES TO EVENTS SHOWN IN S2E20 "IT'S ABOUT TIME". IN OTHER WORDS, IT CONTAINS SPOILERS. If I ever needed something to point to in order to prove MLP:FiM is far more than just a children's show, this would be it. S2E20 "It's About Time" is easily my favorite episode so far, for multiple reasons. The first is that it's a Twilight episode. I like Twilight. The second is that it uses, letter for letter, one of the many structure-of-time theories and sticks to it. Namely, it uses what I call the "destiny" theory (I'm not actually sure of its formal name). If you've ever seen Back to the Future, forget everything about it. That movie does NOT use destiny theory, rather, it uses what I call "malleability" theory. The destiny theory essentially states that everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen, has already been scripted. It states that there is one destiny (hence my dubbed name) that cannot possibly be deviated from. In layman's terms, it states that the future is, in fact, set in stone (its just, we humans ponies aren't the ones doing the setting in stone). What makes this theory debatable is the fact that this theory runs in direct opposition to free will, something people have historically fought brutal wars over. Malleability theory is the theory most people have been familiarized with via science fiction. It states that there are essentially an infinite number of possible destinies, and different events cause time to follow different corresponding destinies. This allows people to change the present and the future by going to the past and causing something different to occur, letting cause-and-effect do the rest. What makes this theory debatable (and frankly, downright scary) is the numerous ways one could cause a time paradox, causing "time to be annihilated". The easiest example is if someone were to go back in time and kill their past self. The cause-and-effect of this is that you no longer exist, you can no longer go back in time, and you can no longer kill your past self. But if you can no longer kill your past self, how did you in the first place? Cue paradox. (If your brain is hurting right now, that's normal.) One could argue that it's impossible to say Equestria uses destiny time over malleable time based on this alone. However, I would counter-argue that the evidence is simply too perfect. The scene of past-Twilight being visited by future-Twilight is exactly the same as future-Twilight visiting past-Twilight (or in internet terms, one is copypasta). Had it deviated in even the slightest way, then yes, destiny theory would have been disproven in Equestria. But it doesn't. The pieces simply fit too perfectly. What makes this episode truly fascinating is that Twilight doesn't realize that Equestria uses destiny theory. Twilight seems to believe in the malleability theory. She attempts to do everything she can to change the future, indicating she either doesn't know about or doesn't believe in destiny theory (and the episode ending would suggest the former). In fact, her last actions in the episode seem to stem from assuming malleability theory being true. That being said, it would also make sense if, after realizing no disaster was going to occur, she gave in to destiny theory. She would realize that not following the pre-scripted destiny could have dire, world-ending consequences, so she went back in time and followed the script. Anyway, I've nerd-rambled long enough. Lets wrap this up; what does this all mean? Well, in a nutshell, it means you can assume that Equestria canonically uses some form of destiny-time. What does THAT mean? Well, frankly, unless we see another episode involving time travel...very little.

*sigh* I fear you're right. Derpy is an internet fan name given due to her so closely matching the definition of the word 'derp'. The only people they would appease by using that name is the internet fans, which, numerous as they may be, aren't their actual target audience. Still, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. They can call her Ditzy Doo all they want, and she'll still be named Derpy in my mind. And she always WILL be derpy (which is primarily because her eyes don't look at the same thing). I still think my previous idea is the best shot Derpy has of being officially saved. That said, it's a risk. Companies tend not to take those. So I'm not holding my breath.

I wanted to say "No, Derpy is not mentally handicapped," but I don't actually have anything to back that statement up. Derpy doesn't really have much of a character besides being clumsy (as we've seen from more than one episode). Still, I agree with your for the most part. Derpy was certainly not intended to be a depiction of a handicapped being. There were just a small collection of people that believed otherwise. As my previous post stated, the show has a prime opportunity to not only teach that being handicapped isn't as bad as it might seem, but to give Derpy an actual character as well as a shot within the show canon.

Bronies have a tendency to have some internet background where "derp" and its resulting word "derpy" has taken on a hilarious meaning of its own. The mere fact that said meaning is even remotely acknowledge in what is, at the end of the day, a show designed for children, is that much more hilarious.

