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[SigmasonicX]

Clair Anne Carr remix of "You'll Play Your Part".

And since I made a big post in the Humble Bundle topic, I'll quote it here.

The only comics I don't have are Friends Forever #1 and those comics that are just stills taken from the show, so I won't be participating in this bundle.

By the way a guide to the issues available:

Friendship is Magic (main ongoing series)
#1-4: Return of Queen Chrysalis arc. About Chrysalis kidnapping the Cutie Mark Crusaders and the heroes coming to their rescue. Recommended to read after the season 2 finale. IMO, it starts out very strong but the last issue is pretty weak.
#5-8: Nightmare Rarity arc. About Rarity being possessed by the remaining energy of Nightmare Moon. Can be read any time after the pilot episode, but the story takes place during season 3, despite some confusing things with Luna's design. The arc is fairly weak, but has some nice moments and I actually do like the way Nightmare Rarity is defeated.
#9-10: Zen and the Art of Gazebo Repair. About Big Mac trying to find some nails during a big festival. A fun comedy story that can be read any time after season 1.
#11-12: Neigh Anything. About how Princess Cadence and Shining Armor met in an 80's high school movie setting. A fun comedy story that can be read after the season 2 finale.
From this point on, every issue of this series that includes Twilight must be read after the season 3 finale.
#13-14: Friendship Ahoy. About the heroes helping a pirate search for treasure. I thought this was a fun arc, but others aren't as keen on it.
#15-16: Ponies in Book Land. About a book worm bringing stories to life. There are fun moments, but it's pretty weak overall, and there are parts that require some thinking to have them make sense in continuity.
#17-20: Reflections arc. About Celestia secretly traveling to an alternate universe and the problems this causes. In addition to the season 3 finale requirement, this story has references to Equestria Girls, but it's not required for understanding beyond knowing that the heroes have already encountered a dimensional portal. The first two issues are really really good, but it completely falls apart by the end, to much disappointment.
#21-22: Manehattan Mysteries. About Trixie being framed for a jewel theft. Does not include Twilight, but this story should be read after season 3 anyway. It's decently fun.
#23: Pets to the Rescue. A mostly dialogue-less story where the pets have to save the day. Decently fun, though the conclusion is weak.

Micro Series (10 issue miniseries, each focuses on one character, all stories can be read at any time except for Luna's, which has to be read after "Luna Eclipsed" in season 2)
#1: Twilight Sparkle. About Twilight helping a reclusive author. This story has bad art (apparently the penciling is fine, but the inking ruined it), but the story is decent enough.
#2: Rainbow Dash. About Rainbow Dash facing against powerful gremlins. The dialogue is cringeworthy, featuring a lot of totally rad phrases, and the story has bothersome aspects, but it's still entertaining.
#3: Rarity. About Rarity making the best of bad vacation. This is probably the best of the micro series, maybe even of all the MLP comics, and is highly recommended.
#4: Fluttershy. About Fluttershy gathering her courage to enter her knitting in a competition, but then it somehow turns into another Rarity focus issue instead. Slow, but decent enough.
#5: Pinkie Pie. About Pinkie Pie cheering up a retiring clown. Pretty fun, and the song in the issue does have a fan cover.
#6: Applejack. About Applejack trying to fend off a monster that steals apples and replaces them with squashes, the Sassquash. It's decent.
#7: Cutie Mark Crusaders. About the CMC helping a young shapeshifter find a good default form. Pretty good and it has really cute art (maybe too cutesy for some tastes).
#8: Celestia. About Celestia's relationship with an old teacher at her school. The flashback scenes are good, but the present day stuff is weak and doesn't actually resolve the main problem.
#9: Spike. About Spike accidentally creating intelligent life. It's decent.
#10: Luna. About Luna trying to handle ruling the day. It's pretty good.

