Operation Re-Do! Let's Re-Write Stories!

[Lady Frostbite]

If you had the chance, how would you rewrite certain episodes or movies across the MLP generations? This can be a single scene, change the theme or an episode that wasn't done that you think should have been done.

Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep? : I would have done it as a simple nightmare creature story, I wouldn't have done it as a self-made torture monster (wtf?  ), that a lot of people with ponysonas seem to love being angry about as an allegory for depression? The episode would have worked really well if it was just a story of a nightmare monster that Luna hunts during her night duties, but it's gotten stronger/weirder and she ropes in the townsponies to confuse and corral it.

Nightmares and Night Terrors: This was kind-of covered in Sleepless in Ponyville really, but an episode about nightmares and night terrors for small children would have been great, using the 'scary night pony' (srsly Hasbro) to show that the night can be scary, but it's okay, and your parents/guardians are there to help. Maybe show that some people work during the night, like nurses, so it's okay.

Princess Cadance/Shining Armor: Yeah, an episode or throwaway scene/line to establish Twilight's brother would have been great. I would have loved an episode introducing Cadance and her having her own real story before being shown as a mother/ruler. I didn't really like the sick Discord episode where her day out with Twilight was a side thing.

A Royal Problem: Instead of just pitting the Royal sisters against each other and make them be nasty and passive-aggressive to each other, it might work better if they notice that the other is out of sorts; like instead of being irritated at her, Celestia could notice that Luna looks haggard and ASK what happened and how she can help, especially since later in the ep she realises Luna works alone..
Starlight Glimmer could point out that they only spent dusk and dawn with each other, when their shifts change. They don't seem to spend time together as sisters or a family, they simply act like-coworkers rather than friends. Therefore, she can organise a day when both sisters are relieved of their duties to spend time together, and form the change-over times as family meals and give it a funny name referring to the fact it's breakfast for one and dinner for the other. I mean, heck, families have members where one works nights and the other works days, you can draw on that.

Spike: Give him an episode that really shows his strengths! They could have done that with Princess Spike, but they missed the point so hard. He was brilliant in Royal Zepplin (?) where he told Twilight he'd take care of everything while she was away, and he was the same in Lesson Zero. Re-do the episode where he starts with one task to do, and it escalates as ponies need his help, he realises he is overworked and calls Cadance for help and Cadance has to put her hoof down and tell ponies it's unreasonable to expect Spike to fix everything just because Twilight is sleeping. That way, he doesn't look selfish and doesn't cause damage. Easy-peasy.

Any others you'd like to see changed?

[CloudyGlow]

I would include backstory for important characters in the FiM show. How did Discord come to be? Who are the two sisters' parents? What does Starlight Glimmer's cutie mark mean? How did Cadance become an alicorn (addressed in a book but never on the show)

In Equestria Girls, I would have developed Flashlight (romance between either Flash Sentry and either Twilight Sparkle) because I'm a fan of Flash and the pair. Timber Spruce would not be Twilight's boyfriend. He would be there at the camp, but not a romantic interest for anyone.

I would not have made Celestia and Luna retire. In my opinion, Twilight Sparkle should be princess of friendship not princess of everything.

I would cut out every single ship tease for Fluttercord.

[Lady Frostbite]

I would include backstory for important characters in the FiM show. How did Discord come to be? Who are the two sisters' parents? What does Starlight Glimmer's cutie mark mean? How did Cadance become an alicorn (addressed in a book but never on the show)

I would not have made Celestia and Luna retire. In my opinion, Twilight Sparkle should be princess of friendship not princess of everything.

I would cut out every single ship tease for Fluttercord.

I wouldn't mind not seeing the Royal Sisters' parents, as some characters dont really need flesh and blood beginnings. It really should have kept those two Alicorns, and make Twilight a Unicorn Princess, Cadance a Pegasus one ... maybe Flurry an Earth Princess? Worry how she will grow with a pegasus mum and unicorn dad? Would have been interesting.

Absolutely agree. It also looks kinda hard on Luna; it's like she is back for 5 minutes on their timescale and now retired!

I would have LOVED to have seen Cadance's backstory animated! And with Princess Amore too!!

Fluttercord ... Remember when characters could have opposite sex friends without either shipping them? Good times.

[freezestime]

My biggest peeve is not only the fact that Twilight became a princess, but the princess of literal friendship unlike every clue leading up to it.

I'd have her reach the status of Starswirl the Bearded, like a famous and great magic user who embodied literal magic; or if she had to become a princess, it'd be the Princess of Magic and she wouldn't become an alicorn (which is I believe akin to a god) she'd stayed a unicorn like Princess Amore. I'd also make the princesses keep their jobs, maybe taking things easier/having more breaks or vacations because that's a core part of who they are and just abandoning it on another princess isn't who they are.

