My Little Pony (2022 comics) Issue 11

My Little Pony #11, titled The Old Nag Challenge in trade paperback, is the eleventh issue of IDW Publishing's My Little Pony comic series, based on the Generation 5 film My Little Pony: A New Generation. In this issue, Pipp Petals encourages her friends to try a social media challenge involving a spooky ghost story.
==Summary==
Pipp Petals is despondent that, ever since the end of her and her friends' most recent adventure, her social media presence has been getting less attention, fewer comments and likes, and even ponies unsubscribing. Zipp Storm initially mocks Pipp for her rather shallow dilemma, but Sunny Starscout and Izzy Moonbow are understanding enough to want to help. To get her viewership numbers back up, Pipp suggests they take part in a recently trending social media challenge called the "Old Nag Challenge", which involves summoning the vengeful ghost of the deceased Nagathine Irons ("Naggie" for short).
Naggie was an orphaned Dodge Junction pony who lost her parents in a tornado and was sent to live at an orphanage. She became bitter when her friends threw her a birthday party but never showed up, and she carried this bitterness until her death. The currently viral social media challenge involves summoning the "Old Nag" over the course of three nights by recreating the birthday party, trapping her, and forcing her to grant the summoner's wish. Instead of asking for a wish, Pipp plans to throw Naggie the birthday party she never had, but Zipp still considers the challenge to be meanspirited and cruel.
On the first night of the challenge, Pipp and her friends make a stuffed doll in Naggie's likeness, lay out several offerings for her, and blow out birthday candles over the doll. Nothing seems to happen at first, but a glass mysteriously falls off a nearby table and shatters. The next day, strange things start happening to the ponies, such as belongings going missing. Izzy starts to question Pipp's motives: whether she is doing this challenge because it makes her happy or because it makes her followers happy.
On the second night of the challenge, the ponies recreate Naggie's birthday party with decorations and food. The lights briefly go out before turning back on, and the stuffed doll appears to come alive and attack the ponies. A terrified Izzy wants to stop doing the challenge, but Pipp convinces her to stick it out until the end.
On the third and final night of the challenge, the ponies eat large quantities of birthday cake to complete the summoning ritual and wait for Naggie to appear. Zipp quickly leaves the room due to an upset stomach, and the lights go out again; when they turn back on, Naggie's ghost appears, sending Pipp, Sunny, and Izzy into a frightened panic. As she hides in a closet, Pipp realizes she has treated Naggie like cheap entertainment, just like the ponies who originally tricked her.
Pipp emerges from the closet and addresses Naggie's ghost, making a wish for her to have the birthday party she deserved. Naggie reappears to thank Pipp for her gesture, but when Pipp notices Naggie covered in party streamers, she pulls off her wig and dress, revealing "Naggie" to be Zipp in disguise. It turns out that she was behind all the mysterious occurrences the ponies experienced over the last three days.
By the next day, Zipp has apologized to her friends for tricking them, but Pipp has not yet forgiven her. Zipp explains that she felt bad for dismissing Pipp's social media dilemma and wanted to make it up to her, but when she heard about Naggie's story, she did not feel right going along with the Old Nag Challenge. Pipp likewise realizes that she was only doing the challenge to boost her follower count rather than bring peace to a vengeful spirit.
After returning some video equipment to Hitch Trailblazer, who has recently started his own podcast about Maretime Bay's cold cases, Zipp helps Pipp go through the footage they recorded and sees Naggie's ghost appear in the video. Naggie's ghost herself even briefly appears in front of Zipp before disappearing. Zipp tries to explain what she saw, but Pipp thinks Zipp is trying to trick her again. As Pipp and Zipp leave to do an activity together, Naggie's ghost appears once more on Pipp's laptop - holding a piece of birthday cake and smiling.
==Quotes==
:Zipp Storm: Can. I. Help. You?
:Pipp Petals: ...No, you seem sooo busy...
:Zipp Storm: I am.
:Zipp Storm: I'm sorry I got shouty. Come tell me what's wrong.
:Pipp Petals: [sniff] O-Okay, but you can't laugh at me!
:Pipp Petals: You promised.
:Zipp Storm: Pffffft!
:Izzy Moonbow: Pipp's engagement is a metric of her audiences' connection to her content. The more excited her followers are, the larger her reach is. And since social media is Pipp's form of expression, diminished interactions can be interpreted as a rejection of her creativity.
:Pipp Petals: I know this seems silly and shallow. I've come so far with being honest, with showing the real me. It's just... What if they don't like the real me?
:Pipp Petals: Everypony loves a good ghost story, y'know?
:Zipp Storm: I wouldn't exactly call it good.
:Pipp Petals: Are you going to be a neighsayer?
:Pipp Petals: For everypony watching, don't play with matches, spirits, your parents' expensive cameras--
:Zipp Storm: Oh, and don't be mean to anypony 'cause they might come back as a vengeful ghost to haunt you!
:Izzy Moonbow: If you're not sure if you believe in this stff, and you're doing this to get followers back, what about it is making you happy?
:Pipp Petals: Well, it's interesting, for one! And I like entertaining--
:Izzy Moonbow: Isn't that what the ponies who messed with Naggie were doing? Entertaining themselves?
:Pipp Petals: Night two of hashtag Old Nag Challenge, lights just went out for no reason! Ghost emote, scream emote, send tweep.
:Izzy Moonbow: I didn't use the disrespectful rattly eyes! Why are you doing this?!
:Izzy Moonbow: If anything else creepy happens...
:Pipp Petals: After tomorrow, we're finished. Back to normal.
:Izzy Moonbow: Back to normal until you get another brilliant idea.
:Pipp Petals: I treated her like she's entertainment, when she was a real pony with real feelings.
:Pipp Petals: I wish you had the birthday party you deserved, with friends and family and everything you loved.
:Zipp Storm: You still mad?
:Pipp Petals: Mad doesn't even begin to cover it.
:Zipp Storm: ...Is it weird to be eating a snack shaped like Cloudpuff?
:Pipp Petals: Nah, he'd totally eat a snack shaped like us.
:Pipp Petals: It's a camera malfunction, Zipp!
:Zipp Storm: She was just here.
:Pipp Petals: You're not going to trick me again.
Category:Generation 5