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:
- Why the Young 6 were a Great Addition
- Were Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis Reformed During the Timeskip?
- Who’s The Richest of The Mane Six?
- Grandpa Gruff and Gallus?
- There is no "race" between ponies
Why the Young 6 were a Great Addition
By Alexrioponylover95
Hello everycreature!
So with my first soapbox I talked about how the Pillars and Young 6 should have had more interactions with each other and with some of the responses from that soapbox, it seemed some people don’t have too great of an opinion on the Young 6. (Not naming names!) So while I’m not here to force anyone to change their opinions, I could at least try to convince you otherwise or at least look at this group in a different way.
So I’m a huge fan of the Young 6, actually liked them from when they were first introduced in School Daze and had pretty good episodes about them, some of my favorites being What Lies Beneath and The Hearth’s Warming Club, even episodes like Non-Compete Clause were decent in showing the best of these six young ones.
And to me, they have shown the best of their kind when we didn’t really have many examples of the non-pony races. Take Yona and the Yaks for example, or well more specific, Prince Rutherford. Rutherford’s first appearance in Party Pooped? Declaring war on the ponies because they didn’t get the Yaks’ culture right… However Yona, when she was first introduced, was very cheerful and fun, showing not all yaks are destructive, she showed a different side to the yaks than what we were initially provided with.
Now when I watched School Daze, (And I might go more into detail on this in a future soapbox) it really reminded me of the historical struggle in American education, when schools, just like with everything else in America, was segregated. And the Young 6, minus Sandbar, really reminded me of the Little Rock Nine, in which nine black teenagers attended an all white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Young 6, minus Sandbar, being the only non-ponies in the School of Friendship, most likely had to face some problems with the pony students, who were only presented with a general view of other races. Going back to like Yona, when Yona wanted to meet others, they simply ran away from her. (Although to be fair, Yona was a little too friendly…)
And well in the end, they ended up saving the day not once, but twice. The first time defeating Cozy, although with the help of the Tree of Harmony, and preventing the loss of magic in Equestria. And the second time, because of what they have learned from the School of Friendship, managing to convince the rest of their kinds to aid the Mane 6 in standing up against Chrysalis, Cozy, and Tirek. And as The Last Problem shows, have once again stepped up to save Equestria and earned a stained glass window. (Funny enough not for the first two times…)
Now I have many more reasons, these being just the top ones, I can go on and on, but hopefully I managed to present a more positive view on this group and maybe even helped change your mind on them!
Were Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis Reformed During the Timeskip?
By: Aleximus Prime
One big complaint a lot of fans have about the finale is that the villains weren't fairly dealt with or they should have been “reformed” since it seems the writers were building up for that in “Frenemies”. While some have argued otherwise, I do feel bad that they had to be turned into stone and think that Celestia, Luna and Discord were a bit too cruel in doing so (even if they did kind of deserve it.) Ever since the show ended, I always thought it would have been nice if the three of them came in during the Council of Friendship meeting with Luster Dawn and reveal to her that they had been reformed at some point and were the newest members of the council. Maybe even show Chrysalis in her transformed state and a grown-up Cozy Glow.
There’s a bit of evidence in the show that this could have happened. For one, while we didn’t see my hypothetical idea in the above paragraph happen, we never actually saw their statue in the time-skip during The Last Problem. We know that they were still in stone right as Twilight became the leader of Equestria judging by that newspaper she was holding. Secondly, one thing that really stood out to me was how Twilight reacted before they were turned into stone. Did anyone notice how Twilight looked when Chrysalis was shouting at them right before Pinkie dropped the giant cupcake? Her face seemed to say that she felt bad for them and wanted to give them a chance. Celestia and Luna were still in command, but if it were up to Twilight, I feel she might have at least offered for Cozy to join them and then let Tirek and Chrysalis go since they were powerless to fight back. This might have made her look like a weak leader in front of everyone else though.
In the Season 5 finale, we saw Twilight give Starlight a chance. She is the Princess of Friendship after all, and although those three did cause a lot of damage, I feel she would have been much more merciful than the princesses and Discord. Perhaps a few years later, she ordered that the petrification spell be undone and the three of them be reformed by Fluttershy much like we saw Celestia do in “Keep Calm and Flutter On”. Reforming them would be no easy task. Most seem to believe Chrysalis would be the most difficult to reform, which is probably very true. She was the one who told Tirek and Cozy that friendship is a disease after all.
