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Redirecting to My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic S 9 E 4 Sparkles Seven
Changed line(s) 1,55 (click to see context) from:
-> Story by Creator/TaraStrong, Creator/AshleighBall, Creator/AndreaLibman, Creator/TabithaStGermain, Creator/CathyWeseluck
-> Written by Nicole Dubuc & Josh Haber
Spike delivers a message from Canterlot to Twilight from Shining Armor, challenging her to Sibling Supreme. Twilight explains to a confused Starlight, that as foals, she and her brother were prompted by their parents to do as many good things each week to earn gold stars, with the one with the most being named Sibling Supreme and given a tin crown to wear. Twilight and Spike race off leaving Starlight to watch the school.
At Canterlot, they find the challenge is not what it seems: Celestia wants to increase the defense of the castle, even with Luna's own guards watching it, and asked Shining to implement several security measures. To make sure these worked, Shining wants Twilight to try to steal the Sibling Supreme crown from the throne room to test the defenses. If she can, Shining will name her Sibling Supreme forever, but should she fail, Shining will take that title.
Twilight returns to Ponyville and brings her friends to help out with the plan. They develop a scheme where Pinkie would distract the guards to allow Twilight and Applejack to enter the castle through a secret tunnel, while separately, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy would come in via above, grouping with Rarity with a guard's medallion to access the throne room. There, Fluttershy would use her animal skills to tame the last obstacle, angry geese, so Twilight can get the crowd. However, just then Spike gets another letter from Shining who has worked out all of Twilight's plan to the letter. Rarity suggests another route: having them all to plans completely different from their own personalities to keep Shining and the guards on their toes: having Applejack distract the guards with a "final" performance of "Apple Chord", AJ's alter ego; having Pinkie take Fluttershy and Spike to the castle via balloon and then keeping watch from outer space; using Rarity and Rainbow to suss out where the secret tunnel is from a seedy juice bar, and having Fluttershy and Spike as spies to them steal the crown. The plan further involves Twilight simply not being part of it and seen in public, so that she has an alibi.
The new plan quickly goes afoul. The balloon gains a leak after Pinkie drops off Fluttershy and Spike, interfering with AJ's "Apple Chord" performance. The seedy juice bar is closed, but while the secret entrance is soon located, they find that Luna has placed Zephyr Breeze to guard it, and Rarity has Rainbow try to play off his interest in her to bypass the bricked up opening. While Fluttershy and Spike get inside, they fall into a trap door near the thrones. Ultimately they regroup, and Spike suggests that maybe since this plan didn't work, they fall back on Twilight's original plan, even if Shining will be expecting it.
To their surprise, this plan goes out without a hitch, but just as Twilight gets to the throne room to get the crown, Shining, Celestia and Luna appear, having been waiting for them. Twilight complains as Shining taunts her, but then Spike reveals to all that he has the crown. Spike reveals that he had been working with Luna as an inside man, as Luna was also taken aback that Celestia didn't trust her security. Luna had taken steps to assure that Twilight's original plan would work, getting everyone in the throne room at the same time so that Spike and Luna can make the big reveal. As Celestia goes off to apologize to Luna, Twilight and Shining agree that Spike is properly the Sibling Supreme and gives him the crown.
----
!!Tropes:
* ActorAllusion: Applejack's alter-ego of "Apple Chord" is a direct reference to voice actor Creator/AshleighBall who is also the lead singer for the band Music/HeyOcean.
* TheBusCameBack: Fluttershy's brother Zephyr Breeze appears in this episode after he was last seen in Season 6 and the comics, having gotten a job as a Royal Guard -- a job he loses by the end of the episode.
* CallBack:
** Rarity is dressed in her "Shadow Spade" outfit she wore in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E16RarityInvestigates Rarity Investigates!]]".
** Fluttershy wears her "dangerous mission outfit" from "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3e5MagicDuel Magic Duel]]". This time the suit is in perfect shape. Spike wears a version of the outfit as well.
* TheCameo: Maud Pie has a brief, silent walk-on when she helps Twilight and Applejack figure out how to penetrate the stone wall.
* TheChessmaster: In the end, it's Spike who wins the Sibling Supreme crown -- by getting Luna to help him exploit Twilight and Shining's own GambitPileup, then take it from right under their noses.
