(Song Used: Fly Away - Lenny Kravitz)

We’re now at the Top 20! The end is so close you can almost smell it. Still, There’s this part and another three to go before this list finally is wrapped up. These will surely be full of episodes that I consider some of the best we’ve ever seen in the show

*Insert Reading Rainbow joke here

I’ve said a few times already that Rainbow Dash is my 2nd favorite pony starting somewhere between the end of Season 3 and late Season 4. It used to be Fluttershy until then, but if you asked me where the seeds were planted when Rainbow Dash started her upward trend for me personally? It would be this episode, Read It and Weep.

This is a great episode for many reasons, first of which it can be seen as very, very meta. Most of us fans were in Rainbow’s exact situation if you put her and reading as an allegory for us watching this show for the first time. Just replace FiM with reading/Daring Do, us with Rainbow Dash, and the typical excuses of “How can MLP be good?” with “Reading’s for eggheads”. We get to see Rainbow have a bit of a nerdy fangirl side to her. While I’ve always kinda liked Rainbow for a few reasons even if she was kinda jerkish throughout much of Season 1 and Early Season 2. One reason is me being a Sonic fan, I saw many similar qualities that I like about Sonic as a character that are also in Rainbow. It’s honestly not that hard for me to describe Rainbow to someone familiar with Sonic by saying that not only personality-wise are they similar, but Rainbow’s blue, known for her blinding speed. The only major differences of course is gender, species, and Rainbow’s fast speed comes in the air rather then the ground. But this episode gets into something that can finally differ a bit from there, as all the Nerdy sort of character quirks you usually find from Tails, not Sonic. It opens up an entirely new side to Rainbow, ok maybe not entirely new considering she did have fangirl squee’s in the first season. But certainly something we weren’t expecting, in a good way of course.

Even when Rainbow realizes that she’s hooked, she tries to hide it from all her friends. Just like how some of us might of been nervous about people knowing we watch a My Little Pony show. Cause just like how Rainbow fell under the stigma that Reading was for eggheads, nerds, etc. we fell under the stigma that this was supposed to be a little girl’s show that had no right to be watched by older men. Rainbow thinks, even if her friends have already stated they enjoy a good book or two that they’ll laugh since earlier Rainbow denied Twilight’s efforts to get her to read. It was only when she got bored enough that she eventually gave in and gave the book a shot. (While I certainly wasn’t insulting it before, how I got into the show was also through boredom. I watched the pilot, got intrigued enough to binge watch every episode that had aired at that point within one week. Safe to say I got hooked pretty fast) Daring Do itself was an interesting thing to basically being ponified Indiana Jones, with raiding temples with traps, and over-the-top stunts and villains. While it’s proved controversial now that Daring Don’t revealed Daring Do is a real pony. It doesn’t entirely ruin the fun of seeing a fictional book series within a TV series already full of fictional things. Cause only the Mane 6 truly know Daring’s secret (Well the villains too, but I think since most ponies still think it’s fictional. If they tried exposing Daring, if it even worked without the ponies thinking they’re crazy fans that think Daring Do is real, that would expose their misdeeds and they would be arrested).

After this episode we even see Rainbow chilling and reading a Daring Do book from time-to-time. So even better is that it sticks, you see Rainbow with a Daring Do book more often then you see her with Tank to be perfectly honest. Read It and Weep just does it all both meta level and in-universe level. Not bad for an episode that easily could of played off the Reading Rainbow (see what I did there) angle of “please just read, kids!” They manage to make it so it can be an allegory for a lot of media as opposed to limiting to getting kids to read. It’s still important for kids to read, but they shouldn’t have it crammed into their brains in the shows they watch.

*Applejack why do you get to be Batma- oh wait, I remember your p*mumbled* are d-*mumbled*

For all the flack Merriwether Williams got for a while, it’s certainly a surprise that she has an episode worthy of the Top 20 huh? Though this seems to have been the last episode she ever wrote for the show. As we have not seen her credited for an episode since Bats! (The original airing of Bats somehow made the mistake of putting McCarthy as the writer, but that was fixed later on). Well if it was Merriwether Williams last episode for the show, at least she left on a good note. Cause for once, an episode that easily could of been another politics-esque debate like Feeling Pinkie Keen and Over a Barrel turned out pretty good.

While technically the episode seems to imply it favors Fluttershy’s side of the argument with Applejack given the darker lighting in the Stop the Bats song whenever Applejack is on-screen. The episode doesn’t actually turn into an environmentalist episode where leaving the bats alone is always the right choice. Farmers really do have to deal with pests that can ruin their crops. At the same time however in the song even when depicting Fluttershy’s lighter side the bats in Fluttershy’s imagine spots are a lot cuter then the actual bats look so in that way it can be seen as Fluttershy being too optimistic. So even if it technically seems like it leans slightly to the environmentalist sort of thing, it also can show how being too optimistic in the moral choice can feel as out of place as the pessimist view.

And yeah, I’m one of those that think Fluttershy becoming a vampire pony was a really awesome moment. There’s a reason the fandom has been obsessed with Batponies ever since then (While technically bat ponies have existed since Luna Eclipsed because of Luna’s guards, I don’t think Batponies were super popular until after Bats! aired), Fluttershy as a vampire design-wise looked very good and it provides one of the show’s best attempt at a horror-esque concept. Batpony Fluttershy even got some good uses in the next season, with two appearances from the form. Fluttershy and Applejack also learn two good morals for both characters to learn. This is one of the few times you could almost get a Courage the Cowardly Dog vibe in Friendship is Magic, which for me is a very good thing given that’s another of my favorite shows of all-time. Again, if this was truly Merriwether Williams final episode for the show. She left on a good note, however believe it or not. This isn’t even her last episode in this countdown.

