The My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic Thread

[landbeforetimelover]

Okay, this season finale would have made a MUCH better movie.  It was really good, but unfortunately was much too fast paced.  It needed to be at least a 3 parter, but would have been better stretched over 4 episodes.  We never really got to form a connection with the 6 new ponies.  I'm hoping we see more of them in the future, but this episode just seemed so crammed up with time constraints.  The scene in the dragon kingdom was way too long for such a simple thing they needed to do.  Overall, the movie should have been an episode, and this two part episode should have been the movie.

[The Chronicler]

Looks like Equestria Daily once again failed to mention this week's newly added Equestria Girls summer short to YouTube, so here's the direct link instead:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdJlDU1dKSM

I really hope this trend of forgetfulness doesn't continue once the new episodes start. Especially considering that Discovery Family's streaming service decided to show the first four Equestria Girls episodes ahead of their scheduled release on YouTube:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/11/new-...riesshorts.html

Predictably, someone had uploaded them to Dailymotion and posted links in the comments. Even though I decided to go ahead and watch them, I'll hold off on any reviews until their official release on Hasbro's YouTube channel. But I will say this much: these first four episodes are quite short, each of them are only around 2 minutes long, not counting the intro and credits.

I was really hoping we were finally done with all those leaks and early releases that have be going on virtually all the time over the past year, but I guess that was too much to ask for. Seriously, though, is this madness ever going to stop?

[The Chronicler]

Well, looks like I spoke too soon, because now three more Equestria Girls episodes have become available through that same aforementioned streaming service.
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/11/more...s-released.html

[The Chronicler]

And four more episodes have just been released:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/11/eque...-series-my.html

If this keeps up, we may end up seeing all of next year's Equestria Girls content before the current hiatus is even over. <_<

[f-22 "raptor" ace]

I've been enjoying the EqG shorts.

[Hypno]

I suppose some people can't be patient when it comes to new episodes. They want to see it as soon as possible, because they're that much excited to see them.

[The Chronicler]

Just one week left to go before these new episodes start making their official appearance on Hasbro's YouTube channel. Anyway, here's this week's addition of the earlier shorts to that channel (a direct link, because once again Equestria Daily didn't even bother to mention it):

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

[The Chronicler]

There are still two more of the summer shorts that have not yet been added to Hasbro's YouTube channel, and neither of them were added this week. I'm not sure when (or even if) they'll be added, but at least there are other ways of seeing them elsewhere.

Anyway, yesterday was when the first episode of the new Equestria Girls series was made available to watch on YouTube.
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/11/equestria-girls-shorts-trail-and-full.html
Might as well post a direct link as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEAXo2sxqTI

Even though you can easily go ahead and watch it in the link above, I'm still going to post my review in spoiler text (and will do the same for every episode each week).
(spoilers)
In this two-minute episode, it's release day for the new video game "Tirek's Revenge" (the sequel to "Rise of Tirek") and Sunset Shimmer is very excited to get a copy. Unfortunately, the line in front of the store is unbelievably long, and Sunset finds herself at the very end of it.

After waiting for a few hours and feeling completely bored, Sunset is pleased when Rainbow Dash shows up and, understanding how much longer they still have to wait, decides to bring the rest of their friends together so they can have fun and enjoy each other's company while they continue waiting in line.

When it's finally Sunset's turn, the final copy in stock had just been sold. Fortunately, Pinkie Pie had thought ahead and pre-ordered a copy for Sunset months earlier (and the only reason she didn't give it to her earlier is because she simply had no idea what they were waiting in line for until that very moment). Finally, when Sunset mentions that the game has a multiplayer feature, she and her friends are all very excited to try it out.

Even though this is apparently supposed to be the first episode, I've already seen all the other few that released early, so at least there's some others I can compare it to. I would consider this one among my favorites, because we found out that Sunset has quite the interest in video games, and that the counterpart of Tirek (the big villain from the Season 4 finale) in the Equestria Girls world is apparently the ultimate boss of a video game series. Sure does make me curious about what playing that game might be like.
(end spoilers)

[The Chronicler]

This week's Equestria Girls episode.
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/11/equestria-girls-short-school-of-rock.html
Direct link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU1g-Z9oyMo

(spoilers)
A group of students are on a field trip to the city's natural history museum and have arrived at the geology section, where Maud Pie works as a tour guide (as Pinkie's older sister, it seems she's old enough that she may have already graduated). Rather predictably, Maud's monotone voice makes the experience very boring for most of the students, not even her use of rock puns for humor gets any excitement.

