That One Little Girl's 'Pony' Cartoon that's Slowly Devouring the Internet

[Rainbow Dash]

So two things....

First.  David Ryder pony has a name.



Bulk Biceps.  You can't tell me that's not a nod to Space Mutiny.

Second, episode 11 this season is going to have a very special guest star. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Weird Al

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[Rainbow Dash]

So if that's where batponies come from, that means Celestia is the only Princess who doesn't brainwash others.

[Rainbow Dash]

Rarity takes Manehattan and Pinkie Apple Pie were pretty good.

Didn't care to much for today's episode.

"Lets make a Rainbow Dash episode where she considers ditching her team to get on a better team.  And lets establish in the first 5 minutes that she intentionally chose to join and help a weak team rather than just competing on her own"

The conflict made no sense.  Some nice background stuff.  Didn't care to much for the Bulk Biceps joke (though the name is Ryder-tastic), as he was established as a good flyer before this.

[RoninFox]

Yeah, and Ponyville has shown that they have a ton of good flyers, enough that it makes absolutely no sense to me to have Fluttershy competing.  It seems totally out of character for her.  Even with establishing rules that no pony can compete in more than one event, leaving Rainbow Dash with those two seemed like too much of a stretch...Not to mention the fact that Rainbow Dash probably would rather compete in a solo competition as opposed to a team sport.

It wasn't a terrible episode, but it wasn't great either, and it was kind of treading the same ground as Rainbow's temptation scene in the pilot.  I see the theme that this season we're going to see the mane six re-establish their elements of harmony meanings in individual stories, but they did a much better job with Rarity's episode.

[Rainbow Dash]

They needed to do something more than just "Oooh, this team can win" temptation.  Play up the fact that Cloudsdale is her home.   Have a few old friends on the team.  Have her dad be the coach.  You can't make the only hook "because they are better" and have Dash chose before the episode even starts to help out a low tier team rather than competing in an event with say Cloud Chaser or Thunderlane.

[Relaxing Dragon]

I actually thought they did a good job with Dash today. She's always had a powerful winning streak in her, one that can be inherently at odds with her loyalty (because one does not always allow for the other, as today showed). She also seems to be aware that she's pretty consistently always right on the verge of really breaking out and making it to the big leagues, but she always ends up staying small-time in Ponyville (so to speak, of course; she's also a world-famous hero several times over, but the show seems to play fast and loose with how the Mane 6 are treated by other ponies about this sort of thing). I like that they put all that to the test, especially to present her with a clear case of testing her Element (which seems to be the trigger for each key to the Mystery Box. I expect Pinkie's key to pop up at the end of the Weird Al episode).

Fluttershy, meanwhile, was probably just talked into the whole thing. She's not exactly difficult to convince. Why they didn't choose Twilight over Bulk Biceps, though, I have no idea. She's got wings now. Take advantage of that.

Quite liked the background shots of the Griffons. It's about time they made a comeback.

[RoninFox]

I thought about Twilight too, but figured she wouldn't be confident in her flying herself. She might be faster than Bulk, but she might also have missed every ring.

[Rainbow Dash]

Wow, that episode was brilliant.  They didn't make Al the center of it all, guy didn't even write his songs for the episode.  I'm not a big fan of the Pinkie Pie focus episodes, but this one was fantastic.

Though, someone at the animation studio had a cruel sense of humor.  For 3 seasons we've seen Spike get left out of Pinkie Pie parties.  In this episode, Spike just disappears from the episode once the party starts, suggesting that yes, Pinkie Pie hates the little guy and will invite everyone in the town to a party but him.

[Relaxing Dragon]

Yeah, this one was a keeper. My favorite since Magic Duel, I'd say. I love how they handled Pinkie's realization with regards to her element. That is, she got so caught up in the party in and of itself, she nearly forgot what they're supposed to be all about: making others happy. Loved all the songs as well, this was a great choice as a musical episode. Looking forward to what the remixer crowd does with it.

As for Spike, first rule for proper parties: never invite the help.

[Rainbow Dash]

I do like that they held them selves back on meta jokes, and the one big one they did with Cheese parodying "Smile!" was great.

[Relaxing Dragon]

The show has been striking a very good balance as of late when it comes to meta-gags and fan-winks. Best to keep them mostly on the sidelines. Funny for those who get then, but either unnoticeable or still effective on their own for those that don't.

[Rainbow Dash]

And today the ponies learned that the spirit of music is inside all of you!

[Relaxing Dragon]

[RoninFox]

Another Fluttershy episode, and a pretty good one.  Who do we have left in this "test the elements of harmony" series?  Twilight and Applejack, right?

Loved the Doctor Whooves cameo in this one.

[Relaxing Dragon]

Loved the humor in this one (pretty much the whole bit with Rarity's dresses was perfect). Nice good message for Fluttershy about actually getting tough when she needs to, kindness or otherwise. Even better that that turned out to be her key.

Yeah, just Applejack and Twilight left. I have a feeling Twilight's will be saved for late in the season, if not the season finale itself. It depends how many more full episodes they want to devote to the box and all that surround it.