My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club

[Forum Explorer]

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.

It's only a bad prank if it doesn't work.

[zimmerwald1915]

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.

Whoever runs the "Goblins Animated" account has confirmed that this is a union production. Which is good in itself, but still leaves me flummoxed as to why they can't get investors.

[Draconi Redfir]

Whoever runs the "Goblins Animated" account has confirmed that this is a union production. Which is good in itself, but still leaves me flummoxed as to why they can't get investors.

i am not even a beginner in this kind of thing so i won't even try to pretend like i know why.

best guess is bigger investors don't want to fund a labor-of-love project, want to make sure there is enough interest in it that merchandising would be profitable, or something about it prevents large investors from investing somehow.

[Alabenson]

i am not even a beginner in this kind of thing so i won't even try to pretend like i know why.

best guess is bigger investors don't want to fund a labor-of-love project, want to make sure there is enough interest in it that merchandising would be profitable, or something about it prevents large investors from investing somehow.

Honestly, and I'm speaking as someone who's been reading the webcomic for years, I can understand why bigger investors would be hesitant to touch a Goblins animated series with a ten foot pole. Animated programs aimed at adults still have something of a niche market stigma to begin with and one that tends to deal with very heavy, family-(and therefore advertiser)-unfriendly subject matter on regular basis is going to be a hard sell. Essentially, you'd either be dealing with an end-product that's been hugely watered down from the source material or have something that caters to a very small target audience.

[b_jonas]

Wow, I didn't even realize that Tara Strong voices the protagonist of Ben 10, both in the original series from 2015 and the 2016 reboot. Is this a series I should be watching? I was wondering if I should try to get into some other cartoon series (besides MLP that is). My top guess so far has been Steven Universe, which multiple people have praised. Do you have any recommendation for or against that?

[Spamotron]

Wow, I didn't even realize that Tara Strong voices the protagonist of Ben 10, both in the original series from 2015 and the 2016 reboot. Is this a series I should be watching? I was wondering if I should try to get into some other cartoon series (besides MLP that is). My top guess so far has been Steven Universe, which multiple people have praised. Do you have any recommendation for or against that?

Lots of people like the original first season of Ben 10. Its a quite fun episodic superhero show. The following seasons are more controversial.

[Aotrs Commander]

Lots of people like the original first season of Ben 10. Its a quite fun episodic superhero show. The following seasons are more controversial.

I liked it all pretty much up until the reboot. Alien Force was a bit... eh at the start, but as they improved, lightened up a bit an explained away all the plotholes they made, it was quite good.

The reboot looks.... Pretty cruddy, to be honest. Nothing I've seen makes me want to make the effort to watch it. (I mean, I could be wrong... But it doesn't even look like it's got the pitch-black comedy and self-parody that cracks me up about Teen Titans Go, for instance.)

[Draconi Redfir]

i have not seen the ben 10 reboot, but my biggest complaint is how they removed / changed some of the aliens. no wildmutt for example, and now stinkfly looks humanoid for some reason.

[Alabenson]

Speaking of other animated shows, has anyone else watched anything of Zak Storm, the new show Discovery is using as a lead-in for MLP? My initial expectations after watching the commercials for it were that it would be another CGI dumpster fire, but after watching most of an episode I'm cautiously optimistic. The action is decent, the universe looks moderately creative, the premise is reminiscent of some of the older 80's action shows and they actually went so far as to have the primary villain threaten to unambiguously kill the protagonist. Honestly, at the very least I'm planning to withhold my final judgement until I've watched a few more episodes.

[Rater202]

Wow, I didn't even realize that Tara Strong voices the protagonist of Ben 10, both in the original series from 2015 and the 2016 reboot. Is this a series I should be watching? I was wondering if I should try to get into some other cartoon series (besides MLP that is). My top guess so far has been Steven Universe, which multiple people have praised. Do you have any recommendation for or against that?

Steven Universe is a great show(albeit one that I need to get caught up on.)

I'm someone who liked all of the Ben 10s(though I haven't seen much of the Reboot. I should probably watch some to give it a fair shake, but I'm still salty about Omniverse getting screwed over and it's hanging plots and obvious sequel hook not getting followed up on)

Spoiler: Brief Descriptions of each show.

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Ben 10 classic is standard "Boy finds Supertech, becomes a hero and has to learn to be responsible with it" storyline that is light hearted up until it's not.

Alien Force changes the art style slightly and is a bit bumpy. It opens up with an alien invasion and Ben having to get used to the Rebooted Omnitrix after having given it up sometime in the past(the reasons were never explained. Omniverse was gonna explain it, but they changed their minds on the reason and never got back to it.) It also retcons a thing from the backstory of one of Ben's villains, but people ended up liking this Kevin better than OG Kevin. It's a bit darker and more mature than OG B10 in average alien
Ultimate Alien picks up right wher eAlien Force left off with the caveats that Ben's secret identity has been exposed(thus, he becomes a celebrity and has to deal.) and a new gimmic--The Ultimatrix, which evolves Ben's aliens into combat ready super-forms by similulating how a species would evolve during a million year long worst case scenario war. (Wasted Potential. Was only used on seven of Ben's aliens when by the end of Ultimate he had like, sixty.) Series runner died during the run though, so a plot element started here never got picked up again.

Omniverse: Created as an explicit attempt to unite the fractured fanbase(Rabid Fans of the Original hated UAF and vice versa), shakes up status quo, some fo Ben's supporting cast gets shunted to "occasional allies," new art style, Ultimatrix goes away, Ben gets a new partner. Also flashbacks to 11 year old ben after original series but before giving up the Omnitrix. Lot of really cool stuff happened here, but Ben's character gets a little... They tried to condense his character abit and he suffered for it in some episodes. Got screwed over hard becuase it failed to unite the fanbase, and the ne Head Writer notably had this habbit of acting like he had full creative control and stated things in WoG that just weren't true("Way Big's cosmic beams were a glitch power of the Ultimatrix" cue Waybig using them anyway.) and also kind of hated UAF, which you can kind of pick up on by OG series aliens being buffed and some of the UAF Aliens being replaced or demoted.

