Thoughts: On Season 3 Episode 13: Magical Mystery Cure (MAJOR SPOILERS) · 9:35pm Feb 16th, 2013
EDIT: I'm very sorry that I forgot the spoiler tag.
Opening Words
Oh, yes! Oh, yes! The long awaited finale and I’m actually stoked to watch! So…What’s my first impression? It’s good. I’ll definitely put the episode in the top 3 for this season, along with Magic Duel and Just for Sidekicks.
Oh, and Princess Celestia sings and it’s awesome! In fact, all the songs in the episode are great but the most memorable is the song True Friends (okay, I made up this name), a heartwarming song about being a true friend and how true friends will help each other no matter what in times of hardship and trouble. This is a musical episode, with its whopping 7 songs in 22 minutes.
As with major episodes in this season, it suffered from pacing problems. This season would have been better if it had been 26 episodes instead of 13 as this would have allowed heavy episodes like Keep Calm and Flutter On and this episode to be more fleshed out. What they could have done is to cut Games Ponies Play and Spike at your Service and expanded this episode and Keep Calm and Flutter On.
Personally, I think Games Ponies Play could have been left to our imagination and it should still have been fine but that’s just me.
Act I
Act I starts with a musical cold open with Twilight singing Morning in Ponyville Shimmers (this name is made up too) and at the end of the song, she gets drenched by… Rarity? For some reason Rarity had gotten Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark and claims that had been her destiny all along.
This leads me to two questions: Why aren’t the other pegasi helping out Rarity with the weather? You know, weather control’s kind of like, I don’t know, part of their job? And how did Twilight cast the spell? All she did was recite the spell and the Elements of Harmony activated. Apparently spells are also recital, on top of concentration based now. Maybe it’s Old Magic?
Twilight then visits Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Applejack in turn. There’s a Oppan Gangnam Style shout out with Spike’s dancing in the song Our Destiny or What My Cutie Mark is Telling Me (yes, those are made up too).
It’s funny to see the nice and super kawaii kitty we saw in Find an Pet snarling and swiping at Rainbow Dash but all the scenes highlighted just how out of depth her friends are in their new destinies.
I have a question with Pinkie Pie’s destiny: Why aren’t Big Mac and Apple Bloom helping her? Running a farm isn’t a single pony’s job and even if Pinkie wasn’t their sibling, they’d still have help out.
It turned out that an unfinished spell written by Starswirl the Bearded allows a pony to change his or her destiny and Twilight had casted it without thinking of its ramifications and affected all her friends via the Elements of Harmony. Rarity got Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark, Rainbow Dash got Fluttershy’s, Fluttershy got Pinkie Pie’s, Pinkie Pie got Applejack’s and Applejack got Rarity’s.
Also, now we know how Spike used up all the hot water in Ponyville.
Now, I have another question: Why did the princess entrust an important ancient spell book to a delivery service and drop it off at her student without much of a warning? I would have buy it more if Twilight was recalled to Canterlot to be presented the book, seeing as the book is, you know, kind of a national treasure and if not, at least something very very valuable and important.
Twilight despairs for… all of one minute with another song (I don’t have a name for this one, sadly speaking) after a pep talk by Spike. She has an epiphany when she looked on at the group photo we saw in the opening and sets herself to change the destiny of her friends back.
The pop song in the middle of an episode filled musical numbers is rather jarring. However, the back and forth between Spike and Twilight established the fact the problem at hoof wasn’t just on cutie marks but something bigger – their destiny.
Act II
Act II starts with Twilight intercepting a dejected Fluttershy attempting to return to Cloudsdale… on a hot air balloon. I guess she still wasn’t strong enough to fly up to Cloudsdale on her own. Twilight then brings Fluttershy back to “Rainbow Dash’s” cottage and let Fluttershy take charge of the animals. This allows Fluttershy to experience and realize her true destiny and gets her original cutie mark back.
Rainbow Dash being put in a pot to be cooked (ala all the cannibal or carnivore scenes in every other cartoon we’ve seen) is pretty funny.
