I bought these two shirts from Hot Topic yesterday! 
There’s a couple more that I want.
Awesome shirts! I desire Pony apparel. 
So, 3 new episodes have been released inbetween my posts. What did you guys think? Secret of My Excess has got to be one of my favorite episodes. Spiiike… <3 I even teared up slightly.
I loved the last three episodes- Sweet and Elite, Secret of My Excess as well as the recent holiday episode!
I’m not really a Spike/Rarity shipper (I prefer the idea of it going unrequited), but it was still magnificently sweet.
Sweet and Elite was my favourite though- it also had a fantastic song and Twilight and Rarity’s friendship in it was just adorable. Fancy Pants was also a great character.
And the holiday episode was a lot of un and the “Windegos” fantastic creatures. I also adored Apple Jack making snide comments and playing against Pinkie Pie’s character. In fact Fluttershy, Twilight and Apple Jack’s characters were utterly fantastic as they bounced off unreasonable leaders played by their friends.
Secret of my Excess was sweet, and the recent episode was really cool, I liked learning about Equestria’s history. But I have to agree with mentalguru; Sweet and Elite was my favorite of the latest episodes.
Yes! It was so fun seeing how different Canterlot is, and Twilight and Rarity’s friendship is very sweet.
Sweet and Elite is by far, my favorite episode in the series.
-Sigh-. The way some male fans are treating female fans of the show and of older incarnations is just depressing and horrifically immature. Plus I have a cold and feel absolutely rubbish right now in general. At least its my day off though.
It’s just bizarre too considering the show in question when you see how some girls are being treated by some of the lads really. Granted I guess all fandoms have their bad apples and given the size of the fandom, the horrible ones can find ample encouragement from somewhere else even if 90% of the fandom was utter sunshine and rainbows but still, it’s annoying.
Anyone got any fanfics or fanart they’d like to promote/recommend? Videos maybe? Anything? Or maybe we’ll just discuss the show some more!
With regards future episodes we have the following synopses:
[spoiler]“Family Appreciation Day” January 7, 2012
Apple Bloom doesn’t want Granny Smith to embarrass her by speaking in her class.
“Baby Cakes” January 14, 2012
Pinkie Pie tries babysitting the Cakes’ twin toddlers but finds it harder than she thought.
“The Last Roundup” January 21, 2012
When Applejack disappears, Twilight and her friends set on a journey to find her.[/spoiler]
[spoil]Personally I like the idea of Apple Jack’s parents being eventually mentioned in either Apple Bloom’s or AJ’s episode (though death is unlikely given a recent FAQ Lauren made- better tell Disney family deaths are too sad! lol.)[/spoil]
So, I finally got around to actually watching this show. It’s probably the strangest show on TV right now. It’s gonna take me a while to get settled into it, but maybe I’ll come around. Maybe.
To be honest I haven’t been too blown away by these last two episodes (Family Appreciation Day, except for the ending, and Baby Cakes). They just strike me as normal kid-show fare and nothing seemed to reflect what makes this show so special as compared to others. Maybe I just really miss Twilight (I know they’re trying to put some more focus on the others as opposed to just her, but its still HER singing the theme song and I feel like she’s barely been in this season besides the beginning!) This season in general I feel has been either very good(Return of Harmony, Lesson Zero, Heartwarming’s Eve, etc.) or kinda mediocre (Sisterhooves Social, these last two) and while not bad just kind of mildly enjoyable at best and plain boring at worst. The good episodes feel like they really put some time and effort into them, but the less-than-good ones just feel like they chose plots from the-big-book-of-recycled-cartoon-storylines and switched the names out. I discussed it with my friends and we all agree that part of the problem is that they are spending too much time with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. We just don’t find them all that interesting, more obnoxious. I really want them to get their Cutie Marks just so we can finally move on.
Its actually a little frustrating to me because, like I said, when this season is good its friggin awesome. The first three episodes of 2 are my absolute favorite episodes of the series.
