My Little Pony Comic Review: Friends Forever #30 (spoilers)

Holy hell the cover for this issue.

OUCH. Poor Cadance. That made her sad.

So anyway, Twilight's at the Crystal Empire for the Dedication of the Court of the Crystal Princess. She's a couple days early so she can spend time with her favorite sister-in-law. When she asks Cadance what Cadance wants to do with their visit, Cadance has an idea...

Rarity would murder both of them.

Yyyyeah I don't see that fooling anypony.

So basically, Cadance is trying to Jasmine it up at the marketplace, and dragging Twilight into her weird tourist-pony cosplay thing.

Cadance and Twilight are just all kinds of silly in this issue, mostly because of faces they make and stuff and those dorky outfits. They're also incredibly weirded out by display racks of packaged alicorn costumes of the four princesses.

I don't blame them. There's a filly wearing a full-body Princess Twilight costume in one panel and it's kiiiiiiinda creepy. o.o;;

Cadance is upset when the other three are "Sun Princess", "Moon Princess", and "Friendship Princess", and hers is just..."Pretty Princess".

Cadance: "Really? They couldn't call it the Crystal Princess costume?"
Twilight: "Maybe because it's unauthorized?"

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure.

Hearing some fillies talking about princess dolls doesn't help matters much:

Filly #1: "I want Celestia and Luna so I can raise the sun and the moon!"
Filly #2: "I want Princess Twilight Sparkle so I can wield the Elements of Harmony!"
(Twilight and Cadance have BIG CHEESY GRINS here)
Filly #3: "I want Princess Cadance and Shining Armor, so I can live happily ever after!"
(Cadance hangs her head and Twilight cringes)

After that, Cadance decides she's had enough of the marketplace.

So anyway, Cadance is down in the dumps the rest of the day, and Twilight can't quite lift her spirits.

Damn vuvuzelas.

The next day, Shining Armor summons Twilight to the throne room to ask for her help in lifting Cadance's spirits. But the problem is so much worse than Cadance simply being down in the dumps: she's now starting to doubt her ability as a princess! She pawns a dispute over market stall space off onto Twilight to settle, and Shining Armor butts in when two guards come before Cadance with a dispute, angry at their being childish and unprofessional over a breakroom infraction.

Shining Armor settling the dispute with the guards just depresses Cadance even more, to the point that she cancels the rest of her morning appointments, pawns her tea party with the local fillies off on Twilight, and holes up in her room.

The Crystal Ponies are starting to notice Cadance's bad mood, and the Crystal Heart is not shining as brightly. The next day, when the Dedication begins, Cadance shows up looking, well...awful. When Cadance says she doesn't feel like she deserves the honor, the Crystal Heart fades completely.

Twilight thinks back on her time with Cadance as her foalsitter growing up, and tells Cadance that the Crystal Ponies don't just think she's a pretty princess, but they're inspired by her because she's accepting and loving and kind. Twilight's speech lifts Cadance's spirits, the dedication completes, Cadance says something inspiring, and the Crystal Heart lights up all pretty and shit, hooray!

Cadance is happy, the ponies are happy, and the costume sellers changed the Pretty Princess set to the Crystal Princess set. The end!

This issue is full of hilarious reaction faces. It's also pretty much a lighter version of Twilight's dilemma in the season 4 finale.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Wow. Theft, self-doubt, superpowered screams...

The more that happens to the Crystal Heart, the clearer it is that the Empire is a mass grave waiting to happen.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

4099739 Yup, one of these days that heart's going to be fail completely, and they won't be able to fix it.

[Wanderer D]

"Pretty Princess".

Could be worse. She could be:

1) Bootleg Celestia
2) Came-out-of-nowhere Princess
3) Shining Armor's Wife
4) She-Who-Spawned-The-Mutant-For-Marketing-Reasons (Someone needs to do a Melisandre birthing scene with Flurry Heart coming out)

[Zef]

4099849

Could be worse. She could be:
1) Bootleg Celestia
2) Came-out-of-nowhere Princess
3) Shining Armor's Wife
4) She-Who-Spawned-The-Mutant-For-Marketing-Reasons (Someone needs to do a Melisandre birthing scene with Flurry Heart coming out)

5. "Football."

[howard035]

the Crystal Ponies don't just think she's a pretty princess, but they're inspired by her because she's accepting and loving and kind.

Twilight says this. The evidence from the rest of the comic seems to suggest the opposite, but whatever makes Cadance happy makes everyone else happy, right?