SPOILERS? Mariusioannesp Reviews: "Every Little Thing She Does"

WARNING!!! The following contains SPOILERS for the latest MLP episode “Every Little Thing She Does”.

Now, without further a-Starlight-Glimmer-can’t-do-anything-right-do, here is my review of “Every Little Thing She Does”.

When Twilight Sparkle realizes that Starlight Glimmer has been neglecting some of her friendship lessons, Twilight assigns her the task of completing one before she and Spike return from a trip to Canterlot that evening. Starlight tries to be a bit ambitious and try to make up all the friendship lessons Twilight has suggested to her in one day. Starlight tries gathering the Remane 5 to help her do so, but it proves to be more complicated than she anticipates. When Starlight tries using magic to simplify this task, everything just spirals out of control! Will Starlight Glimmer realize what the point of her friendship lessons truly is?

So, what’s the verdict?

This was an unexpectedly fun episode.

So yeah, I liked it.

Let us begin where all things begin at the beginning. Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer awake bright and early in the morning to test out Starlight’s magic skills with a whole list of spells Twilight has prepared. First, they’re going to teleport to multiple locations, some of them rather wacky.

Then, they try some transfiguration. Transfiguration? What is this Hogwarts all of a sudden?

Then, they try some magical shields, but Starlight goes a little overboard when her giant diamond shield explodes and destroys the entire library!

Hey, wait a minute.

Starlight Glimmer is Captain America!

So then, Twilight admits that perhaps there is such a thing as too much studying.

Starlight then further impresses Twilight with her magical prowess by using a speed enhancement spell called “Accelero” to clean up everything rather quickly.

But that’s not all. Starlight demonstrates that when combining that with an ancient spell she came across called Similo Duplexis, she can make a duplicate of herself and literally be in two places at once.

Twilight is very impressed with Starlight’s skill when it comes to magic. Of course, Starlight has always been a natural at magic; it’s her special talent after all. However, Twilight then realizes that Starlight hasn’t tackled any new friendship lessons since she made friends with Trixie. You know, from “No Second Prances” earlier this season.

That’s something I like to call…

Anyway, Starlight tries to get out of it, insisting that she’ll get to one when she has the time, but Twilight insists that she dedicate this day to a friendship lesson. In fact, Twilight and Spike will be going to Canterlot today because Princess Celestia asked her to do a presentation for her students, presumably at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, on the history of enchanted objects in Equestria. Enchanted objects you say? I wonder if that has something to do with the season finale. Maybe. Well, Spike isn’t too enthused over all the preparation Twilight has decided to do for this presentation.

Anywho, Twilight and Spike will be back tonight, and then they can go over the progress Starlight has made. In the meantime, Twilight and Spike have to prepare for Twilight’s presentation.

Starlight holes herself up in her room floating some blocks around. This is the first time we’ve ever seen Starlight’s room in Twilight’s Castle.

Starlight is also Scarlet Witch as well.

That is until Spike comes along to let her know that they’ll be on their way, and then she starts feigning being productive. Been there; done that.



Hey, what’s that on her wall?

Well, I can understand why there’d be a picture of a struck-through equal sign on Starlight’s wall. It’s a reminder of her past misdeeds. But that also looks like a picture of Trixie on her wall. You’re going to be hardpressed to argue that Starlight isn’t in love with her.

Moving on, Spike can tell that Starlight is a bit apprehensive about tackling a friendship lesson. Her options are baking a cake with Pinkie Pie, sewing with Rarity, scrapbooking with Applejack, helping an animal with Fluttershy, and chillaxing with Rainbow Dash. Wait, chillaxing? And neither Starlight nor Spike are even that sure what chillaxing is. So, Spike let’s Starlight know that if she’s feeling nervous about her friendship lesson, it’s okay to admit it. Starlight just tries to play it off though. Being nervous about a friendship lesson is silly she says, especially after how she impressed Twilight with her magical prowess. Combining spells like that was a challenge, unlike these friendship lessons. In fact, Starlight decides she’s going combine all these friendship lessons together and impress Twilight that way as well. Spike fears Starlight is missing the point, but there’s no stopping her now.

