My Little Pony: Some Wonderbolts, Some Apples, and a Little Too Much Spike

Happy New Year, everypony! Hope your 2013 is bigger and better than ever! And what better way to start it off than with some My Little Pony episodes that need to be covered? Let’s five!

With the “Wonderbolt’s Academy,” Rainbow Dash goes to summer camp, where she meets Lightning Dust, another high-achieving pony who doesn’t care who she hurts in the process of realizing her dreams. Dash has a problem with this, and then quits in protest when her own friends nearly die. However, Spitfire (one of the Wonderbolts) gives Lightning Dust the boot and Rainbow Dash stays.

Rainbow Dash was excellent in this episode. I thought she was extremely obnoxious in some of the earlier ones, like “The Crystal Empire” for example. Rainbow Dash is a stronger, more three dimensional character when she isn’t thinking she’s all that. This episode highlighted that.

I also liked how some of the pegasi from the “Hurricane Fluttershy” episode made a second appearance. I also really liked Lightning Dust, even though she was technically “the bad guy”.

During “Apple Family Reunion,” Applejack is placed in charge of organizing the family reunion (bet you didn’t guess that, right?). Applejack packs the day filled with events, but the Apple family doesn’t like it because a jam-packed schedule doesn’t give them time to enjoy each other’s company. In an effort to be memorable, Applejack accidentally destroys the barn (again) and the whole gang has to rebuild it, making it a reunion to remember.

It was an okay episode. I really liked the song, but I feel like there has been so much Applejack and Apple Bloom this season that they didn’t really need another episode. That’s also my problem with this next episode.

“Spike at Your Service” follows Spike, who needs to be Applejack’s slave until he dies because Applejack saved his life. After Spike makes a mess of everything (while being oblivious to his own mistakes), Applejack stages a scene so that Spike has to save her life.

I liked the Timber-wolves. I think that’s only because they reminded me of all of the animals in Avatar: The Last Airbender, but I think that’s a good reason to like them. And Pinkie Pie (un)fortunately cannot rock a mustache, although it was nice to see her give it a shot.

Can I just put out there that I really don’t like Spike? Don’t get me wrong; I really want to like him, but he is just so annoying whenever he is featured that I can’t seem to like him. He’s featured better as Twilight’s assistant, which I think is kind of sad.

So there you have it, everypony. Overall, we’ve had one good and two mediocre episodes. Looking ahead, this Saturday Discord returns! I’m so excited to see him again! And then we get another Spike episode. Oh joy.