Points of Canon: My Little Pony #43 · 1:40pm Jun 15th, 2016
Well, looky what I got my hands on today.
I have no idea what’s in this one. I just remember this picture of Rarity in an iron mask from it.
1. My reaction neatly summed up in one word: Huh? They were sued before? By whom? In which court? Where is that kingdom, and is it a territorial subdivision of Equestria or not? Settle on something, dammit.
2. We knew an ursa isn’t a unique monster, but this implies it isn’t a particularly rare one elsewhere, because otherwise, there would be little chance of them endangering the entire Equestria.The comic starts right off the bat by proposing a story they didn’t tell us about: Mane 6 are talking about how they saved Equestria again, and how happy they are they aren’t going to be sued this time (!) – because Kingdom of Abyssinia is strangely litigous. It remains unsaid where that kingdom is, and more importantly, in which court they could possibly pursue the Mane 6 for whatever it is they have done.1 Further mentions of the incident say they saved Equestria “from ursas.”2
3. Onsen episode!
First appearance of a natural hot spring anywhere in canon, and Twilight mentions geothermal pressure to explain the sudden emergence of the spring.3
- Rainbow Dash is capable of doing a Rainboom not just on cue, but entirely on a lark, these days. A low-altitude rainboom causes a lot of inconvenience to the population, though little structural damage.
- Due to the influence of the spring water, Twilight appoints herself “Empress of Ponyville,” which at least leaves us that the term itself exists. Moreover, she does this with a Jadeite impression, that is, using an image projected onto the sky.
- Corrupted Rarity wears an iron mask for the sole reason that her eyeliner is not sufficiently perfect.
- Upon receiving Spike’s letter, which she reads as “Something has turned Twilight Sparkle and her friends to their darker natures!” Celestia sends Luna to investigate, citing her reasons as “Precisely. Whatever has happened before, you have personal experience, tragic though it may be, with such forces.” – which essentially gives Celestia’s position on the reasons of what happened to Luna as corruption originating externally. See RTAC #10 for other arguments for same – this is the first we heard what Celestia thinks about it. She follows it up with “I just hope I haven’t sent you back into temptation.”
- Corrupted Applejack attempts to extort the CMC for the use of her property, and says, among other hurtful things, “You’ll be indentured until you’re in dentures!” – which we haven’t seen mentioned since the Apple Family Reunion or thereabout.
- When Scootaloo complains “I don’t remember signing a contract,” Applejack retorts with “It’s an implied oral agreement” – giving us that both written contracts and at least a few forms of unwritten contracts exist. Sweetie Belle further goes on to say that “An oral contract requires consideration!”
- Corrupted Fluttershy is apparently capable of bending the entire Everfree to her will, and animals in her new army include squirrels, rabbits, turtles, cats, numerous rodents of various sizes, bears, and most importantly, deer, which previous comics have shown to be fully sapient and magic-capable.
Aaaand… that’s where it ends, to be continued. Tarzan-Fluttershy is cute. :)
I am behind on the comics. The comics are so hit or miss on story quality or consistency.
There was that one episode where Fluttershy was doing some kind of adoption? fundraiser, which featured a deer among the other supposedly non-sentient creatures. Didn't Faust at some point say deer where intelligent?
And native Fluttershy is always cute. Liked her painted look from the alternate timeline.
I think dentures were last mentioned in Party Pooped, so not that long ago:
Applejack: I searched the farm inside and out. No Pinkie Pie. But I did find a set of Granny Smith's dentures under the house, so... not a complete loss.
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There's a whole comic centered on an independent kingdom of deer based in Everfree, and it's also one of the very few sources to feature minotaurs other than Iron Will, so kinda yeah. Then again, the Stare works on ponies, too...
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Ah, thank you.
The state of pony dentistry remains pretty confusing...
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Onsen implies an open-air bath in a natural hot spring, at least as a media stereotype. Ponyville spa is therefore not it.
Abyssinia is (was) a real place. No attempt at a horse pun, even?
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Nope, and it's spelled clearly multiple times.
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WTH? Abysswhinnia would have worked fine!
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When you whinny into the abyss, the abyss whinnies into you.
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Great review as always Oliver. A few small points, then a big one:
Rarity says the Kingdom of Abyssinia is litigious, replying to Applejack saying this time they aren't going to prosecute. The first page implies that there was a previous time where the Mane 6 entered Abyssinia, saved Equestria, and the government prosecuted them over it for some reason. I'm guessing by the law of puns that this is a donkey kingdom, but who knows.
Luna explicitly says the evil magic has made Applejack more powerful, so the fact that Rainbow Dash is doing those constant sonic rainbooms may not be something she can do on her own, but do to the enhancement of the dark magic of the spring.
Ok, the big thing: Applejack is picked up in Luna's telekinetic field, writhes around, and manages to break the field. Luna then says "Whatever magic this is, it's making her more powerful. The Applejack I've met wouldn't be able to shatter my magic" (emphasis mine). I'd love your opinion on this Oliver, because to me it implies that any pony, by writhing around and/or exerting their own magical field (the kind that earth ponies and pegasi have as well), a pony gripped in a unicorn's telekinetic field might be able to break free from that grip. Of course, normally almost no pony could break the telekinetic grip of an alicorn's magic, which is how Luna knows Applejack has been enhanced by dark magic.
But previously, many people had assumed that once you were picked up in a telekinetic field, there was nothing you could do. This seems to say that by pushing against this field, another pony picked up can either disrupt the concentration of the unicorn lifting them by moving rapidly, or basically exert their own magic to counter the TK field, even if they are not a unicorn. Am I way off base here Oliver?
Oh, and I do actually like this comic. Spike acts pretty smart here, and Rarity in that mask is hilarious.
Oops. Yeah, I need new glasses.
Point taken, I suppose.
My opinion is "I don't see why not". Telekinesis appears not to act directly on every particle of an object at the same time, but instead, only on the outside layers of it, it appears to behave mostly like a plastic bag you catch an object into and pull up. That someone might be capable of destroying that "plastic bag" from inside isn't a surprise if it isn't allowed to enter inside the object.
I expect a non-magical object would need to do something more drastic to get this result, though, like instantly grow in size...
They got a new artist, and I like this one much better than most others.
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This isn't a new artist. It's Tony Fleecs. He's one of the regulars.
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Well, it looks radically different from all prior entries to me.
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He got better, I suppose?
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Perhaps it's cats…oh, wait, no, also a horse breed.