My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic:: READ POST 11156/PAGE 558

[Fuzon-S]

I've climbed up lots of stairs at once, so I know how poor Twilight feels.

Y'know, it leaves me wondering if someone out there has made a Kung-fu Panda 2 joke already...

"Ahh, my old enemy...

STAIRS."

Edited November 20, 2012 by Sampson the One-Liner

[Snatcher2047]

Oh no...

IT BEGINS.........

Edited November 20, 2012 by Snatcher2047

[Endy]

....what the fuck is that? No, seriously. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT.

[Old dead account]

No...

Nonono....

FFFFF- SHOO BE DO SHOOB SHOO BE DO

[Dark Qiviut]

Commenting on the "Under the Sparkling Sea" cover only.

Let me just say that the cover artwork is amazing. There is a lot of great depth in this piece. Pinkie Pie's hair, with the highlights and shows, look really alive. The curvature in the shadows under the seapony's chin helps give her nose and cheek distance. For further depth, I REALLY love the eyebrow, scales, and fins of the seapony. The contrast in light and dark make each hair, skin, or scale tangible, as if there are millions of them rather than one flat piece. And the floor is absolutely gorgeous. But there's one other detail I love about this cover: the eyes. They give the characters a lot of life and joy. As for the script typeface, it fits the calm nature of the cover, and the kerning is well-done.

The one critique I have is the foreground flora. While they push everything else back, the contrast is a little bit too sharp. My suggestion is to tone down the highlight and add a little bit more black in there so they don't look distracting.

Now for the seapony herself, I honestly like it. She's got a gorgeous design! I can tell whoever considered the design of the seapony thought long and hard about how to draw a new species yet stay true to the ponies from MLP:FIM. Slick, elegant, calm, and dare I say wise somewhat.

(And BTW, this seapony's front here is quite different compared to the previous generation. If anything, this style feels a lot more like G4/FIM rather than ones from the past.)

As for whether the artwork on the cover actually fits the art style of MLP:FIM, I'm unsure to neutral. This style would be on the cover of a Drawfriend post immediately, but what works great in fanart doesn't translate well to official artwork. There's a lot of charm, hard work, and joy in the cover, which would work beautifully in the show, but it conflicts with the depth. The style of MLP:FIM works because its flat shapes, bright colors, and style for the world of Equestria (flora, fauna, ponies, and the like) give an impression on the audience. A severely different art style (as official artwork only, not fanart) creates a contrast of emotional, physical, and tangible consistency. There's a fine line between what works as fanart and what works as both fanart AND officially licensed products. Now does the cover cross that line? I wouldn't say so. It more or less toes on it, but doesn't step over it. But does it work as an officially licensed product? I don't know. That's up to you to decide.

Edited November 21, 2012 by Dark Qiviut

[Mega]

I think some people are really overreacting about this Sea Pony. For one, we only have a cover and a brief summary right now. Second, this is a book geared at the show's target demographic, so of course it won't cater to the hardcore brony crowd. But really, is it such a crime to have past gen concepts revisited in FiM? Believe it or not, FiM already draws a lot from the old generations in more than just character names and appearances.

Dragon Quest parallels a G1 episode with a similar plot. The Mare in the Moon episodes are strikingly similar to Midnight Castle in a number of ways. The key, I think, is the execution. The FiM staff is talented. I think they can take something like Sea Ponies and do something truly creative with it. Plus, IIRC, Lauren wanted to introduce them at some point.

[gato]

So many faces I don't remember seeing before...

...

My memory sucks. D:

So...Twilight has a spell that can effectively KILL a pony? Thats...kinda scary.

Technically kill somepony, it's more like a banishing spell that could send a certain living being as energy form to the pond (which is SO not going to work with any upcoming villains)... What they do inside the pond or where they go it's a mystery, but since any leftover of it's existence in the Equestria they inhabit is erased you could pretty much said the purple Unicorn killed them.

Like... Saying Celly would have killed Luna if her banishment was permanent.

Anyway!

"What is a fanfic?" edition.

Busy busy busy, games I'm trying to keep track on, real life, season 3, I don't have much time for pony fics ;_;

Hopefully things will get back on track from this week onwards... I'll still be busy in some areas but I won't be so handtied to enjoy some reading.

MIssion Implausible:

Stuff blowing up!

Eh, really there seems to be an attempt to build a backstory here but I bet it's going to be left there, I don't think Perry is going to show how Mane ended up like this, as it stands right now looks like an agent who didn't like the altruist and secretive nature of his job and just wanted more... Which considering the way it acts and the things he's antagonizing I really don't think it's going to go beyond that...

