My Little Pony 'n Friends: The Quest of the Princess Ponies (G1 TV Episodes, 1987, 4x 10 minutes)

Here we are at the second season of the first My Little Pony cartoon. It looks like we're starting of with an adventure-type four-parter.

Part 1

Ponies in conical hats, using magic wands. Those hats are often called 'hennin' now, but they had a variety of different names back in the wide range of period where they were popular. 15th Century-19th century all the way from Western Europe where they had the name Capuchon to the Middle East where they were known as Tantour.

Mix of pony types, all of which are called 'princess ponies'. All arguing over who's to be Queen.

Spike's wandering around lost, relying on bushwoolies. Wow, he's desperate.

He's not in dream valley. Instead he's found the 'Royal Paradise', only royalty lives there.

Uh. Okay, random strangers get to decide who's Queen. Ominous, as usually it is random strangers who get sacrificed to the harvest gods in *place* of the King.

Whole bunches of magic being thrown around here out of the wands, including weather magic, plant growth, Duplication of a Living creature!

Another viewing pool, being used by some kind of mud monster? Or is it supposed to be lava?

Princess ponies are legendary, and guard the magic of ponyland.

Yep, lava. Lava demons, in fact, ruled by Lavan? After all the magic wands.

Lavan has direct heat blasts, blasting one of the princess pegasi out of the sky.

The lava dude wants to use the wands to transform himself into a crystal creature with immense power.

Not as easy as billed, again.

The crystal desert is expanding under the power, weather is going nuts.... and all the unicorn magic is triggering randomly in Paradise Valley.

Part 2

Bushwoolie got crystalized by the expanding crystal desert.

Princess Tiffany. So they don't follow the same naming convention as regular ponies.

Bushwoolies doing something... useful? It's the apocalypse come early.

Who's this?

Hereditary enemies of the lava demons. Spike again uses fire breath as a weapon.

Okay, these guys are ice demons or something.

Incorrect address according to modern usage. Your Highness would be correct now. Your Majesty is normally reserved for the ruling monarch.

Actually, that's a good song. The Princesses are putting aside their prissiness, and are actively doing something they normally wouldn't because it's necessary.

Lavan managing to achieve his ends by using the wands one at a time rather than all at once.

His heat blasts are now rainbow blasts.

Okay, all the lava demons have heat blasts, and the ice demons have cold blasts.

The animation was a bit weird, but I think Megan has just lost the locket with the rainbow of light. Which is odd, because she had officially turned it over to the ponies way back when.

Part 3

Spike's actually quite violent.

Ice Orks! Interesting. Despite what you are normally told, Tolkien did not invent the term orc. What he did was narrow the definition down to a specific creature. Orcneas appeared as a word in Old English in the poem Beowulf, apparently referring to something similar to, but not a ogre (referred to as an ettin) or an elf. Probably rooted in Orcus, one of the many chthonic Gods of the Underworld that the Romans stole from other religions and made synonymous with Pluto, Hades and Dis Pater.

Oh the stupid Moochick again.

Lavan is now a full crystal being.

Okay, back to the Queen election.

Aggressive chair, reminds me of a Doctor Who episode from way back when.

Book of Lost Answers? Twilight would *kill* for this thing.

Seek the Heart of Ponyland.

All the wands are drained into Lavan.

Part 4

Heart of Ponyland is the original source of all magic in Ponyland.

I changed my mind, the songs are *really* repetitive.

Woah, wait, wait! The Heart of Ponyland, a large gemstone with coloured facets. Including what looks like six crowns on the top facets. Orange, green and purple, repeated, with a pink facet on top with no crown. Six crowns. Is this the earliest version of the Elements of Harmony and the Crystal Heart?

Putting the wants in the crowns will recharge the wands.

Bunch of fighting.

Only five wands getting charged, leaving one crown unused.

Five wands working together starts out with a unique effect, but near the end it looked like the rainbow of light.

YOU HANDED THE ULTIMATE MAGIC POWER CROWNS TO THE BUSHWOOLIES! Oh dear lord. One crown kept by the princess ponies.

Until the last bushwoolie shows up, and now has a magic crown too.