Thankfully, Pinkie, Twilight, and Rarity had made plans prior with Maud to make things more exciting. When Maud gets to the part about crystals, Rarity uses her magic to send some diamonds floating around and tosses them in the volcano mock-up, then Pinkie uses her magic to drop a bucketful of sprinkles into the volcano mock-up to give off the illusion of an eruption. Then when Maud moves on to talking about fossils, Twilight uses her magic to make two dinosaur skeletons move around like animatronics. By this point all of the students are very excited by what they've witnessed, with one young student even claiming to be a fan of Maud and asks to get her book autographed. Pinkie is very pleased to see Maud so excited, but considering that this is Maud, that's obviously virtually impossible for us to notice, but at least Rarity and Twilight say nothing about that.

Really, all I can say about this one is that if Maud Pie happens to be one of your favorite characters, then this episode is for you.
(end spoilers)

[The Chronicler]

Three weeks in and already Equestria Daily is failing to report on the official release of one of these episodes. A little frustrating, but at least I can still provide the direct link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX1dlU7vEQE

(spoilers)
It's picture day for all the school clubs as Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity meet each other in the hallway. Applejack has brought a pig for her photo with the Junior Farmers club, but then Rainbow Dash practically brags about being in five different clubs, and despite Rarity trying to persuade them otherwise, Applejack and Rainbow Dash quickly get competitive about being in the most clubs.

Much of the episode becomes a montage of Rainbow Dash and Applejack trying to appear in as many club photos as possible, some helpful, some causing problems, and some just outright photo-bombing. At the end of the day, the result is a tie between the two, even though they've covered every single club in the school. Well, all except for Rarity's club, which she claims to be "very exclusive", with the only other member being none other than Applejack's pig.

I have to say, of all these Equestria Girls episodes I've seen so far (including the early releases), this one is probably my least favorite. I know that Rainbow Dash and Applejack can get competitive at times, but practically photo-bombing every club in the school is going a little too far, in my opinion. I suppose I would be more satisfied if they had to face some real consequences for being so disruptive to everyone for such a selfish reason, but that's just what I think.
(end spoilers)

[The Chronicler]

Looks like there might have been enough popular demand that Equestria Daily will be reporting the official YouTube releases of the Equestria Girls episodes, but we'll just have to see if they will actually commit to that. Anyway, here's the page announcing this week's episode...
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/12/equestria-girls-short-pinkie-sitting.html
And here's the direct link:

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

(spoilers)
Rarity is invited to some gala that she refuses to miss, but it's so last minute that she needs someone else to cover the babysitting duty she had already promised, so she goes to Pinkie Pie, who excitedly accepts. Pinkie is naturally very eager to do some fun activities, but the child (a girl named Lily Pad) would much rather spend time reading a book on her tablet, and it's not long before Pinkie starts feeling very bored.

Pinkie decides to add some excitement by first asking Lily what she's reading (a story about some girl pirates landing on an island and meeting all kinds of animals) and then dressing up and acting it out. Pinkie quickly exhausts herself and asks Lily to simply read the story to her. Later, once Lily finishes the story, Pinkie remarks that Lily would one day be a great babysitter and falls asleep.

I found it rather amusing how there seemed to be a kind of role reversal between the babysitter and the child. Although I'm pretty sure Lily Pad will probably be just a one-off character, I quite liked seeing her there. (Considering that all the foal characters we know in Equestria are young high school students in the Equestria Girls world, I welcome the introduction of actual child characters.)
(end spoilers)

[The Chronicler]

This week's Equestria Girls episode...
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/12/equestria-girls-short-final-countdown.html
And the direct link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBL2JUbpu5M

(spoilers)
This episode consists almost entirely of a song, so I'm sure this won't be the only such musical episode in this series.

Final exams are coming up, so Twilight proudly decides to help her friends study. At first, her efforts get hardly anywhere, but when she notices one of Rarity's papers showing calculations for the price of a dress, she decides to change tactics and help her friends study in their own unique ways (much like what we saw in the pony series episode "Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3"). For example, Rainbow Dash is able to study while running on the track, Fluttershy receives help from her animals, and Pinkie Pie utilizes balloons to help her study.

In the end, once everyone takes their exams, all that unique studying pays off and they all pass with high grades (a slight variety, but still A's for all seven girls).
(end spoilers)

[The Chronicler]

Well, good news and bad news to report of recent surprises.

The bad news, there's been a ton of leaks, including some Season 8 episodes, despite the fact that they are essentially incomplete.
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/12/spoiler-warning-episodes-and-animatics.html
Just when I was hoping we had already seen the worst, the leaks just had to escalate even further the following year.  The fact that these leaked episodes supposedly aren't even fully completed yet means that I'll have absolutely no interest in looking for them. I'd rather wait for the official release to get the full experience, even if it means I end up failing to avoid some spoilers for the next few months.

