• Member Since 24th Apr, 2012
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Wise Cracker


Just some guy.

More Blog Posts299

  • 13 weeks
    Early New Year's resolutions, and Old Year's conclusions

    Well, another year's come and gone. How did the resolutions go? Half and half in my case. Managed to partially accomplish what I set out to do, moving from wondering how to do things to figuring out what to do. I believe I've successfully identified the habits that are hampering or even harmful to me, so that's progress.

    Resolutions for the new year?

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    3 comments · 53 views
  • 36 weeks
    Summer update 2: What's Sticking to the Wall?

    Quick update on future plans.

    Still working on the original stuff, I think I'm down to the last rewrite of what I wanted to do, only question is what to change in terms of details. Art's had some progress, but work responsibilities and sweet, sweet sleeping problems have caused disruptions.

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    0 comments · 83 views
  • 42 weeks
    Summer update: what next?

    Honestly? Not sure. I never publish anything that's not complete, so I'm not breaking any promises there. Thing is, I haven't started on anything new yet, and hadn't lined anything up before the previous one.

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    2 comments · 102 views
  • 51 weeks
    Spring update: Changeling Beauty Contest, and other stuff.

    Been a while since I did one of these. Story stuff first.

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    1 comments · 147 views
  • 67 weeks
    Preview and update: Shining Armour's Checklist.

    Hey, all. Just popping in to say I'll be trying to stick to some better habits in the future. I'm cutting down on all the sites that are distracting or otherwise leading to bad and unhealthy behaviour on my end. As such, I'll only be logging in when I have something to publish from now on. I'll also keep communication while I'm logged in to a minimum, just to avoid any unpleasantness. Hopefully

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    0 comments · 144 views
Dec
20th
2015

This is where I wish I was more prolific: A Season 1 retrospective, or something. · 8:36pm Dec 20th, 2015

Well, guys, I did the thing. And then some.

I have just now caught up with the entirety of Season 5. The reason it took so long is because I got it into my head that I should rewatch the entire show again.

Now, not to bore you with personal stuff, but unfortunately I didn't work on my stories all that much the past few weeks. So I regret to inform you that Rainbow Dash and the Embarrassing Self-Insert is nowhere near ready, not even past outline stage at this point, and Ponyville's First Warrior Meet (the Flight Camp sequel) still needs to get its actual Warrior Meet written. Now that I know Diamond Tiara has a mother and Moondancer is a character, I'll have to edit a few things, too.

But for you, my dear fans, I do come with a tiny bit of content: my notes on the series. I realise I'm not the most social of authors (my feed is fast approaching the 5k notifications mark), but I do consider the people here my friends, or at least the closest thing I have to friends at the moment. So while I'm late in posting these observations, it might contain some elements you haven't thought of yet. And more importantly, it's written fairly free-style, pausing and unpausing when something came up. So it's like a recording of a livestream, except all the fanfic ideas it might spawn are listed per episode.

So, in anticipation of more concrete plans and finished fanfics: have a wall of text talking about ponies.

Episode 1: Friendship is Magic, Part 1
The only pony Twilight isn’t supposed to check on is Pinkie Pie. Pinkie is the only one who actively makes friends with Twilight, without royal intervention. Need to look up when it’s stated Rainbow Dash is Captain. They don’t say that this Season, do they? Weird.

I’ve gone over this bit of the text a few times, and apparently they never mention it on screen. If they do, I’ve sorely missed it. So made that part up, I guess, based on observation.

The Summer Sun Celebration is supposed to be both the longest night of the year, and the longest day. The Mayor says it’s a celebration of the longest day, the book says it happens on the longest night.

Also, the decorations have the Sun on the right, and the moon and stars on the left. So despite the name, it is a celebration of both night and day.

According to the story, the ponies shunned and slept through the night, which is why the younger sister became bitter. Later we hear that for this celebration, it’s customary to stay up all night. Celestia wanted ponies to start appreciating the night, perhaps?

Episode 2: Friendship is Magic, Part 2

Rarity throws the first kick against the Manticore.

When Fluttershy decides to be nice, the Manticore’s right eyebrow goes up. Even he’s like. “You what, mate?”

Assuming the scary trees are shapeshifted (which they would be, if Pinkie can go inside the mouths), Pinkie Pie is the only one who dispels a curse directly, magic on magic. It’s also worth noting both Twilight and Rarity remark on the song. Twilight wouldn’t know it, but Rarity’s a native Ponyvillian. She knows full well what’s coming.

Rainbow Dash actually needs to be reminded that someone would think of her as the best flyer in Equestria.

Applejack’s the one who gets the rest to leave Twilight so she can work in peace.

Twilight says the Elements cannot be destroyed, because their spirits are present. So it’s never stated the ponies are the Elements. Nectarine’s remark on that in Not-Wedding stands.

Princess Celestia puts in a royal decree that the unicorn Twilight Sparkle will study friendship. There’s some fiddling with bureaucracy possible there.

Episode 3: The Ticket Master

Stirrup Street is a canon location in Ponyville.

Applejack would give up her right hind leg. So ponies have hind legs and front legs, canonically.

Why did Pinkie Pie burst out of the door? What happened in there?

Rarity designs ensembles for the Gala every year. So do ponies wear them or are those just window-shopping designs. Also, fun fact: Rarity does not mention Blueblood by name in this episode. Her true love, and she doesn’t even know his name. Almost like he’s sheltered in some ways…

Twilight shoos away everyone. Including Spike, the one who’s actually in charge of giving his ticket to somepony.

Spike eats grass. Even ponies haven’t been seen eating grass yet. Also, Ponyville hay fries are thinly sliced and served with red sauce, ketchup, presumably. So mostly Belgian.

Rarity says she has a ‘dandy’ outfit for Spike. Look up what else that word means.

Twilight’s eyes widen the same way as the Friendship cannon about to fire.

Who cleans wood with a sponge? Wet sponge would cause wood rot, no?

When Pinkie throws a party, there are already some ponies in saddles, Rarity’s designs?

Spike only wants to go once everyone else is going. And it was his ticket they were fighting over in the first place. Foreshadowing.

Episode 4.: Applebucking Season

Rainbow Dash announces there’s a stampede. So that’s standard procedure.

First time Sugarcube Corner is mentioned. Also, not sure if it was in this episode, but err… there’s a nest with eggs under a lamp on Sugarcube Corner. Top right of the roof, look closely. The eggs never hatch, even after several Seasons and seasons.

Real horses can sleep standing up. They just need to lie down for deep sleep.

Twilight’s beehive is deserted. This is something to keep an eye on throughout the Season.

When AJ first wakes up while baking, her eyes are red. More credence to the Apple family farming certain *ahem* hemp varieties.

The video kept lagging a bit, so I wound up rewinding just as AJ says ‘Nice and wet’, repeatedly. She has an odd way of saying those words if you cut and paste just that phrase. Mind, meet gutter. Gutter, meet mind.

Baking bads, not breaking bads? Also, only adults ate the cupcakes. No sick kids present.

Episode 5: Griphon the Brush-Off

Flipping pages with snouts is a thing.

Bookstore located right by the strawberry/berry-themed shop.

Ponies know inches and centimetres. Both are canon. Well, Pinkie Pie knows both, and Rainbow Dash doesn’t remark on it, so presumably canon.

Fluttershy is feeding both fish and a turtle, note the flippers. Hence why she insists on the difference in S2?

Rainbow Dash is initially fine with pranking Fluttershy. Maybe they were close enough for that to be a legit thing when they were little?

Pinkie doesn’t know what a griphon is, Rarity thinks they’re exotic.

Gal-pal is a thing.

The synched stroke of the mane is apparently part of the Junior Speedsters chant.

Right when Pinkie leaves Twilight, look on the road. Public drinking hole, might be for the carriage ponies.

There are more than enough witnesses to Fluttershy’s breakdown. Look at their faces; that’s a herd about to stomp on a lion ass. Well, lion rump. I don’t think lions and asses mix. Though, given this show’s run with genetics, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Spike rides a mare while he’s blindfolding her. What a pimp.

Both Casanova and Romeo are canon in Equestria.

Episode 6: Boast Busters

Hoofington is a place. Also, Rainbow Dash is the first one to go on stage.

Trixie does challenge the rest. No one taunted her into doing that. She taunts them.

Anypony with a ‘dash’ of sense. Clever. Also, Trixie’s eyes only have one specular reflection, not the usual two.

Trixie calls Rarity’s mane a bird’s nest, that’s what sets Rarity off. Then Trixie turns it into a bird’s nest, complete with what looks like worms. Where’d she get those?

There are a few stallions in view in the background while Trixie’s putting up her show. They don’t look amused. Yet everyone’s fine with letting two little boys run errands for her. Yay?

Snails says ‘an Ursa marching up the streets’. He doesn’t specify ‘major’.

Going into the Everfree, at night. Where the blazin’ saddles are Snips and Snails’ parents? More to the point, why the bales was Spike walking towards the Forest himself? He wasn’t about to pull the same shit, was he?

Ursa smashes her cart. Also, its fur creates the illusion of transparancy, yet when it opens its mouth, there are solid teeth and gums. Curiouser and curiouser.

When they hear Trixie made it all up, there’s a brief moment when Twilight pouts. Is she honestly feeling sorry for Trixie? Is that when that ship took to water?

Why does the water reservoir have a top that screws on and off? Makes no sense, until you consider that weather is controlled by pegasus ponies here, not unicorns. They move water with twisters, that design lets you screw the top of the reservoir on and off easily.

How does Twilight know where to land the Ursa?

“All hat and no cattle.” This is a thing.

Beehive abandoned again.

Also, Fu Manchu is canon.

Episode 7: Dragonshy

Pointed this out before: Flutters feeds fish to hermins?

About 15 ponies in the park shot, only one of them is a stallion. And talking to a girl who’s presumably his girlfriend… and his cutie mark is grapes. The background ponies don’t all have highlights in their eyes, either. Curious.

“In the name of all things cinnamon swirls!”

Big Mac has a weak back and neck. Is that what the collar is for?

Rainbow’s idea of ‘supplies’ is war paint. Which washes off. Real warriors fight bare-hooved, I guess.

Beehive’s abandoned when they’re looking at the map.

Flutters’ animal companions are referred to as ‘her little friends in the meadow’.

Rainbow Dash is absolutely right about Fluttershy. Also, the look on Rainbow’s face when she’s pulled by her tail for the umpteenth time. She’s not even surprised anymore.

Applejack pretty much ignores whatever authority Rainbow Dash has, and so does Twilight. So this is the point in the series when the rousettes would have called BS on the whole ‘proper channels’ thing.

Everyone’s bags are marked with cutie marks.

Pegasus fear response involves the wings locking up. Why? Evolution, maybe. Can’t hide from a predator in the open air. Suggests pegasi evolved from landbound creatures that hid on the ground. Unless we’re calling in intelligent design, but that’s debatable.

Rainbow gets out of the rockslide pretty smoothly. Almost like she knows what she’s doing.

Even Twilight gets annoyed around the end.

Rarity manages to almost get her way by appealing to the dragon’s vanity. Or pride.

Even though Fluttershy says he breathes fire, the dragon only ever blows smoke at them. Part of a medical condition, along with the snoring?

Five pegasi clear the skies of smoke and ash, including Derpy. Zero stallions.

Rainbow Dash has the same response to dragon roaring as Fluttershy. Might actually be a pegasus thing, then. Also, ‘pony record’ vs. ‘Equestrian record’. Had she gotten past the Equestrian record and progressed into Mustang pony territory already?

Episode 8: Look Before You Sleep

Applejack uses “Y’all” to refer to a singular pony a lot in this opening. This might account for some dialects doing that. It does happen in Dutch occasionally. So to everyone I may have bothered with this remark: I’m in the wrong there, it does happen. It’s a mistake, but it’s one that Applejack makes in at least this episode, so it’s fine to use.

Fuss-pudget?

There’s a moment where the fill on Rarity’s muzzle goes beyond the stroke.

Spike is away in Canterlot on royal business. Suppose Shining Armour was planning a surprise at the Gala, and Spike knew about it, which was why he was so dead set on them staying together? Shining Armour would have introduced himself to everyone at the Gala, ditto Cadence.

And if they all knew Cadence, then the impostor plot would have been foiled from the get-go. More on that later.

Rodeos come to town, apparently. Never seen that.

Rarity doesn’t start out using magic during the pillow fight. It’s only in defense against AJ’s high-impact shots.

Pony beds are a lot bigger than the ponies in them. Accounting for difference in breeds, perhaps.

Two horseshoes over the bed, for luck. Also, Twilight’s alarm is a cuckoo clock. No wonder she goes cuckoo sometimes.

Consarnit. That’s a word. As is ‘pain in the patooty’. Or just ‘patooty’.

There are flower patterns and hearts on the bookcases up above. Twilight’s bedroom is literally the erotica section of the library.

Episode 9: Bridle Gossip

Spike knows what zombies are. So that’s canon.

Apple Bloom ducks away just like everyone else when Zecora looks her way.

No one knows what a zebra is. It’s pretty clear early on the only reason they’re scared of her is because she lives in the Everfree.

Apple Bloom doesn’t actually believe Zecora’s innocent or harmless at first. It’s only after hearing Twilight that she starts acting up on the subject, everything else is her saying she’s not a baby. Critical thinker, that girl.

Never mind the fact that the whole ‘magic is something you’re born with’ schtick is… questionable at best. Twilight considers curses just an old pony tale, to which AJ retorts she’ll learn that some of those stories are true.

Fun to consider in hindsight: Twilight was taught by Celestia. The same Celestia that was there when a ‘curse’ was put on the Crystal Empire, sending it away for a thousand years. Celestia’s pretty thorough when it comes to rewriting history, but it can come back to bite you in the rump occasionally. Like, say, when new Wonderbolt recruits have to unlearn everything they learned in grade school about history and learn what current grade schoolers are learning about history.

This would be fine and excusable for Twilight, except old pony tales turning out to be true is exactly what happened with Nightmare Moon already. Ghosts and spirits and zombies are supposed to be fake.

‘Pony up’, instead of ‘man up’.

Rainbow lands in a briar bush. Tough as nails, that one.

Zecora is completely trolling everyone. And being preachy. So yes, Zecora is a racist character. She is racist towards ponies. And later on, dragons, too. Fun to watch, though, credit where it’s due.

Would have been really interesting to see any police in this episode. The Trixie one’s borderline, but this was gagging for some blue fuzz to show up.

Is there a pony called Blue Fuzz? Please tell me someone’s made that already.

Episode 10: Swarm of the Century

Fluttershy finds the Parasprite under a rock. Hibernating cysts?

Beehive has disappeared! Beehive has disappeared!

Rainbow is adorable when she struggles to stay still. And again, no one minds yanking her tail.

Beehive returned! Repeat: beehive returned!

… they did not seriously take down the beehive to clean it for the royal visit, right? Also, Spike gets so much more work done when Twilight isn’t around. He should totally dump her.

Despite sleeping outside, Rainbow doesn’t sleep on regular cloud matter there. That’s still sculpted in a specific shape. Outdoors bed and indoors, for colder nights, perhaps.

Parasprites have angular specular reflections. So do Crystal ponies. Does that mean Crystal ponies have compound eyes or are their eyeballs just more square? Changelings don’t have that, do they?

Let’s not forget the first ‘sprite crisis was actually fixed by Applejack herding them into the forest. That works, none of that ball return. It’s Fluttershy keeping one that damns everything.

Is this the first mention of the Weather Patrol?

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

please lift the spell you cast on those Parasprites, the Everfree Forest can handle them just fine as long as they eat anything but wood and stone.

Signed,

The Equestrian Society for Protection of Timberwolves and Rockodiles

No rhyme in Zecora’s “Have you gone mad?”