I'd also include Cadence's backstory because it shows that tremendous magic is not restricted to unicorns and allow more diverse characters. Also make Cadence more unconditionally loving or at least tolerating with kindness to everyone, even her greatest enemies. She is meant to be the embodiment of love so making her be mean and inconsiderate to Discord is actually contradictory to her character.

I'd completely throw out Equestria girls, maybe only keeping Sunset Shimmer as a sometimes character and if Hasbro wanted humanized versions of their characters, I'd make it a magical girl thing where Celestia and Luna are still royalty/gods, not some principals. The main characters might be in high school, but it wouldn't be the focus of the series since in the show they're like young adults/adults. Also giving the characters fashions they would actually wear and not anime censoring it/making it terribly gaudy, making it kinda obvious they're appealing to conservative mothers who only see characters for their clothes.

Also making Flurry Heart have more baby tendancies like Poundcake and Pumpkin, their actions are more baby like while still having creative liberty to develop character and story.

[Lady Frostbite]

Absoluuuuutely keep Sunset, she's great. It would have been neat if she came back to Equestia and ascended, kinda give the 'sun and moon' theme a new flavour, with 'dawn and dusk' instead. Heck, might have gotten that with Luster Dawn, but Sunset is in a better position. Even has some of the same beats as Luna's story, with the temporary turn to evil and all.

It's still funny that Twilight is Princess of Friendship, when she can be a pretty dang terrible friend. I mean, sure, she's allowed to fail, but it's clearly not what she's best at.

[Taffeta]

For me Sunset is the only salvageable material from the FIM world and EQG the only thing I can bear to watch, but I think it's a shame that she wasn't a part of the pony realm.

Basically the whole backstory of Sunset as the previous student and it all going wrong would have been far more interesting than Twilight's story of doing everything wrong but still getting promotions because she has friends...

Starlight Glimmer is also far more interesting than any of the M6.

The problem is FIM tries to throw friendship down the viewers throats as a commodity or a tangible entity instead of making it the natural end result over a period of time. So many eps seem about pushing how much people can/should be friends rather than just gradually building up the interactions between ppnies to a point where they understand naturally how important it is for them to be friends.

Maybe beginning with the time in which ponies were more segregated by species, wary of each other, and how they began to respect each other and other outside races as different with their own cultures but still building connections. Instead of the pony clique rules of friendship being imposed on outside species (school of friendship, destroying the icon of whichever species it was) which smacks of colonialism.

Both FIM and EQG are polluted with manufactured friendship tropes but somehow they seem less offensive in a manufactured school environment. But that may just be because Sunset has the chance to build over several stories and ultimately go from villain to role model.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Oo, I'm at work but I would love to write a version of the movie without the witches. Sorry, they're the least interesting part to me!

[Ponyfan]

One thing I’ve never understood about Queen Chrysalis is the fact that whenever she wanted revenge she focused all her efforts on Starlight Glimmer and completely overlooked Thorax.  Thorax was just as much a part of defeating Chrysalis as Starlight was and Chrysalis even said he was a traitor in her eyes. I would have loved an episode where Chrysalis challenged Thorax.

I also would have left Diamond Tiara as a bully. I don’t like that FIM implied in that episode that if you just keep trying to be friends with a bully that they will eventually stop and be your friend. I know this is a fantasy show but having a character that was mean to others added a bit of realism that I think was lost when Diamond Tiara stopped being a bully.

Ponyfan

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Thinking about the movie...
I think the movie was too spread out to be worthwhile. I don't mind it focusing on a few ponies. Baby Lickety Split's arc could have been more meaningful if we could start off with a few instances of her messing up in various areas building up frustration, with people comparing her to another pony, say...Baby Crumpet? That sounds good. Perhaps have something hinting towards the Smooze early on, such as BLS learning about it in school or something. She can ruin the show as normal with Spike in tow, and then leaves. Baby Crumpet is praised for her performance meanwhile. Maybe Baby Crumpet does something innocent but it starts a domino effect that leads to the Smooze being unleashed.

One thing I’ve never understood about Queen Chrysalis is the fact that whenever she wanted revenge she focused all her efforts on Starlight Glimmer and completely overlooked Thorax.  Thorax was just as much a part of defeating Chrysalis as Starlight was and Chrysalis even said he was a traitor in her eyes. I would have loved an episode where Chrysalis challenged Thorax.

Taking this show wayy too seriously in the spoiler.

Spoiler

Thorax is not a very confrontational guy, as we can see by his hestitation to return to the hive when Chrysalis captured the mane 6+princesses and everyone knew the only way to get them out was to go into the hive. Chrysalis clearly knew he had left previously, but had deduced that he was too cowardly to overturn the hive. Starlight Glimmer took on a lead role in that adventure and instructed Thorax to give Chrysalis all of his love and share, and her speech (not Thorax's, unless I'm misremembering) was the one to motivate the other changelings to transform and become docile. Due to her leader role, I could completely understand Chrysalis pushing Thorax aside. It doesn't even seem like she wants her hive back, it just seems like at the end of the series she was after revenge.
I do think an episode where Chrysalis and Thorax go head to head. It would be cooler if half of the changelings turned good and the other half turn bad, but now we're setting up a war season.

