EP 21: Scare Master
Rating: 4 4 3
So this is a Nightmare Night episode right after the Hearth's Warming episode and I remember back when this episode first came out, it confused everyone making us all wonder if Nightmare Night is actually after Hearth's Warming. So I checked the season 2 post-season notes since that season also has episodes with both holidays and I don't know. That season's Hearth's Warming episode takes place the next year according to my timeframe theory so there is actually no concrete proof as to which holiday comes first. If Nightmare Night does indeed come after Hearth's Warming, I'm pretty sure it's still compatible with my timeframe theory. However, because Equestria is pretty much analogous to the US and Canada including its cultural stuff, I lean more towards this episode being out of chronological order. I do believe this is the only time this has happened so far though, excluding the episodes that take place simultaneously. Now some may think that none of this matters since the show is episodic but the fact is, it isn't. Even outside of the major episodes and two-parters, this show has frequently had continuity callbacks to episodes only one or a few episodes from the present episode proving that while the majority of the show in a meta sense is episodic, the show is ultimately a serial where episodes are in chronological order.
Getting to the plot of the episode, Fluttershy is scared of Nightmare Night but has to go out to get Angel food. Eventually, she goes to Twilight's castle which is apparently just unlocked. She then comes across Spike who convinces her to hang out with her friends on Nightmare Night despite her being terrified of it. Applejack has a flashback.
Callback to Filli Vanilli. Rarity then gets Fluttershy ready with a costume and smacks her twice. Flutters then complains about lack of visibility in a costume Rarity proposes to her. I cover my head and face every time I go outside because of mass surveillance; lack of peripheral vision is not at all a problem when you can just soundwhore your surroundings. After a bunch of activities Fluttershy refuses to participate in, she decides to host her own scary thing to make up for her wack-assery.
Fluttershy's scary thing turns out to be a wack-ass scary tea party with anime pony drawings.
Asuka is a better character than Rei.
They tell Fluttershy her attempt at scaring them fucking sucked and they leave. Tired of Fluttershy's shit, they go to an actually scary maze where they get scared and we get a Derpy sighting.
Running away from some ghosts, the ponies fall down a rabbit hole into a realm where they have to confront the sins of their past or perish, eternally damned to suffer for their transgressions. Eventually, they escape and find the entire thing was orchestrated by Fluttershy to show them true horror. After a final confrontation with Flutters, they truly escape and Applejack's PTSD gets worse and Pinkie has another schizophrenic episode and is forced back into a psychiatric hospital. The end.
Episode was okay enough for 4 EV and had a few mildly funny moments. 4 VB for the message that some people won't participate in your traditions and stuff. 3 DV because there isn't really any development.
EP 22: What About Discord?
Rating: 5 4 3
First sentence in the episode Spike says "months". Twilight then forces Spike to help her reorganize books for three days straight because no one will tell her she has a problem.
Then when they're done, Rainbow Dash and Discord then crash into the ground and Discord then mentions how the past three days were "hissterical" while transformed into a snake and this bit was unironically hilarious. Rainbow Dash then calls him "Sneaky Snake". For fuck's sake.
Then Twilight and Spike go to Rarity's where Spike then misgenders a pony like a total chud. Discord then appears with Fluttershy where they then make a bunch of orange jokes.
Then Twilight finds Discord at Sugarcube Corner and continues making Twilight sad by making her friends laugh.
Then Twilight makes all her friends reenact the events of the weekend so she can then experience them and then understand why all this shit is so funny. Discord then says the Apples all look the same. Then after failing to reproduce the weekend despite reenacting everything perfectly, Discord then tells Twilight she wasn't there so they can't reenact the weekend how it was like this is some quantum physics research project.
Then Twilight starts having a schizophrenic fit and then thinks Discord casted a spell on everyone. She then goes to Zecora who then tells her to take her meds before giving some to her since she can act as Twilight's pharmacist. Still in a fit of schizophrenia, she then dissolves all the pills into drinks for her friends because she now thinks the drinks will remove the spell.
Then because her friends know what's going on, refuse to drink the drinks except Pinkie who then tries to jump out a window to commit suicide because one of the prescriptions is Twilight's antidepressants which is the same as Pinkie's old prescription that made her suicidal.
