Points of Canon: S6x15 - 28 Pranks Later · 7:38pm Aug 13th, 2016
Some said this episode is Mare Do Well 2.0. Let’s see…
1. Biologists, I’m told, tend to keep two cages for lab mice, occasionally labeled: “Pet mice” and “Feed mice.”
Fluttershy takes her animals out to the woods for a picnic. While we have previously seen her having picnics with them occasionally, doing this in the woods is kinda new. Notably, only a few of her animals are present – Harry the Bear, Angel Bunny, a mouse and a squirrel. Looks like not all animals are created equal.1
- If anyone can explain why Rainbow’s eyes glow in the dark, that would be nice.
- The dragon costume uses cloud matter for most of its bulk, demonstrating that clouds indeed can be used like that. Fanfic authors previously suspected many uses of cloud matter, but not this one, I think. Since Rainbow disperses the cloud elements instantly, she probably has to hold them there consciously for them to stay on.
- The scene in the throne room of the Friendship Castle positions this episode after Castle Sweet Castle, because the tree roots do show up. Notably, this assembly is explicitly Fluttershy’s initiative, which has to mean she’s very, very peeved.
2. See “Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing“ for details.
Whoopee cushions exist, work pretty much the same as the ones you can get around here, and produce identical effects and reactions. There’s a long, but pretty solid chain of proof2 starting from this, that makes it inevitable that ponies do have expletives based on bodily excretions in their lexicon, even if we never hear them on screen.
- So there’s a special window for pegasi in the throne room? Does it close?…
- The CMC are sporting their cutie marks, positioning this after Crusaders of the Lost Mark.
- Girl Scouts are called “Filly Guides” in Equestria, and I find the distinction between “scout” and “guide” a very nice touch. They still sell cookies, but that’s ok. And Sweetie Belle is going to wear that uniform. Cue pictures in three, two, one… Since Rarity is just finishing it, it would imply Sweetie Belle never did that sort of thing before, but the uniform already has badges on it, so either Sweetie Belle needed a new one or it required repairs. One thing to note is that in our world, girl scout cookie sale is typically an annual event, though they aren’t locked to a specific season.
- If Rainbow Dash can purchase a cake which is over two times taller than a pony just for a prank, she has to have a lot of disposable income. The quantities of cookies involved are also quite expensive. Which makes a case for this being a post-Newbie Dash episode, since Wonderbolt pay would likely be higher than weather team pay – and yet, the pranks on such a scale could get her a real chewing out from the Wonderbolts. How did she even get it in? It’s wider than the doors and windows and would have to be assembled in place, unless she can pull the roof off…
- Is it just me, or all the CMC sound a bit older?
- Applejack has a table lamp with a pull-switch. Which is not only well adapted for ponies using their mouths to trigger it, but also requires electricity or a magical equivalent.
3. Celestia getting pranked by proxy doesn’t count.
They never explain just how Rainbow moved the bed out, and that kinda requires a teleport-capable unicorn accomplice. Was Starlight Glimmer involved? She never shows up on screen. And notably, Rainbow is never shown pranking a unicorn other than Rarity, most of the random victims are earth ponies…3
- Apple Bloom’s uniform has one less badge than Scootaloo’s and Sweetie Belle’s. The badge with the fire is probably for starting fires. What’s the badge with the tree for, and why Apple Bloom doesn’t have it?…
- The truckload of cookies is meant for “Every house in Ponyville.” It contains ~30 layers of boxes, with ~36 boxes per layer, coming out to ~1080 boxes. Most ponies shown purchase more than one box, the first window Rainbow Dash looks into contains at least 5, so let’s say that the average is 5. That would mean that Ponyville contains ~200 households, which is kind of low for a town with prior estimated population of ~4000, unless a lot of ponies did not buy any cookies at all. Sugarcube Corner contains at least 32 boxes, which is a lot more than Mrs. Cake is shown buying. By nightfall, there’s something like ~20 boxes left the first time the cart shows up, but later it’s half full again. Something doesn’t quite add up, so they probably had to go back to refill the cart at least once. This is confirmed by more cookies being found in the barn. Alas, no new population estimate for Ponyville this time. But this amount of regular cookies would set Rainbow back something like 10k USD, and joke cookies have to be more expensive…
- And that truckload has to weigh half a ton. And one filly pulls it like it’s nothing. I hope for their sakes it’s Apple Bloom practicing earth pony magic.
- The Cake Twins are in their diapers. I have to remind you that in Hearth’s Warming Tail they aren’t, which gives this episode a fairly solid upper bound.
- Even Mayor Mare is in on the prank.
- Applejack hammers nails in with her hooves, and notably it’s the back hooves. I expect she has iron horseshoes on those.
- Another electric or magical lamp appears in Rainbow’s hooves, this time with a pushbutton switch. And this one needs a battery.
Nah, that’s not Mare Do Well 2.0, it’s nowhere near as mean and the eventual moral is quite different. Meanwhile, little fillies are exceedingly strong.
I suspect that Pinkie might have helped Dash with some of the more inexplicable aspects of the pranks. It would explain why Dash told Pinkie about the prank cookies ahead of time, and why her prank was limited to "hide in the closet."
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That would do it, I suppose. At least I don't have to imagine Starlight doing all that and getting away with it. :)
The cost of objects involved, though, makes me think that Rainbow's parents own the weather factory...
