On Catastrophic Impressions · 12:48am May 2nd, 2021
I'm not going to apologize for the pun in the title, but I am going to apologize in advance for the fact that I'm going to use a different cat pun for each installment in this storyline despite only having two in mind (counting the one I just used) when I decided that. They're going to get forced.
But let's talk about issue #96; there could be consequences to just standing around.
The moral, I suppose, is that sometimes you need to adjust your ideas of what you should do on the fly. Sometimes it'll turn out that you were wrong about who you ought to be working with or against. Sometimes doing what initially looked like the right thing is what will get you in trouble.
And sometimes doing what originally seemed like the wrong thing would also get you in trouble, but in retrospect it's still what you should have done.
I feel sorry for Rainbow Dash. She just wanted to deliver some exciting exposition. I totally sympathize with the frustration of not being allowed to do that.
But I'm sure she'll get her chance to speak . . . in about four months.
Fluttershy isn't entirely correct when she says that the only time Abyssinians saw magic was during the Storm King's conquest. Surely the Mane Six didn't get through the adventure preceding Ponies of Dark Water without using any magic, and she should remember that (although there may have been legal consequences to that magic; we were never informed what prompted the Mane Six to call it a strangely litigious kingdom). And getting beyond things she was present for, I'm sure there's a few Abyssinians who saw the Misfortune Malachite before the Storm King stole it, even if it was generally locked away, and the (apparently former) king of Abyssinia even used magic as part of the team that originally locked Cosmos away. And Abyssinia's economy is (or at least was) apparently heavily trade-based, so they must surely have had no shortage of foreign goods and merchants passing through, some of which would presumably have been magical.
But that all somewhat leads into the biggest question I have: what happened to the former king and queen anyway? They appeared fine at the Convocation of Creatures (not that we saw very much of them). Were they recently overthrown, and if so was it by popular revolution or direct action of their son? It may be that the Storm King's looting did indeed wreck their economy as predicted, leaving the kingdom in a state that could be exploited to sow discontent, seize the throne, and transform the country into an isolationist totalitarian state.
What I'm saying is that King Meowmeow would fit in easily as a dictator in the modern era and that I assume (this being MLP) that he's got his parents locked in the deepest dungeon available. Also that he's probably backed by the mysterious temple-monitoring group to tie things together. Also that I wonder how the Abyssinian economy is set up now, although no doubt its sorry state while it was under reconstruction has now grown even worse despite whatever King Meowmeow promised those he incited to follow him.
Although I should take care not to come off as excessively nostalgic for the rightful monarchs. They did their best, I'm sure, and they didn't run a totalitarian regime, but if they had run a perfect kingdom then Capper wouldn't have had no family but a criminal gang. Capper's past implies a lack of any sort of social safety net for orphans, the poor, and in general those who have fallen on hard times.
The king's personal guards have such defined pecs! It's so unusual to see muscle definition on MLP characters.
Do you find it as weird as I do that Discord is claiming that bad things he's suffered in the past didn't feel as bad because he knew he had brought them upon himself? We all know that he's not one to easily take responsibility for his actions even with Fluttershy's positive influence, and he only gets worse at it when you look back in time. He's got a history of overreacting, including when punished for his own actions, and that doesn't exactly testify to his equanimity when he gets what he deserves.
And before we wrap up, we'd best not forget the second-biggest question: Are Capper's old friends revolutionaries now? That's how the trope goes, after all; at times like these, the outlaw characters find themselves yearning for the old days (whether out of latent patriotism or frustration with the difficulty of dodging the secret police) and turn their unapproved talents towards doing something about it.
