Has anyone here read Post Nuptials? It's good. I mean, really good. Almost as good as Letters From an Irritated Princess. What started as an emotion-heavy accusation fic turned into a continuity of its own. I think my favorite chapter was Fluttershy's, least favorite is Pinkie's, largely because it's the least relevant to the story and more to the sequel.
The story and its sequels tie together a lot of events from the show, most notably when we find out why the stuff that "New Fluttershy" said got to Pinkie so badly.
The story and its sequels have the usual complaints, why do so many people take Twilight's flame mode as an actual thing, why is this red unicorn villain coming in so late, why is a story about interpersonal relationships being mended suddenly turning into a political story that realistically shouldn't affect Celestia, why are the changelings mindless attack dogs instead a fully formed society, why are you abandoning a good conflict in favor of the political story, blah blah blah, you all heard these before.
But one particular complaint started a kick-up. Here's what happened: In worst pony's chapter, Applejack and Apple Fritter are talking about S2E15, Applejack says that Celestia personally came down to Ponyville to admonish Granny Smith for betting the farm she gave her and forces Applejack to rewrite the letter. Fritter (by the way, her accent is terrible) mentions that Celestia had Flim and Flam arrested for scamming and fraud and breaking apart the Element bearers. I had a problem with the first bit; why would Celestia do that? AJ gave no context in her letter, so Tia shouldn't know... and the farm was never part of the bet... and what was wrong with the letter...? I completely approved of the idea of Tia punishing the brothers, however.
It appears that everyone else had the exact opposite opinion. Everyone approved of Tia being a jerk for no reason, but when she punishes criminals, nooooooo. This caused such a kick-up that the author actually changed it to say that the brother fled to Appleloosa, where they were chased into buffalo territory, and the buffalo brutally beat them up so much that they had to go to a hospital in Canterlot. Seriously?! I mean, that's almost as satisfying, but there was no need for that!
In fact, it was so bad that the author was afraid of including Trixie! Rightfully so, because Trixie has a hell lot more undeserved defenders than the brothers. But he did manage to sneak in a small mention of Rainbow Dash's friends apologizing to her after--You know what, no.
No.
That is just wrong. Whatever our opinions are on the Flim Flam brothers shouldn't have forced the author to change what happened to them. It was only there to steer the conversation toward Twilight. What was so Earth-shattering about the brothers being arrested that it had to be removed? What is so better about Tia being a jerk to the Apples? I swear, there are people in this fandom who have rose-tinted spectacles for the antagonists that are irremovable. What's the point of absolving the antagonist of any and all sort of fault? Why do people have these rose-tinted spectacles for the antagonists in the first place? They did it with Gilda, they did it with Trixie, and they apparently did it with Flim and Flam.
I'm sorry. But the fact that the author felt the need to change it and was afraid to include another character because of it just pisses me off.
Anyway, read Post Nuptials and its sequels. They are really, really good.