art by AssasinMonkey

Finally, after unfortunate delays, I bring my first Afterthoughts for Season 7 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Today, the first episode: “Celestial Advice”.

I should start by mentioning that this season kicked off with two episodes, as has become the standard, but not with a two-episode story. Instead, we received two very well-done episodes each with their own stories. Back at the beginning of Season 6, in my Afterthoughts for “The Crystalling”, I wrote this:

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a show that isn't afraid to alter the status quo, to bring character and story arcs to a close and to start new ones. Season Five was particularly strong in this regard, from the very different season premiere to the drastic change in status for the Cutie Mark Crusaders. From Rarity and Rainbow Dash accomplishing show-long goals, to the expansion of the Mane Six into the new Mane Seven. Episodes like "Amending Fences", "Tanks for the Memories" and "Do Princesses Dream of Magical Sheep" dealt with surprisingly deep and mature themes for a show that is ostensibly for families including young children. In short, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic itself has matured. And it has been a beautiful thing to see.

"The Crystalling" starts off the new season in a way that reflects this maturity. Here, we have a two-part episode that isn't about a new, big arch-nemesis. Instead, we are treated to a crisis brought about by a series of unfortunate events. No new evil forces needed to be introduced. And the episode was grounded in things that were set up in the previous seasons, by episodes such as "Baby Cakes" and "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows". While I still personally love "The Cutie Map" much more than "The Crystalling", I applaud this evolution.

I’m extremely pleased that Season 7 has continued this evolution. The writers didn’t feel they had to provide a new Big Bad or epic threat. This episode was entirely about characters, and sets up the new season in a very mature fashion.

Beyond that, “Celestial Advice” was a story about parenting, although couched in a mentor-student relationship. The children watching could enjoy the episode for Discord’s antics and because they love Twilight and ponies, but the gentle lesson of the episode is directed towards parents rather than the children in the target audience. This wasn’t even an episode for us; amongst the adult brony audience, it is those who have children of their own whom this episode spoke to most directly.

The staff of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has a praiseworthy grasp of the diverse elements of their audience and a willingness to speak to them and create content that is beneficial for them.

art by MomoMistress

The message itself is simply one of learning to let go. There isn’t really a whole lot to be said about it (in fact, my “other bits” segment of this Afterthoughts might be longer than my observations on the theme and lesson), but when it comes time to let a child who has grown up and is ready to move out on their own, this is a difficult time for a lot of parents. Anxiety about the future of their child, worries about whether they as parents have prepared him or her enough, and the impending loss and loneliness all feed into a reluctance to take that step.

I am not a parent, so I cannot speak to this the way a parent would. But I was able to observe some of the same conflicts in my own parents. While they never held me back and were always supportive of my move forward in life, that didn’t mean this struggle wasn’t there. Just that they handled it better than some. My mother in particular had a habit of reminding me that if things went badly and I ever needed a place to stay, I was always welcome to move back home – gentle reminders that became more frequent after my father passed away.

Seeing that Celestia herself struggled with this was amazing. For many years, we have wanted a Celestia-focused episode, one that gave her some dimension and development. This episode, while also focused on Twilight, gave us just that. Celestia’s mother-figure role in the show has now been fully realized. (In fact, she reminded me starkly of my own mother in this episode!)

I love how she laughed… but more importantly, I love why she laughed. And the tale she told after was so touching (and amusing… God, I loved those guards!) that it made for a truly beautiful beginning of the season. Old arcs have closed, new paths forward have opened up, and we finally see the true, “human” reason behind the letters to Celestia.

And in that, I found the episode gave new light to Celestia’s reaction in “Lesson Zero”, giving her distress and anger over Twilight’s actions a personal core we hadn’t seen before. Bravo, writers.

art by RenoKim

Extra Credits:

Little story: Fallout 4, with its scrapping and crafting, made every bit of rubbish in the wasteland something you could break down for useful component parts, providing an impetus to collect every discarded soda bottle and old dishrag you came across. And this, in turn, drastically compounded carry weight limitation annoyances. Early on, playing my character Angel, I hit upon the idea of collecting everything in a zone until I was nearly overburdened, then backtracking and dumping it in a container near the exit or a convenient open space. This allowed me to collect everything without moving super slow, and at the end, I’d load up my absurd stash, become overburdened with potentially hundreds of times my carry capacity. I would then summon a Vertibird to fly me home, bypassing the no-fast-travel-while-overburdened problem. It was still incredibly tedious with a lot of backtracking, but it gave me a functional way within the game’s design that Angel could collect everything valuable in one run of an area.

