The My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic Thread

[The Chronicler]

A 2-page preview of issue 4 that'll be out later this month:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/08/my-little-pony-generation-5-comic-4.html

And this week's new episode of Tell Your Tale:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPbjP1d81uE

Spoiler: ShowHide

Hard to believe how crazy it is that a simple mishap could lead to an immensely popular internet fad, and in this case, it's Sunny slipping and dumping her cart full of bananas all over herself, all while several bystanders happened to record videos of it. Sunny is understandably embarrassed (especially with how quickly it's being referenced practically everywhere), and most of her friends are unable to be of much help. Not surprisingly, it is Pipp with her extensive internet experience (particularly her own rather numerous fail moments) who is able to come up with the idea to help Sunny overcome her embarrassment by embracing the ongoing popularity of bananas to sell banana smoothies.

[The Chronicler]

Not much new this week, aside from the new episode of Tell Your Tale:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RtUHcEymBU

Spoiler: ShowHide

With Zipp frequently declining to join in various activities with her friends, Pipp challenges her to do a "Yes Day" challenge, where she has to say yes to anything she is asked to do. Zipp ultimately accepts the challenge, and participates in all kinds of activities with her friends. By the end of the day, she admits that she had a lot of fun and decides to be more open to doing things with her friends. For me, this was a rather okay episode, though I will admit that I also have a habit of declining to do things with others, but unlike Zipp, I can't see myself ever doing something as crazy as a "Yes Day" challenge.

[The Chronicler]

This week's new episode of Tell Your Tale:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdQxZCK5zus

Spoiler: ShowHide

So it seems that with so many ponies moving to Maretime Bay lately, the town has been faced with several problems resulting from the population boom, such as excessive trash in the streets and practically no traffic control. Once Sunny realizes how bad it's gotten, she asks her friends to help her clean up the town, but even with all five of them working together with tasks they're each good at, it's just too much for them to handle. Just when they're about to give up, practically everypony else in town, inspired by a video recorded by Pipp of Sunny's initial request for help, show up and eagerly offer to help clean up the town, and that effort proves to be much more successful. I have to say, It's actually been quite some time since we last saw an episode that confronted a real world problem in a realistic way, which is what made me appreciate this series in the first place. because of that, I will consider this to be among the better episodes.

[The Chronicler]

Okay, a lot of new stuff to get through this week. First of all, issue 4 of the comic series came out yesterday, featuring Pipp (no extended preview, so I'll just link the announcement post):
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/08/my-little-pony-generation-5-4-released.html

A synopsis of issue 7 has been released, and it seems this one will be featuring Hitch:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/08/my-little-pony-generation-5-7.html

Also among the comics, the G4 ponies will be getting a new miniseries, depicting them in the roles of "Little Women" (which I've honestly never heard of, so I can't say what that story is about):
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/08/my-little-pony-classics-reimagined.html
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/08/my-little-pony-classics-reimagined_19.html

Also announced was a 10th anniversary special reprinting of the very first MLP comic, so that should be interesting for comic collectors:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/08/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-1.html

In addition to all of that, we also got some new information regarding upcoming content for the Make Your Mark series on Netflix. First, a book that's coming out soon seems to reveal some new names, including possibly the name of the new villain:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/08/new-possible-name-revelaed-for-dark.html

As of now, the total amount of confirmed content we know of will be 23 episodes (22 minutes) and four specials (44 minutes), and that includes the 8 episodes that will be coming out one month from now:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/08/four-specials-and-23-episodes-confirmed.html

Finally, we have some images from the eight episodes of Make Your Mark that'll be out next month:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/08/new-screencaps-of-upcoming-g5-make-your.html

Okay, with all of that out of the way, here's this week's Tell Your Tale episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMO9gPs8CpQ

Spoiler: ShowHide

Okay, this one was surprisingly emotional, because Sunny discovers an old film made by her father (who we already know is no longer around), and in it he explains the "family heirloom" found with that film is part of a special blanket and the other parts are found in Zephyr Heights and Bridlewood, so Sunny and her friends go out to find them, and recovering them requires all of them working together. Amazingly, once the three blanket parts are put together, it depicts all five of the main ponies and their respective homes, and Sunny realizes that what her father meant by "family" included her best friends. For me, I think there's no question this episode is definitely among my favorites, because not only did we get an opportunity to hear a message from the late Argyle Starshine (first time since the original movie), but also we saw that he somehow managed to foresee the accomplishments that his daughter would later achieve. That is really something special.

