Batbrony

This already got posted in a thread of its own, but for posterity's sake, here is a truly momentous occasion for the entire MLP fandom! BEHOLD EVERYPONY, THE FIRST OFFICIAL TRAILER FOR "MY LITTLE PONY: THE MOVIE"!!!

Good afternoon everypony, and welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews." Today we've got the first normal episode of Season 7 proper, following the two season premiere episodes, and I'm very pleased to say that this was a delightful episode indeed. That's particularly important for the third episode of a season because, in past seasons, I've noticed that very often the third episode of any given season very much sets the tone for the general level of quality one encounters or can expect to encounter throughout the season. This was definitely one of the best third episodes of a new season the show has had in some time, so without further ado, let's begin. This is "A Flurry of Emotions." Hi, I'm Batbrony, and this is Flurry Heart... welcome to 'Jackass'!!! Alright, so the most important aspect of this episode was the first really full-episode feature of Flurry Heart since her first debut in "The Crystalling" last season. While I found her to be perfectly harmless when she first showed up last season, there were a fair number of bronies who, to this day, weren't too crazy about her. They thought she was just there for the sake of having an annoying baby character and weren't crazy about her being an alicorn either, and I always thought that was a little unfair to her as a character, even if the threat she presented in her debut was a little ridiculous. That said, we didn't really get much else of her after those two episodes, so the show hadn't really given her defenders much of a chance since then to really justify her existence. Today I'm glad to say that that has been fully rectified with this episode. Flurry Heart was not only even more adorable and hilarious than when she first showed up, but was also still believable as a young foal while clearly having grown and developed (at least by baby standards) quite a bit since when we saw her in her debut when she was only days old. She has long-term memory now, better control over her magic, and even something of a personality, and given the passage of time since she first appeared, this all makes sense. But despite these new additions to her, she still behaved as a foal her age should, and what we got was a foal character that felt very natural and well-put together. I was also very impressed that the show didn't try to pretend like Flurry Heart even had to learn a lesson here; oh sure, Twilight lectured her at the end, but that was largely just to calm her down in the moment because, well, she's a baby still and can only learn so much at this point in time. Overall, I thought that Princess McFlurry was an absolute treat to watch this time around, and Tabitha St. Germain's splendid voice work on her did not hurt in the slightest either, hay, I'd even say it was a better job than her first time around! So all in all I was very pleased with how Flurry Heart's return went, and I do hope we get to see more of her going forward (although I should note that I really hope the show at some point lets foal characters actually get older, because it makes NO sense that the Cake Twins are still around Flurry's age. Heck, the first episode of the season pointed out why it makes no sense; Celestia mentioned that it has clearly been years since the show started in Equestrian time, and the Cake Twins have been around since Season 2, WHEN ARE THEY GONNA GET OLDER IN THE SHOW?! But I digress). Oh, also, before we move on, if you thought this show couldn't find anymore ways to jam-pack adorableness into a 22 minute episode of MLP, then you were quite pleasantly surprised by how cute this episode was. I mean, come on, take a look at this! Sweet Celestia, that's A LOT of cute!!! Anyways, moving on we come to the main character of this episode, Twilight. Through this first three episodes of this season, I've actually been quite pleased to find that the lessons that Twilight's been learning don't seem to be (1) redundant for her, or (2) something she should have learned already. I bring this up because last season, while an excellent season all around, had quite a few instances of characters in the Mane 6 learning lessons that they really should have known by that point in the show, and oftentimes they came off as either jerks or stupid because of it. Now while it may still be early in the new season, the fact that Twilight has been handled so well in the lesson department is an encouraging sign, to say the least. Both lessons make sense as being ones she might have to learn at this point in the show. She'd only just gotten used to being Starlight's teacher last season, so obviously having to let a student go on to her next step in life was something which she'd never done before and needed to learn how to do. Likewise, in this episode we see that Twilight still has a lot to learn about being a responsible aunt, especially when she doesn't see Flurry Heart all that often, which can make it easy for her to just