Would you be open to having the Mane-iac cross over to Equestria?

[KillerKingBakudan 702]

Power Ponies is still one of my most hated episodes in the series, but revisiting Season 4 actually got me thinking more about this.

We all thought that Daring Do was a 100% fictional character within the FIM universe until Daring Don't. Before that episode, I used to wonder if they'd ever come up with a story that addressed Rainbow Dash's obsession with her hero. What if she got so desperate to be like Daring Do, that she decided to take one of her books to some unicorn who would enchant it with a special kind of magic, and turn it into a portal? What if she made Daring Do crawl OUT of the book, and come into reality as a living, breathing, flesh-and-blood pony? Dash's hype for meeting her in real life would of course go through the fucking roof, and she'd use this as an opportunity to learn how she can be as awesome as her. And that plan would backfire once Daring Do had the inevitable Buzz Lightyear moment, realizing that she was just a character in a book all along, and none of her accomplishments ever happened. She'd have an existential crisis and get driven to the brink of insanity. Dash would try to save her from self-destruction, while learning the way to become a true hero in the process.

That episode would have been fun to see. BUT, I didn't mind getting Daring Don't in Season 4. Because the idea behind Daring Do not just being real, but making a living on writing about her adventures in a series of books made me like her as a character a lot more. And in hindsight, I'm glad that my idea of putting her in a Last Action Hero-scenario, where a character from "fiction" crossed into "reality", never happened, since Power Ponies would have made its premise redundant.

As much as I cringe at watching THAT episode, it still brought an intriguing concept to the show: that pocket universes can exist within FIM's universe. The Power Ponies comics aren't just something for ponies in Equestria to read; they are documents of events actually happening in a different world. Why Spike and the Mane Six got sucked into that one issue to take the places of the Power Ponies themselves was never explained. But if they can be transported inside the world of a single comic book, I don't think it's unfathomable for characters from inside that comic to be transported out. More specifically, the Mane-iac.

What if she somehow became aware of Equestria's existence? What if she jumped out of the book to find a more powerful source of magic, which she could use to finally kill the Power Ponies after so many issues of being defeated by them? You could make the argument that the Mane Six would just use their natural powers against her and kick her ass again. But because comics are loaded with all kinds of unbelievable crap anyway, her prep-time capabilities against them would be limitless. Batman shouldn't have a chance in hell of beating Superman, yet through the power of plot-induced stupidity, he's managed to beat him several times. And incidentally, the Joker once even managed to brainwash Superman. This is the kind of stupidity that we can expect to be part of the Mane-iac's MO. With the right gimmicks, she could conceivably take on any pony she wants, no matter how powerful they are. And on that note, what if she started causing problems for not JUST for the Mane Six, but the princesses, any of Equestria's neighboring kingdoms, or even the other villains?

As a literal comic book villain, she's as one-note as she can get. She just wants to spread her own brand of chaos everywhere for the hell of it. You may not think she can be at the center of a compelling story, given that she's a bad guy for the sake of being being a bad guy. Yet that's exactly what makes her so dangerous. Her unpredictability can force significant changes on the show's status quo, like unexpected alliances, destroyed locations, etc. Bringing her into FIM's reality could be as dire to the ponies as bringing the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man into Ghostbusters' New York. And with so many villains being reformed, it might not hurt to add one more to the Mane Six's shit list, even if she is just a "character brought to life" on the surface.

Would you be for an episode like this?

Edited May 19, 2018 by KillerKingBakudan

[SharpWit 2,867]

5 hours ago, KillerKingBakudan said:

she's a bad guy for the sake of being being a bad guy. Yet that's exactly what makes her so dangerous.

That's what I loved about Sombra. Sure it comes off as one dimensional because that's all we see of them but there are plenty of power hungry people like that in real life whos goal is to become a force of nature.

I think too many issues arise if comic book characters can come into Equestria because then objects could come too right? Ahuizotl could have a Daring Do book enchanted and take back one or all of the many dangerous artifacts he's lost to her. And then there's the issue of anyone being able to write or draw anything and have it come to life. I beleive the tv Show Chalk Zone covered that idea but I don't think chalk characters could come into the human world, or at least it was very dangerous to since they were made of chalk so they'd die if it rained. It is a fun idea that might be worth exploring, and maybe we could go see the shop that Spike has been buying his comics from and have them resolve the issue there.

[Hierok 11,833]

I don't think I would like to see this. Mane-iac is not one of my beloved characters.

[Singe 2,111]

Maybe have Rainbow Dash handle seeing a different medium telling Daring Do stories and becomes critical of a different author's interpretation. Basically a Daring Do comic book by the same author(s) behind the Power Ponies. Rainbow Dash reads it, gets sucked in, and is now Daring Do. Cue biggest RD climax of excitement moment.

 

 

 

 

[KillerKingBakudan 702]

27 minutes ago, Singe said:

Maybe have Rainbow Dash handle seeing a different medium telling Daring Do stories and becomes critical of a different author's interpretation. Basically a Daring Do comic book by the same author(s) behind the Power Ponies. Rainbow Dash reads it, gets sucked in, and is now Daring Do. Cue biggest RD climax of excitement moment.

This would have worked in a pre-Season 4 setting, but after having met the real Daring Do in person, I don't think Rainbow Dash would care about getting to roleplay as her anymore. And the Power Ponies episode made it seem more likely that the comic was a gateway to another universe. The pages weren't even finished, so that suggests they were meant to record the events as they happened, albeit not in real time, and were not merely serving as a medium for someone to write and draw on. The stories can't write themselves, so that's the only explanation I can think of for why Spike got sucked into it with the Mane Six. Something from inside the comic was self-aware, it was overseeing the Power Ponies universe, and it needed outside help to stop the Mane-iac.

Though again, why the Power Ponies themselves had to be replaced by real-life ponies is a concept that was never fully explained. But now that I think about it, it's possible that they never actually existed at any point in time. All the previous issues that Spike read may have only been finished because other ponies got sucked into them and managed to settle whatever conflict was presented by the villain(s) the books wanted them to stop.

[King of Canterlot 9,608]

I think if the Mane-iac crossed over into Equestria that would make for an interesting episode........ though I'm not sure how the writers would be able to fit it into any season without it feeling forced in. I think that a possible solution to this could be to use the Student Mane six instead, and have them defeat or capture the Mane-iac instead of the actual mane six doing so. This would work better with how the show is set up now and I think it would be great character development for the Student Mane six. 

And the Mane-iac would be defeated too, this is MLP we're talking about here, it's either a villain is defeated and imprisoned in Tartarus or they get reformed, so the Mane-iac will have two options when crossing over into Equestria, staying evil will most likely not be one of them. 

[Lunar Glow 677]

Honestly, one of the main reasons why I disliked "The Power Ponies" episode so much is because of the Mane-iac (amongst the fact that it was a generally terrible episode anyway). I think it was one of the most brainless and uncomplex villain in the series. I would be severely disappointed if there was a reappearance, even if there was an excellent plot to follow.

[KillerKingBakudan 702]

1 hour ago, Lunar Glow said:

Honestly, one of the main reasons why I disliked "The Power Ponies" episode so much is because of the Mane-iac (amongst the fact that it was a generally terrible episode anyway). I think it was one of the most brainless and uncomplex villain in the series. I would be severely disappointed if there was a reappearance, even if there was an excellent plot to follow.

I agree. But I think it'd be hilarious if she saw how every pony around her wasn't so one-dimensional and brainless, and it made her question her own existence enough to make her stop whatever pointless scheme she had.