Misterian

You make a very interesting point with this. Rainbow Dash and Rarity having their Cutie Marks replaced with an '=' sign? no doubt at this same story line, we'll be seeing the rest of the Mane 6 facing the same problem. Assuming this isn't done by accident like in the Season 3 finale, it's quite likely whoever is behind this has something against the very concept of Cutie Marks. I saw the animatic, where the Mane 6 find a town of ponies with that same '=' sign Cutie Mark, there's clearly something sinister going on, I'm almost getting a Ba Sing Se from Avatar: The Last Airbender vibe out of what I'm seeing in this town, if you know I mean.

Yeah, it's like Banul said, we don't know enough about how long Equestrian Ponies live to really draw any conclusions on who will outlive who. Another thing is that the show never explicitly said Alicorns were immortal, we fans just came to the conclusion because Celestia has been around for 1000 years, and living that long doesn't automatically make her immortal, it just means she's lived longer than Yoda. As for Luna, she spent that same 1000 years trapped into being a force of darkness on the moon, and we don't even know if there's any food or water on the moon and if not, she didn't seem to need any of it to survive as Nightmare Moon for a millennia. Also, since Ponies in Equestria have access to magic, or even magical items, far was we know, there could be plenty of spells that help with needed medical procedures or even enhance longevity. So with the lack any solid info on how long ponies live, i find myself less and less worried about how Twilight won't outlive her friends the more I think about it, maybe Twilight and her friends will actually all become immortal, maybe Twilight will eventually pass away before any of her friends do. Either way, I'm not really worried.

Impressive! I imagine Pinkie herself would be proud of such an achievement.

Part of me still respectfully disagrees with the idea of Scootaloo staying strictly disabled. I won't hold the show against it if they officially go that route, but that's just it; they haven't! Despite the fact the 'Flight To The Finish' did address Scootaloo's apparent inability to fly, the episode left it ambiguous and whether or not she'll eventually be able to one day. Also, even after this episode, we still get scenes of Scootaloo hovering, why? if we're supposed to acknowledge that Scoots might never be able to fly, why is the show still showing us these brief scenes? Please tell me this; what sense would it make to say a character can't do something, yet keep giving hints that it might change?

Okay, I think this episode is really good and all, and I'm glad they gave an actual purpose behind for Twilight being a princess. but at the risk of sounding nitpicky, you know the whole thing about Twilight deciding to be Princess of Friendship and the whole thing about how she and her friends deciding they're gonna 'spread the magic of friendship to all of Equestria'? Here's my question, doesn't anyone else here think that's the sort of thing they've already been kinda doing since the start of the show? they've spent most of the show learning lessons about friendship and have interacted with several characters who either learned the lesson along with them, or helped the Mane 6 with learning the lesson in question. So does anyone else here think that the Mane 6 are actually deciding to do what they've essentially already been doing from the get-go?

Yeah, I can safely say I like Celestia, especially the Momlestia meme, which I think needs more love. Seriously, have you seen the thousands of fanart with just filly Twilight being with Celestia? my heart melted when I particularly came across this pic from Bri-sta; Why she removed it from her tumblr is beyond me, this is one her best pics!

Perhaps, but it doesn't explain how Twilight's friends would be at risk if they know what's going on.

Uh, excuse me, Celestia, I don't mean to nitpick, but how exactly will allowing Twilight's friend know she's essentially been super-charged would be 'putting them at risk'? You surely know they're be suspicous of Twilight (as they somewhat prove to be in the preview before this one), and because of this they'll just keep following Twilight as long as they think something is up, so what exactly is the point? Oh well, maybe it will make more sense when the episode proper comes up.

