Hello, my children! It's me, B.J. Dazzle, your real actual long-lost parent that you never knew about! I thought I'd catch up with my favorite children that I was separated from for perfectly noble, not-neglectful-in-the-slightest reasons by sharing my Season 8 Homework Assignments with them! This week's comic is based on Father Knows Beast. When Sludge first started claiming he was Spike's dad, I figured he either wasn't who he said he was, or his actual reason for abandoning Spike was a lot less noble that he claimed in his story. I was kinda hoping for the latter, honestly, just because so much of Spike's past is still a mystery 8 seasons later, and one we really don't see explored on the show too much. I guess the show is trying to leave it open to interpretation, letting the fans spout their crazy conspiracy theories in lieu of an actual canon explanation, which is perfectly fine, and we're still left with a nice, feelsy Spike episode that takes notes from Dragon Quest regarding finding one's place and recognizing that true, loving families don't always have to share blood.

The kid characters in this show sure do have unorthodox familial situations, don't they? Spike was adopted, Scootaloo NEEDS to be adopted, Apple Bloom's only authority figures are her siblings and granny, Gallus seems to have it pretty rough, even Diamond Tiara's relationship with her mom is pretty sketch. You don't see it brought up too often since they have great friends and families otherwise to fill in the gaps, but it's an interesting connection among the little ones, especially since the Mane Six's families (again, Applejack aside) are pretty tame by comparison. …And then there's Sweetie Belle. I guess every group needs a conformist.

Speaking of the Crusaders, where have they been all season? They had a couple good episodes early on, but we're at the end of the season now and we haven't seen any of them except Scootaloo since episode 12! How's their cutie mark business going? Heck, how's their new tutoring position going? It's hard for me not to miss my favorite fillies when they've been gone for so long; it's part of why I wanted to include them in this comic! I guess I just gotta hope that they have a big role in the finale for some reason, though I get the feeling most of the focus is gonna be on the students again. I don't mind the students; I just don't think they have as good a dynamic as the Crusaders.

And speaking of the finale… wow. That's next week! Time sure does fly by! It's hard for me to talk and speculate about the finale when I know several of you have probably already seen it a while ago, but I will say that I'm… reluctantly optimistic towards it. On one hoof, it kinda seems like they're going a certain direction with ONE specific character that was introduced this season, and it's the one direction that I absolutely did NOT want them taking with her when she was first introduced, so if they do what I THINK they're going to do with her, then this could very well be a painful experience for me, depending on how they handle it. But on the other hoof… this is a Friendship is Magic Season Finale were talking about. For 7 seasons now, there has not been a single finale that I didn't think was a truly awesome experience and great way to close out the show until the next group of episodes come around. So I've just gotta hope and trust that that streak is gonna continue and I'm gonna be in for a real treat this Saturday that I can make an episode comic out of to finish my own series strong as well. Since I'm still adamantly refusing to watch episodes early, only time will tell.

Hope you develop deep connections with the people close to you! Looking forward to the season finale!

Spike, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and My Little Pony belong to Hasbro and DHX.