A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2 (Revisited)

I was meaning to re-watch this episode sooner, but kept putting it off and finally got around to it just now. I re-watched Read it and Weep, and was all hyped up for Daring Do and questioning whether that should take the place of my favorite, which forced my hand.

This episode was one of my tops for Season 2 and was rated my overall favorite. It also features my lovely Princess Mi Amore Cadenza in all her 'evil' glory, for a while. I'm really torn, because Read it and Weep/Daring Do is awesome, but I really like this episode too. I'm not sure if I can choose between them, they both excel at certain aspects. ACW 2 is sweet and heart warming with a little bit of malevolence from Cadenza thrown in, RiaW is badass and full of moxie. Eh, it's a really tough call. I feel like Homer trying to choose between Man Getting Hit By Football and Pukahontas.

I don't really have any complaints about this episode. It would have been better if Cadenza really was Cadence, and she just changed as she got older. Oh, I'm probably just saying that because I really liked the 'evil' Princess Mi Amore Cadenza attitude. =] The Changelings thing works as it's unexpected, but does raise a lot of questions as to why no one detected her and how long had she been infiltrating as Cadenza.

As mentioned, this episode is really sweet. Who doesn't feel bad when Cadence is in tears, knowing she may lose the love of her life? It also has some good Twilight Rage moments, and, most importantly, This Day Aria! Perfect.

This episode also has a fair amount of magic usage. We see Twilight blasting people with energy bolts, even Celestia herself gets some magic usage in, although she gets whooped.  Oh, almost forgot, the dernier cri of course is a love magic enhanced magical blast that saves the day.

Does it deserve to be my number 1 favorite? I would say so. Does it have insanely strong competition? Indeed it does. Will it get knocked out of #1? Perhaps, I really like Daring Do, and that episode or Part 1 of the Wedding would likely be the fiercest competitors. The art or whatever for this episode also seems particularly well done, as seen in the below:

As with all the other 'revisited' episodes, this one features enhanced commentary and images. I'm not sure how many it had originally, as I was using a clunky naming system, but it has over 100 now, as it should be for one of my favorites. =] The original commentary is mostly intact as well, I tried not to change too much since this was the second episode I had watched. Perfect.

Read it and Weep (Revisited)

This episode has definitely been in my top 3 since I first watched it. After re-watching it, I'm questioning my judgment in having not selected it for the overall favorite. I may have to change that, because I love this episode.

Daring Do is just plain awesome. I love this character. As evidenced by her making my Season 2 top 5 and overall top 5 character lists. While re-watching this, I was even questioning my selecting Twilight Sparkle as my favorite over her. She really is just that awesome. =]

The Daring Do plot is fun and entertaining. The 'real world' Rainbow Dash plot where learns she loves books and hides it from her friends, eventually turning to thievery to find out what happens to Daring Do, and eventually learning it's okay to read, is not as good (then again what is?), but still pretty good.

The only 'bad' thing I can say about this episode is that it introduced this amazingly awesome character and we never got to see Daring Do again except for on another book cover in A Friend in Deed. Hopefully Season 3 or beyond remedies that situation. We really need Daring Do as a 'real' character, working alongside the 'mane 6' on an adventure. Especially as a The Last Crusade parody. =]

Like my other 'revisited' episodes, it has received a bit of enhanced commentary and tons, I do mean tons, of new screenshots. Maybe about four times as many as it had before, with a little over 220 total. Most of which are of Daring Do. <3

The Last Roundup (Revisited)

So, I've 'revisited' Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6k, and just finished re-watching The Last Roundup. I think these were the only Applejack centric episodes of Season 2.

Applejack didn't make my Season 2 top 5 character list (although she did make Season 1's) nor did this episode make my top 10 S2 episode list. The reasons for both of them not making the Season 2 lists are lost to the ravages of time. I do like Applejack though, and this was a pretty decent episode for her. Out of the goodness of her heart, she puts her own happiness aside so she can try and repay the 'debt' she feels she owes to her community.

Applejack excels at the rodeo, and her rodeo exploits have been supported by the Ponyville community since she was young. Because of that, she feels a little indebted to repay her supporters by pledging her winnings from the Canterlot Rodeo to fix up the Town Hall, which is in desperate need for repairs.

