I've always been a fan of crazy comic book antics, so this episode was definitely enjoyable for me. The Mane-iac pretty much ticked every box on the 'hammy comic book villain' checklist and it was awesome. the animation and fighting was just so fun to watch. And I would have to say that this is probably one of my favorite Spike-centric episodes. It handles the way Spike sees himself among his friends compared to how they see him quite well.

My only point against this episode is that the initial feeling-out phase after they got their powers felt a little too contrived. If you think about it, the only person who got any actual superpowers was Rarity (coincidentally, she had to be the most fun one to watch this episode). Dash can already control weather naturally, Pinkie has been established as being able to move crazy fast for a while, Twilight's so OP with magic there's no real reason she couldn't have picked up on the ice spell easily; The only thing that happened to Fluttershy is that now her appearance accurately reflected what she can do when she gets mad.

Man, I'm late to this party (damn you final exam prep!). Ah well, no time like the present!

I was honestly stunned at this episode. For the first five minutes or so I was expecting it to be something along the lines of Yearling wanting to kill off her book franchise and Dash having to reign in her fangirlism to convince her to keep writing. You know, some story about the pros and cons of being a major fan and creating something you have a passion for (man, that would've been a pretty meta storyline).

My jaw dropped at the reveal of Yearling being Daring Do and the entire series basically being an autobiography of her adventures. It was just such a twist that I couldn't believe it! Dash pretty much got to live out a self-insert fanfic and then have it published for the world to read.

And while there are some plot holes with the whole '800 years of endless sun' ritual, I say it could be possible. It's been established at this point that there are magical objects and forces in Equestria that few beings, if any, know about, and that there are magics out there that can rival or even surpass and alicorn in power. If there's a force that can mind control a princess and give her the power to cause eternal night, who's to say that Aquizotl's ritual couldn't override Celestia's control of the sun and cause endless day?

The only thing I would question is, why did Yearling add Rainbow into the Daring Do stories as is? Once you start adding recognizable characters into your supposed work of fiction about your secret other life, wouldn't that tip somepony off that there may be more to the series than originally thought?

Overall, Season 4 continues to deliver. We still got the uber-meta lesson about overdone fanboy/fangirl tendencies, along with a side of learning to trust in others, but delivered in an awesome 20 minute homage to Indanna Jones. Keep the great episodes coming, DHX!

Some interesting theories abound. Probably the best one I've heard is that it's the Nightmare or whatever force turned Luna into Nightmare Moon. It makes sense in a way, and with the Tree of Harmony's reveal you could make a logical guess. If there is an entity that can embody all that is good in a world, why can't there be one that represents the evil? And I don't mean like like how Discord gets his kicks by screwing with people, I'm talking 'turn the waking world into hell on earth' evil. Something like that would be more than capable of converting an alicorn, and with Twilight and Co. researching the Tree and that box, it would make sense for this being to stalk them and eventually attempt to stop their efforts.

So far, Season for is batting 1.000 for me. This was a really fun episode! The sheer amount of unique scenery and interesting camera work just made this one visually entertaining to watch.

So, first off, I'm pretty sure that Celestia was a Scooby Doo villain in a past life. How else can you explain the sheer number of pitfalls and secret passages in a creepy old castle. As for the organ, I was half expecting it to be Luna playing it after Twilight mentioned how much she liked the secret passages. Then again she read that from Celestia's diary, and given the evidence of how much Celestia likes to screw with people, it could have just been a cutesy way for her to say that the pitfall slide was her favorite way to yank her sister's chain.

And I'll say that I like the idea of the Celestial Sisters having an obscure hidden room. It's a place that only they would know about that they could go to to escape the daily/nightly grind of being a Princess and just relax. And hopefully the diary bit at the end means that we'll see the return of the friendship reports, or at least something similar. They were one of the things that I liked a lot about earlier episodes that I was a little disappointed to see get phased out.

One side note, this is probably the one time that Angel appeared and I didn't want to throttle him. His importance to the story is driven by the fact that he's just a pet who's gone missing rather than by the fact that he behaves like an insufferable bellend towards every living thing. Although he did seem to give up on the whole 'my master just fell into a pit to oblivion' thing rather fast in the presence of magical floor carrots.

