Help! My Heart is Full of Pony! - Flight to the Finish

I just re-watched Flight to the Finish.  I had forgotten what a heartfelt episode this is.

For those who don't remember, this episode starts with Ms. Harshwhinny visiting the schoolhouse to announce a competition to determine which filly cheer squad would carry Ponyville's banner in the opening ceremonies of the much anticipated Equestria Games. The CMC's come up with a great act, emphasizing Ponyville's diversity (as a unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony). Diamond Tiara, realizing how good their cheer is, decides to psyche Scootaloo out, and convince her that, in order to represent pegasi, she would have to actually fly. Scootaloo spends the rest of the episode trying to "improve" the act by learning to fly. She pushes herself to her very limits, and pushes her friends past the brink of frustration, and they abandon her in anger. In the end, Rainbow Dash convinces Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle to go find Scootaloo and convince her of her worth - to get the CMC's back together.

She also convinces Scootaloo that she's awesome, and that her worth has absolutely nothing to do with flying.

Sometimes pony floods me with ideas on philosophy, on storytelling, and on morality, and sometimes, the story leaves me speechless except to say, "that was beautiful."

Flight to the Finish was definitely one of those episodes, and a landmark one as well. It was a key episode in the Equestria Games arc, and more importantly, it finally, finally, finally outwardly addressed Scootaloo's flightlessness. It touched upon the shame and frustration that she felt without ever making her pathetic.

Discuss.
-Sprocket

If you enjoy essays like these, please consider supporting my work on Patreon. You can also follow Heart Full of Pony on Tumblr

Comments

[Reese]

This one, I don't have much else to say on at the moment, but I appreciation your retrospective nonetheless. :)
And aye, 'twas a good episode, as I recall. :)