S06:E24 - Top Bolt

[Music Chart Fan 819]

Overall, this was a solid episode. I was hoping that this would be a decent Twilight/Rainbow Dash episode, and I think it delivered. I really like the way Twilight and Rainbow Dash play off and cooperate with each other, which is often reminiscent of their dynamic in "Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3". Vapor Trail is a bit of a heartstring-pulling cliche - the cute, meek, humble girl who's really talented, but who's a bit of a doormat and just needs help realizing her own worth - but I think it still works and causes the audience to root for her.  Unfortunately, Sky Stinger's arrogant attitude is off-puttingly annoying, but he is brought down to earth and isn't nearly as bad by the end of the episode. Sky's and Vapor's predicament is relatable, if perhaps a bit implausible. And there are several feel-good moments of the episode, especially Twilight's and Rainbow's cheering up Sky and Vapor, and seeing the two of them achieving their own success and getting into the Wonderbolts Academy.

 

I do find it a little hard to believe that neither Sky nor anyone else caught on to Vapor's helping Sky achieve his feats until Rainbow noticed at the Academy. Did Sky really never, in all the years from childhood onward, attempt any tricks without Vapor around, failing at them such that he might at least suspect that he can't do them without Vapor's assistance? Furthermore, has no one else ever noticed Vapor boosting Sky when performing his tricks? For example, if Vapor boosted Sky when he set the record for "fastest vertical acceleration rate", did no one see her doing so? If there's a screening process to get in to trials week at the Wonderbolts Academy, and that process includes a demonstration of skill, did the Wonderbolts not notice Vapor's assisting Sky there? It seems a little implausible, considering that Rainbow caught Vapor's helping Sky quickly, and after Rainbow primed Twilight to look for it, she was able to see it pretty well, too, despite probably not having much experience in flying tricks.

 

Also, what's the end game for Vapor here? Did she intend to keep this up indefinitely, even if/when the two of them became Wonderbolts? Did she think that Sky might become good enough to perform without her help eventually? Did she intend to come clean at some point, and just kept putting it off? Or did she just never think that far ahead?

 

Next, I have to admit that I'm not sure that I get Rainbow's method of not messing with the newbies' confidence by telling them what they're doing wrong. Isn't the whole yelling-in-their-faces drill instructor shtick by Spitfire intended to "mess with their confidence"? And I think Twilight makes a good point that they can't improve if they don't know what to work on, or don't think that they need to practice anything. With Rainbow's method, how would the newbies improve? Would she just have the newbies go through the mandatory drills, etc. and hope that they realize themselves what needs to be fixed and work on it without being told? Or is doing the mandatory drills, etc. supposed to fix whatever needs to be fixed without the newbies' even realizing it?

 

Vapor even brings up that issue with Rainbow's method, after seeming to agree with her. When Rainbow says that Sky needs to build his strength with boring, methodical basics training, Vapor asks "But how will we get him to do that? He doesn't think he needs practice". Rainbow never really answers that question; she only says "We'll just tell Sky that he should practice with Twilight so you won't feel so self-conscious about getting special training from me". And, later, Vapor's concern turns out to be prescient - Rainbow says that Sky "wasn't even trying" when training with Twilight.

 

I'm somewhat surprised that Spitfire isn't miffed by Twilight and Rainbow interrupting her introductory spiel to the newbies and distracting them. I'm also a bit surprised that Spitfire seems to have no objection to Twilight (and Rainbow) taking over the classroom portion. Even if Spitfire would rather not do it and pawn it off on someone else, does she have any concern about whether Twilight knows what to teach the newbies about flying (especially Wonderbolts-style stunt flying), or has enough experience to actually teach it well? Is there any concern that the newbies, particularly if they have attitudes like Sky Stinger, might not listen to Twilight because she's not an established authority figure within the Wonderbolts, or because she lacks experience with flying in general or stunt flying in particular? I could imagine a smart-aleck newbie saying to Twilight "Why should we listen to you? You're not a Wonderbolt. You're not a pegasus. You only just got wings when you became a princess. All of us have been flying our whole lives!". I guess a pony with that bad of an attitude could be reported and disciplined or even kicked out of trials week, if need be.

