Hey, Crusaders! Welcome back to my map-ordained mission of drawing a comic in response to every new episode of season 8! This week’s comic is based on Surf and/or Turf. I always love a good Cutie Mark Crusaders episode, and this was no exception. It was cool to see how Hippogriff society has been progressing now that they’re not hiding from any giant monkey people anymore, and to see Scootaloo achieve her dreams, albeit in a roundabout way. The central conflict resonated with me personally since my parents are divorced and I’ve had to travel back and forth a lot myself, though Terramar’s parents seemed pretty happy to see each other in the episode, so they’re probably not divorced… just… separated? I dunno, Hippogriffs are weird.
 
If I had any issues to bring up, it’d be the subject of today’s comic, specifically in regards to the Cutie Map. In seasons 5 and 6, I thought the Cutie Map was a fantastic storytelling device and recurring through line, pairing up Elements of Harmony that might not be seen together too often and sending them to some cool new location where they use their contrasting personalities and differing strengths to solve a problem in a way only they can. But nowadays it’s just kinda seems like an excuse to send somepony, major or minor, regardless of connection to the map itself, to some other part of the world so we can have an episode there. The contrasting pairing element seems to be gone completely, and the character choices seem to be less significant as well.
 
Putting aside the fact that it’s an enigmatic magical device that can somehow monitor all of Equestria and even further beyond and I really shouldn’t be questioning these things (which becomes more awkward once you realize someone actually planted that tree and those ponies are now in modern-day Equestria), but remind me why the map summoned the Crusaders specifically again? Why were only they the correct ponies for the job? I guess they interact with somegriff their age to determine what the problem is on a personal level, but they weren’t even able to solve the problem on their own! It was TWILIGHT who provided them with the solution, somepony who was not summoned, and in past Cutie Map episodes was established that it would’ve been a BAD thing if she tried to solve problems she wasn’t summoned for! I dunno, I think the map’s starting to get senile over time.
 
Hope you all are able to find the place in the world where you truly belong! Looking forward to the next episode!
 
Twilight Sparkle and My Little Pony belong to Hasbro and DHX.