My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club

[DigoDragon]

Spoiler: s7e25

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AJ has super-duper-strength confirmed. I mean, damn, lass, Superman would have been impressed with that.

Spoiler: S7 Finale

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Too bad we didn't have writers make that a standard power of AJ six seasons ago. Instead we get an earth pony with strength only as good as the plot allows.

Spoiler: S7 Finale

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That being said, I didn't actually dislike the episode, and it did give me an interesting idea for a headcannon; Prior to Twilight and co. bonding with the Elements of Harmony didn't fully understand friendship and thus were unable to properly wield them.
Hence why Starswirl couldn't see an alternative to banishing the Pony of Shadows and why Celestia had to banish Nightmare Moon instead of purifying her.

Spoiler: S7 Finale

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That's at least something interesting, and I can buy into that theory without a problem.

Spoiler: s7e25&26

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With luck, I'll be seeing the movie next week, so perhaps I can hope for something beyond "okay episode of pony,2 but I guess we'll see...!

Spoiler: Pony the Movie

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Hope you enjoy the movie!

[zimmerwald1915]

Spoiler: S7 Finale

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Too bad we didn't have writers make that a standard power of AJ six seasons ago. Instead we get an earth pony with strength only as good as the plot allows.

That has always been the case, for every breed of, and individual, pony.

[digiman619]

Spoiler: A horrible thought about the finale

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If Cattail is Mage Meadowbrook's descendant, wouldn't that mean that she had to have a child before she and the other Pillars sealed themselves in Limbo? I mean, yes, all of them have to have had friends and family who didn't survive the intervening centuries, but it makes her sacrifice all the more tragic if she did it while she had a child she'd never see again.

[DigoDragon]

That has always been the case, for ever breed of, and individual, pony.

Sadly, yes. Earth ponies were especially victim to it though.

Spoiler: A horrible thought about the finale

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If Cattail is Mage Meadowbrook's descendant, wouldn't that mean that she had to have a child before she and the other Pillars sealed themselves in Limbo? I mean, yes, all of them have to have had friends and family who didn't survive the intervening centuries, but it makes her sacrifice all the more tragic if she did it while she had a child she'd never see again.

Spoiler: S7 Finale

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Hmm, I suppose that would be pretty tragic. Did Cattail say exactly what his ancestry to Meadowbrook was?

[Deadly]

Spoiler: S7 Finale

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Hmm, I suppose that would be pretty tragic. Did Cattail say exactly what his ancestry to Meadowbrook was?

Spoiler

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I'm probably wrong, but I seem to remember he said he actually knew her (or something to that effect), which would mean he's more than a thousand years old. As I said, I'm probably wrong, but that's my memory

[Deadly]

Oh, here's a thought.

What if it's not time that determines whether a pony is old or young? What if a pony could be a thousand years old and still be a young pony, while another might be "only" a hundred years old and look like Granny Smith?

What if pony aging works something like butterflies, or like how they get their cutie marks? Something happens and bam you go from filly/colt to adult mare/stallion in an instant, magically, then after some time some other trigger happens and you go straight from adult to old pony?

What if pony aging isn't gradual at all, but happens in discrete intervals with no relation to the passage of time? Not saying it's my head canon, but it makes a strange sense. It would explain why we don't really see much of a gradual aging: everypony is either a foal, a filly/colt, an adult, or an old pony, we don't really see any "slightly old" ponies, it's all either/or.

[b_jonas]

Finale weekend! I'll watch the finale double-episode.

Spoiler: S7 E25, E26

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S7 E25, E26 Shadow Play

I tried to remain mostly unspoiled, but I did hear at least one big spoiler and a few minor details. People have commented how the stories of several episodes of this season is connected to the comic book stories directly. This is unlike the previous episodes, when the comic book was as much independent from the main show as Equestria Game is. So

Spoiler: advance spoilers for E25, E26 and speculation

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I know that Starswirl the Bearded will appear in this double episode. This could mean just that he time travels to the present time, or that the protagonists from this episode time travel back. But more likely it will mean that the comic book legends are true and Starswirl the Bearded has found a way to make himself immortal with age spells, and is still around quietly steering Equestria through the fate his psychohistoric equations is showing him. I also remember that someone who did know this spoiler speculated on this forum that the book shown at the end of E24 was Starswirl's diary.

What I don't know is how, if at all, the mysteriously disappeared Mage Meadowbrook comes into this. Did Mage Meadowbrook travel back in time with the help of Starswirl, and use an engineered strain of the tree plague to turn herself into the Tree of Harmony? If so, then the tree chest castle map would be Mage Meadowbrook's ninth artifact. (I also don't know if Clover the Clever is relevant.)

Anyway, there's just too many open, and I don't know how the finale will manage to address all of them. If they crammed everything into this one, then the episode would have to feature all of the Mane Six, Starlight Glimmer, Sunburst, Queen Chrysalis, King Thorax, Pharynx, the Great and Powerful Trixie, Discord, Starswirl the Bearded, and Mage Meadowbrook, and perhaps also Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. That's a bit too much even for a double episode.

In any case, the character who'll suffer all this is Spike, who probably won't have any opportunity to appear in the finale, or maybe get only a few insignificant lines at the start or the end. He always gets the worse end of finales.

Ok, that was enough speculation for now. I'll have to start watching the episodes, or else I'll start with even more baseless speculation, such as about time travel to the fight between Nicol Bolas and Ugin the spirit dragon, or the changeling shaman Equinox taking the task of moving the Sun and Moon. Obviously I'll still speculate while watching.

Thoughts as I watch.

• (“Previously on My Little Pony”) wait, this is E26. Did I start with side B? Let me switch.
• (Flipping the page of a handwritten book, with narration by an unknown person over it.) This seems like the right episode, yes.
• (Six legendary characters appearing in a diagram: the three guys from E16, Mage Meadowbrook from E20, Somnambula from E18, and Starswirl himself. Narration mentioning “elements: strength, bravery, healing, beauty, hope”) Oh wow! So all the speculation I heard was true. More of it than I believed, in fact. This is probably Starswirl talking about the original Elements of Harmony. Wow. Just wow. So many strange things, and this is just 16 seconds into the episode.
• (Starswirl makes it clear he's talking, and tells about an unknown scrawny pony who originally gathered these six Elements together.) Wow. Who's that pony? The unnamed shadow one that is. I don't know where to put him.
• (The original Elements have made some sort of unknown brave sacrifice to stop that shadow pony. Sunset turns out to be reading this diary to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna in their castle. Behind him is the Mane Six, Spike, and Starlight Glimmer) Wow, they have found a way to launch this episode quickly. This is quite a dense episode. Still only 80 seconds in. So that's how a double episode will be enough.
• Wow, even Princess Celestia and Princess Luna look scared. (Worrying music) That doesn't look good, even though nothing in this journal seems specifically urgent yet. Ok, so in this episode we'll have to find out not only how Mage Meadowbrook vanished mysteriously, but how all six of these ponies have vanished mysteriously and what this brave sacrifice was.
• (Cold open.) Ok wait, I need to make an alchemist's table here.
  