 

One final issue I had was how, after Sky's and Vapor's reconciliation, it seems a little lopsided that we see Sky giving Vapor actual tips to help her perform tricks, but Vapor's contribution to help Sky succeed is basically just to cheerlead for him. We see Sky struggling with a basics test, but then being able to pass it with the help of Vapor's cheers, implying that Sky just needed a confidence boost to succeed. However, earlier, Rainbow said that Sky needed to build his strength, and that seemed to be confirmed by Sky's failing all of his basics tests, and being unable to complete a flipping loop on his own. Those both occurred before Sky ever lost his confidence. I guess the argument might be that Sky wasn't really trying when failing his basics tests, but I don't know, it still seems to me like Sky shouldn't have failed so spectacularly if his only problem was motivation.

 

Now for some other miscellaneous observations:

 

At the beginning of the episode, Rainbow Dash doesn't even hesitate to say that she's going to catch up on Daring Do (i.e. read) with Twilight and have a sleepover with Pinkie. I might have thought that those would be "uncool" things to admit to doing, especially to other Wonderbolts. Also, as a side note, what's the age limit to saying that one is having a "sleepover"? To me, it seems like a term for something kids (and not adults) would do.

 

I would be wary of a teacher who says "Hello, students!" with the kind of forced cheerfulness that Twilight does. In my experience, teachers like that often were the ones who cracked down the most about rules, forced class participation, gave out the most work, etc.

 

It's a bit strange that Vapor Trail cites Sky Stinger's "record for the fastest vertical acceleration rate" as "500 feet in 2 seconds". I guess, if we assume a starting velocity of 0, we can use kinematics equations to calculate that that would correspond to an acceleration of 250 ft/s^2 (~7.8 g's), with a final velocity of 500 ft/s (~341 mph), which is far in excess of the capabilities of any Earth animal. Is that pegasus magic at work? However, we now know that Vapor Trail likely gave him a boost, which would make that record invalid.

 

It's interesting that Sky's having a lot of siblings, and thus often failing to get his parents' attention while growing up, apparently led him to become an annoying attention-seeking braggart as an adult. I have 8 siblings, and it doesn't seem to me that we've been growing up to be like that. I think that, especially as the number of siblings increased, we learned not to try to seek our parents' and others' attention so much, but to entertain ourselves (individually or with our fellow siblings), for the most part.

 

Vapor and Sky cheer for each other as they're doing their solo tests, and Twilight and Rainbow cheer for the two of them on their final test. But if that cheering is intended to motivate them as they're doing their tests, I might expect that they won't be able to see or hear it while flying far away at high speed, making such cheering rather pointless (other than perhaps demonstrating enthusiasm to others who are watching on the ground).

 

Finally, after Vapor and Sky are given their gold lead pony badges and told they made it into the Wonderbolts academy, Vapor looks as though she's going to embrace Sky, but then proceeds to do something more like falling on top of him.

[Thrond 3,263]

huh.

if I could be convinced that the wonderbolts were a military organization, I'd do a 180 and be ok with it.

 

but at this time, all the military stuff seems to be window dressing.  what life threatening things are the wonderbolts expected to deal with?

Don't entirely remember but I think they were called in when mega-Spike was threatening Ponyville in S2. 

 

As much as I appreciate episodes like "Wonderbolts Academy" and yes, "Newbie Dash," I'd be a lot happier if the show just sort of ignored the Wonderbolts' military inspiration whatsoever. There's some good ideas which I think we'd lose, but I feel it'd lend a bit more purity to Rainbow's ambitions. 

[PonyMage 228]

huh.

if I could be convinced that the wonderbolts were a military organization, I'd do a 180 and be ok with it.

 

but at this time, all the military stuff seems to be window dressing.  what life threatening things are the wonderbolts expected to deal with?

At the very least they were created for military purposes. I guess that has carried on since their instigation a thousand years ago...

[M'gann M'orzz 745]

I don't see what people see is so strong in this episode, as far as map episodes go, sure it's one of the stronger ones but it honestly doesn't even hold a candle to Viva Las Pegasus. Were people just THAT desperate for a Dash episode that portrayed her mostly positively or something. There's so many stronger episodes this season but people are hailing THIS as a saving grace?

