History Recap / MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E25ShadowPlayPart1

* FatalFlaw: Twilight and Sunburst's hero worship and adoration of Starswirl the Bearded. they're so focused on the idea of freeing the ancient heroes and meeting Starswirl that she overlooks what should have been obvious: undoing the spell could release the Pony of Shadows, too. [[WhatTheHellHero Starswirl calls Twilight out on this in the next episode.]]

* HumiliationConga: Garble experiences a short but effective one; first, he is bested in LavaSurfing by the "pony-loving dragon" he hates, then his tail is briefly pinned under a rock, courtesy of Rainbow Dash. Rainbow then tricks him into putting down Flash Magnus's shield on the pretense of a race up the cliff. Not only does Rainbow take the shield, but she still manages to ascend faster than him (even while carrying both the shield and Spike), both outsmarting and out-flying him.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Ember may have commanded her subjects not to attack the ponies, but the dragons are still less than friendly towards them. The gorge-surfing group don't take kindly to Rainbow's presence, with one telling her that they won't allow her to surf in their spot. Even with their new, open-minded leader, the dragons weren't going to become more accepting as quickly as her.

->'''Applejack:''' Hold on a second now. [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicHistoricalFigures All those legendary ponies]] were real, too? And they went off with Star Swirl to face the Pony of Shadows, and then none of them were ever heard from again?\\

Reaching the end of the story, it is revealed it was Sunburst who was reading the story to Princess Celestia and Luna out of the black book he obtained by [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E24UncommonBond purchasing the blind buy barrel]] at the antique shop. The words were of Star Swirl the Bearded, the legendary unicorn sorcerer and inventor of modern pony magic, which comprised the last entry in his journal prior to his disappearance. Twilight Sparkle offers to translate the journal from historical Ponish in order to learn of the final fate of the great sorcerer and his fellow Pillars of Equestria.

Back at Twilight's castle, the Mane Six and Sunburst have spent days trying to unravel the mystery but are making minimal headway at best. Starlight decides to take a look at Star Swirl's journal and discovers she can read his scrawl as her own is quite bad as well, which allows Twilight to translate what she reads. The words read that Star Swirl and his fellow Pillars were planning to make their final stand against the Pony of Shadows at the Temple of Ponehenge. The eight ponies travel to the site of the temple to investigate further. They survey the site but realize there isn't much they can do so long after the fact. Twilight sets the journal down on one of the seats surrounding the central fire pit.

As Twilight turns away, Spike notices the journal is glowing. The book opens by itself and a projection of Star Swirl the Bearded appears from its pages. Projections of the other Pillars of Equestria appear on the remaining five seats; Rockhoof, Mage Meadowbrook, Somnambula, Flash Magnus, and Mistmane. Finally a projection of the Pony of Shadows is created in the center and the projections all begin to move, depicting the final struggle between the Pillars of Equestria and the Pony of Shadows that lead to their collective sealing. Once the sealing is completed, projections of six objects fall to the seats of the temple then the book closes by itself. Sunburst surmises that the magic that was used at Ponehenge was so powerful it left mystical echoes of the events of the spell that was cast.

The team returns to Twilight's castle, satisfied they now know the fate of the Pillars of Equestria. Sunburst says he'd love to know what Star Swirl did to seal the Pony of Shadows but that kind of information would require years of research to demystify. However, Twilight, ever the diligent researcher, manages to do so merely in the time since they returned. She excitedly gathers everypony in the map room to explain the sealing spell, telling her friends that Star Swirl sent the Pony of Shadows to Limbo and were forced to go there with him in order to make it work, and that she now thinks she has the key to undoing the sealing spell, thus bringing back the Pillars of Equestria to the modern day as though no time had passed.

Meanwhile, at the Temple of Ponehenge, Twilight, Starlight, and Sunburst are preparing to unseal the Pillars of Equestria. Starlight has some doubts in the rationality of undoing the spell but Twilight and Sunburst reassure her with various arguments that this is the right course of action. The other five return from their voyages with their artifacts and set them down on the seats surrounding the central pit. Twilight, Starlight, and Sunburst amplify Star Swirl's journal with their own magic, causing the journal to magically link with the other artifacts and pull the Pillars of Equestria back into reality.

