• DERPY, I LOVE YOOOOUUUUU!!! But no, seriously, sweetheart, don’t break curtain.
• I actually don’t have much at all to say. The story is engaging, and any oddities can be chalked up to the narrative.
• “Windigos”? Like, Supernatural, season 1 episode 2, Wendigo? Nice.
• POWER OF FRIENDSHIP. Also, I LOVE YOU FLUTTERSHY! “I don’t hate you. I actually hate Commander Hurricane a lot more than I hate you guys.” You’re just the sweetest thing, Fluttershy.
• Got kinda weak and cheesy near the 

• Looks like a Cutie Mark Crusaders episode. Yyyaaaayyyyy…
• Darn it. I actually feel for you guys, what with Mr. Background Character succeeding and you guys failing. I know that “Can I just be bummed out for now, please?” feel.
• LISTEN TO THE PONIES, CHILDREN: WHEN YOU ARE FEELING BUMMED OUT, EAT SUGARY, FATTENING TREATS. AS LONG AS YOU EAT SUGAR, YOU WON’T FEEL BAD. ALWAYS TURN TO THE CUPCAKES IN YOUR DESPAIR. #positivemessagesforkids
• Girl, I know that “This won’t cheer me up, please just leave me alone” feel.
• Whoa there, sweetie! Just because you’re in a bad mood, that doesn’t mean you should go to one of the scariest and most dangerous established locales to be bummed. Be bummed in a nice, safe, comfortable place. (Okay, I’m assuming that some of the terrors of the Everfree Forest have been stripped away since it’s introduction, but still—she’s just a little filly!
• Also, bad friendship there, buckos! You don’t let your girlfriend head off into a not-okay area and then just shrug like “Oh well—maybe Edward Cullen will drive up to save her from the gang who just wants to know where she’s going.”
• Way to go, Zecora, telling her “I know that feel, girl.” (Essentially. It’s what I heard.)
• Thank Celestia (or whatever Pony deity you wish) for supernatural dentistry. Imagine the jokes if the outskirts-of-town farming class girl with the hick accent were the one with the chipped tooth! It would be gross stereotyping!
• I’M SORRY, ZECORA, I COULDN’T HEAR YOUR POINTLESS SPEECH ABOUT THE IRRELEVANT SINGLE PARENT HOUSEHOLD OF THE ROOSTER OVER THE SOUND OF THAT PLOT POINT FLOWER. COULD YOU EXPOSIT OVER IT A LITTLE BIT LOUDER, PLEASE?
• It’s just so adorable how proudly you’re waving your butt in the air, I can’t comment on it, Apple Bloom.
• WOW! What an irrelevant and pointless thing to excitedly base the rest of your life on! Hula-hooping! I hope you can find a career path where that’s useful that doesn’t involve stripper poles. (Perhaps rhythmic gymnastics? That appears to be a big deal in anime and manga.)
• I can’t say I have firsthand experience, but I’m going to assume that plate-spinning is not an in-demand skill set at places with stripper poles. Congratulations! You now qualify for Rodeo Clown! I’m not sure if that is a promotion. But hey, in a world of ponies, maybe rodeos are a more glamorous affair. (The country girl goes on to become a rodeo clown? Now I am stereotyping.)
• I see you there, Spike, “appreciating” that coiffure to Twilight’s bangs. Don’t go thinking that way about your boss—it’ll only make things more complicated. Besides, I ship a more grown-up you with Rarity.
• Aw, lookit that—Big Macintosh happens to have magic fingers hoof-tips. Regardless of who I’m shipping you with right now, she’s one lucky mare.
• RODEO CIRCUIT. I’M NOT STEREOTYPING, THEY ARE.
• Congratulations, Apple Jack. Your sister is posessed. Just get your local priest from the Cult of Celestia (pun narrowly avoided) and get the Devil Discord cast outta her.
• Spike. I saw the way you looked at Twilight before you gave your response. Shame on you. And don’t give a pony the come-hither when you’re perched on her rump. It’s just bad manners.
• SPEAKING IN TONGUES. YOU DON’T NEED TWILIGHT’S HEATHEN SCIENCE. YOU NEED TO GET THAT GIRL SOME SWEET MAGICAL SCIENCE MAGIC. Magic. I meant magic. Inject that girl with some magic. And friendship. Or pony religion. THAT WAS MY OPENING VEIN. CAST THE DEVIL DISCORD OUT OF HER, SHE’S SPEAKING IN TONGUES.
• Witchdoctor. Close enough. This episode it full of stereotypes.
• My, it’s convenient how many of these things just line up to be interacted with as soon as the appropriate cutie mark appears! Random lions, in the streets!
• Spike, if you had been at the beginning of the movie Contagion, there would have been no movie.
• And Zecora hasn’t forgotten your racism xenophobia fear of that which is different that one thing that happened during her introduction episode. All of the stereotypes Nothing bad ever happens in Ponyville!
• Ponies in Haz-Mat masks. That may be one of my favorite things.
• Your ground is gray-green. Good planting earth is dark brown, or black.Seriously. You expect me to believe that a farmer is just going to plant willy-nilly like that, if she expects these things to grow? Especially when there are window boxes and planters all around. It’s almost like this show was made for children and notover-analytical English Ed majors.
• PINKIE PIE I LOVE YOU FIVE-EVAH.
• Your seeds aren’t growing because of lack of truth. Your seeds refuse to grow because of poor agricultural practices.
  