Having thus solved the problem sufficiently, I actually played this way for about three dungeons before it started to annoy me. And since I knew what my character would be doing in-character to deal with the problem, I had no reservations about using a console command to increase Angel’s carry capacity by about two tons just so I didn’t have to deal with the busywork out-of-character and could focus more on the parts of the game that I enjoy.

Watching this episode’s bookends, it occurred to me that Pinkie Pie is the mistress of all things party, and has already worked out all the how-to’s of party prep and breakdown. And being Pinkie Pie, she too has gotten to the point where she just uses cheat codes to deal with the tedious stuff.

Also, that vacuum is in competition with Flurry Clock for this episode’s cuteness award.

I really like that Spike followed up “I don’t think the mirror will say all that” with a very nice “but I think she’ll like it!” In fact, Spike was awesome this episode. Not always saying the right thing (“Too soon?”), but showing the strength of his role and the dynamic he adds, including his wonderful sarcasm (“Wild guess: something’s wrong.”) keeping Twilight’s crazy from overwhelming her. Best Spike line: “Three, two, one.”

Cathy Weseluck, former Rarity voice actress, voicing Spike mimicing Rarity.

It was great that they started right off with the aftermath of last season’s finale, wrapping things up even as they set up the new season. I like the Pink Hearts of Courage. Considering the stained glass windows that the Mane Six received in Canterlot, and the fact this ceremony is occurring in Twilight’s Castle, I’m operating on the impression that this honor is a new one created by Princess Twilight.

We have build turntables, but we haven’t perfected the idea of a ribbon clasp.

I loved all the ponies at the ceremony. Especially in that first post-awards pan: the changeling’s trotting dance, Sweetie Belle dancing with Spike, the return of the My Town ponies, and… I’m going to say Rainbow Dash about to teach Scootaloo how to table dance.

I can’t decide if Discord was just being an dick, if he was trying to help Twilight and Starlight in his own grating way, or if he really did just hope Twilight would set it up for him and Starlight to be roommates. Maybe all three, to various degrees? I do like that Discord is broadening the list of ponies he wants to hang out with beyond Fluttershy. (As a side note, I was relieved when Twilight dumped that tea!)

“Look at my horse. My horse is amazing!”

“You were me and I was Starlight. But for now, I need you to pretend that you’re you and I’m me.”

“There’s no wrong way to fantasize!” Holy wow! What a statement to actually get in-show. I could write a whole blog inspired by that statement… and maybe one day I will. Short version: so long as there is an absolute division between fantasy and reality, I agree with Celestia.

On that note, the whole Twilight Fantasies sequence struck me as an analogy to fanfic writing. Including Spike complaining that Twilight was portraying people out-of-character, and Twilight’s fandom-familiar “Who knows what their dynamic would be?” retort. And having written story segments that caused me to shed tears, I can empathize with crying Twilight at the end of the third fantasy. The sequence even ended with the appropriate reminder that fanfiction isn’t canon: “It didn’t happen.”

Likewise, the Twilight Fantasies also acted a bit like her own P.P.O.V. mini-episode, showing us a bit of how Twilight sees her student and the ponies around her. The results are expectedly skewed and not always flattering. There may be lessens for Twilight to learn here, but this was not the time.

It was so fun seeing Celestia teaching, and the fillies of her youth, including Moon Dancer.

Sunshine + Lolipops + Rainbows = 2

Notably, the vision in Ponyville didn’t give us filly versions of the other Mane 6… but for that matter, we know from the first season that while they knew of each other and some (especially Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy) had a childhood connection, they really weren’t a group of friends until Twilight Sparkle brought them together. But this is Celestia’s story and is representative, not a factual memory. The writers could have decided to show Celestia seeing each of them individually in a slideshow, but this condensing was better for telling the story. That’s fine in my book.

“I was not aware I was an expression.” I bet everyone who has read Fallout: Equestria knew the exact line in the story I immediately thought of when Celestia said that.