want to be a fun aunt for the young filly, but as we saw today, she doesn't have much experience with full-time care of a foal that age, much less a relative, and couldn't just try to squeeze her into her already packed schedule. A foal Flurry's age needs 24/7 monitoring and care, and Twilight clearly underestimated how hard that'd be to do in this instance, especially while trying to juggle other responsibilities. But like I said, this did not seem like a Season 1 or Season 2 Twilight problem, I could totally buy that she'd need to learn this now. And the best part of it all in execution was that she learned it as the episode went on, not just all in one bunch at the end. Season 1 or Season 2 Twilight would've tried to grin and bear it from start to ugly finish, maybe even deny until she absolutely couldn't any longer that anything was wrong at all. But this is Season 7 Twilight, and by the time she got to the hospital, Twilight was already readily admitting that this day had gotten out of control and was quite the nightmare already, that she'd bucked up. She was just trying to make the best of it at that point and get through the rest. The only difference in the hospital scene was that Flurry finally caused enough of a disruption that Twilight needed to calm her down quite a few notches and admit to Flurry that she couldn't and shouldn't keep trying to drag her to all these places and just keep her off to the side. It wasn't fair to Flurry, nor was it fair to the ponies Twilight was supposed to be helping or who were going out of their way to help Twilight, as evidenced by the toy store clerk, poor Cheerilee (whose mouth must just reek of chalk now, poor earth ponies and pegasi with no digits or levitation magic), and Pinkie Pie in Sugarcube Corner, along with the hospital staff and the sick fillies and colts at the hospital. All in all, while not the deepest of lessons, I still really liked it just because I didn't mind that Twilight was learning it since it all made perfect sense. Twilight's got a lot of experience in a lot of things at this point, but one thing she still doesn't have too much experience in is being a responsible aunt to her alicorn niece. Very good lesson and very good characterization of Twilight. Off to supporting characters, we had quite a bunch of good stuff to go around. First, Spike was awesome. I've really enjoyed his rising maturity levels over the last 3 seasons now, and I feel like mentoring Starlight to a certain extent (in a big brother kind of way, even if he's younger and smaller than her) has really contributed to that. He's much more confident in his ability to have a situation under control now and he's still Twilight's #1 assistant as always, if not even better than ever, and here he just wasn't messing around. He knew the second Twilight proposed letting Flurry tag along that it'd mess up their entire schedule and he also knew that wasn't a good idea for many reasons; sadly, because Twilight needed to learn a lesson and (more likely connected to show canon) because Twilight still has a bad habit of not usually listening to Spike's advice until it's too late, Twilight did not listen, but still, Spike was very enjoyable all the same. He didn't seem too phased by Twilight not listening to him, which means he's either getting used to it or was just perfectly happy to watch everything blow up in her face instead. He also had some fun bits with Flurry Heart, like this bit with the Cake Twins where Flurry and Spike desperately tried to intervene to no avail and get the Cake Twins to stop fighting... "You see this s*** going on over here, dragon-dude? Mannnnnnnnnn, it's not good!" I mean, c'mon, how funny is that s***? Besides Spike we had a very fun subplot with Princess Cadance and Shining Armor, and I must say it's about damn time. We've really only seen these two as a couple during season premiere or finale episodes, usually in the middle of some kind of a national crisis, so I was very gratified that we finally got to see these two, extensively, JUST as a couple doing couple things as they tried to get an afternoon to themselves to get a break from Flurry Heart. Even better, I loved very much that the show was very real in that they went to something, an art show, which neither of them were particularly crazy about, but it was better than nothing at all and Twilight just happened to be in Ponyville too, so it worked, because that's just how much they needed a break from parenting a foal this age. That was delightful in its accuracy, as I've heard of many a parental couple who get to a point when they have a young baby that they're willing to do anything if it means they're out of the house and get a day or an evening of a break from their parenting, even if it's not something they really like! What was even more fun was the art show itself, namely because of Spearhead, Shining Armor's old Royal Guard buddy. This guy was a blast! As I said earlier, he's that rare type of "dude-bro" who, rather than being insufferable, was kind of awesome and hilarious; he wasn't full of himself, he just loves being a dude bro in every sense of the word, and