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This review was a lot bigger than I expected. I wanted to do something slightly special since this episode is kind of important (Arguably the most important besides the opening two parters in lore this season.). Though I also didn't want to do anything overly complicated. So I figured, "eh, I'll just write down my thoughts on each Cutie Mark story as is in a casual manner." Probably with some rewording for succinctness I could've fit this into two parts over three (or four, if you count Odds and Ends). 
> Alright, brain disorderly, 
*Cough:
> first four stories are labled "cutie mark story" but Pinkie Pie's is labeled "Pinkie Pie's story".
> Rainbow Dash is just Rainbow Dash in Rainbow text
> Inconsistent capitalization of my lists
> Sonic Rainbooms as a weapon
> Spike's Previous Zip Lining Experience
Along with some grammatical errors like this. 
Yeah, I've been scatterbrained. Though a lot of my reviews are trainwrecks a bit this one feels more glaring for whatever reason. I am often in a bit of a rush to do it before being distracted, I will note.  Maybe I should finally take the chatgpt pill for copy editing? (Or could I use a local LLM? Will see what I can run on weaker hardware). Anyways, I still like this format and will be trying it again if the opportunity arises, just with a bit more quality control hopefully. 

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> Spike told her that ziplining is awesome, and I could definitely see Canterlot having ziplining.
Perhaps overthinking this my point on that, it is a mountain city after all. 

>  explaining Twilight’s sometimes quite extreme loyalty and devotion to Celestia
Heck, if it had been just a flashback devoted to that it probably would still be number 2 this season for lore importance!

> I really can’t even guess as to the function of the rock farm. I’ll have to look up theories after because I’ve never really thought about what exactly the rock farm does or produces before.
As I've stated earlier, I've heard mainly, or I guess I should say, seen in fanfics, either some special earth pony function or just mining of sorts (or just a strange thing that nopony outside of the Pie family/maybe Earth Ponies have any understanding of). But, I've only read fics haphazardly since 2014 and haven't kept up with anything new on that front. 

> Fate linking these six ponies together is an idea which perhaps takes some of the wind out of the sails of them befriending 


> provided we don’t assume that these six becoming the Elements of Harmony was also predestined, 
> I prefer to think that this sort of thing happens for a lot of ponies, fateful friendships – in this case it just so happened to be extra significant). 
Interesting, I've always sort of thought of it as predestined to some extent but never gave it much thought. As in, I took it for granted. I guess because of episodes like this, and certainly fanfiction. I can understand this view though and it is...
> We were meant to do this
> We did this!
Does have a different feeling. Choice and agency. Is my friendship genuine? Lots of food for thought, lol.    

>  I’m going to give it a 9.2 – in my mind it’s comparable to the pilot, coming close to that great group dynamic we got to see there but not quite reaching the same level, with a couple of rough patches in terms of how you interpret this episode compared to the pilot too.
Storywise, it is certainly a 9/10 for sure! My 7.9 is just based on enjoyment levels.