It's all good, but which one is the best is gonna be up to you to decide and for the love of god do not go checking the opinions of diehard fans until you've at least finished Alien Force.

[DigoDragon]

It's only a bad prank if it doesn't work.

Pretty much! So I would call this mischief managed. :3

Spoiler: Hello Georgie!

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Spoiler: Chrysalis!

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[t209]

Steven Universe is a great show(albeit one that I need to get caught up on.)

I'm someone who liked all of the Ben 10s(though I haven't seen much of the Reboot. I should probably watch some to give it a fair shake, but I'm still salty about Omniverse getting screwed over and it's hanging plots and obvious sequel hook not getting followed up on)

Spoiler: Brief Descriptions of each show.

Show

Ben 10 classic is standard "Boy finds Supertech, becomes a hero and has to learn to be responsible with it" storyline that is light hearted up until it's not.

Alien Force changes the art style slightly and is a bit bumpy. It opens up with an alien invasion and Ben having to get used to the Rebooted Omnitrix after having given it up sometime in the past(the reasons were never explained. Omniverse was gonna explain it, but they changed their minds on the reason and never got back to it.) It also retcons a thing from the backstory of one of Ben's villains, but people ended up liking this Kevin better than OG Kevin. It's a bit darker and more mature than OG B10 in average alien
Ultimate Alien picks up right wher eAlien Force left off with the caveats that Ben's secret identity has been exposed(thus, he becomes a celebrity and has to deal.) and a new gimmic--The Ultimatrix, which evolves Ben's aliens into combat ready super-forms by similulating how a species would evolve during a million year long worst case scenario war. (Wasted Potential. Was only used on seven of Ben's aliens when by the end of Ultimate he had like, sixty.) Series runner died during the run though, so a plot element started here never got picked up again.

Omniverse: Created as an explicit attempt to unite the fractured fanbase(Rabid Fans of the Original hated UAF and vice versa), shakes up status quo, some fo Ben's supporting cast gets shunted to "occasional allies," new art style, Ultimatrix goes away, Ben gets a new partner. Also flashbacks to 11 year old ben after original series but before giving up the Omnitrix. Lot of really cool stuff happened here, but Ben's character gets a little... They tried to condense his character abit and he suffered for it in some episodes. Got screwed over hard becuase it failed to unite the fanbase, and the ne Head Writer notably had this habbit of acting like he had full creative control and stated things in WoG that just weren't true("Way Big's cosmic beams were a glitch power of the Ultimatrix" cue Waybig using them anyway.) and also kind of hated UAF, which you can kind of pick up on by OG series aliens being buffed and some of the UAF Aliens being replaced or demoted.

It's all good, but which one is the best is gonna be up to you to decide and for the love of god do not go checking the opinions of diehard fans until you've at least finished Alien Force.

But we can all agree that the 2016 reboot is the worst.

[Rater202]

But we can all agree that the 2016 reboot is the worst.

No. We can't. Becuase I haven't seen it yet, and thus can't give it a fair critique.

There is nothing I hate more than people who say negative things about a reboot or sequel they haven't seen just becuase it's differant from the version they like.

[Pi Pie]

Happy Nightmare Night.

I carved a pumpkin.

Spoiler: Pumpkin

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No, not that one.


This one. Not my best work. I also should have taken the pictures immediately. The pumpkin started shriveling before I got around to it.

Now that the changelings are good, do they get to go trick or treating? Do you give them candy or hugs?

At least they save a lot of money on costumes.

Spoiler: Changeling?

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[Rater202]

Now that the changelings are good, do they get to go trick or treating? Do you give them candy or hugs?

Yes.

Candy especially. The secret to good candy is well known and apreciated by the Changelings

[b_jonas]

Thank you for the comments so far on other cartoon series.

I carved a pumpkin.

Mane Six cutie marks on a pumpkin. Nice, thank you for sharing photos.

My brother carved a pumpkin and did some other Halloween preparations, but the local kids foiled all the plans by visiting their house very early, on --10-27 Friday IIRC, claiming the whole week is supposed to be Halloween feasts.

[Aotrs Commander]

Spoiler: Previously on Aotrs-Com 2

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Part 04
Part 05
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Bleakbane Plays: Aotrs-Com 2: Part 19

Spoiler

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Fleur and Scoots completed their operation. Trixie and Sweetie went off to ruin Mordenna's sabotage attempts; Luna and Zecora meanwhile, worked on their bond.

The light armour reinforcement completed; next up, Tygan wanted to tackle module Vector rifles.

The Avenger gathered some loot, and then moved on to some supplies. Bleakbane was playing for time - mostly to rest himself for his own will recovery. Trixie and Sweetie returned, having thoroughly frustrated Mordenna. This time, Stab went out for some combat intelligence training.

Piqued, Mordenna lead an attack on a resistance camp. Bleakbane, mindful of keeping a proper rotation, assigned Pinkie to deal with it. She took Sunset, all three CMC and Fleur to deal with the situation.

Fleur added a stock to her gun. Scootaloo upgraded to an advanced stock, and Pinkie grabbed an advanced expanded magazine, giving the old one to Sweetie.

Operation Steel Star was a go!

The squad met up with a defecting Elite Lancer ("Cecil-Fothering-Wortheridge, don'tcha know,") at the attack site.

(The RNG really didn't want to play in the first turn or so of the mission... If it was allowed its way, everyone in the squad would have failed at everything...)

Apple Bloom managed a first - taking control of an Andromedon shell. The only injury was the Lancer a slight annoyance for Pinkie, since it was an otherwise perfect mission!



Bleakbane was pleased enough to send Pinkie and Sunset off to improve their bond upon their return.

When Stab completed her operation, Bleakbane headed out with Apple Bloom to get some more ability points (and buff his dodge). Stab, now a Savant, used her pool and some of the shared to get Blast Padding and Implacable.

As more supplies were being scanned, followed by loot (though the supply status was already really high), Tygan finished the Vector Rifles and wanted to start on Future Combat II. While redundant, Bleakbane okayed it, on the basis they were making breakthrough after breakthrough, so Tygan might as well be keeping at it.

