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Recap / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S7 E2 "All Bottled Up"

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"Magic is friendship, and stuff."

"For a minute, I didn't think you were coming back, and that you might be upset with me for some weird reason. But then I remembered, you never get mad at me."
Trixie (to Starlight)

Written by: Joanna Lewis & Kristine Songco

Starlight Glimmer and Trixie are baking tea cakes in Twilight's kitchen while Trixie tries to turn a saltshaker into a teacup. After repeatedly failing, Trixie is told by Starlight to visualize what she wants. This causes Trixie's spell to succeed, turning multiple things into cups, including the frosting decorator used by Starlight. Though angry, Starlight manages to calm down long enough to scold Trixie, although she is only left with a bag of pretzels for a snack.

The Mane Six take a train to Manehattan for a friendship retreat, leaving Trixie and Starlight alone in Twilight's castle. Trixie wants to practice more magic, so Starlight suggests a teleportation spell. She places an apple on the Friendship Map, and tells Trixie to visualize where she wants the apple to go. However, a miss from Trixie hits the map instead, causing it to disappear. A panicked Starlight wonders what to do, while Trixie is incredibly nonchalant about the whole affair. This causes Starlight's rage to manifest as a dark red storm cloud. Starlight promptly runs into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle from the shelf, stuffing the rage cloud inside and literally bottling up her anger. Calmer, Starlight suggests wandering around town while trying to find the map, as the map table would have ended up wherever Trixie was thinking of when she cast the spell, although Trixie can't remember where that was.

Meanwhile, Twilight has her friends participate in an "Escape Room Adventure" in Manehattan, where they're locked in a room and have to find clues and solve puzzles to get out. A group of griffons hold the record for the fastest escape (one hour), and Rainbow Dash hopes to break that record. The Mane Six succeed in finding the hidden key, but just as they're about to open the door, they decide to sing a song about The Power of Friendship instead... which results in their failing to break the record by two seconds.

Trixie and Starlight inspect a cinnamon nuts stand, Sweet Apple Acres, and a jewelry store in their quest to find the map, all with no luck. The whole time, Starlight continues to bottle up her anger while remaining calm, though it puts a drain on her magic. Trixie finally notices that Starlight seems exhausted and has been casting a spell on her saddlebag, and tries to peek inside. A brief telekinetic battle ensues, which causes the vial of rage to break, infecting Granny Smith, Bulk Biceps, and a jewelry pony with anger. The three of them suddenly start venting all of Starlight's frustrations at Trixie, chasing her through town and threatening her. Finally, Starlight admits that she was the one who's so mad, but suppressed her anger in order to not ruin her friendship with Trixie. In turn, Trixie admits that it's hurtful to hear Starlight say that, but their friendship is stronger than just a few harsh words. She assures the formerly evil pony that they're still the best of friends, and that she actually likes Starlight for her passion and willingness to speak her mind.

This revelation sparks Trixie's memory: right before casting the teleportation spell, she was thinking about the day she and Starlight met, which means that the map is safely at the Ponyville Spa. They quickly retrieve and bring it home just in time for the Mane Six to return loudly discussing everything they learned during their retreat. Rarity, who was hoping the "retreat" would be more luxurious, suggests that the girls head for the spa to cap the day off. As they head out, Trixie suggests that Starlight use magic to alter the memories of the spa ponies to cover their tracks. Starlight scolds her for not remembering that using magic to solve trouble often causes problems; Trixie responds that she did indeed learn that lesson, but deliberately pretended to forget because magic is, simply put, a lot more fun.


