My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Headscratchers/Season 1: Difference between revisions

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== 1.01 The Mare in the Moon ==

* In the first episode we are introduced to Fluttershy because she's in charge of the music for the Summer Sun Celebration. Why? She's good at music and all, but there are ponies in Ponyville who's special talent is music! Fluttershy is too shy and timid to perform without good reason. I know the story reason (they needed to introduce Fluttershy), but there must be an in-universe reason too.

** Fluttershy wasn't the one performing; she was helping the birds to rehearse so ''they'' could perform.

*** Lyra Heartstrings and Octavia, for starters. Any pony with an instrument or music on their bum?

**** Octavia doesn't live in Ponyville. She lives in Canterlot, or at least she was there at the Grand Galloping Gala. Also, Lyra was also in Canterlot at the time of the pilot: she waved to Twilight as Twilight was running back to the library in Canterlot at the beginning of the first episode. So no, neither of them would have been available in Ponyville at the time of the Summer Sun Celebration.

* When Rarity meets Twilight for the first time, she says she's never been to Canterlot. Why not? "The Best Night Ever" shows it to be within no more than a few hours' walk, and Cheerilee takes the kids there on a school excursion in "The Return of Harmony". If she loves Canterlot so much, why can't she make a day trip there? Sure, what she actually ''means'' is "I should be in Canterlot, being worshiped as the fashion genius that I am", but that's not what she said.

** That's a bit cynical, don't you think?

** They probably think of him as a family member. After all, they've been together for almost Spike's entire life.

* How did Celestia wield the Elements against Nightmare Moon on her own? The Elements were at that point weilded by Celestia and Luna, but it doesn't make sense for Nightmare Moon to willingly use the Elements to banish herself to the moon for a thousand years and even if Celestia forced them on her the result should have been similar to what happened when {{spoiler|Twilight and her Discorded friends tried to use them against Discord}}.

** Perhaps this explains why she could merely banish Nightmare Moon and not defeat her?

 

== 1.02 The Elements of Harmony ==

** [[Word of God|Lauren Faust]] has stated that Nightmare Moon was caused by an external 'evil magic' feeding on Luna's jealousy and hatred. Exactly what it is, no clue, maybe we'll find out in Season 2, especially since Season 2 is going to have villains.

*** {{spoiler|Unfortunately, Season 2 does not reveal whether Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon was her own affair or someone else's fault. Season 2 DID introduce a villain, Discord, but Celestia and Luna both defeated him together the last time he showed up so he's probably not to blame.}}

* For that matter, why is everyone so surprised that Luna is Celestia's sister? It's only mentioned in the opening narration/book AND the book that tells them where to find the Elements ("the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters")...

** As for the image on the surface of the moon, ever heard of the man in the moon, which this is a reference to? It's just a fairy tale, which it how the mare in the moon is regarded.

** Because it mentions that Celestia has ruled for "generations since".

*** That doesn't follow. A generation is, for humans, roughly 30 years. There's roughly 33 generations in 1,000 years. She could have ruled for generations since, died sometime after the legend covers, and so on, with a normal line of succession. In fact, that seems far more plausible without knowing the full backstory than the idea that Celestia is over 1,000 years old.

 

* How is it better for the sea serpent to have a mustache that's half orange and straight and half purple and curly? Does he look ''any'' less ridiculous that way than with just half an orange mustache? And why isn't he bothered that his new half-stache had previously hung right behind a horse's butt? Not exactly the most sanitary thing to have dangling from one's face.

** As for sanitary issues, remember they are sentient horses who take baths and go to spa, so we can't really compare them to the real horses we know. Not to mention it's Rarity's butt we're speaking of, there's probably less bacteria on it than on most people's hands. Also, Nobody Poops.

** Maybe he's colorblind. And he could probably straighten it out.

* I am a big fan of Luna. But I am very surprised [[Draco in Leather Pants|by how easily she was forgiven]] by the audience (compare fan reaction to Trixie and Gilda both low rate bullies). Fans tend to make her a [[The Woobie|woobie]] that was wrongfully imprisioned by her evil sister on the moon. Nevermind that she was going to starve all equestria to death with her eternal night....

** Well, that's the charm of Luna for you. During that one minute of screentime she had, many fans fell in love with her so much (not that this troper blames them) that they completely forgot that for the most of the pilot she was the evil Nightmare Moon, and that it was NMM and not Luna that the whole story revolved around to begin with, so they prefer to imagine the thousand year long banishment as lonely Luna crying on the moon. Too bad that it caused many of them to imagine poor Celestia as an evil tyrant, even though everything in show points to her being very benevolent and understanding ruler.

** Also note that, according to the creator, Luna was possessed by some outside force. It took control of her and made her into Nightmare Moon. So yeah. Not to mention, Gilda and Trixie remained bitches. Luna was very clearly sorry and upset for what she had done.

*** Lauren cleared this up in a later interview. Even if there ''was'' an outside corrupting force, Luna had to allow herself to be corrupted. In other words, if she hadn't already been bitter and jealous, Nightmare Moon wouldn't have happened.

* When Spike and Twilight hide from the crowd of greedy ponies, Spike disguises himself as a hula dancer, complete with grass skirt and what appears to be a [[Seashell Bra|coconut bra]]. What kind of creature in Equestria could possibly have breasts?

** female dragons? my little human dolls?

 

* Rarity fantasizes about Prince Blueblood proposing to her with a ring she puts on her horn. So what if you're not a unicorn? Would you put it on your hoof? Wouldn't that technically make it a bracelet?

* How did Pinkie round up ponies to help with her bribery party without them learning about the Gala ticket?

** She claims to know every pony in Ponyville, and seems to be good at throwing parties. It shouldn't be a big deal for someone like her to gather up few friends and ask them for a favor.

*** Pinkie and Logic go together as well as oil and water.

** She gathered those ponies by saying she was throwing a party for the new unicorn in town, but she didn't mention the ticket.

== 1.04 Applebuck Season ==

* There is a mule in applebuck season. a mule. As in, the sterile offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. That implies quite a bit... and the fan assumption is that donkeys are on the same level as wildlife, meaning some mare in Ponyville is very promiscuous. There is no other explanation.

** Why the assumption that donkeys would be on the level of wildlife? The mule seemed to be perfectly capable of holding a conversation and understanding basic social graces, so why assume that a donkey wouldn't be at least on the same level as the talking cows? Heck, ''Zecora'' isn't technically a pony either.

** So far it seems Bovidae (cows and bison) and Equidae (ponies and zebras) are fully sentient, along with griffins and dragons. Also [[Rule of Funny]].

 

== 1.05 Griffon The Brush Off ==

** It's made even worse when you consider the fact that, as far as we know, her actions may have been justified based on how griffons behave amongst themselves. However, the alternative of Rainbow Dash deciding to keep hanging out with her may be even more counter-intuitive to her element in the end, seeing as how she would split her loyalty between two groups. I completely agree on how harsh she was to quickly sever all ties with Gilda, though. There was clearly some lost potential there, hopefully we get to see more of her in the future.

*** I got the idea that it's more like Gilda is the one who severed ties. After she showed her true colors Rainbow Dash gave her an ultimatum - "These lame-o's happen to be my friends. If you can't accept that you're not the person I thought you were and I'm not so sure I want to hang with that kind of person." - and Gilda decided that she'd rather wash her hands (talons?) of Rainbow Dash than admit that she was wrong. So no, Rainbow Dash wasn't exactly being purest acceptance and virtue with her ultimatum, but Gilda is the one who decided to get out of town; Dash would probably have reconciled with Gilda if she'd apologised and admitted she was wrong.

 

* The term "fake friend" got passed around to descibe Gilda at the end of the episode. Maybe I'm just not understanding the term the way it was used, but ''how'' was her friendship fake? She is ''incredibly'' possessive of Rainbow, but that's pretty much par for the course when you have a borderline [[Clingy Jealous Girl]] as a companion. She is only civil when Dash is beside her, but makes no real secret of her disdain for the rest of Ponyville. Dash's new friends are not automatically Gilda's friends, and Gilda only wants to associate with Dash while on her visit. Gilda is a punk who doesn't know any of these ponies at all, Dash simply couldn't reasonably expect her to be friendly with everybody they met up with during the day. Newsflash girls, Gilda wasn't using Dash, or setting her up for humiliation, or anything like that, she just had a bad attitude, a bad day, and really wanted to spend the day with Dash with ''no one'' else around.