 

 

And Twilight as usual since S4 just felt boring to me, she was overshadowed by Dash and mostly just went "BUT DA BOOK LEARNINGS"


People hated on Flutter Brutter for having an obnoxious character as one of the main roles... but this one also has one but gets a totally free pass despite nether Dash or Twilight's characterization being near as strong or frankly ground breaking and important for the character as Fluttershy's was in Flutter Brutter? Wat?

Edited October 17, 2016 by M'gann M'orzz

[Megas 27,564]

Were people just THAT desperate for a Dash episode that portrayed her mostly positively or something. There's so many stronger episodes this season but people are hailing THIS as a saving grace?

You mean people actually like it when a character they like isn't relentlessly shit on? What a shocker

 

 

And Twilight as usual since S4 just felt boring to me, she was overshadowed by Dash and mostly just went "BUT DA BOOK LEARNINGS"

Obviously your in the minority, she wasn't tied down by Starlight this time as a mostly ineffective teacher, and instead getting to shine as her knowledge-loving, dorky self. And the episode never had her overshadowed by Dash, they were both given equal time to shine with them both having good(and bad) ideas to contribute.

 

 

Want to see REAL overshadowing? Watch Hoofields and McColts.

 

 

People hated on Flutter Brutter for having an obnoxious character as one of the main roles... but this one also has one but gets a totally free pass despite nether Dash or Twilight's characterization being near as strong or frankly ground breaking and important for the character as Fluttershy's was in Flutter Brutter? Wat?

Sky Stinger had a stronger excuse for being a cocky sumbitch, thinking he was actually as good he was(despite not knowing he was living a lie), while Zephyr was a lazy fuck never tried at anything while pulling a sob story out of his ass that tried to get everyone to feel sorry for him....despite never making an effort to actually try at anything. This episode actually humbles Sky Stinger and gets him to admit he needs to get better before fixing his problems vs Zephyr who never tried at anything but the episode did a terrible job of getting us to root for him. Flutter Brutter had an amazing Fluttershy but Zephyr was soooo awful and unlikable that the episode still left people mixed. It's like hoe Simple Ways had a great Applejack but Rarity was soooo bad that it was hard to care

 

Simply put Sky Stinger was handled better than Zephyr

Edited November 1, 2016 by Megas

[TheWhiteBowser 187]

 

 

Sky Stinger had a stronger excuse for being a cocky sumbitch, thinking he was actually as good he was(despite not knowing he was living a lie), while Zephyr was a lazy fuck never tried at anything while pulling a sob story that tried to get everyone to feel sorry for him....despite never making an effort to actually try at anything. This episode actually humbles Sky Stinger and gets him to admit he needs to get better before fixing his problems vs Zephyr who never tried at anything but the episode did a terrible job of getting us to root for him. Flutter Brutter had an amazing Fluttershy but Zephyr was soooo awful and unlikable that the episode still left people mixed. It's like hoe Simple Ways had a great Applejack but Rarity was soooo bad that it was hard to care

 

Simply put Sky Stinger was handled better than Zephyr

 

Hell I still can't look back on Flutter Brutter and say I like it on the pure fact of how they portrayed Zephyr in the first half of the episode. It was so agonizingly painful. Sky Stinger's ego is a construct of Vapor's enabling. Which if you read deep enough makes Vapor worse than Sky in that regard. Luckily Vapor comes clean pretty easily instead of being super sadistic like stereotypical enablers in our real world are. 

[TranceBrony 16]

Good episode, I liked the characters, the plotline and the message at the end. An easy 6/10.

[Truffles 2,033]

Don't entirely remember but I think they were called in when mega-Spike was threatening Ponyville in S2.

 

Indeed, and they were about as effective as dealing with Spikezilla as Celestia and Luna are whenever a majopr baddie threatens Equestria.

 

Granted, if Spikezilla is supposed to be some world-eater form of Spike that the show hasn't revealed to us yet, then it's not surprising they couldn't do much to stop him.

 

 

Also, what's the end game for Vapor here? Did she intend to keep this up indefinitely, even if/when the two of them became Wonderbolts?

