Points of Canon: S9x07 - She’s All Yak

See Yona. See Yona Dance. Dance, Dammit, Dance!

Never mind.

• Chronology markers: School of Friendship is the focus of the episode. Spike has wings, and it takes a very careful viewing to see them. After the dance, Yona runs away to the Treehouse of Harmony, forcing this episode into Season 9 proper. The episode itself occupies multiple days – I would presume a week.

• “New posters! We never had those underwater!”

  • It’s an open question what did they use the picture frames underwater for, though.
  • One of the posters is the poster of Star Swirl the White traveling museum from Three’s a Crowd. What the hell is it doing here when Star Swirl the Grey is supposed to be in evidence, theoretically, is anyone’s guess. Is the circus museum back in town? Does Star Swirl know?…
• “We’re bringing one of Ponyville’s oldest traditions to our school, the Fetlock Fete.” Notice the very rare use of the word “fetlock.” Never mind the “fete.”

• “This year, the event’s at school. And open to everycreature. We’re calling our dance the Amity Ball.”

  • This is a yearly event.
  • At prior times it was held at other venues.
  • Despite the tradition, Twilight chose to rename the event anyway, and later, the only participants we see are school ponies, rather than the general population of Ponyville. What exactly is going on here?

• “Wanna go? I got nothing better to do.”

  • And the Gallstream shippers winced.
  • Both Gallus and Smolder snap their fingers, a gesture rarely seen for obvious reasons – but notably, shared by griffons and dragons.
• “Oh! Terribly sorry. All these dresses I’m sewing for the dance have me completely frazzled.” Rarity is hauling a clothes rack from school to her work bedroom in the Boutique, as we can observe in the next scene – and notice that it contains the Gala dresses first introduced in Suited For Success, many years ago. What exactly is she planning to do with them?…
• “Yona interrupting?” Notice that Rarity does not appear to use any magic when sewing. That said, she usually doesn’t.

• “In that case, at an elegant affair like the pony dance, one must converse in a sophisticated fashion. Talking with Brussels sprouts in your mouth helps you learn to articulate.”

  • So is this an actual tradition or just the way Rarity has always done? Because among the Ponyvillains, she would probably stand out.
  • So how did ponies come by the name “Brussels?”
• “The weather is quite agreeable.” Notice the very rare appearance of an umbrella – and once again, owned by Rarity. Or is that a parasol?
• “Now, purple taffeta, frosted chiffon, ooh, gold brocade, one of my favorites.” I have previously commented on the words taffeta and chiffon, and the oddity that ponies even have those words, I believe. Brocade is another one – it’s of Italian origin, and derives from the same root as broccoli.

• “A hornicure and a defrizz”

  • We’ve previously observed unicorns have cosmetic procedures involving filing the horn, but this is the first time they get a name. Apparently, yaks can survive those too.
  • Notice that Rarity uses a powered polisher with a plainly visible power cord. Defrizz involves something that looks suspiciously like an electric shaver, possibly battery powered.

• “Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy good at dancing?”

  • Something we haven’t been aware of before, either.
  • Fluttershy prefers “pony cotillion” while Rainbow prefers “pony prance.”
• “I’m awesome at everything! Except for baking.” Rainbow acknowledges she isn’t good at baking. Who’d have thought. But more importantly, when did she try?

• “We’ll start with the slow dance, the Pony Cotillion.”

