Recap / My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (IDW) "Issue 96 to 97"

Season 10 Episode 8 to 9

Story by Jeremy Whitley, Art by Tony Fleecs, Colored by Heather Breckel

"Season 10 continues here! Twilight Sparkle has sent our favorite fillies on a journey of outreach all over Equestria! But when Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Trixie, Discord, and Capper visit Abyssinia, their trip turns sour fast—they weren’t supposed to end up in jail! Good thing Capper’s old friends are pretty good cat burglars…"

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Issue 96 to 97 contain examples of:

• Amazing Technicolor Population: Most of the Abyssinians have colors seen in real life cats with the notable exception of Max who has blue fur with purple stripes.
• Animal Jingoism: Capper is surprised to hear that a pair of Diamond Dogs nursed Chummer back to health (with Chummer admitting he was surprised too).
• An Aesop: As Fluttershy summarizes in her letter to Twilight, some friendships that you thought were lost can return when you need them most. And while sometimes, a friend can frustrate you, they can also turn things around and come through in a pinch.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Molly is the sole kitten in Capper's old gang.
• Badass Boast:
  • Discord gets one when he's freed from his collar.
    Guard: What kind of creature has a neck that goes clank when you hit it?
    Discord: I love riddles, I know the answer to this one—a free one.
  • Fluttershy, of all people, gets one shortly after the king's ax is turned into a feather.
    King Meowmeow: What is the meaning of this?
    Fluttershy: It doesn't have to have a meaning. It's chaos. And he's my best friend.
• Batman Gambit: King Meowmeow has been trying to get into the magical temple for years but none of his guards could pick the lock so when he found out who Capper was he made sure word of Capper's return and imprisonment reached Capper's old friends and then ordered his men to let Capper and his new friends be "rescued" so that Capper could pick the lock for him so he can destroy the source of magic in the temple while having his guards capture Capper and all his friends. What the king didn't anticipate was Discord being freed from his collar.
• The Big Guy: Max is the biggest member of the gang, and also the strongest, able to knock out a guard with a single punch.
• The Cameo:
  • Verko briefly appears in Capper's flashback.
  • Tempest Shadow appears when Capper recaps the events of the movie.
  • When the magic of the Abyssinian Tree of Harmony is released, one of the Cloud Gremlins from Rainbow Dash's issue of the Micro Series briefly appears.
• Comically Missing the Point: Pinkie Pie, unsurprisingly, doesn't get the point when one of the Abyssinian guards directs the group to a 'No Loitering' sign, saying that loitering is her sister Maud's favorite sport.
• Commonality Connection:
  • Pinkie Pie takes an immediate liking to the high-spirited Molly, a feeling which is vindicated when Molly is revealed to be the bearer of the Abyssinian Element of Laughter.
  Pinkie: I knew I liked you!
  • Trixie admits to liking the "cunning and brilliant" Admiral Fluffington's style.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The events of "The Farasian Shores" are mentioned by Rainbow Dash.
  • Capper and Trixie's friendship was first established in the Nightmare Knights miniseries.
  • Capper brings up the events of both the movie and his issue of the movie's prequel comic.
  • Pinkie twice mentions the time Trixie placed a dome over Ponyville.
  • Fluttershy mentions Discord being trapped in stone for a thousand years, once betraying the ponies, and losing his magic twice before.
  • The power of her Element changes Shadow's ears and tail, causing them to resemble those of Baast, Discord's old friend from Issue #24. Both Discord and Fluttershy note the resemblence, implying that the Abyssinians are distant descendants of Baast's people.
• Cool Shades: Capper's recollection of the events of the movie involves him, the Mane Six and Tempest Shadow all wearing these.
• The Coup: After the magic is released, King Meowmeow is ousted from the throne and taken away by his former guards.
• Does Not Like Magic: After the Storm King's invasion, King Meowmeow has banned all magic from Abyssinia. When he discovers the Abyssinian Tree of Harmony, he immediately seeks to destroy it despite Fluttershy telling him it is a source of friendship.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Fluttershy insists that Discord not use his chaos magic while they're in Panthera. This of course leaves him open to having an Anti-Magic collar put on him.
• Eyepatch of Power: Chummer is shown with one. A flash-back shows that Chummer still had both his eyes after the crash meaning he more than likely got the eyepatch during his time in La Résistance.
• Fountain of Youth: The first thing Discord does after getting his magic back is turn the guards attacking him and Molly into kittens.
• Gilligan Cut: Capper gives a big friendship speech to King Meowmeow and asks him to reconsider his ruling. The very next panel shows Capper behind bars.
• Heel–Face Turn: Chummer has done this since his last appearance in the movie's prequel comic.
