It's time again!

So, the next episode is called "Viva Las Pegasus". I think that means "Live the pegasus" or something? Doesn't really make much sense, but sounds like we're going to Las Pegasus, anyway,

So this episode is by Kevin Burke & Chris "Doc" Wyatt. They did "The Times They Are A Changling", too, only that time, the story was partially by Mike Vogel. This time, it's just them.

Not totally sure what to expect from this one, but this is the official episode thread, so feel free to speculate!

--Sweetie Belle
(Not sure if anypony pays attention to this, but there's a master list stickied of these threads, too...)

After having read the description of this episode, I honestly can't wait!

AJ AND FLUTTERS WOO!

Well, their last episode was a pass-the-idiot-ball cringer (in that I spent most of the episode cringing in anticipation of what each character was about to do), so I'm not feeling real upbeat.

5493909 I'm not wholly sure if you're being sarcastic about the name not making sense but either way

Well, I certainly enjoyed that. Do you think the animal trainers are supposed to be like Siegfried and Roy?

5494556 I think so.

5494556
I think that is exactly who they were meant to be.

5494556

Definitely Siegfried and Roy. I'm just slightly disappointed that they're nowhere near as funny as the Father of the Pride versions of them.,

Someone asked what the moral of the episode was. There were a couple, one of which was "don't refuse to help someone because they 'don't deserve it,'"a very Fluttershy moral, and the second would be "don't trust someone who claims to be your only friend." I also kind of liked that while Applejack knows she can't trust them, they absolutely trust her--and in turn, she trusts them to be exactly what they are.

No worries, they're not going to reform. Thank goodness!

Now for the follow up, where they both realize they're in love with her

On the episode itself, I'll admit, I was actually a little disappointed that there wasn't a Flim Flam musical number. Oh well.

On how the episode affected my writing, I'm surprised at how little I had to change the Las Pegasus arc of a certain long-runner I have after watching it. All I really had to do was get the city off the ground, mention that there's a ground neighborhood and a higher cloud neighborhood that the Strip is sandwiched between (because I still hold to the headcanon that it's a hybrid city, and there weren't enough shots of the city to prove me wrong), put the train station and some buildings on top of mountains, and then tweak some words to fit the situation. Oh, and I added a mention of Gladmane's.

So yeah, the Las Pegasus story I wrote remains more or less the same, except one certain scene just became more terrifying for the characters.

5494556 You gotta watch out. Those tiger-striped prairie dogs are vicious. Never turn your back on one.

And on that note, tiger-striped prairie dogs. WHY WAS THIS NOT A THING SOONER? IT'S 2016! WE LANDED A BUNCH OF PEOPLE ON THE MOON, MADE CELL PHONES THAT CAN BROWSE THE INTERNET AND POCKET RADIOS THAT ACTUALLY FIT IN YOUR POCKET BEFORE SOMEONE CAME UP WITH THESE PRAIRIE DOGS!

A truncated version of my first impressions review

(SPOILERS!)

Now here is a strange episode. I cannot fault Viva Las Pegasus for its simpleminded resolution. The episode has enough imagination to balance out the missteps.

Applejack and Fluttershy are called by the map to Las Pegasus, a take on Las Vegas. Being that this is a children's show, the neon-bathed streets and seedy casinos are simplified into an upscale carnival, with party games, lavish hotels, and even a giant roller coaster. This is what a child might imagine Vegas as being, and the episode gets credit for that. At the hotel Applejack and Fluttershy go to, they meet the manager, Mr. Gladmane, a genteel type who loves giving tours. Seeing that he speaks with a charismatic drawl, it is almost certain he will turn out to be a bad guy. More on that later.

Gladmane knows who Applejack and Fluttershy are at first sight, having heard of them from fellow bigwigs who have met Princess Twilight. AJ is somewhat apprehensive at first, but calms after hearing testimony from various performers that Gladmane is a great guy. Two not so great guys also happen to be staying the hotel, brothers Flim and Flam. Unlike their usual selves, they are at each others throats. Fluttershy is sure the map was calling them to fix the rift between Flim and Flam, but Applejack wants nothing to do with them.

Applejack goes searching on her own for friendship problems, and finds the performers from earlier fighting with one another. Each believe their fellow stars went behind their back. The two Mane 6 realize Gladmane has been spreading lies to keep his stars from getting along and therefore going on tour. I understand what the show is trying to do with this, making Gladmane a master manipulator against friendships. But his plans do not make much sense when applied to the real world. Vegas hotel managers want big stars to perform at their venues, of course, but I assume they rotate their lineups often. Seeing the same performers do repeat acts gets stale. Though this is not necessarily a problem of the episode. What is a problem is Gladmane's methods. Surely instead of keeping his stars at his hotel, their bickering would lead to the acts breaking off entirely. There could have been a reason why the stars would be unable to split, perhaps having signed deceptive contracts, or something. But nothing of the sort is mentioned. Gladmane is simply evil. Which in terms of just the episode works well enough.

The two Mane 6 and Flim and Flam join forces to expose Gladmane's seedy nature, in what the brothers term a high-roller hustle. They want him to feel his livelihood is threatened, so Fluttershy dons a disguise as Ms. Impossibly Rich, an entrepreneur looking to build her own hotels. Their plan is for Gladmane to admit his misdeeds over a microphone. Things seem to work until he pulls the rug from under their hooves, explaining he saw through their ruse from the beginning. Applejack and Fluttershy visit Gladmane in his office, where he goes into a self-congratulatory speech about being a villain. Only he's been made a fool, as Flutters held down the loudspeaker button. Gladmane loses his hotel and his reputation.