• LOOK AT THAT TOWN! Look how gleefully they listen to Apple Bloom expressing the most humiliating and shameful event of her (short) life! Like piranhas with chum! You all make me sick, you hear me, sick! Enjoy your foul gossip.
• Aw, look at that honest confession, remorse, and expression of regret! You’re just darling, you know that? (WHAT? APOLOGIES GET AT MY HEART, OKAY?)
• Apple Bloom, Girl, you are wise beyond you years.
• …Is this an instant retcon? I’m confused. I-I think I want to act like they didn’tgo straight back to annoying me.

• The LUNA episode!
• SPIKE’S FOOTIE PAJAMAS!
• COSPLAY. THEY HAVE A FESTIVAL WHERE THEY COSPLAY, AND TWILIGHT IS GOING AS THE PONY GANDALF. I LOVE.
• Oh. Apparently it’s just Halloween. Oh well. Cute little pirate!
• Look at you, Big Macintosh, all dapper in your Baron Samedi costume!
• Rainbow Dash - I can dig it. You go right on ahead with your Halloween pranks!
• DERPY! Aw, Derpy, it’s okay that you pulled the plug out. Gosh, you’re just the sweetest thing.
• Pinkie Pie. Darling. Just because a scary goth pony comes and tries to press you all into nonconsensual friendship because she spent a bazillion years on the moon and didn’t learn social skills, that’s no reason to spazz out and start a riot. Sweetie. Laugh it off. Make jokes. Have fun with her. SHE SAID FEAST—get in on that!
• Okay, a thousand, not a bazillion.
• FLUTTERSHY, TO SAVE THE DAY!
   
  This can only end in irony.
• Not as ironic as I thought. Poor Fluttershy, all scared of the Queen of the Night and Dark Powers…
• GOD HERMIONE, SHUT UP. I mean, GOD PINKIE PIE, SHUT UP.
• She seriously said “What is this ‘fun’ thou speakest of?” Really? You just had to do there? Did they not have “fun” a thousand years ago?
• “I’m going to do what I do best—Lecture her!” Gosh, Twilight Sparkle, I could really really like you.
• Spike, I love you. I love your snarking.
• My idea of Celestia and Luna being pagan deities is bolstered by this tradition of making offerings to her. I wonder if an idea that was striked early on was a burnt offering.
• Also, HERE THE HECK WASRARITY? The one pony who’s always big in to getting dressed up and stuff? Please leave your answers in the box.