Soon enough, Starlight has gathered Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash in the castle foyer to begin this massive undertaking. Applejack is not too sure about this though, insisting that Starlight should take her time with all of this. Starlight counters that if they work together, they can get it all done and teamwork is what friendship is all about. Either way, try as she might, Starlight can’t make this arrangement work. Starlight wants Rarity and Applejack to set up in the library. Rarity though is concerned the library won’t have the proper lighting and requests the foyer. Starlight had intended the foyer for Fluttershy and her animals, but according to Fluttershy, each animal may require a different area of the castle.

Are those the raccoons from “The Saddle Row Review”? She brought them all the way back to Ponyville from Manehattan.

On top of that, Rainbow apparently doesn’t think the castle is the optimal place for chillaxing and goes off to scout some locations. Starlight thinks its most efficient to start with Applejack and the scrapbooking, but Pinkie requests to be first. She even starts singing a song, but Starlight silences her with a hoof to the mouth because they don’t have time for a song.



Rarity, however, is concerned with baking with Pinkie before helping her design dresses because Pinkie tends be a tad messy.

Then, Rainbow can’t find anywhere in the castle to chillax, and Applejack wants to get started on the scrapbooking because they got 80 moons worth of pictures to go through. Again with the moons as a way of measuring time. Starlight can’t take much more of this and steps out of the room for a moment to breathe. Then, Starlight gets the idea of craft a spell to make things go a little easier. Everyone will probably thank her for getting everything done so quickly, and Twilight will be impressed that she was able to do all those friendship lessons in a day. Everypony wins!

However, Starlight’s spell ends up rendering her friends inert zombies.

Starlight is also Kilgrave now. I make all the Marvel references. All of them!

Then, she remembers that one of the spells she used in her spell combo requires a trigger, but without any kind of a warning. So, Starlight enters the Avatar state and gives her now mind-controlled friends their instructions.

She sends Pinkie to the kitchen, sends Rarity and Applejack to the library, has Fluttershy stay put in the foyer, and sends Rainbow off to find somewhere in the castle to chillax.

Starlight decides to start with Pinkie, but she soon finds that the spell prevents those in its thrall from doing anything unless it’s exactly what Starlight tells them to do. So, Starlight reads off the instructions in order to bake this cake, and Pinkie does so in the way only Pinkie can.

With that, Starlight has Pinkie just follow the instructions in the book as she moves on to the next thing.

Next, Starlight goes to Rarity, and just asks her to start on a dress like this one she finds in some magazine. Then, she goes to Applejack with her scrapbooking and starts asking about the story behind a photo. However, Applejack goes into excruciating detail over the event, but when Starlight prompts her to summarize it in one sentence, that’s not helpful either. Starlight just has Applejack organize her photos in chronological order while she goes on to the next thing. Starlight goes to find Fluttershy in the foyer and finds that she’s alone for some reason. Turns out the animals ran away because Starlight never told Fluttershy not to do that. Starlight then asks her to round up all the animals in the castle and bring them back to the foyer. As Fluttershy goes off, Rainbow shows up. She’s found a place to chillax, and Starlight asks her to let her know when it’s ready.

Starlight returns to Applejack whose stories continue not to make sense to her. Like when she said, “Granny Smith knew she was gonna need a bigger boat.” Yeah, I know that’s an allusion to a line from Jaws. Jaws. That’s a movie I’ve never seen. Then, she tells her about the time Big Mac hid from a monster by covering himself in mud.

Apparently, this is a reference to the film Predator. Predator. That’s another movie I’ve never seen.

Rarity presents Starlight with the dress she has completed.

She just drew it on a piece of paper. Starlight clarifies that she wanted an actual dress that was like the one in the magazine and to make sure it’s bigger. Applejack gets back to another of her stories saying, “She was just a pony standin' in front of another pony askin' him to love her.” That’s an allusion to a famous like from the film Notting Hill. Notting Hill. That’s another movie I’ve never seen. After that, Starlight goes to check on Pinkie’s progress.