The next guerrilla operation was ready to be undertaken. It was a harder choice, but Hopereaver decided the difference between guerrilla operations getting reinforcements and Chryssalids everywhere came down to dealing with the latter.

It was a protect the relay mission, but this time in a city full of Lost, so at least the enemy would have something else to shoot at.

Pinkie once again headed out, this time with Sunset, War Droid Alpha, Lyra, Shining Armor and Fleur.

Operation Earthly Laughter (appropriately) was a go!

The team were met by Resistance fighter Ji Hoon Liu at the drop site.

It turned out to be a decidedly hairy mission. The squad ran into all four pods and loads of Lost pretty much simultaneously - and worse, the pods were multiple Spectre and Codexes.

Pinkie grumbled that the REALLY should have brought the Blasters and not the shredstorm cannons, flamethower, hellfire cannon and shred cannon, but nevermind. Sunset also learned that she probably ought not to carry both incendiary grenades and gas rounds.

Liu, Pinkie and Shining came back limping - the enemy Gatekeeper had, unsurprisingly, made use of its necromancy and they all were in the radius. fortunately, it went down before any further problems could ensue, but they were lucky - guided by Pinkie-sense, even - to not have had things a lot worse.



War Droid Alpha was promoted to Squire, and took Bombard (because they could never have enough explosives!)

Bleakbane returned successfully, and Trixie and Elena went out to gather more loot. Bleakbane was pleased enough with Pinkie's performance, she was allowed to get Blast Padding from the shared pool, and Sunset was allowed to spend her AP and some shard to get Guardian.

But now... Now Bleakbane decided it was time. Time to bid farewell to Mordenna. Bleakbane almost regretted it.

He set out with Derpy, Hopereaver, Stab, Mox and Diamond Tiara. Bleakbane slapped in his new superior hair trigger, and they were ready to go!

Operation Broken Grave was a go!

The first part of the mission went flawlessly. Eight chryssalids, two turrets, an ADVENT soldier and a MEC barely broke the squad's stride.

After a careful mop-up of the pair of ADVENT troops, the squad settled in on overwatch as DT hooped forwards to trigger Mordenna's arrival.

He went down in the first salvo.

(Actually the game seemed to bug out a bit, starting with displaying an odd screen and then him dying even before the animations kicked in. I reloaded... It skipped the Chosen screen and he went down just as hard...!)

the squad carefully hammered away at the reinforcements and the chamber. Derpy - who had done nothing but run around and be scout this entire time - finally blasted the last chunk out of it at 60%. And Mordenna appeared... In Hopereaver's overwatch sights. She shot him with her rifle.

Then, as he stumbled towards cover, she shot him again three times with Shadowkeeper with a burst of fan fire. And then using Lightning Hands, she shot him a fourth time. Her fifth shot would not necessary.

With one last quip, Gur-Il Mordenna expired.

Bleakbane walked over to the corpse.

"Shame," he said sadly, shaking his head. "I liked him. Poor chap. He was just doing his job, and going for his dream. He just backed the wrong horse."

"Or not the right ponies..." Hopereaver said.

Unlike his siblings, Mordenna's body was lifted up and borne away - by Bleakbane and Hopereaver personally - and given a burial with due ceremony.

The mission was a total success. (Though apparently from the mission debrief screen, it looked like they'd missed a quartet of Chryssalids somewhere, but who cared?)



Goodbye, Darkstalker Gur-Il Mordenna. You were a jolly sort of foe, and by far the most entertaining of the Chosen on a personal level.



And that will be today's capstone.

For you, Mr. Mordenna, the nightmare is over this nightmare night.

*salutes*



(In all the excitement, I musn't forget to see pony movie this week! Friday, I think!)

[DigoDragon]

Now that the changelings are good, do they get to go trick or treating? Do you give them candy or hugs?

Answers are Yes, Yes, and Yes.

Who wouldn't snuggle a changeling?

I spent most of my Halloween sitting on the couch with bad cramps from dinner. Wife bought Pizza Hut and it was way greasier than i remember it. Plus side, guess that means I'm eating pretty healthy overall if Pizza Hut is too greasy for my system now. I normally make homemade pizzas so... there's that I guess. Silver Lining!

Spoiler

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[b_jonas]

I'm worried about my mother. She's having a lot of trouble with her teeth. She got one incisor (front tooth) knocked off by accident in the spring this year, and apparently the tooth next to that got seriously damaged at the same time. She had to go to the dentist a lot of times after that. I don't really understand all the details she told about the procedures, but basically they keep having to adjust the temporary measures in her mouth, and the temporary fixtures constantly pulling at her jaw and adjacent teeth are often giving her pains. It will still take months and lots of money till she can get a permanent replacement.

At the same time, the apartment heating in my parent's apartment broke down in their apartment on Friday, then it got half-fixed on Monday so it's sort of running now but still needs more repairs. Luckily my mother doesn't have to organize that one, she only had to tolerate the cold, because my father's handling all the communication with the repairman.

At least hearing all this distracts me from any troubles I have for a short while.

[Aotrs Commander]

I'm worried about my mother. She's having a lot of trouble with her teeth. She got one incisor (front tooth) knocked off by accident in the spring this year, and apparently the tooth next to that got seriously damaged at the same time. She had to go to the dentist a lot of times after that. I don't really understand all the details she told about the procedures, but basically they keep having to adjust the temporary measures in her mouth, and the temporary fixtures constantly pulling at her jaw and adjacent teeth are often giving her pains. It will still take months and lots of money till she can get a permanent replacement.

At the same time, the apartment heating in my parent's apartment broke down in their apartment on Friday, then it got half-fixed on Monday so it's sort of running now but still needs more repairs. Luckily my mother doesn't have to organize that one, she only had to tolerate the cold, because my father's handling all the communication with the repairman.

At least hearing all this distracts me from any troubles I have for a short while.

Oof. Dentist stuff is expensive - and even over here, where we have the national health, a lot of places had to go private (Mum's (and my old) dentist did). Nasty. Hope thinsg improve.

Spoiler: Previously on Aotrs-Com 2

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Part 05
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Part 07
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Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19

Bleakbane Plays: Aotrs-Com 2: Part 20

Spoiler

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The Chosen were dead. Bleakbane and company would require a bit of a rest, but the major threat was gone.