When the ponies bow to Celestia, the two pegasi are at the back, and are last to bow. Guess that tribalism got bred in a little deeper in some than it did in others, eh? Rainbow even growls at the Princess. Look at that ‘So happy to see you again’ *growl* as well as your friends. Was there some friction after that dragon incident usurping Rainbow’s authority?

At the end, let’s all remind ourselves: they were only eating food before Twilight got involved. Those things eat wood now. I think I just figured out why it took so long for Timberwolves to show up.

Episode 11, Winter Wrap-Up.

End of the song, fade out, bottom left corner: pegasus mare with the same colour scheme as Snails. Maybe that explains why we didn’t see his mom earlier. Also, lots more stallions to mares in most shots, especially working the field. Raindrops, that’s the one.

How many skaters has Twilight seen so far? Growing up in Canterlot and all, presumably a few.

Distribution of the teams: Pinkie and Rainbow Dash are both on the Weather team, Fluttershy and Rarity are both on the animal team, AJ is the only one on plant team. The ponies are separated by voice actress. I c wut you did thar.

Both their boots and skates have room for toes. Doesn’t make a lot of sense, unless you consider the idea that winter gear is made by and for reindeer or other even-toed ungulates, kinds with broader hooves. Bigger contact surface and all.

Twilight gives up on skating after Spike shoves her. She might have learned, if Pinkie hadn’t suggested animal work instead.

Spike hears the word ‘hibernation’ from all the way over there. Some echo in those dens.
Aren’t snakes supposed to be deaf? The bell thing seems kind of odd, then.

Is skunk spray really combatted with tomato extract? If that’s just made up, they didn’t come up with it on their own: the Rugrats episode with the skunk did the same thing.

It’s all stallions when Twilight tries to clear snow. All Earth ponies, too, from the looks of it.

There’s two Weather Team ponies clearing snow off a tree, but it’s a Plant Team pony who drags it away, and it’s the Animal Team that runs the risk of dens flooding. This might be why there’s an organisational problem: if you do that with magic alone, it’s all unicorns and all wizards. One team that does its job.

Spike calls Twilight ‘sister’. Doesn’t sound like a term for family, though.

Only pegasus mares on that part of the Weather Team.

Huh. Lake scorers are Earth ponies and unicorns. So Weather team has all three races, so does animal team (Rarity, Flutters, couple of Earth pony mares). Plant team has… only Earth ponies? Maybe there is something to the idea that Earth ponies have specific contact magic for farming.

Episode 12: Call of the Cutie

Zero colts in class. Zero pegasi, too.

When does a pony discover their cutie mark? The answer is “When SHE discovers that something that makes her special.” Cheerilee then corrects it as ‘he or she’. The teacher consistently uses ‘he or she’.

The cutie mark is described as what makes a pony different. Different from other ponies, or ponies different from other races? Also, Cheerilee says she ‘woke up with it’ one day. Not literally, right?

Diamond Tiara got her mark after Silver Spoon’s, and recently. Maybe even ‘so last week’. And they had to sit through a lecture about it? So that’s not an official class, then, but a special lecture?

Huh. What’s been going on outside Ponyville to warrant a specific lecture on cutie marks for girls only? Was this the response to some mediatised drama, perhaps? Deliciously ironic if it was, then, since it’s the catalyst for the other ‘blank flank’ teasing.

Lyra’s talking to a pegasus filly there, and in the background it almost looks like the vendor is gesturing to that girl, too.

An actual unicorn stallion. Trying to paint. With his mouth instead of using magic. Definitely one for the more traditional arts, then.

Fuzzy-chested stallion with a tennis racket. Haven’t seen that before, or since. In other ponies, I mean. The stallion himself shows a few times over the series.

If AB has to ask Twist to go together, kind of implies they weren’t that close friends, then.

I’ve pointed this out before, but it bears repeating: Apple Bloom got flying lessons from Rainbow Dash before Scootaloo ever even got screentime. Suck it.

There’s a pony-shaped training dummy in the karate dojo. Also, that place has the alicorn design on the doors. More to the point, ponies know what karate is. Look up the etymology of the word.

DT and Silver are walking past Carousel Boutique, not out from it. Unless they went out the back door? That might be where they talked to Sweetie Belle first.

Rainbow looks almost hurt when AB leaves.

Applejack honestly thinks Diamond and Silver are Apple Bloom’s friends. Funny how that works.

Both Diamond’s and Silver’s outfits cover their cutie marks, not show them off. Unless showing off implies raising the skirt a little bit. Those parallels with sexual maturity are really starting to become more blatant, aren’t they?

The Terrible Twosome let off on Apple Bloom because she bluffs that Diamond would be embarrassed at her own party. Not their party, her party. It’s been made pretty clear that this party is supposed to be all about her.

And yet that’s exactly what happens once Scootaloo opens her mouth.

“We thought we were the only two.” So did those two know each other before or not? Also, where did Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle hear that whole lecture of infinite potential? Parents, perhaps? It sounds like the sort of thing Rarity might come up with, but then she’d be repeating it later in the series. Maybe the lecture Apple Bloom was in was for every filly who thought she was special, and there was a second one for fillies lacking in self-confidence, which would have had Sweetie and Scootaloo. Possibly the boys, like Featherweight, too.

One colt in that entire party: Snails. What a slimy little pimp. A lot of adults, too, for a child’s party. Makes some modicum of sense if you consider cutie marks a mark of adulthood. Or the mares just don’t trust Snails around that many girls.

The girls unite for two reasons: being blank flanks, and the fact that both Diamond and Silver drive them crazy. And it’s at Diamond’s party. After embarrassing her. At her own party.

The moral of this story is that the thing that makes you get picked on or weird can be the thing that lets you make new friends. So this whole episode is basically about a) geek fandom in general, b) bronyism, specifically and/or c) racial minority groups forming their own cliques.

#blanklivesmatter, anyone?

Episode 13: Fall Weather Friends

Applejack’s in the wrong, pure and simple. She accuses Rainbow of cheating instead of taking it up with the referee, which is Twilight. Also, how is it unfair that Rainbow uses wings, which she’s born with, if Applejack is using Earth pony strength, which she’s born with?

More to the point, how many of those events are rodeo events, things that Rainbow Dash has zero experience in and Applejack has been doing competitively for several years? And how many of the events are things Rainbow Dash is specialised in, as a competitive flyer?

And Applejack cuts off Rainbow’s air. Fun for the whole family. ‘Fair and square’ means ‘with one side wearin’ a girdle’, apparently.

Spike doesn’t actually ask Pinkie to be co-host. She offers it when she notices he’s too embarrassed to ask. Aww.

Are there any other pegasi running in this?

Ponies eat hot dogs. And call them hot dogs. Edit after the fact: we do see something like a carrot hot dog in Season 4, Rarity Takes Manehattan.

AJ launches herself into the air off of a branch. She flies first. She also cheats twice in a row: she gets a breather while on her lift with Pinkie, then tosses glue onto the field… which every other competitor might run into, if they didn’t spot it. Also bees, but that was before.

Applejack’s actions are the ones that nearly cause an avalanche.

Spike is looking deadpan at Pinkie after that last stunt, because he knows the race is already over despite Pinkie hyping up the duel. Aww?

Three pegasus mares when Twilight’s talking. Three pegasi, panting for air, without their wings bound. Where’s that fair play now, AJ?

Fall is one of Celestia’s favorite seasons. Care to give us your top ten, Princess?

Applejack is the one apologising. And she ought to be.

Episode 14: Suited for Success.

“Knowing your handiwork.” Not hoofiwork? Drat.

None of these ponies know fashion, except for Fluttershy. Who says they’re ‘fine’. Also, costumes can look very different when you’re actually wearing them. Outside of that… a little doubt is warranted.

“not true French haute couture” Funny thing: haute couture fashion actually does look ridiculous. The weird part? If she’d said ‘Belgian haute couture’, she’d have ended up with something that’s actually wearable in public. And I’m not saying that out of nationalism: I distinctly recall hearing something along those lines on the news a while back. Fluttershy is the only one we see wearing her costume when she gives feedback.

