Misty is somehow finally able to actually bring Sparky to Opaline's castle, but remains indecisive up to the last steps. Once she eventually decides to bring Sparky back home, Opaline arrives and is delighted to see the baby dragon. Opaline then suspends Sparky in a magic bubble hanging just outside the castle and intends to simply let him fall once his dragon fire has been fully drained into the Dragon Stone. Despite being promised a cutie mark, Misty understands Sparky doesn't deserve such a fate, and decides to bring Sunny and her friends to free him. Meanwhile, those ponies try to find the missing Sparky, having learned their lessons from last time, though with even the magic lullaby failing to locate him, they grow increasingly worried. When they eventually run into Misty, she immediately tells them she knows where Sparky was taken, and while she's still reluctant to reveal the full truth of her involvement, they are willing to trust her and ride the Marestream to follow Misty's directions straight to Opaline's castle. As soon as they're inside the castle, Opaline catches them by surprise, trapping the other ponies in a magic-nullifying bubble, and once they learn the full truth of what Misty had really been up to the whole time, they are upset at being betrayed by someone they thought was their friend. Misty has some time to reflect on the consequences of her actions, and after multiple apologies to the main ponies, she concludes she would much rather live without a cutie mark than to serve the evil alicorn, and uses one of the magical torches to burst the magic bubble and free them. This selfless act turns out to be enough for Misty to suddenly earn her cutie mark. Now free and all on the same side, Misty plans a trap for Opaline. While Misty distracts Opaline by pretending to have been captured by Izzy and Pipp, Hitch and Zipp take advantage of the diversion to free Sparky, and once Opaline arrives, Sunny uses her alicorn form to take a stand against the evil fire alicorn. The ponies struggle at first with Sunny being trapped under some rubble and Pipp and Izzy getting trapped inside another magic bubble, but Zipp and Hitch return with Sparky just in time to help free them. Sunny and Opaline continue their epic alicorn magic battle, and with all of Sunny's friends (including Misty) encouraging her, their combined cutie mark magic is enough to overpower Opaline and trap her within a magic bubble. With Opaline stopped for now, Sunny and her friends return home, with Misty staying behind. It doesn't take long for Opaline to free herself and believing that Misty is still on her side demands her to clean up the mess inside the castle. Unknown to Opaline, Misty is now able to use unicorn magic thanks to her new cutie mark, allowing her to quickly clean everything, though she makes an effort to hide her magic and her cutie mark from Opaline. Back at the Brighthouse, the Main 5 ponies are glad to see Sparky will make a full recovery after some rest, and they reflect on their first battle against the evil Opaline. Misty then arrives and promises to them, her true friends, that she will do everything she can to help them stop Opaline. Meanwhile, Opaline has managed to absorb some of Sparky's dragon fire to restore some of her power, but she now speculates that with one baby dragon being around, the rest of the dragons are sure to soon awaken, which would allow her to obtain far more power than she could have previously hoped for.
Well, this is the one we've all been waiting to see. Sunny and her friends finally learn about the existence of Opaline Arcana, as well as realize the full truth of Misty's role in all of this. While the battle didn't end with a true defeat for Opaline, at least they were able to return home with Sparky soon to be just fine. We all knew Misty's ultimate fate was going to be to turn against Opaline and join Sunny and the others. However, what I find especially interesting from all of this is that Opaline is apparently not aware that Misty now actually has a cutie mark and can use unicorn magic, nor does she even seem to notice Misty's true allegiance has now switched to Sunny and her friends. This means that where Misty used to spy on her friends to help Opaline, now she will apparently be spying on Opaline to help her friends, a role reversal which is sure to make for a very interesting series of circumstances in the side content that is to follow (such as the upcoming episodes of Tell Your Tale). This episode saw the very first time Sunny and her friends had a battle against a real magical foe, and it was so worth the wait. I am really looking forward to see where the main storyline will progress from here. Overall, easily the best episode of this season, and perhaps even the best episode of all to date.