Awesome / My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic Season 9

"The Elements were just symbols. The real magic has always been right here, and the more who understand how powerful friendship is, the stronger we will all be...
TOGETHER!!!"

The Beginning of the End

• Grogar comes back from G1 limbo in full force; despite not being at full power, he's able to teleport Tirek and Cozy Glow out of Tartarus and resurrect King Sombra, with little apparent effort. He even gives Tirek a pretty decent power boost.
• Flurry Heart isn't the least bit scared of Sombra, trying to bite his hoof, refusing to bow before him, and even trying to blast her way out of the crystal prison she and her parents were put in. After Spike helps them escape, she stops Sombra from reclaiming the Crystal Heart, and wards off his brainwashed minions with some blasts of magic.
• Even if Sombra pretended to be defeated as part of his plan, the protagonists liberating the Crystal Empire was pretty awesome, especially because it was achieved with more than just a straightforward "friendship laser". Sombra manages to hit the Mane 6 with his worst fears spell, but they then reveal that they'd only fallen under it as a distraction. This gives Spike enough time to weaken the prison enough for Cadance to burst out and take back the Crystal Heart. (Notably, Sombra's crystal prisons prove very durable, but Spike's fire breath proved strong enough to weaken one to the point that Cadance can break it. Once again, the hero of the Crystal Empire played major part in saving it.) The Crystal Heart then provides a World-Healing Wave that undoes Sombra's influence on the Empire. Only after that do the Mane 6 finally unleash the magic of friendship on him. Given that the Mane 6 were armed with the Elements, it's likely that Sombra didn't have any choice but to flee and find a way to neutralize them later.
• The way the Mane 6 break out of Sombra's fear magic, initiated by the jewel on Twilight's tiara blazing brightly just after Sombra claims nothing can defeat their fears, and she opens her eyes to reveal the green glow of Sombra's magic has turned into the white glow of the Elements, which traces on to her friends.
  Twilight: We didn't need to defeat them! We just needed to face them long enough to distract you!
• Sombra's big gambit is masterful, allowing himself to be defeated so that he could follow the Mane 6 back to the Tree of Harmony and destroy it. This is the plan that Chrysalis tried and failed (though she wanted to take the Elements, not destroy them), yet Sombra easily accomplishes it without any of the prep time she enjoyed, or even any prior knowledge of the tree's existence.
• The Mane 6 digging out of Sombra's trap, with Pinkie Pie even using her hair as a drill to Fast Tunnel their way out.
• The Mane 6 spend hours trying to stop the Everfree Forest from destroying Ponyville, but can barely hold it at bay and are slowly losing ground. Cue Star Swirl, Celestia and Luna arriving and proceeding to not only drive the forest back but beginning the process of keeping it contained without the help of the Tree of Harmony. Star Swirl reveals that he and the Pillars used to be the ones to control the Everfree Forest, and with the two sisters help he can do it with just the three of them. The scene culminates with him surrounding himself with a silver aura and unleashing a blast of magic so strong that it wipes out every plant in its path and leaves behind a wide and deep trench in the earth.
• Discord "fighting" Sombra, which is just him no-selling the magic blasts Sombra shoots at him with chaos magic (turning the blasts into various harmless things), all while while chatting in a casual, laid-back manner. Gives a show of his power level, given by how unfazed he is. And when it seems that he's actually been seriously injured by Taking the Bullet for Fluttershy, he gives a heartfelt Rousing Speech that encourages the Mane 6 to finish the fight themselves. Then at the end of the episode, he reveals that he hadn't really been hurt at all, confirming that he really could have defeated Sombra at any time had he wanted to.
  "You don't think that some would-be king could actually hurt the Lord of Chaos, do you?"
• After a whole episode of being unable to even contemplate fighting Sombra without the Elements, Twilight finally steps up with Discord's encouragement and faces him head on. Despite Sombra being well established as extraordinarily powerful, Twilight actually starts dueling quite equally with him, and once her friends join in turns it into a total Curb-Stomp Battle. His undignified blubbering as he's overpowered only makes it sweeter.
  • Twilight shows her power and renewed resolve by blocking three consecutive magic blasts from Sombra with increasing ease. Actually, the third time she just casually swats it away like a fly, without even flinching (leaving a very fitting "sparkle" that matches part of her Cutie Mark). As Discord noted, she will always be the Embodiment of Magic.
    Twilight: Discord's right. We've proven time and time again that the real magic is the six of us working together! With these girls by my side, I'm not afraid of you! I'm not afraid of what you can do or how much power you have!
    Sombra: You should be [blasts Twilight; she blocks and keeps going]
    Twilight: You may knock us down, but we're gonna get back up again! [Sombra tries and fails again, this time with the Mane Six marching behind Twilight] And again! [Sombra makes a third failed attempt] And again! As long as we're together, we will never stop trying to defeat you!
    [Sombra and Twilight both fire powerful blasts of magic, engaging in Beam-O-War; Twilight struggles, until she starts glowing brightly and others band together]
    Fluttershy: For our friends!
    Applejack and Rarity: For our families!
    Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash: For our home!
    Twilight: For Equestria!
  • Just as the six mares are bounded together to finally annihilate Sombra ala-like the Elements, AJ and Rainbow tell him straight forward what they have told every villain of the show:
    Sombra: No! This can't be possible! YOUR MAGIC CAN'T DEFEAT MINE! I DESTROYED THE SOURCE OF YOUR POWER!
    Twilight: You can't destroy our friendship, Sombra!
    Rainbow: And we keep telling bad guys...
    Applejack: But y'all just don't seem to remember.
    The Mane Six: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC!
    [cue a giant magic blast that annihilates Sombra out of existence, frees everyone of his control, and stops the Everfree Forest from going out of control]
  • For the record, all the Crystal Heart did to him in his first appearance was blow him up. Overkill, yes, but that's nothing compared to completely obliterating him!
• Grogar letting Sombra leave for his plan turns out to be a Xanatos Gambit; if Sombra wins he can just take control of Equestria from him without having to deal with the heroes. If he fails he can make him an example to cow the other villains into service, which works. Let's reiterate that: Grogar scared a former tyrant queen, a magic-draining centaur, and a manipulative child into submission. And the latter two were so bad that they had to get sent to Tartarus! If there was any doubt about Grogar being the series' True Final Boss, they're laid to rest here.

