So after the 100th episode came and went it was back to business as usual for Season 5, in more ways than one. And by a stroke of misfortune, the episode now having to follow up on the fandom love letter was a Spike episode. Considering even "Equestria Games" had been met with criticism over its abrupt shift to Spike, it seemed like a lot was working against this episode already. Not helped by the fact that a brand new writer in the form of Neal Dusedau debuting here, though the story was being

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As word started to spread about what was in store for the show at the end of Season 5, and word of the big theatrical movie continued to slowly be released, Season 5 itself welcomed another writer into its ranks. This one wasn't quite a newcomer though, Gillian M. Berrow had previously written various chapter books for the show with her first name shortened to G. Her books had been of varying quality, though she had also briefly done a Daring Do series that only lasted for three books. But she

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So, after the map called all of the mane six to a village in the middle of nowhere, and then called Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash to Griffonstone, what was next for the map? Calling Applejack and Rarity back to Manehattan, a familiar location. This episode actually has a very interesting production history, because it was originally going to involve Flim and Flam again. One of them would become mayor and ban all apple products within the city. However, it would all turn out to be another

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So the show got back on track with "Dragonshy", well it wasn't going to last. This episode is the start of a small dry spell that, again, I'm so glad it didn't get the show killed or cause people to completely lose interest. Charlotte Fullerton wrote this episode, and it's rather weird because she is the only one of the original writers who had never worked with Lauren Faust before. I would assume she was either recommended by Hasbro, or one of Lauren's assembled writers knew about Charlotte

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And so it was that, after a season of several unexpected shake-ups as the show seemed to be maturing (or at least trying to), we would come to a finale where spoilers had already given away what was going to happen. A sign of how things would not be as tightlipped for future seasons as they had been in the days of The Hub. So instead of another "Twilight's Kingdom" that everyone was looking forward to, it seemed like the finale would be another "A Canterlot Wedding" or "Magical Mystery Cure"

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So we're closing out the first half of Season 1 with what by all accounts is a classic, even by the show's standards given how much they seemed to love trying to call back to this in later seasons. It's also an episode that I think almost singlehandedly launched the ship of AppleDash, which alongside FlutterMac used to be all over the place in the fandom's early days. Amy Keating Rogers wrote this episode, so we should be in for a good time, right? Well, let's find out.

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So another comic arc had to wrap up in four issues, and this one was just full of problems and questionable continuity nods/errors. But considering the previous arc was able to kind of get back on track at the very end, maybe there was hope for this one to do the same? Well, let's find out.

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Discord had been noticeably absent from Season 6 up to this point, though this was not entirely by intent considering he was planned to appear in "A Hearth's Warming Tail" but was cut due to time constraints. Spike, meanwhile, had been through his ups and downs that included "Gauntlet of Fire" and "The Times They Are a Changeling". The idea of them sharing an episode was certainly out there, and Season 6 really needed something to get back on track after two duds and an episode about racism

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So after Season 6 gave us Starlight Glimmer at her absolute worst and made her the one character all season who couldn't apologize sincerely for making a mistake (Applejack and Rainbow Dash, Discord, Twilight and even debateably Trixie all managed to do when they screwed up at various points), it really needed something to be able to improve its reputation considering the lows were standing out more than the highs. But perhaps if that was the case they shouldn't have paired up the writing staff

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This episode was originally going to air in the U.K. early, but due to the show changing networks there it had to make changes owing to regional differences: In the U.K. cider is seen as an alcoholic beverage, whereas in the U.S. it is not (at least not by default). That's arguably what this episode ended up being remembered for far more than what it was initially hoped it would be known for. But I'm getting ahead of myself. David Rapp was once again in the writer's seat, and this time the

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By now I think almost everyone has seen "A New Generation" or at least a review of it, but just in case there are some who haven't for whatever reason, I'm tagging this blog post with spoilers.

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So after the show started taking off and went from really good to one of the best shows of the entire 2010's it seems like everything should've been looking up for it. But right when it found its footing it decided to engage in a lot of experimentation, and without spoiling too much for the reviews ahead the experiments for the most part didn't work, even the intended "finale" would get overshadowed by something else. The first of these experiments was an episode focused on the Cutie Mark

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Brace yourselves, folks, we're heading into the show's first true clunker and the debut of what would become one of the show's worst written characters. Considering that the show hadn't really taken off by this point, and nowadays it can only take one bad or underwhelming episode to get your show cancelled, it's a miracle the show would recover from this early self-inflicted wound. Am I being too hard on this episode written by Chris Savino (who has since gained a rather infamous reputation

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So, what was on tap for Season 2 after "The Last Roundup" and all the Derpgate controversy that overshadowed it? Well, it was this episode penned by the same M. A. Larson who'd done "The Return of Harmony", "Luna Eclipsed" and then "Secret of My Excess" with that being the one that seemed to get him back to that high level of quality he'd been known for in Season 1. So, was Larson able to continue his rebound or did he only end up proving that his success with "Secret of My Excess" was a fluke?

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So after a two parter pilot that was fairly impressive and a revised pilot that was considerably less impressive, the show really needed something to indicate what to expect from it and reassure people that it was indeed worth watching. With a writing team now fully assembled, Amy Keating Rogers was given the honor of penning the first truly stand alone episode of the show and what many consider to be Applejack's best focus episode. Has it deserved that reputation, and is it a relatively solid

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The next couple of episodes of Season 3 got rearranged and mixed up from production order. This episode was the ninth in production order but got bumped up to the eighth episode to air (the intended eighth episode was moved to the eleventh episode to air, most likely because of what it was meant to be tied to). And although not intended, it was the first of two Applejack episodes back to back (the latter of which had started life as a Rarity episode before being switched to Applejack). Cindy

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You didn't think they'd let Sweetie Belle go without a direct focus episode, did you? If they were going to give one for both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom then of course Sweetie Belle was going to get one too. And it would be the second LunaxCMC dream episode, which was quite promising considering "Sleepless in Ponyville" was said to be Season 3's only true success story (which I don't agree with). With Dave Polsky having established his writing metamorphosis by this point, the pieces seemed to be

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As the gap between Seasons 2 and 3 stretched on for a while, the Brony fandom took off in full steam. Anticipation and speculation ran wild about could possibly be in store for Season 3. The show's future looked bright. But as time went by with no news of a Season 3 on the horizon the fans started to grow worried. And then rumors started circulating that Season 3 would be the final season, the show would end with Twilight Sparkle becoming an alicorn princess and other controversial changes.

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This episode is rather interesting in that it was originally planned for Season 2 (Sweetie Belle's nightmare night costume in "Luna Eclipsed" was meant to be an early foreshadowing), before it was bumped to Season 3. No official word has been given as to why that was. However, it's recently come to light that Lauren had originally hoped to build up to Discord through some "dark elements" and it's likely that this episode was going to be one of them. When that got dropped this episode got pushed

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With Season 3 winding down, word began to spill out about what was coming: Namely Twilight Sparkle becoming an alicorn princess and that Season 3 would supposedly be the final season. Fans were shocked and many were outraged at the very idea, the debate over whether or not Twilight should be an alicorn divided the fandom and quite a few threatened to leave the fandom all together if indeed Twilight becoming an alicorn turned out to be true. Amidst all this drama, almost no one seemed to pay

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