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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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First!
Also...I have to bring this up because I've never, EVER seen anyone throw this back in the person who says it's face in scenarios like this.
Oh really? So literal forces of harmony and love that keep windigo spirits away from your nation, mind-control spells, spirits, dimensional travel, MAGIC, A LITERAL PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION OF THE SPIRIT OF CHAOS, all that's real and people and ponies like you can accept ALL of that, but free will doesn't exist? Give me a break.
This is like...say...Spider-Man saying he doesn't believe in multiple dimensions...even though he's been to a few. Or Batman not believing in magic when half the JLA gets their powers from it. I just love how characters in these places so willingly and eagerly suspend disbelief for just about anything until we get to issues like free will and such. SOMEHOW, stuff like that, oh, that can't be real? Why not if all the other stuff is? Why's IT so difficult to swallow?
I'll tell you why. Because it's a dodge. Because evil people don't want to believe in free will. Because that means they have to take ownership of their own actions. And they don't want to. They always want to blame others for retaliating against them instead of placing them blame on themselves for doing something that required retaliation. They want to believe they're somehow above it all, that they're fated for incredible things and refuse to take responsibility for ANYTHING bad they do or that goes wrong in their lives. Because ultimately, they're selfish. That's the greatest difference between our heroes and the threat they face. Our friends fighting against the Tyrant care about what happens to everyone, at least to some degree. And even care to a degree about how they fight. People like Catseye and the insane Celestia just don't. Everything is all about them. THEIR ideas are what's right, THEY know what's best for everyone. They make choices based on how something effects THEM, not how it hurts innocents.
Sorry for the Philosophy dump. Just had to get it off my chest.
Would have.
I am not too fond of this Catseye character...
This chapter was a lot of work, but like always we pulled through.
*raises glass* Here's hoping this chapter is to your liking fellow fimfiction readers.
A line I helped create. Been modified slightly by another editor, 'Celly' used to be 'Celestia'.
Like this line a lot. For kind its of a shout out to how out of character Princess Celestia tends to be in many a Conversion Bureau story.
NO TRIXIE! DON"T DO IT!
F*** YOU WEAVER! DIE! DIE A HORRIBLE, PAINFUL DEATH!
6130613 Sonuvabitch I missed that one!
Controlling Trixie? That's gonna come back and bite her in the ass in the future.
So, basically, all the good guys are really dumb.
Well. That was a thing.
The power of Love and Friendship better kick itself into high gear real soon.
Weaver might be missing a few important details, but she has done a magnificent job of establishing herself as "Most Dangerous Pony" with the Sun Tyrant and Frankenlight over in Evilquestria. How did she know about the tatzlwurm venom? Discord was always trapped in that world so there would have been no reason to go find a tatzlwurm and test its venom on him. And if it had never effected him, how would anypony know it could? Could it be a failsafe against Discord genuinely going rogue that the Scribe created, which Tyrantlestia ripped out of her?
Where is this Equestria's Weaver?
imgace.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Well-Shit..jpg
6130453 Insane Celestia has a bit of a faux pass. All her OOC double think is due to her mind being raped by the woo woo bag of evil. Catseye on the other hand is just a fuckwhit bigot who projects her own self hatred on other people.
....
Dude. I almost want to sic Peanut on Weaver. But that might be like using a thermonuclear bomb to kill a fly. Even I'm not that cruel. ....Yet.
This 'Weaver' has grown to be a nuisance, nuisances should be dealt with, severely...
6131140
Care to elaborate?
Oh good freaking lord! I thought I was going to get through the chapter fine but when we got to the end with Trixie . . . "sigh." With the length between chapters, I don't know if I'll be able to take it. Because I really did start getting scared as Trixie was rewired. I still feel like my stomach has dropped out while writing these words. Hopefully I can get over it as the arc will probably take a long while to finish and I don't really want to have to live with that feeling until the next few chapters come out.
