Since Bio's are gone, here's mine in Blog. :P · 6:38pm Dec 28th, 2013
I have a thing for ships, mainly those driven by reciprocating steam engines, ranging from paddle wheelers to battleships, like the H.M.S. Agamemnon of WWI. At the same time I love starships, Star Trek's Federation vessels being the best looking in my opinion, I like the Enterprise-E and the NX-01 the best. Honestly, the D was kinda ugly if you ask me, but I love Next Gen either way. Really, if it's a ship of any kind I like it. (Unless it's you know, the type of ship relating to sexual connections...that's the wrong type of ship for my interest.)
My favourite pony; Octavia.
Twilight is second.
Roseluck is third.
(Although my favourite character test from http://tylian.net/sort/pony.html disagrees with me after Octavia. :P)
Rank Character
1 Octavia
2 Rose Luck
3 Carrot Top
3 Spitfire
5 Colgate
5 Dr. Whooves
7 Fancy Pants
8 Twilight Sparkle
9 Vinyl Scratch
10 Cheerilee
11 Princess Luna
11 Princess Cadence
13 Rarity
14 Cloud Chaser
14 Flitter
16 Zecora
17 Flim
17 Flam
17 Lyra
17 Bon Bon
21 Discord
22 Lightning Dust
23 Applejack
24 Fluttershy
25 Spike
26 Trixie
27 Princess Celestia
27 Berry Punch
29 Shining Armor
29 Soarin'
29 King Sombra
29 Twist
29 Gilda
29 Snowflake / Horsepower
29 Fleur de Lys
36 Rainbow Dash
36 Pinkie Pie
36 Queen Chrysalis
36 Nightmare Moon
36 Sweetie Belle
36 Apple Bloom
36 Scootaloo
36 Big Macintosh
36 Diamond Tiara
36 Silver Spoon
36 Pipsqueak
36 Iron Will
36 Derpy
36 Braeburn
36 Caramel
36 Babs Seed
36 Photo Finish
36 Hoity Toity
36 Prince Blueblood
55 Granny Smith
Pony I think could use more attention; Lemon Hearts, what? Expecting a picture? Well I'm too lazy go use Google. 
Headcanon on magic: I don't think the ponies have actual magic. The way Twilight explains it in "Feeling Pinkie Keen" and how it's portrayed in the show doesn't seem like magic at all. So lets get the science-y stuff shall we?
So to keep it simple I basically think that there's an type of energy within the Equestrian dimension (Or for fics where Equestria is in the same universe as Earth then the energy is limited to their solar system, or planet, generated by an element in the planet's core, or the sun's core) and after millions of years ponies evolved to harness said energy.
A unicorn's horn acts as both an energy converter and focussing array, taking an otherwise neutral energy and turning into a usable power source which can then be manipulated to do many various tasks. Almost like electricity, hell if Tesla ever got his "Tower of Power" working it would seem a lot like how I view canon magic. (The Tower of Power making wireless electricity, you would never need to charge anything again because of the air itself being electrified. Although batteries would still be needed if you go out of range of the nearest tower.
Hell the more I think about it the more I realise if the things worked modern day Earth would be very similar to Equestria, but with technological devices instead of a bony growth on your head.)
Pegasi's wings and hooves both act as energy converters, but unlike a unicorn's horn they don't really focus the energy, just transform it into something workable. This energy radiating outwards allows them to fly and manipulate clouds, when a pegasus goes to move a cloud the energy directed through their hooves encases the cloud in a non-visible force field. This very low level force field being what they use to move clouds, much like putting water in a jar and then pushing the jar, instead of them pushing the cloud itself. And this force field has its own "climate control" if you will, the temperature, humidity, and pressure are all kept at the optimal point for creating a cloud.
Much like how we can create artificial clouds indoors by use of controlled climate through air conditioning and humidifiers, along with the introduction of nuclei.
As for earth ponies, only their hooves act as energy converters and they have very little control over the amounts of energy they direct to be converted. In this sense they're almost always radiating a steady stream of energy that can make the ground fertile, and increase the effectiveness of their muscles.
The alicorns are the same way, but with more powerful energy converters and a very precise focussing array. I don't believe Celestia controls the sun, well not a sun as we think of it, as that would destroy the planet due to gravity, so instead I'm more inclined to believe that instead of a Main Sequence Star, the planet's sun is actually a small close object, maybe even artificial in nature.
