The wait is finally over. We has Season 5.
Previously, on My Little Pony, Tirek was defeated by the power of friendship and beam spam, and a brand spanking new castle just sorta planted itself in Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle became the newly-crowned Princess of Friendship. And she may or may not have entered a human-ish world to settle a siren attack – it’s not entirely clear.
Turns out, there’s a giant map that appears on their round table once everyone sits in their corresponding chair. One wonders how they never figured that out before.
The map seems to direct them to go to a specific place, and they figure “eh, why not?” Well, except Fluttershy, who initially wants to stay put, but figures going on an adventure is more appealing than staying with Spike and Big Macintosh while they discuss hoofball. And that’s the sound of Fluttermac collapsing on itself. I kid, I kid. Shippers will make ANYTHING work. It’s downright frightening at times.
They end up in a village where everyone has the same “equal sign” cutie marks and creepy grin on their faces.
The Mane 6 are led to the town’s mayor, Starlight Glimmer, who briefly explains that the town experiences “true friendship” with one another, primarily because no one flaunts their special talent (they have none). Basically, everyone is happy because everyone is the same. And that’s when the whole town goes into a musical number.
The Mane 6 stop by at a local bakery and meet Sugar Belle, who can only bake terrible muffins. She’s confused about the fact that the Mane 6 has differing opinions and cutie marks yet remain friends and repeats what seems to be the village mantra: “Different talents lead to different opinions, which lead to bitterness and misery.” Charming. She then whispers to Twilight to come inside into the basement before she leaves. Why? So no one can see her do this:
Actually, she and a couple of other villagers sometimes wish they had their old cutie marks, even if they are otherwise content with the town. They explain that everyone’s cutie marks were taken by Starlight Glimmer using the Staff of Sameness, and their cutie marks are held in a vault.
The Mane 6 ask to see the vault, and Pinkie spills the beans that there are dissenters in the village. Dammit, Pinkie. Of course, it was all a trap anyway, and Starlight Glimmer always planned on using the Staff of Sameness to remove Twilight’s cutie mark (and the cutie marks of her friends).
Next episode! The Mane 6 are kept in a room and forced to listen to equalist loudspeaker propaganda all day.
Exceptionalism is a lie.
Free yourself from your cutie mark.
Choose equality as your special talent.
To excel is to fail.
Be your best by never being your best.
Twilight comes up with the idea to send Fluttershy out to pretend to turn. Starlight Glimmer asks that she squeal on who the dissenters are, and one of them (Party Favor) admits to it to save the other two.
Fluttershy tries to sneak to the vault, but doesn’t get far. Luckily, she manages to learn that the Mane 6’s cutie marks were transferred to Starlight Glimmer’s house. She also watches as water splashes on Starlight Glimmer’s cutie mark, revealing her terrible secret:
Armed with this knowledge, Fluttershy passes it on to Twilight, and they come up with a plan: publicly expose her. It’s a good plan.
The town feels betrayed and demands that either everyone should have their cutie marks, or Starlight should remove her own cutie mark. Starlight is kinda keen on the whole superiority thing, plus the magical artifact that removes cutie marks isn’t an artifact so much as it is a twig (the ability to remove cutie marks is her own skill) so she runs off with the Mane 6’s cutie marks. The entire town revolts, takes back their cutie marks, and helps the Mane 6 get theirs back, but Starlight manages to escape.
Everyone in town plans to stay and learn how to become true friends, and the Mane 6 feel their mission has been accomplished. It now seems the main theme of the season will be them roaming across Equestria and spreading the message of true friendship to those in need.
Best parts of the episodes:
1. We have muffins… … … … …
2. Sugar Belle is adorable.
3. Probably the only instance we’ll ever have of a village-wide villain song.
4. The brainwashing imagery was great.
5. The B-team village ponies saving the day while rediscovering their talents was really fun. We need more side ponies doing stuff like that.
6. Starlight Glimmer taught herself some powerful magic and could potentially show up again as a villain. Her power is pretty dangerous, too, so it’s interesting to see if she’ll ever be punished.
7. Applejack losing her cutie mark results in an inability to spout countryisms
8. Not so much this episode, but how fast the fandom is to make relevant artwork:
