Is Twilight Sparkle A Murderer In "Too Many Pinkie Pies?"

[Korven 10]

One thing that I found interesting was the fact that it wasn't just the Pinkies that acted out that got "zapped back".  For example, the Pinkie Pie that made fingers out of her hoof disturbed the one next to her, thus causing BOTH to be sent back.  But was that concrete proof that the disturbed Pinkie was NOT the real one?  I mean, isn't it natural to glance over when someone addresses you?  And wouldn't it be natural for a pony to be horrified by someone blowing on one hoof and having weird appendages spring out of another?  Basically, it seemed odd to me that any Pinkie Pie who so much as glanced away from the wall was automatically regarded as being a clone, even if they did nothing actually wrong.  After all, the rules were never clearly defined.

Well considering that the Mane 6 has a bond of friendship that seem to be really strong, wouldn't the real Pinkie do just about anything in order to be with her friends? And since the clones are a bit insane and can't stand to be bored to death, I think the test is quite sufficient.

 

As for the Pinkie slaughter, well, strictly speaking I guess you can call them alive, but then again they were made out of magic which could make them only seem alive. I don't know how to define life, especially when magic is involved!

 

But in the end she did the right thing. If she didn't the town, and possibly other places, would be overrun with Pinkie Pies and we would see no end to them. And even if they got it under control, the real Pinkie would go insane because of her identity crisis.

[Okie Dokie Lokie 24]

I like to think it like this, those clones have NO SOULS and Twilight Sparkle only sent them back to the pond. Think about it, they're just a reflecting with no feelings and all they want to do is have fun

 

Ok everypony is gonna shoot me now.

[Mutemutt 772]

I don't really think Twilight murdered them. I thought of the clones as merely magical entities and their "deaths" are more akin to the cancelling of a spell. I think this because the clones didn't seem very "alive"; the only things they had in mind were having fun and multiplying (also the thoughts that the original Pinkie had in mind when she created the first clone), almost like viruses. I just don't place the same value on their "lives" as I do Pinkie.

 

Long story short, Celestia needs to come up with a policy dealing with clones...

 

It's debatable. 

 

Under English law, the act of murder is defined thus:

 

 

For the sake of the argument, let us assume that: 

• Equestrian laws are the same, if not similar, to English law.

Twilight's actions were certainly conducted with forethought; the plan to discover the "real" pinkie pie may not actually have been her own idea, but carrying out the plan certainly took some conscious and deliberate effort on her part. However, it is unlikely that her actions were malicious in any way, and this is where things get a little complicated. If her actions required forethought, but were not intended as a malicious act, the question of whether her actions could be considered as murder becomes infinitely more technical; there are (as far as I am aware) no precedents of such a case to be found anywhere, so this argument becomes the business of trained lawyers.

 

Tl;dr: It's complicated.

 

So does this mean it would be closer to manslaughter (or mareslaughter in this case, I guess). Twilight, in her effort to discover the "real" , original Pinkie Pie, never considers whether the other Pinkies are "real". If they were "real", then she really did "send them to the next dimension" (kill them) but she only thought of them as fake imitations of Pinkie and she never really looked deeper than that.

 

On a side note, I find it funny that one of the Pinkies gets bubblized. Maybe there is a connection between the Glade of Dreams (Rayman Origins) and the magic mirror pond.

Edited June 4, 2013 by MuteMutt

[Comet Tail 808]

Twilight Sparkle is accused of 40+ cases of murder!

Is she in line for the gallows?

Or is she innocent?

Credit

 

Read on to find out!

Credit

 

Well it's hard to say if you ask me. We don't know how the mirror pool works. But I don't think Twilight is a murderer.

 

Here is an idea I have. The Mirror pool works almost the same as a unicorn and it's magic. When they cast a spell on an item to change it or make a pony float on clouds, the unicorn is giving them part of her magic. The magic well despair after a while and the unicorn well recharge their magic or get it back when the spell is done. 

 

When Pinkie Pie enters the pool, the pool cast it's spell on the user and makes a clone out of it's with magic. So it is just magic with a form. When Twilights cast the spell, the clone loses it's body and the magic returns to the pool. So they aren't really living creators if u ask me.

 

Still maybe this idea is wrong, but who knows. 

 

 

 

She didn't use black magic for that. She only ever used black magic in the show to find the Crystal Heart.

As for the murderer question: I really don't think that's how it was. The other Pinkies were only mirror images of Pinkie. They were all tied to the same soul, and were not actually separate beings. Sending them back was only getting Pinkie out of the mirror, so to speak.

 

 

 

 

A combination of those two seems to be the best headcanon I've seen so far. I'm a major fan! They're animated, 3d reflections... Which, actually hits on something very deep...

