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:
- What ever happened to Silver Shill?
- Why Friendship in Disguise Should Have Used the Prime Characters
- Magic in Equestria, Part 1: What is Magic?
- How Bright Mac and Pear Could Have Passed Away
Get the articles below!
What ever happened to Silver Shill?
By Double C
Silver Shill was a male character that appeared in Leap of Faith in Season 4 where he posed as a customer to help sell Flim and Flam's bogus healing tonics to others. Later on he confessed that being dishonest is wrong and exposed the brother’s scam and thanked Applejack with a bit that becomes a key. He was last seen in the season finale then after wards never seen or heard from again. They never even showed him in Applejack's group shot during The Magic of Friendship Grows in the final episode. He even never appeared in any of IDWs comics.
This is among my problems with Hasbro, they bring in characters then stopped using them for whatever reason and sometimes without a reason. I would have like to see what he has been doing after Leap of Faith in either the show or comics. Once again fans had something to do with his absence even though only appeared in one episode and two cameos in a signal season.
Hopefully he will final make an appearance in season 10 after 6 years MIA.
Why Friendship in Disguise Should Have Used the Prime Characters
By IronYoshi
My Little Pony and Transformers are 2 of Hasbro's top franchises, with years of new iterations over the years. So when I heard that IDW would be doing a crossover comic featuring these 2 titans of toylines, something many people have been wanting for almost a decade, I got excited. And while the crossover has been really enjoyable, I can't help but feel like there was a huge missed opportunity to use Transformers characters from the show that stood alongside FIM. That show was Transformers: Prime.
Lately, Hasbro has been shoving the G1 Transformers series down our throats so much that I've kind of gotten sick and tired of seeing G1 everywhere. But this isn't a Transformers community soapbox, this is an MLP one. So back on topic, the reason why I think they should have used the Prime characters as opposed to G1 for the MLP crossover is the history that the 2 shows have had together. Both came out at about roughly the same time (though Prime aired a month after FIM), they were on the same channel, and can we also mention those classic bumpers that use to air in the Hub, where some of the Prime characters interacted with FIM ones? And remember that one bumper where Megatron's favorite song was revealed to be the FIM theme? For a while, that was a small in-joke in both fandoms that Megatron is a brony.
Plus it would be a great way to celebrate the 10th anniversary of both shows. It's hard to believe that both shows aired a decade ago, and having them cross over with each other properly would be a perfect love letter to fans of both shows and to the Hub as well. Now, one could argue that this crossover wouldn't have worked because both shows are tonally different, but FIM has had a number of dark moments throughout its run, and Prime had a couple silly moments too. So I think it could work. Plus Hasbro seems to be doing some things to celebrate Prime's anniversary (mainly rereleasing some toys that never made it to the states), so I think a crossover comic would have been the icing on the silicon wafer.
I could just imagine it now. Prime Megatron and Queen Chrysalis scheming and often clashing with their personalities, Bulkhead and Spike teaming up to take on Breakdown and some Vehicons, Rarity and Arcee fighting Knock Out, Bumblebee, Discord, and Fluttershy taking on Prime's creepy iteration of Soundwave, Ratchet and Pinkie Pie clashing with each other and settling their differences to fight Shockwave... oh dear, there I go rambling again. Anyway, to wrap up, having the Transformers/MLP crossover use Prime characters instead of G1 would be a much better fit in my opinion. Those shows are what made the Hub so enjoyable , and it would be the perfect way to celebrate them.\
Magic in Equestria, Part 1: What is Magic?
By: A Shy Brony
Magic. It’s a common element found in most fantasy settings. Yet it varies significantly from story to story. Some stories show magic as incredibly common and easy to use. Other stories portray magic as a rare and powerful talent.
This series of soapboxes is meant to be a look into magic as it exists in the world of FiM, primarily Equestria. Obviously, it isn’t feasible that I will be able to cover everything; one could probably write thousands of words in theories and musings on Equestrian magic. To keep this soapbox series short, around 3-4 parts in length, I’ll be sticking to broad, abstract theories, instead of narrow focused looks on say, each Equestiran race. Perhaps those can be other soapboxes in the future.
Before we can start to really theorize about Equestrian magic, we first need to understand how prevalent magic is in Equestria. And suffice to say, it is extremely prevalent, in fact I believe it is safe to say that magic is an essential foundation of life in Equestria. For one, we see how magic is needed to raise the sun and moon into place; the day and night cycle is entirely dependent on magic. But magic also seems to be an intrinsic part of a pony’s being. Example? Tirek. When Tirek steals a pony’s magic, the pony seems to lose a part of itself. Their colors dim, they grow weak, their cutie marks disappear. Given that a cutie mark essentially defines who a pony is, I think it’s safe to say that magic and ponies are strongly connected.
We clearly know that there is a “good” type of magic, and a “bad” type of magic in Equestria. But how would we categorize this magic? Let’s start in the broadest way; good and bad, or as I like to call them, Harmony and Disharmony.
Harmony magic is any kind of magic that is clearly meant to be for good, a type of magic that seeks to cooperate, not dominate. Examples include The Elements of Harmony and The Tree of Harmony of course, but also examples like farming and weather manipulation too. Think about it, Earth ponies must cooperate with the environment to raise good crops. Pegasi use their weather manipulation to aid the environment and other ponies as well, they don’t use their magic to create devastating storms to wreak destruction.
On the flip side, Disharmony magic would be magic like Sombra’s mind control, or Grogar’s Bell. Magic clearly made for dominating others.
Now I know what you’re probably thinking. Disharmony? Sounds a lot like Chaos. But I think Chaos and Disharmony are a little different. Disharmony is more of a dominating force, while Chaos is more unpredictable. Chaos can cause Disharmony sure, but Chaos can also be used for good. As we see in Discord, or even Pinkie Pie. Pinkie sure is a chaotic pony, but she’s certainly not evil. (No, I’m not saying Pinkie can use Chaos magic like Discord can, just that Chaos isn’t necessary a bad thing all the time.)
Due to word limit restrictions, I’ll wrap up part 1 here. Please check the comment section when this soapbox gets posted for additional thoughts I had to cut. And please, leave your thoughts as well! The main reason I write soapboxes is to hear what others think about my thoughts, and there’s certainly a lot to think about in these soapboxes about magic.
How Bright Mac and Pear Could Have Passed Away
By Alexrioponylover95
Hello everycreature!
So before I get started, fair warning, this soapbox is going to be for an older audience, if you aren’t at an appropriate age, please seek parental permission before continuing and if not, stop reading right now!
Okay…
So I think all of us can agree that The Perfect Pear is one of the best episodes of FiM, if not the best! It told the Romeo and Juliet style story of Bright Mac and Pear Butter, the parents of Applejack, Apple Bloom, and Big Mac and while maybe a little cheesy at times, had the most beautiful story and ending ever! However there is just one thing missing from the episode…
HOW DID THEY DIE!?
Yes, throughout the episode it is heavily implied that Bright Mac and Pear Butter are gone and no longer along the living and to this day it still holds true. However they never explained in detail what happened to them and why they’re gone. Of course since FiM is still a kids’ show, the writers of course have restrictions on certain words they can use in this rating, along with things to avoid.
However to me, we got the answer of how Bright Mac and Pear Butter passed away, well before The Perfect Pear came out… And that’s in the episode, Somepony to Watch Over Me, back in Season 4!
There, after getting annoyed with AJ, Apple Bloom decides she can handle delivering a cart full of pies to another town without a few certain things… Eventually AB ends up in a fiery swamp where the chimera resides and if not for AJ coming to the rescue, AB might have ended up as “filly filet” for the chimera!
Now what’s the point of saying this? Well what if Bright Mac and Pear Butter suffered the fate of ending up as a fresh meal for the chimera while doing a delivery together? Maybe even the same one AB faced! (Because, and correct me if I’m wrong, that chimera is the only one we know of in the show.) It would explain why AJ was so scared that AB went off alone and her travels would take her to the swamp and why AJ knows exactly what to do when facing the chimera and how to beat it.
Of course this may not be the reason Bright Mac and Pear Butter passed away, there could be other reasons like sickness, another accident, etc… However to me, the two ending up as food for the chimera seems the most likely in my opinion. But how do you think those two ended up being gone? (And no… I’m not crying! I just have something in my eye! OKAY!)
