Final remarks on The Friendship of Evil Grows · 10:05pm Sep 11th, 2020
I began writing TFOEG because, like many others, I was displeased with the finale that FiM got. I had been waiting for the return of Scorpan since Twilight's Kingdom, Chrysalis's reformation since To Where And Back Again, and Cozy Glow's redemption pretty much as soon as she turned out to be a villain. I wasn't particularly keen on their alliance in The Beginning of the End, having expected them to each have a separate confrontation. However, by the time of Season 9 there was little time for that. However, their chemistry turned out to be much better than I expected, and by the time of Frenemies, a happy ending was all but confirmed in the eyes of many fans. How can you write an episode where the three villains have several heartfelt moments and unambiguously mention how they liked being friendly for a change, and still consider them irredeemable?
This sense of redeemability is enhanced by the fact that we've had hints of their backgrounds. Tirek had problems with his father's rule and according to the Fiendship Is Magic comic he had a bad influence in the form of Elder Sendak. And if none of that meant that he couldn't ever be good we must still consider the fact that his brother Scorpan famously became friends with the ponies. As for Chrysalis, she was acting for the sake of her subjects. Going all the way back to A Canterlot Wedding, she stated she was trying to feed the other Changelings—her children. I think it's a stretch to argue that she wasn't malicious at all but definitely works as a theory. Lastly there is Cozy Glow, of whom we have no information where she came from. We do not know who took care of her, who sent her to the Friendship School and what she did before that. Did she have a bad influence, or was she led down the wrong path through her own morbid curiosity. It doesn't really matter. She's not a relentless force of evil, she's a child a wicked sense of friendship. If the error in her philosophy could be laid bare, she would have stopped on her own.
With the disastrous outcome that we actually got, and the equally appalling epilogue (the idea of Twilight being coaxed into ruling Equestria for centuries to come, without her friends, sends shivers down my spine) I finally decided to disregard the complete show as canon. Immediately after the finale I had ideas of how things could have gone differently: we would pick up from S9E24 except Grogar was real and during the battle the villains would have a moment of clarity and switch sides to defeat the big bad together. Chrysalis would return to the Hive and Tirek and Cozy Glow would go on a search for Scorpan. I had no interest in writing about it, though. Around the same time I found out about an ongoing story on /mlp/ called The Ending Of The End - Love And Tolerance Edition (here on FimFiction by StarlightIsVERYCute) which tells about the finale but with the full potential of the cast and the aim for a true happy ending. This only gave me even more ideas, and an even stronger urge to put them down on paper. When the other readers inspired me, I felt like it was the right thing. I remembered a quote, possibly the best piece of wisdom that I've come across in my life: "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly."
As I started laying out my ideas, I became less interested in the battle itself and more with what came after. This is partially because StarlightIsVERYCute was already doing an epic retelling of the fight, but also because I was principally interested in redeeming the villains through ideas, and not through punches. The show had a tendency to give the villains a change of heart when they were down on the ground, seeing the errors in their ways as Twilight (and sometimes Starlight) lectured them about their mistakes. I wanted them to discover those mistakes themselves. In this I was also taking a different route from many fanfics in which the villains were let free while still being restrained by the ponies by means of some convenient magical spell or device. This gives their redemption a too artificial flavour, in my opinion. It's why I dislike the idea of the School of Friendship at large. As a classic fan song puts it: "'Cause what it means to be a friend should be learned by yourself in the end."
My aim was to put as many things right that the show did wrong or ended up ignoring: this obviously includes the redemption of the villains, but also giving Scorpan's backstory, bringing back the Elements of Harmony and expanding on their lore, exploring uncharted lands, bringing back the Mean Six from their uncertain fate, and several other things. While I was at it I also retconned a few earlier events. In my universe Starswirl never did awaken in the present day after banishing himself to Limbo; Shadow Play did an awful service to his character and it's better if he remained an ancient figure altogether. Nor did he plant the Tree of Harmony, an idea that contradicts the Journal of the Two Sisters anyhow. I changed Tartarus when it needed to be more than a dimly lit warehouse full of caged mythical creatures. I could have gone so far as to retcon away the School of Friendship and even Twilicorn, but that would have been too confusing, not to mention I'd have to come up with a convoluted rewrite for Cozy Glow. One thing I didn't add was a backstory for Cozy Glow: this would inevitably have involved OCs and I don't think I could have done such a sensitive topic justice.
