My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Season 7 Episode 10: "A Royal Problem" (SPOILERS) · 3:30pm Jun 10th, 2017
In which Celestia and Luna are squabbling again, Twilight Sparkle is a music box, and my headcanon that the Cutie Map can summon ponies other than the Mane Six is confirmed!
Remember that Celestia episode we've been waiting for? Well, here you go. Sure, it's also a Luna episode, but takesies-getsies, right?
The Cutie Map summons Starlight Glimmer to Canterlot Castle, which completely freaks Twilight out. When Starlight arrives, it doesn't take her long to discover that the friendship problem the Map wants her to solve is between the rulers of Equestria. Celestia and Luna are taking each other for granted and hurting each other's feelings. When Starlight forces them to confront each other about it, it erupts into a huge argument. Luna gets snippy with Celestia, Celestia gets snippy with Luna, on and on it goes until Starlight finally gets fed up with it and does what Starlight Glimmer does best:
Use magic to "fix" a problem. By swapping the Royal Sisters' Cutie Marks.
YIKES.
Yes, even the rulers of Equestria are not safe from Starlight Glimmer's hair-trigger horn. And, of course, they're pretty pissed off at her for this stunt. But they're also in such a snit with each other that they agree to go along with Starlight's plan just to spite each other: Luna is confident that a day in Celestia's shoes will be a breeze, while Celestia is certain that governing the dreams of ponies will be child's play.
Hahahahaha.
Luna is completely bewildered throughout her day as she struggles to keep up with Celestia's schedule. While she doesn't make as big a mess of it as she could have, she still has some missteps that have consequences, and is disheartened by one of her failures in particular.
Then night comes, and Celestia realizes how lonely Luna is, being the only pony awake. When she enters the world of dreams, she finds Starlight Glimmer having a nightmare...in which she encounters her own dark half, "Daybreaker", who does epic battle with Nightmare Moon while Starlight Glimmer tries in vain to stop them. Overwhelmed by this terrifying and intense nightmare, Celestia searches the dreamscape for Luna.
Luna is having a nightmare that's probably going to terrify the crap out of anyone in the show's actual target demographic. Hell, it squicked ME out. Celestia pulls Luna out of her own nightmare and into Starlight's so they can reconcile. With the two sisters realizing how much they've taken each other for granted and how different each other's duties are from how they'd always imagined them, they realize they need each other, and remember how much they truly love each other.
Since Starlight's crazy-insane plan actually worked, she's not in any trouble at all, and the Cutie Map tells her she's done and can go home. Then Twilight shows up out of nowhere, being all Twilighty, and drags Starlight off to get the whole story out of her.
This episode...is amazing. Absolutely AMAZING.
One thing I loved about this episode is seeing a different side of Celestia. We're so used to seeing the wise, calm, collected ruler of Equestria, and occasionally the trickster who can't resist messing with her subjects a little. Here, we actually get to see Celestia without the royal mask, and...she's honestly a little arrogant. I like that. It's nice to see Celestia's flaws. It also makes it that much more fun to watch her get a dose of reality.
Also, Twilight figured out yet another creepy way to be intrusive and annoying. Last time, it was showing up in books. Now she can project herself through a music box. Seriously, she's more Discord than Discord now. 
Luna confirmed as Not A Morning Pony. Lots of writers will be happy about that. I laughed at the bit where she ate a banana peel and threw away the banana.
Was this episode worth the seven year wait? You bet your plot it was. 10/10 all the way.
My singular beef with this episode is that it feels like Celestia and Luna in particular should already have learned this specific lesson. But, eh. Big deal.
Cutie Map: "Dammit, Celly, do you want Nightmare Moons? This is how you get Nightmare Moons!"
And Starlight was about 2 bad words away from a lovely vacation on the moon.
And finally...
ALL HAIL PRINCESS DERPY!
Is it too much to say this one episode makes up for a significant portion of the bad episodes in S7?
Because I think it does.
I'm honestly a little surprised that others are, well, surprised that Starlight's go-to solution for everything is magic.
Does anyone else remember when that was Twilight's schtick?
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In other words, something something danger zone?
It could also be possible that Starlight has been magically connected to the map when she used it for her time travel, in a similar way the main 6 have been connected to it through the Elements of Harmony, just saying. (But this could mean the map could also summon Sunset...)
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Siblings never learn this lesson.
My only real complaint about this episode isn't even a complaint. I mean... "Daybreaker"?
