My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E03 Lesson Zero



"Twilight Sparkle: We haven't sent a letter to Princess Celestia this week!? Spike: Why? Is that bad? Twilight Sparkle: Bad? Bad?! Of course it's bad! I'm supposed to send Princess Celestia a letter every week telling her a lesson I've learned about friendship! Not every other week! Not every ten days! EVERY! SINGLE! WEEK!"

"Written by Meghan McCarthy"

Today is a typical day for Twilight Sparkle: Order parchment, drop off laundry, pick up cupcakes for a picnic, make a ridiculous amount of checklists, the usual. Everything seems to be in order, until she realizes what she hasn't done -- send her weekly letter to Princess Celestia about what she's learned on friendship. The last letter she sent was last Tuesday... and today is Tuesday. Twilight begins to panic, convinced that missing the deadline will get her sent back to Magic Kindergarten. Needing something to put in a letter, she decides to visit her friends, trying to find one with a problem that needs solving.

"Twilight Sparkle: Sooooo... got any problems, troubles, conundrums, or any other sort of issues major or minor that I as a good friend could help you solve? (*grin!*) Spike: Hum...hmm...huh...huuuh...I got nothing."

Her first stop is Rarity's boutique, just as the fashonista is having an epic meltdown. It turns out she's lost a ribbon, which she finds a few seconds later. False alarm.

Next stop is Sweet Apple Acres, where Rainbow Dash is wildly demolishing one of Applejack's barns. Clearly the two ponies are having a fight, and Twilight must intercede!

Growing desperate, Twilight moves on to Fluttershy's place, since the timid pony always has problems to work out. She arrives to see Fluttershy wrestling the hell out of a bear, and laments her finally growing a spine on the one day she needed her to be a scaredycat.

By the time she meets her friends for the picnic, Twilight is panicking to the brink of insanity. Although her friends dismiss her concerns as overblown, Twilight becomes even more convinced that Princess Celestia will be furious if she doesn't get her letter in on time.

With dusk fast approaching, Twilight gets an idea -- since she can't find a problem to solve, she'll have to make one. Taking an old doll of hers, she tries to get the Cutie Mark Crusaders interested in it, hoping to create an Apple of Discord situation. Unfortunately, the kids simply don't care for the tattered old doll, so Twilight uses a spell to make it irresistible to everyone who sees it. It works at first...

"Scootaloo: I want it! Apple Bloom: I need it! Sweetie Belle: I really like her mane!"

...but things spiral out of control when more and more ponies spot the doll and immediately find it irresistible. Soon the entire town is fighting for it, which keeps Twilight from getting a clear line-of-sight to cancel the spell.

By the time the stampede of fighting ponies reaches the picnic, it's sundown, rendering Twilight's efforts meaningless. To make matters worse, Princess Celestia arrives. She quickly removes the spell and restores everyone to normalcy, then sternly orders Twilight to meet her at the library. As Twilight leaves, her friends finally realize they shouldn't have been so dismissive of her fears earlier.

At the library, Twilight explains that she caused all the chaos out of her fears of not being a good student; just as Celestia starts reassuring her, her friends pour in and defend Twilight, blaming themselves for not helping her sooner. Celestia decides to "forgive" Twilight on one condition: that from here on out, all of her friends join in the letter-writing...but only when they actually have lessons to report.

And how did Celestia know to arrive? Spike wrote her about Twilight Sparkle's anxiety, which prompts the touched pony to offer her thanks with a hug. Once Celestia's on her way back to Canterlot, the group settles down to write a joint letter about what they've learned: that you shouldn't dismiss your friend's worries even if they are blown out of proportion, and that you shouldn't let your fears turn a small problem into a big problem. Spike tries to add a paragraph to the letter lauding his having been the only one to take Twilight's concerns seriously, but Twilight makes him nix it. Everypony laughs.