The first chapters are dedicated to setting up villains' freedom. They needed a credible excuse to leave. This is where Tirek's integrity and Twilight's trust in the power of friendship come into play. We know from Twilight's Kingdom that he is a honourable individual, because he kept up his side of the bargain when he really had no reason to. The fate of his kingdom had been an open wound all this time and if presented with the opportunity, he would probably go to the Land of Centaurs by his own volition. Cozy would come along: she could tolerate listening to Tirek regardless of what he said; the same isn't true for Twilight, whose words would never penetrate to Cozy's common sense. I kept Chrysalis apart for two reasons: firstly because three is a crowd and she would have much to add in terms of dialogue, and secondly because she had more important business to attend to: the Hive and her clones. Of the three, I think Chrysalis was by far the most bitter, and what was left of her still made for an excellent villain. She needed to have things settled for once and for all much rather than the slow path of redemption treatment that the other two got.
Cozy Glow wouldn't show herself easily reformed, either. To her, one good deed proves nothing. She needed to be shown methodically that her preconceptions of friendship and power were false. To that end she would have several conversations with the wavering Tirek. I tried to give more sense to her cutie mark while presenting her philosophy as strong and convincing as possible before laying down the faults. The Tartarus part was supposed to be the first wake-up call, marking her change from a merciless villain into the meek child that she really is. Her philosophy changed from Machiavellian to almost totally nihilist. This was on purpose, because besides proving Cozy wrong, I also needed to prove Twilight right. Friendship needed to be definitively proven to be a good thing in the most challenging circumstances imaginable, or Cozy would just fall back to her old habits. At the same time, I couldn't completely kill off her old character. That's why they had to solve the puzzle of the obelisk: to put her intellectual capacity to a creative use. After all, chess is just a game.
The reveal of Midnight Castle was no doubt the biggest lore reveal in the story. The timeline is what made it so difficult: we know Scorpan returned to the Land of Centaurs, and did so on friendly terms; but a thousand years passed without even hearing so much as a word from them. Did no-one ever come back to ask for the extradition of the King's son? Even if they forgot about him and never contacted Equestria for whatever reason, Tirek would still miss the centaurs that he grew up with; I made sure to establish this fact clear early on. Moreover, with Scorpan bringing friendship to the centaurs (and taking with himself the Seed of Harmony), I had planned on making him an eventual hero. The idea that he never came back for his brother could only mean that something sudden and terrible had occurred. Anyhow, the deafening silence of the abandoned citadel lent itself sublimely to a final drift along the despair event horizon. In my mind, anyway. I hope I managed to convey that feeling on paper.
Scorpan's test was of course inspired by What Lies Beneath, except this I tried to tailor to their plights rather than something generic or an unrelated character aspect. Tirek was simple: he had the opportunity to either succeed in his conquest where he had failed before, or to stop before carrying out any atrocity at all. For Cozy I took a different route: having her correct School Raze wasn't as interesting and I kind of wanted Tirek and her to meet up in the same "dream universe". Instead I had Cozy be directly confronted with her future. After Tartarus her direct fear had become failure, so rejecting evil while she sees herself winning would have been a real challenge. But by now she was able to see the emptiness of those promises and she finally invigorated herself (and through nopony's lectures or hoof-holding) with the strength of friendship. She hastened towards Tirek but he had already made the right decision as well.
Twilight's gambit turns out to have been successful as the two villains get an inspiring talk, new Elements of Harmony and even get to hear that maybe there are still living centaurs, and we immediately switch to the battle at the Hive, because as per tradition MLP needs to have a great clash. This is finally where I can put the Mean Six to use, as well as Grogar's magic. I had thought about what it was that made Grogar so strong, and I concluded it was his power to corrupt. He created monsters from creatures, he upset harmony worse than all villains combined, and I reckon he created the Everfree Forest, too. But as far as we are concerned, he created the corrupted Changelings. This was one of my ideas from the skipped Grogar fight, and I might not have done it enough justice. Nevertheless the power of a fragment of the Bewitching Bell serves as the ace up Chrysalis's sleeve for getting her old Hive back. She got so close, yet she was so far away; the clones of course had no interest in helping her.
Once she switched sides, I couldn't just friendship laser the clones into submission. The show had done enough dei ex machina, and I wanted the three to win based on a combination of moral insight and real tactics. Cozy is encouraged by somepony seeing the good in her, Chrysalis finally caves under the combined weight of the clones' betrayal and her friends' relentless insistence on mercy, and together they beat the clones. I understand that some people wanted them redeemed to, but to be frank I find that hard to envision. They were created with dark magic with the express purpose to be the evil counterparts to the Mane 6. And from a narrative perspective it would mean that we would have six döppelgangers hanging around who would either be nuisances or who'd have their personalities completely changed. So instead I had them purged in a humane yet gratifying way. I'd like to see what someone else can make of them, though. The idea of an evil clone becoming good has been done in Kid Icarus: Uprising. Granted, his redemption spanned across a dozen or so chapters but still it's possible given enough time and the right circumstances.
