My Little Pony XL: The Plot Thickens!

[Deadly]

Season finale, speculation time!

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Anyone see if Twilight/Shining's parents are in the crowd of the wedding? If they're not there I guess hopes for Luna are even smaller.

Also, new synopsis is out... apparently Cadence is Celestia's niece? More mind screwing pony genealogy. Either that or only explanation is Cadence is Luna's daughter. First thing she did after returning from the moon was find the first stallion in sight...

Anyway, on to the promised speculation, maybe more silly now with the above note: Cadence is actually Luna! Think about it, Luna feels neglected and alone again, she has her duties at night when most other ponies sleep, and maybe a lot of ponies still feel a little uncomfortable around her. So she begins to wonder if anypony could ever love the real her and so she takes on a new identity, Cadence, to experience true love. Only, things don't go as planned...

I'm not sure how things end up in clones, maybe she has another panic attack like that of Lunar Eclipsed and try to "fix" the wedding when Twilight reveals that Cadence has some dark secret.

Lesson, of course, would be to be yourself and so on.

Eh... I guess I'm grasping at straws here. I really don't like the prospect of this one.

And do you think Cadence is as long-lived/potentially-immortal as Celestia and Luna? Because if she is, what of Shining? He seems to be a perfectly normal unicorn.

[Gamerlord]

We got the synopsis for both parts of the wedding *SPOILERS*:

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Episode 25 - A Canterlot Wedding Part 1
Air Date: April 21
Synopsis: Twilight's brother, Shining Armor, is marrying Princess Celestia's niece, Cadence.

Episode 26 - A Canterlot Wedding Part 2

Air Date: April 21 (Listing the same date for both, I'm stumped)
Synopsis: Twilight discovers a dark secret about Cadence right before the wedding.

Calling it now, whatever Cadence turns out to be, the wedding will go on as planned and the Aesop will be "Be yourself".

[Athaniar]

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Also, new synopsis is out... apparently Cadence is Celestia's niece? More mind screwing pony genealogy. Either that or only explanation is Cadence is Luna's daughter. First thing she did after returning from the moon was find the first stallion in sight...

ROYAL CANTERLOT WEDDING

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My guess is she's Celetia's niece in the same way Blueblood is her nephew, perhaps a it more closely related (explaining the alicorn-ness). But then again, it all depends on what her "dark secret" is.

Oh that's okay, I guess I wasn't going to sleep tonight then.

Whoa.

[Deadly]

ROYAL CANTERLOT WEDDING

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My guess is she's Celetia's niece in the same way Blueblood is her nephew, perhaps a it more closely related (explaining the alicorn-ness). But then again, it all depends on what her "dark secret" is.

May want to respoiler my spoiler there

Season Finale

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That's probably the most likely explanation, though I'd have hoped they had learned the lesson from Blueblood

[Copper]

We got the synopsis for both parts of the wedding *SPOILERS*:

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Episode 25 - A Canterlot Wedding Part 1
Air Date: April 21
Synopsis: Twilight's brother, Shining Armor, is marrying Princess Celestia's niece, Cadence.

Episode 26 - A Canterlot Wedding Part 2

Air Date: April 21 (Listing the same date for both, I'm stumped)
Synopsis: Twilight discovers a dark secret about Cadence right before the wedding.

Calling it now, whatever Cadence turns out to be, the wedding will go on as planned and the Aesop will be "Be yourself".

I am the only one hoping Candence will turn out to be some crazy evil person? Because that would be HILARIOUS! I do hope we get to see Twilight's parents again, and maybe see them interact with her a little more.

[Pokonic]

I am the only one hoping Candence will turn out to be some crazy evil person? Because that would be HILARIOUS! I do hope we get to see Twilight's parents again, and maybe see them interact with her a little more.

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Heh, she thinks she is a fairytale princess, who is going to be taken away by a noble prince who will love her and her subjects forever and ever. Problem is, she is no alicorn, the stallion she is marrying is not only not a prince but a brainwashed stallion that found her at the wrong time, and he subjects are all just clones of other, living ponies. She's just a crazy, crazy mare with a complex that would make Pinkie seem normal and sane under the surface.