 

 

 

Calling it murder is a big accusation. Those extra pinkies never existed to begin with. And it is unknown if those Pinkies even knew they were Sentient, or if they were simply acting like robots, programmed to behave a particular way by magic. I really don't consider it murder., its more or less "Painlessly sending them from existence without any trace of their previous inexistence." If that makes sense.

 

 

 

Have any of you ever seen "The Measure of a Man", the episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation"?

 

There's really no way to know if she was actually committing murder. A scary question would be: what does it mean to commit murder? To investigate if her actions qualify, first let's establish what murder is.

 

Why do we punish that? Why is it morally wrong?

 

The answer is simply, that we're born with a right to life that should not be violated. But why? Why is that right nature to us, but not to my pencil, or the strawberry plant I ate (for pleasure, no less!), or even my cat (though that's debatable. I personally believe in animal welfare and think of pounds as animal death camps in the midst of a holocaust of speechless children. But that's a topic for another day).

 

The answer to that is, we're homo sapiens. The phrase is latin, and it means we're "the one [species] possessing wisdom." Sentience means something feels, it can feel hurt, happy, sad, etc. But Sapience is unique to humans. It means we are capable of having philosophy, a deeper understanding of the universe. We are capable of being ones that "possess wisdom." While I don't think, at all, that it's okay to kill anything without due reason, I do value a human life more than an animal life, because while both are sentient, only humans are Sapient. That's why murder is so much worse than killing an animal.

 

But it's perfectly okay to "kill" a pencil because it possess neither sapience nor sentience.

 

So the question here is, do Pinkie's "reflections" possess either?

 

They acted like a very playful and hyper pony. While personally, I think they didn't act quite sapient, which indicates that reflections of the Mirror Pond aren't sapient, we can't know that they weren't capable of it. A prosecutor would say: they were, more or less, ponies. They talked, understood abstract concepts (like "fun"), had friends, goals (to have fun), etc. They were, in every respect, ponies.

 

That is, if they weren't merely a "reflection" of Pinkie.

 

How is that different?

 

A reflection does not feel, it is only an illusion created by reflected light. It, like the pencil, is neither sapient nor sentient, so Twilight Sparkle does not get the rope for destroying it, anymore than anyone who's broken a pencil.

 

So, how do we know if they were actually sentient, or rather, if they possessed qualia, or if they only acted like it? What we're getting into, here, is an issue tied to the concept of "qualia."

 

For Twilight Sparkle to be innocent, despite having destroyed them, they would have to be "philosophical zombies." What this means, is they act like they feel, but don't actually feel.

 

An example of this might be the "Chinese Room Argument." The Chinese Room Argument was developed to say, that you can never make a conscious/sentient AI. It goes like this:

 

Let's say there's someone in a room, and someone outside the room. The person in the room speaks only English, the person outside the room, only Chinese. The person outside the room slips a note under the door. The person inside the room, takes the note, then opens a tremendously enormous book. Inside the book is instructions on how to reply. It tells him what curves of line to draw, when he sees certain curves of line. It does not, however, translate the note. He merely follows it's instructions, draws some curves, then slips his note out the door. He replies to the Chinese note, without ever knowing what it said.

 

In the same sense, Pinkie's clones act as though they feel, without ever actually feeling, just like the person replies to the Chinese notes without knowing Chinese.

 

The only issue is, this argument could be applied for anybody, anything, anypony!

 

So, at some age, we simply decide that others are, like us, sentient. We never have any solid proof of this, but we live as though it's true because it's a belief necessary for meaning in our lives, happiness, and the survival of civilization and even ourselves. So we live by the code; "If it acts sentient, it is sentient."

 

So, while personally I like that idea... It doesn't stand up.

 

U.S. court systems rule "innocent unless proven guilty." But the defense's argument could be applied for any case of murder, and so is completely invalid. So far, it looks like a massive case of mareslaughter at best, and 40+ cases of premeditated murder at worst.

 

^{The Grim Reaper sharpens his scythe, Twilight... Credit}

 

However, there is another possibility. "Sent back to the mirror pond" implies that Pinkie's clones are some kind of spirits that reside in the pond. It doesn't matter that it was Pinkie that drew them out; only that it was some mare (As per the rhyme; "doubly mared"). They took on a shallow likeness of Pinkie's attribute: a love for fun, and a desire to double it. So it seems as though they'd take on the attributes of any pony that was mirrored there.

 

So they aren't sapient. Not because we're arguing "Chinese Room Argument", but because it appears as though the sapient/sentient attributes they adopt, are not their own, but that of another creature. In this case, Pinkie. They acted sapient because Pinkie did. They didn't have a mind of their own; they were a type of parasite that hitchhiked on Pinkie's consciousness. So while they were sentient by themselves, which we know because they acted that way, they didn't have a mind of their own. They adopt the mind of their host.

