The Second Opinion

This season had some truly deft talent:
1. Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep (No, I don't care that it was a follow-up to Luna in her previous episode, not the comics.)
2. Brotherhooves Social

And also some strong-if-unrefined talent:
3. The Cutie Map
4. Make New Friends But Keep Discord
5. Tanks For The Memories
6. The Mane Attraction

And even without A-tier execution, it had ambition and muscle power:
7. The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone
8. Scare Master
9. Made In Manehattan

But those ambitious swings could bely an empty desire to strut what the fanbase "wanted," less "fully formed vision" and more "poser:"
10. The Cutie Re-Mark
11. Slice of Life
12. Bloom and Gloom
13. The Hooffields and the McColts
14. Rarity Investigates

And sometimes, for that reason or not, the episodes could start to fall through:
15. Castle Sweet Castle
16. Hearthbreakers
17. Amending Fences (Gaslighting yourself, projecting things onto your chronically insecure and unreasonable ex-friend, and forcing your martyr complex on her instead of therapy or contacting someone whose business it actually is, never struck me as very healthy or "touching")

With some that were just so-so:
18. Canterlot Boutique
19. Appleoosa's Most Wanted
20. The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows

Not to mention some faceplants, from unprepared newbies:
21. Princess Spike
22. What About Discord
23. Party Pooped

But most of all, deciding the payoff to the single most anticipated and long-gestating story arc should be a triple down on the soap-opera melodrama and needy-ego pandering:
24. Crusaders of the Lost Mark

Favorite Season: 2

Favorite episode: A Canterlot Wedding

*Takes off hat and bows head at return to form*
1. Twilight's Kingdom
2. Simple Ways (whipcrack timing - every single moment is either doing something hysterical or nailing a character bit)
3. Filli Vanilli

And these ones were great too!
4. Testing, Testing, 1,2,3
5. Pinkie Pride
6. Princess Twilight Sparkle
7. Maud Pie (You either "get" dry humor, or you don't)

And even these ones were nearly there, with maybe just a tweak:
8. Equestria Games
9. Flight to the Finish
10. Inspiration Manifestation
11. Rainbow Falls (Episode: Trying to boost the underdogs can get doofy and tedious. I'll clown a little, let some characters be a little bad, as long as it doesn't overtake the meaningful plot points. Fandom: YOU DARE?!)

And even with some dents, the ambition and the fun were present:
12. Pinkie Apple Pie
13. Trade Ya!
14. For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils

But then, we did have to wait through some that were just okay:
15. Leap of Faith
16. Power Ponies
17. It Ain't Easy Being Breezies
18. Twilight Time
19. Daring Don't
20. Three's A Crowd
21. Bats!

Or this one, that went so pointlessly insane, it almost made it back around the wheel to good:
22. Somepony To Watch Over Me

Or this one that didn't - just sat there thinking "it's doofy" is enough reason to sit and watch things happen:
23. Castle Mane-ia

Or this one, that took an obvious formula and tried to squeeze-choke a cornball soap opera out of it:
24. Rarity Takes Manehattan

10 hours ago, Megas said:

You mean Sleepless in Ponyville?

Touche. That's what I get for squeezing in one of these last minute, on the way out the door. 

Whoa, these writers STILL operate at S-tier capacity!
1. Too Many Pinkie Pies
2. Sleepless in Ponyville

Okay, a couple flaws, but they're still A-tier!
3. Keep Calm and Flutter On (sometimes flaws ruin an episode; this time, they felt like side notes to an all-time character dynamic)

Fine MAYBE the more impersonal feel or weak, cop-out endings are starting to bother me:
4. Wonderbolts Academy
5. The Crystal Empire

Okay, fan-pandering that doesn't even pay off, rote formula, cheeseball characterization... you guys are barely still above water:
6. Magic Duel
7. Just For Sidekicks
8. Apple Family Reunion

So now you don't care how sloppy or fake you go, as long as we get to throw a big, self-congratulating melodrama parade?!
9. Magical Mystery Cure

Or you *yawn* just don't care...?
10. Games Ponies Play

Or you scramble together the most rushed, morale-crushingly awful character showcases, for cheap, concerned-parents' morals 
11. Spike At Your Service
12. One Bad Apple

What always struck me about this one is that they only had to come up with half as many, and even pound for pound, their 13 best still felt weaker and more spotty than what came before.

