** SPOILERS **
What a sweet episode. So we start off with Silver Stream flying around with Rainbow Dash, who informs her (after Silver performs a hero stance 3 point landing) that she's the newest non-pony member of the Wonderbolts and that she's in the show starting now!
Then Ocellus arrives, along with Yona, Gallus, Smolder, and Sandbar. An image of Twilight appears in front of them, and the six discover that they're in a dream together, and that the Tree of Harmony is calling them. They all wake up in surprise.
Meanwhile, Twilight's preparing the school for the return of its students, freaking out about having only 20 highlighters and that they're all orange, and how are the students going to color code their notes (I love this mare)?
The student six arrive and tell Twilight the Tree of Harmony has called them, and Twilight has to inform them that the Tree was destroyed by Sombra. Shocked and saddened, they all travel to the Castle of the Two Sisters and find that there is nothing but rubble remaining.
When Thorax arrives to take Ocellus home, they all realize they can't just leave everything as it is. The Six tell Twilight they wish to stay there and do something in honor of the Tree, and Twilight allows it as long as they get permission from their guardians, which they do in different ways (Smolder arm wrestles for it, Yona finishes all of her chores, Ocellus gets her family to sign off on it, Gallus gets his signed by his Uncle who has no time for this *yay*(Seriously, I laughed when he signed it and stuck it on Gallus' beak), Silver Stream gives her parents the equivalent of a powerpoint presentation, and Sandbar already lives there full time.
Speaking of Sandbar, while the others were off getting permission, he has "cleaned up" the site, and to the horror of the others, the Tree has been taken away! In its place, Sandbar has planted a tiny sapling.
Annoyed at his thoughtless (though well intentioned) actions, the students decide on just what they want to do to honor the Tree of Harmony. They can't agree (even as Yona asks them to work together), and set off to do their own thing.
Silver Stream wants to create an art exhibit in remembrance, Gallus wants a museum, Ocellus wants a place of peace and meditation, Smolder wants to put a huge statue in the place, Sandbar just wants to water his tree, and Yona doesn't reveal what she wants.
As they try to build their ideas, things begin to fall apart, and it becomes obvious they're unable to work in harmony. The end result, of course, is everything gets ruined, and now there's nothing but a giant mess.
As they fight, Yona yells for silence and finally explains that they need to work together, because the Tree of Harmony always brought them together and made them strong as a whole. Finally realizing this, the others agree that working together is better than being apart. Yona offers her idea, and pulls a wagon full of crystals belonging to the Tree out from behind a rock face.
Sandbar admits he didn't move it far (it was heavy), and Gallus is annoyed because Sandbar never mentioned he kept everything nearby. Yona's idea is to turn it into a tree house.
The six work together to build the tree house, giving us a sweet little song in the process. When they are through, they are proud of their work, even though it all looks very poorly assembled. Still, they pulled together and created something to remind them of their friendship. As they are looking around the tree house, it suddenly begins to glow and rumble. The six abandon it just in time to see it grow, pushing through the top of the cave and above the ground.
They witness the creation of a beautiful crystal edifice that resembles a giant tree house. The avatar of the Tree appears (as Twilight), telling them they have worked together to create a place that will be a safe haven for anyone who seeks it.
Moments later, Twilight and Spike appear having felt the magic from all the way in Ponyville. She sees the massive tree house, and the student six explain what happened. They're not sure what it all means, and Twilight explains that their friendship has built something new, that the Tree of Harmony was always full of surprises.
They all laugh together as they explore the new tree house.
I really liked this episode. I get the feeling it's a calm before the storm episode, in that we have a few moments to relax without the feeling of impending doom that will rain down upon us later in the season. Also, the tree house of harmony, if you wish to call it that (I do now!), will likely figure into the later season at some point. It's kind of a Chekov's gun moment. It doesn't exist to just exist, there's a reason it's here, and I think we'll discover how it is used effectively later on, probably in the finale.
All of that said, I'm glad we got another solid Student Six episode. They have so much promise, and I figured they were going to be the G5 show coming, though that ended up being not so. I'd watch that, because they have grown on me so strongly. I can never decide, though, whether my favorite Student Six is Yona or Ocellus. They're both so freaking cute, and Silver Stream has that same adorability, too.
So I would give this episode a solid
A. It's a quasi-slice of life episode we needed to see, I think, and Nicole DuBuc did a fine job of serving it up to us.
