Back for the new season! I should have posted about the first three episodes, but failed to because I've been to busy.

Anyhow, it seems that many commentators enjoyed this episode, but overall I felt it was pretty weak. It isn't "Spike at your Service" or "Mare-do-Well" levels of bad, but especially after what I consider to be an excellent season opener (and Castle-Mania, which I enjoyed despite it lacking a Castlevania reference) it didn't seem to keep up the same quality.

In this episode, I don't feel that the reveal that Daring Do is "real" and subsequent action involving Ahuizotl is handled in a believable way. From an in-universe perspective, the fact that the events of the Daring Do novels actually took place in Equestria, but were assumed by everypony to be fictional simply fails to suspend disbelief. Even if it is a "remote" part of the country, it seems that it wasn't so remote that the Mane 6 couldn't locate Daring Do or make it to her house.

This also means that Ahuizotl is a real bad guy and has been attempting real bad things for some time now, without any action against him by Celestia. I find it hard to believe that this guy has flown under the radar of everyone except a single pegasus (who instead of warning the rest of Equestria, passes him off as a fictional character).

Also, on the subject of Ahuizotl. What does PRINCESS Twilight Sparkle do about him now that she knows he's real and had tried to curse a portion of Equestria? Well, aside from helping a bit with foiling his plan, it seems she's fine with letting him go to plot his revenge. She could have at least sent a head's up to Canterlot about a dangerous criminal being on the loose.

It would have been far more palatable if the action took place on some remote island outside of Equestrian territory. That way it is at least more plausible that these events could have taken place without anyone knowing they were real.

Apparently M.A. Larson had to take a break from MLP to work on other projects (something about a book and movie deal), so I think that's why he's not present on the list for S4. Larson has written many of my favorite episodes, so hopefully one of the new writers can fill the Larson-shaped void.

I admit to being the epitome of a nerdy white guy when I dance. Most people aren't good dancers, and I find it odd that Patricia Hernandez decided to act like it was actual news and use it as a springboard to make fun of Bronies. It looks like any old gathering of nerds to me. The "dance" events at just about any anime convention are just as bad. But it doesn't matter because everyone is having fun there, and it isn't like anyone is trying to win Dancing with the Stars while out there.

Par for the course for Kotaku. While I do read the site for gaming news, they do have a tendancy to troll subcultures they don't like, and also love to boost their traffic by shamelessly posting borderline NSFW cosplay pics and such. Many of their articles have nothing to do with gaming, which makes it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. I'm glad that Penny-Arcade called them out on their BS.

What really annoys me, more than the article, is how many anti-Brony commentors (on Kotaku and on other sides) love to make broad, sweeping generalizations based on the actions of a few "bad apples" or cloppers.

My cousin's best friend's roomate knows a guy who works for Hasbro and from what he's told me, S4 is going to be bucking epic. Now that Twilight is an Alicorn princess, there will be a huge shift in focus towards the fantasy and adventured inspired elements within the MLP universe. This includes the following awesomeness:

- In one episode, Twilight is transported to an alternate reality in which Trixie was fully corrupted by the Alicorn Amulet and now rules Equestria.

- Lighting Dust returns and challenges Rainbow Dash to a deadly race. This one promises to put all previous Rainbow Dash episodes to shame with its sheer awesomeness.

- The CMCs will save Ponyville from a hostile takeover attempted by Diamond Tiara's father, and earn their cutie marks in the process.

- Fluttershy learns how to use Dragon Shouts.

- There will be an episode focused entirely on background characters including Lyra, Dr. Whooves, Derpy, and Applejack.

- The Mane 6 doing battle with an army of Drow Elves in an episode guest-written by acclaimed fantasy novelist (and totally not a hack) R.A. Salvatore.

- After it is revealed that Discord's reformation was a ruse, and that he has actually been slowly corrupting Celestia, Luna and Twilight will be forced to lead a rebellion in the epic 3-part series finale.

Disclaimer: The above rumors are completely false and made up for your amusement.

It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't all that great either. Ignoring the freakish character designs, much of the plot only works because most of the characters act like idiots much of the time. Also, Flash Sentry as Twilight's Love interest was the most forced, shoe-horned plot point that I think we've ever seen pulled in MLP. Hopefully there will be no further appearances of this alternate world or Flash Sentry's pony version in the actual show.

On the plus side, Spike was the shining point of this movie. I felt that he was actually very well written, and it is a shame that we got to see him at his best while everyone else felt off. I also thought that the cameos and humor points were, for the most part, enjoyable.

I don't really think this one is much the staff's fault. This movie felt to be an absurd idea forced by Hasbro (far more out there than anything else before) and they did their best to make it work. It just didn't, really.

I'm willing to give the EG movie a chance, but these toys... ugh. Regardless of how good or bad the movie ends up being, my reaction to the toys is: "kill it with fire." They managed to make the toys look worse than Bratz.

Seriously, there is no excuse to send threats to DHX or Hasbro. Period.

I wonder if Lyra's human counterpart will sit on all fours and be obsessed with becoming a pony.

Seriously, this is Hasbro's way of showing that they want to sell more toys. They are a toy company and if EqG is a success then the end result will be parents buying EqG toys for little girls in addition to traditional MLP toys.

This is not some grand conspiracy to piss off Bronies.