Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1

Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1 is the first episode of the fourth season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and the sixty-sixth episode overall, it is the first half of a two-part episode.

Being the first episode to take place after the spin-off film My Little Pony Equestria Girls. But you can choose if the film's part of the main show's storyline or not.

Production and development
The script for this episode was locked in August 2012.

On July 20, 2013, an animatic clip of this episode was shown at San Diego Comic-Con International. In the clip, Princess Luna/Nightmare Moon and Princess Twilight Sparkle appear, and Princess Celestia is mentioned. In early November 2013, the Hub Network released a preview of the episode's script on both Twitter and Facebook.

Meghan McCarthy considers the season four premiere to be the second and third parts in a three-part story following Magical Mystery Cure.

The ending shot of the My Little Pony theme song was replaced by a shot of Princess Twilight surrounded by the Mane Six with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Zecora, Snips, Snails, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, Mayor Mare, Big McIntosh, Granny Smith, and Photo Finish.

There was originally a scene showing how Pinkie Pie dealt with the strange weather patterns. McCarthy stated that there was no room for songs in the Season 4 premiere; "but [there are] soooo many coming up soon." ; she was then asked if Discord singing "Winter Wrap Up" counted as his singing debut, she replied with a "Nope".

Royal duties in Canterlot
In Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle practices flying while her friends Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash cheer her on. However, she loses control of her wings and crashes. She isn't prepared for her performance in the Summer Sun Celebration, which is only two days away. Twilight learns that her friends won't be in Canterlot for the Summer Sun Celebration because Mayor Mare wants them to set up a party in Ponyville.

That evening, Spike goes over a checklist and says that Twilight has time to make a quick trip to Ponyville before the celebration. Twilight decides to stay in Canterlot in case something goes wrong during the trip and delays her return. Princess Celestia enters the room and says that she is looking forward to the celebration because her sister, Princess Luna, can finally attend the festivities for the first time after her long banishment to the moon. Princess Celestia leaves Twilight and Spike to go over the checklist one more time. As she walks down the corridor, a black thorny root breaks through the floor and wraps around her hoof.

The next morning, both the sun and the moon are in the sky, splitting the sky into half day and half night. A royal guard anxiously informs Twilight that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are missing. Twilight pulls herself together and instructs two royal guards to search for the missing princesses. A third guard bursts in with news from Ponyville: the Everfree Forest is invading!

Problems in Ponyville
The scene cuts to Fluttershy's cottage, where a large crowd of animals have gathered. Fluttershy wonders why they are all worried and opens her door to see what is happening. Upon opening the door, she is greeted by the nearby Everfree Forest, which is expanding towards her cottage. She screams and slams the door shut in response, telling the animals that they indeed should be worried.

At Sweet Apple Acres, the Apple family is trying to fight back an invasion of "weeds" on its land by pulling them out of the ground. None of the "weeds" budge. However, one of them manages to hide from Big McIntosh as he attempts to bite it. Upon closely inspecting these "weeds," Applejack mentions that she has never seen this type of "weed" before. As a few spiky clouds pass by, she questions what is happening to the sky.

At Ponyville's town center, which is now enveloped in the same roots, Rainbow Dash attempts to remove the spiky clouds that are moving around above the town. When she tries to fly into one of these clouds, it absorbs the impact and sends her plummeting straight down. As she approaches the cloud again, more clouds surround her and begin flashing lightning at her.

Meanwhile, the roots approach Carousel Boutique. Rarity opens her curtain (not noticing them) and remarks about "something strange with the sky". The roots grow up the wall by the window and emit a form of magic that interferes with Rarity's own, making the tea she was pouring move around in a zigzag and making the teapot move around her boutique on its own, spilling its contents on a hat and chasing Opalescence around the room. Rarity puts out the corrupted magic and the teapot falls to the floor. She explains to Opalescence that she was not the one causing the teapot to behave like that, and she asks if Sweetie Belle and the rest of her crusader friends are pulling a prank. Sweetie Belle then comes bouncing down the stairs, affected by the same corrupted magic as Rarity was. The corrupted magic spreads to a piece of fabric which then begins to chase Sweetie Belle around the room, catching the two sisters as they run to the door.

Rushing back to Ponyville
On hearing the news of the happenings in Ponyville, Twilight rushes to get back to Ponyville to stop the invading Everfree Forest. While rushing to the train station, she tells Spike that she knows she and her friends will need the Elements of Harmony in order to stop the forest's expansion. Spike reminds Twilight that she does not need to take the train back to Ponyville and that she can simply fly there now. She carefully takes off with Spike on her back and begins the journey to Ponyville.

Back in Ponyville, Rainbow Dash is still being chased around by the spiky clouds, and the roots and plants are becoming more and more dense. Twilight's friends collect outside the Mayor's office to discuss what is happening, but they quickly realize that the speed at which the forest is expanding is too rapid for them to overcome.

Approaching Ponyville, Twilight dodges the spiky clouds that dot the sky. In doing so, she almost causes Spike to fall off of her more than once, prompting him to pull up a seatbelt and strap himself to her back. As Twilight makes her final approach to Golden Oak Library, she realizes she is coming in at too great a speed to land safely, so she teleports herself into the library, leaving Spike to fly through the air, eventually hitting a window.

