phenomenalcosmicpowers

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

Cosmic Rush Update

Thought I'd go ahead and give a quick one on Marowakky's suggestion about the status of Cosmic Rush.

The good news is I feel like I'm close to fully envisioning how the rest of the story goes and if all goes well, we're maybe around or at least close to 4-6 chapters from the end...

...The bad news is I'm admittedly in a pickle where I'm unsure about how to execute it as of yet.

I hope to at least have a finished Chapter 7 before the Switch 2 and Mario Kart World comes out.

But I feel I'm at a place where I'm both close to knowing how I want to end it but at the same time clueless on how to execute it exactly. There are some story beats I have had set in stone from as far back as conceptualizing this story. But I'm completely unsure if I can execute it all on my own.

I don't know if this is an official call for help with brainstorming or anything. As this would get into spoiler-ific territory. But if anyone wants to try to help, they must swear not to leak anything til' I've released some of the remaining chapters. Not that I'm doing anything professional, given it's just a fanfic. But it'd still be a breach of trust that I hope most would have the common sense to not break said trust. If there happens to be someone who would like to help and can promise to keep their word. Either message me via Tumblr messages, or add/DM me on Discord. My username there is northernverve, same avatar as my modblog here (The Mario & Sonic style Tails and Cosmo)

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

Is there any chance we could get somewhat frequent updates on how far along you are on the next chapter? Wondering when you're gonna drop the next chapter is getting old, and I don't like the idea of pestering you with when it's gonna come out, and I don't think that you enjoy it either. It's one thing to have interest by fans in the story you're trying to tell, it's another when said fans pester you for the next chapter. Although I don't think the fans (including myself) expect you to post updates every day, hopefully you can at least let us know maybe once a week how far along you are on the next chapter of Cosmic Rush.

The funny thing is once again you coincidentally asked when I'm quite close to putting up the next part (Tomorrow or Thursday) lol

Although I will give a heads up that the next part is not a continuation of the X part of the story. It's a continuation of CHZ Blaze, Tails, and Cream's search across the multiverse for CHZ Cosmo. After this one though I plan to do mostly the X story from then on. There will be one more intermission chapter (At least that's what I like to call them) that's about the CHZ crew searching for Cosmo but that will be when things are almost wrapped up for CHZ Cosmo's side of the story

There is a chance I might make chapters longer at the cost of it taking longer to also get out each chapter but I don't know if that will always be the case. Keep in mind of course that I said before I'm getting a Switch 2 at around launch so I might be a little busy for at least much of early June wanting to play Mario Kart World. So play it by ear how it'll ultimately go.

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

What games do you play in your spare time? Anything that others can join in on?

I play mostly on my Nintendo Switch or a Steam Deck. So there's an assortment of games. Although there is certainly some I've played more then most as of late. You can ask if I have some particular games, but I'm just saying what I've been playing most these days.

On my Switch I play Animal Crossing New Horizons, Fall Guys, and Disney Speedstorm most regularly.

And on my Steam Deck, I've played a lot of Star Wars Battlefront 2 (the Classic from 2005, not the EA one) with added modded maps I've found. Though fun fact, most of Cosmic Heart Zone has been made while in Desktop mode on my Steam Deck.

I also have a preorder of the bundle ready for the Switch 2. So I'm looking forward to Mario Kart World next month as well!

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

When are we getting the next chapter? It's been two weeks!

Apologies! I've been getting there, if I can finish the images the rest of the day I can maybe put it up tomorrow or at least Monday.

I am admittedly at a point where I'm gradually writing each chapter of Cosmic Rush after I've released the previous one.

Plus there's some free time stuff (ex: Playing games) I want to do on occasion instead of writing. This particular chapter was a bit hard to go about too, and I don't even know if I'm too satisfied with how it might go when I do put it up.

I should also remind that this is a hobby blog, and while I am committed to eventually finishing this story before returning to the format from before the story. I still hope to have it all done by mid-August. But sometimes things take more time than you expect and/or other stuff gets in the way. Worst comes to worse, if it takes until September to finish the story that still kind of works since it would be Cosmo's 20th anniversary of her debut in the US.

I enjoy doing stuff for Cosmic Heart Zone but it is not the only thing I want to do every day. So I ask for patience and understanding that the weekly new chapter of Cosmic Rush was never a promise.

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

🌱 C O S M O 🌱

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

It's a forum!

Also notice the two doing a little twirl in the background before hugging... I'm sorry, that's just adorable.

