My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic FINAL SEASON |OT| I used to wonder what friendship could be...

SigmasonicX · Jun 15, 2019

The Last Crusade
My prediction based on the (lack of) fan reactions was right: Scootaloo's parents appear and want to take her away, but they don't in the end.

Compared to previous parent appearances, this definitely felt a bit meta. It wasn't just, "Scootaloo's parents appear", it's, "Look! Look! It's Scootaloo's parents! And they're badass adventurers! Now don't you feel bad about calling Scootaloo an orphan?" I feel like if you weren't keyed into all the orphan memes, then all the fanfare would feel off. After all, it's not like we've seen Sweetie Belle with her parents since season 2, but no one thinks they died off screen. I was going to say no one thought Fluttershy and Rainbow were orphans before their parents appeared, but then I remembered, no, people totally did. Heck in the fanfic Past Sins (written between season 1 and 2), Rarity and Sweetie were described as orphans.

Just checked, and indeed, the comics give a totally different design for Auntie Lofty and Aunt Holiday. Really weird that they didn't provide the show designs to IDW, since Ponyville Mysteries came out less than a year ago.

Anyway, I liked the episode itself. It was sweet and there were good gags. Glad someone finally pointed out that the CMC don't actually have the same cutie marks. It was nice to see everyone the CMC helped come together in the end. Terramar and Gabby touched: shipping commence! Someone on Discord was hyping up Diamond Tiara's appearance in this episode, but all she did was wave and say nothing. Okay?

I am a bit disappointed there wasn't a bit more edge to this episode. "Parental Glideance" hinted that Scootaloo really missed having her parents around, so I would have liked her to show more resentment toward them, but no one really had their temper flare this episode. Plus Scootaloo ultimately convincing her parents to let her stay there because of the importance of her job felt off. It would have made more sense to emphasize all the connections of friendship she made rather than the worth of her job.

I wonder what this means for future CMC episodes. Is this the last focus episode they'll get at all?

If you're wondering,

Nicole Dubuc
‏Verified account @NicoleDubuc
6h6 hours ago

That is an authentic Australian accent. #MLPSeason9 @BillNewtonVO killin' it as always!!!

I know some people thought Scootaloo's father's accept was really fake, but no, Bill Newton is in fact Australian, so that is in fact an Australian accent. Though of course, someone who is from Place X can still do a Fake Place X accent.

Also,

Roberta90
‏ @Roberta9020
4h4 hours ago

@TheBiggestJim Were Scootaloos parents based on Crocodile Dundee and his girlfriend or Steve Irvin and his wife?

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
Replying to @Roberta9020

Steve Irwin and Jane Goodall.
10:13 AM - 15 Jun 2019

Nicole Dubac also confirms this but in multiple tweets. While Scootadad was indeed based on Steve Irwin, Scootamom was based on Jane Goodall.

SigmasonicX · Jun 17, 2019

Wasn't a huge fan of this one. It's pretty padded, and I don't like it adding a new plot point, of Starlight losing her memory from teleporting too much. Previous ones actually did work decently well as summaries of episodes.

Another video of Ingram covering his own songs with new singers.

So there's a picture book for Rainbow Roadtrip coming out next week, and the preview pages show that the special will indeed be using the Movie art style. The bit of story we get from the preview seems pretty fun.
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3

I guess Spike isn't in this special? And hey! Movie Twilight finally learned how to teleport!

There's some more EQG production art and official fan art to share, but that would require staying up too long.

Instead, just have a bit of "The Last Crusade" stuff.
First, for GIFs, have some croc wrangling

This cragadile is way smaller than the one from "Princess Twilight Sparkle". There's also a smaller version of the frog from "The End in Friend" in a cage a bit later. Were they specifically gathering tiny versions of big creatures?

And a bunch of crying

Fan art is surprisingly light so far, with very little coming from before the US release, in sharp contrast to next week's episode. Here's five I want to highlight for now.
1.Fanart - MLP. Season 9, EP 12, Proud Aunts by jamescorck on DeviantArt
2.Tying up the comic aunt designs by mightyshockwave
3.Scootaloo with aunts by jowybean
4.Scootaloo with parents and croc by jowybean
5.Scootaloo with whole family by jowybean

SigmasonicX · Jun 17, 2019

New Equestria Girls special announced
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Sunset's Backstage Pass
World Premiere Saturday, July 27 at 11:30a/10:30c

The Starswirl Music Festival is finally here, and the Mane 7 are going to get their "glamping" on! Sunset and Pinkie are the most excited to see their favorite band perform, but when Equestrian Magic causes a "Groundhog Day" inspired time loop to start, Sunset gets stuck reliving "Festival Day 1" forever!

(Made my own corrections)

So we're indeed going to see the story of The Starswirl Do-Over in animated form. That book was a CYOA, but this looks to be a normal special. I'm surprised they would directly call out Groundhog Day like that. Also, we've had book adaptations come out before their specials before, but I think this is the biggest gap yet. The title is odd, especially with it breaking the "of Friendship" pattern, but I guess they determined that putting Sunset's name in the title makes it more popular.

It airing on July 27 matches up with rumors that season 9 will resume on August 3. Between this and Rainbow Roadtrip, the mid season break will only be four weeks! Not bad.

SigmasonicX · Jun 18, 2019

Following up my earlier mention, we have more production art and official fan art ("production fan art" is probably a better term in retrospect) from Bevin Brand.
1.SciTwi, Timber, and Spike the Dog
2. Sunset - same source
3.Applejack X Rarity
4. Human Seven - same source
5. Sunset X Princess Twilight - same source

Comic of Princess Twilight meeting Timber

And here's a bunch of production art. The link has two more images, but I've posted all the "Rollercoaster of Friendship" concept art below.
1. Hologram Princess Sunset
2. Hologram Bad Girl Fluttershy - I really like the unused middle design, but I suppose a lot of the appeal comes from the posing, which wouldn't come off with how the holograms are posed in the actual special.
3. Hologram 50's Rainbow
4. Hologram Office Pinkie
5. Hologram Sporty SciTwi
6. Vignette Valencia concepts 1
7. Vignette Valencia concepts 2 - includes Fake Applejack

On another note

RIP Scootamom

SigmasonicX · Jun 18, 2019

MLP. manga volume 1 released today. I'll have a review later, but it seems really cute.

Bunch of episode synopses!

14's title hasn't been confirmed yet, but it involves Pinkie and Cheese Sandwich.

15. 2,4,6, GREAAAT
The School of Friendship is starting a buckball team and Rainbow Dash has to come to terms with the fact that she won't be coaching the team.

16. A Trivial Problem
Twilight's hopes of keeping her Trivia Trot winning streak alive are waylaid when she's unexpectedly paired up with Pinkie Pie, who has never been to a trivia night before.

17. The Summer Sun Setback
Twilight is determined to make Celestia and Luna's last Summer Sun Celebration memorable, but things start going horribly wrong.

18. She Talks to Angel
When Fluttershy and Angel Bunny's relationship hits the skids, Zecora gives them a potion to help them understand each other.

Weird that we're seeing so much buckball.

We actually haven't had a real Twilight and Pinkie episode since season 2, believe it or not, so it's nice to see one here. However, it could be difficult not making one of the two come off as a jerk with that premise.

Another (maybe) Celestia and Luna episode! Another Twilight freak out episode! I expect this to be the grand send off for the latter episode concept.

That last synopsis... body swap at last?!

And in early airings news, Sunset's Backstage Pass is airing in Mexico on June 29. Mexico is a new one for early airings.

SigmasonicX · Jun 19, 2019

MLP: The Manga: A Day in the Life of Equestria Volume 1
This was a ton of fun. Unlike the IDW comics, this focuses almost entirely on being cute and silly, as opposed to really trying to tell a story. That said, there are multiple storylines, each focusing on different characters.

First, Pinkie Pie finds herself lost in alternate realities and Twilight and Spike go searching for her. This could have worked for an entire volume, but it's just about 12 pages depending on how you count it. This is a lot of fun regardless, giving brief glimpses of other worlds. It brings in Doctor Hooves to resolve everything, but the nature of the story makes that fine.

Source

Next, Pinkie Pie guides Celestia around Ponyville while Twilight tries to wrangle with a petrifying spell. This is another really fun story, though I feel like Celestia is the one who deviates the most from her normal personality, and appearance. She's a lot more... how do I put it... anime. It also has Celestia send a claw machine she doesn't like to the moon, as a warning to those sick of that joke. This story introduces the closest thing to an overarching story: Star Dancer, the pony who definitely is not an alien.

Source

Third, Rarity is asked to make an outfit for a special client, who turns out to be The Smooze. This becomes true manga in that story, thanks to Rarity getting a bath scene with Sweetie Belle. I liked this one for ojousama style Rarity and because I generally like stories where Rarity has to overcome obstacles. You'll have to get the manga to see Rarity take a bath >_>.

Fourth, Fluttershy is scared to give a speech and hides in her shed. And yes, the manga makes references to SHED.MOV, which disappointed me a bit. There are good moments though, like this.

Source

Fifth is the weakest story of the lot, focusing on Applejack, of course. Flim and Flam show up again to cause trouble, but the special apples they brought turn out to be crab apples, as in apple-shaped crabs that go around pinching everyone. It's a lot of story, not many gags. It also has the odd detail that despite Spike having wings, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are still making fun of blank flanks and Apple Bloom has to be forced to help them instead of watching crabs pinch them.

I wasn't a big fan of the sixth story either. Derpy is wrecking stuff, so Rainbow takes her to Zecora to find a cure for her clumsiness. Instead, Derpy uncovers a dragon claw and accidentally wishes for Rainbow's flying skill, leaving Rainbow as clumsy as Derpy used to be. They fix this.

Seventh is a story focused on our new not-an-alien pony, Star Dancer. We start out with Pinkie and the CMC sneaking into a theater showing a scary alien film, and a suspicious comment from her causes the CMC to trail her.

Source

We do end up learning more about her, and I won't reveal what that is, but it's definitely going to play a major role in Volume 2, which we know will have a continuous story all throughout about a time loop on the day of a festival.

And the last story is pure self indulgence as the ponies play out various manga tropes, with ninja, a giant monster, a magical girl, and a pony running with toast in their mouth. It's a lot of fun, and I would have liked it explored more, particularly since the only ones who get much focus in this part are the Apple Family, Twilight, and Spike.

Overall, I definitely recommend checking it out. This manga won't offer a meaningful story or lessons or character development, but it's super cute and a ton of fun.

Source

SigmasonicX · Jun 21, 2019

My new magnum opus is here! May be of interest to DrForester

Originally wanted Twilight interacting with Touga, but I just couldn't find a Twilight line that matched to him saying, (paraphrased) "Don't worry about it! After all, we're best friends!" So I went in another direction.

SDCC 2019 exclusive toys revealed

You get the same toys, but you can choose the packaging. This is pretty basic for an exclusive toy, but it's a cute idea for the end of G4.

Neat Augmented Reality books

We also have some more official fan art, from Tori Grant and Katrina Hadley. The first two are ponies, last is EQG.
1.Gala Rainbow by Tori Grant
2.Applejack X Pinkie by Tori Grant - Confirmed that's what it is by the commissioner
3.Chibi EQG Pinkie by Katrina Hadley

Episode followup

NOTES
I mentioned this in the stream followup, but watching a bunch of CMC episodes before this really rubs in how much this episode calls back with its returning characters. Skeedaddle from "Marks and Recreations" has a cutie mark, plus many other ponies from that episodes. Troubleshoes from the end comes from "Appleoosa's Most Wanted". Feather Bangs comes from "Hard to Say Anything". And more.

It's interesting that Scootaloo's parents never really talked down to her. They took her complaints seriously, and made pretty reasonable counterarguments, but just didn't take seriously that the CMC needed to work together as opposed to being long distance friends.

I definitely feel like Scootaloo's parents aren't making nearly as big a splash as one would have expected, especially given how big Orphan Scootaloo was for years. But then again, the Orphan Scootaloo meme died down a lot in recent years. Plus Apple Parents were revealed two seasons ago, and I suppose there was more actual interest in that while Scootaloo not having parents was just a meme.

Scootaloo's lesbian aunts also stole some of their thunder, though even they aren't getting anything close to an Apple Parents level of art. Well, more Pear Butter than Bright Mac. Bright Mac himself never got that much art that didn't also include Buttercup.

... I suppose in the end a big factor is that they don't have super cute designs like Pear Butter did.

You know, my thoughts went to to the old Scootaroo meme.

And led me to this thought.

When Scootaloo was younger, she'd write letters to her parents. One day, she wrote, "Hey Mom, Dad! I just learned something amazing! I'm actually a rare animal just like the ones you research. I'm a Scootaroo! Scootaroos hop here and there and everywhere on their scooters, and are really interesting. So please, come home and research me! I can be just as interesting as those other animals!"

But she decided she didn't want to bother her parents and didn't send that letter.

And that's how you get a sad Scootaloo story even with parents.

SCREENSHOTS
1.The animals in cages - From the bottom up, is a bugbear, the cragadile, a cockatrice, and a bufogren (from Equestria Daily). The bufogren is way smaller than usual. Also, they can talk, so...
2.The Everfree Banshee Beast
3.Wall of pictures
4.Beautiful Aunts' House shot
5.Cutie Marks Quilt - I guess Pipsqueak's cutie mark is just his cow pattern

1.CMC celebration group shot
2.Other "Marks and Recreation" ponies now with cutie marks
3.Bird shipping
4.Hey it's Diamond Tiara! - Also the Big Mac / Sugar Belle couple and a bit of Starlight. And Silver Spoon.
5.Those the CMC helped - From ED: Pipsqueak, Troubleshoes, Zippoorwhill, Mercury with the afro he got in "Forever Filly", Chip Cutter, Feather Bangs.

