The Round Stable

All Bottled Up
Twilight Sparkle tries to avoid her problems and accidentally traps Applejack and herself inside a potion bottle.

All That Jitters
Twilight Sparkle learns from Potion Nova that potion making is harder than it looks.

I, Cookie
Left alone at Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie accidently creates a new batch of desserts with minds of their own.

Keynote Pie
Pinkie Pie learns a lesson in public speaking.

Ready for more tales of the Mane Six doing drugs drinking potions? I hope you are, because four more are coming at you at 11 AM Eastern on Treehouse! Be there in #ponyday on Discord to catch it live, as always.

I'd think Hasbro would not care much for a last-minute title change to literally the same name of a past FiM episode, but oh well. It does still make me wonder about Pony Life's production process. At least this felt like the best batch of episodes yet.

I know I've commented on how this version of Twilight Sparkle feels different, but today I realized just how much the difference in setting contributes to that. Here, she doesn't seem to have the same connection since childhood to Princess Celestia and the same responsibility to write friendship letters, nor does Pony Life's Equestria require her to save the world nearly every season. I feel like that's why this show can do stories as low-key as her panicking over potions instead of mostly just trotting her out to be the hero and having to put her away otherwise so that others can get some screen time, a problem that I felt plagued early-mid FiM.

The events of I, Cookie felt like taking Too Many Pinkie Pies, adding a healthy dash of her hallucinations from Party of One, and tossing it all in a blender. Thankfully(?), the cookies she created were almost certainly destroyed in the rain after they were set free, so I guess you don't have to consider the ethics of whether you're creating life if it gets ended by circumstance soon after!

I wonder if Keynote Pie's jokes about dipshit investors in anything even passingly tech-related made at least a few Hasbro suits squirm.

It's disappointing to see we left the beach setting after all, but it seems like Potion Nova is straight up a recurring character now.

I thought the first story was pretty fun. Twilight wanting to hide away in the potion bottle actually reminded me of a certain fanfic where Twilight is sealed away and the seal is partially powered by her own desire to be so.

Also, it had Rarity addressing Pinkie as "Pinkie-Poo-Pancakes".



Also, Twilight being frustrated.



Pictures:




The third story was an odd one, but I liked it. I'm glad the cookies weren't eaten or otherwise implied killed. Pinkie's imitations were fun; she was spot on with Fluttershy.

Interesting that it's Rarity that has a devoted book shelf in the bakery. Also, that's a big plushie Fluttershy has. I'm surprised that Twilight's duplicator from that Rainbow time travel episode returned.

The final story seems to be the biggest source of fan art so far, though just of the ending bit.



That quiet "Pinkie" is really funny to me for some reason.

Overall, both episodes were good.