* ContinuityNod: After Fluttershy and Spike end up falling through a trap door. Fluttershy mentions her claustrophobia from "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E3CastleManeia Castle Mane-ia]]".
* DarkHorseVictory: ''Spike'' is the one to get the crown due to Luna and he teaming up to undermine everyone and get close to it without everyone knowing. Basically to teach their siblings (Celestia for Luna and Twilight and Shining Armor for Spike) a lesson about listening to them.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome:
** As in "Rarity Investigates!", the ImagineSpot with Rarity as Shadow Spade and Rainbow Dash as her [[{{Mooks}} henchpony]] is in black and white.
** Applejack's {{Backstory}} for Apple Chord is in sepiatone.
* DidntSeeThatComing: Everyone is shocked when Spike reveals he has the crown, and thus beat both Twilight and Shining Armor, and is even more surprised when it is almost immediately followed by the reveal that Luna helped him.
* FairPlayWhodunnit: All the key elements of Spike and Luna's plan are shown to the viewer as the episode progresses.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Luna's sour looks to Celestia at the beginning, and her putting Zephyr on guard duty and reporting a false alarm all hint at her working with Spike behind the scenes before TheReveal at the end.
** In one of the flashbacks to Twilight and Shining as foals, baby Spike is shown drawing his own gold stars under the chart tracking the stars for the other two, showing he wanted to participate in the Sibling Supreme challenge too.
* GilliganCut: Rainbow initially refuses to distract Zephyr Breeze by flirting with him. The shot then cuts to Rainbow in a fancy dress, being made to do just that.
* GotVolunteered: Upon seeing that Zephyr Breeze is guarding the blocked entrance, Rarity forces Rainbow to act as a distraction by flirting with Zephyr long enough for her to break in.
* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: Shining Armor sends Twilight a letter spelling out he knows her so well he can predict the exact plan she'll try, which scares Twilight into letting her friends come up with a different plan. After it fails they try Twilight's plan anyway and it works; Shining Armor presumed since he warned her he knew what she was planning that she wouldn't try it, and he was thus surprised when she did it anyway.
* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The title is based on the ''Film/OceansEleven'' film series. Discovery Family [[https://twitter.com/discoveryfamily/status/1119273148657078272 used a parody]] of the ''Film/OceansEight'' poster for teasing the episode on social media. The plot of the episode incorporates some of the common elements of the ''Ocean's'' films, such as plans-within-plans and having the most likely culprit (Twilight) standing out in the open to give her an alibi.
* OnceMoreWithClarity: After Spike reveals he has the crown and had help from Luna, flashbacks show the two of them making their deal and executing it, including showing Luna putting Zephyr on guard duty and reporting the geese made a false alarm to keep the plan on track and showing that Spike popped Pinkie's hot air balloon.
* NiceHat:
** In the Shadow Spade scene, Rarity has the expected fedora while Rainbow Dash wears a bowler hat.
** Applejack dons a fancy Stetson as part of her "Apple Chord" persona.
* ReluctantFanserviceGirl: Rainbow Dash dresses up in a nice dress to distract Zephyr Breeze from his guard post. She's quite unhappy about it.
* RightHandCat: A variant where Luna emulates the classic "evil overlord stroking a cat" pose, with a ''goose'' instead of a cat.
* ShoutOut: The outfit Rainbow Dash wears to distract Zephyr is similar to Megara's outfit from ''Disney/{{Hercules}}''.
** In Pinkie's ImagineSpot of space travel, we see the planetoid from ''Literature/TheLittlePrince''.
** When Pinkie starts to have problems with the balloon, she calls out [[Film/Apollo13 "Canterlot, we have a problem."]]
* SiblingRivalry: Between Twilight and Shining Armor.
* TranquilFury: Luna has it in the beginning, while she says she thought she and Celestia could make the security improvements themselves. Celestia and Luna both have it at the end after Luna helps Spike win, with Celestia agreeing to improve the security further and Luna snarking if she feels it is worth discussing, with both wearing forced smiles.
* TraitorShot: Luna is revealed to have helped Spike by petting one of the guard geese with her FaceFramedInShadow.
* UnflinchingWalk: The envisioned plan involved Fluttershy and Spike have the two walking calming away as the laser devices exploding behind them, eg "cool ponies don't look at explosions".
