(Song Used: Rapture - Hurt)

We’ve reached the Top 50 now! This is more traditionally the halfway point but we technically counted down 112 instead of 100. But we’re at the point where at least in my opinion a lot of these episodes are really good. Some of the next few episodes particularly in this set may still be a little bit on the fence. But otherwise considering there’s episodes in the 70’s part of the list that I do really, really like in parts it should say good things about the episodes placed from here on out.

Ever since the pilot we’ve known Rarity has an affinity for the town of Canterlot. When Twilight mentions she’s from there, Rarity says she’s always dreamed of living there. And well while she doesn’t move to Canterlot. She gets to expand her business to Canterlot which is still a pretty big thing for her. Cause now her business can become a franchise in the future if the Canterlot shoppe is successful. She even gets a manager to help with this sector, though trouble becomes quick when this manager has a particular direction she wants it to go that disagrees with Rarity’s ideals. 

Upon making the Princess dress for Twilight (Who is notably considered the most popular princess in the polls interestingly enough). Sassy Saddles wants to mass-produce it, making Rarity make the same exact dress down to the very details. Even just slightly changing it up angers the customer who wanted the Princess Dress. Eventually Rarity has had enough and threatens to close the store in protest of just making the one dress. As with many other Rarity episodes you gotta look at it in an artists lens. You can have a really successful art piece but if that’s all you sell, you risk becoming a one trick pony (No pun intended). So Rarity has to show what else she can do, and she finds more customers of which to recommend clothes to in what was supposed to be the closing sale. At the same time she’s also showing Sassy what Rarity calls the “Rules of Rarity” so she can understand why Rarity continues her business while Sassy’s strategy of one popular dress being mass produced ends up running things in the ground (As she mentions, she doesn’t want to be part of another failed business implying this happened before). Sassy see’s Rarity’s way working and apologizes for forcing her way into things. As a result, Rarity keeps the shop open and presumably gives Sassy control of the shop while Rarity goes back to the Ponyville boutique. (One thing I don’t know how to feel about is the scene at the very end with the really chubby pony, I almost actually feel a little sorry for her that Rarity and Sassy simply say No when she came for the Princess Dress of which she gets a confused expression in her face).

I assume we’ll probably see Sassy and the Boutique again some day (And I mean aside from the already mentioned reappearance in Rarity Investigates the very next episode afterward) so we should see how Sassy Saddles does in the future.

This is probably the one two-parter most are pretty split on. Most agree it’s probably a let down if you compare it to how epic Canterlot Wedding was given that was the previous episode prior to it. But it also has some really good bits here and there that has some feeling it may be actually one of the more underrated episodes. Most of the criticism is mainly how Sombra feels much more like a natural force rather then a character, and how the Crystal Empire really just pops out of nowhere and how it’s all given to Cadence and Shining. I mean we know Cadence and Shining were pretty rushed in as much as some of us may like them but even the place they rule over had to pop out of nowhere too which doesn’t help with of the criticisms toward them. Though in at least defense in one of these, Sombra still felt like he was a dangerous looming threat. And if it weren’t for a precise wife throw from Shining, Sombra would of gotten the Crystal Heart and won. For me the best scene of the two-parter though was definitely the Fear Door scene. I think it’s great when we see firsthand what the characters fear the most. Twilight fears failure and rejection from the mentor she looks up to the most, and Spike in turn fears being abandoned by Twilight. I think it’s a really great scene that show’s something we definitely want to know about our characters because we get a feeling of how much they care about those they fear losing the trust or care of and everything.

On a side note, in this one episode we can see how much Twilight’s improved in Magic since the first season. Granted even in Season 1, Twilight was awesome with magic given Boast Busters and the Cinderella-esque spells in Best Night Ever. But now she’s reversing gravity and using dark magic. On another note, this is also the only episode that’s the closest to less then subtle foreshadowing Twilight’s ascension to an Alicorn at the end of Season 3. Aside from Luna holding Starswirl’s journal that would prove crucial in Magical Mystery Cure. We have two things in the beginning of Crystal Empire. You have Celestia mention a Next Level of Studies. There was a moment prior to the episode’s release where the first 11 minutes were leaked, upon hearing Celestia’s words of next level of studies speculation started on what exactly Twilight’s next level of studies is. And as it would turn out it would be her ascension into an Alicorn. The other one is a little more on the subtle side but there’s a moment where Twilight and Luna are talking to Twilight and in the background their Cutie Marks appear behind them, and the same happens for Twilight. While it’s a little arguably if it is foreshadowing to Twilight’s ascension, it certainly would be a weird coincidence if that’s not what they were going for. Going back on topic on the episode, it is pretty awesome Spike gets a key role for once in a two-parter. As he doesn’t do much in the Pilot, Return of Harmony, nor Canterlot Wedding so for him to step up big is really cool. He and Cadence together save the Crystal Ponies from Sombra. Which speaking of which this seems to be the only time a villain in the show has been outright killed cause there has been no sign of any attempt to bring Sombra back and I even think Meghan has confirmed they don’t plan on bringing him back (That’s besides the alternate timeline thing, doesn’t quite count). 

