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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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Poor Philip.
I'm not sure about this plotline with the portal. I would have found a way to get Phillip depressed and isolate himself for a while without making Celestia suddenly look like an asshole.
And this time I'm out. I draw the line at pointlessly turning Celestia into a plot antagonist, especially for such wishy-washy reasons. Equestria flourished under her thousand year solo-rule. Defended from all threats with no Pillars or Elements or other alicorns to back her up, is apparently one of the most successful nations in the world far as we know, if not THE most. The people all have chances to do what they're destined to do and otherwise to do what they want to do regardless, there's no massive overarching social issues and gross intolerance or widespread violence. That takes and creates a level of wisdom in dealing with people and politics beyond something we can comprehend as human beings with our mortal perspectives.
It could have been any other reason. "The only way back would create a permanent link between our worlds that would create interplanetary political pressure, as well as turn the rest of this world against Equestria for making undesired contact with aliens, upsetting the political atmosphere of two planets and potentially leading to war on two fronts." or "Equestrian magic would seep into your world as radiation, altering and potentially killing the human race." Something serious. But, "I'm not sending you back because you might not know how to deal with being sent back." is not Celestia. That's not even something that can be chalked up to Unreliable Narrator, the feelings of a bitter Philip, those are her actions and words parroted.
Added on top of this constant undertone of 'The Equestrian government is a load of crap and incompetent' since the start, and I just can't personally stomach this anymore. Maybe if it'd been the point of the story? Or a large part of it? If it was an altverse where yes, they very much are hilariously incompetent, corrupt, and overbearing, then that could be used to help tell a good story. Instead, Philip just continues to become more unlikable and now the narrative itself seems to agree with him, not just a display of his arbitrarily anti-establishment opinion as a person, but the story actually aligning with it.
Nice job making me good and angry over a fictional character's relationships with other fictional characters.
Is that actually his real-life human universe, or is it the Equestria Girls human universe? And if it's the latter and he's actually not a native of that human universe, has that detail actually been communicated to him?
I'm really iffy about Celestia's portrayal here. His account implies that he's actually spoken to her in detail about the portal, and if that's the case then I really do not see how her decision is defensible unless he's drastically misunderstood her perspective on the matter or he's lying to Fleetfoot about the details. Neither of those seem very likely, which just leaves Celestia looking rather... cruel in her protectiveness.
I hope that there's something else going on that Philip isn't privy to, otherwise my feelings can be summed up as: "Seriously, Celestia, what the buck?"
I've got to mirror the commentary that this explanation really makes very little sense. Whether or not Phillip can manage what happens once he gets back is his decision as an adult. That's on him. There's really no realistic risk to Equestria at large here, if there's a problem then Celestia just breaks the mirror again, Philip looks like a madman, and the problem solves itself. This just seems like a cheap way to generate drama while vilifying a character that doesn't deserve it in ways that don't make sense.
Why couldn't Philip just be incapable of going home at all? Why throw Celestia under the bus like this? Why does this feel needlessly complicated? Why do writers constantly need to show Celestia as incompetent? I'm still reading this to see what happens, but I'm not onboard with this new development.
Is it just me, or is Celestia every author on this site's favorite punching bag or something? I can't point to anything specific, but it feels as if more than any other character, people like to make her more of an asshole than she is in the show, the most often. Need a source of conflict that isn't a direct existential threat or even a straightforward adversary? Just make Celestia slightly (or significantly) less reasonable than the average person and boom, free conflict.
Granted, everyone is allowed their own interpretation of a character, but I can't help but feel that writers here are more likely to take their inspiration for Celestia from the imaginary mare Twilight is always so afraid of letting down because she'd send Twilight to magic kindergarten, than from Celestia as she is actually portrayed in the show.
Celestia's reasoning doesn't really make sense to me. Explaining a year-long absence would be difficult but not impossible, and if he said where he actually was I doubt anyone would believe him.
Personally I would have said that the portal links to an infinite number of parallel universes, so it would be a one-in-a-million chance that Philip ends up in the right one. Celestia would have a point because she knows it would be next to impossible for him to find home, whilst Philip would still feel resentful as one-in-a-million is still a non-zero chance. This way he would have to decide between taking that chance (and possibly end up somewhere worse) or staying where he's relatively happy.
