It’s time to get completely caught up (again)!

In “Scare Master” (I guess a play on the first-season episode “Stare Master,” which was also a Fluttershy episode), Fluttershy is outside at Nightmare Night because Angel needs carrots.  Her friends decide to try to get Fluttershy to join them in the festivities for once, and she reluctantly agrees.

Unfortunately, Fluttershy is too afraid of everything to have fun, and she brings down her friends in the process.  Twilight suggests Fluttershy try to scare them instead, and she agrees.  Alas, Fluttershy’s concept of scary is… lacking.

Fluttershy is embarrassed by the poor performance, but Angel Bunny, Master of Darkness, has some ideas.

Fluttershy proceeds to stalk her friends and scare the living bejeezus out of them in the Apple Family corn maze with the help of her animal friends.

Fluttershy soon realizes she doesn’t find any enjoyment out of scaring her friends, so she tells them she’s just going to pass Nightmare Night the same way she always does: locked up in her cottage.

I guess the moral here is to not force your friends out of their comfort zone or shit’s gonna go down.

In “What About Discord?” Twilight Sparkle finds that her friends have befriended Discord in her absence and they have their own little in-jokes.  Twilight doesn’t get it and decides they must be under a spell.  Turns out they weren’t.

That’s pretty much the episode.  I’ve found Discord episodes to be pretty hit-and-miss, and this was a huge miss for me.  Most fans love Discord and Discord episodes unequivocally, and that’s just something we’re never going to agree on.  For me, the overall episode was meh, but it did have some entertaining moments.

In “The Hooffields and McColts…” well, it’s pretty much your typical Hatfields & McCoys story.  And hell if that isn’t a red flag.  It wasn’t funny when Looney Toons did it, and it was downright abysmal when Avatar did it.

The Cutie Map sends Twilight and Fluttershy to the Smokey Mountains to solve a friendship problem.  The Hooffields and the McColts reside there and have been feuding for so long, no one remembers how the feud started.  Yadda yadda yadda, Twilight fails to get them to be friends, and Fluttershy talks to some woodland creatures and finds out what really caused the feud to start.  Armed with this knowledge, Twilight gets everyone to stop fighting the only way she knows how: time freeze magic.

Funny, I always knew Twilight was a Mesmer.  Didn’t know she was also a Chronomancer.

Anyway, Twilight gives everyone a history lesson about how their ancestors wanted to protect and preserve the natural beauty of the valley, but they disagreed on how to go about it, and they started sabotaging each other’s efforts until it turned into an all-out feud.  As a result of their feud, the woodland creatures have suffered for a long time.  For the sake of the animals and nature, the two clans agree to work together to make the valley a better place.

Also, hillbilly stereotypes.

“Scare Master” didn’t have much in the way of memes so much as subject material.  My favorite would have to be Applelion, though the Applecat resurgence is appreciated.

“What About Discord?” is pretty obvious.  Bob Ross Discord.

Finally, in the strangest one yet, “Hooffields and McColts” merely has everyone focusing on the scene where Twilight presents her glowing cutie mark to Fluttershy.

For “Scare Master,” the Best Pony award goes to Fluttershy for… being Fluttershy.  And now Otakushy.

For “What About Discord?” the Best Pony award goes to Starlight Glimmer, for being in the actual episode and yet not participating in it.  Good call, Starlight.

Finally, for Hooffields and McColts, the Best Pony award goes to Twilight Sparkle for promoting to Chronomancer.

For “Scare Master,” wandrivieira1994 works some of that faux-IDW magic and really captures this scene from Fluttershy’s first scare attempt.

Honorable mention goes to Lumineko for his series of sexy humanized costumed Mane 6.

For “What About Discord?” assassinmonkey gives us… more Bob Ross?

Finally, for “Hooffields and McColts,” the great and mighty Lumineko reminds us all not to get on Twilight’s bad side.

Welp, I’m finally all caught up.  The next episode is “The Mane Attraction.”  Apparently, AJ had a friend that made it big as a pop star.  Geen, I wonder if she’s become a bitch since then?  Well, I’m not gonna complain too much about it before watching it.  I rather liked that episode of Dino Thunder.