* UnspokenPlanGuarantee:
** The Mane Six's plans get hit with this twice. Rarity attempts to avert it by coming up with a new plan instead of the one Twilight comes up with, but Rarity's plans all backfire. The Mane Six then attempt Twilight's plan, and it almost works, but Shining stops Twilight before she can actually take the crown.
** The scheme between Luna and Spike plays this straight. Their plan to get the crown to Spike happens entirely off-screen, and it goes off without a hitch.
----
-> Written by Nicole Dubuc & Josh Haber
Spike delivers a message from Canterlot to Twilight from Shining Armor, challenging her to Sibling Supreme. Twilight explains to a confused Starlight, that as foals, she and her brother were prompted by their parents to do as many good things each week to earn gold stars, with the one with the most being named Sibling Supreme and given a tin crown to wear. Twilight and Spike race off leaving Starlight to watch the school.
At Canterlot, they find the challenge is not what it seems: Celestia wants to increase the defense of the castle, even with Luna's own guards watching it, and asked Shining to implement several security measures. To make sure these worked, Shining wants Twilight to try to steal the Sibling Supreme crown from the throne room to test the defenses. If she can, Shining will name her Sibling Supreme forever, but should she fail, Shining will take that title.
Twilight returns to Ponyville and brings her friends to help out with the plan. They develop a scheme where Pinkie would distract the guards to allow Twilight and Applejack to enter the castle through a secret tunnel, while separately, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy would come in via above, grouping with Rarity with a guard's medallion to access the throne room. There, Fluttershy would use her animal skills to tame the last obstacle, angry geese, so Twilight can get the crowd. However, just then Spike gets another letter from Shining who has worked out all of Twilight's plan to the letter. Rarity suggests another route: having them all to plans completely different from their own personalities to keep Shining and the guards on their toes: having Applejack distract the guards with a "final" performance of "Apple Chord", AJ's alter ego; having Pinkie take Fluttershy and Spike to the castle via balloon and then keeping watch from outer space; using Rarity and Rainbow to suss out where the secret tunnel is from a seedy juice bar, and having Fluttershy and Spike as spies to them steal the crown. The plan further involves Twilight simply not being part of it and seen in public, so that she has an alibi.
The new plan quickly goes afoul. The balloon gains a leak after Pinkie drops off Fluttershy and Spike, interfering with AJ's "Apple Chord" performance. The seedy juice bar is closed, but while the secret entrance is soon located, they find that Luna has placed Zephyr Breeze to guard it, and Rarity has Rainbow try to play off his interest in her to bypass the bricked up opening. While Fluttershy and Spike get inside, they fall into a trap door near the thrones. Ultimately they regroup, and Spike suggests that maybe since this plan didn't work, they fall back on Twilight's original plan, even if Shining will be expecting it.
To their surprise, this plan goes out without a hitch, but just as Twilight gets to the throne room to get the crown, Shining, Celestia and Luna appear, having been waiting for them. Twilight complains as Shining taunts her, but then Spike reveals to all that he has the crown. Spike reveals that he had been working with Luna as an inside man, as Luna was also taken aback that Celestia didn't trust her security. Luna had taken steps to assure that Twilight's original plan would work, getting everyone in the throne room at the same time so that Spike and Luna can make the big reveal. As Celestia goes off to apologize to Luna, Twilight and Shining agree that Spike is properly the Sibling Supreme and gives him the crown.
----
!!Tropes:
* ActorAllusion: Applejack's alter-ego of "Apple Chord" is a direct reference to voice actor Creator/AshleighBall who is also the lead singer for the band Music/HeyOcean.
* TheBusCameBack: Fluttershy's brother Zephyr Breeze appears in this episode after he was last seen in Season 6 and the comics, having gotten a job as a Royal Guard -- a job he loses by the end of the episode.
* CallBack:
** Rarity is dressed in her "Shadow Spade" outfit she wore in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E16RarityInvestigates Rarity Investigates!]]".
** Fluttershy wears her "dangerous mission outfit" from "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3e5MagicDuel Magic Duel]]". This time the suit is in perfect shape. Spike wears a version of the outfit as well.
