In my observations and viewing of the television series ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’, I have observed several episodes that delve into darker issues, or alternatively split the fanbase in a number of ways. Few, however, have attracted attention quite like ‘For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils’, which if the comment section on the episode’s MLP Wiki page is anything to go by, has somewhat divided fans. As a result, I will attempt a scholarly analysis of key themes of the episode, including one key aspect of the episode that leaves me somewhat unsettled.

The first key theme that underpins the episode is sibling rivalry. Sibling rivalry is defined by Wikipedia as “a type of competition or animosity amongst siblings”. This is often characterised by a desire to be seen as different from your siblings, and the fear of upstaging is a constant concern. This is reflected in the episode by a key exchange between Sweetie Belle and Rarity, where the former angrily accuses the latter of outshining her intentionally:

Sweetie Belle: There! I knew it! You did this on purpose! Stealing the spotlight like you always do! It's my fifth birthday party all over again!

Rarity: The... the what now?

Sweetie Belle: Don't act like you don't remember. Or are you trying to prove you're a better actress than me too?!

Rarity: Sweetie Belle, if I did anything to upset you, then--

Sweetie Belle: Admit you made those dresses too good on purpose!

Rarity: I thought they were supposed to be good.

Sweetie Belle: Yes, good. Not jaw-dropping amazing!

This conversation shows a key concern of Sweetie Belle, as she is of the opinion that her sister has constantly attempted to keep her out of the way. This is also reflected in a number of fanfictions, but that shall be discussed in a later section.

The birthday scene, as depicted in the dream sequence of the episode, raises a number of similar points;

Sweetie Belle: I remember this. This is my fifth birthday party! I decided to make a grand entrance. I made myself all beautiful, just like my big sister.

Sweetie Belle: Finally, I was perfect, and then went to the stairs to enter like the belle of the ball. When I finally came out of my room, I found the party going on without me.

Sweetie Belle: And I kept posing at the top of the stairs, waiting to be noticed, but all I heard was...

"Mint Flower": These party favors are the coolest! [blows party buzzer]

Little Pony 2: Awesome! Where did you get these?

Rarity: Made them myself. And of course, you'll all want cake, won't you?

Little Pony 2: You're the greatest, Rarity!

"Plum Star": Who needs a birthday girl when you've got the birthday girl's amazing big sister?

Younger Sweetie Belle: [sniffling]

Sweetie Belle: That's when I learned 'never try to shine with my big sister around'.

This incident described above reflects upon the same themes, and is the ultimate source of the seeming animosity between Sweetie Belle and Rarity.

Another key theme that occurs in the episode is the issue of memory. Much of the historical narrative is conveyed through dreams, as this exchange demonstrates;

Princess Luna: But perhaps you didn't have the whole story.

Sweetie Belle: I thought you said you understood? Luna?

Little Pony 2: Where's Sweetie Belle?

Rarity: I'm sure she'll be along in any moment.

"Titania": [yawns] I'm tired of waiting. I say we get out of here before we all keel over from boredom. Who's with me? Poor Sweetie Belle. Nopony's gonna come to another one of her parties after this fiasco.

Rarity: Don't go! You'll miss out on the, uh, party favors! I was going to save them 'til the end, but...

"Mint Flower": These party favors are the coolest! [blows party buzzer]

Little Pony 2: Awesome? Where did you get these?

Rarity: Made them myself. And of course, you'll all want cake, won't you?

"Plum Star": Who needs a birthday girl when you've got the birthday girl's amazing big sister?

Younger Sweetie Belle: [sniffling]

Rarity: Oh, no-no-no. All of these things were Sweetie Belle's idea. I just assisted with the execution.

Sweetie Belle: I guess Rarity wasn't trying to steal the spotlight. She was trying to save my party. Luna? Luna!

As portrayed here, this would suggest that Rarity was not trying to upstage her sister, instead save the party from collapsing. Unfortunately, this raises a rather obvious question; is what we are being shown true?

This may seem like a ridiculous suggestion, but as the scenario takes place in a dream, Luna has full control over what is depicted. Therefore, there is nothing to stop Luna from manipulating historical events (or even completely fabricating them) in order to persuade a pony to pursue a particular course of action in line with her will.

This leads into the next point;

Free Will is defined by the Collins English Dictionary as “the apparent human ability to make choices that are not externally determined”. C.S. Lewis outlined the issue of Free Will as follows;

“God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong, but I can't. If a thing is free to be good it's also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.”

Lewis’ point is that you must have free will in order for life to be worth living. Otherwise, he continues, “A world of automata -of creatures that worked like machines- would hardly be worth creating.”

It is initially seen in this setting that creatures have this free will, as demonstrated earlier in the episode, where Sweetie Belle sabotages a headdress made in an order by Rarity in order to embarrass her. Irrespective of whether her actions were morally right or not, what is important is that she has the ability to make such a decision. Luna’s actions in the dream suggest a rather dark scenario in Equestria;

Princess Luna: Go. Go see what the future holds if you fail to rein in your worst instincts, as I once did.

Rarity: And here it is! The crème de la crème--

Sweetie Belle: Noooo!

Rarity: The piéce de resistance...

Sweetie Belle: Don't! [gasps]

Backup dancers: [oohing] [gasping]

Rarity: The headdress!

Sapphire Shores: Looks like I made a mistake here.

Rarity: But... but this is impossible! I, I, I checked and rechecked everything! This couldn't have happened!

Sapphire Shores: You sure about that, honey?

Rarity: Please, you must believe me!

Sweetie Belle: Listen to my sister!

The above exchange is framed by Luna as what will happen the very next day. This scene alone raises two very key philosophical points;

1. Is the above scenario what will be, or what might be? There is no guarantee that the incident will play out as depicted above, which raises the possibility of Luna manipulating or generating false predictions of the future in order to get individuals to follow specific courses of action.

1. Can an individual be truly free in such a situation? If subjects know that the princesses are scouring their every thought and deed in their dreams, it will affect their ability to act-effectively reducing them to the automatons referred to by Lewis earlier.

Chesterton observed on the issue of Free Will that “God had written, not so much a poem, but rather a play; a play he had planned as perfect, but which had necessarily been left to human actors and stage-managers, who had since made a great mess of it.” It would seem here that Luna and Celestia are not even willing to let the play to go into the hands of ponies, and instead insist on micromanaging the entire performance from start to finish, with detrimental effects on free will.

To conclude, it would appear that, due to the presence of Princess Luna and her ability to not only manipulate memories, but also potential futures in order to force specific courses of action, a state of Free Will cannot, and does not, exist in Equestria. This renders the environment, to refer to Lewis again, “a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings.”