#youre right about the mlp heads actually . shape !

[donutz]

Bobby Bearhug x reader fluff alphabet[3/8]

—☆You are a smiling critter in this, if u want to know which one(but don't know what animal or insect to pick) you could start out as a sheep!

Affection(How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

— The definition of affection??

— Like Dogday but somehow A LOT more affectionate

— Instead of hugs every day(she still hugs you) she gives kisses everyday!

— For some reason she can actually change the shape of her mouth, she figured it out herself!

— Just so she can give kisses!

— Shows affection in every way possible, physically, gift giving, words of affirmation, acts of service, and quality time!

— Kisses, origami hearts, “I love you soooo much!!!”, opening the door for you, and watching ‘tv’ together

Best friend(How would they be as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

— Sometimes you think she doesn’t want to just be a best friend

— But she’s very loving, makes sense, she’s Bobby Bearhug!

— She’s always interacting with you! Secretly trying to make you love her more

— It would start with her coming up to you, asking your name, trying to know your favorite things, just wanting to be with you at the moment and introduce herself

Cuddles(Do they cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

— Cuddles everyday, just like kisses, she shows so much physical affection it could get overwhelming(depending on how you think of it)

— I swear every time she lays against you it makes that one mlp squeak sound

— Her cuddles are usually you two hugging, but they can be just resting her head on your shoulder

— Either right next to you while sleeping or in a different bed that's right next to yours

— Her being in a different bed(that's far away from you) is like a .00001% chance

— If that happens she’s reallyyyyy sad at the moment

— But if you give her a small smooch she’s suddenly Dogday in another body

Domestic(Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

— Loves resting somewhere, doesn’t really enjoy doing chores unless that’s just spreading love

— But, if she’s cooking and cleaning with you she doesn’t mind!

— She knows how to cook and clean but she sometimes acts like she forgets so you can ‘tutor’ her in it

— It’s a trick to get you to spend more time with her♡

— Good with cooking and cleaning, but doesn’t enjoy it one bit!

Ending(If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

— Wouldn’t.

— Would NOT.

— She’ll never get convinced so don’t even try

— “Would you rather die or break up with me—”

— “Die.”

— “...”

Fiance(How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

— She’d probably commit to the marriage first

— Would LOVE to get married.

— Idk if she’s a kid but in the little kid way, would want to get ‘married’ as soon as possible

— She’d make it so pretty, Craftycorn would make a dress for her and you’d get whatever you want to dress as

— Of course, it’s with little ring pops

— She would get so happy she'd lift you into the air

Gentle(How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

— Pretty gentle, she can get a little excited when it comes to relationship activities

— Especially in quality time, she tries her absolute best to calm down, but she just loves you too much!

— Physically, she can get a little rough, as in holding your hand too hard, but she will IMMEDIATELY apologize. 

— Other than that she’s very gentle!

— Emotionally, more gentle than the word gentle, especially when you’re spilling your feelings out to her

— Her voice will go all soft when talking to you, your own free therapist really

Hugs(Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

— Take a good look at her full name for me and tell me if she likes hugs.

— YESSS?!?!??

— SHE LOVES THEM 10000000⁹%

— Literally like Dogday.

— Her hugs have SOOOO much love to them

— Especially if you need a good ‘ole squeeze!

I love you(How fast do they say the L-word?)

— “Iloveyousomuchmysheepy!!”

— “(I love you so much my sheepy!!)”

Jealousy(How jealous do they get? What do they do when they're jealous?)

— Could get jealous, it’s not really rare

— It’s not often though

— It’s just when someone is hanging out with you for too long or when someone’s getting too close to you

— She just comes up from behind you and gives you a hug while the person(or toy) is interacting with you

— You get a little spooked sometimes, but you’re used to her acting like this, even when she’s not jealous

Kisses(What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

— Like that one person who you’re like, “OMGGG I’M OBSESSED!!!” that’s what the kisses feel like

— Just using the word love is an understatement

— She adores you, has fondness and tenderness for you, a warmth in her loving heart for you

— She can get a little crazy

＼(〇_ｏ)／

— She loves kissing you anywhere on your face

— When she wants to be a gentle lady she also loves giving you a kiss on the back of your hand

— Would love getting kisses anywhere from you

— Especially on her forehead, she goes crazy

— You just might see hearts in her eyes

Little ones(How are they around children?)

— Not having kids.

— But she loves the kiddos! Not when they’re angry but when they’re so cute!

— Like when they’re sleepy, laughing, having fun, she thinks they are sooooooo adorbs!!

— Kids literally go to her when they feel a bit lonely.

Morning(How are mornings spent with them?)

— She always wakes you up with a bunch of kisses

— 99% of the time you wake up giggling like a 1 year old

— “Good morning love! How was your sleep?”

— Then you HAVE to tell her how good(or bad) you slept

— After that she tells you how good she slept! There is not a bad sleeping experience for Bobby, unless she goes to bed without you right next to her or in her presence

Night(How are nights spent with them?)

— “Gooood night~! Don’t let the bed bugs bite!”

— Then she gives you a kiss on the space in between your eyebrows

— You always go to bed with at least some bit of love from Bobby

Open(When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

— She doesn’t really like opening up

— She gets really emotional and starts crying, then she can’t even finish what she was originally saying

— She will open up but sometimes it’s spitting it all out, or just going step by step

— You two try working on her not crying so much

— It’s okay to cry! But there are times when you don’t need to cry, don’t waste your tears!

— Try thinking about the good outcomes instead of the negative ones ^_^

Patience(How easily angered are they?)

— Can get a little angry if you deny her touch for more than 3 days

— She’ll say, “Why haven’t you wanted to receive my affection… :(” It’s not like she’ll yell at you, never!

— She just wants to know why

— Do you not love her anymore? :(

Quizzes(How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

— Doesn’t remember EVERYTHING about you, but still remembers some stuff!!

— Easily forgets stuff, but remembers the important things

— “... Wait.. What’s your favorite color again?”

— Then you say your favorite color, “Oh yeah! Thanks! I keep on forgetting…”

— “It’s alright Bobby..”

Remember(What is their favorite moment in the relationship?)

— When you accepted her love for you

Security(How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

— Can be protective, especially when it’s a fight or something

— Will be very protective when it comes to others loving you, romantically

— She can get a little spooky＼(º □ º l|l)/

— She’d try to scare the person or toy away

— If she was a yandere she’d 100% threaten them

Try(How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

— Puts all effort into it, especially dates

— You'll be eating while she lovingly stares at you, she knows you're so beautiful

— She also figured out that she can strengthen her scent, so she did that and for the rest of the date it smelt like roses

— Would give you the best gift ever on each other's anniversary

— Honestly wouldn't mind you not getting her anything, she'd be a little sad, but it's okay.

— “It's our anniversary and.. I wanted to give you something..” She was standing all shy while moving one of her legs, being pretty nervous

— When you said you loved it(you better) she squealed happily and gave you the biggest hug

— Loves giving and receiving gifts, but prefers receiving

— Would only put in a bunch of effort if you did the tasks with her

Ugly(What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

— I guess, depending on your thoughts, it could be when it comes to her doing chores and tasks that don't include just spreading love

— Again depending on you, it could be annoying when she's trying to be with you every second

— It's your opinion!! But also when she can get really obsessed with you

Vanity(How concerned are they with their looks?)

— I know she isn't insecure, but sometimes she can get self conscious from how she acts around you

— Then she starts to overthink.

Whole(Would they feel incomplete without you?)

— YES.

Xtra(A random headcanon for them.)

— She can get confused on why there isn't at least one person other than her treating you like a god

Yuck(What are some things they wouldn't like, either in general or in a partner?)

— Maybe if you are just plain negative

— That's all really

Zzz(What is a sleep habit of theirs?) 

— Sleeping somewhere that's near you

— She has very small and silent snores but they're there

— You actually find it quite adorable!

[stormclawponyrises]

>"Draw your character(s) attempt at drawing themselves."

None of my characters have fingers or thumbs, being hooved animals. So I guess... I have to draw with my mouth.

Pictured are Miltei on the left, Cade on the bottom middle and Ash on the bottom right.

Each were drawn with my mouth, and while I had next to no control I tried to make them each a bit different. It actually got a bit easier each time as I learned to guide the pen with my tongue a bit, but still extraordinarily difficult. Most of the difficulty came from the pen changing position from bumping and friction, which caused the lines to keep breaking, but holding it still made my jaw hurt. In the top middle I drew Ash with my left hand (I'm right-handed) to get a comparison.

The art is traditional as I don't have a tablet or stylus and right now I don't think putting an entire computer mouse in my mouth will work very well..

forgive the ink stain, drool

"I love the dedication here hehe do you have any in-universe "lore" for how everyone normally draws or writes?"

It depends ? Nothing specific to the characters themselves, except that Ash and Cade would probably take drawing themselves more seriously than Miltei would. In terms of the species themselves considering their physical structure, I imagine hoofpainting and mouthdrawing/writing would be easier for a culture where it's the norm. But also consider that the shape of a tool dictates its usage- art tools in Ash's culture are likely designed to be used without fingers and thus would be easier to use for them than us, especially with practice.

Modern writing would be easier with the invention of directional pads and the printing press (an idea that came about from an episode of MLP where a character is seen using a typewriter with only 2 keys- a fan came up with the concept of a directional keypad system which would be easy to use with hooves, and I quite like the idea). More advanced technology like what's used on Cade's ship is more like a touchpad (think iPad style, but integrated into other tech, like the ship console) which can form a link with the universal translator implanted into your head, causing your thoughts to be translated directly into the system in the same way they would through speech.

[ghostpajamas]

I LUV HOW YOU DRAW THE RAT PERSON.... FULL OF SHAPES !! kinda reminds me of like how ppl draw mlp heads and i love it sm,,, like round . transgednerism. yeah thats the word im looking for definitely thumbsup

THANK YOU SASHHH i do Not understand how to draw . an anthro rat head like CONCEPTUALLY, i get that they are more cone-like than a flat human face but Angles ... where the mouth go ... so i give in to the moomin-ification of the rat. works out anyway since the head is supposed to be a mask, makes my job easier

I KEEP MEANING TO MAKE A "doctort4t lol" IMAGE bc my friends keep misreading it as thattt

[0poole]

I LOVE No Straight Roads

Honestly it’s hard to keep me away from a game with great visuals and even greater character design. I knew from the INSTANT I saw these characters that I was going to love it. I just finished it because it’s (unfortunately) pretty short, and even though I cheesed the final boss through it’s very lenient death mechanics (Instant respawn at the cost of a good rank) I actually appreciated that it wasn’t a pure cake walk. I’ve yet to rematch all of the bosses, but since I had genuine trouble with the later ones I’ll hold off on that.

But who cares about gameplay, am I right? I sure as hell don’t. I would’ve bought the game no matter what the hell it was. I wanted the characters (and the music, although I realized that second) and that was it. 

First of all, I love any world that is super fantastical but cheesy in its concept, ala a city powered by music, and battles between artists using music. Ideas like this only spawn from a mind that wants to create a fun atmosphere, if nothing else, and it was sure as hell fun. I genuinely love when someone goes so far into a crazy idea and doesn’t waste your time explaining it with real world logic. Wanna know how a city can be powered by music? Shut up and look at the cute virtual mermaid. Lord knows I did. Every once in a while, it does you good to just let the player/reader/viewer just revel in the idea without having to go out of your way to make things seem realistic. It’s not about “turning your brain off” or whatever, it’s picking your battles.

Also, I can seriously love a world with great background characters to it. Any game with the right situation to insert the random nobodies you find onto the streets into the art in the credits really played into the greatness of the world’s less important characters, and that’s always a good thing. It’s technically world building. But, since I always love to pick favorites, I’d have to say my favorite background character is easily Mia, the NSR infodesk assistant. It’s funny, because you can literally search “nsr characters” into Google and she’s the third image result. I love how jumpy she is when you first interact with her, since NSR probably spread the word about B2J suggesting they’re rock thugs who’d beat up anyone, so for all she knows she could die right then and there with a guitar lodged in her skull. She’s probably just some intern trying to pay for college. She don’t want trouble.

Also, I just realized that 90% of the characters in this game have the same body structure that I always love, that being having arms/legs that sort of fan out in width into relatively large hands/feet. It’s a kind of limb structure I fall into so much because it just really hits me right for some reason. I really can’t explain why.

Anyways, I gotta talk about the big boys individually:

Mayday and Zuke are an amazing duo. I’m always a sucker for a cute and crazy girl, but honestly Zuke hit so many of the right notes too. I will say it’s weird to pair the martian Zuke with the humanly-skinned Mayday, but honestly it doesn’t even matter because he looks so cool on his own. I love his weird blocky blue dreadlocks, and his weirdly shaped shirt which bares his chest in the weirdest way... And, oh my god, Mayday’s weird Spongebob background flower eyes? It’s little tidbits like that that really make me jealous. How could I have ever thought of that? It looks so perfect, and I don’t know why. And her little booty jig she does in her idle animation? Adorable. I played as her as much as was reasonable not only because I’m a filthy button masher with little strategy but also because she’s so damn cute. I can also appreciate how she has a tough-as-nails persona while still keeping a semi-girly attitude, like with her falling for 1010 and Sayu. Characters are so much better when they’re a perfect blend of characteristics, instead of being all one-note, like how Zuke is the quiet one but gets heated against DK West, and all. 

Honestly the voice acting for every character is great, but I love when Mayday’s VA’s accent shows through. It’s a perfect twang to accent (consider this the only acknowledgement of a pun in this post) her snarkiness. 

DJ Subatomic Supernova was going to be an easy favorite since he’s all space-themed. Also, I don’t know why I always end up liking the egotistic characters. Not in the sense that I like their egotistic-ness, but in the sense that I like everything else about them and they just so happen to also be egotistic. The same applied with Empoleon (maybe like my 2nd favorite Pokemon) and Rarity from MLP, probably among others. Either way, I’ll never not love space themes. Not to mention he’s got a funky disco theme, and I’m slowly starting to realize that I am in extreme love with techno-funk styles of music. The instant I heard his music he cemented his place into my playlists. 

As for design, I still have no idea what the fuck he is. Clearly AI is at human levels in this world, but if he’s a robot why does he still have hairy legs? But, if he’s a human, is that weird orb his head? Is it just some sort of puppet which he controls from inside his giant jacket? I know I dissed explaining things realistically but I actually want to know with this guy. Even the wiki doesn’t say. Either way, he’s clearly the logical extreme of “being at the center of your own universe.” Even his jacket depicts a solar system, with his hood being the sun. Didn’t see that until I tried to draw him. I really wish this guy wasn’t so tied to his DJ stand so I could reasonably draw him without it. I don’t want to draw his hairy ass legs. It is a great touch for his design though (although I prefer his beta look with pants and long boots, another design trait I tend to gravitate to) since DJs could reasonably not wear pants, since they’re always behind a table.

Sayu is my favorite. It’s so plainly obvious. It’s weird to say that sometimes, because some characters like Sayu are so clearly engineered to be as adorable as possible, to the point where they’re basically a parody of whatever they’re supposed to be emulating, but then they do that so well that they are still likable for what they’re trying to parody. Also, even though I’ve never looked into any vocaloid superstars myself, the fact that they exist and are loved in real life is absolutely perfect to be used as a character design in a world like this. It’s so weird conceptually, but we all know it’s normal and realistic. But yeah, she’s a giga-cutie whom I’ve already drawn and I’ve listened to her theme on loop on many different occasions. Favorite character, favorite track, favorite weapon of choice (What did I say about Empoleon?), which, and I wouldn’t have noticed this myself, looks like the USB symbol you see above USB ports on computers. How crazy perfect is that?

Even apart from my unbridled love for cute monster robot(?) girls, her boss fight is probably the 2nd greatest of them all, at least conceptually. She’s just a hologram, so you can’t touch her, but you CAN disconnect the artists which control her in order to defeat her. It’s the kind of concept for a boss fight that could only work for this type of character. I’m a sucker for the cute girl that provides her voice, but I love how the animator (video editor? the yellow one) actually attacks you with a mouse and lowers the brightness of the setting once he appears. Also, the mocap guy being the deeply-voiced type but still providing the adorable movements of her body. It’s such a great combo of characters, and their little extra art in the credits makes me like them even more. I just wish we could interact with them individually.

