Starlight Glimmer Thorax to Where and Back Again

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E25ToWhereAndBackAgainPart1

Discord just found out Queen Chrysalis has Fluttershy. Nice knowin' ya, Chrysalis.

"THEY'RE Dorsum!!"

—Starlight Glimmer

Special Guest Star: John de Lancie as Discord
Written by: Josh Haber and Michael Vogel

While moving boxes of books in Twilight'south library, Starlight Glimmer receives an invitation from her erstwhile hamlet to take in the Sunset Festival for the town. While Twilight encourages her to go, Starlight is nevertheless haunted by the things she did as the boondocks's leader, nervously wondering if the ponies at that place will hold a grudge. At night, Starlight dreams of the ponies from her hamlet mocking her and insulting her, prompting Princess Luna to pace in. While Starlight is relieved that it's all a dream, Luna says that the emotions information technology represents are real, and she should talk to her friends about information technology. The next morning, Starlight confides in the Mane Half-dozen that she'due south nervous, and then they propose bringing along a friend to help. To Twilight's disappointment, Starlight chooses to bring Trixie with her, and the two set out.

Once they arrive at the village, the ponies are really quite happy to see her. In fact, they brainstorm to ask Starlight numerous questions about how the Dusk Festival should exist run. Overwhelmed, Starlight panics, pushing the ponies away with her magic. Trixie uses her smoke bombs to assist requite her a jerky exit, with a dejected Starlight saying that she doesn't desire to be in charge of anything else. Trixie quietly admits that even she makes mistakes, and the best thing to practise in that state of affairs is forget about information technology and move on.

Back in Ponyville, Starlight notices everypony acting strangely, with the Mane Six all behaving incredibly snidely and rudely, forth with none of them seeming to retrieve that Starlight headed back to her old village. That night, another dream has Starlight confronted by her friends, simply she realizes chop-chop that it'southward some other dream. However, a panicked Princess Luna appears and warns Starlight that changelings accept kidnapped her and the other princesses, and that she needs to get assist. Though frightened, Starlight gets Trixie to spy on the Mane 6 in the castle. They utilise a device to communicate with Queen Chrysalis, the changeling leader, who confirms that the princesses have been kidnapped, and fifty-fifty replaced with phonies. The queen besides says that since they idea "too small-scale" in their attempt to claim Canterlot last fourth dimension, they will now conquer all of Equestria.

After slipping out of the castle thanks to a cloaking spell, Starlight suggests going to the Crystal Empire to go help from Princess Cadance. Yet, Thorax the friendly changeling appears, who confirms that Cadance's family has also been taken. As they despair over who else could possibly help them now with both the Mane Six and the Majestic Family the prisoners of the changelings, the nearly-omnipotent Discord arrives; he is initially quite uncaring virtually the whole state of affairs, until he hears that Fluttershy has also been taken, and he transports them to the Changeling Hive. Starlight looks on nervously, unsure of how to proceed...

TO BE Continued

*cue happy credits music*

Continued in "To Where and Back Over again – Office 2".

---

Tropes:

• All In that location in the Manual: My Picayune Pony (Gameloft) explains how the changelings abducted the Mane Six. 1 used a faux present to abduct and replace Pinkie Pie, and so threw a party to lure and capture the rest of them.
• All Up to You lot: Starlight is forced to take Trixie, Thorax, and Discord with her to rescue the Royal Family unit and Mane Six, and save Equestria.
• Art Evolution: Starting this episode, Trixie's eyes are now rendered with ii catchlights like everypony else, rather than a single catchlight in her earlier appearances.
• Badass in Distress: Some of the nigh powerful ponies in Equestria were captured past the changelings, and now they need to be rescued.
• Exist All My Sins Remembered: Starlight still doesn't believe she deserves to be forgiven for the things she has done, and particularly doesn't want the responsibility of being a leader again.