* TheCameo: Maud Pie has a brief, silent walk-on when she helps Twilight and Applejack figure out how to penetrate the stone wall.
* TheChessmaster: In the end, it's Spike who wins the Sibling Supreme crown -- by getting Luna to help him exploit Twilight and Shining's own GambitPileup, then take it from right under their noses.
* ContinuityNod: After Fluttershy and Spike end up falling through a trap door. Fluttershy mentions her claustrophobia from "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E3CastleManeia Castle Mane-ia]]".
* DarkHorseVictory: ''Spike'' is the one to get the crown due to Luna and he teaming up to undermine everyone and get close to it without everyone knowing. Basically to teach their siblings (Celestia for Luna and Twilight and Shining Armor for Spike) a lesson about listening to them.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome:
** As in "Rarity Investigates!", the ImagineSpot with Rarity as Shadow Spade and Rainbow Dash as her [[{{Mooks}} henchpony]] is in black and white.
** Applejack's {{Backstory}} for Apple Chord is in sepiatone.
* DidntSeeThatComing: Everyone is shocked when Spike reveals he has the crown, and thus beat both Twilight and Shining Armor, and is even more surprised when it is almost immediately followed by the reveal that Luna helped him.
* FairPlayWhodunnit: All the key elements of Spike and Luna's plan are shown to the viewer as the episode progresses.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Luna's sour looks to Celestia at the beginning, and her putting Zephyr on guard duty and reporting a false alarm all hint at her working with Spike behind the scenes before TheReveal at the end.
** In one of the flashbacks to Twilight and Shining as foals, baby Spike is shown drawing his own gold stars under the chart tracking the stars for the other two, showing he wanted to participate in the Sibling Supreme challenge too.
* GilliganCut: Rainbow initially refuses to distract Zephyr Breeze by flirting with him. The shot then cuts to Rainbow in a fancy dress, being made to do just that.
* GotVolunteered: Upon seeing that Zephyr Breeze is guarding the blocked entrance, Rarity forces Rainbow to act as a distraction by flirting with Zephyr long enough for her to break in.
* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: Shining Armor sends Twilight a letter spelling out he knows her so well he can predict the exact plan she'll try, which scares Twilight into letting her friends come up with a different plan. After it fails they try Twilight's plan anyway and it works; Shining Armor presumed since he warned her he knew what she was planning that she wouldn't try it, and he was thus surprised when she did it anyway.
* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The title is based on the ''Film/OceansEleven'' film series. Discovery Family [[https://twitter.com/discoveryfamily/status/1119273148657078272 used a parody]] of the ''Film/OceansEight'' poster for teasing the episode on social media. The plot of the episode incorporates some of the common elements of the ''Ocean's'' films, such as plans-within-plans and having the most likely culprit (Twilight) standing out in the open to give her an alibi.
* OnceMoreWithClarity: After Spike reveals he has the crown and had help from Luna, flashbacks show the two of them making their deal and executing it, including showing Luna putting Zephyr on guard duty and reporting the geese made a false alarm to keep the plan on track and showing that Spike popped Pinkie's hot air balloon.
* NiceHat:
** In the Shadow Spade scene, Rarity has the expected fedora while Rainbow Dash wears a bowler hat.
** Applejack dons a fancy Stetson as part of her "Apple Chord" persona.
* ReluctantFanserviceGirl: Rainbow Dash dresses up in a nice dress to distract Zephyr Breeze from his guard post. She's quite unhappy about it.
* RightHandCat: A variant where Luna emulates the classic "evil overlord stroking a cat" pose, with a ''goose'' instead of a cat.
* ShoutOut: The outfit Rainbow Dash wears to distract Zephyr is similar to Megara's outfit from ''Disney/{{Hercules}}''.
** In Pinkie's ImagineSpot of space travel, we see the planetoid from ''Literature/TheLittlePrince''.
** When Pinkie starts to have problems with the balloon, she calls out [[Film/Apollo13 "Canterlot, we have a problem."]]
* SiblingRivalry: Between Twilight and Shining Armor.
* TranquilFury: Luna has it in the beginning, while she says she thought she and Celestia could make the security improvements themselves. Celestia and Luna both have it at the end after Luna helps Spike win, with Celestia agreeing to improve the security further and Luna snarking if she feels it is worth discussing, with both wearing forced smiles.
