The origins of cutie marks, friendships, magic and more are available in this new ongoing series devoted to revealing the secret history of Equestria! In this opening story arc, we travel back in time to uncover the secrets of Starswirl the Bearded and his magical friends!
Legends of Magic is the fourth spin-off series in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic comic series, replacing Friends Forever series. The comic showcases ponies of the past and details their magic that helped shape Equestia into what it is in the present day, and serves as a direct tie-in to Season 7 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
This series provides examples of these tropes (for more, please also visit the issue recaps and character guide):
- Continuity Overlap: As well as in the main series, IDW set out to make the comics more inline with the show starting with its Season 7, and thus had some insight onto the upcoming episodes to establish stories. The Legends series seemingly loosely provides background on the various legends brought up in episodes, but we find out by the season finale that these stories (up through #6) were setting up the season finale, and issues #7 and onward build off narratives introduced in the finale.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- These issues were released before the Season 7 episode "Campfire Tales", the adventures that originally made Rockhoof, Mistmane and Flash Magnus famous are recounted. Likewise Somnambula's story makes up part of "Daring Done?" and Mage Meadowbrook in "A Health of Information" (although she was initially name-dropped during the Season 5 premiere).
- Issue #7 introduces Stygian and the Equestrian appearance of the Sirens, and was published about two weeks prior to the Season 7 finale in which their relationship with the other Legends is described.
- Framing Device: The series begins with Celestia showing Sunburst to Starswirl's old study to help him find material to aid his own magical research. Sunburst becomes interested in Starswirl's collection of myths and stories, and the stories proper begins as Sunburst begins to read them.
- Never Trust a Trailer: Despite what the summary says, "The origins of cutie marks," be they individual marks or cutie marks in general, never come up.
- Shout-Out: Among the ponies watching Rockhoof chug an entire bowl of oats in one go in Issue #2 is a ponified Lucina.
- Worldbuilding: The series is built on the premise of exploring Equestria and its historical figures' backstory.