All Troped Up:

  • 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The "red storm cloud" that emanates from Starlight's horn when she's angry is an obvious 3D effect that stands out sharply against the Flash animation.
  • An Aesop: You shouldn't suppress your anger if a friend is doing something that is seriously bothering you, otherwise the anger will only be worse when it finally does come out. It's better to talk about the issue rathering than pretending to think that everything is fine.
  • Aesop Amnesia:
    • Starlight still hasn't quite learned the lesson that you can't solve every problem with magic, or that you shouldn't avoid dealing with your problems until the last moment when they start to pile up, though it seems to be starting to sink in, i.e. she tried using magic to avoid using magic. It's actually invoked and lampshaded by Trixie. If lessons actually stuck, it wouldn't be as fun.
    • Trixie still has something of a bad habit of believing she can do no wrong in her actions. First time it was doing mean tricks to other ponies, the second time was using a Magic Amulet to get revenge on Twilight and enslave Ponyville, the third time was using her friendship with Starlight to make a petty act of spite against Twilight, and now she's unwittingly rubbing Starlight the wrong way on multiple occasions.
  • Affectionate Nickname: Starlight has developed one for Trixie; She calls her "Trix" twice in this episode.
  • Be All My Sins Remembered: Starlight herself has decided to move on from this, but she isn't happy that it is now her best friend Trixie who keeps bringing it up.
  • Bookends: The episode begins and ends with an exterior shot of Twilight's castle.
  • Bothering by the Book: Even though the Mane Six finish the room in record time, the overseer doesn't count it because they didn't turn the key before doing their musical number, and by the time they do, it was already too late.
  • Breaking Old Trends: This and "Celestial Advice" are the first season premieres in the series to not be two parters.
  • Breather Episode: As with the previous episode, this is also a single-part episode with a more fun plot with no overarching crisis surrounding the main characters.
  • Brick Joke:
    • In the cold open, Trixie goes manic with her newfound ability to transform objects to teacups. Later, we see Spike having to wash piles and piles of teacups. There's also a moment when the teacup puppy runs around Ponyville, which Trixie also made during The Teaser.
    • Starlight provides an apple for Trixie to practice teleportation on. When she returns from fetching a bottle from the kitchen, Trixie's eaten it.
  • Buffy Speak: Upon noticing that Starlight is upset, Trixie describes her not with words, but with an odd vocal noise.
    Trixie: Are you okay, Starlight? Because you seem a little, uh, what's the word? Ulgh-bleeeh-blah.
  • Call-Back:
    • Starlight mentions how in the past she channeled her anger into magic for a duel (with Twilight) and to manipulate her friends.
    • The Friendship Table ends up at the Ponyville spa because Trixie was thinking about her first encounter with Starlight, at the spa in "No Second Prances".
  • Cast from Hit Points: Starlight's Emotion Suppression spell ends up taking a serious toll on herself both magically and physically. As evident when her bottled up anger escapes and gets out of control, she's stretched herself so much that she is too weak to help Trixie.
  • Characterization Marches On: This is the first episode Trixie appears in without her famous Robe and Wizard Hat. It is also the first Trixie-centric episode where it doesn't have anything to do with her stage show or her "Great and Powerful" persona. She also learns to use more advanced spells than her usual stage magic, and interacts with some of the Ponyville citizens like a normal, everyday pony.
  • Circling Birdies: After Trixie tries to take Starlight's saddlebags and rolls to crash off-screen, we see that she's dazed and has stars circling around her head, making chirping noises.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • The pink teacups that Trixie turns various objects into are identical to the teacup that Starlight turned a stack of books into (the first transfiguration spell she cast during her practice session) in "Every Little Thing She Does".
    • Trixie mentions several things from Starlight's past, like traveling back in time and ruling a village.
    • The face Starlight makes when yelling at Trixie is the same she made at Twilight when she told her "QUIET!"
