My Little Pony XXXIX: There is no Pegasus Mafia!

[Deadly]

For those interested:

Hurricane Fluttershy clip

Future episode

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So apparently the rain for all of Equestria comes from one little reservoir. It seems Equestria is not a terribly big place.

New episode:

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Speaking of the pony princess, interesting that the dragons knew her, but weren't particularily afraid.

Today's episode

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I think they referred to her as just "a pony princess", correct me if I'm wrong. So I would imagine that just as ponies know nothing about dragons, dragons know nothing about ponies.

[Athaniar]

European Daylight Savings starts... 27th, I think? Anyway, next week's will also be affected.

Episode thoughts:

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Dragons (at least adults) are awesome! Phoenixes are awesome! Assertive Fluttershy is nice.

Was a good episode. Not one of the best, but good.

For those interested:

Hurricane Fluttershy clip

Next Episode:

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That is one epic preview.

...But what is up with that bodybuilder pony? That guy looks scarier than the jelly pony.

[Selpharia]

Oh, "Crisis system" is what that set of characters means. That was driving me nuts. That was a pretty good comic, almost perfectly in line with typical Luna/Celestia relations.
]

It's actually something like Extraordinary Times Moon Movement System, but I shortened it to sound a little better.

New Episode

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I think this was the best Spike episode so far, since he wasn't holding an idiot or personality shift ball for the duration. Spike/Rarity was cute.

[Pokonic]

Another thought about the episode

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Dragons seem to be better parents than what many fans assumed.

There appeared to be a lot of them making sure that the kid dragons don't do anything too stupid, yet letting them play and take lava baths. They also seemed to have provided a hoard for the youngsters to eat.

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Well, the nicest dragon we have seen so far still tried to roast a youngster. Also, they could probably just go into any hole in the ground in equestria and scoop up a months worth of snacks for there kids. Still, the distinct lack of dragons rending eachother limb-from-limb over that hourd makes me wish to think that dragon magic, much like baby ponies, can be barely controled by a young dragon. Hence, why all the teens are not hulking out over those gems.

Anyone else wants to think that the Dragonshy Dragon (didn't the fandom name him Basil?) is the parent of the lead teen (lets call him Paprika, because thats a funny name) , for the sake of unifing fandom?

[Nameless]

Fluttershy? It's a Spike episode.

Anyway, I find that I can't pay attention to the animation and details when I'm also following the plot anyway. So I barely notice the bad quality.

Then the internet lied to me. I thought two Fluttershy episodes within such a short space of one another was to good to be true. ._. (unless there's another Fluttershy episode on the way and I'm getting mixed up. This Hurricane Fluttershy might be it, but I refuse to watch the preview. )

[Anarion]

It's actually something like Extraordinary Times Moon Movement System, but I shortened it to sound a little better.

New Episode

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I think this was the best Spike episode so far, since he wasn't holding an idiot or personality shift ball for the duration. Spike/Rarity was cute.

New ep

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Yeah I think this is a really good point. Spike's motivation was consistent throughout the episode, but he didn't even have to think long about protecting the phoenix egg. That shows quite well that he's a good person. No inordinate stupidity or character derailment.

[Gamerlord]

Then the internet lied to me. I thought two Fluttershy episodes within such a short space of one another was to good to be true. ._. (unless there's another Fluttershy episode on the way and I'm getting mixed up)

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Next week's episode will be a Fluttershy/Rainbow Dash episode.

So, episode thoughts:

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A Merriweather episode that isn't bad? It's a miracle! I thought it was quite good, though it was a shame we didn't get any world building. Also, that Phoenix baby is going to be important at some point, my troper-sense is tingling.

[Nameless]

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Next week's episode will be a Fluttershy/Rainbow Dash episode.

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[Soras Teva Gee]

BY EPISODE!

Dragon Quest:
Best Spike Episode but he's still got the lowest tier episodes of the Mane characters

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On the whole a good but only okay episode. I liked it but it lacked any particular shine. The theme seemed to be "Boys Vs Girls" as represented by Ponies and Dragons. C'mon a belching contest, wrestling, belly flop contest, its a collection of stereotypically male activities. I'm kinda a mixed result because while certainly we all know it okay to like girly things I wish there had been some explicit sympathy for the dragon's activities too. Yes raiding a nest too kill an unborn phoenix or two is horrible, however the rest was still essentially harmless.

