History Recap / MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E13MagicalMysteryCure

* MusicalEpisode: With a whopping ''seven'' songs, tied with ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E12PinkiePride Pinkie Pride]]'' for the most songs in any single episode of the series, and more in this ''one episode'' than the rest of Season 3 combined.

* MusicalEpisode: With a whopping ''seven'' songs, the most songs in any single episode thus far, and more in this ''one episode'' than the rest of Season 3 combined.

** The mysterious book from "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E2TheCrystalEmpirePart2 The Crystal Empire - Part 2]]" is finally explained.

** At the end, the [[AwesomeMomentOfCrowning newly crowned]] {{Princess}} Twilight gives a speech, citing her friends as the reason for her accomplishment and waves them over to join her on the balcony. Twilight Sparkle is among the few who could remain humble about becoming a [[PhysicalGod pseudo-deity]]

A quick trip (and [[EarWorm a musical number]]) around Ponyville shows that the rest of Twilight's friends have also switched cutie marks and jobs: Rainbow Dash (switched with Fluttershy) is trying in vain to rein in a cottage full of unruly critters; Fluttershy (switched with Pinkie Pie) is hosting a borefest of a party at Sugarcube Corner; Pinkie (switched with Applejack) is literally running Sweet Apple Acres into the ground with her inept farmwork; and Applejack (switched with Rarity) is failing to generate any business at Carousel Boutique with her tacky dresses. The strangest part? All of Twilight's friends think that their lives have always been this way, and are resigned to doing what their new marks are telling them. Needless to say, they're feeling pretty down--and the rest of Ponyville is being dragged down with them.

* TearsofJoy: During Twilight's speech at her coronation, her friends are all moved to tears as she says that each one of them taught her something about friendship, which she is grateful for. Shining Armor sheds a few tears as well, which he calls "liquid pride".

* ObiWanMoment: As the other five Elements blast Twilight, she briefly looks confused and slightly panicked. She regains her composure, closes her eyes, and smiles--just before she apparently vaporizes.

** When Rainbow Dash is putting Gummy in a cage it is briefly apparent that she has her normal cutie mark.

** Several times throughout the coronation, the top of Twilight’s mane keeps changing back and fourth between the rounded fancy style and its regular everyday angular style.

* PaletteSwap: The four identical "[[FanNickname banner mares]] [[invoked]]" at the coronation are palette swaps of Fluttershy with different tails. (We don't know if they have wings.)

** When Princess Twilight unfolds her wings for the first time, she's surrounded by a white aura.

** To Music/TheBeatles - ''Film/MagicalMysteryTour''.

[[CrowningMusicOfAwesome *cue...]][[TriumphantReprise even HAPPIER credits music than before!!!*]]

** Another one for "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E2TheCrystalEmpirePart2 The Crystal Empire - Part 2]]", or rather, the Crystal Empire episode as a whole in tandem with this episode. When Twilight is first informed of her test, Spike reassures her that everything will be fine. At the end of the episode, he tells Twilight that he knew everything was going to be fine. At the end of "Life in Ponyville", Twilight is interrupted when singing that everything in Ponyville is certainly fine, and as a closing line in the season, she flies at the camera and remarks "Everything's going to be just fine." Related, both songs "I Wasn't Prepared for This" (from the opener) and "Life In Canterlot" end with a similar pull-back from Canterlot, the character(s) singing on a parapet at the start.

** Derpy--absent for most of the season--can be spotted throughout the ColdOpen and in the final act. At the end she winks to the camera with her derped eyes just before Shining Armor arrives. She is also fully visible during the parade near the end.

* CapturedByCannibals: Many of the [[DiscreditedTrope old clichés]] associated with this trope are [[ParodiedTrope parodied]] when the situation at Fluttershy's cottage reaches the [[JustForPun boiling point]]. Good thing Twilight and Fluttershy arrived when they did...