 

So they are sentient, but lack any mind of their own. This would firmly place them alongside insects or rodents in natural rights. 

 

Furthermore, and most crucially, they weren't "killed." They were sent back to the mirror pond! This is no more objectionable than sending the Parasprites back into their home, the Everfree Forest, when they, like Pinkie's clones, threatened the town of Ponyville.

 

The "clones" cannot be argued to not be sentient, granted. BUT, they do not possess a mind of their own. Killing one is no worse than swatting a fly (which can be objectively demonstrated to feel, as much as anypony can), or using a mousetrap to kill a rodent (Earth-rodent, which don't demonstrate sapience like Equestria's do, but can undoubtably demonstrate sentience). But this wasn't even killing. This was merely returning them to their natural state: detaching the parasite from its host, or returning the parasprites to the Everfree Forest.

 

 

 

However, the prosecutor says, the defendant's entire case depends on two things...

 

One, that this is not actually "killing", and two...

That the real Pinkie wasn't murdered!

 

 

One thing that I found interesting was the fact that it wasn't just the Pinkies that acted out that got "zapped back".  For example, the Pinkie Pie that made fingers out of her hoof disturbed the one next to her, thus causing BOTH to be sent back.  But was that concrete proof that the disturbed Pinkie was NOT the real one?  I mean, isn't it natural to glance over when someone addresses you?  And wouldn't it be natural for a pony to be horrified by someone blowing on one hoof and having weird appendages spring out of another?  Basically, it seemed odd to me that any Pinkie Pie who so much as glanced away from the wall was automatically regarded as being a clone, even if they did nothing actually wrong.  After all, the rules were never clearly defined.

 

For me at least, this episode left a lot of questions unanswered.

 

As to whether or not I think Twilight "killed" the clones?  I believe that in a way, she did.  Her magic likely reversed the spell that Pinkie used to clone herself, thus removing them from the world.  It didn't seem like a pleasant process, and was absolutely not voluntary.  It might have been better to "rehabilitate" the Pinkies instead.  But Twilight found a quick and easy "solution" to the problem instead.

 

So, let's do a little math. Let's say there were 42 Pinkies, total. Let's say, only half the time they did something, it was something that got another pony's attention. That means that 14 innocent Pinkies were murdered. Now, even supposing that these "clones" were as insentient as a pencil, that still means there's a 93% chance that the real Pinkie was murdered!

 

No matter what argument the defendant now makes about the clones (which acted sentient and sapient), we know that Twilight has committed premeditated murder on her best friend.

 

[That actually really creeped me out, too, heh.]

 

^{The Grim Reaper sharpens his scythe, the gallows are being prepared for your arrival... Credit}

 

Now the Defendant makes his closing remarks...

 

As said before, where it cannot be ascertained whether something really happened or not, we are to err on the side of caution. In other words: "Innocent until proven guilty." I believe this applies to the question of whether or not the real Pinkie was shot off along with her reflections. Furthermore, we saw that the reflections did not have Pinkie's memories, however, the real Pinkie Pie, of course, did. The Pinkie Pie we see in the series, both displays the emotional depth of an actual pony and not one of the parasite-reflections, but the memories of the real Pinkie. Thus we have good reason to believe Twilight is innocent of imprisoning Pinkie's soul in the Mirror Pond.

 

While the methods were... Not optimal, the actual results are the only things that can be judged. And it appears as though no real Pinkie was imprisoned in those events.

 

Now, as for "killing", the fact that the Mirror Pond may still be used demonstrates that those reflection-parasites still do, in fact, exist in this world. What does not exist, is the pairing of those sentient parasite-entities, with a host. Though the parasite entities themselves do still exist, so they were not killed. As I said, this can be demonstrated by the fact that the Mirror Pond may still be used.

 

And so my [Mattlight's] verdict is...

 

Innocent!

 

 

 

 

 

And now, a reply:

 

 

Did she really? I do not think she had everypony's interest in mind. She was looking out only for herself. The entire episode was her obsessed with being presentable to the princess. When her spell failed and the Sprites were eating Ponyville, did she use her magic to make everything into food thus causng the sprites to leave? No. She just began worrying about what the Princess may think.

 

 

What do you think of your precious Twilight now?

 

 

#1: It could just have easily been said, with equal validity, that she was concerned, not about being presentable to the princess, but about the princess.

 

#2: We see her fail with a food-making spell in season 3. There's no way she could do that in season 1, especially at the volume required for the parasprites. Plus, no amount of food would ever satisfy them. They'd just multiply and then require more. They're a low-level herbivore species. They actually need to be killed in large volumes, otherwise they'll destroy all their food supply and all starve. That's the circle of life, my friend.

