(Song Used: Pulse - The Tea Party)

This episode being this high might actually be slightly controversial, as I’ve seen some degree of heavy criticism of the episode. Some saying it takes the subject of self-harm lightly, people getting a little tired of Luna episodes always having to do with Dreams, or the rather admittedly rushed ending. But honestly I don’t know, I feel like it’s a good spot because personally I really enjoyed watching this one. Maybe it doesn’t give the implications of Self Harm everything, but we got to admit Self Harm is a very mature thing that you wouldn’t think this show would ever try to tackle. But it makes sense to Luna’s character because of how guilt-ridden she is over becoming Nightmare Moon. She says at the end that she created the Tantabus so that whenever she slept, she’d always have the same nightmare over and over again. Unfortunately that becomes trouble when the Tantabus manages to escape Luna’s dream and start messing with other Pony’s dreams. So Luna has to track down the Mane 6 to help track it down, with each of the Mane 6 having different dreams of which the Tantabus corrupts.

 Granted I do think they could of been a little more creative with the dreams, but I suppose you can get away with that not all dreams have to be fantastical. I’ve had rather mundane dreams that could very well happen in real life, like talking on chat with a friend on the internet about something, and when I wake up I can be like “Oh wait, that was a dream? Huh, just seemed like something I do on a regular basis anyway…”. But yeah, Twilight’s, Rarity’s, Applejack’s weren’t really imaginative as Twilight reads books, Rarity’s being surrounded by flying dresses, and Applejack is growing a really large apple (Which is suspiciously similar to the really big apple from Bats!). The rest did have something to them, Rainbow going from fighting changelings to a field of singing, talking flowers (Those who play Undertale may get a little disturbed especially when the flower starts slightly talking evilly). Pinkie takes a bit of advantage of the breaking the fourth wall by Pinkie able to hop through different scenery’s. And Fluttershy’s perhaps shows the most interesting by showing that she’d like being THE pet for once (Though that got a bit of a chuckle from the Rule 34 crowd if you catch that drift). But the result of the dream’s are the same, Luna chases the Tantabus in all of them but it again escapes. Eventually leading to Luna making the shared dream where we see a lot of other Ponyville ponies including the well-known background ones. 

Now if there was any disappointment with the Mane 6 dreams, I think the Shared Dream made up for it with some really funny stuff here and there. And the whole town using dream powers to help Luna take down the Tantabus? It’s just so cool that I can’t help but really enjoy this episode. For those who didn’t get enough fan service from Episode 100 in Season 5 they had this episode to really insert some crazy stuff from Lyra and Bon Bon together like CatDog, a giant Derpy that meows (With Warrior Spike from A Dog and Pony show using her as a mount), Princess Big Mac, etc. As soon as we get to the shared dream it’s just craziness after another, the way the Tantabus really is defeated comes off as a little rushed. But to be honest it didn’t ruin the sheer amount of Entertainment Value. If you disagree with me that the episode should be this high, I should remind that this is still a personal list and I’ve said before that if an episode has a high degree of Entertainment Value that tends to outweigh it’s flaws for me. And I’ll warn you right now this might not be the only one that does so, especially when we really get closer to the end of this thing.

While the Season 4 Opener was the next Discord appearance that first reassured us that Discord wasn’t entirely good again after the worry that Discord would suddenly be goody-goody from now on. This is the first “Discord” episode since that time, and rest assured Discord messes with the ponies some more. Right down to faking an illness in an attempt to ruin Twilight’s day with Cadence. In Three’s a Crowd we got all the shenanigans that we hope for from Discord. The staff clearly wanted to bring Discord back for a reason, and fun episodes like this one are one of those reasons. Getting to do things they didn’t have the chance to do back in early Season 2 like giving Discord a song was great. As much as it sucks for Twilight that Discord sabotaged her day like that, Cadence does at least turn the tables a bit on Discord by saying she actually somewhat enjoyed this. Saying this has been at least more eventful then the Crystal Empire has been (Cue Shining Armor has to step up his game jokes). And Discord even gets a final comeuppance by getting sick for real, so Discord doesn’t escape without some sort of Punishment. 

My only real complaint is the episode is something that’s just overall minor in the episode, the scene(/s) where Discord distracts Pinkie with a balloon. Which like I said when talking about Too Many PInkie Pies that it makes Pinkie seem like one of her Mirror Pool clones. But other then that, Three’s a Crowd is a fun ride from start to finish.

Can I just take a moment to say how proud I am of Dave Polsky’s improvement in Season 4? Prior to Season 4 his episodes were mixed at best, but suddenly upon Season 4 he pretty much brought hit after hit. Some better then others, but nonetheless there’s still actually three more Season 4 Dave Polsky episodes to get to in this list. For some who remember his Season 1 work it made them hard to believe it was the same writer. 

But anyway, on to Twilight Time. The CMC need help with some projects they want to do and they enlist the help of perhaps the best pony for the job to tutor them through it: Twilight. Though when they start kinda bragging about getting the help that starts snowballing into trouble fast when because the rest of the class knows they’re getting favors from the new Princess in town that they try to get their own Twilight Time. Even if they just intend to fanboy/fangirl over Twilight then have her help them with homework. And it quickly becomes a hassle as now the CMC have to start kinda hiding their time with Twilight. Even covering the windows when they’re at a Fast Food place (Also silly Twilight eating burgers messily is priceless, Twilight’s still a big dork and we all love it). But eventually Twilight has to find out that most of the students want to see her for the new title rather then just to get school help from her. Which just from the tone of Twilight’s voice when she realizes that, you can feel all the disappointment (Just listen to when she says “Neither did any of you”). 