Uprooted

• The Tree of Harmony calling out to the Young Six despite its shattered state and later coming back larger and stronger through their efforts is a strong testament to its incredible power. The Tree and Young Six managed to ensure that Sombra failed to do any lasting damage. In fact they made it so that Sombra inadvertently helped the Tree get stronger by destroying its old form.
• In order to get Ember's permission to return to the Tree, Smolder armwrestles a bigger, tougher-looking dragon, and wins easily.

Sparkle's Seven

• Shining Armor knows Twilight so well that he can predict her entire plan.
• Props to Rainbow Dash for being able to fly not only herself, but Fluttershy as well, into the throne room, past all of the devices Shining Armor had set up to prevent any creature from flying in.
• While she did have some assistance from Maud in finding just the right spot to buck, Applejack managing to buck through solid rock to get into one of the tunnels is pretty impressive. Feats of strength of that level are usually only seen from Big Mac.
• Spike and Luna managing to outplay everyone else. Spike both ensures that Twilight goes through with her plan AND predicts that Shining Armor would let it work up to the last second, allowing Spike to steal the win at the end.

Common Ground

• Quibble Pants loves Clear Sky so much that when it appears she wants to end their relationship, he not only doesn't try to change her mind but he's perfectly okay with it being, apparently, because her daughter doesn't like him.
• Clear Sky dropping the Aesop about Parent with New Paramour. Quibble doesn't want Wind Sprint to forget her Disappeared Dad; he just wants her to like him too.

She's All Yak

• When Yona crashes into the Lucky Pot table and all of the dishes go flying, Twilight shows some lightning-quick reflexes in putting up a massive (as in, wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling) shield to protect the students.

