Something that came into our house after my grandmother died was a plastic oval with two kinds of sand in it.  It's moved with me to my new apartment as a part of the my collection of sensory toys.  I decided to look around and discovered it's called a Magic Window.

Anyone else have/had one?

Admittedly, I have been working on this for years since I learned of the U.K. comic and Fact File.  I want to take the various canons of G1 and form a composite canon.  This is not tiered like the current generation seems where the show is the primary canon and the comic series and other media are only canon so long as they are not contradicted by the show or whatever is higher tiered.  Instead, this would be a take what works best from the show, the comic, the fact file, the backcards, and books.

This new canon will also have some original elements.  The ponies' world has a broad ring system around it and two major moons.  This is because I like the visual of it, it makes it easy to discern this world from ours as well as Equestria, and it fits right in with various fantasy worlds of 80's cartoons.  Connections to Norse mythology will be played up (and the local writing system is a runic version of the English Phonetic Alphabet).

I have to go for now, but I want some thoughts on the concept of doing this.  What elements from the different canons would you want to see in a composite?

I'm sitting down to tell a story of Megan becoming the Weather Witch's apprentice.  I've known this for a while, but it was really in my face as I started planning things out.  There's nothing to her character.  Characterizations were not all that deep or involved in MLP media at the time, but you got the sense of the ponies' foibles, flaws, and mannerisms.  You were given enough to fill in the gaps and have a pretty good idea of what they would do in their free time and what they want.

Megan was so vanilla that you couldn't even get that out of her.  She had no foibles, flaws, and was just on default nice.  I had to write a backstory to justify her interest in the weather and wanting to be the Weather Witch's apprentice.  I thought about how I was impressing so much original head canon on her character.  However, I wasn't breaking her character because you can give her just about any interest and there's nothing to contradict it because there is nothing there period.

Even Danny gave you more of a sense of his character.  "The Great Rainbow Caper" and "The Return of Tambelon" showed his interest and ability with technology.  Megan?  Nothing.  She's just Little Miss Perfect who is always kind and nurturing.

I stand by the assertion having humans in G1 MLP was not the problem.  The problem was how Megan was presented.  She needed flaws and vulnerabilities so we had a reason to cheer for her alongside the ponies and even her own siblings who had flaws and vulnerabilities to spare.

Anyway, Megan, the vanilla of MLP, GO!

We had a bit of a discussion about this in the G1 pose thread.  However, it should have its own.

Ponies were put into poses mostly because of the year they were released.  Especially in the first five years when these molds were first used.  So, let's say you have all the poses at your disposal and the ability to remake all of the G1 ponies.  What poses would you use?

Personally, I would swap Surprise and Wind Whistler's poses to start with.  Surprise doesn't seem like a "shy" to me.  Wind Whistler, whether a reserved intellectual or happy music lover, would be more suited to it.

One thing that bugged me in My Little Pony and Friends was Paradise Estate was a little too "on-model".  Even as a kid it was hard to swallow the ponies, who everyone wanted dead, would give away a fortified castle for a house that didn't have a fence around the back.  Even making it bigger on the inside to solve the space issue, it felt like the ponies downgraded because it was the new playset.

And it was clearly the superior playset compared to Dream Castle.  It was larger, more detailed, and well thought out.  The Dream Castle playset was three walls with towers between them and an assortment of typical castle accessories.  Paradise Estate had actual rooms with the appropriate accessories.

However, the specials made Dream Castle seem like the perfect home for the ponies.  It was a fortress they could seek safety within and the ballroom at the end of Escape From Catrina was gorgeous.  They took those three walls and made them so much more.  But the series didn't do much to make Paradise Estate seem more like the playset outside of adding square footage.

So, fair reader, without the budget constraints, what do you think Paradise Estate would be in media (television, comics, prose)?  How would you make it more than what the playset is in reality?

I like an idea some have proposed that Paradise Estate, going by Paradise's backcard story, is an abandoned walled town or outpost North Star and Paradise found.  The two side buildings would hold small apartments, common areas, a kitchen and dining hall, and a nursery.  Between them would be an open area with tables and chairs and a swimming pool under a glass roof.  However, and I like the idea, add a manor as the back with rooms like a library, ballroom, and meeting room.

