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TheBadFaerie — MLP: FIM - Without Magic - Part 1 (Edited)
Published: 2012-09-08 15:55:12 +0000 UTC; Views: 159040; 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
How is Twilight taking this the wrong way? Celestia literally just ripped away part of Twilight's being and crippled her and turned her into an adult blank flank embarrassment (I consider being an adult blank flank the equivalent of if an adult had to wear diapers) completely out of nowhere without Twilight's permission. How arrogant. Who the hell does she think she is that she can just do that? The lack of asking Twilight, the pony at the center of this, about this makes it seem like Celestia does not give a fuck about her. She certainly doesn't give a fuck about her feelings. Why wasn't Twilight asked about this? This is a decision being made on her; why wasn't she asked about it? Celestia deciding Twilight didn't need to be told is cuntyness because it's inconsideration.
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Twilight thinks she's supposed to learn to be an Earth pony. Celestia wanted her to stop over-relying on magic.
It's poorly planned assignment. But for someone who takes assignments as seriously as Twilight, that's dangerous.
Twilight now thinks she's supposed to learn a new way of life, when Celestia just wanted her to learn a few basic life skills.
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Twilight should get revenge.
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Revenge for misunderstanding?
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No, because who the hell does Celestia think she is? Why does she think she has the right to rip something out of a pony and debilitate them without having to tell them (I don't count telling a fraction of a second before it happening as telling her) or get their permission? If your answer to that is "because she's absolute ruler", then you just stated the problem, because she thinks "might makes right" or "because I can". It means Celestia thinks she can play God with peoples' lives. Just imagine if someone decided to take your legs or your hands. Even if only temporarily. They just decided they could just do that to you. Would that not be EXTREMELY inconsiderate and RUDE and ASSHOLE-ISH and DOUCHEY? The fact that Celestia thinks she can just cripple Twilight without warning or consent means she doesn't give a fuck about her. At all. She didn't give a fuck about her feelings. Why was Twilight not asked? Why was Twilight not told about this? She's the pony at the center of this and having a huge life change made for her. Why wasn't she told about this? Why did Celestia think Twilight's permission and preparedness were not important?
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It means she didn't consider Twilight's reaction, not that she doesn't care.
I would say Celestia's precedence for doing this has nothing to do with Celestia being a Ruler, and everything to do with her being a TEACHER. This is a lesson. A poorly thought out lesson.
Imagine a teacher gives their student an assignment to use only their left hand do do one handed tasks, to teach them about how left handed people live in a primarily right handed world. But the student is simultaneously obsessed with succeeding in this assignment and personally identifies with their right handedness. The teacher doesn't realize how much the hand meant to them, and the student won't ask for help because they see it as failure. What was meant as a profound lesson becomes an almost traumatic experience. The teacher meant no harm, but now there's a problem that no one can fix.
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But don't you see? Not considering how someone else would feel about it is to not care. It is to be inconsiderate, and to be inconsiderate is to literally not care. You can't care about someone without caring about their feelings, without being conscientious of them. That's an oxymoron. 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.
Imagine if someone with a rank below God-emperor did this? Do you think it would be allowed, legally and socially? Do you think they'd be regarded as the bad guy? How do you think this would fly?
Your example would be more apt if the teach actually put one of those mitts on their right hand they sometimes put on prisoners to stop them from using their hands, the student couldn't take it off even after class and for some indeterminate amount of time, not until a set time but until they learn the lesson which means it could last the rest of their life, and it was without warning and FORCED, and that's the key word here, "force".
The lesson itself would've been fine if Celestia had told Twilight what she wanted to do and gotten Twilight's permission before initiating the transformation, and Twilight had the option to turn it down. Now, this might result in Celestia ending Twilight's tutoring the same way not wanting to do an assignment from your job will get you fired, but the point is that it's voluntary; Twilight doesn't have to take the lesson, but Celestia doesn't have to train Twilight if she says no. It's not coerced. You know, thinking about it now, coercion doesn't fit in very well with the theme of friendship. I wanted Celestia to actually give Twilight the assignment and for Twilight to accept it.
