The My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic Thread

[The Chronicler]

The second Equestria Girls short is now up. This week, Applejack is featured in another of these vlog-type videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnNpOfPrtz4

Spoiler: ShowHide

Applejack's video is a DIY home improvement project, in this particular case, a dream closet for Rarity (who is holding the camera for the video). Applejack breaks down the whole process step-by-step, all 73 steps starting from scratch (with lots of fast-forwarding through various parts of the extensive video). Despite a few setbacks, Rarity insisting on certain details, and a very long amount of time, the project is completed with impressive results.

I figured Applejack's video would be a do-it-yourself project. While I wouldn't exactly call this short one of my favorites, I did find it rather amusing how she was so obsessed with starting from scratch (going as far as cutting down one of her own trees just for some lumber) and going for a level of perfection that I'd expect from Twilight. (I was also quite amused by all the parts that were "skipped over" to ensure that this short could stay withing its time limit.) At the very least, I'm glad that Applejack's project turned out great, despite the issues along the way.

[The Chronicler]

Another new Equestria Girls short is now up. This week, Pinkie Pie is the subject in another vlog-type video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WzHcT3Jdpo

Spoiler: ShowHide

Pinkie Pie's video is a step-by-step of how to bake cookies. With assistance from Tank and Gummy (the latter of which is just a plush toy), she measures and mixes the ingredients (eating too many chocolate chips in the process), bakes them in the oven, then finishes them with some sprinkles (which we all know for Pinkie leads to explosive results that can sometimes also be quite messy). The video ends with her sharing her finished cookies, which are pink with chocolate chips and she claims they taste like cotton candy.

Another rather mediocre short in my opinion, but at least I can appreciate the humor in this one, such as the running gag of Tank being too slow to sample anything throughout the video (and finally getting a taste at the end when Pinkie feeds him one of the finished cookies), not to mention Pinkie quickly regretting eating more than half a bowlful of chocolate chips.

[The Chronicler]

Now here's something I sure wasn't expecting: an official MLP:FiM short is up on YouTube, so I guess this means both Equestria Girls and ponies are each going to have a digital series running at the same time (though I guess we won't know that for sure at least until next week). Anyway, here's the link to that new short:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJiaBI3Ggkw

Spoiler: ShowHide

At the spa, Rarity considers getting a new mane style, and an incident with an open window inspires her to try a moving style, much like Princesses Celestia and Luna. She tries many things, such as a spell from Starlight, hairspray, sticking her head out of a moving train, but none of them work. She eventually settles on simply having Spike use his wings to maintain a constant breeze against her mane, but even with his eagerness to always help her, he inevitably ends up fatigued.

I think it was interesting how, through the conversation between Twilight and Rarity, the moving manes and tails of Celestia and Luna are acknowledged. And of course, Rarity just can't face the reality that those two princesses are literally the only ponies in all of Equestria who are even capable of having such a thing. At least I got a few good laughs out of the montage of failures.

[The Chronicler]

The next Equestria Girls short is up. This week, Trixie makes her attempt at a vlog-type video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCn5qfKcs6c

Spoiler: ShowHide

Trixie attempts some street magic, by literally going out onto the streets to perform the old sawed-in-half trick on Spike (who is very reluctant to be part of it). But just when she's about begin the trick for the gathered crowed, all of her props suddenly start floating around, and naturally, she believes it's her own doing and proudly takes credit for it. However, it's actually just Twilight hiding behind the crowd and using her magical powers.

This one is surprisingly short, at just over one minute (and that's with the intro and credits included). Seeing how big that box was around Spike, I doubt he would've been harmed, though I suppose him being at risk like that could be a reason why Twilight decided to discretely take action (either that, or she just likes trolling Trixie).

[The Chronicler]

Another FiM short recently went up, so I guess pony and EqG are both getting new content every week at alternating times. On the pony side, last week's short focused on Rarity, and this week's new short is on Twilight Sparkle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROtTk71qN7Y

Spoiler: ShowHide

Twilight is sick in bed due to spring allergies, leaving both her nose and her horn swollen red. While her friends and Spike try to help her feel better, they find out the hard way that (apparently unique only to alicorns) a magical accident occurs every time she sneezes. Rarity gets wheels on her hooves, Fluttershy suddenly ends up freezing cold, Applejack floats away uncontrollably, and Rainbow Dash finds herself speaking only in sound effects. Fortunately, Pinkie Pie arrives with a cure from Zecora, which quickly cures Twilight, and as a result reverses all of the magical accidents. Unfortunately, the cure comes with the side affect of turning Twilight into a baby.

