I have three questions, no two

Question 1
Given the fact plushies have been going for 500$ on ebay every single week why has this taken so long for some major maker to say hmmm we like money..., and people like ponies.... what if we combined the two?

Question 2
Will 4th Dimension make one billion dollars next year in profit or one hundred trillion dollars in profit?

Nine fanfic babies are made every minute, won't you please think of the children?

Okay the Season 3 finale is behind us lets look back it as a whole.

First note, it was not until I was reviewing this post that I noticed my first line was "Alicron's a Twilight", let me correct that now. So Twilight is an Alicorn and as far as we know it's for good. The question is if she is a winged Unicorn or a goddess in pony form. AKA is she Cadence or is she Celestia or Luna? The worst part story wise from this episode is the simple fact it's not a finale, at least not yet. What this episode is... it's setup. As in Season 4 will be about what? Well Twilight's an Alicorn and a Princess, are we going to get an episode about her helping Pinkie babysit the Cake twins for Pinkie or an episode about her using her Princess powers to invade East Eurasia.

And that's the take away long term from this episode. [b]What is Season 4 going to do with this?[/b] This is not like a standard season episode or even a previous finale. Best Night Ever for example ended with them going to a party, they had a bad time but in the end enjoyed themselves the end. The Wedding by contrast we met Cadence and Liquid Pride I mean Shining Armor (I could totally buy that as a pony name), but at the end of that episode it was not Twilight who changed it was just another new set of characters and a great new villain.

This? This..... This is different. Twilight has fundamentally changed, for the better some might say... for the worse others would say. Either way she's a different pony than before and that should in the hands of a good storyteller change everything. If we spend Season 4 adjusting to new Twilight only for the Season 4 end game to change something totally different then I'd retroactively say MMC is great. But it's not addressed with, slowly over the next Season then MMC looks like a studio decision, and a dumb one at that.

Imagine if you will your favorite sitcom. Now imagine if one episode one of the leads on the show wins a billion dollars in a lottery and at the end of the episode they still have the money. Fast forward the only thing that changes during the next season is that character dressing nicer (They have a billion dollars after all) but nothing else changes. If they have work they still go to work, they still hang out at the same crappy bars and keep the same friends without much being mentioned. That's what MMC could end up being, the shark jumped moment... but that's only if it does not act on Season 4 and beyond as the fundamental change it is.

With all that out of the way let me say this. This episode itself was musically very good, I'm not sure if any of the songs will end up in my musical list besides the six part harmony but it's nice to see so much singing. Even if makes no bloody sense for Celestia to be bursting into song in the ether there.

I could go on about each part of the episode but as I've said several times... I'm more interested in the "what's next?" than the here and now of this episode. The what's next of course is... nine months away... Well....

....MMC succeeds in one important thing...
....I HAVE to know what happens next....
....nine months from now.....
....Dang it.....

Running Commentary

Opening Song?
And it appears Rarity is already trying to run the weather
Color me confused even if this bit was shown out of context in the only spoiler I accidentally saw.

And we are back and second song
So Rarity is Rainbow Dash, Dash has become Fluttershy, who has turned into Pinkie who has become Applejack who's become Rarity.
And it's all Twilight's fault.... good job absentminded mare.... so what caused...
THE BOOK! Starswirl the Bearded's little black book, 12 episodes it's been hiding in the background and we finally see it again. You sneaky writers you.... I had thought you had forgotten... ooh you tricksie writers.
And another song, a sad song, because Twilight again fucked up

And back for third song which lasts pretty much this entire second
So I wonder if we can read in friendships from which pony goes to which?
Twilight goes to Fluttershy then uses Fluttershy on Rainbow Dash and so
Few things, first seeing Dash tied up with the animals branding dinnerware was hilarious as was the follow up with the "Ahem hello I'm still tied up here" as they go on singing.
But not as funny as Rarity's little "I was having the most terrible nightmare". beat... "I might still be having it"

And we are back.... and Twilight has drilled through to the heavens themselves
Is this?
Yes it is, this is happening, Alicorn Twilight is here and yet another song (after the last song) holy shit songs after more songs.
Thank you Pinkie for the Spit-take
So yeah... this is happening, huh.
Well that's the end of the episode most of the stuff I'm not commenting on because I'm just experiencing it but I must take a time to mention the fact that Shining Armor's "Liquid Courage" was both hilarious and instantly dirty in my head.

My more coherent thoughts later.

So the games pony play, a case of mistaken identity when the inspector pony gets left behind and a random yokel gets the tour meant for her. On the one hand the simple fact they never once asked her name bugs me, nor the fact they did not even know her coat or mane colors. You put that much time into your greeting but not spend two minutes making sure you know something more than her name?

On the flip side this episode like it's twin Just for Sidekicks had so many great visual moments. The little calming gesture Twilight has adopted, the way Dash slides down the glass of the spa. The little ticks the animators put in for the ponies like Rarity's expressions as she over reacts. So my thoughts it was nice seeing Cadence and Armor again but ultimately this was a forgettable episode and Just for Sidekicks was better. However as part of a two part it does work well, who does not love the fact of what's going wrong for both parties at the same time. Spikes dilemma is simpler and funnier but the Games Ponies Play has several good moments.