Frenemies

• Grogar once again giving a glimpse of his power: even without his bell, he can restrain Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow with ease.
• While it's still not enough to let her reach the bell by herself, Chrysalis still gets pretty far up the mountain by using her shapeshifting abilities. She also saves Tirek and Cozy Glow from an ophiotaurus by taking the form of a female ophiotaurus, then draining its love.
• Tirek doesn't even bother trying to climb the mountain himself, instead waiting for the others to inevitably fail so he can learn about the obstacles that lie ahead.
• The villain trio finally working together at the end, successfully retrieving the bell by combining their talents.
• Absorbing Chrysalis's magic is enough to push Tirek all the way up to his third form. Even if you take into account the boost Chrysalis received from draining the ophiotaurus's love, it's still very impressive on her part.
• The magic barrier on the cave Grogar's bell was hidden in deserves a mention. Not only is it still active after thousands of years, it is strong enough that the power of Tirek's third form is only enough to create a small hole in it (with the hole immediately resealing itself after Tirek stops his assault).
• Gusty the Great gets a historical one; we see how powerful Grogar is even in his weakened state, and he outright says that this is but a fraction of the full power he has with his bell. With this in mind, the fact that Gusty was able to swipe his bell and keep it long enough to hide it is nothing short of phenomenal.

Sweet and Smoky

• Fluttershy is just made of awesome this episode. She shows no fear of returning to the Dragonlands, easily gets the dragon bullies to back down when they start pelting Spike with lavaballs (with no concern about getting hit herself, even though she's far less heatproof), isn't intimidated when Garble rounds on her after she busts him performing his beat poetry, firing back while continuing to be her sweet self, and soon after gives him an epic "Reason You Suck" Speech about how hypocritical he's been with beating Spike down for seemingly being so soft. A far cry from being a nervous wreck at the prospect of meeting a dragon back in "Dragonshy."
• Smolder standing up for Spike, and also making it clear that going to a "pony school" hasn't made her "soft" in the slightest.
  Clump: Awww. Pony school made you soft.
  Smolder: (grabs Clump by the face and drags him down to eye level) Want to try me and find out?
  Clump: (gulps) M-Maybe later.
• We get to see how much Ember has established her authority as the Dragon Lord, with the bullies instantly cowering before her.
• Rather than the cliched story of someone refusing to believe anything bad about a family member, Smolder does not hesitate to defend Spike from Garble after hearing what he's been up to.
• After Spike and Fluttershy trade tasks, she is determined to cheer up Garble, and this line would make the other mane 6 and Discord proud.
  Fluttershy: Just you wait, Garble. You're dealing with Fluttershy now, and she's packin' a whole lifetime of kindness!
• Fluttershy giving Garble a scathing speech when Garble resorts to his old song-and-dance about how "weak" Spike is.
  Fluttershy: I'll have you know, Spike is stronger than you are any day.
  Garble: Yeah right! That little cupcake-making, blanket-cuddling pony-dragon? Give me a break!
  Fluttershy: First of all, there is nothing wrong with being a pony! Second, Spike isn't afraid to be who he is, no matter what you or any-creature thinks! That's real strength. Not like some dragons I know.
  • In fact, her speech puts Spike in a whole new light of awesome. Every episode he's encountered Garble, Spike never lost sight of who he was as a good person. In comparison to Garble who constantly has to hide his true self from his "friends", Spike ultimately never buckled under the pressure of being anything but the kind, honorable little dragon he was.
• Garble's plan to save the eggs deserves a mention. He breaks out into poetry in front of the other dragons, knowing it will be met with mocking laughter, and with it, laugh-fire that's hot enough to hatch the eggs. Not to mention it looks like he's making the poetry up as he goes. He's a pretty good poet.
• When the other dragons start mocking Garble for his poetry, Ember immediately shuts them down.
  Dragon: What kind of weakling writes poetry? (goes to high five another dragon, only for them both to freeze with a frightened expression as Ember's shadow looms over them.)
  Ember: The Hero of the Dragon Lands! That's who!

Going to Seed

• Big Mac and Applejack showing each other up with bucking: Big Mac kicks so hard that the tree ricochets back on top of the cart and leaves all the apples, while Applejack does a helicopter kick to three trees that drops all of them.

Student Counsel

• Trixie shows how much better she's gotten at real unicorn magic, killing time while Starlight deals with her job by simultaneously moving around all the picnic gear with little effort.
• Silverstream tames a cockatrice!
• Sunburst may not be able to do much in the way of complex spells, but he proves able to fire a beam of destructive magic from his horn (which we've seen in the past does require fairly strong magic to actually cause damage).
• After Mudbriar is turned to stone, Maud is shown holding off the cockatrices by kicking rocks at them. She even scores a direct hit despite having her back turned to avoid catching their gaze.

The Last Crusade

• How are Scootaloo's parents introduced? Effortlessly taking down a cragodile. And it's implied that things like this are a normal day on the job for them.
• The gathering at the end really shows just how great of an influence the Cutie Mark Crusaders have become.

Between Dark And Dawn

• While it was entirely unnecessary, Celestia and Luna teleporting away the gigantic Mr. Tortoise-Snap with ease was quite impressive.

2, 4, 6, Greaaat

• Snails catching buckballs even while self-levitating and blindfolded. Heck, the fact that he has enough magic power to self-levitate is impressive in and of itself.
• A minor example: This is the first time we've seen Snips using magic, and he's not half bad at it, levitating all his Buckball merchandise with ease. He even manages to briefly keep Rainbow from leaving by catching her tail with his magical aura.
• The cheer performance, once Dash agrees to take it seriously.

A Trivial Pursuit

• Twilight has already won two Trivia Trot contests in a row. If she hadn't gotten partnered with Pinkie, she very well could have won a third time, something she states nopony has ever accomplished before. Indeed, she manages to answer multiple questions from a variety of categories, showing off just how deep her pool of knowledge really is.

The Summer Sun Setback

• Shining Armor's new security measures prove very effective at repelling Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow at first. It's only by distracting everyone by messing up the festival and sneak-attacking a guard to get his medal that they're able to enter the castle.
• The villains get one for achieving their goal in the end, especially when the new security measures didn't make it easy for them.
• Twilight is in rare form this episode. She keeps herself calm and collected even when things go horribly wrong, and her coordination and delegation allows the new issues to be fixed in time for the celebration. Equestria might be in good hooves when she takes over.

She Talks to Angel

• Even after being transferred to Angel's body, Fluttershy is still able to use the Stare successfully.
• The show deserves props for holding off on the "Freaky Friday" Flip story until now.^note Unless you count "A Royal Problem", but that probably stretches the definition as the Royal Sisters switch roles but not bodies. Considering that the show is about The Power of Friendship in a setting where magic is the norm, this plot has practically been gift-wrapped for the show from the beginning. That they waited this long to go for it shows serious restraint on the show's part. Not only that, but they also managed to take it in a completely unexpected direction: instead of taking the obvious route of having two or more of the Mane 6 switch bodies, they instead swapped Fluttershy with Angel, putting a new spin on a slightly tired trope.
• Even though it exhausts her, Fluttershy-As-Angel is able to make it to Zecora's hut and back, surviving the Everfree Forest, under her own power. That's no small feat.

A Horse Shoe-In

• Trixie standing up for Gallus when Grampa Gruff doesn't show any care towards Gallus' school progress. Also for the episode, as it's made very clear that Trixie was 100% in the right to stand up for Gallus when he was being neglected, and that the real problem was that a Vice Head-Mare shouldn't get into fights with parents/guardians.
• While it may not have been the right thing to do in the situation, Trixie teleporting part of a swamp into the school is pretty impressive for someone whose magic repertoire formerly consisted mostly of parlor tricks.
• Starlight taking care of the flash bees pretty much effortlessly. Followed by Twilight cleaning up the room basically between breaths.

Daring Doubt

• Fluttershy reforms Dr. Caballeron and his goons without even trying to, just by being her kind and friendly self. She's also the one who asks Ahuizotl about his motivations, revealing that he was Good All Along. Fluttershy basically single-handedly ended the conflict between Daring Do and her worst nemeses.
• Dr. Caballeron and his henchponies saving Fluttershy from erupting lava.

Growing Up Is Hard to Do

• Adult Sweetie Belle using her magic to sever some vines that Apple Bloom is entangled in. She also teleports herself and some foals away from Bloofy, a skill that even most adult unicorns seemingly haven't mastered.
• When the adult CMC first encounters Spur and Biscuit, Biscuit freaks out about "Wild Swamp Ponies". Spur? She holds one leg in front of him and glares at the CMC, ready to defend her brother.
• Fluttershy's advice to Spur on how to calm down the excited Bloofy. When it works, Fluttershy uses this as a teaching experience to show the grown CMC that wisdom and experience isn't something you can magically wish for: it's something you earn with time.

