Points of Canon: S3x13 - Magical Mystery Cure

Might as well close down Season 3 while I still have the time.

While it’s a lovely episode, it’s confusing as hell when you try to understand what is it that’s actually supposed to be going on.

• Well, of course Twinkleshine is in town. So is Minuette.
• The fountain has water in it.
• Twilight recognizes that Rarity has the wrong cutie mark instantly. Rarity clearly doesn’t, and neither does anyone else… except Spike.
• “Whatever do you mean, Twilight? I’m simply doing what I’ve done since the day it first appeared. Does my sky look fabulous or what?” Whatever actually happened to Rarity, she remembers her life very differently, but Twilight was, in fact, present for the equivalent period of time, since Rarity recognizes her. Notice also that Rarity believes she has been managing weather since the mark first appeared, which is quite unlikely in any sane reality.
• Notice that nopony else seems to see anything is wrong. They just see that Rarity sucks at weather control. They also don’t see anything unusual as such about a unicorn being engaged at weather control, though we don’t know if this is indicative of unicorns habitually engaging in it in, say, Canterlot, or not.
• At one point, Pinkie transports chickens in tiny cages, though we never get to see why do they need transporting at all.
• “Could y’all give me a hand here and help me fix this mess?” Hand. Meh.
• “For I just gave them frostbite over top of their sunburns” Can ponies even get sunburns? All that would happen in a reasonable world is a bleached-out coat.
• The entire song hinges on associating a cutie mark with destiny, and much of the episode reiterates that, but previously, only Rarity would ever make this association at all. I have a feeling the word “destiny” is another linguistic collision, and ponies have a rather unusual meaning for it.

• “Last night when you were taking one of your seven-hour bubble baths, I got a special delivery from the princess.”

  • It is habitual for Spike to marinate in hot water for hours.
  • The mailpony delivering the parcel is the same mailpony seen in Putting Your Hoof Down – same uniform and same pony colors – but sans glasses for some bizarre reason. Do ponies have corrective eye surgery or a magical equivalent?
  • Twilight didn’t sign for the parcel, which surprised the mailpony. Hmmm…
  • Why was such an important relic delivered by regular post?
• Twilight has been keeping the Elements in a display case in the library ever since Keep Calm And Flutter On, I expect.
• Star Swirl’s notebook is a spiral bound notebook. Patented in our world in 1935. And it has Star Swirl’s custom symbol – presumably, his cutie mark – on the cover.
• “The spell contained on the last page of this book is Star Swirl the Bearded’s secret unfinished masterpiece. He was never able to get it right, and thus abandoned it. I believe you are the only pony who can understand and rewrite it.” That’s all Celestia ever says about what is it supposed to do. Your guess is as good as mine.
• “From one to another, another to one. A mark of one’s destiny singled out alone, fulfilled.” Star Swirl’s Unfinished Spell is one of the very rare spells with a pronounced verbal component. All of these are associated with Star Swirl.
• “The spell has changed the Elements of Harmony! That must be why their cutie marks are all wrong!” The association between an Element and the pony that, according to Twilight’s defintion, “represents” it (see Friendship is Magic) is never elaborated in any detail.
• “There is no counter-spell!” At least certain spells come with specially tailored counter-spells, and Spike has come to expect to see them.
• “Why don’t you just use that memory spell you used to fix everypony when Discord was here?” “It’s not their memories, Spike. It’s their true selves that have been altered!” So how does Twilight know that, and what constitutes a true self in this instance?
• “Zecora’s cure for the cutie pox?” “That won’t work either…” Considering that I think the cutie pox is not actually a disease… See Cutie Pox for details.
• Cherry Berry appears managing the balloon again, and Fluttershy pays her, apparently, for the use of the balloon to move to Cloudsdale. Notice that the bits she uses to make this payment are not golden-colored like most other incidents of bit coins on screen.
• “I don’t really know anything about animals…” Hmm…
• So why are Fluttershy’s animals trying to cook Rainbow Dash, and why do they wield utensils to do that?…
• Fluttershy appears to understand animals and verbally reply to their unspoken lines even though the cutie mark swap-back has not happened yet, but Fluttershy is surprised to understand animals at all.
• Likewise, Rainbow is very surprised to find that bucking clouds works.
• How exactly did Applejack manage to get the sewing machine to burn, I don’t think we will ever know.
• One of the activities Applejack engages in on the farm is planting corn seeds. In the US, the corn planting season begins in April and continues through June, though with earth pony magic we bloody can’t tell anything here.
• All of the element jewels are colored differently from their usual state before they are used to restore the pony: Fluttershy’s is blue, Rainbow’s is pink, Rarity’s is red, Applejack’s is purple and Pinkie’s is orange. Which is clearly indicative of who is supposed to be helping whom.
• The marching band members are wearing purple cylindrical caps, and I don’t think we see these again.
• “A mark of one’s destiny, singled out alone, fulfilled.” “Wait a second, that’s it! I understand now! I know how to fix the spell!” And this, ladies and gentlemen, was an Eureka Moment. Occasionally, Twilight gets those.
• “From all of us together, together we’re friends. With the marks of our destinies made one, there is magic without end!” Twilight writes this straight into the notebook, no regard for ancient relic whatsoever. Also, any time someone wants to become an alicorn by solving the puzzle themselves, nope, you can’t use the same notebook.
• Twilight’s face as she is blasted by five magical beams makes me think she understands what’s happening to her pretty quickly, but her subsequent reaction – “Hello? Where am I? What is this place?” – casts doubt on that.
• Much has been said about the Astral Plane Plain. None of it makes much sense to be honest.
• “You did something today that’s never been done before. Something even a great unicorn like Star Swirl the Bearded was not able to do, because he did not understand friendship like you do.” What is it exactly that she actually did remains unexplained.