(Rather appropriately, but perhaps a bug, Mordenna's body is NOT showing up in the armoury wall.)

The month ticked over. The alien were still working on their guerrilla ops reinforcements. They were also trying to once again improve their encryptions and increase Intel costs...

And, hilariously - oh, SO hilariously - trying to improve the Chosen so they wouldn't have any weakness!

Bleakbane was pretty sure he would let them have that one, since apparently, the Elders hadn't got the news yet. Silly buggers.

Bleakbane considered changing the Resistance orders, maybe dropping the XP gain one, or the resistance fighter or ADVENT turncoat one, but decided, nah, maybe another time or something.

The supply drop came in. Many more supplies, Bleakbane figured, and they'd all be able to swim in them, Scrooge McDuck style...

The aliens completed another facility in Australia. Seeing as this only brought the count up to three, Bleakbane wasn't in a rush to deal with it.

With some loot recovered, Bleakbane headed to the Reaper Headquarters, because what they WERE short on was Intel.

Elena and Trixie returned with a couple more elerium cores. Bleakbane was holding two cores in reserve (ready for the other alien rulers), but that meant they had four. So Bleakbane had another WAR suit made (Trixie was still wearing one, so now Shining could have his own - Pinkie would probably get one next) and Blaster Launcher built. (Eventually, he wanted to have Blaster Launchers for everyone, well, everyone in heavy armour, anyway.)

Scoots went for Combat Intelligence training (Bleakbane would have liked to have gone, but he was too knackered or something.)

In the meantime, there was another Council VIP to extract.

Trixie set out with Elena, Jubilee, Spike, War Droid Alpha and Meli Cliffseeker. Jubilee passed her superior stock to Spike, and added an advanced repeater. Elena added an advanced hair-trigger to her rifle. Meli took one of the older EXO suits, the Shredstorm cannon and added an autoloader, stock and scope to her minigun.

Operation Wolf Shadow was a go!

ADVENT Trooper Bill defected as the team arrived.

Under Trixie's leadership, the mission was completed flawlessly!



Meli was promoted to Corporal, and took Shredder.

The Avenger headed to get more loot, and Tygan started on researching Mordenna's weapons.

That was done inside a day. Hopereaver had first dibs, but choose to pass both weapons to Pinkie. She preferred the expanded magazine of her own rifle, and felt the slight damage increase from the pistol (even with armour-piercing) was not better than Shadowkeeper.

Pinkie, of, course, was delighted.

Scoots returned, pleased with herself. The skirmishers had an operation to get Inside Knowledge, which upon examination would increase the level of upgrades one level (and purportedly make superior even better). THAT was probably worth trading out ADVENT turncoats for!

So Stab and Meli were sent out to get it.

After a couple of ADVENT datapads an alien data caches... Tygan was finally free of things to work on, So he could finally start work on the stuff in the Shadow Chamber!

ADVENT was clearing having a go, for another mission to rescue a VIP was required. To keep everyone fresh, Bleakbane assigned Luna to lead this one, with Zecora, Scootaloo, Mox, DT and War Droid Alpha.

Operation Spider Father was a go!

The squad were joined by Resistance fighter Judy Hamilton and by Elite Lance Bob once again.

Luna's first command mission could have gone better. There were a couple of civilian casualties - one from a priest going insane, one inadvertently caught in a Void Rift. This last came, however, in defence of War Droid Alpha, who, it stepping around the corner to kill the aforementioned crazy priest, triggered a pod and got shot three times and was not in a good state.

The deployment of various explosives also left quite a few things destroyed and on fire!

Still, the VIP got out safely!



War Droid Alpha would be out for most of a month, however.

Stab and Meli got back, and Meli followed Bleakbane back out to go get some more AP.

Hopereaver patched Bleakbane in, though, as Tygan and Shen worked on the first recovered Codex brain... And managed to blow up the containment unit.

Tygan was sent back to ADVENT datapad research for a day.

However, the decrypted data had unlocked another potential site to investigate... Though Hopereaver wasn't going to do THAT until Bleakbane got back.

Meanwhile, Tygan and Shen figured out what was in that vial Aotrs-Com had recovered back at the Black Site... Hopereaver patched Bleakbane back in, as they announced the results: Pureed human.

There was silence at the other end for several moments.

"That sounds deli- I mean, yes. Yes, that is really awful," said Bleakbane. Bradford explained they'd got a location where it was being shipped.

"Yeah, we'll get right on that when I get," Bleakbane said. Making a mental note to bring an extra bag to recover any more vials. For personal... Research. Yeah. Research. That was exactly what he meant.

And we shall leave it there for today!

[Draconi Redfir]

Honestly, and I'm speaking as someone who's been reading the webcomic for years, I can understand why bigger investors would be hesitant to touch a Goblins animated series with a ten foot pole. Animated programs aimed at adults still have something of a niche market stigma to begin with and one that tends to deal with very heavy, family-(and therefore advertiser)-unfriendly subject matter on regular basis is going to be a hard sell. Essentially, you'd either be dealing with an end-product that's been hugely watered down from the source material or have something that caters to a very small target audience.

got the opportunity to ask Lamarr and Matt on a livestream on the kickstarter just now, and yeah looks like they plan on trying to get bigger investors if the kickstarter fails, but they reason they're trying the kickstarter first is because animation studios and whatnot would likely want to scrub the comic clean of all sorts of things, "sonofa crap", Kin's story, introducing a character who knows nothing about D&D rules, etc.

[Alabenson]

got the opportunity to ask Lamarr and Matt on a livestream on the kickstarter just now, and yeah looks like they plan on trying to get bigger investors if the kickstarter fails, but they reason they're trying the kickstarter first is because animation studios and whatnot would likely want to scrub the comic clean of all sorts of things, "sonofa crap", Kin's story, introducing a character who knows nothing about D&D rules, etc.

That's more or less what I was talking about, and in all likelihood that would just be the very tip of the iceberg as far as executive-mandated changes would go. If you got extremely lucky you'd get a creative team able to keep things in by hinting and implying the elements that would be on the chopping block. In any event, I strongly suspect that an animated Goblins would only vaguely resemble the comic.

