Now it was time for another new writer to debut, Scott Sonneborn. His writing credentials were not as well known, making him something of an enigma. Considering Sweetie Belle had taken the lead more or less for "Twilight Time" that meant it was now Apple Bloom's turn to be in the spotlight. But this episode was and still is widely regarded as a disappointment among fans. Has it deserved that reputation, or perhaps is it overhated? Well, let's find out.

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So now that the key episodes were all done, what was left for Season 4 before the finale? The short answer, not much. The Equestria Games would ultimately get their own conclusion in the penultimate episode, but this and the next episode would be left to their own devices. We'd already had a supposedly "Very Special Episode" about Scootaloo's potential disability in "Flight to the Finish", but now this one was going to focus on Rainbow Dash and on studying for a test. Amy Keating Rogers was

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Imagine the surprise of everyone when this episode first came out. The first clear adventure episode since the pilot. Perhaps that's why it was Meghan McCarthy who wrote this episode, the same Meghan McCarthy who would become the show's story editor for Seasons 3-5 before handing over the reigns to Josh Haber so she could work on the 2017 movie. And considering the previous two episodes had introduced what everyone thought were one off antagonists but had met with limited success, was this non

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With the show having outlasted even the original G1 Transformers as the longest lasting Hasbro animated property and crossing the 100th episode threshold, something truly special was called for. Especially since in the 2010's making it to even half as many episodes was never a guarantee no matter how good your work was. But Hasbro was going all in on, promoting the heck out of this episode and tapping M. A. Larson to write it as his first solo episode since "Magical Mystery Cure" (which by now

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Not exactly an original title considering Season 1 had "Stare Master" and this was a Fluttershy episode. It was one taking place on Nightmare Night, which got bumped around so that it could actually air on Halloween. Given that our last direct visit to Nightmare Night was in "Luna Eclipsed" that wasn't exactly boding well. But the synopsis made it sound like Fluttershy was ready to come out of her shell and face her fears. Natasha Levinger, who'd prevously penned "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies"

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And so we had another key episode, this time four episodes after the last one instead of two. "Rarity Takes Manehattan" and "Pinkie Pride" showed that a key episode could be done well, but "Rainbow Falls" showed what could happen if a key episode was misdirected or badly written. And the character whose key was up next was Fluttershy, whose first outing in the spotlight this season had seen her backpedal in "Filli Vanilli" (though all the focus was on Pinkie Pie's horribly OOC portrayal and no

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The show decided to take another crack at the "Very Special Episode" plot after "Flight to the Finish" only kind of vaguely hinted at Scootaloo's disability (potentially) and tiptoed its way around the subject. And just like with "One Bad Apple", the writer was Cindy Morrow and this time the subject was supposedly death. More specifically the death of a pet, a very tricky subject. Cindy Morrow had been absent from Season 4 (alongside M. A. Larson) and her last writing endevor before this had

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Sure didn't take long for Canterlot Carousel to become relevant, and with our first proper RariDash episode to boot. However, the writers were a bit of a concern. Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco were on tap here, and their only prior result had been "Castle, Sweet Castle" which had been a dud. Fortunately, they weren't doing it alone this time. They had help on the story from both Meghan McCarthy and M. A. Larson, kind of odd that both were pitching in but I guess neither had the time to fully

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One last key episode before the finale, and it was for the mane six member who'd already been paired up four times with others (Fluttershy in "Bats!", Pinkie Pie in "Pinkie Apple Pie", Rarity in "Simple Ways" and Apple Bloom in "Somepony to Watch Over Me"). Josh Haber, coming off his performances on both "Castle Mane-Ia" and "Simple Ways" was picked to write this episode. Season 4's second half only had two true successes that could rival those of the first half, so was Haber up to the task of

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By now it was quite clear that Discovery Family's treatment of its Hasbro properties was far from what The Hub had brought to the table. Don't believe me? This episode originally aired on the Fourth of July in 2015, right in the middle of summer when most shows would normally be airing re-runs. That aside, Season 5 seemed to have regained some momentum with "Party Pooped" but it was still a ways away from the kind of quality that had been seen from "Make New Friends, But Keep Discord" through

