Wind Chaser

Say what you want about 90% of the episode being a dream sequence. As someone who continues, day after day, to struggle with what Apple Bloom struggles with, every bit of how that dream portrayed her, the world around her, and other characters, felt very natural and fitting for the emotional state Apple Bloom was in. When looking at every scene throughout the middle of this episode, you shouldn't look at it without considering it in the context of how Apple Bloom sees the world, not as it actually is. DT and Silver Spoon are up to their old tricks because that's all she knows of DT and Silver Spoon. You can't expect any character development on their part, because technically they weren't actually in the episode, that was all in Apple Bloom's head. The same can be said for those scenes of the other two Crusaders telling her off. That's all her expectation, not to be measured against reality. Apple Bloom's always been impatient about getting a cutie mark, but this episode dealt with a different manifestation of that. It dealt with her fearing the unknown, and that's very believable for someone in that situation, especially of her age. The kinds of questions she brought up are actually quite familiar to pretty much every Crusaders thread in Show Discussion since the previous season ended, and ones I've been waiting for this show to take on. With this undying devotion to self-image MLP's world has, it never really addresses the concern of a negative self-image too often. This episode finally acknowledges the presence of such a possibility, to spend every hour of your short life working for something that didn't benefit you. Been there. Done that. Smoked it. Called it an Uber. (Google that reference if you don't get it.) This episode very accurately and fittingly reflects the emotional state of someone who deals with the quest for self-image under heavy and conflicting external pressures. It's something that damns you if you do and damns you if you don't. This is one episode where you really have to look at the big picture. As a dream sequence, it really works. It captures all the feelings of a dream: the familiarity and the realism combined with the surreal and psychological aspects of it. That really helps in delivering its message, not to worry yourself too much over things that are realistically outside of your control. Something I myself, for one, can very much relate to.

MLP tends to like using the "X is my middle name" cliche a lot. Two fanon middle names originating in fan works were "Jennifer" and "Miriam", but this is merely a curiosity. It's not like knowing Dash's middle name is consequential to the plot anyway.

I swear she sounded just like Fluttershy, but it was Tabitha St Germain (Rarity) that was credited for her voice (as "Spa Pony"). I guess we've got a sure stand-in for the next time Andrea Libman has to call in sick.

Bramble is adorable! He reminds me of Rudolph!

No one knows for sure what Hasbro's long-term plan is, and they're definitely in a spot here. Likewise, the writers can't plan for anything since there is a distance between them and the corporate parents that bankroll the franchise. The only thing resembling a long-term plan was when Hasbro declared to investors a year or two ago that they wanted to go for 5 more years, which would take G4 to the end of the decade consistent with Hasbro's strategy of rebooting the franchise every decade. However, that was before certain variables, namely Hasbro giving up on the Hub and turning over promotional duties to Discovery, came into the equation. I think the writers may have written "Magical Mystery Cure" with the possibility of being a series finale in mind, given that Season 4 was not confirmed when production launched a year prior to the episode's airing. This shows how much of the show's fate depends on last-minute decisions. All there is now is rumors. Possibly the movie could be the end of it, maybe it'll end at 6 or 7 seasons, or it could go on even longer than that. On the possibility of the show ending on top of its game, while that could go either way critically, commercially that would be definite suicide with a winning formula like MLP. With the show running the way it is right now, I'd say it could run a season or two more before we can definitely start talking about it ending in the near future. For MLP running long, one thing for sure, do not compare it to a show like The Simpsons or SpongeBob. Both shows are straight-up comedies which stagnated due to the combination of staff changes and reliance on the status quo. MLP has always been more about the substance and has ways of changing things up when the time arises, so rest assured there will always be something attempting to keep MLP fresh and have faith in the writers to keep the show good. Right now, it's still too early to tell because of the last-minute, short-term nature of these decisions and the fact that Season 6 has already been ordered. It doesn't hurt to wonder where this show will go next, but it's best to take these things as they come.