More Blog Posts182

  • 182 weeks
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    Happy Nightmare Night, everypony!

    As part of this year's Month of Macabre, ThelifeonCloud9 has released an audio production of my story All Nightmare Long. (Trivia time: Cloud9 got her start in fandom audio productions four years ago, with a bit part in Scribbler's production of another story of mind, Holder's Boulder.)

    Check it out below:

    Read More

    8 comments · 1,016 views
  • 194 weeks
    Audiobook Directory

    Over the years, several fandom YouTubers have created audio productions of stories from the Horse Voice bibliography. These are now very numerous, and so for the convenience of listeners, I have compiled them here.

    Many thanks to those who liked my stories enough to create these great renditions.


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    12 comments · 1,116 views
  • 202 weeks
    You Are Not Alone

    This message is very, very late by the standards of the Internet. But my conscience won't let me rest until I say how I feel.

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    Read More

    10 comments · 1,433 views
  • 236 weeks
    Dear Ponies, Allow Me to Play You Out

    Here in Canada, tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. And so for myself and other Canadian bronies, the timing of Pony's finale, almost to the day, is quite fitting.

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    6 comments · 1,111 views
  • 239 weeks
    My Interview at BronyCon: Slightly Less Cringey Than I Expected

    "Um, uh, uh, er, um, uh, y'know..."
    --Me

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    Read More

    6 comments · 979 views
Nov
18th
2016

Just For Fun: What's Left on Your Wish List? · 1:29am Nov 18th, 2016

Years ago, when we only had one season, and the fledgling Pony fandom was coming up with some crazy new theory or fanwork just about every day, we all had long wish lists. "Wouldn't it be something," we said, "if there was a musical episode? Or they brought back villains from the '80s cartoon? Or they made products with the grown-up fans in mind?"

Now it's half a decade later, and these and a lot more have come true. And fans have granted one another's wishes too. I had thought the fall and redemption of Luna would make a good rock opera, and whaddaya know, L-Train proved me right.

There are only a few things left that do not exist, but should. An episode about Celestia and Luna is the obvious one. A speaking appearance by Starswirl the Bearded is possible, even if only in a flashback. And a high-quality licensed videogame is probably not in the cards at all, though I wish it were.

Now I want to hear what's left on your wish list, and why it would be great. This could be an episode, a spinoff, a product, a fanwork, or anything. Don't be shy; what would make the Pony experience complete?

Comments ( 41 )

I dunno, maybe some toys with sound effects built in? Like, you pull Pinkie's tail and she giggles, for example.

Fully poseable, realistic looking ponies. Pegasus and Alicorns would have folding wings.

"Wouldn't it be cool if the series maintained its unique qualities while moving forward with a continual commitment to the excellence in quality and execution that truly made people from all walks of life fall in love with it?"

:facehoof:

Aside from that, I don't think we need "an episode about Celestia and Luna", I think we needed multiples episodes that featured one or both of them. Celestia has always been seen in episodes, but always at the margins of the story. She's never presented as a character so much as a background part of the setting, and that's a damn shame. They're the god-sisters of an entire setting built out of Cuteness, Rainbows, and Adventure, and there's so much potential that the show itself has completely ignored with them. An episode featuring any one of the Mane 6 7 8 with Celestia or Luna would be wonderful, and we've only ever been given small hints of the Sister's interactions when an episode featuring the two of them together is a guaranteed hit.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash both need a 'confirm parents' episode.

Grogar.

A wider world of seaponies.

Zebra nation.

4306916 Yes. I'd like an episode where the alicorns don't turn out to be useless/captured/outwitted by time breaking unicorns.

Can we have them in one episode where they are just awesome? Especially Celestia. Sunbutt needs love.

An episode about Celestia and Luna is the obvious one.

If I were the head storyteller, I'd end the series with this one.

Fine, I'll bite, just to get it out of the way first:

I'd like an episode about Celestia and Luna, and for a long time, that was all wanted, but now I have a caveat:

I want it to shoot down the wishes of everyone wanting to see her, or the other princesses, as "gods". Mercilessly, and without remorse.

I'll concede that they might have more power factor than the average pony, and I was right there with folks for the first three years ("Celestia vs." was a very fun Season 1 game for me and my friends), but after Tirek, I... yeah, no. We're coming up on year seven, anyone holding onto that god-myth deserves any disappointment from it they possess, through little fault of the show's.

