Points of Canon: S4x21 - Testing Testing 1, 2, 3

That’s actually an episode important for the ancient history of Equestria, though I’m not sure just how much Amy Keating Rogers is at fault here. Like so many other things, it was probably an accident.

• “The magical properties of this spell will only have lasting effects if you focus on…” Twilight looks quite puzzled when she’s reading this, and she’s even reading this aloud. I assume this means she also thinks this phrase makes no sense whatsoever. Though I wonder why is she reading on her own doorstep – we never find out. In most other situations, if she wanted to read out in the fresh air, we would see her on the library balcony, right?
• Rainbow actually destroyed the book Twilight was reading, because otherwise, where did that stack of flying paper come from? In any case, Twilight crumples up the flying paper and stuffs it into the book…
• Twilight flies casually.
• This is the first time we see Twilight the alicorn land on a cloud and stand on it. Notably, she initially sinks up to her knees into the cloud, only to climb out moments later while making a nervous face, as if she had to consciously turn on the power to stand on them.
• “A test that will determine if you can join the newly-formed Wonderbolts Reserves, and being part of the Wonderbolts Reserves means you’ll have the opportunity to live your dream as a Wonderbolt!” According to this, Wonderbolts Reserves is a new thing, but why would Wonderbolt Academy exist at all, if this were so?… Because that surely didn’t sound like it were a new thing.
• Rainbow once again shows off by hovering upside down.
• When Rainbow facehoofs, we hear an obvious dull metallic sound. No comment.
• When Twilight teleports herself and Rainbow into the library, she doesn’t have a pointer in her magic, but upon reappearance, she’s wielding it like a wand. Where’d it come from? It’s actually important for teleportation mechanics.
• “This is the most complete book on the history of the Wonderbolts.” A dedicated monograph on the subject exists. It even contains fold-out sections.
• “Reading and highlighting is the foundation of any good study method.” Notice that we have never actually seen Twilight highlighting anything. Also notice that this requires a highlighter, which is a subspecies of a felt tip marker. I did mention in RTAC #15 that I’ve never seen one, well, I was wrong. Why are they so rare, though? Notably, the ink of this one appears to actually glow.
• Also notice that Twilight thinks nothing of marking up a book, which is far less piety before them than fanon usually expects from her.
• Twilight uses her wings for gestures, she’s quite comfortable with them by that point.
• “Hey, I am not that tall!” …Is being shorter a good thing?
• “Is it snack time?” Now, the exam is “tomorrow,” as Twilight says in the beginning of the episode, and there were no visible breaks. Where did Rainbow pick up the lunchbox?
• “Can’t we just watch the history of the Wonderbolts movie?!” A very interesting sentiment, suggesting that were a movie to exist, watching it would be easy. In our world, this only became an established practice with the advent of home video. Either Rainbow is well ahead of the times, or the library has a movie collection.
• “Prior to the great Celestia/Luna rift, there was no need for the Earth, Unicorn, Pegasi, or E.U.P., Guard.” Twilight never explains why or how would the rift necessitate the establishment of this organization. See RTAC #4 and RTAC #12 for theories as well as further chewing of the scant phrases presented in this lecture.
• “But after Luna’s banishment, the Protective Pony Platoons were formed.” Later in the episode, Rainbow cites this as “E.U.P. Guard of the Protective Pony Platoons,” emphasis mine. Quite a mouthful!
• “Headed by General Firefly, an elite team of aerial performers were chosen to help celebrate this auspicious occasion.” So notice that this time, the leader of the squadron is a General. This will become interesting later.
• “The first performance was so full of energy, so highly charged, that magical lightning showered down on the crowd.” This makes me suspect that at the time, the use of pegasus magic for visual effects was a radically new idea.
• Now, it’s obvious why Rainbow is swinging on her chair, and why is Owlowiscious dancing in rhythm. But why exactly is Spike participating in this? Unfortunately, he gets no lines in the episode at all, so we never know.
• Twilight uses some manner of illusion spell to present a Wonderbolts logo.
• Twilight teleports a chair out from under Rainbow.
• “Let’s move on to my favorite style of learning: flashcards!” Ponies have the idea of flashcards, which actually implies interesting things about memory organization. Twilight loves flashcards.

