I really should thank Applelight88

I'm not exactly sure how much of the story is available online, but thanks to Applelight88's redirection magic, and the corruption thread, I can now read another handful of IDW comics online. Previous to this my otherwise limited exposure to the motion comic version of MLP:FIM were the madefire samples on DeviantART put in my mailbox. The first story arc, in my opinion, was pretty much by the numbers and I was able to follow the story reading the samples alone. I, for one, liked canned meat as I admit to being a fan of Rurouni Kenshin... even if you can see where the story is going the devil is in the details. I'll admit that I've rarely watched most of the MLP:FIM episodes more than once and I do consider it torture to watch it without commentary, the same cannot be said for its multiple abridged series and fandom spawned comics and fictions... which I would be voraciously reading if other projects, research, and the like didn't take priority. That being said, after reading two more (of what I am assuming are partial) issues, I safely can argue that; Yes, it is still by the numbers. Issue 43 less so than the first issue of FIENDship is magic, which is ironic given the shades of batman that were referenced towards the end of the former.

After reading the first (sample) issue of FIENDship is magic I have to say Sombra's origin is closer to how I had envisioned Trixie's back story. Code monkey speak origin theory is both confirmed and at the same time reenforced in this issue. And, the introduction of the dissociatively adorable Radiant Hope as Sombra's friend (or buddy) was really cute and 'fulfilling in creative way.' Even if I was expecting a retroactive continuity of the Starlight Glimmer origin story (becasue its the comic's canned nature), i was pleasantly surprised. It probably would have been more powerful if Sombra was a jasper or carnelian pony, instead of a make believe unobtanium pony, but then they'd have to make him the oft hated 'red and black' self insert pony. And, nobody wants that, after all the audience might start to sympathize with the poor devil. Not to mention if foal Sombra looked more like Pokey from 'Gumby and friends' than the show pony, nobody would have been able to recognize the two characters as one and the same...even if the story would have been slightly better. Then again, as the story is being read off the page by Twilight so it's entirely possible the details are being crafted by Cadence imagination.