So Season 6 has finally… actually should I even say finally? It feels like it was just yesterday that Season 5 started given how short this hiatus was. Are we sure they didn’t just extend Season 5 another 26 episodes here? xD 

I’m kidding of course, but still wow did this day arrive a lot sooner then we probably ever thought it would. Guess that’s what happens when the last two hiatuses we had were both at least over 250 days long. But regardless, Season 6 has arrived so now it’s time to get into the season opener. Which has been and probably always be a two-parter. As always with specials like this my thoughts will be notes being placed as I rewatch the episode.

Ok we get the first clear indication that indeed Starlight is going to be Twilight’s pupil. We still aren’t clear if she now makes the Mane 6 a Mane 7 or if she’s a secondary character like Spike or the CMC. But it certainly sounds like she’s here to stay, even being part of the photo in the intro. Still, her quick formation and not even a real “ponies don’t trust her” kind of thing like Sunset had in Rainbow Rocks will make her presence a little awkward. I can tolerate her being around and even getting a few of her own episodes. It’s just going to either take some time or at least something a little more substantial for me to be interested in her character. Even putting this episode into account I’m not entirely sold on Starlight’s motive in the Season 5 Finale. Though I think I can understand at least a little of the appeal Starlight may have. I think that appeal might be that we have Twilight teaching a unicorn who like her didn’t understand friendship as if she’s teaching someone like her old self… granted unicorn Twilight never tried to mess up time and/or brainwash a village but you get the idea. (The only thing closest was Twilight’s love spell in Lesson Zero but I would think that’s morally sound compared to trying to change the past just to spite someone else)

Also looks like this is Josh Haber’s show for a bit. He was the story editor AND the writer for this episode. I think Josh has done some good, though most of his work is kinda on the average side of things or just a little bit above average. Though funnily enough my favorite work of his is EQG3 so far. He’s certainly got a bit of a workload as of late it seems.

Geez, Starlight’s anxiety about Sunburst almost seems to imply Sunburst wasn’t that good to her after he got his Cutie Mark. Now of course we know that really wasn’t the case given his portrayal in this episode. But the way Starlight reacts to possibly seeing Sunburst again you’d think she was having a flashback to ‘Nam/The War PTSD, not an inferiority complex. Some people did point out to me that the reason for that is Starlight really put him that much on a pedestal so she absolutely would not want to mess anything up. Which is a very good point that I’ll certainly concede to.

One big plus to the episode I just gotta say is giving Shining Armor probably a lot more character then any other previous episode combined. It’s often been a fair criticism of both Shining and Cadence is we don’t see much of their character. So showing Shining can be an overreactionary dork like his sis sometimes is great to see.

And oh boy, we did get a little thing behind Alicorns here. Now no matter what they said, people were going to be mad. But we now have clear confirmation that none of the Alicorns before Flurry Heart, not even Celestia or Luna were born Alicorns. Which while again people were going to be mad either way. Might be the route that pisses off people more then some of the other possibilities. Especially those who like to spread Faust’s words on the series as gospel. Cause Lauren Faust has stated that in her mind, both Celestia and Luna were born Alicorns. And I even think there was a book that was relatively recent that implied somewhere they were also born Alicorns, so for this suddenly pop in the line that Celestia or Luna don’t even understand how an Alicorn could be born is certainly at least going to confuse people. And I’m willing to bet any fanfictions that covered Celestia and Luna’s past are going to be dashed since I think most assumed they were always Alicorns. I hope this means that maybe we get an episode flashback of Celestia and Luna before they were Alicorns so we can understand this more. But I’d like say something right now: I’m actually ok with this. Suddenly Twilight and Cadence aren’t some sub-alicorn race that is inherently inferior to Celestia and Luna. They all earned their status and became Alicorns all the same. IMO, Celestia and Luna being born Alicorns might have diminished the accomplishment that Twilight (And to a lesser extent Cadence) had. Now of course Celestia and Luna not being born Alicorns may not be the only reason it pisses off people. But the fact Flurry Heart is now the only one “special” enough to be born one. Apparently becoming an Alicorn also affects the genes where at the very least there’s a chance the child is an Alicorn. Celestia and Luna obviously have not had a child before as otherwise they would have known.

Hehe, I don’t know why but Spike’s “It’s almost as if your whole future depends on this moment” makes me laugh every time. Love having lines like those ^^’

We get our introduction to Sunburst. And he seems to be a pretty alright guy, kinda still leaves the question of why Starlight couldn’t have visited Sunburst a lot earlier. Regardless how much it made her sad that now Sunburst was onto some big magic school, I don’t see what was keeping her from at least visiting from time to time. Maybe we’ll find out more later but as it stands the episode does not properly explain everything that went on that fueled Starlight’s motives. There has to be more eventually, at least like how Starlight got her cutie mark if that’s related to anything. It is a good thing they at least got to the whole Sun Burst plot line pretty quickly however rather then having to wait, the pretty short hiatus may also help with this too given we didn’t have to wait in comparison to other things that the fandom was in nerves about.

