White Lightning Productions

The Mane6, developers of MLP:Fighting Is Magic, have been busy lately. Not only did they release the some of the first official footage of Fluttershy (+angelbunny) but also her theme song - the best song in the game so far! Check it!

http://www.mane6.com/2013/01/fluttershy ... .html#more

IMPORTANT

Hasbro has issued a Cease and Desist letter to Mane6, developers of the fan game of MLP: Fighting is Magic

http://www.mane6.com/2013/02/not-all-wo ... dless.html

Exactly why they chose to do so now is strange, considering how long it's been in development and how famous the effort has become. Whether or not Hasbro has the right to order them to stop, as the creators are not charging any money for the game or even accepting donations, is not quite clear, but it is an extreme dick move on their part which will alienate the fandom like nothing before.

I implore EVERYONE who reads this post and is a fan of MLP: FIM, whether you planned on playing the game or not, to contact Hasbro, nay, barrage them with missives, stating your displeasure with the decision and urge them to retract the C&D or at least reach some compromise. I for one will be doing so.

Oh, is it my turn to summarize the new episode again?

Season 3 Episode... um, hold on a sec. *Checks Wikipedia* Oh yeah, 12. (I'm not sure why I'm suddenly having trouble keeping track of episode numbers for Season 3.)

Games Ponies Play

The title is a bit misleading because the Equestrian Games don't actually occur in the episode. Rather, it deals with the ponies' attempts to get the games hosted in the Crystal Empire.

Pinkie Pie gives not only an on her knees big loud NOOO, she also gives an on her knees big loud YESSSS. Rainbow Dash is especially passionate about the affair due to her disappointment as a little filly when Cloudsdale wasn't chosen. Twilight was pretty cute when she started imitating Cadance's movements as a little sister would look up to a big sister. Rarity got her chance to show her styling mettle by dolling up Cadance's hair in "The Traditional Crystal Weave". Applejack and Fluttershy unfortunately didn't have very much to do this time around.

All in all an entertaining enough episode I think. It was pretty clever how it occurred in sync with Just for Sidekicks with both episodes referencing the other from different perspectives. It was somewhat painful seeing the Mane 6 go so nuts at welcoming and impressing what turns out to be the wrong pony and how oblivious they seem to be about it, especially when they keep dismissing her out of character attitude because they keep thinking she'll "Try to catch them off their guard."

I'm also curious as can be as to what's going on with the Season 3 finale. The Wikipedia description says something vague about Twilight switching Cutie Marks and destinies and having to write her own magic to fix it. Yet the ads for the episode clearly shows her undergoing some big metamorphosis and calling it, of all things, The Princess Coronation.

Something's been bugging me.

Through a cruel twist of evolution, equines are incapable of digesting bacon.

Why, then, do they keep pigs?

I can't blame them for that. Pigs can't live in the forest; they'd *eat* all the truffles.

Season 3 Episode 13 Magical Mystery Cure

Ooookaaaay. I wasn't expecting THAT to happen. Besides reading brief episode synopses on Wikipedia I don't check any other information sites like Equestria Daily so this was all genuinely new and spoiler free for me. As far as I'm concerned, something is canon the moment it shows up in the show itself, no sooner. Everything else, even Word of God, is at best insider speculation.

Now suddenly the shortness of Season 3 makes perfect sense. They really WERE initially planning to end the series after 65 episodes which has typically been the the number of episodes of older animated shows. Yet now we're booked for a full 26 episode Season 4? What the hell are they gonna do with the series now?!

WEll.. this could have gone worse, I suppose. It being a musical episode was different.

Finally catching up on my DVR.

"Games Ponies Play" - more Flanderization of Pinkie Pie and (to a lesser extent) Rarity, a massive Idiot Ball required to carry the plot, but not actually bad all told.

Will watch the last ep after tonight's new Top Gear.

The FEELS. Every last single fucking one of the feels.

"Magical Mystery Cure" - weak and overstretched ending with the princess thing, but otherwise far and away the best episode of the season. The musical was excellent- though I really hope they don't make it a recurring thing. One song per every other ep is plenty.

Season as a whole: Sorry, but to me I see an overall drop in quality of writing, ESPECIALLY with Pinkie Pie, who turned from ditz to idiot between seasons somehow. Aside from the zillions of Pinkies, the return of Trixie, and the final ep, there aren't any episodes that would jump onto my favorites list- and there are some eps that do jump into my "Let Us Never Speak Of This Again" list. On the whole, S3 is NOT where I'd start any new watcher at... so thank goodness there's a Season One box set out for that purpose.

Agreed, though I wouldn't paint Season 3 as negatively as that, apart from its brevity. Bear in mind that this season probably marks a point where the writers are trying to find a balance between creating material for the intended audience with enough appeal for the bronies AND satisfying Hasbro with the pressure of writing for an increasingly popular show - not an easy task.

That said, the C&D letter to Mane6 still has me pretty riled.

So what do ya'll think of the word from the staff that the season closer for Season 3 is actually part one for the Season openers of Season 4?

You realize that another unicorn is gonna have to join in with the main characters now, right? Before we had a nice orderly lineup of two unicorns, two pegasi and two earth ponies. Even the CMC was neatly one each of unicorn, pegasus and earth pony.

What do we have now? Two earth ponies, two pegasi, one unicorn and one alicorn.

Also, I'm getting a little jaded on princesses. Shouldn't Cadence be called a queen now, since she's, y'know, MARRIED?

Nae king. Nae quin. Nae laird. Nae master.

And I actually sold two "Crivens!" shirts at KatsuCon.

I suppose that Equestria is separated into a series of Principalities. Although even if it's only one city, Cadence, being leader of the Crystal Empire, should technically be an Empress.

In Equestria, "Princess" and "Prince" seem to be applicable to both enlightened ponies who mastered magic, friendship, love, etc. (e.g. Twilight Sparkle) and those who are simply of noble birth (e.g. Prince Blueblood). It's probably bestowed upon ponies deemed worthy who then pass the title onto their descendants regardless of whether they are worthy. Very similar to Western nobility, actually, except that some ponies DO have divine powers.

Wonder if we'll ever see a male alicorn (curse the writers for making that inaccurate appellation for unicorn-pegasus ponies canon!).

Fitting that as season 3 draws to a close HotDiggidyDemon releases its final raunchy pony parody, Swag.mov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQaisack_jc

No, it isn't spike poking Rainbow Dash with a stick for 15:00 minutes as some predicted. The only words I would describe it as are epic and.....WTF!??!!!

Welp, I got good news and bad news. Well, good news and bad news care of EQ Daily, actually.

The good news is that Lauren $%#@ing Faust is It can't feature the original characters, sadly, but if the game is a smash hit (and there's a good chance it will be) not only will it be a middle finger right in Hasbro's stupid fat face, but the Mane6 could actually earn some compensation for their hard work. Oh, and we'll finally be able to play the game. Yay!

The bad news? Hasbro released some new images of the upcoming MLP: FiM spin-off Equestria Girls featuring anthropomorphic ponies.



They're like some hideous collision between Strawberry Shortcake and Furaffinity fanart! Hasbro's evil corporate instincts are reemerging.