White Lightning Productions

You forgot Discord being Discord...without doing anything. Magnificent bastard indeed.

*SPOILERS*

The hints that he played some role in the incident we're actually quite cleverly placed - the seeds in Twilight's vision, the chaotic influence it had on Rarity's magic.

Quite a lot got set up for us to look forward to.

There's the six keys that they now have to find to open that lockbox and obtain whatever magical MacGuffin hides inside. Do you think they'll find the keys one at a time throughout the season or all at once for the finale?

There's also a little bit of that white potion left. Also, wtf was up with Twilight's dark and evil looking magic when she primed it? It's like she was channeling King Sombra for a moment. Dun dun duuuun!

Further observations:

Twilight is now a little bit taller, her horn is a little longer and sharper, and her body is a tiny bit bulkier. She also apparently has a seat belt coming out her ass.

Spike was also writing with a pencil. A PENCIL! I'll bet he stole a bunch of stuff from Canterlot High, being a dragon and all.

In B4 "Twilight Bukkakke" R34 fanart is drawn.

And "Everfree Tentacles"

Of course, this is like... minutes before. If we just hit "refresh" on fA, I'm sure we'll have a reason to drown our interwebs sorrows in Cider shortly.

Sadly, there's already *plenty* of pics depicting Pinkie Pie doing obscene things with frosting. Both literal and figurative frosting...

Castle Mane-ia

Ah, the good old 'Multiple groups are in the same place at the same time without knowing about the others so they scare each other senseless' gag.

More great animation and vivid colors. This is definitely going to be a great season for just admiring all the prettiness.

The plot was, once again, pretty predictable once all the ponies had independently arrived at the castle, but it was so much fun seeing them all bounce off of each other like that that it didn't bother me. I bet there wasn't a single viewer out there who didn't predict who the organ player was.

Believe it or not, I thought it might have been Luna. I figured she traveled from Canterlot to help the girls search the castle but then got distracted by her lovely old pipe organ and couldn't resist playing. I didn't even notice Pinkie Pie's absence.

Decent episode, but kind of a weak ending with an odd moral and obvious set-up for future end-of-episode summaries.

Also...

BEEEEEEEESSSS!!!!!!!

All that was missing was a pony with a goatee and nervous laugh, with a big dog trailing along behind.

And because I can, I pronounce today Pony Day on WLP's online stores!

Safe for work WLP store: https://wlpcomics.com/shop/index.php?ma ... ath=98_138

NSFW Superboobs Online store: https://www.wlpcomics.com/sbostore/inde ... ath=98_137

Daring Don't

Now this one had me groaning a lot, going "Oh come on" a lot, not to mention smiling a lot. Rainbow Dash was fangirling so hard.

It also looks like they really are going along with the diary writing subplot.

Episode's best moments to me:

In Twilight's case, that would be like a nuclear explosion.

Rainbow Dash has just won the Most Awkward Fangirl in Equestria award.

Nevermind the cheesy comeback line. That smug face on Rainbow Dash simply kills me.

It wasn't at all what I expected, but it was very good.

My favorite bit was Twilight and Rainbow's geekwank argument, providing specific references to the books for their points. I've seen and heard comic geeks do the exact same thing.

Second favorite: Rainbow Dash squeeing.

Flight to the Finish

Ehh... I just don't understand why Studio B has such a hard time making good CMC episodes. In my opinion Hearts and Hooves Day and Sleepless in Ponyville were alright, but this one was just lacking.

Hey, I thought it was alright. Nice song, Rainbow Dash/Harsh Whinney' had some good dynamics, and more reasons to hate Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. And they finally outright acknowledged Scootaloo can't fly and that it's unusual for a filly of her age.

Also, the animation was pretty impressive - they've really kicked it up a notch.

Power Ponies

This was a good episode. Kind of hard for it NOT to be given the premise. But it could have been sooo much better!

First of all, the Mane-iac's minions just didn't work; they were simply too adorable. Yes, most of the characters in the show are miniature polychromatic equines with cutie marks, but they managed to make the hench...horsies from Daring Don't look somewhat intimidating. I actually felt kind of sorry for them when the power ponies were beating them up. Also the fact that Twilight - easily the most powerful of the mane 6 - wound up as the weakest superheroine wasn't played with much. I'm guessing it was done so the other cast would have a chance to shine, but it felt kind of awkward. And the ending/explanation behind what happened was weak. Yes, it's more original than "one of Twilight's spells goes awry " but honestly that still would have worked better. There were a few other picky details, but I'm not going to go into them.

What did work? Pinkie Pie as a speedster, obviously. Pretty much all the action scenes. The Mane-iac, while certainly not the best villain in the series, was interesting enough. When I first saw the preview I thought she was actually Luna in disguise (she entered Spike's dream and pulled the other ponies in to have some fun/teach them a lesson).

And dear G'hod, the fanfics and fan-art this episode is going to generate...Fluttershy as an Incredible Hulk expy alone...

The Mane-iac's cackling personality got old fast, but they obviously couldn't just have her go on random killing sprees.

A good episode with lots of great animation. Them getting sucked into the comic reminded me of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

I like how Twilight seems to have claimed that castle for her own and is working on fixing it up now.