An artificial sky would also explain the whole thing going on with the sky in the Season 4 opener, as regardless of whether or not the sun revolved around the planet, the sky would simply not be half day and half night with the sun and moon up together. It would most likely be twilight, or just daytime with a day visible moon, so no matter how you cut it, thanks to Season 4 one can safely assume that Equestria's sky is not normal.
My idea is that the planet is a rogue planet. By this I mean it was knocked out of orbit of its star, by the close passage of either a extremely large asteroid or another closely orbiting planet. This happened after ponies and other sapient species had evolved and had been building their societies. In order to survive unicorns had to pool together their magic to create a artificial sun and moon.
This is also why it needs to be controlled, as to both put more magical power into the constructs, recharging the enchantments if you will, and to get them to move, and it's why there's no delay from when shifted to actually being seen as moving, because the construct is significantly closer to the planet than a normal star. This also allows it to be smaller and use a lot less power, thus making it easier to have been constructed in the first place.
Likewise trapping NMM on what is basically a magical construct seems like a better prison for a magical being than a normal old moon, in my opinion.
And of that the four stars that are seen to move in to aid in her escape are likewise probably artificial constructs, that were created most likely for navigational purposes, as the planet's movement through space means that the actual stars would've shifted relative positions in the sky and thus would no longer make for the most reliable of navigational aids.
When I think about it this also makes sense for NMM's plan to bring eternal darkness, as simply not moving a normal sun would just mean one half is stuck in eternal darkness while the other half is stuck in eternal daylight. As opposed to the sun being a artificial construct where she could literally dissipate the spell and get rid of the sun entirely.
All I can say is "Thank God" that the stuff was saved under the edit feature, cause I would not have rewritten all that info on a whim.
To be honest, that's some pretty sound headcanon logic on magic. Even though I agree with some of it, I'm just gonna go ahead and quote a great redneck.
That energy conversion thing makes a lot of sense and would probably have to radiate from the planet's core in some way to get full coverage, but it does still have issues. Things like weather magic and levitation are fairly straightforwards as are the mental magic elements, but we have seen Twilight transform and create things that seemed to be physical objects. You could probably write off the creation as illusions and force fields like the Holodeck, but the transformations still cause a major problem I cannot see an easy solution for.
As for the sun and moon thing, you are not alone, there are just lots of whiny kids who want to cling to one line in one episode which was read from a book for children and is clearly contradicted by every other display of Celestia and Luna's power. I recommend reading some of Rokas's stuff because he is with us on this, although my headcanon is slightly different from his.
I personally think that what they do started as a useless religious ritual just like many of the rituals which were historically practiced on Earth. The ancient unicorns did their daily spell believing it was actually doing something, and the sisters took it over once they took the throne without realizing it was bogus (this knowledge is the key difference between Rokas and I, he goes on the assumption that they knew but got trapped in a cycle of lies which the unicorns started). Luna figured it out when she first tried to cause eternal night and then worked out a super-powered illusion spell to bend light from the sun away from the planet just like Rokas described which was what caused the eternal night we saw, although I am not sure when she would tell Celestia about her discovery so Celestia may or may not be in on what is happening.
As for Discord messing with the sun and moon, he seems to be almost as powerful as Q so I give him a pass on the two occasions where his magic messed with the sun and moon.
Also, I just took that test and it came up with this. Rainbow is a definite number one for me, and there are a bunch after her that I cannot really pick between. The general shun pile at the bottom also looks about right, so I am ok with calling this test decent even if it does have some flaws.
1 Rainbow Dash
2 Spike
2 Princess Luna
2 Queen Chrysalis
2 Lyra
2 Trixie
7 Discord
8 Iron Will
9 Lightning Dust
10 Soarin'
11 Derpy
11 Vinyl Scratch
13 Big Macintosh
14 Zecora
15 Twilight Sparkle
16 Rarity
17 Octavia
18 Spitfire
19 Rose Luck
20 Flim
20 Flam
22 Bon Bon
23 Snowflake / Horsepower
24 Caramel
25 Prince Blueblood
26 Princess Celestia
26 Princess Cadence
26 Berry Punch
29 Scootaloo
30 Cheerilee
30 Silver Spoon
30 Pipsqueak
33 Sweetie Belle
33 Apple Bloom
35 Carrot Top
36 Granny Smith
37 Fluttershy
37 Colgate
37 Dr. Whooves
37 Braeburn
37 Babs Seed
37 Cloud Chaser
37 Flitter
44 Applejack
44 Pinkie Pie
44 Shining Armor
44 Diamond Tiara
44 King Sombra
44 Twist
44 Gilda
44 Photo Finish
44 Hoity Toity
44 Fancy Pants
54 Nightmare Moon
55 Fleur de Lys
1657282
That's exactly what I was thinking. To be more specific my head canon there's an molten element in the planet's core that generates the field due to rotation, much the same way Earth's magnetic field is with molten iron.
