SPOILERS? Mariusioannesp Reviews: "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows" · 6:11am Oct 19th, 2015
Just so you know, there are spoilers here for "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows." Probably doesn't matter that much since it’s a day late.
Now, without further ado-do, here is my review of “The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows.”
When a special order comes to Sugar Cube Corner, Pinkie Pie becomes privy to a secret surprise about Princess Cadance and Shining Armor that she is forced to keep to herself. This proves to be rather difficult. Seemingly everything everypony says and everything she sees around her reminds her of the secret. She tries avoiding every pony and everything to avoid revealing the secret before its time. Will Pinkie Pie be able to keep this secret that has been confided in her before the stress of keeping it drives her over the brink of madness?!
So, what’s the verdict?
This episode is the first auteurial outing by one Gillian M. Berrow otherwise known as G.M. Berrow, the auteur of the My Little Pony and Daring Do chapter books. And I think she did quite a spectacular job of it.
So yeah, I liked it!
We begin this episode with Pinkie Pie at Sugarcube Corner close to breaking her cupcake icing record. That’s when Mrs. Cake comes in with a letter detailing a request for a very special secret order. Mrs. Cake tosses the letter onto Pinkie Pie’s face. Pinkie reads news so shocking her eyeballs burst through the page! 
Of course, if you’re reading this you already know that the news is that Shining Armor and Princess Cadance are having a baby. What?! They’re having a baby! It’s finally come true! Pinkie, of course, can’t wait to tell every pony about it. However, Mrs. Cake informs her that this news is actually a top secret surprise, meaning Pinkie has to keep it to herself.
Pinkie laments to Gummy her inability to share this news with anypony. Then she’d just be a big ole’ surprise ruiner. She runs into Rarity who overhears her mention something about babies when she finds Pound Cake’s pacifier in Gummy’s mouth. Pinkie denies any mention of babies and sticks the pacifier in her own mouth to silence herself before walking away. Later on, the Mane 6 are meeting at Twilight Sparkle’s castle throne room Round Table because their songs are formidable. Twilight has a special announcement that Pinkie Pie simultaneous shares that Shining Armor and Princess Cadance are coming for a visit tomorrow. But that’s it. Nothing about the baby yet. They wonder how Pinkie knew the details that she shared, but she just says it was her Pinkie Sense. Anyway, Twilight needs her friends’ help preparing for Shining Armor and Princess Cadance’s visit. She already has a room prepared that she has decorated with all the stuff Shining Armor loved growing up, like a poster of Smash Fortune, a doll named Brutus Force, an ant farm, and a bunch of comic books. Spike actually accidentally burns one of these mint in bag comics while looking at and puts the ashes back. 
That seems familiar.
Spike has made a nasty habit of this.
Also, if you look carefully, the comic in question appears to be a pony version of Action Comics #1, the first ever Superman comic. 
And Spike burned it. That actually hurt a little.
More importantly though, this is the first time Shining Armor’s fanboy tendencies have been addressed on the show itself, only previously seen in the MLP comic books. It’s never shown up in the chapter books, but G.M. Berrow does sometimes make reference to the comics in her books.
Moving on, Twilight is really excited about surprising Shining Armor, and Rainbow Dash brings up how sometimes watching someone get surprised is just as good as being surprised yourself. Pinkie Pie though brings up how a surprise could be so exciting that you can’t keep it to yourself and have to tell the pony standing right next to you. In this case it was Fluttershy. Rarity tells Pinkie that a pony who ruins a surprise has to live with the guilt of doing so forever! Pinkie decides she has to bounce, and she does so by literally bouncing off the walls out of the room.
Pinkie decides her best course of action is to lock herself in her room until tomorrow to avoid encountering ponies she’ll be tempted to tell the secret to. However, that’s when Mr. Cake asks her to take over his deliveries because he’ll be busy assisting Mrs. Cake. You see, Pinkie is his backup delivery pony, and we get a flashback to the moment when she offered to do that. Pinkie very specifically notes that she’ll unlikely find herself in a situation where she’s harboring a gigantic, emotionally-draining surprise that would make it difficult to be around other ponies. And then she makes a Pinkie Promise. You know how Pinkie is with her Pinkie Promises. So, she has to make these deliveries now. She runs into the newly-cutie marked Cutie Mark Crusaders, who ask her if she’s got any gossip because they’re bored. Pinkie Pie runs off, but then runs into Fluttershy, who asks her to get baby carrots as snacks for Shining and Cadance’s visit. Get it. Baby carrots. She’s surrounded by temptation! She runs off in such a huff she gets her fake glasses on Fluttershy’s tail, and it happens to look like a nearby elder pony with a long, pink beard.
