(Song Used: Stay With Me - Celldweller)

I feel this episode unfortunately got swept up with what was perhaps the first large-scale drama in the fandom.. I’d argue Magical Mystery Cure wasn’t even as upstaged by the drama surrounding it despite the Alicorn Twilight drama probably being much more important and/or status quo changing. It’s hard to talk about The Last Round-Up without someone mentioning the elephant in the room of the Derpy censorship. Basically Amy Keating Rogers wrote in a small scene for the fandom favorite background pony to cause an accident that somewhat puts the plot in motion. In the original airing, Derpy had a somewhat deep voice but some thought fit very well anyway (Apparently it was a result of Tabitha who also voices Rarity and Luna thinking Derpy was male). Rainbow even outright calls her Derpy in the original version of the episode. The problem is apparently the name Derpy and the voice was enough to upset some people, Hasbro getting enough backlash that they edited subsequent airings so that the name Derpy was not used (In fact, in Derpy’s first spoken appearance since then in Slice of Life she is credited as Muffins. Solid proof the name Derpy was one of the things complained about) and a much more normal female voice re-dubbed the lines. For a while, this causes major outrage within the fandom. As if Hasbro had given the fans a great gift, only to throw it on the ground and stomp on it in front of our eyes. When Derpy hardly had any appearances in Season 3, it was feared that the entire thing had led to Derpy no longer appearing whatsoever. But thankfully Derpy came back to her cameo glory in Season 4 (Technically a little before if you count Magical Mystery Cure).

But honestly it’s a shame this episode is more remembered for what I like to call the Derpy Debacle, because the actual episode if you ignore everything Derpy related really makes for a great and entertaining episode. Yeah Applejack goes stubborn again, but given the pressure the whole town puts on her especially the Mayor, who can really blame her? She needed to win to get the prize money to help fix Town hall, and she didn’t. So she felt like she failed all of Ponyville. And feels like she needs to now earn the money through part-time jobs  if she’s ever going to come back. Aside from Applejack, Pinkie is absolutely hilarious. Some would say the weaponized annoyance part was kinda much, but I do think that comedy-wise this is one of the best episodes for Pinkie. “Rarity, Catch me!” is probably my favorite moment of the entire episode, and Pinkie going rage mode after a Pinkie Promise seemed to had been broken was priceless too. The ending where AJ is forced to tell what happened is also very sweet, even if it’s a little cheesy. But it lampshades it a bit with Rainbow complaining that it’s even getting to her. While Applejack doesn’t get to help out Ponyville, her friends and family just want her to be there for them. And they don’t blame her that she couldn’t get the prize money (Maybe the Mayor would of been very disappointed, but eh…).

It’s an episode that got caught up in a lot of stuff that shouldn’t have happened, but if you can manage to forget that for even a few minutes. I think for the most part you’d get one of the most fun Applejack episodes.

*Oh don’t be so upset Sweetie! #24 for this episode is an awesome spot!

I compared Simple Ways to this episode being that they’re both episodes themed on Romance but really just show more on the comedy aspect of it rather then actually get any serious with it. Though Simple Ways is far lower in comparison. That’s because Simple Ways as much as I love the ending with farmer Rarity and Apple Jewel most of the episode actually is a little on the dull side at times. However, Hearts and Hooves Day is fun throughout the whole thing. Even though the entire episode centers around secondary characters. The only ones of the Mane 6 to appear is Twilight. And even then it’s for a short time. Romance stories even if they’re not taking things seriously like this episode does aren’t exactly for everyone. So I understand some people’s sentiments if they think it should be lower then this. But I can’t help it, if I made a list for the funniest episodes in the show. I think this would at least make Top 5. I think it’s funny the CMC basically become shippers and try to get Big Mac and Cheerilee together. Sweetie’s “OH COME ON!” after Cheerilee and Big Mac’s almost kiss is still one of my favorite moments of the entire series.

And while some may find the dialogue that love drugged Big Mac and Cheerilee say, the intent is that they’re supposed to be so sickly sweet with another that it doesn’t feel natural. If they had been saying stuff you’d expect an actual couple to do, it’d be hard to know if it’s really the love poison they find out it is. Also one thing about this episode is I like is the placement of the episode airing order strangely enough, because the episode prior to this one is Read It and Weep. Where Twilight managed to get Rainbow Dash into reading, so in my mind when the scene where the CMC ask for the book that contains the love potion/poison ingredients. Twilight thinks the CMC also want to get into reading, implied a little more by the fact she tries to give them another book but the CMC had already ran away with the book they wanted. Season 2 is the only Season that doesn’t have an arc of any kind so technically it’s hard to say if it was intentional. But it’s something I think can easily be made into a connection even if it’s not intentional continuity.

I also kinda like how the episode left things vague at the end, you could either say Big Mac and Cheerilee were trolling the CMC by using one of those sickly sweet compliments, or if you’ve come to ship them that they’re doing that plus affirming that the CMC got them onto something. Of course, now after Season 5 Cheerilee has some competition in Marble Pie. Though since Hearts and Hooves Day you see Cheerilee and Big Mac together a lot when they appear. They could very well just be good friends now after this ordeal and there’s really no problem. But it won’t stop the fandom from having it’s silly shipping rivalries I’m sure. The episode is just straight up one of the most fun to watch episodes in the series, one of Meghan McCarthy’s masterpieces to be sure.

