Hands Short: Carrot and Stick · 5:33pm Nov 15th, 2019
Shepherd and Twilight are cleaning up the library, which is blackened and crispy. Shepherd is less than amused.
Shepherd: "So... She set fire to the palace. Again."
Twilight: "YES! Yes, she set fire to the palace. Again. I'm trying to teach her that magic isn't the solution to every problem in life!"
Shepherd: "What was the problem that involved setting fire to everything?"
Twilight: "Well, Spike's fire was a bit low for sending a letter to Princess Celestia, so-"
Shepherd: "Forget it, I understand."
Twilight: *Sigh* "I just don't know what I'm doing wrong!"
Shepherd: "Have you thought about my solution?"
Twilight: "SHEPHERD! We're not killing her!"
Shepherd: "No, not that one."
Twilight: "Or punching her every time she makes a mistake!"
Shepherd: *sighs* "I wasn't thinking that either! ... Okay I was, but I had a different solution in mind here. I mean, she's acting like she genuinely doesn't understand good and evil. So maybe we need to get more... Basic about things. Low intensity negative reinforcement, combined with positive reinforcement."
Twilight: "Carrot and stick? Well..."
Shepherd: "If everything else has failed, why not try this?"
Twilight: *sighs* "... All right. But I'm there with you."
Shepherd: "Of course. We're doing this together."
*Later...*
Twilight: "Okay Starlight. Once again, let's focus on thinking before we act, all right?"
Starlight: "All right!"
Twilight: "Now: How would you solve somepony's anger issues?"
Starlight: "Like Shepherd's?"
Shepherd: "I don't have anger issues!"
Twilight: "In a hypothetical scenario, yes. How would you help them?"
Starlight: "Well first, I would mind control him into admitting he does have anger issues, and then I'd take his anger away and store it into a jar."
Shepherd: *Pulls out a water sprayer bottle and spritzes her* "Bad Starlight! Bad!"
Starlight: "Hiss! Hey! Quit it! Stop that!"
Twilight: "That was the wrong answer, Starlight. Now, try again."
Starlight: "Urgh... Fine. Ask him why he's angry and... Talk it out?"
Twilight: *Beams* "Very good!"
Shepherd: "Here, have a cookie."
Starlight: "... Are you seriously training me like a pet at this point?"
Twilight: "If that's what it takes."
Chrysalis: *Munching popcorn, giggling* "I'm surprised you didn't just try to add her to the harem and clop the issues out of her!"
Twilight: "First, it's not a harem. And second! That's still a back up plan!"
Shepherd and Starlight: "... Wut."
Honestly, it probably would work faster than the canon method.
Third, Human rule. Never stick it in crazy.
Water Spritzers - The ultimate unicorn training tool.
Starlight should be ludovico-ized against unethical magic use.
Was the fire incident inspired by what happened to the baked bads in The Big Mac Question?
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So what kind of music would that entail? Songbird Serenade? [sic]Colorcutura? DJ Pon-3? I don't think Equestria has a pony analog of Ludwig Van. … Or do they?
Keep in mind in science positive and negative are addition and subtraction. Reinforcement is the encouragement of behavior. Punishment is the discouraging of behavior.
If you squirt someone for doing a bad that is positive punishment. It is positive because you are adding a stimulus as a result of the behavior.
If you do positive reinforcement that is the carrot.
If you do positive punishment that is the stick.
Negative punishment is the removal of a stimulus to discourage behavior.
Negative reward is the removal of a stimulus to encourage a behavior.
Grounding is a form of negative punishment
Reduced sentencing in a punishment for cooperation is a negative reinforcement.
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He's already with Twilight and Fluttershy, too late for that.
This reminds me of A Newspaper Solves Everypony's Problem
I laughed out loud when I read this! Personally I think this would have been a great way to teach Starlight the difference between basic right and wrong.