Wind Chaser

"The Crystal Empire": It had a great moral despite the story's botched portrayal. It was visually an amazing episode, especially for the point in the series in which it came out, and the Crystal Ponies and King Sombra served as an interesting emotional allegory. King Sombra himself was the most competent of the two-parter villains, going down fighting instead of on a "stand and gloat" moment, and setting a bunch of traps that really tested Twilight's prowess and showed how much progress she had made. "Too Many Pinkie Pies": Pinkie Pie in an existential crisis is always interesting to watch ("Party of One" and "Pinkie Pride"). The idea had some very deep themes and was exploited very well for its comedic potential and as a character study. It gets better just talking about it. "One Bad Apple": The song sequence was a very well-made pop homage and is catchy as all get-out. "Magic Duel": Visually, a very unique episode. The epic setup had a lot of potential had the episode taken itself more seriously. "Sleepless in Ponyville": Along with the following episode and "Hurricane Fluttershy", this showed Rainbow Dash's character development into a wiser, morally stronger potential mentor figure to Scootaloo. It was also Scootaloo's first focus episode, and the first in which Princess Luna shows up in a mentor role to one of the Crusaders, further developing her role as the reformed former villain trying to steer others away from going down the same path that got her banished. "Wonderbolts Academy": Like the preceding episode, it really showed how far Rainbow Dash had come in her character development. Like "The Crystal Empire", it also showed how far she had come in her special talent; her skill in flying. The combination of both led to her setting a good example to the rest of the Academy and the Wonderbolts themselves just as she had to Scootaloo and Fluttershy previously, a top-notch show of her character development. The tough decision Rainbow Dash had to make would have made this a better key episode for Rainbow Dash than "Rainbow Falls" had the episode been pushed back to Season 4, if there would have been any knowledge of the key arc during Season 3's production. "Apple Family Reunion": Great to see Applejack's first song and more of the Apple Family. "Spike at Your Service": The first implementation of 3D CGI in the show. Although it did look awkward and stuck out as 3D effects usually do in 2D animated TV cartoons, the fact that they tried it shows just how much this show was willing to push the technical boundaries of what they have previously done and the perceived limitations of Flash-animated cartoons, and paved the way for a more seamless integration in "Princess Twilight Sparkle". "Keep Calm and Flutter On": Discord absolutely owns the episode with his trademark quirkiness and scene-stealing charisma provided by Polsky's script and John de Lancie's always amazing voice performances. "Just for Sidekicks": Really, I've got nothing for this episode alone. It doesn't really hold up on its own merits. The idea of setting it concurrently with "Games Ponies Play" was a great one, but unfortunately neither episode holds up well, alone or combined, as a particularly good episode of this show. This one doesn't hold up as particularly bad, either. If I really had to force myself, I'd say that it was nice to see the pets, even if they were all being jerks to Spike. "Games Ponies Play": Even if the episode was totally lacking in the story department, a lot of the comedy was actually pretty well-timed and worked as much as you possibly could in such a plot. However, it just seemed more fitting of a show whose domain was straight-up comedy, not known for the character-driven narratives MLP is known for. "Magical Mystery Cure": Most of the songs and the visuals of the second and third acts were top-tier for this show when this episode came out, and may continue to be into the fifth season. Although the Twilicorn transformation continues to be a mixed bag, the fact that it was done in the first place was an immense risk for the show to take. This episode executed the atmosphere and emotional weight surrounding the event exceptionally well, and I felt a bit better about it just looking at it for what it was -- the culmination and payoff of all of Twilight's activities from the previous episodes.

I like it. Really shows how hardcore this show is becoming!

I'm calling my stock broker. 1000 shares of Hasbro, NOW!

The comics have already been proven as non-canon to the show, basically an expanded universe. I doubt the writers even take notice. As someone who has drawn deer characters in the past and seen deer to probably be the most popular non-canon species for OCs, I was a bit disappointed by the one in "Filli Vanilli" and I'd love to see a deer culture explored in MLP. But it's all up to the show, and the comics really are no indication whether or not it will happen in the show. The comic's designs, I must say, are drop-dead gorgeous, just like some of the great deer OCs I've seen. I hope the story's good enough.

The character development of Rainbow Dash from Season 1 through what she is now is enough to show how far she's come, barring moments where her character is regressed into talking about how "awesome" she is. Originally, I think they avoided casting Dash as Scootaloo's sister for this very reason. However, if you look at the upward trend in her maturity in handling situations in "Hurricane Fluttershy" and "Wonderbolts Academy", you'll see why they relented and finally allowed Rainbow Dash to take Scootaloo on as her surrogate sister in "Sleepless in Ponyville". Rainbow Dash already serves as an inspiration for self-expression, using your talents, and following your dreams, and the progression of her character arc shows that this kind of person can be a great mentor, the kind you need to give you that push to motivate you to do things you never thought you could.

