Nov
3rd
2017
Points of Canon: S4x12 - Pinkie Pride · 4:06pm Nov 3rd, 2017
Say hello to Al Yankovic and tanks.
- We don’t know for sure just where is Cheese Sandwich having the party he starts with, but the presence of buffalo and the characteristic hats imply Appleloosa.
- Boneless is a rubber chicken. Presence or absence of a pulley in the middle impossible to determine due to cartoon resolution. It’s interesting that I can’t readily track down when those came about in our world. Notice that Boneless rides in a tiny saddle on Cheese’s back.
- Cheese very obviously experiences sensations analogous to Pinkie Sense and refers to them explicitly as Cheesy Sense. Considering Maud Sense, as described in The Gift of Maud Pie, we probably should assume this isn’t a party pony feature, but rather, an uncommon and not well studied aspect of earth pony magic. Notice that Cheese Sandwich’s Cheesy Sense is sufficiently precise that it permits him to determine that he’s going to Ponyville before actually going there or consulting the map.
- There’s water in the Ponyville fountain, which typically suggests summer.
- Pinkie leaves a trail of balloons floating up as she trots. Knowing prior cases, this amount of balloons would make her fly if she had them all at once. Stop violating logic, Pinkie, it’s impolite.
- Canterlot Friends are in town and at the market – Minuette is hanging out with Twinkleshine. The smell of the upcoming birthiversary must have attracted them.
- I am pretty sure that the clock hands spinning in opposite directions is an expressive device rather than an actual event.
- Pinkie has a checklist.
- “She planned our first foal shower where we played all sorts of games” Foal showers are a thing. Not universal even in our world.
- “She planned my cute-ceañera; my dad made me, I won’t lie” Pinkie Pie planned Diamond Tiara’s cute-ceañera, so that’s another thing she does – and she is sufficiently prestigious for Filthy Rich to employ.
- “I’m gonna need the full rainbow!” I do wonder how does she separate the paints afterwards. Even Rarity says, “I don’t know how she does it.” – and I think that is what she meant.
- The banner made today appears multiple times and is a minor chronology marker.
“’Cause this isn’t just any birthday. It’s also the anniversary of when I moved to Ponyville!”
- The word “anniversary” is typically used to refer to yearly celebrations, isn’t it? But then it would refer to Rainbow’s every birthday. She might mean some round number of years since the move, like 5 or 10…
- What exactly caused her to choose this day for the move, anyway?
“Good heavens, Rainbow Dash. It’s your ‘birth-iversary!’” Rarity was not aware of this. There are two possible ways this could happen:
- The word “anniversary” is not normally used for yearly celebrations, but only for round numbers.
- This is the first birthday Rainbow had since Friendship is Magic.
#2 largely can’t happen, because, being a Chest of Harmony Key Incident, this episode is required to happen after Princess Twilight Sparkle, which is required to occur a positive integer number of years after Friendship is Magic – that is, it would force Pinkie to miss the previous birthiversary, which is probably impossible. What’s going on here?
- While Cheese’s song is mostly a montage, he is shown to illustrate it with pictures to the onlookers, so at least some of it is presented as images even if everypony else does not see it actually happen.
- Cheese plays an accordion. I’m not sure if we have seen one before.
- The montage includes a police line-up scene, together with a policepony in a summer uniform (light blue shirt, tie, no pants) together with a cap and
handhoofcuffs, and a police badge for his cutie mark. Two such policeponies, even. This is the earliest description of uniformed police in the series that I remember. Others appear later, not connected to song montages. - One scene in the montage includes a giant pizza. The red circles on it, which look like pepperoni, are not: Obvious segments suggests mega-tomatoes.
- This shot shows us what ponies look like when they are exactly five years old.
- “Bored of snacks made by your mom?” The scene shows a pony attempting to feed the foals a hay bale, though it does not show us ponies actually eating any.
- “Geronimo!” How exactly did ponies come by that?!
- The montage includes hippopotamus rides for children. So does the eventual party.
- “Fizzy drinks, Hawaiian shirts, and brie fondue delight” Now, brie fondue delight is one thing, but Hawaiian shirts? Where is Hawaii?
- “You’re really a certified party pony?” I wonder who certifies them.
- Twilight is walking exactly one pony away from Minuette.
- Pinkie pours the entire watering can into the drain. Ponyville has a drainage system, which we have never encountered previously.
During Pinkie’s montage, Pinkie attempts and fails multiple activities:
- Assisting a surgery. First time we see a surgery at all. Notice that while Pinkie is wearing transparent – presumably, latex – gloves on her front hooves, she’s still standing on them.
- Delivering mail, for which she is wearing yet another non-uniform mailpony uniform. The houses look especially tiny when she is doing that.
- Construction work. The construction occurs on the same site that was shown in The Mysterious Mare Do Well and the building is still exactly at the same stage that it was at during that episode – before it crashed down, that is. It crashes again once Pinkie is done…
Pinkie looks at the photo of her first party, which is the first on-screen appearance of Maud. Notice that Maud does not have a cutie mark in this picture. I’m not sure how that could happen.
