My Little Pony is a 2022 comic book series published by IDW and part of My Little Pony (Generation 5). The comic is a sequel to My Little Pony: A New Generation. It was released on May 25, 2022 and finished on December 27, 2023.
Things have become peaceful in Equestria since magic has been brought back. While playing with her friends, Sunny Starscout becomes concerned when the magic stops working and both Pipp and a unicorn are almost injured. Heading back to her home, Sunny and her friends discover the pegasus crystal of the unity crystals has been stolen, explaining why the magic has been glitching out. Finding a small strand of hair, the gang gets Cloudpuff to track the scent of the thief, and he proceeds to lead the group to the ancient city of Canterlot. Unbeknownst to them, however, is the fact that the thief is secretly watching our heroes, and is determined to make sure magic never returns...
The comic series also has several spin-offs available:
- My Little Pony 40th Anniversary Special: A one-shot comic created to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the My Little Pony franchise. The comic consists of three stories with one of them involving Sunny Starscout and her friends learning about Dream Valley.
- My Little Pony Bridlewoodstock: A one-shot comic that features four stories. It is a prequel to the Make Your Mark special with the same name.
- My Little Pony Camp Bighoof: A five-part mini-series. The Mane Five take over an abandoned summer camp named after a mythical creature to teach children how to use their magic.
- My Little Pony Black, White, and Blue: A one-shot comic starring Misty Brightdawn as she wakes up one day to discover nearly all the color in Equestria has vanished.
- My Little Pony Kenbucky Roller Derby: A mini-series where Sunny and her friends form a rollerskating team to enter a tournament.
- My Little Pony Mane Event: A one-shot comic involving the gang having problems with their manes.
- My Little Pony: Set Your Sail: A mini series taking place in the ocean. Sunny and her friends head to the undersea kingdom of the Seaponies after receiving a message from their queen.
This comic provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc: Issue #4 has heroes receive a message about Discord, with Issue #5 giving them backstory and the "Mirror of Mayhem" which could used to to stop them. But these developments and the Mirror were completely ignored and absent in the rest of the arc with Discord stopped via completely unrelated manner.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Issue #14 introduces Violette Rainbow, Izzy's crafting student, who was shunned by her fellow unicorns due to the miscolored patches on her coat.
- Artifact of Doom: #5 involves tales of the "Mirror of Mayhem", a magical object that brought misfortune to whoever possessed it.
- Batman Gambit: Izzy sets one up in Issue #14, recruiting the zebras Mariama and Skye into a plan that helps Violette accept who she is.
- Be Yourself: The lesson of Issue #14, with Izzy teaching Violette to always be proud of who she is.
- Blatant Lies: Discord claims he helped Twilight and her friends defeat many villains together. He mentions others called their group the "Mane-ificent Seven".
- Broken Bird: Discord is a shadow of his former self as a result of having lost his magic and his best friend, Fluttershy.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Phyllis and Sprout appear in Issue #7.
- A mother and daughter zebra duo appear in Issue #14, marking the first time other equines have been seen in G5.
- The Cameo:
- In Issue #1, Princess Twilight Sparkle is seen in a Flashback when Argyle tells Sunny how she built the Gate of Ancients in Canterlot.
- Cover RI of Issue #1 features all of the Mane Six/Guardians of Harmony.
- In Issue #2, Li'l Cheese, Pinkie Pie's child, is seen in a flashback playing with their mother.
- Surprise and Baby Surprise are seen in Issue #12.
- Camera Spoofing: In Issue #6, the Mane Five set up cameras all over Canterlot castle in hopes of spotting Discord. Pipp notices the camera focused on the entrance to the caverns below has been covered with a drawing of that same entrance.
- Chekhov's Gun: In Issue #6, the ponies find a crystal recording of Fluttershy speaking to Discord. In issue 10, Izzy manages to get a recording of the message to Discord, which is ultimately what stops him from destroying the Pegasus Crystal.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: With Pipp falling and Izzy unable to use her magic to catch her, Izzy suggests that Pipp could fly if she "believes" she does. Pipp is not amused.Pipp: That's your plan B?!
- Color Failure: In the Black, White and Blue one-shot, Misty activates a magical artifact that removes every color but blue from Maretime Bay.