It really is subtly one of the more important Season 4 episodes, as Twilight’s still getting accustomed to being a Princess and sometimes doesn’t want to be treated too differently. If she had not been a Princess at this point she would of not had to worry about Ponies seeing her for the fame more then just needing her help, but then again if she isn’t there’s less ponies interested in seeing her. Even Diamond outright admits that she never paid attention to her before she was a Princess. And it’s nice that the CMC are the ones who truly wanted to study under her, just they took their time with her get to their heads. It’s kinda like if you had a celebrity family member or family friend (Hell it doesn’t have to be person of royalty or a Movie star, it could be a local hero like a Police Chief or a Firefighter) that also happens to be your best choice for a tutor, you start telling the class you know someone well-known previously and suddenly you’re the coolest kid in school. It’s very tempting to brag about stuff like that, but when you’re taking advantage of the person’s fame as opposed to getting what they initially helped you for that’s when you start really disappointing said person and if you’re not careful they might stop helping you. 

While I don’t think a lot of people will really get the chance to relate to this, I feel it’s still a strong lesson covered and a very sweet episode between Twilight and the CMC. I do feel bad about Spike making all those nachos for nothing though…

Ok this is another episode to get the Elephant out of the room first though perhaps not as serious as with Putting Your Hoof Down (Though it is interesting that both are Fluttershy episodes, who knew the shy one brought so much controversy?). Yes I’m one of those that really dislike Pinkie’s portrayal in the episode. However in the long run, while this episode might of certainly been much higher without it. It’s still pretty high all things considered. Pinkie’s part of the episode still makes parts of this episode hard to watch, but otherwise it’s a pretty good episode through and through. I won’t go too much into Pinkie’s part of the episode as I probably already got my spiel out of that a long while ago. 

Some people argue that a lot of Fluttershy’s episodes are the same since she has to overcome something. The thing is though for a shy character like her there’s so many different things to overcome that it takes that extra little bit of time for each and every little thing. As said at the end of this episode, baby steps. 

Though admittedly one awkward thing about the episode is right at the beginning when the others of the Mane 6 hear Fluttershy sing and they’re jaw struck. Uh… Have the Mane 6 really not listened to Fluttershy sing solo? And in terms of a meta perspective, what about all the songs that have been sung up to this point by them? Rarity Takes Manehatten seems to imply they’re aware they sing, but the only way the beginning of this episode makes sense is if most of the songs are really just musical versions of what’s happening. They aren’t really singing in the episodes they follow but it’s presented as a song so they can use the advantage of music video transitions to move through pivotal plot things faster. This just feels like an episode that would of made more sense if it was early in Season 1 when there had hardly been any songs at that point. But this is mid-Season 4 and we’ve had Fluttershy sing solo, in a duet with at least one of the Mane 6 that is now looking awe-struck, and in a group with all of them. It’s just one of those really awkward things when you start thinking about it too hard. 

But anyway this episode is centered around Stage Fright, something that can affect people who might be naturally talented but are afraid to step on stage because of fear of being publicly ridiculed. Big Mac who is part of the Ponytones along with Rarity and one other pony loses his voice before a performance and they don’t have many people who can hit the deep notes Big Mac’s voice can. That is until they remember Flutterguy from Bridle Gossip. And since Fluttershy doesn’t have to be directly on stage, Fluttershy volunteers. It works for a long while. But eventually the carpet hiding Fluttershy is lifted and upon being discovered she goes into full anxiety mode and runs. Her friends try their best to track her down and comfort her (With no help from Pinkie though… admittedly “You sounded like a dude” was pretty funny though). And we get a real sweet ending where Fluttershy becomes a fourth member of the Ponytones, though not in front of a big audience of Ponies. As said before, it’s baby steps.

It’s the episode that broke the Episode 8 Curse! Look Before You Sleep, Mysterious Mare-Do-Well, and Apple Family Reunion. All three of those episodes at least in this list couldn’t even make the Top 100, they were all the 8th episode to air in their respective seasons. But it looks like at least in Season 4 and 5, the fears of a lackluster Episode 8 have been lifted (BTW Season 5’s Episode 8 was Lost Treasure of Griffonstone). I suppose on the flip side it also challenged a Rarity solo episode never being that bad and that one won. 

Rarity’s faith in her element is challenged here as her own generosity results in another pony using her own fabric in the contest. So now if she tries to enter the same fabric she looks like a copycat. When you look at it like an Artist this can be related to plagiarism, where one artist pretty much traces or makes a near-perfect copy of the original when they asked another artist for an example and then releases that piece to the public and take all the credit for their own. Because they submitted it first, the scammed artist can’t claim plagiarism because for all people know there’s no solid proof. So now Rarity has to quickly find new fabric to make a line out of, and she decides to use whatever fabric she finds in her hotel room. 

Stressed for time, she starts working the rest of her friends into helping her. And it seems to have somewhat of a reverse situation of Suited for Success where it’s Rarity barking out the orders to the others. Some may very well take it for revenge. Though at least this time there’s a little more proper reasoning. Her friends manage to complete the fabrics and she makes it to the show. But when she notices her friends are watching, she’s afraid that perhaps she was a little too hard on them and they left Manehattan. But as it turns out they just overslept, so when Rarity sees them again she apologizes heavily. 

Later, Rarity manages to get a private performance of the musical that the Mane 6 wanted to see though at first the catch was that Rarity has to stay in Manehattan to make the costumes. But then Coco comes out to hand the trophy that she feels Rarity deserves, and she is also given the job of making the costumes instead of Rarity so Rarity can go back to Ponyville at least. Oh and this was also the first of the Key episodes of Season 4, which got off with a good start. Well… 2 episodes later that would change but then after that the Key Episodes went for the most part without a hitch. Anyway, a very sweet episode we could certainly be thankful for providing a good Episode 8 for once.