Friendship is Magic, part 2

Friendship is Magic, part 2 is the second episode in season one of the series. In this episode, Nightmare Moon is free from her imprisonment, and has begun to shroud the world in eternal night. Twilight and the ponies must find the Elements of Harmony to stop Nightmare Moon.

Notable story points

 * Twilight Sparkle and her friends venture into the Everfree Forest for the first time, seeking the castle ruins
 * Twilight and her friends defeat Nightmare Moon, reverting her back to Princess Luna.
 * Princess Celestia allows Twilight to stay in Ponyville, asking her to submit friendship report about her studies of the magic of friendship.

Episode summary
The episode starts with a recap of the previous episode, and resumes exactly where it left off, with Nightmare Moon creating a lightming storm around her.

"Stand back, you foals!"

- Nightmare Moon

The mayor commads the royal guards to sieze Nightmare Moon, but she repels them with lightning and turns herself into mist, then whisks out into the night. Rainbow Dash breaks free of Applejack's hold and pursues the mist, but it's too quick for her and it disappears in the distance. Dash sees Twilight running outside, and wonders what she's up to.

At the library, Twilight puts Spike to bed and starts frantically looking through the bookshelves for information about the Elements of Harmony. Dash flies in and confronts Twilight face to face, accusing her of being a spy for knowing about Nightmare Moon. Dash is suddenly pulled back. It turns out to be Applejack pulling her tail, who proceeds to tells Dash to simmer down, and asks Twilight what's going on. Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy join Dash and Applejack, and they all listen to Twilight's explanation, who admits she doesn't know what they are, where to find them, or what they do. The camera pans to Pinkie Pie, who's reading the spine of a book: The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide. This is one of several instances where Pinkie Pie finds a book the instant Twilight needs it, this time under the pretense of "it was under E." Twilgith declaims from the book, naming five of the elements: kindness, laughter, generosity, honesty, and loyalty. Each element is accompanied with a little bell-ring that sounds as the camera pans over each of the five ponies. Twilight reads on, finding that the sixth element is a mystery, and the elements' last known location is in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters in the Everfree Forest. Nightmare Moon, in the form of purple mist, overhears the conversation and flies away. The scene fades into the six ponies standing at the outskirts of the Everfree Forest with theremin music playing.

The cliff
Twilight asks the other ponies to let her go into the forest alone, but Applejack tells her they won't let "any friend of ours" go into the forest alone. Walking through the forest, Applejack mentions the forest "don't work the same as Equestria". While they're talking, the purple mist seeps into the cliffside underneath them. Dash tries spooking the other ponies by telling them no pony who's ever come into the forest has ever come out. As soon as she finishes the sentence, the cliff collapses, and the purple mist whisks off, apparently undetected.

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flutter in the air and pick up Rarity and Pinkie Pie, but Applejack and Twilight continue sliding down towards another steep cliff. Applejack manages to grab onto an exposed root, but Twilight slides right to the edge. Applejack carefully slides to her and holds down her hooves, and after glancing at above her, tells her to let go. Twilight protests, but Applejack promises that she's telling the truth, and tells her if she lets go she'll be safe. Twilight acquiesces and plummets down the cliff but suddenly stops, now carried down to safety by Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. As Applejack makes her way down the cliff like a mountain goat, the purple mist watches the ponies, then zooms off towards a monstrous silhouette, which roars as the scene cuts to black.

The manticore
Rainbow Dash repeats her exploits from a moment ago, when an angry manticore appears in front of the group. After Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash try to stop the manticore under the quiet protests of Fluttershy, the five other ponies start charging at the manticore, but Fluttershy finally raises her voice and stops them. She gently approaches the manticore, who shows her the thorn in his paw. She removes it and wins its affection, and the six ponies go about their journey.

"Sometimes we all just need to be shown a little kindness."

- Fluttershy

The forest
The extracted thorn turns into purple mist, and snakes between the ponies' hooves before seeping into some trees. The moon sets and darkness surrounds the ponies, who are now faced with monstrous-looking trees that seem to growl at them. They all scream except Pinkie Pie, much to her friends' surprise. Pinkie makes funny faces at the trees and starts singing.

"HA! HA! HA!"

- Pinkie Pie

She sings about conquering your fears by laughing at them. The ponies join in, laughing the scary faces away, and conclude the song rolling on the ground laughing.

The sea serpent
"I simply cannot let such a crime against fabulosity go uncorrected!"

- Rarity

The ponies go on their way until they come to a turbulent river. The turbulence is caused by a purple flamboyant sea serpent, deeply upset by having his half of his mustache torn off by a "tacky little cloud of purple smoke". Applejack and Rainbow Dash are unsympathetic to the serpent's plight, but Rarity, impressed by his looks and angered by this "crime against fabulousity", bites off one of his scales, cuts the hair of her own tail, and magically attaches it to the torn part of his mustache to restore it. The sea serpent then calms down and allows the ponies to cross the river over his coils.

The Shadowbolts
Twilight spots the ruins of the castle in the distance through thick fog. She runs towards the castle, but trips on the edge of a cliff and gets pulled back by Rainbow Dash. "What's with you and falling off cliffs today?"

