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Recap / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S3 E5 "Magic Duel"

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Snails: Why is she so mean to us?
Snips: Yeah! I miss the days when she was just a fraud!

Written by M.A. Larson

One dark and stormy night in Canterlot, a figure dressed in a black cloak enters a curio shop and requests to buy a red-and-black amulet shaped like a winged unicorn. The shopkeeper recognizes it as the Alicorn Amulet, "one of the most mysterious and powerful of all the known magical charms", but is reluctant to sell it until the cloaked figure deposits a large bag of bits on his counter.

In Ponyville, Twilight is getting ready for a magic show for Princess Celestia and some delegates from Saddle Arabia when Rainbow Dash crashes into her with some shocking news—the "Great and Powerful" Trixie, the cloaked figure from before, has returned to Ponyville and is tormenting the townsponies with greater and more powerful magic than before. It turns out Trixie's still bitter with Twilight for (unintentionally) humiliating her and ruining her magic career after the whole "Ursa Minor" incident. Now she's out for Twilight's blood, and she won't stop attacking the town until Twilight agrees to her terms:

Their spell-casting duel starts out straightforwardly enough—Trixie attacks Twilight with her spells, and Twilight uses her own to defend herself. But the real challenge comes when Trixie casts an age spell that turns Snips into a foal and Snails into an old pony, which only the most powerful of unicorns can do. Because Twilight cannot lift Trixie's age spell, Trixie declares herself the winner, literally throws Twilight out of Ponyville, and conjures a magic dome around the town to keep her out and everypony else in.

Trixie proves to be not only stronger, but meaner and nastier than ever as she takes over Ponyville. Twilight's friends are none too pleased with her tyranny and search Twilight's library for answers. They find out that Trixie's Alicorn Amulet has not only given her unparalleled magic power, but is also corrupting her with evil magic and, courtesy of a magic lock, can only be taken off by its wearer. Fluttershy is smuggled out of Ponyville by her woodland critters to give Twilight the news in the Everfree Forest, where she's been training with Zecora. The zebra shaman comes up with a solution:

Zecora: If Trixie's tricks have you in a fix, you must nix your magic and use the six.

Twilight returns to Ponyville and challenges Trixie to another duel, this time armed with her own "totally awesome" amulet given to her by Zecora. Trixie can't resist finding out what powers Twilight's amulet has that make her rival so confident, and accepts the challenge. They start with a "simple" age spell, but not only does Twilight successfully pull off an age spell that turns Applejack and Rarity into fillies, old mares and back in a manner of seconds, she can also create an exact duplicate of Rainbow Dash, make Pinkie Pie play ten instruments at once, and turn Applejack into a stallion—tricks not even the Alicorn Amulet can do! The power-mad Trixie takes off the Alicorn Amulet and steals Twilight's obviously superior amulet for herself...

To her horror, the spells with her new amulet hardly have any effect on Rainbow Dash as she snatches the Alicorn Amulet from her hooves and gives it to Zecora to hide away forever. Twilight reveals her amulet is a fake, and her impressive feats of magic were nothing but smoke and parlor tricks pulled off by her friends. With Ponyville back to normal, Twilight puts on her magic show for Princess Celestia and the Saddle Arabia ponies as planned, with a fireworks display at the end from Trixie as a gift of gratitude for saving her from the Alicorn Amulet's evil. Though still as boastful as ever, the "Great and Apologetic" Trixie is forgiven and runs off into the night.

Well, not everything is back to normal just yet, as Pinkie is still missing her mouth. Luckily, Twilight comes onto the scene and restores it, and Pinkie happily takes a deep breath to speak...

*Cue the credits*


Tropes:

  • 0% Approval Rating: Nopony is eager to have Trixie run Ponyville; not even her former fans Snips and Snails, who become downright terrified of her. This is even evident when she first arrives; if you look in the crowd behind Twilight when she confronts her, everypony is glaring at her.
  • Agony Beam: Trixie tries one on Rainbow Dash. Without the Alicorn Amulet, it's only powerful enough to tickle her.
  • Amplifier Artifact: Trixie's Alicorn Amulet amplifies her magic to the point she can best Twilight and perform other feats of otherwise improbably-powerful magic, such as age-regression.
  • Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: The Alicorn Amulet and the "Amulet from Beyond the Everfree Forest". The latter is just a glorified doorstop meant to bluff Trixie.
  • And I Must Scream: Trixie was unable to control herself when wearing the amulet and being evil, since the amulet corrupts the user. Based on the remorseful tone in her voice at the end, it's likely she was aghast at what she had done when wearing the amulet.
  • Answer Cut: After being banished from Ponyville, Twilight wonders out loud about who can help her, since she can't contact Princess Celestia. The next scene cuts to Zecora's hut in the Everfree Forest with Twilight finishing filling the zebra in about what had happened.
  • Artifact of Doom: The Alicorn Amulet gives Trixie tremendous power, but also corrupts her into becoming a megalomaniac.
  • Batman Gambit:
    • To escape Trixie's magic barrier, Fluttershy hides in a log and has some beavers smuggle her out, believing Trixie would be willing to release them.
    • During their rematch, Twilight claims Zecora has given her an amulet even more powerful than the Alicorn Amulet, which she demonstrates with various high-level spells. Trixie steals the amulet for herself and swaps it for her Alicorn Amulet, at which point Rainbow Dash steals the Alicorn Amulet and Twilight reveals the new one is just a worthless trinket. Her "magic" was just sleight of hoof.
  • Bazaar of the Bizarre: Where Trixie finds the Alicorn Amulet during The Teaser.
  • Beat Them at Their Own Game: Twilight and company's smoke-and-mirror parlor tricks manage to fool even Trixie, a trained parlor magician.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Pinkie gets antsy with Trixie after she refers to working in a rock farm in disdain. She is quickly (and literally) silenced.
    • Trixie intentionally pushes Twilight's "don't hurt her friends or Spike" button in order to get her to agree to the duel.
  • Be the Ball: Spike is squished into a ball by Trixie's magic and thrown through a hoop.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Fluttershy threatening Twilight if any of her buddies are harmed by Twilight's magic.
  • Big Brother Is Watching: In addition to trapping everypony in Ponyville, any disturbance to the barrier automatically alerts Trixie.
  • Big "WHAT?!": Rainbow Dash says there's only one pony that can get the help needed to sneak past the barrier and tell Twilight about the amulet.
    Rainbow Dash: Fluttershy.
    Fluttershy: WHAT?
  • Birdcaged: Happens to Mayor Mare when Trixie takes over the town.
  • Black Cloak: Trixie can be seen sporting one. While she is more villainous in this episode, there's a different meaning here. It is a solid and plain black. Trixie, the Large Ham, is hiding from attention.
  • Blatant Lies: Trixie wasn't being convincing at all when Twilight finds out she cheated in the first duel.
  • Body Horror: Trixie makes one of Rainbow Dash's wings enormous, fuses Snips and Snails' horns together, turns Spike into a ball that never stops bouncing, and removes Pinkie Pie's mouth.
  • Bookends: "Boast Busters" ends with Trixie running away humiliated in a puff of smoke, which she recaps at the beginning of the episode. By the end of this episode, she runs away in a puff of smoke again, but this time on better terms with Twilight.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Pinkie once again interrupts the Iris Out, pointing out that she still doesn't have her snout back. Twilight opens a hole into the black backdrop and gives her a snout, mouth and all.
  • Buffy Speak: "Gaze upon an ever 'Greater and Powerful-er' Trixie!"
  • The Bus Came Back: Trixie's back, her last canonical appearance being two seasons ago. She also shows up as a copy-pasted background extra in a couple of episodes and was name-dropped in "Ponyville Confidential". Seeing as there are five different Trixie Lulamoon toys, her return makes sense, given the show's Merchandise-Driven nature. Not to mention how popular she is.
  • But Now I Must Go: Trixie has a habit of leaving quickly, even when it's fine for her to stay.
