Banjo Shaped Scrapbook

by Banjo64

Equestria Girls: The (Un)Official Retcon

After a thousand years trapped in time, the Crystal Empire had a lot of catching up to do. Now though, after several months of learning and exploring the world around them, the crystal ponies were ready for the next big step.

Princess Cadance had sent out an invitation to all the nations of the world, inviting them to come visit the empire and show the crystal ponies the wonders and culture of their homelands. Nearly everyone accepted, and with so many powers meeting like this, a week long celebration of cultural exchange had been declared.

“I’m so excited! This is going to be one of the biggest parties ever!” exclaimed Pinkie as she bounced on her train seat.

“Indeed! Can you imange just how many exoctic fabrics we’ll find at this event? Elken cloth, Minotaur cotton, and perhaps even genuine deer silk! This event is going to get my muse going wild, I just know it!” exclaimed an equally excited Rarity.

“Yep. Ah recon this is goin’ to be one hay of a show,” added a much more calm Applejack.

“I just hope it doesn’t get too loud though. I don’t want the crystal ponies thinking we’re forcing ourselves on them,” admitted Fluttershy.

“Don’t worry about it, Fluttershy. Have you seen how excited these ponies are? I’d be more concerned with them scaring everyone else away,” said Rainbow Dash with a smirk.

Twilight Sparkle, newly crowned Princess of Equestria, just stared out the window. Unlike her friends, she was dressed in full Princess garb, crown included.

“Twilight? Are you OK?” asked Spike.

Twilight turned to face her assistant.

“Yeah, I’m fine, Spike. I just have a lot on my mind,” she reassured.

“Why’s that? The Princess said you don’t have any royal duties during the festival. You can just relax and have fun with the rest of us,” said Spike.

“It’s not the festival, Spike. I’m looking forward to it too, but…” Twilight sighed and turned back toward the window.

Her friends all turned toward her with worried looks.

“Ya wanna talk about it, Sugercube?” asked Applejack.

At that moment they all felt the train start to slow down.

Twilight shook her head.

“Maybe later. For now, let’s just get situated and make some plans for the festival. Besides, this really isn’t something a Princess would talk about in public. I think…” she said.

Twilight’s friends shared uncertain looks, but decided not to press it.

---

As the train pulled into the station and Twilight got off the train, she failed to notice a cloaked pony watching her from a nearby ally.

The pony was not happy with what she saw.

“Really? Celestia made her a princess?! I’m the one who deserves that crown!” the pony hissed under her breath.

The hooded pony briefly considered marching over and snatching it off Twilight’s head, but held her ground. She didn't get this far by making stupid choices. She stopped and thought about what her next move should be.

“Hm... If that gem really is the Element of Magic then… yes. That could work. Yes, that should work perfectly. Don’t worry, your highness, that power will soon belong to a pony who can actually use it,” the pony chuckled before she slipped away.

She had some prep work to do.

---

Insert misssing script here

---

“Sunset Shimmer… that name sounds familiar,” said Twilight.

“I should hope so. She was a former student of mine,” said Celestia.

“Wait, she was your student too?! Shouldn’t she be an old mare by now?” asked Rainbow.

Twilight rolled her eyes.

“I was Princess Celestia’s prized student, Rainbow. That doesn’t mean I was her only one. She usually has two, or even three students at any given time. I think I remember her now. She was definitely talented at magic, but we never really connected all that well as she preferred a more hooves-on approach to reading. That, and I wasn’t very good at making friends those days,” admitted Twilight.

“Twilight is correct. But there is another reason you don’t remember her very well. She was always ambitious. Too ambitious. I’m not sure exactly what her motives were, but one day she was caught in the forbidden section of the archive, reading books on illegal black magic,” said Celestia.

“Oh dear...

Author's Note:

Oh boy. I never wrote much of this one, but I sure have a lot of notes about it. So strap in, there's a lot for me to talk about here in the author's notes.

I remember coming up with the idea for this one shortly after Rainbow Rocks aired. I recognized that the second movie was widely regarded as being much better than the first one, and a third was promised to be released in the future, so I reasoned that EqG was going to be a permanent, on going spin-off series. Possibly even one of good quality. One that would be always plagued by it's rocky start.

And what does every successful series with a rocky start do? They at some point remake the original to better fit in with the rest of the franchise. I recognized that was unlikely to happen in this case, so it was up to the fans to write one. I figured I'd take my shot at it, and this was the result.

And as I was basically rewriting the movie with a few tweaks to fix many of said movie's problems, I lost steam fairly quickly. I do remember my big list of things I wanted to fix though:

1) Make Sunset a more compelling villain. More specifically, a sympathetic one so that her redemption is not only more believable, but desirable to the audience. I was planning something along the lines of being driven by a desire to prove herself worthy to Celestia. She plan was never to take over or invade Equestria. She just wanted to ascend so Celestia would have to acknowledge her capabilities. I was also going to add a bit of depth to her relationship to Twilight. She feels Twilight doesn't deserve her wings because Sunset only remembers her as a bookworm who never cared for anything that wasn't between pages. "I'll take the crown and the responsibility that come with it. You can just crawl back home to your books."

