Somnambula is from the comics, right?

This song needs more love.

Enjoyable, but I'd say that the story of Sonambula is kind of oddly placed. It was good, but feels like something that should have happened earlier.

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She might be mentioned in the comics, but I'd have to look that up to know because I've only read some of the earlier comics.

Edit: I looked it up and, yes, she's in Legends of Magic Issue 5.

There's also a Somnambula in the G1 My Little Pony series, but she's VERY different from the one in this story. In G1 she's an evil human witch instead of a heroic pegasus.

edited 9th Sep '17 10:19:56 AM by Rainbow

• In which RD becomes a creepy obsessive fan
• To be fair, given the life Daring Do leads, there's a good chance it was blackmail
• I like the typewriter in the background with 2 hoof sized keys. Even if it seems like it would be really inefficient, it's a neat touch.
• It looks like Daring Do's Hero Insurance just ran out
• The travel music sounds a bit reminiscent of Indiana Jones. Or maybe I'm just imagining it.
• It's cool that we're getting a duo adventure episode without the BS map. I'm sure Tobias will be pleased.
• What's Grandpa Pear doing here?
• I just realized the hooded pony stirring up trouble is probably Cabelleron
• Ooh, legend time. I guess they couldn't fit all the legends they wanted in the camping episode.
• I'm not sure how blindfolding Sonambra is supposed to make things more difficult. It's a completely straight path, and she already saw it anyway.
• I wonder when they'll finally catch on to Cabeleron's constant pronoun slips
• Why didn't RD just fly away from the goons?
• Daring Do just left the binoculars lying in the middle of the desert
• And now she repeats the legend, thus convincing the townsfolk that she is literally Sonumbra and should be loved too
• If there is no bridge and nopony can fly, how did they tie RD to the pillar, anyway?
• I guess they could have used telekinesis.
• I really don't think hope is enough to defy the laws of physics
• But then again, this is MLP, so everything magically works out
• You know Cabeleron, if you were going to try to convince the townspeople to go after Daring Do again, maybe you should have done it before the giant public confession? I just don't get the logic behind "Muhahaha, I am an evil one and I tricked all the townspeople into hating Daring Do. By the way, you should hate Daring Do because she broke your statue"
• Where did all that money come from?

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Considering the discussion about Pinkie's behavior that was going on earlier on the thread, I thought it was interesting that in "Daring Done?", Pinkie was the one telling Rainbow Dash to give somepony else their space.

edited 9th Sep '17 7:46:16 PM by Rainbow

Finally getting around to watching the episode.

• You think they'd have cleaned out that infestation faster.

• Also, apparently it's a slow news day. Either that or monster attacks are so routine at this point that nobody bothers to report on them.

• I could've sworn that AK lived further way from Ponyville. Also Pinkie don't mess with the ancient artifact of doom.

• Wow, Pinkie is actually being sensitive here.

• Collateral damage is a thing, yes. Although you are kinda saving the world and such.

• And she did shoot that one pony with the sword.

• Okay to be fair, having an apple cart in the first place is practically asking for someone to destroy it. Applejack can back you up on that. Also, that hooded pony is obviously Cabelleron trying to ruin Daring's reputation I mean come on. Also, she's creating construction and repair jobs.

• Yeah, not paying the bill is kind of a dick move.

• There is a muffin. Derpy can't be far.

• Dangit, RD you were doing well until you decided to insult their history. You should know better than that by now.

• That voice doesn't quite fit the sphinx. Also going across that bridge would be freaky but as long as you go slowly you could do it by feel. Especially for a pony with four legs.

• Called it!

• Of course there's an obligatory deathtrap.

• Huh, so there's actually a moral about averting collateral damage. Don't see that often.

That was a fun episode overall. Nothing particularly epic, but still enjoyable.

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Ahem.

I didn't write any of that.

R Eally??? So many people saw the leaked video online that we only got a few posts today since i last came here!?

Until you mentioned Grandpa Pear, Story, I thought you were reposting a recap of Daring Don't for a minute.

What matters in this life is much more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win, too. - F. Rogers.

There is an old pony in DD with a similar body style.

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Post of the Day #1935

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@Meta: Shhhh we're trying to rehabilitate a reputation here.

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Of course, the broken window fallacy is only a fallacy under normal economic conditions. In situations with a persistent demand shortfall, it can actually stimulate the economy.

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Well, actually, Somnambula first showed up in "The Crystalling - Part 2". But yes, she was also in the comics, particularly Legends of Magic: Issue #5.

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.

Daring Done

The papercolt is hilarious because of his voice. He sounds like 45 years old. It's an amusing juxtaposition.

"I just love to be a pony in the know, you know?" Ooo, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie are hanging out for no explicit reason. This could be what I've been missing this season!