FAN CONTENT
Still not all that much art for the new episode, surprisingly.

Agrol GIF

1.Scootaloo being hugged by hooves by taaffeiite - This is the only one here uploaded before the US airing.
2.Scootaloo Hugging Her Parents by DoraeArtDreams-Aspy on DeviantArt
3.Scootaloo and her aunts by alumx
4.Monsters Inc. meme with Scootaloo and her parents by ljdamz1119
5.butterfly by FIoweress on DeviantArt - Scootaloo with aunts

1.S9E12 - My True Parents by luminaura on DeviantArt - Scootaloo with aunts
2.The Cragadile Hunter (Pic of the week MLPS9E12) by JonFawkes on DeviantArt - Scootaloo with parents, humanized
3.Aunts humanized by jonfawkes
4.Epic Conclusion by LiaAqila on DeviantArt - Scootaloo and Rainbow, and OC
5.Scootaloo with parents by lupiarts

1.Scoots Aunts by Doodle-Mark on DeviantArt
2.Gasp by RysunkowaSucharia on DeviantArt - Australian Scootaloo
3.Aunts by pixelgrip94
4.Scootaloo with her aunts by Taneysha on DeviantArt
5.Aunt Holiday and Aunt Lofty(Pic Edit) by DoraeArtDreams-Aspy on DeviantArt

1.Trixie is looking at Scootaloo Aunt Holiday's cup by xbi on DeviantArt
2.Scoot's Aunts by InuHoshi-to-DarkPen on DeviantArt
3.Aunt Holiday and Auntie Lofty by EeviArt on DeviantArt
4.[Canon] Loganberry x Fuchsia Frost by Melobee on DeviantArt - Those background ponies shown drinking milkshakes together.

Comics

Gay Parade by jargon scott

No Nudes is Good Nudes by DeusExEquus on DeviantArt

SigmasonicX · Jun 21, 2019

Big Jim, animation director for FiM, has a message for everyone now that DHX has finished production on FiM just today

Equestria Daily has rehosted each image here

It's a nice message, calling out everyone possible. And that's another step toward the end of the show for us viewers.

It's going to be interesting to hear their thoughts on Rainbow Roadtrip, which they weren't involved in.

On another note, on YouTube now

Still cute, but I still feel like this doesn't really match Sunset's previous personality, so all the people going, "This is why I love Sunset," is weird to me. Unless the "why" is just "Sunset's cute", haha.

Sylvee · Jun 22, 2019

So if this is the Last Crusade and there was Crusaders of the Lost Mark earlier, which episode was Temple of Doom?

I feel like this episode is sort of a microcosm of Season 9 as a whole: not bad but underwhelming given its context. Just for context this episode is:

> The first time we have ever seen Scootaloo's real Parents
> The first time we have ever seen who Scootaloo has been living with all of these years
> Potentially the final CMC-focused episode EVER

And it plays out very similar to most every other normal CMC episode. The CMC run into a problem, they try a bunch of obviously bad ideas in a row to try and fix the problem, at some point one of the Mane 6 coaches them to get them back on track, and then they finally end up solving the problem. More than anything else the big thing I took away from the episode was just how pedestrian and "normal" it felt.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, I don't think the episode is bad, as far as CMC episodes go, I think it's alright. The new characters are interesting and there's some good gags as well. I've never been a massive fan of the usual CMC episodes, but this one is probably above average. But I feel like the episode was kind of hard to take all that seriously when most of the dramatic moments were undercut by silly comedy. You compare this episode to Crusaders of the Lost Mark, that episode's premise had much lower stakes than this one (up until the very end when they get their marks) but the way it was presented made it very dramatic. I was a lot more invested in whether Diamond Tiara would do the right thing than I did about if the CMC would stick together. And I don't want to have the big takeaway from this post being that dramatic/serious episodes > lighthearted and fun episodes, I think there's a place for both. It's just that with this episode being such a major milestone for the series I feel like it could have been a bit more emotional and less silly.

Looking back at it, I really feel like Crusaders of the Lost Mark was the absolute perfect note to end the CMC's story on, even if this episode's name is a lie and there's another CMC episode after this I don't think it's really possible to beat that episode both in terms of quality and in closure. I wish that somehow they could go back in time and make that the final CMC episode and just replace all the newer season CMC stuff with something else.

Pretty meta discussion, but I feel like that's more interesting than the episode itself. And don't get me wrong, the episode was still fun and was above average for a CMC episode for me. But I guess going into this season I figured that the big reason why Season 8 was so pedestrian (especially compared to 7) was because they were saving all their great ideas for the final season. And to be fair that may still be the case and the 2nd half of the season is going to be mind-blowing. But so far it just feels like another normal season.

SigmasonicX · Jun 22, 2019

Sylvee , I agree that "The Last Crusade" feels really normal for what's possibly the last CMC episode. A big part of it is what I mentioned before, that Scootaloo's parents aren't really anything someone not involved in the fandom would care much about or even notice (and I feel even the fandom mostly lost interest), and it's hard to make a big thing out of them like you would with Diamond Tiara being reformed. Like even if this episode had big musical numbers, it just wouldn't emotionally make sense. Unless Scootaloo actually did leave.

About making "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" the final CMC episode, that reminds me of these tweets from yesterday.

Sean Horace
‏ @SeanHorace
2h2 hours ago

Why didn't @Hasbro commission you and the others to do an episode where Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon spoke all these years?

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
Replying to @SeanHorace @Hasbro

You'd have to ask them. We pitched stuff with those characters, and they seemed less interested in them post-"Crusaders".
8:54 PM - 21 Jun 2019

Kallo
‏ @KalloSkull
1h1 hour ago

Was there any particular reason why Diamond Tiara never got a speaking role again after her redemption, or was it just pure coincidence? Seems after S5 she kinda just faded out of the series apart from a few minor background appearances.

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
Replying to @KalloSkull

We pitched stuff with her but Hasbro never bit. They felt like her story was complete. 🤷🏽‍♂️
9:39 PM - 21 Jun 2019

Kallo
‏ @KalloSkull
1h1 hour ago

Interesting. So did Hasbro specifically order she not appear in any major role anymore, or was it more you guys not wanting to include her if you couldn't properly focus a story on her? I assume Hasbro didn't generally control side-characters appearing for small one-liners etc?
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
Replying to @KalloSkull

They don't, no. But the stories that got chosen didn't ever really feature her. And bringing in VAs for single lines can be expensive, so we always tried to use characters that had more than a single line unless they were randos.
9:55 PM - 21 Jun 2019

So Hasbro decided Diamond Tiara's story was over with that episode and rejected any episode ideas with her after that.

There are more tweets and official fan art to post, but I'll save that for another post.

~~~

Between Dark and Dawn
This was a fun episode, though smiley Celestia and Luna are seriously weird looking, plus it's strange hearing both of them talk the way they do here. The story doesn't offer much in twists and turns, but it's enjoyable and there are a ton of settings and costumes. It's interesting that Celestia and Luna's preferences are swapped from what fans usually go with: Celestia is the one who wants to go adventuring, while Luna just wants to go to a spa and relax. I also liked the consistent gags of background ponies being excited to see them.

In universe, it's a bit hard to justify Twilight not knowing that Celestia delegates tasks, especially since she's had lessons about this before. But then again, this does match up to how Twilight decided to start a school with no other teachers besides her friends. It's weird how Fancy Pants has been a jerk in every episode he's spoken in after his introduction. Also wait, shouldn't Celestia's note have mentioned the party planning committee?

That tortoise was pretty cool, but SMH at it being a strike-breaking scab.

This was revealed by her a couple weeks ago, but this episode was written by Gail Simone, of comic book fame. Repeating what I mentioned then, it's great to finally get a famous female guest writer, and Gail Simone actually was just the person I expected for such a role, as someone who has written for cartoons before (of the superhero kind). Given she's a guest writer, I'm surprised by all the little references she included, like the Royal Canterlot Voice and Sunburst being mentioned. I'll have to look at her tweets again now that I've seen the episode.

~~~

We finally have footage of Rainbow Roadtrip!

Movement feels a bit slow, but it otherwise looks nice.

SigmasonicX · Jun 22, 2019

Long thread from Gail Simone about having to work on MLP at the same time as Mortal Kombat, leading to strange dreams. Select tweets quoted below.

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

Anyway, last year, I got offered a bunch of stuff, and a TON of it would have required vast amounts of research time. So I turned most of it down. Except for two things, two projects that were SO fun-sounding that I couldn't say no. 10/

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

My Little Pony.

And

Mortal Kombat. 11/

[...]

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

Now, two things came up immediately. One was a problem, the other was just hilarious.

The PROBLEM was, both of these projects had to be worked on at the same time. I'll get to the funny bit in a minute. 15/

[...]

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

So, for this to happen, I needed to restructure how I work. I went into my office most days.

Mornings were for My Little Pony research, watching the show (there are over 200 episodes), reading the comics, etc.

And afternoon and evenings were for Mortal Kombat. 20/

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

Which meant playing the game, reading the online fan research, and scouring the books and comics. It's a huge mythology, comparable to a lot of long-running fantasy and tv shows. And there's not really a single resource, so it was a LOT to learn. 21/

[...]

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

And here's where it gets funny to me. I look back at this and it makes me laugh to contemplate.

Each morning, I am IMMERSED in love and joy and laughs and rainbow ponies.

Then at noon, I am 100% about decapitations and spines being ripped out and portals to hell. 24/

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

When my hubby would have to call, he would do everything he could to call before noon, because that was my RAINBOW DASH time, and not my GET OVER HERE Scorpion time. 15/

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

You can't help but feel a bit like you have multiple personalities. It's all, "Let's go, Fluttershy!" and then it's "FATALITY."

Also I messed up my numbering again, sorry. 26/

[...]

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

You know how when you get a new job and you have a lot of concentration involved, and it's important to get it right? You know how it follows you home, and you start to dream about it? 30/

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

That happened to me. Almost every night, I would dream about My Little Pony and Mortal Kombat.

And here's the weird bit. It was ALWAYS BOTH. It was never one or the other. It was always a mash-up. Every night, for weeks! 31/

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

Sometimes, it was the ponies in the Neatherrealm, and sometimes it was Sub-Zero in Equestria, but it was always a mix. Sometimes the dream stories were charming and pony-like... 32/

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

But sometimes, it would be ponies fighting Shao Kahn in a graveyard. ACK.

And even weirder, I started to have sub-plots and continued stories. Raiden and Celestia had a little flirty thing going, Applejack and Sonja Blade became friends...33/

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

AND I COULDN'T TELL ANYONE BECAUSE IT WAS ALL TOP SECRET.

Every night, these weird little mashup movies in my head, and I couldn't tell ANYONE about ANY OF IT.

Hahahahaha, this is a weird job. 34/

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

So those of you who are convinced my brain is weird, I invite you to reflect upon this. For two months solid, I dreamed of KOMBAT PONY and wrote little epic stories about it.

While I was unconscious. :)
35/

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

And because I love crossovers, I have this tiny wish in the back of my head that some day, some way...

...I get to write that bastard.

36/

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

Thank you for listening to this weirdo story of weirdness.

MY LITTLE KOMBAT.

end/

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

PS. The Mortal Kombat thing didn't happen. The game company was doing MK 11 and didn't feel they could split their efforts, so all that research, while fun, kinda went in the dump. It's sad, I have ENDLESS files. Maybe it'll be something someday. No hard feelings at all.

It's pretty fun to read all this, especially Raiden and Celestia flirting.

Also, her second tweet in that chain makes an interesting point.

GAIL SIMONE is MY LITTLE SIMONEY
‏ @GailSimone
May 26

I am very fortunate in that I get asked to do a lot of projects, many of which are things outside of my normal wheelhouse. As fans, we often take for granted how long it took to have the deep knowledge we have for the stuff we love. 2/

Remember that to get to the level of knowledge we're at now, it took over 100 hours just to watch the show, let alone understand what the fandom cares about.

Info about the episode from Nicol Dubac.

Nicole Dubuc‏
Verified account @NicoleDubuc

The Royal Swanifying Ceremony is based on a real-life thing! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Upping … #MLPSeason9

8:38 AM - 22 Jun 2019

Nicole Dubuc
‏Verified account @NicoleDubuc

In this amulet, you say? Does that answer some Season 8 finale questions for you all? #MLPSeason9
8:40 AM - 22 Jun 2019

So that amulet was partially included to plug up the plot hole of Celestia and Luna changing the time of day during the season 8 finale despite being drained of magic.

There's a bunch of stuff you could post from the new episode, but here's a big one.

Freaking Capper appears in this episode! As a cameo during the song. Well, it's time to dust off my bingo card.

I'm starting to think we won't start a story with Celestia defeated, so oddly, it looks like my clearest path to victory will be an episode focused on a "Slice of Life" character and seeing the far future.