  • That it’s a pony cotillion implies that it was necessary, at least at some point, to distinguish it from a non-pony version. Which suggests that ponies imported it and had to adapt it, doesn’t it? The same refers to “pony prance.”
  • If the chart Fluttershy made for Yona means anything, it implies that the pony cotillion is less of a social dance, like the human version, and more of a couples dance: No motion in formation is possible on a linear chart, and later, when the dance is actually seen, couples perform it arranged in a line, with no motion between the lines.
• “Yona feel like she has four front feet!” Observe the rare use of the word “feet.”
• “Mine’s way easier.” As Angel flips the record, we can see that it really is a centimeter thick. Gah.
• “Just get with the flow and let yourself go!” One of the objects Yona disturbs is a rack of dumbbells. Just how exactly are those used?…
• Big Mac runs off screen, pursuing a barrel. Which would imply cider, right? The one that doesn’t keep at all?… Later on, we see him operate the cider squeeze machine first seen in Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 as well. I’m not sure if we should take this to imply the episode is set in autumn or not, though from the other clues, it probably is.
• “Yona think make traditional yak dish - tree root stew!” You’d think, in Yakyakistan, tree roots would not be on the menu, on account of not having a whole lot of trees. Or maybe, that is why they don’t have a lot of trees?…
• “Flour, milk, sugar, butter, icing.” Pinkie performs multiple feats of maneipulation throughout.
• “Apple sauce it is!” If we’re to believe this episode, apple sauce is typically produced by crushing apples with your hooves. By the ton. Same way as in Pedestria, as seen in Rollercoaster of Friendship, basically.
• When giving Yona yet another cleaning, Rainbow and Pinkie wear hazmat suits with a radiation danger trefoil in place of cutie mark, once again reiterating that yes, ponies know what radiation is. Notice that the fact that this cleaning is necessary – after Rarity had already done it once – probably means that yaks find it difficult to clean themselves fully, not that this would be much of a surprise with the apparent thick fur.
• “I’m DJ Scales-and-Tail, spinning your favorite tunes all night long!” Notice they didn’t call Vinyl this time, when previously she would turn up in this role invariably.
• One of the lucky buckets contains crystals. Probably Spike’s handiwork. Notice also a stallion bringing a bucket, implying that the tradition is not gender-restricted.
• “You should’ve told Yona that.” So wait, how did she avoid knowing that? Oh right, she’s a yak.
• “Welcome, everycreature, to our school’s first annual Amity Ball!” That’s a dynamic microphone with a very obvious antenna on it. For that matter, Spike’s DJ turntable includes numerous obviously electrical elements, and very importantly, what has to be a cassette tape recorder – next to a synth keyboard. Magnetic recording requires the ability to generate a bias signal in the 40-150 kHz range, and is not possible without a transistor or a tube, not that I doubted ponies had both.
• While Yona is raising hell, the rest of the Student Six are playing cards. Unfortunately, even when they spill the deck, we don’t see any kings, queens or jacks, so that still doesn’t tell us what do they look like in Equestria.
• To defend against the flying lucky pots, Twilight puts up a heretofore unseen flat vertical shield.
• “What a calamitous yakcident!” I presume Rarity didn’t plan on making a joke at Yona’s expense, which would imply that the word “yakcident” is in common use around the school by now, just like the yakcidents themselves.
• “Sandbar name two ponies worse than Yona.” “Cozy Glow and Sombra.” Sombra is considered a pony, despite being otherwise fairly ethereal. So is Cozy Glow, who is still supposed to be a child in Tartarus. Just sayin’.
• “My friend, Yona, the yak.” Observe a shooting star passing by almost horizontally.
• “From now on, it’s the annual Amity Ball Award for Friendship!” In the time Yona and Sandbar were away, one of the ponies on the award acquired a coat of brown and horns, so this definitely wasn’t a spur of the moment decision and was something Twilight expected to do, even though there was no guarantee Yona would return at all.

So to get the award for friendship you have to make a mess, run away, and then return and say you’re sorry. Got it.

P.S. What happened to everypony’s faces? New animators? Don’t like them.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Observe a shooting star passing by almost horizontally.

I can only conclude that at least one of Applejack's parents ships it.

[Mitch H]

I think Spike's DJ costume is supposed to evoke DJ Deadmau5.

And I swear it sounded like Twilight was talking about 'Amityville' at one point. The 'Amity Ball' thing is easily mangled by the voice actors.

[Oliver]

5057262

Sure it’s not Sombra though?

[hawthornbunny]

“I’m awesome at everything! Except for baking.” Rainbow acknowledges she isn’t good at baking. Who’d have thought. But more importantly, when did she try?

Presumably "Secrets and Pies". Rainbow Dash makes a giant pie to apologize to Pinkie.

[howard035]

I gotta give this episode points just for the clever name.

One of the posters is the poster of Star Swirl the White traveling museum

At this point it's pretty clear with Sunburst and Trixie that unicorns have assigned Star Swirl's outfit the status of "uniform of a powerful wizard." There was definitely at least one white unicorn who dressed like that was probably a legit powerful wizard who got immortalized in tapestries. The question is, did he call himself Star Swirl to pull a Dread Pirate Roberts, or did history just forget his name and assign his accomplishments to Star Swirl based on the resemblance. (Season 7 and 8 have taught us just how incompetent Equestrian historians and archaeologists are).

What exactly is going on here?

Originally I figured Twilight was just throwing her version of the dance. So she actually disfigured the original Fetlock Fete statue by gluing clumps of yak hair on it at the end? Princess Prerogative I guess.

