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Episode 29 Lesson Zero Aired:
October 15 2011
At her house, Twilight and Spike are looking over their checklist and making sure they have everything on it. With that done, Twilight makes another checklist of things she needs done by the end of the day, leaving Spike to lower his head in disappointment before the show's new intro starts, which is pretty much the same as Season 1's intro and Season 2's previous 2 episodes except that the music is, for lack of better term, duller (and leading me to like the old intro a bit more) but new to this intro is a train, which appears to be the same as the toy version already released. In Ponyville, now with an even longer checklist, their next stop takes them to Mr. and Mrs. Cakes' bakery, where Twilight decides to "fix" the cupcakes' icing after Mrs. Cake converted Twilight's order to a baker's dozen.
Since there's one leftover cupcake that caused icing to transfer from that cupcake to another one, Twilight decides to even things out but when finished, there's hardly any left on any of them and leaves Spike covered in icing, which he happily devours. Back home, there's still one thing left and it's not to Spike's entire approval so he secretly checks it off and discovers that he has a claw cramp from holding the quill for so long. His next statement reminds Twilight that she hasn't written a letter about her weeks' lesson and unfortunately for her, it's Tuesday, exactly one week from when her previous letter had been written and she's now worried about being tardy if her letter isn't written by sundown. (I'd like to point out that I like how the sun and the windmill are acting like a clock in this episode and Spike's removal of the backgrounds.)
Despite Spike's words, Twilight remains frightened with her "what ifs", remembering her awful time at Magic Kindergarten. It takes Spike a few seconds to snap Twilight out of "scared mode" but Twilight regains her confidence but Spike doesn't have anything for her to solve so she heads off to see if anyone else needs help. Her travels through Ponyville only show her that none of her friends are actually dealing with a major problem and she finds herself talking with her reflection in a nearby puddle of water. Spike reminds her about the picnic and off she goes.
Rarity again has an overdramatic moment but this time her friends give her puzzled looks in front of her. They didn't she'd
actually  lay on the grass did they? Twilight arrives just seconds after Rainbow Dash decides to lay on the grass herself and her new look leave them shocked, then relieved when they find out Twilight's problem is no  big deal but Twilight still finds it to be a big deal and heads off.
Her friends have never seen her this upset before (and it's a good thing they don't see her for what's coming next) and back home, Twilight is going insane (literally, just look at her facial expressions) and decides to make a friendship problem by giving the CMCs, whom she ends up encountering in her trip back outside, her stuffed animal named Smarty Pants and Scootaloo is the first to discover Twilight's insanity and secretly lets her friends know.
While the three of them argue and fight, Twilight concocts an idea and a spell to make them love it, which works too well as after Big Macintosh gets the doll away from the CMCs, he wants it for himself and this attracts everyone else towards the doll, including the mayor. The mob of doll lovers passes by Twilight's friends at the picnic and are told all about Twilight's dilemma as the sun goes down. The next thing she hears is an angry Princess Celestia request her to meet in the library after Celestia reverses the spell, causing everyone to disperse but Big Macintosh takes the doll for himself.
Twilight bids a goodbye and tells her friends where they'll be able to find her, then walks sadly away. Back home, as Twilight and Celestia are having their conversation, her friends barge in and try explaining their part of the story.
Celestia agrees to not punish Twilight provided they all write a letter when they discover them. Twilight asks Celestia how she knew about the mess Twilight caused and is told Spike told her about it. After Celestia leaves, much to what I had thought would happen (in which they'd all write separate letters), the group composes one letter as a whole with Spike writing away, then adding an additional note about himself, before placing an x over the entire letter from Twilight's disapproval. They all have a good laugh about that.