We’re halfway through the series now, so let’s see what’s next on the docket…

…

And it’s #49, “A Canterlot Wedding.”

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TECHNICAL SPECS:

Season: 2
Episodes: 51 + 52
Written By: Meghan McCarthy
First Aired: April 21, 2012

SUMMARY:

The Mane 6 are enjoying a nice picnic when Spike comes running up, out of breath from holding in a message from Celestia. The letter speaks of an upcoming wedding, and invites all the ponies to come and help set up the festivities. Fluttershy is placed in charge of the bird choir; Pinkie is tasked with the reception; Applejack is the caterer; Rainbow Dash is asked to perform a Sonic Rainboom; Rarity is chosen to design the dress; and finally, Twilight is in charge of organizing the event. Unfortunately, none of the ponies know anything about the wedding, until Spike hands over the other letter: a wedding invitation to the joining of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza…and Twilight’s big brother, Shining Armor.

Needless to say, Twilight is none too happy with what’s going on. Her brother was pretty much the only friend she had as a filly, and now he’s insensitive enough to notify her about the wedding through an informal invitation rather than an actual letter. Even worse, she has no idea who Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is, and she is NOT giving up her brother to some hussy she doesn’t know. When the six arrive in Canterlot, however, the entire city is encased in a force field, guards are everywhere, and the entire place is on high alert.

Once off the train, Twilight bolts to the castle, where Captain Shining Armor is delegating orders to his subordinates. She angrily tells him off, but he explains that the reason he didn’t tell her was because Canterlot received news of a threat, and the entire city’s been put under lockdown, with Shining providing the shield. As for Mi Amore Cadenza, that’s the formal name for Princess Cadance, Twilight’s old foalsitter who could use love magic. Once she realizes this, Twilight is overjoyed at the prospect of her being part of the family, and even accepts the role of “Best Mare”…until she meets Cadance, who has become a very cold, rude, condescending jerk in the intervening years. She doesn’t even remember their secret hoofshake.

Nonetheless, Twilight tries to keep the wedding going, but she keeps finding more and more evidence of Cadance’s nastiness. Unfortunately, her earlier attitude makes her friends believe that she’s still overreacting, and she runs off to confront Shining about this. However, Cadance soon pulls him into a back room, where she starts using some kind of magic on him that makes his eyes roll around and turn green. Twilight runs back to her friends, but Cadance has just made them her new bridesmaids (after the old ones simply vanished). The next day, during the wedding rehearsal, Twilight barges in and accuses Cadance of doing something to the bridesmaids and using evil magic on her brother. Cadance responds by crying and running away, and Twilight is happy…until she runs into Shining, who gives a logical explanation for everything that’s happened. Upset at his sister’s behavior, he tells her not to bother showing up to the wedding and leaves. Twilight’s friends soon follow, ashamed at what happened, and even Celestia refuses to speak to her. Now alone, Twilight realizes just how much she’s really lost because of her paranoia, and when Cadance suddenly reappears, she tries to make up.

Then she learns she was right all along….just as Cadance causes a ring of fire to appear around her and banishes her to a crystal cavern underneath Canterlot. Cadance’s face keeps appearing on the crystals, taunting Twilight to start shooting off her magic. Finally, one of her shots shatters a crystal wall, revealing a very dirty, half-starved Cadance behind it. Twilight’s ready to strike her down, but stops when she busts out the secret hoofshake, proving herself to be the real Cadance. Together, the two work their way out of the caves, while the wedding seemingly continues without a hitch. In the process, our heroes meet the original bridesmaids, now mind-controlled puppets meant to guard the only way back up to the castle. Fortunately, all it takes is a fake bouquet to send the three tumbling down a shaft, allowing Twilight and Cadance the time they need to get to the hall.

Twilight slams the doors open, causing a collective groan from everypony in the room and evil!Cadance to begin sobbing again…until the real one pops into view a second later. Now cornered, the fake Cadance reveals her true from as Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings. Her species feeds off of love, so she used the wedding to get inside and drain Shining Armor, reducing him to a mere puppet as well. Without him to power the shield, the other changelings begin chipping away. Celestia finally steps up and engages her in a Kamehameha battle, but the power boost from Shining Armor’s love for Cadance gives Chrysalis just enough extra power to overwhelm even Celestia.

Desperate, the Mane 6 rush off to recover the Elements, but the shield shatters soon after they leave the castle, leaving them awash in Changelings. They manage to fight off an initial horde, but when they get to the vault they see that it’s already been swarmed, and with another horde coming in from behind, they have no way to escape. Celestia is cocooned, Cadance is stuck to the floor, and our heroes have been captured.