FIM on full, personality-drenched stride:
1. A Canterlot Wedding
2. Luna Eclipsed
3. May The Best Pet Win (please don't come at me with a PETA spiel, when the animals are canonically capable of understanding what's up and refusing)
4. MMystery on the Friendship Express
5. Family Appreciation Day
6. Return of Harmony
7. Ponyville Confidential

How to make the pedestrian A-grade lovable and fun:
8. Sisterhooves Social
9. Hearts and Hooves Day
10. Baby Cakes (Whip-crack timing with an essential kids message. Fight me )
11. Lesson Zero

Just one more draft - you were right there!
12. Read it and Weep
13. Putting Your Hoof Down
14. Hurricane Fluttershy
15. The Mysterious Mare Do Well
16. Sweet and Elite

Fun!
17. Hearth's Warming Eve
18. The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000
19. The Last Roundup

Almost as fun:
20. It's About Time
21. The Cutie Pox

Redeeming factors, not the worst...
22. Dragon Quest

Half good, half cringe-inducingly terrible:
23. The Secret of My Excess

Forgot the part where Pinkie doesn't turn into an obnoxious, pointless load for no reason:
24. A Friend in Deed

*Chef's Kiss* That was how it's done!
1. The Cutie Mark Chronicles
2. Friendship is Magic
3. Sonic Rainboom
4. Over A Barrell
5. Winter Wrap Up
6. Fall Weather Friends
7. Applebuck Season
8. The Best Night Ever

A-Grade! In fact, was it really necessary to make this a different tier...?
9. Feeling Pinkie Keen (Your "backdoor religious parable" analysis is not interesting)

Sweet, occasionally hilarious A-/B+ life lesson-ing:
10. Look Before You Sleep
11. Griffon the Brush Off
12. A Bird in the Hoof (Because wishy-washy people who can't assert, like so, try to solve the problem instead when no one's looking, that was why )

Flawed but ambitious and good:
13. Party of One
14. Suited For Success
15. Dragonshy
16. Stare Master

Plain old fun, with a useful lesson. (Possibly STILL could've made my top 10, in later seasons):
17. The Ticket Master
18. Bridle Gossip

Decent, perfectly watchable:
19. A Dog and Pony Show
20. The Show Stoppers
21. Swarm of the Century
22. Call of the Cutie
23. Boast Busters

Meh. Redeemed by some heart, here and there:
24. Owl's Well That Ends Well

Doesn't do enough to justify its existence:
25. Green Isn't Your Color

Looks like this one found some extra legs  As a matter of fact, my new answer is also Applejack's Day Off. It's not every day I gave a thumbs down to an episode, just for being so lazy as to drag out and make a spectacle of absolutely nothing worthwhile happening, but there it is XP 

WORST to BEST 

I used to think this one out episode by episode ^//^ Strap in...

9. Season 8 - The back half of the show, with its revolving door of writers grasping at straws and trends, always had trouble finding a direction. But after the noble attempt to refocus the story and its lore from season 7, this season became the nail in the coffin, with a big "well, that was fun. Now how about a friendship... school!" And it was right back down the aimless rabbit hole of "More new characters! More one-off locations for world-building-or-something-I-guess! Talk about Gesture at modern societal issues, but more lukewarm than PBS 30 years ago!"

But if the individual episodes had all slayed it, I'd be here saying "It shouldn't have worked, but it did." Instead, they were a little worse than all of the above implies. The obnoxious your-oh-so-hip-uncle-is-trying-to-make-you-laugh comedy of Yakkity-Sax, The Maud Couple, and Horse Play, the lame fight-brainlessly-over-a-forced-conflict "stories" of Non-Compete Clause, Friendship University, and several more... We had to turn to the guy who invented the yaks for an episode that felt like meaningful growth between main characters (The Washouts), and he did it with every bit as much forced cheese in there.

That said, I consider What Lies Beneath and Sounds of Silence an S-tier pair that any season would've been proud to have as its crown jewels. With their help, "average" might be fair overall. But this is the only season that has me reluctant to give it even that.

8. Season 6 - Season 5 petered out with no "phase 2" plan for the new features it introduced and a redemption so lame, its only real defense was a "you guys r so mean/I want to LIKE the idea of a new woobie character who helps da good guys!" backlash to the backlash. Season 6's solution? "Ugh. Just stay the course or something, I guess, whatever."

