Updating Friendship - Part 5 · 8:28pm Sep 13th, 2020
Would've had this up yesterday, but was busy with friends doing something else. Here's where canon really started to get divisive. Let's see if we can smooth things out, yeah?
Onto season five!
Ep. 1 “The Cutie Map, Part 1” – Same as canon. The mane cast learns that Twilight’s new castle comes with a map that can detect friendship problems around Equestria, and their world suddenly grows a lot bigger because they are led to a remote town led by Starlight Glimmer. The town believes individual cutie marks promote inequality, and now that they’ve discovered the town, they can’t leave.
Ep. 2 “The Cutie Map, Part 2” – Same as canon. Starlight steals the mane cast’s cutie marks and attempts to brainwash them into believing the town’s philosophy. Fluttershy discovers that Starlight still has her cutie mark, and the group exposes her to the rest of town. Relying on town residents Double Diamond, Night Glider, Sugar Belle, and Party Favor, the mane cast chase down Starlight before she gets away with their cutie marks. They retrieve their marks, but Starlight escapes. Also make sure to clarify Mage Meadowbrook the Pillar from Meadow Brook the unicorn Wizard.
Ep. 3 “Castle Sweet Castle” – Same as canon. Twilight struggles to call the new castle home, and the mane cast try to make it seem more at home for her. Perhaps include minor edits involving Twilight and Spike’s family bringing mementos from home to help out, and include Owlowiscious having a mini parallel trying to nest in a crystal castle.
Ep. 4 “Bloom and Gloom” – Same as canon to expand on the Crusaders’ hunt for their cutie marks and conclude the Princess Luna mentoring trilogy.
Ep. 5 “Toddler Cakes” – A new episode to replace Tanks for the Memories since that was bumped up. Pinkie and the Cake couple attempt to cope when the twins are ready to start preschool.
Ep. 6 “Appleoosa’s Most Wanted” – Same as canon to hint at what the Crusaders’ true destiny is and foreshadow Crusaders of the Lost Mark. Perhaps make a minor edit so the Crusaders don’t actively go looking for a suspected criminal. Also this would finally show Appleoosa as promised.
Ep. 7 “Make New Friends But Keep Discord” – Same as canon to progress Discord’s character arc of learning to be a good friend after backsliding because of Tirek.
Ep. 8 “The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone” – Same as canon to continue the Map Mission saga and bring Gilda back in to start changing Griffonstone for the better. Possible cameo from Gallus.
Ep. 9 “Slice of Life” – Same as canon to highlight the various characters in the mane cast’s town and revisit Cranky and Matilda’s relationship.
Ep. 10 “Prince Spike” – Same basic concept, but major edits. With royal meetings running Twilight ragged, Spike realizes that as brother to both a princess and a prince, he is also royalty. With lessened secondhand embarrassment, Spike learns to keep his ego and power in check if he wants to fulfill royal responsibilities.
Ep. 11 “Party Pooped” – Same as canon to expand on Equestria’s international relationships and Pinkie’s dedication to party planning and her connection to Yakyakistan. Minor edits include a cameo of a younger Yona.
Ep. 12 “Amending Fences” – Same as canon to explore Twilight’s social life pre-Ponyville.
Ep. 13 “Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?” – Same as canon to expand on Luna’s guilt about Nightmare Moon and explore her abilities as a dream walker.
Ep. 14 “Canterlot Boutique” – Same as canon to progress Rarity’s goal of owning a store franchise and introduce Sassy Saddles as a recurring character.
Ep. 15 “Rarity Investigates” – Same as canon to progress Rainbow’s goal of becoming a Wonderbolt and explore a piece of Rarity’s character, her attention to detail.
Ep. 16 “Made in Manehattan” – Same as canon to continue the Map Mission saga.
Ep. 17 “Brotherhooves Social” – Same basic concept, but take out the cringy bits of Big Macintosh dressing up since the Sisterhooves Social has been changed into the Siblinghooves Social.
Ep. 18 “Crusaders of the Lost Mark” – Same as canon to conclude the Crusaders’ search for their cutie marks and begin their new one of helping others with their problems.
Ep. 19 “The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows” – Same as canon to prepare for Flurry Heart’s entrance into the show.
Ep. 20 “Scare Master” – Same as canon to show not everyone celebrates Nightmare Night the same way because some are easily spooked. Swapped around with Hearthbreakers for the year to be in chronological order.