Also, I'm not sure why it took Shinning Armor's presence for me to start seeing this as an alternate timeline... I mean... Pinkie owning a secret agency should have hinted me off but I thought it was more of a far away future scenario...

Thinking about it, it could still be the case (in a... Oops! I left my wife ruling that crystal kingdom alone scenario XD). Oh well, let's see how it goes, I don't expect this kind of questions to be answered in the story but eh... I can dream...

The Mailmare: (Completed!)

This has been an amazing tale, full of hilarity and insane logic.

So, how do you end this one?

Well the direction the author took is quite... Interesting...

So you are in the stage, trying to explain all of the presents about your incredibly convoluted plan to ruin the savior of Equestria's reputation by going as her as a party and why do you think your cause is the right one... You try to do it as concise as possible too because you have the resident moon goddess being so angry at you that her face could only be described as a Vortex of hate, and if you don't know what a vortex of hate is then maybe you should go out more often because Derpy sees them all the time!

Then you try to back off because you realize revealing yourself might have not been the best idea since you pretty much ended up messing your own reputation.

Then you realize that Luna's time off wasn't because of a silly thing like Eternal Night, it was because she tends to react rather violently towards stupidity... And even if Celestia tries to convince her she is not going to stop, after all, Celly is drunk and she hasn't been at the top of her game for a while... Maybe Luna should rule the country after all... Yes... that's it! IT SHOULD BE HER!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAXDADKAJANDJKÑNjkdnasasñd...

...

Then you realize Celestia (in what might be the biggest troll move I've ever witnessed) has never been drunk, in fact, she can't be drunk, she is immune to a lot of the disabilities mortals poses, most of the time she just pretends to be drunk to be able to get away with all the shit she does at this conventions, in fact, by this time most of the royals already know about this and mostly come to rub their social status and watch the resident sun goddess smack talk any delusional pony thinking they can sell their silly products here... Hell! Even chrysalis was on it too! She also makes an habit of visiting the convention and try to put an act in exchange of some love and reverence... What you say about the time she invaded Canterlot? Oh, she wanted to do it for a while, she was even corteous enough to warn Celly about it but she's always going back and never attack, Celly was as surprised as us the moment she actually did invade the capital. That chryssy, such a rascal...

...

Needless to say, the enraged moon goddess didn't took this well.

Of course, Amber does a way better job at telling this than what I ever could hope to, this piece is so... So ridiculous and over the top... Maybe too over the top, seriously most of the bolded text doesn't make any sense, at the beginning I thought they were screaming but the way they switch between bolded, italic and normal is way too confusing.

But anyway, this story is hilarious, the dialogue is hilarious and the logic behind Derpy's actions in this tale is... You guessed it! Hilarious!

But things keep going, Luna is obviously not happy with this and demands to know where did you came from, and so you tell her this story we have been reading for 8 chapters more or less, it turns out all of this was a Mistake from Celestia, who sent the letter to the wrong address, then you realize who was this Twilight everyone was talking about... Oh man! That Twi! She's such a nice pony, she even gave you that book with over dramatic stories about muffins!

And then Luna became Nightmare Moon...

The rest of the tale follows where we actually started, with Derpy under interrogation about what happened in the convention, the following dialogue smells like pure and glorious classic Simpsons moment, back when Homer actually made me laugh but that's a story I'd rather not delve in (maybe they got better with time, it's just that I no longer pay attention to the series). Point is, even after it's climax the story keeps tickling your funny bones non stop, even after being done with it and showing what would be some sort of epilogue the author still manages to deliver a classic Trollestia moment.

And Trixie is still the most badass unicorn at the end, so all's right with the world! :V

But really, this story was hilarious from beginning to end, it takes a LOT to get used to the personality of Derpy (since it strays way too far from the well intentioned yet clumsy mare that is the most common fanon), she is pretty much a jerk, except she isn't because she actually thinks she's doing the right think, in her little world she's the heroine of the story and does her very best to make everypony happy. It's such an odd yet interesting interpretation to read...

But yeah, I reckon is hard to get used to (especially if you always loved Derpy for the way most of the fandom portraits her). The rest of the ponies are pretty much in character except that a little more exaggerated in certain areas...

Oh yeah, and Trollestia, pure and unadulterated Trollestia is present here, so don't expect anything related to our canon princess.

So yeah, the characters and some of the jokes (which seem to be put there at the beginning just to make the point that this isn't the same Derpy we are used to see) are a bit hard to swallow but once you get past that you'll find yourself laughing, hopefully a lot... I know I did.

