Miss

True, but this is a show aimed at kids. I'm pretty sure that most kids wouldn't think too deeply about how the friendships were portrayed badly in the episode. Even most of the other viewers wouldn't get hung up on the little implications. For all we know, Pinkie might have a perfectly good reason for not telling Dash. I'm not saying that you are taking things too seriously, since I pretty much do the same thing, but am just saying that for the casual viewer, they wouldn't really notice these little details. 

And yeah they could have done something else, but I feel like this was good enough for me. 

As for sacrificing a character to establish plot, it's often an easy way of getting viewers and readers hooked into the episode. So this method of establishing plot is used in many shows. It's effective (most of the time). 

Well the idea that “it’s a kids show” so it could be written badly is a sentiment I don’t agree with. Considering, that the reason I love the show is that it’s written extraordinarily well most of the time. Also I don’t care if kids or other fans don’t get bothered by something that doesn’t mean I should just ignore it. I’m gonna critique it how I felt it should be critiqued. 

It was good, but I am a fan of the sentiment that “there’s always a better story.” And in this case it hits.

just because something is used often doesn’t make it the only way things can be done and just because it has proven effective doesn’t mean something else can’t be effective and not sacrifice character. Always shoot for the best story. Of course, like I said before this is a minor issue, but still an issue regardless. It doesn’t ruin the episode but it’s still a flaw that I wish to bring up. 

I have a feeling that I'm losing to a superior argument lol. 

The "it's a kids show" isn't an excuse for it being written badly. I'm just saying that something that kids might enjoy, might not necessarily be exactly what an older viewer would like. 

Sure this episode could have been better, but there's much worse mlp episodes out there. I prefer consistently good writing compared to occasionally amazing writing. I feel that this episode was satisfactory and it really showed how much RD loved Cider. I've seen so many memes and seen this (RD loving cider) be brought up positively in many fan-fics, so I guess a lot of people did enjoy this story.

Ofc it's not the only way to do it. I just don't mind stories being done that way. Exposing all these flaws actually makes them seem more human and be more relatable.