  • The Caligula: Trixie goes mad with the power she has over Ponyville. She forces Snip and Snails to carry her in a wheel-less wagon because she doesn't trust wheels, wants Applejack to grow apples without the peel, forces Pinkie Pie to dance for her, and has placed Mayor Mare in a gilded cage for no apparent reason other than her own amusement. Basically, any element of this trope that isn't inappropriate for the target demographic applies to Trixie under the Alicorn Amulet's influence.
  • Call-Back:
    • During the first duel, Twilight summons a parasprite to eat the oncoming pies thrown at her by Trixie then making it vanish when it begins to multiply. Later, Pinkie's talent in playing multiple instruments from the same episode returns to make it look like Twilight magically induced her with the ability.
    • Trixie's magic-assisted Flash Back contains several. The end of "Boast Busters" is summed up in a few shots, she's shown running away from ridicule in the same way she made her exit at the end of that episode, and she ended up working on the same rock farm where Pinkie Pie used to live.
  • The Cameo:
    • Pinkie's father shows up in Trixie's flashback.
    • Owlowiscious makes a brief appearance when Trixie inverts the library.
  • Cheaters Never Prosper: Subverted in the first duel, when no-one notices Trixie with the amulet and she beats Twilight. Played straight in the second duel, when Trixie loses because she was outsmarted with Twilight's own tricks and she removes her amulet to put on the seemingly stronger one.
  • The Chew Toy: Trixie treats all the Ponyvillians this way under the influence of the Alicorn Amulet. Snips and Snails receive the worst of it.
  • Clingy MacGuffin: The Alicorn Amulet can only be removed by the wearer.
  • Color-Coded Wizardry: Trixie's last (real) appearance was before the show introduced unique magic colors for individual unicorns. Funnily enough, the colors she and Twilight had in that episode are now reversed (Twilight has magenta-ish magic, while Trixie's is gray-blue), except Trixie's amulet makes her aura red.
  • Continuity Nod:
  • Continuity Porn: If any episode so far was made for the hardcore fans, it's this one.
  • Crapsack World: Ponyville once it becomes Trixieopolis. Everything up to and including your physical appearance is completely under the control of an emotionally unstable, deranged lunatic with an overblown personal grudge against you and your town, and there's no way for anyone trapped in there with her to either take her down or leave.
  • Crazy-Prepared: Not only does Twilight know how to summon a parasprite to eat a thrown pie, she also knows how to dispel it (and its offspring) when it starts to reproduce. This is a great example of H. P. Lovecraft's maxim, "Do not call up any that you cannot put down."
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Trixie delivers one to Twilight in their first duel but Twilight gets a few good moves in, such as summoning the parasprite. She is later on the receiving end during her rematch with Twilight, only getting in a single spell before she just stares on in a mix of shock and horror as Twilight takes control.
  • Day of the Jackboot: Good Celestia, just take a look at Trixieville...
  • Defeat Means Friendship: After the duel, Trixie becomes one of Twilight's friends. Justified as in this case the befriending is due to gratitude from saving her from the amulet.
  • Delayed Reaction: Even after the amulet has been taken from her, it seems to take a while for Trixie to break from her amped evil persona.
  • Deus Exit Machina: Celestia is out of the country during most of this episode, and with Spike trapped in the dome, contacting her is essentially impossible.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: None of what happened between Twilight and Trixie in "Boast Busters" warrants Twilight's exile and the enslavement of Ponyville. Trixie's corrupted by the Alicorn Amulet, though, so whatever her original intent was, it was likely long forgotten by the time she actually got to Ponyville.
  • Dragged by the Collar: When Fluttershy gets outside the magic bubble and decides she doesn't want to go to Zecora's hut after all, her long-suffering animal friends are there to reinforce her valor by picking her up by her mane and tail and carrying her there.
  • Drunk on the Dark Side: Trixie gets even more hammy due to the amulet's power. She reverts to her normal levels of ham after the amulet is removed.
  • Drunk with Power: Trixie. The Alicorn Amulet grants a pony incredible magical power at the cost of corrupting the pony's mind.
  • Easily Forgiven: Twilight accepts Trixie's apology despite the fact that she enslaved all of Ponyville and threatened to take over Equestria. It's semi-justified by the fact that Trixie was under the control of the amulet the entire time.
  • Egopolis: After Twilight is exiled, Trixie turns Ponyville into one.
  • Every Man Has His Price: The shopkeeper in the Cold Open refuses to sell the Alicorn Amulet until he is presented with a large bag of bits.