Rating: 5 Stars

Head Full Of Cotton Candy: (Completed!)

Let's start by mentioning a (kind of) key fact, this story was written by the same guy who wrote Heavenly Turmoil (those who read it know where I'm coming from with this), this story was supposed to act as a random/happy link to that other one, and I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I say I don't think it worked (heck, even the author says so).

Still, the link that ties this 2 fics has been labeled as optional, and while there are elements in common between the 2 stories this one can be taken as it's own spin in Discord's (and Screwball's) story.

I'd also like to mention that you should disregard the fact this one is labeled as comedy and adventure, I mean, you can put those in but don't forget who wrote this one, and those shared elements with Heavenly Turmoil are quite dark.

Now, are you ready to dive into this one? Let's go!

Truth to be told, I can't shake the feeling this one is like an alternate version of Past Sins, it has a lot of shared elements, like... SPOILERS AHOY!

The protagonist who are supposed to have a dark destiny (except that in this case, we know the ending isn't a pretty one), the mother figure, the evil outsider trying to make the protagonist follow the dark path, and it might be arguable but you can say Discord is a ver big child in this one... The self doubt, the loneliness, the angst, all of it is there too!

Now, is this bad or is it good? Well, as much as they share there are some key differences, for starters as I mentioned before we know Discord's ending so you can rule out a happy one. D: The fact this story isn't centered around a (sort of) OC might count for you, you can also add that unlike a certain black filly Discord wasn't loved, from the very beginning his existence and nature brought fear to the ponies... The fact he introduced himself by pretty much wiping the alicorns of the face of earth didn't help matters.

So yeah, kind of similar-ish, but with enough differences to be able to stand on their own... But let's go back to the main topic.

This story deals with Discord who by chance and circumstances (that included him destroying the whole royal family) ended up as the only being fitting to rule over Equestria, except that he doesn't really know how to do it (what with him just being born and whatnot) so it's up to his newly appointed royal advisor to guide him and teach him how to be the king Equestria needs.

Along the story you will find beings coming from a higher plane of existence trying to drag Discord because he doesn't belong there, as well as ponies who don't seem to be too receptive about the change in management, not to mention 2 meddling princess who can't even scratch him (but he gives them credit for trying).

The story carries on pretty well for some chapters but all of it changes when the spirit of Death arrives (can't remember the number right now), not saying the episode itself was bad, but from this point onwards the story starts to drag on...

Discord realizes that since he is a freaking god he might as well do whatever he thinks it's right, he sees ponies and doesn't like their current life, so it's his duty as a king to change them for the better right? And this is how Discord's reign (the one Celestia told us about) truly begins, this isn't bad per se but it's just a bunch of paragraphs showing discord going solo and doing whatever he wants for shit and giggles (with an amusing musical number in the middle) and IMO it felt like filler, there were useful tidbits here and there showing how things were moving while all of this was happening but they were covered in words that didn't have much of a purpose except for being funny (and he wasn't that funny IMO).

Then you get a re-encounter with Screwball and things seem to be going for the better right? Well, nope, because after that I had to see a... Quite ridiculous battle against the other spirits (and despite what the author tried to do it felt pretty one sided, and kind of boring because of this)...

Thinking about it, the whole idea behind the spirits was kind of annoying, they were there just to act as an antagonists but mostly because of the story's tone they never felt a serious threat and most of the time were just being ridiculised, especially near the end where even Screwball got fed up with them and started to fight (and even if Time and Death got to be really important in how things turned out, as opposing forces they were beaten easily by Discord and Screwy).

...

Looking at what I'm writing right now I've realized this one kind of reminds of One Piece.

I remember it took me a lot to like that series because at the beginning I just couldn't stand the antagonists nor how little opposition they represented.

Disregarding how better this (nowadays lovable) losers got as the series progressed of course. I never knew what Oda had planned for them when I started reading.

But anyway, this story does some really good things too, the ideas behind how Discord ended up building most of the current Equestria's flora and fauna are pretty clever, the "happy ending" (that title is a lie) was pretty well narrated and shows how the lovable character we've seen in this story could end up like the Discord we see in the show (except for maybe the way it dealt with the mane 6, but that was more out of necessity so the elements didn't get to blast him again), and while I don't feel so happy about the idea of Philomena and Cadence being spirits I'm more than willing to let it go. (even if it's for a silly reason as Shinning Armor being unaware of everything)

But TBH as much as I didn't like some parts I can't shake the feeling this is all because of me, I feel like the story is good, but it isn't the kind of tale I'd usually enjoy (when most of the humor is just showing ridiculous things and since the main character is a joker kind of guy most of his battles consist of launching pudding and telling silly one liners), it's also a bizarre combination between incredibly random in dead serious that doesn't seem to sit so well with me... Maybe it is me (kind of like... One of the reasons I ended up droping the Pony POV series is how ridiculous the supposedly optional backstory was).