So yeah. So in any episodes they get, perhaps just present Cel as just really, really wise and nice and good at her jobs and you know what? Sometimes she and her sister even got lucky and had some elements. And that's why Celly got to rule for millennia.* Show her being diplomatic, maybe.

And show how she interacts with her damn sister. It's been long freaking enough.

(*still have to explain all those Worfs somehow anyway :D)

4306945 I'm the total opposite, I want one of her being completely and utterly badass in a world of cardborad moment!

Really I've just accepted that the show by & large doesn't know how to handle her which is why she gets the Worf treatment, because the author stable rotates so much nobody sticks around long enough to handle the Princess Problem During Epic Conflicts without just throwing them in a cage somewhere.

But my wishlist?

A spinoff focused on Celestia & Luna in the pre-Equestria days, roaming around the world and having adventures.

Or a modern spinoff that takes place after they let Twilight take over, wherein they live in an apartment in Manehattan and have silly adventures both slice of life and totally badass.

4306945

I'd like an episode about Celestia and Luna

episode about Celestia and Luna

Celestia and Luna

and Luna

Somewhere, buried under snow and ice in the darkest midnight imaginable, filly Luna is shivering. Weeping. Suffering.

4306951

I'm the total opposite, I want one of her being completely and utterly badass in a world of cardborad moment!

Honestly, I would not be at all averse to that happening at the very end of the episode. Like, the last 20 seconds. Even I want a "don't fuck with Celly" moment.

But I maintain steadfast that the so-called "Epic Conflicts Princess Problem" is blown way out of proportion.

4306960

To hell with Woona.

Seriously, do a headcount of each time a Royal Sister gets to be a major part of an ep. And yes, I do count Luna's dreamwalks.

Far as I'm concerned, after Tantabus, that was the line. Luna gets no more episodes until her sister gets to catch up. :rainbowlaugh:

4306962 For me it boils down to 'Celestia is my favorite character and it really sucks when her only appearances these days tend to be so she can get kidnapped to add additional stakes to the conflict'

But yea!

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

I've given up on the Celestia episode. :C The writers don't care about her.

All I have left to wish for is the swift death of the show before it gets any worse.

We only really know about half the girls' parents. I think everyone agrees that we need a Celestia/Luna episode.

Me being me, there are a lot of things I want to see, none of which really belong in a light kids show.

...Wow. I've wanted a :trollestia:-centric episode forever - it's #1 on my bucket list of things that I hope the series does before it concludes - but I never realized that it was such a popular sentiment. Luna's had two great episodes revolving her; I'd love one that actually fleshed out Celestia a little more and made her a real person with flaws and quirks and all that.

Celestia as a two-dimensional cutout was more acceptable when she was a god-figure and the living symbol of goodness and light. Now that she's the show's go-to Worf I think she needs a little actual character to make up for it. An episode centered around her relationship with Luna would be great, but I wouldn't mind one focused on her changing relationship with Twilight either.

4306968

See, I'm 100% with you. I love Celestia like nothing else--I don't put her on my favorite characters list because she's above even them. (This extends to me having far more of an obsession with her principal version as a character than anyone should for heaven's sake. I gotta be the only one here who wants to see more of her life and wants her to be more of a power figure in EQG-world. The dual-plane Worfing is real ;_;). So yeah, it sucks to only see her once a season as the Worf Bag.

I... honestly don't think it's to add stakes, though. I think it's fear. I think it's because--and I say this as someone who's gone through that moment myself and who has seen like thirty arguments over the years regarding it--if you want to make a big pony adventure conflict, surely you have to write the princesses "out of the way", don't you?

I am convinced that even the writers go through this, which is why we see Worf Bag Cel so much. Can't risk viewers jumping down their throats or losing faith in the merchandisable ruler character by showing her as genuinely, irredeemably imperfect without some kind of cheating in play. This is also why I don't think they "don't care about Celestia." I just think they're afraid to rock that boat. Which sucks.

This is why I desperately want the hammer brought down on that goddess-malarkey once and for all.

...that or you know what? Just make a two-part finale about Daring Do. Everyone loves Daring Do.

1: A Celestia episode

2: Something that tells us more about Zebras, where they come from, if the rhyming is just a Zecora thing

3: More episodes with focus on secondary characters. Slice of Life was nice and all, but I'd really like to see more happening with Cheerilee, the Cakes, and so forth.

4: Where is my Celestia episode.

