Now we come to the big one. This was the first episode that no one was willing to defend back when it aired, and it still remains often among the show's worst episodes. This episode also marked the debut of the show's first new writer in the form of Merriweather Williams. She had previously worked on Spongebob Squarepants during its first three seasons and had more recently been involved with Adventure Time which sparked the cartoon renissance of the early 2010's. So you'd think

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So now we come to the first (but certainly not the last) of what could be said to be unpopular opinions from me. Everyone seems to like this episode, and it's the debut of M. A. Larson who was a fan favorite writer once upon a time. So that should be a recipe for success, right? Well, let's just get through this episode and see what happens.

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Imagine the surprise of everyone when a brand new writer debuted for this episode in the form of Corey Powell. Corey was a pretty obscure writer all things considered, so her being tapped to write for a show like this was unexpected to say the least. It was also the long overdue Scootaloo focus episode (no word if it had ever been planned for Seasons 1 or 2 before being scrapped or pushed back). Up to this point Scootaloo was basically just a mini-Rainbow Dash, and how much you enjoyed her

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As the hiatus after Season 4 got under way and fans anticipated a swift return in the fall of 2014 (unaware of a development that would bring about the end of an era and the start of another), the only thing to really tide them over now that Hasbro seemed intent on cracking down on any kind of fan projects no matter what was an unwanted sequel to the first Equestria Girls movie. And this one too would be released in theaters in the middle of summer, a busy time at a box office that was already

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And now we had an Applejack episode even as it was clear that Season 6 didn't seem to be willing to commit itself fully to anything and was just settling for a quality of good but not great. Applejack had been noticeably getting paired up a lot lately, though her most recent focus episode had been "The Mane Attraction", though even that one had made her the one teaching a lesson to someone else. The Fox Brothers Michael P. and Will were tasked with writing this episode, and apparently someone

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Now it was time for Season 6 to bring in a guest star, and they opted to go for comedian and occasional voice actor Patton Oswalt. Interestingly, Patton had a daughter (Alice) who was a big fan of the show. But that's more of a story behind Quibble Pants' return in Season 9. For Season 6, Patton was coming in during a season that had been through a lot of ups and downs, and had seemed to settle for a quality of good but not necessarily envelope pushing. Josh Haber and Michael Vogel were teaming

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If there was ever an episode that fans were hyped up to see it was definitely "Newbie Dash". Much like the CMC and their cutie marks, fans had been expecting Rainbow Dash to chase after her dream of being in the Wonderbolts only to never truly achieve it. But at long last it was going to happen, and this episode should've been an instant success because of that. However, a worrying sign could be found in who wrote this episode: David Rapp with the help of Dave Polsky. David Rapp had no prior

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A lot of people had become quite disappointed with the table map when it started sending ponies to places as familiar as Manehattan and Canterlot. And even its return for Season 6 hadn't been so stellar since Rarity's portrayal and a strawman critic overshadowed what few new elements there were. So with all that going on, the idea of a map mission to someplace entirely brand new was quite enjoyable. However, the writing team was something of a concern: Kevin Burke and Chris "Doc" Wyatt, again

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With Season 3 being a half season and during its writing phase believed to be the final season, the writers had a chance to explore concepts or tackle ideas they had wanted to do but never gotten around to. One of them was the bullying episode, an extremely important one considering that in the early 2010's cyber bullying was just starting to attract attention and most discussions of bullying still involved physical interactions. Cindy Morrow, fresh off her success in Season 2 (particularly

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Poor Spike just couldn't catch a break. Just when it seemed like things were finally looking up for him in Season 3, this episode came along. It's rather interesting to note that it started life as a Rarity episode and was written originally by Dave Polsky, who is still credited with the story here. However, Meghan McCarthy rejected the script because she thought Rarity came across as too mean. She then had Merriweather Williams (not sure why you'd pick her) rewrite it into an Applejack episode

