#like AJ has a core in the apple

[heckyeahponyscans]

Expectation versus reality.

STRETCH EM

[valleyfthdolls]

Tell me about your mlp au mischevious grin emote

@minxtheeenby!!

Ok I’m gonna go in order character by character and then just fill in extra lore.

Twilight Sparkle: Twilight is pretty similar to canon, but also not entirely. She’s always struggled with making friends, and instead dedicated herself to magic. She started training under Celestia when she was a little girl, but she only managed to earn that spot because of Rainbow Dash, and as such, she abandoned all other fields of her life over time, dedicating herself to becoming the best sorceress she could be in hopes of earning her place under Celestia. However, depriving herself socially was completely hindering her abilities. The magic system is a little more fancy cuz I don’t totally remember the rules of MLP magic so basically as a powerful sorceress Twilight couldn’t actually harness all her power on her own, and attempting to would have driven her insane. (See: Nightmare Moon, Discord.) Though this isn’t like, a death sentence, Celestia didn’t want Twilight’s pure intentions twisted. Twilight is literally the physical incarnation of the spirit of magic, so this would’ve been super bad. Anyways, with her network of friends, Twilight studies as a sorceress under the queen (sorry but my worst enemy in kids media is when they make the sole monarch of a kingdom a princess, she’s a queen). Her style consists mostly of long skirts and dress. I’m still figuring out what kinds of bells and whistles to add to her design (maybe talismans, magical charms, that kinda thing??)

Applejack: AJ has a strong sense of morality and modesty. Her headstrong nature makes her essentially the head of the Apple family despite her young age, and she keeps their business up and running without a hitch. She is also in charge of teaching Apple Bloom, who has been homeschooled most of her life, right from wrong since the loss of their parents, and as such Apple Bloom has been taught very strictly. Though not like. Really conservative?, the Apple family lives a traditional and… “conservative”???? lifestyle. Applejack is loving and gentle, but will never hesitate to correct a wrong when she sees one. Her style is mostly typical farm girl stuff you’d expect. All her clothes are worn out to hell, but she makes them work ‘cause she’s not gonna spend her family’s hard earned cash on fancy clothes she doesn’t need. She’s generally the same as canon, just a bit rougher around the edges, sweeter at her core, and more straight laced about morality since that’s a better interpretation of honesty I think.

Rarity: Rarity always wants to give the absolute best she can to those around her. This generosity has led her to also develop a will of absolute steel, because of how often it’s been taken advantage of and used to cheat her. She pushes herself to extremes to put out the best for others, often neglecting everything but what she can provide, including what she and those around her need, and while she insists it’s an annoyance to be distracted from her work, she needs her loved ones to help keep her balanced. Having grown up just in the outskirts of a major city, Rarity dreams of that luxury and the life that fame would give her. She tends to look down on others who won’t allow her to help them, but her generosity always comes from a good heart- never is it backhanded or meant to make others feel pitied. This is a misinterpretation Applejack comes away with on many occasions. (There are only so many pairs of sleek, beautiful jeans you can get in the mail before you start to feel like you and your baggy overalls are being slighted.) Rarity’s style is posh, sleek and feminine. Her magic mostly utilizes and surrounds use of gemstones.

Pinkie Pie: Pinkie takes some inspiration that I’m not very proud of. You’ll. You’ll see. She’s a former orphan who was adopted following the destruction of her small hometown which itself has some Lore bc that wasn’t just a random occurrence. She was adopted by the Pie family because she was an earth pony, who are generally known for their physical power, and they needed more hooves on their farm. It was less a family and more a business arrangement- Pinkie and the other kids got her hooves dirty helping with their business, and in return, they gave them food, company, and a roof over their head. She was a very depressed child, but she learned to use humor and joy to find a good side to everything, partially on behalf of her siblings. Eventually, she left the farm to pursue her own life as a party planner and host. She’s also known among Ponyville as a reliable and fun (if perhaps not the most conventional) babysitter for elementary age foals. Similarly to with the Pies, Pinkie works for the Cakes in exchange for a place to live, but she really wants to have a family. As such, she latches onto the idea of being a relative to the Apple family, who accept her even when it turns out she’s not a blood relative. She can often be found at the farm when she has free time, playing games with Apple Bloom and keeping AJ company since she’s no good at harvesting apples. She’s a case Twilight cannot figure out for the life of her- an earth pony who either has weirdly uncanny intuition or is somehow in tune with a type of magic only unicorns can harness. Her style is decora kei.

Fluttershy: Fluttershy’s parents were absolutely massive hippies. While most pegasi reside in the sky for obvious reasons, they lived in the prairie, which was where Fluttershy grew up. She was what the cool kids call “improperly socialized as a child”, and as such, she was socially alienated when she began school, and unable to socialize. Her only friend was Rainbow Dash, who was willing to tone down her antics around her and would die to defend Fluttershy’s honor. (They were weird kids.) Despite being bullied heavily as a kid, she believes there was a silver lining as it taught her that she could communicate with animals and helped her discover her talent, though at the same time, she does know that really, she owes that to Rainbow Dash’s kindness to her. She’s autistic and selectively mute due to her anxiety, and known to shut down in stressful situations because of her fear of conflict, but she does have a… “bad side” if you will. She can be fucking SCARY if you mistreat innocents- especially Rainbow. Her style, similar to Twilight, consists mostly of long dresses and skirts, but with goth elements as she’s known to wear gothic clothing in light colors, and dark makeup.

Rainbow Dash: Rainbow is much more actually loyal to those around her. She’s pretty much the same otherwise, just more, again, actually loyal. She especially is loyal to Fluttershy, who she will always step in for, since they’re childhood friends, but really she’ll do that for any of her friends. She fittingly got her cutie mark defending her friend from bullies, as it’s the same story as canon, but Rainbow- unlike Pinkie- had absolutely zero above average amount of magic, and most normal ponies aren’t meant to be breaking the sound barrier at nine, so this actually fucked her up a bit. Just like all the others, this event connected her directly to the spirit of her element, which has made her more magical, but at the time, it burned the hell out of her and left her with permanent scars and wing damage that meant it took a ton of time and willpower before she could fly again. Her style is… I mean I wanna say scene but I know in my heart she’s a lame ass jock. Lame ass scene jock perhaps. Whatever that may entail

Like I said, Twilight is the only one who is the literal incarnation of her element, where the others are just tied to its magic. Twilight’s full power of magic is only manageable when she’s in tandem with the other five.

Queen Celestia and Princess Luna: Celestia and Luna are the incarnations of the sun and moon respectively, but Luna’s isolation inherent to the nighttime caused her powers to drive her a bit crazy, causing her to become jealous of Celestia, which isolated her further, and eventually the insanity overcame her and she became Nightmare Moon. Celestia sealed her away and took on her powers, but all of this added magic is starting to drive Celestia a bit crazy, which is why she called on the elements of harmony, creating Twilight as the incarnation of magic. Basically she needed someone else to shoulder some of the burden to keep her sane, but this weakened her and caused her to lose control of Nightmare Moon. (Stupid name btw. Maybe I’ll give her a different name.) Nightmare Moon is well aware of what Twilight is, and she’s dead set on defeating her so she can harness her power for herself.

Speaking of which, Nightmare Moon is a longer lasting villain, and because Luna isn’t entirely lucid as her, this makes turning her back a bit of a harder task. Fittingly to the themes of friendship, Nightmare Moon’s energy is dispersed among Luna, Celestia, Twilight, Cadence, the other five, and those who Nightmare Moon controlled, becoming a smaller burden they all have to shoulder together so Luna doesn’t have to succumb alone, because magic can’t be destroyed, but it can be redirected. Most of the supernatural villains are evil entities summoned by Nightmare Moon to work under her, who still have a piece of her curse after she’s rescued, which makes them more powerful, and Luna is unable to redirect her control over them because that magic is now subject to their intentions and direction.

Discord: Discord was the original ruler of Equestria, before the horrible imbalance his chaos caused led to the incarnations of the moon and sun (the balance of day and night) being created, overthrowing him and sealing him away to restore balance. However, looking at the pattern here, there was balance before Discord, imbalance through his rule, balance after Discord, imbalance when the moon overtook the sun, etc. This is a cycle- balance cannot exist without imbalance, and as such, that chaos returns once everything is peaceful. Discord is literally chaos incarnate in this AU, and given the rules about incarnation here, he simply arises when the time is right. I briefly considered that maybe once he was sealed away, his magic was what caused Luna’s to corrupt her, but that would make his return impossible. Instead, Discord had nothing to do with that, but when he returns in the wake of the peace, he preys on the corruption that exists in everyone to play along with his version of the world.

Oh also Discord was originally a normal being, but the overwhelming power of his chaos magic drove him completely insane.

The magic system: Magic in this AU has a few rules.

Magic is an ever present sort of energy.

Like energy, it cannot be created or destroyed. It is everywhere, and instead is channeled into the world, directed and redirected by the user’s intentions.

Everyone has a certain connection to magic, but only sorcerers and sorceresses can harness it. Not all sorcerers are unicorns, but the unicorns have the most direct manifestation of magic. There are different types of sorcery that play into the powers and strengths of all types of ponies, but only the most skilled can harness all three.

Different cultures have different uses of magic. The unicorn centric sorcery of channeling magic directly into you used most is primarily of central Equestria. Other areas practice different types based in the magic that exists in the earth such as potion use and production, faith based magic, hypnosis, etc.

All of these are equally magic, yes.

Cutie marks are magic. This is about the most magic within an average pony.

Magical “spirits” such as the sun and moon, the elements of harmony, chaos and order, etc. exist and those who are closet connected with those “spirits” are more powerful. You can create these connections if you teach yourself to embody them. Sometimes you’re both with them but that’s so rare that not even the main 6 had that happen.

Sometimes these spirits just incarnate into living beings and I guess no one questions this.

[thejacksmit]

First Take: Challengers - sport can be cruel sometimes

SYNOPSIS: Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach, turned her husband into a champion. But to overcome a losing streak, he needs to face his ex-best friend and Tashi's ex-boyfriend.