DK West was probably one of the most interesting characters visually, especially since I knew of every other NSR member long before the game came out, but I only just heard of him closer to the release. I wasn’t sure where he was placed, but I definitely assumed his gig was the weird shadow demon we saw in the trailers. When I finally saw him in game, I was shocked to hear him speak an entirely different language most of the time, which was really cool. Also, finding out he was tied to Zuke and wasn’t strictly an NSR artist really made him more interesting. You know, if his fucking shadow clone magic didn’t make him crazy cool enough. Even though I suck at his game and am not especially fond of his raps, the visual of him rapping with this giant monster behind him and dozens of weird shadow wingmen by his side hyping him up was probably one of the coolest in the entire game. The dark way they were hyping him up too gave such a bizarre atmosphere, especially since it parallels his seemingly chill and smiley demeanor. 

I definitely hope they’ll introduce new bosses as DLC in the future, and make them sort of in the same vein as DK West, where they aren’t the biggest artists ever, but they want to pick a fight with B2J. I’d kill for any extra content this game can provide.

Yinu is obviously special since she was the subject of the demo they put out for the game. Even though I knew all her bells and whistles, she and her mom still beat me a few times in the full game. Considering she’s semi-tied to story-ish spoilers I kinda want to go more into her in a separate section. It is worth considering playing the game first since it’s not hard (with the easy going deaths) and it’s short length.

1010 seriously grew on me as I learned more about them and interacted with them. I got their shtick when I first looked at them, but after seeing that animation of them touring the city on Youtube I was kinda falling for them. Then, I learned that they’re apparently repurposed navy war robots? I mean, maybe not them specifically, but it seems to heavily point in that direction, with the warship cars and “attention!”s and all. It took me a bit to get into their music too, but once I actually fought them and put their actions to the music I fell in love with it. I swear, Neon J’s weird dancing can has some of the smoothest moves in all of gaming. I don’t know whether they mocapped out those movements or got one of the greatest animators ever, but it looks so impossibly clean his part of the song gets me like 30x more hype than it would normally. 

Also, their little art piece of them looking at fan mail in the credits is probably one of the most adorable things ever. Even if they’re just Neon J’s puppets, that piece of art really makes it seem like they love every one of their fans. I’m not gonna lie, I might swoon a bit too if they picked me out and gave me some special attention.

Oh yeah, and the fact that Mayday was super sad in her showstopper against them was adorable and hilarious at the same time. The little tweaks they made to the showstopper for each fight were great.

Eve just has to be Lady Gaga, right? Like, an even crazier Lady Gaga. DJSS is Daft Punk (or any artist with a helmet persona, you know what I’m talking about), Sayu is Hatsune Miku, DK West is Kanye West, Yinu is a generic child protege, 1010 is a KPop boyband (just pick one) and Eve is Lady Gaga. That’s just how things are. But, again, this is the kind of boss fight that only this type of character could provide. It’s not just surreal imagery, it’s ARTISTIC surreal imagery. The fight is so mesmerizing in every way, especially by how it starts off so slow and calm and progresses to insanity, as well as the increased emotional investment in the fight making you feel so much more into it than just “That’s the boy band. Let’s fight.” Not only does it get you more invested, but it makes her artistic persona go deeper than just “she looks weird.” She is genuinely conflicted about her relationship with Zuke, and naturally that leads her to literally split him and Mayday apart. That mechanic specifically was the coolest, although I do wish they made it more obvious when you needed to switch over to a different side. I was getting pulverized by her fight too, since there were so many things to pay attention to. Her fight was definitely the best one. 

Tatiana and Spoilers:

Let’s be real with ourselves, the twist was so obvious. I do also think, though, that obvious twists aren’t bad if they’re just good reveals. At some point, a person just has experienced so many stories that “only pretty good” twists are easy to spot. It doesn’t mean that the twists are bad, it just means you yourself experienced.

I feel like her transition from rock to EDM was pretty understandable, even as a non-musician. She was so caught up in what she assumed was popular that it basically consumed her. It’s easy as an artist to want to forgo what you truly want to make in favor of what makes you popular, and clearly since her transition to EDM made her the CEO of the biggest company in the city (world?) that probably made her think she truly needed to change her outlook. Then, when she saw B2J try to bring it back, she sort of coined them as being as misguided as she was and knocked them down a peg. Plus, they were kinda being jerks about it.

It’s kinda like the Trolls sequel, where everyone pegs rock music fanatics as being too stuck up in their own heads to appreciate other types of music, which honestly seems more like the case than the alternative. When I first heard of the story of the game, I was seriously hoping they did put an asterisk on B2J’s ambitions because they were a bit sketchy from the start. 

That’s kinda where I want to talk about Yinu, because she was the true turning point in what they were doing. She’s literally 9 and yet she’s getting dragged into all this BS. When she said “I hate you all” at the end of her fight, and played a somber tune on her broken piano after the fight destroyed it, you kinda got a kick in the face to realize you’re kinda being an asshole to some of them. Sure, they fight back, but they wouldn’t fight in the first place if they didn’t have to. They are just people who play music under a joint name that B2J just so happened to get in hot water with. 

Then, of course, there’s Kliff, who also reeked of surprise villain, and who’s basically the embodiment of the bad side of B2J, where he just wanted to destroy for his own sake and not for the actual greater good. Once B2J realized their mistake, they backed off, but Kliff was so hard pressed to do what he planned on in the first place he wouldn’t stop. I kinda wish he got a bigger fight to his own since he’s clearly a big enough tech genius to divert a whole satellite into one specific building. Maybe the Elliecopter chase bit was his thing, but I do kind of wish he was there to fight against them too.

Even though Tatiana did kind of reform a bit quick, It’s still not too crazy to assume she could see that B2J was just misguided and the fact that they worked to revert their wrongdoings for her sake would make a pretty strong impressions. They clearly can hold their own, so it’s not like she wouldn’t want them to join NSR too. 

Oh yeah, and her boss fight was clock/time themed. If there’s a theme under space that I love, it’s clocks/time. 

And If I am to be respected by the internet, I must provide a negative opinion to balance out my positive one. I will say that the character model physics (like Mayday’s braids, DK West’s vest thing, Neon J’s fluffy neck thing, etc) got kinda funky at times. Especially DK West’s vest, which was completely messed up for every scene he was in... Also, even though the voices are mostly great, some lines felt a bit off. Just a bit. That good enough? Good.

But yeah anyway that’s another favorite game to add to the pile. Eventually I’m gonna have to compile a true list of my all-time favorite games/movies because I do kind of want to have a solid idea of what my all-time favorites are.

[shinxeysartgallery]

You should do one of those art reflection things with your ocs. You know like taking the first drawing you ever did of them and comparing it to their most recent art piece to see how much you’ve improved. I’d love to see your art journey. ❤️

Oh boy, time to bring out the cringy art. LOL But I do like doing that every so often; usually don't end up posting the progress, but I do occasionally look at old art compared to new just to see how much better I've gotten over the years.

So time to pick a few OCs for this!

I suppose I shall begin with Cynthia, since she's my main OC.

Image on the left is not actually the first drawing I made of her, but it is the oldest one I still have saved. It was done in 2013, according to image file properties. The one on the right, while not the most recent drawing she's been in, is a singular frame from an animation I did of her just a few months ago. Design-wise, she's had a few changes. Her color palette has always been the same, I just did not have the correct shades of pencils at the time when I made the first one. The most jarring change is probably the head/wing shape. I had her originally and purposefully resemble a more anthro MLP-style because of her origins, but I later decided I didn't like that and changed it to be more Sonic-like (since she's, y'know, a Sonic OC). Slightly changed her hair/tail style, swapped the watch from her right arm to her left, and changed the belt buckle from black to yellow. Rest of her is still the same. lol She's had quite the glow-up. lol

Next is everyone's favorite wolf lady, Sabrina!

She hasn't had as much of a change as her bestie did, but still some notable ones. Left was done in 2015, and right was done early this year. I made her really fluffy, but then thought her face resembled Tails a little too much, so I removed the fluff from her face, but left the ear floof. The next change was simplifying her hair style a bit. And the colors on her shirt/skirt are now inverted, but that's mostly because I forgot which went where, but I like the way it is now more. The only other thing that changed with her was her gloves, in which the new ones were based on a pair you can unlock in Sonic Forces that I thought were cute. :)

Pinchy's another OC that I love a lot, so how about him, too?

He didn't get any changes outside of an updated art style, but I still think it's neat to see how much my style improved. Left was done in 2020 and right was done only a year later! He doesn't look nearly as squished or big-headed anymore. :)

And one more for good measure, I suppose? My girl, Cashmere.

Much like the funny scorpion man, she didn't get any design changes, just an updated art style, but she's another one in particular that I feel had quite the glow-up. Left was done in 2015, and right earlier this year.

I think the biggest glow-up with all of them is the anatomy. Holy crap was it bad before... Hands, too. I think a big part of the improvement was getting new, better digital art software. Before, all I had for digital art was Pokemon Art Academy, and while it's good, it's limited on what it can do. You can't resize the canvas and if you accidentally draw something too big, you can't just resize that; you have to start all over or deal with it. I think that's a huge part of why my PAA stuff looked so squished and why the heads looked so big. I use Krita for my digital art now and it's REALLY good; I saw immediate improvement upon my switch. And layers? REALLY great, especially for shading! PAA didn't have a layer system, so I think that really stunted any sort of art growth in that regard. Using more references for things like hands and posing seriously helped me out a lot in improving my anatomy and hands as well. I would usually just wing it and guess from memory, which is why it would usually look really bad. Seriously y'all, use references, it's not cheating.

I don't really have much else to say on the matter atm, but yeah, this was a neat deep dive into my old, cringy art. lmao It's really cool seeing just how much I've improved over the years.

[fanartfunart]

@broadwaytheanimatedseries​ said: Wait @fanartfunart YOU HAVE PONY OCS??? MAY I SEE THEM PLEASE (mentioned on my Sides as Ponies art)

Love how you enable me. I redrew them just for you.

[Image ID: 6 original characters in the style of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. From left to right- Day Tricker, a masculine orange pegasus with green eyes. He has a short black mane and long tail with yellow and green jaggedly striped through the middle. His cutie mark is the happy/sad theater mask. He is flying slightly above the others, looking towards them with a smile. Lotus, a masculine brown unicorn with a white diamond on his nose, a spot on his rear, and freckles, and silver hoofs framed with fluff. His eyes are purple, and he wears a purple scarf. His hair is short and white fading into black. He looks up at Day Tricker with a relatively neutral expression despite the blush on his cheek. His cutie mark is a purple lotus flower. OraVez, a white feminine alicorn (unicorn-pegasus) with a long dirty blond mane and tail, with white stripe in the center. She has golden eyes and is looking to the right with a contemplative expression. She is sitting front and center, one front hoof crossed over the other. Her cutie mark is a hourglass with flourishes on one side, mirrored top and bottom. Kiya, a feminine zebra with predominantly grey fur and dark gray stripes and belly. She has golden eyes, and wears a set of gold rings over the base of her tail. Her mane is braided up to the end of her neck, where it is long, falling over in a bob style. Her cutie mark is an african adinkra symbol Nokore, which is a pair of diamond shapes separated by two dots and surrounded by oval shapes. She is looking towards the right with a smile, one hoof gesturing. Star Chaser, a feminine blue pegasus with purple wings and underbelly and silver hooves. She has pink eyes, and a purple mane and tail with pink stripes. Her mane is short on the neck, and tied into a long ponytail at the start of the back of her head. Her tail is tied into a braid. Her cutie mark is a pink diamond with white wings. She is flying above the 6th pony, Blue Leaf, and looking towards the rest of the group with a smile. Blue Leaf, a purple earth pony with blue eyes. She has a long dark blue mane and tail with a light blue stripe. She is laying on the ground looking up towards Kiya and Star Chaser, one hoof curled under her, framing a blue flower. Her cutie mark is a red heart-shaped leaf with a blue swirl-like shape inside. The background is a simple flat colored grassy scene with mountains in the background. End ID]

As stated in the Image ID, their names are Day Tricker (a play on Day Tripper), Lotus, OraVez (basically Time Time in two different languages), Kiya, Star Chaser, and Blue Leaf.

I shall ramble about who exactly they all are/their story in the read more now. :P

So to start off, I will say I created these guys like... 2014, so their story very much reflects that lol.

OraVez is the older sister of Celestia and Luna. We first see her as a filly (her super old design was literally an inverse of the current one lol).

[Image ID: OraVez as a filly, traced over one of the show’s Cutie Mark Crusaders template art. However, she has light gold fur and a white mane and tail with a light gold stripe and blue eyes. End ID]

She ran away from home (in the old castle), wrapped in a cloak to hide her wings, and finds herself in the modern-day ponyville, having time-traveled there without realizing it. Ponyville is entirely new to her, and she quite literally crashes into the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They assume she’s the normal kind of new to town, and take it upon themselves to show her around town. Eventually they find out she’s an alicorn when she looses her cloak (I think I had her use it to save one of them from something.) BUT instead of ya know, focusing on the fact that she’s an alicorn and probably royalty, they notice she has no cutie mark, and think “OH that’s why she had that cloak on, she was embarrassed she didn’t have a cutie mark yet!” She accepts this idea readily.

They eventually drag her into Finding Cutie Mark montage, which includes visiting the Mane 6 to help them find things for her to try out (while she hides her wings from them all once again). Last they go to Twilight, who, with her obsession with lore, recognizes OraVez (mostly by name). Twilight is obviously is excited and confused, and goes on a rant about how OraVez was the missing princess from so many hundreds of years ago, and that no one knew what had happened to her. Twilight and the CMC prompt her for explanation, to which she explains he didn’t ever want the responsibility of being a Princess and eventual ruler of Equestria, and so she ran away. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell then ask “what about your sisters?” and OraVez realizes she’d be sad without them, and resolves to go home. After this, they all try to figure out ways to reactivate whatever magic made her come forward in time. Eventually, they try casting a spell Twilight refined while diving in the air, which Rainbow Dash helps coach. OraVez does a Sonic Rainboom as she time travels back to her original time, and Rainbow and Twilight realize that’s probably where the legend of the Sonic Rainboom came from, which makes Rainbow very happy that she’s probably the actual inventor of the maneuver. OraVez, back in her time, finds she now has her cutie mark.

The CMC wonder if she went back in time then why doesn’t she exist now, while lamenting the loss of their new friend. Although she occasionally returns, now getting the hang of time travel.

OraVez, as an teenager/adult fought a evil being (which I remember less) and eventually somewhere in there, like Discord, was turned to stone as a way to insure she can protect the fabric of time. (this would be where it becomes very Not current mlp timeline, because.... there’d already be a protector keeping the timeline in check with her there lol)

Eventually she is released, and has to adjust to life in the current time. Finding she doesn’t have to help Celestia and Luna rule Equestria, and technically no longer the oldest as she’s spent years in stasis, she’s a little lost for what to do with herself. Twilight suggests she finds some friends. However, in the background, the evil she’s been holding back awakens as well.

She happens upon Blue Leaf and Lotus, co-owners of a flower shop. They have been fighting about something that OraVez realizes she can fix with her time-magic (reverting something back to the way it was) and they become friends. The rest of the group had known each other before, but either never got to actually becoming friends, or something had fractured their relationship.

Star Chaser is a night flier weather pony and occasional delivery pony, Day Tricker is a comedian and theater pony, and I don’t remember what Kiya did. Star Chaser and Lotus used to be friends but their relationship fractured for reasons I forgot. Lotus has a crush on Day Tricker, but never Really talked to him, and pretends to be aloof. Random fact, Day Tricker has a younger sister named Spindrift (a turquoise unicorn who I swear I had art of but can’t seem to find), who is relevant somehow, but I also forgot that. Kiya is relatively new to town, and keeps coming to Blue Leaf and Lotus’s shop, but hasn’t really talked to either of them outside of buying more plants than she probably needs.

They reflect the Elements of Harmony, Day Tricker- Laughter, Blue Leaf- Loyalty, Kiya- Honesty, Star Chaser- Kindness, Lotus- Generosity. Moreso as a symbol of them having the potential to be a similar friend group to the mane 6 than anything. (although I think I have them eventually take up the mantle at some point, temporarily) They and OraVez learn to be friends, and they help her with her time-keeping duty.