Friends Forever (secondary ongoing series, each focuses on a different "pair" of characters, all stories involving Twilight or Discord must be read after season 3)
#1: Pinkie Pie and Applejack. About a baking competition. AVOID. Bad art and a nonsensical story that doesn't actually involve Pinkie and Applejack competing.
#2: Cutie Mark Crusaders and Discord. About Discord deciding to help the CMC on their quest. It's pretty fun.
#3: Celestia and Spike. About Celestia accompanying Spike on a quest. Includes Twilight. Pretty good, and it's a good showing for Celestia in particular.
#4: Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor. About the two investigating a ghost in the Crystal Empire castle. It's decent.
#5: Fluttershy and Zecora. About Fluttershy's animals starting to talk, and the two investigating. Must be read after season 3. Pretty weak.
#6: Rainbow Dash and Trixie. About Trixie being made queen of the Diamond Dogs, and Rainbow trying to help her escape. Must be read after season 3. Pretty fun.
#7: Luna and Pinkie Pie. About Pinkie trying to teach Luna how to be funny. Includes Twilight. Pretty weak.
#8: Applejack and Rarity. About a road trip, with all of the standard complications. Includes Twilight. This is a lot of fun.
#9: Granny Smith and the Flim Flam Brothers. About Granny helping solve a disagreement between the brothers. Pretty weak, and disappointing in how it doesn't take full advantage of the premise.
#10: Fluttershy and Iron Will. About Fluttershy teaching Iron Will to be more gentle. Must be read after the season 4 finale. Pretty weak, and like in "Putting Your Hoof Down", everyone except Fluttershy is uncharacteristically antagonistic to Iron Will.

This took longer to write than I thought it would, but there it is.

 

[DrForester]

For that cheap of a price, you'd be silly not to just get them all.

 

[McNum]

I'm not really up to sped on the Humble Bundle things. This will be up for two weeks? The entire series until now for $15 is one heck of an offer.

 

[Orcastar]

I'm not really up to sped on the Humble Bundle things. This will be up for two weeks? The entire series until now for $15 is one heck of an offer.

It's not quite the entire series though, as the bundle is currently missing Friends Forever issues 11, 12 and 13 and the mane series issues 24 and 25. Some or all of them might still be added before the bundle ends, however.

Edit: Just realized that the bundle is also missing the two My Little Pony Annuals. Not a big loss since they weren't all that great.

 

[SigmasonicX]

A PMV with a lot of custom animation and what appears to be a fandub of a J-Pop song done in-character as the Main Six. The parts where everyone's singing together aren't very harmonious, and it will probably definitely be too saccharine for some people, but I think it's worth checking out.

Also, apparent announcement of a new charater, Rainbow Ruby, but maybe it's for Rainbow Brite or something. The VA looks young, so this would probably be a filly.

 

[Tenumi]

Definitely a high likelihood of me going in on that Humble Bundle. Although I personally prefer physical copies, it is extremely hard to beat that deal.

Also new avatar for the Christmas season for me! Old vector, but hey, it works.

 

[brian577]

Season 5 news:

Spoiler

Rainbow Dash is finally getting her own solo.

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2014/11/epic-rainbow-dash-solo-on-way-in-season.htm;

 

[SigmasonicX]

Song about

Spoiler

Rainbow Dash's conflict between her obligations as a full Wonderbolt member and spending time with her friends? Maybe?

 

[Rhomega Beta]

Song about

Spoiler

Rainbow Dash's conflict between her obligations as a full Wonderbolt member and spending time with her friends? Maybe?

Spoiler

I honestly hope she sticks with the Wonderbolts. She can still be friends with the other ponies while still fulfilling her dream. Yet I have this fear that she'll drop out in favor of sticking in Ponyville just to keep her around for story purposes. Friendship shouldn't mean giving up on your dreams.

 

[Village]

Spoiler

I honestly hope she sticks with the Wonderbolts. She can still be friends with the other ponies while still fulfilling her dream. Yet I have this fear that she'll drop out in favor of sticking in Ponyville just to keep her around for story purposes. Friendship shouldn't mean giving up on your dreams.

Spoiler

The better lesson would be if it just turned out the wonderbolds weren't for her. And she had to dream new dreams

 

[$200]

 

[PaulloDEC]

Called it. Best tumblr.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Twilight plushie on Jimmy Kimmel.

