Category Archives: MLP Posts

Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 83: Not Asking for Trouble + Discordant Harmony

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< Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 >

Season 7, Episodes 11-12

Whew, I finished this post the day before I leave for Eurovision 2025! And after I come home, I’ll be preoccupied making a video about the trip, then a pair of blog posts reviewing the contest. I’ll review the non-qualifiers in the first post and the finalists in the second, as per usual.

Season 7 Episode 11: Not Asking for Trouble

In five words: Yaks are being needlessly stubborn.

Premise: The yaks have returned! Pinkie Pie is sent on a mission to Yakyakistan which gets buried amidst an avalanche, but the yaks refuse to accept external help to solve this mess.

Detailed run-through:

To begin this episode, Pinkie Pie sprints across Ponyville screaming “oh my gosh” over and over, because Prince Rutherford, the leader of the yaks, invited her to an event called Yikslurbertfest (inspired by Oktoberfest?) in Yakyakistan. Rarity asks what in the world Yikslurbertfest is, and Twilight Sparkle apparently knows it’s a sacred yak holiday. I’m a bit surprised Twilight knows it, but also can see why: she probably read it in the pony equivalent of a Wikipedia spiral, which I guess is a regular encyclopedia spiral.

Pinkie Pie claims she subtly hinted to the yaks that she wanted to attend this event, which means she sent a huge amount of letters begging for her to go. Twilight Sparkle officially declares Pinkie Pie the friendship ambassador to the yaks, and then Pinkie sets out for Yakyakistan.

It’s bittersweet to see Gummy now, because he reminds me of my toothless cat who I had to put down in February.
Rest in peace, Mini.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 82: A Royal Problem

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< Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 >

Season 7, Episode 10

It’s been a while since my last MLP review, hasn’t it? While I’m unemployed I need something to do when bored, and working on my blog is one such thing. I wonder how much of this post series I can get done in 2025. Also, today is my 26th birthday!

And just to recap, I will no longer be releasing my MLP reviews only on Fridays, but instead on the day I finish them. I’ll continue having all of my posts cover either one or two episodes.

Season 7 Episode 10: A Royal Problem

In five words: Starlight swaps princesses’ cutie marks.

Premise: The Cutie Map sends Starlight Glimmer on a mission to Celestia and Luna’s castle because they haven’t been getting along as of late. To help them see eye to eye, she swaps the sisters’ cutie marks.

Detailed run-through:

It’s been over a year since I last reviewed a MLP episode, so forgive me if I struggle to get back into my groove. But I will try! The good thing, this is one of the fan favorite episodes of season 7.

To start the episode, the map sends Starlight Glimmer alone on a mission to Celestia and Luna’s castle. Twilight Sparkle responds with some good old Twilighting, doubled by her motherly treatment of Starlight.

Twilight Sparkle: Don’t worry. For all we know, it’s something small. Like, maybe the cooks are fighting over who has the best butternut squash soup. Or the royal hairdressers are fighting over a comb.
Spike: Or you know, maybe the royal sisters aren’t seeing eye-to-eye on something
Twilight Sparkle: NO! That’s just crazy. Luna and Celestia would never fight. … Again.

Thinking about it, it makes sense the map would send Starlight to solve this conflict for multiple reasons. It’s not just because of Starlight’s brash impulsiveness as the episode later discusses. The Mane 6 and Spike wouldn’t see the sisters’ conflict from an unbiased perspective, because Celestia knows them (especially Twilight) much better than Luna does. And the Cutie Mark Crusaders would be just as biased towards Luna. The map needs a neutral party to solve their rivalry. Moreover, I’m sure the map knows that last time Celestia and Luna got into a conflict, Luna got banished to the moon, and that had better not reoccur.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 81: Hard to Say Anything + Honest Apple

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Season 7, Episodes 8-9

Sadly, my MLP blog post series is going through the same problem my Homestuck blog post series went through in late 2016 and early 2017: I’m slow as hell and unmotivated to write them. To repeat my words from 2017: But when you’re easily distracted by certain things this kind of stops being the thing you do the most often?