The rodeo ends, and instead of a victorious Applejack returning, they instead get a letter saying she's leaving Ponyville but will send the money. Her friends are upset and head off to find her and figure out what is going on. It turns out Cherry Jubilee, a cherry orchard owner from Dodge City, hired on Applejack after seeing Applejack win a ton of medals in the rodeo and hearing that Applejack wanted a change of scenery.

Her friends don't buy it, and they confront her at Cherry Jubilee's cherry sorting facility. They eventually use Pinkie Pie's insanity to get Applejack to confess, sort of. Applejack kept her Pinkie Promise, from a certain point of view, but a wild chase still ensues between Applejack on a stagecoach and the rest of her friends on a cart they stole. Applejack nearly kills the innocent ponies pulling her coach, and her friends (minus Pinkie and Rarity, who 'fell' off the cart and got left behind by Rainbow) finally get to learn the truth: Applejack didn't win a single 1st place prize, therefore she got no money, therefore she hired herself on with Cherry Jubilee to get some cash for the Town Hall like she promised. Her friends comfort her, and even Rainbow Dash ends up in tears from this heart-warming moment.

Applejack heads back home and still gets her 'hero's welcome' of sorts. Having Applejack there with them was more important to them than the money. Or so they claim anyway, we don't hear the Mayor say any such thing, the Mayor that was strongly hinting at Applejack to bring back money earlier.

I didn't really comment on it too much when I first watched it, but Pinkie Pie was just irritating the hell out of every other character throughout this thing. It's almost like they had it planned out as, "Let's make a tearjerker about Applejack leaving Ponyville to find a way to get money, because she wasn't good enough and had promised to donate her winnings." "That sounds good, but it's a bit too serious, what can we do to liven it up?" "Oh, we'll just put Pinkie Pie in there and have her do obnoxious things throughout the episode." =]

This episode was pretty solid, not super awesome like Daring Do's, but then again not everything can be as awesome as that. =] It still ends up being very sweet, and demonstrates Applejack's gung-ho spirit. It would have been better if we saw Applejack actually competing in the rodeo,plus Calamity Mane and Wild Bull Hickock.

Anyway, like the other 'revisited' episodes, this one features some enhanced commentary and new images, about double what the original had. =]

Mysterious Mare Do Well (Revisited)

This episode made my Season 2 top 10, but not the overall top 10, and was the fourth episode I watched.

I like Rainbow Dash, as evidenced by her making my season 1 and 2 top 5 lists and the overall top 5. In retrospect, she is kind of douchey in this episode, getting really upset when she loses the community's accolades to Mare Do Well, but she was at least trying to help ponies.

 

This episode was pretty good. Not only did it primarily feature Rainbow Dash and reveal she has her own fan club, it also had some pretty impressive uses of magic in Twilight Do Well repairing the dam.

Like Boast Busters was for Twilight, this episode delivered some heart-breaking lines for Rainbow Dash. "But... then... why am I all alone? I hate being all alone." and "I don't understand. Why? Don't you want me to be a hero?" =[

 

It is kind of messed up how every single one of her friends conspires to work against Rainbow. Even her own fan club ends up leaving her to support Mare Do Well. The town even set up a parade for Mare Do Well and not her, although to be fair Mare Do Well did save more people than Rainbow, especially by fixing the dam.

 

About the only complaint I have about this episode was, and is: what happens after the episode ends? We never see them saving the random ponies, never see Mare Do Well costumes again, I don't think we even see Rainbow saving anyone. This episode, and others, show that Ponyville is place full of danger, so did they just leave them all to 'handle it on their own'? I'm also curious if Mare Do Well's secret identities got leaked to every pony, or just to Rainbow.

Considering Twilight and co. were doing it just to teach Rainbow a lesson, I wouldn't be surprised if they just abandoned their Mare Do Well roles after they guilted Rainbow into changing her ways. Oh, damn, I just realized this was basically Boast Busters except Rainbow was the victim. I felt sympathetic for Trixie, and Rainbow, but this one didn't rub me the wrong way like Trixie's Ponyville Screwjob. =]

Anyways, I forget why this one didn't make the overall top 10, but it is a pretty entertaining episode I think, as Rainbow rants and rages over Mare Do Well beating her in anything she does. Like my other 'revisited' episodes, this one also features a little bit of enhanced commentary, and 7 times the images of the original post. =] 

Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6k (Revisited)

Just re-watched another episode, The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000.

This episode did not make my Season 2 top 10. Which is kind of sad since it is a good episode with one of the more amusing songs of the series.