*** I admit that does makes sense, but remember, Dash only introduced Pinkie Pie as a friend at first, and she did make an annoyance of herself when Dash and Gilda where trying to be alone, and when Dash introduced the rest of the Mane Cast you had already heard at least one of Gilda's nerves snap. (Please note the preceding sentence is ''not'' an attempt to justify Gilda's berating the ponies she met.) Griffin mythos are usually quite consistent in portaying them as either solitary or in close-knit family units, so to Gilda it would probably be sensible, if unfounded, for her to feel possessive of Dash and threatened by the new crowd. Wanting a person to hang out with only you is selfish and stupid, but that's life and relationships for you. I just interpreted Dash as taking Gilda's outburst as her not thinking ponies worth her time, including Dash, which wasn't the message Gilda was trying to project. And on the side, Dash should know by now that Gilda is a bomb that only needs the smallest spark to blow up, ending a childnood friendship over one overblown emotional outburst just seems like giving up to quickly.( Dash doesn't get told about Gilda's impassioned little tirade against Fluttershy, but even if she did know there is still room for the option of just talking a compromise out so Gilda could calm down and stop viewing the rest of Ponyville as a challenge, ultimatives only get negative results in these situations.)

** While I agree that this episode wasn't written as well as it could or should have been, Rainbow Dash never really gave Gilda an ultimatum, she just called Gilda out on her behavior. I don't think she could have known Gilda for that long and still expect her to roast marshmallows with the mane 6, but she did expect her to at least be civil. Notice how Gilda stutters after Rainbow's scolding; she ''knows'' she's in the wrong, but is too proud to admit it, and would rather pin it all on Dash for being a "flip-flop" than admit to being at fault.

** Twilight was quite right to apologize. She didn't pay much attention to what Pinkie was saying, preferring to page through a book instead. Then she made no attempt to find out if Pinkie was right about Gilda or not, she just brushed Pinkie off. She was apologizing for not taking the time and effort to find out if Pinkie had a case or not before dismissing it as jealousy.

*** To be fair, Pinkie seemed to visit Twilight just to vent about Gilda making her leave her and Dash alone for the day, rather than discuss how aggressive Gilda was behaving towards her. That would come off as rather clingy seeing how much time Pinkie had spent dragging Dash around in a pranking spree before Gilda showed up. Pinkie herself didn't yet really know how much of a [[Jerkass]] Gilda can be, and was only fuming over not being able to get to spend time with Dash yet. She didn't even mention Gilda pushing her around in the clouds, and didn't even seem to be as offended by the bullying as much as being pegged as a third wheel. Twilight probably assumed that Pinkie was ejected from a scenario she had forced herself into, and offered the advice "Stop trying to monopolize Dash when she has other company," which is a completely sensible thing to do if all that Pinkie told her was that Gilda was occupying Dash when Pinkie wanted to hang out with her, which, let's face it, was probably all she told Twilight, Pinkie almost never bothers with the whole story.

**** Twilight didn't "ignore" all but one of Pinkie's complaints, she took them in the context she was presented; "She popped my balloon" sounded like a rather trivial complaint when Pinkie neglected to mention how she was using them to stay arborne, and only mentioned it as an afterthought offense, and, while telling someone to scram is just plain impolite, when Pinkie again doesn't elaborate on how abrasive Gilda was in dismissing her, and we are all in agreement that Pinkie came off as clingy in this episode, you can see that Twilight thinking that the cold shoulder Pinkie was given was a neccessary action in order to get some personal space is the most likely conclusion anyone would have drawn. Now; Twilight was noble in given the apology on her own, good for her, Pinkie listened to Twilight and didn't make an issue, also good for her, and Gilda is a thug no matter how you slice her, not good for her, just wanted to say how this whole deal looked to Twilight given how it was presented to her and to ask please don't get indignant over Twilight being human... pony... whatever.

**** I have continually acknowledged that Twilight's conclusion (while mistaken) was understandable, so no indignation here. The only thing I wish to argue against is the assertion that the apology was not warranted. To claim that she was taking those two other comments in context is entirely unsupported by any evidence. Twilight doesn't give any sign that she even heard the whole of what Pinkie had said, since she doesn't make any mention of the popped balloons or the “buzz off” comment at all. She told Pinkie that “...just because Rainbow Dash has another friend doesn't make Gilda a grump.” That's touching only on Pinkie Pie's first comment, not the others. Secondly, those words themselves are exactly why I feel Twilight has misjudged Pinkie. Twilight is partly right... Gilda spending time alone with Rainbow Dash doesn't make her a grump, it's all the unnecessarily mean stuff she did to Pinkie Pie to get her to leave her and RD alone that makes her a grump. Twilight either didn't hear those things mentioned or didn't give them enough credence to comment on them, and in both cases, that is a mistake on Twilight's part. A large enough mistake to warrant an apology. To go even further, I would say that that is exactly what the writers were getting at. Consider the cold open to this episode. We have Pinkie telling a story, and Twilight nearby trying to read a book and ignore Pinkie altogether. She even heaves a visible sigh of relief when Pinkie runs off after Rainbow Dash. This mirrors what happens later when Twilight is again not giving sufficient attention to what Pinkie is saying, hence her getting the wrong idea (not about the jealousy, but about Pinkie's jealousy causing her to misjudge Gilda) and hence justifying an apology.

 

== 1.06 Boast Busters ==

*** Fancy French Cuisine. Ponies probably enjoy their escargot.

*** They're vegetarians. They can't eat meat (even squishy booger meat).

*** Gardening? Or at least keeping snails and other pests out of gardens?

 

*** I hear this excuse a lot, but I don't believe it. True, Trixie's first announcements were just hyperbole and par for the course of any magic show, but then she gets downright insulting and condescending, and not only is that bad conduct, it also seems, to me, to be bad business; you ''never'' flat-out insult the audience. Poking fun is one thing, but direct verbal attacks (even when they're not directed at the audience as a whole) can (and should) cause a huge backlash. If media examples from the last several years are anything to go by, there's very little room for "attitude" and oversensitivity when entertaining a crowd.

** To make up your own minds, here are snippets of that key dialogue:

'''Trixie''': Why, only the great and powerful Trixie has magic strong enough to vanquish the dreaded Ursa Major! }}

* New troper to this argument, but Twilight herself seemed to feel her friends weren't being entirely fair to Trixie. She was afraid that if she did what Spike urged her, and bested Trixie with her magic, that they would then think of Twilight herself as showing off. If she thought they were being reasonable, why was she worried about that?

** At first, yes. Then Applejack explained to her that they were less bothered by the talent than by the public boastfulness. Somehow, Twilight got it into her head that any public demonstration of her powers, especially to upstage someone (even a show-off like Trixie) would be tantamount to showing off herself, and so she became shy about it until the Ursa came into town. Being seen getting up on stage and "showing off with her magic tricks" seemed to her to be what her friends disliked. Rainbow Dash does make it clear at the end that Twilight got the wrong end of the stick: "Magic's got nothing to do with it. Trixie's just a loudmouth."

*** Okay, got that, but what was their problem with Trixie and her bragging exactly? She wasn't hadn't yet insulted or belittled anyone when they started voicing their complaints, she certainly wasn't hurting anyone, and "She shouldn't be talking herself up so much," sounds so hypocritical when you see how much Rainbow Dash pats herself on the back throughout the series and how easily everyone else puts up with it. It's not like Trixie was ''forcing'' the crowd to watch. They pretty much caused a scene in the audience for very trivial reasons, and they were acting almost as stuck up as Trixie throughtout the whole showdown against her. Hubris is a character trait that should cut, but not by more hubris, and thats what made Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity look so unreasonable and catty in this episode; they got angry at a performer just for bragging about how good she is, which is what at least one of the three does themselves almost every episode, and responded by saying they were better than her.

** Their problem was that the advertising did not match the product. Bragging that includes "she's got '''more''' magical powers than any other unicorn ever", she "performs the '''most spectacular''' feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes", and "the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria", especially when the latter two are said in a voice that practically screams insufferable show-off, is just asking for it. Note that the few ponies who are skeptical of her claims have recently dealt with a [[Physical God]], are friends with a unicorn whose defining attribute is magical power, and actually can follow up their own boasts.

** The key word here is 'skeptical': they don't actually make a scene, they pass comments among themselves, and RD makes the scene by shouting boo. The others don't insult her beyond comparing her to a school filly with fancy ribbons, the implication being that her announcing her magic using so many superlatives is simply immature. This is while she magics flowers out of thin air, so it is implied that this sort of thing is more mundane than Trixie makes it out to be. Plus, whatever else her failings are, Rainbow Dash actually asks the sensible question: what makes her think she's so special? Their skepticism pays off because the answer tells you everything you need to know about Trixie. Long story short, they're reacting to Trixie's overblown advertising.

*** Well, I certainly understand what you are saying; my whole issue is just how the conflict and message was carryed out. Go on a message board and look for a comment complaining about whatever the topic is, and I gurantee you that there will be at least four comments along the lines of "go look at something else then," it's the same principle in a live show; you're supposed to just walk away quietly when it isn't what you wanted to see, it's a bastard move to throw rotten tomatoes.