EDIT: After rewatching the episode, I managed to catch some details I missed the first time, like Argyle mentioning the first blanket fragment had been in his family for ten generations, and Queen Haven noting that the Zephyr Heights royal throne depicted on that first blanket fragment was how it had looked centuries in the past. With all of that in mind, Argyle was not the one who foresaw the Main 5 ponies coming together to bring magic back to Equestria, but rather someone from at least hundreds of years earlier, possibly as far back as the era of the G4 series. Even so, Argyle at least had enough to suspect his daughter would be the one to bring back magic, so it's still definitely something to keep in mind if any future seasons and episodes might reveal more about that now fully restored artifact, and how much Argyle really might have figured out about what Sunny would one day be capable of.

[The Chronicler]

One more new image from the upcoming Make Your Mark episodes was revealed a few days ago:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/08/new-teaser-shot-appears-for-make-your.html

Not much else this week besides that, thank goodness. Anyway, here's this week's Tell Your Tale episode (though, strangely, it's labeled as #26 rather than #25, so hopefully we'll see that skipped number next week):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yZqZGxpwBw

Spoiler: ShowHide

With Queen Haven's pet dog Cloudpuff gone missing, Pipp uses her social media connections to get practically everyone in all three towns searching for him. Zipp is able to use her detective skills to track down a clue in the Zephyr Heights post office. After putting together some more information shared by Queen Haven, it's revealed that Cloudpuff had accidentally ended up inside a care package that Queen Haven had mailed to Pipp and Zipp. And with Hitch unknowingly returning that package, Pipp, Zipp, and Queen Haven are able to receive the package at the post office and open it to find Cloudpuff. Although that dog is okay, he did consume some... not exactly edible substances inside that package, which ends the episode with some, uh, flatulence (bet you never expected to see anything like that in a My Little Pony episode). I consider this to be a rather average episode, because while there were a few good things (like seeing Zipp use a flying drone that works remotely like her special visor), I found several moments throughout the episode to be a little over the top.

[The Chronicler]

I had so much going on today that I almost forgot to do my weekly post here. Though one benefit of being later than usual is that I'm able to share a bit of news revealed just today. It was just announced that there will be an official podcast series, hosted by Pipp (who else?) where she will chat with various other ponies (especially her close friends) to talk about all kinds of things. So, basically, it'll be an in-universe audio-only series that'll go alongside the official shows and potentially reveal some interesting things about the characters that we might otherwise not have a chance to hear about. Anyway, here's a two-minute trailer for that podcast:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/09/new-my-little-pony-official-podcast.html
If this series goes the way I think it probably will go, then I'll likely post links to each episode and follow those links with my comments under a spoiler tag.

And with that taken care of, here's this week's Tell Your Tale episode (and yes, as I had anticipated last week, this one is #25, so these episodes are being released in not quite the correct order sometimes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeK7C2ypmWw

Spoiler: ShowHide

All four of Sunny's friends have very different ideas for a party for her and somehow don't realize it until after everything has already been set up, so they agree to just go ahead with four separate parties, believing it will offer more fun than just one party. Though Sunny does have fun at first, getting pulled around four different places eventually overwhelms her and she calls for a stop to everything. As Sunny insists that all she really wants is to just have fun, her friends decide to combine all four themes into a single party. Some things in this episode I found notable were Izzy using a "glitter cannon" (adding more to her parallels with Pinkie Pie), Zipp has taken up roller skating as yet another physical activity she enjoys, and Hitch and Sunny did their "special hoofshake" for the first time since we first saw it near the beginning of the movie. Overall, it was interesting, but somewhat predictable, so I'll consider this episode around average.

[The Chronicler]

We are now two weeks away from the release of the first eight episodes of Make Your Mark, a collection apparently being referred to as "Chapter 2" (so I guess "Chapter 1" refers to the single special that's been out for months now). And just today, we finally got the first trailer for those upcoming episodes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhlV6igKp-E

Aside from a couple animation errors that I hope will be corrected before the official release, this looks pretty interesting (especially that last second teaser), and I'll certainly be looking forward to watching those episodes.

[f-22 "raptor" ace]

It certainly looks interesting.

[Daddytops2021]

The hype is on.

[The Chronicler]

So, in addition to the big news I shared a few days ago, a complete list of songs from Make Your Mark has been revealed (some from the original special, but others are new and presumably from the upcoming episodes):
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/09/six-new-songs-listed-for-make-your-mark.html

Some more concept art art from the New Generation movie was recently shared:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/09/more-pretty-concept-art-from-my-little.html

Here's an early render video of some scenes from A New Generation, including some deleted scenes:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/09/neat-previs-reel-for-my-little-pony-new.html

For anyone who is familiar with Roblox, there's apparently an official MLP G5 map currently being developed:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/09/my-little-pony-new-generation-is.html

And just today, a two-page preview has been revealed of issue 5 of the comics, which will be out in two weeks:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/09/itunes-releases-g5-my-little-pony-5.html

And with all of that out of the way, here's this week's Tell Your Tale episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKH92FTPRsI

Spoiler: ShowHide

I'll keep this short and simple since the content covers a subject I have no interest in at all (but not the lesson). The secondary character that's focused on in this episode is Jazz from Pipp's Mane Melody, and Izzy takes her to Bridlewood to discover that possibilities are much greater when you allow yourself to get fully creative. A good lesson, but the specific subject matter utilized in this episode is just not for me.

