Ah, a pretty nice episode before we get to the epic episode.

It wasn’t quite as entertaining as last week Spike’s episode. Considering this didn’t exactly have a crazy Rarity. But it does have a bit of a relatable conflict and a very good moral that can resonate not just with kids. I loved both Spike and Twilight in this episode. One of the things I’m glad that the episode didn’t do that a lot of other shows might of done, is when Spike thought he could light things on fire with his mind. The other characters don't  take time from the episode to make Spike believe the lie further then he should. Twilight as soon as Spike tries to use these mind powers a 2nd time immediately confronts him that wasn’t the case. It made Spike sad, but it would of been so irritating to see the characters just try to continue the lie only for them to reach the conclusion later when they could have done it in a few seconds like how the episode actually handled it.

When Spike was attempting to sing the Cloudsdale anthem. I had a hard time deciding if I should laugh because of the reactions from everypony else or feel really bad for Spike that he had to suffer such an embarrassing moment. It’s a bit funny to see the complete failure, but at the same time it’s hard to watch if you can relate to Spike at this moment.

Now there is two problems that I do want to bring up. They’re mainly nitpicks and they don’t really ruin the episode as more they really kinda sour stuff from either they came from something an earlier episode or it kinda makes some build-up that we have had since the end of Season 3 kinda pointless.  

The first is of course with Fluttershy being an athlete in the Equestria Games. I said in my last episode response that the writers put themselves into a hole regardless of how they did it. They went with the far easier route of just having Fluttershy go with the flow and have no problems participating of the event despite such a large crowd watching her. Again this is just a problem from Rainbow Falls that had to have been continued at some point, so I can’t hold it against this episode. But I will say this: the fact she participates in an athletic event kinda contradicts Filli Vanilli, participating in the Olympics should be just as pressuring if not even more so then singing for a crowd. There’s taking baby steps like at the end of that episode, but what she does in the Equestria Games feels like something that should be one of her nightmares.

The other is the fact that all this time and build-up, ever since Games Ponies Play. . Which had follow-ups with Flight to the Finish, and Rainbow Falls. All seems completely pointless, because we barely saw any of the events other then the relay and the Ice Archery. It’s understandable if you didn’t exactly care for this if you’re not exactly a fan of sports. But I was kinda expecting a little more focus on showing the Ponified Olympics and what it means when people like me and other are fans of sports events such as the Olympics. Instead of getting an episode focused on a potentially cool cultural event, we got just a couple of parts of the event while the majority of it was on Spike. Especially when we had three episodes prior to this building it up. This is probably done because more focus was put on another ongoing arc, the Rainbow Trinket arc that comes to an end at this week’s finale. But nonetheless gives Season 4 a bit of a flaw, in which build up in two earlier episodes of the Season only build-up to what was essentially just a subplot in it’s final episode. And it also makes Games Ponies Play a little more useless as well (Interesting to note though, that Dave Polsky wrote both the beginning and end of the Equestria Games related episodes). The episode is still good and all, but this is probably the one thing that may leave people head scratching whenever we look back at episodes like Games Ponies Play, Rainbow Falls, and even Flight to the Finish. The very title of the episode is even kinda misleading, I don’t think anybody would hear the title “Equestria Games” and think “Yeah that sounds like a good title for a Spike episode!”

Other then that though, this was an enjoyable episode. But I’m sure this will be all overshadowed by next saturday as we finally get to the ending of the Season. Where not only should we get a more epic conclusion to an arc that’s been around since the beginning of the season. But a two-parter that I think could challenge the opener for my favorite potentially, and may outdo Canterlot Wedding Part 2 in pure epicness. I am hyped as Tartaurus for this finale, and I hope it proves to be the final ingredient that makes Season 4 ultimately kickass. Well more then it already has been anyway ;)