Points of Canon: S1x08 - Look Before You Sleep · 1:32pm May 13th, 2017
I still have a few hours before the new episodes air, so let’s do another one.
- It’s interesting that all ponies appear to be engaged in community work equally, regardless of normal occupation. We see Derpy, Bon-Bon, Carrot Top / Golden Harvest, Cherilee, Applejack, Rarity…
1. Rarity Takes Manehattan, IIRC, when she repairs a broken wheel.
Rarity knows a spell that fuses together broken wood, which she does use later,1 unlike the dress transmutation spell. We don’t know if the living wood takes to it well, or whether it is permanent at all. We do not see her use it on anything other than wood – in fact, later on in the series, she uses glue to restore a vase.
- Rarity also knows a spell that lets her shape foliage as if trimming. No tool is seen used, so it’s not just telekinesis. As seen later in the episode, she can actually reshape the wood itself with this spell, rather than just trim foliage.
- Applejack’s reaction once Rarity is done with her trimming suggests that fusing the wood together is not permanent, though, otherwise the branch wouldn’t be “loose” and wouldn’t require removal. If it is permanent, Applejack definitely does not know that.
- Rarity’s “I simply cannot imagine why the Pegasus ponies would schedule a dreadful downpour this evening and ruin what could have been a glorious sunny day” suggests that the scheduling was advance notice, but unexpected, otherwise there would be no reason to expect a sunny day at all. Applejack corroborates with “They accidentally skipped a scheduled sprinkle last week, so we need a doozy of a downpour to make up for it, is all.”
- In fact, I suspect that someone originally scheduled rains for the Summer Sun Celebration, forgetting that this is a day that has to be kept clear, then had to urgently, destructively remove all the clouds prepared for that rainfall. Then she had to order a new batch, wait for it to arrive, and add extra rainfall to compensate for a week with no rain at all while they had no spare clouds. And we all know who that someone would be. That’s why there was a puddle in the street in Friendship is Magic in the first place, when normally puddles are not allowed to accumulate: the planning error was noticed the day before, and there was a heavier rain than normal, but it still wasn’t sufficient. Yeah, I think that chronologically it’s the second or third episode. :)
2. The one that we first see in Ticket Master
I suppose Rarity decided she needs an umbrella saddle2 after this day’s experience, because, like I said, ponies appear to prefer scheduling their lives around very predictable rainfall to going out in the rain in general.
- Applejack’s “does not infinity” and Rarity’s response implies that ponies have a mathematical concept of infinity (not a given) and probably, study it in school. (not a given either)
- Both Rarity and Applejack seem to be afraid of lightning rather more than you would expect.
- …so how do the pegasi do storm-level winds? Because these need to come from somewhere too. Is it that liquid that we saw in Top Bolt, perchance?
- So why wasn’t Twilight out and about dealing with loose branches like everypony else?
- Twilight mentions a “magical lightning rod,” but we never actually see the thing.
- Rarity says “go wash up please,” which is perfectly reasonable, but I don’t see anything beyond a mat to wipe hooves on. Applejack does eventually find a garden hose and washes up with that, – ponies have garden hoses – but it’s clearly not meant for such a use, seeing how she struggles with it.
- Twilight says “Spike is away in Canterlot on royal business.” I would dearly love to know what business exactly this is and whether Spike gets this business because of being Twilight’s assistant or in his own right somehow. In later seasons, Spike usually doesn’t travel alone, but this time, he does.
- Twilight clops her hooves together in an applause. Notably, just what gesture is used for applause seems to change – sometimes it’s clopping the front hooves together, sometimes it’s stomping them on the ground or floor…
- Rarity reads the book title, but the book is open in the middle. :) Applejack later does the same. I call animation error.
- Twilight says the Slumber 101 is her own personal copy, but they’re in the public area of the library at the time, the part that opens up to the street, and the shelf she gets it from should, in theory, not contain her personal books. Does the library actually work as a public library, anyway? It seems like it should, but we never see ponies checking out or returning books that I remember.
3. Judging by the state of her room in Canterlot, she might have had abandoned that life entirely, she never displays any mementos that can be conclusively dated to that period until Amending Fences – after that, old photos start turning up.
