• Community Soapbox - What a Brony Is, Disappointment in Season 10, and More!


    The soapboxes cvontinue! As always, these are the opinions of fandom members, not us here at EQD. If you'd like to submit your own soapbox, hit up this post for infos.

    Have some headlines:

    • Two Twilights With Two Different Love Interests
    • The Relationship Between Baltimare And The Crystal Empire
    • The Disappointment of Season 10
    • What a Brony is (And Isn't!)

    And go read them below!


    Two Twilights With Two Different Love Interests
    By Comet

    As we all know, Twilight has a crush on Flash Sentry. While Sci-Twi has a crush on Timber Spruce. Why do they have different love interests instead of the same person? Well, I have a theory on why. I wanted to explore of why these two Twilights have different crushes instead of just saying “They are two Twilights. They aren’t the same characters” and call it a day. I believe there’s more to it than that.

    Twilight had just became a princess and was originally an antisocial pony who just wanted to study and thought making friends was a waste of time before moving to Ponyville. With her out of her comfort zone and being more sociable makes it a different experience. The movie took place less than a year after the first episode. As Celestia mentioned in the season 4 premiere that it is the first Summer Sun Celebration with Luna in it and instead of celebrating the defeat of Nightmare Moon, it’s the return of Luna. With this, we know that this is recent enough to be out of a comfort zone and develop feelings (not just love feelings mind you).

    Which is why when Twilight met Flash, she couldn’t help but really like the guy when they bumped into each other again at the cafe and accidentally touched each other’s hands. Especially when she was asked if she wanted to go to the dance with him. Twilight didn’t interact much with guys in the first 3 seasons. I don’t count family members because she’s more comfortable around them than having an actual interaction with a guy.

    The same goes with Sci-Twi. She was antisocial and wanted to study. The only difference is that she’s a door mat in the human world. She is like that because she didn’t live in a world with magic. With Twilight living in a world with magic, she was shown to be a bit rude in the pilot. Sci-Twi was shy and awkward with people.

    When she first met Flash, she was only focused on her goal and not wanting to interact with others. To say it this way, different time, different personality. For example, Avengers: Endgame with Starlord and past Gamora. He knew her while she didn’t. That’s the best way I can describe the situation.

    After she was more opened up to others, she met Timber Spruce and developed a crush on him. She didn’t know why her pony self had a crush on Flash, as she only saw him as a friend. With Timber, she felt something in her as they kept talking throughout the 4th movie. This also helped her lose focus on Midnight Sparkle and enjoyed being around with him.

    As someone who was once antisocial, I actually had this experience before. I wouldn’t develop a crush until sometime after I gotten out of my comfort zone. Though it wasn’t a love at first sight. It was someone who I’ve seen, but didn’t pay attention to due to focusing on my studies. That’s how I’ve always saw the case for these two Twilights.

    I never hated Flash and Timber when they first made their appearance. In fact, I already talked about Flash in my first soapbox. I can see why people don’t like Timber since he’s pretty much a Brad 2.0 and they could’ve fix Flash’s character instead. And yeah I agree. But I wouldn’t hate the guy for that. These Twilights have there own love interests.

    One won’t see the same angle like the other. Like I said, Sci-Twi just sees Flash as a friend. If Twilight were to meet Timber, she would be really confused and feel uncomfortable around him if he were to talk like the way he does with Sci-Twi. While Sci-Twi is dating Timber Spruce, Twilight can still see Flash from her world since we’ve never seen pony Timber. Hopefully we can see those two interact in the comics and give that Flash some character development.

    This is Comet here and have a nice day!

    The Relationship Between Baltimare And The Crystal Empire
    By James Jennings

    The Equestrian cities of the Crystal Empire and Baltimare are radically different. One is located in the Frozen North of Equestria. The other is located in the shore of the Horseshoe Bay in the southeastern section of the pony nation.  One is governed by royal rulers.  The other is governed by an elected mayor and a Citizens's Assembly selected by lottery from among the local population.

    One is populated mainly by Crystal P onies.  The other is populated by Earth ponies and donkeys mostly with minorities of mules (donkeys and ponies can interbreed), unicorns, pegasi, griffons, and dragons.

    The two cities are geographically isolated from one another-until Flurry Heart assumes ridership of the Crystal Empire (her parents Cadence and Shining Armor still serve as royal advisors) during the time her aunt Twilight Sparkle is ruler of Equestria as a whole.  Flurry Heart, using her own magical powers, opens up a permanent magical portal between the Crystal Empire and the city of Baltimare.  

    Flurry Heart had informed her aunt as supreme Equestrian ruler beforehand but not the Baltimare government.  The then-mayor of Baltimare, a dragon named Rexxus Sam, escorted by personnel from the Ministry of Public Safety and the Ministry of Science and Magic arrive at the magical portal and are greeted by Flurry Heart, her parents, Crystal Empire royal guards, and ordinary Crystal Ponies.  Soon, local Baltima re citizens join the crowd.  Flurry Heart explains to Mayor Rexxus Sam that her mother Cadence had a future vision that seven Alicorns would be born to pony mother's and father's in Baltimare.

    Then Twilight Sparkle herself teleports into Baltimore and tells Mayor Rexxus that her sister-in-law's future visions always come true and that her niece had already told her.

    And so, the seven Alicorn babies are born, and the magical portal still stands, and citizens of Baltimare and the Crystal Empire regularly visit the other city.  The portal himself is guarded by Crystal Empire royal guards and the Ministry of Public Safety.  