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

CHZ: Heads-up for what's in store for March 12th

Hello everyone! This is just a mod post giving a proper heads up for what's coming next for Cosmic Heart Zone

As implied by the previous post, the TailsTube style QnA that has been the style from almost the very beginning of the blog, will have a temporary pause up until this story is finished. As soon as the story is over the plan is to immediately go back to that style of a blog as I still fully intend for that to be the main draw of the blog. The story I'm starting is meant to be a sort of special, and I'm not sure if I'll ever be doing another story like it afterward.

As hinted by Cream in the description the previous update, it's sort of a special day when it comes to Cosmo's history. While obviously not the exact same in-universe. From a meta perspective, March 12th is the 20th anniversary of Sonic X Season 3's air date in France. Thus it's the first time anywhere in the world where Sonic fans were introduced to Cosmo. Because of that, I chose that date to prepare this coming story to commemorate the occasion.

As for the story itself, I won't give away what the story will be about just yet. But what I will tell ahead of the start is that the story will be in a script style.

EX:

Character A: dialogue

(Sometimes narration in the middle of the line, but not always)

Character B: dialogue

While that seems to be an unusual or even frowned upon way of doing fanfiction. I have become somewhat comfortable with that style. And besides, the script style is actually kind of necessary for what I have planned that will become evident by the end of the first chapter that releases on Wednesday. Before Cosmic Heart Zone, I have done script style fics for my My Little Pony blog I Dream of Twilight Sparkle plenty of times, from short stories to really long stories. You can check these to know what to expect. I at least don't think this story will be as long as my biggest stories for my MLP stuff from before CHZ. But just in case some chapters to get that long, a heads up on that given what I've done previously.

I also want to be clear that I don't think of myself as a professional writer. I am writing this by myself, without (at least currently) an editor outside of spellcheck, and there's bound to be mistakes either through grammar and pacing. I'm not really confident that I can execute this story in a way that won't make some mistakes along the way. I feel like there may be moments I end up rushing the middle in order to get to scenes that I really want to write and I apologize for those who get bothered by rushed and/or mistake-filled fanfiction. I only wish that if you are bothered by how the story progresses to not criticize too heavily. There's already so many stressing things going on (Especially as an American these days…) I'd really like to not add someone being on my case about my execution of a fanfiction on a Sonic blog that's now something of an escape from the terribleness of reality right now.

There will also be some images along the way, mostly sprites with absolutely no background during some scenes.

As for how long the story will last? That I'm still unsure. It will probably at the very least last somewhere past April and end at the very earliest in May, but probably more likely June or even July. And the intention is to hopefully wrap up the story before Cosmic Heart Zone hits it's first anniversary in mid-August. The plan is going to try to put up at least one chapter a week. With maybe two in one week occasionally. But this is not at all set in stone. At the moment I typed this up only about the first 4 are just about fully typed up and I hope to gradually get to the currently unwritten chapters as each one follows suit. So that by April begins. At least most of Chapters 5-8 will be mostly done and so on and so forth.

I think that's all I have to say for now and if you have any further questions I do have an ask box for my mod blog you can either send asks or even reply to this post.

Actually speaking of asks, while the story is ongoing. The characters obviously aren't going to be able to directly answer your questions like they do during the TailsTube sections HOWEVER, that doesn't mean asks won't potentially be used if say a part of the story just happens to answer an ask along the way. There's also a possibility for comments on the story to appear similarly if they are at all relevant to something within the story. The right comment could even inspire me to add a scene I didn't consider all on my own. So there's at least a slight chance viewers can influence the story a bit. Even if I do generally have a clear path of how i want the story to go.

I hope the following story is enjoyed by most following Cosmic Heart Zone even if from a technical perspective it could end up not being too impressive or even executed to the potential. But hey the Sonic franchise is full of potential stories that have parts that could have been executed better. If we're being honest with ourselves even the best Sonic games don't always hit the mark with the stories. I have no intention of putting myself on a high horse and say my writing is any better then what Sega and/or any Sonic official media put out there.

Thank you for reading, and I'll see you for the beginning of the story on Wednesday!

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

commission for @nebula-belt featuring their awesome classic cosmo design!! (if you're interested in my commissions, check out my carrd! but also keep in mind i have a little backlog :-) )

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

SHES ALIVE CHAT

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

God all the little reactions they have to each other makes me insane. Not even saying things directly to each other...