Hi guys, just wanna share with y’all some exciting news. About a month ago, I was featured on Equestria Daily’s Nightly Roundup for a daring stunt I pulled at my workplace. 
Well, it’s not really criminal or anything, but I’ll let you be the judge of that:
From Tumblr post:
…
Equestria Daily: Nightly Roundup #182
Surprise!!! Today I made the headelines for the ‘Nightly Roundup’ on Equestria Daily. I’ll let my email to ED from Monday explain it all:
"Dear Equestria Daily,
I’m a recent university graduate from Down Under and a self-professed Brony. Two months ago, I started my first job as a graphic designer at a Sydney-based coupon magazine company. Its Unique Selling Point is that its issues are thematic parodies of movie and TV show titles. Last week, I assembled my first magazine (the theme is the recent movie ‘Arthur Christmas’, which I successfully pitched), and I was in charge of the cover and centrespread of the clients as well as the spoof synopsis on the content page.
I was creatng the centrespread when I realised that there was some negative space between two of the clients. I had already used a reindeer, so just for the heck of it, I decided to insert a live-action version of one of the Mane SIx. I chose Twilight (although my favourite is Fluttershy) and rewrote the synopsis to reflect her impromptu introduction. I haven’t watched Arthur Christmas yet, but to my knowledge, there’s no magical teleporting unicorn in the film. Coincidentally, one of the main characters was conveniently named Bryony, which just begged the removal of one letter for her spoof name.
To my surprise (and utter delight), Twilight’s cameo in the content page synopsis and centrespread somehow passed the two editorial checks and the issue went to print! So right now, there’s 50,000 copies of this advertising magazine being distributed in the Fairfield district in Sydney with T. Sparkle waiting to surprise any observant Aussie Bronies! I’ve included a few links to pictures I’ve taken of the printed copy; I think I can safely avoid copyright issues as I didn’t actually refer to her by name, and I’ve made my version of the stars on Twilight’s cutie mark have five spokes, while the canon version has six.
Oh, and the magazine is also available for download online, where I also created a brief animation of Twilight at the end of the banner clip which plays on the homepage. The print and online versions will be available till the end of January, in case any Fairfield Bronies ask.
Do send me a link if you post this on ED, so I can share it with my fellow Bronies here and overseas. Thanks for reading this, and bringing such a great community fan site to life every day.
Your faithful reader,
Andre"
ED replied:
“Haha nice! Sneaky Twi. To the roundup.”
So I eagerly came back from work the next day to see if my story made the roundup, but it wasn’t there. Two more days passed before I decided to send them a reminder on Friday.
"Greetings Equestria Daily,
It’s been three roundups, did I miss it somewhere or are you saving this for the weekend? 
Yours derpfully,
Andre"
And they responded:
“Looks like it just got.lost! Added again…”
So I checked in a few hours later and there was a heading there, but no images or description.
equestriadaily.com/2011/12/n … p-181.html
ED said that “for some odd reason none of these links work anymore”, but it was still working on my end. Eventually though, after a reupload to my Flickr account, it finally showed up in the Saturday edition as you see above. Unfortunately, they didn’t link to a spoof synopsis I wrote that referenced Twilight in the contents page, but you can read it on the online version of the mag in the ilnk they provided, Or you can check it out below.
(references in 3rd and 6th paragraph)
Cover - flic.kr/p/aSLX5n (no Twilight in here, just to show y’all the magazine title)
Contents page - flic.kr/p/aSLXz8
Spoof synopsis closeup - flic.kr/p/aSLYaa (references in 3rd and 6th paragraph)
Centrespread - flic.kr/p/aSLYDK
Page of centrespread - flic.kr/p/aSLZbr
Twilight closeup - flic.kr/p/aSM3EF
Twilight closeup 2 - flic.kr/p/aSLZzk
Online version with web animation - nmags.com/fn/index.php (watch the animated banner till the end, after the speech bubble fades away)
If you live in Fairfield, Sydney, you can find copies of the magazine right now in shopping malls, local businesses, and maybe even your mailbox! Just follow the web animation link above and there’s an ‘Out of Mags’ button you can click to check out distribution points. And thanks to ED for publishing my story!
