Topic: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

First thing to say about this issue is that I didn't know what I was going to be witnessing here. At first, I thought it was the Equestria Girls mirror that Celestia had gone through, but was happily surprised that it was a different mirror. If there is one thing that I thank Equestria Girls for now, it's the new ability it gives the comic writers to explore the avenue of alternate universes. "But what's this about alternate universes?", You say. Sorry, getting ahead of myself... The issue starts out with Celestia suddenly jumping through another mirror that's she been holding onto inside the castle. Her disappearance does not go unnoticed as Luna makes the corner to the room Celestia was in right before she vanishes. In somewhat shock, Luna tries to call out to her to come back, but to no avail. She then calls upon Twilight and her friends to investigate, and thus, the comic's story begins. I loved the fact that we get to see more of Celestia's royal advisor and schedule keeper, Kibitz. He only has a few brief moments, but it's nice to see a little continuity start to take shape in the comics own universe little by little. And the brief moments we see Luna trying to impersonate Celestia was hilarious, and showed just how dedicated she can be for the stability of Equestria. The mane six were still their entertaining self as they investigated the old cave labyrinth of Star Swirl. Speaking of which, it's lovely we get to see a little more of what Star Swirl is like in the comics continuity standpoint. The Flashback we get with him and Celestia really brings character to his name, and not just a faceless name to drop because he was the greatest unicorn to ever live. Here, we see he's a sprightly older pony, who clearly enjoys his research, and experiments. He kinda makes me think of Doc Brown from Back to the Future in a way... Anyways, the mane six soon find Star Swirls Library, and begin their investigation through the old literature. I'd like to stop and say that Twilight gets some good development here that the TV show is seemingly ignoring for the time being for some reason, but I guess that's the point of the comic. It's to explore other things that are not quite easy to put into 22 minutes of animated showtime. But anyways, here we see her struggling with what she thought she was going to be when she was Celestia's pupil, and what she has actually become, and if she can actually still pursue both a Princess lifestyle as well as being like her original striving to be like Star Swirl. I enjoy that dynamic, and makes her more grounded as a character that way with some very real issues. Moving on though, they discover that Star Swirl had been working on dimensional travel, and that is how the Equestria Girl Mirror came to be, and how the other one came into existence. Now we're caught up to speed with what I was saying earlier. It's neat to see the writers take something that was introduced in a movie that wasn't necessarily what everyone wanted, and make it into something more interesting. As long as we have good writers like that working the series, we'll all be A-OK for the long haul. We then see a few scenes where Celestia and Star Swirl go to many different dimensions and time periods (Almost Doctor Who like, and that Fluttershy T-Rex scene from the first try had me laughing in stitches. ) , and then something happens with Celestia continuously sneaking off to a particular world to see a particular somepony. Star Swirl soon catches wind that something is off, and seals off the mirror for both world's sakes. It's interesting to see Star Swirl being a father figure to Celestia, and that he has as much say in the matter that he does. Oh well something to speculate I guess. With Twilight's new found knowledge of the events that had taken place all those years ago, they decide to report back to Luna, who Spike is helping by playing a good game of Monopony. After briefing Luna a little on what they know, Celestia suddenly returns utterly bruised and scrapped, and a shadow figure is seen through the mirror which looks like King Sombra. And that is the end of this issue. I found this issue very enjoyable and memorable. It had some great funny moments, Andy Price is as great an artist as ever to capture the feeling of the story and slide in a few cameos, as well as great history into the the past with Celestia and Star Swirl. What happens yet though remains to be seen, but this is a great starting point to a promising arc. And was that actually King Sombra at the end, or somepony else entirely? I guess we'll have to find out.

Not much else to say. The return of the Flim Flam brothers was a nice surprise for me, I like those two, and I love the "cure it all potion" scam, not sure why, I just like the trope. I guess it is always funny watching how a placebo effect will work. Other than that, it was not the kind of episode that grabs me. I love Applejack, but when an episode focuses only on the Apple family, without any of their friends showing at all, episodes tend to feel boring to me. Nothing against it, it is a solid episode, predictable, but well written, and with a good moral.