Hi. I'm Nate. I like ponies, so I wrote a story. Now I'm writing more stories. I guess that's it.
Starlight is a busy mare as she takes over the helm of the School of Friendship. But can she keep it together when confronted by a figure from her past?
A short piece I wrote for Bean's Writing Group. Thanks to Celly the Pancake for the critique!
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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IMO, this story captures one of the most important differences between Sunset and Starlight's redemption arcs; Sunset stared her past down and tried to make up for it, while Starlight just locked it away. Sunset tore her old self down and rebuilt herself, Starlight simply acted like the old her was a nightmare, something to look away from as fast as you can. Now, she had legitimate reasons for doing so, (How exactly do you face up to omnicide?) but it does mean that her redemption was legitimately different than Sunset's. Sunset was forced to see what she'd done wrong and tried to fix it; Starlight just closed her eyes to her past, refusing to repeat her mistakes as well as refusing to really examine them. The reason she regressed in Every Little Thing She Does, IMO, was that she was never really reformed; she was shown what the consequences of her time-traveling were, pardoned, and learned some of the finer points of friendship from Twilight, but she never really looked back on her actions, asked herself if they were wrong, and, if they were, tried to fix them. The core of her character, achieving her goals by any means necessary, remained unchanged.
Starlight, as written, works fantastically as a redeemed character, but as a critique, not a compliment. "This is what instant forgiveness looks like," her actions say. "Do you like it? Does it make you feel happy, or good at all?" Instant redemption doesn't work; like Sunset showed, redemption's hard. It takes a lot of time and effort, and, as her still-present temper shows, it's never really complete. Starlight tries to redeem herself by saying sorry for her past and closing her eyes to it: Double Diamond here forces them open, forces her to realize that redemption takes more than a click of the hooves and a wave of a magic wand. She still took time away from Double Diamond (which, by the way, nice insight into how much worse the impact was on him) and the others, and no amount of "Sorry"s will change that.
11008616
Problem here. Sunset had no choice but to be around the people she hurt. She had no choice but to face what she was because she had everyone she hurt there to constantly remind her. Most likely if she had a choice she would have gone somewhere else and avoided the whole thing. Not to mention she was forced to by the Rainbow beam.. Starlight had the option to go somewhere else and rebuild who she is. She chose, on her own volition to become a better pony, even though she was winning against Twilight, unlike Sunset, who was forced into it. That's why Starlights redemption always felt better then Sunsets and it felt she earned it more than Sunset.
Choosing to > Having your ass kicked and forced into it by a Rainbow beam because there is more then a little bit of hints that the beam does use brainwashing in the process. ( Cruel. Then blast. Then out of nowhere they regret everything they did and their personality is vastly different. Sorry, don't buy it. Definite brainwashing involved.)
So you can't really compare the two situations because both are entirely different from each other.
11008757
I don’t think Sunset was brainwashed but yeah I prefer the Starlight redemption. I still like Sunset’s though.
11008757
Following that rule, then Discord, the Dazzlings, Tirek, Cozy Glow and Chrysalis were brainwashed into NOT reforming (yes, Discord is technically not evil anymore, but he needed two Rainbow Beams and a bit of Serious Fluttershy for that).
As for the Dazzlings: at least they're not as evil as the first time we saw them, but do they ever regret their past actions? Nope.
And finally, we have the last three villains I mentioned. I think you already know the answer to that.
11008757
You make some good points, especially about Starlight choosing to go with Twilight as opposed to being forced into it. However, I disagree regarding Starlight earning her redemption more than Sunset. Yes, Starlight, like you said, freely chose to surrender to Twilight in her hour of triumph, and she apologizes for her actions, and then she's... instantly accepted again, even by the Our Townites. There's nothing for her to "earn" here; it's simply forgiveness, freely given upon acknowledgement of the wrongdoing. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa, and her sins are forgiven.
Sunset, though, like you said was forced to stay near those she hurt, those who hated her, and try to earn their trust back. She was forced to look upon her works, to stare into the ashes of what she'd done, and she did not turn away, she did not run away. She worked to rebuild herself, to rebuild Canterlot High's trust in her, to become better than what her fellows saw her as. "I firmly resolve... to confess my sins, to do my penance, and to amend my life." Sunset worked to prove that she'd changed to her fellows (and the audience), worked to show that she deserved their forgiveness, that she regretted what she'd done and would do it no more. She tore down what she used to be, acknowledged and apologized for the wrongdoings that had gone into it, and built something better in its place.
Starlight received forgiveness; Sunset redeemed herself. As Double Diamond showed, this is an important difference; he's Starlight's Wallflower, a reminder that just saying "my past is not today" without trying to help those you hurt in the past doesn't fix everything. Starlight hurt Double Diamond, and just saying "sorry" doesn't heal those wounds. For Starlight to be truly redeemed, she has to help bind up Double Diamond's wounds, try to make up for what she did in action as well as speech.
Really. This is something that needed to happen from somepony, anypony from the show, but no writer ever did. It’s almost like nobody in the staff could tell any interesting or non-redundant stories with Starlight. Even her becoming the new headmare seems half-assed when you consider what the Mane 6 all achieved by the end. Really she’s such an underwhelming bore of a character.
I'll say this: this may very well be the reason why she wasn't at Big Mac and Sugarbelle's wedding.
This story definitely feels realistic but given the Our Town ponies didn’t seem very affected by Starlight, it’s not exactly something that fits with canon.
This premise definitely would have been a fun episode, a way better one than Every Little Thing She Does, but I’m alright with the redemption we got.
This seems like a total MLP Episode, and it would be one of my favorites if it was! I love this story, because it shows how much Starlight really does care for her villagers and how she never did much with them. I just didn't expect to see Double Diamond in this condition, that was probably the most shocking part of the story for me.