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:
- The Ultimate Enemy
- Equestria's Segregated Education
- Swamp Fever Could Have Been Much Worse than Corona Virus
- The Fellowship of The Ponies?
- Is Ember Smart?
Get the articles below!
The Ultimate Enemy
By Double C
Many fans including me where surprised that Grogar from Gen. 1 was Discord in disguise instead of being the final enemy in the final season. But with the Bewitched Bell, that is proof Grogar is real but the question is where is the real one. Everyone has their own theories of his whereabouts, to me he is likely is imprisoned in a different dimension called the realm of darkness like his Gen. 1 counterpart was. How he escapes from imprisonment is unknown but Grogar vows to destroy anyone who stands in his way to retake what was his.
Besides using the Bewitched Bell, Grogar has many abilities and knowledge that would pose a real threat even to Twilight. He already possesses incredible magic that include teleportation, levitation, energy beam, and others are considered forbidden. One of them is necromancy and incase many you don’t know what it is it’s a sorcerer that has the ability to summon the dead and controls them like puppets. When magic is not needed, he also has incredible strength, agility, durability, and combat techniques that will give even the most experience Royal Guard a challenge. He also has shown to be quit intelligent which enables him to learn new spells and scheme to break his opponents both physically and mentally. The thing that would make Grogar feared is that he uses fear not only to feed but to also manipulate others. Like many deceptive villains, Grogar would use someone’s fear to either join him or as a distraction for his plans. As Master Yoda said to young Anakin Skywalker, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” In all, this will make Grogar among the strongest and cunning villain that Equestria will face and will not stop until every living being bows to him.
Many of the monsters he created will be based on ones from myths around the world since MLP has drawn many influences from many mythologies. His most powerful creation is Typhon from Greek mythology and for good reason he would be picked. Typhon is called the Father of Monsters so it makes senses that he would be Grogar’s ultimate monster. He would have seven commanders because they would represent the Seven Deadly Sins and the opposite to the Mane 6 and the Pillars. Each one is stronger, faster, and device then the last but all fear of being punished by Grogar if failed.
In the final showdown, Twilight and Flash will face Grogar alone in Canterlot while the rest of their friends and families will face against his army of monsters and his commanders at Ponyville. In a decisive move, Twilight and Flash combined the powers of love and friendship to destroy the Bewitched Bell that cause the all the monsters to turn to dust. Then they use the same power to banish him and his commanders back to the realm of darkness and never to return.
Equestria's Segregated Education
By Alexrioponylover95
Hello everycreature!
So watching School Daze Part 1 and 2, I was very much reminded of the possible historical connection the writers were referring to while writing the episodes, in that the conflict in the Season 8 premiere was very much like the struggle of segregated education in America before the Civil Rights movement changed the nation’s educational system.
To summarize this period in American history briefly, (And you’ll be thanking me if this comes up on your next history test!) all throughout the southern states, education, just like everything else in the south, was segregated by law, whites and blacks needing to attend different schools apart from each other. And such events like the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, led to the desegregation of education in America.
Now I already talked about how the Young 6 remind me a lot of the Little Rock Nine, so I wouldn’t explain that again, but well looking at the larger picture, Equestria, despite its openness and well peaceful society, was very much segregated for others. Except for Griffons and royal leaders, the ponies, from what we saw, have never opened their borders to the other races, much less allow their young to attend their schools.
In large part, the blame can be placed on the EEA and Neighsay, who represent the Southern states in this case, that didn’t allow non-ponies into Equestria’s schools, as Neighsay put it, speaking about the School of Friendship, during School Raze, “this school is pony-only! As nature intended.” And well when Twilight decided to open the School of Friendship and open it for everycreature, it basically started the educational struggle mirrored in American history, Twilight representing, I guess, the few in the South who saw the value in non-segregated education. In addition, Celestia backing Twilight up would represent the American government enforcing equal education.