And now we see the impact of the actors' strike making its presence felt on the release schedule - this film was initially slated for a September 15th release before the chaos of last summer played out amongst SAG/AFTRA and the studios. So a few months later than anticipated, Luca Guadagino, the visionary behind Call Me By Your Name, has released his new film, opening wide in UK cinemas- and it is a hard sell considering the sport at the centre of it. But aside from the way this one's been marketed, one name is enough to make the mainstream audiences watch this film, and we will get to said performance shortly.

At 2 hours 11 minutes, Guadagino is able to do a lot within the runtime, with the tennis sequences looking relatively authentic - obviously the script from first-time screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes doesn't just deal with the on-court action, but the 13 years leading up to the challenger event for all 3 of our main characters. Admittedly the trailers do oversell some aspects of the plot, but what we do get is a solid story, rooted in realism and crucially told in a non-linear way to keep the tension going throughout the plot. The cinematography from Sayombhu Mukdeeprom is just fantastic (especially some of the shots in the final act of the film) and while the Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score is being heralded by some as another one of their finest works, the sound mixing on the film lets it down as at some points, with some dialogue being drowned out (a common issue at various cinemas, based on what friends who went to an early screening on Monday have fed in to me)- so be prepared to turn the subtitles on once it goes on Prime later in the year.

Undeniably this trio of leads make the film come alive - we have Zendaya (who also produces the film), Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor at the helm, and it is their performances that are central to the execution of this rather unique love triangle plot that plays out on and off court - and in Zendaya's case, hot off the heels of Dune: Part 2, is it too early to say awards contender? The cast is rounded out by Darnell Appling, AJ Lister, Nada Depostovich and Naheem Garcia, and considering the talent, the way the film has been put together, the fact that Guadagino worked with player turned coach Brad Gilbert to train the core three talents in the sport just to allow it all to be done on-camera... there is a lot to like about this film. Aside from the knee injury central to the plot - even watching rugby week in week out, that snap still provides a proper 'oof' moment.

THE VERDICT

Challengers is a bold, provocative, slow burner of a film, and while the sound mix does make it a challenge to understand a few minor elements, it's a movie which proves that even the most basic of sports can make for a good story in the hands of the right people.

RATING: 4/5

[thesadboy]

Lotsa apples! Just like Pinkie, Applejack has multiple partners in my headcanon, these being Trenderhoof, Coloratura, and Soarin. Couldn’t decide who between those three to ship her with, especially since I aready had designs for some of these babies and didn’t wanna scrap them, so I thought “why not all?” The leftmost column are Trenderhoof’s kids, the middle column are Rara’s kids, and the rightmost column are Soarin’s kids. Their names, from top to bottom are: (leftmost) Pippin Apple, Gala Apple, Apple “Corey” Core, (middle) Crispin, Merry, Goldie, (rightmost) Airizona “Airy” Apple, Snow Apple, and Flapjack. Also, these were the first siblings I finished designing, and now they’ll be the last of the Mane Six kids I’m showing. Ah, irony.

Some more info below👇

Pippin, Crispin, and Airy were triplets conceived via one of Cadance’s spells and carried by AJ. The rest were carried by her spouses since they wanted to give her a rest from the pregnancy, with Trend and Soarin even undergoing genderbending spells.

Unlike his fellow triplets, Pippin has a lankier build, something he has in common with his father. Make no mistake though, he’s still inherited some of that Earth pony strength, with others often being surprised that he can lift things (and creatures) far heavier than him.

Crispin is the oldest of the triplets, but is often mistaken as the youngest since he’s shorter than Airy and Pippin.

Gala and Corey have a hard time getting along, mainly because Gala is constantly busy and prefers to be left alone as she works while Corey often seeks out playmates in his siblings and goes to his full-sister first since they’re often the ones left at Sweet Apple Acres.

Snow Apple is often compared to his grandmothers, Pear Butter and Cumula (Soarin’s mom) because of his similarities to them in both appearance and personality. He inherited his Pear Butter’s eye color and his coat color is closer to that of Cumula’s. Also like Pear Butter, he shows some interest in baking while having a similar energetic enthusiasm like Cumula.

Flapjack and Corey are very close, being the youngest of the family with Corey having been born two years before his half-sister. Whenever they’re together, they’re often mistaken to be full-siblings due to their similar coat and mane colors.

Rara’s family has a history of twins and triplets, so she believes that it influenced the spell used to conceive the triplets and the fact that she later bore Crispin’s full-sisters who are twins. The fact that Merry and Goldie have even been described as somewhat resembling their twin uncles, Rara’s younger brothers, makes it quite likely.

Flapjack was named after Soarin’s cravings while he was pregnant with her, the fact she even has similar colors to a flapjack amuses her parents.

Gala apprentices under Rarity, showing promise in her seamstress skills, and it comes in handy since she’s rather good at making clothes that are comfortable but still give protection during hard labor. In fact, her relatives even wear some of the clothes she makes while doing farm chores.

The kids take turns tending to Pear Butter and Bright Mac’s trees, but none of them take that duty as seriously as Corey, who always checks on them and even lists things he would have to do to maintain them.

Snow Apple is best friends with Sweet Apple (Big Mac and Sugar Belle’s son in the finale) and Lil’ Cheese, the three of them having been playmates when they were little and still often hanging out when they got older.

Flapjack’s rather conflicted on what she wants to do when she’s older, since she both aspires to be a Wonderbolt like her dad and enjoys making deliveries for her family. So much like Rumble, she’s scared that once she gets her cutiemark, she would have no choice but to choose between those two passions.

Airy likes making trips to Manehattan at least twice a year, since it gives him the opportunity to visit extended relatives on both of his birth parent’s sides. This is because aside from his Orange cousins residing there, Soarin’s parents also moved there for retirement.

[circuitfurscaleandvines2]

Random unfiltered and unimproved thoughts from this:

🦎If xenodrugs messes with magic, that would make Pegasus unable to fly and Earth Pony physically weaker. That would really mess with identities/cutie mark, hoo boy.

🦉It might be fitting to have Haustoria would alter Cutie Marks. ALA how soulmagic works in Fallout: Equestria cannon. Haustoria are a major turning point in your life's direction, after all.

🦉Given the many species in MLP that are nearly or definitely sophonts, there are likely overlapping cotyldon projects going on. Now just talking about Griffen and Buffalo and Minotaur and so on with their obvious civilizations. Even the Cows have been shown to talk by S2.

🔥Fluttershy seems straightforward~ Taking her many wards to the vet, ends up the floret of a caring affini who works there, (possible aro?) relationship that revolves around their mutual love of caring for others, while also helping Fluttershy build the confidence she's learning in S2.

🔥Rarity too, she really needs help keeping her shop going and caring for Sweetie Belle. Someone to help out, who notices her designs and cares for her work, who is honestly supportive, would be so good for her!

🐴Apple "I didn't learn anything, I was right all along~" jack could just stay independent. Especially if this is set around S2, where's she's fairly stable and already anti-capitalism. But perhaps thinking about whether she still wants to run the farm with food now abundant. (vaguely reminded of the MLP Loops AJ, whose great feat was turning Tatooine green to become Princess, growing food is core to her in my mind).

🦎Granny Smith comes back after 3 weeks with her affini, able to walk, immediately baps Apple Bloom with her old walking stick, and loses thinking privileges for a bit.

🦉Rainbow Dash slowly becomes like Lily the Rinan from Divaricated. She has one or more Affini who dote on her, help her accomplish astounding feats of flight (although xenodrugs interrupting her magic would be rough), and generally keep her active while keeping her ego in check.

🐶Pinkie Pie (And Cheese Sandwhich?) has gotta be a floret too! She really needs help sometimes, she's so lonely and broken and needs care! And an affini who can keep up with her zoomies! :D We need Whimsy Affini, the gift giver and helpful pranker! Pranks you with a cupcake :3

🦎@tgirlmechanidoll You've probably got more ideas for this than we do, given your own domestication ;) Honestly, domesticating the FoE Setting in General would be a really interesting crossover too.

One of my more deranged ideas for an HDG story is a crossover with My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, following something very similar to the season 2 episode where twilight has a nervous breakdown

I doubt I'll ever write it, but the idea of "xenodrugs interfere with magic, and twilight only picks up objects with her magic, so shed just be fucked" and "watching princess celestia, basically literally god, getting turned into an age regressing little filly before her eyes" are the two beats I would be building it around

It's been stuck in my head for ages lol

[modgirlyreposts-revamped]

Hands u my MLP AU mane 6

I'm gonna start with Pinkie Pie's changes because shes my favorite and I have her fleshed out a Lot

- Pinkie Pie is an orphan. She lost her family when she was a little filly, and she spent most of her youth in an orphanage, where she learned to cope with the extreme fear and sadness she felt by laughing through it all

- Think The G***y Bard from Friendship is Witchcraft

- She was adopted by the Pie family and given the full name Pinkamena Diane Pie because she needed a home and they needed a helping hand on the rock farm. They provided for her fine, but she was still in a deep state of distress now that she was alone and didn't have much to laugh at to work through her trauma.

- Eventually she left for Ponyville where she lived with the Cakes and worked for them. She became friends with Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle due to Nightmare Moon's return.

- She developed a huge (platonic) crush on Fluttershy. (Pinkie in this AU is aroace)

- She doesn't remember her biological family, and as a result of that and the orphanage and adoption, she doesn't feel like she has a family. However, one day when she was invading Twilight's genealogy research, she found a paper that she believed claimed that she was a member of the Apple family. When she, AJ, Apple Bloom, Big Mac and Granny Smith set out to get to the bottom of it, it proved to be false. Pinkie was initially crushed; as a result of her trauma, she'd gotten so invested in the idea of being a part of this picture perfect image of a family she never had herself, and it was heartbreaking to learn that wasn't the case, but regardless, they still accepted her as "an Apple to the core".