SigmasonicX · Jun 23, 2019

We got solicitations for IDW comics in September.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #82
Kate Sherron (w) • Kate Sherron (a & CVR A) • Sara Richard (CVR B) • Nicoletta Baldari (1:10 RI CVR)

A dust-up in Ponyville plus an escaped Cerberus equals quite the ruckus for our favorite fillies! When Princess Celestia requests a dog sitter for the high-spirited canine, the task falls to the least-likely of ponies: Rarity! It's going to take some dog-dog-dogged determination, a bit of hard work, and a whole lot of patience to figure this whole dog thing out... but it's sure to be a pawsitively wild adventure!

My Little Pony: Feats of Friendship #2 (of 3)
Ian Flynn (w) • Tony Fleecs (a & CVR A) • JustaSuta (CVR B) • Katie O'Neill (1:10 RI CVR)

With the Feats of Friendship underway, the Young Six-plus Swift Foot-look to get ahead of the competition! On the schedule? Gathering apples from Sweet Apple Acres, building a bridge across Stable Rapids River, and outwitting the Chimera! Shouldn't be a problem for our heroes, right? If only they could just get along... and why does Swift Foot seem so happy about all this fighting, huh?!

I didn't think they'd follow up on those scenes of Rarity and the Cerberus from "School Raze" of all things. Kate Sherron has drawn that Zephyr Breeze issue, and she's drawing #80 (not out yet), but this will be the first issue she's written.

For Feats of Friendship, odd that we got Cover B before A. Anyway, looks like Swift Foot, who probably isn't Sonic, will be evil. Like usual for these miniseries, the synopses don't mean much before the miniseries has actually started.

Another video of Daniel Ingram covering his own songs.

This is a pretty good cover.

Alright, before I get to fan art for this episode, going to post those other Big Jim tweets I mentioned.

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim

@pixelkitties has done the autograph art for almost every con I've attended as a guest. If ever there was someone who 'got' me from an influence standpoint, it's her. And if she had lived closer, I would have loved to have her on the #mlp crew. #IAppreciatePixelkitties
8:11 PM - 21 Jun 2019

Huh, I think this is the first time anyone on the crew has said "I would have hired this fan artist to work on the show".

Philocleon
‏ @Philocleon

Why did Arielle Tuliao do Scootaloo's singing voice in Your Heart is in Two Places?

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
Replying to @Philocleon

The CMC voice actors have grown up quite a bit since they first came on the show. It was crazy difficult for the actress to keep the SL voice AND sing in tune.
8:53 PM - 21 Jun 2019

The CMC VAs were roughly the age of their characters when they started, but now they're all in their 20s. And Madeline Peters was already the oldest of the three.

Characters they hated drawing

Osaka Jack
‏ @OsakaJack
2h2 hours ago

Nice!
Okay, my last one.
Is there a character that wasn't necessarily disliked, but staff groaned about b/c they were more difficult to animate?

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
Replying to @OsakaJack

THE BREEZIES. Ugh.
9:04 PM - 21 Jun 2019

Last voices were recorded last October

Cayci
🐠
‏ @caycifish
2h2 hours ago

How long ago was the final voice record?

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
Replying to @caycifish

October last year, I think?
9:19 PM - 21 Jun 2019

Adam Hartley
‏ @metraking192
2h2 hours ago

Is the ending emotional, did it make any member of the cast shed tears

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
Replying to @metraking192

Yup.
9:08 PM - 21 Jun 2019

And that other official fan art, from Bevin Brand. Also only recently learned Bevin is a woman's name, so sorry if I referred to her as "he" in a previous post.
Main Tumblr post for this set
1. EQG Young Celestia and Luna
2. Cadance giving dating advice to SciTwi
3. Timber meeting the Twilight Family - includes unofficial EQG designs for Twilight Velvet and Night Light
4. Timber X SciTwi sketches
5.Commission info - With art of Curly Winds (blue guy) kissing Wiz Kid on the cheek

And now for "Between Dark and Dawn", I'll post some episode art from last month before anything new. And thinking about it, screw it, going to post medium sized art behind spoiler tags for the most part.
1.Sister hug by darkest-lunar-flower
2.Goth Celestia by not-ordinary-pony
3.Princess Celestia + Princess Luna (MLP art) by xSatanielx on DeviantArt
4.Luna Vacation by Dashy21 on DeviantArt
5.Goth Celestia and 80's Luna in the water GIF by torpy-ponius

1.Celestia and Luna being adorbs by krisscheen on DeviantArt
2.Gothlestia by digimonlover101 on DeviantArt
3.doodles by waterz-colrxz on DeviantArt - Doodles from a bunch of episodes
4.Vacation Celestia by mewnikitty
5.Goth Celestia by mewnikitty

1.Luna. One Stamp Please (EQG) by TheRETROart88 on DeviantArt
2.Random Goth Tia Icon by Dashy21 on DeviantArt
3.Celly by DDdreamdraw on DeviantArt
4.Celestia by lRUSU on DeviantArt
5.MLP FIM - Princess Luna Chilling At The Beach by Joakaha on DeviantArt

fony · Jun 23, 2019

The Last Crusade

I thought there might be a good chance that they actually have Scoots move away (avoided spoilers and reactions the entire time). I don't like that many CMC episodes in general and I like this one. It was a welcome change from the other episodes that were more average this season.

I thought having parents would've had more fandom repercussions before reading SigmasonicX's post.

Between Dark and Dawn

I was really worried that there'd be another casual princess episode because I wasn't a fan of Horse Play. But the princesses vacationing was really fun to watch and them acting kinda dumb didn't bother me as much. I suppose that's an established fact now.

The mane six portion felt like it ended up a bit abruptely. They still haven't learned anything from applebuck season.

Ogodei · Jun 23, 2019

Did the Mane 6 really break that sanitation worker strike?

Cancelled.

SigmasonicX · Jun 24, 2019

People really do read my posts!

fony said:
The mane six portion felt like it ended up a bit abruptely. They still haven't learned anything from applebuck season.

Yeah, after rewatches, the Mane Six portion of the story is definitely the weak link and doesn't make them look great. Especially since Twilight has learned this lesson so many times before.

Ogodei said:
Did the Mane 6 really break that sanitation worker strike?

Cancelled.

Yeah, that stuck out to me as an oddly inconsiderate moment. Hopefully they properly resolved the strike later and had the tortoise join their union.

Saw this pointed out

The order of the colors, Gail Simone being progressive, and the fact that we know this isn't beyond the animators point to this being intentional.

Also, it was pointed out on Discord that "Between Dark and Dawn" is also the name of a Birds of Prey (DC superhero team) comic that was also written by Gail Simone. This episode's name is likely a reference.

EQG - The Last Drop
I didn't bother to watch last week's EQG short, since it's CYOA and I've always found that awkward outside the official YouTube uploads, but nothing gets me to watch EQG more than Fluttershy doing something super cute, and she does this in today's. (Video edited to extend it).

I never knew I wanted this so much.

Sunset's video game themed ending is pretty great too, but Fluttershy's is... well, see above. There's also a Big Mac ending, but it's pretty unremarkable beyond a tiny CheeriMac moment... which is weird when she's a teacher and he's a high school student in this universe.

Unfortunately, this isn't online in good quality yet. And because of that, there aren't that many screenshots and GIFs on Derpibooru.

~~~

Ian Flynn talks about writing the Feats of Friendship comic. Sheesh, he's really building up Wind Sprint and how he can't even begin to go into what her deal is without massive spoilers. Hopefully she really is that interesting. It's also interesting to hear about how he started watching the show during season one but then stopped before the season ended, despite recommending it to others, but he kept tabs on it. Just too busy, I suppose.

~~~

It's getting late, but I suppose I should post a few more "Between Dark and Dawn" images. First four images are from before the US airing, rest are all from after.

1.Anthro Vacation Celestia and Luna by bubbletea - They have breasts, but they're covered, but they don't have pants, but there's nothing there, so... safe?
2.Strawberry Ice's Momentous moment by FlyLash6009 on DeviantArt - Background pony's selfie with Celestia
3.Vacation Luna by erufi
4.Vacation Luna ball butt bounce by scheadar
5.Beach Princesses by Itoruna-The-Platypus on DeviantArt

1.Goth Celestia body pillow (safe) by angstfish
2.Sun and Moon | Cutie Saturday by Shibaroll on DeviantArt
3.Goth Celestia by moozua
4.Fanart - MLP. Season 9, EP 13, Royal Duet by jamescorck on DeviantArt - Goth Celestia and 80's Luna
5.Emo Celestia by Marenlicious on DeviantArt

1.Luna telling Foul Beast Scootaloo to begone by bennimarru
2.[Chicken Dance] by CowsRTastyArt on Newgrounds - And Celestia
3.Sisters trading personalities by RaikohIllust on DeviantArt - Goth Celestia and 80's Luna
4.Luna with stingbush seed pods on her butt by gouransion - The version on DeviantArt adds underwear, which as always somehow makes it lewder, so going with the bottomless version.
5.S9E13 - Alter Princesses by lumineko -- Fur Affinity [dot] net - Goth Celestia and 80's Luna

Goth Celestia only appeared for a few seconds but is getting a ton of art. I liked her look after getting in water more than before.

SigmasonicX · Jun 26, 2019

Wasn't a big fan of this one either.

New comic review coming tomorrow, so I'll dump some episode art here. First, agrol GIF for the episode.

1.Best Sisters by SakuraCheetah on DeviantArt
2.Celestia and Luna skydiving by lumineko
3.Sisterhooves (Pic of the week MLPS9E13) by JonFawkes on DeviantArt - Humanized
4.Link Celestia and a cucco by chibadeer
5.Zipping Celestia by AssasinMonkey on DeviantArt - This one is actually a bit scary, IMO

1.80's Luna and Goth Celestia by amarynceus
2.Forceful bonding by Orin331 on DeviantArt - Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon
3.Vacation Luna by dawnfire
4.Princess Luna by puperhamster on DeviantArt - 80's
5.Sisters trip by LooknamTCN on DeviantArt - EQG

1.Vacation Luna and Celestia by jowybean
2.Celestia and Luna coffee mug and postcard by jowybean
3.Limestone and Goth Celestia by puetsua
4.Vacation Celestia GIF by el-yeguero
5.80's Luna sketch by plushcolossus

1.Goth Celestia by groggyman
2.Vacation Celestia and Luna by forgottenrabbit28blr
3.Vacation Celestia and Luna by murai shinobu
4.Teen Goth Celestia and Fausticorn by pixelgrip94
5.Gothlestia by Darksly-z on DeviantArt

1.80s Luna by EeviArt on DeviantArt
2.Goth Celestia by fatbot
3.Scaredy birb by Vixenwolf123 on DeviantArt - Celestia scared of Scootaloo
4.Rooster waking up Celestia by murai shinobu - This is my favorite explanation for Celestia's fear of chickens
5.Celestia and Luna wing hug at dawn with a shooting star by murai shinobu

Comics
Simple Spells by bobthedalek on DeviantArt

Alektorophobia by Banebuster on DeviantArt

More coming some other time. Yes, there's still a lot to go.

SigmasonicX · Jun 26, 2019

FYI, the Equestria Girls special "Sunset's Backstage Pass" was expected to air this Saturday in Mexico, but it actually aired earlier today instead. As such, there are screenshots on Derpibooru. I personally don't care about EQG spoilers, and this story was already released in book form anyway (The Starswirl Do-Over), but I'll refrain from spoilers for those who do care. It won't air in the US for more than a month.

Although (shipping related): it's apparently pretty heavy on SunPie.

And for a bit of non-spoiler content, have a fun song remix, though it's a pretty basic overlaying of additional music over show audio (with sound effects).

SigmasonicX · Jun 26, 2019

Spirit of the Forest #2 (of 3)
Compared to the previous mostly feel-good issue, this is much more downbeat, with every attempt to get Filthy Rich to stop destroying the White Tail Woods failing. All his papers are in order (so no Lawyer Twilight this time), his mill has already become a major source of lumber for the town, and the CMC's attempt to scare the workers away with a monster costume is thwarted by none other than their sisters (and Rainbow).

We get more of Good Diamond Tiara here, which is nice to see. It's clear that her talking to her father will be the key to resolving this.

Looking at this purely from a character standpoint, we learn more about Filthy Rich's motivation behind cutting down White Tail Woods. It appears to be entirely profit driven, using the good feelings people have about the woods as a marketing campaign. While his mother loved these woods, he thinks she'd be proud to see him make good use of them. He actually changes his reasoning a lot through this issue, so it's pretty clear there's some more personal reason behind his actions.

My concern with this sort of environmental message is that it tells kids that they have to do something about pollution, but also shows there's no real legal avenue for this, so they have to appeal to the good sides of business owners, since they certainly can't encourage kids to do anything illegal. In a time when climate and pollution is an immediate issue, this sort of lesson just feels outdated.

I didn't notice until Silver Quill's review, but yeah, they don't even consider the idea of asking Twilight to help with this. Granted, given previous stories, Twilight will inexplicably have her hands tied. I agree with Silver in a vacuum that it's nice to see this isn't presented in a black and white way, but at the same time, I've heard one too many "but what about the jobs?!" and such regarding coal mines and other environmentally devastating actions in recent years. I suppose it is important for future environmentalists to be exposed to that argument, though.