“Fluttershy, you’re putting me in a bind,” and her arms are tied together by the measuring tape. Never noticed that line before now. Rarity refers to her friends as ‘customers’. But she offered the dresses freely. And yet they mention a budget. Dafook?

One of the constellations on Twilight’s dress is a centaur. Foreshadowing?

Hoity Toity’s cutie mark is a fan. So did he get it in a fit of fanboyism?

The worst part? You actually see fashion like this on highbrow shows. If it had been in Canterlot, she might have gotten away with it.

Rarity’s symbol is her eyes and her mane curled in an ‘R’ shape. Has she gotten any Team Rocket-based fanart yet? Somepony get on that.

Looking at her walk of shame from above, you can really see the quadruped action of the spine. Straight out of Animator's Survival Guide. Nicely done.

Rarity looks a lot better after a few days indoors. Her mane is better kept than it had been during the song, and the bags under her eyes are reduced.

All the girls stand with their arms crossed, and the dresses all hide their cutie marks, with only Twilight’s and Applejack’s having any remote sign of them embedded in the dress themselves. Even Fluttershy’s butterfly design is green, not pink. So cutie marks are what makes a pony different from the others, and clothes are a means of blending in, socially?

Episode 15: Feeling Pinkie Keen.

You might think Pinkie’s kidding when she translates for the frog. But she’s an Earth pony. Might be legit. Also, magic requires full concentration to work. This line alone accounts for a lot of the debate regarding why Twilight didn’t teleport.

In ‘Dragonshy’, everyone but Flutters and Rainbow had their own bag. Here, we see Fluttershy does indeed have a saddlebag with a butterfly on it. So that means there’s a shop in Ponyville where you can get saddlebags with custom cutie mark-shaped buttons on them. Might seem strange until you realise the standard response to danger in Ponyville is to run away and scatter. Shedding the weight for speed is natural, and having clearly marked saddlebags means even a stranger can find the bag and return it without having to, say, ask for a name. Also makes theft prevention a lot easier. If the bag doesn’t match the cutie mark of the pony wearing it...

Also, there is an airsick frog in Flutters’ cart, hanging over the edge.

The old pony that splashes Twilight is a blank flank. Animation error, or fanfic that needs to be written, still. It might be a different species altogether.

Edit: that guy shows up a few times, and he never has a cutie mark. So different species altogether.

The interpretation of what happens and the actual facts do not line up.

Spike says Pinkie predicts the future. Applejack says that when Pinkie’s twitching, you’d better listen.

At no point does any pony who’d know claim that Pinkie can predict the future. What happens is she gets impulses that have been shown to coincide with events happening. She does not predict every single thing that falls in Ponyville. What happens is: her tail is twitching, which means something is going to fall. That’s why she cannot say what the ‘doozy’ is in the first place: she doesn’t know what that input means yet.

So it is entirely possible for things to fall or even for her to fall without her being able to predict it. The Pinkie Sense’s accuracy only means that if it is triggered, it means something will happen.

Which makes her relying on it as a danger sense in Season 2 all the more disturbing. It can fail to warn her about things.

Sugarcube Corner has horseshoes on the top of the door for good luck. And Pinkie’s mirror has lights around it. For applying clown make-up, maybe?

Twilight’s soapbox speech about magic… don’t get me started. She does have a point, though: it only happens when you decide to let it happen. With a very specific result. So it’s not possible to do a spell you don’t know the end result of. Or one that does something you didn’t want it to do, ie a come to life spell can make something come to life and run wild out of control, but it cannot cause a fireball. Likewise, a destiny spell cast without a target cannot suddenly split up and jump across town…

Darnit, I got started, didn’t I? Moving on.

How is she turned around from getting slammed in the face like that?

Okay, Twilight, let’s forget about the fact that this whole series started based on a prediction in the first place. The main issue with this girl seems to be that she’s been raised, neigh, conditioned to only believe in the sort of magic she can do: unicorn magic. Making friends won’t save the world, curses don’t exist (“Hi, Sombra!”), and now Pinkie Pie can’t have prediction powers.

I guess maybe Twilight is the epitome of a meritocratic sort of girl: if she can’t get it by practising, it’s not real. She joined in on the Run just a few episodes ago, proving that even an egghead can do great athletic things. Her first instinct when faced with the petrified Elements is to try and activate them with her own magic. It’s not the fact that it’s Pinkie that bugs Twilight, it’s the fact that it’s not Twilight who has these powers. And considering she had a big brother who (presumably?) earned his position, that might account for a lot of her motivation in other episodes.

The wheels turn when the cart is flying.

How the bales did that cellar door open if Applejack was all the way down there?

I’ve always put stock in the theory that Twilight cast a delayed regeneration spell after the first few disasters, just to be safe. I’m not seeing anything to disprove it.

Pinkie Pie, Pinkie ‘Giggle at the Ghostie’ Pie, Pinkie ‘Now I need a trombone!’ Pie, freezes in pure terror at the sight of a hydra. And she’s the one who asks if that is a hydra. She’s heard of this kind of monster, but she doesn’t know what one looks like.

Was her family ever attacked by one? Maud might have run into one on a dig, perhaps.

Spike runs on all fours when he’s going over the branch.

As weird as Twilight’s argument might sound, look at it from a wizard’s perspective. You’ve studied magic your whole life, you know things no one else does except other wizards. You have a degree. And you have to accept that in your line of work, there are colleagues who are blowhards, or con artists. If you claim you know magic, and you’re a unicorn, no one bats an eye. But claim you’re the most powerful unicorn in town, someone’s gonna ask for proof. Say you’ve studied under Celestia, oh, you’d better hold on to your horn.

You are held to extreme standards, you are expected to know obscure magics even other unicorns do not know of. Because remember: most unicorns don’t know that much about magic. If you claim to be a wizard, ponies can ask for the craziest things. And, lo and behold, they do. Apple Bloom asks to get her cutie mark zapped on, just like that. Spike, who knows her, just out of the blue asks Twilight to turn the hydra into a rodent. When you’re a wizard, no one really knows how you’re supposed to do everything, they just assume that you can do anything.

Never mind the impossible mechanics behind it: it’s magic.

Except to you. To you, it’s your day job. It’s your degree, your calling, your life. One that no one else really ‘gets’.

Being an actual wizard in Equestria is a tough gig, and a title hard-earned.

And then along comes this tart of an Earth pony (or pie, if you will) who has other ponies convinced that her body is somehow able to tell the future. Not by any sort of mechanism, mind you, but simply cause and effect. You know, like how black cats bring bad luck with their, err… bad luckiness.

What about horseshoes for luck, then? Well, those actually do have a very strict mechanism to explain their action: iron is supposedly able to pierce the ectoplasm of spirits, same as silver. So hanging iron horseshoes close to bed or over the door serves as a warning to evil spirits. There’s a logic behind it, a reasoning. Magic has a mechanism, however unexplainable it may be. Once that mechanism is gone, it becomes superstition. As weird as it might sound, when Billy & Mandy did an episode about the superstition of throwing salt over your shoulder… that’s was actually pretty close to the belief behind it. If it has a logic and a reasoning, it’s magic, or belief. If not, it’s superstition. Why the distinction?

Well, for one thing, you have the issue of replicability. Twilight studied magic. She knows spells. Spells other unicorns made. Spells that can be taught, replicated. What good is a new spell if no one else is able to cast it? What’s the real validity of the Pinkie Sense if there’s only one pony who has it, who can learn how to use it?

Then the moral of the episode: there are lots of wonderful things in the world we cannot explain. This is true. That we cannot explain them doesn’t make them any less true. This is also a valid point. That you sometimes have to believe, and that a friend can show you how, is where the interpretation can get muddy.

I like to see it as: your friends have different areas of expertise than you. They may approach problems in a way that seems silly to you. But if you accept that they do know their stuff, you can learn why they do it in this manner.