 

Seeing how shocked she was when it was mentioned there would be ​solo​ tests, I guess she expected she'd always be able to fly with Sky as his wingpony, even when enrolled in the Academy. Somehow I feel like being in the Wonderbolts was Sky's dream and she was just there to be at his side, so she may have not even done any research on what life would be like in the Wonderbolts. (But I need to see the episode again, so I might be totally off here.)

 

One thing I couldn't relate to is Sky's reaction when he found out Vapor had been assisting him for nearly his entire life. Is lashing out angrily at your best friend the most realistic emotion? I would think it would be something more along the lines of moping, or maybe disappointment.

 

I'm not an acrobat or anything related to a physical profession, so I can't directly relate to finding out a teammate has been covering for you the whole time. The closest thing I can think of is finding out a friend or family member has been letting you win at a card, board, or video game every time you played with them. But my reaction there would be one of disappointment in myself and not anger at that person.

 

 Finally, after Vapor and Sky are given their gold lead pony badges and told they made it into the Wonderbolts academy, Vapor looks as though she's going to embrace Sky, but then proceeds to do something more like falling on top of him.

 

She's just been looking for an excuse to jump him her entire life, and doing it in public didn't matter in the least.

 

Hmm, I know there is a lot of fannon involving Wonderbolt teammates fraternizing with one another, but I wonder if in reality Spitfire would have issues in regards to overall team cohesion if two teammates were discovered to be romantically involved?

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

This episode was so awesome!!!

 

I definitely got the Tom Cruise reference!

 

Great lesson overall! Can't let someone physically help you to keep your confidence up and blame it on someone who's just trying to help on losing your entire confidence. Vapor Wind was adorable (especially her sneeze). 

 

And for sound guys like you...Twilight's final laugh was actually the recycled EQG 3 clip from when Spike pounced on SciTwi making her laugh. 

[Lillim 45]

I swear vaporXstinger is so adorable.. I think I'm in cuteness overload ^-^

[bluseymoe 258]

I don't see what people see is so strong in this episode, as far as map episodes go, sure it's one of the stronger ones but it honestly doesn't even hold a candle to Viva Las Pegasus. Were people just THAT desperate for a Dash episode that portrayed her mostly positively or something. There's so many stronger episodes this season but people are hailing THIS as a saving grace?

 

 

And Twilight as usual since S4 just felt boring to me, she was overshadowed by Dash and mostly just went "BUT DA BOOK LEARNINGS"

People hated on Flutter Brutter for having an obnoxious character as one of the main roles... but this one also has one but gets a totally free pass despite nether Dash or Twilight's characterization being near as strong or frankly ground breaking and important for the character as Fluttershy's was in Flutter Brutter? Wat?

Portraying Dash as likeable and competent was enough of a reason to take note of her considering how poorly handled she was most of this season.

 

Of Dash was written this way in every episode, nobody would ever complain about her, and if they did, they'd be grasping at straws.

 

Plus for me, it was a better way to end the season than that trainwreck of a finale.

[Music Chart Fan 819]

Seeing how shocked she was when it was mentioned there would be ​solo​ tests, I guess she expected she'd always be able to fly with Sky as his wingpony, even when enrolled in the Academy. Somehow I feel like being in the Wonderbolts was Sky's dream and she was just there to be at his side, so she may have not even done any research on what life would be like in the Wonderbolts. (But I need to see the episode again, so I might be totally off here.)

 

One other thing I remembered about this is that, after Vapor's flashback story, she says "I didn't think my help could actually hurt his chances". When I think about it, that doesn't sound like something she would say if she was planning for Sky to eventually be able to perform on his own, or was planning to come clean at some point. In both of those cases, I might think that she would be aware that her help is hurting his chances, at least in the short term. On the other hand, she might say something like that if she hadn't necessarily thought that much about it, and was operating on the assumption that she could keep assisting Sky indefinitely.

 

One thing I couldn't relate to is Sky's reaction when he found out Vapor had been assisting him for nearly his entire life. Is lashing out angrily at your best friend the most realistic emotion? I would think it would be something more along the lines of moping, or maybe disappointment.

