Awesome / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW)

General

• As of one and a half months before the launch, pre-orders for Issue #1 have already exceeded 90,000 copies, out selling the likes of Uncanny X-Men, Spider-Man, Green Lantern, and Detective Comics. In a medium that has lost touch with children and non-superhero fans, this is a valuable development.
  • Now they sold 100,000.
  • For all single issue comics sold in 2012, the first issue came in at #90 on the best sellers for the year. May not seem that impressive but consider that it, along with The Walking Dead #100 (which came in first), were the only two non-DC, non-Marvel books to break the top 100 list, and was IDW's best-selling book.
  • Individual issues of both the main and micro series continue to be in the top 100 of single issues sold each month through June 2013 (the Fluttershy micro so far has been one to fail to do so) and continue to be IDW's top selling series.
• Both the main series and Friends Forever have made it far longer than most comic series outside the major brand names, especially licensed comics.

The Return of Queen Chrysalis (Issues #1-4)

• The changeling fight in the first issue has some great moments.
  • After fixing up Pinkie's hair, Rarity shows that she too can zap changelings into oblivion.
    Rainbow Dash: Rarity! Blast it! Pretend it's last year's fashion or something!
    Rarity: Eep! Leg warmers and stirup pants?! Not in my Spring Line!
  • A Funny Background Event shows that Spike set a changeling on fire... only to make it angry and start chasing him!
  • Fluttershy scaring a whole group of changelings with "The Stare".
• Rarity and Pinkie Pie whipping up duplicates of the whole Mane Six to get past a troll. Followed by Pinkie getting him to take care of a giant spider.
• In issue 4, Twilight Sparkle gets to fight Queen Chrysalis head-on.
  • Considering all the misery that the Changeling Queen inflicted on her while posing as Cadance during the Season 2 finale, this is quite satisfying to watch.
  • Chrysalis gets her own moments to shine, such as the Breaking Speech that she delivers during the first part of the battle:
    Queen Chrysalis: Love is fickle. Love can change. Love can be consumed, and the leftovers of a heart spit out like a seed... and above all, love will not save you today.
  • Then, when it turns out that Twilight has destructive magic spells that Chrysalis doesn't know - and, even if she absorbed Twilight's magic, wouldn't be able to use them since she doesn't have Twilight's knowledge - the Changeling Queen shows her hand at Xanatos Speed Chess by forcing a Sadistic Choice on Twilight: surrender and become her thrall, or watch her friends be drained into lifeless husks by her minions. If it hadn't been for Twilight's Heroic Second Wind and her being equally empowered by the Secretariat Comet, Queen Chrysalis might have won.
  • Of course, when Twilight's Heroic Second Wind kicks in, she's able to duel Chrysalis, a villainess who was on par with Celestia^note Of course, it was after Chrysalis got massively powered up by feasting on Shining Armor's love, but still., on equal footing. Not to mention that she ended up winning!
  • At the climax of that fierce confrontation, Twilight finally defeats Chrysalis by hitting her with a magical blast that blows up half the freaking castle!
    • Lest we forget the Badass Boast that Twilight delivers to Chrysalis right before that happens:
    Queen Chrysalis: Stop... this... nonsense. You can't... defeat me.
    Twilight Sparkle: Ponies who can't do things themselves tell others that they can't do it. I can stand up to you. And I can win!
    • Of course, as the Season 3 finale reveals, she was destined to become an Alicorn. The magic-boosting properties of the Secretariat Comet may have allowed her to tap into her latent potential.
  • And prior to all that? When Chrysalis first sees how devastating Twilight's magical blasts can become, her wide-eyed reaction is epic.
    Chrysalis: How... did you...?
    • This scene ties into how Twilight was able to defeat Chrysalis. They were both empowered by the Secretariat Comet, but Twilight knew magic spells that Chrysalis didn't. Even if Chrysalis had managed to steal Twilight's magical energy, she wouldn't have been able to use the same destructive spells as Twilight. In the end, she underestimated Twilight, and it led to her downfall.
• All the epicness Spike and Celestia (and Luna, though we weren't shown her heroics) were up to that prevented them from helping sooner. Few things in this world are as glorious as the image of Spike, with an eyepatch, riding Celestia into battle with giant magically enhanced cockatrices.
  Spike: It was awesome. I had a trident!