Season 7 Episode 8: Hard to Say Anything

In five words: Big Mac gains love interest.

Premise: The Cutie Mark Crusaders discover that Big Macintosh has a crush and thus sneak in with him on a trip to Starlight Glimmer’s old town. They try everything to help him win Sugar Belle’s heart.

Detailed run-through:

To begin this episode, the Cutie Mark Crusaders meet up at Sweet Apple Acres and rediscover their old costumes from a talent show. They’re not the same costumes from The Show Stoppers, but they look familiar because other characters wore them in the first two seasons.

Scootaloo: Whoa, that sure is a lot of apples.
Apple Bloom: Are you making another delivery to Starlight’s old village?
Big Macintosh: Eyup.
Sweetie Belle: That’s an awful long way for a pony to go, isn’t it?
Big Macintosh: Eyup.
Apple Bloom: You’ve been going there a lot lately. What is this, your fifth trip this week?
Big Macintosh: (laughs) Eyup.
Apple Bloom: OK, well, have fun!

Starlight’s old village is very isolated from the rest of Equestria, as you surely know. It’s not connected to anywhere else via public transit, so the only way there is by hoof. This begs the question: how did Big Mac discover a mare he liked all the way over there? I’m guessing it all started with a lengthy offscreen conversation with Starlight Glimmer, where an offhand mention of eligible mares piqued his interest.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 80: Parental Glideance

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Season 7, Episode 7

Season 7 Episode 7: Parental Glideance

In five words: Scootaloo meets Rainbow Dash’s parents.

Premise: While doing a school report on a pony she admires, Scootaloo encounters Rainbow Dash’s parents who discover their daughter is a Wonderbolt. They cheer Rainbow Dash on for this feat so loudly it starts getting on her nerves. But could they be in the right for doing so?

Detailed run-through:

Who doesn’t love cartoon physics?

Compared to the last two episodes, this one has a very efficient cold opening. First, the Cutie Mark Crusaders set up a crazy scooter slingshot to send Scootaloo to Cloudsdale, but right as she’s about to be launched, she realizes she could have used something safer like a hot air balloon. Doing something overly ambitious when they could have used a quick and safe alternative is the essence of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

When she arrives in Cloudsdale, the first pony Scootaloo sees is none other than Rainbow Dash’s father, Bow Hothoof. Technically, this isn’t our first time seeing Rainbow Dash’s family: that would be the flashback in Games Ponies Play, which had a stallion that viewers thought was her father. But it’s still interesting that the show took so long to introduce us to her parents. Maybe it’s because the earlier seasons portrayed her as on the move and rarely showed inside her house, or because it’s common for shows like this to introduce the main cast’s parents after doing all the obvious episode premises.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 79: Fluttershy Leans In + Forever Filly

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Season 7, Episodes 5-6

Sorry this post is a day late! I finished writing it yesterday, but then I got distracted late at night and forgot to finish uploading all the images to WordPress. I guess my MLP post schedule is de facto every two weeks now, because I’m so preoccupied with my Eurovision reviews. The good news is, my Eurovision post series is a much shorter project than this one. After less than six months, I’ve already covered 38 out of 68 years!

Season 7 Episode 5: Fluttershy Leans In

In five words: Attempt at showcasing Character Development™.

Premise: Fluttershy sets out to realize her years-old dream of building an animal sanctuary, but she picks the wrong ponies for the job because otherwise the episode would be too short.

Detailed run-through:

To start the episode, Angel Bunny practices for a parkour contest and injures his paw with one misstep. She’s out of foot braces, so apparently instead of buying new foot braces, she has to take Angel to the vet. We never hear about this parkour contest for the entire rest of the episode, which makes it really transparent this was just an excuse to lead into the episode’s premise.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 78: A Flurry of Emotions + Rock Solid Friendship

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Season 7, Episodes 3-4

Sorry this post took so long! Admittedly, I procrastinated on it in favor of writing Eurovision reviews. My latest review is 1990, so I have 33 posts left to write. I wonder which blog post series I’ll finish first: Eurovision or MLP?

