My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Fridge Logic

Fridge Logic for My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic

General
"You know, I think I've figured out why it is that the girls felt so out of place at the Grand Galloping Gala. It was a High-Brow, Upper-Class Affair, and all of them are Working Class girls. [...] Lacking any working knowledge of the Gala, they imagine it using the fanciest event they've experienced or known about: Applejack imagines something like a fancy State Fair, Rainbow Dash pictures an Air Show, and Pinkie Pie just pictures a party and carnival bigger then any she's ever seen. Fluttershy, not caring about the Gala itself, just imagines the Castle's gardens to be a fancier, more exotic wildlife preserve then what she's seen. Only Rarity has an accurate concept of the Gala itself, and it's clear from her romantic fantasy, it's one based entirely from Romance Novels and Fashion Magazines. Twilight herself just imagines she'll be able to spend time with Princess Celestia, like she did before going to Ponyville."
 * Why did Princess Celestia assign Twilight Sparkle's living quarters to the library? More specifically, why did she assign Spike's quarters at the library? Still more specifically, why did she let the fire breathing dragon live inside a wooden tree and surrounded by flammable, paper books?
 * Said tree is specifically mentioned to have a magical lightning rod. I don't think magical sprinklers are out of the question.
 * Said dragon's flames merely teleport paper material to the princess, as evidenced by Spike's hiccup and the rain of scrolls on Princess Celestia. Lady knows what she's doing.
 * Said paper materials fall on Celestia's head. Lady hasn't thought her cunning plan all the way through.
 * The book's ashes didn't fly out the window to Celestia. It's the scrolls that are magical, not the fire.
 * The best explanation this troper has run across is that ponies (or at least unicorns) communicate via specially prepared scrolls which, when burned, reappear in the fireplace of the addressee. Because Twilight moves around frequently for field work or at the request of the princess but is almost always accompanied by Spike, he is registered as her "fireplace" for postal purposes. Spike's fire acts normally when used for cooking and burns other paper normally; those specially prepared postal scrolls are the only things teleported.
 * Said dragon's flames also destroy books, as evidenced by Spike's dragon flames destroying books.
 * Yes but the binding didn't burst into flames with the rest of the book, so the bindings on Equestrian books are probably fire proofed and water proofed given the number of unicorns that practice magic that exist.
 * Spike has good control over his fire. We see him burn a book on accident all of once, and he reacted like it had never happened before.
 * According to Ms. Faust Spike's sending ability is a learned skill taught to him by Princes Celestia. Since breathing fire is a natural part of a dragon's biology his sending skill is probably like tensing a muscle, he can do it whenever he wants, but it can also happen accidentally.
 * As for assigning Twilight to live in the library, it's Twilight. She would've gone there everyday if she lived in a normal house anyway.
 * Isn't that just a little ironic that Ponyville's library, a place for those who obviously like to read, is marked with picture of a book?
 * It is indeed, but since nowhere else has text in its sign, it would be weirder if the library broke the pattern.
 * From a more meta perspective, the show is targeted at a young audience that pictures would be more easily understood. It also makes dubbing the show into other languages easier.
 * It is possible that the written language of Equestria is Pictographic, sort of like Chinese. If you look inside the book Twilight was reading in the first episode you'll notice that the words are all Pictograms. The sign outside the library could actually just be a stylized version of the character for "Library". It possible that it's a hybrid system with, like Japanese with an alphabet instead of a syllabary, since we see the ponies writing out Celestia's name in letters. It is also possible that it's the translation convention at work and Celestia spans multiple characters.
 * An interesting theory, but in "Party of One", the phrase "Happy Birthday Pinkie Pie" sort of appears to be written in English, although only the first word is really legible.
 * Again, like the sign that reads Welcome Princess Celestia. It could be translation convention at work. IE they wrote the characters for "Happy Birthday Pinky Pie", its just translated to english for our benifit. Or they use an alphabet for banners and other more formal displays, while using pictograms for everyday use.
 * Alternatively, it could be the opposite: the pictographic system is used for formal purposes, while the alphabet is used in more informal situations. Yes, the banner is welcoming a princess, but if not being able to fit all of her name in is considered acceptable (at least by the ones writing it), the use of the informal would probably not be a particular concern, especially if it is becoming more prevalent across all uses.
 * This strays into Reality Is Unrealistic and Aluminum Christmas Trees territory, as real world libraries in some countries are marked with some kind of pictogram that is much larger than any written signage, mainly because it conveys the intended meaning much faster. Maybe Equestria just has a similar information graphics culture to our own.
 * Write "library" largely and clearly enough to be read from a distance. Do the same with a drawing of a book. A drawing also simply fits the sign's aspect ratio better. Lastly, to young enough ponies and to foreigners, pictures would be more useful.
 * There is only one time in the show when clearly legible words are written: in "Swarm of the Century" (the sign that says "Welcome Princess Celest"). All the books have pictures instead of covers on the title, and all the signs are either pictures or illegible words that look like a mix between several different alphabets. This is obviously done so the animators don't have to do any extra work when the show is dubbed into other languages. You can even tell that, in "Swarm of the Century", the writing on the sign looks animated poorly, because it was put into the shot after everything else so it could more easily be changed.
 * If ponies and buffalo and cows are all sapient, are any animals of a given size? If so, what do the ones who are large carnivores eat?
 * The ursas, manticore, and hydra didn't seem to be sapient, so probably not. It seems more like it's just the ungulates (or at least the more equine ungulates, I don't think those pigs were sapient, were they?) and the draconians (though once again, that hydra didn't seem sapient). Though all of the animals do seem to have a higher level of intelligence than in the real world.
 * The hydra may be sapient. The heads couldn't communicate with the cast, but they seem intelligent. One expressed schadenfreude (the German word for "shameful joy") and later blew a raspberry at them.
 * After thinking about this further, I realized that Gilda demands some changes to the above theory. As a gryphon she is sapient, but she is not an ungulate, draconian, or anything similar. Because the manticore was not sapient, it's not the lion part of gryphons that make them sapient, so it may be the eagle part. So it may be that large birds and related creatures are also sapient. If you consider Philomena to also be sapient then she supports this theory. Though it's hard to say if she's any more sapient than Angel, or any other animal in Equestria for that matter.
 * In the Season 2 episode "May The Best Pet Win," the falcon, eagle, bat, owl and turtle appear to have sapience equal to Philomena; a falcon actually shakes hands with a turtle and expresses deference, but does not speak.
 * If friendship is magic, and Twilight didn't have friends before episode one, than why was she able to use magic so well? Or at all for that matter?
 * Friendship is magic, but magic is not necessarily friendship. Celestia assigns Twilight to study the magic of friendship, whereas she had been studying, for example, the magic of unicorns. (This is covered in the prequel series, My Little Pony: Unicorns is Magic.)
 * This is true, considering that Trixie is also a skilled magician, but doesn't seem to have any friends, even if she is incredibly arrogant.
 * How about this for an explanation? Magic can function without friendship. It works on the connection that resides within all ponies towards everypony else. Friendship increases the power that a pony can draw on exponentially, though.
 * Apparently, any of The Four Loves can become magic in Equestria. So far, we've seen that Storge and Eros (Family and romance, respectively) can have pretty much the same effect as Phileo (friendship). Agape (unconditional, self-sacrificing) has also cropped up, but mostly as the silent partner to the other three.
 * What were Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon named before their cutie marks appeared?
 * They, and their parents, are extremely vain, and their highly superflous names became a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. Their cutie marks match their names, meaning that the thing the care most about is themselves.
 * If that's true, it's kinda sad that they were pretty much destined to be stuck-up little bitches.
 * Yeah, but if they're happy with it, then it's not too bad.
 * If its like the Apple family them maybe their parents named them after their family theme, like Diamond Tiara's are jewelers, and that being kids only see the bare surface of what there cutie mark means (wearing a tiara and being rich) and are lashing out at other with better cutie marks.
 * This is a good theory, the only problem is that to get the cutie mark they have to discover what they're good at. Find their purpose in life so to speak.
 * Diamond Tiara's father, Filthy Rich, and great-grandfather, Stinkin' Rich are businessman. Filthy Rich owns "Rich's Barnyard Bargains".
 * Is the Grand Galloping Gala invitation-only? The Imagine Spot images that Pinkie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash envisage when thinking about the gala make it look like an agricultural fair with extra attractions (like the Royal Easter Show in Sydney). There looked to be hundreds, if not thousands of ponies in attendance, so it looked like a major tourist event. Even if the tickets to such an event aren't free (which they often are - food and attraction sales are what lets them run a profit), they can't be too expensive or they won't get the numbers they want. Now, none of the main cast seems particularly wealthy, but they don't seem poor either, so if the GGG really would be the highlight of their year, saving up for it shouldn't be too difficult. Indeed, Applejack's business strategy should require her to bring her produce to the gala. For the six characters, "two free tickets" could simply translate to "we only have to buy four tickets between us", no conflict required.
 * It probably is invitation-only. Once they finally get there in the season finale, the whole point is that it's not as they imagined.
 * It's either invitation-only or the tickets are incredibly expensive, which would explain all the upper-class ponies in attendance.
 * Now that I've seen the finale, this is indeed true. My mistake. Still, it seems odd that none of the mane cast even consider that there might be other ways to get a ticket to the Gala. And also odd that Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were not just unrealistic in their expectations of the event, but actually deluded as to the entire nature of it. I've never been to the Royal Garden Party, but I know it doesn't involve balloons and apple pies.
 * Some Fridge Brilliance from poster "Lonewolf23" at RPGNet


 * Twilight seemed to want to go to the Great Galloping Gala to see Celestia. Why couldn't she have gone to Canterlot in her spare time? It's within cantering distance.
 * Celestia is implied to be pretty freaking busy most of the time, and given that Twilight's official assignment is to stay in Ponyville Twilight might have assumed that Celestia would frown on her pupil popping in all the time when she was supposed to be off doing other stuff. She wasn't just excited about seeing Celestia, but about spending some quality time with her, hence why she was so crushed when Celestia was basically forced to ignore her for a while. And there's also a bit of a difference between just hanging out, and attending a special, exclusive, once-a-year social function with someone.
 * Besides, Twilight arrived in Ponyville on a flying chariot. It's obviously not a trivial distance for anyone less than a Physical Goddess.
 * Not really fridge logic, but I have no idea where to put it. Am I the only one who, upon learning Celestia had power over the Sun, wondered if it could be weaponized?
 * Only usefull for General Reaper (and go to Headscratchers with that).
 * It has, go read The Sun is Tired, Chapter 5, to be exact.
 * It would makes sense that Celestia would be able to use the Sun as a weapon if she needed to. It would essentially be Equestria's version of a nuclear deterrent and probably carry the same weight in the decision of whether or not to use it. Namely if Celestia uses it when it doesn't seem absolutely necessary, it would probably cause rumors to spread amongst the populous, wondering if the princess has lost her mind.
 * If Applejack works an apple farm... why the herding skills?
 * She's a herd animal. Knowledge of herd animal mentality, and how to work with it, probably comes naturally to her. This would explain why she can steer a stampede of cows, but not gather a bunch of rabbits.
 * It's also shown that she keeps animals like pigs and cows at her farm as well as apples.
 * It has not been made clear whether six ponies are required to use the Elements of Harmony (since Twilight Sparkle is a new Element wielder and may not have full knowledge of the Elements' use). If, as the mythology states, Celestia and Luna used the Elements of Harmony together, did they split the elements three each? Was Celestia was able to use all the Elements by herself to banish Nightmare Moon? If Celestia was able to use the Elements alone, was it due to her being an alicorn? If so, Luna could also have used the Elements. Or did both of them independently possess fully-unified Harmony powers?
 * Backstory implies that, while Celestia and Luna where able to use the full power of the elements against  by working together, Celestia was unable to use the full power against Nightmare Moon. Perhaps each princess does embody all six elements, but accessing the elements' full potential requires at least two ponies working together.
 * Which, of course leads to this problem: Since all of Celestia's banishments and imprisonments have been weakened (Nightmare Moon and Discord as two examples) shouldn't Celestia send the Mane Six on a tour to check all the locks? After a thousand years, there probably are a few entities Celestia has frozen in carbonite for good reason.
 * Or there may not be, after all. By the time the Mane Six even discover the Elements of Harmony, they've evidently gone unused and left to fade into legend for quite some time, and whether Celestia is even capable of inflicting fates such as banishment to the moon or being turned into a statue on anyone without drawing upon the power of the Elements again remains dubious at best. So thus far what little evidence there is would point more towards no such gallery of imprisoned horrors actually existing in Equestria in the first place; for all we know, Discord and Nightmare Moon really were it. (Possibly Jossed as of "It's About Time" with the revelation and implications of the fact that Cerberus exists and usually guards the Gates of Tartarus. How much imprisonment there actually has in common with being hit with the Elements of Harmony remains a matter of speculation at this time, though.)
 * What's with the appearance of bridles? The Diamond Dogs having them could be justified but why would Rarity have dress forms with bridles on them?
 * ...Sexy lingerie?
 * Isn't Mr. Cake explanation of Pound Cake's wings and Pumpkin Cake's horn a little fishy?
 * Of course it is - he lampshaded it himself!
 * The Cutie Mark Crusaders try increasingly ridiculous things in attempts to get their cutie marks. However, this may not be just a simple excuse for a continuous plot element. If you think about it, they all exhibited their special talent in "The Show Stoppers". It's likely that they're just trying to ignore their own talents so that they have an excuse to keep hanging out with each other. After all, their lack of cutie marks is what brought them together, and it's likely that it's one of the key things keeping them together. If they were to all get their cutie marks, they would practically have nothing keeping them together.
 * They would get their cutie marks together, or at least try to get them together. Even in childhood that's would be reason enough to keep in touch for some people. And that's not counting that they are already a defined group of friends.
 * What is Fluttershy's actual job? All the other ponies seem to have "regular" work to at least some extent, if you count Rainbow being mentioned to help out with weathermaking now and then and Twilight's job officially being "student". Fluttershy is not Ponyville's vet - that slot is taken - and she doesn't seem to keep enough chickens to sell the eggs. Is she Ponyville's Crazy Cat Lady?
 * Given how eager she seems to be to give animals away, it's likely she runs what's essentially an animal shelter.
 * I sort of thought of her as running something like a pet store, but a shelter is more likely, especially when you think of how she constantly tries to heal them as well, but uses more basic forms of medicine than a vet would. Much like a volunteer at a shelter would. She's also Ponyville's pet-trainer, local animal expert in caring, and dragon tamer
 * She probably sells animal products (the ones that don't involve killing them). She's the type who could get bees to make honey for her to sell just by asking nicely.
 * Why do ponies' names match their cutie mark at all if the cutie mark only appears a long time after their parents named them? Does this make the cutie mark a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?
 * It's possible they have their names legally changed. But more likely is that a mark-related name is a nickname (which may or may not be legally binding). Carrot Top's birth name is Golden Harvest, but everyone calls her Carrot Top because of her mark. Diamond Tiara probably have a name ending with "Rich" from her family. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash are named after traits they already had pre-mark. It's just easy for ponies to refer to each other by their marks, and it's evolved into a custom.
 * It could also be that the cutie marks themselves somehow consider the pony's name, so despite Sweetie Belle very likely having the same talent as quite a few other ponies, her cutie mark would likely involve a bell while another's might be a nightingale (though, if you get the reference, that is more tangentially related to her name).
 * Celestia and Luna's jobs are presented as being pretty much equal, only Luna raises not only the moon but presumably all the stars as well, while Celstia raises only one star. Shouldn't Luna's job be MASSIVELY more difficult than Celestia's?
 * That one star is a lot closer and quite a bit bigger than the moon, so it might well be as difficult to raise the sun. Alternatively, maybe Luna did have a harder job and felt she was getting the short end of the stick and wasn't appreciated, which contributed to the Nightmare Moon Face Heel Turn. Yet another theory would be that Celestia has the easier physical task, but compensates by representing both sisters in public and being more actively involved in affairs.
 * It's also probable that the sun is much bigger than the stars (this isn't our human universe, after all).
 * Why doesn't Spike carry around scrolls and a quill at all times? In a world without cell phones, his magic power would make him extremely useful. Irreplaceable, even. In "A Dog and Pony Show," Spike could have sent for help, then gone after Rarity himself.
 * Because that's not how it works. He breathes on a scroll, it goes to Celestia; she does some magic to a scroll, it comes out of Spike's mouth. He can't just send a scroll anywhere.
 * Maybe I'm just forgetting something, but when did the show ever explicitly say that Celestia or Luna were goddesses or immortal?
 * Well, for one Princess Celestia has been around for 1000 years (minimum) as established by the first episode. On top of that she controls the the rising and setting of the sun; something that would seem to imply a god-like level of power.
 * She's also been shown in two different points in the show's past; one set when the Mane Six were fillies, and one set at least a century ago (maybe more). She looked exactly like she does now both times. That's usually a pretty big indicator that a character is immortal.

Mare in the Moon & The Elements of Harmony

 * So... Why didn't Applejack just, I dunno, tell Twilight that if she let go, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash would catch her?
 * For that matter, why didn't she just hang onto her until Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash could come get her, rather than let her fall so far before they could catch her? She's probably strong enough.
 * Given the choice between putting all your trust in the strong, sensible pony holding your hooves and looking at you, and putting it in a hyperactive pony who crashes into things and another who's terrified by the sight of you... Applejack was probably better off not mentioning it. And the pegasi might have had wing clearance issues getting that close to the cliff edge.
 * Yeah, I agree with this. Plus, every pony except Applejack had to demonstrate their element against adversity. Rainbow Dash and Rarity made sacrifices, Fluttershy risked a mauling, Pinkie Pie had to overcome fear, and Twilight had to recognize her newfound faith in her friends. But Applejack had no reason not to tell the truth. Unless... the test was that she didn't tell Twilight that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were waiting to catch her? She had to understand how to withhold information without compromising the truth, and did that by reassuring Twilight rather than ordering her to let go, and appealing to her trust instead of pointing out the pegasus ponies below. Huh, this looks a little like Fridge Brilliance...
 * ...until you realise that Applejack (and the rest of the cast) had no idea that they were supposed to prove or learn anything, or that they embodied the elements. All they knew is that they were on a quest to find an ancient Mcguffin and defeat the Princess's evil sister.
 * Applejack didn't know (and didn't have to know) it had to be a test to know how to stay truthful while not frightening Twilight.
 * It's possible that Applejack was afraid of Twilight pulling HER down too, but along with the then-questionably-skilled pegasi point, maybe she didn't want to tell her.
 * Applejack comes from a huge family - she knows the difficulty and importance of real friendship firsthand, and she decided to hammer that bodily into Twilight. Because Honesty... is brutal.
 * That makes sense. The whole scene kind of reminds me of one in Finding Nemo, where a character's order for another to "let go (and fall)" was also a metaphor for letting go of your children. Twilight never had friends and was clearly afraid, fearing she might be let down or whatever. Maybe Applejack was savvier than anybody realised and knew that Twilight needed to take a really big step and trust them if they were going to get out of this. The first step to friendship is trust. And that was the first step Twilight faced in the forest.
 * It makes more sense that it was just a 'trust' exercise. We have a similar thing in real life, used to drive the point home: one person stands behind the other, and the second person is supposed to fall backwards without looking, counting on the first person to catch them or hold them up. Applejack, from her high view on what else was happening, probably saw the other two friends were open to catch her, and decided to use this as an opportunity to build up Twilight's trust in the others. It could have been keen foresight on her part, too; as far as they were concerned, this was just minutes before they'd all have to save the world from eternal night, which one troper pointed out would equal the fridge horror of death-for-everyone, since plants need sunlight and ponies primarily eat plants. Applejack was making use of this brief period of time before that uncertain point that would decided whether or not there'd be a tomorrow at all. She was basically saying 'We're going to have to trust in you in a few minutes to prevent the end of our lives as we know it, you might as well get familiar with this whole 'trust' thing.' It's a two way street, and if you were going into what could very well be the final struggle of your life, you'd better be able to say your comrades were dependable.
 * Tails have muscle and nerve endings in them. Rarity's is no exception, she can wave it and use it to pick things up. How then was she able to slice it off like it was just a piece of hair? (Perhaps this is just a headscratcher for some, but I got a little nauseous the first time I watched Episode 2; before it became clear she was fine)
 * Watch a real horse's tail move sometime; the part which is actually biologically the tail is actually kind of stumpy; the rest is just hair (and Rarity's shenanigans are just cartoon physics).
 * Either that, or Steven Magnet's fainting suddenly makes a lot more sense.
 * In the series opening mythology sequence, Twilight Sparkle reads that Nightmare Moon/Princess Luna has been trapped in the moon, and that "the stars will aid her escape." Specifically, four stars, as illustrated in the book she's reading and shown explicitly when the Mare in the Moon suddenly disappears from the lunar surface. We learn in Season Two that There are six Elements of Harmony, and no reason to expect that number to vary. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are two (very powerful) ponies. The four stars who aid Night Mare Moon's escape...  This concept also gains greater significance when you realize that the entire chain of events -   were not about defeating an imprisoned enemy ... the whole thing was
 * If Princess Celestia was the previous wielder of the Element of Magic, then Princess Luna was one of the other elements. If Twilight Sparkle is the new wielder of the Element of Magic, then who among the Mane Six will betray the rest and become the new Mare in the Moon? Or Discord's Disciple?
 * I honestly think that's more of a coincidence than anything. I think the reason for the four stars was Four Is Death. The rest of that stuff is a nice theory, but barely fits into possible canon. Definitely a good idea for a fanfic though.
 * If Twilight Sparkle had mistranslated the thousand-year old prophecy, "the stars will aid her escape" could apply to Night Mare Moon escaping from the moon (as presented verbatim in the first episode), or (if interpreted differently) it could apply to Princess Luna escaping from Night Mare Moon/the Miasma, which characterizes the stars as a benevolent force, subverting Four Is Death.
 * The general idea of the  is supported by effective Word of God from Lauren Faust. Link to her actual dA comment page here, screenshot here. She does mention that her reasoning should not be taken as canon, as she no longer runs the show.
 * What makes you think it was Celestia that was the wielder of the Element of Magic?

The Ticket Master

 * In "The Ticket Master", during Rarity's daydream, the prince gives her an engagement ring. This was cool looking, with it on his horn, until I realized that ponies don't have fingers to wear rings. Even if this is just a unicorn thing, we don't see any unicorns with wedding bands on their horns.
 * Maybe it's different in Equestria than on Earth. Wedding rings for unicorns might not be worn as often as for humans. Maybe they only wear them on special occasions or even just for the wedding.
 * Also in that episode, the first thing I thought was "why not just ask the Princess for more tickets?" Because Twilight can't think straight from hunger, is why.
 * She might have felt that asking for more tickets would be rude.
 * Agreed; when someone gives you free tickets to an exclusive event that presumably has a limited number of spots available, it's not exactly polite to use your connections in an attempt to get more tickets.
 * No doubt this was Twilight's reason, but it's worth noting that Celestia asks that very question in her reply.

Boast Busters

 * If Trixie travelled in the wagon, then who pulled it in the first place? She's no Earth Pony.
 * She probably moved it magically, like how Twilight moved the snowplow in "Winter Wrap-Up".
 * No reason why she couldn't pull it herself. We saw Twilight and Rarity-both Unicorns-hauling heavy carts overflowing with gems in 'Dog and Pony Show'. Unicorns may be overall weaker than Earth ponies, but they can still do feats of strength or defy the stereotype.

Look Before You Sleep

 * In "Look Before You Sleep", Twilight acts like Pinkie Pie, which is quite the opposite to her character. And she doesn't even do anything when the tree comes crashing in, beside looking for help in a guidebook. Was she so afraid to stay alone at stormy night? Or maybe she saw Applejack and Rarity bickering and decided to bring them closer together?
 * I thought that too (that Twilight was acting more like Pinkie). One theory is that the writers did actually have Pinkie in mind when they wrote the first draft of the episode's script, but for any number of reasons, they gave the role to Twilight instead.
 * It's canon that she hasn't really had friends before, and it was her first sleepover. For all she knew, a tree crashing into the house was a part of the sleepover experience.
 * Twilight is concussed in that scene. (This also explains most of Feeling Pinkie Keen.)
 * A minor Fridge Logic bit. In 'Look Before You Sleep', Applejack's dared to 'play dress-up in a frou-frou glittery lacy outfit'. She then goes and gets a rather weird-looking Pimped-Out Dress..except they're in Twilight's home. Which means that the dress is Twilight's.
 * Knowing Rarity, she probably whipped it up MacGyver-style out of dental floss, paper doilies and old curtains.
 * I imagine there's a good chance Twilight recieved that dress from Rarity as a present.
 * Oddly, Rarity has it in Green Isn't Your Color, when she's picking an outfit for Fluttershy, and apparently brought it along for the photo shoot in the park, which means it's one of her originals.
 * I'd say it's not that outlandish for Twilight to have a Pimped-Out Dress like that. She did live in Canterlot after all, as the Princess' prized pupil no less. It's not impossible at all that she might have attended some social events wearing it.

Swarm of the Century

 * Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash's attempts to fix the problem look like they would have worked if it wasn't for Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, yet we're supposed to think that Pinkie Pie had the only answer and the other ponies were at fault for not helping her. Granted finding instruments was the most reliable and would have been the fastest solution if everyone pitched in but still, they could have shown both Applejack and Rainbow Dash as only being able to gather most of the parasprites.
 * The message I took from this episode was that everyone should have been working together on one plan of action rather than each trying a separate method. Had the others helped Pinkie Pie, or at least gotten her to help with Rainbow Dash' or Applejack's method, the problem would have been solved. It was only because the different methods ended up interfering with each other that the problem persisted. Pinkie Pie's solution wasn't the best one, it was simply the one that ended up working.

Winter Wrap-Up

 * Everyone seemed to be Completely Missing the Point in "Winter Wrap Up". As Twilight is repeatedly warned, she must not use her powerful magic to solve Ponyville's problems, because the wrapping up process is an ancient tradition from when the town contained only one species. Everything should be done "the Earth Pony way." So far so good... if you could all just turn around and ignore all the helpful pegasi flying by.
 * I got the impression the 'no magic' rule meant just that. The physical, if you like, talents of the earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi could be used to get the jobs done, just not the supernatural ones. If Ponyville was founded by Earth Ponies specifically and they were later joined by the other races, then it makes sense that the tradition was extended to suit each as far as possible. You see earth ponies and unicorns mixing together in teams, but some things, such as clearing the sky, can only be done by pegasi. Unfortunately Twilight's unique talents leaves her at a loose end until she gets a chance to show off the other skill she has; she knows how to organize.
 * So how did Ponyville handle the sky before the pegasi moved in?
 * There's an Original Flavor fanfic that puts forward a pretty good fan theory covering that.
 * Remember Pinkie's flying contraption?
 * Relatively minor one about "Winter Wrap-Up". The teaser shows Twilight explicitly getting dressed into various winter gear, albeit significantly earlier in the morning than she should be. So... why is she not wearing that gear immediately after the title sequence, or at any later point in the episode?
 * Another point - she got up incredibly early for the event. So why is it that when she arrives, it's not only full-blown daytime, but everypony else is already there before her?
 * She realized she woke up way too early, went back to bed and overslept.
 * It turned to be a warmer day than she thought.

Fall Weather Friends

 * In the Iron Pony contest, Applejack claims that Rainbow Dash using her wings is cheating. Yet, over half of the contests involve leg strength, where a pony who flies places instead of walking is obviously at a disadvantage. This is never addressed.
 * Rainbow Dash can walk/run, but Applejack and the other Earth ponies can't fly and (obviously) don't have wings to use to get ahead.
 * The physics aren't always consistant, but I would expect Rainbow Dash to be a lot lighter than Applejack. As such she could likely run faster with less muscle strength behind her.
 * She could also alter the pitch of her wings to increase or decrease her glide potential without technically "flying," which would give her an advantage over certain terrain.
 * If her muscles aren't as strong, then she doesn't deserve the title of "most athletic pony". Using her wings to hover over the mudpit in a tug-of-war is clearly cheating. She was pulled far enough to lose, she just didn't happen to touch the ground beyond that point.
 * You shouldn't really be able to compare them. For a pegasus to be as good at everything you can do without wings and an be excellent flier, she'll need to train much more than someone who does the same things minus flying. Without flying, she'll be at a disadvantage. But with flying, she'll have a huge advantage.
 * Think of it this way: had either pony been facing off against Twilight, she could have easily used magic to dominate every challenge, and that is certainly cheating. Rainbow using her wings is no different. The contestants should be limited to skills that apply to all ponies. Had any challenge involved growing plants or whatever earth pony magic does, Applejack would have been expected to play fair. If influence over animals is a quality of earth pony magic, she may have already passed up a chance to cheat!
 * Its been shown that earth ponies are slightly stronger than other ponies to make up for not having magic or the ability to fly.
 * This is common fanon, but it's never mentioned by Word of Faust or really shown in the show. However, Word of Faust has stated that Earth Ponies are magical. They have a magical connection to plants and animals that non-Earth Ponies can't match aside from rare examples like Fluttershy. And it's been shown in the show, too. How many unicorns and pegasi do you see with plant or animal related cutie marks that aren't obviously about something else (such as the unicorn teacher in Cutie Mark Chronicles having an apple, which is clearly indicative of a talent with teaching rather than raising apples).
 * In that case, if anyone is to blame, then it would be Twilight, in my humble opinion. She was recruited as a judge for the contest, yet she never calls out Rainbow Dash on her behavior. In those circumstances, you can't blame Rainbow Dash for doing something she considers natural for her and that the impartial judge of the contest seems to be authorizing. But this raises the question, how could someone as obsessed over rules and order as Twilight is have turned a blind eye to Dash's antics?
 * Flying wasn't mentioned in the rules. And Applejack didn't bring it up until after she'd lost, making herself look like a sore loser.
 * To be fair to Applejack, the instances were we saw her being bugged by Rainbow's wings were cheating: One was a jumping contest and the other was the tug of war, and applejack would have won both(fairly) if rainbow hadn't flying. It's more the equivalent of running in a race walking competition.

Over a Barrel

 * When the buffalo attack the train, how did they know the tree was in the caboose, and not in an ordinary freight car? If they didn't know, then why did they detach only the caboose? For that matter, if they knew it was in the caboose, why did Little Strongheart run almost the entire length of the train to get back to it, instead of just jumping on at the rear?
 * Braeburn doesn't seem particularly surprised to hear Bloomberg's been tree-napped, so they may have done this before. In fact, this may be why he asked Applejack to accompany the tree this time. However, that doesn't explain why she was so shocked at it being stolen... unless he's familiar enough with her eccentricities to know how she'd react to her baby being stolen, and didn't want to stress her out too much...
 * She didn't tell them she was bringing the tree, it was a surprise gift. That's why Braeburn didn't show concern until after they told him, even though he already knew the buffalo were a problem.
 * And as for the train thing, which overlaps with Fridge Brilliance, The Buffalo Tribe enemies were the citizens of Applelossa and their relatives most of the time. If Little Strong Heart remained on the ground, there was a better chance of an earth pony catching her, getting on the train car prevents them from finding her and gives her time to find the tree, through scent most likely, she just has to travel fast because she's on top of a train, as shown by the fact she has to skid to a halt to stop. This is backed up by the fact she was so startled to see Rainbow Dash, she's not used to having someone able to make it to the top of the cars with her.
 * How did the Buffalo know a tree was being delivered to Appleloosa?
 * Where else was it supposed to go?

A Bird in the Hoof
"Twilight: Alright everyone, we need to build an exact replica of Ponyville over there. We've got less than a minute!"
 * It seems a bit odd that the teacups have handles on them, seeing as how the ponies have not digits with which to manipulate the cups, and the unicorns can simply levitate them.
 * Maybe the teacup design was thought up by an elitist unicorn and there was a time one it was considered proper to only levitate the teacup via the handle. Or the handle could have been added to aid servants serving the tea. Since ponies lack hands, any non-unicorn servants of aristocrats would have either use their mouths or sit down and use both front hooves to place the cup in front of the aristocrat. Sitting down and using their front hooves would be difficult to deal with the serving tray and would take longer to serve everyone if their master has guests. So the handles were add so servants could grab that with their mouths and set the cup in front of their master or their master's guest(s), who would then pick it up with telekinesis (if unicorn) or their front hooves (if not).
 * We've seen pegasi use their wings as hands, so maybe the teacups were invented by a pegasus, even if it sounds unstereotypical. It also could have been invented by another satient species that actually has hands, such as dragons.
 * Twilight seemed just as surprised as everypony else about the true nature of Philemena. But wasn't Twilight Celestia's long-time student in Canterlot for years? How is it that she's unaware of nature of her long-time mentor's treasured pet? Also, as fond as she is of books and studying, Twilight never came across any narratives and illustrations of phoenixes?
 * Given that their relationship was highly scholarly, it's likely Princess Celestia didn't mention her pet to Twilight. Most teachers and professors don't. As for illustrations, it may be that she simply didn't come across them in her studies, or, given that Phoenixes are rare creatures, the only pictures she saw were of when they are in good condition, and not about to burst into flames.
 * Plus she could have had one of her insane moments where she doesn't think properly. Remember the last time there was trouble that Twilight didn't want Celestia to know about?


 * Remember how Harry Potter reacted to Dumbledore's phoenix going up in flames? Who knows what weird pets your teacher has that you're not aware of.