If it were for me this one would get 3 Stars, but since I'm not feeling so confident in my judgement right now I'll leave it unrated.

*not rated*

In Her Majestiy's Royal Service:

Man this one is such a delight to read, but I'm sure some people will not like the pacing it has...

Kind of brings me to my previous review, makes me feel like an hypocrite because I'm actually enjoying this one... I guess it's all in the writing? I could go with that, because I really enjoy reading whatever sage has to say.

(there might be other things but it's all a mess on my head right now and I don't feel like bringing something off topic into this review)

But yeah! This episode was a day in the limelight thing. Showing us how the guard is doing in Canterlot while our heroes are out, also showing us an hilarious little story of Grey Mane bringing life to it's chair and adopting it as a pet. XD

And as I said before I really enjoyed it! More life and characters to the guard is always good in my book, not to mention that I got to see more of Grey Mane and Febre (who have become such clear and polished characters ever since this sequel started, I wouldn't say deep, but at least now I have a clear idea about their core personalities) and the best character of this story :V

...

...

I'm talking about Kickstart BTW. :V

But yeah, this story doesn't seem to be going anywhere right now, but somehow sage still manages to make it an amusing and enjoyable tale to read.

The Third Generation:

I don't have a lot to say about this one...

Except that I don't really like the way the cosmic entities have been treated, I mean, at the beginning it was an unique monstrosity that required both princess to defeat, then it appeared again, and again... Now they are 5 of them roaming around...

I know it's to reflect that the situation is getting worse but... Would it be too much to ask for a little more variety?

Oh well, at least there is (or was) a Cancer roaming around...

I dunno, it kind of cheapens the impact of these things appearing when now there are so many of them (not to mention that now it seems like there is going to be 3 ways of defeating them, Trixie of all ponies having one of them)

First Week Of Winter: (Completed!)

I wonder how many of you will find this fic's cover familiar...

It's a crossover, and one of those stories that makes me wonder if you are best reading it while knowing the source material or not... I took a peculiar approach with this one, I started pretty much blinded but as I was reading I started doing research about the subject (just for the sake of not missing any references and being able to tell if a scene was just copy paste'd from the source)..

The cover might make you think this is a crossover with John Carpenter's "The Thing", but it's actually a story that mixes ponies with all three parts of the "Trilogy of Apocalypse". (that includes The Thing, FYI)

So... How does this incredibly dispair match goes? Let's find out!

The first part starts with a really nice adaptation, the mane 6 + Spike (and the later unexpected adition of the CMC) go to an excavation site in a temple, it turns out that one of Celestia's students called Copper Star went there and there hasn't been news from her in a while. Twi is sent to the place in order to locate the student, chat a little and maybe employ her lessons in the magic of friendship to let this unicorn open up a bit, and yes, the idea isn't that Celly fears something bad happened to her student, she just thinks the lack of letters is because Copper is as much of a recluse as Twilight was... That Celly... Raising antisocial ponies...

Anyway, Twilight and company arrive to their destination but they aren't able to find Copper, it's implied she's doing some excavation in a nearby area but due a strong storm in the zone they can't go and search for her, with no thet choice but to wait they unpack and do random stuff for a while... Until Scootaloo ends up breaking a container that held a blob like substance... And this is where the fun begins!

Things go dark rather quickly, with Twi finding out what Copper was doing in the site and what happened to her (it isn't pretty) soonish after that Rarity screams and the rest of the ponies get a taste of The Thing and why is so infamous... With Scootaloo, or what's left of her killing Spike, going after Rare (and failing) and then trying to fuse itself with the dragon corpse before being burned to death...

Needless to say, none of the ponies take this rather well, (surprisingly) the most calm about the issue is Twilight (but it doesn't happen in a way that makes her feel OOC, she has a later reaction) who starts making plans, it seems like Copper's research plus what she just witnessed confirmed some of her fears, there was an entity in the room that is able to posses ponies and take control of them, but not only that, it does it in such a way that is impossible to tell if the pony is infected, those who were infected behave perfectly normal, they are by all means a perfect copy of the pony who was possessed.