Still, this is overall a fine issue for its premise.

~~~

New official fan art, young SciTwi and Shining Armor by Bevin Brand

"Lotta Little Things" cover by Wubcake. Surprised to see another new show song cover from her.

I'm not sure it really sounds much like Sunset, but then again I have a hard time visualizing Sunset's singing voice.

SigmasonicX · Jun 28, 2019

Some nice official fan art of EQG Shining Armor x Cadance by Bevin Brand.

New papercraft book cover revealed

Art is just from the inner pages of the manga, but it's still nice. Starlight is actually included this time!

Episode followup

NOTES
I mentioned before that Luna and Celestia's portrayal here is the reverse of how they're usually handled in fan content, where Luna is the outgoing adventurous one and Celestia is used for contrast. I then realized that Luna's portrayal might be close to the classic season 1 fanfic Progress, but I made that realization too late to actually read it before writing this. It's a pretty long story. All I know is that she loves her abacus there.

This part of the song has a bunch of cameos.

The Wonderbolts (Spitfire, Soarin', and Fleetfoot), Trixie, Silverstream and an unnamed hippogriff, Zecora, Gilda and Gabby, Flim and Flam, Discord and The Smooze, Capper, some changelings, some dragons, and Ember.

I mentioned Luna in this picture before, but Celestia's colors have significance too.

On the right is the asexual flag (see my avatar). A bit more of a stretch, since the grays are from her hair being shiny. Still, somewhere a Twilestia shipper felt a shudder and doesn't know why.

SCREENSHOTS
I think I'll just leave it up to Equestria Daily with their followup.

FAN CONTENT
And catching up on art
1.Royal sister by Marenlicious on DeviantArt - The Goth Celestia part was posted on its own earlier, but now this has 80's Luna.
2.Human Vacation Celestia and Luna by melliedraws
3.Tia is havin a good ole time by AnnaKitsun3 on DeviantArt - Goth Celestia
4.Lunnaaa by AnnaKitsun3 on DeviantArt - 80's Luna
5.80's Luna and Goth Celestia by egophiliac - First show related art from her in a while

1.Vacation Celestia and Luna by egophiliac - Same Tumblr source as the above image
2.Relaxing by Darksly-z on DeviantArt - Vacation Luna
3.Princess Celestia 6 25 2019 by tohupo on DeviantArt
4.Unity by EcolineGD on DeviantArt - Celestia and Luna winghug at sunrise
5.Luna want relaxation by ExBesh on DeviantArt

1.Vacation Luna by ravensunart
2.Goth Celestia by mirroredsea
3.Time For Relax by Blackligerth on DeviantArt - Luna
4.Vacation Celestia and Luna by darkest-lunar-flower
5.Princess Luna 6 27 2019 by tohupo on DeviantArt

1.Luna relaxing by erufi
2.Little Joys of Life by InuHoshi-to-DarkPen on DeviantArt - Celestia and Luna at the post office
3.Goth Celestia by amy-gamy
4.Luna's Beach Day by Mew-Me on DeviantArt
5.Luna and Celestia by anticularpony - First Ask Sunshine and Moonbeams post in a while.

Comic that explains why Mr. Cake isn't in the episode
In Between the Sun and the Moon by DeusExEquus on DeviantArt

And older episodes and EQG art.
1.Holiday and Lofty by pabbley
2.Lofty and holiday by nightton on DeviantArt
3.Flighty Thoughts by bobthedalek on DeviantArt - Holiday and Lofty
4.The Last Crusade by Darksly-z on DeviantArt - CMC and Aunts
5.MLP FIM - Aunt Holiday by Joakaha on DeviantArt

1.Aunt Holiday by tre
2.Auntie Lofty by tre
3.Maud and Stone Mudbriar by pinkiespresent
4.[Painting?] Roseluck by LunarFroxy on DeviantArt
5.MLP FIM - Starlight Glimmer Feeling Ashamed by Joakaha on DeviantArt

1.Technically by poecillia-gracilis19 on DeviantArt - Mudbriar, Starlight, Trixie, and Sunburst
2.Gallus, Smolder, and a burned book by alumx
3.Trixi by Gouransion on DeviantArt - Trixie looking at Starlight's butt
4.Ember with an egg by maren
5.Love by the baby dragons (MLPS9C09) by AsajioPie01 on DeviantArt - Fluttershy with baby dragons

1.Adagio dazzle by sumin6301 on DeviantArt
2.Sonata playing Gameboy by WubcakeVA on DeviantArt
3.Sunset playing Animal Crossing by captainabarai
4.Find The Magic by DANMAKUMAN on DeviantArt - Adagio
5.Dazzlings After Show by Dieart77 on DeviantArt

1.music festival by haibaratomoe on DeviantArt - Applejack and Rarity
2.Adagio by murai shinobu
3.Angel Costume Sonata by rileyav
4.EG Series - Find the Magic (Wallpaper) by charlieXe on DeviantArt - Dazzlings

And "The Last Crusade" comic
12 The Custody Wars by BJDazzle on DeviantArt

~~~

Since I know a lot of people still aren't aware this is a thing, a movie will be airing this Saturday.

Movie - Rainbow Roadtrip - June 29, 2019
Rainbow Dash has been invited to the Rainbow Festival at Hope Hollow as a guest of honor. She and her friends hop on a balloon, but when they crashland, no one is there to greet them. The mystery grows at sunrise when the entire town and the ponies in it are revealed to have been drained of color.

Tara Strong had a brief interview on Comicbook.com here with some new screencaps, but there isn't anything particularly interesting.

SigmasonicX · Jun 28, 2019

On YouTube now

Rarity yelling, "TOUCHDOWN!" is still great.

And we have another Ingram cover.

It's interesting having Aloma Steele (Luna's current singing voice) play Luna here, since it was Rarity's singing voice in the actual song.

And reminding again that Rainbow Roadtrip will air tomorrow. It's weird that we know so little about it, and that it seems like people aren't that aware it's coming.

SigmasonicX · Jun 28, 2019

Well, time for me to start avoiding spoilers again

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2019/06/china-leaks-my-little-pony-episode-14.html

There was some speculation in the comments that a Chinese on-demand service put up episode 14 instead of episode 13 by mistake, but I'm also seeing people say they put up both episodes. We'll see if they continue with episode 15 later, I suppose.

EDIT:

Confirmation that Daniel Ingram wrote the songs for Rainbow Roadtrip, including one he thinks could be a coda for all of FiM.

Really interesting interview with Michael Vogel, covering things like how animators really were hiding gay hints in older cartoons and the anti-LGBTQ lesson protests in Canada.

https://www.oxmag.co.uk/articles/to-the-queer-youth/

And more official fan art, from Kora Kosicka, who did designs for EQG.

SigmasonicX · Jun 29, 2019

Rainbow Roadtrip
Before I start watching, I'll set my expectations. I never thought the premise was all that intriguing, and the bits of animation we have seen are a bit stiff, so I expect this to be like Return of Jafar is to Aladdin. Keep in mind I liked RoJ well enough... when I was a kid. I haven't seen it in ages.

Woah, song at the start. I thought it was Rainbow singing at first, but maybe not. Animation already looks better than I assumed. Oh hey, Spike has wings after all. And more than that, he's in this special. Wait, was that a preview of what will happen? No, looks like they did in fact pack by the time Pinkie starts speaking. Hey! Lyra and Bon Bon! And Starlight and Trixie!

Ha, we haven't had an acknowledgment of Pinkie's crazy speed since season 2's "A Friend in Deed". Actually, is this the first time it's actually acknowledged as a thing in-universe? Anyway, I enjoyed this sequence. Compared to the Movie, they're willing to go more cartoony with this art style, it seems. Faces seem to be a weak point, though.

Alright, Spike isn't coming after all. Still, school acknowledgment! This is ingraining itself into continuity way more than the Movie did already.

The scene of everyone fleeing the balloon felt faster here than in the commercial. Just my imagination?

Petunia has a nice design. Thought they were going Japanese with her design, but then she says, "don't cha know," and has a Minnesotan accent.

Cute spider. Aww, they didn't show who had to share beds with who >_>.

Episode's going out of its way to highlight that colt and filly, and that old couple.

Neat, mare engineer.

Didn't expect the mayor to have a song. Is he a guest star? Hey, Blue Big Mac. No wonder I liked Petunia's design, I detected her purple hair through the grayscale. I like the song, outside of the concessions it makes to exposition.

Knowing the way this usually goes, the mayor must be evil, but I don't see a way for that to happen as of yet.

Hey, looks like everyone is getting their own subplot. Compare this to the Movie, where Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity didn't get a real moment to shine. Also a good move taking a multipronged approach to solving this.

Not just teleporting, Twilight can use other kinds of magic! Definite improvement from the Movie. Didn't notice before, but that colt and filly prove that beanies exist in Ponyland. What's your excuse for not wearing one as a pony, Starlight? Pickles and Barley are cute.

Laughed at Applejack and Torque hammering at the sign with their mouths.

Oh hey! Pony with a peg leg!

"I see you're taking your pie for a walk and--" I liked that, and Pinkie making a frown in the window.

Twilight not paying attention to Applejack pointing out the colored flowers is annoying.

Huh, Twilight is just wearing her rainbow wings from the toy commercial. Not a power up, then.

Actually wait, there are only 10 minutes left. Is the mayor not going to be evil after all?

Huh. No villains. No big climax.

That clip from the toy commercial really was from this special, though the commercial removed the other ponies I think. I like this song.

This was a weird special overall, because it's hard to see what the point of it was, to be blunt. Like sure, I can accept the idea of an hour long special that's purely slice of life, but given that, why this kind of story? It's basically "The Crystal Empire" minus Sombra. I feel like it's more an attempt to ease Boulder Media into animating Pony than anything else, with some minor toy tie ins.

Still, overall, I enjoyed it. It's pretty slow paced, and feels closer to one's typical expectations of a My Little Pony special pre-G4 than anything we've seen before, but there were good gags and character interactions, and there weren't any real low points.

UberTag · Jun 29, 2019

SigmasonicX said:
Didn't notice before, but that colt and filly prove that beanies exist in Ponyland. What's your excuse for not wearing one as a pony, Starlight?

SigmasonicX said:
Still, overall, I enjoyed it. It's pretty slow paced, and feels closer to one's typical expectations of a My Little Pony special pre-G4 than anything we've seen before, but there were good gags and character interactions, and there weren't any real low points.

Slow pacing with character moments is fine... if you're either building towards something or doing something/anything that isn't bog standard by-the-numbers predictable. Sadly, this special did neither of the above and, as such, I find the egregiously slow pacing to be downright fatal in this instance. I'd rather watch something with low points like the Movie, by comparison. Whereas this I'm not sure I ever want to see again.

SigmasonicX · Jun 30, 2019

I'll have to see what I think about it on a rewatch, especially knowing there isn't actually a big climax.

I'm seeing people on other sites that straight up like Rainbow Roadtrip, as opposed to finding it OK. A common refrain is that this is like a season 1 story, and this is focusing on slice of life and the show's core values as opposed to making a big adventure out of it. I think this is overly romanticizing season 1, but it is true that season 1 episodes had a slower pace than even season 2 and was less likely to have an adventure. But this special still has less, let's go with, edge than even the safest season 1 episode. I'm not going to say people are wrong for connecting with this episode, but the season 1 comparison doesn't feel quite right to me.

One odd thing about this special outside the animated part is how we can't get information from the usual Twitter sources, since Boulder Media worked on this instead of DHX. We have a new art director to follow thanks to this: Alex Vetter. It turns out over the past few days, she's been posting sketches to count down to this special. I'll embed the last tweet and just post the images and links for the others.