• “Why, you’ve become an alicorn. I didn’t even know that was possible.”

  • First unambiguous use of the word “alicorn” to denote a triple-subspecies pony, though not the first use of the word “alicorn” period – that happened in Magic Duel with the “alicorn amulet.”
  • Rarity is apparently not aware of the particulars of Cadance’s ascension, or does not think it was deliberate.
  • The word “alicorn” is in common usage, even if it is used sparingly, nopony asks what it means, neither here nor in Magic Duel.
• Pinkie is swinging on nothing. For a change, this startles Rainbow.

• “You look just like a princess!” “That’s because she is a princess.”

  • There is no end of other evidence that being an alicorn is very strongly associated with being a princess in folklore.
  • This is a statement from Celestia herself that Twilight is a princess, even before any coronation or official recognition could possibly be arranged.

• “We are gathered here today in celebration of a momentous occasion.”

  • Bon-Bon is standing there next to Lyra for a change.
  • Minuette is here, of course.
  • The crowd contains two crystal ponies in their non-crystal state. You can tell by the hair. A few more can be observed out in the courtyard. By the time Twilight leaves with the procession, more crystal ponies appear, and some are in the crystal state.
  • Notice that Shining Armor, Night Light and Twilight Velvet are not visible in this crowd, and neither any of the other Mane 6 family members.

• 1. Luna’s and Celestia’s dresses are ridiculously ugly, but just about everyone agrees on that. Cadance’s is okay-ish.

  These are all-new dresses on the Mane 6, never observed before, and I don’t think we’ve seen them since. Which, I think, requires some time to pass until the coronation.¹

• “But today, Twilight Sparkle did something extraordinary. She created new magic, proving without a doubt that she is ready to be crowned Equestria’s newest princess.” The oddest statement about this speech, since it’s so difficult to interpret in a way that makes sense.
• These four white ponies with Fluttershy’s model and haircut and blonde hair carrying flags on interesting saddle-like mounts never seem to appear again. What are they? Some manner of uniformed handmaidens?
• Shining Armor rushes in with Cadance, who mysteriously has undone her hair back into her usual style in at most a minute – she’s wearing her hair up when she’s standing there next to Celestia and Luna and poof, it’s back down when she rushes in with Shining Armor when Twilight comes back from the balcony.

That was a good final episode.

Some analysis

I do have some theories about what happened here, but they’re pretty vague. Here are some obvious things I notice:

• The Mane 5 appear to have swapped event memory, but skill memory remains entirely untouched. Rainbow ending up in Fluttershy’s place is convinced she has been managing animals all the time, but the actual skill in animal management remains with Fluttershy. Fluttershy reports not knowing anything about animals, but the skill is there instantly once she attempts to practice it.

