Novelist John Green has said of art on multiple occasions that things belong to the people who use them, not the people who create them. While this is an admirable sentiment and one I often agree with, it’s sometimes difficult to sympathize with that when viewing an object from within its fanbase.

The bronies are a particularly large and passionate fandom, having created some really fantastic artwork, music, webcomics, and the like within the universe of the show “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”. I don’t blame them. It’s a well-realized universe, with a plethora of interesting characters and a refreshingly optimistic tone. Yet when Hasbro began their weeks-long reveal of a new toyline, and the season finale episode that would precede it, some of the bronies cried foul. And they cried it loudly.

In brief, then, and with a heavy spoiler warning: Twilight Sparkle is the show’s unicorn protagonist, and in the very first episode she is sent to the small town of Ponyville. There, the godlike alicorn (winged unicorn) Celestia tasks her to make friends and learn about the “magic of friendship” (hence the title). The season 3 finale of this week brought this plot thread to a climax: Twilight learned one more, incredibly valuable lesson (more on that later), which with the help of plot-convenient magic caused her to sprout wings. All alicorns in the show so far have been princesses, and Twilight herself is crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle. (This makes her the show’s fourth princess, though the rules of royalty in Equestria are a little loose, so it’s best not to think about it too hard.)

The new toy line features a winged and crowned Princess Twilight, and it was promoted almost as aggressively as the episode itself (show writer M.A. Larson joked on his twitter that the spoilers added up to more than the 22-minute episode time limit). To the bronies, this came off as executive meddling, a case of rewriting the script to fit the toys. Larson and story editor Megan McCarthy quickly came out to say that the physical change to the show’s protagonist would not alter her personality. Even the characters seem to get in on the reassurances; “everything is fine” is among the episode’s first and last lyrics.

But without even getting into the quality of the episode itself (and again, I will get to that) - what, exactly, is the problem with this marketing strategy? Sure, much of my childhood cultural intake revolved around film or television (PBS Kids was my go-to channel), but do you know how much of it revolved around toys, too? A lot. I bought most of the Harry Potter legos when they were coming out, and treasured those more than the films. I also watched every trailer and clip of the Potter films I could find before actually going to the theater, and they still remain some of my favorite movies, and in some places most memorable cinematic experiences. (I saw an advance screening of Potter 3 with my dad, which might have something to do with it being my favorite of the series.)

The spoiler culture of the internet doesn’t affect kids, which is the original target audience. And for some, this could be their first episode. Alicorn Twilight might be the closest thing to status quo they know. Not to mention that the episode leaves open a huge range of possible stories for the new princess, and what better way to imagine those stories than toys, a physical thing for kids to build their imagination around?

As for the episode itself, well… it’s a beauty. M.A. Larson is a genius with continuity; he’s sort of the Joss Whedon of this show, and that’s just what you need for a rousing plotline-wrapping season finale. But just as much has been written by songwriter Daniel Ingram, who provided seven songs for this, the first musical episode of the show. The two are constrained by the time limit, which is a pity, because there are a few emotional beats that would have been fantastic to expand, but I guess that’s what fanfiction is for. What the two get right in their twenty minutes, they get very right. The story, and the moral, could be the best “My Little Pony” has ever had.

The universe of “My Little Pony” has been compared to Plato’s Republic. Every pony after a certain age acquires a “cutie mark” on their flank, which represents or determines their destiny, depending on how you look at it. This destiny is a particular duty or niche in pony society which only they can fill. And it’s a unique part of each pony’s identity. Rather like Plato’s society, ponies are expected to play this part for the rest of their life.

In the season 3 finale, the cutie marks of Twilight’s five friends switch around, so that each pony is given a different destiny. You could take this idea in a lot of ways. Here, the ponies reluctantly perform their new duties, but none of them are good at it and so each of them reaches a point of despair and hopelessness; many attempt to leave town. The cutie mark switch provides a difficult pill to swallow in terms of plot, because it presents a barrel of questions regarding the new history of Equestria. But the fact that this episode is a musical draws attention to its unreality, and so the viewer may quickly forget the questions entirely.

The problem is caused by magic, but resolved by friendship. Twilight takes her miserable friends to help each other out, and in doing so they rediscover their original destinies. The lesson Twilight takes away from this is that destinies aren’t just about individual futures, but how they tie friends together into one common life. She writes this lesson into a spell, which, with some help from her friends’ magical artifacts, jumpstarts Twilight’s physical transformation.

Destinies tying friends together is not uncommon ground for Larson; previously, he wrote an episode in which a single event caused all six protagonists to acquire their cutie marks. But here, he goes so far as to tie it into the title of the show. If anyone exemplifies the idea that friendship is magic, it is Twilight, who studies magic almost as much as she studies friendship. This episode ties together both ideas. The love and devotion between Twilight and her friends, but particularly on Twilight’s part, directly causes her ascension. The transformation brings Twilight to princess status, but not because she has a domain to rule; rather, Twilight is presented as a role model for her friends, her former mentor, and her audience. By the end of season 3, Twilight has put so much effort into learning and practicing friendship that she is an exemplar of the idea, and possibly even able to teach it herself.

There are a lot of interesting ways you could move forward after this radical change in status quo. The writers have assured the bronies that Twilight’s personality will remain the same, and that she will still be able to have adventures with her friends. But what are the story possibilities? My guess is we have a whole new playground to work with, whatever happens. You could start the next season right where this one left off, or you could move all of the ponies a little closer to their destinies: perhaps Rainbow Dash is on the verge of becoming an elite Wonderbolt flyer, or Rarity is ensconced in the Canterlot fashion scene. Whatever happens, season 3 and this episode in particular have made destinies important again, a refreshing course since it’s one of the show’s most interesting attributes.

In the meantime, though, there’s a lot to appreciate in this episode. The animation has bumped up sharply in quality; the usually flatly-drawn characters are on several occasions drawn with beautiful shading. And Tara Strong turns out her best and often most heartbreaking performance as Twilight yet. There are character moments galore between the Mane Six, plenty of continuity references to other episodes, and a few recurring background characters that bronies will have sorely missed in this season. It is, in other words, a fantastically produced episode.

But it is the episode’s story that makes it so unique, a culmination of the last three seasons of this show, and something that Twilight well deserves after all her tribulations. M.A. Larson, Daniel Ingram, Tara Strong, and the entire pony crew have given the fans of all ages a gift that will endure beyond the spoilers, beyond the marketing, and beyond the angry outcries, which could define the show’s tone for years to come.