Comic Book / My Little Pony Generations

Friendship that spans generations!

My Little Pony Generations is a five-issue comic book mini-series crossover between Generation 1 and Generation 4 of the My Little Pony franchise.

The story focuses on Grackle and Dyre, the daughters of Reeka and Draggle (and, by extension, the granddaughters of Hydia), who've been left to look after the Gloom Volcano lair while their mothers are away. Since the events of the 1986 movie, the witches have been unable to use their magic outside the lair, much to the annoyance of the daughters. However, their mothers give them a task among their to-do chores: Take revenge on the ponies.

Meanwhile over in the G4 Equestria, our heroines find themselves swamped with newcomers at the School of Friendship and not enough facility to go around. Eventually they hit upon the idea to hire some new help and send away for anyone whose willing. Grackle and Dyre get wind of this due to sending their familiar, Trench, into their dimension and, despite it's not being their ponies, they figure they'll do as their targets and start making plans against them. Faced with this unfamiliar threat, the G4 ponies will need the help of someone who has dealt with opponents like this before, which comes in the unexpected form from the dimension of their spiritual predecessors.

Started in November 2021, not long after the main My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW) comic ended, being an epilogue of sorts for that comic, and concluded in February 2022.

---

Tropes:

• Abusive Parents: Draggle and Reeka are emotionally abusive to their daughters, cruelly mocking them for their ineptitude with magic and failure to get revenge on the ponies. The final issue implies that it wasn't the ponies keeping them isolated in the Volcano, but their mothers.
• Advertised Extra: The G1 cast is heavily advertised for the event but none of them appear at all until the final page of the third issue. They don't even get speaking roles until the fourth book of a five book event.
• All Your Powers Combined: Grackle combines her magic with the Elements of Harmony and Rainbow of Light to defeat the Smooze.
• Anti-Magic: Like both versions of the Smooze, the S'monies are completely impervious to magic. Nothing in the G4 universe can affect them or their magic and they need to go to the G1 universe to hopefully find a way to fight them.
• Artificial Human: Grackle and Dyre's plan to disrupt pony society focuses on creating three artificial ponies out of G1 Smooze (and pizza dough) and sending them to infiltrate the School of Friendship.
• Ascended Fridge Horror: The Mane Six being the only teachers at the School of Friendship while having to juggle their other commitments was Hand Waved by the show writers despite the obvious implications of them being overworked. This series puts this very issue front and center, with the ponies (finally) acknowledging that the school is understaffed. This leads to the start of the plot with their letters for help being intercepted by Trench.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: The series seems to point that Grackle and Dyre will be the final boss of the series. Nope, they have a change of heart before they even meet our heroes, and the real final boss is the Smooze, which has taken sentience and attacks everyone.
• Becoming the Mask: By Issue #4, the S'monies start to become a little too invested in their roles as they try to enact the witches plans. Granted they still wish to cause chaos but let down their defenses and accept some of the goodwill from their students. Unsurprisingly by stories end, they've completely fallen into the role and pull a Heel–Face Turn.
• Black Eyes of Evil: Violet Shiver gets these when possessed by the Smooze.
• The Cameo:
  • Hydia, Reeka, Draggle, The Smooze and Megan Williams appear when North Star and Surprise recap the events of the movie.
  • Surprise, G1 Applejack, and Bon Bon from My Little Pony Tales make a brief appearance in Issue #4.
• Canon Discontinuity: Only the 1984 movie's events are mentioned, rendering the followup serial "The End of Flutter Valley," where the witches try to get revenge on the Flutter Ponies by teaming up with Queen Bumble (and Draggle shows a much nicer side), noncanon.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Despite being the School of Friendship's guidance counselor, Trixie is nowhere to be seen in this story.
• Combined Energy Attack: The Mane Six and G1 ponies intend to supercharge the Rainbow of Light with the Elements of Harmony in a gambit to stop the S'monies.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In Issue #3, after noticing how hostile and distrusting everyone in Ponyville has become Rarity asks if Lord Tirek is behind this only for Starlight to remind her that he is still trapped in stone.
  • In Issue #4, the G1 Ponies recount the story of the 1984 movie to the G4 ones.
• The Corruptor: The S'monies, as a result of the G1 Smooze being part of their creation, can sow discord and hate between others by just their presence alone. As the new teachers at the School of Friendship, they intentionally teach meanspirited "lessons" to the students. By Issue 3, Ocellus and Silverstream (usually the sweetest of the Young Six) are openly mocking Fluttershy's class and insulting their teacher.
• Covers Always Lie:
  • Cover A of Issue #1 features the Mane Six meeting their G1 counterparts. However, the latter don't appear in the issue themselves. In fact, the Mane Six don't encounter the G1 ponies until the fourth issue.
  • Cover B of Issue #3 has Discord, Trixie, and Zecora spying on the S'monies. Out of all of them, only Zecora shows up in the issue proper.
  • Cover B of Issue #4 features Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Zecora and Trixie walking down a lava filled pathway. This doesn't show up in the issue itself.
  • Cover B of Issue #5 depicts Violet Shiver being absorbed into the Smooze while Pinkie Pie tries to reach out to her. Nothing like this happens within the comic itself.
• Covered in Gunge: Not shown but, in Issue 3, Fluttershy is trying to showcase creatures known as shriek-yowls who get disturbed by the rude remarks Sliverstream and Ocellus are making. This causes them to cover the class in what Fluttershy calls "projectile defense" offscreen, which apparently took awhile to clean off the class.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Sort of. The combined magic of Elements of Harmony and Rainbow of Light turns out to be so powerful that during a test run, it ends up outright annihilating the Smooze along with objects it affected. Intending to cure ponies without hurting them, Twilight manages to water down the spell so it would merely purify the victims of Smooze of its influence. However, this is most likely the reason why it has no effect on Smooze itself when it possesses Violet Shiver directly.
• Cute Witch: Grackle and Dyre certainly don't look like stereotypical witches and are very cute in comparison to the ugly looks of their parents and grandmother. If anything they resemble the Misfits.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Crossing the portal to Equestria by Grackle and Dyre themselves ends badly for them. Since citizens of Ponyville are already affected by Smooze — which makes them much more aggressive than usual — seeing two strange and obviously ill-tempered creatures in the middle of town leads them to form an angry mob which gives young witches a hard beating, forcing them to run and hide.
• Demonic Possession:
  • In Issue 3, Twilight uses an absorbing spell to see what the black strands they found in Violet Shiver's streamers are. She ends up possessed by them and tries to attack Pinkie and Zecora until she's knocked into a pond and the strands washed off in the water.
  • In Issue 5, Violet Shiver is possessed by the Smooze through the streamers she created.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • It's clear from the beginning that Grackle and Dyre don't have any specific plan to enact discord on the ponies, and are just making things up on the fly by simply making the S'monies and having them infiltrate the school.
  • This lack of foresight bites them again when they travel to Ponyville to attack the ponies directly. Not only have the ponies never seen humans before (as they don't exist in the main G4 universe), but they're also corrupted by the Smooze, leading to them relentlessly beating the witches up and forcing them to flee.
• Easily Forgiven: It's My Little Pony, you surprised? By the end of the series, the S'monies and witches are forgiven for their actions and make friends with all the ponies.
• Evil Overlooker: Shadow Storm, Violet Shiver, and Black Belle on cover B of Issue 2.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Shadow Storm's eyes have grey sclerae and white irises divided into quadrants.
• Eye of Newt: Grackle and Dyre send Trench out on an extensive errand to collect the ingredients necessary for making smooze, including three eel eggs, mystic moss, thirteen amnesia blooms, two bottles of winter water, and wither worms.
• "Eureka!" Moment:
  • In Issue #4, after North Star notes the Goblin Fur Opal got off Trench and the sulfur smell from it. It reminds Twilight that sulfur comes from volcanic gas and come sometimes be condensed into crystals, which in turn can refract light. Thus giving her the idea that they can use their combined Elements of Harmony on crystals to amplify their power and de-spell the Smooze magic.
  • In the same issue, Grackle and Dyre realize that if the S'monies powers work in Equestria and the S'monies were made from their magic, then that means their magic will work in that realm.
• Frame-Up: In Issue 2, Black Belle destroys the Hay Burger restaurant, and implicates the staff of the neighboring bowling alley in the destruction.
• Generation Xerox: As their letters to their daughters make clear, Draggle and Reeka have become every bit the Abusive Parents to their daughters as their own mother was to them.
• The Ghost: Outside of a flashback and being mentioned by their daughters multiple times, Reeka and Draggle don't show up in the present.
• Got Volunteered:
  • In Issue 3, the S'monies need to find out more about the party the ponies are planning. Black Belle forces Violet Shiver to infiltrate it, to her chagrin.
    Black Belle: (Pushing Violet Shiver forward) Thank you for your noble sacrifice.
  • In Issue 5, Twilight has Minty and Lickity-Split be the test subjects for her demonstration on how the Smooze works and how their spell will defeat it. The two look... less then thrilled to do it, indicating they drew the short straw in volunteering.
    Minty: Come to an alternate universe, they said. It'll be fun, they said.
• Grand Finale: While the Friendship is Magic comic ended a week prior to this comic's debut, this is the final comic series to focus on the Mane Six and Generation 4 as a whole.
