My Little Pony: Friends Forever #17 Review

Twilight enters the mind of Big Mac in the latest issue of Friends Forever! How does it fare? Let’s take a look.

Here’s the official description from IDW:

Twilight Sparkle is feeling overworked and stressed out! She decides to visit the most Zen pony she knows-Big Mac! But Mac is feeling less than communicative, so Twilight will have to go where no pony has gone before-inside Big Mac’s mind!

The comics have nicely explored Big Mac’s character. In the show rarely is he given any role besides using his signature “eeyup” and “nope” quotes. Here we take a look inside his mind. (Literally.) Of course, this wouldn’t be “Friends” Forever without another character, and this case we have Twilight. It’s an interesting combination, since she is talkative and a leader, while Mac is introverted and prefers to work in the background. What we have is an immensely entertaining issue, and a great holdover since there was no pony episode last week!

Ted Anderson gives us a peek at a duty Twilight has princess: helping other ponies with their friendship problems. It’s quite humorous to see piles upon piles of friendship-help letters as she becomes overwhelmed. Spike is actually a highlight, the writer really nails what his character is meant to be: Twilight’s helper. In the latest season he’s been kinda pushed to the side a bit, so it’s great to see him with such good dialogue here. The main part of the issue takes place on the Apple Farm where she enters Big Mac’s mind in hopes of seeing how such a hard working pony manages to do it all without becoming stressed. At first I thought it was a bit extreme the way Twilight was acting. But it makes sense sense because she mentions she hasn’t been able to sleep or eat, so her crazy antics are justifiable.

The entire mind sequence was fantastic. It’s a great concept as it explores the different sides of Big Mac, which amaglams different sides of a person. There is for example a talkative side to a quiet person, and I just love how the scene explores this concept. The art by Brenda Hickey is solid throughout. Twilight’s exaggerated expressions were quite humorous, especially when she became infuriated with Big Mac’s one-statement answers. The main cover by Amy Mebberson nicely portrays the collected Big Mac and the rather crazed, no-sleep Twilight. The Subscription variant by Brenda is a funny picture of Twilight going insane with all the different sides of Big Mac.

Overall, a great and very fun issue of “Friends Forever.” Despite being the smartest pony in Equestria, even Twilight can still learn some helpful lessons. The journey into Big Mac’s mind was fantastic and shows that every person has their different sides, whether talkative or not talkative, etc. We have a winner from IDW!