Thoughts on Friends Forever #35 (Spoilers) · 3:45pm Dec 17th, 2016
That's not much of a title, but I couldn't resist the five-point alliteration.
The latest issue of Friends Forever released earlier this week, starring Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer in her first starring role in the comics. And for reasons which will quickly become apparent it held a particular interest for me.
The plot revolves around Spike, Twilight, and Starlight Glimmer all going to the Castle of the Two Sisters to catalogue the books of the old library. Twilight thinks this will make a great Hearth's Warming gift for Celestia and a great friendship lesson for Starlight, while Starlight just wants to get a break from friendship lessons and explore an ancient library of powerful magics. The two ponies quickly find themselves butting heads about how to proceed, but something else is in there with them and things quickly get out of hand.
The most important part for my purposes, though, is that this issue happens to contain what is not only the most prominent Star Swirl the Bearded reference in a very long time, but it's a reference that actually fits one of my personal Star Swirl running gags.
When Clover landed, the first thing she did was throw up. The second thing was to look around. There was no sign of the wormhole, and no zombies appeared to have followed them through. She sighed, relieved. “Are we safe?”
“No,” Star Swirl answered flatly. “Well, from zombies yes, but zombies are not even in the top-thousand list of causes of pony fatalities. You're more likely to be killed by daisies than zombies.”
The Education of Clover the Clever, chapter 6.
In the woods, birds sang. In the fields, crickets chirped. The waters flowed, the sun was pushed along its carefully-planned path by a shift of unicorn sorcerors and sorceresses, pegasi shaped clouds and pushed them around where the highest bidder wanted them, and the plants carefully used every aspect of the quadrupeds' strange society to thrive and spread their dominion over the earth. For a moment, Clover's mind was in everything, and everywhere, and she understood all of existence, because it made more sense than the alternative. But it couldn't last forever, and before long she found herself drawn back into her own head.
--Chapter 10.
“Your dissertation on the genetics of thaumaturgy will lead to a permanent revolution in agriculture,” Star Swirl said.
Quick Quill blinked. “Oh! Well, that's mighty kind of you to say so, professor. I think it has a lot of potential myself, but it's still a work in—”
Star Swirl stomped his hoof on the ground, his blank eyes somehow compelling Quick Quill's attention. “No,” Star Swirl growled. “Permanent revolution, scribbler! Your subjects will rise up and overthrow their pony gardeners, and break the cities of the world between their roots! Scattered survivors will huddle in caves of bare rock, living on carefully-cultivated fungus, fearfully washing away any soil where plants could grow.”
--Chapter 10.
“That's alright,” Leafy said in that same soft voice. Clover thought the leaf was used to not having his desires taken into account. “I think he was curious. He wanted to know about plants, and decided to talk to them. But something went wrong. I don't think I was supposed to know about the future.”
--Chapter 14.
The trees are blooming. Springtime means the plant armies are preparing to resume their seemingly-benign campaign of world domination. Every year hundreds of thousands of ponies are assaulted by biological artillery fire that assaults their eyes and muzzles, rendering them unable to fight, and yet ponies do not realize they are at war. Plants are unimaginative conquerors for the most part, incapable of devising any plan more sophisticated than “spread”. Yet they have been astonishingly successful.
The plants believe nopony realizes their game, but I am on to them, oh yes.
--Chapter 15.
So, bearing that in mind, you can imagine how I felt when a comic turns up which tells a story of how Star Swirl the Bearded once fought an evil mind-controlling plant; that he wrote a book dedicated to the subject of malevolent plant life, Ferocious Flora; and that ages later the plant returns to try to destroy that book so that it can conquer the lands of ponies unopposed.
Yeah. That happened. Also, I would share a particular panel of Star Swirl bickering with Melvin the Manticore, but image sharing never works for me and I've given up on making it happen 
In other news I am still working on editing my Nightmare Night story. It is making steady progress and just keeps becoming a better and stronger story as I go along, and it has a cover now by the ever-estimable iisaw, which I can't, but will, wait to show to you all 
Next week I am flying to my hometown for the holidays. It's been a long time since I went there. Here's hoping for a good time with a minimum of drama. And I wish you all good fortune and happiness in whatever northern hemisphere midwinter celebration format is most dear to you.
-Daedalus.
Im so far behind in the comics.
This one sounds interesting. Love the excerpts from Star Swirls book.
Makes him sound a touch mad.
Congratulations on an unexpected bit of canonical support! I'm still working through FF #7 for FiCG; so it's anyone's guess when or even if I'll get to this one.
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It is always good when new canon mingles with your own thinking, even if it is second-tier canon.
In other other news, after weeks of hunting I have finished all the available achievements in Civ VI, I still have no idea how to get started modding, and for lack of anything else to play I find myself replaying Final Fantasy 7. It's like being 14 again, only without all the horrible things about being 14.
Aren't you forgetting someone?
derpicdn.net/img/view/2016/7/9/1196770__safe_solo_poster_owlowiscious_typography_artist-colon-skeptic-dash-mousey.png
If there's one thing to be said for Jay Fosgitt's art style, it's that he brings a lot of expressiveness to characters that have rather static models in the show.
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I actually did forget, yes. I found it difficult enough to wrap my head around a Friends Forever issue with three main characters, let alone four :P And, I agree.
Heh heh...
What we do not actually know is that Daedalus here is actually a writer for IDW and a part-time consultant for the show. I mean we have already had dapper
smoozeShoggoths in the show and now we have militaristic flora in the comics. I wonder how long it will be until we get a comic with history-shattering revelations about priceless buttons, or Starswirl playing therapist to a troubled butte near the Pies' ancestral Rock Farm...4343308 4343443 4343592 4344251
Addendum: Beware the Tree of Death.
In MLP we canonically have the Dragonsneeze trees that actively try to burn down everything around them, you'll recall.
In the next story of The Crown of Night, if that ever happens, young Star Swirl is introduced to Everhold's royal gardener, who cheerfully tells him that every single plant in the royal gardens is a murderer constantly trying to kill every other plant around it, that the grasses are all trying to destroy the trees and the trees are all trying to poison the grasses, and so on.
(h/t to Charlie Stross for the article)
(In other news, indications suggest I will post the new story later tonight.)