Oct
15th
2016
Points of Canon: Pinkie Pie and the Rockin' Ponypalooza Party · 11:18pm Oct 15th, 2016
It’s about time I got around to this chapter book. Supposedly, it has the distinction of being one of the few printed materials being referenced by primary canon at least indirectly, so it has to have something interesting, right?
Let’s see.
- The book dates itself explicitly to a week after Winter Wrap-Up, though we don’t know which year, except that it postdates Too Many Pinkie Pies, Party of One, Wonderbolt Academy and Crystal Empire, since the events therein are referenced in narration, and the CMC explicitly don’t have their cutie marks yet, so it predates Crusaders of the Lost Mark. Also, Twilight is already a princess.
- Pinkie feeds posies to her poor alligator. Gummy eats them. Pinkie tries to and doesn’t like the taste. Hm.
- Twilight gave Pinkie a “party planner” as a gift. Most likely, a day planner that Pinkie just calls that.
- “Silly me! Today is Saturday!” I.e. the book also agrees ponies have weeks and weekdays.
- According to Pinkie, a day with no party activities whatsoever on her planner is both exceedingly disheartening and extremely rare. But my guess is, she just meant a weekend day, because even Pinkie has an official job.
- Pinkie has homemade “Super Spring Sneakers,” which is just what it sounds like. Shame we never actually see her use them.
- Pinkie sends Scootaloo to fetch Rainbow Dash, not wondering at all how would Scootaloo reach Rainbow’s cloud mansion. Notably, in the series, Pinkie herself tends to use a clutch of balloons…
- Pinkie calls Bon-Bon “Sweetie Drops” in narration, making this book an example of secondary canon that the primary canon both jossed and confirmed. Unless Pinkie is narrating in third person omniscient.
- Cherilee decorated her cobblestoned path with imported Crystal Empire “garden gems,” which are supposedly a new Canterlot trend.
- Angel Bunny is supposedly friends with other bunnies.
- Lemon Hearts is present at the party. She never misses a Ponyville event, even though she lives in Canterlot, doesn’t she?
- While talking about barns (it makes sense in context) Pinkie mentions three distinct barns beyond Applejack’s: “You’d be surprised! Let’s see… there’s the rock farm barn, the barn at Nana Pinkie’s, the barn at Granny Pie’s…” So who are Granny Pie and Nana Pinkie?… Granny Pie comes up a few more times, but is never detailed.
- Igneous Rock Pie’s hat is referred to as “pilgrim hat” in narration. I wonder, whether we can assume ponies actually use the word based on that, and what it means to them.
1. Notice that with the statements in Hearthbreakers, Cloudy Quartz is the mother of all the Pie sisters or none of them – there is no reasonable way in hell for Pinkie to be older than Marble by a few minutes, otherwise.
Pinkie refers to Cloudy Quartz as her mother.1 But she also introduces the family to the Mane 6, including Applejack. Which then happens again in Hearthbreakers, and Applejack isn’t just unfamiliar with the younger Pie sisters or forgot them, Pinkie refers to them as “new friendships.”
- Marble and Limestone are present, but Maud isn’t. She is mentioned, but amusingly, not by name – Pinkie gets interrupted right as she’s about to say the name, and Igneous just cuts her off with “Your older sister is keeping an eye on the farm.”
- Pinkie has a pet rock named “Rockie” whom she left on the farm. Notably, Limestone and Marble act confused, even though they should have the example of Maud, who is very public about her Boulder.
- So the Pies came to see Twilight, seeking royal intervention, because they’re about to lose the rock farm.
- Rarity notices Applejack’s barn decorated with emeralds, in tune with Cherilee’s gemstone walkway.
- Pinkie has cupcake storage around Ponyville for depression emergencies.
- Cloudy Quartz calls her husband “Iggy.”
- The particular problem the Pie family has is that imported Crystal Empire gemstones are displacing them from their traditional business niches: Selling pavement stone, stone veneer, and other non-precious decorative stone. But importantly, not having this business means that the rock farm is not getting any business. You wanted a nice, interesting, magical explanation for rock farming? Nope, ladies and gentlemen, you’re not getting it from this book.
- So Pinkie’s solution is a rock concert: A massive party decorated with all sorts of rock, to be called “Ponypalooza.” It is not surprising at all that Igneous Rock doesn’t take it seriously.