There's actually a lot of potential in Derpy Hooves. Seeing as how she's now essentially a depiction of a mentally handicapped person, were she to be shown in a good light, it could be used as a lesson that even Derpy can be useful in some way. For example, perhaps Derpy is actually quite strong and ends up able to help Applejack with apple harvesting. I can see the letter now. "Dear Princess Celestia: Today I learned that everypony, no matter how silly they may seem, always has a place somewhere. It's just a matter of finding out where that place is."

In common fantasy (most namely D&D), dragons are beings of immense lifespans and incredibly slow growth. I'm going to compare Spike to a D&D4E red dragon (yes, the colors may not match, but both beings breathe fire*); below are some basic statistics from the D&D4E draconomicon. ("Body length" refers to the distance occupied from the tip of its head to the tip of its tail when it's fully stretched out. Their combat area is much smaller due to the fact that it only consists of the dragon's torso; its head and tail move around too much to locate in a tabletop setting.) Wyrmling: 0-8 yrs, 18ft body length, occupies a 5x5 foot combat area Young: 8-200 yrs, 33-ft body length, occupies a 10x10 foot combat area Adult: 200-950 yrs, 33+ft body length, occupies a 10x10 foot combat area Elder: 950-1900 yrs, 58ft body length, occupies a 15x15 foot combat area Ancient: 1900-2500 yrs, 88ft body length, occupies a 20x20 foot combat area Now, we know that Spike was born as a result of Twilight's entrance exam when she was a little filly. We can assume he's seen at least 5-10 years of growth since then. This means, assuming MLP uses dragons similar to D&D, that Spike will soon become too heavy and large for him to ride on Twilight's back anymore. Theoretically, he already should be. However, this also means that Spike will never reach adulthood, let alone the status of the dragon which Fluttershy talked down, any time within our lifetime (assuming we still haven't unlocked the secret to immortality...which top men are working on as I type). *Believe it or not, very few D&D dragons actually breathe fire. Primarily only red dragons do.

I'm seeing two primary counterarguments: that A) pegasi fly just like the sun shines, grass grows, and Scout hurts people, and B ) that they need the pegasi to reach the high places. I'll accept argument A. If nature's going to happen, it's going to happen. As for argument B: how did the original earth ponies reach high places to do that stuff in the first place? (The answer is balloons: Pinkie Pie's favorite way of going up) You make a good point. Perhaps I am just reading too far into it.

Something occurred to me recently about the Winter Wrap Up event. If I remember correctly, Twilight says that she's not allowed to use her magic because Ponyville was originally built by Earth ponies. Because of that, they traditionally ban magic from the wrap up. BUT HOLD ON. They let Pegasi fly. Last I checked, Earth ponies can't fly. Just like they can't use magic. Why outlaw one but not the other? That seems...well...a bit racist ("racist" is kind of a heavy word, but I can't think of any more appropriate word).

You (assuming that's you in the video) make a compelling argument, and I see no reason to disagree. Considering the circumstances, nothing Trixie did makes her evil.

15 Megawatts? THAT early on? I'm calling it now. In season 3, we will see time travel. Back To The Future states that we need "ONE POINT TWENTY ONE JIGGAWATTS!" for that. Twilight is within spitting distance of that.

Pinkie Pie was a pegasus and Fluttershy was an earth pony? Hmm... Y'know, I would have approved of a pegasus Pinkie Pie. There'd be that many more opportunities for her to be wacky. Though, Fluttershy kind of needs the wings even more, and if BOTH were pegasi, that'd ruin the delicate 2-of-each balance they have going.

That might work...Assuming she uses all 380kW of her power and 27 tons is about 24500kg, she might be in trouble. MATH TIME! In conclusion, if Twilight doesn't spot that nuke heading for Ponyville while it's at LEAST 3 miles away, she's screwed... But honestly, who in their right mind would nuke Ponyville?

It's a lost cause. Assuming a hand grenade weighs 1kg (which is probably a gross overestimate, but it's better that way, and an easier number to work with), she could propel the grenade back at you at roughly a speed of 217m/s in one second spent doing telekinetic magic. That's roughly 485 miles per hour. In other words, you'll never throw it hard enough to get it and keep it in fatality range. In OTHER other words, she can probably kill you using the force of the speeding grenade alone, never mind the blast. It's probably a MUCH better idea to simply not make her angry. I doubt she'll kill you with that power if you don't give her a reason.

I considered loyalty for a while...Then I remembered he ran away from home out of jealously. So, magic it is. If spitting fire to send a letter actually sends it and doesn't burn it, it's magic.

