Points of Canon: S5x03 - Castle Sweet Castle

I don’t have high hopes for this one turning up anything particularly useful, but for completeness. And it’s a bit cringy…

• “Thanks for helping me get them so fresh and clean, Twilight.” So how exactly did a ferret get so dirty? The whole animal-cleaning scene implies a dirt explosion of some kind, and it’s interesting that both Twilight and Fluttershy are just as dirty as the animals they’re cleaning… This isn’t just a visual device either, Fluttershy says, “I think you and I are the only ones left, and I can’t wait to get the mud out of my mane.” And considering that the pattern of dirt is identical on Angel, whom Twilight has just knocked into the puddle, I’m pretty definite something happened to splatter all of Fluttershy’s menagerie at once and both Fluttershy and Twilight.
• “I really need to rest up for that big pancake breakfast tomorrow.” The pancake breakfast is a planned event, rather than any kind of regular thing.
• Rarity is the only one using a fork. Everypony else just bites the pancakes off the plate.
• “The surprise is I lost a measuring spoon in the batter. Somepony’s gonna get a very special pancake!” This is a very strange measuring spoon: It should be substantially thicker than a pancake, so missing it in a pancake would be difficult.
• “Now that you mention it, she was lendin’ a hoof at Sweet Apple Acres the other day and stuck around ‘til near midnight. Dug up fifty tree-plantin’ holes when all I needed was ten.” Tree planting season is typically spring, at least for fruit trees, but with earth pony magic we have no clue at all, and general chronology implies it has to be autumn anyway.
• “I’m pancake! I mean, awake…” Twilight did not get a shower after her yesterday’s ordeal, and still has twigs and dirt in her mane. It’s strange that nopony calls her on that until the very end of the scene.
• “Oh, no! Did I miss the pancakes?!” Spike owns and sleeps with a Rarity plushie at this point in time. I wonder who made it, because the only ones around with known sewing skills are Rarity and Fluttershy…
• “I sleep like a baby under that cold, cavernous ceiling.” I expect we should understand this to mean that dragons have instincts related to living in caves.

• “Great! I’ve been meaning to get my claws done!”

  • Trimming Spike’s claws has to be a difficult operation he would have problems doing himself, actually.
  • Ponyville spa services clawed creatures with no issues, and the most common clawed creatures would be griffons…
• “Furry friends and some popinjays / So she won’t be alone” I.e. Fluttershy donates pets to the decoration effort. That said, Applejack donates pigs… This is a touch above Rainbow decorating Twilight’s home with her own trophies and is more derpy of them than usual, though not exceedingly.
• “Posters of all my heroes” A pose-able figure of Spitfire is quite an interesting piece of merchandise. I wonder what sort of audience is it meant for, in Equestria. Just how acceptable are adults playing with toys to ponies, anyway?
• At one point, Rarity adds gemstones to all the cupcakes Pinkie is holding. Which most ponies would not be able to eat.
• One of the decorations is a large picture of the Mane 6 hanging out on clouds, with Twilight with wings and wearing her Element of Magic crown. Spike peeking in from outside the frame suggests this is a photo rather than a painting. While there is nothing particularly unusual about this event, since cloudwalking spells and construction clouds are a thing, the time frame for this to happen is quite narrow, because the Element of Magic was Twilight’s crown only for a very short time, and we have never heard of this happening. That’s a nice story tidbit for someone.
• “Hey guys, how do my claws look… Sweet Celestia!” Spike doesn’t take Celestia’s name in vain, usually – Rarity is the primary offender. That is where he picked the habit up, I expect.
• “The ‘Extra-strength-hot-stone-deep-tissue massage’?” This is where it’s established that Bulk Biceps works at the spa. The leaflet for the massage depicts a biceps, stones, and three horseshoes. Are different horseshoes involved in the procedure?
• “Oh, I hate it when he does that. Come with me, princess.” Does Bulk Biceps do that often? That would imply drywall construction, because anything else would be prohibitively expensive to repair…
• “Great suggestion, Spike. I feel totally relaxed.” How exactly did Twilight manage to lose her cool new hairstyle after a massage is never explained, however. Maybe her mane got relaxed too. After This Isn’t The Mane Thing About You, this wouldn’t surprise me.
• “Oh, Spike, I’m so sorry. Of course losing the Golden Oak Library was hard for you too.” For the record, this is the only episode in which the name of the place is uttered aloud. Before, it was always just “the library.”
• A poster for “Daring Do ~ Riddle of the Sphinx” floats by. Notice the sphinx is entirely unlike the sphinx seen in Daring Done. Also, this looks like a movie poster, rather than a poster promoting a book…
• “How’s that one? Too soft? Too hard? Too lumpy?” Bon-Bon is here too, shopping for a double bed, alone.

• “The ornaments on the chandelier are reminders of all the fun we’ve had together.” This brings up the same issues as the scene with Twilight’s mirror in A Celestial Advice and the photos in Just For Sidekicks – we have seen the scenes depicted and there was no obvious camera anywhere nearby:

  • “That one shows your party at the Golden Oak Library welcoming you to Ponyville!” – Friendship is Magic. Notice that Minuette appears in this photo too.
  • “The time we shared donuts after the Grand Galloping Gala!” – The Best Night Ever.

Not a lot, this time, though the roots of the library are a minor chronology marker.

Comments

[howard035]

I really enjoy this episode for the fantastic song and the Twilight/Spike quality time, but there is basically zero worldbuilding here (except this is where we learn Bulk works at the spa and has apparently learned a special massage that would only work for Spike).

Great point about the mud explosion, no idea what caused it. Twilight was trying out another version of her flying animal performance routine?

Rainbow Dash and Rarity's design ideas were perfectly fine on their own, I noticed, while Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie were the ones who introduced rotting food, hungry animals, and IEDs to the castle. (Were the pigs actually from Applejack, or from Fluttershy?) Were Applejack and Fluttershy planning to come and feed those pets in perpetuity, or what?

Perhaps the gemstones on the cupcakes were rock candy made by Pinkie.

I suspect there's some kind of divination spell that lets you view past events and take a picture of them. There's too many impossible photos taken throughout the series otherwise.

Of course there are movies about Daring Do. Considering how popular she is, (and how she's willing to merchandise herself to George Lucas-levels) it would strain credibility if there wasn't a movie out there.

[Oliver]

4738788

Twilight was trying out another version of her flying animal performance routine?

Possible, but I hope it were something more interesting.

Were Applejack and Fluttershy planning to come and feed those pets in perpetuity, or what?

1. Sudden thought: Those explosions during the battle with Tirek had to have done a number on cloud houses in the vicinity, even assuming that clouds are as springy as they look.

No, they all had the brain derp simultaneously – they were decorating as if they were planning to move in. Which is not the stupidest we’ve seen them do and is actually an excusable thought – this castle is theirs exactly as much as it is Twilight’s, surely. The only difference is that Twilight lost her home before it could be obtained, but they got to keep theirs.¹

In fact, I expect that a few days before the pancake party, Twilight voiced the idea that they should move in, but all of them didn’t want to alter their living arrangements for whatever reasons and excused themselves. What we’re seeing here is a delayed guilt reaction.

I suspect there’s some kind of divination spell that lets you view past events and take a picture of them. There’s too many impossible photos taken throughout the series otherwise.

That would be way OP. I’d rather believe that beyond the large and primarily instant-film cameras we see often, ponies also use point-and-shoot cameras a lot, and these are typically too small to pass cartoon resolution.

Of course there are movies about Daring Do.

Of course. I’m wondering why the sphinxes don’t match, though.