Continued from "The Ending of the End – Part 1".
Twilight Sparkle: The same thing we do every time, Pinkie. Try to save the world!
With Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis having captured those who remained behind to buy Twilight time to escape, Cozy is eager to kill them as quickly as possible. However, she is discouraged by Chrysalis, who believes it would be more humiliating to first display them to the rest of Equestria as proof that their heroes lost even while alive. Tirek, still, argues that their most pressing concern is finding Twilight before doing anything else, reasoning that with her free they still face a constant threat. Chrysalis attempts to reassure him by noting that even without Twilight, her friends are still imprisoned with no way to use their magic, the Trio having re-purposed the pieces of Chrysalis' throne that Shining Armor brought over to act as a magical suppressor to their prisoners. Though she warns Cozy that even their magic is vulnerable to the shards if they get too close (Chrysalis' changeling magic now being fused with Grogar's making her susceptible), she gloats at how the three of them only got as far as they did because of "Grogar's" help, yanking over a chained up and humiliated Discord. Cozy attempts to absorb the remaining magic from the bell while the other two are momentarily distracted, but is stopped by Tirek. He reminds her of what happened the last time she tried to take Discord's magic, and she argues that she only wants the Princesses' that she drained earlier, prompting Chrysalis to snap at her about wanting to take all the power for herself. Cozy says she deserves the alicorn magic because she's "the best" of the three, as the Trio descends into bickering. As they argue, the Mane Five and Spike attempt to devise a way to escape, but Chrysalis' sticky webbing is too much of a challenge to navigate past. Discord apologizes for having been responsible for the Trio's rise to power, as Tirek yells at Cozy that none of them can absorb the Princesses' magic without first learning how to control Discord's Chaos magic. Discord interjects by promising to tell them how to control his magic, but only with the caveat that they spare his friends (and ask nicely). Tirek reasons that Discord is simply lying in exchange for a favor, to which Discord retorts by saying he'd never tell Tirek how to control his magic after Tirek's betrayal the last time they worked together. When Tirek threatens to destroy him if he continues his insults, Discord smugly responds by arguing that Tirek is only obsessed with gaining magic because he's afraid he'll never live up to his father, King Vorak's, expectations. An enraged Tirek fires an energy blast at him, but he deflects it using a piece of Chrysalis' throne. Though the villains at first believe Discord failed in hitting one of them, it's revealed that he was actually aiming at Starlight's cage. She uses a magical shockwave to free the rest of the prisoners. The Princesses, Starlight, Discord and the Pillars stay behind to give the Mane Five and Spike the opportunity to escape and find Twilight.
They break into the castle courtyard where they come across a terrified unicorn. He explains that the unicorns have taken shelter in Celestia's School of Magic, apathetic to where the pegasi and earth ponies are. Though worried at how divided everyone has become, the six decide to head to Ponyville in hopes of finding Twilight, as a light snow begins falling. They arrive to find a scared mob of earth ponies who demand they fix things immediately. Rainbow Dash gets into an argument with one angry citizen when she complains that earth ponies don't have magic or flight to protect themselves with, noting how the pegasi have blocked off Cloudsdale to any other creature. Not finding Twilight in the crowd, the six try to puzzle where she teleported to, whereupon it dawns on Spike that she must have teleported to the Crystal Empire to be with her family. Once there they reunite with a depressed Twilight, who admits that she has spent hours studying in the vain hope of finding a way to stop the Trio, but Grogar's bell is just too powerful. To compound this, she believes that all of their previous victories have been meaningless, as no matter what they've done the villains always seem to succeed in chipping away at them each time they make an attack (most notably Sombra destroying the Tree of Harmony). They try to cheer her up by saying that if nothing else the seven of them are still together, with Rainbow Dash mentioning that at least things can't get any worse. They hear a ghostly braying and open the window to reveal that the Windigo spirits have been summoned back to Equestria by the ponies' continually growing division, threatening to turn the landscape into a frozen wasteland if left unchecked.
Back at Ponyville, the earth ponies flee from the Windigo threat with the excuse that it's the pegasi's problem, focusing in on a disgruntled-looking Sandbar before cutting to various other students of Twilight's school, each concerned with their respective race's isolationism and apathy. Twilight, meanwhile, only sees the Windigos' return as further proof of the futility to continue trying to fight. Applejack bluntly explains that bad things are always going to happen, but to respond by simply giving up is the absolutely wrong way to deal with them. Twilight angrily retorts that by being unable to notice the growing division between the pony races, she's failed as the Princess of Friendship, scared that she'll never be ready for the tasks ahead as ruler of Equestria. Fluttershy quietly reassures her that, as someone whose entire life revolved around being scared of everything, she's managed to grow "less scared" so long as her friends are with her. The rest each add that they've all faced difficult situations before, and that they wouldn't be the strong people they are without having met Twilight. Upon hearing this, Twilight finally regains her self-confidence, admitting that even the Princess of Friendship can forget that there's more to being friends than rainbow lasers (though they are pretty cool). Cadance and Shining Armor enter, ready to help fight, but Twilight dissuades them, saying they need to protect Flurry Heart above all else, as if the seven of them fail she would become Equestria's last hope. Twilight summarizes how stacked the odds are against them, prompting Pinkie to ask what they're going to do. Twilight simply says they'll do what they do every time: Try to save the world.
