My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Season 6 Episode 14: "The Cart Before The Ponies" (SPOILERS) · 4:05pm Aug 6th, 2016
Hey, kids! Remember "Fall Weather Friends"?
Here's a sequel to that episode, with Rarity and the CMC this time! 
Well, kind of. More of a spiritual successor.
EDIT: Save the Cheerileader, save Equestria.
Eww, physics. 
Cheerilee fakes her class out with a way-over-their-heads physics lesson as a way to introduce the subject of tomorrow's Applewood Derby.
Soap box derby, gotta love it!
So each filly and colt racing in the Derby has one day to turn a block of apple wood into a racing cart, and has to pick an older pony to help build the cart and ride in it, with awards being given out for participation, design, competition, etc.
The CMC each have a different idea of what award they want to win: the Apples usually win the "most traditional cart" award, but Apple Bloom wants to win the race; Scootaloo would rather build a wild-looking original cart than worry about winning the race since with Rainbow Dash helping her, winning would be too easy, and Sweetie Belle wants to try her hoof at designing the most traditional cart.
Apple Bloom tells Applejack she wants to design a sleek, fast, modern cart to win the race, but Applejack isn't having it, because Apples are all about tradition. Scootaloo tells Rainbow Dash she wants to build the wildest, most creative cart, and Rainbow gets overexcited about winning the race. Rarity has issues with her own past, because she once came in second in the "most creative" category TO DERPY OF ALL PONIES, and has something to prove--even though Sweetie Belle doesn't want to win that prize.
Basically, the big sisters completely take over the competition, ignoring what the CMC want to do because they're all thinking of themselves and their own Applewood Derby from when they were fillies, which makes the entire experience miserable for the CMC, who aren't getting to do what they wanted to do in the Derby at all.
Applejack especially needs a swift kick in the ass for flat out being a bitch about rejecting her sister's interest in building a fast cart.
None of the CMC are happy with what their sisters have done in designing the carts, but they try to keep a positive outlook, deciding that at least driving the carts in the race will be a memorable experience.
Then they find out their sisters aren't even giving them that pleasure--they've not only taken over the whole cart design thing, they've taken over the entire race, and expect the Crusaders to ride shotgun.
You know, because the Derby is supposed to be for the adults, not the kids. Right?
Cheerilee tries to reprimand the big sisters for their faux pas, but is blown off.
There's a song. Not bad, could be better. At the end of the song, the three sisters' carts crash into each other, bringing the race to a screeching halt and destroying most of the other racers' carts in the process. When the Disaster Dames bitch and moan about their carts falling apart, the CMC finally have enough and yell at them.
Cheerilee agrees to a do-over on the entire derby. The CMC design their carts their way this time, with minimal help from the Disaster Dames. In the do-over, all the older ponies are spectators, with the fillies and colts running the race solo.
There's a shitload of easter eggs and jokes in this episode that'll be all over Derpibooru in about 20 minutes after I post this (if they're not already). Some final thoughts on this episode:
- Scootaloo's chicken cart: because the animators love that joke as much as we do.
- Why the hell did the derby course cross itself like that? It's like it was engineered for a disaster.
This episode was...kind of average. I'm giving it a 7/10.
Derpy. Who's that, Derpy. Who are you with, Derpy? Is that your son? Do you have a pegasus son?
Not my head canon!
24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3vydwVoV01r4xdbxo2_250.png
Also, we have seen DT and SS earlier this season. During Apple Bloom's song in On Your Marks, they're baking.
4135191 Ah, really? I must've missed them.
4135186 It's a time paradox!
Derpy really showed Rarity when they were fillies. Scootaloo was just trying to live up to her title of best chicken. Yeah, they probably should've swapped big sisters, but it probably wouldn't have done anything. Leave the cart building to the little sisters, big sisters. It did suck when the big sisters made the carts how they wanted them to be without thinking of what their little sisters wanted.
4135191 Yeah, they were good in the background.
Much like a race, the destination was established from the start, but the journey was still fun to watch.
4135186
Could be a cousin, a little brother, somepony in town who lives by the post office...
There's a whole spectrum of options between the most obvious and outright rejection of reality.
4135218
My savior! I shall shower you in moustaches!
Thought Scootaloo's cart was a phoenix cart... or a chocobo.
4135226
The final one was, but she tried adding chicken accessories to the first one before Rainbow took them off.
I personally found the episode entertaining, and I'd give it a 9/10.
Don't know where it stands in the season overall, but it's certainly not the best nor the worst.
Also don't know where it stands in terms of CMC episodes, but it's probably in the top 5 or so. Certainly not better than Crusaders of the Lost Mark, but then again, no episode is.
4135186 So Dinky has a brother, and or, cousin we've never heard of?
Personally, I think the adults co-opting the kids' projects for themselves smacks a bit too much of reality.
Edit: Half the time they said "derby" it sounded like "derpy".
4135301 Well, it was definitely a derpy derby.
4135310
Speaking of, Derpy's brother/son/whatever has apparently been dubbed either "Derby Hooves" or "Crackle Pop".
I suspect the latter will stick better.
No offense, but you do know that 7/10 is above average.
