Recap / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S2 E26 "A Canterlot Wedding – Part 2"

Continued from "A Canterlot Wedding – Part 1".

You should see what happens before this...

This day has been just perfect~
The kind of day of which I've dreamed since I was small.
Everypony I'll soon control!
Every stallion, mare and foal!
Who says a girl can't really have it all?

— Queen Chrysalis

Written by Meghan McCarthy

Twilight finds herself in a dark cave, magicking up a light from her horn, wondering where she is.

Cadance's evil laughter fills the air heralding her appearing and vanishing in faceted reflections overhead, mocking Twilight and saying there's nothing she can do to stop her — and that Twilight will be forgotten and imprisoned forever. Twilight, undaunted, gives chase and attacks with magic, before breaking through a wall and tumbling into — Cadance?!

The truth is revealed: Twilight was right to be suspicious about her old friend's behavior — because it wasn't really her! The real Cadance proves her identity with their Secret Handshake and explains that the Cadance Twilight met was an impostor seeking to take over Canterlot. With all the misunderstandings cleared, they escape the caves and arrive at the wedding just in time to expose the deception.

Now that the jig is up for the fake Cadance, she reveals herself to be Chrysalis, the queen of the Changelings, a race of emotion-eating beings with the power of mimicry. Chrysalis set her sights on Canterlot because, as the capital of the country with the most love in the world, it can feed her subjects — the other changelings — indefinitely. She smugly announces that her ruse as Cadance enabled her to turn Shining Armor into her puppet and weaken him so much that his protective force field won't hold against her army.

Princess Celestia rises to challenge the evil impostor, but to the surprise of everyone — Chrysalis included — she is defeated.

Twilight and the others race to get the Elements of Harmony, but they run into Chrysalis's army. They fight a pitched battle against changelings magicked to look like them until they too are overwhelmed and captured.

Chrysalis's victory is absolute: Canterlot is invaded, Celestia is imprisoned, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony have been neutralized, and Shining Armor's defensive power is completely drained. When the evil queen pauses to gloat, Twilight quietly frees Cadance, who uses The Power of Love to break the changeling's hold on him. He is exhausted, but Cadance puts the strength of her love behind him, and he finds the power to put up his defensive barrier again. The changelings are swept from Canterlot and cast into the wilderness beyond Equestria. The day is saved!

The real wedding can finally take place. Twilight is reinstated as Best Mare and her organizational skills pull the whole thing together with dazzling speed, with Cadance enthusiastically participating. The ceremony is sweet and beautiful, especially for Twilight when Shining warmly tells her that he persuaded Cadance to accept his proposal with the fact that she would gain Twilight as a sister-in-law. As night falls, Princess Luna arrives, and the reception begins in earnest. Everypony dances, and as the couple departs, Shining thanks his sister for everything she has done with a warm reaffirmation of their love. As the carriage leaves, Rarity makes a spectacular dive for the bouquet, and Spike announces his intentions for the bachelor party.

Everypony lives Happily Ever After. For a time being anyway.

The end.

*Cue epic cred......Tori Spelling.*

---

Tropes:

• Abandoned Mine: According to Queen Chrysalis, no one in Canterlot remembers the mines underneath them exist
• An Aesop: Trust your instincts.
• All Is Well That Ends Well: After the Changelings are repelled, the wedding restarts and is a success this time, and everyone is happy.
• All There in the Script: Her name is never mentioned on-screen, but the Changeling Queen's name is, according to the script, Chrysalis. Confirmed when she returned in the comic book.
• Alternate Animal Affection: Averted. Shining Armor and Princess Cadance kiss at the end.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Not even the Brainwashed and Crazy bridesmares can resist the allure of a wedding bouquet. All Cadance did to "vanquish" them was use one as a distraction.
• Audible Gleam: While preparing for the wedding, when Chrysalis holds up her hoof, her shoe goes ting.
• Award-Bait Song: "Love Is in Bloom", the final song of the two-parter. It's very Disneyesque, and bears some resemblance to "Ever After" from Enchanted.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Exploited. Applejack does this with Twilight, only for "Twilight" to turn out to be one of the changelings.
• Badass in Distress: By the climax, Shining Armor, Cadance, Celestia, and the Mane Six have all been disabled and/or captured.
• Ballroom Blitz: The fight breaks out during the wedding.
• Battle Couple: This is what happens when the Magic Knight Captain of the Royal Guard and a Love Goddess (which is surprisingly badass) Princess get married. Just ask Queen Chrysalis, if you can find where she landed.
• Beam-O-War: Celestia and the main antagonist engage in a brief one of these. Celestia loses.
• Beam Spam: Pinkie aims Twilight's horn at the changelings and cranks her tail like a Gatling gun, unleashing a rapid-fire burst of spells.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted. After a presumably long period of imprisonment in a mine, the real Cadance is scruffy and battered.
• Bed Trick: A G-rated version of the trope; Shining Armor has been affectionate with an impostor all this time.
• Best Woman: Shining Armor reinstates Twilight Sparkle in this role for the real wedding between him and the real Cadance.
• Big Bad: Queen Chrysalis is behind the real Cadance's disapperance and the invasion.
• Big "NO!": In Big Bad tradition, Queen Chrysalis lets one off right before Shining Armor and Princess Cadance's spell hits her and blasts her out of Canterlot.
• Blade Lock: Celestia and Chrysalis do this with their horns before engaging in their Beam-O-War.
• Blown Across the Room: Queen Chrysalis and her army are blown across Equestria by Cadance and Shining Armor's The Power of Love enhanced spell.
• Body Horror: The changelings, dear Celestia. They just generally look twisted and warped, but special mention goes to the Swiss-cheese holes in their wings, their tails, their manes, their legs...
• Bookends:
  • The preparations of the wedding have to be redone, but this time with the real Cadance who deeply appreciates the Mane Six's efforts with the grace, charm and exuberance you'd expect from a bride worthy of Twilight's brother.
  • The end credits theme is the same one we got for "The Return of Harmony - Part 2".
• Bouquet Toss: Done twice, first as a way to distract a group of brainwashed bridesmaids, then for real in the end, which Rarity pounces on.
• Brick Joke:
  • After being conspicuously absent for the entire episode, Princess Luna shows up at the very end and asks if she missed anything while she was away.
  • Applejack sneaks her cowboy hat onto her bridesmaid dress once again.
  • At the very end, Spike still doesn't know what a bachelor party is.
• Bug War: The changeling invasion; they look like bugs.
• Call-Back:
  • Pinkie's party cannon makes several returns during the battle with the changeling Mooks.
  • The Sonic Rainboom returns and it appears Dash is a fast enough flyer that she doesn't need the aid of gravity to reach the necessary speed any more.
• The Cameo:
  • Vinyl Scratch, Fancy Pants, Soarin', and Twilight and Shining Armor's parents all make an appearance at the end.
  • Derpy appears several times in the wedding crowd scenes, with her signature derped eyes (most of the time, anyway). This is most notable when Queen Chrysalis is staring down Cadance in the wedding hall.
  • The Cutie Mark Crusaders. See The Voiceless below.
• Capture and Replicate: Twilight discovers that Princess Cadance, who is about to marry Shining Armor, is actually Queen Chrysalis in disguise, while the real Cadance was trapped in the cave underneath Canterlot Castle.
• Care-Bear Stare: The Power of Love combines with Shining Armor's protection spell to form a selective deflector shield that repels the changelings, frees the trapped ponies, and fills everypony with a sense of well-being.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The Nursery Rhyme dance seen in Twilight's flashback in the first part. When Twilight stumbles upon the real Cadance, she's all set to blast her since Chrysalis has been mocking her through reflections. So Cadance quickly proves she the real one by doing the dance. Something Chrysalis failed to do when she first met Twilight while under her guise.
  • Cadance and Shining Armor pick up one introduced half a season prior. "Hearth's Warming Eve" showed the bond between ponies could be used to power up an extremely strong spell. Cadance and Shining Armor do a similar technique, except with another bond in place of The Power of Friendship.
  • Pinkie Pie never leaves home without her party cannon. This was established 17 episodes earlier and pays off in epic fashion.
• Cliffhanger Copout: A commercial break occurs when Twilight and Cadance are blocked by the missing bridesmaids, whose eyes glint menacingly when the screen fades to black. It's quickly revealed upon the return from the break that Twilight and Cadance "defeated" the bridesmaids by distracting them with a bouquet of flowers.
• Comically Missing the Point: Spike planning to have the bachelor party after the wedding.
• The Combat Pragmatist:
  • Pinkie's party cannon makes a return during the battle with the changeling Mooks and is used successfully in an offensive manner. Yes, that's right, Pinkie Pie weaponized partying. Then she weaponized one of her own friends by turning Twilight Sparkle into a gatling gun (see Gatling Good).
