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Messages - Dawnstar

1
Spoiler: Flutter Brutter • show
Yeah, after this episode only Rainbow's family and Applejack's parents still require some level of development beyond knowing what the former looks like and that the latter are just "gone."

I did like that some knowledge of Fluttershy's family was shared among her friends beforehand. Aside from being less direct than Shining Armor's introduction it showed us that stuff happens in their lives that we don't see in the show.

I really liked how comfortable Fluttershy was around her family too. Such a big difference when she's around ponies she's known her whole life. Not to mention the way Rainbow interacted with her family. Personally it reinforced my head canon that Fluttershy and Rainbow are practically sisters with how long they've known each other, and I found it amusing how intimidated Zephyr was by Fluttershy.

Though while I guess we were supposed to dislike Zephyr in the beginning, I will admit I wasn't all that invested in seeing him get a turn around so much as a comeuppance. Especially with how he acted around Rainbow even when it was obvious he was making her uncomfortable.

Of course I won't deny that she was more than capable of handling him because that would be unfair to her. However, it didn't earn him any points when they made it sound like he's acted that way around her for a while. If anything I give Rainbow props for putting up with it as long as she has if only because he's Fluttershy's brother. I'm sure if he were any other pony she probably would've slugged him.

However, having seen people approach friends like that in the past I admit I cheered a little after she shocked him with a thundercloud.

That said I'd say this was a great episode for Fluttershy all in all and the development of mane 6 family members was more than welcome. I wouldn't mind seeing her parents more in the future either. Though for her brother it would depend on how he acts in the future since he was still struggling with his turn around at the end of the episode. Right now I doubt it would take much for him to regress to be honest.
2
Spoiler: Applejack's "Day" Off • show
Certainly a nice slice-of-life episode I thought. I won't say it was the best episode this season, but it was far from being the worst in my opinion.

Can definitely see the ease at which one can get stuck in routines. Because at some point there was a good reason to start those routines. Even if they're not practical any more that doesn't mean the habit goes away.

Laughed so hard at Rainbow's appearances. Both because they were funny, and because my head canon that she likes to pamper herself when her friends aren't around is now canon.

And she's there daily too which made it all the more funny. XD
3
Spoiler: My thoughts on Newbie Dash • show

I really liked that Scootaloo was there when the news was announced to Rainbow. Especially with how excited she was while Rainbow was in shock.

Also, noticed the additional cloud structures near Rainbow's house. Ponyville has been steadily growing over the seasons and I guess they've recently gotten a boost in cloud-loving pegasus population. Of course that just makes me wonder all the more about how wealthy Rainbow might actually be.

Aside from her house seemingly being one of the fanciest in town the decorations inside it hardly look cheap either. And with her house having been the only cloud house in town for the longest time it is probably a landmark in its own right now even with the new houses.

I can't say I was surprised by the shared locker room though. Ponies have never displayed the same modesty issues that humans have because, as has been said "they almost never wear clothes." Rarity is really the only one we've seen make an issue of it.

Also, Rarity would probably be jealous of Rainbow's quick mane swaps: Rainbow has actually said she takes pride in her appearance so I'd be willing to bet she takes a lot better care of herself than you would assume at first glance and probably has more skill in it than she lets on.

On another note: that picture in Soarin's locker looked a lot like Rainbow's father. Wonder if they have a history or if it was just coincidence.

It was also interesting getting a general idea of a pegasus skeleton. The bones in their major feathers certainly make pegasi feathers very different from normal bird feathers, and would explain how dexterous their wings are.

Also, I have to wonder if that cloud-shaped bone at the base of their spine above the pelvis is where their pegasus magic is generated.

-------

Definitely looking forward to where they take Rainbow from this point onward. One chapter in her life has ended and another is beginning.

I was actually worried that Rainbow being a full member would take her away from Ponyville for long periods of time, but this episode stopped that worry in its tracks. Not only did Rainbow say she had no intention of leaving Ponyville, but she seemed perfectly capable of flying back and forth between her house and the Wonderbolt HQ in a matter of hours.


