My Little Pony XCVIII: Still Haven't Caught Up on Season 7!

[Aotrs Commander]

Well, Nanny's out of hospital and back home, though not at 100% yet (but she was back to her usual self).

Apparently, it was pnuemonia. Yikes. Still, it's on the mend now - just in time for her birthday.



Might try pushing the difficulty on Wicther 3 up to normal... Even my ham-handed clicking is splatting people.

(Probably find, of course, my ideal difficulty is likely to be between Just the Story and Normal...!)

[zimmerwald1915]

Did anybody take point-by-point notes on Forgotten Friendship to spark a discussion? I neglected to do so.

[Aotrs Commander]

Did anybody take point-by-point notes on Forgotten Friendship to spark a discussion? I neglected to do so.

Considering I had to google it to even know what you were talking about...



So, at no point did it occur to anyone on ponythread to MENTION THIS WAS COMING!?

Seriously, how is this the first I've heard about it?!

I mean, not all of us check EqD, like, at all, outside of when the new episodes are airing thee days...



Possible supper watching, at any rate, then, depending on how long it takes for a link to appear on EQD.

[Adderbane]

Did anybody take point-by-point notes on Forgotten Friendship to spark a discussion? I neglected to do so.

I'm away at a wedding all weekend, do we know if it'll be available to watch anywhere?

[zimmerwald1915]

I'm away at a wedding all weekend, do we know if it'll be available to watch anywhere?

No idea, sorry.

[Aotrs Commander]

I'm away at a wedding all weekend, do we know if it'll be available to watch anywhere?

There appears to be a dailymotion link on EqD.



Ran a bit too long on Witcher 3 to be able to watch it myself tonight though.



I managed to watch a couple of episode of the Orville (about 5/6/7 two of the three I missed the start). It's alright, I think - I certainly like it more than Discovery - Orville's humour may not land all the time (but Seth McFarlane), but at least in the episodes I watched, it landed enough to be watchable. Also, it can do passable starship battles, which Discovery could not. Can see it being a bit... Devisive, though; a bit Marmite-y.

First panto dress rehersal went passably...

[b_jonas]

New Equestria Girls 5 episode today, titled "Forgotten Friendship". Haven't watched it yet.

So, at no point did it occur to anyone on ponythread to MENTION THIS WAS COMING!?

Seriously, how is this the first I've heard about it?!

I'm sorry. I'm definitely the guilty one here. I did know it was coming for a month or two. I thought I referred to it once somewhere, but now that I search the thread, it seems I didn't. By the way, until yesterday I assumed it will be another 26 minute episode, but yesterday I found out that it's a double episode, 43 minutes long.

Aotrs and anyone else: to avoid problems like this in the future, let me make this very clear.

• There will be at least one more EG5 episode, but we don't know its release date or title yet. There is an MLP season 8, its first episode is double and will be shown on 2018-03-24, more than a month from now. The title of that episode and TV guide description and some spoiler previews about are known. The MLP movie, which is a movie originally for cinemas, isn't part of either the main TV series or the Equestria Girls franchise, is now widely available because it was released on home media in january.
• The best resource to find out about this and all future MLP release dates and other reference information so have been the fan-maintained website My Little Pony Friendship is Magic wiki on Wikia. In particular, watch the episodes list page for a list of all past and future episodes in the main TV show, plus the EG list for a list of all past and future movies and episodes and shorts in the Equestria Girls series. Those two lists themselves are spoiler-free, but if you go to the description page of the individual episodes, you get spoilers. Since this is on Wikia, browse the site with javascript disabled, otherwise you get very annoying noisy video popup ads. Disabling javascript breaks some of the interface, but if you know the mediawiki software and you're a computer guy, you can mostly work that around.
• You can also find English transcripts for the episodes on this website. This is useful if you don't understand what ponies are saying. When I watch episodes for the first time, I usually have the transcript page in front of me. The transcripts are based on the closed captions in the official releases, I just need them separately because I usually watch reencodes that don't have those close captions. It usually takes a few hours after the episode is released until someone releases the first version of the transcript. This is because they have to be edited to have all lines identify the character.

Did anybody take point-by-point notes on Forgotten Friendship to spark a discussion? I neglected to do so.

I will do so when I watch, unless it's a very boring episode.

I'm away at a wedding all weekend, do we know if it'll be available to watch anywhere?

They are always available in at most a few hours after release.

[Pilum]

Typed up thoughts, Internet ate them. Grr. Ok, the abridged notes.
Liked it a lot.

Spoiler: forgotten friendship

Show

Songs good, interesting story, villain perhaps underused but with a reason for that (oh no I’m embarrassed by our interaction *zap*)
Still put off by Pony Sunset’s look (convinced it’s her eyes and manestyle)
Twilight was adorable
Intriguing hints at Celestia and Sunset’s relationship
Sunset’s gift of Empathy is OP. Which ... is perhaps not a bad lesson to try to teach...
Trixie makes for a very strange Girl, but then that explains her character and motivation here so...
Possible evidence of Earth Pony Artificer magic?
Love the Magical Girl look. Especially the ‘no speeches just zap her’ policy ;-)

If there are more of these, I hope they keep up the quality and either the length or go for serialisation (nowadays? Yeah right mate, keep dreaming...).

And for those who haven’t been keeping up with the news, apparently yesterday was a TV edit, there’s an additional 5 minutes on the cutting room floor that gets back in for the ‘proper’ release (I’m guessing Hasbro’s YT channel?), though I’ve not seen the ‘when’.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Just watched it. Had to find it through EQD since the MLP Wiki (like all of them) insists on loading the page then blanking it with a "please turn off your ad-blocker" screen - especially galling as I don't run an ad-blocker.