 

Yeah, I feel like if I were in Sky's place, I would mainly be worried and disappointed, rather than angry at Vapor. I think I would be asking a lot of questions, both to get the full story before reaching any conclusions about Vapor's intentions, and, perhaps more importantly, to assess the extent of the impact and what I should do now. How long has Vapor been assisting Sky? How exactly has she been assisting him, and with which stunts? What records and performances might not actually be valid? How did Sky think he was such a natural, and brag about himself so much, without ever noticing that he was being assisted? Is it possible for Sky to train and be able to perform without Vapor's assistance, and how? The most detail Vapor gave him was saying "I've been helping you" and a nod after Sky asks whether they all knew, so it's rather surprising how quickly Sky knew what was going on and came to the conclusion that Vapor had ill intent and was a "terrible wingpony". Part of the reason for that might have been just the constraints of the episode - the conflict had to be established without using too much time, and there's not enough time for Sky to go through an existential crisis. But I'll admit, too, that, like you, I'm not sure that I can really put myself in Sky's place with Sky's attitude (more on that below).

 

I'm not an acrobat or anything related to a physical profession, so I can't directly relate to finding out a teammate has been covering for you the whole time. The closest thing I can think of is finding out a friend or family member has been letting you win at a card, board, or video game every time you played with them. But my reaction there would be one of disappointment in myself and not anger at that person.

 

Thinking back, there is one case that happened to me which could be kind of analogous to what happened to Sky Stinger. It's a bit of a long story, if you'll bear with me.

 

In 6th grade, I joined band and, being my often indecisive self, couldn't decide what instrument to play. Eventually the directors said that we needed more French Horns, and suggested I play that, which I did. Over my three years in middle school, though, most of the other French Horn players either switched instruments or dropped out; if I recall correctly, I was the only constant Horn player. Because of that, I was praised several times (by the directors, my parents, etc.) for being committed and sticking with a difficult instrument. I also was often at least partially responsible for trying to teach newly-recruited Horn players the basics. Furthermore, I tried out for and was accepted into several honor bands in my 7th and 8th grades. If you don't know, honor band was an event where "advanced" players from school bands around the area would form a concert band and, for one weekend, intensely practice more advanced music, culminating in a performance on Sunday. (In retrospect, my making it into those honor bands was likely due in good part to a lack of competition - there probably weren't all that many other middle school students playing French Horn and trying out in the first place.) As a result of all of this, by the end of 8th grade, I thought I was a much better French Horn player than I actually was.

 

Then I started going to a private high school in a different city, where no one knew my previous history in band, and I rather quickly discovered that I wasn't actually that good of a Horn player. I was not able to play a good amount of the music very well, and the other freshman Horn player was much better than I was. And while I'm not sure I remember the immediate aftermath of that realization, I don't think I looked to blame or get angry at anyone for misleading or embarrassing me. Instead, I basically came to embrace my status as a not-terribly-good Horn player. I liked playing 3rd or 4th Horn parts in concert band, because they were often lower-ranged (which I was better at playing), less complex, and duplicated baritone or trombone parts. In marching band, if I didn't have the chops or stamina to play the mellophone part, I would sometimes play it an octave down, or learn the baritone part and play that instead. These things, among other reasons, led to my sometimes being considered an "honorary" low brass member. And, because I was smart and did well academically in high school, my status could play into that - I was just being smart by finding ways to have fun with band while saving effort and not having to spend lots of time practicing.

 

So my situation there was sort of similar to Sky's - thinking that I had a lot of natural talent and was pretty good at performing, but then realizing that that wasn't necessarily the case. However, there are some probably pretty significant differences. In my case, unlike Sky's, there really wasn't any single person to blame for boosting me or inflating my self-image. Also, playing in band and being what I thought was a good Horn player was never really the be-all and end-all for me. It was just something I did for enjoyment; it wasn't my main identity or a serious career path or the means to achieving a lifelong dream. I could still feel a sense of accomplishment with the "being smart by saving effort" angle, and by doing well academically in other areas. And these reasons might be why I had a different reaction to the revelation that I wasn't as good as I thought. Rather than lashing out at others for misleading or embarrassing me, or thinking "Wow, I really need to devote a lot more time and effort to practicing", I was more thinking "Wow, I'm not really that good, but I don't want to grind through all the practicing to get much better, so I'm fine with how I am".

 

She's just been looking for an excuse to jump him her entire life, and doing it in public didn't matter in the least.

