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TheBadFaerie — MLP: FIM - Without Magic - Part 1 (Edited)
Published: 2012-09-08 15:55:12 +0000 UTC; Views: 159000; Favourites: 1723; Downloads: 2503
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Description
Please note, this comic was originally intended to be 10-15 pages long. The lack of lead up and detailed explanation on this page reflects the fact that the comic was supposed to be a lot shorted and simpler than it ended up being.EDIT: I've had a some people react quite badly to this comic. Some even found it a little distressing that I've taken Twilight's horn away (Wounded veterans have been been mentioned in the comments).
When I first wrote this comic, my vision was that this was an academic exercise set by Celestia to help Twilight to better relate to other ponies, as well as to better understand herself. So I've updated the text to clearly state that this fact.
I've also tidied up the page a little. Still the original vectors, though.
This edit means that some of the following pages might sound a little odd.
Original Description
I know that it doesn't look much, but this is my most ambitious Pony comic to date. I've tried to use as many original components as I can (Inkscape and Photoshop), but you might recognize some old favorites from other (more talented) authors.
This comic was inspired by the episode Winter Wrap-Up, where Twilight tries to get by without using her Magic, but in the end she uses it even though she isn't supposed to.
Princess Celestia sent Twilight to Ponyville in order to get to know other ponies, and to discover life outside of her books and magic, but in most episodes she seems to solve problems using books and magic.
Twilight solved three simple problems with magic, that any Earth Pony could have solved using their hooves. She used her magic instinctively.
Princess Celestia wants her to find a way to do things without using magic, and to see things from other pony's perspectives.
She's not being cruel (and this is supposed to be the "real" Celestia). She's trying to help Twilight to explore the other things that make Twilight Sparkle who she is.
Anything that isn't directly attributed to somebody is either based on an image from the show's advertizing material for the show, or is scratch drawn (Some things are a combination of the two). I didn't use General Zoi's Pony Creator for any of this (yay).
As you can see from the “Cyclops” pony in frame 7, I'm still getting to grips with Inkscape, and Ponies in general.
Twilight Sparkle's Cutie Mark is by Grendo11 (grendo11.deviantart.com/art/Tw… )
Part 2: perfectblue97.deviantart.com/a… (Updated version )
Part 3: perfectblue97.deviantart.com/a…
Part 4: perfectblue97.deviantart.com/a…
Part 5: perfectblue97.deviantart.com/a…
Part 6: perfectblue97.deviantart.com/a…
Part 7: perfectblue97.deviantart.com/a…
Frame 1, Scootaloo's expression is based on this image (bobthelurker.deviantart.com/ar… ). Frame 3 and 4: Background (gameguy001.deviantart.com/art/… ). Frame 5: Rainbow Dash is Angry Rainbow Dash by 90Sigma (90sigma.deviantart.com/art/Ang… ). Derpy's Cutie Mark is by Ooklah (ooklah.deviantart.com/art/Cuti… ). Frame 6: The background is from the show itself. Frame 7: Background is Library Upper Floors (Twilight's Bedroom) by DaringDashie (daringdashie.deviantart.com/ar… ). Frame 8: Sorry, I'm being really lazy here. This is from the show itself. I wonder how Celestia is writing that letter without using her magic (no glow?). Frame 9: This one is based on a couple of different images. Including Veggie55's Rainy Days (veggie55.deviantart.com/art/Ra… ) and Library Upper Floors (Twilight's Bedroom) by DairingDashie (daringdashie.deviantart.com/ar… ). I used them both as a base. One for the window and the other for the curtain, along with some tweaks. Also based on the original image from the show. Frame 10 and 11: Same as above. Frame 12: Same as Frame 8. Frame 13 and 14: Same as Frame 9.
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Comments: 851
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In the panel where Celestia is writing back, I think the "some time later" text should be a different color than her coat.
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But don't Earth ponies have supernatural strength that allow them to kick apples off of trees and run very fast?
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I kinda skipped over that part. It doesn't come up until right at the end of the comic.
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You seem to have trouble getting why exactly so many people hate Celestia in this. I think I might be able to explain it.
The reason it rubs people the wrong way is because it's very..."Who the hell do you think you are?" Celestia literally just ripped away a large part of Twilight's being, crippling her and turning her into an adult blank flank embarrassment completely out of nowhere without Twilight's permission or warning (I don't count the second before it happens as warning). That's very arrogant and RUDE. Why does Celestia think she can just do that to someone without their permission? If your answer to that is "because she's god-emperor", well, that's your problem. If anyone lower than her decided they could just do that to people, they'd be punished legally. If Celestia gets away with things that'd be considered morally wrong and would therefore be legally punishable, that's a problem.