5. Fluttershy
4. Pinkie Pie
3. Rarity
2. Twilight Sparkle
1. Rainbow Dash

And lastly

Yup, Applejack didn't get one

Also, Rarity and Rainbow introduce the new technology of heart knees. G5 will be truly advanced.

~~~

There's a quiz giveaway for the MLP baking book, and the quiz is pretty simple.
Q: What is the name of Twilight Sparkle's brother?
Q: Fluttershy is part of what singing group?
Q: What is the name of Applejack's dog?
Q: Rainbow Dash is part of what aerial acrobatic group?
Q: What is Rarity's Element of Harmony?
Q: What kind of farm did Pinkie Pie grow up on?

But then I realized that for someone who wasn't watching the series as it aired, it actually would be difficult to recall all this off hand. And question 2 can trip up even old fans, as I saw on Discord. (It's The Pony Tones)

fony · Jun 30, 2019

Rainbow Roadtrip

Its nice to see the movie style again, which seems to have worked out pretty well overall.

The story does feels kind of dumbed down, like they're assuming the audience can't handle a more complex plot. The beginning feels more generic cartoony instead of MLP's specific style.

There's also an odd pacing/focusing issues. The (un)interesting parts somehow getting or not getting the right focus, with the wrong(?) amount of time spent. Like, I think usually in MLP, when they show essentially the same point from all characters point of view, they speed up the last few. But here they spend the same amount of time on everypony.

I don't know if the mayor's song is supposed to be simplistic but even that felt off too. It should be better or they should intentionally point at flaws.

I did pause and look at the three pictures and noticed the pony moving away. I thought that was going to be the villain or something.

Otherwise, more or less the same as everyone else here said. It the Crystal Empire but didn't go anywhere and I'm usually a fan of slice of life stuff. Since the previous special was Best Gift Ever, this is a pretty big disappointment.

SigmasonicX · Jul 1, 2019

Rewatched it, and... still not fully sure what to make of it. Like it was slow paced and not much happened, but it was still fine and I couldn't help but see it as more of a test run for Boulder Media, which made me view a lot of things as just interesting rather than real problems.

fony said:
The story does feels kind of dumbed down, like they're assuming the audience can't handle a more complex plot. The beginning feels more generic cartoony instead of MLP's specific style.

I have a theory about that. It's pretty likely that Rainbow Roadtrip will be sold as a DVD / Blu-Ray. We know that the Movie had some complaints from parents about it upsetting their children, particularly that scene where Twilight and Pinkie argued. This could have been made lighter to address those complaints. Though if that's the case, I hope this doesn't carry over to G5.

They probably also didn't want to give Boulder Media anything too complicated to animate for their first go (that isn't a short).

Didn't expect to see a remix of this song, especially this soon. It's pretty good (given it's putting a beat over the song more or less unaltered). It also made me realize "Living in Color" is basically a Disney Theme Park fireworks show song.

On another note, didn't make this connection on my first watch, but it makes a ton of sense.

Art, with the first one based on the picture book adaptation released before the special.
1.Kerfuffle - Rainbow Roadtrip by SJArt117 on DeviantArt
2.Torque Wrench by MKogwheel on Newgrounds - This and the above also have grayscale versions
3.Rainbow with Barley and Pickle by ryuu
4.Kerfuffle comic by jellymaggot - I don't agree with the message of the comic, but it is amusing
5.Fluttershy with leggings by shadowreindeer - Of course this would be one of the first things to get art

1.Fluttershy with leggings, Barley and Kerfuffle by artiks
2.Sunny Skies X Pentunia Petals by pixelgrip94
3.Pirate Kerfuffle by jamescorck
4.Barley and Pickle Barrel by shelltoon
5.Torque Wrench the Riveter by jellymaggot

1.Rainbow Wings Tempest Shadow by EmeraldBlast63 on DeviantArt
2.At the end of the Rainbow by JonFawkes on DeviantArt - Humanized new characters and Twilight
3.Kerfuffle by jokeypp on DeviantArt
4.MLP-RR Vector - Petunia Petals by jhayarr23 on DeviantArt
5.Trout pony by ecolinegd

1.Sunny Petals by kimjoman on DeviantArt - Sunny X Petunia
2.Magnifying gray peaches|MLP-RR Scene by CrystalMagic6 on DeviantArt - Pinkie
3.Torque Wrench by tohupo
4.MLP FIM - Petunia Petals by Joakaha on DeviantArt
5.Torque Wrench with no clothes by cheezedoodle96

1.Kerfuffle by brainiac
2.Rainbow-Winged Twi Dork by kimjoman on DeviantArt
3.Kerfuffle by czu - Not wearing her prosthetic here
4.Kerfuffle by OrangeJuiceRus on DeviantArt

And unrelated to this special, "Lotta Little Things" remix.

SigmasonicX · Jul 4, 2019

Friendship is Magic #79
This is a pretty straightforward story, and it reminds me a lot of that one Reboot season 1 episode "Talent Night". Ponyville is planning a celebration for Mayor Mare and Apple Bloom is left to distract her while Twilight and Cranky try to find talent to perform for her. And then a surprise guest appears.

This came as a surprise to me, since I assumed from the cover that more focus would be on Mayor Mare and Apple Bloom, but no, Apple Bloom just distracts her and they don't particularly bond. But looking at the original solicitation, what was described is what we got. It really was just the cover.

Anyway, because there isn't any real bonding, there wasn't much substance to this story. Just a series of gags, and a cameo appearance that is getting people excited even though this character already made a cameo in the comics. Albeit non-speaking.

I'll just come out and say it: it's Sunset. It is a fun moment, with her coming in to give a performance and then telling Twilight to invite her to events, but that's all she does. It's also weird, because Sunset performs with some random ponies we've never seen before to my knowledge, and she shows up for Mayor Mare when there's been no indication they even knew about each other, yet the mayor recognizes her here. As a disclaimer, I actually did see panels with Sunset on Derpibooru before reading the comic, and then saw people hyping up a surprise in the issue, but that led me to believe Sunset would be more involved in the story than she was.

(source)

Pencils returns for the art, and it's good. Twilight had glasses on for most of the issue, which was nice. And Pony Sunset has her jacket!

Silver Quill's review points out that there isn't any tension in either subplot. Apple Bloom is keeping Mayor Mare distracted, and Twilight doesn't seem particularly stressed about them not finding any talent for the performance. The only thing keeping the reader hooked is the identify of a shadowy figure (who turns out to be Sunset). He also points out an odd thing about Pencils' art, where one random background element will have a ton more detail than everything else in a panel.

Overall, not a particularly interesting issue. Really, Sunset's cameo is indeed the only part worth checking out.

~~~

Rainbow Roadtrip will get a followup later, but first, here's what one calls a GIF you can hear.

(Even though that part of the special doesn't have a sound effect due to being in a song)

