My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - 2x011 - Hearth's Warming Eve

    The ponies travel to Canterlot, to star in a pageant about the founding of Equestria.  That's just the framing device.  The story they star in has the earth ponies, the pegasus ponies, and the unicorns in a conflict, dealing with a harsh Winter.  Learning to work together helps them overcome their problems, and leads to the founding of Equestria.
    I like this type of mythological episode.  And the device used to utilize the main characters rather than rely on new ones was handled very well.
    This episode is important to me, because one of my first concerns in the show was the obvious inequality between the types of ponies.  The pegasus ponies have an obvious special ability.  The unicorns get to use magic, allowing them all kinds of abilities.  The earth ponies have no particular advantage.  They seem to be stuck in a rut of being farmers, and not much else.  The episode tries to address that, making it clear that the pegasus ponies manipulate the weather to ensure that crops can grow.  And the unicorns somehow use their magic to ensure that day and night come.  That just sounds like an excuse to me.  I think they're a ruling class that doesn't actually do anything for the good of Equestria.
    That's not that I don't like them.  I mostly just think that the earth ponies really deserve something special to set them apart.  There's no reason that unicorns or pegasus ponies can't farm.  Maybe they could establish that the earth ponies are stronger than the other types.