Oct
14th
2017
Points of Canon: S7x23 - Secrets and Pies · 9:22am Oct 14th, 2017
Yes, I’m using the leaked version so I can finish this early, why do you ask.
Lots of interesting chronological implications in this episode which are likely to create an unresolvable mess.
- Standard chronology markers: Twilicorn, Friendship Castle, no Starlight, no visible CMC. I’m inclined to place it among the Season 6 rather than Season 7 episodes. Notice also that Rarity does not appear in this episode, so it could, in theory, occur during the Punk Rarity period.
- Pinkie Pie does not typically use recipes when baking.
- “It’s to celebrate Rainbow Dash’s seventy-third Wonderbolt training session!” Which gives us a solid chronology lock for this otherwise relatively floaty episode: It must follow Newbie Dash and is at least 73 days away. More likely, we should assume three training sessions per week, in which case it’s 24 weeks – or six months away. It probably isn’t further away than 73 weeks. Unfortunately, Newbie Dash is itself rather floaty. We should also keep in mind that Friends Forever #36 states that Wonderbolt training is suspended for the winter.
- “But the most special part is the seventy-three super secret sweets and spices that represent each training session!” Leave it to Pinkie to find 73 ingredients for a cake at all, but wouldn’t you like to know what all of them are? Especially considering that by saying “You don’t mix chocolate into a blueberry pie!” Pinkie eliminated a huge amount of potential ingredients.
- “Could you please pass the… brown sugar, pink sugar, sweetroot, apple jelly, berry mash, and a towel?” Of these ingredients, I am not convinced pink sugar is a thing for us, at least, cursory googling failed to turn up any. And I hope the towel is not an ingredient.
- Vapor Trail and Sky Stinger are in the background in trainee outfits, requiring Top Bolt to happen prior.
- “You really added that sparkle to that pressure diamond-drop.” Writers have a terrible time coming up with names for stunts. This time, they barely avoided referencing a shock diamond – or did they?
- A trivial way to get rid of the pie without incurring Pinkie’s wrath at this point would be to openly share it with the other Wonderbolts, but for some reason, the thought does not occur to Rainbow. Later on Spitfire reports anonymous pie donations instead… Actually, in what universe, when you are given a pie, you’re socially expected to eat it all alone?
- “I gotta get back to my shift at Sugarcube Corner anyway.” Pinkie has shifts at Sugarcube, which is actually not a given at all.
- Wonderbolt trash includes, among other things, an inexplicable sock with a toe. Again.
- Very peculiar trash disposal chutes go upwards, rather than down. So what do they do with the trash? Throw it into the stratosphere?
- “Plus she hates washing.” Good to know. If only we knew for sure what it is, that thing that Rainbow hates to wash.
- “The boysenberry pie I made for her birthday…” Oh whee. Now, remember Pinkie Pride? The flashback image where Rainbow throws away the pie seems to refer to the birthiversary, because we see the unique banner strung up that was painted in that episode. The party tank in the background looks like Cheese Sandwich’s tank. If that were indeed it, it would be grounds to say that Pinkie Pride definitely happened less than a year ago, because otherwise, Pinkie would have remembered the pie she made for the next birthday. But Cheese Sandwich’s tank has tracks on it, while the one in the background of this shot has wheels. As it is, it’s inconclusive.
- If we believe the flashback, Rainbow is sufficiency dexterous to toss three pies precisely by flapping a tablecloth. She does perform similar feats directly on screen, though.
- “I’ve sent Rainbow Dash a pie every month she’s been a Wonderbolt, and you’re telling me you’ve never seen her eat one?” Rainbow has been a Wonderbolt for longer than one month. That implies, weakly, that Rainbow has been one for longer than two months, i.e. that they have no more than six training sessions per week. Which is not terribly useful, but at least ensures they do get time off.
- “Are we under investigation?” Is Spitfire even aware what authority actually is?
- “Poor Tank had all the telltale signs of sugar overload – jittery shell, sleeplessness, reptilian indigestion.” Pardon me, but jittery shell?
- “And this all happened the day after I made Rainbow Dash a ‘Thanks For Lending Me Your Jacket’ peach pie.” Rainbow Dash owns a jacket, which I don’t think we’ve ever seen her wear. But why would Pinkie need to borrow one?
- Pinkie’s control over her mane is fine enough to write with it, which is probably the most detailed action ever done with tailikinesis / manekinesis on screen.
- If you believe that X-ray, the pie is less X-ray transparent than bones and shell, which would imply metal content. There’s no reasonable way this can be real. :)
- “The class hamster was having similar symptoms.” There is a class hamster. We’ve never seen this particular creature.
- “Animals just can’t digest pony food.” Which is, if you think seriously about it, a much longer-reaching statement than it appears on the surface. Really major.
- “She drops off her ‘Day After Rainbow Dash’s Half-Birthday’ pie every year.” This has happened enough times for Cheerilee to consider this routine, which positions this episode at least three years away from Summer 1.
- Schoolhouse still has a globe and a microscope. They’re probably really, really dusty…
- Rainbow’s cloud house includes a substantial pie transportation pipe going through what looks, on cutaway, like solid earth. What the flying fuck? Pun intended, it’s a cloud house. Also, what is the purpose of this pipe when Pinkie isn’t there to wake Rainbow up with pie?
- While this place where Tank receives the pie looks somewhat like a bathroom, it’s apparently a kitchen – table with two plates and an unfinished glass imply that’s what it is. Notably, Rainbow just left them on the table. But how is this place clean at all?
- The poster in Rainbow’s bedroom – right above the bed, too, prominently visible from it – appears to depict Lightning Dust. At least, all three colors and the hairstyle match closely enough. Shippers, ahoy. Because I can’t see any other reason why would this be in there.
- So that medical cart is there on a permanent basis? Sensible, but suggests injuries are common. Also implies a medical facility straight on the plateau.
- Pinkie is strong enough to shake the earth and topple the pie pyramid. She doesn’t often display obvious earth pony magic, but I’m sure this is a decent example.
- Rainbow uses her wings to tie a knot around the pie, which is probably the most dexterous thing done with wingtips to date.
- “Your memory is working fine, you hate washing, and I know today’s not Opposite Day because I baked you a pie for it every year.” Opposite Day is a stable holiday.
- “Or give to charity.” Institutional charity is a concept in Equestria. Not a given, and implies that recipients of charity exist.
- Rainbow Dash finally breaks down and makes a statement that she dislikes all pie. Something to keep in mind.
Canterlot Friends, surprisingly, didn’t get any pie. And this chronology mess will take years to sort out…
Party of One v2.0, sort of.
There go the Soarin' shippers then...
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Lightning Dust shippers, though!
Huh... How exactly that works? As far as I can see they use ingredients that either grows on earth or taken from animals, like eggs. So why exactly animals cant digest it? Pony add something artificial? If that so they why? Food that grown with pony magic is only edible by a pony? But fruit bats never have problems with apples.
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Precisely why I say it’s important.
There are some human foods that animals have problems with:
The list actually goes on. Generally, ponies should, in theory, share the patterns of toxicity with their pets, but according to this statement, don’t.
Hypothetically speaking, pink sugar might be cotton candy sugar.
I assume the answer to that question is "everything." Definitely seemed like a blanket statement to me.
With regards to the birthday, it's possible they brought in Cheese for the next birthaversary—unless the two days somehow operate on different calendars—and he'd traded in his old party tank for a wheeled model. Don't ask me why, though. The ways of the party pony are as an enigma to me.
Sure. It determines who gets to yell at whom. Especially when the yelling ones have a direct line to literally every princess.
It turns red and homes in on the kart in front of you.
As much for ponies as non-pony animals. I'm pretty sure this at least supports the idea that ponies are specialized to handle ludicrous amounts of sugar.
Didn't notice it was Lightning Dust on the poster. Maybe she made it big musically? Or possibly in wrestling.
We've seen evidence of charity before in "Just for Sidekicks," with Zecora donating a gem to the Filly Scouts. The cause they were fundraising for does remain unclear, though.
I do wonder what it is about pie that makes Dash hate the pastry itself rather than any specific filling. Maybe the Battle of Appleoosa was more traumatizing for her than we ever knew... though that would allow her to partake before "Over a Barrel." Hmm.
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You mean she hates washing blankets?
The scene on the poster suggests flying and bears no imagery or symbols associated with anything else, so…
I think the only answer that makes any sort of sense is “calories.”
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I'm going to have to go do some research, but human diet and digestion has evolved alongside our intelligence. I'd be very interested (for a possible future story) in theories about how an equine diet would evolve to meet the energy and fat demands of a growing brain, spurred on by selection pressures for culture and magic.
As far as chronology... Early season 1 Dash really didn’t give a flip about other ponies’ feelings, and would have had no problem declining one of Pinkie’s pies then. So the web of lies from this episode couldn’t have started any earlier than when Dash and Pinkie became Prank Buddies in “Griffon the Brush Off”. Though I suspect it started after “Party of One”—upon seeing how badly Pinkie handled rejection, Rainbow got scared of what would happen if she turned down a pie.