  • Fluttershy prevents herself from being targeted by other Fluttershies by pretending she's a changeling and sending them forward, only to be stopped by several Rainbow Dashes... with one of them in the group revealing she is the real one by bucking off the ones to her side.
• Combination Attack: Cadance and Shining Armor's love-powered spell. Shining Armor provides the spell, which she charges since he's not strong enough to recast the shield spell unassisted due to having been drained by Chrysalis.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Zigzagged Trope. The Mane Six defeat a huge herd of changeling impostors all by themselves, but they can't take on the entire army. Possible Fridge Brilliance: The changelings are fierce, but Chrysalis claims that she came to Equestria hunting for food for them. They are only weak individually because of malnourishment.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Fluttershy directing a chorus of birds.
  • Rarity shouts "Mine!" when she catches Princess Cadance's bouquet. Also note her face...
  • Pinkie Pie once again pulls objects from nowhere. Only this time, it's an entire pony.
  • The brainwashed bridesmaids chase after the bouquet, shouting "I want it!" similar to how everyone in Ponyville did in "Lesson Zero".
  • Applejack scrunches up her face and looks shifty during the actual ceremony when she knows she's doing something naughty.
  • Spike dons the tuxedo that he wore in "Feeling Pinkie Keen" and "The Best Night Ever", complete with the top hat that Twilight failed to produce in the former.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: The villain downright states that if Twilight's friends had been a bit more attentive to her concerns than focusing on a wedding, they would have managed to catch her before the wedding even began. But she's not wrong because she gets bragging rights.
  Applejack: Sorry, Twi. We should have listened to you...
  Twilight: It's not your fault, she fooled everypony.
• Crocodile Tears: Like in part 1, Cadance cries when Twilight crashes the actual wedding. It fails this time because Twilight brought with her the real Cadance.
• Cute Monster Girl: Although the changelings are nightmarish, the relentlessly cute art still depicts their Queen as sort of cute. To elaborate, she has a beautiful face but her body is terrifying.
• Damage Discrimination: The Heart Beat-Down only hits the changelings (and their secretions), leaving everypony and everything left completely untouched.
• Damsel out of Distress: Cadance is as loving and gentle as Twilight remembers, and also capable of escaping a mine prison and expelling an army from her groom's city.
• Dance Party Ending: The episode closes on the wedding reception.
• Darkest Hour: Queen Chrysalis has defeated Celestia, captured the Mane Cast before they can get the Elements, and her changelings now run rampant in Canterlot. It takes The Power of Love channeled into a spell to finally defeat her.
• Dark Reprise: The reprise of "This Day Aria" is even darker in tone than the original Villain Song. Notably, a terrified Golden Harvest is being cornered with Dr. Hooves by the changelings and trying to protect a foal.
• Dark Secret: The Princess Cadance in Canterlot is a changeling queen. The real Cadance has been imprisoned beneath the castle.
• Death Glare: Celestia and Shining Armor both shoot Chrysalis one of these.
• Decoy Protagonist: The episode has Twilight be the main character until the final act, which has the real Cadance earning her happy ending.
• Defiant Captive: When the Mane Six are captured by the Changelings and brought back to Chrysalis, Chrysalis mocks them all by holding Twilight by the chin in mock affection while bragging she was the only one suspicious of her the whole time. Twilight just slaps Chrysalis' hoof away, refusing to let her touch her.
• Deflector Shields:
  • Shining Armor's gigantic bubble shield around Canterlot comes crashing down as the changelings break through and invade the city.
  • The same spell is used to defeat the changelings in the end, but this time supercharged by The Power of Love.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Nopony, villain included, expected Celestia to be overpowered in the Beam-O-War.
  • It's quite evident that Cadance and Shining Armor blasting her out of Equestria with a Heart Beat-Down was not a part of Chrysalis's Evil Plan.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
  • Changeling Queen, defeated Princess Celestia in a one-on-one magic fight! Even she herself was surprised to win that one.
  • Princess Cadance and Shining Armor return the favor with The Power of Love.
• Distant Duet: "This Day Aria", sung by Cadance and Chrysalis. (Though as its name implies, it's only a duet in-universe. From a technical standpoint it's an Aria, sung by one person.)
• Dog Pile of Doom: A dozen changelings looking like Applejack use this move on the real Applejack.
• Doppelgänger: A whole race of them with Queen Chrysalis and the changelings.
• Downer Beginning: Leftover from the previous episode's Downer Ending Cliffhanger: The Queen imprisons Twilight in a diamond mine, and the rest of the cast are clearly very bitter over Twilight's actions in part 1.
• Dramatic Irony: Until Twilight and Cadance burst into the wedding, nopony knows that the bride is a horrible monster, but the viewers know. This makes putting the Cutie Mark Crusader Flower Girls (yay!) in front of "Cadance" as she walks down the aisle particularly horrifying... especially after the episode, telling from what we see in the comics...
• Drone of Dread: The changelings have wings, but they're dragonfly wings that drone creepily when they fly.
• Dynamic Entry: The first thing the changelings do upon breaking Shining Armor's barrier is dive-bomb Canterlot, then get right back up and continue wreaking havoc.
• Earn Your Happy Ending:
  • Princess Cadance, all things considered, really had to work to get the happiest day of her life.
  • Twilight, losing respect from her friends and family (except Cadance), renews her place in their hearts, especially her brother's.
• Easily Forgiven: Granted, they were tricked and all, but Twilight holds absolutely no resentment towards everypony for turning their backs on her. It must be the two seasons worth of friendship lessons.
