• Pony Community Soapbox #112 - The Family of Gallus, Rainbow Dash and Pie, South Korean Law, and more!


    Community soapbox time, where opinions from around the fandom are dropped down below for you all to discuss and debate! Expect these posts normally when not late every Tuesday at 2:00 PM MST. To submit your own, see this post.

    Headlines for the week:

    • Who is Gallus' family?
    • A Greater Mystery than Starswirl- Comet Tail
    • In the Defense of Rainbow Dash, Or, I Was Wrong About "Secrets and Pies"
    • South Korea's Hidden Law Regarding Select MLP Products
    • Simultaneous Friendship Map missions

    And get your soapboxes below!



    Who is Gallus' family?
    By: MegaSean45


    In Surf and/or Turf, we met Silverstream's family! Then in Hearth's Warming Club, we met Yona's family, Sandbar's family, and all changelings are family so Ocellus', so that leaves only two mysteries: Gallus and Smolder! I already talked about who Smolder's family could be, so let's talk about Gallus!

    Well, I'm gonna take the obvious route and say that Gallus is actually an heir to Griffonstone's throne! It's been many moons since Griffonstone had a ruler, and royalty could still be around, just not ruling, and perhaps the decedents of the latest Griffonstone king forgotten their rule. But somehow, Gallus would find out that he's actually royalty, and that it's up to him to restore Griffonstone to it's rightful glory! Gilda and Gabby did their, but grffins are still a bunch of turkey jerkies! Maybe that's where Gallus comes in, as the first king of Griffonstone in a loooooong time! He's got the makings of a great leader, and will know what's best for Griffin-kind! He deserves it, especially with his sad past!

    This might be season 9 though if it's gonna happen. I don't think there's enough room in 8 for this.

    A Greater Mystery than Starswirl- Comet Tail
    By: Nightmare Muffin

    For many years, Starswirl has been an enigma of a pony in the MLP series, but as great and accomplished as he was back in his time, I think there is a more intriguing pony that few know anything about. The great and mysterious Comet Tail. This pony makes quite a few appearances in the show, but also in the chapter books, Enterplay TradingCards, and sprinkled throughout the toyline as well. One rather curious tidbit about him, in the Daring Do books, is that he’s an ancient sorcerer, astronomer and founding member of a secret society of ponies known as the Magical Council of the Ancients, who desire to protect rare and valuable magical artifacts, and use Daring Do as a means to do so. Comet Tail was also responsible for linking the power of the Half-Gilded Horseshoe to the Halo of Cirrostrata. Other books like “Twilight Sparkle and the Forgotten Books of Autumn” flesh him out further, describing him as a powerful sorcerer known as “Comet Tail the Starry-Eyed”, one who placed a so-called curse on the now lost city of Bales. This, of course, turns out to be a misunderstanding, as he cast a spell not to curse Bales but to protect its vast collection of books. However, because he cast the Shield of Wisdom on the Spring Equine-nox instead of the Autumnal Equine-nox, the spell created an "invisibubble" that turned the whole town invisible.


    In “Starlight Glimmer and the Secret Suite”, he’s a legend of a mare’s tale who had a curse named after him; a magical yet believed-to-be-imaginary affliction in which unicorns are permanently stripped of their magic if they try to alter another wizard's magic and leave it incomplete. Spike, however, assures Twilight that the curse isn’t real and that she’s merely drained from overusing her magic. One of his Enterplay trading cards has his title as “Hale Bopper”, which is a reference to an actual comet, Hale-Bopp. Another card of his has him practicing his trademark speed-up magic that allows him to run really fast- fast enough to appear as if he were a comet. Who is this guy?!


    In the Defense of Rainbow Dash, Or, I Was Wrong About "Secrets and Pies"
    By: Chad Wuttke


    Remember my first ever entry for the Pony Community Soapbox when I thought that the episode in question was rather late to the party due to how Rainbow Dash acted? Well, after thinking about it for a while and looking at the episode from a different perspective, I realize that I was wrong. Why the change of heart, you may ask? Allow me to explain.

    Knowing that RD isn't a fan of pie whatsoever, it's understandable that she knew that Pinkie put her heart and soul into making all of those pies for one of her best friends. However, given RD's situation prior to Pinkie catching wind of her game, the former didn't want to break the latter's heart fearing how'd she react if she found out. Ergo, Rainbow pretended to have eaten the pies to make Pinkie happy while secretly getting rid of them when Pinkie wasn't looking, ultimately killing two birds with one stone. Plus, and credit where it's due of course, Pinkie's efforts to catch Rainbow in the act made for a really hilarious Second Act with some of the comedy hitting Looney Tunes levels of humor. In the end, while "Secrets and Pies" still isn't my favorite episode of Season 7, it's not the disappointing episode that I once thought it was.


    South Korea's Hidden Law Regarding Select MLP Products
    By: Tadashi (FirePuppy)

    While I was surfing the internet for MLP items old and new, all I found at all for South Korea was G4 items and absolutely nothing from earlier generations. Which convinces me, there could be a secret hidden law that might be preventing the import and distribution of certain MLP-related products.

    You see, ever since the series' launch in 1982 and throughout all of the 1990s and 2000s, pretty much nothing My Little Pony related ever officially made its way to South Korea, kinda like all the Japanese media I grew up with, and anything related to the franchise during that whole time period were most likely either bootlegs or rip-offs. And when My Little Pony first reached South Korea in 2014, the show premiered on cable/satellite (NOT terrestrial) television, where even Japanese music and TV dramas are allowed there!

    Also, The Movie went straight to VOD, and was never seen in theaters (not even in film festivals), nor got a Blu-ray or DVD release. In fact, the ONLY My Little Pony DVD they have whatsoever is a boxset that might have been bootlegged from Shout! Factory's Season One DVD.

    Honestly, what's going on with South Korea's insane government?


    Simultaneous Friendship Map missions
    By: MegaSean45

    Remember Just for Sidekicks and Games Ponies Play in season 3, and then Made in Manehattan and Brotherhooves Social in season 5? They both had episodes take place simultaneously - that means, at the same time! That's right, I'm smart, I know big words! :3 What if we had this happen again, only with friendship missions instead? The map calls the Mane 6 to 3 different locations at the same time, and the chosen 2 ponies would go and handle that friendship problem! Or better yet, Spike and Starlight get sent one place, and then Twilight and Sunburst get sent to another place for 2 different episodes but happening at the same time! I like that latter idea better because it's sending the best friend of the other to a different quest, so it would mix things up a bit and we'd get friendship development between Twilight and Sunburst, and Spike and Starlight, which are both duos the fandom really wants to see more of! :3 Also 'latter' means the choice after! Smarty! ^_^

    So what do you think? Simultaneous map missions next season in 2 different episodes? :3 You remember what 'simultaneous' means, right? Right, just checkin'! ;)