The Cutie Mark Chronicles

 * In "Call of the Cutie", Applejack tells Apple Bloom that she was the last in her class to get her cutie mark. Yet in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", she launches into her Flash Back with the claim that she got her mark when she was even younger than the Crusaders. Was her class filled with early bloomers, or what?
 * Nah, just means the Crusaders are late bloomers.
 * She went off to Manehattan for an unspecified period of time. She might have left when she was younger than the Crusaders, but only gotten her mark after a few years - she does seem to grow older between the beginning and end of the flashback.
 * Also, Rainbow Dash says in "Call of the Cutie" that she was the first in her class to get her cutie mark, but one of the boys she races in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" has his already.
 * Maybe he wasn't in her class? There may be more than one.
 * Same school, different class?
 * According to Fluttershy, they were at summer flight camp, so there's no reason to assume they were even from the same school.
 * In Giggle At The Ghosties, Pinkie Pie mentions Granny Pie telling her to laugh at her fears, but later Pinkie Pie explains to us that her early life was spent on a rock farm, where there was no smiling, or talking. How could this be explained?
 * An even better example would be in "Winter Wrap-Up", where she mentions she has been ice skating "since she was a little filly". Sure, you might say that the above one is just a minor detail, or even that she is a natural as she said, but c'mon. Ice skating is hard - even for Pinkie Pie, it's hard to believe she's just that good with little to no practice.
 * Pinkie Pie is an Unreliable Narrator? Shock of shocks.
 * First: No talking? How could they even properly live without talking? Anyway, back to the subject, maybe during the part at the flashback, Pinkie Pie's granny had recently passed away and might be the reason Pinkie was so sad-looking at the time.
 * Pinkie is a little on the nutty side. Considering she ended her rock farm tale with "and that's how Equestria was made", it's probably not wholly accurate. Either that, or Granny Pie didn't tell her that tidbit that until later.
 * No talking doesn't have to mean no talk at all, just no talk beyond bare necessities, which to such a social creature as Pinkie might as well not be talking at all.
 * My theory is that you've got it backwards - the rock farmers are the black sheep of the Pie family, whilst Granny and Pinkie are the "normal" ones. The genes for a pink mane have to come from somewhere. And don't you find it strange that the Pies are the only ponies in Equestria with names that contradict their talent? Perhaps they forbade the extended family from ever visiting the farm after Granny taught Pinkamena to "Giggle at the Ghosties."
 * How about this: Pinkie doesn't mean "no talking, no smiling" as in, they were explicitly forbidden from doing those things; she means it as in, they're on a joyless depressing rock farm out in the middle of nowhere so no one even wants to. Granny Pie remembered a time when it wasn't all rock farms, so she could tell Pinkie to "giggle at the ghosties", but until Pinkie learned about the concepts of "color" and "happiness", she couldn't really comprehend what Granny was saying.
 * Granny Pie simply doesn't work on the rock farm. Being boring is part of living on (that particular) rock farm, not necessarily of being a pre-Pinkamena Pie-family-member.

Party of One

 * Pinkie Pie wears Groucho Novelty glasses. You know, the one with the eyebrows, mustache, and... human nose?? Do humans exist in the Ponyverse, and if not, why didn't the animators replace the human nose with a pony nose?
 * In the same vein, Pinkie Pie's "You're #1" foam finger in Sonic Rainboom.
 * Depending on her knowledge of what's beyond the fourth wall she often breaks, she may have been giving us a little nod. Or she was just being Pinkie.
 * Pinkie may have gotten the foam finger from Lyra Heartstrings.
 * How about Spike knowing who Fu Manchu is?
 * Apple Bloom's Show Stoppers costume has human skulls.
 * RL 'Satanists' have equine skulls. Make the connection.
 * So that's where all the humans went.
 * One possibility is that humans and human culture are a thing of myth and legend in Equestria, just like magical talking ponies, gryphons, and dragons are in our world. As such, the groucho glasses and the foam finger could be memorbilia from a popular play (or whatever the ponies watch for entertainment). That would explain not only why Pinkie Pie has said items (which on it's own could be explained by Pinkie breaking the 4th wall) and why they other didn't really react to them (even if they lumped it with Pinkie, being Pinkie, there should be some sort of reaction).

The Best Night Ever

 * It's obvious that Twilight has never been to the Grand Galloping Gala before, what with her joy at having been invited and not knowing what to have expected. And yet she's apprectly the Princess's most treasured student, personal apprentice, and closest friend. Yet more evidence towards Trollestia?
 * It's on a school night.
 * This is the first year she's had friends she wanted to go with. She may have had the opportunity before, but didn't see the point of it any more than she saw the point of anything else beyond her studies.
 * Not to mention the only reason she wanted to go was to spend more time Celestia. Before the Gala, she's spent who knows how long away from her teacher with only periodic visits for business, so Twilight presumably wanted to make up for lost time. Compare that to what life was probably like while she lived in Canterlot, where the Princess was never more than a short trot away, and there was no real reason to waste valuable study time on a stuffy high class party. Especially considering she never bothered with a mundane, low class party either.

The Return of Harmony, Parts 1 & 2

 * This simple fact: Even if Cloudsdale's destruction in Return of Harmony was a vision, Discord could easily make it a reality, or it could even have been a reality (and then undone) given his power and sociopathy.
 * During "Sonic Rainboom", there were elderly ponies shown working in the weather factories... ponies that probably can't move fast enough to escape before said factories are destroyed with the rest of Cloudsdale, and that's not even mentioning the children. Brr
 * Once one really stops to think about it, Discord as an unrestrained concept is psychologically terrifying. The fact that this is to be TV-Y for its intended audience holds that fact back, but think about it. He has reality manipulation and illusions beyond anything else shown in the show, teleportation of unspecified range, can transmute things with a thought including ones own body, is probably immortal to some degree (At least as old as Celestia/Luna, can decapitate himself just fine), and can shatter and atomize the laws of physics at a whim. But the worst part, is the causal ease he can fuck with your mind. HE RE-WROTE 5 MAIN CHARACTERS PERSONALITIES WITH A MERE TOUCH. (and also messed up Big Mac and some other fodder) The way he made Fluttershy ENJOY INFLICTING PAIN AND SUFFERING ON HER OWN FORMER FRIENDS, god that was fricking sadist. At a certain point, the ponies didn't even care that he was screwing up the town, their family, their entire lives. Taken to the extreme, he can literally convert your friends/family into murderous sociopaths with no qualms about torturing or killing you. And this guy is a trigger happy smirking Jerkass who isn't afraid to abuse his god-mode which he has 24/7. The idea that he, an omnipresent reality-warping monster, can just teleport-poke anyone anywhere, warping their entire mind re-writing both their being and perception of reality before one even realizes what's happening to them.... god, IT'S TERRIFYING.
 * In other words, Discord is an eons old, remorseless Psychopathic Manchild with omnipotent reality warping powers and an outright sadistic sense of humor who can Mind Rape you with a mere touch.
 * What, you though saving the world was going to be easy? And surely this belong in Fridge Horror?
 * What about the simple fact that calm composed, Physical Goddess Princess Celestia is scared of Discord. What must she have witnessed all that time ago that makes her, of all ponies, afraid of him?
 * Hey, (as Discord noted) at least he doesn't embalm and keep his enemies (and friends) in marble statues in a garden and pretend to create order and harmony by ruling over the land through some Elements of Harmony. Celestia herself seems to be heavily treading along the Moral Event Horizon.
 * Depends how you take what he says. Is he saying that's something Celestia regularly did, or is he just retorting based on what he went through? Hell, just seeding the thought he wasn't the only one is his MO.
 * He doesn't turn people into stone because that would be boring. And we see how Discord treats everyone, enemies and innocents alike. I'd rather be turned into a stone statue.
 * Think about the whole thing from poor Twilight's point of view. She comes across her friends one by one, only to discover that they're not even the same ponies she knew anymore. They're treating her like dirt and she has no idea why or what's causing it. Just thinking about the idea of being cutoff from your friends and finding them in that state is unsettling to say the least...
 * Discord is all levels of terrifying, to be sure, but keep in mind that most tropers are, at the very least, in their teens. We've seen our fair share of nightmarish imagery in a show about magical ponies, but just imagine what it must be like for the actual target audience of small children. If we're this frightened of Discord, what must he look like through the eyes of a five year old?
 * A goofy looking monster with a goat's head who turns roads into soap and clouds into cotton candy that rain chocolate. Discord is only scary when you start analyzing him.
 * As silly as Discord's reign over Equestria seems, a lot of it is still rather unsettling. Like the fact everyone seems to have gone insane...and a few of the Ponies have the same faded look as the Mane Cast...
 * Not to mention that when you take into account the kinds of things he's implied to have done before Celestia and Luna had imprisoned him, it could have been a lot worse, and not just silly tricks...
 * Considering things were getting worse and worse as the episode progressed, it's very likely he was simply working his way up to that...
 * Think Emperor Joker.
 * Why didn't Twilight Sparkle just use her spell to walk on clouds to get the ponies high enough to catch Discorded!Rainbow Dash?
 * They were in a terrible hurry to stop Discord.
 * If they lost Rainbow Dash now, they might not find her again.
 * The spell took some prep time and, like other more difficult spells, was draining on Twilight.
 * Not to mention that Twilight had just cast four de-brainwashing spells in rapid succession, and needed to conserve enough energy to lay the fifth one on Rainbow Dash once they caught her.
 * There weren't enough clouds around for them to use to chase Rainbow Dash.
 * Big Macintosh
 * He could have just had . Okay, that isn't really any better.
 * Does that mean we missed seeing Winona walking around and saying nothing?
 * Apparently, Your Mileage May Vary on this one.
 * You want some Nightmare Fuel? Remember when Granny Smith was busy being compelled to tap-dance? Think about it; would Discord have bothered to fix her hip first? *shudder*
 * She was smiling, and Discord's in the business of chaos -- not Cold-Blooded Torture. So she probably fared the best out of anyone in Discord's "new and improved" scheme of things.
 * It is possible to smile without wanting to.
 * It's also possible people are overlooking key aspects of Discord's personality in favor of making him Darker and Edgier and finding Nightmare Fuel where there should just be...NightmareFuel. Note that he didn't take control of the Mane Casts' bodies and make them say things they didn't mean; he literally altered their personalities. That's because he's the spirit of chaos, not mindless puppetry. If Granny Smith and Big Mac look delighted with their present situations, it's probably because they are -- which is creepy enough as is.
 * I wouldn't be so sure. Getting Crap Past the Radar doesn't always have to involve naughty bits. Jason already stated he and the rest of the staff still have a thin line they need walk by when it comes to this show and its content. So they can't be open about some things. However it was stated the mane six didn't have much (if any) self-control when under Discord's influence. So the implications are behind Granny Smith's actions and the after effects are unsettling.
 * The entirity of Discorded Sweet Apple Acres is deepy unsettling, but there is still overreaching. By that same logic, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are in horrific pain from having their wings removed. They just didn't show it in any way, because the show has to conceal it. And that mare being sprinkled with pepper? Clearly her eyes are burning in unspeakable agony, and Discord's just forcing her not to show it.

Lesson Zero

 * Allow me to make Twilight's breakdown in Lesson Zero worse. Even though what Twilight did was just use a "Want-It-Need-It" spell on the CMC (just run with it), consider this my friends: Twilight was desperate, she needed SOME kind of conflict out of the CMC to write a friendship report on. The exact details of her thought processes are unknown but, more than likely, in a bit of desperation, Twilight essentially    
 * Does not help that she started rapidly teleporting all over the place,.
 * This would go a ways in explaining Celestia's anger/disappointment towards Twilight at the end. Her behavior was
 * It is also likely that there were several proscriptions against using that particular "want-it-need-it" spell... and not just because of the obvious results when Twilight did it. Imagine the economic mayhem if any unicorn crook could make people willing, at the drop of a hat, to spend their life savings on a rock or stick or clod of earth.... "so what am I bid for this wad of lint out of my coat pocket?..."
 * And then get trampled from the stampede of ponies who don't care that it's yours. They "want-it-need-it," after all. It would still cause plenty of mayhem, but nopony would use it for a get-rich-quick-scheme.
 * This troper noticed that for a bit of Fridge Horror; In the episode "Lesson Zero" Twilight Sparkle essentially receives no punishment for brainwashing an entire town with magic.
 * She received what was probably the worst punishment in her mind: seeing Princess Celestia disappointed in her, possibly for the first time in her life. Given how much Twilight idolizes the Princess, I don't think that any other punishment would have driven the point home better.
 * The princess said that she'd forget Twilight's punishment as long as the whole group submit their lessons. It helps that the others stated it was their fault Twilight went so far.
 * Was referencing the fact that no other pony seemed the least be perturbed that they essentially had their will stripped from them.
 * Ponies seem to just ignore mental stuff after it's over. None of the Mane Six seem to have long term effects from their psychological breakdowns, and everyone ignored Discord's Mind Rape the second he was gone.
 * Actually, this could be a whole new layer of Fridge Horror. If Celestia kept quiet about it to the general public, the only ponies who know it was Twilight would be the Mane 6, Celestia and probably the Crusaders and Big Mac. As far as the Ponyville public know, they all flipped out over a plush toy totally at random and for no apparent reason. Sounds paranoia inducing at the least.
 * Blame it on the aftereffects of the town being Discorded shortly before, assure them that that was the last hurrah of his powers, and call it a day.

Luna Eclipsed
"Celestia: TWILIGHT SPARKLE!!!"
 * In Luna Eclipsed, we see that tales of Nightmare Moon are the basis of a well-established holiday tradition. Why, then, did no one recognize her way back in Episode 1?
 * They might have recognized her if they had a minute to think about it. It's one thing to hear a fairy tale of a shadowy, villainous figure that eats children and completely another for said figure to appear in front of you as real as ever. Most ponies would probably think "Is this even real?" if NMM weren't so terrifying.
 * Does anyone else find it odd that the mane six would be scared of Nightmare Moon knowing full well they defeated her and freed Luna?
 * It seems that they were scared of her loud voice and mannerisms(It sounded like she was angry). Twilight was the first to approach her. Applejack took a little convincing to accept her. Pinkie Pie was pretending. Rainbow Dash didn't care. Fluttershy is scared of anyone who raises her voice (as we saw with Gilda) and Rarity was not in the episode. It seemed that most ponies were scared of her being angry, or of her portrayal as Nightmare Moon, but NOT of her still being Nightmare Moon.
 * But Fluttershy was scared the minute she saw Luna, and even called her Nightmare Moon. She actually seemed to be afraid of Nightmare Moon.
 * Fluttershy was already a terrified nervous wreck just on account of it being Nightmare Night, so it wouldn't take much to make her even more frightened.
 * Ok, grasping at straws here: Last time the mane characters saw Luna (That we know of) she was timid, smaller and had "normal" hair. In Nightmare night, it was at night(duh) so her coat looked darker, and her hair resembled more Nightmare Moon, plus, she has grew some, and was showing WAY more confidence, resembling more the Nightmare Moon they knew than the Luna that they briefly glimpsed. Add to that the TRADITIONAL CANTERLOT ROYAL VOICE. Twilight, being studious and learning under Princess Celestia herself, probably knew about the voice, either from a book, or from the princess (Hell, there is nothing to say that Celestia doesn't use the voice every now and then). Fluttershy, and everypony else assumed that Luna had been repossessed due to her exterior changes.
 * Celestia used on Twilight one episode beforehand, at the end of Lesson Zero.


 * Perhaps it's all for fun but why is Nightmare Night even happening anymore? It's based on an old legend that was brought full circle by the appearance of Nightmare Moon herself and her subsequent defeat, which I'm sure everypony is already well aware of. To This Troper, that suggests that Nightmare Night no longer has meaning (she CAN'T come back and haunt your family because...well...she's vanquished, though Luna can turn into her form at will).
 * You get to dress up, get candy, play games and have fun. Why would anyone stop that just because the one central character of the event supposedly doesn't exist anymore? (How many people who party during halloween actually believe in witches and ghosts?)
 * Luna was shown able to transform back into her Nightmare Moon form easily, and had the same powers to boot without it. Does this suggest that 'Knightmare Moon' was just a form that Luna already had achieved at some point, and whatever evil force or possession took control of her, just coerced her into using permanently because the aesthetic simply 'worked out better?' And considering her 'original' form from her first appearance,whose to say Luna isn't altering herself now to come off prestigious? Or that Celestia isn't either for that matter. (Her younger form shown being of pink shorter hair)
 * I don't know about the powers, but it seemed that Luna had to possess the Nightmare Moon statue in order to take that form again.
 * It's probably easy for her to change her appearance with an illusion or transformation spell.
 * She still needed fake teeth though :)
 * Of course. Nightmare Moon had normal teeth.
 * You're assuming Luna was possessed to begin with. Why can't it just have been that Luna was so angry, so jealous, that she did everything she did of her own free will?
 * In "Luna Eclipsed", Princess Luna is shown to be behind the times by a thousand years, unable to speak to her subjects in a way they would expect, the way Princess Celestia would. If we remember that the episodes are out of order, and if we assume that Nightmare Night falls on a similar date to Halloween, then by that episode Luna should have been around for a little over three months (since she came back on what is really the summer solstice). After all that time, Celestia never bothered to tell her how things have changed? Luna never noticed that Celestia never used THE TRADITIONAL ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE? It makes sense that Luna wouldn't appear to the public for a while, but only if Celestia is HELPING her to be the princess she should be. It seems like Celestia just said, "Okay you're back to normal. You can be princess again. Run along now!" and left Luna to embarrass herself.
 * Remember that colorful egg Pinkie 'laid' as a sight gag? Well, who have we seen chasing candy all Nightmare Night, again?

