| My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #100 | |
|---|---|
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| Issue №: | 100 |
| Published: | July 14, 2021 |
| Writer: | Jeremy Whitley Katie Cook (p. 41) |
| Artist: | Andy Price (pp. 1-9, 13-40) Brenda Hickey (pp. 10-12) Katie Cook (p. 41) |
| Colorist: | Heather Breckel (pp. 1-9, 13-40) Brenda Hickey (pp. 10-12) Katie Cook (p. 41) |
| Letterer: | Neil Uyetake |
| Editor: | Megan Brown |
| See also | |
| Credits • Gallery • Allusions | |
| Issue guide | |
| Previous Friendship is Magic #99 |
Next Friendship is Magic #101 |
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #100, also titled Season 10 Episode 12 and The Elements of Love,[1] is the milestone one-hundredth issue of IDW Publishing's Friendship is Magic comic series. It is the double-length twelfth installment of the comics' "Season 10", taking place after the series' season nine. In the issue, Rainbow Dash, Captain Celaeno, and their friends visit the Bird Kingdom, where Celaeno's old friendships are tested and a new, mysterious enemy lurks in the shadows.
An event partially based on the issue, "Welcome to Ornithia", was included in Gameloft's mobile game.
Summary[]
The issue begins with Rainbow Dash, Captain Celaeno, Spitfire, Lyra Heartstrings, and Sweetie Drops arriving at Celaeno's home of Ornithia, a kingdom high in the mountains populated by multiple species of anthropomorphic birds. The kingdom is in the middle of celebrating a royal wedding, and the bride is Celaeno's childhood friend. Inside the castle, the group discovers a fifth Tree of Harmony adorned with six thrones for the royal family, five of which are glowing. On four of the thrones sit King Thaumas, Queen Ozomene, Prince Aello, and Aello's wife Zephyra.
Bride-to-be Princess Ocypete enters, happily greets Celaeno, and introduces the group to her fiancé Prince Huginn. Upon seeing Celaeno in the company of ponies, Huginn quickly excuses himself, which Lyra and Sweetie Drops find suspicious. Rainbow Dash and her friends bombard Ocypete with questions about the Tree of Harmony and the glowing thrones; she leads them into a temple underground while Lyra and Sweetie Drops go to spy on Huginn.
Ocypete explains Ornithia's Elements of Harmony are specifically the "Elements of Love"—generosity, kindness, hope, protection, trust, and perseverance—and that they require three pairs of birds in love in order to function. She explains further that each set of Elements Twilight Sparkle's friends discovered in previous issues represents a different relationship or bond—Love, Family, History, Purpose, and Patriotism—and that the Mane Six's Elements represent a fabled sixth bond. Ocypete goes on to tell the tale of the "Knights of Harmony".
Long ago, on the island kingdom of Cunabula lived two royal families with three siblings each—the original six Knights of Harmony. Believing the outside world to be chaotic, the Knights traveled across the world to bring harmony to other creatures and lands. They found and helped cultivate the Tree of History in the desert kingdom of Farasi, the Tree of Family in the Diamond Dog kingdom of Caninia, the Tree of Purpose in the cat kingdom of Abyssinia, and the Tree of Love in Ornithia. Each Tree had a corresponding temple, and the temples were connected by a display of five lights that would remain lit as long as their Elements were active. Over time, however, the lights started to go out one-by-one. Believeing the other temples were being attacked and that Ornithia would be next, the queen at the time ordered the city to be hidden among the mountains. Eventually, only one light remained, Ornithia was never attacked, and the Knights of Harmony were never heard from again.
As a result of Twilight's friends' recent efforts, the lights have started to come back, so Ornithia is racing to complete the Elements of Love by having Ocypete get married. Celaeno pulls Ocypete away so they can speak in private, leaving Rainbow Dash and Spitfire to explore the temple alone. Meanwhile, Lyra and Sweetie Drops sneak through the castle toward Huginn's private quarters, where they overhear him speaking subserviently to someone. When Huginn asks his mysterious superior what they plan to do with Celaeno and her friends, they discover Lyra and Sweetie Drops spying on them.
Speaking in private, Celaeno tells Ocypete she cannot marry someone she does not love. Ocypete argues she will learn to love Huginn over time, and she admonishes Celaeno for leaving home without saying anything, as running away to become pirates was a dream they both shared. Celaeno says when she shared her plan with Ocypete's father King Thaumas, he bribed and threatened her into leaving by herself. Despite this revelation, Ocypete is duty-bound to go through with the wedding and protect Ornithia, and she walks away from Celaeno. As Celaeno tries to sort through her feelings, she hears someone approaching and believes it is Ocypete again, but she is suddenly attacked and knocked unconscious.
Back in the temple, Rainbow Dash struggles to decipher the wall carvings, wishing Twilight was available to help. When she calls out to Spitfire behind her, there is no response, and she is also suddenly attacked and knocked unconscious. Some time later, Celaeno wakes up on the deck of her airship, her pony friends are lying unconscious nearby, and the airship is plummeting out of the sky. Celaeno quickly outfits Lyra and Sweetie Drops with parachutes, allowing them to gently float to safety, and she carries Rainbow Dash and Spitfire off the airship just because it crashes into the ground.
As the ponies regain consciousness, they and Celaeno try to figure out what happened and what Huginn and his mysterious boss are up to, reasoning that the wedding is at the center of it all. Rainbow Dash and Spitfire fly Celaeno back to Ornithia to try and stop the wedding, and she crashes into the castle in the middle of the ceremony. Celaeno challenges Huginn to a duel, and Rainbow and Spitfire arrive to hold off the guards. As Celaeno declares she "does not give up easy" in spite of Huginn's schemes, the sixth throne starts to glow in her presence, not only revealing her as the element of perseverance but also revealing her true feelings for Ocypete.