Starlight learned a similar lesson about 3 times and then starred in the big finale, the new map, places, people, and prejudice-angle-or-something continued to go in and out with no real impact, and the mane 6 (singlehandedly responsible for the brony fandom) faded out so hard, it gave rise to the heartbreaking "I actually like the side characters better" trend. As such, the predominant note here was episodes that weren't bad but were pretty lukewarm. But it had its good ones, like Dungeons and Discords and Viva Las Pegasus, and even a few great ones, like Stranger Than Fan Fiction and that surprisingly tight finale.

7. Season 3 - This is actually one of the most pointed drop-offs I've ever seen, after how well season 2 had its finger on the pulse of its fun little character intricacies and where it wanted to take them. But it's a couple places up my list, for a handful of the best episodes in the show: Too Many Pinkie Pies (hilarious and brilliant), Sleepless in Ponyville (enthusiasm in the littlest details, let alone forging the show's best sister bond), Keep Calm and Flutter On (mostly successful birth of another all-time character dynamic), and Wonderbolts Academy (if not for Pinkie Pie and that face-plant ending...).

Otherwise, when it wasn't telling iffy-to-passionless formula stories (Apple Family Reunion and the Equestria Games 2-ish-parter), dressing up in empty, pandering fan-service (Magic Duel), or slipping into terribly told tales of godawful comedy and characterization (Spike at Your Service and One Bad Apple), season 3 spent just a couple episodes trying to chew on its mandate to close out Twilight but then actually not, with results that sometimes felt painfully insincere. They pulled off some style-over-substance achievement (especially the slightly underrated Crystal Empire), but even if Magical Mystery Cure is the equivalent of a nice, cheap all-you-can-eat cake binge, it honestly makes me unhappy. It feels like being lied to, by someone who thinks you're an insecure dipstick.

6. Season 7 - Healthy step up in quality, here. Season 7 was a noble attempt to dig into the locations we'd seen in the past, the character dynamics, and even the implied "larger forces" that had been sitting on the table for a bit, and focus them into a plot, with points of progress and growth and climactic conflicts to get excited about. The results could be a bit "in theory." Particular touches like drowning Celestia in "just like you"-isms for "character development," or meta commentary in Fame and Misfortune that didn't care about making sense in context, or a few forced morals really did get the more cynical reviewers to declare the new writing team shallow "art school brats." But that finale really drove home how much weight they added back to everything happening, and just how strong and exciting a story they could now use it for. And episodes like Discordant Harmony, To Change a Changeling, and yes, The Perfect Pear delivered the goods as well. (Also, I LOVE Secrets and Pies. Don't @ me, false-moralizer types )
 

5. Season 5 - It was coming off the most hype-creating finale to date. It had all the current star players, from MA Larson to Meghan Mccarthy. It started with a bold, daring episode addressing serious issues, a la "baby's first Vonnegut." Alright, no, Cutie Map is a capitalist propaganda message, which is one of the safest and least original ways to play "bold and daring" and not even the first cartoon to try it, after episodes like See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey took any controversial hype to be had there. But it made for a high-stakes chess game. And it introduced a mysterious new conflict generator, in the map itself. So...?

In hindsight, this was the beginning of the show losing its feel for what its direction was, now that "proving we, the new team, DO know how to level up Twilight to princess, proper!" had been achieved. The map and tree quickly lost all mystery and downgraded themselves from "conflict generator" to "conflict of the week generator." Starlight's character, for how the show seemed to be looking for a new star player, felt skimmed over and then laughably, forcibly asinine, compared to how nuanced and personal the intro episodes past connected us to our new main characters. (Did the writers buy that amateur fan critique, that achieving her greatest success meant Twilight was "done" as a character?) Most telling, imo, was its switch from REAL friendship as its bread and butter (it won't always be great, but it'll always be worth it, you won't always conquer the world but support each other anyway, you can't do it all, but just do what you can and they'll understand...), to heart of the cards melodrama and martyr-ly self-sacrifice, when it wanted you to know how important something was - like the crusaders winning the best destiny ever from their soap opera about comically evil parents. And that's before the handful of new writers forced this one to carry sandbags like Party Pooped and What About Discord, capsizing it down into the mid-tier.

And yet, it was only able to peter out so often, because it had so much muscle power in the first place. From the epic yet emotional scope of Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep to the humble and personal bonding-of-errors in Brotherhooves Social, from the hilarious and energetic Make New Friends But Keep Discord to the bleedingly sincere Mane Attraction, from the old school redemption in Lost Treasure of Griffonstone, to the little bit of everything in a loving package in Tanks for the Memories, this team had stories to flex. It really showed that they were largely more experienced and accomplished than anyone who swapped in after.
 

