"Sisterhooves Social" is the last of the homeruns that we got at the beginning of Season 2; I consider these first five episodes to be among some of the best in MLP canon for varying reasons. Each one made their own unique contributions to the show, from starting the season off with a bang, introducing a new format or character to the show, and/or adding to or expanding upon the MLP universe. "Sisterhooves Social", while definitely the most normal episode out of these first five, qualifies as a classic for one big reason: it was the first episode of MLP to really follow the new formula for learning friendship lessons first introduced in "Lesson Zero". Sure, Princess Celestia may have told Twilight in that episode specifically that any of her friends were to report to her from then on whatever lessons they learned on friendship, and only when they learned them, but "Sisterhooves Social" was actually the first episode in which Twilight was not involved with the friendship lesson/report in any way, shape, or form. Obviously this little detail isn't the only thing that makes this episode work so well, so let's look at everything that does.

Well first of all, the fact that family is at the center of this episode really is quite interesting. In Season 1, aside from the fact that we learned which ponies were related to who, family was really never a focus of any episode. Every friendship lesson learned was usually gathered as a result of non-familial interactions and relations, usually between the Mane 6 or the CMC. This episode however gave us the first lesson ever picked up between family members in the show, siblings to be specific. Rarity and Sweetie Belle are the focus of this episode, and I really like that those two (the older, refined fashionista and drama queen along with her precocious, spunky, energetic, and adorable little sister), who really don't seem to have anything in common were the focus of the episode. It showed that not only were Twilight's friends going to be more invested in future friendship lessons, but also that they would not just be limited to learning lessons between themselves, but also family members. Those are important lessons, because friendship is a part of family relations just as much, if not more even, than it is a part of any relations one has outside of his/her family, but also, friendship between family is very different in many ways as well, so the fact that Studio B decided to progress to tackling family relations thematically impresses me very much. From this point forth in the show, family could just as easily be the focus of attention of an episode as non-familial, friendly relations could be, and often has been. So, just what do Sweetie Belle and Rarity learn that's so important?

Well, I guess I'll start by covering Sweetie Belle. For starters, she doesn't really learn a lesson in this episode; really, from the very beginning she's pretty much got everything figured out. Sure she makes plenty of mistakes, but her heart is in the right place from the get go; she just wants to spend time with her big sister while she gets to stay at her place while their parents are on vacation (as an aside, I absolutely LOVE their parents!!! I still bust a gut every time I hear those delicious, cheeseheaded Wisconsin accents that I am all too familiar with in my own family coming out of Rarity and Sweetie Belle's mom and dad!! TOO GOOD!!!).

Next, we'll cover Sweetie Belle's costar, Rarity. Now, let me start by saying that I have a love-hate relationship with Rarity's starring roles in Season 2. Don't get me wrong, she's the same ol' hilarious, over-the-top, fashionista and drama queen we'd all come to know and love in Season 1, and plenty of times she displays the traits we'd grown to love her for whenever she shows up in a starring role. The difference is that, whereas in Season 1 she won us over whenever she was in a starring role as a generous pony who was competent, kind, and had her heart in the right place, in Season 2 whenever she's in a starring role, well... she's kind of a jerk at times! I'll have more to say about that in my review of "Sweet and Elite", but it's really jarring here just how bad she is for so much of the episode at being a good sister! Rarity's the only one here who really needs to learn a lesson, and man oh man does it take forever for it to get through to her!!! She has a terribly difficult time accepting that she needs to compromise in how she spends her time with Sweetie Belle (after of course she finally figures out that she should spend time with her), and it's just plain frustrating seeing as how she was so likable in Season 1!!! I guess it's not entirely unrealistic seeing as there's quite the age gap between her and Sweetie Belle and they might not be the closest of sisters, seeing as she seems to have moved out of the house some time ago, but still, I expected better out of Rarity than this. The only redeeming factor for her is that she learns her lesson real well and ultimately redeems herself pretty much entirely in that last 5 minute segment at the Sisterhooves Social, but still, for the first 3/4 of the episode Rarity often comes across as uncharacteristically insensitive.

YOU'VE BEEN AN OOC JERK, THAT'S WHAT!!!

Alright, now that the two obvious costars of the show are out of the way, let's cover the third star of this episode who probably shines the most out of any of them: APPLEJACK!!!!!!!!!

OK, AJ may not be the star of this episode per se, BUT as I said, she shines more than really anypony else in this episode, especially when you contrast her to Rarity. In the course of this episode, she (1) consoles Sweetie Belle in the middle of her chores and spending time with her own little sister when the filly is distraught over Rarity's ignoring her to the point that Sweetie Belle wants to adopt AJ as her new big sister (which is hilarious ), (2) teaches Rarity the lesson of the episode about how, as Sweetie Belle's big sister, she has to understand that being a good sibling is a give-and-take relationship (with an apple pie metaphor appropriately enough, also hilarious ), and (3) helps hatch and execute a plan with Rarity to win back Sweetie Belle's affection for her friend (and apparently those two have lungs of steel because they BOTH were in that mudhole for ages!!! ). IN ADDITION to all of these positive traits, Applejack also proves herself to be an extraordinarily good sister to Apple Bloom; now, this probably can largely be attributed to the different circumstances surrounding her own relationship with her sister and Sweetie Belle and Rarity's. Given that we now know that it is pretty much unspoken canon that AJ's parents are dead, we can assume that AJ has functioned for a long time as a parental figure for Apple Bloom alongside Big Mac and Granny Smith, and an important one at that as she's the closest of the Apples in age to AB in their immediate family. This is probably the biggest reason that AJ is so gosh darn mature in the episode, but it doesn't change the fact that she's leaps and bounds ahead of Rarity at the start of this episode and plays probably the biggest role in teaching her good fashionista friend a valuable lesson. Not much more else to say other than Applejack absolutely rocks and proves herself to be probably the best sister on the show and one of the most mature ponies to boot in this here episode.

Well, that about does it for this review. Aside from the problems I have with how long it takes Rarity to learn her lesson, this is a fantastic and fun episode and did make some important, notable strides for MLP as I mentioned earlier, largely in just how the entire episode was executed. It's a fun one to rewatch and I highly recommend it to any brony and pegasister out there!