Episode Post No. 5 (No Second Prances)

No Second Prances started out with a late synopsis, meaning for a while, all we had was the title.

It sounded like it would be a Fluttershy episode, to be honest.

Turns out it happened to be a Starlight episode.  Which is good, we need more Starlight if we're going to assimilate her into the show.  The worrisome part was that the synopsis said that Starlight was going to make friends with a formerly bad pony, but Twilight was going to try to stop her.

Now, with formerly bad pony, all of us kinda knew it was Trixie.  Starlight and Trixie?  That sounds great; they've got stuff like backstories in common and they'd play off each other very nicely.  But the part with Twilight and the way the writers see Trixie as a vengeful antagonist were a bit shaky.

With Twilight, it would be bothersome that she would end up becoming very cynical.  After all, she had a nice resolution with Trixie at the end of Magic Duel.  For Twilight to prevent Starlight from becoming friends with Trixie would not only be cynical of her, but it would also mitigate that endearing ending at Magic Duel.

On the other hand, Trixie may just end up making friends with Starlight just so that she can get on Twilight's nerves.  Basically, Trixie would want to make Twilight look bad.  Sorta like... I don't know... some previous instance we've had on the show before.  Then it would end with the moral being that you can't trust everyone you meet.  Twilight would end off looking cynical throughout the episode without learning anything, Trixie would be in the wrong, and Starlight would end up without a new friend.

But then I see Nick Confalone is writing, I remember that I liked his work with Hearthbreakers, and while Party Pooped was sub-optimal, Pinkie was really good in that episode.  Only time would tell.

I hope you like reading, because I have a decent amount to say.

Let's get to it.

The episode begins with Twilight and Starlight setting up the table for a dinner they'll be having that night, which leads to an unfunny silverware gag that recurs throughout the episode.

The dinner is important because Celestia is visiting to see how far Starlight has come in her friendship lessons.  Twilight sees it as more of an opportunity to show Celestia how good of a teacher she is.  Starlight asks why there's an extra seat when it's just going to be her, Twilight, and Celestia, Twilight explains that Spike is joining them as well.

Never mind, Twilight says that the whole point is for Starlight to bring a new friend.  Twilight does say Starlight can be friends with anypony she wants to, so with that, Starlight heads off to try and make a new friend.

Unfortunately, it seems Starlight isn't good at making new friends.  Nobody gets it right on their first try, though.  This picture basically summarizes the failures of Starlight's attempts.  They're pretty amusing in their own rights.

It seems Mrs. Cake treats using magic to bake like it's witchcraft, and Big Mac really doesn't like talking a lot.  We get a nice Applejack face and a crazy .mov-type Rainbow Dash face.

Eventually, Starlight gives up and goes to the spa, where she meets a pony who you'd have to brain dead or spoilerless to not know who they are.  They have a nice conversation and presumably hit it off from there.  Starlight returns to the castle telling Twilight she made a new friend...

...and it turns to be Trixie.  The way Trixie spoke to Twilight with that snarky tone of voice showed up in the episode preview, and made me nervous as to what Trixie's intentions would be.  It seems even Trixie is somewhat dwindling between genuinely hitting it off with Starlight and just trying to "one-up" Twilight.

Starlight finds out Trixie and Twilight have had a history.  Twilight seems to show less humility in today's episode than she did in her previous encounters with Trixie.  I'll get to that later.

Twilight pulls Starlight to the side and tells her that she isn't a big fan of her friend being Trixie.  Intelligently, Starlight remarks, "I just assumed that you trust me to make my own friends the way Princess Celestia trusted you."

Twilight decides that Starlight is right and let's Starlight go out with Trixie.  Trixie shoots back a shit eating grin at Twilight before walking out the door, which further makes one skeptical about her intentions.  I'll give Trixie credit, she's a lot less predictable than Discord is.

Trixie is apparently in Ponyville to do another show.  I guess she thought it was a good idea to go back for some reason.  It's an apology show of sorts, with a title I won't bother to go back and find.  After all, it's a working title.  

Trixie says, "Everypony always says they'll give you a second a chance, but deep down, they never forget."

Remember that.

Other ponies actually recognize Trixie and start saying things behind her back.  Trixie also heard Twilight's conversation to Starlight about how she couldn't be trusted.  We also find out Trixie's always been secretly jealous of Twilight.  Which is fair enough, because Twilight's quite the overachiever.

The scene is nice because Starlight and Trixie's friendship starts blossoming here and they both open up to each other.

From there, Starlight goes to help Trixie unload her wagon.

Starlight is stopped by a bush when she's on her way to help Trixie unload her wagon.  The bush happens to be Twilight.  Starlight tells Trixie to go on, and then she and Twilight start having a conversation.

Twilight tries to convince Starlight to be friends with Vinyl Scratch, and I'm not going to act like that was a completely normal sentence.  There's fan service in here, and depending on who you are, you'll either welcome it, not minding its presence, or just think it's quite shoehorned in the episode.  I feel it's shoved in, but I don't mind it being there.