This episode demonstrates the following tropes (YMMV tropes can be found here).:
"Fluttershy: Oh, thank goodness! I thought something really awful had happened."
 * Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Twilight Sparkle delivers a pat on the head to Rainbow Dash when she tries to figure out the Pegasus' reason for being angry with Applejack. Turns out there was no interpony conflict to begin with.
 * An Aesop: The Plot Device du jour; instead of happening as a consequence of the plot, the plot is for Twilight to find the consequence itself.
 * In addition, two Aesops were ultimately learned: that you shouldn't let fear and panic turn a small problem into a big one, and that you shouldn't simply dismiss a friend's concerns just because you find them to be trivial.
 * Another Aesop that it seemed like it was building up to but never really hit was that things are not always as they seem.
 * Aesop Amnesia: Twilight doesn't seem to get it that sweating over small problems just makes bigger problems (as seen in "Swarm of the Century" and "A Bird in the Hoof"). If anything, she's worse about it than before.
 * Also like these two episodes, she's deathly afraid of disappointing the princess, even though she has absolutely no reason to fear her. Hell; if nothing else, saving the world twice should be enough to let her forgive a few mistakes.
 * True, but her outstanding scholastic work is something of extreme importance to her. Remember she’s Princess Celestia’s prime student, while even becoming her student in the first place is extremely hard. That can put a whole lotta pressure on anypony.
 * Also in "Its About Time" all the events unfold because she obsessed too much about fixing those problems.
 * Ambidextrous Sprite: The overhead shot of the picnic seems to confirm that, yes, a pony's cutie mark is on both sides of a pony's rear. Before, there was much debate as to whether this was true or not (due to being made in Flash, where sprites are easily flipped to signify change in direction).
 * And shown to be mirrored on both sides, eg, Rainbow Dash's bolt moves down and towards her rear regardless of which side you look at her.
 * Spike apparently is completely ambidextrous as he's shown writing with both his left and right hands throughout the episode.
 * And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Princess Celestia amends the format of this a bit. Now she wants the whole cast to write the letters, but only when there's an actual lesson learned, lifting Twilight's (self-imposed) burden of having to send them weekly. This episode ends with the whole Mane Cast giving the aesop as opposed to just Twilight in all previous episodes.
 * Angrish: When Twilight gets no support from her friends at the picnic, she storms off with a couple of loud, frustrated groans.
 * Anticlimax: Twilight building up why missing a letter means her doom to the other Mane cast. Though each step of Twilight's Insane Troll Logic, they lean in and ask "Yes?" more anxiously, expecting it to be something bad. Only to breathe a sigh of relief and giggle when they find out the truth.

"Twilight Sparkle: Rainbow must be angry with Applejack! She must hate her guts!  How wonderful!"
 * Apple of Discord: Twilight tries to use her old Smartypants doll as one of these. It actually works after she uses a "Want-It Need-It" spell on it. Far too well.
 * Armchair Psychology: Twilight attempts this with Rainbow Dash to resolve her "feud" with Applejack.
 * For this scene, Twilight becomes a Glasses Girl with a Prim and Proper Bun.
 * Art Evolution: Twilight's teleport spell now has a purple hue to match her color-coded magic, Rarity's magic a light blue-tint, and Celestia's magic has a yellowish glow instead of the generic white she had before.
 * When Spike licks the cake frosting his tongue is clearly forked. In previous episodes, his tongue was the same as everyone else's.
 * He's also a slightly darker shade of purple with brighter green spikes than previous. Whether this is just a coloring error or a new model for him is unknown.
 * The backgrounds in general have much more detail and shading than in previous episodes.
 * Artifact of Attraction: The "Want-It Need-It" spell makes whatever it is used on into this.
 * Back to School: Twilight is scared that this will happen to her.
 * Bait and Switch Comment:

"*BLAM!* Big Macintosh: Nnnnope!"
 * Big Ball of Violence: There are nearly a dozen simultaneous Balls of Violence. It would be easier to name characters that weren't in one in this episode.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Twilight tries to do this whenever she thinks one of her friends is in trouble, but they aren't.
 * Big Entrance: Twice: Twilight bucking open Rarity's door, and the rest of the Mane Six bursting into the library (with a Rainbow Dash flourish) to stop Celestia from taking Twilight away.
 * Not to mention Princess Celestia's entrance.
 * Biting the Hand Humor: Twilight Sparkle's description of her old Miss Smartypants doll and its accompanying accessories could be seen as a Take That at the My Little Pony toys themselves. (Which perhaps explains why Big Macintosh is the one who really loves the toy.)
 * Black Comedy Burst: Like Pinkie's breakdown in "Party of One", Twilight's Sanity Slippage is played for laughs.
 * Broken Smile: Twilight, toward the end of her breakdown, so...very...often...
 * Call Back: Derpy Hooves briefly puts on her fish-eyed, scrunched mouth face from the original pilot, the exact same expression that launched her popularity in the first place.
 * Rainbow Dash's first actions to demolish Applejack's barn are karate-like in nature, and thus why she likely knew of the local dojo in "Call of the Cutie". Fluttershy may also be a student.
 * Twilight in fear of disappointing the princess? momentarily loss of sanity? the aesop of listening to your friends if you think they're acting ridiculous?
 * The "spark of friendship" in Twilight's eyes, from the climax of "The Elements of Harmony", is outright abused here.
 * Cherry Blossoms: Several trees in the background of the picnic scene are covered with them.
 * Cheshire Cat Grin: Twilight develops a particularly unsettling one during her Sanity Slippage, which soon upgrades into a Slasher Smile in the latter half of the episode. "Hiiiii girrrrrrrrls."
 * Circle of Shame: During Twilight's fantasies about being sent back to Magic Kindergarten.
 * Conflict Ball: Twilight invokes the trope in order to have some situation occur that she can learn an aesop from. However, it gets a lot worse than she had intended.
 * Continuity Nod: When crazed Twilight sticks her head out of the bush near where the CMCs are, the bird's nest on her head turns into the one she made in "Winter Wrap-Up". Could be taken as a case of Prop Recycling given the Flash-based nature of the show.
 * The first season had a running theme of the Mane Cast freaking out when their individual special talents failed them. Twilight's talent was Magic. This episode is about her other special talent: Learning.
 * The blast wave from Rainbow Dash's destruction of the barn looks very much like the one from a Sonic Rainboom.
 * Applejack tells Twilight not to sweat the small stuff, the same message AJ had for Rarity in "Look Before You Sleep".
 * The change where Celestia allows the other main ponies a chance to learn something for Princess Celestia ends up occuring for the first time in Sisterhooves Social.
 * Cool Shades: Rainbow Dash during the picnic. Deal with it.
 * Creepy Circus Music: Particularly when Twilight introduces Smartypants to the CMC.
 * Creepy Doll: Smarty Pants (granted, only because Twilight is holding it).
 * Crying Wolf: Rarity, even acknowledging it the last time.
 * Cue the Sun: Inverted and played with. Twilight's deadline is the end of the day, so as soon as the sun sets, it's too late. That is, until immediately afterwards, Celestia (you know, the one with the sun cutie mark) appears in a burst of light.
 * Damned By Faint Praise: Stumped for something positive to say about Smarty Pants, Sweetie Belle says "I really like her... mane?" Twice.
 * Deconstruction: The episode is a deconstruction of Twilight's Once Per Episode 'Friendship Reports.'
 * Defictionalization: It took seven hours of work for a fan to make a real life Miss Smartypants doll.
 * Description Cut: Princess Celestia shows up looking actually angry with Twilight after she manages to brainwash the entire town into a riot over her old doll. She tells Twilight to meet her in the library. Twilight and friends worry that she'll be sent back to Canterlot. Cut to the library, where Celestia is busy explaining to Twlight that she's gotten all worked up over nothing.
 * Deus Ex Machina: Twilight, the only pony who isn't affected by the Want It, Need It spell on Smarty-Pants, can't remove it because every pony that sees it just adds another body to the brawl over it. Instead, Princess Celestia removes it herself upon her Dramatic Entrance to Ponyville. The problem was literally removed by the abrupt intervention of a deity.
 * Averted in the more common usage though, as there is a very logical explanation for Celestia's appearance. Spike had been shown to be increasingly concerned about Twilight's mental condition and with the rest of the Mane Six firmly unconcerned about Twilight's looming deadline, he sent a letter to Celestia instead asking for help.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: A group of children are playing normally when suddenly they are approached by a disheveled, mentally-unstable figure obsessed with "friendship" and offering them toys.
 * Dog Pile of Doom: The ponies of the town attempt this on Big Macintosh. It…doesn't work so well for them.
 * ponies go flying*

