Since Disney owns Marvel, can I count "Shoot to Thrill" from Ironman 2?

Duh.

If I post Let It Go, will I get banned?

So, I'm nuts about scenarios where people get to meet their future selves, with their future selves showing how all that time affected them in terms of experience and power and such. I love the idea of Twilight coming face to face with herself from maybe 10 years in the future, and finding out how much she's changed the world around her, or how powerful she has become.

So, my question to you guys is, how would you think that the Mane six would 'naturally' progress in future timelines. Doesn't have to be really realistic.

For example, here's my list.

Twilight: Twilight is the one with the most possibilities because magic just gives so many ways of evolution. In a shipfic idea I pitched recently, I had Twilight travel to the past, and reveal to an extent the things she's done in that period of time. I've had her teach herself how to cast magic without the use of her horn, so as to eliminate the 'obvious' weak spot of having one's horn hit to disable their magic. As the princess of magic, I also assume that she'd only grow more and more powerful the more she learns. The fact that she's able to travel back to the past so far (without a Crystal map to power the spell) shows her power. There's many possibilities still.

Applejack: I figure she'd fine-tune her strength through years of experience, and probably get stronger all the way. She'd do a Big Mac with barely bucking a tree with one hoof and have it drop all its apples.

Rainbow Dash: Has become a lot faster, faster than anyone has ever been. Has taken some time to really practise her sonic rainboom and improve on it, and repeat it over and over, until she could do it without barely and build-up.

Fluttershy: Since she seems to more sense the emotions of monsters, rather than speak with them as she does with her pets, I'd see her evolving to be able to talk to them. Something fun would also be her teaching other ponies how to talk to them. Maybe even speaking their actual language.

Rarity: This, I'm not so sure on. I mean, she could grow more powerful so she could like, I don't know, sow many clothes at the same time? Her generosity isn't really related to a talent of hers that can grow imo.

Pinkie Pie: Further control of her Pinkie Sense, being able to determine the where, how, and what, instead of only knowing what's going to happen.

So yeah, I'm really nuts about people meeting their improved future selves. I loved it when Ben 10 did it, I loved the hint of it in The Flash, where Barry's life is basically saved by his future self, who's faster than he is when he starts as the Flash. I'm sure I've loved a dozen more examples that I can't remember right now.

Do share your thoughts on possible future improvements.

5270199

I don't know about the others, but Applejack will totally become a world-famous rodeo champion. (I feel like a lot of people only write her as a static, apple-kicking, one-dimensional bumpkin.) She'll become famous and filthy rich, but will stay on the farm because she likes a simpler life.

Then she'll have five beautiful little fillies with her beloved wife Rainbow Dash, which they name Zap Apple, Gold Rush, Rose Apple, Northern Lights, and Bronco. And they'll also adopt an orphaned batpony foal named Spy.

At the age of two-hundred-and-thirty-seven, Applejack and Dash die honorably saving the town from rebel dragons. They both become legends in Equestrian history. They live together for eternity in pony heaven, incarnating only to feel the glory of one another's physical desire once again.

The End

I haven't decide for a main canon n for them. I have a lot of ideas, mortals and also inmortals, hard to decide.

In some ways I think it could be interesting to explore the opposite. Characters may grow in skill and ability over time, but what about experiencing loss?

Twilight: A common theme in magical settings is that overuse of magic can drain the body or soul or whatever.
Fluttershy: I could see her spending more and more time with animals to the point of completely secluding herself from the rest of society.
Rarity: What if she had trouble keeping up with modern fashion trends? She already make a disparaging comment about the kids of today with their music in The Saddle Row Review, maybe she's getting set in her ways.
Applejack and Rainbow: Easy for either of them to suffer a career ending injury. A broken limb, a torn muscle. Even if that doesn't happen, an overly active life style can take it's toll on the body.
Pinkie:...Pinkie doesn't change. She just keeps on as she is until the end of time.

I admit that may all sound a little depressing and dark, but it doesn't have to be. I think there could be a interesting story where one of the characters learns that they make a terrible mistake in the future and obsess over trying to not repeat that mistake, but eventually learn that their future self is happy with their life in spite, or even because of the mistakes they've made.

I never saw it myself, but wasn't there a Stark Trek plot once where Captain Picard goes back in time to stop himself from getting into a fight that resulted in him getting a pacemaker? And then, after changing the event, he realises his life is extremely different and ultimately chooses to change it back, accepting that his mistakes still helped to make him in to the person he is today?