I totally dug that. His approach as an artist as well really worked for me. Not the pieces themselves, but I kept seeing throughout this thread people commenting that they thought the writers were being snarky about modern art and people not liking it. I think that's true to an extent, but I think it changed when Spearhead came in. I don't think the writers were critiquing modern art, I think they were critiquing how some modern artists insist that their art have one interpretation alone. THAT is what makes modern art really insufferable; not so much what it looks like (even if much of it is nowhere as impressive as classic pieces of art) but the idea that such vague and general art can only have one interpretation, which some insufferable modern artists do insist. Spearhead here, however, made his art very accessible for others by insisting that enjoying his art was all about his patrons interpreting it as however they wished, injecting meaning into it that meant something to them. His art meant something very specific to him, but he wasn't going to begrudge others having it mean something else to them, but rather encouraged it. For such a seemingly simple character, and in a subplot no less, this was actually quite a nuanced and subtle message about how to appreciate art no matter what form you encounter it in. For that, I have to give major props to the writers on such a well-written and fun new character. I doubt we'll see more of him this season, but I wouldn't complain if we did, Spearhead was a blast! You're cool in my book, Spearhead, you're cool. Dude-on mah dude-bro! To close out the supporting characters we had some fun appearances from Nurse Redheart (I seriously can't remember the last time she had a speaking role, and it was fun seeing her softer side this time around as opposed to when she made herself Pinkie's mortal enemy when the Cake Twins were born), a new toy store clerk who absolutely unloaded some sass on Twilight about proper organization (and yes, I loved it ), Cheerilee who, as I mentioned earlier, got quite the shaft from having to write all those equations on a chalkboard all over again with the chalk in her mouth (but hey, at least Twilight is getting her apology cookies), but I do love getting to see Ponyville's favorite teacher getting small little bits like that now and then, really helps further bring the town alive when the supporting and background ponies there get to play more active roles, and finally a really funny scene with the Cake Twins and Pinkie Pie in which Flurry Heart had the most adorable, failed attempt ever at trying to teach the Cake Twins how to share (I'd count the hospital scene but there were so many background and supporting characters there that none really stood out aside from Redheart, and I guess we learned what the horsey hives are as well). All in all, for a single episode, it was a pretty darn solid one as far as activity from supporting characters goes. Besides that, I don't have too much else to mention. The animation as usual was lovely and I continue to appreciate the experimentation we continue to see the animators engaging in, ESPECIALLY in some of the faces they throw into the show (which I should also credit the storyboard artists for considering that's where a lot of that starts I'm sure). I mean, get a load of this face, can you even imagine seeing something like this in Season 1 or Season 2? That's hilarious... OK, one more Perfection Besides the facial animation, I was quite impressed by some of the magic animation in this episode, it was unusually ambitious for a slice-of-life episode. Think about it, we had not one but two very powerful magic users (three if you count the few times Cadance used magic, but she barely did here), oftentimes using magic at the same time and sometimes on the same things, and one of them was also an infant, which meant that the magic had to look as though it were being employed, to some extent, by a baby who doesn't entirely know what she's doing all the time. Very impressive, if I do say so myself, and it's hard to believe we've gotten all the way to this point in their magical animation since Season 1. There was also a pretty neat reference to the G1 villain, Grogar (considered the second most evil G1 villain behind Tirek) in the story Twilight was telling to the fillies and colts at the hospital, but whether anything else comes of that remains to be seen. He may be a canon character who shows up at some point, but for right now he's at the very least a fictional character in Equestrian lore, if not an actual historical one, we don't know. If something more comes of that, it'll be very cool indeed that they mentioned him earlier this season. Overall, this episode was a blast and a very, very, VERY solid third episode of the season, which bodes well for the entirety of Season 7. I can't wait to see what comes next, but for now I'll settle for rewatching an episode as immensely enjoyable as this one. This has been another edition of "Batbrony Reviews," everypony! Until next time, everypony, this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off! *cue dramatic exit*