The Cutie Pox
"Applejack: Big Macintosh, I'm taking Apple Bloom to Twilight so we can find a cure! Can you stay here and look after Granny Smith and the farm? Big Macintosh: A-yup."
 * In "The Cutie Pox", why was Applejack the only one who went with Apple Bloom to Twilight's? I can understand Granny Smith not being there because they didn't want to worry her, but what about Big Macintosh? Did Applejack just whisk Apple Bloom away without telling her older brother? Can you imagine how it would have went if they hadn't of found a cure and he had to find out later? He probably would have kicked their house down in such a fit.
 * Or, alternatively:

May the Best Pet Win!

 * Bullets and tanks are mentioned in "May the Best Pet Win". However we've never seen anypony using modern weaponry in Equestria. Including elite Royal Guards, and you'd think those would be carrying the best weaponry available.
 * Bullets are not just gun ammo. The term can also apply to the ammunition used in mundane slingshots or other sling-type weapons. That sort of weaponry is much more common in medieval settings, even pseudo-medieval settings like this one.
 * And "tank" might refer to water tank. Perhaps in Equestria, all water tanks are built to last.
 * I prefer to think of it as tanks (like the water one). Bullets were a bit tougher until I remember that Hasbro owns the rights to the Dungeons & Dragons monster manual, and the show has used hydras and dragons and manticores, so why not bulettes (Land Sharks)?
 * She doesn't say he's built like a tank. She says he's unstoppable like one. Water tanks aren't really known for being unstoppable.
 * There are two possibilities here. First is that tank refers to the kind of tank they'd actually have (but likely never use), which was essentially like a moveable miniature fortress. The second is that tank, in Equestria, means the same thing as it does in RPGs: Heavily armored warriors that are difficult to take down.
 * Equestria may have had wars in the past, particularily when the three tribes were separate. The unicorns may have employed covered and armored wagons to protect battle-oriented spellcasters. And who's to say Equestria doesn't maintain a standing army just to deter other, more hostile nations (the gryphons come to mind, as do the dragons) from trying to invade? "If you seek peace, prepare for war".
 * Although Rainbow's pet competition includes him, an owl in the lineup was the obvious "not gonna make it" choice because this show, despite how cleverly written is still Merchandise-Driven, and Twilight Sparkle already has an owl for a pet. No way Rainbow Dash would've chosen an owl. It's not cool to have the same pet as somepony else.

The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well

 * So how come Mare-Do-Well  became the one pony Rainbow Dash got the drop on successfully?
 * Or maybe the Mare-Do-Well just decided to let Dash get the drop on her and end the whole thing.
 * The second of these.
 * Although Pinkie still looked a little shocked, so it's likely they were planning to pull the reveal, just not quite at that exact moment. I like to think they were planning to lead her straight into a "soften the blow" surprise party.
 * Probably she just doesn't have/doesn't recognize a specific signal for "a friend you've been playing an elaborate trick on is about to pin you down and rip off your disguise".
 * I thought she looked more sheepish than shocked. As in "Yeah, it's me. Surprise?" She was reacting to Rainbow's utter loss of words with an apologetic smile.
 * On a slightly different topic,
 * On a slightly different topic,
 * On a slightly different topic,
 * On a slightly different topic,
 * On a slightly different topic,
 * On a slightly different topic,

Sweet and Elite

 * Rarity is staying in a suite in a very tall tower. The bellhop pony carried all of her luggage up here. Talk about a workout.
 * Shouldn't Rarity's friends have learned their lesson after "The Best Night Ever" on how to conduct themselves at formal events?
 * A fanon theory is that they all had some alcoholic beverages (or the Equestrian version thereof) at Twilight's party, so that explains their lapse of judgement (and the lack of Spike). Alternatively, last time they went to a formal even (i.e. the Grand Galloping Gala), Celestia more or less gave them the tick of approval for causing all of that chaos. So it makes sense that they think that it'd be okay to lighten things up a bit.
 * And they'd be wrong.

Secret of My Excess

 * It seems weird that Twilight has no knowledge of dragon anatomy or history despite being a pony who loves to learn and read books and for someone who has a dragon for an assistant.
 * Maybe she thought she didn't have to, given that Spike never showed any concerning signs of turning into a monster before.
 * Maybe she was afraid to, she loves Spike like a son or younger brother, and she didn't want to think of him having to leave her, or fear him turning into a monster.
 * A simpler explanation is that Twilight has researched dragon life cycles in the past, but her books had no information about overnight growth spurts driven by excessive greed because it's not part of normal dragon development. So when Twilight sees Spike has suddenly tripled in size, she realizes it's something not covered by her earlier research and has to seek advice from others.
 * Dragons are very anti-social, and can potentially grow to adult size as soon as they can get grabby. That makes researching them tricky, to say the least. Twilight probably doesn't have any good resources on dragon behavior or life cycles, which was why she tried all the doctors in Ponyville. Might or might be used by the current show runners, but Faust said that Celestia was raising Spike because ponies don't know much about dragons, and had never seen a baby dragon before.
 * If Ponyville/Equestria is threatened by a physical monster too powerful for their combined efforts to stop, would Spike or the Mane Cast allow for him to become greedy and grow huge again to defeat the monster?
 * Probably not, because then they'd have to deal with two monsters.
 * This is only Fridge Logic if combined with what Lauren Faust said about Spike being raised by Celestia, which may not be canon with the current crew, but if he was, why did he get just one present a year (obviously from Twilight) and not two? It feels a little weird that Celestia, the Trollestia meme aside, would raise a kid and not give him a single birthday present in all his life. You could say she somehow knew and wanted to avoid this scenario, but then you wonder why she never instructed Twilight to never feed him birthday cake after midnight, so to speak.
 * Maybe his present from Celestia was a big dinner with lots of rare gems to eat; it would satisfy the obligation for a gift while not indulging his inherent greed (since he effectively eats his gift) and since he gets to eat it he might not consider it a "gift" in the traditional sense.
 * Spike got that fire ruby from somewhere. Maybe Celestia gives him a flashy bonus sometime before his birthday? Not at actual gift, but still a sign of her appreciation.

Family Appreciation Day

 * Just what did they call Granny Smith as a filly? It wouldn't make sense to call her "Granny" as a kid but it would ruin the pun if they didn't.
 * Franny Smith?
 * Granny Smith is a type of apple. Just like Applejack Applebloom and Big Macintosh, it's following a naming pattern in the family.
 * She's a grandmother so it would make sense that she was married at one point and changed her last name. Maybe she had another apple-related name first but there was a Smith family that she married into and it's just a coincidence that she ended up with an apple related pun-name again when she became a grandmother. Alternately it's entirely possible that in this universe, Granny Smith apples were named after HER. She seems to be an expert in the field and has been around for quite some time.
 * In her flashback, Granny Smith refers to her family as the Smith Family, not the Apple Family. It seems more likely that the apple pun was intentional on her part and why it started in the first place. Could be another part of the Zap Apple ritual.
 * In Winter Wrap Up, Twilight says that the tradition has been in place for (if I recall correctly) something like centuries. Since it was started after the founding of Ponyville, which we now know Granny Smith was a part of, this suggests that ponies have a ridiculously long lifespan (contradicting Lauren Faust's statement that they have lifespans comparable to real horses). Since we don't see a whole lot of younger ponies (the only school in Ponyville is a small one-house affair), perhaps this is typical; they live long and rarely reproduce.
 * If I'm not mistaken Lauren Faust's statement was more of a Shrug of God to explaine thier Adult Child behavoir at times.
 * It's more likely that Winter Wrap Up predates Ponyville's founding and that it is celebrated across Equestria as opposed to just Ponyville.
 * Twilight's exact words: "Ponyville was started by Earth Ponies so for hundreds of years they've never used magic to clean up winter."
 * She might just be overestimating the time that has passed since Ponyville's founding.
 * Consider how many Earth Ponies were in line for filly Granny to buy the Zap Apple Jam. If we consider how the American settler expansion went, small towns would be developed after families settled in around areas. The analogy to Equestria: for hundreds of years, Earth Ponies all had their own farms to tend the land and celebrating Winter Wrap Up as part of their farming ritual without magical help; Celestia gave the Apples their own plot of land; as a result of the Zap Apples and Stinkin' Rich's foresight, the area because a town, still celebrating WWU and as Unicorns and Pegasi moved into the area, they too participated without performing any of their own special magic to keep the same tradition alive but expanding to the weather, snow-clearing and animal duties that we see. In other words, Earth Ponies did found both WWU and Ponyville but WWU was already in place before Ponyville was founded.
 * But in Winter Wrap Up, Spike asks why the ponies of Ponyville don't just change the seasons with magic like they do in Canterlot.
 * My impression is that Winter Wrap Up is only done without magic in Ponyville (and possibly other Earth Pony settlements). Unicorn-dominated settlements like Canterlot simply perform WWU using magic.
 * Another consideration: Recall the fallout of Hearth's Warming Eve where (hopefully) each species of pony learned not to gloat their special talents and resent the special talents of other species. Keeping this in mind, it can be easy to see WWU created where everyone would use more physical labor together to complete the task of changing seasons simply to avoid repeating the past.
 * Doesn't it seem rather trollish of Celestia to give a family in such poverty a homestead next to one of the most dangerous regions in Equestria?
 * No; it's giving them a challenge. The Earth Ponies are the hardest workers and giving them the toughest place to live makes sense that way.
 * If Pegasus ponies have been controlling the weather around Ponyville for years, how do the weather signs that come around Zap Apple season get through? Are the pegasus aware not to mess with magical weather?
 * Given the magical nature of the trees and the fact that the trees came from the Everfree Forest (which has been stated to have its own naturally occurring weather), it's likely that the trees themselves are actually the source of the Zap Apple weather signs.
 * Actually, Pegasi can't mess with magical weather. Otherwise, the problem of the Windigos would have been solved in about five seconds.
 * How, exactly, can the Apple family in Granny Smith's flashback starve? They're ponies living in the middle of a great big field of grass. The equines in this show have explicitly been referred to as hay-eaters, so obviously they can eat grass, too.

Baby Cakes

 * Was it just me, or was there a serious Broken Aesop at the end of "Baby Cakes"? Pinkie wrote a letter to Princess Celestia about babysitting isn't just about playing with children, and that a babysitter has to be responsible. But Pinkie was responsible! Her problem was that the babies she was caring for suddenly manifested extremely powerful and unpredictable magical and avionic abilities, and she was one earth pony handling them by herself. If she made a mistake, maybe it was not accepting Twilight's help, regardless of how condescendingly it was offered. It seems to me that a better Aesop would have been that sometimes you need to swallow your pride, or even your proper self-respect, and accept help you need even if it is offered condescendingly and insultingly. That might be something of a Family-Unfriendly Aesop for a kids' show, though.
 * Another good alternative: Be careful how you take offense. Twilight didn't realize she was being condescending, which happens a lot to socially-awkward individuals. From Twilight's perspective, she was thrown out of her best friend's house for offering to help her babysit. Which, given her sensitivity toward her friendships, would have sent Twilight crying back to the library...
 * ...which probably would have resulted in a letter being sent to Princess Celestia, in the hope that she wasn't too busy to lend some comfort. And who could theoretically activate a pony's full power potential at one month old. Suddenly that third act sounds more like a case of divine interference.
 * ...Or maybe just an answering letter back of the Princess gently explaining to Twilight how what she said was insensitive.
 * ...assuming Twilight Sparkle even noticed she'd been thrown out. She didn't even seem realize Pinkie Pie was angry at her, let alone was throwing her out. Twilight just assumed Pinkie Pie was more confident than she'd initially expected.
 * Twilight already understands her mistake. She'd be upset because of her mistake. She would be writing to the Princess in hopes of getting some comfort, and maybe some guidance on making up for her mistake. Trying to explain it to her at that point would only piss her off and complicate things further. By activating the Cake twins' powers early, Celestia bumps the task of babysitting them up a few notches to break Pinkie as well, placing both ponies on equal terms for when they make up later.
 * Guys, Celestia doesn't need to involve herself in everything.
 * Pinkie Pie's lesson was more in accepting that being responsible was hard and that she couldn't always be the fun person. She wanted to be responsible and she acted it, but she didn't know how hard it would be.
 * Rarity and Twilight are quick to point out that baby Unicorns can have spurts of magic. This raises questions about Sweetie Belle's proficiency in magic which so far hasn't been demonstrated even in for example, places where Rarity would use telekinetic magic frequently.
 * Also at only a month old, Pound Cake is capable of flying like a pro while the older Scootaloo can barely fly with her wings.
 * There are explanations for both of these. Twilight explained that as foals, Unicorn proficiency is pretty much random with sporadic bursts of power. Meanwhile Scootaloo simply hasn't learned to fly due to being too short-sighted to take the time for it.. That second one is a little broken, though.
 * Pegasi have their own magic that lets them stand on cloud and helps them fly so a baby Pegasus might be able to fly, but as they grow older they lose their bursts of magic and learn how to fly properly. Either that, or Pegasus wings don't grow to keep proportion with foals until puberty.
 * Baby venomous snakes have a habit of being more dangerous than older ones because they're too young to conserve their venom when they bite, so they inject their entire load on the first chomp. As they grow older though they get more of a handle on things. One can assume the various pony breeds work sort of the same way. Kinda. Maybe.
 * Extend this to why filly Fluttershy wasn't great at flying when she was at flight school; during her teenage growth spurt, her wings likely trailed her heavier body, while the other ponies (just starting their growth) has light body masses their young wings could easily support.
 * However this leads to the question of whether or not this is true of all pegasi or not. Canonically, we know Fluttershy is a year older than Pinkie. But we don't know how old the others in the mane cast are. If they're only a year apart in age, or if Pinkie is the youngest in the group, this means that Pound's flight capabilities may be unnatural. Pinkie certainly seemed shocked to see him already flight capable, implying that he shouldn't have been capable of this at that age. This may also invalidate the idea that Scoots is just unwilling to take the time to learn how. She's basically a younger version of Dash with a near identical tomboy attitude. Scootaloo is shown looking to be about the same age as Dash was when we see her as a filly in Cutie Mark Chronicles. Dash was already flying at that age and her attitude, as said, is almost a dead ringer for Scootaloo's even years later, and she seemed MORESO at Scoots's age, even when standing up for Fluttershy. Scoots hasn't actually flown at all yet. Instead she's only made wing assisted jumps. Pound can not only fly, he does so in a way that makes him capable of imitating Spider-Man by walking along the ceiling while flapping his wings to defy gravity. There was never any indication that Pound would be able to do this kind of stunt flying until he was older, but he's doing it at a month old. Either Pound is a prodigy, his ability is unnatural, or there may be something seriously wrong with Scootaloo.
 * Newborn human babies can swim by instinct. Once past a certain age, they lose that ability.
 * It's more likely that Pound is simply a prodigy of sorts. Just look at the Mane Cast. Twilight had a burst of magic so powerful that the ponies testing her- who were probably very experienced in magic themselves, being officials of a school for gifted unicorns- were awestruck at her power. Rainbow Dash performed a Sonic Rainboom as a filly, while there has been no other mention of even an adult pony doing the same. These two could fall into the same category of 'child prodigies'. That's two separate ponies within a group of six! Perhaps brilliant children are a common thing in Equestria. With odds like that, Pound could very well be one himself already- or maybe just a keen combination between prodigy and luck, coupled with the aforementioned newborn ability to be absolutely zany despite the laws of adult pony physics.
 * In the same line of thought, maybe there's nothing wrong with Scootaloo. Rainbow Dash was shown at flight camp, in Cloudsdale, where a pegasus her age probably belongs if they want to get a head start on flying. Scootaloo, on the other hand, is a pegasus living on the ground, around earthbound ponies. She's not surrounded with pegasi, and likely doesn't have a tenth of the pressure or influence on her to fly as Dash did- Scootaloo would be accepted by her society of mixed ponies, because flight isn't an absolute requirement at that age. Up in the sky would have been completely different for Dash, whose society would not have been as accepting of a flightless pegasi at her age because they are IN THE SKY. They would have to make sure that everyone is flying by a certain age, or else some poor filly could suffer a fate similar to Fluttershy, without being as lucky.
 * On another note, Scootaloo could just be slacking off to a crippling degree. She is shown traveling with a miniature scooter, a land-based vehicle, so she has even less reason to really worry about flying right now, as wings aren't necessary to operate a scooter. For someone that is such a big fan of Rainbow Dash, she doesn't seem to be placing a lot of priority on actually flying yet.
 * Carrot Cake's great-great-great-great grandfather was a Unicorn and Cup Cake's great aunt's second cousin twice removed was a Pegasus. Both these facts raise questions about how the genetics of the three pony breeds would work.
 * The show doesn't necessarily have to use real life genetics. This would only be Fridge Logic if it went against already established rules of how genetics work in the show. We already have a possible previous occurrence in Rarity' and Sweetie Belle's father, assuming his hat conceals lack of a horn.
 * If the genes for Pegasus and Unicorns are recessive it can make sense. But for this to work the babies would have had to inherit Pegasus (for Pound Cake) or Unicorn (Pumpkin Cake) genes from both parents. But seeing as recessive genes can stay hidden for many many generations it might not show up on their family tree at all. The chances of the twins being one of each race is unlikely but not impossible.
 * Pretty much every fan that has a biology education has postulated theories on pony genetics even before this episode, based on a hefty dose of real-world knowledge, and a hint of magic coming from Equestria being a land of magic, such as this one. Someone else did a video version.
 * Plus, this raises the issue of just how old Ponyville is. If Granny Smith saw the founding of Ponyville when she was around Twi's age, would there be enough years for Carrot Cake's great-great-great-great grandfather to exist? Granted, ponies existed way before Ponyville was founded, so the Cakes may be an extremely old lineage.
 * Who says they all lived in Ponyville?
 * Too many people are applying high-school level Mendelian genetics to the problem. Most real-world physical traits are a result of many genes working together, with some genes' expression being conditional on other genes, and some genes acting to suppress others. Then you have dominant, recessive, semi-dominant, and co-dominant alleles, and that's not even getting into sex-linked inheritance. The whole thing can be summed up as: "It's complicated."
 * The -real- reason the twins came out as a unicorn and pegasus: http://askprincessmolestia.tumblr.com/post/16135208759/ask-princess-molestia-128
 * Our friend Jay Naylor has a similar suggestion (but with much less shown innuendo): http://jaynaylor.deviantart.com/art/One-Pony-5-287682314
 * At first it seems rather convenient that the Mane Six are all present at the maternity ward. It seems likely that Pinkie was initially invited but she couldn't couldn't keep the news quiet and ended up squealing to everypony on the way to the hospital and that her closest friends heard and tagged along for moral support for Pinkie as much as the Cakes.

