I'm not gonna be too original: this episode was rushed. Horribly rushed. Too many songs and not enough conversations. It wasn't a bad watch, but it felt kinde meh. As if the whole episode was nothing more than a justification for the toy department to release Twilicorns upon the stores.

Despite that I find people ragequiting after this rather silly. Sure, s3 was mediocre in comparison to previous two, but it had its moments. Not to mention s4 is going to be 26 episode long, so they may finally go back to things not being rushed. I'll give them the benefit of doubt, they surely earned it through s1 and s2.

My Little Pony: Bribery is Magic.

The pets and crusaders won this episode, while Spike had suffered another poor performance. I gotta say, it's sad how all of his solo episodes this season damage his image. After terrific build-up in season 2 and the major role he played at season 3 opening I thought he would really shine, but instead he received some heavy blows. First the moronic dragon-code, and now this return of his dark side: greed. I don't like this trend.

On a different note: I really like how Angel's image was smoothed out. This is much better characterisation than that little monster in "Bringing your hoof down".

I seriously can't see how making Twi a princess must also lead to her becoming an alicorn. That's just fanon. All of this fear-of-the-alicorn nonsense is based solely on the fact, that plethora of fics changed Twilight into an alicorn. The leaks from Hasbro so far have only suggested that Twilight will become a princess. Nothing more.

I would like to point out, that apart from the obvious Blueblood argument, there is a more convincing one: King Sombra. Yeah, a King and a unicorn. Not an alicorn, not all-in-one offer like Discord, not an alicorn-look-alike like Chrysalis. A Unicorn. Plain and simple, and still ridiculously overpowered and still royalty. As much as I hate him him as an underdeveloped character, I have to admit: he was created to be an exact opposite of Twilight. And since he was introduced in the opening episodes of the season 3, then Twilight as his counterpart, becoming royalty in season finale seems only fitting.

The parallel grows stronger if we include some fanon speculations, that he was a former protegee of Luna, who have fallen to the dark side. Then we have a full circle: Sombra is being crowned as Prince, his ambitious leads him to become evil and he calls himself a King, while Twilight is being crowned as Princess and she remains true to the light side of the Force.

Most of the comments in favour of the episode (which is the majority of comments btw, I don't know what are you defending this episode from, if most of the fandom seems to like it) tend to point out the scene at the dinner as the foreshadowing of Discord's later change. While indeed it is foreshadowing, it is way too little and way too poor (don't throw stones, don't throw stones).

Let me illustrate this for you by comparing Keep Calm and Flutter On to the Wonderbolts Academy episode, where the ending also required a big change in a character.

In WA Lightning Dust's and Dashes relationship gradually changes as the events unfold. At first Dash is impressed by Dust, then she is just slightly uneasy about her methods, than she complains but let it go under pressure, and finally (as her friend are in danger) she snaps, and makes a hard though amazing decision.

In KcaFO we have Discord, who begins the episode in conflict with mane six. He only complies to their wishes because he is subdued by threats, and as we learn it is done only on the surface level. He abuses Fluttershy in cynical way, making it obvious to Angel (and the viewers) that he has no intention of changing. He continues being a jerk, until the dinner scene, in which he shows some reaction to the term „friend”, which doesn't stop him from being a jerk the very next minute. By blackmailing, he forces this so-called „friend” of his into a promise, that essentially means choosing him over her other friends, and what does he do next? He breaks the promise on his part. But wait, Fluttershy continues to upheld her end of the deal, does he have a change of heart? Nope, he is still 100% mean. He gloats and brags. Then out of nowhere, in the middle of his monologue he realises he actually likes her and changes. If that doesn't feel forced I honestly don't know what does.

To sum it up:

In WA the change is gradual, because we have a series of indications that something will happen, each indication being stronger than the previous one, and each bringing a slight change in characters attitude.

In KcaFO the change is abrupt, because there is only a single indication that anything of the sorts might occur, and that indication is very artificial since there is no noticable change in character's behaviour.

If this was 2-parter, with a few scenes showing Discord honestly enjoying Fluttershy's company, it would have been an amazing episode. But while time-constraints may serve as an explanation, it cannot be used as argument that it was awesome episode. I mean think about it – „It's not that good, but they couldn't do better in time they had, so it's amazing” – this logic doesn't add up.