  • "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Trixie is right when she informs Starlight that she could have just told her that her jokes and lack of responsibility were making her angry, rather than literally bottling her rage because it causes problems on Starlight's end. She goes on to explain that while her feelings may have been temporarily hurt, they'd still be best friends.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Starlight Glimmer's magic is revealed to be primarily powered by her emotions, most prominently her anger, which is how she powered her Cutie Mark removal spell and matched Twilight. Negative emotions, until now, have primarily been associated with dark magic, but Starlight is still a heroic character.
  • Deconstruction: As the Mane Six find out, breaking out into random musical numbers isn't exactly practical when you're trying to do things in a timely manner.
  • Easily Forgiven: Bulk Biceps, Granny Smith, and the jewelry pony aren't mad at all for accidentally being infected with Starlight's anger.
  • Emotional Powers: Starlight explains to Trixie that her magic draws strength from her emotions, which makes it a problem when she starts losing her temper at Trixie.
  • Emotion Suppression: Throughout the episode, Starlight magically siphons off her own anger with Trixie into a bottle to prevent herself from losing control of her magic and emotions. It's effective, but it comes at a serious cost.
  • Epic Fail: Turns out the Mane Six didn't break the griffons' escape Room Adventure record for two reasons: one, their friendship song, which ate up a lot of time, and two, they forgot to turn the key after putting it in the lock.
  • Equivalent Exchange: Trixie wants to learn how to make things disappear. Starlight points out that it's not possible with Equestrian magic: you have to send it somewhere, which is just teleportation.
  • Everything's Better with Rainbows: During their song, the Mane Six are seen walking on top of a rainbow, each on her own color lane. (Unusually, this rainbow has eight colors, to better center all six characters on it, with two empty lanes on the edges.)
  • Expressive Hair: As Starlight dumps her anger magic into the bottle, her mane and tail droop. When she takes the magic back into her horn, her mane and tail go back to their normal style.
  • Faint in Shock: Starlight faints when Trixie makes the map table disappear with a mis-aimed bit of magic.
  • Foreshadowing: Starlight explains to Trixie that a friendship retreat will likely involve the Mane Six singing a song. Not only is that just what happens, they end up missing out on a record because of it.
  • Friendship Song: "Best Friends Until the End of Time", sung by the Mane Six. It's what eventually causes them to miss their escape room record.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Bulk Biceps grabs his cart and tosses it at Trixie. Trixie runs just out of view in time the cart hits her, so we don't see her getting smashed. We also see Trixie dazed afterwards to show that it was a direct hit.
  • Hate Plague: When the bottle Starlight has been using to seal away her anger with Trixie breaks, Starlight's anger escapes into other ponies and they become furious with Trixie. Once they're back to normal they all basically shrug it off and resume their regular lives.
  • Heroic RRoD: Starlight exhausts herself containing her anger, and as a result is too weak to help Trixie when said anger, which takes the form of a Hate Plague, escapes from the bottle.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Starlight isn't amused when Trixie brings up her Dark and Troubled Past so nonchalantly, even though one season ago, it was Starlight herself who usually brought up her own past in most conversations.
  • Ignored Aesop: Invoked. Starlight asks Trixie if she learned her lesson about using magic to solve problems. Trixie smirks and says that if she did learn that, how would they have any fun? Starlight relents on the point.
  • Imagination-Based Superpower: Apparently at least some Equestrian magic works via the imagination of the user, given that Trixie has to visualize the effects of her spells for them to work.
  • Innocently Insensitive: Throughout the episode, Trixie is unaware of just how much her laidback nonchalance toward the situation is angering Starlight. When she finally finds out what her carelessness was doing to Starlight, she immediately apologizes.
  • Ironic Echo Cut: The third act is filled with these as it cuts back and forth between the Mane Six's retreat and Trixie being assaulted by anger-possessed ponies:
    Trixie: [running for her life] Starlight, can you help me, please?!
    [cut to Applejack trying to solve a puzzle]
    Applejack: Uh, Twilight, can you help me, please?

