# Magic Duel

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Not to be confused with [Magic Duels](/source/Magic_Duels).

5th episode of the 3rd season of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

"Magic Duel" My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode Episode no. Season 3 Episode 5 Directed by James Wootton Written by M.A. Larson Original air date December 1, 2012 (2012-12-01) Running time 22 minutes Guest appearance Brenda Crichlow as Zecora Episode chronology ← Previous "One Bad Apple" Next → "Sleepless in Ponyville" My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (season 3) List of episodes

"**Magic Duel**" is the fifth episode of [the third season](/source/My_Little_Pony%3A_Friendship_Is_Magic_season_3) of [animated](/source/Animated_series) television series *[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic](/source/My_Little_Pony%3A_Friendship_Is_Magic)* as well as the fifty-seventh overall. It premiered on December 1, 2012. The episode follows [Twilight Sparkle](/source/Twilight_Sparkle), who is banished from [Ponyville](/source/Ponyville) after [Trixie](/source/The_Great_and_Powerful_Trixie), a former fraud, overpowers her with a magical amulet. Twilight must find a way to return to Ponyville and get Trixie to remove the amulet, which is corrupting her, from her neck.

## Plot

External videos Magic Duel (full episode) — Official upload of the episode onto YouTube

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Equestria Toyline Cutie mark Elements of Harmony Pony Spin-offs My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (2013–2020)(List of animations) My Little Pony: Pony Life (2020–2021)(List of episodes) Characters Mane Six Twilight Sparkle Rainbow Dash Pinkie Pie Applejack Fluttershy Rarity Supporting Spike Princess Celestia Princess Luna Princess Cadance Shining Armor Discord Starlight Glimmer Trixie Zecora Antagonists Queen Chrysalis Lord Tirek Cozy Glow Minor Derpy Hooves Background Six Cheese Sandwich Quibble Pants The Wonderbolts Aunt Holiday and Auntie Lofty Equestria Girls Sunset Shimmer Seasons & episodes Season 1 (2010–2011) "Friendship Is Magic" "The Ticket Master" "Applebuck Season" "Griffon the Brush Off" "Boast Busters" "Dragonshy" "Look Before You Sleep" "Bridle Gossip" "Swarm of the Century" "Winter Wrap Up" "Call of the Cutie" "Fall Weather Friends" "Suited for Success" "Feeling Pinkie Keen" "Sonic Rainboom" "Stare Master" "The Show Stoppers" "A Dog and Pony Show" "Green Isn't Your Color" "Over a Barrel" "A Bird in the Hoof" "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" "Owl's Well That Ends Well" "Party of One" "The Best Night Ever" Season 2 (2011–2012) "The Return of Harmony" "Lesson Zero" "Luna Eclipsed" "Sisterhooves Social" "The Cutie Pox" "May the Best Pet Win!" "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" "Sweet and Elite" "Secret of My Excess" "Hearth's Warming Eve" "Family Appreciation Day" "Baby Cakes" "The Last Roundup" "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" "Read It and Weep" "Hearts and Hooves Day" "A Friend in Deed" "Putting Your Hoof Down" "It's About Time" "Dragon Quest" "Hurricane Fluttershy" "Ponyville Confidential" "MMMystery on the Friendship Express" "A Canterlot Wedding" Season 3 (2012–2013) "The Crystal Empire" "Too Many Pinkie Pies" "One Bad Apple" "Magic Duel" "Sleepless in Ponyville" "Wonderbolts Academy" "Apple Family Reunion" "Spike at Your Service" "Keep Calm and Flutter On" "Just for Sidekicks" "Games Ponies Play" "Magical Mystery Cure" Season 4 (2013–2014) "Princess Twilight Sparkle" "Castle Mane-ia" "Daring Don't" "Flight to the Finish" "Power Ponies" "Bats!" "Rarity Takes Manehattan" "Pinkie Apple Pie" "Rainbow Falls" "Three's a Crowd" "Pinkie Pride" "Simple Ways" "Filli Vanilli" "Twilight Time" "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies" "Somepony to Watch Over Me" "Maud Pie" "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils" "Leap of Faith" "Testing Testing 1, 2, 3" "Trade Ya!" "Inspiration Manifestation" "Equestria Games" "Twilight's Kingdom" Season 5 (2015) "The Cutie Map" "Castle Sweet Castle" "Tanks for the Memories" "Slice of Life" "Amending Fences" "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" "Made in Manehattan" "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" "The Hooffields and McColts" "The Cutie Re-Mark" Season 6 (2016) "A Hearth's Warming Tail" "The Times They Are a Changeling" Season 7 (2017) "The Perfect Pear" Season 8 (2018) "Grannies Gone Wild" Season 9 (2019) "The Last Crusade" Series finale Media Films & specials My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever (2018) My Little Pony: Rainbow Roadtrip (2019) Music Theme song "This Day Aria" Movie Soundtrack "Rainbow" "Off to See the World" Games My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle, Teacher for a Day Gameloft video game Collectible card game Other media Home video releases IDW comics Issues My Little Pony/Transformers Brony fandom Fan works (list) 15.ai Voiceverse NFT plagiarism scandal A Brony Tale Bronies (documentary) Derpibooru Equestria Daily Fimfiction Fallout: Equestria Friendship Is Witchcraft Legends of Equestria Love & Ponystep Ponysona PONY.MOV Them's Fightin' Herds Fandom people 15 hotdiggedydemon Jenny Nicholson Odyssey Eurobeat Sethisto The Living Tombstone Vylet Pony Fan culture Analysis Brony music Bronyspeak Charity Criticism Fan art Clop Ponysona Fan fiction Military bronies /mlp/ Online communities My Little Pony conventions BABSCon BronyCAN BronyCon Czequestria Everfree Northwest GalaCon Ponyville Ciderfest RuBronyCon TrotCon UK PonyCon Vanhoover Pony Expo v t e

A mysterious pony buys the Alicorn Amulet, one of the most powerful artifacts. In the meantime, [Twilight](/source/Twilight_Sparkle) practices her magic at [Fluttershy](/source/Fluttershy)'s cottage for [Princess Celestia](/source/Princess_Celestia)'s visit with delegates from Saddle Arabia. She is interrupted by [Rainbow Dash](/source/Rainbow_Dash), who tells her that there is an emergency. Twilight rushes to the town, where the buyer of the amulet is revealed: [Trixie](/source/The_Great_and_Powerful_Trixie). Trixie returns to Ponyville seek revenge from Twilight after her last visit. The powerful amulet is stronger than Twilight, and Trixie banishes her from Ponyville and seals the town with a glass dome. Stuck outside of Ponyville, Twilight goes to the [Everfree Forest](/source/Equestria#Everfree_Forest) to see [Zecora](/source/Zecora). Zecora offers to help her beat Trixie.

While Trixie takes over Ponyville, forcing everypony to be her slave, Twilight’s friends discover that the amulet also corrupts its user and only the user can remove it, and they send Fluttershy to tell Twilight. After hearing this, Twilight asks for a re-match. She secretly arranges with Zecora and her friends to perform simple illusions disguised as more powerful magic with a fake charm, making Trixie take off the amulet willingly to try the charm. This breaks the spell, and the amulet is secured by Zecora in a locked box. Now back to normal, Trixie realizes her mistake and apologises for her behavior after watching Twilight's magic show for Saddle Arabian delegades.

## Background

In October 2012, head writer [Meghan McCarthy](/source/Meghan_McCarthy) stated a fan favourite villain would return "in a very, very awesome way", who was later revealed to be Trixie, the antagonist of "[Boast Busters](/source/My_Little_Pony%3A_Friendship_Is_Magic_season_1#ep6)".[1][2][3] Due to this, the episode was one of the most anticipated [season three](/source/My_Little_Pony%3A_Friendship_Is_Magic_season_3) episodes since the premiere, "[The Crystal Empire](/source/The_Crystal_Empire)".[3]

## Reception

Daniel Alvarez of *Unleash the Fanboy* gave the episode five out five stars, calling it a "great episode all around" and "one of the best [*Friendship Is Magic* episodes] yet".[3] He praised the characters, particularly Trixie and Zecora, and Twilight's usage of the "magic of friendship", which he said would be considered "cheesy" in any other television series.[3] Writing for *Freakin' Awesome Network*, Raymond Gallant gave it nine and a half stars out of ten, and found it more energetic, amusing, and exciting than "The Crystal Empire". Whereas he commended her development, he deemed Trixie's reformation out of place. Other things he lauded included Zecora, the expansion of the series' world, and references to previous episodes and fandom.[4]

In her analysis of the episode in a collection of critical analysis essays on *Friendship Is Magic*, author Jen A. Blue examined the episode's relationship to [Joseph Campbell](/source/Joseph_Campbell)'s [monomyth](/source/Monomyth) and traditional narrative structures. She observed that the episode initially follows elements of the hero's journey framework found in works such as *[Star Wars](/source/Star_Wars)*, but ultimately focuses on Trixie's character development rather than Twilight's journey. Blue commented that Trixie defeats Twilight through stage magic rather than spell-casting, and described the episode as "a leading contender for strongest episode of the third season."[5]

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Busis_1-0)** Busis, Hillary (October 18, 2012). ["'My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic': Season 3 scoop & exclusive pics"](https://ew.com/article/2012/10/18/my-little-pony-season-3-premiere). *[Entertainment Weekly](/source/Entertainment_Weekly)*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20210628033040/https://ew.com/article/2012/10/18/my-little-pony-season-3-premiere/) from the original on June 28, 2021. Retrieved September 11, 2021.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Busis2_2-0)** Busis, Hillary (November 30, 2012). ["'My Little Pony': Trixie's triumphant return"](https://ew.com/article/2012/11/30/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-trixie). *[Entertainment Weekly](/source/Entertainment_Weekly)*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20210728101223/https://ew.com/article/2012/11/30/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-trixie/) from the original on July 28, 2021. Retrieved September 11, 2021.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Alvarez_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Alvarez_3-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Alvarez_3-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-Alvarez_3-3) Alvarez, Daniel (December 1, 2012). ["My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic 'Magic Duel' Review"](http://www.unleashthefanboy.com/news/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-magic-duel-review/35835). *Unleash The Fanboy*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20210728090935/http://www.unleashthefanboy.com/news/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-magic-duel-review/35835) from the original on July 28, 2021. Retrieved September 11, 2021.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Gallant_4-0)** Gallant, Raymon (December 3, 2012). ["My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season 3, Episode 5 Review – Freakin' Awesome Network"](http://www.freakinawesomenetwork.net/2012/12/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-season-3-episode-5-review). *Freakin' Awesome Network*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20210911052349/http://www.freakinawesomenetwork.net/2012/12/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-season-3-episode-5-review/) from the original on September 11, 2021. Retrieved September 11, 2021.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Blue-S3_5-0)** Blue, Jen A. (December 28, 2021). *My Little Po-Mo: Unauthorized Critical Essays on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Season Three and Derivative Works*. pp. 39–41.

## External links

- ["Magic Duel"](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2477184/) at [IMDb](/source/IMDb_(identifier))

v t e My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episodes Seasons 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Season 3 "The Crystal Empire" "Too Many Pinkie Pies" "One Bad Apple" "Magic Duel" "Sleepless in Ponyville" "Wonderbolts Academy" "Apple Family Reunion" "Spike at Your Service" "Keep Calm and Flutter On" "Just for Sidekicks" "Games Ponies Play" "Magical Mystery Cure"

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Magic Duel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Duel) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Duel?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.