Still...

Spoiler: Forgotten Friendship

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I quite liked it. Well, apart from the songs (I'm pleased to see that Trixie, at least, agrees with me). But then I'm not really a fan of the songs - some of them are good, but mostly they tend to be heading towards filler territory.

But I can live with that (or at least, FFWD past it) if the story is good enough, and this ticked all the usual MLP and EQG boxes.

This time we had an EQG antagonist who dug her own hole (she kept erasing all her slip-ups, and wondered why she was forever being forgotten), and slowly slipped into the villain slot rather than just being taken over by magic. Gloriosa had shades of this in LOE, but still went the full "taken over" route, while Wallflower seemed to be in control of herself all the time.

[b_jonas]

Let's watch the new Equestria Girls double episode.

Spoiler

Show

EG5 E4–5 Forgotten Friendship, thoughts as I watch.

• [Opening credits song] Hopefully we won't get a full movie opening length opening credits sequence for just a double episode. That would be a waste of time. Ok, wait a moment, who exactly was it who just jumped through that portal and turned from a pony to a girl? [Rewind.] I think that's Sunset Shimmer. [Rewind and pause multiple times.] Yes, definitely Sunset Shimmer. Good. [Credits sequence ends.] I didn't like this song, but at least it ended quickly. But then another song starts immediately. I like MLP songs, but not these ones lately. Pinkie Pie at least knows when it's the right time to break out in uplifting musical numbers. Sunset, this isn't a movie film, you don't have to recap how friendship saved you right at the start of the film as if we hadn't seen EG before. And even if you do, I'd like a good song. Remember EG2 Rainbow Rocks? It had good songs. Or the first four MLP seasons? Maybe I'm too nostalgic, but I think it had good songs too. I also don't enjoy the dress changes, and I'm not saying this specifically about Sunset. The simple outfits from EG2 looked better than what some of you are wearing now.
• [Scene with yearbook, Wallflower Blush, and the Great and Powerful Trixie.] Ok, so what happened here? What's this whole thing about a yearbook in first place? It's got to be important, because a yearbook helped Twilight in EG1, right? But how does it work? What are these votes about? And will the Great and Powerful Trixie have to tutor Wallflower Blush how to get a forceful personality and back, just like how princess Ember and the changeling king Thorax are teaching each other now (S7 E15)?
• [Sunset lying on a bed on a raised floor in part of a dark bedroom.] Wow, that's a gigantic apartment! Is that all your own, Sunset? Or are you sharing it with someone? Just look at the size of those (stares) stairs, and the height of the whole room.
• [Beach.] I mentioned that EG4 was “an entire film about a camp at a lake, and they showed nobody swimming or preparing to swim”. This is apparently about to change. We're at a beach and some of the students are already in swimsuits. We'll see if they'll manage to swim too. [Fluttershy emerges from the water.] Yup, they do swim.
• [Sunset arrives. Applejack and the rest of the Mane Six tells her she's not their friend.] Wait what? [Sunset uses telepathy superpower, sees herself getting unpersonned from the memories themselves.] Ok… wait what? What's happening? Would Discord do that? I know he's turned Twilight's friends all grey once so they were no longer willing to be friendly, and I don't see why he wouldn't go to the human world, but still. Discord has a strange sense of humor, and isn't below scaring Sunset, but this seems a bit too much even for him. Trixie was making some vague threats earlier, but I don't think she has the power to do this. Starlight would have the power, but I don't believe she'd target Sunset, right? That Wallflower girl was apparently unpersonned herself. Could she be having magical powers to make people forget about their friends, but with those powers also running against her will to automatically make everyone forget her? Or everyone forgets about her for some reason, so she wants revenge, and she's called the help of someone else or some artifact, such as Discord or one of those geodes, to show Sunset what it's like when nobody remembers her? Wallflower has to be my suspect for now, since she was the one introduced earlier in the film. None of the Mane Six is likely to want to have done anything like this, although perhaps human world Twilight could have done it by accident. There's also Gloriosa, I suppose, but I don't think she'd return as the villain so soon.
• [Sunset shows amulet.] Oh nice, the geodes had an art upgrade! Finally! Rarity, was putting the crystals into those nice medallions your idea? I like them.
• [Sunset continues to ask the others about how they don't remember her.] There aren't Dementors in this world, sucking away your happiest memories, are there? That would be scary. And even if there were, would they make them forget only Sunset selectively? I guess I shouldn't discount the Sirens either. They have mind-altering powers, they could choose to pick on Sunset specifically and alienate her, and they might have recovered enough of their powers for this. Hmm. Two possibilities then, either the Sirens or Wallflower.
• [Sunset decides to write into the journal.] Wait a moment, don't you have some yearbook pictures about some of that? Or other photos? Or was Sunset edited out from the photos too? Editing photos would be easier than editing memories, but botching it up is what Sunset herself messed up back in EG1, right? It would be at least worth a try. But I guess using the journal to communicate with the pony world is a good idea too, since whatever power is active here likely didn't effect the pony world yet. I hope. I am a bit afraid. Let's see. [Someone answers through the journal, probably Twilight.] Whew. I was seriously worried. Even if they didn't get into the pony world, they could compromise the journal.
• [Sunset goes through the portal to the pony world.] Wait what?
• [Twilight tells Sunset to visit Princess Celestia.] FINALLY! I can hear the sound of a hundred fans squeeing that Sunset is finally trying to reconcile with Princess Celestia! Myself included. Twilight is nice to accompany Sunset by the way.
• [Princess Celestia is happy to see her.] As expected. It's too much to hope that we'll find out if Sunset is her daughter, right? If the Princess has never admitted that to Twilight before, she won't do it now either.
• [Princess Celestia sends them to the Canterlot library.] Research time! The reasonable thing to do is to ask Starlight Glimmer about this by the way, but I can see why the writers didn't want to have EG go that way. Hi, Moon Dancer! Did you guys see Moon Dancer? She doesn't even have a book open in front of her. She's not reading, she's just peeking out trying to see what's happening as the three princesses enter the library. It was time to see her again. [They enter a hidden section.] Wait, there's another restricted section? I mean, other than the Starswirl the Bearded wing, which was locked with a padlock? And it's right here in the library, not in the princess sisters' castle? Strange. Hello, Minuette. So nope, Moon Dancer won't be helping either, Princess Celestia will. That won't even satisfy the fans who've been waiting to see more of Princess Celestia, because they wanted to see more of her in action, rather than just a wise mentor giving books about ancient legends to Twilight. Darn. [In the restricted section.] Twilight has the expected reaction at seeing all those ancient books. She then finds the right scroll. It's about an ancient sorcerer pony, from before founding Equestria. The sorcerer had a “memory stone” which she could use to selectively erase memories.