    The seven Baltimare Alicorns at the time of the Episode The Last Problem are now five years old. Flurry Heart, when not attending to the government of the Crystal Empire, visits Baltimare to visit the Baltimare Alicorns (three colts and four fillies).

    The Crystal Empire royal guards and the Baltima re Ministry.of Public Safety sometimes are assigned to the other city.  And Flurry Heart created a Baltimate-style Citizens' Assembly with members randomly selected from Crystal Empire citizens just like Baltimare s own Citizens Assembly.
     

    The Disappointment of Season 10
    By: A Deer Friend

    Preface: "Disappointment", in this context, refers specifically to
    acting as a fitting successor to the show. The overall writing is
    solid, definitely enjoyable.

    Over the meta-arc of its final three seasons, Friendship is Magic laid
    out its ultimate message: Harmony is an ever-evolving, ever-changing,
    almost-sentient magical entity. It never takes the same form twice,
    and this is a good thing. The Pillars held their own set of six
    Virtues, which together channeled a powerful-enough Harmony magic to
    spark the growth of the Tree of Harmony, and to spawn the modern-era
    Elements of Harmony.

    Now, here's the thing: We are never told that the Elements bore their
    modern-day labels (Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty)
    in the millennium-ago time of Celestia and Luna's first known use of
    them. They are simply magical artefacts of some fashion, powerful
    conduits of raw arcana. There is nothing, in the canon of Friendship
    is Magic itself, that outright disproves the notion that the Elements
    haven't always represented what they mean today.

    Harmony changes as it grows, and the Elements change to fit their
    bearers, just as the bearers change to fit their Elements.

    In the following season, as Twilight establishes her school, and a
    clique of six very special students forms, we see an extension of this
    concept. Many, many times I've seen fans of this show attempt to
    assign each of the Student Six with a specific Element, and I've yet
    to see any collective of people reach any kind of consensus. Here's
    the truth: They don't represent anything specific. Every time they're
    connected to any visual motifs of the Elements, it's always something
    different. There's no consistency. Like with the Pillars, like with
    the Princesses, like with the Mane Six -- Harmony evolved, Harmony
    changed, Harmony grew.

    This is further exemplified by the final season. The Elements -- that
    is, the shiny little trinkets that functioned as conduits for the
    Magic of Harmony -- were destroyed. Yet the Mane Six could still call
    on their power, because Harmony evolved, changed, grew.

    By the end of the season, *everyone* is channeling Harmony magic. The
    entirety of Equestria, and many of its various allies, all working
    together, collaborating, fighting for the future of the world -- the
    shield that appears around the Mane Six in that final battle isn't
    just any old unicorn magic. It's Harmony.

    Over the course of thousands of years, Harmony went from a vague spark
    formed by specific teamwork, to solid crystals that focused the spark
    into a more potent form, to a Force-like ambient aura of Friendship,
    collaboration, of one-ness with every living, breathing, sentient
    thing around you. It's beautiful.

    Then, Season 10 comes along and reverses everything. Now, at the end
    of its first arc, the story turns out to be about restoring the
    "original" form of the Elements. The ones we all know from the first
    season. As if all that change, and growth, and evolution, never
    happened.

    And it is incredibly disappointing.
     

    What a Brony is (And Isn't!)
    By Alexrioponylover95

    Hello everycreature!

    So as we all know by now, on April 15 of this year, a FedEx employer committed a mass shooting which took the lives of eight people. What was more shocking… The guy was in fact a brony and even was hoping to see AJ in the afterlife!

    Now before I address the main topic of this soapbox, I just want to give my heartfelt condolences to the friends and families of those who lost their lives, no one should suffer such a tragedy. And I also hope, that despite what you have heard about bronies, we’re here for you and to help in any way possible. (Huge thanks to EQD by the way for informing us of the GoFundMe page!)

    Now to get to the main topic of this soapbox and that’s the definition of what a brony is!

    There was once upon a time that a brony was simply a fan of the TV show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, no matter your age or gender, you were considered a brony if you just watched the show, however with time passing, I think that definition needs to be expanded and more specific. A brony should be a person who not only enjoys the show, but truly follows the ideals and morals of the show, being kind and helping others in need without doing any harm.

    And now I want to provide some examples of what a brony isn’t at all!

    I already pointed out the FedEx guy who committed the mass shooting and to put it bluntly… He was a fanatic, with an insane purpose to fulfill a goal he had. And no brony would ever take the lives of others, unless it is a military brony in a combat situation.

    And not only do we have fanatics, but we apparently also have Nazis in our ranks, yeah because the Nazis totally were all about love and tolerance… Just ask the Jews how much love they got from the Nazis during the Second World War!

    And to further go on, I have seen with my own eyes (Not naming names) “bronies” who support Trump… Now I myself not only oppose our “former president” politically, but also morally as well, he doesn’t hold up the ideals that MLP brings, quite the opposite in fact. I mean might I remind you that mainly because of him, the very center of American democracy was violently attacked and five people lost their lives as a result!

    Now I know this isn’t like a proper soapbox, but I really needed to get this off my chest and well, as I always say, “If I can say and do something, I will!” And well I want to close off this little rant (Trust me, I could go on and on about this…) with something positive.

    To all of you who are truly bronies, I just want to say that no matter what terrible news comes involving us, don’t let it affect you and stop you from doing what you can to help. Remember… “Keep calm and Brony on!”