…
The web animation will be up until the day after tomorrow, so see it while it’s still live on the site while you can! I’ll probably video record it for posterity and in case anyone misses it.
I’ve given out copies to both the New South Wales and Singapore Brony societies and there has been some interesting reactions. Most were amused, others were repulsed, and a few even threw them away without a glance! But anyway, it was all good fun, and anything to spread my love for the fandom. 
I’m not going to ruin the best part of the episode, so I’ll just (DOUBLE) spoiler everything after this point. Seriously, go watch episode 14 first. If I ruin the single most incredible thing ever to happen in the show for you I’ll feel awful. 
[spoil]DERPY SPOKE. SHE SPOKE! SHE HAD OVER A MINUTE OF SCREEN TIME. I’M SORRY APPLEJACK, BUT THIS EPISODE NOW BELONGS TO DERPY HOOVES.[/spoil]
I am really, really upset that she was called Derpy, not to mention how they presented her. Her name may have been forgiveable if she hadn’t been presented that way (with almost the same kind of voice kids use to mock kids with disabilities…) I guess I’ll explain myself better later (tomorrow maybe), but for now, I’ll just say I’m not happy. Not happy at all. Please don’t try and defend it guys. Because right now, I just can’t believe they did that. And I’m actually close to crying because of the memories this brings back and all the kids they’ve possibly helped indirectly hurt.
Guess I’ll be changing my icon in a bit.
I’m a bit confused by what you mean. I thought she was just a silly joke character, not a pony with an actual disability, hence the presentation.
In the end the scene felt like a mockery of people with disabilities. “Derpy” is an abelist name for one. Bronies don’t always like this when it’s pointed out, even though it is. It’s used to mock kids and people with disabilities to begin with, it was when I was a kid, and even as an adult have heard used to mock people. “Herp de Derp”= abelist. People try to whine about South Park it seems sometimes like it actually matters but South Park isn’t for kids to begin with and it’s ableist anyway, it’s very roots ARE in abelism, completely and utterly, and now even more kids are going to pick it up . That coupled with her actions in the scene and how mean Rainbow Dash was to her to boot rather than in any way understanding, and this not presented as wrong, really brought back memories of seeing such kids being bullied and mocked on the playground and other times during my childhood. Even her -voice- sounded like what some of those bullies used to ‘imitate’ them. The same thing even happened in my TEENS, when one of my friends was in a serious accident and both her motor and voice functions were more difficult for her. I sometimes heard the kids in other years mock her behind her back, and I’m pretty sure she heard it too given the tears. Things were difficult enough for her without people like that and without the bloody NAMES like… yes ‘Derpy’ or other ruder names I can’t even type here. Like it was funny. Like her feelings didn’t matter at all. Like she didn’t even HAVE feelings. That them having a laugh at her expense was all that mattered.
I really can’t in any way argue all that coherently right now. I’m too angry and upset at that scene as well as projecting all over the place. And it feels rediculous because it’s mlp and something like mlp shouldn’t trigger me like that, even though it did. I’ll probably come back tomorrow.
But right now I just CAN’T be calm right now. At all.
I like this show and I ain’t ashamed! I love all of the mane six but my favourites would have to be Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Applejack.
I’ve watched everything up to episode 25 of season 1, but nothing further than that… so I hope I don’t run into any accidental spoilers! Hint, hint.
After sleeping a little I feel a little better. I’m still upset about that particular scene, and I hope an apology is made or it’s made right somehow, but felt able to watch the rest of the episode (finally) after skipping that scene on a youtube copy.