  Old element	legend pony	current pony	new element
  strength	Rockhoof	Applejack	honesty
  bravery	Flash Magnus	Rainbow Dash	loyalty
  healing	Mage Meadowbrook	Fluttershy	kindness
  beauty	Mistmane	Rarity	generosity
  hope	Somnambula	Pinkie Pie*	laughter
  sorcery	Starswirl the Bearded	Twilight Sparkle	magic

  *Yeah, this got me confused because it would appear that Rainbow Dash is so awesome he gets to correspond to two of the old elements, but then I remembered Pinkie was there too.
• Twilight gets to do research again! She hasn't been so happy since S3 E1.
• (Rarity: “This mystery is over a thousand years old, after all. Another day or two won't make a difference.”) Don't jinx it, Rarity.
• (Starlight Glimmer helps read Starswirl's medical quality handwriting. They all magically travel to Ponehenge.) Will Queen Chrysalis's revenge fit into this somehow, or will that have to wait till next season?
• (Starswirl's hologram appears from the diary. Then a hologram of the rest of the legendary ponies appear too. The holograms show a story of how the six of them sacrificed themselves to magically imprison the Shadow Pony.) Wow. That's heavy.
• (Twilight tells about the artifacts connected to the legends) Oh! It's the blindfold! I was wondering what that thing was. Ok, let me get this straight then, with the table.
  

  Old element	legend pony	artifact	current pony	new element
  strength	Rockhoof	shovel	Applejack	honesty
  bravery	Flash Magnus	shield	Rainbow Dash	loyalty
  beauty	Mistmane	flower	Rarity	generosity
  healing	Mage Meadowbrook	mask	Fluttershy	kindness
  hope	Somnambula	blindfold	Pinkie Pie*	laughter
  sorcery	Starswirl the Bearded	diary?	Twilight Sparkle	magic

• (Applejack explains how strong Rockhoof really was.) Yes, yes, I can believe that part. Maybe he did dig the trench. But the volcano thing must be embellished in the legend. Seriously, just how gullible are you, Applejack. Even if you find archaeological evidence about the war of Troy, that doesn't mean you have to believe every word the poets wrote about it was real.
• Haha! Rarity is demonstrating her skills of cutting bushes to pony shapes from back in S1. Nice. At this pace, they'll get all six legendary artifacts before the first episode ends. And maybe the other six of Mage Meadowbrook's artifacts too.
• Oh hey! So Spike does get a role! (He goes with Rainbow Dash as a guide to the dragon lands.)
• Hahaha! Pinkie Pie finds the blindfold with her way of manipulating reality of course. Fun.
• (Twilight brings the legendary ponies back.) As expected, Starswirl the Bearded is worried because this will break the spell capturing the Shadow Pony.
• (Shadow Pony appears, does evil laugh, E25 ends. Credits. I put in E26. E26 starts with the usual recap of double episodes. Opening title song.) Oh by the way, have you noticed that the Pony of Shadows has both a horn and wings? He has an unusual body shape, but the horn and some unusual form of wings is clearly there. Ok, so what will happen now?
• (“Over a thousand years.”) What's this with the thousand years again? Do Twilight and her friends just not have proper dating about the events, even after talking with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna?
• Haha! Pinkie Pie gives a quick history lesson to Starswirl the Bearded.
• (Starswirl examining the tree chest castle map. “Something about this magic seems familiar.”) Yes, that would be the Tree of Harmony, Mr Starswirl. By the way, thank you for Starswirl at least speaking clearly, even if his handwriting is hard to read.
• (Starswirl explains they no longer need the power of Ponehenge, they can use the Tree of Harmony as focus instead.) Um, ok, but you still need to sacrifice the six of you again to bring the Shadow Pony with you, right?
• (“Seapony etiquette isn't going to help right now, Spike.”) Hahahahaha! They just had to do that, didn't they? Way to go, Spike.
• The other characters, including Twilight and Rockhoof, are hard to understand though.
• Ah. So the Pony of Shadows is delayed because most of the dark lands bonded to him where he used to draw mana thousand years before have changed unrecognizably.
• (The map shows where they have to go.) Um, so where's that? Also, I already like this Starswirl the Bearded character way more than when he was just an old legend. I bet Pinkie Pie likes him too, and the other four of the Mane Six will warm up to him soon.
• Oh! Twilight's face turns to the starry-eyed foal face momentaryily when Starswirl says “a good thought, Twilight” is so fun. We'll have to use this face image as a meme image!
• Starswirl is scaring me. In the good way.
• They have to derust Rockhoof's showel and polish Mage Meadowbrook's mask? What kind of artifacts are these to get rusted? Don't these ponies know the first thing about magically rustproofing critical artifacts so they don't have to fight the Shadow Pony with a -3 rust modifier on their attacks? Seriously, if this is how they rolled, I can see why the modern day ponies can improve on their plan so easily.
• (Starlight asks about the past of the Shadow Pony. Flashback. The sirens appear.) Ah yes. I thought the Sirens had to figure into this somewhere, because it was strange that Starswirl has banished both them and the Shadow Pony. The sirens were banished to another world, whereas the Shadow Pony was trapped in an interdimensional limbo forever drifting timelessly between worlds, so it's clearly not the same thing, but still. Some fan speculation will have to be done later to connect this to Zero's banishment in StickManStickMan webcomics.
• Wow, that looked scary. It looked as if one more pony got through the portal besides the sirens. But no, Somnambula flew towards the portal to bait the sirens, and swerved to avoid the portal right before she'd hit it.
• Ok, so the story they tell in the flashback is this. The scrawny unicorn scholar named Stygian gathered the six legends (“pillars” as they call it) to save the world from all sorts of dangers. He got jealous to the six legend's abilities, at least according to Flash Magnus's interpretation. Then he took an artifact from the six of them, to prepare some uber-spell, and the six legends have interpreted his secrecy about that spell as if he was working against them. They sent him away, to which he turned evil and became the Shadow Pony. Ok, that's totally a story that Starlight Glimmer can work with. The episode is all set up now, we just have to finish it. Heck, even the experience from EG5 might help Starlight Glimmer here.
• Yep, Starlight Glimmer sees the hole in the story rightaway.
• Yeah, it's lucky we already know from E2 that the Elements don't allow their power to be turned against their purpose. Starlight won't have to convince Starswirl to change his mind. Their attempt to banish the Pony of Shadows with the Elements will simply fail. Ok, that's that problem solved.
• (Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer tries to extract the original Stygian from underneath what he became.) Yep, EG5 has definitely helped. But now the shadow will only let Stygian leave if they can somehow convince Starswirl the Bearded and the others to let go of their anger with Stygian. This will be fun. This is why we needed a whole EG series. It does connect to the main FiM eventually. Poor Sunset, if only she could be here to help. I hope Starlight will be worth to represent her in her absence.
• (The shadow itself is banished, but Stygian is extracted from it first. Starswirl the Bearded apologizes. The Mane Six says something or another about the Elements and using them to save Stygian and a “friendship rush”. Starswirl visits his old pawns Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, all the other characters are there too.)
• Group hug!
• This was a worthy ending of the season. Thank you. Pity for the lack of music in it. I'll have to rewatch S3 E13 to cure that.
• (Credits shows lead voice actors.) The Pony of Shadows is voice acted by Bill Newton, who also plays Bright Mac and Pharynx. Starswirl and the rest of the legends have a voice actor with no other big roles in FiM, except that Rockhoof is cast by Matt Cowlrick, who also plays Torch. It's as if they're leaving the possibility open for these legends to have a big role in S10 or something.
• And yes, Queen Chrysalis had to postpone her revenge for the next season.