• Hate Plague: In Issue 3, Twilight and Pinkie look into some streamers that Violet Shiver made and find themselves suddenly arguing until Zecora arrives and takes the streamer to which they calm down, giving them a clue to what's going on. It later turns into an Oh, Crap! moment when they realize the dark magic within it is spread across Ponyville and isn't going to stop unless they intervene.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • In Issue 5, Grackle and Dyre undergo one after seeing the damage they caused at the Bestie Festie and help the ponies stop the Smooze.
  • The S'monies gradually befriend the ponies and students, making it harder for them to commit to their evil. It's solidified in Issue 5, when Grackle and Twilight Sparkle eliminate the Smooze from them.
• Heel Realization:
  • In Issue 5, After Violet Shiver finds a "best friends" shirt Pinkie made for her, she sadly acknowledges that she doesn't deserve it.
  • Grackle and Dyre have similar reaction when walking through Ponyville, seeing various activities of its citizens that their actions ruined and realizing that it is actually a nice place, inhabited by creatures they can relate with — making them suddenly feel bad for everything they've done.
• Incendiary Exponent: Grackle quite literally explodes with anger any time she gets royally pissed.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: The comic is a crossover between the first and fourth generations of My Little Pony.
• Killer Rabbit: The shriek-yowls in issue three. They look like cute owl-like critters, but when disturbed by loud noises they reveal they have mouths full of fangs and xenomorph-like tongues and spew out what Fluttershy refers to as "projectile defense".
• Killed Offscreen: Issue #4, it's mentioned in a letter from Reeka and Draggle to their daughters that Hydia passed away in the Time Skip between the events of the movie and the present day if the "dearly departed" line is any indication.
• Last-Second Word Swap: While touring the school, Shadow Storm starts to ask where the lava is and corrects himself just after saying this to ask about the library instead.
  Shadow Storm: Where's the lava? Brary. The library. Which is what we have at Hayward. To study volcanoes. Because of all the... lava.
• Mark of the Beast:
  • Each of the three Smooze-made ponies has an unusual trait that sets them apart from natural ones — Shadow Storm has eyes with grey sclerae and quartered white irises, Violet Shiver has jagged, lighter markings on her hooves, and Black Belle has a lightning bolt-shaped horn and black splotches around her eyes and hooves.
  • Ponies that become corrupted or possessed by the Smooze have dark green or black vine-like marking on their body.
• Meaningful Echo: In Issue 2, Draggle and Reeka's letter to their daughters bitterly refers to them as "uniquely ungifted". In Issue 5, Smooze-possessed Violet Shiver calls them the same thing during their rampage. Seeing their own creation reflect their mothers' abuse is what finally pushes Grackle and Dyre to side with the ponies.
• Misplaced Retribution: Grackle and Dyre want to follow their mothers' orders to avenge their loss against the ponies, but end up targeting the Equestrian ponies, rather than the Dream Valley ones that their mother originally fought, since they sent their familiar through a wormhole that led to their dimension. Issue 2 even addresses it when Grackle asks if they should be targeting ponies that aren't their own. Dyre just shrugs it off, figuring as long as they just target ponies, their mothers should be fine with it either way despite the G4 cast having never met the witches before.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Shriek-yowls resemble owls with fox tails.
• Mommy's Little Villain: Grackle and Dyre love being witches and want to make their mothers proud.
• Morality Pet: The School of Friendship students end up serving as this to the S'monies, with Black Belle leaping to save Ocellus and Yona from the Smooze.
• Nested Mouths: A shriek-yowl's beak contains a tentacle-like tongue with its own set of toothy jaws.
• Never My Fault: Grackle and Dyre think the ponies "overreacted" over their mothers and grandmother releasing the Smooze across Ponyland and that the whole thing was a "little prank". This prank nearly resulted in Dream Valley's destruction, and the witches' original counterattack before their final banishment was also intended to turn Dream Valley into a barren waste. Of course, they know about those events from their mothers only, so this is most likely a case of Unreliable Narrator combined with Self-Serving Memory.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • Since Violet Shiver doesn't know the first thing about making streamers by hoof, she resorts to using spells. Twilight sees this, becomes suspicious of her and takes the streamers to Zecora where they find the dark spell strands within it. After this causes Twilight and Pinkie to fight and nearly possesses the former, Twilight and Zecora realize that it's a magic not of their world and pinpoint the G1 universe where Zecora manages to make a doorway to and sends the rest of the heroes to go find help.
  • Trench ends up skulking around right near Opal who attacks him. While he escapes, she manages to pluck some of the Goblin Fur he had off him. This leads to the Eureka Moment above when Opal returns to the others and North Star points it out.