• Economy Cast: While the changelings were overwhelming you'd think the background ponies would have helped out a little bit more.
• Emotion Eaters: Queen Chrysalis and her brood feed on love.
• Equippable Ally: Pinkie Pie picks up Twilight Sparkle and aims her at a group of changelings while she's shooting magical beam attacks. She even rotates Twilight's tail as though she were using it to fire off rounds like a Gatling gun.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Lampshaded by Queen Chrysalis when she points out on how the rest of the Mane Six ignored Twilight in the last episode for being suspicious of Cadance. Granted, they were tricked and all but Twilight made it clear in that she didn't hold it against them.
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Because Spike still has no idea what a bachelor party is, like the fact that it's usually held before the wedding.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Despite feeding off of love, Chrysalis outright admits feeling none for Shining Armor and in the end doesn't consider the possibility that The Power of Love can be used against her.
• Evil Gloating:
  • Big mistake on the Changeling Queen's part as it gave the heroes the opportunity they needed to turn the tide. Celestia lampshades how foolish it was for Chrysalis to reveal her true self. Though she's more savvy than most villains, because she waited until it looked like she'd already won before gloating.
  • Then she gloats about how Twilight's brother, friends and even her mentor coldly ignored her belief that the Cadance Shining Armor was marrying was evil, which turns out to be true.
• Evil Plan: Chrysalis plans to take over Canterlot and use it as the feeding ground for her many subjects.
• Face Palm:
  • Rarity gets one when Twilight bursts in on the wedding.
  • Twilight gets one as well when Spike announces his plans for the bachelor party after the wedding.
• Fade Around the Eyes: Occurs in one scene during "This Day Aria" as Chrysalis says, "What they don't know is that I have fooled them all!".
• The Fair Folk: The changelings, which are the chaotic and fearsome variety.
• Fantastic Firearms: Twilight finds herself standing in for an emplaced machine gun turret during the big battle scene near the end. Pinkie cranks Twilight's tail (and seems to be aiming for her) to make the unicorn fire a Magic Missile Storm, seemingly reflexively.
• Fauxshadowing: The Elements of Harmony have been previously used in similar situations, explicitly mentioned in the chapter, and in fact the Mane Six are going for them but they are captured before they can get them.
• Flung Clothing: The Mane Six do this with their bridesmaid's dresses when they go charging out to the Elements of Harmony vault, though Rarity is a little more reluctant. Rainbow Dash does it again at the end when she prepares to pull off a Sonic Rainboom for the reception (she did complain that the dress wasn't aerodynamic back in Part One...)
• Foreshadowing:
  • When the Queen defeats Celestia, she comments on how strong Shining Armor's love for Cadance is. See Hoist by Her Own Petard.
  • It was established in "Hearth's Warming Eve" that the bond between ponies can be utilized for a Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? without the Elements.
  • A blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, when Queen Chrysalis, still in the form of Cadance, sings "This Day Aria", the camera spins around to point at her shadow on the ceiling. Pay close attention; the lamp on the ceiling overlaps her shadow for a few moments, causing it to more resemble her true form.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Shining and Cadance initiate their magic to send the Changelings away, the Mane 6 wince at the bright light they ignite, but Pinkie keeps staring on.
• From Bad to Worse: Twilight is trapped on some underground caverns where she discovers the real Cadance. Then the impostor is revealed to be Chrysalis, the queen of a demonic race of emotion eaters, who had Twilight's brother under her control all along. Her army of emotion eaters has surrounded Canterlot to feast on everyone there. Then Celestia is defeated. Then Canterlot's magic shield is destroyed and Chrysalis's army invades the helpless city and then Twilight and her friends are defeated and captured before they could use the Elements of Harmony.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Interestingly played with. As spoken by Applejack in "The Best Night Ever", ponies "normally don't wear clothes". But when Celestia orders the Mane Six to go get the Elements of Harmony, they shed their dresses they wore for the wedding to go retrieve them, and end up fighting a huge wave of changelings. When you also consider Rarity's hesitation to undress before her friends prompted her to, this pretty much means that, for all intents and purposes, the Mane Six fought the first wave of changelings in the "nude".
• Funny Background Event: Princess Luna rocking out harder than anypony else during the wedding reception, except perhaps for DJ Pon-3.
• Gatling Good: Pinkie grabs Twilight and uses her as a gatling gun. However, in an unusual inversion of this trope, Twilight's head does not spin — but Pinkie turns her tail like a crank to fire, just as with the original, manually operated Gatling guns. Purists will tell you the Gatling is not the only mechanically-cranked machine gun, although it is by far the best known, nor do all of the others have rotating barrels. This is as much a Shout-Out to the original Gatling's mechanism of fire as anything else.
• Glowing Eyes: Seen briefly on Cadance and Shining as they use their love to send Chrysalis and the Changelings away.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: After the first scene of the Aria everything fades but Chrysalis's eyes, with their true form.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: The Changeling Queen, naturally. May double as a Hive Queen, seeing how all the other changelings we see are apparently her children. One of the rare instances when a god does try to save them from the queen, only to fail.
• Green and Mean: Queen Chrysalis. Even when Chrysalis is impersonating Princess Cadance, her eyes and all of her magic spells glow a Sickly Green Glow.
• Hall of Mirrors: The mine; Chrysalis taunts Twilight from many at once.
• Hammerspace: Where Pinkie Pie appears to pull Vinyl Scratch/DJ Pon-3 from at the end.
