Twilight and Shining Armor pit their wits against each other to settle a long-standing sibling rivalry, but they soon discover they are not the only competitors.Twilight and Shining Armor pit their wits against each other to settle a long-standing sibling rivalry, but they soon discover they are not the only competitors.Twilight and Shining Armor pit their wits against each other to settle a long-standing sibling rivalry, but they soon discover they are not the only competitors.
- Twilight Sparkle
- (voice)
- Spike
- (voice)
- Rarity
- (voice)
- …
- Shining Armor
- (voice)
- Rainbow Dash
- (voice)
- …
- Fluttershy
- (voice)
- …
- Zephyr Breeze
- (voice)
- Random Pony
- (voice)
- …
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe 200th episode of the series.
- Quotes
Twilight Sparkle: [after Shining Armor guesses her plan] Oh, come on!
Rarity: Twilight, darling, nopony knows you better than your own brother.
Twilight Sparkle: So you're saying I should give up?
Rarity: I'm saying your brother will win. No matter how brilliant your plan is, no matter how many variations you try, it will be something your brother expects, and he'll always win! Unless... when the perfect chance comes along, you do something he can't expect. Then you'll win.
Spike: You've been practicing that speech, haven't you?
Rarity: A little bit. It felt like I rushed. Did I rush it?
Applejack: Absolutely not.
Fluttershy: Oh, no.
Pinkie Pie: Yeah, it was fast-ish.
Rarity: We have to do the opposite of what Shining Armor expects. Therefore, Twilight cannot mastermind the plan. But *I* can!
Applejack: That's... definitely unexpected.
- ConnectionsReferences Hercules (1997)
Which "Sparkle's Seven" does. It is not only absolutely sparkling as a milestone episode, if not quite as amazing as "Slice of Life", it also is a fantastic 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' episode in its own right. Even better than the Season 9 two part opener "The Beginning of the End" and a vast improvement over the disappointing previous episode "Uprooted", for me it is also a Season 9 high point and one of the few episodes of the season to be properly outstanding.
The animation is vibrantly coloured and the backgrounds have variety and polish. The standout when it came to the animation was the facial expressions, which were deliciously wacky and wildly imaginative. The music synchronises very well with what goes on, nothing sounded misplaced, it was nicely varied tonally and it never sounded too heavy, chirpy or dull.
Also thought that "Sparkle's Seven's" writing is some of the best of Season 9. Some of it is delightfully off the wall like Applejack's Apple Chord story, while also having some subtle nods and a lot of genuinely funny humour. As far as the humour goes, this is easily one of the season's funniest. The story is a lot of fun throughout and worth investing in, with the insightful development to Spike and agreed the mind-blower of a twist being high points.
Really liked that all the characters shone in some way or other, Twilight and Shining Armor are written nicely. Shining Armor is the most interesting he's been in a long time. Could find no fault with the voice acting.
Brilliant episode all in all. 10/10.
- TheLittleSongbird
- Jan 12, 2022
Details
- Runtime22 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1080i (HDTV)
- 480i (SDTV)