My Little Pony 06x25 to Where and Back Again Part 1

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E25ToWhereAndBackAgainPart1

Discord just found out Queen Chrysalis has Fluttershy. Dainty knowin' ya, Chrysalis.

"THEY'RE BACK!!"

—Starlight Glimmer

Special Guest Star: John de Lancie as Discord
Written past: Josh Haber and Michael Vogel

While moving boxes of books in Twilight's library, Starlight Glimmer receives an invitation from her old hamlet to take in the Sunset Festival for the town. While Twilight encourages her to become, Starlight is still haunted by the things she did as the boondocks'southward leader, nervously wondering if the ponies there volition hold a grudge. At night, Starlight dreams of the ponies from her hamlet mocking her and insulting her, prompting Princess Luna to footstep in. While Starlight is relieved that it's all a dream, Luna says that the emotions it represents are real, and she should talk to her friends about it. The next morning, Starlight confides in the Mane Six that she's nervous, then they suggest bringing along a friend to aid. To Twilight's thwarting, Starlight chooses to bring Trixie with her, and the ii ready out.

Once they get in at the village, the ponies are actually quite happy to see her. In fact, they begin to ask Starlight numerous questions virtually how the Sunset Festival should be run. Overwhelmed, Starlight panics, pushing the ponies away with her magic. Trixie uses her fume bombs to help give her a hasty exit, with a dejected Starlight proverb that she doesn't want to be in charge of annihilation else. Trixie quietly admits that even she makes mistakes, and the best matter to do in that state of affairs is forget about it and move on.

Back in Ponyville, Starlight notices everypony acting strangely, with the Mane 6 all behaving incredibly snidely and rudely, along with none of them seeming to recall that Starlight headed back to her onetime hamlet. That night, some other dream has Starlight confronted by her friends, but she realizes apace that it's another dream. Notwithstanding, a panicked Princess Luna appears and warns Starlight that changelings have kidnapped her and the other princesses, and that she needs to get aid. Though frightened, Starlight gets Trixie to spy on the Mane 6 in the castle. They utilize a device to communicate with Queen Chrysalis, the changeling leader, who confirms that the princesses have been kidnapped, and even replaced with phonies. The queen also says that since they thought "too minor" in their attempt to claim Canterlot last time, they will now conquer all of Equestria.

After slipping out of the castle thanks to a cloaking spell, Starlight suggests going to the Crystal Empire to go assistance from Princess Cadance. Yet, Thorax the friendly changeling appears, who confirms that Cadance'south family unit has also been taken. As they despair over who else could perchance help them now with both the Mane Half dozen and the Purple Family the prisoners of the changelings, the near-omnipotent Discord arrives; he is initially quite uncaring about the whole situation, until he hears that Fluttershy has also been taken, and he transports them to the Changeling Hive. Starlight looks on nervously, unsure of how to proceed...

TO Be CONTINUED

*cue happy credits music*

Continued in "To Where and Back Again – Part 2".

---

Tropes:

• All There in the Manual: My Piffling Pony (Gameloft) explains how the changelings abducted the Mane Six. One used a simulated present to abduct and replace Pinkie Pie, then threw a party to lure and capture the rest of them.
• All Up to You lot: Starlight is forced to take Trixie, Thorax, and Discord with her to rescue the Royal Family and Mane Six, and save Equestria.
• Art Evolution: Starting this episode, Trixie's optics are now rendered with two catchlights like everypony else, rather than a single catchlight in her before appearances.
• Badass in Distress: Some of the most powerful ponies in Equestria were captured by the changelings, and now they need to be rescued.
• Exist All My Sins Remembered: Starlight all the same doesn't believe she deserves to be forgiven for the things she has done, and especially doesn't want the responsibility of being a leader over again.

