Points of Canon: Friends Forever #27 · 11:13am Apr 15th, 2016
And here’s the second comic issue of the two.
Spoilers follow.
Overall, not a very useful story in terms of world-building elements, but statements about cider technology make me wonder.
- Pinkie makes a statement implying that being able to chew rocks is a Pie family specific trait: “I mean, it’s possible we’re related, so she’s practically my own granny, except she has an apple for a cutie mark and can’t smash rock with her teeth–”
- Applejack’s statement that cider season involves purchasing ingredients for the cider implies that those exist.(1) The list includes “secret spices” that only Granny Smith knows, in addition to her particular skill at picking ones that match the taste of the year’s apples. Ingredients actually purchased involve maple syrup, vanilla beans and almond beans.(2)
- Granny Smith accuses Pinkie of stealing a can of cherries, only to be proven wrong minutes later. This is notable, because compared to everything else, other canon implies cherries are ridiculously expensive.(3)
- The first tree planted in Sweet Apple Acres is still alive and even bears fruit occasionally.
- Pinkie possesses a truly angelic level of patience. Or is afflicted with pathological familyholism.
- A separate retirement village for Ponyville residents exists. The social and economic status of senior citizens who live there remains entirely unelaborated, but it apparently involves volunteer work to care for the elderly, whether the village is dependent on it or not.(4)
(1) Previously, fanon assumption typically was that cider requires no ingredients except apples.
(2) Can anyone explain what do they all have to do with cider, if anything?…
(3) See Putting Your Hoof Down and also, Party Pooped where Cherry Jubilee says that her cart contains exactly 417234 cherries – if each one is expensive, it makes sense to individually count them. It is not unlikely that Cherry Jubilee is making a joke, though, since that many cherries would weigh about 1.6 metric tons – earth ponies might be able to haul that much easily, but the cart would collapse under their weight.
(4) One imagines, if there’s such a thing as Winter Wrap-Up (Winter Wrap-Up) and near-mandatory communal work to get water to Cloudsdale, (Hurricane Fluttershy) ponies have to be big on social security…
I believe there was a mention of a retirement village, or possibly a retirement home in Luna Eclipsed.
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There was. Spike starts that episode with mistaking Twilight's Starswirl costume for "Huh? Are you that one kooky grandpa from Ponyville Retirement Village?" They never go on to describe how exactly it works. The idea is entirely forgotten until Bloom and Gloom, where the pest control elder tells Apple Bloom to look for him in "Piney Shade Retirement Community," which may or may not be the same thing.
Friends Forever #27 just says "retirement village" and while it does show it on the pages, (with a sign that says "Retirement Village" and nothing else) it's still not clear just how it really works (who gets to live there? who covers the costs? do they do anything interesting? do their families do anything interesting?) beyond the expected "old ponies sitting at tables and playing bingo". :)
A lot of retirement complexes call themselves "village." I think the Ponyville old folks home with the balconey we already saw is probably the same thing, it just has a fancy name.
Overall a good comic, Pinkie has the patience of a saint. Maybe its because her family seems pretty traditional on "minding your elders," and Pinkie seems really close to her own grandmother growing up?