Episode review: S9E20: "A Horse Shoe-In"

"I'm still winking, Starlight, even if you can't see me. WINK."

Slowly, inexorably, Friendship is Magic moves closer to the end. We're now into the 20s in terms of S9 episode numbers, but rather to my surprise we got a brand new writer. I knew nothing at all about Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim, but of course I was hoping she'd hit the ground running and give us a good 22 minutes. After all, the odds were that it would be her only FiM credit. You know how it goes: join me past the cut for some episode-related rambling!

I think she did a pretty good job, all things considered, and quite frankly she did better than one or two much more experienced FiM writers have managed this season. While "A Horse Shoe-In" fell short of perfection, it got a lot more right than wrong and to my mind was the most entertaining episode of Season 9B so far. It didn't hurt that the show's reliably great double act, Starlight and Trixie, were the principals this time around.

Which reminds me that this episode had shades of last year's "A Matter of Principles", though I think this one was better. In S8, the plot revolved around the choice of Head Mare for the School of Friendship; this time, it was the Vice-Head Mare position that was up for grabs. This job title did lead to one slightly weird moment late on, when Big Mac stood down from consideration. We've had the title "Head Stallion" used in the past, so surely Mac would have used a relevant title? Oh well, minor issue.

"And this is where I add character regression!"

I was a bit concerned at the beginning that Starlight's talks to Phyllis would mean an episode where she'd go completely off the rails. Happily, I was wrong, and it was the conflict between doing the right thing and pleasing a friend that took centre stage. Starlight certainly learned a friendship lesson – but this one was also a leadership lesson, and once Twilight is out of Ponyville I suspect that it may be Glimmy who takes on the role of the town's moral guardian. Quite a rise from where she once was.

The cast of secondary characters vying for the VHM job was interesting, though the idea of Spoiled Rich taking any interest did stretch credulity just a tad. It was nice to see Dr. Hooves named in-show for the first time, and Octavia demonstrated that she has some interesting depths to her character. Big Mac wasn't quite allowed the range he's occasionally shown in the past, which was a pity. Which of course left Trixie and her winking certainty that she was the one for the job.

This leads me on to the episode's only significant false step: when we saw Trixie taking a class, I was very pleased to hear S1's Froggy Bottom Bogg name-checked... but I simply couldn't believe that Trixie would be capable of the spell she cast to bring part of it into the classroom. We've never seen any indication that ordinary unicorns can do anything remotely similar; even Starlight Glimmer couldn't quite clear up the mess and had to wait for a certain lavender alicorn to do the honours.

Your heart absolutely breaks for poor Gallus in this scene

Moving on, perhaps the most emotional moment in the episode was Gallus's unhappy appearance at the parents' evening. Although the point wasn't explicitly addressed, we know from "The Hearth's Warming Club" that the griffon's early life was pretty miserable and that he never had a loving family. Trixie was therefore being cavalier to say the least in the things she said to Grampa Gruff right in front of Gallus. To me, that alone proved Trixie was not VHM material.

I liked the resolution of this episode. Although it was a slight shame that there was no setup for it, Sunburst's appearance and acceptance of the deputy's role did seem fitting. (This time, the script carefully avoided the question of his actual job title!) Trixie as School Counsellor came a little out of the blue, and I do think she'll need a bit of coaching to learn how to handle the quieter, more sensitive students such as Ocellus, but I can see what Starlight is getting at there.

Add to that some amusing little touches, such as Octavia's unexpectedly unorthodox musical performances and Trixie backing down from the desk after her smoke bomb, not to mention Phyllis of course, and "A Horse Shoe-In" was an episode that did pretty well for itself. If only Shepherd-Oppenheim had come on board earlier, I'd have said I'd be happy to see her write for the show again. G5, perhaps? Whether that happens or not, this was an entertaining and interesting episode that I think will bear rewatching.

Phyllis is clearly a spy for Trixie. She's an obvious plant

Best line: Trixie, passim: "Wink!"
Best moment: Octavia and Vinyl's performance
Worst moment: Trixie's unlikely teleportation

Yays

• Interesting, mostly satisfying story from a new writer
• Lots of entertaining bits around the edges
• Nice insight into a couple of the secondary cast members

Neighs

• Trixie's powers of teleportation weren't believable
• A slight shame Sunburst's appearance came out of nowhere

★★★★