As for the transformations I was more thinking that involved the manipulation of DNA directly, like radiation can due. (Except much more controlled, with 90% less chance of causing cancer.
)
Creating things is relatively easy, think of Star Trek's replicators, they take matter and arrange it to any form specified. All Twilight has to do is rearrange the atoms of Oxygen, Nitrogen, CO2 and whatever else is in the air into whatever she wants.
I'll check out that guy when I have the time.
Yeah the test isn't 100%, but it's pretty accurate for its simplicity.
1664565 I was actually thinking of the "turn things into oranges" spell we saw Twilight practicing.
That is just not biologically feasible no matter how you cut it. There are also other cases like the zipper mouth or when Trixie removed Pinkie's muzzle so it is not just one special case that needs an explanation like the "eternal night".
Of course, this is all neglecting the fact that genetic manipulation does not work that way so your explanation could not work no matter how you cut it. The best you could do with that is alter the offspring of the creature you target which is a far cry from anything we see in the show.
1665034 You commented just as I updated my comment.
(Though it wasn't about genes.)
Well the orange/bird, zipper mouth, or removal of Pinkie's mouth completely could just be labelled off as "cartoon physics" because, well that's probably what it is.
Otherwise I'd say the direct manipulation of matter, rearranging the atoms itself into different forms. (Which actually is what my updated comment talked about, but for creating things rather than transformation. Actually this method is technically the same thing though.
)
As for genetic manipulation, sure current gene splicing mainly only effects the offspring, but if you were to directly rearrange the DNA of a being, not just a part of it, but to screw with the whole thing, across the entire body at once, the being would start to mutate as nothing (Or just too little) of their original DNA would be left.
1665059 Yeah, that is probably true. Matter manipulation plus cartoon physics would make that stuff work, or at least get as close to working as any cartoon physics ever does.
Also, genetic manipulation still does not work that way. In order to cause drastic changes like that, you have to do it during development and it happens over a long period of time. Once a creature is matured, its cells settle into a stable pattern of replacement and will not make major changes even if you do tinker with them. Even if you do kick off something like cancer that grows out of control or develops something new, it will still take months or years for anything to come of it because the cells have to grow and divide thousands of times to form the new structure.
1665226 Oh I know it's not instantaneous like the orange thing, (In which matter manipulation does give a possible explanation, but the frog and bird should've been killed as they lost all their organs, including brain, to a bunch of plant cells
) but it is possible to do without needing to rely on the offspring.
Like I said "across the entire body at once" which means every single cell at the same time. Cells make identical clones of themselves, so if you change them all at once then all their clones will be modified as well.
1665272 Yeah, the orange thing is just silly.
However, the thing with the gene tweaking is that it still does not work the way you are thinking it will in most cases. Basically, in order to develop new tissue you must have stem cells so tweaking the genes of mature cells will not cause the growth of new tissue. You have to force some of them to change into stem cells (or create new stem cells) or they will just keep on doing the same thing they were doing with the new genetic material hanging around doing nothing as will all new cells they produce.
1665387 Hmm, I guess. There may be a loophole if someone were to look hard enough though.
I don't care much for genetic manipulation though, I'd rather solve any problems with technology. But that's cause I'm an engineer.
(Well okay I'm not one yet, but I plan to when I have the money for college.)
1665409 I am the same way, but it is still useful to know the basics of what can and cannot be done by other fields. You will wind up working with them at some point and it is best if you already have some kind of background so you can speak with them effectively.
1665459 I guess, but it still seems like there must be a way to mutate an adult through genetic manipulation.
I dunno, maybe it's just one too many sci-fis.
1665470 That would be "choice B", just like all the silly things sci-fi shows do with lasers, spaceflight, and so on.
1665558 The others I know which are and aren't possible, at least in theory, but then again those are more in the engineering field.