 

Heh, and Vapor would show that she's learning not always to take a back seat, since she's top and Sky's bottom! Although, to be a killjoy, she fell on him in more of a perpendicular direction than a parallel one.

[Thrond 3,263]

I don't see what people see is so strong in this episode, as far as map episodes go, sure it's one of the stronger ones but it honestly doesn't even hold a candle to Viva Las Pegasus. 

Funnily enough, that's sort of how I felt with "Viva Las Pegasus." That episode was fun and does have a fair bit going for it, but I have no idea why everybody was so pleased with it given just how utterly formulaic its plot was. I got a lot more emotional satisfaction out of "Top Bolt," because I felt that its new characters had enough nuance and the plot had enough weight to carry the episode. 

 

And Twilight as usual since S4 just felt boring to me, she was overshadowed by Dash and mostly just went "BUT DA BOOK LEARNINGS"

She's not exactly revelatory here, but she met my basic test of being both quirky and fallible, which for some reason the show can rarely ever accomplish, so I'll take it. I found her excitement about teaching rather fun. 

 

People hated on Flutter Brutter for having an obnoxious character as one of the main roles... but this one also has one but gets a totally free pass despite nether Dash or Twilight's characterization being near as strong or frankly ground breaking and important for the character as Fluttershy's was in Flutter Brutter? Wat?

Well, I rather liked Zephyr Breeze, and Sky Stinger here has fewer reprehensible qualities and more redeeming qualities, so it should be clear why I was okay with him. I agree about not understanding why people hold Zephyr against "Flutter Brutter" so much, though, given that the Fluttershy characterization there is so goddamn significant. 

 

As far as Rainbow Dash is concerned, I might be biased given how happy I am about her accomplishments this season, but seeing her now having to assist other aspirant Wonderbolts make me all sorts of happy. Plus I found her pretty fun this episode, even if it's not necessarily my ideal RD characterization. Wish working to solve other characters' problems didn't always have to take focus away from the main characters' quirks, however. 

[Rarity Is Best Pony 634]

I enjoyed it quite a bit. The characters featured were super cute and on top of that the Top Gun references were awesome as they always are.

[Truffles 2,033]

The most detail Vapor gave him was saying "I've been helping you" and a nod after Sky asks whether they all knew, so it's rather surprising how quickly Sky knew what was going on and came to the conclusion that Vapor had ill intent and was a "terrible wingpony". Part of the reason for that might have been just the constraints of the episode - the conflict had to be established without using too much time, and there's not enough time for Sky to go through an existential crisis.

 

Indeed, lack of time is the main reason I feel they rushed this part, and in this case I let it slide since I felt it was more important for them to focus on how they put their relationship back together again after this falling out.

 

If you don't know, honor band was an event where "advanced" players from school bands around the area would form a concert band and, for one weekend, intensely practice more advanced music, culminating in a performance on Sunday.

 

Good to know, since even though both my sisters were pseudo band geeks (they were flag core), I was in the computer club and our two worlds never really met. XD 

 

Also, playing in band and being what I thought was a good Horn player was never really the be-all and end-all for me. It was just something I did for enjoyment; it wasn't my main identity or a serious career path or the means to achieving a lifelong dream. I could still feel a sense of accomplishment with the "being smart by saving effort" angle, and by doing well academically in other areas. And these reasons might be why I had a different reaction to the revelation that I wasn't as good as I thought. Rather than lashing out at others for misleading or embarrassing me, or thinking "Wow, I really need to devote a lot more time and effort to practicing", I was more thinking "Wow, I'm not really that good, but I don't want to grind through all the practicing to get much better, so I'm fine with how I am".

 

Without rewatching the episode, I can't say for sure if Sky was treating his eventual induction into the Wonderbolts as a life-long dream and occupation, or if it was just something he thought would be fun for him to show off his "talents" in. In your case, it is kind of cool how you managed to resolve the issue on your own and find balance. I guess it shows you don't always need friendship to be magic to solve a problem, especially if you're a self-motivated type of person.

[Lillim 45]

Can I just say the background ponies where all well designed and we didn't get recolors we actually got new mane styles (even tho they looked like they where made by commander's pony generator...not kidding look on there..then look at the lineup in the beginning..but hey it's better then recolors..)

