Random Thoughts: MMMystery on the Friendship Express

Still no title card for this one! Anyways, there's a murderer afoot on the Friendship Express! A cake murderer anyways. Time to investigate MMMystery on the Friendship Express!

Plot:

Apparently tobacco exists in Equestria

Pinkie is delivering the most delicious cake in all of Equestria to a bake off on behalf of the Cake family.  On the train ride over to Canterlot, Pinkie and the rest of the Mane 6 run into three fellow competitors all proclaiming their deserts the best.  Pinkie stays up all night guarding the cake, which is interputted three time during her watch, after which she falls asleep. Waking up the next morning, Pinkie finds that the cake has been bitten three times. Soon she starts accusing the other competitors with ridiculous accusations only for Twilight to take lead and solve the mystery of the cake eater! Finding clues, Twilight comes up with the culperits: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity! All aploglize saying the cake look so good they just had to have some. Then Pinkie correctly deduses that each of the other bakers had eaten each others prizes and they all agree to enter one giant combo desert the wins first prize!

What I liked:

Benedict Cumberbatch ain't got nothing on Pinkie Pie

• Pinkie Pie
• Pinkie ruled this episode! From her concerned over the cake at the beginning to her crazy cutaways, (more on that later) to her deductive skills in finding out the other bakers were behind eating the other's entry to forgiving Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Rarity for eating the cake. Pinkie was on fire here! (not literally of course) 
• The Cutaways
• These were great! Just random styles shifts which fit Pinkie well! I love how Twilight also calls out how ridiculous each of them are. My favorite was the first one where Pinkie was tied to the tracks.
• Mystery on a Train
• I'm a sucker for a good mystery stuck on a train. I think it has to do with the trapped environment as there's no where to go and yet there is still the opportunity for the culprit to escape or do more harm if the detective isn't fast enough 
• Holmes references
• Nice to see some Sherlock Holmes references and the hats were particularly nice in my opinion. 

What I didn't like:

Look at this picture girls! 

• Why'd they do it?
• Why did Rainbow, Fluttershy and Rarity eat the cake? It seem really OOC for them to betray their friend and destroy the cake which they knew meant a huge deal to Pinkie Pie
• Lack of Tension
• This one is down to the nature of the crime.  In most mystery stories, there is a tension in the air as to who is the suspect since it could be anyone, so trust noone.  This tension is what makes mysteries good, and here it is missing.  We go from wild accusations to clue finding to naming the culprit without any drama and what not, which doesn't make it a great mystery story.
• Why wasn't Twilight a suspect?
• Seriously, Twilight could have just as easily been a suspect as the rest of the Mane 6 and she's collecting all the evidence, yet nopony seems to think that Twilight could possibly be behind the crime.
• Alliteriation
• We get it, you have words that all begin with the same sound, now please stop! 

Overall: Fine

Pinkie and cake. This can only end well.

A nice Pinkie Pie episode with some neat mystery reference yet without the mystery story's punch. A cute story all in all though with a decent message at the end.  Thought I'd check out Murder on the Orient Express first.