Return of Harmony Part 2 (Flipped!) · 12:25am May 30th, 2018
So continuing from where we left off...
Despite Discord's declaration of victory, the next scene is from Spike's point of view. He's musing about how he and his friends beat Discord and how it's been nothing but sunshine and rainbows since then. In the intervening years he was promoted to the Editor in Chief of the Canterlot Sun, Thunderlane is now the Head Storm Manager for the Cloudsdale Weather Factory, Sweet Apple Acres is flourishing under Big Mac's management as is Ponyville since Time Turner was elected Mayor! Meanwhile Ditzy Doo and Cheerilee are both enjoying exceedingly early retirement, Ditzy spending all her time with her darling daughter Dinky Doo and Cheerilee taking an extended vacation to a renowned Las Pegasus resort spa. It almost seems impossible how great things turned out for each of them.
Which is because it is. Back in reality Twilight is squaring off with Discord outside the Element Vault, demanding to know where her friends are. Discord just chuckles and explains that they're exactly where they said they'd be: In the hedge maze, only they're fast asleep at the entrance! It turns out that Discord was wrong and he admits to it, Spike and the others could dream of beating him. So after they did he just let them keep dreaming and gave them everything they ever wanted so they wouldn't have an incentive to wake up. He's done the same to Celestia and Luna (showing Twilight an ant farm that he's keeping them in now where they believe the ants to be their adoring subjects!) and now that they're all out of the way Equestria is his for the taking.
As he's been talking though, Twilight's been moving around the hallway for the treasure chest the Elements were kept in. It had been laying on the ground since Discord revealed he'd replaced the Elements in part one and apparently nopony thought about it since. Twilight, however, has solved the riddle and realized that when Discord said they'd "find the Elements back where they began" he meant just that: Back where his challenge to the Flipped Six began. In other words, the Elements had never been stolen in the first place!
A blast of her fire burns up the false bottom Discord put in the treasure chest, revealing the real Elements just underneath. Twilight claims she's won Discord's game, but he's not about to let her claim victory, especially with the bearers of the elements trapped in his dream spell! Twilight flameports the Elements into whatever dragon-pocked dimension she's learned to store things in and runs for it, aiming to get to the maze before Discord can stop her. But as soon as she's out the door to start running for Spike and the others...
She wakes up in bed. Seems the whole mess was just a dream... until she realizes she's in a bed in a royal suite in Canterlot Palace! Twilight is massively confused by the situation, and even more so when she discovers that she's suddenly been aged up to a much older (but still pony-compatibly sized) dragon and that the walls of this room sport a variety of diplomas and graduation photographs from prestigious schools all across Equestria made out to her, topped by a certificate and badge naming her Canterlot's Royal Archivist!
Twilight is reeling, telling herself this can't be real, but Discord calls her out for being a spoil-sport. He's offering the same thing he gave Spike and the others: A chance to have everything she's ever wanted, all she has to do is surrender the Elements of Harmony to him. Turns out that since Celestia was the one who taught Twilight how to use the fireport magic (much like she did for Spike in canon), the stuff that doesn't just go straight to the Princess winds up in a convenient little pocket dimension that even Discord can't find a way into (I might be stretching here, but considering this is something Celestia taught them to do and the fact we've never seen Discord steal or intercept stuff Spike fireports I think it's acceptable). He needs Twilight to bring it back, and he's willing to offer whatever she wants to do it.
Twilight refuses, but then Discord refuses to ever let her leave the dream thus trapping them in a stalemate. Eventually, Twilight comes up with an idea and offers Discord a wager of her own since he seems to like games so much: Let her try to convince Spike and the others to give up Discord's dream reality. If she succeeds, she gets her friends back. If she fails, then she'll surrender the Elements of Harmony to Discord. Discord, figuring that nopony would willingly give up their every conscious desire and that even if Spike and the others did they still wouldn't be able to beat him, agrees to the wager and releases Twilight into the others' dreams.