Next I'll read everyone else's reactions to the finale on this thread. I'll have to be careful with film spoilers though. I probably won't be able to avoid all of them, since some of you have seen the film before the show finale.

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What if it's not time that determines whether a pony is old or young? What if a pony could be a thousand years old and still be a young pony, while another might be "only" a hundred years old and look like Granny Smith?

What if pony aging works something like butterflies, or like how they get their cutie marks? Something happens and bam you go from filly/colt to adult mare/stallion in an instant, magically, then after some time some other trigger happens and you go straight from adult to old pony?

What if pony aging isn't gradual at all, but happens in discrete intervals with no relation to the passage of time? Not saying it's my head canon, but it makes a strange sense. It would explain why we don't really see much of a gradual aging: everypony is either a foal, a filly/colt, an adult, or an old pony, we don't really see any "slightly old" ponies, it's all either/or.

It's hard to know what to believe. The age categories seem to be discrete, not gradual, but that's not all there is to this. My fan theory is that since the start of Season 1, Princess Celestia is maintaining an uber-magic over Equestria that stops everyone from aging and dying from old age, and also stops the conception of new ponies. Before S1, he was weakened by her sister being banished, so she couldn't use that aging magic, and so most ponies have aged normally. Thus, all this ageless state is quite new to ponies, who are used to only Princess Celestia (and possibly Granny Smith) being thousand year old ponies who never age.

Also, in E16, we witnessed a pony jump an age category for the first time on screen, although only in a tale from old times that might be a bit embellished. That surprised me a bit, because I thought that even with normal aging, ponies would actually attain the next age category only while resting after they got all the requirements, but then, firstly it's a legend, and secondly people suspect there was some unique magic involved in his case.

[zimmerwald1915]

Spoiler

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I'm probably wrong, but I seem to remember he said he actually knew her (or something to that effect), which would mean he's more than a thousand years old. As I said, I'm probably wrong, but that's my memory

You're wrong. Closest he comes to stating his descent is this exhange in A Health of Information:

Cattail: [Cajun accent] Y'all can stop screamin' now. Didn't mean to scare ya. I do that a lot.
Twilight Sparkle: Scare ponies or rock creepily in the dark?
Cattail: Well, both, I s'pose. Name's Cattail. Pleased to meet ya.
Fluttershy: Likewise, but, um, may I ask, why are you in Mage Meadowbrook's home?
Cattail: Oh, I take care of the place. I ain't much of a cleaner, but from what I hear, my kin wasn't neither. So I doubt they'd mind a few cobwebs in our ancestral home.
Fluttershy: [gasps] You're related to Mage Meadowbrook?
Cattail: Mm-hmm.
Fluttershy: Oh, my goodness, Twilight, we did it! Not only did we find Mage Meadowbrook's old house – we actually found one of her descendants!
Twilight Sparkle: Honestly, I would not have guessed it.
Cattail: So you're lookin' for some kind o' cure, huh? Well, now, I know Meadowbrook was known to always be writin' in her journals. If she had the cure you want, I reckon that's where it'd be. Come on. I'll show ya the library.

So he "knows" Meadowbrook was always writing in her journals, but that knowledge isn't personal knowledge. It's received knowledge.

[b_jonas]

Spoiler: Season 7 E25-26 Reaction

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Overall "C". It was okay, but the acting and story were a little weak. The timeline nonsense was also a problem.

Wait, didn’t we have previous information that Starswirl knew the pony sisters. How does this make sense with the timeline?

The royal pony sisters were too young to understand the danger of the pony of shadows? This almost sets their ages at right at 1,000 years. This takes out several stories that had them as existing for millennia before the founding of Equestria.

Wouldn’t Luna be good at old ponish? She only stopped speaking it ~2 years ago in relative time.

If Starswirl was in limbo, how did the museum get the bell that Cadence and Twilight saw?

The tree is from the seed… but the sisters used the elements in the tree to stop Discord and… Ow, my brain hurts from the timeline.

How come they can all speak the modern language with no problem? They were gone for longer than Luna.

Spoiler: S7 E26

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The timeline makes some sort of sense to me. You don't even need too many of Starswirl's time travel excursions to explain it. Here's what I think, but someone who knows the comic storyline too will have to set me straight.

The story of those legends is probably much more than a thousand years old, but there aren't much documents available about that, only legends. In all this excitement Twilight failed to ask Princess Celestia about exact dates, so all she could say to Starswirl is that they were banished for at least a thousand years.

The timeline goes something like this. First, Stygian assembles a band of heroes. Then, those heroes plant the seeds for what would become the Tree of Harmony. Then the Tree grows into containing the Elements, showing the cutie marks of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna on it, as well as the cutie mark of Princess Twilight that he doesn't yet understand. He seeks the last two alicorns, who have the matching cutie marks. He decides to educate them to heroes because of the tree. He teaches them lessons, and finds out that their talent is that they can move the Sun and Moon, which he previously had to do himself. He convinces the three pony tribes to take the two young alicornds as their princess, since, being neither earth ponies nor pegasuses nor unicorns, they might be impartial in their disputes.

Independently of Starswirl's machinations with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the six heroes also do some fights together, such as banishing the Sirens. Stygian sees this and tries to find ways to use the six of their powers even better. Starswirl becomes angry, casts Stygian out from the circle, and in his bitterness, he grows into the Pony of Shadows. The six legends sacrifice themselves to banish the Pony of Shadows to limbo. Since they know that they'll be going to limbo, they all leave some artifacts in this world instead of taking them. These include not only the six keys shown in this episode, but also all eight of Mage Meadowbrook's artifacts and her journal. In particular, Starswirl leaves a book (which you see in this episode), a bell, and a candle (these two are in the museum). Princess Celestia and Princess Luna see this, but Starswirl doesn't tell them what really happens, and they can't figure out on their own because they didn't have the journal.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna go on to rule Equestria for a long time then. They don't age much, perhaps because of Starswirl's lingering age magic. Along the way, they turn Discord to stone, Princess Celestia banishes Princess Luna to the Moon for a thousand years, Princess Celestia banishes King Sombra but has to banish it together with the whole Crystal Empire. She may have learned using banishment as a solution to all problems from her teacher Starswirl. Princess Celestia probably realizes on some level that banishing every villain isn't a good solution in the long term, and feels that the Elements don't really accept her and Princess Luna as the rightful owner. So she tries to find students who can surpass her, including Sunset Shimmer. Sunset Shimmer stumbles on the mirror that leads to the Siren's dimension. Among the lots of convoluted plans Princess Celestia has, most of which we never hear about, there's two we do know of for certain. Princess Celestia sends Granny Smith to build a town near the Tree of Harmony, and sets up a school for gifted unicorns in Canterlot. On an entrance exam for the school, she meets the young Twilight Sparkle, who has an incredible talent for magic, and what's more, she gains the cutie mark that matches the last cutie mark on the Tree of Harmony. So Princess Celestia wants to have a closer look at this filly, and makes her her new personal student.

