S06E01-02: The Crystalling

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Re: S06E01-02: The Crystalling

Postby Aramek (?) » Sun Mar 27, 2016 5:37 pm

If anything, she's better now, because she's choosing to act on the side of good, but she's still got all her evil powers and abilities. Still the most powerful unicorn (Sorry Trixie, you mah #2) in Equestria, still brimming with a steel willpower and confidence. She's just channeling her will to rule/command/conquer into other endeavours, and I really relate to her.
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Postby Niels Olof (?) » Sun Mar 27, 2016 5:48 pm

Let me just add for the record that the Crystalling as a ceremony is a beautiful one. Presenting a new foal to the community, and using said community’s embrace of the foal to strengthen the community as well as the city defenses by absorbing it into the Crystal Heart. Those crystal ponies had it figured out.
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Postby Aramek (?) » Sun Mar 27, 2016 5:54 pm

Yeah, they have an awesome little community. I mentioned it in IRC during the stream, but it reminds me of Ouendan/Elite Beat Agents where they offer up the spirit of the citizens to help defeat the big bad/natural disaster. That shit is super keen.

"WE HAVE A NEW CITIZEN! WE WELCOME THEM INTO THE FOLD!"

"THROUGH THEM AND THROUGH US, WE ARE STRONGER!"

"TILL ALL ARE ONE!"
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sun Mar 27, 2016 7:13 pm

Niels Olof wrote:Let me just add for the record that the Crystalling as a ceremony is a beautiful one. Presenting a new foal to the community, and using said community’s embrace of the foal to strengthen the community as well as the city defenses by absorbing it into the Crystal Heart. Those crystal ponies had it figured out.

Something interesting about this was the point made that pretty much everyone was turning out for this, but that attendance for a Crystalling also isn't compulsory, going by Spike's "They get the purest shard of crystal they can find, then pick a crystaller to present the baby to everypony who comes" wording. While I doubt things will ever get to the point that the show addresses it, I wonder if there'll eventually come a time when their society becomes disinterested enough in such old customs that the Crystal Heart actually starts losing power.
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Sun Mar 27, 2016 7:22 pm

Fizzbuzz wrote:Something interesting about this was the point made that pretty much everyone was turning out for this, but that attendance for a Crystalling also isn't compulsory, going by Spike's "They get the purest shard of crystal they can find, then pick a crystaller to present the baby to everypony who comes" wording. While I doubt things will ever get to the point that the show addresses it, I wonder if there'll eventually come a time when their society becomes disinterested enough in such old customs that the Crystal Heart actually starts losing power.


That's when Cadance goes into Passive Aggressive Mode

:allright: Feel free to stay home and run the risk of our town being wiped out by eternal winter!
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Postby Applepie (?) » Sun Mar 27, 2016 8:05 pm

Don't inflate her ego.


Now that we talk inflate.

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Postby Soft Snow (?) » Sun Mar 27, 2016 10:53 pm

I remember one analyzer compared Alicorns to Jedi in the first Star Wars trilogy, when you first saw one you thought a person must be pretty special to become one, then you saw the prequel trilogy and realized that they were everywhere and anyone could be one. So my head canon is that alicorns are special because we only seen so few of them but I think this might be the dawn of the age of alicorns for Equestria. I think, eventually, they might try to uplift every pony to the status of alicorn and complete the cycle of combining the three tribes. Like not in this time line but thousands of years from now every pony will be an alicorn. Then the world would be happy and safe. It is a lovely dream if you think about it.

:allears:
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Postby everyponytothelimit (?) » Sun Mar 27, 2016 11:35 pm

Oh what season 6 already? That didn't seem like a long wait at all.
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Postby Strangepony (?) » Sun Mar 27, 2016 11:52 pm

Pixelkitties live-tweeted the premier. More accurately, the Harshwhinny 2016 HQ did.