- Con Artist: A wealthy store owner named Fet Lockland came into possession of the Mirror of Mayhem, and made a fortune selling it to unsuspecting ponies - buying it back whenever the new owners were cursed with misfortune so he could sell it again.
- Continuity Nod:
- The flashback to Canterlot in the first issue features Twilight looking like she did following the Time Skip in the final FiM episode "The Last Problem".
- In Issue #2, the rest of the Mane Five find Izzy at Donut Joe's donut shop.
- Sunny namedrops Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, the Storm King, Starlight Glimmer, Trixie and Thorax in the second issue. She also mentions the events of "To Where and Back Again".
- In Issue #3, Hitch receives help from the bunnies who live around Zephyr Heights in finding Cloudpuff.
- An old Daring Do book plays a significant role in Issues #6 and #10.
- The community garden (Introduced in the Make Your Mark episode "Ali-Conned") makes an appearance in Issue #14.
- Continuity Snarl:
- Sunny's words at the beginning imply the comic takes place weeks after A New Generation. However Sunny's home is still the lighthouse instead of being rebuilt into the Crystal Brighthouse as seen in all future supplementary material. It gets shown and stated as the Crystal Brighthouse in Issue #4.
- Furthermore, Hitch being shown to speak with critters, Zipp becoming a detective, and Sunny having control over her alicorn power are elements that occurred in My Little Pony: Make Your Mark which happened months later.
- In #5, it is said that the Mirror of Mayhem was created by Discord after he was sealed in stone by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna so he could continue spreading chaos. Despite this, the Equestria shown in the stories is closer to the more modern society from G5, rather than the one seen in G4. While Zipp does point out questionable aspects about the pony saying this, this inconsistency is unaddressed.
- Crazy-Prepared: To Sunny's surprise, Discord prepared cards on the oft-chance of her interrupting his story.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: When the Mane Five try to stop Discord from leaving with the Pegasus crystal, he easily manages to incapacitate them.
- Darkest Hour: The ninth issue ends with the Mane Five's magic on the verge of vanishing completely and the group being caged by Discord, who promptly departs to enact his plan of destroying the Pegasus Crystal.
- Death Glare: Pipp receives these from her friends when they learn she recorded a scene of Izzy being upset and sent the footage to her fans instead of trying to comfort her.
- Distant Prologue: The first issue begins with a flashback to Sunny's youth, with her father Argyle telling her about Canterlot.
- Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help: In Issue #7, Hitch is excited to set up his own deejay booth for the Harvest Day celebration, but keeps stopping along the way to help his friends with their problems. Due to this, he doesn't arrive in time to set things up, but his friends return the favors he did for them by helping him to set up just in time.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Izzy thinks that the centuries-old donuts in Canterlot will taste better with age, like wine.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While Discord is more misguided than evil at this point, it is clear he still deeply loves Fluttershy, even though it's been very many years (probably centuries), since she passed away. He even rather emotionally admits that Izzy reminds him of Fluttershy.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Again Discord, while not evil anymore, isn't exactly a good guy right now. But when his squirrel companions suggests destroying everypony in Equestria, Discord is shocked, and somewhat angrily reminds them that their plan is to ensure peace... by destroying magic.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: While discussing the sudden loss of magic, the Mane Five recall that it was the renewed friendship between ponies that restored it, so that can't be the problem here. Sunny then realizes what must've happened.Sunny: So if magic is going haywire, then it can't be about friendships- Oh no.
- Felony Misdemeanor: During Issue #3, Hitch admonishes a pony for "galloping in a trot-only zone".
- Fling a Light into the Future: While searching through Fluttershy's cottage, Izzy accidentally activates a crystal containing a message left behind by Fluttershy. Izzy calls it a memory crystal which is capable of recording a message from the past. In her message, Fluttershy pleads with Discord to let go of his anger and embrace the differences between everypony's magic instead of trying to destroy it.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: In Issue #16, a wishing well Nymph named Milkyway switches Pipp and Zipp's cutie marks and lives, so Pipp is the one with royal duties and Zipp is the pop star.
- Gilligan Cut: After Pipp informs everypony in Maretime Bay that one of the Unity Crystals is missing, Zipp calls her out on this as such news would make them panic. Pipp refuses to believe this as she believes her fans would remain calm under pressure. Cut to the entire town freaking out.
