After hearing a lot about “Bronies” last year, I decided I should watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic on Netflix to see what all the fuss was about. After I watched it, I understood why a lot of people love it: The show is well-written and I feel like I can personally relate to the misadventures of the characters, which makes it very funny to watch. Seeing Twilight Sparkle run around tearing her mane out and stressing over her to-do list cracks me up – I keep saying that Twilight and Spike are just like myself and Jai. So now I guess I am a Brony, or a Pegasister, however you want to call it.

I wasn’t too impressed with Season 3, as I felt like the stories weren’t as well-written and the ponies were acting out of character; I received an early screener link to the two-part Season 4 series premiere, so I was curious to see whether the show had “Jumped the shark” yet. And no, FTC, the episodes were not downloadable so I didn’t “Receive” anything, my eyeballs merely viewed an early online streaming preview at the episodes. Which I was actually happy about, since I don’t have cable and I can see the show now instead of waiting for it all to come on Netflix!

The premiere episodes are “Princess Twilight Sparkle – Part 1 & 2”. This picks up where season 3 left off, with Twilight becoming an Alicorn and being crowned princess. As Twilight prepares for the Summer Sun Festival, she worries about her friendship with the other ponies changing as she gains more responsibility – but soon has much more to worry about when Princesses Celestia and Luna go missing and the forest starts attacking Ponyville. As the gang tries to unravel this mystery, they take a trip back into the past. What could be causing this evil: Is it Discord? Has Princess Luna morphed back into evil Nightmare Moon? Or is it something else? Spoiler alert: The answer involves the Elements of Harmony and a mysterious new power that looks like the makings of a new toy tie-in.

I thought these episodes were a little underwhelming, but I tend to prefer the standalones over the traditional season premiere storyarcs. (I feel like I just time-traveled back to a 1998 X-Files messageboard with that statement!) I feel like they’re dragging Discord out unnecessarily and it’s getting a little old – look, I get that fans love him, and I loved Q on Star Trek: TNG too, but it seems a little stale at this point. I get the feeling they’re trying to angle him as a more regular character, but try not to beat a dead pony with a stick. But the characterizations were pretty true to form and I enjoyed watching the episodes, so I’m looking forward to seeing what the rest of the season has to offer.

Season 4 of My Little Pony debuts tomorrow morning, November 23rd at 7 AM PST/10 AM EST. Will you be watching?