1665622 Yeah, so you spot all the silly mistakes there. Everything even remotely technical is just as madly mangled so you cannot assume anything you see on TV is even remotely possible or accurate without checking. I have made a habit of figuring out what can and cannot be done so I actually know this shit, but you should definitely take the time to research anything you are considering using for your headcanon like I did when I worked out some details like how to make changeling physiology actually work because there are a lot of issues with the giant bug concept that most people do not know about.
1665659 I normally know enough of real world science to not have to research what sci-fi tech is and isn't possible. I excelled in my science classes, but they don't really cover genetic manipulation, unless I'm missing something.
I didn't really think of them as just giant bugs, but something more complex with more animal like organs. Hard to say if they have an exoskeleton or not because it looks like that of a beetle, yet the way they move their legs you should be able to see how the shell segments at the joints, which you don't. (Though that could just be the basic animation style not showing details... but they're also pretty flexible for an exoskeleton.)
Curious as to what your head canon is on them, since I never really gave them much thought.
1665731 Here is the dump of my text file. Let me know what questions you have because It is more written for me than anyone else so some of it will probably confuse you.
changeling physiology
size:
height (to top of head): .9~1.2m
mass: 30~50kg
chitenous, segmented exoskeletons must be thick and strong to support weight
joints in particular have extremely high load bearing requirements
as a result, changeling joints are much more complicated than insect joints
have a bearing pin going fully through the inner layer with cushioning tissue around it
also serves as natural armor, however healing would be very slow like bone
the thickness of the exoskeleton would make molting a slow process
faces are a thiner, more pliable layer with a secondary skull-shell to protect the brain
must have large, well developed heart and lungs like a bird or bat with hemoglobin-based blood
different from terrestrial arthropods to allow larger bodies and increased neural activity
use dual tracheae to allow continuous unidirectional airflow (in the nose, out the mouth)
this allow exceptionally efficient O2/CO2 transfer beyond what birds are capable of
continuous exhale allows continuous talking or singing without stopping to breathe
this is made possible by the lack of a spinal column and reduced muscles
neck is fairly inflexible with just a pin at each end and rotary disks in the middle
disks are like the turret on a tank, but have short range of motion locked by bone pegs
have a small esophagus due to feeding primarily on emotions
stretches to accommodate food and restricts the tracheae
this forces them to quickly regurgitate any food in the esophagus if they have to fly
must have thermoregulation to maintain physiological efficiency and observed activity
can pump blood into the wings to act as radiators or solar collectors
also have sweat glands primarily around the head, back, and wing muscles
theses are the highest heat generation areas, although there are some all over the body
this increases food and water requirements to mamal-like levels
senses:
must have excelent vision for flight, eyes are primary sensory input
eyes are adapted to see a lower radiation band than humans, can see near-IR but not blue
range is approximately 500 nm to 1400 nm
cornia reflects higher frequencies which makes the eyes appear blue in daylight
underneath the cornia, eyes are fairly typical, with a vertical slitted pupel
color varies between individuals with green, gold, and grey being most common
brown and red are rare but possible, but blue/violet are not due to cornia
"grey" can be blue/violet pigments or an IR-primary color in addition to true grey
all colors have varying shades, blends, irridesence, and so on
eyes may get a blue tint in moderate light from cornia
Chrysalis's eyes are damaged and lack this protection
this has damaged her eyes and ruined her night vision
this improves low-light vision, but requires larger eyes to get good resolution
also have tapetum lucidum for improved low-light vision
eyeshine is typically less pronounced than normal reflection off the cornea
hearing is also good, but not exceptional
touch is reasonably acute, but nowhere near human hands
have relatively weak sense of smell because they rely on eyes for threat detection
taste is relatively strong to compensate for weak smell in detecting toxins
have an additional unique magic/emotion detecting sense
gives changelings an exceptional understanding of what nearby creatures are feeling
this also gives an exceptional awareness between changelings with two-way reading
this connection has been known to make outsiders think they have a hive mind
holes are in a pattern unique to individuals, serves as visual identification
(stolen from "Love Mine")
1665779 That's very detailed, and interesting.
I think you forgot to mention that not only can they sense magic and emotions, but they have a horn, of sorts, and can do magic. After all it's about the only way they can change their form like they do. (Unless you just left it out on purpose, but I'd imagine like a Unicorn that the horn would be filled with nerves and a biological form of energy converter and focussing array, be cool to name such organs but I'm terrible at naming things.