I just think a little bit of spin would have helped, remember when Spike said he didn't want any of the girly frou-frou stuff in Ticket Master. Now he's proud of wearing an apron. Yes there's a lot of good for those into its okay to break gender sterotypes, but I think the boy end of the spectrum could have used some of the "that's okay" spelled out this episode too.

Note despite this rant I still liked the episode. Finally acknowledging Spike's lack of wings gives me hope he can grow them. Phoenixes are apparently an crossbreeding of trolls and awesome. And now Spike has his own companion. They need to do another pet episode, seriously.

Hurricane Fluttershy:

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Well Deadly they did say this season right? So it could just be for a short period of time. However you probably have something of a point I but I'm not meteorologist enough to guess what the sort of relative volumes one would need here.

I'm just glad to see Rainbow apparently taking charge of something. And already some great gags to see

Ponyville Confidential and MMMystery on the Friendship Express:

What the last two episodes before the finale? Yep well apparently that puzzle game is loaded with spoiler pics from all these episodes and here's a gallery.

However this one in particular for our upcoming whodunnit...

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...combined with the title tells me all I need to know right about the episode's plot.

The cake... they ated it... all of them.

Seriously its obvious right? But still I'm betting on some great viewing material out the sure trainwreck of Twilight and Pinkie playing Watson and Holmes. And I'm sure the shippers will too.

Plus Pony Joe, a Griffin(?), Matilda and an easy Visual Pun, yay!

Also inb4 Portal jokes

Nothing big that might be from Ponyville Confidential but some promising bits.

[Pokonic]

So, episode thoughts:

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A Merriweather episode that isn't bad? It's a miracle! I thought is was quite good, though it was a shame we didn't get any world building. Also, that Phoenix baby is going to be important at some point, my troper-sense is tingling.

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That baby? It's going to pester the other bird in the house to no end,and eventualy ends up in the part-time care of the other flaming bird that Spike knows.

Also, Dragons have been seen to not rend each other limb from limb, and that wings grow in as they age. Also, scale color might have to do with there fire color, and none where shocked when the letter popped out from his breath, so dragon's might use there breath for that exact use.

[Athaniar]

BY EPISODE!
However this one in particular for our upcoming whodunnit...

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...combined with the title tells me all I need to know right about the episode's plot.

The cake... they ated it... all of them.

Seriously its obvious right? But still I'm betting on some great viewing material out the sure trainwreck of Twilight and Pinkie playing Watson and Holmes. And I'm sure the shippers will too.

Plus Pony Joe, a Griffin(?), Matilda and an easy Visual Pun, yay!

Also inb4 Portal jokes

Nothing big that might be from Ponyville Confidential but some promising bits.

Future Episode:

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Heh, fun to see another griffon. This episode looks rather cool.

[AlterForm]

New Ep

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2) teleporting more than one target or teleporting moving targets (or some combo of both) is hard.
2a) Specifically, 3 running ponies and a dragon all moving at the same pace is just about at the limit of Twilight's abilities.

New Ep (Dragon Quest)

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It's like trying to shoot a bullet with a smaller bullet, blindfolded, while riding a horse!

Also, +1 @ Crackle.

[Deadly]

Dragon Quest, on dragons

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A thougth occured to me. It seems like all the dragons we have seen so far are male. Maybe there is a reason for that. Perhaps all female dragons live in one place and the great dragon migration is really all about male dragons setting out to mate. That's why there weren't any very young dragons aside from Spike in the migration, that we saw at least. This could explain why these dragons didn't recognize Spike as one (unless they were just having fun with him, which is quite likely), maybe they had never seen a lot of baby dragons because baby dragons live with the females until they grow up and go off into the world.

It could also explain their generally bad behaviour. They're basically a bunch of men and adolescent boys out from under the "watchful eye" of the women

Dragon Quest, on birds

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The female phoenix (at least the most feminine-looking one to me) looks more like Philomena than the male phoenix. Was Philomena's gender ever identified? I always assumed it was male, but now I'm not sure.

Dragon Quest, on Spike

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So at the end, we see this

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Why is Spike taped on to the picture there? He's been with Twilight from before she knew her friends, before she moved to Ponyville, so... I can't make sense of that picture.

Dragon Quest, on music

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Just wanted to say I loved the raw background music in this one.

[Pokonic]

Dragon Quest, on dragons

Dragon Quest, on Spike

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So at the end, we see this

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Why is Spike taped on to the picture there? He's been with Twilight from before she knew her friends, before she moved to Ponyville, so... I can't make sense of that picture.