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

I thought this was a very well written and well done episode, it was nice to see Rainbow Dash and Twilight interact and they did it perfectly. Their chemistry is fantastic to watch, I loved seeing the Wonderbolt Academy and seeing the Wonderbolts in training. Sky Stinger and Vapor Trail were fantastic and so interesting/diverse in their mannerisms and actions. I loved seeing them make up as friends and work together to both get what they wanted. I also loved seeing Derpy the mailpony lol and the facial expressions were soo funny, also love Angel Wings and hope to see more of her in the future! 9/10!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Oleks 1,993]

I nearly gave up on “the Map” episodes, but this was a really good one. Twilight was awesome, and we got a couple of new cute characters. Also, love how RD’s relationships with the Wonderbolts evolved since she officially joined them.

[ph00tbag 108]

Not my top episode, but certainly a great episode, nonetheless. Vapor Trail is absolutely adorable on every level, and definitely way out of Sky Stinger's league. I love watching Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle interact. I feel like those two are closer to each other than they are to the rest of the Mane 6, even with Fluttershy being Rainbow's foalhood friend. They just seem to be much more genuine and at ease with each other, as though there's no expectations to be met anymore. They're always themselves. There's a sense they really care about all of their friends, but they seem to have a more natural rapport with each other. This is another episode that brings that out in them.

[Babyyoshi309 1,829]

Oh, these two are just asking to be shipped.

 

I do not think it is "begging to be shipped"...

 

More like it has already been canonized in the show. 

I don't see what people see is so strong in this episode, as far as map episodes go, sure it's one of the stronger ones but it honestly doesn't even hold a candle to Viva Las Pegasus. Were people just THAT desperate for a Dash episode that portrayed her mostly positively or something. There's so many stronger episodes this season but people are hailing THIS as a saving grace?

 

I completely agree. Everyone has been hating on great episodes this whole season. Then this "meh" episode comes along and everyone praises the heck out of it. Really the only thing that great about it was the lesson (and maybe the Wonderbolts being shown in a casual manor now that RD is part of them).

[Dynamo Pad 11,259]

This episode was really awesome. It's good to see another map episode and it's nice seeing another Twilight and Rainbow episode. It's also pretty interesting that the Wonderbolt Academy is the destination for the map. I also found it really funny when Rainbow had to go back to Wonderbolt HQ multiple times in the episode. Sky Stinger and Vapor Trail were pretty cool and interesting characters and I liked the backstory between them. All in all, this was a really great episode and probably one of my favorite map episodes. 

[Megalomaniac 100]

Decent.

 

Twilight has brains and Rainbow Dash isn't completely useless like Fluttershy. This is why appreciate both. A Twilight epsiode cannot be a bad episode.

 

I'm allergic to dumb people.

[ponykittylonelygirl 73]

I really liked this episode, it felt like a nice 'back to basics' after some odd choices (like PPOV). Classic Twilight and Rainbow, some teamwork and some interesting new ponies that balanced out the characters.

I absolutely love Vapour, she was the prettiest pony in such a long time. She was what I expected Heart Flurry to look like, rather than the weird copy of Starlight Glimmer they ended up doing. I don't understand the shows recent colour obsession with purple and green, it works for Spike but enoughs enough. It was nice to see some atheistically pleasing ponies back in action and see what seemed like a classic episode back in the works.

[EmeraldStar04 250]

Those new ponies are adorable and I am SO GLAD they didn't have that new guy turn out to be a jerk.

[Sh Pie 65]

This was a humorous episode. I thought Sky was kind of a jerk but then his backstory was revealed and I pitied him since his parents didn't notice him and Vapor's help was hampering his flying. She tricked him in to thinking he was so talented that it lead to his aspirations of becoming a Wonderbolt and then the truth came out and he was back and square one. He didn't bother to try his best and he wasted his foalhood believing in a delusion.

 

The last of the Cutie Map episodes this season pairs up Twilight with Rainbow Dash. I was quite amused by Twilight's enthusiasm and Rainbow Dash's overall portrayal. She wasn't easily offended like she was in Season 6 episode 7 and her behavior was both very in character and amusing. I liked that red and pink background pony whose name is Angel Wings apparently as well.