• Beware the Silly Ones: Discord is unremarkably goofy and mischievous. When he hears that Fluttershy was taken, he gets deadly serious.
• Big "NO!": Starlight says this when all the requests for for guidance from the ponies of her erstwhile village become too much for her.
• Big "WHAT?!": Trixie lets one out when Starlight tells her the changelings are dorsum.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Thorax beingness a changeling, he goes beyond just imitating Twilight's mannerisms: he turns into her to echo the speech she made about him in the Crystal Empire, including mimicking her phonation.
• Broad Strokes: The comic serial, which has always had an uneasy relationship with the show regarding its canon status, has its biggest castor with the show'due south canon then far here. Information technology had depicted some other see with Chrysalis where she was imprisoned, just so a after issue had her escape and go her power dorsum. None of this is referenced here, but given that she ended upward back where she started, the fans are free to imagine it all happened or not equally they prefer. On summit of that, the Changeling Kingdom presented in this episode is definitely different from the one in the comics. Given the latter was more a temporary base of operations for Chrysalis and her regular army, yet, it can be assumed that this Changeling Kingdom is meant to be the changeling species' homeland.
• Roughshod Honesty: Rainbow Dash says Starlight was "...pretty awful" when she was a villain, prompting Applejack to admonish her.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Trixie, Thorax, and Discord all make a return after having an episode earlier in the season.
  • Queen Chrysalis and her changeling army make an official return afterward their defeat during the regal wedding and their timeline during Starlight's revenge attempt, this time with Chrysalis seeking Revenge by making sure that Equestria'south chief defenses in the Regal Family unit and the Mane 6, the ones responsible for her previous defeat, are out of the fashion early on so they can't interfere again.
  • The ponies of Our Town make a render subsequently helping stop Starlight from stealing the Mane Six's cutie marks and their cameo at the end of flavour 5.
• Phone call-Back:
  • The ponies from Our Boondocks invite Starlight to the Sunset Festival, leading to some discussion about her previously leading the village, and how they had forgiven her misdeeds in "The Cutie Re-Marker – Part 2".

    Trixie: At that place it is! The town where you—
    Starlight Glimmer: Magically stole everypony's cutie marks, replaced them with equal signs, and forced them all to hide their natural talents? Yes.
    Trixie: I was going to say "where yous came from," only yours is a more than... emotionally traumatic reply.

  • Princess Luna visits the dreams of another pony to give them communication, then uses information technology later to warn Starlight of the state of affairs with the changelings before she is taken.
  • Princess Luna also mentions to Starlight how the Mane Six have helped her in the past, and points that they take some backstory in common.
  • Starlight's friendship with Trixie and Twilight'south lingering trepidation over it harken back to "No Second Prances" earlier in the flavour.
  • Thorax direct quotes Twilight's voice communication about her decision to trust him in "The Times They Are a Changeling", even turning into her and using the audio.
• Catapult Nightmare: Starlight Glimmer springs awake from her second dream, screaming "THEY'RE Back!" Considering the especially chilling warning she just received from Luna in said dream, this is no surprise she'due south having an anguished wake-up.
• The Chains of Commanding: Starlight, afterwards her previous mistakes with leadership, doesn't experience comfortable in a leadership role, as her reaction to the ponies of "Our Town" asking for her communication on the festival shows.
• Changeling Tale: Taken Upwards to Xi with the changelings ponynapping all the Princesses and their friends and loved ones, and so feeding on everypony else's dear for the replaced ponies and feeding that beloved to Queen Chrysalis.
• Character Shilling: The episode starts with Twilight praising Starlight'due south development and even claiming it'southward all thanks to Starlight herself. Considering her limited airtime this season and the final we saw of her progress she didn't realize mind-controlling her friends was a bad thing until chosen out, that's either not saying much or she made an implausible amount of offscreen progress ^note the adjacent season premier supports this by having a large pile of Starlight's lesson while only the beginning three were shown this season, though it might not have been meant to be taken seriously because only iii episodes passed and Starlight's unresolved self-doubt over it.
• Cliffhanger: As is the case with the two-parters, this episode ends with the changelings having kidnapped several powerful ponies effectually Equestria, including the Mane Six and the Royal Family, meaning Equestria is nigh defenseless and leaderless now, and leaving Starlight and her team outside the Changeling Hive to rescue everyone, with Starlight scared of what to practice next.
• Comically Missing the Point: Twilight is hinting that Starlight should invite her to get with her, merely she decides to bring Trixie instead, to the Princess of Friendship'southward annoyance.
• Commonality Connection: Princess Luna identifies with Starlight, as they both succumbed to the dark sides of their nature in the past, and struggled through redemption.

