Skystar declares she will be the fiercest sky pirate, just like her mom.

Well, well, I FINALLY had an excuse to draw Celaeno. I don’t think I’ve drawn her at all until this point, but here we are. A while back, I introduced my concept for a rewrite of the 2017 MLP movie, which I simply call MLP the movie: Rewritten. It’s basically an amateur rewrite of the film, but with some noteworthy changes, such as a few character roles being swapped and even the removal of some characters. And this would happen to be one of my biggest changes involving Captain Celaeno and Princess Skystar:

In this rewrite, Captain Celaeno plays a major role. She was once a fierce sky pirate who was famed across the skies for her heroism and daring adventures. She and her crew were also noteworthy for going toe-to-toe with Tempest Shadow on many occasions, protecting skies and villages from her horde. But all of that changed when she was betrayed by her firstmate, Capper, who sold her and the rest of the crew out to Tempest. Celaeno had no choice but to watch each of her crew be killed by the deadly unicorn captain and her ship destroyed. Celaeno herself managed to escape, but was traumatized by the events and decided to retire from pirate life.

Going into hiding, she discovered a ruined and abandoned Seaquestria, which was raided by Tempest. And amidst the rubble, she found an egg and decided to care for it. The egg hatches into a baby hippogriff, who immediately imprints Celaeno as her mom. Growing an attachment to the hatchling, Celaeno named her Skystar, and the two hid themselves away within the peak of a tall mountain overlooking the ocean. Celaeno built them a home there and eventually established their hideaway as Rouge’s Roost, a hidden sanctuary for retired pirates and lost souls, with Celaeno as their leader and founder.

As the village’s population grew, so did Skystar, who grew up hearing many of her adopted mom’s stories from her days as a famous pirate. Naturally, the spunky hippogriff hatchling dreams of being a fierce pirate captain just like her mom, but Celaeno, knowing how dangerous pirate life is, refuses to teach Skystar any pirate skills out of fear of losing her, just as she lost her crew. During the film, the Mane 6 learn about Celaeno via a book in Capper’s home and decide to seek her out to help them defeat Tempest. Celaeno obviously declines, until Rainbow Dash rouses the pirate village to get their groove back (It’s Time to Be Awesome). Skystar also forms a friendship with Spike.

That’s about it. I know it’s a huge change from what the Canon film did. I wanted to give Celaeno and a host of other characters more of a defined role in the film. The original was fine, but Celaeno and her crew just felt like random one-off characters who helped Mane 6 in the end and nothing more. Celaeno herself is a fan-favorite character, and I wanted to do her (and Skystar by extension) some justice. I also made Skystar a lot younger in this because it fit her personality more. Another idea I had was bringing back a scrapped concept from the movie where all of the Hippogriffs from Seaquestria rally together with the Mane 6 to help save Equestria from the Storm King. Only this time, it’s the retired pirates from Rouge’s roost, along with Celaeno and Skystar. A grand, monumental moment in the film.

So, what do you think? Do you like these changes that I made? Or maybe you prefer the original? Leave a comment down below ;)