Sunshine Berry

Cute Pinkie Pie with bubblegum (source)

Another Spike episode and I always love them. I enjoy Spike’s character because unlike the mane six, he is definitely still a baby dragon, so a lot of his episodes explore his anxieties with the world, growing up, finding your place, and the general life changes one goes through in childhood to puberty. It would’ve been nicer to learn more about Spike’s origins, but I suppose they’re refraining from revealing too much. The opening sequence is proof that Fluttershy really is becoming a bit more assertive! I say this every Spike episode, but I love Spike’s sincerity and pure, innocent heart. He loves his friends and his home.

One thing that helps when watching this episode is trying to understand that when Fluttershy is being aggressive in this episode, she’s probably channeling her whole life’s buildup of frustration and annoyance for being pushed around. It gets a lot more understandable that way; it was just a pendulum for her from being not assertive at all to being way too assertive. Fluttershy is “out of character” this episode; but that’s because she attended a training seminar with the intent to change her personality. The end scene where she calmly explains why she won’t pay Iron Will is a great middle ground between the pendulum. I appreciate that it was Rarity and Pinkie Pie as the supportive friends this episode. It was very sweet that they stood up for Fluttershy in the beginning scene, and didn’t give up on her even after aggro Fluttershy insulted them on a very personal level.

I love the song in this episode so much🩷 The felt animated part is so cute! I love Pinkie, and her over-the-top antics and obliviousness is part of it. She’s an unstoppable force. And even though she was clearly annoying Cranky and going too far, I love that she still just couldn’t let it go - because Pinkie just genuinely cares and wants her friends to be happy! Perhaps it would have been a better lesson to learn that not everybody will like you, but that’s just not the Pinkie way.

There is no bad day with Pinkie Pie around!

I hope everypony has a beautiful March. Thank you for the lovely message Sunny! Even though it is Autumn here in the southern hemisphere, it’s still warm, and we’re all looking at the same sky.

Not too many comments on my end about this episode. This episode made me think long and hard about the economics of Equestria. If they run out so quickly, why don’t they just institute a limit of one cup per customer? The ending letter by Applejack is hilarious. I’m glad Dashie finally got her cider in the end!

I’ve never been big on babysitting episodes, but when Pinkie is involved, I’m hooked! I actually relate to this episode as somebody whose friends recently had a baby, and I love and want to help out, but I’ve never taken care of a baby alone before. I do love to play and entertain her like Pinkie does though. One thing to note is that the theme of this episode is “responsibility” but really from the start Pinkie takes it very seriously, she just struggles with babysitting because she doesn’t know how. Also, one baby is a lot for one person - twins is extremely difficult! Honestly, I wish Twilight hadn’t made the comment that turned Pinkie away from her help. A Twilight and Pinkie babysitting episode would’ve been so cute. Plus, I would love to see Twilight babysitting.

The song in this episode is very good. Rarity consistently has great songs, and her voice actress has a lovely and pleasing singing voice. Twilight is adorable in this episode! I love her dancing, I love how excited she gets over the dress. Honestly, Twilight is a really good friend all the time, but you see a lot of it this season. As other commenters mentioned, I wish that the girls would get recognised for being the Elements of Harmony. Surely these events are publicised, considering we know their acts of heroism are in Celestia’s castle as a stained glass window? I like Fancy Pants; you expect him to be rude and judgey like Upper Crust, but he actually is respectful and has good morals. I would say Rarity isn’t very “generous” this episode but I understand how she feels, as we all know loving the luxurious life is a big part of her character. At the same time, somebody with a good heart like her would probably struggle in the upper echelons of Canterlot society, if only because I can see her continually being mad with their judgemental tendencies. Overall a good episode.

The first 7 minutes of this episode, where Spike is overjoyed by the party his friends throw him, and genuinely grateful for all the gifts he got, are so adorable and sweet. It’s interesting how dragons have a “greedy” side to them and we know Spike can be a bit childish and adorably arrogant in some ways, but greedy doesn’t really suit him! I’m glad he overcomes it in the end.