Curious to know if anyone has played this

~~~

In the realm of official fan art, Bevin Brand is drawing commissions now, and I have to say, it's weird as hell seeing someone who worked on the show draw a commission for a fan blog where EQG Big Mac and Cadance marry and have a daughter. Not a bad weird, but weird. The below is Bevin's art.
1.Said commission, colored by carouselunique (of Honeycrisp Tales)
2.Original inks
3.Aria Blaze X Sunset with graffiti
4.Vignette Valencia X Gloriosa Daisy

And not official fan art at all, but I don't want a separate block for this. After that RariTwi comic I commissioned and posted in the Hangouts thread, I also got a sketch back from iojknmiojknm. I chose to have a sketch of Fluttershy dancing and howling from that Equestria Girls CYOA "The Last Drop.
5.See above

SigmasonicX · Jul 5, 2019

We got a bunch more official fan art, a mix of old ones and new commissions. This first set is all from Bevin Brand. I have a lot to say about all this.
1.Adagio singing with Wubcake's OC, Mezma - It's still super weird seeing someone who worked on the show draw a fairly well known OC.

The following images use this link, and are all older. I don't talk about all the images.

2. Flash Sentry with his brother - She had this to say about this

The second one was from before Flash's makeover, one of the board artists and myself brainstorming details about Flash's personal life and thinking him with a little brother who loves the Rainbooms would be really sweet

It's interesting how they flesh out the characters internally with all these details we never see on screen, like Flash's brother here. He doesn't appear to have a name, and Bevin confirmed in another post that they never decided on a color scheme for him.

3. Sunset hurt by her spikes -

The one below it was from when the new default outfits were being designed and we were told Sunset needed those spikes on her vest, not studs. Couldn't help but wonder how animation was going to deal with that. (Turns out, they do just fine.)

I know people thought Sunset's outfit gaining spikes was silly, and now we know people internally did too. Plus it's a fun image.

4. Timber and Applejack bond -

The bottom one was just me being flippant while also really, really excited about these two having a friendship of their own and thinking about how much they have in common.

It's interesting that people on the crew get excited about characters potentially bonding like this.

And this one is from Katrina Hadley
5.EQG Fluttershy

And we got some behind the scene information from Bevin Brand.
This one's from me, after she brought up Flash's redesign above.

sigmasonicx asked : Since you brought it up, why did Flash get a makeover, anyway? I assumed it would lead to a larger role for him, but it's been a while since it happened and nothing.

Oh, that happened largely because a bunch of us just wanted to give him one. Katrina had doodled some makeover ideas, and for fun I took my favorite one and drew it over an image of his build, and then somehow it ended up being okayed in the budget (I assume since we were redoing the main 7′s designs for season 1 and altering a lot of the BG characters' legs to be more consistent with the evolving style, giving him a makeover wasn't a huge amount more work for the builds dept.), so Courtney, the character designer, went and refined the design so it looked really appealing and on-model, and it got sent off to the builds team with the rest. As far as I know, anyway.

I found this really interesting, especially that bit about altering background character legs.

This one's about Flash and Timber and the difference in how fans and the crew view them

imperfectxiii asked : It must seem weird that you and the EQG staff really love Flash Sentry and Timber Spruce when they're so... CONTROVERSIAL, shall we say, with the fandom. :P

*shrug* Yeah, I dunno! People feel how they feel about them. Personally, I didn't come onto the franchise until Legend of Everfree, so I was watching all the previous movies through the lens of stuff in the 4th movie existing already. I knew that Flash was reviled by the fandom but I really didn't get why just based on the movies. My relationship to Timber is very different than someone who's been invested in other Twilight ships, and from a professional standpoint of "what's the best way to make this work?" which is the way I like to approach everything. I mean, the whole EQG thing could have just ended up as a limp marketing thing, but the people involved in making it really cared and tried hard to make the best thing they could out of it, which has remained consistent through every movie and short and special. And honestly, the end result is a series that has ended up standing on its own merits and potential way more than it had any reason to. The people making it gave it a heart and a purpose by thinking about it on its own terms, and less through the lens of the series it spun off from. Sometimes things don't work the way you hope, sometimes it's not received the way you want, sometimes there are just things out of your control that you can't overcome, but at the end of the day, it's really all we can do and hope that at least some of it does hit viewers the way we want.

It doesn't mean people are wrong for feeling the way they feel; something either works for you or it doesn't, that's the way it is for everyone. So I get that a lot of people don't like them and they're not required to. But for us, we're always looking for ways to make a scene or a moment or a character better, and our internal sense of who those characters are is probably different than someone viewing, and that's okay! That's how art works.

Why do these always end up so long?

It's nice to see what someone who worked on the series thinks about all this.

On another note, a nice remix

SigmasonicX · Jul 5, 2019

This is still pretty fun.

Another video of Daniel Ingram covering one of his own songs. This is probably the best one so far.

And... episodes 15 and 16 are on a Chinese on-demand service in English. It looks like the rest of the season will come out this way. I do plan on creating a separate final episode thread, just like Adventure Time and Gumball got, but I'll wait for the US release. I'd say don't post about these episodes outside spoiler tags, but no one's even been talking about them in this thread (just Discord), so keep it up, I guess.

Rainbow Roadtrip followup coming later. Really I have all the time in the world (until the end of the month), but it should be ready tomorrow at latest.

SigmasonicX · Jul 7, 2019

Rainbow Roadtrip followup!

NOTES
Alex Vetter, art director of this special, answered some questions on Twitter, including some from me.

Yuki☆ピエロ
‏ @yukidogzombie
Jul 4

will you guys make more movies ?

Alex Vetter (•̀ㅅ•́ )
‏ @sprane_swetry
Replying to @yukidogzombie

As a team? I don't think so. We all moved to other companies and onto new projects
2:28 AM - 5 Jul 2019

Which is to say some moved to other companies and some moved to other projects in Boulder Media. So even if this was a test run for G5, it would be a test for the company as a whole as opposed to this team. Also probably means we aren't getting another special like this for G4.

Xlerb
‏ @xlerb0083
Jul 4

It was the attention to detail that sold me on the special. Your characters did seem to fit naturally into the world, and it didn't feel as though you had drastically changed the core cast to fit your vision.

Alex Vetter (•̀ㅅ•́ )
‏ @sprane_swetry
Replying to @xlerb0083 @ColterGriffon09

Matching the colours and visuals was a real nightmare in the beginning. Working with desaturated colour palette is tough but you can get used to it. Some ponies where too blown out, some too dark and they blended with the BG but I think in the end we found a happy medium.
2:34 AM - 5 Jul 2019

I didn't think about how they had to make sure everything looked good both in full color and desaturated.

The thread for this got a bit borked, so just linking it. Here are all the questions I asked and their answers.

SigmasonicX
‏ @SigmasonicX
Replying to @sprane_swetry

I'm curious how Rainbow Roadtrip came to be. How did your team start working on it, why the Movie art style? Etc.
6:08 PM - 4 Jul 2019

Alex Vetter (•̀ㅅ•́ )
‏ @sprane_swetry
Jul 5

Replying to @SigmasonicX

We were finishing LPSAWOO at that time so there was a lot of multitasking at the beginning of the project. We felt a huge sense of responsibility towards the MLP fandom so we were trying to be gentle with the material and respectful, I really hope this comes across

Alex Vetter (•̀ㅅ•́ )
‏ @sprane_swetry
Jul 5

Replying to @SigmasonicX

As for the style. Hasbro asked us to do something for a tv with a movie quality - it was their creative call. Personally I think it was a good choice and we enjoyed working on this special a lot

SigmasonicX
‏ @SigmasonicX
Jul 5

Replying to @SigmasonicX @sprane_swetry

Thanks for your reply! Yeah, it definitely came across as a good MLP story. I'm curious about the rumor that this story was meant for theaters but was converted to TV. Any insight? Or would you have come in after all that was decided?

Alex Vetter (•̀ㅅ•́ )
‏ @sprane_swetry
17h17 hours ago

Never heard of that. From the get-go it was supposed to be a TV release. I think ppl are getting confused because of the quality of the animation and usage of movie rigs

Didn't get my first question fully answered, but I imagine that means she doesn't know that part. Boulder Media was told to make this, and to use the Movie art style, so they did. It is possible that this story was intended for theaters like rumored and she just came in after all that was determined, but she didn't hear about it.

SCREENSHOTS
Not too much, due to effort.
1.Checked, and the toy commercial doesn't have the other ponies with Twilight
2.Derpy avoids Big Mac - And yeah, you can clearly see the Ponyville background is just the one from the show. Party Favor is also there for some reason, but I suspect that's because they already made his model for the Movie.
3.Lord of the Rings statues - These are alicorns, so probably Luna and Celestia
4.Pinkie hugging Fluttershy
5.Applejack hugging Fluttershy
6.Red ponies gather - Goes to show that non-pink red is a really ugly color for ponies. Update your OCs accordingly.

FAN CONTENT
Here's a bunch coming, both for this special and previous episodes. After this point, I think I'll just go ahead and put all art for episodes before Rainbow Roadtrip into the Hangouts thread.
1.Kerfuffle by FlyLash6009 on DeviantArt
2.Sneaking around - NATG 2019 #7 by LizardWithHat on DeviantArt - Kerfuffle and spider
3.Kerfuffle by variant
4.Rainbow Wings by KimmyArtMLP on DeviantArt - Twilight
5.Rarifuffle family by AwooMarbleSoda on DeviantArt - Rarity, Kerfuffle, and their children

1.Tur-ruh-rized by YinglongFujun on DeviantArt - Pinkie
2.Kerfuffle by RhythmPixel on DeviantArt
3.MLP Nextgen - Aww Shucks by Musical-Medic on DeviantArt - Applejack X Torque Wrench
4.Let's Work Together by CCKittyCreative on DeviantArt - Rarity and Kerfuffle
5.Torque Wrench falling in love with Applejack by dragoon32

1.Rainbow Dash [ATG 2019-Day 5] by SpellboundCanvas on DeviantArt
2.Creepy Kerfuffle by paskanaakka
3.Kerfuffle by noxi1_48
4.Petunia Petals by puetsua
5.Rainbow Roadtrip by ElStiv on DeviantArt - Mane Six

1.【マイリトルポニー】"義足の子" / Illustration by "テラワロスw" [pixiv] - Kerfuffle
2.Barley Barrel drawn by some anon on 4chan - And with that, Barley has more art that Pickle, as usual for any pair with a male and female character
3.MLP-RR Vector - Kerfuffle by jhayarr23 on DeviantArt
4.Watching Over the Valley by Rockhoppr3 on DeviantArt
5.Kerfuffle by piripaints

1.Kerfuffle by shadowreindeer
2.Kerfuffle by Doodle-Mark on DeviantArt
3.Petunia Petals and Sunny Skies by CloudyGlow on DeviantArt - EQG

Comics
Spoilers: Rainbow Road Trip Sketches by Doodle-Mark on DeviantArt - This is a bunch of sketches and not a comic but eh. Note the dialogue at the bottom is in a weird order.

A Gift From the Heart by DeusExEquus on DeviantArt - This one is suggestive

And stuff from older episodes and Equestria Girls. Again, will be moving all this to the Hangouts thread after this point.
1.One of SciTwi's unused outfits (posted by Kora Kosicka earlier) by artmlpk
2.Another SciTwi unused outfit by artmlpk
3.Adagio new outfit by lonercroissant
4.Adagio new outfit by rileyav
5.Pinkie festival outfit by yakieringi014

1.The Dazzlings are BACK by mandy1412 on DeviantArt
2.Twilight crushed under sun and moon while Celestia and Luna laugh by grotezco
3.Wicked ponies (from "Lotta Little Things") by colorfulcolor233
4.Celestia and Luna out of the water by murai shinobu
5.Vacation Celestia and Luna by serafelis

1.Celestia and Luna with toy horseshoe by noupu
2.Royal-coaster by OinkTweetStudios on DeviantArt - Celestia and Luna
3.gothlestia by Koshakevich on DeviantArt
4.Gothlestia by Marbola on DeviantArt
5.Vacation Luna by ask-colorsound

1.Gothlestia by ask-colorsound
2.Dusk N Dawn by LiaAqila on DeviantArt - Celestia and Luna
3.Twilight by Zetamad on DeviantArt
4.Rarity punk and goth Celestia by xbi on DeviantArt
5.Vacation Celestia and Luna by fatbot

1.Vacation Celestia and Luna by dankpegasista
2.Cookies by Vixenwolf123 on DeviantArt - Scootaloo and aunts
3.Scootaloo and her parents with a xenomorph, with Cheerilee's disapproval by grotezco
4.This is my family by Darksly-z on DeviantArt - Scootaloo with drawing of family
5.Counselor Starlight by Underpable on DeviantArt - Starlight and Silverstream

1.Trapping Gone Wrong... by BrekrofMadness on DeviantArt - Applejack and Apple Bloom
2.Don't bother him. by Marenlicious on DeviantArt - Smolder and Garble
3.Evil Fambily by coyotecoyote on DeviantArt - Chrysalis and Cozy
4.The best pair of 9th season! by KiraSunnight on DeviantArt - Chrysalis and the Evil Twilight stump
5.Meeting Daring Do by Strebiskunk on DeviantArt - Also Quibble Pants and Wind Sprint
6.Zephyr and Rainbow in her dress by dstears
7.Dress Up [ATG IX D4] by VanillaGhosties on DeviantArt - Rainbow and Rarity

SigmasonicX · Jul 9, 2019

This was alright.

Oh no

(Twitter source)

And more

Mogon💖💜💙
‏ @mogonv
2h2 hours ago

whatever they're thinking, what we've drawn is probably worse

K.Hadley
‏ @isitlunchyet_t
Replying to @mogonv

And way more in-jokey.
12:24 PM - 9 Jul 2019

Shouldn't come as a huge shock to anyone who knows animators, but it turns out the Equestria Girls crew have indeed drawn a ton of NSFW art.

Anyway, I think for new art drawn by former show crew, I'll post it in the Hangouts thread, but for stuff made during production, I'll still post it here. With that said, here's some SFW art from Katrina Hadley.
EQG Bulk Bicep and Derpy building a sand castle

And a bunch of information from Big Jim.

On Bulk Bicep's name

ShockerCyclone
‏ @ShockerCyclone
Jul 5

@TheBiggestJim Now that the show is over (production wise) can you tell me if certain characters have BTS nicknames.

I'm asking because I'm rewatching "On Your Marks" right now and i get the feeling Bulk Biceps' nickname was Roid Rage.

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
Replying to @ShockerCyclone

Up until he was officially named, we referred to him as Steroid Pony or the fan name Snowflake. We tend not to have nicknames for any officially named characters as that can cause confusion.
4:25 PM - 5 Jul 2019

So they actually did use one of the fan names, Snowflake, or just "Steroid Pony" up until he got an official name. Then they fully switched over.

On Derpy's name

ShockerCyclone
‏ @ShockerCyclone
Jul 5

Had a feeling that was his unofficial name. BTW, Do you prefer Derpy or Muffin for a certain pegasus.

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
Replying to @ShockerCyclone

We always referred to her as Derpy. All the way till the end.
4:58 PM - 5 Jul 2019

So she was always called Derpy, even after merchandise started calling her Muffin.

On the School of Friendship

TwiLily [soon] @BronyCon'19
‏ @turnthelilypage
Replying to @TheBiggestJim

I notice that most creature types other than ponies have their own mini or major arcs leading up to the movie that introduced hippogriffs. My question is.. was the student six something that was always in the works or did the movie have more influence in bringing them together?
9:28 PM - 8 Jul 2019

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
18h18 hours ago

Replying to @turnthelilypage

Not so much. We knew when we were coming up with the S8 story pitches that we'd be following the movie and we knew what that story was, what with the expansion of their world. We also had the toy side of Hasbro saying they wanted a school in S8 in some capacity. So that gave...

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
18h18 hours ago

Replying to @turnthelilypage

...us the framework. Knowing what happened in the movie, it seemed like a good fit that TS would want to prep them all to deal with a much larger world and the realization that they can't possibly do it all on their own. Hence the school. And then, with the conceit...

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
18h18 hours ago

Replying to @turnthelilypage

...of wanting to spread friendship, it made sense to try and include members of some of the other races they'd met over the years. We'd seen all the races on the series previously, and the hippogriff (Silverstream) was our time to the movie. Like a lot of stuff in...

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
18h18 hours ago

...new seasons, we retrofitted things backwards to try and seem smart, and like it was all a giant plan from the beginning!

It sounds like while Hasbro wanted a school in season 8, it was the choice of the show makers to make it such a big part of it.

He wishes they had more time to expand on the Student Six

Pixel Grip
‏ @Pixel_Grip94
17h17 hours ago

What character do you wish you had more time to expand on in MLP?

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
Replying to @Pixel_Grip94

I wish we'd had more opportunity to dig in to the new kids (young 6). I feel like we were just getting to know them.
9:38 PM - 8 Jul 2019

They've already done more with them in season 9 than I expected, really.

On the gap between season 4 and 5

HerdOfMyLittlePonies
‏ @pinkie_derp_pie
17h17 hours ago

Between S4 &S5, there was an 11 month gap in shows airing. Was there a large period of idle time in production or were you able to make S5 at a more relaxed pace?

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
Replying to @pinkie_derp_pie

There was no gap for us. In fact, once we were in S5, they started stacking seasons on before we finished the one we were currently doing. In fact, at one point, for a few weeks, we were finishing S7, in the middle of S8, and starting up S9 all at the same time.
9:57 PM - 8 Jul 2019

This is a surprise to me. The gap between season 4 and season 5 wasn't caused by a delay in season 5's production, but rather a big ramp up in production. They were working on season 7, 8 and 9 at the same time at one point. This is probably when they started ramping up Equestria Girls production too (we know "Dance Magic" was being made at the same time as "Friendship Games") and definitely when they started work on the Movie. It seems like maybe season 5 was being made at a similar rate to season 4 and before, so it could have started airing earlier, but they likely waited to allow a build up in case there was a holdup later caused by all the other work they were doing. Season 6 and beyond have come at a pretty regular schedule... and come to think of it, that is when we started getting a lot of episodes airing early outside the US.

Character whose development he's most proud of

Pixel Grip
‏ @Pixel_Grip94
17h17 hours ago

What MLP character are you most proud of in terms of their development throughout the series?

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
Replying to @Pixel_Grip94

Tough question. I'm not sure. Personally, I used to not care for RY much, but I feel we've all really deepened her character over the years.
10:12 PM - 8 Jul 2019

RY refers to Rarity. It sounds like he matches a lot of the fanbase, not liking Rarity much at the start but growing on her later.

Why the breezies episode sucked to animate

Vance Parks
‏ @TinyVanillaBeam
3h3 hours ago

Why was the Breezie episode so hard?

Big Jim
‏ @TheBiggestJim
Replying to @TinyVanillaBeam

Flash was not a fan of that many characters in scenes. Kept crashing.
11:44 AM - 9 Jul 2019

I hadn't thought about it, but the size of the breezies and the nature of their episode meant there were tons of characters on screen in many scenes.

And I suppose enough time has passed to post this scene from Stranger Things season 3.

Also

Gillian M. Berrow
‏ @gmberrow

I have been keeping this secret for so long, but I was so excited that I was asked to help obtain the #mylittlepony props for #StrangersThings3! Even cooler that the backpack Duffer Bros chose was recreated and is now on sale @Target🦄
6:53 PM - 6 Jul 2019

FiM writer GM Berrow provided Erica's backpack in Stranger Things season 3.

Lastly, these statues at this Hong Kong event look pretty great.

That Twilight army...
Also, please do not climb. That means you, readers.

Fat4all · Jul 9, 2019

I REMEMBER THE WAR JUST LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY

SigmasonicX · Jul 11, 2019

^ Just want to say I appreciate these

So Hasbro is doing some interesting stuff with G1 besides that Upside Down Applejack Stranger Things tie-in toy. First, we're getting G1 style Mane Six (including normal G1 Applejack)

This would be the first officially released G1 alicorn, right?

But that's not it. They're also uploading G1 related videos, like this song that has 80's VH1 (thanks to the chat for telling me it was VH1 and not MTV) style pop up comments.

It has some pretty unexpected jokes for Hasbro. One pony's crotch is censored at 1:15 and there are some morbid jokes that have to be seen to be believed, including confirmation that Meghan died during the filming of this song.

~~~

I didn't report this before, but here's a news story that's been making waves.

https://cbs58.com/news/a-woman-ordered-a-moana-cake-for-her-daughter-but-the-baker-heard-marijuana

So there's a marijuana themed cake that included a stoned pony OC. But the thing that got me to finally post about it is that it turns out that OC's creator went on to work on FiM as a storyboard supervisor!

Kat Stenson
‏ @GlamourKat

So when I checked the news today, I did not expect my old OC art to appear on a Moana cake by mistake, go viral, and end up on every news site that exists.... #MLPFiM #stoneyponey #mylittlepony #brony #MLP
7:10 PM - 10 Jul 2019

Kat Stenson
‏ @GlamourKat
4h4 hours ago

Yes, Stoney Poney (yes that is how it's spelled, her parents were probably high when they named her) is my very first OC, created and drawn by myself during Season 1, when I was not yet working on the show (and had no idea I would be one day).
2 replies 6 retweets 21 likes
Kat Stenson
‏ @GlamourKat
4h4 hours ago

My very first drawing of her was on a /co/ #flockdraw I frequented at the time (November 2010, MLP s01ep4-7?). It's a collaborative realtime drawing app so you can draw on a whiteboard with friends. I used to do request art and just goof around. Stoney Poney was born.

Kat Stenson
‏ @GlamourKat
4h4 hours ago

A while later, the canvas was erased for more art, but people wanted to save her.... however someone accidentally erased part of her head. Another artist gave her some rainbow blood. It's great.

Kat Stenson
‏ @GlamourKat
4h4 hours ago

I did some more art based on that first design. She was posted on Ponibooru, and credited to me I think, but when it died, so did all my credit for Stoney. At least in the annals of the internet. I was pleasantly surprised to see the baker even left on my signature: KS.