  • Evil Costume Switch: While she wasn't that nice to begin with, Trixie dons a more sinister-looking Black Cloak and an amulet to go with her attitude change for this episode. She changes back to her original star-decorated Cape and Wizard Hat after her Heel–Face Turn.
  • Evil Is Not a Toy: Trixie is warned the Alicorn Amulet is dangerous, but buys and uses it anyway. It corrupts her and causes her to get Drunk On The Darkside.
  • Evil Plan: Trixie wants revenge on Twilight for the Ursa Minor incident. After succeeding in that goal, she takes over Ponyville and plans to take over all of Equestria.
  • The Exile: Trixie casts Twilight out of Ponyville for losing the first duel.
  • Eye Motifs: On one of the shops in Trixie-ruled Ponyville, there is a poster of her wizard hat above an eye. Constant surveillance much?
  • Face Plant: Happens to Trixie as she's leaving Ponyville at the end of the episode.
  • Failed Attempt at Drama: Trixie leaving Ponyville. As before, she's seen running through the smoke screen she created. This time, she trips and falls on her face.
  • Fakin' MacGuffin: To fool Trixie into giving up the Alicorn Amulet, Twilight and her friends pass off a completely ordinary green stone—one of Zecora's doorstops—as an even more powerful amulet.
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
    • Celestia meets delegates from Saddle Arabia (which was first mentioned in a Hub Facebook question). One of them is even sporting the star and crescent on his saddle, although ironically, Saudi Arabia is one of the few Middle Eastern countries not to use it (they have issues with the Ottoman Empire).
    • The shopkeeper in the beginning is wearing clothing similar to Qing Dynasty officials.
  • Felony Misdemeanor: After Trixie conjures up a tacky striped dress for Rarity to wear:
    Rarity: You beast! This shade of brown should only be used for accents!
  • Flashback: An odd one, to be sure. Trixie conjures up a magical screen to show what happened to her after "Boast Busters".
  • Foreshadowing:
    • We're told in the opening scene that the Alicorn Amulet is dangerous. We find out at the midpoint why it's so dangerous.
    • There are several hints that Twilight was actually staging her magic in the second duel:
      • "Stallion" Applejack looks a lot like Big Mac, and even uses Mac's "Eeyup" catchphrase, although in Applejack's voice.
      • "Old" Applejack has gold eyes (and bears a striking resemblance to Granny Smith), while the real Applejack has green eyes.
      • "Baby" Rarity has Sweetie Belle's eye shape, which is noted by the fans as odd for unicorn fillies.
      • If you pause some of the scenes with the two Rainbow Dashes you'll notice their wings are different shapes with one having longer, thinner wing feathers than the other.
      • Regular viewers can certainly figure out that Twilight doesn't need magic for Pinkie's one-pony band (beyond summoning the instruments).
  • Fountain of Youth: Trixie turns Snips and Snails into a baby and old stallion, respectively, a magic spell that apparently only the most advanced unicorns can use. Later, after reverting them sometime offscreen, she turns them both into babies. Twilight also seems to turn Applejack and Rarity into fillies, but it's really just Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle in disguise.
  • Freudian Excuse: Trixie's life was ruined by the Ursa Minor incident, leading to her trying to get revenge on the ones who she feels are responsible for it.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Trixie was just a Jerkass stage magician in her last appearance. After getting the Alicorn Amulet, she not only gets untold magical powers, but is corrupted by its influence and becomes an evil tyrant who quickly enslaves Ponyville and exiles Twilight.
  • Funny Background Event: At one point during the second duel, Lyra Heartstrings can be seen very casually sipping from a drink that she's holding with a hoof, completely unconcerned that the fate of Ponyville is being decided right in front of her. She's seen next to Sweetie Drops/Bon Bon.
  • Gender Bender: Subverted. During the second duel, Applejack is magically transformed into a large brawny stallion by Twilight's new magical power. It's really Big Macintosh painted up to look like Applejack.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Trixie bought the amulet to beat Twilight in a duel. While that plan worked, the amulet corrupted her into a power-mad despot in the process.
  • Gratuitous French:
    Twilight: I know about the Alicorn Amulet. I know you cheated!
    Trixie: Cheated? Moi?
    Twilight: Yeah!
  • Greed: The shopkeeper in the Cold Open is initially reluctant to sell the Alicorn Amulet... until he is paid off with a large bag of bits.