Then Discord arrives and resolves everything because he's apparently a trained social worker or something. Animation error at 18:04, Discord's face snaps to a different expression for a few frames before snapping back to what it should be. Unrelated, look at pretty Twilight painting:
Then with this episode's end, I rate it 5 EV because of the Discord antics and it's pretty funny. Then 4 VB because of the secondary message that friends will enjoy shit without you. Don't vibe with the primary message of jealousy because jealousy is self-cuckery. Nothing happens in terms of development so 3 DV then.
EP 23: The Hooffields And McColts
Rating: 4 4 5
Twilight and Fluttershy are sent by the map to a warzone. They arrive to find a family feud and each side thinks they're spies or something. The McColts also didn't know Twilight was another princess meaning these two clans are isolated enough from society that they didn't even know there was a fourth princess.
So Twilight tries to end the war by instilling democracy or something. The Pony Intelligence Agency assassinates a bunch of people and the war ends with Twilight committing war crimes in the name of friendship and all of Equestria reveres her as a patriotic hero.
It's alright so 4 EV. 4 VB for the message of not destroying the environment and working together instead of trying to kill each other. 5 DV because we see a new location, ponies, and their history.
EP 24: The Mane Attraction
Rating: 5 5 4
So Pinkie managed to get a mega-celebrity pony popstar named Countess Coloratura who is apparently bigger than Sapphire shores. Applejack, like a sane person who isn't a consoomer-brained celebrity-obsessed idiot has no idea who she is which freaks everyone out. I can confirm from personal experience that people do in fact freak out like this if you don't know who some celebrity is.
Applejack then reveals she knew a Coloratura as a little filly who turns out to be Countess Coloratura. Also, Countess Coloratura is pretty much a parody of Lady Gaga I think which reminds me of a music teacher my primary school had who said she went to music school or something with Lady Gaga in New York. Don't know why she would brag about that to a bunch of children.
Applejack goes into her and Coloratura's or who she called Rara's history together which includes a song by filly Rara I know damn well wasn't sung by an actual child. Still really good though.
Then Countess Coloratura actually arrives. I like her design.
Applejack approaches Coloratura to ask if she remembers her and she does but before she can greet Applejack, her gay talent agent stops her and makes her go do something else but not before giving Applejack "hoofsies" which is funnier than it should be with Coloratura sounding like a vapid airhead as she does so. She then gives hoofsies to a bunch of other vapid women. Then the gay talent agent disses Applejack to Coloratura who explains her history with her which upsets him. He then harasses Pinkie over straws and we get a bunch of callbacks.
Next we get the Spectacle song which is unironically one of the best pop songs to exist. Applejack then realizes the gay talent agent is an egotistical cunt. He then offers to get Coloratura out of meeting with schoolponies which really pisses Coloratura off since she has at least some semblance of a soul and she even announces to the foals she'll hold a contest to let some of them on stage with her at the concert.
The gay talent agent continues harassing Pinkie which Applejack witnesses prompting her to tattle to Coloratura about it. Also Apple Bloom learns that Applejack told Coloratura about her and we get this image:
Coloratura and Applejack argue over whether the gay talent agent is using Coloratura for his own gain. Applejack sets up a plan to prove the gay talent agent is a cunt by getting her to tell him that she wants to cancel the contest with the schoolponies and upon his elation at the request, reveals he's a cunt. Then a recording of him being a cunt is played for everyone to hear and Coloratura confronts him and he fucks off.
The episode ends with Coloratura singing another song as Rara and then the song from the flashback and includes the CMC and Applejack. The songs are very good.
I really liked this episode so it gets 5 EV. It gets 5 VB for Coloratura's character and the message that you should never trust a gay talent agent. 4 DV for Coloratura's past and stuff.
EP 25: The Cutie Re-Mark Part 1
Rating: 6 6 6
Twilight's giving a presentation about cutie marks and Spike is in control of the slides.
Twilight then hallucinates Starlight Glimmer being in the audience because she forgot to take her medicine today. However, the barrier between reality and the unconscious has been broken and now Starlight is real and appears before her and Spike in the castle's map room. Starlight casts spell to send her back in time and Twilight and Spike manage to follow her and find themselves in Cloudsdale at the day of the original sonic rainboom.