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The outcome would be the same of Celestia had given Twilight a choice, because of Twilight's mindset. She would see anything other than success as failure. Otherwise, Twilight could have said that she's not comfortable with this lesson and that it was causing her distress, and Celestia would probably have apologized and set things right.
As for not caring versus not considering, the difference is subtle, but it's there. We can do something that harms someone we care about if we don't realize it will harm them, and it doesn't mean we don't care, it just means we aren't aware.
In all those TV shows, once the character who creates the problem realizes what they've done, they usually feel bad. That's because they do care, they just weren't aware. If someone doesn't care if they hurt someone else, it makes no difference whether they know the harm they do.
The way we use the word "inconsiderate" we might mean either of those things, but they are very different.
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I'm not talking about the outcome; what matters is the input here. What matters is consent. Twilight did not consent to this. Celestia thinking she can just do this to Twilight, just rip away a part of her and cripple her screams "Who the hell do you think you are?" Again, if someone decided they had the right to temporarily take your legs away, and they thought they didn't have to tell you or get your permission, would that not be extremely wrong and arrogant? Would it matter to you if the person who did that to you told you the reason behind it was good (unless something horrible was going to happen unless they did it)? And what if the reason was just that they just felt you needed to live like that? Without consent, it turns into Celestia subjecting Twilight to something, which is wrong. Not giving Twilight a choice is wrong. Not telling her is wrong.
What she did to Twilight was way too intimate. She violated Twilight. Do you think it would be okay if you stole all of a rich person's money because you thought they needed to understand what it was like to be poor? No. You don't initiate force against someone who isn't doing anything wrong. You respect peoples' property rights, and their body counts as their personal property. You respect peoples' personal autonomy. Celestia does not have the right to do this. If Celestia did this to you, are you telling me wouldn't be pissed at her? If the answer to that is yes, then you see the problem with this and therefore must have that same outrage if she were to do it to someone else. If you would have a problem with someone doing that to you, that means there's a problem with this story. Again, forcing things on people, violating them, stealing things from them, and playing God with their lives doesn't seem very friendship-like. It's the same reason most people hate The Mysterious Mare Do Well. People hate when someone's a cunt to someone who's supposed to be a good person to
make them learn a lesson.
As for not caring versus not considering, the difference is size. This isn't just "I told a joke, and I didn't think about if it would offend you. I said a thing that was insensitive." This is a huge thing to not be considerate about. You can't just be infinitely inconsiderate of someone and have it never reach not caring about them. When the thing that you're subjecting them to reaches a certain size, is this violating, it reaches a point where it means you don't care about them. It reaches a point where you not realizing how much it would harm them means there's something wrong with you. It doesn't matter that Celestia felt bad later; this thing she did was way too big to not realize to mean there isn't something wrong with her for not realizing it ahead of time.
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?
Another difference is tone. In all those TV shows, the character who creates the problem all along is portrayed as bad. The writers are well aware it's bad and wrong. But the writer of this was actually surprised that people hated Celestia and doesn't entirely even understand why. That means the writer makes characters do bad things without even realizing they're that bad and understanding why. Which is a common problem in fiction, when a story has a good guy do bad things, but the story doesn't seem fully aware of it if at all. The tone does not portray Celestia as bad for doing this.
Again, what matters is how it was done going into it. I can guarantee you that all of the audience hate would've never happened if Celestia had actually told her what she wanted to do well in advance and it was a thing Twilight had to accept. The difference is consent. Saying it's the same if the result is the same which is Twilight doing an assignment from Celestia to live without magic would be like saying rape is the same as making love because they both end in sex.
What Celestia did to Twilight should happen to Celestia. Since the writer doesn't get why people hate Celestia, that means Twilight probably isn't going to be mad about it, since the writer thinks what happened to her wasn't so bad and wrong. Twilight should be extremely hate-filled toward Celestia. I would be like "How dare you do this to me?" It also means Celestia probably won't feel too bad about it (I don't count page 86 because that is so brief and nowhere near her feeling bad enough because it was basically "oh, this is unfortunate") and probably won't give much of an apology to Twilight if any. It'll probably be barely anything. I haven't read all this. Do we get that at all? If so, on what page? 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 and 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. She is irreparable in this story 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. Celestia can go to Hell. Celestia can go fuck herself.