[Beacon of Chaos]

AAAAAAARGH! Spoilers! Spoilers everywhere! Why did they have to release a clip of the finale!? I'll never be able to avoid everything until then! It's bad enough that certain points about the finale have been spoiled to me already (not by you guys though).

And I notice some of you are discussing things outside of spoiler tags. We have rules about this. Please keep any discussions about future episodes, even speculation, in spoiler tags. So far I've managed to avoid stuff by averting my eyes and quickly scrolling when I see things, but please be careful. I don't want to have to boycott Ponythread until the series is over.

And so that this isn't all moaning, have some Lyracorn.

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[MCerberus]

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Heh, she thinks she is a fairytale princess, who is going to be taken away by a noble prince who will love her and her subjects forever and ever. Problem is, she is no alicorn, the stallion she is marrying is not only not a prince but a brainwashed stallion that found her at the wrong time, and he subjects are all just clones of other, living ponies. She's just a crazy, crazy mare with a complex that would make Pinkie seem normal and sane under the surface.

Finale

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For the first half of that paragraph I thought you were going for "Rarity in disguise"

[Pokonic]

Finale

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For the first half of that paragraph I thought you were going for "Rarity in disguise"

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Silly, it's Luna who is using a disguise. Wait, dont they share voice acters?

.............................

My Celestia.

[Dexam]

ROYAL CANTERLOT WEDDING

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My guess is she's Celetia's niece in the same way Blueblood is her nephew, perhaps a it more closely related (explaining the alicorn-ness). But then again, it all depends on what her "dark secret" is.

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"Twilight Sparkle and friends, I would like you all to meet my brother..."

"... Prince Blueblood."

[MCerberus]

Finale (without my insane rambling theories of madness)

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I am interested in seeing Rarity's reaction to all of this though. Maybe she's the only pony Twilight even told about her connections

[Alabenson]

New episode

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And thus, Fluttertree became cannon

[MCerberus]

New Episode

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Cold-war era filmstrip writer is best pony

[Trixie]

Before this thread drowns in spoilers today - if you have a steam account you might want to go check a certain Steam group. For two reasons. Just saying

[Deadly]

Hurricane Fluttershy, initial thoughts, kinda

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Damn these streams are getting worse and worse. Unavailable, overfilled, lagging worse and worse for every week... The only one I could access at all was so freakin' slow it might as well have been dead. Practically unwatchable.

Fluttertree! ^^

That pony is one heck of a freak! But we've known that for a while. Did he actually have a part in all this, though? Seemed really odd given that apparently his entire role boiled down to something like three "YEAH!"s

Saw Derpy a few times. Despite the lagging. That was nice.

Crying Fluttershy makes me cry

Animals to the rescue. Nice.

Ooooh, Spitfire!

Awesome horn!

Seemed like a nice episode, from the few combined seconds I managed to piece together.

I guess I'll have to wait for youtube again this week, cause that was absolutely useless. I missed like 90% of the episode from lag.

[Silverraptor]

Nice OP pic Trixie, one of the better humanized Twilights I've seen.

In case somepony's interested, here's the artist's gallery

ok, so who do i bring my soul to now that we have this thread title?

Ummm... Hi. I've been *Ahem* a looooong time lurker of this since approximately end of summer last year. I had actually found that picture months ago and have been trying to get Trixie, by private chat on steam, to make that picture an appropriate thread starter.

So... yeah. Picture was found by me...
...
...*Goes off to hide*

Edit: Oh um... I also found this...*Goes back to hiding*

[otakuryoga]

today's episode 1st thoughts

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FLUTTERSHY IS A TREE!!

1st break and they show a spoiler for next week 8(

so many new named pegasi

I totally believe her...worst case of PonyPox i have ever seen

filly fluttershy in flight school...with cutie mark?

Abacus! Luna is going to be jealous!

good overall..not much in the way of standout moments
and dear gawd the FlutterDash fuel...

[Kairaven]

New episode:

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I am gonna say that Cindy Morrow has been terriffic in season 2, and this episode would be her best ever except I think Sisterhoove social edged it out just by a touch.