AND EVEN WHEN THEY DO SAY THINGS DIRECTLY. LOOK AT HOW TAILS JUST MARVELS AT HER FOR A SECOND.

and need I remind this moment? Cosmo blushing (I think) the hardest she does in the series after seeing Tails get happy from her compliment? What is their fucking PROBLEM I HATE THEM (/J /POS)

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

Just a quick note to anyone who might go "Huh, I don't remember following a blog called phenomenal cosmic powers". This space was formally "brony in a bottle" that was the mod blog for I Dream of Twilight Sparkle, and Geniequestria. But since I ended all my pony blogs and am specifically focused on Cosmic Heart Zone, thought a rebrand of the mod blog would be necessary. At the very least I thought this name would be a nice transition between the two. As it still refers to my genie stuff from before, but includes the word cosmic to refer to what I do now.

Even if I'm not making any more pony content though. Anyone's still welcome to ask me questions/or for my thoughts on MLP things. As I still consider myself a fan! It's just pretty obvious I drifted to Sonic lately, a series that I've been into far longer then I was with ponies. (If making a blog that stars a character that hasn't been officially relevant to Sega since 2005/2006 wasn't an indication of that haha)

If you're pretty specific to ponies and have no interest in Sonic, I won't be upset if you unfollow. But for anyone who happens to be into both. Feel free to stick around!

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

Do Chao count, heh

"Everyone's asking me if I'm back... well yeah, I'm thinkin' I'm back."

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

I'm guessing that Starlight Glimmer almost won in turning everyone in Equestria into genies, but then failed, was defeated, and everyone was turned back to normal?

As I stated after the break of the cancellation post. The whole plan was Starlight was TECHNICALLY going to win, but the time getting to know the genified Mane 6 would have chipped away at her corruption. Geniequestria would have come into fruition. But by the time it did, she wasn't the same smug dictator.

There's at least one or two things about the way the ending goes down that would have humbled her even further than being around Genie Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack. If you're at all curious

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

Formal Cancellation of Geniequestria

Hello there, unfortunately I must put the word out there that the reboot I mentioned back in December for Geniequestria? ...Might not be in the cards either. I said I'd start it in early next year at the time, and... now it's August. I think it's clear to me I just don't have the motivation to continue Geniequestria as sad as it is.

I don't know if plans will change at all in the future. But for now I'm making it official.

Once again, you are all free to ask me what the plans were for the blog. Maybe even after the break, I'll tell on how the original vision of the blog's ending was going to be.

I apologize once again to all who loved Geniequestria and wanted to see more of it. But this was a project that I think needed to have more than one person working on it. Might have been even too much for 2 if I'm being honest.

I still plan on writing up one last story for I Dream of Twilight Sparkle. (When that happens, there will be no more new story posts. Any IDOTS content afterward will depend on new asks) And I might be starting a new blog/project soon. However, a heads up that this one will not be MLP related (But is related to a franchise I've been a fan of long before ponies was)

All I gotta say for now, any further questions you can send to my mod blog's ask box or on my profile on dA. For now, if you want to know how Geniequestria was supposed to end. Check after the break

So the end of Geniequestria, you'd like to know what would have become of the struggle Twilight has against Starlight slowly turning all of Equestria into genies?

Weil, the simple one line answer is: Starlight was going to win

...However, that's only looking at it from a simple glance. Sure, Geniequestria would come into fruition just as Starlight from the beginning has wanted. But over the course of each of the Mane 6 getting genified. Their influence would undo the corruption of Sombra's crystal over her. And Starlight would gradually be reformed and changed from her militaristic, dictatorship vision of Geniequestria

Here's how the rest of the Mane 6 (Besides Fluttershy of course) were planned to be genified in the original vision of the story:

Rarity: Finally give in to her desires to be a genie to wish to be one. But wouldn't ultimately do it until a noble cause arrived at her doorstep. The reason she would wish to be a genie is to fix Kerfluffle's leg (Kerfuffle avoided all pony hospitals because she knew they'd just genify her to fix it instead. But if Rarity actually only fixes the legs, it'd change her view that genies only aim to genify. And ironically would lead to Kerfuffle ask to be personally genified at some point later by Rarity)

Pinkie: Genified during the grand galloping gala that Celestia and Cadence set up. I'm not sure I ever figured out what her exact wish would have been to lead to her genification. But as soon as the party pony of genified. The mass genification would be well underway

Rainbow Dash: Rainbow would attempt to wish for Rainbow Power (the power up that defeated Tirek) as a desperate move. However, Starlight doesn't know what Rainbow Power is. So she interprets the wish as the ol' wish for power.

Applejack: After a long frustrating conversation with AJ, in attempts to get her to make a wish. Starlight would catch wind of a potential weakness in AJ's stubborness: Her parents. Now, Geniequestria genies cannot raise the dead. But what they CAN do, is open portals to alternate dimensions as a loophole. The plan was for Geniequestria Starlight to find an AU of Pear Butter and Bright Mac. In which all of their kids and Granny Smith died but they lived. And in all this happiness in the reunion, Applejack has a slip of the tongue saying she wishes they could be together forever. An easy wish to genify not just Applejack herself. But her parents too

And now finally...

