let's write stories at 5am

MLP:FiM S3 E1

Found this as a draft. It was only half-finished, but I was bored so I decided to finish it off. If you can work out where it stops being the writing from months and months ago, and becomes the writing from today, congratulations.

The opening two episodes of season 3 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic were met with mixed results. Some people enjoyed it, but many bronies complained that the plot was too overused and repetitive with a weak villain.

This was true. The plot was very overused, the idea of an old villain returning after a millennia of being sealed away, but finally defeated by using the power of friendship.

However, originally, this wasn't the case. There was another episode, almost completely finished. But when it was shown to Lauren Faust, production was immediately cancelled.

And so the team had to throw something together at the last minute. They had no time to think up another original plot, so they reused the old idea that had been used for the opening episodes of the other two seasons.

I am sure that you, the people of the internet, are only interested in the actual episode. I have seen it, since I am well acquainted with someone who works in the My Little Pony animation team. He always lets me preview the episodes if I ask. And since I was so excited for season 3, he let me watch the first two episodes.

He emailed me the two files, named 'The Ponyville Case'. Settling down with some coffee in my favourite Pinkie Pie mug, along with my matching shirt, I started watching.

The first video was pretty boring. It was all about Twilight going around with her friends, just generally playing around. I can't really remember. It was only the ending that stayed clear in my head.

As the sun set, Twilight went back into her house. Various different shots were taken of the night-time Ponyville, until eventually, there was only one random background pony trotting along. The camera angle switched to what appeared to be a first person view, leaves obscuring the camera.

The leaves rustled as the camera moved forwards, towards the unsuspecting pony. Then the pony finally turned, and let out a high pitched scream before the screen cut to black.

The video ended, and I scrabbled for the mouse, looking for the next video. I pressed play.

Twilight was asleep in the library. There was a knock at the door and Twilight awoke with a groan. She trotted over to the door and opened it to reveal a worried-looking Rainbow Dash.

"Come quick! Sugar Pop isn't breathing!" she cried, and Twilight gasped and followed Dash along the moonlit Ponyville.

The journey was somewhat eerie; there was no sound at all during the couple of minutes of Dash and Twilight hurrying to save Sugar Pop, Dash flying, Twilight trotting briskly. The camera angle didn't even change. The only difference was the background scrolling past, from Sugar Cube Corner to Sweet Apple Acres.

I was starting to get bored of this consistent scene, when suddenly the camera angle changed. The two ponies were standing over the fallen body of the pony from earlier, whom I presumed was Sugar Pop.

"Can your magic help her?" asked Dash. Twilight shook her head.

"There is no spell that can help the fallen. It's not natural to perform such a spell," said Twilight. The camera zoomed out, and faded to black.

When the video came back, it was that first person viewpoint again. The victim this time was another pony, sleeping in a standard house this time, and I felt a slightly sickening feeling in my stomach as I quickly realised what was about to happen.