 

Now, older points not in this specific post:

 

 

There were several ways for Twilight to overcome both obsticles. The parasprites did not need their very being altered in the least bit. Now that they were sent to another city, the shall devour the building materials there. Some will be coated in paint which is posionous to animals which will kill the poor darlings!

 

Black magic, purple magic, yellow magic - the fact is that she uses her abilities for chaotic neutral instead of good. At least Discord had every ponies' interes in mind!

 

Or did they? It was the only idea Twilight had at the time. They were consuming all the food in ponyville, which could mean starvation and death for it's entire population. There wasn't time to sit around and wait for new ideas. And the idea was win-win; the parasprites could eat, and the ponies wouldn't starve. To heck with the moral qualm about "Changing their nature" - antidepressants and anxiety pills do that all the time. There was a pragmatic issue of death for the entire population of ponyville.

 

Back to what I said, Parasprites should be killed in large volumes. Unless they develop technology to support themselves or they stop multiplying, they'll kill themselves off, and every other creature, unless their population is kept in check. Applejack had the right idea with pesticide gas. Surely Twilight's solution wasn't worse than that?

 

That second paragraph doesn't even deserve a reply :|

 

I agree with your assesment that Twilight is a murderer. She has no qualms in hurting other critters (such as using a bird as her personal buzz horn to get others attentions) nor does she care about altering a critter's natural instincts (making the Parasprites stop eating natural food with her black magic)

 

 

That's why she said, "sorry", right? And it didn't really hurt the bird. It really wasn't a big deal. And I've already thrashed your other point about the parasprites quite enough.

 

I know I'm not supposed to feed the parasprites, but it's just too much fun crushing someone's points xD

Edited June 4, 2013 by Mattlight

[DiscordAnarchy 770]

Twilight Sparkle is accused of 40+ cases of murder!

Is she in line for the gallows?

scaled 01442136ca0b146e314060112014f51a.png

Or is she innocent?

Credit

 

Read on to find out!

Credit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A combination of those two seems to be the best headcanon I've seen so far. I'm a major fan! They're animated, 3d reflections... Which, actually hits on something very deep...

 

 

 

 

 

Have any of you ever seen "The Measure of a Man", the episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation"?

 

There's really no way to know if she was actually committing murder. A scary question would be: what does it mean to commit murder? To investigate if her actions qualify, first let's establish what murder is.

 

Why do we punish that? Why is it morally wrong?

 

The answer is simply, that we're born with a right to life that should not be violated. But why? Why is that right nature to us, but not to my pencil, or the strawberry plant I ate (for pleasure, no less!), or even my cat (though that's debatable. I personally believe in animal welfare and think of pounds as animal death camps in the midst of a holocaust of speechless children. But that's a topic for another day).

 

The answer to that is, we're homo sapiens. The phrase is latin, and it means we're "the one [species] possessing wisdom." Sentience means something feels, it can feel hurt, happy, sad, etc. But Sapience is unique to humans. It means we are capable of having philosophy, a deeper understanding of the universe. We are capable of being ones that "possess wisdom." While I don't think, at all, that it's okay to kill anything without due reason, I do value a human life more than an animal life, because while both are sentient, only humans are Sapient. That's why murder is so much worse than killing an animal.

 

But it's perfectly okay to "kill" a pencil because it possess neither sapience nor sentience.

 

So the question here is, do Pinkie's "reflections" possess either?

 

They acted like a very playful and hyper pony. While personally, I think they didn't act quite sapient, which indicates that reflections of the Mirror Pond aren't sapient, we can't know that they weren't capable of it. A prosecutor would say: they were, more or less, ponies. They talked, understood abstract concepts (like "fun"), had friends, goals (to have fun), etc. They were, in every respect, ponies.

 

That is, if they weren't merely a "reflection" of Pinkie.

 

How is that different?

 

A reflection does not feel, it is only an illusion created by reflected light. It, like the pencil, is neither sapient nor sentient, so Twilight Sparkle does not get the rope for destroying it, anymore than anyone who's broken a pencil.

 

So, how do we know if they were actually sentient, or rather, if they possessed qualia, or if they only acted like it? What we're getting into, here, is an issue tied to the concept of "qualia."

 

For Twilight Sparkle to be innocent, despite having destroyed them, they would have to be "philosophical zombies." What this means, is they act like they feel, but don't actually feel.

 

An example of this might be the "Chinese Room Argument." The Chinese Room Argument was developed to say, that you can never make a conscious/sentient AI. It goes like this:

 

Let's say there's someone in a room, and someone outside the room. The person in the room speaks only English, the person outside the room, only Chinese. The person outside the room slips a note under the door. The person inside the room, takes the note, then opens a tremendously enormous book. Inside the book is instructions on how to reply. It tells him what curves of line to draw, when he sees certain curves of line. It does not, however, translate the note. He merely follows it's instructions, draws some curves, then slips his note out the door. He replies to the Chinese note, without ever knowing what it said.