* TraitorShot: Luna is revealed to have helped Spike by petting one of the guard geese with her FaceFramedInShadow.
* UnflinchingWalk: The envisioned plan involved Fluttershy and Spike have the two walking calming away as the laser devices exploding behind them, eg "cool ponies don't look at explosions".
* UnspokenPlanGuarantee:
** The Mane Six's plans get hit with this twice. Rarity attempts to avert it by coming up with a new plan instead of the one Twilight comes up with, but Rarity's plans all backfire. The Mane Six then attempt Twilight's plan, and it almost works, but Shining stops Twilight before she can actually take the crown.
** The scheme between Luna and Spike plays this straight. Their plan to get the crown to Spike happens entirely off-screen, and it goes off without a hitch.
----
to:
-> Written by Nicole Dubuc & Josh Haber
Spike delivers a message from Canterlot to Twilight from Shining Armor, challenging her to Sibling Supreme. Twilight explains to a confused Starlight, that as foals, she and her brother were prompted by their parents to do as many good things each week to earn gold stars, with the one with the most being named Sibling Supreme and given a tin crown to wear. Twilight and Spike race off leaving Starlight to watch the school.
At Canterlot, they find the challenge is not what it seems: Celestia wants to increase the defense of the castle, even with Luna's own guards watching it, and asked Shining to implement several security measures. To make sure these worked, Shining wants Twilight to try to steal the Sibling Supreme crown from the throne room to test the defenses. If she can, Shining will name her Sibling Supreme forever, but should she fail, Shining will take that title.
Twilight returns to Ponyville and brings her friends to help out with the plan. They develop a scheme where Pinkie would distract the guards to allow Twilight and Applejack to enter the castle through a secret tunnel, while separately, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy would come in via above, grouping with Rarity with a guard's medallion to access the throne room. There, Fluttershy would use her animal skills to tame the last obstacle, angry geese, so Twilight can get the crowd. However, just then Spike gets another letter from Shining who has worked out all of Twilight's plan to the letter. Rarity suggests another route: having them all to plans completely different from their own personalities to keep Shining and the guards on their toes: having Applejack distract the guards with a "final" performance of "Apple Chord", AJ's alter ego; having Pinkie take Fluttershy and Spike to the castle via balloon and then keeping watch from outer space; using Rarity and Rainbow to suss out where the secret tunnel is from a seedy juice bar, and having Fluttershy and Spike as spies to them steal the crown. The plan further involves Twilight simply not being part of it and seen in public, so that she has an alibi.
The new plan quickly goes afoul. The balloon gains a leak after Pinkie drops off Fluttershy and Spike, interfering with AJ's "Apple Chord" performance. The seedy juice bar is closed, but while the secret entrance is soon located, they find that Luna has placed Zephyr Breeze to guard it, and Rarity has Rainbow try to play off his interest in her to bypass the bricked up opening. While Fluttershy and Spike get inside, they fall into a trap door near the thrones. Ultimately they regroup, and Spike suggests that maybe since this plan didn't work, they fall back on Twilight's original plan, even if Shining will be expecting it.
To their surprise, this plan goes out without a hitch, but just as Twilight gets to the throne room to get the crown, Shining, Celestia and Luna appear, having been waiting for them. Twilight complains as Shining taunts her, but then Spike reveals to all that he has the crown. Spike reveals that he had been working with Luna as an inside man, as Luna was also taken aback that Celestia didn't trust her security. Luna had taken steps to assure that Twilight's original plan would work, getting everyone in the throne room at the same time so that Spike and Luna can make the big reveal. As Celestia goes off to apologize to Luna, Twilight and Shining agree that Spike is properly the Sibling Supreme and gives him the crown.
----
!!Tropes:
* ActorAllusion: Applejack's alter-ego of "Apple Chord" is a direct reference to voice actor Creator/AshleighBall who is also the lead singer for the band Music/HeyOcean.
* TheBusCameBack: Fluttershy's brother Zephyr Breeze appears in this episode after he was last seen in Season 6 and the comics, having gotten a job as a Royal Guard -- a job he loses by the end of the episode.
* CallBack:
** Rarity is dressed in her "Shadow Spade" outfit she wore in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E16RarityInvestigates Rarity Investigates!]]".
