Sep
17th
2017
Points of Canon: S3x06 - Sleepless in Ponyville · 2:18pm Sep 17th, 2017
It has Luna in it.
- The episode opens with Rainbow Dash flying past the camera tossing up a couple of coins. We never see what exactly did she do with them and why was she even doing that, unless you count the drink with a straw she appears with several seconds later. Actually, I find that whole thing rather strange.
- Scootaloo is riding a scooter. This is as good a moment as any to mention that Scootaloo’s scooter is unusual: It’s using skateboard wheels. When further children with scooters turn up, in Twilight Time, these are modern style, post-2000 design scooters, with two wheels. My guess is, Scootaloo tore the wheels off an old skateboard she found in the trash, and sometime a decade or two ago, skateboards were an actual fad.
- Minuette is in town almost getting run over by Scootaloo, of course. And Twinkleshine turns up as well.
- Granny Smith isn’t just spry this time. She actually bends out to give Scootaloo an opportunity for a trick.
- “Nice moves, kid.” And hearing that, Scootaloo stops in midair. Pegasus magic has to be involved.
- The place where she drops is rather interesting: It has a haystack with cows eating it, the main Apple barn is visible, and the CMC clubhouse is visible as well in the same shot. Just where is that?…
- The cow’s “mooo” when Scootaloo addresses her makes me more and more convinced that for the cows, Equish is a foreign language.
- Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are playing some variation on checkers on a 5x5 board. We don’t actually have such a variation around here.
- “I mean, it’s like she practically told me she wanted to take me under her wing, teach me everything she knows, and become like my big sister!” Any yandere Scootaloo stories out there, by the way?
- While the CMC are talking, Rainbow is seen moving clouds around through the window. Notably, she’s going about it in a rather unusual manner: Instead of pushing them or pulling like she usually does in other episodes, she’s grabbing them with all four legs.
- “Applejack’s going with her little sister. But, y’know, if you don’t wanna spend time with me…” Does suggest that Sisterhooves Social has already happened, if you ask me, but is not a hard lock.
- The starting point for the trek towards Winsome Falls is somewhere on the southwest of Ponyville – as they enter the forest, Canterlot and Ponyville are visible on almost a straight line.
- “You packed bug spray?” Next year, in Camprife Tales, she forgot. Also, ponies have bug spray. See chemical industry.
- Sweetie Belle is capable of pulling a cart that has at least a hundred kilograms worth of luggage in it. Later in the episode, Scootaloo has problems doing same.
- “Oh, well, let’s see who gets the last laugh when you’re absolutely desperate to curl your lashes, and you realize you didn’t bring your eyelash curler.” Ponies have eyelash curlers. Eyelash curlers are rather primitive devices, anyway.
- Rainbow Dash cuts the trunks of four trees with her hoof. I’m pretty sure this is not physically possible without pegasus magic.
- Rarity is using a nail file / emery board on her hoof. Notice she has to take a shoe off to do it.
- “Looks like you’ll be sharing a tent with me, huh?” Actually, it’s the reverse: Rainbow is going to be sharing the tent with Scootaloo. Scootaloo packed a tent, and so did Applejack and Rarity, but Rainbow Dash didn’t bring anything with her. That’s why the tent isn’t personalized with any cutie mark imagery, even – just a generic airy pattern.
- Rarity owns a two-story quick-deploying tent, using some manner of inflatable frame by the sound of it, and presumably, compressed air. But Rarity hates camping. Did she buy it just for this trip?
- “Hey, Scootaloo, do be a sweetheart and see if you can gather some firewood.” Remember Top Bolt, where Rainbow mimicked all her friends? That’s the first time she does this, I think.
- Applejack uses a bow to start the fire by friction, rather than, say, using a lighter, matches, or asking Rarity for a fire spell.
- “Is it about the time when Rarity had wings, and then they got ruined, and then you saved her from plummeting to her doom?” Continuity! Hard lock against the Sonic Rainboom.
- “It all happened on a night just like this one, in a forest, just like this… …And then, The Olden Pony asked, ‘Who’s got my rusty horseshoe?’” Is this imitating a classic tale I just don’t know or not?
- “Think it’s about time for me to hit the straw.” And not the hay, for some reason.
- The design of Scootaloo’s tent liberally uses zippers. First proper modern zippers date to 1913. The light inside is provided by a firefly lamp. So where did the second sleeping bag come from, did Scootaloo pack that, too?
- So, if Scootaloo wanted to impress Rainbow Dash, why did she pack a teddy bear?
- The nightmare of the Olden Pony is the one case where a pony is unambiguously wearing nail-on horseshoes.