Kat Stenson
‏ @GlamourKat
4h4 hours ago

I'm glad she got to be on some munchies. I saw the amount of people in the @EquestriaDaily comments who thought the cake makers designed it, or asking where the OC came from... I thought I'd fess up, since I know a lot of you know already!

Kat Stenson
‏ @GlamourKat
4h4 hours ago

Anyway it was... a weird way to see my art end up in the papers. So yes, that cake actually had art drawn by someone who worked on the show. I doubt the cake makers knew that, but... what are the odds, right?

Kat Stenson
‏ @GlamourKat
4h4 hours ago

PS. I drew her in Flash. Opened the original file. Here's her in outline mode for any of the doubters. ;)

Kat Stenson
‏ @GlamourKat
4h4 hours ago

ALSO.... having now been a supervisor on the show, I hate this drawing now, I want to revise the heck out of it.
ITS SO OFF-MODEL

Kat Stenson
‏ @GlamourKat
3h3 hours ago

I tracked down some fanart people made of her here and there back in the day... Have a look!
✿ https://www.deviantart.com/demented-day-dreams/art/Gifty-Stony-Pony-301483971
✿ https://www.deviantart.com/zetapuppis/art/Stony-Pony-Love-326826505
✿ https://www.deviantart.com/serenamidori/art/Commission-You-re-One-Crazy-Talking-Horse-328820599
✿

Kat Stenson
‏ @GlamourKat
3h3 hours ago

and this glamorous Stoney wallpaper I can't seem to find the source for.... but the artist used the smoke puff from mine, which pleases me greatly somehow haha
If anyone knows the source for this one, please PIPE up.
(you see what I did there)

And if you think you've met this person, then

Kat Stenson
‏ @GlamourKat

So, as I've gotten multiple DMs about this: No, I never used Stoney Poney as an avatar on any sites, I never RP'd as her, and if anyone you talked to back in the day claimed to have drawn this or created her, I'm sorry, you were lied to. It was definitely not me.
9:33 AM - 11 Jul 2019

Kat Stenson
‏ @GlamourKat
7h7 hours ago

I've never claimed her publicly beyond my first initial drawings and chats in the IRC back in season 1. I know a lot of people have stolen the art, but let's be fair... if no one had stolen her art, she never would have survived the Ponibooru purge, much less end up on that cake!

It really makes you wonder how many season 1 era content creators who seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth actually went on to work on the show. You can see her other old art here. Notably, she drew this other art that got mistakenly used in a Hub-released recipe back in the day.
Cutie Mark Crusaders by GlamourKat on DeviantArt

Also a bit of Rainbow Roadtrip art from its art director.

Alex Vetter (•̀ㅅ•́ )
‏ @sprane_swetry

I really miss them a lot ~~ #mlp #rainbowroadtrip
8:24 AM - 10 Jul 2019

But wait what's that in the middle of that first image. Rarity and Twilight really close, Rarity's lips close to Twilight's cheek, Rarity has heart eyes, both are blushing... IS THAT SOME FUCKIN RARITWI

(Not sure what's up with Twilight's expression in that case though)

SigmasonicX · Jul 13, 2019

SigmasonicX said:
But wait what's that in the middle of that first image. Rarity and Twilight really close, Rarity's lips close to Twilight's cheek, Rarity has heart eyes, both are blushing... IS THAT SOME FUCKIN RARITWI

It turns out... IT FUCKIN IS

SigmasonicX
‏ @SigmasonicX
Jul 10

It's a shame there won't be time for any of them to show up again (maybe in the comics). But wait, what's going on in that middle Rarity and Twilight image?

Alex Vetter (•̀ㅅ•́ )
‏ @sprane_swetry
Replying to @SigmasonicX

I'm hoping for the comic books! As for Twi and RR - it was a small fanart for our comper Nuala :> we stan Rarilight
12:22 AM - 12 Jul 2019

I just asked them if they read The Enchanted Library or another Rarilight fic, or if they started stanning it uninfluenced by fans. To my knowledge, everyone who ships RariTwi to a significant degree ships it because of fan made content; so either answer would be interesting.

There was no Equestria Girls video put on YouTube this time. Perhaps the G1 video took its slot.

EDIT: Oh right, and two more season 9 episodes were put on a Chinese on demand service, now covering all the ones we have synopses for. At this rate, the series finale will be put up the same week as season 9's return in the US, meaning the US airing will be three months behind. Please use Simple Ponyclock to keep track of what airs when.

SigmasonicX · Jul 16, 2019

Kotobukiya Fluttershy up for preorder (in Japan) now

It looks really nice!

And a couple days old but I forgot to include it in my last post.

This seemed familiar, but I think Michelle Creber posted a cover of this song on her own channel a couple months ago or something.

Fat4all · Jul 16, 2019

SigmasonicX said:

thats adorable

Lord Vatek · Jul 16, 2019

I'd been behind on this show since halfway through Season 8 and I'm finally all caught up.

I love how Celestia and Luna are now.

SigmasonicX · Jul 16, 2019

Fat4all said:
thats adorable

Yeah those shoes are nice.
Oh, the horse too.

Lord Vatek said:
I'd been behind on this show since halfway through Season 8 and I'm finally all caught up.

I love how Celestia and Luna are now.

I know some are upset that Celestia isn't presented as regally and put-together as she was in the early seasons, but the character details introduced in "Slice of Life", "A Royal Problem", and "Horse Play" have done wonders for actually getting Celestia and Luna to appear in random episodes.

It's interesting how back in season 2, Luna was portrayed more or less the opposite as fans imagined in "Luna Eclipsed". Then come "Between Dark and Dawn", and we see that Celestia is actually the one with attributes commonly associated with Luna by fans (like being adventurous and excitable), and Luna Celestia (interested in the wonders of the process).

SigmasonicX · Jul 18, 2019

We got the Rarity Kotobukiya prototype!

SigmasonicX · Jul 19, 2019

Episodes 19 and 20 are out in China, and we don't even have synopses for these.

Titles are:
19. Dragon Dropped
20. Horse Shoe-In

Which really don't say much about what the episodes are about.

SigmasonicX · Jul 21, 2019

Alright, the new EQG short on Discovery Go features Fluttershy doing a thing, so time to actually watch it.

The Road Less Scheduled
Celestia - This was alright. A hidden falafel cart every year seems like bad business. Celestia jokes to Twilight at the end that she should send her letters after every festival, but says nah, that would get old, looking right at the camera, which is cute.

Fluttershy - This was pretty good. It has this.

While it's weird that Fluttershy is getting music suggestions from Vignette Valencia, I like it and that it's implied she actually did base her new look off her hologram from Rollercoaster of Friendship (only missing the bat hair decoration). Characters influencing each other's tastes is something we haven't actually seen much in all of G4, aside from Rainbow reading. It would be great to see more of that before the end.

Micro Chips - Turns out he's actually a DJ. (shrug)

And here's the one bit of fan art to come out of this already

The Road Less Scheduled - Fluttershy by charlieXe on DeviantArt

As a reminder, US premieres resume Saturday with "Sunset's Backstage Pass", an EQG special involving time loops.

UberTag · Jul 21, 2019

SigmasonicX said:
Episodes 19 and 20 are out in China, and we don't even have synopses for these.

Titles are:
19. Dragon Dropped
20. Horse Shoe-In

Which really don't say much about what the episodes are about.

I can whip together some basic synopses for these given that there aren't any official ones available.

Dragon Dropped - When Spike shows zero interest in an impromptu gem cave expedition, Rarity has to come to terms with the fact that she's taken his doting affection for granted.

Horse Shoe-In - Twilight appoints Starlight Glimmer with the task of recruiting new teachers for the School of Friendship... and her friendship with Trixie gets put to the test when she considers herself a shoe-in for a teaching post she may not be qualified for.

SigmasonicX · Jul 21, 2019

UberTag said:
I can whip together some basic synopses for these given that there aren't any official ones available.

Dragon Dropped - When Spike shows zero interest in an impromptu gem cave expedition, Rarity has to come to terms with the fact that she's taken his doting affection for granted.

Horse Shoe-In - Twilight appoints Starlight Glimmer with the task of recruiting new teachers for the School of Friendship... and her friendship with Trixie gets put to the test when she considers herself a shoe-in for a teaching post she may not be qualified for.

Thanks, put in the OP.

Both episodes sound interesting, though about the first one, I already know the way it handles Rarity's character has gotten a mixed reaction, to say the least, mainly because it's potentially the last Rarity episode of the entire series. Even aside from how Rarity's handled, it will be a shame if her final episode, and in fact her only focus episode this season, is about Spike instead.

SigmasonicX · Jul 23, 2019

We have episode synopses for September

The first two are the ones that already aired in China.

"Dragon Dropped" premieres Saturday, September 7at 11:30a/10:30c
Rarity worries she's done something to upset Spike when he stops making time for her.

"A Horse Shoe In" premieres Saturday, September 14 at 11:30a/10:30c
Starlight decides to hire a Vice Headmare in preparation to take over the School of Friendship from Twilight. But she soon realizes that hiring the right pony for the job is going to be a lot harder than she thought.

"Daring Doubt" premieres Saturday, September 21 at 11:30a/10:30c
When another author releases his own version of the events in AK Yearling's Daring Do books, Rainbow Dash is furious, while Fluttershy is curious to know the truth.

"Growing Up is Hard to Do" premieres September 28 at 11:30a/10:30c
When the Cutie Mark Crusaders are magically transformed into grownups, they discover that growing up the right way means gaining experience and wisdom that simply can't be rushed.

Daring Do episodes seem to alternate between good and bad, so hopefully this is a good one. Or this could follow Star Trek and seem to alternate quality but the last one before the reboot is the worst. You know, it's interesting that she's never gotten an episode that didn't also involve the meta AK Yearling aspect.

That last episode seems like it'll result in a flood of fan art. I also expect Equestria Daily to post this art because it "technically" isn't spoilers if you don't know there's an episode like this coming >_>

SigmasonicX · Jul 25, 2019

Friendship is Magic #80
This was a cute story involving the ponies LARPing, intercutting between the actual set that Pinkie put up and what the ponies imagine. It's initially kind of weird that Pinkie would ask the players to compete to get to the top first, but then they realize they have to work together and things work out. Not much too it really, and they don't do as much with the roleplaying as I would have liked, but it's decent enough. Images below from the official preview, not bothering to edit.

One fun coincidence is that Fluttershy is a rogue here, specifically a thief, which is just what she was in our Tangerine World RPs, as Cuddlestrike. Other jokes are Applejack not bothering to dress up (because she's already in ranger gear in her mind), and Rarity deciding to just use the in-game name Rarity. Though I feel Rarity would definitely come up with an elaborate name.

The art was pretty good, but then Rarity winked and I remembered this was the same artist that somehow made a pony winking look ugly in that Zephyr Breeze issue. This is a story where Guided View is actually to its detriment, since it obfuscates a lot of the parallels between pages set in the real world and those in the imagination world, and at one point even shows Applejack failing at an action before she tries. But it is an oddly laid out page anyway.

Silver Quill's review shows other things about the art that Guided View hid from me. Also reminded me of the odd moment of Applejack commanding animals with Rarity reacting as thought this is really happening (and accusing her of stealing Fluttershy's thing) but then there are no animals when cutting back to the real world.

~~~

Bevin Brand posted this detail about that one gay (male) background couple on her Tumblr:

What are your thoughts, and basically the team's thoughts on Curly Winds and Wizkid? Im so eager to know, cause ive been shipping them since Rainbow rocks!

As far as I know, those two have been shipped by every team since the first movie. Katrina and Ishi tended to tell new team members about them as our biggest unofficial Easter egg, and Jayson mentioned them as a pair he remembered from the earlier movies, so I think they're very common knowledge in the dhx crew. Everyone I knew loved tossing them in the background, and we got pretty excited when the hand holding and couple behavior made through s&p without being cut. So in short, they were widely shipped in the dhx crew.
7 notes

Interesting to see it was so widespread.

~~~

About the CMC episode, I hope this happens

Also, this is definitely going to involve the CMC voice actors using something closer to their natural voices. At the start of the show, they were more or less the ages that people assume the CMC were, but this would be a chance to use their "nine years later" voices.

SigmasonicX · Jul 26, 2019

Looks like the Chinese early airings have stopped for now. Episodes 21 and 22 should have aired today, but didn't. Of course, it could always come out tomorrow or another time.

Not only was there no EQG short put onto YouTube, but that G1 Retro Show series hasn't continued after Who Was Sting Really?! last week. Looking at the views, while they're past 15K, that's well below the videos around it, which are just show clips, like this one from "The Mean 6". Maybe they decided to cut their losses... though I can't imagine it's a loss in any way to put up an already completed video.

Speaking of videos.

I have to say, it's weird seeing Apple Bloom's VA, Michelle Creber, not only sing Chrysalis's lines, but sing them well.

And as a reminder, we're back to new(ish) content tomorrow, with the EQG special Sunset's Backstage Pass!

Special - Equestria Girls: Sunset's Backstage Pass - July 27, 2019
The Starswirl Music Festival is finally here, and the Mane 7 are going to get their "glamping" on! Sunset and Pinkie are the most excited to see their favorite band perform but when Equestrian Magic causes a "Groundhog Day" inspired time loop to start, Sunset gets stuck reliving "Festival Day 1" forever!

