Mr. Big wrote:Wait, did Owlicious return? After the library blows up, he flies away. I don't think he's coming back...
That look Twilight gives him as he flies off is pretty sad.

No tree, no deal!
- The alley where the first pony gets attacked by Tirek appears to be the same one where Trixie finds the mysterious shop of dangerous artifacts.
Why do we even have that alley?! - Also, the princesses' manes stop waving once they give up their magic.
- This episode has a lot of that three-quarter Celestia face from the wedding rehearsal.
- Photo Finish is in the crowd in Ponyville at the end of the episode.
- Discord handing Celestia a bouquet at the end?

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I find myself on the fence about this finale. On one hand, I think the core of the story is perfectly fine. Tirek is a cool villain. And ultimately, all the pew pew lasers in the world don't save the day, which is a good lesson. Even Discord is believable here; he's never been completely tamed. And everyone powering up at the end is fine, too; it's a season bookend, and there's no trouble with cutting loose.
Also, seeing Twilight on sun/moon duty was pretty great.
But the keys have always been a laughably straightforward plot device. The focus on them in the first episode is heavy on recapping and monologuing, and when they get around to unlocking the box, it's pitched as fast down the center as it possibly can be: Twilight decides the key items are important somehow, and they just throw 'em at the box to make them work. We've known the box/castle/rainbow powers were coming for months and months, and the show treats it much like we do -- getting them out of the way without any pretense.
Episode 2 also leads off with the strange little red herring about Twilight taking the alicorn magic and hiding.
The good part: It emphasizes Twilight's turmoil over her role as a princess. If she has to be up on a pedestal now, she needs to feel useful, so she accepts Celestia's mission without hesitation.
The bad part: How is hiding supposed to help? Why would she not tell her friends? It's a weird plot twist that only gives us a single scene of Twilight having to keep secrets before the villains show up and start the final battle. The only narrative purpose it seems to serve is to separate everyone from Twilight so they can be caught before her.
I do have to admit, I'm also left with the same unease as last season's ending. I'm not going to go moaning about the how
everything's ruined forever, but it's the same sort of "Something huge has changed! See you in nine months!" development. I'm glad we already know season 5's been approved, but we're right back where we were at the start of the season, asking, "How is being a princess going to affect Twilight and the others?"