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AssasinMonkey — The Cause for Apples
#applejack #earthpony #season5 #mlpfim #mylittleponyfriendshipismagic
Published: 2015-12-06 09:08:37 +0000 UTC; Views: 53739; Favourites: 2025; Downloads: 857
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Description
Bonus addition for my Season 5 Episode Art!Season 5, Episode 25 & 26 - The Cutie Re-Mark
For more info on my MLP:FIM Season 5 Episode Art Streams
Plan was to make more finale episode art. Of course it had to be Applejack in her latest outfit. This timeline was pretty darn serious, though. It implied a total war. Every single citizen involved, young, old, strong, etc. Putting war in a family show is one thing, full on total war is another. But they did so in one of the more interesting ways, showing not just the frontline, but also the immense struggle and effort from those back home.
Then there was Sombra, who made the situation that much more darker. Enslaving ponies, putting up ponies against other ponies, all probably aware it's against their will. Fighting against your own kind you know is a helpless victim deep within.
So dark, but oh do I love the creators for doing that. Also partially because of my "First Contact War" which is going down darker paths as well. War is even in the name, and in the show it was already fun just hearing the word, like back with the Yaks. But then they take it to the next level. Perfect. It almost kinda excuses my universe for even existing, it makes it that bit more plausible.
Anyhow, had to make Applejack, in a style I where I specifically thought about an older piece, Warm Adventure Flow
I still like what I ended up with in that, and I wanted to get back to that again. A certain type of focus.
Now I don't know if I'll actually do the other Mane 6 in their outfits. I wasn't exactly planning on that. It's just that this was AJ. I do want to have a big piece with all of them together, like in the ending, though.
Approx Time: ~11 hours
Photoshop CC 2015
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Comments: 89
Holy friggin detail. This is amazing. I had to double take to make sure I wasn't looking at an edited photograph.
You should totally so her in the "Rosie the Riveter" pose. It would fit this perfectly.
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Very nice. I agree with you, seeing a total war on MLP was surprisingly dark. And yet, that was the best possible bad timeline because the good guys hadn't lost yet!
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Well, it was still pretty stupid how the Equestrian army was shown attacking the Crystal Ponies. I mean, they have pegasi and the Crystal Ponies don't; what kept them from directly attacking Sombra?
Yet another plot hole.
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vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/m…
I can understand how you might have overlooked this, but you are in error.
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Yes, but this is the only crystal pegasus ever shown, meaning that they are exceedingly rare.
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That's fair to say. But regardless, they do exist and would definitely be put to use. The fact that Equestria is threatened at all means the mind magic makes every one of them a dangerous foe.
Furthermore, any territory that Sombra captured in Equestria would have its popular enslaved and probably pressed into service. That actually occurred to me just now, and it makes this whole situation even grimmer.
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Yes, but the number of "draftable" pegasi would still be crushingly smaller than those Equestria could reasonably muster, especially considering there exist dedicated pegasi corps such as the Wonderbolts or part of the Royal Guard.
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You think they didn't have anti-air weaponry just because you didn't see it?
And sombra can most likely handle himself in a fight even if he most likely stays somewhere secure.
Did you ever think of that?
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That doesn't make it any less absurd that they wouldn't focus their efforts on him, does it?
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It does considering that applejack said it took every pony in Equestria just to keep up the fight. They can't afford to take the risk of sending a team since they need ALL of them to keep from losing.
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Bringing us back to my previous question: why not put every effort into nipping the conflict in the bud instead of letting it devolve into full-scale war?
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And I'll answer you're question with questions.
How do you know they didn't try already?
How do you know Sombra didn't surprise them?
How do you know that they had any way of doing that?
You're assuming they could or had an opportunity to stop him early.
All we had is a glimpse of that timeline because the timeline itself wasn't a focus to the episode.
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That much is true, but I still find it silly how, for no apparent reason (and I do want to stress that there is no apparent reason), the war dragged on for so long. There may be an explanation, but it still feels shaky.
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Disclaimer: I can't give some absolute "this is why" answer. One was never given. If I could, we wouldn't be having this conversation. This is just a discussion for fun. Use some imagination.
First up is the fact that the Crystal Empire's magic can influence the morale of all of Equestria. If you've ever played Total War (or watched documentaries on real wars) you'd know the tremendous role that morale plays in war.
Next up, each of Sombra's enslaved ponies apparently becomes an instant fully capable warrior, with no hesitation. A robot. A killing machine. This gives him an instant deadly army.
