Looking Back - “Dear Princess Celestia” (Seasons 1 - 3) · 8:13pm Dec 29th, 2019
The Following is part of an ongoing series reminiscing about the show.
You can find an index of all the entries here.
( For the sake of nostalgia, this post will contain songs from the episodes they’re from. You can find some of them all in my work-in-progress playlist of all the songs that really get to me.)
When I think about the show, I like to break it down into four parts, basically, seasons 1 to 3, 4 and 5, 6 and 7, and 8 and 9. Going with this chronological thing, I'm going to start with the first part, which could be called the formative years, or, the "dear Princess Celestia" episodes. These were the episodes where Twilight was a socially awkward unicorn scholar in her early twenties, going on little adventures and learning about friendship, writing letters to Princess Celestia the whole way.
I already talked about Season 1 at length in the last “Looking Back”, so I’ll only brush over it here.
Season 1 gave us a cute, unique, wholesome show about the adventures of a group of colorful talking horses in a magical land, where nature is run by pegasi and dangerous creatures like hydras and dragons run about. We were introduced to Twilight and her friends, all of whom are little bundles of mania and insecurity, but genuinely good people regardless. We got quite a few episodes of them interacting, learning about their individual quirks, and by the end of it, we were itching for more.
Something interesting I realized about the Season 1 finale since the last post is the effective foreshadowing of season 9: Celestia outright says that she doesn’t like presiding over the overly formal functions of court and governance. It’s a theme that continues throughout the series, making it clear that, even back then, she was eager for another princess to take the burden off of her. And, of course, by the end of season 3, she has found that other princess. I always find it interesting how they managed to lay breadcrumbs for continuity they didn’t even know they would have until years later, even in the first season.
In any case, Season 1 gave us something new, fresh, and exciting, a sincere show that was funny on its own terms and endearingly pure, and it left us wanting more.
The First Gap Between Seasons
We had to wait over 4 months for the next season. In that time, trailers and teasers started coming out, including TV spots which parodied pop culture and even mentioned “bronies”, starting the long history of the network pushing their flagship show and courting with the extra-demographic fan base. For those who don’t remember, this was where the original “Equestria Girls” song came from, years before the human world on the other side of the mirror. My Little Pony was the fledgeling Hub Network’s flagship show at this point (the only one of their shows to gain significant publicity), and they were pushing hard to remind everyone to watch it on the channel, which has always required a premium package. For years now, that channel has used MLP more than any other show they had in their promotional material, and airs reruns for 3 to 6 hours a day.
Back in the summer of 2011, I had just gotten my van (which is still my main car), and was starting to play open mic nights around the area and go to various places to meet clients, so it felt like my life was really coming together: I started writing my lightest, least vulgar material during this time period. Even still, I remember pouring through the little bits of the trailers for the new season, marveling over the fun new animations, speculating on what the next season’s episodes were going to be about. In hindsight, I was really into the show, despite the fact that I’d only been watching for a little over 6 months at that point: something about season 1 must’ve really struck a nerve with me. (I even wrote my first MLP Crackfic at this time) It must’ve struck a nerve with other people too, because this is when Brony Con first started in New York. On the internet, Equestria Daily, which had started in January, hit full stride at this point. (Fun Fact: August 2011 still holds the record for most posts in one month) Meanwhile, FiMFiction launched in July, quickly establishing itself as not only the main repository for fanfiction in the Pony community, but as one of the best fanfiction sites on the internet. I remember talking with the other people from my fanclub, thinking it couldn’t possibly get any bigger or better from here...
...This was before we all found out that Season 2 was being developed with a much larger budget and remastered assets, and had dropped the “early childhood educational” rating for the less restrictive TV-Y or “appropriate for young kids but not necessarily good role-models” rating.
Season 2
(Just take a moment to appreciate how Jam-Packed the intro became for the second and third seasons, and that was before Twicorn, Discord, Tree-Castle, and GlimGlam were added to it!)