  Princess Luna: I see much of myself in yous, Starlight Glimmer, and I tin can tell you from personal experience that things do indeed go better.

• Continuity Nod:
  • Derpy wears the mail service uniform she was seen wearing in "Crusaders of the Lost Mark".
  • In the commencement dream, Political party Favor makes the aforementioned memetic face up he did in "The Cutie Map – Function two" after he was released from the reconditioning shed.
  • The spell Starlight uses to push the ponies abroad is the same 1 she used in "The Cutie Map – Part 2".
  • The changeling who had replaced Fluttershy is seen performing a Slouch of Villainy on her throne; Starlight pulled a similar pose on the very same throne in "The Cutie Re-Mark – Part 1".
  • While proving his identity, Discord turns the basis into soap, just as he did in "The Return of Harmony - Part 2".
• Encompass Identity Bibelot: The changelings replacing the Mane Six show varying levels of skill in impersonating them.
  • The worst are the replacements for Rainbow Dash and Spike, who act like straight-up jerkasses and evidence none of the traits of the characters they impersonate. They seem to hate their chore, though fake Spike has good reason to as he is the Barrel-Monkey of the group.
  • Applejack, Rarity, and Little finger Pie's replacements make an effort to fake some of the tics of their originals and endeavor to respond politely when Starlight talks to them, just the ruse eventually breaks down. The false Applejack and Rarity burst out in cheeky laughter when they hear of Starlight's 18-carat and painful friendship problem, while simulated Little finger doesn't recollect Starlight's proper name and bails quickly on their chat, whereas the existent Pinkie has been repeatedly demonstrated to call up every friend she'south ever met and is extremely talkative.
  • The changeling taking over Princess Twilight'due south role does the best job, successfully faking her way through a chat with Starlight and hoof-waving abroad the others' odd behavior. She even offers some confident friendship "advice". The but thing odd about her is the advice itself, in that she tells Starlight to forget her old friendships and simply find new ones to supercede them, whereas the existent Twilight Sparkle encourages determination and maintaining friendships even through difficulty.
  • Collectively, none of the changelings recognize Starlight or bear witness any noesis that she'due south Twilight'due south educatee. Even the fake Twilight never acknowledges her name or position. Queen Chrysalis later says she knows exactly who Starlight is and fifty-fifty considered having her replaced, only ultimately deciding that she wasn't worth the trouble (which would explain the lack of a conference regarding her).
• Darkest 60 minutes: The changelings have returned, and have kidnapped all of the virtually powerful ponies in Equestria, including every fellow member of the Regal Family and all of Twilight'southward friends, replacing them with fakes to pave the way for a full-scale invasion in Revenge for the Regal Wedding defeat.
• A Day in the Limelight: Notably the offset two-parter that does not focus on Twilight or the Mane Six.
• Deflector Shields: Trixie freaks out badly upon coming together with Thorax, forcing Starlight to encase her in a chimera shield that is soundproof. Trixie spends the next few moments floating inside, screaming, panicking and slamming her hooves against the bulwark to no avail in complete silence.
• Destroy the Abusive Abode: When you meet the broad shot of Our Town, it appears the residents have demolished Starlight'due south erstwhile cottage and planted a tree in its place.
• The Elevate-Along: Trixie doesn't feel she'due south especially qualified to be taking on the changeling horde and would much rather be somewhere else.
• Dream Walker: Princess Luna, as usual. She appears in Starlight Glimmer's commencement dream to give her some advice nearly how to handle her anguish of coming back to Our Town. In the second dream, she use her power to warn Starlight about the changeling assail while struggling to fight off her captors in vain.
• Hands Forgiven: Contrary to her fears and nightmares, the ponies of Our Town don't bear whatsoever grudge confronting Starlight Glimmer and desire her to bring together in on their celebration. However, existence hands forgiven over again only aggravates Starlight's anguish, and she assumes a Troubled Fetal Position before running abroad.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: The changelings replacing Applejack and Rarity bursts into laughter when Starlight tells them she fled from the Sunset Festival in Our Town. This lack of empathy is a big hint of their true nature.
• Evil Laugh: Naturally, Queen Chrysalis indulges in megalomaniacal cackling at the end of the advice scene, and her changeling minions follow suit.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Changeling Kingdom Castle is a jagged and gnarled spire fortress surrounded by a wasteland devoid of whatever plant life. Yes, definitely non a very friendly-looking place to visit. Thorax is terrified when he looks upon information technology, even though he'southward from there.