• [“The last page is missing!”] Seriously? Again? [“Sunset, what if the Memory Stone ended up in your world? And someone is using it to make everyone hate me again?”] Ah, right. It might be the Great and Powerful Trixie then. Good. She's a bit less scary than an unknown villain who can erase memories. Still dangerous of course, with that power.
• [Back in the beach. Pinkie uses the sunscreen cupcakes as sunscreen. Trixie talks to human world Twilight.] Yes, it is the Great and Powerful Trixie. Can vanish herself, can vanish memories. [Trixie: “Memory is such a fickle thing. You never know when you'll forget something important.”] Yes, it's Trixie. Whew.
• [Sunset talks to the Mane Six and Trixie at the beach.] Well, that didn't go too well. When Sunset tried to show photo proof, Trixie warned them about how Sunset was faking photos back in EG1. But at least Sunset knows she's after Trixie now, which is good.
• [Trixie denies everything. Sunset is convinced.] Ok. Now I don't know what to think. [Trixie and Sunset bond.]
• [Twilight back in the library. Scroll by Clover the Clever: “Perhaps if I had destroyed the Stone right away, some of my memories could have returned. But when the sun sets by the third day after a memory has been taken, it is erased forever.”] Oh great. A deadline. Good thing friendship problems are always solved in at most fifty minutes in this world. [Princess Celestia to Twilight: “You must warn Sunset Shimmer at once.”] Starlight Glimmer would have the sense to WRITE IT DOWN before she goes through the portal, and to write to Sunset with the diary rather than go in person. But Twilight thinks she's the hero of the story and so has plot invulnerability and can get away with everything, even though she isn't this time, Sunset Shimmer is.
• [Sunset and Trixie starts to play detective. Sunset lets the journal in the locker, and doesn't notice that it's ringing.] Ok, so at least Twilight had the sense not to go in person. [The two of them ask the school nurse, then Maud. Maud on the drawing of the memory stone: “I can't tell much from a drawing.”] Hehe. Nice reference to S5 E20 Hearthbreakers, in which the Pies had to find a hidden drawing of a rock.
• [Sunset and Trixie inside the building watch the Mane Six in the school garden through the window.] Will they find out that the memory stone is hidden in that copter, and has been flashing the Mane Six remotely all the time? [They meet Wallflower. Sunset finally reads Twilight's message in the journal. Twilight describes where Clover the Clever has hidden the memory stone. Sunset finds out that it's in a secret garden only Wallflower knows about. Sunset reads Wallflower's memories. Wallflower have found the memory stone dug in the garden, and a scroll next to it.] What's on that scroll Clover the Clever has planted with the stone? A warning about how dangerous the stone is, or instructions on how to use it? And how did the scroll survive for over a thousand years, if Clover hid the stone before Equestria was founded? [Still Sunset reading Wallflower's memory. Wallflower has activated the memory stone.] Nice! As the memories are stolen from the Mane Six during their sleep, they're shown as these flying red photographic film strips with Sunset in every frame. [Opalescense freaks out as she sees Rarity's memory stolen during the night.] Great Opalescense cameo, totally appropriate reaction both for a fantasy world cat in general and for Opalescense.
• [Villain song starts.] Yes. See, Sunset? You're comfronting the villain about what she's done, so now she's telling her back story and motivation as a song. This is one of the several good uses of a song in MLP. What you did at the opening sequence wasn't. Now listen and learn. [Song continues.] And it's a good song too, a Disney-style MLP villain song well executed. [Sunset picks up Wallflower's bag.] NO! I said listen! You stay there and listen for the whole song! Stealing during a villain introduction song is completely inappropriate behavior for a hero! (A sidekick could get away with it perhaps, but not a hero.) Bad Sunset!
• [Wallflower notices Sunset stealing the bag. She erases Trixie's and Sunset's memories.] I told you, Sunset. I told you. You've been through five whole films, you've heard human world Twilight's song in EG3 and reacted appropriately. Why can't you learn some etiquette? [They review the erased event from the video footage.] Ok. So that's why all that time about Twilight's flying camera was in the film. I still think they spent a bit too much screen time on it, but whatever. At least Starlight has some strategy sense about how to fight a villain who can erase memories.
• [“I'm still trapped in here.” referring to the locked door.] Don't you have mobile phones? [Trixie magics her out.]
• [Sunset meets the Mane Six and Wallflower outside the school in a parking lot.] Cool car, Flash Sentry! [Epic comfrontation, which Wallflower botches up because of her inexperience.] Yeah, Wallflower isn't someone like Sunset or Starlight. She found a powerful stone, but she has no idea how to use it correctly. The same stone in the hands of a competent villain would have been really dangerous, but with her wielding it like a cudgel, she can't achieve anything. Oh well. [Mane Six and Sunset start to power up.] Oh right. We need a DBZ-style magical transformation sequence every film so you can sell EG toys with a new costume (link to the Heavenly Nostrils strip parodying this from back when pony world Twilight Sparkle grew wings.). I guess that's an acceptible sacrifice, it won't ruin the film too much. [They all get sparkly dresses. Magical rainbow beam forces the stone to reverse. Big hug. Forgiving Wallflower.]
• Ha! They didn't let Twilight out in a timely manner! That'll teach her! She did eventually get out of course. Hi, Derpy!
• [Ending.] At least the ending credits are short. Good. Voice actor for Wallflower is Shannon Chan Kent, who also acts Pinkie Pie's singing voice and Silver Spoon.
• I liked it. It could have been better, but it was good enough for an Equestria Girls double episode. Even though the villain was incompetent, we didn't know that throughout most of the episode, so the stakes were high enough because you could imagine what a competent memory-erasing villain could have done. The characters matched their usual personalities, except possibly Princess Celestia when we first meet her. Sunset was once again the hero, which is what most of us want from EG, even if in this particular case asking Starlight Glimmer for help would have made sense. The story wasn't without holes, but was believable enough to not be distracting. Four cupcakes out of five is my evaluation, and that's with the scale made difficult by MLP's generally high quality.

