Okay, it's time for another episode!

This week's episode is by Kaita Mpambara, who wrote "Horse Play", and "A Rockhoof and a Hard Place". Greaaat...

Not really sure what I'm supposed to get from a title of "2, 4, 6, Greaaat". This episode's triple-A? Maybe it has microtransactions and lootboxes and such? Title sounds kinda sarcastic, too. Maybe it's a Starlight Glimmer x Trixie episode.

Not feeling too encouraged. Half the reason I'm so far behind on episodes is how many tries it took me to get through Rockhoof, and Horse Play wasn't exactly a favorite, either. Of course, I might catch up faster if I wasn't in process of catching up on the Ducktales Reboot, which I am enjoying.

Oh well, maybe third time's a charm?

Anyways, this is the discussion thread for speculation beforehand and discussion afterwards!

--Sweetie Belle

Is it just me, or does anyone else think Snips is only doing what an unreformed Diamond Tiara would be doing in these episodes? Think about it, if Diamond Tiara wasn't reformed, do you think she'd be trying to directly profit off the cheerleading the way Snips was in this episode?

6952913
Dunno, think her daddy gives her big enough allowance so she wouldn't care about meager souvenir profit. However I could see her as wanting to be in charge of the cheerleading team, like how she wanted to be in charge of school newspaper. Actually I could see her wanting that even as reformed since she only learned to be nicer and not to stop wanting to be in control.

The episode is okay technically, with fine animation and editing. The writing is what lets it down.

To be fair, though, there are aspects I like, for example the cheer squad themselves.

Other than that, the episode is fairly standard.

Yeah, it doesn't seem to inspire much discussion.

Hmm... the mods to let an all-unicorn team play buckball were interesting. Butterfly Wings sturdy enough for athletic use, and an actual inhibitor ring after the fandom spent so long assuming them. This one seems to be a Celestia special rather than any kind of standard model though - and why wasn't the "pegasus" wearing one?

6954090
"Pegasus" probably has to maintain the wings and ring would mess with the spell. That's just my guess.

6954093
Could be. But in that case, they're abstaining from magic on the honour system, so why can't the other one? The reading has some pretty unfortunate (in-universe) implications...

6954096
Well I meant that if the flying unicorn had the ring then she couldn't fly at all. And I'd like to add possibility that she can't cast any other spell while maintaining wings. I wasn't aiming at the honor system.

That's all assumptions anyway, most likely they just didn't think about it too hard. They easily could have just used that antimagic thing they used for the pony Olympics.

6954098
Yeah - that would just have been pure exposition without any visual.

I just get touchy when it's implied that earthponies are defined by a lack of magic - and if I do, how do all the earthponies in the audience feel?

6954100
And nobody really cares about an exposition in a silly lighthearted episode.

Earth ponies don't seem to care about not having magic so I am guessing it really isn't a big deal to them. Well anyway they still have the generic pony magic that can be drained and allows them to have cutie marks. Original idea was that they simply are the most numerous pony type but later we just have vague mentions of earth pony strength which people usually take very literally. Or maybe they have plant growing magic, which would fit the whole ponies maintaining ecosystem since that's why they have abilities in the first place like weather control and moving of celestial objects.

6954101
We've seen plant growing - but only in tiny bits here and there. (The products are a bit more prominent - Golden Oaks, anyone?)

Whatever it is, they don't use seem to use it in buckball like the other tribes do their magics, so I suppose defining them by the lack in that context isn't so bad. Of course, that would make their position the easiest to sub for...