4. Season 9 - TBH, this one deserves a lot of its "the fun was finally wearing off" pushback. It tried harder than season 8, pushing to give us a worthy sendoff, but most of it only got back up to season 6's middle-of-the-road acceptability, with a few highlights. Still, I can't comprehend people complaining about there not seeming to be a final vision that came together, when it seemed bleedingly obvious several seasons back that that was the case. If anything, blame season 8, for squandering its one chance to get that train back on the tracks, if not every season that fell back on flanderizing Twilight's neuroticism, until of course this one had to use that for the final arc; it was the only thing they had.

Anyway, this one hopped a few places, thanks to a final vein of pure gold, starting with The Big Mac Question and its ode to deep bonds that can roll with and right past the punches. Ending of the End, while not the best 2-parter, is so sprawlingly epic, that its infamous twist is more of a sour note than a story-killer. And The Last Problem is the kind of delicate, deeply sincere little ode to going somewhere on a personal level, warts and all, no 10 minute ballads to yourself required, that wipes away the falseness of any Mystery Curing or the like. By the end, I felt like I got my completed, worthwhile character journey after all. But I recognize its a tough sell, even just on its face, to say it saved all three of its best for last.

3. Season 4 - There's a reason this one is a popular hindsight pick for #1. I don't go that far, because the first 11 episodes or so were a slow start. Castle-mania proudly did nothing, Rarity Takes A Soap Opera only gave me more Magical Mystery Pains, and multiple Bats! or Threes a Crowd type stories had their share of forced and lazy. But even from that opening 2-parter, you could tell this one wanted to prove what it was made of, after season 3, and give us the loaded, lovable stories it was capable of, about this protege and her friends growing into their role of Equestria's protectors.

Once it hit its stride, I was sold. The heart-singing triumph and tribulations of Filli Vanilli, the hilarious dry humor of the character-blueprinting Maud Pie, the equal parts funny and heart-tugging Testing, Testing 1,2,3, the insightful, utterly clutch hysterics of the underrated Simple Ways, the great use of Weird Al in Pinkie Pride, and of course, a finale that was so slam-bang, so overwhelmingly climactic, that people forget and underrate the nigh-flawless tightening-coil story it told to get there, full of suspense and impossible decisions for everyone to show what they're made of. That's what we call a good season.

2. Season 1 - Is it possible that the one season the accomplished Lauren Faust and her chosen team made exactly the way they wanted, start to finish, with an entire show-bible drawn up in advance, which single-handedly created the brony fandom from nothing (before it was handed off to increasingly journeyman/inexperienced, writers who increasingly grabbed from the memes and politics of the moment), is just a tad underrated by the fans? Like how Superman 2, Rambo 2, The King Kong remake, The Amazing Spiderman, and endless others drowned out the originals for a while, a la the Simpsons’ line "I like this movie MUCH better than the one by that little girl, because I saw this one today?" I say, all you have to do to confirm it is add up how many major fan favorites, in their own words, came from this season: Best Night Ever, Party of One, The Cutie Mark Chronicles, Sonic Rainboom, Suited For Success, Fall Weather Friends, Winter Wrap Up, and Applebuck Season, at very least. In some corners, episodes like Dragonshy, Nightmare Moon's big pilot debut are in there too - though I would consider hilarious, full-power character showcases like Over a Barrell and Feeling Pinkie Keen at least as worthy. "But just those!" you say? Count them up, don't selectively remember. That's many if not most of the other seasons scored in the fan hall of fame.

But no, not just those. Season 1 set out to find that extra, personal bit of nuance in the archetypes in which we see ourselves, and it almost always did: How there’s an insecurity to over-competitiveness that’s more defensive than it means any harm, the people-pleasing anxiety in shy types that makes it hard for them to contradict people, even when they should, the “in-the-zone” factor in artistic creativity that can turn on and complicate something like a cleanup job… Don’t forget my favorite either, turning the nerdy shut-in from an archetype into the main character, with a full-course look at the snark, thoughtful leadership, clever wit, and delicate, sentimental sweetness  in such an imagination, under the plain Jane surface - plus, how it wasn’t some Scrooge-like intellectual snobbery or “geekiness” that kept her to herself but the pride she took in her work that suited her so much, while, nothing against other people, she just never thought she’d find a comfort zone anywhere else. That, inside an onslaught of creative, outside-the-box enthusiasm for the gags, conflicts, visuals, and casual world-building, were what was special about Friendship is Magic, not Dragonball Z and Lord of the Rings references or quote/unquote “more adult” stories.
 

