My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - 2x03 - Lesson Zero

    Twilight Sparkle realizes that she's gone almost a full week without learning a lesson about friendship, and she believes that if she misses an assignment, she'll be sent back to "magic kindergarten."  So she tries to search out a friend having a problem, and when that doesn't work, decides to create a problem.
    It's a very good episode.  The writing for Twilight is spot-on, nearly exactly what I could imagine Cathy saying.  The animation is excellent as always, with some great manic designs for Twilight's descent into madness.
    But beyond that material, the rest of the episode has some excellent character building bits.  We see Rainbow Dash helping Applejack destroy a barn, which has a great design of Applejack wearing a helmet.  I didn't care for the stuff with Rarity at first, but this time, I really liked her fainting couch.  Fluttershy got a great sequence of her pushing a bear around, ending in a massage.  The only person that really felt like they didn't get enough time was Pinkie, but I suppose that's acceptable.
    The important thing that this episode established was that it permitted the writers to change up their stories more freely.  No longer does Twilight need to remain inserted into every story, anyone can learn a lesson.  This opened the door to favorites like A Friend In Deed, which barely has any of the other characters.  This type of freedom allowed for the whole show to blossom over the second season.