For example, I write my stories in a certain way. Other people may look at that way and think it’s completely off base. But I do things the way I do because of my personal preferences, strengths and weaknesses. Likewise, if I’m stuck and I ask for advice, that advice might seem as outlandish to me as mine is to others. But again: different people have different experiences. The approach to something may be different, but anyone can see the results. So one’s approach, if it seems silly to some, requires a bit of faith to be accepted as valid. It might not work for everyone, but it does for the person using it and offering it. Also, and this is where the episode’s actual moral comes in, if someone asks how problems are solved so that they might learn from this new approach, and the person asking immediately discredits it at first glance, they risk blocking out the thing they want.

And that goes both ways. If someone’s granting insight into how they get things done, they do so based on their own experience. A different experience might mean it doesn’t work for everyone, but it still works for some. That’s keeping an open mind.

But hey, what do I know, right?

Sonic Rainboom

“Too loud?” Goddamn, I missed this show. I was smirking. Loudly.

Two things: Twilight calls the girls ‘guys’, Rainbow Dash calls them ‘ladies’. And she uses a word like ‘feeble’. Must remember that.

The stairs in the library have hearts painted on them. Twilight’s bedroom really is either the erotica section or the romance section.

Oh, gods. I just realised.

Twilight… sleeps in the romance section.

Twilight. Sparkle.

How much you wanna bet it’s the paranormal romance section?

Pinkie knows what the Best Young Flyers competition is. Of course she does; she has a balloon, she’s probably seen it before.

“Have you spit your bit or somethin’?” Writing that down for future reference.

The spell specifies Earth ponies can fly for three days. Maybe it wasn’t meant for unicorns to have in the first place. I mean, a unicorn growing wings? Outrageous notion.

They have a thing called a Cloudiseum. Never noticed that before.

Rainbow Dash actually thinks Celestia will banish her to the Everfree Forest. Huh, guess that TwiDash ship does have some wind in its sails.

Rarity gets more and more full of herself the higher up in the air she goes. She quite literally is losing sanity because her hooves aren’t on the ground.

Rainbow Dash inadvertently causes Rarity to join the competition.

No children up in Cloudsdale. Odd, considering Fluttershy mentions never being to the ground later on. She does specify ‘her cloud home’, though. Unless she means she’s never been out in the open wild. If the residential areas are down below, like Rainbow Falls, does that mean everything in the skies is adults-only? In that case, what kind of clothes shop was Rarity posing in front of?

Ponies know what rock ‘n roll is.

Why do the Wonderbolts get knocked out so easily? Think about it. A drowning person, struggling violently, is liable to knock out a lifeguard. Lifeguards know this, and will knock a panicking person unconscious if they have to (correct me if I’m wrong on this one, guys). But a Wonderbolt? If you have to catch a pony who is falling from that height, statistically speaking, what kind of pony is it ever going to be?

A pegasus pony. One who is either unconscious or trying to slow down their fall with whatever wing power they have left, and whose first instinct is to go hooves down. Look at later episodes with Twilight or even Fluttershy struggling to fly: their hooves are flailing, pointed downwards. There’s a safe spot to grab them from the back, just scoop up their arms from behind and they’re fine. The Wonderbolts don’t know how to catch a struggling victim whose hooves are flailing upwards, because that situation never comes up.

Rainbow’s wings don’t move while doing the Rainboom. And she’s actually crying afterwards, for just a second.

Stare Master

One of the fitting dolls has different legs from the others. The hooves are more angular.

Rarity does the work in her bedroom. That sounds a lot dirtier than it should. Also, worth noting that she slowly explains an expression when her little sister doesn’t understand something. So she is attentive in that regard.

Fluttershy says ‘get out of your mane’, whereas in Episode 1, the expression was ‘out of your hair’. So both are canon and correct.

Sweetie Belle works fast, sewing that gold silk. And quietly.

“They are quite a handful.” Considering there are creatures with hands in this show, and it’s hard to tell when a single hoof is full, you gotta admit that makes sense. Also, I know someone remarked this on Quorum Sensing and… they use the word ‘girls’ in this episode all the freaking time. Not fillies, girls. So there.

And yet, Twilight uses ‘hooves full’, plural, as well as the word ‘fillies’. Keeping an eye on that.

Also, ponies know what angels are, and presumably have halos in symbolism.

House is candle-lit. It is a cottage, so kind of expected.

Fluttershy braces herself, then flies into the Everfree Forest. Low flight, but flight nonetheless. More fuel for the confidence=skill magic on pegasi.

What would the talent of somepony whose talent is arguing even look like? Keeping in mind future symbolism introduced, like a draconequus.

The cockatrice needs eye contact to turn its victim to stone. It doesn’t need to look anywhere in particular to turn them back from stone.

...Dammit, the girls all have bags marked with something, except for Scootaloo. Her bag has a regular belt buckle.

While Sweetie Belle’s has a yellow apple.

I don’t get it.

Episode 18: Show Stoppers.

That door has a heart carved out. That’s a latrine door, isn’t it? The clubhouse is adorned with a latrine door.

Why is Sweetie dusting off a tree?

You can see the boards inside are new because they’re lighter.

Carousel Boutique doubles as a beauty parlour. It has to, if it has blowdryers like we see in the finale.

Is it just me, or do Scootaloo’s wings appear to shrink when in cold water? Insert wingboner innuendo here.

Cheerilee’s bag has a cutie mark seal on it.

Sweetie Belle admits to stage fright regarding her singing. Scootaloo never says she doesn’t like dancing in front of a crowd, she’d just rather sing instead. Aww?

“I feel like I have four left feet.” Again, hooves and feet are interchangeable, even though technically hooves are only toenails or toes. It all depends on where you draw the line for homologous organs.

We never see Scootaloo go from one-hooved and spinning to walking back to Apple Bloom on all fours. The shot just cuts from one to the other. Editing is magic.

The look on Sweetie Belle’s face when Apple Bloom asks about the power tools. *sigh* Priceless.

The pony in the clubhouse portrait has a heart cutie mark. Common folk figure, perhaps?

Sweetie Belle explaining an expression to her friends, with that tone, is her copying Rarity’s behaviour last episode. Probably where she got the explanation itself, too.

We never see Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo on screen together in this episode. We see all three girls running towards the three mares off screen, and that’s it. I repeat: editing is magic.

Episode 19: Dog and Pony Show.

There’s a fashion magazine called Clothes Horse. Or Closed Whores. There’s a fanfic in there somewhere, someone should dig it up.

Sapphire Shores is actually quite a bit taller than the average pony. Might explain the bed thing. And she struts differently. Knowing Paso Fino horses are a real thing, it’s not unthinkable to see something similar in ponies.

Someone make a Paso Fino OC and give it a feelgood fanfic.

Also, those are diamonds, Rarity says. But when searching, she refers to them as ‘jewels’. If we are talking diamonds here, then that would mean Spike does digest carbon matter, even if it’s non-organic.

The dogs call them gems, though.

Spike is kind of an asskicker (heh. Ass.) He only gets shoved away when he’s distracted, and Rarity only gets caught when she’s waiting for him. He also doesn’t breathe fire at the Dogs, but he does do it in his imagine spot. Is he unable to spit regular fire when he wants to, then? He melts a lock in Season 4.

So, so far that’s Casanova, Romeo, and loverboy. All used to address Spike. What a pimp.

Rarity’s ‘complaining’ is in her normal voice. The ‘whining’ is in a higher pitch, which apparently hurts the dogs more. And of course it hurts them: they live in a dark cave, presumably they have for a while. Look at their pupils: tiny little things compared the gigantic peepers on ponies. The dogs probably rely on their sense of smell and hearing to navigate, so obviously they can’t stand loud noise. Or high-pitched noise.

The harness they put Rarity in looks old and rusty, but also built for ponies. Maybe that’s an old relic they found from when ponies mined the place. They found so many of them, it must be an old pony mine. Like the caves underneath Canterlot, mayhaps.

