"The Times They Are a Changeling"

Oh. My. Gosh.

So we begin with Twilight, Starlight, and Spike traveling to the Crystal Empire for... not business. The writers could have contrived a conference or other event like in "The Crystal Empire", Equestria Girls, "Games Ponies Play" and "Just For Sidekicks", "Equestria Games", "Twilight's Kingdom", "The Crystalling". I can't think of any other episodes where Twilight visits the Crystal Empire, not including passing through. While most of these episodes involve situations where "the fate of the world doesn't hang in the balance", this is the first time Twilight goes to the Crystal Empire for unofficial business. Likewise, Starlight is along for the ride as both Twilight's pupil and because she'll be able to see Sunburst again. And considering Sunburst is Flurry Heart's godfather, that's two birds with one stone. Spike is less excited, as it appears he's starting to realize that his fame in the Empire isn't all it's cracked up to be. However, he's not necessarily tired of his fame. He smugly boasts about his title, which, if we're honest with ourselves, most of us would do in certain situations.

They step off the train to discover that the Crystal Empire is more or less a ghost town. Is it weird that I got excited to see the pole that had the cardinal directions on it at the train station? Maybe, but it's worldbuilding. Sort of. I didn't even pay attention in the previous episodes to see if it was shown before.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Twilight, why did you have to say that? Oh, because the scene's about to transition like it does in the Star Wars films. Nice reference.

So yeah, the Crystal Empire is a ghost town -- until Spike takes off his disguise. Then a mob of crystal ponies come, praising the presence of Spike the Brave and Glorious, but when Twilight and Starlight ask where everypony's been, the ponies realize that none of the three guests may actually be who they seem to be and run off. The three are left without answers, and so continue on their way to the castle to meet with Shining Armor and Cadance. Spike boasts to the guards, but I can't decide whether he's being genuine or using his fame to bypass the red tape. I'm leaning toward the latter, though. Cadance and Shining finally give them the answer they're looking for: a changeling has been seen inside the Empire, and they're concerned about their foal.

There's a bit of a plot hole here, though: in order to determine whether it's really Twilight and not a changeling in disguise, Cadance performs the sunshine/ladybug dance. However, Chrysalis has seen this dance when Twilight performed it in "A Canterlot Wedding", and would know it. It's not exactly a secure form of identification when changelings are a threat. Meanwhile, Andrew Francis did an excellent job in this episode. You can hear the hesitance and pain in his voice every time he speaks. When Twilight arrives, he wants to believe the pony before him is his sister, but prefers to be cautious rather than let his emotions guide his decisions, and rightly so. His wife was abducted and left for dead, he was put under a spell and mind controlled, and his wedding was almost crashed by a horde of changelings. Both he and Cadance are right about being as cautious as possible around them.

"She's gotten so big!" Her head or her wings?

While Twilight ponders when Spike's backed down from danger (the most recent example that comes to mind is in "Gauntlet of Fire" when he convinces Dragon Lord Torch to allow him to not compete), Spike and some guards go off searching for the changeling. They ask him about changelings, and his answer's actually quite vague: "They can change, and they can be anywhere." It then occurred to me: Spike never left the castle during the changeling invasion, so everything he witnessed about changelings was whatever Chrysalis, who also never left the wedding area, did. Spike questions whether a rock can be a changeling in disguise, and falls down an ice slide hidden by the snow. Fortunately, he's prevented from falling down a deep chasm by a rock that's sticking straight up. He starts making his way back up, but is startled by his reflection, which is soon revealed to be the changeling vis a vis the classic mirror gag. Spike is understandably frightened when he realizes it's the changeling, and then understandably confused when it saves him from falling down the abyss, going against everything he thought he knew about changelings.

We've known friendly changelings have been canon since June of 2015 when "Slice of Life" aired and we saw the little changeling at Cranky and Matilda's wedding. Headcanons abounded about this little guy, and Thorax isn't much different. He's a changeling that was born different from the others -- a mutant as it were -- and actually acts much like a pony might, in particular Fluttershy. He's kind and pretty nervous when talking to someone. He assumes Spike won't want to be his friend because nopony else has been interested. For people who avoided spoilers (unlike myself this time), this may have been the point at which they realized this episode was going to be "Bridle Gossip Part 2". The same themes apply: racism as a result of fear, the whole city becoming a ghost town, and slowly gaining trust in the outsider. Thorax explains that he didn't want to take part in the invasion because he saw Twilight and her friends' friendship, and wanted to share in that love rather than feed on it. So the magic of friendship and the magic of love? Same power. Or, maybe the writers are going for a Monsters, Inc. kind of thing where sharing love is a much better food source than feeding on it. Teach a man to fish, and all that.

AHHHHH, little pupa Thorax is so cute!