Ep. 21 “Hearthbreakers” – Same as canon to continue the subplot of the Apple and Pie families possibly being related and showcase Pinkie’s family beyond Maud. Swapped around with Scare Master for the year to be in chronological order.
Ep. 22 “What About Discord?” – Same as canon for filler.
Ep. 23 “The Hooffields and the McColts” – Same as canon to continue the Map Mission saga.
Ep. 24 “The Mane Attraction” – Same as canon to expand on Applejack’s history with music.
Ep. 25 “The Cutie Re-Mark, Part 1” – Same as canon. After a lecture on unique cutie mark situations like the mane cast’s rainboom effect and the Crusaders’ simultaneous achievement, Twilight and Spike find Starlight in the Friendship Castle, and she takes them both back in time by altering a time travel spell written by Star Swirl and fusing its power with the Cutie Map. After Starlight sabotages the rainboom, Twilight and Spike return to the present twice, visiting futures where Nightmare Moon, Discord, and Chrysalis all won due to the Elements of Harmony not connecting to new bearers.
Ep. 26 “The Cutie Re-Mark, Part 2” – Same as canon. Twilight and Spike continue to visit bad futures, including ones where Sombra and Tirek win. As the futures get increasingly desolate, Twilight finally tries to reason with Starlight, learning her anti-cutie mark philosophy stems from perceived abandonment by her best friend Sunburst as a child. Twilight and Spike convince her to try for new friendships, and they fix the rainboom so they can return to their restored timeline. After meeting with the rest of the mane cast about Starlight’s penance for stealing cutie marks, breaking into Twilight’s castle, and altering timelines, it is decided Starlight will become Twilight’s friendship student, like Twilight was to Celestia and foreshadowing Twilight’s true destiny as a teacher.
Movie 3 “Equestria Girls- Friendship Games” – Same as canon to progress the plot of Equestria magic leaking into the human realm and introduce Twilight’s human counterpart. Minor edits include added depth to Twilight and Dean Cadence’s relationship and explain why human Twilight is so withdrawn (personal reasoning being the common headcanon Sci-Twi’s parents are dead and she is living with human Shining Armor, Cadence, and her younger brother Spike), and a minor subplot of Flash realizing Sci-Twi isn’t the Twilight he knows. After the Friendship Games are over, foreshadow the next movie by having the human main cast wonder about Sunset’s human counterpart if she’s the pony one and they just met the human Twilight.
Toddler Cakes is my attempt at showing some age progression with the Cake twins. We know they're older than Flurry, the youngest recurring character, but not really sure how much. That episode would clarify things. Hopefully my last few words about The Cutie Re-Mark hints at my version's ultimate conclusion. I really wanted to dig into Sci-Twi's backstory in Friendship Games, and establish the fact that just because the human characters are the counterparts to Equestria's ponies doesn't mean they have the exact same history. The bit about Sunset's human counterpart was what I thought the fourth movie was going to address after meeting Sci-Twi in the third, but as we all know, the fourth movie turned out to be focused on Camp Everfree. Let me know what you think about changes in this part small and big! Next week, we get into one of my favorite seasons.
Yeah, that’s been bothering me for a long time. Where is the Human Sunset Shimmer? I mean... she can’t be deceased or somewhere else without alerting someone who knows her. Also what about Cinch? I know she’s some grouch of a principal but there has to be more to her. When she heard about Magic; I thought as a adult, magic must be a codeword for drugs because magic doesn’t exist. Also maybe when Cinch got Twilight to involve in the games, she shows her regrets from her childhood. Like she said that Twilight reminded Cinch of herself as a teenager who wasted her teenage life being alone, never making friends, seeing other happy as she’s miserable and never found that special one she’s was hoping for. Cinch would tell her that she force Twilight to compete so she never suffer her miserable experience
I do like how there are some changes to this season, but what I'm most curious about is when we will get to see foreshadowings of the final villain (either the real Grogar or even a jealously insane Blueblood) recruiting not just the main antagonists from the past premieres and finales, but also the supporting, yet nonetheless equally harmful villains from the past episodes they appeared in? Also, maybe have the seasons be subtitled for the specific subject of focus (i.e. Season 5: Cutie Mark Calamity).
5354871
I was wondering about the human Sunset too. Not sure about Cinch. I honestly hated her, almost as much as I hate Neighsay. I can't see her as anything other than a selfish tightwad.