[The Chronicler]

Just one more week left to go until the first eight episodes of Make Your Mark come out, and a preview clip was recently shared:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZN2Q50_fsU

In other news, all of the songs from Make Your Mark Chapter 2 are apparently now available to listen to:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/09/full-make-your-mark-chapter-2.html

I decided to not listen to those songs, as I'd rather wait until the episodes come out so I can understand the full context of them. However, I did watch a small collection of video clips (without audio) that were released along with those songs:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/09/spotifys-my-little-pony-make-your-mark.html

[The Chronicler]

One thing I forgot to mention last week is that a synopsis for issue 8 of the comics was released:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/09/my-little-pony-g5-comic-8-gets-synopsis.html

Also, some pages from an upcoming book could possibly provide a hint of what to expect from the holiday special that'll be out in a few months:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/09/pages-from-my-little-pony-g5-holiday.html

Although it released a few days early in some other language, I decided to wait until the official release for this week's Tell Your Tale episode:

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

Spoiler: ShowHide

For the second week in a row, I'll just come out and say that I'll never be able to enjoy any content that features any beauty products. That subject is just not for me at all. That aside, I'm with Sunny on the idea that essentially stalking your fans is probably not a good idea, despite the ultimately positive outcome from this case. As far as I'm concerned, the only real positive from this episode is that we finally got the names of all three of those fillies who we've seen several times in previous episodes. Overall, this episode was kind of okay, but it's definitely not one of any interest to me.

[The Chronicler]

A few days ago, a compilation video was released showing four clips (each about two minutes long) from what I assume to be two episodes of the Make Your Mark series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsYDOc0c_WQ

Well, tomorrow is the big day. The first eight episodes of the Make Your Mark series will be released all at once (as is typical of Netflix). Here's what I've decided to do tomorrow; I plan to watch all eight episodes on the same day, but as I finish watching each episode, I will edit this post to provide a brief summary and my initial thoughts on those episodes (all of it kept behind spoiler tags for those of you who would rather take your time with watching these episodes). So, if you're interested to hear what I have to say about Make Your Mark: Chapter 2, be sure to check back on this post a day or two later. All right, here we go...

1: Izzy Does It

Spoiler: ShowHide

Izzy struggles to figure out what to craft for a birthday present for Sunny (leaving Hitch and Zipp to frequently clean up after her), but soon stumbles across a bracelet that Sunny decides to wear in her mane. Later, when Izzy meets Pipp at the craft fair in town, Pipp shares online about the gift Izzy made for Sunny and very quickly many other ponies want one as well, which almost immediately overwhelms Izzy. With Izzy struggling with her creativity, Pipp advises "make it the same, but better" and "listen to your fans", but as Pipp struggles to come up with a new song, Izzy's suggestion of following her own advice makes her realize how terrible that advice was. When Izzy next goes to Sunny for help, Sunny suggests "go back to your roots", which Izzy interprets are returning to her old home in Bridlewood. However, along the way, Izzy stumbles across an old moped scooter abandoned on the side of the road, so she decides to take it back to Maretime Bay and fixes it up, allowing her to conveniently solve the clutter issue she had been causing for her friends. Meanwhile, a blue unicorn named Misty sneaks into town and leaves behind some kind of compact mirror for Sunny, which will allow the evil alicorn in a distant dark castle to spy on Sunny and her friends, though apparently not when they're within the Crystal Brighthouse.

Well, there sure was quite a lot going on right in the very first episode. I really liked how this episode almost immediately begins asking the kinds of questions I'm sure many fans have been asking for a while, such as why the cutie marks always seems to glow whenever ponies do something that makes them very happy. I also liked that little detail of those glasses Izzy briefly wore in A new Generation are in fact her "crafting glasses", so we'll likely be seeing them again throughout the series. In addition, it's nice to see where Izzy got her moped scooter from (though now that I think about it, it does seem to cause a continuity conflict between this episode, the Tell Your Tale episode about dumpster diving, and the original Make Your Mark special). Also, despite being completely absent in Tell Your Tale (at least as far as we've seen for now), it's good to see that the baby dragon is still around, and that it was Hitch who had decided to name him Sparky Sparkaroni. And finally, we're starting to get a few clues about the evil alicorn Opaline, her unicorn assistant Misty (who apparently lacks a cutie mark), and some hints on what really happened to all the magic in Equestria. Overall, a nice start to the series.