I am also pretty sure Pinkie could not have attempted three different jobs in just a few hours until 15:00 that Twilight cites later in the day as Pinkie issues her challenge: Reality-breaking is one thing, society-breaking is quite another. Is she just remembering things she tried to do in the past?
- “Oh, look at Gummy! He just looks so excited for this birthday party!” Now, from Party of One we know that Gummy was born in Year -1, the day before Pinkie’s birthday – which is why I think he was her birthday present for that year, by the way, but this is beside the point – so whether we’re dealing with Year 2, or Year 3, depends on whether this is the same party as in Party of One or not. I don’t see anypony else on this photo, so I’m not sure.
- Today is streetlight day: Lemon Hearts is trying to attach balloons to a bent streetlight. There are two other streetlights in the scene, likewise bent. More streetlights in various states of slightly or significantly bent turn up for the rest of the episode. What the hell were they doing with the poor things?
- The stage prepared for the festivities includes two huge searchlights, one of which is mysteriously projecting an image of Rainbow’s cutie mark into thin air.
- “I challenge you… to a goof off!” While neither Applejack nor Fluttershy have any idea of what one is, Cheese Sandwich does.
- “Um, Pinkie? It’s already 3 o’clock.” The clock shows 15:00 sharp, certifying that the clocks in Equestria are at least supposed to show time the same way as ours.
- Pinkie wears boots on all four hooves. The origins of spurs on these boots are mysterious. Want material for your BDSM jokes? The spurs would work much better than saddles.
- “According to my official goof off rulebook…” A rulebook for goof-offs exists, implying that this is actually an accepted stable practice at least among the party ponies. I imagine that whoever certifies them printed this one…
- “The two competitors have free range to goof about – be it by singing, dancing, playing, prancing, joking, or performing – to make the judge chortle, chuckle, giggle, guffaw, hoot and holler, whoop it up, and party down. The funnier, sillier, wilder, and goofier, the better.” Notice that no rules for the judging are cited. Does remind me a bit of the Fool’s Guild on Discworld.
- Twilight flies away as she announces the start of the goofing, see usage of wings in other episodes of Season 4.
- Notice that Rainbow has no problem at all eating cupcakes, when, according to Secrets and Pies, she never eats pie. Most cupcakes I have eaten had the same issues as pies in terms of texture…
- Why does Cheese’s cheese parade float include cows, I’m not sure. But it does.
- “Why should you compromise? Try this one on for size” And that’s where we see the first actual tank ponies have, used for party purposes. Notice that it also happens to be a tracked vehicle, stupidly pointless without an actual engine. And it shoots pelicans.
- “Dale, dale, dale; No pierdas el tino! Porque si lo pierdes; Pierdes el camino!” Pinkie speaks Spanish for no obvious reason whatsoever. There definitely does appear to be a pony minority that speaks Spanish for whatever reason, and this is the longest phrase we ever hear of it.
- As Pinkie sees Rainbow buried under the confetti tower, she has her Chest of Harmony Key Epiphany, selecting between her ambition to be the best party planner and friendship. The pony impressed by this choice into changing his attitude is Cheese Sandwich, and the souvenir is the rubber chicken.
- Notice that the confetti tower involved the use of the same wooden construction crane that we have seen previously in The Mysterious Mare Do Well.
- Pinkie’s luggage is based around her welcome wagon which we haven’t seen since A Friend In Deed.
- “I fear I told a little fib about my pony past” I sure hope Cheese does not mean he also had a non-pony past.
- “I wasn’t quite the super party pony like I claim” If Cheese’s flashback is to be believed, he is originally from Manehattan.
- “And I saw that everypony had a smile upon their face” The Ponyville party that Cheese stumbled into includes filly versions of Lyra, Bon-Bon, Cloud Chaser, Flitter, Cheerilee and Derpy, but also an adult Twinkleshine, adult Lemon Hearts, but a filly Minuette. I am pretty sure this flashback cannot be taken literally: The latter three were born within two years of each other, tops, according to Amending Fences.
“I traveled all Equestria, and all did know my name”
- This line happens on the background of the Season 4 era official map, making it its first canon appearance. However, it’s not identical to the map we know: It has the Crystal Empire in a completely different place from where every other map puts it - 10% to the east from the north-south line through Canterlot. There is no train line to the Crystal Empire on this map, but a river instead, flowing out of it. What exactly is up with that?
- Sandwiches appear over Appleloosa, Cloudsdale, Baltimare, Applewood, Dodge Junction, Hollow Shades and Pie family farm, Vanhoover, Galloping Gorge, Manehattan, Canterlot. I want to see that party in Hollow Shades in light of Shadow Play, please someone write that!
- “For the one who threw that party, it was you, Pinkie Pie.” This, at least, is an unambiguous spoken statement that he did attend a Pinkie Pie party in his childhood.
The party contains numerous party implements, and among those some are interesting:
- The gigantic Rainbow Dash balloon had to have been prepared by Pinkie in advance.