• Beware the Dizzy Ones: Discord is ordinarily goofy and mischievous. When he hears that Fluttershy was taken, he gets deadly serious.
• Big "NO!": Starlight says this when all the requests for for guidance from the ponies of her sometime village become too much for her.
• Large "WHAT?!": Trixie lets one out when Starlight tells her the changelings are back.
• Brief Accent Faux: Thorax being a changeling, he goes beyond simply imitating Twilight'due south mannerisms: he turns into her to repeat the speech she made nearly him in the Crystal Empire, including mimicking her vocalism.
• Broad Strokes: The comic serial, which has always had an uneasy human relationship with the show regarding its canon status, has its biggest castor with the testify's canon so far here. It had depicted another meet with Chrysalis where she was imprisoned, but then a afterwards issue had her escape and get her power dorsum. None of this is referenced hither, simply given that she ended upward back where she started, the fans are free to imagine information technology all happened or non as they adopt. On acme of that, the Changeling Kingdom presented in this episode is definitely different from the 1 in the comics. Given the latter was more than a temporary base of operations for Chrysalis and her army, nonetheless, it can be assumed that this Changeling Kingdom is meant to be the changeling species' homeland.
• Brutal Honesty: Rainbow Dash says Starlight was "...pretty awful" when she was a villain, prompting Applejack to chide her.
• The Bus Came Dorsum:
  • Trixie, Thorax, and Discord all make a return after having an episode earlier in the season.
  • Queen Chrysalis and her changeling ground forces make an official return later their defeat during the royal hymeneals and their timeline during Starlight'southward revenge attempt, this time with Chrysalis seeking Revenge by making sure that Equestria's principal defenses in the Imperial Family and the Mane Half-dozen, the ones responsible for her previous defeat, are out of the way early on on so they can't interfere again.
  • The ponies of Our Town brand a return after helping stop Starlight from stealing the Mane Six'south cutie marks and their cameo at the end of season 5.
• Call-Dorsum:
  • The ponies from Our Boondocks invite Starlight to the Dusk Festival, leading to some give-and-take virtually her previously leading the village, and how they had forgiven her misdeeds in "The Cutie Re-Mark – Part ii".

    Trixie: In that location information technology is! The town where you—
    Starlight Glimmer: Magically stole everypony's cutie marks, replaced them with equal signs, and forced them all to hide their natural talents? Yep.
    Trixie: I was going to say "where you came from," but yours is a more... emotionally traumatic answer.

  • Princess Luna visits the dreams of another pony to give them advice, then uses it later to warn Starlight of the state of affairs with the changelings earlier she is taken.
  • Princess Luna likewise mentions to Starlight how the Mane Six accept helped her in the past, and points that they have some backstory in common.
  • Starlight'due south friendship with Trixie and Twilight'due south lingering trepidation over information technology harken back to "No Second Prances" earlier in the flavor.
  • Thorax directly quotes Twilight's speech about her decision to trust him in "The Times They Are a Changeling", even turning into her and using the audio.
• Catapult Nightmare: Starlight Glimmer springs awake from her second dream, screaming "THEY'RE Back!" Considering the peculiarly chilling warning she but received from Luna in said dream, this is no surprise she's having an anguished wake-up.
• The Chains of Commanding: Starlight, after her previous mistakes with leadership, doesn't feel comfortable in a leadership role, as her reaction to the ponies of "Our Boondocks" request for her advice on the festival shows.
• Changeling Tale: Taken Up to Eleven with the changelings ponynapping all the Princesses and their friends and loved ones, then feeding on everypony else'due south love for the replaced ponies and feeding that love to Queen Chrysalis.
• Character Shilling: The episode starts with Twilight praising Starlight'due south development and fifty-fifty claiming it's all cheers to Starlight herself. Because her express airtime this season and the concluding we saw of her progress she didn't realize heed-controlling her friends was a bad thing until called out, that's either non saying much or she fabricated an implausible amount of offscreen progress ^notation the next season premier supports this past having a large pile of Starlight'southward lesson while only the beginning iii were shown this flavour, though it might not have been meant to be taken seriously considering only three episodes passed and Starlight'south unresolved self-uncertainty over it.
• Bewilderment: Equally is the instance with the two-parters, this episode ends with the changelings having kidnapped several powerful ponies effectually Equestria, including the Mane Vi and the Royal Family, meaning Equestria is nearly defenseless and leaderless now, and leaving Starlight and her squad outside the Changeling Hive to rescue everyone, with Starlight scared of what to exercise next.
• Comically Missing the Indicate: Twilight is hinting that Starlight should invite her to go with her, but she decides to bring Trixie instead, to the Princess of Friendship's annoyance.
• Commonality Connection: Princess Luna identifies with Starlight, every bit they both succumbed to the dark sides of their nature in the past, and struggled through redemption.

