Episode review: S9E13: "Between Dark and Dawn"

I do wonder whether the FlimFlams' problems have something to do with Capper

And here we are. Although there's a special coming down the tracks pretty soon, "Between Dark and Dawn" was the last regular episode of Friendship is Magic before our last ever mid-season hiatus. This one saw a new writer: Gail Simone. Although she's new to My Little Pony, many comic-book fans will be familiar with her from her work on Birds of Prey, Batgirl and so on. How would she fare with a TV-Y kids' show? Well...

...quite honestly, I'm not entirely sure how to review this one. It was odd, and in both good and bad ways. This started out in the cold open with the Tortoisnap (sp?) – which was blatantly inspired by the Torterra Pokémon, and somehow managed to feel out of place in an Equestria full of weird creatures. What was even odder was that after this initial scene, the episode entirely forgot about it until it was brought back for about three seconds late on.

The main plot seemed a bit more promising, and I briefly thought I might get what I've always wanted in the show: an actual adventure starring Celestia – I'd have been fine with Luna coming along too, but most of you know that Celestia is Best Princess to me! Instead, after a bit of teasing, we ended up following them as they went off on holiday for a bit of quality sister time together. To nobody's surprise, they ended up arguing and getting on each other's nerves.

"The bag's for Philomena. She really wanted to come along"

Something unequivocally good we got out of this episode was its song. "Lotta Little Things" was a Celestia/Luna duet and boy was it entertaining. There were definite echoes, whether conscious on Daniel Ingram's part or not I don't know, of Starlight and Trixie's duet last season. I can't yet decide which I find the catchier, but this one may actually have the edge. (Let's gently skirt around the fact that Aloma Steele, excellent singer as she is, doesn't sound that much like Luna...)

The animation that accompanied the song was also great fun, largely for the number of cameos that were included. Some were more interesting to me than others; I'd pick out a down-on-their-luck Flim and Flam – I wonder if we'll ever know the story behind that? We also saw Discord and the Smooze, and Gilda and Gabby. But the big talking point was probably the blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance of Capper. Although the movie was already show canon, this was the first time a character had actually appeared in the regular cartoon.

I quite like the reasons given for Celestia and Luna's different approaches to time off, though I'm not entirely sure how well they fit with what we learned in "A Royal Problem". Still, Luna wanting to do workaday stuff because of her experiences with ponies' intense dreams does make sense, and it did lead to one of the episode's most amusing scenes. It was slightly surprising that Derpy didn't get any speaking lines, given that she's voiced by Tabitha St. Germain like Luna, but it still made me chuckle. A nice way of doing the old "Luna doesn't understand modern life" trope we used to see a lot in old-time ponyfic.

"I'm sorry, Princess, but pink Smooze is just not done"

While all this was going on, the Mane Six and Spike were trying to set up the Royal Swannifying Ceremony. This was doubtless based on the real-life Swan Upping, though it's hard to tell as we never get much actual detail about the Equestrian event. I was a bit confused by the way the swans acted more like geese, but there were other problems with this secondary storyline too. Twilight really should not need to learn yet again how to delegate, for a start. It might have been reasonable in S3 six years ago, but in S9 it's really pushing it.

And then there was Fancy Pants. I simply don't understand why writers have chosen to characterise him so unattractively in recent years. To my mind, he was at his best way back in "Sweet and Elite", when he was a thorn in the side of the Canterlot snob set. Now, as we see in "Between Dark and Dawn", he seems to have joined them. Mind you, Canterlot itself clearly has some problems these days, given the existence of an entirely unexplained street sweepers' strike.

Oddly, it seems that Gail Simone does have a fair idea of FiM's history: that scene in the cold open with Twilight delegating (oh yes she was!) responsibility to deal with the Tortoisnap was so reminiscent of a similar scene way back in "Dragonshy" that I struggle to believe it was pure coincidence. On the other hand, this episode did have New Writer Syndrome in that there were quite a few things that didn't fit smoothly into the established "feel" of the show.

Middle row, extreme left: that's Dipper Pines' hat!

As for the ending... well, there wasn't one, really. Twilight's difficulty with the Sun and Moon wasn't solved; we just saw Celestia and Luna swooping in to sort it out. You'd think Twi would have done some, y'know, research in, y'know, books to find out what she was supposed to do. Or maybe asked Sunburst, since he was around. The Royal Sisters' moral would also have been more interesting if it had been something like "You don't have to spend all your time doing the same stuff as your sister to still love her."

"Between Dark and Dawn" is a really difficult episode for me to score. Considered as a near-standalone cartoon, it's a lot of fun with a brisk pace and colourful animation. It also has one of the best songs in recent years. On the debit side of the ledger, it plays so fast and loose with established canon that at times it barely seems Pony at all. I think I'd give it four stars for pure entertainment but just two for deeper satisfaction. That averages out at three stars. We've had a lot of those lately.

Best line: Pinkie Pie: "Ooh! That's not a terrifying level of responsibility or anything!"
Best moment: Mount Fillymanjaro is canon now!
Worst moment: Twilight insisting that asking for help is a sign of weakness

Yays

• A full-on Royal Sisters episode (well, mostly)
• Fantastic song, including some great cameos
• Luna's scene in the Post Office
• Plenty of entertainment, if often fairly superficial entertainment

Neighs

• Very strange, almost non-MLP vibe at times
• Fancy Pants' continued character regression
• A rather dull, confused secondary plot
• Slightly underwhelming moral

★★★