** Fluttershy wears her "dangerous mission outfit" from "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3e5MagicDuel Magic Duel]]". This time the suit is in perfect shape. Spike wears a version of the outfit as well.
* TheCameo: Maud Pie has a brief, silent walk-on when she helps Twilight and Applejack figure out how to penetrate the stone wall.
* TheChessmaster: In the end, it's Spike who wins the Sibling Supreme crown -- by getting Luna to help him exploit Twilight and Shining's own GambitPileup, then take it from right under their noses.
* ContinuityNod: After Fluttershy and Spike end up falling through a trap door. Fluttershy mentions her claustrophobia from "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E3CastleManeia Castle Mane-ia]]".
* DarkHorseVictory: ''Spike'' is the one to get the crown due to Luna and he teaming up to undermine everyone and get close to it without everyone knowing. Basically to teach their siblings (Celestia for Luna and Twilight and Shining Armor for Spike) a lesson about listening to them.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome:
** As in "Rarity Investigates!", the ImagineSpot with Rarity as Shadow Spade and Rainbow Dash as her [[{{Mooks}} henchpony]] is in black and white.
** Applejack's {{Backstory}} for Apple Chord is in sepiatone.
* DidntSeeThatComing: Everyone is shocked when Spike reveals he has the crown, and thus beat both Twilight and Shining Armor, and is even more surprised when it is almost immediately followed by the reveal that Luna helped him.
* FairPlayWhodunnit: All the key elements of Spike and Luna's plan are shown to the viewer as the episode progresses.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Luna's sour looks to Celestia at the beginning, and her putting Zephyr on guard duty and reporting a false alarm all hint at her working with Spike behind the scenes before TheReveal at the end.
** In one of the flashbacks to Twilight and Shining as foals, baby Spike is shown drawing his own gold stars under the chart tracking the stars for the other two, showing he wanted to participate in the Sibling Supreme challenge too.
* GilliganCut: Rainbow initially refuses to distract Zephyr Breeze by flirting with him. The shot then cuts to Rainbow in a fancy dress, being made to do just that.
* GotVolunteered: Upon seeing that Zephyr Breeze is guarding the blocked entrance, Rarity forces Rainbow to act as a distraction by flirting with Zephyr long enough for her to break in.
* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: Shining Armor sends Twilight a letter spelling out he knows her so well he can predict the exact plan she'll try, which scares Twilight into letting her friends come up with a different plan. After it fails they try Twilight's plan anyway and it works; Shining Armor presumed since he warned her he knew what she was planning that she wouldn't try it, and he was thus surprised when she did it anyway.
* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The title is based on the ''Film/OceansEleven'' film series. Discovery Family [[https://twitter.com/discoveryfamily/status/1119273148657078272 used a parody]] of the ''Film/OceansEight'' poster for teasing the episode on social media. The plot of the episode incorporates some of the common elements of the ''Ocean's'' films, such as plans-within-plans and having the most likely culprit (Twilight) standing out in the open to give her an alibi.
* OnceMoreWithClarity: After Spike reveals he has the crown and had help from Luna, flashbacks show the two of them making their deal and executing it, including showing Luna putting Zephyr on guard duty and reporting the geese made a false alarm to keep the plan on track and showing that Spike popped Pinkie's hot air balloon.
* NiceHat:
** In the Shadow Spade scene, Rarity has the expected fedora while Rainbow Dash wears a bowler hat.
** Applejack dons a fancy Stetson as part of her "Apple Chord" persona.
* ReluctantFanserviceGirl: Rainbow Dash dresses up in a nice dress to distract Zephyr Breeze from his guard post. She's quite unhappy about it.
* RightHandCat: A variant where Luna emulates the classic "evil overlord stroking a cat" pose, with a ''goose'' instead of a cat.
* ShoutOut: The outfit Rainbow Dash wears to distract Zephyr is similar to Megara's outfit from ''Disney/{{Hercules}}''.
** In Pinkie's ImagineSpot of space travel, we see the planetoid from ''Literature/TheLittlePrince''.
** When Pinkie starts to have problems with the balloon, she calls out [[Film/Apollo13 "Canterlot, we have a problem."]]
* SiblingRivalry: Between Twilight and Shining Armor.