Replies to your comments.

Spoiler: forgotten friendship

Show

Possible evidence of Earth Pony Artificer magic?

And for those who haven’t been keeping up with the news, apparently yesterday was a TV edit, there’s an additional 5 minutes on the cutting room floor that gets back in for the ‘proper’ release (I’m guessing Hasbro’s YT channel?), though I’ve not seen the ‘when’.

Spoiler: EG5 E4…5

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Sort of. Note that the artifact is a rock. We already know that earth ponies can grow rocks, farm rocks, and cook rock soup. Apparently some of them can do a little more than that. More importantly, Mage Meadowbrook has turned out to be an earth pony in S7 E20. In S5, we only knew that she has several magical artifacts.

I'm doubtful. That's what they told us about the version of EG4 shown in TV in Brazil first, but then it turned out to be exactly the same as the real version, with no scenes cut.

Spoiler: Forgotten Friendship

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This time we had an EQG antagonist who dug her own hole (she kept erasing all her slip-ups, and wondered why she was forever being forgotten), and slowly slipped into the villain slot rather than just being taken over by magic. Gloriosa had shades of this in LOE, but still went the full "taken over" route, while Wallflower seemed to be in control of herself all the time.

Correct.

[Pilum]

I'm doubtful. That's what they told us about the version of EG4 shown in TV in Brazil first, but then it turned out to be exactly the same as the real version, with no scenes cut.

Oh I’m not saying full scenes B, I’m not expecting a Bladerunner or Aliens Directors Cut here! But there’ll probably be a few extended moments here and there. Speaking of RR, if you look at ... I think dywtba_universe’s reaction to it, the guy who gave him the copy had put the bits edited out for the TV version back in, and there’s nothing big there (even if some, like Snips and Snails’ ... ‘performance’, shall we say, would perhaps be best not only left out but fired through the portal to Equestria, then through one to the Sock People dimension, and then through to THEIR Limbo just to be sure).

Besides, maybe what Brazilian TV showed was the full version, IIRC it was when it got its US TV showing that those bits were left out, apparently.

[b_jonas]

Besides, maybe what Brazilian TV showed was the full version, IIRC it was when it got its US TV showing that those bits were left out, apparently.

That might explain some of my confusion, but still it's strange. I mean, all of EG was made originally for TV, one of them just got a small cinema adaptation later. And it's produced by a team who regularly makes MLP episodes for TV. They know how long a slot in TV program is and how much of that is adverts, at least in US TV. Why would they have to cut anything to show the episodes for US TV if that's the primary target?

Update: a few more comments on the new EG5 episode.

Spoiler: EG5 E4…5

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A few more things I noticed on rewatching a few parts of the episode.

• Sunset addresses Princess Celestia as “Princess Celestia”. That makes it less likely that she's her mother.
• When entering the restricted section, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna use their magic to grab a handle each. Apparently that section is keyed so that only the two of them can enter together. That could have caused problems while Princess Luna was banished.
• Also, think about the implications. A restricted section in the library that's not guarded by rules about who can access, but directly keyed to the princesses? That's the smoking gun! I was right, Princess Celestia is censoring knowledge and keeping all the ancient history a secret. That's why nobody knows anything about certain parts of the history of Equestria, even though it was a culture with writing!
• The restricted section has not only books, but also potions.
• I think that with her reckless behavior, Sunset has even interrupted the villain song. It could have been longer, we could have had a nice long song, but no, Wallflower stopped after five stanzas because of you. I mean, she sung the refrain only once, so there was clearly more of the song left. I'm really angry at you now, Sunset.
• Sunset even has a double bed with two pillows. Mind you, I have a double bed, and I can't complain about my apartment either, but I'm a still little jealous at her apartment.

[DigoDragon]

Considering I had to google it to even know what you were talking about...

So, at no point did it occur to anyone on ponythread to MENTION THIS WAS COMING!?