So be careful around Princess Cadence guys, she may be the pretty pink princess probably partly made so they wouldn’t make Celestia toys pink anymore. But Cadence is the only protagonist with confirmed blood on her hooves. Don’t mess with the Princess of Love, folks! This episode also has a pretty large impact considering the Crystal Empire has appeared quite a bit since then. While this is a two-parter no one can really agree just how good or bad it is, I feel this is a good spot that it’s high enough to recognize it for what it did right but still recognize that it has some flaws to make it one of the lower of the two-parters.

When it comes to smaller lists like Top 10’s and especially Top 5’s it can be kinda hard to know how to react to the most recent Season Finale episode that normally is still so fresh on the mind. I do think Equestria Daily often runs their best episode poll a little too early cause often it’s the Finale that wins by a landslide due to everybody going nuts over it when they haven’t even reflected back on the whole season. Not to mention we still don’t know yet what kind of impact the episode will have on the future even if we can give guesses. Like obviously we’re going to be seeing more of Starlight in the future, but we still have the question of just how much Starlight is coming upon Season 6? Will she actually be considered a 7th member of the Main Cast? Or will she be more of a secondary character ala Spike and the CMC where she can make supporting appearances but isn’t necessarily one of the Main 6. With this big of a list though I can put the Finale in a pretty decent middle spot where it’s easy to just say time will tell how big this episode will be. Maybe it will rise up in the future if any plot threads brought up in the episode come in Season 6? I do have to say however that the episode so far feels like it will be the lowest ranks of the Finales even if it does rise up in the future. As spoiler alert, the next Finale in the list won’t come up until we’re close to the Top 25. An episode would have to not only become really important later on but I’d have to personally have an epiphany that a past episode is just that brilliantly done. Which at the moment even if we do get a lot of Starlight in the future doesn’t feel like will happen. 

I think it’s still a fun episode to watch what with the alternate timelines and scenarios given, but by the end of episode I didn’t feel any sort of that Season Finale hype that most of those Finales had me feeling. Even Best Night Ever had me still reeling from Flutterage. But somehow this one did not really wow me whatsoever. I mean it was kinda cool to see the return of many of villains that couldn’t otherwise make easy return appearances for a little bit. Though unfortunately it just looked like an excuse to bring them all back for a short time rather then a legitimate different scenario. I personally think there are much more fun things they could have done with the whole Alternate Timeline thing, like what if all the stress of having Equestria and no pony to help her free her sister. Celestia goes mad and eventually becomes like the Day version of Nightmare Moon? (I think one of the official MLP Card game stuff had something like that, Was it a timeline that was cut?) Some more inventive timelines like that could of been appreciated. Though my favorite of the timelines certainly was the Sombra timeline where the Ponies are still fighting a war with him. While War has been mentioned as a thing even as far back as Season 2 in this show, it’s a whole nother thing to actually show some of it with major characters having scars and the effect War has on the ponies. But when we got to the like the really short mini-timeline parts where Twilight and Spike are there only for a few seconds it just made me wish they only spent the time on 2 or even 3 timelines. As it feels kinda pointless to just show Tirek destroying stuff, Discord chasing Celestia and Luna around (As funny as that was), and (I still say is rather WTFish) the Flim Flam’s renovating the place other then the service of “Well we showed all these villain timelines, let’s throw in a few more!” I would of much rather they used that time to make the scene where Starlight and Twilight are in the abandoned wasteland to make the scene more poignant or more time to explain Starlight’s motive. 