I'll admit this one was rather amusing with all the accidents that occurred to everyone. It was also interesting that an alicorn catching something as simple as a common cold could cause widespread mayhem (good thing there are very few of them in Equestria). And of course, one does have to wonder how Twilight's friends are going to reverse that "tiny" side effect from the cure.

[The Chronicler]

First of all, the next Equestria Girls long special will premiere on March 30. Details:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2019/02/equestria-girls-spring-breakdown.html

And of course, the next Equestial Girls short is out now. This week's vlog-type video features Rainbow Dash:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZwhbDbQrtU

Spoiler: ShowHide

Rainbow Dash is showing off some skateboarding tricks to a group of kids at the skate park, but the main feature of her video is something supposedly super-awesome she's been training for weeks to pull off; her pet tortoise Tank riding his own skateboard. The actual stunt he pulls off is just going down a slope and over a short ramp, but as we see next, Rainbow later adds some special effects to the video.

So I guess we can add skateboarding to the list of physical activities Rainbow Dash enjoys, enough that she tried to get Tank involved too. Of course all Tank did was slowly push himself off the edge to roll down the ramp, but that modest stunt followed by Rainbow's special effects editing was quite amusing.

[The Chronicler]

Time for this week's FiM short, this time featuring Fluttershy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJHld7LxwTs

Spoiler: ShowHide

Fluttershy has just won teacher-of-the-month for the 16th time in a row, and at this point Rainbow Dash and Applejack are desperate to ask how she keeps doing it, so Fluttershy thinks back to some examples such as turning clean-up time into a dance party, teaching responsibility with cute animals, and replacing a rained-out field trip with a day of enjoying board games. Rainbow Dash and Applejack decide to use these examples to arrange a student appreciation day, with Fluttershy more than happy to let them have the credit for it. However, when one of them slips that it was originally Fluttershy's idea, she ends up winning teacher-of-the-month yet again.

This was a rather nice short, despite the joke of Fluttershy always winning teacher-of-the-month without even trying. At least this time, she was kind enough to share with Rainbow Dash and Applejack all of the possible reasons she could think of for why she kept winning, and being more than kind enough to give them a chance to do something similar for their students. Too bad the full truth being exposed ended up making the whole effort backfire.

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

I coulda sworn they already did this exact plot.

[The Chronicler]

^The episode you're thinking of had that only as a catalyst for the plot, while that recent short focuses more on the subject itself.

Anyway, time for this week's Equestria Girls short, with the latest vlog-type video featuring Rarity:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyVY6mdrNrU

Spoiler: ShowHide

Rarity is out on the street to display her recent line of summer outfits, seemingly oblivious to the obvious fact that it's near the end of autumn. She practically forces her friends Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash to model some of the outfits, despite their obvious discomfort from the cold. It's not until they're all suddenly buried in snow that Rarity finally acknowledges she would've been better off doing all of this indoors.

The one is not exactly one of my favorites, mostly because Rarity is just ridiculously oblivious to the weather outside, especially when you consider the kind of clothes she typically wears would've made her just as susceptible to the cold as everyone else (to which I'd say it's a miracle she hasn't suffered from hypothermia), and is unable to face the facts until it practically hits her hard in the face when she and her friends end up literally buried under a ton of snow.

Also, just recently announced, it seems the months-long rumors have finally been officially confirmed; Season 9 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic will be the very last season of that show:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2019/02/season-9-confirmed-to-be-final-season.html

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

New MLP short, Starlight the Hypnotist!

Spoiler: ShowHide

Twilight comes to see Starlight in her guidance counselor’s office, confessing that she has a phobia of ladybugs ever since a time her brother told her that the black spots were additional eyes they use to watch you. Starlight thinks this is a good time as any to try out a book on magical hypnotism she’s been reading, and counsels Twilight that instead of fearing ladybugs, when she sees them she should... BOOM! Suddenly Pinkie busts through her door cheering about kite flying. Cut to the school grounds, Twilight is now laughing maniacally about flying a giant ladybug-shaped kite while Pinkie looks confused and Starlight facepalms.