• The swap-back trigger is that the sufferer has to help a friend with the activity that is part of the skill set of the sufferer. The pony being helped remains inert. The process actually appears to require three ponies – one unaffected or cured to motivate the sufferer, one sufferer, and one to be helped:

  • Twilight Fluttershy Rainbow,
  • Fluttershy Rainbow Rarity
  • Rainbow Rarity Applejack,
  • Rarity Applejack Pinkie,
  • Applejack Pinkie townspeople.

  It’s interesting that the chain does not form a complete loop. In all cases, wearing the Element jewelry finalizes the swap-back.

• The restoration order is clearly pre-specified by the change in Element jewelry colors and / or by who got whose cutie mark.
• Star Swirl’s spells scrambled the Mane 6 without their direct presence – affecting their Element jewelry was sufficient.
• The townspeople do not voice any specific concerns and do not appear to notice anything is amiss, they just notice the Mane 6 suddenly suck at what they’re supposed to be doing, and apparently, have always sucked. But Spike seems unaffected.
• I very much doubt making one an alicorn was the intended result of the spell. It’s pretty clear that it’s not casting the fixed spell that triggers Twilight’s ascension, she never actually does this. It’s the fixing itself. The actual purpose of the original spell remains rather mysterious. Notice that since Shadow Play insists that the Tree of Harmony, and therefore the Elements, did not exist until Star Swirl disappeared, there is no way his spell could possibly account for the existence of the Elements, let alone rely on them, if the statements in that episode are true.

What an epic mess. And I’m doing a lot of forward references to Shadow Play these days…

Comments

[Mitch H]

Sorry, lots of discussion in the discord server, which means a lot of commentary which normally would have gone here, is in the #general channel.

Highlights: arguments about the nature of the 'unfinished spell' and its purpose, whether the actual author was Star Swirl or Stygian, whether the unfinished spell was responsible for the Pony of Shadows or something like it. Also, discussion of what exactly is required for ascension, whether you can cheat your way into the astral plane and steal a pair of wings, and how Chaos Alicorn Pinkie factors into all of this.

And I still miss those blonde and white-coated hoofmaidens. They would have made a neat addition to the Ponyville collection of side-characters and background ponies.

[Meta Four]

Do ponies have corrective eye surgery or a magical equivalent?

It’s strongly implied that they do. “Where the Apple Lies” showed teenaged Derpy in the Ponyville hospital with bandages over her eyes. And this couldn’t have been the aftermath of some accident that messed up her eyes in the first place, because “The Cart Before the Ponies” and “Parental Glideance” established that Derpy already had her cross-eyes from an even younger age, and it was something that developed gradually. So the most sensible explanation is that Derpy got corrective eye surgery, but it didn’t quite take.

[Comnislasher]

Yeah. An episode that people like to use as a evidence that cutie mark lock you on single skill path.
And I think that show writers themselves don't quite sure how cutie marks work. It's

[Shrink Laureate]

Notice that nopony else seems to see anything is wrong. They just see that Rarity sucks at weather control. They also don’t see anything unusual as such about a unicorn being engaged at weather control, though we don’t know if this is indicative of unicorns habitually engaging in it in, say, Canterlot, or not.

The spell, whatever else it's doing, is clearly affecting the minds of everypony in town, not just the five it swaps.

Star Swirl’s notebook is a spiral bound notebook. Patented in our world in 1935. And it has Star Swirl’s custom symbol – presumably, his cutie mark – on the cover.
...
Twilight writes this straight into the notebook, no regard for ancient relic whatsoever.

So it's clearly a copy. Books often don't last a thousand+ years intact then get lent out to random students.

Fluttershy appears to understand animals and verbally reply to their unspoken lines even though the cutie mark swap-back has not happened yet, but Fluttershy is surprised to understand animals at all.

As you point out, this indicates that it isn't just factual memories that she retains, but also procedural memory. She talks to the animals because that's what she'd habitually do, even though she doesn't at the time identify as an animal-talker.

“You look just like a princess!” “That’s because she is a princess.”
There is no end of other evidence that being an alicorn is very strongly associated with being a princess in folklore.
This is a statement from Celestia herself that Twilight is a princess, even before any coronation or official recognition could possibly be arranged.
...
“But today, Twilight Sparkle did something extraordinary. She created new magic, proving without a doubt that she is ready to be crowned Equestria’s newest princess.”

Manipulative interpretation: it's in Celestia's interests for ponies to unquestioningly associate alicorns with leadership. Since there are so few of them, this solidifies her power and undercuts any non-alicorns who might politically threaten her. This is something she's spent centuries cultivating, and she's willing to tolerate a couple of loyal minions sharing her power temporarily if it guarantees stability.