Regardless, Starlight doesn't like how Twilight is trying to get her to stop making friends with Trixie.  And Starlight establishes that Trixie was right; that Twilight's not giving her a second chance.  To keep on going, she adds in, "I wonder what that says about how you feel about me."

Starlight got Twilight good, but it doesn't quite get Twilight thinking.  Instead, as Starlight runs back to Trixie, she points out to a conveniently placed Cranky Doodle Donkey and suggests that he could be Starlight's friend.

At this point, I don't like how Twilight is acting.  Pretty cynical, very rude, but Twilight's clearly not being put in the right for it, as Starlight keeps reminding her.  Twilight doesn't end up triumphing either at the end of the episode.  She'll go on to learn a lesson, which is good.

If you're wondering how Trixie could possibly have a wagon after it was crushed back in Boast Busters, it turns out she has a new wagon.  And it looks really good.  I didn't really have room to picture it, though.

This is the scene where Trixie starts to become a bit... off.  Although she plans on having her show that night, Starlight explains that she has a dinner with Twilight to be at.  Trixie puts on a guilt trip tone-of-voice and the guilt trip violin-esque music plays in the background.

Still, it's not quite easy to tell if Trixie is just using Starlight to get on Twilight's nerves.  She shifts from genuinely appearing to be connecting with Starlight to having a snarky, devious tone of voice.

Starlight basically has to choose between Trixie's show and the dinner with Twilight.  Obviously, she chose Trixie since Twilight's been bothersome to her the whole day.  That didn't stop Twilight from inviting the fan service over for dinner.  It's either a humorous scene or- in Twilight's case- a pathetic scene.

Celestia is just stuck sitting there with those three, and that's how the episode is going to end.

The whole premise that started this episode is basically forgotten about and turned into an ending joke.  But I'm fine with that.  Celestia will be fine.  Probably end up forming like a band of some sort with those three.

But at the moment, Twilight asks to be excused and goes to find Starlight.

Twilight does manage to find Starlight with Trixie right before Trixie's show is about to be again.  Trixie goes up to Twilight and gloats about how in the choice between her and Twilight- Starlight chose her.  This is apparently a big win for Trixie, and she gloats about it.

I couldn't help but clench my fists when she said that.

Starlight points out that it sounds like something Trixie would say if she was just being friends with Starlight to "one-up" Twilight.  Trixie responds with, "Exactly" and then takes it back, trying to tell Starlight that she got "caught up in the moment" and that beating Twilight was just a "bonus."

That didn't help at all, as Starlight just ends up running away in despair.

I can see some people claiming that Trixie just trying to back what she said was a bit too sudden.  But I think it's fine, as Trixie did seem to have some genuine moments with Starlight up to this point.

Twilight scolds Trixie and the latter shows some deep regret.  Trixie goes as far as describing Starlight as the pony who wanted to be her first friend.

Which is sickeningly sweet.

With that, Trixie is back as a solo performance.

I think I may have left out what the main premise of Trixie's show was.  She was going to perform the Moon Shot Manticore Mouth Dive.  It's only been performed by the Hoofdini, who is seriously a thing, and actually Trixie's hero.  Which means the Hoofdini is my hero, too.  Basically, Trixie is shot into the manticore's mouth and then reappears in a nearby black box.  Starlight was going to teleport her into the box after being swallowed by the manticore, but now that Starlight's gone, it seems Trixie's just going to hope she can climb out of the thing's mouth and run into the box while the audience isn't looking.

Or something.

Actually, some people are thinking Trixie might have just been ready to end it at that point.

Her words being shot out of the cannon are pretty depressing too if you were to consider them as potential last words.

"Starlight- if you're out there- and you still want to be friends- let's be great and powerful together.  Please?"

I doubt that was the intention of the context, but it's a dark theory.

Thankfully, Starlight is still there, and teleports Trixie into the black box.

I have no idea what goes on inside a manticore's mouth, but Trixie just drops to the ground after being teleported out of there.

Then the audience cheers, and uh...

Aw...

And that's No Second Prances.

My apologies for this seeming more like a summary, and my apologies for the length of it.  But with that said, this is basically it.  Starlight has a new friend and Trixie and Twilight's conflict is pretty much over.  Everyone seemed to learn valuable lessons here, and the audience will surely keep that under their belts as the episode ends off with a pretty funny joke.

A lot of people seemed to think the episode would suck before it even aired, myself included.  It did dance pretty close to over the line at some moments, but the episode pulled through.  Twilight was cynical, but she wasn't put in the right for it.  If anything, this episode did a good job making Starlight a better character.  It handled Trixie very well, too.

There were sweet moments, the episode had heart, everyone that needed to learn lessons learned them, and it has now passed Gauntlet of Fire as my favorite episode of the season.

Next time we've got Newbie Dash, where Rainbow Dash finally...

FINALLY

FINALLY

becomes a Wonderbolt.

See you then.