*** [[Dont Like Dont Watch]] is not a fair response to complaints unless the complaints are persistent, especially complaints that have a strong basis in fact. Considering they'd just pointed out, and subsequently proved, that Trixie was considerably less powerful than she had advertised herself to be, telling them to go away for voicing their scepticism would be downright rude. The only one who actually did "throw rotten tomatoes" was Dash. Applejack and Spike made one complaint each (Rarity two) before Trixie actually noticed them (after Dash shouts "BOO"), and two of those 'complaints' were explanations to Twilight - who had, after all, asked why they were unimpressed.

*** Lastly, calling complaining, never mind their getting up onto the stage and showing off their skills ''in response to being directly challenged themselves'', a "bastard move" is excessive; not least of all because they were actually good at what they did, Trixie challenged them into doing so with the assurance that she could (and was going to) do better, and was frankly overdue a [[Break the Haughty]] (the only way she could possibly have lost face in that situation was by being exposed as a fraud by her own excessive boasting). If anything, the Ponyville crowd made the "bastard move" when they laughed at the mane cast's humiliations, despite knowing them at the very least as the ponies who saved them from Nightmare Moon. Frankly, I'm surprised we're not discussing that little headscratcher instead.

*** In this Troper's opinion, Trixie lodged herself clearly into "bad guy" territory with lying about having defeated an Ursa Major, and using that lie to win approval she didn't earn. The rest could be excused as just being overly boastful, but Trixie's guilty of outright "fraud." I'm not talking about the fireworks or the other tricks; I'm talking about the fact that Trixie's lie is exactly the same as if I told a woman I beat up a live bear single-handedly (when I never did) in order to make myself seem more attractive so I could talk the woman into having sexual intercourse with me. "Fraud" is when you knowingly misrepresent reality in order to gain a selfish advantage. Trixie having lied about defeating an Ursa Major to make more money than she was capable of earning with her own true skill clearly falls into that category.

* Why does everyone love Trixie so much? She seems to be written to be deliberately unpleasant, she doesn't learn her lesson at the end or show any good or likeable qualities at all, and she doesn't even get any funny lines.

 

== 1.07 Dragonshy ==

* Why didn't they take Spike with them? Don't you think that when you have to deal with a dragon having another dragon in your party to talk to them as an equal would be handy? The Dragon might not care that he's bothering the ponies, but he may care about his smoke endangering a younger member of his own species.

** There's no guarantee that would work, and Spike is a baby and probably not up to the task of getting up the mountain in the first place.

** As a dragon the smoke probably wouldn't bother him that much and it's implied dragons can eat pretty much anything, but it still would have been an excellent idea to take him along to act as a go-between. The adult dragon doesn't seem all that interested in what the ponies have to say (they ''are'' interrupting his nap after all) but may listen to a member of his own species. Spike is the common ground between the two. On the other hand it probably would have made the episode too boring to have Spike ask nicely and have the dragon comply.

** It's possible that Twilight thought it was too dangerous. So far, the only times he's been with them on a more dangerous mission was when Twilight didn't think there'd be much (if any) danger.

*** "Owl's Well That Ends Well" seems to support the idea that Spike would not have been welcome, considering that the dragon in that episode tried to ''kill'' him.

*** The idea that wild Dragons are highly territorial seems pretty sound based on what we have seen on screen and the behavior of Komodos in real life.

** What did Pinkie do wrong? She was still gathering materials for her solution, and very much did NOT want her cymbals sucked into the tornado. There's a reason she calls herself the ruinee (or whatever). I wouldn't blame her for that; it was just an accident. And one could even suggest that if it wasn't cymbals, it would've been some other chunk of metal lying around Ponyville.

** Pinkie Pie accidentally ruined the tornado, but would it really have worked anyway? What happens when you get the tornado all the way over to the forest and then stop tornado-ing? What's to stop the parasprites from just flying back over to ponyville? (Apparently Pinkie Pie's solution makes them ''stay'' in the forest for some reason.) And it's not like Dash could keep up the tornado forever.

*** Also, Applejack herded a whole group to the forest, and they stayed. It was only due to Fluttershy keeping one (which multiplied very fast, assumingly due to Rule of Funny) that the problem wasn't solved.

*** The probable answer is that Pinkie's method was the only way of ensuring ''every'' Parasprite was collected and sent back to the forest. The other attempts by the rest of the mane six consisted of gathering them up and forcing them back into the forest. They would work, but only if they managed to gather every single Parasprite, and if they missed just one (or [[Cuteness Proximity|kept one as a pet]]) then the problem would repeat itself. Pinkie's method caused lured the Parasprites out en-masse instead of gathering them one by one. Unless there was one hiding where it couldn't hear the music, her music would collect every Parasprite in town with relatively little effort.

** Yeah, Pinkie wasn't exactly doing her utmost to explain to them, and she had plenty of opportunities. Honestly, how hard is it to just say "you can get rid of them with music/a parade"? Applejack would have succeeded if Fluttershy hadn't kept one ([[Idiot Ball]] much?) and Rainbow Dash's plan was working well [[Unwitting Instigator of Doom|until Pinkie Pie showed up]]. If anything, the aesop should either have been "don't keep a [[Horde of Alien Locusts]] in your house just because they're 'cute', especially when there's no way you're going to keep them a secret for long" or "if you have the solution to the problem, just tell somepony and don't hide behind the 'I'm the [[Cloudcuckoolander]] what d'you expect' excuse".

*** Or a more real "Don't bring creatures you don't know to your home just because they look "cute"". Which would be a good aesop for little boy and girls who bring birds/frogs/dogs etc. home.

 

 

* Is it just me, or is there a worrying hint of forced conformity in 'Winter Wrap-up'? I can accept people wanting to do things traditionally, but the way they treat Twilight for trying to use her talent isn't really fair. Can an aesop of 'Sometimes you have to rely on your other talents to fit in' be valid?

** What bugs me about Winter Wrap-up is that they have forgotten about Twilight. Everypone seems to have a job assigned, except for Twilight. Why? Did they forget about her? Did they think she would be useless? She obviously wanted to help, and she did get there early(too early), so why they did it?

*** The whole point of the episode was that the event was poorly organized, remember. They probably just forgot to assign her a role, which would completely fit.

** Also the ponies might not recognize the passive magics as actual magic. They might just see it as something those ponies can do. Not every human can be an Olympic-class runner, and not every pony can walk on clouds and such.

** Er, no. The concept is of doing things the ''Earth Pony'' way, just like the founders of Ponyville, before anyone knew what a pegasus or unicorn was. So allowing pegasi to use their talents, natural or not, is simply Mayor Mare [[Completely Missing the Point]].

** The fanfic [http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/02/story-first-winter-wrap-up.html "The First Winter Wrap-Up"] proposes one possible answer: {{spoiler|The restriction against magic was actually ''self-imposed'' by the unicorns who were involved in the town's founding, after a feud among them resulted in members of each of the three pony types discovering they couldn't live without the other two. The unicorns saw it as a way to make sure that all three types of ponies work together rather than relying on unicorn magic for shortcuts. Pegasi would have been exempt since there isn't any non-magical way to control the weather, hence using their own abilities isn't a "shortcut"}}.

** Another possible interpretation is that usually (in Canterlot, for instance) the winter wrap-up is performed simply by casting a single Winter Wrap-up spell. Doing things the "Earth pony way" just means not casting that particular spell, while lesser magics are fair game. Perhaps Twilight misunderstood the restriction; note that Rarity quite casually uses her telekinesis at one point.

*** Yeah, though Applejack scolds Twi for bringing the plow to life.

**** Though a lot of that was no doubt because how much trouble that particular bit of magic caused.

** If you want to get technical, even the earth ponies are using magic. Their mystical connection to the earth allows for faster, more bountiful harvests as well as increased physical ability. It's allowed because it's very low-key and secondary to their physical effort. Pegasus Ponies kinda stretch it a bit, but they still seem to be doing their work "manually" instead of just commanding the clouds to do their bidding. It's just Unicorn ponies or spell-casting that breaks tradition (though given the effort involved, telekinesis might just squeak by as an allowed power).

** The whole argument really raises the question why "magic" gets singled out as anything special in the first place. Earth ponies are stronger and connected to the land, pegasi fly and control the weather, unicorns get to levitate stuff and cast spells. That's the way things have always ''been'' in Equestria, at least as far as we know; unicorn magic should by all rights be considered ''just as'' "natural" as the gifts of the other two races. So why is magic suddenly such a big deal here, unless it's simply as an expression of unspoken (and admittedly perhaps even unconscious) [[Unfortunate Implications|anti-unicorn prejudice]]?

