That One Little Girl's 'Pony' Cartoon that's Slowly Devouring the Internet

[RoninFox]

If I understand right, the reason behind the short schedule was so that if they were cancelled after this season, they would have just enough episodes for syndication.  With the show being picked up for another season, I'm curious if it'll go back to long seasons, or if they'll keep to shorter ones from here on.  I personally hope for longer ones so that two parters could be more regular.  The only two parter of season 3 was the Crystal Empire premiere, right?

I really wish the second Discord ep was a two parter the more I think about it.  The ending just seemed too abrupt for me, Discord giving up far too quickly.  I'd have liked to see more of Discord dealing with the consequences of his actions before reaching his epiphany.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Yeah, she is supposed to be the cousin of Celestia and Luna, so she must be pretty darn old also.  So I guess we can take it as being a very rare event to have a new alicorn (always good for collectables).

If I understand right, the reason behind the short schedule was so that if they were cancelled after this season, they would have just enough episodes for syndication.  With the show being picked up for another season, I'm curious if it'll go back to long seasons,

Season 4 is listed on most websites as 26 episodes.

[Rainbow Dash]

I think Celestia and Luna are immortal, or at least very long lived, and that Twilight and Cadance are something else.  We've seen Cadance age normally in the series, thanks to Twilight's flashbacks. And I think Twilight is probably simmilar to Cadance.  They're alicorns, but they're not imortals like Celestia and Luna.

While Twilight seems to have been destined for this since episode 1, we know that Cadance was roiginaly a unicorn and Hasbro wanted another Princess toy to sell, so she's really just been wedged into the canon of things.

I think they missed an opportunity to foreshadow Twilight by not having Cadance earn her Alicorn status after love beaming Chrysalis.  I even think it would have worked a lot better to have done the Crystal Empire as the S2 finale.  Have Cadance be another student of Celestia, sent up there to take charge.  Earning her wings after she activates the Crystal heart at the end.  Heck, they even could have used it to introduce Shining Armor as head of the guard sent to the empire with her, and then do the pony wedding in the S3 premier.  Chrysalis attacking a new fledgeling city, rather than Canterlot.

[The Lurker]

Yeah, she is supposed to be the cousin of Celestia and Luna, so she must be pretty darn old also.  So I guess we can take it as being a very rare event to have a new alicorn (always good for collectables).

If I understand right, the reason behind the short schedule was so that if they were cancelled after this season, they would have just enough episodes for syndication.  With the show being picked up for another season, I'm curious if it'll go back to long seasons,

Season 4 is listed on most websites as 26 episodes.

Cadence is actually Celestia's niece.

[Rainbow Dash]

I don't think her relation has ever been stated in the series, has it?  There's a short novel coming out in a month or so that is supposed to be about Twilight going to Cadance for advice and learning a bit more about Cadance.  Maybe we'll get answers there.

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/02/details-on-crystal-heart-spell-book.html

A royal event has turned Twilight Sparkle's life upside down. To learn how to handle her new status, Twilight goes to Princess Cadance for some guidance. The princess shares her own story about how she came to rule the Crystal Empire and a magic spell that helped her follow her heart. Inspired by Princess Cadance, Twilight Sparkle sets off on a quest for the Crystal Heart Spell!

Granted, all I expect is a story about once she got to the empire, rather than a real back story.  They didn't try to develop her or SA and this season and seemed to have an attitude of just leaving them in the Crystal Empire and forgetting about them.

[The Lurker]

It was mentioned on the back of the one of the official DVDs.

[Relaxing Dragon]

I think they missed an opportunity to foreshadow Twilight by not having Cadance earn her Alicorn status after love beaming Chrysalis.  I even think it would have worked a lot better to have done the Crystal Empire as the S2 finale.  Have Cadance be another student of Celestia, sent up there to take charge.  Earning her wings after she activates the Crystal heart at the end.  Heck, they even could have used it to introduce Shining Armor as head of the guard sent to the empire with her, and then do the pony wedding in the S3 premier.  Chrysalis attacking a new fledgeling city, rather than Canterlot.