The Big Mac Question

• After years of fan speculation, support from the show's crew, and the odd hint in canon, they actually had the guts to show Lyra and Bon Bon getting engaged. Even in the background, the fact that we actually see it onscreen is huge.

The Ending of the End

• Although his actions were misguided and had terrible consequences for Equestria as a whole, The Reveal that Grogar was Discord in disguise all along retroactively becomes one for the Lord of Chaos, who was not only playing the Legion of Doom like a fiddle up until now, but actually managed to intimidate them with his threats and incredible displays of raw power, showing he can still be quite manipulative and terrifying whenever he wants to be. The reveal also shows that Discord can rejuvenate Tirek with just a fraction of his power, teleport anyone out of Tartarus, and bring ponies back from the dead. For double the irony, the villains mocked Discord in "Frenemies" for being a has-been who was "ruined" by friendship.
• Even though the actual Grogar never does make a proper appearance in the series, his power still has a very real presence: even divided up between the villain trio, his magic contained in the bell is still enough to turn Cozy Glow (the most powerless of the three) into an alicorn.
• Cozy Glow managing to trick Tirek and Chrysalis into giving her Discord's chaos magic. If it weren't only for her inability to control it, she would've succeeded in betraying them and taking over Equestria (and perhaps even more).
• Starlight's one-on-one duel with Chrysalis.
  • Starlight begins with a legitimately badass Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
    Starlight: You didn't make an appointment!
  • She employs Teleport Spam to great effect, first teleporting both herself and Chrysalis into some remote mountains to avoid collateral damage, then using it to repeatedly avoid Chrysalis's attacks.
  • She gets another good one-liner during the fight itself after she injures Chrysalis.
    Chrysalis: You'll pay for that!
    Starlight: Put it on my tab! [drops a giant mound of snow on her head]
• Tirek's Curb-Stomp Battle with the Pillars is an awesome moment for him. He enters the scene destroying a bunch of rock formations just by moving through them, and proceeds to avoid or tank every attack attempted by the Pillars. Even a magic blast from Star Swirl does little more than annoy him, and Rockhoof's mighty shovel outright breaks against Tirek's body, with the centaur not even flinching. To top things off he moves quickly enough to stop Somnabula from escaping to warn others.
• The Mane Six and Spike actually put alicorn!Cozy Glow on the ropes by relentlessly barraging her with attacks from every front, all the while avoiding the use of direct magical attacks so she can't counter them with Grogar's bell. If Tirek and Chrysalis had arrived as backup only a few moments later than they did, it's likely that the heroes would have won right there.
  • Rainbow Dash flying circles around Cozy Glow, buffeting her several times.
  • Rarity levitating Pinkie so Pinkie can attack using a party bazooka.
  • Fluttershy commanding the geese in the throne room to attack.
  • Spike outright tries to incinerate Cozy Glow with his fire breath.
  • Applejack bringing Cozy Glow down to the ground by lassoing her.
• Rarity, with some effort, hurling a huge boulder at the villains when they manage to capture Twilight, nailing Tirek right in the face. That one act pretty much saved all of Equestria by allowing Twilight to escape. Rarity may not be a magical powerhouse (indeed having struggled in the past to lift things lighter than that boulder), but she was the only one left at that point who was capable of any levitation magic, and she certainly uses it to great effect.
• A minor one for Star Swirl; Despite having his magic drained by Tirek, and being trapped in a cage with shards of Chrysalis' Anti-Magic throne embedded in it, he is able to briefly generate a small spark of magic. It wasn't enough to do anything, but it was still quite impressive.
• For starting the villains' conquest of Equestria in the first place, Discord fittingly redeems himself by single-handedly starting Equestria's counterattack, simply by doing what he does best: pinpointing and exploiting others' weaknesses. By provoking Tirek into attacking him over his Inferiority Superiority Complex, Discord pulls a Gambit Roulette with a piece of Chrysalis's throne that miraculously deflects Tirek's beam into the Anti-Magic stone adorned to Starlight's cage. This immediately leads to Starlight freeing herself and all of the captive ponies, letting the Mane Cast escape and providing them with enough cover to do it in one fell swoop. It's no wonder Twilight's friends become so much more willing to forgive him after this.