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:gotcha:
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Postby PonyHag714 (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 12:04 am

Harshie and Chryssy...ready for the roller coaster ride that is Season 6. Image
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Postby Sailor Yue (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 12:48 am

My friend said she was going to watch the premier. She mentioned that the last episode she remembered was Tyreks battle... I told her she was a hole season behind
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Postby Mechanical Ape (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 1:16 am

All right, let's see what this "ponies" thing is all about.

Part 1:
  • :excite: "Before I can teach the magic of friendship, you must first learn the magic of libraries!"
  • Starlight's in the group photo, and this isn't a Joss Whedon show so they probably won't kill her off.
  • The traditions of the Crystal Empire are a bit murky? Didn't you ponies read a whole book about that shit? Remember? There were flugelhorns and everything.
  • All the ponies in this castle are CRAZY!
  • Spike's smug face, the urn artwork: two good things.
  • :idea: "Millennia" is plural not singular, Spike.
  • Twilight Sparkle, quest giver. "You can go to the Crystal Empire and see Sunburst, or you can retrieve 10 baby mole rat tails."
  • Starlight is in emotional pain, but she's making some great faces!
  • It's a nice touch that Filly Starlight is magically gifted but doesn't seem to realize it (though Sunburst clearly does).
  • AUNTE. :snobtavia:
  • No no Twilight, you're supposed to trick your faithful students into learning stuff.
  • They made Bloomberg into a cradle. :fluttersmith:
  • I'm not confident that Starlight is redeemed enough yet that ponies should be talking about artifacts of immense power around her.
  • Disheveled Shining Armor is killing me.
  • I'd have been shocked if the kid WASN'T an alicorn.
  • Is that a griffon doll in the background?! :awesomedash:
  • Pinkie loves babies, and the baby loves eyeballs! It's a perfect match!
  • Sunburst's house has a wizard hat.
  • Sunburst's house has a wizard hat.
  • brushie brushie
  • oh GOD DAMN IT BABY :applejargh: oh you're too cute I can't stay mad at you :hilarious:

Part 2:
  • Celestia and Luna bein' pretty useful.
  • You're a good dude, Spike.
  • Twilight patch!
  • Ha, I knew the spell book would get destroyed but the way it happened was pretty fun.
  • Now all they need is a book with a spell for repairing spell books. :v:
  • "Klaatu ... Barada ... :spoiler: *cough* *cough*!"
  • Crystal ponies are too dumb to go inside when it's cold.
  • But you have to be a wizard, Sunburst! Your house has a wizard hat.
  • At least he uses "millennia" right.
  • A crystal alicorn? You don't get much more OC than that.
  • The elder Sparkles speak!
  • Credited as "Mr. Sparkle" and "Mrs. Sparkle". :lol:

Micro-review: Thumbs up!
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 1:18 am

Mechanical Ape wrote:[*] Credited as "Mr. Sparkle" [/list]



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Postby SlateSlabrock (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 1:43 am

Mechanical Ape wrote:
  • Is that a griffon doll in the background?! :awesomedash:

Huh. Now that you mention it, what is that?
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  • Sunburst's house has a wizard hat.
  • Sunburst's house has a wizard hat.

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Postby Mechanical Ape (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 1:52 am

shotgunbadger wrote:totally forgot this was starting this week. Just watched the first one and a baby condemned an empire to freeze to death, good start.

You think you've got baggage, Starlight, at least your parents didn't name you for the time you almost killed everyone.
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Postby Mechanical Ape (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 2:10 am

Also, it's too bad Frozen Crystal Empire wasn't one of the Cutie Re-Mark alternate futures, because that would've been an amazing callforward.
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 2:13 am

Speaking of Shining Armor, to ponygoons who are parents, just how true-to-life was his incredibly drowsy newborn dad behavior?
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Postby Headless Horse (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 2:21 am

I know it was realistic in that horses sleep standing up. :-I
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Postby Bremen (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 2:25 am

Mechanical Ape wrote:oh GOD DAMN IT BABY :applejargh: oh you're too cute I can't stay mad at you :hilarious:


Excellent, begin phase 2!