- yay! fluttertree
- Pony 50's PSA, best thing ever!
- Spitfire in command canon
- IT'S OVER ONE THOUSAND!! had to do it
- awwww cryingshy
- yay montage!
- Feather flu!
-Rainbow is now a tree.
- great aesop!

[Anarion]

New Episode initial thoughts

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Opening was really good. Fluttertree and Rainbow Dash recognizing Fluttertree. Combined with Rainbow recognizing Pinkie Pie in that hay disguise in season one, this is good evidence that Rainbow actually has really good perception.

1950s style film strip was spectacular. I'm curious what international viewers thought about it, since I associate it with a parody of the American school system and I'm not sure how widespread those kind of videos were.

Twilight being adorkable, although I think she made a mistake when she combined acceleration and velocity in her explanation. Does anypony remember her exact wording?

Fluttershy training montage was good, and I liked that even after that she remained significantly weaker, as that's more in keeping with how she's portrayed. Then doing better in the ending shows that Fluttershy really does best in an emergency when she needs to act to help others.

Based on Fluttershy's speed here (~6 wingpower since the gauge went just over 800) we can infer that Rainbow Dash dragging both Rarity and Pinkie Pie cut Rainbow's speed by about 2/3 in the Discord episode. That implies that all three of them weigh about the same amount, which also implies that the pegasus wings work on magic, not just a light bone structure. Of course, it's also just possible that discorded Rainbow Dash lacked the same motivation as normal Rainbow Dash and was flying slower starting out.

Interesting secondary lesson. When you're leading a group, it's important to push hard and inspire them, but don't ignore real problems. I'd bet that if Rainbow had let Thundermane go home in the beginning, none of the other pegasi would have caught featherflu and they wouldn't have been in the dire situation in which they found themselves.

edit:

Before this thread drowns in spoilers today - if you have a steam account you might want to go check a certain Steam group. For two reasons. Just saying

Hm? I have a Steam Account, but I'm not sure what you're talking about. Can anypony explain?

[Pendulous]

Hurricane Fluttershy, initial thoughts, kinda

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Damn these streams are getting worse and worse. Unavailable, overfilled, lagging worse and worse for every week... The only one I could access at all was so freakin' slow it might as well have been dead. Practically unwatchable.

Fluttertree! ^^

That pony is one heck of a freak! But we've known that for a while. Did he actually have a part in all this, though? Seemed really odd given that apparently his entire role boiled down to something like three "YEAH!"s

Saw Derpy a few times. Despite the lagging. That was nice.

Crying Fluttershy makes me cry

Animals to the rescue. Nice.

Ooooh, Spitfire!

Awesome horn!

Seemed like a nice episode, from the few combined seconds I managed to piece together.

I guess I'll have to wait for youtube again this week, cause that was absolutely useless. I missed like 90% of the episode from lag.

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Um, all this (especially the streams, I missed the cold opening). Except I was getting annoyed when Spitfire was standing there.....and standing there. She finally spoke and it didn't even sound like her. It sounded like Rainbow Dash.

Oh, and one more thing:

ANGEL WAS NICE!!

[Gamerlord]

Does anyone know if that preview of next week's episode that aired during the commercials has been uploaded anywhere? I was occupied with something during the ad break and missed it.
Anyway, episode thoughts:

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Was pretty good, can't really find anything to complain about, besides Spitfire just standing there and doing nothing for most of her appearance. Was it just me, or did Bon-Bon turn into a Pegasus?

[Pokonic]

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Was pretty good, can't really find anything to complain about, besides Spitfire just standing there and doing nothing for most of her appearance. Was it just me, or did Bon-Bon turn into a Pegasus?

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Yep, there was a Bon-Bon pegusi in the crowd.

Also, more Mule slander.

[Pendulous]

Does anyone know if that preview of next week's episode that aired during the commercials has been uploaded anywhere? I was occupied with something during the ad break and missed it.
Anyway, episode thoughts:

"Occupied" = Purposely avoiding the commercials to stick it to the man!

[thubby]

Does anyone know if that preview of next week's episode that aired during the commercials has been uploaded anywhere? I was occupied with something during the ad break and missed it.
Anyway, episode thoughts:

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Was pretty good, can't really find anything to complain about, besides Spitfire just standing there and doing nothing for most of her appearance. Was it just me, or did Bon-Bon turn into a Pegasus?