She violated Twilight's body. Again, who the hell does she think she is? Imagine if you woke up in a hospital missing 1 arm and 1 leg, and the president was there and said he was responsible for it because he thinks you need to understand what the handicapped go through. And he says he'll give you your arm and leg back later, and maybe you think that's an important lesson, but why does the president get to just do things to you and take away your property just because he thinks he's morally right, and you need to learn something? Anything that shouldn't be morally accepted accepted or respected for a normal pony to do, Celestia shouldn't do.
It's extremely inconsiderate. To the point where it means she doesn't give a shit about Twilight. She certainly doesn't give a fuck about her feelings. Celestia doesn't even think she has to warn Twilight. No. You can't just do something like that to someone and still care about them. If you cared about them, you could never do that. Maybe you say in the story she does, but in real life, it's not at all like that, and who might is has just deluded themselves into thinking they're a caring person. It's extremely cunty. Fuck the people who keep doing shitty things to you and putting themselves 1st and trying to act like they can both do that and be a good, nice person who cares about you. Thinking you don't need to consider others' feelings is not caring about them. You can't get around that. You can't care about someone without caring about their feelings, without being conscientious of them. That's an oxymoron. Why doesn't Celestia think she needs Twilight's permission to do this? Is Twilight Celestia's property? Why does Twilight not need to be told in advance? Why did Celestia not think Twilight being prepared for this was important? Twilight's the pony at the center of this. Why doesn't she need any of that?
How many stories have you seen in TV shows with the trope of someone screwing up and upsetting another character because they weren't
considerate and then they had to learn to be more considerate, apologize, and make it up to them? Thousands. Those characters were/are always portrayed as in the wrong and rightly so.
What she did to Twilight was way too intimate. Celestia violated Twilight without consent. And that's the key word, "consent". You could've completely avoided all the hate if you'd just had that 1 simple thing. If you'd had this be a mission that Celestia gave to Twilight, and Twilight accepted it. Twilight has the choice to not accept it, but at the same time, Celestia could not teach Twilight anymore, and that would be the end of this path for Twilight. There's no force. And that's another key word. Forcing things on people, subjecting them to and inflicting things upon them doesn't seem very much like friendship. Deciding you can just steal from people and play God with their lives doesn't seem like friendship or care or love. Can you imagine the show ever having a lesson where 1 of the main (not Discord) characters decided to just disable Rainbow Dash's wings so she can see what it's like not to have them, not even because she was being douchey, but that character just saw her flying around a lot and decided they thought it was too much? And the tone of that episode only once briefly portrays it as bad, but then forgets, and that character isn't hated after that and doesn't apologize?
What if Twilight never ended up learning the lesson, so she basically had her whole life taken from her? How would Celestia feel about that? If 30 years passed, and Twilight never found out what Celestia wanted her to, would Celestia have just given up and gave her back her horn and cutie mark? Or let her die without it? Would Twilight and the other characters have resented her then? Would you think what she did was wrong then?
Tell me, does Twilight hold this against Celestia? Does Celestia actually tell Twilight she was wrong and apologize to her (saying it to someone else isn't good enough)? Do we get any more scenes of Celestia feeling bad about this? Because just once on a couple pages (86-89) is way too little and not nearly good enough. Does she try to make it up to her? Because that is the LEAST she needs to do. But something tells me that doesn't ever happen. Because you don't understand the hate, that means you don't really think it was that bad, so Twilight probably won't hate Celestia or hold what she did to her against her, and Celestia probably won't apologize to Twilight or be punished in any way and will get away with it. On page 91, immediately after the 1 (that I know of; I didn't read after that) part of Celestia showing regret, she writes Twilight a letter about the lesson, and nowhere in that letter Celestia saying she's sorry for what she did or even that she was wrong to do it, so likely no. And so far up to the last page I read, we didn't have a moment of Twilight resenting Celestia, not even immediately after what she did, so I think if that was going to happen, it would've been there. It probably won't be what I want it to be which is Celestia groveling, sobbing, begging for forgiveness. And a hate-filled Twilight. Luna should actually be disgusted with, hate, and disown her. I cannot overstate how horrible what Celestia did is. If anything, I think Celestia hasn't gotten enough hate from the audience. She needs far more.
Celestia is irreparable in this story to me. Twilight should get revenge. Twilight should be extremely hate-filled toward Celestia. I would be like "HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME!?" If Celestia had done this to me, not only would I immediately stop being her apprentice, but I would be filled with everlasting, seething hatred and extreme rage and become physically violent with her on sight. I would never want to see her ever again or ever want anything to do with her again or ever want to even think about her again. I would sue her and try to get her put in prison. What happened to Twilight is what should happen to her. She should have her magic taken away for at least is long to be fair and then longer for punitive damages. Celestia should be removed from her position. Everyone who hears about what she did should despise her, and everyone who knows should try to spread it around as much as possible and wage a never ending smear campaign. Celestia can go to Hell. Celestia can go fuck herself.
