Okay, the season's technically on mid-season hiatus, but there's still an hour long special airing tomorrow named "Rainbow Roadtrip". This isn't by DHX, it's by Boulder Media Limited, Hasbro's in-house studio.

It's written by Kim Beyer-Johnson. She wrote, um, Non Compete Clause, Sweet and Smoky, and some shorts: Triple Pony Dare Ya, The Great Escape Room, & Ail-icorn. I've seen one of those. It had Applejack and Rainbow Dash and an idiot ball and... well, I guess we'll see how this goes.

With a name like "Rainbow Roadtrip", I'd be highly surprised if Rainbow Dash wasn't going on a roadtrip. Being the great big sister she is, she and Scootaloo are probably off on... no, she probably left Scootaloo behind, didn't she?

Alright, maybe Scootaloo's disappointed about having been left behind by Rainbow Dash on a roadtrip, and Scootaloo discovers that she can have a good time without Rainbow Dash anyways, because she has friends. Meanwhile, Rainbow has a lousy roadtrip and would've been much happier if she'd stayed in Ponyville.

Or maybe they handed the writer for Non Compete Clause a Rainbow Dash episode. Who knows?

Anyways, here's where you can talk about your hopes and thoughts on the episode now, and what you thought of it afterwards!

--Sweetie Belle

6907047 Have you not looked up the synopsis for this?

The Mane Six hop a balloon for Hope Hollow, where Rainbow Dash has been invited to be the guest of honor at the town's Rainbow Festival. But when they crashland in town, there's nopony there to greet them. The mystery grows when the sun rises to reveal the entire town and the ponies in it have been drained of color! While Twilight Sparkle tries to discover what malicious magic caused the town to fade, her friends help the townsponies plan a new rainbow festival, making friends along the way, and restoring the hope missing from Hope Hollow.

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I try to avoid reading the synopsis before posting the episode discussion threads. It's more fun to speculate, and some people don't really like to be spoiled on the synopsis. This way I keep it out of the first post for them. I even try to swerve away from the direction I think it's going a little sometimes.

Of course, sometimes my guesses have ended up right on target...

--Sweetie Belle

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Wasn't that the name of that special we were hearing about a while back? The one with the different animation method?

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Well, we're probably far enough down now. Here's a teaser.

--Sweetie Belle

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Shiny!

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I didnt realize that it was going to be in the movie art style. I'm not sure how I feel about that honestly.

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Twilight, honey, sweetie pie....

YOU'RE A FRICKIN' ALICORN! MEGAPOWERFUL MAGIC! STOP PANICKING AND SLOW THE BALLOON DOWN!

I liked the special. The Aesop was good. The animation style was pretty, though it did go a tiny bit uncanny vally at times, and I got a couple laughs.

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That's what I was thinking too when I saw that scene with them falling in the ballon, Then again, Twilight isn't great when reacting to something unexpected.

If this was really supposed to be the movie sequel, I can see why they scrapped it. It would've felt like a complete waste of time as a movie.

I found this special incredibly underwhelming, nothing exciting at all. Sure there probably no need for an antagonist, but it could've been way more interesting. The story itself was just boring, it would've worked as a regular episode for the show.

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<picture>

Is that fire? Oh M Celestia, are the CMC burning stuff!?

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Nitpicker.....

I loved how there was no deux-ex-machina in forms of elements or something like that.

The solution was simply spreading cheer and happiness and the mane six did that the best way they could. Just be themself at their best.

Actually, I found this special pretty good.

The animation was a strange mix of Flash and ToonBoom (Flash for the backgrounds, ToonBoom for the ponies). For the most part, it worked. The mouth animation wasn't always the smoothest, but the rest was solid. I wouldn't mind if this was the animation style for Gen 5.

I appreciate this wasn't some epic adventure with a massively overpowered new villain. It was more expanded slice-of-life. I liked the mayor, and the love story was so sweet.

I was legitimately worried Twilight would screw everything up by trying to repair and use the rainbow generator. Luckily, she dropped the Idiot Ball and listened to Applejack about the colors coming back on their own.

Love the art style for this and the movie.

I’m just going through it a second time and just noticed something unforgivable. In the scene where the Mane Six arrive at town, there’s stars... inside the crescent moon.

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I was watching the Berrytube stream, and quite a few people thought (from the opening scenes in Hope Hollows) there was going to be some Wickerman plot going on. Honestly, the addition of that element would have been fun. They could have at least have had the same resolution, but having the townsfolk try to sacrifice Rainbow Dash could have given it a more movie feel.

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That'd probably make an interesting fanfic.

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I was completely caught off guard by the animation. The character designs reminded me of The Movie. Partly it was the eyes, but also the coloration and the heart-shaped hooves. Seems like they wanted to experiment, perhaps maybe testing the waters for Gen 5? Overall I liked it.

Dreadnought

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Overall, it reminded me a lot of Made in Manehattan. The problem was never the festival, it was the ponies themselves.

Dreadnought

So, uh, I don't know if I'm the first, but... I wrote a little Rainbow Roadtrip story set in Hope Hollow before the Mane 6 arrived. Wasn't sure if I'm allowed to post the link here, but... yeah!

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I was legitimately worried Twilight would screw everything up by trying to repair and use the rainbow generator. Luckily, she dropped the Idiot Ball and listened to Applejack about the colors coming back on their own.

Though it would have been funny if her spell with the device gave everything that was grey color while making everything with color grey.

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I actually liked this one better than the theatrical movie.

1. There was no road trip. They were in a balloon for like two minutes before getting to the town. I expected them to be on a whacky road trip adventure thing!

2. All the background ponies seemed to be like, fusions of other ponies. There was a Lyra with big mac colors and a bonbon with lyra colors, for example. Also there was a Blue Mac. That they were uncolored for most of it made it feel like those background characters were there.

3. That one kid's colors got restored when his parents let him go somewhere... meaning they haven't let him go anywhere for years? Guess the whole town just shut down.