I really liked how Tempest arrived. It was very dark, villainous, and while I knew the Storm King was supposed to be the real villain, Tempest better fit the bill, in my opinion. She was fast to respond, bright enough to spot deception, and merciless in her efforts to press her will upon every other pony and person. The Storm King definitely seemed out of his depth, that's for sure. If it is a message about corporations, it was definitely meant for us, the adult viewers, as kids wouldn't get the whole deal except to find the Storm King silly. Of course, we know that the empty, vacuous, greedy, single focused nature of corporations is exactly what makes them as dangerous as they are, but to get to where they are, they need enablers; they need people to acquire the resources they need to dominate, and Tempest was that enabler.
The idea that Tempest would team up with the Storm King so he uses his newfound power to heal her broken horn works okay, but since we don't know what it would require to heal a broken horn, I can't say whether or not it was a well-thought out plan. Still, that's the plan she chose to follow, so that's what we get. I much prefer her as the villain over the Storm King, and I do agree that he's the weak element of the film.
Anyway, so after Tempest and her ilk attack Canterlot, and capture three of the four princesses with some kind of energy weapon that encases a pony in carbonite *cough* um, anti-magic stone, Twilight and friends manage to get away. I do find this at least a more plausible way to stop the other three princesses. Some kind of anti-magic, or magic override, would be the only way to stop them, considering their power. Anyhoo, Twilight and company get away, and they make their way through the desert to some kind of wretched hive of scum and villainy. There we meet Capper. I knew right away that I was going to like Capper. Yeah, it turns out he's a bit of a jerk at first for trying to sell them off to pay his debts, but he does redeem himself later.
I loved the desert animation sequence. I love how when Pinkie Pie keels over, she sounds like a squeaky toy. If she's done that before, I've never noticed it, but I laughed when I heard it.
Anyway, so thanks to an atlas Capper keeps in his home, Twilight figures out Celestia didn't mean to find the Hippo Queen, but the Hippogriff Queen.
Honestly, everything here happened so fast I'm still processing it, but I love how they made it onto the pirate ship, how they convinced the former delivery now glorious pirate crew to once again be themselves, and to help them make it to Mount Aris, the home of the hippogriffs.
Of course, before they can really get well underway, Tempest sees through Capper's lie about where the ponies were actually heading, and we get a pretty cool escape sequence wherein Twilight finally gets a chance to show off some of her magic. I love that sequence, and I love that Pinkie Pie had a blast as they fell to their certain doom because Pinkie. Of course, I laughed when Fluttershy covers her eyes with her hooves and then wraps her wings around herself. That poor pegasus forgets that she
is a pegasus every time.
Oh, and of course Rarity screaming, pausing to fix her hair in the mirror as she passes, and the resumes flailing just killed me.
Anyway, they get to Mount Aris, which looks pretty awesome, by the way, and find it abandoned, only to hear a voice coming from a grotto, which ends up being how we meet Princess Skystar, who brings them down to her underwater domain. We meet Queen Novo, who was okay, but seemed a little grating and mistrustful, for obvious reasons, but it was fun watching the pony to merpony sequence, and poor Spike who never catches a break.
I loved the song about friendship, of course, and of course I was hoping Twilight wouldn't actually try to steal the pearl of tranformation, but of course she did, which lead to the shocking moment on the island where they were expelled from the underwater city. Twilight lashes out at Pinkie, and says that she picked the wrong friends, which and I promise you, made me gasp. Seriously. Of course, it broke Pinkie's heart, which made me tear up, and then Twilight starts crying, and then I start crying, and then Twilight gets captured, and then we get to Tempest and her message for Twilight: friendship will fail you.
There are a lot of great songs in this film, but this one's my favorite. This one feels the most authentic to me, because this is the song of someone who has been hurt by others, someone who has nursed bitterness and pain their whole lives. Emily Blunt does the song a lot of justice, and that whole sequence is one of the best in the film, in my opinion.
So they get back to Equestria, back to Canterlot, and Twily is brought through town in the cage, where she is placed in a foursquare patter with the other princesses. Storm King arrives, and yeah, again, just not really doing it for me. He seems like a cross between Hades from Hercules, and the Pointy Haired Boss from Dilbert. I don't really like the combination. To me, Tempest is the real threat. She's singular, focused, determined, and cunning. The Storm King is none of these things. Of course, he does turn out to be a liar when he finally gets his power (Twilight's cry of "no" broke my heart), but honestly? Tempest should have expected it. Of course, she may have considered him easy to manipulate, and it came back to bite her.
Fortunately for all of us, Twilight's friends haven't given up, and arrive in time to make their way to the castle, where a fun battle ensues, and we see Fluttershy employ the sweetest therapy session with an evil goon that I've ever seen, and it cracked me up.
So, with the power of friendship, we see Twilight and company fight to get the staff back from the Storm King, Tempest witnesses true friendship when not only Twilight saves her life instead of grabs the staff of power, but also as she sees her friends risk their lives to save her, and I think that was the final push, so that when she saw they were all in danger, and the Storm King was about to end it all, she risked her own life. I pretty much felt it coming, but even so when it did it seemed an organic action to take, and worked perfectly in the moment, IMO.
So Equestria is saved, power is returned to its rightful owners, the city is rebuilt with the restorative magic, and we get a terrific song from Sia's Songbird Serenade (adorable). Twilight invites Tempest to stay where she feels she can really belong, and we see her set off a few neat fireworks with her horn. Then, as a last act, we learn that Tempest's real name is Fizzlepop Berrytwist.