• Heel Realization: After being nursed back to health by Pepper and Salty, two Diamond Dogs, Chummer realized that not everyone does something in hopes of getting something in return.
• Hey, That's My Line!: Trixie isn't happy about Discord borrowing her "great and powerful" moniker.
• Irony: The Abyssinian Tree of Harmony is saved by Discord, a former spreader of disharmony.
• It's All About Me:
  • Trixie considers herself the reason Capper is able to make friends again. She also refers to the group as her "entourage".
  • King Meowmeow is this fully. Contrary to what he says, he's not ruling the kingdom as a Police State to protect his people. If he did, he wouldn't create a law against homelessness which is completely unrelated to fear of magic, reject anything that contradicts his anti-magic views, or try to destroy a magical tree (And you do know what happened when Equestria's tree got destroyed). He even says a similar line to Scar (I'm the king. I'll do what I want.) which means he cares only for himself, and nobody else.
• It's All My Fault: Fluttershy believes that she shouldn't have put restrictions on Discord using his powers since they ended up causing him to be unable to use them when he is hit with a magic-disabling collar.
• La Résistance: Capper's old friends have formed this against the tyrannical King Meowmeow.
• The Magic Comes Back: Activating the Abyssinian Tree of Harmony's Elements causes the tree's magic to spread all over Abyssinia.
• My Instincts Are Showing: During the jailbreak, Capper's old friends use yarnballs and laser pointers to distract the guards.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Trixie using magic against the Abyssinian guards soon ends up with the group arrested.
  • After Trixie is freed from her Anti-Magic collar she tries to free Discord from his only to fuse it together so that the lock can't be picked, although...
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: One of the guards attacks Discord with "the night stick" (a club) and happens to hit his collar which promptly breaks off, and after that the guards and the king himself are dealt with quickly and easily.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Discord's restraint in using magic upon Fluttershy's orders soon causes him being unable to use magic when he wears a magic-disabling collar (along with Trixie), rendering him unhelpful to bust his team out of prison.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Capper accepts Chummer's apology on these guards, pointing out that he did some pretty rotten things himself after Chummer betrayed him.
• Pass the Popcorn: Trixie invokes this when Capper starts recalling his past.
  Trixie: This is an excellent setup. If we had brought popcorn, Trixie would be chomping it.
• Police State: King Meowmeow makes Panthera into this, with his police constantly patrolling the street. The second part reveals that they have also been locking up anyone without a home.
• Remember the New Guy?: King Meowmeow, son of the Abyssinian king and queen featured in previous issues.
• Restraining Bolt: Both Discord and Trixie have magic-nullifying collars placed on them by the Panthera police forces.
• Rousing Speech: Capper ends up giving a truly epic one when trying to convince the king of his former land to accept magic again...too bad it ends up with him and his comrades in jail.
• Series Continuity Error:
  • The conflict stems from the Abyssinians being fearful of magic due to the Storm King using it to subjugate their land. But My Little Pony: The Movie Prequel showed the Storm King and his forces didn't use magic when invading, and the Storm King's lack of magic drove the plot of The Movie as he sought to acquire magic.
  • Subverted and lampshaded. While in jail, Discord says he can't remember a time he's ever lost his magic before, but Fluttershy recalls that he actually has several times.
• Stealth Expert: Shadow is extremely quiet and sneaky, making her an excellent spy. When she brings Fluttershy along with her, she expresses amazement at how quiet she is.
• Story-Breaker Power: Once Discord is freed from his Anti-Magic collar the guards attacking him and Molly are turned into kittens, King Meowmeow's ax is turned into a feather, and the king and all his remaining guards are levitated away all in quick succession thus resolving things extremely easily.
  Molly: Wow.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Molly's specialty is explosives.
• There Is Another: A Tree of Harmony is discovered in a temple beneath Abyssinia, with Capper and his old friends being its Elements of Harmony; Shadow is the Element of Magic, Max is Honesty, Admiral Fluffington is Kindness, Molly is Laughter, Capper is Generosity, and Chummer is Loyalty.
• Tunnel Network: Panthera has one beneath its streets, which Capper and his friends used to move about unnoticed.
• We Need a Distraction: Fluttershy's plan involves the powerless Discord and Molly drawing away the guards from the mysterious door.
• Wham Shot: Near the end of the first comic, it is revealed that the one who arranged the jailbreak is Capper's former friend, Chummer.
• What Would X Do?: Chummer states after returning to Abyssinia, he decided to help La Résistance against King Meowmeow, believing it was what Capper would do. Capper admits that what he actually did was keep scamming people in Klugetown.