Nightmare Forces Arc (Issues #5-8)

• The Mane 5 overcoming their fears on the moon are all awesome in their own way, but Pinkie Pie gets a special mention by overcoming her nightmare through pure ham.
  Pinkie: I am the MOST laughter-giving, fun-having, friend-making pony ever! YOU HAVE NO POWER OVER ME!
  • And, showmare that she is, follows up with a mic drop.
• In Issue #7, Spike overcoming the dream made by Nightmare Rarity on his own.
• The main cover of Issue #8: Luna in golden armor leading a Big Damn Heroes team that includes the Wonderbolts, Derpy, Big Macintosh, Doctor Whooves, DJ Pon-3, Trixie, Lightning Dust, a Day Guard, a Night Guard and Wildfire.
  • And the issue itself delivers exactly what the cover hinted at. Most of the characters have their moment whether it's taking on the Nightmare Forces or bravely standing side-by-side with Celestia and Luna. Probably the most notable moment has to be when one of the Nightmare Forces hovering over a helpless Angel Bunny only to realize too late that he fell into Angel's trap with the help of the Cutie Mark Crusaders (including Babs Seed), Cheerilee, Twist, Snips, Snails, and all the mane six's pets.
    • Or perhaps Granny Smith showing her martial arts skills, or Octavia going all El Kabong with her cello.
• Since the beginning of the arc, Luna has been consumed with sorrow and fear that she will fall to the dark side again. How do you know she means it when she says she's truly gotten over her fear? For the first time in the arc, she transforms from her Season 1 appearance to her Season 2-onward appearance. Simple, yet awesome.
• Spike managing to Out Gambit the Nightmare Forces into leaving him behind to free the Mane Six by making a dummy of himself out of moon slugs.
  • How about pretty much everything Spike does? From managing to outwit the Nightmare Forces multiple times using nothing but a bunch of slugs to delivering the final blow on Nightmarity, Spike proves throughout this arc what was already hinted at in The Crystal Empire Part 2 - that he can full well be awesome when push comes to shove.
• Sweetie Belle bravely speaking up against the Nightmare Queen.
• Celestia shielding Luna from the Nightmare Queen◊ is both this and heartwarming.

Zen and the Art of Gazebo Repair (Issues #9-10)

• No challenge is too great for the pairing of Luna and Big Mac!
• Celestia beating Big Mac in a hoof-wrestling challenge.

Neigh Anything (Issues #11-12)

• Shining Armor's band's performance gave Vinyl Scratch her cutie mark, it was that epic.
• Admit it, the way Buck was taken down a few notches, in front of the whole dang academy, was bucking AWESOME, and SUPREMELY satisfying. Bonus points to Shining Armor, since he was the one to deal the final blow to Buck's ego.
• The fact that Dr. Sam Beckett helped Shining and Cadence pair up- he leaped into Gaffer somehow (it's unclear if this is an MLP-verse version of Sam or if it's the actual Sam who somehow crossed into this universe).

My Little Pirate - Friendship Ahoy (Issues #13-14)

• Rainbow Dash shows that if she was a real pirate, no one would be safe, as she easily disarms a whole group of them.

Reflections (Issues #17-20)

• What you think is King Sombra was shown at the end of the first part of the arc. It wasn't - the mirror-universe Sombra is a Cultured Warrior and The Good King. What was staring out of that Mirror Universe was an evil Celestia.
• Evil Luna pats Twilight's horn and condescendingly asks what she's going to do with it. Twilight shocks her.
• In the alternate universe, Trixie became an alicorn.
• Twilight coming up with a plan to capture the mirror Luna and Celestia without harming the main versions.
• Main!Celestia and Dark!Celestia finally facing off. Main!Celestia finally displays her full power - wreathing herself in starfire - before uncorking an all-out, suicidal attack on Dark!Celestia. She's only stopped when Good!Sombra isolates them both.
• After the attempt to seal the evil Celestia fails, Sombra proves that, like our original Celestia, he has the strength of will and character to use all six Elements of Harmony. What does he use them for? To more or less sacrifice himself to restore balance to both worlds, taking all the evil of Dark!Celestia and Dark!Luna into himself to make all three of them like their main universe counterparts. In doing so, he loses his love, his position as ruler, and is probably going to lose his sanity in the future like the main universe!Sombra, but he does it without a single twitch of hesitation.