- Since the books starts with a party to celebrate spring given a “spring” theme – i.e. everything that is helical and/or bounces – it’s pretty clear rock music is called rock music in Equestria even without Pinkie.
- So Pinkie Promises to be “a super-serious daughter from now on and not to throw any more parties.”
2. Octavia supposedly knows their bassist. And Applejack is in direct contact with Octavia.
3. My guess is, that’s all the author could ponyfy.Cultural elements mentioned while they’re getting the party running: A book called “Geodes of Western Equestria,” bands called “Nine Inch Tails,”2 “Coldhay,” “The Whooves,” and “John Mare.”3
- Twilight has employed an “official Royal Advice” to convince the Pies to try Pinkie’s solution. I wonder if that was just invented on the spot, or a real, official thing. Seeing as how she called Spike a “Royal Tour Guide” to shut them up, probably invented.
- Somehow, in the reconciliation scene, nobody remembers if any formal steps are required for Pinkie to be released from her Pinkie Promise. Apparently no.
- Davenport from Quills and Sofas can also provide tiny parachutes (to paradrop baggies of rock candy) on short notice and does custom printing. Poor Derpy, everything she does has competition.
- Lyra Heartstrings is referred to as a “musician” but is never described actually playing anything and never shows up.
- The narrator is sure that the purple balloon belongs to Twilight.
- The result is a large rock festival. Par for the course for Pinkie, not so much for Ponyville. The result of the festival is increase in sales of front path stones, cottage bricks and pet rocks.
Yes, that’s all they say rock farming does.
Now… Quibbles.
- I’m not sure the year that this is supposed to happen in can exist, given other known time constraints. I’d need to count to be sure, but I’m sure the author didn’t.
- The opportunity to make rock farming something more “pony” than simply smashing rock into gravel all day is wasted entirely.
- It is both jossed and confirmed. In that “Ponypalooza” is a thing in primary canon, but Marble and Limestone get introduced to Applejack twice – once on screen and once in this book. And Hearthbreakers aired before The Mane Attraction.
- We never see the purported imported Crystal Empire gems anywhere in primary canon.
- Sweetie Drops is her real name, isn’t it supposed to be secret?
- So they have a whole cave of crystal on the rock farm in Hearthbreakers, and they can’t sell it for paving stone in this book because?…
My considered opinion: No excuse to take this as canon verbatim. Given a clear contradiction, primary canon takes precedence, unless, using a small amount of aftermarket parts, I can glue them together.
This book doesn’t leave me any wiggle room to do that.
"Friend," "tyrannical overlord," po-tay-toe, to-mah-toe, as Pinkie would say.
Granny Pie and Nana Pinkie have both been referenced on the show. The former is mentioned in "Giggle at the Ghosties," while the latter apparently told Pinkie the legend of the Mirror Pool.
But yeah, this one got jossed hard by "Hearthbreakers." Ironic that it's the one to get referenced on the show.
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I think that what actually happened was a rock festival, called “Ponypalooza,” which probably didn’t happen in Ponyville. Pinkie wiggled her way into the committee by saying she was a rock expert, and then delivered despite everything. She came away with about a thousand new friends and lots of connections in the music industry, and it was probably a better story than what I’ve just read.
In this book, Applejack is intimately involved with organizing it too, like all the Mane 6, and yet in The Mane Attraction, setting up a concert is a first for her, and she falls back on her rodeo experience. So the episode that references it is itself jossing it.
It could even be a coincidence, after all, "Ponypalooza" is such an obvious ponyfication of "Rockapalooza."
Of course. But Pinkie knows anyway. I'm not even surprised.
This'll be a fun one to try and reconcile.
Such high hopes for this, but that decorative rocks angle for the rock farm makes this so hard to fit with Hearthsbreakers, and even the S1 episode where Pinkie talks about rotating the rocks. I do like the idea that the Crystal Empire is a competitor with the Rock Farm though.
Stock image of the event is available:
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/6a/b7/e3/6ab7e3ce674cd8b3c83cf6afe885c851.png
Or they had too much taste to include "Death Cab for Cutie Mark."
Maybe, but I bet you Davenport's apology muffins are garbage.