She then runs around delivery cakes as surreptitiously as possible. She even delivers a cake using a crossbow.
Well, now we have canon confirmation they have projectile weapons in Equestria.
Pinkie Pie did not enjoy having to ignore her friends. She’s tempted to tell one pony, but a imaginary reflection of Rarity in a window repeats what she said before about ruining surprises. Pinkie agrees with Rarity while acknowledging that she’s actually imaginary.
Pinkie Pie is finally able to be alone in her room when she sees Gummy gumming on a scroll. Turns out it’s a list twilight made for Pinkie of the Pinkie Promises she made the day before to fulfill today, and there’s still three left! Pinkie realizes she’s been really liberal with her Pinkie Promises. Unlike me. I’m not liberal with anything because I’m a Republican! First, Pinkie Pie has to make balloon animals at a birthday party. She makes Sweetie Belle a flamingo, Apple Bloom a goldfish, and Scootaloo just wants to be surprised. A nearby crying baby distracts Pinkie Pie, and she ends up making a baby bottle that she insists is a dog and sticks it in Scootaloo’s mouth. 
Pinkie suspiciously questions Featherweight when he asks for a baby pony if it’s not a royal pain, but then he just asks for a giraffe.
Second, Pinkie heads down to the Ponyville City Hall to organize their files. While there, Mayor Mare asks her if she’s ever known a secret surprise that was so exciting it was all she could think about. 
Pinkie is like “No!” and runs off, and the Mayor admits she hasn’t either! What was that all about?!
Thirdly, Pinkie helps a furniture store pony set up a wacky inflatable arm flailing tube man. The Furniture Pony asks her to spread his sale on cribs with the slogan “treat your foal like royalty.” You get it. Pinkie panics and runs off. 
Here, we see Pinkie getting a few pointers for her boat dance.
Pinkie arrives once more at Twilight’s castle with the previously requested snacks. That’s when her friends give her a rather unfortunate bit of news. It turns out Shining Armor and Cadance will be delayed, and they might not be arriving until Saturday, a whole other day! Pinkie Pie flips out and finds herself in the Golden Oak tree root chandelier from not so way back in “Castle Sweet Castle.” Every pony can tell she’s got something on her mind, and they beg her to just tell them. Pinkie starts to have another mental breakdown, imagining her friends’ heads as balloons telling her to tell. 
The last time Pinkie’s mind broke like this was in “Party of One.” Though the balloon thing is kind of like when Discord broke her in “The Return of Harmony.” At least this time, it’s just brought on by simple anxiety and not something more heinous. We can control that with medication.
Pinkie can’t take it anymore! She’s about to tell them that Shining Armor and Cadance are… But then Shining Armor and Cadance arrive at that very moment, instead declaring that they are going to spend the weekend with the best little sister in Equestria! What’s with all the generalizations about a particular pony’s siblings being the best in Equestria? I’m sure that Big Mac, Applejack, Rarity, and least Maud Pie would disagree with Shining Armor as to who is the best little sister in Equestria. Anyway, Shining and Cadance are early because they weren’t needed in Maretonia until next week. Wait, Maretonia?! Like in the last season finale! Continuity! Seems the Crystal Empire and Maretonia have some kind of relationship.
Moving on, Shining Armor has a one on one chat with Pinkie Pie. He knows that Pinkie probably already knows about the surprise and is quite impressed she’s kept it as long as she has. However, the time to tell is not yet, but Shining assures her it will be worth the wait. Afterwards, the Mane 6 are on their way to the town square to meet Shining and Cadance. Twilight mentions how much Shining loved the room, and there’s a brief flashback to the moment. 
I feel for you, Shining.
They arrive at the town square, but instead of finding Shining and Cadance, they find the first clue of a scavenger hunt. Shining used to set up scavenger hunts for Twilight when they were kids. Awwa, that’s cute! I could have set up scavenger hunts for my younger sister, but I was not nearly as creative or clever in my youth as I am today. Anywho, Pinkie is quite frustrated that the big reveal is not yet and tries to speed things along as best she can. The first clue leads them to the Ponyville schoolhouse where they find the second clue in the Foal Free Press. They still have the Foal Free Press. I haven’t heard about them since Season 2’s “Ponyville Confidential.” The second clue points them to town hall where they find the third clue taped to the back of Applejack’s birth certificate. 
Awwa! It’s little baby Applejack again! And the rest of the Mane 6 agree she’s quite cute as well. This baby Applejack though has an older pony’s eyes, which is kind of weird. Too bad it’s completely illegible, otherwise we could have at least found out the names of Applejack’s parents.