Manehatten Mysteries Arc (Issues #21-22)

• Trixie's show was pretty impressive, even if Applejack didn't much care for it.
• Trixie and the gang escaping from the police.
• The gang sneaking into the museum.
• Babs figuring out that Rough Diamond is Officer Fluffles.

Issue 23

• Angel rallying all the pets into saving Ponyville with a quite complex battle plan. It'll be hard to keep calling him The Scrappy after this.

Issue 24

• The whole issue being a shout-out to Doctor Who.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ponies (Issues #25-26)

• Seeing Twilight and Rarity hoof-bump after showing off the superiority of the unicorn race. Maybe a little braggish in front of Rainbow, but still awesome to remember that Rarity's no weakling when it comes to magic.
• AJ figuring out how to get past Twilight's moral code to allow her to use her magic directly against the Cattle Rustlers.

Night of the Living Apples (Issues #32-33)

• The entire Mane Six get turned into vampire fruit bat hybrids to deal with the apple army. And in the end Flutterbat becomes the Big Damn Heroes with the real bats after overcoming her evil side.

Seige of the Crystal Empire (Issues #34-37)

• A revived King Sombra proves that he's stronger than ever when he turns Celestia and Luna to stone almost-immediately after their Big Damn Heroes arrival — a stark contrast to how they dealt with him a millennium ago.
  • In fact his quick grasp of the situation, refusal to allow himself to be distracted from his goal, augmentation of his forces to achieve victory and reluctance to believe the good guys were defeated are a firm reminder that this guy almost won in his initial appearance without having to do anything.
• Twilight refusing to back down even when Sombra is threatening her with death.
• It turns out that yes, Sombra's Silence crystals do affect Alicorns just like everypony else ^note And only Amplifier Artifact/MacGuffin power (e.g.: the Crystal Heart, Twilight and her friends' residual ties to the Elements/Rainbow, etc.) has been able to break them. — thus establishing him as a big-time Man of Kryptonite.
• When Chrysalis invokes a harsh and almost-threatening You Fool! on Hope for being the Umbrum's Unwitting Pawn, Sombra threatens to petrify Chrysalis next if she doesn't leave his Morality Pet alone. This is the same guy who faced Celestia and Luna by himself centuries ago, cursed the whole Empire through space and time despite his defeat, and finally defeated them back just a few minutes ago. Needless to say, he can probably back it up.
  • In return, Chrysalis not seeming one bit scared of Sombra in the slightest. While she still backs down, standing up to him still takes a lot of guts.
• Everything Cadence does in Issue #36.
• The final battle of Issue #37. Sombra of all ponies manages to pull this off in the form of an epic Heroic Sacrifice. Having acknowledged the folly of his earlier actions, he restores the Crystal Heart to its pedestal and activates it, which re-seals the Umbrum at the cost of his own life.
  Rabia: No! Sombra! What are you doing?!
  Sombra: Making my own destiny.

Don't You Forget About Us (Issues #38-39)

• Snips and Snails of all ponies get one while they, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon and the Cutie Mark Crusaders are being chased by a bear. Sweetie Belle's hoof gets stuck in the ground and the other two Crusaders can't seem to dig it out. Snips and Snails free Sweetie Belle with their horns and together they escape.

Chaos Theory (Issues #48-50)

• When Accord (Discord's new Split Personality) reveals his true, Knight Templar nature and starts brainwashing everypony in an Our Town-like fashion, Celestia instantly manages a barrier to deflect his magic away from herself, Luna, the Mane 6, and Starlight — without the aid of the Elements/Rainbow. Needless to say, no wonder she was able to ward the Elements against Discord's magic in "Keep Calm and Flutter On."
  • She's able to outmaneuver him throughout all the next issue too, and though he's clearly not trying his hardest neither is she, pointing out that any offensive action risks getting innocent ponies hurt.
• Added to this, Twilight and Luna are able to enter Accord's mind against his will. Along with the above examples, this is the first time they've been forced to fight Discord without the elements, and they certainly aren't doing too badly (though they at least have the advantage of having learned a few of his weaknesses).
• Starlight Glimmer challenges Accord, who has all but won, to try and verbally convince her to join him, rather than brainwash her. She proceeds to counter his arguments about order being the path to true friendship and harmony by pointing out that friendship doesn't mean being the same, but having a connection despite individual differences, and that harmony is about many different notes coming together to form something beautiful. Accord sees the truth in Starlight's words and accepts defeat, reverting back to Discord and undoing his mass brainwashing.

