If You Never Dream

I can't stop listening to this song...

Season 5 of My Little Pony premiered yesterday! The one song in it was In Our Town, which is where the text on the sig comes from.

The line 'you can't have a nightmare if you never dream' really stuck out to me, as it did for many people. I just had to make something to share my love for the two episodes, and that line was an easy choice. I can't stop listening to the song, either. I love Pinkie Pie's expressions throughout, and Fluttershy's little head bob near the end is adorable.

This episode was such an interesting concept and it further explores the idea of Cutie Marks and how important they are to ponies (as we did get some of that in the season 3 finale). I wish we had gotten to see a little more of Starlight Glimmer's plans, because I felt like there had to be something more with the way she made a big deal about Twilight's cutie mark, but I still really enjoyed her character and the episodes.

Pinkie Pie was great fun, just watching all of her expressions, and it was fun to see how Twilight has adapted to her being an alicorn, as I got the sense from this premiere that she's started to accept herself as she now is, and then you have her status as a princess being awkward in a town that doesn't like differences.

Also, I loved that Fluttershy got a chance to shine as being the hero in something that was completely out of her element. The writers set that up rather well, with Fluttershy loving the town because of how kind everyone is. It was just so great to see Fluttershy on her own, and how much she was willing to go outside of her comfort zone for her friends. And when she first "joins" the town... I felt so bad for Fluttershy, with the choice of going back into the "prison" with the rest of her friends, or betraying some ponies and being free to save her friends. I don't think she actually could have betrayed any of the ponies, because while loyalty is Rainbow Dash's thing, turning those ponies over to Starlight would have been anything but kind.

Then the ending took me by surprise, of Starlight getting away. She wasn't reformed, wasn't captured, but actually got away. There's just no way she's not going to show back up again, at some point. I mean, she isn't as evil as Nightmare Moon, Tirek, or any of them. A lot of people have compared her to Amon from The Legend of Korra--they both want everyone to be equal while secretly keeping their powers, but they seem to keep their powers more because it allows them to equalize everybody. Starlight did have a little bit of a power trip going on, but the speculations have already started on how she was hurt in the past by ponies bickering because of their differences and whatnot. I do hope we get a little bit of background on her the next time she shows up, though it doesn't really hurt the show not to have it.

I kind of want to know more about all of the ponies in the town too. It was very clear that Starlight had never actually forced ponies so opposed to her philosophy to join the town before, which means all of the ponies in the town had something happen to them that would allow Starlight to get rid of their cutie marks with nothing more than gentle persuasion (gentle in terms of not being as harsh as she was with the Mane 6). However, that gentle persuasion turned to fear and control once the ponies began to realize how unhappy they were with their new lives. Some bronies have compared this to thought crimes from George Orwell's 1984.

There were just so many interesting concepts and characters introduced in this season premiere, and it makes me want to explore the town and inhabitants more, to see how the town evolved into what it was when the Mane 6 arrived.

Also, to switch topics, I would like to mention Spike. I love Spike, but if he had been more involved with the story, I don't think it would have worked as well. First off, he doesn't have a cutie mark to lose. Second, he isn't even a pony, and so I feel like he wouldn't have been welcomed in a town with no differences. Third, I think we would have just ended up with another episode of Spike being Humdrum. He just wasn't necessary to the story being told here, and wouldn't have added anything to it. Other than he maybe could have escaped through the windows of the "prison" and taken over Fluttershy's role of saving the day, but then we would have missed out on some great Fluttershy moments and we've seen Spike in this savior role before, with him saving the Crystal Empire. Not that Fluttershy hasn't helped to save the day before, but in this premiere, her role was just so different from her norm, and I loved it.

Plus, it was great to see Spike having a life outside of being around the Mane 6. He and Big Mac have never interacted much on screen, but the idea of them hanging out together and having guy bonding time is great. Big Mac is patient enough to put up with Spike's immaturity, and I could see Spike venting about things to Big Mac with Mac just quietly listening, giving his usual answers.

To switch back to the town and the inhabitants there, I loved that they were the ones who ultimately saved the day and retrieved the cutie marks of the Mane 6. It let these other ponies shine, but in letting them shine, it actually reinforced the message of the Mane 6 and showed that friendship can triumph over anything. The Mane 6 didn't have to be pushed to the side for others to save the day, and I just loved how well the writers were able to pull that off.

Wow... I didn't mean to write an in-depth opinion about the episodes... But I really enjoyed the premiere, and I can't wait for the rest of the season!


I'm not quite sure how happy I am with the sig itself, but... More and more I feel like I'm never happy with how my graphic design pieces turn out. I don't know if it's because there are a ton of flaws in my pieces, or that I'm just being too nit-picky and staring at it for too long.


Stock used:
Quick Vector Equals Sign Cutie Mark by RainbineDashie (You can't really tell I used it because I changed it so much by time I finished this sig, but since I used it as my starting part, I'll give credit where it's due.)
Purple light texture by instantrock (I really need to save more textures onto my computer, because I find myself using the same ones over and over instead of looking for new ones... Though, this texture is just so pretty, and I think it works well for this sig.)


As a part of
Starlight Glimmer by yukiimonster is a beautiful rendition of Starlight, displaying both her power and her need to control.