It’s time for my new segment, My Little Pony: Friendship Friday!  This is going to be a bit more than just an episode review; it’s a complete review of the past episodes and their effect on the fandom.

You may be wondering, “Why Friday?”  Yeah, new episodes come out Saturday, but I tend to saver each episode throughout the week, and fan content for the most part takes that long to trickle out.  Actually, most content comes out in the first 1-2 days, but not only does the extra time allow for straggling artists, it’s also enough time for the really good memes to show themselves.

This is the only Friendship Friday that will be this long since I’m catching up on all the episodes after the first two.

Castle Sweet Castle

Twilight’s been hanging around her friends a little too much recently because she doesn’t think of her new castle as “home.”  Her friends try to fix this problem by giving the castle a makeover while Twilight takes a spa day.  Unfortunately, everyone has their own idea of what makes a place home.  This results in a hilarious musical number where the lyrics are upbeat and optimistic while everything turns into a horrible mess.

 

Spike stalls for time while the gang undoes everything they did and tries to think of what made the Golden Oaks Library home for Twilight.

They decide to bring the roots from the library over to use as a ceiling decoration.  Also it has lights that reflect memories from the time they spent at Twilight’s old home, kind of like a magical album mobile.

Overall, it’s a fun episode with a heart-warming twist at the end, but low on big events.  There’s a significant amount of setup and the song and reprise work to fill up a lot of time.  To be fair, though… it’s a pretty good song.

Bloom and Gloom

Apple Bloom calls a meeting of the Cutie Mark Crusaders because she just received a very important message: Babs Seed got her cutie mark!

This brings up a whole host of questions, like does that mean Babs can’t be a Cutie Mark Crusader anymore, when are the other Crusaders going to get their cutie marks, what if they get cutie marks they hate, and so forth.  Apple Bloom’s troubles follow her to bed, and Applejack sings her a lullaby.

Yep, that’s our song.  We get a CMC episode with a song, and it’s not the CMC singing it.

Apple Bloom wakes up, goes downstairs, and learns she gained a cutie mark!

A pest pony shows up and tells her she’s destined to replace him in keeping the annoying Twittermites away.  They’re flying bugs that, if left unchecked, cause terrible lightning storms.  Apple Bloom shows her skill in trapping them, but she gets bullied by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon and runs away into the woods where she hears a voice ask if she wants to get rid of her cutie mark if it embarrasses her so much.  Apple Bloom agrees and returns to Ponyville, which is in the middle of an infestation that destroys Sweet Apple Acres, and the now markless Apple Bloom is powerless to stop it.

Then she wakes up.  Yep, it was a dream.

She goes downstairs and finds – yep, she has a cutie mark!

She goes to the clubhouse and tells the Crusaders about it.  They’re excited, then promptly kick her out of the club because she has a cutie mark.  She returns to the forest, has her cutie mark removed, and goes back to the clubhouse to find Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo got their cutie marks… and want nothing to do with the markless Apple Bloom.  So Apple Bloom is a Crusader once more, but forever alone.

…and she wakes up.

You can tell where it goes from here, right?

This time, her family disowns her for not having an apple-related cutie mark.  Then yada yada yada, she has another dream, crazy stuff happens, and she confronts the voice in the forest.  She demands the voice stop  whatever spell she placed on her, but the voice says she only did what she wanted… because she’s Apple Bloom’s shadow!

But then Best Pony descends from the heavens and teaches Apple Bloom a lesson about cutie marks.   They’re a reflection of who you are, and your special talent doesn’t change that.  So it’s impossible to get a cutie mark you hate, because that means you hate yourself.  That said, Princess Luna shows Apple Bloom that she’s not the only filly to have nightmares about her cutie mark, and brings her over to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle’s dreams.  Together, they have an epiphany about cutie marks, and Apple Bloom wakes up for real, feeling better about the future.

This was a fun episode that needed to happen for multiple reasons.  Luna already had dream episodes with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, so it was always a matter of when it would be Apple Bloom’s turn.  We also needed more delving into the nature of cutie marks, though I don’t think we came out with anything we didn’t already know.  And finally, we have an episode where an established blank flank got a cutie mark.  That’s pretty significant, though it would be better if we had said character actually in the episode.

Tanks for the Memories

Rainbow Dash is looking forward to having winter fun with her pet tortoise, Tank, but Tank is getting ready to hibernate.  Rainbow Dash is in denial and soon tries to find ways to keep him active for her planned winter activities.  In the process, she finally gives us the first Rainbow Dash solo song, not including “Awesome As I Wanna Be,” which is a Rainbow Rocks song and kinda doesn’t count.

It’s the happiest song about denial ever.

We do not question how she manages to harmonize with herself.

Left with no other options, Dash has to accept that Tank is going to hibernate.  Or… she could stop winter from happening.

Just in case you didn’t know, just like day and night isn’t automatic (Celestia and Luna raise and lower the sun and moon), the seasons are somewhat artificial.  Cloudsdale is in charge of producing the weather clouds responsible for winter snow.  Dash infiltrates the cloud factory in Cloudsdale and makes a mess of things, only to screw up and bring winter in with a bang.