The year of Luna's return is drawing close, or maybe Princess Celestia triggers it somehow and falsifies some legends about it being this year. She puts the Summer Sun Celebration to the town next to the Tree of Harmony, and sends Twilight Sparkle there. We don't really know what the Tree of Harmony did to make all the Elements incarnate as a pony just now, and how Princess Celestia was involved in that, but in some way, all the incarnations meet there, and save Princess Luna. Then all that other stuff in the show happens, in roughly the order we see it.

Oh, and the old legends don't speak modern day language (except possibly Starswirl, who's a time-traveller). It's just that when Starlight heard the map is calling everyone to solve a friendship problem with ponies from ancient times involved, she cast a Comprehend Languages spell on everyone. That's an easy spell actually if you don't want it permanently, and Starlight Glimmer knows that even the hardest friendship problems are solved within the duration that spell lasts for (10 minutes per her spell level).

Spoiler: S7 Finale

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And then part two starts off with something I think this finale needs. A good villain song. You can get a BBEG's personality, motivation, and some exposition all in one song when you do it well. S2's finale home run's that. S7 is missing that flair of a good villain song.

Spoiler: S7 E26

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Yep, music was definitely missing from the episode. There was too few music in this whole season. Which might be because S5 and S6 had lower quality music than the first seasons, so they're affraid to use them now. Maybe the producers don't have good songwriters?

Spoiler: Finale part 1

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Uh, Pinkie ...? Maybe don't put the glowing radioactive thing in your mouth?

Spoiler: S7 E25

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I don't think it's radioactive. It's just a pool of glowy deadly poison. No radiation involved.

Spoiler: Finale

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I think Starswirl's a great character and I look forwards to him being a regular feature. He's got the vast power of Twi/Glimglams but, unlike them, he uses it responsibly and that makes him extremely proud. He's spent his life surrounded by abject Bad Examples and has taken that as a demonstration that he's the only one with any sense of right and wrong. This makes him extremely judgy and dismissive of anypony trying to suggests things.

That's real to me and you could run a whole season outta that.

Spoiler: S7 E26

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Well said. Starswirl isn't perfect, but he's powerful, and he's shown in this episode that he's willing to learn from his mistakes when others prove him wrong. He's a great character. I can't tell how much he'll appear in the next season though.

Spoiler: s7e25, s7e26

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Well, that was a hell of a cold open.

Of course Rarity can garden...

Um, Twilight. When STARLIGHT GLIMMER is being the voice of reason, SOMETHING HAS GONE TERRIBLY WRONG.

So... We're just going to ignore that fact the written langiage was Old Ponish and they're all speaking modern pony...? Okay, then.

So. Apparently, Celestia and Luna are not much older than a thousand (which would indicate Luna may not be hugely older than a regular pony), since the plus/minus conversational rounding would suggest a +/-50 year period around Star Swirl's disappearance to Nightmare Moon.

So all this is basically largely because Star Swirl Is A Judgemental Idiot. Nice Job Breaking It, "Hero!"

Starlight Glimmer: voice of reason. Twilight, there are not enough skullpalms in the world. fortunately, you had the microscopic sense to actualyl vaguely listen to Starlight.

And... No worries about culture shock or whatever? Moraning the ones gone and the world has changed forever or whatever? We're just gonna skip over a change as large as pre-Battle of Hastings to modern times again? Okay, then.

Spoiler: S7 E26

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Exactly what I said.

Yes, Rarity has already known pruning bushes to pretty shapes in S1 E8, and I think she figured from that and S5 E16 that it's worth to learn some gardening from Applejack.

Yeah. Good thing that Starlight has done an excursion in EG5 and got a preparatory lesson of exactly this villain turning method. But that's no excuse for Twilight to forget it, after what she's done to Sunset in EG1, and all the rest of the Princess of Friendship thing. She does indeed deserve Starlight's and Pinkie's scorn. Good thing she's surrounded herself with friends like Starlight who can help her out in each of her weaker moments.

Like I said, it's just a Comprehend Languages spell. Either that, or Old Ponish is like Latin, so it was already not the everyday language in Starswirl's time, but it was still the language of nobility that educated ponies would use to take their notes about magic in. You know, like Latin before the 19th century in Europe, or Quenya in Middle Earth. But my bet is on Comprehend Languages.

No, I do think they're older than a thousand years, they just forgot to discuss dating when they met Princess Celestia, so “at least a thousand years” was the best they could say to Starswirl.

Yes, it is.

Yes, she at least has the sense to keep her friends around. Just like how Princess Celestia has the sense to let the younger ponies learn so that she has help when she and her sister can't deal with a problem.

As for that, firstly Starswirl the Bearded is a time traveller, so she may know more about current times than you suspect. She's also a book pony who thinks she can learn about the modern world from just reading all the books in Twilight's library. Secondly, Starswirl doesn't have any friends, so she's no grieving anyone, instead she's glad she can now learn about even more powerful magic than what was available back then. As for the other five legends, they deliberately sacrificed themselves to be trapped in limbo until someone finds a final solution. They are grieving for their lost friends, but they have already accepted that fate when they chose to carry on with the sacrifice. And they might still be worried, but there'll be time for that after these fifty minutes on screen. At this point they're glad that their plan actually worked, with the seeded Elements and everything. The shock will set on later.

(Update: further replies.)

Spoiler: S7 Finale

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Not helping was the fact that, for all their talk about how horrible a threat the pony of shadows was he really didn't get any opportunity to be actually villainous.

That being said, I didn't actually dislike the episode, and it did give me an interesting idea for a headcannon; Prior to Twilight and co. bonding with the Elements of Harmony didn't fully understand friendship and thus were unable to properly wield them.
Hence why Starswirl couldn't see an alternative to banishing the Pony of Shadows and why Celestia had to banish Nightmare Moon instead of purifying her.

Spoiler: S7 E26

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And I'm glad he didn't do anything villainous. In S3 E1, we've seen a flashback to King Sombra turning a whole large city into his slaves. In S4 E26, we've seen Tirek attain almost the height of his power and start to level equestria with his destruction beams. In S5 E26, we've seen that again during a boss rush. Yes, I really like S4 E26. It was good seeing such a powerful villain. But after that, there's just no point showing other powerful villains leveling Equestria in different ways, or turning everypony slaves. It would get boring. So this time, we got the returning villain stopped while he was still charging up on dark mana, thus before he could do any real harm.

Yes, that's exactly what this episode is trying to say IMO. That these ponies are powerful enough to banish every villain to pocket dimensions, just like Starswirl did with so many villains, but that during all these seasons and the Equestria Games shows, these ponies have learned that in most of the cases, there are alternate solutions so that not all villains have to be banished. So they managed to make Discord behave better and not turn Ponyville to the chaos capital, and they had Starlight Glimmer abandon his two villainous plans but without losing the magical power she can provide. Discord and Starlight aren't just turned to obedient good guys, that would be just brainwashing. They managed to keep most of their interesting personality from their villainous years, and the power that comes with that. They also saved Sunset Shimmer and human world Twilight, and befriended both of them. They might still have to destroy some villains, like possibly King Sombra, but most of the time it's better not to do that. Who knows, maybe Stygian can be more useful when he's here to help than when he's imprisoned in a pocket dimension. Even after the six legends are brought back and they research an improve banishment spell that doesn't require their sacrifice, it's worth to save Stygian rather than just banish him with the new spell.

