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Description
The moment of truth.
That dialogue flashback was supposed to be a series of strips.
I wanted to show Shining Armor at the Academy, as he resist the increasing pressure from Captain and some of his classmates (but has one understanding friend that Spike apparently met in canon).
I wanted to show how Silver Spear is working against Princess orders, because he believes she “lost the touch” with the military. And how Shiny starts to believe that Cadance can marry only a high rank officer to avoid mésalliance, making his next decision even more difficult.
Finally I wanted to show how Shining Armor decides to transfer to another school and giving up his ambitions of advancing in rank, but saving his integrity. And the very same day he is about to quit the school, Spike accidently sends Twilight to the hospital, making Shiny feel responsible and “proving” that Silver Spear was “right”.
As it stands, I didn’t feel inspired to draw it anymore, and prefer to focus on the present.
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If Shining Armor had a little more nerve, he might have responded, “Captain, Spike was hatched by direct order of Princess Celestia. If the Princess thought he was a danger to ponies, would she have given such an order?”
Doesn’t mean you can’t remove someone from their position if they’re having a toxic influence on those around them. I’m pretty sure Shining Armor is not the only recruit who has been pscyhologically coerced by the captain into being forced to accept the captain’s warped view.
Since Celestia’s reign doesn’t appear tyrannical and no physical harm is being brought to Spike, she’s decided, if she is aware of it, to let things stand. You can’t force acceptance and trying to can bring about worse consequences than doing nothing at all.
I’m reminded of the old Traveler science-fiction RPG. One of the alien races you could encounter in the game were the Centaurs, two-armed, four-legged creatures who were descended from herbivores and still lived in herds. Being herbivores, they harbored an extreme paranoia about predatory animals, to the point of committing genocide against any carnivorous race they encountered. Needless to say, they were hard to get along with.
I can’t blame Captain too much for his prejudice; probably the only thing that has kept Spike from being killed outright is the fact that he IS a baby. His appeal to ponies’ maternal instincts manages to override their instinctive fear of predators.
I heard it’s been punched so many times it’s like a brick wall now