Original air date: October 30th, 1992
Clover's older sister Meadowlark is getting married today to a stallion named Cheval, and Clover is helping her with her outfit. Knowing Clover's klutzy tendencies, their mother thinks Clover and her friends should stay out of the way until the ceremony, but they still want to help. Meadowlark has prepared a list of errands for Clover: check that the flowers are delivered on time, see that the baker decorated the cake properly, and pick up the wedding rings. Their mother is apprehensive about the idea of Clover carrying out these tasks, but Meadowlark has confidence in her sister.
When Clover has the rings, she drops the box and the rings go bouncing out of the shop. Fortunately, before they can fall into an open manhole, a pony pokes his head out and they bounce off his hardhat and onto Clover's hooves. Sweetheart points out it's bad luck for someone other than the bride to wear the rings. Just then, they see Cheval with another mare, Suzette, who thanks him for her engagement ring before he compliments her beauty. The girls immediately conclude he's a two-timer, not helped by him planting a kiss on her forehead. They hop into the wagon containing Meadowlark's flowers to spy on the duo discreetly, realizing too late that they've crushed the flowers. When Cheval and Suzette are gone, Clover sends Sweetheart and Patch to take what's left of the flowers back to the house, warning them not to mention anything about what they just saw, and takes Melody and Bon Bon with her.
When Sweetheart and Patch return, they're hesitant to let Mrs. Bloom see the flowers, but she pulls out the cover and is horrified at their state. Patch decides to gather some flowers from the garden. Meanwhile, the other three are still watching Cheval and Suzette converse some more and apparently collecting a wedding cake of their own. Clover angrily charges at Cheval, but tumbles into the wedding cake. She berates him and runs away to tell Meadowlark.
Clover reaches Meadowlark back at the house and is just about to tell her the news when Cheval and Suzette show up. Clover furiously orders Cheval to confess, but it turns out Suzette is Cheval's sister, who's engaged to someone else. Realizing the wedding has been ruined for nothing, the girls resolve to fix it.
Clover wakes her mother (who had previously fainted) up later to tell her everything is back in order, but Clover then realizes she doesn't have the rings. Fortunately, Bon Bon realizes they're inside the cake she reassembled.
The wedding is able to proceed forward, and Meadowlark isn't mad with her sister, and in fact thanks her for making her special day one she won't forget.
"Sister of the Bride" provides examples of:
- An Aesop: Having all the facts before jumping to conclusions can save you a lot of trouble.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Clover may be a clumsy, ditzy pony usually, but thinking Cheval is cheating on Meadowlark gets her seriously pissed with Cheval.
- Big Sister Instinct: Inverted; Clover is furious with Cheval for seemingly cheating on Meadowlark.
- Bilingual Bonus: The name of Meadowlark's fiancé Cheval; it's actually a French word for horse.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: In the Polish dub, Cheval's name, which is French for "horse" (because he's a pony from France), was literally translated as "Koń", ("Horse"), thus ruining the joke and making no sense in-universe.
- Bouquet Toss: Meadowlark tosses Clover her bouquet during her Fantasy Sequence about how her wedding will play out.
- Brick Joke: Early on, Bon Bon says the cake looks "good enough to eat", and tries to sneak a bit of the frosting from the cake, only for Melody to stop her. Later, Bon Bon realises the rings fell into the cake, and opens it to pull them out, to Melody's annoyance until she sees the rings, and since the rings are covered in frosting, Bon Bon licks it off.
- Bridezilla: Inverted; Meadowlark manages to keep a level head when her mother panics over Clover and her friends jeopardizing the ceremony.
- Cake Toppers: Figures of Meadowlark and Cheval can be seen on top of the wedding cake.
- Carrying a Cake:
- Clover is carrying two slices of cake in the Fantasy Sequence accompanying Meadowlark's song but trips over, sending the plates and the cake slices on them flying through the air and into the hooves of two guests, unharmed.
- The baker wheels out Meadowlark's wedding cake, only for Clover to end up tumbling right into it.
- Comically Missing the Point:Sweetheart: Cheval! The wedding! (lays on the floor crying, believing Cheval is cheating on Meadowlark)
Patch: Don't mind her. She always cries at weddings. - Covered in Gunge: Happens to Clover, Cheval, and Suzette when Clover trips and falls into a cake.