"Twilight Sparkle: Very efficient! And a little bit gross."
 * Dutch Angle: Used when Twilight enters Rarity's boutique, probably to accentuate the over-the-top nature of Rarity's freakout.
 * Editorial Synaesthesia: Twilight's rage, illustrated by her getting red in the face, is also accompanied by the whistling sound of a teakettle coming to a boil.
 * Empathic Environment: A windmill and the sun tick and move like the hands of a clock.
 * And this only starts happening the moment Twilight realizes she'll be tardy; at least two establishing shots before show the windmill moving normally.
 * Escalating Brawl: Twilight puts a love spell on a ratty old toy to get the.
 * Everypony Laughs Ending
 * Everything Makes a Mushroom: When Rainbow Dash decides to apply the Sonic Rainboom as a demolition charge. The cloud is rainbow-colored.
 * Everything's Better with Plushies: Inverted, since the plushie in question has a spell put on it by a frazzled Twilight Sparkle that causes all of Ponyville to start fighting over it.
 * Double Subverted thanks to Big Mac.
 * Everything's Better with Spinning: Spike's means of wrapping his Overly Long Tongue around himself, and then pulling it back, spinning himself around while managing to gather up all the cupcake frosting Twilight splattered on him and eat it.

"Rarity: Oh, what a drama queen! [Everypony else stares at Rarity and her fainting couch] Rarity: Ahem. Relatively speaking."
 * Rainbow Dash bursts in to stop the Princess from punishing Twilight and somersaults for no apparent reason other than to look awesome.
 * Everything's Worse with Bears: Parodied. Fluttershy appears to be fighting a bear,.
 * Evolving Credits: The opening sequence gets its first significant change in this episode. The background in the scene where Twilight lands in her balloon now has a train (one that is actually self-powered, at that), the music is slightly altered even though the lyrics remain the same (some parts have been rerecorded), and Celestia magically opening Twilight's letter at the end uses her new yellow glow. It fails to update Twilight's teleportation, though, using the same basic white flash as in the first season.
 * Facehoof: Twilight does an exasperated variation once Big Macintosh gets hypnotized by her Smartypants doll.
 * Spike gets a more traditional facepalm (faceclaw?) when Twilight pronounces her fears about being sent back a grade.
 * Failed a Spot Check: Twilight was so dead-set on getting the Cutie Mark Crusaders to fight over being the first to play with Smartypants that she completely failed to notice that they already were fighting... over not being the first to play with Smartypants.
 * Her aesop could also have been "Don't try to fix something that isn't broken" or "Enjoy the times when you haven't any trouble".
 * There's also Rarity, who goes into full drama queen mode (the first of many such instances during the episode) when she can't find her ribbon. Five seconds after Twilight shows up, Rarity finds it...lying in the middle of the floor.
 * Fandom Nod: Big Macintosh, an adult male, decides he really does want a pony doll intended for little girls. Sound familiar?
 * Fantastic Nuke: Rainbow Dash's demolition variant of the Sonic Rainboom produces a full-blown mushroom cloud.
 * Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: Rainbow Dash wears safety goggles when helping to bring down Applejack's barn, even though she's smashing head-first through the walls and kicking the rafters. Applejack has the actual helmet, even though she's already cowering in a trench to avoid the shrapnel. The helmet proves useful when a pile of debris comes down on top of her.
 * Averted for Twilight, who is never given a helmet but survives being crushed by debris without a scratch. Well, her mane gets messed up a bit.
 * Fascinating Eyebrow: Celestia's seemingly bemused reaction to Twilight's friends' defense of her.
 * Foe-Tossing Charge: Big Macintosh breaking out of the dogpile of ponies.
 * Foreshadowing: When Twilight is messing with the frosting on the cupcakes, her face temporarily gains the crazed expression she'll be wearing later in the episode.
 * Freak-Out: Twilight has one in the beginning of the episode, which spirals into full Sanity Slippage as she tries and fails to remedy the situation.
 * Parodied by Rarity, who performs absurdly over-the-top ones for the most minor things possible.
 * Freudian Couch: Twilight has to substitute a bench for an actual couch, but otherwise pulls it off exactly.
 * Add in her half-moon glasses and her impromptu hairdo change into a Prim and Proper Bun, and this becomes Adorkable.
 * Full Name Ultimatum: While Celestia has casually referred to Twilight by her full name before, her tone in this case certainly invokes this trope.
 * Funny Background Event: At the beginning of the picnic scene, Pinkie Pie uncovers her basket, only to reveal balloons tied to it for no apparent reason...apart from the fact that it's Pinkie Pie, that is. Along with an understandably confused Fluttershy, she watches the basket float away.
 * Taken even farther when Pinkie stares right AT us, and then looks sad. Maybe because we didn't get joke?
 * Get A Hold Of Yourself, Mare!: Spike does a thought-bubble popping variation to Twilight.
 * Gone Horribly Right: Twilight hopes to create a friendship problem. She does. Only trouble is, it spreads to all of Ponyville.
 * Gross Up Close-Up: While not a straight example, the closeup of Spike's wrist from writing too much seems designed to draw sympathy from any carpal tunnel sufferers in the audience.
 * Hero Syndrome: Twilight falls victim to this, though she recovers upon realizing the harm she's caused.
 * Hypocritical Humor