• Middle Am Watching You: The changeling impersonating Spike, who has been the near hostile of the bunch, makes the gesture twice toward Starlight as she comes back to the Friendship Castle. Not suspicious at all, nope.
• Eye Twitch: Twilight has some when Starlight brings Trixie to "Our Boondocks" instead of her.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Luna struggling to contact Starlight and the group non teleporting direct to the Hive/where Fluttershy is both lead to an of import part of the next episode.
  • Thorax'due south new wings are likewise a hint at what's coming.
  • Discord tries to directly teleport himself and the other would-be rescuers direct to Fluttershy, only to his confusion they end up outside of the hive instead. The reason for this is explained next episode.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The "unlikely heroes" that pace upward when the Mane Half dozen are decommissioned. Starlight Glimmer is melancholic; Trixie is choleric; Discord is sanguine as e'er; and Thorax is phlegmatic.
• Funny Background Consequence:
  • When Starlight beginning sees the impostor Mane Six in the map chamber, the changeling disguised as Applejack is eating a pear.
  • When Thorax appears to Starlight and Trixie, Starlight is forced to seal her inside a soundproof bubble when she won't stop screaming. She remains there for the balance of the following conversation, pulling hilarious faces.
  • When information technology's Discord turn to appear, he's knitting a mock-upward of Angel Bunny for... some reason.
  • When Twilight is telling Starlight that she should bring a friend when she returns to "Our Town", clearly hinting at herself, Spike wears a Disapproving Look, because he knows that Starlight will chose Trixie over Twilight without whatsoever doubt. And so we have the Gilligan Cut...
• Gagging on Your Words: When Starlight asks Trixie to repeat what she'd before told her to not repeat to anypony, to make sure she'due south not a changeling, Trixie'southward reply first come out as unintelligible mumbling betwixt clenched teeth. Only on Starlight's insistence does she finally admit it was "That even Trixie'southward made mistakes!"
• Gilligan Cut: Twilight is telling Starlight that she should bring a friend when she returns to "Our Town", conspicuously hinting at herself, and the cutting shows that she's called Trixie.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: With the Mane Six, Spike, Shining Armor, and the Princesses captured, Starlight gets the assistance of Discord, Trixie and Thorax. She would like to call for the Crystal Empire but apparently they were hit kickoff.
• Good Costume Switch: Although non a costume, Thorax has new wings that smooth like crystal, something that both Starlight, and Thorax himself notice.
• Expert Wings, Evil Wings: Thorax has new, pigsty-less sparkly wings compared to his one-time ones, something Starlight noticed correct away.
• Hellish Pupils: Discord'due south goofy, mismatched pupils narrow into snake-similar slits when he hears that Fluttershy was one of the ponies captured by the changelings.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • When the ponies of Our Town bombard Starlight with requests for her guidance, she screams "No!" and pushes them away with her expanding shield spell. Immediately after, she is shown lying on the basis, hooves over her eyes, trembling in anguish.
  • Trixie is terrified of the changelings and panics the moment she hears near them. She doesn't even desire to exist close to Thorax, despite assertive Starlight when she says that he is on their side.
• Hey, You lot!: These are the fake Pinkie Pie's get-go words to Starlight one time she returns to Ponyville.
• Hope Spot: Starlight suggests going to get Cadance and Shining's help, only Thorax reveals that they were captured already, and Sunburst sent him to go help from Twilight.
• Leaning on the Quaternary Wall: Discord describes the trio of Starlight, Trixie and Thorax as "a combination of secondary characters".
• Allow'due south Go Dangerous!: The moment Discord learns that Fluttershy has been captured by the changelings, he instantly drops all pretense of goofing off and becomes mortiferous serious.
• Letting the Air Out of the Band: When Thorax turns into Twilight to repeat her spoken communication from "The Times They Are a Changeling", the same solemn music from this scene tin can too exist heard... until Starlight cuts him, at which indicate the music falters and peters out.
• Allow Us Never Speak of This Again: Non the exact phrase Trixie used, only this is definitely what she was feeling when she admitted that fifty-fifty she makes mistakes. Naturally, it gets brought up for Trixie's Something Only They Would Say moment.
• Literary Allusion Title: To The Hobbit, whose full title reads The Hobbit, or There and Back Again.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Relieve the Twilight impersonator, none of the Changelings seem to know Starlight exists. Apparently they have not fully followed history since the Imperial Wedding. Although the next episode reveals that Chrysalis herself is well enlightened of who Starlight is and considered not the problem of replacing.
• Lower-Deck Episode: Lampshaded by Discord before the team sets out on a rescue mission to relieve the Mane Six and the Royal Family.