After realizing the situation they're in, Spike walks off the road onto cloud and falls through and I remember finding this hilarious back then. It's still really funny. Starlight then fucks up the race, prevents the sonic rainboom, and OH MY GOD, LITTLE PINKAMENA!
After this, Starlight sends them back to the present where they find the castle gone but the map remains. They find on the map the Crystal Empire has taken over a lot of Equestria and decide to go into town to get help from their friends. They find Sweet Apple Acres is a factory and Applejack explains the situation these particular individuals find themselves in. Equestria is in a war with the Crystal Empire because Sombra was never defeated. Somehow, preventing the sonic rainboom gave him at least 20 more IQ points. We then see a battle between Equestria and the Crystal Empire with Rainbow Dash who has an augmented wing, Pinkie, and Maud fighting.
Rainbow Dash is also flying in this scene so at least in this timeline, body augmentations are a technology that exists. And telling by the fact it's metal and uncolored, I'm guessing augs are a new technology exclusive to this timeline. If augs were well into their technological development, they would look closer to actual flesh most likely. I infer that they're exclusive to this timeline because otherwise we'd see them in the original timeline instead of prosthetic and assistive technology that seems behind what we're at in our world.
Do you think Equestria sends crystal ponies that aren't under Sombra's control to internment camps like the US has done?
Twilight gets the idea to use the spell she has to go back in time to stop Starlight before she even knew Twilight was there but Starlight programmed a fail-safe into the spell to send herself back in time with Twilight in case this happened and therefore staying the same Starlight, keeping her memories. Starlight disrupts the race again and tries to kill Twilight and Spike but Twilight saves herself and Spike and finds Starlight succeeded at disrupting the race by teaching Rainbow Dash's bullies to be nice. Twilight tries to convince Rainbow Dash to do the sonic rainboom but just ends up being a creepy adult making filly Rainbow Dash uncomfortable.
Twilight and Spike are sent back to the present to the timeline where Chrysalis took over and upon entering, Spike says "Well, that didn't work." which I am damn sure is a reference to the fanfic Hard Reset. Twilight and Spike are then captured by the former Ponyvillians.
EP 26: The Cutie Re-Mark Part 2
Rating: 6 6 6
So the ponies think Twilight and Spike are changelings but Zecora uses a magic salve to prove they aren't and Twilight explains the situation. They're then lead to a secret camp which is immediately attacked by Queen Chrissy. Twilight and Spike escape back to the past where she and Starlight then fight. The battle distracts the foals, canceling the race and Twilight and Spike are sent back to the present again.
This time Nightmare Moon took over and there's actually a functional society since there's no war going on, just the rule of Nightmare Moon. After trying to explain the situation to Rarity, Nightmare Moon threatens Twilight for the magic of time travel but Twilight outsmarts her and escapes back to the past.
Upon her return, she gets a hit on Starlight and freezes her but she easily escapes.
Herobrine sighting #35
They get sent back to the present with Tirek briefly before returning and Twilight accidentally shoots Rainbow Dash and we get Starlight beautifully mocking her.
They're sent to the Discord timeline next and then a timeline where the Flim Flam brothers took over and are destroying the world in the name of capital. The Flim Flam brothers also have fuzzy dice with the numbers 5413 but the only possible meaning I could find for these numbers is some industry classification system used in Canada and these numbers would relate to 'Architectural, engineering, and related services'. It sort of fits the context but it's likely these numbers are actually meaningless.
After returning to the past, Twilight pulls Starlight into the next present to show her what she's doing and how her actions are ruining the world. This present is a complete wasteland. Twilight explains her and her friends' importance to the world and that this is what happens when Starlight denies the Mane 6 their destinies. Starlight denies Twilight's words. You know, Starlight, it takes a strong mare to deny what's right in front of her. And if the truth is undeniable, you create your own.