If you weren’t watching when “The Return of Harmony”, the Season 2 premiere came out, you wouldn’t remember this, but this episode wasn’t released all at once. (same with the pilot, but virtually no one was watching back then) I can still clearly remember having my iMac set up on the coffee-table with all of us piled on and around the couches as we watched part 1, and when the cotton-candy clouds rolled in, Discord said “It’s time for a big ol’ storm of chaos!”, and “to be continued” appeared on the screen, everypony in the room screamed.
In the week between the two episodes, the fandom was filled with massive speculation on who and what Discord was, and how they were going to resolve this. (often through reforming him like Luna had been) I remember seeing a couple comics speculating that Discord had been in love with Celestia and turned on her after being rejected, (a theory that lived on in Alara J Rodgers “Last Draconequus” series) and a huge number of posts wondering if Luna was going to show up. (This was before “Starswirl the Bearded” had even been mentioned, so that theory came later.)
When the next episode came out, we all piled back on the couches and watched them back to back.
I’ve always felt that this was, of all the 2 parters, the one which they were the most focused. There’s no singing, no odd jokes derailing the plot, and everyone involved, from the writers, to the animators, to the voice cast with then-one-time-guest John DeLancie, was on their best form. I’ve never been a fan of the idea that Lauren Faust was integral to the show’s best parts, but she sure did go out with a bang with this one.
Discord would become a breakout character, and John DeLancie would fall in love with the show, seemingly becoming as enamoured with the adult fan base as we are with him. At the time though, at 28 episodes, this seemed like a high-point for the series, and we had no idea what was to come.
The next episode wouldn’t come out for 3 weeks, which seemed like a long wait at the time. We were reeling from the aftermath of Discord, as well as the ongoing question of why Luna hadn’t appeared, though we knew it might be answered soon enough.
The show picked back up with “Lesson Zero”, a hilarious episode known for insane antics like Magic Kindergarten, Dashie not having any issues with Applejack, then Rainbow-Nuking her barn, Fluttershy snapping a bear’s neck, Twilight completely losing her s
in the most classic example of Twilighting of all time. This episode set up a recurring concept for the next season and a half: the idea that all of them would send letters to Celestia, and not just Twilight. (clever on Celestia’s part, considering what she puts them up to as the show goes on)
“Luna Eclipsed” was an episode we’d been begging for since the series premiered: the return of Princess Luna. To this day, I can still remember that this was Season 2, Episode 4, off the top of my head, because I’d been itching for it to release for months. At this point, there had been a constant question of where she had gone, and massive speculation on what she would be like when she returned. Even though she wasn’t the impressive character we’d all been hoping for, we weren’t disappointed by the kind yet emotional and socially awkward mare, who gives Twilight a look of sadness when she mentions Starswirl the Bearded. (who, I’ll note, was first mentioned offhandedly in this episode) Luna is one of my favorite characters in the show: her dark, brooding pain is surprisingly relatable despite her fantastical nature.
This episode also gave us one of my least favorite ponies, Pipsqueak, but hey, we got the idea of Nightmare Night out of the deal, and I think everyone loves that. The first pony convention I went to was even named after it: Nightmare Nights Dallas.
“Sisterhooves Social” fleshed out Sweetie Belle a bit more, with the former giving us some iconic rarity scenes, the wet-hair Rarity meme, and one of the most iconic episodes of Friendship is Witchcraft, and the latter expanding Applebloom’s relationship with Zecora as a budding potion-crafter. It also has the first time a member of the Mane 6’s parents spoke: when we first watched the episode, I stopped the video on them in the kitchen as Rarity walked by, and we freaked out wondering who they were, if this was a background gag or some new characters, but when we clicked play again, they started talking! Fun Fact: Sisterhooves Social is the first episode to not have Twilight at all.
After that, “The Cutie Pox” got into Applebloom, expanding up her relationship with Zecora as a budding potion-crafter. Applebloom flies through the air, meets the Big Lebowski (I’ve still never seen that movie), and speaks fancy, and Pinkie Pie screams to make it stop!
Next was “May the Best Pet Win”, and the ever-controversial “Mysterious Mare Do Well”, which Rainbow Dash fans tend to complain are basically written around Rainbow acting stupid and self-absorbed, but let’s be fair: that was her character at the time, and despite complaints from her fans, I personally found her hilarious.
I was surprised to find that the “Find a Pet Song” is the first song in the season, but looking at a list of songs now, the show is nowhere near as song-heavy as it sometimes seems, and this one was the most song-light season until Season 6, where it seems the showrunners decided the show didn’t need to have so many songs.
“Sweet and Elite” brought the show an Emmy nomination, and the fandom an iconic remix in the form of “Pony Should Pony Pony”, as well as Hayseed Turniptruck, Jet Set, Upper Crust, and (one of my heart-throbs) Fancy Pants. Looking back, it never really stood out to me as a memorable episode, but there was certainly a lot of exposition we gained from it.
“Secret of My Excess” was the second Spike-centric episode, and gave us the first time that Rarity actually returned Spike’s affections, although, “greed growth” seems like an odd addition to the canon which only ever comes up again as a half-mention in Season 8. (though, there’s whisperings we may see it again in the upcoming fan series...)
“Family Appreciation Day” gave us another splash of odd canon: apparently Granny Smith’s parents founded Ponyville, making the town less than 100 years old. It also introduced Filthy Rich, who is one of my favorite background ponies.
I was surprised to realize that “Baby Cakes” came out this early in the series: I could’ve sworn it was in season 3 or 4, but that’s just how your memory gets muddled over 8 and a half years of show. I’m surprised they aren’t talking by now!
Fun story, the “Piggy Song” was written for Pinkie to sing at the Gala, but didn’t fit into the final script so well, so it ended up being set aside and used here.
The next one was “Hearth's Warming Eve”, which gave us a HUGE insight into the history of Equestria. Sadly, while I appreciated the info-dump, it never really stuck with me as an episode. I think it’s because it was kinda dry compared to other major episodes.
Let’s take a second to break it down though: in this episode, we learn that the ponies once lived in a land to the North (sometimes speculated to be the Crystal Empire), and they’re separated into their different tribes. This was our first glimpse at a pre-Celestia Equestria, and has a moment where Twilight (as her character, Clover the Clever, who we did not get enough info on) takes a moment to mention that “Starswirl the Bearded” was her teacher. (don’t ask about the timeline) In any case, a snowstorm forces them all to go South, but the snow follows them there, and when the 3 enemy groups are forced to take shelter in the same cave, it’s revealed that a new type of monster, the “Wendigos”, are feeding on their Disharmony to create the winter. (note that this came out before the Game of Thrones show premiered, but about halfway through the books) Clover, Pansy, and Cookie, however, manage to stop them with the magic of friendship. The ponies in this aren’t really revisited, except in vague mentions to Clover and Puddinghead in later parts of the series, but the Wendigos certainly make for an interesting looming threat after this.
Hearth’s Warming would come up again in “A Hearth’s Warming Tale” (one of my favorite episodes) and “The Best Gift Ever”, the extra-long Holiday Special.
Another interesting thing I realized when glancing back at this episode is that all of the characters in the play are wearing clothing, so either they decided that a play looks better with costumes or ponies weren’t always complete nudists. (probably the former though, as naked ponies are cuter)
“The Last Roundup” was one I remember us all enjoying (especially the I Love Lucy reference, Chimi Cherry Chongas, the Pinkie Promise, and the hijinks with Pinkie and Rarity near the end), and it gave us the nearly-forgotten Dodge Junction and Cherry Jubilee. I almost forgot until something reminded me: this was the episode where “Derpy” talks. When we were watching it, and she first spoke, we freaked out: this was before they changed her voice, and my immediate thought was I can’t believe they got something so hilariously inappropriate past the censors. They redubbed it later after it was brought up how offensive it was, (and let’s be clear, it was pretty offensive to people with speech-impediments) but it was still funny in hindsight.