  Discord: Well, isn't this quite the combination of secondary characters!

• Mook Lieutenant: The one changeling turned into Twilight Sparkle is ordering around the others, and too seems to be more intelligent than the average drone. He's doing a amend job impersonating the princess than his goons are doing with their respective roles — information technology's however off, but at least he tries giving conceivable pretexts to Starlight for the discrepancies. He'southward besides the only one seen to talk while in changeling grade when Chrysalis contacts them, and nearly sniffs out a hidden Starlight and Trixie.
• Morality Pet: Fluttershy remains this to Discord; he just reacts to the changeling situation when he learns that she was taken.
• Mordor: The Changeling Kingdom is a bleak and barren-looking country surrounding a large spire of dark stone.
• Mythology Gag: Before Starlight wakes her, Trixie is mumbling about peanut butter crackers in her slumber, a snack of which her Equestria Girls self is also noted to be fond.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Queen Chrysalis is back, and wasted no time at all disposing of non only Princess Cadance this fourth dimension effectually, but Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, Shining Armor, Flurry Eye, and the Mane Half dozen besides, the merely heroes she believes would stand up in the manner of stopping her programme, and to take Revenge on all of them for her previous defeat at their hooves.
• The Nose Knows: The changeling posing as Twilight stops for a moment in the castle hallway to sniff effectually while searching for Starlight and Trixie and follows the trail to where Starlight and Trixie are hiding. All the same, since Starlight has cast an invisibility spell on them the changeling continues searching somewhere else.
• Not Himself: Starlight is confused when the Mane Six and Spike either don't recognize her or otherwise admonish or insult her for either reason. It'south only a matter of time before she realizes they were replaced with Changelings.
• No Sympathy Betwixt Mooks: The changelings are seen mocking one of their own (the Fasten impersonator) for being slapped around.
• Not What I Signed Upwards For: Trixie has a major freak-out when she and Starlight just barely escape being caught by the changelings and says she can't deal with "princess-level stuff" because she is just a performer.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The changelings somehow capturing the Mane 6 and all of the Royal Family in the fourth dimension information technology took for Starlight and Trixie to travel to Our Town and back.
• Old Shame: Starlight's opinion of her actions in "Our Town", which she now securely regrets.
• OOC Is Serious Business: The goofy and featherbrained Discord turns on a dime when the others inform him that the changelings have taken Fluttershy likewise. He becomes utterly pissed .
• Out-of-Character Alert: Starlight notices this near the "Mane Six" after coming habitation, eventually discovering they're not her friends afterwards all — they're Changelings in disguise.
• Overly Long Scream: Trixie is somewhat taken aback past Thorax, to the bespeak where Starlight has to trap her in a bubble to stop the noise from giving them away.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Trixie gleefully rubs Starlight inviting her to come to Our Town with her in Twilight's face, while smugly "complimenting" the Princess of Friendship on her "wisdom" and emphasizing how she's Starlight's best friend.
• Plot Pigsty: Starlight Glimmer's first dream is strangely up-to-appointment nigh the appearance of Our Boondocks, including the exact banners used for the Sunset Festival, and the fact that her cottage has been replaced by a tree. This wasn't the example during her last visit (at the end of "The Cutie Re-Mark – Office 2") and she makes quite clear she hadn't been there dorsum since, and thus she shouldn't take memories of the updated village.
• The Penalisation Is the Offense: Despite being Hands Forgiven by all the ponies around her and wanting to exist friends with her, Starlight Glimmer is still too self-absorbed to accept it and doesn't feel she deserves it for all the bad things she did.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Starlight Glimmer has to relieve Equestria with her own makeshift squad of erstwhile villains and social misfits: Trixie, a grandstanding magician with a bad public epitome every bit a ane-time evil overlord; Thorax, a friendly changeling who has faced prejudice from the very ponies he wants to become forth with; and Discord, a non-quite-reformed prankster of nigh-omnipotent power who merely helps when he feels like information technology.