1. Season 2 - Heck, everything I said about season 1 still applied, but this time, the team came in at full stride and by just a nose, beat their previous lineup on my card. Of the first 7 alone, only Cutie Pox wasn’t a downright knockout. Only A Friend in Deed was a full-on thumbs down, for me. Most of what criticisms I do hear are less “that was bad writing because [rules of storytelling]” and more “I wanted something more hugbox-y!” Some stories were indeed a little on guard to getting too sentimental, but still, MLP keeping it too real for the adult fans is one of the greatest things I’ve ever heard. But nothing was more real than having Twilight, in the finale, face the type of complex, no-right-answers dilemma that we adults dread every day, and fail, because she didn’t play her cards strategically - then succeed, because she still chose to put her loved ones’ well-being above her comfort zone. You can keep Magical Mystery Cure or Ending of the End; to me, that will always be where Twilight grew up.

Want:
- New characters have distinctive personalities (more unique flavors than "Pinkie Pie lite, Rainbow Dash lite, etc.)
- Time for them to bond in ways that feel like how real friendship happens (getting past the walls everyone has)
- Humor that is clever and unforced
- Expansive world that doesn't feel too filled in, too quickly
- Character development that goes the "people are constantly works in progress" angle

Don't Want:
- Idealized, bland friendship that's "more like family" 
- Friendship literally solving problems or being more than an indirect solution/motivator/etc.
- Frantic, pseudo-clever, "more stupid/wacky/incorrect = funnier" humor
- Noncommittal, hand waving "social commentary," a la the back half of gen 4 (have the guts to say something meaningful, like Steven Universe, or do your own thing, like Gravity Falls)
- Character development that goes the "achieve goals = done" route

3 minutes ago, Dawnchaser said:

...as long as my phone doesn't die :/

Hmm, I wonder what @The Second Opinion said before editing  the notification says I was quoted.

Just trying to get the characters to the required minimum by making it a reply (if that would even work), before I realized I didn't need to bother.

468123

I also have to say season 2, narrowly over season 1. The first two seasons always came across as the most inspired, the most psyched to bring something new to the table (other than pander-y fan service), and with exceptions, the ones packing the most talented writers. 

Since then, we've switched story editors four times, with the directors fading in and out, before handing over the reins altogether - and looking back, it really shows. As sentimental as I am to see the show end (and as excited as I am with the "big finale" stuff they seem to be going for), watching them try to pull together all the threads into one vision already shows how much the newer teams couldn't establish one.

We had Megan McCarthy trying to figure out her new direction of "Twilight steps into the role of princess" (the best attempt of the bunch, imo, once it found its footing in season 4), then trying to parlay that into a soon-to-be-pointless "Cutie Map" and a new apprentice for... apprentice things, Josh Haber trying to figure out what he's supposed to do with that and coming up with "have Starlight save the day, one time," Lewis and Songco trying to refocus the lore into a new direction about pillars and shadow ponies (noble attempt, at least), Josh Haber and Nicole Dubac throwing that out in favor of a "friendship school," and now we're told that what it all was actually building towards was getting Twilight ready to take Celestia's job. (Not that season 9, in itself, is worse off than the others in that regard. Supported by them or not, its final season "passing the torch" angle is more straightforward and more possibility-laden than most of them - or so I hope.) 

So yeah, season 2 (and 1) all the way. Right now, several fans have an allergic reaction to that answer, because present bias, aka the "so early?!/but we already did that!/bigger=more=better" phenomenon, is a thing. But honestly, this isn't even that close. The later-day seasons were fun sequels, but the first two had the best songs, the most grounded, relatable, and memorable character moments/lines (I'd like to be a tree, 20% cooler, Pinkamena Diane Pieacus... all memes that weren't forgotten in a week) and surprisingly, if you take the time to count them up, the most fan-favorite episodes.

Also, the statistics from the last post do the opposite of prove otherwise, since the picture they paint is of the first two seasons generating increasing hype that peaks going into season 3, then abruptly plateaus.   