  Princess Luna: I see much of myself in you, Starlight Blink, and I tin tell you from personal experience that things do indeed get better.

• Continuity Nod:
  • Derpy wears the mail compatible she was seen wearing in "Crusaders of the Lost Mark".
  • In the first dream, Party Favor makes the same memetic face he did in "The Cutie Map – Part ii" after he was released from the reconditioning shed.
  • The spell Starlight uses to button the ponies away is the same one she used in "The Cutie Map – Function ii".
  • The changeling who had replaced Fluttershy is seen performing a Slouch of Villainy on her throne; Starlight pulled a like pose on the very same throne in "The Cutie Re-Mark – Role 1".
  • While proving his identity, Discord turns the basis into lather, just as he did in "The Return of Harmony - Role 2".
• Cover Identity Anomaly: The changelings replacing the Mane Six evidence varying levels of skill in impersonating them.
  • The worst are the replacements for Rainbow Nuance and Spike, who act like directly-upwards jerkasses and testify none of the traits of the characters they impersonate. They seem to hate their job, though false Spike has skilful reason to every bit he is the Butt-Monkey of the group.
  • Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie'due south replacements make an endeavour to imitation some of the tics of their originals and try to respond politely when Starlight talks to them, but the ruse eventually breaks down. The fake Applejack and Rarity burst out in cheeky laughter when they hear of Starlight'south genuine and painful friendship trouble, while fake Pinkie doesn't recollect Starlight'south name and bails quickly on their conversation, whereas the existent Little finger has been repeatedly demonstrated to retrieve every friend she's ever met and is extremely talkative.
  • The changeling taking over Princess Twilight's function does the all-time job, successfully faking her way through a conversation with Starlight and hoof-waving away the others' odd behavior. She fifty-fifty offers some confident friendship "advice". The only thing odd well-nigh her is the advice itself, in that she tells Starlight to forget her old friendships and merely find new ones to supersede them, whereas the existent Twilight Sparkle encourages determination and maintaining friendships fifty-fifty through difficulty.
  • Collectively, none of the changelings recognize Starlight or show any knowledge that she's Twilight'due south educatee. Even the fake Twilight never acknowledges her name or position. Queen Chrysalis afterwards says she knows exactly who Starlight is and even considered having her replaced, merely ultimately deciding that she wasn't worth the trouble (which would explain the lack of a briefing regarding her).
• Darkest 60 minutes: The changelings have returned, and have kidnapped all of the nigh powerful ponies in Equestria, including every fellow member of the Imperial Family and all of Twilight'southward friends, replacing them with fakes to pave the way for a full-calibration invasion in Revenge for the Purple Wedding ceremony defeat.
• A Mean solar day in the Limelight: Notably the get-go ii-parter that does non focus on Twilight or the Mane Six.
• Deflector Shields: Trixie freaks out badly upon meeting with Thorax, forcing Starlight to encase her in a bubble shield that is soundproof. Trixie spends the next few moments floating inside, screaming, panicking and slamming her hooves against the barrier to no avail in complete silence.
• Destroy the Abusive Home: When you meet the wide shot of Our Town, information technology appears the residents have demolished Starlight'due south onetime cottage and planted a tree in its place.
• The Drag-Forth: Trixie doesn't feel she'due south particularly qualified to be taking on the changeling horde and would much rather be somewhere else.
• Dream Walker: Princess Luna, equally usual. She appears in Starlight Glimmer's kickoff dream to give her some advice about how to handle her ache of coming dorsum to Our Town. In the 2d dream, she apply her ability to warn Starlight about the changeling attack while struggling to fight off her captors in vain.
• Easily Forgiven: Contrary to her fears and nightmares, the ponies of Our Town don't behave any grudge against Starlight Glimmer and want her to bring together in on their commemoration. Nevertheless, beingness easily forgiven once more but aggravates Starlight's anguish, and she assumes a Troubled Fetal Position before running away.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: The changelings replacing Applejack and Rarity bursts into laughter when Starlight tells them she fled from the Sunset Festival in Our Town. This lack of empathy is a large hint of their truthful nature.
• Evil Laugh: Naturally, Queen Chrysalis indulges in megalomaniacal cackling at the end of the advice scene, and her changeling minions follow suit.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Changeling Kingdom Castle is a jagged and gnarled spire fortress surrounded by a wasteland devoid of any plant life. Aye, definitely not a very friendly-looking place to visit. Thorax is terrified when he looks upon it, even though he's from there.
