My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E07 May the Best Pet Win/YMMV

Accidental Innuendo: "And that's why you would never qualify to be my pet."
And the Fandom Rejoiced / Fanon Discontinuity: Depending on one's hope, this episode either happily followed with established alignment with Rainbow Dash gaining the tortoise as a pet, or broke fan's hopes that Rainbow would gain a "cool" pet (or yes, even Scootaloo). Word of God notes the episode was written a year prior and happened to coincidentally overlap with some of the fandom approaches.
- And the Fandom Rejoiced: The fans get to hear Rainbow Dash sing again.
  - As well as the fact that after two Fluttershy-less episodes, she's back and also sings.
  - It was the first song of the season! Seven episodes and a summer break since "The Best Night Ever" and finally a new song!
- Ascended Meme: After the turtle toy was revealed, there was popular fanon involving Rainbow Dash having a pet turtle/tortoise named Speedy, which may or may not have been inspired by said turtle toy. Guess it was an obvious pet of choice to begin with for a speedster.
- Also a fair amount of Fridge Brilliance in this. All the other pets were focused on winning, with a "nice guys finish last" attitude. The tortoise helped Rainbow Dash free her trapped wing from under a rock, thus showing that he, like Rainbow Dash, is loyal. (she is the Element of Loyalty, after all!)
  - Though that leads to Fridge Logic since Angel isn't the kindest, and Opal isn't the most generous, Gummy is basically the Comically Serious and Winona may or may not be a liar.
  - Then again, the other ponies (likely) had their pets before being told they were the Elements of Harmony, with the exception of Twilight, so they probably weren't looking for that quality in their pet. And Twilight hadn't even been looking for a pet in the first place.
Base Breaker: The musical number is turning out to be this. Some fans find it catchy and appreciate its musical-style nature. Other fans hate it because it seems like it belongs in a stage musical, and contrasts with pretty much all the prior songs.
- Which is pretty bad when you consider that two songs from Season One are pretty much renditions or Suspiciously Similar Song versions of songs from musicals.
Canada, Eh?: DHX Media/Studio B seems to be showing it's Canadian roots, by staging Rainbow Dash and the eagle playing curling (a popular Canadian sport) in the photo montage. Perhaps a bit of irony if the eagle is meant to be a bald eagle, the symbol of America, where curling is practically non-existent, to the point that it curling is stereotypically connected to Canada in this fashion.
Ear Worm: That song!
Ensemble Darkhorse: A lot of fans were rooting for the bat after the preview image was shown. Shame he came in third in the race. He was still pretty awesome in the episode, though.
Fridge Brilliance: Though used to set up the Chekhov's Skill for Tank, the tortoise's plan of tipping over Opal's cage on top of her from behind would have been rather effective to get the mouse from her if the butterfly hadn't beaten him to it. In general, Tank appeared to have several moments of genius hampered by being a slow tortoise than anything else.
Fridge Horror: When Applejack points out that there's been an avalanche in the valley, for a moment just before Pinkie and Fluttershy spot Tank with Rainbow Dash in tow they have no idea what happened. For all they know, Rainbow Dash could've been crushed under the rocks. In this light, Applejack's fear and urgency take on a much darker tone. It's even worse if you consider that, from this perspective, that she may not have been immediately killed, but badly broken, suffering great pain as she slowly suffocates.
- ... Are you okay?
Fridge Logic: One wonders where Tank can sleep since only Pegasi^[1] can stand on clouds.
- Solid objects can be placed on clouds (like buildings and the balloon gondola). Tank will just have to be very careful about getting out of bed.
  - Unless he sleeps with his shell copter on, of course!
- Fridge Brilliance: Twilight would use the same spell she use in Sonic Rainboom to walk on the clouds.
- Speaking of spells, Tank's shell copter has a rotor glowing with a mysterious yellow aura. Since with the addition of telltale Color Coded Magic of Season 2, does this mean that Celestia helped place a permanent enchantment on the device?
- Was there anything the non-Tank competitors could have actually done to help Rainbow out of her predicament?
  - Actually notice the problem and go for help?
Hilarious in Hindsight: Back during Rarity's "Art of the Dress" song in Suited for Success, she sings the line "Rainbow won't look like a tank." Well, she might not, but her tortoise sure is a tank!
- In addition, there is a little known Dash fic wherein Rainbow adopts and trains a falcon. Sure enough, a falcon is one of the contestants and even appeared to be the winner. Coincidence? Yes, definitely, but no less hilarious either way.
- There's also the massive number of fanfics were Rainbow Dash gets her wing injured. Guess what happens in this episode?
  - Only here she doesn't fall in love with anypony.
I Knew It!: Ever since Hasbro released a Rainbow Dash toy with a turtle for a pet, fans speculated that it would be Dash's pet here. While Tank is a tortoise, not a turtle, he's close enough to count.
- Then again, the animation team and the toy department are completely separate (and the latter has less creative freedom), so it's most likely either a coincidence or a friendly Take That.
  - Or maybe it's because the writers have to somehow incorporate the toys into the show.
- Most of the fans called it in the middle of the song.
- Well of course the falcon would be Rainbow Dash's first choice for a pet; peregrine falcons are the fastest animals on earth.
Mind Screw: I know I can't be the only one who was as weirded out by that dream in the beginning of the episode as Rainbow was.
Mondegreen: "There are falcons and eagles / They are both quite legal!" Sorry, "regal!"
Nightmare Fuel: Rainbow Dash's amalgam of the other Mane cast's pets looks so silly and harml--OH MY CELESTIA!^{[dead link]}
- Rainbow gets her wing stuck under a boulder, without any chance of help arriving any time soon. Similarities to 127 Hours have not gone unnoticed.
  - To be fair about it, all her friends knew exactly where she went and she was within easy binocular range, so she was probably being a little overdramatic.
- The Quarry Eels. While the scene was played for laughs and took Refuge in Audacity, Rainbow Dash's lack of consideration for the animals' safety doesn't come off well when the bat nearly gets eaten, and the eagle briefly looks like its head was bitten off.
  - You could argue that this is why only those animals participated in the race (the tortoise wasn't invited but joined anyway). All the different animals participated in the other contests, so there's no evidence that any sort of elimination was going on. Maybe for the final event Rainbow only included the ones she knew could handle it (hence why the butterfly doesn't join, even though it "won" an event).
Painful Rhyme: More like not a rhyme at all - while the song is generally pretty good with its rhymes, one stanza near the very end of the song sticks out like a sore thumb.