*Coincidentally this picture is also Pinkie’s cover for her debut album. Containing such hits as Hammer(space) Time and the Fresh Pink of Belle-Air (Ft. Sweetie Belle)

Ah yes, the only episode so far to truly be a duo episode between my two favorite episodes. While you could argue both Daring Do episodes are also Twilight and Rainbow episodes. Those episodes certainly focus a lot more on Dash. In Testing, Testing, 1, 2 , 3. Both Twilight and Rainbow learn something by the end. This is also the final Duo episode in the countdown. Meaning it is currently my favorite duo episode of the series. Though again maybe that’s not a surprise since once again these are my two favorite ponies. Though the episode being about my favorite ponies isn’t the pure reason it’s this high. As otherwise there would be absolutely no Twilight and Rainbow episodes in my bottom 12 if I let bias get in the way. My least favorite episode of the show is even a Rainbow episode.

The reason I love this episode is how it centers around that there’s multiple ways to learn, and that’s something I personally like in a moral. Because to be honest if I was forced only one way to learn something I might have struggled in School. There are some parts in school I had to learn a little differently due to how my mild form of Asperger’s works. I used to hate Math until my freshmen high school teacher had a method that worked wonders for me, from everything from Elementary to Middle school I was getting C’s and D’s in Math. But upon High School, thanks to my Freshmen year math teacher I was getting A’s and B’s. I also had a class where I could get my homework done at School as opposed of dealing with any stress of having to wait to get home to get things done. And that really helped me a lot throughout my High School years. So to see an episode that recognizes that there is no 100% foolproof method to teaching something is great. Even if for some it might be a little too optimistic since some School’s will try to jam their “tried and true” methods down your throat. And if it doesn’t work, then they say that you’re the problem, not the method, and thus they fail you. I was more then lucky enough to have a school willing to help me a little more then with other students so I didn’t exactly have that problem. Some people just learn differently, it depends on the school if they fully support that.

I also find Rainbow’s ability to pick up details while on a flight kind of interesting and kinda hope they use it cleverly in anyway possible similar to what they’ve done with Fluttershy’s stare at some points. Using Rainbow’s ability for reconnaissance would especially be cool if there’s a fight against an army of creatures. On a side note there’s some pretty good humor, Pinkie’s rap that comes right out of the Early 90’s (Complete with a screen format change and visual effects as if you’re watching on a VHS) was crazy fun to see. If there’s one thing I would nitpick, is that I wish Applejack’s method of choice to try on Rainbow was something a little more thought out then “Apples!”. But otherwise this is a great episode about how there’s more then one way to learn something, it factoring into Rainbow getting closer and closer to becoming a wonderbolt is a big bonus to the episode as well.

Season 4 was successful in so many ways, some of the new characters introduced were no slouch either. Maud Pie was an instant fandom favorite just about as if not even more so then Coco Pommel. The episode itself and the character has a different way of humor that hasn’t been see much in the show. Dry humor, where something is so exaggerated in mundaneness or mellowness that it’s funny.  It’s amusing to see most of the Mane 6 just don’t know how to react to this strange pony who seems to lack much emotion, and has a deep obsession with rocks. It’s not the unique type of humor alone that makes this episode though, it’s the ending that shows that Maud really does have emotion. She just shows it in a very different way from most ponies. Very relatable since there are people who are born introverts that even if they look or sound like they don’t care, that’s not the truth. They’re just far from excitable or never really show signs of excitement and/or their emotions are all bottled up inside.

Pinkie and Maud are total opposites in the way they present themselves to people, but they love each other just as much as any pair of sisters do. So not only is it a good episode friend-wise, it’s also one of the best in terms of Family morals. While it is a bit obvious Maud Pie was just made during Season 4, because we don’t see Maud at all in Pinkie’s flashback with her family (Though you could say that Maud arrived for Pinkie’s first party a little late) in Cutie Mark Chronicles. They still managed to make Maud fit in well, probably a better way at handling the sudden new sibling for a main character then Shining Armor was as much as I do like him anyway.

It took a pretty long while for Scootaloo to finally get her own episode, but when she did. Boy did it hit the ball out of the park, Sleepless in Ponyville might just be the universal favorite of Season 3 if you put into account the episodes that were generally received the best and which ones had the least drama. This episode started the whole non-Family sisterhood with Rainbow that would actually stick heading into Seasons 4 and 5. It is also the beginning of the Dreamwalker Luna trilogy of episodes that involve each of the CMC. As I said before, a lot of people go nuts over Luna having any roles. But I can understand for this one since until Sleepless in Ponyville, Luna only had minor parts of Two-Parters after Luna Eclipsed. The ability to go through dreams is definitely an interesting power, and I think may put up something interesting if you think back to Luna from 1000 years ago. I think it’s possible Luna tried to help kids even back then, but she scared kids doing this more often then not. Backfiring on her quite a bit and only contributing to Luna’s turn to Nightmare Moon. But now Luna’s taking a more gentle approach, and assisting Scootaloo in getting over her fear of looking like a scaredy pony in front of Rainbow.

Eventually Scoots does have to admit to Rainbow that she’s been scared a few times during their camping trip due to the scary stories being told not to mention being all alone in a dark forest and/or cave for most of the episode. Which Rainbow responds that it’s ok, cause Rainbow admits that as a filly the same sort of stories also scared her though if Scoots ever told anyone that, Rainbow would deny it. The episode also was really good in the comedy apartment, Scootaloo being so driven crazy she thinks she can call a stick to come closer as if it was a dog and Rarity despising camping. Just a solid episode all around with more Scootalove you’ll ever find. Now if only I could figure out what happened to Corey between this episode and Rainbow Falls…