- Pinkie Pie is heavily traumatized, and her childish and overly positive, emotionally driven outlook is a coping mechanism that occasionally shows its darker side as an unhealthy, childish disassociation from reality, but generally works as a helpful coping strategy that keeps up everyone's spirits. She's also autistic ("low functioning", I dont know a better way to say it :///)

Then Rainbow Dash, none of the other characters are yet as complex as Pinkie because silly little pink ponk lady is my favorite, my beloved

- Rainbow Dash's larger than life attitude in combination with her punky style often has her misconstrued as a bully, but really she's very well meaning. She grew up in Canterlot, and her parents' professions meant she never had a slow moment in her life. She grew disdainful of the idea of the nice, posh life that ponies like Rarity strive for, and her "need for speed" became a way of living out her own fast-paced and individual life where she had control and was able to get attention her parents didn't really give.

- She became friends with Fluttershy at a young age because Fluttershy was a young "damsel in distress" for Dash to protect, to show off her new power and individuality, and heck, Fluttershy just needed someone to defend her from her bullies.

- During the race where she set off a Sonic Rainboom, it also set off a small, but intense lightning sort of trigger right around where she set it off, causing her to suffer heavy burns from which she remains permanently scarred. While it left minimal effect on her mentally, save for some storm related anxiety (it took her a while to get used to working with storm clouds because of the incident), the physical injury was severe and it was a long time before she could fly again.

Fluttershy

- Fluttershy was actually born in a prairie. Very cliche for someone as in tune with nature as her, but really, her parents were just massive hippies. Fluttershy had the most stable home life, and as a result, never really found herself inherently afraid of authority figures.

- Not more than everyone else, at least. Fluttershy has SEVERE social anxiety and undiagnosed autism. She's selectively mute, and she was bullied a lot for that, among many, many other things, as a filly.

- She's very, very antisocial, and for the longest time she only had Rainbow Dash, though even they drifted apart over time before reuniting when Nightmare Moon returned. During their trip through the Everfree Forest, the others heavily doubted Rainbow Dash. However, despite having been left by her as foals, Fluttershy knows Dash is a good person and certainly loyal and trustworthy at that.

- Fluttershy is a not of ((not))s. I can't... explain it better than that. She's aromantic, asexual, agender, autistic and selectively mute with social anxiety and depression... she's very ((not)).

- She's lowkey traumatized from being bullied so much as a filly. However, she always tries to see it as having had a silver lining, because her gentle nature and compassion influenced by the bullying helped her connect with the animals and earn her Cutie Mark.

And now I've gotta leave just I'll finish this in another ask aknfksnfjfn

OH I LOVE THEIR DESIGNS!!!!!!

Pinkie is definitely one of my favorites, but Fluttershy is my most favorite of the Mane 6, and as someone who is also selective mute due to trauma I love your version of her sm!!!!!!

And in return for this hit of nostalgia from my middle school days, I will probably pester you all with fanart of my Calvin and Hobbes AU, or Poly Mystery Inc lol

also is it bad that when I saw the fact that Pinkie's childish behavior is a coping mechanism due to trauma I was like "oh same!!" fjjfghjfd-

[lily-orchard-gossip-blog]

I've watched Lilly's video of MLP's episode of "The Perfect Pear". I pretty much disagree with a lot of what she said, but I want to hear what you think.

Are you talking about this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsZGEKy0UIc

I haven't watched it in a while, but going back there's... a lot to take issue with.

So excuse me as I break it down and go over the whole thing.

Even skipping the dig at Rebecca Sugar, Lily just goes a mile a minute about...nothing.

When you distill the video down to her main points, there are really only three reasons she gives for why the episode is bad:

- It proved that AJ's parents are dead

-She doesn't think it's a forbidden love story

-Bright Mac and Pear Butter had nothing in common

But to dig into it a little deeper, Lily is basing her whole argument around, what I'm assuming are, straw man arguments about what other people said they liked about the episode.

In other words, it's more of a response video then a critique of the episode itself.

She starts with the premise that the relationship is apparently "developed over time", and that she found that time boring and unengaging. She gives a few superficial reasons for that, and then proceeds to pivot away from her first argument (that she never answered), to another argument, namely that the relationship had to be boring because it was being told by their friends...

So you would think that it would mean that Lily's core argument is that there wasn't a hook in the story that she found engaging/interesting in some way.

But instead, she just goes off on a completely different point about the fact that Bright Mac and Pear Butter are dead, and she doesn't like that writing decision.

It's irrelevant, and has nothing to do with anything that she was talking about.

The reason she gives for not liking that writing decision is... she doesn't see how them being dead benefits the story outside of a nice tree shot. That's the best reason she gives for why the parents being dead is a bad idea.

But, all I can think is... How does the parents being alive actually effect the story? The parents being alive or dead doesn't actually have any impact on the core story, because this is a flash back story about their romance. Lily could have argued that the parents being dead removes future writing potential, and that we could have had a beautiful reconciliation between Pear Butter and Grandpear, or gotten to seen the two interact in the here and now, but she doesn't.

She's too busy insulting people and going on tangents to actually explain why the parents being dead was the wrong decision.

And then we get to her next point, about why she thinks calling this a forbidden love story is wrong. Namely, because Bright Mac and Pear Butter aren't in any danger, and as adults, they can do whatever they want.

To say I have issues with this Is an understatement. (And yes, I'm choosing to ignore Lily's teenager comments, because this ask is about Lily's opinion on the Perfect Pear, and not her bad parenting advice.)

First of all, we know it wasn't just Grand Pear and Granny Smith that hate each other, as the episode mentions that the whole Apple and Pear family disliked each other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vxy4JsD71U

In other words, being together meant more then just making their parents angry. It mean losing their whole family. Think about that. Lily seems to believe that it's only the threat of violence that would stop someone from being together, but that just fundamentally not true.

Public shame, guilt, disappointing those around you, losing family support, feelings of isolation, never seeing those you love again... Cutting family off is incredibly difficult, and both of them are faced with that real possibility.

That's the reason they never went public with the relationship. That's the reason they probably would have continued to keep the relationship secret had Pear Butter not been getting ready to move. And make no mistake. Pear Butter was going to leave. She was going to chose her family over Bright Mac. That's how close she was to them.

I could go on and on about family relationships and dynamics, but I think I got my point across. It's a forbidden romance where the stakes are high to the characters. Just because they aren't in physical danger, doesn't mean that their struggle is less valid.

Now we get into Lily's final point about why this is a bad episode, and so far, she has yet to cover the story itself. This section, the one about how Bright Mac and Pear Butter having nothing in common, is the closest we get to media analysis on her end.

She talks about how the story is really about Pear Butter, rather then Bright Mac, bringing up how Bright Mac is just a reused asset of Big Macintosh with Apple bloom paint, while Pear Butter gets her own model. She uses this as a reasoning for why this marks Pear Butter as the central character of the story, as well as the fact that she's the one who has to make the hard decision in the end.

That's the best analysis of the episode that the video offers.

Lily forgot to mention that the wedding was Bright Mac's idea, and that Pear Butter was planning on giving up on the relationship, only changing her mind when Bright Mac told her that he loved her, and he didn't care what their families thought, he just wanted to be with her. This points to the fact that he was willing to sacrifice being with his family for her. But I could also see how you could come to the conclusion that he doesn't sacrifice anything, as he does get to keep his family and Pear Butter in the end.

So after that, she says she wishes that Pear Butter had a better story, because she liked the scene where Pear Butter stood firm with her Father. Lily praises this aspect of the episode, and I agree with this point, namely that Pear Butter standing her ground to her father, and begging him to not make her chose, and ultimately staying with the people who didn't force her in that position, is really powerful.

But then Lily goes off on another tangent about how in "any other show" Pear Butter would have been forced to reconnect with her Father... And this actually contradicts her earlier point about the parents being alive.

Why?

Because if Pear Butter was alive, she would have reconnected with her father, and probably forgiven him, thus making the one aspect she liked about the episode, vanish into thin air.

She then say's that if this was the main conflict of the episode, she would have liked it, (ignoring the fact that the episode was building up to that exact moment,) and then she states that Pear Butter and Bright Mac having nothing in common, so their romance is shallow.

Why is there relationship being shallow a problem?

Because people where calling it well developed and she doesn't like that.

Yup. That's it. That's the reason.

She goes on about how, if Pear Butter married Ms. Cake, the person she feels Pear Butter had better chemistry with, everyone would recognize it as the shallow romance it was.

Want to see the clip, the one that includes the Ms. Cake montage, and the song Pear Butter sings to Bright Mac?

You can skip it, but I'll put it in for those who are curious. I'll also go over the clip itself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Flv6_BrwPVU

In it, we see Pear Butter help Ms. Cake cooking and baking. I'll toss in helping her with her business, which is something Lily brings up.

Then we see her and Bright Mac's relationship montage. We see them frequently go on dates, Bright Mac bring up the anniversary of the first time he called her Buttercup, he sends her art work (indicating that he's an artist, and she draws a picture back, so they have art in common.), even when they can't dance together, Bright Mac and Pear Butter still dance at a distance, (so they both like to dance, another thing in common), their both children of farmers and work on their farms so they share a common background, and we see Bright Mac sneak away to help Pear Butter with her chores in secret, even if it might get him in trouble.

That song is dripping with so much awww, I want what they have! That it's amazing what the animators/writers accomplished in helping the audience like the two as a couple.

Lily then says that that was what the story needed a "personal connection" that she doesn't see them having. It's fine that Lily doesn't like the couple, but it's honestly dishonest to claim that Pear Butter had more in common/a more personal connection with Ms. Cake.

Lily claims it's all one sided, but we see Bright Mac do his best to support Pear Butter and spend time with her. His affection for her is really obvious, and very touching.

I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to point out that what Lily is saying isn't supported by the text(or show) itself. I'm not sure what's she's seeing, but bringing in her ex-fiancé to imply that the relationship is "abusive" is so far off the mark she's landed in other space.

Her conclusion is just her getting mad that the episode was called "the best episode" by fans, and she just spends the rest of the time hurling insults at people for liking this episode.

Honestly, after listening to that, and going over what she was saying..

I have to say that it's horribly shallow. It's not a critique, it's just a rant at the fans who loved the episode.

The only notable analysis that she offers is her small tangent on the character models, and how Pear Butters model marks her as 'more important'. But she doesn't do anything with it.

