Hello & welcome back to the Nightmare Night celebration as we look at the second two issues in The Return of Queen Chrysalis. We didn't look at covers last time and considering that we are once again covering 2 issues, I think it best to skip that portion and dive right into the plot section. With that outta the way, let's begin.
The Plot
We open with a recap of what happened in the last issue. And this is a nice little touch.
When the story proper opens, we see Chrysalis and her Changeling army invading a land of fluffy kittens and annihilate them. Okay, then. That got dark.
And we soon learn that Chrissy is after revenge.
I want Celestia's little pet.... Twilight Sparkle. Perfect little Twilight Clever little Twilight. Brilliant little Twilight. She saw through it all... it's all her fault that we aren't rebuilding Canterlot into our newest conquest. .... I'm going to bring that purple menace here.... put her and her friends through trials that will band them together. Then, when their emotions are peaked, I'm going to drain Twilight Sparkle.
Yep, The Changeling Queen wants revenge against Purple Smart. And we see that Chrissy is starting to regret the capture of the CMC as their constant talking is starting to drive them crazy. And then, we catch up with the girls and see that they are broken up still. As we see Fluttershy and Twilight. Hmm, this comic showed this pairing long before the show as we didn't get a Flutters and Twily episode until season 5. Which is fascinating as this comic came out in 2012 and season 5 didn't air until 2015. Oh, and then, we get a Star Trek reference from Best Pony after Fluttershy says that they may have been too harsh on the others.
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few... even if the few were big meanie heads. We need to look past this and work together to save those fillies.
Beyond, the Star Trek reference, this is also funny as IDW has the Star Trek comics license. We catch up with AJ and Miss Rarity and things aren't going much better. We go back to the Changeling Hive and see that Chrissy is losing their patience with the CMC. We also see that Pinkie and Rainbow Dash aren't having much luck either as Dash is trying to start a fire with sticks but, ponies have hooves and can't exactly hold sticks to rub them together. Where's Spike, when you need him? We also see that Dashie is starting to get annoyed by the Pink Party Pony as she is about break out into song. And we are introduced to the most horrifying things in this arc.
Rainbow Dash and I have the same exact facial reaction as those things are just creepy and I'm pretty sure, that they show up in a future MLP comic. And it get evens worse, when we see Pinkie and Dash in them.
We see Twily and Flutters falling through a hole in the forest after a check-in with Chrissy and are almost attacked by a ferocious looking creature. Rares and AJ aren't having much luck either as they fall down a waterfall but they get out of it by using giant flowers to float away. And Dash and Pinkie, now out of those costumes are attacked by a pair of vicious fluffy bunnies. And we see Pinkie and Dashie escaping as the future Wonderbolt takes flight and the cowpony and the fashionista are behind the Party Pony and 20 percent cooler. The 4 girls wallop the bunnies and head off and fall over the cliff of a mountain after catching up with Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle. All the girls apologize to one another and that costume makes a comeback. And this gives me one of my favorite moments with a facehoof from Dash.
Applejack: Er. are just going to ignore that costume?
Rainbow Dash: Please don't ask about it.
The girls are closer to The Changeling Hive and that brings them closer to saving their sisters. And for Chrissy, it can't wait for it be over. And this issue ends the same way, it started with Spike and Angel Bunny previewing what's to come. And that brings us to the 4th issue.
As we open on the final issue, we see that the Mane Six have arrived at The Changeling Kingdom. And silly me, I forgot to bring this up but Chrissy is hoping a magical surgem thanks to something known as The Secretariat Comet. We saw the girls make their way through the kingdom. Oh, and Pinkie still has that scary costume. And as they go through the castle, it seems that the Escher of the Changeling Kingdom was Chrissy's interior designer. We also see the girls go through the castle and get a fun montage of fun and funny references from a pony version of the Temple of Doom villain, a Pony Pennywise (I'll be hiding under my covers to finish this review), pony versions of the twins from The Shining and a pony version of The Phantom.
For anyone that doesn't think that MLP can't be scary, look at this.
And of course, Pinkie is upset that she didn't get the door with the clown. She instead got a floating head, I think may have been a reference to Madam Leota but she's not a villain and all the other references seem to be famous villains. And let it sink in, that there are two Stephen King references in this montage. For anyone not convinced that isn't Pennywise, there is a balloon and the clown's line is.
Hey Georgie!
I mean yeah, MLP has done references to adult material before but Stephen King references aren't exactly what you would think of. I know focusing so much on King here but Phantom and Temple aren't that shocking to me to see in an MLP comic because as while they are rather dark, Temple is still remembered as a movie that you can show kids and Phantom has been around for so long, that it just feels different. But with King, not so much. To be fair with both of these references though, they are most likely referencing the original adaptations more than King's books as Pony Pennywise, Ponywise (?) looks like Curry's version of Pennywise.
Jeez, for someone that is terrified of clowns, I sure spent a lot of time talking about this particular moment. You know, when I first joined the Brony community, I thought I was going to get fun and cute stories with pastel ponies going on adventures and learning the meaning of life. Not scary pony clowns. I've spent so much time on this particular aspect. So, after facing down the embodiment of all evil for this review, let's get back to the plot. Unless someone wants to take over the review from here. Any takers?
I guess not!!! Fine then, Twily opens the final door and that leads here to Queen Chrysalis and The Changeling Queen is ready to take down the future Princess of Friendship. The rest of the girls attempt to fight the Changelings but they are soon trapped alongside their sisters. And we do get a pretty cool fight between Twilight and Chrissy. And the Comet is coming and Chrissy can feel it's power. But Twilight also feels it's power as it also gives her a magical surge. And Chrissy tries to Vader Twilight into joining the Dark Side, I mean the Changeling Hive. Become her pupil. But Twily says that she'd rather be a drained husk of herself before joining her. Chrysalis gives her a second option, Twilight stays and teaches her and she'll let Twilight's friends go. It seems that Twily is in a no-win situation but she soon feels a surge in her magic and we get one of the coolest moments as we Celestia's Most Faithful Student take on The Changeling Queen.
The fight last a couple pages until Twilight sends Chrissy blasting off again and everyone is reunited and it appears that Spike and Tia had quite an adventure of their own. (it's a back story in this issue, so we won't go too much into it) And the issue ends with a defeated Changeling Queen telling her hive to just shut up.
I'll be honest, I was not a big fan of this arc, when I first read it as I had felt Chrissy was overhyped at the time but going back and re-reading it, you could not have had a better arc to start off IDW's extensive and generally well-regarded run of My Little Pony comics. Plus using one of the most popular villains and exploring more with her was a great idea. This arc is just simply fantastic.
Characters
I realize that I didn't speak much about the characters in the first part of this review as it was more about the journey than the characters. The second half of the arc does focus more on the characters and giving them all time to shine but once again, there really isn't much to say here. Except for the strong standout being Queen Chrysalis as they really expanded upon the personality that we saw of her in the season 2 finale. And also showing that not only is she a formidable foe for the Mane Six, this comic made her even more terrifying.
My Final Thoughts
This arch is just fantastic. It starts a little slow in the first two issues but when you get to issues 3 & 4, you get a lot of great moments. And the ending is just great. If you are a fan of MLP and haven't read these comics, do yourself a favor and check them out as you will not be disappointed. Join me next time as we conclude our Nightmare Night celebration as we look at FIENDship is Magic # 5
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