Okay, so there’s an extra episode to lump in there, but to be fair, that didn’t air until October, so September was still all Rarity.

So, the hiatus ended a little early, catching me off guard.  And in a series known for sparse Rarity episodes, we are graced with THREE RARITY EPISODES IN A ROW.  Hot damn.

Rarity is approved to start a boutique in Canterlot, so she creates a new line of dresses and hires an expert assistant in Sassy Saddles.  Sassy Saddles proves to be an expert at what she does, but she seems to step over the line when she renames the signature dress, “The Reign in Stain,” to the more generic (and more marketable) “Princess Dress,” designed to match up with Twilight Sparkle’s modeling of the dress.  Sassy’s plan to make the Princess Dress a popular fad proves to be too successful: dozens, then hundreds of orders come in for the new Princess Dress, and Rarity overworks herself to fill out all the orders.

Song Alert: The Rules of Rarity is about Rarity’s enthusiasm for her dream slowly dying as her passion slowly turns into just a JOB.

Rarity decides to shut down the boutique and hold a clearance sale.  However, when she sees her customers light up for her non-Princess Dress outfits, she remembers why she went into the business in the first place and decides to keep the boutique in business after all.  Sassy resigns out of shame, but Rarity decides to keep her in charge of the boutique… which is actually surprising.  Sassy really wasn’t anywhere close to “evil,” just misguided.  Hell, not even really misguided – she was just focused on profits and on multiple occasions, she told Rarity that she should get more workers to make Princess Dresses, but Rarity demanded that every dress have her personal touch, so really it was just incompatibility.

Decent episode with some surprising, realistic lessons to learn.

Next episode:

Rainbow Dash is going to watch the Wonderbolts perform an aerial performance in Canterlot, and she lets Rarity (who’s in her Canterlot boutique) know about it.  Also, as a Wonderbolt cadet, Rainbow Dash is a potential replacement flier.

Rarity and RD meet Wind Rider, a legendary retired Wonderbolt who comes out of retirement.  RD totally freaks out over meeting one of her idols.

At practice, Spitfire gets a call from her sick mother, so she has to leave.  RD has to step in as a replacement, but when Spitfire doesn’t come back, it gets found out that her mother isn’t really sick, and no one knows where Spitfire is.  RD appears to be the biggest suspect since she has the most to gain from Spitfire being absent.  Rarity, inspired by her favorite detective Shadow Spade, investigates (thus, the title of the episode, “Rarity Investigates!”) takes on the case, changing the entire episode into a film noir.

Complicated story short: it was Wind Rider.

Fun, fun episodes, but predictable as hell.  Still, it could’ve been worse:

Next episode:

Twilight is bored.  But then the Cutie Map calls Rarity and Applejack for a mission to Manehattan… without her.  Oh well.

As with all Map episodes, we waste a few minutes on our heroes not knowing why they were called there exactly.  Rarity figures she can just start a stand to help citizens with friendship problems.

But then a flyer coincidentally blows into Rarity’s face.  It’s about a community theater revival organized by Coco Pommel.

OHHHH SHIT, COCO POMMEL EPISODE!

 

That’s right, it’s time to die of cuteness!

Long story short, Manehattan used to have a close-knit community, in some part due to Charity Kindheart and her community theater.  She left, the theater ended, and Manehattan slowly became a town of complete assholes.  Rarity and Applejack aren’t able to restore the park theater in time, so they build a small stage facing a street.  It seems to do the job just fine and draws in a large audience.  So, Manehattan is a better place, and it’s another job well done.

Nice episode, but gets surprisingly dull toward the end.  But COCO POMMEL EPISODE.

Next episode!

Brotherhooves Social happens at the same time as Made in Manehattan.  Apple Bloom and Applejack are preparing for the upcoming Sisterhooves Social.  Meanwhile, Big Macintosh is feeling left out.  When Applejack gets called to help out in Manehattan, it seems Apple Bloom won’t be participating.  But that’s when Big Macintosh gets an idea.

Big Mac enters the competition as “Cousin Orchard Blossom.”

Cringe and hilarity ensues.

Big Mac is determined, then obsessed, with getting Apple Bloom a victory ribbon, and things go horribly wrong in the final event, where Big Mac goes into competitive overdrive.  He crosses the finish line first, but soon gets disqualified.

Turns out EVERYONE knew he was a stallion posing as a mare all along but allowed it.  The reason he was disqualified was for unsportsmanlike conduct.  And thus, Apple Bloom’s humiliation is complete.

Afterwards, we get a really touching scene where Big Mac admits that the reason he did what he did was because he missed when Apple Bloom used to look up to him whereas now she only looks up to Applejack, the “hero” of the Apple family.

Fun episode, definitely polarizing.

For Canterlot Boutique, the clear winner is Fashion Reaction, the face made by Fashion Plate.

 

For Rarity Investigates, I’m going with “Toppling Canterlot Carousel’s Mannequins.”  Even though it didn’t really catch on, it’s a lot of fun.

For Made in Manehattan, it’s something a little different: Applejacks’s Hat’s Death.

In the episode, it became a running gag that Applejack’s hat took a lot of abuse, culminating in Rarity just throwing it in the trash at the end of the episode.  Fortunately, AJ has plenty of spares.

Finally, for Brotherhooves Social…

Well, fuck.  The entire premise of the episode.

For Canterlot Boutique, the mightly Lumineko offers this:

For Rarity Investigates, I just have to go to this humanized NSFW image from Freedomthai.

I’m sorry, but that’s just boner-inducing to a ridiculous degree.

For Made in Manehattan, well… it was an obvious reference to make…

For Brotherhooves Social, it’s Nekocrispy with the crossover win!

And honorable mention for this cross-episode piece by Pixelkitties:

Canterlot Boutique: Surprisingly, Sea Swirl, for having one of the most amazing background events ever.

Rarity Investigates: Rarity, naturally.  She goes ALL IN with the film noir.

Made in Manehattan: COCO POMMEL, obviously!  Like… do I even have to explain?

Brotherhooves Social: Big Macintosh, naturally.  Can’t help but feel for the big guy.

There’s still two episodes I haven’t covered.  One was a leak, and I’m not covering it until it’s officially out.  I’m talking about last week’s episode, “Crusaders of the Lost Mark.”  That deserves its own post, so look forward to that.