Simply because I found that this group has been around forever with zero discussions; it made me kind of sad.

Anyway, I'm sure at least most of us have added our own stories here because we've been given the comment or two that they felt like episodes of My Little Pony. So my question is how does one really make a story that has the same feeling as an episode? The spot on characterizations and familiar situations? The cute and fun story concepts? After reading it, do you get that exact feeling after watching one of the episodes every Saturday morning? What are your theories?

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Its a certain set of criteria for me when it comes to this.

1) No deaths-offscreen are ok, but nothing on or at the very least they get really big booboos and we can infer that death comes after (See: Getting back on her hooves and some of my fics)

2) Unless its Shining and Cadence, NO SHIPPING!- Yeah, I know, comics and all that. But less we forget that the only restrictions comics have are "As long as it doesn't mess with cannon, its OK!"

3) Dark but not too dark-Mine rape, ok. Draining Ponies until they are weak, ok. Cupcakes, HECK NO! The show has a good scale of making things dark for our heroines, but not too much where we run behind the couch. (Again, getting back on her hooves is great at this)

and that is basically it for me.

I feel in order for a fic to be like an episode, it has to:

1. Slice of Life tag - that is what the tag is suppose to mean, isn't it? Something that can be seen on the movie.

2. Not rated Mature, sex or gore - We will never see these things in a canon episode.

3. No more than 10,000 words total - What you write has to be able to be contained into one or two 22-25 min. timetable(s). Otherwise, it's a movie.

4. No one OOC - You have to be able to believe that the character would act a certain way in a certain situation.

5. No Crossover, Alternate Universe, nor Tragedy tags - I don't think I need to explain about the Crossover nor Alternate Universe tags, but Tragedy stories are not suppose to have a happy ending.

That's all I have for now. This list is subject to change depending on what occurs during the series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and comments made on this list.