Very enjoyable episode, I liked it very much! Alright everypony, I'm off to the gym, but my full review will be posted probably sometime later today! Have a nice afternoon everypony!!!

And today's lesson is... everypony loves Spike. THE END!!!

OK, Spearhead is that rare form of "dude-bro" who is amazingly likable and hilarious. Also, these Rarity fashion tips are amazing.

Like I always say, Miss. Tabitha St. Germain can do no wrong!

Spike be like, "This is bull s***, why am I, the baby dragon, the adult in this situation? Dang it Twilight."

Oh wow, I can't even remember the last time Redheart got a speaking role, that's awesome. Also, I smell Twilight-shenanigans a'comin'... 'dis gon' be good, isn't it?

Aha, it is time for the return of Princess McFlurry and her reign of magical, baby-alicorn terror! HURRAY, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE A FIERY DEATH!!! But at least it'll be an adorable one.

That is honestly the laziest I've ever seen them animated and included in any scene, it's like, what's even the point of including them at that point???

Good evening everypony, and welcome back to another edition (and a brand new MLP:FiM season) of "Batbrony Reviews"!!! Tonight, for the season premiere, I'm in the unusual position of having to review two episodes that were not a part of a single story arc. Yes, for the first time in the entire running of MLP:FiM, DHX decided not to have the opening be a massive two-parter where the girls had to battle some threat to all of Equestria and... frankly, this change was probably a season overdue considering that last season's opener (while delightful) involved the Crystal Empire being threatened by a newborn alicorn. Yeah, it's not easy coming up with new threats to all of Equestria on a seasonal basis (especially seven seasons in), much less twice a season, so frankly I'm quite happy they finally decided to do this. And it worked really well since the first episode pretty much picked up immediately from where the last episode in Season 6 left off (and the closure it brought to such a momentous event in Equestria as relations getting normalized with the Changelings was very gratifying to see). But enough of my introductory ramblings, let's get to the real meat of my review... which is mostly me rambling. This is "Celestial Advice" and "All Bottled Up"!!! Awwwwwwwwww, giant wing hug, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! So starting with "Celestial Advice," this episode was important and needed for a number of reasons. As I said, we got really good closure following the Season 6 finale, in particular seeing Starlight and her band of friends hailed as heroes (in many ways it was a fun and silly contrast to the Season 2 "Star Wars" celebration for the Mane 6 in the season opener, particularly because Starlight's group is nowhere nearly as tight as the Mane 6 were by that point and probably never will be since the only two who see each other on a regular basis are Starlight and Trixie). That entire scene was executed very nicely; I was particularly pleased to see such a wide array of Equestrian citizens and their closest friends and allies mingling in the same spot, including the reformed Changelings and Crystal Ponies (though it was odd that neither Princess Cadance nor Shining Armor were there, though I'm guessing that's going to be explained in next week's episode based on the preview for it). But it was also important because Twili- ah screw it, no more beating around the bush, CELESTIA GOT SOME DAMN MEANINGFUL SCREENTIME!!! Wowwwwwwwwwwww, you have no idea how great it was to write that. And seriously, I'm holding off talking about anything else good about this episode until I get this spiel about of the way. First of all, this is what I had to say about Celestia's treatment in Season 6 (and pretty much since Season 4) in my Season 6 review: Oh me oh my, why can't poor Celly get any love on this show it seems? Between time and time again being incapable of actually solving a national crisis (a plot device that seems a bit tired at this point, I mean, it was ridiculously easy for the Changelings to capture both her and Princess Luna, buck, all of Equestria's royalty was bucking useless in that so I can only hope that that was one bucking stealthy operation the Changelings launched) and just disappearing for stretches at a time, this character just can't catch a break these days. Let's not forget that there was a time in this show where pretty much EVERY MAJOR EVENT revolved around Celestia to some extent. She was the main catalyst in sending Twilight to Ponyville and getting her to regularly learn lessons of friendship and report them to her, she bucking made Twilight a princess for crying out loud, and she's supposed to be her dearest mentor, and a mentor and leader to all ponies. Needless to say, since the end of Season 4, that has not been the case and