 

In the same sense, Pinkie's clones act as though they feel, without ever actually feeling, just like the person replies to the Chinese notes without knowing Chinese.

 

The only issue is, this argument could be applied for anybody, anything, anypony!

 

So, at some age, we simply decide that others are, like us, sentient. We never have any solid proof of this, but we live as though it's true because it's a belief necessary for meaning in our lives, happiness, and the survival of civilization and even ourselves. So we live by the code; "If it acts sentient, it is sentient."

 

So, while personally I like that idea... It doesn't stand up.

 

U.S. court systems rule "innocent unless proven guilty." But the defense's argument could be applied for any case of murder, and so is completely invalid. So far, it looks like a massive case of mareslaughter at best, and 40+ cases of premeditated murder at worst.

 

^{The Grim Reaper sharpens his scythe, Twilight... Credit}

 

However, there is another possibility. "Sent back to the mirror pond" implies that Pinkie's clones are some kind of spirits that reside in the pond. It doesn't matter that it was Pinkie that drew them out; only that it was some mare (As per the rhyme; "doubly mared"). They took on a shallow likeness of Pinkie's attribute: a love for fun, and a desire to double it. So it seems as though they'd take on the attributes of any pony that was mirrored there.

 

So they aren't sapient. Not because we're arguing "Chinese Room Argument", but because it appears as though the sapient/sentient attributes they adopt, are not their own, but that of another creature. In this case, Pinkie. They acted sapient because Pinkie did. They didn't have a mind of their own; they were a type of parasite that hitchhiked on Pinkie's consciousness. So while they were sentient by themselves, which we know because they acted that way, they didn't have a mind of their own. They adopt the mind of their host.

 

So they are sentient, but lack any mind of their own. This would firmly place them alongside insects or rodents in natural rights. 

 

Furthermore, and most crucially, they weren't "killed." They were sent back to the mirror pond! This is no more objectionable than sending the Parasprites back into their home, the Everfree Forest, when they, like Pinkie's clones, threatened the town of Ponyville.

 

The "clones" cannot be argued to not be sentient, granted. BUT, they do not possess a mind of their own. Killing one is no worse than swatting a fly (which can be objectively demonstrated to feel, as much as anypony can), or using a mousetrap to kill a rodent (Earth-rodent, which don't demonstrate sapience like Equestria's do, but can undoubtably demonstrate sentience). But this wasn't even killing. This was merely returning them to their natural state: detaching the parasite from its host, or returning the parasprites to the Everfree Forest.

 

 

 

However, the prosecutor says, the defendant's entire case depends on two things...

 

One, that this is not actually "killing", and two...

That the real Pinkie wasn't murdered!

 

 

 

 

So, let's do a little math. Let's say there were 42 Pinkies, total. Let's say, only half the time they did something, it was something that got another pony's attention. That means that 14 innocent Pinkies were murdered. Now, even supposing that these "clones" were as insentient as a pencil, that still means there's a 93% chance that the real Pinkie was murdered!

 

No matter what argument the defendant now makes about the clones (which acted sentient and sapient), we know that Twilight has committed premeditated murder on her best friend.

 

[That actually really creeped me out, too, heh.]

 

^{The Grim Reaper sharpens his scythe, the gallows are being prepared for your arrival... Credit}

 

Now the Defendant makes his closing remarks...

 

As said before, where it cannot be ascertained whether something really happened or not, we are to err on the side of caution. In other words: "Innocent until proven guilty." I believe this applies to the question of whether or not the real Pinkie was shot off along with her reflections. Furthermore, we saw that the reflections did not have Pinkie's memories, however, the real Pinkie Pie, of course, did. The Pinkie Pie we see in the series, both displays the emotional depth of an actual pony and not one of the parasite-reflections, but the memories of the real Pinkie. Thus we have good reason to believe Twilight is innocent of imprisoning Pinkie's soul in the Mirror Pond.

 

While the methods were... Not optimal, the actual results are the only things that can be judged. And it appears as though no real Pinkie was imprisoned in those events.

 

Now, as for "killing", the fact that the Mirror Pond may still be used demonstrates that those reflection-parasites still do, in fact, exist in this world. What does not exist, is the pairing of those sentient parasite-entities, with a host. Though the parasite entities themselves do still exist, so they were not killed. As I said, this can be demonstrated by the fact that the Mirror Pond may still be used.

 

And so my [Mattlight's] verdict is...

 

Innocent!