Finally, in the epilogue peace is restored and all that remained was to connect a few open endings. Tirek states his desire to find other surviving centaurs, Cozy becomes friends with the CMC again and Chrysalis makes amends with Starlight Glimmer. Following up on that peace gesture in To Where And Back Again at long last, which Chrysalis got so close to accepting but in the heat of the moment refused, was a great relief. The inevitable metamorphosis followed—at least I thought it was inevitable. Some'd rather that Chrysalis stayed the way she was but since To Change A Changeling I've seen corrupted Changelings as inherently unhappy. With no love to share they prey on the love of others, leaving them even more starved in the end. Their physiology reflects this. Once they share love a virtuous spiral is set in motion as love begets love. Along with my headcanon that Grogar corrupted the Changelings, it's only natural that metamorphosis follows. Though I do admit that since both her personality and her appearance have drastically changed on short notice, it's not straightforward to write her in a way that shows she's still the same individual as before. I don't think this is the end of her story. Then for good measure the Tree of Harmony has been un-destroyed and then we end on a group hug.
I will probably be done with writing for now, but there are still so many things to fix and to elaborate upon. Lightning Dust was unceremoniously launched among the stars in the Washouts. This ain't friendship, she deserved a happy ending just like Gilda. Let's not pretend that we've seen the last of Sombra after he has been resurrected out of smoke twice already. How would Flurry Heart grow up? What happened between Trixie and her father Jack Pot? What happened in the thousand years between Luna's banishment and her return? That history is nearly entirely unexplained and deserves an investigation in full detail. What secrets is Celestia hiding from us? And speaking of history: how did the battle between Gusty the Great and Grogar unfurl? Are Pinkie Pie and Applejack really related? I'll need to make a genealogy chart about that, too… As for retcons, large parts of Rainbow Dash's Wonderbolts career need a desperate fix. What were Diamond Tiara and Silverspoon up to after Crusaders of the Lost Mark? or Babs, for that matter. Etc. etc. etc.
Thanks for all the readers for sticking through this year-long adventure, especially StarlightIsVERYCute for letting me shill my chapters in his thread, and all the other regular commenters who supported me and gave criticism both on here and on the board. ZiziTachyon signing out.
What can I say, based and redpilled.
It's good to see so many people who didn't swallow the crap that was served in endings of S8 and S9, and they openly protest and call it garbage.
I really hope you will write more!
5353585
I'd rather say whitepilled. I've learned that passionately hating the makers and the product, shouting into the void, is pointless and tiring. Don't get me wrong, I am aware of how poorly handled the show is in the later seasons, it and it is fun to pick out all of the flaws and errors, but if you want nice things you have to do it yourself. FiM is an incredibly vast universe, whether you restrict yourself to the early seasons or expand on what happened later down the line, there is always more stuff to write about and more art to create.
Is it ok if I say some stuff that bugs me about the finale the show had?(Aside from how things went for Chrysalis there).
I feel like Ending Of The End gave the Royal Sisters a pretty terrible sendoff.
On their very last days as rulers(and in the show), Luna and Celestia just fall flat on their faces again and forced to rely on Twilight&co to save everyone yet again. All the sisters got to do is just embarrassingly lose their magic and technically get captured twice.
Just distract the trio and turn the POWELESS trio to stone, and that's it. The sisters were ultimately sidelined from the final battle, they weren't even included in the final rainbow laser despite they wielded the Elements before and their cutie marks were on the freaking Tree Of Harmony. Apparently no longer being connected to the Elements means all of that means NOTHING. Like destiny has tossed Luna and Celestia aside there.
In fact the statue part just shows Luna and Celestia are incapable of dealing with any bad guys until AFTER someone else already dealt with them. It just makes them look bad more ways than one.
It just hurts so much. Especially for Luna's case since her track record looks worse than Celestia's due to losing a 1000 years of ruling, Luna returning from the moon only to keep getting sidelined when some bad guy attacks or gets taken out if she does get involved in some way.
In fact I feel like they wasted something for Luna big time in the finale. With how the show began with the book opening on her/Nightmare Moon's story and how she was the first villain of the show as Nightmare Moon, they could have things come full circle. Like Luna started the show as a villain but ending the show as a big hero. Like having a key role in the series finale(no, distracting the trio did not count for that..). But instead the writers just repeat the same issues the sisters have in many villain crisis-related episodes in the freaking series finale and Luna suffered worse from that.