In “The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000”, Rainbow eats dirt, The Flim Flam Brothers come to town with the most impressive magical contraption we’d seen at the time, and Applejack doesn’t learn anything. To this day, I still question some of the antics in this episode, between the Apples betting on winning a contest of speed over a faster opponent and somehow losing their home despite that not being the bet, but I’m guessing something was changed in the script.
“Read It and Weep”, AKA, “Rainbow learns to Read” not only showed us that Rainbow is a total egghead, but introduced Daring Do (as a fictional character), the hospital and staff, and Screwloose. (*Bark Bark!*)
“Hearts and Hooves Day” gave us yet another pony holiday, as well as a hit song and some hilarious moments. Big Mac and Cheerilee’s curse-addled romance is still one of their most iconic(and hilarious) parts of the show. (“SHMOOPIE DOO!!”)
“A Friend in Deed” gave us the Disney-esque Smile Song (written by Amy Keating Rogers), Cranky Doodle Donkey, and some of the best Pinkie Pie antics of the show. Cranky isn’t the most iconic character, but he resonated with enough people that one of my Patreon subscribers uses him as an avatar.
“Putting Your Hoof Down” introduced Iron Will and had a 3D-esque effect near the end that I played on loop. I tend to be one of the people who assumes this was set before rest of the the series, due to the extremeness of Fluttershy’s shyness, the lack of indication that Twilight has moved to Ponyville yet, and the past-tense of the letter at the end. Fun story: in the 2014 election, I showed this episode to a congressional candidate I’d been working for as a speaking advisor.
“It's About Time” gave us “Solid Snake Twilight”, a meme which persists to this day. I want to note something about this episode: why would Twilight travel back in time to warn herself not to panic if she hadn’t had a reason to panic in the initial timeline? My theory is that something did happen in the initial timeline, possibly the dam breaking (remember when Ponyville had a dam?), and in her panic to fix everything, Twilight stopped whatever it was then assumed it was nothing. Classic Twilighting!
“Dragon Quest” is an episode I was pretty excited by at the time, mainly because it elaborated on dragons by answering some questions about them to Spike. If opens with one of the few irrelevant cold-opens in the series, in which Fluttershy surprisingly beats up Rainbow. (the writers were flexing that higher rating and enjoying pushing it in zany ways to surprise the audience) Spike joins the Dragon Migration while Twilight and Rarity (Sparity tease?) secretly follow, Garble, his friends, and the meme-worthy Crackle are introduced, Phoenixes come up again (for the last time on screen until a brief moment in season 8), and Peewee is “introduced”, only to be immediately written out. (In this episode, he gets about half of the single minute of screen-time he gets in the entire series)
“Hurricane Fluttershy” elaborates on Pegasus flight and weather magic, introduces fun pegasi like Cloudchaser, Flitter, Thunderlane, and Rumble, has a great Rocky-style montage, and another appearance from Spitfire. (who compliments Rainbow on her risk-taking behavior, a hint of the flaws she’d show in later seasons)
“Ponyville Confidential” cold opens with a joke about things you can do with old newspaper, then moves onto the CMC becoming columnists for the paper, a situation which turns out to be ripe for hijinks. Diamond Tiara takes over as Editor in Cheif of the Foal Free Press (her first on-screen leadership role), after the departure of Namby Pamby. (who was a great editor who we never got to see) Snips and Snails have a bubblegum fail, Princess Celestia is just like us (a cake addict), Applejack is asleep on the job, Twilight is a Canterlot snob, Fluttershy has Tail Extensions, Pinkie Pie is an out of control party animal, Rainbow is a softy, and Rarity Screams “I’ll Destroy Her!” after her diary is published. In the end, the CMCs out themselves and apologize to the town, Diamond becomes printing-press operator, Shady Daze becomes photographer, and fan-favorite photographer Featherweight becomes the new editor.