 

 

 

 

 

And now, a reply:

 

 

 

 

#1: It could just have easily been said, with equal validity, that she was concerned, not about being presentable to the princess, but about the princess.

 

#2: We see her fail with a food-making spell in season 3. There's no way she could do that in season 1, especially at the volume required for the parasprites. Plus, no amount of food would ever satisfy them. They'd just multiply and then require more. They're a low-level herbivore species. They actually need to be killed in large volumes, otherwise they'll destroy all their food supply and all starve. That's the circle of life, my friend.

 

Now, older points not in this specific post:

 

 

 

 

Or did they? It was the only idea Twilight had at the time. They were consuming all the food in ponyville, which could mean starvation and death for it's entire population. There wasn't time to sit around and wait for new ideas. And the idea was win-win; the parasprites could eat, and the ponies wouldn't starve. To heck with the moral qualm about "Changing their nature" - antidepressants and anxiety pills do that all the time. There was a pragmatic issue of death for the entire population of ponyville.

 

Back to what I said, Parasprites should be killed in large volumes. Unless they develop technology to support themselves or they stop multiplying, they'll kill themselves off, and every other creature, unless their population is kept in check. Applejack had the right idea with pesticide gas.

 

That second paragraph doesn't even deserve a reply :|

 

 

That's why she said, "sorry", right? And it didn't really hurt the bird. It really wasn't a big deal. And I've already thrashed your other point about the parasprites quite enough.

 

I know I'm not supposed to feed the parasprites, but it's just too much fun crushing someone's points xD

 

Ah, but I did not say for her to MAKE food. I said she should have turned Ponyville INTO food in order to keep the sprites from eating the buildings!

 

[Anadu Kune 668]

I would have to disagree. For one thing looking at what the show is. Do you really think the Pinkie's were written as actual beings being murdered? I highly, highly doubt it.

 

 

The Pinkies really seemed to be nothing more than what they seemed, magical reflections. Like reflections they retained only the superficial qualities of the thing they reflected. The Pinkie clones didn't have the depth the original pinkie had. They cared only for their own immediate gratification in their search for fun. That was their soul motivation, that was all there was to them. Hence the repeated exclamation of the word fun. Really they didn't seem like actual ponies, just shallow magical projections. Yes they seemed to posses a basic form of intelligence which were shallow reflections of Pinkie's intelligence. The mirror pool grants some form of agency to its creations. It would have to or there would be no conflict. But we have seen that magic itself seems to have agency in Equestria. So I think applying the term innocent ponies to the Pinkie clones is a mis-classification.

 

As for the murder aspect. It is suggested they are being sent back to the mirror pool which is the place they came from. They are magical projections that emerged from the mirror pool being sent back to the mirror pool. They aren't being killed they are being sent back to their mirror world that was shown when the first pinkie emerged. since they are magic they are transmuted to magic to be sent back. Magic in magic out. Even if they were real ponies the magical explosion does not suggest death. We have seen that ponies can transform into an ethereal magic form beyond their physical being without dying. Sombra was turned into a non corporeal magic shadow and Nightmare Moon could transform into a magical cloud at will. Considering that do you really think the Pinkie clones died? It seems far more likely that the written intent and what was suggested in the episode is not murder but what it says to begin with. The Pinkie clones are being sent back to the mirror pool.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Anadu Kune

[tehepicpony 22]

Ah, but I did not say for her to MAKE food. I said she should have turned Ponyville INTO food in order to keep the sprites from eating the buildings!

 

 

Yeah, i agree with you 100000000000000% Also, his post was WAAAAAAYYYYYY TL; So I Dr. (This thread has a lot of post like that, doesn't it?)

[Comet Tail 808]

Ah, but I did not say for her to MAKE food. I said she should have turned Ponyville INTO food in order to keep the sprites from eating the buildings!

 

 

 

 

 

Wait... Are you serious?

source

 

She couldn't turn food into food in season 3, how could she even do that to buildings? And destroy everypony's home? And just make an even bigger parasprite problem. Did you even read what I wrote?  

 

Yeah, i agree with you 100000000000000% Also, his post was WAAAAAAYYYYYY TL; So I Dr. (This thread has a lot of post like that, doesn't it?)

 

'Tis a very hurtful thing to read. It means I put a tremendous amount of work and time into it, then it just gets ignored and brushed aside.

^credit

[tehepicpony 22]

 

 

 

'Tis a very hurtful thing to read. It means I put a tremendous amount of work and time into it, then it just gets ignored and brushed aside.

^credit

Sorry....  MAN THIS THREAD IS FILLED WITH FRICKING DISAGREEMENT. (I'm gonna read it, when i  say tl;dr I usually mean that i will read later.)