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I think you're all missing something here. Celestia isn't necessarily the bad guy. No, she's a shrewd ruler, with over a millennia of managing an entire civilization, so of course she's going to be cautious. Philip is, like it or not, a massive unknown factor in all of this. What if he actually was some sort of threat to her kingdom and her world? In a very real way, he's an alien, one who's intentions aren't fully understood. As seen in EQG, portals can, and often do, work in both directions. Who's to say that, were she to send him back, it wouldn't open a cataclysmic can of worms for Equestria. Regardless of what you think, she's just being careful. After all, no harm has befallen him. He's been well cared for, housed, fed, and given some modicum of freedom. Hell, think about what would happen if an extraterrestrial were to appear here on earth! If you assume they'd be free to gallivant about, make friends, or simply leave, you'd be woefully mistaken.
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That's the thing, I do hope I'm missing something here, that Celestia's portrayal is due to Philip being an unreliable narrator.
That's not what she seems to have conveyed to Philip, though.
It's certainly possible that there are a host of other good reasons she can't let him go home (whether it's a question of 'yet' or 'never' isn't clear for now*), but going by Philip's account, she seems to be denying his return mostly or even solely out of concern for his wellbeing, like an overprotective parent.
*Actually, the more I think about it, the more it looks like Celestia's told him 'never' instead of 'not yet'. I do not think that he'd be this upset if it was just a matter of waiting for the right time. Also, if she was that worried about his reintegration to society, then delaying his return would only make the process more difficult and painful.
He claims to have expressed his frustration to her, and she has given him little more than her sympathy in that regard. If she really had good reasons to be cautious about opening the portal, wouldn't she share those with him instead of doubling down on the 'It's for your own good' angle?
Philip is not a child, and he apparently doesn't respond well to coddling, so it strikes me as odd that Celestia hasn't picked up on that and changed tack to a line of reasoning that he, as a functioning adult, can agree with. Instead, she's just pissed him off and driven him away, which seems like the opposite thing to do if you're trying to learn more about the motives of an alien.
Of course, it is also possible that Celestia doesn't actually trust him and is deliberately keeping him in the dark. So far, I can't recall anything in this story that gives Celestia that degree of shrewdness, so I'm waiting for the next few chapters to hopefully recontextualise her actions here.
Like I said, I'm really hoping that her portrayal here is distorted by Philip's frustration, and that he's missing some pertinent information. Otherwise, I'll be quite disappointed if it turns out that she really is detaining him because she's afraid he can't handle going back home.
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In addition, I think the bigger issue here is that people aren't considering these are all Phillip's thoughts, and as someone mentioned, "parroting" of Celestia's words. This is all biased on his side, so is there more to it? Will we find out? Dunno. I'd calm down for now on all the "oh everyone hates Celestia" thing and see what the next chapter brings.
*edit* Not you Leech, I mean all the people you pinged.
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First of all... Hi Leech & Rob love your work! Secondly, you both make a fair point. However I still think the way she's going about keeping him safe is unrealistically antagonizing. Like some have said already, keeping him in Equestria longer is only going to make his reintegration back home worse. If she's worried about more coming back through the portal they could just break the mirror again or just render it inert with magic. But you're correct, we don't have all the facts yet or heard both sides. I may have jumped the gun with my earlier comment but I've seen so many other stories with badlestia in them that I went ahead and vented that frustration a bit. That was unfair of me, because I do like this story and I want to see what happens.
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With respect, this still makes no sense. Nobody is arguing against sticking a few guards on him until it's proven he's not a threat, but he spent months with Princess Twilight, the elements of harmony, and then many months more with Celestia and Luna. She knows by now whether or not he's a threat.
As to whether or not it would hurt Equestria to send him back, this makes even less sense. If she's afraid of a two-way portal, then why would she go to the trouble of fixing it in the first place? She did fix it, so clearly she doesn't fear the existence of the thing, only letting him pass through, which makes no sense. If she doesn't want return visitors, wish Phillip good-bye and then break the mirror. Humans have no magic, problem solved.