)
Or you could have it be of a chemical nature, in which they secrete an mind altering substance to make you see a pony instead of a changeling, but that would have a limited range which doesn't seem to be the case in the show, so magic it is.
Also:
Dat spelling mistake.
1665970 Thanks, and the horn does do magic.
It was obvious enough to me without mentioning it and this file is not really meant for anyone else as I said which is why it was left out, although I will probably go add a line about it. 
Also, that is an amusing typo, although I am honestly surprised there are not more given that I did this in Notepad.
Also, I just realized I forgot to mention magic storage. They work kind of like a battery/capacitor in that they can store up love/magic, so if they are allowed to charge their reserves for an extended period of time (at least a month for full charge) they have the ability to unleash it all in a very short burst giving them a tremendous spike potential (as in more than Twilight), but then they are totally shot until they can recharge their reserves. Needless to say, the changelings at the wedding were a bit on the starved side because holding more is less efficient so only Chrysalis had any real charge to work with.
Ok, I just wrote up the notes on magic and history so here they are:
magic/love energy:
changelings can do magic, but they mostly draw their power from their love energy reserve
it takes at least a month to build up a full charge, and is usually much longer
holding more energy induces more losses to biological processes and less efficent storage
this energy can all be released in a very short period of time if needed
this makes a well-fed changeling devestating in a fight, but recharging afterwards is slow
history:
changelings were closely associated with earth pony tribes to cover their weaknesses
changelings kept them from becoming slaves, but were hated by the other tribes for it
were initially part of Equestria and were critical to the military for their burst power
society in general shifted against them over time due to their shapeshifting
remained important to the military, were well respected by most old mil families and Luna
the mistreatment of changelings was part of what pushed Luna over the edge
changelings and most old families went with Luna, but the population stayed with Celestia
changelings were driven out after Luna was banished
Celestia erased them from history and cast them mosters along with Luna/NMM
changelings were forced to sneak around to gather love which renforced pony hatred of them
this made it very hard for them to survive so their population started slowly declining
this decay was what eventually forced Chrysalis into invading after diplomacy failed
she was hoping Luna would be able to turn things around, but it didn't happen
1666761 Interesting history, most people just make them out as monsters.
Makes it more complex but I think it's neat.
1666807 Thanks. That came about when I was considering how the evolution would work, and then I realized that they actually work very nicely in a symbiotic relationship with Earth Ponies who are otherwise screwed all over the place because they have nothing on the other subtypes. Even if they do have extra strength and durability, it cannot be that much greater based on the competitions we see between AJ and Rainbow so they are sunk trying not to get eaten by things like Manticores or Hydras without any natural escape mechanism or special defense. As such it would make a lot of sense for them to live with the much more flexible changelings who can provide a flying distraction and magical artillery to protect the ponies who in turn feed the changelings and take care of them after they blow their energy reserves.
The shape shifting also ties into that because it makes it impossible for an aggressor to identify the changelings when they are seizing up the situation which makes things far harder to plan for when there is no way to tell how many changelings there are or what kind of condition they are in. Later on it becomes a major strategic advantage because changelings are the ultimate spies and saboteurs which helps to make up for their relatively small numbers and the shortcomings of earth ponies in direct combat which helps to maintain the balance described in the Hearth's Warming play when you strip away cartoon protection.
After all, just because they initially evolved to prey on ponies does not mean it is the optimal solution just like how humans historically adapted to work with real horses despite the fact that they are part of our natural prey population (horses have basically no defense against human endurance hunting).
1666930 But just like the horse they were replaced, though it was by the unification of the pony races rather than the advent of engines, but the same principle. (Cept they didn't become pets
)
1666936 Exactly.
They slowly went from a odd but invaluable friends to creepy and dangerous monsters, and as intelligent beings they were not going to sit back and take it forever. I think it is also safe to assume that Discord's first reign of chaos was partially responsible for the shift because it would have to have happened between unification and Nightmare Moon, but I cannot see it as anything but a catalyst when all the elements for the shift are already there.