From the Shadows (Issues #51-53)

• The Mane Six (minus Twilight) manage to escape from the recreations of the past Shadow Lock trapped them in by "rewriting history". Rarity and Rainbow teach Cleopatrot and her jackal guards about modern fashions, Fluttershy and Spike make peace between the knights and the dragon, and Applejack and Pinkie introduce the caveponies to party games.

Issue #54

• Angel, the rest of the Mane Six's pets, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders working together to keep all the animals from Dr. Fauna's clinic under control.

Wings Over Yakyakistan (Issues #55-56)

• The Wonderbolts, aided by Twilight, Starlight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash's parents, and Pinkie Pie, assist the yaks in protecting their home from the dragons' attack. Though they were soon forced to retreat, it's still impressive that they were able to put up a fight against so many dragons (even more so when you consider most ponies are afraid to challenge even one of them).
• Spike calling out the ponies, yaks and dragons for all their misguided ways.

Issue #57

• Despite having lost most of his power, Discord is able to defeat Chaosville!Pinkie by tricking her into exhausting her newfound chaos magic, allowing him to regain his powers and take back control over his realm.

Convocation of the Creatures! (Issues 61-62)

• When the archivists are rushing to get the proof that the debt between Equestria and Griffonstone was settled to Princess Celestia, Raven has Blacktip the dragon pick her up, fly her around the edge of the building, and throw her through the window closest to Celestia. Raven crashes through the window, performs a perfect tuck-and-roll, and ends up right in front of Celestia, presenting her with the proof.

Issue #71

• Because of a mistake on Twilight's part, everypony ended up contributing conflicting items to the haunted house, creating a tremendous safety hazard and putting the Young Six in danger. After the house caught on fire and everycreature started to panic, Yona rallied everyone, telling them to use fear as a motivator instead of something to paralyze you. She then came up with a plan using everyone's individual strengths (Smolder's fireproof body, Sandbar and Yona herself charging to break open a door) that got everyone out safely, including Fluttershy's contribution, her animal friends. Bonus points to Ocellus for scaring the paralyzed-with-fear animals into stampeding out the door by turning into a freaking Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Cosmos (Issue #75-78)

• After spending most of the arc (justifiably) terrified of Cosmos, Discord finally mans up and takes on the Spirit of Malice directly, allowing Pinkie Pie to enact a plan to fight Cosmos, removing the crystals that made up her power from her armor and feeding them to Spike. Once Cosmos was beaten and her hosts freed, Discord, dressed as a Ghostbuster, caught her in a ghost trap and dumped the powerless draconequus on the moon.

Issue #79

• Sunset Shimmer making a surprise cameo, putting on an epic rock performance that has even Cranky cheering for more.

Issue #80

• The Mane Five succeeding in climbing the tower and rescuing the "princess" by working as a team.

Issue #81

• Wind Sock, an Earth Pony, uses his glider invention (by design unaffected by the winds preventing the Wonderbolts from helping) to swoop down and save Dauntless.

Issue #82

• An Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: Celestia was able to find and return Cerberus to the gates of Tartarus all by herself.

Issue #83

• Twilight once again putting her detective skills to good use, figuring out the reason behind Silver Blaze's mysterious disappearance.

Issue #84

• The final version of Ocellus' dance. Despite being scaled back significantly from what she had planned, it still manages to be quite impressive, with Ocellus changing into several historical figures back-to-back.

Issue #85

• Applejack manages to temporarily scare off the Wolf Fly-der by talking sternly to it.
• In the Flashback, young Applejack puts aside her fear of deep water to rescue Big Mac from a overflowing lake.

Issue #86

• Maud putting together a spectacular party for Marble in Pinkie's absence.
• After the Friendship Express is stopped by a rockslide, Pinkie runs all the way to the Pie family farm. While she didn't make it in time for the party, that's still quite impressive.

The Fast and the Furriest (Issues #87-88)

• Despite having given up apple cart racing years ago, Big Mac is easily able to keep pace with his former friend Silver Streak, despite the latter having been racing every year since.
• Rainbow Dash, depite having some initial difficulty on the rough terrain, takes the lead quite easily, at one point pulling off a spectacular jump over both Big Mac and Silver Streak.
• A villainous example: Dr. Sacks Roamer's orginal plan was simply to cross the finish line with his stolen artifact. Winning wasn't his concern. But when he finds out that his minion Lumpy put the artifact in Rainbow Dash's cart, he puts everything he has into catching up with her.
• Yona manages to stop Roamer from fleeing into Yakyakistan with his stolen artifact by parachuting down on top of him.

