My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 125 - Party Of One

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Dear Princess Celestia,

    Pinkie Pie is crazy!  Yesterday she made us go to a birthday party for her pet alligator, which we all did because we’re her friends, but today she wanted us to go to the after party for the party we just went to.  I have my studies and my friends do all have jobs, although Pinkie Pie never seems to go to hers.  After today, I don’t have to wonder why she gets so much time off.

My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 124 - Owl's Well That Ends Well

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The mane six share a rare night together at a meteor shower as Owl’s Well That Ends Well opens.  It is a fine moment that is relatively unequaled in the series, and seems to be the setup for at least a decent episode.  Then Owlo­wiscious shows up.  This mysterious owl just invites himself into Twi­light’s house one night, but she doesn’t see anything weird about that.  Then he starts doing the chores that Spike is supposed to be in charge of, which causes the “#1 Assistant” to get butthurt.  Spike repeatedly tries and fails to make Owlowisicious look bad, and eventually ends up almost get­ting himself killed.  Twilight then explains something she could have ear­lier which would have prevented a large chunk of the episode, but it’s TV logic that fortunately saves Spike.  Adding a new character pretty much never stuck in the first season, and Owlowisicious is no different.  Once the next episode rolls around, he’s long gone, so Spike doesn’t have to worry anymore.  That just makes Owl’s Well That Ends Well doubly unnecessary.

My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 122 - A Bird In The Hoof

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God this is a dull episode.  Since trying to make My Little Pony a Looney Tunes car­toon worked so well in Fall Weather Friends, Charlotte Fullerton decided why not do the same but even more so this time.  A Bird In The Hoof in­volves Fluttershy kidnapping Princess Celestia’s pet bird Philomena and try­ing futilely to convalesce her.  Like A Dog And Pony Show, apparently this kidnapping is supposed to be funny.  Unlike that episode, there are no good moments to balance the bad ones out.  Fluttershy tries a lot of things that don’t have any hope of working, and both her and Twilight needlessly freak out about what they imagine the nicest princess in all of history will do to them.  Of course, they can partially be forgiven since the “Trollestia” meme basically originates from this episode.  One uttered word by the prin­cess when she introduces her pet would have spared us all of the action that follows.  As the Anthropic Principle states, if something stupid or extremely unlikely has to happen for a movie or show to exist, then it will happen.

My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 121 - Over A Barrel

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In some ways, Over A Barrel is kind of the first season's forgotten episode.  Maybe not in rule 34-dom, where Braeburn, Bloomberg, and the wing-boner have received attention, but the story and events don’t seem to have had much effect on anything that’s come after it.  The episode is surprisingly epic for a typical 22 minutes, which balances out some of the awkward parts of the writing.  Yes, we've seen the “outsider becomes leader of a native tribe” trope many times before, but rarely is a “world-deciding” conflict shown from both sides where the two make sense.  There are a lot of new characters here who will probably never return, which is unfortunate even if there isn't much more story left.  Although M.A. Larson specializes in similar epic adventures featuring all of the ponies, Over A Barrel is otherwise unique from any other episode.  Not only does it take place entirely away from Ponyville, but the mane six get split up early on and have vastly different experiences because of it.  They are outsiders who have to deal with an unfamiliar situation, and everything isn't exactly handled correctly.  A lot of drama and suspense is packed into the episode, along with a large number of characters and commentary on issues.  Somehow (and quite surprisingly), writer Dave Polsky made it all work.

My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 120 - Green Isn't Your Color

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Green Isn't Your Color is a bit more over the top in its depiction of the fashion industry than Suited For Success, and also unfortunately has more slapstick.  Nevertheless, the overall spirit is fun, and the episode still manages to depict an important lesson even if in a slightly silly manner.  This spirit carries Green Isn't Your Color, which otherwise might have come off as a jab at fashion by someone who really doesn't know much about it.  Everything is well-meant though, and another in a long line of great supporting roles by Pinkie Pie is instrumental in helping.  Not every moment sparkles, and a lot of what happens suffers from the one-off/forgetfulness syndrome that is typical of the first season.  With the overall good time though, this doesn't end up mattering so much.