• Heart Beat-Down: Courtesy of Cadance and Shining Armor; power of love expulsion spell!
• Held Gaze: Shining Armor and Princess Cadance after they return to earth and completed their Heart Beat-Down they gaze into each other's eyes passionately.
• Hero vs. Villain Duet: "This Day Aria" is sung by Candance and Queen Chrysalis, who has stolen her identity. Both singers sing about how they dreamed about this day and their feelings about the event, but while Candance sings about how worried she is over everyone getting hurt, Chrysalis sings about her plans are finally coming together and once she's finished, no one will stop her. (From a technical perspective, as the name implies, the song is an Aria sung by a single actress doing both parts.)
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: The Changeling Queen sending Twilight to the caves, and then taunting her to blast the crystals allowed Twilight to find and free the real Cadance. Furthermore, the queen's plan worked because of the love of Shining Armor and Princess Cadance. Guess what leads to her defeat?
• Hope Spot:
  • When Twilight and the real Cadance are escaping the mines. They see a light in the distance and race towards it. They take a mine cart down a track to launch themselves, Cadance spreads her wings to fly them up to the light... only to discover a dead end, and the light is just shimmering rocks. Cadance breaks down crying at the sight of this.
  • The fight between Celestia and the Queen; for a brief moment the Queen is visibly overpowered until she suddenly gets a super charge and knocks the Princess down flat. Even she looks surprised that she could Yank the Dog's Chain.
  • When the Mane Six reach the room with the Elements of Harmony. Except it's destroyed in the next scene, where you see that they couldn't get by the changelings.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Twilight's friends learned it the hard way when the fake Cadance reveals herself as Queen Chrysalis and the evil Chrysalis calls them out on it.
• Hypocrite: Queen Chrysalis calls Twilight's friends out for ignoring her wringing about her being evil, even though Chrysalis herself actively manipulated them into dismissing her. She proudly admits it when Twilight points this out.
• Impersonating the Evil Twin: Fluttershy briefly does this to avoid fighting, hiding amongst a group of Changeling doppelgangers while snarling menacingly, then meekly creeping off when they're distracted.
• Improvised Weapon: Pinkie Pie uses Twilight as a magic-spewing machine gun during the battle with the changelings. She also uses the Party Cannon later in the battle.
• In-Universe Factoid Failure: In-universe: Spike was supposed to host the bachelor party... but did not get that it was supposed to happen before the wedding.
• Ironic Echo:
  • In Part One, Twilight chastises her friends for not noticing (fake) Cadance's behavior towards them because they were too busy planning the wedding. In Part Two, after the Mane Six are captured, the Changeling Queen points out that Twilight was the only one who noticed the change, because the others were too busy with their wedding plans (leading Applejack to apologize on behalf of herself and everypony else for not believing her).
  • "This Day Aria" contains several, considering Cadance and Queen Chrysalis are singing the same song but with opposite ideas about the subject. The biggest one is "The kind of day of which I've dreamed about since I was small." Cadance is referring to her wedding, while Chrysalis is referring to her conquest of Canterlot.
  • The wedding preparations. Fake Cadance went through them perfunctorily and was nasty about all of them. Real Cadance went through them with grace and joyous enthusiasm.
• Irony: The Damsel in Distress is to rescue the Knight in Shining Armor.
• It's the Best Whatever, Ever!: Best wedding ever, as once again cited by Rainbow Dash during her Sonic Rainboom.
• Kick the Dog: In addition to the previous episode, while fake Cadance is singing about how she does not love Shining Armor, she also playfully disintegrates a bowler hat...
• Laser-Guided Karma: Celestia ignored Twilight's warnings about Cadance, who was really the Changeling Queen, Chrysalis, in disguise. This gave the Queen the time she needed to absorb enough love from Shining Armor to defeat Celestia in combat. Later, the Changeling Queen is defeated by Shining Armor and Cadance, with the same love she claimed to live off of.
• Leitmotif: Queen Chrysalis's Leitmotif is a minor-key transposition of Cadance's.
• Let's Get Dangerous!:
  • While we already knew the Mane Six were badass, their fight against the changelings is easily the best example of them physically combating a threat in unison. This episode also marks the first time we see Celestia fight onscreen. Sadly, both efforts fail.
  • Shining Armor and Cadance pull off a more successful fail-safe example at the climax.
• Lohengrin and Mendelssohn: Lohengrin appears again during Shining Armor and Cadance's wedding, sung by Fluttershy's bird choir.
• Meaningful Name: The name of the insect-like changelings is Queen Chrysalis. A chrysalis is what a caterpillar uses to undergo metamorphosis (change) into a butterfly.
• Militaries Are Useless : Even with warning of a potential attack and being fully mobilized and ready, the Guards are subdued by the changeling army in about ten minutes. On the other hoof, the Mane Six, without weapons or the Elements of Harmony or any kind of formal training, take down about a hundred changelings practically effortlessly before finally being grossly outnumbered and surrendering.
• Mind-Control Eyes: The bridesmaids and Shining Armor have green eyes, glowing in the former's case, when under the control of Chrysalis.
• Minecart Madness: In order for Twilight to get from the caves under Canterlot back to the world above.
• Mirror Routine: Rainbow Dash does this with the first changeling to take her appearance. There is a slight lag in the latter's movements.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Cadance getting by some hypnotized ponies by using the bridal flowers.
• Musical World Hypotheses: A very notable example during the "This Day Aria", in which The All In Their Heads Hypothesis may apply for Not-Cadance and a Adaptation Hypothesis would apply to Cadance.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Queen Chrysalis takes pleasure in pointing out how the other ponies' rejection of Twilight assisted in her taking over, with the expected reaction.
