Hearthbreakers really tickled me, and not just because it's a Christmas episode that aired a week before the Halloween episode. It served to finish what Pinkie Apple Pie and Maud Pie started, showing the full range of Pinkie's family and how different members interact with one another. In particular the episode centered around the Apples, who are just barely related to the Pies if they are at all, and how their traditional Ponyville culture clashes with that of the gray rock farmers.
Maud Pie once again makes stoicism as hysterical as her pink sister's bouncy antics. The newly introduced Pie siblings give new corner stones to the range of extremes that make up this family; Marble makes Fluttershy look like a talkative extrovert, and Limestone is to seething rage what Pinkie Pie is to exuberant happiness. Their parents are neutral Amish stereotypes by comparison, but hey, they work.
The episode kept me entertained on a humorous as well as an emotional level, with the final message, as usual, revolving around tolerance and understanding. Applejack is the one who has to learn this episode, being the resident bigot and cultural supremacist among the Mane 6. (Seriously, AJ? Earth ponies can use their freaky super strength during Winter Wrap-Up, but unicorns using their special talents is going too far? I'm still bitter you didn't have to learn a lesson about discarding dumb traditions during that episode.)
So yeah. I rate this one a rock solid 9/10. A full 10/10 if this turns out to be a set up for Holder's Boulder to hatch into an awe-inspiring geodragon someday.
There are people who take me way too seriously, I think. It's less evident now, but I used to get a lot of random downvotes as I approached and passed Brandon Sanderson. The majority of it seems to have bee a lighthearted crusade to keep Brandon at the top of the rep list, but even after I'd requested the fad to stop it continued, with a couple of small brigades against my RP posts in What Happened in Oregon. I still get these mysterious downvotes directed at innocuous, seemingly random posts of mine from time to time, leading me to suspect--or at least, irrationally fear--that there are a few people on here that see me as a pointless poster who has no business being here.
By and large though, I don't think most people actually care who I am. My crowning achievement was a mere result of spamming the board with enough random jokes and ponies to net myself a metric ton of meaningless forum likes, which is nothing to brag about. The only reason I'm as well-known as I am is because I happen to post on a variety of topics.
So yeah. I think there are a couple of haters who despise me for dumb reasons, and a bunch of people who chuckle every now and then at the weird guy who posts more than is healthy. It hardly sets me apart from my peers.