4. Mind you, that’s quite possible: I do that sort of thing all the time.Twilight has been “waiting for a chance to use it,” but here’s a thing: If it’s her personal copy, when exactly did she get it? If it were before she left for Ponyville, never to return until Amending Fences, even assuming she sent Spike to fetch her books,3 she had to have dreamed of having a slumber party even before getting friends.4 If she got it upon coming to Ponyville, it has to be very recent. There probably was a “now I need every textbook for a friendship-related activity the local bookshop has” moment somewhere, if that’s the case.
- Ponies use mud masks. I do wonder what kind of effect they actually have on coats.
- Cartoon resolution: Ponies have to have cucumbers that have a diameter that matches their eyes, and I doubt they have cucumbers five inches wide. :)
- The ritual of spitting on a hoof and hoof shaking to seal a contract exists, at least in some circles.
- What, exactly, is the point of hair rollers, when Twilight’s and Applejack’s hair remains straight after the procedure, though?…
- To reinforce the above point, Twilight does something to all the hair rollers – teleporting them away, presumably, notably, without affecting the hair itself – and all the hair returns to normal immediately. Maybe, they do it not to keep hair curled, but for mane therapy reasons, to keep it more magic-conductive and healthy?
- Rarity’s “It is a ghost story, they’re all made up” implies that the existence of ghosts is not an accepted part of magical or scientific knowledge, though that doesn’t prevent ghosts from actually existing, of course.
- Twilight is the only one who remembers to turn off the lights when telling her ghost story. That said, she’s the only one who is serious about the sleepover at this point.
- Where did she learn to tell ghost stories like that, anyway? Because looking at Applejack and Rarity, it’s super effective. And whom did she tell them to? Spike, as the later canon suggests, is more afraid of stories than of real monsters… Twilight even hides the lamp right before donning the bed sheet for her Headless Horse impression.
- That’s the first instance of a lamp with fireflies in it.
- Notice it’s the Headless Horse. Not a Headless Pony.
- The library has a fireplace with an actual log in it.
- Rarity uses graham crackers and calls them such. That cracker is named after Sylvester Graham, so the origins of the word for ponies are unclear.
5. Or whatever the English name for that form is.
One other component is chocolates, which seem to come from a broken-up slab,5 rather than a bar or an individual candy. I don’t think I’ve seen ponies use this form of chocolate anywhere else.
- Truth or Dare is a thing. The rules match.
- Applejack’s “frou-frou, glittery, lacey outfit” has a decorative saddle. Where did she even get that? It probably doesn’t belong to Twilight, and can’t belong to Applejack or Rarity, so it would have been at the library already for some reason…
- At least 9 pillows are involved in the pillow fight. Quite an ample supply.
- Compared to pony sizes, the beds in the library are huge, at least in this episode. They’re at least two times longer than they had to be.
- The lightning hits an unattended tree. Notably, we don’t see this tree in any other episode that I remember. It would be lovely if that made it a chronology marker, but unfortunately it isn’t there in Friendship is Magic either. It isn’t even in the other shots in this episode.
- It’s quite peculiar that the lightning hits the tree in the middle. Must be the influence of that magic lightning rod.
- The tree problem could have been solved much more quickly, or at least more comfortably, if Applejack had the idea to pull the branch inside, close the window and then dispose of the branch piecewise, Applejack could do that alone. But Rarity’s busy despairing about neatness and Twilight is busy looking up branches the book, while Applejack is too contrary today, or she’d notice that pulling the tree to make the unstable branch fall is unwise.
- Applejack uses “for pony’s sake.” Notably, later episodes mention someone named “Pete” a lot instead.
- Applejack picks up a chunk of wood that has to weigh some 14 kg with her teeth with no visible effort. Don’t let ponies bite you. Ever.
- Where did the mud come from, though?
- Twilight says “I can turn up the heat.” Unless the tree has a heating system in addition to the fireplace, which would be a bit odd, she would have to do it by magic somehow, because you don’t “turn up” the heat in a fireplace.
- The telescope looks like a Cassegrain reflector type, this time. Later episodes have stranger telescopes.
Side observation: Somehow, in this particular episode, Applejack’s “y’all” always means singular “you” rather than any plural form.
Out of the Season 1 episodes, this is probably my favorite, though I would be hard pressed to explain why.
