Friendship is Card Games: Romeo & Juliet and Kenbucky Roller Derby #1 · 1:01pm March 3rd
Well, this is mildly frustrating. It seems Leap Day completely threw off whichever underpaid intern or unpaid autoposter that’s in charge of uploading Tell Your Tale shorts. Combine that with a still unreleased one-shot I had planned on covering next week and we’ve got two very different comics to cover.
Classics Reimagined: Romeo and Juliet
The upside to this is that I can cover the Valentine’s Day special a week closer to when it would have been relevant. It’s funny how Pinkie and Cheese Sandwich have become the go-to couple for the comics. I suppose it’s the theory that the start of a romantic relationship has the most dramatic potential—that or the end—as opposed to the stable state of mutual love and respect seen between Cadence and Shining Armor. (Well, inasmuch as anything can be stable with Flurry Heart.)
But I digress. In fair Verpona Porona do we lay our scene. (No one ever double-checked the promo blurb and the story to make sure they were using the same horse pun. Personally, I think Verpona is the better option.)
Spike is our narrator, naturally, and he immediately objects to the amount of blood and suicide in the original text. (Discord suggested this one, and seemed far too excited when he did. Figures that he’d love a story that hinges on teenagers failing to communicate and make rash decisions.)
Suffice to say, any hope of a faithful adaptation goes out the window on the first page, and that’s before presenting the ancient feud as one over who’s the better party planning company: Capulet’s Catapults, Cupcakes, and Celebrations or Montague Merriment Makers. And while the Capulets are represented by the Mane Six, the Montagues are an eclectic bunch: Cheese, Trixie, Starlight, Sunburst, Ember, and Capper. Some interesting branches to that family tree. I suppose this is why they were remade as businesses.
There’s no “Do you bite your hoof at me, sir?” scene, nor an invitation to the Capulets’ affair. We instead have a case of corporate espionage, with the Montagues planning to take notes on a Capulet-run party to outdo them, impress Cadence, and scoop Flurry Heart’s first birthday party out from under them. (Side note, very nice touch with Cadence being the reigning princess in a romance story.) Going by his role in encouraging Cheese to go along with this plan, Capper may be our Mercutio.
Trixie’s brilliant plan to make sure none of the Capulets recognize them leaves something to be desired. Especially when in most cases it’s just an elaborate hat.
Another lovely touch in Pinkie picking up Cheese’s bad feeling in the very next panel. It’s like hearing a distant scream, just with party pony ESP.
I can’t help but think that Fluttershy’s highly detailed reason for why Pinkie should be nervous about tonight—again, impressing Cadence—is payback for “Filli Vanilli.”
There’s something truly delightful in the eagerness with which the comic embraces anachronisms. Sure, this is in the vicinity of Venice during the late 16th century, but we have karaoke machines and Vinyl’s usual setup because it’s more fun that way.
Cheese isn’t fresh off of a breakup in this version—Rosaline’s close to Pinkie anyway—and I can’t tell if that’s better or worse than the original. At least Pinkie’s older than thirteen.
Rather than kisses, Cheese impresses Pinkie with a perfectly pinned tail on the dragon and comparing their respective course catalogues as the University of Wittneighburg. (Cheese’s “friends Hamlet and Horatio taught me a lot. Sometimes, it’s like I can still hear poor Yorick’s voice…”) Things get a little awkward when they get into the matter of best party food and the question of cupcakes vs. cheese. They get even more awkward when Cheese namedrops his parent company.
“Er, did I say Montague?”
“You did.”
“Chèvre.”
Perfect. No notes. I’m stealing that for future use.
Fortunately, before the situation can deteriorate further, Spike intrudes on the scene in his effort to avert star-crossed tragedy and suggests that the two of them could no doubt plan the world’s best birthday party if they put their heads together. This… somehow prompts a walk through the gardens (well, more of a hop; it’s a trampoline garden) as the two compare notes on how the rivalry began. The Montagues hold that the Capulet founder stole their recipes to get her business off the ground, while the Capulets insist the Montague founder filled a chocolate fountain with frogs to sabotage a Capulet-run party for Celestia, old queen of Porona.
I’m not sure since the panels are in black-and-white (and, well, drawn by Jenna Ayoub, whose style is still a considerable departure from Lauren Faust's) but I think those founders are young Granny Smith and Grand Pear, which would be a lovely touch.