• Center Am Watching You: The changeling impersonating Spike, who has been the most hostile of the bunch, makes the gesture twice toward Starlight every bit she comes back to the Friendship Castle. Not suspicious at all, nope.
• Heart Twitch: Twilight has some when Starlight brings Trixie to "Our Town" instead of her.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Luna struggling to contact Starlight and the group not teleporting directly to the Hive/where Fluttershy is both atomic number 82 to an important function of the next episode.
  • Thorax's new wings are likewise a hint at what's coming.
  • Discord tries to directly teleport himself and the other would-exist rescuers directly to Fluttershy, but to his defoliation they stop upwardly outside of the hive instead. The reason for this is explained next episode.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The "unlikely heroes" that pace upwardly when the Mane Half dozen are decommissioned. Starlight Glimmer is melancholic; Trixie is choleric; Discord is sanguine as e'er; and Thorax is phlegmatic.
• Funny Groundwork Upshot:
  • When Starlight first sees the impostor Mane Six in the map chamber, the changeling disguised as Applejack is eating a pear.
  • When Thorax appears to Starlight and Trixie, Starlight is forced to seal her inside a soundproof bubble when she won't stop screaming. She remains there for the rest of the following conversation, pulling hilarious faces.
  • When it's Discord plough to announced, he'south knitting a mock-upwards of Angel Bunny for... some reason.
  • When Twilight is telling Starlight that she should bring a friend when she returns to "Our Town", conspicuously hinting at herself, Fasten wears a Disapproving Look, because he knows that Starlight volition chose Trixie over Twilight without any uncertainty. Then nosotros accept the Gilligan Cutting...
• Gagging on Your Words: When Starlight asks Trixie to echo what she'd earlier told her to not repeat to anypony, to make sure she's not a changeling, Trixie'south answer first come out as unintelligible mumbling between clenched teeth. Only on Starlight's insistence does she finally admit it was "That even Trixie'due south made mistakes!"
• Gilligan Cut: Twilight is telling Starlight that she should bring a friend when she returns to "Our Town", clearly hinting at herself, and the cut shows that she's called Trixie.
• Gondor Calls for Help: With the Mane Vi, Fasten, Shining Armor, and the Princesses captured, Starlight gets the help of Discord, Trixie and Thorax. She would like to call for the Crystal Empire simply patently they were hit commencement.
• Adept Costume Switch: Although not a costume, Thorax has new wings that shine like crystal, something that both Starlight, and Thorax himself notice.
• Skillful Wings, Evil Wings: Thorax has new, hole-less sparkly wings compared to his quondam ones, something Starlight noticed right away.
• Hellish Pupils: Discord's goofy, mismatched pupils narrow into ophidian-like slits when he hears that Fluttershy was one of the ponies captured by the changelings.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • When the ponies of Our Town bombard Starlight with requests for her guidance, she screams "No!" and pushes them away with her expanding shield spell. Immediately after, she is shown lying on the ground, hooves over her eyes, trembling in ache.
  • Trixie is terrified of the changelings and panics the moment she hears about them. She doesn't even want to be shut to Thorax, despite assertive Starlight when she says that he is on their side.
• Hey, You lot!: These are the imitation Pinkie Pie's kickoff words to Starlight one time she returns to Ponyville.
• Hope Spot: Starlight suggests going to get Cadance and Shining's help, but Thorax reveals that they were captured already, and Sunburst sent him to get aid from Twilight.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Discord describes the trio of Starlight, Trixie and Thorax as "a combination of secondary characters".
• Let's Get Dangerous!: The moment Discord learns that Fluttershy has been captured by the changelings, he instantly drops all pretense of goofing off and becomes deadly serious.
• Letting the Air Out of the Band: When Thorax turns into Twilight to repeat her speech from "The Times They Are a Changeling", the same solemn music from this scene can likewise exist heard... until Starlight cuts him, at which point the music falters and peters out.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Not the exact phrase Trixie used, but this is definitely what she was feeling when she admitted that even she makes mistakes. Naturally, it gets brought upwardly for Trixie's Something Only They Would Say moment.
• Literary Allusion Title: To The Hobbit, whose full title reads The Hobbit, or At that place and Back Once again.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Save the Twilight impersonator, none of the Changelings seem to know Starlight exists. Plain they have not fully followed history since the Purple Wedding ceremony. Although the side by side episode reveals that Chrysalis herself is well aware of who Starlight is and considered not the problem of replacing.
• Lower-Deck Episode: Lampshaded by Discord earlier the squad sets out on a rescue mission to save the Mane Six and the Purple Family unit.

