I had good intentions! Honest! Until I… didn’t, any more… – Spike

Twilight's hittin' the hay books.

Summary
Twilight has been making arrangements for an Equestria-wide Conference, to the point where she is asleep on her feet. Princess Cadance charges Spike with seeing that she gets some uninterrupted rest before the conference proper starts. Spike tries his best to keep the environs quiet: moving a noisy polo game elsewhere, convincing a gardener to stop trimming some top heavy Dragonsneeze trees with his chainsaw, and stopping a construction pony with a jackhammer from working on a damaged water main.

During a celebratory snack of some rubies, Spike is confronted by two of the delegates who have been double booked for their speeches. Soliciting the advice of the groggy Princess proves useless – she’s too addled by sleep deprivation to make any sense. Spike, seeing no other option, suggests that the two ponies simply share the hall. Believing the suggestion actually came from Princess Twilight (and not “Princess” Spike), the two accept it. This leads to Spike deciding he has free rein to make all decisions on Twilight’s behalf. He even starts taking on tasks that Twilight was due to complete, so that she won’t have to bother with them.

Despite Princess Cadance’s increasingly concerned remonstrations, he continues to make decisions using Twilight’s authority, some of which turn out to cause trouble. Confronted again by Cadance, he admits he might be taking it too far, but in his defense, nothing really bad resulted…

Of course, right then, disaster strikes. A stray shot from the polo players knocks over the Dragonsneeze trees, one of which falls on the water main, breaking the pipe and sending a torrent of water into the main hall, flooding it. Cadance is able to stop the water with some (never-before-seen) crystal magic, and an untimely opening of the main hall door by Fancy Pants himself lets the water flood out. Just when Spike thinks the disaster is averted, some broken branches from the Dragonsneeze trees that were washed into the hall make the dragon sneeze (fancy that!), shattering the centerpiece of the conference… a statue make up of gems from each of the cities in Equestria.

Seeing the ruination, Fancy Pants rounds on the construction and gardening ponies, demanding to know why his orders weren’t carried out. They both state that Princess Twilight made the decisions that led to disaster, and Spike can’t find the opportunity to own up to his transgression before the angry mob of delegates head for Twilight’s chamber to confront her over “her” poor decisions.

Spike manages to get there first and lock the door, just before Twilight wakes up… refreshed and ready to join the conference. Confronted by the furious delegates, Twilight is bewildered until Spike lets her know what he’s been getting up to. They all go back to the main hall, where Spike comes cleans and apologizes to the ponies. As a sign of forgiveness, they help him rebuild the statue.

The Bugz
Hoo boy! The Spike Abuse is strong with this one. And it starts early in the episode: he doesn’t even get to finish saying a few words before one of the ponies in the audience interrupts him. Throughout most of the episode, he tries his hardest to do the right thing in what is quite frankly an untenable position: Twilight needs to sleep, but the delegates need her to advise them. And there are THREE other Princesses, any of whom could have been the ones to sort out these important issues. Maybe they’re busy elsewhere, but that is never established in the episode, so it seems Princess Cadance is just throwing Spike in the deep end of the pool. Yet she’s only too happy to wag her finger at him when things go wrong. He shouldn’t have been put in that position in the first place, and his only crime is not being genre savvy enough to realize it’s all going to end up biting him in his scaly backside. If you ask me, Cadance is the one at fault, not Spike.

Not only the Princesses, but the universe in general seems to hate Spike too. I mean, come on… DragonSNEEZE trees? Dragon Quest established that ponies have virtually no knowledge of dragons, but they do know what kind of trees give them allergies?  I guess the ponies who planted them couldn’t have foreseen a dragon having problems with them, but why would they plant trees that get so top heavy that a small knock is enough to send them tumbling? Isn’t that just a little bit of a safety risk, presence of a dragon or no?

Even the end of the episode refuses to give him a break, heavily implying that he destroys the statue yet again with another sneeze.

The Shrugz
What was up with the griffon delegate? Either she comes from Griffonstone, or there’s another griffon city located in Equestria itself. If it’s the former, I have to wonder how such a struggling society can afford to part with a gemstone of that size (it’s not the smallest gem by a long way, even if it isn’t the biggest.) So is Griffonstone back on its feet already? If it’s the latter, then why is there a city of griffons within Equestria? Did the griffons we saw in Equestria Games and Rainbow Falls come from the former or the latter? Too many questions!

Oh, and there’s Gustav making a cameo. Continuity nod! Speaking of continuity nods…

Agent Sweetie Drops is under cover again!

The Hugz
Fancy Pants returns, and we see that he is dedicated to maintaining Canterlot’s reputation. Even if he did take a chance on getting special treatment, he accepted “Twilight’s” ruling that it would be unfair to the rest of the delegates gracefully enough. He was also the first to step up after Spike’s apology and attempt to rebuild the statue. The scene where all the ponies (and one griffin) help Spike rebuild the gem statue brings the feels, even if the ending kind of ruined it. And where is Fleur? Did Fancy Pants perhaps dump her to make a play for Rarity?  Intriguing!

I also like Twilight snuggling up with the books when she’s tired. Adorable! Plus it could be considered a funny call back to Equestria Girls and Twilight sleeping on a bed of books.

There also seems to be a much greater variation than usual in the shapes of the ponies, as highlighted by the delegates of the various cities.

Pros: Some heartwarming moments. Return of a few characters.
Cons: Spike is set up to fail in a situation he shouldn’t have faced in the first place. Spike Abuse continues to be a thing.

Final Thoughts
While this episode had one or two highlights, for the most part, it’s just Spike getting dumped on by the universe again. It makes it really hard to accept that Spike is in the wrong when he’s been thrust into a position where he’s basically set up to fail, which really pulls this episode down in my opinion.

Final Ranking:
Rarity’s Cutie Mark Rank – A scintillating story! Sure to be rewatched frequently.
Rock Candy Rank – A highly enjoyable episode, but it couldn’t avoid a cavity or two.
Tom Rank – Average. While it looked like a diamond, it turned out to be just a rock.
Boulder Rank – Below average. Take it out once or twice, then leave it in your pocket.
Rock Farm Rock Rank – A terrible episode. Leave it where it lies.

Stay sunny side up!