So final thoughts, it's a middle of the pack episode, on a top ten list of season 3 it would end up between the six and sevens spots. In the all time MLP episode rankings it's in the thirties. Not by any means bad but the mistaken identity inspector thing has been done better before, I'm partial to the Prussian folk tale version myself.

My stream skipped that, not at home to watch it today.

Episode thoughts

Intro
Oh look smart helpful assistant spike is back, and he's trying to make a cake. Can't wait for the sixteen re-mix dubstep songs of his tiny little song here.

First part
And he's still singing, but stops when Fluttershy drops by. Also Spike is genre savy with his inside joke
Gems are Spike's Scoobi snakcs
Spike is panhandling

God tank is hillarious, and the incredibly slow dash lick was adorably
And Dash, tank and Spike is hilarious
Continued pan handling Spike is still hilarious
And things go to shit in 3...2...oh we did not even make it to 1 and off to commercial

]So far this episode has been predictable but it's so well put together and the jokes so good I don't mind, watching Spike panhandling the ponies was so amusing in how blatant it was. But the interplay between Dash and Tank was adorable as well as the general problem of giving a non-flying pet the ability to fly, speaking of pets where the hell is Pewee?

And Angel bunny is starting shit, and the CMC is adorable
And Spike is trolling the shit out of the CMC and he's great
Also remember when I said things went to shit in 3...2...1.. with the CMC we made it to 2
And random Zecorca wants spike's Booty
And now Spike's paying protection money
And then the CMC planned to jump off a bridge
...and now they are going to the Crystal Empire... is this a secret two parter?

So second segment, this was fing hilarious. Again the setup is pat but what they do with it is hilarious. From the "industrial hair dryer poofy Wionna" to the fact Angel bunny does nothing but start shit in a deliberate effort to screw over Spike. You know it's bad when Angel is hoping trains, that bunny is evil!

The money situation is a little confusing and oh hey we are back in the Crystal empire
And Angel bunny is clearly trying to get back to Fluttershy
And Angel is not evil he's just a dick
Dawwable Sweetie Bell trying to hnnng her way out.

Final thoughts
I'm not sure it was my favorite episode of the season but what it was great. The jokes are spot on the situation while pat as I said several times was turned on it's head. It's funny how some of the pets mirror their owners like Winona while others have their own personality with some aspect of their owner that makes sense they would like each other. Rarity enjoys being spoiled, Opal enjoys being spoiled, Tank is loyal as is Rainbow Dash even if in him it's just him trying his hardest. Owlicious is great as a pseudo responsible one for Spike even if most of his stuff was minor and Gummy is still Gummy. The most interesting thing to me was Angel Bunny because he is the reason for 90% of the crap that goes down in this episode. At first I called him evil, evil bunny is what most people think seeing Angel most of the time. But the longer the episode went on the more I came to realize that Angel is just a bastard not evil. You don't see to my needs? Well fuck you I'm going to start some shit and see how you like it. At the end when he does not alert the Mane 6 to his presence and they all wait out the train ride is a very important point to the fact he just wants someone to care for him and ignoring him pisses him off and gets Angel to act out. Kind of like a fluffy needy six year old.

The main thing for me and this episode was the amount of sold visual jokes and tiny little nods in there. Like Zecora taking a gem and from spike and instantly turning around and donating it to charity. Or Rainbow Dash and Tank's interaction, just because a turtle(tortoise!) can fly does not mean he will fly well. And the number of tank gags this episode was great. Scoots little joke about Tank was great. My favorite jokes remain the two times we cut back to find the pets destroying things... or the CMC helping the pets destroy things, just great visual gags.

In the end a simple story well told packed with so many gags and visual jokes it will easily fit into any top ten MLP episode list... where on that list I don't know yet.

....also I guess Pewee is either dead or ret-conned out of existence....

Where did I hear about MLP?
After getting Fallout Equestria recommended to me. Fallout? I love fallout! Ponies? I... don't know Ponies... what Ponies?

Well it might be me reading Discord wrong. I saw him as a Spirit, a thing of chaos from the raw material of the universe. Your Loki's, your Coyote or Puck. Your trickster who represents the element of Chaos. Note that word Element, we've seen Honesty, Kindness, Loyalty, Laughter, Generosity and Magic, toss in Love for Cadence and you have the idea of certain pony's embodying fundamental ideas.

And Discord is the Element of Chaos, not the Element of Evil or the Element of Crystaaallls (Poor Sombra). He is change personified even if in Discord it's not a little Chaos but so much he's bending reality on a minute to minute basis.

My thoughts
Mr Beaver Beaverton? Why Do I feel like there is a the 3rd or the 9th that Fluttershy was leaving out of that.
So Celestia calls Discord evil, interesting point of view since he's Chaos which is neither good nor evil much like how order is not good nor evil just a state of being.
Also evil bunny and evil squirrel were hilarious, but evil beavers will be great

Second commercial break
So many visual gags, discord eating spells, making the cottage rotate, Angel bunny not taking this shit and a tiny bit of Discord feels

And that's the end
Best episode?
No, it's a functional one, I like the idea of reforming Discord but I dislike the fact they keep calling what he did evil. He's chaos not evil, neither good nor evil he simply is. Also I felt the 22 minute format limited things as the befriending itself was sudden, even if Dapper Discord was a fun dinner guest and the shear number of puns per minute were amusing. The most amusing thing was the end bit with Fluttershy saying Discord could be a good friend once you get to no him only for everyone to wince from Celestia on down.