2: Growing Pains

Spoiler: ShowHide

With the recently introduced earth pony magic causing some issues around town, Hitch declares all magic to be completely forbidden until he has a chance to come up with some new regulations to better manage it, despite Sunny's protests. While Hitch is busy, Izzy agrees to stay at the sheriff's station to watch over Sparky. However, his efforts to suppress earth pony magic end up causing it to go completely out of control, and he instinctively reacts by deciding to separate the Unity Crystals to remove magic, but after much persuasion from his friends, he thankfully comes to his senses at the last second. Hitch ultimately allows the earth ponies to use their magic, with advice from Sunny to focus that magic, and all of the out of control plants all over town are quickly cleared out. Hitch further learns about too many rules being a bad thing when Izzy admits she and Sparky had a good time together only after she decided to stop following Hitch's guidelines, which allows the Main 5 to discover Sparky has magic as well.

Quite a few interesting appearances throughout this episode. First of all, we finally saw Sprout for the first time since A New Generation, who has apparently been demoted to a janitor outside the Canterlogic building (and also seems to have exceptionally strong earth pony magic). By the end of this episode, the Main 5 are now aware of Sparky's magic power, which is apparently dragon breath that can transform objects into completely different things (with a second burst turning those objects back to normal). Of course, the really big moment of this episode is the holographic message from Twilight Sparkle, which the Main 5 see from the Unity Crystals. In that message, Twilight states that with her anticipation that earth ponies would gain magic for the first time ever, Equestria would have more magic than ever before, but some new kind of evil wants to take it all for themselves. However, due to parts of the message glitching out, the five ponies listening are unable to understand who that new evil is, or what exactly Twilight did to prevent the magic from being stolen. Speaking of evil, it seems the evil alicorn Opaline is such a narcissist that she is surprised Sunny is very rarely looking onto that spy mirror, thus restricting how much information she can gather. Overall, while not exactly putting Hitch in a good light, he does ultimately learn from the experience, so I'd call this a relatively good episode.

3: Portrait of a Princess

Spoiler: ShowHide

The royal pegasus Portrait Day is coming up, and while Pipp is obviously excited, Zipp is not interested at all and would rather continue investigating the holographic message from Twilight Sparkle. Meanwhile, as requested by Opaline, Misty comes up with a plan to lead Zipp and Pipp into a trap. Queen Haven arrives at Mane Melody to prepare for the portrait with her daughters, but when Zipp is anonymously sent an image of an incredibly rare ocean lily (just like what they wore in an earlier family portrait), she decides searching for it is a good enough excuse to leave, and even convinces Pipp to join her, leaving Sunny behind to prevent Queen Haven from noticing their absence. As the search leads to the beach, with Zipp trying to focus on the search and Pipp busy taking selfies (and thus risking their mom finding out what they're really up to), the two sisters begin to argue a lot. When they finally find the ocean lily and end up trapped inside a cave, their arguing gets so heated that Zipp admits she never wanted to be part of the portrait at all, which leave Pipp devastated and Zipp quickly feels guilty. They are soon able to talk things over and apologize to each other, then they work together to find a way out of the cave. Once they escape, they quickly fly to Zephyr Heights just in time for the portrait.

At this point, it's becoming clear this series does in fact seem to follow some major story arc, while each episode focuses on something else specific to that episode. While we've always known just how different Pipp and Zipp are, I will say that it's astonishing just how hostile to each other they eventually got before ultimately apologizing. Also notable about this episode was that we heard two songs, one from Zipp and Pipp, and one from Queen Haven. Not much else to say about this episode, though the hint of what Opaline plans to do next doesn't bode well for Sunny in the next episode...

4: Ali-Conned

Spoiler: ShowHide

Sunny tries to encourage everyone in town to have a healthier diet, especially now that earth pony magic makes it easy to grow all kinds of fruits and vegetables. However, no one besides her friends are interested, but when her attempt at an inspiring speech causes her to turn into her alicorn form, everyone suddenly becomes very interested in everything she says and does. The spy mirror allows Opaline to see this, so she comes up with a plan to convince Sunny to join her side by playing an "inner voice" through the mirror to encourage her alicorn power. Despite this, Sunny realizes that no one is really interested in her messages and only care about "the alicorn", so she runs home in tears, where Izzy and Zipp remind her that at least her friends will always support her for who she is, and they surprise her with a backyard garden similar to the type of community garden that she had been advocating for. When Sunny is so excited by that garden that she once again turns into an alicorn, she and her friends realize that she can activate her alicorn form only when she is being true to herself, which is spreading messages of hope and friendship to make the world better for everyone. While all of that was going on, Pipp is upset that her latest content is getting so few views, but when she notices videos of Sparky have become popular, she asks Hitch to watch over Sparky, giving her a chance to figure out what makes the baby dragon popular that she can use for herself, and after much trial and error, she eventually concludes that she doesn't need to be perfect to be popular and just needs to be herself.