• Non-Standard Character Design: The G1 ponies are designed similar to how they appeared in their respective series rather than being adapted to the G4 art style. Both sides comment on how weird the others look.
• Noodle Incident: It's neither shown nor explained precisely what the shriek-yowls' "projectile defense" is or does, beyond it being very sticky and ruining Applejack's hat.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: The S'monies at first seem fairly harmless, mostly performing pranks... but that's mainly due to their masters not really having good orders. Once they tell them to take things up a notch, it soon becomes apparent they're capable of very efficiently sowing discord, disrupting society, and driving others into becoming increasingly antisocial and cruel.
• Obviously Evil: The "professors" that answer Starlight's letter at the end of the first issue have bizarre appearances, off-putting mannerisms, and a habit of cackling. It's pretty obvious they're creations of Grackle and Dyre.
• Oh, Crap!: The G4 ponies become very worried and apprehensive when they see the "professors" that answer their letter, finding their appearances to be very off-putting.
• Phlegmings: When the shriek-yowls are shown shrieking in anger, the tops and bottom of their beaks are connected by long strings of saliva.
• Phony Degree: The S'monies claim they're professors from Hayvard majoring in Pony Relations. Starlight takes them at their word, although Dash is a little confused and suspicious since she didn't really send the letter yet but shrugs it off.
• Red Baron: Twice in the third issue does Zecora refer to herself as "Zecora the Mighty".
• Sequel Hook: The ponies make peace with the S'monies and witches and the G1 ponies decide to stick around Equestria a bit and explore the land with the witches doing likewise.
• Stealth Sequel: To My Little Pony: The Movie (1986). The villains Grackle and Dyre are the granddaughters of Hydia, the Big Bad of the movie and they are tasked with getting revenge for their grandmother's defeat years ago.
• Toothy Bird: Shriek-yowls mostly resemble owls, but their beaks are lined with sharp teeth.
• Villain No Longer Idle: At the end of Issue #4, Grackle and Dyre come to realize their magic will work in Equestria and, thinking the S'monies have betrayed them, decide to come to Equestria and deal with the ponies themselves. However, it doesn't work quite as they intended.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Grackle and Dyre frequently bicker with and insult each other, yet they are undoubtedly good friends, very loyal to each other and never bearing any ill will for any jibes. This makes their eventual Heel–Face Turn and conforming to the magic of friendship all the more believable when you think about it.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: In the story arc finale, it turns out that Grackle and Dyre are actually this. Despite being treated cruelly by their mothers and repeatedly mocked for their supposed ineptitude, they still try to appease them and earn their respect. In the climax, however, Grackle finally realizes that not only their mothers simply do not care about them, but their approval isn't really of any worth to begin with. She vows to never use her magic to hurt others again and ends up befriending ponies, who have shown her much more kindness and understanding that her and Dyre's mothers ever did.
• Weird Sun: One of the stops Trench makes to collect the Eye of Newt for making the smooze is Double Sun Desert, which has two suns hanging in its sky.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Sunburst is present throught the first issue, only to be absent for the rest of the story.
  • Trench is completely absent from the final issue.
  • Starlight disappears from the story after Twilight shows her demonstration to stop the Smooze.
• What Is This Feeling?: When Pinkie compliments Violet Shiver's streamers, the S'mony is both surprised and flattered, and starts to have fun in spite of herself.
• Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Draggle and Reeka have this sentiment towards their daughters, spelled out in a letter in Issue 4 that drives Grackle to tears.
  "We are so glad your dearly departed grandmother isn't here to see how you've turned out..."
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: After Grackle apologizes to the S'monies for all the trouble she caused them she admits she is just like her mother, rotten and selfish. North Star assures Grackle she is nothing like her mother as both Rekka and Draggle never gave the ponies a chance to become friends.
• You Are Not Alone: When the Smooze dismisses Grackle as a threat all of the ponies back her up.
  Rosedust: She's got us.
  Twilight Sparkle: All of us.
• You Don't Look Like You: When the Mane 6 and Starlight Glimmer arrive in Generation 1 Ponyland, one of ponies they meet is Minty who, while she first appeared in Gen 1, has her Gen 3 design.
• Your Magic's No Good Here: Apparently, Pinkie Pie's logic-defying Toon Physics abilities don't work in Pony Valley, since shortly after arriving there, she tries to crazily frolic around as usual... only to very quickly trip on a small rock and tumble down a hill, which actually ends up injuring her. Subverted with Grackle and Dyre, who eventually realize that if their creations can still use their magic in Equestria, then that must mean that they can as well.

---