So Twi spends a little time doing research and trying to find a way to detect who has been turned into a Thing and no one can leave until it's proven, and this is why this first part of the story is so effective (and I guess the same could be said about the movie) the paranoia, the doubts and the many arguments the characters try to make to point who's clean and who isn't... It's deliciously evil (and I can only suspect it was similar in the movie).

By the time Twi finds a way to detect the thing the only survivors are herself, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Apple Bloom (who ran after witnessing Applejack's death) and this is where the first part ends.

(As a side note, I really liked Rarity's death, it felt like if part of the pony or the Thing imitating the pony was still there... If you get to that part you'll know what I mean)

The second part it's kind of disappointing, it only works as a bridge between part 1 and 3 and is ridiculously short compared to the others. Still in the temple Pinkie (who has been acting weird from the very beginning) discovers something, everything that's been going on in this place is eerily similar to what's going on in one the books she's been reading, it's not a single one though, it's all of them and together manage to pull out a map that points to what seems to be a "reality reset button", basically, they are going to go there, pull the switch and everything will go back to normal.

With really no toher choice but to listen to Pinkie, the ponies decide to listen to humor her (not like it hasn't worked before) and search for Apple Bloom while they are at it. Along the road they start noticing something odd (or at least, beyond the usual levels of weirdness), Pinkie starts mentioning how she found out about what's going on but as she rambles and rambles her dialogue becomes stranger, it mentions things older than the world itself and how The Thing was supposed to be an herald of a greater being, but sadly(?), the Thing became side tracked and went on a quest of it's own to make friends (on it's own way I guess) and now the greater beings can't get in, it takes a little but as her speech goes on you start to realize that what she wanted to do is to bring those abominations in... And she succeeds, the last time we see Pinkie she's crying asking for help while being dragged to the darkness.

Things get out of control quickly and the group separates, and as the story keeps going Rainbow, Apple Bloom and Fluttershy also die leaving Twilight as the only survivor (the way AB and RD goes is great and disheartening, Flutters went with an heroic sacrifice so I guess it counts too) the second part ends with some sort of boom in the sky and the temple collapsing.

As I said, The Prince of Darkness wasn't treated as well as the other 2, it's only purpose was to switch from one scenario to the other, of course since it's presence in this story is so invisible it kind of blend with the other 2, for example The Thing in the first art turns out to be half the original thing and half Satan from the second movie, the way Pinkie get's to the temple is more related to the third part but she turns out to be some sort of substitute Satan in this one, the whole temple thing and the whole dream sequences twi was having at the first part are also part of the second movie (and TBH the dreams were kind of useless since none of them have any purpose other than to make a reference, there is another case with some text written on the snow later on), so I hope you can understand why this is my least favorite part.

The third part starts with Twi in the hospital, she seems to be fine but something is wrong with Equestria, for starters there have been random reports of ponies going crazy and attacking others with no provocation but that's not all, it turns out that apparently Twilight traveled alone to the temple and her friends were never there.

After a few moments of self doubt the unicorn tries to escape and does it right in time because the town is collapsing under the wave of madness, in a last ditch effort she lands in Ponyville but then she finds Pinkie who seems to have some monstrous plans for her, the so called reset button wasn't such thing, but it was a gate to let the elder beings enter the realm and consume everything, and then they would be able to spend an eternity in the void... Or something... I don't remember the specifics. :V

Later she finds with the author of all those books Pinkie was reading and this is where the mindfuckery the third movies is known for begins!

The movies original purpose was to blurry the lines between reality and fiction, stating things like "if enough people believe in something it will become real" (which was kind of true at some point in our history), the movie takes that premise to monstrous levels and runs with an author who is writing the ultimate novel, the tale that narrates the end of days and has the movie's protagonist as... the star of the book itself, the whole crazy wave is because all those people were written to behave that way and their belief in the books is what is opening the portal for the abominations of the day.

I'm not fully aware of the details but I think it ends with the main character going crazy after watching a movie based in a book of what he just did (wich might very well be the same movie you watched) the character in question sees himself in the film and realizes he was nothing but a piece of fiction all along, both for the writer of the book and the one directing the movie (the one you were watching).

Did I mention that the book in question couldn't be destroyed because it could do the same for the reality it was modifying?

