If you ever wondered...

Fantasy Time

So, that fantasy I've been writing. Chapter 1 is complete! Remember, it's only in alpha, liable to lengthening, etc etc. None of that really matters for the moment, here's the link!

Chapter One

I'll add some bios in a few days. I'm working on way too many projects.

Gradient Neon Ponies

Too much time on my hands? Certainly. Does that mean I didn't enjoy it? Certainly not. Just tinkering with the line style I did for the last Art of War bit. It is really quite fun, and fits my style of doodling. As to what it's called, heh, I have no idea.

It wouldn't be me without some sentimentalism. So take some pithy sayings, too.

Honest Industry

Kind of had no ideas on this one, even though the last few episodes have been about her. Be hardworking like AJ and come up with the pithy statement for this one.

Nature Ascendant

 Fluttershy fluttering from the forest to the spacious sky.

There's natural gold in everyone, but the real heroes take that gold and expound on it, bringing it to new heights, leaving the weaknesses of their nature below.

Rainbow Revolution

 Let the gray give way to the light- we are only on Earth for so long- why not make it as glorious as possible?

Picturesque

Don't worship a model- make yourself worthy of being the model. Always aspire to the highest you can be- be someone others could model themselves after.

Spectrum

Copied the pose from that doodle a few posts back.

There is a whole spectrum of man- some are brilliant, some are athletic, some jacks of all trades. But one and all have the spectrum of man- choice, reason, love, emotion. Man is a spectrum more beautiful than a rainbow.

Starfall

I'd say the Fluttershy one is the best of the bunch. And if you haven't already, watch a Message for Humanity. It is more or less glorious. Just check a few posts down. I highly recommend you doing so.

Pony Sketches 50/2 -> sqrt(ans)

Seanchan- Seanchan everywhere. Day 5 of the Art of War.

Pony Sketches 4k

For the Day 4 theme, a rescue mission. A magical rescue from an all-consuming shadow (featured in my last sketch) defeats something far greater than the mortal army of your foes.

Pony Sketches Mk III

For the "Duel" theme

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/01/artist-training-grounds-mock-war-day-3.html

Oratorical Analysis, Anyone?

Speeches- a potent medium. A thought-invoking or inspirational speech is really quite marvelous, and so I intend to post a few here. Whether to lift the spirits, or you are one of the 5 people in the state writing an Oratorical Analysis and need material, here you go:

And yes, I chose ones with videos to go with them. Increases the allure by just a bit.

Last one's short, but that changes nothing. These speeches, lectures, etc are simply brilliant. And as the sole purpose of this post- to link these videos- is now fulfilled, I am not going to blather any more, excluding a bit of news.

Remember the fantasy I mentioned I would eventually be writing? Well, I reworked it and finally started. The 1st chapter should be up within a week or so. I'll link it here.

If anyone knows a good and rather cheap (if not free) music editing program, it would be quite epic if you informed me of it.

Since I'm clearing out my binder soon with the semester change, doodle scans may increase. Also, as I will (ideally, need to work out a few schedule bugs) be taking Creative Writing, short stories may begin appearing.

Also, I officially recommend Plato's Republic. In 10 pages, he proves that a just man does good to all, not merely his allies. It's also comfortably formatted, as it features Socrates in a debate with some sophists, thus working in rebuttals and counter arguments quite smoothly.

Pony Sketches 2

Legit Science Time (EPSILON IS BEST VARIABLE)

YESH! They restarted the Artist Training Grounds competition at EQD and they reset the theme, so here's the new Day 2.

Pro Flows

Real debaters doodle all over their flows. Or at least I do. These are the best ones I've found from my massive pile of flow sheets:

And I might not understand all of it now, but at the time, all of this made sense (minus the primarily non-sequitur doodles, those never make sense).

SOPA/PIPA

Sure it's a day late,

Socially Awkward Penguin is Awkward

but as a denizen of the Internet, I need to put in this word, addressing the bill SOPA.

It is [redacted].

See? My long-winded speech was destroyed. Which is of course legitimate evidence against SOPA.

On a more serious note, SOPA is a serious threat to the Internet and business alike, a shortsighted abomination. Do what you can to defeat it- e-mail your representatives, do something like this on your blogs, A quick infographic:

While I'm here, I'll officially mention that I own approximately none of the media I reference on the blog, but I likewise don't know their author. Either way, it's not mine, I do not claim ownership, etc.

Unless I say it's mine, of course.

The Brony Contentions Part 3: The Works

I've already explained why MLP is awesome, how bronies came about, and why the fandom is as brilliant as it is. However, that last respect has hardly been done justice. Which is what I'm here to exhibit now: the works and wonders of brony culture, what makes them legitimate.

