Oops! Forgot to post this. I haven't watched it yet, in any case, so my guesses will still be guesses.

This episode is "Surf and Turf", by Brian Hohlfeld. He's never done any mlp episodes before, but has done bunches of Winnie the Pooh related stuff, as well as Transformers and "He said, She Said".

With a name like "Surf and Turf", I'm thinking this is the obligatory "everypony goes to the beach" episode shows tend to have. Rarity sunbathes. Maybe some ponies come along and challenge everypony to a surfing contest, and Scootaloo wins!

Anyways, this is the official discussion thread for the episode, written a bit quickly, because I just woke up and realised I didn't do it last night...

--Sweetie Belle

My only grips is that the map is really becoming a blatant arbitrary plot device though that is not as bad as the railway. In the movie they travel through the desert to a port town and from there took an airship to get Mount Aris so how much time passed since the movie if Equestria was able to build that rail line that stretches that far outside of Equestria? The train ride also seems something like the Orient Express meaning it should practically be starting at Canterlot and flying by small stops like Ponyville given its is going to other nations and I doubt Ponyville is a big enough hub of traffic.

6405789
Okay yeah, I have to agree with that part, I mean, exactly how much time has passed since the events of the movie? Because the train from Ponyville goes all the way to the kingdom of the hippogryphs. It had to have taken a large amount of time to get it built... also does the railway system just go pass Klugetown or is there a station there too? (Speaking of which, whatever happened to Capper after the movie?)

But if there's one thing that I can complain about in this episode, it's the fact that we never even SEE Queen Novo or Princess Skystar! I get that it would be too expensive to get their voice actors back for a single episode, but couldn't they at least give them a non-speaking cameo or something? Or maybe hire someone who could imitate their movie voices is pretty well? We're revisiting their home and yet we don't get to see them. I know this is a small nitpick but it just bugs me...

Structurally, it's nice that the doylistic limitations of the queen and princess VAs not being available means that the population of Sequestria/Aris is expanded considerably.

And as far as I can tell, the Royal Equestrian Railroad Corporation is an organization of terrifying efficiency and celerity. Once set loose on a new territory, they stitch it in place with a web of merciless steel ties and pinewood sleepers. The hippogriffs are caught! Ensnared! Netted within pony iron-bound railroad scheduling!

They'll never escape the grasp of the RERRC now that they've let the rail barons in.

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6405789
The Mane Six called upon Discord to magically build the railway system in an instant. Boom.

Am I the only one who feels that this is the most subtle episode regarding the possibility of divorce and having to choose?

6405824
That part about Queen Novo and Princess Skystar not appearing in this episode..... well.... anything is possible, so maybe one day we will see a MLP Movie character appear in a episode of the show ;)

6405760
For some reason the most amusing thing in this episode was the animation of Sweetie Belle running off into Harmonizing Heights. Animation wise I thought something was really off. The walking animation especially. And Scootaloo's eyes looked almost grey, or maybe it's just my screen.

And it was kind of bittersweet to see Scootaloo swimming around as a sea pony. I mean, surely her flying will be addressed definitely one day, right?

It's a fun episode if you don't think about it too hard, but I thought it was a really difficult premise for the writer. There was really only one ending possible, but there's more nuance here than not having to choose. These decisions are deeply personal, and there's no way to not choose. That's a hard concept to explore in 22 minutes, and in the end I get the impression that Terramar will make a decision.

6405868 I also thought that this episode was referencing how children of divorced parents feel.

6405789
I dunno, Ponyville is close enough to Canterlot that it could be part of the same administrative area on some level. And it's not uncommon for train stations to be quite close together if demand exceeds the capacity of one station or if it's servicing several high-traffic nodes. Frankfurt has Main and Airport stations. Also Ponyville has a princess, and a princess can't take some regional train where the seats are cleaned centennially.

6405982
I get that impression too. Tarramar was obviously surprised to see his parents on good terms.

6405824
"exactly how much time has passed since the events of the movie?"

Well we can easily consider a few weeks to months, considering a whole school was build between the movie and the two-parter episode in the start of the season.

Building such a large school does not happen overnight.

I found this episode just okay. The first time I watched it I did not like it very much, but after seeing it again, it is average.

It brought back memories of Tanks for the Memories, in that it tackled a delicate subject in a creative way. Where Tanks for the Memories tackled loss of a loved one (death) this explored growing up with divorced parents. I thought it was pretty good. It was nice seeing how the hippogriffs have adapted, but it would have been nice to see Queen Novo or Skystar in the background, somewhere... Unless I missed them.

Also, we may have had confirmation that ponies eat fish. Though Twilight may not have necessarily drunk any of the salmon juice, it seemed to me like she was invited to partake. Not 100%, but it seems likely.

6405789
If you remember, It only took them a day on foot to reach that port town, and Mount Aris was only a few hours by airship. Considering magic, it would be reasonable to assume they could build a rail there in a month. It would depend on whether or not the strip of land the rail used to cross was natural. It likely was, seeing how they got back to the mainland without a boat in the movie.

6405868
That's kinda what I got from it. The parents were cordial with each other, but not lovey dovey.

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Equestria was able to build that rail line that stretches that far outside of Equestria

Unicorn magic.

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I thought it would have interesting for them to be divorced. But, the show didn't state explicitly that they are married or divorced. I know that they still seem friendly around each other. My boss is twice divorced, and he says his ex-wives are two of his best friends. So, they could still be divorced. Plus, whenever I had to get a permission slip signed, it only required one parent. But with Twilight needing both parents, well....

Dreadnought

6407107
It didn't need to explicitly stated it. It was about a kid having to choose between his mother and father. That's the real delima children with divorced parents face.

6407136
It's just annoying how the show often alludes to something, yet never directly address it. Like the death of Applejack's parents.

Dreadnought

6407142
That's because it's rated TV-Y. It's for young girls. Most people believe kids that age aren't emotionally mature enough for things like that.

6407594
There's been plenty of death and violence in kids' shows. And besides, if I remember correctly, the Bible is taught to children. There's some pretty mature stuff taught in Sunday school.

Dreadnought