Fillies, gentlecolts, and foals of all ages, welcome once again to another edition of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic recap/review. And this week, it’s time to put the focus on the most beloved character in the series… Spike! Okay, so I might be exaggerating with that claim, but as we’ve seen Spike has the most hit and miss episodes of the series so far. Was his pairing with Applejack a sign of a better episode? Let’s find out with “Spike at your Service”.
Twilight Sparkle: Bookophile
We open the episode at Twilight Sparkle’s library as the purple unicorn has a busy weekend ahead of her, as she has twelve large books to read, assigned to her by Princess Celestia. However this leaves Spike the Dragon bored. He decides to go for a balloon ride, but accidentally removes the rope too quickly, causing the balloon to fly off. He does manage to save it, but ends up stuck in the deep, dark, Everfree Forest.
And this leads to Spike being cornered by three hungry timber wolves. Wolves that are literally made out of timber. But before he’s dragon chow, Applejack comes to his aid, managing to literally break down the timber wolves. Spike is extremely grateful for Applejack saving his life, and wants to repay her however he can, despite Applejack clearly not wanting his help. But she can’t refuse either, as this is part of Spike’s noble dragon code, which means that he must forever be in debt to the pony that rescues him.
Spike isn't as helpful as he thinks he is.
This of course includes farm work at Sweet Apple Acres, which starts off easy enough with pig cleaning, but ends up getting worse for the Apple Family, as Spike makes a major mess while trying to make apple pies. Granny Smith suggests that maybe Spike should just see if Twilight Sparkle needs his help, so Spike goes to tell her that he is now going to work for Applejack forever. However, Twilight is too busy with her books to even listen to him.
Now more and more annoyed with Spike’s help, and out of options, Applejack tries to get the help of her friends to find a way to keep Spike occupied, and not cause problems. Rainbow Dash suggests that Spike should try to build a tower of rocks for her to smash through. Which she does, to painful results. Fluttershy’s suggestion of just saying that there’s nothing needed right now doesn’t work too well either.
Mega Timber Wolf
When Twilight is finally informed of Spike’s new found position, she joins Applejack in a plan to finally get rid of the dragon code nonsense once and for all. They stage a phony timber wolf attack, hoping that it would lead to Spike saving Applejack, and the duo being Even Steven. Spike sees through their rouse, but that doesn’t last long as the timber wolves from earlier return and attack. Applejack again defeats them… until they turn into a giant timber wolf. With Applejack’s hoof stuck, Spike throws a rock in the wolf’s mouth, and it dies. Well that was easy.
Now that they’re even, Applejack tells Spike that the dragon code stuff is no longer necessary, and that from now on, if something like this arrives, that saving someone shouldn’t come with a reward, and more of a “that’s what friends do”. And the episode ends with Spike once again being Twilight’s faithful helper.
So, was this episode “dragon” too much, or was it a solid episode? Let’s whittle down the pros and cons for this week.
PRO
I love the designs of the timber wolves. The show has shown them before in the episode “Family Appreciation Day”, but this is the first time they’ve been truly fleshed out. They actually come off as the most menacing and scary looking creatures in the entire series so far. Granted, they are full CGI, but they do blend in quite well enough to the 2D flash environment that they don’t feel out of place.
I do like that they didn’t really make Spike super annoying, or made Applejack angry with this whole situation. The way this whole setup was handled worked well enough, and doesn’t bog the episode down too much.
Ample tv time for the rest of the mane six, which we really haven’t gotten much of in the last few episodes. I was worried this would only have one or two involved like most episodes with premises like these would. But I was quite happy to see that they all had a part to play.
CON
I would say there was a lack of any real major laughs in the episode, which could have really helped out, especially in the middle of the episode, where it does begin to bog things down a bit. But there were some decent jokes like Pinkie and her mustache.
Also, if Spike can breathe fire, can’t he just burn the timber wolves, which are clearly made of wood? That in itself adds a massive hole to this plot. But then again, this is a Merriwether episode, and most of her episodes have been full of logic holes, or just poorly pieced together.
“Spike at your Service” is another filler episode. Which is a shame since this season seemed more intent on massive character developments for the majority, and the last couple have just been mediocre. But even with that said, it’s still a better episode than last week, and for a Spike episode, it was certainly better than some of the others he’s had. So, it’s still a decent victory for the little guy.
RATING: 8 out of 10
My Little Pony returns in three weeks with quite the chaotic episode. Discord, an old enemy of the mane six, has been freed by Princess Celestia in order to give him a chance to change his chaotic ways. No pony wants to give him a chance… except for Fluttershy. Can the timid pegasus teach master of chaos and disharmony to “Keep Calm and Flutter on”? Find out in January.
Until next time everypony!