Edited June 5, 2013 by tehepicpony

[Comet Tail 808]

Sorry....  MAN THIS THREAD IS FILLED WITH FRICKING DISAGREEMENT. (I'm gonna read it, when i  say tl;dr I usually mean that i will read later.)

 

No, I really wouldn't say it's full of disagreement. Quite a number of ponies actually agree with eachother in this thread. There's really only two views: is she a murderer for it or not? So every poster is split into three camps: Yea, nay, or neutral. So quite a number agree with eachother.

 

^credit

Hehe, see the irony/whatIdidthere?

Edited June 5, 2013 by Mattlight

[DiscordAnarchy 770]

 

 

Wait... Are you serious?

source

 

She couldn't turn food into food in season 3, how could she even do that to buildings? And destroy everypony's home? And just make an even bigger parasprite problem. Did you even read what I wrote?  Youserious.jpg

 

 

'Tis a very hurtful thing to read. It means I put a tremendous amount of work and time into it, then it just gets ignored and brushed aside.

^credit

 

 

 

Ah, but it IS YOU who doesn't read my posts! After Twilight used her magic to fundimentally change the parasprites very nature - making them dine on everything EXCEPT food, she could have temporarily changed everything into food. If she can change the VERY NATURE of Nature, she can turn houses into food

 

She is a very selfish pony indeed.

[GenderIsAnIllusion 2,177]

Im just gonna come out and say it...... YALL CRAZY HOME BOIS!!!

 

How did this conversation even start?.... For petessake its a Little Girls Tv program..........

[IronPonyApplejack 318]

I....I don't even...this thread actually exists? This is real? Wow....hang on.

 

*pinches self*

 

Sweet Mother of Celestia, this IS real...

 

On the one hand, it speaks to the show's credit that such discussions can happen...

 

But on the other hand...REALLY???

[SBaby 660]

Im just gonna come out and say it...... YALL CRAZY HOME BOIS!!!

 

How did this conversation even start?.... For petessake its a Little Girls Tv program..........

 

If you really have to make this kind of statement, it means that you're taking this thread way too seriously, and should probably turn off the Internet for a bit and relax. We're just having a little fun over-analyzing a cartoon. It's like the Comatose Ash Theory.

Edited June 5, 2013 by SBaby

[hawkflame 3,308]

 

 

Wait... Are you serious?

source

 

She couldn't turn food into food in season 3, how could she even do that to buildings? And destroy everypony's home? And just make an even bigger parasprite problem. Did you even read what I wrote?  Youserious.jpg

 

 

'Tis a very hurtful thing to read. It means I put a tremendous amount of work and time into it, then it just gets ignored and brushed aside.

^credit

 

I for one loved reading your post.  However, I do have to quibble with one bit of the prosecutor's case. The 93% chance that Twilight murdered Pinkie is dependent entirely on guessing and assumption- Assuming that there were 42 ponies, and assuming that only 1/3 of them created a distraction, and assuming that only 14 were distracted by said distraction- especially since we've seen one clone distract multiple other clones. Given that the final clone was also eliminated by distraction, I'm guessing that all were eliminated in such a fashion. 

 

The prosecutor clearly failed to make his case here.

 

 

Ah, but it IS YOU who doesn't read my posts! After Twilight used her magic to fundimentally change the parasprites very nature - making them dine on everything EXCEPT food, she could have temporarily changed everything into food. If she can change the VERY NATURE of Nature, she can turn houses into food

 

She is a very selfish pony indeed.

 

Again, if she can't turn *food* into food, how can she turn *buildings* into food?

[Cwanky 17,444]

I'm a little curious but assuming we go by the show's canon status and the real Pinkie Pie survived, what would have happened if the real Pinkie Pie was struck? Best case scenario the spell backfires or perhaps banishes her back to the phantom zone. Worst case she might poof or blow up in a gruesome mess of blood that the show can't show.

 

Thinking back on the scenario now, despite Twilight being a very rational and strategic minded person, this plan could have seriously backfired if they got the wrong Pinkie Pie. They were in a sense playing Russian roulette with Pinkie's life. 

[Frenzyhero 52]

Since we can't exactly apply actual physics, such as the laws of matter, I guess the best I can do to rationalize the clones was that they were made of magic. I think that if Twilight had struck the real pinkie pie, nothing would have happened as she herself isn't of magic, or at the very least, of a magic foreign to that of the pond, where they were being sent to. As posted on page 1, the Pinkie Pies were acting with emotion but... perhaps the pond only copies the most basic of a pony's personality? We know that they definitely do not copy the pony's intellect and experiences, otherwise they would have know all of the Mane 6's names.