-

I also have these two, Imperis (one in armor) and Neit (one laughing) (again, before later episodes)

[Image ID: Two MLP style changelings, grey with blue wings. One has blue armor on, walking towards the other with a glare, and the other is laughing, flying in the air. End ID]

[Image ID: A feminine orange unicorn with a short blue mane and a grey masculine pegasus with a short black mane with a white stripe. The unicorn’s cutie mark is a pair of fencing swords crossed over each other. She has one grey eye and one gold eye, and is glaring at the pegasus. The pegasus is smiling, flying on his side next to her, eyes closed. End ID]

Imperis is a scout for Queen Chrysalis who takes the form of the unicorn, a famous fencer who is touring Equestria. Neit chose to ‘mix and match’ his appearance, and choose a cat-in-the-box cutie mark. The pair of them were supposed to find a good place to invade, but, Neit’s inability to focus and sit still for five seconds and Imperis’s uptight nature works against them. Eventually, they learn to become friends, and learn basically the same lesson that the changelings learn in later episodes, that love as friendship is something they can make themselves.

...and yea, that’s basically all my mlp ocs.

[omniheim]

GET TO KNOW THE BLOGGER.

can be used for RP  &&  non-RP blogs to get to know a bit about the person behind the screen  !

1. FIRST NAME  :  ashe  .

2. STRANGE FACT ABOUT YOURSELF  :  i  was  born  with  a  weird  disability  called  septo  -  optic  dysplasia  !    i’m  visually  impaired  with  low  vision  &  no  peripheral  sight  as  well  as  no  sense  of  smell  .

3. TOP THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU FIND ATTRACTIVE ON A PERSON  :  bc  of  my  bad  vision  i  don’t  rly  pay  much  attention  to  physical  attributes  ,    but  if  i  had  to  choose  :    hairstyle  /  colour  ,    height  ,    and  ...    idk  what  else  SDFGSYUDF  ,    face  shape  maybe  ?

4. A FOOD YOU COULD EAT FOREVER AND NOT GET BORED OF  :  teriyaki  chicken  donburi  !

5. A FOOD YOU HATE  :  mushrooms  ,    which  sucks  bc  i  used  to  like  em  but  my  ma  gave  me  buttered  mushrooms  once  and  just  the  thought  makes  me  gag  SDYFUGSUYDF  .

6. GUILTY PLEASURE  :  i  guess  some  franchises  that’re  looked  down  upon  ?    like  esp  mlp  ,    i  feel  like  everyone  will  assume  i’m  a  creep  for  watching  it  bc  i’m  a  guy  so  i  don’t  like  to  mention  it  much  but  i  just  think  it’s  cute  and  the  art  style  is  amazing  .

7. WHAT DO YOU SLEEP IN  :  ok  so  i  shit  u  not  i  have  a  sleeping  bag  on  top  of  my  bed  .    i  have  a  single  size  bed  and  i  move  around  so  much  in  my  sleep  that  the  sheets  always  ended  up  on  the  floor  so  eventually  i  just  went  fuck  it  and  used  a  sleeping  bag  .    i  plan  on  stopping  when  i  get  a  bigger  sized  bed  bc  the  sheets  will  actually  fuckin  fit  .

8. SERIOUS RELATIONSHIPS OR FLINGS  :  i’d  like  to  say  both  but  i  don’t  think  i  have  the  heart  for  flings  ,    i  would  love  to  be  more  free  with  exploring  tho  bc  my  sexuality  is  still  a  big  question  mark  .

9. IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN THE PAST AND CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT YOUR LIFE  ,  WOULD YOU AND WHAT WOULD IT BE  :  to  stop  being  so  dependent  on  my  mother  due  to  my  lack  of  eyesight  ,    learning  independence  is  tough  after  being  overprotected  and  i  feel  like  i’m  behind  as  an  adult  as  a  whole  .

10. ARE YOU AN AFFECTIONATE PERSON  :  yes  !    but  i’m  also  very  bad  at  keeping  in  touch  LMAO  .

11. A MOVIE YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER AGAIN  :  final  fantasy  vii  advent  children  ,    dragon  ball  z  battle  of  gods  ,    disney’s  moana  .

12. FAVORITE BOOK  :  i  don’t  rly  read  but  i  wanna  pick  up  the  harry  potter  series  one  day  !

13. YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO KEEP ANY ANIMAL AS A PET, WHAT DO YOU CHOOSE  :  an  alpaca  bc  they’re  my  favourite  but  i  also  rly  want  a  dog  !

14. TOP FIVE FICTIONAL SHIPS   (  IF YOU ARE AN RP BLOG  ,  YOU CAN USE YOUR OWN SHIPS AS WELL  )  :  cloud  /  zack  is  my  favourite  ship  Ever  even  outside  of  this  blog  ,    but  to  stay  on  the  cloud  train  ... cloud  /  aerith  is  probably  my  second  biggest  ship love  the  idea  of  cloud  /  barret  being  a  very  very  slow  burn  ,    just  two  dads  holdin  hands i  will  admit  cloud  /  reno  also  sounds  fun  to  explore i’m  kh  trash  and  could  literally  ship  him  with  any  of  the  kh  main  groups  adults  if  u  allowed  me  to i  feel  like  this  is  an  extremely  unpopular  opinion  but  i  like  exploring  ideas  of  a  toxic  cloud  /  sephiroth  ship  bc  rly  how  can  i  say  no  to  pure  unfiltered  Pain  with  the  manipulation  and  the    ‘  good  boy  ’    calling  and  the  whole    ‘  on  your  knees  ,    i  want  you  to  beg  for  forgiveness  ’    line  was  Too  Much  Fuel  to  the  problematic  fire  .

15. PIE OR CAKE  :  cake  but  i’m  picky  .

16. FAVORITE SCENT  :  can’t  smell  !    but  i  think  i  would  enjoy  citrus  .

17. CELEBRITY CRUSH  :  um  cloud  strife  ?    that  counts  right  ?

18. IF YOU COULD TRAVEL ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD YOU GO  :  japan  or  america  .

19. INTROVERT OR EXTROVERT  :  introvert  due  to  my  own  anxiety  but  i  feel  like  i’m  an  extrovert  at  heart  .

20. DO YOU SCARE EASILY  :  ooohh  yeah  .

21. IPHONE OR ANDROID  :  both  for  different  reasons  .

22. DO YOU PLAY ANY VIDEO GAMES  :  what  the  fuck  is  a  video  game    (  yes  .    yes  i  do  .    the  wait  for  animal  crossing  and  7r  is  killing  me  slowly  )

23. DREAM JOB  :  working  for  nintendo  or  square  enix  as  a  character  designer  or  writer  !

24. WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH A MILLION DOLLARS  :  help  my  parents  move  into  homes  of  their  own  then  move  country  and  get  myself  comfortable  ,    likely  blow  a  shit  ton  on  games  and  merch  bc  i’m  terrible  with  money  ,    try  to  set  up  an  online  merch  store  since  i  could  afford  packing  and  shipping  .

25. FICTIONAL CHARACTER YOU HATE  :  hate  is  a  strong  word  ,    there’s  probably  someone  but  idk  who  off  the  top  of  my  head  .    as  far  as  ffvii  goes  hojo  can  eat  a  dick  .

26. FANDOM THAT YOU WERE ONCE A PART OF BUT AREN’T ANY LONGER  :  outlast  !    i  miss  it  sometimes  everyone  there  was  amazing  ,    one  day  i  might  rp  waylon  again  .    one  day  .

tagged by  :  @ofnibelheim​  &  @stormdive​  !

tagging  :  @giftedlegacy  /  @hivemined  /  @hercbled  /  @lunaendowment​

[travelwiththefallons]

Prelude to Machu Picchu

It’s been 129 days since we’ve returned home from Peru. We’ve both stopped and started this post several times but have never felt like we had all the right words to describe our experience. Describing what we’ve seen has proven a difficult task, or at least one that is beyond our paltry arsenal of adjectives. The issue lies in the fact that if you haven’t seen something like the mountains of Peru up close, you really don’t have a point of reference. Simply put: just go. Please read what we have to say, but at the end of the day, you won’t get even a fraction of a percent of the experience from us, pictures, YouTube or any other social media. For something as grand, epic, beautiful, moving and humbling as the Peruvian mountains and Machu Picchu, there is simply no substitute except to see it in person. Furthermore, if your age and body can accommodate it, we highly recommend you hiking it like we did.

Several years ago I discovered the company Mountain Lodges of Peru, and I began following them on Instagram and frothing at the mouth to get on a plane and join them on a trek. In fact, Machu Picchu has been a lifelong dream of mine but I was never sure how to actually do it. So, when I discovered MLP and saw that they curated magical trips throughout the Andes that lead up to the big reveal of Machu Picchu. After we spent a few days in Cusco trying to acclimate to the altitude we started our Sacred Valley and Lares Adventure. 

Our morning starts bright and early, and we must be outside of our hotel at 7:50 to pick the rest of our group up before we start our adventure. We have a quick breakfast, drop off one of our pieces of luggage with the front desk (MLP organized for them to hold our large, non-hiking luggage until we return) and we are off! The streets of Cusco are very small, overly packed, but our van driver, Walter, handles it expertly! We pick up our 4 other friends and start heading towards the mountains. Our tour guide, Raul, told us the night before that we have about an hour drive to our first destination. About 30 minutes into our drive, we start to get a hint of the vastness of the Andes. Not only that, but we quickly realize that these aren’t American roads. The roads are nothing but switchbacks and we are lucky if they are even paved. Our large van/ small bus is plush, but it’s still a bit of a rough ride in places. However, the scenery more than makes up for the bit of discomfort we experience on the ride.

We drive through a few towns and even stop at a local bodega to pick up some snacks, which mostly consist of dried fruits. We continue our drive through stunning mountains, passing many homes and even a few sheep and cows. Eventually, we find ourselves about halfway up a mountain, where we will start our hike! We grab our day packs, get our hiking sticks ready and meet Griselda and her two donkeys. Griselda is a local Andean woman, who has brought two of her donkeys to help carry water and act as 9-1-1. Essentially, should someone find themselves unable to make the hike or need help carrying their bag, the donkeys can help. Griselda is nothing less than incredible. She has already ascended the mountain we are going to hike over, while walking in sandals, while spinning Alpaca hair into strands of wool that will then be turned into hats, ponchos, scarfs, or any number of textiles. Spoiler alert: unlike the rest of us, at no point during the day will she break a sweat or even start to breathe heavily.

While Jimmy and I are both in decent shape, nothing can really prepare you for the altitude. Despite trying to take in massive amounts of air, your lungs just struggle to keep up with what you need. Raul is gracious and gives us a few breaks every 7-10 minutes to show us the various plants and crops that are being cultivated and farmed along our path. Eventually, we reach the summit and the views are out of this world. Neither pictures nor my words will do the view justice.

After we spent several minutes admiring the view, we began our descent where we were promised a traditional Andean lunch made by Griselda’s family and a demonstration on their traditional potato farming techniques. We also had the opportunity to purchase some of the items they make from the wool that they spin and sheer from their llamas. All of the textiles were stunning and expertly crafted. 

Post lunch, we hop back in the van and are taken to our lodge for the night. On our way to the lodge, we find out that all of the lodges that we will go to (and are owned by MLP) are run by the locals. More than that, a large portion of the revenues made by each of the lodges is given back to the community for a project of their choice. One of the remote lodges we go to further into the trip, used the revenues to create clean drinking water for all of the homes and another to create a hydro-electric facility to power an entire community. They were also in the process of saving funds to build a small hospital/clinic with funds to pay for both a nurse and a doctor. 

I digress, after a hearty dinner and some stretching (apparently stretching is very important for post 30 year olds) we head to bed for another early morning. The next few days all start early in the morning with small hikes, breathtaking views and interactions with some of the locals and llamas, lots and lots of llamas.

One of my favorite days, our guide Raul asks us if we would all be willing to throw in about $10 USD to buy bread and fruit to give out to the local kids and coca leaves to give out to the women. Everyone was incredibly excited to do this and even more excited to visit a local market. The market was very similar to the one that we visited in Lima. The amount of bread and oranges that $60 USD buys is staggering. Essentially a massive trash bag (like the kind used to gather leaves in) of each. From there, we headed to a local school to hand out some of our goods. We arrived at a school for 3-5 year olds, who sang us a beautiful song and accepted their oranges and bread graciously. It was one of the most moving experiences of my life. The joy in their eyes for something so simple, was beyond humbling. Beyond that, the kids were incredible. We were told (and later saw ourselves) that they all walk themselves miles to and from the school on their own literally over mountains, plus they all help take care of their families livestock and check the progress of their crops.

Our second to last day was by far our favorite. Raul, Jimmy and I started the morning with a train ride to Machu Picchu where we got off at KM 104 to begin our trek. The others in our group went ahead as we were the only ones who signed up for this difficult hike. We started off by looking at some Incan ruins and learning about how Machu Picchu was created. The first ruins at the bottom of the mountain acted as a weigh station and the first line of defense should there be an attack. From there we began our 7.2 mile walk straight up a mountain. Literally up a mountain as our activity watches recorded over 5000 ft. of elevation gain over the day. The trek was a mixture of ancient trail pathways and Incan stairs that would have been used by messengers and travelers centuries ago, and at some points during the hike we had to climb up the stairs on all fours! The views were unreal. Had we not been standing there, we would have never believed something like this existed on our planet. Occasionally, it did get a little scary where the trail was only a few feet wide with a mountain face on one side and a sheer drop of a thousand feet or so on the other side. 

(The start - feeling great at this point)

(Still more climbing, we would eventually make it to those terraces in the distance)

We stopped about a few hours into the hike to cool down at a waterfall. The water was absolutely frigid and was being fed from glaciers at the top of the mountain. Jimmy even jumped in for a quick dip! We continued another hour, until we got to the base of Winay Wayna for a bagged lunch while overlooking the Andes and the Urubamba river. It was one of the most peaceful views and will live in my memory as one of my most favorite lunches I have ever had. 

After lunch, we climbed what must have been 300 steps up Winay Wayna. Winay Wayna was built as a place for Incans to cultivate crops along terraces for the workers that would eventually build Machu Picchu. We haven’t mentioned it enough, but the terraces throughout the Andes are larger than life. I distinctly remember learning about them in history, but to see them in person was incredible. They were all built with irrigation systems that were fed by glacier water and traveled by way of gravity. It was on these steps that we had the biggest “scare” of the day. Jimmy got a bad quad cramp halfway up and we had to stop halfway up while he worked it up. After taking in a lot of electrolytes he was ready to climb on and Raul showed us a technique for climbing the steep stairs to prevent working the same muscles over and over, thus preventing cramping.

(Started all the way down by the river)

From there, we only have about another mile. An incredibly grueling mile made up of steep stairs and inclines. It was one of the longest miles I have ever traversed (followed by an even longer mile the next day, but we will get there). The final ascent was up 50 stairs… where each stair was the equivalent of 3 normal stairs. This was another spot where climbing on all fours made more sense than trying to walk. The stairs led to both an overlook and the final weigh & defense station. Should attackers make it up the mountain, survive the other weigh stations, the attackers would have been met with arrows and rocks raining down on them while trying to climb stairs. The station was never attacked, but I can’t imagine that anyone would have been successful. 

We reached the top with another stunning overlook of the Andes and a promise that we would be to the Sun Gate another few minutes of walking. 

Machu Picchu has been on my bucket list since high school. It has been a huge dream of mine and I have imagined what it would be like to see it in person thousands of times. However, nothing, and I mean nothing, could have prepared me for that first look. We arrived at the overlook, put our bags and hiking sticks down and walked through the gate and we were hit with the most perfect view with the sun beginning it’s descent and shining on Machu Picchu. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t overcome with emotions. After a long, tough hike, it was all worth it. The years of waiting to go, the week of waking up daily with an altitude headache, the miles and miles of tough hikes, had all culminated to this most perfect moment. It was magical. It was spiritual. It was all the things that you have heard or read about, as it relates to seeing Machu Picchu. 