Quote from: LostSanity on 2016 May 08, 17:55:07
S6E7 thoughts below:

Spoiler: show

In the end apparently the Wonderbolts give everyone slightly mean nicknames because of stuff that happens to them on their first day? I'm a little unsure about what the 'moral' of this episode is supposed to be honestly.


Spoiler: show
Passing out nicknames like that is something that happens in the military so I think they were drawing on that particular parallel of the Wonderbolts. It is really only coincidence that the nickname they gave Rainbow was the same as the one she had as a filly.

Not really sure about the moral myself, but I think it was supposed to show that there is such thing as friendly ribbing between team mates and friends and not to take such teasing personally as it is very different from bullying and bad forms of hazing.

Rainbow thought that they were actually teasing her since her screw up was very similar to how the bullying started when she was a filly, but in the end she found out that they really did respect her.
4
Collected all of my thoughts on Saturday's episode in the followup on EQD so I'll just copy/paste what I wrote there.

Spoiler: No Second Prances • show
Honestly, I thought the episode was OK at best. Not a bad episode, but it wasn't that great either.

The interactions between Starlight and Trixie were probably the highlight of the episode for me. The two of them really did work well together, and I can see those two staying friends in the future.

However, there was a lot in the episode that I thought fell flat. Twilight and Trixie really seemed to have put things behind them at the end of Magic Duel, but in this episode they seemed to have backtracked considerably. I can understand a little bit of suspicion between the two of them but nowhere near to the degree that they showed in this episode.

I'm a bit on the fence with Celestia's appearance too. On one hand I'm happy to see her making so many appearances in the season so far, however, I was disappointed to see it limited in this episode to her sitting around looking extremely bored and appearing to have a distinct lack of patience that I found, quite frankly, rather jarring for her character. I hope the desire to see more of Celestia isn't causing the writers to find ways to push her into an episode even though they've admitted they don't know how to handle her character very well.

One theme that seems to be getting a lot of reinforcement though is that Twilight is not a great teacher. She was a top-class student, is an excellent planner and does know a fair amount about being a good friend, but she is awful at teaching things (with a couple exceptions). I think I actually want to see an episode where she becomes aware of this shortcoming.

But honestly? Twilight didn't really feel like Twilight in this episode. I'm not entirely sure why, but something just felt off about her character in this episode, and it smells like plot convenience.

Also, if we're being perfectly honest here? The manticore bowing at the end of Trixie's act was the only thing that stopped that from being a blatant attempted suicide scene. For the entire lead up to it I was thinking: "Wait, what's up with Trixie? She's not seriously doing what I think she's doing? Is she?" etc. In hindsight of course I realized that somepony would have saved her, but still, the implications are there whether you want see them or not.

Seriously, if the manticore had roared at the audience rather than take a bow that scene would have been a lot darker. Think about that.

On a slightly more upbeat note: I laughed so hard when Starlight asked Rainbow who the Wonderbolts were. Not to mention Rainbow's faces that accompanied her reaction. Plus that shock wave. I'd bet Rainbow was halfway to Canterlot before she realized Starlight wasn't with her.

Still though, as I said, while the episode wasn't that bad I didn't think it was all that great either. I still like Magic Duel better as far as Trixie episodes go, and something really felt off about the way both Twilight and Celestia were acting to the point where it felt a bit jarring.

However, the friendship connection between Starlight and Trixie did feel genuine at least, and I truly do think that they will remain friends for the forseeable future.
5
Spoiler: show
Definitely a good episode in my opinion, and probably my favorite of the season so far. Not to mention it was probably one of the best Spike episodes to date.

I'm always excited to learn more about parts of Equestria we know little about, and while I wasn't quite as giddy as Twilight was to learn more about dragons I was still thrilled to see the episode focused on them.

An interesting thing to note: no full-sized dragons answered the Dragon Lord's summons. We know they're not feral since we've seen two of them hold conversations with characters. So I have to wonder if they just go rogue once they reach a certain size, or if they get too greedy to bother caring about such a summons.

Speaking of the Dragon Lord. I really liked his characterization. Plus I couldn't help but think he sounded orky with that accent.