Rainbow Dash: The bat would be awesome, but the wasp I'm digging too
D'you have something in a yellow striped bat?
Fluttershy: No,
I've got a hot pink flamingo, just dying to meet you!
Rainbow Dash: What to do, what to do?

- The problem is the line ending in "bat". If you follow the rhyming structure of the rest of the song, "bat" and "do" would have to rhyme, and obviously, they don't even remotely. It could be argued that "do" was meant to rhyme with "you", which would be acceptable, but even then, "bat" would be similarly paired with "too", which still doesn't rhyme.
  - The way the melody is structured, Fluttershy's "no' is the last word on the second line; yes, it's still out of whack for rhyming, but it fits a lot closer to "too", "you", and "do".
- It's an A-B-A-A rhyming scheme, so the word "bat" is not rhymed with anything. While not common, it's still a recognized pattern. YMMV indeed, as I found this part of the song to flow just as well as the rest.
Ugly Cute: The Angel, Gummy, Owlowiscious mix thing. Until Opalescence popped out.

- The "fixed" versions, while slightly improved, can still look off: Audiences probably subconsciously picked up how improbable the mouth shapes are, given the ponies' facial structures. Overall, the animation style gives a lack of recognizable depth for their extended snouts, meaning neither option fully works.
  - Not actually improbable, though, just flattened by perspective. From the side, you'd be able to see the pony's lower jaw extending downwards and the smile curving up around her snout, but from the front it's just a smiley face with a mouth curve that changes shape.
Wangst: Rainbow Dash carries on about being trapped forever, despite her friends expecting her at the finish line very shortly and knowing exactly where to look for her, and two of them easily being able to magic the boulder off her wing. Though she was probably just giving in to panic for a bit.

↑ and apparently birds

[1] rently birds

[1]