Familiar Journeys

**Familiar Journeys,** also called **LEGO Ninjago & My Little Pony: Familiar Journeys** and **Familiar Journeys: The First Adventures** in some countries, is a 12 episode mini-series of LEGO Ninjago & My Little Pony: Masters of Friendship that was released during the events of Hunted and The Best Gift Ever. The series is a prequel that takes place before the events of Better Together, and focuses on Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Wu and Garmadon's adventures across hidden parts of Ninjago and Equestria before Luna was sent to the moon and Garmadon fully succumbed to the poison by the Great Devourer. Some places that have been explored have also been explored in the future, while some are completely original or have only been seen in books and comics.

This mini-series is based off of elements of the previous Ninjago and MLP comics and novels during the time, and was a Netflix exclusive. This would also be the first and only fully 2D animated series in the line up, and would be animated by Wildbrain. The whole mini-series would be eventually adapted into a 4 part novel series in the winter of 2020.

The series would follow a formula where Master Wu alongside the princesses would open up a book that documented the adventures of the first sibling pair adventures together, and go through different chapters of their escapades. There would be instances of foreshadowing the eventual March of the Oni arc. The main antagonist of this mini-series is the Sarruma.

## Official Description

*Has anyone ever dreamed of hearing the first stories of when the brothers of Spinjitzu and the Princess Sisters first meet? Their first adventures? Their first battles altogether before the ninja team? Well now this Netflix exclusive mini-series will reveal those pasts! Turn the pages and you'll witness the first and greatest adventures of these pairs of siblings on LEGO NINJAGO AND MY LITTLE PONY: FAMILIAR JOURNEYS.*

## Cast

* Azurite - Nigel Pilkington
* Garmadon - Mark Oliver
* Janine Bostick - Janyse Jaud
* Jonathan Thundrouso - David Dayan Fisher
* Princess Celestia - Nicole Oliver
* Princess Luna - Tabitha St Germain (Aloma Steele as her singing voice)
* Queen Novo - Uzo Aduba
* Sarruma - Aurelio Voltaire
* Seabreeze - Brian Drummond
* Sonya - Christine Marie Cabanos
* The First Spinjitzu Master - Jim Conrad (Brian Stokes Mitchell as his singing voice)
* Wu - Paul Dobson

## Episodes

1. The First Meeting and Friendship

The First Spinjitzu Master has now passed on, and Wu and Garmadon now take charge of the promise to protect the golden weapons, and find their own destiny. To overcome these times, the now young adult Spinjitzu brothers begin an adventure beyond the walls of their home to discover the virtues that make up their destiny. Meanwhile, the Princess sisters of the Sun and Moon travel outside palace walls to discover the same thing, as well as try to reconcile their sisterly bonds towards one another. However, a surprise is upon them when they stumble across one another. A new bond is formed.

2. The Mountain Skies and Faith

While climbing the Mountains of Haneul, the siblings encounter a mysterious thunderstorm that sends them riding down in a haste, knocking them unconscious. When they wake up, they discover a small team of mountain climbers taking shelter in a cave near the mountain. A teenaged girl who's part of the team named "Sonya" tells them of how they once lived on the peak of the mountain, but they were banished and driven out after a mysterious figure vowed to claim the land and transform it into a "Power Source". This being is called the Sarruma, an elemental deity who desires to take over lands of 5 elements to create a dark elemental power that will turn all elements against the lands, destroying the peaceful tranquility to create in his image. Realising their new enemy, the sibling pairs vow to make sure to protect and defeat this being, and restore those homes, including the mountains. But they are also given more information in the form of a map and artefacts.

3. The Snow Steep and Determination

As the siblings continue their journey and walk through the snows that will lead to their next destination, they are faced with a road block and a pack of furry, but menacing Yeti's. As a result they are stranded for the night and must wait until they find a solution to their predicament. Meanwhile, Garmadon has a painful nightmare of the Great Devourer's poison, and his future. This eventually proves to be the cause of the road block, as the yeti's are influenced with negativity. So, the siblings must work together to resolve this nightmare and calm the yeti's to pass through.

4. The Easy Breezies and Courage

The siblings continue to move forward on their journey and stumble across a ruined forest, that leads to the tiny Breezie Village. Unfortunately, the Breezies that reside there are far from happy, as the once glorious home and land has now been erased and sucked from the life by the Sarruma. The new appointed leader of the Breezies "Seabreeze" is trying to find a solution and calm the citizens, but cannot work up the courage to think of a proper plan or stand against the Sarruma. However, the siblings have a plan to help Seabreeze find his courage, bravery and work up enough strength to restore the glory of his village.

5. The Desert of Doom and Revival

The siblings continue to move forward on their journey, and stop at the Desert of Doom, a land Wu and Garmadon remember all too well for the home of the Pyro Vipers. However, the now abandoned land had lost its last remnant of its culture by the Sarruma. The pyramid that once laid has now mysteriously vanished. And now, cursed Serpentine spirits roam the land waiting to strike those who desire to resurrect the abandoned desert. The team would eventually encounter 2 lost victorian like explorers by the name of "Jonathan Thundrouso" and "Janine Bostick", who had lost their crew and are now trapped in the desert after attempting to search for the pyramid. They must now work together to find what they lost, and not let the Sarruma take away an important piece of culture. Meanwhile, Luna is feeling lost herself.