 

[$200]

 

[wookieofdoom]

Does the Slice Of Life tumblr come up blank for everyone else? Sorry if this has been mentioned before.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Does the Slice Of Life tumblr come up blank for everyone else? Sorry if this has been mentioned before.

I can't check right now, but I do know that the creator has grown to dislike that tumblr. It's possible that she decided to take it down.

 

[Owlowiscious]

I can't check right now, but I do know that the creator has grown to dislike that tumblr. It's possible that she decided to take it down.

oh nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 

[DrForester]

Yeah. Egophiliac nuked the site. Many of the comics can be found on image hosting sites like Bronibooru.

I think there were some irksome fans demanding updates and it really soured her to the comic, which is really too bad.

 

[PaulloDEC]

I've got (I'm pretty sure) the entire comic, including a bunch of related "scrap" drawings saved on my PC at home. If anyone would be interested in a zip of the whole thing, I can put one together tonight after work.

 

[SigmasonicX]

I would imagine the entire thing, including extra drawings, would be on Derpibooru, so I'm not sure how necessary that is, but I'm sure it will be appreciated.

 

[Lupin the Third]

The Humble Bundle just cleared 15k sold. Is that good or not so good?

 

[akira28]

The Humble Bundle just cleared 15k sold. Is that good or not so good?

they'll make around $200K in the name of charity, friendship, and pony. I'd count that as a victory.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Pinkie Pie season 5 teaser. Confirmed no character development episodes for Pinkie Pie /s

 

[DrForester]

I really hope the "epicness" they are playing up in these teasers is just a gag. I would hate the show become something that feels like it needs to one up itself with bigger and badder theats. I already thought they got to silly with the season finale, and I would really like to see a more low key and well written story than more flashy lights and meaningless fight scenes. More "Best Night Everyone" and less " Twilights Kingdom".

 

[SigmasonicX]

You said that the last two times teaser videos were posted.

 

[Lupin the Third]

More "Best Night Ever" and less " Twilights Kingdom".

Man, Season 1 feels strangely different from the rest of the show. The ponies go off-model more often, there's distinct world-building going on... Season 2 and especially onward felt different in ways I have a hard time describing. The animation got more rigid, but I assume that's in part the mark of efficient production. And most distinctly, Season 1's finale is just a big get-together, not a grand wedding with a changeling invasion. Even if Lauren was on board with the idea before she left, it was still quite different from S1. Being different isn't inherently bad, but there were a lot of things I quite liked about S1.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Season 1 also had a lot of relatively dull episodes, such as "Winter Wrap Up" outside of its song and "Over a Barrel" even outside of its potential offensiveness; several moments where, albeit less than a lot of other children's shows, they talked down to the audience such as when they explained what hibernation was in "Winter Wrap Up"; and generally portrayed the main six as being far more childish than they are for the rest of the series up until "Call of the Cutie", when they had them act more mature in contrast to the CMC.

When I was watching through the series with the rest of my family, there were several moments in season 1 where I was thinking, "Oh wow, this is a rough patch of episodes, I wonder if I should just skip to episode X," while those moments died down with the later seasons. While season 1 certainly has several great episodes, I do overall think seasons 2 and 4 are better. I do think season 3 is overall worse, though.

 

[Lupin the Third]

While season 1 certainly has several great episodes, I do overall think seasons 2 and 4 are better. I do think season 3 is overall worse, though.

Well, the season finale to 3 was a cool idea but it was a total rush job. It really needed to be a two-parter. I would've been fine with them dropping a "normal" ep for them to accomplish that. But maybe Hasbro wasn't? Anyway, I've enjoyed the whole show but I can see where you come from about Season 1. Despite the rougher qualities I DO enjoy, it's clear they kind of "found their groove" with S2.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Slice of Life ZIP file on my Google Drive.

I've got everything up to and including the Cutie Mark Teenagers story, as well as a few bits and pieces from Ego's other tumblr. Not sure if there's any story I've missed, but what I do have is organised and renamed so it can be easily read in the right order.

 

[Village]

Yeah. Egophiliac nuked the site. Many of the comics can be found on image hosting sites like Bronibooru.