Again, I wouldn't go too far with the misery. I certainly think an accurate future would be one where both bad and good things happen. But I think there's a powerful story that can be told if it's done right.

5271868 I have to agree on this. I could see it being a good story if done right. And that Star Trek episode is called "Tapestry" I believe. Here's a scene from it:

5271871 Okay, whichever one of the main six goes back in time, it has to start with them apparently dying and Discord claiming to be God

5271879 I think someone already did a ponified version of this episode, with Twilight as Picard. On another Discord note, is anyone reminded of the Trickster from Supernatural when they watch him?

I thought, generally speaking, people tend to fall apart as they grow older.

Even when you stick very advanced orthopaedic implants in 'em to try and make them last longer, even those tend to wear out due to fatigue.

I kinda feel Rainbow in particular would be the kind to meet her future self and have the older version of her be amazed she was ever quite that green. I suspect Rainbow'd have to start making up for a failing physique with smarts to keep up with the younger Wonderbolts and eventually find something new to aspire to when she could no longer manage. I kinda think she'd be the kind to travel after that. Walk in the footsteps of Daring Do, see exotic locations and stuff.

I understand that'd take her very far away from Applejack, though, which somewhat goes against my shipping mentality, but I reckon Applejack'd be far more interested in staying home a lot more and only travelling on occasion. I reckon she'd be much more relaxed about getting older, and keep managing the farm well into her old age (and hopefully provide a place for Rainbow to stay when she comes back from her travels ;3).

Twilight I think would also travel, but less for adventure and more to learn new things about magic and friendship. I could see her become increasingly ditzy and pushy, but remaining incredibly intelligent and becoming more confident with experience (which I still don't think she is: she kinda strikes me as overcompensating a lot).

Fluttershy and Rarity I think would handle becoming old the hardest, Rarity in particular. I daresay if both find a family to occupy their interests they'll be fine, but Rarity would likely be sad that keeping up with her business and maintaining her image of herself becomes harder and harder and I suspect Fluttershy will be rather unhappy with chances missed due to her shy and reserved disposition. I daresay both would accomplish a lot before then, though.

Pinkie I have no freaking clue. I imagine she'll build a spaceship and initiate first contact with the faraway civilization of X'uargo, and begin a an aggressive galactic diplomacy campaign consisting of parties, confetti, and parties.

5271935
Well, it'd depend on if you believe that the Mane six are in their prime right now. I don't think they are, considering magic, age and elements.

5272827 I never said it wouldn't take them a few years to get there, but go far enough and that's where you'll start ending up. I actually figure this is the optimistic version. In my rosy outlook on life, they live to a very old age indeed.

I have this major need to fanboy about the latest chapter of the advent of Applejack, so spoilers incoming.

"Not really,” Twilight admitted. “But you made one critical mistake.”

“And that is?”

For the first time, a grin broke across Twilight’s face. “You let me teleport in.”

Bullion thought about that for a moment, trying to figure out her point. Slowly, he began to frown to himself, his confusion building. “I’m afraid I don’t follow,” he chuckled, though there was a look of concern starting to creep into his eyes.

“Do you know how dangerous teleportation magic is?” Twilight asked conversationally. “Really dangerous. Until you get the hang of it, one tiny slip can send you miles in any direction. So, it only makes sense that precautions would be in place to make sure the trainee can always be found by the trainer.”

Bullion stared, waiting for her to go on… then his eyes opened wide in dawning comprehension.

And that was when his mansion was split open like a melon.

It wasn’t a colossal blow that ripped through timber and masonry, however. Boards and struts inside the walls suddenly bowed outward of their own accord, launching nails and rivets like missiles. Wallpaper cracked and folded like an accordion. Support beams split and curled back, pulling apart the very walls and ceiling like curtains being drawn. The entire roof burst open like a flower spreading its petals.

When all was said and done, the whole mansion laid spread open like a book, right up to a lone study, the only room to still remain intact.

It was through a chaos of splitting walls and ceilings that she trotted with slow, measured strides. Only enough framework remained to support her ascent into the mansion. The rest was pried apart and shoved aside, brick by brick, timber by timber. And where her hooves touched, stone turned soft as butter. Wood burst into flames. Carpet and upholstery withered away, blackening before scattering like ash wherever it touched her, as if in shame.

To say Princess Celestia was mad would be a terrific understatement.