Twilight snaps back to her normal self once she's loose, and immediately starts looking for the others. She, naturally, finds Spike first and starts trying to snap him out of the spell. It proves more difficult than she'd hoped though, as Spike treats her like little more than a secretary (one that's been taking too long a coffee break at that) and everytime she tries to prove that what the world around them isn't real something distracts him from listening to her.
Twilight's starting to become distraught, before she realizes something important and asks Spike a very important question: "So, how are the others doing?" Despite apparently knowing, Twilight keeps pushing and asking when the last time Spike spoke to, or even saw them was. That actually works, as Spike realizes that, despite his apparent accomplishments, he hasn't seen any of his friends since his promotion. The very friends that he gave up a similar promotion for after they defeated Nightmare Moon.
That snaps Spike out of it, and he realizes that the world around him isn't real. The fake office around him vanishes as he and Twilight hug, then head out to free the others. Thankfully, as soon as they see Spike, it's pretty easy to shake them loose from Discord's spell and make them realize what happened. A bit of trouble crops up when the dream version of Dinky Doo tries to keep Spike and the others from waking her mommy up, but Ditzy reveals that she figured out it was a dream a long time ago! Even though she'd have loved to keep her little girl around forever the fact that Dinky never grew up in all the years since she retired was too big a clue to overlook. Turns out Ditzy just couldn't figure out a way to escape Discord's spell on her own, so she waited for her friends to come find her trusting that they'd have an idea.
With the team reunited and Dream Dinky pacified by Ditzy, the question becomes how they wake themselves up from Discord's spell. Fortunately, Twilight still has the Elements and she produces them at this point in a blaze of fire and light...
Meanwhile, Discord has taken total control of Canterlot and turned the castle upside-down (literally!). He's laughing and musing that he's probably given Twilight enough time that she'll have gotten the point by now when Spike and the others burst in. At first he's shocked, then he's angry that they actually managed to escape his trap. He accuses Twilight of cheating somehow, but the Flipped Six explain that she just reminded them of something important. The very thing Discord didn't give them even when he gave them everything else they'd wanted, probably because he was afraid of it: Their friends.
Discord laughs it off, still refusing to believe that any of Celestia's rookie heroes could pose a threat to him. He tries to use his magic on them only for the Elements to block him and start charging up. Nothing Discord does can hurt the team, and in a desperation move he grabs Twilight threatening them with what might happen to her if they blast him. Twilight, however, is calm because she trust her friends and knows they wouldn't hurt her. She's proven right when the rainbow hits both her and Discord, causing him to drop her unharmed right before a massive rainbow burst consumes all of Canterlot.
When the smoke clears everything is back to normal... almost. Discord isn't trapped in stone, and he's laughing as he realizes that he was right and that Spike and the others couldn't defeat him. He tries to unleash his magic... but nothing happens. He tries a few more times before noticing that his body is looking a fair bit more uniform than it used to. Rather than turning Discord back into stone, the Elements stripped him of his powers and transformed him into a gray-scaled teenage dragon!
Discord is horrified over this, and even more so when Celestia and Luna show up behind him, none to amused by his "Queens of the Antquestria" prank. Rather than give them the chance to punish him, Discord manages to use a blast of dragonfire (which does work) to cause a distraction and fly out the window to make an escape, vowing to get even with the heroes.
Flash forward and the Flipped Six are massively confused over what happened. They were thinking the Elements would change Discord back into stone, but Celestia and Luna offer up a possibility. That, perhaps, the Elements change themselves according to their bearers. Spike's approach to dealing with bullies and tyrants has been obvious since his school days with Trixie: Strip away whatever is protecting them and leave them no different than any other pony. As for why Discord became a dragon as opposed to a pony, they aren't positive but guess it must have something to do with wherever he came from or how he got his powers.
In any case, a celebration is in order for the now two-time saviors of Equestria! Celestia is already showing the designs for the new stained-glass window she plans to commission, staring the Flipped Six rainbow-blasting Discord, but they eschew the idea. Apparently, all six of them agree that someone else deserves the credit for Discord's defeat more than they do.
