IDW's My Little Pony: Friends Forever #6 · 3:54am Apr 27th, 2016
You know, I was planning to do the comic reviews in a certain order. I was going to do Fiendship is Magic after Nightmare Rarity, acknowledge Friends Forever, and then continue the main comics in chronological order.
But no! Something incredible has happened, and it changes everything. This week... is Trixie Week.
Behold, the second-best Trixie ship... and the second-best Rainbow Dash ship!
The issue begins with some random ponies in the street noticing, apparently for the first time, that Rainbow Dash is like super arrogant. She's not remotely bothered by this, just marches right up to her friends with the smuggest expression ever.
Naturally, they're all curious about what's got Rainbow Dash acting so... well, so much like Rainbow Dash, and she says that she's been summoned to perform for the Queen of Dimondia.
I feel like there are several problems with this map, but the one that stands out the most is that it's not a straight line.
Rainbow Dash takes off, and Pinkie is the only one who seems really enthusiastic about this. The others are to varying degrees being sarcastic about Dash's attitude about the whole thing and apparently concerned by the fact that nobody has ever heard of "Dimondia" before.
The unnecessarily meandering trip is apparently uneventful, and soon Rainbow Dash can see the castle before her. It looks like a small, poor kingdom, and she's not impressed, but she figures that her performance will cause a boost to tourism, because that's how Rainbow Dash thinks. She lands and proclaims that the kingdom is now 20% cooler, because IDW has no shame when it comes to memes. Immediately thereafter...
She is suddenly not feeling very enthusiastic about performing for the Queen anymore. Dash prepares to take off, but Jim pleads with her to stay. He surmises she's met other diamond dogs before, and assures her that they were kicked out of Dimondia for being too "rough"; they're nothing like the more civilized dogs.
Rainbow Dash is still hesitant, but a little more flattery does the trick. He convinces her that it would be cruel to leave without giving her performance. Thus, she obligingly follows him to the castle. And there she finds...
...that this is the best kingdom ever, apparently.
Yes, Trixie has become the Queen of Diamond Dogs. And... apparently we also know what "Trixie" is short for now. "Trixianna". Interesting little tidbit.
Trixie cuts off Rainbow Dash before she can ask any impertinent questions and dismisses Jim. She has tea ready for the two of them on the balcony, so they sit. And the second the chancellor is out of earshot, she begs Dash to get her out of here.
Apparently, while she was out in the forest, she dropped some jewelry from her supplies, and just at that moment, a group of diamond dogs happened across her. Diamond dogs being, well, stupid, they assumed she had incredible gem-finding powers, a misconception she encouraged because she's addicted to applause. Subsequently, they made her their queen.
There are just two small problems with this. First, they expect her to actually find them gems. Second, they won't let her leave the castle.
And that's why she used her position to get an invitation sent to Dash. She needs help to escape before she runs out of ways to stall the dogs, and naturally she thought of the only other mare in Equestria with as much of a swollen ego as herself. Also her speed is probably seen as an asset in this situation.
You know, it might improve my opinion of Rainbow Dash if she weren't such an asshole to the pony she's helping.
Dash grabs Trixie and flies her off, and everything is good forever!
Until they reach city limits. Dash suddenly and unexpectedly loses her grip on Trixie and has to make a midair save. It turns out, there's some kind of magic on the crown that's causing Trixie to react as if the city was surrounded by an invisible wall of some kind, perhaps hemispherical in shape. This feels familiar somehow.
Trixie informs Rainbow that the crown is too tight to take off, and Rainbow... gives up. The Element of Loyalty, folks. Always ready to abandon someone in need.
Of course, a panel or two later, she changes her mind again and the plot can resume.
By "plot" of course I mean hugs, about a fourth of this comic is just Trixie taking every opportunity she can to hug Rainbow Dash. Shippers, you know what to do.
Dash goes to visit the diamond dogs building the review stand where Trixie and her courtiers are supposed to watch the upcoming performance. She pries a little, using subtlety that is completely not Rainbow Dash-like, and finds out that the diamond dogs have a hard time keeping a ruler. Gee, I wonder why. So they put the spell we already found out about on the crown, and it's also what's preventing Trixie from taking it off.
Funny, I always thought executive power was derived from the bestowal of weaponry by sublacunian females. So the magic that keeps Trixie from removing the crown is tied to the Diamond Dogs' attitude toward her. Dash reports back to Trixie and lets her know about this.
The two discuss how to make the dogs not want her around anymore, and she says that the only thing they like more than her is their diamonds. A plan quickly falls into place...
