Tuesday 11 April 2017

Ship names

Occurred: Americans seem to be much more exercised by the Oxford comma than anyone from Actual Oxford would be. Remember that Oakhurst Dairy news story? Over here, it made the rounds for one day and then everyone forgot about it. Yet I'm still occasionally coming across Americans who bring it up. Nobody really cares about the Oxford comma over here: if you can answer the question "Is your meaning clear?" with "Yes" then that's good enough and consistency be damned. Just thought it was interesting.

Anyway, the other day, I reviewed a Rainbow Dash/Moondancer shipfic and assumed that this ship would be known as RainDancer. To my surprise, nobody else – at least on Fimfiction – seems to have used the term. If I really am the first and anyone wants to use the name, they're very welcome to it! Some ship names amuse me more than others. FlashLight and SunLight are among the established ones that I find fun, but there are a few others I can think of that I'd rather like someone to write simply because of the names. For example:

SunnyDelight (Sunny Rays/G1 Apple Delight)
DiamondDust (Double Diamond/Lightning Dust)
LunaSea (Luna/Sea Swirl)
FireGuard (Firefly/Royal Guard)
SherbetLemon (G1 Sherbet/Lemon Hearts)
SunShine (Sunset Shimmer/Twinkleshine)

I'm sure there are more, but that's as many as I can be bothered to think of. Annoyingly, I don't think there's a canon pony whose name ends in "leader", since CheerLeader would be close to unbeatable!

6 comments:

  1. There's a second school of thought on these that I became aware of at BronyCon last year. It involves using characteristics of the two ponies instead of parts of their names.

    Two good examples were given to me, but I can only remember a couple right now.

    Applejack/Rarity = Ranch Dressing
    Twilight/Zecora = Stars and Stripes

    So I came up with a few while we were discussing it over the table.

    Fluttershy/Discord = Quiet Riot
    Twilicorn/Zecora = Stars and Stripes Forever
    Sunset Shimmer/Philomena = Bacon 'n' Eggs

    There's a thread on reddit for these. A few that are amusing.

    Pinkie Pie/Rainbow Dash = Sugar Rush
    Pinkie Pie/Twilight Sparkle = Pinky and the Brain
    Octavia/Maud Pie = Classic Rock
    Fluttershy/Rainbow Dash = Passive Aggressive
    Granny Smith/Cheerilee = Old School
    Applejack/Twilight Sparkle = Farm Report
    Spike/Sweetie Belle = Toasted Marshmallow
    Spike/Scootaloo = Fried Chicken
    Colgate/Berry Punch = Tartar Sauce
    Fluttershy/Nurse Redheart = Silent Treatment

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    Replies
    1. I was only vaguely aware of this approach, but it's rather fun. I'd much prefer "Quiet Riot" to "FlutterCord". It won't happen, but still. "Classic Rock" is my favourite from the Reddit selection.

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    2. Instead of doing anything useful after I got home, I spent fifteen minutes coming up with a few of my own. One or two of them might even be marginally funny!

      Berry Punch/Tender Taps = Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
      Pacific Glow/the Bunyip = Molly on the Shore
      Nurse Redheart/r63 Spike = Operation Barbarossa
      The Cocatrice/Steven Magnet/Twilight = Stony Brook University
      The CMC/Time Turner = Triple Sec
      Celestia/Derpy/Angel = Hot Crossed Buns

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    3. A slightly alcoholic theme there! I like the last one most, though.

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