it is NOTICEABLE!!! This is a character who is simply too big in her importance to both the show's setting and main characters to be ignored the way she has the last two seasons by the writers without it coming off as ridiculous. SHE CONTROLS THE BUCKING SUN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, AND YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT THE HIGH POINT OF HER SEASON WAS A GAG ABOUT HER BEING UNAMUSED IN "No Second Prances" IN WHICH SHE DIDN'T EVEN SAY A BUCKING WORD?!?! It's too much, at this point, it's simply too much. Many of us in the fandom have long been asking for more Celestia, going all the way back to the early seasons, but instead she just had her worst season ever and this NEEDS TO CHANGE!!! She needs an episode next season, to put it mildly, she simply does. Nicole Oliver for one is too good in this role to ignore, but back to the character herself, this is a character that deserves better! Princess Luna has rightfully had a character arc across all six of these seasons, Princess Cadance has even had a character arc and sometimes major appearances in episodes (even if she maybe hasn't ever faced a friendship problem, unless you count "The Times They Are a Changeling"), but Princess Celestia, the sole ruler of Equestria for 1000 years, STILL DOESN'T HAVE A SOLO EPISODE?!?!? BUCKING RIDICULOUS!!! Writers, at this point I'm just begging for anything, anything at all. A fun little slice-of-life episode, maybe about a day in the life of Celestia or a romp with some other character on some random adventure, more about her and Twilight's relationship, maybe a look into her own mind and what her own fears and insecurities are, SOMETHING, ANYTHING!!! But the show simply can't keep ignoring such a big character without it coming off as a major flaw, and until that changes, until Princess Celestia finally gets the proper attention she deserves in the show, even in just one episode focused on her as an actual main character, it will remain quite possibly the biggest long-standing flaw of the show, and it's a shame that a season that was so strong for the most part in its handling of new and old supporting characters was so marred by such a glaring absence. Andddddddddddd... exhale. OK, it appears that the show runners at DHX have taken note of this... GLARING problem, to say the least. As you can see, Celestia's been getting the shaft, and the entire show was going to keep getting brought down for it if such an important character was continually treated so poorly. NOW, I am not yet letting them entirely off the hook because this was NOT a solo-Celestia episode. BUT she was more or less the season opener's deuteragonist, and that is much more than she has been in any single episode for a long, long, long, long, long, long, long time. So for that, major props DHX, I can only hope you're going to build off of this solid foundation of Celly-love and not just let it be a single bone thrown her way. Anyways, yeah, Celestia was great here (and it should be obvious from the title alone that she'd be a major character, I mean, ya know, "Celestial Advice" and all). This is a Celestia I've wanted to see in the show for a long time, with a combination of new character elements we learned about her along with old staples about her that we already loved. The second Twilight asked her for help, I already felt like the show had entered a comfort zone it hadn't been in in a longggggggggg time, too long, in fact. Frankly, it was just nice seeing the show do something it doesn't do enough anymore; have the main characters go to their elders for help. I know some people may be like, "Well, it's cliche or old fashioned," but come on, the main character of this show has a mentor who's over a thousand years old and has ruled Equestria, the greatest country in the entire show, most of her life in relative peace and harmony. The fact that she had barely sought her advice for any major decisions or friendship problems, onscreen, since pretty much becoming the Princess of Friendship (there were exceptions, but not enough), was not just criminal from a storytelling point of view, but stupid, ridiculously stupid. Too often for some time now either the characters have easily learned most lessons on their own, OR Twilight has taught them; I know the former is easy enough to accept for most friendship problems in this show (especially for the veteran members of the Mane 6), and that the latter makes sense in establishing Twilight as the Princess of Friendship in actions and not just in title, BUT come on, surely they could have found more for Celestia to do before now. Anyways, yes, Twilight asking Celestia for help and advice not only made sense, but was great to see, especially in getting to contrast how Celestia is as a teacher to Twilight vs. Twilight as a teacher to Starlight. "I was not aware that I was an expression." Best bucking