• When the villains gloat that Discord missed his mark, Starlight chimes in:
  Starlight: Did he, though?
  • Starlight then proceeds to free the captured members of the Mane Six, while drawing Chrysalis' fire using Teleport Spam, even blowing a raspberry at the Changeling Queen. She then makes a Heroic Sacrifice to ensure that the others get to Twilight to help her.
• When Starlight is wounded by Chrysalis, Celestia steps in, shielding the unicorn with her own body, and telling the others to run, stating that even without her magic, she's not entirely helpless. She and Luna then charge the villains, horns first. Discord is also shown joining the fight by throwing rocks at the villains, despite normally being even more reliant on magic than the Princesses, making this a Heroes' Frontier Step.
• The Mane Six and Spike take on all three of the powered-up villains at once, and it's not an immediate Curb-Stomp Battle in the villains' favor. In the end, Chrysalis has to take Spike hostage to convince the Mane Six to stop fighting.
  • Twilight launching a magic blast powerful enough to actually knock down Tirek and make him lose a tooth. This is more than even Star Swirl was able to do — guess Pony of Shadows' earlier remark about her being "almost" as strong as him is no longer relevant. She has already outgrown her idol and now is more powerful than the one deemed as the greatest sorcerer in history of Equestria. The way she challenges Tirek to one-on-one battle is quite chilling as well, given his previous atrocities and personal grudge she holds against him. The only thing that's missing is Twilight saying "Hello again, you bastard. Remember my library?"
  • Pinkie Pie putting Offscreen Teleportation and Cartoon Physics to good use in diverting Chrysalis.
  • Rarity and Spike's brief tussle with Chrysalis. Spike takes a hit, Rarity jumps in to protect him with a gem shield (similar to those used by her Equestria Girls counterpart)... which is quickly shattered, only for Spike to deflect Chrysalis' next beam with his fire breath, followed by Rarity's unicorn magic and Spike's fire breath combining into a Beam-O-War, which, while only a temporary setback for her in the end, Chrysalis loses. The two go from being almost killed to dominating in a few seconds.
    • Also, the mere fact that Rarity summoned a shield. Rarity has pretty much never been shown doing any magic besides basic unicorn levitation, so the fact that she pushed herself is impressive. It was clearly difficult for her to maintain, but it did manage to hold back Chrysalis for a few seconds.
• Just when it looks like the villains are about to win, a shield protects the Mane Six. But it wasn't from Twilight. Cue a shot of a hill above, and The Cavalry of every minor character in the show arriving to help, up to and including Tempest Shadow. What follows is a Big Badass Battle Sequence where creatures from all over Equestria charge at the bad guys, distracting them long enough for Twilight and company to form a plan.
• The School of Friendship itself becoming a Chekhov's Gun. Twilight's lessons allow all the races of Equestria to come together for a Big Damn Heroes moment on their own, without the heroes needing to rally them.
  [Earth ponies]
  Sandbar: We all know the story of Hearth's Warming Eve! We can defeat the windigos together!
  Berryshine: You really think if we all sing a couple songs, everything will be fine?
  Sandbar: It's not just singing that saved the founders of Equestria! It's what it represented!
  [Unicorns]
  Rasberry Dazzle: Earth ponies, unicorns, and Pegasi becoming friends! We learned at Twilight's school that friendship is the most powerful magic there is!
  [Pegasi]
  Hyper Sonic: Focusing on our differences keeps us divided! Villains and creatures like the windigos use that division against us!
  [Yaks]
  Yona: Yaks strong. Ponies strong. But yaks and ponies stronger together! Yaks must be loyal to pony friends!
  [Dragons]
  Smolder: I know helping other creatures by being kind and generous sounds lame. But I've seen how powerful it can be!
  [Griffons]
  Gallus: Playing together! Singing together! Even laughing together! That's what real heroes look like!
  [Hippogriffs]
  Silverstream: Were we really happy by ourselves at the bottom of the ocean? Be honest! It's the ponies that showed us a better way!
  [Changelings]
  Ocellus: They've taught us how powerful love and the Magic of Friendship truly is! We can't let them stand alone! We're their friends! They need us!
  • Gallus and Smolder managing to convince the dragons and griffons to help, despite both species' generally cynical attitudes toward friendship and helping others. Gallus gets extra points for convincing Grampa Gruff, considering their strained relationship.