“MMMystery on the Friendship Express” once again finished off the season with Pinkie Pie episode. This one saw the return of Donut Joe, and introduction of Gustav LeGrande (who shows up again on numerous occasions) and Mulia Mild (who never shows up again) A Cake is bitten, Pinkie makes some vaguely racist accusations, Twilight becomes a detective, and Rarity wears false Eyelashes.
“Oh, and I took a bite of the cake.”
Pinkie’s praise gets the bakers to demolish each others desserts, and they all end up banding together. (...just as planned?) Final Gag: Pinkie Pie eats the entire cake as soon as Celestia tastes it. Have fun on the moon! Glancing back at that ending though, I noticed that Mulia Mild is the one pulling the cake at the end, with the others just walking. Racism anypony?
As the season finale of the network’s flagship series, “A Canterlot Wedding” went all out with promotion: a marriage announcement in the New York Times, a special television event hosted by Tori Spelling, and a ton of hype on the social media and websites. I wasn’t really into the New York Times or Tori Spelling (and didn’t watch it on TV anyway), but I sure enjoyed seeing the promotional material flooding the internet, and so did others: this episode set channel records for viewership numbers.
I didn’t care for the first half of it: the part where Twilight gets gaslit so hard the writers actually make you wonder if she really is just being crazy hit a little too close to home. (though, in hindsight, I appreciate that the show actually went there, as it was wont to do) Friendship is Witchcraft had a ball with it, turning it into an episode about Twilight trying to marry her brother. (he was adopted, so according to my favorite song from that series, it’ll be ok)
It was the second half of this one that blew me away. This Day Aria is still one of the best songs in the entire show, and Chrysalis’ final reveal was perfect. At the time, there hadn’t even been a leak of the character’s name or nature, so when she finally burned off her disguise, none of us had seen it coming. The battle of Canterlot was, at the time, the most violent and impressive sequence of the entire show, and still makes the list to this day, with the ponies running through the streets during an aerial bombardment and a Samurai Jack inspired fight-sequence. Chrysalis herself would go on to be the most active antagonist of the entire series, attacking them 3 more times in the show and several more in the comics, starting with the very first issue. Funnily enough, until season 6, the writers didn’t even make any plans to bring her back, despite the inconclusive nature of her defeat.
I feel like I make the episodes of Season 2 sound less memorable than Season 1 on some level, but if it was, it’s not for lack of quality and earnest, more that, by the time these episodes started coming out, we’d already warmed up to the first 26. There was less novelty in them, more baggage. Season 2 was a great time for the show however: budgets, ratings, and enthusiasms were bigger, and the team behind things had really hit their stride. Even though Megan McCarthy took the reins from Lauren Faust, we kept most of that team until the end.
The Gap of 2012
Season 2 ended in April 2012, with the fandom growing and everypony bubbling about how awesome the show was. Season 3 had been publicly greenlit about halfway through season 3, so there wasn’t a question of whether or not we’d see it, but when: it wouldn’t be until September that we finally got word that it would be released in November, 7 months after Season 2. Looking back, this was a relatively short time, and I don’t remember it dragging out, possibly because there was so much to get excited about.
The fandom was a good deal more active in this time period, with new content filling the void as pony-fans looked for more content.
The IDW Comic Series was announced at ComicCon in July, though that didn’t come out until after the Season Premiere, and I’ll save those for another one of these. I don’t think we had many real expectations for them, though there were rumors that they’d be darker than the show, so we were certainly looking forward to them. (spoiler alert: they’re awesome)
The thing a lot of people don't realize about season 3 is the reason it was only 13 episodes was because Hasbro had originally planned to end the show after 65 episodes, and didn't renew the contract until the season had nearly completed production. Hasbro had contracted them for another season and a half at the end of season one, with the idea that they would probably cancel the show after that so that it didn't enter syndication at 65 episodes. That's why Pound Puppies ended when it did, and why so many shows on Disney only run for four seasons: the rules change as you hit the bigger numbers.