 

* Close to the end of the episode, Spike is left asleep on a chunk of ice floating in the middle of some cold water. Instead of, I dunno, trying to HELP him, the ponies joke about how "he's in fer' a big surprise as soon as that there ice melts" and then LAUGH. Sure, he got better, but that's a bit [[Jerkass|cruel]], don't you think?

 

== 1.12 Call of the Cutie ==

*** Would it have? Applejack and Rarity don't seem to have made much small talk before "Look Before You Sleep", if any, and Sweetie Belle doesn't even live with Rarity most of the time. It wouldn't surprise me if the subject was never mentioned to Applejack. Also, keep in mind that for adults like Applejack and Rarity, getting a cutie mark is no big deal; certainly not a great topic of discussion or matter of concern. It was a plot point that Apple Bloom being teased over and ashamed of her lack of a cutie mark was a problem no one else could really understand, except Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo.

* Just what is Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's talent anyway?

 

== 1.13 Fall Weather Friends ==

** Maybe horseshoes are used as work shoes (or even just normal shoes that are just never drawn while they wear them), while the shoes that are actually drawn are dress shoes.

*** So their work shoes need to be ''[[Fridge Horror|stapled to their toenails]]''... oookay.

** Just a simple sight gag. A fight isn't really going to throw up stars and a gigantic cloud around the fighters (dusty ground aside), but it happens in cartoons all the time. It's the same as the "squeak toy" noise that the ponies occasionally make: it wouldn't really happen, but it's used for humor's sake.

 

** [[Did Not Do the Research]]. The syrup was mainly there for a gag, nothing more. Anyway, the ponies have to run past to knock all the leaves down in preparation for winter, which is itself constructed by pegasi. Are you really going to start asking about natural cycles?

 

** If you see enough of your friends being competitive towards each other, eventually you just don't even bat an eye.

** Well, if a snake challenged you to a race would it be cheating to use your legs? The contests were poorly balanced, but that's an issue that would have to be raised before the competition began.

*** Fluttershy could have offered the same criticism in a much less bitchy, patronizing tone. And she also just flat-out insulted Rarity by calling her hand-made dress "prêt-à-porter" ("off the rack").

*** My pick for worst behaved during the second montage is Pinkie Pie. Some pertinent quotes:

'''Rarity''': Streamers it is. }}

 

** Because they blew it all up. God damn them all to hell.

** [[Most Writers Are Human]]. It's done for a gag, not as a world-building exercise.

 

** That line was interesting, to say the least. However, once we do get to see Rainbow Dash wear her 'dream' outfit, something more reminiscent of a royal guard's armor than an actual dress, the line could be seen as clever foreshadowing.

** ''Of course'' Equestria has tanks. It's pretty easy to stop a pony charge with some trenches and barbed wire. If the ponies are to effectively make war against a fortified enemy, they pretty much ''need'' vehicles.

** It seems even weirder now that Rainbow Dash {{spoiler|has a pet tortoise named Tank.}}

*** I judge it a 3-2 victory for Rarity's designs on humanized Ponies. I think the human versions of Rainbow and Twilight pull the looks off better than the pony versions. Rarity's dress wasn't judged because there is no quote-unquote "ugly" version of it.

** How much of [http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_g8VfdWzt6tQ/S9HR6HNU0rI/AAAAAAAAAPo/Hy_bISB1-dU/s1600/dior-haute-couture-ss-2007-500x3282.jpg French haute couture] ISN'T hideous and overdone (that's Dior in the photo, btw)

** The sketch seems to be in Rarity's drawing style, so I would assume that was one of her standard example sketches and not a representation of Fluttershy's specific request. The end result ''is'' probably due to some target drift from the original concept, though.

** The whole concept of "French Haute Couture" bothers this troper. So is there a pony parallel to France? Prance?

** As for French Haute Couture, I think it's simply a name, having nothing to do with France or the French. I think it's just the name for the style, a bit like saying something is Steampunk or Victorian.

** Doylist answer: [[Most Writers Are Human]]. Watsonian answer: the ponies simply have a word ("French") which by pure coincidence can be used like ours.

 

** It seems more likely that the rest of the Mane Six have forgotten by this point that Rarity is actually making them ''gifts''. They're in the mindset of 'I'm the customer!', and what do customers want? To get things for a low price.

 

** Literally, mud or water. In the context of the scene, self-pity.

 

== 1.15 Feeling Pinkie Keen ==

* You know what ''really'' makes me scratch my head? The fact that so many people took an episode about acceptance and tolerance and somehow twisted the aesop into being the biggest direct attack on religion since [[Family Guy|Not All Dogs Go To Heaven]]. Seriously, how can you even ''come'' to that conclusion? It makes no sense in context of the episode.

** What the hell is it with TV Tropes and NADGTH? That's like a new religion in its own right.

** Part of it seemed to be just unintentional wording and dialogue choices as well as minor plot elements. A big chunk of the plot was about trusting Pinkie versus Twilight wanting to find out why... rather than simply Twilight 'knowing better' and showing that in other ways (or wrapping the plot up in other ways). And to be fair, it's kind of hard to have this sort of situation without people projecting a religion vs. about it.

** Well... it's just like [[Harry Potter|Hermione's]] dismissal of Divination and her earlier dismissal of Zecora and curses, isn't it? Twilight won't believe in ''anything'' that can't be verified in books as 100% fact, just like Hermione. Hermione's opinion on Divination matches with Twilight's original opinion about Pinkie Sense.

 

*** An explanation worthy of a Dear Princess Celestia prefix, thanks!

** No one imposed their beliefs on Twilight, she came to believe on her own, because of what was happening, not because of what anyone else said.

** The aesop was probably "don't deny what's in front of your eyes just because you don't understand how it works" or "don't get angry with your friends just because they can do things you can't". That said, the creators could have handled it better, not least of all by not giving Twilight such a hard time. It looked like the universe itself was punishing her for being sceptical.

 

* Was there room for that hydra under the bog? How long had it been living there, and what had it been eating?

***** This is probably the case since Fluttershy flew to the bog with the cart of frogs without any trouble.

 

** Nobody ever said that science was wrong, just Twilight in this instance. Twilight wasn't acting like a scientist at all. She repeatedly ignored instances of "Pinkie sense" functioning out of an intent to prove herself right rather than actually gain understanding. Instead of trying to piece together what was actually happening, she went out of her way to "disprove" Pinkie simply because she didn't want to believe it. In other situations, her skepticism and research skills have proven to be great assets. It's just that this one time she was being stubborn and dogmatic, if only because Pinkie's premonition claims offended her because she viewed it as an insult to effort she put into her own magic. If this pattern was repeated, you'd have an argument. In this case, it's just Twilight being wrong thanks to being motivated by spite rather than the pursuit of knowledge. Frankly it bothers me that people take everything so personally on this show. A character being wrong in one instance does not mean that the writers are against everything that character stands for.

*** The issue is Twilight acts as a very stereotypical strawman skeptic in the episode. [[Acceptable Targets|Skeptics tend to get a particularly raw deal in most media]], and this episode seems to be a particularly bad example of one. While Twilight is acting in a way that a skeptic can sometimes act, as skeptics like all people are prone to bias (The entire point of skepticism being to do ones best to remove that bias), I found the episode offensive partially because of the media in general. For example, it's not offensive to have a single black character be a thug or criminal, but if 90% of blacks in the media were criminals, than every show that perpetuates that notion is going to be offensive. Twilight was just the latest in a long line of TV Skeptics acting in an extremely unskeptical way. If the portrayal of skeptics like this were more uncommon, the episode might have made a fine lesson about how no-one is immune to this kind of thinking. But instead, this episode simply perpetuated the stereotype of the arrogant and blind skeptic, whether it intended to or not. Also, the 'leap of faith' line REALLY didn't help. If you want to piss off a skeptic, try to extol the [[Berserk Button|virtues of faith]] (as something other than a synonym for trust) to them. Lastly, Twilight gives up on understanding what could be an incredible discovery in the field of magic, and doesn't appear to forward the discovery to anyone else to study. A real scientist might give up on understanding something if she finds it too difficult to study further, but the idea of not putting the discovery out there for others to work on is nothing short of criminal. In short, it's likely that this episode was an unintentional perfect storm of things intended to drive a certain community of people absolutely crazy.

** I don't think they've quite forgotten the aesop. Apple Bloom realizes it's not the end of the world if she doesn't have her cutie mark yet, and they all realize they're full of potential. It doesn't change the fact that they really, really want cutie marks.

*** Old habits die hard.

** They learned that they have potential. Now they're trying to realise it.

 

** It wasn't necessarily intentional. Both times she uses it, she is trying to protect those under her care -- by getting the chickens back into their hen house where they'll be safe or by defending the Cutie Mark Crusaders from the Cockatrice. The Stare kicked in when it proved necessary to perform these tasks... but she reacted to a similar situation in much the same way without The Stare in "Dragonshy", even though it would certainly have helped. It wasn't '''necessary''', though, so it didn't kick in -- the sheer force of personality she can bring to bear when she has reason to was enough to intimidate the dragon all by itself.