• Near-Villain Victory: Queen Chrysalis only lost because she put the wrong two prisoners in adjacent caves — in an effort to trick Twilight into killing the real Cadance — and then underestimated the very power that she used to get so far.
• Needle in a Stack of Needles: The Mane Six uses it to their advantage when fighting the changeling army impersonating them.
• Never Trust a Trailer: From the heavy promotions for this two-parter, you got the impression that it would be a standard wedding hijinks plot that would end with the typical send-off. This finale also in part serves to promote a wedding-themed toy line starring Princess Cadance. Then the army of Emotion Eaters descends upon Canterlot in the second half. Also, one preview screenshot turned out to be different from the actual episode, with Shining Armor looking happy and not having Mind-Control Eyes.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Chrysalis gloats this way about Twilight's peers who were too caught up in their wedding plans to take Twilight's concerns seriously earlier on.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Queen Chrysalis was set to win if she only hadn't tried to act against Twilight at all. Nobody believed Twilight's accusations, and she was ready to have a Heroic BSoD right there. She was already neutralized as a threat... until Chrysalis tried to make sure she that was, only bringing her and Cadance back into the game.
• No Hugging, No Kissing: A notable aversion as not only do Shining Armor and real Cadance get married but they share two kisses on the lips, with the second one lasting a couple of seconds.
• No Name Given: Queen Chrysalis is never referred to by name. She introduces herself and everypony else calls her the Changeling Queen. The episode script does refer to her by her name however.
• Non-Protagonist Resolver: While the Mane Six try to reach the castle and retrieve the Elements they are ultimately captured by the overwhelming number of Changelings. In the end the ones who actually defeat Chrysalis and the Changelings are Cadence and Shining Armor who use the power of their love to supercharge Shining Armor's barrier and send the Changelings flying. The most that the Mane Six do is Twilight blasting the webbing keeping Cadence stuck so she can go to Shining Armor.
• Nothing Can Stop Me Now: Queen Chrysalis after the Mane Cast have been recaptured.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Queen Chrysalis has a brief one earlier when the real Cadance shows up. Then a second one right before she is sent hurtling into the distance by The Power of Love.
  • Celestia herself gets two: One before the tables turn and Chrysalis defeats her, and the other is when she awakens inside of her chrysalid prison.
  • The Mane Six get a big shared one when they see a huge swarm of Changelings inside the chamber where the Elements of Harmony are kept, followed by an even bigger one when they are outnumbered on all sides and prepare for the inevitable.
• Outside-Context Problem: Seriously, who saw the changelings coming? This is what made them so dangerous.
• Parody: The ending fight parodies fight scenes from comic books.
• Pinball Projectile: Twilight nearly fries herself casting a spell in a cave full of reflective gemstones. She learns her lesson because all of her subsequent spells blow up the crystals.
• Power Floats: Happens to Shining Armor and Princess Cadance as they power up to let loose their Heart Beat-Down on Chrysalis.
• The Power of Friendship: It's what got through to an enraged Twilight to realize that the Cadance in the cave isn't the fake Cadance who'd imprisoned her when she did their "Sunshine Sunshine" handshake.
• The Power of Love: It's what the changelings feed on. Shining Armor's love for Cadance gives the Queen enough of a power boost to overpower Princess Celestia. It's also what sends the changelings packing in the end.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
  • Pinkie, when a changeling shifts into her form (on her own request).
    Pinkie Pie: I've seen better. [grabs Twilight and uses her to shoot clones with magic]
  • Celestia delivers an amazing one to Queen Chrysalis.
    Princess Celestia: But now that you have foolishly revealed your true self, I can protect my subjects from you!
• Pretend We're Dead: Fluttershy's plan of action when approached by a gang of evil doppelgangers.
• Red Shirt Army: The Canterlot Royal Guard. Again.
• The Reveal: The "Cadance" Twilight met in the previous episode was an evil imposter in disguise; the real Cadance had been imprisoned beneath Canterlot.
• Rewatch Bonus: Every interaction between Twilight and "Cadance" in the previous part is put in a new light now that the viewer knows she's really Queen Chrysalis in disguise.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Twilight was right all along about "Cadance" being evil, but that wasn't actually Cadance; it was Queen Chrysalis disguised as her.
• Rule of Symbolism: As Shining Armor and Princess Cadance use The Power of Love to repel the changelings, their silhouettes are curved to form a heart shape.
• Schizo Tech: Vinyl Scratch's Sound system and the Mic.
• Season Finale: For season 2
• Secret Handshake: Cadance uses the one she used with Twilight when she foalsat her to prove that she is the real Cadance.
• Send in the Clones: The Changeling Queen's minions become clones of the Mane Cast and they have an all-out battle with each other.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: The real Cadance goes from scruffy and battered to elegant and magically flowing once she has a chance to properly prepare for the wedding.
• Ship Tease: In the wedding pictures, Rarity's making flirty eyes at Fancy Pants, Rainbow Dash is squealing over Soarin, and Sweetie Belle's dancing with Spike.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Pinkie Pie unsurprisingly has very few lines in this part, given the serious nature of the episode.
• Shout-Out:
  • The way that the Queen of the changelings disguises herself as the bride and enthralls Shining Armor is similar to how Ursula disguised herself as Vanessa in The Little Mermaid and enthralls Prince Eric. And her Villain Song even brings to mind the song that Vanessa sings when talking about her own plans.
