• Community Soapbox - Tempests Mercy, No Immortality, Spike's Future Design, and More!


    As revealed a while ago, soapboxes will now happen once we get enough submissions for it. Send them whenever, but also expect them whenever!

    If you'd like to submit one, hit this post up.

    This time around, your headlines include:

    • Tempest's Mercy
    • What's wrong with Future Spike's Look?
    • Rainbow Dash got the short end of the stick
    • Twilight’s friends SHOULD NOT gain immortality.
    • Queen Novo: Right or Wrong.

    Get the articles below!


    Tempest's Mercy
    By Alexrioponylover95

    Hello everycreature!

    So rewatching the MLP movie, a thought occurred to me… And that is the fact Capper and Celaeno and her crew had somehow escaped Tempest after the unicorn destroyed Celaeno’s ship, or did they… What I’m suggesting is the possibility that Tempest might have very well let the group go instead of imprisoning them or well, to put it lightly, get rid of them altogether.

    Now to recap from the movie, after Twilight and her friends escaped from Tempest from Celaeno’s ship, Tempest dealt with Celaeno’s betrayal by destroying her ship, but we don’t know if Tempest had the crew imprisoned or not. And the next time we see Capper, Celaeno, and the pirates are when they regroup with Twilight’s friends and they set off for Canterlot to save the day.

    Now what happened in between we don’t know again, so there are several different options that could have happened.

    The first being that Tempest did have Capper, Celaeno and her crew imprisoned, to deal with them later after she dealt with Twilight. However with Capper being a con artist and Celaeno and her crew being pirates, they could have found a way to escape and fight their way out and found Twilight’s friends by chance.

    Another option being that Tempest, after destroying Celaeno’s ship, let them go, after all they no longer have any means of transportation. Added to the fact that Tempest’s goal was to capture Twilight, taking on more prisoners, especially such a troublesome group, would be a burden to Tempest and slow her down. And well Tempest also didn’t believe in friendship like Twilight does, so Tempest most likely also thought that Capper, Celaeno, and her crew wouldn’t be much help at all anyway.

    Yet another thought would be (And I know this may sound a little cheesy…) that there was some good in Tempest after all. Tempest, again, could have very easily imprisoned or gotten rid of Capper, Celaeno, and her crew, but well maybe she didn’t because some small part of her believed in friendship still. After all, at the end of the movie, she did sacrifice herself to block the Storm King’s magic from hitting Twilight and her friends after seeing Twilight and her friends work together and how much they cared for each other.

    There could be other options for why Capper, Celaeno, and hew crew managed to escape from Tempest or she simply let them go that I’m not thinking of right now, but what do you all think?


    What's wrong with Future Spike's Look?
    By: FlareGun45


    We watch The Last Problem, and once we saw the older Spike, we immediately realized it was a timejump! What was the first thing I saw when people were watching it? "Eww, he looks too ugly! Why is he so anthro?" Well, to answer your question: he was ALWAYS anthro! Ever since Dragon Quest, a large majority of the dragons were anthro! :P Dragons don't use four-legs in this show - they ain't horses!

    But if the anthro thing wasn't your problem, was it the muscles? I dunno why that'd be an issue, I think it suits him and it makes perfect sense! Why? He was such a wimp when he was young, physically - what he lacked in muscles he made up in intelligence. But seeing him grow up to be that big guy, he ain't so wimpy anymore! You can just tell that everything's gonna be ok with him! Besides, being both second-in-command of a country while also having the responsibility to keep the peace between where he represents and others, he has to look the part! You can tell he became much more respected between the nations, cause look who's being the neutral party between the conflicts of the diamond dogs and kitty cats! His choice of words has half to do with it, the other half has to be his charming good looks! Yunno how people are, some judge on looks!

    Besides..... with that bod..... you can say he's become the Glenn Quagmire of FIM! ;) Is Sparity canon? Spolder? Spabby? Pffft, how about all of the above, and more, including characters we never even seen yet? XP Who's NOT shipped with Spike is the question!

    Lemme ask ya something - if you don't like how Spike looks, what didja THINK he'd look like? I thought it was quite obvious he'd look like this. Burnferno from his favorite book is his idol, so yeah!