Seriously, how is this the first I've heard about it?!

You must have failed a Perception check. I'm quite sure it was mentioned before.

[season 8 trailer]

Not bad. A few parts got me a bit excited, so we'll see how well it can deliver.

Spoiler: S8

Show

I can dig the world-building of new places and critters.

[zimmerwald1915]

[spoiler=forgotten friendship]Still put off by Pony Sunset’s look (convinced it’s her eyes and manestyle)

Spoiler: Pony Sunset's look

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It's her color palette. After Rainbow Rocks the animators changed some of human Sunset's coloring, desaturating her mane darkening her skin, to soften and "de-villainize" her appearance a bit. This carried over into her pony design for Mirror Magic and Forgotten Friendship, which shapewise is the same as it was in EqG1, but used the human color palette for her coat and mane.

Her eyes and cutie mark remained the same as in EqG1, however, and they clash.

I'd change the cutie mark to match Sunset's mane, but nobody is taking away my beautiful teal eyes.

[b_jonas]

You must have failed a Perception check. I'm quite sure it was mentioned before.

Spoiler: EG5 E4…5

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Or maybe he did notice, but the mentions have been erased from everyone's memory… But seriously,

was it really? Do you have a link? I know I searched my own posts, and I found nothing but one post where I said “at least the three Equestria Girls episodes (called specials for some reason) that we've got in place of a fifth movie”, plus one mention on a different forum where I say the next EG5 episode will be released soon.

Zimmerwald: funnily I'm more distracted by Applejack's and Fluttershy's and Rainbow Dash's new clothes than anything about Sunset's look. Sunset always dresses extravagantly too, but it suits her. Pinkie's new dress is nice. Human world Twilight's clothes don't look nice either. She has the excuse of having come from a school where she's been wearing a uniform all the time, so maybe she didn't have time to get a better wardrobe yet, although I guess two seasons and Rarity's help should have been enough to fix that.

[DigoDragon]

Finally got around to Forgotten Friendship

Spoiler

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Edible sunscreen? Eww.

Poor forgotten green-haired Wallflower. I know what that pain is like when everyone walks out of a room and turns off the light, leaving you behind in the dark. Though in my case I think it's because I'm cursed with a stealth field that I can't turn off. :p

Return of ponySunset, yay! She is so cute as pony. Yeah get that Celestia hug. d'aww. It's great to see Twilight be all dorky over restricted books again. That was rather funny. Though considering how you open the restricted section, I'm surprised that Twi didn't stumble upon that before. Hmm.

Faculty lot is powerful indeed.

Huh, Clover the Clever is a stallion? Didn't know that, unless it was a pronoun slip in the script. "Clever. Oh. I see." I enjoyed Sunset's deadpan reactions. She's really the best pony of the EQG series, hands and hooves down. :> Yeah, even better than Trixie. Cause human Trixie is kinda weird. Pony Trixie reformed, but I guess this one needs a good manticore stunt or something... um... yeah pony reformation events are weird. she has a cool poster though, I'll give her that.

Wait.... is Trixie and Sunset now... they are? They did. Teaming up. Pffft. This outta be interesting. XD

Going back to Clover the Clever, why DIDN'T he destroy the stone when he had the chance? I mean, pressed for time or something? Kind of curious what the situation was that burying it was the best choice Clover had then. Speaking of being clever, I liked how Wallflower's song gets interrupted. And Sunset recorded it. "Long song, isn't it?" XD Yes, these are the jokes I want more of. Props to Trixie for actually pulling off her smokebomb exit. ...wait, how DID she do that? Damn girl, you got more skill then you give yourself credit for.

Speaking of the jokes I like--
"Yeah, yeah, we get it. LIGHT 'ER UP, LADIES!!"

I died. Pinkie gets best line of the episode. Runner up to the ending with Dash's issue of Bulk being on the opposite page of the Yearbook. Heh heh, nicely ended. Overall, I had fun watching this special.
I give it an A.

Liked it a lot.

Spoiler: forgotten friendship

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Still put off by Pony Sunset’s look (convinced it’s her eyes and manestyle)

Spoiler: Forgotten Friendship

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Interesting as those two bits are what I find adorable on pony sunset.

Still...

Spoiler: Forgotten Friendship

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This time we had an EQG antagonist who dug her own hole (she kept erasing all her slip-ups, and wondered why she was forever being forgotten), and slowly slipped into the villain slot rather than just being taken over by magic.

Spoiler: Forgotten Friendship

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Yeah, I found that bit interesting. I wonder if Wallflower ever figured that out. Would have been a nice line to throw at the end with Sunset's speech to her after breaking the stone.

Let's watch the new Equestria Girls double episode.

Spoiler

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I like MLP songs, but not these ones lately.

It's too much to hope that we'll find out if Sunset is her daughter, right?

When entering the restricted section, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna use their magic to grab a handle each. Apparently that section is keyed so that only the two of them can enter together. That could have caused problems while Princess Luna was banished.

Also, think about the implications. A restricted section in the library that's not guarded by rules about who can access, but directly keyed to the princesses? That's the smoking gun! I was right, Princess Celestia is censoring knowledge and keeping all the ancient history a secret. That's why nobody knows anything about certain parts of the history of Equestria, even though it was a culture with writing!

Spoiler: Forgotten Friendship

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I noticed that with the passing time, there are fewer songs I remember or even still listen to. I think Rainbow Rocks was the last time there were a bunch of really good songs I still enjoy hearing. Same with the pony series. Dunno if its quality or just me growing tired of pony stuff...

Probably too much.