She just point at it, and then leaves it there on the floor with all her other points that she failed to develop.

I'm honestly dumbfounded.

TLDR;

Lily's video on the Perfect Pear fails to say anything, fails to argue anything, and it's only value is in throwing insults at fans who liked the episode.

[tezzbot]

Favorite Mlp song by Rainbow/any of the main 6?

okay im gonna do solo songs for each of the mane six cus if i did every song i liked youd end up with a list of almost every mlp song lol

pinkies is the smile song it has been a Massive comfort song as fuck to me since i watched the episode in like 2013 sometimes when i feel horrible i listen to it and maybe cry a little bit lol<3 also its a whole bop 10/10

for rarity i have to go w generosity ABSOLUTE banger like YES girl GO!!! i just love it a lot lol

i dont think aj ever got a solo song where its literally Only her singing except in eqg so for main show mlp aj im gonna say apples to the core cus it mf Slaps!!! and for eqg five to nine and shake it up bangers bangers bangers lol WAIT NO I JUST REMEMBERED AJ AS THE SPIRIT OF HEARTHSWARMING PAST SEEDS OF THE PAST GOES HARD I LOVE THAT SONG 🥺🥺🥺🥺

i think rainbows only solo was I'll Fly and WHAT A SOLO IT IS 🥰🥰🥰 BANGER AND VERY EMOTIONAL SHE JUST DOESNT WANT HER PET TO LEAVE :((

no of fence but all twilights solos r kinda shit like not the singing the singing n music is beautiful but all her solos are slow n :/ ACTUALLY the failure song is the only one i can think of thats a bop lol

FLUTTERSHY SINGING WITH THE PONYTONES AT THE END OF FILLI VANILLI..... SUCH A GOOD SONG music in the treetops reprise i think its called heeheehoohoo

[scullyy]

Valentine’s Day?

Title: Valentine’s Day?

Pairing: Clementine x Louis

Word Count: 1364

Summary: How does one celebrate Valentine’s Day during the apocalypse? Louis tries to make the gift straight from the heart.

A/N: Happy Valentine's Day you lovely people! I thought I’d throw this simple yet fluffy one-shot out there to celebrate the day. Even if you don’t have a valentine, tell your friend you love them, tell your parents, do something nice for yourself! Enjoy  :)

If you want I’ll be your valentine mkay just saying slide into my inbox xx

-

His morning began so nicely, the sun was shining in the sky with not a cloud in sight. There were even some birds chirping in the distance. Louis took in a deep breath, he dreamed of this kind of weather. But of course Violet had to spoil it all.

“Did you realise that today is Valentine's Day? I forgot that was a thing.”

Louis felt the panic grow from his bones, a completely different reaction to Violet. “Excuse me? Today...is Valentine's Day?” Please no, please no, please no-

She took another small bite from her apple, not seeming to care about the holiday. “That’s what Aasim said, you know his calendar is never wrong.”

Louis hit the top of his head, jolting his thoughts awake. “Fuck, he’s probably preparing something awesome for Ruby. That’s it, I need to start looking at that calendar more.”

Violet nodded along. “You’ve always been into the romantic shit, any plans for Clem?” She failed to mention how she busted Clementine frantically picking flowers earlier, seems like both had forgotten about the holiday.

“Well, it’s hard to make plans when you forget the day,” He ran a hand this his bed hair, him and Clem had only been together for a short amount of time, would it be too much to do something? “Should I give her a gift?"

Violet chucked the apple core onto the ground. "What would you even give her? Not like there's a store you could go to and even if by some chance you had chocolates hidden away I'd be beating your ass for not sharing." She couldn’t help but feel jealousy wrap it’s greedy claw around her heart. Minnie never seemed to care this much, then again Violet herself never pressed the issue.

"I am so screwed,” His heart hammered deep from within his chest. Clementine deserved something! Maybe a drawing? Not original enough, AJ seemed to have a drawing for her every night. A performance? Something artsy? “I’ve got it!”

Violet rolled her eyes, she didn’t want to spend her day talking about romance, let alone hearing Louis of all people talk about it. She kept her stare on the bugs that chomped away at what was left of the apple.

The impatient man cleared his throat. “Please Louis, go ahead and tell me,” Louis impersonated his buddy as best as he could, his voice cracking slightly. “You still have Sophie’s craft supplies?”

“Tenn has them, what are you trying to do? He doesn’t have a lot of stuff, the best you could do is a sock bunny.” 

“Are you still annoyed at me for that? I told you a hundred times, I’m sorry that I used your sock for my art project. Anyhow,” Louis tugged at his coat in an elegant fashion, he could see Clem's face now. All lit up with a lovely smile, maybe even a dusty pink blush? Man now that's a sight to behold. "Excuse me, dear Violet, I have a...uh...something to make! I’ll figure it out."

Vi saluted him as he ran over to Tenn's table. "Catch you later Lou."

Tenn and AJ were minding their own business when Louis flew himself onto their table, frightening the young boys. "Sorry to interrupt, can I borrow some art stuff Tenn?"

Tenn briefly looked at his box of supplies. "Sure, what for?"

"I need to make a Valentine's Day gift for Clementine," He pulled the box towards him and began to dig through the mess. "Sorta last minute I know."

AJ scratched the side of his head with the blunt pencil in his hand. "What's that?" Louis always seemed to know everything, however the mystery of the Leprechaun was still shrouded in darkness. 

"It's a day where people appreciate those they care about, a day to celebrate love." Valentine's Day at the Louis household consisted of overly priced gifts and a pair of diamond earrings that always replicated the one from the year prior. His father was a man of unoriginal taste.

"Oh, love." AJ smiled at the answer. Love sounded so...so...magical, based off what Clementine had told him in the past. 

Louis came across a small ball of string and a goldmine of plastic charms. There was one of a daisy, the sun, a bright pink heart and even a frog. "Jeez, who the hell thinks of these designs?" He slid one of the charms onto the weak string, immediately straightening his back as an idea shot through him. “That’s it!”

One by one the charms joined together along the string, he made sure the neon heart was in the centre. After tying the ends of the string together, Louis brandished his creation. “It doesn’t look like much but I once caught Clem eyeing down a broken bracelet she found when we were on patrol not long ago. She seemed to enjoy it.”

“What does it do?” AJ asked. What good could a few pieces of plastic do together? Love is weird.

Louis hid it inside his pocket. “It’s called a bracelet. People would wear them for style and flair.”

“Flair?”

Louis shot AJ down before he could keep going. “We’re gonna be here all day at this rate, do you know where Clem is?”

Tenn pointed at the school. “I heard her telling Ruby something about the piano room, she might still be there.” He also heard something about flowers but he wasn’t sure what that was about.

“Thank you, my dudes, onward we go.” Louis quickly wiped the dirt away from his pants, trying to look as presentable as possible. His steps were broad as he headed into the piano room, Clementine’s voice grew louder as he got closer. He knocked on the door whilst poking his head in, breaking the girl out of her thoughts.

“May I interrupt?”

She quickly hid something behind her back, swaying side to side innocently. “Sure Lou, what brings you here?” Her legs almost gave way beneath her, why was this so nerve-wracking? 

Louis kept his steps slow as to draw out the suspense, if he was going to do this he was going to be as dramatic as possible. “Would you believe that today is Valentine’s Day? A day where we tell those we care about just how much we care about them. I’m going to guess that you’re already aware of how much you mean to me, but I’m still going to say it,” He coughed loudly as he pulled the bracelet out. “Oh my darling Clementine, I am very glad to have the privilege of knowing you. If you ever break up with me I may just lose my mind.”

She tried to stifle a laugh as best as she could. “Well then, I promise not to break up with you anyways,” Her eyes travelled down to the bracelet held tightly in his hand. “What’s that?”

Louis opened up his palm to reveal her present, it shined beneath the flecks of sunlight pouring in. “I know it isn’t fancy and it’ll probably break after a week,” He slid the bracelet over her small wrist, it hung off her skin perfectly. “But it’s the thought that counts, right? Don’t say I never gave you anything.”

Clementine ran her fingers along the plastic charms, her jaw was hurting from smiling so hard. "I love it, did you make it?"

He shrugged as if it was no big deal. "I did. Tenn let me use his art supplies, AJ even supervised me." The bright, clean colours stood out against the dry dirt on her wrist.

"Well, I actually have something for you too," Clementine revealed the hand hidden behind her back and flashed him a wide variety of flowers. Having Violet catch her in the act was embarrassing, it would certainly be something the girl would bring up again in the future. So much for her stoic reputation.

Louis slowly took the small bouquet, inhaling the sweet smells it gave off. "Thank you, Clementine."

She pulled him into a hug, her hands draped over his shoulders loosely. "Happy Valentine's Day Lou, I'm glad I get to spend it with you."

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff ~ Stray Thoughts: Sparkle’s Seven {MLP}

Ah, what a wonderful day to have 200 episodes of pony time.

Meanwhile, at the School of Doom.

That explains so much about Twilight

Ooh, burn.

You’ll do great, Starlight. The episode will not forget your efforts.

Wait, the story is written by.... the voice actors? HOLY SHIT, EVERYONE IS HERE! This is a more joyous celebration than SU’s finale when it had all those writers and that turned out,,, not so great.

Ladies, you’re both still awful for before.

Oh snap, heist episode?

Heist episode!

Goose gods!

And come on, those geese deserve some respectful designs. 

C’mon Rarity, tons of sibling rivalries have some bs complications

MY LITTLE PONY: Friendship is Homeland Infiltration

Applejack’s gonna put her leg game into sicko mode.

Damn, I guess being around the same people for years can have people guessing your moves without a sweat.

I like that growl she did

Rarity, no offense, but you’re great

And way to be honest, AJ

Okay, I did not expect this turnaround

This is gonna be memeface galore, isn’t it?

Noire time.

Isn’t it a glass of milk, Dash?

Pinkie in space is not something I thought I’d like

Applejack has an alter ego to being a background pony?

WE’RE SPIES! WE LIKE FRIES! WE DON’T HAVE HIVES! CUZ WE’RE SPIES!