This is by far one of the funniest CMC episodes. Honestly so many good lines, funny facial expressions from Cheerilee and Big Mac, tbh I kinda ship them. Cheerilee is my favourite secondary character so glad to see more of her too

Thank you to the CMC for inadvertently unleashing Discord upon Equestria. The long legged bunnies is so silly and kinda creepy. My favourite chaos design. I like how Celestia “knighted” Twily with her horn when wishing them well. World building! I like Discord as a villain. He fits the vibe of the show very well, and steals every scene he’s in. The Chaos!Elements are hilarious. Even more hilarious is Twilight’s growing impatience with the others. She basically woke up and was forced into babysitting her best friends. “My friends.. have turned into COMPLETE JERKS!” And “We’ve got the liar, the grump, the hoarder, and the brute.” “What about a Rainbow Dash?” “Congratulations Spike, you’re the new Rainbow Dash. Now LETS GO!” Puppy dog Big Mac is so cute. I love how it was all the lessons of friendship they learned that was key to overcoming chaos and restoring harmony. When Twilight’s eyes glow white with pure magic, so cool. Overall a great season opener!

The grand galloping gala! What a fantastic season finale. The moment we’ve been waiting a season for arrives and unfortunately for the girls, it doesn’t go as planned. The last time I watched this episode was in 2012, when I was 10 years old, so I honestly did not remember how catastrophically bad the night went. Probably the most iconic thing to come out of this episode is crazy Fluttershy and her “YOU WILL LOVE ME!” How is Fluttershy so cute while crazy? In the end, everybody would have enjoyed themselves more if they spent the night hanging out with Spike as a group like he was hoping. I love Spike, it’s moments like those one remembers how good natured and sincere he is. He loves the Mane Six a lot. In the end this was a great season finale to wrap up the hype for the gala and establish how the Mane Six are perfect for each other; all unique and quirky. They pulled out the stops for this one!

A Spike centred episode and our first time meeting Owlowicious. I feel bad for Spike because Twilight seems to be insensitive towards him sometimes, it’s like she forgets he really is just a baby dragon. I don’t think it’s confirmed what his brain maturity is meant to be for a dragon his age, but I would suspect that it’s similar to the CMC, maybe a little older. It’s very normal for children to be jealous when they get a baby sibling; the logic of Owlowicious invading Spike’s world is the same sort of concept. Obviously he shouldn’t have lied, but it’s easy to understand a 7-9 year old doing exactly what he did (this is my guess as to what age he might be in terms of brain development). When Spike says “I thought you didn’t need me anymore.. and that you didn’t love me anymore.” I actually felt tears in my eyes! It’s extremely brave to be so honest about your feelings, especially to somebody you recently felt rejected by. I’m glad that Twilight and Spike ironed out their misunderstanding, and now Owlowicious is part of the family. I love Spike and think he deserves a big hug.

This is one of my favourite episodes of all time! Pinkie Pie is my favourite pony, so it’s hard not to love it. From a construction standpoint, the jokes are funny, none of the story beats overstay their welcome, and the whole time I had a big grin on my face - especially at the end when Pinkie gets her poof back! Character wise, it’s great to get depth to Pinkie’s character where she’s more than just a hyperactive goofball; she also cares deeply about the approval and love of her friends, and without it, she goes off the rails. I relate as somebody who can get a little paranoid and jump to conclusions if I feel rejected by my loved ones. It’s a very human side to her! I also think it says a lot about her that she was able to forget her OWN birthday when she was more excited about the concept of throwing an after-party for Gummy and getting to spend more time with her friends.

Adorable episode! To be honest, when I first started watching this episode, I was a little annoyed as I thought "another CMC episode, here we go again..." so I was pleasantly surpriased! There isn't too much to comment on this one, because the "lesson learnt" about friendship isn't a very deep one (if not beautiful though!), but I love learning about the origins of the Mane Six and how they're all connected. It begs the question, do you believe in fate? I've certainly had coincidences in my life that felt a little too perfect to not be destiny!