I very much doubt making one an alicorn was the intended result of the spell. It’s pretty clear that it’s not casting the fixed spell that triggers Twilight’s ascension, she never actually does this. It’s the fixing itself.

It's not casting the fixed spell, but it certainly appears to be that writing the fixed spell is what makes it happen. I suspect that doing so without having fixed her friends first would not have worked. Still no idea what the spell is actually supposed to do, though.

“From one to another, another to one. A mark of one’s destiny singled out alone, fulfilled.”

Squinting a little, it seems like this was originally a spell for borrowing another pony's cutie mark and destiny, though exactly what Star Swirl was doing with that is unclear.

If, on the other hand, Stygius wrote this rather than Star Swirl, it makes much more sense. He may have been trying to escape his own life by swapping his destiny with that of one of the Pillars - trying to become part of the team. I'm thinking of the Buffy S4E17 "Superstar", in which Jonathan casts a spell to become a Gary Stu that everyone loves.

[Oliver]

4705529

The spell, whatever else it’s doing, is clearly affecting the minds of everypony in town, not just the five it swaps.

Is it just minds, though?

So it’s clearly a copy. Books often don’t last a thousand+ years intact then get lent out to random students.

A copy, yes, but here’s a thing… The spell Twilight is to fix is on the last page of this notebook.

Why would one copy the entire notebook – manually, since the copy’s medium is a spiral bound notebook – and then present Twilight with only one spell? Why not use magical means of duplication – we know they exist? Why not just copy the offending spell and omit the rest?

Manipulative interpretation: it’s in Celestia’s interests for ponies to unquestioningly associate alicorns with leadership.

It’s not Celestia’s motivations that I find difficult to explain here. The problem is the phrase itself: “created new magic.”

What does it mean?

[Shrink Laureate]

4705727
We've seen books read left-to-right and right-to-left on the show. While I've no doubt that's an animation mistake, it could Watsonionistically be interpreted as their culture using a mixture of writing directions to go with their mixture of scripts, and them just not seeing that as an issue.

[Oliver]

4705864

While I’ve no doubt that’s an animation mistake, it could Watsonionistically be interpreted as their culture using a mixture of writing directions to go with their mixture of scripts, and them just not seeing that as an issue.

Whichever direction you read, the book has only one end, doesn’t it?

[FanOfMostEverything]

I interpret "created new magic" as "violated the conservation of energy." Basically, Twilight won her wings in a game of thermodynamics.

Also, I suspect Celestia made the coronation dresses either in secret, in a hurry, or both. Rarity clearly was not involved at any point in the process.

[Shrink Laureate]

4705895
Taffeta gulped. The sweat was pouring down get withers, mussing up her beautifully styled mane and leaving her itchy and shivering. She stayed standing upright, her jaw clenched. This could be the most important moment of her career.

The Princess stepped around the six dresses, displayed on ponyquins. She was examining them critically, carefully, silently and slowly.

Taffeta broke the silence. "Um..."

"Very nice work, Miss Taffeta," said the Princess. "I can see you've designed them each with an element-bearer in mind."

"Yes, Princess," gushed the nervous made. "I tried to capture the essence of each of their..." She trailed off, realising with sinking horror that the Princess was looking at her.

"You are aware, I hope, that one of the element bearers is herself a fashion designer?"

"Um. Yes, your Highness, though she hasn't exactly—" She caught the sharp look in Celestia's eyes and changed tack before she could say anything offensive. "—reached her full potential yet. Um."

"So under what circumstances did you imagine they would wear these dresses you've designed?"

"Well, I thought they, um... I... I don't know, your Highness."

Her father had told her many times of the favour owed to their family by the Princess. In her deepest time of need, he'd told her, she could call on Celestia's aid. Just once, so make it count.

She slumped, every part of her shrinking to the floor. She'd wasted her chance, wasted her family's hard-earned legacy on a foolish thought.

Celestia stepped slowly up to her and used one gold-clad hoof to lift her face up.

"Let me see what I can arrange," she said.

[QueenMoriarty]

4706066
...only in Equestria would someone use a royal favor to get the supreme leader to look at your passion project.

[howard035]

Hey, you skipped the chronology markers section. Any firm chronology markers in this episode?