I'll admit, I was fearing some cringe moments when Opaline seemed preparing to impersonate Sunny, but thankfully her efforts were limited to the mirror, Misty's efforts out in person weren't much more effective, and Sunny ultimately proved to be too much of a nice pony to fall for such evil manipulation. Even better, the way Sunny's alicorn magic activates means that it's essentially impossible for her to abuse those powers, which I'm sure she's perfectly okay with that. I remember when A New Generation was first revealed and one of the first things we learned about Sunny was that she was an activist that wanted to make the world a better place in any way she could, so it was nice to see that side of her is still proactive, even after her success with reuniting the three pony tribes. I didn't care much for the secondary focus on Pipp in this episode, though at least she learned the same basic lesson as Sunny did, which is that you'll be happiest where you just be yourself. Overall, while not a great episode, it certainly could've been much worse.

5: The Cutie Mark Mix-Up

Spoiler: ShowHide

After some difficulties with opening the community garden, Sunny and Hitch argue over how their respective duties are more difficult than the other, and a burst of dragon fire from Sparky causes them to switch cutie marks (and personalities), which they don't notice until Zipp points it out to them. After they explain to Zipp what they did prior to the swap, she suggests they try each other's duties, so Hitch agrees to work the smoothie cart while Sunny agrees to help manage all the critters that had panicked from the garden opening and fled into the Crystal Brighthouse (where Izzy and Pipp have been struggling with those critters). Zipp continues to observe the results, and after witnessing their struggles, she tricks them into meeting with each other, allowing them to mutually agree both of their responsibilities have their difficulties that only they are best suited at, and after performing their special hoof-shake, their cutie marks and talents swap back to normal. Meanwhile, Opaline took advantage of the critter chaos to send a magical mouse into the Crystal Brighthouse, allowing her to discover Sunny's lantern and becomes convinced that it's a source of power.

While the concept of this episode is nothing new (even G4 MLP had an episode use such a theme), this episode was rather okay to me. Nothing of significance really stood out, but there also wasn't much that I consider to be anything terrible. Also, seems one of my initial thoughts of the previous episode was wrong, that the garden they established really is a community garden for many earth ponies to practice their magic. As for Opaline, I'm really beginning to suspect that her beliefs in magic and especially alicorn magic could be horribly misguided.

6: The Traditional Unicorn Sleep-Over

Spoiler: ShowHide

Izzy stumbles across Misty sneaking through Maretime Bay and is so excited about the possibility of making her first unicorn friend that she quickly invites her to a sleepover at the Crystal Brighthouse. When Misty returns to Opaline to inform her of the encounter, Opaline allows Misty to attend the sleepover, seeing it as a perfect opportunity to steal that magic lantern. Later that night, Misty arrives to spend the night with Izzy, Sunny, Pipp, and Zipp, though Zipp is quick to suspect something isn't right about their new unicorn friend. Misty struggles to maintain her lie of being a native to Bridlewood, and at one point accidentally reveals too many secrets and flees in panic. Izzy is devastated that her sleepover ended poorly, but her friends decide to make it up to her by listening to her explain everything she loved about Bridlewood, then surprise her by redecorating their shared bedroom to resemble a Bridlewood home. At the same time, Misty is able to calm her nerves and return to the Brighthouse to resume the sleepover. A little later when everyone is asleep, Misty uses the spy mirror (which she has to use while leaning out of a window because it won't work inside the Brighthouse) to inform Opaline that while she failed to find the magic lantern (somehow missing it in plain sight), she does at least have some new information to share, though some not as useful as others. However, Zipp wakes up and overhears part of the conversation...

While Misty's frequent stammering to hide her true intentions was a bit much for me, I did appreciate that Zipp was smart enough to almost immediately be suspicious of Misty, though at least she tried her best to not hurt Izzy's feelings in the process. However, what I especially liked about this episode was the story Sunny told, which revealed quite a few interesting hints for those of us who have wondered how G4 Equestria turned into the divided lands we saw in A New Generation, with some more possible hints revealed in the alternate version that Misty unwittingly shared. In addition, we saw more evidence that Izzy never really had any friends at all before she met Sunny (which I forgot to mention had also been hinted at back in the first episode), and especially had never had any unicorn friends at all. Overall, while not the best episode, it certainly proved important to the story arc of this series.

