Twilight being cautious regarding Starlight and Trixie being friends is something I’m completely OK with in the episode. What brings it down for me however, is Twilight’s asinine attempts to force ‘better’ friends onto Starlight in a vain attempt to show Celestia what a good teacher she is. If they had done away with that plot thread, and let everything come to a head organically, then the episode would’ve been damn near flawless IMO.

@Thrond  
Hmmm… I have no good response to that.

@Ihhh  
It didn’t, particularly, but I didn’t find her character arc in the episode to go anywhere interesting. Personally I didn’t enjoy the episode because I found everyone boring.
 
@Ihhh  
I’m not entirely sure that Twilight is necessarily equipped to teach friendship lessons, but as someone who learned friendship firsthand, she might be best able to convey them. Then again, she ultimately settled on a hands-off approach, so…

Eh. Twilight keeps a full record on villains anyway.  
The only reformed villain she immediately trust was Luna necause she’s related to Celestia so she gets preferential treatment. As for Discord, Trix, Sunset and Starlight– sure Twilight says she forgives, but she doesn’t forget.  
I mean, there’s a reason why ex-criminals or ex-prisoners can’t get normal jobs easily–because they have criminal records.  
The last thing you want from ex-criminals is them going back to their old ways.  
It’s a matter of public security so Twilight wasn’t being wrong.

Oh well, time to throw rocks at Twilight!

Probably says you got redeemed in two minutes after a song and a ‘my b’ to everyone you shat on for your ego and was never questioned about. Then turning around and whining about not getting second chances after a pony who whined about not getting second chances proved she wasn’t trying to make up for it.
 
That about all? Wait, no, forgot. Have to get apologized to after being shown wrong. gg hasbro.

@1CJB  
Again, When was it stated that them being genuinely good friends and having an ulterior motive were mutually exclusive?
 
@1CJB  
“Have you ever said something out of anger? It’s a very real thing you know, people do it all of the time.”  
Why would someone outright say they made a friend just to one-up someone else? Anger is not a justification for said action, ego, however, is.
 
“When was it stated that Trixie ever had an ulterior motive?”  
When she said she befriended starlight to one-up twilight
 
“Trixie was trying to turn her life around, that’s why she did the whole apology tour. The one that Twilight didn’t give a shit about.”  
Twilight had a very important dinner with celestia that she needed starlight to appear at. It’s not an event you can just skip.
 
“The only reason she said that was because of Twilight.”  
Again, what exactly prompted her to say it besides her own ego?
 
“If Twilight wasn’t being a little shit, Trixie wouldn’t have any animosity towards her.”  
You seem to have an odd bias against twilight, completely ignoring her motivations and bashing her while ignoring the wrongdoings of the other characters. You cannot do that if you want to have any credibility, which you have so far failed to establish.

@Ihhh  
“True, she regretted saying it, but if she didn’t even partially mean it, then why did she say it in the first place? “
 
Have you ever said something out of anger? It’s a very real thing you know, people do it all of the time.
 
“When was it stated that them being genuinely good friends and having an ulterior motive were mutually exclusive? “
 
When was it stated that Trixie ever had an ulterior motive? Oh wait, she didn’t. Trixie was trying to turn her life around, that’s why she did the whole apology tour. The one that Twilight didn’t give a shit about. The only reason she said that was because of Twilight. If Twilight wasn’t being a little shit, Trixie wouldn’t have any animosity towards her.

@Ihhh  
See, your argument relies on Trixie not truly wanting to be friends with Starlight. If you watch the episode, Trixie does actually like Starlight and enjoyed being her friend, and she’s devastated by the fact that she lost her. Not to mention that Trixie was angry when she said that, because Twilight couldn’t let go of the past and let her have a friend. Try again.

@1CJB  
I do not remember the episode “making it very clear that Trixie didn’t mean it”. Trixie said it of her own accord, and she only said it to rub in the fact that she was able to one-up twilight. True, she regretted saying it, but if she didn’t even partially mean it, then why did she say it in the first place? When was it stated that them being genuinely good friends and having an ulterior motive were mutually exclusive? And which of your comments did I ignore? Because if it wasn’t a reply to me why would you assume I would have taken it into account? It makes no sense that you would expect me to not ignore a comment that wasn’t addressed to me.

@Thrond  
I got that, but it kind of sounded like you were making a snide remark about the decision to have twilight teach friendship lessons.

@Ihhh  
Did you forget that the episode makes it very clear that Trixie didn’t mean it? Twilight was getting her goat, and she clearly regretted saying that. What about how the episode shows them being good friends? It’s also pretty annoying how you ignored my comment where I directly answer all of your objections. I’m no psychologist, but you seem to have a bias causing you to ignore important details.

@Thrond  
I don’t think she had enough screen time to be boring. If she took up a majority of the episode I could see where you’re coming from, however most of the episode was taken up by starlight and trixie, while twilight was only there some of the time, so I don’t see how it could affect the episode.

@Ihhh  
That was a joke.

@Ihhh  
Honestly, I don’t have a problem with Twilight being unsympathetic (which I found her to be.) She was a direct threat to Ponyville’s safety in “Lesson Zero.” I just thought she was kinda boring in “No Second Prances,” not that she was alone in that.
 
As for her having issues - I mean, yeah, she’s always been a wreck, but I’ve been noticing it more lately.

@Thrond  
Have you forgotten all the character development she has had since the first episode? The whole premise of the series was for her to learn about friendship, and now she’s putting that knowledge to use.

@Thrond  
Twilight has always had issues ever since season 1, and she’s done worse for dumber reasons. Do you remember lesson zero?

@Background Pony #9870  
Twilight goddamn Sparkle, who needed to be forced to make friends, now trying to teach another about friendship? What could possibly go wrong?

@1CJB  
Do you forget that Trixie wanted to one-up twilight and that twilight was concerned about their similar pasts causing problems? I’m no psychologist, but you seem to have a bias causing you to ignore important details.

@Ihhh  
My issues with this episode aren’t really related to which character was right or wrong, but I kinda struggle to sympathize with Twilight’s reasoning, whatever the hell it was. At best she’s way too overbearing, and I think she’s completely wrong to be so controlling. Her own personal insecurities and worries prevent her from considering her friend’s feelings, and her control freak tendencies come out full force.
 
Starlight was “wrong” in abandoning Trixie, but otherwise mostly in moments that had nothing at all to do with the main plot. Otherwise she just tried to make a friend. Nothing wrong with that.
 
Trixie’s pretty nuanced tho.
 
 
@thatguy  
These past few seasons, Twilight’s been something of a hot mess. Maybe the change in her status is really starting to get to her.

@MLPFan2012  
What about Trixie’s apology, did that mean nothing? Twilight should also apologize for being a terrible pony in this episode, what we got wasn’t nearly enough. I don’t care about Twilight’s apology, actions speek louder than words. Twilight has always been obsessive over Celestia, and this episode really hammers that in, while amping Twilight’s bitch level up to the point where she’s insufferable. Twilight will likely not have changed at all after this.

@thatguy  
She’s obviously fit to be a princess for keeping Equestria safe, having saved it a dozen times and reformed a bunch of villains. What she’s not fit to be is a friendship teacher (what kind of stupid role is that anyway? Come on, writers).

@Ihhh  

 
They also conveniently forget that Twilight apologized to both Trixie and Starlight at the end of the episode and they accepted it. But it’s more fun to beat the “Twilight is a Celestia worshiping bitch” drum than to acknowledge that little bit.

I find it amusing Glimmer actually tried to imply that Twilight also wasn’t giving her a second chance which is downright laughable. She’s living in a castle, getting friendship lessons, and yet she never takes advantage of her second chance. Instead she’s constantly pushed by Twilight to even progress.
 
Glimmer’s doing nothing but bitching because people are holding her actions against her and gets huffy when she gets a tap on the wrist. Yet apparently Twilight is wrong for not letting her make her own decisions?

Well, this counts as her 2nd scolded moment from……