My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S1/E05 Griffon the Brush Off

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


"This is your idea of a good time? I've never met a lamer bunch of dweebs in all my life!"

Pinkie Pie: Don't you worry your pretty little head about mean old Gilda! Your auntie Pinkie Pie has it all taken care of!
Fluttershy: (annoyed) I'm a year older than you.

Written by Cindy Morrow

With some effort (and a lot of chasing), Pinkie Pie convinces Rainbow Dash to hang out with her, and the two bond over playing some harmless pranks on their friends. While Spike, Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity are all fair game, Pinkie is reluctant to do anything to Fluttershy, knowing how sensitive the girl is (she turns a prank on Dash instead, who accepts it with good cheer).

The next day, Pinkie goes to meet up with Dash, only to find that Dash is hanging with an old friend of hers from Junior Speedsters Camp, a griffon named Gilda. Pinkie keeps trying to interject into whatever the two are doing, but Gilda keeps rudely brushing Pinkie off, insisting that Dash doesn't need to hang with any "lame-o" ponies now that she's here. Pinkie is dejected and angry, but when she talks to Twilight about it, Twilight misinterprets it as Pinkie being jealous that Dash is spending less time with her.

After seeing Gilda give the other citizens of Ponyville the same shabby treatment, however, Pinkie is certain Gilda really is just a "meanie-pants". It's bad enough seeing Gilda playing a mean-spirited prank on Granny Smith, then stealing from an apple cart, but the last straw is when Pinkie sees Gilda literally roar at Fluttershy for bumping into her, and making the poor, meek Pegasus run off crying.

Pinkie Pie: She's a grump, and a thief, and a bully! The meanest kind of mean meanie-pants there is! I can take it, but nobody treats Fluttershy like that... no one! This calls for extreme measures... Pinkie Pie-style!

Later, Pinkie Pie throws a big party to officially welcome Gilda to Ponyville. Gilda tries to play it cool, especially since her friend Rainbow Dash is there, but after falling victim to a series of pranks she starts to lose her temper and become suspicious of Pinkie's intentions.

Gilda: I'm watching you, like a hawk.
Pinkie Pie: Why? Can't you watch me like a griffon?

After one prank too many, Gilda finally flips out and snaps at the other ponies, especially Pinkie and her silly practical jokes... except it turns out Rainbow Dash was behind all the pranks (which were meant for any guest to stumble into, not Gilda specifically), and Pinkie says she just threw the party to get Gilda to lighten up by being nice to her. Rainbow Dash calls Gilda out on bad-mouthing her other friends, but Gilda just mocks Dash for being a "flip-flop" and walks out in a huff. Once Dash apologizes for Gilda's behavior, the mood quickly brightens up and all the ponies start to enjoy the party again.

Later, Celestia receives Twilight's friendship report on learning how to tell who your real friends are... as well as a pot of disappearing ink.

Tropes (YMMV items can be found here).

  • Accidental Public Confession: Gilda's outburst at her Humiliation Conga causes Rainbow Dash to realize her old friend is a much bigger jerk than she thought she was.
  • Actress Allusion/Expy/HeyItsThatVoice: Gilda's pretty much what Revy would be if she were in a G-rated setting and you can actually hear it in her voice a few times. The irony is that Revy has more redeeming qualities and a Freudian Excuse for her actions whereas Gilda does not.
    • That we know of. After all, Revy has an entire series showing her as better (and worse) than she seems, Gilda had one episode.
  • Actually Pretty Funny: All of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash's victims make at least a small begrudged smirk or titter to their prank. Even the pair themselves are in hysterics whenever they get pranked by each other.
  • Affectionate Gesture to the Head: When Pinkie Pie reassures Fluttershy that her "auntie" has everything under control. The year-older Pegasus isn't amused.
  • Alma Mater Song:

Junior Speedsters are our lives
Sky-bound soars and daring dives
Junior Speedsters it's our quest
To some day be the very best