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The problem is that this comic isn't about Celestia, she's a tool being used to set up the premise of the story.
People hating on Celestia isn't relevant to the story.
Besides, this is totally in character for her. For the first 3 seasons she threw Twilight into all sorts of trials in order to prepare her for being a Princess. Did people hate on her for sending her to fight Sombra, an actual life threatening situation? No, they accepted that Celestia was useful for the narrative and they forgot about her an got on with the rest of the story.
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Did you not read my whole comment? I said you could've completely avoided all the hate if she had merely presented Twilight with this as a mission that she could choose to accept or not. Because then it wouldn't have been forced and violating and arrogant.
Saying "go to this place and do this thing" isn't the same as reaching into someone's very body and ripping something out. Without warning or consent. That's violating their body. It's way farther than "go do a thing at a place" or "go stop a bad guy". It's so much worse.
What you're saying would be more like if Celestia suddenly teleported Twilight in front of a villain with a sticky note saying "kill this thing; bye; love u".
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I'll tell you what I tell everybody else:
1) Celestia never once asked Twilight's permission in the show for any of the trial that she put her through, so my version of Celestia is perfectly in keeping with series canon
2) This comic was meant to be much shorter. I wanted to keep explanations to an absolute minimum
Celestia explained everything to Twilight in a letter on the first page, it's all down there on parchment, and do you seriously think that there any chance that Twilight wouldn't have accepted if she was given the choice?
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1. Like I said, I don't count a second before it happens as a warning. 1 second is not enough; it needs to be enough time for you to internalize it and get your bearings. Just imagine if instead of Celestia summoning Twilight to her throne room to tell her about the test with
the Crystal Empire, Twilight was just sitting in her library, and
Celestia teleports her outside the empire in the snow by Sombra and
tells her there's a crystal heart in the empire she needs to find and to
not let Sombra take over and then leaves Twilight. Wouldn't that make Celestia look really bad?
2. Nightmare Moon was something that Twilight had to (choose to) take upon herself because Celestia was indisposed; that was just kind thrust upon her by fate and not Celestia.
The rest was an actual urgent matter that needed to be taken care of. Celestia was like "this is an important matter, and I need you to fix it", and Twilight being the hero she is accepted it, and some of them (like Discord) were things Celestia could not do instead. This test is not an urgent, life and death situation. There was no danger or time sensitivity. Celestia was just like "I'm just gonna take your powers 'cause I think you need to not have them." It was just a whim of Celestia, which she admitted.
With Sombra, I get the feeling that Celestia&Luna could've stopped him again, so there was no real danger to anyone 'cept Twilight, which is fine because she needs to be tested in perilous ways if she's going to be Celestia's protege and get on her level. It's the same as a superhero training someone to fight alongside them. They have to test them by putting them in lethal situations, but the apprentice wants this. And they're at least WARNED. It's not like "I'm gonna make you fight a monster-THERE'STHEMONSTER-BYE!"
3. It's all about how it's handled. It's not the same just because the result is the same. Rape is not the same as lovemaking because they're both mechanically the same act. It's like the people who say that shooting someone who breaks into your house and them dying makes you just as bad as murdering an innocent person because they're both killing people. Celestia telling Twilight she wants her to do this as part of her training with Twilight accepting is not the same as Celestia just ripping Twilight's magic and cutie mark away without a real warning or permission. The latter isn't the same just because "Twilight would've accepted anyway, so they both end with her losing the magic. The end is the same." The portion leading up to the end changes characterizations. 1 of them involves CONSENT and consideration and makes Celestia look serious (in a cool way), and showing Twilight agree actually would've made her look more badass. The other makes Celestia look like an inconsiderate asshole who thinks Twilight is her property, and she can just play God with peoples' lives, and it makes Twilight into a victim. It's all about context, and the context between these 2 scenarios is completely different. The sections, the beginnings/middles before Twilight losing the magic are completely different, so again, it's not the same just because it ends the same.
If you still don't agree, then think of Twilight as yourself. Would you want to be warned 1st and asked if you'd do it, or would you want someone to just decide they can temporarily handicap you without warning, and they don't need to ask your permission? People are angry because they have empathy for Twilight. They're thinking of this as if it'd happened to themselves, and most people would be infuriated if this was done to them. You'd be.
Also, you mentioned length? I think it only would've been maybe only 2 or 3 pages longer if you'd had Celestia tell Twilight she wanted it to be the next part of her training, and Twilight said yes. Maybe you could've made it no longer at all.
