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Why didn't anyone tell me of this great ammunition for Lunafags in the #18 issue of the comics?

You princess is dead Celestia lovers!

LONG LIVE PRINCESS LUNA! CONFIRMED FOR PUREST PRINCESS!

Deadparrot said two pages ago:

On cutie marks, I think most people have been there.
I remember not even being able to say the phrase because it felt just soooo ‘girly.’
It’s almost surprising how accustomed you get to it though after a while.
Now I hear and say ‘cutie mark’ without a second thought.
At the origins of ‘egghead,’ yep, that was it.
And, as I recall, it almost got cut.
I guess Hasbro was originally worried that it was too much of an insult for the traditionally ‘non-offensive’ ponies to be throwing around, especially toward friends.
Lauren apparently had to put up a bit of a fight to keep it in.
Just a random bit of trivia.
For Twilight’s awkward insertion into episodes, that’s pretty much how the first season worked.
Because of the ‘friendship report’ mandate built into every episode, it meant that Twilight had to somehow be involved in every single adventure, even if the story could have probably flowed better without her.
Stare Master coming up later in the season is, in my opinion, the biggest offender in this area.
All is well once season two starts though, as that requirement is quickly removed.
No longer does Twilight have to be shoehorned into an episode in which she doesn’t really belong.
It lets scripts be more focused and coherent which is generally better all around.

On Cutie Marks, yeah, I've definitely softened to the idea over time, and I'll probably get over it too.

For "egghead", I actually heard of the controversy, I just didn't hear it connected to an episode so I connected it to "Read It And Weep" because I thought that's where it came from.
For Twilight, I know why they're doing it, it's just she was badly inserted into that episode, I actually thought of better ways to put her in.

TSG Said on the last page (I'm skipping comments on DP being reliable and not an axe murderer since I already cleared up that part):

>nervous about owning pony merch
>owns lots of plushies
Wut.

Sorry, should've specified. Non-MLP plushies. Mostly Pokemon, I have 11-odd Seedots, 2 Azurills (all hand made) and a Pikachu. Also teddy bears and a few other things.

DP Said last page:

No offense taken at all.
I too was quite nervous about putting info out there on the internet at first and do agree that it is safer to not do so.
That’s why I put the ’you’ll have to be comfortable with giving me your address’ line in my original post to make that explicit.
If you ever change your mind…

Good, good. And I'll certainly let you know if you change my mind, assuming you haven't gien them all away already.
(I'll be starting story commissions too, so I can give you a free fanfic or something in return if you want).

TSG Said, also last page:

The ride’s about to shift into maximum overdrive. And just think, we’ve got five more years.
I’m so sorry, Crashgordon. If only you’d have known…
I utterly despise EqG, so this is pretty bad for me. At least the /mlp/ shitstorm will be fun.

Eh, I'll see at the time if I'm interested.

Finally, an episode I saw a while ago!

And another I watched last night!

Crashgordon94 said:

Pinkie irritated me quite a lot and the slapstick was well-executed but I wasn’t very amused because I really sympathized with Twilight

You've basically summarized my opinion of the episode. This is where my dislike toward Pinkie originated from. And it only gets worse from here.

Also, the moral. Many have commented on this already but I must say that it didn’t seem like it was about religion…

As a fundamentalist Baptist who's contractually required to find "hidden messages" in TV shows I can complain about, I didn't even think of religion when watching the episode. I've always found it funny. I'm supposed to be the paranoid one who bitches about a show's take on religion and indoctrinating children, and it was the fedoraists that were up in arms over it while I was oblivious.

…could someone explain this moral/its point because I’m not getting it beyond that.

I'm going with "don't bug your parents with stupid philosophical 'why do dogs bark?' questions and just accept it until you're old enough to process complex critical thinking."

Hey guys so how was your – oh god what's going on anymore?!

@Jimmy

oh god what’s going on anymore?!