I get the feeling that Weaver feels that she has no choice in what she does (heck, she outright states that free will is an illusion). Obviously I think that she's completely wrong but it is interesting to see the incredibly talented persona of this person get twisted to do these things. We always have a choice in my opinion. It's not often pleasant when it comes to the real important stuff, but some people can try and weasel their way out of responsibility by claiming that they had no choice. The part with Icewind was interesting. In the show, Icewind would probably serve the role of the henchman of the main villain who starts to doubt and switches sides near the end. I got no idea if anything even remotely resembling that is going to happen here, but who knows. Weaver is sure to earn the hatred of fans many times over, not just for opposing the heroes (or main characters if you want to put it that way), but for how effectively she is making their lives miserable. I hope Marcus can get there quickly and restrain Trixie, he's probably the only person who can go toe to toe with her without taking serious damage (if not dying) at this point. He is a demigod at this point.
My guess is that somehow, Stephan will be able to appeal to Trixie's better nature, probably by appealing to her love for him. It would make a nice roundabout insult to Weaver and perhaps even the whole loyalist movement that Trixie manages to break her conditioning through love for a human, something they consider disgusting. Also, it would be an even greater slap in the face to Weaver's delusions that free will is an illusion. NOTE: if this is the way you have it planned, go right ahead. If it's done well, I have no problem with it, in fact I might even prefer it that way. If that's not the way you have it planned, then fine.
Hope Discord has more tricks up his sleeves. Knowing him, probably, but I'm not sure. Wonder if Berry Punch is just going to feed her daughter the spiel about how horrific humans are, or if she'll just relate what she was doing. Since you put time and effort into her perspective, I get the feeling that that story will play out to a conclusion (not a happy one most likely if Berry sticks with the loyalists).
I hope things are going well for you guys. Congratulations for driving my heart rate even more through the roof, which will no doubt leave me paralyzed in fear for our heroes until the next chapter. Thanks for writing this, have fun, until next time.
6132547 Regarding Icewind, his scene is more like him manipulating Ms. Chamomile here.
Rest assured, Weaver's comeuppance will come sooner or later; you can count on me.
And of course, there's still the rescue team and the action scenes to come next...
A swift knock to the head should bring Trixie out of it.
This Weaver is intriguing, I have my suspiscions as to who she is but they are sketchy as best, more evidence it required.
6132507 They keep attacking one at a time, and the super-sneaky sneaking and disguise specialist stands in a clearing looking like herself and shouts a challenge to all comers.
Also, Discord forgot he can remove his own limbs on a whim when he got stabbed with poison in the arm.
6130474 What a tasty toast~
Ooooo gawd, Discord is down for the count, and Trixie has been bamboozled into fighting her allies! D'= the Audacity!
Someone needs to burn these fools. BURN THE FAKE EQUESTRIA! AND STRING UP THE MAD QUEEN!
O^O
Amazing jobs you guys, holy shit.
This was great!
I need to work on something... jeebus.
Keep it up!
Somehow I just really, really believe that the Blue Spy would catch herself in the end and find the contradictions in such a order. I'm counting on the Blue Spy the personality will catch this when she sees Stephan and not have to go through the "I Know You Are In There Somewhere Fight." that and it would be really a weird time for her to pull a "test" on him.
Catseye just climbed my shit list in 'characters I want to send the CAG to deal with' list. Also nice nod to Naruto there.
I'm kind of disappointed
it's like every good guy keeps dropping the ball over and over again.
6139159
She intends to prey off weaker universes before going for the stronger ones. Each universe she controls the stronger she will become.
You know...
The perfect pony to resolve this is right there in Ponyville (assuming Trixie doesn't snap out of it out of love). Fluttershy's got The Stare--such a damaged, fragmented mind couldn't possibly fight that off. The only way she could would be for Blue Spy to submerge her personality among the others. I think the others could overcome Blue Spy once she isn't the dominant personality.
Anyways, back to Fluttershy; if she orders Trixie to snap out of it, Blue Spy probably would. Marcus could only barely resist her, and Blue Spy is only a fragment of Trixie.
6132547 Although Trixie's certainly better than any of them individually, in groups the Elements may be able to, if not match her, at least keep her occupied (we really haven't seen enough of their training to know how good they are other than being told that they're good, and I think it's safe to assume that the Elements would have a good grasp of fighting as a group now). A lot of her psychological tricks she's specialized against each Element would have been countered out by their training (not all--they've still got their personalities, after all--but proper military training would smooth out their weaknesses). They also know at least a modicum of how she fights.
