This was another one that was emotional for other reasons too. It was the last episode written by Amy Keating Rogers before her departure from the crew to work for Disney. She wrote many great and excellent episodes of this show (including Best Night Ever, Pinkie Pride and even the Crusaders of the Lost Mark) and it was very sad to see her go at the time. However, she certainly went out with a bang, this episode is great.

I always had a strange feeling that "Canterlot Boutique" – one of the last episodes she wrote – contains some between-the-lines message explaining <i>why</i> did she leave. I asked her about that once, but she replied that it is coincidental. However, it was when she was still working for Hasbro/DHX, so I guess even if it were true, she couldn't tell that to anyone due to the terms and conditions of her contract / non-disclosure agreement.

I always had a strange feeling that "Canterlot Boutique" – one of the last episodes she wrote – contains some between-the-lines message explaining _why_ did she leave. I asked her about that once, but she replied that it is coincidental. However, it was when she was still working for Hasbro/DHX, so I guess even if it were true, she couldn't tell that to anyone due to the terms and conditions of her contract / non-disclosure agreement.


The way they got Lena Hall was a curious one.

She is a Broadway musical actress and she won a Tony award and in her acceptance speech she ended with "friendship is magic".

She is a fan of the show and I imagined they contacted her after that.

She made a reaction to the episode she made and is entertaining to see her geek out as she watches.

Yeah - IIRC, in an interview later, she explained that the shout-out was intentional, as she had stumbled across the show on Netflix one night, and became a fan.

Then, one of the crew reached out to her on Twitter, asking if she’d like to guest star in an episode (I believe it was Jim Miller, but I can’t remember for sure).

Funnily enough, that’s the same way how they brought Weird Al aboard for Pinkie Pride (except in that case, it was Jayson Thiessen asking over Twitter - that I remember for sure)

Where can I find the reaction you mentioned

@@linhdang7758 easy mate, here it is.

Youtu. be/ Ka-ZHN91198

Just delete the spaces  and done, enjoy. I won't put direct in case that YouTube marks it as spam

Yeah It was wonderful! <br>I loved her reaction, and her channel~ <3

Yeah It was wonderful!
I loved her reaction, and her channel~ <3

And fellow reactor Applegeek was the first one to react to Lena’s reaction.


I love The Spectacle. Like you said, it's extremely artificial, heavily critiquing the monetization of the music industry.

Like they literally fire the autotune into her throat. It's amazing.

I love _The Spectacle._ Like you said, it's extremely artificial, heavily critiquing the monetization of the music industry.

Like they literally fire the autotune into her throat. It's amazing.


This seems like an ideal episode to toss some respect to Daniel Ingram, who seems able to compose any form of musical production, arguably the hidden heart of the series.


This episode woke me up to realize not to hide who I was. I learned to be proud of who I was and what I liked from this episode.


I'm happy that Amy Keating Rogers left us so many amazing top tier episodes.

The way this comment is worded makes it sound like she's dead.


5:58 "Lyra and Bon Bon together.  Are they always together?"
Only about 95% of the time.

@@Nick-ty9us If Abbott and Costello went for long walks in the park and sat on benches together  :D

Abbott and Costello went everywhere together. They went to a haunted house in the army, navy the air corps the foreign legion the planet mars Egypt they also went to Africa, met Captain Kidd met Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, invisible man the killer Boris Karloff and many many more

@@Nick-ty9us You seem to know an awful lot about what those two get up to.  How long have you been stalking them for?  😏

@@Narrator007 they been dead for decades?

@@Nick-ty9us I was only joking with you, dude!


This is another S5 episode that I love from the bottom of my heart! I like how the idea of bringing guest stars in MLP became a trend after Weird Al made his debut in S4 as Cheese Sandwich. Coloratura/Rara is one of the best characters in my eyes, from her design, voice (who is played by Lena Hall by the way), to her awesome and beautiful singing voice, I love her SO MUCH! I tell ya, the songs she sings here are amazing, especially “The Magic Inside,” which is among the very best songs of the series in my personal opinion. I always get misty eyed every time the song begins with the piano playing, it’s just that good! What makes this episode more memorable is the fact that this was the final episode that Amy Keating Rogers had written for this show and the song “Equestria, the Land I Love” was her way of signing off before taking on her new job at Disney (if I remember correctly that is). Great reaction by the way!

Ah, that's what I get for commenting after I see the reaction without reloading. Sorry, I wrote something similar fáfter you ^^;;;

Voltorb1993 No worries, that happens to me sometimes too.

Guest stars are OK, as long as they are actually huge fans of the show, like Lena Hall or Weird Al (or one that I can't mention yet). Otherwise, when they don't "feel it", and it's another paid job for them, it may not turn out so well. Having a celebrity on board is not enough. Much more important is good writing so that it felt natural for them to be there and didn't feel forced and unnecessary. (%cough% MLP Movie %cough%)


"The Magic Inside" is one of my absolute favorite songs of the entire series.  I get emotional every time I hear those opening piano notes.

Same. It’s my 7th-favorite song of the series. (Yes, I actually took the time to rank every single song from this show XD)


Ra Ra Ra ah ahh
Rama Ra ah ahh
Gaga ooh la la
Caught in a bad romance


7:46 Pinkie Pie: "I call this straw Fernando."
Should we be disturbed by the fact that Pinkie gives the straws she sucks things through male names?

I’m not disturbed, but rather intrigued 😏


Lena Hall did a fantastic job in this episode. I’m glad that the writers allowed her to show off her acting and singing abilities.


Episodes like this are what make me love mlp. It's got inspiring episodes with strong messages.

In my little Pony, you see creatures of all types be redeemed and become better. It shows you that people get lost, and they make mistakes, but that doesn't make them bad. It tells you that it's ok to make mistakes, just learn from them and be better.

At the same time, it doesn't act like everything is sunshine and rainbows. Characters like Tirek, Cozy glow, and Chrysalis are never redeemed. Characters face awful, stressful things. Stress gets the better of people. It's realistic [as realistic as a world of unicorns, Pegasus ponies, and alicorns can be lol].

Sorry for rambling, I just love this show very much


"The Magic Inside" is one of my favorite songs as well. I don't know how someone can have a voice that perfect, but I just love it. Season 5, the season of feels, just had to squeeze a little more emotion out before the finale.


(screams excitedly) THIS is the episode I can never get tired of and my top favorite of all Season 5! The music, the songs, and especially Countess Coloratura (aka Rara)!

It’s THE episode that helped reignite my piano skills that I’ve been away from in so long due to my studies! The Magic Inside and Equestria, The Land I Love were the first two songs I played and then slowly mastered on piano.

Not to mention the voice of Rara herself, Lena Hall. I first heard of her not through MLP, but I watch the Tony Awards in general and had it not been for her Hedwig costar Neil Patrick Harris (who helped make her known), she wouldn’t have gone on to win such an award.

_(screams excitedly)_ THIS is the episode I can never get tired of and my top favorite of all Season 5! The music, the songs, and especially Countess Coloratura (aka Rara)!

It’s THE episode that helped reignite my piano skills that I’ve been away from in so long due to my studies! The Magic Inside and Equestria, The Land I Love were the first two songs I played and then slowly mastered on piano.

Not to mention the voice of Rara herself, Lena Hall. I first heard of her not through MLP, but I watch the Tony Awards in general and had it not been for her Hedwig costar Neil Patrick Harris (who helped make her known), she wouldn’t have gone on to win such an award.

I'll leave it here... ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Mh2FQxwsM

Bon Bon. (points) Ahh... you sly.

What's a missed opportunity is Neil Patrick Harris not being able to return the favor as guest voice on MLP: FiM after her.

Bon Bon. _(points)_ Ahh... you sly.

What's a missed opportunity is Neil Patrick Harris not being able to return the favor as guest voice on MLP: FiM after her.


Lena Hall, the professional singet they got for Rara, is a real sweetheart too.  If you get a chance, she did a react of her own episode, and someone syc'd if with the eoisode video.  Your heart will melt all over again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka-ZHN91198
Here's that video ;)

@@bonbonpony He NEEDS to watch this, whether he reacts or not.  It is SO sweet and heartwarming.


That is the legendary Lena Hall. Really famous broadway star.


I can't believe you didn't notice that they were stepping on Pinkie.😂 6:00


00:55 Amethyst Star is into organizing again :)
01:42 "Sapphire Shores? Oh, please! That's so last season!" ;)
02:22 Good one! I must remember to do that next time someone asks me :D
04:09 That pony on the left totally looks like that boy scout from "Up" :)
04:51 I'm sure someone already said that in the comments, but... Rara's voice actress is a professional Broadway singer, Lena Hall (a.k.a. Celina Consuela Gabriella Carvajal). After she ended her speech with "Friendship is Magic" during the Tony Awards ceremony in 2014, it started to become clear that she's a huge fan of this show, and she admitted it during an interview and said that one of her dreams is to voice a character in MLP. This is the episode in which her dream became true :)  There's also a video somewhere on YouTube in which she recorded her reacting to this episode along with her niece, and she was very excited :)
05:22 Connections to Lady Gaga are not coincidental: she looks like her, she sings like her, her name (Rara) kinda is similar to Gaga, and there's a connection in her stage name (Countess Coloratura) too: Lady Gaga's Twitter account at that time was @TheCountess ;)
08:10 I hope they're made the same way as in the movie "Van Wilder" :g  No one deserves them more than this pony :J
09:39 The only thing missing is Illuminati symbolism ;J
09:52 Fun thing is, the same could be said about Lady Gaga's performances. Most people (including me in the past) only know her "artificial" performances full of special effects, weird outfits and occult symbolism. But less people know about her other side. She can sing beautiful songs and play piano very well (she's got classical music education) during her live performances when she doesn't use her stage persona. This episode depicts this subject very well too.
10:26 The name of that prick, Sven Gallop, is a reference to Svengali, a fictional character in George du Maurier's novel "Trilby". He is a man who seduces, dominates and exploits Trilby, a young Irish girl, using hypnosis, and makes her a famous singer, despite the fact that she's completely tone-deaf. Because of that, being unable to perform without his help, she becomes completely dependent on him. I think you can see many parallels here ;)
12:08 Hey, at least he didn't demand multicore Apples :J
12:44 Big Mac is never gonna beat that :q
13:30 Confronting people without solid evidence never ended well :q
13:50 She wasn't wrong though :q
15:18 Got'em ;>
16:33 Wanna see what hard work is? Then visit AJ's farm, or the rock farm :P  You are not working hard, you're hardly working :J
18:18 Oh boy, here it comes... :>
19:10 No wonder, this is one of the most beautiful and powerful songs in this show ★_★  Definitely in my top 5.  As Rarity would put it: "It's simply divine" ;)
20:20 Applejack helped Rara to rediscover her special talent again. Looks like it runs in the family :)
23:05 I'm curious if it could be that she's somewhere in that crowd during the concert. There are rumours that she appears once more during a song, and... well... we have a song in this episode, plus a very big crowd in which she could easily hide to spy on Twilight and her friends ;>  And this is the last episode in which she could still have a chance to do that. If she does, then she must be somewhere close to the stage, because that's where the mane six stands too, but not too close to avoid getting spotted. Somewhere where she would have a nice clear view on Twilight. Hmm...   I'm pretty sure she must be in there somewhere. Especially that I see that the animators paid extra attention to the details this time and the places every pony stands match from scene to scene despite different angles. As if they wanted to make sure that there are no inconsistencies so that we could compare these angles and see if there's anything odd. I went through the entire song frame by frame, but as of yet I couldn't find her :/ (although there were a couple of silhouettes very similar to her :q ). Maybe I need to find a better quality video?...

00:55 Amethyst Star is into organizing again :)
01:42 "Sapphire Shores? Oh, please! That's so last season!" ;)
02:22 Good one! I must remember to do that next time someone asks me :D
04:09 That pony on the left totally looks like that boy scout from "Up" :)
04:51 I'm sure someone already said that in the comments, but... Rara's voice actress is a professional Broadway singer, Lena Hall (a.k.a. Celina Consuela Gabriella Carvajal). After she ended her speech with "Friendship is Magic" during the Tony Awards ceremony in 2014, it started to become clear that she's a huge fan of this show, and she admitted it during an interview and said that one of her dreams is to voice a character in MLP. This is the episode in which her dream became true :)  There's also a video somewhere on YouTube in which she recorded her reacting to this episode along with her niece, and she was very excited :)
05:22 Connections to Lady Gaga are not coincidental: she looks like her, she sings like her, her name (Rara) kinda is similar to Gaga, and there's a connection in her stage name (Countess Coloratura) too: Lady Gaga's Twitter account at that time was @TheCountess ;)
08:10 I hope they're made the same way as in the movie "Van Wilder" :g  No one deserves them more than this pony :J
09:39 The only thing missing is Illuminati symbolism ;J
09:52 Fun thing is, the same could be said about Lady Gaga's performances. Most people (including me in the past) only know her "artificial" performances full of special effects, weird outfits and occult symbolism. But less people know about her other side. She can sing beautiful songs and play piano very well (she's got classical music education) during her live performances when she doesn't use her stage persona. This episode depicts this subject very well too.
10:26 The name of that prick, Sven Gallop, is a reference to Svengali, a fictional character in George du Maurier's novel "Trilby". He is a man who seduces, dominates and exploits Trilby, a young Irish girl, using hypnosis, and makes her a famous singer, despite the fact that she's completely tone-deaf. Because of that, being unable to perform without his help, she becomes completely dependent on him. I think you can see many parallels here ;)
12:08 Hey, at least he didn't demand multicore Apples :J
12:44 Big Mac is never gonna beat that :q
13:30 Confronting people without solid evidence never ended well :q
13:50 She wasn't wrong though :q
15:18 Got'em ;>
16:33 Wanna see what hard work is? Then visit AJ's farm, or the rock farm :P  You are not working hard, you're hardly working :J
18:18 Oh boy, here it comes... :>
19:10 No wonder, this is one of the most beautiful and powerful songs in this show ★_★  Definitely in my top 5.  As Rarity would put it: "It's simply divine" ;)
20:20 Applejack helped Rara to rediscover her special talent again. Looks like it runs in the family :)
23:05 I'm curious if it could be that she's somewhere in that crowd during the concert. There are rumours that she appears once more during a song, and... well... we have a song in this episode, plus a very big crowd in which she could easily hide to spy on Twilight and her friends ;>  And this is the last episode in which she could still have a chance to do that. If she does, then she must be somewhere close to the stage, because that's where the mane six stands too, but not too close to avoid getting spotted. Somewhere where she would have a nice clear view on Twilight. Hmm...   I'm pretty sure she _must_ be in there somewhere. Especially that I see that the animators paid extra attention to the details this time and the places every pony stands match from scene to scene despite different angles. As if they wanted to make sure that there are no inconsistencies so that we could compare these angles and see if there's anything odd. I went through the entire song frame by frame, but as of yet I couldn't find her :/ (although there were a couple of silhouettes very similar to her :q ). Maybe I need to find a better quality video?...

Sapphire Shores shall always be an Equestria Darling~
And we have Rara too :3

lol XD

@@niteshkumar5193 Then don't. Go play with some rocks instead. I do with my time whatever I like to do. If I want to spend in on writing some comments, that's what I do, and it's none of your business. Internet is for people who enjoy reading/writing, and such people made it in the first place.
As for your first question: not that much. Less than watching the episode. I type faster than I speak.

@@niteshkumar5193 Then don't. Go play with some rocks instead. I do with my time whatever I like to do. If I want to spend in on writing some comments, that's what I do, and it's none of _your_ business. Internet is for people who enjoy reading/writing, and such people _made_ it in the first place.
As for your first question: not that much. Less than watching the episode. I type faster than I speak.

@Asees and Kiwi Hmm then you must be reading quite slow. I just tested how much time it will take me to read this, and it took me only 7 minutes. And I wasn't even speeding. You can read faster too, this skill can be learned ;) And it might be the most useful skill in your life. Just imagine how many more books you could read in the same time, and how much stuff you could learn faster. (BTW often times I read several books a week.)

Same with typing: I can type as fast as I speak, so it didn't really take me that much time to type it. But recently I discovered that I can type even faster if I use a steno keyboard and Plover :) With this special keyboard and software, it's possible to type a syllable or a short word with just one keypress, and typing roughly 240 words per minute, which is faster than I can speak.

@@bonbonpony you've studied stenography??? 😲 my mother took a course on that but never used it, wish I could learn it too tho

@@catherinecalmerin1825 Nope, I didn't study it professionally, unfortunately. But I know how it works, and I use a cheap replica of a steno keyboard and a software that drives it.


Yep. It’s all downhill from there, unfortunately 😔

@@winter2716 i think the rest of the seasons are great but they began to run out of ideas

@@mimaaellian2678 Yeah, I wouldn’t say there’s a single “bad” season of the show, but the writers really started scraping the bottom of the barrel in seasons 8 and especially 9.

Hey s7 had some of s5's greatness too plus the newer EQG content was awesome too (I'm thinking the four YT miniseries specifically)

@@mon_moi agreed but 5 was when the fandom was at peak, seasons 6-7 the fandom got split because people hated Starlight Glimmer while others loved and was accepting. I loved 6-7 aside from some episodes but 8-9 had some really bad episodes.


Even though she wrote it herself, I personally like to call this episode “A Tribute to Amy Keating Rogers.” She gave us so many special and memorable episodes over the years, but her final two (“Crusaders of the Lost Mark” and this one) were, and still are, a cut above the rest!


Lena Hall hitted those notes like a champ!


If I had RaRa's singing voice, I would never shut up lol


When you do Friendship Games you should probably redirect it because that movie and especially one of the songs is very strict with copyright.


17:05 I I laughed a bit harder than usual due to that reaction. Good stuff man.^^


As always, a great reaction to a great episode.  And speaking of reactions to this episode, the lovely and talented Lena Hall (voice actress and singer for Rara) did a facecam reaction to this episode which you can see here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka-ZHN91198

(It's well worth watching.  Very heartwarming!)

In addition to reacting, during the commercial breaks Lena also answered fan Q&A as she was live-streaming her reaction to this episode.  Lena Hall is accompanied in this reaction by her very young niece.  And this episode has a bit of the ol' bitter-sweet in it, as it is the final episode written by Amy Keating Rogers (who's writing credits with MLP go all the way back to season one, episode three "Ticketmaster.")

Lena Hall is definitely a fan of the show!  When she won a Tony in 2014 she even gave a not-so-subtle shout out to MLP in her acceptance speech -- which you can see here if you like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Mh2FQxwsM

(It's right at the end!)  And if there was any doubt what she was referencing, in the press meet afterwards, she talks about how MLP was a big, positive influence on her life.  You can watch that here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-4BCRkCoGw


The voice actress for RaRa is Lena Hall a professional singer and she herself reacted to this episode of herself. You should really react to her reaction while you still have fresh memories of it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka-ZHN91198
I think a lot of people would love that. I know I would.


This is my most favorite episode of season 5

Which is saying something... I feel like 5 is the single season with the most great episodes. I personally like Crusaders of Lost Mark and Amending Fences more, but I can definitely see why this one might have spoken to someone else more


This is a fantastic episode. The premise is entertaining. Svengalop is awful. That ending is just stellar.


Seeing Pinkie here getting forced to do breaks my heart


And thus ends the Season of Feels. This was definitely a pretty decent one.


Being true to yourself is an important thing.


Well, I have not seen star wars...

For real
Svengalop is based on Svengali (/svɛŋˈɡɑːli/) a fictional character in George du Maurier's 1895 novel Trilby. Svengali is a man who seduces, dominates and exploits Trilby, a young Irish girl, and makes her a famous singer.[1]


And now with the season completed you were marked “Equestria girls the friendship games”


It’s definitely in my top 15 episodes of the entire series.


I love this episode. RaRa deserves another episode or heck a movie haha! But alas I don't know if she returns. I love how her cutie mark glows when she sings from the heart.

Sadly, she doesn’t return (probably because her VA, Lena Hall, is too expensive XD)

@@winter2716 I wish she did return! She was fire!

@@squeebersIndeed. And unfortunately all of the characters from the 2017 movie also couldn’t return for the exact same reason ):

@@squeebers Well, at least we got Weird Al back in season 9!


Whats funny is this character was kinda simular to my own pony, Haunting melody, a singer, though her gimmick is that what ever she thinks of when she talks/sings she creates illusions of :>  So great for doing a performance...bad for regular day to day stuff hehe.


This is my daughter's favorite song of the series "just a pony " not the first one.

FYI, the song is actually called “The Magic Inside” :)

@winter2716  yeah I know that, I don't know why I called it that. Sorry


(4:26) A particular group of instant messaging reactors said the same thing of her sounding too grown up from a filly as well. Doesn't bother me.

Sven Gallop on the other hand. Glad you're on the same page as all the other reactors and viewers. We were all pretty peeved by that obnoxious manager. What a prick. Rara's initial appearance as Countess Coloratura is definitely a spoof on Lady Gaga, even her own voice actor acknowledged it.


Wait woah... who levitated that triangle? 22:08


I heard this is a kind of a reference to Lady Gaga

I think it’s more than just “kind of” XD


for.gods sakes, search youtube for lena hall, her live performances and "lena hall obsessed" where she covered her fav songs from a dozen artists


As AndyReacts would say about the problem with Sven Gallop. He is an a-hole, but he’s an individual who just can’t enjoy life and is all about feeling privileged on a daily basis.