I do like this episode, even with its problems. I feel more could have been done with Gladmane. The lies he spreads are so simple, amounting to “your fellow star called you this.” Not that those type of lies are ineffective, but they can be mixed in with more devious actions. Doing so would have made Gladmane feel more like a real manipulator, and less like a schoolyard bully. A great aspect of the episode is how it utilizes the characters. For once, Applejack's stubbornness not only makes sense in context of the story, but drives the plot forward. It even saves the day. As Fluttershy explains, Applejack's unwillingness to help Flim and Flam is what leads her to finding the other performer's bickering, leading to the investigation into Gladmane's actions. Fluttershy is the epitome of her element here, willing to help even Flim and Flam. She also gets to use her talent of talking to animals to gain information. Last to compliment is Las Pegasus itself. It is unlike any city seen in the show thus far, so full of energy and vigor.

a fun thing i spotted- the couple from the restaurant critic episode were in the background in gladmane's casino.

overall, the casino looks more like a theme park, with the roller coaster and various games. if there is a seedy side to the town, we dont see it in this episode.

5494925

Now for the follow up, where they both realize they're in love with her

Now that's a cute idea

5495129 I'm not exactly sure...I'm going to have to ponder it.

5495551 I insist that this is true in the Reflections verse: the Justices Flim and Flam are in love with Liar Applejack, and they're in love with the same mare in the comics, so why not?

5493909

Pretty good episode. Nice to see them tackle the issue of sycophancy and using friendship to deliberately manipulate others, which surprisingly isn't a subject that comes up much. I also appreciated AJ and Flutters being smart and savvy enough to figure the whole thing out, acquire reliable (if practically unusable) testimonies from the animals to back their theory up, and realize they needed to reunite Flim and Flam in order to proceed. There was a lot of genuine competence in this episode, especially for a show that has an unfortunate tendency to hand out idiot balls to characters who should know better.

On a side note: I kept staring at that one background poster with the blonde mare. You know the one.

Mostly, though, I'm excited about the heavily implied existence of another Rich. Headcanon-wise I'm assuming Impossibly Rich is an actual real pony (since you can't just invent a super-rich celebrity and hope another super-rich celebrity buys it) so now I'm wondering where she fits into the Rich family.

My best guess would be that she's Filthy's sister or something like that. "Grand matriarch" does imply that she would be his mother or even grandmother, but since Filthy is almost certainly quite a bit older than Fluttershy, I don't think she could possibly pass for somepony that old even if the con was intended to fail.

So, Diamond has an aunt now, I suppose.

5496610

Headcanon-wise I'm assuming Impossibly Rich is an actual real pony (since you can't just invent a super-rich celebrity and hope another super-rich celebrity buys it)

That argument would work if they hoped Gladmane would buy it -- but remember that the actual plan relied on getting him to underestimate our heroes. Pretending that you assume he would be fooled by a non-existent gillionaire sounds like a good way to do that.

5493909 I heard the lesson was like "treat your enemies with kindness", which in today's day and age really isn't a good lesson, especially for the kids. Not in my opinion, at least. In America, the only thing we live by is that if you're not walking on eggshells, your ass is grass.

5496820

There is such a thing as being too obvious, though. Gladmane was an experienced conman who knew very well how sharp Flim and Flam were, so if they made it too easy for him to figure out, he would have gotten suspicious. He had to believe they were genuinely trying to fool him, which wouldn't have worked if their plan seemed too stupid.

5497580

That's incredibly cynical, but whatever.

The actual moral was that you should talk to your friends and family if there is a conflict, rather than resent them and get into fights, because misunderstandings is a thing. And also that while friendship is great, some people claiming to be your friend may try to take advantage of you.

5498102 Ah, so that's how it went. Thanks for clearing that up, but...

some people claiming to be your friend may try to take advantage of you.

This is a thing in real life, especially on Facebook and such sites on the Internet, and it's one of my personal biggest peeves.

This episode was a nice change of pace. After all, we've had Applejack/Rainbow Dash, Applejack/Rarity, Applejack/Pinkie Pie, and Applejack/Twilight episodes. Similarly we've had Fluttershy/Rarity, Fluttershy/Twilight, and Fluttershy/Rainbow Dash episodes. But I've never seen a Applejack/Fluttershy episode. In fact, now that I think about it, I haven't seen those two interact all that much on screen. The most was them arguing in Bats! Definitely nice to see them paired for an episode. Would like to see it happen again. Think it would also be fun to see a Fluttershy/Pinkie Pie episode.... Maybe next season?

Dreadnought

5493909

The second Gladmane started talking, I knew he was going to be the villain. He radiated sleaze like the sun does heat.

In a way, I find I enjoy villains like him a bit more than cackling madmen like Sombra and Tirek. Their evil might be much smaller-scale, but it also feels a lot more real. There is no shortage of manipulative bastards who pretend to be your friend in order to use you for their own ends, and it's nice to have villains that are more down-to-earth now and again.

5498437 Yes. He reminds me of Suri Polomare in that way--and they're also both more direct challenges to friendship, so they're closer to the theme of the show (not that the occasional epic villain isn't welcome too, of course.).