- Happy Ending Override: Discord's story appears to take place in the immediate aftermath of Friendship is Magic's epilogue, with a single wicked pony managing to bring the harmony Twilight and her friends had spent years establishing crashing down, forcing Twilight to take drastic measures by draining everypony's magic into the Unity Crystals.
- Here We Go Again!: At the end of Issue #20, Zipp offhandedly wishes Pipp wasn't such a perfectionist, causing Milkyway to pop up once again.
- Hidden Depths: The beginning of issue two shows Sunny to be quite knowledgable about plant life, noting that the shedding leaves of the forest trees will increase the effectiveness of pollination and help them flower.
- History Repeats: In Discord's story, a villain turned the Unicorns, Pegasi and Earth ponies against each other, just as Chrysalis, Cozy Glow and Lord Tirek did during "The Ending of the End".
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: An unusual case even by the franchise's standards — in Issue #1, Zipp turns "whoever" into "whoeverpony".
- Innocently Insensitive: After remembering how she, Zipp and Pipp left her behind and how distant she has become, Sunny tries to comfort Izzy by saying they didn't mean to make her left out and if she had wings they would have invited her to hang out with them. Unfortunately this just makes Izzy feel worse.
- I Resemble That Remark!: When Izzy joins Hitch's nature trail group, he tells her that they need to be quiet, so they don't scare the animals away. Izzy proceeds to loudly inform the rest of the group not speak.
- It's All About Me: Milkyway is more interested in the glory she will receive among her fellow nymphs for the wishes she grants than in actually helping others. When she learns that the "wish" she granted for Pipp has resulted in disaster, she focuses only on how it relates to her.
- Jerk Jock: In the Kenbucky Roller Derby mini-series, Maretime Bay's roller derby team, the Sandy Shore Slammers, are quick to reject Sunny when she tries out for their team, and pile on the mockery when she forms a team of her own.
- The Klutz: Violette Rainbow accidentally causes messes for other ponies during her stay in Maretime Bay, mostly by tripping over things.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- After spending years using the Mirror of Mayhem as a tool to become rich, Fet Lockland perished when he invoked a ritual to try and channel the mirror's power for himself.
- After the effects of the "wish" she granted are finally reversed, Milkyway is punished by her fellow nymphs via being forced to relearn the basics of their ways.
- Made of Indestructium: The Unity Crystals, to the point where Discord spends quite some time seeking out a reliable way to destroy the Pegasus Crystal.
- Meaningful Background Event: When the ponies are watching Fluttershy's recorded message in issue 6, Pipp can be seen recording it on her phone. This later proves vital in issue 10, when Izzy shows the recording to Discord.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Zipp is horrified when she realizes her neglect of Cloudpuff caused him to run away.
- In #5, the lighthouse keeper Lightning Rod recounts how he cast a spell to destroy the Mirror of Mayhem to keep it from hurting anypony else. But in doing so, he caused the entire town of Candlebright Cove to fade away, leaving him wracked with guilt ever since.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Pipp tells all her followers about one of the crystals going missing, causing widespread panic.
- Non-Mammalian Hair: In the Mane Event story "Hair Today, Gone Tommorow", Sparky grows long red hair after Pipp accidentally uses hair growth formula on him.
- Person as Verb: In Issue #19, Zipp is made part of a Canternet meme regarding somepony messing up, in the form of "They Zipped!".
- Picky Eater: Cloudpuff is shown to be one in Issue #3. Queen Haven's instructions for Zipp states that he'll only drink "fresh water from a crystal waterfall".
- Power Incontinence:
- With a Unity Crystal missing, ponies struggle to use their magic.
- Discord still has his chaos magic, but it briefly glitches out when he begins his "show".
- Pun: When Zipp uses a picture Pipp took earlier in the day to realize a vase in Sunny's vase was moved out of place (confirming somepony else was there), she smugly remarks that the case is "Zipped".
- Reality Warper: Milkyway's magic doesn't just switch the royal sisters' roles and cutie marks, but alters the memory of everypony so that they think it was always this way.
- Red Herring: In Issue #3, Zipp spots what appears to be Discord's tail... only to find that it's actually a pony in a costume.
- The Reveal:
- Discord is alive and was the thief who stole the pegasus crystal.
- Twilight was the one who created the Unity Crystals.
- Opaline used to be a unicorn, was alive during Twilight's reign, and caused racial tensions that led Twilight to create the crystals.