I guess I can see what they were going for, but I feel it falls a little short when compared to "Nightmare Moon," you know? They could've gone a little farther and call her "Daybreak Sun." In fact, that's how I'm gonna call her.
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I definitely prefer thinking that the map can call whoever it wants which opens up all kinds of fun story ideas in the future. The question is, how long until Trixie gets called to solve a friendship problem?
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She sounds like a monster truck...a very hot monster truck.
Honestly I thought NM was creepy but Daybreaker... she can literally burn everything to the ground since she uses the FULL POWER OF THE SUN!
She's still awesome (and sassy) and Nicole did an awesome job. I wouldn't mind seeing her again.
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She would save the day with peanut butter crackers
Pretty much the royal sisters episode we've been waiting for, but I feel like parts of the episode were rushed and Starlight's inclusion ultimately just resulted in a reset button for her the next time she gets a focus episode. This feels a lot like "Celestial Advice", what we wanted to see made up for what they ultimately went with.
One thing to consider: We know where and how Luna messed up, but Celestia took the whole night to address a single nightmare. Who knows how many other sleeping minds went without solace as the heavens clashed? And for that matter, who, if anyone, was looking after ponies' dreams during the millennial banishment? No wonder Luna's exhausted every morning; she may have been picking up after a thousand years of psychic neglect.
But yeah, awesome episode. And it is very nice to see that other ponies can be called by the map.
This is the second best episode of the series, behind Crusaders of the Lost Mark.
This episode was great by finally showing more about Celestia and Luna outside of the royal view, and confirming/breaking headcanons.
As far goes Daybreaker, she's Starlight creation, so all the Solar Flare/ Nightmare Star/ Magmare Sun fics still have their legitimacy.
They were some inconsistencies, like Celestia being surprise how light the moon is although she moved it during her sister's banishment, but overall they weren't that bad.
What stick out the much for me is how Twilight still seems to not have confidence in Starlight at all and quite frankly, she seems in the right since Starlight doesn't show that much confidence in herself.
I take two things away from this episode.
1. We'll see Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon again, probably in the season finally.
2. Since the map can summon other ponies besides the main six, we might finally get our Sunset Shimmer episode out of it. Probably also in the season finally. Though that last bit is just a hope on my part.
As for the episode itself, it was nice to finally see Celestia without the mask, and the royal sisters being sisters. And I've missed epic Twilight freak-outs making things worse then they need to be.
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I'm waiting for the day the map calls Derp-- I mean, Muffins -- to solve a friendship problem.
While I loved Daybreaker, and seeing Celestia and Luna deal with each other's problems was a blast, the show's still shoving Starlight down my throat. I'm coming to the conclusion I'll never fully accept Glimmer, and it's my issue. When she first confronted the sisters, I said, "Send her to the moon!" When switched the princesses' cutie marks, I said, "Send her to the sun!" It's like Hasbro's desperately whispering in my ear, "PLEASEbuyournewtoys!"
Hi, neurotic Twilight. Not like you could show any character development from the past six-plus seasons, can you?
Sigh. Maybe I'm too tired, or maybe I need to re-watch this episode, but I'm being very critical of "ARP." Feel free to convince me of this episode's awesomeness.
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If you're not going to watch it, then don't bitch about it, and DAMN sure don't assign scores to things you haven't actually watched.
Say if Starlight Glimmer got summoned by the Cutie Map, who's to say that others like Shining Armor or Sunset Shimmer could be summoned by it, that way we could see Sunset in Canon and more of Shining Armor too.
Eeyup, definitely my favorite of season 7 so far. Daybreaker, who I thought would be Solar Flare or that other name for her, was just plain awesome. It really was awesome to see the Princesses break from their regality. I found it funny with Twilight being the music box and her interactions with Starlight, and her just popping up right at the end. It was amusing to see Luna eat a banana peel. I honestly thought Celestia would've been able to handle Luna's duties seeing as she did handle those responsibilities for a thousand years. Just getting that out there.
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Yes, there are bad episodes, but not all season seven episodes are bad episodes. This episode was an AMAZING episode, and surely you can understand how you sitting there casting scorn upon it without even bothering to watch it would annoy and offend people.
I'm gonna be blunt:
If your attitude is "The show totally sucks now so I'm not gonna bother watching it but I'm still gonna sit in judgment of it?" Then your comments and attitude are not welcome on my review blogs.
