Best Pony Moments · 6:29pm Jun 5th, 2017
Everyone does favourite pony or favourite episode lists, so I thought I’d try something slightly different and make a list of my favourite moment for each pony. These are mostly judged on the strength of my positive reaction to them. So, in some cases, it’s a moment that I think best shows their character, and in others it’s them doing something funny or awesome.
Twilight Sparkle
Equestria Girls. Yes, really. The poster, more than anything else, which I think is probably the best bit of the film (all the potential it had to be good, before it was squandered). There’s something about Twilight’s smile/voice/mannerisms as a pony that breathes the magic of the show, and seeing she and her human form looking at each other in wonder and excitement sells the whole premise of the Equestria Girls side of the franchise.
And then there’s this moment towards the end of the movie:
“Yes, but I've also seen what you've been able to do here without magic. Equestria will find a way to survive without my Element of Harmony. This place might not, if I allow it to fall into your hands. So go ahead. Destroy the portal. You are not getting this crown!”
Fluttershy
Keep Calm & Flutter On. When you need to teach a lesson, you turn to Twilight. When you need to sell lunchboxes, Rainbow Dash should be your first port of call. To cheer yourself up, choose Pinkie, and to defeat bad guys, you’ll want all six of them. But when the fate of your nation hangs on making friends with someone? Someone who isn’t remotely interested in friendship or caring about others? Twilight and Trixie, Rainbow and Gilda, Rarity and Suri; everypony else has turned their back on somepony for whom the magic of friendship would be a tough sell. And in the span of one episode, Fluttershy makes friends with the god of chaos.
Rainbow Dash
Maud Pie. “That pony is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an igneous.” It’s not often Rainbow gets witty, clever moments. She is bottom of my list of characters I like to write for, because I have to simplify the vocabulary so far to make her thoughts sound in-character. But this little gem? It’s a smart little riff on a historical quote. And then Rarity answers, and it’s Rainbow’s responses to her that I really like, as she hits three different levels of annoyance. “Nope, I mean igneous,” looking disinterested and frankly adorable, “it’s a kind of rock,” stepping it up a notch to irritated, and then, “ask me how I know that!” hitting full exasperation.
Applejack
Honest Apple. Applejack was correct in every critique she made on the runway challenge, and just doing what she’d been told to do. If anything, the responsibility lay with Rarity to ask AJ to temper her remarks, or to consider that practicality was important, but not the be all and end all. And then she met Strawberry Sunrise, and everything fell into place. This is the episode Applejack should have had right back in season one. Think how different later episodes might have turned out if she’d already learned that her way wasn’t necessarily the best way just because it was her way, and that everyone had differing tastes and opinions of their own. Also, it’s probably the most important lesson for the Element of Honesty to learn: the truth hurts.
Rarity
Canterlot Boutique. Just the title. After five years, she’s made it.
...Consider that Applejack is often thought of as the most hard-working of ponies, where Rarity is aloof from anything that might make her sweat or get her hooves dirty, and loves her spa days to get away from it all. But consider also that Applejack has inherited her farm, and always been guided by elders on how to run it, where Rarity has built her business empire from scratch, with no template for success other than that of her own devising. Rarity has worked her everything off to get to where she is. We know the story behind her creation: that Hasbro insisted on a pony obsessed with fashion, and Lauren Faust refused to create a vapid consumer, so instead made Rarity a designer and creator. Think how much poorer the show would have been without one of the six being a creative, and how easily that could have been overlooked in its making. This is why, in a microcosm, no one talks about the first thirty years of Pony. And why instead we get to watch this incredible portrayal of an artist who has followed her passion, maintained her integrity, and, after a lot of hard work, made it. Twilight’s Kingdom and A Canterlot Wedding win the prize for most profound, dramatic and all-encompassing episode titles; Crusaders Of The Lost Mark is definitely the best pun, but Canterlot Boutique may just be the greatest title of all, as the dream becomes reality. She did it.