As the two consider the completely original thought of working together, Pinkie is called away to fix a karaoke machine, and the two actually introduce themselves rather than relying on a nurse to do the work for them. Revolutionary stuff, really.
Rainbow Dash is, to my complete lack of surprise, our Tybalt, and demands satisfaction the next day after discovering that the Montagues were at the party off-panel. Cheese is having a wonderful morning, but the rest of them are concerned by her demand for a party duel.
We also get the surreality of Capper saying “She’s more than a princess of cats!” I suppose he’d know, though if Dash manages to slash him to death, I’ll be very impressed.
We skip ahead a few scenes to Pinkie, Cheese, and Spike trying to find a peaceful resolution… not at all helped by Discord as Friar Lawrence, who is “merely trying to bring the story back to its proper narrative path.” Like suggesting poison twice in as many panels. The lovers decide to go for a demonstration of what the two party planners could do in the hopes of ending the feud.
Unfortunately, that’s not enough to stop the Dash/Capper duel (with party cannons!) from, if not killing each other, at least both getting blasted off-panel. (Cheese doesn’t get between them, nor revenge-kills Dash. To be fair, the former doesn’t work nearly as well with ranged weaponry.)
Enter Cadence, who is not pleased by the mess a dozen party cannonades have left in the streets. (Also enter Shining and one of the most “no thoughts, head empty” Flurries I have ever seen.) Disgusted by the petty rivalry, Cadence declares the entire city under party probation until the Capulets and Montagues can work out their differences. And Cheese simply looks at the plans he and Pinkie drew up, lying on the street and frosting-stained. At least he’s not exiled.
Back to the church, where Cheese confirms that the duelists were (non-lethally) blown halfway across the world, and gives word of the probation. Discord, after the draught of sleeping death is once more shot down, proposes that if chaos caused this mess, the solution may be removing it altogether. Cue facepalm from Spike and an invitation to both families to see the absolutely-definitely-technically-not-a-party the two are planning.
“Do you bite your hoof at us, sir?”
“No, sir, but I do bite my hoof, sir!”
They said it! They said the thing!
Once the feuding party planners finally make it into the church, they see what may be the most brilliant bit of the adaptation possible: It’s not that the two lovers committed suicide. It’s that they killed off their creativity. Which means not just Cheese but a straight-maned Pinkie in the Steve Jobs turtleneck from “The Last Laugh,” along with such activities as “the sitting corner, where party guests can go to sit.”
Seeing their greatest party planners willingly in this state of living death for the sake of getting to work together is enough for both sides to put aside their differences. (It takes Fluttershy scolding Discord to get him to restore the happy couple; before that he insists that they “will be boring forever, which is a fate that I think might actually be worse than poison.”)
Ah! And in another change, the founders of the party planning companies are brought in. It’s not Granny Smith and Grand Pear, just two ponies who wanted to work together but couldn’t given the clamor of their employees, returned now that the rivalry has ended. (Discord is disgusted by deviating even further from the ending he’d been looking forward to, but no one cares what he thinks.)
A happy peace this morning with it brings,
The sun for joy will show his head
Go hence to have more talk of joyous things
(Though we hope to be pardoned for taking liberties)
For never was there happiness more come by
Than this of Cheese Sandwich and his Pinkie Pie.“Take that, William Shakespeare!”
Outstanding work, this one. I’m always a sucker for fun with metafiction, and the Classics Reimagined issues are reliable sources of it.
Kenbucky Roller Derby #1
And now for something completely different. Though at least it gives Sunny a chance to have a form of characterization beyond “apostle of unity.” Especially given the montage of Argyle teaching her to skate.
There is, however, the question of how long this alleged “most elite roller derby team in Equestria” has been in operation, considering not just the mixed-tribe composition but the fact that Misty is a member. And her dye job is on the recruitment poster. Seriously, there’s a story there as it is.
Also, I feel like pink, glittery eye black defeats the entire purpose.
The montage presents an interesting issue: Knowing how to skate is not the same skill set as roller derby. There are a number of moves they expect candidates to know ahead of time which Sunny doesn’t, since she was using skates as a form of transportation, musical number choreography, and cheating on streetcar fares, not a combat sport. The issue is that at no point was that prerequisite ever explicitly stated until the tryouts began.
For what it’s worth, Misty is in Sunny’s corner, but the rest of the team has her outvoted.