  • Guile Heroine: Zecora teaches Twilight to be one, allowing her to get Trixie to take off the Alicorn Amulet via an elaborate magic act.
  • Hand Wave: How did Pinkie not suffocate? Or play the tuba? The answer is given by Twilight: "That wasn't magic; that was just Pinkie Pie".
  • Heel–Face Turn: Trixie, after being freed from the Alicorn Amulet, helps Twilight with her performance, apologizes for her actions, and parts on good terms with her.
  • Hero of Another Story: Celestia, and her diplomatic venture to Saddle Arabia.
  • Heroic Rematch: Twilight loses the first magic duel and trains with a mentor for a rematch.
  • Hoist by Her Own Petard: The first time Trixie came to Ponyville, she used simple magic backed by stagecraft to make her magic seem more impressive than it really was. During the rematch duel, Twilight uses simple magic backed by stagecraft to make her spells seem more powerful than they actually are.
  • Homage: The similarities to The Empire Strikes Back fall just short of a Whole-Plot Reference but run far deeper than a mere Shout-Out...
    • Twilight takes on the role of Luke, the talented learner.
    • Zecora is similar to Yoda as the Mentor Archetype in the wilderness. She doesn't have the inverted syntax but she speaks in rhyme and quotes a Yoda line word-for-word, telling Twilight "You must unlearn what you have learned."),
    • With her new red magic aura and dark cloak, Trixie looks a lot like a Sith Lord. She tries to use a lightning-like Agony Beam on Rainbow Dash. It doesn't hurt that the amulet and its color scheme are reminiscent of a certain evil unicorn.
  • Humble Pie: Twilight once again proves her skill as a unicorn far outmatches Trixie, no matter how powerful her magic is. This time, Trixie accepts the slice and becomes Twilight's friend.
  • Hypocritical Humor: In spite of her newfound humility, Trixie can't resist hamming up about how she's the "most humble" pony. Twilight just rolls her eyes.
  • Inexplicably Awesome: We've known for a long time that Pinkie Pie lives this trope, but here it's weaponized by Twilight Sparkle: to anypony who doesn't know that Pinkie's the resident Rule of Funny Reality Warper, she sure looks like she's under the effect of powerful magic.
  • Interrupted by the End: When Pinkie Pie gets her mouth back, she begins to speak, but then the credits start rolling before she can do so.
  • Involuntary Dance: Trixie forces Pinkie Pie to dance with her magic.
  • Ironic Echo: Kind of. In "Boast Busters", Trixie is run out of town because of her "magic tricks" that are just illusions. Here, Twilight uses illusions to fool Trixie.
  • Irony: Trixie tries to beat Twilight by cheating and increasing her actual magic abilities with the Alicorn Amulet, but once her cheating is exposed Twilight beats her by tricking her with slight-of-hand and smoke and mirrors tricks, the kind of magic Trixie is supposed to be an expert in.
  • It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: The episode opens this way to set a sinister and spooky atmosphere for the mysterious hooded character to buy an artifact of doom.
  • Jaw Drop: Trixie does this when she sees that Twilight has "performed" the de-aging spell on Applejack and Rarity.
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Trixie was a Jerkass to begin with but once she wears the Alicorn Amulet, she goes from an ordinary powerful magician to an outright dictator mad with power.
  • Kick the Dog: Trixie removes Pinkie Pie's mouth after she got offended that Trixie showed disdain for having to work at a rock farm, which isn't fleeting like her other acts; it shows how excessively evil the Alicorn Amulet made her.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Last time, Twilight bested Trixie's stage magic with her own more powerful magic. Now that Trixie has the more powerful magic, she bests her with stage magic.
  • Loser Leaves Town: The terms of Trixie's Wizard Duel.
  • Lovable Coward: Fluttershy is always one, but even more so in this episode.
    Fluttershy: Oh, this is me being brave! I want to be brave at home! Locked in my closet! With my teddy bear!
  • Luminescent Blush: Done by Twilight after Spike brings up the snowball incident.
  • Magical Security Cam: Trixie shows her audience what happened a year or so ago in "Boast Busters", using the exact same footage and animation from that episode.
  • Mama Bear:
    • Fluttershy threatens Twilight if any of her animal friends are harmed during a magic trick. Though they have to drag her into action themselves when she cowers before Trixie decides to put that idea to test.
    • Twilight herself is pretty angry when Trixie goes after Spike, and it's a major reason why she agreed to the duel.