Returning to the villains, they notice the Windigos have returned, and Chrysalis suggests not using the bell to get rid of them, much to Tirek and Cozy's dismay. She argues that if they let the Windigos tarnish the land the ponies will become so desperate for relief that they'll willingly bow down to her in exchange for her banishing them. Tirek rebukes her with the warning that the Windigos are ancient and poorly understood beings, and that it would be safer to get rid of them as quickly as possible before their power grows out of control. Cozy cuts their argument short by pointing out that the Mane Six and Spike have returned. The three teleport to their enemies with the bell, gloating how they continue to fight even when it's hopeless. Twilight attempts to explain how as long as she has her friends, there is always hope, but is interrupted by an impatient Cozy Glow. Twilight teleports them a short distance away to devise a plan where she, Rainbow, and Pinkie will act as decoys to distract the Trio while the remaining four attempt to get a hold of the bell. They nearly succeed, but Chrysalis gets wise to their act and blasts the four away before they can obtain it. After managing to fight back each of the Mane Six, Chrysalis succeeds in forcing them to stop attacking by threatening to rip Spike's wings off if they continue to resist them. Tirek gloats about how their own friendship proved to be their undoing, readying to deliver a killing blow along with the other two. The seven accept their fate, huddling together as the three fire a massive energy blast at them. As the screen is engulfed in blinding white light, the group is surprised to find a magical barrier protecting them from the Trio's magic last-minute, and it isn't coming from Twilight. They turn to see dozens of reinforcements from the combined Equestrian races having arrived to aid them. As the villains are distracted by being overrun with dozens of enemies, the seven friends are magically lifted to safety by a large group of unicorns working in tandem. When Twilight asks what convinced them all to come help, the Young Six reveal that they and several other students of Twilight's school all managed to convince their respective races to put aside their fear and distrust to instead help Twilight and her friends fight the Trio.
However, the villains quickly start to pick off their attackers just as the unicorns' shield fails. Twilight fires an energy blast at the three to halt their advance and teleports all of their prisoners onto the hilltop with the rest of the reinforcements. As Twilight monologues how friendship is a power shared among all races, not just her friends or ponies, and the more who believe in friendship, the stronger it becomes, the Mane Five, Spike, Pillars, and Young Six are all magically lifted around her. Their combined Friendship Magic joins together with Twilight to create an enormous rainbow laser that blasts away the Windigos before firing at the Trio, draining them of all their absorbed magic and returning them to their original forms. An enraged Chrysalis yells at the heroes that the three of them will never be stopped, and they will always come back to try to take over Equestria and destroy their friendship. In the middle of her rant, however, a giant cupcake crushes the three. The heroes look to Discord who says he had nothing to do with it, before noticing that Pinkie recovered Grogar's bell and absorbed Discord's Chaos magic. She temporarily grows massive and slightly insane before Discord flies up to retrieve the bell and reabsorb his magic. After returning the Princesses' magic to them, they confront the trapped villains with Celestia announcing that there is no punishment great enough to pay them back for their actions. Discord whispers a suggestion to the two, who agree it sounds quite fitting. He joins them in firing an energy blast at the Trio, turning them to stone the same way Discord was. Discord snarks that it is only fitting that the three who hated friendship so much are now forced to be together for all eternity.
Celestia affirms that with her defeat of Tirek, Cozy, and Chrysalis, Twilight has once-and-for-all proven herself ready to take on the role as ruler of Equestria, with Discord himself giving an approving nod and slight bow. Twilight accepts her title, with her first action being to postpone her coronation to give her and her friends time to recuperate from their battle. The seven head over to Pony Joe's doughnut shop for a post-fight meal. Fluttershy comments on how it feels like the end of an era, but Rainbow argues that it is merely the beginning of an "even more awesome" one. Twilight reassures everyone that no matter what coming challenges they may face, things will work out perfectly. After all, so long as she has her friends by her side, how could things unfurl any other way?
Many moons later...
Tropes:
- An Aesop:
- All good deeds have a legacy. Even if bad things happen in the meantime, good things leave a lasting impact that isn't so easily erased.
- Friendship grows stronger the more people believe in it.
- All There in the Manual: Discord mentions Tirek's father, King Vorak, who previously had only been mentioned in the IDW comics.
- All There in the Script: The unicorn filly who delivers a Rousing Speech to the unicorns is named Raspberry Dazzle, while the pegasus colt who rounds up the pegasi is named Hyper Sonic.
