My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell (My Little Pony Chapter Books) Paperback – April 2, 2013

Twilight Sparkle and The Crystal Heart by G.M. BerrowThis review is for the older fans of MLP:FIM who are curious about what this book has to offer. A little bit about me I'm a college student studying electrical engineering and I'm a 21 year old guy who has a distinct love for slice of life cartoons. I love this show more than you could imagine, so if you got any questions that my review doesn't answer feel free to comment. Don't be shy fellow pegasisters and bronies, : ).What you really want to know (for those who want to go straight to the point):Anyway, I received this book in the mail today, and after about 4 hours of reading and digesting the material, I can safely say that our beloved Twilight Sparkle is still her very same "adorkable" self. She is still very studious, stubborn, and very modest when it comes to her achievements. So we can all rest easy in the personality department, she hasn't changed one bit. As for her relationship with the mane 6, the only difference is of course she is royalty now, but other than the occasional Princess calling they are still the down to earth friends we all fell in love with. Also we get some background on Princess Cadance! (*squee*)Do not read the bottom part if you don't want to be spoiled.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Brief Synopsis: [Spoilers inbound]. I will put my personal thoughts in (personal thoughts)The book starts off where the ending episode of Season 3 left us, exactly the day after the coronation of Twilight Sparkle and her transformation into "Alicornhood". Our pony girl, Twilight Sparkle is having some trouble on how to handle her transition into royalty. She even tells many of her acquaintances around ponyville including her friends to drop her title of "Princess" when addressing her. At one point in the story, the author jokingly says, "Maybe she should put a banner in the town square telling every pony to treat her as they normally would. "I'm just the same old Twilight, really". So as usual Twilight goes and does what she excels at and researches the subject in her private library, lol. She figures out with the help of Ms. Cake to ask her Pegasister-in-law (The author actually used this), Cadence.So she goes to the Crystal Kingdom and ask Cadence for help. Princess Cadence talks to Twilight about her past (In my head: I yelled, YESSSS!!). So it turns out that Princess Cadance was actually an orphaned pegasus before and she was raised by earth ponies. (Go Figure! XD). She tells Twilight that she earned her Alicornhood from defeating Prismia an evil enchantress from her earth pony village. Upon defeating her, she is transported to the what I will call the "Astral" plane aka Celestia's Domain. Celestia transforms Cadance into an Alicorn and (*cough* kidnaps *cough*) put her under her wing after seeing her potential defeating Prismia. Further she tells Twilight that she never was born a leader rather she learned it through the help of the Crystal Heart Spell. Cadence gives Twilight a Heart Pedant that Cadance claims was Prismia's which should aid her in her search.With this information Twilight writes letters to her (PFF - Pony Friends Forever aka her gangster friends) and they try and help her decipher how to find this elusive spell by giving her ideas of how to run a kingdom. Twilight dismisses their ideas and gets ticked off that her friends ideas aren't exactly helping her. Gilda drops by after all of Twilight's friends leave their secret meeting, and tells her to only listen to herself and forget her friends. Twilight takes this to heart goes to search for the crystal heart spell by herself, this leads to her being consumed by hatred and doubt in her friends as well as herself. Using her pegasus wings, Twilight flies over back to the Crystal Kingdom empire to look at the books in their library for the Crystal Heart spell. At this point, Twilight is in trouble since she is consumed by negative thoughts she was regressing. Cadence sets Twilight straight and the mane 6 reassure Twilight that their friendship remains strong.In the end Twilight learns her biggest challenge in leadership would be friendship.The moral:We always knew Twilight to be on the introverted side (kinda like myself XD), although she isn't shy she can forget the importance in having friends and listening to your friends sometimes. (Heck she even has trouble remembering names of ponies (people) also like me.) She is the independent kinda of pony, but being a leader would sometimes require you to ask for the help of others. You must learn this Twilight!!!Overall the book is great and the story and dialogue is what you would expect from a show episode.Brohoof /) to G.M. Berrow.

When I first watched Magical Mystery Cure, its ending almost reminded me of the ending of Mass Effect 3: Went by too fast, and created more questions than actual answers. BioWare, the creators of the Mass Effect trilogy, had to address the fans' issues by creating an Extended Cut ending to Mass Effect 3, which didn't change the ending but rather provided greater clarity to the original ending. Likewise, this book might be considered the Extended Cut to My Little Pony's Season Three finale, as it provides more clarity to Twilight's new life as an alicorn princess, while telling a great story that kids and bronies alike will enjoy.My favorite thing about the story was how Twilight actually chose to stay behind in Ponyville to be close to her friends. And, even as an alicorn princess, she is not all powerful, not just because head-writer of the show Meghan McCarthy confirmed that Twilight will not outlive her friends, but also that in the story, Twilight learned that she still had to depend on her friends like she always does, only this time on political decisions. We're also given an origin story to Princess Cadence and how she became an alicorn princess herself, as well as two brony-favorites making cameo appearances in the story, Gilda the Griffon and Trixie.The book is around one-hundred thirty pages, which can be very brief. However, it'll be worth the brevity due to its story of Twilight adjusting to her new role as leader. I'd recommend this to any child who loves MLP, as well as bronies who await Season Four of the show. Overall, this was the Extended Cut the show needed after the Season Three finale, providing clarity to Twilight's new life while telling a great story with a satisfying moral.

This was a wonderful little adventure for the new Princess and very entertaining to read even if you are an older fan of the show. It reads just like an episode and is true to the story line and characters. Once again, a small message and a good moral is presented in such a way that anyone can take something away from it. Much like the show itself, there is genius in its simplicity and it is just plain entertaining. Twilight Sparkle will be a great princess. The magic of friendship prevails again.I recommend this to anypony who loves the show and children of all ages.

My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart SpellThis book is well-written. The level of reading is definitely set for younger readers, but that shouldn't be considered a negative point for any fan of the show. The fact is that it still feels like an episode of the show. Reading about what the characters say and do feels no different than watching and listening to what the characters do and say, respectively.The story is a direct follow-up to the events that closed season three, as Twilight Sparkle struggles to come to terms with the changes that have already occurred in her life, and the changes she is certainly going to face as time goes on. The "mane six" are again central to the story; and with cameos by old friends, old rivals, and a certain muffin-loving pony, there's going to be things to smile about regardless of the age of the fans who choose to read this.My only issue with this book comes with what seems to be a slight continuity error with a certain rival, but just because I'm saying the error might be there doesn't mean that it necessarily is. I also had hoped the story would be longer; it weighs in at 160 pages, but for young readers the length is probably just right. Neither of these are serious flaws, however, just minor peeves that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book.I say if you're a pony fan, young or old, pick up this book. Let Hasbro and the author know that they should keep producing excellent written works to accompany the show so that we'll have more to look forward to!