"Rarity: What? You didn't expect me to lay on the grass, did you?"
 * Imagine Spot: Twilight has several throughout the episode, all of which are interrupted by Spike.
 * Insane Troll Logic: Twilight's fears amount to this. To paraphrase her thought process: "If I'm late with this single assignment, Celestia will make me take a test. Students who don't pass this test get sent back a grade. Since Celestia is the ruler of Equestria, she holds me to a higher standard and will send me all the way back to Magic Kindergarten." Spike lampshades how ridiculous this is.
 * Insufferable Genius: Spike gets this way briefly when writing the Aesop at the end with a touch of embellishment, but a disapproving head shake from Twilight prompts him to cut it out.
 * Ironic Echo: Sweetie Belle's "I really like her mane" used as a phony agreement with Twilight, then as a reflection of her brainwashed state.
 * Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: What Twilight did as a result of her fit of Insane Troll Logic (See above). She is so intent on averting her mentor's wrath that clearly it's okay for her to drive a wedge between the Cutie Mark Crusaders if she's there to fix it right away. And when that fails, it's also justified for her to put a spell on her doll that makes people fight over it, right? It's all in the name of learning a valuable lesson
 * Large Ham: Rarity, given the fact she actually doesn't faint until she magically acquires a chaise longue to faint onto.

"Big Macintosh: Nope."
 * Furthermore, her "I have searched high! and I have searched low!" is accompanied by some Milking the Giant Cow.
 * Even she finds Twilight's Super OCD nature melodramatic.
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: It's an aesop comedy without the aesop, so Twilight panics.
 * Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Unspoken but palpable among the background ponies when the "Love It, Need It" spell is broken.
 * Little Brother Instinct: Spike constantly tries to calm Twilight over her Super OCD breakdown, and ultimately calls Princess Celestia after her neurotics worry him more and more.
 * Lost Aesop: While the other ponies learn that they should take their friends' worries seriously even if they think the concern is trivial, Twilight Sparkle doesn't seem to have learned (or at least doesn't say she has learned) not to let trivial concerns get the better of her.
 * Luminescent Blush: The Mayor's reaction upon realizing what she had done under the effects of Twilight's spell.
 * Twilight gets one earlier when she thinks she's being made fun of by the rest of the Mane Six.
 * Madness Makeover: Twilight, as she becomes increasingly unhinged and desperate.
 * Madness Mantra: Twilight's constant search for something to report about is punctuated by her similar questions to everyone she meets about needing a problem solved.
 * Magic Missile: Twilight speaks of "getting a clear shot" in the chaos when everyone is fighting over the doll and she's trying to disenchant it.
 * Medium Awareness: Spike, three times -- pushing a backdrop from behind Twilight, rolling up one of Twilight's imaginary scenes like a shade, and popping one of Twilight's imaginary scenes.
 * Megaton Buck: The exact nature of what happens is left offscreen, but there's no denying that after the townsponies pile on Big Macintosh due to the "Want It, Need It" spell, he escapes from the swarm of ponies by sending most of them airborne in a single stroke, as well as smacking some of them over the horizon.

"Applejack: Whoa, Nelly!"
 * Mundane Utility: Rainbow Dash seems to have developed a variation on her Sonic Rainboom that can be used for doing work around town.
 * Twilight uses her teleport more and more as she becomes more unhinged, at one point using it to save merely a few steps.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: Twilight when she realizes how out of control her "Want It, Need It" spell has become.
 * Neck Snap: Fluttershy does this to a bear....
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Twilight in trying to create a problem to be solved but the other Mane Six as well: if they had just helped Twilight find an Aesop to report when she asked them for help, she wouldn't have lost her mind and caused the whole mess in the first place.
 * Nightmare Face: The faces Twilight Sparkle makes as her mental state disintegrates are simultaneously hilarious and horrifying.
 * Not What It Looks Like: Rainbow Dash is seen trashing an old barn on Sweet Apple Acres while Applejack hides in a nearby ditch, but, and Fluttershy seemingly beating down then killing a bear turns out to just be.
 * Oh Crap: Twilight, first when everypony goes nuts for her doll after she casts her spell on it, then again when she sees an angry Princess Celestia.