Twilight Sparkle: After all her friends have been genified. And a joint plan with Chrysalis failed sometime after Pinkie was genified failed. Twilight would be left with dwindling chances and hope that she could turn the tide. She becomes desperate enough to free Tirek from Tartaurus.

Only for Tirek to eventually absorb so much genie magic. That it overwhelms him and he's genified too (Although he'd (Or well rather she, since of course he'd be Rule 63'd as well) get trapped inside a huge bottle that replaces the tower of Twilight's castle)

Twilight only had one last gasp yet. She works with Starswirl to get Grogar's Bell. Both her and Starswirl are powered up by it. By this point though, the corruption of Starlight would be just about gone. And together with the "Harem of Harmony". They'd defeat Starswirl and Twilight using the elements (With the mostly reformed Starlight wielding the Element of Magic temporarily). And at that point, Twilight just gives in. Wishing to just be together with her friends again. And she'd get that, once she's genified.

From there, there'd be a sort of post-story where the Harem of Harmony would go around genifying more characters related to them (Ex: Moondancer and/or Twi's family would be saved for after Twilight herself was genified) and even invade non-pony countries to genify them too.

Now of course I did leave out many other details that were planned beyond this but would have taken a while to type out. Might as well leave it to if anyone wants some more detail of how things were supposed to end.

Trust me there was a lot planned with this whole story. And ideas for side stories where many other characters would be genified. May have unironically been a part of the reason it just became more and more daunting over time. (You could probably almost ask me about how any pony you can think of was supposed to be genified and I'd have an answer lol) All these plans and ideas, so little time to really write them and flesh them out.

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

THE ANCIENT EQUESTRIAN ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM - (Late) POST-MAKE YOUR MARK CHAPTER 6/FINALE EDITION

Hello! I admit this is very, very, late as it’s been just about exactly half a year since the final chapter of Make Your Mark came out. But let me just say a new commenter got me to think about it again. Although there is a reason why I didn’t write up my thoughts immediately. The short of it being: What Chapter 6 brought to the G4-G5 connection had finally broken what little suspension of disbelief I had.

Granted, it was teetering on that edge ever since the Opaline origin story thing as well. But the one excuse there is G4 itself barely told us anything about Alicorns either. So there was technically nothing substantial to really contradict. …As much as it still makes no sense that Opaline is still around yet Twilight, Celestia, Luna, etc. are all missing for whatever reason. (As even if you don’t see the Alicorns as immortal, Opaline being a filly at the same time as the royal sisters punches a hole in the argument that Celestia and Luna are no longer with them. Which just begs the question then how did the sisters and Twilight let the world just fall like it has)

But before I get to the meat of what caused a… delay in talking about the last chapter of Make Your Mark. Let me at least say some of the good that came from the chapter.

It should be no surprise that the best part of Chapter 6 was easily anything Misty-centric. The 2-3 parter where Misty finds Alphabittle, who turns out to be her long-lost father was especially heartwarming and the episode all about Alphabittle learning how different Misty has become from the girl he knew was an excellent moral lesson for parents and kids alike. It’s also kinda funny how the first four episodes of Chapter 6 were just about entirely Misty centric in some way. If we didn’t know any better, it’s almost like Misty usurped the main character role from Sunny. Maybe it’s more so that Sunny just does not have much character development in this chapter. But in a way it did seem like the show’s more about Misty then Sunny Starscout at the moment.

After the Misty-arc of the Chapter was… a rather gross episode that I’d rather never see again in Mane Smelody and a bit of a fun halloween episode.

However, most of what I have to say in this post relates to the final 3 episodes in a chapter. And let me tell you… it is a doozy

Maybe I should forward this by telling what subject exactly bothered me to the point of going quiet about G5 for a while. While yes, Alicorn lore in G4 is missing a lot of information and/or inconsistent even after 9 seasons of episodes. Do you know what DOES have substantial amount of lore throughout all of G4?

DRAGONS

I’ll put the rest of this after the break. So I can get into full detail without bogging up a dashboard. But just like the last one. I’m going to define one of the single biggest issue with Chapter 6 in regards to the connection with G4 with one picture

…Take it away, one more time R Lee. Ermy

Seriously, look at… Spike. Seriously just look at it

Even just under a DESIGN perspective something is very wrong here. Even if you weren’t a fan of the muscular Spike we got in The Last Problem and prefer the much skinner look. That isn’t the only issue we have here. I think a much larger contradiction with G4 is that all dragons in G5 (Including Spike!) are more quadrupedal than bipedal. 