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It's the only picture Twilight has that has all the ponies he considers family (Celestia is more like a super-powerful grandparent inhis eye, nice but distant) in a group, and as such he put his picture in there to make it so that he has a photo of all his "family".

"Sniff"

[Athaniar]

Dragon Quest, on music

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Just wanted to say I loved the raw background music in this one.

Dragon Quest

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This. I want the background music from when Spike travelled so much.

[Kairaven]

Dragon Quest, on dragons

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A thougth occured to me. It seems like all the dragons we have seen so far are male. Maybe there is a reason for that. Perhaps all female dragons live in one place and the great dragon migration is really all about male dragons setting out to mate. That's why there weren't any very young dragons aside from Spike in the migration, that we saw at least. This could explain why these dragons didn't recognize Spike as one (unless they were just having fun with him, which is quite likely), maybe they had never seen a lot of baby dragons because baby dragons live with the females until they grow up and go off into the world.

It could also explain their generally bad behaviour. They're basically a bunch of men and adolescent boys out from under the "watchful eye" of the women

Dragon Quest, on birds

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The female phoenix (at least the most feminine-looking one to me) looks more like Philomena than the male phoenix. Was Philomena's gender ever identified? I always assumed it was male, but now I'm not sure.

Dragon Quest, on Spike

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So at the end, we see this

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Why is Spike taped on to the picture there? He's been with Twilight from before she knew her friends, before she moved to Ponyville, so... I can't make sense of that picture.

new episode Response

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1: Interesting theory, could make a good fic, in parody nature documentary style. Equestria Geographic perhaps.

2: Yes, Philomena is a she, Celestia used "she" and "her" when referring to philomena.

3: That looks like Twilight's birthday party in canterlot during Sweet & Elite, which Spike wasn't at. But I thought it was something that there are a lot of main 6 pictures but very few included Spike.

[Deadly]

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It's the only picture Twilight has that has all the ponies he considers family (Celestia is more like a super-powerful grandparent inhis eye, nice but distant) in a group, and as such he put his picture in there to make it so that he has a photo of all his "family".

"Sniff"

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Just seems odd that Twilight wouldn't have any pictures of them all, including Spike, together. I mean, unless he really is rather ignored by them.

new episode Response

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1: Interesting theory, could make a good fic, in parody nature documentary style. Equestria Geographic perhaps.

2: Yes, Philomena is a she, Celestia used "she" and "her" when referring to philomena.

3: That looks like Twilight's birthday party in canterlot during Sweet & Elite, which Spike wasn't at. But I thought it was something that there are a lot of main 6 pictures but very few included Spike.

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You know, now that I think about it I'm not sure why I ever thought Philomena was male. I'm not even sure I ever did before now, for some reason the realization that she's a she just struck me as surprising today. Strange.

[Copper]

New Episode Thoughts

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I really liked the premise. It basically seemed to me like Spike was questioning his own masculinity after growing up in a girl-dominated culture. This seemed very realistic and also very interesting. I loved the travel montage, but as soon as we got introduced to the younger dragons... I lost interest. I wanted them to be portrayed in a more subtle and strange way, so that it was truly alienating for Spike. Instead the dragons was just portrayed as stereotypical teenage boys. The resolution was obvious, and their personalities just seemed lazy. Also, since I was seeing the whole episode through the lens of gender (Ponies= girls, dragons= boys) I found the fact that the way ponies deal with scary dragons is running very disappointing. I mean between two unicorns and Rainbow Dash, those ponies could probably kick the dragons' butts! Anyway, interesting premie, overall disappointing episode.

[Beacon of Chaos]

New episode

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[Pokonic]

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Just seems odd that Twilight wouldn't have any pictures of them all, including Spike, together. I mean, unless he really is rather ignored by them.

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You know, now that I think about it I'm not sure why I ever thought Philomena was male. I'm not even sure I ever did before now, for some reason the realization that she's a she just struck me as surprising today. Strange.

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1. Well, Spike usualy never goes with them on there trips. Last time he went with them to a unfamilier place was,what, Appleussa?

2. It's the trolling. Rarly are the jokers in a childerens show female.

@Kairaven

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"And here we have the noble griffon, currantly grooming. Let's see what she is doi-"

"Hey, jerkoffs! How did you get into my house! Get out!"

"This female is startled by our advancment, lets close in for a cleaner sho-SNAP-oh Celestia, my wings!"

[Lix Lorn]

Episode

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I liked it.
The dragons were kinda... well, obvious. Pure stereotype. Plus, even the jerkiest of teenage boys wouldn't be asses to a baby they don't know.
Apart from that it was great, and phoenixes in purefire mode was cool.