Spoiler: s7e25&26

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While you could well be right, I took a large dislike to him and if he didn't improve quickly I would VERY quickly grow to do so with intensity. If there's one thing... actually, and we all know by now that there are many... But if there is one thing among all the other things that winds me up particularly, it is that I REALLY hate people who DON'T. LISTEN.

Spoiler: S7 E26

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Yes, she probably is to blame for the misunderstanding with Stygian. And she took his friends down that path, just like Twilight did with the yaks. But I'm optimistic about Starswirl the Bearded, because he behaved more reasonable in this episode. There was an immediate crisis, and she didn't know any of those modern times ponies around him except for Twilight, so she didn't know it was worth listening to them. At the end, when they proved they are worth listening to, Starswirl did apologize, and seemed like he was willing to learn. So he did come out of this as a genuinely better person. Now he'll be able to learn even more from Stygian and the Mane Six and even his former students Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and change a lot, much of it off screen. He knows that when he returned, he's no longer the master, and he's happy with it and accepted it, because much of this has come from his plans.

Spoiler: Shadow Play

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[Long explanation about the episode, and Twilight's struggles.]

Spoiler: S7 E26

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Yes. Well said. I didn't have much thought about what exactly Twilight wants to be and what he sees in Starswirl the Bearded, but that's probably about right.

[Deadly]

My fan theory is that since the start of Season 1, Princess Celestia is maintaining an uber-magic over Equestria that stops everyone from aging and dying from old age, and also stops the conception of new ponies.

What about Pound and Pumpkin Cake? They were born in ... was it season 2? Besides, I can't imagine why Celestia would do that.

Anyway, my theory also perfectly explains Luna's drastic change between S1 to S2.

You're wrong. Closest he comes to stating his descent is this exhange in A Health of Information:


So he "knows" Meadowbrook was always writing in her journals, but that knowledge isn't personal knowledge. It's received knowledge.

Huh, I guess I was wrong.

Spoiler: S7 E25

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I don't think it's radioactive. It's just a pool of glowy deadly poison. No radiation involved.

Yes, that's much better

[b_jonas]

What about Pound and Pumpkin Cake? They were born in ... was it season 2? Besides, I can't imagine why Celestia would do that.

Anyway, my theory also perfectly explains Luna's drastic change between S1 to S2.

I believe Mrs Cup Cake was already pregnant at the start of S1, and so she get to carry her babies full term. They were some of the last babies born in Equestria since that time. This being in S2 just about allows for that. But now look at them, they don't age. They're still toddlers. Have you seen anyone age since S1, except in flashbacks?

And yes, Princess Cadence has also had a baby born, but she's an alicorn and so is her baby, so that's a special case. Princess Cadence probably already had very extended lifetime before, just like Princess Celestia did, and the uber-magic doesn't affect her any further. The reason why the baby turned out to be an alicorn might be precisely that ordinary unicorns can't be conceieved anymore. But then again, it could be just that there are very few alicorns around, and Princess Celestia doesn't want another daughter after Sunset Shimmer. I don't know what exactly is up here, but in any case I don't think Flurry's birth contradicts the uber-magic.

And as for Luna's drastic change, there was already a lot of talk about that.

[zimmerwald1915]

Spoiler: Shadow Play Plotbunny for People with the Talent to Do Something With It

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So it's pretty clear that Shadow Lock from the comics is Stygian's descendant. In order to have descendants, Stygian would have needed a family. How would they have reacted to his disappearance? What would they have known of his plans? Given that the Pillars sealed themselves away along with Stygian, who would they have blamed? My original thought was that they would have blamed, and confronted, the Royal Sisters, who of course would know just as little as they do and grieving just as much. They may even have blamed Luna specifically if they had an inkling that Stygian was hearing "whispers from the darkness" and given her association therewith, setting up her own fall years later.

[Aotrs Commander]

Spoiler: Previously on Aotrs-Com 2

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Part 01
Part 02
Part 03
Part 04
Part 05
Part 06
Part 07
Part 08
Part 09
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17

Bleakbane Plays: Aotrs-Com 2: Part 18

Spoiler

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(Right where were we? Two days without X-Com 2, I was starting to get withdrawal symptoms... Right, capture mission!)

Trixie pulled off an effortlessly perfect mission. Elena's homing mine, combined with War Droid Alpha's Shredstorm cannon took down one pod alone, and the others fell very fast, the largest threat - the Gatekeeper - being dominated, while the Codex and Spectres went down very fast. (The Codex was so damaged it couldn't even close and was dispatched before it could anything more than run for cover.)

The team grabbed the VIP, destroyed the Gatekeeper and extracted with more turns than ever remaining.



War Droid Alpha was promoted to knight and learned Rainmaker (+2 heavy weapons damage plus extra AoE).



Fleur and Scootaloo went to improve their bond.

The supplies went on upgrading the power cores to the maximum. There was now a load of excess power, but Bleakbane didn't care.

Now it was FINALLY time to deal with Warlock Mordenna once and for all!

Bleakbane's strike team was Derpy, Hopereaver, Stab, Mox and Diamond Tiara. For this mission, everyone but Hopereaver and Bleakbane (with the highest and joint-second highest will) was equipped with a Mindshield. Hopereaver also donned the second suit on WAR armour instead of her usual Wraith Armour for a bit extra firepower. (Had they mad more suits, Bleakbane would have had Stab so equipped too.) Bleakbane added the Advanced Hair trigger Trixie recovered on the last mission to his minigun.

And then Operation Falling Knife was a go!

The squad moved through the first area, eliminating everything carefully. The one sticky bit was with an Archon using Blazing Pinions.

(Which I'd not encountered before, that required a reload...!)

Derpy stayed out of the fighting, keeping her concealment up as long as possible.

Then they moved onto the Ascension Chamber itself.

Warlock Mordenna showed up get a face-full of Overwatch fire. He barely made it a few feet before keeling over - especially as the first overwatch shooter was Bleakbane and he got Shredded.

The minions that showed up were deftly dealt with, as Derp, Hopereaver, Bleakbane and stab took shots at the regeneration chamber. Mordenna staggered out at 60% healing. Hopereaver shot him with fan fire. Mox took a single shot as he reappeared.

"And now," Bleakbane said, as while the Warlock had appeared not far from him, it didn't really matter. "Would you like to see my new toy?" He pointed his left arm forward and there was a soft whumph.

"What?" Warlock Mordenna, groaned. A small blue ball entered his vision and stopped, hovering right in front of his face. The Warlock's eyes widened and his pupils shrank to pinpricks. "Ohhhhh... Sh-"

There was a thunderous explosion.

Bleakbane trotted over to the smouldering corpse. Derpy gave him a high-five.

"Now we're even!" She enthused.

"Dang it! I call the last one!" Hopereaver grumbled cheerfully.

Bleakbane, observed the corpse for a moment longer, then reached out yanked a soul out.

"What..." Warlock Mordenna's helpless ghost gasped, "what manner of man are... you..." His voice trailed off as Bleakbane removed his helmet, and gazed at him with his naked grinning skull.

There was a long silence.

"Oh, you're going to mess me up something fierce now, aren't you?" the warlock said.

The squad all nodded in gleeful unison.

A short time later, the squad trudged out of the Ascension Chamber, as the entire building collapsed behind them.

"Huh," Bleakbane said, looking around at the squad. "That was actually way easier than the first time! Flawless victory! And we didn't even need the mindshields!"