- And I Must Scream: The final fate of Queen Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy glow is to have them stuck as stone statues. As Discord says it, three people who hate friendship so much being stuck together for eternity is truly one of the greatest punishments.
- Apple of Discord: Grogar's Bewitching Bell briefly serves as this for the villains. Tirek catches Cozy messing with the bell, reminding her of what happened the last time she tried to use Discord's magic inside of it. Cozy whines that now there's alicorn magic in it too and thinks of how much stronger she could be with it, which escalates to all three villains arguing over who's "the best" among them. Tirek puts a stop to it by ordering Cozy to stay away from the bell and saying that none of them can use the magic in it until they figure out how to control Discord's Chaos magic first.
- The Atoner: Discord, being full aware of how badly he messed up, pledges to find a way to make things right.
- Avengers Assemble: When the Mane Six fight the villains alone, the Student Six and others from the School of Friendship were rallying people from around the world to join in the fight. It also shows how every race of pony in Equestria and every creature outside of it can contribute to it.
- Back for the Finale: Nearly every character encountered in the series shows up for the final battle.
- Batman Gambit: Discord insults Tirek to his face, saying that Tirek is a "pathetic centaur" who just wants to use magic to get his father's approval. Discord did this knowing that Tirek wouldn't resist the chance to blast Discord for insulting him. This causes Tirek's magic to ricochet through the cavern enough to free Starlight Glimmer.
- Berserk Button: Tirek does not like being compared to his father. Discord uses this to his advantage as shown when he insults Tirek by saying he is only obsessed with magic because he feels he can never live up to his dad, King Vorak. Tirek tries to blast Discord, which could have potentially killed him.
- Beyond Redemption: The Legion of Doom are deemed this for all their crimes against Equestria and its allies, and their refusal to ever give up or change their ways. Celestia initially states no punishment can fit what they have done, but she and Luna quickly agree with Discord's suggestion to have them turned to stone.
- Beyond the Impossible:
- After becoming inspired by everycreature uniting against the villains, Twilight teleports all the villainous trio's prisoners to the battlefield... despite the shards of Chrysalis' throne (which Chrysalis had stated would even neutralise the trio's magic) used to contain them.
- It is quite often repeated, in this episode and the previous one, that Discord's Chaos magic cannot be controlled by anybody but Discord, the spirit of Chaos himself. Well... except for Pinkie Pie, when she gets her hooves on Grogar's Bell; she proves perfectly capable of intentionally materializing a giant cupcake and making chocolate rain. Sure, it turns her crazy a few moments later, but that's still an incredible feat within the context, and it takes everybody by surprise.
- Big Badass Battle Sequence: The Mane Six versus the Big Bad Triumvirate of Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow. Then, it turns into an army of creatures descending on the villains to even the odds.
- Big Bad Ensemble: The Big Bad Triumvirate of Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy end up being this with the Windigos.
- Big Damn Heroes: When the mane ponies and Spike are on the receiving end of the villains' attack, a shield surrounds them out of nowhere, which happens to come from everyone we've met over the course of the show, appearing just in time to aid in the battle.
- Blowing a Raspberry:
- As she is avoiding magic blasts with Teleport Spam, Starlight Glimmer sticks her tongue at the villains to further infuriate and distract them.
- In a Freeze-Frame Bonus during the Final Battle, one of the griffons does this to Cozy Glow as she flies past her.
- Bond One-Liner: "Together forever. I can't think of anything they would want less."
- Bond Villain Stupidity: With most of the Mane Six captured, Cozy Glow is in favor of disposing of them immediately, but Chrysalis nixes this, saying that they need to show the rest of Equestria how their heroes have been broken. Sure enough, they manage to escape soon after this. None of the villains even consider having Grogar's bell or Tirek drain Starlight and the Mane Six's magic before imprisoning them. Chrysalis also dismisses Tirek's statement that they need to track down Twilight, and mocks him for being "afraid" of her.
- Bookends: The first season finale ended with the Mane Six eating in a donut shop. This episode, which is the conclusion of the main storyline, ends in the same way.
- Brick Joke: In Part 1 when Cozy takes Discord's magic, one of the only things she can summon is chomping pineapple. When Discord gets his magic back, the first thing he summons to test it is a chomping pineapple.
- Brought Down to Badass: Celestia outright declares that she and Luna are not completely helpless even without their magic before they charge the villains, giving the Mane Six the opportunity to escape. Zigzagged in Discord's case; he proves to be a effective Guile Hero who tricks all three powered up villains to free Starlight and he also... can't really do much else to help in the fight but throw rocks.
- Brought Down to Normal: Twilight's rainbow beam zaps Cozy Glow and Chrysalis back to their normal forms, while Tirek is reduced to his weakest form even though he had previously been given enough magic by Discord to get him to his second form before gaining the magic of Grogar's bell.
- The Bus Came Back: Tempest Shadow, Queen Novo, and Princess Skystar return from the 2017 movie.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: A heroic variation. When Twilight frets how the Mane Six are on their own and have no prepared strategy for beating the bad guys, Pinkie points out "That's every time we have to save the world."