line in the entire premiere!!! She really just forgot which kitchen her cake was in that day Most of the time Celestia was just calmly listening to Twilight, and when she spoke, it was only because she knew exactly what she needed to say, no more, no less (aside from an innocent joke here or there). Considering how many ponies she's ruled and helped in all her years, this makes a lot of sense; it's probably hard to phase Celestia with much at this point, and she knows the value of hearing all that you need to know before speaking one word. Twilight on the other hoof, when it comes to Starlight, is always either worried that she's not doing enough to mentor Starlight or doing too little. She's not the OCD wreck she used to be, but she will always have a natural inclination to have all her ducks in a row in any professional activity as Princess of Friendship, that's just who she is. An interesting Star Wars analogy occurred to me in thinking of this trio of ponies today: Celestia is very much a Yoda to Twilight's Obi Wan, the former serene and having the utmost confidence in both her students and how she teaches them, while the latter is obsessed with mastering and practicing and perfecting every last bit of whatever it is she's invested herself in to the fullest, and then again, and again, and again. Twilight too is Obi Wan to Starlight's Anakin, but that analogy works in a different way that I'll discuss later. Besides of course knowing exactly what Twilight needed to be told, Celestia gave us some wonderful backstory on both her buildup to sending Twilight to Ponyville (a decision that evidently took her quite some time, most likely months given both the obviously difficulty with which she made her decision as well as the fact that getting the library secured for Twilight must've involved at least some paperwork) and what she was experiencing emotionally in making that decision. She was as afraid for Twilight as she was herself, because it was clear that at that point, Twilight was one of her closest friends (though I got the feeling that Twilight probably didn't think of it in the same way at the time, more like at best a maternal, but first and foremost regal, mentor considering how little she understood about friendship at the time), and she had no way of knowing if somepony as close to her as her sister could truly be saved even after she returned. She had big plans for Twilight already, and unfortunately for her, those plans meant letting the wonderful status quo of having such a wonderful, dear friend by her side almost constantly come to an end. It was great seeing how painful and hard that was for Celestia, and added a level of vulnerability to her we've only rarely gotten to see. And of course, the experience allowed her to tell Twilight with the utmost confidence that part of being a great mentor in anything is knowing when your students are ready to cut loose on their own, no matter in what or how painful it may be for the mentor or student, or even downright scary. All around, I couldn't have asked for a more solid start to the season for Celestia, but that said, she still needs a solo episode at some point, so stick to it DHX, and hopefully you'll deliver just that this season. AHA! BEHOLD, THE RETURN OF TROLLESTIA, BOW BEFORE HER, MORTALS!!! As for the rest of the episode, it was all good stuff. Twilight's increasing, OCD paranoia about what could happen to Starlight on her own was hilarious, and the lesson she learned and actions she took as a result was great too. As far as I can tell, Starlight (while still living in Ponyville, which, given how quickly she decided to do that after they set up so much her getting sent away, felt like a bit of a cop out, even if I was happy for it) is no longer directly being mentored by Twilight about friendship. She'll still live in the castle for the time being, but there appears to be no fixed agenda for her, she's just going about learning how to be a better friend and maybe helping teach others along the way in her day-to-day business. Hopefully this means she might get paired with other members of the Mane 6 besides Twilight, because I would like to see her grow closer to the other Mane 6 individually, though I get the feeling that a huge portion of her adventures this season will be with Trixie. Basically she's kind of where Twilight was at somewhere around middle-to-end of Season 2 or Season 3, at least I think she is. Dat's racist Dat's... also racist. Man, Twilight has some deep-seeded racial insecurities, doesn't she? Discord, while hardly a villain, was quite a good troll here in setting off Twilight's latest freaking-out episode, and it was kinda nice seeing him for the most part just lightheartedly screwing around rather than making himself constantly the center of attention. He felt, oddly enough, like a more normal member of that crowd. The reformed Changelings were