But the REAL issue with G5 dragons is SIZE! I think we can assume the dragons in G5 are all full grown. Or at they least Spike should certainly be full grown (But the new dragons aren’t that much smaller than Spike) at this point. But do I have to remind anyone how large Dragons could get in G4? Screenshot from both for scale. 

A full grown dragon’s head alone in G4 was much larger than a pony body. While even with Spike’s “ancient” age and centuries (plural! Spike mentions it in the episode) old Spike is at this point. He’s big but he still pales in comparison to the size of the big red dragon/Basil from Dragonshy. The excuse is probably that the same spell that put them to sleep also prevented the dragons from growing any larger.

But then that begs another question. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DRAGONS THAT WERE ALREADY THAT HUGE?! Did Opaline mass murder most of the dragons? Is this more of how Opaline was so conveniently competently evil offscreen despite how stupid she is shown to be in the actual show. It’d explain why there also seems to be not many dragons left. But if Opaline wasn’t above a genocide of dragons. Why would she stop at perhaps the most significant dragon in Spike to.. you know… get back at Twilight and make her emotionally suffer? If you’re going to make her competently evil entirely off screen at least think of what she probably would do if she had the chance.

And that’s what we get just from the pure design standpoint of G5 dragons. But… it certainly doesn’t stop there. I am going to quote the most relevant parts of Chapter 6 that relates to dragons and point out what that means and how much it lines up with what we know of G4 dragons (Spoiler alert: Probably not much!)

Tumble: Fry my tail. There hasn't been a baby dragon around here in a volcano's age! What?! Leaf: It's like a miracle! A hatchling could restore shimmer to all of Scaly!

Congratulations G5! You found another way to describe a long time without having to say moons again! …Too bad it’s not anymore specific. What is a volcano’s age? The youngest volcano that formed on Earth was as far back as the 1940’s. But the oldest volcano could be over a million. 80 years-Over 1,000,000 is a pretty large gap. Still, it’s very concerning for the dragons that there hasn’t been many baby dragons regardless. This seems to imply the Dragons are an endangered species in G5. If they’re still living they at least live long lives that could potentially replenish the species eventually but endangered nonetheless. Which goes back to what I said earlier. What happened? Did Opaline directly or indirectly cause the decline in Dragon population? How did the big dragons die out. G4 had full on MIGRATIONS of Dragons where hundreds of dragons would fly over Equestrian skies. It just illustrates more of the problems of G5 not acknowledging non-pony species. It was fine to stick to the ponies only first, but overtime you still have to ask what happened to everyone else. And given what we see what’s left of the dragons. It looks quite grim.

Blaize: We must first request approval from our leader, the Dragon Lord, to form a partnership with ponykind. Zipp Storm: Well, where can we find him? We don't have all day!

ZIPP, DID YOU JUST ASSUME THE DRAGON LORD’S GENDER?!

…Kidding, although that does get into how the dragon lord SHOULD actually be Ember, a female dragon. Although, hey… maybe G5 can get away with it being an Alternate Universe where Spike DID choose to become dragon lord during Gauntlet of Fire instead of giving it to Ember. But it’d be helpful to have that clear if that’s the case

Spike: [yawns] Sunny Starscout: Spike?! Spike: [yawns] Whoa! Heh. Excuse my breath. Just woke up. Sunny Starscout: We are honored to meet such a legend as THE Spike! I-Is it okay if I call you Spike? Spike: It would be weird if you called me Fred or something! Because that's not my name! [guffaws] Sunny Starscout: I just want you to know that I am a big fan! When I was a foal, my father told me stories of you! Of the legends of Equestria's past! Spike: Legend, huh? I don't know about that. Seriously, I don't know about that. My memory is a little foggy after all these centuries of magical hibernation. What moon is this?

I’ll say it now, what they do with Spike is the one thing that probably broke me the most out of anything that has come out officially about the G4-G5 connection. The writers can excuse it that Spike has a fuzzy memory after centuries of sleep all they want but it doesn’t hide many of the problems with this.

How sad is it that the only thing Spike can remember about the past is Twilight and how vaguely he was friends with ponies (Although this seems to be somewhat contradicted later). To be honest in the promotional material for the chapter I hoped that the “Spike” we saw wasn’t actually him. Just a dragon that happened to look like him or be descended from him. In some ways I almost just want to call him Fred instead as he joked in this quotation.

