Visiden Whines It: A Health of Information · 2:45am Sep 24th, 2017
It's a Fluttershy episode, so, long story short, it's garbage. The last episode was quite bad, but even the shittiest Rarity episode is better than the best Fluttershy episode.
Right, this episode's crisis emerges when Zecora is infected by a HORRIFYING disease that turns ponies into trees. The symptoms include your lungs filling with fluid to the point that you cough bubbles and circular patches of your fur changing color. She gets infected as she's getting out of the pool she fell into because Fluttershy is a bitch who could have just flown over the pool to get her stupid moss but took too much pleasure in watching Zecora struggle to get it.
I have to mention that the doctor she brings Zecora to looks a lot like the pediatrician Twilight sent Spike to. Apparently, Fluttershy thinks Zecora is a little filly.
So Fluttershy goes to the library to research some shit about the Mystical Mask. At first, I thought that it was an item, which would have been a horrifically uncreative name for a magical item. Sure, send them out retrieve a legendary weapon next. It will be called " Magic Sword". I thought it was a nice little twist when it turned out to be a title. How they came upon this is well...
One of the arbitrary rules the fandom has created for Mary Sues in mlp fanfiction is that your OC cannot outshine the master. I mean the Mane 6. So they cannot be more scholarly or magically empowered than Twilight, faster than Rainbow, more fashionable than Rarity, etc. This is why, in Upheaval, Scarlet took some flak early on because the story dared to suggest that he might be faster than Rainbow. Why is that a problem? Because fuck tension. That's why.
Fluttershy just out-researched Twilight. Not just luckily finding the right entry in the right book, but making the right connections across several books. Is anyone going to say a peep about this? No, because she's so adorable and one of the Mane 6. Fuck this character.
So Mystical Mask actually discovered the cure for this horrific, highly communicable disease. So she published her findings and refined the cure so it was readily available in case of another outbreak, amirite? Of course not. She stashes it away in her abandoned home so that it's nearly lost to the mists of time. I'll just assume Everfree is littered with trees that were once ponies, because this genius healer was also a colossal idiot.
And so we come upon Fluttershy's terrible flaw. She works too hard for others. That's a cop out flaw. What else are her flaws, show? She's too nice? She's too beautiful? She's too giving? Oh, that's right, we found a more interesting one early in the episode. She's a bitch who forces others to get things she could easily get for herself.
Don't forget the black and red thing. Edgy colors. Oh, and your OC is allowed to outshine the mane six if they are currently or are going to be an antagonist.
Also, add 'bees' to the list of things mysteriously immune to Twilight's magic.
The research scene was a real WTF? Fluttershy wants to stay up studying but Twilight wants to sleep? 'Twilight stays up studying' is basically her defining characteristic. What kind of freaky alternate universe is this?
4677041
Exactly. It's as if the writers can't even write for their own characters...
4677074
Let's see... replace Fluttershy with Twilight. Twilight asks Zecora to gather the moss because touching it with magic would ruin it or something, she panics and grabs Fluttershy to help research because with Zecora out she's the closest thing to a healer among her friends. Fluttershy tries to get Twilight to calm down but she stays up making wild leaps of logic, and they head out to find Mage Meadowbrook's house.
Twilight tries to teleport in but the house is warded, because 'mage'. Fluttershy points out the handle.
Twilight tries to magic the bees but there's too many and she gets stung a lot. Fluttershy notices that the mask looks like the bees and uses it to make friends with them and get the honey. Roll credits.
4677132
That sounds much better. Thank you.
4677132
Sounds about right