Huginn surrenders, and Celaeno demands to know the identity of his boss. When Huginn refuses out of fear of his boss's immense power, his boss suddenly appears: Princess Ceridwen of Cunabula and one of the new Knights of Harmony. In accordance with the will of her king, Ceridwen declares Equestria will be destroyed, and she uses her magic to grow Huginn to gigantic size and demolish Ornithia before she teleports away. As Celaeno and the royal family of Ornithia use the Elements of Love to stop Huginn's uncontrollable growth, Rainbow Dash flies back to Equestria to warn Twilight, taking one of the temple's wall carvings with her.
Back in Canterlot, Twilight, Spike, Starlight Glimmer, Sunburst, Star Swirl the Bearded, and Stygian search the castle library for information, but they find no mention of the other Elements of Harmony or the temples. All of a sudden, Rainbow Dash comes crashing in to deliver an ominous warning: The Knights of Harmony are coming.
Bonus comic[]
In a one-page bonus comic, Sweetie Belle watches Rarity sew her fashion designs and expresses a desire to do the same. When Rarity tells Sweetie Belle it takes years of hard work and practice to accomplish one's goals, Sweetie Belle passes on this and decides to wait and see if she was born with natural talent, much to Rarity's annoyance.
Quotes[]
- Captain Celaeno: Ponyfolk, welcome to Ornithia, the place I was born.
- Rainbow Dash: Gosh, this is gonna be so cool!
- Spitfire: I never had you nailed as the wedding type, Dashie.
- Rainbow Dash: Not the wedding, Spitfire!
- Rainbow Dash: Hey, you don't know anything about a Tree of Harmony here, do you, Celaeno?
- Captain Celaeno: Well, if I were you, I'd look up.
- Ocypete: I'm so happy to see you, my oldest friend.
- Captain Celaeno: It's good to see you too, princess.
- Prince Huginn: Ponies?!
- Rainbow Dash: Mostly Pegasi, but yeah. Is that a problem?
- Rainbow Dash: Can you tell us about that tree?
- Ocypete: Oh, the Tree of Love? I'd be happy to! I've been studying it for years!
- Ocypete: Do you all not know the myth of the Knights of Harmony? The stories say that they were the ones who built these temples. They taught the people of each realm how to use the Elements.
- Rainbow Dash: Uh... I think ours were made by some old ponies that were gonna go fight a shadow pony and planted a seed.
- Rainbow Dash: What do you think all these other carvings are about?
- Spitfire: You got me.
- Rainbow Dash: Dang! I need a nerd!
- Captain Celaeno: Ocypete, you can't get married!
- Ocypete: Did you just tell me what to do? You? Of all birds?
- Captain Celaeno: Ossie--
- Ocypete: Oh, now you remember I have a nickname.
- Prince Huginn: Look at me, I'm molting. I'm losing my beautiful plumage because I'm so stressed out.
- Ceridwen: Don't forget who gave you that beautiful plumage. Without me, you'd still be a scrawny alley crow.
- Captain Celaeno: I told your dad that I thought you and I should explore the world. Help the kingdom reconnect. He said if I left without you, he'd give me my own ship. If I didn't, I'd wish I had.
- Ocypete: I don't hear from you for years, and then you show up the day before my wedding and tell me not to get married?
- Captain Celaeno: Ocypete, is that you?
- Ceridwen: Guess again.
- Captain Celaeno: We're going down! Dash! Lyra! Anycreature?! If I get to the wheel, maybe I can keep us from crashing. But if I don't stop it in time, all of my friends... Non-flying ponies first.
- Captain Celaeno: The wedding! They must know if Ocypete marries that cowardly imposter, they'll never activate the Elements! There's no way we can get back there in time.
- Rainbow Dash: Actually, if we can borrow something from the ship, I think Spitfire and I can get you there.
- Spitfire: Dash, I love the way you think!
- Rainbow Dash: Lyra and Bonbon, sorry, you're gonna have to sit this one out.
- Lyra Heartstrings: Fine by us.
- Prince Huginn: How did you get here! You're supposed to be--
- Captain Celaeno: Dead? Well... that might have been enough to stop me, if it was me I was fighting for. But I ran away when Ocypete needed me once before. I won't do it a second time.
- Ocypete: You don't give up easy... Perseverance! You're the last element, Celaeno.
- Prince Huginn: She found me in the street. I was ragged and molting. She said that if I did what she said, she would make me a prince. She made me handsome.
- Ocypete: So you betrayed your country for a chance to have power?
- Prince Huginn: No, she said it was the only way to save the kingdom. She said if the Elements were brought together, that she would be forced to destroy us.
- Ceridwen: I am Ceridwen, princess of Cunabula and one of the new Knights of Harmony! And Equestria... The whole would should hate that accursed place for what it did to us! And now I shall be responsible for the first of Equestria's many dark days to come.
- Ceridwen: [to Rainbow Dash] The next time you see Equestria, it will be a burning pile of rubble. And you will know that it was all. Your. Fault.
- Queen Ozomene: Generosity!
- King Thaumas: Protection!
- Prince Aello: Kindness!
- Zephyra: Trust!
- Ocypete: Hope!
- Captain Celaeno: Perseverance!
- Twilight Sparkle: Rainbow Dash, are you okay?
- Rainbow Dash: I made it. I got here before they did.
- Twilight Sparkle: Who?
- Rainbow Dash: They're coming. The Knights of Harmony are coming!
- Sweetie Belle: Wait... Is this another one of those "work hard to accomplish your goals" things?
- Rarity: Uh... yes?
- Sweetie Belle: Hard pass. I'll wait to see if was born with natural talent.