7: Hoof Done It?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Misty attempts to steal Sunny's lantern, but is forced to hide it in the garden when she accidentally makes too much noise in her escape. The next morning, Zipp discovers the lantern is missing from its special case, and immediately informs Sunny. Zipp quickly gets to work searching for clues, informing Pipp about the mystery along the way. As Pipp heads out, she stumbles across the lantern buried in the garden and considers giving it directly to Zipp, but after seeing how excited Zipp is with investigating, Pipp decides to keep her going by hiding the lantern herself and leaving behind some obvious clues. Misty then returns to the garden, only to find the lantern is gone, and then is forced to make excuses to avoid confronting Zipp. As Zipp continues her search through town, she gets Izzy to confess that she took the lantern out into the garden at night for something to help her sleep better and then returned it to Sunny's bedside. After struggling to find any more evidence, Zipp encounters Misty and with Misty struggling to dodge Zipp's questions, Zipp chases Misty through town and corners her inside Mane Melody, where Pipp confesses she has the lantern to stop Zipp from seemingly incorrectly accusing Misty. Zipp apologizes to Misty for suspecting her of taking the lantern, then Zipp, Pipp, and Izzy meet up with Sunny and Hitch to inform them they found the lantern, with Pipp acknowledging that she should no longer try to be discrete just for the sake of keeping Zipp searching. Later, Opaline is furious at yet another failure by Misty, and decides to go after a different kind of magic, specifically dragon magic from Sparky...

So it seems Misty did eventually find the magic lantern and make an attempt to take it. Though we all saw what really happened, I have to admit that the way the clues ultimately fell together made pretty convincing evidence that Misty had nothing to do with the loss of the lantern (except for the part where the lantern was taken from Sunny's bedside and ended up back in the garden). Astonishing to think that if Pipp had not stumbled upon that lantern in the garden, Zipp might have actually caught Misty in the act of retrieving it, and the events of this episode could have ended very differently. Also, it was neat to see a number of things that we've previously seen only in Tell Your Tale, such as all of Zipp's detective equipment in action (especially the visor), and Izzy riding around town on her moped scooter. Overall, I found this to be quite a fun episode.

8: Have You Seen This Dragon?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Hitch wakes up and suddenly discovers that Sparky has gone missing, and immediately asks all of his friends to help find him. They all try their various methods of searching for the baby dragon, but their lack of coordination makes their efforts impossible. Meanwhile, Misty had captured Sparky and was able to hide themselves inside a storage room in the Crystal Brighthouse (which Izzy chose to ignore for seemingly being too cluttered, but only because Misty had piled up that stuff to block the door), but her struggles to get Sparky under control prevents her from making any escape attempts with the baby dragon, though she does get lucky enough to catch a bit of his dragon fire inside a jar. The Mane 5 eventually agree on a single unified plan to find Sparky by signing a lullaby and listening for any dragon noise, allowing them to find him in the storage room in the Brighthouse. Misty is able to escape without being seen and delivers the dragon fire to Opaline, but it's barely enough for only a brief burst of power, so Opaline is left only with the desire to some day capture that baby dragon so she can truly regain her lost powers. Later, Izzy presents to her friends an old tram car that she plans to fix up for all of them to use together.

I honestly don't have much to say about this episode, though I will note that Hitch eventually going full-on vigilante (complete with mask and cape and raspy Batman-style voice) was somehow both scary and funny at the same time. Perhaps the most significant part of this episode was near then end, when Opaline stated her belief that alicorns should rule as the master race over all other ponies, and that Twilight Sparkle (who declared that ponies of all kinds should be treated equally) had stopped her past efforts, including placing some kind of isolation shield over Equestria (or at least the part of it we've seen so far in this series). So while this collection of episodes doesn't end with a definitive conclusion, it certainly provided plenty entertainment and incredible lore to keep us coming back for more.

All right, that's all of them finally complete. And, of course, please feel free to share your thoughts on these episodes, once you've had a chance to watch them.

[Daddytops2021]

Make Your Mark: Chapter 2 has begun.

[The Chronicler]

For those of you who don't have Netflix, the entire first episode of Make Your Mark Chapter 2 is available to watch on YouTube (but don't expect the same for any of the other episodes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ8aaIWLXtI

The MLP game on Roblox I mentioned a couple weeks ago is now available to play:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/09/visit-maretime-bay-goes-live-on-roblox.html

Issue 5 of the comics came out yesterday, so here's a five page preview:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/09/five-page-preview-for-my-little-pony-g5.html

Also just out yesterday is the first episode of the podcast series, so here's a link to where I listened to it:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/09/my-little-pony-podcast-episode-1-meet.html

Spoiler: ShowHide

Following what I presume will be the standard structure for this audio series, Pipp and Jazz started off by doing a brief singalong and dance (not surprisingly, this first episode featured the song "Mane Melody" that we've heard many times in Tell Your Tale), followed by an interview with the special guest (which for this episode was Sunny Starscout, talking mostly about how great everything has been since magic returned and what it's been like for her to have become an alicorn), then came a segment called "Pipp tries it" (for this episode, Pipp and Sunny are challenged to make their own smoothies from a wide range of ingredients to choose from (some good, some terrible) all while blindfolded, and let's just say the results were predictably awful for both of them), and finished off with a very quick question and answer round with the special guest (Sunny got through just three questions, and I've already forgotten what they were). Overall, it was interesting enough that I'll continue to listen to the rest of the upcoming episodes as they come out.

