Pinkie: “I am TOO responsible! I watch the Cake twins all the time! AND I’ve supervised TONS of parties FULL of fillies and colts! But they didn’t even THINK to ask me during the episode!”

Applejack: “Pinkie, the LAST time you were in Appleoosa, ya started a war. Ah ain’t gonna scold mah sister for not wantin’ ta take the chance.”

Pinkie: “It was only a LITTLE war!”

——-

Welcome, everypony! Hope you’ve all gotten a parent’s permission to attend the Season 9 Retirement Party with me! Today’s comic is based on Growing Up is Hard to Do, aka: “The Cutie Mark Crusaders Kill the Beast’s Flower for an Early Glimpse at Puberty: the Episode”. Well, we had the Body Swap Episode earlier in the season, so I guess the Age Change Episode was due as well. Can’t help but feel like it came a little too late in the series, though. Not only was The Last Crusade a better CMC finale in general, but at this point in the series, these 3 have traveled to Canterlot by themselves to successfully save Rarity’s career, braved the perils of the fire swamp, taken a trip to Cloudsdale via slingshot with no issue, and have visited the Crystal Empire, Mt. Aris, and even Appleoosa itself all with chaperones that largely just let them be to do what they wanted, and they were fine. It was still a fun episode, and I don’t blame the Crusaders for doing the things they did during it… I’m just not entirely sure why everypony else made such a big deal about them being supervised.

It’s… been WAY too long since I drew the Crusaders. Part of it is just a lack of CMC episodes this season in general, but even during The Last Crusade I chose to focus on the adults instead. (next episode’s comic isn’t gonna focus on these three either, I’ll tell you that right now). After I’m done with the Retirement Party, I’d like to make a bunch more dedicated Crusader comics to celebrate one of my favorite trios and make up for lost time.

Hope you all find yourselves where you need to go, assisted or otherwise! On to the next episode!

…Oh, and hope you all enjoy the finale today!