* Heres a headscrather.. how heck does the stare work in the first place? I mean Pinkie senses just seemed like a logical extension of Pinkie's extra special awareness, but the stare doesn't really much sense to me. It could be considered a side of her animal ability, except it works on fricken dragons....

 

 

== 1.18 The Show Stoppers ==

** She was trying to help them get their cutie mark. I guess it just shows the truth of the aseop, 'you're just going to have to wait for it'.

** We're talking about a world where little school ponies have to discover what they will be wearing on their butts for the rest of their lives. It's not like our rules about upbringing would apply well in Equestria.

** I think that cutie marks are open to interpretation. Rarity's mark is several gems, and she's a clothing designer. She could've just as easily been a jeweler or a diamond miner. But she isn't, despite her affinity for those things. She's still doing something she chose to do.

** We're getting an episode where we find out how the main cast got their cutie marks. Hopefully that will clear up some questions.

 

* Why did Sweetie Belle not know what the dressmakers pony was for? Most kids that age, sure, but she's Rarity's sister, how could she not have seen Rarity using one before or even notice them and ask what there for?

 

* Why does everyone (in-universe and out) seem to think their act was so terrible/that it was a joke? Apart from the technical difficulties, that act was pretty frickin' fabulous for one that had been composed and choreographed by tween fillies. And yeah, those costumes might not have been very fashionable, but they look remarkably well-made considering that Sweetie Belle was such an inexperienced seamstress.

 

* How in the world did a regular electric fan create a strong enough air current to knock over the sets?

 

== 1.19 A Dog and Pony Show ==

***** It might stop the ''words'', but the ''noise'' would have continued unabated. Not to mention she could have started refusing to even ''find'' the gems.

** She could have just used her magic to remove a gag.

**** Yes, but, you see, once the gag is on her it becomes an ''accessory.''

**** Uhh... fashion isn't Rarity's talent. It's gemstones. Anyway, she was perfectly able to manipulate chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers in "Look Before You Sleep". General-purpose telekinesis appears to be a standard unicorn power.

*** She wasn't telling them where to dig, she was marking an X on the ground with a stick. A gag wouldn't stop her from doing that.

** This troper thinks that if Rarity was gagged, she'd probably get angry or desperate enough to use the gems as a [[Flechette Storm]] against the Diamond Dogs.

 

** Fluttershy would use the stare on them, and Twilight would magic her way out (maybe even teleport). Not sure about Spike.

*** Fluttershy is not supposed to be able to use the Stare at will, and it seems standing up for herself is what she's the ''least'' good at. Since the dogs were not total sociopaths (if they were really evil, they could have shut Rarity up easily -- whining is no defence against being beaten up), they might have found Fluttershy too [[Moe]] to hold captive, but that's not something I expect to see in this series (because Lauren Faust explicitly doesn't like characters in girls' shows overcoming the villains by crying). That's why Rarity gets this episode and Fluttershy gets "Dragonshy". And the episode ''is'' rather [[Just for Pun|tailored]] for Rarity, which is why what others might have done isn't necessarily so interesting.

* Is it just me, or did Pinkie Pie seem very out of character in 'Green Isn't Your Colour'? She's supposed to embody the element of laughter - in other words, fun. But her behavior made three of her friends absolutely miserable, and could have lead to an enormous falling out between Rarity and Fluttershy.

** If you get rid of the fact she might be watching us, you'll see that she is, 1) Very impulsive. 2) Very hyper. And 3) Probably has the attention span of a squirrel on crack and coffee. Or basically, she has an extremely, extreme case of ADHD, which would lead her to think, that what she was doing was fun for everyone, but in reality only for her.

** You realize that all the ponies are fully fleshed-out individuals with a full range on emotions, right? Their elements inform their behavior, not define it. i.e. Applejack can lie, she's just really, really bad at it. At any rate, helping prevent social faux pas and promote unity seems very in line with Pinkie's character.

** Companionship and fun are the most important things for Pinkie Pie, so not acting like a good friend should is [[Serious Business]] for her (even if she doesn't have a very good idea of what that means in practice, and is too quick to judge it as happening). The idea is not really introduced before this episode, but it's thoroughly explored in "Party of One".

*** Fast-acting paralytic agents. The pies are just the medium that can be easily thrown or bucked by a pony while still managing to splatter effect multiple closely grouped targets.

*** The idea here is not to have lethal concussive force. The pies just splatter the buffalo's eyes, causing them to stop seeing there they're going and subsequently to trip and fall.

** At least one fanfic made it clear that certain foods can be considered "wartime weapons". Which makes Blueblood using Rarity as a pony shield against that cake even worse in-universe...

*** 'Dragonshy' had Applejack prepared with apples as weapons too. (Then she ''uses'' them on a rock. 'Dammit, Twilight, don't you wish we had some APPLES?')

** [[Word of God]] [http://comments.deviantart.com/4/1603670/1926116751 says] that it was more or less forced on her: she didn't want a train in MLP, but the crew (and probably Hasbro) wanted a Wild West episode and a train was needed. Simply having the ponies pull the train looked wrong, and would have denied them the iconic sounds of the locomotive and the subsequent train robbery. So she punted.

** And if there were no locomotives, then Fluttershy's "Chugga-chugga chugga-chugga WOO WOO!" routine in "A Bird in the Hoof" wouldn't have made sense!

** Simple. They weren't PULLING the engine, they were ''powering it with Earth Pony magic.'' Notice that there was steam coming from the whistle-- but no smoke from the smokestack? And if I remember correctly there was no coal car either. Earth Pony magic to heat the boiler! Especially makes since as Earth Ponies are the strongest of the ponies with the most endurance-- which means they probably have more magic than either the pegasi or unicorns. But since earth ponies have to have their hooves on the ground to use their magic....

 

** If human history is any telling, the Buffalo Tribe probably won't do well at all. I can't speak for the natives in the United States, but here in Canada, have they not become a bit of a "thorn"? People know about them, yet no one really cares, in spite of the unethical treatments they've been put through (that's putting it mildly). I think that this episode was meant as a bit of a metaphor for cultural crashes in general, rather than a specific example. That said, give them credit for taking a bold move by actually doing something so close to reality. The conclusion, however, may in fact be a case of [[Did Not Do the Research]]. Then again, even if they did, how much of that can you translate into a show primarily watched by a young audience?

*** The fact that the battle between the two civilizations involved apple pies being used as weapons suggests that this is meant to be a sanitized expy of North American history, not a literal telling. The producers were trying to use the backdrop of Manifest Destiny to make a statement about unity between cultures WITHOUT having to face the bitter reality that actually came from such a thing. Because, you know, it's a kid's show. Just think of a politically correct version of the Old West where everyone learned to respect each others' cultures and population growth is kept to a minimum, and you'll get the idea.

** I think that the settler/Indian aesthetics weren't intended to parallel the historical events too closely; this show is aimed at elementary schoolers after all. The message isn't a historical statement, the point was that all the problems could have been avoided if the two sides had been willing to talk things out and come to a compromise rather than just fight over the land. It was stated in episode that both sides had valid reasons for claiming the land, after all. Not to mention that there's a pretty solid layer of [[Rule of Funny]] over the whole thing that makes reading too much into a bit of a problem.

** Considering that it's more of a [[Broad Strokes]] version of history, it's pretty obvious that it's really a "get-along-with-one-another-talk-out-your-differences-dammit" Aesop cloaked in a settlers vs. natives appearance. They probably just picked that one because they wanted to play with lots of Western tropes.

*** Yes, it is possible to discuss.

** In what way is this an analogy for either Canadian or American history? Yes, IRL there were dealings between natives and non-natives that ended poorly for the natives, but that's not what happened in the show. In the show, the buffalo get to stampede like they used to and they get some free apples to go with it, and meanwhile the settlers get to maintain their way of life. Who loses out on this? It's a fair deal for both sides. Just because processed food and alcohol contributed to Native American troubles IRL does not mean that the buffalo are somehow going to suffer because of their newfound access to apples; why would they? It's not like apples are addictive or something. And just because they're ''eating'' a non-indigenous food doesn't mean they're ''dependent'' on it; obviously the buffalo have been managing to feed themselves before the deal was struck and there's no reason why they would lose that ability. (It's not like they were all corralled against their will onto some kind of reservation, which is what happened IRL to the Native Americans. And anyway the fact that I eat bananas doesn't make me dependent on banana-producing nations, etc. etc..) Referencing the human rights abuses committed against real-life Native Americans is similarly ridiculous; there are no such abuses depicted on the show. The only wrong they suffered was the ''temporary'' loss of their stampeding grounds, which was resolved at the end. Again, this is not meant to be a retelling of actual history. If anything, it's a statement about what ''should'' have happened between natives and non-natives in the settler days.