Pinkie threw them all a "Bleakbane killed a Chosen Too!" party that night. Despite being out a convert op. Wisely, no-one question this.



Hunter Mordenna called up.

"They were no pushovers, my siblings. I guess you are a little dangerous after all..."

"Hey, Mordenna," Bleakbane replied - to the Hunter's sudden alarm. "You know how I said I liked you and I was going to kill you last?

"Well..."

The Hunter broke comms very suddenly. He looked down at the lower armour. "Well," he said to himself. "I haven't done that for quite some years..."

Tygan rolled out the new and improved rifles for the Templars. The inspiration meant that the team completed looking over the Warlock's rifle in record time - and that gave them an idea for improving pistols!

DT finally took her promotion to Major that she'd had for some time...

(I've said about twice she did, but that was me getting the rank wrong both times; it was Captain abilities she was picking up.)

...and picked up Arc Wave.

The aliens continued to progress on the Avatar Project.

Pinkie and Sunset returned, finally having properly bonded. (Bleakbane knew he would get them bonded eventually!)



A combat intelligence and hacking operation was available. Stab would have been the ideal choice, but she was too knackered after the last battle. So Jubilee went out instead. (Which did not hurt, she Jubilee's medical abilities had almost never been used anyway...)

The Avenger gathered supplies, until it was time to deal with the guerrilla operation for this month. This time Bleakbane was DAMNED SURE if HE wasn't allowed to have necromancy, ADVENT sure as [excrement] weren't having their solider animate after death either!

Pinkie Pie headed out with Sunset, Luna, Zecora, Spike and War Droid Alpha. They were expecting a lot of ADVENT, but no other support, so planned accordingly. The core from the last mission was hastily made into a second Blaster Launcher, and then both Sunset and Alpha were given one each.

Operation Crypt Father was a go!

This was another assassination mission - against a lot more ADVENT troops. Pinkie was banking on the Blaster Launchers helping to eliminate the officer, rather than on having Derpy, Trixie or Scoots of someone run him down. Resistance fighter Anne Welsh met them in the sewers.

A flawless mission from Pinkie Pie. for once, concealment helped. The squad were in position to ambush the first pod... When the target officer strolled by! War Droid Alpha landed a blaster on his head, and Spike put him down as he ran for cover. The rest was a nice easy mop-up.



(Panto break... Huh, Prob'ly should have looked for pony mods before I started, 'cos there are a handful. Not as many as one would like, but I could have used a few if I'd wanted to...

...

After watching the video, I REALLY couldn't resist using the Pinkie Pie one.)

The assorted loot scan finished, granting a scope... And after that, it was a choice of Intel, Intel or Intel scans.

Jubilee got back in. Bleakbane sent out Trixie and Fleur to do a bit of Avatar Project dismantling.

As expected, the Lost Dark event completed, meaning that Aotrs-Com would have to expect to deal with more Lost on missions. A nuisance, but there it was.

Pistol research completed, opening the way for Reinforce Heavy Armour research.

The month ticked over. ADVENT was trying to equip its troops with bleed-causing rounds, work on the Avatar Project and Hunter Mordenna (hereafter referred to as just "Mordenna" again) was gearing up to try and capture people.

However, it was quite likely he himself would be getting knobbled this month...

Bleakbane held onto the supplies, there wasn't anything immediate to do with them - except build a radio tower in South America for the last continent bonus.

Trixie and Fleur succeeded, though the latter had taken a hit, Bleakbane sent Trixie out for a combat intelligence boost (with a heft dodge bonus to boot!)

Another UFO had landed. Jubilee set out with Pinkie, Sunset, Spike, War Droid Alpha and Scootaloo. Jubilee was given the chance to test out the Warlock's Disruptor rifle. Sunset slapped an Advanced Hair Trigger onto her minigun.

And Operation Half-dead Moon was a go... Apart from the vicious glare the mission-naming-guy got from Luna.

The squad dropped in.

Jubilee paused. "Pinkie..."

"Hi!"

"...Spike, Scoots, Sunset, War Droid Alpha, some girl I don't know,"

"Christine Schulz, resistance fighter!"

"...ADVENT guy...

"Wait, like, what?"

"I have a name," sniffed the ADVENT Elite Lancer.

"Awwwww," Pinkie said. "What's your name, Mr. ADVENT guy?"

"Bob," said the ADVENT guy.

"Like, wow. Big squad," Jubilee said. "So, uh, girls, Spike, Alphas and Bob.. let's got kick butt!"

"Yaaaaaaaaaaay!"

"Like, tone it down a notch, Bob, dude." Jubilee muttered.

As it happened, Bob and Schulz were not quite superfluous.

Sunset took a hit from an Archon (because Alpha missed twice) and Scoots missing a sectoid with Bladestorm meant she got controlled and Spike had to shoot it to break her free.

But, otherwise, the mission completed nicely.



War Droid Alpha was promoted to Cavalier. After some debate, it was decided it should have Wrecking Ball (the ability to break through walls when in Overdrive mode).

(Yeah, that Pinkie Pie voice set is... Frankly, and it's me saying this, little bit adorable.)

The mission brought back three elerium cores. Bleakbane used one to make a third WAR suit. He held onto the others for the moment.

Trixie came back a true Savant. She learned Salvo, and the accompanying Volatile Mix. Bleakbane was seriously considering having a mission to get some AP so she could learn Shredder and then giving her a suit of WAR armour. And then did both, sending out DT (for a promotion) and Fleur.

Reinforce heavy armour research was finished, and now Spare Parts II was on the table.

The radio tower completed, granting the final continent bonus - ADVENT units discovered on X-Com's turn lost an action on their next turn. Doody.

The Avenger made a quick trip to the Black Market (before it was probably shut down) and came away with a couple more useful upgrades. Then it was off to a convoy supply scan.

DT and Fleur came back safely. Now, as one of the covert ops Bleakbane planned was actually just being researched, he dispatched Fleur, Sweetie and Mox on the final leg of the hunt for Mordenna.

Diamond tiara learned Ionic Storm and then used her last (and a little from the common store) to also learn Amplify.

The aliens completed their Avatar Dark Event. The Avatar Project now stood at six.

"Time to do something about that," Bleakbane said. He'd held off, because of facing that Viper King at the last facility. He looked at the facility is Australia, with two dots under it.

"Let's go break that one!"

He headed out with Derpy, Trixie, Elena, Hopereaver and Stab. Hopereaver was finally able to upgrade her expanded magazine to a superior version. Both Bleakbane, and the Excited and Pyromaniac Trixie took the Blaster Launchers. While Bleakbane did want to eventually give all the heavy weapons a shot -

- (if only for the achievement...!) -

- alien rulers definitely felt like Blaster fodder!

Operation Frost Tower was a go!

As they arrived, Paula Robinson, a local resistance fighter, joined them.

The ADVENT force went down like a sack of beans. Elena took out most of a pod with a Homing Mine, and Bleakbane shot the last one down. The second pod, with a sectopod, blundered in - but already, the new tactical continent bonus meant all they did on their action was come forward. Bleakbane, laughing like a manic, blasted one ADVENT trooper apart, getting is Death from Above active, shredded the Sectopod with his hair-trigger, and very nearly killed it outright with the second shot. Hopereaver finished it with lightning hands and then blasted the other poor fool away with the sniper rifle.