Pinkie Pie
Party Pooped. The quest. The self-narration. The sheep on the line. The ravine. “And then, suddenly... Pow! We were rescued mid-air by the Wonderbolts! And then they gave me a ride to Manehattan, I joined a travelling band, we played some shows here and there, got popular, almost made it big until creative differences tore us apart. And that's when I knew I had to get back on with my journey to the Crystal Empire, the gateway to Yakyakistan! And so here I am. It was a major adventure that took most of the afternoon.” And then Pinkie uses her mane as a snorkel in a snow drift, and then happily introduces herself to a yeti, and then hops into the snowboarding minigame from Twilight Princess. At every turn, her adventure tops itself. And then, finally, the others find her party cave, and learn that she isn’t just as spontaneous as she appears, and we all gain a tremendous new appreciation for Pinkie’s dedication to making others smile.
Starlight Glimmer
“It’s worse: they’ve invited me to the annual Sunset festival.” <Chortle chortle>
No Second Prances. Finally Starlight comes into her own, and does something that none of the mane cast could do: offer an unbiased, outside perspective on an antagonist, and explore how even the good guys aren’t entirely blameless, and that maybe Twilight’s perspective is just one side of the story. We see so much of the wholesome, idealised friendships between the mane cast and the CMCs in the show that it’s really refreshing to see bonds that are less conventional, but nonetheless happy. Starlight’s unusual takes on her unique friendships with Trixie, Discord and Maud have been a joy to watch, and it all started here.
Apple Bloom
Bridle Gossip. Before the Cutie Marks, before even the Crusaders, one little filly stood up for common sense when the whole of Ponyville was lacking it. My favourite CMC.
Scootaloo
The Fault In Our Cutie Marks. “I know what it's like to want something that's out of reach. And just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it can't. Maybe trying for the impossible isn't so bad.”
Sweetie Belle
I’m not sure here. I like Sweetie Belle – I didn’t at first, but she really grew on me, and now I like to think she’s the most refined of the trio. But the episodes focusing on her (Sisterhooves Special and For Whom The Sweetie Belle Tolls), a bit like those for Spike, often involve her acting petulant most of the way through until she hits the moral, so narrowing down an episode for her is tricky. Maybe Forever Filly?
Celestia
Make New Friends But Keep Discord. Princess Celestia being the pony to laugh at Discord’s joke about Twilight being a terrible flyer. This is the princess we know and love. At her own gala, she happily stands by for the impromptu standup gig, and doesn’t push through to the front row. She laughs because she’s genuinely amused, but also to be kind to Discord, who otherwise received a cold reception. There’s never a hint of nastiness towards Twilight in laughing at her expense, it just shows that Celestia can take her responsibilities seriously without ever becoming too stuffy to mock them.
Luna
A Hearth’s Warming Tail. “I see a cold wind blowing through...” We spent the first fifteen minutes thinking ‘ok, so obviously Applejack’s the past, and yeah Pinkie makes sense as the present, living in the moment and all. But who’s going to be the spectre?’ And Rainbow, Fluttershy and Rarity had already appeared as characters, so that only really left Twilight, but that wouldn’t have worked so well, since she was narrating it. And then there she was, the caped black silhouette, with wings, horn and tentacles, and who else was it ever going to be?
Cadence
I can’t really say I’m that fussed. For me, Cadence was at her best when she was Chrysalis.
Her half of the This Day Aria is sublime, especially the way she sings her line ‘Oh, Shining Armor, I’ll be there very soon.’ And since she and Shining Armor are kind of a conjoined unit, I’ll just say here that I do really like how, even after having Flurry Heart around for a whole season, the two of them still look exhausted. But I think Cadence is better in fan fiction than she is in the show.
Zecora
The Cutie Re-Mark. There’s always been something about Zecora. She’s perfectly friendly, yet chooses to live in a hut in the forest by herself. She’s always happy to help, and even warns those following her about the poison joke, even when they’ve made her feel unwelcome. She’s the only regular cast member to speak with a non-US accent, and of course there’s her being a zebra and talking in rhyme. And we never really get to see how powerful she is with her potions. Until this episode, when Zecora has to leave behind her Dagobah days and step up as leader. And she’s ferocious (and somehow trains Fluttershy and Pinkie to be, too) and uncompromising, but still changes tack and works to help Twilight the moment her potions confirm something is amiss. Chrysalis’ return was so brief that Zecora’s time in the sun became the real highlight of that altered timeline, with the hint of whom she could be if events pushed her into it remaining long after the episode (and those realities) were gone.