“Lord Bullion,” she said, and even while using a level speaking voice, it boomed from her throat, rattling the teeth of everypony who heard it. “I would have words with you.”

I absolutely adore this. Celestia exploding with righteous fury when she believes Twilight is in danger or being threathened, makes me all giddy and give me a happy motherly Celestia avenue. I wasn't expecting this, but I'm so happy it happened.

Celestia behaving as a mother/protector over Twilight is a concept that really needs to be used more often.

5392074
I don't even need context to love this.

hi im back

5458191

Welcome back, don't mind all the dust.

5458191
You fool! You've woken ye olden AppleDash thread. Now the sleeping thread-goblins will wake up and ohgodno-

The alphabet game threads make me cringe.
Someone give me a little prompt so I can write one of my own and feel like my irritation is justified.

5485145

here you go

5485577

I'll see what I can do.

5485145 You mean the thread makes you cringe at how awesome it is, right?

...R-right?

5486501

"Apple-colored or not a apple colored closes for my date tonight?" *A.J. asked her self*

5486527 Maybe we should make an alphabet game thread that only group contributers can respond to :p

5486527
5486538 Or you could both contribute to the existing one! The more the merrier...

5487715
I don't even know what's going on in the existing one. That's part of the problem.

5487738
Holy hell, I just had a look. I mean, we never specified it as a requirement, but it'd be a good thing to have people capable of English grammar and spelling participate.

5487738 Well the prompt we're on is about to come to an end. Now is a pretty good time to tag in ;)

5487753 I can't speak for anyone else, but I like to think I grammar good

Well, y'know...good-ly...

I think we've been summoned...

I suppose this isn't really meant to be for shippy talk, but man does anyone else feel like SunLight's literally all but killed every single major main six ship? Like the pace for all of them has collapsed while I see new Sunlight pretty much every day.

5714178
Shipping has always come in tides in fandom (look at poor PinkieDash, tons of attention at first, but there's almost nothing these days.)

SunLight has been a pretty huge deal, reaching about the level that TwiDash was when I started in fandom back in 2012. Of course, it's technically two different ships depending on if you're talking Sci-Twi or Princess-Twi, but for those of us who don't read it, that's splitting hairs.

But what tends to happen, as in the case of AppleDash and TwiDash (and even more extreme in the cases of PinkieDash and FlutterDash) is that a cycle starts where people who write it burn out or turn other places or leave fandom, and that means fewer people are reminded why they like it, which means fewer people start writing it, and it either fades away, or it gets revived by some new writers with fresh enthusiasm.

SunLight is on its peak. It'll slow down eventually. The question is which other ships will pick up steam as it does.

In the mean time, SunLight is not incompatible with AppleDash, and if you know any writers you can try to introduce them to the wonders of a side ship.

Happy new year to all

5714304

I think SunLights peak could last a lot longer... simply because it has a bigger reason to exist, like think about it, TwiDash in 2012 basically existed entirely out of the popularity of the two characters and a few fics people liked and some headcanoing there was little more to it, SUNLIGHT Exist out of the popularity of the two characters, fics people like AND lots of in universe interaction in the EQG movies that show why they could work outside of headcanoning and hell add in some redeemed villain X hero to it too in BOTH VERSIONS, it basically has the strengths of every big 4 Mane 6 combined if your a fan of both characters (aside from the Opposites attract bit for Rarijack and FlutterDash fans I suppose, though even there there's some of it) Frankly I just don't see a ship overthrowing it any time soon. For a while I thought StarTrix could be it, but both characters are just too polarizing for that.

as for bringing people here I gotta be Honest im barely a fan of this ship, I don't dislike it and it's got some great fic but mostly I just like to post here cause it's the most active mane 6 shipping board (even if by this point that's really not saying much) and has cool people on it. the TwiDash and Rarijack boards are comically dead, the FlutterDash board is more active but not by too much. Part of that is probably active administration, the TwiDash and Rarijack Admins do basically nothing ever. And while there are other M6 ships that I really like they are basically irrelevant when it comes to the fandom at large ultimately. Like RariDash, I like that a lot right? Outside of RariDash Doodles no writer or artist does it consistently. O and the main shipping group board is just cancerous and id rather avoid if possible. But hell maybe I'll direct here people anyway so there can at least be a shipping board that isn't ether A. Dead, or B. Cancer.