I hope that they got the babysitting Flurry Heart out of their systems with Twilight’s and Pinkie’s part of the episode. Cause I’d rather not have a repeat of Baby Cakes go on. Could be a good thing they relegate it to just a small part of the opener. So that it’s out of the way already.

And… obligatory cliffhanger ending. Either the Crystal Heart is pretty fragile, or that was one really strong cry. Either way, it’s sometimes fun to think about what would of happened had they split the two-parter episodes by a week. That’s only happened once in the show’s history with the Return of Harmony two-parter. Probably be a little more hate on Flurry then there may have already been.

Well at the very least one complaint about this episode won’t have is that Celestia and Luna do nothing. I’m sure that holding back a winter storm of that magnitude isn’t easy.

I do gotta say, that it’s good Spike plays a good supporting role in this episode. The last time he was being this supportive in a two-parter I think was Crystal Empire in Season 3. Fittingly enough I guess this takes place in the Crystal Empire, guess just being in the Crystal Empire just inspires Spike that much for him to step up more then usual.

Having both Sunburst and Starlight have that kind of inferiority complex to each other is interesting. Even if Sunburst’s story is much more tame compared to Starlight's… shows how forgiving ponies seem to be when Sunburst asks about the time traveling rather then mentioning anything about the evil things Starlight did (Even Starlight admits it was evil).

Cool seeing the crystallization of the ponies again, even if it’s pretty much as short-lived as it was in the original Crystal Empire two-parter. Still seems so weird to this day that it changes some ponies hairstyle like that. I think the Crystalling scene is also kind of a strength for the episode that everything tied up together pretty nicely. That didn’t look like it was going to be that easy with so much going on.

You have no idea how happy I was that Twilight’s parents finally spoke. I just hope they appear at least in one more episode this season with a bigger role. It was about time they got some lines though. They’ve always been my favorite known Mane 6 parents and they’ve appeared more then any other Pony parents (Maybe not in terms of total Screentime though, I’m pretty sure Hearthbreakers gave Pinkie’s parents that). They just haven’t had the lines up until now. While this episode I think is still alright, this instantly became my favorite part regardless of how small it was. I’ve been wanting even something as small as that since forever ago. Tara Strong and Andrew Francis (AKA voice actors for their children) are the ones who voice both of them. I like how Tara managed to make her voice sound sorta like an older Twilight-esque voice for Twilight’s mom. Now I’m kinda hoping they get to appear again this season and with a decent sized role in their next appearance. This small part of the opener as well as the recent comic gives me some degree of hope they’ll have them play a big part later on. I’ll be admittedly disappointed if that’s really all I get for them, Though either way I suppose it’s not a big deal. Still it’s a step above from what we got, and I wouldn’t take it away for anything.

It’s also nice that Twilight is kinda learning herself as a teacher, so she’s not taking credit for however Starlight solves her problems. I do think Starlight could possibly start growing on me depending how they portray her interaction with Twilight throughout the Season. Because I think Twilight having a pupil is an interesting concept that could lead to some cool stuff from time-to-time. It just won’t really stop the awkwardness of knowing how antagonistic Starlight was towards Twilight before all this.

And that was the Crystalling. In comparison to other two-parters I feel it’s probably on the weaker or at least less entertaining side. I don’t think it’s a bad episode, just probably not a great one. I would say it’s still better then the Pilot two-parter. I’d actually say it’s around where the Cutie Map stands for me is that it brings interesting ideas with the possibility of going higher depending where the major characters that played a part go from here. Though I might give Cutie Map the slight edge for Season 5 being a completed season right now. What happens with Flurry Heart, Starlight, maybe Sunburst, and more will all come into affect how much this opener meant. I can see however some degree of appeal cause there are some things that can certainly be appreciated about this episode. If you liked Starlight as a character even before this then I see no doubt you’d like this episode, unless you vastly preferred Starlight as a villain then there’s really no helping there. And technically while it’s not the first opener with a true villain (Regardless of the technicalities of past discord being so, that would be Season 4’s Opener) that’s something that can be liked because it stands out. It’s probably also the closest to a more slice-of-life special Opener/Finale episode since Best Night Ever.  And I understand there’s a decent part of the fandom that prefer those type of episodes over some of the more adventurous episodes. As it stands now I don’t think the episode is anything amazing, but as with any opener we need to make sure to see how the season unfolds before we properly judge it.