5: Confirm Apple parents, please. Ideally, confirm Apple parents directly.

6: Show and confirm examples of earth pony magic. Preferably with somepony besides AJ. We've got a couple of small lines here and there about it, but nothing overt.

7: I still really, really want to see Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, and the CMC join forces to accomplish something. We've seen the CMC and Diamond technically on the same team on the Press, but that was the CMC working under Diamond. Likewise, CotLM was the CMC reaching out to help and getting an ally. We haven't seen all five of these guys actually join together with a common goal on common ground to get something done. Also, Silver Spoon needs more characterization and this would be a great excuse for it. It would also be a nice way to expand on post-reformation Diamond and Silver while we're at it, cause there's some loose threads what need fixin'.

8: An episode with little to no dialogue.

9: No, seriously. Give me my Celestia episode. Cadance got at least three. Luna got like, eighty seven. I just want one episode with Celestia doing stuff. Just one. One is all I need. It can be with the mane six, I don't care. She doesn't need to fight nobody, she can spend the entire time with royal legislature. I don't care. It has been six seasons. This is one of the oldest established characters in the show and there is no gosh darn excuse for this!
Like, come the heckadoodle on, DHX. Y'all trifling.

7: I still really, really want to see Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, and the CMC join forces to accomplish something. We've seen the CMC and Diamond technically on the same team on the Press, but that was the CMC working under Diamond. Likewise, CotLM was the CMC reaching out to help and getting an ally. We haven't seen all five of these guys actually join together with a common goal on common ground to get something done. Also, Silver Spoon needs more characterization and this would be a great excuse for it. It would also be a nice way to expand on post-reformation Diamond and Silver while we're at it, cause there's some loose threads what need fixin'.

This gal gets it. Add run-in Babs at the last second too for a full filly reunion.

(Also I read this entire post in PressStartVI's voice.) language warning

Celestia episode, ofc, but a zebra episode is a more glaring oversight. There were lots of theories that gilda was an exile, and it's a great concept that would work even better with zecora.

Also not having a zebra episode is racist.

4306951

A spinoff focused on Celestia & Luna in the pre-Equestria days, roaming around the world and having adventures.

Awww yeah :rainbowdetermined2:

4306990 But it sounds like from that you largely agree with the Goddess view, in some sense. Or the 'much more powered than show uses' view.

And maybe it is fear, but well - you can write her out without the Worf Bag. I mean. Just look at Harry Potter for how to do that right.

4307041

Honestly,it's less that I dislike the Goddess-view and more that I think it's completely obsolete. I think it hampers Celestia's storytelling potential.

In a way, I think it always did. Her first appearance in the first episode was her getting written out by the Big Bad. :D

Now that the Celly-chaff is out of the way--you asked for this I take no responsibility

See, the weird thing about the show right now is that amidst all of the doom and gloom I keep seeing on every forum ever about Season 6 being the series nadir, it's actually been my personal nirvana. It has been exactly what I wanted, and exactly the kind of stuff I like to write! And it deftly sidesteps pitfalls from previous seasons! I just want the show to build off of what Season 6 and (to a slightly lesser extent) Season 5 have been doing. I pine not for the innocent, adorably stumbleriffic Season 1, I think Season 2 was Really Cool but of its time, We Don't Talk About Season 3, and Season 4 was the Awkward Adolescence that has some REAL show-breakers in it amidst its also dizzying highs.

Season 5 was where the show Dared, and Season 6 is where it finally Learned To Have Fun With Itself While Also Still Daring. So my list is pretty darned short, all told.

But it is fervent. Keep in mind that I'm being hyperbolic for funsies--way too many people take it seriously for some reason so I'm gonna nip that in the bud now

I want Equestria Girls to unfuck itself become a weekly series
Surprising no one. However, for the last three years it was just because the concept was compelling and I wanted as much of it as possible.
Now, it's because it's just getting ridiculous. Legend of Everfree was a storytelling trainwreck in large part due to the runtime, and even Friendship Games had to cheat death and compress time in order for its story to not collapse in on itself.
There are too many characters and too much of a world to explore waiting out there now for 70-90 minutes of footage per year, and it's hurting the concept. There is a goldmine out there not being tapped. Instead, any headliner not named Sunset Shimmer is reduced to recycling characterizations from either their pony counterparts or from Sunset herself, and now they're adding multiple types of superhero powers to the mix and a possible link between words beyond just the portal. And it's becoming increasingly tougher for me to go to bat for it amidst the "hoers not munky oh but sunny n sirenz are mai hawt waifus so they're okay" crowd.
I want this spinoff to be allowed to breathe and flourish like I know it can.