And of course Neighsay continued on with his ideals about “pony-only” until School Raze, confronting Cozy Glow, and learning that even ponies have their bad sides, and well in the end has accepted the School of Friendship’s state on education for all. And from The Last Problem, I can guess that the EEA has changed for the better, seeing that not only ponies are going about on the streets of Canterlot, I would guess that the EEA has gotten rid of its rule about only allowing ponies, thus ending the educational segregation in Equestria.
So that is my take on Equestria and its state on education and well I might just be thinking too much on this and the writers were not thinking of historical events while writing School Daze or it was just a coincidence that it’s very similar.
Swamp Fever Could Have Been Much Worse than Corona Virus
As I’m sitting stuck at home, the main topic on my mind, like just about everyone else’s, is the current pandemic of Covid-19. As bad as this virus gets, I take comfort in the fact that this is nothing compared to the disease that could easily have ravaged Equestria, had ponies’ swift actions not nipped it in the bud. I am of course talking about the disease that appeared in the episode “A Health of Information”, Swamp Fever.
For those who need a refresher, this disease is caught by Zecora upon breathing in spores from a blue petaled flower in the Everfree Forest. The symptoms progressively get worse as a pony goes through the stages of the disease. First orange spots cover the victim’s body, then they start coughing bubbles, then sneezing lightning, they become confused, and finally they turn into the very trees that drop the infectious flowers. Swamp fever is also incredibly contagious. Both Fluttershy and the doctor that diagnosed the disease were infected by Zecora. The only cure for the disease is to eat honey produced by the Flash Bees, which can be difficult to acquire.
Consider this; if a pony were to contract swamp fever and go to a hospital, if that pony were to expire there, by sprouting into a full tree, it would literally destroy the hospital room, possibly the whole wing! Then once it drops the infectious flowers, dozens if not hundreds of ponies might breathe in the spores. If the doctors caring for the infected weren’t exceedingly careful, they would likely catch it too. Any pony that reached the terminal stage indoors would essentially tear that building apart! The worst case scenario would be if an infected pony got inside Cloudsdale’s weather factory. If flower spores were to be delivered to unsuspecting towns and cities with their weather, swamp fever would become a pandemic in no time
Even if events transpired just as they had in the episode, it could still have been too late. As stated above, flash bee honey can be quite difficult to acquire, let alone mass produce. If the doctor, before taking the cure, had accidentally infected any of his patients or coworkers, the disease would likely spread fast enough that the honey they received from that one hive would be as to a drop in a bucket. The cure could not be produced nearly fast enough to save everypony before hitting the terminal stage. And I have my doubts that the honey would cure a fully transformed fever tree. As more and more ponies caught it and died from it, the trees that would spring up would destroy most buildings, and the deadly flowers would litter the ground. The air thick with infectious spores. Containment would be difficult when any death results in a massive tree sprouting out of nowhere. Imagine the sick being told to stay home, only to have an enormous deadly tree rip that home apart.
We should consider ourselves lucky that Corona can be mitigated with social distancing and handwashing, because if it were anything like swamp fever, it could have been far, far worse.
The Fellowship of The Ponies?
By: A Shy Brony
As a big fan of both Tolkien’s works and MLP, it’s no surprise that whenever I read The Lord of The Rings, I have a MLP equivalent of almost every important character. Obviously it’s impossible to perfectly match the two works of fictions together, but I thought in celebration of March 25th, (now long past) I would share my reasoning for which ponies (and one dragon) I use to replace The Fellowship of the Ring with.
Let’s start with the Hobbits first. There are four hobbits, there are four CMC fillies, simple. I substitute Frodo Baggins with Sweetie Belle, because I like to imagine unicorns as the most susceptible to being corrupted by The One Ring. We’ve also seen Sweetie Belle occasionally take things too far, like in For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils. Apple Bloom is my replacement for Samwise Gamgee, the dependable friend who will never let you down. She comes from humble roots, but is willing to follow Sweetie Belle all the way to Mordor. Pippin is Scootaloo, the youngest of the fillies and the one who causes the most trouble. Merry is Babs Seed, because no other filly really matches Merry. Plus, Babs will get some nice bonding with Applejack (Eowyn) later in the story.