It was bad enough Luna was retiring(and giving up whats practically what her freaking Cutie Mark means, her destiny of dreamguarding and raising the moon) despite she just got back from the moon, really.. retirement is a pretty terrible sendoff for Luna's character. Especially with it still felt like she's still in Celestia's shadow.
But the whole mess in the finale made the whole thing worse. And it being Discord's fault makes me want to punch him in the face.
His plan, even if it didn't go haywire, would have messed up Luna and Celestia's reputations. Along with it added salt to their wounds about no longer being connected to the Elements anymore.
Yeah.. sorry about the rant..
I was pretty.. bitter on how the sisters were handled in the series finale. Especially for Luna there.
I love your story on how the show should of have the Real Grogar instead of using Discord. Also you made very good points but I have a theory if you think its true. When Gusty the Great banished Grogar and spread peace to her species but what if; I'm just saying, What if throughout that peace to The Pillars to the start of Twilight and her friends adventures, The Pony race was responsible for the Villians and certain species attacking Equestria? I mean throughout centuries a dominate species cannot live peacefully or being the victims for that long cannot harbor dark intensions disguise as good ideas and great plans to expand Equestria.
5353759
There have definitely been bad guys that the ponies themselves were responsible for, most notably Nightmare Moon, Starlight Glimmer and Cozy Glow. And I have a strong feeling that Celestia hasn't always been able to keep the peace, either with interior foes or exterior. But there were also villains that the ponies weren't responsible for, such as Chrysalis, Tirek, Discord, etc.
5353866
I admit Discord and Tirek aren’t the Ponies fault but Chrysalis origins was never shown (another counting the comic because some fan say it doesn’t count). I mean what mean is despite The Bad lands being a dead area because of her throne. Her throne nullified any creatures magic that isn’t a Changeling. You have to wonder, what if Ponies attacked her hive before and her throne was there to protect the Changelings?
5353866
I feel like the ponies are responsible for Nightmare Moon big time there for taking Luna for granted pretty much.
Celestia being at fault too due to not being there for Luna as well.
Sadly neither Celestia nor the ponies truly seem to acknowledge its their fault too but instead Celestia acted like Luna alone is at fault(or it came off as that) with her speech to Luna after she was (forcibly) purified by the Elements.
Which just bothers me. Like the actual issues that led to NMM happening wasn't properly resolved and its just Luna getting hit by a rainbow and being forced to accept she will never get out of Celestia's shadow by it apparently. And that was just it, Celestia nor the ponies own up that its their fault too Luna ended up like this and it still felt like Luna's still in Celestia's shadow.
It just bugs me..
Sorry if my previous comment was well.. too big I think..
5353894
No problem with long comments. It's just that I share your sentiment and had nothing else to add. I thought Celestia was quite remorseful in Friendship Is Magic, but it may have been played out better.
I agree with most of what you said about the finale here. I swear those three were the best characters of s9 despite only getting one episode to themselves and some short moments in the first two before the end. Their reformation was set up to be the best one yet. Its a travesty what happened to them. Not even a chance.
I also very much enjoyed your story. It gave a unique take on their reformation by simply skipping the final fight. I loved the character interactions and it was pretty wholesome overall.
5353907
Celestia looked more like she's happy Luna is back rather than properly showing guilt that Luna had to suffer like that and for not being there for her(which was one of the things that led her to becoming Nightmare Moon).
She should have at least said "Can I.. ask for your forgiveness too? For failing you as a sister and for forsaking you for the sake of Equestria those 1000 years ago.." or something like that.
Heck.. the only time the writers showed of Celestia's guilt on what happened to Luna was just the flashback where she shed tears after NMM got sent to the moon, and that was it. They didn't really show much of her guilt about Luna's downfall and suffering there.
Same with the ponies, they need to realize its their fault too. Yes the ponies from a 1000 years ago are long dead but the ponies of today bear the sins of their ancestors, heck.. they are kind of repeating the same mistakes their ancestors did with not giving Luna the amount of appreciation Celestia has gotten. Luna maybe be getting attention but its still ultimately not as much as Celestia does, she's still in Celestia's shadow honestly. (And episodes like Horse Play really nails in Luna is not getting the amount of appreciation Celestia has gotten)
It just hurts on how the writers just screw Luna over for the sake of Twilight "Chosen One" Sparkle there, especially about the whole retirement bs, it really did not give Luna's character a good closure/sendoff..
Idea; a follow up of Tirek searching for the remaining centaurs and becoming their king??
5567805
I imagine something like that happening, but I have no ideas for a truly engaging story, so I'm going to leave that open.
Nuts If anyone wants the idea have at it, don't forget to ask Zizi Tachyon.