This is the final episode before the two-parter season finale, as well as the last episode Amy Keating Rogers worked on, and man… what a send-off.

Everypony is working on the upcoming Helping Hooves charity concert when Pinkie Pie shows up and says she managed to get the biggest pop star in Equestria to headline: Countess Coloratura!

Applejack has no idea who that is.

BUT it turns out Applejack DID know a Coloratura when she was at Camp Friendship.  Yep, it’s the same Coloratura.  I mean, for starters, what are the odds there are TWO ponies named Coloratura in Equestria?

AJ’s Coloratura, nicknamed Rara (apologies to Rarity) was a great singer even as a filly.  But the years seem to have changed her completely into a commercial pop diva who calls herself Countess.

We are treated to an amazing, if short, song called The Spectacle, and it just goes ALL IN.  It’s a pretty obvious send-up of Lady Gaga and is the embodiment of flashy.

Predictably, AJ doesn’t like it.  The fandom, on the other hand, has mixed feelings.

That’s Lena Hall guest voicing Coloratura, by the way.  She completely rocks every single song in the episode, but her voice acting leaves much to be desired.  I couldn’t help but get distracted by some of the misplaced inflections.

Anyway, it seems that deep down, she’s still the old Rara, and she genuinely enjoys her charity work and connecting with schoolponies.  However, her manager, Svengallop (yes, they went there) is a demanding douchebag who uses Countess Coloratura’s celebrity to intimidate Pinkie Pie into fulfilling his outrageous demands by threatening to pull her out of the concert.  When AJ finds out about this, he goes to Coloratura and tries to sort things out, but she doesn’t believe AJ and kinda breaks up with her… for about the duration of a commercial break.  AJ convinces her to play along with a ploy to find out just how much Svengallop cares about Coloratura’s charity work, and surprise surprise, he’s an incorrigible douchebag just like AJ said.

So, Svengallop gets fired.  Unfortunately, he was responsible for all of the effects that made her Countess Coloratura.  AJ gets her to take the opportunity to perform as Rara, and the audience is unsurprisingly accepting of her true self.

“The Magic Inside” has some rather direct lyrics, but you can’t deny the power it has.

Rara finishes off her part of the concert by getting the CMC to sing “Equestria, The Land I Love” (the same song she sang at Camp Friendship) and invites AJ onstage.

*sniff* Ain’t friendship magic?

I kinda wanted this to be Twilights Projector, but that completely failed to take off.  So instead, here’s something more interesting: Rarararara.

For those who don’t know, Rarara is a bit of a pet name for Rarity among some in the fandom.

And of course, we had to take a step further to bring this joke to the obvious place it demanded:

Frostykat13 really captures the atmosphere of the climactic song of the episode with the fittingly named “Magic Inside.”

Well, who do you THINK is pony of the week?

Purple Rain, duh!

Oh, okay… Gotta go with Coloratura on this one.  Whether it’s the glitz and glamour of the Countess or the soulful Rara, she was the true star of the episode for good cause.

The season finale is upon us.  The two-parter promises the return of Starlight Glimmer and time travel shenanigans!  How can you go wrong?