"Viva Las Pegasus" on first watch a few years ago was one of those 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' watched with mixed expectations. It is always interesting when an episode explores a different setting (and there are many instances when the show did this very well at least indeed) and seeing Fluttershy and Applejack together sounded promising, despite their personalities being very different. Have always found the Flim Flam brothers annoying however.
Upon re-watch, my mixed feelings view of "Viva Las Pegasus" is pretty much the same as before. Not one of the worst episodes of Season 6 or of the show, but not one of the best either. Liked the different setting and the dynamic between the leads, but the episode does nothing to change my low opinion of the Flim Flam brothers and is nothing special plot-wise. Not a terrible episode by all means, but nothing remarkable. Pretty much thoroughly average.
There are good things here. The animation is full of life and beautiful attention to detail, especially how the Las Pegasus setting is animated and backgrounded. The music is upbeat and atmospheric. The voice acting is great from Ashleigh Ball and Andrea Libman, as well as Jim Byrnes.
Absolutely loved the playful yet also affectionate character interaction between Applejack and Fluttershy, it was great to see two characters of such contrasting personalities to gel so well, be likeable and not have any negative traits exaggerated in a season that has been too full of that (Rainbow Dash faring worst).
However, as said, the Flim Flam brothers are still annoying and don't really add an awful lot to the episode. The supporting characters are inoffensive but don't really have an awful to them and are literally just there. Gladmane had potential but everything about him in writing was very cliched and predictable. The writing has some amusing moments but is of the kind that doesn't offend but badly lacks spark.
Much more could have done with the setting, which could have afforded to have been bigger and more elaborate. Despite the setting being different, the story is very standard with a seen it all before vibe throughout. Some of it felt unnecessarily padded too and like the writers were trying to hide that the material was too thin, such as the scene between Gladmane and Flam that had no real point to it. The very end is pretty mean-spirited and paint the Flim Flam brothers as distastefully deceitful.
Overall, watchable but unremarkably average. 5/10.