Twilight continues trying to reason with Starlight until she freaks out about Twilight mentioning how she doesn't know what happened in her past so Starlight takes them back to her childhood where her obsession with equality began. We see she had a friend named Sunburst who was her only friend only for him to get his cutie mark and go off to Canterlot, never to see Starlight again. So Starlight tried to spread an extreme ideology, hurt ponies with the excuse that she's actually the good guy, denies any wrongdoing of her past actions, and denied potential friendships all because of what happened in her childhood. Huh.
Anyways, Twilight passes the speech check against Starlight and she allows the sonic rainboom to happen and they return to the true present. The ponies then decide to teach Starlight friendship and she becomes Twilight's student because Twilight realizes that a single dead friendship can ruin the world and the only way forward with Starlight is to teach her the friendship she was never able to learn or experience. Then we get Starlight's redemption song. It's fine.
Okay, so I have a theory. I theorize there was no actual time travel in these episodes. Instead, the past and presents were actually simulations created by a diluted time travel spell. We know that Starlight used Starswirl's spell that's the same one Twilight used to go back in time a week back in It's About Time. However, that was the absolute max Starswirl could manage. So in order to get the spell to go back in time many years, I believe Starlight changed the spell in such a way, some shortcut or optimisation had to be made to the spell to make it not a true time travel spell, but a spell that simulates time travel and the consequences of the past to the future since a true time travel spell of that caliber couldn't be done. I don't think Starlight or Twilight would even know this is the case since time travel spells are already so difficult, they wouldn't pick up on this not being actual time travel. In the alternate presents, Applejack and Zecora also just sort of accept that their presents aren't the true presents too easily for me to believe it's reality itself. Also, the castle map remains in all the presents despite the Tree of Harmony most likely never being restored in these timelines. This suggests the original present's harmony persists in these timelines, supporting this simulation theory.
I loved these episodes. Both are extremely engaging with the time travel stuff and seeing alternate timelines. Both I believe are worth 6 EV. I award the coveted 6 VB because watching this, I realized I and Starlight have some eerily similar traits. Also, for the message of redemption and how it's a much better thing to strive for than punishment with the ponies understanding that the lack of friendship is what got Starlight to this point and hurting her as punishment would only create disharmony and repeat her suffering that got her to her old worldview. 6 DV for seeing all the alternate timelines and Starlight's backstory and development.
Post-Season Notes
I can describe this season in two words: new beginnings. It's the beginning of Twilight having a castle and the map. The CMC get their cutie marks and start a new era in their lives. Starlight at the end has her reformation and therefore a new start in life. A lot of the episodes themselves fit into this theme too like how Moondancer rekindles her friendships, or how places like Griffonstone or that borough in Manehatten have been inspired by the power of friendship to start anew in certain regards. This is the first time I've noticed an actual theme arc and not just a story arc. Yet another reason this season is so great and is my favorite. This also makes it truly feel like a middle season.
Now onto timeframes. Tanks For The Memories takes place during winter which does land up with me saying Season 4 ended in either very late year 5 or very early year 6. Episodes 1-4 obviously take place before this point.
Make New Friends But Keep Discord adds another multi-month time skip being that it takes place during the gala during May assuming the Grand Galloping Gala is in the same month each year meaning episode 6 takes place anytime between then and Tanks For The Memories.
It then takes until Brotherhooves Social for us to get another hint as to when the episodes take place. As I deduced in season 2, the episode Sisterhooves Social takes place somewhere between November and April with it being more likely on the earlier side since it's the first of a few episodes that have to take place within that timeframe. And considering Hearthbreakers soon after, I am going to assume that the Sisterhooves Social takes place in November or early December. This means episodes 8-19 take place from after the gala in May to around November or December in year 6.
Hearthbreakers obviously takes place on Hearth's Warming eve and day. But then we get to Scare Master which introduces confusion as to whether Nightmare Night actually comes after Hearth's Warming early in the next year or if the chronological order of the episodes was broken. There's no absolute evidence which of these is true but I do personally believe it's out of chronological order as I explained already making episode 21 take place within the timeframe of episodes 8-19.
We don't get anything to work off of as to when episodes 22-26 take place but we can safely assume we're into year 7 by the end of the season. Here from after Friendship Games, season likely ends in April of year 7.
MLP Commentaries IndexWritten 2025-1-14 Published 2025-2-1