Just a regular Friday for this thread

Yeah, right…"On the way"…

Oh wow! That episode was pretty great! I have to give it a Spikgetti/10 for lulz.

All hail Spike, the merciful dragon who spared our city instead of dooming us unto a 1000 years of darkness!

Well that was pretty legit. Maybe Rarity will take more notice of him now…

…or maybe Rainbow Dash will. "'Sup?"

Also, this was shown at the end of my stream. Must. Share. kekkekkekkek

Lastly, Celestia wants her cake!

(I can't believe next week is the end of season 4!)

Man, I hope you other pony loving weirdos aren't the kind of pony loving weirdos that hate spoiler clips. Because they basically shoved that Season 4 Finale preview in your face.

Assuming they didn't do that for S3…

What?
No, seriously, what's the weird part? Is it my brief mention of fetish stuff? Because I really tried to keep that brief and only brought it up because it seemed relevant.

TSG Said:

I’m going with “don’t bug your parents with stupid philosophical ‘why do dogs bark?’ questions and just accept it until you’re old enough to process complex critical thinking.”

That actually makes sense, would've been a good moral had they actually gotten it across properly.

>yfw the season finale actually doesn't have Twilight save the day and the trailers are lying and it's instead a rock band consisting of Fluffle Puff, Littlepip, Molestia, and Button Mash

I'm impressed that we're going to fit an entire season, and then some, into this entire thread.

@new episode

Really? So this is the conclusion of the Equestria games plotline which we've been building up to since season 3? A Spike episode?

Well that was a bit of a letdown.

@Episode
I really liked it. Spike episodes have a tendency to suck and I think think this one was able to buck the trend. I, too, am a little disappointed that the multi-season story arc was resolved via Spike episode, but cannot grasp why anyone wanted this to be a Dash episode when we already had an Equestria Games episode devoted to her. I would have much rather had this been a "Team Plasma-esque" season finale than this, but, oh well.

Gotta feel a little sorry for Blue Screen. Cringe is his weakness and that anthem was horrifying. One of the cringiest things I've ever seen in a scripted TV show. I'm sure the debate over whether the Princesses were hit by the TSA magic nullification or not will carry on for some time. I hope they weren't, as the IOC and its Chairpony, Harshwhinny, should be bitch slapped if they were. And the entire guard also having their magic disabled? That's just asking for an assassination attempt. What the hell was Harshwhinny thinking?

7.5/10.

Is it bad that I didn't get the "Mr. The Dragon" joke until after the episode was over?

Time for a trivia game!

Name the cities that these flags belong to.

My guesses (from left to right): Fillydelphia, Canterlot, Dodge Junction, Rainbow Falls, Baltimare, Crystal Empire, Cloudsdale, Manehatten, and Ponyville.

I'm pretty sure of Fillydephia (the emblem appears to be a large bell like the Liberty Bell), Canterlot (the sun emblem which represents Celestia and stars which represent Luna who both live in the city), Dodge Junction (which has a large cherry industry), and we know Cloudsdale's, the Crystal Empire's, and Ponyville's. The apple one could be either Manehatten (the big apple) or Appleoosa. I'm going with Manehatten since it makes sense such a large city would be prominently displayed while a similar sized city to Appleoosa (Dodge Junction) is in the background. Baltimare and Rainbow Falls are complete guesses. Rainbow Falls' one has a rainbow in it which is why I guessed it, while Baltimare's a total crapshoot. It looks like a sunflower, which doesn't help at all since no city has shown sunflowers.

What are your guesses?

I would totally watch that.

@The episode

It was . . . . interesting. Not necessarily the bad kind of interesting either.

On the one hand, it's nice to see that Spike has finally gotten some legit recognition for three seasons of helping to save the world, and it was nice to see a plot that was driven more by his own personal development than by him being the episode's butt-monkey. Also, I kind of like how they handled Dash and the Wonderbolts in the relay race. Season 1 Dash would have been totally up for single-hoofedly beating three of the best fliers in Equestria, and would probably have been devastated by a loss. But Season 4 Dash, with all her character development, recognizes that she's not going to win and that it's actually pretty impressive that she could swing a second place basically on her own, and on top of that seems to still have a good relationship with Spitfire. Also, Harshwhinny was amazing – "Mr. The Dragon!" – and I hope they find a way for her to show up again in the future.