Cause Spike’s inclusion almost basically is now THE example of what G5 does to connections to G4. They bring them back, acknowledge them, but then hollow out or obscure anything that could answer questions surely by contrived writing

Sunny Starscout: We know that she's been trying to take over Equestria since the days of— Zipp Storm: Twilight Sparkle! She protected our lands somehow, keeping her out all this time! Spike: [gasps] Twi?!

Zipp you fool! You just added another name tax for Hasbro! (I don’t even know of that’s entirely accurate but I have heard that G5 has been restrained by Discovery Family about referencing Friendship is Magic characters in the show. Which is just frustrating because then why go through all this effort to connect the generations to begin with)

But it is at least great that Spike still remembers his fondness for Twilight. If you’ve known me a while you know I value that. Although I would have like Spike to have something about others too. Twilight’s special to Spike, but he should have at least had an offhand reference to each and every one of the Mane 6. At the very least Rarity if no one else.

Spike: [sighs] Meeting you takes me back. My best friends were ponies. Sunny Starscout: That's what I've heard. Spike: I haven't thought about it in so long. Mostly because I was sleeping. But I do remember my adventures with them. Ugh, but my mind feels so fuzzy since I went into that magic hibernation. Hitch Trailblazer: When was that? Spike: Hard to say. The spell was so strong.

Or in Writer’s terms. Excuses for never explaining anything…

Sunny Starscout: Hitch, can you believe this?! This is the baby dragon from the stories my dad used to tell me! Spike was there with Twilight when Opaline got banished! Spike: It all feels so foggy. Like a dream. But Twilight knew she had to protect magic from her somehow. Tumble: That's why us dragons have been on the Isle of Scaly magically hibernating for all this time. It was part of the plan.

So Opaline was banished, inside her castle I presume. I’ll at least give G5 this that it did sort of answer why the dragon’s home isn’t the volcanic place it was in G4

Spike: Her plan saved us all. She helped us work together against darkness. See, there were these crystals... Sunny Starscout: The Unity Crystals?! Spike: You know them? Sunny Starscout: Know them?! We are the keepers of the crystals! [phone beeps] Zipp Storm: Sorry to interrupt this, uh, moment, but what is the real story of the crystals and Opaline? Who is she really?

But Zipp, didn’t Spike say he doesn’t remember anythi-

Spike: She's dangerous. She's the reason I had to part ways with my friends. Zipp Storm: Because she wanted the Unity Crystals? Spike: No. She wanted magic. All of it.

…Wait, then why did Spike sound confused by the idea of an evil alicorn earlier?

Spike: [narrating] Twilight's reign was peaceful for many moons until Opaline Arcana appeared. She'd been banished from Skyros. Sunny Starscout: The Alicorn land? Spike: She wanted to rule all ponies. She thought that Alicorns were superior.

Ah, more superiority… but it’s not much different then Cozy Glow’s (And Neighsay even if he turned around eventually). Just more specific to alicorns. If the School of Friendship could punch through the superiority of ponies over non-ponies. It should definitely be able to do the same for alicorns

And why should I even care about Skyros at this point if we’re likely not going to even see that place. The only bad thing about Opaline being defeated is she may have been the only link to at least give us a look at Skyros. As I’m not sure I’m confident in Tell Your Tale providing a satisfactory enough look at Skyros.

And I still have some of the same questions as last time. I think if Skyros had existed in G4 (Especially for how long it’s implied to be with Opaline’s story) Twilight would have been VERY knowledgeable and even mentioned it in Friendship is Magic. I know that’s not fair as obviously Skyros was never a concept during G4 but did for G5. But the more they mention it especially as they tie it to what happened between the two gens the more important it is to actually give us more information about this alicorn land. And… I am completely pessimistic of that ever coming to pass. Skyros clearly holds some of the keys that tie the two gens together as flimsy as it may be at this point… and that may be exactly why we never see it

Spike: [narrating] But my friends were strong. Our friendship had created such powerful magic that Opaline had to resort to dark ways to overthrow Equestria. She even attacked the dragons to transform into a Fire Alicorn! Opaline: [echoing laughter] Sunny Starscout: That's what she's done again! Blaize: That's why she came for Jade and Lava! Tumble: For their fire! Spike: [narrating] The crystals were created to hide the magic of Equestria in them. All of pony magic. And all of dragon magic inside the Dragon Stone. Twilight sent us here to protect us and put a spell around Equestria to hide it from Opaline.

Wait, there’s a dragon stone now? Did Twilight seal magic for other species too then? A griffon… stone? (…Pun not intended), a kirin stone? changeling stone? etc. That just sounds like it made the crystals more complicated then they were already were.