Season 7 Episode 3: A Flurry of Emotions

In five words: Twilight’s turn to attempt babysitting.

Premise: To prove herself as the Best Aunt Ever, Twilight Sparkle tries to squeeze time into her busy schedule to babysit Flurry Heart, whose parents are attending an art show.

Detailed run-through:

Obligatory mention that the nurse pony’s cutie mark was redesigned because her old one violated the Geneva Conventions.

This episode begins with the nurse pony telling Twilight she will have to spend the day with a group of sick foals, which she eagerly agrees to do.

This scene was probably meant to redeem the criticism that last season, Cadance didn’t look exhausted from taking care of Flurry Heart.

I still don’t get why Cadance and Shining Armor decided it was a good idea to drop in unannounced and tell Twilight Sparkle she has to watch over their baby. Wouldn’t it make more sense to leave her with a Crystal Empire resident, like Sunburst? And why did they just assume Twilight had nothing better to do? The best explanation I can think of is that it was a hasty decision because they were sleep deprived.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 77: All Bottled Up

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Season 7, Episode 2

Remember when I said I might write a blog post about GalaCon 2023 (my first pony con)? Well, I ended up making a video about it instead, and released it on the tenth anniversary of when I first watched MLP:FiM. You should watch it if you haven’t! If you like reading my MLP reviews, I promise you’ll enjoy this video too.

I promise I’ll speed up with my MLP reviews for at least the first half of season 7. And yes, it’ll come at the cost of slowing down another post series.

Season 7 Episode 2: All Bottled Up

In five words: Trixie drives Starlight to insanity.

Premise: While Twilight Sparkle and friends are off for a friendship retreat, Starlight Glimmer practices magic with Trixie and gets annoyed with her friend’s careless mishaps. Luckily, she can store all her anger in bottles and ignore it forever… or so she thinks.

Detailed run-through:

This episode begins with a slice of life scene featuring a fan favorite pair of characters, where Starlight Glimmer makes cupcakes for her friends’ trip and Trixie practices magic. When Starlight explains how to do a transfiguration spell and Trixie does it successfully, it first seems like happy fluffy friendship moments…

This scene does shows us that Trixie isn’t quite as reformed as Starlight is, which I admire.
It’s nice that different villains (or villain-ish characters) are reformed at different rates.

… but the moment Trixie hugs Starlight overly tight and makes her spill frosting, the episode’s conflict becomes clear. It’s a similar style of cold opening to Make New Friends but Keep Discord: we see a friendship established a season or two ago, and since we already know they’re friends, it doesn’t take long to introduce their conflict.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 76: Celestial Advice

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< Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 >

Season 7, Episode 1

During my trip to Germany (which is where I am as of this post’s publication!), writing a Eurovision review on my downtime somehow didn’t seem fun at all anymore. Those blog posts are fun to write, but the difference between them and my MLP posts is that while I enjoy almost every MLP episode, the Eurovision songs that truly interest me are few and far between. Therefore, it requires a higher degree of boredom for me to write a Eurovision post.

By the way, this trip has been an absolute blast so far, and it will include my very first pony con soon: GalaCon. I might write a bit about it on my blog.

Season 7 Episode 1: Celestial Advice

In five words: Celestia’s side of season 1.

Premise: The only season premiere not to be a two-part episode. During a celebration of Starlight Glimmer and friends’ overthrowing of Queen Chrysalis, Twilight Sparkle doesn’t know what to do next with her pupil and consults her mentor for advice.

Detailed run-through:

I’ve already said it before, but I love Starlight Glimmer so much.
Well OK, most fans who hate Starlight hate the late seasons in general.

Unlike the last three seasons, I’m not going to take my sweet time analyzing the first minute of the premiere, because not much happens in it. Season 7 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic begins with a typical casual Starlight Glimmer/Spike conversation about the upcoming celebration, where Spike desperately hides the gift that Twilight Sparkle is working on. It’s a mirror where Starlight will see herself surrounded by her friends each morning.

However, I am going to analyze in detail the pictures on Twilight’s mirror a minute and a half in, because it has some interesting details.