  • Alpha Bitch: Gilda has elements of this trope.
  • Exclusively Evil: Inverted. Pinkie assumes that most griffons are not as nasty as Gilda.
  • Anthropomorphic Zig-Zag: While the show regularly fluctuates with this, this episode has one of the very few instances a pony is actually shown running on their hind legs (Applejack, who is throwing apples at the two pranksters with her front legs).
  • Bait and Switch: We're led to believe that Pinkie set up the pranks to get back at Gilda. Turns out, Rainbow Dash set them up. And not even for Gilda specifically. Not to mention that Pinkie didn't even want to get back at Gilda, she just thought that a party might warm her up to the others.
    • Also played with in regards to the plot of the episode itself. When Pinkie and Rainbow go on a pranking spree, the episode seems to be setting up for an Aesop on taking pranks too far (a popular one for these sorts of edutainment shows), only for the girls to show that they've already learned this lesson by realizing that Fluttershy is probably too sensitive to prank. Then it briefly seems to be setting up a different one about Pinkie learning that you can't constantly seek to be the center of your friend's attention, when she has other friends who deserve some attention as well (YMMV on this one, but Twilight does call Pinkie out on this a little), only for that to be subverted as well by the revelation that Gilda really is a jerk.
  • Balloonacy: Invoked by Pinkie on herself. Gilda pops them.
  • Batman Gambit: Pinkie Pie sets up a fake prank on Fluttershy (naturally aborted) in order to prank her real target, Rainbow Dash (with the old inked eyepiece gag).
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Gilda acts good natured and easy going to the ponies whenever Rainbow Dash is around, and then bullies them mercilessly when her back is turned. Gilda's temper and hatred of Pinkie eventually leads her to snap epically in front of Rainbow Dash however, and at practically all of her Ponyville friends at that.
  • Brick Joke: Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash pull a prank on Twilight involving invisible ink. At the end of the episode, Twilight recycles the prank on Princess Celestia by sending the (disguised) invisible ink bottle with her letter.
  • Buffy-Speak

Pinkie Pie: Maybe Gilda isn't a big meanie grumpy mean-meanie-pants. Maybe I'm just a big jealous judgmental jealous-jealousy-pants.

  • Carnivore Confusion: In classical lore, griffons (or whichever of the many spellings one favors) traditionally ate horses. There's a slight hint that Gilda's omnivorous but she sticks to standard pony fare while in Ponyville (about the only considerate thing she does).
  • The Cat Came Back: Pinkie Pie does this in her pursuit of Rainbow Dash.
  • Characterization Marches On: Pinkie Pie's tail ought to twitch whenever Gilda's about to send her down.
    • Fridge Brilliance: Maybe her Pinkie Sense didn't go off because she trusted that Gilda was a good person because Rainbow liked her.
  • Cool Big Sis: Rainbow Dash sees Gilda as this. She soons realises how wrong she is, and leans herself into the trope by defending Pinkie from her.
  • Determinator: Pinkie Pie is this with regards to Rainbow Dash, managing to beat a flying Pegagus to places that she shouldn't logically have been able to get to in the first place.
  • Exact Words: Invoked by Pinkie Pie after Rainbow Dash tells her "we'll catch up with you later."

Pinkie Pie: Hi! It's later! And I caught up!

  • Foreshadowing: Possible. For someone so cheerful and upbeat, Pinkie Pie seems rather disproportionately hurt by Rainbow Dash wanting to spend some time catching up with Gilda.
    • Also, Pinkie Pie's recounting of Rainbow Dash's feats at the beginning of the episode seems to describe the events of a future episode...
  • Good Is Not Dumb: Invoked by Gilda when she's convinced that Pinkie Pie set up the party pranks to humiliate her. The idea that Pinkie genuinely just wants to make her happy and be friends is absolutely alien to Gilda.
  • Hiccup Hijinks: Pinkie Pie purposely has Rainbow Dash give Spike the hiccups by startling him with a thunder cloud. This has the hilarious aftereffect of Spike sending dozens of scrolls to Princess Celestia by accident.
  • Humiliation Conga: Gilda's experience at the Prank Party.
    • Interestingly enough, it was accidental! The pranks were intended for everyone, Gilda's own attitude and desire to be the "star of the show" caused her to end up walking right into all of them.
      • Mostly accidental... pay attention, and you can see Rainbow Dash set up Gilda for the dribble-glass and the snakes-in-a-can gags.

"Look, G! Presents!"