Maybe she just needs some other unicorn to pull Luna's book. Worst case, get a contractor to remove the bookcase?

Or maybe Celestia had a public version of the books made but kept the originals in case the dangerous magics and artifacts described come back and she needs someone to deal with the issue? If anypony can grab those rare books, then someone could have them destroyed. I can understand the need to build a vault for such important knowledge. Also, I don't know that everyone would be interested in really old history lessons. Might only be a niche thing.

[b_jonas]

Re DigoDragon on EG5 E4…5:

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Finally got around to Forgotten Friendship

I'm cursed with a stealth field that I can't turn off. :p

Wait, really? I never noticed any field. I'm quite sure you were pretty active in ponythread, you wrote about ponies, fanart, and your own life. I replied to you many times, you changed your avatar multiple times lately, and people sometimes typo your name as “DiegoDragon”. You seem to be more visible than some other people, some of who regularly comment here but I still keep forgetting about them. If there's more behind that that the stealth field is hiding, I'd like to know what I missed. If you can get it through the stealth field that is. Maybe it's like that secret keeper spell used on the double tree, and no matter how hard you're trying to shout it at me, I won't notice. That would be sad.

I liked how Wallflower's song gets interrupted.

You actually like that? Why?

I noticed that with the passing time, there are fewer songs I remember or even still listen to. I think Rainbow Rocks was the last time there were a bunch of really good songs I still enjoy hearing.

Are you exaggerating there? There were some good songs since, it's just that there were both fewer songs total, and much more bad songs. I liked both of human world Twilight's songs in EG3 and Princess Luna's song in S6 E8, but those three are ones dear to me in particular. As for more generally accessible songs that I'd expect you to like as well, consider Rainbow Dash singing about why she's sabotaging the weather factory (S5 E5), Diamond Tiara's angsty song about how nopony understands her (S5 E18), Coloratura's songs (S5 E24), the restaurant makeover song (S6 E12), and of course the Pear love song (S7 E13).

Or maybe Celestia had a public version of the books made but kept the originals in case the dangerous magics and artifacts described come back and she needs someone to deal with the issue? If anypony can grab those rare books, then someone could have them destroyed. I can understand the need to build a vault for such important knowledge. Also, I don't know that everyone would be interested in really old history lessons. Might only be a niche thing.

Right, so one of the copies is kept in storage unaccessible except to librarians. That much makes sense. But keying it so that only the two Princesses can access them? What if the Princesses are incapacitated and the library wants to make a photocopy to replace the accessible copy the villain has stolen? And it doesn't matter if only few people are interested in them, this is still a state library sponsored by the government, it has to keep all books, even the unpopular ones. Besides, Twilight says “No way! Can you believe they have Canterlot Cantabiles Volume Thirty-One?” which doesn't sound like she had access to copies of those books, and she said she was familiar with the library.

[zimmerwald1915]

Re DigoDragon on EG5 E4…5:

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Besides, Twilight says “No way! Can you believe they have Canterlot Cantabiles Volume Thirty-One?” which doesn't sound like she had access to copies of those books, and she said she was familiar with the library.

Spoiler: Canterlot Cantabiles

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She also says "that's where it gets good," which is the kind of thing you'd say speaking from experience. Which just makes it a rare book.

Also, some director screwed up when telling Strong how to say her line. It's pronounced "can-ta-bi-les," not "can-ta-bles"

* * *

Spoiler: Clover Fridge Logic

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Why bury the Memory Stone instead of destroying it? Clover had chased its owner into the human world in pursuit of the stone. At the time, the mirror portal still had its time limit, so if Clover finally got the stone away from the sorceress close to that time limit, he might not have had time to figure out how to destroy it. It was only destroyed in Forgotten Friendship by the magic of the geodes. Clover would have only had access to his own magic, which might not have been sufficient. Why not take it back to Equestria and work on it there? Notalotta options + time pressure => questionable decisions.

Although, leaving behind instructions on how to use the memory stone is just baffling.

[b_jonas]

Spoiler: Clover Fridge Logic

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It was only destroyed in Forgotten Friendship by the magic of the geodes.

Spoiler: EG5 E4…5

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Hmm, I guess you're right. I thought the friendship magic was used only to force the stone to return those memories, and the stone hadn't been destroyed on screen, and we only it got destroyed off screen because Sunset narrates to the journal that “The Memory Stone is no more”. But now that I rewatch the scene, it looks more like the magic did destroy the stone. When the helical rainbow beam reaches the stone, a green glow covers the whole stone, emits the memories, and then the camera looks away. But when we look back, the stone isn't there anymore, and it's large enough that we would notice it.

I like Wallflower by the way. I hope we'll see her again, she won't be another of those forgotten characters who only appear once.

[Pilum]

A couple of answers...

Finally got around to Forgotten Friendship

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Interesting as those two bits are what I find adorable on pony sunset.

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I’ve been considering it, and I think that for her eyes, it’s mainly her eyeliner. Something about it just seems off to me in a way that Saffron Masala, Somnambula and others with a heavy outline don’t. It could be the way it’s two thick lines together...

As for her mane ... this is far more nebulous. I especially don’t like the way it sits around her horn for some reason, and it’s odd because not only is Human Sunset’s hair awesome, but Glimmy’s style could be said to be similar but that doesn’t trigger whatever it is that Sunset’s does.
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cantabile

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oh thank Celestia for that, I swore it was cannibals and was worried about some seriously dark times in Equestria’s history that there were 31 volumes... either that or it’s a godawful trashy pulp horror that our beloved Princess locked away for the sake of the foals!