Either way, the fact that the writers never bothered to answer this question just leaves more room for us to make fan-fiction about it. Get crackin, writers!
Grandpa Gruff and Gallus?
By: Toad256
What is the relationship between these two griffons, does Grandpa Gruff care about him I’m not sure. During School Daze Gruff was Gallus’s guardian and also Gruff was willing to go to war just because he was missing. Then in Hearth’s warming club we learned that Gallus is an orphan, so Gruff was like tying a loose end when he sent Gallus to the school of friendship.
In Dragon Dropped we learn a little bit more about him from Gabby. Apparently the old bird sends letters to Gallus asking for a lot of updates of how he’s doing. That until the episode after it. A Horseshoe-In gives us contradictory elements from the Gruff and Trixie fight. Gruffs words “Gallus doesn’t need to know I’m proud of him and certainly doesn’t need me trekking all the way to Ponyville.” And during the fight you can see that Gallus had a sad face on him. And at the end of the episode we learn that no creature ever stood up for Gallus like Trixie did to Grandpa Gruff. So does Grandpa Gruff care about Gallus? I don’t know. I wanna see what you others think.
There is no "race" between ponies
By: FlareGun45
Lately what's been bothering me is the wrong use of the term "race" - in ponies too! My motto goes: "there's no race except the kind with a finish line".
Yunno what race means? Species. Ponies, dragons, yaks, griffins - yes those are different races. But the equines, earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi, changelings, kirins - they're all the SAME SPECIES! They're all horses! They just evolved differently - dunno whether or not is because of environment or temperament of their original equine states, but they're not different races.
If the ponies just knew they weren't different races, there wouldn't be racism, they could look at their physical differences as no different than eye, hair, or coat colors.
I dunno how their prejudices even started though, but I'm sure it was taught by some powerful, greedy force. What we see in the history books might not be the entire truth.
I'm sure you get where else I'm getting at with this.
Who’s The Richest of The Mane Six?
By: A Shy Brony
Taking a break from some more serious Soapboxes, let’s instead try to determine what pony has the most wealth. Before we begin, there’s two important things to consider. One, I’m going to be looking more at who has the most net worth, not so much as who has the most bits per say. Secondly, we need to pick a timeframe. For this Soapbox, I will be using the time right before Season 8 begins, since frankly the School of Friendship just complicates everything. (Do teachers get paid? Is their tuition? Does the school receive subsidies from the central government etc.)
Going from least to most wealthy, I think we can all agree that Pinkie is the least wealthy of the Mane Six. She is the only one who doesn’t have a home of her own. Her jobs as baker and babysitter don’t really sound like the kind of jobs that rake in a fortune.
Next up is Fluttershy. With all of the animals Fluttershy cares for in her animal sanctuary, Fluttershy must spend a good chunk of bits on necessities like food alone. The tricky part is determining what exactly Fluttershy’s occupation is. We know she takes a big part in pet adoptions, but it’s hard to see how exactly that pays for everything Fluttershy needs. Still, the fact that she owns a home is enough for me to rank her higher than Pinkie.
Twilight is the hardest to place. We know she is the town’s librarian, but that doesn’t seem like a high paying job. Maybe the town of Ponyville has a princess tax they pay to Twilight every month? Because of the ambiguity of Twilight’s wealth, I placed her right in the middle, though I think there’s an argument that Twilight is more wealthy than she lets on.
Applejack is next on the list. Obviously Sweet Apple Acres rakes in a lot of money, particularly from Cider Season and Zap Apple Jam sales. The farm itself is surely worth a lot of money. What keeps Applejack as the third richest one however is the costs to maintain the farm. The primary reason Applejack wanted to go to the Gala was to earn money for her family. Which is also another point, Applejack has to share the farms profits with her whole family, another barrier keeping Applejack from really getting rich.
We now come to the final two, Rarity and Rainbow Dash. Both of these ponies could easily take the top spot in my opinion. This is where condition 1 comes into play. Rainbow almost certainly has more physical wealth, she already had a mansion before becoming a full fledged wonderbolt.
However, Rarity has three stores across Equestria, two of which are in major cities. Having her wealth spread evenly helps ensure Rarity still has an income. If Rainbow gets injured and can’t perform her jobs, she loses money. If Rarity loses a store, she still has two more to earn money from. This is why I place Rarity as the wealthiest pony of the Mane Six.