    Rainbow Dash: I knew we were the best!
    [cut to an anger-possessed Granny Smith]
    Granny Smith: YOU'RE THE WORST!

    Starlight Glimmer: I'm glad Twilight isn't here to see this...
    [cut to the Mane Six]
    Twilight Sparkle: I wish that Starlight was here to see how strong friendships can be when we trust each other and work together.

    Rainbow Dash: [finding out they've missed their record] Ah, nuts!
    [cut to Bulk Biceps chucking his cinnamon nut cart at Trixie]
    Bulk Biceps: AAAAHHH!!!
    Trixie: Nuts!
  • Irony:
    • For all her skill with magic, Starlight had sometimes proven to be an inattentive student with a tendency to jump the gun for Twilight. Now that she's trying to teach Trixie, Starlight finds herself having to deal with... an inattentive student with a tendency to jump the gun.
    • Rainbow Dash comments that griffons don't like each other, so the Mane Six with their great friendship and teamwork should be able to shatter their escape room record easily. Not only do the Mane Six fail to beat the record, their hubris surrounding their own friendship is what caused it.
  • Lampshade Hanging:
    • Part of the Starlight/Trixie plot involves other residents of Ponyville absorbing Starlight's angry, and by Rule of Funny, it only makes sense to having the Hulk-like Bulk Biceps involved here. However, this required placing him as a nut vendor rather than his previously seen spa job. As the situation is resolved, one pony asks Bulk about his spa job, sending him into a panic before taking off, explaining:
      Bulk Biceps: [sheepishly] I wear many hats.
    • Starlight comments that she should have realized using magic to avoid using magic would backfire.
    • The guide pony comments that the Mane six shouldn't have started singing before they were finished with beating the escape room puzzle record.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
    • Starlight Glimmer becoming irritated that her dark past being brought up yet again, this time by Trixie.
    • The Mane Six's Friendship Song comes completely out of nowhere and is totally unnecessary. They fail to break the room puzzle record because of it, as lampshaded by the Guide pony.
    • Trixie pointing out that friendship lessons tend to be forgotten. In her case, she lampshades it because it just isn't as fun.
  • Literal Metaphor: Starlight bottles up her emotions by literally sealing her emotionally loaded magic into a glass bottle. This backfires because her anger infect Granny Smith, Bulk Biceps, and the Jewelry pony.
  • Master-Apprentice Chain: In the opening scene, we see Starlight attempting to continue this chain with Trixie. With the predictably crazy results. Trixie Lampshades the progression by calling Starlight "Mini-Twilight", much to her annoyance.
  • Messy Hair: Starlight's mane and tail end up looking quite disheveled as the episode goes on, reflecting how worn down she's becoming dealing with Trixie.
  • New Job as the Plot Demands: Bulk Biceps, who's been established as a masseur for the Ponyville Spa, is here seen selling cinnamon nuts. It's promptly lampshaded by Starlight, who brings up the masseur position in question; Bulk sheepishly replies "I wear many hats" before running off to the second job.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
    • Trixie shamelessly deflects responsibility for her offenses and thoughtless behavior which triggers and keeps adding to Starlight's growing anger.
    • The Mane Six do a great job solving the puzzle, but their hubris gets the best of them, and they break out into a musical number singing about how great their friendship is. They missed the record by two seconds. It's even lampshaded by the guide pony, who told them the musical number wasn't necessary.
  • Oh, Crap!: Spike has this reaction when Trixie suggests using him to practice her teleportation. Starlight hastily talks her out of it.
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten: Part of what makes Starlight so mad at Trixie is the fact that she keeps bringing up the things she did before she reformed, like enslaving a village of ponies and going back in time.
  • People Puppet: Trixie physically waving around Starlight's forelegs and saying fake compliments.
    Trixie-as-Starlight: Yay Trixie! You're so good at magic tricks! [Moves to Starlight's other side] And having good hair!
  • Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: The main plot wouldn't go anywhere without Trixie becoming more shallow than usual and Starlight resenting her for it.
  • The Power of Friendship: Its not always a good thing. While The Mane Six do succeed in solving the escape room puzzle, they get so caught up in their own hubris around their friendship it causes them to fail to beat the record.
  • The Power of Hate: Starlight apparently accomplished some of her more powerful magical feats, like dueling Twilight and removing cutie marks, by channeling her anger to fuel her magic.
  • Power Incontinence: Starlight has become so adept at turning rage into magic that it happens naturally within her. Thus if she becomes unhinged but doesn't want to channel the sentiment into a magical effect, it starts pouring out of her horn uncontrollably, forcing her to use something external to contain it to prevent it from causing an unknown calamity.