** I assume they're going to be decimated. The ponies have presumably had a good amount of time to adjust to a high-glucose diet, while the bison have just been introduced to apple pies. Type II diabetes is going to be just as much of a problem as alcoholism was IRL.

* Little Strongheart tells Rainbow Dash that the bison never meant to hurt anyone when taking Bloomberg...except that they attempted multiple times to ''derail the entire train'' (which would have undoubtedly killed at least some passengers) before switching over to the relatively harmless method of detaching the caboose.

* Why didn't Fluttershy or Twilight Sparkle recognize the phoenix? Fluttershy usually knows ''everything'' about animals, and Twilight Sparkle is not only hugely studious and full of knowledge, but is Princess Celestia's personal student. You're telling me Fluttershy has never heard of one, and Twilight Sparkle never read about them or saw her mentor's pet before?

** Philomenia didn't exactly look like a book-standard phoenix at the time, and Twilight Sparkle is nothing if not a bundle of eager book smarts wrapped around massive gaps of practical knowledge. Even if Twilight had seen Philomenia before, she might not recognize her near the end of her lifespan, and we've no reason to believe that Philomenia's getting old and bursting into flame on a regular basis. Fluttershy's got a lot of practical experience, but we're outright told that phoenix are uncommon in Ponyville or Cloudsdale, and even where Fluttershy does have massive hidden depths, she doesn't often have the ability to implement it in reality. I've a feeling that she's more interesting in the sort of critters she actually runs into.

 

 

*** Most likely they simply didn't see it, due to being either concussed or spiralling out of control at the time.

 

** There is one possibility that isn't depressing. The dragon-flights could have a treaty with Equestria, offering a few eggs and maybe their services in times of great need in return for a supply of gems and a safe place for the dragon-flights to roost. Maybe someone else can figure out a better set of terms between the two, but that's enough to get the point across for now.

*** "In the name of equestria, her royal highness Celestia, mistress of the sun, High-magistrix of the magic academy and general of the equestrian armies, bestows upon the dragonkin all the lands within the Nibenay valley, and guarantees them safety within, and only within, their own lands, as well as the right to self-govern. Any dragon who leaves Nibenay is subject to equestrian law, and needs written permission from her highness, princess Celestia, to perform any acts of fire-breathing or meat consumption. In return, the dragonkin promise loyalty to the kingdom of celestia, service in times of war and a tribute of two dragon eggs every hundred years, of which the hatchlings will be assigned to and trained along with students of the magic academy of equestria."

 

* Pinkie Pie's backstory in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" irritated me. I don't seriously believe that Pinkie used to be gloomy. The Amish deal and the rock farm also strike me as weird. Then again, good ol' Pinkie could be making this all up.

** Just making something clear: being Amish doesn't make someone gloomy. Just because they have no need for fancy things like bright clothes and technology, it doesn't mean that they're devoid of fun.

** Just because Amish are allowed to have fun doesn't mean that this particular Amish (or Amish-esque) family had fun very often. Maybe they were all fairly gloomy from farming rocks (as others have pointed out.) And anyway, it's not that hard to imagine that Pinkie Pie was once gloomy; in fact that makes it kindof inspiring when she turns her whole life around.

** She totally made it up. She tells the story differently every time, like how the Joker talks about his scars.

*** Man, Pinkie Pie is that universe's Joker. That explains sooo much.

*** ''[[Cupcakes]]''. Oh dear Celestia, it explains frigging ''Cupcakes''.

** Rule of Funny.

 

** If you're referring to Twilight's magic burst shown in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", I figure that what happened to Spike is what would happen if you super size an infant. He'll probably look more like other dragons when he actually grows up.

** Well, Spike already doesn't look much like other dragons even without the magic transformation. No wings, for one. Maybe he's a different race of dragon? Or maybe dragons go through transformations as they grow up, and Twilight's spell aged him without any of those happening.

*** We've seen a sea serpent in the second episode. It's perfectly possible Spike is a wingless dragon species, incapable of flight, but sturdier and stronger. It would also explain how can he [[Nigh Invulnerable|take so much abuse]] despite being so young.

*** This. If you look at the picture of the dragon on the side of the cart, it has no wings either. Spike is meant to be wingless.

** Looking at the giant Spike, he's obviously some kind of Godzilla-type. And Godzilla is usually the hero or at least the [[Not So Evil]] amongst the kaiju.

** Or maybe these dragons aren't born with wings? Like... they grow them later? They earn them somehow? They come when a dragon hits dragon puberty? Spike's drawn how he is so he'd look cute and his design would look less odd beside the ponies.

*** The idea of Pinkie Pie having access to explosives is both hillarious and terrifying.

** Either a 'rock farm' is a 1) Quarry, 2) Geode/magic gemstone growing farm, or 3) 'Rocks' grow due to gravity when the solar system forms. Thus Pinky Pie helped create the planet! And that's how Equestria was made! (Also, her sisters were light grey and purple. Which god-tier ponies are also respectivly light colored and purple?)

** This is a world where they have to wrap up winter. Perhaps the rock farming is how raw rock materials are gathered to make certain landmarks or natural designs. Earth-shaping, in a sense. Though in practice I'd go for the rock-farm=quarry idea.

** It's also possible that it was simply a more traditional quarry or mine, and Pinkie Pie just called it a "rock farm" because she figured that's what her audience--children from a rural farming community--would best understand as a metaphor.

* Why do so many people think Pinkie's Cutie Mark story was a case of [[Unreliable Narrator]] and it probably didn't happen?

** Because she ended the tale with "And that's how Equestria was made". That signifies that at some point in her mind she was no longer relaying her cutie mark story. Remember, the question central to [[Unreliable Narrator]] is "Is the narrator telling the truth?" and that particular question is applicable here. This is a question the Cutie Mark Crusaders have by the time they find Rainbow Dash.

** I figured the entire story was true; she just screwed up at the very end with "And that's how Equestria was made" when it should have been "And that's how I got my cutie mark."

*** And then Pinkie offers to tell them the story of how she got her cutie mark, implying that she didn't already tell them that exact story.

 

* Was that Cheerilee in Rarity's flashback? Does that make them [[Older Than They Look]]? Considering Cherilee looked teenaged, to tweenaged, in her 80s picture that'd make them in the pony equivalent of their thirties.. Which makes sense.

** They don't live in our society, so the equivalent of 80s fashion wouldn't neccessarily be 20-30 years ago for them.

 

** It's a funny non-sequitur. Pinkie does random stuff like that to be funny.

 

 

* Fluttershy says that she had never been on the ground before and didn't all of the animals were there, but then how did she know what the names of the animals were?

 

== 1.24 Owl's Well That Ends Well ==

** Big deal? She just gave Spike some reprimands which he blew out of proportion.

*** It was more him taking "This is not the Spike I know and love" to mean "She doesn't love me anymore".

** I don't know where you're getting this from. Twilight likes reading, sure, but only as a means to an end. She has no problem scattering her books about haphazardly when she's looking for something and we've never seen her get overprotective of the books themselves. Spike's destruction of the book probably would just have been met with an admonition to be more careful and telling him to get another copy. We really have a better case for her going beserk over lying, giving her repeated bouts of skepticism.

** We've also seen that Twilight's social skills are still very rusty. I think she's doing what she's read is the right way to deal with things like this. I also think she was probably deeply ''stung'' that he lied to her, since he's never lied to her before, since like Dash, he's very blunt and tactless. In "Party of One" he's shown to be more apt to keep secrets rather than lie. He's her number one friend, her oldest friend, her ONLY friend for years, and a ''child''. She doesn't want him growing up thinking lying is okay. Twilight's scolding of him was exactly the kind of scolding I received as a kid for lying. I don't think she was being unfair at all. Sometimes you have to be firm with kids regarding things like this. I think you're judging her anger way too harshly. People get angry, and they tend to get more angry and disappointed the closer they are to that person, because it hurts more.

** He's pulling an all-dayer (the opposite of an all-nighter.) Maybe got really tired of this by the end of the episode, which is why we don't see him in later episodes.

 

** Well, what immediately comes to mind is that there's never been any actual indication that the former is the case.

*** Or does it? If Equstria is just a country within a bigger world, it could work if she wanted to bring the eternal night just there. The other side of the planet would have eternal day, but Nightmare Moon might not care -- she wants the admiration of her subjects specifically.