EDIT: Still musing on this, and if Celestia does suspect he's a threat, what better possible solution could there ever be than just tossing him through a magical mirror into an alternate dimension and slamming the door? It solves her problem forever, and if he tries to tell anyone about magic horse land, he'll be locked up long before anyone believes him.
Beyond that, what is going on with Twilight and Luna here? I find it nigh impossible to believe that Twilight would ever agree to this plan, and Luna better than anyone would understand what Celestia is condemning him to, and I struggle a lot to imagine her agreeing to this. Celestia could go full tyrant mode on them both, but that just makes all the other criticisms worse, and is even more out of character for her.
Two things here. Number one, remember how Philip had that whole conversation about race? Equestria Girls does not have that at all. They're just as colorful as Equestria itself, so racism wouldn't be a thing over there. Therefore, it's probably not his world.
Number two, doppelgangers. If Celestia opened up relations, she'd have to deal with having two of everybody, which is a disaster waiting to happen. Universes with doppelgangers of each other is one of the few times where I would actually be in favor of keeping them separate. Either way, sending Philip through the mirror is a bad idea.
Im having a hard time following the reason he can't go back. I still enjoy the story though.
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The same reason we fear for aliens that may be more advanced than us.
The fear of having an enemy or worse a predator. The fear when one realizes they are no longer part of the top of the food chain.
That and writing is hard, there are bound to be some holes here and there :D.
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Even the most simplest of creatures knows it's better to consider the unknown a threat than to take chances. The risks for both worlds sadly out weighs his personal feelings on the matter. At least Celestia is trying to be good to him.
City tour is a much nicer way to clear the air and get things to calm down outside of sitting in a little coffee joint surrounded by guards and other patrons. Interesting way to go about a reasoning and I can see where both sides are coming from.
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That's the base of any good dramatic conflict, isn't it? One 'good' vs some other 'good' - often, a personal good vs the greater one.
I wholeheartedly agree - she made a judgement call, and I'd be hard-pressed to say that it's the wrong one (and neither can I say that it's the correct one... that's just the nature of the beast). Still, this whole thing makes you wonder... in most stories I've read, the human dropped into Equestria is not from the Mirror World... and the Mirror World itself is usually depicted as much more a counterpart of Equestria, only with humans in it.
There's one more thing that strikes me as odd, here... If I recall correctly, the humans living in that world are about as colorful as the ponies here... and if you recall, Phillip's words seem to indicate something quite opposite (exclusively shades of brown for skin tones). It makes me think that world is not his world at all, and that the mirror was, for short bursts, connecting to random human worlds.
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There's actually a very rational path that concludes that they most certainly are, and we should fear their coming. If we assume that the prospective aliens face the same hardships we do (limited resources), and some form of competition that seems to be the most successful strategy towards survival (and hence, evolution)... we would have to assume that they would only venture into space when absolutely necessary. And if they've crossed interstellar space to get here, they're probably very motivated to be here.
So, if there are aliens landing on your plot of land, you have to assume that a) they're more advanced than you are (by whatever means), and b) they found it necessary to land on your plot (of land...). And that should scare you, because they've found some value there, and they're likely powerful enough to take it from you (they probably wouldn't even bother asking, all things considered).
And to be honest, I think the rarest 'commodity' they might be looking for - would be water. And when faced with assuming whether the 'small detail' of the planet being already occupied would play a role in their decision process or not, I'd rather err on the side of caution...
... assuming there's any form of defense we could even mount, that is.
I mean, if you can cross interstellar space, even nuclear weapons are likely cute to you.
Heh. Conversely, Equestria should fear us by the very same logic. They might not, considering ponies are herding prey species that value cooperation and co-dependency as a survival strategy... but given the various examples of predatory species (griffons, dragons...), I doubt Celestia would make the same mistake.
That is such BS. It's a leader's job to represent their country, no matter the situation. I see this as Celestia shirking her duties because she doesn't want to deal with the inconvenience of having to deal with a foreign government. I know there's a lot more nuance to it, but you don't keep people from their families if it's within your legal and physical ability and right to reunite an otherwise healthy family. That's just wrong.