- Desperate Object Catch: Clover taking Meadowlark's garter off causes it to go flying. Meadowlark jumps up and catches it.
- Didn't Think This Through: While spying on Cheval and Suzette, the girls hop into the wagon of flowers for Meadowlark to hide, thus crushing the flowers.
- Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: Melody scolds Bon Bon for trying to sample some wedding cake before the wedding.
- Evil Gloating: The following exchange looks like this trope, but it's only a misunderstanding and Cheval and Suzette aren't having an affair behind Meadowlark's back:Cheval: Don't you think we should tell Meadowlark today?
Suzette: No, no, not today. She'll find out soon enough. (laughter) - Faint in Shock: The stress from the repeated problems caused by Clover and her friends gets to her mother, and she faints in her chair upon hearing the wedding's (supposedly) off.
- French Jerk: The girls think Cheval is this and that he cheated on Meadowlark on the day of their wedding, but it turns out to be a misunderstanding.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs:Mrs. Bloom: Many hooves make light work.
- Jumping Out of a Cake: Clover inverts this when she trips and tumbles into the wedding cake.
- Large Ham: The baker whose cake Clover ruins makes the most out of his one line, "MY CAKE, YOU'VE RUINED IT!".
- Luminescent Blush:
- Meadowlark does so when Melody is complimenting her on her attire.
- Suzette gets one on her cheek when explaining the whole situation with Cheval to Clover.
- Lost Wedding Ring: The rings for Meadowlark that Clover had on her end up lost. Turns out they were inside the cake that Clover jumped into.
- Mistaken for Cheating: The girls believe Cheval is cheating on Meadowlark with the mare he's talking with about engagement, but she turns out to be his sister who is engaged to someone else.
- Musical World Hypotheses: "Today's My Wedding Day" is The All In Their Heads Hypothesis. It features Meadowlark running in mid-air through the clouds and the actual wedding proceeds with many, many more hitches than in the song.
- Old, New, Borrowed and Blue: Clover is putting together some wedding outfit items of this nature for Meadowlark at the beginning.
- One-Shot Character: The only appearance of Suzette.
- Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: The girls witness Cheval having a conversation with another mare named Suzette about her getting engaged, and they think it's with each other. Turns out she's actually engaged to someone else.
- Platonic Kissing:
- Cheval plants one on his sister Suzette, which the girls witness and mistake for a romantic kiss.
- Meadowlark gives her sister Clover a kiss on the cheek.
- Plot-Inciting Infidelity: When Clover and her friends see Cheval flirting with another mare, this kicks off the conflict of the episode. Subverted when the mare is revealed to be his sister, and their conversation was perfectly innocuous.
- Protagonist Title: Clover is the sister of the bride, Meadowlark.
- Relative Error: Clover's sister, Meadowlark, is getting married to Cheval, and at one point in the episode, Clover and her friends see Cheval seemingly flirting with another girl, and they immediately accuse him of cheating on Clover's sister. Eventually, Meadowlark explains that the girl they saw him with was actually his sister.
- Reused Character Design: Cheval looks very much like Count Appaloosa from "Shop Talk".
- Running Gag: Mrs. Bloom bursting into tears when things go wrong.
- Single Tear: Well, Meadowlark cries only two tears from each eye at the end of her song.
- Tempting Fate: Meadowlark's song, "Today's My Wedding Day" is this in song form. She sings lyrics such as, "I can’t help feeling things will go my way", "How could anything go wrong?", and most notably, "And deep inside I feel a thrill/That says the ceremony will/Proceed without a hitch!". The episode shortly thereafter has just about everything go south. That said, things do work out in the end.
- Tragically Misguided Favor: Furious at her sister supposedly being cheated on, Clover's responses to the situation only put the wedding in jeopardy, and it turns out Cheval was never cheating on Meadowlark in the first place.
- Tree Cover: In an interesting twist on the trope, the girls spy on Cheval and Suzette from inside some flowers... some already-picked flowers in a large container.
- Wedding Episode: Clover's big sister Meadowlark and her fiancé Cheval wed in this episode.
