9: After sharing a happy moment together, the six ponies decide to make a time capsule, so they all return home to select an item. The next day, Applejack brings one of her hats, Rainbow Dash brings a trophy she got at the Sportacular Spectacular, Twilight brings her favorite calculator, Rarity brings a script from that popular TV show she had once made an appearance in, and Pinkie Pie brings a mixing bowl she had used during the Royal Jelly Juggernaut baking competition. Fluttershy, however, was unable to chose anything, but with some encouragement from her friends, she finally decides on the photo they had taken of that happy moment earlier in the episode. They place their items inside a trunk and bury it, but just as they start walking away, a magical glow leads to Pinkie admitting she got that trunk from one of the mysterious bubbles seen in the most recent episodes. That magical trunk ends up opening a vortex that sucks in the six ponies.
The concept of a time capsule is often an interesting way to share memories (which makes me realize it was never attempted in the FiM series, so that could've been a missed opportunity). And with this episode starting off another arc with that vortex through space and time, this series is started to get very interesting to me. Also, we got to briefly see where each of the six ponies live (and I believe it's a first for Rainbow Dash in particular).
10: Applejack and Rarity land in a frontier town, which Applejack immediately recognizes as the past. When one of the locals points out Applejack's hat is missing, the two friends realize that the key to returning to their time period is to recover that hat that had been placed inside the time capsule. They soon find out it ended up in the possession of a guy named Saddle Bags, who challenges Applejack to prove herself as a real cowpony. Applejack is thrilled to be in a town full of cowponies, but her talents are proven to be amateurish compared to all the locals. Rarity soon comes up with the idea to combine her acting talents with Applejack's cowpony attitude to convince Saddle Bags they are worthy of that glowing hat. He proudly gives them the hat, and the two friends are immediately pulled through another vortex.
So this episode confirms that these vortexes result in time travel, which I'm always fascinated with. I also found it rather amusing how Applejack always portrays herself as a cowpony, yet once she was placed in a town full of actual cowponies, she suddenly finds herself way out of her league. (Believe me, I can actually sympathize with that kind of feeling, thinking that I'm excellent at something, only to be swiftly overwhelmed by the true professionals.)
11: Twilight and Rainbow Dash land in a futuristic city, where they find Fluttershy wearing some headgear as she is taken away by some robotic ponies. The two friends try to go after her, but then try to flee from two other robot ponies, only for those robot ponies to follow them and then greet them as friends, introducing themselves as mecha-ponies named Natalie and Pulverizer. The mecha-ponies agree to help them find Fluttershy, but Rainbow Dash remains highly skeptical. They soon arrive at a large floating cube, which upon entering turns out to be a futuristic version of Sugar Cube Corner, where they find Fluttershy who has been busy playing a VR game all along. Rainbow Dash apologizes to the mecha-ponies for being unfairly judgemental, and they in return offer to let them play a different game, which turns out to be Twilight's calculator. Rainbow politely asks the mecha-ponies to let them have the calculator back and they accept, allowing the three friends to open another vortex that they then jump into.
I'm always interested in futuristic settings, and the robotic mecha-ponies were also something I found neat. I actually kind of wish we could have some more episodes based around this futuristic Ponyville.
12: Pinkie Pie is joined by the rest of her friends through the vortex and they soon land in what appears to be their proper time period. However, they soon discover the world around them has become very different from what they're familiar with. Sugar Cube Corner is replaced with a healthy food restaurant named Salad Bowl Junction, everyone talks on banana phones, there are statues of Discord everywhere, and there's even an alternate group of themselves (except with the colors swapped between Twilight and Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Applejack, and Rarity and Fluttershy). They eventually enter the salad restaurant, where they meet Lightning Chill the tiger, Echo the bat, and Sugar Snap the peacock. The three "Wildsiders" (as Rarity decided to call them) encourage the six ponies to try their salads. They enjoy their salads, though Pinkie is reluctant to try hers until she realizes hers is within her mixing bowl, and it is upon finally trying that salad (and actually liking it) that another vortex opens up and pulls the six ponies through. The six ponies are then flung out back in their correct time and place and prepare to celebrate, only for another vortex to suddenly bring the three Wildsiders into their world.
So now after two time travel episodes, we next get to see an alternate universe. In have to say, this week's group of episodes have definitely become my favorite set of Pony Life episodes in the entire series thus far. Of course, only half of the items from the magical time capsule have been accounted for, which leaves me wondering about the other three (Rainbow Dash's trophy, Rarity's script, and Fluttershy's photo). Not to mention, with the three Wildsiders now in the regular universe, next week's episodes could be very interesting to see.