- How does Scootaloo participate in Nightmare Night activities if a scary story can prevent sleep, anyway?
- While Scootaloo is sleep-scooting, she passes, among other unlikely dangerous things, an alligator. Guess they are in fact native to Ponyville environs.
- “That’s why it’s always important to bring your own trough on any public outing.” Notice that we have never actually seen ponies use a trough. It’s probable the word doesn’t mean the same thing for them.
- Clouds are so low here that Scootaloo can reach one by jumping.
- “No need for tents tonight, y’all. We’ll just take shelter in that cave.” Actually, why did they choose to set up tents in Campfire Tales, then?
- “It’s colder than a timberwolf’s toenail.” I hope for your sake you don’t actually know the temperature of a timberwolf’s toenail, Applejack. Also, do they have toenails?…
- “I’ve been told that these very woods are haunted by The Headless Horse!” Actually, here’s an interesting bit: Twilight tells the story of the Headless Horse to Applejack and Rarity in Look Before You Sleep, so they both know the story, and Applejack starts poking holes in it. But once Rainbow gets going, they’re both listening intently, mouths agape, just like the CMC… Also notice that Applejack equates a horse with a pony: “If it doesn’t have a head, then how in tarnation does this pony know where it’s goin’?”
- “Ninety-nine buckets of oats on the wall, ninety-nine buckets of oats!” Sweetie Belle sings out of tune. This is highly unusual by itself.
- “I am the princess of the night. Thus it is my duty to come into your dreams.” Notice, not privilege nor ability, but duty.
- So why did Rainbow choose to sleep wearing earplugs this time? And why did she go after Scootaloo? I think the only way it works – the only way she would even know Scootaloo is missing – is if Luna woke her up.
- “It is time for you to face your real fear, Scootaloo!” Well, this one has to be a visual device. Unless the entire scene with Rainbow Dash turning up to save Scootaloo is also a dream, which it can well be. Just where do the dreams end here?
- “As long as you don’t go falling into any more rivers in the middle of the night.” Actually, did they fish the scooter out? Because that thing’s definitely unique.
This episode is more ambiguous than it should have been.
Well, superficially it has some resemblances to Baba Yaga, a (sometimes) one-eyed crone known for hunting down children, and the concept of a ghost desiring after some old keepsake or incomplete piece of their ensemble is a bit of a classic, but the Olden Pony doesn't seem to be anything specific that I know of.
4671093
I can't find it at the moment, but I think there's a class of spooky camp tales about a haunt or serial killer with a rusty hook for a hand. The teller often hides a hook for the big payoff, pulling out their arm with their hand tucked up their sleeve and the hook sticking out. Goal is to get the audience to scream in shock.
TVTropes suggests The Golden Arm as a source for the Olden Pony.
Seen this a couple of time. There is some post about pony chemical industry?
Plot twist! The rest of season 3, and every season since, are actually part of Scootaloo’s dream.
4671201
Unfortunately, no: It never comes up on screen directly.
However, here and there, artifacts which require very advanced chemical industry to exist – 1970s or even newer, in terms of our world – crop up constantly. After about fifteen mentions of things like polycarbonate – which is a relatively new plastic – or silly string, or transparent scotch tape, I am shortening the explanations to the effect of “this is more advanced than the otherwise observed pony tech level, take note” to simply “see chemical industry.”
Which is, by the way, why the glue jokes in relation to ponies are bogus and have always been: You would be hard-pressed to find any animal-derived glues these days, everything is synthetic. Ponies use plastics and advanced adhesives all the time.
4671207
I’m sure someone wrote that story already.
I’d read it, anyway.
Why would you hit food when you're going to bed?
Possibly because of Scootaloo's lingering fear of the scary cave.
Have you ever heard that song sung in tune? I'm not sure if it's possible.
I don't know, I could believe that Luna can use the moon as a communication device. Though Celestia using the sun as one presents some issues. People do tend to look at those speaking to them...
4671352 Does Celestia's sun hurt pony eyes? Seems to me that'd be bad management.
Not a lot to say on this one, but I will point out that Scootaloo actually looks like she's a bit of a scaredy-cat. In the Nightmare Night episodes either the CMC are running around playing pranks, or when they get scared in the hedge maze Scootaloo is the only one who is actually scared.
4671552
"It's About Time." The only thing worse than staring at the sun is staring at the sun through a telescope.
4671209
Isn't there-
hm, no, they don't have that kind of machinery in the weather factory tour, nvm.
(though, how those rainbow-falls do anything other than look pretty…some weird sedimentation-distillation?)