This view was also why I strongly recommend hiking through the Sun Gate. The Sun Gate is where all the postcard pictures are taken from and for good reason; it’s a stunning, panoramic, overhead view. If you opt for the vastly more popular option to take a bus up, you enter Machu Picchu from beneath it and never get a chance to see it in its full glory unless you know to find the Sun Gate and hike up to it (which most people never do). We also got a peek at our hike for the next day to Huayna Picchu and we were already intimidated. It sat higher than what we had already climbed for the day and appeared to be an impossibly vertical climb.

We had one more mile to our bus and to cap off the day. Jimmy and I decided while bussing down the mountain to the small modern town below Machu Picchu that we needed to cap off the night with pizza and a pisco sour! We made it to our stunning hotel (Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo), showered and walked to the first pizza place we could find. Despite not really seeing a lot of pizza throughout our Peruvian trip, Machu Picchu pueblo had a ton of them. Was it the best pizza we have ever had, no, but it was the perfect ending to a really wonderful day.  

[twilightdreamersmith]

Voice Training Through Singing:

This one’s for the girls

All right, so you want to sound like the girl you are, right? Well, you already do, seeing as your voice sounds like you, and you’re a girl, but most people don’t understand that. I never could find a single, comprehensive guide for vocal feminization that included a step-by-step process (though I never paid for any of those programs either, so they may be there) but I did find some that gave me important information on certain sections and stumbled through the rest myself.

By “stumbled through” I mean that I tried to do everything at once instead of one step at a time, and took a lot longer than I should have to see any results. I also nearly caused serious damage to my voice a few times, at one point losing it entirely for a day. As I’ve thought about the different aspects of what I’ve done though, I was able to easily separate them into steps that build on each other instead of throwing everything into a blender and hoping that what comes out is what you want.

I won’t be adding any before/after clips to this, for privacy reasons as well as lack of a decent sound setup at the moment, but I have been correctly gendered every time I am on the phone or going through a drive-through for the past few months, and I’ve been doing this for about a year. Most of the things I do heavily involve matching the voice of various singers, which I can do easily thanks to nearly a decade of music training. If you have trouble with this, I would recommend using headphones to start with; they make it much easier to tell if you are at least harmonizing well. Eventually your ear will probably get better and you can pay more attention to your voice instead of the singer’s, at which point you can quit using the headphones if you want.

You might also end up getting really good at matching voices, and that’s not even the coolest part. Do you like singing right now, and have some male artists you like to sing along with? You won’t lose that with this! All it will do will make your range increase, and eventually raise your “normal” voice in that range. Here’s a good example of the sort of thing we’re going for (I can’t hit the highest notes yet, but I can hit most!)

  Step 0. Self-care – Don’t overdo it!

Before we get started, it’s important to note that going too high before you’re ready (or warmed up), or doing too much too fast can really hurt your voice. I’m trying to get into a more responsible schedule for the last bits of mine, but I tend to do most of my training in the car, which means I end up with days at a time of not doing anything beyond using my feminine speaking voice, followed by 2-3 hours in a single day of nonstop training. Needless to say, that tends to push my voice a bit harder than I like if I’m not careful.

Most people already know what it feels like when you start to lose your voice, and definitely pay attention to those symptoms, but a new one that I noticed after starting this training caught me off guard. Often the first warning sign that I’m pushing too hard is that I start coughing and feeling like I’ve got something stuck in my throat. Nothing’s actually there, but that doesn’t change the fact that the coughing happens. Just be aware of your body, and try to stop if you notice signs of strain. After all, any voice is better than none!

If you do end up pushing things a bit, hot drinks like tea or coffee can do wonders to relax everything again. My personal treatment is freshly brewed black tea with about 2 tablespoons of honey in it. It won’t make everything magically better so you can go right back to it, but it will make it so you have a voice the next day.

Another trick to help with a strained voice, though it may bother you, is to talk as low as you can. Not deep (you don’t need to try singing bass opera parts!), but low and smooth (like you’re pretending to be a guy trying to seduce someone quietly). Do that for a few minutes and it should loosen everything up again, at least enough to get back a normal speaking pitch.

  Step 1. Basic Anatomy – Your Apple is your friend

Normally this section would be a boring, basic section with odd pictures that have long names of things we don’t care about. As you’ve probably guessed, I don’t care for that approach much, and I’m also very impatient. So, here’s a quick rundown of what you need to know, and at the end you’ll be able to see just a bit of progress too!

Now I know most of us don’t like our Adam’s apples (me too!), but the technical name for what it covers is the larynx, so I’m going to call it that instead. You can feel where it is, right? Touch it, then swallow. Feel how it moved? Now try doing that without swallowing. Chances are that you can’t right now, but that’s okay! Swallow again, but this time hold your larynx at the highest point, where it feels like it pulls back slightly, then let go when you need to breathe.

Doing that exercise a few times a day will get you to the point that you can move your larynx up at will, which will help out with resonance and tone later on. You may even notice a difference if you try talking with your larynx up instead of relaxed, though it’ll probably be a bit difficult at first. This part took me about two weeks to get right, but since I haven’t met anyone who’s tried the same thing I don’t know if that’s fast or slow. If you want to, feel free to send me some feedback on how long it took you (On any of the sections, for that matter)!

  Step 2. The Voice – Raise the Voice, not the Pitch

Now you can move your larynx up and down. Great! But you’re only halfway through the basics right now. Go ahead and try to keep your larynx up for the rest of the training, but if you can’t don’t worry; this part can be done without that.

I’d like to point out here that, while I was trained musically, it was not in singing (I was a tuba player), so some of the terms I’m using are probably not correct in that sense. I’m going to use them anyhow though, because it makes sense to me and I’m pretty stubborn, so just roll with it.

Sing a note in the comfortable part of your range. Doesn’t matter how loud, but hold it for a bit. Feel where the vibration is? I’m going to guess that it’s right around your collarbone, at the base of your neck. That’s called “Chest Voice,” and it’s almost always a masculine thing. This next part is kinda tricky to explain, so bear with me.

Now try to picture your voice as a light or an orb or something that’s in that area. It doesn’t matter what, so long as you do it. Raise that light/orb/whatever up slowly while you hold the tone. The sound will probably shift up as you do; that’s fine. The important thing is to note the different feeling of where the vibration is. As it reaches the halfway point in your throat you might feel a sudden change. That change over is what I call the “Throat Voice” and is probably where your voice will want to go for a while during training.

Once you get past Throat Voice and visualize the light/orb/whatever entering your mouth you’re officially using “Head Voice,” a.k.a. where most women talk from. Congrats! Now go even higher, till you have to pull your larynx back almost to where it goes when you swallow. You probably sound like a really bad Mickey Mouse or chipmunk now, but that’s normal. This is the upper range of your voice, what I call the “Falsetto.” Once you’ve got the hang of moving between these (and moving your larynx up during them as well) you can move on. I think this part took me about six weeks to really get down.

  Step 3. First Steps – a.k.a. Why I do this in the car

This is where we begin the real training! Quick question: Do you like My Little Pony? If so, that makes this step a lot easier. If not, then you’ll have to use “chipmunk” songs or go look up “nightcore” on Youtube and find some songs you like. Actually, I’d do that last one anyhow, especially if you find some that the originals feature a male singer.

Either way, the point of this step is to find some songs you like that force you to use that “falsetto” range you discovered last step. At first you won’t be able to do much in that range that doesn’t sound like a squeaky wheel that somehow learned to talk, but as you keep at it you’ll start to get a little more flexibility up there. Remember though, you’re not going for a “good” sound right now; you’re trying to match the song as best you can.

There really isn’t too much else to this step. You just have to keep at it till you are able to match the songs, or at the very least are able to move around the range without sounding like a Disney character anymore.  I use songs from MLP and some nightcore songs as well for this, in particular any songs that have multiple singers to maximize the flexibility and control (yup, I’m still working on this part a bit, but I reached what I’m saying here in about two months). Once you are happy, onto the next step!

  Step 4. Pitch – Removing the Turtle Shell

You know that part in the original Dragon Ball anime where Master Roshi had Goku doing a bunch of weird tasks while wearing that really heavy turtle shell? Then he got to take it off at the tournament, only to find he’d gotten a ton faster and stronger without noticing it? Yeah, that’s kinda what the last step was for us, and now it’s time to see the results! Unless you’ve been skipping ahead (can’t judge here!) this will be the first step where a real, usable feminine voice starts to take shape. Excited yet? I hope so, because this is also the second longest step, and the one with the least guidance.

All you need to do in this step is find songs that aren’t in the “falsetto” range and learn to match them while using Head Voice. As you start singing, you may notice that you revert to Chest Voice, or that your larynx drops again, or any number of things. One positive thing you should notice, however, is that you are much better at being aware of how your throat and larynx feel as you speak and sing, which translates to being better at imitating a singer. It really comes down to trial and error at this point.

One recommendation I would have is start with Queen songs, then move into your chosen artists. Queen’s songs are pitched perfectly as a jumping off point for raising said pitch, as most are right where the masculine and feminine ranges overlap, without worrying too much about tone or resonance. Those can come a bit later, especially resonance (which gets its own step later). Disney songs are another excellent choice, though you have to be careful at first. The male parts also make for a good vocal warm-up, to help avoid straining anything.

As for other artists with women singers that work well for beginners, go for someone with a “husky” voice. My personal starting band (after Queen) was Blackmore’s Night, and I moved into LeAnn Rimes, Trick Pony, and a few video game songs once I got more advanced (If you are curious, I recently moved into singing a few Jordin Sparks and P!nk songs, as well as only having a little trouble with some of the more famous Disney songs like “Part of Your World” and “A Whole New World”).

One thing to watch out for here, especially as you start moving into higher pitches and approach the alto range, is a tightness or fatigue in your jaw after singing. That comes from using your jaw muscles to force control over a pitch above your current non-falsetto range, and that can actually hold you back considerably.

I looked this up after hitting a plateau for nearly two months and found a singing coach that referred to the fix as “lazy jaw.” Basically you should be able to hold a note while moving your head around (even if it is slowly) or moving your jaw with a hand. Once you work that in your tone will improve as well, so double win!

Once you start to get the raw pitch down you’ll probably notice that there’s still something different between yourself and the singer, which is where the next part comes in. There isn’t really a point where you are “done” with this step, but I reached a decent point in around six months with the original songs.

  Step 5. Resonance – Why a Choker Can Actually Help

I don’t wear a choker, mainly because I can’t find any that are affordable and fit me, but the title does not lie. This step is all about the little shifts in vibration and position of the larynx that I, at least, couldn’t feel without something touching it constantly, hence why a choker would help. I just use a free hand and lightly touch just above and below the larynx occasionally.

This part is a little iffy, and I’m still working on the fine-tuning of my own voice, so the guide might go a different way than your voice wants to. I would strongly recommend recording your voice every now and again during this step, or possibly getting someone’s advice, especially if you have trouble recognizing perfect harmony while singing (for me that’s where I can’t hear any difference at all between the singer and my voice). I can offer a few pointers though.

First, you should have enough control of your larynx by now to have some sense of how far “forward” or “back” your voice is as well as the “up” and “down” of Chest/Throat/Head. If you want to sound airy or breathy, then move your voice “forward” and “up.” If you want to sound husky of earthy, “Back” and slightly “down” are the directions to go. Don’t forget that where your larynx and voice are will affect your pitch a bit, but with practice you can go lower in pitch while still maintaining Head Voice.

Second, try to only vibrate half of your throat. Sounds confusing, I know, but the most feminine voice I can use right now only vibrates below my larynx, not above. I have heard other people discussing the exact opposite, but I do know that masculine voices use both above and below, so as long as half is still I think it’ll be fine. Just use your ears (or a friend’s!) to figure out which one works for you, and try not to stress too much about it. I still have issues with this a lot on certain songs and artists, and I’ve been working on this step for 8 months now. Remember, your goal isn’t actually to be a perfect singer (at least, not for this guide), it’s to develop a feminine speaking voice.

Third, add some heart! I know it sounds corny and cliché, but if you can feel the singer’s emotions and add that to your singing it can make a lot of this automatic. Masculine resonance mainly uses volume for emphasis, but feminine resonance tends to use pitch and emotional emphasis instead. There is a big difference, even if it doesn’t make sense at first why.

Lastly, if you are still using headphones or earbuds, take advantage of that to really match the singer! If you think you are close, but it sounds really bad and wavy, that actually means you’re really close (within a half-step, to use proper music terminology) so keep moving up and down to get it. Very few things are as satisfying as singing in perfect harmony with a feminine singer for the first time.

  Ending – You’re Still Here?

As I mentioned in the last step, this is about as far as I’ve gotten in my own training, so I can’t share anymore tips. Basically you take all the skills and awareness you got learning to sing (which is its own useful skill, I might add) and apply them to your normal speaking voice as well. In my case the pitch of my voice started raising without me even thinking about it, so I only had to train myself to automatically use the correct resonance and Head Voice before I had a convincing, feminine voice.

The only other thing I have done that is not in the steps above is try to sing parts of the Broadway musical Wicked to improve my volume in my voice, but all that seems to have done so far is shred my voice whenever I try. I can’t say I recommend that, and if you follow the steps above instead of trying to do it all at once like I did you may not even need it!

Once again I would like to mention that this guide is based on my own experiments and trial and error, so Your Mileage May Vary is definitely applicable here. Feel free to contact me @twilightdreamersmith on Tumblr if you need something clarified, or if you have any suggestions as to something I missed.

Happy training!

[promisedangel]

King’s Island Haunt Review

I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO MAKE ONE FOR LAST WEEKEND’S TRIP, at least not until the friend who went with me reminded me during the MLP season 7 finale.

Travel to there was long, took longer cuz we got stuck in two bad choke points in Columbus traffic. We already made the mental note to leave earlier if we are returning to the Haunt next year. We ended up getting to the park little over an hour after it opened and the lines for rides/haunted houses didn’t exceed 45 minutes that night.

General Notes -The Haunt’s scenery was well done. The fog, the eyes on the Effiel Tower clone were awesome, and there was creepy music around the park to boot. One thing I am kinda disappointed about was the lack of actors outside of the haunted houses. There were only 3 sections of the park in which actors were on the prowl, and only one of them were really effective (I’ll tell that story on the second night). -We stayed at a Super 8, and it was actually pretty good. We just needed a place to sleep, and it worked. It was also near a good amount of food places to choose for breakfast! -The park offered these necklaces for $12 that pretty much said you don’t want to be scared. WHY COME TO A HALLOWEEN THING AND NOT WANT TO GET SCARED? I saw adults with these things on, too! The only way I could see these necklaces worth it, was if no area of the park was safe. If there were actors all over, maybe even in lines for rides and stuff. Then, it’d be worth it. But with only 3 scare zones, it’s not worth it.

Friday - The first thing my friend insisted we do was ride The Beast, as it was getting dark when we arrived and the ride was famous for its night ride since there are no lights around the track. When my friend was young, he and his dad swore they saw red lights, which they have since titled “The killer cows from hell”. Pretty cool ride, not the best, but it was fun riding in the front. -We hit two haunts next. First was The Slaughterhouse... which was kinda meh. Pacing felt too fast and the actors just weren’t trying that hard. - Madam Fatale’s Cavern of Terror was fun! They even got my friend pretty hard. He was lightly taunting some guy actor when this girl actor came from behind and scared him. I swear he jumped 2 feet and fell on the ground. -MYSTIC TIMBERS. AWESOME. The lore, the ride, no wonder it’s got an award already! If Halloween wasn’t so close, I would SO do oneshot based on the ride, but it’s too close and I got a request/gift to do T.T -Diamondback is now in my top five coasters EVER. Riding in the back at night was amazing, you get so much airtime!!! -Vortex is an Oldie but Goldie ride. It was pretty much a walk-on, but an awesome ride. I heard some people want it torn down, but it’s good! -Urgent Scare definitely needs an upgrade on its animatronics. In the ONE place it needs to look it’s most real, they look the fakest. Disappointed. -Drop Tower was fun, loved how it twisted on the way up. -Finished the night on the Banshee. it was cool, equal to The Raptor in Cedar Point.