** Equestria could simply be a geocentric system. Never mind that that's not how star systems form naturally in our universe--what if Equestria has artificial sun and moon satellites kept in their stable orbits by first the concerted effort of unicorns ritually performing the same spells they always have, and later by the Princesses? They could be the last remnants of an ancient civilization, now long gone. It would explain why they have to so carefully manage seasons and nature--without a long, slow revolution around the sun, any axial tilt will be meaningless--heck, it's even possible that the planet doesn't spin at all! In that case, Nightmare Moon could have caused eternal night for Equestria simply by spinning up the planet so the sun's orbit became geostationary--causing rather a high temperature increase on the opposite side, and decrease on the Equestria side. No mention of time zones or differences is made in the series and it's implied that when Celestia raises the sun, it rises at more or less the same time everywhere that matters, so it may be assumed Equestria is not globe-spanning.

** I don't think anyone seriously believed Pinkie was going to start slicing into her friends. The plethora of "CUPCAKES IS CANON!" remarks that came up after that episode seemed largely tongue in cheek.

 

** Nice answer: Pinkie Pie wanted a small, intimate gathering of Gummy's closest and dearest friends (i.e, Pinkie's friends.) Alternatively, no one else wanted to go to a birthday party for Pinkie's creepy, toothless pet -- or she didn't even get around to inviting anyone else. The "singing telegram" thing nearly killed her as is.

** The Poster was referring to the party at the end of the episode(for Pinkie's birthday), not the one for Gummy. Nevertheless, I think I have an answer; The mane cast simply couldn't get away with it. Look at how close they were to letting the surprise slip when only six people were in on it.

** Because seeing the [[Genki Girl|genkiest]] pony in Ponyville turn woobie and rather psychotic is slightly freaky?

** She wasn't psychotic. Psychotic = [[Axe Crazy]]. She was just nuts.

**** I must interject that psychotic has nothing to do with being violent or Axe Crazy. This is a terrible misconception. 'Psychotic' just means 'out of touch with reality'. In this way, Pinkie really was being psychotic. However, psychosis does NOT lead to being murderous (necessarily).

*** It's pitiful when a piece of (''bad'') fan faction can color people's perception of a canon episode. Insane or not, Pinkie is an adorable pony and no threat to anybody.

*** Some of us have never read (or have any interest in) ''Cupcakes''. Even her friends were terrified of her in this episode.

*** One of your friends is not herself. She's abandoned you and started holding tea parties for inanimate objects. She reacts with open hostility when you try to remove her from her delusions. You ''should'' be disturbed by this. If seeing a friend like this would not disturb you, you are a ''bad friend''. Her friends were worried because there was a ''genuine cause for concern''.

** The scene was very much fun in a [[Black Comedy]] kind of way, but even with no indication Pinkie was going to hurt anyone else, it was very dark in another way. ''She'' was in terrible emotional agony that she was trying to cover up with all that, and the results seemed to be damaging to her psyche and social behaviour. Poor thing.

**** "...why the hell would people think Cupcakes would be canon?" Because people are screwed up sometimes.

** To this troper at least, the speed of Pinkie's transition from normal hyperactive happy to bleak hopelessness and then back again was rather jarring (despite being [[Played for Laughs]]). It's even remarked upon by Pinkie herself that the other had been avoiding her just "all day." Mood swings that severe and that fast can accompany some forms of Bipolar disorder, making the episode rather uncomfortable at times.

*** Night shift would at least explain why she's never had a reason to appear at any other point during this season.

** It's likely that Luna would have kept her distance during the Gala because she's still uncomfortable about her public image (a concept soon to be explored in [[S 2 E 4]], ''Luna Eclipsed''). If you were essentially an ex-criminal, would you show your face at a grand event attended almost entirely by the judgmental upper-class? Considering that we ''see for ourselves'' what dicks they can be?

*** Including language lessons. A thousand years of linguistic drift is a LOT to catch up on. We're lucky she didn't gallop into Ponyville on Nightmare Night and start belting out Middle Equestrian (referencing Middle English here), unable to explain anything intelligably to any but the most devoted of language scholars.

**** That would also explain why she didn't understand "fun". She understood the concept perfectly, but the word used to describe it was unfamiliar. So when she realized they were describing what she thought of as, I dunno, "fhynne", she feigned ignorance to cover up the gap in her vocabulary lessons.

*** That's so obvious it isn't a matter for speculation. There's no reason for why the characters couldn't dream about what they will do at the Gala, then get dresses made, and then go to the Gala and still expect the same things there.

** They're not going to the Gala that night, because ''it isn't on'' that night; the invitations were received well in advance. They're just taking Twilight out for dinner.

** The Grand Galloping Gala is quite literally the biggest annual event in Equestria. Tickets were no doubt received WELL in advance, it's not unreasonable that planning for the next Gala starts as soon as the previous one ends. While it might seem odd that Twilight takes her dress to Rarity well before the event, it seems most likely that the dress was her usual formal outfit, and she damaged it recently, and that she mentions the Gala because that's her next scheduled formal event where she would wear it.

 

** They overreacted. Simple as that. Applejack had her heart set on getting money for helping out the farm, and when that didn't play out, she got upset and started doing things that clearly wouldn't work because she stopped thinking. Fluttershy lives for helping animals. If you suddenly proved useless at what you literally live for, how would you feel? Rainbow Dash had her heart set on spending time with the Wonderbolts. To have that torn away CONSTANTLY would be aggravating, I'm surprised she didn't come as close to swearing somepony out as a kids' show would allow instead of just trying little things. Pinkie simply expected something better and didn't think to stop and check out the surroundings.

** Maybe I need to watch it again, but I don't think Rainbow Dash and Applejack did anything inexcusable either. Okay, Rainbow Dash shouldn't have kicked that other pony into the air so she could rescue him, but other than that she didn't do anything wrong, and all Applejack did was bring in the cake that Pinkie jumped into. So you can blame it all on Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.

** I have several theories explaining her tantrum-

*** [[Freudian Excuse]] explanation: Fluttershy's special talent is her empathy with animals. That's what her cutie mark symbolises. She loves animals, but if she can't earn their love in return, it means that she's basically failed at her purpose in life, therefore, her life has no meaning. To suddenly fail at the main thing that you're good at can be pretty upsetting, to say the least.

** But to answer the original question, I agree that it most likely won't be brought up again in Cannon. But we can still have fun with the meme it generated!

** Wasn't it said by [[Word of God]] that Princess Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon was caused by "something or someone"? Maybe he/she/it was behind Fluttershy's breakdown...

** Fluttershy strikes me as the kind of pony who, due to her incredible shyness, bottles her outspoken negative emotions inside. Then, when things really start to get irritating, it causes any bottled up anger to overflow.

*** Fluttershy seems to run on [[Beware the Nice Ones]] -- look at what she does to the dragon and the cockatrice. Intimidation tends to be somewhat handicapped when your target has every ability to destroy you without even thinking, but it works. Oh, and I did see a fic somewhere that suggested the earlier idea. For one, Fluttershy had built up the idea of how things would go ... and for another, she wasn't actually ''using'' her special skill and ability to soothe creatures, thus shocking the hummingbirds out of humming and the buzzard out of buzzing.

*** Actually, when one does a close analysis of Fluttershy's character, and picks up on a couple hints, the 'Flutterrage' outburst doesn't seem like an [[Out of Character]] moment, instead seems like a bad mixture of variables to produce a 'powder keg ready to blow' situation. Let's go over them:

####First off, as seen in 'Dragonshy,' 'Stare Master,' and 'Suited for Success,' Fluttershy can be very assertive, even borderline aggressive when pushed to the point that she's forced to come out of her shell of shyness, instead of just breaking down and crying, or something like that.

####Thirdly, Fluttershy was following the 'advice' Twilight had given her in 'Bird in the Hoof' (“I just have to be more bold, like Twilight says.“-Fluttershy, as she's setting up the stereotypical box and stick trap) This is similar to when she did the 'hop-skip-and-a-jump' in 'Feeling Pinkie Keen.' Pinkie had given that advice all the way back in 'Dragonshy' but at the time, Fluttershy didn't take it in.

####Fourthly, there is the common pattern and fan-theory of Cutie Mark Failure Insanity Syndrome (or CMFIS for short) in which, whenever a pony's special talent comes into question (like when Fluttershy has trouble getting animals to love her) it can trigger a breakdown that causes the pony's personality to temporarily become the opposite of what it normally is.

** The problem with her behaviour oviously stems from how it didn't get enough buildup. There wasn't a whole episode to explain it (or what caused the factors that caused it) like for, say, Pinkie Pie's psychosis. I assume it would have made sense if fully explained.

** ...That said, some of the explanations here almost seem to make it make less sense. For example, Fluttershy taking in the CMC or Philomena seems more naivety than arrogance, and not even based on unreasonable assumptions, since she usually just ''is'' freakishly good with all sorts of critters. (And really, the problem is that the critters on those occasions are willfull and "intelligent"; animals may be sort of intelligent in this series, but they react much more simply regardless. Except Angel, and, though he likes Fluttershy, she can't just wrap him around her hoof with her natural charm, either.) That same assumption is certainly present in "The Best Night Ever", but is it arrogance? This, of course, makes the biggest question just why those animals don't automatically fall for her. And, again, an excuse would have been easy to come up with with some time for buildup.