Regardless, the only possible outcome of that shift is war unless there are major crackdowns to protect changeling rights, and we have two perfect points for flareups with Nightmare Moon and the invasion. This also casts some interesting light on Luna because she would have been directly involved in the first one and the second occurred 6~9 months after her return (season 4 apparently starts one year after the start of season 1 based on the summer sun celebration) which is far too close to be a coincidence. The timing also works nicely for an attempt at diplomacy being rejected out of hand which lends further credibility to the theory that Luna historically supported the changelings so they tried to use her as an avenue back into pony society. That then crashed and burned because Celestia still seems to be the one with all the power so the changelings felt like their only remaining option was war which lead to the invasion.
1666974 War doesn't work unless you're human. Because war is kinda our thing, we're the masters of it.
1666980 War is what happens when negotiations fail. We are just stubborn bastards with more subdivisions than individuals so we do it a lot.
More seriously, war is a diplomatic tool that politicians can resort to when an agreement cannot be reached (doing nothing is an agreement) which forces a settlement which one or both sides is not especially happy with. In this case, the discrimination against changelings constitutes an unacceptable situation which neither side is willing to budge on so the only possible result is an escalation of the conflict. The first step is demonstrations and rioting like what happened in historical civil rights movements, and when that is met with sharper restrictions and aggression then the escalation is armed conflict. That would start as an insurgency as fringe groups start taking more drastic action against oppressive forces and eventually escalate into a full civil war when Luna and elements of the military decide that enough is enough and turn on Celestia.
This could be stopped if the ponies were willing to compromise and accept the changelings as equals, but once things get violent then it is almost certain that things will escalate to open war in an uncontrollable spiral of fear and hate.
1667019 Maybe.
But I don't predict that happening anytime soon in canon.
1667022 True, although that was the historical cycle that led up to the first mess with Nightmare Moon. Canon would not have covered the diplomatic leadup to the invasion, although it would explain why they were on guard. The only places for it to go from here is either another round of fighting or Twilight shaking up the power structure enough to allow diplomacy to work. After all, I cannot imagine Celestia taking her student disagreeing with her on this well which could give Twilight and Luna the opportunity to make some more radical changes.
Of course, it does offer lots of very interesting opportunities for changeling-centric stories, especially if you throw some human toys into the mix. After all, it only takes one engineer to lead an industrial revolution and put modern weapons into mass production which should be more than enough to turn a war in favor of the changelings, especially if you throw human tactics into the mix. I could probably do it myself with all the random things I know how to do/make, and you are probably in about the same boat as me on that.
1667050 I've studied enough design plans to get Equestria WWI era aircraft, WWII era tanks, WWII era ships, and guns are hopelessly simple, plus they already have the tech to build a lot of this stuff.
They obviously have steam engines, as shown by the train, so they pretty much already hit the industrial revolution and would have the ability to mass produce fairly modern weapons. But they wouldn't be able to make all the fancy polymer stuff modern weapons have, but things like the Bren, Webley, Sten, Lee Enfield, and such they should already be able to produce with some simple adjustments to their existing factories.
Well a Sten is stamped instead of machined so that would take speciality machines, but the others could be made with a lathe and mill, which are required to make something like a steam engine, and other things we see in Equestria. Just retool the locomotive factories and now you have arms plants.
Though bullets may be harder, depends on what resources Equestria has available, because smokeless powder, even if you do something simple like WWI-WWII Cordite powder it would still require gun cotton and chemicals Equestria probably doesn't have.
And black powder can't be used in automatic weapons as it'll foul quickly and cause jamming. (Except maybe on ye olden Gatling guns.
)
1667816 That is where I am as well, and that kind of force would make a total mockery of the Royal Guard. Machine Guns turn just about every tactic the guards have into a mass suicide, and there is no way pegasi will be able to get at heavy bombers cruising along at 30,000 feet.
As for powders, that is also not that hard. Even if there is no industrial ammonia/nitric acid production, you can find sodium nitrate in certain minerals (saltpeter) and use that to to make nitric acid fairly easily. Once you have that, the production of nitrocellulose (guncotton) is just a matter of soaking something like cotton in the acid and rinsing the hell out of it to stabilize it.
You could also look to set up some chemical plants with local help because ammonia is not that hard to produce. You just need to make a high pressure continuous flow system to react nitrogen and hydrogen gas which is mostly a mechanical problem. The next step is turning the ammonia into nitric acid which just uses the same type of high temperature/pressure equipment to oxidize the ammonia in air, bubble the result through water, and recirculate the waste gas through the system.
1668144 Hmm, sounds simple, but trying to do it on a large scale without the Solar Tyrant knowing about it is another thing.
