Points of Canon: S4x14 - Filli Vanilli

Oh, deer.

• Bird nests contain eggs.
• Fluttershy feeds birds with some kind of pressed bricks of, presumably, seed, that she hangs on their tree. This is factory-made.
• One of the animals being fed is a jackalope, who mysteriously coexists in the same rabbit-hole with a regular rabbit. The hole is too small for the antlers to get in. Visual gag, Shope papilloma virus, or an actual animal?
• Birds assist Fluttershy in feeding the chipmunks by bringing a bindle of acorns. I wonder, did she pack it herself or did the birds do that for her too?
• The bear gets a full hive of honey sans bees. Hmmmm.
• Mice live in a tree somehow, but get cheese anyway.
• “Wow, I’ve never heard you sing a solo like that before!” Not just Twilight, but the rest of the Mane 5 are astonished to hear Fluttershy sing. Looks like they have not had an opportunity to hear her before that.
• “It was like a little slice of heaven.” Now I wonder if Applejack means heaven as in “paradise” or “poetic name for sky.”
• “Especially since you’re having us perform for your Ponyville Pet Center fundraiser tomorrow night!” Notice that it’s “your” fundraiser – that is, something organized for Fluttershy’s benefit if not by her – and yet we have never heard of anything named “Ponyville Pet Center” before, even if we have seen her give away pets. Even the billboard for the event has Fluttershy on it. What exactly is it? Is it something Fluttershy does as part of her job, her hobby, or something she only assists with?
• “The center of attention! A shining star! Everypony staring at you, judging you, jealously noting how they could be way better than you?” Pinkie has to be doing this deliberately, and keeps this up for the entire episode, but I wonder why.

• “I love the Pony Tones, I’m one of their biggest fans, but I do not want to perform with them.”

  • Notice that Rarity is one of the Pony Tones, and even says “having us perform” earlier – but Fluttershy doesn’t say “I don’t want to perform with you.”
  • To have biggest fans, Pony Tones must have been a thing for months.
  • Notice that Rarity very rarely interacts with Big Mac otherwise, but there they are, singing in the same quartet.
• Twilight flies for emphasis, several times in this episode.
• The pen at the fundraiser contains a deer, among other animals.

• Mac’s Flashback involves a “twelfth annual Ponyville turkey call,” which is yet another yearly event we haven’t seen twice.

  • Big Mac won it six times in a row, but Pinkie won this year.
  • The competition apparently involves imitating the sounds of turkey.
  • Actually, why do ponies keep turkeys?
• It’s interesting that Fluttershy suggests visiting Zecora rather than a doctor. Why?
• Big Mac’s teeth look nothing like Zecora’s teeth in A Health of Information. For comparison, Zecora and Big Mac. Pony incisors are much more pronounced than zebra incisors. Also, Mac’s incisors are chipped.

• “Miss Fluttershy had an unusual change, deepening her vocal range.” “With these leaves I can mix a brew, creating the same effect on you.”

  • It is Zecora who remembers about the poison joke.
  • Zecora has a sample of actual poison joke.
  • Repeat exposure to poison joke is not sufficient to produce the same effect, Zecora needs to mix a brew to do it. Notice also that the effect manifests immediately, while poison joke would only start working the next morning after exposure.
  • Zecora knows how to mix a brew to produce a repeat of a prior effect, indicating that she has been doing research on poison joke.
• And of course Lemon Hearts is here.
• There’s a crescent stage moon backstage. What is it doing here? They never use it.
• For whatever mysterious reason Goldie Delicious is attending this concert with her cats.
• Cherilee swoons as Big Mac starts a solo. Why did they ship him off to Sugar Belle, again?…
• Somepony actually adopted a deer. I want to see the results.
• “My new puppy and I thought it was super-duper crazy good!” Zipporwhill shows off her new puppy, which is clearly the same dog as in Forever Filly – but notice that Zipporwhill already has her cutie mark, and had it before she came in. Getting it was not connected to this particular dog. At the same time, her father invites the Pony Tones to perform at Zipporwhill’s cuteceañera – which means that this happened very recently. I wonder how.
• That’s a rather major cuteceañera at that, with a banner across the town hall and the entire central town square decorated. Bigger than Diamond Tiara had.
• And of course Lemon Hearts, Minuette and Twinkleshine wouldn’t miss it.
• Rarity calls Mayor Mare just “Mayor,” nothing else.
• Mayor has a ribbon cutting ceremony, but why exactly, we never find out.
• The school has the globe and the telescope still in place, but the microscope is missing, because it covers the window where Fluttershy is singing. And notice that this happens in the classroom: School is in session.
• All in all, Fluttershy remains with her voice altered for anywhere between 3 and 6 days. Since Big Mac gets better, and Zecora says that it will take him a week to get better, it has to be 6. Notice that the effect of the “brew” does not wear off in six days and there is no sign of repeat applications.
• “Now you can bathe in the poison joke antidote and sound like your lovely self again.” Even if the effect was reapplied in a manner dissimilar to normal poison joke exposure, it still needs to be removed in the same way.
• Someone has to be keeping that spotlight trained on Fluttershy, I wonder who that is. Considering how teasing Pinkie was in the beginning, and soon after this reveal, I’m suspecting it was her.
• “Poison joke?” “Eeyup.” Now, every other step in Applejack’s deduction is sensible – she has to know her brother very well – but poison joke is a rather serious leap.
• “Fantastic, because the Pony Tones have been booked for the Apple Family Zap Apple Jam Extraordinaire!” Zap apple season begins soon after this episode – it can’t have been happening while this was going on, because then Big Mac would be too busy – and that would be on a positive integer number of years after Family Appreciation Day, giving us a seasonal chronology lock.
• Fluttershy ends the day – with the stage for the performance before her animals still set up – writing in the Friendship Journal, which is another hard lock. There is no gap. While the text she writes matches the printed Journal verbatim, the page layout does not.