"What about 'Parasprite Infestation in Fillydelphia Eradicated'? That's great news!" What, just now?! Jesus, Princess Celestia first left to go deal with the Fillydelphia infestation way back in season one. It's been at least three years, probably more, since then! When the Mane Six stopped Pinkie from wandering off with her tuba, they did Equestria a grave disservice. How many ponies have died from his horror?! Why did no one ever do anything about it?!

I am suddenly way more interested in that story than I am in whatever's going to be happening with Daring Do this episode.

"Cloudsdale Election Heating Up for Candidate in Favor of Cooling It Down." Ooo, elected representatives. So there is some measure of democracy in Equestria. I mean, I know there's Mayor Mare, but I don't remember it ever being established whether the mayor is an elected or appointed position before now.

"I never knew you were so into politics, Rainbow!" She's not, but she probably should consider getting into it. She's a Wonderbolt now. Military and government have a very close relationship with each other, and it would behoove her to have at least a moderate understanding of what's going on in the upper echelons.

It's not without reason that many politicians come from a military background. Military service is a good springboard into a political career.

Also, apparently A.K. Yearling is retiring. Neat. I've never been that interested in Daring Do since her in-universe defictionalization, to be honest. I'm still more interested in that Parasprite story, plus Daring Do is usually a solo venture for Rainbow and this season's had more than enough of those already. But if she retires, at least we don't need to have any more Daring Do episodes, so that's a net positive.

Unless she doesn't. Then this will just be Celestial Advice all over again. "How will Rainbow Dash deal with the shocking revelation that it's time for Daring Do to retire?! She won't have to because it's not happening right now. Whew! Kicked that can down the street a little." A self-defeating episode that takes a potentially intriguing premise and ruins it with a conclusion that undermines the entire premise while also using up the concept so that an episode actually exploring it can never be made again.

But I'm sure they wouldn't be so daft as to play that card twice. God, I hope they aren't.

"A.K. Yearling just retired, like, today. Are you sure she wants visitors?" Oh, hi, Pinkie. It's good to see you still here. I figured you'd f*ck off while the credits were rolling so Rainbow could go have her Daring Do adventure by herself like she always does. I appreciate you so much for sticking around even though this plot has nothing to do with you. It means a lot to me.

"Sigh. Nothing's been stolen." Oh, goddammit, she's retiring because nothing exciting has happened to her recently and so she has nothing to write about. Not because that's just what happens to ponies when they get older. So there's going to be some big adventure that gives her back her inspiration and she's going to unretire and Rainbow Dash will live happily ever after without ever having to come to terms with Yearling's retirement. Right?

"As your friends, we completely understand. Right, Rainbow Dash?" ^.^ Seriously. I'm so glad Pinkie's here.

"Everypony I try to help is mad at me." Oh. So it's not that she hasn't had an adventure recently, it's that she has shitty PR. Which is kinda funny given that she's her own PR machine. You know, I can kinda see what they're so upset about, if only because I'd imagine somepony who writes elaborate novels about how awesome she, personally, is might be too self-involved to notice the collateral damage she's leaving behind. Just a thought. The books are base on a true story, but it still takes a special kind of narcissist to write historical fiction about your own life.

I emphasize "based" on a true story because not having read a Daring Do novel, we don't actually know accurate to the real life events they are, and Yearling is hardly an unbiased third party.

I'm still miffed that she's not actually going to retire. Perfectly good premise wasted on this episode's intro.

"So all we have to do is go down there and explain to these ponies that none of this stuff is true!" Wait, so the plan is for Daring Do to use her Yearling guise as a sockpuppet to argue about how cool Daring Do is? I'd say this is a bad plan Rainbow's hatching, but bragging about how cool she is without being labelled a braggart is the Yearling identity's entire purpose.

Man, it's a good thing she's kept this trick a secret. If it gets out, then before long, we might wind up meeting the Great and Enthusiastic Pixie who would like a moment of your time to talk about this awesome stage magician she just got back from seeing.

"Why is all this happening now?" It's probably not. She did just say she got back from an excursion in South Equestria and just noticed it. It's entirely probable that this discontent with Daring Do acting like an inconsiderate American danger-tourist has probably been growing for some time.

I mean, no, it's probably an evil plan by Caballeron to discredit her so she retires and she'll go down there, beat him up, and unretire. But I’m just saying, if we were to play this straight, it would make perfect sense.

"Why don't we go visit this village, Somnambula, and see for ourselves!" Uh, excuse me? Somnambula? That sounds an awful lot like sleep-walking to me. So they're all hypnotized, then?

Man, Daring Do could dodge this bullet by just investing in a larger vocabulary.