2) Turn the three days time limit into seven. Apart from making things less rushed and hectic, it'd give wiggle room for Sunset to return to Equestria. I was going to add the idea that the two world are on opposite time tables: high noon on one side is midnight on the other. Twilight didn't wait until the next morning to travel through the mirror. It's just a different time of day on the other side. Also, I was going to have Celestia outright state that it's a parallel universe, and that's the reason Twilight's friends can't come along. It'd be far too likely to draw undesired attention if there were six girls struggling to even stand up right.

3) Flash Sentry. OK, big thing first: Twilight would still get the crush, but would recognize it as only the result of her hormones being mucked over due to the sudden species shift. She would have trouble keeping it under control, but would ultimately turn him down before leaving. Also, I was going to give him more to do that just bail Twilight out of trouble once. The big ones being that he'd give her a quick guitar lesson to help her learn how to use her hands, and play a role helping her get votes.

4) less incompetent staff. Celestia would notice the crown was stolen, and simply ask Twilight to use her crown as a substitute (because Twilight remembered to bring the fake, but it was crushed in the struggle). Because of the unique composition of the Element, it appears no different than glass and plastic. Twilight can't think of a reasonable excuse to say no without giving herself away, especially since Celestia bought a safe to ensure no further thefts. Luna would recognize the poor editing as poor editing, and scoff at how amateur it is. Also, there would be a running gag with Discord as the janitor being disappointed with today's youth. No sense of mischief, these brats.

5) Twilight would have to do more than a song and dance to win the Fall Formal. After reuniting her human friends, she'd have to act like the leader she wasn't sure she was: look at the resources at her disposal, and utilize them effectively. She'd send out the girls to their own circles to try and win over as many students as possible. Also, I was going to draw attention to the fact that logically, there's no possible way for a new student to win a popularity contest with less than a week at the school. Twilight would have to jump through some serious hoops to win.

6) The humane six were going to be a little more cautious about Twilight. Near the end of the week, they'd confront her about all the little weird things she does and why she needs to win the crown so badly. This would lead to Twilight, not Pinkie, having to explain the situation. Which leads to...

7) Sunset's plan would hing on an unproven theory about how magic artifacts work in a non-magical environment. In theory, the magic should readily slip into the nearest living vessel. In practice, it's never been tested. And it might just make a really big explosion instead. Twilight figures it's not worth the risk, and the rest of the crew agree.

8) Demon Sunset still happens, but not because of the Element's magic. Rather, it's because the Element rejects her, causing a negative feedback loop. The friendship laser would also be far less spectacular, as it's only based off one Element instead of all six. Also, Twilight would warn the others that having raw magic channeled through their bodies might have some unknown side effects and ask for their permission before doing so.

9) The fight would wrap up with a whole day to spare, leaving time to get proper explanations on a few missing links: how much Celestia and Luna know about the portal (a lot), what happens to Sunset (outright banishment until the learns friendship), and Twilight coming to recognize her own skills as a leader.

And Finally,

10) There was going to be a running gag about Spike liking the dog treats because they taste like bacon. Twilight would respond accordingly, depending on your thoughts on whether ponies are full blown vegetarians.

Make of all that as you will.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Luna would recognize the poor editing as poor editing, and scoff at how amateur it is.

"That... I never did any of that!"
"Of course you didn't." Vice Principal Luna passed the photograph. "Feel along the edge of your body."
Twilight did so and gasped.
"Literally cut and pasted. I'm more offended than anything, but the adhesive is still strong enough that I can't pop it off and see who's in the original shot. But I think we both know the answer there."
"Sunset Shimmer."
"Indeed. Whatever you're doing, Miss Sparkle, it's working. You've done something I haven't been able to in two years: You've frightened Sunset Shimmer. This sort of transparent frame job only happens when someone's running scared." Luna scowled. "Of course we don't have concrete proof, and calling you into my office won't help your reputation... unless you follow my lead."
---
"Thank you for your assistance, Miss Sparkle." Twilight wasn't sure if there was a Traditional Vice Principal Canterlot Voice, but Luna was using it quite effectively. "This has cleared up any suspicion I might have had regarding you. Clearly someone else tried to sabotage the dance and make you take the fall. I can only imagine who'd have it out for a new student."
And as the students in the hallway began to murmur to each other, Twilight added another hnderline to the mental note to never, ever mess with Luna.

Suffice to say, I am entirely in favor of a more carefully thought-out and reasonably paced first EqG movie. Not sure I'll expand beyond this scene, but this is still a great idea.