The good news, there's a new Equestria Girls episode, and it's not one of the 11 that were released early, so this one is completely new for all of us.
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/12/choose-your-own-adventure-equestria.html
Apparently, this is the first of the "choose your own adventure" type of episodes, where you have one video to start the episode, and then three more videos for different possible endings (since the credits are exactly identical in all three endings, it really is like a 3-in-1 episode). To be honest, I wasn't sure about this format when I first heard about it, but since it looks like this will apply to only to a few episodes, and continuity seems to be becoming less strict in the series by this point, I think I find this to be an okay addition to the series.

I won't post direct links to the videos, since all four of them are available in that one page I've just linked.

(spoilers)
At a video session where students make weather-like forecasts, Rarity's "trend forecast" is troubled when she suddenly realizes she forgot to pack her bag, but since she's already on camera, she can't leave and she can't hesitate for too long, so she's forced to improvise on the spot by taking inspiration from one of her three friends in the room: Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, or Pinkie Pie.

Choose Twilight - The next day, everyone is suddenly wearing the same type of glasses as Twilight, and making attempts to sound smart, which of course leaves her a little unnerved. She even struggles to get a new science book that, let's face it, most people would rather not even bother with. Thankfully, Rarity brings an end to the nerd trend by immediately starting a new trend: capes.

Choose Rainbow - The next day, virtually every student has dyed their hair rainbow, and as Rarity struggles to find the real Rainbow Dash, Rarity starts to freak out, including an inner monologue like what you'd expect to hear in the Twilight Zone (spoofed here as "Rainbow Zone"). By the time she does find the real Rainbow Dash (who remarks how awesome everyone looks), Rarity has already lost much of her sanity.

Choose Pinkie - Pinkie Pie becomes so enthusiastic that the next day, everyone finds confetti flying out of their lockers. Knowing that such a huge mess will get them in trouble, Rarity, Twilight, and Applejack (with help from their magic powers) clean up all the confetti, much to Pinkie's disappointment. As Principal Celestia walks by, she thanks the girls for cleaning up and warns Pinkie to go easy on the confetti. However, once she opens the door to her office, the hallway is literally flooded with confetti, so detention is now practically guaranteed for the girls.
(end spoilers)

[The Chronicler]

Well, looks like that episode was released too early after all, because now all four parts of it have been taken down. Look's we'll have to wait until probably February for the official release. At least from what I saw, it was a fully complete episode (unlike the other leaked content), and has helped me to be more okay with future episodes of this type, so I'll be looking forward to what else we'll see later.

Of course, I'm still sticking with my decision to not look for any of the leaked content I previously mentioned. Like I said, much of it is incomplete work, and it looks like the reason for that is because someone literally hacked Hasbro! That makes the release of this content a criminal act, and based on a vast majority of the comments I've seen on this page, it looks like almost every agrees that this should be frowned upon. Let's just hope this won't ruin the upcoming episodes too much.

[The Chronicler]

Well that didn't last long. Once again, Equestria Daily has failed to mention this week's Equestria Girls short, so here's the direct link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXv1ttGN2Hk

(spoilers)
Sunset Shimmer is struggling to make it through the day because she's somehow now able to hear the thoughts of everyone around her, even though she's not even close to touching any of them, and not even wearing earmuffs can stop it. When she meets with her friends, her now overcharged power makes her suddenly witness how the others have also been dealing with their own powers being overcharged: Fluttershy is followed everywhere by lots of animals, Twilight sends her bike flying while she's riding it (resulting in an E.T. reference), Applejack rips off her locker door with barely any effort, and Pinkie was unexpectedly able to make an apple explode just by simply tossing it up.

The last to arrive is Rainbow Dash, who has been excitedly using her super speed power for just about anything. By that point, everyone's geodes start to glow, and Twilight comes up with a theory on why their powers have gone out of control. Basically, everyone's geodes are connected, so if one of them used their powers excessively (Rainbow Dash in this case), then it would affect the other geodes, and the glowing serves as a kind of warning system. The girls agree that they should use their powers in moderation to avoid any more incidents like what they had just been through.

Rainbow is soon temped to use her super speed power once again when Zephyr Breeze suddenly shows up, but a reminder from her friends forces her to walk around him (and his creepy attempts to hit on her) the traditional way, much to her disgust. The other girls can't help but laugh at that incident, except Fluttershy who simply facepalms in shame at her brother's behavior. The next day, things are back to normal and Sunset is able to remove her earmuffs.

I have to say, I find this one very interesting for showing that there's actually a consequence if the Main 7 use their magic powers too frequently. It's quite an interesting way to make sure they aren't abusing their powers. Oh, and we got to see human Zephyr Breeze for the first time, and he sure seems just as obnoxious as his pony counterpart.
(end spoilers)

[The Chronicler]

Looks like Discovery Family just released some more new Equestria Girls episodes on their streaming service.
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/12/new-equestria-girls-shorts-added-to.html

Unlike the first 11 episodes (only about two minutes each) that were released back in early November, these 5 episodes are among the so-called "choose your own adventure" type of episodes (though curiously, the one that released early is not among these five, so I guess this might mean we'll soon see a few more of them become available). As before, I won't share my thoughts on any of them until they've been officially made available on Hasbro's YouTube channel (and besides, I currently don't have the time to go look for any alternate links to watch them).

In addition, we just got confirmation that Equestria Girls will also have two 44-minute specials coming out at some point later on next year.
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/12/two-44-minute-equestria-girls-specials.html

[The Chronicler]

Once again, another short has been added to Hasbro's YouTube channel.
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/12/star-crossed-twilight-sparkle-eg-short.html
And the direct link (though apparently, the audio is a little messed up, but at least everything is still understandable):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjNca4e9VeM

(spoilers)
Twilight has everything planned to "hang out" with Timber Spruce at the science museum and planetarium, and before she goes, Fluttershy offers her a jar full of bugs "just in case".

Once Twilight and Timber meet up, just about everything that could go wrong does go wrong. An awkward introduction, they can't find the exhibit they were interested in, the planetarium has canceled all shows, cloudy skies means no way to look at the stars, and they even burn their tongues on hot cocoa. However, despite all of that, they eventually admit that simply being with each other was enough for them to have a good time. Timber confesses he did some research on the constellations in preparation for that night, and the jar of bugs that Fluttershy gave to Twilight turn out to be fireflies, giving them a nice alternative to watching the stars.

This was a rather interesting way to show that (human) Twilight and Timber are still a thing. It was also rather amusing how, quite literally, everything that Twilight had planned went totally awry, even the hot cocoa. But I think the most interesting part of this episode was that we briefly saw a statue at the museum of Starswirl the Bearded (so at least that give us a rather basic idea of what his human counterpart looks like). Considering that we only recently got to finally meet the pony Starswirl, it does make me curious what his human counterpart might be like. (I've read a lot of comments comparing him to Galileo.)
(end spoilers)

Also, the Discovery Family streaming service just released five more of the "choose your own adventure" Equestria Girls episodes (including the one that was briefly available on YouTube last week).
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/12/tons-of-choose-your-own-adventure.html
I haven't yet gotten a chance to watch any of them yet (as you could probably tell based on how I'm making this post so much later than I normally have), but as with all the other early releases, I'll watch them once, but wait until their official release on YouTube before I comment on them.

[Belmont2500]

Found this earlier and felt the need to post it.

My Little Pony meets Rush, enjoy:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIABaWK5_Ys

[bestariana1girl]

Does anyone collect the Build a Bears? I do & I’m really trying to get my hands on a DJ Pon 3 cape, they are hard to find new on eBay.

[The Chronicler]

This week's newly added Equestria Girls episode...
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2018/01/twilight-sparkles-little-shop-of.html
And the direct link (though it seems that again the audio quality has gone faulty):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5XtD8ELEm4

(spoilers)
Principal Celestia asks Twilight to take care of her garden and greenhouse while she's away, and Twilight is very excited for the opportunity. However, neither of them notice another piece of Equestrian magic lands into the watering can Twilight had brought with her. After Celestia leaves, Twilight sings a little song as she begins watering the plants. Much to her amazement, the magical water causes the plants to rapidly grow and they even start singing along, but eventually the plants start getting more demanding for more of that magical water. Now getting a little desperate, Twilight texts Applejack to help out immediately. Once Applejack arrives, she quickly realizes that Twilight's watering can has Equestrian magic in it. With the now giant plants getting very demanding, Applejack tries turning on the greenhouse's sprinkler system, and all that ordinary water immediately causes all of the plants to return to normal. Just as the issue is resolved, Celestia suddenly returns to remind Twilight to not "overwater the plants", completely unaware of what had just happened.

Considering these episodes are only around two minutes long, the song pretty much takes up most of the episode. It's not exactly one I'd consider among my favorites, but it was nice to see that the issue of Equestrian magic leaking into this world (previously seen in the 22-minute episode Mirror Magic) is still ongoing.
(end spoilers)