[BBTS] Bronies Beyond the Stars V2.0

What is this, Shinx? If that's even your real name.

 

I still prefer Master Bee...

 

Awwww

That previous line is very out of character, but I make it anyway.

 

Will you continue to obey me?

 

Hello, my equal.

I WILL CRUSH YOU UNDER MY FUZZY BEE FEETSES AND FEED YOUR CRACKED CARAPACE AND LEAKING INNARDS TO A SMALL DOG YOU PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A BEE

 

Oh no, it would appear that those devious, hoodie-wearing internet hackers have gained access to the Royal Forum Account.

 

Lol.

Of course!

 

No, don't, I'm invincible!

 

Those fiendish hackers.

YOU ARE WEAK. THROUGH A THOUSAND YEAR CAMPAIGN OF DEATH AND PESTILENCE I WILL EMERGE AS THE ONE TRUE RULER OF ALL OF BEEDOM. NONE WILL STAND BEFORE MY MIGHT, LEST THEY BE CAST INTO A PIT OF FIRE AND THEIR WOMEN AND HOMESTEADS PILLAGED AND BURNED.

 

Episode 3 was leaked. HOW does that kind of thing happen? Please, someone inform me.

 

Someone at the animation studio goes "HURDUROHWEGBJWB"

 

Well, I'm watching it right now. It pleases me greatly, for a specific reason.

 

Where is this thing, or is it already gone?

 

Okay, so Episode 3 was...

Incredibly predictable. It was entertaining, don't get me wrong. It was hands down the most cartoony episode of the series, your standard romp in a haunted mansion (or castle), with the Main Six sans Twilight scaring each other unknowingly. But it. Was. Predictable. I'll recap it, since putting a link here makes me feel sleazy.

Twilight and Spike head to the castle first, after receiving a letter from Celestia to search its library for clues on the box. Pretty much the whole episode, Twilight is chill while Spike panics at every little thing. One notable thing from the journal she finds that Celestia wrote is that Luna liked to play on the trap door slide, and for some reason Celestia had a hallway full of fake pony legs. I get the feeling all the traps we see in the whole episode were Luna and Celestia's idea of 'fun', rather than an actual defense.

The rest of the Main Six head to the castle on their own.

Okay, so first we see Pinkie adjudicating for Rainbow and AJ on who the most daring is. They're seen having a staring contest... COVERED IN BEES. They have to call it off because the beekeeper needed his bees back. Pinkie informs them that they're tied because of the interruption. She has something else to do, though, so she leaves them while they're tied. The two, obviously, head to the old castle to find something to compete over. AJ tells Rainbow about a tale by Granny about the Pony of Shadows, a remnant of the Nightmare's dark magic stalking the ruins at night. We see a rehash of AJ's 'oooooo' animation from Look Before You Sleep here. Rainbow and AJ agree to see who can stay in the castle the longest.

Meanwhile, Rarity, Fluttershy and Angel head there to search of old tapestries. Fluttershy is her doting self, worried that anything and everything will end Angel painfully, while Rarity hams it up about how she's doing the castle a favor by restoring the tapestries. Her whole running gag is her becoming frustrated at how rude and ungrateful the castle is to her.

Fluttershy accidentally trips a fake wall while trying to remove a tapestry, and her struggling form casts a shadow on the other side where AJ and Rainbow are, making them think the Pony of Shadows was there. They both scream. I must note that Rainbow screams like a little girl. Applejack had a normal scream. This is where the first commercial would be.

At one point, Angel steps on a switch the traps Rarity and Fluttershy in a pit. He wanders off, and, oddly, ends up hanging with Twilight and Spike the whole episode. Fluttershy is panicking because she thinks Angel is all alone. In the pit, there's a hole in the wall, large enough to stick a leg through. Rarity tries it, and accidentally grabs a hold of Rainbow. I should mention that they're now in the hallway full of disembodied pony legs. We see the standard trope of 'hey Applejack, why you hugging me; Rainbow, I'm over here!" before they freak out and run. Rarity is also frightened, because she felt something... AND IT WAS ALIVE. Fluttershy gives the gloryhole a whirl, and pulls on the fake leg, tripping the wall and freeing them.

Rainbow and AJ run by the room with the pipe organ, and we see a silhouette momentarily. They have a brief exchange about it, before the player hits a chord, causing them to blur line off the screen.

Fluttershy and Rarity come across more tapestries in what I think is the throne room (there's two seats, and above each is a night and day themes banner). Fluttershy has reservations about wasting time taking them down, but you know how Rarity gets. Fluttershy walks off to keep hunting Angel down, while Rarity struggles with the thing.

AJ and Rainbow wind up in a hall of creepy armor. They inspect it for a time, but it's cut short when the Pony of Shadows hits another cord, activating a fake wall (again) that spits AJ out on the lip of the castle's roof, next to a gargoyle as lightning strikes. Rainbow is faced with the armor that was part of the fake wall, while Rarity meets a similar fate as AJ while she is up on Luna's throne (which reinforced my theory that Luna had a slide under her chair, and that she is Batmare). The tapestry is torn when she's thrown into the dirt, which further increases her rage at the stubborn castle).

So basically, things quickly escalate as the four are shuffled around in the castle. Their frantic paranoia grows until they converge in the same room by backing into each other (predictaaaable). I will remark that Fluttershy's backwards creeping animation was notably smooth and nuanced.

So they bump into each other, and then all hell breaks loose. They run every which way, knocking things over. It got DARK when Applejack knocked a stone column over into a thing casting an Angel-shaped silhouette before Fluttershy's eyes. She screamed. It sounded like that Charmander from Pokemon Origins. She tearfully tries to lift it off.

Anyways, Twilight steps in and uses her awesome magic powers. A wave of force exploded from her, freezing all of them in their tracks. Twilight correctly guesses that they spent the whole night spooking each other, and calms them down. But then, the Pony of Shadows continues playing. They five and Spike go to inverstigate.

They round the corner and see her hunched over the organ. The other four hide in fear, as Twilight goes ahead. She rips the pony's hood off, revealing...

...

Pinkie. Yep, I had that one down twelve minutes before the episode ended.

Nothing of value was lost or gained this episode, except for ONE thing.

They have a new thing to replace the 'Friendship Report'. After reading Celestia's journal, Twilight suggests they all start keeping their own, so ponies will know of all their adventures from then on.

All in all, I wouldn't watch again, but it was definitely a worthy addition.

 

I summarized it. I don't want to link to it, because it makes me feel dirty. If you really really want it, I'll PM the link.

 

Tempting, but nah. I won't even read the summary, actually.

 

I worked hard on that! ...well, I figured only, like, two people, maybe not even that, would go for that level of spoilage. Let it be a warning, then: caps and info on it WILL be floating about!

 

Hopefully it won't be any worse than the tons of canes I ended up seeing.

 

Yes. Let the feels flow through you. Glad to hear that you enjoyed it.
Now you must play the VN, or "Tomoyo After" if you're a fan of her.

 

There was only one line that stuck out to me, as far as becoming a meme goes. But the cane thing was a dumb, two second gag, so I couldn't really say.