The Beginning of the End: Part 1

The Beginning of the End: Part 1
Generation 4 | Season 9 | Episode 1
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Original Airdate	April 6, 2019
Writer(s)	Joanna Lewis
	Kristine Songco
Director(s)	Denny Lu
	Mike Myhre
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Best Gift Ever	The Beginning of the End: Part 2

The Beginning of the End: Part 1 is the first episode of season 9 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

Synopsis

When Celestia and Luna decide to retire and hand off the ruling of Equestria to Twilight and her friends, it sends Twilight into a tailspin of self-doubt. Meanwhile, the ancient villain Grogar bands together a legion of nefarious characters to conquer all of Equestria, but a restored King Sombra has conquering ideas of his own.

Plot

Twilight and her five friends are running through Canterlot in response to a scroll sent by Princesses Celestia and Luna, but find out that there is no immediate danger. Rather, Celestia and Luna explain that because Twilight and her friends have helped conquer villains so many times, there is no longer a great need for the two princesses to rule. They tell Twilight that they are passing on the responsibility of ruling Equestria on to her, and Twilight panics in response. She continues to panic once the Princesses inform her that to fully transfer power over to her will just take a few days.

Back at the Ponyville castle, Twilight is still panicking, and her friends explain that this is a typical reaction to big news that they have dubbed "twilighting", and begin to reassure her that they are more than capable of ruling Equestria due to the many times they have saved it.

In some forest, Chrysalis is still nursing a grudge against Twilight Sparkle for saving her kingdom. She is branding pieces of wood with the picture of her changelings before she is transported away in a wisp of black flames. In Tartarus, Tirek is counting days stuck while Cozy Glow attempts to show him a rock sculpture she made to demonstrate their friendship. They too are transported in black flames. Somewhere deep underground, we see a rune being dug into the dirt, which King Sombra manifests from.

Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow are all transported to a mysterious cavern, where they accuse each other of summoning the other. At this, King Sombra appears and is accused of being the summoner. Grogar appears from off screen to clear up that it was he who summoned them. Grogar is a legendary figure, and all but Cozy Glow recognize his name. Cozy Glow, never having heard of him, is shown his power by Grogar restoring Tirek's power. He explains his plan to team up and rid Equestria of Twilight Sparkle. King Sombra does not want to team up, and wishes to take the Crystal Empire back himself, and makes a deal with Grogar to surrender to him if he fails. Grogar transports Sombra to the empire to begin his takeover, and Cozy Glow begins to make friends with Chrysalis.

Starlight Glimmer visits Twilight Sparkle in the school of friendship, and sees she is making plans frantically. She attempts to reassure her by taking the news of Twilight entrusting her with the school of Friendship similarly to how Twilight took the news of becoming ruler, but this just annoys Twilight and does not damper her panic.

King Sombra has arrived in the Crystal Empire, and is able to hypnotize the civilians and guards as he approaches the castle. Cadance sends a scroll to Twilight just as Sombra takes Flurry Heart and demands Shining Armor and Cadance surrender to him. As they do so, he corrupts the Crystal Heart and takes over the castle.

Twilight summons her friends and Discord, and Twilight decides to decline alerting the princesses as she will not have them to rely on in the future. Twilight decides to take the elements of harmony from the tree of harmony to use for Sombra's defeat.

When they all (minus Discord, who isn't sure that using the elements is necessary) arrive at the Crystal Empire, King Sombra uses his fear magic to paralyze the six, but the elements help to free them from the curse. Twilight then remarks that this was all a distraction, and we see Spike using his fire breath to free Cadance, who takes the Crystal Heart and places it back in its rightful place, freeing the civilians from his hypnotism. Sombra insists that he will win in the future, and Twilight and her friends use the Elements of Harmony to dispel him. They remark that this battle was fairly easy, and go to return the elements to the tree. Twilight now feels a bit more reassured in her abilities as ruler. As they are walking away, black crystals emerge from the ground and destroy the tree of harmony, and Sombra laughs into the credits.

Trivia

• This episode marks the third appearance of a G1 villain, Grogar. Previous appearances were Tirek and The Smooze
• Gusty is mentioned as the pony who defeated Grogar, called "Gusty the Great" in line with her mention in A Flurry of Emotions