Deleted scene from "Dr. McNinja goes on an Equestrian Adventure", webcomic discussion, and sequel announcement · 4:18am Dec 6th, 2013
Yes, I'm posting this three months after the last chapter of Dr. McNinja goes on an Equestrian Adventure was published. (And more than a year after the first chapter was published 0_0 ) I was always planning to do this some point, but for some reason I just waited this long. Although the scene I'm about to show you never happened, it still contains major spoilers, so keep that in mind.
A quick recap of what takes place before this scene:
1. After reaching the Hub, Twilight was separated from the rest of the group.
2. Everybody figures out the true identity of Sparklelord. (Which has since been contradicted by actual canon)
3. Twilight agrees to duel Sparklelord for the Element of Magic, not realizing that his definition of a magic duel is different from hers.
4. While #3 was going down, everyone else safely reached the time-space portal.
5. R.J. the unicorn turns into a motorcycle for Dr. McNinja to ride.
6. Dr. McNinja, R.J., and Gordito venture out to find Twilight.
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“Yah!” Gordtio cheered as he spurred the dinosaur into a full sprint that took them up the same ramp Dr. McNinja had taken.
Gordito observed Dr. McNinja and R.J. make a right turn when they reached the surface, so he steered Yoshi to the left. The ground level Mountain Dew clouds were still present, but not nearly as thick as it looked from the outside of the Hub. Gordito’s eyes searched left and right as he urged Yoshi on, vigilantly scanning for any sign of Twilight Sparkle. Bizzare sights were located in the areas with less Mountain Dew clouds. Gordito spotted a refrigerator on wheels chugging along, a surfboard with human limbs riding atop a limbless human, and even some square doughnuts rolling along the ground. After several minutes of the very odd trip, Gordito at last spotted Twilight Sparkle as she stepped into view. On her head was a golden crown with a purple gemstone.
“Oh thank goodness!” Twilight said with honest relief. “I was starting to think I would never find the rest of you.”
“Yeah, I suppose it would be kind of hard to head towards the center of the Hub if you can hardly see anything,” Gordito figured. “Now come on, we have to get you back to the meeting place.”
“Is everybody else out searching for me too?” Twilight wondered.
“Just Doc and R.J. Everybody else is…” Gordito started to say before drifting off. Something about the situation felt off to him. “Wait a second, say that question again?”
“I asked if everybody else was out searching for me too,” Twilight repeated.
Without any hesitation, Gordito whipped out his revolver and fired, shooting a bullet straight through Twilight’s forehead. The unicorn’s eyes glanced up the fatal wound, a look of annoyance passing over her face. She did not, however, fall over dead.
“Okay, I give,” she shrugged. “What gave me away?”
“There’s no way you could have known,” Gordito explained. “For some reason, the real Twilight Sparkle and maybe even everyone else from her world says the word everypony instead of everybody.”
“What? Are you serious?” the imposter said with disbelief. “But that’s so… so…”
“Stupid?” Gordito offered.
“Yes! Stupid! Why would anyone do something like that?” the unicorn sputtered.
“No idea. Personally, I think there’s a lot of things about her world that’s pretty stupid,” Gordito admitted.
The body of the being that resembled Twilight Sparkle gave off a rainbow colored flash. In that moment, the image of Equestria’s Element of Harmony was gone. In her place was Radical Land’s Element of Magic, Lord Rainbow Sparkle. Gordito was fairly certain that by now he had already become the being known as Sparklelord. He did indeed bear a strong resemblance to R.J. with his white coat and a rainbow colored mane and horn. Among the differences was the fact that he was larger, wore golden armor, a tattered red cape, and possessed the same crown atop his head as when he had been impersonating Twilight Sparkle.
“I suppose the element of surprise won’t be with me today,” he sighed, stilling speaking in Twilight’s voice. “What a pity.”
“My heart’s breaking,” Gordito said sarcastically as he casually loaded another bullet into his revolver. Inwardly he congratulated himself for his cool and tough demeanor. “Any chance you can tell me where the real Twilight is?”
“Oh, easily,” Sparklelord grinned. “She’s probably splattered on the pavement somewhere. I didn’t see where exactly she landed.”
Gordtio’s composure almost slipped for a moment before he remembered that he had seen the future version of Twilight emerge from the time space portal near Canterlot. Gordito told himself that it had to a sure sign that she was actually okay. This act of self assurance turned out to be of little comfort to Gordito when Lord Rainbow Sparkle levitated him and Yoshi up into the air.