** Star Swirl the Bearded's journal, which first appeared (but wasn't named) in "The Crystal Empire - Part 2".

* AnimalsHateHer: Rainbow is ''terrible'' at controlling Fluttershy's animals; they try to cook her and ''eat her''.

* BreakTheCutie: The swapped Manes are painfully aware of just how bad they are at their new lives. [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E1TheReturnOfHarmonyPart1 It's been some time since they were broken this badly]].
** Not to mention Twilight's reaction when she realizes that the whole thing is entirely her fault.

** Derpy--absent for most of the season--can be spotted throughout the ColdOpen and the final act. At the end she winks to the camera with her derped eyes just before Shining Armor arrives. She is also fully visible during the parade near the end.
** [[FanNickname Davenport]] [[invoked]], the owner of "[[SeverelySpecializedStore Quills and Sofas]]" in "Owl's Well That Ends Well", appears in the opening number. His store oddity is even referenced in the lyrics: "here's the sofa clerk selling some quills"

** Flitter and Cloudchaser: two twin Pegasi that debuted in "Hurricane Fluttershy" (with the latter also appearing in "Wonderbolts Academy" and "Apple Family Reunion") appear during the TriumphantReprise at the end.

* CobwebOfDisuse: The Carrousel Boutique, under Applejack's care, is full of cobwebs to enforce the look of messy disuse.

* EnlightenmentSuperpower: Twilight gains her alicorn form by completing Star Swirl's unfinished spell, which she realized from just how much her friends mean to her.
* EpicFail: The swapped Manes are attempting to do difficult jobs at a high level of complexity with no talent or experience for the work. It starts out funny. [[BreakTheCutie The key word being]] [[TearJerker "starts"]]. Rainbow Dash's try at managing the animals that Fluttershy usually cares for stands out, though: the pegasus ends up ''tied up in a pot'' with the critters dancing around it, cannibal-style.

* FakeMemories: The destiny switch results in the ponies with switched destinies getting false memories to go with them that dissuade them from questiong why they are so bad at their 'destiny'. The problem is they didn't recieve the skills to go along with the memories. Exactly how extensive their memory alterations were was not explored.

** Without Apple Jack, the crops at Sweet Apple Acres wilt and die within a day. (Other explanations include Rarity's mismanagement of the weather and Pinkie Pie being ''[[EpicFail that bad]]'' at farming.)

* ForgotAboutHisPowers: Unless it's a residual effect of Twilight's spell or Rarity's persistence (which is not without basis in canon), it seems odd that all the other pegasi wouldn't try to fix Rarity's messed-up weather. Rainbow Dash may do the day-to-day work normally, but they're all perfectly capable. The same can be said about the Apples not helping Pinkie Pie on the farm, which is doubly weird because they ''do'' help out once Applejack decides to pitch in.
** This lead both [[http://icekatze.tumblr.com/image/43908268386 depressing]] and [[http://derpiboo.ru/249543?scope=scpe5f0551ed99b7d7e831d117b1ea2d0fc846f166ab hilarious]] fan [[FanFic/DividedRainbow speculation.]]

* MagicalSecurityCam: Maybe? During her song, Princess Celestia shows Twilight [[ContinuityCavalcade scenes from her time in Ponyville]]. However, Princess Celestia wasn't using any magic during that scene, so they seemed to be part of whatever Twilight Sparkle had done.
* {{Metamorphosis}}: Twilight Sparkle is transformed into an alicorn princess. Evidently, the transformation can't be reversed, but all that's really changed about her is that she now has wings, a longer horn, and got a little taller, sharing now traits of pegasus and earth pony along with unicorn.

* NeverForgottenSkill: Throughout the show, they have stated that Cutie Marks represent a pony's special talent and destiny, implying that a pony could never forget the skills associated to that talent. This episode confirms this trope. First, by showing that when five ponies get their Cutie Marks switch, they try to do what the Cutie Mark represents, but they fail miserably. Finally, by showing that when Twilight gets them to remember what they are good at, they get their Cutie Marks back where they should be, and that their skills remain the same regardless of what Cutie Mark they have.