And to be frank I think I may be on the side that sealing the magic in crystals is a terrible idea on Twilight’s part. I don’t understand what was so threatening about Opaline that all of Equestria couldn’t just overwhelm her the same they did to the trio in Season 9. Especially when the population should be bigger and friendship magic still more powerful then anything. Why couldn’t they just zap Opaline with the Elements? What did Opaline have that the terrible trio didn't? (Or what could she even do to weaken it when everyone does have their magic). From my view it sounds like a huge overreaction to seal all that magic away for the sake of one villain. They didn't seal everyone's magic up in Crystals for the one villain in G4 that made sense (Since he absorbs magic) in Tirek. All the Alicorn magic went to Twilight which she used to fight in a stalemate, before having to give it up before Rainbow Power gave her and her friends the power to defeat Tirek.

Maybe if Opaline had an army of evil alicorns also from Skyros with her I could understand. But as is, I think we can presume it was just her. As I don’t think she’s ever mentioned any minions other than Misty. 

Sunny Starscout: The spell was damaged when we brought magic back, when the three pony kinds reunited again after centuries. Spike: You lost magic? All by yourselves? Aww, I'm going back to sleep!

To be frank Spike, I think I’m right there with you!

Sparky Sparkeroni: Woo-hoo! [breathes fire, chomps] Blaize: [gasps] Transformation fire?! Hitch Trailblazer: Sparky! Now is not the time for snacks, buddy! Sparky Sparkeroni: [burps] Fountain: I thought it was just a myth! Blaize: Me, too. Spike: This little one is special. Sparky Sparkeroni: [gurgles]

Another thing I’m admittedly not a fan of in the Chapter 6 finale is how they sort of make Sparky like the Dragon chosen one. It almost reminds me of my fears back in Season 6 that Flurry Heart would be the catalyst for the redemption of Chrysalis in the finale (At least when it became obvious the finale was going to feature her return). We were getting redemptions for a dime a dozen back at that time. So I felt quite grounded in that fear.

Obviously they have to give Sparky some sort of importance. It was fine when he was basically the Pikachu earlier in G5 of Misty (…Not Pokemon Misty though lol) trying to capture him for Opaline ala Team Rocket. But I don’t know how to feel about him being the deus ex machina.

Of course part of that is I’ve never really cared enough about Sparky to begin with. The fatherly relation with Hitch is cute. But Sparky himself never brought anything for me other than the gags his transformation magic causes. (And the less that Tell Your Tale Sparky is mentioned, the better)

All in all, take it away Izzy (From the very same episode no less)

(Obviously she didn’t say this in this context. But it’s amusing all the same)

Skipping ahead a bit. the finale was fine and all and it was great to see Opaline get her comeuppance (I assume for good. They only have her sealed up which could lead to a potential return, but I’m not sure G5 will go on long enough to set that up. Or at least I’ll never see it for as long as Tell Your Tale is all there is.)

I should go into a bit of Secrets of Starlight. Which I was mostly lukewarm to. It sets up… something I guess. I guess the characters from the special appear in recent Tell your Tale episodes. But the special didn’t leave me intrigued enough to know where they take Comet or the new big cat villain. I actually have more to say about the special’s title then anything else.

…And I’ll begin that the special was total clickbait, wasn’t it? I totally came in expecting that something about the special would relate to a certain other Starlight we know. But it was just the name of location, although it could be argued it’s named after Starlight. 

I thought of maybe two possibilities with the title Secrets of Starlight that they could have went with for the final 3D special of Make Your Mark.

First, the actual finale where Opaline is defeated for good but not before getting into detail how Opaline learned stealing cutie marks was possible. Even if they might have naturally had to do it very vaguely. We could have had a line of Opaline be like:

“I learned of this spell long ago when I overheard some ponies talking about a powerful unicorn that gave Twilight a run for her money in the past. I initially hoped that I could gain a true ally, only to find that Twilight had already corrupted her with friendship. But her spell book still proved fruitful to my plans!”

Then the other possibility I have in mind? Well, what is Starlight Glimmer’s most infamous act outside of taking cutie marks? Time travel. A special where, even if only for a brief time. The G5 Mane 6 talk with the G4 Mane 6 felt like the kind of thing they’d end Make Your Mark with a bang.

Obviously, that was dashed (And not rainbow dashed) since we know of the report that apparently using G4 characters became too expensive. But when you title something Secrets of Starlight and make it the finale of a series. You would expect either/and/or, A. Something in the episode that invokes or honors Starlight, B, Cutie mark stealing, and/or C. Time travel to be involved.

…And G5 chose D. Totally unrelated whatsoever to Starlight Glimmer. Hard to tell if it was intentional bait but it’s disappointing all the same.