- The Cameo: Dozens of one-shot, minor, and background characters helped by the Mane Six over the course of all nine seasons turn out to help them in the final battle. Among them is Tempest Shadow.
- Call-Back: As part of his insulting speech, Discord reminds Tirek how he lied to him and took his magic in the Season 4 finale, and thus he considers the centaur entirely untrustworthy and undeserving of any help.
- Canon Immigrant: Discord teases Lord Tirek by mentioning him disappointing his father, King Vorak. IDW's My Little Pony: FIENDship Is Magic limited series featured one story of younger Tirek's dealing with his family (including his brother Scorpan) and which introduced King Vorak, as well as Discord's involvement in his royal duties.
- The Cavalry: An entire army of allies of the Mane Six arrive at the Final Battle, saving them from the villains and joining in the fight to hold them off.
- Combined Energy Attack: After Twilight realizes the true power of the Elements is meant to be shared among others, no matter the species, she, the rest of the Mane Six, the Pillars and the Young Six all combine their friendship power and blast the villains, depowering them of their magic and finally ending the struggle.
- Confusion Fu: As usual for Pinkie Pie, when she has to fight Chrysalis, she does so by being relentlessly random, avoiding blasts through Offscreen Teleportation and annoying the Changeling Queen with showman guise, huckster speech, puppet, lucky wheel, etc.
- Continuity Nod:
- The heroes are imprisoned within the crystal caves beneath Canterlot, which were last seen in "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2".
- Chrysalis mentions how the shards of her former throne had been used to help protect the castle.
- While taunting Chrysalis, Pinkie says "close, but no cherrychimichanga!"
- Rainbow says she can grab the bell in ten seconds flat, which is a call back to the very first episode when she said the same thing when clearing the clouds.
- Rarity uses a gem-shaped shield when fighting Chrysalis, which is the magic power of her human counterpart.
- The villains are defeated the same way Nightmare Moon was defeated in the first episode — Twilight gives a Rousing Speech about the magic of friendship, she gets Glowing Eyes and she and her army float in the air, and they fire a rainbow beam which shoots their adversaries down and defeats them.
- Pinkie had previously absorbed Discord's Chaos magic in Issue #57 of the comic series.
- After the battle has been won, the Mane Six end the episode by going out for donuts at Donut Joe's diner, mirroring the ending of "The Best Night Ever".
- Cross-Referenced Titles: To "The Beginning of the End - Part 2".
- Darker and Edgier: The most serious out of every two-parter, since it's the Grand Finale. Equestria is doomed by the three villains, all pony races have been turned against each other, Twilight and her friends nearly die, and as if it weren't enough, all hope would've been lost if it hadn't been for the Young Six uniting everyone.
- Defiant to the End: Chrysalis refuses to back down when it becomes obvious Tirek, Cozy and she are beaten, spewing bile at the heroes after being depowered, only to be cut off by Pinkie dropping a cupcake on them when she gets a hold of the bell. Likewise, when Celestia, Luna and Discord turn the three to stone, Tirek and Cozy panic as the granite covers them. But Chrysalis makes one final jump at her enemies while snarling, and ends up frozen in that position.
- Deflector Shields: The Mane Six (and Spike) are saved in the nick of time from being blasted by the three villains by a white domed forcefield forming around them. At first her friends believe it's Twilight's doing, but she denies it. Then the forcefield carefully lift them, bringing them to a large gathering of unicorns and other creatures coming to helps, and it expands to protect the whole group. We thus see the shield was erected collectively by all the unicorns assembled, all of their horns glowing. As the big battle is raging, the shield starts taking its toll on the unicorns and it finally falters.
- The Dog Bites Back:
- After five seasons, Discord finally gets his revenge on Tirek for manipulating and betraying him.
- Twilight directly defeats Chrysalis for the first time after what she put her through seven seasons ago (though she did play a part in her defeat then).
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: Grogar's bell now has alicorn magic stored within it that would make the villainous trio even more powerful, but with Discord's Chaos magic still swirling around in there, they can't access it without running into the same problem as Cozy did when she took the Chaos magic on last episode.
- Easily Forgiven: Double Subverted. The ponies are not so quick to forgive Discord for dooming Equestria by uniting the villains in order to provide challenges to Twilight to boost her confidence. It isn't until he throws a Gambit Roulette that frees Starlight so she could free all of the other prisoners that they are more willing to forgive him. Especially since he risked his own life in doing so.
- Enemy Mine: Even the Flim-Flam brothers are among the unicorns coming to the rescue of the Mane Six. They may be con men, but when the survival of Equestria is at sake, they can choose the right side.