The Diamond Dogs have blue tongues, for some reason. Also, ‘dogs don’t pull, ponies pull’? What culture are these guys from? Obviously not a Northern one, of they’d be familiar with sled dogs.

Rarity turns the insult ‘mule’ into 'ugly'. The Dog insists he said ‘mule’, not ‘ugly’. That’s not racism on Rarity’s part, that’s pure trolling. The Dogs don’t get where that connection comes from.

The cowgirl is the first one to start bucking, the second one is the other Earth pony. One has to wonder what would have happened to more meekly inclined ponies.

Twilight smashes through the door. It’s in pieces. That’s an old wooden door. Not much of a dungeon, that place. Must be an old mine.

The gem Rarity yanks away from Spike is half-eaten. She’s not using that one. So it’s purely to get his attention. Rarity takes candy from a baby (dragon).

Episode 20: Green isn’t your colour

Rarity has her own bathrobe in the spa, with her insignia on it. Fluttershy does not.

The different massages: one’s quick strikes, which increases bloodflow, the other is slow, deep tissue, from the looks of it. One’s to stay awake, the other is to relax. Also, Rarity gets cucumbers on her eyes twice in a row: one for the mud mask, one for the algae and mudbath. Given that she herself stated it’s to reduce the puffiness under the eyes (Look Before You Sleep), exactly how hard has she been working lately? Or how late has she been staying up?

During the algae and mud treatment, even parts of Rarity’s hair are wrapped up. Nothing on Fluttershy is.

After the photoshoot, Rarity blames the apparent failure on the headdress being too big and the dress having too much sparkles. She never once blames Fluttershy for it, even saying Flutters was ‘perfect for it’.

Getting ready for the first show with the ‘too much blush’ and not enough? Check the mirror in the background. It’s already got a butterfly on it.

Ponies drink carrot lemonade. Maybe that’s where the big eyes came from.

“Ve haff the thing at the place.” Photo Finish is standing on tippy-toes of her front hooves. Ballerina mannerism? Remember, she doesn’t show her cutie mark.

When someone asks “And you are?” and your response implies that your name should be well-known as an authority when really it’s not, you can expect to have it blow up in your face. Doubly so when you’re in an industry where your work carries more weight than your name. Everyone knows Daniel Radcliff as the guy who played Harry Potter. Peter MacNicol? Not so much, until you mention Ally McBeal or Ghostbusters 2. The correct answer for Rarity would have been “The mare who got featured in Clothes Horse last month” or even “Sapphire Shores’ new designer”. That would have gone down a lot better.

It’s a nice touch that Rarity is aware she’s feeling jealous, even when everything says she shouldn’t be. She’s not hard-hearted or petty here. This is her dream breaking up before her eyes. She’s being honest, and frustrated.

Considering how much she missed talking in Bridle Gossip, Pinkie Pie uses an awful, awful lot of nonverbal communication in this episode.

Rarity hasn’t actually been to any of Fluttershy’s shows until the very end. She’s never gotten a chance to see the stage fright that was so obvious to her in Sonic Rainboom.

The audience’s gasp is a stock gasp, also used in Super Smash Bros. Look up the opening tutorial, it’s pretty quiet, so the gasp is clearly audible.

Fluttershy’s door not only has a butterfly painted on it, it also has a mouse hole. Is that so she can be passed food without interacting with ponies? Or is it so her mouse friends can come and go as they please? Seems like the latter, considering there’s two bird’s nests in her room, too.

While reciting her letter, Twilight is in a bubble bath. A very, very slowly bubbling bubble bath. Huh?

Episode 21: Over a Barrel

Door on the wagon has an apple above it.

So that’s an unprovoked assault by the buffalo, on ponies who have nothing to do with the current problem and aren’t even aware there is a problem.

Apple trees take about ten years to grow fruit, if memory serves. So the whole orchard in Appleloosa is made up of transplants.

Fun fact: apparently, back in the days of American pioneers, it was written into law that any land holding above a certain size had to have an apple orchard. Thanks, Great British Bake-Off, you’re very educational.

The buffalo never said why the trees have to go. They just started attacking the settlers.

Two things: the buffalo were getting ready to attack Pinkie and Rainbow. As in: use violence, right? No warning, no explanation, just rearin’ up, horns first. Okay, cool. Second: Rainbow Dash tells Pinkie to run, she’ll hold them off.

The pegasus, who is capable of flying away from these landbound barbarians, tells her Earth pony friend that she’ll stay there and fight off the buffalo so the Earth pony can run. Damn decent of her. It’s almost like she’s trained for rescue work.

“They planted apple trees all over it without asking for our permission.”

So… the buffalo own that land, then? It’s not a part of Equestria? It doesn’t fall under Celestia’s laws? The ponies have to ask permission to plant there? Presumably, the buffalo wouldn’t have given permission in the first place, which would mean that the town itself couldn’t be founded where it was.

“The ponies refuse to move their trees, so we’re stuck here.”

Umm… didn’t stop them from moving and attacking the train. There’s no food being denied to the buffalo, no water being stolen, no tent camps being destroyed. The settlers haven’t launched any offensive against the buffalo, the only thing that’s happening is the buffalo can’t run over land they think they own. And they haven’t been around there for a while, if the settlers were even able to plant an orchard in the first place.

The ‘talk’ between Strongheart and Braeburn being hijacked by AJ and Rainbow is pretty pointless. It’s interesting, easy to see parables between it and Internet discussions, but pointless as far as resolutions go. Even if those two could agree on a compromise, neither of them are decision-makers. That’s Silverstar and the chief. Those two are in the next scene.

Moreover, if the orchard is in buffalo territory, and they stampede through it, exactly how does that work? If Appleloosa is part of Equestria, and the orchard isn’t, that means that either the buffalo are stampeding into Equestrian territory, or their path skirts along the sides of the border. In which case, their refusal to take a detour seems pretty petty. And again, how is it determined who owns the land?

The only valid reference to the Native Americans vs settlers history is in Pinkie’s song.

“All this fighting gets you nothing but hoof and mouth disease.”

Don’t see the connection? Let’s just say it struck me as sort of a blanket statement.

[insert Doctor Evil air quotes here]

The ponies dancing break their legs, including Pinkie.

The buffalo basically go from claiming the land is theirs without any legitimacy, to wanting the trees gone without telling the ponies why, to wanting to destroy the town. And why? Because it’s tradition being impeded upon. Not any tradition with a stated purpose or reason behind it, mind you, just tradition.

How exactly does anyone sympathise with these guys?

Ever notice how Appleloosa is nearly all Earth ponies after a year? Also, the girls are trying to reason with the ponies.

The ponies whose food needs to go.

The ponies whose lives have just been threatened.

Wrong side of the fence there, girls.

“Why won’t anybody be rational and reasonable?“ There it is, guys.

The final frontier.

Twilight uses the word ‘anybody’.

It does happen.

Have fun in the comment section.

So, err, the ponies are making apple pies. Non-lethal weapons: toss it in a buffalo’s face, he’s blinded, can’t stampede properly. Their major advantage of momentum is cancelled. Buffalo? Sharpening their horns. For easier impalement. Remind me again why anyone sympathises with them? And don’t drag Native American history into it, either, watch what happens on screen.

“But they’ve taken our land.”

Who says it was yours in the first place? Again, is Appleloosa not part of Equestria? And, here’s a thought: what happens if the buffalo succeed? Never mind that, what if they’d gored Pinkie and Rainbow a couple of scenes earlier?

Twilight Sparkle will f*ck your shit up, bro, and if she don’t, then Celestia will.

At the time of the showdown: look at where the trees are and look where the railroad is. The orchard is behind the railroad, and both are parallel to each other. Again: who says it was buffalo land in the first place? Why protest against the trees and not the railroad or town?

Can we stop and appreciate for a moment that Sheriff Silverstar was ready to die on a buffalo’s horns?

Also, yes, that pie in the chief’s face does provide one way of killing him: if he’s charging at full speed (ie: attacking) and trips, he can bite his tongue and choke. So the death thing does make sense.