And a know that Pinkie Pie can be a thick-headed ding-a-ling at times, but being able to act as the clapper for a bell that looks like it was just pulled from the towers of Notre Dame may be taking it a bit too literally.

One thousand sessions of Drawfriend. That is quite a milestone, and marked in the only appropriate way: A gorgeous header of our Great Night Princess. Always nice to see the sheer amount and variety of pictures that come in from all our artists. Keep at it, everyone, and here's to many more to come.

And so return the post-episode Drawfriend floods. Hopefully someone out there is working on a giant Celestia vs. Nightmare Moon piece.

Good way to start the season. A bit of background on the Celestial sisters is always welcome,, even if it is only on bits the we pretty much already knew about. And i really like the direction that 'good' Discord is going in. He's only good insofar as he isn't actively trying to break reality. He could go back to spreading chaos on a whim, but he likes Fluttershy enough to not do it for her sake, which is a lot more entertaining to see than a straight-up Heel-Face turn for him.

And I have to say, the argument that Twilight had with her friends is actually quite telling. Twilight is willing to undertake the duties of being a princess, but she still wants people to treat her like a normal pony and fulfill her role as the Element of Magic. And while her friends still mostly treat her the same, they all realized something that Twilight either didn't or refused to: No matter how much she may want to just be normal, the fact is that she is now one of the four most powerful and influential ponies in Equestria, and that there will be times when Twilight the Friend will have to play back-up to Twilight the Princess. She just lucked out that this time doing good by her people and doing good by her friends meant doing the same thing.

The Tree of Harmony was another interesting point. For the longest time we've been led to believe that the Elements and the Magic of Friendship are what kept Equestria safe, but now they appear to just be part of a larger whole. The Elements draw power from friendship, but the Tree draws power from the Elements. The fact that the seeds of Discord actually got through the Tree's magic could even imply that without the Elements to power it, the Tree may have one day died. So wild guessing here, but for all the power that the Elements granted the Mane 6 and the Celestial Sisters, it doesn't seem like they were ever meant to be permanently separated from the Tree, and only when a pony (or ponies) who so completely embodied Harmony and Friendship came along would the true gift of the Tree be revealed.

TL;DR: Good episode, great way to start the season, and plenty of fuel has been given for crazy fan theories.

Just an hour left until the fun starts anew. I'm so excited I could burst!

I know I'm probably in the smallest of minorities on this one, but I actually thought That MMC was decent.

*dodges thrown chairs*

Now hear me out here! Over the past three seasons, we've watched Twilight develop leaps and bounds in terms of her magical ability, leadership, compassion for others, and social competence because of the magic of friendship. All of these are traits that a great leader would need to have, and if there's anyone capable of succeeding the Celestial Sisters, it's Twilight. Starswirl, probably the only unicorn in the series who could go toe-to-toe with Twilight, failed to complete the spell because he never understood the Magic of Friendship. That Twilight was able to complete the spell show just how much she has grown as a character, as well as saying that she has pretty much surpassed the one other pony who could've been a ruler. This entire episode was pretty much the culmination of Twilight's growth over the series, and could potentially lead to some interesting stories if they use it right.

Was the episode perfect? Not by any means. It felt way too rushed (this felt like it needed to be a two-parter) and could've done without a few of the songs. But it was by no means the fandom-ending thing that so many people claimed (and still claim in some circles) that it would be.

Eh. I really don't know how to feel about this episode. It wasn't bad by any stretch, it's just that Pinkie has never really been too high up on the totem pole for me. Too often she either comes across as obnoxious or a total airhead, and this episode took those traits and multiplied them twenty times over. The endless 'FUN FUN FUN' almost got to nails-on-a-chalkboard level of grating.

At the same time, it is interesting that Pinkie Pie herself ultimately isn't the one doing this, and by watching the clones that accentuate these negative traits of hers, she realizes that constantly going full tilt like that without restraint end up making things less fun for everyone. 'It's fun to have fun, but you have to know how', or something to that effect. And of course, there was the plethora of Pinkie-brand gags that were pretty fun, and the final test to find the real Pinkie was kinda dark if you think about it at all.

7.75/10