Everything that Trixie does can be attributed to lights and sounds. He cutie mark even has a wand on it - a commonly cited symbol of trickery when it comes to magic, or a booster. Not true magic, like Twilight's. Trixie's special talent is performance, and hence her magic revolves around illusions - lights and sounds. She's trained her telekenisis to be extremely fine (probably much finer than Rarity's), then she casts images and sounds over top of them to make them seem more real. How else do you ezplain her turning a rainbow into a tornado?

Then again, it's all conjecture. I like the idea, but there's no real proof for it.

My favourite thing about this show is that all of its 'antagonists' can be construed sympathetically. Gilda is a jerk? Her best friend is drifting away from her. Yeah she was mean to begin with, but she felt like the ponies ganged up on her and then her best friend turned her back on her, over what could really just be seen as a bad day.

Trixie was a braggart, but she still tired to help when it was needed, and had a pretty clear inferiority complex.

Blueblood was boorsih and rude, but Rarity was being a gold digger, and at the end of the day Blueblood wasn't doing anything out of character for his class.

Their all jerks, but they aren't just jerks. There's always that little kernel of goodness, or at least decency, if you're willing to look for it. I like that.

thank you death, I'm sure we're all fond of your immeasurably irritable attitude as well. If you only show up to complain about what we're talking about, I have to wonder why you bother at all.

edited 14th Dec '11 4:59:25 PM by kegisak

I need to step out for a while. Try not to kill each other while I'm gone.

@Ginger, ... You describe that as though you're trying to induce pathos, like we will make our own sympathy despite it all.

@Kegisak, Blueblood's ask tumblr has obliterated any sympathy I may have for him, though Rarity was being a gold digger. I can understand your perspective for Trixie and Gilda.

I just need to find a way to care more for them I suppose.

@Death, Go away.

edited 14th Dec '11 5:01:38 PM by MousaThe14

I have sushi.

Yum.

@Mousa No. The first thing I wanted to do was make perfectly clear that these guys are getting exactly what's coming to them.

... that said. The point of my film is supposed to be "Bad people can still do good things" I have faith in humanity, and I think even the worst among us can still be genuinely kind. These guys are dying, but they have the chance to spare dozens of others from their fate

I have Sugar Puffs

double yum.

edited 14th Dec '11 5:04:03 PM by ApplelightLimited

Intriguing concept, and while I do agree there is a kernel of good in all, we also make our choices and dig our own graves.

I have jawbreakers and Rice. Not just yum: JACKPOT.

edited 14th Dec '11 5:04:18 PM by MousaThe14

Now I have no Sugar Puffs...

woe is me.

I have a toothpick. Not very YUM, but good for getting chicken out of my teeth.

Well the ask Blueblood tumblr kills any sense of goodness in him, yeah. But it is funny as hell. It also has the benifit of not being canon, so if you're going to take that as his character you may as well take this as his character too. and for the clever among us: before you point out that he is an idiot at the start and only has any goodness because of character development, keep in mind that the fact that the reason he begins to develop is proof that he was never that bad.

edited 14th Dec '11 5:08:14 PM by kegisak

@Mousa EXACTLY! but that doesn't make the few moment of good they perform any less meaningful.

It's always bugged me. One bad decision can undo a lifetime of good deeds. Why do we see the opposite so rarely?

YOU FUCKING PEOPLE AND YOUR SELF PROMOTION!!!

edited 14th Dec '11 5:11:25 PM by gingerninja666

12 chapters and made it to EQD, Kegisak thou art a god. Almost makes me wan to try to write fanfic.

Almost.

But I'll definitely give it a read.

edited 14th Dec '11 5:14:15 PM by MousaThe14

I tried. I failed. I quit.

Having your work called garbage and being given no constructive criticism whatsoever on top will do that to one's self esteem.

Also, I'm just not that good at sitting down and writing mass amounts of prose

edited 14th Dec '11 5:18:12 PM by gingerninja666

Please, That's getting you down? Well that's just silly. Maybe it's because I have no self esteem, but that stuff would simply not bother me. I never get constructive critics and I've been posting material for years.

Well, It's mainly the second point.