+1 brohoof is not enough to encourage the awesomeness displayed here. Is it just a little scary? Yes. Is it amazing? Also yes. As much as I love math, it's not usually something I do just for fun, though you've certainly inspired me otherwise. Though...I would raise an issue with using kW/cm as a unit measurement for data points. When I did my (extremely rough) calculations, I assumed volume and power were related, not length and power. Then again, you noted a massive difference between W/cm^3... I guess this is why we do science. To figure this stuff out. For all we know, our assumptions could be wrong*. FOR SCIENCE! *In the spoiler below, I'm going to list everything I can think of that could throw anything and/or everything off. Keep in mind, it's more of me being nit-picky; overall, I still think you've done GREAT work; you more than deserve the four brohooves given to each of your posts in this thread.

They really should bring Derpy back. The way I see it, anything and everything you do and say can offend someone. For example, if I believed apples to be some sort of "fruit of the gods", I'd probably be offended by Applejack and the entire Apple family. Does that complaint mean Applejack should be removed? Heck no. Unless you end up offending at least half of your audience, then you shouldn't care about offending part of it, because it's going to happen no matter what you do.

She sure was. Last choice of the question.I think it was more of a reference to "chicken" though, which was absent from the list.

Besides grossly overestimating my likeness of most ponies, it didn't do half bad. It thought I was most like Pinkie Pie, which...well...I won't ENTIRELY deny... though it wasn't the result I was expecting. I added green lines on my image to display my rough expectations/self-analysis. Notice how none of them are above the result given.

Your math is impeccable. +1 brohoof. However, you state that she is able to do this "without much effort". Preliminarily, I'd disagree with that. Did you see how much she was exerting herself? The unicorn horn glow is almost as big as herself! During normal magic, it's just a small glow reaching ~1-2 inches (pure estimate) out. I'm going to assume that her unicorn horn is roughly conical with a height of six inches and a base radius of one inch (again, more estimates). Then I'm going to assume the glow occupies a cone with one more inch in height and radius. V(unihorn) = Pi(1)^2 * 6 * 1/3 = 2pi V(glow) = Pi(2)^2 * 7 * 1/3 = 28pi/3 V(glow-unihorn) = 22pi/3 = ~23in^3 Next, I'm going to assume that the new glow is roughly 3 feet tall with a radius of 1 foot (Again, still more estimates based on images available). V(megaglow) = pi(12)^2 * 36 * 1/3 = 1728pi V(megaglow-unihorn) = 1726pi = ~5420in^3 Lastly, I'm going to assume that glow and power are linearly correlated. (Also, I'm going to challenge your higher-estimate of ~3-4MW because the mass of the ursa is unknown, making it unsuitable for study. I'm using your well-proven estimate of 380kW) P = 380kW * 23in^3 / 5420in^3 = 1612W So, based on this, I estimate that Twilight can generate about 1.6kW of power "with little effort". This pales in comparison to xkcd's 18.3kW. So, do I think Twilight could steamroll Yoda in her sleep? Heck no. Do I think she could do it if she really wanted to? No doubt about it. Still, all these calculations are based on nothing but estimates on account of me being too lazy to measure pixels. Perhaps you could revise this? EDIT: I'd like to point out a minor semantic error you made that had me confused for longer than I should have been. When you said the following: "Acceleration = 1.856 m/s^2 KE = 1/2 * 220,878.4 * 1.856^2" ...you incorrectly tagged the 1.856. This is a velocity, as the water tower is going a set distance in a set time. It should have been "Velocity = 1.856m/s" I finally figured it out with the Kinetic Energy formula, which I know to be "KE = mass * velocity^2". Despite this, the 380kW is still accurate.

I'll buy that. Mostly because everything Pinkie says cracks me up. I disagree with Constitution. In fact, she based her strategy on lack of Constitution. Dexterity is a good secondary stat for wizards, and also somewhat correlates to speed. That image. Is win. Do want more!

I would vote against a name like Horse MD. 'Horse' just seems like such a generic word. Also, the obvious reference to Dr. House is weak. House is a jerkaholic that knows everything. This pony isn't a jerkaholic, and can't figure out the exact problem (Granted, that's due to him being the wrong pony for the job, but we have no evidence for or against his high level of professionalism.)