  • Mirror Routine: Rainbow Dash undergoes this when affected by Twilight's "duplication" spell.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Trixie is genuinely apologetic for what she did while under the Amulet's influence.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Fluttershy disguised as Rainbow Dash is one for the Blind Bags of Fluttershy usually being a palette swap of Rainbow Dash.
    • Zecora was originally intended to be a mentor figure for Twilight during the planning stages. Here the zebra shelters Twilight during exile, teaches her some meditation, and helps her with her plan to take down Trixie.
  • Never My Fault: Trixie completely blames Twilight for her loss of reputation around Equestria even though Twilight had tried to avoid showing her up despite Trixie constantly goading her (and the rest of Ponyville), Snips and Snails had only brought the Ursa Minor to Ponyville because they had believed her boasts that she had vanquished one before, and Twilight had to take care of the Ursa Minor or all of Ponyville would have been smashed. While Trixie eventually takes responsibility for the alicorn amulet this episode, she never admits that the events of the previous episode were partly her own fault.
  • Non-Standard Character Design: The two ponies from Saddle Arabia are colored and designed like regular horses. They don't even have cutie marks, raising the question of whether they are supposed to be (my little) ponies or just horses. It's particularly strange seeing Princess Celestia standing next to them, because while Celestia is as tall as they are, her head is clearly bigger than theirs.
  • Not Herself: Trixie, who's corrupted by the Alicorn Amulet. Twilight notices it, sighting she's gone from a showboat to a despot.
  • Not My Lucky Day: Snips and Snails are really abused and mistreated by Trixie in this episode, presumably because they're the ones responsible for ruining her career.
  • Ocular Gushers: Pinkie again; this time she is unable to eat cupcakes after Trixie removes her mouth.
  • An Offer You Can't Refuse: Trixie threatens to keep casting malicious spells on the town and its inhabitants unless Twilight agrees to the duel.
  • Oh, Crap!: Many given the episode's plot, but the kicker has to be Applejack's utter horror when Twilight announces her as the guinea pig for a Gender Bender. The whole thing was trickery, so that was most likely an act.
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten: It turns out that Trixie's failure to defeat an Ursa Minor ruined her career everywhere in Equestria.
  • Pet the Dog: Even at her worst, Trixie still deigns to raise the dome around Ponyville and let some beavers with a cut log out — if only to gets them out of her mane. It bites her in the flank when it turns out they were smuggling Fluttershy out.
  • Pie in the Face: Twilight defies this by summoning a parasprite to eat the pie.
  • Power Creep, Power Seep: Twilight exhausts herself a lot faster in this episode, visibly sweating after levitating some ordinary forest critters. It's somewhat justified in that case she is having to control lots of small creatures moving in different directions.
  • Punny Name: Saddle Arabia, a pun on "saddle" and "Saudi Arabia".
  • Puppy-Dog Eyes: Trixie does this when apologizing. Twilight rolls her eyes at this, but accepts her apology.
  • Rapid-Fire Nail Biting: While Twilight is testing a magic spell on some animals, Fluttershy goes into overprotective mother mode and bites her hooves for the duration of the test.
  • Reality Warper: Trixie under the influence of the Alicorn Amulet. She gives resident reality-benders Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie a run for their money!
  • Recurring Extra: Golden Harvest/Carrot Top and Sweetie Drops/Bon Bon sure get around in Trixie's flashback. Cherry Berry, Berry Punch, Lyra Heartstrings, and Daisy/Flower Wishes too.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: The Alicorn Amulet is this. Trixie also wears a nice black cloak to go along with it.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Trixie's eyes sometimes flash red along with her new amulet when casting magic. Also counts as Glowing Eyes of Doom since it's not permanent — It also looks superimposed because this is external power. When the power was coming from within the characters themselves it lit up their eyes from within. note 
  • Reformed, but Not Tamed: Trixie at the end. "Don't you think the Great and Apologetic Trixie is the most magnificently humble pony that you've ever seen?"
  • Revenge: Trixie's motivation for returning to Ponyville is to get back at Twilight for the whole Ursa Minor incident from "Boast Busters".
  • Rule 63: Subverted. It appears as though Twilight turns Applejack into a male pony, but it tuns out it's just Big Macintosh, painted up to look like her.
  • Running Gag:
    • Trixie keeps trying to use a Smoke Out, but it never lasts long enough to cover her exit.
    • Twilight knocking over cups while asking Zecora for help.