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Postby Soft Snow (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 3:05 am

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Did anyone else notice that Cadence let Flurry suck on her horse shoe-slipper? Super cute, yes, but poorly advised.
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Postby Wylie (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 4:25 am

Fizzbuzz wrote:Speaking of Shining Armor, to ponygoons who are parents, just how true-to-life was his incredibly drowsy newborn dad behavior?


Sleep deprivation is a terrible drug, yes. Also, sleep obtained in a hospital room is fake sleep and does not refresh the body or rejuvenate the mind.
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Postby Wayoshi (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 5:18 am

lol I paused at this frame

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You want to try what type of spell, sir? :seethe:

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pfffffft

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Anyone else think donkey pony's voice sounded too young for the design?

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Postby Nemrex (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 6:21 am

Something to point out, but I felt like the interactions between Starlight and Spike were reminiscent of Twilight and Spike's own relationship in the earlier seasons.
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Postby Wayoshi (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 6:38 am

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Wha-huh indeed.

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Image <-- Yeah I know we have this already, for completion's sake on my end lol

And one more funny:

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See you all next week!
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Postby Headless Horse (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 1:26 pm

PaulloDEC wrote:
I absolutely understand the feeling, but I think it actually kinda fits with the way things have been going on the show for a while. The days of two Princesses running everything seems to be coming to an end, first with Cadance, then with Twilight and now with the revelation that naturally-born Alicorns from uplifted Alicorn parents is a thing.

I think it helps to think of it as times changing in Equestria more than the lore of the show changing (however accurate that statement might be).


This is making me ponder things a bit.

There's a kind of common trap that long-running shows fall into, a sort of "familiarity breeds contempt" aspect to the big significant bad guys or good guys that your protagonists only meet on rare occasion. Over time, as you get to know the mysterious bad guys better, they stop being such a threat; same with good guys, they stop being untouchable zen masters or whatever. I'm thinking of cases like BSG—at the outset just seeing a Cylon means basically you're dead; but by the end of season 2 they're just walking around, people don't much like the situation, but it's hardly as dire as it once was. Or I seem to recall that in the 80's TMNT cartoon, Shredder and Krang were these horrific brutal monsters in the first few episodes; but after half a season they had devolved basically to comic relief. In fact it's so common that it's rare when a story doesn't suffer from it; I can only think of a few (in LotR, for example, the Nazgûl are just as big a threat at the end as they are at the beginning, largely thanks to some menace upgrades they get along the way, but also because they're not made familiar—the story doesn't go do a side quest from their POV or some shit).

Celestia and Luna have clearly been nerfed in this regard over time too; at the beginning, there was this sense that if you even have the opportunity to be in their presence it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But even before S1 was out, Celestia was making an active play at subverting her own role, what with the tea prank against the Cakes, and :pcstare: run

But even with that, their actual nature was never addressed, not until MMC. And even then it's been left pretty much unclear until now just wtf an alicorn is all about. As kind of a natural consequence of the way they've handled Celestia and Luna and Cadance and Twilight, the original two are necessarily seen as a lot less special than they once were. Their characters, and their entire premise as kinds of characters, are changing, coming down to earth.

But the thing that writers tend to do in situations like this, if they're good, is to play it like the world is what's changing. In BSG, the Cylons are becoming less of a threat not just because they're becoming more familiar and sympathetic, but also because the story demands they make alliance with the humans, and that they acknowledge common ground for their own survival. I remember the Teddy Ruxpin cartoon in the 80s—Tweeg was the big distant villain at first, then he gradually became a big pushover, but the endgame was that he became such a sympathetic character that he basically joined the good guys and took part in slice-of-life episodes. Steven Universe similarly takes all the stuffing out of seeming-villains like Peridot, and in the process you realize that what you're seeing is not just the evolution of the characters themselves as they re-evaluate their roles in the cast, but also the cast's basic understanding of the premise of the world (what are gems? Who were the bad guys? What's Homeworld actually like?).

If they're doing that with Pony—if they're playing out a long story in which it turns out that the ponies really don't have that good an understanding of unicorn magic, as it seemed from Twilight's actions way back when; and nobody, not even the Princesses, know what makes an alicorn, and they're all learning their own history right along with the rest of us—I'll doff my hat to them.