And I think that's all I have to say for now. I assume G5 will only be done in Tell Your Tale and the comics (Hell even the comics have switched styles to emulate TYT more too) from now on. And I'll just say: You can count me out of that. Even if TYT might have improved. It's going to take a lot to convince me to keep going. In a way, I might be already saying I'm done with G5. It had promise in areas but I think it's clear it fell short in way too many areas. It's a shame... a part of me does like the new Mane 6, especially Misty.

G4-G5 connection wise though? I'm kinda happy about splitting from that as far as possible. I cannot take references to G4 in G5 seriously after the dragon episode in Chapter 6. Whatever the past was like in G5's events, it just wasn't the G4 we watched for a decade. It can't be. I'm saying this with a risk of being called a G4 purist But I feel strongly more than ever that the G4 references was all an afterthought. It just took until the final chapter of Make Your Mark before something broke it beyond repair. It was slowly leaning that way ever since the Opaline story, but now the dam has completely burst.

For me, the ancient equestrian elephant in the room is no longer there.

Or perhaps I should say, was never truly there to begin with

It's probably at this moment where G5 may actually start delving into the important stuff just as many give up. But even if a batch of Tell Your Tale episode promises to answer anything. It's too little, too late.

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

Yeah.. I'll admit, when they had Twilight say "if you got this message then you found out how to give earth ponies powers they sort of already had." I was already pulling away from the show. I really feel your pain, I had so much hope for g5 after the movie. It looked so promising, and even if some of it felt a little hollow, I really thought they could do it. But then there were quality problems with the show in general, and the story of the episodes just didn't feel engaging. I really felt like they dangled the history of post g4 on a string just to be like "oops, this villain that can't do anything right on screen was actually the cause and scared Twilight so bad she broke magic". Maybe that's a little mean and we can't expect it to be lightening in a bottle, but they really dropped the boll with it.. it was absolutely a stab in the heart for me.. and like you said, the best part of it was Misty.

Yeaaaaah... that part about the Earth pony magic was also pretty questionable. Since Twilight's Kingdom/Season 4 finale (Or technically earlier with Hearth's Warming Eve) G4 confirmed that Earth Ponies were the best farmers and/or had super strength. It's just in doing so the magic that earth ponies have is more subtle and not as flashy as Unicorn magic and Pegasus flight. And G5 made it's own attempt to make it just as flashy in which they have instant grow powers. Which I can understand why they went that route so it's a little more obvious of what kind of magic Earth ponies have. But never felt necessary

Also yeah, while G4 had villains with flawed plans as well. (I'm pretty sure everyone's nitpicked about Chrysalis' actions throughout the show) Even the worst plan laid by Chrysalis may have been better than anything Opaline came up with. And we're really supposed to buy that she was capable enough to bring down a golden age in Equestria. I don't quite see what she could have done that the trio didn't already try in the Season 9 finale that was ultimately defeated by the youth of the School of Friendship (YMMV about how they executed the School in Season 8, I felt that it got a good payoff in the final two-parter)

Still, Misty was at least a bright spot in all of this. Just a shame she wasn't in a better written story. Cause goodness knows Misty provided one of the few things G5 had that Friendship is Magic didn't. (Outside of my comparisons between Misty and Sci-Twi from Equestria Girls anyway)

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

Pardon me, but I really loved your thoughts on g5 MYM chapter 4, have you seen up to chapter 6 yet? Did you ever write down your thoughts? I'm sorry if I cause stress, I just wanted to pick your brain about how the climax of the show went?

I'm a long time g4 lover, I think I joined after "a Canterlot wedding" came out. I have.. a personal distaste with g5 chapter 4 and on. I was just hoping to see what you thought about it all.

It's no problem ^^ Maybe I can do another write up on it as I did sometime. But I may at least give a short answer on why I haven't put one up even though it's been a few months: Spike's inclusion in the final chapter kinda broke all remaining (...Which to be fair was already small to begin with) suspension of disbelief that I had about the connection between G4 and G5. I could probably explain more in detail if I do another write up about it. But I will say it was the last straw personally when taking any connection to G4 seriously in G5

They try to excuse it I know by Spike conveniently barely remembering (Some say through some kind of spell or whatever reason) anything aside from Twilight. But that's hardly the only thing about Spike's inclusion that has killed any sort of serious speculation about the G4-G5 connection for me.

I'll at least say I'm glad Opaline got a real comeuppance. Though it was also a shame Secrets of Starlight ended up being a total clickbait title that had barely anything to do with Starlight Glimmer. I think there was some fun moments in the final chapter, but yeah... The way they included Spike is a big reason I went quiet about G5. It just broke me on too many levels.