My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic's sixth season was an upgrade from season five. From hearth's
warming tales, to hordes of changelings, this season is one for all Bronies to remember. After the
great Lauren Faust left us, the remaining staff did an excellent job picking up the responsibility and
moving the train forward. However, this Season 6 finale stood on it’s own.

As if straight from the mind of a Brony, season 6 revives a villain from years back, when the Fandom was nearing its peak (Personally, I had not become a Brony until season 3 was halfway through). This was, in my view, a fantastic viewing. However, the episode started off on a sour note with me. The beginning scene featured a disgruntled Spike, following Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer. From out of the blue, a letter gets delivered (via Derpy/ Muffins ). Good job writers, including a fan favorite background pony! The letter was addressed to Starlight. So far, everything had been pretty well executed. Suddenly, Starlight reveals that it’s a letter from the ponies in her old village inviting her to none other than… a Sunset Festival.

Ugh. Yet another slew of trash containing, “What if they don’t like me?”, “What will I wear?”, blah blah blah. I was extremely disappointed in the writers. How can you possibly make the season FINALE about a festival? This resulted in immediate dissatisfaction from me, yet I continued to uncomfortably watch.

Starlight has a bad dream before visiting the village (props for bringing on Princess Luna ). She then visits her village, bringing Trixie, has a terrible mental breakdown, and leaves. Boo hoo. Then, Starlight comes back to everyone acting strangely. My poor mood worsened. I assumed that everyone acted odd to teach Starlight some kind of friendship lesson. But, then things began to get interesting with her dream that night. The dream started off poorly, with Starlight’s fears coming to be of the Mane 6 chastising her. Again, boo hoo. However, my ears perked up when Princess Luna shows up again, obviously being dragged back by something. That something was revealed to be the Changlings. Hm. There may have been more to this plot than I realized.

After a quick “Changeling check”, Starlight recruits Trixie. They rush over to Twilight’s castle, only to find a group of Changelings reporting to Queen Chrysalis herself. Even SPIKE had been replaced. That was just the beginning of the horrible news. Princess Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Shining Armor were missing as well, as reported by the Mane 6’s Changeling replacements. If you remember “A Canterlot Wedding” back in Season 2, Shining Armor and Cadence’s love had expunged all the Changelings from Canterlot. This time, they had been captured! At this point in the show, I was literally bouncing in my seat with excitement. What were they going to do now????

After almost being discovered by the Changelings, Starlight and Trixie teleport out of the castle, back to Trixie’s trailer. Here, the reformed Changeling Thorax meets them and gives them the bad news. In the Crystal Empire, the Changelings had even taken Cadence and Shining Armor’s Alicorn baby, Flurry Heart! Just as hope for a being with powerful magic seemed lost, Discord appears!!! Here I give MLP writer’s enormous amounts of credit for including him, as he is a fan favorite as well. I love Discord all the way around too: in the scene, he breaks the fourth barrier, and creates his own little world of crazy just to show he is not a Changeling. Priceless!

As the situation is being explained to Discord, of course he gazes on with his comical indifference. When Starlight mentions that Twilight and her friends had been taken too, here we see a change in Discord. Reflecting back to previous seasons, in every episode that Discord appears in he steals the spotlight. Whether he was evil or (kind of) good, he always had a smile or was his usual light-hearted self. Even when expressing his anger, he would always have a joke behind it. In this instance though, when Starlight clarifies that Fluttershy had been taken, Discord expresses true seriousness and anger. In that brief moment, where his eyes become slits and his voice deepens, you can feel his anger through your TV set. In that second, as funny as Discord is, I was struck by the reality that Discord is no joke.

I will publish part 2 soon, if you enjoyed or hated it please comment below and tell me why! I always encourage feedback.

Warmest of Breezes,

Somber Tempest