MLP: Friends Forever Number 22 commentary · 11:17pm Nov 6th, 2015
Okay, commentary from mostly memory.
Our artist from the RD/Spitefire and Rarity/Cheerilee story is back.
Twilight and Pinkie Pie are taking the train to Canterlot. No teleport or royal carriage? Heh. Must be encouraging the economy.
We get one or two pages if Pinkie wondering if she's gonna be rewarded or banished, Twilight assures her it's not gonna be the second one even if Twilight herself doesn't know what it's about.
Celly has a SECRET mission for Twilight and Pinkie both.
So Celestia reveals Lulu's birthday is coming up. Nope, Pinkie Pie isn't here to organize the party, that's taken care up! 0-0
She wants Twilight to compile a list of all the GOOD THINGS Luna has done in her reign and Twilight is eager to use the royal library.
Pinkie Pie... has to bake the cake.
Pinkie Pie shows off some of her best on the spot.
"How about my tried and true... confetti exploding extra sugar coating, ultimate super-duper party cake!"
Celly, "I think it may be a little too bright for Luna's tastes."
"Then about something more personal like the - Lucky Lunar Last Course!"
"Oh no! That might remind her of being ban- let's try something else."
"Then about a cherpumple!"
"A what?"
"A cherpumple! Cherry, pumpkin, and apple pie, baked into spice, yellow and white cake of course!" (Yes, she shows this. With a side view.)
"That may be a little on the heavy side."
Twilight, "What DID you have in mind, Princess Celestia?"
CellY wants something "sun, exciting, and grand, yet elegant, and befitting Equestrian royalty."
Celly has other things to attend, and leave the pair to it. They have all of Canterlot at their disposal.
And the artist had this odd thing with a shadow that looks like a bunch of creatures, but then got blotted out. Maybe there was a crowd but then the artists realized it was meant to be private but didn't have time to redraw it?
And the doors to the royal kitchen are everything you expect from someone with Celly's tastes.
We also learn the name of Celestia's personal chef is 'Chef Chase Palomino.'
And apparently he and Pinkie know each other, any other pony I'd question this, but this is Pinkie Pie who is a legend for knowing people.
At first it seems we're gonna be stuck with another 'focuses on only one half the pair' story. But fear not.
Also, in a rare sight of sublimity, Pinkie Pie's mane slowly becomes more flat here as the stress and size of her task slowly crushes her.
Pinkie Pie won't be getting any helpers for this as the rest are already busy, but that's never stopped her before.
The door to the royal pantry is equally over the top.
Pinkie Pie is inspired and is going full blast, just letting her creativity go (she and Rarity more alike than you think), until Celly steps in to check on things . . .
It doesn't help that Celly decides to hover over Pinkie Pie (not literally) as she works, which begins to get to Pinkie Pie having the freakin' sun goddess breaking down her neck.
Celly doesn't mean any harm at all, but Pinkie Pie gets increasingly worried. Celly is happy to hear everything is going well and says she'll be back to check in a bit.
The fear of NOTHING pleasing Celly's request hurts Pinkie's psyche as we get a two page spread of different cake ideas and what is 'wrong' with all of them. (Yellow Subarmine, 'Too psychedelic.' A purple twisted star cake is too crooked. A jack in the box cake is too youg. And a stack of books labeled 'Too Twilight!' And a purple and green smoking dragon head cake is too creepy. )
Celly finishes checking on the rest of the staff and finds...
Sad Pinkamina is back... along with her imaginary friends, who are debating among 'themselves'.
"Mr. Turnip, I told you roots were a bad choice for cake."
"Don't say another word Madame! Flour did not solve everything!"
"PInkie? Are you Okay?"
"Oh, just fine, thanks." *Next panel* "Who am I kidding? I'm NOT fine!"
Pinkie Pie breaks down that she couldn't create the Perfect Cake for Celestia like she wanted.
And... Celestia apologizes. (NOW SHUT UP!). Celly says she didn't consider if the description she gave a poor choice for a cake, or was a contrary or vague mess. Or that she might be giving Pinkie Pie an impossible task.
Pinkie Pie says she knows this means a lot to Celly, but doesn't understand WHAT SHE WANTS!
(And ponies carry off a giant sandwich in the background.)
Celly admits, even if Luna has finally moved on, Celly is still reminded of those thousand years since she banished her sister to the moon.
Pinkie Pie admits she never THOUGHT about how bloody long a 1000 years of carrying that burden was! (For Celly and Lulu.)
And Pinkie Pie realizes WHAT IT IS that Celestia wants!
She wants to show that though they aren't going to ever completely forget what happened, they're together now and closer than before and moving TOWARDS THE FUTURE together.
Now Pinkie Pie IS CHARGED and Celly HELPS HER MAKE THE CAKE!
And Equestria's head of state takes time to help Pinkie Pie bake a cake, she must have a flexible work schedule.
It we get a cute single page panel less montage spread too.
We cut in to JUST the end of Twilight's speech (sorry world builders).
And Luna says, ON HER BIRTHDAY, that she doesn't need to be the center of attention. I don't know if that's mature, Luna missing the point, or a slip up by the writers. I suppose it is a step forward for miss 'gonna destroy the world cause no one's paying attention to me!' And says she doesn't see the point of this.
I guess being an immortal goddess, she might have gotten past the point of SEEING the point of celebrating her birthday.
AND!!! We see the cake!
It has ONE CANDLE!
It's blue, several layers, and has Celly and Lulu's cutie mark on it with a crown pattern on the bottom.
Lulu, "It's a rather large cake."
"And yummy! Want to try? It's marble!"
Lulu get a tear in her eye, "Sister, you really have put the past behind us and view me as an equal. You have chosen to express in cake. Odd, but lovely nonetheless. Thank you." They hug.
Twilight, "See Pinke? I knew you'd pull it off."
And Pinkie Pie reiterate. "It was a piece of cake!"
I give this issue a thumbs up.
(And not just because it torpedoes a certain fan comic's accusation that Celestia never says she's sorry for anything.)
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Next month, we get ANOTHER combination on the show we never get a chance to, instead of ANOTHER AJ/Rarity adventure, we instead get a story of AJ and Fluttershy looking for a cryptic winged pig like creature that seems rather amused by their efforts.
While it seems poor AJ is again gonna be the butt of the lesson, both AJ and Fluttershy work with animals, but AJ has to be more pragmatic while Fluttershy has to be more nurturing, these two mentality can and would clash. That would be interesting to see.
I felt like there wasn't enough in this story to fill an issue, the majority of the comic was just Pinkie and later Pinkie and Celestia making the cake step by step. That could have been good for showing the character's emotional states, if character emotions weren't so hard to read in the terrible super-deformed art style Jay Fosgitt has. They could have halved the number of actual cake-making panels, and put in something more interesting, like Twilight having issues researching Luna's past.
Or if they wanted to keep focus on Celestia and Pinkie, have Celestia tell Pinkie about Luna's favorite treats when they were younger, or some of the incredible deeds Luna did before she was banished. (I'm really disappointed we don't get to actually hear about these incredible accomplishments.)
Haven't read it yet, though I always like Celestia getting a spotlight!
...But seriously. That art style is back?
I really dislike that style...
Oi, puns.
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It's different, but not bad IMHO. Reminds me of G3.5 Twinkle Wish Adventure.