On the other hand, the episode seemed rather plot-less. The bit with the games proceeded as if the writers were just going through a checklist, rounding off all the plot-points that they set up in the earlier episodes. What should have been the main plot – the games – was instead just the background for Spike to do his thing. Furthermore, the episode was full of missed opportunities: the magic suppression devices, which just turned into a way to give Spike a chance to save the games un-aided by magic; the presence of all four princesses, two of which did nothing; the delegates from the other nations, who were little more than scenery; and the presence of the Chrystal Empire itself, which really needs a bit more world building. Finally, the whole bit with Ponyville winning the medal count made no sense and just seemed tacked on. Are we seriously meant to believe that this little town is an athletic powerhouse? That makes no sense!

So, yeah, I give it a Spike/10.

I don't mind it being a Spike episode, I DO mind how it's not really about 'The Equestria Games' at all. We see two events and somehow Ponyville pulls off the most wins somehow. Seems pretty anticlimactic to me.

@Flags: I really am curious now, so I gotta break this down using the official map.

In a semi-related note, check out this Equestria Games game that someone's already created. My high score so far is 184. The Clay shooting is really hard for some reason and the wife throwing javelin throwing event is hard as well.

"So, John, what did you think of today's episode?"

"I liked it! Spike had some good character development and he made some great plays that really showed what he can do when given the spotlight!"

"How do you feel about the fact that this episode about the Equestria Games featured almost no footage of the competition or athletes?"

"Now that I think about it, that was kind of a rip-off! I mean, what the hell?!"

Yeah, I'm basically in the same boat.
I think it was actually a pretty good episode exploring an interesting topic (even if Spike's heroics required either the princesses to be useless again or for them to be so untrusted as to have had their magic blocked too), but I am quite a bit disappointed that this is what ends the Equestria Games arc.
A giant international competition really deserved to have its own episode rather than just being the backdrop to a story about a character who wasn't even really involved in the events themselves.
And because we saw so little of it, Ponyville's 'win' felt really arbitrary and forced, especially after Dash made such a big deal about winning being unlikely at the beginning.
If overcoming those odds had been the focus of the conflict, sure, success would be warranted after watching the competitors struggle/rally/overcome/etc, but as a side story, it just didn't make sense and didn't have enough build-up to be interesting.

@xTSGx's flags
Like you said, most of those are pretty straight-forward so I agree with almost all of your picks, but your 'Baltimare' guess was off.
Here's the flag from another scene where it is clearly that of the Griffon Empire:

That's a pretty kick-ass flag, actually.

Guys!
It's just one week until the season finale!
Only seven days!
Start the clocks!

@platus

I don’t mind it being a Spike episode, I DO mind how it’s not really about ‘The Equestria Games’ at all. We see two events and somehow Ponyville pulls off the most wins somehow. Seems pretty anticlimactic to me.

Yea I was kinda wondering how Ponyville won. We didn't see how that last event played out.

Was the whole archery event cancelled because of that cloud accident? So Ponyville won by default because they were already ahead?

You'd think they rescheduled the archery event so those two Cloudsdale competitors still had a chance to pull a victory for Cloudsdale. Maybe they just didn't win and the competition beat them anyway.

I bet the writers did have something planned for that, but they ran out of time

Anyway I'm glad this was a spike episode. He needed more character development. Spike was always looking like some background character for a while. Amounting to no more than Twilights bitch. (That's not to say that some other characters couldn't use an episode too). Spike is forming to be more than just a comic relief but a character who really struggles with awkwardness and fitting in. This episode goes to show how bad his condition is and the room there is for him to develop on that.

