Fridge Horror/Western Animation/My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Difference between revisions

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== General ==

 

** The land of Equestria is idyllic and innocent, right? Sure, unless you count Applejack's unhealthy obsession with work, Rainbow Dash's performance anxiety, Fluttershy's (albeit generally well-managed) [[Beware the Nice Ones|anger issues]], and Rarity's manipulative tendencies. And don't even get started on Pinkie Pie, who has a phobia of rejection and bipolar disorder so severe it could arguably turn into dissociative identity disorder if she [[Ax Crazy|snapped harder than she already has]]. Twilight wasn't joking: all the ponies in that town really ''are'' crazy, including Twilight herself.

** Pinkie Pie's also a bit of a fridge [[Tear Jerker]]: It's likely that she doesn't constantly throw parties just because she likes them. It's because she knows everyone ''else'' likes them, and it's the only way she knows to be sociable on a normal level. The [[Genki Girl]] randomness that she's known for is too much for most folks, who've probably actively avoided her for it in the past. But if she throws a party, suddenly everyone likes her, and she clings to that. So it's parties forever, and nothing else. Because if she stops, she stops being "That eccentric girl who throws awesome parties all the time" and reverts to "That annoying girl who talks too quickly about things that don't make sense." And then she's all alone. Again.

== Season 1 ==

 

* Nightmare Moon wanting to bring eternal night doesn't seem to bad at first, until you realise that plants can't live without sunlight, and ponies are herbivores. Also, no plants = no oxygen. Everypony would be unable to eat or breathe, and so would eventually DIE. Nightmare Moon herself might not be affected, though, considering she was able to survive on the moon. Also, remember when she vaporises those guards with lightning? JUST WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GET HIT WITH LIGHTNING? Thinking about her for a few minutes makes her a lot more menacing.

* Pinkie laughed while she was inside an evil tree's mouth. What if it had disappeared in a *puff* like the others?

** Most likely they would have flown off together to keep her distracted while Nightmare Moon neutralised the elements and/or the remaining five protagonists, which she could have done safely with an essential part of the equation (Dash) dealt with. Once the elements were rendered a non-threat, she could have cancelled the Shadowbolts (who were just magic constructs) much to Dash's surprise and disappointment.

 

* When Twilight teleports herself and Spike to the library, Spike comes out singed. This doesn't seem like a big deal, but then he mentions in "[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S1/E05 Griffon the Brush Off|Griffon the Brush Off]]" that dragons are fireproof. If Twilight's teleport was enough to singe a fireproof dragon, imagine what would have happened if it had been a pony (or any other non-fireproof creature)!

 

* Throughout the episode, Twilight implores Applejack to accept her friends' help in harvesting the bumper crop that was wearing her out, and when Applejack finally accepts, we see Rainbow and Pinkie working together on one tree, Fluttershy on another, Rarity hauling full bushels, and Twilight...harvesting ''half the orchard by herself in seconds'' with her magic. Clearly, the involvement of the others was just a fig leaf. What Twilight really meant was 'let me use my magical powers to do this for you, effortlessly.' Think about that: what for an earth pony like Applejack is the work of her lifetime is to a powerful unicorn like Twilight nothing more than a minor nuisance. For that matter, is Granny Smith's "saggy old hip" the result of old age alone, or the result of age and a lifetime spent bucking apple trees? Now think about why Applejack was so reluctant to accept Twilight's help, and why Applejack was so upset that Twilight used magic a few months later in "Winter Wrap-Up," or why the earth ponies insist that in an earth-pony town, no magic is to be used to wrap up winter. Now, it has been implied that earth ponies get superior strength and endurance to compensate for not having magic or the ability to fly, but imagine if some people were born with the ability to use magic, some people were born with the ability to fly, but you were born an ordinary human being without any such abilities. Mightn't you have a chip on your shoulder, and always seek to prove that you were just as capable as any other person, even without magic or wings? Don't forget, we're seeing them ''harvesting'' the apples at that point. Who put in the work to ''grow'' them?

 

* You will find several pieces of medieval mythology that describe gryphons as highly aggressive and territorial, building treasure hoards and jealously guarding them much like dragons. They absolutely ''hate'' horses in particular, having grown to associate them with knights coming to raid their nests for gold and emeralds, and will devour one if they have the oppurtunity. They also mate for life, and if they lose their mate, they quickly waste away from longing. Now lets consider Gilda; deep-seated and irrational aminosity of ponies? Check. Rainbow Dash being the only one who she sees as a companion and exempt from her meanness? Check. Her presence in the show and how she and Dash interact being the closest thing to evidence the shippers have to RD being a lesbian? Hoo boy, double check. Holed up in a cave somewhere seething at the loss of Rainbow's affections as the lights leave her eyes? Likely. Way to go, Dash and Pie, way to go.

* 'Giggle at the Ghostie'. Firstly, 'Just laugh and make them disappear'. Think about it as two separate actions. Think of her dealing with Gilda, she laughed it off in public, if Gilda hadn't left, would Pinkie have 'made her disappear'? Could just be [[Cupcakes]] paranoia. And also, if laughing works to make her fears disappear works, her fears are hallucinated. More insanity!

** Maybe, but I interpret it like this: laughing only makes the ''fear'' disappear; what happened within the song aside, the "faces" in the tree remained, scary to all except the one who had a trick for dealing with fear. And once she taught it to the others, they could all see the "faces" for what they were: harmless holes in trees.

 

* Why does Trixie end her magic show when all possible hecklers disappear? Wouldn't it be more sensible to continue the show? Unless, of course, Trixie's entire act depends on having hecklers to humilate, and has no feats of magic that aren't centered around humilating neigh-sayers...

* Look carefully at the Ursa Major and Minor. They're made of stars. This is clearly a little [[Genius Bonus|astronomy joke]], given both are actual constellations, but they're ''[[Eldritch Abomination|made of stars]]''.

* In "Boast Busters", the Ursa Minor destroys Trixie's stagecoach. This is made even worse by the fact that Trixie is a travelling performer, so that coach was also her home. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Great job, Snips and Snails, you just made your former idol into a beggar.]]

 

 

 

* In "Bridle Gossip", due to Rainbow Dash's flower-induced inability to fly straight, Spike calls her "Rainbow Crash". Later in the series, we learn that this was the cruel nickname she was saddled with by a group of pegasus bullies when she dropped out of flight school. Nice going, [[Jerkass|Spike]].

 

* After Twilight alters parasprites' behavior with her magic, they quit eating food and start eating everything else - they even go after Rainbow Dash. Of course she got away unharmed, but if parasprites tried attacking this one particular pony, it is obvious they would hunt other ponies as well even if we didn't see it onscreen, and we can't tell if everyone was as lucky as Rainbow. Who knows what the death toll in Ponyville was after invasion...

* Twilight's spellaccidentally made the parasprites start eating all the non-food inanimate objects in town. ''All'' of them. Clothing, tools, books (and the library probably had a fair few books that were very old and rare, or even irreplacable; imagine how badly Twilight would have cracked if the parasprites had gotten into them), art (including Rarity's dresses), homes and buildings, infrastructure, family heirlooms, ''everything'' that makes up their civilization, including a number of truly irreplaceable sentimental items. If Pinkie hadn't been able to lure them back into the Everfree Forest, the parasprites would have ''eradicated the town completely'' and left the ponies with nothing but the barest of essentials. If you've ever lived through a massive natural disaster or met people who have, the prospect of a town or city you've grown attached to and everything in it being utterly destroyed is even more dreadful.

* This may be unintentional, but Zecora seemed to recognize the parasprites straight away. Now that may seem innocent enough since she as a good understanding of flora and fauna, but consider that she's from a place hinted to very Africa-like (so more than likely very dry most of the time.) [[Inferred Holocaust|Now consider thousands of creatures eating at crops, and fields in a already arid environment.]] [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0107_050107_tv_locust_plague.html If] [[wikipedia:2004 locust outbreak|history]] [[wikipedia:1915 locust plague|is anything to go by.]]

 

* Applejack wants the snow melted fast, but Fluttershy wants it melted slow so that the animals' homes don't get flooded (and presumably the animals that haven't been woken up yet would die a horrible drowning death). Now just think about what happened in years prior when they had no organization; the animals' fate rested on ''Fluttershy'' winning a shouting match against ''Applejack.''

* The ending of "Winter Wrap-Up" has Spike left asleep on a chunk of ice floating on the water. The other ponies, instead of HELPING him, just joke about how Spike is "in for a big surprise as soon as that there ice melts" and then ''laugh''. Sure, Spike gets better, but he was ''wearing a towel and shivering'', implying that the ponies let him fall in, continued to laugh as he was (presumably) thrashing around screaming for help, and then said, "Ok, we can help him now." Would if Spike drowned or died of hypothermia?! Would it be so funny then, [[Jerkass|ponies]]?

 

 

 

* Applejack's outfit includes what seems to be a pair of ''leather'' cowboy boots. But in "[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S1/E04 Applebuck Season|Applebuck Season]]", we see that cows in Equestria are also sentient, talking beings. Wonder how ''that'' conversation went over?

{{quote|'''Rarity:''' Excuse me, sir! Might you be Moorice?

* From the Aesop of "Suited for Success": "In other words, you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth." So slavery is legal in Equestria?

 

* At the beginning, one of the frogs Fluttershy's carrying falls and lands on Twilight's face, barely avoiding landing on her horn. Twilight's horn likely isn't sharp enough for the frog to have been [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice]], but it at least would've been hurt.

 

* Remember that scene where Pinkie Pie [[Crowning Moment of Funny|tastes]] [[Stealth Pun|the]] [[Shout-Out|rainbow]]? Well, in the very first episode, we saw Pinkie eat a cupcake covered in hot sauce, and it had no affect on her, so what would've happened if a normal pony besides Pinkie tried some rainbow?

* Rainbow and Rarity have to perform at the same time. Normally you'd think "how do they not have time for everyone in their own competition?" but what would have happened if they had gone at different times? Rarity would have plummeted while Dash was cowering in the lobby, would have knocked out the Wonderbolts and they all would have fallen to their death while [[Apathetic Citizens|everyone else would have sat back and watched them die.]]

* Speaking of, what the fuck was [[Physical God|Celestia]] doing just sitting there? The three Wonderbolts and Rarity were just about at the ground before RD swooped in!

 

* In "Stare Master", when Fluttershy is chasing the girls chasing her escaped chicken through the Everfree Forest (which most of the ponies generally avoid if they can help it) they run across Twilight Sparkle [[Taken for Granite|after her encounter with a cockatrice]]. The [[Fridge Horror]] kicks in when you realize that Twilight may have been there a very, very long time if Fluttershy's chicken hadn't escaped.

** One would hope that, at the very least, Zecora would have happened upon her during one of her trips to Ponyville, given that Twilight was on her way to visit Zecora herself and thus should have been on the path between the two places, but who knows how often or regularly Zecora makes those trips, or if she takes detours along the way to look for herbs or something? So, yeah, it still could have been quite a while before Twilight was found. If nothing else, at least Twilight didn't seem to have been conscious during the time she was turned to stone. If she had been ''aware'' during the whole experience, however... [[And I Must Scream|*ugh*shiver*]]

** Also, Celestia would have noticed that something was awry when Twilight's report did not arrive on time.

 

* [[Fridge Horror]] in "The Show Stoppers" episode (and possibly others): The ponies are raising pigs. Why, so that they can eat them? What would a pony want with a pig if not to eat its flesh as humans do.

** According to [[Word of God]], truffle gathering.

* When Sweetie Belle says "Break a leg" to the other ponies, Apple Bloom responds with "Sweetie Belle! What a thing to say!" Sweetie Belle knows the phrase means "good luck" and so do we the viewers, but since horses with broken legs are often put down because of how hard it is to rehabilitate and the likelihood of breaking again, Apple Bloom probably thought she was telling the other performers to '''go ahead and die'''.

 

 

* Does anyone else find it slightly menacing that in ''Green Isn't Your Color'', Twilight Sparkle can '''[[Mass Effect 2|ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL]]''' over Fluttershy, including her speech? I mean, sure Fluttershy was willing and all, but what if Twilight suffered a psychological breakdown and another pony wasn't as willing?

** Maybe it only works ''if'' the pony is willing.

 

* A bit of meta-[[Fridge Horror]]: There is an episode where [[Noble Savage|bison]] don't want to share their land with the ponies. Cue [[Fantastic Racism]] on the part of both. Except when one considers the obvious interpretation of the [[Broken Aesop]], this almost sounds like a [[Hannibal Lecture]].

* When Applejack mentions that the trees are on the only flat land around, the view cuts to a scene of the desert, complete with a staple of any cartoon desert scene: the buffalo skull in the foreground. Of course, in Equestria the buffalo are intelligent beings....

* In the scene where the buffalo are preparing to trample Apploosa, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cut to a buffalo ''sharpening his horn on an axe grinder.'' Which means that [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice|they were really going to skewer anypony unlucky enough to get in their way]]. Anypony else disturbed about the possibility for ponies to die gruesome deaths?

 

* "Over a Barrel" establishes that pies can be used as weapons are are thrown during combat. In the next episode, "A Bird in the Hoof", Pinkie throws a pie at her own head. Did... did Pinkie just shoot herself in the face? [[Crazy Awesome|Yes.]]

 

* Fluttershy falls out of the sky in full view of a large crowd and no one tries to save her. Does Cloudsdale have some kind of Sparta-like eugenics policy for pegasi who are weak fliers?

** It could either be due to the [[wikipedia:Bystander effect|bystander effect]], or everyone was too engrossed in the race to notice.

 

* As Spike is going around town to find a quill for Twilight, he goes over to Pinkie Pie, who among the list of items that begin with a "Q", tosses him a quince. A quince is a fruit that is poisonous to equines (aka PONIES).

* In the scene with [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJOCyj5h2WE#t=3m13s the ponies all looking at Spike at the same time and smiling, Pinkie petting him, etc...] it's clear that Spike was enjoying the attention. It's interrupted when Twilight says that's enough; but perhaps the reason she said that was because she wouldn't want him to get too used to that much attention from them. When Spike ''does'' get used to it, seeing that attention go to an owl instead makes him [[Green-Eyed Monster|jealous]] enough to temporarily become a villain. [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|(Albeit an ineffectual one.)]] Perhaps that kind of addiction to their attention is what Twilight was trying to prevent...

 

* When Pinkie interrogates Spike, it's implied that {{spoiler|he only told Pinkie that her friends don't like her parties and that they don't want to be her friends anymore because she told him to say so}}--''implied'', but never actually stated. Meaning that '''he could've been correct.'''

** Furthermore, what's going to happen the next time Pinkie Pie decides she wants two parties in a row, maybe even more? What if her friends really ''did'' make excuses, and with good reason? Is she going to go completely out of her mind again?

* As someone said on ponibooru, ''Party Of One'' suggests Pinkie's codependent with her friends and needs their love and attention... to the point that her parties are almost like attempts at validation. "People love me! Because they come to my parties! PLEASE, PLEASE come to my parties!"

 

* Another Fridge [[Tear Jerker]]: At The Gala is a [[Crowd Song]], right? But the way the other ponies are singing, it implies that most of them were ''also'' hoping to have the best night ever. And most of them seemed to be succeeding a lot better than the Mane Cast before the party got ruined. That means hundreds of ponies also had their dreams destroyed in a space of about five minutes.

* Fluttershy runs into the gardener pony twice. Two things pop into mind when you see him: he's the oldest pony we've seen since Applejack's grandma, and he has no cutie mark. So the Cutie Mark Crusaders DO have a reason to be concerned, this pony's existence has confirmed that it is possible to go your entire life without finding your lot in life. That is kind of sad.

== Season 2 ==

 

* The season 2 opener gives a little piece in the form of one of Discord's lines directed at Princess Celestia: "It's quite lonely being encased in stone, but you wouldn't know that ''because I don't turn ponies into stone!''"

** At first, it seems like he's merely talking about his own fate at Celestia's hooves. A moment's thought casts a more sinister light on the princess: Just how many of those statues in the Canterlot sculpture garden are actually ponies who were [[Taken for Granite]]?

* While a lot of people consider Discord to be "evil" due to his [[Mind Rape]] and [[Break the Cutie]] tendencies, when you think about it, being the "Spirit Of Chaos", he most likely has [[Blue and Orange Morality|no sense of "good" and "evil" (or at least not one that's the same as ours or the ponies')]]. This actually makes him ''more'' terrifying than if he were straight-up evil. Think about it. To him, causing all this mayhem, destruction, and insanity is a ''good'' thing to him. Rather than being outright malevolent, he's playful (well, as playful as a psychotic reality-warping god can get) towards the ponies much like a prankster child is to the people he tricks. He thinks ''everything'' is a game (hence why he gloats when he thinks he's won) without realizing/caring that he's hurting others. Imagine being an "ant" being at the mercy of a bored child and you'll get why Discord is more terrifying being "chaos" rather than just being "evil".

 

* Twilight Sparkle's [[Sanity Slippage]] fits in context of the episode of "Lesson Zero". [http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/186252 Out of context], however....

* "Want-It Need-It spell, works every time".

** Outside of her {{spoiler|B.B.B.F.F.}}, of course<ref>now that we're on the other side of season 2's finale</ref>.

 

* Twilight's reaction to Spike when Rainbow Dash pranks them with the lightning. We had just previously seen Spike scoffing down candy like there's no tomorrow, and he looks very much like he's choking to death on some of it. He even ends up unconscious and twitching. Twilight's only response is to put Spike on her back and walk on. This is pretty careless behavior given that she is supposed to be looking after him. He does turn out to be fine, but what if he had actually been choking? He might have died without Twilight even noticing.

* While Nightmare Moon may have been stronger than Celestia, Luna is still a walking storm of magic AND has been officially reinstated as the equestrian princess of the night. Now, remember how everyone was behaving around Celestia in [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S1/E22 A Bird in the Hoof|A Bird in the Hoof]]. To some ponies, Luna must be scarier than ever!

 

* "Sisterhooves Social", when Apple Bloom covers Applejack in smashed up grapes, Sweetie Belle's reaction is to panic and beg Applejack not to punish her. That almost comes off looking like the reaction of a child in an abusive home.

* Rarity finding Sweetie Belle has elements of this. There's a blink and you miss it moment before she sees her were she looks truly worried and concerned, then is overjoyed to see her. She also said she'd been looking ''everywhere'' for her and started looking during the day and doesn't find her till later that night. This means Rarity spent a part of the day [[Adult Fear|looking high and low for her baby sister with absolutely no idea where she is]] and knowing if anything happened to her, it'd be her fault for treating her as badly as she did.

 

* When Twilight looks up the cure, she says that the disease disappears as mysteriously as it arrived. The Cutie Pox creates a random cutie mark and the infected is forced to perform the talent related to it and as Apple Bloom shows us, it can be anything to be able to perform tricks with a "Loopty Hoop" to speaking French to being a proficient fencer and no one is able to stop her. That is already frightening enough that Apple Bloom can't stop, but what happens if a more deadly Cutie Mark shows up? One that involves hurting possibly even killing the ponies around her? ''She'd be forced to perform '''THAT''' talent against her will!'' To add to that, why does the disease disappear as mysteriously as it arrived? If the above [[Fridge Horror]] is true, then no pony would be left to tell the tale if it does get that deadly. That or the ponies would be forced to kill the infected before it gets to that point.

** Another thing: aren't you all forgetting how Apple Bloom was compelled to do everything the cutie marks represented? What if a sufferer of [[The Virus|the Cutie Pox]] were to become tired from doing all those things simultaneously? [[Wild Mass Guessing|What the pox continued forcing the victim to carry on?]] If that's the case, [[Family-Unfriendly Death|then Apple Bloom]] ''[[Family-Unfriendly Death|was facing death by exhaustion!]]''

* In Cutie Pox, after Apple Bloom starts getting more depressed over not getting her cutie mark, she wanders into Everfree Forest...why would she go in there? Considering how dangerous the place is considered and how sad she was, it's possible she was [[Driven to Suicide|giving up on life.]]

 

* Rainbow Dash names her new pet tortoise Tank, because he's "built like a tank." You know, not the container for fluids, the armored vehicle. Although this is a good name, it implies the existence of mechanized warfare in Equestria.

* At the end of the song, Derpy peers out from the chicken coop. While it's meant to be an [[Easter Egg]] for the fans, it does looks suspiciously like Derpy's stalking either Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy. Or she enjoys lurking in chicken coops. Either way pretty creepy when you think about it.

* Rainbow Dash, pretty much alone among the mane six, will lose her special talent as she ages. Applejack, in her old age, will not be able to work very much on Sweet Apple Acres herself, but, because it is a family business, and because she is part of an extended clan of apple farmers, she will probably end her days much like Granny Smith is now: as a respected matriarch surrounded by ponies who love and respect her. Fluttershy will in all likelihood be able to maintain her special connection with animals as she ages; she'll probably need more physical help caring for them, but she'll still be surrounded by the woodland creatures she loves and who love her, and she'll still have her special connection to them. Pinkie Pie will probably lose some of her youthful exuberance as she ages, but even in her old age, she'll still be able to make other ponies happy by throwing celebrations for them, even if she needs more help putting up decorations, sending out invitations, and other physical aspects of what she does. Rarity will still be able to find and bring out the beauty in things, even if she can't work at the pace she does now; she probably won't be able to make multiple dresses in a single night, but she'll still be able to create beautiful things from common objects. At the very least, her talent for finding gems in rocks will at least help ensure that she will be well-provided for. Twilight Sparkle will remain a brilliant scholar and powerful wizard; in fact, her knowledge and thus power are likely only to grow as she learns more over time. But Rainbow Dash, well, Rainbow Dash is going to lose her speed as she grows old; there's really no avoiding that. Unlike the other five, her special talent is almost purely physical; granted, her great speed itself is at least to some extent a product of her competitive drive and ambition, but that will probably make the diminution of her physical prowess that much harder to bear. Now consider this: tortoises usually live very long lives, meaning that Tank will likely still be around when Rainbow is old. In fact, the day may come when Tank is faster than Rainbow. In a way, it's somewhat comforting, although still melancholic, to imagine Tank once again carrying Dash on his back.

 

* The sheer number of accidents happening around Ponyville in a brief period of time. Is this normal? Does this sort of thing happen every day just off-screen? And why the hell does Ponyville even ''need'' a steep downhill road leading to a sheer cliff?

** [[Fridge Brilliance]]: it's for the Pegasi carriages to land on and take off.

* Where the ''[[No OSHA Compliance|HELL]]'' was the Pony equivalent of OSHA? Seriously, so many disasters, so many crumbling/damaged structures, why has the town not been condemned yet? Couple this with the obviously crumbling city hall in "The Last Roundup," and Ponyville really starts to look ramshackle and unsafe. How many ponies have been hurt or killed due to structural damage?

 

* It has Rarity lying to her friends about her cat being sick, and [[Kick the Dog|drenching the cat in hot water to maintain that lie]]. What does it suggest about her priorities when she would rather drench her own cat than be honest with her own friends?

** Not anything that being on the verge of tears when two ponies insulted her social status didn't already. This begets more Fridge Horror, though: It implies that Rarity's sense of self-worth is so deeply tied to her social standing she's willing to hurt herself and her friends so she doesn't lose face. Does that mean that her personality is an [[Stepford Smiler|an elaborate mask to hide how worthless she feels?]] And what's more, [[Dark and Troubled Past|how did she get like this?]]

*** She doesn't live with her sister. Sisterhooves Special had her bring in a lot of luggage for the week stay, which would have been redundant if she lived with her sister.

 

* Spike is going to have to grow up eventually.

** Spike has shown to have different "adult" forms though, one being [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S1/E23 The Cutie Mark Chronicles|magically induced]] and the other part of an [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S1/E19 A Dog and Pony Show|imagine spot]]. There's no guarantee his natural adult self will be the same as this greedy version. As long as they help quell his hoarding tendencies, one would expect his growth to be more manageable.

** Another thought, it is shown Greed makes dragons age rapidly, but never states to what point it stops or if it even does. How old may Spike have grown if they hadn't been able to stop him in time? Heck even without the concern of age, just how gigantic and feral could a dragon potentially evolve in that manner?

 

 

* At one point we see Pumpkin Cake using her magic to easily walk through the basket that Pinkie Pie had trapped her and Pound under. What if Pumpkin decides to take up a life of crime later? Or becomes a serial killer?!

** Although that seems highly unlikely coming from this kind of series, it does bring up some unsettling [[Adult Fear]]: Since Pumpkin can walk through the basket using her magic, what's going to stop her from getting into something ''dangerous''? Like the Drain-O in the sink cabinet, the deadly sharp silverware in the kitchen drawer, [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|or the stash of "Equestria After Dark" magazines Mr. Cake hides in his closet?]]

** It's not as though this episode invented the concept of food names. I've never heard of a real child being traumatized by this kind of thing.

 

* We see that the leaders of the unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies had personalities similar - if not completely identical - to Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie respectively. The ''leaders'' of ''entire races''. Imagine if your entire race depended on someone like [[Cloudcuckoolander|Pinkie]]. Or [[The Fashionista|Rarity]]. Or [[Leeroy Jenkins|Rainbow]] [[Attention Whore|Dash]]. We see how the races eventually get better, but what about before that? How do you think life went for ponies who had to live under that kind of rule?

* Also in "Hearth's Warming Eve", the main antagonists are Windigos. Traditionally, Windigos are the spirit of Cannibalism from the Native American Algonquian people. It was said that people caught in a blizzard would be possessed by the Windigo, and eat their companions, which would make them into a Windigo themselves. Meaning if the ponies hadn't made peace, they would have ate each other.

* Related to the [[Fridge Brilliance]] on Wendigos: it's also said of the mythical Wendigo that if one were to indulge in cannibalism, they'd become a Wendigo. What would've happened to those hateful ponies had they continued to indulge in animosity...?

* So assuming that making friends is a survival tactic in the Equestria of yore, what happens to the social misfits who don't fit in?

 

* When Pinkie Pie thinks that Applejack has broken a Pinkie Promise, she turns nearly...demonic. She has a second voice layered under her own and her attitude goes from happy to furious in literally Ten Seconds Flat. Yes, she's happy again when she Applejack tells her that she didn't lie, just found a way out of the promise, but ''what's happened in the past to ponies who really broke their Pinkie Promises''? Is that why everyone takes them so seriously?

** Moreover, Pinkie has some incredible abilities. She can move at [[Super Speed|incredible speeds]], [[Offscreen Teleportation|teleport]], [[Self-Duplication|be in multiple places at once]], appear anywhere (including ''inside mirrors''), [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|break the fourth wall]], whip up complex gadgets in a short span of time, [[Superpower Lottery|etc]]. If you break a Pinkie Promise, [[Paranoia Fuel|it's impossible to run from, hide from, or stop her wrath.]]

* Spike wasn't at Applejack's welcome home Party. Which is okay, he was probably busy at the time. But then you realize, Twilight had left for about two days, with the others to go look for Applejack, and we never see her stop by the library to pack, or tell Spike, her number one assistant, and friend, any of this. Which means, she may have just left him there for two days straight worrying about where they are, and they're too preoccupied with bringing Applejack home to even worry about it. You can only imagine how worried he must be at the library.

* Applejack treated her friends very coldly when they came looking for her, and it's not hard to imagine why: {{spoiler|She did not win any prize money at the rodeo, and she had promised her prize money to fix the town hall. We aren't shown how the rodeo went, but are shown that she won a lot of second, third, and runner-up medals. Now, imagine Applejack's mental state as she comes close to winning each event, but falls short each time: she feels the disappointment of her friends and the mayor building up as she keeps failing to win the prize money she promised. The stress and guilt are building and building in her mind as each event goes by, and the perceived source of all this stress is her friends and their disappointment. It's no wonder she's cold to them: to her---subconsciously---her friends are the reason she feels terrible about not winning any prize money. So when an opportunity presents itself for her to work someplace far from Ponyville to earn the money, she takes the offer: it gives her a chance to make good on her perceived commitments---and puts a lot of distance between her and the source of her stress: her friends.}}

 

* The Flim-Flam Brothers machine sucking up {{spoiler|the entire apple tree, roots and all. Sucking up entire trees that could of have house squirrels and bird nested that might have baby bird eggs. And the thought of those poor animals getting crush to make cider is a [[Nausea Fuel|sickening thought]]}}.

** [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E07 May the Best Pet Win|Good thing Pegasi never sleep in trees]].

** Judging from the brothers' behaviours throughout the episode, they seem quietly confident in their run-the-ponies-out-of-business scheme, which suggests that any experience they've had has been successful. The only time they both lose their cool is when the mane six starts beating them at the contest, which they clearly didn't expect. Possibly the main thing that helps them keep out of trouble is their constant travelling.

 

* Rainbow Dash hides under the bed of a pony with a shaved head, implying that this pony is either recovering from brain surgery... or chemotherapy.

** The ward Rainbow Dash was on looked more like a broken bone ward. It's more likely that he was doing a series of dares and ended up breaking something. And since his head isn't bandaged, the baldness could just be a fashion statement.

** Why would Spike not be at the hospital, visiting Rainbow Dash? Based on the doctors in The Secret of My Excess, the Hospital could have seen Spike as a pet and [[Tear Jerker|not let him in.]]

 

* The Cutie Mark Crusaders crash ''a funeral''. Death and funerals in the ponyverse are now canon.

** With the showing order of the episodes, some fans noticed an unintentional link between the funeral and the hospitalised, supposedly 'cancer pony' from the previous episode.

* [[Fridge Logic|Some have noticed]] that if the CMCs wanted to nullify the effects of the poison, they could've just waited for both Big Mac and Cheerilee to fall asleep. However...[[Nightmare Fuel|what if it prevented them from falling asleep?]] There are nasty health-related implications behind this, much like with the Cutie Pox.

 

* Cranky only meets Matilda again after moving to Ponyville. If he had moved anywhere else, he may have ended up dying without ever seeing her again.

** What would have happened if Matilda didn't live in Ponyville? Wouldn't that mean Pinkie would have destroyed Cranky's beloved memories for nothing?

** He's also been searching his ENTIRE LIFE for her, when she's been in Ponyville the whole time. He's wasted his ENTIRE LIFE.

 

* New Fluttershy has no qualms about resorting to violence for minor slights. "Old Fluttershy" kicked a bear's ass and almost snapped his neck. And until {{spoiler|she had her [[My God, What Have I Done?]] moment}}, she seemed to be steadily getting worse. What if she had not HAD that moment?

** [http://niban-destikim.deviantart.com/art/Flutterbitch-is-Back-288703791 This] [http://niban-destikim.deviantart.com/art/Angel-First-289053316 and perhaps this] with an [[Friendship Is Witchcraft|evil cult]], [[PONY.MOV|a chainsaw and shed]]?

* In 'Putting Your Hoof Down', Fluttershy uses the [[Body Horror|feathers of her wings as if they were fingers to open her saddlebag]]. While this is creepy, [[Fridge Brilliance]] steps in with an X-ray from 'Read it and Weep' of Dash's broken wing, which shows that wings have bones where there would normally be just delicate feathers. Knowing that Pegasi have bones in some of their feathers, the [[Fridge Horror]] comes when you consider 'Hearts and Hooves Day', where one of Scootaloo's feathers are yanked out without warning to make a potion. [[Nightmare Fuel|What if Sweetie Belle pulled]] [[Body Horror|the wrong feather]]?

 

* '''Why the heck are time traveling spells so readily available to anypony!''' True, the spell only lets one travel back in time momentarily, but that still could be enough to change the course of time radically. Plus, it's implied that there are other time based spells including a '''time stopping spell.'''

** And Twilight was ''fully willing to '''use''' said time-stopping spell''! She was willing to trap everypony, including ''herself'', in one moment in time, forever. Never moving, never going toward the future or the past. Everything would just be still for eternity, all because of one pony going mad.

