My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Annual 2013

HELLOOOO! Welcome to Culture's Compendium of Reviews! As always I'm Culture Shock. Your guide to everything cultural in Equestria and beyond. Today I'm firing another first at you but first let me go over the usual rules and formalities. First and foremost any and all opinions within this are strictly my own. They do not nor should not effect the majority opinions on the specific content it is about. If I happen to mispell anything or make any mistakes please feel free to leave a comment down below. With that out of the way lets move on to the review.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Annual 2013. The first sentence and its already a mouthful. Anyways this is the iconic precursor to what we know as the Equestria Girls anthology of films. To some it gave us an interesting chapter in the fourth generation of MLP. To others.... not so much. Personally since its the first comic I've read that wasn't fanmade I'm actually happy with it. While I can't speak for the art since I'm personally terrible at it I definitely think the story answered a small majority of questions about Sunset. At the same time however it brought up quite a few new ones.

We start of course with Sunset performing her former talent. Stroking her ego in front of the school faculty. One thing that catches my eye is the comedic satire from the background ponies. Another thing I notice is Sunsets relatability to another well known Twi-rival and minor villain, Trixie. The comparison is made painfully obvious by Sunset's blatant need to ignore what she's doing followed up by her sudden desire to overdue her presentation. This of course is just the icing on this bomb cake.

Moving on we get our first mind blowing reveal. Now I'm not sure if all of you have watched the initial films that followed the comic but as we know it was the first time on film that both Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle(Princess at the time) were seen in the same place. With that in mind you can guess how surprised I was to find a young Twilight in the background with a teenage Cadence(assuming) and Shining Armor. Internally my jaw dropped. The shockers don't stop there as we also get introduced to a familiar group of background ponies. Two of which were also in the first episode of season one. Now that scene alone had me curious on just how these ponies age. I mean that just brings new meaning to the phrase "youthful vitality".

Anyways our unnamed foursome approaches Sunset with greetings of cheers and praise as well as friendship. You know. That thing the show enforces most of all. And how does Sunset respond? With politeness? NO! The girl literally puts the noxious in OBnoxious.

Continuing on we finally get to see a bit into Sunset and Celestia's initial relationship as student and teacher. And just like the rest of her personality Sunset is a trainwreck of a student. In all fairness though Celestia is just as guilty. Regardless of her royal position and image I'm more than sure Celestia could have been less patient and forgiving with Trixie 1.0....I MEAN SUNSET!

As the scenes progress we find out just how Sunset first became so enamored with the crystal mirror and its power. Now besides the obvious excuse for a "mirror,mirror" gag its right around here that we get our second mind blowing point. After Celestia delivers her oh so dutiful lesson on ethics to a brickwall we get treated to a hidden teaser. While Celestia escorts Sunset away she asks "... Wait. What was that?" in regards to something she sees in the mirror. Looking closely at the surface we can plainly see what looks like a human figure in the mirrors reflection. Is this a coincidence or perhaps a clever nod to the EQG movies cleverly hidden by IDW and Hasbro? If you answered coincidence then you my friend need more schooling.

After her less then cheery time with Celestia Sunset becomes openly obsessed with the crystal mirror. So much that every chance she gets she tries to pry more about it out of a less than impatient Celestia. Fortunately Celestia remains adamant in her ideals and refuses to open up until Sunset is ready. Unfortunately this only serves to add more fuel to the flames of Sunsets already roaring ego.

Being the bratty, ill-tempered drama queen she was Sunset decides that if Celestia wasn't going to spill she was going to find her own answers. And how does she do this? By breaking into restricted library space. For shame Sunset. You aren't ready for the adults section. All joking aside the most shocking part here is the fact that Equestria, a land of pastel horses, would the necronomicon(the book of the dead) in their library. At this point I feel I can already guess which age group the comics were intially aimed at.

Anyways, after being spotted by the now awake librarian Sunset is confronted by a disappointedly furious Celestia flanked by two clone troopers. Or were those royal guards? Hmm..... Getting back on topic Sunset finally seems to drop her semi-polite demeanor only to demand wha all ego driven characters want. Power. And lots of it. While I agree her power more than qualified her to be an alicorn its not all there is to it. Power, no matter how vast, can only take you so far. Some prime examples are Trixie, Diamond Tiara, and SciTwi. All three characters had the power to achieve their goals but couldn't get very far with it. Only by learning how to use and not use that power can someone achieve their dreams. At least that's what Celestia wanted Sunset to learn but nooo. Like any regular egotistical student it always went over her head. That was the falling point of Sunset's life in Equestria.

Moving on, feeling at her wits end Celestia decides to terminate Sunsets mentorship. Effective immediately. To summarize she flat out kicks her out for being a hard headed and nearsighted pain in her rear. Sunset of course, wanting to get the last word in, exclaims that this is the worst Celestia could make in her entire life. That's, in Sunset's way, excluding Lunas banishment. Honestly though I do applaud Celestia for putting up with Sunset's previous attitude. Unfortunately her timing could have been a bit more planned as its here when Sunset decides to make her great escape. What confuses me about this ending is that according to a random flier Sunset just so happens to right at the weeking leading up to the fall formal. The very dance were Princess Twilight and her EQG friends defeat her. Could this mean that Sunset had gone forward in time? Or was it perhaps a year before that very dance? That is a question only the comic and show writers could answer.

The rest of the comic following Sunsets escape goes in to explain how the Humane 5 first met. Aside from some possible cameos and classic cartoon shoutouts not much can be said. Though it does have its own confusing moments Babs Seed being a sophmore in high school. Not to mention Sunset somehow knowing exactly who those five will become.

Alright then That was my review on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Annual 2013. Whether you have or haven't seen the EQG films I definitely reccomend you pick up this comic. It explains so much in just a short time. While the character comparisons were a bit heavy, in the end I enjoyed this comic and I feel kinda bummed I missed out when it first came out. All in all I give this issue an 8 / 10. Anyways I hope you enjoyed this review. Don't forget to leave a like if you haven't already done so and leave comment if you think I missed or if you have a suggestion for a future review. Also be sure to subscribe so you can keep up with all my updates. As always my name is Culture Shock, your guide to all things cultural in Equestria and beyond, saying KEEP CALM AND BRONY ON! PEACE!