Anyway, Paradise Estate.  How would you make its fiction depiction as superior to Dream Castle as the playset was?

In the Fourth Generation discussion, it was brought up the bronies are far more prolific fanfiction writers than the rest of the community.  Well, this is the thread to discuss that imbalance, why it exists, and how it could possibly be remedied.

So, would be fanfcition writer, you want to write a story.  You've created a premise, have a cast of characters, a conflict and setting all planned out.  You've sat down at your word processor and and typed out the first chapter of the next great Ponyland novel.  However, it's Ponyland and not Equestria.  It might be a story about the ponies of Dream Valley, or the Tales universe, or G3 or even G2.  However, it has nothing or very little to do with Friendship is Magic.  Well, good luck because you're taking the first step into a very uncertain world.

You see, bronies have carved out a very deep niche when it comes to writing pony.  They've made their own site dedicated to writing.  A certain news blog posts links to their works.  They have a well entrenched fanfiction infrastructure for stories about the FiM universe.  The rest of MLP's storied history--not so much.

If you've created a non-FiM story, you have very few options.

1.  Go onto Fanfiction.net like every other fanfiction writer.  However, if you want to get eyeballs, you need to show up in filters.  There's genre of course.  You can also choose the particular MLP world your story takes place in.  However, you're in serious trouble if your story is G3 or G2 because they don't have world options.  G1 does have an option for choosing that world, but then you have to move on to the characters who you feature prominently.  If you're writing G1, the only characters who do not share a name with FiM characters available are Firefly, Megan, and Surprise.  Aside from Friendship is Magic (which have such an extensive list it includes one-short characters like Thunderlanes and Double Diamond), only Tales has its full cast of characters available.

So, Fanfiction.net is a place to submit your story, but not a good place to get noticed.  There are 27.6k MLP stories alone on that site.  Unless you're writing a Tales story, you can quickly be lost in the sea of stories because people cannot search for your story by character (or even world when it comes to G3 or G2).

2.  Post on that site.  Although it's name implies anything else but G4 need not imply, their rules say nothing about being Friendship is Magic specific.  I haven't seen any stories that have absolutely no ties to Friendship is Magic, but there are stories centered around other universes with as little as a tangential relationship with it.  There are also some small enclaves for fans of other generations.  However, while other pony universes are allowed, you get absolutely no help in getting noticed.  Their character filters are exclusively Friendship is Magic meaning you have a similar problem as on Fanfiction.net only worse.  Without any means of showing up on filters, your chances of being noticed are almost nil.

3.  Post on My Little Pony Lexicon.  The Lexicon is a pony fanfiction board that pre-dates Friendship is Magic.  However, it's essentially dead at the moment.  Also, when posting there, because it's a message board, you have to redo all the formatting in your story.  So, if you're representing thoughts and dialogue through speakers with italics or something other formatting tricks, you're going to have to go through the whole post and redo them again.

4.  Create a Google Doc are pass around the link.  Make sure to set the share function to at least everyone with the link can view and preferably everyone with the link can comment.  This is a very inefficient way to get your story out there.

So, would be writer, that is what lies before you.  Good luck.

I think the main issue you don't see as much non-FiM fanfiction is because it's hard to get it in front of eyeballs.  You basically have to shove in front of people's faces to get people to see it and read it.  Without readership, you might as well just leave your story on your computer or not bother.

There are some remedies for this.
1.  Start a campaign to get G2 and G3 recognized as worlds and more non-G4/Tales characters onto the list on Fanfiction.net.

2.  Bring the Lexicon back from the dead with regular traffic.  There are other topics covered there as well.

3.  This is the most expensive and work-intensive option, but create an answer to the brony fanfiction site that accepts all pony universes and provides filter options for all of them.

Also, we need people to get more interested in reading works about the other generations.  There are plenty of great stories out there, and they need attention.  Along with making it easier for the stories to get noticed, they need to be noticed, read, and feedback provided.

This is has been statement of my opinion with regards to non-FiM fanfiction content.  Please, begin discussing this.

I have completed the first chapter of a G1 fan novel.  I'm looking for feedback on story, characters, and spell and grammar checks.

Check it out.
Google Doc
Fanficton.net


[moving to A&C Corral ~ Kiwi]