[Aotrs Commander]

Spoiler: Forgotten Friendship

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Bwahahaha!

That was really good!

Lots of Sunset, Celestia trolling like nopony's business, Twilight book-freak-out, Maud, Trixie...

Was anybody else having Buffy the Vampire slayer vibes from Wallflower? You know, that one early episode where that one lass literally turned invisible and ended up getting to be a government assassin? 'Cos you might have dodged a bullet there. Actually, I was expecting that the fact no-one remembered her being there was an osmotic effect of the memory stone.

So, apparently, Trixie is ACTUALLY magic now, either that or a Naruto!ninja. Like, legit teleport/substitution jutsu there. Nice.

I also loved genre-savvy Sunset using Wallflower's song distraction to rifle through her stuff.

And smart of Twilight and Sunset for Twilight to NOT go to Canterlot High, but to meet in Equestria and reduce the risk of Twilight getting the effect.

Sunset's power is damn useful. Though... How did she read the memories that Wallflower could not eb thee for... Un...less... Wallflower has cameras inside everyone's houses... That's not creepy at all...!

All-in-all, very good, more like this please DHX.

Right, back through thread...

[zimmerwald1915]

Spoiler: Forgotten Friendship

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Actually, I was expecting that the fact no-one remembered her being there was an osmotic effect of the memory stone.

Spoiler: Forgotten Friendship

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At least some people forgot Wallflower because she was embarrassed of the faux pas that resulted when she tried reaching out, and so erased their memories of her awkwardness. She really has no one to blame but herself.

[Aotrs Commander]

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Speaking of the jokes I like--
"Yeah, yeah, we get it. LIGHT 'ER UP, LADIES!!"

I died. Pinkie gets best line of the episode. Runner up to the ending with Dash's issue of Bulk being on the opposite page of the Yearbook. Heh heh, nicely ended. Overall, I had fun watching this special.
I give it an A.

Yeah, that were a good'un.

Spoiler: Forgotten Friendship

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At least some people forgot Wallflower because she was embarrassed of the faux pas that resulted when she tried reaching out, and so erased their memories of her awkwardness. She really has no one to blame but herself.

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Yes, but unless she was erasing them as far back as early childhood deliberately for minor incidents (which goes beyond a few social faux pas) it doesn't make a lot of sense when she clearly demonstrated enough control to be able to selectively choose where to wipe the girls to.

But...

Spoiler: Clover Fridge Logic

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Why bury the Memory Stone instead of destroying it? Clover had chased its owner into the human world in pursuit of the stone. At the time, the mirror portal still had its time limit, so if Clover finally got the stone away from the sorceress close to that time limit, he might not have had time to figure out how to destroy it. It was only destroyed in Forgotten Friendship by the magic of the geodes. Clover would have only had access to his own magic, which might not have been sufficient. Why not take it back to Equestria and work on it there? Notalotta options + time pressure => questionable decisions.

Although, leaving behind instructions on how to use the memory stone is just baffling.

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Well... Stones in Equestria appear to have a sort of psuedo-sentience, so maybe the STONE ITSELF made Clover forget he hadn't destroyed the insturctions, or the idea to take it back to destroy it, in self-preservation. Maybe the only reason that the girls were able to destroy the stone is that the magic of friendship IS more powerful than the stone's own magic; otherwise, they might just have forgotten what they were doing when they tried...

...

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I like it; maybe the stone WAS influencing Wallflower via everyone else's memories. Maybe it wasn't co-incidence that led her to uncover it, but it subtly influencing her with subconscious memories from Clover - after all, it was the MEMORY stone, not eh forgetting stone - nothing to say it might have been able to do something in reverse if one knew how or to preserve itself.

Wallflower apparently being so forgettable just doesn't seem very plausible without influence (Canterlot High has PINKIE in it for cryng out loud, and them not having the stone be part of that is too good not to waste.

[zimmerwald1915]

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Well... Stones in Equestria appear to have a sort of psuedo-sentience, so maybe the STONE ITSELF made Clover forget he hadn't destroyed the insturctions, or the idea to take it back to destroy it, in self-preservation.

Spoiler: Forgotten Friendship

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I can buy the stone influencing Clover enough to leave instructions behind, but there's a more plausible explanation for why he left the stone behind: that he captured the sorceress and wanted to make as sure as possible that she and her tool were separated. Thus he brought her back to Equestria and buried the stone in the human world.

Any explanation that leaves the sorceress and her stone in the human world, and leaves the stone buried until the modern day, just makes no gosh-darned sense. Also, we don't see the sorceress running around anymore, so she may very well be dead of old age.

[b_jonas]

Spoiler: Forgotten Friendship

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I also loved genre-savvy Sunset using Wallflower's song distraction to rifle through her stuff.

Spoiler: EG5 E4…5

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No! Not you too! (Digo said the same.) We could have had a great song in this episode, now we had only of half a great song, and Sunset Shimmer is to blame. Even if she really needed the song as a distraction, if she were really genre-savvy, she could have at least done it during the second stanza after the second iteration of the refrain, when the song was close to ending.

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Actually, the more I think about it, the more I like it; maybe the stone WAS influencing Wallflower via everyone else's memories. Maybe it wasn't co-incidence that led her to uncover it, but it subtly influencing her with subconscious memories from Clover - after all, it was the MEMORY stone, not eh forgetting stone - nothing to say it might have been able to do something in reverse if one knew how or to preserve itself.