Spikes cringe moments in this episode were spectacular. It achieved cringeworthy status in ways that the cringeworthy gallery only failed in. I am proud of the writers for capturing the pure essence of cringe so well.

You see people, THAT is cringe. It's not just an object that looks lewd or embarassing, its an emotion. An emotion perfectly captured in a moment of having all your incompetence, failure and stupidity spotlighted in an open arena for a whole kingdom to see, ready to rethink everything they once thought of you.

Other cool things I noticed was how they thought of the "anti-magic" spell to "prevent cheating" among everyone in the stage and had people go through that like metal detectors. I thought that was pretty cool thinking. It helped explain why nobody just levitated that cloudcicle away. Also a neat world building moment

I am aware that the royals were not under this anti-magic spell, since Twilight could still use magic to light the torch. Therefore they could have acted on that cloud-berg before Spike reacted. But I still chalk that up to Celestia getting old and cant respond to disaster like she used to. Luna was indifferent. Cadence was too busy on her cellphone and Twilight was trying to find a book on clouds that turn into ice

Overall a great episode

You know, there's actually one thing I didn't get.

Spike didn't have any stage fright until he got to the top of the ladder. I mean, I thought at first maybe he just had a fear of heights since he didn't want to climb the ladder, but he climbs ladders in Twilight's Library all the time. I guess you could say that maybe this ladder was MUCH higher, but that doesn't really explain his sudden stage fright.

I could try and poke a hole in that by saying the auditorium was dark during the Hearth's Warming Eve performance, and thus with the stage lights shining in his eyes, he wasn't aware of the big crowd like he was during the Games. Still, he was able to play piano at Appleloosa just fine.

Of course even the best of performers can still get stage fright I guess. Just look at Adele Dazeem's Idina Menzel's Oscar performance. She got noticeably off tempo which is a tell-tale sign of stage fright and she has probably done hundreds and hundreds of live performances, a good number of which were on Broadway.

I don't know. Maybe this was just a way for the writer to show Spike's sudden realization that his hero-like status meant he was being watched and looked up-to closely and everyone was watching for him to make a mistake, thus he became over-whelmed and choked (somewhat like Twilight did when she had to take her entrance exam for Celestia's school).

(Look at me, I'm deeply analyzing a cartoon about miniature pastel equine aimed toward younger girls.)

I personally did not like the episode very much. Sure, it was a pretty good Spike episode, but having the Equestria Games episode focus on one character instead of being about the games was a mistake in my eyes. Some people enjoyed the cringe humor in this episode, but I didn't. There were a lot of good parts to this episode, but overall was a miss for me. I want good Spike episodes, but I don't want good Spike episodes overshadowing a subplot that's been built up since season three.

Side note: Everyone seems to be pointing out and questioning why the princesses did nothing when the ice cloud was crashing down, but nobody seems to notice that Twilight was about to go out there when Spike jumped out in front of her. And I'm not going to take the magic disabling as an excuse for why they didn't act because for one it's ridiculous to me that they would disable the princesses because that's just a safety hazard and even if they did disable the magic those ponies could still fly and help the pegasi.

I'm also kinda surprised no one talked about Derpy. I mean it was already ruined in the spoilers that she was going to be in it, but there wasn't hardly any mention of her in the stream and thread I was in right after the airing. Guess the fandom has moved on from all the TV canon references to her. Oh well, at least I still got my fan-made stuff to enjoy.

Blame…. well, everyone basically. They thought it was a good idea to overglorify idiots and shitposters (read: Lez). Once you do that, people want to have the fame said shitposter got and will copy his behavior.

This is the result and we should've seen this coming from miles away. Kudos to Platus for dealing with it with just warnings, they would've gotten the suspension from myself.

And it seems Deadparrot hasn't lost his birthday generousity yet. Good to see you still have it man.

Essentially by making Derpy and Roid Rage recurring characters for team Dash, they have taken away both the stigma and headcanon of Derpy

May the 4th be with you

And so it is Star Wars Day.