Sunny is heartbroken. Pipp, who was all set to do a promo video for her, is incensed. Coaches refusing to actually coach new players has her hackles up. But that doesn’t compare to Sunny’s growing vitriol once the initial disappointment wears off. The idealist starts demanding greater consideration be made for the unconsidered and abandoned, and Pipp pushes her to the next logical step: “It sounds like you want to start your own roller derby team. So why don’t you?”
Cut to Izzy, who’s painting raccoonicorn wizard miniatures for an upcoming session of Garbage and Gargoyles. At least until Sunny sends half of the Gaze of the Enlightened tumbling to the floor of the Brighthouse as she declares a poster emergency. Izzy agrees to help… in exchange for rounding out the G&G party. (Sparky’s “playing as a level-nine racooniorc,” which is a fascinating thing to unpack.)
The poster saying “Everycreature is welcome!” invites mental images of full-grown dragons in roller skates, which I appreciate. It also highlights just how many species are still unaccounted for in G5, especially after a comic filled with incidental Abyssinians and Diamond Dogs.
Unfortunately, the existing derby team—the Sandy Shore Slammers, for the record—tear down one of the posters and vandalize the rest… even if they don’t do a very good job of it. All of the original information is there. (I do appreciate the cool S.)
Sunny is once more heartbroken and humiliated… and ready to give up again, which doesn’t feel right. Though she does recognize the crux of the issue: She doesn’t actually know how roller derby works, which is an important part of being a captain. (There’s also the question of just how much reverence ponies have or should have for the mare respinsible for reuniting the tribes, returning magic to the world, and depending on when we are in the timeline, thwarting the madmare who sought take it all away again. But ponies being blind to the achievements of their saviors is hardly a new phenomenon.)
In any case, Pipp comes to the rescue once more, finding a derby veteran on social media to teach Sunny what the Slammers refused to.
… and apparently the Equestrian rail system is back up and running, at least for the purposes of this comic. I wouldn’t be surprised if that pony with the railroad cutie mark is actually a Time Lord whose TARDIS has a functioning chameleon circuit. I’m all for going further afield, but this late into G5, it feels incredibly unjustified to suddenly have not just a pony living in the heretofore unvisited desert, but railways that can access it. Unless we go with the hypothesis that those railways are actually a living organism in their own right that Old Equestria simply tamed for its own use. It’d explain how Mount Aris got rail access so quickly…
The mare they’re here to see was once “the biggest derby star in all of Equestria” until she became the captain of her own team. What happened to drive her into seclusion is unclear, but Pipp assumes it was the pressure of the spotlight. I’m sure that won’t be relevant later.
After an hour of aimlessly wandering in the desert, Sunny’s request to call Tracy—the first time we’re getting the mentor’s name—brings to light how Pipp never actually asked to visit her. (it also introduces “the Starscowl,” which I can only assume is something Sunny practiced in the mirror after she heard about the Stare.) Pipp did try, but Tracy never actually responded.
She does, however, respond to an attempt to grab one of her apples. Did I mention that they found an inexplicable apple orchard in the middle of the desert? No? Well, neither did the comic until this page. (To be fair, they did stop under an apple tree on the previous one.) I suppose this is what became of Appleoosa.
Fortunately, once Tracy confirms that a pegasus princess really was trying to get in touch with her, she’s happy to hear Sunny out. And after learning the differences between being a good captain and a good coach, she swore to help out the former if they ever came seeking the latter.
(Also, it must be said, Tracy is rather overdesigned. Comparisons to Yu-Gi-Oh protagonists have been justifiably made.)
“You know those old timers who leave their glory days behind and let their talent fade, losing themselves in a new way of life that’s the total opposite of what they loved? That cliché was never for me.”
Okay, she’s growing on me. Less so is the lingering doubt in Sunny’s mind, but Pipp doesn’t even need to say anything to get her head on straight; Sunny already knows exactly what her friend would say; it’s just the difference between intellectual and emotional knowledge.
The nice thing about comics is that they can efficiently convey montages in the space of a page or two, which this one does, complete with Sunny remembering why she loves skating in the first place.
They agree to meet up in two weeks with Sunny bringing a full team… but there’s a problem. Her tryouts are only attended by a pony whose special talent seems to be having pollen allergies, another who seems baffled by how she even ended up in skating gear, and five pegasnails. Oh, and the Slammers, but they’re just here to watch and laugh.