  Discord: Well, isn't this quite the combination of secondary characters!

• Mook Lieutenant: The one changeling turned into Twilight Sparkle is ordering around the others, and also seems to be more intelligent than the average drone. He'due south doing a amend job impersonating the princess than his goons are doing with their respective roles — it's all the same off, but at least he tries giving believable pretexts to Starlight for the discrepancies. He's also the merely i seen to talk while in changeling course when Chrysalis contacts them, and about sniffs out a hidden Starlight and Trixie.
• Morality Pet: Fluttershy remains this to Discord; he only reacts to the changeling situation when he learns that she was taken.
• Mordor: The Changeling Kingdom is a dour and barren-looking state surrounding a large spire of night stone.
• Mythology Gag: Before Starlight wakes her, Trixie is mumbling about peanut butter crackers in her sleep, a snack of which her Equestria Girls cocky is besides noted to exist addicted.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Queen Chrysalis is back, and wasted no time at all disposing of not but Princess Cadance this time effectually, just Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, Shining Armor, Flurry Heart, and the Mane Six also, the only heroes she believes would stand up in the mode of stopping her plan, and to take Revenge on all of them for her previous defeat at their hooves.
• The Nose Knows: The changeling posing as Twilight stops for a moment in the castle hallway to sniff around while searching for Starlight and Trixie and follows the trail to where Starlight and Trixie are hiding. However, since Starlight has cast an invisibility spell on them the changeling continues searching somewhere else.
• Not Himself: Starlight is confused when the Mane Six and Spike either don't recognize her or otherwise admonish or insult her for either reason. It's merely a matter of time before she realizes they were replaced with Changelings.
• No Sympathy Between Mooks: The changelings are seen mocking i of their own (the Spike impersonator) for beingness slapped effectually.
• Not What I Signed Up For: Trixie has a major freak-out when she and Starlight only barely escape being caught past the changelings and says she tin can't deal with "princess-level stuff" because she is just a performer.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The changelings somehow capturing the Mane 6 and all of the Royal Family in the time it took for Starlight and Trixie to travel to Our Town and back.
• Old Shame: Starlight's opinion of her deportment in "Our Town", which she now deeply regrets.
• OOC Is Serious Business: The goofy and giddy Discord turns on a dime when the others inform him that the changelings have taken Fluttershy as well. He becomes utterly pissed .
• Out-of-Character Alert: Starlight notices this well-nigh the "Mane Six" later coming abode, eventually discovering they're non her friends after all — they're Changelings in disguise.
• Overly Long Scream: Trixie is somewhat taken aback by Thorax, to the point where Starlight has to trap her in a bubble to cease the noise from giving them away.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Trixie gleefully rubs Starlight inviting her to come up to Our Town with her in Twilight'due south confront, while smugly "complimenting" the Princess of Friendship on her "wisdom" and emphasizing how she'due south Starlight'southward best friend.
• Plot Hole: Starlight Glimmer's start dream is strangely up-to-appointment about the appearance of Our Town, including the exact banners used for the Dusk Festival, and the fact that her cottage has been replaced by a tree. This wasn't the case during her last visit (at the end of "The Cutie Re-Mark – Role 2") and she makes quite articulate she hadn't been in that location dorsum since, and thus she shouldn't take memories of the updated hamlet.
• The Punishment Is the Law-breaking: Despite being Easily Forgiven by all the ponies effectually her and wanting to be friends with her, Starlight Glimmer is however besides self-absorbed to have it and doesn't experience she deserves information technology for all the bad things she did.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Starlight Glimmer has to relieve Equestria with her own makeshift squad of quondam villains and social misfits: Trixie, a blowhard magician with a bad public image as a one-fourth dimension evil overlord; Thorax, a friendly changeling who has faced prejudice from the very ponies he wants to get forth with; and Discord, a not-quite-reformed prankster of nigh-omnipotent ability who merely helps when he feels like it.