Pinkie has done exactly as Starlight said and followed the book and baked everything in it. And it’s only been a few minutes. Starlight ends the lesson and immobilizes Pinkie with her magic.

Starlight hears Fluttershy’s bear growl and goes off to investigate.

She trots by Applejack who’s in the middle of this story: “They can take our farm, but they can't take our freedom!” That’s an allusion to a line from the film Braveheart.

Braveheart. That’s another movie I’ve never seen.

I HAVEN’T SEEN A LOT OF MOVIES OKAY!!!

In the foyer, Starlight finds Fluttershy’s animals huddled in fear.


Because Fluttershy is covered in bugs! Fluttershy, I love you, but AAAHH!!!

Rarity also comes by collecting the carpet for the much bigger dress she’s working on.

Somewhere, Applejack is crying out, “It was the best of apples, it was the worst of apples...” That’s an allusion to the opening line of Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities. A Tale of Two Cities. That’s a book I haven’t read. There are books I haven’t read too.

Then, Starlight notices the smoke that’s gathering in the castle. Turns out, the cakes are burning because Starlight left the ovens on. Starlight calls out for water, and Rainbow then brings some stormclouds to rain inside the castle.


It puts out the fire, but it floods the whole castle. Applejack goes floating by telling the story of how Big Mac once told her, “With a whole lot of power comes a heck of a lot of responsibility.”


That’s an allusion of the famous line from Spider-Man.

Starlight doesn’t think this could get any worse so that’s when Twilight shows up.

Once Twilight undoes the spell Starlight put on their friends, she wants to know how things got so out of control. Starlight though misses the point, thinking that the spell would have worked if she had done it differently. Of course, Twilight wants to know why Starlight thought it was a good idea to cast a spell on their friends so that they’d do her bidding. Starlight realizes that this does indeed sound pretty bad because, as Twilight reminds her, it is. Twilight though is not angry with Starlight; she’s just disappointed. Twilight trotted out that old parental chestnut. Starlight then admits that she’s been purposefully skipping her friendship lessons. It turns out while Starlight has mastered all kinds of spells and such, things like baking a cake or sewing freak Starlight out. She was afraid to admit it because she knows it seems kind of silly. Oh, it certainly is silly.

You’ve already baked with Pinkie before, Starlight. Way back in last season’s finale, “The Cutie Re-Mark.” Some have explained this by suggesting that Starlight has social anxiety disorder. It’s also possible this scene actually takes place in the future of this episode. I can accept either explanation.

Either way, Starlight didn’t want to disappoint anypony or disappoint Twilight, and she ended disappointing everypony anyway. Twilight explains to Starlight that the point of these lessons isn’t about baking a cake or sewing or any of that other stuff. It was doing something that a friend loves in order to get to know them even better. Starlight finally realizes she’s missed the point of all this. Twilight then assigns Starlight an advanced friendship lesson in apologizing.

The next morning, the Remane 5 are all quite disheveled after the whammy Starlight put them under.




Applejack feels like she’s been rung through the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. And Flim and Flam were just in last week’s episode. What a coincidence? Rarity seems to be nursing a migraine, wearing sunglasses and asking everypony else to speak more quietly. (Even Fluttershy’s quiet voice is too loud for her!) And Pinkie is angry over the cake that was burned in the previous day’s debacle. You can say whatever you want to the contrary, but these ponies are straight up hungover! Clearly, Pinkie is an angry drunk.

So, Starlight comes along to apologize for how out of hand everything got last night. That’s generally what you also say when a night of drinking goes horribly, horribly wrong. She explains to them that she only did the spell on them because she was nervous about working with them for her friendship lessons. Rainbow gives her a friendship lesson of her own. Don’t cast spells on your friends!

That’s a lesson I can stand behind. Anywho, Starlight knows what she did was wrong and can’t take it back. She hopes she can make it up to them one day, but all she can do now is say sorry. The Remane 5 seems impressed by Starlight’s apology. As Starlight makes her way back to the castle to clean up the mess she made, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow all join her to clean up their parts of the mess. Pinkie, still miffed about the burnt cake, merely says she’ll join them to bake a cake to honor those cakes who perished in the debacle the night previous.