As Twilight crash lands inside her library, Spike comes through the front door, rejoicing at his repatriation with the ground. Twilight's friends tell her about the Everfree Forest and it's rapid expansion, just as a large root breaks through a window. Rarity inquires if Princess Celestia has sent her to dispel the expanding forest, and Spike and Twilight explain that Celestia and Luna are both missing, eliciting a gasp from their friends. Twilight then gives the Elements of Harmony to the assembled ponies, and Applejack tells Twilight that the Elements of Harmony would indeed keep the band of friends together. Twilight thinks about who to aim the Elements at, and as Pinkie Pie explains that she has not found anything in the books she has been looking through, Twilight reaches a decision.

Summoning Discord
After Twilight decides whom to summon, the ponies head outside to use the Elements. Twilight initiates the process, and after each Element is connected with a rainbow, Discord appears (albeit in the process of taking a shower and singing Winter Wrap Up). Discord tells Twilight that she should have notified him before summoning him with the spell Celestia gave her, but Twilight ignores what he has to say and immediately tells him to release Princess Luna and Princess Celestia and stop the Everfree Forest from invading Ponyville.

Discord wraps himself around Twilight and asks her what she is talking about. Applejack continues to accuse him of causing the current mayhem, but Discord denies it, claiming that even though he enjoys the new style of Ponyville, but that he cannot claim responsibility for it, mentioning that he is reformed. The ponies continue to blame Discord, and Rainbow Dash claims that it has his "cloven hoofprints" all over it. Discord then asks them if he would lie to them, and an immediate "yes" follows from all except Fluttershy who replies with a timid "maybe".

With Discord still claiming innocence, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash get ready to turn Discord back into stone. Fluttershy stands up the trio and gets them to stand down by mediating that he might not be lying after all. Discord thanks his friend "Shutterfly" whilst embracing Rainbow Dash before Fluttershy corrects him in regard to the name and the pony. Twilight asks Discord to help them find out who caused the princesses to disappear and the Everfree Forest to grow, but after showing disapproval of the way he was treated, he points them with a large arrow made of thorns to Zecora instead.

Flashing back
Zecora emerges from the forest just as Discord mentions her and explains that the growth of the forest is too much to handle, even for her. Applejack asks her why it is growing so violently, but like the others, Zecora does not know. Nevertheless, she pulls out a purple potion from her belongings and claims that it can help. However, it may only be activated by Alicorn magic. She tells Twilight to turn the potion from purple to white, and after a sip, she may be able to see why the sky is day and night.

Twilight aims a beam of dark magic at the potion, turning it white. She is unsure whether to drink the potion or not, but then Zecora reassures her and Twilight decides to take a sip of the potion. After a small delay, the potion kicks in and her eyes emit a bright light. Twilight then finds herself in set in a hall in front of two thrones. As Princess Luna walks out from behind the blue throne, Twilight asks her where they are and why she and Celestia disappeared. Luna replies by telling her that she was not going to sit "idly by" while the rest of Equestria basked in Celestia's "precious light." She then exclaims that there will be only one princess in Equestria, and that princess will be her.

Luna breaks down the wall behind her and raises the moon in front of the sun, causing an eclipse. The resulting shadow envelops her, transforming her into Nightmare Moon, the antagonist of the season one premiere. As she cackles loudly, the shot zooms in on Twilight, who is in disbelief of what she has just seen.

Quotes

 * Rarity: Don't be so modest. It's everypony's dream to someday wear a crown and have their coronation ceremony preserved in stained glass for all to see.
 * Rainbow Dash: I don't know if it's everypony's dream.
 * Pinkie Pie: Most of my dreams are about frosting. [drools]


 * Princess Twilight: I can't help it, Spike. They've only been gone a minute, and I already feel like I'm missing something.
 * Messenger Pony: For the Princess.
 * Spike: "Dear Twilight, You aren't missing anything. Your friend, Pinkie Pie."
 * Pinkie Pie: THAT'S ME!!!


 * Spike: The Celebration isn't until the day after tomorrow. We could still fit in a quick trip to Ponyville and be back in plenty of time to finish off these last few things before the main event!
 * Twilight Sparkle: [sighs] That would be nice, Spike, but what if something else came up while we were gone? What if we were delayed getting back and I wasn't able to finish everything on that list? What if we lost the list on the way to Ponyville and then couldn't remember which things we'd done and which things we hadn't done, and then spent so much time trying to figure out what we hadn't done and what we had done, and we ruined the entire Celebration by not doing the one really important thing that we were supposed to do?!
 * [thud]
 * Spike: Uh... so that's a 'no' then?


 * Twilight Sparkle: Spike, where were we?
 * Spike: About to call it a night?
 * Twilight Sparkle: We should probably go over the checklist one more time.
 * Spike: I knew you were gonna say that...


 * Applejack: Now that I think about it, I've never seen these kinds of weeds at all!


 * Rarity: [humming] Hmm. Something strange about the sky.


 * Spike: Sweet ground! [kissing noises] Sweet, sweet, wonderful ground!
 * Twilight Sparkle: Okay, I get it! I need to work on my flying!


 * Twilight Sparkle: Half day, half night... strange weather patterns... out of control plants. I think I'm starting to get a pretty good idea of who we're up against.


 * Discord: I'm reformed. Don't you remember?
 * Rainbow Dash: Yeah, right! This has got your cloven hoofprints written all over it!
 * Discord: I'll have you know that I only have one cloven hoof.


 * Discord: Ladies, ladies, I'm innocent. Would I lie to you?
 * All but Fluttershy: Yes!
 * Fluttershy: Um...maybe?


 * Discord: The rest of you could learn a lot about friendship from my dear friend Shutterfly here.
 * Fluttershy: Um, it's Fluttershy.
 * Discord: Oh, right, whatever.


 * Princess Luna: There can only be one princess in Equestria! And that princess... will be me!