They'd no doubt get awfully injured in the process, but there is a chance that they could survive her.
Who thought that this was going to be easy?
War never is
6139655
6140053 http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/NOVA_Bomb
They may have only made one but if they can make it once they can make it multiple times
6130453
Personally, I do not believe in free will, but hey, that's my choice.
And... all of this proves or disproves the existence of free will how, exactly? We already live in a world full of pretty amazing things if you just stop and look at it a certain way – organisms that have moved past single cells, planets capable of sustaining life, even self-awareness itself – but there are still gaps which most of us feel need to be filled in by a variety of incompatible theologies and philosophies. Heck, Nick, even the Christian religion wouldn't necessarily agree with you on free will, Calvinistic Protestantism being a notable example.
Following your train of logic, one could just as well argue that because the capital-g God is evidently real, so too must be all other divinities in human mythology, right down to Cthulhu and Nyarlothotep.
If you think Weaver's claim that free will doesn't exist – something which actually seems more supported than not by her ability to rewire Trixie's brain – is merely a ploy to dodge responsibility, I'd suggest that you re-read Joy to the Worlds, where she acknowledges to Sint that she hardly expects absolution for her crimes, and her last scene involves her contemplating future suicide once she's carried out her purpose.
6145349
I'm Catholic, not Protestant, and Calvin was a pompous douchebag, my friend. And here's the thing...there's historical evidence for people like Buddha. None for Cthulhu and Nyarlothotep. Plus, as Linkara brilliantly deconstructed in his show, elder things like that would just commit suicide due to the horror of their own meaningless existence. They're self-defeating in their ideology. Not so for others.
By the way, I READ the side-story. And acknowledging you're a piece of shit is only the first step. But that's only if you actually want to change. If you ADMIT you're doing horrible things, you KNOW you're horrible, but you do it anyway? You are a living stain who is WORSE than somebody that just blindly does evil. Because the other guy has the blessing of ignorance, he's too stupid to know what's right. But someone who knows what it's like on the other side and chooses wrong? That's far worse.
It's why Sombra, to me, is more evil than Chrysalis. Sombra knew what it meant to be good and have friends and bonds. But he rejected that to be evil. Chrissy never knew that. Which makes her a lesser evil to me.
6145379
Yes, I know you're Catholic, but point being that while religions such as that of the Olympian Gods didn't believe in free will – the inevitability of Fate is a recurring theme in classical Greek myths – Christianity also isn't a homogenous entity that agrees on all the important issues, such as free will opposed to determinism. And whether you agree with Calvin or not, refuting his argument solely on the basis of his personality is a logical fallacy called ad hominem. I've got no idea if Calvin was a brilliant mind or just an awful person, yet if we rejected every brilliant mind for being an awful person, knowledge would have progressed far more slowly.
Many of the heroes in this story, including Trixie herself, fit that bill quite well, because they're driven by the belief that what they're doing is, perhaps not for the greater good, but definitely valid as the lesser evil. We even have a scene between Marcus and Vinyl in this very chapter which returns to that recurring theme.
6145412
I don't just reject it because he's awful, but because Calvinism not only didn't believe in free will (which will always be a copout argument to avoid taking responsibility for one's actions to me), he says people are justified by faith alone. And I view that as elitist. As Jesus's brother James said, "Faith without good works is useless". It means nothing to just believe. You have to act on it. Much like how sure, if you feel your cause is wrong, that's fine...but unless you act on it, you are, as I said earlier, far worse than the ignorant.
That's true, but there is one difference which is key. They, as I said before, care to at least a small extent about how they're doing what they're doing, and their cause is actually a good one. They're doing this for the benefit of everyone. Whilst the Solar Tyrant and Catseye, their motivations are much more selfish when you get right down to it. That puts them in "morally grey", perhaps, but not in the realm of evil. As Batman famously said to the Joker in "The Killing Joke"...
"Maybe ordinary people DON'T always crack. Maybe there ISN'T any need to crawl under a rock with all the other slimy things when trouble hits. Maybe it was just you all the time."
