Saeda

As far as I can remember, Cadance has had no link to the elements, and yet she has 'ascended'. I reckon originally Alicorns were just another type of pony (like earth or unicorn) but Hasbro wanted to sell Twilight alicorn toys.

I both like and dislike the idea of Twilight becoming a princess/alicorn. I like it because I have my own little theory of unicorn elitism in Equestria, and it supports that. The only rulers who are shown to actually do any ruling have all been alicorns (Celestia, Luna and Cadence), and according to the summary the way to become an alicorn is to devise your own type of magic, which only unicorns can do. So if you're an earth pony or a pegasus? Tough luck. On the other hand, I really hate that Twilight will become a princess. It just feels like such a let down after how great the series has been to suddenly turn around and go back to the 'all girls want to be a princess, that will make them happy' idea. I don't know what it is about season three and this, they seem to have thrown their hands in the air and gone "slightly more complex morals for our audience where things are a little more grey? Nah!" The season 3 Discord episode suffered with this, too.

Did anypony else think that this was just a mediocre episode in general? I didn't expect them to have him in the finale or anything like that but I expected them to treat Discord with a little more... respect. To start with, Discord wasn't need in this episode. They could have used this plot on almost anypony (even with a completely new character!) and nothing of value would have been lost from the episode. It's actually worse for having Discord in it because its very premise doesn't make sense .Discord isn't evil or malevolent he is an avatar of chaos and by its nature chaos cannot really be influenced by morality, he just wants to have fun with whatever he does. The only evil thing about him is that he does try to remove order and things that support order. There is nothing (or at least, very little) to be reformed. MLP:FIM does so well in not going with simple aesops that have been dumbed down for children, and I was hoping they would have a similar message here to how they treat Trixie; some ponies are just like that. Note I said he couldn't be reformed, not contained or controlled. I would have liked them to have had the characters spend the the episode trying to find a way to control Discord's magic, and have them stumble on the issue of whether or not it would be kinder to keep Discord trapped in the statue rather than force him to go against his very nature. It would have been far more interesting for the story to have been a discussion about a person's desires in life vs. their duty others. And despite how it sounds that isn't too heavy a message for children, every child will be told that they have to put off playing to do chores or something similar, wants vs. responsibilities is something we encounter from an extremely young age and it isn't often addressed in children's media. This episode could have pulled that off. As much as I love Discord, I kinda wish they hadn't brought him back, this episode wasn't good enough for a fan favourite and he is lessened as a character for it's creation.

I'd suggest Part of One (or maybe lesson zero) to show him. It was the first episode I ever saw and it made me realise that MLP isn't what I would expect a little girl's cartoon to be.

This episode has a special place in my heart, being the first episode of my little pony that I ever saw. It really showed my that my little pony wasn't the average little girl's cartoon, and would actually have something to offer me.

I suppose... I really hope they revisit what caused Luna to change, what we were told was the myth that resulted of the true event. It would be nice to see exactly what happened.

Something bothering me ever so slightly about this episode. Princess Luna was supposed to be jealous because everypony slept through the night.. but she spends her nights in their dreams anyway?