* OpeningShoutOut: Twilight's picture of the Mane 6 over her fireplace is the same one that Spike sends to Princess Celestia in the opening.

* SecretTestOfCharacter: Princess Celestia reveals that the '''''entire series to that point''''' has been one for Twilight Sparkle, without her knowledge in order to see if she could earn the right to become a princess.

** Twilight's ascension uses the same sequence as becoming an archmage in ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'', which was published in January 2012 (ten months before the third season of Friendship is Magic began to air): An unusual spell that surpasses Twilight's current understanding is cast that uses unusual, unique ingredients which other spells do not require; the spell changes the entire world as a side-effect; when understanding is achieved, Twilight disappears from the physical plane in a flash of her cutie mark / her nimbus (in Mage's terms); and she then travels through a gallery of her own achievements / her Golden Road before returning, now in an ascended state.

* TheVoiceless: Cadance and Luna have no dialogue.

** Pinkie Pie ends up with Applejack's cutie mark after the spell, and we see her attempting to work the farm (and not having a pleasant time of it). No-one goes on to say that she could therefore be thought of as Apple Pie, nor the notion that perhaps the reason she doesn't do well in Applejack's role is because Pinkie is a party animal while Applejack is a workhorse.

** At the end, the [[AwesomeMomentOfCrowning newly crowned]] [[BadassPrincess Princess Twilight]] gives a speech, citing her friends as the reason for her accomplishment and waves them over to join her on the balcony. Twilight Sparkle is among the few who could remain humble about becoming a [[PhysicalGod pseudo-deity]]

* {{Metamorphosis}}: Twilight Sparkle is transformed into an alicorn princess. Evidently, the transformation can't be reversed, but all that's really changed about her is that she now has wings, a longer horn, got a little taller and is a bit more powerful, sharing now traits of pegasus and earth pony along with unicorn.

%%* LiteralMetaphor: Rarity and her "weather patterns" are definitely this.

* OffModel: When Rainbow Dash is putting Gummy in a cage it is briefly apparent that she has her normal cutie mark.

** Pinkie Pie ends up with Applejack's cutie mark after the spell, and we see her attempting to work the farm (and not having a pleasant time of it). No one goes on to say that she could therefore be thought of as Apple Pie, nor the notion that perhaps the reason she doesn't do well in Applejack's role is because Pinkie is a party animal while Applejack is a workhorse.

** Rainbow's part of the "What My Cutie Mark is Telling Me" song has "They run around out of control and throw their hissy fits." This line is immediately followed by the "puddy tat" behind her hissing.

* SwappedRoles: A spell Twilight casts switches her friends' cutie marks and destinies--Rarity gets Rainbow Dash's cutie mark and has to control the weather[[note]]even though Rainbow Dash got it for speed, not weather control[[/note]], Rainbow gets Fluttershy's and has to care for animals, Fluttershy gets Pinkie Pie's and has to make others laugh, Pinkie gets Applejack's and has to do farmwork, and Applejack gets Rarity's and has to make dresses[[note]]even though Rarity got it for her affinity with gemstones, not her fashion sense[[/note]].

* TomboyPrincess: Twilight always had the "tomboy" part, this episode just adds the "princess" part. While she's only slightly tomboyish, her focus on her studies is, relatively speaking, not quite as conventionally feminine as Rarity's fashion design, Fluttershy's animal care, or Pinkie Pie's catering, making her more tomboyish than average, at least as far as the main 6 characters go. And she's certainly the most tomboyish of the princesses; Celestia and Cadence are each clearly shown to be acting according to the in-universe traditions of the lands they have authority over, and Luna at least [[FishOutOfTemporalWater thinks]] she is.