[thubby]

new ep thoughts

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im going with "called it"
that aside, why no pinkie and AJ?

[BlasTech]

Dragon Quest, on Spike

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So at the end, we see this

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Why is Spike taped on to the picture there? He's been with Twilight from before she knew her friends, before she moved to Ponyville, so... I can't make sense of that picture.

Newep

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I like to think he's always the photographer. I know there are precious little photos of me around for just that reason :P

I liked the New ep, enough to put it at the border between mid and top tier. Dragons were a little stereotypical male, but given all the strong male ponies we've seen, not to mention the whole message of RD that being a girl =/= being girly, I saw them less as stereotypical males and more as stereotypical jerk teenagers.

Did want to see the ponies beat the stuffing out of the dragons, especially after what is now my favourite line in the show.

Only other thing that bugged me slightly was the egg, kept thinking back to the fanfic It Takes A Village, and thought spike should've wanted to give the egg back to its parents, but I guess the idea was that they flew off and left it behind?

To make up for the spoiler about new-ep, have some non-spoiler pictures

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Large

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[Kairaven]

okay, seriously, the best thing in this Episode?:

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Crackle the dragon. Second! Best! Dragon! Evar!

seriously he's about to replace Trogdor in my heart as best dragon.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Newep

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Did want to see the ponies beat the stuffing out of the dragons, especially after what is now my favourite line in the show.

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Oh gods yes, that was amazing. Rarity actually being threatening and awesome came right outta nowhere and I loved it!

okay, seriously, the best thing in this Episode?:

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Crackle the dragon. Second! Best! Dragon! Evar!

seriously he's about to replace Trogdor in my heart as best dragon.

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Crackle needs to be in the background of every episode from now on.

Come to think of it, was Derpy in this episode?

[Pokonic]

okay, seriously, the best thing in this Episode?:

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Crackle the dragon. Second! Best! Dragon! Evar!

seriously he's about to replace Trogdor in my heart as best dragon.

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Heh, she looks like something from Fosters. From the bumby hide to those eight little feet.


..........

Waitaminutenow.

[Deadly]

Newep

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I like to think he's always the photographer. I know there are precious little photos of me around for just that reason :P

Ah, that does make sense actually... thanks

[Mando Knight]

Doing this as I watch:

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Crackles? Nice gag that kinda-justifies the terribly obvious costume.

"Whoever makes the biggest lava splash is the ultimate dragon!"

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[Aotrs Commander]

New episode initial reactions:

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Bwahaha! Awesome! And hilariously funny! The Crackle gag was priceless!

Spike has a pet, like the rest of the Mane cast now - and fraggin' phoenix as well. So I say to you, FIE! FIE on all your Spike-ends-up-sad-and-alone stories! Because Spike has a companion as long-lived as Celestia's! Huzzah! Stick that in your sniper rifle and smoke something! (I have been playing to much ME3 haven't I?)

Rarity does seem very fond of Spike, doesn't she? (Dash, surprisingly, as well. They did always seem to click fairly well, in my opinion...) Now, is it merely co-incidence that this episode had his sister/mother figure and the two ponies I reckon to be his best match so terribly concerned...? Probably, but it was interesting nonetheless. (RD's loyalty streak shining though at any rate.)

Those dragons are not only jerks, but flat-out Evil. Casual murder of sentient children? Wow. That's pretty dark even by my standards... Even if one ascribes phoenixes to that sort of semi-animal level that Pokemon seem to be dipicted as, that's still... surprisingly dark.

Methinks Spike should have gone and found some other dragon to talk to other thatn Evil Frat Boy dragons. Also, aside from the casual Evil, they were pretty crappy villains as villains go, far too steriotypical.

Also stupid. Hey, dragon fratboy fraktards, that "sissy" Princess could kick your sorry arses all the way to the moon and back, probably literally. Rasing the freaking SUN mean anything to you? No? Oh, they totally need their arses kicking. (It totally would have been hilarious if they found out ponies have superpowers when Twi, Rarity and RD kicked their asses, because make no mistake, the ponies would have won that scuffle hooves down!)

Speaking of that, aww, lookit Rarity all ready to get her hooves violently messy in dragon inards for her Spikey-Wikey. I'm going to totally stand by that one as Evidence, so there!

(In seriousness, it could be interpreted either way, it's ambiguous enough. At any rate, this episode makes it clear that at the very least, Rarity considers Spike a very close friend.)