What killed it for me was you have these confidence unicorns that built a machine that has but one single purpose: making cider. They drive around Equestria, offering apple farmers that are still doing things the hard way the means to seriously increase their cider production, but at the cost of most of the profit.

Obviously the Apples could not have been their first mark, as they had their spiel perfected. Well, I guess they could have been, but unlikely. So these guys know their stuff. The Apples decline the offer, claiming they need the cider money to make it through the winter. Which we have seen in Winter Wrap Up and Sonic Rainboom is a completely manufactured season, so in theory Ponyville could 'wrap up' winter earlier since their founding family gets stretched thin by it. Apple Bloom and Granny Smith end up getting them into a cider making contest.

The contest then goes off, and the bet somehow goes from 'whoever makes the most barrels gets exclusive selling rights of cider for Ponyville' to 'whoever makes the most barrels gets the Sweet Apple Acres farm.'  Flim and Flam stupidly allow Twilight and co. to interfere, even making the remark that they wouldn't care if the whole kingdom of Canterlot helped. (We have seen that ponies are sticklers for things like that, so odds are someone would take them up on that.) Twilight's meddling wasn't even enough and the Apples still lose.

The victorious Flim and Flam then pour out cider, from a barrel they made after removing quality control, and even when it is in front of them, they don't notice how nasty it looks. No pony wants this nasty cider, not even for bargain prices, so they just pack up and drive off to another town. These guys are obviously slick and intelligent since they make their living by conning apple growers, so this blatant display of numbskullery is really perplexing. Then to top it off, Applejack writes to Celestia, boasting about how she didn't learn anything at all, and it appears the Apples are just giving the cider away, despite claiming they needed the money earlier.

I can certainly see why they did it that way, can't have Applejack moving away and all, but there could have been a less facepalm-y way of doing it. For instance, instead of them sacrificing the quality, they still win it, but no one wants their cider anyway. It is then revealed to us that Princess Celestia or somebody put some magic on the apples Flim and Flam were going to use that made them taste really bad, not wanting the 'mane 6' to be broken up. Or actually, it could have gone like that, have Applejack taste it and wonder what is wrong, then it cuts to the Elements of Harmony which glow briefly with magic, implying they did it on their own to keep the 6 friends together. Or Flim and Flam's former victims show up and run them out of town. I don't know, something besides, "Oh look, we just had you play right into the palms of our hooves. Oh, we won? Here ponies, try this cider we know we just made out of entire trees. What's that? You don't like it? Well, twenty three skidoo!"

 

Despite that mind-boggling flaw, this episode is still pretty good. Like the others, it received enhanced images and a very small bit of altered commentary. Almost all of the original is intact. =]

MMMystery (Revisited)

This episode was one of my favorites from Season 2, the silent movie and James Bond bits were great when I first watched it. They didn't get near the amount of joy the second time through, since I knew they were coming, but I still enjoyed them a lot.

I did that post about the male ponies and noticed I only had two shots of Con Mane. I decided to rectify that, and ended up watching through the episode again.

I've seen some people saying they do not like this episode because of Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy going 'out of character' and eating the cake. This would be particularly true for Rainbow, who is the embodiment of the Element of Loyalty. However, we know that Pinkie Pie potentially used her Bugs Bunny abilities to make it so they all saw her 'flashbacks', so it is possible her describing the things triggered some uncontrollable urge in weak-willed victims.

I don't know, personally that seems like kind of a strange reason to dislike it, since the point of the episode wasn't so much 'who done done did it' but instead was supposed to be about Pinkie's deranged antics in trying to find out who it was. I mean really, she imagined the griffon, in a silent movie, tying her to train tracks and slicing up the cake with a big saw. Not to mention Con Mane and Ninja Mulia.

While this episode may not have made my overall top 10, it's probably still up there in my favorites if solely for the fact that it brought in Con Mane to the Ponyverse. =] Unlike my other 'revisited' episodes, this one only got minor commentary alterations, but did get over triple the screenshots it originally had, including a ton from the Con Mane bit. =] So feel free to enjoy 'em.

Hearth's Warming Eve (Revisited)

I re-watched another one of my top 10 episodes, tonight was Hearth's Warming Eve.

I would have to say it deserves its place on my overall top 10.  I like history in general, and this episode is a quasi-historical look at what had to have been the Ponyverse over 1,000 years ago or so. I really like this concept, and hope there are similar episodes in the future. =]

About the only bad things I can think about it would be: We don't really get closure on what happened to that crisis. Did they all just move to Equestria, did they defeat the windigos and reclaim their homes?