Fluttyshy being badass is not something I needed until now

Exploding things will make you lose, Spike

Huh, guess Apple Core wasn’t joshing

Pinkie, fire can’t survive in space.

You did great, Pinkie, with no casualties too.

Huh, secret guitar weapon. Nice, AC

Thanks snitch. “Dude c’mon” What? A snitch is a snitch.

Zephyr Breeze? Seriously, how did he get here? He’s a stylist.

Rainbow Dash,,,, is dressing in style.

Seriously, why is he there?

Tch, crack ships. Am I right ladies?

Rarity is strong enough to take out a chunk of brick wall.

OH SHIT, HE DIPPED! What are ya doing, show?

You do you, hipster.

WE’RE SPIES! WE LIKES GUYS! MS. PUELLAAA,,, LIKES PIES!

This is the first time they’ve mentioned gliding ever.

ZOINKS SCOOB, the plan’s gone awrrryyyyy.

How do you know it’s a false alarm, Luna?

I mean, if four out of 7 are in the building, things were running pretty smoothly I might say.

WE’RE SPIES! AND WE’RE STUCK INSIDE!

Huh. Real talk I’m surprised Fluttyshy’s concern of claustrophobia comes from the concern of others and not just her own fear of everything like early depictions of her.

That’s rough, buddy.

That is the most wholesome shit I’ve ever heard, Fluttyshy

Secret doors, babey.

Damn, Twily. Cut him off like that?

Firebrand’s right, the guards can be useless

Huh, Applejack helped the plan out

I like that Zephyr saw Rainbow pass by but didn’t say anything.

Maudie!

LEG GAME STRONG.

How did they not recognize any of this going on? You’d think with Shining knowing Twilight’s every move that,,,, they recognize the ponies responsible.

I love that in the efforts to sound peaceful, Flutty sounds remarkably ominous.

See people, Geese just want love not hate.

HAHA, you didn’t expect them to be in the room as the treasure huh, Twi?

What a twist.

And you honestly deserved that, Twilight, for seriously cutting him off like that.

Thanks Luna, looking good as ever.

Also Luna did more in this episode than Celestia truly has. Mad kudos to you, Moon Booty

Aw. Ya gonna make me cry, buddy.

Kudos to you as well, Spike. After 200 episodes, you earned your keep.

So what did we learn ya’ll? Well, I’m an only children so I can’t relate as much, but I believe that if you have siblings that you care about very much, don’t underestimate them because they might surprise you more than anything. And in any respects, even if they’re not blood, the person you love can be considered family regardless.

MY LITTLE PONY: Friendship is Family

[lothkit]

☆ Wand Analysis by Kit

Over yonder (@pleasantprefects​), I take my wand lore far more seriously than most people ever should. To the point that I’m carefully analyzing wands for my characters like Ollivander.

Read on for extra background info on my Harry Potter OCs, and join Pleasant Prefects for a good time (and a Kit-Certified Wand Analysis, I guess). 

Gemma: hornbeam, dragon heartstring, 12 inches

This is the wand of an especially determined individual. Hornbeam is known to seek those who are possessed of a singular passion, one they will do anything to pursue. Paired with dragon heartstring, often thought to have the most “brute force” of the Ollivander cores, this is a wand that would be dangerous in the hands of someone who felt they were meant to be a defender. The length suggests someone with a flair for dramatics. All in all, a decidedly powerful wand, if used correctly.

Gemma’s first wand was inherited from her deceased mother, an accomplished but foolhardy Hit Witch with the Auror Department. It’s a wand she had to fight to control at times, as Gemma has never shared her mother’s “one singular goal.” Indeed, it took Gemma many years to hit upon something she felt was “right” for her to pursue... And by then....

Gemma: aspen, dragon heartstring, 10 1/2   inches

Aspen is a duelist’s wand wood, through and through. It calls to those with a flair for charmwork and martial magic. Paired with dragon heartstring, this quality is accentuated to its maximum potential. It is said that aspen wand carriers are revolutionaries--they are certainly drawn to new orders more than most. With the core, this becomes quite peculiar. With a unicorn hair core, the wand’s allegiances would clearly veer towards the light, but it is true that dragon heartstring cores are the easiest to sway to Dark magic. The length here suggests someone who is coming into their own, perhaps less flourish and more precision in their work. This could be a dangerous wand in the right hands, depending on where their loyalties lay.

Gemma’s second wand is the one she bought after Liyana Barrows’ death, and the fracturing of her mother’s wand. It should be no wonder that Gemma Watts-Barrows, member of The Alliance and the Vindication, would be matched with a wand equally capable of good and evil, seeking a place in the world. It’s a wand that desires to be used, and often, and should be a loyal friend in a fight.

Liv: applewood, phoenix feather, 10 inches

Apple and phoenix is a bit of a rarer pairing--fruit woods often seem more drawn to unicorn hair out of Ollivander’s preferred cores--but one that is quite telling nonetheless. They say it is always easy to love an apple-carrier, and this remains true, though the phoenix feather suggests a certain other-worldliness. This is the wand for someone who is well-liked by those who take the time to get to know them. It would be remiss not to note that applewood has the unique tendency to seek out those with a gift for languages, if they take the time to develop that skill.

Liv’s wand is made for a quirky, sometimes distant individual, but always helpful and friendly. Applewood wands are not made for Dark magic (indeed, none of the fruit woods are), and this is an early, early sign that even when Liv is sometimes most concerned with results with her spellcasting (without thinking of consequences), she never means harm. She wants to improve, and grow (a very “phoenix feather��� trait), but never at the cost of someone else. A kind wand for a kind-hearted girl who wants to explore the world.

Samuel: sycamore, unicorn hair, 11 inches

There are some wand woods that seem “drawn” to particular Houses--sycamore is common in Ravenclaw. A curious wood, it demands to be used for new purposes at all times, hating the mundane. With unicorn hair, its nature to cleave to its original owner, and adapt to their particularities is brought forward. Together, wand and wizard are able to elevate each other to new heights, if only they take the first step.

As we now know, Sammy never really got to take those steps, but his wand suggests he could have had an interesting life ahead of him. Alas...

Louisa: red oak, phoenix feather, 10 3/4 inches

Slightly less commonly found than the English oak wand, red oak wands tend to find themselves in the hands of the most adaptable. As such, phoenix feather may perhaps be the best possible core for this wand. Together they blend together to be a particularly powerful wand. Bold, but not necessarily brash--loyal, perhaps to a fault. A wand whose favor is hard earned but most worthy in the end.

Louisa is still quite young--only eleven! Her wand suggests that she will grow into someone worthy of watching: quick-witted, capable of thinking on her feet, and a dangerous duelist. For now though, it’s most indicative of a trait we’ve yet to see much in action: hot tempered.

AJ: hazel, unicorn hair, 10 1/2 inches

Hazel and unicorn hair--this is quite the loyal wand, best meant for one who has even control over their emotions. Once its owner passes, so will it too. Hazel wood tends to be over-the-top in its loyalties--responding immediately to any change in its owner’s temperament, reacting dramatically when it feels underused, etc. This sensitivity becomes more noticeable with unicorn hair as its core. 

AJ’s wand is meant for greater magic than she uses it for, if we’re being honest with ourselves. It should be no wonder that her favorite spells are Obliviate and Muffliato--but perhaps her wand feels she’s destined for more than just an occasional spell.

Wesley Waite: spruce, unicorn hair, 13 inches

Spruce is often called difficult to work with, and indeed it requires a particular touch to work with. Its owner needs a certain steady touch, an undercurrent of confidence, whether others see it or not. Spruce wands will only do the magic they deem worthy of themselves and their owners. Unicorn hair denotes a true lack of maliciousness in the owner’s nature, and tames spruce’s more flamboyant qualities. This is the wand of someone who means to do good.

Wesley’s wand is quirky, like him--but powerful, in its own way. Perhaps it isn’t used for “dramatics” as much as other wands among the Hogwarts staff, but it is among the most dangerous in a steady hand. And in the right moment, Wesley Waite is a steady hand.

[ask-de-writer]

To begin with, let us consider the consequences of the use of magic on massive scales and the nature of time itself.

Let us begin with TIME. 

Seems obvious, doesn’t it?  I mean Past, Present and Future.  The only problem with that division of time is that it REQUIRES predestination and is wide open to paradoxes.  The real issue with it lies in that part known as the Future.  If it is fixed, it cannot be changed.  You are stuck, no matter what you do.

Worse, if every action in the Present causes a new line to begin, Cup O Time Noodles, anyone?  At what event scale does a new time line begin?  With each heartbeat or breath?  With each deadly accident avoided, or not?

Thus, Past, Present and Future leads to chaos.

For the purposes of my tales time does still have three parts but they are the Immutable Past, the Plastic Present and the Absolute Instant of the Present.  The Future exists only as a range of mathematical abstractions.  These become reality in the Absolute Instant of the Present.  There follows a short period called the Plastic Present in which things are perceived and reacted to.  As the Plastic Present passes, it becomes the Immutable Past.

This has multiple consequences for the very creation of the whole world of Equestria.   It is obviously a created world.  The Creators I sort of stole from a long gone comic by Digity Demon.  He had Applejack as a Religious Conservative who pities Twilight for her lack of faith in the Creator Titans.

My Equestria was a project of the Creator Titans that all but one of them dropped.  The Titan of Life Creation, who presented herself to De Writer and later to Luna and Celestia as a young pegasus mare named Skyglow, has tried to repair the inherent flaws built into Equestria.

Celestia and Luna jointly are her fix.  They have been given a LIMITED control of the Magic of Creation for the purpose of preserving Equestria as a habitable world. 

Celestia does not control the rising and setting of the sun, though it appears that she does to ponies.  What she actually does is adjust hundreds of factors relating to the planet itself.  These include such things as the rates of rotation of the crust, the core, the strength of magnetic field and the very angle of the axis of the planet.

Luna does a similar service for the moon but includes maintaining the orbital distance, among other things.  The moon keeps trying to orbit in closer and closer until destructive break up at the Roche’s Limit.  The fragments, some huge, would fall in a rain of meteoric destruction.