The remaining defenders went down just as fast in the facility.

Derpy laid the charges (causing the last pod to activate and die horribly). Stab called the evac, but since there seemed little point doing a runner, she slapped it right outside the facility. The ADVENT reinforcement point appeared practically right next to it. So the squad stood about, while Derpy stood in the middle, all on overwatch. The poor unfortunate ADVENT soldiers dropped down right in the middle. Bleakbane and Derpy shot the officer to death, and Derpy sliced the other fools apart with Bladestorm.

The next reinforcement point appeared practically on THEIR evac point... So they did it again, and once more, with hilarious violence, Bleakbane and Derpy wiped all three poor fools out with combined attacks. (Bleakbane's guardian shot were probably unnecessary with Derpy's Bladestorm, but it was just damned funny.



Flawless victory and two points of the Avatar project!

As the Avenger headed to get some supplies - Bleakbane wanted the strike team to rest up before doing something else - the next guerrilla operation was ready to be undertaken. This time, it was to eliminate the chance of having ADVENT with stiletto rounds.

As the opposition was fairly light (just seven enemies, according to the Shadow Chamber), Bleakbane assigned Jubilee to lead some of the less experienced troops.

So she headed out with Spike, War Droid Alpha, Lyra, Shining Armor and Apple Bloom. There were now enough spare upgrades to scatter them among everyone; pertinently, War Droid Alpha upgraded to a superior scope, to maximise it was accuracy.

Operation Swamp Valley was a go!

The mission was itself to hack a station on an ADVENT train, so three specialists would be plenty!

The team was joined by Alessandra Marino, and another ADVENT trooper. Bill, this time.

Jubilee resisted the urge to facepalm.

This did put the squad in the unusual position of actually out-numbering the enemy...

As is often the case, what should have been a routine mission got interesting when Mordenna showed up. "Interesting," however, was not the same as "difficult;" the only injury was to War Droid Alpha, when Mordenna lost his rag at being repeatedly shot at (most of the damage was miss damage from the superior stocks!) and actually used his rifle.

But he went down soon enough!



AB was promoted to Sergeant. As per the norm, she picked up Haywire Protocol.



Shining and Lyra also bonded, swapping stories of silly things Twilight did on the Skyranger back.



Bleakbane used one of the cores to create a new heavy weapon... a Hellfire Projector.

(Considering how they'd not managed to use a flamethrower yet, I wasn't convinced on the improved version, but what the hell, achievement...!)

However, the operation opened up a new scan target - for a second guerrilla operation! So that was the next job!

Tygan finished on the spare parts project, blazed through an ADVENT datapad and started on making reinforced light armour.

Mordenna finished his plans to try and capture soldiers - though his time was now limited to mere days.

Mox, Fleur and Sweetie came back unscathed. Bleakbane considered launching an immediate strike, but Stab and Hopereaver were still a little fatigued.

In the meantime, Fleur and Scoots went off to get some more resistance orders.

The next supply drop came in. the news was that now ADVENT were trying to reinforce against guerrilla operations - and worse, they were trying to spread chryssalids around more.

The guerrilla operation happened to be stopping the Black Market closure via assassination - an against a LOT of ADVENT forces.

Bleakbane set out with Derpy, Jubilee, Spike, Luna and Zecora.

Operation Devil's Misery was a go!

ADVENT Trooper Bob joined the group, which... didn't really help, but made Bob feel better.

As it turned out, all the opposition was mostly Lost. The squad were treated to an amusing sight. They were moving into position, and saw a pair of ADVENT run into the Lost. The squad just settled back on Overwatch as the fight went on; the ADVENT were joined by four more and a horde of Lost who managed to get a few blows in before they were wiped. The six surviving ADVENT bunched up, obviously trying to work out what to do... So Bleakbane broke concealment by dropping a Blaster on them and wiping them all out.

The hapless command was next, dispatched with one shot and an overwatch from Jubilee as he tried to run. And the last pod went down as easily. The only down side was Luna getting grazed at the last moment. (For some reason, this gave Luna chosenophobia.)



And there we shall leave it for today!

[DigoDragon]

Spoiler: S7 Finale part 1, in a nutshell

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I believe Mrs Cup Cake was already pregnant at the start of S1, and so she get to carry her babies full term. They were some of the last babies born in Equestria since that time. This being in S2 just about allows for that. But now look at them, they don't age. They're still toddlers. Have you seen anyone age since S1, except in flashbacks?

Do remember that time isn't moving as fast as you may think it does in the show. According to the first episode of season 4, the first three seasons took place over the course of just a year. At that speed the cake twins are maybe around two years old, if that. Still definitely toddlers.

[b_jonas]

A few further comments on the finale.

Spoiler: S7 E25..26

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• Rainbow Dash has met her favourite legend without squeeing "Ohmygosh" even once. I wonder if she got disillusioned by meeting Windrider, or has become more calm now that she's a Wonderbolt and all.
• We'll have to be careful with the terminology when talking about Star Swirl's journal, so as to not confuse the journal we see in S7 E25 and the book with her final spell back in S3 E13. Given that Star Swirl was the most important conjurer of the pre-classical era and created more than two hundred spells, it's no surprise that he's left behind multiple books, but it will be easy to get confused.
• Rainbow Dash: "She got her wings by finishing one of your spells!"
  Star Swirl the Bearded: "Oh? Now that I want to see."
  [cut]
  Star Swirl the Bearded: "Yeah, I thought of that simple fix too. But that would give you huge wings, it would be so inconvenient! How would you even sleep with those on your back?"

[Pi Pie]

Spoiler: Shadow Play

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If I cared to, I could argue that the primary conflict between the episode was actually internal to Twilight, between her need to prove her worth and her highest ideals, as represented by Star Swirl and Starlight respectively.

Star Swirl represents everything Twilight wants for herself. She has always wanted to sit in a well-defined place where she can be most useful to society. Well, Star Swirl not only did that, he set himself up at or near the center of Equestria's history: Pillar of the realm, tutor to Clover the Clever and the Royal Sisters, inventor of hundreds of spells and by extension the founder of a whole unicorn spellcasting tradition. He is greatness, and he is responsibility. He makes the hard, "necessary," prudent decisions: sacrificing first the Pillars, then the Elements of Harmony, to protect the realm. It's this style of leadership that Twilight attempts to adopt in the first half of Part 2, in part to emulate Star Swirl, in part as a reaction to her half-cocked behavior in Part 1.

What's more, Twilight began this season being laughed at by one of her idols; to hear her other express his gratitude for her invaluable help would balm that wound. To be denied that balm and scolded instead only hardens her resolve to prove her worth in his eyes.

Starlight (we are told) has listened to and absorbed everything Twilight has to teach about the magic of friendship - her unique specialty and contribution to the magical arts and the virtue she is charged with promoting as an alicorn princess. Starlight has let herself be molded by her mentor, and as such can remind Twilight of her own ideology and convictions. She stands as living proof that Twilight simply isn't a hard-nosed, prudent decision maker, and that living and leading with an open heart can be best for everyone even if prudence says otherwise. So do the castle they share and the Cutie Map that brought them together, and which points the way to Stygian.