So, it was with this looming air of uncertainty that we went into late 2012, with Hasbro feeding us regular reminders that pony was a thing and that Season 3 was going to be awesome, some of them being premiered at Comic Con or sent directly to Equestria Daily. We even had Pinkie Pie “bedazzle” Dan’s car. (If you don’t know Dan Vs, look it up) Hasbro had embraced the adult fandom at this point, and had recognized ponies as a property with huge potential, so in hindsight, we had nothing to fear. (which is funny, considering fear would be the main weapon of the upcoming villain)
Season 3
By the time “The Crystal Empire”, we’d been hit with a flood of speculation involving Sombra, including a huge number of fan designs. What we got wasn’t as spectacular or gritty as some of those designs, but the things he did showed he was both powerful and devious. This episode brought in season 3 with a bang: the storytelling is strong, and the “Prepared For This” songs remain some of the most competently executed musical numbers of the entire show. (not so much for the one about how they can “save the Crystal Ponies with their history”) We also got scenes of what Celestia and Luna do during these adventures (worry about Twilight not being ready, prepared to swoop in if she fails) and I think that was a great treat for all of us. I know a lot of people were disappointed by Sombra, but I think the issue wasn’t so much that he was a weak character, but that the episode really didn’t focus on him: it was about Twilight overcoming a struggle, both internal and external, and the little he DID do was relatively complex, considering it was defensive puzzles and traps he’d laid over a thousand years before. In any case, this episode did it’s job of setting up the point of this season: Twilight had really come into her own, and would soon be ready to enter the next phase of her life and “fulfill her destiny”...
“Too Many Pinkie Pies” was, at the time, the clearest example of a Fae Horror story in the series. (which, granted, has elements of Fae Horror throughout) My friend Rob (from the conversation in the first post) had been losing interest in the show, but I immediately told him he needed to see this one. Pinkie trying to have fun with her friends leads to some moments which are even more amusing than the antics of the pile of clones. The Mirror Pool, while shown a few times, was never used again. One of the Pinkies, however, was, if only for a moment.
Babs Seed is finally introduced in “One Bad Apple”, where the CMC deal with bullying. Babs has a great aesthetic, and the Punk-Pop “Bad Seed” is one of my favorite musical numbers in the entire show, and I played a cover of it at an open mic night less than a week after I heard it. This episode’s moral got kind of odd, and is probably overused at this point, but the odd relationship between being bullied and being a bully is something that hits close to home with me.
“Magic Duel” saw the highly anticipated return of Trixie, who was probably the most popular minor character at that point in the show. Zecora finally fulfils her originally intended role as a mentor to Twilight, if only for one montage. Fluttershy is sent to sneak out of town, even after shrieking “I’ll crack under the pressure, I’ll snap like a twig!”, and Twilight crafts a scheme with her friends. Part of the irony of Twilight tricking Trixie with fake magic is, that’s basically what Trixie’s magic shows are: her using her wide range of relatively minor spells to fake a higher level of talent than she has. After this though, Trixie is reformed, but wouldn’t appear again until season 6.
“Sleepless in Ponyville” was the first episode to really center around Scootaloo, the first of what became a set where Luna visited each of the CMC in their dreams. It’s also not the last time they went to Winsome Falls. On the way, Rainbow tells some scary stories, and apparently makes crazy faces when she snores. Scootaloo has some interesting antics too, mostly involving sleep-scootering and freaking out. Luna is, of course, nothing short of majestic, and this episode was what really solidified her as a character. When I first saw this one, the ending felt a bit improbable to me, but in hindsight, with more context and thought, I can actually see Rainbow wanting to take up a “big sister” role to a disabled pegasus with absentee parents who idolizes her. It’s probably one of the times when Rainbow’s sense of loyalty and compassion really shine, and I like that the writers wanted to take their one last chance to give Scootaloo a happy ending.