What makes the world so unstable in the first place?  Magic.

Magic?  Right.  Literally billions of ponies are doing everything from lifting and holding objects, pegassi flying, to harvesting apples.  Apples?  AJ bucks a whole tree and the apples all fall into the baskets!  Tell me that is not magic at work.  Earth pony magic is just not as obvious as a unicorn’s.

So, how does that magic mess up a world?  It comes from somewhere.  For it to work at all, it needs to alter the physical constants that make the rest of the universe work.  Little things like G, the universal gravitational constant.  The strong and weak nuclear forces need to be manipulated.  e, that electronic things need.  Newton’s Laws, anyone?  Seen Twilight, at a couple of hundred kilos tops, flip about a water tank that weighs tonnes?  That is only a few examples.

Any of these things done by one pony alone would make no measurable difference.  Billions of ponies all messing about like that makes for bad news indeed.  Around Equestria G is in a state of constant flux.  It is not alone, either.

That is WHY Celestia and Luna are needed to balance things out!

Pity that they don’t just raise the Sun and Moon.  That would be easy by comparison!

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

[insidethegiftbasket]

Stats Club 101 - Counting and Basic Rates

Evan’s Note: Hey, look at this! Another new contributor. We’re growing faster than Ortiz’s ass after the steroid needle hits it. Anyway, everyone say hi to AJ and yeah, go ahead and make another one more when you bring cupcakes to class next week. 

———

While Evan, Sam, and now Julio are breaking down players and series previews, I’ll be focusing on the NUMBERS! and SCIENCE! that surround baseball. Before you even think about yawning, let’s be clear: you’re a baseball fan. You do like those things in this context; you just don’t realize it. Hopefully I can help demystify the decimals and acronyms and spinning and launching, making it a little less scary and giving you a new perspective with which to think and talk about our beloved sport.

First up: The first installment of a dive into baseball statistics. 

———

It’s no surprise: baseball is numbers-heavy. Likely because it can be mostly described by discrete and well-defined events, baseball lends itself to digits upon digits upon digits. The spectrum of fan acceptance of this spans from those developing modern sabermetrics, to those who blame the Inevitable and Imminent Downfall of the Sport (100+ years and counting!) on anything outside of “traditional” stats. In-between you have everyone else: fans who don’t care either way; those who care a little either way; those who want to understand but find it all so damn intimidating; and even those who think they get it but carry major misconceptions (looking at you, r/baseball and your abuse of ‘regression’).

Well regardless of where you sit, Welcome to Stats Club! We’re gonna take a close look at the classes of baseball metrics, where they come from, and how to interpret them. Before we kick things off you should know of a few key rules:

The first rule of Stats Club is: Stats are not bad. 

The second rule of Stats Club is: Stats are not bad!!

But seriously, statistics are tools. Saying a specific stat is fundamentally bad because it doesn’t tell you something it wasn’t designed for is like saying a screwdriver sucks because it can’t hammer nails. The formula is what it is: what’s potentially bad are the inferences you draw from it. 

For example, suppose I make a measurement that is the total number of apples and oranges in my fruit basket: I call it 'wAO’. It’s very specific, sure, but it’s still carrying information. And although it only counts those two fruits directly, you may be able to infer what’s happening with the rest of my fruit supply if you know how much my basket can hold; e.g. a low wAO may mean I have bananas and kiwis too. But if you’re wrong, that’s not the fault of wAO. Rather, your methodology is flawed by not accounting for your own assumptions. Keep this in mind as we step through baseball statistics, especially when we get into sabermetrics.

A third thing to be aware of is: unless stated otherwise, baseball stats are not predictive. They are records of the past, and we assume things will stay mostly the same going forward. But this is an assumption, and depending on what we’re talking about it can be a pretty bold one.

Part I. The Counting Stats

<Hits, home runs, RBIs, strikeouts, innings pitched, etc…>

Ah, it’s the most basic category: the stuff you can literally count. Counting stats get scoffed at because of how simple they are, but they’re at the core of everything that follows. After all, you can’t build a model of player production without having raw data to throw into your equations.

As I mentioned earlier, baseball is a nice sport from a statistics perspective because it can be almost completely described by counting stats, which are descriptions of discrete events. A batter does or doesn’t reach base; a pitcher either gets a strikeout on 3-2 or he does not; and so on. Compare to, say, soccer, where it’s not so easy to cleanly describe and quantify the details of player performance.

I say almost completely described because fielding remains a challenge. Errors are an attempt, but errors are a divisive counting stat because they’re uncharacteristically subjective for baseball. Like with soccer where we’re trying to measure continuous and complicated events, advanced analytics are really the only way to quantify fielding in any detail. But we’ll save that discussion for a later post.

Part II. The Rate Stats

<Batting average (BA), On-base percentage (OBP), Slugging percentage (SLG), etc…>

Counting’s great, but raw numbers can get large and unwieldy and difficult to interpret. We solve this by normalizing them, i.e. dividing the count by some standard unit. Then we get a rate, or measure of how often something has occurred (remember: baseball stats are not inherently predictive). BA is the rate of hits per official at-bats; OBP is the rate of reaching base—hits and walks and hit-by-pitch—per plate appearance; and so on.

For pitchers, Earned Run Average (ERA) is earned runs per inning pitched times nine, which just scales the rate to an entire 9-inning game. There’s also Walks and Hits per Inning Pitched (WHIP) which says what it is right in the name. On baseball-reference you’ll find SO9 and HR9, which are strikeouts and homeruns per inning, respectively, also times nine for the same scaling as ERA (for whatever reason pitchers get their rates expressed as whole numbers while hitters are stuck with fractions).

Let’s illustrate the first two rules of Stats Club by looking at the much maligned BA. It’s perfectly reasonable to measure how often a batter reaches base via a hit. Hits are exciting! There’s a crack of the bat, the ball goes into play, and the fielders scamper to unsuccessfully throw the ball in before the batter-turned-runner can reach. Not to mention, making contact with a small 90mph projectile and placing it where it can’t be fielded may be the hardest thing to do in all of sports, so getting a hit is always an impressive feat. 

But none of this is to say hits are the only things that matter. If you’re trying to get on base you don’t really care how you do it, and from that perspective a walk is just as beneficial as a single (even if Nick Johnson’s knowledge of the strike zone is slightly less dramatic than a clutch Gio Urshela double down the line). Thus the problem is not in BA being what it is, but rather in old-school baseball minds deciding it is the be-all, end-all of offensive measures. So definitely celebrate high batting averages, but don’t use it to definitively say one player is better than another. There are more appropriate tools for that.

Part IIa. OPS and Other Fun Rates

On-base Plus Slugging (OPS) is technically a rate, but it’s unique because it rather unceremoniously—but somehow very comfortably—smashes two other rates together: OBP, and the intimidatingly named SLUGGING PERCENTAGE (SLG), which is bases per at-bat. 

The idea behind adding the two is straightforward. In baseball you want to generate runs. And you do this by either getting on base or by hitting the ball so you get a lot of bases. Hey, that’s OBP and SLG! So if we add the two together we get a number that kinda captures a player’s rate of run creation. Hence, OPS.

There was a time when I ignored the first two rules of Stats Club and hated this number. Since the same hit is captured in both OBP and SLG, isn’t it double counting? And wait a second, OBP and SLG have different denominators; you can’t just add them! But as I went through my career I realized I was overthinking it: OPS is fine. Between 9am and 5pm on weekdays I’d call OPS a basic heuristic. A heuristic is a broad concept: it refers to any good-effort way to get a solution or estimate to a problem. Heuristics are explicitly not meant to be optimal or perfect: they just need to be justified by the designer. And OPS can be justified! Aside from the conceptual idea of run creation, it can be shown that OPS tracks with—and even has some level of prediction for!—actual runs scored. So there you go.

But be aware that even given that, we’re still inferring things about run creation from OPS. Inferences still rely on assumptions and interpretations and there was a desire to get more precise. Stats guys wanted a more refined tool to directly measure production. One of these tools is called weighted on base average (wOBA), but we’ll discuss that later when we dive into advanced metrics.

Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP) is another fun one. BABIP also has its description in its name: it’s like BA, but instead of hits per at-bats, it’s hits per balls-in-play (i.e. it ignores strikeouts and HRs). BABIP is used to gauge the statistical un/likehood of a hitter’s performance. The logic is as follows:

Major league ballplayers have a baseline level of fielding skill. That is, there are zones in which any competent player should be able to field a ball and record an out. That means there are also zones where that fielder won’t be able to make a play, and thus the batter—if he places it there—will get a hit. 

Given all that, we can expect a ball in play to be a hit about 30% of the time. If a hitter’s BABIP is far below .300, the implication is that fielders are making spectacular plays. And since spectacular plays are spectacular for a reason, the hitter is probably getting “unlucky”. Or perhaps he’s hitting into crazy shifts. Either way, a good hitter will adjust his approach and/or benefit from defenses being less spectacular. As a result, the expectation is that in due time he will see his BABIP regress upward towards .300. And if his BABIP goes up, so will his BA.

On the other hand, if a BABIP is far above .300, it implies the hitter is getting lots of bloop hits, which he certainly isn’t planning. Or maybe he’s beating defensive alignments, which any competent defense will recognize and adjust to. Whatever the reason, we’d expect his BABIP to regress down towards .300, accompanied by a drop in BA.

(BIG NOTE: Player skill is a factor here too! Elite hitters will be better at finding those gaps and can maintain a BABIP of around .350, while the worst hitters may sit as low as .260. If we know a player’s true BABIP after seasons of playing, we can have a good guess of how his BA may trend based on BABIP.)

For a while BABIP was THE indicator of statistical un/likelihood (or un/luckiness). This is why we curse the BABIP gods when one of our guys is “robbed” or when a team--probably the Rays or mid-aught Angels--bloops us to death. But thanks to Statcast, BABIP has been given a partner. Because Statcast logs everything about batted balls, we can, in real time, know exactly how often that type of contact (launch angle, exit velocity, etc.) has resulted in a hit vs. an out. No more inferences required! You know this stat as expected batting average (xBA). But more on that later.