"Y'all" is not used as " you all", referring to a group, but as emphasis on a verb. "Y'all finished?" is about the same as "Are you quite done?"
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I wish all the episodes were consistent about it, if so. :)
4530850 People who use the expression are even less consistent with it. Especially if they aren't people who normally use it.
I suppose it might be printed on the top of each page.
Heck if I know, but at least Maud demonstrates that curlers still don't curl even seven seasons down the line. Mane therapy would certainly make sense if it helps keep the hair magically prehensile.
Theory: It's a lightning tree. This magical plant spends most of its life as a root system hiding underground. However, the ambient electrical charge of a thunderstorm induces the rapid growth of a tall, aboveground tree branch and canopy. Usually, the tree grows to be the tallest object in its vicinity; when that isn't the case, the tree can still magically attract lightning strikes to itself. (In fact, the synthetic magical lightning rods attached to most modern homes were reverse-engineered from the lightning tree's inherent magic.) The energy from a lightning strike induces the growth and release of thousands of miniature berries in seconds. The berries either float away in rainwater streams, or get carried away by birds and animals, distributing seeds far and wide to grow into new lightning trees. After one or two lightning strikes, the aboveground tree has served its purpose, and it promptly falls apart, leaving just the original root system.
Since the tree only appears aboveground during thunderstorms, when the sun is most likely to be obscured, science has yet to determine what purpose the green leaves serve. Most likely, they are vestigial.
4531280
At some point the trees were domesticated, insofar as such a thing applies to the trees, for military purposes: They were used to quickly build defensive lines against the enemy by seeding the ground with berries and placing thunderstorm clouds above, thus effectively denying both the air and ground for easily controlled time.
In peacetime, this technique is used to fight forest fires that got too big to make a thunderstorm over before they were discovered.
I've seen other people speculate on Spike's "Royal Business" before, and I've never heard a good serious answer. Perhaps it involves Luna and/or others getting attuned to his dragonfire in case Twilight needs to send messages to them?
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That’s a good one. If only we had a little more information on dragonfire rules…
i.ytimg.com/vi/ntZX-jc03ZA/maxresdefault.jpg
Oliver was right all along. The puddle is the key to EVERYTHING.
4531280
This theory amuses me.
Which makes no sense. why isn't she using her tailikinesis to hold it over herself? She can handle and manipulate ropes fine…I suppose an end that pushes like a hose is a different beast than an end that pulls like a lasso, though.
Both exist on Earth. In Nacirema culture, even.
4531280
…and then it hybridized with apples and that's how you get Zap Apples, why the thunderstorm is necessary, and why the Zapples grow so fast and then dissipate. Were you intending that to fit that that neatly?
4531884 I hadn't even considered that, but the Zap Apple connection just makes too much sense.
4531884
Because she doesn’t want to get it dirty, for example. I often find myself doing things with just one hand when two would be better, and usually it’s for this reason.
4531895
So basically this is a Zap Pine.
I think that’s solid enough to call a theory, actually, the thing appears and vanishes too suddenly for it to be anything else. :)
4531943 It's weird. Looking at screenshots of that tree, it's got the overall shape of a pine tree. But when it falls through Twilight's window, the masses of leaves are draw in the same round style as other broadleaf trees (including the Golden Oak itself). When Rarity uses her magic to reshape the branches, you can see uniform leaves falling off them . But when the camera zooms in on Rarity's sculpture, the falling leaves suddenly become a hodgepodge from at least three different tree species. But absolutely no pine needles.
Magic trees, man. The one maple-looking leaf in the foreground of that screenshot is just a random leaf flying through the air. It didn't come from Rarity's topiary in that shot.
4531943
I need to sleep…
It's goin' right back in the mud, why would she care about the hose— oh, you meant her tail.I stole a march on you and wrote up my observations on Bridle Gossip already. Don't take it personally, I just got enthused about that episode. We tend to find different things important, besides…
Southerners are weird about y'all. You get this vehement insistence that it's strictly 2nd person plural, but actual usage in the field floats all over the map viz 2nd person singular. I can't figure out if it's a class thing, virtue signalling, or really particular regional dialectical mosaics. I've seen Texans in particular dissent from the rigid 'only plural' stance, but Texas isn't really one cultural bloc, but rather three to five, depending on how you parse it.