This is a good story that relies on a foundation G5 has failed to give. Much like Sunny, it’s come in with a lot of enthusiasm and few of the fundamentals it needs to actually succeed. Also like Sunny, that’s no fault of its own. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes (and just where Kenbucky even is) but the reliance on world building that never came to be is a scathing indictment of what came before.
That said, at least Sunny hasn't downed any poison, much to Discord's disappointment. Let's see what I can in my own adaptation:
Thwart Tragedy W
Instant
Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. It gains indestructible until end of turn. If it’s paired with a creature, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature and it gains indestructible until end of turn.
Destined love is beautiful. Love that defies destiny is unstoppable.
Catapult Celebrant 2W
Creature — Pony Soldier
Soulbond (You may pair this creature with another unpaired creature when either enters the battlefield. They remain paired for as long as you control both of them.)
T: Catapult Celebrant deals 1 damage to target attacking or blocking creature. If it’s paired with a creature, it deals 1 damage to each other attacking or blocking creature with the same controller.
1/3
Trampoline Garden 2W
Enchantment
Whenever one or more creatures attack your opponents and/or planeswalkers your opponents control, the attacking player chooses one of those creatures. It gains flying until end of turn.
Some party favors can really put a spring in your step.
Sunny’s Displeasure 3WW
Sorcery
Target opponent exiles all cards from their hand. That player may play those cards for as long as they remain exiled. Spells cast this way cost 2 more to cast.
Crossing any alicorn is dangerous. The only question is how.
Spurn the Bard 1UU
Instant
Counter target spell. If that spell is a Bard, is a Saga, or has flavor text attributed to William Shakespeare, draw a card.
“I’m never taking story suggestions from Discord again.”
—Spike
Draught of Deathlike Sleep 2U
Instant
Tap up to three target creatures controlled by the same player.
Corrupted — If that player has three or more poison counters, put a stun counter on each of those creatures. (If a permanent with a stun counter on it would become untapped, remove one from it instead.)
Curse of Insidious Doubt 2UU
Enchantment — Aura Curse
Flash
Enchant player
When Curse of Insidious Doubt enters the battlefield, counter target spell enchanted player controls.
Whenever enchanted player casts a spell, counter that spell unless that player pays 1.
One failure paves the way for many more.
Retconjure 3UU
Instant
Return target nonland permanent to its owner’s hand. You may put a nonland permanent card with equal or lesser mana value from your hand onto the battlefield.
As of five minutes prior, the Maretime Bay train station had always been there.
Industrial Espionage 1B
Sorcery
Each player mills three cards. Exile an artifact card from a graveyard. You may play that card for as long as it remains exiled and mana of any type can be spent to cast it.
Acquisition is the sincerest form of flattery.
Junkwrought Gargoyle 2B
Artifact Creature — Gargoyle
Flying
Whenever one or more artifact and/or creature cards leave your graveyard, venture into the dungeon. (Enter the first room or advance to the next room.)
Any monster made of dead adventurers’ equipment should give pause.
2/2
Funnybones 3B
Creature — Skeleton Rogue
Spectacle 2B (You may cast this spell for its spectacle cost rather than its mana cost if an opponent lost life this turn.)
Funnybones can’t block.
At the beginning of your end step, if an opponent lost life this turn, you draw a card and lose 1 life.
You may cast Funnybones from your graveyard using its spectacle ability.
3/1
Pharika’s Whimsy 3B
Enchantment Creature — Chimera
Constellation — When Pharika’s Whimsy or another enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, put a deathtouch counter on up to one target creature.
The goddess of affliction has a fittingly sick sense of humor.
2/3
Mutual Destruction 1R
Sorcery
Target creature fights target creature controlled by a different player.
Each company lost a valued member that day, and Princess Cadence’s citywide party probation gave them plenty of time to mourn.
Scavenger Mage 1R
Creature — Raccoon Unicorn Wizard
Whenever you cast an instant, sorcery, or Wizard spell, create a Junk token. (It’s an artifact with “T, Sacrifice this artifact: Exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn. Activate only as a sorcery.”)
Anything can be a material component if you’re brave enough.
2/1
Gallopfreyan Engineer 2R
Creature — Time Lord Pony Pilot
Whenever Gallopfreyan Engineer crews a Vehicle, time travel. (For each suspended card you own and each permanent you control with a time counter on it, you may add or remove a time counter.)
“I have nothing but respect for the Doctor. That’s why I stay centuries away from him.”