I cared less about the fact that this is semi-similar to Mare Do Well, and more about the fact that zombies are incredibly played out and boring in 2016.
In terms of impossible things Rainbow Did, moving a boulder the size of a barn into Big Mac's cart without him either noticing or crushing the cart suggests to me Starlight must be helping her.
I'm not sure all the animals actually like Fluttershy's picnics, they get fed either way, and some of them may not want to hike out into the woods.
That is a great catch on the diapers. Any way this could be before Griffon the Brush Off? Since that is when Rainbow Dash was clearly taught it's a really bad idea to prank Fluttershy, especially by trying to scare her?
Could have sworn I saw "pony scouts" somewhere in the comics, but I can't find it. Any ideas?
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But where did you see pony zombies?
Oh alright, the idea is played out, but I think it was executed well.
Or Pinkie challenged physics to a drinking contest which resulted in physics going home.
No. :) But I think this sort of implies Rainbow didn't have a chance to go on a pranking spree with Pinkie for years. That's the only way I can think of she would forget. I wonder what changed to enable her to do this again.
Don't remember any cases, but I'll check when I get some time to sift through the comics again.
I kind of like "Filly Guides" for one interesting difference between scouts and guides: Guides are local and guide others to what they know. Scouts are not local, they explore, and have military connotations - the original scout movement started with a book on military reconnaissance for children. This is a very subtle pacification of the whole concept.
The guides could be because of the shows Canadian roots as Girl Scouts don't exist under that name here; instead they're called Girl Guides
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I feel like you and I are Professor Frink in this scene and Pinkie is a wizard:
That's actually a really good question. She didn't feel at all sorry about it, in fact she doubled down and scared Fluttershy a second time after she started crying. I feel like Rainbow has to be mad at Fluttershy at something, and is not good at talking out her problems.
Equestrian historical fact: The Filly Guides are an ancient order dating from pre-unification times back in Ponyland, when earth pony earthworks crafter Roberta Spade-and-Trowel helped guide a group of fillies through the mud-based defenses of Princess Porcina to assassinate her, ending the Boar Wars. Afterwords Roberta wrote a book on earth and nature-based survival for young fillies, which evolved into the modern era. Also she loved cookies, so they are sold in her name.
Does that sound like a reasonable guess?
Interesting note: Apparently the twins didn't have their diapers on the whole time.
It's unclear which bit is the continuity error here.Never mind. Further investigation shows the diapers snap into place shortly afterwards.4148382
Fluttershy turned her down and Rainbow is pretending everything is still OK? That'll teach her to hang out with the Princess of Friendzone. :)
Only if you absolutely have to see Sweetie Belle in camo paint creeping up on griffon positions with a knife in her teeth.
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Ha! And then after Applejack makes it worse, Rainbow takes out her emotions on the entire town. Someone is peeved.
Partly I would love that, and partly I just think "Spade-and-Trowel" is the best ponified name I've ever come up with.
Ugh. Yes, isn't it about time the CMC are properly depicted as teenagers?
Continuing to jump through hoops to try and maintain the illusion that only 2 or so years have gone by since season 1 is stretching that suspension of disbelief a fair bit.
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I also seem to recall a Scouts or Guides equivalent in the comics. I thought at first that I was thinking of the Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon issue of Friends Forever, but that isn't it. They aren't in uniform or anything. I then thought that it might've been that arc where the foals all got lost in the mountains, but that turned out to not be the case either; it was just a class trip. Finally, I concluded that aside from our misremembering, the only real reference to such an organisation is... Discord's Magical History Tour.
derpicdn.net/img/2014/10/9/739061/large.jpg
...Yep.
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...Discord as the origin of Filly Guides?...
...Actually, with a post-reform Discord, why not? Keeping children entertained and putting them in situations where they can learn practical survival skills in a controlled fashion sounds right up his alley.
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There's a basis for a really interesting story in that.
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4153159 Alara Rogers has a great story that starts like that: The Tale of the Terrible Doctor Twilight.
Post-watch chiming in!
❧
Cloud-wearingAlready noted.But, it's implied from "being solid to pegasi, holds its shape reasonably well". This is a nice invention moment by the writers. Brilliance in a thing that is obvious in retrospect. (Though the implications of cloud-clothes, that are going to be solid to pegasi and not non-pegasi, are interesting, not just for X-rated shenanigans.)
I suspect RD must have been behind making the picnic run late, somehow, as she's prepared this prank along her route back with glowing eyes. (Though, the forest's darkness may suffice for that.)
Nay, she shakes her hooves to do so, sorta mini-bucking. Perhaps she does, or perhaps she just has to not make overly-jarring motions. The cloud-hardening (to glass-shatter level) or softening (to pillow-like, see inside shots of her house on couch) suggest that she just has to do a bit of that, as another option.
Mask-craft, possibly with some weather alchemy.
❧That she "doesn't find being scared fun" is a firm but not hard bound to be after"Scare Master", as it's being referenced…hmm. Actually, unclear, could imply it's before that, too, as it seems like learning either's lesson (for which all Mane6 are present both times!) should prevent the other episode…so "RD is peeved" is looking even better.
Taken together, this'd put it in about airing order, fancy that!
I believe this happens elsewhere, but can't recall it offhand. She used a hammer elsewhen. Also, a fan rendition of such shoes?
wait, what? I missed that. *goes back to check*
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Funny, when some credit 28 days later as revitalizing the genre.