While Chrysalis is distracted with her gloating, however, Twilight manages to free Cadance, who uses her magic to break the mind control on Shining Armor. Unfortunately, he’s been so drained that he can’t raise his shield anymore; that is, until Cadance uses her love magic to power him back up. Together, their power creates a new force field, pushing out Chrysalis and the Changelings and scattering them from one end of Equestria to the other. With the day saved, Celestia (and presumably, the others) apologize for letting their focus on the wedding prevent them from seeing what was really going on.

The actual wedding planning resumes, and this Cadance soon proves to be a much nicer pony. Twilight is back to Best Mare, Shining Armor and Cadance are married, and Dash gets to perform her Sonic Rainboom. During the reception, Twilight sings off a final song congratulating the two, and finally hugs her brother goodbye as he goes to start his new family. Rarity catches the bouquet (only to give it up to the bridesmaids), and everypony celebrates a great wedding.

Oh, and Luna gets three lines. Huzzah.

REVIEW:

If “Luna Eclipsed” was the episode fans knew would tear the fandom apart, “A Canterlot Wedding” was the curveball that sent many screaming back to the bunkers. And honestly, if you looked at the premise alone and didn’t include who’s making the show and all their previous accomplishments into the equation, this would sound like a disaster. Not only was it a blatant grab at 2011’s royal wedding extravaganza, but it gave Twilight a hitherto non-existent brother, introduced a new Alicorn princess, and every preview centered itself around the episode being an obnoxious combination of everything girly and feminine to have ever existed. And while the episode does have its flaws, for the most part it actually turned out surprisingly well.

The opening picnic scene is a pretty good intro for the upcoming events of the episode. Some of the bits are cute, like Pinkie stomping on the cake (and Twilight quickly fixing it) and Rarity swooning over the idea of designing for a Canterlot wedding. Twilight’s shock at the end was also a funny touch, and perfectly mirrored the reaction of those watching that had managed to avoid all the spoilers.

Before we go on, we need to address Shining Armor’s status in the series and effect on the canon and fanon. Technically, nobody ever said Twilight was an only foal. In addition, there is no rule saying that siblings and family members cannot be added in out of nowhere, nor is there a law that says that Twilight had to mention Shining Armor every time she opened her mouth. Sweetie Belle’s relation to Rarity was also introduced out of nowhere at the start of an episode, after all. The problem with Shining Armor, though, was that he’s not only Twilight’s BBBFF, but he’s the Captain of the Guard and her only friend from her foalhood days. This makes his sudden addition feel more than a little frustrating, and he really should have made at least a background appearance or two earlier in the season.

Still, the rest of the scene is nice. Twilight making the sandwich talk was hilarious. Rarity swooning again was enjoyable as well. Applejack’s reaction to Twilight’s frustrations are nice, given the close relationship she enjoys with her family. And then there’s the episode’s first song, “Big Brother Best Friend Forever.”

Of the three, this is my least favorite, but it’s still a pretty good song, and I always enjoy seeing filly Twilight being adorable. The song also establishes how close the two are, and will have an impact later on in the episode.

The train scene is mostly establishing some more exposition. Spike running the bachelor party is funny, but I do have to ask who thought giving the job of setting up a night of debauchery and sin to a ten-year-old. (Really, it’s just here to throw the brick.) The more important parts, however, are Twilight revealing that the two have been drifting apart since she moved to Ponyville, and the force field around Canterlot. (You can actually see if during the picnic scene, which is a nice bit of continuity.)

The first meeting between the two is, again, there to advance the backstory, but also shows just how pissed Twilight is at Shining Armor. We not only learn a new swear (“For pony’s sake!”), but we also hear Shining Armor’s voice for the first time, as voiced by the same guy who did Braeburn. And...I can’t say I’m a fan. Mind you, he isn’t a booming, hammy kind of soldier many would expect for his position, but he sounds less like a soldier and more like he should be on a beach in California. We also see his ability to create forcefields, which we’ve also seen Twilight do on a smaller scale in “Return of Harmony” and “Ponyville Confidential.” Given Twilight’s ability to quickly learn magic, it’s understandable how she’d learn to copy his talents.

She calms down, though, once she learns that his bride-to-be is Princess Cadance, Twilight’s old foalsitter. And thus we get to the other half of the gruesome twosome for fanfiction writers. There’s no way to get around it, so let’s discuss it right now. When Faust pitched the original story, Cadance was a regular Unicorn, a la Prince Blueblood. But when Hasbro approved the white Celestia toy to replace the pink one, she was changed to an Alicorn so they could still market a pink doll to concerned retailers. This pretty much dropped a massive meteor on much of the long-established fanon, and many called foul since Faust wanted Celestia and Luna to be the only Alicorns. Still, no actual canon established this, so the show didn’t violate anything with her inclusion.

