SPOILERS? Mariusioannesp Reviews: "Top Bolt"

WARNING!!! The following contains SPOILERS for the latest MLP episode “Top Bolt”.

Now, without further a-highway-to-the-danger-zone-do, here is my review of “Top Bolt”.

Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle are called by the Cutie Map to solve a friendship problem at the Wonderbolt Academy. There, they meet a pair of new Wonderbolt cadets, Sky Stinger and Vapor Trail. Rainbow and Twilight discover that Vapor has been helping Sky look like a better flyer than he actually is, totally unbeknownst to him. Rainbow and Twilight identify this as the friendship problem they’ve been sent to solve, but they disagree on how to best go about solving this problem. When both their methods fail and only make matters worse, they have to figure out some other way to get these two wingponies back together again. Will Twilight and Rainbow realize what Sky and Vapor need to do to become the best Wonderbolts they can be?

So, what’s the verdict?

Well, I really enjoyed everything this episode had to offer.

So yeah, I liked it.

Let us begin where these things tend to begin at the beginning, shall we. Rainbow Dash is packing up getting ready to leave the Wonderbolt Academy. Apparently, she was there for Spring training. Must be spring then. I’ll keep that in mind for my chronology. Anyway, Rainbow is looking forward to the fun week with her friends she has planned.

There’s Misty Fly this whole time just rubbing her leg.

Spitfire though complains that she’s stuck this week running trials at the academy. Rainbow’s confused though because she thought Spitfire loved yelling and blowing her whistle. Turns out she does.

So, Rainbow takes off, but as she’s flying home, her cutie mark starts going off! She’s being called by the Cutie Map! Rainbow makes her way post haste to Twilight Sparkle’s castle. Once there, she learns from Twilight that she has also been called, and they have been sent to…. The Wonderbolt Academy. But Rainbow was just there!

There’s Starlight Glimmer and Spike. They have no lines, and this is the only time we will be seeing them in this episode.

Soon enough, Twilight and Rainbow arrive at the Wonderbolt Academy. There they find Spitfire drilling the Wonderbolts’ new recruits. The recruits are quite excited to see Rainbow Dash. Spitfire sends them off to do five hundred laps, but one pony hangs back. She goes up to Rainbow and Twilight to tell them that they’re her two favorite ponies in all of Equestria. It’s sweet, but Spitfire still rebukes her and reminds her to get to her laps.

Let’s talk about his pony for a second.

Her name is Angel Wings. She’s actually an OC designed and voiced by Alexis Heule. She got to be on MLP through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This is the second time a pony has appeared on MLP through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The first was Stellar Eclipse in “Trade Ya!” in Season 4.

She’s also now on Twitter.

Moving on, Spitfire is surprised to see Rainbow Dash back so soon, but she explains she’s here with Twilight on official friendship business. Spitfire isn’t too much help in finding this friendship problem as she doesn’t involve herself in the relationships of her recruits. Rainbow notices that the recruits’ technique could use some work. Twilight suggests that Rainbow should tell them as they would appreciate such a tip from somepony like Rainbow. Rainbow though declines as she doesn’t want to ruin their confidence. Twilight responds that they’ll never get better if they don’t know what to work on. I wonder if this is setting up something we’ll see later in the episode. Either way, Spitfire says she’s going to have to work on their basic technique in the classroom portion. This classroom portion really excites Twilight.

She is like way too excited about it. This gives Twilight an idea. She and Rainbow can do the classroom portion in Spitfire’s stead. They can learn a lot with Twilight’s teaching expertise and Rainbow’s flying skill. Plus, they’ll have the opportunity to build enough of a rapport with them that they’ll be comfortable sharing their friendship problems. Spitfire agrees, and she tells them that they have their work cut out for them.

Clearly, they do.

Twilight prepares a bunch of charts on flight patterns and wing symmetry. Rainbow, who has obviously been through the classroom portion of trials week, knows firsthand that the most difficult part is staying awake. So, she brought an air horn with her to keep the recruits awake.

Then, class is in session, and Twilight introduces themselves. Rainbow though also introduces themselves as T-Sparks and The Dashinator! She wasn’t serious…. At least I think she wasn’t. Those are awesome names though.

As Twilight begins a lesson on basic technique, one of the recruits begins to balk at this. This gentlecolt doesn't think they need to go over the basics since they’re all already exceptional flyers.

This gentlecolt’s name is Sky Stinger, and the filly joining him is Vapor Trail. Apparently, Sky Stinger is a bit of a hot shot, and he knows it. Vapor Trail knows it too, hyping him up as well. See Vapor Trail is Sky Stinger’s wingpony, and he never flies without her. Rainbow reminds them though that they’ll be flying on their own in the solo trials that are part of the final evaluation. Vapor is suddenly nervous about this, but Sky remains confident. He totally expects to be on the wall with the rest of the Wonderbolts.