  I am more than aware that I have already mentioned it, but the first and foremost factor that lends itself to the genius in brony culture is that of the cooperation and community between bronies. Here's a bit more along those lines:

  Another earlier issue that I've covered rather heavily is that of brony hating. Brony legitimacy has never really been threatened by this, but here's a bit of reinforcement:

  That's enough on recap- it's time to move on to what this section is really about- the genius of bronies. Bronies are by and large a highly skilled group of individuals, spanning the spectrum of the arts. Likewise, the unskilled are encouraged to develop and practice their own talents via community support and events. The arts are well and alive among bronies, with high quality productions being produced nigh constantly.

  There are dozens of crafts employed among bronies- rendering, painting, programming, composition, acting, writing, sewing, business, design, science, rhetoric, the way bronies creative juices are employed are without limit. The amount of fanmade content is unfathomable, with thousands of songs, pictures, videos, etc. There's plays, movies, videogames, podcasts all being designed around the franchise. These large projects are out of the hands of normal chaps, but that doesn't stop them from doing what they can, with the art and music divisions especially vigorous.

  The visual arts of static images is probably the second most impressive of brony-based art. These span paintings, sketches, photoshop, and computer images. The styles are likewise diverse, from complex to cartoony, classical in style or flashy. If you couldn't guess, there is going to be less writing on my part and more linking.

 Some rather well-detailed pieces

Rarity the Magnificent

Steampunk Profile

Luna and Twilight

Derpy War Poster

Caitlyn (from LeagueofLegends) Sketch

Celestia-GLADoS

 Crossovers

Cartoony Filly Derpy

Dr. Adorable (Dr. Horrible)

Not authentic, sadly

Ponified GLADoS

Doctor Whooves and the TARDIS

Ponified Zealot

AJ Bucking in Minecraft

And a bit of Miscellaneous

Steampunk Mane 6

Pinkie Pie Dreams

There's an awesome song to go with this

Seal of Twilight Sparkle

Mane 6 Dias

Fluttershy for Pres

That's more or less how the rest of this will go. By that I mean a pain to format and ridiculously long.

  Moving on, there is the writing that bronies themselves do. I'll admit I do not know much myself in this category- I haven't read many. Regardless, there are quite a few rather well written and extremely popular fanfics. Due to my lack of experience, this list will be short (feel free to add to this in the comments, I'm woefully uninformed in this respect).

My Little Dashie

I said it would be short. I know there are good ones from word of mouth, but I really don't read many (by which I mean I've read 2). As a warning, however, there are a few fanfics that are remarkably well known, but solely from infamy. The principle one is Cupcakes. Do not let curiosity make you read that. Ever.

  Before getting to the big one, I ought to mention all the diverse projects that are being carried out. Here is a brief list of some of the more prominent ones:

My Little Dashie Movie (It is REALLY popular) -in the works (itw)

My Little Musical -(itw) But here's a song from it.

A few videogames:

MLP: Fighting is Magic demo -(itw)

Legend of Celestia (itw)

Pony RPG trailer-(itw)

Equestria Online - MMORPG

MLP The RPG- A role-playing game, like Dungeons and Dragons

Plus plushies, shirts, and a mass of miscellaneous merchandise.

  Now comes the crux of all brony creation- the music. There are dozens of highly talented bronies who compose, remix, remix compositions, and sing original songs. This is the most brilliant facets of the fandom, The original works, parodies, remixes, etc are absolutely wonderful. They span the genres- dubstep, techno, rock, classical, country. Some are lyrical, profound, and others emotion-evoking ambiance.

Classical/Orchestral:

One of personal favorites. One of the best bronies in this field is makkon06.

Electronic (Dubstep/Techno/Eurobeat/etc):

OdysseyEurobeat is a pretty important chap. ChainAlgorithm and Foozogz

Rock/Acoustic/Rap/ThingsRemotelySimilar (if you can't tell, I'm not too comfortable identifying these genres):

LivingTombstone, GeneralMumble are big here.

Lyrical:

MandoPony is my favorite in this category.

Even more (YTPMV, misc, etc):

I've been building quite a collection of songs. If you want to see more:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC813343E2FCC0977&feature=mh_lolz

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3FC0355A4F407146&feature=mh_lolz

If you couldn't tell, there is just a bit of a bias towards classical/orchestral pieces (as they invaded the other categories).

  And this is the end of this compilation- not so much of an argument but an exposition of the skills of others. But the fact remains- the skill of bronies is impeccable and undeniable. And it hasn't avoided notice. Modern media is abuzz with news of bronies- everyone is fascinated/horrified by the phenomena. While a non-biased review is hard to find (I'm looking at you WSJ), it is rather refreshing to take a break from those who basically trash on it without base or rationale (ie they never looked past the cover). Some fair fame has been garnered, however, as bronies received a shoutout on the Colbert Report.

And possibly, the most important shoutout is that of Hasbro. They have officially recognized bronies in their ad campaigns (specifically mentioning them in Equestria Girls), as well as employing the fan-given names for a number of background ponies (most importantly DJ Pon3 and Derpy Hooves). Derpy Hooves, so-named for an animation error that caused her to be cross-eyed, has since been frequently inserted in the background with the "derpy" eyes solely  because of her popularity among fans.