Saturday -Had a nice breakfast before getting to the park as it opened. We rode Diamondback twice more as our start (In hindsight, this was a bad idea, but we still enjoyed it). -We accidentally went all the way around Backlot Stunt Coaster before we found the entrance, BUT, it led to us meeting a fellow Brony in line for it. Turned out he was at the park by his lonesome and we offered for him to hang out with us. Best decision of the day. The coaster was cool, good family ride. -Rode Vortex again with our new addition and got to know him pretty well. Also headed down to Racers, which was okay. He led us down to The Bat, which was MUCH more fun than Iron Dragon at Cedar Point. -Had to wait a half hour for Invertigo, kinda found out the park was starting to get crowded with people. While in line, we all bonded and I learned out this super intense horror experience called McKamey Manor. While our new friend seems gung-ho for it, I, on the other hand, will NEVER enter that place. Don’t hate the idea, nor the people who go through it. Invertigo was fun, but dunno if it was worth the wait. -Adventure Express was a good beginner coaster, used to be an Indiana Jones coaster before the park was bought by Cedar Fair. -Took a break to get food out of the park and relax a bit, and get sweatshirts for the night ahead. Getting pack in was a pain because we had to park so far away from the park. Made it a half hour before the 7:00 cut off point for getting back in the park. -Our goal for the night was to focus on the Haunts. We started with CarnEvil. Pretty decent, and someone gave me their 3D glasses, so it was trippy for me. Our new addition began to playfully taunt actors and was a joy to see. -Kill-Mart was fun, but mostly fun cause all of us work retail. We ended up making jokes on how it was ‘normal’ for us. Our new guy pointed out a scare and I still fell for it, so he heckled me a bit for it. -Field of Screams had a long line. Think it was a little over an hour. We ended up talking with the two girls in front of us most of the time about various horror topics and watched as one guy in the Fast Pass line scared a few people by hiding in bushes. Two other girls also fell off a fence in the line, but they weren’t hurt. Field of Screams was fun despite the wait but needed just a few more people to really bring out the best of it. There was this wide hay bale area with one actor, but two more would have really made it. One woman followed us out and scared a couple of us. This one girl behind us latched onto my friend, but she made it through with his encouragement. -We quickly went to Board to Death, which was more of a cool visual haunted house than a scary one. My friend and our new friend heckled the actors a bit, and we noticed by now that a lot of the actors over the night tried to get me rather than them. I remember this one actor woman asked if I wanted to play Twister with her and I said no. She then booked it to behind our group and got a scare out of the group of girls behind us, it was funny to just see her book it and immediately hear the screams. - We wanted to go to Blackout, cuz we had heard of various people throughout the night that it was really good, but the line was long and our new friend said he had to leave before midnight since he had to drive himself home. We made a choice and rode Banshee with him. I was, unfortunately starting to get cranky around this time cuz my feet hurt but giving him one last hurrah was worth the hour wait on Banshee. Fun fact: Banshee doesn’t allow fanny packs, BUT, if you stuff them in a hoodie pocket, they’re no problem! Just something I found funny. -We cut through the scare zone of Wasteland so we could quickly drop our new friend off at the gate. The actors in this zone were plentiful and really worked to get scares. They were really good. Sadly, we found this mom with this little girl, probably about 6-7, crying on her mom’s shoulder after going through the zone scared. Felt kinda bad for them. -We said our goodbyes to our new friend and got his contact information in hopes to meet up with him again sometime, even if it was just to come to the Haunt with him again. Did a quick picture together and then my friend and I went at it alone at about midnightish. -I REALLY wanted to hit as many things as possible before the night ended. We cut through the scare zone under the tower called Dance of the Macabre, pretty cool area. -Went straight to Backwoods Bayou. Decent place, good number of actors. The ones in swamp monster suits got us the most cuz we could barely see them coming. Saw people go into the bonus area and we mused about getting the pass for the rooms next year. -We saw that we didn’t have much time left before the park closed. We planned our route and headed straight for Blackout, and the line was less than 15 minutes!!! Was probably one of the most effective haunts in the entire park. You hold a rope with your right hand, while you navigate with your left in a dark maze that occasionally flashes with non-seizure inducing lights. Loved it. -We saw Wolf Pack had no line and quickly ran to it. The actors really tried in there and got my friend a good number of times. Really good visuals and jumpscares. -To close out our trip, we made our way across the park to ride The Beast one last time. We went slowly because my feet were screaming at me by this point. We got in line 15 minutes before the park closed and were probably the 6-7 car before the last ride. We saw The Slaughterhouse close up shop at 2 while still in line. The Beast is a pain in the back, too rough for my tastes. I tried to wedge my arm between the edge of my seat and me to lessen it, but it barely worked. -The walk back through the park to the car was sad, and a bit tough with my hurt feet after doing more than 50k steps that weekend. But we made it and I fell asleep very soon after we returned to our room.

Sunday -Another good breakfast before we relaxed a little before an easy checkout. The ride back was tough on me, felt a bit sleepy until my friend dug out some cookies and chocolate milk from the cooler to keep me awake. Once I put on Critical Role, it became much easier for me to stay awake. -Noticed some grinding when I had to brake during traffic. Turns out my brake pads were in pretty bad shape. Got them fixed this week, but it still cost a LOT. Considering I’ve had that car since 2009, they held up pretty well. -Took a nap as soon as I got home. Had plans with my boyfriend, but we ended up doing something different, but still had a good time with another friend.

Good trip overall. We hope to return next year with more of our coaster-loving friends. We also hope to see our new friend sometime before then! I’d say my first trip to Kings Island was a lot of fun, and a great contrast to Cedar Point, my home amusement park. Sad to say the only things we didn’t hit were Flight of Fear and Firehawk, and we could have done so at the start of Saturday or just after Board to Death, but we all decided against it. Top of the list for next time!

[undefeatednils]

Just 13 YouTubers I Love

Internet videos: certainly the dominant kind of content I currently consume, and it’s one which allows for very diverse voices on different issues. So I wanted to showcase some YouTube channels which I watch, all of which are relatively unknown (all of them are below 200k subs, and only six of which are above 100k subs). Now please note that I can’t watch everything, so keep that in mind please. Anyways, I’m gonna sort them based on the subscriber count in ascending order. Enjoy!

#1: Laura Kate (aka Laura K Buzz)

Laura Kate’s channel isn’t super popular, but this video game journalist isn’t a complete unknown. She’s host or co-host on several podcasts, including The jimquisition Podcast, and has written for both gaming and general outlets such as Destructoid, Kotaku UK, and The Guardian. Her channel consists mainly of gameplay, though my favorites are her opinion pieces and news coverage. Oh and she recently started a podcast with the two girls from Geek Remix (you’ll hear more about them later; spoilers) talking about videogame-inspired pornography, which is super unique, tasteful, and fun. Bonus point: she’s an very out and proud transwoman in a cismale dominated landscape, so her presence is doubly welcome. And to be honest this is really just a big shout-out to her work overall and not only her YouTube channel, so... Check out her stuff.

#2: Jackson Bird (jackisnotabird)

Jackson Bird is a YouTube icon, despite his criminally low subscription count. He’s been active on YouTube over six years, mostly as a vlogger and both in front and behind the camera at the Harry Potter Alliance, but he has two other claims to fame: first of all there is his Grade A “why isn’t this a trend?” show Will it Waffle, where he tests if certain food items (and occasionally non-toxic non-food items) work if put into a waffle iron, and secondly he is an LGBTQ rights and education advocate for as long as he’s been on YouTube... Which makes a lot of sense for a bisexual transguy who’s been very open about his gender identity and transition. Overall his content (outside of his vlogs on his side channel) are a bit sporadic but definitely worth a look.

#3: rantasmo Three words: Needs. More. Gay. Rantasmo has been creating his little show on LGBT culture for over seven years now and it’s delightful and educational. In his videos, where he for instance covers topics like Game of Thrones, beards, Undertale, and The Wizard of Oz, he examines how LGBT people are portrayed and treated, what queerbating is, and lots more stuff. None of his videos are super long, like rarely do his videos last longer than 9 minutes, but they are still very entertaining and educational, so I highly recommend binging on a few of his more recent episodes to get you started.

#4: No Small Parts Productions I love watching movies and I presume you do, too. And occasionally you just notice either certain actors who you swear you’ve seen before but don’t know their name, or they just stand out in general but you have never heard of them. No Small Parts is a YouTube video essay series which covers exactly that. Run by bit-part actor Brandon Hardesty, No Small Parts provides lovingly crafted retrospectives on the lives and works on character actors. Thus far Hardesty has covered people like Crispin Glover, André the Giant, Darlene Cates, Scatman Crothers, and several others. It’s super fascinating, and all episodes are over 20 minutes long. He also has started to expand the channel to talk more about underrated movies and other related stuff, so it’s gonna be interesting to see how this channel develops. 

#5: rewboss

Andrew Bossom is a British man living in Germany... And as a German who is very much entrenched in the culture of the “traditional anglosphere”, that alone makes his videos appealing to me. Rewboss is a culture guy, and it shows. The German language, customs, travel destinations... He talks about it all and has been doing so for years. He originally even did half of his videos in German, but eventually dropped the habit because his German viewership didn’t really need it anymore. But anyways, Rewboss has been a YouTube educator for ages now, and he has even dabbled in helping other YouTubers, so a bunch of his older stuff might be of interest to you if you wanna get some basics in regarding the topic of online video. I’ve been a fan of his work for years and I think he deserves your attention, too.

#6: KyleKallgrenBHH (Brows Held High) My love for cinema is shining through again, this time with professional movie critic Kyle Kallgren, host of Brows Held High. Brows Held High looks primarily at arthaus movies, the avantgarde, the artistically noteworthy entries into the cinematic canon, though occasionally you also get William Shakespeare (basically every June), as well as yearly retrospectives and thematic analysis of both movies and occasionally other media like video games or theater. So if you are looking for very “high brow” stuff, Kyle is your man. Just be warned that some of the material he covers can be a bit NSFW visually and audibly, so keep that in mind once you tune into his work.

#7: Innuendo Studios

And we’re back at video games again, at least for the most part. Innuendo Studios, run by Ian Danskin, is definitely part of the more intellectual portion of this list but his videos are still very much approachable. Theories on authorship, genre death, the nature of coolness, and narrative are all explored here in a bunch of wonderful video essays ranging from short-ish to over an hour long, with that particular example being a series of videos about the psychology and history of Gamergate from a feminist point of view. The videos might be scarce but they are super smart and well-sourced. Dive in, you’ll definitely enjoy Ian’s work.

#8: Stop Skeletons From Fighting (formerly The Happy Video Game Nerd)

We all need positivity in our lives and SSFF is definitely the kind of positivity I think the video game crowd should try to emulate. SSFF is an examination of videos from a very critical but also loving point of view, looking at forgotten or maligned games and looking for what they can teach and what they did right and wrong; looking at certain aspects of video gaming history, including behind the scenes information... All that and more has been part of Derek Alexander’s work for several years now. If you wanna learn more about what makes good video games good and you do already watch Extra Credits, then do yourself a favor and check out Derek’s videos. I can also recommend his pre-SSFF stuff, back when he called himself the Happy Video Game Nerd, a character he created as a response to the negativity-focused reviewer culture during YouTube’s early days as exemplified by the Angry Video Game Nerd and the Nostalgia Critic, though of course those videos are relatively ancient. #9: Jenny Nicholson Confession time: about seven years or so ago I was quite into My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It was a good show back then and I was always a sucker for fun musical numbers, so it was a nice fit (plus I didn’t know how toxic the brony subculture was becoming so that didn’t hamper my enjoyment of it). But anyways, I actually stumbled across Nicholson for the first time during that time period because she was making an abridged series of MLP: FIM called Friendship is Witchcraft, which was and IMO still is hilarious. She voiced all of the female characters (except Celestia), and when Hasbro was putting an end to it via copyright strikes, I lost sight of Nicholson... But earlier this year I rediscovered her and her wonderful, wonderful snark. If you enjoy nitpicking apart blockbusters, especially Star Wars, then Jenny is your gal. She could give screenwriting classes, her stuff is that good and funny. She’s also recently been hired by ScreenJunkies to host the Star Wars-centered Millenial Falcon, which I also recommend if you love the old SW like myself. Also we have officially passed the 100k subscriber threshold, so we’re talking about the popular kids now! #10: hbomberguy British people are inherently funny- and smart-sounding, even though most aren’t (I’m sorry British people; feel free to make as many Germany-bashing jokes as you’d like). But hbomberguy definitely is both smart and funny. Whether he is talking about (British) politics, responding to YouTube “skeptics” or MRAs, or ranting about media for hours, he’s always a joy to watch and hear. Probably one of my favorite videos of his is his almost two hour long masterpiece “Sherlock is Garbage, And Here’s Why”, in which he finally managed to put into words why Sherlock’s fourth season was the worst and why Moffat is just a horrible, horrible showrunner including on Doctor Who, which is something that has hampered by enjoyment of Doctor Who and I was’t even fully aware of it and can finally express myself on this topic the way I’ve been wanting to for ages, and that should be enough of an endorsement from my end.

#11: Folding Ideas Dan, the Foldable Human, is an expert on editing, working behind the scenes in the movie industry, how YouTube works, and how culture shapes media. I honestly can’t even summarize this channel even further because I’ve hit the nail on the head and just want to you watch this Canadian guy and hear him talk about mostly movies. “The Art of Editing and Suicide Squad” is a very good starting point in his videography, close to 1 million views, and it is everything you need to know about this channel in a 35 minute long package. Just check out at least that video and if you like what you’ve seen, dig deeper. You most likely won’t regret it.

#12: Lindsay Ellis (The Nostalgia Chick) We have reached “the big ones”! Lindsay Ellis has been in online video for almost a decade now and she has mastered the art of the video essay. She’s been looking at media from a feminist perspective for ages now and her body of work speaks for herself. 90-ish episodes of The Nostalgia Chick, 23 episodes and counting for Loose Canon, where she examines how different characters have been portrayed throughout the years, thus far nine long-form video essays, and her recent series The Whole Plate, where she covers the basics of film studies by looking at Michael Bay’s Transformers. Check out her stuff, I implore you. You will spend hours watching her content and learn so, so much!

#13: Geek Remix (Mari and Stacy)

You love fun let’s plays hosted by several people but think that there should be more women doing so, too? Me, too! And that means you’ll probably enjoy Geek Remix, aka Mari and Stacy, who are two lovely ladies playing so many games! Night in the Woods, Dragon Age Inquisition, Resident Evil 7, Life is Strange, Contradiction: Spot the Liar, and so many more. Otherwise you can also expect theory videos, conversations about human sexuality, easter egg listings, and a lot of other fun stuff on their channel, which with about 147k subs is definitely the most popular channel on this list. Special shoutout to my friend @hella-flawless-amythyst who introduced me to them, so if you get sucked in by Mari and Stacy’s charm, you can “blame” her, too (if you actually blame her I will hunt you down though). So... That was my list. Lots of stuff on there, sadly nothing music-related if you were looking for that (but if you speak/understand German, I highly recommend Bina Bianca, who is just adorable and is an honorable mention), but I hope that you’ve found a channel or two that might interest you. This took ages to write, by the way xD

[marvelandponder]

Look How Far We’ve Come

Welcome to Year of the Pony’s second regular series (aside from the editorials), The Elements of MLP! Every month, we’ll be looking at one aspect of Friendship is Magic in some degree of depth to explore all the different parts that go together to make MLP what it is.

Part of the reason I started this year-long event was to get to the bottom of why I love this show so much, so maybe looking it piece by piece will help me appreciate the whole better.

This month, we’ve got the Element of Design and Animation, one of my personal favourites.

And, I’m not alone! So let’s go through the whole gosh darn process (or at least as many stages as I’ve got something to say on)!

Design

In the beginning, there was Lauren Faust.

If you only know one name from behind-the-scenes, it’s Lauren Faust. As MLP:FIM’s creator, she lead a lot of the development that made the show what it is visually (and in other areas, too, of course).

So, yes, Faust had an immeasurable influence on the design choices. And, because of her genuine love for My Little Pony as a kid, so did previous generations of MLP.

Figures that AJ would be the one to change the least during development (never change, AJ), but here they are: The old school Mane 6! As you probably know, all based on characters from the franchise’s history!

You’ll notice that even though the colours themselves varied, the pastel colour-scheme overall was there from the start, and it’s largely because of the franchise's roots in the 80s. 

*Correction: Silver Rain on EQD pointed out to me that the cartoon commonly thought of as G2, My Little Pony Tales, is actually still G1. There is no G2 cartoon (generations are defined by new sets of the toys, not the cartoons or feature films, so even though Pony Tales is very distinct from the first two movies, it’s still G1)

The closest thing to a G2 anything besides the toys is a video game, but for this analysis I decided to keep it strictly to television and movies. So, enjoy knowing G2 is a lie!