    • As with all previous uses of the word, Trixie delivers a loud and dramatic "FOREVER"!
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!:
    Uncle Curio: This is too powerful and dangerous to sell to anyone.
    [Trixie drops a large bag of bits on the counter]
    Uncle Curio: Would you like that gift-wrapped?
  • Sequel Episode: To "Boast Busters"; after Twilight upstaged her, no-one took Trixie seriously as a magician anymore, and she could no longer make a living with her stage acts. Now she's returned to Ponyville, seeking revenge.
  • Shoo Out the Clowns: Pinkie Pie only has two whole lines in the episode before her mouth is removed by Trixie, rendering her speechless for the rest of the episode.
  • Shout-Out:
    • The dome under which Trixie traps the entire town of Ponyville looks a lot like a bell jar.
    • Twilight getting magic training from a species different from hers who so happens to live in a hut in the swamps and has a unique speaking pattern? Seems familiar, it does.
  • Showdown at High Noon: Twilight and Trixie's first duel parodies this.
  • Skewed Priorities: Fluttershy is rather aggressively protective of her animal buddies towards one of her closest friends. However, when they and the rest of Ponyville become endangered by a malevolent tyrant, she'd rather not take a stand.
  • Slasher Smile: Trixie, when buying the Alicorn Amulet.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: One can only assume that Trixie is this when she gloats about conquering Equestria next. Despite her boosted spellpower from the Alicorn Amulet, there are two princesses that she would have to fight in order to have that happen. Then again, she's Drunk on the Dark Side, and Queen Chrysalis has demonstrated that they aren't invulnerable.
  • Smash Cut: Pinkie interrupts the Iris Out to point out she's still lacking her mouth, which Twilight steps into the black and helps restore it. Pinkie takes a deep breath and — cue credits.
  • Smoke Out: Trixie is still bad at these. She's shown tripping when running away after her last one.
  • Something We Forgot: Pinkie pops up during the Iris Out to remind Twilight and the audience that the former forgot to fix her missing mouth. Twilight does so, and the credits cut her off before she can make use of it.
  • Spot the Imposter: Trixie couldn't tell that ponies were impersonating each other to help Twilight with her stagecraft.
  • Spy Cat Suit: Fluttershy's dangerous mission outfit. Hers comes with bunny ears.
  • Stealth Pun:
    • The delegates of Saddle Arabia are the first horses to appear in the series... Arabians, of course.
    • Trixie turns Spike into a dragon ball.
    • The first thing Trixie does in the duel is flip over a cart full of apples. She literally upsets the apple cart.
    • Trixie doesn't trust wheels. No doubt because of their tendency to turn on you.
    • Wheels also roll, and Trixie voices clear disdain for rock farms earlier in the episode. She doesn't like rock and roll.
    • Twilight defeats Trixie with just smoke and "mirrors". You might call them allusions.
  • The Stinger: After the Iris Out, Pinkie pulls it back open, showing her mouth isn't back. Twilight appears, and makes Pinkie's mouth re-appear, after which she gasps for air. An alternative interpretation is that she's getting ready to say all the things she wasn't able to earlier, but she's interrupted by the credits.
  • Stock Scream: The Wilhelm Scream is played as Twilight stops a cart from landing on Shoeshine.
  • Stock Sound Effect: Pinkie's "muffled protesting" sound is used twice in the episode, once while the gang is looking up the Alicorn Amulet and again in The Stinger.
  • Take That, Audience!: To all the bronies who assumed that Pinkie Pie's story of how she got her cutie mark from "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" was a case of Unreliable Narrator; it turns out the rock farm that she grew up on DOES exist! (Solidified by Pinkie's father appearing with Trixie in the flashback.)
  • Tarot Motifs: Twilight juggles the woodland animals above her head, both in the practice session and the final performance, in a similar mobius strip pattern that appears above The Magician's head in the card. Doubles as a Genius Bonus if you know the significance of The Magician tarot card.note 
  • Team Hand-Stack: Twilight's friends do it when they think out their plan to get Fluttershy outside the force field. Fluttershy was reluctant to place her hoof on top.
  • This Cannot Be!: Trixie declares this after Twilight Sparkle demonstrates magic powers beyond even those granted by the Alicorn Amulet.
  • Throwing Down the Gauntlet: Trixie towards Twilight for the first magic duel.
  • Tickle Torture:
    • Trixie does this to force Applejack to mash apples.
    • She later unintentionally does this to Rainbow Dash when she tries to do an Agony Beam.