I think there were some irksome fans demanding updates and it really soured her to the comic, which is really too bad.

Not saying this is the case. But I have seen this, sometimes people aren't fans of the direction the actual thing is going and kind of get unenthused and stop doing their fan thing.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Not saying this is the case. But I have seen this, sometimes people aren't fans of the direction the actual thing is going and kind of get unenthused and stop doing their fan thing.

Ego actually started a new FIM-themed blog not so long ago, and she continues to draw new versions of older generation characters in the style of FIM, so I'm not sure that's the case here.

 

[SigmasonicX]

I'm guessing that what happened is that ego had so much planned for the series, but even her first holiday special story ended up bleeding well into the next year. Plus, her version of what Ponyville's future looked like turned out to not be anywhere near as stable as it seemed. She was able to roll with Rainbow and Scootaloo becoming close in "Sleepless in Ponyville" (she had to change some dialogue) and Twilight becoming a princess, editing previous pictures to reflect this, but she explicitly said that she had no intention of editing in Twilight's castle. Slice of Life probably wasn't something that she intended to put much work into, so all this added up and made her get frustrated with it.

I do know that a lot of fan creators tend to have tons of stuff planned out and can give up on the project if it ends up taking too long. About 10 years ago, I participated in a lot of forum RPs / group fanfics, and this always happened. Plus, I even wrote a Captain N fanfic (without ever watching the show) where I both released new chapters only every couple of months and went back and extensively edited previous chapters, but eventually just got tired of working on it--though in that case, no one was really reading it.

EDIT: New magical girl Friendship is Magic comic, finally back to the present day and featuring a certain alternate form.

 

[SigmasonicX]

We have a season 5 song! ... Two lines of it. Lena Hall posted this after enough people retweeted one of her tweets, and it's presumably from the episode guest starring her written by Amy Keating Rogers.

Spoiler

So, her character was hiding her true self and by the start of the song, decided to reveal who she really is. Though it's just temporary score, the tone doesn't seem to indicate she's a villain or anything. As a wild guess, maybe this will be a "good changeling" story?

Also, the season 4 DVD has been released!

EDIT: As a heads up, the next issue of the Friends Forever comic has been delayed until next week.

 

[PaulloDEC]

We have a season 5 song! ... Two lines of it. Lena Hall posted this after enough people retweeted one of her tweets, and it's presumably from the episode guest starring her written by Amy Keating Rogers.

Spoiler

So, her character was hiding her true self and by the start of the song, decided to reveal who she really is. Though it's just temporary score, the tone doesn't seem to indicate she's a villain or anything. As a wild guess, maybe this will be a "good changeling" story?

Interesting! Can't begin to imagine what the story will be, but I like her voice and the song sounds nice.

 

[wookieofdoom]

nm

 

[SigmasonicX]

The Annoying Orange comic released an MLP parody today. Not interested in this, but maybe someone else is.

 

[BDGAME]

We have a season 5 song! ... Two lines of it. Lena Hall posted this after enough people retweeted one of her tweets, and it's presumably from the episode guest starring her written by Amy Keating Rogers.

Spoiler

So, her character was hiding her true self and by the start of the song, decided to reveal who she really is. Though it's just temporary score, the tone doesn't seem to indicate she's a villain or anything. As a wild guess, maybe this will be a "good changeling" story?

Also, the season 4 DVD has been released!

EDIT: As a heads up, the next issue of the Friends Forever comic has been delayed until next week.

Thanks. I only listen 2 seconds and I already like this song. hehe

 

[SigmasonicX]

Quoting from the Humble Bundle thread:

With less than a week left, the following books have been added:
My Little Pony Cover Gallery #1
My Little Pony Art Gallery
My Little Pony Annual 2013 + 2014
My Little Pony Animated Vol 3: The Return of Harmony

The first two are art collections, which should be good if you like that sort of thing. The last is just another comic where screenshots from the show are used as panels. So that leaves the annual specials to be worth commenting on.

