Comic review: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic issue #25

Price's A cover just beat out Richard's B for me

The latest arc in the My Little Pony main series, "The Good, the Bad and the Ponies", is a two-part Cook/Price/Breckel affair – and so will be the following one, apparently. I have somewhat mixed feelings about that: these guys have produced some wonderful comics over the time they've been doing it, but I am getting a bit irritated with their clear lack of interest in the pegasi. Fluttershy especially, of course, but Rainbow Dash doesn't tend to get much love, either. Is it better this time round? Let's see.

Well, before I get to that, I'll say that I don't have a problem with the Wild West setting. Yes, it's clichéd, but so are pirate ships and jewel heists, and we've had both of those. It makes sense that some of Applejack's enormous extended family would live in a place like Canter Creek, and there's some pleasing continuity in having the desperado cattle from the AJ/Rarity team-up return for a full outing. (Even if they did seem a lot less formidable in that one.) But back to the pegasi...

...and no, they don't get much to do. Fluttershy doesn't do much at all, beyond make one very funny joke with (as it happens) Rainbow Dash. As for Dashie, she gets treated rather badly, too: Twilight (of whom more in a minute) and Rarity use their magic to put out a barn fire and Rainbow just ends up drenched. Admittedly it does allow us to see a truly adorable scene of Dash licking her feathers clean, but that's small compensation. Still, I could live with this if it were the issue's worst sin.

So, Equestrian citizens have free rein to smash things up? Nice one, Twi

And that's Twilight. Yes, Twilight. This is by far her worst outing in any of the IDW comics so far. Yes, worse than her micro. Why? Because of one piece of truly unbelievable characterisation, when she refuses to use her magic to stop the rampaging bulls, on the grounds that it would be wrong to do this to non-magical Equestrian citizens. These bulls, incidentally (to pick out just two things) badly hurt Applejack right in front of Twi and aim to burn innocent town-dwellers out of their homes.

Twilight's justification for her inaction makes absolutely no sense. In the pirate arc, she didn't have any problem giving ponies little warning zaps to keep them in line. Even if you allow her a suddenly-discovered total pacifism, there are plenty of non-violent means such a powerful alicorn could use to hold back the bulls. After all, in "Castle Mane-ia", she used a freeze spell on her best friends to stop them causing damage to the castle or each other. That would have worked here.

The "Trixie in Manehattan" arc proved that Twilight doesn't have to be in every issue, and therein lies the way out that should have been taken here: Twi should have gone with Spike to the Pony Trek convention. It would have been in character for her to look after the dragon, while her bizarre "chicken spring roll" plan could easily have been cooked up by Pinkie in her stead. Unless next month brings a truly stupendous explanation, what actually happened was a mess.

Look on the bright side: at least they won't be cold any more

It's a real shame that I've had to spend so long complaining about one thing – but sadly, that one thing desperately undermines the entire story. The rest of the issue, though a little straightforward and predictable at times, is quite enjoyable and Price's art is some of the best I've seen from him so far, playing with Western tropes nicely. The villains themselves are also fairly interesting characters, whose apparent ability to shrug off being coated in burning syrup leads me to wonder what on Equus their hide is actually made of!

We get a few extras this time round. Cook's one-page "How Sheriff Tumbleweed Got His Cutie Mark" is so-so and the picture of Spike's cosplay at the Pony Trek con is disappointingly dull, but the three-page backup Zecora story by Sara Richard is quite another matter. Even with the comic's major problems, it's worth buying for this tale alone, which is spectacularly illustrated. Apparently, Richard has no interest in working on full-length Pony stories: if so, that's a crying shame.

I spotted very few references (beyond the obvious Western ones) for a comic by this lot, though I suppose "kemosabe" might be considered obscure these days. So, on to my wrap-up. Let's face it, if you've read this far then you know what I'm going to say: this is a potentially hugely enjoyable comic reduced to mediocrity by a wildly unconvincing Twilight. I like Twi, but there's no doubt in my mind that it would have been far, far better had she not featured in this issue at all. Sadly, my score has to reflect this.

A single panel from Sara Richard's backup story

Yays

• Richard's amazing art in the backup story
• Price's art is some of the most eye-catching he's done
• A little more world-building
• The villains look like quite interesting characters
• Fluttershy's "Bull" joke is hilarious

Neighs

• Twilight
• Twilight
• Twilight
• The pegasi are marginalised again in a C/P/B story

5/10