And as usual, here's this week's Tell Your Tale episode, and with this being the first one to come out after the release of Make Your Mark Chapter 2, it includes a number of things featured in that series (in fact, I'd go so far as to say that watching all eight of those Make Your Mark episodes will make it much easier to understand some things in this episode):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1glTJx0dhcA

Spoiler: ShowHide

I assume this takes place shortly after the eighth and final episode of Make Your Mark Chapter 2, because not only is Hitch trying to be extra protective of Sparky the baby dragon (especially since that final episode was about Sparky having gone missing), but also Misty is sneaking around town to observe Sparky in hopes of satisfying Opaline's demand to obtain power from dragon fire. This episode certainly had quite a lot of funny moments as Hitch tried to prove himself as an excellent caretaker with some strict rules and Sparky managing to completely counteract all of them, while Misty was somehow never seen by anyone as she found herself on the receiving end of numerous slapstick moments. Not to mention, it was neat to see Sparky, Misty, and even Opaline in the Tell Your Tale art style for the first time. Overall, a nice episode to get back into Tell Your Tale after watching all of Make Your Mark Chapter 2.

Finally, I'd like to note that, from what I've seen, a lot of fans consider Make Your Mark Chapter 2 to be an improvement compared to the previous special, with episode 3 being a particular favorite among many. If you're able to, then I would absolutely recommend watching those eight episodes, and please feel free to share your thoughts on those episodes.

[The Chronicler]

Not much additional stuff to share this week, so just the weekly new releases. First, this week's episode of the new podcast series:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/10/second-episode-of-pipps-podcast.html

Spoiler: ShowHide

The special guest for this episode was Izzy, who was brought in prior to the singalong and dance segment because the song used in this episode was Izzy's trash song from episode 12 of Tell Your Tale (which of course she loved very much). The interview with Izzy focused on her passion for "unicycling" and her desire for everyone to minimize their environmental impact. Then after an in-universe product placement for some breakfast cereal, Izzy demonstrated a rather simple "unicycling" craft to create essentially a homemade maraca (especially neat is how it's explained in a way that kids listening to this can easily do it themselves), and then the episode finished with the rapid question and answer segment for a total of five questions (among which "glitter or no glitter" seems like it'll be one of the more common questions for this segment). Overall, another interesting episode, and I especially liked how part of it was intended to be interactive with the target audience.

And here's this week's episode of Tell Your Tale:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xk0lo1ATU8

Spoiler: ShowHide

First of all, this particular video somehow includes five other episodes after the actual new episode, so don't bother with letting it continue playing past the end credits after five minutes. Anyway, looks like the Nightmare Night holiday from G4 has endured into G5, and I liked some of the costumes everypony wore to the party (especially Sunny as Nightmare Moon). While all of that is going on, Misty arrives with the same pendant from last week's episode, which allows Opaline to remotely observe things in hopes of seeing the various magic of those other ponies in action. Misty then discreetly sabotages the party to cause the ponies to use their magic to resolve the chaos, which impresses Opaline. Quite notably, although the main five are familiar with Misty, they are still unaware of her (reluctantly) evil intents, despite Zipp remaining suspicious of her, so I guess that'll continue to be the status quo for the foreseeable future. Overall, a relatively good episode that I enjoyed watching.

EDIT: And since compilation videos seem to be frequent on the official MLP YouTube channel, here's one showing some scenes from episodes 2, 1, and 4 of Make Your Mark chapter 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVX1bgVpNkE

[The Chronicler]

A karaoke version of the song from last week's Tell Your Tale episode came out not long after the episode itself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLT4aSurqCg

For those of you who are unable to watch Make Your Mark on Netflix, the official YouTube channel of My Little Pony has shared another compilation video, this one showing clips from just episode 3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xUPCTS6SnE

Now for the real new stuff, starting with this week's episode of Pipp's Podcast:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/10/episode-3-of-pipps-podcast-releases.html

Spoiler: ShowHide

After a somewhat chaotic start due to the scheduled guest star failing to show up, Pipp and Jazz are able to quickly salvage the episode by having Jazz play the role of host and Pipp as the role of guest. Following the in-universe product placement for some perfume, the show gets underway for real, where Pipp reveals how she became such a talented singer and dancer and why she decided to open her salon business Mane Melody. The activity for this episode was a game call "Word-Up" where they listen to the melody of a song and they have to correctly sing the lyrics, with a wrong answer resulting in a bucket of slime being dumped onto them (which of course both mares find disgusting). After that, the episode ends with Pipp answering the same bunch of quick questions as the previous episodes ended with (confirming that they will be the exact same final questions that will be quickly asked to all of the special guests in every episode). Overall, while I'm disappointed we didn't get Zipp in this episode (probably in a later episode instead), it was still nice to at least learn a little backstory about Pipp that I've always wondered about.