  • Precision-Guided Boomerang: The jeweler pony throws her visor at Trixie, and it comes back to her like a boomerang.
  • Priceless Paperweight: The Ponyville Spa quickly turns the Friendship Table — one of the most powerful magic items in Equestria — into a massage table.
  • Rapid-Fire "No!": Starlight Glimmer utters a string of "no" twice in the episode:
    • First in anxious worry, right after Trixie makes the map table disappear.
    • And then, when it is recovered at the spa, she frantically says this while tackling Trixie to stop her from attempting to teleport it again.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Trixie gets bits of it from the Hate Plague, but ultimately gets it when Starlight finally admits she is angry with her.
    Trixie: I don't understand why you're all so mad at me!
    Starlight Glimmer: They're not. I am.
    Trixie: You are?
    Starlight Glimmer: ...I'm really... mad at you! You lost Twilight's map table. You make jokes like it's no big deal! It's like you don't even care you could get me in lot of trouble! If we can't find that table Twilight is never going to trust me again, and the worst part is YOU DIDN'T EVEN SAY YOU WERE SORRY!
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Granny Smith, Bulk Biceps and the jewelry pony all gain these while infected by Starlight's escaped rage.
  • Rhymes on a Dime: Twilight and Rainbow pull one when they manage to find the key:
    Twilight Sparkle: This is it! I'm so impressed!
    Rainbow Dash: I'm not, I knew we were the best!
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Spike when Trixie's about to try the teleportation spell.
    Spike: Yeah, I'm gonna go [dashes thirty yards to the front door] all the way over here.
  • Seasonal Baggage: The chorus of the song "Best Friends Until the End of Time" shows the Mane Six trotting before a changing background that portrays all four seasons, with minor appropriate wardrobe changes for the ponies along the way.
  • Self-Deprecation: The Self-Parody of the Mane Six's Friendship Song and the deconstruction that follows can be taken as the show taking a jab at itself for busting out musical numbers at inappropriate times.
  • Self-Parody: The tendency for the Mane Six to break into song after a bonding experience is joked about, and then the actual song is a gentle parody of the type of song the show likes to use for these moments.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Spoof Aesop: Don't burst into song until you're sure the timer has stopped.
  • Stage Magician: This is the first episode with Trixie where we don't see her engaging in stage magic, but she's obviously working on new tricks for her stage show, such as transformation and teleportation. However, her practicing, and a misfired spell, set off the A-plot about finding the Friendship Map again.
  • Stealth Pun:
    • You could say that when Bulk Biceps absorbs the Hate Plague, he goes nuts.
    • Starlight's anger rises from her horn and forms a cloud, meaning she is literally fuming with rage.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Subverted. The Mane Six's song during the friendship retreat happens in in-universe real time and causes them to lose their shot at the record.
  • Teleporter Accident: Discussed as a possibility with unicorn magic. Starlight urges Trixie to try teleporting "something... not living" instead of Spike, and Spike decides the safest place for himself during the spell is far behind Trixie.
  • Title Drop: Subverted by Trixie, who at one point says "Magic is friendship, and stuff".
  • Twisted Echo Cut: Occurs during the break between verses in "Best Friends Until the End of Time".
    Trixie: STARLIGHT!!! A spark of magic could be very helpful right about now!!
    Starlight: ...I can't...
    [cut back to song]
    Twilight: I simply can't imagine...
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: The A-Story is Starlight and Trixie in Ponyville dealing with the consequences of Trixie's recklessness and Starlight's ill-conceived attempts to deal with her own anger at Trixie's behavior, while the much lighter B-Story consists of the Mane Six going to a "friendship retreat" in the form of an Escape Room Adventure in Manehattan, and having a good time with no real conflict to speak of.
  • Unfazed Everyman: Granny Smith, Bulk Biceps, and the jewelry pony all basically shrug off being possessed by Starlight's Hate Plague. It was a slow day anyway.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The spa ponies apparently think nothing of a crystal table teleporting into their establishment and put it to use as an impromptu massage table.
  • We Are Not Going Through That Again: Once Starlight and Trixie find the map, Trixie tries to teleport it back to the castle. Starlight quickly tackles Trixie before she can try.

 
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Best Friends (End of Time)

The Mane Six express their friendship with each other on a retreat.

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