• “Colonel Purple Dart, the leader of the Wonderbolts in the Fourth Celestial Era, was known for his…”

  • Notice that this time it’s a “colonel.”
  • Also notice the first use of the term “Celestial era.” This is the only episode in which it appears.
• “After becoming the official flying squadron for Princess Celestia, she honored them with…” I wonder what exactly does being an official flying squadron for Celestia entail. Because we rarely, if ever, see the Wonderbolts in her vicinity.
• Twilight intercepts a spit wad. Notice that her instinctive reaction is not to put up a shield, but to catch it in her magic.
• “Well, if you can horse around like this, then you clearly must be ready for the test.” I want to know the story behind this idiom.
• “Ernie’s undercooked pancakes.” Who’s Ernie?

• “Do you know the name of the premiere Wonderbolts choreographer? Commander Easyglider. Do you know how many Pegasi flew in the original squad? Seven! Do you know Princess Celestia’s favorite flight pattern?! The Icaranian Sun Salutation!”

  • Did Celestia’s tastes never change since this flight pattern was developed? In fact, when was the last time anyone asked her?
  • Notice the Commander. So far, we got ranks of Commander, Colonel and General among the Wonderbolts, but…
• “Well, this egghead knows history and can fly.” Twilight is actually slightly proud of being able to fly, which isn’t something she ever expressed before.
• Fluttershy’s play is presented by the full complement of Mane 6 pets, even though three of the Mane 6 are missing.

• According to Pinkie’s rap:

  • General Firefly was female. So was Commander Easyglider.
  • “Admiral Fairweather” and “Admiral Fairy Flight” were involved with the Wonderbolts, and what the hell is an admiral doing in a pegasus command structure, let alone two admirals, is never explained.
  • General Flash is mentioned, but we never find out he (or she?) was the 10th leader of the Wonderbolts from the rap, Pinkie only mentions that much later.
  • Notice that there are three pegasi called “Flash” that we know by now – Flash Magnus, General Flash, and Flash Sentry. Want an anonymous name for a pegasus, “Flash” is it.
• “Rarity, you look ridiculous.” She also had to have prepared all those uniforms in advance. Now, it’s obvious, by the fact that Fluttershy abruptly appears during the study session, that the entire Mane 6 expected Rainbow to have problems with this exam, but the uniforms existing is also the evidence that they knew about it well in advance.
• “I am now modeling the rather unattractive, and frankly itchy, original Wonderbolts flying costume.” Notably, most of Rarity’s uniforms have no holes for wings, and these holes don’t appear until very late in the episode, where some of the uniforms are worn by actual pegasi. A uniform for a pegasus-only occupation would always have them, if it were accurate, so why – especially, considering that Rarity explicitly calls it a flying costume?…
• “Fortunately, thanks to the vision of Flaire De Mare, the Wonderbolts ensemble became more streamlined in a wonderfully breathable fabric.” See Wonderbolts Academy Handbook for a rant about this non-character.
• “Just look at those dreadful bell-bottoms. What were ponies thinking?” Rarity doesn’t like bell-bottoms. This particular uniform belongs to General Flash.
• “And I’m Admiral Fairy Flight, from the seventh squadron.” Just how is this chronologically related to the rest of all the mentioned ponies, we have no idea whatsoever. Notice that this uniform is the only one to include boots.
• “And I’m sportin’ some sort of getup worn by Colonel Purple Dart.” This is also the one with medals on it, and notably, medals are pinned to the clothing, unlike most other medals seen anywhere in canon, and are not on the chest, but rather, pinned in a row along the sides.
• “How much time you got?” “Twelve hours.” This whole adventure had already taken most of a day: Assuming the test starts in the morning, it should be ~4 hours until bedtime. Unfortunately, that implies that the rest of the preparations, which involve getting large numbers of ponies to assist, happen lightning fast… Either that, or Rainbow is not counting the time she expects to sleep, which is not how students naturally do things.

