toonbat

I usually hate the whole 'character singing super badly' joke, since it's an open invitation for the writers and composers to make no effort and just write badly, citing that 'that's the joke'. Very rarely have I seen it be truly be amusing. In fact, the only example that comes to mind is the Francis Scott Key skit from Whitest Kids You Know. Oh, and in this particular case, I found it at least bearable, because even though the lyrics were (understandibly) awful, the actual music was good.

Spike was not raised by Celestia, regardless of what Faust says. Nothing in the show itself even remotely suggests it, and indeed seems to all but directly contradict it. Fans overreacted to the abrupt introduction of Shining Armor. Yeah, it came out of nowhere, but that's to be expected. We barely know anything about any of the Mane Six's families, except for the Apple family, and for Sweetie Belle. I mean, if we were to suddenly meet Fluttershy's parents, I'm pretty sure the overall feeling from the fandom would be euphoria, not betrayal.

Something that really fleshed out Princess Celestia. She's been a major figure in the show since the beginning, but we still know very little about her, and she hasn't really had that many memorable scenes. That, plus a ton of good Luna interaction scenes, please. Luna's a fun dramatic character, and all, but what really made me love her was her comedic side in the Luna Eclipsed episode, and her more memorable appearances in the IDW COMICS.

His body was destroyed, but that's the thing. He didn't even have a body the first time we met him. Anything goes.

I love anthro ponies, and frequently draw them.

Now that I think about it, Rarity's perfectionism would probably be an even bigger problem than Twi's, since in the scenario you just described, I can easily picture her just doing all of her kid's homework after it becomes obvious that he or she won't be able to get it all right the first time. You know the type. Kid shows up at school with a diorama that obviously cost 200 dollars to make, and was clearly not made by any child's hands.

Aw, nuts. Guess I'll haveta stick with the IDW comics.

I'm still hoping for Sombra myself. If he did die at the end of the Crystal Empire, then it makes sense that he would have gone to Tartarus.

Silly Truffle Shuffle! Everypony knows Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy is OTP.

To everyone who picked Dashie, I gotta say.... she WOULD be one of the worst options as she is right now, but I still gotta hand it to her, we're dealing with a very different Rainbow Dash now than we did in Season 1. Throughout her character-focused episodes, we've seen her grow more disciplined, and respond better to authority, not to mention seeing her wield some authority of her own, and proving that she can be very good at it. Being patient and understanding doesn't come naturally to her, but she's proven she can be both, as shown in Hurricane Fluttershy. She's also shown that she's much more willing to be nurturing and affectionate, courtesy of Tank and Scootaloo. Don't get me wrong. I still wouldn't trust her with a potted plant, let alone a foal, and it doesn't help that she's shown no indication of wanting to be a mother in the first place, but there's no denying she's far more suited for the role than she was when we first met her, and everything indicates she'll only be moreso in the future, should she finally incline to take on that task. Fluttershy's a great pick for best mom, being kind, loving and nurturing. The biggest concern here for me is that the whole point of parenthood is to prepare children to face the challenges of the real world... and she's not exactly the most qualified to teach anybody that . I also would foresee a lot of trouble dealing with teenage kids, as she is very vulnerable to confrontation, and it's awfully easy to hurt someone in anger when you're young and frustrated and start to steer away from your parents' beliefs. That being said, Fluttershy is stronger and wiser than she herself believes, and I trust she'll do quite nicely on the whole. I think all the Mane Six would, in the long run, but I'm pretty sure some would stumble more than others, and I'm really enjoying all your theories so far.

Gotta go with Rarity myself. She's my favorite, but definitely has a record of being terrible with kids, with the inconsistent exception of Spike. I do think she could be a wonderful mom, but it's gonna be an uphill battle for both.

Then how do you explain Flim and Flam?

Celestia is actually a federation alien, and the Prime Directive prevents her from taking any actions that would impact the development of Equestria in any meaningful way.

I would love it if his cutie mark was identical to Cadance's, symbolizing that they both have a legitimate claim to the throne. Either that, or something completely unexpected, like a bowl of Jello salad, or a picture of his butt, with his cutie mark being repeated infinitely smaller in each successive butt.

I picked the teenage dragons as my problem with the episode. I do enjoy a good bullying villain, when it's actually interesting, but they weren't terribly creative or funny with anything they did. A good villain torments the hero, but entertains the audience, and I didn't find them anything they said or did was cruelly witty, or disturbingly suggestive, or in any way memorable. On the other hand, I'm glad they gave them some degree of dimention by not having them just be 'out to get' Spike, since they did acknowledge his victories, and celebrated his successes. The real nasty side of it was that all that the tests set out to prove was how much Spike was willing to give up of himself to be more like them. They certainly would never have celebrated his kindness, his acceptance of others, or his willingness to serve and to please, so that was somewhat interesting, at least, but not enough to make them compelling characters.

Zecora and Fluttershy? I'm already looking forward to the shipfics! Seriously? Is that just your suspicion, or did you hear that from somewhere?

Regarding secondary vs background characters, point taken. I'd love a Vinyl Scratch comic! They already gave Octavia a few lines of dialogue on the Big Mac comic, but I don't think they've done anything that interesting with Scratch yet. We can only hope. Thunderlane? He's pretty cool, but he's gonna have his work cut out for him if he wants to make it to the top of my list. Too many awesome characters for him to compete against. Nice! You know, seeing as how the comics have already addressed her by name (kinda), had her work as a mailmare, shown her obsession with muffins, and even had her have a conversation with Doctor Whooves (sorta), it looks like they've hit upon every popular fan theory about her... except one. I'd die of happiness if a Derpy comic depicted her as being motherly to Dinky.

Episode? She should have her own spinoff!

As much as I would adore a Maud issue, I didn't place her higher on my own list because she already had a whole episode about herself, which is something almost no other background character can boast.

With IDW already having done a whole story focusing on a background pony, namely Big Mac, do you have any hopes that they might do something similar for another background character? If so, which would be your three favorite picks? I include my own: Zecora: She really deserves to step out of her plot device status and have a real conflict of her own for the story to focus on. Derpy Hooves: The comics have shown that they embrace fan headcanons moreso than the series itself ever could, so it'd be interesting to see what sort of story they might do with her. Doctor Stable: I've already mentioned at every opportunity that I feel he's the best background pony in the show, being smarmy and cynical while being kind as well, and he has so many cool side characters to work with, like Nursery Rhyme and Screw Loose.

Fluttershy has already kidnapped the princess's pet bird.

Since mules are canon in the show, we can assume donkeys and ponies can reproduce. Now, if the pony parent of the couple is a unicorn or a pegasus, would you say it's possible for their foal to be born with wings or a horn? Could we ever hope to see hinny-corns or peg-asses on the show? Also, since the mules we've seen do not have a cutie mark, do you suppose this means that cutie mark genes are recessive, or are cutie marks simply not genetic at all, but purely magical? And finally, since mules, donkeys and saddle arabians have no cutie mark, could that mean that only ponies get them, and that therefore Zecora's cutie mark is not a cutie mark at all, but just a tatto of some sort?