- Engineered Heroics: Chrysalis briefly considers letting the Windigos cause havoc for a while, so that she can then look like a hero to the ponies for destroying them.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Flim and Flam are among the ponies that assist the Mane Six during the Final Battle. They may be scammers, but they never went as far as harming ponies. Plus you can't grift ponies if the land is destroyed, the end of the world is just bad for business.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: The Mane Six and Spike share a happy laugh as the episode comes to a close.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: A variant. When Tirek blasts Discord when he mocks him, he manages to deflect the blast. Cozy thinks Discord was trying to pull a Catch and Return, but in reality he ricocheted the shot to hit Starlight's cage so she could break free and save everyone.
- Face Death with Dignity: When Twilight and her friends realize there isn't anything they can do to stop the villains, they decide to crouch down and face the receiving end of their combined blast, which would've resulted in them Killed Off for Real if all of Equestria hadn't shown up to help them.
- Fade to White: Occurs when the heroes are on the receiving end of a fatal attack by the villains; the screen then cuts to white, then fades in to them still standing, before zooming out to show they are protected by a magic shield coming from out of nowhere before revealing all of Equestria has come to help them.
- Fate Worse than Death: Discord sees this as the final fate of the villains, frozen as a statue like he was forever and forced to spend an eternity together. Although it's worth to note he says 'would want' so it could just be symbolism. Word of God states that unlike Discord, the trio are unconscious as statues. If this punishment is permanent, to them it is like being erased from existence. (Though this might be preferable to being awake as statues like Discord was.)Discord: Together forever. I can't think of anything that they would want less.
- Final Battle: Being the second of the two-parter penultimate episode, this is the final battle between the heroes and villains.
- Flight: Turns out Discord can fly without his Chaos magic. This is shown when he goes to use the bell to get his power back from Pinkie. (Might count as a Series Continuity Error, though, as he was previously very consistently shown flightless whenever devoid of his magic. Or can be explained by Pinkie pumping enough Chaos magic in the air for Discord to profit from it.)
- Food End: The episode ends with the Mane Six and Spike enjoying a meal at Donut Joe's shop, just like they did in "The Best Night Ever".
- Forgot About His Powers:
- The villain trio have no explanation for not using the Bewitching Bell on Twilight while she is delivering her Rousing Speech, nor the rainbow beam which drains them of their powers.
- Twilight also has no excuse to not teleport the mane characters out of the villains' target zone when they realized their Nigh-Invulnerability.
- Freudian Excuse: Discord says that Tirek takes magic from others because, deep down, he won't live up to the expectations of his father, King Vorak.
- Glass Smack and Slide: During the final battle, a changeling is sent smacking flat against the domed forcefield collectively generated by the unicorns, shortly followed by a Wonderbolt, and they both start sliding down the shield as if it were glass.
- Glowing Eyes: Twilight has these as she finishes up her Rousing Speech toward the villains, just before striking them down.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: The students of the Friendship School manage to convince others of their races to come to the Mane Six's aid. And indeed, near all their allies comes to lend aid at a critical moment in the final battle.
- Grand Finale: This episode is part two of the three-part finale of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
- Head Desk: After ranting that nothing they've done ever mattered, Twilight buries her face in a book.
- Heroes' Frontier Step: While being responsible for the trio conquering Equestria, Discord swears to make up for his actions and shows commendable bravery and heroism. Notably by deflecting a beam from Tirek that could have possibly killed him in order to free Starlight, so she could free the rest of the heroes, then joining the battle against the trio without any powers, so the Mane five and Spike can escape to save Equestria.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: As Chrysalis points out, the shards of her former throne that were brought to Canterlot to protect the castle are now being used to keep their captives contained. Ironically, it ends up swinging both ways as Discord uses a piece of it to deflect Tirek's blast in order to free Starlight.
- Hypocrite: A minor example. In his debut appearance, Discord tried to claim the moral high ground by stating he "doesn't turn ponies to stone". Here, he's the one to suggest turning the villainous trio to stone.
- Insult to Rocks: Invoked during Discord's Batman Gambit.Lord Tirek: He's lying. He won't tell us.
Discord: I certainly won't tell you after the way you lied to me last time we teamed up, you muscle-bound cretin.
Lord Tirek: This "cretin" could destroy you before you blink, so choose your words carefully.
Discord: You're right. "Cretin" is too polite. - Ironic Hell: As Discord mentions, with the way that the villains constantly fought with each other, the way that they divided Equestria and their hatred of friendship, them being Taken for Granite together is a punishment that they'd hate more than anything (which he himself understands firsthand).
- Irony:
- Chancellor Neighsay, who not so long ago had held a deep prejudice for non-ponies, appears to be the one leading The Cavalry comprised of ponies and other creatures.
- When Discord was first defeated by Celestia and Luna, they turned him into stone statue. Now he helps them to do the exact same thing to three main villains and even comes up with the idea himself.
- It's Personal: Implied with Twilight's rematch against Tirek. He is the guy who blew up her library and nearly killed her friends.
- Karmic Death: The villains' proper punishment for nearly destroying Equestria: Being turned into a stone statue like Discord was, presumably for always and eternity.