Thoughts on the rest of the episode:
It’s almost a shame that AppleJack got her episode overshadowed. While I had some annoyances overall even outside that scene it wasn’t a bad lesson, and AppleJack’s reaction to not winning first place was understandable especially given the Major’s pressure. I didn’t approve of some things though, and Pinkie Pie sometimes bugged me in this episode. I think it’s pretty bad and not in the spirit of friendship to FORCE someone to make a promise to tell something too. If someone doesn’t want to tell, they shouldn’t be made to. Plus AppleJack risking lives was pretty bad too. Also abandoning Pinkie and Rarity was pretty… weird. Rule of funny but- they’re their FRIENDS, and they left the most immature pony plus Rarity who is not good or at least happy at all at roughing it alone out there? Way to be friends rest of the mane 6. I however liked the mare who hired AppleJack, she had a great design and seemed genuinely nice herself. And sometimes the episode even made me smile. I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I would have otherwise though, I’m afraid to say.
Overall the episode did have it’s fun moments. It’s just unfortunate how much it was soured from me by that terrible scene. And well, many brony spaces are going to be unbearable now for a little while. There’s only a few places I feel safe talking about this sort of thing (the livejournal communities I’m in are also mostly okay) and this is one of them. So thanks for that?
Bronies will just attack me in certain places for even saying I found her scene problematic not to mention why.
I was a tad surprised at the use of the term “Derpy” as well, since I know the meaning it can be taken as. Usually when they refer to her, its Ditzy Doo. However, I have never used or heard that term used against people with disabilities so I can’t take offense at it. Where I’m from, its simply used as a term for kind of a blank, ditzy-ish person or facial expression, and usually affectionately (in fact its usually used by the person themselves).
metalguru, seeing as you’re from Ireland, you might want to consider that words mean different things over here than they do there. I know spazz, for example, has very similar connotations over there, but here its used wildly simply as a high-strung or random person, and is often used in children’s TV shows. Heck, I have two friends who go by the nickname of Spazzy. And many, many words started out as terms for the mentally disabled (idiot, for example). I found her characterization more of a dopey, ditzy playfulness than mocking the mentally disabled, and even her voice reminded me more of Patrick from Spongebob than anything else.
I’m afraid that’s not true Rac, (that it’s not something that is insulting in America), I’ve also met and seen quite a few American fans which were also insulted, both those with disabilities or loved ones which have them. And that’s important. It’s also used on the internet as that.
If people with disabilities want to claim back the term for their personal that’s their right. But those without disabilities have no right to and people have the right to feel insulted by this. And it is really upsetting.
Fact is, kids and adults have been mocked using the term, and yes also in America, where the show is from. And there are both adults with disabilities and parents/those who work with children with disabilities who are upset. It was generally the fact she was hurting herself without realising it as it happened, causing damage in the process, her voice and Rainbow’s yelling (and this not being shown as wrong) which really got my goat. She had in fact, many of the stereotypes and mockery used against the disabled and that coupled with the name (which IS used in America as well as just across the internet to mock people with disabilities). Kids can imitate that behaviour all too easily and pick things up fast and thus think it’s okay to yell at kids having problems rather than know the correct way to go about things. So it was mostly “Yay! Mock the mentally disabled” scene in my eyes. One thing alone probably wouldn’t have been enough to damn it, but in combination: yes.
There’s also an interesting tumblr post here: (Though it was actually posted before the episode- it was just in reference to the name). By someone who is disabled and American.
fromonesurvivortoanother.tumblr. … rs-an-open
Thing is despite whatever its origins might be (though TBH, it was used before South Park in my case), people used it to mock the mentally disabled NOW, just like they use “Hurr Durr” and what not, and yes in America too and across the internet.
I’m aware that not all people mean to be insulting when they use it, but the fact is it is insulting, and has been used to hurt a lot of people. And this has to be made known too. If even ONE kid gets hurt from it either directly or indirectly, it’s not worth it at all.