After a week break, My Little Pony is back with a pretty solid episode. This one is interesting because it ties into Just for Sidekicks. The beginning and ending are clips from that episode. Obviously all the hype is on next week’s installment, but that doesn’t stop Games Ponies Play from being one of the best of the season. A pretty good story. great character moments, and plenty of Princess Cadence makes this an extremely enjoyable episode.

Here’s the official episode description from The Hub:

In the hopes of proving that the Crystal Empire is more than worthy of being selected as the next venue for the upcoming Equestria Games, Princess Cadance commissions Twilight to work her magic with the deciding Games Inspector. 

It starts out with Twilight leaving Spike in charge of all the pets. She joins the rest of her friends on going aboard the Friendship Express. Where are they going? The Crystal Empire to welcome the Games Inspector. You see, their goal is to get this Inspector to choose the Empire to host the games this year. The Mane 6 has everything all planned out well…except they accidentally welcome the wrong pony! After a Spike heavy episode, (which was perhaps the weakest of the season) this was welcome. It’s pretty cool how they re-visit the Crystal Empire and even reference the events that took place way back in the season’s opening two-parter. What I like personally is that we finally really get to see Princess Cadence. What I mean is that in her debut, back in the wedding two-parter, she spent most of her time locked away and then in the season 3 opener she was pretty much defeated the whole time. Here we get to see her in a normal state, she is definitely one of the best characters. The actual story is pretty good. At first the thought of them picking the wrong pony does sound kind of silly, but the way it’s played out makes it seem feasible.

That wrong Pony comes in the form of Ms. Peachbottom. For just this one episode appearance she’s established pretty well as a character. (Oddly her claustrophobic fears was never really explained.) Some of the funniest moments involve her with the Ponies. Fluttershy’s “Oh no!” to her remark gave me a really good laugh. (Pinkie’s Pie’s cinnamon bun was also great.) The actual Games Inspector is established pretty well. Of course with the majority of the episode focusing on the Ponies welcoming Ms. Peachbottom, there wasn’t much time for characterization. Other great things include Rarity taking on the task of designing Cadence’s dress and mane, some really funny stuff comes out of that. The flashback with Rainbow Dash as a filly was nice, (was that her dad?!) these type of flashbacks are part of what makes the show’s universe expansive with history.

Overall, a really great episode of My Little Pony. The story is fun and Princess Cadence is always due for another appearance. (Best Princess? Deciding between her and Luna could get tricky.) Twilight throughout the episode demonstrates her leadership capabilities, that was nice to see. It’ll be something else when she gets a pair of wings and becomes a princess next week.

4.5/5

My name is Daniel (@Destroyer_199), the main guy for comic reviews here at Unleash the Fanboy. I was born in 1995 in the Big Apple, spent my formative years in Staten Island, and currently reside in the awesome state that is New Jersey.