"You really think so?!" She came around awfully quick. Pinkie for the win. She appealed to Daring Do's ego by suggesting that she'll get to hear herself be praised.

Speaking of, it also says a lot about the fragility of Daring Do's narcissism that it's apparently just one village of ponies that thinks she sucks and that, in and of itself, is sufficient to shatter her entire sense of self-worth. God forbid she ever discover You Tube comments. Or publish a Friendship Journal.

"I based that entire chapter on my experiences here in Somnambula." Ha! I knew it! She based the chapter on what happened here. The books are not actually a 100% true account of her adventures. She writes historical fiction about herself, because she is a narcissist.

"Hiya there, Mister!" Jesus christ, Grand Pear◊, the mid-life crisis was not kind to you!

"Indeed, Daring Do is a menace who destroys everything she touches." Hi, obviously Caballeron.

"As her friend, I have to make sure she believes that." You know, while I couldn't really care less about the Daring Do plot, this is a good episode for Rainbow Dash. A major problem she has in her writing is that people commonly forget that she's supposed to be the Element of Loyalty. She is constantly disloyal to everyone and anyone in her episodes, and it grates on me. I've complained about this before. But here, she's really getting to showcase that loyalty that is ostensibly supposed to be such an integral part of her.

Also, Pinkie's still here. Even though this isn't her episode. So. Y'know. Props for that. Friendship! It means doing stuff that isn't about you sometimes!

"Ooh ooh, I know him! He's a baddy!" And that's all it took to get ponies wondering if maybe the mysterious stranger they've never seen before doesn't have all the facts in order. Which is not a criticism. Ponies being incredibly, almost painfully gullible is a long-established aspect of this universe.

I love the hieroglyphic artwork in the story of Somnambula but I'm terribly confused by how Egyptian it is. I thought we were in pony-equivalent South America?

Also, sphinxes and pharaohs. That's also a thing. This is so egyptian. Could the writers just not be arsed to learn about South American culture for this episode? Because if they couldn't, then why even put this in "South Equestria"? Surely there's some horse pun that could be made of an Egyptian locale.

"I shine brightest in the dark. I am there but cannot be seen. To have me costs you nothing. To be without me costs you everything." A stalker. The dark is where he's comfortable, because it allows him to be there and not be seen, which gives him the chance to...uh...shine. He comes to you without being asked so it costs you nothing, but getting him to go away can cause him to turn violent, even murderously so. ...wait, are you coming on to Somnambula?

"Guided by the sound of the prince's voice, she easily made it across." The challenge was seriously that she just had to walk across a bridge? I was waiting for some kind of trick to it. Yo, Sphinx, uh…you might not know this, but ponies are quadrupeds. It's a very stable body type that means a misplaced step doesn't have to completely topple you over. If she accidentally stepped into the chasm, she can just withdraw her hoof and place it on solid ground.

Making it across a bridge blindfolded as a pony is basically just trial and error.

I love how quickly the crowd goes from, "Yeah, Daring Do's cool," to "Boo! Lynch her!" based entirely on who's talking to them. Pony gullibility will never not be funny.

'Why would Caballeron unmask himself?!'' What the hell?! That is the laziest possible way of discovering his ploy. Goddammit, episode.

"When I saw you, her closest friend, I knew that Daring Do would not be far behind." So I decided, hey, what better way to ensure my evil plan succeeds than by needlessly revealing myself to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that everything I have worked to set up here is all an elaborate fabrication not representative of people's actual feelings at all!

"But I can't have you running off and telling her my plan." Yeah, well, tough shit. Rainbow Dash can fly. Really, really fast, too, so even if you have pegasus thugs, they’ll be eating her dust in seconds. She—

Or she could just let herself be captured like a dumbshit. That works too.

"If my previous plan didn't cause you to give up—" Yeah, let me stop you right there, because admitting that it was an evil plan to her face pretty much kills any possible demoralization that the town's opinions should rightly have had over her.

Huh. There was never actually a bridge. The story got it wrong. That makes much more sense. She probably wasn't even blindfolded either 'cause, like, what would be the point of blindfolding her and telling her there's a bridge? That would just give her a false sense of security and allow her to accidentally discover the way across.

I love how nopony questions Caballeron's thugs dragging a huge loot bag through town.

"And with the destruction you leave in your wake, it didn't take much to convince other ponies that you were the villain!" Oh, good. We're acknowledging that her causing a bunch of collateral damage and then whisking away without a care in the world isn't just something Caballeron made up. That makes me happy.

"But I'm glad I realized that even if you're fighting for something good, you're still responsible for your actions." So am I! Oh, wait, I'm not because the Caballeron cop-out resulted in no part of this episode actually being about that. But I do acknowledge that it would have been a fantastic story. One we'll never get because this episode exists.