Remember: Stats Are Not Bad. This is some cool synergy between classic rates and new-age Statcast. Use xBA for real-time analysis, but turn to BABIP when trying to project long-term trends.

Part IIb. Time to Normalize…Again!

Rate stats exist to make counting stats more readable, but it’s still not obvious what rate is a good rate. This is something you had to learn when you first got into baseball: you weren’t born with the knowledge that a .330 BA may win the batting title, or that a 5.36 ERA for a starter is disappointing. Rate stats are a useful tool but they don’t tell if a rate is what you want.

Enter the “pluses”, mainly OPS+ for hitters and ERA+ for pitchers. These are essentially the raw rates normalized by the league average rate, times 100 (so it’s not a fraction) with a few other adjustments. This gives a direct comparison to everyone else in the league over that period of time. If a pitcher has an ERA+ of 101 it means he’s in the middle of the pack, whereas an ERA+ of 205 means he’s 100% better than the league average pitcher. Similarly, an OPS+ of 90 says a hitter’s inferred run production is 10% worse than the rest of the league. The pluses are my favorite to look at because they’re nice clean numbers that quickly provide a lot of information.

Baseball-reference iterates on this with tOPS+ for player splits. This is the player’s OPS for that split, e.g. the month of April, normalized by his OPS for the entire year. This lets you quickly check out fluctuations over months, counts, and other situations.

Ok, two caveats here. First, the pluses are also adjusted by a “park factor”, which is a number that describes how pitcher- or hitter-friendly a stadium is. If two pitchers have the same ERA but one plays in an extreme hitters park, he will have a higher (i.e. better) ERA+ because the park factor adjustment accounts for how he has to work harder.

Secondly, because of how OPS+ is calculated—it actually sums what you could call OBP+ and SLG+—an OPS of 90 doesn’t exactly mean 10% worse than league average OPS. That’s why, in the example above, I said 10% worse run production instead. And now we’re bordering on more abstract concepts that may require additional tools to describe...

———

--And that is a good place to end today’s lesson. To recap: we started with counting to collect raw baseball data, and then we normalized those counts to get rates. To easily compare those rates we normalized again, but with a twist: to be a fair comparison we needed to adjust for the quirkiness of the various ballparks. And that’s not exactly something you can just count. You need a model, and more specifically, a model that checks out.

Furthermore, what about our sharper version of OPS? How do we more accurately and directly measure run production? And since errors are a weirdly subjective stat, and because hits themselves depend somewhat on defense, is there a way to meaningfully evaluate a pitcher’s performance while somehow ignoring hits and runs? 

The search for answers to these questions gave rise to the advanced metrics, or “Sabermetics”. wOBA, FIP, WAR and others are newer heuristics that use the history of baseball stats to develop models of performance. Next time we’ll dissect a few of these to better understand what exactly they’re telling us.

— Extra Credit —

< A place for footnotes and other remarks for the nerdiest nerds >

Throughout all this I’m going to use the statistics meaning of regression, which means a trend. The concept of regression towards the mean refers to trending towards a true average. It does NOT mean “To arbitrarily get worse”! Baseball fans routinely mess this up and it leads to very bad analysis! Much more on that later.

Isolated Power (ISO) is a rate like SLG, but it only counts doubles, triples, and HRs and gives them weights of one, two, and three, respectively (It can also be calculated as SLG minus BA). As you can guess from its name and its components, it’s a heuristic used to capture power hitting.

Here’s a fun quirk. A player’s OBP is always higher than his BA, right? Not necessarily! Check it out:

Two players with identical BAs for this game but very different OBPs. What’s happening here? It’s the sac flies! Since SFs count as a plate appearance but obviously not as getting on base, they go into the denominator of OBP but not the numerator. So if a player has more SFs than BBs, it won’t affect his BA but it will bring down his OBP. Of course, no actual major league player should have more sac flies than walks over any meaningful period of time, so this is mostly an early season quirk.

[diamond-song42]

Pone Reviews 37: Applebuck Season Welcome back my friends to the Pone that never ends! I'm going back to Season 1 for an episode about a background pony. It is an episode that helped set some of the foundation for an Apple horse. It gave a grey Pegasus her first lines. It set a standard for what it can mean to be a hard worker. That's right, it's "Applebuck Season!" Let's dive right in! We start with a moral. "Don't try to do everything yourself and accept your friends' help when they offer it." Aw, that's sweet. The writers don't want you to overwork yourself. For an early episode, the lesson certainly spans both younger and older generations. Guys, I get it. Work can be tough. Whether it's applied to your job, your home, or even your family, it's important to not push yourself too much. Season 7's "A Health of Information" gives a variant of this lesson. More importantly, however, you should be willing to ask for and accept help. Applejack, like many of us, has her own way of doing things. She isn't too willing to accept help due to her pride. And reasonably so: The Apples are the most (if only) apple farmers in Equestria and Applebuck Season is their most important time of year. But it's a lot of work and one pony can't handle it all on her own. See what can happen when you overwork yourself and don't accept help? You can injure yourself or your flying friends and poison a whole town. Don't be like Applejack. Accept your friends' generous offers. They didn't offer assistance to undermine you; they did it because they love you. Plot-wise? "Friendship is Magic" gave us a base for our Mane 6's character traits. This episode expanded on Applejack's base. Traits that have stuck with her throughout the show. She's a hard worker. And I mean a REALLY hard worker. She's stubborn and doesn't budge on her views. You could consider it part of her character's "core." And just what are some episodes where these traits have been revisited and especially stressed? "Family Appreciation Day." "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000." "Leap of Faith." "PPOV." Most (if not all) of the season openers and closers. This episode planted the roots of who we know to be Applejack today. But that's not all: It also plants some roots about the Apple family as a whole. "Friendship is Magic" and "The Ticket Master" didn't do much to establish the Apple family's importance. But this episode implies that the Apple family *really* does business with apple products, not just hosting family reunions or setting up small booths at parties. Applebuck Season is their business season. No wonder it's important to AJ! She wants to keep her farm afloat. So this episode establishes great bases for both the Element of Honesty bearer and her farm. Here's some more things I appreciated about this episode: *Big Mac is a great big brother. That's what a big brother should be. *Winona! Such a good puppo helping Applejack herd cows. Wonder if the writers are fans of the Judds? *mmmMuffins *The size of that farm never ceases to amaze me. *I bet Sweet Apple Acres apple juice tastes amazing. The ponies look so cute drinking it. And here's some things I didn't: *Say it with me, everypony: HORSES CANNOT VOMIT. Those poisoned ponies should be dead. Also, how are we still trusting Applejack and Pinkie Pie after this incident? *Applejack is the best friend a pony could have? You don't know that. You've known her for four episodes! *For a show that stresses Big Mac doesn't have a lot to say, he sure had quite a bit to share here. *Oh come on. You can get all the apples off MULTIPLE trees just with magic? You don't need the non-unicorns at all! You don't even need Apple family members! *Wait, if Applejack got an award for diverting a stampede, why didn't Twilight get an award for stopping the Ursa Minor? Or for luring the Cerberus back to Tartarus? Or ALL THE MANE 6 for defeating the Bugbear? Seems a little unfair. Overall: A relatively good episode with the roots of character development and the ignorance of horse anatomy. Eeyup. 3.75 out of 5 rainbows 🌈🌈🌈% And there you have another Pone Reviews! Come back tomorrow for an episode featuring a zebra. A rhyming zebra. Tired so I have no rhymes myself. Diamond out!

[iwritehorsethings]

Applecore - MLP One Shot

Cross-post from FimFiction. If you enjoy, please consider following and giving a thumbs up!

Summary: Applejack thinks about the void she fills within her family.

Rating: Everyone

Genre: Drama, General

Written before “The Perfect Pear”.

Art by Kallarmo.

Beneath a lone apple tree on a tall hill, Applejack was finding herself concerned with the inevitable advance of time, a dimension she had always received without falter, but that particular summer evening had her preoccupied by the steady march of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years...

Her brow furrowed over her green gaze as the setting sun painted long shadows over the land that four generations of her family had toiled with love and sweat. She could feel her pride, strong and healthy like a big barreled tree in her chest. Sweet Apple Acres was their home. It had been since Granny Smith and her kin had come to this valley and helped establish Ponyville.

So then where were Applejack's parents?

It was a question that the farm mare typically avoided wrestling with. Fretting over the endless wanderlust of her parents, Honeycrisp and Jonagold, wouldn't keep her family fed or the farm running. Granny Smith was too old for most of the chores, and Big Macintosh didn't understand more than half of the unique challenges a young filly like Applebloom struggled with. It was up to Applejack to lead her family in these regards. There was nopony else.

The responsibility didn't scare her. It settled over Applejack's strong withers like a familiar blanket, warm and soft, despite its weight. However, trickling down her heart as thick and as viscous as sap was a sense of loss. These seconds, minutes, and hours were irretrievable once they slipped through the sieve of existence into the hungry sea of yesterday. That was time her parents could never recover. All those moments, all those memories, all those experiences...gone. They had missed so many of Applejack's accomplishments, both in running their farm and in her service to the Equestrian kingdom with her friends. They had missed Applebloom singing on stage with her friends and Coloratura. At this rate, they stood to miss the day when Big Mac married, and worse yet, Granny Smith's final days.

The last Applejack had spoken to her parents face to face had been when she was a teenager, barely out of school. Applebloom was still a foal too young to begin her education proper. It was an early foggy morning, and the whippoorwills were still chirping sleepily in the orchards. Honeycrisp's bright red coat was hidden under an emerald cloak as she carried a basket of sundries to their covered wagon. Her muzzle, which was lightly frosted in a soft lime shade, was split wide in a grin when she told Applejack with a wink of her green eye, "We're off to unlock all the secrets of apples." When her daughter helped her load the basket onto the carriage, she added sagely, "After all, there's more to farmin' than sticking seeds into the ground!"

"Darn tootin'," Jonagold pitched in with an energetic whinny as he cantered over to his wife and daughter, the brim of his stetson hat tilted up high. Behind him trailed Granny Smith, and Big Macintosh, the latter carrying a young Applebloom. "There ain't no nobler a pursuit than the refinement of one's profession. Right, AJ?"