* TranquilFury: Luna has it in the beginning, while she says she thought she and Celestia could make the security improvements themselves. Celestia and Luna both have it at the end after Luna helps Spike win, with Celestia agreeing to improve the security further and Luna snarking if she feels it is worth discussing, with both wearing forced smiles.
* TraitorShot: Luna is revealed to have helped Spike by petting one of the guard geese with her FaceFramedInShadow.
* UnflinchingWalk: The envisioned plan involved Fluttershy and Spike have the two walking calming away as the laser devices exploding behind them, eg "cool ponies don't look at explosions".
* UnspokenPlanGuarantee:
** The Mane Six's plans get hit with this twice. Rarity attempts to avert it by coming up with a new plan instead of the one Twilight comes up with, but Rarity's plans all backfire. The Mane Six then attempt Twilight's plan, and it almost works, but Shining stops Twilight before she can actually take the crown.
** The scheme between Luna and Spike plays this straight. Their plan to get the crown to Spike happens entirely off-screen, and it goes off without a hitch.
----
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Added DiffLines:
* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: Shining Armor sends Twilight a letter spelling out he knows her so well he can predict the exact plan she'll try, which scares Twilight into letting her friends come up with a different plan. After it fails they try Twilight's plan anyway and it works; Shining Armor presumed since he warned her he knew what she was planning that she wouldn't try it, and he was thus surprised when she did it anyway.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
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Changed line(s) 30 (click to see context) from:
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Luna's sour looks to Celestia at the beginning, and her putting Zephyr on guard duty and reporting a false alarm all hint at her working with Spike behind the scenes before TheReveal at the end.
to:
* {{Foreshadowing}}: FairPlayWhodunnit: All the key elements of Spike and Luna's plan are shown to the viewer as the episode progresses.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Luna's sour looks to Celestia at the beginning, and her putting Zephyr on guard duty and reporting a false alarm all hint at her working with Spike behind the scenes before TheReveal at theend.end.
** In one of the flashbacks to Twilight and Shining as foals, baby Spike is shown drawing his own gold stars under the chart tracking the stars for the other two, showing he wanted to participate in the Sibling Supreme challenge too.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Luna's sour looks to Celestia at the beginning, and her putting Zephyr on guard duty and reporting a false alarm all hint at her working with Spike behind the scenes before TheReveal at the
** In one of the flashbacks to Twilight and Shining as foals, baby Spike is shown drawing his own gold stars under the chart tracking the stars for the other two, showing he wanted to participate in the Sibling Supreme challenge too.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 4,5 (click to see context) from:
Twilight and Shining Armor pit their wits against each other to settle a long-standing sibling rivalry, but they soon discover they are not the only competitors.
to:
Spike delivers a message from Canterlot to Twilight from Shining Armor, challenging her to Sibling Supreme. Twilight explains to a confused Starlight, that as foals, she and her brother were prompted by their parents to do as many good things each week to earn gold stars, with the one with the most being named Sibling Supreme and given a tin crown to wear. Twilight and Spike race off leaving Starlight to watch the school.
At Canterlot, they find the challenge is not what it seems: Celestia wants to increase the defense of the castle, even with Luna's own guards watching it, and asked Shining to implement several security measures. To make sure these worked, Shining wants Twilight to try to steal the Sibling Supreme crown from the throne room to test the defenses. If she can, Shining will name her Sibling Supreme forever, but should she fail, Shining will take that title.
Twilight returns to Ponyville and brings her friends to help out with the plan. They develop a scheme where Pinkie would distract the guards to allow Twilight and Applejack to enter the castle through a secret tunnel, while separately, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy would come in via above, grouping with Rarity with a guard's medallion to access the throne room. There, Fluttershy would use her animal skills to tame the last obstacle, angry geese, so Twilight can get the crowd. However, just then Spike gets another letter from Shining who has worked out all of Twilight's plan to the letter. Rarity suggests another route: having them all to plans completely different from their own personalities to keep Shining and the guards on their toes: having Applejack distract the guards with a "final" performance of "Apple Chord", AJ's alter ego; having Pinkie take Fluttershy and Spike to the castle via balloon and then keeping watch from outer space; using Rarity and Rainbow to suss out where the secret tunnel is from a seedy juice bar, and having Fluttershy and Spike as spies to them steal the crown. The plan further involves Twilight simply not being part of it and seen in public, so that she has an alibi.
