My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic ‘Equestria Games’ Review

As sad as it might be, this is the penultimate episode of the season. Next week marks the 1 hour finale. While we all want to get to ‘Twilight’s Kingdom,’ this one has been very hyped too. The Equestria Games has been a major fixture in the season. The episode ‘Rainbow Falls‘ was all about ponies training for it. I don’t think there was too much of a payoff here, since the episode centered around Spike. Still, with an all-star writer like Dave Polsky, quality is ensured. While I don’t think this was the right concept for the episode about the Equestria Games, it’s still solid.

Here’s the official episode description from The Hub:

The Equestia Games are finally here and Spike is put in charge of lighting the torch during the opening ceremony. But the small dragon’s nerves get the better of him and Twilight has to help him out. Spike then tries to do something else for the games to prove to everyone that he can do things by himself.

Spike just had a pretty large role in the previous episode, so it’s a surprise to see him have another substantial one. The Equestria Games is supposed to be a big deal, so I’m perplexed as to why it was actually the background thing and Spike’s problem the primary. That’s not to say the end message wasn’t good, because it was quite great. Spike learns that compliments are meaningless if the person (or in his case dragon) doesn’t believe he or she is great on the inside. That was a highlight, and also the scene where Spike had to make up the national Cloudsdale anthem. (It might have been the funniest thing of the season.)

While I somewhat understand Spike being disappointed that he couldn’t mind-blast fire, I would think he’d be a little grateful to Twilight. Without her, he would have been completely humiliated; she saved him from embarrassment. While it was nice to see the return of Mrs. Harshwhinny, I was disappointed that Spitfire wasn’t recognized or given any lines. If the viewer hasn’t seen ‘Wonderbolts Academy,’ he or she wouldn’t know who that pony is.

Overall, a solid episode. It kind of disappoints since it isn’t the grand Equestria Games event that was expected. The message was fantastic however, and Spike having to make up an anthem was priceless. So while disappointing, it’s still a quality episode.