I made a rant-y post on another forum, and thought I would share it here because this episode makes me unhappy.

Rainbow Falls was really disappointing to me.

Take Wonderbolt Academy (A really good episode!), water down the moral, make Dashie's show-long story's goal sound like a bad idea, and add an idiotically out of proportion blob of a pony who doesn't belong in the show - what do you have? Rainbow Falls.

Let's take these one at a time. I'll talk about the Wonderbolts first because damn, they made me mad. You know who I thought about when Spitfire was trying to convince Dashie to join their team? The Shadowbolts. It basically lowered Spitfire's character to an unfaithful conniving little backstabbing jerk. That's who Dashie wants to fly with?

Dashie should start her own team. And add Lightning Dust to the roster.

Next, "Bulk Biceps". I honestly cannot grasp how anyone would want this character to be in the show. Shouting things like "'P' IS FOR RAINBOW DASH!" Is... Well, maybe it's just not my type of humor. Not only did he annoy me with his antics, he annoys me with his physique. Have you seen any other pony ever who looked even a little like him? Does he have some sort of freak genetic mutation? I really thought and hoped he would be a one-and-done character back in his debut in "Hurricane Fluttershy".

Okay. We've given Dashie the choice between proving herself to the Wonderbolts (for the umpteenth time) and supporting her friends. No, I'm not talking about Rainbow Falls, I'm talking about Wonderbolt Academy. In this episode, Dashie performs admirably! She flat out refuses to continue trying out for a team that is not supporting her friends (Element of Loyalty, go!).

Fast forward to Rainbow Falls, and Dashie is in the exact same predicament. To my great dismay, she doesn't stick up for her friends. Not at first, anyway. Only once she's tried tricking her friends into thinking that she had refused the Wonderbolt's offer and then faked an injury to try to get out of it does she finally get back in character somewhat. Unfortunately, the damage had been done.

I realize that I may be coming off as overly negative here, so I want to finish up on a more positive note. Over all, besides the fact that Princess Twilight doesn't really seem like a Princess at all, Season 4 has gone very well. I can see that the writers are branching out a bit and, for the most part, that's a good thing! This is really the first episode I've been disappointed with this season, and it wasn't a total loss: Derpy!