- Someone is flying a kite shaped like a rocket – the spacecraft kind. See RTAC #9
- The birthday cake contains 21 visible candles. Unfortunately we cannot infer Rainbow’s age from that, because if we assume the candles are spaced evenly around the cake as they should be, the cake would have 35 candles – and Rainbow flies around the cake in a spiral to blow them out, indicating that they are indeed spaced evenly. I don’t think she’s 35.
- There’s a large pizza. And once again we see red circles which are clearly segmented, indicating they are tomatoes rather than pepperoni.
- This party had to have been stupidly expensive, you know? Rainbow has always been a pony of means, it appears, though, knowing what we know about her family from Parental Glideance, I have no idea how.
- Pinkie starts writing in the Friendship journal even before Cheese Sandwich leaves, and gets her key souvenir as she is doing so, so it’s a very hard lock against Castle Mane-ia.
it's a birthiversary. IMO it's mean that cake have candles for her age and coming to Ponyvile anniversary. If she comes to town as fifteen years old then it's mean that she twenty-five years old and live in Ponyvile for ten years. Thirty-five candles?
4716001
That could work! It also agrees decently with my other estimates for the Mane 6 ages.
Her parents send her an allowance even though they have no idea what she's up to? Head Weather Coordinator pays better than we thought? Fluttershy's relatives (like in one fanfic) pay her a salary for looking after their shy filly?
What sort of pies and cupcakes have you been eating? To me, cupcakes feel like, well, cakes. Pies don't: they've got a firmer crust and much more gooey filling.
Do they do cupcakes differently in Obscuria? Around here, cupcakes are generally spongy masses with frosting on top, whereas pies generally are sandwiches of unleavened-sweet flakey breading around a fruit core. Those that aren't cream-based, which still retain the flakey crust, just not across the top of the pie as well as the bottom.
One the many things that irritated me about Parental Glideance was the refusal of the writers to think through all the cues they'd offered about Rainbow's means and past. It doesn't... track with what we were previously shown. All the signs pointed at Dash being a pony of means before that resolutely middle-class set of parents were introduced.
Given the context, I'm pretty sure that Rarity's referring to Pinkie's party planning prowess in general.
The only explanation I have for the birthaversary is that the two events are tracked using different calendars, which invites a slew of other questions.
I think we see one in Pinkie's one-mare band in "Swarm of the Century" and/or "Magic Duel."
Which won't mesh with what we see in "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils"...
Well, Limestone doesn't have one either, and she's the oldest.
Then you have eaten very strange examples of at least one of those desserts.
Traditional piñata song.
The really interesting part is that the majority of that attitude change occured years earlier, unlike any of the other keygivers.
Yeah, this episode, though one of my favorites, is almost as problematic when it comes to determining what is real as a Discord episode.
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I’m an alien, what kind of cupcakes do you expect me to eat?
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Ones made of cake?
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Rich uncle? There is that Rainbow Blaze guy…
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I think saying that the word “anniversary” is used more like a “jubilee” invites much less.
I think it’s just covered.
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Dunno. I was very disappointed when I found out that Soylent isn’t actually made of people.
4716053 I really like that "rich uncle" idea.
Alternatively, Rainbow's parents are rich and just don't like showing it now that Rainbow's moved out of the house. Maybe that was one point of conflict between them and her, or maybe they were quite fine with spending money on her.
Perhaps it is a training site, which is why Pinkie is starting there (and why the building keeps falling down).
At this point we need to consider all earth ponies as capable of developing a "sense," perhaps because their magic is more spread throughout their bodies and thus acts as more of a receiver.
4716001 An elegant solution for the number of candles, I think your description fits.
4716053 Now that we know Dash's house is made of real building materials and not just cloud she solidified herself, her cloud mansion needs to be considered an actual mansion, with all the wealth that implies. Her uncle being rich makes as much sense as anything.
4716130 I could also see her parents having saved up a generous college fund and then just given it to her when she dropped out and they realized she would never attend college.
4717398 Capable, maybe. But AFAIK, we've only got three examples: Pinkie, Maud, and Cheese. Perhaps it's a magical blessing spread by exposure to Pinkie Pie? Or maybe it takes a special sort of cutie mark?
Or maybe, as Forthwith proposed in his Seeking Power, Equestria really doesn't know that much about earth pony magic.
4717410 I could see it as a exposure to Pinkie Pie. Or, for a shippy as heck explanation, the sense appears only for the Pie family and their future mates, as chosen by the choosing stone, because magical rocks are the ultimate power in MLP.
But the whole "earth pony magic has never been studied" thing doesn't really work for me, now that we know Maud got a "rockterate," which sure as heck sounds like a degree in advanced earth pony magic from that earth pony magic school we see, and Applejack is casually rolling out apples the size of Volkswagen Bugs to state fairs.
4717497 A "rockterate" sounds more like a geology degree than a general earth pony magic degree, though for all we know the school also offers "cropterates."
Yes, we know earth ponies can do a lot. But we haven't heard of an "Apple Sense" or a "Mayor Sense," so if they all have the capability to do that, I really don't think they know about it.
And, hey, I'd like to see that fanfic about the Pairing Stone.
4717504 There's a sweet story I remember reading that I've forgot, a romance where each of the Pie sisters activates the choosing stone and then wanders Equestria until they find their mate.