Derpy Hooves
Rainbow Falls. Consider that Bulk Biceps made the Ponyville team before Derpy did. That’s how un-confident a flier the latter pegasus is. But when they need her, she steps in without a moment’s hesitation, smiling and waving her flag. And then Rainbow sorts herself out and returns to the team, and Derpy steps down from her moment in the sun without any complaint, and happily flies over to the podium after their victory to celebrate by waving her flag along with the rest of them.
There’s a much more important thing about Derpy, though, and it isn’t confined to a single moment, it’s instead tied up with her years of controversy. Yes, she started as an animator’s joke. Yes, she was noticed on 4chan, immediately labelled ‘retarded,’ and given a mocking name. And yes, calling a cross-eyed kids’ TV show character Derpy might well lead to cross-eyed children being teased in the playground. And yeah, her original voice was, erm, uncomfortable?
South Park hit the same controversy a decade earlier with Timmy, but the critics missed the true message behind Timmy (and later Jimmy, too) – that however insensitive they appeared as caricatures of those with physical or mental disabilities, the other kids treated them just the same as they would anyone else. South Park, of all places, was a vision of not just tolerance, but acceptance.
And with Derpy, and whether she’s an insulting portrayal of any form of disability, only one thing really matters. The single fact about Derpy that’s impossible for any to deny after even the briefest observation of the fandom is that she is loved. That is all that matters. This may be the only fandom in history where people with strabismus might be seen more positively than those without.
Most of the previous glimpses we’ve had of Spitfire show her either being happy, supportive and good-humoured, like at the gala or at the party in Rarity Investigates, or the shouting pony who knows she’s right, but not too big to admit when she isn’t. And then we get this little moment of her doing both, and it joins the dots and connects it all together. It’s not that her stern side is an act, but she’s removed enough from it that she can laugh at it. And after so long, Rainbow is finally seeing her from inside the Wonderbolts, rather than the angry shouty captain the newbies have to face, or the mythical force of nature in the flight suit that the rest of Equestria sees, and she stands up as greater than either of those mantles. She’s Spitfire, and the new recruits have never seemed so small.
Soarin’
Rarity Investigates. Suddenly placed in charge, and having to deal with accusations against a flier he’s always liked, from one he’s always admired. I think he handles it pretty well.
Maud Pie
Make New Friends But Keep Discord. “You’re the most basic of jokes.” The most jaw-dropping line in the series by a long shot, and delivered so completely deadpan that it could have been an accident. Maud was a hit from the moment she appeared on screen in season four, but it’s things like this, and how out there it is but how in-character it still feels, that show just how great she can be.
Discord
Twilight’s Kingdom. “Oh but you are [worth it], Fluttershy. You’re the pony who taught me that friendship is magic. I had magic and friendship, and now I don’t have either.”
Spike
Gauntlet Of Fire. Spike’s a weird character. He’s great in a supporting role, mostly poking holes in Twilight’s plans or making fun of her, and since he knows her so well, he’s almost always proven right. However, the second Spike is put in the spotlight, he becomes a miniature tyrant who thinks only of himself. This has given us some of the worst episodes in the show’s history. Princess Spike was a step in the right direction, I think, because his intentions were selfless, though still the power went to his head (I think it would have worked better with him remaining focused on Twilight’s benefit rather than his own, but realising that he didn’t have the skills to pull off her job by himself). And then we had Gauntlet Of Fire, where he worked for noble reasons, turned down reward, didn’t get distracted by the mares in front of or behind him, and generally conducted himself with both wisdom and competence. And his sentence for Garble was a work of genius.
Special group entry, because it hardly seems fair to judge them individually when they’re so tight-knit as a unit:
The CMCs
Crusaders Of The Lost Mark. Obviously, there was only ever going to be one episode for this one. At first the CMCs were an annoying distraction to me from the mane cast, complete with whiny voices and a singular obsession. Over time they grew on me, although still, the CMC-led episodes that I’d actively look forward to when rewatching a season number exactly two.
The show balanced them well against their older siblings, with Scootaloo’s hero worship of Rainbow, Apple Bloom in the middle as clearly an Apple to the core but never above disagreeing with AJ, and Sweetie Belle and Rarity as quite different ponies. The show also made the smart decision to contrast Applejack’s over-parenting with Rarity’s under-, which often makes Apple Bloom seem the most reasonable of the CMCs. Sweetie Belle, by contrast, risks sounding spoiled or high-maintenance anytime she demands sisterly attention.
And both those big sisterly attitudes make sense, too: with Applejack and Apple Bloom having lost their parents, it stands to reason that AJ would be all the more protective of her little sister. Whereas Rarity is essentially a glorified babysitter, whom Sweetie Belle lives with rather than their parents because, erm, well, we never get a straight answer there (my theory is that taking care of her sister was the price of their parents helping Rarity finance opening her first boutique, perhaps with Sweetie Belle insisting on moving to Ponyville with Rarity, or perhaps Rarity having lived in Ponyville all along and being charged with caring for her sister when her parents have to move away for work, though that seems less likely). Not to mention that Rarity is pretty busy single-handedly running her own business, and doesn’t have much time to be a surrogate parent too.
And this episode would have been by far their best moment even without the euphoric ending. Because the dialogue exchange near the end is damn near perfect, and it sums up the best of what they’ve learned and achieved in five seasons.
“I’ve been thinkin,’ Crusaders. We spend an awful lot of time fussin’ and frettin’ trying’ to discover our true talent. But when we take a little time off, we end up helpin’ other ponies figure out their true talent.”
“Yeah, and I think that’s way more important than worrying about our cutie marks, don’t you?”
“Absolutely. I don’t care if I ever get my cutie mark as long as I get to hang out with my best friends.”
And for a moment, I thought they’d spend another five years unmarked, but perfectly happy about it. And I’d have been ok with that, because they’d accepted it, and it wouldn’t be a source of misery for them anymore. I was completely blindsided by the next bit.
Hmm... Perhaps I should to this as well...... Nah.
Anyway, this was really interesting and it really shows you’re feeling towards these characters. Well done.
4559626 Thanks!
It’s no less subjective than best/worst episode or best/worst pony posts, but hopefully a bit less divisive.
Almost all the episodes are ones I really like anyway, though, so there could be plenty of other good moments elsewhere I’ve forgotten or not paid enough attention to.
4559673
I know this isn’t on the subject, but I’m curious... On my list of my least favorite characters, you noted that it was a good sign that all of them are meant to be hated at some point (aside from Flash Sentry) and that it was more than you could say about your two least favorite characters.
Sooo, who are your least favorite characters?
4559803 I’d prefer not to dwell on the negative here, and it’s a conversation I’ve had several times before, but I’m not at all keen on Sci-Twi or Thorax.
4560091
Ah, I see. Well, since we’re not dwelling on the negative here, I won’t ask you why you don’t like them...... I’ll wait until some other time to ask that.
4560109 Thanks.
But even then, what’s the best-case outcome for explaining why I don’t like them? At my most persuasive, it might serve to put others off them, which I wouldn’t want, because it’s good that people like the characters and probably means those people enjoy the episodes or films featuring those characters more than I do. And I’ve had the conversation enough times in enough detail before to think it unlikely that I’d change my own mind on them - and of course, the less rational part of me doesn’t want to learn to like them, even if doing so would objectively mean I get more enjoyment out of a franchise I like.
So discussing it would only really serve to drag others down, waste their time, or generally make me look bitter - none of which would be of benefit to anyone.
4560178
Why don’t you just PM me? Then we can talk in private. You know I won’t be put off (After all, you weren’t by me) and I’ll wait until you feel like talking about it.
Just to add as an addendum, three weeks later - thankfully I made and published this list five days before I saw A Royal Problem, because that episode would have changed at least one entry, quite possibly three.