Incidentally I disagree with you on FlutterDash, I think of the 4 biggest M6 ships (AppleDash, Rarijack, FlutterDash, TwiDash) in terms of fic it probably gets the most currently, it's art scene is strangely weak for some reason and always has been but that's a different community. PinkieDash is a very extreme case since that went from "Super Big" to "basically totally dead" there's no other ship in this fandom to really compare it too, we've seen ships go from "popular but mid tier" to "very very popular" like Rarijack" from "totally dominant" to "very very popular" like Appledash but nothing like what happened with Pinkie Dash to any other ship. well maybe Twixie I guess but that one got killed for different reasons.

Granted there has to be other reasons for the decline of Mane 6 shipping, as i asked you, Titanium and the other people who were on the panel at the last Bronycon.

goddamn I think I might be putting too much thought into the lesbian shipping of pastel colored cartoon horses. O well!

5714406

Frankly I just don't see a ship overthrowing it any time soon.

I agree with this, but that has more to do with fandom than the ship itself (which is a pretty versatile ship, but no more so currently than TwiDash or TwiLuna.)

I stand by that it's going to slow down. Not disappear, but fall back to the current level of TwiDash or TwiLestia. But I don't think a new ship will come along and get that big because I think the combination of actually popular new character in a shippable situation is pretty rare, and, I hate to say it, but fandom activity levels we have now are already down from 2012, and they're only going downhill from here.

Incidentally I disagree with you on FlutterDash, I think of the 4 biggest M6 ships (AppleDash, Rarijack, FlutterDash, TwiDash) in terms of fic it probably gets the most currently, it's art scene is strangely weak for some reason and always has been but that's a different community. PinkieDash is a very extreme case since that went from "Super Big" to "basically totally dead" there's no other ship in this fandom to really compare it too, we've seen ships go from "popular but mid tier" to "very very popular" like Rarijack" from "totally dominant" to "very very popular" like Appledash but nothing like what happened with Pinkie Dash to any other ship. well maybe Twixie I guess but that one got killed for different reasons.

Depends on your definition of "popular." My question when it comes to whether something is popular is "Is this hard to avoid?" (That is, does it show up in the feature box or popular stories, and does it show up in the new fics often enough that I wonder if they're hiring sweatshop fanfic writers.) The ships that at one time or another I would have answered "Yes" for are TwiDash, AppleDash, FlutterDash, TwiLestia, OcatScratch, LyraBon, and SunLight. Those are the ones I'd consider to have been "very very popular" at one time or another.

I've never had a problem avoiding RariJack unless Merc ropes me into prereading, and I haven't had a problem avoiding FlutterDash in years. Which is not to say they haven't been or are not active, but just not in a way that forces other people to take notice.

goddamn I think I might be putting too much thought into the lesbian shipping of pastel colored cartoon horses. O well!

Sir, there is no such thing.

5715946

Yeah, also it's had a different sort of trajectory than other ships, not the kind of EXPLOSION INTO MEGA POPULARITY that ships like TwiDash had, instead it's kind of had a slow growth, obviously it became popular after Rainbow Rocks but then every following EQG movie has made it even more popular and I expect that trend to only continue with future EQG stuff, hell considering that instead of just a movie there's gonna be 3 specials this year I expect it to escalate even faster. And yeah fandom activity's gone downhill but I feel it's actually been mostly just stable since late 2014 or so, for whatever reason I M6 shipping in general kinda started to drop before fandom activity in general did though to be honest, like I feel around late 2013 or so it just really slowed down.

See I don't like to use that measurement of "What ship is very popular" to me it's more a measurement of "what ship has prolific popular writers" or on places like Derpibooru "what ship has prolific popular artist" By that standard freaking RariTwi was the biggest Mane 6 ship for like the last year and a half because Monochromatic's is like insane or something and was pumping out like 4 or 5 stories a month all of them would get featured because people knew she was quality. FlutterDash yeah, it's lost a lot of it's old super popular writers, and even the better newer FlutterDash stories have a hard time breaking in largely because of that, people aren't as willing to check something by someone new unless it's got some crazy weird premise that catches the eye. Rarijack actually HAS some consistent fairly popular writers, but they've never been the most prolific. at most they'll pump out a few stories a year. Still those stories will usually get featured (expect Merc for some reason, which is weird cause he's a good writer but he gets way less appreciation than say TitaniumDragon who is also good among Rarijack writers). AppleDash's best strength is that it's actually managed to keep a lot of it's old writers around and they've built up massive follower list over the years so they get featured rather easily, I think that's largely because you guys actually bothered to do some basic community building on this forum.... which no one else really did and now all their shipping forums are dead and they've lost more of their traditional popular authors.