  • The coach Shining Armor and Cadance leave in after the wedding is very similar to the one in Cinderella that was made from a pumpkin.
  • In the crowd of the proper wedding near the end of the episode, a pony version of Harry Potter can be seen in the upper right corner.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Chrysalis tries to once again turn everyone against Twilight when she interrupts the wedding, her efforts immediately fail this time when the real Cadance arrives, outing Chrysalis as a fake and proving Twilight right.
  Queen Chrysalis: (sobbing) Why does she have to ruin my special day?
  Cadance: Because it's not your special day! It's mine!
• Silent Snarker: One of the Changelings tries to frighten Pinkie by menacingly transforming from Rarity into Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. When Pinkie giggles and excitedly tells the Changeling to turn into her next, it rolls its eyes before obliging and striking a "Ta-da!" pose.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: While the finale was heavily promoted, the changelings and their Queen were only hinted at once (in an online New York Daily News article).
• Skewed Priorities: As the rest of the Mane Six go running off to find the Elements of Harmony so they can repeal the invasion and save the capital, Rarity stays behind to carefully pick up their discarded bridesmaid's dresses. It takes the others shouting her name in unison for her to get herself into gear.
• Society-on-Edge Episode: This two-parter involves a wedding plan coinciding with a need for increased security due to a mysterious threat against Canterlot. (Turned out it was connected to the wedding, namely due to the involvement of Chrysalis and the changelings in each.)
• Solo Duet: "This Day Aria", as sung by Princess Cadance and her doppelganger, Queen Chrysalis.
• Something Only They Would Say: Cadance uses her Secret Hoofshake to prove to Twilight that she's the real deal.
• Spanner in the Works: Twilight and Cadance being friends since Twilight was a filly is this to Queen Chrysalis's plot. It was the only reason Twilight became suspicious of her in the first place.
• Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Twilight and the real Princess Cadance. However, the "Speak now..." line itself is not said by Celestia.
• Spot the Impostor: Averted since Queen Chrysalis blows her cover the second the the real Cadance appears at the wedding. Quite likely she concluded that since Twilight Sparkle's previous suspicions about the bride now have the real Cadance's support, too much reasonable suspicion as to who is the impostor would focus on her for any further bluffing to deflect.
  • Played straight during race to get the elements. The Changeling army change into the Mane 6 and try to separate them to confuse them. The group have to pick out the real versions amongst the brawling. While this enables Fluttershy to hide among a group of doppelgangers, it almost results in Twilight blasting the real Applejack.
• Stealth Pun: The combination Villain Song and "The Villain Sucks" Song is called "This Day Aria", with The Other Wiki describing an aria as a song for one voice. Technically it's one voice...
• Sticky Situation: The changelings use a sticky green goo to capture their victims, Celestia, the Royal Guards and Cadance in particular.
• Subverted Suspicion Aesop: Lampshaded by Chrysalis when calling out everypony for not believing Twilight's suspicions about her.
  Chrysalis: It's funny, really. Twilight here was suspicious of my behavior all along. Too bad the rest of you were too caught up in your wedding planning to realize those suspicions were correct!
• Today, X. Tomorrow, the World!: Declared by the Changeling Queen when she reveals her plans.
• Took a Level in Badass
  • All of the mane six, but most noticeably Pinkie Pie, and Twilight Sparkle. Pinkie Pie is shown to be creative with weapons and Twilight Sparkle learned a new spell. She also improves not only in magical prowess but also in physical prowess as well.
  • When Rainbow Dash first used the Sonic Rainboom, she could only do it heading downwards, at incredibly high speeds, and was being fueled by her desire to save a friend. Now she can do it heading upwards, and practically from a standing start. In addition she avoids her usual Leeroy Jenkins role by acting as The Combat Pragmatist in battle to save Fluttershy.
  • Rarity — with no objects to throw, her magic is unsuitable for combat, she has no special tricks like Pinkies nor is she a sportsmare like Dash and Applejack. Yet she gets through the entire fight scene by beating changelings with Good Old Hooficuffs.
• To Serve Man: The changelings planned on using the population of Equestria as a food source after they take over.
• Trailers Always Lie: See below; Twilight never defeats Chrysalis.
• Trailers Always Spoil: When this episode was put up on iTunes and Netflix, it was given the synopsis "Twilight saves her brother and all of ponykind by freeing the real Mi Amore and defeating Queen Chrysalis, a changeling that had assumed Mi Amore's appearance in an attempt to take over Equestria."
• Transformation Sequence: When Twilight shows up with the real Cadance, the fake Cadance surrounds herself in a column of green magic. Her pretty wings become holey bug wings. Her horn becomes a twisted and crooked one. When all is said and done, she stands revealed as the Queen of the changelings!
• True Love's Kiss: A variant occurs when Cadance and Shining Armor use The Power of Love to re-energize each other. They don't kiss in the scene, but when they touch horns, the spectacle of their powers combining fits every other aspect of this trope.
• Trust Password: Twilight and Cadance's Patty Cake expy is what convinces Twilight that the real Cadance is the real Cadance.
• A Twinkle in the Sky: The last seen of Chrysalis after she and her changelings are thrown out of Canterlot with Shining Armor and Cadance's Power of Love.
• Underestimating Badassery: Celestia underestimates Chrysalis, but Chrysalis underestimated herself there too. Chrysalis also underestimated Twilight and Princess Cadance, as she's clearly startled they managed to get past her three mind controlled bridesmaids and escape the mines.