I rather like this idea, but in general, we've got to always accept the fact that the showrunners are working with the eternal handicap that is "this is a toy show". That means that it can be tricky to make long-term plans for stuff they didn't know they would have to include until later on. Personally I think they're doing as good a job as can be done, although I will admit to projecting more than a little fanon on certain things to cover the gaps (good thing this fandom has no shortage of that).

[The Lurker]

Cadence seems to most likely be a genetic alicorn, if she really is Celestia's niece, so that wouldn't be necessary.

[Rainbow Dash]

Time for pony funnies.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

That second one is great.  But Twilight would not have sent the letter, she would have driven herself crazy trying to finish the spell (as she was told to do, she would want to disappoint).  And fixing her friends that way would not have given her the clues how to do that.

[Pyramid Head]

Well after season three left me with an even stronger loathing of human life i'm glad to say it was the last season i'll have to watch.  That said if the writing standard continues to drop at the rate it's been doing since episode one (And i don't see anything else happening after they turned Twilight into a princess with absolutely no foreshadowing outside of trailers that don't count) i personally don't see the show lasting.  Especially since from what i've gathered Hasbro has nothing but disdain for the adult audience of the show and are planning to completely excise a character called Derpy from the show.

Mind you Derpy was a background character so why she has a fanbase is even more explicable than the fan base for Boba Fett from Star Wars.  He had a jet pack, she looks like a pony depiction of Down's Syndrome.  While i don't personally find that as offensive as say... a lobotomized writer of teen dramas trying to touch on abortion when most of her previous books came off as overtly preaching abstinence, i'm kind of surprised Derpy actually survived as long as she did anyway before bitching parents got her taken out.

[Rainbow Dash]

They certainly ended on a cliffhanger.  It's obvious they thought it was the end, and honestly, had it been the end, it would have been one excellent finale episode.  That being said, these writers have managed to turn a show about colorful ponies into a pretty good run of episodes.  I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that, and believe they can return in S4 with a good way to carry on.  Twilight leveled up, but that really has been foreshadowed since episode 1.  Even Lauren Faust has said she planed to have Twilight succeed Celestia.  Far as the show goes, she's still Celestia's student, she still has her friends.  Where it goes from here, who knows. 

[The Lurker]

Also, Derpy was in Magic Duel and appeared several times during the finale, so she isn't gone yet.  As for Twilight, her elemental artifact is technically a tiara, so there's that, too.

[Relaxing Dragon]

They certainly ended on a cliffhanger.  It's obvious they thought it was the end, and honestly, had it been the end, it would have been one excellent finale episode.  That being said, these writers have managed to turn a show about colorful ponies into a pretty good run of episodes.  I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that, and believe they can return in S4 with a good way to carry on.  Twilight leveled up, but that really has been foreshadowed since episode 1.  Even Lauren Faust has said she planed to have Twilight succeed Celestia.  Far as the show goes, she's still Celestia's student, she still has her friends.  Where it goes from here, who knows. 

Not to mention the more explicit foreshadowing in that little book shown at the end of the S3 premier.

[Rainbow Dash]

They certainly ended on a cliffhanger.  It's obvious they thought it was the end, and honestly, had it been the end, it would have been one excellent finale episode.  That being said, these writers have managed to turn a show about colorful ponies into a pretty good run of episodes.  I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that, and believe they can return in S4 with a good way to carry on.  Twilight leveled up, but that really has been foreshadowed since episode 1.  Even Lauren Faust has said she planed to have Twilight succeed Celestia.  Far as the show goes, she's still Celestia's student, she still has her friends.  Where it goes from here, who knows. 

Not to mention the more explicit foreshadowing in that little book shown at the end of the S3 premier.

Well, even if you go back to episode 1, the element of magic always had Twilight's cutie mark, even in the book when Celestia was using it.  I figure the stones were the original form of the other elements, and they reformed after NMM destroyed them, but the big crown thingy wasn't there.  It appeared when Twilight figured it out.  After hearing that Celestia's theater room is called the Celestial Zone, I kind of wonder if she wasn't watching from there in the pilot and zapped the crown to Twilight after she figured it out.