5354903
You really want that villain army, don't you?
I do like the idea of season subtitles, though. I've come up with some prototype names after you suggested that.
Season 1: The Magic of Friendship- referencing the first time the Mane 6 came together
Season 2: Love of All Kinds- referencing the major theme of love shown in the season (romantic love, sibling love, pet love)
Season 3: Crystal Changes- referencing the focus on the Crystal Empire and the major theme of change in the season
Season 4: Keys to the Tree- referencing the Tree Key saga
Season 5: Cutie Mark Calamity- referencing the major theme of cutie marks this season
Season 6: Mapping Destinies- referencing the Map Mission saga and the staging of several plot points (the changeling revelation among others)
Season 7: Friendship Legends- referencing the Pillars saga
Season 8: Class Chaos- referencing the major theme of school in the season
Season 9: ???
Season 10 (???): ???
5355182
What can I say? When a TV show finale is imminent, go big or go home with the baddies. Also, thank you for considering the season subtitles. I think for seasons 9 and 10, they would be “Start of a New Era” and “End of Equestria/the Story”.
I certainly liked about the Prince Spike one.
The Princess Spike episode was so.. bs. Glad that got fixed.
Wonder if more of Luna's internal issues/stuff would be touched on more and Nightmare Moon there?
Problem with the Tantabus episode is sadly the writers completely dropped everything about Luna's issues and NMM after that episode despite there is alot more to touch on. And given how iffy things were with Luna's guilt was easily gone like that(like its going to take more than Twilight's speech. Like Luna needs therapy there big time).
Kind of wonder if Spike will get anything in the Everfree movie coming up next?
Sucks how while the girls got new powers and such, Spike sadly is the only one from the group to not get any new powers and such.
5355252
I guess the subtitles for 9 and 10 depend if people want a 10th season to round things out. I'm going to ask for readers' opinions after the Season 7 post.
5355292
Yeah, I felt Spike deserved more dignity in that one.
I agree that Luna's problems could use more focus. There will be more on that later.
I don't know what power Spike could get in Legends of Everfree. The girls already took a number of powers. Heck, Pinkie's power to randomly make explosions doesn't even sound like a power. I mean Rainbow got super speed, which is a power. Applejack got super strength, which is a power. Rarity could generate shields, which is a power. Fluttershy had animal communication, which is a power. Even Sunset had a power that could actually be named, mind reading. If Spike could get a power, it would have to be one not taken yet, and it would have to be different from whatever new power I give Pinkie.
5356661
Wished they also touched more on Nightmare Moon too.
Like touching on the whole "darkess isn't always evil" with Luna getting to use those dark powers with the side of good and such.
Another issue in the Tantabus episode is how Twilight said "Only Nightmare Moon would want the Tantabus to wreck Equestria" or something. Honestly she is pretty wrong there, NMM actually wouldn't want the Tantabus to wreck havoc since it will be against her goals. NMM wanted her night to be loved(she wasn't being a villain "because for evulz" there), that can't happen if the ponies are too busy getting tormented and/or killed by the Tantabus if it goes on the loose there. So Twilight kind of judged the book by its cover there in a way..
Maybe to go along with the new power Spike might get in the Everfree movie(haven't thought up what though), he would gain some dragon-abilities like mastery of magic fire or something. Teleporting via fire too(referencing dragon Spike using his fire to send scrolls to others from afar) and other dragon stuff.
5356678
You might have a point about judging books by their covers, but we can't forget what the Tantabus did to the Mane Six's dreams when it invaded them.
5357610
I meant like NMM actually wouldn't want the Tantabus to run loose into the real world due to the ponies would be too busy getting tormented(probably killed) by the Tantabus's reality-warping rampage rather than enjoying her night.
Wasn't referring to the Tantabus itself about the "never judge a book by its cover" thing. Was referring to how Twilight assumed NMM would want this even though it would actually contradict NMM/Luna's goals, like Twilight just assumes since Nightmare Moon is a dark being she enjoys causing suffering, even though NMM wasn't doing the stuff she did "because evulz".
Wished the show could have touched on Nightmare Moon/Luna's inner dark powers like to show darkness can be good too, like it isn't always evil and such. Would have been interesting.
5356661
What about transforming into a dragon humanoid and back?
5360053
Yeah, maybe being able to access his dragon counterpart's abilities would work. Scales for hardened skin and the ability to breathe fire would be useful.