SigmasonicX · Jul 27, 2019

EQG - Sunset's Backstage Pass
This was a pretty fun special, though predictable due to the novelization coming out well before we even knew there was an animated special for it to be based on. It's a shame some of the wackier loop endings I heard about are book original, but at least we got a, "Don't drive angry," moment with Sunset here. She's a horse, so it counts.

The big RETURN OF THE DAZZLINGS ™ turned out to be pretty underwhelming, just like Sunset and Celestia reuniting. They're a red herring, and we get a couple lines from them, but nothing more. It is interesting that they haven't full reformed, even if they aren't doing anything bad. Though really, ever since the Legends of Magic comics, I've felt that the best way to bring them back for a story would be to go into their relationship with Starswirl and Stygian. The comics depicted Stygian wondering if banishing them before understanding what they wanted is a good idea, but Starswirl thought they were too big a menace to reason with. It would have been great to see how a reformed Starswirl handled them returning to Equestria, and to see what would happen if Stygian actually did get a chance to talk things out. If you go back to Rainbow Rocks, they didn't really interact much with anyone. Even Sunset just had two scenes with them, and only one where she knew they were evil.

Also Rarity mentioned that "Find the Magic" is a weak song in-universe, so that explains why I found it eh in its music video >_>.

There was a load of Sunset and Pinkie interactions in this special, definitely reaching, "They're dating, right?" levels. I've mentioned before that Sunset's personality is hard to pin down other than her being a straightman that sometimes has a temper, and wouldn't you know it, that's the perfect person to have interact with Pinkie a lot! Pinkie had several annoying moments, but I thought they succeeded in still making you feel bad when Sunset ditched her or otherwise got frustrated. Overall, I thought both characters were handled well.

SMH at Sunset failing to do a perfect run in the final loop by not getting the security guard a kitten.

~~~

I've had to hold off on posting this even on Discord, due to unfortunate timing with the early Chinese airings (still no sign of episodes 21 and 22, BTW) preventing me from going into our spoiler channel, but here's Wubcake doing a dub of the oar ass slap scene.

(I haven't been able to find a clean version of the unedited scene on YouTube that wasn't uploaded by a guy that seemed like a creep)

~~~

And in sadder news,

Nick Confalone
@nickconfalone
Replying to
@KTonarella
and
@whitneyralls
It ended up being the final special all though we didn't know it would be at the time. We even had plans laid out for a season 2 finale special and a 3rd season, but things didn't work out...
😥
1:52 PM · Jul 27, 2019

So yup, this was actually the final EQG special. And this is a writer, so he wouldn't be affected by a move from DHX to Boulder Media on the animation end. It's a shame we won't get at least a graduation special, or even a special that has a proper, "And their journey continued." Instead, the last EQG content will be a random short.

This is probably the biggest thing in recent months to give me a real, "Oh shit, it's all about to end soon," feeling with G4.

SigmasonicX · Jul 28, 2019

October comic solicitations

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Comic #83
(W) Thom Zahler (A/CA) Kate Sherron

Twilight Sparkle receives a mysterious message about a missing turtle! Only it's not just any turtle-it's the most famed of racing turtles, Silver Blaze! With friendship on the line, it's up to Twilight and Spike (armed with deerstalker caps and capes) to solve the mystery before it's too late! Elementary, my dear fillies! It's a brand-new Pony mystery to solve! Get ready to solve a mystery-Sherlock Holmes-style!

My Little Pony: Feats of Friendship #3
(W) Ian Flynn (A/CA) Tony Fleecs
(No cover yet?)

The Feats of Friendship comes to a close! But with the Young Six fighting and Swift Foot egging them on, things don't look good for their completing the fourth and final event-defeating a Hydra! Can friendship save the day, or will jealousy be the endgame?!

Bullet Points:

Ian Flynn (Sonic the Hedgehog) finishes his My Little Pony debut!
Variant covers by Katie O'Neill, Eisner Award-winning author and artist of The Tea Dragon Society!

Nice to see more Detective Twilight.

Looks like Swift Foot is indeed a villain. But Ian Flynn claimed there was something lore related about this series; I wonder how she ties into all this.

Discovery Family promo for new episodes, with a clip from "The Last Laugh"

As for the special, here are some screenshots. Art will come later.
1.Pony Twilight's neat copy spell
2.Pinkie and her Sunset replacement
3.Supernova Zap showing off her art school skills
4.Wallflower Blush in a new outfit, and Derpy with her Rarity-induced hairstyle from "Life is a Runway"
5.Curly Winds and Wiz Kid being FRIENDS

1.Sunset and SciTwi dropping candy to catch Pinkie
2.Sunset and Pinkie Magic Lesbian Powers Activate
3.Sunset twirling Pinkie like the FRIENDS they are

That first GIF of the last set reminds me, I liked how the first and second loop were made different through SciTwi tagging along.

SigmasonicX · Jul 31, 2019

Here's something I keep forgetting but I'll try to do more often in this last half: quoting reactions to the episode from Discord.

UberTagLast Saturday at 9:34 AM

By EQG standards, that... was pretty damn good.

[...]

SigmasonicXLast Saturday at 2:42 PM

https://twitter.com/nickconfalone/status/1155219325969715200?s=21

Nick Confalone (@nickconfalone)
@KTonarella @whitneyralls It ended up being the final special all though we didn't know it would be at the time. We even had plans laid out for a season 2 finale special and a 3rd season, but things didn't work out...
Twitter

This was the final EQG special

UberTagLast Saturday at 2:48 PM

Final EQG special? Or final at DHX?

'Cause I'm legitimately surprised if they're just unceremoniously calling it curtains on Equestria Girls.

Guess Hasbro is really set on pushing ahead with a clean break.

Sorry Japan.

Main reason being that they were consciously marketing this with Season 2 hype LONG after the reveal that Season 9 would be the final season for Friendship is Magic and that DHX wouldn't be working on the franchise any more.

SigmasonicXLast Saturday at 2:52 PM

Nick Confalone is a writer, not an animator

So he wouldn't be affected by an animation studio change, I imagine

UberTagLast Saturday at 2:52 PM

Naturally.

Granted, I'm not especially attached to EQG so whatever. Just seemed like a smart way to keep fans engaged in the MLP franchise at some level during the transition. A clean break is going to lead to most of the brony interest dropping off the face of the Earth. Hopefully Hasbro has a gameplan to make Gen 5 big with their core young girl target demographic upon release.

SigmasonicXLast Saturday at 2:56 PM

The fact that they had plans for more specials but were cut off is interesting

Though it might be more that they had ideas for specials, not ones that were approved

Still, it's a shame we aren't at least getting a graduation special or something

So now the last EQG content will be a random short

UberTagLast Saturday at 3:00 PM

Depends on how much is left to release on the random short front.

[...]

theirongiantLast Saturday at 6:49 PM

Damn, so not only is this the last special after all, but DHX were blindsided by EQG ending huh. With this and the creative team seemingly being more restricted with what they could do compared to FiM, really hits home the wasted potential of this spinoff. If they had giving it a full show and gone all in with the superhero/magical girl stuff and an older audience in mind, EQG could have fully set itself apart from the pony show and maybe became something just as special.(edited)

Still, this special ended it on a high note. Easily the best we've gotten since Forgotten Friendship (though that one is still tops for me). It was a lot of fun and I'm glad the Dazzlings are still mean even if there not "evil" anymore.

Also EQG has gone almost full gay and I can't enough of it lol

SigmasonicXLast Saturday at 7:25 PM

This was just as heavy on "those girls are dating" vibes as Rollercoaster of Friendship

RhomegaLast Saturday at 7:44 PM

So SciTwi/Sunset is semi-officially a thing?

UberTagLast Saturday at 7:45 PM

I think you mean Pinkie/Sunset.

And EQG is pretty much done now so none of these ships are officially "a thing" any more.

In retrospect, if they're really intent on going with season-long narrative arcs for G5, they should have used the final season of G4 as a test drive for that approach.

I consider it to be a missed opportunity.

RhomegaLast Saturday at 7:49 PM

I haven't really seen EQG.

i saw the first 3 movies and that's it.

[...]

SigmasonicXLast Sunday at 7:25 PM

Also, I'm pretty surprised no one is making any new art for Sunset's Backstage Pass now that it aired in the US.

And now that I write that out, that title doesn't make much sense, does it?

GallusLast Sunday at 7:46 PM

That name sounds like a porno

[...]

SigmasonicXLast Sunday at 9:48 PM

That got a bunch of... fan content

NoteWiseLast Sunday at 9:49 PM

Um..ponkie you okay there?

Oh my god those facial expressions from rarity as she was throwing shade

SigmasonicXLast Sunday at 9:50 PM

I loved the way Tabitha said that line

NoteWiseLast Sunday at 9:50 PM

Same

Oh man smugset is great

I love how twi just.. Accepts it

Woah unicorn twi can copy and paste??

SigmasonicXLast Sunday at 9:56 PM

Technically

NoteWiseLast Sunday at 9:56 PM

"Human scum.."

SigmasonicXLast Sunday at 9:58 PM

It's always kind of weird when they acknowledge the EQG characters are human

I suppose because they went a surprisingly long time without doing that

NoteWiseLast Sunday at 9:58 PM

I love how sunset still hasn't even tried to block the ass smack from dash

SigmasonicXLast Sunday at 9:58 PM

NoteWiseLast Sunday at 9:58 PM

KITTY CAT

Love the dazzling outfits

SigmasonicXLast Sunday at 10:01 PM

Sonata's wearing a taco dress

NoteWiseLast Sunday at 10:03 PM

Ponkie don't cry ;-;

I wonder are these two supposed to be a couple in the same way they played with rarity and aj

SigmasonicXLast Sunday at 10:07 PM

Would a couple twirl each other then run through a festival holding hands and giggling?

NoteWiseLast Sunday at 10:08 PM

Hmmm most likely!

SigmasonicXLast Sunday at 10:08 PM

NoteWiseLast Sunday at 10:09 PM

I like post crush's voices

Hahahaha

SigmasonicXLast Sunday at 10:10 PM

Art school education

NoteWiseLast Sunday at 10:11 PM

I love how sunny has her elbows trilted

Wait..how long has this loop been active?

SigmasonicXLast Sunday at 10:13 PM

They say at the end

QueenLast Sunday at 10:13 PM

Sunset says 3 weeks at the end

NoteWiseLast Sunday at 10:18 PM

Oh my god she did 21 days of that?!

GallusLast Sunday at 10:18 PM

It was implied to go on for much longer in the book

SigmasonicXLast Sunday at 10:19 PM

To accommodate all the other added loop endings, I suppose

And here's an episode art dump. Surprisingly, the American airing hasn't resulted in much more art. All except like one here is from a while ago. Had to leave out a fair amount of oar ass slapping art.
1.Rainbow oar slapping Sunset by artmlpk - Based on a TV promo, which yes, included an ass slap, though not the one where Sunset says, "Thank you."
2.Sunset and Pinkie by reiduran
3.This is OUR show! by charlieXe on DeviantArt - Supernova Zap and Kiwi Lollipop
4..:Love Wave:. (EqG Specials) by The-Butcher-X on DeviantArt - Supernova Zap and Kiwi Lollipop
5.Wallflower Blush new outfit by fantasygerard2000

1.Sunset revenge oar ass slapping Rainbow by ceitama
2.Sonata dusk and Aria blaze by sumin6301 on DeviantArt
3.HUG by LooknamTCN on DeviantArt - Sunset and Pinkie
4.Sunset Shimmer and Pinkie Pie by Rockset on DeviantArt
5.Pinkie and Sunset by ElStiv on DeviantArt

1.Adagio Dazzle by raika0306 on DeviantArt
2.Adagio Dazzle by raika0306 on DeviantArt - Different from the above
3.Sunset Shimmer X Adagio by raika0306 on DeviantArt
4.PostCrush by fromamida on DeviantArt - Supernova Zap and Kiwi Lollipop
5.PostCrush by CloudDG on DeviantArt - Supernova Zap and Kiwi Lollipop

1.Motorcicle Ride by mandy1412 on DeviantArt - Sunset and Pinkie
2.Supernova Zap pony by raindashesp
3.Pinkie festival look by uotapo
4.Can we go for churros? by Xan-gelX on DeviantArt - Pinkie and Sunset
5.Anyone see my jacket? by The-Park on DeviantArt - Sunset
6.at the starswirl music fest by RileyAV on DeviantArt - Sonata and Wallflower Blush (new outfit)
7.Sunset's Backstage Pass [MLP] by Shad0w-Galaxy on DeviantArt - Sunset and Pinkie, and the single new image posted after the US airing.

And tying into this special, Bevin Brand posted some official fan art from before they settled on how the Dazzlings would return
Bevin's Scribbles — So I can probably post this one now. Old idea I...

SigmasonicX · Aug 2, 2019

Trailer for the second half of the season. Much of the start is the same as the trailer for the first half, but there's a lot of new footage. Some seems to much up with the episode descriptions of episodes that have aired in China, so I won't comment on those, but a fair amount seems to be from the legit finale.

Windigoes in the present, Discord choosing to be involved in the final battle, Celestia and Luna included too by at least blocking a blast. I also wonder what's up with that guard with a unique design. Also some good old crying Twilight, but that may be from an earlier episode.

My hope remains that we get an epilogue of some kind, hopefully of a thousand years later.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic FINAL SEASON |OT| I used to wonder what friendship could be...

One Winged Slayer

Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot

Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot