I found it to be the worst episode of the season, if not the series.
1. Unlike in Secret of My Excess or even Owl's Well, Spike is portrayed not only as the one in the wrong, but the Mane 6, who clearly used him as a chew toy, were shown as being in the right; just like in Mare do Well, the ones who respond to fire with fire are praised. Spike got a half-assed apology at the end and then was put back in his place because he can't sell toys as well as ponies he's a boy Merriwether is a bad writer. Instead of an episode where we actually learn more about this world (which she did an okay job of in HWE), we basically learned that dragons migrate and that teenage dragons are assholes. On that note...
2. It's sexist. No, really. Although it's obviously a show aimed at girls, it has done a good job in the past at positively portraying both sexes (and negatively; villains are about 50/50 gender-wise), like any Merriwether episode, we get one-dimensional antagonists. But you know what? After the belly flop, they began to treat Spike as an actual equal, so other than killing birds for fun, they treated him better than the Mane 6. I'm sure this was unintentional on this part. Merriwether likes simple messages; this one is effectively "Boys are all dumb unless they act as subordinates". And that's just what happens; Spike goes back to being a beta character, whether he likes it or not.
