/pone/ - World of Equestria

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 >>/10797/
> Before I get into Swarm of the Century, I want to quickly go and rank the episodes I’ve already watched:
> So there it is, albeit a bit influenced by hindsight. I’m ranking episodes based on a criteria primarily of personal enjoyment, including guilty pleasure without deducting points for the ‘guilt’, and on comfiness factor. 
You have joined the darkside and starting rating things!


Don't worry if these numbers bonce around a bit. It is hard to quantify. I was always split between trying to rate "objective" quality versus personal enjoyment and now I lean much more towards the later myself. I say just roll with what you feel. That is osrt of what I am doing now even if sometimes other factors still come into play.

 >>/10799/
> The only other point I have against the episode is that it borders on being a reference to tribbles – it’s not QUITE there, 
I have heard conflicting information on how much they were influenced by tribbles. I think, IF, and that is a big if, I recall correctly, M.A Larson didn't conceive of parasprites being a tribbles reference but Lauren Faust did. 


> I’d say the maximum is 9.9. With those two minor points against it, I’d say I deduct two decimals… So something like 9.7? It’s easily my favourite so far, I think it holds up very well indeed. And that seems to have been reflected with the length of my review - 3 posts! I had a lot more to say about it, it seems!
And honestly fair, I think it might be my second favorite so far, but I am still debating. It certainly was top on funny factor.  

 >>/10801/
> Well worth a read/reread. After a certain point I stopped, but all the early chapters are fantastic.
This is me with a lot of fics!

> I tried, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.
Slightly different life choices and I either would've been there or nearly so. 

> Canterlot Library has a restricted section that Celestia has access to, so there is certainly some degree of classification or even censorship with Celestia's authority, but the rationale behind it (maybe preventing Cozy-Glow types) and the technicalities of how it's enforced aren't clear. 
Yeah, post early seasons, a "Celestia trying to maintain a Utopia/pain of her sister" doesn't cover all cases well. I have debated it myself. Preventing knowledge to prevent the seeking of power almost doesn't fit either but is better. I wonder if after all these threats were gone and defeated she didn't bother maintaining there memory among the wider populous from a more... how do I say, she thought they didn't need to be remembered anymore and early Equestria history is unstable and she let it slide while keeping the info closed to her chest? Still doesn't fully feel "correct" in my mind.    

 >>/10800/
> But I like to think moreso that it's her accepting that some magic doesn't fit the model she's familiar with applying to the understanding of magic in the world, rather than just accepting that some things are unknowable.
I agree in Zecora's case for sure. 

> Maybe she could have tried that with the dragon!
YES!

> it's almost impossible for a show working off a freelance-writer model to maintain those subtleties effectively
I think fandom expectations and memes could also be "harmful" in different ways but not to the level of simple flanderization. At least I'd argue that right now. Later down the road for all I know I might come to a different conclusion. As I have stated, Season 5 to 7 is where my memories are the weakest of the show in details. 

> when exposed to them I usually just shut down rather than get worked up.
Opposite myself, though I imagine such a thing ranges from person to person. 

>  And for the record I think ponies would necessarily have very similar psychologies to humans given the way we see them behave in the show. It kind of makes more sense of EQG even, where the two worlds are linked and mirror eachother.
Agreed--though what does this say about dragons?

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And now, there it was, finally Swarm of the Century! Happened a little later than I thought. I still expect to have Winter Wrap Up sooner than later.

 >>/10803/
> Should you feel bad about enjoying a story with flaws or plot holes? No. It means that you enjoy the good parts of it and didn't care so much about the bad parts. Just accept that some people have different views on how much the good/bad/other parts of a story define it.
Very good point. 

 >>/10802/
> (You no longer have that file.)
Actually I do, but it was cropped to the point of being unsuitable for use of a review. Probably an old YT rip that was trying to get around the copyright ID system. 

> That electronic music feels meh.
Fair, it is sort, but I still love it myself. 

 >>/10806/
> These are cool either way, but out of curiousity, did you take these pictures? They're very well shot if so!
Seconded. 

> 
Who knows, but I feel like it's more like a 7.5 at least. Even though I only watched it a few months ago, it's already better than I remember it!
No shame in that!

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 >>/10840/
> This episode really help set Pinkie Pie at her best
Seeing it now, it really is an alarming decline later on, both in terms of how quickly the nuances of her character were lost, and in terms of how drastically she changed. Pinkie was never my focus originally, so I don't think I was paying attention to it, but I think I understand a bit more of the pain of the Pinkie fans now. Fun fact, another of my several introductions to the fandom, Tauberpa, had Pinkie as his favourite pony, and I believe his friend Xanauzumaki's favourite was Fluttershy. I got a new appreciation for the both of them after getting into the show back then.
 >>/10841/
> What sort of spell does Twilight Sparkle have in her "25" magic tricks that is causing monsters to change there desire and possibly digestive systems?
I'd say transmogrification. That detail, at least to me solidifies my belief in the "spells as categories" theory I posited prior.
> what short of spells she can cast on the fly versus what sort of things she needs to read from a book before she casts it? 
In Ticket Master she teleports without meaning to, and in Winter Wrap Up she messes up the "come to life" spell, so I'd say those are examples where she tries to cast the spell from memory and it doesn't go so well. 
In addition to spells being categories of magic, I'd suggest that a good analogy for how Unicorn magic seems to work is music. You can remember particular pieces easily enough, and perform variations on them when you know them through-and-through (thus being able to use one spell in hundreds of different applications, as per my theory), but more complex pieces are advisable to perform with sheet music, i.e books with magic instructions. You might remember parts of the process, as Twilight did with the come-to-life spell, but if it starts going wrong, you'll want to have instructions handy.
> Does Rarity have a secret affinity for animals!? 
She does the same thing with the Diamond Dogs iirc - I think it's rather that she has an untapped potential of commanding people, that is to say, she rarely does it unless it intersects with her interest in fashion, but when she does people fall right in line.
> Funny enough, by creating chaos in Fillydelphia she still technically saved everypony the trouble from the damage caused from the town, even if they did cause havoc in Fillydelphia.
You know, that didn't occur to me. I know that's what happened in FiW, but as a result I assumed that was a joke from that show - I just thought in this they roll the Parasprites into the Everfree and the infestation in Fillydelphia was a separate, unrelated incident. Do we actually know for sure that those Parasprites made it to Fillydelphia? I think you're probably correct that it was implied, I'm just curious as to whether something actually confirms it.

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 >>/10842/
> Honestly kind of like the idea... feels like a way to soft canonize the cartoon gags in a way that fits. If I am making sense.
That's the way I like to think of it. Plus it explains why she can't use them when they'd be really, really useful, like in Discord's maze. Sure, one could argue that they're just artistic representation of her randomness, or that she's simply totally unaware of her powers, but both of those don't really fit with the episode where she has those sixth-senses to me. And the fact that in that episode, unlike Twilight Pinkie doesn't even seem interested in discovering anything about her own mysterious abilities suggests to me that on some level, possibly subconscious, she's partially aware that knowing too much about her powers will stop them working. It could also go some way to explaining the Earth Pony interest in things like tradition and keeping magic away - Unicorn magic works essentially scientifically by comparison, and could interfere with Earth pony powers or else just make Earth ponies think more logically about their superstitions thus killing off some of their abilities, and having traditions, a set of practices you don't question, is a way for generational memory to practice Earth Pony magic where a singular Earth Pony could not, since their magic seems to shy away from being known or actively practiced. In this sense too, I like to think of Applejack and her family as actually being unwitting powerful magic practitioners, but they simply unknowingly channel their powers through their traditions. This could also go some way to explaining elements of the Everfree, being the corrupted side effects of superstitions or of incorrectly-followed traditions. 
I could even go further, saying that since they tap into the land and the universal principle of this plane is harmony and harmony is expressed in living creatures through friendship and we see both tight-knit Earth Pony communities fostering friendships, like Ponyville, and Pinkie Pie's particular obsession with friendship and everything associated with it, that perhaps by being so closely connected to the land, Earth Pony magic is perhaps being able to use, channel or apply some of that magic of harmony that our Mane 6 come through the course of the show to wield more directly. Then that can branch off into me asserting that unicorn magic derives from chaos, and that goes down a whole rabbithole, but I won't go too nuts with speculation and I'll just wait to see if the show bears out my theory or doesn't. Even if it does I regard the more extreme elements of my theories as just being interpretations or alternate universes, I do also like to have a separate conception of the show where it's purely what it appears to be, though that becomes more complicated once fan theories start to get incorporated into the show. 
 >>/10843/
>  I was always split between trying to rate "objective" quality versus personal enjoyment and now I lean much more towards the later myself.
The thing is, in life generally I don't tend to go all that much for objective quality in terms of things I consume. I'm aware of high art, I mentioned prior being a fan of Wagner's Ring Cycle and I grew up on books like Gulliver's Travels and The Betrothed Lovers, but generally the stuff I really, really love is not considered all that great, or at least mixed by others. My favourite director, for instance, is Ralph Bakshi, whose films range from "this is alright I guess" to "this is the worst trash ever made" in public opinion on his work, one of my favourite games is YIIK - I go out and find stuff that I LIKE, at the end of the day, not stuff that's good. Most people are like that if they're honest with themselves, life is short and it's better to actually enjoy yourself than spend all day reading The Iliad and such (not that such is necessarily unenjoyable, but you get what I mean, people don't usually consume something just because it's good)

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 >>/10843/
> she thought they didn't need to be remembered anymore and early Equestria history is unstable and she let it slide while keeping the info closed to her chest? Still doesn't fully feel "correct" in my mind. 
I'm also thinking of the mirror Sunset ends up using for bad purposes, and the seemingly everpresent risk of waking Sombra/the Changelings/Discord just by being around them. However, I think the explanation I favour most, even if we ignore the later seasons, is that she wants her subjects to live lives unafraid of existential threats like these. The friendship and harmony of the ponies is necessary to keep the windigos at bay, and to provide the environment necessary to train her successor in. Something I've been thinking about reading stuff about the Twilight transformation controversy is M.A Larson saying something to the effect of feeling it was always going to happen. And I have to say, so far in season 1 there is a conspicuous absence of actually using the Elements of Harmony, despite being introduced in the pilot. It DOES seem to suggest that this is essentially the calm before the storm, where Celestia really needs Twilight to settle into this community and solidify the relationships with her friends in order to have this whole Elements and successor plan work out. That is to say, it's comfy not just because that's how the show was made, it's also that way because Celestia needs it to be that way in order for Twilight to develop into who she needs to be. We later learn that fate has seemingly tied them all together, with the sonic rainboom, but whether Celestia knows that or whether had, say, Sunset been the student who ended up stopping Nightmare Moon there would have simply been a totally different set of friends, who's to say. Perhaps Sunset was affected by the rainboom too, if we take the fate/destiny angle to be true, specifically in terms of Celestia being aware of that destiny. 
> Agreed--though what does this say about dragons?
I think you could juuuuust about see them having doglike mentalities. Really it makes me think more what the other creatures would be. Griffons are somewhat close to cats, perhaps. Just gets all a bit mind-bendy really.

I'll probably get onto the next episode sometime next week. It depends on how much I write for it - I had so much I wanted to say about the last two, that it was really quite an effort to get it all down.

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 >>/10860/
> both in terms of how quickly the nuances of her character were lost, and in terms of how drastically she changed. 

I remembering thinking that Pinkie Pie was wirtten  badly more often on a episode by episode basis but I didn't feel that she was totally destroyed. Albeit, my memory, especially of the mid seasons, is less (as I have noted) and I could very well see myself a similar case to yours.

> I'd suggest that a good analogy for how Unicorn magic seems to work is music. 

I have heard this before but haven't thought about it in awhile, yes, that is a good analogy!

> Do we actually know for sure that those Parasprites made it to Fillydelphia? I think you're probably correct that it was implied, I'm just curious as to whether something actually confirms it.

That is how I have always took it, and have seen it at least alluded to by others. Though, this makes me want to go check around and see, just in case, if I can find anything to disprove it. 

 >>/10863/
> Plus it explains why she can't use them when they'd be really, really useful, like in Discord's maze. 

My thoughts exactly!

> but both of those don't really fit with the episode where she has those sixth-senses to me.

I will refer to this when we get to there. 

> I could even go further, saying that since they tap into the land and the universal principle of this plane is harmony and harmony is expressed in living creatures through friendship and we see both tight-knit Earth Pony communities fostering friendships, 

> that can branch off into me asserting that unicorn magic derives from chaos, 

Weirdly, I know of a moment, if I remember right, that would put unicorn magic sort of the way you describe earth Pony magic here. I still think it is an interesting idea of unicorn magic being chaos (transforming things being technically a "corruption" of sorts on the universe). My personal conception is... less detailed, harmonic magic and dark magic (but I have liked the idea of the dark magic being some sort of alicorn mgaic... I am about to go nuts on speculation too, I'll cover some of this later). 

> The thing is, in life generally I don't tend to go all that much for objective quality in terms of things I consume.  

> I go out and find stuff that I LIKE, at the end of the day, not stuff that's good. Most people are like that if they're honest with themselves, life is short and it's better to actually enjoy yourself than spend all day reading The Iliad and such 

The funny thing is, I might have an almost anti-intellectual attitude towards "higher art" in personal disposition (or more like, I disagree what qualities should be admired in art).