  Trixie: I tin't deal with this! I'grand just a performer! This is... This is princess-level stuff!

• Reality Warper: Discord demonstrates his powers by distorting things when Starlight asks for proof that he'due south the real Discord.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Discord's pupils flash an aroused red very briefly when he asks, with a growling tone of voice, where they've taken Fluttershy.
• Red Herring: Trixie's line about pretending something bad never happened, immediately followed by a scene where Pinkie Pie can't remember Starlight's name, may have been an attempt to fool the audience into thinking that the episode was going the way of It's a Wonderful Plot.
• Revenge: After her previous defeat regarding the Royal Wedding, Chrysalis attempts to conquer Equestria again, this time covertly kidnapping everyone involved in her original defeat, the Mane 6 and the Royal Family, so they can't stop her again.
• Screw This, I'thousand Outta Here!: When Starlight has a breakdown at her former village, Trixie notices the trouble and uses her trademark smoke flop exit technique to go herself and Starlight out the village.
• Shout-Out:
  • In addition to the Literary Allusion Championship to The Hobbit, the concept of a rag-tag group of heroes and anti-heroes traveling to a mountain belonging to their articulation nemesis also borrows from The Lord of the Rings, with the Changeling Kingdom being a decent counterpart to Mt. Doom.
  • The arrival of Derpy parodies some archetype Superman lines:

    Twilight Sparkle: Is it a bird?
    Starlight Glimmer: Is it a parasprite?
    Fasten: It's... it's... incoming!

  • When Discord makes a sit-in of his Reality Warping, he turns Trixie'southward wagon into a pumpkin coach.
• Slouch of Villainy: The changeling posing as Fluttershy invokes this while sitting on her throne, putting its rear hooves up on the map table. It couldn't await less like Fluttershy without abandoning her paradigm entirely.
• Smoke Out:
  • Trixie uses her trademark exit method to go Starlight and herself out of Our Town, and information technology actually works: Trixie now uses a more powerful bomb so that the smoke stays for longer, both covering the exit much improve than earlier and making the other ponies to cough and shut their eyes for a few moments, and therefore Trixie is already far abroad when they tin can finally meet again.
  • Trixie seems unable to Non use her smoke bombs for drama, which gives us ane funny moment before they attain Our Town.

    Trixie: Not but a promise, a great and powerful promise! [smoke bombs the area, cue some coughing]

• Something Merely They Would Say: Starlight asks something from all three of her allies to confirm they aren't changelings: Trixie reveals a hush-hush she shared with Starlight earlier in the episode, Thorax recites the speech Twilight made afterward she accepted him, and Discord shows off his powers.
• So Much for Stealth: Starlight and Trixie manage to spy on the changelings without existence noticed while they are contacting Queen Chrysalis, simply at the stop of the magic conference Starlight makes the fault of pushing the door to the throne room a footling, causing it to creak. The changelings are immediately alerted and hiss menacingly.
• Spiking the Photographic camera: When the Changeling impersonating Twilight tries to explain why Spike was acting and so off today, her eyes await directly at the viewer audition when she says "I call back he missed a meal or something."
• Spoof Aesop: What Trixie has taken away from her past misadventures is apparently that everyone makes mistakes but that the important matter is to move on from them and pretend they never happened. Starlight admits that that'due south nearly a adept lesson...
• Stranger in a Familiar State:
  • Starlight is agape to return to Our Boondocks because she fears she won't exist accepted in that location anymore.
  • Thorax likewise seems terrified to return to the Changeling Kingdom.
• Talking in Your Sleep: Starlight hears Trixie talking in her sleep about performing for Princess Celestia for peanut butter crackers.
• Teleportation:
  • Starlight Glimmer teleports herself and a panicking Trixie back to her wagon afterwards a close telephone call with the changelings replacing the Mane Six and Spike.
  • As presently as Discord learns that Fluttershy is in danger, he teleports himself, Starlight, Trixie and Thorax directly to her location. Or at least he tries — he doesn't expect a Teleport Interdiction to be in place, leaving them outside the Changeling Hive.
• Teleport Interdiction: Discord tries to teleport himself, Starlight, Trixie, and Thorax to where Fluttershy is, but instead only brings them to exterior the Changeling Hive. Side by side episode shows why. This also explains why Luna simply could not teleport away from her captors while warning Starlight earlier.
• Tempting Fate: When Discord appears, Starlight has the "great idea" to phone call him out and openly question his identity. While in that location was a massive non-lethal Replicant Snatching invasion of Equestria past the changelings going on, it's all the same a bad idea to claiming a Mad God to prove himself given Discord's level of power. Later on all, if he'due south an imposter, Starlight, Trixie, and Thorax would be able to handle one changeling, but if information technology actually is Discord, you've but invited him to mess you up in many weird and impossible ways.