“The weather is quite agreeable.”

"The Rain in Spain falls mainly when Rainbow Dash gets off her plot."

• Fluttershy prefers “pony cotillion” while Rainbow prefers “pony prance.”

It's really hard to blame Yona for thinking she has to go to elaborate lengths to ponify herself when they slap the word "pony" on just about everything.

• That it’s a pony cotillion implies that it was necessary, at least at some point, to distinguish it from a non-pony version. Which suggests that ponies imported it and had to adapt it, doesn’t it? The same refers to “pony prance.”

Ehhhhh. They're so obsessed with putting the word "pony," or the names of pony body parts on things, I could see them naming the dances like that just because. Or to make the donkeys and mules know they aren't invited to the Fetlock Fete.

No motion in formation is possible on a linear chart, and later, when the dance is actually seen, couples perform it arranged in a line, with no motion between the lines.

Yeah, I don't know why they didn't call it a waltz. Maybe because cotillion is a thing teenage girls go to in America, and they're trying to make it seem more relatable to the audience?

• “Yona feel like she has four front feet!” Observe the rare use of the word “feet.”

Her hooves are shown many times to be multiple separate digits that can squeeze together in a way that ponies can't, even though as far as I know yak hooves in real life are pretty much identical to horse hooves.

– probably means that yaks find it difficult to clean themselves fully

Probably in their native environment the yaks get covered in snow often enough that it's less of an issue.

Spike’s DJ turntable includes numerous obviously electrical elements,

And yet we just see him play records in a regular fashion that could be accomplished with a basica record player attached to loudspeakers.

I guess Spike is committed to this new DJ identity and Twilight feels enough maternal/sororal guilt to spend school funds buying unnecessary equipment for him.

• And the Gallstream shippers winced.

I thought from Gallus saying "I'm glad I'm here with you guys" that the other 4 were going as friends, but I could be wrong.

• this definitely wasn’t a spur of the moment decision and was something Twilight expected to do, even though there was no guarantee Yona would return at all.

So to get the award for friendship you have to make a mess, run away, and then return and say you’re sorry. Got it.

She was always going to give the award to the Yak-Pony couple. But she couldn't put the fur on it ahead of time or it would be obvious.

I rather liked this episode. Very predictable, but I'm a huge sucker for things based on classic musicals. Or things based on George Bernard Shaw plays. I've been saying for a year the student 6 episodes would be better if they focused on a few of them at a time instead of making every episode equally about all 6, and this was definitely better than Uprooted.

[Shrink Laureate]

• Despite the tradition, Twilight chose to rename the event anyway, and later, the only participants we see are school ponies, rather than the general population of Ponyville. What exactly is going on here?

• “I’m DJ Scales-and-Tail, spinning your favorite tunes all night long!” Notice they didn’t call Vinyl this time, when previously she would turn up in this role invariably.

It seems likely that the residents of Ponyville are having their usual dance, and the school is doing their own version of it on the same day.

• To defend against the flying lucky pots, Twilight puts up a heretofore unseen flatvertical shield.

It's actually an enormous sphere. It just looks flat close up.

[Manga Shoggoth]

• “In that case, at an elegant affair like the pony dance, one must converse in a sophisticated fashion. Talking with Brussels sprouts in your mouth helps you learn to articulate.”
• • So is this an actual tradition or just the way Rarity has always done? Because among the Ponyvillains, she would probably stand out.

It sounds like a reference to Demosthenes, who supposedly trained out a speech impediment by speaking with pebbles in his mouth (which inspired a similar scene in My Fair Lady/Pygmalion, but with marbles).

Not sure if brussels are an improvement (although my daughter would have a very definite opinion on the matter).

[Shrink Laureate]

No motion in formation is possible on a linear chart, and later, when the dance is actually seen, couples perform it arranged in a line, with no motion between the lines.

Is this the same dance that we see Bright Mac and Pear Butter perform (at a distance) in The Perfect Pear? It looks a lot like it.

[Shrink Laureate]

5057399
Children would be less likely to swallow sprouts than, say, pebbles or marbles.

[Shrink Laureate]

Spike’s DJ turntable includes numerous obviously electrical elements,

And yet we just see him play records in a regular fashion that could be accomplished with a basica record player attached to loudspeakers.

I know audiophiles. Massively over-complicated ways of doing perfectly ordinary things is entirely their way.