- Revolting Rescue: When Pipp falls out of the sky, Izzy improvises a cushion for her out of the contents of a smoothie cart. Pipp openly remarks that she hoped for a method that was far less sticky.
- Sanity Slippage:
- Discord is clearly not in his right mind after decades, possibly centuries of isolation and wallowing in grief and misery. Not only is his plan fueled by Insane Troll Logic even by their standards, but he's trying to preserve order among the ponies, which is antithetical to his very nature and even existence.
- Sunny nearly succumbs to this at the beginning of Issue #6, after the Mane Five have spent some time watching a bank of monitors for security cameras they set up in Canterlot castle in hopes of spotting Discord.
- Second Place Is for Winners: In Issue #13. While the Mane Five don't win the baking contest, they still had fun working together, and consider the day a plus.
- Series Continuity Error: Issue #4 has Pipp post photos from Canterlot despite its battery having died in Issue #1 before getting there. It then end with a cliffhanger of Pipp getting an email from Discord, only for Issue #5 to have it be from a pony with information on Discord without an explanation for the inconsistency.
- Sinister Silhouettes: In the flashback, Opaline is always seen covered in shadow.
- Shout-Out:
- Two background Earth ponies resemble Anna and Elsa from Frozen.
- Zipp briefly wears a Sherlock Holmes-style hat when she begins her investigation of the crime scene.
- Discord claims that he and the Mane Six were called "The Mane-ificent Seven".
- Discord jokingly says "No more mutants".
- In the flashback to Twilight's reign shown during Issue #2, a filly who speaks with Fluttershy and Discord resembles Mei Lee.
- Issue Nine has two fans of the Mane Five resemble Snow White and Rapunzel.
- In Issue #20, a picture on Pipp's phone features a father and daughter pony duo who heavily resemble Bandit and Bluey Heeler.
- Skewed Priorities:
- During the search for the crystal, Pipp freaks out over her phone running out of power, and complains about Zipp not letting her bring a charger.
- When Discord conjures up a stage for himself, most of the Mane Five are surprised at this feat of magic... except for Pipp, who claims the lighting isn't very flattering.
- Sleeping Dummy: Cloudpuff makes one out of a ball and some other items so he can run away without Zipp noticing.
- Squee: Sunny is in a near-constant state of awe and amazement when the Mane Five discover the ruins of Canterlot and meet Discord.
- Start My Own: The main story of Kenbucky Roller Derby: After being rejected from the Sandy Shore Slammers, Sunny decides to form her own roller derby team.
- Sympathy for the Devil: In Issue #6, Izzy feels sorry for Discord after seeing Fluttershy's magical message to him. She even says "poor Discord."
- Talking with Signs: Reginald Fursome talks with these in Issue #2.
- The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: After Lightning Rod finishes his tale, the Mane Five depart from his lighthouse... then turn around to find it has vanished.
- Tongue Twister: Invoked by Izzy when she finds a hidden cave.Izzy: So is this a creepy cave for a creepy crystal thief? Bet I can't say that five times fast.
- Spotting the Thread: In Issue #17, Pipp and Zipp manage to convince their friends that things aren't what they seem by having Zipp dance. Her terrible dance moves are enough to convince the others that she couldn't be the pop star they now remember her as being.
- Too Many Cooks Spoil the Soup: In Issue #13, the Mane Five enter a cooking contest. However, their differing ideas leave them struggling to decide on a recipe.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The solicitation for Issue #3 outright says Discord has returned and a variant cover for Issue #5 reveals their appearance. Both of these previews were revealed before Issue #2 was released.
- Trap Door: While investigating Canterlot castle, the Mane Five are all suddenly dropped down trap doors, ending up in a cavern beneath the city.
- Urban Ruins: Canterlot, the once-bustling capital of Equestria, is now just an empty, crumbling shell of its former shelf.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Discord wants to destroy magic because he has come to view it as a source of conflict and division, and thus genuinely believes the world will be better off without magic.
- Wham Shot:
- The first issue ends with Izzy discovering the ruins of Canterlot.
- The Mane Five's host is none other than...Discord!
- While tracking down Reginald Fursome, the Mane Five come across Fluttershy's cottage.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Issue #8 revolves around a time shortly after magic returned to Equestria, with Izzy struggling to find her place.
- You Remind Me of X: Discord tells Izzy that her compassion and willingness to make excuses for others reminds him of Fluttershy.