What I mean in regards to an episode,I sometimes get bogged down if there are some traits that should make me rate something lower even if I personally was okay/enjoyed it. I think I am increasingly in the enjoyed it camp. For example, I never cared about the Mysterious Mare Do Well's treatment of Rainbow Dash I still liked the episode even if still agree if it is off. I would get hung up if something like that on my arbitrary score calculations (this can occur in the other direction, me not liking something that I see as a objective positive). 

 >>/10864/ 
> is that she wants her subjects to live lives unafraid of existential threats like these.

That and perhaps keeping a disparity of information from general knowledge (as you suggest), does feel like the most logical answer. Even if some parts to me feel... hard to explain for whatever reason or another.

> I'll probably get onto the next episode sometime next week. It depends on how much I write for it - I had so much I wanted to say about the last two, that it was really quite an effort to get it all down.

Take all the time you want and make it as long as you want. I'll hopefully have Winter Wrap UP before that point. /)

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Might be the best episode of the season. I am saying that right now t start. 

This episode I always saw mentioned as a highlight by others in the early days (and still) but it was one I merely thought was good. I don't remember disliking it but there were other episodes in Season 1 that I was drawn to more. Sometimes watching something again with fresh eyes can change things and I think this happened here. Winter Wrap Up, the song, goodness, that ending. I've seen it before, why did it stick out to me so much more this time?! Twilight stole the show there!

The storyline was a cute and comfy conflict (though weirdly for me, not peek comfy, but I digress). If you feel like Twilight was shoehorned in to much but the early attempt to conform to an educational show with a message this was not one of them. All of the rest of the Mane 5 were highlighted well enough and each had there moment. My favorite of those probably being... Rarity's. I enjoyed the comedy Twilight's tragedy of a bird nest and the payoff of the joke that she only did that bird nest. Still, Twilight was cute on the ice skates, so Pinkie comes in a close second. I know Rainbow Dash's little moment was sort but she was still highlighted in leading the weather team. 

This episode is also one of the ones that I think really made the world feel alive in two ways:
1): All the characters, going about and doing things, showed Ponyville out and about collaborating on a task. A bit of extra effort in animation and secondary moments make this stand out.

2): The tradition of changing the weather, so manually and in some ways, surreal, is something that could've had a million jokes cracked at it's expense at the ridiculousness of it, and played it with complete sincerity. Now, I know that they do make jokes poking fun of the world plenty of times, but they don't (usually) treat it as stupid and here they played it with utmost seriousness that Twilight had her goal to help in this little project. Maybe I am reading too much into this, but, had the show been more self aware (and perhaps come out a couple of years later) this might not have been so and the world set out here would've suffered for it. This is one of the things that makes the show feel alive and complete. The world has its own set of rules and logic that is trying to follow. 


Overall, may rating for this is a 9/10. I am not sure it'll turn out to be my fav of the season, but it fully deserves my first higher than 8 rating.

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 >>/10913/ 
Animation/whatever moments:
Several things that stuck out. I don't have time through them all but will highlight these too clips here. Twilight Sparkle having this brief seen of running down the hill. I found it cool. It is very tiny yet a fair bit of extra effort for a little two second shot that is completely unnecessarily. At least for the stereotype of caliber of show that this was supposed to be.  

Rainbow Dash camera effect or whatever you call it here. Again, cool little detail. I am not sure the level of effort this takes but this is what I mean by little extras. This might be relevant to a scene that did get some fandom discussion in Season 2 as well.  I can show it now or save it for when we get there.

Golden Oaks Bees are back.
Seriously, need to keep track of this little beehive and see how often it was animated. Considering how easy an asset like that is to reuse I imagine a lot. 

"You're not mommy..
Twilight Sparkle awoke Spike...

That is what I am here for, sister.
...and what Spike said after Twilight   "thanked" him for his attempt at comforting her. This Episode is some of the strongest evidence for a more brotherly/sisterly dynamic between Spike and Twilight. Albeit I take sister to be more in a general sarcastic sense rather than him referring to familial relations specifically.

Mommy
Who was the 'Mommy' Spike was referring too? Even in full canon, that is unclear, and here... well, the only thing I recall is that Faust said that he saw Celestia as something of a mother to Spike, but I don't recall much of any context in the season for it. 


Male population of Ponyville
...exists. I remember this being a point of discussion back when many would headcanon/theorize that Ponyville/Equestria being predominately and overly female (a gender imbalance still kind of exists though) . I like the idea that most of the stallions are just out working planting crops.  
 

Society and Culture
...as I already rambled about, this established a lot. I can try to twist my head around all day on bunch of factors on this. I like a lot of little facts, like, uncorns possibly being more dismissive/less ceremony with the changing of seasons (at least from Spike's attitude on magic being used to clean the show). It also means the reverence and tradition that we might see ascribed to Equestria is really rural Earth Pony with a dash of pegasi culture. Unicorns in Canterlot are the least connected with the running of the weather.  

Twilight in this was so cute!
I liked the context of her really wanting to play a part and her innocence, excitement and fears during this. Her getting up too early for even farm ponies was also funny.

I think I'll end it here, I am tired, but I am happy to have finally gotten this review out! Replies later! /)

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 >>/10869/
> but I have liked the idea of the dark magic being some sort of alicorn mgaic
In terms of Alicorn and dark magic being linked, I generally have come to see that as being Unicorn magic specifically, because most of the magic we see Alicorns using is unicorn magic - but perhaps since we see both light beams and the Sombra-esque dark magic being used by Alicorns, perhaps it's that they're tapping into the elements of harmony and disharmony. I guess I can't say for sure that the elements of harmony are diametrically opposed to dark magic, but it seems as though the show portrays it that way. Interestingly, neither Discord nor Tirek seem to tap into the same dark magic, animation-wise, that both Sombra and Twilight show the ability to use. Tirek fundamentally uses the powers of others, and Discord actually seems to fundamentally use the same magic as Pinkie - he doesn't really use his with a glow like unicorns or with the same effects Sombra's magic has, so I'd actually posit that Discord is a powerful user of the harmony magic the Earth ponies are able to tap into, and that it's simply his chaotic nature that allows him to use it so effectively, NOT that he actually uses any kind of 'chaos magic' directly. If the magic of the world runs along a different axis of harmony compared to material objects, I could see it being fairly 'random' to common sense to know in what manner things are connected. In this sense, the two 'paths' are either going with that nonsensical-seeming flow, as Pinkie and Discord do, or using a power from within to force and bend magic into the shape you need it to be. I'd then suggest that unicorn magic sits in a balance, where you have to allow your own inner power to work with the magic of the world to a certain extent, so that you don't go into the extreme where dark magic lies, where it's fundamentally perverting and twisting reality into doing what you want such that it violates it's harmony. As with all these things it needs more thinking on my part, but the thing which does seem quite clear to me from thinking about this is that, contrary to what you'd assume, the cosmological constants at work in this universe aren't especially directly present in the story. You'd assume that Celestia is the demigoddess of the 'good' axis and somebody like Tirek the 'bad', but as I went over, only Sombra out of the villains seems to directly tap into dark magic proper, and Celestia and Luna and the other Alicorns are ultimately just powerful ponies, with the real source of the opposing axis to dark magic being Harmony, which starts as disparate elements in the pilot and gradually grows in power along with the mane six throughout the course of the story. I don't even know if I'm characterising disharmony as relating to dark magic and the windigos correctly, necessarily. But I do find it interesting to hypothesise that all the events of the show are essentially the modern backdrop to a far older conflict between fluctuating forces of harmony and disharmony. 

Also another reason I link unicorn magic moreso to disharmony is EqG, where magic outside of it's proper place consistently causes evil results, but that's sort of the reason for my personal view - whether EqG is canon to how we interpret Equestria is a whole other question.

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 >>/10869/
> Even if some parts to me feel... hard to explain for whatever reason or another. 
With Celestia, eventually some of her decisions would come to be seen as less and less rational inevitably since she was originally written to be mysterious, leaving nothing there to stand up to scrutiny when contradictory or odd things come up later in the show. Frankly, and this suggestion will be harsh and obviously the show could never have done it, but for the sake of the story, Celestia needed to be killed off. Whether before, during or after Twilight ascends doesn't matter so much next to the fact that having her around for the entire rest of the show after that just snowballs into what really becomes the show's cluttering issue: simultaneously trying to move constantly forward, whilst never leaving a single thing behind. More and more new comes into the world of Equestria, but nothing ever dies to make way for it. It makes the change feel strangely unnatural - almost like how it'd be surreal to read Lord of The Rings but discover halfway through it's an alternate universe copy where Gandalf never dies and he's just Gandalf the Grey from the beginning to the end, Balrog or not. Really the story that was growing in these early seasons was too ambitious, in a certain sense - I don't think it could ever have grown to it's full potential due to the company that owns it and being a children's property. Because regardless of my specific point here or the outer trappings of the show, at it's core it is a Fantasy Epic, and you have to neuter an epic when it's for a children, sadly. 
In fairness to Hasbro, they did do something similar to what I'm suggesting with the 1986 Transformers movie, and it produced what is, for me, one of the greatest things ever. But sadly, the backlash to that "taught" Hasbro their "lesson", a lesson they ideally would never have learned.
 >>/10913/
> Might be the best episode of the season. 
Right on, brother. I think we're on the same page with this one.
> why did it stick out to me so much more this time?! 
How long after the pilot did this come out back in the day? Because I feel like Twilight's role in the story is very close to the one she has in the pilot, and so it complements that very well indeed.
> This is one of the things that makes the show feel alive and complete. The world has its own set of rules and logic that is trying to follow. 
I think MLP as a franchise succeeded in having a consistent throughline of a certain philosophy of Harmony which informs not just the lessons and worldbuilding, but the characters and direction of the show. I was questioning recently why I like EqG so much specifically as a PART of MLP when it's in many ways so disconnected, and I think perhaps it's that it draws from this exact same slightly vague notion of Harmony. Whatever it is, it's exemplified by Winter Wrap Up, both the episode and the tradition.

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 >>/10825/ 
 >>/10826/
 >>/10827/
 >>/10828/
>  As such, another neat difference between Pony and human society in this sense is that ponies aren’t really faced with necessity as much, and yet they choose to continue to live in a way that brings them in harmony with their countryside and with eachother. 

Feels like with this, one could argue, that, with their magic and control of the whether, ponies achieved relative abundance and stability and have partly resolved/better dealt with it than we humans here, but also... still not completely.
> In this sense, not only does Ponyville represent pony values as contrasted to human ones, but also pony values contrasted to Canterlot!

>  but it would be interesting to think of urban pony life as having degraded from the harmony that kept Equestria together in the past, and so from Celestia’s perspective, all this fun slice-of-life stuff is essential training for her protege to go through

I think there is a lot of support for this! Consider how detached Applejack's family was in Manhattan?  Heck, possiblily some stuff in the Equestria Games that really proves this point if I recall correctly. Considering how Ponyville was seen as exceptional with the harmony in the three races yet, we have seen other towns, like Rainbow Falls, that seemed pretty mixed (though a lot of towns are still Earth Pony. 

> Then we’re introduced to Rainbow Dash’s weather team. Twilight realising she doesn’t have wings takes on a different note on rewatch for sure, but what note that is exactly I don’t yet know how to say. I’m sure it’s also been noted by others before that Pegasi don’t exactly fit the “Earth pony way”.

Unicorn magic is unfair but Pegasi are essential for weather regulation?  

>  the whole social-environmental structure works much better with Celestia as effectively a deity. It also makes the world beyond Equestria much more mysterious and potentially scary, as it’s outside the protection of the world’s only known benevolent deities.

Never been Celestia as a deity (though casual evidence in earlier seasons you certainly can go with that route) but I consider her (and the other Princesses) as something that should be above simply being a really powerful mortal. Even if not a hint of the divine, there is going to be a reverence for her and fear outside of her realm.

> Uncontrolled weather in regions like the Everfree forest and beyond the borders of Equestria would also be an interesting thing to explore at this stage of canon – perhaps it’s much more extreme and violent.

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/182859/its-a-dangerous-business-going-out-your-door
A lot of early adventure fics do have this feel. 

> Then again, it looks a bit as though Spike looks at her horn and realises she’s using magic. Whether he’s noticing a glow or just putting the pieces together though, I don’t know.

He also is an active magic user, albeit, by that definition, so are some pegasi (later in the series I have better examples), if you wanted to go with magical auras existing in canon but only visible to magical users, that might work.

> ’s pretty soon after I first brought it up, but here it is, my first 10/10. I’m not even sure at this point whether I’ll come across another 10/10 as we watch through the show – I hope so, but I’ll be comparing it to this episode as a yardstick from here on.

I think that it is a perfect first 10/10. I very nearly and might rate it as such on rewatch, I tend to be very stingy with anything past 9 but that is how I personally see things.

 >>/10952/
> Right on, brother. I think we're on the same page with this one.

Yeah, /) I remembered respecting this epsiode but was surprised how much I loved this on rewatch. Especially the Winter Wrap Up song. Maybe it's just because I hadn't heard it in years but it felt like I really appreciate it now, when before it was one of the ones that, while respecting, I didn't really love it or anything. I am not the most musical liking but some of the song numbers I do enjoy and this has certainly become a contender for my top favorites.

> Celestia needed to be killed off. Whether before, during or after Twilight ascends doesn't matter so much next to the fact that having her around for the entire rest of the show after that just snowballs into what really becomes the show's cluttering issue: simultaneously trying to move constantly forward, whilst never leaving a single thing behind. More and more new comes into the world of Equestria, but nothing ever dies to make way for it. It makes the change feel strangely unnatural -

That is an interesting stance! I am not sure I agree on Celestia but do agree on the show being too cluttered in the latter seasons.  I think the show did a lot of botched half transitions, Dolores Umbridge was an aborted new audience surrogate. The old element barriers were supposed to be the focus of Season 8, but the school came, which itself was derailed by the the fact the show ended and needed to give a lot of focus to tying up loose ends. It never could give focus or do these varying elements properly. So, TDLR: I see where you are coming from.

Alright, I got to get for now, but I do have some more things I do want to point out on your megareveiw when I get the chance (tornadoes you say!? I have an interest in those too, and a story or two from personal experiences (though don't get too hyped, never saw one in person, just had them near enough for the siren to be going off and hear them)). Other than:
 >>/11120/
I am doing alright.

sorry that I've been absent for a while
I was going to do a post today but I got put on a surprise night shift at the last minute and that's been stressing me all day
I'm going to a con later this week, so I'll see whether I get something out before then, or when I get back
/)

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 >>/11169/
I say no rush, no worries, and do so after you are well rested and comfy.

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This is an Episode that is fresher in my memory than a lot of Season 1. I once was working on a fan fic with the CMC and certain moments have always been a subject of interest for me from it regardless (like even earlier in this thread!).

Still, it has been awhile since I've seen it and some things I did forgot. How did this viewing affect my opinion? Nothing negative. I think this Episode is still of a fair quality albeit hard to top the previous episodes. I liked the sequence of Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle all trying to help Apple Bloom in their own way. Apple Bloom's character is strong here. She feels like a real child character as opposed to an adult in a child's body with less anatomy and I think this feat is even more impressive when you consider that the adults in this show have that innocence to them to varying degrees.

My favorite of the helping sequences is Pinkie Pie's. The cupcake's song is a cute little tune. Though I found humor in them all. Next fav in order is: Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and then Applejack's. Applejack's had more substance to the humor than Twilight brief attempt to magic up cutie marks but I still have more fun at Twilight trying to begrudgingly alter the natural flow of nature!

This is one of the episode's that I see some say Twilight was shoehorned in but I disagree and I think her explaining the lesson from watching from afar was both slightly touching and stronger delivery than if the CMC had spelled it out (Season 2 style) or if there had been no friendship letter (most of show). As for the lessons content, bully dynamic, friends and peer pressure, I find my mind a little empty on what to say other than I enjoyed and think the story is fine (I could go into real world shortcomings and usefulness but eh, I am more in just watching my dump pony show mood).

7/10. I was thinking this would be a 6 but nope, it did cross just barely over to a 7.

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 >>/11187/ 
Or otherwise known as, "Odds and Ends."

Alright, already went into detail on this all the way back here: >>/8898/ but these two characters still dominated my mind. There whole existence was just as placeholders and were barely/never used again (Archer I know was used at least once or twice, but I don't know on Sun Gl3mmer--yes, bypassing our longstanding filter with this spelling). There is a certain level of undue haunted fascination with such a thing for me! There is just part of me that wants to make fan fiction/art/elaborate schizo posting.

PUTS ON TINFOIL HAT:
The obvious in universe explanation is that Sun Umbridge/Gl3mmer/GIimmer was replaced metaphysically by Sweetie Belle! Archer escaped this fate by being an Earth Pony, and Scootaloo, being meant to replace an earth pony is the reason why she doesn't have fully developed wings and can't fly well. 

Hehehe, yeah, enough craziness for now. Some of these concepts though could be fun. I will be referring to this pair of mostly discarded background ponies kidnapped or otherwise missing ponies in the future. 

As for anything else:
> Twilight brief attempt to magic up cutie marks but I still have more fun at Twilight trying to begrudgingly alter the natural flow of nature! 

Mean this unironically. Twilight Sparkle should be more than cable of putting a fake mark on a flank if that is all she was doing.

The adults laughing along/softly abetting Diamond Tiara's behavior at the party does feel slightl weird though. In this case, it was just background ponies laughing along a bit. Maybe I'll headcanon it to older teens. Mane 6 themselves seem more ignorant or not caring of the bullying, but never in a way (that I can recall?) being more then ignorance. Twilight Sparkle arguably did see some of it here (though might have only noticed when Sweetie and Scoots did stand up for Apple Bloom and thus would've had no reason to intervene) . The crowd changes at a drop of a hat when Scoootaloo and Sweetie Belle defend Apple Bloom, we see this in latter episodes where ponies often rush in seemingly immature ways and I've always liked the idea that was "herd mentality" of the race, rather than everypony being just jerks and it would make some sense. I guess I'll have to watch more episodes before I can decide how much of at fault anypony is here though.

"I wish I could be a scientist." Is interesting throwaway line, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle having swayed the crowd towards Apple Bloom and convincing them (however briefly for one episode)  being a blank flank is cool. Can a pony be unhappy with their Cutie Mark? ( I lean towards no) but in this overthinking mode it is something I can think about. I recall seeing this in some fanfics way back in the earlier days (2011, 2012) but I don't remember much of anything about them.

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So, the CMC origin episode – this is I think the first one I remember not being so keen on. I like the CMC in general, I think they make a valuable contribution to the show (especially since this franchise has historically been a bit confused as to precisely what age group to aim toward, and the CMC in this regard seem to me like a fairly elegant solution), so what’s the problem with this episode? From my memory of it, I think it’s that Apple Bloom is having to carry the episode essentially on her own, where I think she in particular seems to work better as part of the CMC group dynamic. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle’s focus episodes stick out more in my mind, where they’re solidly supporting their own episode. 

The opening shot is neat, establishing the theme visually by moving from cutie mark to cutie mark. A point of interest for me was when Cheerilee is explaining how she got her cutie mark, and she details what it symbolises. The two obvious theories are that it’s either her interpretation or the cutie mark grants some innate knowledge of it’s symbolism. I have to say I lean very heavily toward the latter, symbology plays such an important role in the magic of this universe and in pony society generally that I simply cannot imagine the symbolism of a cutie mark being a matter of mere interpretation. It’s too innate to who the ponies are, and the reassurance in life that they draw from it I can only imagine would be a whole lot less reassuring if one could be uncertain of what a cutie mark meant. It serves a fairly limited purpose socially if there can be no guarantee of it’s meaning. It also occurs to me that society would essentially depend on the presumption that what the pony in question says their cutie mark symbolises is correct, lending further credence, in my mind, to the innateness theory. It is a very nice thought, down this thinking lane, to imagine being a pony and applying for a job. Unlike in our world where there’s total uncertainty of how to determine someone’s talents and so the entire educational system and structure of entry-level jobs revolve around ways of divining exactly what someone’s talents are (and quite imprecisely at that), in Equestria the talents of a pony shine through them so brightly that it’s even got a physical manifestation. The emphasis on the uniqueness of cutie marks (even though in background animation we see several duplicates all the time, the hourglass cutie mark is particularly common leading to a theory I’ve read where ponies with that cutie mark are in fact time travellers) also suggests to me that the Equestrian economy must be remarkably un-standardised, perhaps borne out by the pre-industrial society that we see in the show. After all, how could society in Equestria move past the reliance on the crafts? Things like the Flim-Flam brother’s machine don’t just threaten jobs, as they did in our world, they threaten the fundamental fabric of Equestrian society. 

When Apple Bloom gets home and is complaining to Applejack, Applejack talking about how Granny Smith and Big Macintosh getting their cutie marks last in their class, just as she did, was intriguing. I got the impression that Applejack got hers later because at first she had tried doing something other than being around on the family farm, and when she later came to accept it the cutie mark appeared as a result. But if it was predestined (which is implied but not entirely confirmed by the fact that cutie marks stay the same once you’ve got them, they don’t change over time) then seemingly the long-running trait of apple cutie marks in the family suggests you could hack the system and just embrace the family talent earlier, the exact idea Apple Bloom gets. So did Big Macintosh and Granny Smith not do that? Were they reluctant like Applejack was? I suppose the easiest answer would be that enthusiasm and passion can’t be forced, and it simply took them both a while to find passion in their family traditions, but again it suggests something about all their characters that it took them all so long.

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As we get into Apple Bloom’s… Shenanigans. It’s not an original take, but I do find her antics a little tedious. Not annoying as such, but just a little bit tiresome, where I’m not actively disliking what I’m watching, but I’m not really compelled by it either. However, it does occur to me that a younger viewer watching this probably gets these annoyed reactions from adults, particularly if they’re energetic and confident like Apple Bloom, so in a way my reaction to her antics might be reflective of her character’s accuracy. 

Poor Twist gets left behind after this episode, but I definitely remember having friends in school who I was friends with just because we were both losers. It’s an accurate element but a slightly harsh one, softened by it being more of a background detail. 

All the stuff with Rainbow Dash is quite fun – but that’s really all I have to say about it. I could pick apart details of the karate scene, but it seems like more of a gag bit to me. I also like Pinkie’s approach after Dash’s spirited but doomed attempt to help Apple Bloom, where it seems like Pinkie is moreso trying to cheer up Apple Bloom than actually find her talent in a relatively logical way like Dash was. When Twilight shows up, I’m interested that Apple Bloom knows of her magical prowess. Obviously she’ll know a bit from Applejack and a bit from the Zecora situation, but would she really gather that Twilight’s that good at magic without there being a reputation in town she’d have learned that from? I think possibly this is reflecting a post-Boast Busters situation where now Twilight has a certain reputation in Ponyville. 

I love the classic party music once the party starts. I wonder, did Pinkie keep Apple Bloom busy at Sugarcube Corner with the intention of helping her overcome her fear of going to the party? It’s always tricky to discern intention with Pinkie. 

Again no notes about the party and the reveal of Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, just pretty solid and I liked it. After they’ve formed their group, though, I do like the detail that Twilight, writing the letter to Celestia, writes with the certainty that Celestia will genuinely want to hear about simply “one of her youngest subjects”. It’s almost like stealth-characterisation of Celestia, I really like it. Although the closing shot of Celestia’s cutie mark does get the brain jogging – how could she have gotten that before having the Alicorn power to raise the sun? Was she a unicorn before that helped other unicorns raise the sun? Or born an Alicorn but discovered the power to raise the sun later? Many questions, but I’m glad canon didn’t answer them. I don’t think the show could have pulled off an “how Celestia got her cutie mark” episode well enough to justify it. 

Somehow I mistook which episode number Winter Wrap Up was, so those filenames say episode 12 when actually this one is episode 12. I saw this confusion only after taking the first screenshot – I forgot to take them while I was writing the review like I usually do, and I watch the episode without pausing to take notes first so that I can enjoy it fully, so I ended up watching this episode three times. I have to say, Apple Bloom wasn’t as annoying as I remembered her being, but I’m still not as keen on this episode compared to later CMC episodes. It’s still got elements I enjoy, but these elements are moreso just a bit of fun, I wasn’t finding myself overly invested in them. With that in mind, I think I’ll put this episode at around 5.9.

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 >>/11183/
Well-restedness and comfyness acquired! (As represented by Sunny here) Although, I do seem to have come down with a mild case of con flu. (lemme know if you wanna hear more about con, I'll message you)
 >>/11187/
> She feels like a real child character as opposed to an adult in a child's body with less anatomy and I think this feat is even more impressive when you consider that the adults in this show have that innocence to them to varying degrees. 
Definitely. I think the main way I see them as having managed this is Apple Bloom still learning about things like trust and boundaries. She trusts Pinkie, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle quickly and easily, and she crosses boundaries more with her aggressive salesponyship and petulant complaints about not having a cutie mark to the Mane 6. It's more complex of a characterisation than that, of course, but those were the main things I noticed.
> This is one of the episode's that I see some say Twilight was shoehorned in
I agree with your points on this, but I also wanted to note that in this episode, following both Boast Busters and Winter Wrap Up, we see Twilight occupying a much more respected and integrated role in the community. She's regarded as important, just as she was in Applebuck Season, but now the awkwardness of this has dissipated and she feels to much more naturally occupy that role in Ponyville society. Once again, the show has a kind of continuity, one which at least in my experience can tend to go overlooked. 
 >>/11188/
> The obvious in universe explanation is that Sun Umbridge/Gl3mmer/GIimmer was replaced metaphysically by Sweetie Belle! 
I like this. Malleable reality does so much as a concept - it's close to feelings we have irl, at least for me, it explains certain plot holes, and it has a creepy unease more in the classy vein of Lovecraft than of cheap scares. Unnerving in that way that only phenomena beyond even enough comprehensibility to assign it malice can be. But also nice to keep such thoughts in the theorybox, where the show can just be it's comfy self too. I like to think of both coexisting, somehow.
> Mean this unironically. Twilight Sparkle should be more than cable of putting a fake mark on a flank if that is all she was doing. 
It kinda plays into my theory. Since the magic of harmony is stronger than that of any other magic that we see in the series, if harmony is the cosmic force driving the natural role ponies play in making the world a better place, then I'd posit that cutie marks are also one of harmony's many functions. Magic can override certain elements of the natural world, but where harmony is acting directly, as a force, the show is very clear that nothing can really stand up to it in the end. Even fake marks would go against the natural harmony of pony society, so I think even that makes sense. Canon changes on this later on of course, with Glimmy managing to alter cutie marks, although even there the best she can do is physically separate them from the pony, not eliminate or change them fundamentally.

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 >>/11194/
> Well-restedness and comfyness acquired! (As represented by Sunny here) 

Awesome, /) 

> Although, I do seem to have come down with a mild case of con flu. 

Not so awesome. Though mild is better than severe. 

> (lemme know if you wanna hear more about con, I'll message you)

Go for it!

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Episode 13 is off to a fun start with Applejack and Rainbow Dash showing their common interest in sport. In previous gens stuff like this wouldn’t have been possible, but here we’ve got a world where ponies engage in whatever activities take their fancy, not just parties and dress-up. Fleshes out the setting and our two characters here. When Applejack and Rainbow Dash are agreeing on their iron pony competition, they spit on their hooves, kind of like a handshake, but go in for the brohoof. This made me wonder if a truly correct brohoof would involve spitting on one’s fist first? Somehow it seems less hygienic than a spit-handshake, even though logically the handshake would surely be worse for hygiene. 

After the theme song, we get a shot down across Sweet Apple Acres showing autumn has arrived. I actually had to go back and check that it was autumn in the cold open – it was. For some reason it escaped my notice there. But it makes for more or less perfect timing, as it’s just about bang in the middle of autumn as I’m watching this! I don’t dislike Nightmare Night, but I certainly feel like autumn is much comfier in this episode, as I like autumn but have never been a fan of halloween. Applejack’s consternation with Rainbow Dash interrupting and talking over her as Twilight sets up the situation with her questions actually potentially foreshadows the plot development later in the episode, as I rewatch. It’s a fairly simple structure but I think it works quite well, where Rainbow Dash starts out irritated at losing, and Applejack grows irritated over the course of the episode at Rainbow’s arrogance. It’s a bit like Griffon the brush-off, where the first half of the episode is set-up for the second half. Spike mentions “first annual Iron Pony competition” just as part of pretending to be an announcer, but it would be kinda comfy if the mane 6 sort of did that every year as a small activity just between them I think. Idk. Seeing Rainbow Dash nervous before she does the barrels is intriguing – I feel like she grows less nuanced in her confidence as time goes on. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I certainly can’t remember many times that I’ve seen Rainbow Dash feeling nervous in the show. It’s also notable that although we begin to see Rainbow Dash unquestionably cheating, Applejack begins to get annoyed after losing the arm-wrestle, so it’s not purely from indignation at Rainbow cheating. But even as annoyed with eachother as they are, they’re still able to laugh with one another during the scene transition, which is a cute detail.

I’ve heard the Running of the Leaves be derided almost every time I’ve seen this episode reviewed, specifically in terms of it not making sense. While I concede that the Running is not as thoroughly explored as Winter Wrap-Up, I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss it entirely. Magic explanations may be seen as lazy, but fundamentally the idea of ponies taking part in the change of seasons for autumn as well is one I really like and the Running itself is a neat implementation of that idea. I would suggest that the explanation is essentially Earth-pony magic, with the actual cause being a sort of synchronicity between the thumping of hoofsteps and the readiness of the leaves to fall, which then evolved over time to include Pegasi and Unicorns in the tradition too even though their magic wouldn’t really apply in a practical sense in this theory. 

Pinkie Pie inviting Spike to join her as a co-announcer is a great showcase of the empathy she’s been showing through season 1. Just like last episode with Applebloom, she’s good at reading emotions and knows just how to cheer people up, with her comedic obliviousness more being for her own amusement than an actual indicator of her state of mind, seemingly. And in other character details, Twilight taking her time to enjoy the race and taking in the scenery is adorable. I think you could make this episode and more or less write her out of it whilst keeping the message intact, but I’d find it much less enjoyable, she balances it out very nicely for me.

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Spike keeps showing confusion at Pinkie’s tangents, but I think all of them are generally really good announcing. It keeps the flow going and avoids odd pauses in between the action – in particular I think the ketchup pun and the aside about hot dogs was fantastic, it makes it feel conversational. I almost felt like a pony spectating the race, grinning along to the announcing in that moment. In that sense it ever so slightly annoys me that Spike seems confused and/or exasperated by Pinkie’s announcing, but that is in character for him I suppose. Maple syrup is being harvested further along in Whitetail Wood, which probably implies something about Ponyville’s climate, but I’m not sure what it would be. It mainly makes me hungry thinking about how good pancakes in Ponyville would taste with all these locally-grown ingredients and local maple syrup to boot. As they reach the finish line, the ending twist is satisfying, even if it’s not a big surprise. I like that Celestia’s turned up, it shows that she drops in for visits that aren’t just major events, the note about her enjoying autumn is interesting, and probably my favourite little note of the episode is when she directly addresses Applejack. I don’t know what it is, but somehow referring to Applejack by name sounds much more familiar and less formal than when she declaratively refers to Twilight by name. And the fact that she actually knows Twilight’s friends, whilst not surprising given Twilight’s regular reports, is still a humanising detail I think. Applejack isn’t just “loyal subject” to Celestia, she’s Applejack, Celestia is not above talking to her directly. I’ve personally interacted with authority figures who will not use my name, will talk to one of my superiors in order to indirectly address me and talk to me, all that carry-on, so it is notable I think that Celestia is not that type of authority figure, although again this isn’t necessarily surprising. I think it’s just that the moment makes this assumed reality both confirmed and more visceral for me. 

So, in terms of rating this episode, there’s some superficial elements that make it a bit less enjoyable for me. During the race, Applejack and Rainbow Dash engage in some reality-bending and slapstick-esque tactics that just really take me out of the story, like Applejack slingshotting herself ahead with a branch, Rainbow dash doing the same with the maple syrup, the two of them becoming a tornado, that sort of thing. I’m really not a big fan of this sort of thing in general, as the best reaction you can hope to get out of me towards it is not minding it, for example I don’t really mind reality-breaking slapstick in Spongebob, but I don’t LIKE it either, it’s doing nothing for my enjoyment. And shows that primarily consist of it like Road Runner or Ren and Stimpy cannot hold my attention, I just totally lose interest within minutes if not seconds. This does bring down the enjoyment a fair bit for me, but there’s still strong positive elements, like the comfy autumn, Pinkie and Spike’s interactions, Twilight being adorable throughout, and Celestia’s appearance at the end. With that in mind, I’m going to rate this at 6.2. I liked it a bit more than Call of the Cutie, but not as much as Ticket Master, so I’ve put it bang in the middle.

On a different note, now that we're coming up on halfway through Season One, I was thinking back to: 
 >>/8889/
Since it was mentioned that we've got a realistic goal of season 1, I was thinking it might be a good idea to make a new thread for season 2 in case Bridge needs a break but also so it's clearer how the thread works in case anypony wants to join in!

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What can I say for this one? A little and a lot, actually. This episode, going into it, was another one I had better memories of then some. Similar to the episode previous, I had a perhaps slight negative impression but it wasn't a strong one, mainly finding it slightly boring (though still enjoyed background details) I enjoyed it more this time around but perhaps still rates a little lower than other recent episodes. Rainbow Dash and Applejack's antics earned a chuckle but not to the level of some others or whatever reason.

My favorite moment in this is hard to pin down. Nothing was negative in the slightest. I think I enjoyed the race the best but I have found that I enjoy montages and the little details that they sneak in there (little gangs, the crowd of ponies gradually getting larger and enjoying the rivalry, etc). Still, the race was charmingly whimsical yet true to the show's ininverse rules (nature doesn't work unless the ponies usher it along) and I found the idea of them running to shake the leaves from the trees somewhere between cute and wracking my brain on the logistics of that (more below in the Odds and Ends). 

Moral, this time I'll brag on it, I think this is a strong one. The theme held throughout the episode. The execution, interestingly enough, was more realistic and friendly (at least among some friends). Rainbow Dash and Applejack still had moments of friendliness and comradery during most the episode's run in spite of there increasing tensions.I don't mind to characters turning it up to eleven and hating each other for awhile but this was a nice chance of place. It was also really COOL how they had Twilight Sparkle actually beat them and win 5 place. I probably am overthinking it, but modern writing would have had either have Twilight be dead last (comedy)  or have won 100% outright.  This was cool to have her to do somewhat realistically yet unexpectedly well for a newcomer and shows someone winning in a small way in a positive light. I feel that moral is just as good as the main lesson. 

Okay, okay, now to my rating: 6.8/10. Why that number? Arbitrary, I have no complaints for this episode and still enjoyed it but rate it a little lower than what has come before. Competence is not bad and this is one I still may revisit in a secondary coziness context.

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 >>/11232/
> wracking my brain on the logistics of that (more below in the Odds and Ends).

Celestia said Rainbow Dash's and Applejack's antics meant that the leaves didn't fall and that they had to run again.

...

...

How? How did two ponies contribution matter enough that a significant percentage of leaves didn't fall? It doesn't make sense! Then, just them rerunning the course was enough to complete the task. Maybe I could reach on a limb and say disharmony vs friendship magic was at play here or that the element bearers magic is stronger and matters more though there is no suggestions for any of this.  Like, other things I can come up with elaborate theories with both fun and sometimes seriousness that just "smooth things over" but here I got nothing but cute magical horse show. For me though, that is an mostly alright answer. I remember a lot of fics early on tried to down play/rationalize these elements to the point that it feels disconnected from the sincerity of its whimsical nature. 

Twilight Sparkle being slightly athletic:
This is a trait that I've seen be argued was forgotten in latter seasons. This is a position I partly hold but I think I will have to rewatch more of FiM in general before I fully agree with that assessment. It is not as pronounced as her snarky attitude and I could see this being one of the things that is more incoherent. 

Inches...
Pinkie said "Applejack is inches ahead." Very minor note. I have always liked the idea of some sort of ponified measurement system using things like, hooves or wings, over just the implicit US customary system. Not saying inches violates this, just noting.

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 >>/11192/
 >>/11193/ 
> After all, how could society in Equestria move past the reliance on the crafts? Things like the Flim-Flam brother’s machine don’t just threaten jobs, as they did in our world, they threaten the fundamental fabric of Equestrian society.

The former, I propose that harmonic magic itself might ensure everyone finds the most proper place. (A certain couple of moments from later seasons MIGHT threaten this theory, but a topic for another day.)

> family suggests you could hack the system and just embrace the family talent earlier, the exact idea Apple Bloom gets. 

Now that is an interesting observation! Apple Bloom, perhaps rightly, infered the exact opposite lesson from what Applejack was trying to say. Rather than assurance of "it'll be your time!" Apple Bloom put, in her own childish way, two and tow together.   

> Poor Twist gets left behind after this episode, but I definitely remember having friends in school who I was friends with just because we were both losers.

Twist had a unique design and traits, I wonder if anything more was ever considered for her?

> Or born an Alicorn but discovered the power to raise the sun later? Many questions, but I’m glad canon didn’t answer them. I don’t think the show could have pulled off an “how Celestia got her cutie mark” episode well enough to justify it. 

I thinking hinting at it = good, explaining everything and nerding out on something like how that would have probably gone down in a later season fandom episode = bad. The former adds to haunting and comfy, the later removes wonder and mysteriousness. 

> With that in mind, I think I’ll put this episode at around 5.9.

That is your lowest rating thus far but I certainly understand it. I can see how this didn't "click" with you. 

 >>/11224/
 >>/11225/
> I actually had to go back and check that it was autumn in the cold open – it was. For some reason it escaped my notice there. But it makes for more or less perfect timing, as it’s just about bang in the middle of autumn as I’m watching this

It did not escape my notice either. Watched it with the first (relative) cold front that came in for the season! 

> I don’t dislike Nightmare Night, but I certainly feel like autumn is much comfier in this episode, as I like autumn but have never been a fan of halloween. 

My personal thing is based on degree, joking spooky and childish spooky = comfy. Eerie can be comfy, but the outright horror not so much for me. I can totally see why someone would find fall/autumn comfier! 

> I’ve heard the Running of the Leaves be derided almost every time I’ve seen this episode reviewed, specifically in terms of it not making sense. While I concede that the Running is not as thoroughly explored as Winter Wrap-Up, I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss it entirely.

We are on a similar page. My background is more from fanfiction as I didn't watch/read many reviews (I did some, particularly on controversial episodes). To quote myself: >>/11234/
< I remember a lot of fics early on tried to down play/rationalize these elements to the point that it feels disconnected from the sincerity of its whimsical nature. 


> Earth-pony magic, with the actual cause being a sort of synchronicity between the thumping of hoofsteps and the readiness of the leaves to fall, which then evolved over time to include Pegasi and Unicorns in the tradition too even though their magic wouldn’t really apply in a practical sense in this theory. 

I'll take it, although I will point out that from dialog/what is shown on screen at the end, Rainbow Dash's did seem to matter. 

> reality-breaking slapstick 

I'd argue that the slapstick here isn't that reality breaking and the ponies have show some similar feats in other situations.

> With that in mind, I’m going to rate this at 6.2. I liked it a bit more than Call of the Cutie, but not as much as Ticket Master, so I’ve put it bang in the middle.

...but I still understand the distaste as a style. Sometimes I can laugh a lot with it, sometimes not, too me execution and timing matter and I did enjoy it enough but no

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 >>/11194/
> Once again, the show has a kind of continuity, one which at least in my experience can tend to go overlooked. 

I actually think I lean towards defending Season 1 on this more often than not, so noted and agreed, /) I am just going in with an open mind to certain criticism!  and maybe later emerging as a rabid crazed Season 1 defender.

> But also nice to keep such thoughts in the theorybox, where the show can just be it's comfy self too. I like to think of both coexisting, somehow.

The middle is eerie in the background but not a constant present thought or a full threat that "ruins" everything. Like something that makes you wonder about it. A fuzzy edge.

> 

Since it was mentioned that we've got a realistic goal of season 1, I was thinking it might be a good idea to make a new thread for season 2 in case Bridge needs a break but also so it's clearer how the thread works in case anypony wants to join in!
I think that is a really good idea! I really like that idea and has my full support. The thread right now is... could use a better intro to explain what is going on,and the first 50 posts or so have confusion over what the thread is. A fresh start for Season 2 makes sense for all those reasons. 

I have some other things to reply to in a couple of threads, but for now, goodnight /endpone/! PMs coming soonish.

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The first couple of scenes in this episode are mainly setup, but when they pay off later it’s quite cohesive. First we’ve got the cold open, where Rarity is making her own dress, which will come up later on when the others help finish it, and helps establish how Rarity gets sidetracked by the amount of work she has to do and focuses on her friend’s dresses before her own. Secondly, we have Applejack and Twilight showing up. I’m not quite sure why Applejack was actually there, given that she didn’t want a dress and touching up her ‘work duds’ was Rarity’s suggestion. Maybe she just tagged along with Twilight to visit Rarity. As Twilight and Applejack accidentally irritate Rarity with their chat, we have foreshadowing for Rarity’s irritation at their bizarre design choices later on. And lastly we have Rarity having the idea to make all of the group dresses, where the beginnings of the issues that will come later sort of meets halfway between Rarity’s determination to please, and the others increasingly taking that generosity for granted as a result. It’s quite a clever concept, really – the core conflict is caused precisely by Rarity’s element being in a bit of overabundance, that is, she’s too generous for her own good in this episode. We also have some excellent characterisation of Rarity in full force in these first two scenes, as we begin to see the side of her that allows for her fashionable, sociable outer persona: a lot of hard work. In previous generations and in most girl’s shows, being like Rarity is typically shown as effortless and easy. But  not only does Rarity work hard, her comment to Applejack: “you make it sound like it will be hard!” demonstrates an ironclad work ethic and dedication as well. Rarity is a character, like many of the Mane 6, that is easy to overstate, push to an extreme and just get utterly wrong, but here she’s pretty much perfectly characterised. Even the environment is making this clear, with Rarity’s work floor being in her bedroom. 

On that note, we get into the first half of the fantastic song of this episode. It’s up there with the Smile song as one of the great character songs in the show, which I think is pretty uncontroversial to say. On the matter of Rarity’s hardworking nature, I was thinking while watching the song that whilst Applejack is just as if not more hardworking than Rarity, in all likelihood, the reason Rarity comes across as even harder working than Applejack to me I think really comes down to this song. We see and have described to us the rather painstaking process of creating a dress, and then have that process repeated five times, whereas with Applejack, we see bits and pieces of what she does on the farm, but we don’t really ever see the complete picture. The dresses make for quite tangible measurements of how much time and effort Rarity’s put into her passion. 

As Rarity reveals the dresses to the others, I particularly like Opal’s role in purring and nudging the dresses, nicely contrasted with how she hisses at the next set. She’s a good presence in the episode, making shots more interesting and providing someone for Rarity to interact with when she’s working on her own. Given the song we just had, we then share Rarity’s disappointment at the less than stellar reactions from the rest of the Mane 6. They do try to convince Rarity not to go the extra mile for them, and in fairness if Rarity just listened here the rest of the episode’s conflict would not have to happen, but again I think it’s fantastic that Rarity’s generosity actually leads her into a bit of trouble here. The lesson in a way is not only to be careful not to take advantage of generosity, but also to be careful that your generosity is not taken advantage of, too!

The reprise is even catchier, and we get the 20% cooler line. Oh yes, that old chestnut. The budget comment is interesting though – they’re paying for these dresses? I thought Rarity was doing it as a favour. It makes what they’re doing slightly less egregious if they are paying for them, though.

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When Rarity shows them their new dresses, it’s neat that the dresses are kept in shadow, with only the boots and a hem shown directly. It makes their reveal at the fashion show that much funnier. As Spike bursts in and explains that he mentioned Rarity’s fashion show to Hoighty Toighty, I was wondering, was he doing that as a favour to Rarity due to his crush on her? Said crush was established in the pilot, but I don’t really see any direct reference to it in this episode, so I’m not sure if that was why. Perhaps he was just passionate about sharing what his friends were doing. When Rarity hears about it, she could have asked the others to wear the original dresses, just for the show – but I suppose that would have involved putting down their dresses, and revealing that she wasn’t really happy with them. 

Hoighty Toighty, as he arrives at the fashion show, is interesting. A part of Canterlot high society, a fashion business bigwig, but also an Earth pony. Either the class structure is less stratified along unicorn/pegasus/earth pony lines than we often think (although the show regularly supports that type of stratification), or he’s somewhat of a rags-to-riches story, a bit like what Rarity aspires to. As the show begins, Spike gets to play his favourite role and be the announcer, and I have to grin as he just goes a bit overboard. It’s a show being held by a small fashion parlour in a small town – even if it’s near to Canterlot, it’s not really going to be anything like as prestigious as Spike’s making out, and there’s only 5 outfits being shown off. I’m not very familiar with fashion shows, but surely just 5 isn’t very much? So it’s hardly going to be the day of all days when the “perfect pony gown” finally arrives. And as we see the garish dresses finally revealed, they’re absolutely fantastically made – that is, in order to demonstrate by juxtaposition just how good Rarity’s original dresses were by comparison. I wouldn’t know what sort of clothes are fashionable vs unfashionable (except for a vague awareness that damaging jeans is still seemingly all the rage despite going on like that for what must be more than a decade at this point), so this episode does a good job of making it clear and obvious even for viewers that don’t know a thing about fashionability. However, I will say, Pinkie’s dress didn’t come out looking too bad. All things considered, I think it’s the best looking one of the bunch. Twilight’s “oh dear” moment is absolutely perfect. I love the idea that Twilight can get so wrapped up in technical details, and then suddenly have a rush of clarity and social awareness. Spike’s obliviousness and the crowd’s reactions are hard to sit through, I’m glad it fades away before too long. 

Rarity’s dramatic shutting herself away is hilarious and some more great characterisation, I love it. I also love the concern all five of them show – this episode isn’t just a great Rarity character episode, we get a lot of great interactions between all of the Mane 6, and get a better sense of how they work as a friend group outside of adventures. Just one thing puzzles me – how do they get the dress out of Rarity’s room? Twilight could probably magic it away, but wouldn’t Rarity notice? Ah well, it doesn’t matter too much. Poor Opal is clearly terrified, though it is a funny way to get Rarity to come out.

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Who organised Hoighty Toighty coming back? It could be Spike, as we see him closing the curtains. Perhaps he heard how badly the show had gone previously. Rarity using her magic to make a light show for the fashion show take 2 is impressive, and makes me think that magic is perhaps less so limited by a pony’s special talent, and moreso fueled by passion. I can’t really focus mentally on things I’m not interested in, and perhaps for unicorns it’s similar, where they get a significant power boost if the magic is related in some way to what they’re passionate about. 

I like Hoighty Toighty watching Spike’s letter fly out of the window to Canterlot. It seems like he and Spike might be friends in some capacity, which is kinda neat in a way, and so I assume he knows it’s going to Celestia and knows Spike has regular contact with the Princess. His ending gag is pretty funny too.

Also a fifth screenshot, because Twilight looks really pretty in this dress. I remember this episode as being a particular instance where I began to find her attractive, and I think the dress is a part of that.

Nothing really stood out to me as elements I disliked, and this episode had a lot of positives. I’m going to give it an 8.4, as I just about preferred Dragonshy to this episode, but it doesn’t fall far short. 

I'll respond to stuff a bit later, it's been a hectic couple of days! I did have this review earlier but I wasn't able to post it over the weekend, so this is just a quick paste more or less. I have enjoyed reading your review and responses though /)

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 >>/11234/
> How? How did two ponies contribution matter enough that a significant percentage of leaves didn't fall? It doesn't make sense!
I have a proposal, although the reasoning is still perhaps a bit flimsy. When Applejack is given a lift in Pinkie's balloon, as a result she would have skipped a large portion of the racetrack - and given that Applejack's a particularly strong Earth Pony, perhaps her contribution to that particular stretch of the race was the vital component to those leaves falling. It's the only thing I can think of, and it fits in neatly with my theory.
> Not saying inches violates this, just noting.
I would normally say that since Pinkie says it we can somewhat doubt it, but just next episode Fluttershy mentions France so this sort of thing isn't a one-off. 
also
> 1234
nice
 >>/11235/
> Twist had a unique design and traits, I wonder if anything more was ever considered for her? 
She's one-note enough that I somewhat doubt it, at least in the form we see her. Perhaps earlier in development, though.
> That is your lowest rating thus far but I certainly understand it.
It's the sort of rating where I think it'd be pretty good in a later season. It's still above average, by being above 5, but in season 1 the norm is hovering around 7 or 8 in terms of enjoyability.
> My personal thing is based on degree, joking spooky and childish spooky = comfy.
Agreed. In a way I'd say the problem is adults and teenagers joining in with it and making it "theirs". Stuff like Santa in Christmas is more for kids with there being traditions that are more for adults, I'd much prefer halloween if the spooky stuff and dressup was just for kids and adults just did stuff like pumpkin soup or whatever. Mind you, here I am watching My Little Pony, so I'm not one to judge what adults do necessarily. 
> although I will point out that from dialog/what is shown on screen at the end, Rainbow Dash's did seem to matter. 
It does imply that, though again I just sort of assumed it was really just Applejack making the leaves fall at the end. 
> I'd argue that the slapstick here isn't that reality breaking and the ponies have show some similar feats in other situations. 
That is true, but it's just one after the other here to such an extent that I'm struggling to view it as "canon events", almost. 
> goodnight /endpone/! 
seeya soon /)

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In-between episodes, I’ve read through the My Little Pony manga, too. I like the artstyle a lot – the show uses simplified art, but when fans make My Little Pony in a manga/anime style, they tend to just add detail. This isn’t bad per se, but the style of this manga is closer to looking like what I think of when I think of a My Little Pony manga. It’s more clearly oriented towards children, understandably, but I think for what it is the manga stays remarkably close to the characters (unlike some other material that could be mentioned, like King Zebra) – they each get an introduction which is relatively faithful. Genuinely this would be a pretty good primer for the show for a kid. Then, each chapter is broken up into a little story or two. Some of these are roughly adapted from an episode, albeit simplified – Suited For Success is in there, for instance. Others are original – and the original stories, although I’m not the first to mention it, would make great concepts for episodes.  The one that stuck out most to me is where a particular tree that supports life for a lot of Fluttershy’s animals seems unwell – it’s branches are falling off and it’s sap is drying up. So, they bring the tree to life to ask it what’s wrong. The tree is depressed and so they cheer it up. This would make for a really solid episode I think – minus the ending, where they bring Golden Oaks to life and she and the tree fall in love, with Twilight gaining an extra reading nook in the new tree once it returns to it’s inanimate form. Each of the ponies would have something unique to bring to interactions with such a tree character – Fluttershy connecting with it on matters of nature, Rarity sprucing it up and trimming it, Rainbow Dash trying and most likely failing to psyche the tree up, Twilight reading it books on motivation or something to that effect, and Applejack trying apple-bucking, kind of like those aggressive Swedish sports massages they do. I think it would also fit in well with the pony-natural world relations theme of season 1, where we could expand more on how ponies relate to trees, and perhaps explore the difference between a domesticated tree like this one, and the wild trees of the Everfree Forest. 
Overall more of just a fun read, definitely a bit younger in orientation compared to the show but remarkably faithful in most respects.

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An alright episode. 

I found myself enjoying it on a average level. Rarity being people pleasing to her friends and her friends not appropriating her hoofmade (magic made?) dresses hits home to me in this odd way (I have know of cases of younger family members rejecting homemade stuff from grandparents in the family due to color and fashion considerations, which has personally mystified me). The dress sequences was fun, and I liked Rarity getting more haggard and strained while her friends gave there various detailed to vague and complicated instructions. Of course, can't forget, this is where the famous phrase, 20 percent cooler, came from. I did laugh with the whole first fashion sequence when the Mane 6 realized how ridiculous they looked! 

My perceptions of this episode where average but this is one that I don't remember as well. It did not change with this and I am neither overly impressed or disappointed. 6/10.

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 >>/11295/
Opps, was logged into BO. 

Anyways. The most important thing is this right here:
> Spike: You are never gonna believe this! You've heard of Hoity Toity?

> Twilight Sparkle: The bigwig fashion hotshot in Canterlot?

> Spike: Uh-huh. He heard about your fashion show. Well, maybe I happened to mention it to him... he's coming here all the way from Canterlot to see your work, Rarity!

This is another instance of Spike seemingly having some sort of other duties/life connected to Canterlot. I had completely forgotten about this. Actually, I am not sure if it has ever stuck out to me before to me. 
 >>/10706/
> Spike's on "royal business." I know it was just an excuse to not have him there but this line I have always remembered. What sort of business was he on? Considering how they have usually acted with Spike being a child (relatively responsible to be entrusted with some duties) I wonder what he would be up too and traveling alone, if even to a safe trip to Canterlot for. 

Now, this adds a little weight whatever happened here.

There is a lot of interesting implications. Twilight Sparkle talked about Hoity Toity as somebody famous and not personally familar with. A thought comes to mind of Spike having at least some minor brushes with Canterlot high society while doing, IDK, stuff for the princess. 

110% satisfied 
Rarity said in this episode, who is ready for a forced meme?

Noticing background details too strongly
The first catwalk scene overhead shot I thought the ponies where just one static drawing besides the lights. This would be common in other animation but I handled recalled FiM ever doing that before (obliviously because of the availability of rigs they could just copypaste as they please). The the more close up top down shot of Rarity though does have these ponies move some. These ponies are nothing to really write home about,there colors are off, movements stiff, and just feel overall basic and perhaps a bit rushed (and why not, just a couple of tiny shots less than what, 20 seconds overall? No problem with it). I wonder if these very simple top view ponies ever where used again or if there will be other instances of potentially one off wonky ponies like this?

Rainbow Dash's dress looks completely fine, tbh, not guady and mismatched like the others, just perhaps ill fitting for the setting/theme.

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 >>/11243/
 >>/11244/
 >>/11245/
> They do try to convince Rarity not to go the extra mile for them, and in fairness if Rarity just listened here the rest of the episode’s conflict would not have to happen, but again I think it’s fantastic that Rarity’s generosity actually leads her into a bit of trouble here. The lesson in a way is not only to be careful not to take advantage of generosity, but also to be careful that your generosity is not taken advantage of, too!

Worded better than how I explained it, but yes! I also think the idea of being appreciative of gifts is a worthy component as well that is laudable.  

> The reprise is even catchier, and we get the 20% cooler line. Oh yes, that old chestnut. The budget comment is interesting though – they’re paying for these dresses? I thought Rarity was doing it as a favour. It makes what they’re doing slightly less egregious if they are paying for them, though.

Nice catch and yes, that is a good question. I can come up with somewhat plausible theories but none with strong evidence (they insisted on paying for the dresses. Rarity charged them token prices for the materials. They decided to pay for the new dresses in some capacity). 


> Rarity’s dramatic shutting herself away is hilarious and some more great characterisation, I love it. I also love the concern all five of them show – this episode isn’t just a great Rarity character episode, we get a lot of great interactions between all of the Mane 6,

100% agree.  

> Either the class structure is less stratified along unicorn/pegasus/earth pony lines than we often think (although the show regularly supports that type of stratification), or he’s somewhat of a rags-to-riches story, a bit like what Rarity aspires to.

Another theory, though this can easily exist with the others. Culture is not 100% with race/class. We seen mixed familes most of the time with earth ponies, but that certainly exists elsewhere (and might have some prominent example that has slipped my mind) but an earth pony raised among unicorns in Canterlot may just be that, he still is culturally hip and a little snobby. Rarity has been shown to feel awkwardness with being from Ponyville after all! Racial associations with most of these towns still exist but the in-group/out-group dynamics may apply just as much to culture. 

> Rarity using her magic to make a light show for the fashion show take 2 is impressive, and makes me think that magic is perhaps less so limited by a pony’s special talent, and moreso fueled by passion. I can’t really focus mentally on things I’m not interested in, and perhaps for unicorns it’s similar, where they get a significant power boost if the magic is related in some way to what they’re passionate about. 

There is some later post-season moments that may support this, but that is far off! Very far off.

> I like Hoighty Toighty watching Spike’s letter fly out of the window to Canterlot. It seems like he and Spike might be friends in some capacity, which is kinda neat in a way, and so I assume he knows it’s going to Celestia and knows Spike has regular contact with the Princess

Spike's connection, however minor, is a curiosity to me, for reasons I have already stated.I admit that I probably spent too much time thinking about it, but that is who I am. That is an interesting idea of them being friends.


> Nothing really stood out to me as elements I disliked, and this episode had a lot of positives. I’m going to give it an 8.4, as I just about preferred Dragonshy to this episode, but it doesn’t fall far short. 

Here is how I think of ratings in my head, 
10/10, perfect, I have almost never felt this. about anything
9/10 Great/amazing, rare for me to feel this
8/10 Great/good
7/10 good
6/10 good/okay/something great with one or two flaw that mess it up a bit
5/10 flawed/mixed
anything lower,bad

Yeah,not very clear for and clean, and I think that everyone has slight different perceptions. That is just how I think it in my head and mine are a bit more arbitrary than some(I think).

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 >>/11247/ 
> When Applejack is given a lift in Pinkie's balloon, as a result she would have skipped a large portion of the racetrack - and given that Applejack's a particularly strong Earth Pony, perhaps her contribution to that particular stretch of the race was the vital component to those leaves falling.

> It does imply that, though again I just sort of assumed it was really just Applejack making the leaves fall at the end. 

It is fair enough, I think it just goes back to if one takes unicorns and pegasi ponies being able to contribute. My instincts are mixed on this and I have gone back and forth with thinking of what I remember of the show and might give the episode a rewatch just for more (over)thinking. 

> nice

> 1234

< mfw I didn't notice.


> Agreed. In a way I'd say the problem is adults and teenagers joining in with it and making it "theirs". Stuff like Santa in Christmas is more for kids with there being traditions that are more for adults, I'd much prefer halloween if the spooky stuff and dressup was just for kids and adults just did stuff like pumpkin soup or whatever. Mind you, here I am watching My Little Pony, so I'm not one to judge what adults do necessarily. 

This is actually a very interesting angle, one that I think is relevant but not often discussed and I think it is a multifaceted "thing." Something happened with our society, a nostalgic retreat is a major component but I am still forming fully on the why, reductionist views (technology, capitalism too far or the decline of religion) play a part, but I feel this is often other small nuances that are mixed, my tenancy is to blame tech more than the other two.      I don't view spookiness in Halloween, but agree on overall principles of this idea of adult colonization of childhood things being... something. I am talking a bit vague and unclear, aren't I? I hope you get the gist. I think to an extent the fandom is guilty of that, I never brought the complete self guilt or self aggrandizing behavior that the fandom  often adopts in viewing itself;we are complex and it is complex. 

> seeya soon /)

> I'll respond to stuff a bit later, it's been a hectic couple of days!

Same for the past two weeks for me! So we good. 

 >>/11287/
Manga, more on that later, but for the moment:
>  The tree is depressed and so they cheer it up. This would make for a really solid episode I think – minus the ending, where they bring Golden Oaks to life and she and the tree fall in love, with Twilight gaining an extra reading nook in the new tree once it returns to it’s inanimate form.

Fanfics enter the chat, but yes, I agree overall the concept is workable and the mane 6's interactions could be interesting.

Oh, and:
> Pinkie’s dress didn’t come out looking too bad. All things considered, I think it’s the best looking one of the bunch. 

I think Pinkie's is the second best, it is whimsical and she is whimsical and she makes it work, but I am probably as in tune to fashion as you are.

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Let’s  dive in!

‘’Spike! This magic needs our full attention to make it happen. There's no other way!'’

So, we see Twilight Sparkle practicing magic with Spike helping as her “guinea pig” though admittedly that sounds a little too strong of a wording. I can always get distracted with little starting scenes like this and this one stood out for two reasons: Pinkie’s interruption. Upon Spike being distracted by Pinkie Pie, the rock that was turned into a hat reverts into a rock. Why does a slight distraction cause the rock to revert? Is there a window of time when something is transformed that it can revert back? Like it needs to be held in place? The tuxedo and leaves don’t revert back (but do vanish in the next shot, albeit, a lot of that happens this episode and I think it mostly should be taken as cartoon logic... mostly).  

Reason two: Upon ‘’Spike'’ being distracted by Pinkie Pie, the rock that was turned into a hat reverts into a rock. It seems like Spike himself also needed to have his attention on the Twilight/the rock for it to work. What roll does Spike play here?  This is 30 seconds in, lol, I am focusing too much on this scene  but I think it is weird and possibly is an attempt to justify something later on. 

Twilight Sparkle is at first, understandably dismissive of Pinkie Pie and her antics, but as bad luck ramps up, she starts to frantically try to disprove/understand it. At first Twilight is a little obsessive and as it goes on. I have often seen people say that Twilight Sparkle being a bad scientist who is more eager to disprove than to understand and analyze cautiously and something thinking Twilight having held the idiot ball to some degree. Considering the sequence of events:
> Frog

> Falls in a ditch 

> Mud splash 

> Alligator in bathtub

> Door slam by the front door of the library 

> Door slam in the basement of the library 

> Bees!

> Fell into apple cellar 

> Potted plant, anvil,  hay, a panio

I disagree that Twilight Sparkle was a bad scientist or being an idiot, it was just the trope of the skeptic being skeptical while reality proved contrary. Even then, while frustrated she was still trying to gather data and hadn’t fully “snapped” in the way of her freakout towards the end of Swarm of A Century or had retreated into her book like in Look Before you Sleep (and both of those aren’t necessarily bad either). I still laughed at these and enjoyed most of them. (Personal favorite being the basement door slam for whatever reason) and I considered it slightly surprising as show with a higher age rating had often censored direct impact cartoony violence like that and a discourse that suggested that sort of violence had gone very far out of style (at least that was my impression)  Grew up with boomerang (TV channel that showed old cartoons) so I might have greater appreciation than some. I do think sometimes stuff like that can be offputting and overdone as well. Actually, a lot of times when other cartoons tried (and perhaps FiM in a future episode if I recall) to do this in the 2000s something often felt off to me but not here.

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 >>/11348/
Enter the ‘doozy;.Twilight Sparkle is suddenly healed and aiding Pinkie Pie and Applejack in going to help Fluttershy. I laughed way too much at Spike’s and Applejack’s conversation, with felt weirdly realistic and yet still funny. Realistic in the sense that Applejack seemed like a stressed adult who was trying to not let her mind run wild while Spike being a stressed adolescent panicing. Fluttershy randomly exploding twice in a row also feels like Spike has been reading too many comic books or something (same with his zombie ponies remark a few episodes back). I think the Hydra was an alright random monster threat, perhaps a bit under utilized consider mythology (though it is not like anypony could’ve tried to chopping heads off in this at the time E/I TV-Y kids show) and not the most splendid design, but oh, whatever. 

Here is a part where the episode becomes problematic when your attempting to overthink every detail: Twilight Sparkle’s actions in this fight. I don’t consider it irrational at all for her to be panicked and not thinking straight. While I think it ‘’might'’ be reasonable to assume Twilight’s magic training and tutelage under Celestia had some combat training I don’t think Twilight was groomed to be a monster slayer or anything. This Hydra was huge and she and the others have been shown to be prone to some panic. It is the relative innocence of the setting here. What does feel off is when she does gain some confiendence not using magic, at all. I am not taking about in directly fighting the monster but stuff like telekinesis or the most glaring one I saw people point out in the past, teleportation! This is why I refer back to:
> ‘’Spike! This magic needs our full attention to make it happen. There's no other way!'’

Listen, this is season 1 and I know that haven’t given super detailed thought to stuff like this, but, was this not just for a joke but an attempt to explain what happened here?  I legitimately wonder it. As for any theorizing, I am going to call a spade a spade and just say Twilight Sparkle doesn’t think straight in a panic sometimes as that explanation  makes less sense to me considering what happened with Twilight’s brief confrontation with Nightmare Moon.

The lesson, eh, that deserves its own section and probably the most shaky part of the episode.  
As for my rating for this episode, I am split, 6.1/10 or 6.5/10. I can’t decide! It was a good to alright episode despite certain controversy associated with it with my main problem perhaps being the wording of the lesson over anything that happened in the episode itself.

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 >>/11349/
‘’It's your only ho-o-ope! You have to take a leap of faith!'’

Now, for the main controversy with this episode, the potential anti-science and perceived religious influence here. I have thought about this before and have gone back and forth to how merited it was.  The wording can be taken here with a very symbolic meaning albeit “leap of faith” doesn’t have to mean  “faith” in a strong religious context but also as a figure of speech that just had an unfortunate timing/prescience. The trope of skeptic being dunked on is well established and minus that line, would I think that takeaway as merited at all? No. The end wording of the lesson though:
> I am happy to report that I now realize there are wonderful things in this world you just can't explain, but that doesn't necessarily make them any less true. It just means you have to choose to believe in them, and sometimes it takes a friend to show you the way.'’

I don’t think a strong religious context is there but I can see a supernatural vs science with that as a take away. They probably were aiming for something like not everything needs to be rationally explained and have a little fun with that. I can understand some having a problem with this. For me? Eh, mixed but I do find this wording to be a little questionable and am going back and forth on it myself Also to note, I myself am technically on the conservative to borderline traditionalist side when it comes to religious and science matters, but still, debating the logic here and probably wouldn't use this type of show as a platform for that!

How much does it matter? I don’t think this controversy matters as much
 as it did and I am not sure it would’ve had such a negative reception if it had premiered a few years before or a few years after. A lot of the fandom was fedoras and the peak culture war pastime when it aired was a subset of  mostly evangelical Christians (at least in the US of A) getting into fights/getting dunked on by a larger subset of atheist movement and terminally online internet users who were aligned with that for a variety of reasons. Now it seems to be an afterthought in our current culture wars sometimes with unclear lines. Nowadays I hardly see this episode mentioned in a negative light in the way some others still have and I think it shows how things have changed from then discourse wise. Not going to go any further into that, at least here, makes the thread /uncomfy/. It doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to criticize but it probably should be seen as somewhat poor and wonky over something that is a major faux pas. 

< And wow, strong counterargument. I possibly can talk myself into liking this moral from the angle that our word destroyed a lot of childhood wonder and magic. Twilight Sparkle taken in that light might not be so bad. Our world became sterile and parental standards have become overly prescriptivist on one end to the mere abandonment of children to a world of smartphones and parental neglect on the other. That is a rabbithole for another time.


‘’'The Door to the Apple Cellar’
Now, for the more important thing to speculate on...
WHO OPENED APPLEJACK’S DOOR TO HER CELLAR? It wasn’t Twilight or Applejack from what I gather from rewatching the scene. It seems like it just opened on it’s own! 

‘’‘Rapidash Twilight!''’
A classic and somewhat forgotten meme! Something minorly interesting. A character being injured or wearing cloths one moment and then not the next scene in the same place happens a lot in this episode with no explanation! This is fine and cartoony even if part of my mind wants to overthink it. On the other end though I found it interesting that they bothered to animate smoke coming off of Twilight after she got mad here (though the burn marks still disappear) compared to how most other shots it would just be gone. Need to find the fic that ran way too far with that scene.

‘’‘Observations from  Bridle Gossip Relevant:'’'
 >>/10760/
> It is interesting that Twilight Sparkle is so dismissive of curses. I don't find this irrational unto 

 >>/11350/
Character limit still got me


‘’‘Observations from  Bridle Gossip Relevant:'''
 >>/10760/
> It is interesting that Twilight Sparkle is so dismissive of curses. I don't find this irrational unto itself. Magic to her is still a science and such a science that can be tested and examined. I could see how a curse violates a world of where magic proprieties are pretty well known. Maybe magic needs energy to sustain and function and thus, a curse in the traditional can't exist (there I go trying to rationalize the magic here).

 >>/10696/
> Twilight comments that there’s “no such thing as curses”, another interesting little tidbit about the magic. I think I discussed with the gala tickets in a previous episode whether magic is something that can produce permanent effects, or if it’s always temporary, and notably here curses are typically expected to be quite long in duration, if not infinite in duration. However, since I concluded from said tickets that these lasting enchantments are possible, I think it most likely has to be some other aspect of curses that makes them impossible. 

Pinkie Pie:‘’What's not to believe? You do magic, what's the difference?'’
Twilight Sparkle:‘’Huge! For one thing, [clears throat] magic is something you study and practice. It only happens when you decide to do it, and it's meant to make something specific that you choose to happen, happen. With you, uh, it makes no sense at all!'’

‘’Just a hope skip and a jump'’
Nice continuity Fluttershy!

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 >>/11348/
Lot of formatting errors on my part! I guess that is what I get for posting while exhausted. All my larger posts always feel like air planes making near crash landing. I am not sad but I do apologize if this is a bit more of an eyesore than normal. This review, I tried doing a bit on what you did and noting things sequentially with side observations and a bit minor theorizing. My mind tends to organize things into lists and I have an easier time noting topics as an aside (sometimes perhaps too much so in some of these reviews) but I have fun with this one all the same. The episode is one that I have given a lot of thought about but it has been years... heck, maybe even an decade, that I have seriously picked it apart. A certain nostalgia with this one from reading some the controversy and discourse around it. 

 >>/11287/
I have only glaces at the manga in the past but I do agree the art style is cute and works. It deserves a full read and I think that sounds like a cozy pastime. 

>  It’s more clearly oriented towards children, understandably, but I think for what it is the manga stays remarkably close to the characters (unlike some other material that could be mentioned, like King Zebra) – they each get an introduction which is relatively faithful. Genuinely this would be a pretty good primer for the show for a kid. 
This is one of those things that people underestimate the value of.Not just for kids, but in writing anything pony, a lot of works assume too much foreknowledge of the characters and  setting in question. Whether be it a kids work or some AU fanfic, it is good to have a little bit of an introduction at least. That reminds me that Faust wanted a preschool spinoff staring the CMC (if I recall correctly) though that is tangential. 

> they each get an introduction which is relatively faithful. Genuinely this would be a pretty good primer for the show for a kid. Then, each chapter is broken up into a little story or two. Some of these are roughly adapted from an episode, albeit simplified – Suited For Success is in there, for instance
Makes me want to start reading it and comparing it, lol more crazy theories!

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I wonder why Spike and Twilight were practicing magic outside this time – if concentration is of the essence, it would have been better for them to practice inside the library so there were less distractions. But since they are outside, distractions do occur, in the form of Pinkie with her special umbrella hat, which I would be fascinated to see as a real hat in action. I’d try wearing one, just to see exactly how dry or undry it would keep one in the rain. But rather than rain, we get a frog splatting onto Twilight’s face.  Does Pinkie know how to speak frog from learning with Fluttershy, or is it perhaps her Earth Pony affinity?

Anyways, we then get Twilight dismissing Pinkie’s first prediction as a mere coincidence, before befalling Pinkie’s next prediction, ending up in a ditch. Here is where the endless questions around this episode start, and probably foremost among them since it’s brought up by the episode itself a little later on, is why does Twilight doubt so dismissively when she herself is a student and practitioner of the magic of this world? Well, one thing that I was trying to recall is instances where magic is shown to have predictive power in MLP, primarily within this season as that’s established canon at this point, but later on as well. I can’t say I recall any instance particularly = in Twilight and Dolores’s fight at the end of season 5 (I think) we see potential futures, and that to me would suggest that magic can’t differentiate between potentialities or probabilities. All of which would give a plausible reason for Twilight to both espouse magic and yet doubt predictive divination. The same seems to apply to curses at this stage in canon, going back to the poison joke episode, where maladaptive magic is as likely to adversely affect the caster as the target, and so doesn’t constitute a true ‘curse’. Pinkie’s predictions are proven accurate a third time in a row as Twilight gets splashed with mud, and whilst she runs Twilight a bath, Pinkie explains how different parts of her body will react in accordance with oncoming phenomena. I assume this was a conscious reference on the part of the writer to the real-life phenomenon where people can feel an oncoming storm ‘in their bones’, a real predictive ability as oncoming storms will affect barometric pressure, which can be felt as a sensation in the body. This has an interesting implication for the episode – if that is indeed a conscious reference, then we could take that to mean that the intended reading is that there is a real explanation for Pinkie’s Pinkie sense, but that we simply don’t manage to discover that explanation within the course of the episode. That seems to track with the episode writer, who has made it clear in the aftermath of the episode that they didn’t wish to convey a pro-faith message – not that such a message is undesirable or bad in any way, merely that it wasn’t the original intent as such. In addition, in this scene we see a sink with taps and a faucet, which is the first I’ve seen of plumbing to my recollection in the show. From what we’ve seen of Ponyville, it seems to me as though some buildings have plumbing but most don’t, a situation that puts me in mind of time I spent in rural Ireland as a child. In this context though, Ponyville is less of a truly rural area at this stage in history, and more of a market town (at least in my opinion), and as such, I interpret this as being some of the earliest beginnings of indoor plumbing for areas outside of Canterlot and some other major cities. Also, Gummy introduction, if I’m not mistaken.

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 >>/11367/
Twilight stands on a real soapbox to explain what magic is and what it is not, and she covers something I’ve discussed previously in our discussion: the role of intent. My working theory with the difference between unicorn and earth pony/pegasi magic was that the former is active and the latter passive. This passive side is what Twilight here refers to as a ‘special power’ – Pinkie would have been more apt to point out that Pegasi have a magical affinity with clouds.

After Twilight fails to get measurable readings out of Pinkie, she dons her pith helmet and observes Pinkie from afar. Something I love about this sequence is that both Pinkie and Twilight are being tremendously playful in their own way – Pinkie is frolicking about, and Twilight is incorporating pointless elements like her headgear and a ‘scientific name’ for Pinkie (revealing in the process that she does not at this stage know of Pinkie’s full name of Pinkamena) , both doing this just in the course of their everyday activities. This made me think about another aspect of differences between humans and ponies – we have discussed already how ponies in general seem like a much more childlike species in some respects, with Celestia even seeming reluctant to endanger the innocence of her subjects with regards to external threats, but here we have a specific aspect of that on display, playfulness. It’s not something we often think about, but play is an instinct which comes very naturally to us as children, and then disappears in adulthood, something which I would posit is caused by society, but I don’t know for sure that it is. Either way, playfulness seems to diminish less as ponies pass into adulthood, with adult ponies seeming quite happy to partake in parties and dress-up and sleepovers and other playlike activities without seeing a discrepancy or feeling it’s out of place, the primary barrier preventing human adults from doing these same things. Obviously as always this is out of necessity given the intended audience of the show, but it seems quite internally consistent and thought-out compared to other worlds targeting the same audience: yes this is the way it needs to be for marketing, but since the parameters of an imagined world are arbitrary in any case, it is delightful to see ideas taken to logical conclusions, since we get to see an entire speculative process play out that really helps Equestia feel truly like another world. 

The Hydra’s a great creature, though I’m a little puzzled as to how it remains upright on just two legs with a body like that. The adventurous conclusion with it here is something I’ve been itching for a bit with season 1, even though we’ve got a fair bit of action already with the pilot and Dragonshy among other moments. All the music in this part of the episode is fantastic too, from the swamp music to the dramatic accompaniment to the Hydra chase. And a cute little ending gag with Celestia, too. 

I had less to say about this episode on it’s own, but I think quite a bit more to say with regards to the debate surrounding it, which I think more or less sums up it’s legacy: an episode more significant for the discussion it generated than the episode itself. For the content of what it actually is, separated from the messy philosophical side of it’s lesson, I find it to be a fun and action-packed episode, but not one that especially stands out, again if not for it’s lesson. It is thought provoking, but I don’t know to what extent that’s due to the episode itself, or to the subject matter. I’d venture to say that due to the questions raised taking the limelight as well as a lot of the episode’s focus, I think it’s actually weaker as an episode in it’s own right than it otherwise would be. I compared it earlier to Dragonshy, and I think it basically is a slightly weaker equivalent of that episode. I was then thinking of putting it in solid 8, but Boast Busters, my benchmark for an 8, just stands out as a better episode than this to me, so with that in mind I think I’ll give this a 7.9.

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 >>/11295/
> It did not change with this and I am neither overly impressed or disappointed.
With regard to our differing levels of enjoyment of this episode, I think what really made this episode for me was getting to have the whole Mane 6 in play. It's obviously tricky to pull off, but I really love seeing them as a group - as well as loving the character focus approach, which sounds paradoxical but we got both in that episode and to me, that's a real treat.
 >>/11297/
> This is another instance of Spike seemingly having some sort of other duties/life connected to Canterlot. I had completely forgotten about this. Actually, I am not sure if it has ever stuck out to me before to me. 
This plus the seasons have been standing out to me a lot more on this rewatch - I think there had to have been a 'background timeline' or something similar for this first season, too many things line up too neatly.
> who is ready for a forced meme? 
...110% ready, perhaps?
 >>/11298/
>  but an earth pony raised among unicorns in Canterlot may just be that, he still is culturally hip and a little snobby.
Or even a situation like with the Cakes, where ponies from one group produce a pony from a different group via, presumably, recessive genes in their background. Which makes me think - when Mr and Mrs Cake end up with a Unicorn and a Pegasus for children, that's anything from a non-factor to a blessing for them, but I can only imagine a Unicorn or even Pegasi family having Earth pony children would be a little bit awkward, for both the parents and the children - so much of what would be life's experiences for the parent, they would be unable to share, and the child would almost certainly feel deprived of having those life experiences.
> Here is how I think of ratings in my head, 
I agree with all those, but the ratings are still quite abstract so I find it easier to use episodes as benchmarks for other episodes. 
 >>/11299/
> I hope you get the gist. I think to an extent the fandom is guilty of that, I never brought the complete self guilt or self aggrandizing behavior that the fandom often adopts in viewing itself;we are complex and it is complex. 
I think I get the gist, certainly the sentiment. Complexity is something I'm falling back more and more on as an excuse as I get older - my grandfather always used to say, when asked about something a bit too current or news-y, in a slow and serious voice, "I think it's very complicated". It baffled me back then for such an intelligent man to say such a thing, but more and more I find that on topics where I know something about it intellectually, that really, I can't know much for sure and have to throw up my hands and say "it's complicated". Even something as relatively small as this fandom is large enough that I don't think I could grasp fully what can be truly definitively said about it. The edges are fuzzy and it's more efficient to define it in microcosm than in totality.

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 >>/11348/
> Is there a window of time when something is transformed that it can revert back? Like it needs to be held in place?
My reading was that a transformation needs to be complete to ensure something won't revert, and that the first step of a transformation is an object's appearance, as the least essential of it's characteristics.
> It seems like Spike himself also needed to have his attention on the Twilight/the rock for it to work. What roll does Spike play here?
If intentions, even of non-magic-casting creatures, can help focus or strengthen magic, then perhaps that gives us our answer to why the running of the leaves includes more than just Earth ponies. The underlying magic is being performed by the Earth ponies, but they are aided in what they're doing by the participation of others, strengthening the collective intent. It also gives us potential explanations for things like the power of friendship itself, holding the windigos at bay and manifesting as the most concentrated form of magical power this world has to offer when used by the Mane 6 - since we have an entire nation, Equestria, following the principles of this philosophy of friendship, we could have there the most extreme end example of the power collective intentions have in the magical sphere. 
 >>/11349/
> As for any theorizing, I am going to call a spade a spade and just say Twilight Sparkle doesn’t think straight in a panic sometimes as that explanation makes less sense to me considering what happened with Twilight’s brief confrontation with Nightmare Moon. 
I think the key difference is that when Twilight was confronting Nightmare Moon, she was temporarily isolated from the others and fending for herself in the immediate sense (iirc), whereas here she's defending her friends. It is strange, but people's self-preservation has been known to snap under certain pressures, and Twilight's mind is portrayed throughout the show as in a relatively fragile, snappable state, unfortunate as that sometimes is. I got a chuckle out of it, as it kinda felt like the culmination of Twilight's increasing neurosis throughout the course of this episode.
 >>/11350/
> The wording can be taken here with a very symbolic meaning albeit “leap of faith” doesn’t have to mean “faith” in a strong religious context but also as a figure of speech that just had an unfortunate timing/prescience.
The fact that this was taken at the time to be religion specifically rather than just spirituality or even just superstition I think speaks to the way in which that early-2010s redditor type of atheism was so hostile not just to religion, but to any type of non-empirical thinking or even hypothesis in general. That specific area of the early fandom that was both vehemently hostile to all forms of spirituality and who emphasised the show's value in terms of it's "cleverness" above all else I just find hard to stomach. I never saw MLP as just an ironic, clever commentary on society or something, and sometimes the way early reddit-type fans seemed to talk about the show, it sounds like they viewed it as essentially an early version of Rick and Morty. 
> spoiler
I more or less come from the complete opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to views of the world, so I think it's telling that both of us found the criticism a bit bogus. 
> Now it seems to be an afterthought in our current culture wars sometimes with unclear lines.
As far as MLP's status in the culture war goes, I feel like it's managed to occupy a less contentious space than most other fandoms I dabble(d) in, which is refreshing. I'm in regular contact with both extremes within the fandom (from congoing pride flag types to /mlpol/) and I feel I can more or less get along with both. There is conflict, but compared to something like Star Trek where the core idea of what it's even about is disagreed on, I feel like both extremes in this fandom have more they have in common with regards to how they view the show than might otherwise be the case.

PoLS
Better replies coming later, busy week, but I am doing mostly alright.

 >>/11385/
> If intentions, even of non-magic-casting creatures, can help focus or strengthen magic, then perhaps that gives us our answer to why the running of the leaves includes more than just Earth ponies. The underlying magic is being performed by the Earth ponies, but they are aided in what they're doing by the participation of others, strengthening the collective intent. 

That... wow, need to bookmark and write down this one. Simple point but a strong one I mean, arguably the show short of spells it out but we don't think of applying it to there. Speaking of magic, boy, I just watched Sonic Rainboom and that has had my mind already working on some ideas for that! 


> I more or less come from the complete opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to views of the world, so I think it's telling that both of us found the criticism a bit bogus.

Indeed, /) I can tell religious propaganda when I see it and that ain't it!

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Our opening scene is funny enough and gives us the iconic Fluttershy ‘yay’ meme, but in terms of information, all it actually tells us is that Rainbow Dash is going to involved in some sort of event at which Fluttershy will also be present. As a small moment between Dash and Fluttershy, it’s nice to see.

Speaking of small moments between characters, I enjoy the fact that Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were all helping Twilight tidy up. I wonder what Twilight was studying over the weekend? Then we have the introduction of the titular sonic rainboom, courtesy of Pinkie Pie.  As Rainbow brags that she can do a rainboom no problem, and we as an audience can see that she’s actually nervous, I really like that Rarity chimes in, demonstrating her knowledge and awareness of people. Between this and her focus episode, Rarity is getting some truly great characterisation in this season. It’s also her intervention that goes on to let the rest of the episode happen, as Twilight was more than happy to just go back to tidying up. Pinkie Pie fetching the right book and even knowing what page the right spell is on is fantastic, I even like the explanation she gives to Applejack – even if I do prefer to think of that explanation as an off-the-cuff excuse to hide her powers. Then Rarity even volunteers to be a test subject for the spell! The casting of the spell is also interesting, as Twilight describes it as very complicated and appears drained after casting it. 

As Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash arrive in Cloudsdale, Fluttershy makes a good effort of being assertive. I feel like this is the first we get to see of Rainbow and Fluttershy’s specific relationship being fleshed out more, which carries forward into the rest of the show as I recall. We don’t particularly get this pair-up with the others, but that makes sense since out of all of them, only Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash sort of grew up together, or at least in the same surroundings. After they confront the bullies, Rarity shows up and we get to see her wings properly, which are reminiscent of the Flutterponies from G1, which makes me wonder if those pony’s wings were magically formed too, perhaps by virtue of the Sunstone’s magic. But that’s beside the point. The other three disembark the Twinkling Balloon with a surprising degree of nonchalance – if I knew a spell was the only thing keeping me from falling through the ground, I’d be pretty scared. But then again, magic is a very reliable force in Equestria. Rainbow Dash’s statement of Cloudsdale being the “greatest city in the sky” makes me wonder if there’s more cloud-cities besides this and Las Pegasus. In particular, a lost cloudcity would be a very interesting concept to me. They then go to visit the weather factory – now, I would assume that Cloudsdale is the only place with a weather factory, given the way it’s presented in the show. And since Pegasi have controlled the weather since before ponies even came to Equestria, this would mean that the weather factory is incredibly old, as well as being presumably irreplaceable, since we don’t know of any other cloud cities with weather factories. But it’s fair to assume that it would be a difficult feat of engineering to reproduce, since the weather factory is able to cover all of Equestria with it’s output capacity.

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Now, as they move on to the cloud production floor, we see something that really just puzzles me. The clouds are made more or less as real clouds are made, by condensation of water. However, this raises the question of where Cloudsdale gets the water from. Normally, it wouldn’t be a big issue to get water from the sky, but since the water cycle does not exist in Equestria, they must be getting it from the surface below. All this water needs to be enough to water the crops of all of Equestria with rain, too. My best guess is that Cloudsdale has massive water storage facilities, and it periodically moves to the ocean to refill it’s tanks.

As if to contradict my earlier praise of her character, Rarity has a complete turnaround from her earlier generosity and decides to enter the competition, causing more stress for Dash. It’s not really out of character for her to be distracted by being the centre of attention, but she doesn’t do any favours for her likeability, either. In fairness, she does apologise for it later. Then, as Dash tries to avoid going out by swapping numbers, we see what looks like Dr Whooves (sorry, Time Turner, rather), but he’s a pegasus? I guess in canon they’d be separate but similar-looking ponies, or perhaps even twins. I’d say having the same cutie mark is an issue but there’s so many ponies with that cutie mark that it isn’t really. So Rarity and Rainbow Dash both leave it to the last second and go on together, then we get our Icarus moment with Rarity. And from there, we wrap it up with apologies and Dash getting to meet the Wonderbolts. Altogether, a very satisfying ending – and since I probably won’t have time to do another episode before the new year, a fittingly momentous conclusion to end the year on, I think. 

Overall, I would rate this episode 8.7. It mixes some of the character development of Suited for Success with the adventure of Dragonshy, plus some tasty worldbuilding, so it sits a little bit above those episodes for me.

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Sonic Rainboom, what can I say about this one?  This review is going to be on the shorter side,  had two family members fall ill and one injure himself after a surgery, my mobility isn’t 100% right now, been an interesting holiday season!

Something about the traveling here feels different to other seasons. More cozy, more ‘’intimate'.’ I think some of it is the fresh details we get and how fresh and young the world is. I really shouldn’t compare this to later seasons all the time but I can’t hep it! I liked it! I like the feeling here.  I thought the build up to the conflict and how it was executed was solid enough. I enjoyed Rainbow Dash switching her numbers and avoiding leaving till the last possible moment. It reminded me of the dread of waiting for a shot when I was young. Something that was quick and better to get over with sooner, yet, the fear of it is so strong that I want to avoid getting a shot at all costs and anything that delayed it, even slightly, felt like a blessing. The rainboom was well animated by season 1 standards even if it was outdone later on. 

There is a lot of world building that I should get into on Cloudsdale and the weather but I cannot help but focus on the spells here. It is interesting detail of this  is how they so causally let let Rarity compete in the race without prejudice. How everypony fawns over Rarity and shows an interest? You’d think that, especially with the context of some racial animosity that still lingered on and could rear it’s head that was established within the show even  in, well, next season, this should’ve been an issue! I think though this  “problem” in continuity   can be fairly easily resolved : unicorns are a, pun intended, a rarity!  I couldn’t find it from a few quick searches, but I know Faust before has said something to the effect of, Earth Ponies were the most common, Pegasi a hundred times less common than Earth Ponies, and Unicorns a hundred times less common than pegasi. Thinking along these lines fixes this and actually goes with a lot of the cultural dynamics were see in Season 1 and later on. Unicorns budding in  and doing shenanigans like this would be an uncommon occurrence and a speckle/sight of wonder.. They wouldn’t be taking the spotlight every day of the week.

Also, magical spells are common knowledge but unicorns who can preform a lot of spells, may be rarer still. We don’t see anypony else using that cloud walking spell after all! Goodness, thinking along these lines  could be used to explain a lot. Trixie being a performer to the smugness of Canterlot society even might partly be due to the relative rarity of unicorns in this world. 

This review is a bit of a traffic jam, my rating is a 6.9 out of 10. I liked it a lot, but isn’t isn’t in great territory for me for whatever reason.

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 >>/11458/
Now, for the one line that I have racked my brain for way too long:
’’‘Be careful with those wings, Rarity. They're made from gossamer and morning dew, and they're incredibly delicate.’‘

To start:
’‘Gossamer:’
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gossamer
> a film of cobwebs floating in air in calm clear weather
the specifics of  what these wings are made of. Without these line I would just assume magical energy or material of some kind.  Twilight wrapped Rarity in a magic of sorts and the was under considerable strain from it. I logically think some sort of conjuring is involved but gossamer is a cobweb in  a specific ‘’‘state'.'’ Same for morning dew! I am fine with morning dew and evening rain having different supernatural properties and affects,  the thing that is weird here is that it seems like she generated the wings from magic and... I wonder how one would conjure something with properties like that? 

Flutteryay happened here. A classic meme. Though honestly the payoff of Fluttershy cheering Rainbow Dash the loudest was sweet and I enjoyed that more.

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 >>/11446/
 >>/11447/
> in particular, a lost cloudcity would be a very interesting concept to me. They then go to visit the weather factory – now, I would assume that Cloudsdale is the only place with a weather factory, given the way it’s presented in the show. And since Pegasi have controlled the weather since before ponies even came to Equestria, this would mean that the weather factory is incredibly old, as well as being presumably irreplaceable, since we don’t know of any other cloud cities with weather factories. 
> However, this raises the question of where Cloudsdale gets the water from. Normally, it wouldn’t be a big issue to get water from the sky, but since the water cycle does not exist in Equestria, they must be getting it from the surface below. All this water needs to be enough to water the crops of all of Equestria with rain
This is where your review complements mine. I had a singular focus on the magic and you foused more on the setting of Cloudsdale, as for what you propose here there is an interesting dichotomy with it that I'll (hopefully) highlight. One is a narrative inference based on the show at face value and one is a logical inference based on real world logic to some extent. I think that the weather factory, based on what we've seen so far, doesn't necessarily have to exist. Logically, it could be decentralized/or merely another place or process somewhere else. Hurricane Fluttershy I'll ignore, but considering what we have seen thus far, it doesn't necessarily need to be that much water given how magic works and how (possibly) small scale things often seem to be (one dragon being enough to put Equestria under fog for 1000 years). Now, I've done the reverse to you? Does that make me right, IDK. I actually lean towards taking the show at face value (sometimes though, that is impossible!) but I think calculating real world/real scale of things is still worth it!


> Speaking of small moments between characters, I enjoy the fact that Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were all helping Twilight tidy up
I like little moments of that nature as well!

> The other three disembark the Twinkling Balloon with a surprising degree of nonchalance – if I knew a spell was the only thing keeping me from falling through the ground, I’d be pretty scared. But then again, magic is a very reliable force in Equestria.
Agreed, you'd think a fear of heights more generally would still be in effect. Maybe just from the sheer size of Cloudale? It's hard to be afraid of heights with large buildings and places to cloudwalk? Though there still seemed to be a lot of scary places without any guardrails.

>  a lost cloudcity would be a very interesting concept to me. 
Yes! How long would it be before it decayed? A lost cloud city hidden in the eye of a hurricane? Lots of possibilities there!

> Overall, I would rate this episode 8.7. It mixes some of the character development of Suited for Success with the adventure of Dragonshy, plus some tasty worldbuilding, so it sits a little bit above those episodes for me.
My rating as well this time is just based on personal enjoyment and 6.9 is pretty good  oh no, do I consider this scale logarithmic? LOL.  Anyways, this part of my reply is in the new year and we've been at this for a year now haven't we?Happy to be the bridge to 2025!