4257390 "Tyrannical Overlord" is so harsh. Haven't you heard that Angel is just the leader of a group of legitimate businesspets?
4257458 One thing that needs to be reconciled: Sweetie Drops was a kid in Ponyville at Pinkie's first Ponyville partie in Pinkie Pride. Was she going by Sweetie Drops or Bon Bon then? I feel like she must have been born Bon Bon, changed her name to Sweetie Drops when she got her cutie mark/needed a mission name as a secret agent, and then just moved back home when SMILE got shut down.
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Well, they would certainly be interested in exporting something. The world around them changed a lot, and they probably would want lots of new stuff, they need to pay for it somehow.
My view is, they had other things to export than just raw materials, though. In particular, I believe that the Crystal Empire was a major earth pony magic center, notable for the use of earth pony magic enhanced and shaped crystal in sciences and manufacturing. Much of the related knowledge has been lost with it, because suitable crystal like that is simply rare elsewhere in Equestria.
That’s almost pure off-the-ground fantasy, of course, but it makes sense. Those buildings? They look grown to me, rather than built.
D’aww. :)
Or is he? Check out Breaking Peeved
Obsidian Rock Pie, also known to Pinkie and possibly her sisters as Granny Pie, is the mother of Igneous Rock Pie and possible siblings, grandmother of the Pie sisters and any other of Igneous’ siblings’ children, mother-in-law of Cloudy, and spouse of Feldspar Pie. We can assume she has a close bond with her grandchildren, and maybe specifically Pinkie, by how Pinkie describes her on multiple occasions. Whether she is alive or deceased, however, we might never know.
Nana Pinkie Quartz, on the other hoof, is the mother of Cloudy Quartz Pie, grandmother of the Pie sisters and any of Cloudy's siblings' children, mother-in-law of Igneous, and the spouse of an unnamed stallion. She is the grandmother who told Pinkie the Legend of the Mirror Pool. Which does lead to several questions.
• Pinkie's grandfathers has never been mentioned. Which is odd considering she brings up her female grandparents so much in comparison. Maybe they just didn't approve of her as much? Or maybe they never even got the chance to meet?
• If Cloudy and Igneous could possibly have siblings, we've never seen clues of Pinkie's possible aunts or uncles, either. Odd since the Pie blood line seems to have a lot of offspring in their genes. 4 daughters, including twins? Come on!
• Pinkie's home. In S7, please, we need an episode in the possibly last season that shows us where Pinkie grew up. She's the only main cast member we haven't seen, with even Spike's dragon lands being shown.
• Are they dead?
Pinkie's grandmothers also seem to have a clear love of storytelling. Interesting.
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What, in particular, is the source of the names for those individuals? I have yet to find it.
There’s also another interesting question: Just where in particular is the mirror pool? Needs to be somewhere near Ponyville, while the primary area of Pie family habitation requires a train ride to reach, as shown in Hearthbreakers.
Considering that one of the Cakes is very likely to be related to either Igneous or Cloudy, at least one of them could be one, possibly even both.
Why do you think Hearthbreakers, 5x20, is not it?
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You may find it on the Friendship is Magic Wikipedia, the episode Hearthbreakers during Igneous and his introduction, and the writer of the episode himself’s Twitter.
Pinkie Quartz traveling a lot in her work couple be a reliable option, for the time being. Probably where she picks up most of her stories, including the legend.
Could indeed be an option, but it is rather rare. Especially since Carrot must've had Cake for a last name, being the husband, unless Cake is just a common last name. Or maybe one of the Pies had a name change(?).
I'm referring to more of a large portion of her hometown. The name of where she grew up, possibly school and even childhood friends. I mean, we've seen all of Ponyville, Cloudesdale, and Canterlot where the other M5 had grown, and even a large portion of the Dragon Lands, giving us more info on Spike. But Pinkie?
I mean, while seeing her entire home is nice, her town and childhood would be more interesting as well. Especially since she's also had the least amount of childhood flashbacks and memories out of the Six. Odd considering how attached she was with the Apples and their own.
Nah, it's totally Cheese Sandwich or a stray Mirror Pinkie that isn't deficient. Or Surprise.
Grandmother Pie is Loki, as one fanon goes…though that's necessarily a Great[+]-Grandmother, or Sleipnir's jossed by Iggy.