Hopping Back Aboard The Pony Train · 5:06pm Feb 4th, 2018
Pony Point Of View
A pretty solid episode. The middle act is the most enjoyable portion, with the conflicting storytelling and hilariously exaggerated depictions of the percieved offenders on each, (And Spike with the common-sense questions poking the biggest hole in the story) while the conclusion didn't tie things together the way I hoped for, and the "Tri-Horned Bunyip" just felt waaay out of left field. Still, all told a pretty enjoyable romp, and Pirate Applejack is the greatest thing ever. 3/5 Cucumber Sandwiches
Where The Apple Lies
Not the most amazing, but seeing sneaky, dishonest Past!Applejack and super talkative Past!Big Mac was far more of a treat than I was expecting, and watching the chain of lies and resulting shenanigans build up and up was really quite enjoyable. (Though the music wasn't really on point during the climax; even in a kid's show you'd expect something more in the way of scare chords when someone's on the verge of being amputated.) Idunno that I learned a lesson on lying, but I did learn that you don't fuck with Granny Smith. Something about the very ending felt weird to me, though; I can't quite put my finger on it. 3/5 Illicit Business Deals
OH! I almost forgot, was that Derpy Origins we witnessed there? 
Top Bolt
Now here's the real meat. It's another one of those episodes that just hits all the right notes, so I'm not even sure how to properly talk about it. Sky Stinger was surprisingly sympathetic even through his cocky attitude, Vapor Trail was an cute, and I just really loved how the issue was resolved; it all felt really real in a fundamental sort of way. The third recruit who was fangirling over Dash was pretty fun, too, and "T-Sparks and The Dashinator" was pure gold. 5/5 Successful Unassisted Flipping Loops
Celestial Advice
Kind of the inverse of PPOV, where the setup and conclusion were pretty solid, but the middle portion with the simulated scenarios left me falling asleep and wincing, respectively. Well, the Crystal Empire/Black Hole portion aside, yikes. Discord was actually pretty solid here, as he tends to be whenever the episode isn't focused directly on him, and the line "That's just the first of many cheese jokes if we go down this path" made me picture a Season Finale two-parter centered on he and Starlight going on a cheesy rampage of revenge. I'd be willing to watch it, is what I'm saying. But more importantly than all of that, this episode was a lovely reminder that Celestia still exists, and a reaffirmation of her bond with Twilight that hasn't been acknowledged in too long. I don't even ship them or anything; I just found that a really emotional and resonant part of the episode. 4/5 Oversized Mirrors
...Wait, we got a season premiere that was basically just two slice of life episodes? I... am actually okay with this, if the alternative was blandness like The Crystalling.
All Bottled Up
Not an earth-shattering installment, but really fun in exactly the right places it needed to be. Trixie was so lovably, obliviously obnoxious in this episode that I was half-wondering if she was doing it on purpose. More importantly, this has been the first episode ever since The Cutie Remark where I really felt able to get 100% behind Starlight's new role, too, so it has that going for it.
Ironically, the part I wasn't so fond of was the Mane 6's end of things, which felt... I dunno, just... shallow. I'm glad they averted the expected conflict of everyone wanting to do different things than Twilight's escape room (Already covered that in PPOV, among other instances) but them exclaiming 'wow look at how such good friends we are' every five seconds began to grate rather quickly, and the song at the end felt like the show was descending into a more cynical sort of self-parody even as it was playing it painfully straight. I just don't know what to make of it.
But on the upside, this episode has convinced me that StarTrix is a ship worthy of my attention, so that's something, and the transitions between the two plotlines were really cleverly done and gave it a nice flow, despite the lopsided enjoyability between them. 4/5 Bags Of Cinnamon Nuts (5/5 for the Starlight/Trixie side, 2/5 for the Mane 6)
...I still couldn't get very far into Dungeons and Discords. Maybe at some point, but not just yet.
I'll refrain from ranking these compared to the other Season 6 Episodes, since it's been a while and I suspect my opinions on some may be different now than they were then, but I'm happy to say my Season 7 journey has begun. I may do a silly 'predict the plots based solely off the titles and nothing else' before continuing, but we'll have to see.
...
And... it's good to be back.
"Angel Wings! You call that cloud busting?! That cloud barely knew you were there!" <Happy sigh> "I love my job."
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That bit was great, yeah.
This is probably the most repeated complaint about the episode that pretty much everyone agrees on.
I mean, I sort of get what they might have been going for in juxtaposing the M6's "perfect" friendship against Starlight & Trixie, but it's a bit too extreme and comes across as rather overly saccharine on the part of the M6 who otherwise have nothing to contribute to the tension of the episode. Although the gag that they miss the record only because they stopped to sing about how awesome their friendship is makes it almost worth it... almost.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/2/4/1648069__safe_artist-colon-quizia_starlight+glimmer_trixie_equestria+girls_animated_clothes_collar_cup_cute_diatrixes_duo_eyes+closed_food_glimmerbetes.gif
Found this, by the way.
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Yeah, that about sums it up. Ah well.