  Trixie: I can't deal with this! I'm merely a performer! This is... This is princess-level stuff!

• Reality Warper: Discord demonstrates his powers past distorting things when Starlight asks for proof that he's the real Discord.
• Red Optics, Accept Warning: Discord's pupils flash an angry red very briefly when he asks, with a growling tone of vocalisation, where they've taken Fluttershy.
• Ruddy Herring: Trixie's line most pretending something bad never happened, immediately followed by a scene where Pinkie Pie can't remember Starlight'due south name, may have been an attempt to fool the audience into thinking that the episode was going the style of It's a Wonderful Plot.
• Revenge: After her previous defeat regarding the Royal Hymeneals, Chrysalis attempts to conquer Equestria once more, this time covertly kidnapping everyone involved in her original defeat, the Mane Six and the Majestic Family, so they can't stop her again.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: When Starlight has a breakdown at her former village, Trixie notices the trouble and uses her trademark smoke bomb get out technique to become herself and Starlight out the village.
• Shout-Out:
  • In addition to the Literary Allusion Title to The Hobbit, the concept of a rag-tag grouping of heroes and anti-heroes traveling to a mount belonging to their joint nemesis also borrows from The Lord of the Rings, with the Changeling Kingdom being a decent analogue to Mt. Doom.
  • The arrival of Derpy parodies some archetype Superman lines:

    Twilight Sparkle: Is it a bird?
    Starlight Blink: Is information technology a parasprite?
    Spike: Information technology's... it's... incoming!

  • When Discord makes a demonstration of his Reality Warping, he turns Trixie'due south railroad vehicle into a pumpkin coach.
• Slouch of Villainy: The changeling posing as Fluttershy invokes this while sitting on her throne, putting its rear hooves up on the map table. It couldn't look less like Fluttershy without abandoning her prototype entirely.
• Smoke Out:
  • Trixie uses her trademark exit method to get Starlight and herself out of Our Boondocks, and information technology actually works: Trixie now uses a more powerful bomb then that the smoke stays for longer, both covering the exit much better than before and making the other ponies to cough and close their optics for a few moments, and therefore Trixie is already far away when they can finally see over again.
  • Trixie seems unable to NOT utilise her smoke bombs for drama, which gives us one funny moment before they attain Our Town.

    Trixie: Not just a promise, a great and powerful promise! [smoke bombs the area, cue some coughing]

• Something Only They Would Say: Starlight asks something from all three of her allies to confirm they aren't changelings: Trixie reveals a secret she shared with Starlight earlier in the episode, Thorax recites the speech Twilight made afterward she accepted him, and Discord shows off his powers.
• So Much for Stealth: Starlight and Trixie manage to spy on the changelings without being noticed while they are contacting Queen Chrysalis, but at the end of the magic conference Starlight makes the mistake of pushing the door to the throne room a little, causing it to creak. The changelings are immediately alerted and hiss menacingly.
• Spiking the Camera: When the Changeling impersonating Twilight tries to explain why Spike was acting so off today, her eyes look direct at the viewer audience when she says "I think he missed a meal or something."
• Spoof Aesop: What Trixie has taken away from her past misadventures is apparently that everyone makes mistakes but that the of import affair is to move on from them and pretend they never happened. Starlight admits that that's almost a good lesson...
• Stranger in a Familiar Land:
  • Starlight is afraid to return to Our Town because she fears she won't be accepted there anymore.
  • Thorax besides seems terrified to render to the Changeling Kingdom.
• Talking in Your Slumber: Starlight hears Trixie talking in her sleep nigh performing for Princess Celestia for peanut butter crackers.
• Teleportation:
  • Starlight Glimmer teleports herself and a panicking Trixie back to her railroad vehicle afterward a close call with the changelings replacing the Mane Half dozen and Spike.
  • Equally soon as Discord learns that Fluttershy is in danger, he teleports himself, Starlight, Trixie and Thorax direct to her location. Or at to the lowest degree he tries — he doesn't await a Teleport Interdiction to be in place, leaving them outside the Changeling Hive.
• Teleport Interdiction: Discord tries to teleport himself, Starlight, Trixie, and Thorax to where Fluttershy is, but instead only brings them to outside the Changeling Hive. Next episode shows why. This besides explains why Luna but could not teleport away from her captors while alert Starlight earlier.
• Tempting Fate: When Discord appears, Starlight has the "smashing idea" to telephone call him out and openly question his identity. While at that place was a massive not-lethal Replicant Snatching invasion of Equestria by the changelings going on, it'southward still a bad idea to claiming a Mad God to prove himself given Discord's level of power. Afterward all, if he's an imposter, Starlight, Trixie, and Thorax would be able to handle one changeling, but if it really is Discord, y'all've only invited him to mess you up in many weird and impossible ways.