The new plan quickly goes afoul. The balloon gains a leak after Pinkie drops off Fluttershy and Spike, interfering with AJ's "Apple Chord" performance. The seedy juice bar is closed, but while the secret entrance is soon located, they find that Luna has placed Zephyr Breeze to guard it, and Rarity has Rainbow try to play off his interest in her to bypass the bricked up opening. While Fluttershy and Spike get inside, they fall into a trap door near the thrones. Ultimately they regroup, and Spike suggests that maybe since this plan didn't work, they fall back on Twilight's original plan, even if Shining will be expecting it.
To their surprise, this plan goes out without a hitch, but just as Twilight gets to the throne room to get the crown, Shining, Celestia and Luna appear, having been waiting for them. Twilight complains as Shining taunts her, but then Spike reveals to all that he has the crown. Spike reveals that he had been working with Luna as an inside man, as Luna was also taken aback that Celestia didn't trust her security. Luna had taken steps to assure that Twilight's original plan would work, getting everyone in the throne room at the same time so that Spike and Luna can make the big reveal. As Celestia goes off to apologize to Luna, Twilight and ShiningArmor pit their wits against each other to settle a long-standing sibling rivalry, but they soon discover they are not agree that Spike is properly the only competitors.
Sibling Supreme and gives him the crown.
At Canterlot, they find the challenge is not what it seems: Celestia wants to increase the defense of the castle, even with Luna's own guards watching it, and asked Shining to implement several security measures. To make sure these worked, Shining wants Twilight to try to steal the Sibling Supreme crown from the throne room to test the defenses. If she can, Shining will name her Sibling Supreme forever, but should she fail, Shining will take that title.
Twilight returns to Ponyville and brings her friends to help out with the plan. They develop a scheme where Pinkie would distract the guards to allow Twilight and Applejack to enter the castle through a secret tunnel, while separately, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy would come in via above, grouping with Rarity with a guard's medallion to access the throne room. There, Fluttershy would use her animal skills to tame the last obstacle, angry geese, so Twilight can get the crowd. However, just then Spike gets another letter from Shining who has worked out all of Twilight's plan to the letter. Rarity suggests another route: having them all to plans completely different from their own personalities to keep Shining and the guards on their toes: having Applejack distract the guards with a "final" performance of "Apple Chord", AJ's alter ego; having Pinkie take Fluttershy and Spike to the castle via balloon and then keeping watch from outer space; using Rarity and Rainbow to suss out where the secret tunnel is from a seedy juice bar, and having Fluttershy and Spike as spies to them steal the crown. The plan further involves Twilight simply not being part of it and seen in public, so that she has an alibi.
The new plan quickly goes afoul. The balloon gains a leak after Pinkie drops off Fluttershy and Spike, interfering with AJ's "Apple Chord" performance. The seedy juice bar is closed, but while the secret entrance is soon located, they find that Luna has placed Zephyr Breeze to guard it, and Rarity has Rainbow try to play off his interest in her to bypass the bricked up opening. While Fluttershy and Spike get inside, they fall into a trap door near the thrones. Ultimately they regroup, and Spike suggests that maybe since this plan didn't work, they fall back on Twilight's original plan, even if Shining will be expecting it.
To their surprise, this plan goes out without a hitch, but just as Twilight gets to the throne room to get the crown, Shining, Celestia and Luna appear, having been waiting for them. Twilight complains as Shining taunts her, but then Spike reveals to all that he has the crown. Spike reveals that he had been working with Luna as an inside man, as Luna was also taken aback that Celestia didn't trust her security. Luna had taken steps to assure that Twilight's original plan would work, getting everyone in the throne room at the same time so that Spike and Luna can make the big reveal. As Celestia goes off to apologize to Luna, Twilight and Shining
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Changed line(s) 38 (click to see context) from:
* UnflinchingWalk: The envisioned plan involved Fluttershy and Spike have the two walking calming away as the laser devices exploding behind her.
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* UnflinchingWalk: The envisioned plan involved Fluttershy and Spike have the two walking calming away as the laser devices exploding behind her.them, eg "cool ponies don't look at explosions".