• The return of annal-retentive Twilight Sparkle. Gosh, didn’t I miss you. Please, stay as long as you like with your OCD and your freakouts over nothing as you forget the basics that you’ve learned so far.*
• I wonder if today’s lesson is “Sometimes friends need to help you.”
• Or maybe the lesson is “Hey, sometimes things are just okay, and you shouldn’t spazz out and borrow trouble.
• Screw you, talking about Fluttershy in that dismissive way! How dare you look down on her, especially to suit your own purposes! You just watch her clobber that bear! Sit and watch.
• Sweetie, as an English Education Major, I’m going to tell you something fantastic: one of the best skills you will ever learn is how to BS an essay. It’s particularly easy if you’re already good at writing. You just make stuff up. Sure, it won’t be up to par with your other work, but hey! What’s one sub-par letter. You value being a good student? You learn how to BS a paper every now and then.**
• WHY SO SERIOUS, Twilight Sparkle?
• Rarity, I’m not a fan of all this drama. Didn’t you have character development already? Sloppy, writers, sloppy.
• Also, friends: Friends Help You BS That Essay. You are deficient in your duties as friends. Don’t laugh, don’t dismiss it! Help!
• I LOVE TWILIGHT’S “CLOCK IS TICKING” FACE!
• “If I can’t find a friendship problem… I’ll make a friendshipproblem!” You see, sweetie? Now you have a problem, a plan, and a solution. Isn’t this much healthier than just obsessing over the problem?
• Twilight swooning over Big Macintosh, andhaving a moment of lucidity? OTP.
• Big Macintosh at the center/on top of a pyramid of female ponies… well, the gender split in town really does favor the female side, doesn’t it? I bet he’d be quite the stud if he weren’t such a gentlehorse.
• Oh, that moment when you have a failing and the voice of God speaks to reprimand you. (Assuming that Celestia and Luna serve as God-Queens who bring the day and night to the land, who over time have merely scaled back the deity-ness for the sake of their subjects.)
• DERPY! HIIIII, DERPY! I luv yooooooo! Also, Big Macintosh took that doll because he wanted something of Twilight’s. Otp.
• Oh hey! It wasn’t the obvious lessons I was pointing out at the beginning, but the one bone I actually had to pick with them that became the friendship lesson! Hey! Writers, that’s really clever! I respect and appreciate you!
• I bet “I’m expecting some mail” is actually code for “I’m hosting a rave, and my favorite song is about to come up.” You know Celestia likes a boy in uniform (SCHOOL UNIFORM!).
• FLUTTERSHY. GOSH, WOMAN. DON’T LOOK AT THE CAMERA. WHAT IS THIS, I DON’T EVEN, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE. YOU DO NOT GET TO ADDRESS THE AUDIENCE, SO DON’T EVEN TRY TO PLAY IT OFF LIKE THAT. YOU’RE JUST BEING UNPROFESSIONAL. GOSH, WOMAN, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU. I HOPE WE DON’T HAVE TO HAVE THIS CONVERSATION AGAIN. GAH! FREAKING UNPROFESSIONAL…

*Sarcasm hand. 

** I’m going to make a fantastic teacher. But I think I’ll get in trouble if I say “BS” in the classroom… 

• Is it wrong just how much I’m loving CruelShy? She’s just so spiteful and seems to enjoy it so much. And Rarity is amusing as well. But I seriously just want to push Applejack out into the rain and give Pinkie Pie a big hug and tell her “I don’t think it’s funny either.”
• I loved Sarcastic Twilight when she was all fed up with everybody. “Necklace, necklace, necklace, necklace, big crown thingie […] Congratulations, you’re the new Rainbow Dash.”
• Aw, Discord just wants a Queen of Chaos to share his enjoyment of the New World Order with. RESTORE PINKIE PIE! (Okay, so she couldbe capable of singlehandedly toppling your regime, but she’d make a WAY better BFF than Twilight Sparkle! And I still ship you with Celestia. But she’s be an icy Persephone-like queen, so not your BFF in charge of Chaos Appreciation.)
• POOR ABUSED SPIKE! But I do like the plotpoint of “Excuse me, but HHHAAAYYYLLLL NAH” (If there’s Discord about, I can dig Celestia sounding like that) “What about every f*****g thing you’ve learned up to this point? Every shoehorned, stretched, or obvious lesson about friendship we’ve tacked onto the end of every episode adventure? I will send you my backlog of mail until you fix this s***. Deuces, Celestia out.”
• BIG MACINTOSH AND TWILIGHT SPARKLE NOW HAVE A CANON KISS. I WILL SHIP THIS TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.
• Rarity: “Let us never speak of this again.” I love that pretentious B.
• Pinkie Pie: All about priorities. First you get your last taste of chocolate rain, then you go pit-bull growling at Discord. That’s my girl.
• You know what? I’m finding it easier and easier to like Twilight Sparkle.

• Cutie Mark Crusaders - I get that you’re cute, I just… don’t personally feel it.
• I just freaking love Pinkie Pie so much. I love how she’s the only one to dwell on the Chocolate aspects of Discord. She would make a fantastic general in Discord’s army.
• And now I am shipping Celestia and Discord so hard. I mean, the way he talks about missingher~! It’s like Prince Diamond and Sailor Moon all over again.
• Also, I love Celestia’s righteous fury and the fact that she really seems to be as dangerous as a queen right here. I approve. 
• And HOLY CRACKLE BARS! I think Discord is Q from Star Trek Next Generation! *checks IMDB* I WAS RIGHT! Guys, I don’t think those non-Star Trek fans out there can understand just how freaking meta this is. Q ~ Discord… Oh, these people know their nerdy, nerdy fanbase! (I suddenly need video/dialogue redub crossovers. I want to see Q calling the crew of the Enterprise-D ponies, and I need to see Discord spouting Q’s lines.)
• Separating the ponies and testing them based on their strengths? I like it.
• Pinkie Pie’s balloon garden is nightmare fuel.
• I love how Fluttershy couldn’t be tempted, she had to be forced.
• And in general, I just liked it.