If we went by "what do you see in new stories the most" then the current most popular M6 ship would BE FlutterDash to be honest too by the way. Easily what I see the most under "new Stories" among pure M6 X M6 ships these days. Honestly I think your kinda evaluating things under a standard that might of worked in 2012 and 2013 when ship fics were at their peak, but just doesn't anymore

Anyway to me numbers and surveys and stuff are the way to go, and on just about every site if I ask "what is your favorite ship" a good 60-70% of the answers will be TwiDash, AppleDash, Rarijack, FlutterDash, Sparity or SunLight.

TwiLestia is a weird ship in that I pretty much never see anyone who actually ships it... expect here. It's like got this super dedicated core base that read everything and that are enough to get it's stuff featured fairly regularly.... but almost nothing outside of that. There's tons of casual Rarijack, AppleDash etc shippers. I know like NO casual TwiLestia shippers and in fact usually when I see it discussed outside of that core of fans people seem to see it as pretty weird.

LyraBon and OctaScratch at this point are so just ACCEPTED by everyone that I can barely even count them as ships anymore, hahahha.

I still just mainly see RariJack as an art thing, and not so much as fic. Mind you, I also actively avoid them so that may be why I don't see them in the first place. But it's never had the balance that TwiDash, AppleDash, or now Sunlight have of both strong fic and art. FlutterDash has somewhat strong art and so so amounts of fics, PinkieDash is the same (perhaps more early popularity with fics than art?) and RariJack is still very small on fics but bloody massive on art ( ).

TwiDash and AppleDash are strong on both (but have indeed slowed), and Sunlight is strong on both and is the current trend.

5716168
5715946
5716209
I figure one of the main appeals of SunLight is that the characters are effectively co-leads for the EQG series. Which, if you think about it, is kind of unique for this series.

In the main TV show, while certain pairs may gets focussed on more than others, a lot of the screen time is dedicated to different characters and different relationships. Even a lot of the popular ships don't get as much screen time as you might expect after witnessing the fan-bases. In fact, looking back, season one seemed like it was trying to set up a lot of possible interactions, but it's surprising how few have actually been carried on:

* PinkieDash: One of the earliest episodes, Griffon the Brush Off sets the two up with common interests; their mutual love of pranking. But the two haven't shared an episode together since (aside from their Map episode, though I sometimes think it's barely even worth considering those, since they're more about the plot than the characters).
* TwiPie: We see a potentially great dynamic set up in Feeling Pinkie Keen, the happy fool and the grumpy nerd. Also, with Twilight as the lead, and Pinkie having the potential for being one of the most popular characters because of her wackiness, there could have been a chance for them to get a lot of interaction together. But it feels like that kind of fell by the wayside.
* RariShy: Green Isn't Your Color immediately sets the two up with a common interest and regular meet ups with their spa sessions. But while Rarity has had a look in on a few of Fluttershy's focus episodes since, there's not a lot there either.
* AppleDash: Yes, even the one ship I eagerly follow, doesn't get a huge amount of focus throughout the show. Fall Weather Friends gives us both common interests and a fun interaction dynamic (one reason why I like this ship the best, it has the best of both worlds!). And yet, aside from Castle-Mania in season four, nothing else was ever really made of their friendly rivalry.

I guess the fandom picked up on what seemed to be the beginnings of certain relationships being put in place, and then never really noticed how few of them were actually continued on. I guess part of that can be attributed to the show's format. I like the concept that, in a group of friends, certain people may gravitate to certain others (e.g Rainbow seems closer to Fluttershy than to Rarity, A.J and Pinkie didn't interact much until they found out they were cousins, etc), but I guess the show wants to promote the idea that any two people can be best friends, regardless of differences. A nice idea I guess, but it makes the relationships feel a little less real and even a little less interesting...

Over in the EQG universe however, both Twilight and Sunset, as well as their relationship, are always at the forefront of every movie. Heck, the stories are most often entirely about them with a few minor subplots on the side. Even Twilight's actual love interests are less important to the overall narrative as her interaction with Sunset. It also probably accounts for why the pair is consistently popular. Just when it seems like interest may start to die out, another movie gets released, and you can be sure there's going to be plenty of SunLight content to renew interest.