See how the first two generations looked a bit washed out? And the next two are sort of over-saturated? In addition to looking cleaner because digital animation v.s. traditional (neither is better), G4 strikes a balance between the different colour-palettes of the franchise in a really comforting, visually satisfying way.

Soothing is probably the best word, which expertly matches the breezy, light-hearted, and loving tone of the show.

So, anyway, even after development went on, as changes were made, notes were taken, and the world we’ve come to know took shape, the show’s roots still have a surprisingly big influence on its visuals.

And my god, can we all take a second to appreciate these designs?

Every element---from characters, to creatures, to backgrounds, to that storybook thing they keep doing---make this show a visual treat. For several reasons:

Cute - the ponies are round; there are very few sharp points in their designs and that combined with the classic big eyes + cute tum + small nose and mouth = cute, makes them even freaking cuter 

Instantly Recognizable - there’s a rule popularized by Simpsons creator Matt Groening that if you can recognize a character in silhouette, that’s a good design; even besides the fact that they’re ponies and you could tell them apart from human characters, there’s absolutely no doubt who’s who---I could even name the side characters if you tested me

Conveying Personality - You can tell most character’s personalities from the minute they walk on screen---take Starlight Glimmer, for instance; the first shot we see of her, she’s got kind of a 60s hairstyle, so before she even opens her mouth, you can guess she’s either got some old-fashioned ideas, or more accurately, she’s in charge of this weirdly cheery village (ever watch, well, pretty much anything from the 60s? Those fake smiles in Starlight’s village would fit right at home); her false-belief of what will make ponies truly happy is reflected in her design, and not only that, she used to have straight bangs to instantly cue to the viewer that this is a character who’s going to parallel Twilight (especially when she’s screaming about ‘creating Harmony’...)

Simplistic - Most of these designs use thick outlines and soft colours to emphasize just how cute the horses are; in relation to the backgrounds and other creatures, they easily draw the eye because the other elements are more detailed but very rarely have outlines.

Asymmetry - You’d think it would be more satisfying to an audience to see characters with symmetrical designs, but not so, and this is reflected in every single character design in the show (as well as most building designs: the Golden Oaks Library, Canterlot Castle, Cloudsdale, etc.); even Twilight, who’s bangs are cut straight across (according to the EQG universe), has a curve to her mane, highlights to the left, and a small part on one side

All of these aspects and probably more give all the designs a strong visual impact, while also making them cute as heck.

I don’t think I can say it better than this: these designs are so sweet, distinctive, and inviting that the fandom latched onto and created entire backstories and personas out of background characters. It’s like Bobba-Fett from the Star Wars franchise---in reality, he’s barely in the films, but because he managed to grab so many people’s attention with his surprisingly memorable design, he’s one of the most popular characters!

And, you know, I’m not going to lie to you. Part of the reason this show is so comforting to watch is just the soft colours and incredibly cute characters. It really is just soothing to look at. But there’s more to the visuals than just cute, pretty ponies.

Movement

One of the things I remember hearing back when I first came into the fandom in early season 2 was that some fans were downright shocked that MLP was animated in Flash--- a program so cheap and hard to animate in fluidly that most shows and projects that come out of it tend to look ... shoddy.

Which isn’t always the case, of course, good shows have been animated there, but I would say that, on the whole, shows animated in Flash seem to have great designs but less focus on fluid movement. 

Like, even if you’re not an animation nerd, if I list a bunch of shows you animated with Flash, you might notice a kind of a pattern in how they move (of the ones you know):

Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends

Johnny Test

Total Drama Island

Hi! Hi! Puffy Ami Yumi

Yin Yang Yo!

Kappa Mickey

Dan V.s.

Archer

The Gravity Falls pilot (the rest of the show was animated in ToonBoom Harmony, the same animation program My Little Pony: The Movie is being animated in!)

It’s a hard quality to describe for me, but the absolute best example probably is the Gravity Falls pilot:

See how everything looks exceedingly flat (even for 2D animation)? And how each movement tends to have this weird, unnecessary (for lack of a better word) pop to it?

That’s what Flash is known for. 

I’d like to take a second to say it of course doesn’t make all of those shows bad at all; and in fact, there are a number of shows besides MLP that actually use Flash well (to the point that you wouldn’t know it’s animated in Flash).

Bob’s Burgers, Archer, Sym-Bionic Titan, The Amazing World of Gumball, even Fairly Odd Parents as of the 10th season.

I think it’s mostly just the fact that at the time we didn’t know many shows that could look this good and still use Flash. 

The exciting thing is that MLP doesn’t move like that. Season 1 had its moments of animation flubs, sure, but I’ve re-watched it recently and it is animated pretty well.

A lot of moments will have a snap for emphasis (like, the manes will move how they’re supposed to), but it’s handled in a natural way that doesn’t distract from the movements we’re actually supposed to focus on.

And, no, it’s not the most sophisticated, beautiful animation out there, but it can run the gambit from snappy comedic timing to slower, dramatic scenes.

I think the only problem I’ve really noticed with G4 animation is whenever characters run in Equestria Girls.

I know, that’s really specific. I don’t even have a problem when they walk, it’s just when they’re running that it looks the most like the cheap Flash animation. It’s a hard quality for me to describe, but rewatch a scene where they have to run at all, I’m serious. It’s almost a pet peeve at this point.

It’s a hazard of the genre, I suppose. Like most Western animation, MLP focuses most of its time and energy on expression and the smaller movements as opposed to big, involved battle sequences or choreographed action (the only big battle sequence is the Dragon Ball Z Tirek fight, which was done super well, but is still a rarity in this show).

Meaning, some of the most unique bits of animation come in the form of expressions and reactions. 

I always love these. Not for the meme potential (although... ), but because I know every time I see a face like that the animators went out of their way to make something distinct and insanely expressive. 

And that’s not the only way they bring the visuals together. I could probably go on and on about things like the shading and lighting, the staging, the intelligent use of background to hide gags or references or just add that much more depth to a scene...

But, seriously, I’ve already eaten up so much of your dash.

I will say this, though. Friendship is Magic’s style is more gorgeous, fitting, and creative than you might think at first. It’s why the artistic side of the community exploded, and still hasn’t stopped growing. And the continual improvement in this element alone is enough to get me excited for the next season. I’ll admit it, it’s one of the biggest reasons I always look forward to seeing more. 

Woo! That’s a wrap for this Elements of MLP, but I’ll have a new one for you every month this year! In the meantime, you can always check out the editorials, or, you know, whatever. I’m not gonna tell you how to live.

Year of the Pony

Header Image Only Possible Thanks to...

Elements by SpiritoftheWolf Elements by TechRainbow

Two really talented vector artists that were awesome enough to make this stuff! You’ll be seeing their names at least 12 times this year, so might as well check ‘em out now!

Pretty Pastel Ponies Practically Prancing ... Politely? Parallel? Perfectly?

[ask-de-writer]

Several of my stories have mentioned Canbe, a mortal living in the Borderland of Nightmare  with the Lamia Flowering Ash.  This is the tale of how they met.

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to MLP Fan Fiction

Return to Tales to Read AFTER the Lights are OUT!

The Day After Nightmare Night

by 

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

2284 words

© 2016 by Glen Ten-Eyck

All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

I really should have known better.  It was the day AFTER Nightmare Night.  Morgan and I were out strolling around, looking at the remaining decorations and assorted minor pranks that had been played.  

Sawnax's Lumber Yard office had got it by at least two or three pranksters.  It was covered in ribbons of cheap toilet paper and the windows had been painted over with egg whites and liberally dusted with dirt.  It was understandable, if not really excusable.   He was always too cheap to put out a Foal Bowl.

Passing Caramel Treat's Sweets, we saw that Ponyville's genuine werewolf was still in the form of the gigantic Everfree Ridgeback Wolf that was her when she was not a pony.  Smiling, she was passing out treats to any who were still in costume.  

A good many foals knew of her habit and were lined up, chanting, “Nightmare Night has passed away!  Now it is Nightmare Day!  Please give us something sweet to bite, to celebrate the daylight!”

She was happily giving treats out and posing for pictures with the assorted little ghouls, alicorns, very phony deer, liches, and witches.

We watched for a little and went on our way.

It was not long before we were passing the shoulder high stone wall of the Ponyville Cemetery.  We found a perfectly lovely and unusual gray mare staring at us, over the wall.  She smiled, keeping her lips shut, and said with mild humor, “So, looking over the wall between life and death?”

“Sort of,” Morgan replied.  “Canbe and I are out looking at all of the assorted pranks that have been pulled, that's all.”

She kept pace with us, she on the inside, and we out.  Her head swayed in a sort of undulating way, instead of bobbing a little, like a pony's usually does.  

She offered, “Are you just looking, or are you doing anything to help fix the pranks? I am not sure why, but some ponies think that it is fun to mess up the graveyard.  Do they think that they will disturb the rest of those who have passed beyond life or are they trying to upset the living by knocking over or wrecking grave markers?”

Actually looking across the wall, at something besides the lovely mare's head and shapely neck, I commented, “I don't see any damage here.  What happened?”

Sadly, she replied, “You can't see it from here.  There is a really ancient part of the cemetery.  Nopony knows how old it is.  It is far older than Ponyville.  It has crypts, tombs, mausoleums and markers that nopony around here now knows how to read.  It is over the hill, there, where those big trees show their tops.”  

She pointed to an area that I had never paid attention to before.

I sort of shook my head in surprise.  “I did not even know that those trees were in the cemetery!  Old stones that nobody can read?  That sounds really neat, actually.  If I come to help you, would you mind if I made some rubbings of those stones?  Maybe a scholar like Twilight Sparkle could read them.”

The gray mare raised her eybrows in polite surprise.  “That would be a true boon, if she could.  So many old things are simply forgotten.”

Morgan snorted, “Never could figure out why anypony bothers with history!  Basically, it is a pack of lies told by the winners to make them look better than they were!”

The gray mare gave Morgan a disturbed look.  “That is partly true.  The truth of what did happen can often be found out.  It is the best understanding of the past that can serve to guide you and help you to avoid the mistakes that your ancestors made.”

Bitterly Morgan snapped back, “I was one of those 'mistakes' that somepony made!  I was abandoned on the steps of the Ponyville Orphanage without even a note!  I don't want to know who my mother or dad was!”

Morgan rudely turned his rump and stomped off.

The lovely gray mare turned to me and gave me a beseeching look.  “Will you come to help us?  We cannot undo the work of the vandals alone.”

I shrugged and opened the gate.  Entering I offered, “Sure, why not?  What is to fear now that it is broad daylight?”

The mare had hidden behind a large stone monument.  She pointed a shapely foreleg and hoof skyward.  “That is a common misconception.  So long as the Moon of Nightmare remains in the sky, we can be abroad.  That, I fear may tell you who you are coming to help.

“I will guarantee your safety if you do come to help us do what we cannot do ourselves alone.”

I paused to think over this development.  “I will make you a small deal, my sweet pony. Show me yourself.  If you are an undead, as you have said, and guarantee my safety, I will aid you as well as I can to fix what the vandals have damaged.”

She nodded gracefully and slithered out from behind the stone.  Her body, from the navel back, was that of a huge serpent.  “As you can see, I am a Lamia. Had I not guaranteed your safety, I could easily crush and rend you. You may still leave and I will thank you for even considering giving aid to such as I.”

I kind of shivered all over but gamely offered, “Lead the way, my Lady Lamia.  I am known as Canbe.”

She led me across the hill.  If I remembered correctly, the back wall of the cemetery was down the hill only a little ways.  Before we got to where the wall should be, I noticed that the Lamia cast no shadow from the light of the sun.  She did, however, cast a shadow.  It was from the light of the moon, still in the sky, though getting low.

We passed under the trees without coming to the cemetery wall.  Long streamers of moss like stuff hung from branches that almost seemed to move of their own volition.  The foliage of them was a far darker green than it had appeared when seen from the street in Ponyville.  It almost looked black.  That was when I noticed that nothing here, not even me, cast any shadow but one from the full Moon of Nightmare which was now at zenith, rather than nearly set.

I nearly fled when I noticed that.  My promise held me.

I was led to a fallen obelisk about two or two and a half meters long.  I saw the marks where it had been pried from its base.  I pointed out, “I cannot lift this, it is too heavy for me.”

Several voices replied, “We can lift it if you will help us.  Lay your mortal hooves on it and keep them on it until we have restored the stone to its place.  This work takes the cooperation of both the mortal and those beyond.”

As I laid hooves to it, a little past the center, the stone was seized by hooves of several undead sorts.  I did try to help with the lift, but it was the strength of those ponies who were long past the grave who actually did most of it.  As the stone was properly replaced, the break appeared to simply vanish.  The stone stood tall and proud again.

As we were walking to the next damaged monument, I stumbled on a fallen slab of stone.  A simple grave stone.  I paused and asked, “What about this one?  It has fallen too.”

The Lamia looked back and replied, “True, it has.  Time did that, not vandals.  You agreed to help us to undo the vandalism.  This goes past your agreement.”

I sort of surprised myself by replying, as I scraped at the moss grown stone to get a better grip, “Not quite so, my lady Lamia.  Time is the greatest vandal of all.  Let us set to rights all that we can.  Even the simplest grave deserves to be remembered.”

The many undead here all looked at me thoughtfully and agreed, “What he wants to do goes beyond our agreement.  We should do the same for him.”  If appearance was any guide, faces that had not smiled since they died smiled in agreement.

As we were lifting the stone back up to standing in a well dug socket hole, one of the liches actually shed a tear.  He stated, “This stone and grave are mine.  Thank you, Mortal.”

I think that the others were astounded when I held his apparently rotting body and said, “You are welcome.  Now I am doubly glad that we did it for you.”

We all went on, from grave to crypt to mausoleum fixing and setting things to rights.  If I could touch even so much as a rotting bit of an ancient oaken and iron bound door, some one among them was able to make it whole again. We even did the same for the decayed remains of coffins in the ancient crypts.

It did take a long time to do.  I was bone tired at the end of our labor.  Not hungry. Not thirsty.  Proud.  The ancient necropolis was now well tended and all was as it ought to be.  

I looked up.  The Moon of Nightmare was unchanged in the sky.  It was still at its zenith.

My lovely Lamia saw my glance and spoke softly, “Our lives spring from and are ruled by Her.  The Princess of the Night.  We may be of the Nightmare Realm but our Ruler is not without compassion.

“We did notice something about you as you helped us to restore our ancient homes. Not only did you not shrink from us, going so far as to give comfort and share happiness with a zombie, you appear to like us.  Is that true?”

That sort of opened up my eyes.  I had been getting along with these once living beings far better than I ever had with any living ponies.  It just took Lamia's question to make me notice it!

I nodded sort of slowly as it sank in.  “That is true, my lovely Lamia.  If there was some way to stay with you, my friends, and keep this gift of helping you all, I would have no desire to return to ponies who do not care about me at all.”

The Lamia stood up, supported by her elegantly coiled snake body and said softly, “My name, Canbe, is Flowering Ash.  You have asked a boon of Our Princess of the Night and we in no way forced you to it or tricked it from you.

“Do you truly ask of Princess Luna, Ruler of the Night, Harbinger of Dreams and Sometimes the True Embodiment of All Nightmare, the boon to stay with us, keeping the ability to aid us in preserving our places of rest, our homes?”

I did not hesitate, “If it can be done, Flowering Ash, I do ask that boon of Princess Luna.”

There grew a shadow on the Moon of Nightmare overhead.  Gliding down to a landing as silent as a dream was Princess Luna.  She alighted before me and smiled.

“Canbe, I have favorably heard your request.  You are a creature of the Day.  A pony who grew up under the sway of my Sister, Celestia.  Would you renounce her to fulfill your request?”

I thought carefully and she gave me the time to do it.  “Princess Luna, you and your Sister Celestia are two parts of a whole.  I had not heard that you two are in contest.”  

I gathered the lovely Flowering Ash on one side and the zombie whose grave I had restored on the other into a hug.  Still holding them, I went on, “Knowing that you two Sisters are not in contest, I will willingly do whatever is necessary to fulfill my request.”