"I really mean it this time!"
 * A more minor one afterwards, Spike's expression after Celestia blabs about him bringing her to check up on Twilight practically reads "Uh oh, busted!" As it turns out however...
 * Once Per Episode: Twilight sends a letter at the end of every episode about the lesson of friendship she learned. Except this week she hasn't learned one yet... so she will make it happen. Hilarity Ensues.
 * OOC Is Serious Business: When your blunder is big enough to get Princess Celestia to actually show up in Ponyville to yell at you, you know you've massively screwed up.
 * Although we learn Celestia came over at Spike's request, it sure doesn't look like it at first.
 * Done more comically to the annoyance of Twilight, since any of her usual locations for friendship problems are absent; Applejack and Rainbow Dash are getting along blissfully, Fluttershy has (supposedly) hardened into a beast slayer and Ponyville for once isn't a Weirdness Magnet for feuds and disasters.
 * Pet the Dog: In a way...Rarity's the only one who asked Twilight if something was bothering her and seemed pretty concerned.
 * Pun-Based Title: "Lesson Zero" = "Less than zero."
 * Compare with "Party of One": Looks like the creepier it gets, the lower the number in the title.
 * Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Rarity's "This is the! worst! possible! thing!"

"Spike: Uhh... check."
 * Twilight's "Every! Single! WEEK!"
 * And Twilight's "Clock! Is! TICKING!"
 * Rack Focus: A particularly well done one at the end of the episode, where we focus on a worried Spike to Celestia lecturing Twilight in the library.
 * Real Men Wear Pink: Even after the "Want It, Need It" spell has been removed, Big Macintosh makes off with Smartypants.
 * Recursion: After completing a checklist of the things necessary to create a checklist, Twilight Sparkle and Spike create a checklist of things Twilight has to accomplish that day. The first item on that checklist is creating that checklist. The last item is triple-checking it to make sure they didn't miss anything when they double-checked it.