Yeah, that was way more spike than what I thought was called for, too. But I liked the part when everypone was cringing at him.

@star wars day

>goes to kym too much
>tests starting from thursday
>whai I learned in history class is


So yeah, I have a two-week long test starting from Thursday and I can't go to KYM at that time. If I fail any one of them, I get a month-long probation from the computer. Thus, I have to work hard in order to meet you guys again. Wish me luck!

GOOD LUCK!

AND TRY NOT TO FAIL!

SUMMON FORTH YOUR INNER PURPLESMART AND SUCCESS IS GUARANTEED!

ALL OF KYM BELIEVES IN YOU!

CAPS LOCK!

I couldn't watch all the way through the episode… Still not sure I can… Too cringe-y for me. Seriously, this is a continuing trend for Spike episodes, almost every Spike episode is cringe inducing to me.

… I stopped watching at around the point Spike assumed he could burn things with his mind.

The only question left before I admit complete defeat via cringe is why anyone would want Spike to light the thing with his DARK GREEN fire which looks like what most ponies would call "Dark Magic".

… Speaking of dark magic… It's worth noting that we now have several ponies that have used "Dark Magic", but only one of which is actually associated with darkness, being Luna, who is still associated with darkness even without "Dark powers".

I mean… We now have Crysy, Sombra, Trixie, Sunset Shimmers, and now Rarity… And of those the closest thing to something they are associated with is in order… Illusions and Lust, Corruption and Green, Pride, a Freaking Sun, and Inspiration.

I may want to suggest… That "dark powers" may be less an actual predilection towards actual darkness so much as a manifestation of parasitism. As in, self interest with a lack of concern for others.

… In real life, self interest is not exactly a bad thing, but in Friendship is Magic, the values asserted are in direct opposition to selfish interest (Many vs One, Morality vs Amorality, Interdependence vs Parasitism).

But enough of the Philosophical aside ripped from a card game… Last episode showed with Rarity that "Dark Magic" can indeed be predicted towards something shimmering and golden like "Light", albeit in such a way that is expressed by a mare trying to enforce her standard of beauty on everything else.

… And also I feel like it should be noted that it might be that dark magic is parasitic itself, more than just in a philosophical sense, considering that dark magic seems to take root in its user to the point of altering their physiology, and seems to become stronger as the host succumbs to their desires, suggesting that dark magic feeds on desire.

…Which would mean that the true paragons of "Dark Magic", who physically represent the end point of evolution under "Dark Magic" are Changelings.

…

This is the longest and stupidest aside ever.

@Lunar

The only question left before I admit complete defeat via cringe is why anyone would want Spike to light the thing with his DARK GREEN fire which looks like what most ponies would call “Dark Magic”.

If you watched the whole episode, you would have found out that the show has a good answer for this one ;)

@Lunar:

I couldn’t watch all the way through the episode… Still not sure I can… Too cringe-y for me. Seriously, this is a continuing trend for Spike episodes, almost every Spike episode is cringe inducing to me.

I'm pretty sure I said the same thing back when Pinkie Pride first aired. Of course for me, I couldn't handle all the feels it was presenting. This show seriously has a feels overload. lol.

Sidenote: Google has seriously become the ultimate search engine. Went to search for "my little pony episodes" and was presented with this:

Clicked on the one I was looking for and it changed the search to "pinkie pride" and pulled up images, videos, and related wiki links. Inb4 Google officially becomes Skynet.

I really liked this episode. It dealt with something I've had trouble with in the past, but…

I really don't understand why they hyped up the Equestria Games so much if they weren't going to show anything more than an archery competition and the relay race Dash, Fluttershy, and Bulk were competing in. I mean, they could've had Spike go to the Crystal Empire for something completely different and find out about it then, and saved the Equestria Games for the beginning of next season or something.

Anyway, it was a really good episode nonetheless. Spike was awesome, Twilight was awesome, even the games were awesome.