[Ponyfan]

Thinking about the movie...
I think the movie was too spread out to be worthwhile. I don't mind it focusing on a few ponies. Baby Lickety Split's arc could have been more meaningful if we could start off with a few instances of her messing up in various areas building up frustration, with people comparing her to another pony, say...Baby Crumpet? That sounds good. Perhaps have something hinting towards the Smooze early on, such as BLS learning about it in school or something. She can ruin the show as normal with Spike in tow, and then leaves. Baby Crumpet is praised for her performance meanwhile. Maybe Baby Crumpet does something innocent but it starts a domino effect that leads to the Smooze being unleashed.

One thing I’ve never understood about Queen Chrysalis is the fact that whenever she wanted revenge she focused all her efforts on Starlight Glimmer and completely overlooked Thorax.  Thorax was just as much a part of defeating Chrysalis as Starlight was and Chrysalis even said he was a traitor in her eyes. I would have loved an episode where Chrysalis challenged Thorax.

Taking this show wayy too seriously in the spoiler.

Spoiler

Thorax is not a very confrontational guy, as we can see by his hestitation to return to the hive when Chrysalis captured the mane 6+princesses and everyone knew the only way to get them out was to go into the hive. Chrysalis clearly knew he had left previously, but had deduced that he was too cowardly to overturn the hive. Starlight Glimmer took on a lead role in that adventure and instructed Thorax to give Chrysalis all of his love and share, and her speech (not Thorax's, unless I'm misremembering) was the one to motivate the other changelings to transform and become docile. Due to her leader role, I could completely understand Chrysalis pushing Thorax aside. It doesn't even seem like she wants her hive back, it just seems like at the end of the series she was after revenge.
I do think an episode where Chrysalis and Thorax go head to head. It would be cooler if half of the changelings turned good and the other half turn bad, but now we're setting up a war season.

I never thought about it that way before tailrustedtealeaf but now it makes a lot of sense why Chrysalis would focus on Starlight instead. I do think Thorax wasn't quite ready to rule a kingdom and needed to show more authority at times.

I like your ideas about the G1 movie. That would have been really interesting.


Ponyfan

[Zapper]

Uh-oh, here I go...
It's gonna get petty!

I would have completely rewritten the last three episodes. I have already talked about this in the threads discussing the FiM finale but I was super upset that Flurry Heart wasn't used at all.
Instead she was easily kidnapped and then - nothing. They built up to her being really powerful and special and I honestly thought she'd end up as some kind of pony messiah who's gonna take Celestia's place.
Instead of everyone going "oh, Discord. You tried to kill us again. Tsk tsk" Flurry should have taken away his powers as punishment and secured them in a magic trinket, because we know she is linked to the Crystal Heart and other such items.

Flurry's power could have been a catalyst or something. Able to control magic.
I would have loved to see her have a growth spurt, too.

It was pointed out to me that adult Flurry has a cameo on a glass window... while watching the episode I did not notice that at all. We see her with the Crystal Heart and have to assume she took her mother's place and that's that.

I wouldn't have had Celestia and Luna "retire", I would have axed Celestia but kept Luna. Luna was gone longer than she was able to rule, it would have made more sense to make Celestia choose "death" (not really dead, just going to a different plane of existence, similar to Gandalf in LotR). This way no kids would have cried.

Finally, the last time jump episode was wasted on fanservice and thinking more about it, I wouldn't have done it at all. Instead I would have used it to lenghten the finale two-parter, which was rushed. A nice end fight would have been preferable to me instead of a big pudding falling on the villains. Again, here is where I would have utilized Flurry and the reveal of her full powers.

[Lilja]

Thinking about the movie...
I think the movie was too spread out to be worthwhile. I don't mind it focusing on a few ponies. Baby Lickety Split's arc could have been more meaningful if we could start off with a few instances of her messing up in various areas building up frustration, with people comparing her to another pony, say...Baby Crumpet? That sounds good. Perhaps have something hinting towards the Smooze early on, such as BLS learning about it in school or something. She can ruin the show as normal with Spike in tow, and then leaves. Baby Crumpet is praised for her performance meanwhile. Maybe Baby Crumpet does something innocent but it starts a domino effect that leads to the Smooze being unleashed.

The '86 movie is fun to try and reimagine. There is sooo much room for improvement! Putting more focus on the ponies rather than the withches is a good start.

One change I would make is to not have Paradise Estate be given to the ponies by the Moochick. Instead the ponies discover the building themselves as they are migrating from Dream Valley to find refuge from the Smooze. Also let them spend some time there and enjoy themselves until they have to go deal with the smooze again (show off more of PE in order to advertise the playset ). The Moochick can still send them on their quest to find the flutter ponies if he necessarily must be in the movie at all, but giving him the ability to conjure a giant building out of nowhere makes his magic seem a bit too godlike. With abilities like that he should be able to do more to combat the witches and their smooze.

Also, if Hasbro would've allowed it, I'd also have the movie start out with ponies that were in the previous specials. And when they find Paradise Estate there are other ponies already living in it, which can be the so softs & twinkle eyes that needed to be introduced. When the smooze has been defeated the old cast can move back into Dream Castle, and both residences and both groups of ponies can exist simultaneously in the same world.

The grundles could possibly be removed from the story altogether. Supposedly they can serve as a grim reminder of how destructive the smooze can be, but in that case one needs to commit to that. Not just have them be comic relief tag-along characters. If they are in the movie, at the end they will leave to rebuild their kingdom elsewhere, not take over Dream Castle.

[Mewtwofan1]

Personally, I would have loved an episode explaining zecora and her home. How is it that she is the only zebra we know, and how did she come to choose the everfree forest as her home? Are there more zebras? Did something like the storm king happen and she’s one that managed to flee to Equestria? If so, what was that place like? I propose an episode where somebody (probably applebloom, due to their friendship/ potion making) asking zecora about it. Applebloom has a big family, zecora seems to have none, and she would ask about it. Perhaps the lesson at the end would be more about found family. Zecora came to a foreign land she didn’t know much about and now has ponies like the mane six, spike, and the cmc as her new family. I feel like zecora had a bit more story potential than “rhyme time lady who lives in a peril filled forest and does strange potion brewing within that forest, and occasionally provides guidance to the others after they learn she isn’t some crazy witch doctor.”
The episode could be in a flashback style, like “the perfect pear” was so they don’t have to fit her entire story as a series of rhymes, and just have characters speaking in rhymes if that’s a zebra thing, or just a zecora thing.

[MJNSEIFER]

I would have liked to have done Starlight Glimmer differently, but I'm not 100% sure how I would have done it.  I would have only made her the finale villain if I could justify why she is doing what she's doing, and the fact that she would still reform.  I would still have her as a premiere villain, as she was more saveable at that point - like she was enough of a villain, but not too much, that you could buy her reforming, or at least that she thought she was doing what was right.  The stuff with changing time was too much of a leap for me, and made her less forgivable to others.

Her motives for equalisation would still be "losing" Sunburst - I don't know if I'd be able to come up with reasons for why she didn't make any other friends after that, other than at least implying that she had a hard time making friends, so after befriending Sunburst she put all her faith of friendship into him, and that was tainted when he left.

I still love her (I just have mixed feelings about her), but I wouldn't have made her an unofficial "Mane 7th", and I would have made her more of an occasional character, but one who still appears enough.

I wouldn't have forced her into random friendships with random characters either - the show should have focused on her rebuilding her friendship with Sunburst in my opinion, or at least implied that's what she was doing (by having them living in the same location, be it Ponyville or somewhere else - depending on what Sunburst would have done in this reality.)  The show made such a song and dance about her losing Sunburst, it makes no sense they did next to nothing after they reunited (I know they eventually ended up working at the school)

I would have loved to have seen them together more.  I would have also have had her be friends with Sugar Belle, Party Favor, Night Glider, and Double Diamond, and made it look like they ended up being a kind of "Mane Five" (or even "Mane Six" if Sunburst is part of this) that have their own adventures and friendship lessons, that we only occasionally see, if at all, as it's not their friendship story.  The one getting friendship reports from them would either be Princess Celestia, or Princess Twilight, who would be getting Celestia's guidance on how to handle it, since she's still a "student" herself in places.

As a side note: I still have a fanseries planned, and that essentially rewrites a lot of FiM to make its own history work - it's an AU ultimately, but set after the actual show.

[TJgamer]

I have several ideas that I would have rewritten.
But for now, let's stick with the one that's off the top of my head, Swarm of the Century. The first episode that I completely disliked, even back when I first saw it years ago.

I hate good morals that are misdirected. The lesson is that "sometimes the solution to your problems can come from where you least expect it. It's a good idea to stop and listen to your friends' opinions and perspectives, even when they don't always seem to make sense." But that doesn't fly because Pinkie didn't present her idea as a solution to begin with; she didn't explain anything. On top of that, her presence actually made things worse by interfering with her friends plans.
It really would have been a lot more bearable if she came up with the idea to start a band and march the parasprites out of town like a parade, and her friends think that's a silly, nonsensical idea. Then the lesson at the end would be more appropriately applied. Plain and simple.