I’m really glad to finally see Starlight in one of these shorts, and magical hypnotism is just the sort of plan she’d leap into without considering the consequences. Twilight’s phobia is pretty funny and the sight gags in the short were entertaining to watch. All in all 10/10 I personally wouldn’t change anything. More shorts with Starlight please!

[The Chronicler]

Even though someone suddenly decided to beat me to it for once, I'll just maintain my consistency anyway. This week's MLP short, featuring Starlight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHY9RaXUsus

Spoiler: ShowHide

Twilight comes to Starlight's office and confesses having a lifelong fear of ladybugs, which becomes recently problematic due to Fluttershy assigning students to care for said critters. Starlight has been studying hypnotism lately and Twilight agrees to give it a try. The method is about to work, but Pinkie Pie (whose kite was just repaired by Starlight) suddenly barging in at exactly the wrong moment leads to an awkward result. Now, Twilight has been compelled to fly a ladybug-shaped kite and loudly taunt at it.

We all know Starlight's history of using magic to solve problems, but the way her intentions are presented here show an improvement, in my opinion. Starlight explains the process to Twilight and it is only with Twilight's agreement that she proceeds to try it. If not for Pinkie's impeccably poor timing, I'm sure it would have worked quite well (and I'm sure that if Starlight ever tries it again, she'll make sure to lock the door next time).

[The Chronicler]

I just realized I forgot to mention that it was announced last week that there will be another MLP movie coming out in 2021, though it's not yet known if it will be G4 (with it's ninth and final season being this year) or G5 (no official word yet on even the existence of that).
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2019/02/new-my-little-pony-movie-announced.html

Anyway, time for the next Equestria Girls short. This week's vlog-type video features Sunset Shimmer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeLjsjmYjBA

Spoiler: ShowHide

Sunset has invited Fluttershy to be part of her latest video game streaming video, offering to let her choose the game they'll play. Naturally, Fluttershy chooses one with squirrels, the objective of which is to simply grab nuts, climb a tree, and place the nuts into a basket at the top, all while avoiding falling obstacles. As they play, Sunset quickly becomes very frustrated as just about everything goes wrong for her, while Fluttershy manages to make a perfectly clean run. Despite her frustrations, Sunset congratulates Fluttershy on doing so great for a first try.

Having watched many livestreams of various Lego video games myself, I find myself liking the subject of this short (I'd even consider this one to be my favorite of these vlog-type shorts). I can even sympathize with Sunset, as I know from personal experience just how frustrating it can be to struggle over and over with some task that shouldn't really be that difficult.

[The Chronicler]

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned here before, but sometime this year will be a one-hour special of MLP:FiM called "Rainbow Roadtrip", and based on some recent findings, it looks like that special will be animated in the same style as the 2017 Movie, so that should be interesting to see.

Anyway, time for this week's Pony short (and supposedly the last one of this collection), featuring Pinkie Pie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twbi1NBekM0

Spoiler: ShowHide

It's a very hot day in Ponyville, but Sugar Cube Corner is about to reveal their new "Ice Cream Museum". Pinkie Pie is very excited to share it with everypony in town, but despite Mr. and Mrs. Cake's concerns about the heat, she keeps going on and on about how great the whole thing will be. By the time Pinkie finally gets around to unveiling the display, all of the ice cream has completely melted, though at least she still finds it delicious.

We all know Pinkie has a habit of talking endlessly about practically anything on her mind, so I'm glad that this time there was a notable consequence for that behavior, especially when her endless ramblings made her completely ignore Mr. and Mrs. Cake's warnings. But of course, Pinkie always manages to find the positives in any situation, and in this case, melted ice cream still tastes just like ice cream.

[The Chronicler]

Another new Equestria Girls short this week, though I honestly don't know if this is another one of those vlog-type videos or something different. Anyway, this one features Applejack and Fluttershy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6DGtiNbMs8

Spoiler: ShowHide

Applejack and Fluttershy host a pre-show to CHS's annual pet show. Fluttershy is very camera-shy at first, but once they get to meeting some of the pets, she becomes very eager to interview them (being the only one who can understand what they say), including a surprise entry of Applejack's dog. And even after interviewing the animals, Fluttershy maintains enough confidence to end the pre-show herself without any issues.