Equestria has their Wonderbolts and royal guards, but I would hazard a guess that it was a laughably small number before the war, especially the Wonderbolts (if there were a lot of them, they wouldn't be elite). With an even smaller number of those having actual combat experience.
Drafting a bunch of recruits and training them as quickly as possible would swell Equestria's military size, but would not give them competent soldiers. Even selecting the best fliers, mages, and athletes will only give you just that. These draftees would be soldiers only in name, sent to stem the tide with their lives.
The only way for Equestria to develop a strong, experienced army would be to have enough recruits get lucky and survive their first battle. Rinse and repeat. Raise the body count.
Meanwhile, Sombra continues to enslave more ponies, giving him more fully ready killing machines.
Eventually, Equestria's population and resources would be enough to turn the tide. Consider the real world case of Russia and Germany in WWII. In fact, it's quite possible that the point in time that Twilight returned to was near the turning point, now that Equestria was mobilized for total war.
Actually, consider WWII as a whole. The Axis powers blitzed across the map with their fully ready armies and crushed the unprepared Allies in battle after battle. But eventually, the Allies got the ball rolling, got their crap together, and drew a line in the sand. Then they went on the attack until the Axis capitulated.
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Her expression is perfect. I think Sombra's universe was the darkest D:
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I would put it on place 4.
Discord's, Tirek's and Chrysalis' are worse, because you at least have a chance of winning against Sombra.
While Nightmare Moon's was literally the darkest, she doesn't seem to be doing a bad job at running Equestria.
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Yes, it seems that eternal night didn't kill everyone and everything after all. Rarity and Rainbow Dash seemed to have accepted their roles under Nightmare Moon's rule, the latter even showing loyalty to her. Not only that, but her castle was apparently even open for tourists! Of course, I'm sure there was some rebellion going on that we didn't get to see, but Nightmare Moon was clearly the least tyrannical villain ruler of all. She didn't brainwash her subjects or eat their emotions and she didn't just want to see the world burn either.
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Ja 
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That is why I added the ": )".
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Yep, the Sombra universe had to be one of my faves, the struggle behind the lines at home was reminiscent of the effort people pulled together to keep our boys fighting in WW2. The outfits and jobs they each did were indicative of their RL counterparts to some extent. Each haggard and worn out, but still trucking on to help those they cared about.
MLP has come a long long way in it's portrayal of content. What bugs me though, and I don't expect anyone to know the answer to this, but why is Hasbro giving Jim Miller and his team so much freedom in creativity and yet they gave Lauren Faust a hell of a time when she ran the show, based on what limited knowledge I know so far?
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You have to understand the point in time where Faust was given when she took the helm for the first time. This was back when MLP was tanking in the sales department and still looked upon as that "girly" franchise, that NOBODY expected to get the following it eventually got. It was also cautious from Hasbro's standpoint because they really didn't understand Lauren's objective which was to make a different type of show that shattered female stereotypes. Faust eventually got more freedom to do what she pleased and it allowed her to explore deeper concepts (as shown in Party of One being 'that' S1 episode).
Like you said, the show has come really far. Tbh, Hasbro is really confusing at times, we question their decisions time to time and they don't seem to yield for nobody. The reason for all this consent to freedom is anyone's guess.
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I guess so, that's a lot of good insight, I never thought about it that way before. It's still sad that Lauren basically gave Hasbro their second chance at life in the MLP franchise, and then they gave her the axe
Sony went and done the same thing to her for Medusa, one of the reasons why I hate big business, they use you then lose you
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Who told you that Hasbro fired Lauren Faust?
She quit voluntarily.
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Ahh, I see, I assumed that because of the limited info the articles I read supplied. It's hard to understand what goes on when these entities never really give you the whole truth, and instead leave you with presumptions on your part. Lauren was also pretty vague about her reasons, even up to now.
Is it that hard to be honest with people on both sides? I mean really.
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I never saw it that way, it kind of makes sense now that you bring it up like that. Especially with all these big media companies covering up so much information nowadays. I don't blame you for assuming that.
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Thanks. I also doubt it's likely to change in my lifetime, so we may as well content ourselves with how well the show has come along and be thankful for that.
I also want to thank you for a wonderful discussion, you shed a good amount of light on my concerns.
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It was very dark, wasn't it! D: But I agree, I liked it. It was also the first time we saw any pony with scars or similars.
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such an intricate painting style... i love!!!
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