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All of that was in Celestia's letter on the first page.
You just didn't get to read it as it's either not important to the story or it's tackled later on in the story.
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Also, lacking a horn or wings doesn't make you an Earth Pony.
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You're right, it makes them a Care Bear.
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No offense, but since when did MLP stray from that sort of "cutesy" style?
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Ironically, G1 was often very un-cutesy. If the original Tirek and Grogar were like something out of a horror movie, and the main plot of The End of Flutter Valley involved characters desperately trying not to be burned to death.
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How much of G1-G3 must I watch in order to join the herd? (And should I also watch the 2017 movie, just in case S9 is followed by a G4.5 series?)
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Technically, you only need to watch G4 to be a brony\pegasister.
I grew up watching reruns of G1 on TV, and after G4 came out I brought the entire of G1 and G2 on DVD, as well as the original movie, and I've got most of G3 (Spoiler alert, it's awful). The 2017 movie is an absolute must as it's awesome.
Equestria Girls is totally optional.
I don't think that G4.5 will have the same following as G4. I think that it's being retargeted at a younger audience and that most of the elements that attracted older viewer to it are being taken out to make it more commercial.
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The only MLP I watched prior to G4 was toy commercials on Nickelodeon for what I believe is G3-G3.5. Back then, I have a feeling they were more focused on their toy line than anything else (and anything outside of that could have just as easily been a commercial for it), but I'm not sure.
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G3 was really for much younger children than G1 and G2. The structure was much simpler, the dialogue was very basic, and nobody worried about things like continuity or character back story. They also cut out any real sense of peril, and had characters responding dramatically to just about everything.
They also reduced the size of the cast considerably, and removed most things that provides a sense of real world conflict. I brought the DVDs from the bargain bin mostly for completeness, but I didn't really enjoy them in the same way as G1 and G4.
I would definitely advices that you saw see all of the G1 movies. Tirek and Grogar are genuinely frighting characters. Back in the 1980s there weren't so many constraints on cartoons. Especially straight to video cartoons. So they could have villains that were actually villainous.
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Then it's possible I need to revise my head canon, which says that G3 takes place over 1,000 years before the events of G4. But is that believable to you?
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We already know what pony civilization looked like over 1000 years ago.
Wouldn't a better head canon simply be that G3 is from another mirror universe?
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Perhaps one where Equestria never unified...
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G3 seems to be set in a world where there Earth ponies don't know about other tribes. Maybe they never existed?
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In my head canon, the Earth pony tribe lost a civil war when the unicorns and Pegasi wanted to secede. The Earth ponies suffered massive inflation and embraced socialism. Both of these, in addition to a failed attempt to reclaim territory they'd lost, fanned the flames of the problem. They, in addition to the Pegasi, eventually had to accept dominance by the unicorn tribe, which forms the first incarnation of Equestria.
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That's ... a little complicated.
Generally speaking, the best fan fictions require little of no additional back story over the existing canon. Even if they divert from it significantly.
For example, why bring socialism into it?
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I'm just drawing a parallel between the Earth ponies and the Bolsheviks in a way.
How often do fanfic writers draw parallels between real-life events and the series the fanfics are based on?
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Quite often. Art is frequently used as a mirror for life. I do the same with a lot of the background events in my comic.
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I guess it didn't have to be socialism, but the Earth pony nation was a "democratic" government when it became one with the other tribes (at least according to Hearth's Warming Eve).
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I'm just saying that the best fan fictions don't require much exposition at the beginning. They gradually unveil a wider universe throughout the story.
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Even if the backstory is to tie together G1-G3?
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No offense, but if you can't draw "cute", who drew Luna here? www.deviantart.com/perfectblue…
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So is the Luna you drew on that other one. (No offense)
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No, that was an example of a Cute Luna.
I can't draw like that.
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(OoC: Well, I'd like to see your attempts before I believe you)
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I've seen some of his Luna drawings and they are very cute in my opinion.
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(OoC: Her, and I need to see it first)
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(OoC: That's pretty old, so it doesn't count, and even if it did, it looks pretty much like MLP style, but reeeaaally stiff. In fact, her style used to be pretty much that)
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No offense, but is there a problem with DeviantArt? I'm seeing the same comment three times.
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(OoC: There's a problem on my side, that's for sure)
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I wish I could unread that.
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I definitely agree with the sentiment, of learning to get by without magic, and self discovery, but Twilight is definitely taking this the wrong way, and that thing with the mark is definitely note helping.
Now take a shot every time I say definitely. If I have to suffer from my poor word choice, so do you.
Definitely definitely definitely definitely definitely.
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