*** As to "why her gift with animals failed so horribly," I think many people are overlooking the obvious: most of the time, she is helping animals. She feeds them, tends their injuries, protects them, wakes them from their hibernation, even reassures them when they are frightened, etc. They love her in no small part because of what she does for them. At the gala, she simply shows up in the royal gardens and expects to be loved.

*** Agreed. I always figured the animals' flippancy was supposed to be analogous to the way the ''actual'' Gala guests treated the common folk, as if to suggest "arrogant royals, from the king himself right down to the animals in the courtyard, are arrogant royals." Or... [[Wild Mass Guessing|maybe not]].

** Plus, who has she got as a role model for being assertive and bold? Twilight? Think "Feeling Pinkie Keen" and "A Bird in the Hoof". Rainbow Dash? Think [[Leeroy Jenkins]] meets [[Brutal Honesty]]. Honestly, rewatch Fluttershy's scenes and imagine she's mimicking one of them two as her role model for being bold.

 

* Is Blueblood really that much of a jerk? He wanted the same thing as Rarity, really; to be fawned over for being special. Rarity is only mad at him because he's demanding the same things of her that she wants from him. Does it really come down to gender roles?

** Well, let's see. Ignoring the fact that he was being very rude to her, he insulted Rarity's good friend Applejack and used Rarity as a [[Human Shield]]. That's pretty jerky. He never once gave a thought to how his date was doing or check on her after being hit by a door or what have you. The two of them are similar, yes. But Rarity is generous, hard-working, and a good friend. Blueblood is none of these things. I think part of the reason Rarity comes to hate Blueblood so much is because Blueblood is basically herself without her redeeming qualities.

** Rarity likes to be fawned over, but she's also a good person. Remember how she worked so hard to make free dresses for her friends in that other episode, for instance. Blueblood would never work hard for anybody, far as I can tell.

** It's called ''noblesse oblige''; the idea that those in privileged positions have a countervailing obligation to act honorably and responsibly. Rarity does her best to live up to that trope despite not actually being nobility; Blueblood is a walking negation of it despite having been handed high noble status just for being born. (As opposed to, oh, Celestia, who is the walking incarnation of ''noblesse oblige''.)

** Frankly, gender and other roles do seem to play a part. But even without that, Blueblood is so self-obsessed he barely even sees anyone else even when he's interacting with them. Even when being told off royally by Rarity, all he seemed to register was that she was messy. Everything around him was just an accessory to himself.

** Having no sense of romance is hardly a genuine fault, and Rarity was just as self-centered in those two instances, insisting that he put down ''his'' cloak and open the door for ''her''. Blueblood is a [[Jerkass]], no doubt, but gender roles ''definitely'' come into play.

*** OK, I'll throw my hands up: having no sense of romance isn't a fault. It does have a lot to do with gender roles.

*** I've always liked the fanon that Blueblood was deliberately [[Troll|screwing with her]], because he knows what she's here for and having dealt with countless other mares with the same vapid dream, refuses to play the part.

** Rarity is defined by her generosity. If Blueblood had offered to pay for the food, Rarity might well have insisted that she pay anyway, but instead 'he expected her to do so from step one'. Likewise, he couldn't be generous in words or even in with something as inexpensive as a flower.

** In this Troper's opinion, there's an additional element that makes Blueblood's behavior much worse. Most of what he did was petty annoyances, but the CONTEXT made it much worse because he was "leading Rarity on." He was polite to Rarity and intentionally gave off an impression that he wanted Rarity's company when they first met, even if only so Rarity could flatter him. THEN he treated her like trash. If he hated Rarity's company he had the option to tell her, "Please leave. I'm not the stallion you think I am. I'm actually a jerk." Rarity probably would have been crushed but understood and taken it like a mare. Instead, Blueblood kept Rarity around and used her crush on him to make her wait on him hand and foot. So it's not so much some specific thing Blueblood did that made him so awful, it's the fact that he had better options for how to behave and didn't take them.

*** Also, coming from this same Troper, there's something else: Most of what Blueblood did was rude in a petty manner...except that's a lot of "most." Meaning, he was rude the whole time! If someone you care about uses you as a shield to block a cake once, you could chalk that off to him being in a bad mood. But if he does that after spending the entire evening engaging in petty but jerkish behavior, that involves an "underlying mindset" that no one matters but himself. Just like, for example, if your boss insults you once, it's an off day, but if he insults you every single day for little to no reason, he's probably a dominating tyrant.

 

** Well, they mentioned they were her neighbors. Given how generous Rarity is, it's not that hard to take it as the men paying back a favor.

** Also, when Spike treats them like real-life workhorses, they immediately protest against it. As with the carriages in "Over a Barrel", the concept is played for laughs.

** I got the impression that pulling someone's carriage is the equivalent of driving someone somewhere. Sure, in that case, there's actual physical labour involved, but it doesn't seem to be too extreme. The real life equivalent would be that the girls rented a limousine and asked the guys to drive them because they can't do it themselves in their fancy get-ups. It's not the equivalent of carrying them in a litter.

 

** Hoofs are less vulnerable than normal feet. And imagine what she was thinking when this fact was pointed out to her. She obviously understood the reference and the meaning. She was frightened by the meaning.

** Also, [[Rule of Funny]].

 

* Does this bother anyone else that almost everyone at the Grand Galloping Gala had those fancy sophisticated outfits, but the princess herself showed up in her regular attire? After all the fuss about creating proper Gala dresses for mane characters in "Suited for success", this troper couldn't wait for the final episode to see what pimped-out dress Celestia would wear (maybe because he saw DA fanart of Luna wearing a really pretty one too) and then it turned out she went for the standard "collar plus crown" combination that she always wears on occassions far less formal than GGG.

*** Possibly if she starting wearing dresses, ponies would expect her to wear them at many occasions.

** [[Royal Ermine Effect]]. Aren't most of Celestia's appearances formal to begin with? (Despite what she wants, too.) If anything, it would be interesting to see what she's wearing when she's off the clock.

** She has flaming hair forged out of rainbows and is twice as tall as everyone else. She doesn't need a dress to be notable at a party, and the flaming hair probably cements her status as godly overlord better than any fancy dress.

 

** It's probably out of convenience since ponies in general seem to be unable to stand on their hind legs for a long period of time. At least the Cello can partially support her weight as she is standing (although balancing while playing an instrument that is also supporting some of your weight sounds difficult enough as it is). Although that also brings up how she's holding onto the bow and even playing when she doesn't have any fingers...

** According to [[The Other Wiki]], the treble clef is "sometimes used, along with tenor clef, for the highest notes played by bass-clef instruments such as the cello..." On second thought I doubt there's any violinists on the staff, so it could be a case of [[Did Not Do the Research]].

** The openning shows dark gray unicorn guards. People complained it was racist.

*** The gray unicorn guards also appear in Twilight's flashback in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles".

** This kind of raises the question, where does she find all these identical ponies? Does she have a breeding program? Do they all have the same cutie mark?

*** Fan-lore says the guards bleach. It'd be analogous to a uniform and a military haircut.

** It might have had a more interesting origin - perhaps originally it was a celebration of harmony after Discord or Nightmare Moon were defeated, and over the centuries it stagnated.

 

** Like you said, Celestia most likely had no way of knowing they'd go that far. Also, [[Rule of Perception]]. We're not really given insight into most of the party-goers, and the few that are given focus are portrayed unsympathetically, with the exception of the Wonderbolts. Still, it doesn't explain everything else you mentioned, so I'm assuming that the writers just didn't want you to look that closely. While it's a very unsatisfying answer, I don't think there's a better one then "it's just a show, I should really just relax."

** Most likely, Celestia was under the impression that the ponies would stay as a group and have a good time. They probably would have upsetted the other guests just the same being loud and stuff, and that was how she planned to have things spiced up.

** Despite being a baby(By Dragon standards), Spike has shown to be on a mental level equal to the mane cast(young adults) and has shown enough resolve, cunning and level head to be able to take care of himself. Furthermore, Twilight knows how strong and durable Spike is. It's much more likely for her to get hurt than him.

*** Equestrian society seems to support young children being allowed to explore on their own at a level more comparable to 1950s society than modern Earth -- we see the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who seem to be schoolchildren-equivalents, out on their own pretty often -- and in turn the Palace Grounds are probably more like a second home to Spike than a dangerous and unknown place.

 

* So, given that the Wonderbolts were apparently finished with their show by the time they arrived at the party, does that mean the girls not only arrived too late for Rainbow Dash to try to crash their performance, but to even ''see'' it? You'd expect her to complain about that.

 

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[[Category:Headscratchers]]