EEEEEE 💯

Now this is the kind of S1-style pony comedy I yearn for.
Nice long runway where you can see the mixup coming from miles off, but of course it's not like it's any kind of mystery where the conflict is going to come from; the show's basically spoon-feeding it to you so it can get to the good stuff as quick as possible and spend as much time as possible there. And that good stuff is the montage of Twilight and Starlight tag-teaming their mane-replacing magic; the horrified shriek from that crystal pony, oh my god
S1 references a-plenty, which is always a nice surprise, but you know what I actually liked most of all? That scene of Rarity and Pinkie heading to Zecora's through the forest. It was unhurried, it was atmospheric; it reminded me a lot of the scene of Applejack and Spike talking in worried hushed tones about whether something horrible has happened to Fluttershy at Froggy Bottom Bog. Those sorts of establishing scenes are the kind of thing the show would do in its infancy, when it's still trying to show us what kind of world it's living in and how much muddy slimy realism these candy-colored marshmallow horses live in. It hardly has a need to do that sort of thing anymore, and so it usually doesn't; but I really appreciated them taking the time for it here.
That, of course, and all the goofball wild-takey cartoon hijinks as world-shattering magic is brought to bear by thousand-year practitioners against the problem of a fucked-up hairdo. Resulting in streamers of multicolored hair shooting out the windows of the crystal castle.
*inhales deeply* Mmmh—aaaaahhhh.