  Starlight: How do we know you are who you lot say you are?
  [cue Discord turning the entire landscape into something from Willy Wonka's nightmares]

• Too Fast to Stop: Derpy'southward mail delivery system. She crashes through a window of the Castle.
• Tranquil Fury: Discord gives the impression of being utterly unconcerned with the changeling invasion... until he hears Fluttershy'southward been captured. Then he drops all pretense of being bored and demands to know, in a deadly serious tone, where she's been taken.
• Visible Invisibility: Starlight uses an invisibility spell to hide Trixie and herself from the changeling impersonating Twilight and company. The optics, and the outline of their bodies, are still slightly visible. It'due south likely for the audience'southward do good equally the changeling neither sees nor smells anything.
• Vocal Dissonance: The changelings, in addition to not knowing how the ponies they kidnapped act, don't seem to get the voices right, either. The most obvious one is Rainbow Dash, whose voice is noticeably higher and less scratchy than is normal for her.
• Volumetric Mouth: On seeing Thorax, Trixie starts screaming her head off for a comically long time, which is expressed several times past her wide-open mouth occupying the whole face, complete with a total view of her glottis and natural language twirling like a mad snake.
• Wake Up Fighting: Of a sort. Trixie accidentally sets off several of her magical fireworks while getting out of bed when Starlight wakes her upward; luckily, Starlight was outside Trixie's wagon, and so doesn't go hit.
• Weirder Than Usual: Starlight is puzzled by the way the fake Little finger is acting, despite reminders that Pinkie Pie is always weird.

  Starlight Blink: That was... strange...
  Trixie: Isn't she e'er strange?
  Starlight Glimmer: Yeah, but... non like that.

• Wham Line: After Starlight has seen all of the Mane Six acting suspiciously for no credible reason, Luna'due south appearance in her dream, struggling against her captors, finally gives away the game.

  Princess Luna: The changelings accept returned!

• Whole Plot Reference: The plot of this 2-parter seems to be one for the premiere of the serial, in which the protagonist is a unicorn who leads a canaille squad to fight an evil force threatening the country.
• The Worf Effect: The Royal Family and the Mane Six are put out of commission by the changelings to underscore just how bad the situation is and ratchet upwards the pressure on the second-string heroes. Nosotros don't meet how but it's heavily implied to have something to do with The Reveal of Chrysalis having a Ability Nullifier throne which can block their magic that led to existence kidnapped and then hands. Thorax too mentions that a common Changeling tactic is to use a disguise to lure a target into an ambush, so both were probably used.
• Worldbuilding: The Changeling Kingdom, previously mentioned by Thorax in "The Times They Are a Changeling", finally makes an advent.
• Would Hurt a Child: The changelings have kidnapped both Spike and Flurry Heart, both of whom are merely babies to their corresponding races. (To be fair, it wouldn't accept been much better to get out Flurry Heart behind after abducting her parents.)
• You Are in Command Now: Trixie, Thorax, and even Discord expect at Starlight for leadership since all four princesses (i of which is her instructor) have been kidnapped. It's something she definitely doesn't feel comfortable with.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E25ToWhereAndBackAgainPart1

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