My Little Pony: Friends Forever #19 Review

Rarity goes into business with the Cakes in the latest issue of Friends Forever! How does it fare? Let’s take a look.

Here’s the official description from IDW:

Rarity has a genius idea to expand the Cake’s business! However, Rarity’s big dreams may overtake the Cake’s sanity before the new venture can even get off the ground!

While Friends Forever has offered varying levels of quality issues throughout its run, it can be said that for the most part it has stayed consistently entertaining. This issue is certainly in the top spectrum. In fact, it’s one of the best issues yet. The Cakes are more along the lines of side characters in the show, so to see them take a center stage here was definitely a treat. And of course, Rarity shows once again that she may be the most fun to watch of the Mane 6.

Christina Rice crafts an elegant story. (Now I’m starting to talk like Rarity.) The intro nicely establishes the scenario with a wedding, then Rarity getting the idea of going into business with the Cakes. Then later she’s told her business could be featured in the next issue of “Modern Mare Magazine.” The problem for her? Its editor, Touring Wind, will be arriving in just 4 days. Like Twilight, it’s been shown that Rarity doesn’t quite handle stress the right way. In the latter part of the issue we see that surface. The story is nicely paced, with just one hiccup in the editing department. (Using the word “hands” instead of “hooves” in “We really have our hands full with regular orders.”) Spike fans might be disappointed with his rather comic relief role, but personally I found most of his scenes amusing.

Brenda Hickey is on her A game with this issue. In fact, I think this is her best drawn MLP comic yet. Everything looks fantastic, especially Rarity’s facial expressions. The main cover by Amy Mebberson nicely showcases what the story is about: Rarity thinking she knows what is best for the bushiness partnership. While the main piece represents the story a little better, the subscription variant by Brenda is just a lovely cover and impossible to not want to pick up.

Overall, Issue 19 of Friends Forever is an immensely entertaining issue from beginning to end. Rarity is such a fun focus as we see her cheerful, business, and completely stressed broke-down selves. It all wraps up for a quality ending. Touring Wind might have been unnecessarily rude in some panels, but it won’t detract from the score.