6. The Hippogriff's Stand and Trustworthiness

While the siblings make their way to the next elemental land, they arrive in Hippogriffia to get more directions and advice on their next mission. However, not all of these hippogriff's are welcoming to see them. It turns out that the Sarruma had moved forward and attempted to take the land for his own. Though they were able to fend him off, he decided to make his way down to the sea. Now the citizens do not trust outsiders, and the newly appointed Queen Novo plans a trial to see if they are worthy before they can move forward. So the team must prove themselves that they can be trusted. Meanwhile, after an argument with Luna, Celestia feels she isn't trustworthy.

7. The Kelpie's Song and Compassion

The siblings once again continue their journey, and make their way down to the bottom of the ocean, all the way to Seaquestria with a pearl Queen Novo gifted them for their trust, to transform into seaponies and mermaids. When they meet many happy seaponies, they finally come across a shock. A destroyed and ruined kingdom home to the Kelpie. The Sarruma had invaded their home and destroyed the kingdom, as well as destroying lives. They eventually meet a young singing kelpie who had just arrived back home from his own journey, who is one of the only survivors of the attack and has lost his family named "Azurite". Though the death toll and destruction is beyond repair, they decide to work together to rebuild the kingdom instead and find Azurite's family. Meanwhile, Wu feels a sense of grief, reminded of the many tragedies that bestowed his way.

8. The Confessions and Empathy

As the siblings leave the seas to make their way to their last destination, Wu and Celestia are still in a state of sorrow over their previous adventures, too reminded of their own tragedies and devastations that plagued them in their lives. Garmadon and Luna in a sense are also feeling lost, and don't know if they want to continue this journey to find their destiny anymore. As they reminisce of their lives, they are always reminded of the rulers beforehand and the First Spinjitzu Master, who know they would never want them to give up even if they are not here. As they are confronted by the Sarruma, the siblings realise their destiny and must continue forward protecting one another.

9. The Reunion and Strength

While the siblings continue on with their journey, Hippogriffia are faced with more new arrivals. It seems that the people who had previously been helped out want to repay them for teaching them the values that helped revive and reunite their lands. Though Queen Novo is confused at first, she realises the strength of bonds that the team had taught them, and decides to agree. They join forces and search for the siblings to help finish their journey and find their destiny together. What they don't know is that the Sarruma is not finished yet.

10. The Pillars of Destiny and Hope

The siblings finally reach the last element of their journey. The Pillars of Destiny. Once they step inside, they must step forward to the highest pillar, to reveal their destiny and their choices for the future. Unfortunately, Garmadon's poison and nightmares are slowly seeping in again and is causing a fright to everyone. To make matters worse, the Sarruma arrives ready to destroy the last and most important element. Knowing how sacred and viable the pillars of destiny are, the siblings fight to protect their destiny, but not before the Sarruma uses his new powers to plunge them into a mysterious destiny of their own.

11. The Mysteries and Answers

The Sarruma teleports the siblings into each of their own destiny. But with a twist, as these destinies are made to strike fear and despair into them and make them thing the opposite of what they desire. Wu's dark destiny is that he will let his father down, Celestia's is that she will disappoint her future subjects, Garmadon's is that he will become just like the Sarruma and Luna's is that she will break all of her bonds and lose her path. Meanwhile, the other citizens the siblings previously met try to help out, save them and defeat the Sarruma.

12. The True Destiny and Family

The siblings finally realise that the destiny shown is false, and they have solutions and ambitions to turn their destinies into their dreams and not lose sight of themselves. After encouragement and help from their old friends as well as the Spinjitzu Master, the siblings break free from their realms and are ready to protect the Pillars of Destiny, and stop the Sarruma. All the while, they finally find out what their real destiny is. And it revolves around family.

## Trivia

* This is the only fully 2D animated season in the Masters of Friendship lineup.
* As this is a prequel mini-series, this is the only mini-series that does not feature the Ninja as the main characters.
* A teaser for the mini-series was released on the official Ninjago Youtube channel in February of 2018.
* The trailer for this mini-series was uploaded on the Netflix Youtube channel in June of 2018.
* Even though the series is a Netflix-exclusive, foreign television broadcasts were played on Cartoon Network in Argentina and Brazil.
* A Latin American trailer was released at the beginning of July of 2018, before the release of the mini-series.
* The Kelpie (Who originally appeared in an issue of the MLP comic series back in 2014), make their first animated appearance.
* This mini-series does not have a focus character each episode, as all of the episodes revolve around the siblings and one of their friends.
* This mini-series marks the first and only appearance of the Sarruma, the new antagonist.
* This is the first mini-series to feature voice actors outside of Vancouver descent (Outside of the other American based Ninjago and MLP based voice actors at the time)
	+ Aurelio Voltaire serves as the voice actor for the Sarruma, a dark cabaret Cuban-American singer, musician and gothic personality. This is his first role as voice acting.
	+ Christine Marie Cabanos serves as the voice actress for Sonya, an American voice actress who specialised in english dubbing for anime.
	+ David Dayan Fisher serves as the voice actor for Jonathan Thundrouso, a British actor who specialised in acting antagonistic roles in film and television. This is his first animated voice role outside of video games.
	+ Nigel Pilkington serves as the voice actor for Azurite, a British voice actor who specialised in voice acting in mainly British animated series and video games. This is his first voice role outside of Europe.