6145474
You can disagree with Calvin, that is your right. After all, there are many, many reasons for why one would want to disagree with him. But he's ultimately only one amongst many thinkers through the ages who didn't think free will existed – Hobbes, Luther, Spinoza, Schopenhauer being a few, though I admittedly don't adhere to every last one of their beliefs, either. Then again, who does?
However, it doesn't make for a strong argument to base your position on assertion alone. You're convinced that free will is real and faith requires good works, and if this is where you stand, I can't fault you for saying so. But such things need to be supported by more than just "because I said it" and "the opposition sucks".
And don't you think that Weaver, a character inspired by Serenity's Operative, may also believe she's doing this "for the benefit of everyone"? The common good is an extremely slippery concept to define. Being readers, we know the Solar Empire is meant to be bad and wrong, while the PHL's actions could save the multiverse from Tirek. But the characters don't have the advantage of our global perspective. And as it stands, both sides have proven themselves willing to sacrifice others' lives for their cause. Regardless of whether you judge those lives to be deserving, that is not "everyone". Someone will always be left behind in the name of a greater benefit.
6145524
Ah, that old "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions" argument. But that's because nobody in real life ever has bad intentions. Everyone has good intentions unless they're absolutely insane. Nobody wakes up and goes "I wanna burn an orphanage down today cuz I'm eeeeevil" in real life. Everyone is the hero of their own story. The problem is that this setting isn't like real life. It's closer to, say, DnD, with real forces of good and evil, and, as such, there are ways to tell who's who. And ways to tell you're going too far. In real life, the line is harder to see and things can get grey. But from Wizard of Oz to Star Wars to comic books to, yes, My Little Pony?
"There is a right, and there is a wrong, and the distinction is not that hard to make. Do right by all." As Superman said.
And yeah, both sides are willing to kill to get what they want. But the corrupted Celestia is outright brainwashing and mindraping people. And not just the enemy, but her own kind. Her methods reveal she and her allies who are so staunchly anti-human have sunk to a horrific low which anyone from the outside looking in, and even anybody in the inside with half a brain, would be able to tell is going too far.
To put it back towards Calvin, who thought that the way you could tell who God had blessed was by imitating their behavior, the person with the best behavior to imitate are the ones NOT mindraping people, chaining dragons up and torturing folks, and committing mass genocide. C'mon. Let's not go all "From my point of view, the Jedi are evil" for this. The two sides are barely comparable. Just because they have some things in common in how they go about their business, the vast amount of evil that the Tyrant and Catseye are planning, the disgusting intent they have and their shameless hypocrisy make them the obvious bad guys in this. I mean, we're not talking about an issue like the death penalty or abortion where you could argue one side has a real point. One side wants to do genocide. That is automatically the kind of thing that qualifies you as a, forgive the term, "evil motherfucker".
6145592
I'm pretty sure you copypasted that from one of your blogs or journals...
And My Little Pony, being more of a slice-of-life show with the occasional villain who could still get redeemed, doesn't really strike me as a story of the battle between the forces of good and evil. In fact, I'd say over half the episodes are driven by the characters wanting to do right, yet needing several attempts at getting it right (heh).
Unfortunately, though, there are also people in this world with bad intentions. Even someone like me, who enjoys villains with moral complexity, can't turn a blind eye to the existence of sadists and sociopaths.
Not going to argue there, I consider this pretty evil. It's why I was kind of leery about the story's initial attempts to overlook Discord's past misdeeds and cast him as more of a straightforward anti-hero. Yet this is one of those times when I find myself stepping back from my personal beliefs to consider their full ramifications. If there's no free will, what are the moral implications of altering people's brains? And freedom aside, doesn't social interaction basically consist of seeking to mold the other person's mind to our benefit, anyway?
I wouldn't say that my worldview is always comforting to me.
Yes, I'd rather not get involved in another painful discussion about God and the Amalekites...
6145640
No, but it's a common argument I use, and it's an effective one when talking about how good and evil are represented in fiction vs real life.