[The Cloptimist]

So how did ponies come by the name “Brussels?”

Pony Belgium confirmed! Seriously, though, is that the first time a real-world place name has made it through intact, i.e. without being Baltimared?

[Oliver]

5057381

Or to make the donkeys and mules know they aren’t invited to the Fetlock Fete.

Donkeys are an option, actually, though the actual status and culture of this minority are quite nebulous.

Her hooves are shown many times to be multiple separate digits that can squeeze together in a way that ponies can’t, even though as far as I know yak hooves in real life are pretty much identical to horse hooves.

Well, Yona’s are your typical cloven hooves…

5057391

It seems likely that the residents of Ponyville are having their usual dance, and the school is doing their own version of it on the same day.

Best solution so far.

It’s actually an enormous sphere. It just looks flat close up.

In all cases where anything like such a big sphere was involved, though, the caster was much closer to its center.

5057399

It sounds like a reference to Demosthenes, who supposedly trained out a speech impediment by speaking with pebbles in his mouth (which inspired a similar scene in My Fair Lady/Pygmalion, but with marbles).

Yes, and yes, but I was referring to sophisticated talking being a tradition as such.

5057533

Pony Belgium confirmed! Seriously, though, is that the first time a real-world place name has made it through intact, i.e. without being Baltimared?

No, it’s not. I would be hard pressed to give you an exhaustive list, but there are multiple cases where things named in English for their geographical origin and retaining the words ponies shouldn’t have in their names slip through unchanged, nobody seems to think it’s a problem.

[Manga Shoggoth]

"Yes, and yes, but I was referring to sophisticated talking being a tradition as such."

In that case I suspect you are right - Rarity would very much be on her own there.

5057403

Very true - or at least it would be a greater deterrent. My Fair Lady did do swallowing a marble in its scene.

[Samey90]

• So how did ponies come by the name “Brussels?”

I immediately started to wonder whether "Belgium" is a curse in their language...

[howard035]

5057567

Well, Yona’s are your typical cloven hooves…

Sure, and her cloven hoof dexterity has the same relationship to real cloven hooves that the ponies have to real wide hooves.

But as far as I can tell (from brief internet searches), yaks in real life don't have cloven hooves, they have wide hooves very similar to horses and ponies, so it's interesting that Yona has cloven hooves.

[Seraphem]

So is this an actual tradition or just the way Rarity has always done? Because among the Ponyvillains, she would probably stand out.

It actually is (kind of) a legit think suggested for helping someone learn how to properly enunciate and speak more properly. Though you are supposed to use marbles instead of vegetables. (Oh, the other thing, yeah that's likely just a Rarity thing, seeing any type of social event as something on par with the snootiest of upper crust soirees as far as how you should act.)

I have previously commented on the words taffeta and chiffon, and the oddity that ponies even have those words,

All the 'how do they have that word' issues can actually be covered under a single assumption about what we are seeing. That we are simply being given the equivalent for us that would make sense.

Rainbow acknowledges she isn’t good at baking. Who’d have thought. But more importantly, when did she try?

Secrets and Pies, when she tried to bake the apology pie for Pinkie. for having trashed all her pies before that.

One of the objects Yona disturbs is a rack of dumbbells. Just how exactly are those used?…

Held in the mouth to increase neck strength? Not the first time they've shown up but still...... yeah odd.

You’d think, in Yakyakistan, tree roots would not be on the menu, on account of not having a whole lot of trees. Or maybe, that is why they don’t have a lot of trees?…

We did see Yona and her family going into a forest in the Hearthswarming Club story about her.

If we’re to believe this episode, apple sauce is typically produced by crushing apples with your hooves.

Not necessarily. Apple sauce is pretty much the only thing left of the apple once Yona was done, doesn't mean that's the usual way of creating it, just the way Yona went about it.

One of the lucky buckets contains crystals. Probably Spike’s handiwork.

Or Smolder.

“What a calamitous yakcident!” I presume Rarity didn’t plan on making a joke at Yona’s expense, which would imply that the word “yakcident” is in common use around the school by now

Hmmmm, possible. I could certainly believe it. Or it could also have just been a Freudian Slip.
5057381

I guess Spike is committed to this new DJ identity and Twilight feels enough maternal/sororal guilt to spend school funds buying unnecessary equipment for him.

Or they just borrowed Vinyl's spare rig. Or Pinkie Pie has fully equipped DJ rigs stashed all over Ponyville, in case of DJ emergency.

