(Song Used: Unkind - Hurt)

This is the point where Season 6 would have to be near perfect in every way for any of these episodes to be under threat of going under 100. But every season has their ups and downs and it’s pretty much assured there will be a few duds here and there. Now it would be cool if Season 6 was utterly perfect in every way as that’d mean we have awesome stuff every new episode then. But each season except for Season 3 was 26 episodes, that’s a lot of work on the writing staff and for every really good idea they manage to pull off they can sometimes rush and/or become a bit lackadaisical about some others. But anyway, this is also the point in the Countdown where the episodes are starting to get to that point where there’s a lot of episodes around the same level. I’d say from this point until #55-#51 is the part where you could probably switch it all around in any order and I’d be fine. Every episode of FiM even the best ones have some flaws and/or things you could nitpick to death. So while I can try to say which ones are better or worse there is a point where it’s hard because some episodes are at about the same quality that is really up the “Which would you rather watch” preference. And even that’s not clear because there may be an episode from this part that I may want to sometimes watch again even over episodes that are ranked in the 50’s cause of something in particular.

*Cheerilee’s so drunk, her eye color changed

M.A. Larson may be my favorite writer in the show. But even he wasn’t perfect sometimes. Though even his weaker episodes always had something to them. This episode is probably his weakest in the series, but I think it still managed to have a bit of fun what with the Flim Flam’s song and the Apple Family’s competition with them. It is a bit annoying though they have to portray the Flim Flam’s as greedy that takes most of the profit when they’re not even the ones growing the apples. If they had compromised to a 50/50 deal or even a majority in the favor of the Apple Family, I feel they take the partnership easily. As an advantage of mass-production is you have such a surplus you can ship to opposite places of the country no problem. The Apples would be stinkin’ rich. Also the way the Flim Flam’s are defeated is kinda weird. They win the competition when they get desperate enough to turn off the quality control. But the problem is they still had perfectly good cider barrels for use. Even considering how greedy they were and how they deserved it, you’d think they’d be smart enough to make sure they know which barrels had the no quality control Cider and which ones did. They could of still grabbed total victory had they done that. 

Aside from that though, I think one of my favorite parts is how the rest of the Mane 6 come to help Applejack, and she gladly accepts their help. It feels like she learned her lesson from Applebuck Season. Heck it’s not even Applejack who really got them into this mess, it’s Granny Smith and Apple Bloom. You get to see Applejack’s very, very, nervous face when she realizes what’s at stake with the competition looming. Granted, AJ didn’t try to stop them. But you could tell AJ’s not being quite as stubborn this time around. Though of course there is one more thing to talk about, the ending, where Applejack literally says that the moral was… she didn’t learn anything! It’s amusing as a kinda “what the heck?!” moment but the people who care most about the morals in the show might have taken issue that there was something AJ could of put down. Still, you have to wonder just what was Celestia’s reaction to Applejack’s letter from this episode.

We’re on to our first Season 4 Key episode that isn’t the worst episode in the series list-wise. It will actually be a little while till’ the next Key episode in our list. Cause this is the only Key episode that made it in the Top 100 that’s below #50 in rank. This is the only Key Episode I would consider more average, as there’s Rainbow Falls that failed on nearly every level and the rest are good to great. As I’ve said before the Key Episodes have an interesting spread in this list. But regardless, this was an Applejack episode that also featured the return of the Flim Flam’s who advertise some sort of miracle tonic that can cure anything. (This might be a bit of an unpopular opinion, but I liked the Flim Flam’s song in this episode more then the one in their debut episode) Going with past experience of course, Applejack doesn’t trust them. Despite this, Granny Smith gives their stuff a try and suddenly she seems to have been effected by the tonic that she’s doing all kinds of stunts. Even eventually planning to do a stunt that will no doubt seriously injure her or worse that Applejack must put to a stop. 

Applejack eventually finds a pony who pretended to be cured immediately for the Flim Flam’s to further try to sell their product. And through Applejack’s through honesty they take down the Flim Flam’s scheme before Granny Smith hurts herself. I don’t think the episode as a whole is amazing, but it’s certainly serviceable in a few ways. It’s a masterpiece compared to Rainbow’s key episode though, but falls short of every one of the others.