Twilight introduces herself to her idol but Star Swirl is less than enthusiastic and immediately demands Twilight undo her work. Twilight says she doesn't want to but Star Swirl alarmingly informs her that bringing them back also means that they released the seal on the Pony of Shadows, who manifests once more in front of them...

* AllMythsAreTrue: The legends told in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E16CampfireTales Campfire Tales]]" (Rockhoof, Mistmane, and Flash Magnus), "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E17DaringDone Daring Done?]]" (Somnambula), and "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E18AHealthOfInformation A Health of Information]]" (Mage Meadowbrook) all describe real ponies, collectively known as the "Pillars of [Old] Equestria" along with Star Swirl the Bearded, who led them. Driven home by Applejack's attempt to find Rockhoof's legendary shovel, as the ponies excavating the site of Rockhoof's village don't believe it was true until Applejack shows them herself. This is notably proven untrue in the case of the Pony of Shadows, which according to folklore was a piece of Nightmare Moon's dark magic that gained sentience, but is actually an even older entity of darkness.
* ApocalypticLog: Star Swirl the Bearded's journal, after being discovered fortuitously among a "blind buy barrel" at an antique shop, plays this role. It chronicles the story of Star Swirl and his companions, the Pillars of Equestria, up to the day of their disappearance -- a mystery that had stayed unsolved for over a thousand years, even Celestia having no idea what happened to them. The journal proves to be a vital clue in solving said mystery, subverting the trope somewhat with the fact that the Pillars are still alive.

* BigWhat: This is Star Swirl's reaction after regaining his bearings and realizing he was pulled out of Limbo along with the other Pillars.
-->'''Star Swirl the Bearded:''' WHAT?! No, no, no, no! You must undo what you've done!

* ComicallyCrossEyed: Applejack gets cross-eyed upon saying the word "cross-referencing" when she mentions all the tedious studying they've already done over Star Swirl's journal.

** Star Swirl the Bearded, Rockhoof, Mistmane, Flash Magnus, Somnambula, and Mage Meadowbrook have been introduced separately as figures in Equestria's history and folklore with their own separate stories. Turns out they all not only knew each other, but were the predecessors of the Elements of Harmony, and the Pony of Shadows used to be their friend.

* ContinuityCavalcade: The Pillars of Equestria are the five legendary figures discussed throughout Season 7 with the addition of Star Swirl the Bearded. Further, four of them were name-dropped back in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E2TheCrystallingPart2 The Crystalling]]" in Season 6, and Meadowbrook was mentioned back in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E1TheCutieMapPart1 The Cutie]] [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E2TheCutieMapPart2 Map]]" in Season 5 -- and, of course, Star Swirl has been mentioned from time to time since Season 2. In retrieving their artifacts, the Mane Six travel to the locations featured in the legends.

** Luna and Celestia mention Star Swirl teaching them magic, a reference to the "[[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyLegendsOfMagic Legends of Magic]]" comics that also featured the Pillar heroes. They also mention they were quite young at this time.
** During the study of Star Swirl's journal, Rainbow Dash says that she hadn't done so much reading since the latest ''Daring Do'' book came out.

* EternalEnglish: When the Pillars and the Pony of Shadows are released from Limbo, they speak perfectly understandable, modern Ponish. This is hardly the first time the show has done that, but it's odd here, because this episode establishes that Star Swirl ''wrote'' in Old Ponish, which most modern ponies ''don't'' understand. Presumably, it's some kind of Latin equivalent and was thus a dead language even in Star Swirl's day (this is supported by how Celestia and Luna aren't very good at the language themselves despite having lived in Star Swirl's time).
* {{Facepalm}}: Spike facepalms before confirming that Twilight has indeed memorized every ancient text about Star Swirl the Bearded.
* FatalFlaw: Twilight and Sunburst's hero worship and adoration of Star Swirl the Bearded. they're so focused on the idea of freeing the ancient heroes and meeting Star Swirl that she overlooks what should have been obvious: undoing the spell could release the Pony of Shadows, too. [[WhatTheHellHero Star Swirl calls Twilight out on this in the next episode.]]

* GrailInTheGarbage: One of the books that Sunburst purchased in the previous episode, as part of a blind buy barrel, happens to be the journal of Star Swirl the Bearded, the most powerful unicorn archmage in history, and provides clues about his disappearance as well as those of other legendary figures collectively known as the Pillars of Equestria. Starlight even points this out.