Also, Twilight delivers a fitting, yet strangely also extremely ill-fitting reference:

Dash is finally forced to face the hard truth that Tank won’t be having fun with her during winter, and that’s okay.

Another fun episode with a moral about acceptance (and it was great seeing RD go through all the steps)… but it’s built like a “pet is dying” episode, which is weird.

Appleoosa’s Most Wanted

The Cutie Mark Crusaders are excited to be a part of the Appleoosa rodeo, where Applejack will be competing to take over for cousin Braeburn, who got injured.  But it seems an outlaw named Troubleshoes Clyde is sabotaging the event.  Applejack tells the girls to stay inside during the rodeo, and everyone wonders if they should cancel the whole thing.

The CMC sneak out later during a storm and try to find Troubleshoes and bring him to justice so they can participate in the rodeo.  They get lost and take shelter inside a trailer that just so happens to be Troubleshoes’.

Turns out, Troubleshoes isn’t a troublemaker at all.  He’s just a big fan of rodeos.  He’s also one of the clumsiest ponies ever, and he blames his upside-down horseshoe cutie mark.

 

It seems to have cost him his dream of becoming a rodeo star.  However, Apple Bloom realizes that his mark and his clumsiness could make him perfect for the rodeo… just not in the way he intended.  His clumsiness is perfect for being a rodeo clown, and soon, Troubleshoes gets on everyone’s good sides.

But the CMC are still in trouble for sneaking out.

Fun episode

 

The Cutie Map

Well, this was an easy one.  By far, the most spammed meme from the episode was I Didn’t Listen!

Origin: The goofy face Party Favor makes when he says he didn’t listen to the Mane 6 try to convert him.  Yeah, it was only a few frames long, but it’s exactly the kind of thing the fandom quickly picks up on.

Castle Sweet Castle

Punklight Sparkle (Twilight’s alternate manestyle) was popular, but I’m Pancake completely wiped the floor with it.

Origin: Twilight falls asleep in a stack of pancakes.  She suddenly wakes up and says “I’m pancake!  I mean, awake!”

Bloom and Gloom

Nothing really meme-worthy in here.  Sweetie Bell’s Score has very limited potential as a meme, while Apple Bloom’s electrocution meme never really took off but has a higher potential.  With not much to choose from, I went with the Electrocution Meme.

Tanks for the Memories

The only other meme in this episode is Depression Dash, which hasn’t really been all that good.  I hereby proclaim the winner, Do I Look Angry?

Origin: Rainbow Dash’s response to her friends when they say she seems angry.

 Appleoosa’s Most Wanted

VERY slim pickings from this episode.  There were only two instances that could have been made memes, but they never truly caught on.  By default, I’m going with Hoop Chase.

Origin: I think that .gif just about covers it.

 

Fair warning: Princess Luna and Coco Pommel are in a constant state of “Best Pony,” so any pony I list here is strictly jockeying for the #3 spot for the week.

The Cutie Map

Sugar Belle

Castle Sweet Castle

Bulk Biceps

Bloom & Gloom

Okay, okay, Princess Luna doesn’t count.  It may seem like cheating for a central character, but she’s always a fun character.  It’s Apple Bloom!

 

Tanks for the Memories

How do you not give this one to Rainbow Dash?  She totally hammed up the entire episode and showed us more of her completely nutso side.  Plus she has an affinity for the tortoise, and that’s always a plus.

Appleoosa’s Most Wanted

Troubleshoes is a lovable addition to the world and it was fun seeing him grow in his brief flashback.  He’s also another example of adults having cutie mark problems, which calls back to the season opener.  Cutie marks seem to be a recurring theme for this season.

The Cutie Map

Technically it’s two episodes, so two pieces of art!  First up is “Forget” by dSana.  Great take on the idea that the ponies can see their cutie marks in the vault any time they want.

Next is “my cutie marks” by quizia.  Though it might as well be called “Stupid Sexy Starlight.”  Honestly, the thing I love most about this fandom is the sexy humanizations (and EqG-izations) they come up with.

 

 

Castle Sweet Castle

All I’m Pancake images are disqualified for being Meme of the Week and also so cute it they can be weaponized.  “You Monsters!” by Kolshica shows us how they got the roots of the Golden Oaks Library into the castle.

Bloom & Gloom

There were plenty of amazing, creepy pictures of Apple Bloom and Shadow Bloom, but once I saw “Bloom and Boom” by asai-g, all bets were off.  How do you not give this its own award?

Tanks for the Memories

This isn’t a two-parter but I’m doing two pieces of art anyway.  One for laughs and one for the art.  First is “Pojangmacha” by Quiza.  Amazing humanizations, great art style, everyone looks perfect, and it makes great use of the winter setting.

And the other image is a fun one from the great Bakki about another sort of denier.

Appleoosa’s Most Wanted

“Just My Luck” by dennybutt helped launch a Derpy shipping I actually support for once!

Tomorrow’s episode is “Make New Friends, But Keep Discord.”  It will feature the return of fan favorite Discord, voiced by John De Lancie, as well as classic My Little Pony villain, The Smooze.  It’s almost certainly going to be a Fluttershy-heavy episode, which has never been a bad thing.