I also liked that Spike didn't just go completely gaga when being... "complimented" by Rarity at the start. I think his reaction was actually far more realistic, than if he'd just done the hearts-in-eyes-mindless-drooling that usually gets protrayed in fanfic typically. Bonus points for that.

One has to wonder what that letter from Princess C was.

And also what the dragons were migrating for, and by heck, for a rare an unusal creature, wow were there a lot of them. One assumes that was like the global population. Council of dragons, maybe? While the youngsters play, the elder dragons discuss state affairs or something? Were they are females there at all? Were those the only young dragons there?

This also would seem to indicate that dragons do not have a nation as such, as many fanfics have them, but live more like traditional dragons, mostly solitary. And this goes with something I've said before - Spike likely won't grow up to be like other dragons, won't grow old to become some sort of lesser, wild mostly instinct-driven creature like the other older dragons we've seen, because he's been raised by ponies (and so long as he keeps a lid on his Greed Growth). Spike is very much a social creature, and that makes to sad, old Spike stories jsut more unecessarily bleak.

I really liked this episode, overall, ranking up there in my short list of favourites. Two cracking Spike episodes this season...really can't complain!

Edit: Post-thread commentary...

episode review:

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- and baby phoenix... more additional pet? not sure what I feel about that. I feel that if Spike were to have a pet, he should probably have something more unique.

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On the other hand, it gives him a pet with no expiration date - one, that, like Philomena, can stay with him for centuries is he lives that long. I think that was a good call. The fact it's a flame-based inherently magical creature makes it several shades more awesome that everypony else's pets (yes, even Tank.)

Hehe, Derpy as a Hub television manager. Needs fan art.

New episode thoughts

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I think that was the best of the Merriweather Williams episodes for certain. She made use of Fluttershy's new assertiveness (and slight hints of FlutterDash shipping with the whole butterfly migration thing) and then had a fairly internally consistent episode. The lesson was similar but not the same as Sweet and Elite, since that one was more about remembering where you come from and this one was more about how self-identity is distinct from physical traits.

I also liked that they reused the red and green dragon models from previous episodes, as that added a fair bit to continuity as well.

Twilight's magic got a nice bit of definition here as well, as we saw that
1) her teleport doesn't have much a range limit since she got all the way back to Ponyville
2) teleporting more than one target or teleporting moving targets (or some combo of both) is hard.
2a) Specifically, 3 running ponies and a dragon all moving at the same pace is just about at the limit of Twilight's abilities.

Phoenixes living in the wild was interesting. I wonder how they protect their nests during the dying and rebirth period. Maybe they stagger each other so that one parent is always at full power?

Anyway, good overall episode that showed that Spike is a good guy and that the ponies will always look out for him. Too bad we didn't get to see Rainbow Dash tangle with some airborne dragons before Twilight ported them out, but oh well.

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Big kudos for using the teleport, because we'd have all been saying "why didn't Twilight just teleport" if she hadn't - and extra bonus points for showing her strength and skill improving.

I also noted Fluttershy's new-found confidence. That and her bit with the windows really stole the pre-credit section!

Dragon Quest, on dragons

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A thougth occured to me. It seems like all the dragons we have seen so far are male. Maybe there is a reason for that. Perhaps all female dragons live in one place and the great dragon migration is really all about male dragons setting out to mate. That's why there weren't any very young dragons aside from Spike in the migration, that we saw at least. This could explain why these dragons didn't recognize Spike as one (unless they were just having fun with him, which is quite likely), maybe they had never seen a lot of baby dragons because baby dragons live with the females until they grow up and go off into the world.

It could also explain their generally bad behaviour. They're basically a bunch of men and adolescent boys out from under the "watchful eye" of the women

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Dragon migration as a "lads holiday?" That's a very interesting idea - I'd have to say, given that aside from the Evil Fratboys, as the rest of the dragons seemed to be mainly lying around (and not conversing/mating/etc) that seems a fairly plausible reason. I kind like it actually...

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Oh gods yes, that was amazing. Rarity actually being threatening and awesome came right outta nowhere and I loved it!

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Yes. Very much yes. I felt almost as vindicated by that line as by the falling scene in Secrets of my Excess.

[Lix Lorn]

More episode thoughts, some inspired by lichy

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Hmm. Speaking of the bad end stories, isn't spike pretty close to Celestia anyway? Doesn't make sense.

Also, these dragons still seem more talky than grown up dragons. How does greed growth factor into them?

And yes. That Rarity line=awesome. And they woulda won.