SPOILERS
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Starlight! It's been a few episodes since we've seen her! Let's see what she's up to.
She's watering her philodendron (whom she has named "Phyllis") when Twilight and Spike show up to her office. Twilight clearly has some important, concerning news with Starlight, who thinks it's about her leaving early yesterday to see Trixie (*squee*). Twilight laughs and says it's not that.
Instead, Twilight is wanting to give Starlight the Head Mare's position she promised earlier in the season. This sends Starlight into a bit of a freak out, but she accepts gladly, though not without a bout of nervous excitement.
Twilight gets called away by the Princesses (royal napkin placement for a picnic!), and we see Starlight alone in her office, clearly preparing for a bout of Twilighting.
We see the next scene have Starlight and Trixie walking the halls of the school. Trixie's concerned that Starlight's new position will interfere with their social schedule. Trixie wants her lunches, darnit. Starlight insists that nothing will change in a negative way, and Starlight is inspired by Trixie's observation that Twilight always runs the school with her friends.
We see Starlight talking to Twilight later on about that issue. Starlight wants to hire a Vice Head Mare, and Twilight supports her. Spike shows up just then to prepare for the coronation fitting with Rarity (she's gonna be Princess-ier!)
Trixie overhears, and is ready to accept becoming Vice Head Mare from Starlight, who is now confused because this isn't what she was going for, and we've been there with friends who expect to be on the ins with their friend to get positions, like in work. It happens.
So Starlight brings together a few other candidates (WINK! - Side note, Trixie's exclamations of wink are adorable). Starlight creates a plan to pick the best candidate (WINK!), which includes practical experience by subbing for the teachers. Trixie is confident. Very confident. Needlessly confident.
Our candidates include: Trixie (WINK!), Big Mac, Octavia, Time Turner, and Spoiled Rich, who is making a return and is hopefully much improved from season 5 when we first met her.
We see Starlight a while later, observing the substitutes teaching the students. Everything seems to be going well in hoof:
Big Mac is teaching Applejack's workshop (he can sew!), and Ocellus is pleased that he's so skilled at it (she's so cute!). Big Mac cites darning socks on the farm as his experience.
Spoiled Rich is teaching the loyalty workshop (where a big stack of bits creates loyalty according to her), which Starlight is less than enthused about, but it does seem she's not as bad as before.
Pinkie's laughter workshop is being headed by Octavia, who is teaching the students how to enjoy playing music, to which Pinkie Pie appears from nowhere and plays her Yovidaphone (the big Yak version of bagpipes), to the shock of many (not us), but Octavia takes it in stride and plays a quick bass solo much to the laughter of her students. She's adorable, by the way, and it's nice to see such a posh pony react so well to such an interruption.
Time Turner is in Fluttershy's kindness workshop, teaching chemistry, which seems fitting for him. His example? An automatic bird waterer that gives them one gentle drop at a time. I bet Fluttershy would have been putty in his hooves. Go for it, Doctor. I won't tell Discord.
Now we get to Trixie, teaching Twilight's magic history class. She seems way beyond bored, and is just reading from the book while the other students look on in bored concern, as she skips ahead in the book. Then she talks about how she didn't need to learn history and turned out fine. No bueno (WINK!).
Later, Starlight looks over the profiles on her desk. Big Mac, Time Turner, and Octavia are clearly going through. She puts Spoiled Rich in the nope folder, and now has a conflict of interest because Trixie needs to go in the nope folder, too. Yeah, we've been here, too. I've had friends who couldn't do the job and wanted me to help them still get the position, and it's hard to say no because you love your friends, but if they can't do the job, you have to find someone else, but if you find someone else, they're going to feel hurt, even though you care about them.
Side note: The kawaii picture of Trixie on that desk is so cute I can't help but love it. Goddess, she's ate up with it. lol
Anyway, Starlight rationalizes keeping Trixie on board, wanting her friend to be the Vice Head Mare, and how fun it could be. She also tells herself it could still work out if she was given a little more time to adjust. You know, all the things we tell ourselves to keep our friends when we already know it's a bad idea.
Trixie shows up to the office, saying she can't wait to tackle this job as a team, and while she knows Starlight has to complete the qualification text (WINK!), she is excited to work as a team.
The next test is teacher conferences, where a Vice Head Mare has to be a master communicator. So the candidates will be meeting with the students and their parents. On a side note, it sounds like the VAs for Time Turner and Octavia have changed. Well, Octavia I can't be sure on since we have heard so little of her, but I do know Time Turner's voice was different in episode 100's "Slice of Life." Ah well.
Octavia is tasked with Ocellus and her parents, speaking to them in musical terms that leave them a bit confused, but overall satisfied. Time Turner, on the other hand, nails it with Yona and her parents, saying that she has taken to it like a yak to smashing. This gets big excitement (YAK'S BEST!), and pleases Starlight.
Trixie has Gallus and his grandfather, and once he insults her, things go to crap. They have a big argument at the table, and causes Gallus' grandfather to storm off.
Then there's Big Mac, Silverstream and her father. ...I love Big Mac. lol
After this, Big Mac resigns from the competition, having lacked the words to properly explain things to Silverstream's father.
That leaves Time Turner, Octavia, and... Trixie, who shows up in Starlight's office, where Starlight lays it out that Trixie can't let what happened with Gallus grandfather happen again, because a Vice Head Mare can't get involved in such things, and that if she had to pick a Vice Head Mare right then, it wouldn't be Trixie. Of course, Trixie misses the point entirely, thinking she's still a shoe-in for the position (WINK!).
The final test is a field trip. Starlight rationalizes that she might pull it off.
Octavia's field trip takes them to a concert hall, and Gallus is unimpressed with the idea... until the curtains draw back and she's standing there with DJ-Pon3. We get a great moment of the two playing together, and the students are thrilled. Gallus takes back his comment and loves the concert.
Time Turner takes them on a field trip to his lab. The students are confused by his exhortations of time travel. His lesson? We're all moving into the future one second at a time. No one is impressed.
Trixie's turn! She takes them nowhere, they're in class. lol
Instead, she decides to transport a piece of Froggy Bottom Bog to the classroom, and disaster ensues, releasing a hive of flash bees. Whoops. Well, the sentiment was a good one, and she did try.
Starlight finally vents on Trixie, telling her that she blew everything out of proportion, finally telling Trixie was wrong for the job and wouldn't get the position. Trixie thought the position was made for her, but Starlight gets angrier and calls Trixie incompetent. Ouch.
Twilight shows up too see the end result, and helps Starlight figure out what she needs to do next, because not every pony is right for the same job, but every pony can contribute. Honesty towards your friends is always paramount, and that she should tell them before they get involved, because stringing them along only hurts them.
Starlight goes to Trixie's trailer and explains what happened. She exhorts Trixie's great qualities (outside of being Vice Head Mare), to which Trixie apologizes for her actions. Starlight explains that no one she reviewed would get the position because Time Turner felt it cut into his research, and Octavia left because it would interfere with performances.
Trixie says that Starlight will need somepony responsible, smart, detail oriented like Twilight (I know where this is going), to which Starlight says it would be nice if she could get along with them, and so Trixie recommends Sunburst (Dang! I figured Spike, but Sunburst is good, too!).
In the next scene, Sunburst is in Starlight's office, explaining why he could certainly do the job, and accepts, explaining that now that Flurry Heart is a little older she won't need her crystaller anymore, much to Starlight's delight. You see Trixie's face in that scene? That's the face of someone who loves their partner. Yeah, yeah I said it.
Oh, and Starlight makes Trixie school counselor. HA!
This was fun! Everything is starting to line up perfectly to wrap everything up, and we're seeing our ponies solidify their lives into a worthwhile future. I get the feeling we're going to see everything in good hooves, soon. I look forward to the final 6 episodes with sadness and hope.
This one gets an A+. (WINK!)
Oh, and final note: Peter New was Doctor Whooves this time. That explains the voice difference.