The flashback also establishes that Cadance really was her foalsitter, which is somewhat odd. Since Twilight had no Cutie Mark in the flashback, it would imply that either the animators made a mistake, or Twilight’s parents had some serious pull to make that work. (Personally, I’m going with Celestia pegging Twilight from an early age to wield the Elements and using Cadance as a spy to keep an eye on her.) There’s also the matter of her love magic, which on the surface sounds like a truly dangerous power to hold. Personally, I just saw it as magnifying romantic feelings that were already there, using the power to smooth over fights and remind ponies why they love each other. And then there’s the little issue of whether or not she’s immortal. I...have no idea, although she was younger in the flashback, so she seems to at least age normally. I also have no idea why or how she and Blueblood are related to the Princesses, although I highly doubt she is Luna’s daughter.

Anyway, the scene establishes that she’s cute and loving...which is why the next scene immediately starts raising flags. While she’s rude and inconsiderate, the big clincher (this being a kids show) is that she doesn’t know the secret hoofshake. And thus we get to the usual parade of Cadance behaving like the most horrible pony possible while only Twilight notices. Granted, she does have some good points, like when she points out that Pinkie’s party plans are more for a six-year-old than a grown wedding reception. Still, she’s actually pretty subtle with her machinations for the most part, with only Twilight realizing something’s wrong.

Luna returns for a cameo this episode, going into Canterlot to switch places with Celestia. It’s a throwaway scene, but it’s nice that the crew managed to work her in, even for a tiny role.

Twilight trying to convince her friends is where many start to call foul, especially considering what happened in “Lesson Zero.” The difference here, I feel, is the nature of the problem and how Twilight’s reacting. In LZ, she was facing a personal issue, and the solution was for her friends to take her problems seriously. Here, however, she has been acting possessive of her brother since before she even knew who the bride was. The scene when Twilight sees Cadance work her magic on Shining Armor is mostly there to solidify her suspicions, as well as provide some more foreshadowing.

And then we get to the first half’s money shot. If Twilight’s goal was to get her friends to back her up, she chose exactly the wrong way to do so. Instead of gathering proof and making calm, logical arguments about what she’s seen, she charges into the room and loudly declares Cadance to be an evil monster. Naturally, Cadance cries (thus earning the sympathy of the rest of the ponies in the room) while Twilight keeps calling her evil (thus losing her own). And then it all ties back to the first song, with Shining Armor pointing out perfectly logical arguments (both in-universe and to those watching the show) for why she’s behaving this way, mostly relating to stress from planning the wedding.

And thus we get to another “Twilight must break” scene. Shining Armor practically disowning Twilight for this would be crushing enough on its own, given how high she praised their perfect relationship. (According to the song, they didn’t have a single fight when growing up.) Her friends abandoning her again just digs the knife in deeper, especially with how utterly disgusted they look when they walk by. And to top it off, Celestia finishes her off by very angrily telling her to think about what she’s done before closing the door, leaving Twilight alone in the room. This is probably the most depressing moment of the entire episode, especially when Twilight finally realizes that she perhaps overreacted and lost everything:

I love the animation style here, but the best part is when Shining vanishes and the little Twilight looks around in a panic before crying. And then Cadance smashes the little figure, thus bringing us back into reality in time for the plot twist: she was evil the whole time. And now that Twilight is alone and will not be missed, she disposes of her by dumping her into a crystal cavern.

The cave scene is both good and bad from a writing standpoint. On the one hand, the house of mirror effect is very good, and the concept of an abandoned crystal mine underneath the city is an interesting story idea. On the other hand, why did she dump her in the same cave the real Cadance was hidden in? Naturally, she finds her, looking scruffed up, probably starving, and absolutely desperate to convince the untrusting Twilight. And then we get to the secret hoofshake again, which is adorable. This sets off the story thread for the rest of the episode.

And then we get to the second song, “This Day Aria.” This is not only the best song of the episode, it’s possibly the best of the season. There is a very definite Disney feel to the scene, and I loved how the two musical styles bounce off each other. At the same time, the song also shows Twilight and Cadance working together, advancing their development and building on their relationship for all they can with such short a timespan. And at the end, we get the zombie bridesmaids, which is a creepy enough cliffhanger.