In “Wonderbolts Academy”, Rainbow Dash finally achieves her series-long dream of becoming a Wonderbolt. Nowadays, it seems like she’s been one forever, but back then, this was a big deal. Also included is some exposition on how the Wonderbolts actually operate, the introduction of Lightning Dust, and more exposition on the flawed nature of Spitfire.
I want to talk about the circumstances in which I watched “Apple Family Reunion”. It was late December 2012, and I was visiting my father’s family in Del Ray, and wanted to spend a night in Ft Lauderdale before I drove home. I ended up picking up Wolf Nanaki from work to spend the night in his guest bed, as happened to me on a few occasions. While we were hanging out he asked if I’d seen the latest episode, and I hadn’t, so we watched it on his computer. That’s one of the things that really got me into this show: it feels like something to be shared. I first saw most of the episodes with friends, sometimes in very memorable circumstances, and that really drives home to me the fact that this is a show which brought people together. As I said in the post about the first episode, I met Wolf Nanaki well before the show came out (he was the one who introduced me to it, after all) but I don’t know what we would’ve connected over if it wasn’t for that.
In any case, in that episode, we see Applejack trying too hard to make the Family Reunion extra-impressive, distracting from the actual point. Antics include Granny Smith and her cousins (introduced here) using motorized sewing machines, Applebloom and Babs running an overly padded obstacle course, Braeburn and the others making enough fritters for the whole town, and a wild hayride in which literal “fruit bats” make a rainbow in the sky before attacking a fruit-hat, ending with Applejack’s house being destroyed for the nth time. After realizing that she’s a silly pony, Applejack gets the whole family to help replace it while singing a song which can easily be misheard as “Racist Barn”. At the end, Applejack looks up at a pair of shooting stars, which was the writers (thinking the show was ending) trying to finally make reference to the Apple parents being dead.
Crazily enough, this is the last time Babs appeared on screen: she seemed like she was built to be a recurring character, but the writers never had any more ideas with her.
“Spike at Your Service” is one I’d all but forgotten about: it also features Applejack prominently, but is a Spike episode. This episode wasn’t all bad: we got to see a different side of Ponyville, including the pony who they’ve apparently been renting the balloon from, a TON of exposition about Timberwolves (one of the most interesting monsters in the show), and some great antics involving Applejack trying to get Spike to do things and Twilight being oblivious, all culminating in a gem of a scene where they try to fake a timberwolf attack, but Applejack forgot she is a silly pony. I don’t know what it is about Spike episodes, but most of them fell flat with me, despite him being a good character. I think this one’s problem is how strange it seems that he’s suddenly unhelpful after years of basically being essential to Twilight’s wellbeing, but if you ignore that and treat it as a wild farce, this episode worked pretty well.
With “Keep Calm and Flutter On”, all we got was a title and some vague rumours that this episode was going to be a shocker. Knowing that the show might be cancelled, John DeLancie had asked to come back on, even if it was only one last time. Discord went from being a one-off villain to becoming one of the breakout characters of the series, and we couldn’t ask for a better actor than John DeLancie to play him. That may have contributed to this being the second-to-last episode in the season, production wise.
The writers did something different in “Just for Sidekicks” and “Games Ponies Play”, having two simultaneous plots, the first of which follows Spike in some poorly planned scheme to pet-sit in order to get gems to bake into a cake, and the second of which involves the main characters trying to impress the Equestria Games inspector. The second one also has some good exposition on life in the Crystal Empire. I guess the writers wanted to try something like this out before the series ended, thinking this was the last season, but I find it interesting that the Equestria Games (originally intended to be a one-off concept in the final season) became one of the major overarching plots of Season 4.