::sighs::

Let's move on.

I want Starlight Glimmer's biography
I'm dead serious about this one. I want all of the Starlight. So very badly.
For all of my problems with Season 5's finale, Starlight's final-act flashback was not one of them. Even if you didn't watch any of the episodes what were shoving "CUTIE MARKS GIVE PONIES COMPLEXES" down you throat all through the season, the mere existence of the CMCs lends precedent to Starlight's best friend moving away because of a cutie mark (which she herself was late in getting) being a great and believable catalyst to her going downthe wrong path.
The problem was that they have yet to show said path which led her to creating Our Town, and that catalyst just ain't enough on its own. Even if just througha montage, you gotta show the years, the changes in mindset, the twisting of her personal values. You need to show the subtle pain, anguish, pathos. I write happy stuff all the time but if you really look at my stuff it all comes from hurting your characters. That's how you get things done.
Unfortunately, the episodes tells us Star got hurt, but refuses to show us how. It then instead goes into one of the most rushed happy endings in the history of the series and hasn't addressed this since. So even though we have a great and nuanced rehabilitation arc in Season 6, we still have nothing to compare it to even though an entire season is passed. As well-executed as it otherwise is, It rings hollow, because the book of her life's journey is missing a whole bunch of really essential pages.
I LOVE STARLIGHT GLIMMER. SO MUCH. THIS IS metaphorically KILLING ME.

- I want SciTwi to be a cool science nerd again
You did it PERFECTLY in Friendship Games DHX WHY IN THE (five minute screaming rant omitted due to being unprintable even on a Horse Voice blog) :flutterrage:

...and yeah, honestly, I think that's it. Barring any major screwups, anything else is icing. Outside of the few desires mentioned in this thread, I seriously love this show for all it is. :heart:

Also, because I really miss how they were all the rage during 2011-2013 conventions (but have sadly dwindled):

I want official MLP-themed cars.

...okay, if you can only make just one, then yeah, it's pretty much gotta be Dash

but

(a Sunset-cycle is fine too)

A Celestia episode.

A Celestia episode spinoff series.

Don't really care that much about fan-speculation since I enjoy how the series keep blind-siding me, personally.

BUT, I would really like to see the long-rumored 'Fluttershy-Is-Turned-Into-A-Dragon' episode.

The weakest and shyest member of the gang being turned into something big and fierce is really overdone, I'll admit, but I'd genuinely like to see how'd it play out with the FiM characters would react to it.

An episode that shows the cultural and social differences between ponies and humans. The more the series continues, the more they show the ponies as 'furry, four-legged humans' and it's getting kinda boring. I know they will never do this because it is a show for children and alien ponies (beyond 'insert Western holiday with different name here') would probably lessen whatever message the show had for the primary demographic but a guy can dream . . .

4307278

There was some stuff like that early on, (just ask Applejack,) but as the show's gone on those moments just don't seem to happen much anymore. It's a perfect fit for small comedy bits, but it seems like the concept has slipped out of the minds of everyone involved on the show.

Most of my points have either been hit by the show or other people in the comments. However, it would be nice to know if bat ponies actually exist or if it's just the Night Guard uniform for pegasi.

4307331
That's minor, though. I mean something less obvious, like ... I don't actually have a good suggestion now that I think about it. But with Discord (and to a lesser extent Spike ) around, we have an 'outsider' to act as the audience surrogate - to play the ignorant in need of knowledge.

1- A spinoff season for Sunset Shimmer, about her time as Celestia's student and the adventures she went on.

2- For the show to end after next year's movie and for the long awaited EQG show to takeover, so that Sunset Shimmer can take her rightful place as main character of the franchise.

1. A Celestia episode. No, not a Celestia and Luna episode, since we all know that Luna would get far more attention even if she was in the episode for half the time of her sister. I want a Celestia episode with not one single nanosecond of Luna after the opening credits. Not even a mention of her name. Nothing. I actually like Luna quite a lot, but this is bigger than that. The demand for a Tia episode is now so high that a poll on EQD placed it higher on the wishlist than one about Luna. Think about that for a minute: Luna didn't win a poll on EQD because of the immense demand for Celestia to get (aha) a place in the sun for once. I rest my case.