adorable and hilarious (though Thorax's voice really doesn't work with that beefed up new look, just doesn't sound right coming out of him), the Mane 6 had some OK bits, the animation was just lovely, Starlight and her friends were great, Spike was once again a low key voice of reason, and all in all everything here just worked. Very solid opening episode, I very much enjoyed watching how everything played out in this one. Moving on to "All Bottled Up," the lesser of the two episodes, but not by much. I still thoroughly loved it very much, and for good reason. It still felt very much connected to the first episode in that here, we got to see what kind of life Starlight is beginning to make for herself now that she's no longer directly reporting to Twilight on a regular basis. It seems she's starting by trying to teach her best friend, Trixie, how to be better at magic in general (since, to be honest, Trixie could stand to improve by quite a bit). This actually presented quite a few contrasts between Starlight and Twilight that I rather enjoyed and which fit very much into how we've seen both of them develop as characters. Going back to the Star Wars analogies, Twilight is the Obi-Wan to Starlight's Anakin in the magical department in the sense that, as far as we know, Starlight's the more powerful of the two when it comes to raw power. Let's keep in mind that when Twilight battled her in Season 5, Twilight was an alicorn and had (and probably still has) more book-learning about magic than Starlight did, and yet somehow Starlight stayed on par with her. Twilight is the learning obsessed master of technique who's greatest skill in mastering anything magical is doing so by practicing it 200 times a day and just getting it down to a T. Hence, Obi-Wan. Starlight, on the other hand, seems to have greater raw power and while she is still probably even in power with Twilight, the fact that she is as a unicorn is ridiculous to say the least and goes to show just what kind of stuff she's made of. While Twilight's calling is clearly as the Princess of Friendship (and that certainly involves plenty of magic, especially since friendship is probably the most powerful magic in Equestria, literally), Starlight, I get the feeling, may eventually go into a more explicitly magical field. I just don't see her being a friendship teacher in the same way Twilight is. As far as friends go, Twilight was not a natural leader to begin with. She was a recluse and anti-social, so it makes sense that like everything else, she taught friendship when she got into it like a project that she had to master through as much study and repetition as possible. Don't get me wrong, she's a great friend, but there are many ways in which she still approaches friendship as she has from the beginning, and it's for those reasons that she's the glue that holds together a group like the Mane 6. Starlight, on the other hoof, IS a natural leader it seems, or at least we have seen that she possesses the will to be. Her problem with friendship was insecurity, not disinterest, and there will probably always be a part of her that fears that she could hurt others if she isn't careful because of her past mistakes. Hence, I foresee her never having a Mane 6 group like Twilight, and frankly I'm OK with that. The show really doesn't need such an arrangement for any reason, it would come off as tired and lazy, and it just doesn't fit Starlight. She will have friends, but unlike Twilight, her closest friends won't be a big group that all are dear to each other as well; her friendships are going to be fewer and far more personal to Starlight, one-on-one so to speak. I mean, to date, it seems that her three truly closest friends are Trixie, Sunburst, and Spike, none of whom are friends with each other in particular (not in the same way at least). Trixie is her best friend, Sunburst is more of a very close childhood friend, and Spike is like a combination of mentor and little brother. Twilight is a super close friend too, but more as a mentor, and to this day you always get the sense that ever since the end of Season 5 Starlight's been kind of in awe of Twilight and in no way considers herself to be on the same level as her as a friend. What I like about this is that it highlights that there are all kinds of different ways to have friends in one's life (something the show has highlighted many times, but this is particularly noteworthy since it's main characters we're talking about). Some people have a solid group like Twilight and the Mane 6, others have few friends but super close ones like Starlight and Trixie. Valuable lesson to be taught, even if it was only in the background here. So the actual lesson was pretty great too (if a bit obvious). Starlight was literally bottling her anger at Trixie because she feared that if she blew her top at her, Trixie wouldn't want to be her friend anymore. This