Twilight Sparkle: I'm absolutely ready to try. For us, and for the sake of Equestria. Though... I have no idea where to start...
Applejack: Yeah, ya can't exactly /force/ a magical epiphany.
Rarity: Oh, but of course you can. The same way every writer forces their characters to have epiphanies.
Fluttershy: ^By... putting them in strange and dire circumstances that test their friendship...?^
Rarity: Precisely! We just need to challenge ourselves to find the magic within!
Pinkie Pie: HMMM. If only we had a source of weirdness and danger we could throw ourselves into!
Rainbow Dash: Wait, we're pro-danger now?
DM: Looks that way.
Rainbow Dash: Finally! Been waiting for you all to get with the program.
I find it's usually best when it's the players' idea to sign up for trials and tribulations (in a non-specific sense). Sometimes in the presentation it can feel like an ambush instead.
Spud, you are really doing a good job with the story here. One of the issues with webcomics is reading them one a day every three days - it can be difficult to keep the interest level the same as with something you can read straight through. So far, each individual strip in this arc has either upped suspense, added plot or had interesting character interaction.
As I've ranted before, I am pretty preferential to Power Fantasies with a interesting plot that the Party can beat either via creative means or Facesmashing it to equally positive outcomes.
Sucks that my entire friend group has a boner for Underdog stories, asides me.>_<
Also a bit puzzled as it seems like your heading to Twilicorn without dealing with sombrero, which is gonna make his return MUCH later far less impactful... As you can't do the first story after Twilicorn as Twilights a Unicorn there...
The trouble with the Crystal Empire is that every time they go there, Cadence and Shining Armor are there. Their players in the comic are getting married, so they can be assumed to be "unavailable" for a while. It makes things a bit more complicated, but it's not really practical for "guest players" to stick around for two big story arcs (does each one really one take one session? It feels like they should take longer, sometimes) when they don't want to "fully join".
That being said, it wouldn't be impossible to run both visits at once. Awkward and needing a lot of careful screenshot choices, but Spud seems to be more than capable of finding the best ones for the plans