Twilight bursts into the wedding at just the right time to be dramatic. Her friends all look upset and a little ashamed at her presence, which is a bit disconcerting given the nature of the show. And then we have the two Cadances finally appear in the same scene, as well as learn of how easily the bridesmaids were defeated. It’s a funny scene, and I liked how they didn’t reveal how the cliffhanger was resolved until after we learned they had escaped.

And then we’re introduced to Chrysalis and the Changelings. I have decidedly mixed feelings on how this was handled. On the one hand, I liked that they added an actual villain to the episode, and I love the character design of her and the Changelings. I also like how they’re not only insectoid in appearance, but also in how they behave, following a central queen, having no personality of their own, and cocooning their prey while feasting. On the other hand, such an advanced concept is slammed into the episode so late that it never gets the chance to develop properly. We learn that Shining Armor’s been brainwashed and what the Changelings are doing so quickly that it makes the scene feel like little more than a giant exposition dump. We don’t even learn Chrysalis’ name in the episode itself; we had to wait for Word of God to give us a solid answer.

Celestia throwing down and fighting Chrysalis was a long time coming, and I loved it. Of course, she ends up suffering the Worf Effect and losing, but they at least make the loss plausible. Chrysalis is visibly struggling, and is completely surprised that she won to begin with. If she didn’t have a power source nearby, she would have been reduced to a very giant splat on the castle’s window. The crown falling to the ground was a perfectly dark bit, and highlights the high stakes of the invasion.

The fight with the Changeling horde was perfectly animated, wonderfully executed, and just a blast to watch. I liked the motions the Changeling impersonating Rainbow Dash made, always moving a split second after her before finally attacking. Fluttershy tricking her own copies was amusing, as was Dash using the confusion to her advantage and saving her friend. Pinkie using Twilight as a gatling gun was hilarious. And to top it off, the freeze frames were hilarious, with Fluttershy simply cowering to knock a Changeling over and Pinkie brandishing her Party Cannon. Of course, this scene turns out to be all for naught, as the group is completely overrun right as they get to the Elements. On the one hand, it’s nice that they’re not falling back on the Elements again. (Because really, having the villain get knocked down over and over with the same weapon would only get dull.) On the other hand, it makes the preceding scene pointless. Cool, but pointless nonetheless.

Celestia cocooned was creepy (perhaps that’s how they reproduce?), and Chrysalis looking over the scene in villainous triumph and reprising the Aria was a nice bit. I also liked how she pointed out that Twilight was right the whole time, but everypony else was too caught up in their wedding planning to do anything. It’s a shame that Applejack is the only one to really apologize.

Unfortunately, we then get to another contentious scene, as Twilight frees Cadance so she can break Shining out of his brainwashing. He’s not powerful enough to create another force field, and when Cadance tries to use her love to power him up (which is totally possible...I guess), she simply brushes off the power of love and allows her flank to get kicked. Fortunately, the animation is really good here, and the Changelings being flung all over is an interesting way to deal with them. While it might seem like they’ll regroup, given the hive mind mentality they’ve shown up to this point, it’s even more likely that the hive has been shattered beyond repair thanks to the distance.

We then get another montage, showing Cadance being nice to everypony. The wedding proper is a nice touch, with Twilight and Shining Armor finally reconciling. I can’t say I’m a fan of the CMC being flower fillies, although I guess that could just be reusing major character to keep up the toy promotions. The vows are made, the crowds rejoice, and Celestia thanks Twilight for staying the course when everypony else doubted her. I guess that’ll do for an apology from her. As for Rainbow Dash pulling off a pathetically easy Rainboom, I can’t say I liked it. It feels like it cheapens just how much force you need to get the Rainboom going to begin with.

This leads to the third and last song, “Love is in Bloom.” I didn’t care for this one the first time I heard it, but after a few viewings it grew on me. It has a very pop feel to it, but otherwise, it’s good. Luna is also adorable here with her little head bang, although I can’t say I liked how she didn’t appear at all during the fight.

And so the season ends with Shining and Twilight saying goodbye, which is a touching moment all-around. Rarity pushing her way to grab the bouquet was hilariously in-character for her, given her own romantic ideals. And then the brick lands as Spike brings up the bachelor party...which he didn’t know was supposed to happen before the wedding. Oh, Spike!

CONCLUSION:

This episode has its fair share of issues, some of which can definitely be gamebreakers. It annihilates a wide amount of fanon, is very rushed towards the end, and Chrysalis is not handled in the best way. However, it also has a lot of great jokes, some good story bits, and the action scenes are very well done. I like Cadance and Shining Armor, and am glad they’ll get some more development in the third season. Overall, this is a lot of fun, and I liked it.

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And thus we’ve done all the two-part episodes. See you next time!