Legolas and Gimli are replaced by Rarity and Spike, respectively. They start out hostile to each other, but eventually become the best of friends. And who can forget that famous scene?
Spike: “Rarity! Two already!”
Rarity: “I’m on seventeen darling!”
Spike: “What?! I have no point to you outscoring me!”
Aragorn is replaced by Shining Armor. The dependable leader, Shining Armor’s ultimate destiny is to become the king of Canterlot, and marry the love of his life, Cadance. There isn’t much too say here, I just like having Shining be an important character, his role here is much more important then anything he’s done in FiM
Gandalf is replaced by Twilight Sparkle, the wizard and leader of The Fellowship. She has a close friendship with Shining Armor and the fillies, especially Sweetie Belle. I like to think Twilight is a unicorn, then when she returns to life after slaying Tirek (The Balrog), she returns as an alicorn.
Lastly is Boromir, who is replaced by Rainbow Dash. This is the most perfect pairing in my opinion. Both are highly athletic, both care greatly for their home, and both are fiercely loyal to their friends. Rainbow and Boromir can also be stubborn, and even a little full of themselves at times. Both are corrupted by promise of protecting their home; Boromir wants the ring to defend Gondor, Rainbow takes her wings from Discord, thinking she’s protecting Cloudsdale. Boromir dies trying to protect the hobbits, if Rainbow is to die, it would be protecting her friends.
Please remember, this is just my opinion, and don’t take things too seriously. Feel free to leave your own MLP substitutes for Middle-earth characters, I always read the comments on soapbox posts at least a day after they are posted.
Is Ember Smart?
By: Toad256
Dragon Lord Ember, her claim for Dragonlord is “I'm smarter than most of these boulderheads(the other dragons) and you know it.” But is that claim true. I’m going to go through Ember’s episodes to see if she is smart or not. I’m also going to search for cleverness and intelligence to give her leeway.
Her first appearance is in Gauntlet of Fire where we see some cleverness of disguising herself in gold armor and green paint. Next big point is allying with Spike and taking advantage of his eagerness. At the end after Spike gave her the title and acceptance from Torch, she said she’ll be less like her father. I considered this smart because it’s better to deviate from your predecessor.
Next appearance is in Triple Threat. You could say Ember was acting a bit dumb, but Twilight, Starlight, and Spike wasn't giving her the best words. Though Ember was being too literal. At the end of the episode Ember did give Thorax some great advice of being a leader, which I consider an intelligent thing. Get more Allies than just Equestria.
Ember didn't appear in Shadow Play, but we did learn from Garble that Ember had made peace with the ponies. This is very smart. Improving relations with other kingdoms, and raiding villages isn't the best source of income due to the risks.
On to School Daze. The beginning is good. Making Smolder attend the School to improve relations is smart. Further down the line, I can excuse Ember's first reaction to Neighsay's comments, but during the meeting with the other leaders. I admire the importance of the children, but arguing with them is not smart. The hippogriff said the students ran away to stay together and Ember still thinks some creature is hiding them. At the end of episode even more open threats now against Neighsay, though probably deserved your basically proving his point. Ember in the latter half is not being smart.
Next appearance is in Sweet and Smoky. She was being smart when dealing with the egg situation of gathering dragons to heat and save the eggs. Also giving her credit for her decree to not discriminate against other dragons. Back to the egg situation though, you can blame Torch for not teaching Ember how to deal with the eggs and the teen dragons for causing the situation, but Ember also has fault for the egg situation. She wasn't being serious enough of the eggs at the beginning of the episode. She should have kept an eye on certain dragons so they won't cause trouble on the eggs, and Ember being a Dragon, a custom of living in a hot climate, should have felt a drop in temperature from drainage of the lava pool.
In The Ending of the End. It is a smart decision to help out in the fight because there are no benefits when staying neutral.
So Ember, not the best leader, but she is the best one for Equestria.