** In the trailers Fluttershy says "Wow, Twilight! You look just like a ''princess''!".

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: A bunch of ponies switch jobs they're unsuited for? Just another day in Ponyville.
** A slightly more plausible explanation is that [[RippleEffectProofMemory the spell affected everyone]] ''[[RippleEffectProofMemory but]]'' [[RippleEffectProofMemory Twilight into thinking that Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie were always that way]], and the spell broke over them gradually with each Element as it was fixed. It would explain why nopony was helping or fixing the work Rarity and Pinkie were doing, or asking what happened with Applejack and Fluttershy's new occupations or where Rainbow Dash was. Further shown by the fact that everypony glared at Pinkie until her hair poofed back up (ie, the spell breaking over her).
*** Of course, some job-switching isn't the oddest thing that's happened in this season alone, so Ponyville putting up with that for less than a day isn't too surprising, especially since their default response to something odd is to go to Twilight or the other Manes and ask them to deal with it. It's entirely possible that Rainbow Dash starting doing the weather again before anyone had time to put together an organized response, and the rest of the switches weren't that visible to the townspeople. And people glaring at Pinkie is normal at the best of times. There is no proof of the townspeople having altered memories, and since Spike's memories weren't altered, the implication is that only the Mane Five got new memories.

'''Pinkie Pie:''' Hold on a second! (pulls glass of water from {{Hammerspace}} to perform a SpitTake)

->''A true, true friend helps a friend in need''\\
''A friend will be there to help them see''\\
''A true, true friend helps a friend in need''\\
''To see the light that shines from a true, true friend''

!!Tropes present in this episode: [[YMMV/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E13MagicalMysteryCure YMMV tropes here]].

** [[FanNickname Davenport]], the owner of "[[SeverelySpecializedStore Quills and Sofas]]" in "Owl's Well That Ends Well", appears in the opening number. His store oddity is even referenced in the lyrics: "here's the sofa clerk selling some quills"

* EmpathicEnvironment[=/=]GrayRainOfDepression: Rarity's inability to control the weather causes it to play towards the various feelings; in particular, during the [[DeliberatelyMonochrome grayscale]] montage of Twilight's BSODSong, Rarity is shown sadly plodding through one of her own downpours.

* LiteralMetaphor: Rarity and her "weather patterns" are definitely this.

* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: Twilight's transformation into an alicorn and subsequent coronation. However, producers and TaraStrong have stated in interviews that this has no effect on her personality, and has little to no bearing on her role in the series.

* PaletteSwap: The four identical "[[FanNickname banner mares]]" at the coronation are palette swaps of Fluttershy with different tails. (We don't know if they have wings.)

* SecretTestOfCharacter[=/=]MagicalGirlQueenlinessTest: Princess Celestia reveals that the '''''entire series to that point''''' has been one for Twilight Sparkle, without her knowledge in order to see if she could earn the right to become a princess.

** As part of her comedic attempts, Fluttershy wears [[TheMarxBrothers Groucho]] glasses.

** Star Swirl the Bearded's unfinished spell is an indirect reference to ''FermatsLastTheorem''. Both Star Swirl and Fermat left behind a piece of work that was not completed until long after their deaths.

** RippleEffectProofMemory: A slightly more plausible explanation is that the spell affected everyone ''but'' Twilight into thinking that Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie were always that way, and the spell broke over them gradually with each Element as it was fixed. It would explain why nopony was helping or fixing the work Rarity and Pinkie were doing, or asking what happened with Applejack and Fluttershy's new occupations or where Rainbow Dash was. Further shown by the fact that everypony glared at Pinkie until her hair poofed back up (ie, the spell breaking over her).

* BriefAccentImitation: Pinkie adopts [[AmericanAccents a Southern drawl]] while working at Sweet Apple Acres.

* SeriesFauxnale: On the surface this episode has the makings of the GrandFinale to ''Friendship is Magic''. It rounds off the SixtyFiveEpisodeCartoon format, it has more ContinuityPorn than every other episode combined, it's an epic MusicalEpisode, and it ends with the main character fulfilling her destiny. Season 4 was confirmed even before the episode aired, and head writer Meghan [=McCarthy=] has said she considers this episode to be the first of a three-parter.