- Killed Off for Real: After it's revealed they have survived the Fire of Friendship during the founding of Equestria, the Windigos are disintegrated by the Mane Six, Spike, the Young Six, and the Pillars of Equestria with the same rainbow they use to (much less lethally) defeat Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow.
- Lampshade Hanging: When Twilight states that the Mane Six are on their own, and with no idea what to do, Pinkie points out that this is always how it's been whenever something terrible happens.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Chrysalis turned Twilight's friends and Celestia against her, captured all of them, Luna, and Discord, planning to keep them trapped inside cocoons forever, and nearly destroyed the Mane 6's friendship a second time. Tirek manipulated Discord into betraying Fluttershy and the other ponies and then betrayed him (and not for the last time either), trapped Celestia and Luna in Tartarus, destroyed Twilight's library, and drained the Pillars of their magic. Cozy Glow nearly killed Yona and Sandbar with her magic-draining ritual, trapped the Mane 6 and Spike in Tartarus, turned the school against the Young Six and nearly banished them, and drained Celestia and Luna's magic. Cozy and Chrysalis also plan to do horrible things to the other Mane 5 and Spike, and all three try to kill them and (for the third time in this two-parter) Twilight, after Chrysalis threatened to dismember Spike, which Tirek and Cozy had zero objection to. In the end, all three villains are collectively defeated by the Mane 6, Spike, the Young Six, and the Pillars, and turned to stone by Celestia, Luna, and Discord. And for how they disliked each other, they will now spend eternity together as statues, to which Discord says he couldn't think of anything they would want less.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- When Sandbar is trying to inspire the earth ponies in Ponyville to rally to fight the windigos, Berry Punch complains that she doesn't see how singing a few songs is going to help.
- The final discussion of the episode alludes to the end of the series.Fluttershy: It's like the end of an era.
Rainbow Dash: Or the beginning of an even more awesome era!
- Love Is a Weakness: Tirek more or less says The Power of Friendship is a weakness, especially when Twilight surrenders because she cares too much to let Chrysalis rip off Spike's wings.
- Mass Teleportation: As she begins her big In the Name of the Moon speech, Twilight teleports all the remaining prisoners of the villains — the Pillars of Equestria, Starlight Glimmer, Princesses Luna and Celestia, and Discord — into the battlefield. Quite notably, this isn't the usual teleportation effect, but a slow dematerialization with bright light. She also does so from quite a distance, and it completely ignores the Anti-Magic shards in the prison, hinting that Twilight is using purely the Magic of Friendship to pull out such an exploit.
- Near-Villain Victory: The villains have come within one second of killing our heroes and conquering all of Equestria; if the Young Six and foal twins hadn't rallied the other races to come together, and if everyone they rounded up didn't show up to protect the heroes with a shield and help them, the villains would've won.
- Never Say "Die": Cozy Glow and Chrysalis both threaten their captives with "destruction".
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Tirek lets himself get goaded by Discord while the heroes are captured, blasting Discord in retaliation. Discord ricochets the blast to hit Starlight's cage, allowing her to break free and help the others.
- Non Sequitur, *Thud*: Pinkie Pie, when about to pass out after Discord takes his Chaos magic back from her.Pinkie: Waiter, there's some chaos in my soup...
- Not Me This Time: After a giant cupcake lands on top of the Legion of Doom and chocolate rain starts raining, everyone glances at Discord, who just arrived with Starlight and the princesses, and he innocently tells them "Don't look at me." He is correct and it is immediately revealed Pinkie is responsible, having taken Discord's magic from Grogar's bewitching bell herself.
- Oh, Crap!: The villains get this several times when the tide starts shifting. None moreso when the Mane Six, the Pillars and the Young Six combine all their elements into one major energy blast.Cozy Glow: This is bad, isn't it?
- Only Sane Man: Tirek becomes this for the Legion of Doom. In the opening scene, Chrysalis wants to take her time breaking the heroes to drag out her revenge and then use them to break the wills of the citizens of Equestria, while Cozy is only concerned with using the new magic stored in Grogar's bell to make herself more powerful. In contrast, Tirek says they need to focus on hunting down Twilight, since she's dangerous to the villains as long as she's free, with or without her friends. When Discord offers to teach the villains how to control his chaotic powers if they ask him nicely and spare his friends, Tirek is the only one to instantly know that he's lying and has no intention of doing so. Later, Tirek tells Chrysalis they need to get rid of the Windigos ASAP, since if they turn Equestria into a frozen wasteland, there will be nothing for the three of them to rule over in their kingdoms, rendering their victory pointless.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Discord decides to have Lord Tirek, Queen Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow turned to stone. The princesses agree to do so, despite of the fact that Cozy Glow is a child (though she is also an attempted murderer).
- Pet the Dog: When Cozy Glow gets too close to the crystal shards, Chrysalis grabs her and warns her that they would affect her magic as well. She might need Cozy as an ally, but it still comes off as protective.