Did you see that?

Rainbow’s Wonderbolts’ photo just stands out so much! She just couldn’t contain all that smugness for finally making it.

Back to Twilight’s lesson, she tries getting everything back on track, but then she discovers that Rainbow has fallen asleep.

Twilight breaks out the air horn.

And Rainbow wakes right up.

After their class, Sky Stinger talks with Twilight and Rainbow about how concerned he is for Vapor Trail and how well she’ll do in these solo trials. Twilight is rather surprised that Sky is so concerned for Vapor. Rainbow replies that since the freestyle training is coming up they can just show them how well they fly. During this freestyle training, Twilight admits that despite Sky’s arrogance, he is an excellent flyer. Rainbow though notices pretty quickly that Vapor Trail seems to be helping Sky through most of it. Twilight also notices it once she realized that we was so focused on Sky that she forgot to notice Vapor. So, Sky isn’t as great a flyer as he thinks he is, and Vapor is so focused on making Sky look good that she’s not focusing on her own flying. They surmise that this must be the friendship problem they’ve been called to solve. There’s only one thing to do now. Actually, there are two because Twilight and Rainbow have two very different solutions for this problem. Twilight wants to tell them the truth, and Rainbow wants to solve the problem surreptitiously without either Sky or Vapor finding out. According to Rainbow, flying is 70 percent confidence and 30 percent skill. Finding out the truth could break their confidence. According to Twilight, they can’t improve if they don’t know what the problem is. Plus, the secret Vapor is keeping from Sky can only lead to trouble, but finding out they’re holding each other back can also lead to trouble. Twilight and Rainbow have quite the conundrum on their hooves.

Yeah, Sky alternates between caring and not caring about Vapor.

Spitfire is also there and tells Vapor that she’s going to need to build up her endurance if she’s wants to make it into the Wonderbolts. Sky tries to console by telling her that one day she could be almost as good as him. She doesn’t think so because Sky was voted Stratusburg’s most promising flyer and she was voted best sneeze. Stratusburg, huh. I take it that’s the Pegasus town they hail from.

She does have a good sneeze, and Sky agrees. Awwa. Anyway, Sky reminds Twilight and Rainbow about the help Vapor needs. Twilight tries to tell him the truth, but Rainbow prevents her. Instead, they go see vapor in the locker room. There, Twilight is able to tell Vapor that they know she’s been helping Sky. Vapor denies it of course albeit all nervous and shifty. When Rainbow points out that that it’ll become apparent in the solo trials that Sky can’t fly well on his own, Vapor let’s it slip and then finally admits it.

She explains that this has been going on since they were foals. See, Sky was part of a large family so he never got any attention.

I imagine he’s a middle child. They never get attention. I wouldn’t know. I’m the oldest of two.

Vapor on the other hand was an only child and got way too much attention from her parents.

She helped him do a flip and then praised him for it. Ever since then, flying together gave them both what they wanted. She never thought she’d end up hurting his chances. Twilight notes that actually they’re both in trouble. Rainbow tells Vapor that she needs to work on her tricks while Sky needs to be able to fly on his own or he won’t make it into the Wonderbolts. Vapor can’t let that happen because becoming a Wonderbolt has been his dream since he was colt. Vapor however never really never gave too much thought to becoming a Wonderbolt. She just wanted to be with Sky. You know, because she’s his friend and nothing more. Twilight and Rainbow will need to help them both, starting with telling Sky the truth. Vapor refuses as his confidence will be crushed, and he won’t be able to fly as well. Twilight reluctantly agrees then to do things Rainbow’s way.

Look how excited Rainbow is that they’re going to do what she thinks should be done.

Twilight is going to handle Sky’s training using the excuse that then Vapor won’t feel as self-conscious receiving special training from Rainbow. That’s right, Rainbow is going to personally train Vapor. After a montage of practicing with her, Rainbow concludes that Vapor was awesome. In fact, Vapor manages to compliment herself for the first with her surprise at being able to keep up with Rainbow. Twilight and Sky is a different story. Their montage shows shows Sky very much unmotivated to practice. Twilight even catches him sleeping while pretending to be awake during one of their study sessions.



He pretty much fails at everything Twilight planned for them to cover.

Sky doesn’t think he needs to practice because he’s already so good. As far as he thinks at least. He’s so confident, he thinks they’re going to ask him to join the Academy right after the trials the next day. But then Vapor lets slips that he’s not as good a flyer as he thinks, and that she’s been helping him this whole time.

Did you see that?