Princess Luna bowed her horn to just touch my forelock.  A fine wisp of midnight magic, shot through with stars flowed between us.

She straightened and proclaimed, “Canbe, as the subject of us both, Myself and my sister Celestia, you may stay here with your friends.  Here, you will retain your Mortal Gift to aid them.  Here, you will not age.  Here, you will not hunger.  Here, you will not thirst.  When you do much, as with this night's labor, you will tire.  A little rest will cure that.

“You may leave here and return at will but only through the Ponyville Cemetery.  While you are away, you will age.  While away, you will hunger.  While away, you will thirst.  While away, you will tire from labor as you always have.

“You have chosen more wisely than you know.”

With that, Princess Luna spread her huge wings and made a powerhouse of a downstroke. She flew up, seemingly to the Moon of Nightmare.

Luna alighted on a patio of the Palace of Canterlot and trotted into the Dining hall. There she found Princess Celestia happily munching on chocolate topped donuts.

Princess Celestia's snicker suddenly turned to a stricken look as she saw Luna's expression!

With a grin that showed her perfect teeth, Luna reported, “I WON!  

“Canbe did NOT renounce me when he was put in with those Nightmares!  Most interestingly, he chose to STAY with them but he was clever enough not to renounce YOU either!

“Now pay up!”

Luna hoofed over a substantially sized tray.

Glumly, Princess Celestia began to pile on tan topped pastries.  She returned the tray to Luna with a sad, “Farewell, my butterscotch treats!”

~~THE END~~

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to MLP Fan Fiction

Return to Tales to Read AFTER the Lights are OUT!

[ask-de-writer]

SANDO’S LAKE : Origin of the Rom, part 6 :  MLP Fan Fiction : Part 2 of 4

SANDO’S LAKE

the Sixth part in the origin of the Rom

ORIGIN OF THE ROM SERIES in reading order.  (will be completed as the stories are posted in linked form)

Part One : NORE’S CHOICE, which starts HERE

Part Two : WELCOME TO EQUESTRIA! which starts HERE

Part Three : FAIR AND UN-FAIR, which starts HERE

Part Four : ON THE ROADS OF EQUESTRIA, which starts HERE

Part Five : THE FIRST ROM HEARTHWARMING,  which starts HERE

Part Six : SANDO’S LAKE, which starts HERE

Part Seven : A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ROM, which starts HERE

by De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

6312 words

© 2018 by Glen Ten-Eyck Writing begun 01/02/17

All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author. //////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

Carter looked down sadly, and replied, “Thanks for being clear that I am still welcome in your camps.  Yes, we will leave as soon as the wheel is ready.”

Red promptly stated, “I want to spend the night here!”

Carter nodded, “Feel free.  That will be a contract violation.  I will be shut of you and you won’t get paid for the haul if you do.  I am going to Wayside 14, next to Haymarket, to spend the night.”

I nodded to Delit.  “OK, sweetie.  Lift the corner of his caravan.”

Red snapped, “That’s a wagon!  You too dumb to know the difference?”

Delit, showing an excellent finesse of control, slapped a cap of her nearly golden magic on his horn and wrapped his jaws in it too.  Without letting go of Red, she also lifted up the wagon’s corner while Carter placed and adjusted the wagon jack.

Carter commented, “Thank you, Delit, I believe your name is?  Both for doing this lift and for shutting up Red!  There, jack’s in place.  Would you mind staying close enough to keep him quiet?  Thanks, young filly.”

As Delit stepped clear,  Nore and Hasna stepped in and began by simply turning the wheel.  Hasna, our band’s best wheelwright stopped it at a particular point.  

Speaking to Delit, he asked, “Do you know why I stopped the wheel there?” Delit nodded, “I think so, Hasna.  That is where the binding starts.  Do we take it apart now?”

Hasna agreed, “You are right, Delit.  Your mother will pull this lynch pin.  It is very tight.”

Nore stepped in and laid an expert hoof to the pin.  Though her hoof appeared to stay still, the pin could be seen to be working loose.  In moments, it came free.  Hasna reached into the hub and pulled out several metal washers which he examined carefully before proceeding.

He lifted the wheel free from the axle, which had an iron sleeve.  He held the wheel up so that he could sight through its bore hole.  

Shaking his head, he muttered, “Bad as a pony made … Well, it IS a pony made wheel!  Nore, would you please go and get me a small stick of blackwood, please?”

As she trotted back to our camp, Nore was flirting her tail happily at being away from Red.  At least Delit was keeping him shut up!

When Nore returned she asked Delit, “What have you asked, my filly?  Did you grasp what answers you got?”

Delit smiled and replied, “What I have seen needed no questions, mother.  It is a Pony Made Wheel!  I can see that they put an iron sleeve on the axle.  That could have been a good idea, but they only filed it to make it round.  They did not even hone it.  The filing was not really accurately round and the iron part of the axle has a rough surface from the filing.  No wonder that hub turning on it was failing.  Hasna has been honing it to true round.  I already know how to do that.  I will be most interested in seeing how he saves that worn hub.”

Nore respectfully gave Hasna the stick of blackwood.  I watched, admiring the sheer skill that he used in adapting our method for making good wood from bad by the magic of his hooves.  He swirled the stick about inside the worn out bore.  It left a layer of blackwood lining the inside of the worn out hub.

He pared a shallow cone in it with a special reamer and pressed it to the axle.  Working gently, he rotated the wheel while pressing it onto the axle.  In a few minutes, the two parts were fitted and turning true.

Hasna advised, “These parts need to wear together, Carter.  Take the time to re grease the wheel at each wayside for the next day.  That should give you as good a wheel as you can get.”

Delit lifted the wagon corner to free the wagon jack and then set the wagon down gently on all four wheels.  She released Red too.  He was starting to gather magic to his horn when Carter hoof slapped his face.

“Get in harness, Red!  Help to pull this wagon out of here or get no pay!” Red grumbled continuously but he did get into the hitch.  We watched them leave the wayside.

While we strolled back to camp, Delit asked, “How soon will Sando and his band get here?  I have been practicing a new dance and working in both iron and wood that I want to show him!  He can be proud of my work and take the memory of how much I love him with him when he goes to the Lake of Paradise!”

I mulled that over.  “Dear, the band of Sando is only about an hour away.  The band of De Innis will be here in about two.  Then, as soon as camps are set up, we can plan what ceremony we will have for Sando.”

Nore booped my nose as she pointed out, “WE DO KNOW THIS.  Death here is NOT the END.  Though you keep insisting that you only took a nap, it lasted for THREE DAYS on Celestia’s Anvil. No desert is hotter or dryer.  You started your nap, emaciated from hunger and thirst.  Without any other source of food or water, you came back to us healthy and well fed.  Those are facts.

“You, our loved dead, our ghost who guides, came back and have stayed with us always. Whether he comes back like you did, Sando will live on at the Lake of Paradise.  He will be with us always in our hearts and souls at the least.  Our loved dead will not abandon us nor we them.”

Actually, the band of Sando got to the southern entry road to the wayside before we quite got back to camp.

Delit turned an sprinted to them!  “Sando!  Phappa!  Naleen!”

Big brown Phappa Al Oosa, smiled with delight and exclaimed, “Delit!  You are growing so well!  Your horn is lovely!”

Naleen’s eyes were sparkling as she exclaimed, “Hi, Sister!  We have missed you since I mated with Thom!”

Naleen gestured toward Sando with her horn.  There was a thin veil of magic radiating from it to envelope Sando.  “Big lunk here, did not want me to Pull beside him.  Just walk along and keep his heart beating.  Like meadow muffins I won’t Pull!

“We won’t let him try to pull full load.  I could not keep him from leaving us if he pulled a full load. He wanted to get here and see all of our whole family before I let him go to the Lake of Paradise.”

Sando, with a bit labored breath, said, “I want to leave Equestria’s roads at the same place where I first saw them.  I remember what a marvel they were then and still are today.”

Phapa looked past Delit to me.  “My stubborn old mule of a husband wants to come here to go to the Lake but he nearly left us back down the road a bit.  We saw that awful Red.  Carter was in harness beside him.  Carter actually kicked Red to keep him from using his magic to foul our Thom’s wheels.”

Sando looked up.  He was shockingly worn.  Old looking.  His eyes told a different story.  They were bright and reflected a mind still both alert and lively. I saw a look pass between Phapa, Naleen and Delit.  Delit’s magic reached back and pulled the hitch release for Sando.  Naleen and Phapa dropped their hitches too.  Delit and Naleen gently escorted Sando toward our camp.  

Phapa, with practiced skill, reset the caravan’s hitch for a single horse and pulled it on into the wayside.  The rest of Sando’s band followed.  Soon they were setting up their camp too.

Malit and Maina, leading their band, called the band of De Innis because Malit’s full name was Malit De Innis, came down the north entry road.  Malit pointed with a hoof and called to her band, “De Innis!  We will camp across the space between Sando and Rom!  That will give us all shared dancing green!”

Following her directions, her band set up across the space between Sando’s band and Rom’s band, creating an enclosed space shared by us all.  It was an open U shape facing the forest that we had come out of thirty years ago.

Solemnly, Nore’s and my fillies and our grand foals went to the edge of the woods and began to dig as only surprisingly powerful unicorns can dig.  The one exception was our filly Naleen who sat quietly beside Sando, keeping his old heart pumping properly.

Nore sat on Sando’s other side and asked quietly, “When you were dying, four days ago, did you get any glimpse of the Lake of Paradise?”

Sando turned his head to Nore and breath labored, told her, “I am not sure.  I may have.  There was a wonderful light and a sense of well being.  Then Naleen got my heart in her magic and started it to pumping again.”

He wept a few tears as he stated, “Naleen is a wonderful filly and a perfect wife to our Thom.  Our whole band was honored by her asking him to be by her side.  

“She has let me be able to say farewell for now to my whole family.  I promise that if I can do it, I shall return to be among you.”

I was snooping and found his account to be fascinating.  I was distracted by the fluttering roar of an entire platoon of Royal Armored Pegassi landing just outside of our camp in the wayside!

As their Sargent was checking their formation, an officer stepped forward.  I took one look and exclaimed in delight, “Vard!  I am so glad that you have come! I see that you brought an honor guard, too.  You must all stay for the feast that will follow our celebration!”

I noticed Sando’s ears prick up!  Malit and Maina heard it too!  They all converged on Captain Vard.  

Malit and Maina simply hugged him and then exclaimed, “Captian Vard!  We are so glad that you are here!  We want to thank you again for saving us and our caravan on Riten’s Notch!”

The platoon’s Sargent asked, “Captain Vard, Sir, may we break formation?”

Pausing from the greetings, he replied, “Break formation but stay together. Sharpshin, I want you to do a recon of the road from Haymarket.  Watch out for possible unicorn trouble.  Try to get the best intel that you can and report back.”

TO BE CONTINUED

<== PREVIOUS   NEXT ==>

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to MLP Fan Fiction

[ask-de-writer]

ON THE ROADS OF EQUESTRIA : Origin of the Rom, part 4 :  MLP Fan Fiction : Part 5 of 5

ON THE ROADS OF EQUESTRIA

The fourth part of the Origin of the Rom

ORIGIN OF THE ROM SERIES in reading order.  (will be completed as the stories are posted in linked form)

Part One : NORE’S CHOICE, which starts HERE

Part Two : WELCOME TO EQUESTRIA! which starts HERE

Part Three : FAIR AND UN-FAIR, which starts HERE

Part Four : ON THE ROADS OF EQUESTRIA, which starts HERE

Part Five : THE FIRST ROM HEARTHWARMING,  which starts HERE

Part Six : SANDO’S LAKE, which starts HERE

Part Seven : A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ROM, which starts HERE

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

7755 words

© 2016 by Glen Ten-Eyck

Writing begun 01/08/16

All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions, provided that such things are done without charge.  I will allow those who do commission art works to charge for their images.  All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fictions is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

I smiled agreeably, “He sure did! Now, just have him removed, physically from the Fairground and we will be back to work.”

I heard a welcome voice from beside and a bit behind me.  Shehan said, “I brought you your lunch, Marchhare.  I could not help but overhear.

“Mister Leroy, that was a lovely thing that you tried to do.   We thank you.

“As soon as Dan is out of the grounds we can get back to work.  I am sorry to say it but we have met too many like him and Foulip since the Haulmarket Summer Fair.”  She curtsied politely and went back to the encampment.

My lunch was two fruit filled Ka'chek buns, a big vegetable skewer and a mug of our dark tea.

I saw a familiar dark blue uniformed pony trotting our way.  Sargent Convoy.  Dan did not.  He just reached over and grabbed one of my fruit filled buns.  He took a big bite and sneered, “Get me kicked off the Fair, will you?  What do you think of this!?”

With the Sargent standing right behind him, Dan finished off the bun and made a grab for the second one. Sargent Convoy said, “Do you have Marchhare’s permission to take that?”

Without looking around, Dan snapped back, “Don’t need permission!  I am on the Village Council!  What I wants I can take!”

I spoke up, “No, Officer, he has no permission.  In the presence of the balance of the Council, he has stolen my fruit filled buns and used his membership in the Council as an excuse for his crime.”

Sargent Convoy nodded.  “That was what I thought.”  He efficiently arrested the protesting Dan and blew a whistle.  Two more RRP troopers came at a gallop.  After brief instructions, they hauled Dan away.

Sweetest sight that we had seen since I brought the Rom to Equestria was Dan’s rear as he was hauled away by the RRP.

It was a sign of just how well the band was paying attention to the situation that young Shehan was back promptly.  This time she had a tray with SIX fruit filled Ka'chek buns and five more of our throw away fair cups filled with our dark tea.

She replaced my two buns, gave one to Sargent Convoy and passed the others about to the remainder of the Council along with a tea for each of them.  

She curtsied to them all and said, “Rom saw what was just done.  He sends his regrets for his hasty words and actions.  Our whole band has agreed that you deserve our thanks.  We shall continue to help you for free just as soon as our meal is over.”

I smiled up at Leroy and the rest. “There you have it.  It was just as Shehan said, that we have seen too many of Dan and Foulip’s stripe.  Rom was already bothered by how we have already been treated only day before yesterday .  Dan just shoved a hoof up his rump at exactly the wrong time.”

The mare in the Council hung her head as she replied, “We took the trouble to inquire after you sent us our first signed contracts.  Every Fair that you have gone to had large gains in attendance and income.  Despite that, we have heard that many committees and Councils have dealt with you poorly.  We did want to do better by you.”

Shehan smiled.  “You did, Ma'am.  You just had one sour apple in the batch.  You are lucky.  The rest of the barrel is good.  You may be sure that we will come back, too. Places that we are actually welcome are too rare.”

The mare smiled and said, “Thank you. How come you can speak for the others?  Aren’t you too young?

I picked up that one.  “Shehan is young, yes.  Too young?  No.  She can speak for us all because she has and still does show the level of wisdom and sense that we respect.”

I pointed a hoof at Sargent Convoy and suggested, “While we were at RRP Headquarters, we had Shehan’s educational level tested.  How did she do?”

Sargent Convoy swallowed his bite of filled bun before replying, “Shehan was tested as a home schooled filly.  She scored past school graduation in all subjects.  She has a good grasp of Algebra and Geometry too.  

“Besides taking Shehan in when she had a broken neck and her recovery was uncertain, the Rom have given her a first class education.”

All four of the Council ponies were impressed.  Leroy asked, “Is there anything that we can do to help you, after all the help you have given us?”

Shehan beat me to the punch.  “Indeed there is.  We have been having trouble getting good quality dried grains, fruits and nuts.  If you can simply get us access to quality supplies, we will be well repaid.  Be sure that we will give you fair prices for them.”

The four Council members conferred briefly.  Leroy, showing some real respect, told Shehan, “Tell your horses that we can provide you with fruits and nuts.  Our orchards mostly survived this summer’s flood disaster in good shape.  We lost a lot of grain and hay, though.

“Mora said that she has a field of clover that survived well but getting to it could be a problem.  Her lane was washed out.  She had ponies in to cut it and windrow it but has not the means to bale it or get it out of the field with the lane destroyed.  What you can salvage is yours to keep.  She does not want to see it wasted.”

Shehan replied, “That is most gracious.  I will speak to Rom of this.”

Soon all of the band returned to the many tasks needed to finish setting up the Fairground.  With the others all busy, Sando and Shehan came up.