 * Reverse Psychology: Twilight in attempting to get the CMC to fight over Smartypants before engaging her magic spell on the doll.
 * Running Gag: In spades. Twilight has one (her fantasies of going back to magic kindergarten), Rarity gets one (dubbing things the! WORST! POSSIBLE! THING! and crying, "why me"), and Sweetie Belle has her own, too (saying, "I really like her mane." about Twilight's Smartypants doll).
 * Rarity pulls up a chaise longue to fall onto during her "Worst! Possible! Thing!" sessions, first in her boutique, then again in the middle of an open field. In the second instance, she explains that she didn't want to sit on the grass.
 * Spike repeatedly Breaking the Fourth Wall in order to pull the plug on Twilight's fantasies. Each time, he gets more invasive and agitated, culminating in him finally looking directly at the audience.
 * Sanity Slippage: Twilight Sparkle puts Pinkie Pie's performance in "Party of One" to shame. She actually seems rather evil at some points.
 * Skewed Priorities: From Twilight's perspective, she sees Fluttershy attack and snap the neck of a bear before walking away. Twilight's conclusion? Fluttershy doesn't have any friendship problems.
 * Rarity also had a case at the picnic. Forgetting the plates is the Worst! Possible! Thing!, but it's a good thing she remembered her fainting couch to emote on about it.
 * Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: So basically, Twilight disappoints and angers Celestia with her attempt to avoid disappointing and angering her?
 * She worries about not delivering a report on a lesson, but by the end of the day, she has not one, but two.
 * Shout-Out: Twilight's "If I can't find a friendship problem... I'll make a friendship problem!" is comparable to "If I can't find a reindeer... I'll make one, instead!" from How the Grinch Stole Christmas (both the live-action and cartoon versions).
 * Twilight emulates Gollum at one point when she starts talking to herself, even more so because she's talking to her reflection in a puddle, which has a sad expression in contrast to the fierce one of Twilight herself.
 * Rainbow Dash appears to be wearing the "Deal With It" sunglasses during the picnic. (Or possibly the Rainbow Glasses from Epic Cupcake Time)
 * The "ticking" sun is reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
 * Pinkie Pie strikes a classic "Up, Up and Away" pose when she speaks about Princess Celestia saving the day.
 * Twilight's menacing pose when bending over Scootaloo seems to be referencing old Princess Molestia picture.
 * Spit Take: Rarity at the picnic when Twilight teleports beside her.
 * Stealth Pun: In the old days, stunts in airplanes were called barnstorming. Guess what Rainbow Dash does in this episode?
 * Smarty Pants is a donkey. A smart ass, if you will.
 * Super OCD: Just a bit, Twilight?
 * Even her toys reflect it. See This Explains So Much below.
 * Talking to Themself: Twilight, with a puddle.
 * Tele Frag: Twilight pops a beach ball by teleporting into it. She technically expands inside of it, which is good since the ball was a lot smaller than her.
 * Teleport Spam: Twilight does this while ranting to her friends about turning in her friendship report late.
 * There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Rainbow Dash single-hoofedly tearing down Applejack's barn, which culminates in a Sonic Rainboom that produces a rainbow-colored mushroom cloud.
 * This Explains So Much: Twilight explains how her favorite toy, a Smartypants doll, has "her own notebook and quill, for when you want to pretend she's doing her homework," to which the Cutie Mark Crusaders (and the audience) react in this manner.
 * This Is Gonna Suck: As Twilight Sparkle trots off in search of a friend to help, Spike predicts, "This won't end well."
 * Took a Level in Badass: Subverted, or parodied, even; Twilight thinks Fluttershy has done this when she appears to be wiping the floor with an angry bear. (See Not What It Looks Like above.) If it hadn't been subverted, it would have been Exaggerated, hence the parody.
 * Even so, her moves are pretty impressive for her.
 * Big Macintosh also shows how strong he can be, if he really wanted to.
 * Trampled Underfoot: It's not an evil example, but the Mayor sees Smartypants once everypony is free of the "Want it, Need it" spell, and steps on the doll as she walks away.
 * Troubled Fetal Position: Twilight does this on a bench, but the way she strokes her tail at the same time is unexpectedly cute.
 * Twitchy Eye: As Twilight gets more desperate to find something to write about, her eye begins to twitch more and more. (For that matter, so does her ear).
 * Unnecessary Combat Roll: Rainbow Dash does one when the other Mane Five come to the library to defend Twilight.
 * The Un-Smile: Twilight had several of those, getting worse as she slowly loses her grip on sanity.
 * We Could Have Avoided All This: Part of the episode's Aesop is the other ponies realizing that the situation could have been resolved much better if they'd taken Twilight's feelings seriously and moved to help her sooner.
 * Even more so if Twilight had taken Spike's sound advice that missing one letter wasn't the end of the world...
 * Wham! Episode: The story is largely an excuse to shake up the formula by allowing any character to write a letter to Celestia, so that the writers would no longer have to shoehorn Twilight into a major role in every single episode.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Despite her obvious Sanity Slippage, it somehow still doesn't seem at all out of character that Twilight thinks it's awesome that her childhood doll comes with her own notebook and quill for when you want to pretend she's doing her homework!
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: The whole episode! Twilight thinks being tardy is the worst thing ever and Celestia will send her back to Magic Kindergarten. And then there's Rarity overreacting to everything, starting with a missing ribbon.
 * What The Hay, Twilight Sparkle? : She doesn't say it out loud, but Celestia's angry glare and stern Full Name Ultimatum to Twilight when she shows up pretty much serves as this. Doubly so considering this is only the second time we've ever even seen Celestia angry.
 * Wingding Pupils: Everypony who falls under the effect of the "Want It, Need It" spell gets hearts in their eyes. Derpy even gets derped-heart eyes.
 * Winged Unicorn: Animation error resulted one in being in Twilights imagination in magic kindergarten.
 * Would Hurt a Child: When Twilight seeks to create a friendship problem to solve, she targets the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Who were, just before Twilight appeared, laughing and playing with a beach ball and generally being the most innocent and adorable fillies in Equestria. The Mood Whiplash when Twilight shows up is quite disturbing.

"I haven't made any page edits yet this week! But if I create a new trope, everybody will HAVE TO MAKE EDITS!!! *snaps* EEEHEHEHEEE!!!!

What's all the commotion about? They're edit warring over that trope!

That incredible, amazing trope!"