Soon, Trixie and the dogs are gathered to watch the performance. Jim asks if Rainbow Dash is ready, and Dash promises a performance they'll never forget. She takes to the air and flies around a bit, like what a pegasus does, and the dogs are immediately impressed. Meanwhile...
Rainbow Dash writes Trixie's name in the sky. Meanwhile, in a parallel universe, this becomes the centerpiece of Mooncalf's "To Romance a Magician".
As a side note, the proper spelling is actually "cwen". But I'll let it slide.
Trixie declares that Rainbow Dash is to be rewarded for her performance with the entire treasury of Dimondia. The dogs beg her to change her mind, but she reaffirms this course of action. Almost instantly, the crown manages to slip down past her horn. It's not enough, though; half of it is still holding on by magic. Luckily, Trixie always has more to show. She declares that the dogs will now hunt mushrooms, and be called mush dogs. Then she mandates that every dog must adopt a kitten.
The dogs are furious now, and with a little more coaxing, the crown manages to slip down around her neck. That means it's time, so Trixie says she wants to show them the greatest trick of all timel "Ala kazoom, ala kazam, ala ka—"
The Rainboom catches the dogs completely off guard, and when they look again, Trixie, Rainbow Dash, and the gems are gone, with only Trixie's crown left behind. There's a trapdoor that the gems clearly fell through—because, I mean, we probably can't have our protagonists steal a country's entire treasury. That and if they did it would undoubtedly mean pursuit, whereas if they just leave empty-hooved, well, Trixie being gone is self-evidently what the dogs wanted...
The dogs look on, impressed by the disappearance. Dash flies Trixie out to a safe distance and...
Someone at IDW clearly ships it.
They congratulate each other on their performance, and, in the most absolutely shocking twist in the series, Trixie thanks Dash for helping her. Dash tells her to keep herself out of trouble, and Trixie assures her that a magician never performs the same trick twice. As Dash flies off, excited to tell her friends about this adventure, Trixie sets out on her own way, saying it's time to find a new trick to play.
This issue is extreme!
Honestly, despite Dash being aggressively ambivalent about Trixie, the issue is genuinely fun. When you get the two biggest egos in history together, that tends to happen. Trixie getting herself into the whole diamond dog situation by just sort of being Trixie is pretty good. And... for whatever reason, IDW presistently draws Trixie adorably, every single time.
If I were to post every panel of this issue that I liked, I would just post the entire issue. But I won't, for obvious reasons. Anyway, that was my Trixie Week post. Next time, I'm getting back on track with...
Oh, right, Trixie Week isn't over yet.
Watery tarts lob scimitars at me all the time. I'd declare myself emperor, but honestly, who has the time?
Quite nice. Guess not all the comics are bad. Next time is Trixie in Manehattan, right?
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I think I can say that as a whole, the "Friends Forever" series is better than the "Friendship is Magic" comics, probably due to having a tighter focus and a lighter tone. Every arc of Friendship is Magic seems to want to be an epic battle of good vs. evil... and I'll get more into why it sucks at doing that when I address Fiendship, and maybe a few others. The writers are also under the mistaken impression that everything they write is 100% incontrovertible canon unless directly and specifically contradicted by the show, and they let this power that they don't have go to their heads to write whatever version of a character they want and say, "Boom, it's canon forever. Hope we ruined it for you."
Meanwhile Friends Forever has a simple premise; pick two characters we'd like to see interact more, and just build the relationship between them. It's all one-shots, so they don't try to do anything too ambitious. They just write fun little stories like this one. Having Trixie around certainly helped.
Of course that's not to say there's nothing good in the Friendship is Magic comics... for instance, as you pointed out, they've got Trixie in one arc. And I assume there's some cringeworthy issues of Friends Forever—I haven't actually read them all yet.
3899721 Okay, makes sense, thanks.
A lot less of an issue than you'd think. Roads often curve around hills, to narrower parts of rivers before crossing them, and so on. Especially old roads built before modern earth-moving and building techniques. In several places you can see the area the route curves around clearly contains at least some mountains, so it makes perfect sense. The map either wasn't made with a pegasus in mind or assumes she wants to follow the road to avoid getting lost and to be able to stop at any rest areas along the way, I guess.
There are plenty of other issues with the map, though, starting with it not really resembling any of the area around Ponyville (where's the Everfree? Or the Railroad?)
Huh. I'd always assumed Trixie was either her parents or Trixie herself being cutesy with the spelling (like many people do) when her name was meant to be heard as "Tricksy". Because you can't tell me "Tricksy Lulumoon" isn't a very pony-esque name.
Glad to hear this one was good, though. A lot of the IDW comics aren't and Trixie doesn't need quasi-canon character assassination.