I have Complexity Addiction (and yet my story ideas aren't nearly as complex as you guys) and the scope of my ideas outweigh my ability to pull them off.

and I hate grammar. Fucking Semi Colons!

edited 14th Dec '11 5:23:17 PM by gingerninja666

You almost never use semi-colons.

And I doubt that's true, this sort of thing is usually a time issue. I wrote seven very long chapters of a novel over the course of five years and I did it mostly when I had no friends to hang with. When I did I was working on it less an less.

The way I write almost always gives rise to semi colons. In fact that was one of the issues the editors at ED mentioned (these weren't the guys who called it garbage btw, they didn't think it was that bad). My sentences are very, VERY long.

I can just never stick with something. It's my failing in everything I've ever tried.

edited 14th Dec '11 5:29:05 PM by gingerninja666

We actually tend to give really good criticism on the fanfiction thread in new media, Ginger. But for the issue of actually finishing something you just need to sit yourself down and force yourself to do it. I used to be unable to follow through, but the most important thing my school did for me is give me that ability to finish something. Give yourself either a time where you will sit down and work, or set yourself a time limit and stick to it. It helps a lot.

And Mousa, the story still has three more chapter to go. I'm looking at a wordcount upwards of 120, 000 words (three times the minimum length of a novel) when it's done. It's taken me just over three months so far - I manage it by sitting down and forcing myself to write for three hours each night. By this point I've just gotten so used to it that I legitimately don't know what I'll do when I'm finished it.

edited 14th Dec '11 5:37:41 PM by kegisak

kegisak: I know the feeling. I got a Firefly OC fic that still ain't done (gorram it), and it's been over year. About the same word count as yours, thereabouts. I think I got burned out on it, though.

Just toying around with one or two ponyfics-

Oh yeah, Fifth Amendment, I has one.

edited 14th Dec '11 5:46:50 PM by pvtnum11

Re: Twilight

Forget what Celestia said about Twilight's raw talent. You know why she didn't have friends before being dragged (yes, dragged) to Ponyville? She spent all day with nothing but books and magic. No parties, no socializing, no nothing, ever since she was a filly who picked up a dusty old tome. Before the entrance exam, she didn't even have Spike as a companion.

Forget talent, Twilight doesn't even need it. With all that study time put in, she can't not be good at magic.

@Kegisak: Man, I wish I had three hours a night to spend on my writing. I usually get an hour at best.

@ginger: Once you get over that initial hump, it gets a little easier to write. And everybody's first writing is always crap. Some of the best advice about writing I've ever gotten is "assume that your first draft is going to suck". You're never going to get Shakespeare quality stuff right off the bat. That and the only way to get better at writing is to write. Yeah, the first few stories might not be all that great; but you'll learn how to make subsequent works better.

Also, the reasons one bad decision tends to stick more than one good decision is that the bad decision tends to have way worse consequences than a good decision, and that a act of good is way easier to fake than a bad one. A bad person will do a good thing to try to trick people; a good person obviously won't do the opposite.

edited 14th Dec '11 5:56:07 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Actually, my first was pretty damn good.

Haven't quite been able to match it, so if anything my problem is the inverse. I mean, it's been good too, just not as good as my first.

First story on EqD was a 4.7. My further stories have been getting about 4.5, but still...

edited 14th Dec '11 6:15:41 PM by RichReeders

How much of your first draft do you usually keep? I'm tempted to just chuck what I have written so far and start again. That seems to always happen to any of my writing, be it personal statements or fiction.

Now is that that it's good, or that it's popular? Because Feedback, my first fic, remains my most popular by far. But it's still easily the worst of what I've written - it lacks polish, the lead is dull and the pacing is a bit sloppy. Everything I've done since then has gotten better and better (Even my most recent chapter of The Colour you Bleed is probably leagues above the first), even if it hasn't ever been as popular as the first one.

I tend to keep most of the first draft because I always like the events, but I'll tweak the narration a lot so that it flows better. MY style tends to be flamboyant (thought not to purple levels), and I try to keep a good sense of rhythm, so I'll stumble over myself a lot and need to correct the flow.

edited 14th Dec '11 6:19:05 PM by kegisak

Ginger, stop the pity party and start writing. It's obviously something you want to do.