Just this look on Twilight’s face. She is overwhelmingly happy that Vapor finally did what she thought they should do in the first place.

However, Sky doesn’t take any of this too well. He accuses Vapor of doing all this just to embarrass him. He tells her that he can’t even believe he was even friends with her before he flies off. Vapor isn’t too happy with Twilight and Rainbow over all this and flies off herself. The next day, it looks like Sky and Vapor are still mad at each other. Twilight blames herself for this because if they had just done things Rainbow’s way, this wouldn’t have happened. Rainbow though blames herself. After watching Sky’s training with Twilight, she finally realized he had no motivation because he didn’t know how much he needed to practice. It seems they were both wrong about what they needed to do. Worst of all, Sky has lost his confidence. On top of that, Spitfire is not happy with Rainbow because her most promising flyer is now flying like a balloon with a hole in it. Rainbow assures her that they’ll fix it. Twilight then realizes what they really need to do. Twilight goes to talk with Sky. She encourages him with his attempt to practice with her own story about how she was never good at friendship and now she's the Princess of Friendship. Sky wonders if he can become the Princess of Flying. Yeah, no. Rainbow also goes to talk with Vapor. Rainbow helps her realize that although she initially joined the Wonderbolts to be with Sky, it has become something she does want for herself. Twilight and Rainbow then bring Sky and Vapor together. They clarify to Sky that Vapor was trying to help him and wasn’t trying to steal his thunder. They clarify to Vapor that she shouldn’t have been content to take a back seat to Sky. Rainbow adjures them that they can either stay mad at each other or work together to become the best flyers the Wonderbolt Academy has ever seen. Sky and Vapor choose to reconcile.

Wow, Vapor really went for the hug. And all Sky wanted to do was hoof bump.

We have another montage this time of Sky training while receiving encouragement from Vapor and Vapor training while receiving encouragement from Sky. Soon enough, Sky and Vapor are participating in the trials. They both pass with flying colors and are awarded entrance into the Wonderbolt Academy!

Vapor just went for the hug again. She really likes hugging Sky doesn’t she.

Spitfire is quite impressed with Sky and Vapor’s significant improvement. She even thinks that one day they might be better than “Rainbow Crash” here. Oh there’s Rainbow’s nickname from “Newbie Dash” earlier this season. Rainbow doesn’t appreciate that. Then, Angel Wings comes along and tells Sky and Vapor that they’re her two favorite ponies in all of Equestria.

Rainbow doesn’t appreciate that either.

Rainbow and Twilight’s cutie marks start going off again indicating that their mission is now accomplished.

Rainbow and Twilight arrive back at the Castle of Friendship. Rainbow is all excited to finally get started on all the things she intended to do on her week off. That is until Misty Fly shows up to let Rainbow know that there’s an emergency at the Wonderbolt Academy and her presence is required. But Rainbow was just there!

This episode was written by Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco aka The Lady Writers. This is their second episode this season after “Gauntlet of Fire”. They made their debut last season with the episodes “Castle Sweet Castle”, “Rarity Investigates”, and “The Hooffields and McColts”. Now “Gauntlet of Fire” featured two aspects from their previous episodes, how Spike is at his best at someone’s side (“Castle Sweet Castle”) and worldbuilding (“The Hooffields and McColts”). This episode though is their second episode to center on Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts after “Rarity Investigates”. Just like in that episode, she is at another pony’s side, in that case Rarity and in this case Twilight Sparkle. This also the second Cutie Map episode they’ve done, and both have involved Twilight and a Pegasus. Twilight was also at the center of their first episode “Castle Sweet Castle”. After five episodes, we’re starting to get a better picture of where Ms. Lewis and Ms. Songco’s areas of writing expertise lie.

Title is a very clearly a reference to the film Top Gun. Top Gun. That’s a movie I’ve never seen. So, I can’t really comment on it.

Let’s talk a little bit about the filly and gentlecolt of the (half-)hour, Sky Stinger and Vapor Trail. First off, Sky Stinger is an awesome name, and Vapor Trail is just adorable! It’s not too often we’re introduced to a heterosexual pair of “best friend” ponies. Yeah, it’s hard to see them as not more than that. Vapor really likes to go in for the hugs, even when Sky doesn’t seem to be expecting it. Derpibooru has been calling it “VaporSky”.




Vapor kind of feels like the kind of woman who would bend over backwards for the man in her life. In this episode, she learns an important lesson in putting enough value in herself.

As for what I didn’t like…. I got nothing. It was a pretty solid episode. Still, I can’t help but feel that this episode was derivative in some way. But I don’t know how or why.

Overall, “Top Bolt” was a wonderful episode. It was great way to begin bringing this season to an end.

What did y’all think of “Top Bolt”?

God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.