History Recap / MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E24UncommonBond

* CallBack: Trixie transmogrifies an apple into a tea cup, like she did eagerly to a lot of other objects in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E2AllBottledUp All Bottled Up]]"

** It is impossible to relive the past, and unhealthy to cling to it. Rather than try going back to the beginning, you must continue from the present.

[[caption-width-right:350:Party for two... plus one]]

* InnocuouslyImportantEpisode: Just another slice of life episode... that directly sets up the season finale.

* WhamShot: The last few seconds focus on the book with the mysterious symbol that Sunburst bought.

* FreezeFrameBonus: When Maud is polishing rocks with the Mirror Pool's water, at one point in the scene, a clone of Boulder appears.

* InnocuoslyImportantEpisode: Just another slice of life episode... that directly sets up the season finale.

%% * InnocuoslyImportantEpisode: Just another slice of life episode... that ties in directly with the season finale.%%

* SequelHook: The book that Sunburst pulls out of his antique mystery barrel at the end of the episode. [[spoiler:It turns out to be Starswirl the Bearded's personal journal, accounting his adventures with five other ponies of legend and their final confrontation with the Pony of Shadows.]]

* {{Cliffhanger}}: The black-colored book is a direct lead-in to "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E25ShadowPlayPart1 Shadow Play - Part 1]]", the first time an episode outside of the two-parter has had any direct connection it.

** After Sunburst takes a book out of the barrel, he fails to notice another book that is colored black. This book has a mysterious symbol on the cover...

* GrailInTheGarbage: Sunburst buys a sealed barrel of uninspected antiques, hoping there will be something valuable or at least interesting in there. At the end of the episode, he opens the barrel--and the camera ominously zooms in on a book with a black cover, implying it's something important indeed.

%% * InnocuoslyImportantEpisode: Just another slice of life episode . . . that ties in directly with the season finale.%%

* StepfordSmiler: Starlight is bored out of her skull in the antiques shop, and a bit upset that Sunburst seems to be getting along better with Twilight than with her. But she keeps insisting that she's having a great time, even when Sunburst voices his suspicion that she is faking and tries to reassure her that she doesn't need to pretend.

%%[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nofunforthree.PNG]]
%%[[caption-width-right:350:Party for two... plus one]]

%%Starlight Glimmer is eagerly waiting at the Ponyville train station for a visit from her good friend in the Crystal Empire, Sunburst. Upon his arrival, he excitedly mentions that Ponyville is a great hot spot for antiquing and he takes Starlight to an antique store. Starlight feigns interest in Sunburst's passion but struggles to get as excited for it as him. While there, the pair run into Twilight Sparkle, who also loves visiting the store but is often by herself. Now with a companion, Sunburst and Twilight troll the aisles giddily but Starlight is only able to grin and bear it.

%%Upon returning to Twilight's castle, Sunburst and Twilight begin rummaging through their finds, finding even more in common (such as their love for the old Ponish language). Seeing that Starlight isn't as enthralled by such things as they are, Twilight and Sunburst suggest they do something Starlight wants to, to which she pulls out a copy of the board game ''Dragon Pit'', a game that she and Sunburst played in their youth. While they find the game enjoyable, Sunburst can't get over how much in common he has with the Princess of Friendship and gushes about her to Starlight before going to bed.

%%The following morning, Starlight wakes up Sunburst bright and early to take him over to Sweet Apple Acres. Starlight bucks one of the trees to knock down some apples for them to share but in doing so, she drops an apple onto Trixie's head, who was snoozing behind the tree. Ever the opportunist, Trixie invites the two to watch her demonstrate a new trick. Unfortunately she gets herself stuck in the process, requiring she be freed by Starlight. Sunburst explains he prefers close-up magic and the two begin excitedly swapping tricks, with Starlight standing off to the side and finding the interaction perplexing.

%%Next Starlight takes Sunburst over to the magical mirror pool. However the sound of somepony chipping away at the rock cavern diverts Sunburst's attention and he ventures off to find Maud Pie, who's examining the rock formations within the walls of the cavern. Sunburst impresses Maud by sharing a similar level of knowledge of geology and they quickly bond over it. Starlight, however, feels left out and returns to Twilight's castle. Attempting to help Starlight get past her frustration with her lack of commonality with her friend, Twilight suggests she explore their shared love of magic.

%%Starlight meets Sunburst in the map room of the castle and is drawing up a spell, which she gives Sunburst to read. She activates the spell, which takes Sunburst and Starlight back to their childhood home and turns them back into young ponies, so they can play ''Dragon Pit'' just as they did when they were children. However Sunburst puts his hoof down, saying he isn't interested in reliving things exactly as they were when they were young, and Starlight tearfully undoes the spell. Starlight runs off, dejected she can't find any common ground with her friend.