I mean, not because they'll have been planning it out this whole time, because they're still clearly winging it. But to pull any kind of coherent bottom line out of the current mess the universe is in, and doing it in a character-consistent and believable way, would be pretty amazing. :amazing:
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Postby Headless Horse (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 1:48 pm

Btw, lol @ a royal household where there are apparently no attendants or wet nurses and the king and queen have to raise a baby themselves :gotcha:
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 2:01 pm

Headless Horse wrote:Btw, lol @ a royal household where there are apparently no attendants or wet nurses and the king and queen have to raise a baby themselves :gotcha:

I bet personally raising the baby was Shining Armor's idea. Overly romantic dork, first-time dad, prob. wants a family to protect and look after now that his little sister's all grown up? It all adds up.
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Postby Headless Horse (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 2:09 pm

Plus there were definitely attendants out the ass in previous Crystal Empire episodes, weren't there? Like GPP.
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Postby Chronos30 (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 2:15 pm

I loved that silly music they had playing over the credits of part 1. Really fit with baby's derpface. I especially liked how they played the whole thing instead of muting it and shoving it in the corner for some ads.
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Postby Chronos30 (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 3:00 pm

SlateSlabrock wrote:edit: I'm not sure about Mustache Guy, though. The hair colors are right, but not the eyes.
Image


Clearly an immigrant, like Sunburst. I wonder what he was running from.

e: He was tired of always taking third place in mustache competitions back where he came from. Now he's the biggest mustache in an empire.
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Postby PictishBeast (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 3:00 pm

Wayoshi wrote:Image


I thought for a minute we were gonna see windigos
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Postby Mechanical Ape (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 3:05 pm

:prettywings: "I cast Magic Missile at the darkness!"
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Postby Aramek (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 3:52 pm

Mechanical Ape wrote: :prettywings: "I cast Magic Missile at the darkness!"

That's Lance of Faith, not Magic Missile! :rant: God, Ape!
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Your MRI results have shown total infection to now be approximately one fifth of the full mass of the tissue.

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Your brain is about 20% tumor.
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Postby Headless Horse (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 7:25 pm

:byopinkie: CAN I HAVE A MOUNTAIN DEW
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Postby Rainbow Crash (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 8:54 pm

I finally got to see the episodes--who decided to air the premiere on a holiday weekend where people would be out of town?

It was great!
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Postby Aramek (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 9:12 pm

I'm so glad some of the OGs are still around.
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Postby Captain Rufus (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 9:41 pm

Aramek wrote:I'm so glad some of the OGs are still around.


It either means we are more loyal, new stuff hasn't been as good, or various :fluttersmith: reasons we still watch still good and fun horsie cartoon.

I dunno. I just like good stuff whatever it is. New, old, whatever. :twiright:
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Mon Mar 28, 2016 9:43 pm

Rainbow Crash wrote:I finally got to see the episodes--who decided to air the premiere on a holiday weekend where people would be out of town?

Discovery Family. The same chucklefucks who decided to air The Cutie Map on Easter weekend and The Cutie Re-Mark on Thanksgiving weekend last year. :shepspike:
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Postby PaulloDEC (?) » Tue Mar 29, 2016 12:06 am

Headless Horse wrote:
This is making me ponder things a bit.

There's a kind of common trap that long-running shows fall into, a sort of "familiarity breeds contempt" aspect to the big significant bad guys or good guys that your protagonists only meet on rare occasion. Over time, as you get to know the mysterious bad guys better, they stop being such a threat; same with good guys, they stop being untouchable zen masters or whatever. I'm thinking of cases like BSG—at the outset just seeing a Cylon means basically you're dead; but by the end of season 2 they're just walking around, people don't much like the situation, but it's hardly as dire as it once was. Or I seem to recall that in the 80's TMNT cartoon, Shredder and Krang were these horrific brutal monsters in the first few episodes; but after half a season they had devolved basically to comic relief. In fact it's so common that it's rare when a story doesn't suffer from it; I can only think of a few (in LotR, for example, the Nazgûl are just as big a threat at the end as they are at the beginning, largely thanks to some menace upgrades they get along the way, but also because they're not made familiar—the story doesn't go do a side quest from their POV or some shit).

Celestia and Luna have clearly been nerfed in this regard over time too; at the beginning, there was this sense that if you even have the opportunity to be in their presence it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But even before S1 was out, Celestia was making an active play at subverting her own role, what with the tea prank against the Cakes, and :pcstare: run

But even with that, their actual nature was never addressed, not until MMC. And even then it's been left pretty much unclear until now just wtf an alicorn is all about. As kind of a natural consequence of the way they've handled Celestia and Luna and Cadance and Twilight, the original two are necessarily seen as a lot less special than they once were. Their characters, and their entire premise as kinds of characters, are changing, coming down to earth.

But the thing that writers tend to do in situations like this, if they're good, is to play it like the world is what's changing. In BSG, the Cylons are becoming less of a threat not just because they're becoming more familiar and sympathetic, but also because the story demands they make alliance with the humans, and that they acknowledge common ground for their own survival. I remember the Teddy Ruxpin cartoon in the 80s—Tweeg was the big distant villain at first, then he gradually became a big pushover, but the endgame was that he became such a sympathetic character that he basically joined the good guys and took part in slice-of-life episodes. Steven Universe similarly takes all the stuffing out of seeming-villains like Peridot, and in the process you realize that what you're seeing is not just the evolution of the characters themselves as they re-evaluate their roles in the cast, but also the cast's basic understanding of the premise of the world (what are gems? Who were the bad guys? What's Homeworld actually like?).

If they're doing that with Pony—if they're playing out a long story in which it turns out that the ponies really don't have that good an understanding of unicorn magic, as it seemed from Twilight's actions way back when; and nobody, not even the Princesses, know what makes an alicorn, and they're all learning their own history right along with the rest of us—I'll doff my hat to them.

I mean, not because they'll have been planning it out this whole time, because they're still clearly winging it. But to pull any kind of coherent bottom line out of the current mess the universe is in, and doing it in a character-consistent and believable way, would be pretty amazing. :amazing:


I really like what they've done with Celestia and Luna, especially if you include the great work the books and comics have contributed. Lofty and mysterious can be fun for a while, but there really isn't anywhere you can go with it. Humanising Celestia and Luna, even with their origins still a mystery, has made them infinitely more interesting as characters. There's definitely still some huge, mysterious gaps in their backstory though, especially if you've not read The Journal of the Two Sisters. Even with that book, we're still in the dark as to where Celestia and Luna actually came from, who they have in the way of family, how Star Swirl was able to visit them, etc. It speaks of Alicorns as if they're a race, and they talk of growing up in the hills of Canterlot, but if both of those things are true, where the hell are they? How does a race of near immortals disappear?

So in a way, it's almost like the initial mystique that Celestia and Luna has actually been traded out for a much deeper and more interesting one as we've learned more about them.

As for the stuff about the world changing, I'm yet to see anything that convinces me it's a deliberate plan put into place by either the comic or TV writers. There's lots of things that line up to form a convincing picture though; Celestia'a loneliness after losing Luna and then Star Swirl, vague hints from the Tree of Harmony that there might be another who belongs on the Princess stage, Cadance herself being a living reminder (and possible descendant) of a past ruler etc. The good thing I think is that they don't have to ever spell out Celestia's motivations for the theory to still work. If there weren't many Princesses before, and then through Celestia's direct intervention there now are, it goes without saying that this was something she purposefully orchestrated. All they have to do now is stay the course.
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Postby Rainbow Crash (?) » Tue Mar 29, 2016 1:13 am

You know, I marathoned the whole series over the past few weeks and there's one thing I'm pretty tired of seeing. The "search the library" scene. It happened in this episode too. They play out exactly the same every time: montage of ransacking the bookshelves, someone saying "we'll never find it!", and then someone finds it. It's getting really old
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Joined: May 23, 2011

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