Hearth's Warming Eve

 * In "Hearth's Warming Eve", the play ends with the flag of Equestria being put up - it's suppoed to be set in the time before Celestia, yet the flag shows Celestia and Luna, straight from the storybook in the series premiere. Surely they could have tracked down the correct flag design with Twilight Sparkle on hand?
 * Look closer at the two flags. On the Hearth's Warming Eve one the alicorns are generically colored, while the one from the pilot they are colored as Celestia and Luna.
 * OTOH the depictions of Celestia and Luna in the stained glass window where they're shown defeating Discord in The Return of Harmony Part 1 look exactly the same as the alicorns seen in the Hearth's Warming Eve flag.
 * Two Alternative Explanations:
 * 1) Reality Is Unrealistic. The original Equestrian flag is known mostly to historians and scholars, but not to the average lay pony. Trying to use it during the play would've gotten calls that the flag was wrong.
 * 2) The original design truly was lost to history. Be it because of Discord's chaotic reign in between Equestria's founding and Celestia & Luna's rise to power, or just simply being forgotten over time, modern Equestrians don't know what the original flag looked like so use the current one in the play.
 * It's possible that the story of how Equestria was made was slightly warped. When it's stated that Celestia and Luna defeated Discord and saved Equestria, they may have saved what eventually became Equestria, and the disagreements between the pony tribes was a result of Discord's rule that wasn't instantaneously fixed because of how severe the problem was.
 * This one's countered by the narration. The play takes place before the reign of Celestia and Luna (which also forces it to pre-Discord).
 * Not necessarily Pre-Discord. Discord's rule came before Luna' and Celestia's reign, which means it could come before Equestria's founding, as well.
 * So where were the Alicorns; did they exist prior to these events?
 * Considering Equestria isn't ruled by Discord when the ponies find it, it's possible the Princesses had already dealt with Discord and simply hadn't established their rule over what would become Equestria yet meaning the play is set between Discord's downfall and the establishment of Celestia and Luna's rule.
 * That creates a different problem however; the Pegasi, Unicorns and Earth Ponies founded Equestria on their own without the help of Alicorns; then Alicorns came out of nowhere and are now the rulers.
 * However if Celestia and Luna are really goddesses, then it's possible they started out as symbols of pony unity and then became Physical Gods due to the ponies' belief in them.
 * OR Alicorns are an odd interbreeding. Faust has claimed that Alicorns are a mix of all three. (Lego Genetics may be to blame.)
 * OR Discord turned two ponies into alicorns because he though the ideal of him enslaving the ponies' sybloms of unity was funny.
 * Alternatively Discord appeared after they founded Equestria. Still no explanation of the Alicorn race.
 * It's possible that there is no such thing as an "Alicorn race." Possibly Celestia and Luna are just very special ponies.
 * It is stated by Spike at the beginning of the play that it took place long before the Rule of Celestia.
 * Which gives a bit of Fridge Horror as it means after all this, Discord just showed up and conquered Equestria.
 * Just because the three races of ponies worked together to found Equestria doesn't mean years of disdain for each other suddenly evaporates. Makes perfect sense that Discord would be able to take advantage of that later.
 * Maybe I'm missing something but I don't see the problem here. The Alicorns are clearly considered deities in Equestria. The three tribes formed Equestria and their harmonious nature attracted Discord. He conquered the land and ruled over it until the Alicorns appeared (possibly from the heavens) and defeated him with the Elements of Harmony. Out of gratitude, the three pony tribes made the Alicorns their leaders. What's the issue?
 * "Clearly," nothing. There is nothing whatsoever in the show to support the alicorns being gods, except MAYBE a few rare oaths taken in Celestia's name (which could easily be seen as oath's taken in royalty's name).
 * If the Unicorns were dealing with the whole day/night thing before Celestia and Luna came along, where did they even get the idea?
 * It's possible that it's been forgotten among the Unicorns since Princess Celestia and Luna have been doing it themselves for over 1000 years.
 * From the opening scene of Friendship is Magic's very first episode, Princess Celestia uses "Unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn." The Hearth's Warming Eve play implies that the pre-Princess Unicorns split the effort of the task amongst themselves.
 * The Unicorn's sun-raising magic might have been "divine magic" as they say in roleplaying games; they were a priest-class as well as a mage-class (social class...not character class) who invoked the Princesses to move the sun and moon. Priests, warriors and farmers also happen to be an old stereotypical division of society…Later, when Discord turned up, Luna and Celestia took physical form, descended to Dirtville and defeated him.
 * This troper has the theory that before there was no interbreeding between the pony tribes (they did not get along). But once they started working together, mixing of the lines likely happened, and lo and behold, the first alicorn was born.
 * Considering that Luna knew Star Swirl the Bearded, Clover's mentor, it's possible that day/night powers originated with the princesses and passed to the historical Unicorns through Luna and Star Swirl's friendship.
 * Luna Eclipsed showed Luna knew of Star Swirl...not necessarily that she knew him. There is nothing to conclusively demonstrate that she knew him personally let alone they were friends.
 * Luna did tell Twilight that she had "even got the bells right". That implies firsthand knowledge.
 * Knowledge of Star Swirl's iconic apparel but not necessarily the pony himself.
 * There are not really that many conflicting elements in what we know about Equestria. It was founded by the three races when the lands were discovered. Then Discord came along and started his reign of chaos. THEN Celestia and Luna fought against him and became the rulers. There's elements missing (how the Alicorns came to be being the most important one) but the larger parts of the story can coexist.
 * Still doesn't explain where Celestia and Luna come from however.
 * Well...it's not like we had any idea before this episode either. We know they exist and that they are literally the union of all three races thus deities. That's all.
 * The unified Equestria banner seen at the end indicates that they already existed at that time and were at least known of by the ponies even if they didn't live among them then. It's possible that they date back to before pony history began.
 * The flag itself might just be a modern prop for use in the play (i.e. a modern Equestrian flag to make it clear to the audience that Equestria was founded) rather than a historically accurate version of the flag that was actually planted. Note that in that scene, the backdrop is clearly painted. That whole scene is a part of the play...not a part of the history.
 * Luna and Celestia could have been there for this and similarly, Discord could have already been in charge of Equestria. Not knowing the time frame doesn't help, but it should be pointed out that the ponies seemed to be saved by unicorn magic acting out of order.
 * About 95% of the above can pretty much be explained by the fact it's a play and thus some details of the actual events were likely left out for times sake. Everypony knows Celestia and Luna are the ruler, so that'd be a logical part to skip in the play if a part had to be skipped.
 * Wait one cotton-pickin' minute. Wendigos feed on hostility and hatred, right? Then what good is a frozen pony to them? Why would they neutralize their only source of food? Further this just teaches the ponies to avoid hostility in future which is counterproductive for the Wendigos!
 * The Wendigos seem to be a force of nature. They don't plan for the future; they just freeze everything because that is what their instincts tell them to do. Even if it would end up harming them in the end, they are either not sentient enough to care or don't have enough free will to stop.
 * Another possibility is their goal like they did with the three leaders was to freeze them in a state of hatred, never dying but constantly providing them with a limitless food supply. This is why not explaining their motives in detail makes them much scarier.
 * Alternatively the Wendigos could simply move on to other ponies once they've "finished" this meal. They might not expect to feed on the same one group's hatred forever any more than we expect to feed on the same one chicken forever.
 * The difference is that we literally can't feed on the same chicken forever while the Wendigos have the choice. Why wouldn't they just take the easiest path? Surely it's much easier to feed off the same group of ponies than to move around looking for fresh meat all the time.
 * See point 1 and 2.
 * In the intro, Twilight points out an "8 foot tall candy cane" which is the first real measurement (outside of time) on the show and of course this has sent a few fans to figure out the heights of the various ponies now that we have this measurement. But a larger question to ask is: where did they get this word/measurement? Historically we had "foot" based on the measure of that part of a human body but of course ponies lack this. (Of course one has to recognize that it makes no sense for the writers to introduce a fact measurement term and try to force the young audience to understand that; "8 foot" is a easy measurement to understand.)
 * The Diamond Dogs?
 * Translation Convention.
 * They know what feet are despite not having them; I mean, in "Owl's Well That Ends Well", Twilight explicitly mentions "[Spike's] ketchup-covered feet" as to how Owlowiscious and she were able to find Spike after he ran away. So possibly they used another creature's feet as reference for their measurements?
 * Horses have feet. They've got one big toe which we call a hoof. Their definition of a foot (the measurement of length) would probably be different to ours though.
 * Princess Platinum seems to be wearing an ermine cape. Wonder what it is actually made of…
 * Magic-made synthetics? Course they might've not been so nice to animals back then…
 * Or they are pragmatic enough to for instance skin ermine that have died of natural causes, take whatever else is of utility to ponies from the body and feed the rest to the buzzing buzzards and other scavengers.
 * Or being a ruler, an elitist enough to ride one of her subjects (and thus willing to have lots of magic wasted on her appearance) and an Unicorn, the cape may be made of living ermine in much the same way as  wore a cloak made out of.
 * May also be simple the prop that has it (and made by modern pony day synthetic fur) and thus that's how we see it in the "historical" parts.
 * Considering the play depicts the events more than a thousand years before Twilight and her friends were born you'd expect the characters in it to speak a bit differently, using words like "thou" and "thee". It has already been established in Luna Eclipsed that the language ponies use wasn't always like modern English.
 * Perhaps for the audience's sake?
 * Could be true for the pony audience who just watch the actors playing on stage. However for us most of the play appears in some form of flashback meaning that using at least some of Old/Middle English words would seem logical.
 * The fan chronology suggests that Discord will rule sometime after the founding of Equestria followed by Celestia and Luna defeating him. The Royal Canterlot Voice-style may not have actually existed until the point that the sisters take over and formalize a monarchy-like system.
 * While it's true that The Royal Canterlot Voice may not have existed during the time of events depicted in play, the language could still be (and most likely was) very different. By logic it should have even more old words than the language Luna was speaking with in Luna Eclipsed.
 * By logic the language should be completely incomprehensible to anyone who isn't an English major. Both the show's writers and the Mane Six probably decided to use modern English to make it easier to follow for their respective audiences.
 * Exactly. In fact, one could also argue that three separate pony tribes would each have their own language...yet what language is used in Jesus Christ Superstar? 'Israel 4 BC had no mass communication ... '
 * Hang on; Pinkie Pie openly calls attention to the fact that the world is round. So...how do the Unicorns (and later the Princesses) make the sun and moon "rise" and "set"?
 * She says it's round. That doesn't mean it orbits the Sun.
 * It's not the Earth orbiting the Sun that creates day and night. It's the spinning of the Earth.
 * Perhaps they raise the sun by rotating the planet.
 * You do remember that we're talking about somepony who was wearing a hole-riddled map on her face, right?
 * So when Princess Platinum (Rarity) rides Clover the Clever (Twilight Sparkle) across the stream, why the hell was Clover wearing a bridle?
 * Although possible, it seems odd that all three of the leaders at the time and all three of their assistants would be female. Might there have been some Cross Casting going on? 'Princess' Platinum is the only character who's explicitly female; the others are all variously gender-neutral. Commander Hurricane in particular seems mighty militaristic and aggressive, although perhaps no more so than Rainbow herself. And some of the interactions between Platinum and Clover take on a slightly different tone if you suppose Star Swirl the Bearded's apprentice may have been male.
 * Fans have speculated that Equestria is a matriarchy by tradition. If that's true, then it would make sense for all the significant historical figures to be mares. If there was a real-world historical story with three political leaders and their immediate assistants and all of them were men, you wouldn't question it too much, would you? That's just how things were. Though I don't disagree that any of them could also be crossplaying, but there's no reason to assume.
 * As pointed out above, it could also be that the characters in the play didn't represent just one person, but rather groups within the tribes. "Princess Platinum" could be short hand for the unicorn nobility, "Commander Hurricane" for the Pegasus Military Brass, and "Chancelor Puddinghead" as the Earth Pony Government, while Clever Clover, Smart Cookie, and Private Pansy were stand ins for the scholars, farmers, and soldiers respectively. Since they're just ideas, even if they're nameed after real people(as Clever Clover probably was), it doesn't exactly matter who was cast as them. The play wouldn't have been largely affected if Princess Platinum had been Prince Platinum.