Spike gets an idea. Thorax disguises himself as a crystal pony named Crystal Hoof, and together they go around the city, making new friends. Spike and Thorax visit the castle, where all the adult ponies and Flurry Heart are. Thorax is welcomed to approach Flurry Heart, but the amount of love she emanates, which comes from every pony in the Crystal Empire as a result of her Crystalling, is too much for him and his disguise drops. Spike doesn't stand up for Thorax, but you can see he's uncomfortable with that decision. Thorax runs off, Twilight pulls Spike away, and a city-wide hunt for the changeling commences. Spike is told to look for his friend, who everyone assumes Thorax had taken on the appearance of without Spike's knowledge, but Spike returns to the cave where he first met him.

And Thorax is disguised as a rock.

Let's pause for a moment and look at these two lines, the first from Thorax and the second from Cadance.

"There's so much love in the Crystal Empire right now! It's what drew me here!"
"If there's one changeling, there may well be a whole army on the way!"

The writers would be missing a very big, very much anticipated, and very juicy two-parter involving the return of Queen Chrysalis.

Spike decides once and for all that he'd rather have his friend than his reputation. He goes back with Thorax, sans disguise, and sings to everypony about how changelings can change. He sings about how Spike the Brave and Glorious can do unheroic things, and how being friendly and kind is a good way to start understanding someone. I'm pretty sure this is Spike's first solo song as well. Props to DRWolf for noticing that something clicks in Starlight's mind during the song, and she's shown regretting something. Maybe she remembered what she did to the ponies in Our Town, or what she did to the timelines, or something else. While Spike sings, Twilight is actually the first to realize that what he's saying is true, and she points this out after the song ends and she welcomes Thorax as a friend. Cadance follows suit, and offers her daughter to him once again.

Flurry Heart gets a lot of flack for being a moneygrab from Hasbro with a weird name, weird powers, weird wings, weird... everything, but I think we're overlooking something. Now, this may be the innocence of a newborn baby, but Flurry Heart isn't afraid of him. At all. Changelings were designed to be scary: they're insectoid, have sharp teeth, have long forked tongues (which they added for this episode, which was a great design choice), and have holes in their bodies. Perhaps it's more than a baby's innocence: in "The Crystalling" she finds everything fun and humorous, giggling at the destruction she causes; in this one, she's not afraid of something designed to be frightening. I doubt Flurry Heart will ever be afraid of anything.

"I'm sorry we didn't take the time to get to know you." No you're not, Shining Armor. You had every reason not to think about getting to know someone from a race that's invaded lands and minds. You're not sorry you didn't take the time to get to know him, but you may be sorry you didn't trust Spike earlier. That I can believe.

"If my kind learned how to create love for one another, maybe they wouldn't have to take it from others!" Okay, with the lines I mentioned before, and now this one, the return of Chrysalis has got to be a future episode. That's a lot of hinting to end up with no payoff.

My favorite Spike episode used to be "Gauntlet of Fire". This episode is now more or less tied with that one for my favorite Spike episodes, and part of the reason is seeing just how much Spike shows that he's a true, true friend. In "Gauntlet" he proves himself to be as loyal to his new friend Ember, despite having just met her and her position as princess, and thus introduces the dragons to friendship. In "Gauntlet" he's quite generous in giving up complete control of the scepter to his new friend. In this one, he has a similar struggle as Applejack did in "Leap of Faith", where he has trouble deciding whether to be honest or to keep his reputation. In this one, despite the initial fear, he's nothing but kind to Thorax. I think it's also important to mention that, while Equestria has introduced thoughts of cooperation with the yaks (Pinkie and Twilight) and griffons (Pinkie and Rainbow), Spike actually has an easier time with bringing in other nations as allies (the dragons through Ember and the changelings through Thorax). As of this episode, Spike is an underappreciated character whose potential is way more than anyone could have imagined back when he was the focus of, well, "Spike episodes".

Final thoughts: 9/10. A few issues with logic and continuity, but nothing too big, and plenty of potential for future episodes. Kyle Rideout did a great job as Thorax, Cathy Weseluck did an excellent job as Spike, I already mentioned Andrew Francis, and... wait... Iris Quinn was in this episode as a background character? Ohoho, that can only mean one of two things: either Principal Cinch is going to return, or Iris is voicing the main character in a future episode (or film, seeing as we don't know much yet about Legend of Everfree). Either way, I'm looking forward to the future of MLP.

Comments

[StarzGecko]

Really like the episode! Though there were a few times they could had gone with but over all it was a really great Spike episode.

I kind of wish they used Starlight or made it longer because it felt in the end it went by to quickly.

Have to say this... I love Flurry Heart, I like that she can cause trouble but sad she didn't do anything... But I notice she blush when she was close to the Changling. I know this would be crazy, but what if when she is older she falls in love with a Prince Changling?

It would be a interesting reference to Lion King 2.