[Pi Pie]

Commander, I'm glad that you are enjoying Xcom and got the black vial of refined human genetic material.

The funny fact is that the aliens wouldn't need to kill that many humans to make a vial of human DNA.

Google searches indicate that a 65 kg person has approximately 60 - 600 g of human DNA with 200 g being the best estimate. Given the size of the vial, you would need less than 10 people to make it which doesn't seem that bad.

Of course it would is important to make sure that only the human DNA gets into the vial. There is plenty of bacterial, viral, mitochondrial, etc. DNA in human bodies.

This also ignores the fact that the aliens could just take the cheek cells from one person, clone the DNA, and then refine the DNA that way. We do this ourselves in DNA testing.

[Aotrs Commander]

Spoiler: Previously on Aotrs-Com 2

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Part 18
Part 19
Part 20

Bleakbane Plays: Aotrs-Com 2: Part 21

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Bleakbane returned with more AP.

Scootaloo used all of hers getting Conceal and Guardian. Mox was allowed to use some of the pool to learn Interrupt (and improved version of overwatch). Bleakbane himself took Saturation fire from the pool, because he was the leader and he could do that. There was some left over, as usual, to be supplemented by more covert ops combat intelligence boosts and AP-gathering missions.

Jubilee and Spike were sent out to get more resistance orders (this one for gathering more AP).

Before the current supply scan was completed - and Bleakbane could start hitting facilities - first they needed to deal with the guerrilla ops. Bleakbane elected to deal with the guerrilla ops reinforcements one first.

Pinkie was dispatched with Sunset, Trixie, Elena, Sweetie and Apple Bloom. As there was a psionic storm, everyone bar Trixie and Elena was carrying a mind shield. There was a little bit of upgrade swapping, and Pinkie downgraded her Partygun-01 rifle (since she was now using Mordenna's) and passing them around, allowing Sweetie and AB to upgrade and sunset to swap her superior stock for an advanced expanded magazine.

Operation Purple Sceptre was a go!

This operation was to destroy a relay (as a change from having to save them...!)

Under Pinkie's direction, the mission was a total success. Despite - naturally - the ADVENT priest who got an action off unerringly picked Trixie to mindcontrol (for about four seconds before Elena blew his head off) and Pinkie forgetting to actually put her Party gun down and pick up Mordenna's rifle...



Sweetie was promoted to Captain, and took Face Off.

(Since I had NEVER got Kill Zone to work even once on anyone all game, despite using it being used several times.)

Bleakbane decided to hit another alien Avatar Project facility before tackling either of the new target locations. This time, because he was actually paying attention, he picked one of the facilities with a powerful alien guarding it.

Again, the team was Bleakbane, Derpy, Hopereaver, Stab, Mox and DT. Mox had some tactical rigging added to his armour (from the common pool). As with the last couple of Chosen missions, Mox and DT were there as a pair (Hunter and Warlock had been vulnerable); this time, it was Mox's Battlelord that had made him a good choice, since Bleakbane was hoping to counter the alien ruler's "go whenever someone reacts" with Mox also taking a reaction every time it did. He didn't know if it'd work, but it seemed like it was worth a shot!

Operation Bone Father was a go!

Elite Lancer Bob joined the team (probably for the last time!)

Shortly after the massacred the first pod, they encountered the Archon King.

(And the following was EXTREMELY annoying. Because, despite reload after reload after reload and trying different tactics, it would NOT let me kill the Archon King. As soon as it took any damage, it just ran off, because it summons the bloody portal right next to itself and you can't even set overwatch up. I was REALLY freaking narked off. Mox's battlelord was basically useless, so next time, all of the rangers and all of the repeaters. Letsee a ruler run away from several Baldestorms if the repeaters don't kill it outright.)

Bleakbane was, to put it mildly, SEVERELY annoyed. By the time the X4 charges went off, there was barely a facility left standing away, and corpses of all ADVENT's reinforcements lay splattered across the open interior - Bleakbane had viciously used his Blaster to drop the last active pod right down from the roof, and when the reinforcements came, they were butchered by the squad.

The only good news was, after being stripped of about a layer and a half, and then slashed badly by Derpy twice, the Archon King was... [i]Highly]/i] unlikely to survive a second encounter.



They squad would need a little time to recover, so Bleakbane had the Avenger head to secure some loot,

The month ticked over, bringing supplies, ADVENT attempting to prevent Aotrs-com from being concealed and the new Resistance order. The skirmishers dropped the ADVENT traitor order, and instead upgraded all the weapon mods.

Bleakbane was planning to hit the other alien facility with a nasty foe this month, and this time, with all the Rangers, plus Sweetie and Jubilee (who both had a repeater)... They would see how the last one would try running off...

And there we will leave it!

[DigoDragon]

I want this on a shirt:

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Happy Friday y'all.

[Aotrs Commander]

Took me'sen to see Pony Movie.

At the start, there was a short for... Hazu Kumi or something? Some lass with moon rabiits or sommat. Never heard of it before. For about two or three minutes I was like "Huh. Now I know what parents feel like." But, to be fair, it was not terrible. (Like, for example, the last Pokémon short I watched. Ye GODS that was risible.)

Spoiler: MLP the movie

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In short, I liked it.

At first, I wasn't sure about the animation style. It felt a bit... Uncanny valley, if that makes any sense?

But, with all the cameoes and whatnot, I soon forgot about it, especially when the humour kicked in.

I laughed quite a lot throughout the movie, so that was always a good sign.

Low (I hestiate to use "bad") points first:

The Princesses getting Worfed - again - (and lack of Discord) was annoying, but sadly predictable. Hey, DHX? Maybe for season eight slash nine slash movie two or whatever, can we have a crises that the four PRINCESSES have to work together to solve? As, y'know, friends and family and whatnot? Please?

Pie-liking sidekick guy. He delt just like a mandated tick-box for "generic funny villain sidekick." Could have been dispensed with altogether.

Too Many Humanoids. For frack's sake, this is a show about equines, would it have killed them to have a lot more quadruped than biped new species? That's cooler anyway.