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There’s something related I just realized: Rainbow Dash is on record eating cake.
In MMMystery on the Friendship Express, Rainbow is one of the three culprits along with Fluttershy and Rarity. Moreover, the proof brought by Twilight is quite solid.
Now, what’s the functional difference between the pies Pinkie bakes and cake made by the Cakes?…
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derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/10/4/1551666.png
(From Issue 59 of the Friendship Is Magic comic, which is a direct sequel to this episode.)
The distinction really isn’t that odd. When I was younger, I liked cakes and really disliked pies. It was the consistency I couldn’t stand. The softness of the fillings always grossed me out. (Actually, I didn’t like cheesecake either, for the same reason.) But I’ve learned to like some pies since.
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It’s kind of a pity that the pie disposal chute was hidden behind the generic Wonderbolts poster, rather than the Lightning Dust poster. That would have made it a perfect reference to The Shawshank Redemption. (Though that would have made the shipping implications even stronger...)
Well, Pinkie is a royally-appointed Friendship Ambassador.
I like to think that Spitfire has no idea how Princess Twilight's friendship operation works and just goes along with it whenever necessary.
Honestly felt this was such a boring, predictable episode I had trouble focusing on the details, though Pinkie's pie schedule does make this episode rich in chronology markers. Oh, and I did notice that weird layer of solid matter in Rainbow's house. I think we've seen "cloudcrete," or whatever you want to call it.
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Maybe, but Rainbow definitely had her septic tank leak into it, if so. It’s too brown.
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Blue Ice is a racist myth! Seriously though, you may be right.
The best explanation I've heard for this (admittedly, the only one, but it's still good), courtesy of FanOfMostEverything is that Pinkie is actually the commanding officer of Twilight's personal guard detachment. It would explain a lot.
Something that was just pointed out to me:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/3/20/275224.png
https://derpibooru.org/275224
The show contradicting previous comics? What a surprise. I don’t have the exact source for this excerpt, but it’s from at least 5 years ago, so it’s from one of the early IDW micro-series.
Though I am amused at Rainbow’s line, “I’m not eating my body weight in your apples again, AJ.”
One thing that bothers me a little. Whole "laser eyes" deal. No one ever asked what laser is. So it's mean that ponies have lasers? And knowledge about them is widely known? Because I doubt that RD would read a thesis on stimulated emission or something like this.
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Ponies had lasers, at least in fiction, ever since MMMystery on the Friendship Express where they are used as an alarm system.
Oh hey, Party of One, Two.
Pinkie demonstrating some careful buoyancy-manipulation to pop up through the cloud and hten abruptly stop, and then appear to walk on Cloudsdale-like? cloudsurface. (OR a casting of the spell, but…she got up there, seemingly through the cloudsurface, and then didn't pop balloons to stay there.)
♪"That's specific" not "inaccurate"…but we already knew that Pinkie and RD were both good at certain maths, and this is their intersection.
She wouldn't want to forget her towel.
Really major. Indeed.
♪The idea of a police lineup exists.
♪"screaming is fun," says Pinkie. Applejack alludes to the possibility prior to this, too, which is much more surprising.
Pinkie replicates the sink-into-apples teleport and AJ makes note of it, incomprehendingly, reinforcing Eldritch Pinkie hypotheses.
Feeding Tank in ten seconds flat.
alas, this is a social truth, and Pinkie literally knowing every pony in Ponyville (and being friends with so many of them) means she can effect such a truth.
Is it just me misreading, or is one of those pie assets a pepperoni pizza pie?
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First turns up in Cheese Sandwich’s montage in Pinkie Pride.
Would require Tank’s food to be stored in Rainbow’s bedroom rather than the kitchen where his food tray is.
Dunno. There are other round red things that can end up on a pizza…
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Tomatoes are generally sliced thicker and have radial characteristics.
4697802 4697537 I agree with your guesses this dates back to S1 at most. Maybe Pinkie started putting some new forms of magic in her pies after she became an Element of Harmony? Maybe Nightmare Moon cursed Sugarcube Corner, or Rainbow?
In that case, we've got Pinkie saying Rainbow Dash's been deceiving her for "years," which would mean it's been years since S1. Which we were already pretty sure of, but it's nice to get a clear confirmation.
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But Dash insists that she doesn’t like any pies at all; it’s not just an issue with Pinkie’s baking.
4705364 Point. So if it's a curse (and not something else like the Battle of Appleoosa), it'd need to be on Rainbow herself.