  • Ocellus giving a speech in front of her entire race shows how far she's come from the shy little changeling too timid to take on her default form.
  • The Young 6 (along with the unnamed Pegasus pony and unicorn pony students) get an awesome moment when one takes into account that it must've taken the Treacherous Trio months to plant the seeds of discord and turn every pony against each other. It took our young heroes minutes to undo such deep-rooted prejudices and remind Equestria that friendship is more important than a few hollow lies.
• A minor one, but Tempest's horn is glowing alongside everyone else's while the shield's up. At some point in the interim, she learned how to control her magic properly, broken horn or no.
• The three villains getting a Shut Up, Hannibal! courtesy of Discord's chaos magic... not from him, but from Pinkie Pie. As a great nod to her fandom reputation, Pinkie is the only other creature who can even somewhat control his power.
• As a final display that she IS the embodiment of magic, Twilight reaches an epiphany of sorts and begins to channel the elements directly, summoning all the imprisoned characters with ease. Recall that Chrysalis claimed even the villains' enhanced powers would be nullified by that prison. Much like in the season premiere Twilight's mane flows like Celestia's throughout this scene.
• After being repeatedly Worfed and sidelined throughout the series, the Princesses and Discord come together to give the three villains what they deserve—turning all three of them to stone! That Celestia and Luna can do this on their own is quite impressive, as petrification spells are limited to only a few known methods. Also it's very satisfying that Discord finally got to have revenge on his nemesis Tirek for manipulating and betraying him 5 seasons ago.
  Discord: Together forever. I can't think of anything that they would want less.
• Chrysalis deserves points for making one last lunge at the Princesses and Discord as she's petrified, while Tirek and Cozy Glow simply cower and panic.
• Surprisingly, none of the Treacherous Trio is redeemed! In a show that seems to sell the idea that anyone can be redeemed by the magic of friendship, it's made clear that just because everyone can potentially change for the better, doesn't mean that everyone wants to. Neither Cozy Glow, Chrysalis or Tirek ever change their ways. They prove to be completely irredeemable. On the flipside, this becomes their downfall as it gives Discord, Celestia and Luna the OK to not hold back and duly punish them as any monster. Even Discord himself broke his "Don't turn ponies into stone" rule to get revenge on Tirek.
• Heck, the entire finale was a Moment of Awesome. Right in the middle of Equestria's Darkest Hour, Just when it seemed like the Mane Six were about to be utterly defeated, every minor character in the show helps fight the Treacherous Trio in a truly epic Final Battle for the fate of the world! Talk about ending with a bang. What really sells this, however, is that this is the finale of a show based on My Little Pony, a franchise generally targeted to little girls. Who would have thought that a show about talking ponies could end with a battle on such an amazing scale, that it has drawn comparisons to Avengers: Endgame.

The Last Problem

• The final shot of the Mane 6 and Spike together (used for the episode page’s source image), standing triumphant and proud against the sunset as they see Luster Dawn make new friends. Nine years of saving Equestria and kicking bad-guy flank has lead up to this, and they deserve it. A fitting image to end their story. Also doubles as a Heartwarming Moment.
• Seeing Sunset Shimmer via still image during the final song sequence. Ever since her Heel–Face Turn and Redemption Quest in the Equestria Girls series that helped redeem the character in many fans eyes, many have hoped for her to eventually make it into the official TV series. For one of the final shots, she actually makes an appearance. Cue the fanboy glee.
• Equestria, under Twilight's rule, has all but become a Utopia, with the different races living in harmony together.
• The School of Friendship and its various displays; three of the Young Six are on the faculty in an undisclosed capacity; the Cutie Mark Crusaders, now fully grown for real, are full-fledged teachers (on the subject of cutie marks); and Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst have taken over as heads, with Trixie moving into the counselor position.
• Twilight has become a full Celestia-style Alicorn, while Spike has grown to be a huge, muscular dragon that one imagines Garble and the like would be singing quite a different tune about. He even looks a lot like his imaginary "knight in shining armor" persona from earlier episodes.

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