Then we have a montage of Starlight sewing up some presumably ruined banners with Rarity, collecting photos with Applejack, putting the spiders and their webs back with Fluttershy, and baking a cake with Pinkie.






I like how here Pinkie is still gives Starlight the cold shoulder until she starts making a mess of herself by baking a cake without any magic like an Earth pony.

All the while, Twilight is following them in shadows checking off things from her list like the creeper she is.

Creeper!

When all is said and done, Twilight comes to check on Starlight. Starlight is glad she has such understanding friends though she doesn’t think she’ll be ready to tackle any friendship lessons anytime soon. Twilight though informs Starlight that she has in fact finished most of her friendship lessons because throughout the day she did indeed sew with Rarity, scrapbook with Applejack, help animals with Fluttershy, and bake a cake with Pinkie. In fact, she’s only go one thing left to do. With a bit a magic and some water, Starlight creates the perfect place in the castle to chillax with not just Rainbow but all their friends.

With that, all Starlight’s friendship assignments are complete, though she wonders how long they’ll have to sit quietly chillaxing.

This episode was written by Mike Vogel. To a certain extent, I think Mr. Vogel has kind of a hard-on for Starlight Glimmer. This is the second episode he’s written that prominently features Starlight Glimmer, the other being “A Hearth’s Warming Tail”. And she even had a small appearance in “Spice Up Your Life”, which Mr. Vogel also wrote. So that’s like almost three episodes out of the total four he’s written so far that features Starlight Glimmer in some capacity. So far, I guess I can characterize Mr. Vogel’s writing as chiefly featuring two things, fanservice and Starlight Glimmer. I believe he might have some more episodes this season so we shall see if this still holds.

I didn’t really know what to expect going into this episode. Certainly, I wasn’t expecting it to be as goofy as it turned out to be. I guess you could say this episode is a bit of an old-fashioned farce. And I really liked it for that.

This is one of those episodes that includes pretty much the whole cast, but aren’t totally wedged in. Rainbow Dash doesn’t seem to play as much of a role as some of the other characters though.

For some reason, some of the spells now have Latin-sounding, Harry Potter-esque names. We’ve heard the names of spells before, like in the season premiere, but they never had names like this. Starlight does describe finding one of these spells in an ancient text. That could probably explain why these spells have the names they do. More than anything, it’s probably to make an allusion to Harry Potter. Plus, Twilight mentions Transfiguration, which any Harry Potter fan knows is something they teach at Hogwarts. Soon enough, they'll be calling teleporting "apparating".

As for what I didn’t like, Starlight Glimmer has a somewhat disjointed development. In “No Second Prances”, it kind of made sense that Starlight’s first instinct is to resort to magic in her initial attempts to make a new friend. Magic was what she used to forge the pseudo-friendships she had back in “Our Town” in “The Cutie Map”. But to see her resort to magic again when she has trouble with her friendship lessons after the events of “No Second Prances”, I’m not too sure about that. Using a mind-control spell on her friends is one of the most villainous things she's done since she stopped being a villain. That's quite the backslide. Starlight though did admit that she tried to impress Twilight with her magic skills in an effort to keep her from realizing she hadn’t been doing her friendship lessons. So, it might be understandable that Starlight would backslide like this. I think it seems that Starlight’s development is disjointed because she has appeared sporadically throughout the season and hasn't really had enough of a presence to develop in a much more consistent manner.

It’s not too much of a problem, but there’s also how much the term “chillax” is used in this episode. It’s almost as if Mike Vogel discovered the term for the first time and figured, “This is a thing kids say these days. I’m going to use it in this episode!”

Overall, “Every Little Thing She Does” was a fun episode in the most unexpected of ways. Starlight might need to remember not to rely on magic so much when it comes to friendship, but she is certainly coming into her own. I look forward to seeing what she finally becomes by season’s end.

What did y’all think of “Every Little Thing She Does”?

God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.