No Sweeite or Scoots? (Or did I just miss them?)

As I say, not really "bad" points, just minor niggles.

The good.

Spike, being a full cast member as he damn well should be and not a sidekick/pet.

They straight up killed the Storm King! Neat!

They did NOT fix Fizzlepop's horn. I was honestly expecting them too. (Also, now we know what it takes to break a unicorin's horn. Also, ponies are still laregly [Richards].

Pinkie. This outing, Pinkie struck me as kinda the lynch-pin, and out of the rest, she seemed to me to have done the most. Good for her!

Derpy - even inadvently - taking one for the team.

LOTS of moments where I laughed, with special mention to Twilight's exasperation, that stealth G2 Transformation sound they snuck itno when pie-sidekick was opening the megaphone at the start there, AJ's "calm down, he's talking about us," and Fluttershy counciling that one mook.

Overall, I thought it was rather good. I think a little longer would have been better (but target audience issues - not that mattered with Harry Potter - I guess), with the befriending things gven maybe just a touch more room to breathe. A little bit quick with the turn with Fizzlepop, there, but this is pony and this is sort of Twilight's thing. (I just imagine her diplomacy check at this point is probably only rivialled by Spike's.)

I certainly felt that they can hold up their heads and say a good job was done.

Right - back - quite a lot back! - to see what everypony else (who has seen it) thinks.


Edit: I apparently enjoyed it more than some of you, though I do concur, it was Good, rather than Great.




Edit edit:

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
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21

Bleakbane Plays: Aotrs-Com 2: Part 22

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Jubilee and Spike returned with the new orders. Bleakbane wanted to send Mox for Combat Intelligence training, but he was too tired. So, instead, Scootaloo and Fleur went off to get more loot.

Tygan completed his work on the Codex data... And now, to truly find out what the Elders were up to, he wanted someone to Skulljack a Codex...



(A convoy ambush mission came up... With Low Profile, so only sergeant or less troops to go on (of which I had four AB, Meli, Jarmin and Ra-Ra-Rameses). Naturally, NOW there were no resistance fighters to hand.

And the game decided that all of the pods were going to be in the same place. Yeah, no, game, I'm not having you force me to fight three to one odds with my least experienced soldiers.

I gave it one reload from mission start, to see if I could separate them, and then a turn and a half of trying to fight all of them. Nope. The game decided "you aren't going to win this mission, no matter what! Everyone will always miss everything, you will always fight all eleven of them at a time." So, no. It might have been doable if the enemy pods were not sitting on top of each other the entire time and the RNG wasn't throwing a screaming wobbly, but they were and it was. So I scrubbed this entire bit and went back to the last save before this mission which was right at the start of the session. [Expletive], you, game, [expletive] you.

So, redo until the mission popped up again, this time with Lost Sitrep which wasn't stupidly restrictive.)

This time, Jubilee was going to lead, taking Spike, Sweetie, Apple Bloom, Jarmin and Rameses. AB took Stab old rifle, passing hers to Jarmin. Rameses grabbed the Skulljack (since, at least, there WAS a Codex) and figured he might as well make use of that Bolt Caster that had been sitting around. (Since Trixie and Scoots were still recovering, and Bleakbane wanted Derpy to stay fresh, so it might as well be Rameses doing the skulljacking...)

Operation Sky Giant was a go (this time...)

(Of course, now it was a fracking supply crate mission again, probably my least favourite one of all of them.)

Nevertheless, the squad gamely engaged. Almost the first thing they found was the Codex, and Rameses skulljacked it.

This nearly led to more problems, since an Avatar showed up, and promptly mind controlled Jubilee. (Apparently that 60 Will - among the best of any of the soldiers - was for nothing...) Avatars also teleported when hit. Though it didn't do it that much good, since that just allowed Spike, then Sweetie to shoot it. then it teleported into a ruined building above the squad. And Jarmin, being Jarmin, through a grenade at it. The damage and the fall killed it.

But - SO true to form, you wouldn't believe - Ra-Ra Rameses happened to be straight under it, so got clonked by the falling body.

(This always happens to Jarmin's associates. Seriously, it’s a running gag in his backstory (which is WAY too politically incorrect to post up on the forums...!))

Rameses then got shot by the triggered ADVENT, but the squad managed to fight their way through, thanks to some hacking by Apple Bloom and Jubilee.

And one utterly amazing Face-off from Sweetie, as a MASSIVE horde of lost descended right into the middle of the team. She must have, by Jubilee's reckoning, shot down about ten to twelve lost with pistol shot after pistol shot!

In the end, ADVENT got only one crate.



Promotion to Lieutenant for Apple Bloom (she took Scanning Protocol), a long deserved promotion to Colonel for Spike (he took Fan Fire) and Corporal for Jarmin (Combat Protocol).

Rameses, apparently used to being so badly shot up, would be only out for four days, despite being on 4/13 health.

(Oh, hey, Hunter Mordenna's corpse is on the wall now. Weird.)

While they had recovered the Avatar body, Tygan couldn't start researching it yet.

Killing the Avatar set the Avatar project back a full three points. Ouch, that'd got to upset the Elders...!

Fleur - a little worse for wear - and Scootaloo returned.

As there were now about seven elerium cores, Bleakbane used five to create one more suit of WAR armour and enough Blasters (three) so everyone with a WAR suit plus War Droid Alpha could have one. He used one more creating a Plated Vest to experiment with.

Bleakbane decided to take a four-day trip to drum up some unnecessary supplies (mostly just to get his health up), and brought Meli along for good measure.

And I'll quit for today while I'm ahead...

[DigoDragon]

Spoiler: MLP the movie

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At first, I wasn't sure about the animation style. It felt a bit... Uncanny valley, if that makes any sense?

Too Many Humanoids. For frack's sake, this is a show about equines, would it have killed them to have a lot more quadruped than biped new species? That's cooler anyway.

Spoiler: MLP the Movie

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I guess I'm one of the few that took a shine to the new style immediately. Maybe all those Disney movies helped? I dunno. Possibly even more rare is that after seeing the movie,
I felt a bit spoiled by the new animation style. Going back to the TV show felt... lacking. :>

Agree on the too many humanoids. I still maintain that instead of birds, they should have been zebras. Zebra sky pirates would have totally been awesome!

