The eighth issue of My Little Pony: Legends of Magic continues on where the previous issue left off, with the as yet unnamed young pony leaving his home town to recruit together the greatest heroes in all the land in order to defeat the evil that has enslaved his friends and family. This issue manages to not only recruit the first member of the team, but adds extra mystery by setting up the next issues adventure too.
With the unnamed pony (I’m still betting it’s a young Starswirl) trapped down a hole, he finds himself being rescued by the very Pony that he’s come to recruit, Rockhoof. With his companion shovel and the ability to dig deeper and faster than any other pony alive, Rockhoof is a very physically impressive character, and ends up dominating the pages that he’s on.
Despite his imposing physical appearance, Rockhoof shows that he’s a very humble pony, refusing to be called a hero and describing himself as simply part of a larger group, the Mighty Helm. All very good qualities for a hero really. Although the young pony pleas with Rockhoof to join him, it’s only through showing his own injinuity and helping Rockhoof and the Mighty Helm to save their own village that Rockhoof finally agrees to go along with him.
The first issue of this story set up the young pony to be a bit of a nothing character, someone who needs the help of these legendary heroes in order to save his town, but this issue appears to be sowing the idea that he’s a lot more competent that he thinks, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go on to help each of the ponies that he’s trying to recruit in a similar way. This issue even sets him up to be able to do that when he and Rockhoof travel to a swamp to recruit Mage Meadowbrook, where all of the herbivores in the swamp are being effected by some plant that is turning them into vicious predators, leading to an army of animals descending upon our heroes (complete with flaming torches).
It was a genuine surprise to see Mage Meadowbrook in this issue, as I’d expected that we would have one issue to recruit each of the ponies into the team. With the comic playing with expectations, and throwing in mysteries and adventures that need to be overcome in order to get the legendary heroes to join the team, there’s sure to be more twists and surprises before the story is through.
With artwork that is bright and colourful, and clearly depicting each of the legendary heroes, the book continues to build upon the history of the My Little Pony universe in fun and exciting ways.
My Little Pony: Legends of Magic #8 is now available from IDW Publishing.