Have a Crystal Pinkie before you go:

>Mane 6 save Equestria multiple times
>Treated like shit
>Spike plays small albeit important part in saving Crystal Empire
>New Fuhrer
>mfw

As everyone else stated, it was a good episode but…WHERE WERE THE GAMES?

Side note: Anyone else kinda pissed off that Ponyville, a small village that barely could put together a relay team, ended up with the highest medal count?

Yeah I never understood that, I mean they have FLUTTERSHY as an Olympic athlete…..I think some bribing was involved.

"Call this representative, Sepp.I think we can bring the Equestria Games to Qatar"

• "Best graphics I've ever seen!" – Snowdrop

Oh my sides! But seriously, where is the pony mod for Goat Sim???

I came across a post on Imgur about Nature Valley Twitter and lo and behold I find our very own StareMaster and then I found Random has made an entry already.

HISTORY TEST?!
I know just the thing!

FLASH CARDS!

Since I was busy all day yesterday and didn't get to post it:
May the Fourth be with you, from everyone's favorite Imperial Engineers!

One cool thing I liked about the last episode were the crowd shots.
In a 180-degree turn from the crowds of season one, there were (almost) no duplicated ponies in the stands.
Instead, the animators dove back into their stock of ponies meaning that there were a bunch of cameos for us to find when looking through the scenes including Photo Finish, Sapphire Shores, Braeburn, Sheriff Silver Star, Hoity Toity, and my personal favorite:

He's makin' his mama proud!
(Why has there been literally no fan art of her yet?!)

Yeah! I was wondering if anyone even noticed. It took two tries to even get Nature Valley to respond to me. When they did and mentioned ponies I nearly dropped everything and went to ship/shoop some ponies x nature valley. But alas, I had an exam that needed studying. Stupid Calculus. lol.

Also, Equestria Girls has joined Bald Cartoons. I admire the thought behind it, but bald Barbie Dolls are straight out of my nightmares. Oh well, maybe I can think happy thoughts about the episodes while they're murdering me in my dreams.

@Bald EqG:

..Nobody?

If it's good, I'll watch it. If it's not, I won't.

Not exactly a hard decision.

That's kinda understood, yeah.

But it speaks volumes to the show's progression and what that means for the main show.

• First, the movies must be doing well enough to merit their own series. That could mean a shift from MLP:FiM
• Or it may mean other differences. For example, the cast and staff have other interests. I'm not really sure if they'd want to work on something FiM-related all of the time. During the break (or the time they get off during the time we associate with droughts,) they may have the chance to pursue other interests and shows. If there are two different series which are essentially the same, then that probably means that the crew will have to work twice as hard to maintain two shows…or the shows will have different staffs in terms of writers.

That is to say, Ashleigh Ball may only voice Applejack and Rainbow Dash in one series or the other, but not both, because she has a band to keep up with.

Screw Equestria Girls and its portion of the ride I refuse to join, let's have some season finale hype!

We've waited for it for four years…

We wondered if Hasbro still owned the trademark…

We wrote fanfics about it…

@Verbose: Seeing as this whole EQG spinoff series seems to be made in France and the show is only airing in France for now I doubt many, if any, of the original FiM crew will be working on it. This could become another story if it has enough success that the show is brought over to the states, but that's a bridge that I will cross when I come to it.

If they made Flash a jerk in the series, no one would argue then…

@Plauts on Tirex
Ahhhh, memories…that big ass jerk from G1.

Waitaminute…Tirex…Qi…

On top of that, we should be getting a whole bunch of news on it's English release at SDCC2014. As always, expect us to cover the hell out of that one.

That's what made me think that it wasn't only a French thing. Granted, EqD will say some things they can't confirm, but they did confidently state that news would come from it at ComicCon (and not at some indefinite point in the future at an unspecified place.) I feel like that's a pretty big claim to make without having some confirmation that there would be an English release.