THIS…IS…PONY! Season 5 has just been announced, according to people on tumblr and dA.
We open on a stranger to the new season, relatively speaking: Twilight Sparkle doing some genealogical research, only be to disturbed by Pinkie Pie. Who finds a very interesting relationship. The MOST AMAZING THING EVER.
She’s related to Applejack. Who doesn’t appear entirely happy at the news.
Roll credits – and something has happened to improve AJ’s impression of PP being a cousin, because she’s happier, as is Applebloom. Big Mac and Granny Smith look a little bemused. AJ does, however, caution PP against spreading such an ‘awesome’ rumour. No doubt the ‘awesomeness’ has begun to cloud over even since the end of the credits.
We get a glimpse of the family’s talents, and GS’ cool rocking chair.
Pinkie Pie goes on a few zany antics including the crash of a dustbin lid. AJ consults the documentation and doesn’t see anything about the relationship, stemming from a certain Applesauce. But the key words are smudged, and so AJ tries to squelch the other ponies’ enthusiasm for PP by insisting on better proof. Contacting Goldie Delicious might be a good idea.
FAMILY ROAD TRIP.
AJ takes the opportunity of PP going home to pack for the trip of asking them to show PP the ‘best version’ of the Apple Family. This is…interesting. The Apple Family are probably a couple of the most down-to-earth characters in the show. So if the writers are handing them the idiot ball, this is going to be an odd episode. Big Mac is strong enough to haul everything, including four other equines, as well as dance to the bouncy tune of Apples to the Core.
This song is a return to the better songwriting from earlier in the series, except for Granny Smith’s verse, which is probably intentionally off-key.
And at the end of the song, the wagon collapses.
AJ is trying to impress Pinkie that the Apples don’t blame each other, but she lays into BM anyway. They now want to go on a river trip, but they don’t have a raft. So, naturally, the ‘jalopy’ will serve as a raft. Only pack the necessities. (Pinkie has already started a scrapbook.)
This is a cute episode. It’s slice-of-life, but on the strength of a few of the previous episodes, it’s going to have some relevance to the arc. A map falls in the water, leaving them at the mercy of GS’ faulty memory, as she steers them through ‘the scariest cave in Equestria’.
Ooooh. Ponies go in, but they never come out. This is getting more interesting than the first half. GS takes them into the cave.
Which lasts about twenty seconds, leaving Pinkie immune to fear (I’ve got it! Pinks is part kender!) and the Apples terrified. But they’ve come out. Missed opportunity for peril, but I get the impression this is about friendship rather than danger. There’s a short argument about the incompetencies on the journey, leading Applejack to launch a coup, declare herself in charge and break the steering wheel off the boat in the ensuing fight.
Then Pinkie hits them with the line ‘I can’t wait to make a page in the scrapbook about the amazing waterfall we all went down!’ (Well, it was inevitable.)
AAAAAAARGH.
EEEEEEEEEEEEE
Pinks is totally flustered. Forget kender in her background, she is one. The raft has been held together just long enough for GS to say ‘I know it would hold together’.
They end up at a cottage, presumably belonging to Goldir Delicious, who has gone ‘out’ to ‘run some errands’ leaving a suspiciously derelict house behind her. Pinkie bounces off to get more scrapbook paper, and AJ is disappointed that the family fell apart in the time it took them to get to GD’s house. (Maybe if AJ hadn’t been so…assertive? Maybe if she’d believed Pinkie in the first place? However, I think she’s being set up for the lesson once again here, having learned one only two weeks ago. It’s a good job we have 26 episodes this season, since we’ve now done AJ twice in three shows.)
The ponies each submit to self-criticism in the best Soviet communist party meeting, and decide to admit their failings to Chairman Pinks so she can send them to the Friendship Gulag.
Or something like that.
Pinks disagrees, because she points out that everyone is owning up to what went wrong. You aren’t just family – you’re best friends. And I want to be one too.
Goldie Delicious returns from her long errand and AJ asks her for help. She’s a crazy cat pony. And a hoarder.
Pinkie returns from vandalising a mirror and GD finds her book of family tree has been smudged. So Pinkie doesn’t get to find out. But AJ knows for sure that Pinkie has put up with them, and has proved herself an Apple to the Core, which suggests a reprise of the song.
So Pinkie doesn’t need to learn the lesson, and the Apples, provided with another cart, and another verse of Apples to the Core.
This is a 5/10 episode. It’s a cute show, but it’s Pony by Numbers. Being a good family isn’t about being perfect but being forgiving and acknowledging close friends can become family even if they aren’t directly related. And they continue to demonstrate that point.
There’s no particular flash on an item, unless I missed it, which suggests this is filler rather than arc. I do enjoy watching pony, but this is one for the kids. Well, sometimes they have to be. Nothing wrong with that. It’s the other episodes which have been better, rather than this one that has been bad.