For morally grayest episodes, I'll say "Bats!" is one for the reasons @Sugar Cube mentioned. I'd also put "Feeling Pinkie Keen" and Twilight's subplot from "Trade Ya!" as having morals so fuzzy that they're pretty much all but broken. These tend to be due to a heavily biased portrayal of the episode's intended moral that fails to properly characterize any considerably sound opposing views. I really don't have much else to say about "Pinkie Keen" that hasn't already been said. The episode was written in a way that walks the show into the faith vs science debate, which really is something this show has no business commenting on. In "Trade Ya!", Twilight is led to keeping her books for sentimental value, only to have her library blown up in the season finale. While it makes for an interesting use of continuity, I have a couple of beefs with the way this moral was presented which contributed to me labeling "Trade Ya!" one of the worst episodes of Season 4. Particularly, the way in which Pinkie Pie drove Twilight to this realization was by scaring off potential customers with her borderline deranged aggressive behavior towards them. That goes without saying that the episode simplified the opposing argument into "just giving her books away" instead of considering the rationale of the opposing argument: selling her books carries just as much or more sentimental value than keeping them because she may be helping other ponies become skilled at magic as she was, using her methods. In other words, helping other ponies obtain their life goals. In short, when Twilight's library was destroyed, think of how many potential futures were lost to the one-two punch of this broken moral and Tirek's rampage. As for the visually grayest episodes, I remember "Maud Pie" having a somewhat muted color palette. The opening scene is set before sunrise, there are lots of indoor scenes throughout the first act, the "fun time" scene is set on the edge of the forest, and the episode ends with scenes on the cloudy rock farm and at sunset. All of that, plus the new character's color scheme reinforce that visual theme. Similarly, "Dragon Quest" was visually dark as compared to the rest of the show, but was more a mixture of gray, black, and orange. It was a direction that was almost tonally opposite to the norm of the show because of the fundamentally different setting, evoking a sort of passionate raging masculinity in the land of the dragons as composed to the warmth and serenity of the land of the ponies.

No one is forcing you to use either. OC is used more often in the MLP fandom, however. I've seen FC used more often in the Sonic fandom.

Yeah, these were the April Fools' jokes from last year. They're old hat by now. Hard to believe that the show has been in hiatus for so long that another April Fool's Day is going to pass before this season starts! But, yeah, of course, if Kimi Sparkle or any creation of Sherclop Pones were ever to become canon...

The Bible has been so ingrained as a cornerstone of popular culture that it's possible to follow the pattern of Jesus without even knowing it, because it's been done in media so many times. You could do it under the illusion that you're just working under the inspiration of another film, TV show, or fantasy story. You can equally say that the stories of The Matrix, Narnia, and Tolkien's Middle-earth follow similar patterns, except they're more open about admitting it. I don't think MLP's writers had writing a Biblical allegory on their mind -- the only allegory they wanted to create is to how powerful friendship can be and how it can see people through the toughest times. However, just the thought that MLP is following the pattern of the Bible shows just how much of an influence it is, that other stories may be subconsciously following its patterns.

Did you ever try adjusting brightness, contrast, or tint on the monitor instead?

It's true, Celestia went from the archetypical wise and benevolent mentor character to one who is bungling and manipulating situations in order to force Twilight to show her hand. It's a case of plot-induced stupidity. In every two-parter since "The Crystal Empire", the narrative was forced to show off Twilight's prowess, so it used every device in the book to take all real support the rest of the cast had out of the plot. Season 5, hopefully, seems to be putting into the Mane 6's hooves situations that they are uniquely suited to solve, so hopefully less of those narrative shortcomings should be evident.

In addition to all the ones @Steel Accord mentioned, I'd also put in Canned Cream ("Candid Canned") and Brawny Buck ("Brony Debates"). Both of them deal with the show's subtext and real life implications in addition to theories and themes in the show itself, something I've always been interested in. Tommy Oliver did the same, as did Digibro way back when.

From what the show has given us, alicorns are more likely made than born. Princess Twilight was made an alicorn, and if the chapter books are to be regarded in any way as canon (GM Berrow is now on the show writing staff, after all), Cadance was made as well. The fact that there is no background on Celestia and Luna makes this a bit hazy, though. We don't see any alicorns in the show that aren't royalty, at least not placed intentionally. The background characters that appear as alicorns can easily be written off as animation errors. That's why alicorn OCs tend to be a problem in this fandom; because of the balance of power among the royals and the fact that no non-royal alicorns have been seen. So, overall, I'd stick with the theory that alicorns are made rather than born, and that there are no non-royal alicorns because of that fact.