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Unlike some of the other earlier writers, Amy Keating Rogers was going to see to it that everyone would know about her swan song before she left for Disney. She'd already given herself a big hit in the form of "Crusaders of the Lost Mark", which overshadowed "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" and "Canterlot Boutique" without much effort (not that they were necessarily bad). Of course, more attention was being focused on what was to come after this episode. But was Amy up to the task of sending

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Although Lauren Faust was no longer executive producer of the show, she was still involved throughout Season 2 even after it was announced she would be stepping down once that season was over. No one knew the reason why at the time, or that this was one of a handful of episodes that Lauren played a role in shaping (albeit not as greatly as episodes prior). Considering "The Return of Harmony" was still fresh in people's minds at the time, was this episode written by Meghan McCarthy able to keep

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So after a not entirely stellar premiere, Season 6 really needed something to keep the faith alive. To fill the gap left by old writers departing, new ones were brought in again starting with Michael P. and Will Fox who were brothers. However, Josh Haber was helping them out on the story. And we were going to Manehattan and would be seeing Maud Pie, both of which had been overplayed. But maybe we'd get a chance to see something new from both? Well, let's find out.

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So after two pretty weak episodes and no sense of direction for Season 6 aside from the return of the map missions, what was on tap for it next? Apparently, an episode trying to tackle the sensitive topic of racism. And instead of letting veterans handle such a tricky subject, two brand new writers in the form of Kevin Burke and Chris "Doc" Wyatt were tapped for writing duties here, though Michael Vogel was helping them out on the story. This episode would end up being pretty significant for

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I guess the map missions were good enough to warrant coming back for a second season, the first major development for Season 6 since Rainbow Dash's debut as a Wonderbolt in "Newbie Dash" (which was a disaster in every sense of the word). Michael Vogel was back to write it, this time having no template at all to go and thus meaning he had to start completely from scratch (it's even possible that some of what was seen in "A Hearth's Warming Tail" was meant for "The Cutie Re-Mark" initially). Was

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Well, maybe the Cutie Mark Crusaders could get Season 6 off the ground when the main characters seemed incapable of truly doing so. I mean after all, the CMC had gone from being the undisputed weak links of the show in Season 1 and early Season 2 with their repetitive "Gotta get our cutie marks" plots to some of the most mature stuff we'd seen in children's media in a long time (the dangers of gossip and tabloid journalism, dealing with a potential disability, where jealousy can truly lead and

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First we got a teaser of pony kart racing (though there was a fan project for it that sadly shut down) and now we got a tease of pony sports, and yet neither would be used for an officially licensed game of any sort (G3 of all things got one on the DS). That aside, Season 6 had found a somewhat impressive episode with "Dungeons & Discords", though that stood out mostly for being the first guys only episode and being Discord's first major appearance all season long. And it was really saying

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So after we finally got a good episode focused on the School of Friendship, we had three episodes in a row that either barely focused on it or not at all, and wasted our time with plots that were either cliche, annoying or just not interesting. And by now leaks were a plenty for what was to come at the end of Season 8, so people were already not looking forward to what was in store later on. And this episode tends to be regarded as another bad episode of Season 8. It certainly doesn't have the

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So at very long last, Rainbow Dash was going to take the first steps towards becoming a Wonderbolt. But Merriweather Williams, the new black sheep of the writing staff without a single uncontroversial episode to her name, was in charge. And she was responsible for writing arguably Rainbow's worst outing to that point in "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well". So suddenly this episode wasn't looking so great. But was Merriweather able to defy expectations and actually crank out something good? Well,

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When Season 9 came back for its second half, the leaks returned as well. Before long, everything that the show had sought to keep under wraps was spoiled, including a controversial twist in the finale. In the meantime, desires to give characters a proper conclusion were meeting with mixed results. Pinkie Pie got "The Last Laugh" which seemed decent, but Rainbow Dash had the appalling "2, 4, 6, Greaaat" and from there we went to "A Trivial Pursuit" which saw Twilight's freak outs get so bad that

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