3/1
Surreal Warleader 4R
Creature — Raccoon Unicorn Orc
Menace
Raid — When Surreal Warleader enters the battlefield, if you attacked this turn, amass Orcs X, where X is the number of creatures that attacked this turn. (Put X +1/+1 counters on an Army you control. It’s also an Orc. If you don’t control an Army, create a 0/0 black Orc Army creature token first.)
3/3
Across a Crowded Room 1G
Sorcery
Search your library for a creature card and reveal it. If that card has soulbond or you controlled a creature with soulbond as you cast this spell, put the card into your hand. Then shuffle.
Beauty lay before Cheese, clad in glory and googly eyes.
Leading Example 1G
Sorcery
Target creature you control gets +3/+3 until end of turn. Other creatures you control gain training until end of turn. (Whenever a creature with training attacks with a creature with greater power, put a +1/+1 counter on the creature with training.)
Fear the herd species with clear direction.
Bog Buffoonery 2G
Instant
Destroy target artifact or enchantment. If that permanent was blue or black, create a 1/1 green Frog creature token with reach and deathtouch.
“Not all chocolate frogs come with trading cards. Hang on…”
—Cheese Sandwich
Scornful Slammer 3G
Creature — Pony Warrior
Riot (This creature enters the battlefield with your choice of a +1/+1 counter or haste.)
Creatures with power less than Scornful Slammer’s power can’t block it.
“If you can’t take the hits, get out of the rink.”
3/2
Red Corn Syrup 1
Artifact — Blood Food
Morbid — 2, T, Sacrifice Red Corn Syrup: You gain 3 life. You may discard a card. If you do, draw a card. This ability costs 2 less to activate if a creature died this turn.
“Do you want the audience engaged or not?”
—Discord
Elaborate Hat 4
Artifact — Equipment
When Elaborate Hat enters the battlefield, cloak the top card of your library, then attach Elaborate Hat to it.
If a triggered ability of equipped creature triggers, it triggers an additional time.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if Elaborate Hat is unattached, return it to its owner’s hand.
Casual Anachronism UR
Sorcery
Choose one —
• Exile a nonland card from your hand with three time counters on it. If it doesn’t have suspend, it gains suspend.
• Remove three time counters from a suspended card you own.
Entwine 1UR (Choose both if you pay the entwine cost.)
Dubious Recruits RG
Creature — Pony Citizen
Dubious Recruits can’t attack or block unless it’s modified. (Equipment, Auras you control, and counters are modifications.)
“You’ve got to fight with the army you have,” said Pipp, “not the one you want.”
Sunny sighed. “I’d rather surrender.”
4/3
Tracy Tailspin, Head Coach 2RW
Legendary Creature — Pony Warrior
Mentor (Whenever this creature attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on target attacking creature with lesser power.)
Whenever Tracy attacks or mentors a creature, tap target creature defending player controls.
Whenever Tracy or a creature it mentored this turn deals combat damage to a player, Tracy deals 1 damage to each creature that player controls.
4/3
Sprawling Junction
Land
T, Sacrifice Sprawling Junction: Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
T, Sacrifice Sprawling Junction: Target Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.
All rails lead to Canterlot.
To be fair, the latter is already an anachronism in the actual show. Since it's the ponies explicitly reenacting it in-universe, they don't know what tech should exist.
I'm just going to go ahead and remind you what "the Doctor's wife" usually means in the context of Doctor Who itself and let you draw your own conclusions about your favorite pony.
That would require arguing Sylvio is a protagonist... which people have been doing ever since Arc-V introduced him, so carry on.
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Acorn effects like Spurn the Bard's flavor text option care about the specific copy of the card being used. If your opponent is using a normal Sol Ring like a sane person, or even one of the other Secret Lair printings instead of the one with the Shakespeare quote on it, you won't draw a card.
Protection From Editors Alert: Pharika's Whimsy should probably be an optional trigger if it's trying to do what I think it is. You can just have it target itself every time anyway in most cases, and anything that would prevent that was already a nonbo for preventing the first such counter.
Inside Baseball Alert: Gallopfreyan Engineer is a smart man. Anywhen the Doctor is is about to have a bad time. Who else could consider Ponyville a retirement?
Inside Baseball Alert: Red Corn Syrup's ability is essentially that of Blood and Food rolled into one with a reduced cost even before the stated cost reduction.
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Yes, you can order the effects of an entwined Casual Anachronism such that it immediately casts the spell. 5 mana is the going rate for that effect anyway, and kicker makes it harder to cheat on it if for some reason you can't cut out the middleman.
