Campfire Tales Review · 4:36pm Aug 26th, 2017

It's not every day you get to hear more pony lore, which actually kinda made this episode a bit appetizing to wanna sit through. Just the idea of hearing these tall tales, which could very well be real in-universe, was enough of a sign that I was going to like this. Lo and behold, I did! But enough about my gushing, let's get into the actual episode.

Our scene opens up with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and their respective sisters (Rainbow Dash confirmed that they're pretty much sisters, now) about to have a camping trip, when it's is ruined by tiny, carnivorous beasties called fly-ders. That's one way to combine two things people hate. They can't shake them off, so they go into a cave and try to wait out the storm. Thus leads to the setup of this episode, where Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash tell of their respective favorite legends: Rockhoof, Mistmane, and Flash Magnus.

Rockhoof started as a simple admirer of his fellow viking ponies, stuck with the shovel until one day, the volcano was starting to erupt. While other ponies were panicking and unable to figure out what to do, Rockhoof stepped in and tried to build a moat around the village. As it closed in, he hit some magical mumbo jumbo and became incredibly buff, allowing him to finish the job. Not a bad first tale to start out on, but it could have been a bit less, I dunno, Deus Ex Machina-ey. The conflict just kind of got resolved because he got lucky.

Mistmane probably has my favorite story, concept-wise. It takes place in what appears to be an ancient Chinese setting, involving a powerful and beautiful wizard whose best friend wound up taking over the village out of jealousy. After a pretty epic battle involving MAGICAL CHINESE DRAGON BEAMS, Misty eventually wins, but realizes there's more she can do. She gives up her beauty to restore her land, and her friend in spite of what she'd done, inspiring her to rule justly and allowing the wizard to wander the world, all Buddha style. Like I said, favorite in terms of concept; I always was a fan of ancient Asian culture, and seeing the equivalent to China was a nice bonus to an inspiring tale.

Finally, we have Flash Magnus, and it was obvious why they wanted to save this one for last. Flash was a brave and loyal pony, who stuck by his comrades even through impossible odds. When his friends were captured by dragons on the way to their location, Flash bravely stepped in, only to be stopped from rushing headlong into danger by his captain. Once Flash opted to distract the dragons, he was given a fireproof shield to get the job done, and he and his friends eventually managed to drive the dragons off, "How to Train Your Dragon" style (you know, with the thunderclouds). Out of them all, this was easily the most blood-pumping of the bunch. It expressed loyalty in its purest form, a willingness to do the right thing no matter the odds, and even a nice little ounce of trust.

The ponies telling the campfire stories are definitely still in-character, all things considered, and they're mostly at their best here. I was surprised to see Scootaloo still has wilderness fear left over from "Sleepless in Ponyville", but Rainbow Dash proved more than adept as a big sister figure by allowing her to seek comfort and assuring her everything will be alright, even keeping herself in check when it looked like she was going a bit far. Though I do have to say, her blocking the cave entrance so the fly-ders couldn't get in, though in character, was a little bit boneheaded on her part.

The others are great as well, though nothing we haven't seen before. It's just nice to see them all interacting as a collective group. Also, Rarity is surprisingly adept at shadow puppets. Who knew?

But yeah, this episode was a fun little ride through the tales and legends of Equestria's greatest, and it was all nice to see. This episode gets the salvage.