(Season 7 and 8 have taught us just how incompetent Equestrian historians and archaeologists are).

Well, a lot of the stuff they haven't really figured out or are very vague are things that had the period where Discord was making the world his personal squeeze toy in between the researches and the time period, who knows how bad he screwed up records of any time before him.

[howard035]

5057754

Well, a lot of the stuff they haven't really figured out or are very vague are things that had the period where Discord was making the world his personal squeeze toy in between the researches and the time period, who knows how bad he screwed up records of any time before him.

That's fair for central Equestria, though I don't think he was really affecting things on global level.

[Seraphem]

5057835
That's covered under Ponies as a whole not really seeming to be overly curious about things going on outside Equestria.

And/Or, well, where was Discord before coming to Equestria?

[howard035]

5057856 According to the comics, he's done everything from help overthrow tyrants in southern Equestria to serve in the court of Tirek's father. And he's always used the chaos dimensions as his home base.

[Scottbert]

I'm ready!

Does... does she have to do that every time she leaves the school grounds? That's just sad...

I honestly expected yak dancing to be stomping in place SMASHing whatever's under your feet.

Pony... Pony... more pony.

Are we tackling minority representation in mass media in a kid's cartoon?

She's not actually going to try to fit those dresses on Yona, is she?

IS THAT A SONG COMING ON?

Choose what you wanna be--

Is Pony Yona going to become a thing like Fluttertree?

Too furry

Is that Opal on her head? Yes, yes it is.

Really? These two are dancers? I'm as surprised as Yona.

(Rapidfire dance steps)

Fluttershy you are an actual teacher at a school now, you know this won't work.

So... the second dance doesn't have steps per se. Seems like Yona could do alright, if she didn't confuse 'dancing' with 'running from place to place knocking everything over'.

Then again, the traditional yak dance did involve a lot of such movement, so I suppose they do have to explain that the Pony Prance is one of those stay-in-place dances.

Really? Rarity, expert seamstress, failed to make a dress that fit a yak?

Wow, she's actually making progress. It's going to turn out that Sandbar doesn't care about tradition, huh. Wait, no: It's going to be that he was looking forward to this fete being different from in the past, so Yona acting just like a pony makes it boring?

Seabreeze are you eating peanuts with the shells on.

I don't really have any particular comment on the dancing scenes, but I see that Twilight's learned to be quick on the draw with those shield spells. Rarity, now is not the time for wordplay.

Everybody just treks through the Post-Reboot Actively Malicious Everfree like it's no big thing. I guess Starswirl's still keeping it safe.

Will you come back to the dance with me?

Dude you trekked all the way through the forest, is the fete even still going on?

HOW DOES SPIKE HAVE MUSIC READY FOR THIS?

Finally, a dance Twilight can do!

---

Is the circus museum back in town? Does Star Swirl know?…

No, he's still keeping the Everfree in check.

All these dresses I’m sewing for the dance have me completely frazzled.

That reminds me, we didn't see anypony wearing a dress at the dance. Combined with the lack of Ponyville ponies... could it be that Twilight's event isn't replacing the town dance, but being held at the same time at the school? Wonder why, though...

You’d think, in Yakyakistan, tree roots would not be on the menu, on account of not having a whole lot of trees.

That's why she's so bad at making it! ...I was going to spin a theory about a 'traditional' recipe being passed down for so long the Yakyakistan climate had changed, but given everything we've seen about yaks, it's more likely just a silly nonsensical tradition. Alternately, it's the yak version of stone soup, but since yaks not allowed to acknowledge subtext, Yona, being a young yak, hasn't picked up on it yet and took the tradition literally.

Notice they didn’t call Vinyl this time, when previously she would turn up in this role invariably.

More support for the theory that the main fete is happening in Ponyville at the same time.

I presume Rarity didn’t plan on making a joke at Yona’s expense, which would imply that the word “yakcident” is in common use around the school by now, just like the yakcidents themselves.

That makes more sense than making a joke, although the implication is a bit sad. Poor Yona.

Sombra is considered a pony, despite being otherwise fairly ethereal.

He started as a pony and transformed himself -- still counts! Sandbar understands that transponyism doesn't make you less of a pony, I guess.

One of the objects Yona disturbs is a rack of dumbbells. Just how exactly are those used?…

Just remembered that this isn't the first time we've seen one: Isn't a dumbbell also Roid Rage Snowflake's cutie mark?