The Last Roundup

 * Why didn't Applejack's friends and family join her in Canterlot to watch the rodeo?
 * Probably the family couldn't afford it. We known from her wish to make money at the Gala that the family doesn't always have enough money. This might also be part of why she was ashamed to have not won a money prize.
 * Okay, but what about her friends? Not only did they have enough to go to Canterlot, but they also had enough to go to Dodge as well.
 * Considering that it was an emergency matter, well, Applejack disappeared and they probably pulled out their savings for their friend.
 * It could also be that the show tickets were a lot more expensive than the train tickets.
 * It may have been harvest season; AJ knew that this event was coming up and the town needed her prize winnings, so arranged to have her cousins to help harvest apples while she couldn't be there.
 * If AJ had enough money to offer the stage coach ponies double to outrun her friends, then quadruple to counter Twilight's offer of triple, then why was she worried about returning home empty-hoofed? It seems like Miss Jubilee must pay her cherry orchard workers really well for one week of work!.
 * AJ wasn't acting rationally. Clearly, at that point she'd rather spend more money than she has than letting the others find out why she didn't want to come back home.
 * We don't know how expensive the carriage fare was. it could have just been a couple bits.
 * The entire chase sequence. How is a horse-drawn carriage faster than a regular, unburdened horse? Rainbow Dash can fly faster than she can run, yet she stays on the ground. A properly motivated Pinkie Pie can run faster than Rainbow Dash can fly, yet she sits in the cart. Why didn't Twilight just magic one of the wheels off AJ's cart, or make hers go faster like in Winter Wrap Up? Heck, Rarity could have even used her "Oh boooys!" line on the carriage ponies.
 * RD can't carry the cart and fly at the same time, and neither can Fluttershy, for that matter, for all that her speed is comparable to Rainbow Dash's. They couldn't even jump the train using their wings until they lost the weight of Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Team Friendship all wanted to catch up to AJ, not just one of them. Knocking the wheels off the other carriage risks Applejack and the horses pulling it, and they already tried bribing the horses to stop.
 * I'd say Rule of Funny. As we have seen several times, a pegasus can fly while pulling a loaded vehicle, even stopping it in mid air (Feeling Pinkie Keen provides two good examples).
 * The reason for Applejack's carriage is simple: as soon as she tries to run on her own, it takes Rainbow Dash only a couple seconds to pin her down. She couldn't do that while Applejack was in a vehicle pulled by four other ponies.
 * Applejack jumps the gun by trying to cross the tracks before the train gets there. There aren't many repercussions for her taking this great risk, never mind endangering four other pony lives into the bargain, so I've got two fridge logic moments:
 * Call me a Moral Guardian, but isn't this a bit of a bad thing to show on kid's TV? Crossing a train track is within their everyday experience, or at least will be when they learn to drive, and AJ is certainly the sort of character they could look at as a role model. It seems to be mitigated by the carriage ponies chewing her out for it, but still, a semi-comedic line doesn't seem like much of a punishment.
 * If you are old enough to learn to drive, and you still think that it's a good idea to race trains because of something you saw on a kid's show, you should not be driving. Also, where are today's teens supposed to get a horse-drawn carriage?
 * Presuming that last comment was an attempt at Comically Missing the Point, the fact is that people have tried crossing train tracks while the barrier is down, and some of them have been killed doing it. While it's not likely they'd be inspired to do it by watching one scene from a kid's TV show about fantasy ponies, and I'm not saying remove the scene, that action deserves a bit more than a "Lady, you're trouble," and something more like "What the hay, lady?"
 * Oooooor, the point could have been 'acting irrationally causes more problems'. We already know Applejack wasn't being rational at this point- she thought leaving EVERYTHING she knew behind to go earn money would somehow be better than a simple 'I didn't make the cut' admission. She was already panicking beyond reason, and acting even further past that. It wouldn't be hard to imagine that the point of this scene was to show that acting irrationally won't solve your problems (much less running away from them, metaphorically or physically), and can possibly endanger people around you- even complete strangers. Lesson Zero, anyone?
 * Why didn't the four carriage ponies just dig in their hooves and stop? It's just as much their fault as AJ's, and they seemed to have plenty of time to slow down.
 * They figured they could make it. And they did.
 * They looked pretty nervous about it (unlike AJ, who looked gleeful at the thought of getting across in time), and chewed out AJ for making them do it. If they were that bothered, they could have stopped. Yet they didn't.
 * They were part of a high speed chase. Higher speed = longer stopping distance, meaning they might not have been able to stop before hitting/getting hit by the train anyway, so in this stressful situation they decided to go with what AJ said. Was it unwise? Yes, but so are most decisions made during stress.

The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000
"Flim: Why are your apples so expensive to us? Applejack: Oh, you know. Export taxes, certified quality, moral damage fee... You're free to buy apples elsewhere, sir. Ain't it right, Big Mac? Big Macintosh: Aayup."
 * The story is focused on apple cider. ....... this would be the AMERICAN version of cider, because in the United Kingdom, apple cider is alcoholic! On wonders how the subtext of this episode would be received over there, especially if it results in hilarious bonuses!
 * Maybe, but cider needs time to ferment and the Apples and the Flim-Flam brothers were selling their cider the same day it was made, so it really couldn't have been hard cider (which, incidentally, certainly does exist in the United States).
 * Except that Berry Punch (Who, in fanon, is an alcoholic and in the actual show just likes to drink things) is the one who the camera focuses on when Flam says that "It's the same in every town. Thirsty throats, dry tongues, and not a drop of cider to be found." Her face is one of complete shock (about 5:10) to realize that there not just no cider in Ponyville, but since other towns are in cantering distance, maybe no cider ANYWHERE. There is nowhere for her to get her drink on, and she needs it... whether it's hard cider or not. Besides, we don't know if they add anything between the giant grindstone and the tap when they're making it in the competition, it'd be hidden behind the wheel, or within the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. If you look at Cheerilee's face after she drinks, she's definitely got a "I'm having a wonderful time with this cider" face at about 3:00.
 * Unlikely. Alcohol is never going to make an appearance in a kids' show. What magic substance would they be adding to the cider to transform it into hard cider, anyway? You can't just mix fresh cider and grain alcohol and call it hard cider.
 * Equestrian apples could conceivably have some natural alcohol content once ripe. That's straying into WMG territory, though; more likely we're just looking at an example of Frothy Mugs of Water.
 * Alright, Granny Smith makes a foolish bet because she got called a chicken. If the Apple family lose their cider-selling rights they won't have the money to keep the farm during the winter. That's fine. That's a series of logical events. But by the time the contest has been lost literally everypony involved has made the bizarre mental leap that the bet was actually for ownership of the farm! The Flim Flam brothers talk about renaming Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack talks about packing up and getting out, and none of the Mane Six seem to realise the error. Yes, you might have to sell the farm eventually, but you don't have instantly hand it over to the Flim Flam brothers! That was never part of the deal!
 * Everypony also missed another important point in their eagerness to escalate the episode's conflict: the bet only involved the right to sell cider. The only source of apples in the region is Sweet Apple Acres. You might not be able to sell your own cider while the Flim Flam brothers are around, but you can just refuse to sell them the apples they need to make it until they go out of business and move on instead!
 * Or do what any smart enterprise with a monopoly over resources would do: jack up the prices for their competitors. If the brothers keep buying Sweet Apple Acres' wares, then there's no need for the Apple family do produce the cider anymore to sustain themselves during the winter, and if they don't then they leave town and the Apples get back to making cider. Of course, this isn't strictly an "honest" way to do business, but it could've happened...


 * They can't afford to keep the farm without selling cider. Applejack would've had to sell it to the brothers. Maybe it was a deleted scene.
 * Applejack mentioned that cider sales is what keeps them afloat through winter. They lose the cider business, they essentially go bankrupt and have to end up losing the farm anyway. Perhaps they decided it would be best to cut their losses, take what they have, and use it to start up business elsewhere rather than have their funds slowly deplete until they can't even move somewhere else.
 * They didn't have rights to the farmhouses or any further apples, or even would have known that the Apples probably would sell them apples in the future -- they were just being cruel and rubbing their victory in, and misjudging the crowd terribly when doing so.
 * Maybe the part where Granny Smith said (paraphrased), "If we win, I never wanna see either of you in Ponyville again!" it extended to if the Apples lost as well?
 * Apple supplies. TLDR version: Where did the brothers get the apples for the cider batch on their second visit to Ponyville?
 * Expanded version: On their second visit to Ponyville, the brothers have a barrel taken off them by Applejack. Applejack insists that they can't sell the cider because it's made from Apple family apples (main four members, or all the apple family?). The brothers then say that they can simply get more apples elsewhere in Equestria and come back with more cider. If there's another orchard they can get to outside of Ponyville, how could Applejack know that the cider was produced from Apple family apples (i.e. from Sweet Apple Acres)? If Applejack means all Apple family members rather than just the four, how can she speak on behalf of absent family members with their own orchards, and if she can then doesn't that make it awkward for the brothers? They'd have no supplier, so they couldn't stay in Ponyville and their promise to bring more cider is an empty bluff. I am assuming that the Apple family are the only suppliers of apples, but given how extensive the family is and how no other suppliers have been shown to exist I see that as a fair assumption. Even if it wasn't, I still see some logical problems in this dialogue however I interpret it.
 * The most likely answer is that the initial barrel was made from the main four members' apples, and the brothers' claim to be able to get their own supply *was* an empty bluff. All part of their ploy to pressure the Apple Family into taking their bet.
 * What the hell were the Flim Flam Brothers thinking treating potential suppliers like horseapples? I can genuinely see them taking a cut in Quality Control for more barrels if they were panicked and gunning for numbers, but you never make the product about ego. It's on par with Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat levels of ineptitude.
 * Seems to be the point. They were Con Artists first, business ponies second. All they cared about was making a quick buck and their actual business sense was zero to none. Even if they'd actually kept Sweet Apple Acres, they'd probably have had zero idea how to run the thing.
 * They'd probably just pick all the apples clean then sell the valuable farmland to someone else and head off with all the profits.
 * Applejack, I know Sweet Apple Acres is family owned, but please hire some help if you can't meet demands year after year, or at least impose some simple rationing like "One mug to a customer."
 * Considering how big the Apple family is, they could very well bring more of them to the farm to keep it family owned!
 * They have their own farms to run. We've been over this.
 * The Apples could probably make more cider per day if they wanted to, as pulled off in the competition, and it's not an issue of the apples selling better than cider as raw material and labor saved, so maybe they're specifically trying not to meet demand and stagger out supply in order to keep cider a commodity? That's valid, right?
 * Applejack said they were trying their best, so probably not. They only managed to make so much cider by literally working themselves to exhaustion and more than doubling their labor force.
 * When it comes down to it, the Apples seem to have a VERY poor hand in customer relations and business sense. Even if hiring extra hands is out of the question, there are a number of solutions that wouldn't cost them any extra money to implement, nor impact profts. They could impose product-per-customer limits, put a delay on sales to make sure they have enough to satisfy all of their customers, or at the very least impose a "waiting list" for the ponies in line who didn't get to buy cider on any given day.
 * Or they could just raise the price. It's simple supply and demand. If there is more demand then supply raise the price until the demand willing to pay equals the supply. Welcome to economics.
 * Why didn't Dash just camp out for the second day? Okay, I know she's pretty impatient but given how bad she wanted some cider, you'd think even she could wait. Or hell, maybe even ask Applejack if she could spend the night at her place if she didn't want to sleep out side.
 * When she came to the campout in the evening, she found a bunch of ponies already set up in front of her. If the Flim Flam brothers hadn't showed up, she'd have started camping out again at noon.
 * Or ask Applejack to keep a mug reserved for her.
 * An orchard owner giving special treatment to the weather team manager? No way that could have any nasty effects on both of their reputations. Especially not from the hundreds of other ponies who have to wait in line for hours without getting a drop.
 * If she REALLY wanted a mug of cider, she shouldn't have wasted time waking Fluttershy up, or should have used the Sonic Rainboom. Even if she wasn't first in line, a Mach 10 shockwave doesn't leave much evidence...
 * Well, she is one of the weather ponies for Ponyville. So maybe she had to work the next morning to make sure there were no clouds for the lines of people who would be waiting in line.
 * The brothers seem to think there's not more to an apple orchard than harvesting and selling. They would have come back and begged the Apple family to take care of Sweet Apple Acres eventually.
 * Considering their characters, they'd probably be more likely to ditch the farm when they used up all the crop and move onto the next town.
 * If the Flim Flam Brothers are, as described in their song, "world famous", what are they world famous for if their reputation as con artists does not precede them?
 * They're lying.
 * Given the rural nature of Ponyville and all, they may be playing on the fact that its citizens wouldn't have any way to confirm if the brothers were world-famous and all, to boast more about themselves.
 * Stage and musical actors?
 * Perhaps it's a spin on the truth. They're world-famous, but what they really mean is that they're known widely for being slimey businessmen.
 * People seem to be labelling the Flim Flam Bros, and they seem to be portrayed, as con artists. But watch the episode again - what makes them con artists? They never cheated during the competition. They never sabotaged the Apple family's efforts. When offering the business partnership, they never tried to intimidate or strongarm the Apples - when their offer was declined, they simply decided to take them on as business competitors. They played everything fairly and by the rules, both during the actual competition and otherwise. And as far as the "selling an inferior product" style of con artistry goes, they only started doing that when the pressure of the competition forced them to forego quality control in order to make up numbers - before then, there was no indication that their cider was any worse than the Apples', or even that it was bad at all. So what exactly is it that makes Flim and Flam con artists?
 * This is a fan thing rather than an in-universe thing: they're never referred to as such in the actual episode.
 * They're more accurately slimy businessmen, given that they tried to foist a crappy deal on the Apples, tried to run a longstanding family business out of town, and they were willing to let quality control slip to meet the demand of the contest (something the Apples refused to do). But between their song parody of The Music Man (which depicts a pair of con men) and the fact that very few people noticed Granny Smith drinking (let alone liking) their cider making people think the even the quality stuff was crap, and the fact that "con artist" roll off the tongue easier, I think the term was originally misused and it more or less stuck.
 * If anything, they suit the "artist" part of "con artist" to a tee - they've got their act down pat, know exactly how to work the crowd, and the like. One can argue that they knew watch strings to pull to make the Apples agree to the contest as well. The only difference is that, before abandoning quality control, they actually had a product to sell as opposed to snake oil as most cons do.
 * Well, they razzle dazzled the crowd. Their names are Flim-Flam, and they wanted 75% of the Apple Orchard profits with the Apples doing 99% of the work and the brothers only doing the magic for the machine. There's a certain amount of con involved in turning an entire town's positive feeling for their beloved farmers into negative.
 * Unless they invented, built or financed their machine themselves. If they did that then they'll have done a fair share of the work, just as upfront investment rather than continuing labor. It would still be a really unfair deal but because the profit spit is unfair not the division of labor.
 * Interesting: perhaps they didn't invent, build or finance the machine at all. Maybe they won it in a game of cards (by cheating, of course).
 * They don't have to lie or cheat to be con artists: many of the most effective cons involve telling the exact truth, but simply preying on the pride or greed of the mark. That's what happens here (and it's coincidentally why Applejack, who's learned to swallow her pride before, is obviously unhappy about Granny Smith jumping on the bet). They're con artists because they tricked the Apple Family into a deal where the Flim Flam Brothers couldn't lose and the Apples had to give them something. In fact, the con is very elegantly tuned toward such a thing. Even if the Brothers had lost at normal speed, they'd have still have made a boatload of cider from free apple stock, all tucked away in a high-speed vehicle. And it's not like the Ponyville sales market was important to them, as you can see from how fast they leave. The only reason they lost in this particular case is their confidence and greed got ahead of them: they underestimated the townsponies' like of the Apple Clan (and presumably of the Apple Clan's influence outside of Ponyville), and when they thought they were only going to lose by a little, they weren't willing to let the Apples win.
 * This troper is on the fence about it. They didn't do anything dishonest throughout the whole episode, and there comeuppance comes from making a very understandable mistake (panicking under pressure and deciding to get the job done as quickly as possible). For me, they stop being sympathetic when they express a haughty attitude about the whole thing, and while I certainly don't consider them villains or even really that bad from what were shown of them, the fact is their hearts just weren't in the right place, and they let their egos get the better of them.
 * There is one bit of dishonesty in it, the Flim Flam Brothers can only make Cider faster than the Apple Family, since they don't have their own apple supply, in the end, they can't make more, even if that's what they seem to promise.
 * Why does Rainbow Dash tear up the last time the cider runs out on her? The barrel is empty, but the next shot shows it wasn't the last barrel.
 * I didn't notice until just now. Maybe she didn't either and just assumed that the world was about to screw her over once again?
 * At the end of the contest, Twilight collapses sweating and panting into the dirt next to Applejack (Get your mind out of the gutter). But....why? For the duration of the contest, she pulled a "You work, I'll supervise" and spent the whole forty-five minutes watching the barrels and keeping track of ratios. What, exactly, got her so exhausted? Did she forget to warm up her eye muscles?
 * She was moving the barrels.
 * She was doing that too, yes, but she didn't seem to be paying them much attention. Or any attention at all, actually. She had to dig her hooves into the dirt and grit her teeth to lift the water tower in Boast Busters, but here she just puts on a "whatever" face and absorbs herself in her checklist.
 * She had been holding her breath in the last tense minute of the competition. Stress could account for any sweat.
 * The brothers didn't pay the Apple Family for the apples they used and the trees they destroyed with their machine, escaping after committing property damage. They could have been arrested.
 * This is just a quip but Applejack says they won't stoop to cheating in order to win but says this in response to Rainbow Dash wanting to cut out the QC process. I wouldn't call lowering the quality of your product 'cheating', exactly. Maybe it's cheating yourself and your standards but it doesn't really have any bearing on the rules of the contest. Just seemed like the wrong thing to say or imply to me.