And it ends on the buffalo stampeding in the direction of Equestrian territory. So who’s takin’ whose land again? The simple fact of the matter is that ponies needed that land to live. If it belonged to the buffalo, then building the town itself would have been a breach of whatever agreement was in place with the buffalo… a year ago. The town is a year old. Even if the land was taken by ponies in some sort of war, that’s Equestrian territory now. If the buffalo are trying to claim it again, more war will follow.

And in case anyone’s thinking this is white privilege talking: it’s not. It’s Flemish privilege. Look up Belgium and its situation with borders. Hell, we have issues with borders inside our borders. We get ‘racial’ about the fact that there’s enough police who are native Flemish and native Walloons, but not enough natives from one specific city on Flemish soil. Okay? Being from one particular city is different enough from being from the two halves of the country to be considered a different culture, a different race, if you will. Seriously, you can’t even listen to the news around here without getting a headache about how legislation is supposed to work. At the time of writing it’s mostly language-based and the drama of the week is Linkebeek. So, err, yeah, I do think I’m coming at his from the correct angle here.

Episode 22: Bird in the Hoof

One of the mouseholes in Flutters’ house has stairs. Not wheelchair-friendly.

The two guards make a metallic sound when they spread their wings. Those things are sharp enough to cut dragon scales, we later learn. They don’t even look back when Twilight tells them she’s on the list.

But they wouldn’t, if they know her voice. From, you know, around Canterlot, or being around her brother.

Rarity’s necklace looks either painted or glued on. Must be some invisible thread.

What is that pink stuff on Applejack’s sandwich? Looks kind of like ham or salami. Also, Applejack’s manners may not be up to snuff, but she knows enough to take her hat off before eating. Nice detail.

“As princess, I care deeply about all creatures, great and small.”

“Well, ya don’t seem to be very mindful of the f*ckin’ buffalo invading your principality, Your Highness.”

Wait, never mind, I’ve figured it out. That’s a slice of buffalo filet on AJ’s sandwich. Carry on.

When Philomena coughs, she sheds both yellow and red feathers. Well, salmon-y, pinkish yellow and deeper red. Matches the mixed colours of restored Philomena, I guess.

That cage had a lock. How did Fluttershy open it? Was it left unlocked?

Philomena has two layers of feathers: the top one’s pink, the one below is more yellow-ish. She’s only shed both on her thigh, revealing pink flesh. Sounds unimportant, but it can be relevant if you want to debate how circulation works for those critters, or even whether or not they’re fully corporeal.

Why do the Royal Guards even bother informing Twilight? Because she has authority, because her brother has authority, or… because Celestia is trolling. Again.

If the Guards know the bird is missing, then Celestia knows it, too.

It might look purely comedic that Twilight and Fluttershy kick up so much dust as they’re running around the tree, but remember: Fluttershy’s a pegasus. They do that sometimes.

Why does Philomena go so far, and up on a fountain? For drama? Possibly.

Or… so she doesn’t burn any buildings or ponies when she bursts into flame. Imagine the fire hazard if she’d done that in Fluttershy’s place, with all that easily combustible grain and seeds, in a wooden house...

The look on Celestia’s face when Fluttershy is confessing. It’s almost like regret. Almost. Her eyes even dart from Flutters to… the ashes? While Fluttershy is speaking.

“I’ll ask next time before taking matters into my own hooves.”

That’s a lesson Twilight doesn’t need to write down, because Celestia says she can remember it on her own.

So, err… Discord, Sombra, Luna, all those occasions where Celestia took matters into her own hooves? She seems to be encouraging ponies to engage in dialogue with her, and that’s apparently very necessary, since ponies repeatedly fantasise about her banishing them someplace over the littlest things. Maybe all that rewriting of history the past thousand-ish years is catching up with her.

The guard on the left (viewer’s left, his right) knows what’s coming. Look at his eyes. Poor guy. At least Celestia pays well.

Episode 23: Cutie Mark Chronicles.

Applejack knew she’d find out who she was in Manehattan. She did.

The snob pony doesn’t know what a rooster is. Guess he was expecting her to call it a cockerel instead? Heck, look at Great Britain. The British have regional dialects that are incomprehensible even to fellow British, right? So not that big of a shocker to see that in Equestria.

In English you say you could eat a horse. In Dutch you says you’re as hungry as a horse. But then, we still eat horses, you see. Pagan bastards that we are.

Fluttershy’s story happens at Summer Flight Camp. Not Junior Speedster Flight Camp. So one’s for the regulars and one’s for the older, more competitive kids, maybe?

If you assume the narration is completely reliable, then the Sonic Rainboom dissipated the clouds it touched. Which may mean structural damage to cloud homes.

“Of course! Most of the fillies at school already have theirs.”

Most. Not all. Unless Sweetie’s including her friends in that count. She doesn’t say ‘all of the other fillies’. Weird. And nobody cares about the colts, because cooties, I guess. Also, Featherweight doesn’t have his yet and neither does Rumble.

Rarity’s horn reacts when she’s about to give up on her true calling. So I guess unicorns will always have a magical pull towards their destiny. Unless there’s a coronation due, then depression is fine. Tough luck, Apple Bloom. That slump in Cutie Pox does not get resolved by Corny Ex Machina.

And the look on Rarity’s face when Scootaloo’s shoving the girls out. Rarity must have had a talk with that girl’s mother at some point.

Twilight is sitting in a library, as a filly, and her parents come and go as they please, apparently. Is Twilight Velvet a librarian? Stars representing enlightenment for all, or some such? Works for Cheerilee.

First time in the series Scootaloo and Rainbow are on screen together. Remember, they cut away in Show Stoppers.

Not that much to remark on the actual flashbacks, since it assumes reliable narration, which is doubtful considering canon. Continuity was never this show's strong suit.

BFF’s, that’s canon now.

Shut up, Twilight, this is clearly a Scootaloo episode. She’s the one who is actually facing some conflict in this story and has her tolerance of sap challenged, in both meanings of the word.

Episode 24: Owl’s well that Ends Well

Silly Rainbow, Pipsqueak doesn’t show up ‘till Season 2. That’s Scootaloo. Come on, say her name. Scoo-Taaa-Loooo… no? Two more Seasons? Okay, I can wait.

Twilight stops the complimenting, which may be what stops Spike’s growth spurt. That bow tie would have triggered his greed growth, no?

Apple Bloom is standing on Applejack, Sweetie Belle stands on Rarity. Scootaloo stands on solid ground, next to Rainbow Dash.

There’s a wood carving of a pegasus in Twilight’s room. And there’s a horseshoe over the fireplace. Again, following the belief that iron wards off evil spirits, that’s the bed and the chimney cleared. Which leads one to wonder: what sort of devils go down chimneys, that you’d have to guard against them? Hohoho, anyone? Maybe reindeer are scared of iron? Reindeer do eat meat, after all.

Pony food: oatmeal, sunflower smoothie, grass pancakes. Haven’t used sunflower smoothies in fanfics yet. I guess you could toss the seeds in a blender to give extra texture and load it up on unsaturated fatty acids, but… hmm, I’m gonna have to look that up. Something to consider when expanding Passiflora’s health food talent.

I just realised, when Twilight says Owlowiscious did Spike’s chores, Spike’s response is the same thing Owlo replies to everything: “Who?”

Fridge Logic: Owlowiscious is intelligent enough to understand pony talk, even complicated dialogues and commands. Very smart bird, obviously. So when Twilight says that’s the new assistant… you’d kind of expect him to be able to talk normal. With what he knows, there’s no reason for Spike to think this is anything but a talking bird.

Spike knows what a man is. Or a man of mystery, at least.

“Ferrets of Faerieland”? There’s a Faerieland in Equestria? If they have a Prince Willow ruling over them, there’s gonna be war.

More pony food: a kweesh. I feel like I’ve heard that word in South Park, but spelled differently. What was it? Was it with a ‘th’ sound, an ‘f’ sound, maybe? Hmm...