was a little confusing because I'm pretty sure they've had spats before of some kind, but it largely worked because, just like some of Twilight's early friendship problems in Season 1 when she knew little about friendship, Starlight too is still super cautious when it comes to aspects of friendship that she doesn't understand. The idea that getting into a fight with your best friend is OK was clearly bizarre to her, and Trixie's ego probably didn't help convince her she'd take Starlight being angry at her OK. But in the end, doing so only made things worse, and Starlight and Trixie were able to come to an understanding that sometimes, friends need to be brutally honest with each other, and even if they fight as a result, that doesn't mean things won't be OK between them in the end. A good, if simple, lesson, but it got the job done. The real highlights of this episode were the entertaining bits, and boy were there a lot. Trixie was insufferable (even more than usual) in this episode, but hilariously so (her predilection for junkfood seems to be becoming something of a running gag, and I nearly fell out of my seat when she birthed an Eldritch horror in that teacup poodle and insisted that a bag of pretzels were a suitable replacement for homemade teacupcakes... twice). It's nice to see that certain aspects of her personality haven't changed, that her magic is getting better (though there are still things she just bucks up for the strangest of reasons... I think she might be a magical klutz), and hopefully she might even start embarking on more of a character arc than she has to date as, possibly, a developing main character! Pffftttt, OK, in all honesty, she kind of needed a nut cart to be thrown on top of her at some point in this episode... which thankfully happened. Cheeky little bastard used up about 50 too many of her Get Out of Jail Free cards. Also... DAT'S A LOTTA NUTS!!! Spike was very solid here; I love seeing him as now the most low key member of the main characters, and his rapport with Starlight remains fun to watch as he throws out good advice to her here and there, but nowhere near as pushy as Twilight would. Also, his terror of Trixie's magic and her wanting to use him as a teleportation guinea pig was hilarious. The Mane 6's subplot (while largely pointless) was pretty funny. I loved their assistant who clearly knew who they were and just didn't give a buck because he most likely gets paid two bits an hour to do this s*** all day for whoever comes through, and his pleasure at their two second failure at the end was amazing. The song they sang was pretty standard, but was amazing payoff as a joke set up earlier by Starlight that they'd most likely sing a song at some point; really, it was just that standard because the show was being self aware in that moment how cliche this is (there really was no good reason that the girls would sing a song about something so banal as beating a fun puzzle game), and the best part of all was the fact that they sung that song in real time is what kept them from beating the course record. Amazing payoff to a greatly set up joke, and it's great to see that the show runner's still have no problem poking fun at themselves and their beloved show now and then when it's warranted or just in harmless fun. And finally, Bulk Biceps, Granny Smith, and that... new townspony, whoever she was, were all hilarious, both before and when they got possessed by Starlight's bottled up anger. If I had any complaints, it was simply that we've never seen Starlight's anger manifest as a magical entity, and probably won't ever again, so where the buck did that actually come from here? But other than that, this was a pair of lovely episodes to kick off what will hopefully prove to be another wonderful season of MLP:FiM. Join me again next week everypony when I review the next new episode of Season 7. Until then, this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit*

Well the point of the song was more for the sake of the joke that they were singing the song in the first place, which is probably why it felt more generic for them. I mean, Starlight set it up earlier when she said, "Knowing them, they'll probably sing a song." XD

Trixie-logic: "Here, have some Cheez-Its... it means I'm sorry!"

What are you talking about, she's had an entire character arc since the show started?! And Luna's my best princess, don't get me wrong, but she is not lacking in screen time, Celestia has a fraction of everything Luna's had.

Well, it's nice to see that Trixie isn't quite done being her old Trixie-self.

BEHOLD, THE RETURN OF TROLLESTIA IN ALL HER TROLLING GLORY!!!

Celestia's already gotten better treatment than she got in all of S6... seriously.

Why do I get the feeling that Twilight was really conducting some kind of covert panty raid, and that whole "mirror-present" excuse was just a cover so Spike wouldn't suspect?