Though speaking of both these things, the Wasteland is probably subtly the best scene in the Two-Parter. Cause the scariest thing is not knowing what exactly happened, you can’t know for sure what really happened, you can come up with theories like all the villains came out at once and the resulting destruction killed all life in Equestria, but again you won’t know for sure. It definitely remains as one of the darkest scenes of the show when you really get what this all implies. However Starlight’s motive is a different story where it really comes off as a weak motive. And unfortunately we have to wait until Season 6 to possibly get any kind of closure on it. We must have Starlight at least see Sun Burst again so we find out if there was any more to this split then the flashback in the finale had time to show (Cause they still needed time for the happy ending, as much as it is rather sudden). If Starlight’s always been that kinda overreactionary or if Sun Burst proves to have become a jerk after getting his Cutie Mark then maybe we’ll understand a little more. But as it is we don’t know and it makes it difficult to really be happy for Starlight at the end because of it. I’m not sure I feel entirely sympathetic for her yet and that’s what kinda bums out the episode for me. 

As much as I said this episode could rise with importantence, I could also see it go down fast if we don’t get any proper and/or satisfying answers in Season 6. All the time travel stuff is neat, but just because it has a cool concept doesn’t mean it’s going to get too far. Consider where this episode is at a cautionary spot. It may definitely change when Season 6 shows what this episode means for the future. I suppose the good news on that end is where we’re actually really close to the start of Season 6. We won’t have to wait nearly a year to find out what Cutie Re-Mark means for the future.

This is another episode that leads into something coming up in Season 6. Now we know what Cadence’s foal looks like already but again like Cutie Re-Mark we still gotta see where the show goes with Flurry Heart. This episode could also be seen kind of as Pinkie’s comeuppance for Green Isn’t Your Color where she bothered Twilight about keeping things a secret. Now she has to keep a huge secret, especially from Twilight, and she nearly goes crazy about it. There’s even something that could be a bit of a callback with Rarity mentioning “FOREVER”. The episode is pretty much a fun one through and through, like I said with Party Pooped I feel Season 5 got Pinkie right consistently and this episode is no exception. Plenty of good dialogue throughout. This episode was also written by G.M. Berrow who before this episode only wrote some of those small story books. And I think for her first time she did a pretty good job. I think my favorite line in the episode is “THERE’S ALOT OF THINGS I KNOW, THAT YOU DON’T KNOW I KNOW” which considering that basement of files from Party Pooped may very well be true. 

A bit of a weird part of the episode is the part where Shining and Cadence seem to be delayed but then they’re not. I thought at first that possibly meant the baby was going to appear at the end of the episode was because the delay was because… well… you get the idea. Oh, and Shining geeking out over the room they made for him was pretty funny. We don’t really get a lot of Shining after Canterlot Wedding and Crystal Empire so something for us to laugh about with him was nice to see for once. We have yet to see how Flurry Heart will go, but certainly it’s nice to have her pre-birth announcement resulted in a pretty fun episode.

This was the first and probably the best out of the three map episodes of Season 5. Cause the other two were Twilight and Fluttershy stopping a feud between two families in a pretty overdone plot and while the return of Coco Pommel was nice. I wasn’t seeing a lot into that one either. But this episode features the return of Gilda, who we haven’t seen since early Season 1 and to top it all off. Both Rainbow and Pinkie are coming along. And we’re also seeing the griffon lands for the first time. Despite Twilight’s praise of the place it turns out not to be as great as it sounded in the book Twilight had. The Griffons themselves aren’t much better, they ask for payment for nearly every little thing you ask them for. It’s in this episode we learn that Gilda’s former friendship with Rainbow is enough to make her have a little bit of good in her, at least compared to all the other Griffons anyway. As I said when mentioning Griffon the Brush-Off it makes the confrontation at the end feel somewhat tragic. As we see a flashback of a young Gilda meeting Rainbow for the first time, and despite what happened back in Season 1. Gilda remembers that moment fondly. And when Rainbow is stuck in a canyon with no way to come back, she goes and rescue when a different griffon just shrugs and leaves Rainbow there because she doesn’t have the payment at the time. 

It’s a pretty sweet moment to have Gilda and Rainbow back in good graces, and as I keep saying Season 5 Pinkie brings many good jokes along with it. (PInkie flirting with the King Grover statue is definitely one of my favorite parts in the episode) It’s a shame the other Map episodes couldn’t follow the slack of this first one but then again the other two duos don’t have a personal character we haven’t seen a while to really connect to like Gilda and Rainbow & Pinkie. Though maybe seeing Philomena again for Twilight and Fluttershy might be a close second to it. (I definitely wouldn’t mind that being an episode in the future)