"Triple Threat" · 3:55am Aug 20th, 2017
Twilight Sparkle: So this is my comfy chair for fictional reads. This is my studying chair because the hard back keeps me awake.
Thorax: Oh, Spike! I'm so glad you're here! [quietly] This castle visit is getting weird. Twilight really likes chairs.
Man, of all my fics the show could have gone and made canon, why did they pick my goofy short story about changeling furniture?
ANYWAY, as a friend off-site pointed out to me: It’s a pretty ironic that a guy who loves Archie comics...
Seriously.
...still fell prey to the old Two-Timer Date stock plot. Archie did that in damn near every digest. They were warning you, Spike!
To be perfectly honest, the stupidity that sets the plot in motion was a bit tough for me to swallow this time. (Which is odd, because this show has no shortage of other episodes that hinge on the focus character making stupid mistakes, but I usually don’t mind those.) But the resolution almost makes up for it. When the deception is revealed (as the plot gods demand), Ember and Thorax aren’t angry about the scheduling conflict. Instead, they’re angry that Spike tried to “resolve” it by deceiving them, and hurt by the implications of why Spike chose that route.
This message strikes me as an inverted followup to the episode “Maud Pie”...
“Maud Pie”: If pony A and pony B are both friends with you, it’s not the end of the world if A and B don’t really connect with each other...
“Triple Threat”: ...but for the love of Celestia, give A and B a chance to connect with each other, before you do anything crazy.
No updates to my bingo card.
Spike really has been around Twilight too long,
Still lov that ficlet.
I immediately thought of that too when I saw the scene.
There was also another fic they almost made canon, about Spike eating the Friendship Castle...