Here we are at perhaps the one silver lining from the Equestria Games arc of episodes. It’s always been a question about Scootaloo that despite her being a Pegasus we don’t see her flying at all in the series. As it turns out, she may be disabled on that front. We don’t know how much really, she really could be only able to flutter for a short time. Or it’s just harder for her to learn then for most other ponies. Either way, this suddenly makes Scootaloo perhaps one of the most relatable ponies for anyone who has any kind of disability whether it’s physical or mental. This is also the one episode you could say Diamond really goes a little too far, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s Scootaloo fans who still can’t forgive Diamond despite her redemption in Crusaders of the Lost Mark. Because bullying the disabled is something many find really despicable. She outright says that the Crusaders attempt to represent the three pony types in their presentation is flawed since their pegasus can’t fly. While Sweetie and Apple Bloom had it set up to make up for that this forces Scootaloo to start trying for hours and hours to get flying to no avail.

Another thing about the episode that was done really well was Rainbow’s part of the episode, we know for a fact Scootaloo looks up to Rainbow. And they even started their sister-like bond prior to this episode in Sleepless in Ponyville. Flight to the Finish is the episode where Rainbow proves why Scoots looks up to her, and proves she can be a good big sister. The ending where she says she’ll be behind Scootaloo no matter if she can fly or not is very poignant. This is the pony who values flying fast and well over a lot of things, so showing that she can still get behind someone she knows who may never get the chance to be able to do the things she does is very heartwarming. And it’s one of the reasons why Rainbow has risen up to be my 2nd favorite pony. The only thing that’s a little awkward with the episode, is the fake-out close up of Scootaloo’s flank. Sure Scootaloo has her cutie mark now, but at that point it still wasn’t nice to just give us a big tease like that.

While we certainly have had a lot of fun with Discord episodes after his return, it’s pretty much true that there’s yet to be a Discord episode (Unless you count a certain finale) to surpass his own debut. Cause in at least the first half of this episode, he’s always made a great case for best villain in the series. There had to have been a reason they brought him back in the first place, and that was because he was so fun for the staff to have the first time around. He was funny, he was smart (Until the ending anyway, Discord probably should not have been as overconfident especially since as it turns out Celestia and Luna took him down in a similar way), and a design that fit his character so much. Not to mention having John De Lancie voice him, who played a similar reality warping character called Q in a particularly popular Star Trek series.

The discorded Mane 6 characters were even a lot of fun especially Liarjack and Greedity that defended a rock as if she was Gollum from Lord of the Rings. (Speaking of which “HERE COMES TOM” is one of my favorite parts in the episode). The moment where Twilight goes grey after all her friends went their separate ways definitely deserves to be among one of the saddest parts of the series. Also as much as I was never too big on the friendship letters, at least they gave them a great purpose in this episode (Though there’s clearly more then 25 letters in that pile, meaning there’s friendship lessons Twilight learned that we never even saw. Oh well, makes room for fanfic material I suppose) in being the moment that turns things around as Twilight reads them. A fun fact about this episode is that this was originally meant to be the Season 1 Finale, thus kinda explaining why they had the letters play a role her but they had to push it for the Season 2 Opener instead. Which is fine by me as it got a pretty good season off to a pretty good start.

Before heading into the episode, it should be fun to note this is the first episode in the entire series that Twilight doesn’t appear at all. And you know what, I’m really thankful for that. It may sound odd that despite Twilight being my favorite pony that I would be glad Twilight doesn’t have to appear in an episode anymore. But it’s thanks to Lesson Zero that such things are even possible. I’ve said a few times throughout this countdown that I’ve felt the friendship letters and Twilight having to appear because of those letters felt like they were limiting Season 1. As there are some episodes that didn’t necessarily need Twilight to be in them at all. Also in a similar fashion to how I mentioned that Read It and Weep takes place before Hearts and Hooves Day. I like to think Twilight’s had enough after not only having to take care of Discord and her discorded friends, going crazy in Lesson Zero, and then having to help Luna adjust. Was a lot of work on the poor girl and she gets some much needed rest.

This is also one of the few Sweetie Belle episodes, although it could count as a Rarity episode for some, the plot centers around Sweetie much more. There’s precedent in this countdown after all, Somepony Watching Over Me is credited as an Apple Bloom episode even if Applejack plays a pretty big role in that episode. But regardless both Rarity and Sweetie bounce each other off at their best, and we get a great family related episode. Again despite being a show titled Friendship is Magic, there’s a lot of family episodes that are almost always highlights in the show. But Friendship & Family is Magic doesn’t exactly have the same ring to it. Even Applejack and Apple Bloom get to have a great moment or two in the episode. Applejack must have some amazing lungs if she was able to stay under the mud for so long, and I always find Apple Bloom’s somewhat threatening line “ONE. DAY.” hilarious. And I think it’s really clever what they did with the switch between AJ and Rarity, while those who can notice details even on the first watch may pick it up right away (Eye change and the horn still pricking through) if you weren’t paying attention that hard (Admittedly I wasn’t) you get the same sort of surprise Sweetie does, probably partly because you wouldn’t think Rarity would even consider covering herself in all that mud. But that just makes it more heartwarming that she’d do that to get the trust back from Sweetie.

On a few side notes, we get to see Rarity’s parents for the first time, it’s a bit funny that Rarity’s dad might be a hoofball player if the three footballs are any indication. But I’ve once concocted a theory surrounding that (Which I won’t tell here since it’s not really relevant to the episode at hand). We also learn Sweetie is a terrible cook, to the point she even messes up toast and juice. One last thing I also kinda like about the episode is that Rarity and Sweetie don’t win the race, as would be normal for most shows like this to do. It kinda shows that winning wasn’t the important thing, just more so spending good time with those you care for the most. This is absolutely one of the best episodes of Season 2, and for certain gets a good high spot in this countdown