So, this wasn't really what I was interested in seeing. Multiple times, actually. This was just another shallow Daring Do adventure, but dressed up like it was something more meaningful. The plot just felt weak, especially when Caballeron had to resort to unmasking himself just because Rainbow and Daring Do were just so bad at actually getting the story moving. The narrative momentum was all over the place. There was a bit of world-building, but even that was fairly questionable in the choices made.

In any other season, I'd be more negative about this episode, but I'm just so happy that Pinkie stuck around and hung out with Rainbow and Daring Do right now. It's, fittingly enough, an oasis in the desert. Rainbow Dash actually gets to demonstrate her Element - a rare occurrence for her character - while the interactions and camaradarie between the characters felt fair. Not great, but it was there, and in this season, that means everything.

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Well, she's best friends with one of the nation's monarchs, and has met the other ones on numerous occasions, so it's not like it would take long for her to get any info. Not to mention that the Wonderbolts are honestly Mildly Military at best.

If anything she needs to take more of an interesting local politics.

edited 10th Sep '17 7:21:11 PM by JapaneseTeeth

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I thought you'd be rejoicing over the fact that we got a Duo adventure episode that didn't involve the cutie map.

As for the Parasprite infestation, I assumed it was just a different infestation. They could hae come back after all.

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I was quite pleased by that part, yes.

And it was a Pinkiedash episode, to boot. That's one of my favorite duos.

edited 10th Sep '17 7:28:04 PM by TobiasDrake

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Post of the Day #1936

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I felt the episode was a little average, but I liked how Pinkie Pie was reasonable about not being overbearing and intrusive.

Also, I interpret it as how there was never a bridge in the first place. The story has a bridge, but it's possible it wasn't there. I think that could be neat. But this also might be a tie-in to one of the comics, so I'd have to read it if there is one.

My interpretation, anyway. Unreliable narrator. Of course that might be colored because I just watched an episode of a show that was a flashback with the memories of someone suffering from dementia.

edited 11th Sep '17 12:56:31 PM by Pannic

Fanfiction I hate.

It is a tie-in to the most recent Legends comic. The campfire stories were also apparently tie-ins to the same sub-series. I haven't gotten around to reading them yet to see how closely they do tie in, though.

FE: New Mystery Fresh Cart Lunatic 7PM PT Sun, Mon, Fri; Expert Unicorn Overlord 7PM PT Wed, Thurs: http://www.twitch.tv/kuroitsubasatenshi

I'd better get on comixology then.

Fanfiction I hate.

So, I was browsing the various MLP pages here, and once I reached the Characters page I realized something:

It's probably about time to move Starlight Glimmer from the "Supporting Characters" to the "Main Characters" section.

The problem is that I really don't like the way it looks to just put Starlight on the list with the rest of the characters. Even though Starlight is part of the main cast, she's not part of the Mane 6. There's a very obvious distinction the show tries to make between Starlight and everyone else (she's barely even interacted with any of them besides Twilight and Spike). You could put her in her own section, but a section with only one character just looks... wrong.

But on the other hand, Starlight is actually very similar to Spike. Both are part of the main cast without being part of the Mane 6, both interact primarily with Twilight and each other, and they both seem to be forming the same group of friends (see Thorax and Ember). So lumping those two together might work.

So, with that in mind, there are a few ways to format this:

Option 1: Do nothing. Keep Starlight in the Supporting Characters section.

Option 2: Simply add Starlight beneath Fluttershy in the "Mane Cast" section.

Option 3: Move Spike and Starlight out of the "Mane 6" but keep them in the "Main Cast", which acknowledges that the two are part of the Mane 6's story and unrelated to the CMC story. Visual.

Option 4: Have the "Mane 6", "Cutie Mark Crusaders" and whatever the Spike/Starlight section is all be on an equal level. Visual. Having the three Crusaders have their own pages is optional, but it'd be nice if all the main characters had individual pages.

I feel like I've put too much thought into what ought to be a simple matter, but I find it surprisingly difficult to think of a way to include her that looks good.

Any thoughts?

edited 11th Sep '17 3:48:38 PM by Unknownlight

Option 2 sounds about right. She's pretty much on CMC level of importance by now.

This song needs more love.

I haven't read them myself, but I am following a continuity-minded blogger who's trying to fit the comics and the show into a coherent universe. From what I heard, the three stories in "Campfire Tales" were all prequels to the stories from "Legends of Magic". And there are still some details that don't quite fit. Like, the comics didn't say outright how Rockhoof got so big and strong, but did imply it was through training and hard work, rather than a sudden magic surge.

I didn't write any of that.