* {{Headdesk}}: Rainbow Dash, already bored by Twilight's excited explanations about Star Swirl's spell and Limbo, finally groans and smacks her face against the Cutie Map table when the alicorn mentions she made yet another model.

* HologramProjectionImperfection: The magical remnant images of Star Swirl, the Pillars of Equestria and the Pony of Shadows that appear at Ponehenge are transparent and with lines blur typical of holograms in more sci-fi shows. Twilight is at first fooled, mostly because of the shock from seeing her idol, but Sunburst quickly concludes they're not here, and waves his hoof through the image of Star Swirl to confirm it.

* TheIllegible: Star Swirl the Bearded's "hornwriting" is so bad, Twilight remarks that it's "almost like another language". Starlight's is stated to be even worse, though this allows her to actually understand Star Swirl's writings.

* KingInTheMountain: Star Swirl and the other legendary ponies are in fact still alive in the present day, but were trapped in Limbo over a thousand years in the past and have been imprisoned there since. To them it feels as if [[UnPaused no time has passed at all]].
* LampshadeHanging: Twilight saying "I guess I hoped we'd get here and the mystery would just magically be explained." before putting down Star Swirl's book on one of the Ponehenge rocks. What happens next is exactly that (which Pinkie happily points out).

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Yes, Star Swirl and the other five legends are finally released from their imprisonment. However, doing this ''also'' releases the Pony of Shadows, who was the reason Star Swirl and the legends sacrificed themselves.

* NotHyperbole: Spike confirms that Twilight has memorized literally ''every'' ancient text about Star Swirl.

** Star Swirl the Bearded, upon being brought back from Limbo, has at first a few moments of confusion. Then he recovers his bearings and his eyes begin darting frantically around as he realizes what's going on. Namely, that if all the Pillars of Equestria are back, the Pony of Shadows must be too.

** The respective artifacts of the Pillars of Equestria each glows a bright white when Star Swirl activates the spell that will contain the Pony of Shadows into Limbo.

* PreMortemOneLiner: Star Swirl in the recording of the Pillars' "last stand", addressing the Pony of Shadows.
-->'''Star Swirl the Bearded:''' We did not come here to defeat you. [...] We came... to ''[[TakingYouWithMe contain]]'' you.

* {{Retcon}}: It's revealed Star Swirl vanished ''before'' Luna turned into Nightmare Moon, unlike what the "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDWIssue17To20 Reflections]]" arc of the tie-in comics claimed.

* SplitScreen: During the recording of the Pillars's last stand, the screen is split in six to show all of them with their glowing artifacts, just as Star Swirl pronounces his PreMortemOneLiner.
* StorybookOpening: The episode opens within the pages of Star Swirl the Bearded's journal, introducing the backstory of the Pony and Shadows, his enmity with the Pillars of Equestria and the legacy they left behind before their last stand.

* TimeStandsStill: Limbo's nature means that the Pillars and the Pony of Shadows have effectively experienced no time at all when Equestria has experienced more than one thousand years. For a moment, Star Swirl thought the spell had failed rather than being broken later.
* TrackingSpell: When Twilight concludes that they'll need artifacts belonging to the Pillars of Equestria to bring them back from Limbo and reads again Star Swirl's journal for clues, a glow appears above the Cutie Map -- not from any input on the part of anypony. Then, images of the five missing artifacts are seen floating, and settle on their respective locations above the map of Equestria. Quite handy at this point in the story, but since the map is directly linked to the Tree of Harmony, which (as confirmed by the next episode) has very strong ties to said Pillars, it is justified.
* UnseenNoMore: After being mentioned several times throughout the series and being shown in the comics, Star Swirl the Bearded finally makes his debut.
* VoidBetweenTheWorlds: Limbo, where Star Swirl sealed himself, the other Pillars, and the Pony of Shadows is a dimensional gap between Equestria and other worlds. There is nothing there, not even time.
* WhamEpisode: To recap the opening scene alone: Star Swirl's voice is heard for the first time, it is revealed that the five mythical heroes discussed during the season were a ''team'' of six heroes of ancient Equestria who represented different virtues, the pony that brought them together became the Pony of Shadows, and the Pillars are heavily implied (and confirmed next episode) to have created what would become the Tree of Harmony. Again, this is all within ''the first sixty seconds''.