Anywyay, let's go back to the topic at hand, what happens in this part of the story is quite similar in premise but I believe that's as far as it goes, Twi talks with the writer and he tells her about his plans, his powers, the elder beings and all that junk. After thinking about a way to get out be this she tries to knock the writter off and rewrite reality by herself but it doesn't work (can't remember why though), then she somehow survives the last pages of the story and finds herself in the middle of nothingness where it finds both the part of the writer that was still a pony and the things that consumed the world, then it gets in a meta argument about what's fiction and what's reality and this is where i think the third part of the fic shines, since it takes the originals premise of mixing reality and fiction and adds more to it... Since as a reader, what you are looking at is a pony from an obviously fictional dimension trying to defend her reality, the movie played with what was real and what wasn't but here you have a case of something that can't be right for you, but the purple pony think it is! So the whole argument about that line between both worlds has a flavor of it's own that I can do nothing but love.

At the end Twi does manages to suppress the elder beings, since her lack of belief in their existence was their downfall (Giggle at the Ghostly! ♪) and reality ends up being rewriten.

Twi ends up in her world, her Equestria, but then starts having thoughts about the power of belief... Since she is the only one who knows about what lies behind the cosmic curtain. what would happen the moment she stops believing? And what if she dies? And what if someone else can make these ponies believe in the nightmares that consumed the world before? Now this is where Relaxing Dragon could have ended it and leave it as an amazingly chilly tale but he kept going and tried to go for a (sort of) happy ending, and I think he pulled it off! At the end we have a conversation between a second encounter between Twilight and the writer (this time working as a librarian of an old book collection) and discuss things like the end of the world and beliefs, there is that creepy feeling the stallion knows who he was and that he could do everything all over again, but he doesn't... And it concludes with this little piece of dialogue:

“Very true.” Burn sat back on his stool and crossed his forelegs. “However, you still have to consider all these ponies who believed otherwise. Who went to their dying breath with those thoughts filling their heads. And belief is a powerful thing, miss. Very powerful. Who’s to say they didn’t experience something?”

“Because reality is still here,” Twilight said. “They may have died, but the world didn’t die with them.”

Burn shrugged. “For them it did. Perception is key as well. We all see the world a little differently. You take that different view in life, you cross it with an overwhelming belief as to how your life is going to turn out and what’s going to happen to your world when it does, well… that could very well result in a whole separate little world for them.”

Twilight furrowed her brow. “You’re talking about, what… a bunch of alternate universes for everypony’s individual reality?”

“It’s a little high concept, sure, but still possible,” Burn said. He chuckled and shrugged again. “Of course, I’m really just talking out of my flank here. Honestly, believe what you want to believe, and the world will work out just fine for you.”

“I suppose that’s one way to look at it.”

A distant ringing noise echoed out over the city, striking out twelve times. Twilight perked her ears up. “Oh! It’s noon! I’m sorry, I’m late; I have to be somewhere right now.”

“Fine, fine, go right on,” Burn said. He gestured toward the door. “Although if I may offer some advice, don’t worry so much. About ends and beliefs and all that, don’t be like these old ponies. Don’t let it drag you down and consume you.”

Twilight tilted her head as she took a step back. “I don’t– what? I’m not worried, I’m–”

“Yes you are.” Burn’s face shone with empathy. “I could see it in your eyes the moment you walked in. Not the first time I’ve seen that look. I catch it in the mirror sometimes. Trust me, though, whatever it is, you can move past it.”

Twilight swayed back and forth, her gaze falling to the floor. “I’m… I’m trying. But sometimes things happen that you just can’t quite wrap your head around, no matter how far beyond you get them. Sometimes things just… just…”

“Life is full of events like that.”

“Not stuff like this. No way.”

“But they are not the point.” Burn shook his head. “There’s something more important to consider about your situation right now.”

Twilight stared at him. “Yes?”

“You are still here.” Burn leaned forward, locking eyes with Twilight. “Your story’s not over. And whenever it does get to that point where it’s time for it to end, you’ll be ready, willing, and able. And that’s all there is to it.”

He beamed at Twilight with a warm smile. Twilight stood frozen for another moment, then giggled.

“Little schmaltzy, don’t you think?” she asked.

“Hey, I work with what I got.” Burn flipped a page and resumed his reading. “You should go now, miss. You’ve got places to be, after all.”

“Right, right.” Twilight turned and headed towards the door. She shot one last look at Burn before she left. “Thanks for the chat, too. It’s been… enlightening.”

“You have a wonderful life now, alright?” Burn waved at Twilight without looking up. “Make your reality count.”

Which is all sorts of mindfucking awesomely bizarrely horrifyingly super tear inducing..... what was I talking about?

