If you were to ask me what my all-time favorite MLP episode is, the answer has always been season two's "It's About Time."

The reasons are many. To sum up most of them, it's a fun episode with a well-written plot that is logical and balanced, comical, and tells your staple MLP story about character growth, etc. But I confess that the prevailing reason why the episode has so long remained the unchallenged most favorite is the more bias one.

I'm a sucker for time travel stories.

Why do you think I'm a Whovian, among other things?

It helped that the very idea of MLP telling a time travel story struck me as such an unlikely one that, when it did happen, and was so wonderfully rendered too, I was rather blown away that it had taken place. It had struck me as the one episode where MLP opened a can of worms it normally didn't, and the implications and full ramifications of that were...intriguing. As such, the episode has always had a special interest with me, and still does.

But the one thing I thought the show needed to do, it was come back to it; "It's About Time" opened that can of worms that is time travel, yes, but it was clear it would take a whole new episode to explore where that can of worms could go next.

So in a way it kind of figures that the episode that can actually rival "It's About Time" as the top favorite is the one that does precisely that.

Well...this certainly has been the season for fanserve, hasn't it?

Actually, I can relate to this episode, because last I heard, my little brother (who's also a brony) had not watched last week's episode when he normally would have by then, so I've had to stay tight-lipped about what had transpired in that episode. Which also meant no bragging about how I had so totally called it (but that's okay...he actually listened to me when I did said calling, so he's probably going to side with me on that one). I'm still not sure if he's actually seen it yet, so I emailed him a link to last week's episode with explicit instructions he watch that BEFORE he watches this week's, as way of precaution.

Because...y'know...it's sort of important.

Of course, so's this week's episode.

Luckily for us, they make the big reveal right off the bat in this episode.

But then that's when the fun begins...

*ahem*

To quote from my review of "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone"...

*regards the new episode for a moment*

Yep.

I so totally called it.

MLP's come a long way since that faithful premiere back in October of 2010.

All the monsters fought, the letters to the princess that have been sent, weddings attended, mysteries solved,  changeling invasions stopped, star characters becoming alicorns... and so on. And I think we've all learned something about friendship along the way.

Yes, it's been a wild ride getting to this point, and looks to continue on for a while longer still.

But with the series having just recently hit a landmark of one hundred episodes, it does seem like the perfect time to come full circle, and reflect back on that faithful day that started it all...

...and the ponies who had inadvertently been left behind because of it.

Guess who's graduated with his bachelors in English?

This guy!

Something I have recently learned with writing reviews for, well, anything is that there isn't much point in doing one unless you actually have something worth while to say about it, more than just regurgitating the same things everybody else is saying. Gotta bring something new to the table, see, or at least that's how it is with me, or I start to loose interest over time.

That's what happened with my reviews for every episode of season 4 of MLP, by the way, and why I abruptly stopped after "Trade Ya" (actually, what REALLY happened was that I got caught up with school work that I couldn't set aside, thus resulting in me switching gears to focus on that, rather than things like MLP reviews, but the lack of interest was what kept from going BACK), though I do still plan on going back and covering what remaining episodes I haven't reviewed at some future date (because that finale is just screaming it) even if its so...after the fact.

But basically, I've decided that for future reviews, I'm only going to write it if I feel I genuinely have something to discuss, or something new to add to the overarching discussion on the subject.

Which leads me to why I'm writing all of this now; today I saw "How To Train Your Dragon 2" for the first time.

So now you're asking, what did you think of it? Was it as great as the hype promised, matching or exceeding the success (in terms of storytelling) of the first one? As great as all the other fans claim it to be, and that there is little to nothing you'd change, or even needing changing?

Well, actually...

...no.

The gang returns to Rainbow Falls where a trade exchange is being held. Twilight, as princess, is to be the exchange's official representative and mediate any disputes with trades, but as such disputes haven't happened often in the past, Twilight and the gang view this as a chance to participate in the exchange themselves and trade some of their stuff for items they desire. All in all they expect a good day.

But problems soon arise that show that expectation was good in theory, but in practice...not so much.

Redundant title is redundant.

Anyway, due to school work that needed to get done, I didn't get a review for last week's episode out, so to get caught up, I'm doing it now and doing this week's episode together in one post!

-- "Dun dun duuuuuuuuuun!"

So, without further ado...

Last week the Flim and Flam brothers make a reappearance in Ponyville, this time attempting to sell a supposed and doubtfully miraculous "curative elixir." Granny Smith, feeling nostalgic for her youthful days, tries it out and it seems to work, but Applejack, having her doubts, quickly uncovers evidence that it's all a fraud. But since the elixir seems to be making Granny Smith happy regardless, Applejack is now faced with an ethical dilemma; keep quiet and let Granny Smith stay happy, or end that by calling the whistle on Flim and Flam?

This week, however, Rainbow Dash is set to take a Wonderbolt history test that will help bring her ever closer to her goal of becoming a Wonderbolt. Only problem is that she knows absolutely none of the history and none of the study tactics her friends come up with to help her seem to work in helping Rainbow learn a subject she isn't terribly interested in to begin with. Her friends really want to help...but how?

Sweetie Belle wants to be able to do something to go out into the world and shine brightly for something she herself has done on her own, but finds this is curiously hard when walking in the shadow of Rarity. For Rarity's fabulous-ness proves to be quite large, and has a bad tendency of outshining whatever Sweetie Belle seems to try to do.

So finally, after getting seemingly outshined one time too many and enraged by it, Sweetie decides to get even on Rarity and sabotages a key headdress piece for a series of costumes Rarity is making for her important client, none other than Sapphire Shores. Going to bed satisfied, Sweetie Belle at first has no regrets for this choice.

Until Princess Luna shows her the error of her ways...