First off, on the top left, we see a picture of Celestia and Discord. This implies that even though Discord is so… Discord, Twilight Sparkle by now considers him a good friend. Something even more subtly sweet is the picture with Moondancer on the bottom right. It suggests that Twilight has a special attachment to her childhood friends, even the ones she doesn’t see often, which I can easily relate to. Does this mirror have anyone else Twilight considers important to her? We have Cadance, Spike, the rest of the Mane 6, Owlowiscious, and everyone in the group photo. Aside from her relatives and maybe Luna, the list seems complete.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 75: To Where and Back Again, Part 1 + 2

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Season 6, Episodes 25-26

I wanted to start my Eurovision blog post series so badly, but I had promised myself I would finish this little order of business first. It turned out to take, well… longer than expected. Because I wanted to start my Eurovision blog post series so badly! Still, I promise this review will be a fun one.

(As of this post’s publication, my first Eurovision review is out, but I wrote it after finishing this post.)

Season 6 Episode 25: To Where and Back Again, Part 1

In five words: Starlight faces changelings’ great revenge.

Premise: Starlight Glimmer has returned from a trip to her old village to find out changelings have kidnapped her friends, so she gathers an entourage of supporting characters to save the day.

Detailed run-through:

Typical of Starlight Glimmer episodes, we begin with a calm slice-of-life scene where she and Twilight Sparkle reflect on how far their relationship has come, plus some goofy Spike gags. Their calm reflections are broken when Spike notices something strange incoming:

Twilight, Spike, and Starlight are bowing down to our true lord and savior.

This is the entire purpose of the season 6 finale: for the queen of all things good in this world, Derpy Hooves, to crash into Twilight’s castle and deliver a letter to Starlight. Everything else is an irrelevant afterthought, including all the boxes of books she crashes into. Clearly, Derpy used this method of delivery to make sure the letter would end up in Starlight’s hooves, not Twilight’s. She knows Twilight can be self-absorbed and assume all letters are meant for her, and she knows a letter to Starlight might contain something extremely private. If all characters were as thoughtful and forward-thinking as Derpy Hooves… I would say that would be great, but it would make the show completely boring. There can only be one best pony, and her name is Derpy.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 74: Top Bolt

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Season 6, Episode 24

I feel bad that I’ve missed so many weeks when going through season 6! Though my love of this show is as strong as ever, my motivation for writing these posts has decreased over the past few months. That’s how it always is with my ambitious projects: motivation comes and goes in waves, leading to months at a time of hiatus. Once I am done with season 6, I’ll take a break during which I’ll scratch an itch to start a brand new blog post series—I’ll announce what it is later today. (It wouldn’t be quite as long as my Homestuck or MLP post series, but longer than my Regular Show post series.)

Season 6 Episode 24: Top Bolt

In five words: Bookworms discover well-intentioned lies.

Premise: The Cutie Map sends Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash—the Mane 6’s bookworms—to the Wonderbolts’ flight camp, where they encounter two childhood friends in training who have unknowingly been holding each other’s flight skills back by secretly giving boosts.

Detailed run-through:

Going by the position of Rainbow Dash’s shadow, it looks like her locker is fifth from the right, on the bottom row.
This will be important later.

The start of this episode is a clever bait-and-switch. As she prepares to go back home, Rainbow Dash banters with her fellow Wonderbolts. Spitfire grumbles that she has to run trials week, then admits she loves putting on her aggressive act. This seems like it’ll just be a quick reminder that Rainbow Dash has fully established herself as a member of the group, making viewers think the rest of the episode will take place somewhere unrelated.

Indeed, when her cutie mark starts glowing, she flies right to Twilight’s castle and excitedly asks where the map will take her. It turns out she needs to go back to Cloudsdale, much to her annoyance. Twilight Sparkle could have easily gone there earlier to find Rainbow Dash, but instead she waited for her friend to show up and waste time flying. Maybe this was a deliberate prank on Twilight’s part? Maybe she has a skeevy, trickstery side that she normally hides? Or maybe Twilight was a bad friend and forgot where Rainbow Dash was over the past few days.

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