Oh yeah, it was breath taking, this is such a powerful way of ending the story, even if I personally preferred the first part and didn't enjoy the greater cosmic twists and the survival horror of the later parts as much (the paranoia of the first one was delicious) I still gotta give lots of credit to the author here, he compacted 3 movies that aren't so related to each other and made something amazing of it, it presents some interesting arguments and makes you think about them... Like this comment I found in FiMFic:

Hey, you did it! Nice job. I feel like I may have had a bit of a contribution to the story, and I'm very flattered by that thought. So I'll thank you for that! It's always a nice day to be chuffed over something.

The last chapter brings to mind something I saw in The Nostalgia Critic's swan song. Near the end of the story (spoilers, folks) he went through a standard-issue cosmic mindscrew and met his real-life actor and writer. Faced with the "reality" of being a fictional character, he asked his creator if his free will was just an illusion after all. And the writer, Doug, basically said that, while that may have been true in the past, as he wrote the Critic and got used to him he began to take on a life of his own. Doug couldn't just have the character do what he wanted anymore because something was guiding him, informing him in turn, because what he was writing had grown into more than just words on paper. Like all good works of fiction, The Critic had taken on a life of his own, a voice which the author had to be true to. This was summarized in the climax during the following exchange:

"You're the writer, tell me what to do!"

"You're the character, you tell me what to do!"

Sugar Cane represents the author who resists the obligation he has to his creations (or rather source material, in the case of documentaries and historical fiction, which I suppose was more his perspective since it was his own world he was messing with), the "Hack" who works to satisfy an audience rather than what's organic to the setting and the characters. Twilight is the muse crying out in indignation against this... "false fiction," I guess you could call it.

But that's certainly not the case with you, Dragon! I can tell you felt this story from beginning to end, and, like I said, I'm very glad if I could have contributed to your process in any way. You really saw it through. Congratulations. If there's one thing better than reading a scary story, it's reading a story where you're scared because you care about what's in it.

Something else comes to mind, actually (man, I'm verbose)... a line from Blueshift's The Star in Yellow, another pony story and homage to great horror writers. As Celestia puts it, "the real world doesn’t have happy endings, because nothing ever ends."

I always thought that statement evoked a delightful sense of despair being trumped with hope and rationality. Maybe that's why Cane's masters were born from the mouth of madness. Giving in to darkness is, in its own way, as irrational and simplistic as anything we tend to see in the "Sugar Bowl." I guess that's what makes "Friendship is Magic" such a wonderful fandom... it's in the bowl, sure, but the characters grow so real that they can look out from over the rim.

And of course there's always that flipside again, to remind us that darkness and corruption comes with anything taken too far in either direction. Newborn Cuties, man. Newborn Cuties...

Y'know, I'm gonna shut up now. I've been scared enough today.

Which are quite mindblowing on itself, I'd love if you could give this one a read and tell me what you think about the last part...

And I gotta give credit to the author too for trying to go for a happy ending, which might not sound like the most unnusual thing but after researching about what the crossover was all about, I gotta say that the way he pulled it off was quite... Satisfying.

And even if you didn't like it (becuase reset button) there is that comment made many times in the third part, it's stated a lot of times that horror authors can't pull of a good ending (in the "not manure" sense of the word)... So it kind of compliments itself with the story. XD

No story is perfect though, and despite what I mentioned in my review there are more things to be picky about, for starters, the moment The Thing is introduced any semblance with the FiM world disappears and we get right into Sugar Cane's (who until this point I've been referring as "the writer") territory and pretty much destorys the Equestria you like, it destroys it and rebuilds it as some sort of dream world that only Twilight might be keeping.

You might also note that to read this story in FiMfic you will have to turn off the mature filter and there is a reason for that, it isn't of sexual nature though but be warned, more impressionable bronies should abstain from checking this one.

Still, this story made me think, made me feel, made me fear, it was a breathtaking ride from beginning to end and I think anyone should read it, be it or not familiar with the movies... In fact, I'd love to see different points of view about how this one goes, but I don't think any of you listen to me when it comes to fics so...

Rating: 5 Stars

And that's it! Next time I'll try to catch on with what I didn't get to read last time, but beyond all of it, I will talk about memories, legacies, love, despair, music and a story that I've been reading with Naruto music as the background....

You will never be forgotten...

EDIT: fixed as much as I could in my current situation... >_>

Edited November 22, 2012 by gato

[Tornado]

As far as the Sea Pony stuff goes...

Since when has anyone given a shit about the stuff that Hasbro put out that wasn't made by the showrunners anyway? Why is this any different from that?

[Endy]

As far as the Sea Pony stuff goes...

Since when has anyone given a shit about the stuff that Hasbro put out that wasn't made by the showrunners anyway? Why is this any different from that?