Of course I've seen a few people elsewhere in the fandom say that Twilight and Rarity were out of place in the episode and didn't really serve a purpose by being there. However, I have to disagree with that since if they had not been there then Spike would never have been able to convince Ember that having friends could make you stronger than doing things alone. If the two of them hadn't worked together, then neither of them would've made it to the scepter before Garble and Equestria would probably have faced a dragon invasion.

On that note, it really makes me wonder how dragon culture is going to change with a leader like Ember in charge who not only knows the value of working together, but also knows more about ponies and pony culture than most dragons could claim. Not to mention she'll be in direct contact with the princess of friendship which makes me think that the attitude of dragons towards ponies is going to change in the future.

Can't say I'm too surprised to see that Twilight didn't fight back against Garble either. She may have a lot of power, probably more than enough to take him on, but she tends to panic in hostile situations unless something angers her enough to give her focus which didn't happen here.

It was also fun watching Garble as well. While he was used as comic relief a lot he also had the most serious agenda of the dragons and was certainly a threat when he needed to be. Of course the punishment Spike gave him was funny and the reactions of both the first dragon Garble hugged as well as the face of the previous Dragon Lord were hilarious.

On a final note I am hoping there are more episodes like this in the season. Five episodes in and we're only just getting to the "explore" part of the "explore Equestria" theme for the season.

[spoiler]Also hoping for an actual Celestia episode for once and they're just hiding it from us. At this point she's pretty close to becoming the least developed princess of Equestria even though she's been in the show since the beginning, and that's just not right.
[/spoiler]
6
Quote from: Icy Shield on 2016 Apr 02, 08:01:16
Spoiler: show
 Well of course you couldn't hold blizzard forever even if you're alicorn thats why crystal heart artifact was for. But Cadance on her own held a barrier against blizzard (evil shadow blizzard?) that brought king Sombra for full 1 day or more.

I thought writters intentionaly were making royal sister missing or disarmed for sake of moving story plot otherwise it would have been a short episode of royal sisters defeating evil with 1 or 2 powerfull spells. I was waiting for moment where they could shine and save the day (especially for Celestia). Yeaaahhh...Gods they are not. Not even demi-gods if they keep that way.


Spoiler: show
Cadence wasn't holding back the Frozen North's weather though. She was just holding back King Sombra.

The Crystal Heart was not damaged or destroyed when the Crystal Empire returned. It was just hidden at the top of the palace spire, but was otherwise in perfect working condition which meant that it was still holding back the weather of the Frozen North as well.

When Sombra finally made it inside the city the blizzard didn't follow him.
7
Quote from: Icy Shield on 2016 Apr 01, 08:40:40
Spoiler: show
 yeah, that is 1 of 3 reasons why this start of S6 I really hate and considering Starlight Glimmer gonna be 7th main character?Oh, god NO....

The other 2 reasons would be: Flurry Heart beaing an alicorns. I have nothing against her, but she complete destroyed headcanon that only natural alicorns are immortal. I thought Celestia and Luna were special, I thought they were naturally born alicorns! Even Luna said was suprised and said they they never seen this happening before... I'm literally destroyed inside... And speaking of royal sisters. Celestia and Luna dissapointed me. Even together they could barealy hold and failed in the end to hold snow storm. Are they really that weak? How did Twilight even beat Tirek in S4 if even combine power of 2 alicorns is not enough to stop blizzard?


Spoiler: show
I don't consider her to be the 7th main character at all.

A character who was only recently introduced, as a villain no less, and is rather suddenly redeemed can not be considered on the same character level as a primary cast that has 5 seasons of development behind them.

Yeah she's Twilight's pupil now, but at best she'll get put in a "major supporting character" role like Discord and Spike, but with more screen time than the former and likely less than the latter.

As for the blizzard. It required a powerful magic artifact to hold back the weather of the Frozen North. This means the weather that far north is a lot like the weather of the Everfree Forest in that the ponies are unable to control it. Except the northern weather is like Everfree's on steroids.

Granted, with how many times Celestia and Luna have been missing or incapacitated it does cheapen their roles as "guardians of Equestria" even if it was the first time they actually did something useful against the "threat" this time.
8
Spoiler: show
I am hoping they elaborate on Alicorn lore this season, but I will admit they have been dancing around making anything canon for a while now.

The way Luna's comment was worded though is what has me thinking of possible implications.

That tweet seems to be related to the book though so if they do decide to change the canon in the show then that's their choice. Though it would be sad to see one of the few sources of Alicorn lore become invalidated like that unless they actually do expand upon it in the show finally.
9
Quote from: wingedpineapple on 2016 Mar 27, 10:12:01
Spoiler: About EqG • show

Just like with the comics they try to not make direct references in the show, the closer you are gonna find is Flash cameo (EqG) and Babs cutiemark ("Foreshadowed" in the Comics)

Spoiler: About the Alicorn role • show

Celestia says "The birth of an Alicorn is something Equestria has never seen!"
There is an official book that says they both come from an alicorn land and not Equestria.
But then again the writers can not use that, be just inconsistent or let this the last reference we are gonna get of the alicorn lore, I guess we can just wait and see.


Spoiler: show
I do have that book and actually the Alicorn land they came from was the city of Canterlot itself. However, show canon does trump other canon if there is a conflict of continuity.

Also, there is Luna's statement that "It is beyond even our understanding." Celestia's comment is vague enough to wave off, but Luna's implies they have no experience with an Alicorn birth at all.
10
Guessing this is turning into the season 6 discussion thread?

Spoiler: In regards to Equestria Girls • show
I've actually heard the opposite that they're trying do distance EQG from the main show. If that really is the case then Starlight does seem to be the pony world response to Sunset character role-wise. And on that note, I honestly, really don't see Sunset returning to Equestria in the actual show itself anymore. She might do it some time in one of the movies, but I seriously doubt she will in the show.

To be honest it's going to be very hard to keep EQG consistent with the main show chronologically anyway if the show keeps moving along like it has. Roughly six months were skipped between seasons 5 and 6 which leaves very little time left in whatever part of the school year the EQG world currently is in. If EQG keeps tying itself into the season finales like it has in the previous movies, and if the girls are in their senior year of high school, then that means there is very little time left before they would have to graduate to keep things consistent between worlds.

If the main show skips ahead another year and the girls from EQG are still in high school after that then there is no viable way I could consider it canon to the main show anymore.


Spoiler: On to the fun stuff I learned from the season 6 opener • show

The Crystal Empire is a self-sustaining city completely surrounded by snowy wasteland (figured it was just a cold region/winter season in previous appearances)

The Everfree Forest is no longer the only region of the world where the weather does what it wants, but in the Frozen North the weather is so strong it can even overwhelm two powerful Alicorns. This leads me to believe that the nation of Equestria is the only place in the world where the weather is controlled unless other nations have ways of controlling it.

Princess Celestia and princess Luna, the two longest-lived Alicorns we know about, have never heard of a pony actually being born an Alicorn in all their time ruling over Equestria, and that such a thing is beyond even their understanding. If you think about that for a moment that means it is extremely likely that they too were born as regular ponies and ascended like Cadence and Twilight.

That last one's a bit of a doozy and really makes me hope that the writers actually delve into Alicorn backstory lore this season.

I didn't mind too much how Starlight was portrayed in the episode. Since we skipped from "we're having a baby" to "we're parents" between seasons then a good six or more months have been skipped over between seasons. This has given the mane 6 a lot of time to get to know Starlight behind the scenes which would probably explain why they were so relaxed around her.

What I'm looking for in Starlight now is some good insight into "how she has changed for the better in those six months" to make her quick redemption a bit easier to accept.
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He's supposed to be my personal ponysona so he's separate from the characters listed in the first post since they're all part of the same head canon.

The picture itself is something I made to show the design and there's another picture of him on my DeviantArt page, but those are the only two pictures I've made of him so far.
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Now that the show's 5th season has ended and another hiatus is starting up there's been a lot of time for various things in the show to sink in.

I'm curious about those odd little things you've seen in the show that didn't quite register right away, but later on made you go "hey wait a second..."

Maybe someone else has spotted something that the rest of us might have missed or interpreted differently. This is all about speculation on those strange little details that might be more interesting when you think about them a second time.

Feel free to link screen caps so the rest of us can see what you saw.

The two things that interested me most when I finally noticed them:
Spoiler: Uncanny Map Similarities • show

This is actually something I just noticed just this weekend, but you know the updated official map we were given near the beginning of season 5? Well I remembered way back in season 2 in the episode "Secret of My Excess" that when spike was starting to steal things; one of the things he took was a globe Twilight had in the library.

Now the design of the globe is -extremely- simplified, but when I compared it to the new official map I noticed there was an uncanny similarity between the location and (general) shape of the visible major continents.

Comparison images. Just match the different continents on the official map to what's on the globe:
Spoiler: The Globe • show

Spoiler: The New Official Map • show

Of course I hope none of you had any headcanons about Equestria being a past or future Earth because their world apparently has an Antarctica-sized continent at their North Pole.

Spoiler: Soarin' • show

There has been a detail in Soarin's design that has had my interest since his first appearance without his goggles in "The Best Night Ever."

The detail is the almost constant tired-eye look with an extra line below his eyes that almost makes it look like he has bags under his eyes. This detail has been very consistent in his design both with and without his Wonderbolts flight suit and even appears when he appears to be relaxed. The only time you can't see it is when he's wearing his goggles (and in a few scenes of "Rainbow Falls").

I initially brushed it off at first because, with the Gala and his injury at Rainbow Falls I figured he was just under a lot of stress. However, the detail was there before the competition in "Equestria Games" where you'd think he would've gotten plenty of rest to de-stress beforehand. After that, something finally clicked in my head after watching "Rarity Investigates" because I had to go through the list of background ponies to make sure.

What I found was that there were a few other ponies that shared the same "tired with bags under the eyes" look. The ones from "Rarity Investigates" of course were Wind Rider and Stormy Flare, but there was also Filthy Rich and Pinkie Pie's father from very early episodes who also shared that look, and the one thing those four ponies have in common is that they are not young ponies.

Which begs the question: Just how old is Soarin' really? Because if you compare him to those other four he'd be old enough to be one of the mane six's dads.

For pictures I made sure to grab ones where Soarin' wouldn't have been under a lot of stress:
Spoiler: Soarin' Flight Suit • show

Spoiler: Soarin' Without Suit • show

Spoiler: Wind Rider • show

Spoiler: Stormy Flare • show

Spoiler: Filthy Rich • show

Spoiler: Pinkie Pie's Father • show



So yeah, those are the two most interesting "little details" I've found to be intriguing. Go ahead and discuss them or share anything you might have found just as interesting.  ^-^
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MLP: FiM SD Archive / Re: Season 5 Finale
2015 Dec 09, 21:32:14
Honestly, I'm expecting Starlight to have an appearance in the season 6 premiere. If only because they made it sound like she was going to become Twilight's student now. So they will likely start that up right away.

After that she'll probably pop up at intervals throughout the season, but I doubt she'll get too much screen time.

Also, while I will fully agree that her backstory did seem a bit rushed I can at least see a semblance of progression for her state of mind:
Spoiler: Starlight's Mental State • show
[list]
[li]Her friend gets his cutie mark and gets sent off to Canterlot. She doesn't hear from him after that.[/li]
[li]She becomes too afraid to try and make new friends because she's afraid another cutie mark will take them away from her.[/li]
[li]That negativity festers and develops into her complete disdain for all cutie marks and her belief that without them no one would have to worry about losing friends over cutie marks.[/li]
[li]Fast forward to the point where she founds her village based on that belief and things probably go very well for her at first which only serves to prove to her that what she believes about cutie marks is right.[/li]
[li]The mane 6 arrive at her village and Starlight sees it as an opportunity to spread her ideals across Equestria by attempting to get a princess to accept her cutie mark ideology.[/li]
[li]This doesn't take of course and for a second time cutie marks take away ponies who Starlight believed to be her friends, but this time it's her whole village. Something she had put a large portion of her life into and believed to be proof that she was right.[/li]
[li]As her world comes crashing down around her Starlight becomes desperate and attempts to rob the mane 6 of their cutie marks forever. This is also where the writers establish that Starlight has similar magical knowledge to Twilight, the difference being Twilight has made improvements to the spells she has learned.[/li]
[li]Having escaped she turns that desperation into vengeance and proceeds to follow the mane 6 around to find some way to ruin their lives forever. At which point she finds out about the first sonic rainboom and, taking a page from Twilight, she modifies Starswirl's time travel spell and goes on to utterly destroy all of Equestria's recent history.[/li]
[li]Now some people might argue that a normal unicorn like Starlight shouldn't be able to go toe to toe with an Alicorn. However, she has a high level of magical knowledge like Twilight, and Twilight has never really been that much of a fighter. The battle with Tirek doesn't really count because it was just a slug-fest of sheer power.

Also, one thing that seems to have been forgotten was that Twilight ran around a few different timelines trying to figure out how to fix things and tiring herself out in the process which would've leveled the playing field a little too.[/li]
[li]Either way Twilight had to resort to convincing Starlight to stop because, for one reason or another, she couldn't beat her in a straight up fight. Even then Starlight refused to listen until Twilight finally pushed her to go out and make new friends like she needed to all those years ago.[/li]
[/list]
14
Well she may end up keeping my cat company when I'm not here. I set Rainbow on the floor to give my cat a better look and after sniffing it a couple times my cat started brushing up against Rainbow just like when they brush up against someone's leg.

It was so cute, I wish I would've had a camera on me.
15
I regret nothing...

So soft.

Might have to keep away from my cat though. Funny looks were being given.

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MLP: FiM SD Archive / Re: Season 5 Finale
2015 Nov 30, 20:20:16
Quote from: Chishio Kunrin on 2015 Nov 30, 16:27:31
Spoiler: Alternate Timelines • show
Remember what Nightmare Moon said, though? No pony was allowed to have more powerful magic than her. The reason she was so successful and didn't have a resistance against her is because she stamped out any possibility of anypony rebelling against her by making it to where nopony had enough power to defeat her.

Spoiler: Another Thought • show
Well, in real life, in times of large wars, technology makes huge leaps to meet the needs of the warring sides. Not just technology for tools of combat, but also for medicine and medical procedures, as well as ways of more efficiently producing what the people need.


Spoiler: Alternate Timelines • show
Hm. I must have missed that line, but it wouldn't surprise me if she had the power to overwhelm most of the major villains too.

We already knew she was stronger than Celestia as Nightmare Moon, and she probably wouldn't have held back against Discord either. I also imagine Chrysalis wouldn't have been as powerful as the primary timeline since I doubt there'd be as much love to feed on.

Though I am curious about how she'd defeat Tirek, but I guess she could've caught him before he regained his power and likely did away with him completely.

What I found interesting though is how Twilight's friends supported her in that timeline. They didn't exactly seem like they were resigned to defeat, but more like genuine supporters.

Spoiler: Another Thought • show
I was actually going to make that comparison but decided against adding it. I did think it was interesting how that detail made it into that timeline though.
17
MLP: FiM SD Archive / Re: Season 5 Finale
2015 Nov 30, 15:09:24
Spoiler: Starlight's Probation • show
I'm honestly surprised at how much people seem to speculate that Starlight is going to become a part of the main cast. To me it looked more like they were keeping her around because she was too dangerous to trust off on her own.

We'll probably get appearances in later seasons, but I don't see her becoming a prominent character.

Right now though I think the ponies just want to keep an eye on her until they're sure she can be trusted not to have a relapse.


Spoiler: Alternate Timelines • show
I loved the alternate timelines though. Makes you wonder just how things changed over the years just based on how very different each event in Cloudsdale was.

I'm actually more interested in the Nightmare Moon timeline than I am the Sombra timeline though. The transition of rulers couldn't have been that unpleasant seeing as there wasn't the same kind of strife in many of the other timelines. Plus Twilight's alternate friends didn't seem to have any issue serving Nightmare Moon.

As for the whole eternal night killing off all life. I think what may have happened was that Nightmare Moon has strong enough magic to move the sun like Celestia (Celestia was only able to beat her with the Elements after all). My guess is that she keeps the sun up in the daytime long enough to make sure everything doesn't die off.

Also, did anyone else notice the moon was shaded in the colors of Celestia's mane?  :]

Out of all the timelines though I think the one with Chrysalis may have been the darkest second only to the Wasteland one. If only because they made it seem like Zecora's village was the last remaining holdout able to fight back against the changelings which means they'd pretty much absorbed all of Equestria by that point.

I also found it interesting how they chose Applejack to be Chrysalis' disguise. Hiding deception behind the face of honesty. Of course since AJ, Rainbow and Rarity were all changelings I can assume nothing good happened to those three in that timeline.

As for the Wasteland timeline though, I think that may have actually been the timeline where Starlight managed to take over Equestria like she had planned.

Without the specialized talents of the three pony races I can imagine their carefully balanced ecosystem collapsing without the care they give it.


Spoiler: Another Interesting Thought • show
In all of the timelines none of the other villains managed to regain power, so while the world was still in turmoil the other villains still managed to get defeated.

Either because they joined up with the victorious villain of that timeline, or because Equestria was still able to find a way to defeat them.

I'll use Sombra's timeline as an example.

Only Celestia was there to fight back against Sombra's forces which means Luna was either rebanished or destroyed, same with Discord unless the war put a damper on his fun. The Changelings were probably wiped out. Of course since the timelines were all present-day that also means that Tirek was also dealt with in some fashion.

Equestria's technology did seem to be a bit more advanced in that timeline than the others so the lack of Elements and the war with Sombra probably pushed them to develop a technological advantage.
18
Spoiler: show
Honestly, I wouldn't call anyone besties or even plain friends with Starlight. They're giving her a chance because that's what they do and honestly I kind of expected this result given the show's track record. However, I wouldn't say they're friends with her at all.

Heck, Applejack pretty much said that they couldn't just let her go because of how dangerous she was.

And, to tell the truth, I think they made a good choice. Starlight had long-term, deep psychological issues that they only made worse when they came to her village, even if they didn't know it at the time. What they're doing now is giving her the help she needs while also having her close by so they can keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't relapse.

All that aside though, I don't expect Starlight to take a prominent role in the show any time soon. I expect we'll get appearances like we have with discord and maybe she'll get a support role like Spike, but full-on main character is stretching it.


-------

Quote from: Chishio Kunrin on 2015 Nov 29, 14:09:13
Spoiler: show
You know what's neat? Every time Dash was wearing a helmet, I recognized her from her eyes before I saw her tail. o_O


Spoiler: show
I know right? I've noticed it a few times in the show. She's just got those kind of eyes I guess.
19
Spoiler: show
An interesting thought occurred to me.

The map didn't sent Twilight to help solve the family's feud. Fluttershy was the one who ended up solving the problem while every solution Twilight pulled out of her book ended up making things worse.

I think the map just sent Twilight along to show her that she can't solve friendship problems by pulling them from a checklist until she finds one that works (and to make sure that Fluttershy didn't freak out by having to go all by herself).

Kind of funny too with the way she's been itching to get sent on a friendship mission. She ends up getting sent to learn a lesson herself instead
20
Spoiler: The Hooffields and McColts • show
Was a fun episode today. Caught on to the problem (or lack thereof) pretty quick as well as how it would be resolved so the ending didn't surprise me, but it was still fun to watch.

Still though, I mentally facepalmed every time Twilight pulled out her "Friendship Solutions" book. I know she realized the book didn't help her at the end, but I really wonder if she actually learned that each friendship problem is going to require its own solution. While the book may be good for referencing it won't give her the actual solutions.

Chuckled a bit at the saddlebags too. Poor Fluttershy can't keep up with that Earth Pony-Alicorn strength.

One line that caused my brain to stop though was when Twilight said: "What if it wants to solve other kinds of problems like quantum physics?"

That puts Equestrian scientific knowledge within 100 years of our own at the most and maybe 25 years difference at the least (give or take a few years on both ends). Ponyville's rustic look and Canterlot's posh fantasy feel really are just for aesthetic appearances in that case.