Some Edits to 'To Where and Back Again'

by ISleepNow

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Sad, Drama, Thriller, Tragedy
Length: 905

This episode was really a tragedy demonstrating that Haber and Vogel can generate good ideas. The premise was fine but they failed to execute them to their true potential.

Necessary changes to the screenplay.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2016-10-24 04:43:53 UTC

Part I

Glim-Glam ventures to the village ALONE.

Prior to this she confides in Twilight that her fear of rejection is very much based on the fact that she never really got to actually Know many of the ponies in her village before she removed their cutie marks and applied her own template of sameness upon them.

When she arrives in the village she is greeted with warmth and genuine affection as in the episode.  The ponies offer many fond recollections of how good a leader she was before the whole cult of sameness began.  A shout of 'we love you Glimmy' from one of the ponies in the crowd brings a lump to her throat.  Some pony asks her a question about their arrangements for the festival and then she begins to sing a little.  The other ponies join in and follow her.

We see history repeat as individuals follow old patterns of behavior in this sequence.  The music begins to resemble 'In Our Town'.   Ponies march in line behind Glimmy as they follow her down Main Street to the podium and gets up to speak.  Then we see the ponies from her point of view.

They have unconsciously split into two columns while following her and are now organized into a giant equals sign.

Glimmy just stands there with her mouth open when she realizes what has just happened.  Then she starts to break down.  Tears in her eyes she apologizes to everyone and then runs off as fast as she can.

Part II

When she gets back to Ponyville she immediately goes to 'Twilight' and the 'Mane Five' who ask why she is back so early.  She tells them how things went well at first until they began falling back into old patterns of behavior.  She tells 'Twilight' how she will never take control of that village again.

Then 'Twilight' unloads on her.

At this point what should have happened is 'Twilight' then rages over Glimmy Not taking over the town and leading her former followers as she could have:

Fake Twilight:  All you've done since coming here is try to take over leadership of Friendship Castle and when you get the opportunity to lead your old disciples you respond by running away?

Fake Twilight:  You are nothing but a worthless upstart and you might as well go because nobody wants you around.

Glimmy breaks down and runs away crying.

Further Changes:

The second part should have been the first episode of season seven.

Starlight and Trixie escape and teleport to Canterlot only to find Changelings there.

They then teleport to the Crystal Empire to warn Princess Cadence only to find it under siege.  It is Here that they meet up with Thorax.

They decide the only way to deal with this is to summon Discord and have him confront and defeat Chrysalis.

No Barrier.  They use magic when they need to.  Chrysalis uses Changelings disguised as Fluttershy to confuse and reduce his effectiveness.

Ending:

Instead of merely swatting away her gesture of reconciliation Chrysalis shows her how she really feels about her efforts at rehabilitation by holding her hoof down while she fires up her horn and then blasts Glimmy at point blank range before making her getaway.

Part III

Nightfall.  Cut to Trixie's caravan.  We see TGAPT practicing a magic trick.  We hear a voice outside, crying.  Trixie tries to concentrate.  But the crying gets louder.  The camera closes in on her face.  Her expression changes.  It sounds familiar.  Trixie opens the caravan door and finds Glimmy crying at the foot of the steps.  She takes her in.

Glimmy tells her what happens and what Twilight said.  Trixie gets mad and threatens to bite one of Twilight's ears off.  She tells Glimmy that they will leave and never return to Ponyville but not after having a few words with Twilight.

When they get to the castle, as often happens in real life, people have cooled off and calmer heads prevail.  Starlight proposes that Trixie wait while she sneaks in and gets her things and then they will leave because she does not want a confrontation.  She is also aware of how powerful Twilight is and fears Trixie might get her ass handed to her if she tries to tackle Twi on her own.  While she is sneaking past the council chamber she hears a discussion.  She decides to listen in.  The ponies are discussing her trip to the village.  She opens the door a little.  She can see Twilight talking to someone about how Starlight screwed up.  If she had decided to take control of the village it would have made it that much easier to take control of it when they finally got around to replacing her but she was too gutless to take advantage of the opportunity an go through with it.

We see Trixie watching Glimmie from down the hall and she hears the previous exchange.  She flips into rage mode and begins marching towards the chamber.  We can see that Glimmy is startled by something but cannot see into the chamber what she is observing.  She turns to see Trixie approaching.  She begins to shake her head and get her to be quiet but it's too late.  Trixie marches past Starlight into the chamber to confront Twilight.

We see the 'Mane Six' grouped around the image of Queen Chrysalis that we see in the episode.

They transform into changelings.

The episode ends with the camera closing in on Trixie's face as she's about to scream.  Then the image goes black and the words 'To be continued.. come up as we hear her screams.