      • Of course, Rainbow Dash couldn't know that Gilda would go for that one present.
  • Kick the Dog: Gilda does this whenever Rainbow Dash is away. It was her roaring at Fluttershy and making her run away crying though, made her basically cross the line in Pinkie Pie's eyes.
  • Morality Pet: RD is this for Gilda. Rainbow Dash is literally the only person whom Gilda showed any amount of civility towards during her stay in Ponyville. She was even willing to be a little self-sacrificing around her too, as she agreed to sing the Junior Speedsters chant despite obviously hating it (and finding it embarrassing), purely because RD wanted to sing it.
    • To a lesser extent, Pinkie acts as this to RD in their pranking spree, insisting to avoid pranks that wouldn't be funny for the victim. As shown later on, RD's good natured friends in Ponyville have much stronger influence on her personality than Gilda.
  • Never Hurt an Innocent: Although their pranks are generally harmless, Pinkie stops Rainbow Dash from pulling a prank on Fluttershy because she's far too sensitive.
    • That's important to Pinkie's pranking philosophy: You don't prank someone who won't get the joke. Dash is a little more liberal about it than Pinkie, but agrees that Fluttershy is probably off-limits.
  • Pet the Dog: For all the crap she pulls, it's easy to overlook the fact that Gilda obviously cares about Rainbow Dash.
  • The Prankster: Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. They also have a good sense of humor about becoming the victims themselves.
    • Possibly Celestia if "wrong ink" is interpreted to mean she owns a bottle of disappearing ink herself (though the one she uses clearly pops in with the scroll).
    • Gilda seems to be less good natured example.
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons: At least partially, Rainbow Dash about Gilda in the end. Freaking out at the party is the least of Gilda's sins, and Rainbow might not judge her so harshly for it if she knew what good reasons she seemed to have to think the Humiliation Conga was orchestrated by an antagonistic Pinkie Pie. But if she knew the actual reason, she'd also have had an inkling about what a jerk Gilda was being behind her back. In the end, Rainbow's uncharitable interpretation about Gilda's talk about being "cool" and "lame" is pretty much right, even though calling all the pranks lame could have had the opposite meaning that it's lame to be mean to people.
    • And yet she's CONSTANTLY rude to people. Perhaps it's not as 'cool' when she's on the receiving end?
      • The difference is that Rainbow Dash's rudeness comes from her bluntness and aggressive nature. She genuinely cares for the citizens of Ponyville, and despite her ego, doesn't think that they're inferior to her. Gilda's rudeness stems from the fact that she genuinely dislikes the other ponies, and she goes beyond rudeness to actual bullying, something Rainbow has never done. In short, Gilda is the Jerk with a Heart of Jerk to Rainbow Dash's Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • Shout-Out: Pinkie Pie's calm determination to follow a fleeing Rainbow Dash all over the place, her knack for showing up wherever Dash ends up, and especially her simple bouncing gait, all add up to an homage of every Pepe Le Pew cartoon ever.
  • Stalker Without a Crush: This episode has Pinkie Pie following Rainbow Dash around a fair bit, but in a fairly cheerful way. Dash finds this slightly annoying at worst, but also amusing.
  • Subverted Suspicion Aesop: Gilda's true character is pretty obvious, but between Twilight and Rainbow managing not to get hit by any of the flying dogs she'd been kicking around, there is a conflicting view. It's either an example, or a subversion of the whole setup in that Pinkie doesn't really even go far down the path of potentially unfair suspicion once the possibility is pointed out.
    • Played straight with Gilda suspecting Pinkie of victimizing her with a Humiliation Conga of pranks that were all set up by Rainbow Dash for various guests. Gilda was just unlucky activating every single one.
  • Teleport Spam: In probably the most stealth punny way possible. Spike + dragonfire-hiccups - scrolls = tons of junk mail for Celestia!
  • Theme Tune Cameo While gathering up a bunch of scrolls, Spike can be heard humming the theme song to the show.
  • Those Magnificent Flying Machines: Pinkie Pie's "crazy contraption".
  • Totally Radical: Gilda's speech mannerisms tend to come off as this.
  • Tranquil Fury: Unusually Rainbow Dash, who deals with Gilda's true colors solely with collective, stern words.
  • Watch Out for That Tree: As Dash is flying away from a running and shouting Pinkie.

Rainbow Dash: I’m in the middle of something.
Pinkie Pie: But...
Rainbow Dash: I said, Not Now, Kiddo! (thud!)
Pinkie Pie: I was going to tell you to look out for that mountain.

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