Average is 5/10
I just finish watching the episode and oh boy I constantly pause the video to facepalm at the older sisters.
I rage so much at how stupid and insensitive they were, I wanted to take a roll up newspaper and smack on their heads.
Anyway, an ok episode. It was fun to see another kind of event in Equestria, but I'm wondering. HOW are those karts moving?! Their not always on a slope and with all those turns there's no way they can keep inertia going; especially Applejack's. Heck Rainbow's even accelerate.
4135327 I say nephew
4135381 I'd say 3 or 4 out of 10, because it was boring as hell.
4135418 That was not my rating, just me saying that 7/10 is not average
4135422 Okay. Got it. What would you give it?
4135440 ehh... 6/10. I figured it to be a little bit above average. It did make me chuckle and laugh at some scenes and I did like it more than I disliked it, but far from my favorite. Applejack was a bit too stubborn about traditions, Rarity focused more on her own trauma than Sweetie Bell and Dash was egocentric (again)
But I liked the Derpy appearance, made me chuckle, as well as how the CMC was portrayed and I can relate to them feeling it is hard to speak against your elders, no matter how wrong they may be.
I'm usually the guy who likes every episode but this one was pretty not good. Applejack was a total bitch, Rarity is still worst pony, and Rainbow Dash was her usual self-centered self. The part where they took over riding the carts too, was where I actually got a headache from the frustration. Rarity, once again, absolutely took the title of worst pony with the swan carts wings blocking all other racers, that was bullshit. And then at the end, when the CMC blow up, and the older ponies are like: "Why didn't you say anything?" I just wanted them to yell at them that they did say. They totally did, several times. This episode was just frustrating to me, which is weird, because I feel like I should be able to relate to the lesson of the episode. Or maybe it was frustrating because I can relate to it.
4135381 No offense, but don't question my method of scoring. See, where I come from and where I grew up, if you scored a 70 out of 100 on an assignment, that was a bad grade. 50 wasn't average, 50 was a fail. I'm applying the same logic here. Would you like to know what score your comment got?
4135598 Jesus christ, calm down.
Just saying that the standard view of average is half-way. Not my fault wherever you come from is out of the norm.
4135656 Or you know, you could've just not been asinine about my score for the episode in the first place.
You can't sit there and tell me to calm down and insult where I'm from and so forth when you were kind of a dick in the first place. 
4135662 How was I being a dick?
I told you, without hostility and without being rude, that typically an 7/10 is seen as an above average score, not an average.
If you took offense to that, then it is your problem and not my fault.
I can't be responsible for you being too sensitive.
4135670
This right here is you being rude.
And see, here's what you're not getting:
There was no reason for you to post the comment you posted. There was no reason for you to criticize me for not knowing what "average" is. There was no reason for you to tell me that I'm "wrong" for saying 7 is an "average" because it isn't 5, which is your definition of average. And it's a pretty rigid and mindless definition of "average" to begin with. But that's neither here nor there. I'm not here to debate the definition of average and its relative merits when applied to arbitrary critical scoring based on personal opinion.
What I am here to debate, at this moment in time, is that you "corrected" me out of turn in a fairly condescending way in my own blog about something RIDICULOUSLY trivial, and that is something I will not tolerate.
Do you understand your mistake now?
4135676 just forget it. Take your average 7/10 and go on about your day. If you think I was rude for stating what I thought is average, then you are about as sensitive as the SJW-tumblrs. No point in trying to be nice to a person who thinks people are rude for disagreeing.
It was a decent episode. Most of everything I found annoying in the episode COUGHCOUGH*SISTERS*COUGHCOUGH has already been addressed by everyone else, so I'll just say I enjoyed what was presented, but there was much room for improvement. (Like having the CMC say "We've been telling you what we wanted, but you said kept pushing your stuff!")
Absolutely LOVED the idea of Rarity losing to Derpy for the design aspect from back in the day.
4135679 actually, id say that a lot of people would call u rude on that. while yes, 'average' in a purely numerical sense could be seen as a 5, Moth could have meant 'average' for a CMC episode, 'average' for this season, or any of a thousand other averages. u came in and applied ur 'average' in Moths blog as if u were the supreme authority on 'average' and therefore correct. that is y Moth called u rude, not because of sensitivity, but because ur assumption that ur version of 'average' was the only one that could be possibly correct and ur blatant stating of that 'fact' was in fact insulting Moth by saying that u were right and moth wrong. had u wished to make such a correction, a PM would have been a much better medium, though would still have come across as an insult with ur wording and tone. much as how u will likely take this message from me as being insulting for the tone i am using. i make no apologies for this, for ur actions r those of the most despised commenters on the net...the Trolls.
The irritating thing about this is what I perceived to be the older idiot's insistence on passing the buck. Saying "You should have expected us to be stupid so it's your fault" is as warped a lesson as "you deserve to have your life ruined because I can't wrap my pea brain around the concept of a stage persona", "you deserve to be hounded like vermin because we won't admit that we get off on the misfortune of others" or "don't talk to someone about an issue, just go immediately for a crazy scheme that leaves her feeling like crap."
4135284
Yes, because family members coming out of nowhere, even among the main cast, HASN'T been a thing in this show...
4137114 Yup.