Not really. I mean I understand what you're saying - if she knew ponies love her through her dreams, why the nightmare appearance? This can be answered in few ways:

1. They loved her, but hated and feared her night. And since the night is her greatest creation, she felt as if half of her job was not only useless but also despised. Moreover - since she could peak into ponies dreams, and see what nightmares they had, she could tell exactly how much they rejected her night.

2. There are several fanon explanations that could still hold solid. Discord's influence is one of those.

3. As Nightmare Moon name suggests - she had a nightmare. She could protect dreams of other ponies, but not her own dreams, and Nightmare Moon is what happens when immortal alicorn gets a series of bad dreams.

Scheming evil mastermind is coming from the result of his actions. He erased a history of an entire nation (and then erased the most important clue about how to defeat him from the records), hidden the most needed artifact with shadow magic, cruel traps, and less cruel but also effective stairs. That shows some intelligence and planning. Malevolent threat without cunning is nothing more than a force of nature. This wasn't a force of nature, this was an evil overlord trying to erase any possibility of his loss.

Charismatic villain is my guess from the backstory and design. If they wanted a malevolent presence they could just get a cloud of smoke with eyes. They created a unicorn, who have fallen to the dark side, conquered an empire, and looks badass. That feels like a setup for a charismatic evil ruler (Darth Vader or Oda Nobunaga sort of thing), yet as you have mentioned we are getting an evil presence instead. Of course I can't tell what the writers wanted to do with him in the first place. But I can point some inconsistencies that strike me as odd.

Also I think you've missed my point. I agree his main theme is supposed to be the evil presence, but I also believe that the major selling point of "presence-based villain" is at least greatly diminished (for me it's ruined) by him being stupid. The ponies in the show act as if he was imposing, but he acts goofy and laughable. That – at best – can qualify as a parody.

I think this is a good summary why Sombra could have been a really good villain. Looming presence is indeed a good idea for an ominous, powerful villain. However, there is one, trademark thing about the presence-type villains that Sombra lacks, and that is the air of mystery.

Many bronies criticizing him pointed out, that he would be far more menacing if he didn't have ANY lines at all, and only acted as an unstoppable shadow, that was slowly breaking through Cadance barrier. Maybe cackling could have stayed, but his single-line appearances made him sound like an unintelligent, villain version of Hulk, and not the scheming evil mastermind he was supposed to be. He is completely ruined (at least to me) by all his retarded hisses and one-liners.

Let's compare him to Sauron (since it's fair comparison, they're the same type of villain after all). Did Sauron ever talk? He sort of did. But how did he talk? The only lines that giant eyeball ever had, were mysterious words whispered in menacing voice and echoed (I'm talking about the film now, obviously). You could tell he was powerful and could talk if he wanted to, just didn't needed to do more than issue simple commands. Both Tolkien and Peter Jackson went for 'Less is more' all the way through, instead of stopping half-way. It was different with Sombra. His possibility for being a menacing presence was ruined by his lines, which were more comical than threatening. If you take only his traps and the result of his past actions, you have a well done evil overlord. If you add his present actions you have incapable "crystal heart junkie", barely lucid enough to cackle.

I think the creators wanted to do two things at the same time, and created a mess instead. On the one hand, they wanted a charismatic villain, that would go head-to-toe with Discord or NM. On the other hand they wanted menacing presence, something that's not even a pony anymore. They went for something in between, and in the end Sombre is none.

#1 You've got it wrong, Tom is actually in love with Sombra, but Sombra's got his eyes only on Crystal Heart, so Tom wanted to change his appearance to be more appealing.

I rewatched it and it still sounds mighty douchy. Twilight hides and leaves Spike to stand there with a potentially dangerous device aimed right at him. You can argue that she just got out of its way, so she wouldn't get another shot of its magic. Fair point, but then why couldn't she take Spike with her? She went to the safe spot, let Spike walk right to the door without uttering a single word of warning, then watched what would happen. Only once she got the device figured out completely she kindly close it, and played the hero.

I'm disapointed in this episode. It is full of little details fandom will love (Shippers in particular), but in the end it's very weak.

Sombra is the worst villain ever (SOMBRA SMASH!), Celestia teaches Twilight morally ambigous type of magic and Twilight wins the douche of the month award (Sorry, but putting Spike through his worst nightmare right after he just saved her from her own worst nightmare, just because she wanted to learn how the door works, was simply mean).