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: I genuinely don't remember at least some of how Tracy's last ability will or won't work if something kills her, a real concern seeing as she has to attack in the same turn to even potentially activate it. At the very least, a mentee without first strike and something blocking Tracy with it will definitely mean she doesn't get to do anything (unless of course it doesn't have enough power to kill her).
Huh. Never considered that might have been the reason. Least the non-English channels were on top of things!
I'm guessing your schedule's assembled such that you had to write this post on Thursday and couldn't afford to wait a day to see if the English version of that short would pop up on Friday.
As for what you did cover this week: the Romeo and Juliet Reimagined comic must mark the rare occasion where I'm kinder on a comic than Silver Quill. Not that he's ever a charity case, far from it, but for this one he seemed unusually hung up on the lost context of transplanting the tragedy to the world of Pony and making it (mostly) comic. Me, as I've found these Reimagined multi-parters have often run out of steam of things to do with the stories they're adapting, condensing a story we all know very well down to a single issue sat fine with me, and it meant the jokes didn't feel shoehorned in to protract in. Leading to great moments like them killing their creativity in place of the poison, and pretty much everything to do with Spike and Discord. Still feels like a pointless rehash what with a much better Romeo and Juliet-esque story sitting right there as one of the show’s best episodes, but c’est la vie.
I certainly can't go as far as outstanding like yourself, but I mostly enjoyed it when I was reading it. And at this stage in the lifespan of the MLP comics, that's no small feat.
As for #1 of Kenbucky Derby, I'll concur on the problem of it relying on non-existent background work from prior G5 material quite a bit, thus undermining its foundation. And the opposing team is very cookie-cutter and one-note in their jerkiness (most of them aren't even named, yet anyway).
That said, I did find more interesting things as it went along, especially in the character of Tracy. It's exploration of Sunny in different direction isn't unwarranted, and of all the G5 comic multi-parters thus far, this feels by far the most tonally, thematically and character appropriate – not way out of its depth like in the Discord one and thus a disappointing mess, nor so utterly fluffy and a nothingburger like the Camp Bighoof one. I'm intrigued to see where it goes.
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Tracy is the source of the ability rather than giving it to her mentee. If she leaves the field before the combat damage step, it won't trigger. (For anyone else reading this, this includes flickering her; she'll be a new object with no memory of the mentorship. As Herald is fond of saying, it's a stupid complicated game, comma optional.)
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Citation needed on the Tell Your Tale short. I put this together yesterday and have yet to see any sign of S2E8 on YouTube or Derpibooru. And folks are usually very good about getting screencaps on the latter the moment the episode's viewable in any language. (The Leap Day thing is just a guess, but I know that broke some video game servers.)
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Gut reaction: I've been following you for years, I'm very used to the matter-of-fact succinct way you write, and this still provoked a "who constructs their responses like that?!?" moment.
In any case, Sunday brain moment: I was thinking about the prior week's one, which did release in other languages on Thursday but only English on Friday. Does it show how forgettable TYT is that I didn't even notice we didn’t get one this week?
Anyway, thinking on it properly now, the lack of a short this week is likely the break week to offset the 22-min episodes we're getting one of each quarter. 48 episodes this year was the number they cited, after all.
Yes, that was the one thing I was sure on. What I forget is whether she'll notice and trigger before succumbing to her wounds (as combat damage steps have all the damage happen at once).
I could maybe agree if the previous instance wasn't the parents in Little Women, which is both exactly that kind of stable middle-of-a-relationship and a massive stretch to fit those two. And, looking it up, these two stories and the shipping story in "Season 10" all had the same writer, so it seems most likely to me that either they or someone in Editorial is just... really into this pairing. Which is absolutely their right, regardless of my own or anyone else's tastes, but I do question some of the resultant choices. I mean, I think I see what they were going for with this one, but for a tale of "star-crossed lovers", picking the couple that could, without prior knowledge, be almost mistaken for clonecest, one of whom explicitly modeled their personality after the other, is... not the first thing that'd come to mind for me.
It doesn't help that, unlike previous stories, the show has literally already done a Romeo and Juliet story and had it be one of the most beloved episodes of the latter part of the show, so this just seems gratuitous at best. Frankly, while I'm not going to assume anything, I wouldn't be too surprised if they wrote a R&J pastiche for the purpose of being able to write another Cheese and Pinkie romance rather than the other way round.