Cause we watch ponies, its our job to overreact about literally everything pony related.

[Applejack1973]

One Bad Apple is on saturday with the new villain Babs Seed.

[-blank-]

That feel when you try and catch up on ponies and your sister keeps coming into your room. =\

[Semi-colon e]

One Bad Apple is on saturday with the new villain Babs Seed.

I don't like the character design. Maybe it's the expression, I dunno, find it hard to explain. They do look better in motion though, tbf. But it's also a CMC episode, which I tend to find kind of weak. We shall see.

[Emperor Robrainiac]

I was a little disappointed when I learned that this week was the CMC episode instead of the Magic Duel episode. I'm hoping the CMC episodes will be better this season, because the last season's episodes with them were pretty meh... I mean, I loved their episodes in season 1, but not so much in season 2.

Edited November 21, 2012 by Lyra Heartstrings

[batson]

Fuck yes, seaponies! I've been waiting for the G4 franchise to bring back those kickass bitches since it started. Now if they just bring back their catchphrase too, my life is complete.

[Emperor Robrainiac]

... Eh not really feeling anything for the return of the sea ponies. On one hand I'm all for throwbacks to G1. (Which I don't think is as bad as anyone makes it out to be.)

On the other, I never understand the appeal of Sea ponies. They were just.... there... in the movie and I thought the song they sang was kinda bland.

God, why do I have to be so hipster sometimes? It's not like I want to be a hipster, but sometimes I just can't help it. >_<

Not sure if I like the art style for the book though. It looks kinda... G3ish...

[batson]

On the other, I never understand the appeal of Sea ponies. They were just.... there... in the movie and I thought the song they sang was kinda bland.

I always liked the sea ponies because they were more like some kind of nature-sprites than just another pony race. Like how they always appear to help when people need them (and its pretty cool how the good guys even have a specific device (some kind of magic seashell) to contact the them, as if the seaponies were some kind of group of superheroes or something), and yet at the same time the seaponies themselves seem strangely unaffected by the actions of the whatever force of evil it is thats trying to conquer the world or kill all living things or whatever. They're always in such a good mood even at the worst of times, and that gives them a sort of impish quality. Also, furthering that impish image is that despite clearly being a force for good, they can be real little dickholes at times, trolling the shit out of the land ponies. Case in point, skip to about 3:45 in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whLQ5v-P-RY

Of course, i have no idea if any of these ascepts are going to be carried over to G4, but even if the arent i just think its cool enough to just see the little buggers again, since i loved them as a kid (and i so wanted a seapony toy. Yeah, hipster as fuck ).

Edited November 21, 2012 by batson

[Arcade Racer CC14]

One Bad Apple preview clip.

[Endy]

Oh god Babs voice is so obnoxious, I honestly can't tell if its a boy or a girl.

Edited November 21, 2012 by Enderwoman

[Crystal Slave]

My newest MLP music project:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItTlqA3IKMo

Enjoy!

[Semi-colon e]

One Bad Apple preview clip.

I'm expecting this to be obnoxious CMC fare.

Also the whole not telling Applejack about it thing is gonna drive the whole episode and make it one of those waste of time "this all could have been avoided" things.

Sorry but I never liked the CMC episodes that much. I don't mind the characters themselves, I just find the plots become less interesting and the characterisation is less focal than it is with the main 6 (no I'm not putting mane as that's lame).

Edited November 21, 2012 by Semi-colon e

[batson]

One Bad Apple preview clip.

I have to say, this doesnt seem very interesting. Obviously, every fictional story imaginable have been done one billion times by now, but this seems like its gonna be one of those stories that have been about a billion billion times. Im probably gonna skip that episode. Which admittadly also have something to do with the fact that i simply dont really care much for them little kiddie ponies. None of them have as interesting personalities as the best of the adult characters on the show.

[Celestia]

To be fair

the "not telling Applejack" thing is pretty accurate of bullying IRL, especially for really young people.

Eh, I like the CMC a lot, and I actually found their Season 2 episodes to be a lot better than the ones in the first season. Assuming this one is at least entertaining, I'll probably enjoy it.

[batson]

About the CMC, well, i havent seen every episode about them (especially not from season 2) so perhapes i would warm up to them if i gave them another chance. So maybe 'ill watch the upcoming episode after all.

Edited November 21, 2012 by batson

[Applejack1973]

One Bad Apple clip is on.

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/11/one-bad-apple-clip.ht

[PeanutButterDimond]

I honestly really like the CMC. I enjoy the characters and their episodes. I really don't have anything bad to say about them. They're likeable entertaining and funny.