While I do agree with the complaint that the solution with the smaller theater happened too fast and didn't build up to that sweet resolution nearly as well as it could have, I'm at a loss for how people think that equals less than the last two episodes. Rarity Investigates wasn't any better at building us up for the finale, leaving Rarity's method of solving the case almost entirely unaddressed and unfollowable until the big reveal, which was obvious anyway. And Canterlot Boutique was just preaching to the choir in the first place, so the finale was just a 1-dimensional spiel of "focusing on sales and marketing = bad" and "focusing on whatever you feel like = get everything you want, exactly as you want it, and suffer no consquences whatsoever." 


This episode had some great laughs in the characters' mometary reactions (Twilight discovering she's bored, Rarity's "isn't this exciting?!" Applejack raising an eyebrow at her hat solution, Rarity cut of in the middle of "WHY?!" etc.), with enough variaty to at least match Investigates, which ran out of new gags for it's noir parody halfway through - unless that bit with the ducks was supposed to count. And it's moral was better told and more applicable than most of the episodes this season. Not a great one, true enough, but it'll be a downright shame if the "underwhelming" label in this Rarity trilogy goes to its most intelligent entry. 

As the little brother of the group who's simultaneously sweet, mischievous, and needy for a chance to prove himself, I think he works pretty well. As the backlash to him goes, I think many people are looking for an overly complicated explanation on the simple fact that the writers just haven't done a very good job on his episodes.

Granted, a lot of them seem to fall into the same trap, trying to differentiate him from the "real" heroes and ultimately making him too much of a chump for the episode to hit as hard as we're used to. But yeah, most of them were less funny than usual, less heartfelt, less exciting, all things that could have pushed them into perfectly passable territory. What he needs is simply a writer who's as excited/inspired to work with him and the qualities that set him apart as the other characters usually get. In fact, I do think some of his episodes (mostly in season 4) did just that and really got people behind the little guy, but Princess Spike seems to have returned us to the losing streak.

Maybe a 6. It does a great job extending its appeal across different demographics, and the "girly" exterior is usually just that, but there are instances, especially recently, where it extends more to the core of the show, particularly in the Rarity and Fluttershy episodes. Part of it is just the cultural standard of what it means to be "girly," which is why the emphasis on emotional exploration can come across that way, but stuff like the thing with Moondancer can make it seem like they think of their audience as "delicate" and "feminine." And season 1, once or twice, came across like it was trying to fend off accusations of being "girly" ahead of time, like it assumed its audience was mostly female. 

So yeah, 6 instead of 5 because it occasionally just lets itself embrace the girliness, but not to the point where I could hold that against it.

When I'm unfavorably comparing it to Somepony to Watch Over Me, I think there's a problem.

No, that is still reserved for Appleloosas most wanted. Atleast in this episode, we got adorkable sleepy Twilight, turning from pancakes into books.

Appleoosa's Most Wanted didn't give me all that much, but it gave me more than that.

Well, that sure wasn't much. Anyone else say the new worst episode of season 5?

Honestly, against most of those scenes, I would've rather seen some of the subplots that abruptly stopped and started like whole sections had been removed get a little more screentime to feel a little more fleshed out and complete.

But on the other hand, Octavia facing King Sombra in a Devil Went Down to Georgia style duel? GIMMEGIMMEGIMMEGIMMIEGIMMIEGIMMEGIMME!

It wasn't actually the first time they used that "Just imagine how amazing the thing I don't realize is your worst fear will be!" gag. Rarity also did it to Fluttershy in Hearth's Warming Eve, and Fluttershy herself did it to Rainbow Dash in Sonic Rainboom. This one was just a lot more over-the-top, which I always interpreted as a parody of those other ones (and a good one, since it pointed out how incredibly dense and obvious the regular versions were).

So as motivation goes, I guess I'd see it as a moment of Pinkie Pie logic. Imagine that she didn't understand when she saw her friends trying to get each other psyched to go onstage by pointing out stuff you'd think would only make them more nervous, but after watching them do it again and again, she decided that she finally understood how it worked and got really excited to show how well she could do it for Fluttershy. (And she truly did one-up all the others, after all.)

Hitmonchan! (I never got why he's not more popular than his kicking counterpart, which looks like a giant potato with onion ring limbs.)

Hello and welcome! If you like bronies and pegasisters, I'm betting you're gonna like it here.

Welcome back then! I can at least say the enthusiasm for it never seems to die around here...

Your response to "How I found MLP Forums" made me stop to wonder what they're honestly expecting people to answer that one with   

Welcome aboard!