• Unkempt Beauty: Real Cadance still proves to be quite the stunner when she is found, even under all the scruffiness, dirt, and bruises.
• The Vamp: Queen Chrysalis, lampshaded in "This Day Aria".
• Verbal Backspace: When Twilight interrupts the wedding before Chrysalis can officially be wed to Shining Armor, Chrysalis briefly breaks character and asks why Twilight has to be so "possessive" of her brother. When Celestia looks at her in confusion over this, she tries to perform more Crocodile Tears to turn everyone against Twilight again for "ruining her special day", but this fails when the real Cadance shows up immediately, outing Chrysalis as a fake.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Cadance, or rather the Changeling Queen, Chrysalis is a treacherous and true-love-defying witch in a show about friendship.
• Villain-Beating Artifact: The Elements of Harmony in a defied example this time. The mane six don't manage to get to them due to the changelings stopping them.
• Villain Ball: Chrysalis once again holds on to it and this time it costs her. At the end of the episode not only has her army successfully invaded Canterlot, she has disabled Celestia, brainwashed Shining Armor, and captured Cadence and the Mane Six essentially securing her victory. Despite this she makes no efforts to restrain the Mane Six, allowing Twilight to break Cadence out of her webbing and undo the spell on Shining Armor. Then instead of trying to restrain them again she mocks Cadence and Shining for thinking that their love could stop her and allows them to preform their combined love barrier spell. Its only at the last second that she realises what a mistake it was but by then its to late and she and her Changelings are blasted out of Canterlot.
• Villain Has a Point: Queen Chrysalis wasn't wrong when she brags to the cast that she managed to carry out her plan to take over Equestria even when Twilight Sparkle thinks something is wrong with Princess Cadance (who was actually Chrysalis herself in disguise) thanks to all of Twilight's friends not believing her and coldly walking out on her when she tried to explain herself. It was at that point when the others have a Jerkass Realization and apologize to Twilight for not listening to her, even though Twilight shows no hard feelings.
• Villain Song: "This Day Aria", with the initial song as a villain/hero duet. Notably the first song in the show from an actually evil villain (as opposed to the just mean Flim Flam brothers). In accordance with the trope, it's awesome.
• Villainous Face Hold: When Queen Chrysalis is boasting of how Shining Armor is under her control and his shield won't last much longer, she holds him under the chin and turns his face to make him look at her. Later, when the Mane Six have been captured, she holds Twilight's chin up in mock affection while bragging that Twilight was suspicious of her the whole time but nobody believed her, only for Twilight to slap it away.
• Violence is the Only Option: For the second time in the series the whole Mane Six are forced to fight. They do surprisingly well but are overwhelmed by sheer numbers in the end.
• The Voiceless: Once again, Fluttershy appears prominently but is absolutely quiet — well, moreso than usual. Once again, Pinkie Pie does receive a speaking role, however minor. It's especially odd since both received lines in the first half of the episode. The Cutie Mark Crusaders also have no voice.
• Walking Spoiler: For the purpose of this page: The changelings and their queen, Chrysalis, due to them secretly being the villains of the two-parter, and Chrysalis being the impostor Cadance from part 1.
• Wedding Finale: Shining Armor and Princess Cadance wed in this two-parter season finale. Queen Chrysalis is defeated with Shining and Cadance's Power of Love and the second part ends with their official wedding.
• Welcome Back, Traitor: Goes both ways. Twilight herself didn't held a grudge against her brother, friends and mentor for turning their backs on her. They themselves in return welcome her back as their friend without a problem.
• Wham Shot: Twilight blasting at "Cadance"'s reflection in a crystal, which busts a wall down revealing the real Cadance.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Chrysalis gets bragging rights when she gives a smug villainous variation to Twilight's friends, by ignoring Twilight they allowed Chrysalis's Evil Plan to go forward without any problems. Applejack at the very least is remorseful over this, on behalf of herself and everypony else who feels the same way.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises:
  • The look on Chrysalis's face as she's blasted out of Equestria with The Power of Love.
  • Twilight, as she realizes that the fake Cadance really is evil and is casting the banishing spell on her.
  • Celestia, waking up in her cocoon-prison.
• Wingding Eyes: When Twilight begins to sing the closing song "Love is in Bloom", a few stars twinkle in her eyes.
• The Worf Effect: Befalls the Mane Six and even Princess Celestia. When the latter is defeated everyone is shocked and when the former are brought in, Chrysalis is sure she's won.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • Chrysalis was only able to defeat Celestia due to the extremely large amount of love she had absorbed, and even at that strained a good deal to get the upper hand. Her slack-jawed look afterwards suggests even she didn't expect to win that one.
  • The Mane Six were easily defeating the changelings in single combat but were overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
• Wrong Girl First: The "Cadance" that Twilight met in the previous episode is actually an imposter, and the real Cadance had been imprisoned beneath Canterlot.
• You Monster!: Twilight to Chrysalis after she is imprisoned.
• Your Costume Needs Work: Pinkie Pie is all excited at the idea of seeing one of the changelings turn into her, only to be disappointed with the result, despite the mirror-perfect imitation.
  Pinkie Pie: Meh, I've seen better.
• Zerg Rush: The changelings' primary advantage against the Mane Six. The girls, even Fluttershy, fight admirably to get to the Elements of Harmony but are delayed long enough for more changelings to surround them and get inside the building where the Elements are kept. Faced with overwhelming numbers, the Six have no choice but to surrender.

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