Flight to the finish

I just have to say that I find Flight to the finish to be one of, if not the best episode ever.

My reason?
The message: This was all about recognizing your worth despite your limitations.

I also found Diamond Tiara's shallowness and stupidity to be brilliantly written. The whole 'what can we do? We've already called them blank flanks.' showed them to be as dumb if not dumber than we thought. Her assault on Scootaloo's self worth was delivered so well that I wanted to reach through the screen and slap her.

I find Apple Bloom's callousness to be believable and, despite being a betrayal of friendship, was exactly how kids tend to act. They went along with Scootaloo making the show all about herself up until she went off the deep end, then, like any child would, Apple Bloom had too much and said something childish (big surprise, coming from a child) that she was sure to regret.

Finally, the element of loyalty saved the day, giving them a lecture and accompanying them back to get Scootaloo and delivering one of the best pep talk I have ever seen directed to a child.

The trip to the Crystal Empire was unrealistic, but it's a cartoon, so that can be forgiven. And Dash acted a little stupid tryng to stay professional and missed the chance to encourage them that they were on the right path, but of course, the plot wouldn't have worked out without this.

Lastly, Tommy Oliver has a great review and pointed out something awesome that I hadn't at first noticed: Ponyville handles Scootaloo's disability like a boss! It's no big deal since she gets along fine and therefore, no one with a brain brings it up since it's obvious she'll either learn to fly or her special talent won't involve flying.

Now that I think about it, Granny Smith's nods to Scootaloo imply to me that residents give her a little extra affirmation without doing anything that would point out her disability.