The Farasian Shores (Issues #89-92)

• After having her friends collect the proper ingredients, Zecora mixes a potion that produces a giant wall of fire that holds back the Grootslang.
• Prince Abraxas makes his debut by creating a burst of bright light to send the Grootslang packing.
• When the group encounter a Roc who is unable to fly out of the desert, Dust Devil helps her get high enough to leave by running fast enough to create a wind funnel, even going the extra mile by suddenly stopping, creating enough of a boost for the Roc to finally reach the air currents.
• When stopping so suddenly causes Dust Devil to skid off a cliff, Crystal saves them by creating a giant ice slide.
• When the Grootslang attacks again, Tempest and Rockhoof immediately decide to hold it off while the others get to shelter. They spend most of the final issue of the story fighting it, and though they are ultimately forced to fall back (even after Applejack joins them), they still manage to get in some solid hits. Rockhoof in particular lands crushing strikes on the Grootslang's face twice with his shovel (the second time hitting hard enough to break the shovel itself).
• Zecora and her friends harness the power of the Farasian Elements of Harmony to defeat the Grootslang, reducing it to a harmless talisman.

Something There That Wasn't There Before (Issues #94-95)

• After figuring out that the sound of laughter destroys the Muffletta Moss, Pinkie and Cheese put on an impromptu comedy show that (with the help of a royal decree from Twilight) has all of Canterlot laughing, wiping out the entirety of the moss in short order.

Abyssinians (Issue #96-97)

• Capper's old gang breaking Fluttershy's team out of prison. Not only do they manage to distract and evade all the guards, but they set up a false escape route by blowing up the prison's wall, then descending into the tunnels beneath Panthera while the guards go on a wild goose chase up above.
• Even without his powers, Discord puts on a pretty good distraction to draw away King Meowmeow's guards. And when one of them accidentally breaks the collar blocking his magic, he overwhelms the king and his forces with ease.
• When King Meowmeow scratches the Abyssinian Tree of Harmony, Fluttershy responds by headbutting him in the stomach.
• After Capper and his friends connect to the Abyssinian Tree of Harmony, its magic flows all over Abyssinia, in a visually amazing scene.

The Two Kingdoms of Caninia (2021 Annual)

• After the sisters are all connected to their Elements of Harmony, they each gain their own magical ability. They then use these new abilities to save their subjects from the collapsing cavern.

Issue #98

• Celestia thanks the kraken by using her magic to dissipate the whirlpool it was protecting ponies from. Said whirlpool had been active for over a thousand years, and Celestia shut it down in an instant.

Knights of Harmony (Issues #100-102)

• After Ceridwen knocks out Rainbow's group and places them on Celaeno's ship, set for a collision with a mountain, Celaeno saves all of her teammates by herself.
• Rainbow Dash and Spitfire improvise a slingshot to send Celaeno back to Orinithia in time to stop Princess Ocypete's wedding to Prince Huginn.
• Celaeno refuses to back down, fighting off the guards Huginn sends after her, all for the sake of Ocypete. In doing so, she inadvertantly proves herself to be the final Element of Love, Perseverance.
• The complete Element of Love bearers join together in saving their kingdom from increasingly gigantic Huginn.
• The three generations of Equestrian Element Bearers, Discord, and Trixie managing to Divide and Conquer the Knights.
  • The Young Six take out Mannah by luring him away before Silverstream swims up his water and tail whips him in the head, stunning the Knight of Acceptance long enough for Yona to steamroll him.
  • The Mane Six lure Ceridwen into an alley before tag teaming her into submission.
  • The Pillars lure Morrigan into an alley and Meadowbrook uses a potion to ward everyone against her mind control, freeing her slaves and distracting her long enough for Rockhoof to knock her out cold.
  • While not shown, it's implied Spike and Discord took out Taranis by themselves.
• The other four sets of Element Bearers showing up, resulting in Danu being defeated by all the Elements at once.

Written By Spike

• Future Spike has become an accomplished comic book author, writing in-universe versions of the comics series that are much loved by the population of Equestria.

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