Braeburn is a VERY handsome colt! If you humanised him, I reckon he would look like Kristoff from Frozen; blonde shaggy hair, broad shoulders, thick eyebrows, wide nose. (Actually, he’s my type. Hope we see more of him!) That’s my main comments on this episode. It wasn’t the greatest, wasn’t the worst. I love Pinkie, and I don’t enjoy when they make her the fall guy to move the plot along.

The adorable collection of outfits Fluttershy wears in this episode is priceless! I love when she does her hair up. This is also source of the “I’m so frustrated I could just… scream!!! (Aaahhhh…)” yep, this pony is just too cute! I now want to steal Pinkie Pie’s lock-my-mouth-with-a-key-bury-in-a-hole-build-a-house-on-it-and-move-into-it pinky promise and use it next time I need to super duper promise something! Twilight’s dilemma is especially unique because she hates holding secrets, and if she could tell either Rarity or Fluttershy, most likely their issues would be solved. But the bigger message here is of course that even if telling your friends secrets could help fix their problems, it’s still not our place to do so. Instead, trying to get them to willingly and openly communicate is better. I do remember as a filly my best friends confiding in me that they had a crush on each other, which I did tell them about their feelings, and that worked really well and they happily dated for a few years, but that’s more of a personal anecdote.

When I was watching this, I thought - “finally! Rarity and Sweetie Belle FINALLY having a sweet sister moment”. Up until this point of the show, the only interactions we’ve really seen between the sisters is Sweetie Belle destroying Rarity’s boutique in an absurd comedist way (typically after ignoring Rarity’s instructions to stay away, or by using Rarity’s stuff) followed by Rarity getting rightfully, quite annoyed. If you have sisters, it’s easy to understand both perspectives; young children are desperate for the attention and approval of their older siblings, and older siblings often deal with the consequences of their siblings messing up their stuff with no recourse. (For reference, I’m the youngest in my family, with two sisters, so I’m trying not to be biased here). I liked how despite Rarity’s loathing of the “uncouth”, to make it up for Sweetie Belle, she’s happy to get down and dirty. It’s clear that Rarity really does love her little sister even if she hasn’t been great about showing it so far. Was Applejack holding her breath the whole time in the mud pit? Overall, I thought it was sweet to have a nice sister bonding episode, and as a little sister myself, I gave my big sister an extra big hug goodnight after watching.

Princess Luna finally makes an appearance after the debut episodes for the show! I found this episode endearing, and although Luna certainly feels alientated from her citizens despite making her best efforts, the payoff is worth it. This is important set up for the future to establish that citizens are now comfortable with Luna and welcome her as a Princess. In terms of what we learn about Luna, we learn she loves the people of Equestria, is a little bit awkward, old fashioned and self conscious (owing to her time on the Moon), and deep down is a good pony. Plus how can you not love the ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE! Pinkie gets a lot of flack in this episode, but as a previous poster said, she’s there to move the plot along. Additionally it’s clarified she didn’t really have any malicious intent; I doubt she was even aware of how she was making Luna feel… though ideally she should have known better, a quote from Twilight is most fitting “It’s just Pinkie being Pinkie”. Just like in real life, the Mane Six can hurt people without meaning to. What’s important is that you apologise afterwards!

It’s been shown in previous episodes that Twi is neurotic on a good day, but this episode really ups the ante with her going fully of the rails! Equestria bewarned, you do not want somebody with the magic power of Twilight losing her mind; the consequences are clear. The magic power of the regular unicorn is not fully understood at this point of the show, but even the inattentive viewer will be able to understand that Twilight is capable of magic other unicorns aren’t capable of in a lifetime. Seriously, the “Want it, need it” spell could (and does) cause absolute mayhem across all of Ponyville, so it’s a good thing not just anybody can cast it on a whim. I’ll admit I found this episode frustrating because none of Twilight’s friends take her concerns seriously and undermine her a little, but that was the lesson learned about friendship this time, so it was necessary. Overall, the message is good and timeless. Yes, ultimately Twilight was wrong about missing the supposed deadline being the end of the world, but if the other Elements had listened to her and supported her, it wouldn’t have taken all of Ponyville being plunged in chaos to figure it out. Listening to your friends and helping them, even if it’s not a problem you particularly care about, is something we should all remember to do.