Also, we've been talking on this blog for like a day straight now.
It needs more Octavia.
fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/282/f/2/reminisce_by_ctb_36-d5hccxu.png
1668161 True, although I was thinking that the changelings were dug into the mountains between the Badlands and Hayseed Swamp so they could build the factory complex underground and vent the waste gasses into the badlands. Everything important would be safe from prying eyes underground, and the exhaust would be hidden from Equestria by the mountains and a lot of undesirable terrain. Also, if anyone did notice it would probably look like a dragon had decided to take a nap there because they are known to pollute the air and Equestria seems to have never invented smog factories.
That is also rather amusing about how long we have been going at this here. We are up to 32 comments on this blog, and only one of them was made by someone other than us.
Finally, that picture of Octavia is adorable.
1668206 Well then go write your story of secret Changeling factories in the middle of the desert canyons, and have a human engineer come and start building stuffs and then go to war and kill lots of ponies.
Octavia is most cuddly pony.
1668277 Honestly, I do not think I could get my ideas on paper in an interesting story well enough to satisfy myself, and I also seriously doubt I would be able to get through it all because my ideas wind up sprawling all over the place so it would wind up being insanely long. I may change my mind some day, but for now it is going to sit firmly in the thought exercise realm.
Also, Rainbow is far better to cuddle than Octavia. Not only do you get all the cute cuddly adorableness, but you get to top it off with a nice layer of trolling.
1668338 There are stories here over 1mil words, I think you're fine no matter how long it is.
But I seriously doubt Rainbow would just sit with me and talk while drinking a fine cup of tea, nor would she sit and listen to British classical music with me.
th08.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2013/078/7/2/in_the_park_by_erthilo-d5ylxqb.png
1668352 Oh I know, it is just more than a little intimidating to dive into a project like that when I am not entirely certain of weather or not I will be able to write to my own standards.
As for the rest, I am much more interested in an airshow than classical music, although Rainbow does get much more relaxed and tolerant of things like that once she lets her guard down so she would probably be willing to do some of that stuff in private, or at the very least curl up on your lap while you listen which is probably good enough.
1668377 Well you can have your Rainbow.
I'll stick with Octavia.
At least this way we don't have to fight over who gets the pony.
1668386 True, that can be a pain.
1668392 Yep.
Besides I like Octavia's soft greys a lot better than the bright colours of, well, most of the other ponies.
1668396 There is definitely something to be said for that. Most of the ponies are a bit on the explosively colorful side and Octavia is one of only a handful of exceptions.
1668401 Yep.
The other members of the little ensemble at the Gala and Garden Party also had more sedated colours.
Maybe it's a musician's thing.
1668410 Not really. We also have Lyra, Vinyl, and a few other musicians here and there who are just as brightly colored as everypony else. I think it is just the feel the artists were going for there.
Besides, there are other ponies with more sedate colors like Thunderlane, Time Turner, and Pinkie's family.
1669417 True.
Though in Vinyl's case when I said musician I should've stated more of the high class type who play classical.
As for Lyra, well she would fall into the classical genre with a lyre or harp, but meh, most people only focus on her human obsession that literally came about because of how she sat on a bench.
Sometimes this fandom is scary.
Time Turner/ Doctor Whooves I'd say is brown because Tennant mainly wore a brown trench coat. Say what you will, but considering there are like, 5 other ponies in the show whom have hour glass cutie marks whose mane's match near perfectly with various Doctor's, dating back to the original showing from the 60s-80s (As well as Smith, who's number 11 and only just got replaced this Christmas) I am 100% convinced there is a Whoovian among the design team and that Time Turner is meant to be Tennant.
Pinkie's family I think is because the show called for it, seeing as they were all depressed and everything, gloomy colouring would fit much better than something like pink. (I mean did you see how much Pinkie stood out on that farm just from her coat?
)
1669578 That is all true, although most stories which give Lyra a substantial roll have her music as a significant part of her character as well even if she does have the usual human obsession/interest.
As for Time Turner, it does seem fairly likely that there was a fan involved in that, although both his mane and cutie mark are fairly generic assets that can be whipped up quickly and are used across the show so it is still possible that it was a coincidence (assuming no one claimed credit for it
).
And I definitely know what you mean about Pinkie. She manages to be pink enough to stand out even among the regular crowds so she looked hilariously out of place on that farm.