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havent seen the ep yet, but it wouldn't surprise me. it's not unheard of for something like 6 of a single background pony to show up in 1 shot.

[Anarion]

Does anyone know if that preview of next week's episode that aired during the commercials has been uploaded anywhere? I was occupied with something during the ad break and missed it.
Anyway, episode thoughts:

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Was pretty good, can't really find anything to complain about, besides Spitfire just standing there and doing nothing for most of her appearance. Was it just me, or did Bon-Bon turn into a Pegasus?

Regarding spoilered episode point.

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I didn't think about that. They were one pony away from getting the water spout created, and that's to provide water for all of Equestria. How come Spitfire didn't just jump in to help? If Rainbow Dash is pushing a 16 wingpower, I'm sure that Spitfire would have broken the required 5 no sweat and is probably about equal with Rainbow.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Regarding spoilered episode point.

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I didn't think about that. They were one pony away from getting the water spout created, and that's to provide water for all of Equestria. How come Spitfire didn't just jump in to help? If Rainbow Dash is pushing a 16 wingpower, I'm sure that Spitfire would have broken the required 5 no sweat and is probably about equal with Rainbow.

I think there's a deleted seen showing this or something because said pony suspiciously isn't shown so might be helping out afterall.

As it stands though: yes. But that would rob the episode of its lesson.

[Anarion]

I think there's a deleted seen showing this or something because said pony suspiciously isn't shown so might be helping out afterall.

As it stands though: yes. But that would rob the episode of its lesson.

Oh I agree with that. Either said pony was helping already or there was some good reason not to do so.

This is an episode spoiler but continues the non-spoilered discussion.

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If Spitfire was helping that certainly solves one problem. I can think of a few good reasons not to help of course. It might be that getting the water from elsewhere isn't that hard and that she is there basically to act as a judge of Ponyville's efforts, so her helping wouldn't be allowed. Another possibility is that joining the tornado in the middle actually isn't all that safe and Fluttershy jumping in is even more heroic than we realized.

[Eakin]

New Episode

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Now THAT'S how you do a Fluttershy episode

Fluttershy finally got to be a tree, the newsreel bit was the best world building we've gotten all season, and we got an awesome pony training montage. We even got a Spitfire cameo!

I'm sure the Flutterdash shippers are ecstatic with all the new material they got to work with, as well

[Deadly]

Hurricane Fluttershy, my thoughts, again, this time without lag - yay, youtube!

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That was a really solid episode. That's the kind of episode Fluttershy really lacked this season. Great to see her back in form, being her good old self and really shining.

Really not sure what to make of that freak pony, is it a reference? Because seriously, that one felt wrong.

The old-timey movie at the beginning also bugged me a little, but I guess it's not a surprise by now. Just going to have to accept that they throw in technology haphazardly all the time, even if I'd like otherwise.

Loved all the Flutterdash. Loved all the background ponies. Loved adorkable Twilight. Great to see Spitfire again, even if she didn't get to do a lot. All in all, everything looked nice and worked great, especially Fluttershy. She really was great in this one.

Also that's three great episodes in a row. Nice to see.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Oh I agree with that. Either said pony was helping already or there was some good reason not to do so.

This is an episode spoiler but continues the non-spoilered discussion.

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If Spitfire was helping that certainly solves one problem. I can think of a few good reasons not to help of course. It might be that getting the water from elsewhere isn't that hard and that she is there basically to act as a judge of Ponyville's efforts, so her helping wouldn't be allowed. Another possibility is that joining the tornado in the middle actually isn't all that safe and Fluttershy jumping in is even more heroic than we realized.

Well to the specifics:

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On the one hand this is water for all of Equestria. So it ultimately has to get done or everything goes to pot.

However at the same time it probably wouldn't throw things off terribly to wait a day or two and bring in outside help. However that would be a crushing embarrassment for Ponyville who would likely never get the chance to do so again.

So "she's there as judge" stands up as a reason, it just doesn't avoid certain jerky aspects.