Which honestly, I feel is a little to the detriment of EQG really. I would like to see more focus on the other characters, which is why I think this universe really ought to have it's own proper spin off TV series, and let MLP get the movies instead. If that happened, we'd probably see a little less focus on these two together, and I bet interest in the ship might wane just a touch...

Not that it bugs me as a ship. So long as a ship doesn't interfere with AppleDash in any way, it doesn't bother me at all.

5719516
I kind of half agree with you here...

As much as I might want the show to be saying something, the character combos they use in episodes are based on the plot idea and what they want or need for that. Rarity and AJ are funny together and create automatic conflict. Fluttershy and Dash are pegasi, and Rainbow hurting Fluttershy's feelings somehow is a good way to drive home the lesson she's learning. Pinkie being AJ's cousin lets them expand AJ's family (which is its own sub-cast) to include another of the main six. In fact, the map is really just kind of a lazy plot device; something that can throw together whichever two ponies they need for this story. "How do we get AJ and Rarity together to help Coco? ...MAGIC MAP!"

Which is not to say that how they act in those episodes doesn't show things about their relationships. AJ and Dash going from Fall Weather Friends to Castle-Mania to Buckball Season shows a close friendship based in common interests. AJ and Rarity from Look Before you Sleep to Simple Ways to Trade Ya' to Made in Manehattan shows a very different kind of friendship, but still consistant (I'm going to ignore Applejack's Day Off because I've already blogged about the ways that episode was badly written on every level, and chalk it up to crappy writers.) Dash and Fluttershy go from their interactions in Dragonshy and May the Best Pet Win to Hurricane Fluttershy to Rainbow Falls and Trade Ya'. So I do think there's a consistency and gradual shifting in the relationships that are especially unique, at least the ones that also make interesting team ups for episode plots.

Now, I do get what you're saying about SunLight, and I totally agree that's a big part of it.

I'm not a fan of the idea of MLP getting (only) the movies, though. I've been complaining forever that the hour long season openers and finales are more often than not "The Twilight Sparkle Show (with Friendship)" or, I guess these days, "The Twilight and/or Starlight Show." The Cutie Map is actually the only one that's focused on another of the mane six, since Fluttershy was really the main character. But unless the writers learned to spread out the plotting in those, I wouldn't want movies to take over for the regular season episodes.

5719578
Lazy as the Map might be, I kind of like it in theory as a simple tool to put different characters together.

In my opinion when it comes to fiction, there's usually three or four major reasons to like the story. Plot, setting or characters. Or maybe concept or something. For example, I like Star Wars mostly for its setting. I like the characters fine, but I can easily enjoy a book or video game set in that universe, regardless of whether the movie characters are in it or not. I wouldn't be interested in a Star Wars fanfic where the main characters are in a real world high school, EQG style, because its just not Star Wars if there are space battles and lightsabre duels!

MLP on the hand, is one of those rare stories where I find the main characters to be the most fascinating part. I know a lot of people like the setting, with all the magic, talking horses and fantasy creatures, but I can take or leave them. The characters are what keep me coming back. Heck, that's why I like EQG as a concept. If you can take your characters out of their usual setting and still have them act exactly how they would, no matter where they end up, I think that's a sign that you've got some pretty strong characters.

Which leads me back to the Map. I think one of the most simple and fun things to do with the show is simply take some of the main characters, throw them in a scene together, and see how they play off of each other. And the Map allows us to cut straight to the point rather than spending ages on justifying why two characters might be together.

Some pair ups are easier to justify than others. You can start an episode with A.J and Dash playing horseshoes, or Dash coming to the farm to bug A.J just because she's bored, and I'll immediately accept it. However, I feel like you can't just go into an episode with A.J and Rarity without some kind of reason. Look Before You Sleep has to work in a story about them being trapped together in a storm as its literally the only way to keep them in the same room for more than five minutes. Applejack's Day Off meanwhile, rings hollow because it seems like too much of a stretch that the two would regularly meet up for private spa sessions together.

With the Map, the writers can simply think:
"Y'know, we haven't paired Fluttershy and Pinkie up much. How might they play off eachother?"
"I dunno. MAP EPISODE!"
Although as I said, the Map episodes tend to focus more on the problem than the characters, so its kind of a wasted opportunity sadly...

I do agree that there is a certain amount of consistency here and there in the show. Unfortunately I think for as much consistency there is, there's just as much inconsistency.