  Bronyism has come to thrive and propagate, persisting despite negative coverage to make it worth those rare acknowledgments- consistent quality of every art and imagination possible has attracted bronies in and of itself. If nothing else, kudos must be given where it's due, and bronies certainly deserve it considering the wonders they've pulled.

Pony Sketches

Equestria Daily is running a rather nice art event for non-professionals and I decided to try my hand at it. There is a daily theme and you just whup something up for it. The first one was done before the event, just for fun, but the 2nd is for today's, which is to draw a pony in armor or uniform.

The Brony Contentions Part 2: The Brony

Compared to the previous topic, this is significantly less controversial in definition, but being a brony yourself isn't. As far as what a brony is, it is as simple as this: a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Some would limit the term to nonchild fans, but they might as well be too. However, for the purpose of discussion, we will primarily focus on the aged bronies, as no one wishes to hear a rant about people watching a show in their demographic. So from this point forward, when I refer to a brony, they are not a little girl.

  So, concerning bronies. Unsurprisingly, this fandom is largely composed of nerds, geeks, denizens of the Internet. Not entirely surprising, considering that all three of these groups are often social outcasts and wouldn't flinch at another instance of social deviance. There is also the factor of the high percentage of hipsters in these groups, and anything ironic is fair game for them. In fact, the brony fandom began and lives on the internet, without which it would be massively crippled. But however did MLP come to the attention of these socially awkward penguins, to reference the internet meme?

  The answer is this article, the End of the Creator-Driven Era in TV Animation by Amid. It attacked modern cartoons and animation and one of the first things it mentions is this: My Little Pony. While it is mentioned only once in the article, this is where it started, though it had nothing to do with the reference of MLP. The reason the article came to prominence was because it so deeply offended many members of 4chan's cartoon board. However, the specific mentioning of MLP in the article piqued the curiosity of some of those on 4chan. They found that Amid had chosen the worst possible evidence to make his case, and the brony was born. Soon, ponies became a culture of 4chan. But, being 4chan as it is:

But the Internet was tainted with the Dark One's own touch, it's magic made foul - What Robert Jordan would say if he went to 4chan

The newly found group of bronies quickly gained the antipathy of non-bronies, with a number of components resulting in this. First, 4chan is a collective of trolls, they fight and bicker as second nature (which is why one must NEVER go to 4chan, you will never be safe from then on). Second, bronies had found a very effective way to derail threads and stop discussion (the primary pastime on 4chan) in image macros. They would spam a thread with so much ponies that normal operation was impossible. This quite reasonably brought ire upon them. Finally, there is the fact that a lot of people simply hated on it. Candy-colored ponies make easy targets for trolls (though in actuality a seasoned debater could dissolve any arguments made against it, but then again, most people aren't debaters). Here, one of the many internet wars began. Bronies spammed pages with ponies, haters spammed it with things that should not be mentioned, and the ban hammer came out. All pony-related content was finally banned from 4chan. While this era is long past, bronies now with their own board on 4chan, this period served as a trial of fire to the bronies- if they could survive this, they could survive anything. Less significantly, it created a few common phrases such as:

  In their exodus from 4chan, the brony culture began to propagate and expand its boundaries. Sites such as Equestria Daily and Ponychan were created to permit the continuity of the brony cause. Likewise, people from outside 4chan (such as myself) now became aware of the phenomenon. Youtube, DeviantArt, Facebook, the bronies found new homes all across the internet, forming groups, uploading content, etc.

  At this point, the brony culture is alive and kicking, enjoying popularity throughout the web, with many fairly-well known names now holding the tag of brony, such as Weird Al Yankovic and Powree of the webcomic Sandra and Woo. Bill Clinton himself was once asked questions about MLP on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me and answered all three correctly (he may have simply deduced it, but there's a healthy chance).

  One of the defining traits of this culture is its quality- of individual and content. The core of the brony fandom is the idea of love and tolerance- these are their supreme values. The brony community has repeatedly been remarked on for its extraordinary camaraderie and unity, as shown by this very scientifically accurate graph:

  In fact, the community is what many find most attractive- people's lives have been absolutely reversed by joining the bronies. Suicides have been prevented, depressions ended, vices undone, friendships and even marriages made, simply because this one show has brought so many people together in a non hostile environment- something which some bronies had never known before. There are instances of bronies being kicked out of their homes and quickly finding help among the community.

WARNING: LARGE WAVE OF EVIDENCE INCOMING

Click to expand

Click Moar

Continue Clicking

No one man should have this many links

Le Click

Keep Calm and Click On

You don't have to click if your eyes are good

I felt this one deserved extra notice. Pessimism is such an easy trap to fall in.

Quite right, sir

Clicking is definitely necessary

Very scientific.

Almost done clicking.

Last Click

  The short of it is: MLP has had a massive effect on its fans, improving lives, providing a general good time, and creating a fundamental and compelling advocacy for something all too rare: harmony. 

  What's wrong with that?

Also, my primary source on the historical bit, by Saberspark once again: