Welcome back everypony to another "Batbrony Reviews". First of all, I'm sorry I wasn't able to be there this morning to watch the episode with everypony else; for those of you who don't know, I was volunteering as a judge for the Michigan state finals for National History Day in Lansing. It was a blast, I got to hang out with some of my fellow WMU grad friends, and also read some great papers and meet some bright young students, so it was well worth the absence, even though I missed you guys too. Anyways, this is gonna be a fun review. I'll try to keep it as short as possible since there's so many good things to say about this one, but no promises. This one hit about every note right as much as it possibly could have. Also, to my good buddy DashForever, this one's for you, my man.

So, "Tanks for the Memories." This one is up there as far as RD episodes go. Right now, I can only think of a handful that might actually beat it out, such as "Sonic Rainboom" (but that's mostly for the nostalgia and awesome factor). I don't know if we've ever seen Rainbow Dash this emotional, I don't know if we've ever seen such a tragic side to her loyalty, and I don't know if we've ever had such a truly bittersweet Slice of Life episode. What probably impresses me the most about it is that it didn't really build up to a happy ending. It wasn't a happy ending. It was... very much bittersweet, but in a good way. It was about acceptance, namely, accepting that a friend near and dear to RD had to go away for awhile. And ya know what, for RD, the most loyalest of ponies who'd do anything for her friends, that bucking hurt, because she couldn't do anything to stop it. Tank had to hibernate, and despite trying to stop winter itself, RD in the end couldn't do anything about it. We've seen her have to learn to accept help from her friends before to certain extents, but never in the sense that they couldn't solve the problem together. Here, all they could was be there for her. That's all they could do, and that's all she really needed. All she needed to do, as Fluttershy so aptly realized, was cry it out, and boy oh boy, did she ever. She cried, and cried, and cried it out. She cried it out so hard that she got 3 other ponies to cry it out with her (and one on the inside, I bucking love AJ for that). And even after she'd cried it out, she still wasn't completely over it, but she was ready to accept it, and that's a valuable lesson to teach all of us. Sometimes, we can't solve all of our problems; sometimes, we just have to accept that some things are going to happen no matter what we do. It may hurt, it may hurt a lot, and it may require quite a few tears from us all, but accepting the hurt, especially with friends and family by your side, is better than running away, ignoring, or fighting it. That's by far one of the most mature lessons we've ever seen in any episode of MLP, much less a Slice of Life episode, and I cannot praise Cindy Morrow enough. She really knows how to tug at viewers heartstrings, doesn't she?

So that right there about sums up the highest praise I have for the episode. There's a lot of other great things to be said about it, but those were my most important thoughts. Besides how well all of the aforementioned elements worked in the episode, there was a ton of other stuff that I loved. Tank was adorable as usual, possibly more adorably awesome than he's ever been before. I always get the sense with him that, given that he's probably quite old at this point, he's got a lot of wisdom for a pet. He seemed to keep giving RD looks throughout the episode that just said, "Hey, it's OK, I gotta go away for a little while, but I love you, and I'll be back before you know it." Some of those faces alone made the impact of the episode itself all the harder to take, but again, it worked so well. Aside from that, it was pretty funny and cute to see him get more and more tired (aside from how much it was distressing RD). Besides Tank, Fluttershy shined quite a bit as well in this episode. She really knows when tough love is called for, especially when it comes to more emotionally stressful situations, and I liked that the episode highlighted that.

Comedy-wise, there was A LOT. I'll just name off what stuck out to me the most. (1) Rainbow Dash being racist to Spike (seriously, first the dragon is completely the same as the tortoise, then the next second it's "What would you know, you're just a dragon!"); (2) angry-eyes Rainbow Dash (following her equally hilarious angry-rant); (3) Rainbow Dash making the bucking Grinch-smile; (4) the debacle that was trying to stop winter in the Cloudsdale weather factory (especially when RD got zapped in the lightning room... which seems like an awfully dangerous way to store lightning, come to think of it); (5) Twilight "Ned Stark Winter is Coming" Sparkle and the most obvious yet still amazing Game of Thrones reference EVER; (6) the emotional RD/group-crying scene that somehow managed to get as hilarious as it was sad (capped off by us learning that AJ apparently cries on the inside); (7) my personal favorite, and that's saying a lot, but one of the most amazing "Who's on First?" references I've ever heard in my entire life in the conversation that those three new weather ponies had about how confusing their names were, that was bucking PRICELESS!!!

So yeah, this was a funny episode, you get the idea. Besides that, it actually confirmed a lot of my head canon about Cloudsdale, which I personally greatly appreciated since a lot of that (particularly the fact that Cloudsdale actually moves around all over Equestria altering the weather, though I'd thought that was also previously confirmed in "Hurricane Fluttershy") material will actually factor into my fanfiction later on. Not to mention I just enjoyed seeing Cloudsdale extensively again since I love pegasi and I love that location a lot. The animation, as usual, was gorgeous, and apparently Daniel Ingram has been working overtime this season. Seriously, we have had a song every episode (and yes, short as it was, Applejack's lullaby from the last episode totally counts), and this, on top of everything else, was actually RD's first ever solo song. And ya know what? It was awesome! It's upbeat, fast-paced tone and instrumentals completely complemented her vocals to a T, and I loved every second of it. Finally, it was also cool getting to see both the Running of the Leaves again, as well as Ponyville at the end of Fall and the start of Winter. In fact, I just realized that, assuming Tank's gone for awhile, we might actually get to see a few episodes at least take place in winter, something we've never really gotten to see before. We've seen episodes here and there take place in winter in Ponyville or Canterlot, but never a series of them in a row, so that could be cool! Besides that, I don't have really anything else to say about this one. "Tanks for the Memories" was just a perfect Slice of Life episode in every sense of the word, and I loved every minute of this one. It reminded me why so many bronies consider RD to be best pony, and when any episode does that for any of the Mane 6, you know it's a good one.

Thanks for the memories, Tank, good buddy; we'll see you again before you know it.