* Pinkie Pie [[Crazy Prepared|keeps balls and eyepatches around Ponyville in case of emergency]] so that she could produce a ball and eyepatch for Twilight. Now what if Twilight had asked for a bone or meat instead of a ball for Cerberus...

 

* Twilight mentions that even she doesn't know where Spike's egg came from. Which raises the question, where did his egg come from, and how did Celestia obtain it?

** This question is never answered. Which does raise the question, [[Fridge Horror|What happened to his parents?!]]

** If Spike had smashed the egg, it wouldn't have been ''just'' an egg, but also a baby phoenix which was due to hatch at any moment. If he smashed it to the ground really, really hard...

* Phoenixes cannot die from old age but still lay eggs. Unless there are species that can prey on them, a population explosion is the only result.

* Spike is now a kidnapper, and Twilight, Rainbow and Rarity are his accomplices.

* Who knows what the teen dragons would've done if they {{spoiler|captured the phoenix chicks?}}

* The teenaged dragons are ''very'' lucky Spike decided to have the group run for it and, Celestia forbid, they didn't actually ''hurt'' Spike. Imagine what Twilight could've done to them if she ''really'' tried, or Rainbow Dash for that matter.

** And even if all four of them were no match for those dragons, I think a certain "namby pamby princess pony" would not take kindly to a group of riff-raff harming her closest student and her companions.

* So ... now living in the library, we have Twilight, Owlowiscious, Spike, and Peewee. Pony wizard who can light fires (she lit up candles in one episode), owl, fire-breathing dragon, and fire-being phoenix. That library is SO toast.

 

* Equestria lacks a water cycle. Water does not evaporate on it's own.... Even with the other things ponies apparently control, that is disturbing.

** It might just be currently settled Equestria, given that Everfree is so "spooky" because it works on its own like a forest here on Earth, and that we know that Celestia and Luna had at one time called it their home. It's quite likely that the clouds that need managing (for example, the ones RD takes care of in ten second flat in the first episode) come from Everfree and other, similarly wild areas.

** Seeing as how they could just bring in a few dozen pegasi from Cloudsdale to make up the gap and try again, it's not really that big a deal. The only thing on the line is town pride.

 

* Sure, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were responsible for humiliating everyone in Ponyville. But what exactly did Ponyville do in retaliation? They basically exiled them - a young group of fillies, mind you - from their society, even if it was for a short while. Even their ''relatives'' turn their backs on them! Well, with the exception of Rarity, possibly...

* It's easy to blame the Mane Cast for being insensitive to the CMC for the Gabby Gums stories, but remember, those three are their ''friends and younger siblings'', Scootaloo being Rainbow Dash's, the Element of ''Loyalty's'', number one fan. Just imagine how much it hurt the mane cast to have their loved ones humiliate them like that, and we see that towards the end the stories just get more and more hurtful, turning from partial truths to outright lies. Anyone that's had a loved one betray them will tell you just how much that hurts.

 

 

* So did Lyra, Twinkleshine and Colgate get out of the caves?

** Yep, only to get [[Crowning Moment of Funny|shoved out of the way by Rarity]] during the bouquet toss. Not a good day for those three.

* Chrysalis admires how Equestria has more love than she's ever encounterd. Just how many countries/worlds has she already..."encountered" and what became of them?

* Imagine the sort of tyrant Cadence could be if she used her powers for evil. She has the power to make every pony in Equestria completely devoted to her. <ref>''More like she has the power to bolster the love one already feels toward another."</ref>

* This little piece of [[Fridge Horror]] also contains some [[Accidental Innuendo]] or maybe even [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]. The Changelings are based on insects on design, and have a queen, so it's probably safe to assume they act a lot like bees. Of course Chrysalis is female, but the same can probably be said for the [[Samus Is a Girl|rest of her subjects,]] considering on how they acted they're the workers. But that leaves the question on reproduction, which leaves us to the drone, the sole male member of the colony. For those who don't know what his purpose is {{spoiler|it's to fertilize a receptive queen.}} Now consider Shining Armor who Chrysalis had him under her control the entire time...let that sink in for a moment.

* At the wedding, Pinkie Pie was at least at one time planning to play music known to attract parasprites.

* Twilight facing the three brainwashed bridesmaids becomes way creepier when you realize that those three, Minuette, Twinkleshine and Lyra, may have been the closest thing to friends Twilight had when she was living in Canterlot. In Mare in the Moon Minuette and Twinkleshine invite her to a party, and Lyra is seen attempting to be friendly as Twilight charges past.

 

[[Category:My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Fridge]]