The best part is their face when Starlight uses brutal honesty to reveal the issue. I think starlight switching the marks was overkill but need
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And that's your prerogative, but if you come in here and bitch about/tear down episodes you haven't even watched, I will slap you down hard every single time.
I liked the scene where we saw glimpses of different dreams. My favorite was DJ Flurry Heart. Who dreamed that I wonder, her, Cadance, or Shining?
Now if the map would summon Spike, then I could die happy. Of course, the more I think about it, the chances of that happening are pretty slim.
But yeah, awesome episode. And enjoying all the bronies fangirl over Nightmare Sun, I mean Daybreaker.
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Spike doesn't have a Cutie Mark. It'd be pretty hard for the Map to summon him.
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Exactly.
But a man can dream, Mythril.
A man can dream.
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I definitely did like that. Or how about Pinkie surfing on Gummy, or AJ as a baby?
Also,
derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/5/20/1441423__safe_screencap_starlight+glimmer_twilight+sparkle_a+royal+problem_spoiler-colon-s07e10_alicorn_magic_pony_spikebrush_telekinesis_toothbrush_tw.png
That's a nice lookin' toothbrush Starlight owns...
4567053 Look at a pause screen. That is Baby AJ...being held by her parents! ... foreshadowing??
I'm sorry to say, but this is one where I have to disagree. I had to pause several times while watching this to take a breather. By the end of it, I wasn't sure if I liked it better or worse than Honest Apple(!).
It also showed me why going on Equestria Daily isn't worthwhile anymore. Simply not having liked the episode will get you openly harassed over there, and the mods don't care. Probably because they loved it too.
I get that it's your personal head canon but the map calling starlight just seems like an ass pull for the sake of a marry Sue to me.
(watch everyone will be pissed at me for saying that)
“she's more Discord than Discord now.“
Fic idea - Twilight botches a time travel spell and goes back to the pre-history of Equestria where she grows up to be Discord, growing chaotic and trollish because she knows history is already written so let’s have some fun along the way.
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Actually, it seemed like posts that were too harsh on the episode were more likely to be deleted than the insults flung at the people making them. But, that might have just been my impression.
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Considering it's Twilight Sparkle we're talking about, it'd be more likely she comes to the conclusion that Equestria needs to be attacked by a spirit of chaos at some point and, if Discord isn't around, she has to do it. She's dutiful first and foremost, after all. It could be really funny seeing Twilight try to sound and act discord-like, but be kind of bad at it—and yet, she quickly comes to be regarded as this huge threat simply because of intelligent application of all her magic tricks!
This episode WAS THE SHIT OF THIS SEASON SO FAR
This episode has reinvigorated me to write follow-ups.
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I can't WAIT to see Salty Sunset's take on THIS one.
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In the name of the Princess
The Crown
Espiritu salty
I think part of me hopes us getting so much Starlight in this season is the writers going oooh new shiny with her.
This episode was really good.
That said I liked it despite Starlight.
I like the new offical name for corrupted Celestia. Though I would like to see an epsode where she actually is competent on screen.
I think this was the best episode of Season 7 yet. I actually managed to watch it all in one go. Not a slight against other episodes, I just get distracted easily. Also, Daybreaker is F*CKING SCARY! Not necessarily the best name, but man, the fandom's gonna have a field day with her.
Yeah, that nightmare was quite fucked up, definitely scarring some children with that one.
Agreed. This episode actually almost toppled over Lesson Zero as best episode.
Yeah, I love Celestia even more now since we can see more of her personality. She's just like Twilight apparently, but with quite a bit of arrogance as well. Knowing that she's not a perfect mare makes me a proud denizen of the Solar Empire.
A part of me wants to see a fic someday where they look at Starlight Glimmer's Special Talent ... that ST being "Super Villainy". I mean this episode was one of a long list of episodes where even her being good. Is done in the most Super Villainish way possible.
That said. I really loved that episode. While it was cute to see that Tia cooks breakfast for her sister / Twilight and friends if their over. It was also good to see her mask crack. That and Luna was adorable.
And yes. Twilight is more Discord than Discord. Of course she's always been creepy when it comes to invading others personal privacy, or when the princesses come up ... or almost anything dealing with the Cutie Mark Map ... or watching ponies when they sleep. I think she's all kinds of jelly when it comes to everyone but her going on friendship adventures (thus the Map outright stating she fails as the Princess of Friendship). Well that and she never really adapted to how society works outside of a library.