2. Actually doing something with the Everfree Forest beyond just making it "generic scary wood that nopony actually seems to find scary at all these days". In particular, I'd love to see something actually done with the canon fact that in there Nature rules itself without pony assistance. A few fanfics have done interesting things with Everfree, but the show's pretty much ignored it for years and it drives me batty.

3. Fluttershy being awesome. I don't mean Flutterhulk "look how goofy this is" awesome, I don't mean "Zephyr you're appalling" awesome, I mean really awesome. Remember when she stomped along a dragon's head and outstared a cockatrice? Like that, only with five more seasons' experience. A moment in which she is literally the only being in existence who can save all of Equestria from something truly terrifying -- and she does. Without any significant help from Twilight or Starlight.

4. Magic: it would be nice if Twilight actually cast a few spells that weren't either levitation/telekinesis or laser-zapping. She's supposed to be a supremely gifted magic-user. She's not Granny Weatherwax; she can't just refuse to do proper magic and say it's all headology.

5. Merch: a mid-level card game. The CCG is now way, way too expensive and complicated for newcomers who don't want to bankrupt themselves to have the slightest shot at competitive tournament play. I've heard the same even from some long-time players of the CCG in recent months. At the other end of the scale, the Top Trumps are amusing only because of their randomness (Scootaloo out-Magics Twilight, apparently). Give me a card game at roughly the level of Monopoly that's replayable without constant money-making updates and I'd be delighted.

6. Fandom: people not treating fanfic as unworthy of inclusion in the same breath as art, videos, music, plushies, fursuits, cakes, etc. This is, I know, the most ridiculous hope of all.

7. See 1.

4306967

Even Ms. Delight thinks Luna belongs in Tartarus. :fluttershyouch:

As for appearances, the numbers don't lie:

Celestia: 35

Luna: 23

But why not compromise? C only episode, C&L episode and C&L spinoff series!! With accompanying toy line and cereal! And those bedtime audiobooks I keep blathering about. They'd be a goldmine. Just imagine their soothing, goddess-like voices reciting A Hearth's Warming Tail. :trollestia:

4307959

As for appearances, the numbers don't lie:
Celestia: 35
Luna: 23

:ajbemused:
I knew someone would do this, which is why I said "major part of an episode". You can be wallpaper in terms of the plot yet still be in-frame. I should have just cut my losses and said "focus episode", but that doesn't change the fact that to anyone who's actually paid attention to the show, Celestia's exploration comes up frightfully short compared to the other three (four lol) princesses.

Celestia being such a big part of Unicorn Twilight's life early on naturally led to her having more of a head start, but that doesn't last as Twilight comes into her own. Meanwhile, Luna... well it's not llike she becomes the star of the show or anything, but instances where her character is significantly touched upon, where we see how she works and thinks, etc. keep soming at a sparse-yet-steady clip while Celestia's roles are reduced more and more to captures, edicts off-sided mentions. So by the time you hit Do Princesses Dream, much like the story of The Tortoise And The Alicorn, you realize the seesaw's gone the other way, and the process started at Luna Eclipsed.

(My memory may fail me, but I'm pretty sure the Season 6 premiere is the most Celestia Actually Doing Something Of Note we've gotten in a LONG TIME. And 5 seconds in the finale, I guess? Her sister did way more there too though!)

Like the others above me have said, Celestia is one of the oldest and most integral parts of this show (which explains the numbers on dat wiki), which makes her never having a full-on focus episode all the more baffling when Luna has AT LEAST three by now.

Even Ms. Delight thinks Luna belongs in Tartarus. :fluttershyouch:

No, no. I said she should be in Tantabus. Get it right. :trollestia:

4307660
Sorry, buddy. EQG is no more.

It's the Timber Spruce Show now. :pinkiesick:

Still a fair few things I want ot see just in fiction

4308074 Sorry buddy, one new character does not mean the end of a series. :ajbemused:

4308074
4308364

Play nice, you two. There's no need for people to get all "Quibble Pants" about this. Fandoms are supposed to be fun.

4308846

Maaaaaaan, that was supposed to be a good-natured rib about a character I have yet to see anyone say they like. I had no idea they would take it... well, like that.

S'what I get for being meta, I guess. :P

4308848

Trouble is, it's hard to communicate tone through text, even with smilies. Never mind, you're both forgiven. :heart:

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