  Starlight: How do we know y'all are who you say you lot are?
  [cue Discord turning the entire landscape into something from Willy Wonka's nightmares]

• Too Fast to Stop: Derpy's mail delivery system. She crashes through a window of the Castle.
• Tranquil Fury: Discord gives the impression of being utterly unconcerned with the changeling invasion... until he hears Fluttershy's been captured. And so he drops all pretense of being bored and demands to know, in a deadly serious tone, where she'south been taken.
• Visible Invisibility: Starlight uses an invisibility spell to hide Trixie and herself from the changeling impersonating Twilight and company. The optics, and the outline of their bodies, are all the same slightly visible. It'due south likely for the audience'south benefit as the changeling neither sees nor smells annihilation.
• Vocal Dissonance: The changelings, in addition to not knowing how the ponies they kidnapped act, don't seem to get the voices right, either. The most obvious one is Rainbow Nuance, whose voice is noticeably higher and less scratchy than is normal for her.
• Volumetric Oral cavity: On seeing Thorax, Trixie starts screaming her head off for a comically long fourth dimension, which is expressed several times by her wide-open oral cavity occupying the whole face, consummate with a total view of her glottis and tongue twirling like a mad snake.
• Wake Up Fighting: Of a sort. Trixie accidentally sets off several of her magical fireworks while getting out of bed when Starlight wakes her up; luckily, Starlight was exterior Trixie'south carriage, so doesn't get striking.
• Weirder Than Usual: Starlight is puzzled past the way the fake Pinkie is acting, despite reminders that Pinkie Pie is always weird.

  Starlight Blink: That was... strange...
  Trixie: Isn't she always strange?
  Starlight Blink: Yep, but... not like that.

• Wham Line: After Starlight has seen all of the Mane Six acting suspiciously for no credible reason, Luna's appearance in her dream, struggling confronting her captors, finally gives away the game.

  Princess Luna: The changelings have returned!

• Whole Plot Reference: The plot of this two-parter seems to be one for the premiere of the series, in which the protagonist is a unicorn who leads a ragtag team to fight an evil force threatening the land.
• The Worf Effect: The Purple Family and the Mane Vi are put out of commission by the changelings to underscore just how bad the situation is and ratchet up the pressure level on the second-string heroes. Nosotros don't run into how only it's heavily unsaid to have something to do with The Reveal of Chrysalis having a Ability Nullifier throne which can block their magic that led to being kidnapped so easily. Thorax also mentions that a common Changeling tactic is to use a disguise to lure a target into an deadfall, and then both were probably used.
• Worldbuilding: The Changeling Kingdom, previously mentioned past Thorax in "The Times They Are a Changeling", finally makes an appearance.
• Would Hurt a Child: The changelings have kidnapped both Spike and Flurry Heart, both of whom are but babies to their respective races. (To be fair, it wouldn't have been much better to leave Flurry Heart behind subsequently abducting her parents.)
• You lot Are in Command Now: Trixie, Thorax, and fifty-fifty Discord look at Starlight for leadership since all iv princesses (ane of which is her instructor) accept been kidnapped. It's something she definitely doesn't experience comfortable with.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E25ToWhereAndBackAgainPart1