@sweetz-tooth This Is U. Marmalade

@sweetz-tooth this is u. marmalade

My friend is trying to name herself, and she's like, "Oh, what's that name that's like marmalade, but it's a name?" and I know she means Adelaide, but I think I can talk her into naming herself Marmalade if I play my cards right here.

my boy <3 i’m so happy seeing ppl still be enthusiastic about my fave pony cuz he was so poorly misused in the show 😭😭

Stygian might be my favorite of the Pillars of Equestria and it's always made me sad that he wasn't used more in the show. So I decided to team up with my new friend Orin who's taken the time to make a bunch of amazing Pillar redesigns (same person I made this Starswirl animation rig for as a gift) that i'll be incorporating into my future animation project simply titled the "Tree of Harmony AU" at the moment until I can come up with a better name. The Pillars are very important characters to Harmony's story so I wanna do them justice. Listed below is some context for these sketches provided by my friend Orin and some written bits from myself. This is a Stygian who's been separated from the Pony of Shadows for some time, but is now dealing with the consequences of dark magic. I've had so much fun throwing ideas back and forth for this AU and I can't wait to share more in the near future.

The Pony of Shadows is not so easily purged, even with the combined strength of the past and present Elements of Harmony. A fragment of the shadow lives on in Stygian, inextricably bound to him, but small enough that it can no longer influence him. He has abilities superficially similar to King Sombra's, albeit on a much smaller scale, and definitely needs practice before he can comfortably wield this new strength.

The lingering dark magic corruption from Stygian's time with the shadow is visible on different parts of his body, mainly his eyes when using magic, some discoloration on the inside of his mouth and tongue, and his magic color.

As Stygian exerts better control of the fragment of shadow still attached to him, he eventually gains the ability to "Shadow Walk" or travel between shadows. This temporary form makes him look eerily similar to the Pony of Shadows. Pretty spooky.

Princess Luna ends up becoming Stygian's new mentor to help him gain better control of his magic corruption since she has direct experience with dark magic when she turned into Nightmare Moon.

Stygian's special talent is writing. His autobiography, Me and My Shadow, was an instant hit not just because he's a pony from a time long passed, but because he's a genuine wordsmith.  Stygian redesign by Orin331

xtgbcrtygu yeeagh

New hatchetfield theory I just thought of!!!

Ok so, I've seen some people pointing out that the phrase, according to NPMD, "nothing really dies in the Old Waylon Place" may also imply that that applies to ALL of the black altars. Aka, that's why Richie and Ruth open the musical. Those are actually their ghosts, now stuck in the school since it's a black altar.

And that got me thinking...

Is that why "Ethan" can talk to Hannah in Black Friday?

Like...Lakeside is a Black Altar, we know this. And if the same rules from the Old Waylon Place apply with all of the black altars, then that means that none of the people that died in the mall in Black Friday really died. Their spirits stayed there. And maybe even were able to come back to interact with the living, just like Max.

I've always assumed that the Ethan that talks to Hannah in Black Friday is just a vision sent by Wiggly to try to convince Hannah to give up the doll. But what if it was actually Ethan??? Maybe his soul got corrupted because of the Black and White's influence and that's why he acts the way he does.

Idk, just something I thought of while I was rewatching NPMD.

oh holy CRAP THIS IS SOOO GREAT !!!!! i knew something like this was happening but this was a perfect way of actually putting it into words. first i thought thaat the audience clapping at emma at the end of TGWDLM was just haha another funny joke (with dark 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴) but it puts it into a whole new perspective. holy.

Hatchetfield, Continuity, and Eldritch Horror

So, Nerdy Prudes Must Die just came out and it reminded me how much I love the Hatchetfield series and I want to talk about one aspect that makes it so unique and interesting. Continuity.

If you don't know Hatchetfield is a series of stories by Starkid that has three stage musicals and a series called Nightmare Time and a short film. It is a horror anthology series where in every story some different supernatural or other horrible event occurs where characters die or the world ends in different ways. But that is kinda of not true because anthology isn't quite the right word.

The characters stay the same as the inhabitants of the small town of Hatchetfield but each story focuses on different characters at different times and the interesting part is that while certain individuals will act differently because of something related to the horror or supernatural elements mostly they always stick to canonical personalities and histories, and it is heavily implied that the events all actually happen and there is some wider story where there are multiple timelines.

This creates two really cool effects.

One is that you slowly start to learn more about the characters as you encounter them in various stories, and different things come about depending on how the current threat affects them. It also gives more information than any length single timeline would because we get to see what pushes them to different points. From NPMD for example, the story takes place two years after The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals in which the world ends and Paul and Emma fall in love, but we see in NPMD that Paul for the first time gives Emma his number perhaps hinting at what the timeline would be for Paul and Emma's relationship to mature without the intervention of a world ending disaster.

The other thing is about Eldritch Horror. Hatchetfield's core story revolves around the Lords in Black a group of Elder Gods who orchestrate most of the events. In most cases Eldritch Horror has difficulty truly selling the concept of creatures outside of our dimension who are not bound by time and space, and even if they demonstrate their power to the characters, as an audience it doesn't have a huge effect. But with Hatchetfield, because as an audience we are aware of the multiple timelines, we take on the role of the eldritch beings and see the stories from their perspective. In NPMD they make references to other stories implying that it is the same Lords in Black everytime with Tinky talking about having "another Spankofski" for his collection(an episode of Nightmare Time.) They also play with having the audience being the perspective of these Eldritch beings with the stagecraft like in Black Friday where entering the Black and White has the president move in from the audience, or in TGWDLM the ending has the audience clap for the end of the show with Emma screaming for help and unsure why the audience won't help her.

Its a really cool format that I personally have never encountered before and really sells the horror and makes you more invested in the characters.

mumvch

readdddinnggg this later because I HAVE TOOOO

We’ve been talking about the LiB and since they are siblings, which one of them is the eldest, the youngest, whatever. So I present you: our headcanon of the order of the Lords In Black!!

Credits to: @astrolotte , @sweetyeojinnie and @child-of-peace !! We have discussed this quite a lot and it has been so much fun!

So, without further ado, here it is:

1. Wiggly

Okay so, Wiggly is the eldest cause of the obvious, he is the leader of the LiB and seems to have more power over them, this could be because of his eldest son status! We also believe Webby and Wiggly are twins which makes Webby the eldest daughter.

2. Pokey

Pokotho is the second son and he is ABSOLUTELY enraged about it. He’s kind of done with his siblings and is VERY jealous of Wiggly, hence why his whole thing is only wanting to hear his own voice! He is a bit overlooked since Wiggly holds the leadership of the LiB and because of that, he takes the lead anywhere he can, making little hive minds to have control over. Wiggly’s “Don’t frighten them Pokey, you nasty boy!” Makes me believe they have beef lol, and that is exclusively because Pokey is bitter he isn’t the eldest and therefore the leader, so close yet so far.

3. Tinky

Tinky just HAS middle child energy!! He is an attention seeker because he is stuck in the exact middle of the LiB. That’s why he is such a crazy and unhinged guy, he needs attention!

4. Blinky

Blinky isn’t the oldest, he isn’t the youngest and he isn’t in the exact middle, which is why he has conformed with just watching! He is content with the role of viewer and that doesn’t make him any less sadistic. But his middle younger child status has made him more low key.

5. Nibbly

He has youngest sibling energy. And it fits! He has a bit of an overexcited child energy, by constantly commenting stuff on the summoning (Wiggly just ignores him), also, is content with his little sacrifices he gets and hasn’t tried to create a whole apocalypse like the two eldest have!

This is just a headcanon and I love it so much I wanted to share! Feel free to discuss your ideas in the comments or reblogs