• “And Granny Smith discovered the first granny smith in Fillydelphia, when she was just a filly!” Now try to properly parse this statement, I dare you.

  • Does this mean that the apple cultivar “Granny Smith” is named after Granny Smith or not?
  • More importantly, does this mean that Granny Smith was born Granny Smith or not?
  • Actually, what if “Granny” is not short for “Grandmother,” but something else, like, I dunno, “Granite?”
• Twilight has to flap her wings about 20% faster than Rainbow to keep pace with her. Which is strange, considering hers are bigger.
• “I don’t know anypony that’s read more Daring Do books than you.” Wait. How?!
• “My years of being a class clown prevented me from actually learning how to learn!” Rainbow admits to having been a class clown.
• A-and, here we see Cherry Berry flying a muscle-powered helicopter. This toyetic machine never appears again. Notice that this one only has one pair of pedals, unlike Pinkie’s helicopter in Griffon the Brush Off
• “And I’m thinking Big Mac sold a huge order of apples to Filthy Rich, ’cause I heard him give a very hearty…” Filthy Rich makes regular wholesale purchased of apples, it seems, because it’s only one cart full, and Apples have to be producing a lot more. Notice that he pays in cash for this one.
• “Oh, my gosh!” Omg, not this again.
• As Twilight gets her Eureka Moment, she drops down, busting through the cloud and splitting it into four cloudlets. Rainbow reassembles the cloud. Notice that it becomes a dark raincloud as a result – whether it’s just to react to Rainbow’s emotional state, or because it was reassembled, we don’t know.
• “Maybe I’ll learn to shine shoes, sell hats, dig ditches…” You’d think that with the amount of shoes ponies are seen wearing, shining them would not be a viable career choice.
• “I’m General Firefly! Gee, my costume is itchy and unattractive, but I’m gonna assemble an awesome flying team!” As Pinkie says that, she fires a mortar. And it’s very far from her usual party cannon. If Pinkie is being in any way historical, firearms were around at least 1000 years ago. Also, notice that this uniform has no holes for wings. So was General Firefly a pegasus or not, and could a pony head the Wonderbolts without being one?
• The older pegasus who appears saying “Admiral Fairweather” is wearing what looks like a variation on a bicorne.
• “Colonel Purple Dart!” This uniform has mysteriously acquired holes for wings.
• “General Flash!” So did this one.
• The preparations for this lesson involved making crop circles and cutting hedges in the shape of various Wonderbolt logos, which would require considerable time to get right.
• Twilight ends the episode by writing in the Friendship Journal, and while Rainbow is shown taking the exam while Twilight is narrating, the Journal record could conceivably be written at any point after the events described.
• The examiner uses a desk lamp that in any other case would have to be electric – but it’s a location on a cloud, isn’t it? So how do they get electricity up there? Guess that’s one more argument in favor of broadcast power.

Some analysis

I have previously extracted every bit of useful history from this episode, but here are some side thoughts:

• So how does an admiral end up in command of pegasi? Could this be that airships in Equestria are actually part of the Navy? Does the word “admiral” mean the same thing for ponies or not?
• Notice that throughout the episode, the history of the Wonderbolts is seen as a collection of trivia, rather than any manner of knowledge system. Only the very beginning of it is a narrative at all, the rest is a sprinkling of facts. If this describes the way ponies see history, Discord is blamed unjustly for screwing it up.
• The listed military ranks of Colonel, Commander and General / Admiral would be, in most human armies, consistent with an army unit between 300 and 80000 soldiers, so it doesn’t give us much, but unambiguously implies ponies do have an army of some kind, and probably, it grew with time – notice that ranks mentioned progress down, rather than up, until admirals suddenly appear.

Comments

[Comnislasher]

According to this, Wonderbolts Reserves is a new thing, but why would Wonderbolt Academy exist at all, if this were so?… Because that surely didn’t sound like it were a new thing.

Maybe to become a Wonderbolt you still need to pass some courses? So they build a dedicated building?

Notice that this time it’s a “colonel.”

They grant a General rank to a Celestia :)?

Did Celestia’s tastes never change since this flight pattern was developed? In fact, when was the last time anyone asked her?

Most likely they assume that because she an immortal (or close to it) her tastes never change? And Celestia feels bad to correct them?

and what the hell is an admiral doing in a pegasus command structure, let alone two admirals, is never explained.

Maybe at some point they be a part of Equestria Navi? They exist for hundreds of years - lots of things could happen.

[Eruantalon]

So how does an admiral end up in command of pegasi?

Well, in an era of wind-driven ships, which tribe of pony would make the best sailors and captains? And then, it'd only make sense to bring in an experienced pegasus admiral to command a flying team over land.

If this describes the way ponies see history, Discord is blamed unjustly for screwing it up.

I'm forced to believe that it depicts the way the Mane Six see history. Or, at least, the other five of the Mane Six - with Twilight, it might just be her trying to dumb things down for Rainbow?

[schpeelah]

When Twilight teleports herself and Rainbow into the library, she doesn’t have a pointer in her magic, but upon reappearance, she’s wielding it like a wand. Where’d it come from? It’s actually important for teleportation mechanics.

So either you can teleport in items from an unrelated location while yourself teleporting, or a teleportation equivalent to Spike's fire hammerspace exists.

Also notice that Twilight thinks nothing of marking up a book, which is far less piety before them than fanon usually expects from her.

You'd think they'd notice the way Twilight likes to unceremoniously drop books onto the floor. It's in her very second scene!

“Hey, I am not that tall!” …Is being shorter a good thing?

She got noticeably taller since becoming an alicorn, a hint of being not entirely positive about the transformation manifesting as being annoyed by things tangentially related to it? Or at least she's self-conscious about it.

“Can’t we just watch the history of the Wonderbolts movie?!” A very interesting sentiment, suggesting that were a movie to exist, watching it would be easy. In our world, this only became an established practice with the advent of home video. Either Rainbow is well ahead of the times, or the library has a movie collection.

It's probably part of the same collection as the Hurricane Fluttershy instructional video. Either belonging to the library or the weather patrol.

As Twilight gets her Eureka Moment, she drops down, busting through the cloud and splitting it into four cloudlets. Rainbow reassembles the cloud. Notice that it becomes a dark raincloud as a result – whether it’s just to react to Rainbow’s emotional state, or because it was reassembled, we don’t know.

It doesn't change color until Rainbow curls up on it, so.

The examiner uses a desk lamp that in any other case would have to be electric – but it’s a location on a cloud, isn’t it? So how do they get electricity up there?

You get it from the cloud, obviously.

[howard035]

Thanks for the explanation of ranks steadily moving down to imply a military growing in size over time, I had no idea what was going on there.

I never realized before that the Wonderbolt reserves were new. Perhaps the Academy used to just train Wonderbolts, and they had a JV squad or two, but recently they decided to massively increase the size of the ranks, but only "official" Wonderbolts get to fly in air shows and such? Would be a good way to increase the size of your air force without upsetting traditionalists who want there to always be like 10-15 Bolts who race and do air shows.

If the Wonderbolts reserve is new, and the reserve seems a whole lot larger than the regular Wonderbolts, it is hard to avoid the idea that Equestria is engaging in a significant military buildup, at least of its air force. Perhaps this was the response to a future changling invasion? Luna wanting a more effective guards? Unknown, but I feel like when someone complains that the Regal Sisters have done nothing to build up Equestria's defenses despite all the recent attacks and threats, they've clearly done at least this.

Also it really bugged me how Rainbow got a 100% from flying around looking down at her friends rather than actually trying to study.

[Comnislasher]

4722305

If the Wonderbolts reserve is new, and the reserve seems a whole lot larger than the regular Wonderbolts, it is hard to avoid the idea that Equestria is engaging in a significant military buildup,

Huh... Never thought about this that way...

[howard035]

4722319 Well, Celestia doesn't seem like the type to advertise a military buildup. Even Luna wouldn't be so obsessed with advertising the military capabilities of their nation, unless she has once again become Kim Jong Nightmare Moon.

[schpeelah]

4722329
They heard of the Storm King and started preparing, but were ultimately too slow?

[Comnislasher]

4722329
Well yeah. I don't think that Celestia would announce an increase of military budgete and ranks. And this whole "Wonderbolt Reserve" allow her to do that without putting more money in military directly. Considering that Equestria doesn't have wars for hundreds of years any increase in the military most likely would scared ponies. So yeah, elegant way to increase military strength.
But at the same time, we have this stupid movie mess where all fighting forces just vanish into thin air.

[howard035]

4722340 The nice thing about a mobile fighting force is that it can easily be explained why they are not anywhere nearby at any given time. Perhaps they were doing joint maneuvers with the Yaks in the North and assumed that Canterlot would be secure with 4 alicorn princesses guarding it.

That reminds me, did we ever talk about the movie canon fact that Cadance controls the Aurora Borealis somehow? Which means that when Twilight broke down crying because she missed it on the tour, Cadance couldn't bother to just do another one for her.

[schpeelah]

4722343
The thing Twilight wanted to see wasn't Aurora Borealis, it was shooting stars arriving from the direction of the Sun visible only in the Frozen North (implied - at an altitude and probably a specific place in the Frozen North) at sunset.

Cadance is the only princess whose powers can't be potentially involved in arranging this.

[Comnislasher]

4722343
That could explain the absence of Wonderbolts. But what the heck happens with Royal Guard? Who supposed to guard royal family? And this whole "I disabled all princesses in less than a minute"! Ugh... I need to calm down...

[schpeelah]

4722351
Whenever the reason why Twilight needs to go see the queen of the Hippos is brought up, they talk 100% about how powerful the Storm King's army is, not about Tempest. Apparently everypony except us saw Equestria's armed forces crushed so decisively and impressively, it actually overshadows the gal who took out 3 alicorns in 30 seconds.

[howard035]

4722351 Gorgon grenades that can overcome any magical shield were apparently not factored in, a serious oversight.

The Royal Guard is really a combination Secret Service/group of armored butlers anyway. My least illogical guess for them would be that they were given a special holiday to take part in the Friendship Festival and most stuck around in plain clothes to party.

4722356 A lot of that is some people are basing their opinions on the comics. In the comics the Storm King's army is shown to be fast, competent and powerful, and the Storm King himself is quite clever. We even get to see a McGuffin that is hinted to be the power of the Gorgon Grenades.
Tempest herself doesn't come off as that impressive in the comics, and in the movie she beats the Princesses by using up the super-weapons her boss gave her, not with any amazing magic or other special powers. I mean it is really impressive that she has the speed and aim to hurl those grenades before the Princess can start teleporting around or conjuring solid objects as shields, but that just isn't quite as overwhelmingly menacing as dozens of airships with huge, aggressives soldiers with magic-reflecting armor and weapons.

[schpeelah]

4722362
No, I mean in the movie. When the Mane 6 discuss why they need the Hippogriffs, they need them to defeat the Storm Troopers.

[Comnislasher]

4722362
In comics Storm King and his army actually look dangerous (hell, I bought all of the prequel comics). He has shittons of airships and other things. If they show us how Equestrian forces fight against Storm King army and then princesses send Twilight to find allies it would be far better in comparison with what we got. Oh, and Storm King in a movie looks like an idiot.
... but still like that movie.

[Meta Four]

• So how does an admiral end up in command of pegasi? Could this be that airships in Equestria are actually part of the Navy? Does the word “admiral” mean the same thing for ponies or not?

Doylistically, the Wonderbolts are based on the Blue Angels, which are part of the US Navy, not the Army or Air Force. So the real mystery is why there were ever Generals in command of the Wonderbolts.

