If I don’t start doubling up, I might never get caught up. Y’know, outside of waiting for the season to end, but that isn’t nearly as fun.
In “The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows,” Pinkie learns that Princess Cadance is pregnant, and she struggles to keep it a secret from her friends (especially Twilight) so as not to ruin the surprise.
As far as Twilight knows, Cadance and her brother are visiting Ponyville, and all Twilight really cares about is making their visit special. Meanwhile, Pinkie is practically about to explode because she’s terrible at keeping secrets.
When they do arrive, Pinkie thinks she’s finally off the hook, but Shining Armor tells Pinkie she has to hold it in a while longer while they send Twilight off to a scavenger hunt with clues about the secret so she can figure it out herself. Yada yada yada, they get to the party at the end, Twilight finds out Cadance is pregnant, and Pinkie can finally rest easy.
It’s one of those episodes that’s really only good for the individual gag moments littered throughout it.
In “Hearthbreakers,” the Apple Family goes on a trip to stay with Pinkie’s family at their rock farm for Hearthswarming Eve (basically the Equestrian version of Christmas and Thanksgiving). This is mostly because Pinkie wants the Apples and the Pies to act like one big family, going off of the whole potential cousin thing from “Pinkie Apple Pie.”
We’re also finally introduced to the rest of Pinkie’s family. Maud we know, but there’s her other sisters, Limestone and Marble, and her parents, Igneous Rock and Cloudy Quartz.
Applejack’s excitement quickly turns sour when she finds out the Pie family traditions are vastly different from her own family’s. Primarily that they’re mostly rock-based.
Applejack decides she’s had enough and educates the Pie family about her superior Apple family traditions, offending the Pie family and inadvertently causing Holder’s Boulder (pretty much a family treasure… that’s also a giant boulder) to fall off a cliff. The Apple family is ousted from the farm, and a sorry Applejack realizes on the train ride home (after a short history lesson from Granny Smith) that there’s a reason behind the Pie family’s traditions. So she somehow manages to get the train stopped so she can turn back and apologize while helping move Holder’s Boulder back to its rightful position, and everypony has a happy Hearth’s Warming Eve.
Overall a pretty fun episode, but got kinda cringey in the second half, especially since Applejack is basically retreading the same lesson learned from “Maud Pie.”
“The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows” didn’t really have any major offerings, so here’s a funny edited gif.
Meanwhile, “Hearthbreakers” gave us a meme that was completely unexpected: Weird Rock.
Basically, one of the Pie family traditions is making dolls out of rocks, and Applejack’s doll turned out… pretty weird.
At the end of the episode, everyone has a Hearth’s Warming doll that resembles themselves, except for Applejack, who still has that weird rock.
Then someone got the wonderful idea of getting screencaps and replacing Applejack with the Weird Rock.
Unexpected, for “The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows,” the award has to go to Mayor Mare.
Early in the episode, she asks Pinkie if she’s ever had to keep a secret. When Pinkie denies it, Mayor Mare depressingly says to herself “me neither…” Then later she’s super-excited to be part of the big surprise. It’s pretty adorable. Glad you finally got to be part of something, Mayor Mare.
In “Hearthbreakers…” well, who are we kidding? It’s Marble Pie.
She’s basically a darker, shyer Fluttershy. To the point where she almost instantly supplanted the Fluttermac shipping.
TJ Pones shows us that just because she’s a bookworm doesn’t necessarily mean she has the whole baby-making thing down.
Suzumaru is right. 4 Best Sisters are indeed best 4 sisters.
We’ve got a Halloween episode and a Discord episode to cover next time, plus the long-awaited Twilight/Fluttershy map episode. Hmm. I might be able to do a three-fer. It’s gonna be a very Twishy kinda week.