Edit--
Oh and can't go without a Trixie post:

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[Aotrs Commander]

Spoiler: MLP the Movie

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I guess I'm one of the few that took a shine to the new style immediately. Maybe all those Disney movies helped? I dunno. Possibly even more rare is that after seeing the movie,
I felt a bit spoiled by the new animation style. Going back to the TV show felt... lacking. :>

Agree on the too many humanoids. I still maintain that instead of birds, they should have been zebras. Zebra sky pirates would have totally been awesome!

Edit--
Oh and can't go without a Trixie post:

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Spoiler: MLP the movie

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I am now, as I work on the Xyriat Heavy Carrier while listening to the X-Com 2 soundtrack (which is high praise indeed in terms of soundtrack quality, ranking among the likes of C&C and Pokémon) envisioning how Fizzleopop's Tempest's initial attack would have gone in a post Aotrs-Com environment...

It is hilarious.

Edit:

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
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21Part 22

Bleakbane Plays: Aotrs-Com 2: Part 23

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The loot scan completed, bringing back a superior expanded magazine (which Elena immediately equipped).

(I'd watched a guide video on Reapers, which mentioned it. I'd also got very excited seeing a respec button which appeared to allow you to change abilities, but on investigation, saw it was a mod. (Not that I couldn’t get it, but hell, at this point, may as well do it like we have been doing...!))

Bleakbane returned. He was about to send Mox out to improve his combat intelligence... But couldn't.

(Okay, guys, WHY are the hero classes - the one with the highest AP requirement abilities and especially since they are so few - limited from improving combat intelligence? That's... REALLY DUMB. Again, seconds of searching found a mod, but... (Subscribed to both mods, though, even if I'm not got to use them at this point.))

"Take it my damned self, then," Bleakbane griped.

He returned, after a quiet few days of Intel gathering. Scoots was sent out with Meli to get some more AP.

The Avenger made a quick trip to the Black Market for some more gear.

Bleakbane decided - for want of anything better to do - to strike one of the other Avatar Facilities (one WITHOUT the last alien ruler at it).

Jubilee, Spike, Apple Bloom, Sweetie, Lyra and Shining set out. Jubilee upgraded her expanded magazine to an advanced version. Spike upgraded his autoloader to a superior one and replaced his stock with Jubilee's old expanded magazine. Apple Bloom did a dirty deal with Elena to have her old Advanced hair trigger for Elena getting the superior one. Lyra added a superior scope and advanced autoloader to her rifle. Shining added the old hair trigger from AB's weapon and replaced his autoloader with an advanced scope!

Operation Blood Giant was a go!

The first couple of pods were not trouble.

(But the Gatekeeper ran off. AB was the first to follow... And found it had run to the Archon King. Dangit. As its first action was to grab her, a quick reload was in order, to give the squad time to get to position on the roof of the facility.)

Jubilee put the fleeing Gatekeeper down with an overwatch shot, and then all the squad scrambled to the roof, going to overwatch if they could.

Apple Bloom went to the window, and spotted the Archon King with a second Archon. Apple Bloom shot the other Archon first, wounding it.

The Archon king rushed up to the clustered squad to use Devastate. Both Spike and Sweetie's pistols missed, but Shining hit with his minigun. The Archon charged forward and Lyra's guardian overwatch put it down smartly.

Expecting to have all heck rain down on them, Spike and Sweetie's dual lightning hands put a dent in the Archon King - and Spike finished it was Fan Fire. And that stopped Devastate dropping on everyone - hopefully giving them the time to get out of the way... They hoped!

It did - though the targeting markers remained... The squad evacuated the building, ready to tackle the ADVENT reinforcements that would be coming shortly - and Jubilee planted the X4 charges.

The poor fools dropped right into the waiting jaws of death.



Bleakbane was hopping from foot to foot as the squad disembarked.

"Flawless, Jubes," he enthused, high-fiving the whole squad as they walked past. "And you," he said to Spike "lots of extra gem rations!"

Lyra got her promotion to colonel and took capacitor discharge.

AB and Sweetie bonded (to no-one's surprise!)



(Sidenote: I find it REALLY weird that the expansion disabled the story missions for Shen's Last Gift and the Alien Hunters, since in both cases, I feel like I'm missing part of the story - 'cos I am. Why you would assume that "integrated" would give you a bit of a lesser (story-wise) experience, I don't know... I feel I ought to watch those missions on youtube or something...

You know what? Imma do that now, starting with Alien Hunters.

???? YOU WHAT? I don't get the chance to have Bradford as a guest character? DANGIT!

I am still a bit stumped as to why they took this out for the integrated campaign. I saw a reddit post that suggested the devs thought there would be too many story missions at the start... But the point about story missions is you can do them when you like (like at the end or something!))

Tygan finished the Archon King autopsy, and Shen built a suit of Icarus armour.

After a lot of consideration on who to give it too (including Hopereaver, Pinkie, Stab or Scootaloo), Bleakbane decided, what the hell - Spike got the kill, so he could have it.

(*pause to watch video of Shen's Last Gift over supper*

What, I could have had a mission with Shen, too! Double dangit!!!

Yeesh. I can understand maybe the dodgy excuse for not including the alien hunter mission, but that one? That was huge! And there was no good reason why that couldn't have been a mission still, really...

Oh well, back to it...

Also - of COURSE I picked Julian's voice for War Droid Alpha, didn't I?)

The next thing that came up was the guerrilla operation. The priority would have to be stopping ADVENT from eliminating the concealment... Which meant heading into a region with nothing but Lost!

Bleakbane thought that now would be a good time to try and Shoot All The Things with heavy weapons, so he lead a team consisting of Sunset, Shining, Fleur, War Droid Alpha and Sweetie (borrowing some War armour) and they loaded up with every heavy weapon BUT Blaster Launchers.

Operation War Wheel was a go!

This mission was to get to an ADVENT data tap before it was closed.

"Yeah, shoulda brought a specialist," Bleakbane muttered. "Wait, no War Droid Alpha can do it!"