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Taking things too literally is a classic Twilight thing.
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The horn was one thing, but the Cutie Mark?
Geez, Celestia, why don't you just tie the noose for her?
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Now she wont be an alicorn when celestia gives her wings! HAPPY ENDING
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That's 2 seasons in the future.
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I heard about this comic from a friend who would not shut up about how horrible it was and as well as some comments about you. Nothing kind. So I thought I'd read this and maybe calm him down or something that might shut the guy up. I will try to keep in mind that this is your story and try to be helpful with my comments.
That said, this opening will turn many people away. First off, how is what Twilight did any different than what any other unicorn does on a daily bias? Hopefully this will be answered in the story. Second, this seems extremely out of character for Celestia. Usually her lessons are created when there is an outside force like Sombra, Nightmare Moon, or a dragon. Also this feels very, very dickish for her to do to Twilight and just feels...wrong. Both of this will most likely turn heads and create haters if those people like either or both, but it does make others curious enough to continue, I just hope Celestia has a damn good reason for doing this
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When I wrote the first page the comic was going to be about 15 pages long.
It was going to end soon after talking to Applejack, so the first page represents an earlier version of the comic.
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So you don't see a problem with what Applejack does later?
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I'm largely basing the characters on what they would do in Season 1 and 2, and this includes making some of the same kind of mistakes that they would make.
Applejack is "Apple Buck Season", "Last Roundup" and "Over a Barrel" Applejack.
She doesn't always do the best possible thing.
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It just feels like you focus more on the flaws on a character overall rather than their good points.
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It's not a feel-good comic.
Many of the best episodes were ones that concentrated on a character's flaws. Twilight DOES have good things about her in this comic, but they don't come in until about page 130.
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I see. Then maybe I'll start reading it then.
If I may be so bold, this is what I think is the reason I hear so much hate from this comic, its taking too long for Tina to be Twilight. The good things are so rare and far between that it became a tedious read for me. Well, more like Tina's dumb choices for me but my friend rages with anger every day because of how long its taking saying you are doing this just to drag the character through the mud because you hate her and plan on doing something sick in the sequal. I think he's going a bit overboard but this is just what I'm getting.
If I do decided to keep reading this I will give constructive critisiusm unless you ask me to stop.
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There are a handful of people putting out some rather inconsistent hate because my comic doesn't meet their head-canon of Twilight, or because they don't like Celestia.
The people who have encouraged me to continue outnumber them 100-1.
The fact that you actually experience "rage" over this comic tells me that you have an internal dialog going on that exists outside of what I'm writing. There isn't anything in my comic that should produce emotions that strong.
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They said it was their friend, not them.
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Swap "you" for "them" and the comment is more or less valid.
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It funny that Twilight is happy to help the little foals but annoyed at Derpy (how many times is this?)
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French version: steampunk-brony.deviantart.com…
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Now Scoots knows what it's like to be Charlie Brown
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Maybe I should have made it a Kite Eating Tree?
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It's fine the way it is
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well discord did took away her horn last time.
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In one of the recent comics, a group of Unicorns actually CUT Rainbow Dash's wings off.
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Friends Forever No. 25.
Three unicorns cut of Rainbow Dash's wings so that they can make themselves in to Alicorns.
It's far more intense than my story because in my comic Twilight knows that she will get her horn back once she's completed Celestia's task, but in the official comic the three unicorns want to keep the wings for themselves and have to be forced to return them.
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"It gladdens my heart"?
really?
try "It warms my heart"
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Too sentimental.
Celestia is a mentor, rather than a proud parent.
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still seems like a grammer error
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Nope, it's 100% grammatically correct.
It's an old fashioned phrase, you hear it in classical literature.
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do you have a youtube channel?
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I had one a long time ago but it wasn't pony related.
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Okay, the whole "Twilight passing gas" thing was quite funny. As well as the other three bathroom related stuff that's in the story.
Keep up the good work.
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How about YouTube?
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This comic is the only pony content that I do.
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What sparked your interest?
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For the comic, or my Youtube channel? For my Youtube channel, I've been getting A LOT of dislikes. As for the comic, a friend told me about it.
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