Special review: Equestria Girls "Forgotten Friendship"

"It's my green hair, isn't it? Come on, Rarity, admit it."

It's been a while since I've written a full-length review for anything Equestria Girls, but it's time to change all that. Nick Confalone's "Forgotten Friendship" special, the same length as a double episode of FiM, seemed worth writing something about. Unlike a lot of the fandom, I hadn't read the novelisation (which came out first, but was written after this). I had been spoiled on one or two details, however. After the cut, with spoilers aplenty, I'll say what I thought.

You know what? This was great. Not "great for Equestria Girls" or anything like that. Straight-up great. The more I think about it, the more I'm certain that "Forgotten Friendship" is my favourite entry in this sub-franchise since Rainbow Rocks way back in 2014. If you stripped out the songs from both and looked only at the story itself, I'm not entirely sure that "Forgotten Friendship" wouldn't have made it all the way to the top. It's that good.

As usual, Sunset Shimmer is at the heart of the story, after stupendously-obvious-antagonist Wallflower Blush strips the Mane Six of any memories of their friendship with Sunset. Instead, they see her as still being the swaggering bully of the first film. It's quite heartbreaking to see them blank her now that we know she's reformed, but it does open the door to the part of the film that I think most people will remember...

Look! Ponies! Woo-hoo! Yay! Ponies, everyone! *cough* Sorry

...the long-awaited reunion between Sunset and Princess Celestia. In Equestria. As ponies. This part of the film is much longer than the quadripedal bit of "Mirror Magic" – in fact, it's the first long ponified scene since the aforementioned Rainbow Rocks. Celestia's reaction to Sunset is fascinating: she clearly wants to hear Shimmer apologise before reacting. However, there are hints in later lines that Tia herself regrets her attitude in the past. Also, Luna is fun in a small role.

Twilight's surprise at the existence of a "Restricted Section" in the Royal Canterlot Library is a slightly odd thing, given that she's known the Starswirl the Bearded Wing was there since she sneaked into it during S2 of FiM. Never mind: it's rarely unenjoyable to watch Twilight going all squeey (shut up, it's a word) at the sight of new libraries to conquer. We get a bit more lore – not only about the Memory Stone, but confirmation that Clover the Clever was male.

Back in the human world, the best supporting character is undoubtedly Trixie, who plays off Sunset in a way not a million miles removed from how she does off Starlight in FiM. Not altogether surprising, I suppose. After some initial suspicion on both sides, they prove to be an effective team, as for once they're both feeling what it is to be an odd one out. Trixie even does some real magic, something surprisingly little is made of.

The Great and Powerful Graphic Designer

Wallflower is, as I've said, a very obvious "villain", if that's what she is. There's no mystery at all about who, so all we need to discover is why. What is interesting is that the Humane Seven bear some of the blame: they may not actively bully Wallflower, but the moral (I think) is that that's not sufficient: you need to take the initiative to be actively kind. This doesn't excuse Wallflower's use of memory-wiping magic, of course.

There are two songs in this special, and both have their problems. "We've Come So Far" is quite catchy, but Confalone doesn't seem to have much idea about fitting words to music; the first verse especially is an ugly mess. He does much better with "Invisible" (not written by Daniel Ingram, but by John Jennings Boyd and Lisette Bustamente), but this is cut off for in-story reasons, which is frustrating. Not the first time we've had a diegetic song, but it is quite unusual.

I enjoyed "Forgotten Friendship" a great deal, and I can certainly see myself rewatching it for fun in the future. With a strong plot, interesting world-building and – scattered liberally around – genuinely funny jokes (Luna's language, Spike and the drone) it overcomes the significant drawback of Wallflower's obviousness. It's nice to see that EqG has pulled away from its feature-film trend of reducing pony content almost to invisibility. I wouldn't mind another special like this.

Sunset, unlike the Mane Six, looks bemused when she ponies up

Best quote: Princess Luna: "This 'faculty lot' you speak of sounds like a place of great power."

Yays

• Ponies. Yeah, that's right, ponies!
• Sunset's reunion with Celestia
• Twilight nerding out in the Restricted Section
• Trixie being as Trixie as Trixie can be
• Wallflower's "plants" was rather moving
• Some nice touches of humour

Neighs

• No tension whatsoever about the culprit's identity
• Awkward lyrics on the first song
• All those beach-set trailers brought out the worst in parts of the fandom...

★★★★