But those people fall under what we refer to as "insane". Sociopathy and sadism are traits of people with mental illnesses according to most psychological schools, are they not?
But the corrupted Celestia is outright brainwashing and mindraping people.
Societal interaction isn't brainwashing, dude. It's called "restraining yourself". It's why we don't pee in public or grab a woman's chest: because we decided as a society that stuff is piggish and stupid. We have rules for a reason because we need to consider the common good, also known as "basic human decency", which goes by another name: political correctness. There are always times when we have to restrain ourselves because life isn't about full freedom. You don't have the freedom in our society to toss a brick through a Best Buy and steal a Plasma TV. The freedom, if your wife doesn't want to, to have kinky sex with her. The freedom to shout "fire" in a crowded theater or do slander or libel.
We set up rules and limitations because of common sense "If we just let anybody do this, the bodies would stack up in the streets" type of ideas. Brainwashing is really NOT like that. That's like saying a vaccine is equivalent to a lethal injection. They're both chemicals in a needle, but the difference couldn't be more stark!
And I could get into the Amalekites by bringing up Jewish history and THEIR many faults, etc, etc. Everybody has been a son of a bitch to everyone else in the world at some point in history. Not all the time, not even most of the time, but at some point in history, EVERYONE was an asshole to other people. That's not a fault of any belief system, it's just a problem humans have with our nature: we have anger issues up the wazoo.
But you don't even get to use that kind of excuse. Cuz the Solar Tyrant can't use the excuse of "They've been harassing my little ponies for no reason for three hundred years and I'm bringing the hammer down". Humanity didn't DO anything to the ponies. At least with God, and some of the Greek/Roman Gods and other mythological figures, the reason they did cruel things was in response to cruelty towards their favorited people or the like. The Tyrant doesn't have that excuse. It's a flimsy one, sure, but at least it would make SOME sense. She can't even do that.
6145751
6145640
OMG... stop. both of you. please.
6145751
Eh, it's fine, mate, I'd essentially said my piece.
That last part is debatable and could be read as a sweeping generalization. Real anger isn't something that comes easily to me. But on the other hand, as I grow older, I feel increasingly beset by the troubling idea that we all have an inevadable bit of hypocrisy within ourselves.
6146162
My apologies. I get really worked up over philosophical issues and I get on my soapbox. Continue your excellent story, please.
It is interesting that TCB:trixie apparently didn't used the alicorn talisman, I suppose that this canon:trixie still did.
And where she is anyway, are we going to see some interaction between canon:Trixie and TCB:trixie
Is there any chance that we will see the Whinnyapolis delegate from the Princess Spike episode?
6181568 maybe?
6131170
The mare who poisoned him obviously had no idea how he'd really react to a tatzlwurm's venom, so it's plainly never been tested on him as far as she knows. What she knows is that it's incredibly poisonous. Since the tatzlwurm is a creature that exists in Equestria (albeit at its "ends"), it's perfectly reasonable that somepony knows about it, and what it does to ordinary ponies. They just don't know what it does to Discord, which, apparently, is give him flu-like symptoms and turn him green. :-)
6189304 i forgot to respond to that question, thank you.
6189304 Makes sense.
6211555
Duh. That was the whole bloody point - that current selection of characters is FAR better cast for a dramatic dance-off then for guerrilla warfare. Really, if your whole cast is made up from clowns and primadonnas, do yourself a favor and stick to scenic methods.
Could you consider a universe where Megan Williams, her brother Danny, and her sister Molly become a bridge between the pony world and the human world? The civilizations of the pony world and human civilizations established diplomatic, economic, and cultural trade. Thus, the civilizations of the pony and human civilizations then created science and technology more advanced than they would have on their own. The nations of the pony worlds have representation in the United Nations General Assembly, while Equestria is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
Sorry about this post. I should have read the “Noodle Incident” chapter in Discord’s Multiverse Journey, before I posted this. My hats off to you and your writing crew for creating such complex and entertaining shared universe.
6259160 Just stumbled across that book series.
*Maintains vigil like an owl, awaiting the new chapter*
6302870 Defilement?
BrainBleaching
Soul rendering
Mind fucking.
No thats the same thing... hm.