%%Sunburst doesn't want his friendship with Starlight to fall apart over this and seeks out her friends to figure out what common ground they still share. Meanwhile, Twilight reminds Starlight that a friendship won't be ruined over a loss of common ground as long as they don't let it happen. To prove this, Twilight takes Starlight into the library, where Sunburst has built a life-size version of ''Dragon Pit'', with headpieces for the ponies to wear acting as game pieces. Maud created a large die out of a lightweight pumice rock while Trixie provides some special effects for the volcano. Starlight cheers up and adds the one thing the game is missing: a trap door for when the marble traps one of the players.

%%Starlight sees off her friend at the train station, happy that they haven't lost their friendship with the diminishing commonality between them. Starlight, Maud, Trixie, Twilight, and Sunburst all share a group hug before Sunburst boards the train back to the Crystal Empire. Starlight reminds Sunburst to let her know what was in the blind buy barrel he bought from the antique shop and he assures her she'll be the first to know. Once the train is on its way, Sunburst opens the barrel and takes out a book, but doesn't notice the black-colored book underneath...

When Starlight gets a visit from Sunburst, she discovers that he has tons in common with her friends and starts to wonder if he still has anything in common with her.

%%* {{Adorkable}}: Twilight's {{Squee}} over getting trapped in Dragon Pit is adorable. Sunburst even says as much.
%%* AnAesop:
%%** Commonality is good for a friendship, but it's not the only component. Spending time with each other can still be meaningful and fun even if you can't always find that common ground.
%%** It is impossible to relive the past, and unhealthy to cling to it. Rather than try going back to the beginning, you must continue from the present.
%%* BiggerOnTheInside: Annoyed at how long it's taking to look through everything, Starlight thinks the antique shop "looked a lot smaller on the outside", which is the exact same sentiment she had about [[CallBack Twilight's]] [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E1TheCrystallingPart1 castle]].
%%* CallBack: Trixie transmogrifies an apple into a tea cup, like she did eagerly to a lot of other objects in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E2AllBottledUp All Bottled Up]]"
%%* {{Cliffhanger}}: The black-colored book is a direct lead-in to "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E25ShadowPlayPart1 Shadow Play - Part 1]]", the first time an episode outside of the two-parter has had any direct connection it.

%%* EpicFail: Trixie tries to perform an escape trick where she locks herself in chains and escapes in seconds, but gets caught for real and needs help. Sunburst says he knows how the trick works but has never been able to find the weak chainlink to do it. There is a montage later of Trixie and Sunburst showing each other their own tricks, and the secrets of how they do it. In one trick Sunburst fails to draw the card Trixie picked from the deck several times and Trixie accidentally reveals she has a ball under all three cups in the old "ball under a cup" trick.
%%* {{Foreshadowing}}:
%%** Maud foreshadows the episode's aesop when she remarks to Sunburst that she and Starlight don't actually have all that much in common, they mostly just enjoy each other's company.
%%** After Sunburst takes a book out of the barrel, he fails to notice another book that is colored black. This book has a mysterious symbol on the cover...
%%* FreezeFrameBonus: When Maud is polishing rocks with the Mirror Pool's water, at one point in the scene, a clone of Boulder appears.
%%* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Starlight wakes up Sunburst while its still dark out to have some fun. Sunburst also asks for her to turn around or leave the room so he can get dressed.
%%* GrailInTheGarbage: Sunburst buys a sealed barrel of uninspected antiques, hoping there will be something valuable or at least interesting in there. At the end of the episode, he opens the barrel--and the camera ominously zooms in on a book with a black cover, implying it's something important indeed.
%%* HumanChess: At the end, Starlight and her friends play a massively scaled-up version of ''Dragon Pit'', with each of them dressed up as their own game piece.
%%* SawAWomanInHalf: Trixie has a variation on this routine where she climbs into the box and saws ''herself'' in half. She practices it during a conversation with Sunburst, with obviously fake legs hanging from the other side of the box.
%%* SequelHook: The book that Sunburst pulls out of his antique mystery barrel at the end of the episode. [[spoiler:It turns out to be Starswirl the Bearded's personal journal, accounting his adventures with five other ponies of legend and their final confrontation with the Pony of Shadows.]]
%%* ShoutOut: ''Dragon Pit'' is based on the board game ''[[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1768/fireball-island Fireball Island]]'', which did the similar mechanic of a marble "fireball" rolling down tracks to knock over players' pieces.
%%* ShownTheirWork: Sunburst mentions geological pressure being uniform to create gemstones, as well as figuring there was another way out of the Mirror Pool Cave because of calcite deposits.
%%* SpecialEffectFailure: InUniverse. When Trixie climbs into the box for her SawAWomanInHalf trick, the legs sticking out the other end are clearly from a stuffed dummy. One even falls off afterword.
%%* {{Squee}}: Despite sarcastically chiding Sunburst for flipping the board over when he played ''Dragon Pit'' with Starlight as foals, Twilight finds herself doing it with a joyous squeal the first time the trap door activates. Apparently it's a reflex reaction for some excited unicorns (Sunburst remarks he has more control over his horn now).
%%* StepfordSmiler: Starlight is bored out of her skull in the antiques shop, and a bit upset that Sunburst seems to be getting along better with Twilight than with her. But she keeps insisting that she's having a great time, even when Sunburst voices his suspicion that she is faking and tries to reassure her that she doesn't need to pretend.