The flag shown to represent Equestria shows Luna and Celestia on it, yet the Unicorns were handling the day-night cycles on their own. The most logical answer is probably that they showed the modern day Equestrian banner, since it cut away from the pseudo-flashback and into the modern day play at that point. An episode going more in-depth on Celestia and Luna in the past would be good though. =]

As fun as it was to see the 'mane 6' acting out these roles they seemed born to play, it would have been nice to see the actual ponies they were playing. A shot of a carol book with Clover etc. on the cover or in the pages, something like that. Especially if they are supposed to be the descendents of these Founding Mares, I could be wrong, but it sort of seems like they are.

Other than those mostly minor details (which don't really detract from the episode anyway), I really like this episode. It's got a good bit of magic, including having magic be the dernier cri at the end. We got to see Rarity looking like the princess she dreams of being and Rainbow in ancient pegasi battle armor. Also, it's the Ponyverse's Christmas, what's not to love?

Like my revisited A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1, this episode also received a boat load of new images and some updated commentary.

"Abe Lincoln may have freed all men, but Sam Colt made them equal."

So, I was thinking, "Do male ponies in the Ponyverse have it worse off?" My top character lists: Twilight, Rainbow, Luna, Daring Do, Cadenza, Applejack, Trixie, Crusaders. All female.

Understandable, since half of those are 'mane' characters, which are all female except Spike, Luna is technically a 'mane' character (she's there every night, you just never see her except for a few episodes), and the rest are one-offs (except, presumably Cadence and Trixie for S3+). But, since so many one-offs made the list, why didn't any males? Let's take a look.

You usually don't see too many male ponies. Ponyville has a decent amount around, but more often than not, most of the background characters seem to be female models. Males seem much more common in the 'high society' locales such as Manehattan and Canterlot and at the social functions like the Grand Galloping Gala and Canterlot Garden Party.

Males are almost exclusively the ones seen pulling transportation. They pull Princess Celestia's chariot, Princess Luna's chariot, the taxis, the carriages for the Grand Galloping Gala, etc.

The Western areas have males not only pulling wagons, but the train itself.

 

Males are predominately, or exclusively, the members of the Canterlot royal guard.

They are also Princess Celestia's elite bodyguards.

Males are seen having non-cart pulling jobs, such as jeweler. They also have been seen as: construction workers, train conductors and engineers, produce sellers, shop owners, instructors at Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, teachers, clowns, bellhops, farmers, gardeners, window washers, waiters, saloon owners, security guards, weather factory workers, photographers, announcers, athletes, artists, writers/historians, and auctioneers.

For Winter Wrap Up Day, they are primarily seen doing heavy labor on the Plants team, pulling the plows etc.

Males staff the postal service, I believe all couriers we have seen have been male.

Males are also commonly seen as musicians, including country stars and pianists.

 Males are also seen as doctors.

An 'evil' prince poisoned a royalty breed princess in the past in order to try and get her to love him.

 This did result in a holiday being made sometime years later called Hearts and Hooves Day, which is all about mares and stallions finding their 'special someponies.'

Also in the past, the leaders of the tribes are all females apparently, except the Unicorns, which have a king, although he is never even shown. His daughter, Princess Platinum, attended summits and went off to find new land in his stead.

Males also make up some of the ranks for the Wonderbolts. Soarin', a male, may be a Lieutenant, second in rank to Spitfire.

Let's see some notable colts/stallions:

Mr. Cake

 Co-owner of Sugar Cube Corner, Mr. Cake helps run the bakery and catering business. He's kind of a nervous fellow (understandable since his niece(?) Pinkie Pie lives with them) but generally an all-around good guy.

Soarin'

 A high ranking officer of the Wonderbolts. Soarin' is one of Rainbow Dash's heroes, and he has on occasion tried to save the day, but usually ends up failing. He is in the Wonderbolts, and a high ranking one at that, so he is very skilled at aerobatics and flying. He also was the only one to buy anything from Applejack at the Gala, and almost dropped his pie on the ground.

Shining Armor

  Twilight Sparkle's older brother and a Captain of the Royal Guard. He the only one Twilight cared about before the Nightmare Moon prophecy came to pass, and the only one Twilight considered a friend when she was still in Canterlot. He is shown to have impressive magical ability. He also marries Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.

Cranky Doodle Donkey

 A mishap led to him wandering the land searching for his lost love for the rest of his life. He finally gave up and was going to retire in Ponyville. There, he was annoyed by Pinkie Pie, but eventually was reunited with Matilda, the one he had been searching for for decades.

Filthy Rich

The heir to the Stinking Rich legacy, Filthy Rich is the father of Diamond Tiara and the owner of Rich's Barnyard Bargains. Has a standing order for 100 jars of zap apple jam from the Apple family, which he and his family has sold since before the foundation of Ponyville. Became the cornerstone of retail in town by capturing the wholesale market, purchasing in bulk and slashing all prices, which let them undermine all competitors' gift markets.

 Big Macintosh

 Brother to Applejack and Apple Bloom, Big Mac, as he is called, is a hard worker, doing tons of the chores on Sweet Apple Acres. He is extremely strong, being shown to be able to drag two ox plus a cart of anvils, and even an entire house. He normally only responds in 'Yup' or 'Nope' but at times will speak normally. Cheerilee seems to have a crush on him.

 Donut Joe

 Donut Joe owns and operates a Canterlot donut shop, which is Spike's favorite. He also entered 'Donutopia' in a Canterlot dessert competition, which was a city made of donuts. His entry was ruined because of Pinkie Pie, from a certain point of view, but Mulia, the Cakes, Gustave, and himself combined their destroyed entries into one entry, which won the competition.

Con Mane

 A James Bond parody and allegedly the alter ego of Donut Joe. In Pinkie Pie's mind, Con Mane is a secret agent that was sent to sabotage the Cake's dessert contest entry. Like the real James Bond, Con Mane was armed with all manner of gadgets and the ladies swoon for him.

Braeburn

 Applejack's motormouth cousin. He lives at Appleloosa where he helps run the apple orchards. He was the 'spokespony' for the Appleloosan side of the story.

Sheriff Silver Star

 The law in Appleloosa. He helped organize the defense of the town against the buffalo. In fact, he won the Battle of Appleloosa, from a certain point of view, as he was out of ammo (apple pies) and the Chief charged at him, which allowed some other Appleloosan to score a direct hit on the Chief. The pie dripped into the Chief's mouth, he enjoyed it, and ultimately peace was reached between the buffalo tribe and Appleloosans.

Fancypants

 One of the most well-to-do ponies in Canterlot, so famous that Rarity knew him by sight, and the most important pony in Canterlot according to her. He has a 'French' supermodel looking girlfriend, his own private VIP box at the Wonderbolts Derby, his own airship yacht, was a guest at the Royal Wedding, and is one of the premier guests at all the high-class functions, like the Canterlot Garden Party.

 Hoity Toity

 A 'big wig fashion hotshot' from Canterlot, Spike invited him to see Rarity's fashion show, which was a terrible failure due to Rarity letting her friends design their own clothing. They convinced him to come back and see another fashion show, this time showing the dresses Rarity designed herself, which he loved. He then asked to sell Rarity's couture in his 'best of the best boutique' in Canterlot. Rarity fainted as he requested a dozen of each by next Tuesday, but presumably she took him up on it.

 Flim and Flam

 Salesponies non pareil. These guys are con artists, using their magic Unicorn abilities to construct a cider making machine, which they then use to try and steal cider profits from random orchards. Cider is an extremely popular drink for ponies, but in the case of the Apple family, they put so much care into their product that they don't make enough for everyone. Flim and Flam's machine however makes quality cider in a fraction of the time, and they even offer to split the profits, 75:25. They make this proposal to the Apples, who decline and instead end up challenging them to a bet for exclusive cider selling rights for Ponyville. This bet escalates into Sweet Apple Acres being on the line. Flim and Flam win, since the contest was purely about quantity (they shut down their QA device to catch up after Twilight and the rest of her friends pitch in) but they stupidly try to sell the no QA cider, and then leave town as no one wants to buy it.

 Twilight's Father

 Not much is known about Twilight's dad. We can see they live in a pretty nice looking house, they have at least two children: Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle, and quite possibly are well off, as they had a princess (Cadence) foalsitting for Twilight, and were able to enroll Twilight into Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Twilight became the personal protege to Celestia, and Shining Armor became Captain of the Royal Guard as well as marrying Princess Cadence, so he must be pretty proud of his children.

Pinkie's Father

 A somewhat grim stallion living a fairly bleak existence on a rock farm, which Pinkie said had no smiling or talking. He has a wife and three daughters. It is unknown what exactly they did with the rocks, perhaps smashed them to find ore or gems.

Uncle Orange

 Applejack's far less rustic uncle. He lives in Manehattan (the most cosmopolitan city in all of Equestria) with his wife, and is friends with several high-class ponies. He also hosts fancy dinner parties. This fancy, highfaluting lifestyle was very attractive to the young Applejack, who set off to find herself in the big city, and Uncle and Aunt Orange graciously allowed her to live with them, until Applejack got homesick and went back to Ponyville.

Prince Blueblood

Princess Celestia's nephew and the 'most handsome eligible unicorn stallion in Canterlot.' Rarity was smitten with him and dreamed of them falling in love. She finally got her chance to meet him at the Grand Galloping Gala, where she found the only thing 'royal' about him was he was a 'royal pain,' as he was all about himself that night, finally making Rarity snap after cowering behind her, letting her take the brunt of an airborne cake. He was later seen in the episode Sweet and Elite, where Rarity became 'the pony everypony should know' in Canterlot, where he eagerly waited to mingle with her and stood by her side while she christened an airship.

Mr. Greenhooves

Fluttershy's archnemesis and a gardener that works in Ponyville and Canterlot. Fluttershy employs him, or he just does it on his own volition, to water her plants, which he over waters sometimes. He also is groundskeeper for the Canterlot Castle gardens, where Fluttershy had additional run-ins with him at the Gala. He has also been seen pulling a cart, where he splashed mud onto Twilight Sparkle.

Star Swirl the Bearded

The father of the amniomorphic spell, mentor to Clover the Clever (who became one of the Founding Mares of Equestria), and the most important conjurer of the pre-classical era. Star Swirl created more than 200 spells, and has a shelf in the Canterlot Library of Magic named for him, as well as his own wing in the Canterlot Archives. He also may have created several time spells, as those are kept in the Star Swirl the Bearded wing,  the most heavily secured area of the Archives.

Alright, I could possibly see some of those making a top 5 if they had some more episodes dedicated to them. There's actually a decent amount of other males of note, like Thunderlane the pegasus, or Jet Set, the snobby unicorn from Sweet and Elite that shunned Rarity at first.

My Top 5 Colts/Stallion, in no particular order:

Fancypants

 Prestige. Wealth. Hot babe. Yacht. Very Important Pony.

Mane. Con Mane.

A sleek, stealthy secret agent. Laden with gadgets as well as having access to magic, Con Mane is one badass stallion. He also makes the ladies swoon.

Shining Armor

 

 Twilight's BBBFF, he enjoys a position of power and prestige as Captain of the Royal Guard. He also married his childhood sweetheart (presumably anyway), Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, who is one of the most beautiful, kind, and caring ponies around, in addition to being Celestia's niece. He is also personally responsible for the well-being of Canterlot, being able to use his magic to create, or enhance, the forcefield bubble that protects the city.

Soarin'

  Like Shining Armor, Soarin' too enjoys a life of prestige and power, being a high ranking officer in the Wonderbolts. This gets him into VIP areas at events such as the Grand Galloping Gala. When Rarity was plummeting to her demise, he was one of the first ones to rush down to try and save her. Being in the Wonderbolts, and being an officer, means he should be an extremely talented flyer and aerobatics expert.

Star Swirl the Bearded

One of the few male Unicorn wizards that have been named, Star Swirl the Bearded deserves the recognition, although he is apparently featured in a book about obscure unicorn history. He is Twilight Sparkle's personal idol, and she 'hoof-made' a costume based on him for Nightmare Night. He is considered the most important conjurer of the pre-classical era, created over 200 spells, including the amniomorphic spell, and likely created a bunch of time-related spells, as those are stored in a wing of the Canterlot Archives named after him. He was also the mentor to Clover the Clever, who went on to help found Equestria.

I could definitely see some of these (Soarin', Con Mane, Star Swirl, especially) making a top 5 list if they get a good episode in the future. We definitely need more males with as memorable an episode as Trixie's or Daring Do's.

Oh, yes, to answer my initial question: No, male ponies may be sort of neglected a bit in the show, with the only prominent, recurring male being Spike, a baby dragon fond of wearing frilly aprons,  but the majority of the males we see are successful characters. Businessmen, workers, super rich, secret agents, celebrities, etc.

With Season 3 and beyond, Shining Armor is presumably going to be a recurring character, which will fill in the gap for another recurring male character.