And apparently, disheartened by Fluttershy not performing with them after getting a taste of it, the Pony Tones never sang together again.

Comments

[Mitch H]

Cherilee swoons as Big Mac starts a solo. Why did they ship him off to Sugar Belle, again?…

They also messed around with the idea of Marble Mac, and Luna in the comics. It isn't only fanfic writers for whom Big Mac is the mares of Equestria's favorite bicycle.

[Oliver]

4716859

It isn’t only fanfic writers for whom Big Mac is the mares of Equestria’s favorite bicycle.

Well, he is one of the very few established male characters who isn’t taken, who else are they supposed to ride? Nameless ponies from the crowd?

[Mitch H]

4716864
"Yes!" - Association of Nameless Stallions In The Crowd Local #301

[QueenMoriarty]

but poison joke is a rather serious leap.

Considering she had heard Fluttershy's deep voice, all she needs to do is remember what effect Fluttershy took from poison joke and the rest is intuitive.

[Oliver]

4717113

Considering she had heard Fluttershy’s deep voice, all she needs to do is remember what effect Fluttershy took from poison joke and the rest is intuitive.

The issue with this is that it involves the assumption that poison joke effects are repeatable. Why would they be, if they are so varied? I’m not saying she couldn’t have made that guess, I’m saying that this is the shakiest guess in the chain, and thus the most remarkable one.

[QueenMoriarty]

4717178
To be fair, one could reasonably assume that Zecora gave the Mane Six a pretty comprehensive rundown of how poison joke works after they all got cured, just so that they all know what to do. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if Rainbow Dash eventually switches to using poison joke during training, because doing tricks with properly working wings just isn't challenging anymore.

[howard035]

One of my favorite S4 episodes, for being so light-hearted and silly.

I think the Ponyville Pet Center is what Fluttershy has named her pet adoption service that she runs out of her house. If she's fundraising for it, presumably she gives the pets away for free and runs it as a non-profit.

I'm a fan of the fact that the deer was cast out for having unnatural relations with a rabbit, and he goes mute to pretend he is a pet and live off the generosity of ignorant ponies.

That’s a rather major cuteceañera at that, with a banner across the town hall and the entire central town square decorated. Bigger than Diamond Tiara had.

So Diamond was justified in damning Pinkie's efforts with faint praise a few episodes back, apparently.

4716864 I've actually seen a fairly good reason why Sugar Belle works as the best Mac ship we've seen on the show from David Silver: Sugar Belle has a horn, and Mac definitely has a thing for unicorns/alicorns.

4716868

"Yes!" - Association of Nameless Stallions In The Crowd Local #301

Good old Local 301. Great at marches, terrible at electing a spokespony.

[Oliver]

4717422

I think the Ponyville Pet Center is what Fluttershy has named her pet adoption service that she runs out of her house. If she’s fundraising for it, presumably she gives the pets away for free and runs it as a non-profit.

That is probably the best option so far.

I’m a fan of the fact that the deer was cast out for having unnatural relations with a rabbit, and he goes mute to pretend he is a pet and live off the generosity of ignorant ponies.

Would work, until that other deer turned up in Fluttershy Leans In. :)