The 2013 annual special is based on Equestria Girls, and for that reason, I never bought it or read it, so I can't give my opinion on the main story. The side story, which is placed first and thus appeared in nearly its entirety during the previews, is about Sunset Shimmer while she was Celestia's student and is pretty good. I hear the main story is OK, if you're fine with the typical high school story of friends entering high school, being split up by cliques, and then becoming friends again, followed by an implied splitting up again in time for the movie. Plus, there is some weird stuff with Babs Seed somehow being older than Applejack in this world (nicknamed by some fans as Dougworld).

Now the 2014 annual special is based on the episode "Power Ponies" and is about the actual Power Ponies team, as opposed to the main six pretending to be them like in the episode. It's a lot of fun, I felt, with some really neat original villains. There is also a side story involving Equestria Girls that I thought was eh.

 

[Loona]

Caved in and got that last night - I was actually expecting a Comixology option in there somewhere, but nope...

 

[SigmasonicX]

Finished reading Journal of the Two Sisters. I was disappointed that it didn't go into much more detail about events than the highlights I've read, and that Celestia and Luna's part just ends once they get their cutie marks, but it was still a fun read, and I generally liked the presentation. As for the Journal of Friendship part, I liked that they included an "extra episode" with Pinkie creating a new holiday, and Pinkie's entries in general were pretty amusing. It was also neat that they included Discord's highlights of the key episode entries, and that he's as bad at highlighting as Rainbow Dash. I do hope we get an episode taking place in this time period.

Also, new Twilight's First Day, and from the same ED post, a cute Fluttershy and Discord comic.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Finished reading Journal of the Two Sisters. I was disappointed that it didn't go into much more detail about events than the highlights I've read, and that Celestia and Luna's part just ends once they get their cutie marks, but it was still a fun read, and I generally liked the presentation. As for the Journal of Friendship part, I liked that they included an "extra episode" with Pinkie creating a new holiday, and Pinkie's entries in general were pretty amusing. It was also neat that they included Discord's highlights of the key episode entries, and that he's as bad at highlighting as Rainbow Dash. I do hope we get an episode taking place in this time period.

Also, new Twilight's First Day, and from the same ED post, a cute Fluttershy and Discord comic.

The Journal is pretty light in terms of depth/detail, but I think as a book for kids it's a pretty good effort.

I like that Discord and Flutters image too. They always get great art:

 

[DrForester]

I imagined so as not to step on any toes with future show plots that the Journal was a bit light so it can fit in any time line. How long before Celestia and Luna took over Equestria and the rise of Discord? Who knows. Maybe a few years, maybe thousands. They can insert any story on between without any contradictions.

 

[PaulloDEC]

I imagined so as not to step on any toes with future show plots that the Journal was a bit light so it can fit in any time line. How long before Celestia and Luna took over Equestria and the rise of Discord? Who knows. Maybe a few years, maybe thousands. They can insert any story on between without any contradictions.

I think the earliest event we have anything close to a concrete date on is Sombra's reign. Everything before that is a big nebulous playground.

 

[Rhomega Beta]

I'm putting forward a theory: Queen Chrysalis is from Tartarus, which would fit her succubus characteristics.

 

[DrForester]

I think the earliest event we have anything close to a concrete date on is Sombra's reign. Everything before that is a big nebulous playground.

Well, Sombra, Discord and Nightmare Moon all seem to be about 1000 years prior. We have absolutely no clue how old Celestia and Luna are, and Starswirl was revealed to have odd aging due to his time traveling. So the time between that 1000 years before the series and whenever Celestia and Luna took over is unknown. They seemed to have learned that they put way too much 1000 years ago and didn't give a time for when Tirek first attacked, though I think it would be safe to say it's before any of the other stuff went down, or they would have just lumped it in with all the other stuff that went down around then.

And if that theory were ever proven, means Celestia and Luna defeated Tirek without the Elements.

 

[brian577]

Well, Sombra, Discord and Nightmare Moon all seem to be about 1000 years prior. We have absolutely no clue how old Celestia and Luna are, and Starswirl was revealed to have odd aging due to his time traveling. So the time between that 1000 years before the series and whenever Celestia and Luna took over is unknown. They seemed to have learned that they put way too much 1000 years ago and didn't give a time for when Tirek first attacked, though I think it would be safe to say it's before any of the other stuff went down, or they would have just lumped it in with all the other stuff that went down around then.