Read It and Weep

 * How is it that Twilight, the most organized pony in Ponyville has all the Daring Do books, and the copy she loans Rainbow Dash is the third book on her shelf devoted to Daring Do? It seems odd that that somepony as OCD as Twilight wouldn't want to start her friend on the first book in the series. Perhaps two prequels were written and "Sapphire Stone" is the first published book in the series.
 * Or the entire bookcase is devoted to adventure stories and the first two books on the shelf are by a different author.
 * Or "Sapphire Stone" is the third in the series, but the first two aren't on the hospital's library cart.
 * Twilight says that it's the first book of the series.
 * Or the other two books are prequels and Twilight had them in the order that they happened.
 * The real reason, of course, is that it's more compositionally interesting to have the book be sandwiched between others than be at the very end when Twilight pulls it out.
 * We've seen Spike as being the one who reorganizes the shelves... maybe he got lazy?
 * They are awful, awful prequels, on the level of Star Wars or even (shudder) Dune. Twilight wants to spare Rainbow the horror.
 * Perhaps she chose the book where Daring Do had a wing injury, specifically to help Rainbow Dash identify with the character.
 * Again, Twilight tells Rainbow that "this is the first story in the series."
 * Maybe the library has multiple copies of the book.
 * This. It's quite common for a library to have more than one copy of a popular book.
 * There is actually real-world precedent for this in the Chronicles of Narnia series. While the book Lion Witch And The Wardrobe was the first one written, and The Magician's Nephew was the second-to-last book written in the series, many collections of the books will put The Magician's Nephew first in the series, because it deals with the founding of Narnia, and the origins of the wardrobe in Wardrobe, as well as other characters and events in the series. So depending on which collection you have, Wardrobe, could be the first released, but second in the order.
 * "With the Sapphire Statue secured, the world was safe once again." Uh, from what? The book never mentioned any danger about Ahuizotl having the statue. Does it have some sort of mystical power that we're never told about? Judging by the title of the next book, it looks like we'll never find out.
 * A bad case of Show Within a Show Lost in Medias Res, although Ahuizotl does mention using it to Take Over the World.
 * Apparently, Dash read the entire book up to the last chapter in one setting, it's very likely we didn't see the entire book because there wasn't time.
 * Or she started in halfway intending to half-ass a read, since she seemed confused as to where Ahuizotl came from initially.
 * My theory is that those two books before are prequels, but they were filled with spoilers for the later books and would have spoiled future stories for Rainbow Dash. That or the first two books didn't have much in them that would be interesting to Rainbow, so Twilight picked a more action-filled one.
 * The impression I got is that the Statue is irrelevant. Ahuizotl says "With Daring Do out of the way, the world will suffer mightily at my hands." It's the fact that he thinks he's gotten rid of Daring Do that he is celebrating, not the fact that he has the Statue. The narration: "...with Ahuizotl defeated, and the Sapphire Statue secured..." also implies that his defeat is what has made the world safe. If the Statue was the more prominent concern, it should have been mentioned first.
 * Which all leads to one conclusion: Hasbro needs to hire people to actually write the books and settle these debates.
 * Why would a mental patient pony be in the same hospital as ponies with injuries?
 * It's a small town hospital, they might not have a separate mental institution. Besides they can have different wards.
 * Also, do hospitals usually employ security guards? Then again, seeing how they seem to have a mental ward which is, as seen above, Fridge Logic in its own right...
 * As at least one episode from any medical drama will teach you there is stuff worth stealing in a hospital, add the rather public nature of any hospital building, the possibility of children about and the need for security guards arises.
 * This Brony works as a security guard and I can assure you that we do have officers who work at the hospitals.
 * Doesn't Pinkie Pie live at Sugarcube Corner? The house she was sleeping in during Dash's chase scene doesn't look anything like it. Does that mean this episode takes place shortly after Spike's rampage?
 * It's never stated where she lives before, and it's more been said she WORKS for the Cakes and they see her like a daughter. Otherwise why would they ask her to be a permanent babysitter in Baby Cakes if she was living with them?
 * Party of One explicitly shows she lives above Sugarcube Corners. The Cakes don't want her to be their permanent babysitter because they don't trust her, which is what the friendship report in Baby Cakes was about.
 * Word of God says that Pinkie does live at Sugarcube Corner, so either A) she's staying with a random pony (Derpy, maybe?) while her home gets rebuilt, B) She moved out so the Cakes could use her old room for the foals, or C) The animators forgot or for whatever reason couldn't fit the Sugarcube Corner model into the scene.
 * She may have been at a sleepover or late night party there, as well.
 * The whole "looks like a giant dessert" thing Sugar Cube Corner has could be a facade, or a "False Front." Such a technique was commonly used in more olden times to make a store look bigger and more impressive. It's still used today, but to a much lesser degree. It's easy to see this used when watching a western, and the stores and buildings have those large fronts, but small backsides.
 * In any case, she's back at SCC and her room is intact as of "A Friend in Deed".
 * The Hospital staff and their security guard proceed to hunt Rainbow out of the hospital's premises and through the entire city, all by themselves. Are they... even allowed to do this?
 * Apparently so. And all over a pair of slippers.
 * Why would ponies need hospital gowns (outside of Rule of Funny)?
 * A bedridden pony wouldn't be able to easily take a bath if their coat got dirty (for example, from a mishap with the hospital food), so the hospital gowns are a cheap and easily-replaced cover to block dirt and such.
 * All for the sake of Rarity's line about the gowns matching the curtains.
 * Why did Rainbow Dash have to stay in the hospital to begin with? I mean, she had to go there to have her wing dressed, but if all she needed after that was bed rest, couldn't she do that at home?
 * She lives in the clouds. Transportation would likely be difficult.
 * Then couldn't she have gone to a friend's house?
 * If she stays at the hospital, she's more likely to receive better care, and they may want to keep her there for further observation.
 * She seems to spend her entire stay lying/sitting on her back. Wouldn't walking around with her four intact limbs be better than putting weight on the broken wing?
 * I agree here. Are pegasi wings sensitive to the point where there would be increased pain when a pony walks? Her legs are all fine, so I can't see why they can't just put medication on it inside a cast and let her walk freely.
 * She seemed pretty beat up in other respects too. Might have been some sprains and bruises that needed to heal up.
 * But then again, sprains and bruises can easily heal at home. And again, this troper just asked his mother about that part. Normally when you have broken something, you would spend the rest at home, because it would cost too much money. But then again, perhaps Equestria has a good health care system.
 * How could Rainbow Dash 'never lose' in what is basically Battleship? You can only strategize so much in that game, and luck of the draw would dictate she would lose a game eventually.
 * Not giving away hints as to the locations of your ships and being able to see them in others would also accounts. Rainbow has show several times to be able to pick up on traits in the others, something that would certainly help in such a game. That and she might just be very lucky at it.
 * Either that, or she cheats.
 * Given that Fluttershy's entire reason for bringing the game was that she knows how much Rainbow Dash likes to win, maybe her friends always throw the game for her sake.
 * Or, she's surprised at how easily Rainbow Dash hates to lose, and knows that under normal circumstances, she would be far more aggressive and demand a rematch.
 * Rainbow frets that enjoying reading makes her an 'egghead' -- but she was reading a light-hearted adventure story, nothing that requires serious scholarship. Is the point of the story "Reading is for everyone, but the cool kids stick to fun stuff that isn't too far from what they already know and like"?
 * Which is more likely, trying to convince someone who doesn't read to read the works of Shakespeare, or convincing them that reading can actually be fun by convincing them to read an easy to read adventure story? The point is more likely "The right book for the right person."
 * Besides, who is to say that Dash can't one day consider more challenging literature? At least she is reading now and that's a start.
 * Daring Do could very well be Dash's Gateway Series in fact.
 * Rainbow's problem was that she thought any kind of reading was for eggheads. She probably still thinks the kinds of books Twilight reads are for eggheads. But at least she can enjoy the kinds of books that appeal to her.
 * My theory out here is this; I think that Rainbow Dash is Dyslectic. Given the reason why she reads her stories out loud. I think that she had tried to read when she was in school, back in Cloudsdale, but she didn't catch on. Fast forward to the date of the episode, she had enough of reading, plus the terrors of the bullying that endured still ring in her mind.
 * Rainbow is released from the hospital with the strict warning that she shouldn't use her wing for a week thereafter. In fact, she accidentally uses it during the break-in, complete with a sickening "snap" noise. And yet, the next morning, she's shown in her house - which is in the clouds, implying it was well enough to let her fly up there? If anything, that snap would imply it'd be worse than it was before.
 * She borrowed one of Pinkie's flying machines, or got a lift else-wise.
 * Emergency Pegasus Ladder.
 * It's logical to assume that there is some standard way to let earthbound ponies access a flying pegasus city if they have some business in there. One can surmise Rainbow Dash simply used that method, whatever that was.
 * The twinkle balloon, maybe? It's what they used to get to Cloudsdale earlier.
 * This might just be one of mine, but I would have thought that Rainbow would have been more worried about Twilight being smug about her coming back and admitting "well, yeah, reading is okay," as opposed being terrified by the very idea of liking it. Seems more in character for the both of them, but maybe I'm just reading in-between lines that aren't there.
 * No, that's pretty much on the mark, and the first interpretation I made of events. After all, her immediate response to the egghead realisation wasn't to try to surpress her urge to read (presumably through jock-ish activities and saying "not an egghead" over and over); it was a harebrained attempt to regain the book so she could read it without having to go to Twilight.
 * Why do all the hospital nurses have the same Cutie Mark?
 * Because all their special talent is nursing.
 * Clones.
 * So the patient in the hospital thought Rainbow Dash wanted to steal his slippers. But why would any pony have slippers in the first place? They are never shown wearing shoes, except as accessories. How would they even put a slipper on a hoof?
 * The slippers are standard, in case there's a wound in their hoof that gets exacerbated. You'd put them on the same way you would the standard type of slipper (like these ones), by sliding one's hoof into it.
 * Yeah, "sliding one's hoof into it" is where I see the problem. Hoof's anatomy makes it impossible for human-style slippers not to immediately fall off. They'd need to be strapped to the leg, or otherwise clasping tightly around the hoof, kinda defeating the whole idea of a slipper.
 * Maybe they were slippers for dragons or gryphons or some other species with actual feet. He's keeping them at his side because he's very paranoid that someone will steal his rare heirloom slippers while he's at the hospital.

Hearts and Hooves Day

 * So a holiday centered around love a romance is a celebration of
 * Oddly appropriate, in a way. Check Fridge Brilliance for the origin of St. Valentine's day.
 * Alternatively, it is a holiday celebrating true love instead of false, obsessive, potion-induced, destructive love. Only the information relevant to the story is ever revealed and the CMC wouldn't care about the rest of it because they're kids, who are freaking out about something they did wrong.
 * Not to mention that almost every other holiday seems to celebrate a time the world was almost destroyed. Seems like "We're still alive!" is a great reason to throw a party, and if its a good one throw it again next year!
 * For that matter, the fact that love potion recipes are readily available to the public, despite  in the above spoilered event.
 * They probably expect people to read the whole story and included the recipe so that people know what to avoid doing by experimentation.
 * also, socially speaking, if something is readily available then it's generally either far less harmful than imagined or far more easily counteracted. By this point in their history they probably have thousands of love potions (of varying effectiveness) and thousands of kitchen-sink cures.
 * Plus, the damage caused in the past was probably just a little bit overstated for dramatic effect. Not that having the country's leaders out of commission even for a few days or weeks wouldn't cause a lot of havoc... but again, the CMC are little kids, freaking out about how they did something wrong, and dramatically over-exaggerating the consequences themselves. For the show's adult ponies, keeping the two victims separated for an hour would have been a lot simpler.
 * And Twilight was excited about the story from a purely academic standpoint because she's an academic. It probably never even entered her head that the CM3 would try to actually make the love potion, let alone without reading the whole story to find out the outcome of using it.
 * Between that and Twilight's "Want It Need It" spell, it seems that Love and Tolerance plus Up to Eleven equals Potent Weapons for the Disruption of Harmony.
 * Shouldn't the potion be unbearably spicy considering the amount of liquid rainbow used on it?
 * Maybe the cloud balances out the flavor, so it ends up tasting like punch.
 * Maybe it adds a little spice to the relationship.
 * It's not really liquid rainbow, it's just the rainbow's glow. Perhaps what makes it spicy is...whatever that greyscale stuff left over is.
 * Why would the prince need to consume the love potion if he was already in love with the princess in the first place? Judging by the content of the book, he was clearly under the influence of the same love poison that he gave to the princess and too distracted to take care of his kingdom. All he needed to do was give the love potion to just her.
 * Maybe that's the only way it can be used? Or he wanted to be as devoted to her as she was to him?
 * Well the lesson would be lost if the kingdom didn't fall to ruin, not to mention the Unfortunate Implications of the royal relationship itself if only the princess was fed the drug. The Cutie Mark Crusaders reading something like that...

A Friend in Deed

 * Pinkie claims that Cranky Doodle Donkey is the first person to refuse her friendship. Apparently, she forgot about Nightmare Moon, Gilda, Discord, the Flim Flam Brothers, etc...
 * She probably means out of ponies that she wanted to be friends with; bullying her friends, driving the local branch of the Apple family out of business or trying to take over the world probably get you disqualified from her friend list (and Gilda turned out not to be worth the effort anyway).
 * Alternatively, she's referring to residents of Ponyville (Cranky was settling in), while passers-through and non-Ponyvillians are left out of the calculation (I would imagine the Canterlot elite hate her for her involvement in destroying at least two major social events).

Putting Your Hoof Down

 * In "Putting your hoof down", New!Fluttershy gives a very unsettling "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Pinkie Pie and Rarity, saying that both of them were wasting their lives of pointless pursuits that nopony cares about. Their pursuits, parties and fashion naturally, are the things that got them their cutie marks. And as we all know; a ponies' mark determines what they're secret talent and passion that they'll do for the rest of their lives. How could they be wasting their lives on pursuits that they were destined to do/be anyway?
 * You're assuming 'Shy was acting logically, instead of just tearing a strip off them because of the rush from being assertive. And remember, Rarity's a seamstress and Pinkie Pie's a baker. Twilight is a librarian. Their jobs are related to their cutie marks, but don't revolve around them. There's no reason anypony has to accept their CM.
 * PYHD has yet another, with an bad mix of We Could Have Avoided All This; The Stare. Nice of it to appear as a call-back to "Stare Master" at the end of the episode, but really the question is, why did Fluttershy not use it in the first place!? Yeah, yeah Forgot I Could Fly and all of that, but it was used in another situation where Angel was being a picky eater. I know she even says that she doesn't have control over it, but in situations where it's most appropriate she's used it without hesitation. Instead she decided to give into her picky hare's demand, and in turn she got kicked out of her own cottage as a result. What the hay?
 * It isn't just that she can't use the Stare, it's that she doesn't like to use it. If her friends are in danger, or if it's for the good of her own animals, then she has no trouble doing everything in her power to help, but if it only impacts her, then Fluttershy prefers to dance around issues that the Stare could solve, rather than actually work through them. By the time she actually had the willpower to use it, she didn't need to-nopony would put up with her by then. Long story short, not using the Stare was part of the problem, not a potential solution.
 * Plus the previous times we've see The Stare in action, it's in situations where she ponies up. It seems like an unconscious side-effect of her making a stand. Deliberately using a lite version of the Stare on Angel in the final scene could be taken as an indication the assertiveness training stuck, even if the jerky side-effects was removed..
 * All the previous uses of the Stare have been on creatures of less intelligence than ponies (chickens, cocktrice, and Angel). The dragon is a bit more of a question, but given that the dragon's intelligent enough to talk - but otherwise acting as a wild creature - the Stare had to be enunciated with vocal threats as well. What this all means: it may not be possible for the Stare to work on fully intelligent creatures like ponies.
 * I don't think that was so much her using The Stare at the end of the episode and more her showing Angel she wasn't going to give in so easily this time around.
 * At the beginning of "Stare Master" Fluttershy tells Rarity that she can't really control the Stare; it just happens sometimes. The fact that she is able to use it at will at the end of this episode shows that she has gained (at least some) control over it, probably due to being more willing to stand up to a challenge.

It's About Time

 * Twilight is surprised that time travel is possible, even though she traveled through time in The Return of Harmony, Part 2.
 * I don't think that was time travel with Discord. Rather he took Twilight in an out-of-body experience in her memory, or that it was a Discord recreation. OTOH, those may be just rationalizations to dismiss what Discord did.
 * If you've got an assistant, then shouldn't he be the one to manage your schedule? Panicking over the fact you haven't planned your next month's itinerary should fall to Spike, not Twilight herself.