- Pillar of Light: At the climax, a rainbow-colored pillar of light shoots from Twilight's horn toward the sky, banishing the Windigos. Then it swerves back toward the ground, hitting the villainous trio and promptly burning Grogar's magic out of them, returning them to their normal, weakened states.
- The Power of Friendship: Twilight and her army of Equestria's heroes use the friendship within them to channel enough magic to defeat the villains once and for all.
- Pragmatic Villainy:
- Only Chrysalis is happy about the windigos. Both Tirek and Cozy want them gone. They can't rule the land if they are frozen along with everyone else.
- Tirek is the most pragmatic about what to do once they've captured the other Mane Five and Spike, as mentioned above.
- Real After All: While it was merely hinted in "Hearth's Warming Eve" that Windigos were real, this episode confirms it.
- Reflective Eyes: Fluttershy's face reflects into Twilight's sad eyes as she is consoling her.
- Riddle for the Ages: Tempest Shadow, a.k.a. Fizzlepop Berrytwist, is present in the episode, but her cutie mark is still covered, leaving this mystery unsolved with the end of the series.
- Rousing Speech:
- Several students from the School of Friendship give one to their respective races on why they need to stand together and help the Mane Six.
- The Mane Six and Spike themselves give one to Twilight when she briefly loses hope in defeating the villains and saving Equestria.
- Twilight herself gives one to the villains before she and the others defeat them with The Power of Friendship.
- Sadist: At the very beginning of the episode, Cozy Glow states her intent to kill the other Mane 5 and Spike, all with a creepy and sadistic grin on her face. Chrysalis rejects this - in favor of torturing them, in addition to showing Equestria they'd broken their heroes.
- Schizo Tech: Twilight actually uses the expression "rainbow lasers" to name the colorful energy beams conjured via The Power of Friendship. The general level of Equestria's technological advancement indicates that she shouldn't be even aware what a laser is, unless she happened to pick it up during her adventures in the human world.
- Ship Tease:
- Blink and you miss it, but right before the episode cuts to the flashback of the Student Six rallying everyone, Yona and Sandbar hold hooves.
- Rarity immediately shields Spike from harm when he's hit by Chrysalis, and he returns the favour when her shield shatters. They then combine their fire breath and unicorn magic into a Beam-O-War that nearly overpowers Chrysalis.
- Shockwave Stomp: During the final battle...
- A few yaks jumping up and down cause enough of a tremor to inconvenience the villains and pin down Queen Chrysalis for a while despite her boosted power.
- Tirek punches the ground with enough force to send all of the ground-bound combatants sprawling away while also clearing the dust cloud the pegasi kicked up, catching the villains a reprieve to attack their main enemies.
- Shout-Out:
- After her friends help regain Twilight's confidence, Pinkie asks "What are we going to do, Twilight?" Twilight responds: "The same thing we do every time, Pinkie. Try to save the world!"
- The end at the donuts shop, while doubling as a Continuity Nod, is, according to Jim Miller,
one toward the 2012 Avengers movie and the post-credit scene of the heroes resting at a Shawarma shop after likewise coming off a big battle.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: After Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy are de-powered, Chrysalis keeps carrying on that friendship won't save the heroes only for Pinkie to drop a giant cupcake on the three, cutting her off.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: When Twilight tries to give yet another friendship lecture, Cozy Glow cuts her off mid-speech and blasts away with everything she's got.
- Slasher Smile: The villains get these a lot, with one in particular coming right before Twilight's Rousing Speech.
- Spanner in the Works:
- The infighting between the three main villains ends up being their downfall. In particular, Chrysalis ends up the spanner for their plans by shooting down Tirek's suggestion to go find Twilight when they've got all the other heroes captured.
- Discord's Chaos magic being drained in the previous episode ends up hindering the use of Grogar's bell here. The villains have absorbed more magic with the bell now, but can't use that magic without also absorbing the Chaos magic too, thus making it all useless until they can figure out how to control Discord's Chaos magic.
- Discord proves to be a spanner, even without his magic. He pulls off a Batman Gambit by insulting Tirek to his face, calling him a "pathetic centaur," causing Tirek to blast Discord with a beam of dark magic. As this happens, Discord reflects the beam off of a piece of darkstone, missing the villains but freeing Starlight Glimmer, allowing her to free the other heroes.
- Straw Character: The one earth pony with blue mane and pink coat is meant to embody the divided ponies at their worst, believing the pegasus ponies are blowhards who don't want anything to do with "grounded" ponies, not to mention she momentarily disbelieves the Windigos and the story of Hearthswarming Eve.
- String Theory: In her room at the Crystal castle, Twilight has photos of Tirek, Cozy Glow and Chrysalis connected to a photo of Discord by string.
- Strong as They Need to Be:
- In the first part, Tirek dealt a Curb-Stomp Battle to the Pillars of Equestria, Cozy Glow took out the palace guard and Celestia and Luna, and Chrysalis defeated Starlight Glimmer. In this episode, Starlight with a de-powered Celestia, Luna, and Discord, are able to fight the three long enough to distract them so the Mane Six can escape.