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It may seem hard to believe for some that the first time pony was released into theaters during G4 it was not with its own movie, but with the movie for what at the time was just a stand alone thing. With the apparent popularity of "Monster High" Hasbro decided, for some reason, to try and cash in on that with their MLP license. And they thought it was good enough to release into theaters. Of course, this would ultimately be the start of what became a surprisingly popular spin-off franchise,

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Season 4 brought back Amy Keating Rogers but it also had a huge shake-up in the writing department in that several new writers were brought on from across various works. The first of these was Josh Haber, and Haber would ultimately go on to take over as showrunner from Meghan McCarthy after Season 5. Of course, at the time no one knew that was going to happen. Still, adding a bunch of new writers several seasons in was cause for concern. So, did Haber's debut go over well, or he did get better

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Fifty episode was quite a feat, though Season 2's second half had been plagued by numerous ups and downs and all eyes were focused on the season finale. Still, Amy Keating Rogers was back and was writing another Pinkie Pie episode. Like Season 2 itself her track record had been very up and down, leading to duds like "The Cutie Pox" but also classics like "The Last Roundup". So, for her last outing in the original three seasons, did Amy send herself off on a high note or just bring her

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With the first half of Season 2 now concluded things seemed to be picking up for the show. The Brony fandom was already well established and new episodes were sparking speculation and re-watch threads within hours of them airing. Plus, the show was finally getting a home media release to give it wider attention. And to kick off the second half with style, Amy Keating Rogers was tapped for this episode. But then again, Amy's most recent outing had been the wasteful "The Cutie Pox" and before

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So after three Rarity episodes in the span of four (and in terms of original airdate three back to back), it was time to give someone else the spotlight. But it wasn't going to be another mane six member, and it wasn't really going to be a Cutie Mark Crusader either. Heck, it wasn't even going to be Spike. No, it was going to be the show's earliest stand out male character in Big Macintosh. Dave Polsky was on tap to write for this episode, which was by no means a guaranteed success after

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Season 5 finally got back on track with "Make New Friends, But Keep Discord" after several episodes worth of duds. And now it was time for the map introduced back in "The Cutie Map" (originally called "Cutie Markless") to come into play again for a new episode structure: Map missions. Amy Keating Rogers was writing this episode just after it had been announced that she would leave after Season 5 to work for Disney (no word on where she ended up). And considering Amy had up, then down and then

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Season 4's second half was running the risk of causing Season 4's overall reputation to slide downhill. It seemed like all the creativity and interesting ideas from the first half had dried up and gone away, and what we were getting could never pass for above average at best. The last of the new writers for Season 4 debuted here with Noelle Benvenuti, also a relatively unheard of writer before this. And it was a Pinkie Pie episode, the first such since both "Pinkie Pride" and Pinkie's horribly

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Three movies in as many years for a spin-off that initially no one wanted or asked for. Interestingly, this one would not get a theatrical release like its predecessors, this was made for t.v. and then went straight to Netflix and home media. Although initially believed to be written by Meghan McCarthy, her designated successor Josh Haber was taking up the mantle, the first such changing of the guard for the Equestria Girls franchise. "Rainbow Rocks" was still widely praised by many within the

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Alongside "Lesson Zero" this was the first episode of the show that I saw when I decided to give it a try back in January of 2012 (though I had seen clips of various episodes before). Much like "Lesson Zero" this episode is often regarded as a classic and one of the best episodes for all of the characters involved. "Lesson Zero" lived up to the hype (albeit not entirely unscathed) so did this episode do the same, or did it end up like "The Return of Harmony" and "Luna Eclipsed" where despite

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Although information about the finale was revealed far in advance, back in 2012 no one saw even half of the stuff that would occur here coming. Trailers and promos for the finale were really vague and generic, about the only thing they gave away was supposed "cloning". Behind the scenes, however, this was the straw that broke the camel's back and made Lauren Faust decide to step down all together. Hasbro, undeterred, pushed ahead with their plans and Meghan McCarthy was tapped to write.

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