• Episode Followup - The Cart Before the Ponies

    Episode Followup - The Cart Before the Ponies

    We had a slight mixup yesterday with the original followuper being out of internet range, so here we it's coming a day late! Hopefully people are awake on Monday. I know I'm usually not.

    Technically, my contract states that I'm only allowed to do episodes involving Trixie, bat ponies, or whatever flavor of the hour mare I'm into at any given moment, but they are evicting me from my EQD grind mode box for the day to do this one. Mistakes have already been made, so it's too late now!

    ANYWAY...  Followup time. Get boatloads of facial expressions and incredibly deep, fandom shattering analysis below for the most complex episode of the season!

    (I apologize in advance for all the rambling. Luckily most of you just ignore us and post your reviews in the comments anyway ;_;7)



    When I finished taking screenshots, I realized most of them were Cheerilee. Somewhere, deep down, my season one self is bashing the level 30 demon seal I placed on it when Trixie didn't appear in season two and I expected to never see her again. Depressing times. I kept it locked up anyway when she returned though. I'm not sharing Trixie. Why would I ever do that?

    Why is Trixie even mentioned in this followup?
    Was she in the episode?
    Is Cheerilee Trixie?
    Cheerilee is Trixie.



    I'm not going to lie. I have failed a lot of math classes in my life. Luckily my high school class was famous for being the cheatiest cheaters out there, with entire syndicates of answer gathering pre-test. It was actually pretty impressive how far people were willing to go and how well we all kept it under wraps until the year was over.

    Uhh, not that I cheated or anything. Can they revoke grades this many years later? Kids, don't cheat.

    Anyway, I have no idea what is going on up there. Something something apples x 6. Cheerilee is cute though.



    Why can't we have cities like Cloudsdale in real life? Can we just take a break from cancer curing and climate changing and figure out how to construct buildings out of clouds?



    Remember that one time when Rainbow Dash joined the artist training ground, but people kept telling her to add socks to her drawings of herself and she got frustrated when her normal art was ignored while her socked art got 30,000 views, 20,000 favs, and earned her 10,000 followers? Good times. It's a shame she quit. She was getting pretty good at it, especially the ones with socks. She really should draw more of herself in socks. Sweaters too.



    If you remember what part of the scene this expression happened in, you were probably just as confused as me as to why she was making it.



    Something Something Tradition Tradition Tradition Apples.



    Rarity was absolutely amazing this episode. She had more villain expressions than actual villains in villain-based episodes. Look at how terrifying she is up there.



    And right when she's about to fill your soul with fear, she knocks you out with a cute bomb. Filly Rarity should be illegal.



    Or... maybe she's still going for that soul sucking thing.



    Oh god I could never stay scared of that.



    Obligatory Derpy. She's still news right?



    I'm serious here. Try going frame by frame with Rarity this episode. The amount of evil expressions is amazing.

    I'll shut up about Rarity now. I'm not Cereal Velocity. He can spam you with that in his finale followup. Assuming I don't end up doing that one too on accident. Then you get Trixie.



    I didn't see anyone at all freak out about Snips dad now being a thing. Not a peep. How sad. He's a pretty cool dude too.

    That new gray mare on the left is really cool too. I like the color scheme. We don't get many like that.



    Hoofgloves <3 br="">



    So is the swan supposed to be crying here? Last time I saw a swan, it was trying to kill me, so I don't really know what range of emotions they have other than bloodrage and world domination.

    Luckily we only really have ducks here, who are bros. Apparently you aren't supposed to feed them bread though. We used to break out entire loaves for ducks. I feel bad now. Don't make the same mistakes I did! Save ducks!



    I actually know the person who started the chicken Scootaloo thing. He's in hiding now and prefers to remain anonymous after multiple death threats and angry emails from 'loo fans. He was hoping it would go away, yet here we have it, fully realized. He created a monster.



    I actually think it looks cool with wings. I'm also the type of person that dresses my video game characters in edgy bat wings with neon colored hair though so maybe I'm bad at design.



    Applejack, you are driving me nuts this episode. I don't want to go into it out of fear of the emails, but I'm pretty close to snapping



    So, who's the new kid Derpy is hanging with? Did we corrupt him yet? Are there 100,000 word epic fanfics about their relationship and the tragic past where Derpy accidentally summoned an eldrich abomination in Dr. Whooves shop which, through a series of unfortunate events and reality warping temporal explosions spawned a Derpy colored, half demon foal secretly bent on the destruction of the entire pony race? I'd read it.




    CHEERILEEADER CHEERILEE BREAK 






    I cannot lie


    This


    Is


    By far


    The greatest part


    Of the episode 



    And we should just make the rest of the season star CHEERILEADER CHEERILEE and her travels across EQUESTRIA. Brightening up everypony's day with CHEERILEE related CHEERS and her CHEERY demeanor.



    You've ruined me Cheerilee. Nothing will ever top you~




    CHEERILEE BREAK END






    Obligatory best friends



    Obligatory agreement with Apple Bloom. AJ why are you so AJ this episode?! It's killin' me mare.



    The top down pony perspective is really cute. Such tiny noses and round bodies.



    This season is absolutely dominating on background ponies. The animators are really livening up the world with all these unique new designs.



    And Butts. So many butts. It's like they wanted to avoid it in early seasons but just said "Screw it!" after four. 



    Costumes are another thing they are doing really well lately. The mechanic suits for these three are awesome. I better see a ton of fan art of it over the next week. I didn't see much today, and I'm used to instant gratification in the pony fandom!

    Overall, it was a pretty solid episode. The slice of lifiest of the slice of life. It did bring back the oblivious mane 6 trope, but kept it lighthearted and fun enough to keep the action going. I give it 3 Scootaloos out of an Apple Bloom



    Seriously though. CHEERILEEADER CHEERILEE. I bet some of you will say I'm clinging to something trivial, but look at her giant bow! You can't say that isn't the most glorious of bows. Only my favorite bat pony has a better bow. This is the best. I want more. Unfortunately the only toy of this is G1!

    Sethiszzzzzzz.~

    (-1 internet points for any CMC related emails I get)