Twilight's confused, until they reveal that it's her! She solved Discord's riddle, braved facing him to recover the Elements, and even gave up her own deepest desires to protect the Elements and save them all! Despite her attempts at humility Spike informs her that, like it or not, she's the hero this time, a sentiment that both princesses agree with as it turns out they already had an alternate version of the window prepared: One that features Twilight holding aloft the Elements of Harmony as they chase away a fleeing Discord. Said window is on full display at a massive awards ceremony, as Twilight receives a medal of heroism and the cheers of all Equestria.
[cue triumphant theme music!]
Whew, hard to call this a summary I guess with how long it turned out. Still, it's also one of the ideas I'd thought about the most! I always figured that, since I was striving to balance the show elements with a bit more grace than canon did (oh hai BBBFF that we never heard about until this very episode!) that I'd give myself a chance to make Twilight a hero sooner rather than later. Besides, with as much as she and Discord bounce off each other in canon making her the hero that overcomes him (or at least plays the biggest role in doing so) only made sense.
The thing about the Elements of Harmony depowering rather than imprisoning was another point of difference I wanted to make between Flipped!Spike and Canon!Twilight. In canon, Twilight is the student going above and beyond her teacher's predictions. Hence why the Elements always either redo the spell that they worked before but better this time (see Discord) or manage something Celestia might've thought was impossible (see Princess Luna). Spike's just a guy who hates seeing bullies get away with their bullying, hence the Elements adapt to that desire. He doesn't necessarily want to punish or imprison them himself, but he'll do whatever it takes to make sure the people who do (and can) have what they need to do so. Luna's powers would still be coming back in this case as she repairs her relationship with Celestia and the rest of Equestria. Discord, on the other hand, would be having a much harder time of it...
Alright, that was liberating actually for the first one. Feel free to ask any questions you might have below here and while we're at it, here's the poll for the next post. Would you rather hear about:
A. Trixie's Return
B. The Canterlot Wedding
C. Equestria Girls
D. The flipped Cutie Mark Crusaders
E. Other (please list a specific)
Once again, I'll hold this till voting seems to slow down here. Most votes gets the next blog post which'll probably be sometime next week.
lets go with a
B, for the same reasons I chose D last time. I figure sooner or later it'll win out if we do this enough times.
Canterlot wedding please
A
I kinda want to see a resolution to the feud between Trixie and Spike or at least see Trixie pushed back down to a non threatening position
That sounds like it would have been amazing! So many great twists and turns and the result for Discord opens a bunch of interesting possibilities.
I went with Canterlot Wedding before, but just to be awkward, now I'm interested in the Flipped CMC
A. I'm always up for Trixie. ;)
B ^^
Oh, trapping them in Better then Life, that usually almost works.
Going with C again. :)
I've always been a big fan of Flipped Twilight, and having her save the day against Discord instead of Sombra is pretty nifty. The turn of events here actually gives the impression that the Flipped Six are either closer friends or more in touch with their elements than the Canon Six are... unless that was all the dream's doing.
Are the Flipped CMC Rumble, Dinky, and Apple Bloom?
After Molt Down aired on Saturday, one of my first thoughts was honestly "How would this episode translate to the Flipverse?" The problem is, it would be tough without the events of Secret of My Excess, Dragon Quest, and Gauntlet of Fire. The personal growth Twilight would have experienced vs. Discord and in Tickets Taken would help some as well.
A Sisterhooves Social from Dinky and Sparkler's point of view could be fun as well... especially if there are hijinks involving Thunderlane and Big Mac.
4873212
Yes, the Flipped CMC would have been Rumble, Dinky, and Applebloom; though I had thoughts of Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and even Pipsqueak joining the group over time. I'll say more on it when I get around to doing a proper blog post.
The thing about Twilight getting wings is I hadn't really thought about it until Molt Down. I had thoughts about a Flipped Dragon Quest (this one playing out much different from canon) but once again that'd probably need to wait for a blog post, though I could probably dedicate one solely to a character arc for Twilight.
A.