- Cozy Glow's alicorn magic is strong enough to drill giant holes in the ground, but when she zaps Fluttershy, all it does is briefly stun her.
- Rarity was never particularly skilled in combat magic and relied on her telekinesis more than anything else, but here, she creates a shield (something she was never shown capable of doing before) strong enough to hold off a magic blast from the powered-up Chrysalis. Granted, Rarity still loses, but this trope is in effect again a moment later, when the combined might of her magic blast and Spike's fire breath actually manage to push back Chrysalis' attack in a Beam-O-War.
- Taken for Granite: Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy are turned into one collective statue by Celestia, Luna, and Discord. Especially notable with Discord, who said in his debut episode that he doesn't turn ponies into stone.
- Talking Is a Free Action:
- By the time of the final battle, Cozy Glow is having none of Twilight's Kirk Summations and averts the trope.
- Chrysalis gets a taste of this aversion as well when she's ranting at Twilight after losing her power, only for Pinkie to drop a giant cupcake on her as she does.
- Tears of Joy: Twilight gets a little teary-eyed as she thanks her friends for supporting her.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow return to their arguing and in-fighting, most likely due to running out of enemies to face together. They spend most of their time together arguing over stuff like what to do next or what to do about the Windigos. This failure to get along causes fractures in their alliance that makes it easier for Discord to manipulate them and free his friends.
- Teeth Flying: When Twilight is fighting Tirek in the final battle, she shoots him straight in the jaw with a magic blast and dislodges a tooth, to the centaur's fury.
- Teleport Spam: After being freed, Starlight rapidly teleports throughout the cavern where she was trapped to get the villains to focus on her, even blowing a raspberry at them.
- Tempting Fate:
- When trying to comfort Twilight at the Crystal Empire, Rainbow says it's not like things could get any worse. And then the Windigos show up.
- A rare example that goes from one episode to the next. At the end of Part 1, Tirek says "There's no backup friends or rainbow magic to save you now." Sure enough, by the end of this chapter, a slew of backup friends arrive in a Big Damn Heroes moment, and the Mane Six (with Spike), the Pillars and the Student Six, give their final blow to the villains with "rainbow magic".
- This Is Gonna Suck: Cozy notes as such when the Mane Six, the Pillars and the Young Six combine their powers and are about to blast them with a magical rainbow laser. Seeing that, boosted magic or not, Cozy realizes that the villains have no way to counter what's coming.Cozy: This is bad, isn't it?
- This Is Unforgivable!: The villains' crimes are seen as this by everyone, particularly the Royal Sisters. This is a very rare instance of Celestia feeling this way.Celestia: There isn't a punishment worthy of all you've done!
- Took a Level in Badass: Even before Twilight's magic is boosted by seeing how everycreature came together to help save Equestria, she is still able to knock Tirek down with a single blast to the face. It's especially impressive considering Starswirl (whom Twilight was once said to be almost as powerful as) was unable to hurt Tirek at all in the previous episode.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: To provoke him, Discord claims that the reason Tirek steals the magic of others is because he can't live up to his father King Vorak's expectations. Tirek's reaction only confirms this.
- We Need a Distraction: Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie distract the villains while the rest of the Mane Six and Spike try to get a hold of Grogar's bell. It nearly works until Chrysalis realizes what they are up to.
- Wingding Eyes: "Chaos Pinkie"'s eyes turn into cupcakes after she grows to a gigantic size.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: When Pinkie Pie holds Grogar's Bell, she uses it to give herself Discord's Chaos magic. At first, she drops a giant cupcake on the villains, then makes it rain chocolate, both without losing her sanity. Pinkie then says she feels "tingly" and "itchy" before growing gigantic, her hair becoming even more frizzled, and shouting "I could transform the cosmos so everything is made of icing!" This is compounded by the sky turning pink with streamers raining down, as well as Pinkie's eyes turning into cupcakes. Lucky for everyone, Discord uses the bell to reclaim his magic from her.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- Chrysalis gets the Mane Six to stand down by taking Spike hostage and threatening to "pluck his wings". Both Tirek and Cozy not only do NOT object to it, but they were going to kill him alongside the Mane Six anyway.
- Similarly, Discord and the sisters have no problem turning Cozy Glow to stone. Considering the crap she helped put the heroes though, including trying to kill them on more than one occasion, it's justified.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Applejack and the others point out to Twilight that despite her belief that she hasn't made a difference, she has indeed changed each of their lives for the better.
- You Shall Not Pass!: Starlight, Celestia, Luna, and Discord put up enough of a fight for the Mane Six to escape from the villains, despite the latter three being drained of their magic.
- Zerg Rush: All the allies of the Mane Six rush Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow. Even with their enhanced powers they are quickly overwhelmed by the massive army of creatures, losing track of their intended targets in the crowd.