And though it briefly leaked a day early, here's this week's new episode of Tell Your Tale:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BVaiYFyYfA

Spoiler: ShowHide

First of all, it seems the new standard format for these videos will be the actual new episode followed by five random older episodes, which seems completely weird to me, as I'd rather just watch the single new episode on its own (especially since they're all supposed to be only five minutes long). Anyway, with this being another episode based around Nightmare Night, I guess this means the Halloween theme will be used for all the new episodes we'll see this month (to which I must admit the creators of this show seem to be very good lately with knowing exactly when each episode is supposed to release and understanding the proper context and content for such perfect timing). As for the episode itself, there's no longer any doubt that Pipp really does get a thrill from seriously spooky things, which inspires Misty to arrange a haunted house attraction in an effort to capture Sparky. Some of the gags were fine (like Sparky's dragon fire turning Poesy's flowers into spaghetti and leading to yet another moment where Poesy gets furious at Izzy, and of course the old Scooby Doo doors reference as Misty is chasing Sparky through the house), while some other gags seemed a little too excessive for me (such as Opaline's garlic breath and Sparky at one point actually farting his dragon fire). In the end, another failure for the villains, but with the added humiliation of Pipp sharing how much she liked the haunted house and now everyone in town wants to view the attraction, much to Misty's dismay. Overall, there were some aspects of this episode that I certainly liked, but definitely some other parts that just didn't really appeal to me.

[Daddytops2021]

Few weeks until the Xmas special

[The Chronicler]

First up, a confirmation that next year's content for Make Your Mark will include two seasons and two specials:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/10/2-seasons-and-2-specials-for-my-little.html

For the comics, the synopsis of issue 9 has been revealed:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/10/my-little-pony-g5-comic-9-synopsis_20.html

Here's a two-page preview of the next upcoming comic, issue 6:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/10/my-little-pony-g5-comic-6-2-page-itunes.html

With that out of the way, here's this week's episode of Pipp's Podcast:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/10/episode-4-of-pipps-podcast-releases-its.html

Spoiler: ShowHide

Things started rather chaotically when a bunch of critters unexpectedly show up, and after Hitch arrives and speaks with them, it turns out they had assumed all of them were invited when Pipp had intended to invite only Hitch and Sparky for the podcast. After getting the misunderstanding cleared up and all the critters being allowed to stay, they use the song and dance segment to clean everything up (too much noise for me to identify the song used). Once everything is back in order, Hitch talks with Pipp and Jazz about what it was like to discover his earth pony magic and his ability to talk to critters, as well as what it's been like caring for Sparky. Then, after the in-universe ad for the Maretime Bay Community Garden (good to hear about that), Hitch shares and demonstrates some of his methods of dealing with stress (he calls them "stress busters"), and finally finishing the episode with the usual five quick questions (at least now I'm starting to remember some of them, like favorite thing to eat and what they're reading right now). Overall, despite the messy beginning, it was a fine episode, with some advice on dealing with stress that I'm sure some people might find helpful.

Once again, this week's Tell Your Tale episode briefly leaked a few days early (so I guess it's become obvious which content of G5 will be most likely to leak), but regardless, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6XRL7vnNAA

Spoiler: ShowHide

So, basically, Jazz is asked to care for the critters while the Main 5 spend a night out, things get messy and chaotic for a while, but she eventually gets things under control by using her talents as a stylist. Definitely one of the weaker episodes, in my opinion, especially since Jazz failed to clean up after the critters despite successfully getting them to sleep by the end. And don't even get me started on the excrement (both reference and depiction, and here I thought two fart jokes within the last ten episodes was bad enough). Put simply, this series has taken a rather disappointing turn lately, and I really hope for something decent within the next few weeks.

As for Make Your Mark content being shared on MLP's official YouTube channel, it seems that instead of compilations of clips, they're now apparently going to show entire episodes (though I suppose we won't know for sure if that's true until next week). Here's the first episode of Make Your Mark chapter 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b9bQ7-0FRc

I won't bother sharing my thoughts on these episodes again, since I already did that for all eight episodes back when they first became available on Netflix.

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

First of all, it seems the new standard format for these videos will be the actual new episode followed by five random older episodes, which seems completely weird to me, as I'd rather just watch the single new episode on its own (especially since they're all supposed to be only five minutes long.

It’s because their target YouTube audience is parents who put something flashy on screen to distract their kid, and that requires vids at least 30 minutes long. The Land Before Time YouTube does the same thing.