- Rainbow Dash, to Twilight

There's a rope bridge hanging over one side of the gorge, and Rainbow Dash flies down to raise it and tie it to the other side. When she lands, a faint voice calls her name and the purple mist slithers underneath her. The voice says they've been expecting the best flier in Equestria, Rainbow Dash, and that they want her to join their group, The Shadowbolts, as captain. Dash accepts and asks to tie the bridge's rope for a moment before joining, but The Shadowbolts' leader poses an ultimatum: "it's them or us." Twilight warns Dash not to listen to them, but the fog thickens and muffles Twilight's voice. Dash ties the rope and refuses, and The Shadowbolts turn into purple mist and slither away. Dash's friends cross the bridge and continue towards the ruins.

"I'd never leave my friends hanging."

- Rainbow Dash

The Elements of Harmony
The ponies enter the castle ruins and come to stand in front of several stone orbs perched on a pedestal, which Twilight assumes are the Elements of Harmony. Dash and Fluttershy place them at Twilight's feet, and Pinkie notices there are only five of them. Twilight explains that when the five are present, a spark would cause the sixth to be revealed. The rest of the ponies leave as Twilight tries to use her magic on the orbs, but the purple mist appears and envelops them in a whirlwind. Twilight jumps in and disappears along with the purple mist. The other ponies see glowing lights in another part of the ruins and head to it. Twilight and Nightmare Moon re-appear at opposite ends of a large hall, with the stone orbs around Nightmare Moon. Twilight stamps her hoof and charges at Nightmare Moon, leading her to do the same.

"You're kidding. You're kidding, right?"

- Nightmare Moon

Right before they collide, Twilight disappears, then reappears next to the orbs. She tries to use her magic to create a spark, but Nightmare Moon turns into mist and rematerializes in front of her, and blasts her away from the orbs. For a moment the orbs sparkle and frighten Nightmare Moon, but they soon stop, allowing her to shatter them by stamping on the ground. Pleased with this, Nightmare Moon declares victory, swirling her purple mist around herself. "Now you will never see your princess, or your sun! The night will last FOREVER!"

- Nightmare Moon

Twilight hears her friends calling for her with reassuring words, and the frame zooms on her face, showing her pupils widening and a spark twinkling at their center. She gives Nightmare Moon a confident speech about the Elements of Harmony. She declares the spirits of the Elements of Harmony are "right here", with a bright pink "speed lines" background appearing and the shot zooming out to show Twilight and her five friends around her. The broken stone orb pieces glow and float around each pony as Twilight explains which element they represent and calls their name. Nightmare Moon protests, saying they don't have the sixth element, but Twilight tells her the spark ignited inside herself when she realized the five other ponies are her friends.

"You see, Nightmare Moon, when those elements are ignited by the... the spark that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element: the element of... MAGIC!"

- Twilight Sparkle

When Twilight concludes the speech, the stone orbs turn into jewels, and the six ponies glow and float in the air as a rainbow emanates from them and envelops Nightmare Moon. Twilight opens her eyes, which flood room with white light.

Once the light fades, the ponies discover that Rarity's tail is restored, and that they all have jewelery that matches their cutie marks. Applejack admits she thought Twilight was "spoutin' a lot of hooey", but now she reckons they "really do represent the elements of friendship."

"Indeed you do."

- Princess Celestia

Conclusion
As the sun rises, Princess Celestia appears and explains that she knew Twilight had the power to defeat Nightmare Moon, but only told her to make friends. By learning how valuable friendship is, Twilight and the other ponies were able to harness the Elements. Celestia confronted a small, purple pegasus unicorn who had awoke over the shards of Nightmare Moon's helmet. The true form of the "Mare in the Moon" was Princess Luna, the co-ruler of Equestria and, to everyone's surprise, Celestia's younger sister.

"Princess Luna... It is been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. Time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, little sister... Will you accept my friendship?"

- Princess Celestia

Happy to see her sister again and forgiven for her misdeeds, Luna embraces her older sister in a tearful reunion. Pinkie Pie cries over this heartwarming scene, but as she stops, she had an idea.

Twilight's new task
Pinkie organizes another party as they all return to Ponyville. Seeing that Twilight is sad at the prospect of leaving her new friends and returning home, Celestia issues her with a new task: to study friendship in Ponyville and report her findings. Twilight is ecstatic in hearing this as she is now able to stay with her friends. She promised to study harder than ever before as the rest of the town celebrates...

"Isn't this exciting?! Are you excited 'cause I'm excited I've never been so excited well except for the time I was-- *GASP* I mean really..."

- Pinkie Pie

Trivia

 * The episode title is based on the sub title of the animated series.
 * This is the second part of the only two-parter in season one.
 * The plot of the booklet bundled in the Friendship is Magic Giftset is similar to these two episodes.
 * The scene where the ponies unleash a powerful rainbow blast directly at Nightmare Moon is reminiscent of the Rainbow of Light from the 1984 My Little Pony pilot episode Rescue at Midnight Castle, where Megan defeats Tirek in a similar fashion.