And if that theory were ever proven, means Celestia and Luna defeated Tirek without the Elements.

They've never given Discord's reign a clear date, certainly no mention of it happening a 1000 years earlier. I'm pretty sure that Luna and Celestia weren't around when he showed up. My headcanon is Founding of Equestria < Discord < Arrival of Celestia and Luna < Tirek < King Sombra < Nightmare Mare Moon

 

[SigmasonicX]

Well, Sombra, Discord and Nightmare Moon all seem to be about 1000 years prior. We have absolutely no clue how old Celestia and Luna are, and Starswirl was revealed to have odd aging due to his time traveling. So the time between that 1000 years before the series and whenever Celestia and Luna took over is unknown. They seemed to have learned that they put way too much 1000 years ago and didn't give a time for when Tirek first attacked, though I think it would be safe to say it's before any of the other stuff went down, or they would have just lumped it in with all the other stuff that went down around then.

And if that theory were ever proven, means Celestia and Luna defeated Tirek without the Elements.

Well, the flashback showed no visual indication that the Elements were used to seal away Tirek. Presumably they were able to defeat him because Scorpan alerted the sisters before Tirek absorbed too much magic.

==

And thus, I've ended my rewatching of season 4, and still no concrete start date for season 5. The same thing happened before season 4, actually.

"Equestria Games" was still very enjoyable, though I had forgotten about things like the crystal ponies worshiping Spike. I didn't mind the lack of focus on other Equestria Games events, but I suppose cutting down on Spike thinking he had pyrokinesis and the crystal pony worshiping could have included one or two more events. My favorite parts of the episode are still the ones involving Twilight.

As for "Twilight's Kingdom", I am willing to admit that there are a lot of flaws. Tirek was more interesting before he started becoming stronger, Twilight having to hide her new powers from her friends was pointless (though it did lead to amusing scenes), Celestia's planning made little sense, the premise of Twilight finding herself as a princess probably could have been handled better outside of another big bad guy action finale, the resolution is anti-climactic, the Rainbow Power forms are garish as hell (outside of Twilight, who actually looks quite nice), and I'll even say that as awesome as it was the first time around, the fight with Tirek is somewhat out of place. Despite all that, I found it to be a very enjoyable set of episodes, and there were even two things that my opinion improved on since my first viewing: Discord's character arc within the episode, and "You'll Play Your Part", which I previously mentioned I was eh about but have greatly improved my opinion about since.

 

[DrForester]

They've never given Discord's reign a clear date, certainly no mention of it happening a 1000 years earlier. I'm pretty sure that Luna and Celestia weren't around when he showed up. My headcanon is Founding of Equestria < Discord < Arrival of Celestia and Luna < Tirek < King Sombra < Nightmare Mare Moon

I thought Celestia said he had been sealed for 1000 years in Return of Harmony"

As for your timeline, the Two Sisters Journal makes no mention of Discord, so Celestia and Luna were already in charge for an unknown amount of time before Discord presumably overthrew them for a short time until they returned with the elements.

Spoiler

The journal establishes that Celestia's and Luna came to rule Equestria shortly after its founding at the request of Starswirl, who saw that though there was harmony, they needed rulers outside of the three pony tribes. The three tribe rulers were still arround when Celestia and Luna arrived.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Moreover, according to the Journal, when Celestia and Luna started ruling Equestria, they didn't even have their cutie marks (though they were still much older than the other rulers, due to their natures as alicorns). So yeah, if that's to be held canon, which is likely due to it being written by a frequent writer for the show, Celestia and Luna definitely ruled for a decent amount of time before Discord came along.

 

[$200]

Just bought the $15 comic thing. Only 3 days left till it ends.
https://www.humblebundle.com/books

Edit: There doesn't seem to be a link to download everything after the purchase. So be sure to help yourself out with a plugin like Firefox's "DownloadThemAll".