IDW Friends Forever #4 Review

This review is dedicated in loving memory of Carrie Fisher (1956-2016) may she rest in peace.

With that bit out of the way, Friends Forever had truly established itself as a worthwhile successor to the micro series with #2 featuring the CMC and Discord and being very entertaining, and #3 featuring Spike and Princess Celestia and packing great artwork and impressive emotion. Meanwhile, the main series was rebounding with the second part of the four parter story arc known as "Reflections", and with the fourth season of the show slated to wrap up in time for MLP's 30th anniversary, the fandom started to gear up for what they thought would be a quick hiatus (and likely would've been had creative differences not caused Hasbro and Discovery to part ways and replace The Hub with Discovery Family). But rather than play it safe after two back to two hits, Friends Forever decided to again try and push the envelop with another pairing that hadn't gotten much focus in the show, Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor. So, was the Friends Forever series able to pull off a rare hat trick and score three big hits back to back, or did it already start to show signs that it might meet the same fate as the micro series it had replaced? Well, let's find out.

We begin with Twilight packing for a trip to the Crystal Empire, and the story is kind of similar to "Three's A Crowd", replacing Cadence with Shining Armor (and thankfully that's really the only similarity it has in terms of plot, Discord is nowhere to be seen in this issue and it's not just a rehash of the plot of "Three's A Crowd") in that Twilight wants to spend time with her B.B.B.F.F, even packing a guide for the fictional creatures of Ogres and Oubliettes that she and Shining used to play as kids (nice to see that main series #11 and #12 were good for something, even the show now acknowledges its existence).

Upon arriving in the Crystal Empire, however, Twilight is not met at the train station by her brother, but by an entoruge of various crystal ponies who wish to accomodate her for the duration of her stay. Shining, meanwhile, is bogged down in meetings with castle staff members who have various ideas on what needs to be done. It doesn't take long however, for the subject to shift to a book stealing, chain rattling, ghost that moans. Even the castle plumbers (who are clearly Mario and Luigi ponyfied, their cutie marks are a mushroom and a green pipe, they have the red and green hats and matching mustaches, and later on one of them jokes about how if Twilight gets captured they'll come and rescue her, there's also a joke about a donkey) are terrified of this, but Shining doesn't believe the ghost is real, even dismissing Twilight when she brings up the possibility of it being similar to a creature from Ogres and Oubliettes. Disappointed, Twilight retreats to her bed chambers in the castle, and unhappily falls asleep waiting for her brother to come and see her.

As Twilight sleeps, she dreams of when she and Shining were younger and used to play make believe where they were creature catchers hunting down fictional monsters. Also, while Twilight sleeps, something steals the book she has clutched in her hooves, and all of the castle staff see or hear what they think is a ghost. Twilight wakes up, swarmed by the frantic castle staff, and decides to hunt down the creature just like her creature catching days of old, but none of the staff will join her. Unphased by this, Twilight sets up a trap with the other book she brought to lure out and catch the ghost, but even when Shining comes to help out (using his sister's old creature catching net) they are unable to prevent the book from being stolen. After a quick apology from Shining for brushing off his sister earlier, the Sparkle siblings soon discover that the rope trap Twilight used passes directly under a bookshelf, and that means there's a secret passage. A secret passage that a castle staff member with poor eyesight and broken glasses named Lex activates, and then in what is likely a red herring he wanders off somewhere.

Twilight and Shining get into a brief argument over who should go in first, before they both decide to go together, and after reminsicing about old times, they find a series of stairs that were likely built by King Sombra. They soon discover traps set up to catch a creature, set by Sombra for what seems to be an unspecified purpose. But after outwitting the traps, they find a maze Sombra set up to guard his treasures, and luckily Twilight read a guide on labyrinths that states the obvious trick to getting out, put your right hand (or hoof in this case) against the wall and never take it off, eventually you'll find your way out. This leads to an exchange where the two comment about how they were always pushing each other to be better and learn more, and when they reach the end of the labyrinth they find their ghost, who is an actual mythological creature.

The ghost has indeed been wailing, afraid of King Sombra and his soliders finding him and capturing him again. It turns out that the ghost was imprisoned and used as a slave of sorts by Sombra due to the ghost's impressive singing talents. When the ghost accidentally stumbled across the stairs, he broke free of his chains and fled, prompting Sombra to set up the traps in the hopes of snagging his singing slave and bringing him back. Twilight and Shining inform the ghost that Sombra has been off the throne for a long time now, and the ghost apologizes for stealing the books, saying he always eventually returned them.

With some quick thinking from Twilight and Shining, the ghost gets a job re-shelving the library in the Crystal Empire's castle with help from Lex, and since the worst the ghost did was borrow a few books without asking for fear of being caught, all is forgiven. The story ends with Twilight catching the train back to Ponyville and promising to come and visit Shining more often (but apparently she never truly has in offical media, guess we've got fanfics to fill that void), and Shining apologizing for not being able to take time to be with her earlier on. He then jokes about a fictional creature from the Ogres and Oubliettes guide, and he and Twilight close out the comic by mentioning the page the creature is on.

And that's the story, so what do I think of the issue? Well, even cutting it some slack for having to come out after the impressive #2 and #3 of the series, this one isn't quite as up to snuff. Oh don't get me wrong, it's still really good and I highly recommend it, but this one's a little slower to get started (the slowest start of the first four issues actually) and at first it seemed like it was going to be a predictable story about Shining getting distracted by his royal duties and not being able to spend time with Twilight, who just wanted to catch up on old times. Thankfully, it quickly avoided that route, as well being a rehash of "Three's A Crowd" but with Shining instead of Cadence. And once the book stealing ghost shows up thinks quickly begin to pick up, though Twilight and Shining's interactions are kind of limited, we get a little development on their bond but for the most they're mostly focused on catching the ghost rather than just trying to have a good time and they seem to be almost similar to each other in personality and interests. Writing out Princess Cadence was a smart decision from a narrative stand point, but it also does kind of rob us of the chance to see her and Shining's relationship develop outside of a crisis and give us possibly something to get Twilight and Shining out of their element a little. Still, compared to when he was made the star of a two parter in the main series, Shining Armor shines really well here, like with Spike this was his best potrayal prior to Season 6 (outside of a few jokes at his expense in the first part of "The Crystalling" Shining was on a role throughout Season 6) and if you want to get technical, before Season 5 managed to start fleshing out his character (though like Cadence he did have some personality before, it was just wasn't always noticeable given how little screen time he and Cadence got). Twilight is written well too, and there's definitely something adorable about her interactions with Shining as the issue goes on, but there definitely could've been room for more friendship and the story kind of ends just as it seems to really get going. Still, it's probably a good enough contender to make the top ten best issues of Friends Forever, and definitely worth picking up if you can find it (I wouldn't go above $20 for this one, #2 and #3 are probably worth up to $30 but anything above that is pushing it).

So while not quite a hat trick, Friends Forever managed to churn out three good issues back to back, and alongside "Reflections" fueled what would be a golden age for the IDW Comics in 2014, at least until "The Good, The Bad, and The Ponies", Friends Forever #11 and #12, and the "Equestria Girls Holiday Special" came along (though to be fair Friends Forever #11 and #12 didn't do anything outrageously bad, aside from some questionable artwork and writing choices they were actually not bad). But next month, as "Reflections" began to wind down, Friends Forever would again try to gamble on a pairing that hadn't been explored in the show before with Fluttershy and Zecora. So come back tomorrow when we look at Friends Forever #5.