I think this is another of those really mixed response episodes. It may depend how much you can appreciate parodies of the crazy Silver Age comics where there’s insane logic going into Superhero powers and absolutely crazy villains. If that’s not your thing I could perfectly understand why someone would not like this episode much at all. Still, I feel like it’s one of those episodes that you just gotta be in the right mood for. This isn’t an episode you’re supposed to take all that serious especially when you get to the comic portions. This was the staff having a little fun with the Mane 6 being in a comic world where there’s weird logic to stuff to begin with. You could probably nitpick to the point that you notice that one or two of the Ponies have powers they technically already have outside of the Comic and thus should know how to do it right away. But they might not know that right way and/or the comic’s universe is just different enough for that to not matter. 

Still I wouldn’t put it on any best of the show lists, but I do like to appreciate when the show staff just wants to have a little fun here and there. And they had this idea of taking the Mane 6 into Silver Age-esque comics and I feel that’s fine. Stuff like Flutterhulk was fun to see just once, and a lot of Fanart came out of the design of the Mane 6 as the Power Ponies. I feel where I put it in the list is just fine in considering of the fun and entertainment value it has. But doesn’t need to go too far because at it’s own it’s a pretty ok (Or you could even say good for Spike episode standards) episode on it’s own.

This episode is kind of Season 4’s own Hearts and Hooves Day. With some degree of Romance involved in the plot, but the real focus is the Comedy. Granted I think Hearts and Hooves Day is by far more enjoyable on this front. But Simple Ways has it’s own moments that make it shine. Rarity’s deliverance of “I LOVE BEING COVERED IN MUD” makes me laugh everytime. And for those who may have been pissed off about a main character getting a crush on a new character there is that same Jayson interview that I mentioned back in the Equestria Girls prompt in the Bottom 12. Though for what it’s worth, Trenderhoof already shows a lot more character in this one episode then Flash has ever done in 3 movies. And it’s not like this was the first time Rarity’s had a crush on a stallion, as we saw as far back as Season 1 with Prince Blueblood even if we all know how that turned out. It makes sense for Rarity to be the one looking most often for a stallion while the others show barely any interest in Romance. I also like this episode as it feels it shows just how much Rarity and Applejack know each other by now. 

While I in particularly loved the covered in mud line the entire scene where Applejack and Rarity have a bit of poking fun at eachother’s lifestyles is character comedy gold. While I wouldn’t say it’s one of the best episodes, I’d certainly think it may be at least close to Top 10 in terms of Funniest episodes. Simple Ways is simply funny.

This episode is a little higher then it would be thanks to Lost Treasure of Griffonstone. Because after that episode, now we kinda get a sense of tragedy when Gilda and Rainbow Dash break off their friendship. Granted that doesn’t entirely dissolve some issues like Gilda still hardly comes off as someone who would later regret the decision and her attitude towards Pinkie and everyone else still makes us feel she deserves her comeuppance at the end. Still though this is no doubt this is one of the more memorable episodes of the first half of Season 1. The entire scene of Pinkie and Rainbow pranking their friends is really good, then Gilda shows up and things take a little bit of a downturn. With Gilda not letting Pinkie in at all with Rainbow, not to mention perhaps the most infamous scene of the episode where she roars at Fluttershy. I think some fans still haven’t completely forgiven Gilda for that even after her redemption in Lost Treasure of Griffonstone. 

It is still fun to see Pinkie deal with a mean person by trying to make a party to cheer them up rather then make them madder. It was Rainbow’s pranks throughout the party that was meant to get a laugh out of Gilda, though she takes it that Pinkie made all the pranks to humiliate her for her actions. When that wasn’t the case leading to Rainbow confronting her old friend when Gilda starts accusing Pinkie. Rainbow now seeing just how bad Gilda has been treating her new friends. It’s a strong scene for sure and certainly has consequences that we finally see fully realized thanks to Gilda’s return in Season 5