(So - despite forgetting to equip Sweetie with the shredstorm cannon then, it appeared it was Shredder (carried and used by Fleur) I needed to kill something with for the achievement. Done!)

Despite War Droid Alpha not... being very good at hacking (it actually did manage to summon some hapless ADVENT reinforcements to be gunned down), the four grenadiers, droid and sharpshooter blew the crud out of everything. Bleakbane would have stayed, letting of explosives to attract more lost, but apparently, even the Lost in the local area ran out after about forty of them...



Sweetie was promoted to Major. She took Steady Hands (as pretty much all of them were.)



Hopereaver glared at Bleakbane.

"You totally just did that so you could get your kill count higher than mine, didn't you?"

"Oh, so much so, yes!"

Scoots and Meli returned with the AP, and next Bleakbane dispatched Apple Bloom and Meli to get another resistance order.

The month ticked over. This month, the aliens were focusing on making major strides to the Avatar project (since the poor fools were now down to one!), in addition to fixing the chosen's weakness, and that Intel boost they were trying to force.

With the resistance orders, Bleakbane disbanded the volunteer army and shuffled the orders around to put the order that gave them double AP in the field. (Would have been useful way way back, but whatever.)

After grabbed the loot that was the latest scan target, they headed the Templar headquarters.

(I hoped "faster healing" also applied to "will recovery.")

However, before Bleakbane was quite prepared, there was another landed UFO to take care of.

This was assigned to Hopereaver, who took Stab, Luna, Zecora and, because she hadn't been out, Bonbon. There was a general juggling of upgrades, and the latest one got moved in, and the older ones shifted to everyone who didn’t have one yet.

Bleakbane had a quick burn of a spare core and some supplies on a few more bits (giving another set of Dragon rounds, and enough bluescreen rounds and mind shields to outfit a squad of six if necessary.)

Operation Foolish Rose was a go!

Aside from a dubious moment when an Advent Priest stasised Mox, stasised itself, came out of stasis, was missed by Mox's retribution and then managed to mind control him (fixed as simply as Zecora walking forwards!), the mission was flawless (though Mox got excited and killed the last enemy before they could blow-up the controlled Sectopod).

Stab even got a permanent +20 Hack boost!



The recovered elerium core went on more Venom rounds.

Apple Bloom and Meli returned; Apple Bloom was promoted to Captain, and got Covering Fire.

The combat intelligence mission (to Bleakbane's annoyance) was a hack bonus, so Jubilee would be going this time.

A look through the training centre showed Sweetie could pick up Guardian with her own AP. Elena, with some from the pool and the last of her own, picked up Highlander (an extra claymore). Bleakbane elected to hold the rest of the shared pool, save for allowing Derpy to pick up Phantom.

And that was a good point to stop.

[Adderbane]

So it looks like the first few of the new EQG shorts have made their way onto the internet. Some people seem unhappy with how short they are, but I like how they're able to make all these little slice-of-life bits that would otherwise go in the ideas trashcan since they're not enough for a longer piece.

Spoiler: New Shorts

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School of Rock: Coming from anyone else, these rock puns wouldn't even be interesting. Also, where can I get my Maud Squad badge?
Pinkie Sitting: The interaction between Pinky and Lily Pad (I think? can't remember what the credits said) was adorable. Usually Pinkie focused bits end with her getting on my nerves, but I really liked this.
A Fine Line: So I guess Fluttershy really does have a secret evil side...
Queen of Clubs: Overall, not as good as the other two, but I liked how everything took off as soon as Rarity put the idea of competition into their minds. RD & AJ trying to out do eachother is always fun to watch.

[b_jonas]

So it looks like the first few of the new EQG shorts have made their way onto the internet.

Oh! There's more again? I'll watch them. I bet some of them will be good.

Spoiler: EG7 summer shorts Q17..Q23

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Again, I don't know the order these are supposed to come, so the numbering could be wrong.

• EG5 Q17 The finals countdown. With that title, it must be about school exams. The girls are chilling at what might be Rarity's home. Rainbow Dash is taking her afternoon nap, Pinkie is making balloon animals, and Sunset Shimmer is playing a video game. So, you know how many of these shorts are based on MLP episodes? This one is clearly pointing back to S4 E21 “Testing testing 1, 2, 3”.
• EG5 Q18 A fine line. Oh! “Tirek's revenge video game.” I knew he'd break out of his Tartarus prison again sooner or later, and this time he'll be much stronger because now he can abuse the power of friendship.
• EG5 Q19 Overpowered. Was that my second least favourite MLP character, Zephyr Breeze, returning in human form? I'm glad these shorts are so short now.
• EG5 Q20 School of rock. Maud's hair is strange in this human form. I'll have to check what it looked like in Rainbow Rocks. … Yup, her hair is the same there too. Oh well.
• EG5 Q21 Star crossed. Oh no. Twilight and Timber Spruce are having a date. The fans will hate this. A statue of … what? Starswirl? What did he do in this world? And then another sort of fantastic insect. MLP has no ends of them.
  EG5 Q22 Pinkie sitting. Will Pinkie baby sit the Cake twins again? Nope, sitting a completely different type of kid. Very fun short, the most fun of this bunch.
• EG5 Q23 Queen of clubs. Rainbow Dash, you're captain of every team there is yet you're only a member of five clubs? You've been slacking off and you deserve to get beaten by Applejack. Haha! Roleplaying club with Big Mac, snips, snails, and the Great and Powerful Trixie! Get it? Because Big Mac was in the roleplaying club in S6 E17 with Spike and Discord. (I should rewatch that episode. I barely remember it.) They're all dressed as viking barbarians, except Trixie who wears a wizard's robe. Applejack bombs the fencing club shot with a piece of fence, which is probably a stupid pun. Rainbow Dash goes to the art club, which we've already seen in a previous short. In the baking club, both Derpy and Rainbow Dash bake a pie. Seriously. Derpy normally makes muffins, and Rainbow Dash doesn't even like pies, so both of those are quite odd. Rainbow Dash in the hip hop club actually makes sense, we've seen her sing hip hop in EG5 E1. The ending doesn't seem to make any sense, but in shorts, I'm not surprised by that.