  • Time to Unlock More True Potential: Subverted. Twilight trains with Zecora to beat Trixie, but she doesn't use any new magic skills in the second duel. Instead she uses the magic of friendship and sleight of hand.
  • Title Drop: Two: one for the episode's title when Trixie challenges Twilight to a magic duel, and one for the show as a whole when Twilight bests the Alicorn Amulet's magic with help from her friends, ergo the "magic of friendship".
  • Took a Level in Badass:
    • Trixie has become a formidable threat thanks to the Amplifier Artifact.
    • Also discussed by Spike, who says that Twilight's magic has improved a lot since she first came to Ponyville.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Trixie was just a jerk back in "Boast Busters", but here, she defeats Twilight in a duel and banishes her from Ponyville. This is mainly due to the Alicorn Amulet turning her from an ordinary Jerkass into an outright dictator.
    Twilight: It's like she's gone from "high and mighty" to "mean and nasty"!
  • Took a Level in Kindness: Trixie becomes a much nicer pony after being shown the error of her ways. The episode ends with her and Twilight parting on friendly terms.
  • The Unintelligible:
    • Pinkie, of all ponies. All she can do once her mouth has been removed is make humming noises, yet Applejack seems to understand her just fine.
    • The beavers, too, when they were smuggling Fluttershy out of town. Trixie either understood them or figured out what they wanted.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Apparently none of the citizens of Ponyville thought the amulet Trixie was wearing was strange at all, or how it glowed red just like her magic aura now did, or seemed to make her eyes glow red too. Twilight even states she can't believe she didn't recognize the Alicorn Amulet from studying it.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Trixie when Twilight seemingly exceeds her power with an "amulet" she got from Zecora.
  • Walk on Water: Twilight does this as part of her training with Zecora.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Trixie turns Snips and Snails into babies during her second duel against Twilight and they are never seen getting turned back to their normal ages.
  • Whip of Dominance: Trixie (who has become even crueler than before due to the Alicorn Amulet) forces Snips and Snails to drag her chariot (which doesn't even have wheels!) for her. When they get tired out, she whips them.
  • Who's Laughing Now?: Trixie was made a laughingstock throughout Equestria for the Ursa incident. She responds by getting the Alicorn Amulet to take her revenge.
  • Window Love: When Trixie drops the fish bowl barrier over Ponyvile, Twilight puts a hoof on one side while Spike does the same from the other.
  • Wipe That Smile Off Your Face: Trixie takes Pinkie Pie's mouth early in the episode, and she doesn't get it back until the very end.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The Alicorn Amulet gives Trixie tremendous power, at the cost of turning her into a despot who takes over Ponyville and aims for all of Equestria. Snails brings it up when she forces him and Snips to pull her on carriages without wheels because she doesn't trust wheels.
  • Wizard Duel: Twice, hence the episode's name.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Trixie's life was ruined by the Ursa Minor incident turning her into a laughingstock and drove her to get the means to take her revenge on those she sees as responsible. The Alicorn Amulet then corrupts Trixie's already angry mind and turns her into a full-blown tyrant with power to back it up.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Trixie's mistreatment of Snips and Snails amounts to this when one remembers that they are not that much older than Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.
  • You Are Already Dead: Trixie evokes this after Twilight's friends defend her after losing the duel.
    Rarity: You've proved your point, but you can't possibly expect Twilight to leave Ponyville!
    Trixie: You fools! She's already gone! [magically ejects her from Ponyville]
  • "You!" Exclamation: Trixie, when she notices Twilight returning from her exile.
  • You Monster!: The general reaction to Trixie's nastier behavior.
  • You Will Be Spared: Fluttershy, though still reduced to an exhausted slave, is the only non-background character who Trixie doesn't target for humiliation or hurting. This makes sense, seeing as Fluttershy did nothing to tick her off in either "Boast Busters" or this episode.

 
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Pinkie Pie, the One-Pony Band

During Twilight Sparkle's rematch with Trixie, Twilight makes Pinkie Pie play ten different music instruments at once.

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4.08 (13 votes)

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