Dragon Quest

 * Twilight spends all night scouring books for a lead on dragons, yet she doesn't send a letter to Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns and ask them where they got Spike's egg from?
 * Most likely she was tired from spending all night looking and then going through the whole Spike finding himself that she hadn't thought of that.
 * Celestia does send a letter addressed to Spike, but we never get to hear what it says. Maybe it was about where his egg came from?
 * It's also possible that Twilight just didn't want to send a letter in the middle of the night, and was waiting for the moment, but Spike decides to set out as soon as morning comes. It's odd that she didn't at least mention it, though.
 * Why is it that being in correspondence with the leader of a powerful, sovereign nation, despite his immaturity and youth, not considered cool for the dragon teenagers? I understand that "She's a pony, and thus, uncool," but... Well, I'm not a Celestia fan, but she's still pretty important.
 * Do you really think juvenile delinquents would really care?
 * Yeah, they're trashy, rebellious teens. They're not going to respect Spike being an almost=literal teacher's pet to some frilly pony princess...thingy.
 * He himself honestly doesn't see the Princess as a big deal since he's grown up around her presence;the dragons on the other hand have grown up completely independent of her power, and therefor have no reason to respect her...the sun aside.
 * Does Celestia even have that power outside of Equestria?
 * Are you suggesting there is more than one sun?
 * Given that the sun has to be lifted by an outside force (Unicorns/Celestia), there is definitely something weird going on.
 * Why would the teen dragons care about the sun if they can survive wallowing around in Lava? Granted, something like eternal night would have screwed everypony over, but Dragons should be okay so long as they have gems and a heat source.
 * Dragonkind as a whole probably would care if something serious happened to the sun. Those three in particular, though? Not necessarily so much until they actually saw it happen -- and they might simply be ignorant of exactly which namby-pamby pony princess (of however many there are exactly) is in charge of that job, to boot.
 * Why does Spike sweat? There is no environment on the planet that would make his body need to cool down...
 * And sweating is a mammal thing, not a reptile thing, but that can be chalked up to Most Writers Are Mammals and Funny Animal Anatomy.
 * "Teenage" dragons? As in, dragons between 13 and 19 years old? Sure, we don't know much about the draconic life cycle, but given their long lifespans, one might expect Garble and his gang to be a little older than that. It may have just been Translation Convention for a more nebulous term for "adolescent dragons", though.
 * Spike doesn't hang out with Dragons, so he's probably just using that term since they're equivalent to teenage ponies (Yeah, I know, Vague Age abounds but still). The Dragons probably have their own term for this stage in their development.
 * In "Dragon Quest", it's established that very little is known about dragons since they are too dangerous to study up close. If that's the case, then why would hatching a dragon's egg and subsequently raising him be part of Celelstia's entrance exam for her academy? Does this mean there are multiple companion dragons in Equestria for all of Celestia's students? And if THAT'S the case, wouldn't there be more information on dragons?
 * According to Word of Faust Princess Celestia didn't give the other foals that test. She suspected Twilight as an Element Bearer and substituted the regular entrance exam with the dragon egg test to confirm.
 * Also in "Dragon Quest" we get to see a phoenix nest with half a dozen of eggs. And since it is targeted by a dragon raid, thay must be pretty common. A phoenix is powerful enough to fend off all regular predators, it doesn't die of old age... why would they need a breeding rate of regular birds?
 * A group of juvenile delinquents don't count as regular predators. Also, there was no real indication that phoenixes are common. How many times have bird species been wiped out because of poaching?
 * In "Dragon Quest", why the he--ck were the teenage dragons making fun of Spike when he's obviously a very young dragon? That's like a group of high-schoolers mocking an eight-year old for not being able to keep up. It makes no sense! They must have known that he was decidedly not in their age group, and most teenage guys would be more likely to adopt "the kid" as their mascot than make him "prove" himself.
 * Not all teenagers are nice. Some, like the ones spike met, can be very rude, immature, and jerky. Spike was just unfortunate enough to meet them. And besides, considering the fact that the other adult dragons aren't even monitoring what they're kids are doing, they probably felt that they could have a little fun with poor Spike, and knew that they'd get away with it. The jerks...
 * For that matter, why didn't Spike just find some dragons his own age rather than trying to be like ones who were clearly older than him?
 * Spike went to the smallest dragons he could see, which were the teenage dragons. Baby dragons, like him, would most likely be with their parents. And dragons are known to be very protective of their stuff, so if any stranger, even another baby dragon, went up to their kid, they'd most likely try and chase him away.

Ponyville Confidential

 * How the bloody hell did the Cutie Mark Crusaders - or at least Featherweight - manage to get a story on Princess Celestia?!
 * "Document everything." Not just "everything in Ponyville"; "everything". (Who knows, maybe his talent is to be wherever the wind blows or something.)
 * Celestia tends to eat out in very non-royal places--including Ponyville. She had a tea party at the Sugarcube Corner in "A Bird in the Hoof", there's no reason to assume she doesn't visit the town every so often to unwind.
 * Building nests is part of the Winter Wrap-Up chores - yet we have birds who only need a bit of help to do the same in "Ponyville Confidential". Wat.
 * In the latter episode, they aren't helping to build the nest, but to repair and reinforce an older one.
 * The Ponies' nest-building in "Winter Wrap-Up" doesn't mean the birds can't make their own Nests. It's likely due to the Ponies thinking that the birds, after a long migration, deserve to have a place to sleep upon arrival rather then having extra work making a nest afterwards.

MMMystery on the Friendship Express

 * Why would Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity eat the cake? It would at least make some sense if the elements of Laughter, Magic, and Honesty decided to eat the cake (though AJ would have confessed). But the elements of Kindness, Generosity, and Loyalty would never do that! It wasn't kind for Fluttershy to eat the cake without asking first. It wouldn't be generous to the Cakes and Pinkie Pie to eat their cake and disqualify them from the competition. It's not loyal to Pinkie Pie if you eat their cake and disqualify them. Why would they do this?
 * Because those are their redeeming qualities, not their only ones. If they always acted in accordance with their Element, we wouldn't have much conflict and there wouldn't be much of a show.
 * Eh, I've kinda agreed with that Friendship Is Witchcraft joke, at least the part about Applejack being more deserving of the Element of Loyalty than Rainbow Dash is.
 * I don't have much of a sense for Rarity's motivation, but... Rainbow Dash doesn't have a lot of impulse control. And perhaps, after being denied cider year after year, she's developed a habit of snagging whatever sweet thing she feels like. As for Fluttershy, she strikes me as quite impressionable - hearing the cake talked up like that, and then hearing that somepony else was getting some of it (or at least attempting to), may well have induced her to a little nibble. Which then turned into considerably more, of course.
 * Plenty of previous episodes have shown Rarity having trouble keeping her greed and other vices in check. That was just another occasion where she failed.
 * Rule of Funny aside, wouldn't it been better for the girls and Big Mac's back if they use a carriage to take the cake to the train station?
 * Too bumpy.
 * Why not teleport it in then?
 * Spike got scorched when Twilight teleported the two of them into the library. If teleportation can scorch a dragon...
 * It was explicitly said in that episode that Twilight didn't teleport on purpose. When she teleported in Dragon Quest, she teleported herself, Spike, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash and nopony got scorched. As long as she'd INTENDED to teleport the cake, it should have been fine.
 * Isn't Canterlot only a few hours walk from Ponyville? How would a train ride take all night?
 * The bakers seemed to be the only passengers on the train. If it was being chartered specifically for contest entries it may have been traveling slower than usual to avoid jostling and turbulence.
 * The train travels at the speed of plot.
 * Ponyville to Canterlot is a short trip by Pegasus carriage, not by train or by hoof. In Hearth's Warming Eve, we don't know when the trip started, so that doesn't say anything. In It's About Time, they left while the sun was still up, and arrived maybe an hour before dawn. If the Mane Six left late afternoon and arrived early morning, that would be consist with the only other time shown.
 * My calculations were based on the episode The Best Night Ever, where they left by hoof in the day and arrived by evening.
 * Also, remember the two-parter The Return of Harmony, in which the mane six simply walk to Canterlot and back in a matter of minutes.
 * This was during Discord's reign, only Faust knows what he did to the space-time continuum.
 * Canterlot is also sticking out of a mountain. The Friendship Express probably has to spiral around quite a few times to make it up there, and seeing how it's a coal-driven steam locomotive and probably doesn't have modern braking technology, it's not going up there very fast.
 * In Hearts And Hooves Day, Big Macintosh was pulling an entire house without breaking a sweat, and now he’s almost collapsing under the weight of a cake. Just how heavy is that cake?
 * I think you'll find it's a lot harder to carry something heavy that's putting a great deal of pressure on your spine than it is to drag something heavy along. It's like some people being strong enough to pull a loaded car with a rope, but they wouldn't be able to carry even half that weight on their backs.
 * Still, it’s a frikkin’ cake, and the house didn’t even have wheels. Also, this raises further questions: Why didn’t they simply put the cake on a trolley?
 * Have you ever tried lifting a cake that big by yourself? Cakes can weigh a ton, especially if they have multiple tiers and you have to make sure it doesn't topple over.
 * Aside from being a different type of movement, Big Mac wasn't just holding a cake, he was balancing it by himself. After getting Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to help balance it, you can tell he's under significantly less strain, given that it doesn't seem either of them was really lending any muscle to the task.
 * I've kinda assumed that ponies had magical weight reduction abilities that can make their apparent strength go all over the place.
 * It could just be a very heavy cake.
 * The MMMM's main ingredient is a neutron star.
 * A tasty, tasty neutron star.
 * The time he pulled a house he was crazy with magically induced love. I don't think Cheerilee is normally able to punch through walls either, enhanced earth pony strength or not.
 * Truth in Television, as The Power of Love gives you extra adrenaline, with added physical strength.
 * Rule of funny.
 * If Fluttershy was imitating the engineer operating the locomotive after taking a bite off the cake at night, where was the actual engineer?
 * Driving the train? Technically one person (the fireman) shovels the coal into the boiler and a second person operates the engine controls.
 * Taking a break. Fluttershy was nice enough to take over for him, after all.

A Canterlot Wedding, Parts 1 & 2

 * Where do non-unicorn mares and stallions wear their wedding rings?
 * Well, Pegasus ponies their wings, but the questions stand for Earth ponies...
 * Earth ponies could just put the ring on a necklace and wear it that way.
 * It's possible that they use something else to signify their married status; many human cultures have done the same thing. Unicorns use rings on their horns because it's easy to show them off.
 * Both Twilight's and Rarity's parents (or at least her mother) are unicorns, but they don't have visible wedding rings on their horns, as with Shining Armor and Princess Cadence. Are wedding rings a temporary formality in Equestrian weddings, are they just for royals, or have the other couples never been married?
 * Considering traditions such as Handfasting do exist in our world, it most likely is a temporary ritual for the duration of the ceremony. I would imagine sizing rings for a horn to say where they are full-time would be difficult to pull off... No clue on Earth Pony/Pegasus wedding rituals, though.
 * We know the Cakes are married. They're referred to explicitly as Mr. and Mrs. We've seen ponies wear necklaces. Maybe the wedding rings are necklaces. Or maybe they're tiny and braided into their manes in a way we can't see without looking very close.
 * We see Big Mac shopping for a diamond for Cheerilee in Hearts and Hooves Day. While this was more like an engagement present than a wedding one, it does suggest a few alternatives, since they were intended for an Earth Pony. We see a couple of oversized rings that look like they could be worn like bracelets, a necklace, and a couple that are harder to identify (brooch, maybe?). So perhaps any sort of nice jewelry will do.
 * Twilight became convinced that the Cadence in the caves is real, when she did the little dance they used to do when Twilight was a filly. But the impostor knew the dance as well! Twilight showed it to her, when they first met, and was implying that it's very important to her. If the changeling queen wanted to pretend she's real Cadence now, the dance would be a perfect thing to do.
 * Except she'd have no reason to, and the mean "Cadence" wouldn't even think of it. She's powerful enough to defeat Twilight straight-up. As someone theorized above, she may have been trying to get Cadence killed by Twilight, which may well have happened if Cadence hadn't thought fast. Chrysalis knows the dance means something, but not precisely what, or how important. It could just be a minor injoke, AFASK.
 * The imposter saw Twilight's part of the dance. That doesn't mean that she knew the correct response.
 * Immediately after the dance Cadence said that Twilight was the filly she loved to foal-sit the most. The imposter knew that Twilight was Shining Armor's sister, but probably didn't know that the real Cadence was her foal-sitter or that she was the favorite.
 * If Canterlot didn't know who was making the threat against it, how did they know there was a threat in the first place? Did you see a large army of ambiguous origin in the distance? Did "Cadence" leak the matter for... some inexplicable reason? Did Princess Luna discover something during the nighttime hours? Did the Princesses just get a really bad feeling?
 * Making Shining Armor maintain the shield, and thus distracting him, was a key part of Chrysalis' plan. She probably made the 'threat' herself.
 * In "Return of Harmony" Pt.1 It's explicitly stated that only Celestia can release the lock on the door to the tower of Canterlot (where the elements are stored). Celestia seemed fully drained after her battle with Chrysalis, in no state to be doing anything with her magic, and she had to insert her horn in the door to unlock it anyway. What were the Mane 6 gonna do when they got there, if they weren't captured by the changelings? It seems their plan was doomed from the start.
 * Yes, but Twilight Sparkle saw the spell Celestia cast to open the door last time. And part of Twilight's special talent is being able to copy other spells.
 * Another possibility: The spell is supposed to work as a "dead mare" switch. If Celestia ever loses the ability to use her magic, the spell deactivates. Because if that ever does happen, the Mane Six won't have time to wait for Celestia to regain her power to unlock the vault for them.
 * Perhaps she just doesn't keep the elements locked anymore. After all, the last time they needed the elements, they found out that lock doesn't work for anything- not only were they abducted from their chamber, but they wound up in Twilight's book. That's not very good security, really. Seeing as how this lock can be broken, maybe they just keep the elements there under guard. It's implied that even Celestia is surprised at the empty box where the elements were supposed to be. Having guards keep watch over them, on the other hand, would mean that she be absent in case the Mane Cast absolutely needed them (like in this episode, where she's beaten down by the baddie). Also, if someone attempted to steal them again, even if the guards were defeated, at least they could tell her what took them and possibly where- that's already more warning and help than the group got when they went into the chamber last time.
 * Am I the only one who found it INCREDIBLY ironic that the Changeling Queen underestimated the power of Cadence and Shining Armor's love? Because the love between those two is the whole reason she was able to take down Celestia and the shield that was protecting ponyville from AN ENTIRE ARMY. I mean, I guess I can understand if she didn't believe that the two can't use it the way she can, since THEY aren't changelings, but I gotta say, if the irony of that were and odor, we'd be able to smell it from Mars... XP
 * It was ironic, but the show also suggests that Queen Chrysalis had very little to work with in the way of intel. She probably didn't know that these ponies could weaponize the Power of Love and Friendship until seconds before they blasted her across the country with them.
 * I know. That's what I said.
 * I didn't know. You didn't say it clearly.
 * My fault. I'll be more careful with my pronouns next time <:-)
 * I really think that the Queen should have sent Twilight somewhere else entirely. The caves may have been forgotten, but they're still RIGHT UNDER THE CASTLE. Not to mention the Queen saw for herself that Twilight can break the crystals with her lasers. And the real Cadence (i.e. Twilight's only way to prove that there's something wrong with this wedding at all) is there. And really? Hypnotizing the original bridesmaids so that they would be lured off by a BOUQUET OF FLOWERS?? >__>. If she had sent Twilight anywhere else, I think she would have succeeded. Or, maybe she might'nt needed to send Twilight anywhere at all. Twilight WAS getting rather remorseful about her behavior, and even if she wasn't, she would have just gotten into more trouble if she kept trying to bust the queen without the real Cadence there, doncha think?
 * Oh, this one's easy.
 * Queen Chrysalis did not know Twilight Sparkle well enough to know better. The show established that right up front in their initial interactions. If she had, she would've just murdered Twilight and smuggled in another changeling to replace her if necessary.
 * She was trying to lure Twilight into attacking and/or killing the real Cadance in her blind rage. As pointed out, Cadance was Twilight's key to escaping and clearing her name. Chrysalis was willing to take the loss to secure her victory. The plan backfired because (See previous point).
 * The hypnosis spell Chrysalis used did not completely reprogram the bridesmaids. Apparently, Studio B did enough research on this subject to know that you cannot just rewrite someone's core personality through hypnosis. Given the proper stimuli, the subject's true personality can and will still override the hypnosis, no matter how much magic is involved. In that scene, the bridesmaids saw the bride throw a bouquet. That was enough to break their hypnosis long enough for them to remember the wedding tradition and dive after the bouquet on their own volition.
 * Well okay. I guess I can understand if she wanted to trick Twilight into beating down the real Cadence and about the hypnosis thing. But still. That was a big gamble she made there given the circumastances. She might not have known Twilight very well but I can imagine that Chrysalis knew Twilight knew Cadence somehow. What with the little dance Twilight did when they met. I'm just saying, sending Twilight somehwere else sounds like a much better plan.
 * Chrysalis was being groomed for a wedding set to occur in the next few hours. Canterlot was still under lockdown during a national security alert. Ponies had already noticed their peers had started to disappear without a trace after opposing "Princess Cadance" in some way. Chryssy didn't have anywhere else to send Twilight, and wasn't in any position to find a place without blowing her cover.
 * Also, the episode pretty heavily indicates that Queen Chrysalis is working on very limited intel, and really doesn't know a whole lot about Equestrian ponies in general. Power of Love, Power of Friendship, all that be damned. They're all just prey to her.
 * About the the final episode of the season. If I'm wrong, I apologize, but aren't bachelor parties supposed to come before the actual marriages? Because it's implied by Spike that they haven't actually gone through with it before the end of that episode. I mean, I know Spike didn't really know what a bachelor party was but shouldn't Celestia or someone explained it to him?
 * I think that's the joke.