Season 6, Episode 15 Thoughts and Review · 3:13am Aug 21st, 2016
Ah, an episode about the consequences of pranks and what truly constitutes as one... I'm rather happy about the lesson that came with this episode. Even though I'm super late in finishing up this review, I still have a lot to say! (And yes, I'll try to get out today's episode in a more timely manner).
The episode begins with Fluttershy and her animal friends walking through the forest at nighttime. As a result of Fluttershy losing track of time during their picnic, the group is forced to make their way home after dark. Suddenly, a monstrous-looking creature appears in the shadows before them, causing them to flee and cower in terror.
Poor Shy.
Though Rainbow is very amused by her own prank, Fluttershy finds no humor in it at all because she was scared. Rainbow Dash claims that Fluttershy is scared too easily, and when Fluttershy denies it, Rainbow scares her yet again just by saying the word "boo".
My poor scaredy baby...
The next day, the Mane Six gather in the Castle of Friendship throne room to discuss Rainbow's pranking habits. When Rainbow says her pranks are just harmless jokes, the others—except for Pinkie Pie—argue that they are not harmless if the party being pranked is not amused.
"Your heart gets all racy, your hooves get all tingly, your mouth gets all dry-ie! Actually, I don't like that part. But the rest is great!"
— Pinkie Pie confirming that she's an adrenaline junkie
During this discussion, Rainbow pranks Twilight Sparkle with a whoopee cushion in her throne. Similar to the night before, Rainbow and Pinkie Pie laugh, but Twilight does not.
Not gonna lie, I find myself laughing at whoopee cushions myself.
Rarity makes the argument that if Rainbow Dash cannot put forth the effort to pull off a prank that everyone can enjoy, she might as well not pull off any pranks at all. Which... came off a little bit confusing to me. Not everyone has the same sense of humor, so it's not to be expected that EVERYONE is going to laugh at the joke? I think what they MEANT for her to say was that her pranks should make the prankee laugh, not upset.
Rainbow, of course, misreads Rarity's comment and perceives this as a challenge, leaving the castle to plan more pranks.
Later that day, Rarity enters her workshop to put the finishing touches on Sweetie Belle's uniform for the upcoming Filly Guide Cookie Drive. Inside, she finds the uniform standing atop a giant cake—with a note attached that reads "You asked for it." Expecting a booby trap by Rainbow Dash to be set off if she tries to retrieve the uniform, Rarity attempts to make a brand new uniform, but she finds her sewing machine has been replaced with a sewing machine-shaped cake.
In which I am Sweetie Belle and Sweetie Belle is me.
That night, Applejack sets up bells, pots, wind chimes, and other noisemakers around her bedroom in case Rainbow tries to prank her in her sleep. These preventative measures fail, however, as Applejack wakes up the next morning in the pig pen.
Over the course of the rest of the day, Rainbow Dash pulls similar pranks on Cranky Doodle Donkey, Spike, Big McIntosh, Mr. Cake, and Cheerilee—pranks that are funny only to Rainbow herself. (Added note: if a joke is funny to just you, then is it really that funny at all?)
The ponies go to Pinkie Pie and inform her of Rainbow Dash's endless string of unfunny pranks. Though Pinkie herself has already been pranked and found it funny (even though her prank was considerably tame and more lighthearted), the rest of Ponyville think Rainbow Dash is getting too carried away. Because Pinkie shares Rainbow's love of pranks, the ponies ask her to tell Rainbow to stop, much to Pinkie's discomfort.
GUMMY, WHY ARE YOU UP THERE, GET DOWN YOU'LL HURT YOURSELF
Pinkie approaches Rainbow Dash at her house, but before she can tell her to stop pranking ponies, Rainbow shares her plans for her biggest prank yet. She plans to replace all the cookies being sold during the Filly Guide Cookie Drive with joke cookies that give everyone who eats them "rainbow mouth", causing their mouths and teeth to turn rainbow colors. Unable to see much humor in such a prank, Pinkie tries to convince Rainbow to stop pranking for a little while, but Rainbow refuses.
Pinkie was just so cute in this episode, I can't
Some time after replacing the Filly Guide cookies, Rainbow goes to Sugarcube Corner and finds Pinkie Pie sick in bed with rainbow mouth and craving more cookies. She tries to pull Pinkie out of bed so she can see the results of Rainbow's prank, but Pinkie is too weak to move...
"...unless you've got more cookies!"
— Pinkie Pie
With Applejack and Rarity's help, the Cutie Mark Crusaders prepare to begin their cookie drive. Rainbow Dash arrives to help out too, and Applejack warns her not to do anything that could potentially ruin the fillies' night. Rainbow promises to behave herself.
Harry is a good friend.
Same, Spike, same.
The Crusaders then spend several hours selling cookies door-to-door until almost all of their boxes have been sold. Rainbow Dash eagerly waits to see the results of her prank, but she notices that all of Ponyville has gotten eerily quiet. She flies around town looking through ponies' windows and sees cookies and cookie boxes scattered everywhere, but there are no ponies in sight. At Sugarcube Corner, she finds Mrs. Cake in the kitchen eating cookies. When Mrs. Cake turns around, her mouth is covered in rainbow, and she groans like a cookie-craving zombie. Pinkie Pie, Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake also appear exhibiting similar behavior.
As an adult, this episode might not have been scary, but the child in me disagrees.
As Rainbow flies out of the bakery and across town, she sees other ponies with rainbow mouth also acting like zombies and craving cookies, including her friends. She races back to Applejack, Rarity, and the Crusaders before they too fall victim to this plague and beckons them to find a hiding place. Before long, the zombified ponies catch up, and Rainbow and the others flee in terror.
Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and the Crusaders board themselves up inside the barn at Sweet Apple Acres, intending to wait until the effects of the cookie zombie plague wear off. However, the zombified ponies quickly surround the barn and pound at the doors and windows. Rainbow reveals to the others that she replaced the Filly Guide cookies with joke cookies as a prank, but she didn't intend for this to happen.
Unfortunately, Rarity, Applejack, and the Crusaders have already eaten the joke cookies and have now turned into zombies as well, making Rainbow the only non-zombie left. The rest of the zombies break into the barn and close in on Rainbow. As she is backed into a corner, she admits that her prank was supposed to be funny, but this is not funny at all. With Rainbow's admission, the ponies suddenly drop the charade, having been only acting like zombies until now.
Dash, you've just been punk'd.
Applejack reveals that, after Rainbow told Pinkie of her plan to prank the whole town, Pinkie orchestrated the fake zombie plague to teach Rainbow a lesson. Because Rainbow doesn't see the humor in this prank, she realizes how she has been making everyone else feel with her own pranks. She apologizes to the others for getting carried away and starts thinking of ways to top their zombie prank, much to the other ponies' sheer disbelief.
"...Gotcha."
— Rainbow Dash
I really liked this episode! It had a nice lesson and I'm glad that it got through. I know the episode wasn't perfect and had some moments where it didn't really seem to know what it wanted to do with itself, but it was still enjoyable in my opinion.
To start off my analysis, I wanna talk about PINKIE in this episode. Even though Rainbow was the main focus, Pinkie really seemed to steal the show. Every scene she was in made it better in my opinion (and this is me talking without my Best Pony glasses on). She was supportive of Dash and found humor in her pranks because she herself likes to prank ponies, but as soon as she saw that the humor wasn't passing along to the prankees, she took it upon herself to show Dash WHY it wasn't OK for her to do what she was doing (with some prior difficulty).
Plus, it was nice to see Pinkie having this moment of conflict with herself because she loves pranks, but she loves making ponies happy just as well. So, while it wasn't easy for her to do, she stepped up to Dash and told her, "this isn't funny." Because it wasn't funny. Dash was upsetting ponies and actually putting ponies into harm's way. She put a live skunk on Cranky's head and put a brick in Mr.Cake's sandwich, for heaven's sake; neither of those things are safe.
So, when it came down to it, Pinkie KNEW she had to do something teach Dash a lesson. She was the one who led the town in this prank and really helped drive the point home. When the pranking extraordinaire of Ponyville tells you that your pranks aren't funny, then you REALLY know you messed up.
And I am SO GLAD that it was Fluttershy who initiated the intervention. While she was still timid and shy, she wasn't at all hesitant to tell Rainbow that the prank upset her. And it's important to note that Fluttershy herself has been in Rainbow's position back in "Scare Master", which is when she came to the conclusion that she didn't like scaring ponies just as much as she didn't like being scared. So, I can understand her anger towards Dash, and I'm proud that she stood up to her.
I also liked seeing Shy's animal friends stand up to Dash.
Seriously, there's so much I liked about this episode. As someone who often found herself as the victim of "pranks" during pre-adolescence, I'm pretty sore when people don't understand that not everyone likes to be pranked. If someone ever tells you that they don't like pranks, then you shouldn't prank them. Or, if you prank someone and they're upset by it, please listen to them and apologize. A prank should never cost you a friendship.
So, to sum this up, here's how you go about pranking; "confuse, don't abuse." It's fun to confuse people, but abuse is never funny. If your prank has a risk of someone getting seriously hurt or horribly humiliated or assaulted, then you probably SHOULDN'T do it. Examples include: pantsing, touching someone's body without permission like butts or something, or just making people feel uncomfortable for your sole amusement is not and never will be OK.
If there's something you feel like I missed or just something you wanna discuss, then feel free to comment down below!
Number 1 rule of pranking is that the prankee's reaction should be, "That wasn't funny! That was a little funny."
A good prank is one that all those involved can laugh about later. Maybe not immediately, because sometimes it takes a little bit to appreciate a good prank, but later. If they can't laugh about it later, then it wasn't a prank; it was just mean.
I felt like it was Mare-do-Well, but instead of Superheroes they used Zombies.
Either way, we got our Trotting Dead/ 28 Days later/ Deadrising/ CoD Zombies crossover and now we can shut up about zombies and the canon.
Now, let's move onto something FAR more important.
Changelings!
4162363
Yeah, that's a good point. Sometimes we won't laugh about something right away, but later on, when we've cooled down, we can see the humor in it.
We haven't seen Button in the canon in a couple episodes... This worries me...
I find this to be one of the best episodes of the season, and one of the funniest.
I don't know if anyone else notices, but I love all the little non-visual things they keep doing to show how the Cake twins are growing up. Visually, not much has changed since their birth, but little by little we've seen them imitate body language, start speaking in simple words and phrases, and now they've evidently reached a point where they're cognitively able to be in on a prank like this and act accordingly. I love the Cake twins, so this subtle sort of development makes me super happy.
It is a nice lesson to learn, but honestly, this one didn't hit home with me like the last 2 episodes. Mostly because this started with pranking Fluttershy (she's my best). It just takes me back to season 1 where Pink and Dash started their pranking duo thing, and Pinkie told Dash not to prank Shy, because she was too sensitive. Now Dash does it in the first 2 minutes, and Pinkie doesn't even scold her for it.
It's just me playing favorites, yes. But that was a bad start for me. Although, I did like the whole Rarity cake prank, the guard bear bit, and the COD Nazi zombie thing (cute how they got the twins involved).
Not really the best episode for me, but still a good lesson.
It had its good moments, I'll give it that.