    Rainbow Dash got the short end of the stick
    By: indiana


    First of all I want to clarify that this is not a hate post on RD. It's not exactly about her but about her element,the element of loyalty. If AJ would have been the element of loyalty instead, I would have been talking about her in the same way. So what's wrong with loyalty? A few things but first I also have to clarify that in many situations it is still a valuable trait to have. Being loyal to friends and family is very admirable and desirable...but not all the time. What I am getting at is that this particular element has a fatal flaw built in it that makes people do the wrong thing unlike any of the other elements if taken too literally. The flaw of tribalism or blind allegiance to someone's cause. Remember when RD said she would always be loyal to the princess? Well, that is nice and all but what if the princess suddenly became a warlord? What if this particular war was going on and on exactly because of the undying loyalty for the leaders of both sides from their subjects? For anyone who doesn't remember the show, I was talking about one particular bad future from the season 5 finale where Celestia was at war with King Sombra. RD was right down smack in the middle of it with a broken wing which was replaced by a metal one. In the face of all the political bullshit that led to one wrong decision after another, she keeps it up with her loyalty to the princess and the war cause. RD herself could have stopped the war if she spoke against her own element both to her allies and her opponents on the battlefield. The next example of loyalty going horribly wrong is in the very same episode where we see RD again with a military creepy looking outfit loyally serving none other than the dictator herself. RD is once again true to her element and yet she is supposedly very wrong in keeping that loyalty for a ruler that supposedly causes a lot of pain and suffering and fear. Or is it the case that Nightmare Moon was a nice princess but she never showed it?...Yea, sure...and Hitler never did anything wrong. Speaking of Hitler, did you know that his war went on for so long exactly because of this element instilled in his troops? This is also true for most armed conflicts but in his case it was particularly effective given what they were doing in their spare time. Maybe we should start calling it Loyalty - the element of blind stupidity and sometimes evil.

    Sometimes people find themselves in abusive relationships of all kinds. If you can't do anything about it to change the other party, the answer in those cases is not more loyalty. It is saying duck* this shit! I'm out!

    This subject is far more complicated than this but unfortunately I can't go on for 30 pages.

    Twilight’s friends SHOULD NOT gain immortality
    By: A Shy Brony

    Not to long ago, I saw a picture of Fluttershy in the future. The artist said in the description of the picture that they had removed the bags under Fluttershy’s eyes, because Fluttershy is immortal. Personally, I’ve never believed that Twilight’s friends are immortal, I believe that only Twilight should be immortal, or at least have a much longer lifespan. Allow me to explain.

    For starters, I think there is far more story potential for Twilight if Twilight’s friends were to live natural lives. Ruling Equestria should not be easy. Immortality should be a curse for the rulers of Equestria to bear only. If Twilight’s friends were to become immortal somehow, then Twilight’s life becomes way too simple. Look at Celestia for example: I’m sure Celestia had friends throughout her 1,000 years of rule, but we don’t see any of them alive in FiM. Imagine how sad it would be to see Twilight going on with her royal duties, years after her friends have all passed away. It’s terrible, but it also means that if Twilight does find way to remove her immortality, it will be a joyous occasion, a release from a terrible curse, not a day to weep for Twilight’s passing.

    Who has the right to determine who gets immortality in the first place? If immortality can be handed out freely, why should only a select few gain immortality, while the rest of the Equestrians die of old age?

    This leads to my second, and more important point to make. I don’t believe Twilight’s friends would want immortality at all, even if it was offered freely. Think about it, do you truly believe that Rarity wants to watch Sweetie Belle grow old and die? What about Rainbow and Scootaloo? Applejack surely wouldn’t want to watch Big Mac and Sugar Belle’s son grow old and die, while Applejack still goes on living in a youthful state, right? Pinkie has it the worst, she has her own family now. How would she feel watching her own children die around her?

    This is the problem of immortality I mentioned above. If you give someone immortality, you may as well at the very least give it to their families as well, or else what’s the point? If you can’t give immortality to everyone, then you’re better off carrying the burden yourself, not burdening others. Yes, Twilight will be sad when her friends die, but would Twilight rather watch her friends live normal lives? Or would she selfishly burden them with everlasting life, watching as they grow more and more miserable as the ones they love die around them? If you ask me, I think Twilight would choose the former, and deal with the grief herself.


    Queen Novo: Right or Wrong
    By: Toad256

    Was Queen Novo justified with her decision of not helping Equestria? I’m gonna take a look. In the movie Celestia and Novo were assumed allies since when the Storm King invaded, She tasked Luna to go to the Queen of Hippogriffs, before her and Luna get stoned and Twilight takes up the role. Once Twilight got there, she learned that the Hippogriffs also got invaded by the Storm King. The interaction between the two was Twilight asking for her help, Novo refusing, some chance of convincing fails and Novo kicks Twilight and her friends out.

    If the situation was Equestria and the Hippogriff Queendom are allies. Then Queen Novo would be right in her response because Equestria never sent help to their allies when they were being invaded.

    But what if Equestria and the Hippogriffs were not allies of equal footing. What if the Hippogriffs was a vassal kingdom of Equestria. Being a vassal means that they have to support Equestria. And Equestria doesn’t have to send aid to them. It would be a wrong thing to do, but it could happen. It could explain why Equestria built a railroad and train station to their kingdom. It’s for their security. Anyway what do you think?