%%* SequelHook: The book that Sunburst pulls out of his antique mystery barrel at the end of the episode. [[spoiler:It turns out to be Starswirl the Bearded's personal journal, accounting his adventures with five other ponies of legend and their final confrontation with a previously unknown Pony of Shadows.]]

%%* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Starlight wakes up Sunburst in the middle of the night to have some fun. Sunburst also asks for her to turn around or leave the room so he can get dressed.

%%* StepfordSmiler: Starlight is bored out of her skull in the antiques shop, and a bit upset that Sunburst seems to be getting along better with Twilight than with her. But she keeps insisting that she's having a great time, anyway, even when Sunburst voices his suspicion that she is faking and tries to reassure her that she doesn't need to pretend.

%%** It is impossible to relive the past, and unhealthy to cling to it. You can only continue from the present.

%%* {{Squee}}: Despite sarcastically chiding Sunburst for flipping the board over when he played ''Dragon Pit'' with Starlight as foals, Twilight finds herself doing it with a joyous squeal the first time the trap door activates. Apparently its a reflex reaction for some excited unicorns (Sunburst remarks he has more control over his horn now).

%%** Maud foreshadows the episode's aesop when she remarks to Sunburst that she and Starlight don't actually have all that much in common, they mostly just enjoy each other's company.

%%* {{Foreshadowing}}: After Sunburst takes a book out of the barrel, he fails to notice another book that is colored black. This book has a mysterious symbol on the cover...

%%* {{Squee}}: Despite sarcastically chiding Sunburst for flipping the board over when he played ''Dragon Pit'' with Starlight as foals, Twilight finds herself doing it with a joyous squeal the first time the trap door activates.

%%* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Starlight wakes up Sunburst in the middle of the night to have some fun. Sunburst also asks for her to leave the room so he can get dressed.

%%* SpecialEffectFailure: InUniverse. When Trixie climbs into the box for her SawAWomanInHalf trick, the legs sticking out the other end are clearly from a stuffed dummy.

%%* {{Cliffhanger}}: The black-colored book is a direct lead-in to "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicShadowPlayPart1 Shadow Play - Part 1]]", the first time an episode outside of the two-parter has had any direct connection it.

%%** Commonality is good for a friendship but it is not the only component. Spending time with each other can still be meaningful and fun even if you can't always find that common ground.
%%** It is impossible to relive the past and unhealthy to cling to it. You can only continue from the present.

%%* SawAWomanInHalf: Trixie has a variation on this routine where she climbs into the box and saws ''herself'' in half. She practices it during a conversation with Sunburst.

%%* BiggerOnTheInside: Annoyed at how long its taking to look through everything, Starlight thinks the antique shop "looked a lot smaller on the outside."

%%Upon returning to Twilight's castle, Sunburst and Twilight begin rummaging through their finds, finding even more in common (such as their love for the old Ponish language). Seeing that Starlight isn't as enthralled by such things as they are, Twilight and Sunburst suggest they do something Starlight wants to, to which she pulls out a copy of the board game ''Dragon Pit'', a game that she and Sunburst played in their youth. While they find the game enjoyable, Sunburst can't get over how much in common he has with the Princess of Friendship and gushes about her to Starlight before going to bed .

* ADayInTheLimelight: This is the first time in which Sunburst is part of the main focus of an episode.

%%* StepfordSmiler: Starlight is bored out of her skull in the antiques shop--and a bit upset that Sunburst seems to be getting along better with Twilight than with her--but she keeps insisting that she's having a great time anyway even when Sunburst voices his suspicion that she is faking and tries to reassure her that she doesn't need to pretend.

%%** It is impossible to relive the past. You can only continue from the present.
%%* BiggerOnTheInside: Starlight thinks the antique shop "looked a lot smaller on the outside."

%%* StepfordSmiler: Starlight is bored out of her skull in the antiques shop--and a bit upset that Sunburst seems to be getting along better with Twilight than with her--but she keeps insisting that she's having a great time anyway.

%%* GrailInTheGarbage: Sunburst buys a sealed barrel of uninspected antiques, hoping there will be something valuable or at least interesting in there. At the end of the episode, he opens the barrel--and the camera ominously zooms in on a book with a black cover, implying it's something important indeed. "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicShadowPlayPart1 Shadow Play - Part 1]]" reveals [[spoiler:this is the journal of Star Swirl the Bearded himself.]]

** Commonality is good for a friendship but it is not the only component. Spending time with each other can still be meaningful and fun even if you can't always find that common ground.
** It is impossible to relive the past. You can only continue from the present.