It's pretty much predictable by now that Fluttershy would be very shy when it comes to public speaking, but immediately gain a lot of confidence when she gets to her favorite subject of animals. At least here we got to see in addition to some of the known pets (Tank the tortoise and Winona the dog), we also saw some of the lesser characters also have their own pets (for example, Flash Sentry has a dog named Banana).

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned here before, but sometime this year will be a one-hour special of MLP:FiM called "Rainbow Roadtrip", and based on some recent findings, it looks like that special will be animated in the same style as the 2017 Movie, so that should be interesting to see.

Oooh, that sounds awesome Some of my favorite episodes are roadtrip episodes. Course, considering it's gonna get axed imminently I'll take whatever Gen4 I can before the end.

[The Chronicler]

It's just been officially announced that Season 9 will premiere on April 6, so that's four weeks from now. (There's also a trailer out, but I'm not interested in watching it, as I personally would prefer to watch these episodes without knowing much more than the brief synopsis. The only synopsis out at this time is for the season premiere, and I must say that it seems quite unexpected, yet very interesting.)

Anyway, it looks like last week's and this week's Equestria Girls shorts are a two-parter, so to follow after last week's first part, here's the second part:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gyy5peIMlhA

Spoiler: ShowHide

The CHS Pet show has just finished, so Applejack and Fluttershy announce how the contestants finished. After a pass-by of the participants (including Pinkie's stuffed toy alligator Gummy), they announce third place went to Micro Chips and his robot (which they understandably question if it even counts as a pet), second place went to Rainbow Dash and Tank (Fluttershy claims the only reason they didn't do better was because Tank fell in love with Bulk Biceps' pet dog), and first place was a tie between Apple Bloom with Winona and Cranky Doodle with his pet dog.

I'm hardly a pet enthusiast, so there's not really much for me to say on this one. Though I was amused by Micro Chips' robot, which displayed facial expressions through a toaster.

[Sneak]

final season, huh?
I'm surprised.
Does it mean that franchise will be continued through shorts (for little stories) and movies (for major plot stories)?

[The Chronicler]

Well, so much for hoping that we wouldn't get any leaks or early releases for once. This week's Equestria Girls short was released early on the Discovery Family app last week, and this week they've released the next three shorts. I'm going to stick with the YouTube schedule, since I just can't do so many reviews in such a short amount of time. With that said, here's this week's short, apparently now going back to the regular style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WT22Bh5b_0

Spoiler: ShowHide

It's the first day of the new school year, but all of the Main 7 girls quickly discover that their schedules have given them classes without any of their friends, so they all go to Principal Celestia and she agrees to modify their schedules. However, the new schedules only lead to worse problems, and many of the girls now find themselves in classes where they clearly don't belong, so they go back to Principal Celestia. This time, Celestia understands that adjusting those seven schedules any further will just lead to more headaches, so she convinces them to agree to share at least one class period: lunch hour.

I'm sure we all remember what it was like getting our new class schedules at the beginning of the school year, with some students occasionally wishing to change their schedules for various reasons, which would always be allowed for only the first few days. In the case of this short, I can only imagine how difficult of a juggling act it must be to adjust seven different schedules so that some of them share classes, without leaving them in difficult or boring classes. I think the girls would've been better off getting together and discussing which particular classes they wanted to share and then request the proper changes to their schedules, rather than just rush straight to Principal Celestia and expect her to solve all of their problems right away.

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

Holy crap, that trailer.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Apparently someone in marketing was like "everyone's over last season's school plot, it's time to go full Game of Pones for the big finish." Honestly, that looked epic and I hope that high-intensity, high-stakes stuff happens throughout the season. Though I wasn't 100% sure if they weren't just describing the two parter opening, so it's possible it all gets wrapped up in a bow before the third episode. In which case, I'm also fine with one more season of slice-of-life episodes to wrap up a decade of pony

[WeirdRaptor]

I can't believe its ending this year. It seems like it just started yesterday.