Fluttershy is probably the best example of this. So many episodes are about her overcoming her fears and shyness, only for a big reset button to be pushed for the next episode. Putting Your Hoof Down has her learning to be more assertive, yet the season three finale then has her meekly agreeing to joust with Rainbow, when she clearly doesn't want to. Season six has had praise for finally seeming to have her character development stick, as she's much tougher with her brother in Flutter Brutter. But then in 28 Pranks Later, they seem to throw that continuity aside for a joke, as Fluttershy freaks out at the mildest of pranks from Rainbow.

Heck, one of my favourite moments was in Tanks for the Memories when Pinkie throws out the minor character reveal that Applejack apparently cries on the inside. Couple that with the theory (which I think has been officially confirmed at this point) that A.J's parents died when she was young, and this builds up what I consider to be a truly fascinating character study. The one character who's experienced more tragedy than anyone else (that we know of), yet is also the most stoic? How did she get to be that way? How does she carry on? What other sadness might she be hiding? Oh the possibilities!

And yet, the "cries on the inside" comment has been contradicted both before and after that episode. There are plenty of times where A.J has teared up. Not as over the top as Pinkie or Rarity perhaps, but it still happens. So much for consistency...

Perhaps I'm nitpicking too much. I get that there's a lot of writers on the show, and with twenty six episodes a season, there's a lot of content already. Perhaps its best to appreciate how much consistency there already is...

Perhaps that's another reason why SunLight does so well. With only four movies so far, it's got to be relatively easy to keep the continuity straight. I wonder if things might change as things continue. Didn't they say there were going to be three EQG projects this year?

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These days Rarijack and AppleDash are roughly comparable on "new fic" but Rarijack beats it on art been that way since 2015 or so I think, FlutterDash I believe actually slightly outpaces them both on fic but gets totally slaughtered on Art by both (seriously go to Derpibooru, the gap between FlutterDash and PinkieDash on art is STILL significantly smaller than the gap between FlutterDash and Rarijack, TwiDash and AppleDash on art.), TwiDash is a bit above Rarijack and AppleDash on fic but a bit bellow on art. Really since late 2014-early 2015 or so "which is most popular" has been mostly semantics. They've all been incredibly close in popularity, If I HAD to guess id say TwiDash>Rarijack>Appledash=FlutterDash these days but the gaps are so freaking minor it's just utterly pointless and yes, SunLight>>>>> all of them now in popularity. The other M6 ships well, the have their fans, some incredibly dedicated but they just aren't comparable to what I guess you could call the "big 4"

Yes I keep too much track of all of this, to the point of doing by the numbers of each ship for the last few years a few months back... which I honestly don't remember but I DO remember the general order Of M6 ships.

Rarijacks only issue ficwise is that it didn't reach that level of high popularity until M6 shipping was starting to wind down in late 2013, since then it's kept up just fine, it just wasn't so big during the peak of M6 shipping so it lags in the totals and long epic ship fics. Really how many long super epic ship fics have you seen for ANY M6 ship since early 2014? Seriously go look at the AppleDash and TwiDash group "romance" pages, literally half the fic or more is from 2012-2013. Rarijacks is the exact opposite, most of it's is 2014 to now.

FlutterDash is weird in that it's never really SLOWED DOWN in fic beyond how all M6 ships have... it just lost it's old stalwarts and newer people have ether been meh or had a hard time breaking in.. same with TwiDash to a lesser extent, like outside of The Abyss it's really rare to see TwiDash featured. AppleDash again, im gonna attribute that to you guys actually caring to maintain a community unlike every other shipping board is the only ship that seems to keep writers for more than like a year regularly hahah.

Also im gonna agree on the flaws of the map episodes, I like plenty of them but IMO only "Viva Las Pegasus" and to a lesser extent "Top Bolt" used it to it's full potential and made both characters utterly essential to the plot. Like I like "Spice up your Life" and "Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" but in Spice it's REALLY easy to rewrite that story without Pinkie there almost exactly the same, Rarity is the center of the story that deeply it's all about both her mistakes and then her successes, and with Griffonstone Dash basically is there because she and Gilda were Friends before.... and then she does pretty much nothing in most of the episode.

hi

5757512 Howdy!

heya

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I don't trust that flower.

5758459 Howdy-ou know it's untrustworthy?

Although, if Applejack were to be betrayed by such a flower, would she exclaim 'what in carnation?'

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