The next clue leads them to the furniture store. At this point, Pinkie has basically taken the lead to get these clues solved as quickly as possible so they can get to the surprise as soon as possible so Pinkie can relieve her surprise constipation. They find the final clue attached to a crib that points them to Sugarcube Corner. There, they find Shining Armor and Cadance, who are ready to reveal the surprise prize. But it’s not as simple as that. They have to make Twilight think about it. What did all the clues have in common? Pinkie is chomping at the bit in the back, waiting for it to finally be over! The wheels are turning in Twilight’s head. The wheels are turning. Then finally, she realizes what it is.
Shining Armor and Princess Cadance are having a baby! Twilight is going to be an aunt!
I could be an aunt, but my sister knows better than to improperly impregnate herself!
And no one is happier than Pinkie Pie! She kept the secret! Cadance asks Pinkie if it was really that hard. Pinkie says it was a piece of cake, but she mouths “no” and shakes her head at the fourth wall as the episode ends.
So, this episode was the first auteurial outing by G.M. Berrow, the author of the MLP and Daring Do chapter books. Now, I’ve read the Mane 6 chapter books as well as the three books that form the Daring Do box set. The Mane 6 chapter books run the gamut from the more adventure oriented Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell and Rainbow Dash and the Daring Do Double Dare to the more slice of life fair found in the other four books. (Though, Rarity and the Curious Case of Charity reads almost like a children’s version of Single White Female.) Berrow’s books are also littered with references that seem directed at the Brony fandom. Now, I am aware that writing a book and writing a script for an episode of a TV show are two different things. It’s actually quite difficult to transition between two vastly different ways of writing. G.M. Berrow is to be applauded for doing so well in her first time writing an actual MLP episode.
G.M. Berrow has a very excellent command of Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie was on fire in this episode! I remember while reading Berrow’s books how often I’d laugh out loud at something humorous I’d find in it. Having her write a Pinkie Pie episode is an excellent choice just for the comedic aspect. You can see how well she understands Pinkie’s character by how much she suffers keeping this surprise to herself just because she wants her friends to be surprised. What makes Pinkie Pie Pinkie Pie is how seriously she takes her friendships. But of course, one area where books are lacking that TV happens to be all about is the visual. Some of Pinkie’s visual gags in this episode stretch even the vague limits of cartoon physics. She stretches out parts of her body, bouncing off walls, acting like a dog (kind of like Maximus in the film Tangled), and literally falling apart at the seams. I think this could be one of Pinkie Pie’s all time best episodes.
This episode also features good use of Shining Armor and Princess Cadance. In the time since their introduction at the very end of Season 2, we haven’t gotten a lot about Shining and Cadance. Instead, the MLP comics and even one of G.M. Berrow’s chapter books have provided us with their backgrounds and has developed out their characters. Here though is the first time we see Shining and Cadance with more rounded out characters, but they’re the characters readers of the comics will no doubt be familiar with.
Shining and Cadance having a baby was certainly a long time coming. It’s interestingly enough something the Brony fans have wanted to see. Probably since they’re the only characters who are a married couple still in the prime baby-making time of their life. But this has been something that has been hinted at in this season’s promotional videos and at the MLP SDCC panel. I mean, the Princess Skyla has been around for a while now.
I imagine this is the baby they will be having. Either way, I appreciate that this episode has possibly started a whole new arc dedicated to Cadance having a baby. At least, I hope it does. I’d rather not see the baby be born in the season finale just for the heck of it. I’d rather see this go into Season 6 and have a number of episodes dedicated to it.
Much like last week’s episode, this episode had a lot going on in it. However, in this case, it’s paced significantly better. Everything that happens you spend just enough time in it before we move on to the next thing.
As for what is wrong with this episode… Again, I got nothing. I’ll be your broken record of praise!
Overall, “The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows” was a great episode. It’s one of Pinkie Pie’s best episodes in my opinion. I also look forward to meeting Shining Armor and Princess Cadance’s baby.
What did you all think of “The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows”?
God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.
Yet another episode we both genuinely really liked!
Interesting. I'm not that big of a Superman fan nor a huge comic reader (the only comics I've gone out of my way to read in recent years are the IDW MLP comics) so that went over my head.
Yeah. The Mayor was a bit weird here. I guess she's bored and wants to find something to do given that the Princess of Friendship resides in her town.
They're the Canada and Mexico to Equestria's America.
And you'd probably have to get a sex change too.
I agree. It's nice to see their characters being slowly fleshed out. At least they've gotten a better treatment than Flash Sentry.
I have a feeling that their child is going to be Skyla but we probably won't see the child until next season.
True. Though I did recently fall into a pond a young woman died in. I haven't showered yet. I might be in for my own surprise when I come out.
That is what I'm hoping so this doesn't end up turning out to be like some one off thing you know.