Spoiler: EG5 E4…5

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If the stone was like the One Ring, wanting to be found, then it would have chosen someone stronger and more competent than Wallflower. I like Wallflower, and I'd like to see more of her, but she wasn't cut out to be a villain her, and we can thank her extreme incompetence that she failed despite having such a powerful artifact. (I must admit that part of the reason why I like her is her looks. She's cute with those freckles, and she wears normal clothing in a world where all the heroes wear strange costumes.)

[DigoDragon]

Re DigoDragon on EG5 E4…5:

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Wait, really? I never noticed any field.

You actually like that? Why?

Are you exaggerating there?

But keying it so that only the two Princesses can access them? What if the Princesses are incapacitated and the library wants to make a photocopy to replace the accessible copy the villain has stolen?

Spoiler: Forgotten Friendship

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It's a physical field. Doesn't work online, thankfully. In person however, I've accidentally startled people walking up to them because they just don't notice I'm there. And I'm not trying to be stealthy. I just naturally am.

I like the song interruption because it's funny. And this musical number gets acknowledged in-universe by Trixie when they review the recording, which adds to the amusement, leaning on that fourth wall.
I know it's Pinkie's usual shtick, but I enjoy when someone else gets a shot at it.

No, I'm not exaggerating. Some songs are nice, but when I have my pony music collection on shuffle, I always gravitate towards playing the older ones more often. I might hear the pear long song once every couple weeks, but I can get Winter Wrap Up stuck in my head three times as often.

This is Princess Celestia. She has a back up system to get into that restricted library room.

Spoiler: Clover Fridge Logic

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Why bury the Memory Stone instead of destroying it? Clover had chased its owner into the human world in pursuit of the stone. At the time, the mirror portal still had its time limit, so if Clover finally got the stone away from the sorceress close to that time limit, he might not have had time to figure out how to destroy it. It was only destroyed in Forgotten Friendship by the magic of the geodes. Clover would have only had access to his own magic, which might not have been sufficient. Why not take it back to Equestria and work on it there? Notalotta options + time pressure => questionable decisions.

Although, leaving behind instructions on how to use the memory stone is just baffling.

Spoiler: Clover Fridge Leftovers

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Okay, I can buy that explanation. Limited time and possibly not having a big hammer to break the artifact. I suppose leaving it in another dimension that had next to no magic meant it probably won't cause problems... but I agree that whatever instructions were left are kind of silly.

"Warning, may cause memory loss."
"Tell me more..."

Spoiler: Forgotten Friendship

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So, apparently, Trixie is ACTUALLY magic now, either that or a Naruto!ninja. Like, legit teleport/substitution jutsu there. Nice.

Spoiler: Forgotten Fiendship

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Real magic and without needing a magic geode to do it. Gotta give her credit for that trick. And maybe there's hope for her being a better person hanging around Sunset.

[Rater202]

So that'll be three EGs I need to watch.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Spoiler: EG5 E4…5

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If the stone was like the One Ring, wanting to be found, then it would have chosen someone stronger and more competent than Wallflower. I like Wallflower, and I'd like to see more of her, but she wasn't cut out to be a villain her, and we can thank her extreme incompetence that she failed despite having such a powerful artifact.

Spoiler: Give me a ring...

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You mean, like Gollum?

The One Ring had to work with what was available - in the case of The Hobbit/LOTR after the ring was lost that was Gollum, and moving to Bilbo as soon as it could. Even the One Ring had somewhat limited agency.

If the stone was working in the same way it could be that Wallflower was the only person to be in the immediate area and sufficiently susceptible.

[DigoDragon]

EQG 5, Forgotten Friendship, summed up in one image:

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[b_jonas]

Spoiler: Give me a ring...

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If the stone was working in the same way it could be that Wallflower was the only person to be in the immediate area and sufficiently susceptible.

Spoiler: EG5 E4…5

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But Wallflower wasn't the only one. The human world had the Sirens specifically looking for Equestrian magic around the Canterlot high school, and I'm sure Adaggio would have known how to use a magical forgetting stone effectively to cause chaos she could feed on. Sunset Shimmer in EG1 was also looking for Equestrian artifacts, and she could have used the stone to foil Twilight's plan even at the last moment. Human world Twilight even had a magic detector machine that was sensitive enough that she found the statue portal based on the unusual radiation coming out of it, yet she didn't find the memory stone. I think even Trixie could have used the stone to improve her stage magic without botching it up.

The Ring had to choose a somewhat greedy fisherman who could find it at the bottom of the riverbed and fish it out, and then that fisherman used the ring to catch fish invisibly and live in a cave for hundreds of years until a slightly more suitable ringbearer would acquire the Ring. And the Ring killed its previous owner to be able to lie in a river for thousand of years. The stone actually had good choices, competent villains who knew how to use such an artifact to gain power effectively, but it chose the least competent one. I feel there might be some logic to this, but I just don't understand what it is.

Maybe most of the students in Canterlot High were similarly incompetent, and it didn't matter exactly who found the stone. Maybe zimmerwald's speculation was right, Clover the Clever had to hide the stone and make up a good plan quickly. Clover might have used some powerful magic of his own to mask the stone's magic and presence to anyone who had Equestrian magic or more than a few class levels, so that only an ordinary student could find it, and even so only when Equestrian magic was around, so that a band of magical superheroes would destroy the stone. This plan still had some risk because the stone would be stolen by someone competent before the good guys would destroy it, but it may have been a decent plan given the constraints. This would also explain why Clover the Clever left a scroll with the stone, the instructions on the scroll might have been dishonest and encouraged the student to use the stone in some way that would lead to their discovery. Still, this explanation doesn't sound convincing enough for me. Maybe when Star Swirl the Bearded tells us where to find her student Clover, and hear the real story from him, we'll find out more.