Episode Name: "2, 4, 6, Greaaat" Air Date: August 10th, 2019 @ 10:30 AM (ET) Where You Can Watch Live: Spazz Otaku Ascended Live Brony Network Brony State Brony TV S&B Network Summary: "In this episode, the School of Friendship starts a buckball team, and Rainbow Dash has to come to terms with the fact that she won't be coaching the team." Ruminations: Buckball is back! We've seen the sport become quite popular the past couple of seasons, so it's a nice bit of continuity. So what happens when Dash's chance to coach a buckball team is sidelined? Only one way to find out. On to the episode! (Also, sorry it's late, I was busy all morning!)
***SPOILERS*** So Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns is up against Twilight's School of Friendship in a buckball tournament in two weeks. Of course, technically, the School of Friendship doesn't have a buckball team, but that doesn't stop Twilight from assigning Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Snails to coaching the new players in order to get them ready in time. Meanwhile, Twilight has an important assignment for Dash: she's coaching the cheer squad. Rainbow Dash is less than enthused, because she doesn't think cheer squads add anything to the games, and quite frankly she doesn't even pay attention to them regardless, so when she's given the assignment and meets up with the team, consisting of Lighthoof, Shimmy Shim, Yona, Ocellus, and Smolder, with Snips as her assistant coach (who is more interested in selling merchandise), she ignores their concerns when they ask her for help in tightening up their routine. They demonstrate the routine for her, but she's too busy watching the buckball team through the window, and so when their truly below par performance is complete, she says they did fine and she leaves. Of course, they're not fine at all. Yona dances too hard, and trips up the lead dancers, Ocellus is too quiet to be heard, and Snips is afraid he's going to lose bits because no one will be invested enough to buy anything for a cheer team that can't even get through one routine. She tries to skip out for the day when Snips stops her, saying she has to help them get ready for the performance. Snips can't convince her that cheer squad is important, and Dash dismisses him saying no one cares about the squad. Snips says they need a coach, and Dash pawns it off on him. As a result, the team shows up to practice wearing merchandise, but nothing works out at all because the ponies are just loaded down with souvenirs, and unable to even move to cheer, and he's out of ideas. They need Dash. Smolder confronts Dash and says that she needs to help them practice. Dash tries to use Snails to get the squad to just do nothing, and Yona says Dash needs to teach them to cheer. Snails mentions that as it's the school of friendship, Dash needs to ask her friends for ideas. Dash reluctantly agrees, and heads off to talk to each of her friends, who gives her what she needs to create a good program. Of course, Dash doesn't really care, though she does deliver on bringing the props for cheers to the squad. She doesn't bother explaining how any of it works, though, and she ends practice before they can even find out what to do with any of it. The squad is worried because their first on field practice is tomorrow, and they need guidance. Dash bails on them, of course. So the next day comes, and the squad comes out to practice their routine. It goes horribly, with Dash bagging on her own squad because she doesn't think their work matters. This is a glaring oversight for Dash, of course, because she should know that every aspect of a game, from the players to the cheer squad, is important. The squad, though, is humiliated. They believe Dash doesn't even care. The dancers, Yona, and Ocellus run from practice, in tears because they think Dash doesn't care if they fail. This hurts them because they expected more from somepony who puts so much into being the best. Smolder, though, blows her top, and gives Dash the dressing down she needs to realize that even if you don't care for cheer leading, you should at least care about the beings who want to be the best at what they do. Smolder is disappointed in her hero, because she knows Dash is supposed to really care about competing, about doing 120% better than everypony else. Dash really thinks about how she's behaved, and returns the next morning to whip the squad into shape. She vows to do her best to help them become better, and begins to teach them how to truly create an effective cheer routine. We get a neat little montage where she addresses each flaw in the routine, and we cut to the next day. Now the game has started, but Dash doesn't care about that, she's more nervous about the half time squad performance. When they come out, she is thrilled to watch as they give a commanding performance, making every creature in the stands cheer and sing. It is a rousing success. By the end of the game, Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns ends up winning, but Dash is still excited for her squad, and Twilight points out that she chose the best pony for the job after all, to which Dash realizes she's been friendship lessoned. Just a simple slice of life episode, but it was fun! I like seeing Dash realize that just because something's not important to you, you should still care because it's important to the people you care about. It's a good lesson on empathy. This may also be the first reference to magic prohibiting horn rings, as Celestia's team needs them because buckball requires a pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony, and Celestia's school is all unicorns (obviously). This prevents cheating, not that I would expect Celestia's team to do that. It was also cute to see Celestia really getting into the game and using the Royal Canterlot Voice to motivate her team. It's nice to see that there are still friendship lessons to learn, and that Dash learns a very valuable one before the end of the series, as I believe empathy is something everyone should learn. This episode gets an "A." A good slice of life episode that teaches a solid lesson.