Points of Canon à la Oliver: S1E09 ❧"Bridle Gossip"

I watched it so I could post intelligently, but I'm wanting to get my thoughts down before I have to actually try reading my scrawlings to know them. So I'm stealing a march and beating Oliver to the punch, though he's got his own entry for s1e9 now. Discussion will probably be more active there.

I'm bringing the biggun out front:
❧"They're [Zebras] not ponies," says Twilight.

…page break doesn't work in a tag search of blog posts, either. Huh.
Having read about zebras, Zecora eating pony meat is not biologically implausible.

♪"Zombie pony" not "zompony"
Spike breathesbelches a non-ignited green gas.
Spike can belch on command (not everyone can).
No, it's not implied from his flame-mail…which incidentally is exhaled on send, and belched on delivery; that is probably triggered involuntarily.
❧How, exactly, do they know Zecora's name…?
♪"Sinister"…which to us is etymologically from left-handedness and left-handedness being evil is …peculiar to European Latin development? How would that relate to Pony Latin? Even weirder, it's RD using this word.

RD doesn't fly around with the party walking into Everfree (unlike other times) and then buzzes the flowers. Is she just spiting/pranking Zecora? And then she can't stop, after the PJ² sets in, but I expect that's involuntary.
♪"Real magic comes from within, something you're born with."- so what's CSGU for?- "Curses are artificial fake magic, with potions, incantations, all smoke and mirrors meant to scare."
You'd think this would be a reason for Twi to lead the charge against Trixie. RD saying it's weird Twi says this is itself weird, but perhaps she subscribes to Clarke's First Law.
If curses are fake, what the hell is Trixie doing in "Magic Duel", removing mouths, etc. etc.? She simply cannot mean what we mean by curse, "targeted, persistent undesired magical effect, [sometimes contagious]". Which this is too, of course.
❧❧Also, aren't potions artificial? Isn't she seen mixing chemicals plenty? She sure drinks that potion later to solve the tanglevines. Her "favorite Hearth's Warming Eve story" also involves alchemy. What's going on here? Aren't spellbooks artificial?
♪Speaking of magic theory vocabulary, "ghosts, spirits, zombies," are "supernatural"…and all supernatural is hookum, implying that magic is science and/or is considered natural.
❧❧Her favorite Hearth's Warming Eve tail, er, tale also involves spirits.
❧❧The traditional one also involves windigos, which are described as spirits…by an in-character Twilight Sparkle.
❧❧"the spirits of The Elements of Harmony are right here." said Twilight in the pilot episodes. Probably not related, but…
♪Twi's "Just an old pony tale" and AJ's "you'll find out some old pony tales are real" do not make sense after S1E2 [wherein Twi literally encountered the ponytale Nightmare Moon and found it real]. At all. But it cannot be before then.
❧Luna does not help against Twi's nightmare"dream".
❧limp-horn does not affect telekinesis; she'd have noticed brushing her hair.
❧❧unless "I must be discovered before being magic-injurious" is a thing, but that requires something that is far, far too aware…and would be called a curse.
❧Spike knows the name of the Appletini or this nickname would not be funny to him. Spike knowing alcoholic beverage names is a bit weird.
❧"Personal space" is an invoked cultural concept.
Rainbow Dash is stronger than a tree about half her thickness, about two hooves wide. Specifically, she is able to shrug off what broke that tree.
Applejack makes an improvised bit and bridle…and Rainbow Dash knows what it is (probably) enough to be offended. And she sounds very offended. But not offended enough to remove it…or it's just that AJ's damn good with knots, and she can't. Strangely, despite having an around-muzzle strap, RD is perfectly able to speak at all times.
Applejack improvises it out of wood and vines. She knows, or has earth-magic sense to tell, what vines make good rope.
❧Zecora speaks a different language. An ancient language. And…it's rhyming, too, allegedly. Bah, transcripts/subs don't have her phonemes.
♪"What in Ponyville"
❧Twilight does not understand evidentiary arguments very well, I feel, based on her willingness to overturn her "curses are fake" with "I didn't want to believe that you cursed us, but the evidence is overwhelming!"
❧The Flower Sisters pretty explicitly start the panic for once. Twilight (possibly informed by Pinkie or others) knows and strikes there with her info campaign…or they just needed to buy from Daisy.

This lesson of not judging a book by its cover is later ignored in: "The times, they are a Changeling". [I suspect this will be A Thing one can do with the lessons…]

Implications for later episodes:
Filli Vanilli, then, will point out that even when an effect is enjoyed by the "victim" the Poison Joke (Joak? it is "no joke") is fully repeatable.
The spa ponies ask for the recipe. I suspect it's on the menu; Fluttershy must spend a chunk on curing between Ponytones performances.

---

²À propos of little, I'm amused that Poison Joke initials to PJ², with that speedrunner having what amounts to a gremlin touch…also the subs call her "Zakora".

Comments

[Meta Four]

"Real magic comes from within, something you're born with."- so what's CSGU for?-

Magic potential comes from within, but it takes education and experience to translate potential into reality. It's like a muscle: most everyone is born with functioning legs and learns to run at a young age, but it takes training to win any major footrace. CSGU is training.

Zecora speaks a different language. An ancient language. And…it's rhyming, too, allegedly. Bah, transcripts/subs don't have her phonemes.

What I've heard is that Faust & co. wanted Zecora to speak real Swahili to herself, but they couldn't find an IRL Swahili speaker in time. So they just gave the VA some Swahili-sounding gibberish instead.

[Oliver]

Ok, now I can read it in detail. :)

Even weirder, it’s RD using this word.

Rainbow has a much wider vocabulary than she lets on. She also occasionally says “Gesundheit.” I have no idea how ponies came by this word.

…implying that magic is science and/or is considered natural.

Considering Twilight calculates square roots of non-square numbers in her head? You bet there’s science involved. :)

Twi’s “Just an old pony tale” and AJ’s “you’ll find out some old pony tales are real” do not make sense after S1E2 [wherein Twi literally encountered the ponytale Nightmare Moon and found it real]. At all. But it cannot be before then.

They keep bumping over “old pony tale” ever since, “If Jesus Then Aliens” does not appear to be a trope they’re very familiar with. See the Shadow Lock storyline in particular.

Luna does not help against Twi’s nightmare“dream”.

Which also implies this has to be an early episode, not that we didn’t have other clues.

limp-horn does not affect telekinesis; she’d have noticed brushing her hair.

Unless it goes limp right as she is doing so.

❧❧unless “I must be discovered before being magic-injurious” is a thing, but that requires something that is far, far too aware…and would be called a curse.

…or unless used for a while before taking effect.

❧Filli Vanilli, then, will point out that even when an effect is enjoyed by the “victim” the Poison Joke (Joak? it is “no joke”) is fully repeatable.

That’s one of the things that bothered me about Filli Vanilli.