The Magic Without · 6:24pm Jul 5th, 2022
I wasn't sure I was going to do these for any of the G5 MLP comics, and clearly I'm not going to do it for all of them since I've already skipped the first, but I do feel there's a lot to unpack about #2 (now that it's finally arrived).
It saddens me to see that the utopia we saw in "The Last Problem" was a facade. I really believed that Twilight had built a stronger, more integrated Equestria, but apparently it remained as fragile as it always was. We don't even know what triggered the split that Discord mentioned (though I certainly wouldn't put it past Discord to deliberately leave that out in order to make his point seem stronger).
It especially saddens me that said facade was built upon threats. Friendships cannot be made by force, and trying to threaten ponies into actively liking each other is likely to just breed broad resentment; resentment against the source of the threat, resentment against those one must halfheartedly pretend to like, and resentment against those who are claiming to be one's friends while doing a poor job of hiding their resentment. (Particularly since this is being accomplished through collective punishment, and I don't think collective punishment has ever put anypony in a friendly mood.) I would expect the Princess of Friendship and her friends to know better. It's no wonder it fell apart. The magic of friendship is dead, Twilight, and it's all because of you. Your lack of knowledge has killed friendship!
And so Discord is at minimum right that the current system isn't going to work. Accusations are probably already being thrown around about who stole that crystal and who wanted to get rid of magic anyway. And he's right that unity is easier to achieve if ponies don't have disparate inborn abilities, though the transition to that state would need to be managed carefully to avoid sabotaging the desired end state. I can't say I agree with him about what the best solution is, but there's definitely a need for a solution.