 

When we come down to it, how would we define life? Would it be defined as being conscious of one's own existence? Animals of our world are, and obviously we are as well. However, as mentioned earlier, the Pinkies only showed one desire, to have fun. Nothing of anything else. Not even the most primal instincts that all living beings as we know it to possess.

 

tl;dr, In my opinion, the clones were magic, and without any primal instincts and consciousness of their own existence, makes them non-living. I believe the magic of the mirror pond was only being dispersed back.

[Anadu Kune 668]

 

 

I think that if Twilight had struck the real pinkie pie, nothing would have happened as she herself isn't of magic,

welcome to the forum. 

I agree with the latter half of your post. However it was established that Pinkie could be effected and become trapped in the mirror pool. This shouldn't be surprising though as magic has been shown to affect ponies.  

[Frenzyhero 52]

welcome to the forum. 

 

I agree with the latter half of your post. However it was established that Pinkie could be effected and become trapped in the mirror pool. This shouldn't be surprising though as magic has been shown to affect ponies.  

It was also established that magic couldn't alter cutie marks, but that kinda did a 180, huh? Magic has proven itself to be fairly unpredictable in the show. Very possible my theory is wrong and yours is right, and vice versa. 

 

Thank you for the welcome.

 

EDIT: Not only did the magic alter their cutie marks, it nearly altered the entire universe, what with the entire town being unawares of the change. For all we know, maybe the clones were reincarnated.

Edited June 5, 2013 by Sovereign

[DiscordAnarchy 770]

Because food to food is a level 7 spell, every pony knows this. But changing inanimate objects into food is merely a level 3. But it is easily beliavable that if she can change the fundimental nature of a million little parasprites and force them to stop eating food, she can easily change the buildings into food - or at the least summon a bunch of chocolate sauce and dump it upon the town to  keep them from being eaten.

[Frenzyhero 52]

Because food to food is a level 7 spell, every pony knows this. But changing inanimate objects into food is merely a level 3. But it is easily beliavable that if she can change the fundimental nature of a million little parasprites and force them to stop eating food, she can easily change the buildings into food - or at the least summon a bunch of chocolate sauce and dump it upon the town to  keep them from being eaten.

Oh my god, it all makes sense now. All the unicorns are evil. The unicorns are the obviously superior race. They could solve world hunger, end all wars, and alter reality itself, yet they choose to withhold it. They are, by definition, gods.

[hawkflame 3,308]

Because food to food is a level 7 spell, every pony knows this. But changing inanimate objects into food is merely a level 3. But it is easily beliavable that if she can change the fundimental nature of a million little parasprites and force them to stop eating food, she can easily change the buildings into food - or at the least summon a bunch of chocolate sauce and dump it upon the town to  keep them from being eaten.

 

"Everyone knows this" isn't an explanation, nor do have these "levels" of spells been established anywhere in the Ponyverse.  Amd I submit that it's far easier to change the nature of the nature of parasprites than it is to alter the nature of matter *entirely*- you're talking about change on a molecular level here, to turn a house into, say, gingerbread- and done on a large scale. 

 

As for covering the entire town in chocolate sauce, well that creates almost as much a mess as the parasprites themselves. 

[Frenzyhero 52]

"Everyone knows this" isn't an explanation, nor do have these "levels" of spells been established anywhere in the Ponyverse.  Amd I submit that it's far easier to change the nature of the nature of parasprites than it is to alter the nature of matter *entirely*- you're talking about change on a molecular level here, to turn a house into, say, gingerbread- and done on a large scale. 

 

As for covering the entire town in chocolate sauce, well that creates almost as much a mess as the parasprites themselves. 

I do hope you realize that this was most likely a joke.

 

Ah, the 100ch limit. 

 

On the note of the chocolate sauce, if the parasprites were still active, then would the parasprites not EAT said chocolate sauce, thus solving their insatiable hunger long enough for the Mane 6 to come to a more permanent solution?

[hawkflame 3,308]

I do hope you realize that this was most likely a joke.

 

Ah, the 100ch limit. 

 

On the note of the chocolate sauce, if the parasprites were still active, then would the parasprites not EAT said chocolate sauce, thus solving their insatiable hunger long enough for the Mane 6 to come to a more permanent solution?

 

And I do hope you realize that I was replying in the spirit of said joke. 

 

As for the chocolate sauce- the nature of the parasprites was changed to *not* eat food- the whole point of the chocolate sauce idea was to protect the town from them. 

[Frenzyhero 52]

And I do hope you realize that I was replying in the spirit of said joke. 

 

As for the chocolate sauce- the nature of the parasprites was changed to *not* eat food- the whole point of the chocolate sauce idea was to protect the town from them. 

Ah, I thought you meant that the sauce was used instead of changing their nature. But seriously, they did alter an entire reality without knowing it and just shrugged it all off. Because all in a day's work, right?