“Time travel’s a funny thing is it not?” Sparklelord continued in Twilight’s voice as if reading Gordito’s mind. “Yes, I know all about all about the time travel. See, I have a God now, and he gave me some pretty nifty tricks, including the ability to read minds. I read Twilight’s right before I drained her of magic to make myself even stronger.”
“Oh really? Gordito remarked with a raised brow. “That’s interesting. That means that you know everything that Doc and I told her about you, including your inevitable defeat at the hands of King Radical.”
“I would hardly call your history my inevitable future,” Sparklelord scoffed. “Did you ever stop to consider that maybe your time traveling is actually changing the past and creating a different version of history? Maybe in this version, none of you ever make it back to Canterlot to defeat me with the Elements of Harmony. Maybe you all die here instead. After all, I could kill you right now. You certainly can’t go to Canterlot if you’re dead now can you?”
Gordito stared defiantly into Sparklelord’s eyes. He really had no way to know for sure if the future he saw would be the one he reached. Despite this, he fully believed it would happen anyway. It was this adherence that allowed Gordito to hear the mechanical roar of a motorcycle getter closer. Gordito smirked right back at Sparklelord as he raised up his revolver, cocked it, and pointed it at the demented unicorn a second time. He didn’t have to see the motorcycle to know who was coming.
“I suppose you’re right,” he said confidently. “I can’t go back to Canterlot if I’m dead. But I don’t think I’m going to die today.”
“Oh, you’re going save yourself by shooting me?” Sparklelord chortled. “You don’t get it do you? I can’t be killed, you stupid little boy. I’m immortal. I can read minds. Sense magic. Drain magic. I can do anything I put my mind to. There’s no way to stop me from fulfilling the wishes of my God.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Gordito replied. “I wasn’t actually going to shoot you again anyway.”
Gordito pulled the trigger of his gun. With a bang, a bullet exploded from the barrel and knocked the crown off of Sparklelord’s head. At the same moment Dr. McNinja zipped in on R.J. and snatched the crown out of the air. Much to his relief, Gordito spotted Twilight strewn across the back of the motorcycle before Dr. McNinja made a sharp U-turn and somehow activated the rocket attached to the back to boost away. Gordito grinned again as he steered Yoshi away from the very surprised Sparklelord and followed his mentor.
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Pretty awesome right? I was really proud of this scene, still am. However, it has a problem I did not know how to solve, and that was the fact it created an out of character moment for Sparklelord and a rather large plot-hole. Before this scene, I had already published a chapter that made it clear that Sparklelord intended to kill Twilight Sparkle. Unlike Queen Chrysalis and many Disney villains, Sparklelord doesn't just ramble on while the heroes foil his plans. If he has a chance to kill someone who is in his way, he takes it. So it doesn't really make sense for him to just toss Twilight away and give her a slim chance to survive. Before leaving her in order to impersonate her, her would have made absolutely sure that she was dead. Sparklelord may have been crazy, but he was also a mastermind. Obviously, I didn't want Twilight to die, hence the scene you all saw instead.
(That's the scene where the Doc and R.J. ramped over the flames and saved Twilight from Sparklelord. Hooray!)
As for the plot-hole, if Sparklelord was bulletproof, he wouldn't have used a force-field to defend himself in chapter 2 and again in chapter 19. So there was that also.
If there's a moral to this story, I guess it's that sometimes authors have to sacrifice scenes they really like for the greater good of the story. Maybe no one would have noticed the out of character moment and the plot-hole. But I would have.
Anyway, there's two other reasons I made this blog. The first was an invitation to expel excitement for latest plot twist in the Dr. McNinja webcomic. There's no comment section on that site, so here's your chance.
My reaction:
And the second reason, I just started working on a SEQUEL not too long ago. Its a long way from being ready for publishing, but I can say that this time around, Dr. McNinja's younger brother Dark Smoke Puncher will be playing a large role in the story. (Haven't picked an editor yet if anyone wants to volunteer.)
Come to think of it, I probably could have divided all this up into separate blogs. But whatever, being efficient is cool too. I'll probably blog about the sequel more in the future.
For now anyway...
As for being bullet-proof, that's easy enough to fix. Have the force-field be up, just hidden by illusion.
As for TS surviving, you could've had her escape with injuries.
But what you ended up with worked well. I certainly know all about dropping good stuff. My 'discards' folder is well-stocked.