The solution Twilight came up to fix this mess is pretty nice. Her friends still had their original skills and experience that made them the characters we knew and love but they had been forced to things they simply have no clue or inclination to do by their “destiny” (or rather, their cutie marks). This means all they needed was a nudge to their original purpose and aptitude in life.
I realize this probably isn’t exactly the consensus of everyone else but this is my impression. The spell did rewrite their destiny but it only starts on the night the spell was casted. This is very obvious as the troubles only just started on the morning after the spell was casted. If the spell had reached any further back, it will have far reaching consequences, and entire histories would have changed. That’s why Alternate Histories aren’t just simple subjects to write on or to be used as handwaving for poorly designed characters.
This probably makes Pinkie’s new destiny a living nightmare, given her temporary repressed memory of her foalhood in her parents’ rock farm. Perhaps it is a good thing Pinkie turns back to normal, I mean her mane was all flat just like how she was when she was young!
When every one of her friends returned to normal, Twilight has another epiphany and fixes Starswirl’s unfinished spell and disappears.
Act III
Twilight finds herself floating in the stars. Meeting Princess Celestia, the princess sings her a song about how proud she was of Twilight and Twilight returns to Ponyville… as an alicorn.
This scene is nicely done and we see all the trials Twilight and her friends went through over the course of the 3 seasons. Apparently, Twilight’s destiny was to become an alicorn or rather, to become the first pony to finish a spell to decide a pony’s destiny. Apparently again, that requires understanding of harmony and friendship. So, if everyone is harmonious, everyone can decide what they want to be?
Princess Celestia proclaims Twilight a princess and everypony has a shock and Pinkie Pie makes herself a spit take, which is hilarious. I guess Twilight is now the Princess of Destiny.
Then we get to the coronation. I heard some rumblings about how the coronation is too short and out of focus. I know the coronation had been hyped by The Hub’s advertisement but that is not the point of the episode. The point of the episode is how Twilight earned her place as a princess. I liked how the coronation turned out, in any case.
Liquid pride. Sure, Shining Armor, sure.
Twilight jumping into the line of her friends and trotting with them was a nice touch. It signified how Twilight would never abandon her friends, even after becoming a princess. The episode ends with a reprise of the cold opening song and Twilight flies to the screen, assuring everypony things will be fine.
…
AHHHH! INSTA-FLYING! MARY SUE! MARY SUE! MARAS FZ?GWTQ#%OQRDPDX?adsSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
…
This is… Cassia. Garand… was having a fit and I rectified the problem… He… will be up soon.
…
Ugh, where was I? Did Cassia taser me again!?
Anyway, I sure hope Twilight still stays in Ponyville when Season 4 starts. That or at least her friends will still be around wherever Twilight moves to.
Conclusion
Overall, this is a pretty good episode. It’s a little rushed but that’s a side effect of a 13 episode season rather than poor writing. Its songs are great, its writing is good. Yes, despite a number of plotholes the story has and the viewers would have benefited more with a little more foreshadowing.
Surprising, this episode didn’t burn the fanon as much as its writers had feared but it did put a slight dent in my Of Sunshine and Laughter universe continuity (no, it had nothing to do with Twilight but with Celestia and Luna). It’s not something severe and I can work with it.
My thought process just now: ...
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You, Sir, are insightful. I've yet to see these thoughts put together in precisely this way.
Now, I must ponder. 
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Well, that was me half-snarking while trying to puzzle out what Twilight actually meant when she fixed the spell. Her actual words were:
I still think I'm way off but I can see what I was getting at. The first two stanza obviously meant friendship, the third alluded to "all cutie marks being one" (it could have also meant all the Elements as one [i.e. Magic of Friendship]) which I took as being harmonious and the last stanza I took it as being omnipotent (i.e. do whatever they want) and thus able to decide their own destiny. Then again, I'm over-analysing a kids' show.
I do sincerely think that it is possible that Twilight is the Princess of Destiny though, what with how she earned her title.
Heya, season three's episodes' credits give the titles of their songs; you don't need to guess at them.
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Thanks.
I write these while running the video in the background so I don't really notice the credits, so I'll keep that in mind.