This conflict for Twilight's soul culminates in the moment the Elements and the Pillars face the Pony of Shadows, with Star Swirl ordering Twilight to finish the spell and Starlight still begging her to reconsider. Twilight sees Stygian in need of help, and in that moment she throws every selfish and prudent consideration aside and listens to her instincts. She dives into the heart of darkness to help him, just like she dove in front of Sugar Belle, Double Diamond, Night Glider and Party favor in The Cutie Map, to pick one of myriad examples. In that moment, the magic of friendship saved the day.

Of course, I don't think the writers are clever enough to tell that story and I've been hardened by every development in this direction since Season 5, so I'll call it what it far more likely is: a ham-fisted attempt to make Starlight look better by making Twilight look worse.

Reposted from FimFiction discussion because I can't muster the energy to engage with the ongoing conversation, such as it is.

Once again, I really like your interpretation. I wish that you were part of the writing staff and could push them to go beyond the simple tropes and really explore these deeper issues.

[zimmerwald1915]

Once again, I really like your interpretation. I wish that you were part of the writing staff and could push them to go beyond the simple tropes and really explore these deeper issues.

No can do. I'm not a member of the Writers' Guild of Canada, don't qualify to join, and especially don't want to scab.

Oh, and there's the tiny issue of anyone being able to bang out this high-school level literary criticism, and that actually writing is a whole other beast.

[Aotrs Commander]

The point you realise that when you miss a day playing X-Com, you get withdrawl symptoms...

[t209]

Just had a scene of crossover between Marvel, My Little Pony, and Gundam.
In Gundam, the Zeon forces emptied out the colonies and used the orbiting habitat as orbital bombardment. This link will get you a good imagination.
Any idea how much Pegasus city like Cloudsdale can do damage to average installation in Marvel universe since the "good" registration wanted to clear out the "bad" Cap side out of his hideout that somehow can't be dislodged except for a giant facility. Unfortunately, Pegasus said no due to neutrality on the issue but Iron Man had tons of G3 "knock out" gas.
But unlike Gundam, Marvel civilians would praise it even it involved a giant floating city full of "fainted" ponies crash landing on surface with uncountable side casualties from debris and left over gas.

[Draconi Redfir]

just saw the season finale.

Spoiler

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i still refuse to believe Celestia and Luna are anything other then literal godlike embodiments of the sun and the moon. no matter how many mentions of them being young taller there are.

and previous element bearers confirmed... kinda. just wish more were mentioned between luna's banishment and now.

[t209]

just saw the season finale.

Spoiler

Show

i still refuse to believe Celestia and Luna are anything other then literal godlike embodiments of the sun and the moon. no matter how many mentions of them being young taller there are.

and previous element bearers confirmed... kinda. just wish more were mentioned between luna's banishment and now.

Yeah, a thousand years ago sounded more trite now. Like all the crisis occured and ended in a single distant year.

[DigoDragon]

The point you realise that when you miss a day playing X-Com, you get withdrawl symptoms...

*holds up a nickel bag of Chrysalids*

Yeah, a thousand years ago sounded more trite now. Like all the crisis occured and ended in a single distant year.

Maybe Celestia caused a 'Dragon Break' when she activated the elements by herself (yes that's an Elder's Scrolls reference).


It's that time again.

Spoiler

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Free candy for the kids (and older kids who still have fun with Halloween.

I set out a big bowl of candy (mixed M&Ms and Skittles) for the office. No warning, just figure they all need a good pranking.

[EsperDerek]

Just had a scene of crossover between Marvel, My Little Pony, and Gundam.
In Gundam, the Zeon forces emptied out the colonies and used the orbiting habitat as orbital bombardment. This link will get you a good imagination.
Any idea how much Pegasus city like Cloudsdale can do damage to average installation in Marvel universe since the "good" registration wanted to clear out the "bad" Cap side out of his hideout that somehow can't be dislodged except for a giant facility. Unfortunately, Pegasus said no due to neutrality on the issue but Iron Man had tons of G3 "knock out" gas.
But unlike Gundam, Marvel civilians would praise it even it involved a giant floating city full of "fainted" ponies crash landing on surface with uncountable side casualties from debris and left over gas.

...What?

G3 Gas is literally considered so horrific that it's use is considered a massive, massive war crime even in Gundam universe, and is meant to invoke comparisons to VX Nerve agent. It was used to kill millions of people in universe, and the way they die is pretty goddamn terrible, if Shiro Amada's PTSD is anything to go by.

It's entirely, entirely out of character for Iron Man to both use that stuff, as well as perform a goddamn colony drop.

Yeah, a thousand years ago sounded more trite now. Like all the crisis occured and ended in a single distant year.

Hey, let's be fair here. They did say it was over a thousand years ago this time. I mean, that makes it fine, right?

[Draconi Redfir]

just once i'd like to hear them say the words "two thousand years ago." as it is it feels like equestia is only one thousand years old.


in other news, apparently the voice of Twilight has agreed to play a character from my favorite webcomic. You guys wanna help make that possible?


Link to the comic if you wanna check it out

[t209]

...What?

G3 Gas is literally considered so horrific that it's use is considered a massive, massive war crime even in Gundam universe, and is meant to invoke comparisons to VX Nerve agent. It was used to kill millions of people in universe, and the way they die is pretty goddamn terrible, if Shiro Amada's PTSD is anything to go by.

It's entirely, entirely out of character for Iron Man to both use that stuff, as well as perform a goddamn colony drop.

Well, if Mark Millar get away with praising Iron Man as hero from infringing more civil right than Captain America and Bendis let Carol goes scot free from bashing people in the head with precog kid, then the power of bad writing and moronic civilians might say otherwise.

[zimmerwald1915]

I set out a big bowl of candy (mixed M&Ms and Skittles) for the office. No warning, just figure they all need a good pranking.

Where's the prank? M&Ms and Skittles are easily distinguishable by shape and color.

[zimmerwald1915]

in other news, apparently the voice of Twilight has agreed to play a character from my favorite webcomic. You guys wanna help make that possible?

Why does a project legit enough to arrange a SAG-AFTRA contract (Tara's a member, I assume she obeys Global Rule One; if she doesn't I will be bitterly disappointed) need a Kickstarter? Can't it arrange proper investors?

[digiman619]

Where's the prank? M&Ms and Skittles are easily distinguishable by shape and color.

Only if you're looking for it. besides, chances are they are going to eat it a handful at a time, and are therefore likely to get a mix, which will be surprising no matter which they were expecting.

[Draconi Redfir]

Where's the prank? M&Ms and Skittles are easily distinguishable by shape and color.

people might see one M&M and assume iy's a nbowl of M&M's, or one skittle and assume it's a bowl of skittles. then they grab a handful, and are graced with the horrid elderich taste of chocolate and fruit mixing in their mouths.

Why does a project legit enough to arrange a SAG-AFTRA contract (Tara's a member, I assume she obeys Global Rule One; if she doesn't I will be bitterly disappointed) need a Kickstarter? Can't it arrange proper investors?

Can't say i'm sure really. all i know is a couple of voice actors approached the webcomic author for an animated series and this is the result. would be cool if it happens though.

[DigoDragon]

Where's the prank? M&Ms and Skittles are easily distinguishable by shape and color.

As others have pointed out, only if you're actively looking for them. My coworkers have terrible passive perception scores.

The bowl is half empty and now there are a few employees separating them out. It's quite amusing to watch. They still don't know who did it either.