"The Saddle Row Review"

...In which Rarity's new boutique in Manehattan opens up (set up by one of last week's episodes) and the Mane Six are interviewed by a newspaper about how the opening went. The "NO SPOILERS!" meme spawned from this episode is a big reason I've been looking forward to it. It's also just a fun episode in general with several iconic moments.

Coco Pommel appears in this episode.

"Applejack's 'Day' Off"

...Is a much less memorable episode in which Applejack agrees to take a break and go to the spa, but then the other characters can't take care of Applejack's chores for her, and Applejack just ends up doing work at the spa. If nothing else you can definitely say that Applejack is Hank Hill coded.

"Flutter Brutter"

...In which we get to see Fluttershy's brother and parents and their home! Fluttershy's brother is a bit of a bezdelnik, if you know that Kino song. This episode has a musical number.

"Spice Up Your Life"

...I like to say that earth ponies are not necessarily coded as but still equivalent to Latinos, unicorns are likewise Anglos, and pegasi Francos. In this episode, however, we meet explicitly South Asian coded unicorns. Pinkie Pie and Rarity have been summoned by the Friendship Map to fix Coriander Cumin and Saffron Masala's struggling restaurant, and they basically turn it into the whitest shit imaginable until they realize it was honestly basically good as it was and everything reverts to how it should be. That's how I remember the plot, at least. This episode has a good musical number.

...Actually, come to think of it, both this episode and "Applejack's 'Day' Off" are about Anglo-coded characters volunteering to fix businesses with health and safety violations owned by characters with "foreign accents". A bit of a thinker, that one!

"Stranger Than Fan Fiction"

...In which Rainbow Dash goes to a Daring Do fan convention and meets a new friend: a Daring Do mega-fan played by who else but Patton Oswalt! Things go awry for the two of them, however, as they end up getting roped into one of Daring Do's adventures. Patton Oswalt's character, Quibble Pants, will have another episode in season 9, which I am definitely looking forward to because that episode also has characters voiced by Patton's wife and daughter and is explicitly based on his home life. But that's neither here nor there, I guess, because for now Quibble Pants is just some nerd at a fan convention, nothing more, nothing less. And for now I guess I can say that the phrase "Super Duper Daring Do Deluxe Bondage Body Pillow" has lived rent-free in my head for nearly a decade because of a fan video poking loving fun at this episode.

"The Cart Before the Ponies"

...In which the Ojamajos CMC try to have fun building and racing carts but their Oneesans ruin the CMC's fun by basically taking over everything. This episode has a musical number but I think it's more known for the Cheerileader meme. I don't remember much about the Cheerileader meme other than that I was in the middle of my first Toki Pona phase at the time and wowujiti'd my tokiponization of the name.

• A character sneezes in another's face (The Saddle Row Review)
• A character eats sugary food sloppily (The Saddle Row Review)
• Mild allusion to drugs (The Saddle Row Review)
• Slav-coded character in an antagonistic role (The Saddle Row Review)
• Speciesism or carnism (The Saddle Row Review, Applejack's "Day" Off)
• A character gets super wrinkly (Applejack's "Day" Off)
• A character becomes homeless (Flutter Brutter)
• Colonial pilfering and celebration thereof (Stranger Than Fan Fiction)
• Latin-coded character in an antagonistic role (Stranger Than Fan Fiction)
• Children in peril (The Cart Before the Ponies)
• Adults being dicks to children (The Cart Before the Ponies)