Applejack smiled, her chest puffing at her father's attention. "Yes, Pa! Nothin' nobler."

Jonagold laughed and ruffled her mane. "That's my girl!' He turned to the rest of the family. "Mama, ah know you'd rather we stick closer to the homestead and quit our roamin', but trust that your one and only son is carryin' on those supernal values you so determinedly hammered into his thick skull. Hoof shakin' and continuous discourse with prospective customers in this competitive mart o' commerce is the best way to ensure the longevity of our clan, so--"

"Jona, will you stop your highfalutin ramblin' and jes' get on that there wagon before I whop you a good'un?" Granny Smith snapped. "Heavens, you talk as if we ain't out here freezin' our flanks in this chill!"

Jonagold threw his blonde head back for a hearty laugh. "Oh! Mama, I do so love you. I'll count the days till you can whop me again," he chortled as he gave her a hug. He turned next to Big Mac, his head raising high with a smirk. "And you, son. Protect the mares. Don't shy from the hard jobs--you know these gals are strong, but you're the strongest. Got that?"

Big Mac mirrored the smirk on his father's soft orange face. "Eyup!" he said.

The older stallion patted a hoof on his son's shoulder. "Atta boy." Next he moved to kiss Applebloom on the head. "See ya soon, little filly. Pa loves you. Don't grow up too fast, y'hear?"

He turned around and regarded Applejack, his blue eyes meeting her green. Behind him, Honeycrisp said goodbye to her mother-in-law and other children. With a gentle smile, the stallion took off his stetson hat, and placed it upon his daughter's head. "And you, sugarcube. I trust you to help your brother keep the trees healthy and the bits flowin'. Ain't nobody got a greener touch than you, Applejack."

She beamed. "I promise to take care of the farm and the family, Pa. It's all in good hooves!"

He kissed her brow and stepped back to allow Honeycrisp to hug her daughter. "I know it is."

She couldn't have known how long she would be held to that promise. For all Applejack knew, it could extend into infinity the way her parents seemed to find more reasons to stay on the road, traveling ever further in their pursuit of new business and farming knowledge. So much time had gone by. The last letter she had received had been a year ago. In just that amount of time, Applebloom had earned her cutie mark. What other things would her parents miss out on? What if Granny Smith passed on? What if Big Mac had foals of his own? Applejack had no way of reaching her parents to send the news. No way of finding them, either.

The question of whether they truly loved their family above all else was an unwelcome thought, but AJ found herself unable to resist it as she glared at the setting sun, its dying light making her green eyes smolder.

"Applejack?" Granny Smith's voice called out to the mare from further down the hill.

Applejack turned, her eyes fluttering as she took in her granny making the arduous trip to join her granddaughter under the apple tree. The farm mare jumped to her hooves and trotted to her elder, her brow creasing with concern. "Granny, what do you think you're doing trottin' all the way out here with them creaky hips o' yours? I thought you were helping Applebloom with supper!"

"I was," Granny shot back with an affronted glare as she shook of AJ's attempt at walking her up the slope. "But then I saw you sittin' up here all on your lonesome and figgered somethin' must be wrong! Now I know I figgered right."

Applejack's ears pinned flat against her head. "Ah'm fine, Granny."

A graceless snort. "The hay you are."

Now the younger mare glowered. "Ah just wanted to think on my own for a while. Tain't nothing to raise the alarm about!"

Granny sighed, the lines of her aged eyes softening as she sat on the grass. "I saw the look on yer face when the mail was brought in. Today makes it a year, don't it?"

Applejack looked away without saying anything.

Granny Smith placed a hoof on her granddaughter's back. "Applejack, if there's one thing I learnt about your father early on, it was that he was a rollin' stone. It's how he met yer mother. It's how our family's apples have become a staple of Equestria."

"So that makes it okay that he and Ma miss so much?" Applejack retorted heatedly. "I'm grateful for the work they do, but is it really necessary for my parents to leave us behind for so long? I thought Apples were s'posed to plant roots, not blow in the wind!"

The elderly mare's lips puckered. "Ah wonder," she said slowly. "What really has ya so riled up, granddaughter. You mad a'cuz you feel your folks haven't been here, or a'cuz you're afraid you ain't enough to fill their horseshoes?"

Applejack scowled. "You know I don't shy from work, and I'd do anythin' for our family!"

"I know that. But yer just one mare, Applejack. Big Macintosh is gettin' to that age where he's gonna be settlin' down soon. He'd still be here to help on the farm, but that leaves ya to raise Applebloom on your own once I pass on. We both know that's a'gonna be soon."

Her granddaughter winced. "Aw, Granny, don't talk about that..."

"Hush. You know it's true." Granny rubbed AJ's back, a warm smile spreading across her muzzle. "But you oughta know somethin'. In the years since your Pa left, I have seen you learn and grow so much with your friends that ah'm sure the day he finally gets his hide back here, he'll be so gobsmacked you'll have to poke him with a pitchfork!" Despite herself, Applejack chuckled at the image. Granny Smith's eyes brightened and she squeezed the younger mare in a tight one-legged hug. "You done a wonderful job with Applebloom so far. She's gonna grow up to be a fine mare, you'll see. And this farm? Shoot, it runs smoother than a greased pig over ice! Don't doubt yerself, Applejack. Yer more than enough for this family. Why, yer the core o' the apple!"

Applejack's eyes misted. She smiled with a stiffened lip and hugged Granny Smith around the barrel. "Thanks, Granny. Ah love ya more than ah can put into words!"

"Thank goodness!" Granny chuckled over her shoulder. "If there's one thing ah count my lucky stars for ever'day, it's that ya didn't pick up your Pa's gift o' gab!"

The farm mare pulled back and winked. "Now I wouldn't go alleging my apparent lack of verbosity, Granny Smith! After all, how you think ah manage to sell our precious product in that competitive mart of commerce so well?"

Granny Smith pulled Applejack's stetson hat over her eyes. "Hush, you! I can still whop ya good, just like your Pa!" She gingerly stood to all hooves. "Now we better git back to the house a'fore your sister burns it down..."

Smiling happily, Applejack walked back home with her granny, her mind no longer preoccupied with the inevitable advance of time. Not its seconds, hours, or its years...

[thegeneralsnotebook]

Adventures in Deckbuilding Part 144: Applejack, Apple Vendor (Orange/White Aggro) [Harmony]

Applejack, Apple Vendor

Garbage? Nah, it’s Fertilizer

After such a long time, it was a little surprising to me that I had still only worked with Apple Vendor once before. In fact, she was the last old Mane to have only one entry in the Adventure series. And that original deck was from the first year, with only Marks in Time to work with! So I’ve got three* sets worth of updating to do on my take on this card, and things really have changed in that time.

(* In Core, it’s been three sets. In Harmony, it’s actually been three and a little bit thanks to Sands of Time, but more on that in a moment.)

So Apple Vendor stands in a very exclusive club when it comes to Manes in this game, in that she has text on her Start side that isn’t just a trigger or activated ability to turn her over. In the days of Canterlot Nights yore, I suspect that this was Enterplay’s first stab at trying out a Mane design that encouraged leaving them on their Start side for at least a little while over boosting them right away. In Applejack’s case the text is actually pretty reasonable too, offering a clean 2 Power for 2 AT, but only in the Score Phase. For a moment, but just a moment, I considered trying to leave AJ on her Start side for most of the game, but playing without the Orange req and the reduced Home Limit proved to be too limiting.

So then we have to reckon with this Mane’s Boosted text, which to be frank is something of a legend in its own right. AJ has a reputation as being a combo-enabler, owing to her ability to use cheap (read: free) Friends to quickly sift through her deck in search of the all-important pieces. And that history was not lost on me. Indeed, I decided to try making use of it, but not necessarily in a fully combo-oriented way.

See, lately I’ve been trying to think my way through the new Paradox Pony decks that have been often showing up in Harmony play lately. Owing to her novel way of interacting with the game state, Twilight is impervious to most normal means of disruption, as her important cards are often hiding in her hand, and she doesn’t care at all about requirements so leaving her with just the Mane in play isn’t particularly effective. No Troublemaker can stand against her because of Old Money, and any buildup of Friends has to consider the possibility of getting visited by Captain Jack. But if we can attack Twilight’s hand and empty it out, then we really should be able to effectively cut off all of her threats. As it happens, there is such an interaction that’s just perfect for that, and the ability to sift through our deck to find Song Spike is a nice plus on our road to doing it.

For those unaware, the trick is to have Song Spike in play, and then two copies of Hearts Strong as Horses to empty out the opposing hand. And of course that combo is also very effective most other decks, and so can function well enough as a win condition. But it also wasn’t hard to bundle it in with a relatively solid Orange/White aggro deck, built to take advantage of the huge self-milling that Applejack is going to require us to undertake. A light sprinkle of some reanimation completes the arrangement, and we’re mostly ready to go.

Notably, Applejack also really likes Mistmane, since she’s one of the only Manes with a built in way to retire her. Since really, we don’t ever want her on the field after that effect has gone off, and the more cards we can dump into our discard pile the better. Indeed, these two colours are going to bottleneck not on discarding cards, but instead on getting cards out of the deck, since card draw is hard to find. So any vector that can take cards directly from deck to discard pile is actually super valuable.

By the way, in case you don’t want to go find a Song Spike but are still frustrated with Paradox Pony, Orange is still the answer. Desert Road is a brilliant counter to basically everything that deck tries to do, and Defenders Limestone Pie works great too. If the Twilight player built their deck right they should have ways to work around that, but it won’t be easy for them, not at all. Though that is about when they’ll probably play a Misfire on us out of spite. That’s just life, I guess.

Surely it would be nice and poetic for the series to now pivot to Twilight herself to reveal the natural counter, but alas, ‘tis not to be. (Sorry, Twilight.) Her friend, Dr. Hooves, Time Walker though, will not be getting an apology this week, since he is indeed the next Mane. Know that your time is coming soon, Twilight.