Sando smiled and offered, “Miss Mora? I am Sando.  Shehan you already know.  The others have the needful work in hoof.  We would like to see the problem of your lane. Perhaps we can do something to make it better.”

Mora nodded before asking, “Does Shehan know much of things like lanes and bridges?”

Sando smiled back.  “No, Ma'am.  She knows a good road from a bad.  We will bring her because those who do not know as much often have insights that we of experience have missed.  If she has no useful insight, she will learn from what she sees.  Either way is good.”

“I see.  Please come with me.”

The three trotted off to examine the problem.

It was late afternoon when they returned.   Sando was carrying a good clover bale on his back.  He was grinning.  Shehan was skipping happily.  Mora was walking beside a small wagon piled with more bales.

She told me, “This is the share that Sando and Shehan asked.  They saved my whole field.  We will be able to finish the harvest tomorrow.”  

Sando, all smiles, pointed out, “The basic idea was Shehan’s .  I was looking to make a bridge.  That would have been costly and time consuming.  

“Shehan thought of just using ropes across the washout.  She tied a net, like she learned to make in Manehatten by the Sea.  It held the bales and slid back and forth on a fixed rope.  I redesigned it but only to make it better.  We used it to get the bale equipment across to the field.  It took very little time after that to bring our first bale across.”

I smiled too.  “You did very well, Shehan and Sando.  Mora?  Would you please have our bales put just behind my four wheeled caravan?”

I pointed to the Fairground.  All was now ready and there were four vendors setting up.

Mora brightened up even more.  She hugged Shehan and said, “You saved my harvest and my farm.  That field was not the only one that we could not reach.  

“Don’t you miss not having a home?”

Shehan returned her hug and answered, “I was happy to do it, Miss Mora.  You have been good to my family.

I never had a home when I lived in Haulmarket.  Now I have the finest home that ever could be.”  She pointed to Maina and Malit’s caravan.  “Most every morning, I look out our window and see some new and wonderful place.  Between our caravan and the roads of Equestria, there is no better home to be had.”

Seeing the world with eyes opened by the child, I had to agree.  Our home was on the roads of Equestria.

~THE END~

<== PREVIOUS

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to MLP Fan Fiction

[ask-de-writer]

NORE’S CHOICE : Origin of the Rom: MLP Fan Fiction : (Part 6 of 10)

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to MLP Fan Fiction

Return to NORE’S CHOICE

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

NORE’S CHOICE

Part ONE of the Origins of the Rom

ORIGIN OF THE ROM SERIES in reading order.  (will be completed as the stories are posted in linked form)

Part One : NORE’S CHOICE, which starts HERE

Part Two : WELCOME TO EQUESTRIA! which starts HERE

Part Three : FAIR AND UN-FAIR, which starts HERE

Part Four : ON THE ROADS OF EQUESTRIA, which starts HERE

Part Five : THE FIRST ROM HEARTHWARMING,  which starts HERE

Part Six : SANDO’S LAKE, which starts HERE

Part Seven : A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ROM, which starts HERE

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

29000 words

© 2015 by Glen Ten-Eyck

Cover art by @wind-the-mama-cat​

Writing begun 08/09/15

All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

TUMBLR EXEMPTION

Blog holding members of Tumblr.com may freely reblog this story provided that the title, author and copyright information remain intact, unaltered, and are displayed at the head of the story.

Fan art, stories, music, cosplay and other fan activity is actively encouraged.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

They all returned to the cart. My big donkey ears overheard  Malit say softly, “I was hoping that he could be our new Master.”

Nore, choking on sobs, replied, “He did not want to be our Master.  Only to be our guide.  He wanted us to be free.”

In only a little time, they were underway again.  They were truly free of any Master at last. Especially me.

As soon as they were out of sight, I got up.  Minor advantage of being truly immortal.  I couldn’t die if wanted to, and I don’t.  Not true of most of the rest of the living things of the world though.  As soon as I had any idea that I might need a decoy, I started using the Orb of the Ages to find an old donkey who was already dying.  The one that I found was poor even for a donkey.

Working a small plot of land for a share of the crop, he was plowing when his heart gave out.  He died in the traces, like I had pretended to.

I appeared beside his body and separated him from the plow.

I do not teleport, though the difference between teleporting and temporal translocation is pretty technical.  The main difference is simply this.  What I do, temporal translocation uses no magic at all.  It stems from a property of time itself, when the nature of time is properly understood.  

When I had him ready, I shifted him back with me to the rock ledge out on Celestia’s Anvil.  There, I covered him with my sash and harnessed him in the one that I was wearing.  I took his.  Not a lot of difference between them, really. Plowing and cart haulage are both hard pulling work.

Wondering if he would ever be found and what would become of him, I left that nameless donkey behind and went ahead of the band, up into the Sunset Mountains.  I went to a spring further up the pass than where I directed them to go, and had a drink.  Grazed some too.  I don’t actually need it, but it is a comfortable habit, eating and drinking, I mean.

I also took the instant that it needed to make my disguise as Marchhare into my usual well fed but not really plump self.

~~ ~~ ~~

With Sando pulling the wagon, it was Rom scouting the way.  The barren landscape had one feature that was useful to Rom’s band.  It held old tracks, especially in the dry sandy clays.  “Look, Sando!  There are the tracks of Marchhare’s previous trips!”

From inside the cart, Nore said in a broken voice, “Even from the Lake he still guides us!”

The other mares heard and nodded. “It is like he is still here to show us the way.”

Malit stumbled on a stone. Shortly so did Sarel.  Even with the protection of the sashes, they were sweating far too little.  Rom consulted with Sando, “Malit and Sarel are showing signs of sunstroke.  Can you pull them too, in a bit?”

Sando replied, “Do not wait until they collapse.  Get them both into the caravan now.  Like Marchhare, I will pull until I cannot.  We will get them to the spring somehow.”

Under a cloudless, blazing sky, Sando leaned into the harness and set an even faster pace than he had been.  Tears leaking, he was muttering, “My fault!  If I had simply listened to Rom we would not be here.  Our good guide would still be living!  My fault!  I will NOT let another die for my failing.”

Nore, inside the cart, under the cover, heard him.  “Sando!  Sando.  Marchhare lives.  He is guiding us still.  He may be at the Lake of Paradise but he has not left us! You told me of the Lake of Paradise where we will live on, yourself. By the tracks that we are following, he is still with us, showing us the way!”

Sando spared a glance over his shoulder, reminded of the tale that he had told to comfort Nore and took some comfort in it himself.  He replied, “Thank you, Nore.  It is so easy to um … forget.”

Rom overheard and he pointed out, “All that Marchhare did for us, Sando, he did freely and willingly. Giving us the end of his long life to save ours was, in his eyes, a worthy thing.  Besides, Nore is right.  We are still being guided by him.”

Sando nodded slowly as he worked it out.  Then he increased his pace even more.  The day crawled slowly past.  It was nearly evening when the band rounded a dry ridge of gray stone and saw some growing plants.

One of the two mares still on her feet rushed forward and carefully trimmed the precious leaves away from the thorny branches.  Though salivating from hunger, she brought the harvest to Rom.  He passed it into the canvas cover of the wagon.

Nore called, “Brief stop, Sando!  Rom!  Wait up a moment!”  With a shaking hoof, she passed out a meager ration of the leaves.  “These are for Sando!  He has been doing the pulling.  He gets first portion!”

Rom and the remaining two mares formed a group at the wagon’s rear and each received a share.

As soon as all had swallowed the small nourishment and moisture in the leaves, Rom got the whole band moving again.  There was hope in every step as they entered the shade of the pass.

There were more and more growing plants.  They even found a tiny seep of moist earth as they forged ahead to find the promised spring and meadow.  When the walls of the pass suddenly opened out, the whole band saw a pool, ripples radiating out from the spring’s source.  All about was fine grass, the sweetest that they had ever tasted, at least so it seemed.  There were some trees near to the pool and more on the slopes of the small dale that cupped the spring.

Nore’s eyes went wide at the sight.  “It is like the Lake of Paradise that awaits us!  This is Sha Ja Shehan, the Spring of Salvation!”

The others, even Sando, exchanged knowing glances and nodded.  None could gainsay Nore.  It was indeed the water and good pasture that was their salvation from death on Celestia’s Anvil.  But for one thing, it almost did appear to be paradise come to the world of the living.

Sando hung his head.  “I could have brought him in the caravan.  If only he had known how close he was to safety.  I …  Have failed again.”

Nore wrapped his hanging neck in a hug.  “No, Sando.  You have not failed at all.  Look about you. The spring of pure water, the fine grass and excellent shade.  All of this is ours now because of your so-called failings.  Without them, we would not be here, safe from famine and thirst.  We would still be cast out slaves starving or dying of thirst in Gyptia.  

“Marchhare’s death is not your fault at all.  He did know how close he was.  He made two trips to Gyptia and back.  He came for us the third time.  He knew the route. He knew that it was his time to go.  Perhaps he knew that if his load was added to what you were already going to pull, that you would not be able to make it here.  

“If you failed, those of us in the caravan would die too.  The sun of the desert has no mercy.  He was a good and wise donkey.  Freeborn himself, he gave us our freedom.”

Nore did break down and cry. “All that he had to do to free us was die.  He did it without complaint.  May the Lake be a good place for his life beyond this one.”

Hearing Nore, Sarel thoughtfully tried something that none of them had ever done except to replace it or clean it.  She removed her headstall and bit of slavery.  She shook her head.  She attempted to graze.  Shortly, she sat and stared at the headgear that she had worn since her foaling.  She was weeping.

Nore, seeing Sarel’s experiment, tried it too.  Shortly, she joined Sarel.  “We may be free but it feels wrong to be without our headstalls, doesn’t it?”

Sarel nodded sadly.

Nore thought deeply.  Suddenly she smiled.  “We have worn a headstall all of our lives.  To feel right, we still need one!  These have been the mark of our slavery. We need a headstall that is the mark of our freedom!

“What makes it possible for us to be slaves with this?  By the bit, we can be reined and steered to another’s will!  The lead ring under the chin, makes our head follow when a lead rope is pulled!  We only need to rid the headstall of the things that bind us to another’s will and we have headstalls of freedom!

“We can be Free and still have the comfort and safety of a headstall!”

Rom overheard Nore’s enthusiasm and thoughtfully went to check the caravan’s lockers for tools and supplies.  He knew already that Marchhare’s caravan was not ordinary. It was made for long journeys and had much that was needed for repairs in emergencies far from help.

He returned with a hooked knife meant to shape wheel spokes.  He picked up Nore’s headstall and studied it for a moment.  He made several careful cuts.  He thriftily saved the bit, lead ring and scraps.

Rom tilted Nore’s head up and carefully fitted the modified headstall.  He tested it for security and nodded.

“This was the sign of your slavery.  Now it is your Freedom.  Do not disgrace it by any unjust or unkind act.”  Rom smiled widely and hugged Nore to him.  The rest of the band had gathered about quietly while he was fixing Nore’s Freedom.

He next took Sarel’s headstall and did the same.  He continued until only he and Sando remained.  He saw Sando’s forming revolt and forestalled it.  “As the leader of this band, you ALL come first.  That is the duty of the leader.  To care for the entire band before himself.  Give me your sign of slavery and take back your Freedom.”

With a few quick cuts, it was done.  

Then Rom took off his own.  Nore stepped forward.  “The band of Rom has chosen me to take your slavery from you for us all, Rom.  Give to us the sign of your slavery and receive from us, your Freedom.”  Deeply moved, Rom handed over his headstall and the knife.

Nore cut away the parts that made slavery possible and then each of the band touched Rom’s Freedom before she gave it back and buckled it into place.

She pronounced proudly, “Now, none of us are slaves.  We shall wear our Freedom proudly and NEVER be a slave to another Master again!”

That night there was a mild rain. “Get into the caravan, all that we can,” Rom directed.  Sando, Sarel, and I shall shelter under it.  That is the best that we can do for now.”

“Look at the sun rising above the mountains!” Nore called, actually frisking a bit.  “Taste the grass!  The rain washed it or something!  It is even better now than it was!”

Sarel did graze a tasty breakfast.  She went to the meadow’s edge where the grasses were longer and tougher.  She gathered quite a pile of it before curious Nore came over.  “What are you doing, Sarel?  These are not going to make very good hay.”

Sarel smiled, “I know that, Nore.  They have good fibers though.  I can make strings out of them. If I can make strings, I can weave cloth.  It may not be the best cloth until we find better material, but we can attach it to the caravan to make more cover for those who won’t fit into it.  Perhaps we can find some sort of gum that will close up the weave and make it more waterproof.”

Nore picked up string making quickly.  It was not a complex task.  Sarel gathered the grasses and Nore made coil after coil.  Rom watched the other mares join in, one by one.  He turned to Sando.

“They have found a harder Master than any horse of Gyptia, Sando.  They drive themselves and are their own Master.  Let us join them.”

Sando and Rom began to gather grasses too.  Sando wondered aloud, “Would Marchhare approve of what we are doing?  We will be changing his caravan quite a bit.”

Tears that were never far from her eyes beginning to overflow, Nore replied, “Marchhare gave us all that he had, even life itself.”  She sniffled, “He would want us to have as good as can be.  That is why we are doing it.  It will honor him.”

She touched her new Freedom and went on, “It was he that first told us that we are free.  We owe him only one thing now.  Our best at EVERYTHING that we do.  Thus we give back to him what he gave to us.  He gave us his very best.  We must never do less than that.”

The others were softly weeping but not a one slowed or gave over the work.

By afternoon, Sarel nodded approval.  “Those two saplings will work for the loom cross bars. We need to hang one them from that branch after we tie strings to it. They will be the warp threads.”

When that was done, “Now it gets tricky!  We need to comb these warp threads out so that none of them cross each other and tie them neatly in bunches of six, down at the bottom.  We attach them to the other sapling to stretch them neatly.”  It took a bit of adjusting and fiddling to satisfy Sarel, who was an expert weaver.  She began tying many loops of her thread

“What are all of those little loops for?” asked Nore.

“We need them to catch the warp threads.  Each of these will fasten to one thread.  A stick through every other one of them will pull half the threads forward and make a tunnel that we can put the woof thread through.  Then we let that half go back and pull the other half forward.  That traps the thread and makes a tunnel for the next thread.  All that we will need then to be able to make cloth of this will be a way to pack the woof threads tightly and evenly.”

They all stood about and thought deeply of the looms that they had seen with their fine metal combs to pack the threads.  Rom did include young Nore in the group trying to sort the problem out.  

She asked, “Since we have no way to make a comb, could we use a straight stick?  Close the tunnel to trap the thread and then push a stick through the new tunnel and use it to pack the, woof did you call it?  The strings of the loom will be the comb part, that way.”

After some experimentation and Malit doing some expert carving of the stick, to make an even edge to press the thread, the idea worked.  It was not as fast as a regular loom, but it did work.

Sando took Rom aside and said, “I now understand why you are so effective as a leader.  I would have left Nore out of the discussion because she is young and has no experience.  That is the very reason that you did include her.

“She saw the problem differently from the rest of us BECAUSE she had no experience.  Even if she had not seen a solution, she would have learned from the discussion.”  Sando shook his head.  “Such wisdom as yours, I hope to have someday.”  He sighed.  

Sarel was standing back and sheltering her eyes from the noonday sun as she directed, “Pull it a little tighter to the top of the caravan box.  That’s it!  The regular cover will fit over it now!  That will help to keep it from leaking.”

Nore was over by the spring, picking cresses and clovers.  She gathered quite a few of them, actually.  She lugged them all over by the fire.  She had the stones that she had used to make the paste for evenly dividing the odd bits of fruit and nuts, while out on the Anvil.

While Malit looked on, Nore began to mash the mixed greens together.  As fast as she had a decent portion, the filly scooped it together into a firm patty and put it on a hot stone by the fire to bake.

Malit sat beside Nore and began to turn the baking portions.  As they got nicely toasted on both sides, she set them aside to cool.  They made enough for the whole band to have several.

Malit’s ears suddenly popped up and swiveled to point back down the ravine toward the desert.  “Rom! I hear hooves coming up from the Anvil!”

<== PREVIOUS      NEXT ==>

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to MLP Fan Fiction

Return to NORE’S CHOICE