Well, I can say this much. Notice how the clip showed the Ponyville Library seemingly getting blown up? yet in the same clip, we get a look at what looks like a crystalized version of the Golden Oaks library, and it looks like it's still in Ponyville. So if nothing else, I think we've got evidence at least that Twilight will still live in Ponyville during Season 5, possibly even the rest of the series depending on where they're going from here. Also, I personally hope to see the show provide further justification for what need there is for Twilight to remain a princess beyond the title being her reward for what she's learned about friendship. To be fair though, if they didn't, I probably won't mind too much as long as Twilight will still live in Ponyville with her friends. I do hope this finale turns out well, given the reception Magical Mystery Cure got from giving us Alicorn Twilight, I think DHX will be alright as long as they don't make too many drastic changes beyond giving the Mane 6 the Rainbow Power thing and Twilight's newly renovated library (or castle if you want to go there). But again, as long as Twilight gets to remain in Ponyville, I'll probably be fine with however this turns out, after all, there's only so much you change about MLP:FiM before it stops being MLP:FiM, and I think if nothing else, DHX knows this, so I'm willing hope for the best.

My Dad knows, he found it a little bizarre, but didn't seem bothered by it. I tried showing him the first two episodes to get him interested, I even made him promise to watch episodes of the show (on Netflix) with me on my birthday last year. I had.. somewhat mixed results, though he cheated somewhat when he pulled out his laptop and started playing Solitaire (I think) during the first fourth of the first episode, he kept saying he was watching the episode, but thanks to the fact he had that laptop around, I couldn't tell for certain. He did sort of make up for it by putting his laptop away when we got to the second episode, and made it clear he was genuinely watching the episode, he even chuckled at most of the scenes with Pinkie Pie. Unfortunately, the first two episodes weren't enough and my attempt at getting him interested failed, but then, my dear ol' Dad is the sort of person who's interests range from sitcoms (ala Two and a Half Men and Modern Family), Crime shows (ala Heat of the Night and Law and Order), or certain movies (Scorpion King, Armageddon, Taken, and the Iron Man movies to name afew). As for the rest of my family, my second-youngest sister (age 20) got interested in the show I think around the same time I did, but decided to more or less leave the fandom because she caught the.... more unpleasent side to us. She still likes the show to some extent and is cool with talking about show with me, but she isn't really a major in the fandom anymore. My youngest sister (age 8) loves the show and has quite a good amount of MLP toys, I even got her some of those said toys (like a certain talking Princess Cadance, for example). She knows about the Periphery Demographic and even knows I'm a brony. I even showed her a good chuck of some MLP fan works, I read her some one-shot fanfics, showed her some pics from Beavernator (which she found strange, but also cute), I even showed her some fan videos, like Snowdrop, Double Rainboom, and even Adventures of Button Mash (along with the Don't Mine At Night Parody). She even has some friends that know I'm a brony, but they don't think bad of me for it, my youngest sister did tell me one of her friends thought I was weird, but that's it. But then, I made no effort to hide that I was a brony, when I borrowed some MLP comics from my public library, I balantly admitted to the librarians that I was a brony, they only reacted by saying 'there's nothing wrong with that', heck I admitted to a cashier at Fred Meyer that I was a Brony when I came here to buy a birthday present for my youngest sister (which happened to be an MLP toy, that miniset with figures of Applebloom, Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon to be exact), the cashier looked surprised, but didn't seem bothered either. Seems the city of Spokane, Washington might be somewhat brony and pegasister friendly, but I don't know, I don't get out often enough know for certain. Does anyone else live in this city that know for certain?

I know I brought this up already already, but the writers never addressed the idea of of Spike waiting until he's an adult himself before trying to date Rarity. Heck, I asked McCarthy about that idea on her Twitter afew days ago and she hasn't replied yet. So unless the writers give out an official reason for why the idea of the adult Spike and Rarity pairing won't be possible, I'm still gonna consider this pairing alive and kicking, regardless of what some of you here might say. It might seem that Dragons age slowly, but no canon sources have really given us any clear info on how slowly. Also, we don't have any info on how Equestrian ponies age and how long they live.

I keep hearing the age gap as the reason the Sparity pairing shouldn't be pulled off. yet I'm still hearing no counter-arguments against the idea of Spike waiting until he is of legal age before pursuing a relationship with Sparity. Seriously, some of us here have already brought up the 'Adult Spike/Still-Adult Rarity' pairing idea, yet for some reason, no ones responding in support of the idea, nor railing against it.