I always suspected the spell actually re-wrote time, to explain why everyone else in town seemed to have the same memories as the Mane 5, and the physical evidence that this had been going on for a while (SWA being mismanaged, Carousel Boutique being full of terrible dresses, etc).

Was this spell the rough draft of what created the Tree of Harmony? Celestia refers to it as "Starswirl's last unfinished spell," but as of Shadow Play it looks like she and Luna had no real idea what Starswirl and the Pillars were up to.

As to the astral plane itself, it looks like all the challenge is in reaching it. Just like Limbo and the plane of the Primal Darkness, really powerful magic is required to get one there. (And Stygian seems to have had help in the genuis loci of the dark dimension). Once you are there you are transformed (except Limbo, since you can't transform anything if time doesn't exist).

So, could the ritual that was going to banish Stygian be modified to "banish" someone to the Astral plane? Presumably the plane of darkness is a bit easier to reach, since the boundary between Hollow Shades and the Prime Material plane has worn thin (holy geez has MLP created a dark cosmology for itself). But it is still possible that the Pillars and the Mane 6 can now make alicorns at will now.

Oh, and Celestia and Luna deliberately wore ugly dresses so Twilight would get all the respect in her coronation ceremony. It's the same reason bridesmaid dresses are usually hideous.

[Oliver]

4706339

Hey, you skipped the chronology markers section. Any firm chronology markers in this episode?

Watershed episodes usually don’t have any. Everything else relates to them instead.

Was this spell the rough draft of what created the Tree of Harmony? Celestia refers to it as “Starswirl’s last unfinished spell,” but as of Shadow Play it looks like she and Luna had no real idea what Starswirl and the Pillars were up to.

I’m not even sure it was actually Star Swirl’s.

[Cursed Quill]

and neither does anyone else… except Spike.

Dragons: spell-resistant.

“Whatever do you mean, Twilight? I’m simply doing what I’ve done since the day it first appeared. Does my sky look fabulous or what?” Whatever actually happened to Rarity, she remembers her life very differently,

From a Certain Point of View…that mark appeared today, and implies nothing about her memory.

“There is no counter-spell!” At least certain spells come with specially tailored counter-spells, and Spike has come to expect to see them.

¹Those exist? Maybe?

In safe magical tradition¹, having the undo button immediately present is a necessity.

Astral Plane Plain

reasoning for choosing the latter?

First unambiguous use of the word “alicorn” to denote a triple-subspecies pony,

Actually, I think only personal word of Faust has the earth pony component included; Pinkie Pie has a line or two that imply that it isn't…
4705441

sure how cutie marks work. It's

It's what?

[Comnislasher]

4710544
Huh... Really don't remember. Most likely I want to add something else and then change my mind. And miss "it's" when edited my post.

[Oliver]

4710544

reasoning for choosing the latter?

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the astral plain? It’s too featureless to be a proper “plane,” I think.

Actually, I think only personal word of Faust has the earth pony component included;

Also Luna crushing stone with her hooves easily on occasion, the way Twilight steps on a hoof in Once Upon a Zeppelin… Examples of alicorns exhibiting earth pony powers are rare, but they do exist.

On the contrary, word of Faust that would imply an earth pony component to alicorns probably can’t exist: Her “show bible” flat out states earth ponies have no magic period.

[Cursed Quill]

4710564
D&D's astral plane is also mostly featureless (to the extent of landmasses being an uncommon thing)

4710564
Well, it's what she publicly wrote. I always have difficulty finding this one…
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2010/12/24/my-little-non-homophobic-non-racist-non-smart-shaming-pony-a-rebuttal/ (emphasis altered)

The only races in My Little Pony are Earth Pony, Pegasus and Unicorn, and they are all treated equally, ruled by a leader who embodies the traits of all three

Pinkie says in "The Crystalling", meanwhile, that Flurry as an alicorn is a "unicorn and a pegasus"…

Whether that means earth ponies are nonmagically how they are, or that some unicorn prejudicial classification renders what they do "not magic"…well.

[Oliver]

4710591

Eh, leave it to Pinkie to imply everypony is secretly an earth pony.

[Eruantalon]

4710564 Well, we know from so many other episodes that earth ponies do have magic. So there.

Also, I'm pretty sure that the Cosmic Principle of Harmony (or something by a similar name) was working through the Pillars when they produced the Elements and the Tree. Otherwise, too many things don't work.