4722244

“Hey, I am not that tall!” …Is being shorter a good thing?

She got noticeably taller since becoming an alicorn, a hint of being not entirely positive about the transformation manifesting as being annoyed by things tangentially related to it? Or at least she's self-conscious about it.

Agreed. If Twilight is worried that being an alicorn is going to disrupt her life and drive a wedge between her and her friends, then she won’t like her friends’ (perceived) ribbing over her physical changes. Like the fact that she’s a few inches taller than before.

For what it’s worth, Word of Faust is that Celestia’s generally considered the ideal of physical beauty. So under any other circumstances, Twi would consider being taller a good thing.

[howard035]

4722372 That's a really good point. There's not really a form that can defend against petrification, unless you assume cockatrices are immune to it ( a possibility). However, if Twilight went to the outlying towns, turned everyone into dragons with the pearl, and then they all marched on the Storm King, yeah, I could see that being a short decisive battle even if they have more gorgon grenades.

4722376 This is so true. I have seen so many people complain that the movie nerfed the heck out of Equestria's defenders, which it absolutely did. But it also kind of nerfed the attackers. The Storm King is clever and has powerful cannons, but he doesn't do something like say, send Tempest in to sneak up on the princesses one by one with the grenades to take them out, which would have been a lot smarter on the bad guys part than hoping no one dodges or teleports away after multiple princesses have been taken out. Or having the ship's fire many rounds of artillery at Canterlot to soften it up before landing ground troops.

I'm not saying the Storm Kings forces could have beaten Equestria in a fair fight, I'm just saying the nerf bat was wielded widely and indiscriminately in that movie.

4722387 It's always kind of bothered me that Celestia is considered the epitome of beauty. I mean, she's got to be like 4 times the height of the average pony. How many people are attracted to the 20 feet tall look?

[Production Run]

My theory for the weird use of ranks is that the Wonderbolts were initially an interservice unit made up of particularly skilled aerobats from Equestria's army, navy, air force (assuming they had a dedicated air force and not just pegasus units in the other branches), and whatever other military branches they might have. That would also explain why their commanding officers didn't just have titles from different services, but of different ranks. What we've seen of the modern Wonderbolts doesn't look anything like that, so I have to assume their organization has changed. My personal theory for that is that the Wonderbolts demonstration squadron is now just the most visible part of the Equestrian Air Force (see my earlier statement about them- the idea of a dedicated air force emerging from another branch has precedent in real life, like the US Air Force being run as part of the Army until after World War II), and prior to the establishment of a Wonderbolts-specific reserve force, students who graduate from the Academy were sent to regular Air Force units.

As for why Rainbow Dash was never seen in such a unit, there's several perfectly reasonable explanations for that. First, there's the possibility that the timing worked out for her to go straight from the Academy to the Reserves. Second, there's the possibility that her status as one of the Elements of Harmony was considered grounds for an exemption from the normal policy. Third, and most interesting, is the possibility that she already had some sort of military position due to said status as an Element. The two possibilities for this are that the Elements of Harmony were granted some sort of special forces status or that Twilight made the rest of the mane six her personal guard detail. Or both.

[Oliver]

4743295

My theory for the weird use of ranks is that the Wonderbolts were initially an interservice unit made up of particularly skilled aerobats from Equestria’s army, navy, air force (assuming they had a dedicated air force and not just pegasus units in the other branches), and whatever other military branches they might have.

This is a possibility, but you’d think “Earth-Unicorn-Pegasi Guard” implies that they are army-magic-air force, and therefore no other aerobats exist.

Still, this is undefined and up for spinning whichever way you need it to spin.

Third, and most interesting, is the possibility that she already had some sort of military position due to said status as an Element. The two possibilities for this are that the Elements of Harmony were granted some sort of special forces status or that Twilight made the rest of the mane six her personal guard detail. Or both.

That is a possibility too, but there’s no whiff of any special status for the Elements in actual canon, despite several widely attended award ceremonies.