It’s worth noting that Spike doesn’t think to pluck a feather from the quail Pinkie gives him, and only resorts to going after Applejack’s chickens (or some farmer close to the apple orchard) when he’s desperate. And it’s also worth noting Twilight doesn’t have to pluck a feather off of Owlo, either.

The owl was in the shower. Bound to lose a few feathers like that. Hell, she’s got spares now.

When Spike is stomping off… “Owlowiscious is trying to take my place”... look at the background. What is that pink bath tub thing? And why have it out in the open? This confuzzles me.

We never see Spike packing up and leaving, or anyone seeing him leave, or anyone stopping him. It just cuts from the library to the forest. Editing is magic.

You can see the red footprints Spike left when they run out of the cave. And when he’s walking towards it. Why didn’t he wash his feet? Season 3: Spike at Your Service. He likes how it smells, apparently.

Twilight outsourcing the letter-writing already. How very royal of her.

Episode 25: Party of One

Ever wonder why Pinkie would be closer to Twilight than she is to anyone else in Ponyville? She’s friends with everyone, but Twilight’s a closer friend. Why? What do they have in common?

Gummy’s one year old. Both Pinkie and Twilight have a baby reptilian to care for. How many others in Ponyville can say that?

Edit after posting: "No need to bring a gift, being there will be enough. Birthdays mean having fun with friends, not getting lots of stuff." Contrast with Secret of My Excess, and Cheerilee saying everypony should get gifts on their birthday.

There’s a ‘Spring Has Sprung’ party. Official holiday following Winter Wrap-Up, or just a regular Pinkie thing?

Beehive is missing! Beehive is missing! We have lost the Hive! We have lost the Hive!

Dragon perspiration is a thing. And Rarity says it like that, instead of just saying ‘sweat’. Noted for future fanfic reference.

Put Rarity dumping her mane in the bin into perspective with the entire season so far. That’s dedication, right there.

Where is this beach, if Pinkie knows there is such a thing? Four Seasons in, correct me if I’m wrong, they’ve never been to the ocean. Closest thing has been Manehattan island. Also, volleyball is a pony sport. Or a bear sport that ponies know of.

Rarity’s spring-coil tail isn’t just a fashion statement; it’s practical. She can pick up small items with it. Makes sense if she overworks so often she doesn’t want to stress out her magic.

Funny, isn’t it, that Pinkie Pie interrogates Spike? You know, the dragon she didn’t invite to Gummy’s party at the beginning?

“Magical Mysteries and Practical Potions” is a thing. So Twilight does know about potion magic, she just doesn’t use it very often, except for experiments and maybe teaching Apple Bloom later.

Pinkie’s expression when threatening Spike is pretty similar to Twilight when she’s on one of her breakdowns. Might account for why he buckled so fast.

There’s a teddy bear design on the decorations in Pinkie’s room. And there’s a stuffed bear in Pinkie’s room, sitting on the couch. So teddybears are canon. But Pinkie sooner gets some rocks to talk to than a stuffed animal. Maybe because the bear earlier was a lie, or because that’s not her bear, but Gummy’s. It’s also possible the decorations aren’t supposed to represent teddybears, but gummy bears.

Rainbow Dash has no trouble with ‘the hard way’. Recurring thing for that girl.

The girls all have party hats with their cutie mark designs, except Rainbow Dash. And AJ swipes Twilight’s for a shot.

Episode 26: Best Night Ever

“Hold your horses,” valid expression.

You know, I can’t believe I’ve missed this for so long, but check the opening credits, when the letter is floating towards Celestia. That’s a globe displayed in the background. World map, possibly, but depicting some sort of rise from the mists.

Never mind Spike showing Rarity the crown jewels (get your mind out of the gutter), Celestia has a golden apple tree.

Did she swipe that tree from Discord, and do the apples all have ‘For the Fairest’ written on them, or are those the apples that got ponies kicked out of the Garden of Eden? Yes, I know those were figs or quinces originally or whatever, but the principle still stands.

And again, with hindsight being what it is: What if Spike had been planning something with Shining Armour tonight, and that’s why he wanted everyone to stick together? He was away on ‘royal business’ in Look Before you Sleep. He had the opportunity. Tonight could have been, perhaps would have been, the night when Twilight got to introduce her family to her friends.

Quite a few stallions, and a reporter. Possibly the highest amount of unicorn stallions ever on screen together, and zero mares at the same time.

So… Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash, all sing about being considered good enough or even the best. Half the cast, split evenly across the races, are there for their social standing.

Soarin and Spitfire in the entrance hall… what is up with Spitfire’s eyes? Later on, Soarin says he’s hungry as a horse. Soarin has Dutch ancestry, possibly a Brabander. Maybe he’s a Flying Dutchman.

Rarity only wears shoes on her front legs, and it’s maybe the only time we see hoofwear with raised heels, not counting AJ’s boots (which I’m not; those are functionally different). That has to be purely for making her arms look longer (like the Princesses) and possibly jutting out her chest. The lack of hind shoes can’t be to make it easier to dance on hind legs, because if she does that, she’d have her shoes on someone’s shoulders.

Fluttershy can sex a bird on sight. Maybe that species of bird is obvious to judge, like pheasants or peafowl.

Pinkie Pie is the first one of the bunch to realise this isn’t what she wanted.

Pony world fauna: a wallaroo. Wallaroos are a thing, apparently.

Twilight realising the line’s really long: look at that one pony with the hole in her dress. That hole is on the small of her back, not the area that’s usually saddled. In between the shoulder blades is kind of a significant area to leave bare, if you’re into occultist stuff.

Is it just me, or do a lot of the mares cover up their cutie marks, while none of the stallions do? Barring the Wonderbolts in their skintight stupid sexy outfits, of course.

Out of all the girls, the only one who really nails it is Rainbow Dash. “This isn’t hanging out.”

Everyone else says a variation of “This isn’t what I wanted/hoped.” As in: they thought something else would happen. Rainbow is the only one whose complaint boils down to ‘They’re not doing what they said/promised they’d do.’ The Wonderbolts told her she could hang out with them. And it’s not that hanging out with them isn’t working out, it’s that they’re not hanging out with her, period. Everyone else, when they remark on it, refer to themselves and their own expectations not being met, even though they’re doing what they intended. Fluttershy gets to see the gardens, Applejack gets to sell her wares, Rarity gets to spend time with Blueblood, Twilight spends all night with Celestia (Mind, gutter, yaddayaddayadda), Pinkie Pie finds party central. They all get what they asked for, but it turns out to not be good enough. Rainbow Dash wanted to hang out with the Wonderbolts. She doesn’t get to. Rainbow’s remark refers specifically to something the Wonderbolts aren’t delivering on.

Why would Rarity expect Blueblood to use his clothes? More importantly, what is he wearing, anyhow? No, really, look at him. If that’s a full costume, where does it end? You can’t see any sleeves or such. And if it’s not, what’s he supposed to use?

Rarity and Blueblood: female privilege in a nutshell. Blueblood has to wait on a perfect stranger hoof and…err, hoof, just because of how he was born. He’s still kind of a jerk, but… what were you expecting?

Applejack decides to ‘dress up’ her homebaked goods. Kinda like how Rarity spruced up her ‘duds’, then. Nice to see they’re rubbing off on each other.

Again, get your mind out of the gutter.

Fluttershy wants the animals to come to her. One does, once she’s in the net. A bunny runs right up to her.

Celestia’s animals are into bondage, I guess. Considering how Celestia treats her fellow immortals, gee, I wonder where they got that from.

Now, on this entire episode, one remark to repeat:

With everything we know that came afterwards… imagine Shining Armour hearing about all this. Imagine hoping he’d run into his little sister again, bring her up to speed about what’s been happening in his life, tell her that he’s going to marry Cadence.

Shining Armour might have proposed at the Gala. And the news was overshadowed by the mess his sister made.

There’s a fanfic in there somewhere. Has anyone dug it out yet?

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