Also noteworthy is how Spike getting rid of Peewee is shown in photos at the beginning of Spike’s episode: my guess is that Megan let them put him in assuming the show wouldn’t last long enough to have to deal with him, and took him back out because she didn’t want to worry about continuing to write him in. It’s also possible they didn’t want to be seen as encouraging children to take wild animals as pets. Imagine what the show might’ve been like though if Spike had had a pet phoenix though?
Finally, the infamous “Magical Mystery Cure”. A lot of people were really upset that they'd changed something in the show, some of my friends at the time even "quit the fandom" over it, but the show had never let me down before, so even though it felt a bit fast, I trusted that they would manage to keep things just as entertaining and moving as they had been. After this, mixing things up for the next season became a staple of the show’s season finales, but this was probably the biggest one.
I'm not into musical episodes, and this was no exception, but looking back, I have a newfound appreciation for Celestia's ballad. Twilight went through an amazing journey, growing up in front of us, from an antisocial spastic fresh out of college, to a sociable adult capable of handling intense responsibilities. People flipped when she became a princess, some claiming they were “leaving the fandom” over it, and that the show was “ruined forever”. I’ve always thought that sort of thing was ridiculous though: I felt it was a little quick (my understanding is that they’d originally wanted to drag it out longer), but I figured if they’d managed to keep things interesting so far, so it’d probably stay fun while going in this new direction.
I remember realizing at some point after season 6 that we all thought of Twilight as this unicorn who had just recently become an alicorn, as if that was some later development of the show, but at that point, there were more episodes even at that point in which she was an alicorn then there were in which she wasn't.
Of course, it was in December of 2012 that Hasbro announced they would be renewing the show for another 2 seasons. I remember seeing the announcement about it at some point after Crystal Empire, after speculation by various sources that it was very concerning that the show hadn't been renewed yet. Of course, at the time, they were just finishing up on the last couple episodes of the season. When Twilight Sparkle says "everything's going to be just fine!", that's Tara Strong expressing her excitement that they get to make more episodes.
And, of course, they got to make quite a few more episodes: this wasn't even a third of the way through the series. After this, they went on to have 6 more full-length seasons, a movie that was in theaters for weeks longer than planned (with another on the way), the Equestria Girls spinoff series, 2 1-hour specials, and a pile of shorts. With John DeLancie’s “Bronies” documentary fresh out, 2 more seasons and a spin off on the way, and Hasbro massively stepping up their game to push Pony as a flagship property, this was a great time to be into the show, and, little did we know, the best was still yet to come...
Do you have a story to share about seasons 2 and 3? Tell me in the comments!
Hey! Sock Poners are cute too!
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Initial timeline? Wot?
5177477
I've never really been into ponies wearing socks, but yeah, I thought the thing about the initial timeline was clever.
5177650
I don't get the idea of an "initial "timeline". I have always understood time travel as going back to the same past one was in before, not some other past.
5177713
Nono, see, I'm saying that there was a timeline in which there was a disaster that she went back in time to prevent, but by doing so, she created this other timeline where she freaked out and prevented the disaster, leading to a Time Loop which stabilized on the version of events that we saw. This isn't going back to some other past, it's going to the same past, it's just that she actually did change the future at some point.
5177786
Okay, I think I get it. But isn't that more complicated than just a normal Casual Loop?
5177859
If there wasn't an initial incident, why was there a loop in the first place? That would be a paradox. If there WAS an incident, and she managed to change the future by traveling back to stop it, then that new future would have an instance of time-travel to start the next one.
5177997
But if she travelled back to the past, then she was already in the past when it happened. She would have to somehow change something that already happened from her own perspective, and if she did that, then there would be no need for her to travel back in time in the first place. That would be a paradox. Besides, the Self-Consistency Principle is a thing, and it does a fine job of allowing for casual loops in real life (theoretically, of course).
And S8, Ep 15 "The Hearth's Warming Club"
5178012
Different model of time travel.
5178898
Ah! How did I forget one of my favorite episodes?
5180003
The one that makes the most sense
in my opinion.