My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E08 The Mysterious Mare Do Well: Difference between revisions

Later in the same day, a baby carriage goes careening off a steep road, heading straight for a cliff. Once again, Rainbow Dash is on hand to save the baby, and one again a cheering crowd meets her. This time, the praise goes to her head, and she poses and shows off to the crowd and cameras, to the bemusement of Applejack and Twilight. Yet another disaster strikes soon afterwards, wherein a group of elderly ponies find themselves on a collapsing balcony.

By this point, Rainbow Dash is actively egging on the crowds, while her friends lament her increasingly inflated ego. As she gives interviews and poses for the paparazzi in Sugarcube Corner, she even hires Spike to [[Comically Missing the Point|ghostwrite her autobiography.]] Twilight and Applejack are less than amused with her bragging and arrogance, however...

Things quickly become worse for Rainbow Dash, as Mare Do Well outperforms her in almost every regard. When a carriage filled with tourists goes flying down the steep road, Rainbow completely flubs the rescue whereas Mare Do Well effortlessly stops the carriage with her superior physical strength. A construction site quickly devolves into pandemonium as a haywire crane and a collapsing structure put the workers in danger, and although Rainbow Dash manages to rescue one colt, Mare Do Well saves ''four'' in the same span of time, displaying an uncanny level of prediction. A leaky [[Schizo-Tech|hydroelectric dam]] is easily plugged by Rainbow Dash, only to completely burst when she stops to compliment herself, leaving Mare Do Well to not only rescue Dash, but use unicorn magic to single-hoofedly repair the dam. Rainbow Dash's frustrations are only increased when, as she shows off her ability to fly, unlike Mare Do Well, the caped crusader herself flies by as well, now sporting ''pegasus wings''.

Dejected and alone, Rainbow Dash sulks on a raincloud, only to be interrupted by Scootaloo, who invites Rainbow Dash to Mare Do Well's thank-you parade. Quickly formulating an idea, Rainbow Dash follows her, and when Mare Do Well appears on stage, Rainbow confronts her and demands to remove her mask. A chase quickly begins throughout a secluded alley, and although Mare Do Well manages to lose her several times, Rainbow eventually corners and pounces on an unassuming Mare Do Well, and unmasks her, to reveal…Pinkie Pie?

=== Tropes (YMMV items can be found [[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap/S2 E8 The Mysterious Mare Do Well/YMMV|here]]): ===

* [[Acquired Situational Narcissism]]: The episode in a nutshell. It's not like Dash is normally humble, but once she's the town hero, her attitude goes from "I'm awesome" to "I'm awesome and everyone [[Attention Whore|should admire me for it.]]"

** She does like to be admired and cheered on, but this episode shows what happens when the attention gets to her head.

* [[Break the Haughty]]: The character development Rainbow Dash goes through over the course of the episode.

* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: Just before the iris out to end the episode, Rainbow Dash winks at the camera.

* [[But He Sounds Handsome|But She Sounds Handsome]]: {{spoiler|Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack in Sugarcube Corner when they are complimenting various aspects of the Mysterious Mare Do Well.}}

* [[Call Back]]:

** Pinkie Pie and Spike are easily scared, which is a nod to them being afraid of "zombie ponies" in "[[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap/S1 E9 Bridle Gossip|Bridle Gossip]]". Though Pinkie might just be pretending to be scared for fun, like she did for Nightmare Night.

{{quote| '''Rainbow Dash:''' Never fear, your friendly neighborhood Rainbow—<br />

'''Bus Passenger:''' [[Catchphrase Interruptus|Excuse me, uh,]] [[Lampshade Hanging|do you think you could skip your catchphrase]] and just [[Shut Up and Save Me|hurry up and save us?!]] }}

'''Spike:''' She's... great.<br />

'''Rainbow Dash:''' I didn't say that. }}

** Also, it would have worked better had {{spoiler|Twilight not stated that the dam-sealing spell was indicative of heavy studying. Who else but [[Badass Bookworm|Twilight]] would have had the dedication?}}

** After the construction site scene, Rainbow Dash comments that Mare Do Well "somehow knows what's gonna happen ahead of time". This might lead to suspicions that Mare Do Well were setting up these disasters. Turns out this was not the case; those accidents really ''were'' all coincidences. [[Contrived Coincidence|Contrived Coincidences]], of course, but still.

* [[Ringer Ploy]]: The multiple Mare Do Wells running around Ponyville after Rainbow tried to unmask the hero.

* [[Schizo-Tech]]: The Hoover-style dam.

* {{spoiler|[[Secret Identity Change Trick]]: If you pay attention, you'll notice that both Twilight and Applejack are in the crowd when Rainbow Dash confronts Mare Do Well on stage. This must mean that they took advantage of Rainbow Dash distracting everypony by chasing after Mare Do Well to sneak away and quickly change into their own Mare Do Well costumes.}}

** {{spoiler|Same with Fluttershy: one of the Mare Do Well's in the chase scene is clearly a Pegasus, but when we see Fluttershy next, she's out of the outfit.}}

** During the Rainbow Dash fan club meeting in the prologue, among the posters is [http://ponibooru.413chan.net/post/view/89756 one of Rainbow Dash that depicts her as a Nyan Cat].

** [[Scooby Doo|As Rainbow pulls off the Mare Do Well's mask.]]

{{quote| "Mystery Solved!"}}

** The winged figures at the dam are inspired by the real life ones at [http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/images/statues1.jpg Hoover Dam].

{{quote| '''Twilight:''' Call me silly, but I think this whole hero thing might be going to Rainbow Dash's head.<br />

'''Pinkie Pie:''' You may be right, ([[Beat]]) silly. }}

* [[Took a Level In Jerkass]]: While Rainbow Dash is often egotistical, it usually doesn't go past being a playful braggart. This instance shows what happens when it goes ''completely'' to her head. She becomes incredibly vindictive when someone steals her spotlight as well. Like most examples in the show however, she snaps out of it by the end of the episode.

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]: Opening a jar of peanut butter is very dangerous work! And so is saving a lawn from weeds! And don't forget about escorting Granny Smith across the (not very) busy street (even though she didn't want to cross it)!

** Also, we never find out what happens to the parade after it's left behind or if anypony {{spoiler|other than Rainbow Dash}} ever learned about Mare Do Well's true identity.

* [[Winged Unicorn]]: Mare Do Well appears to be this after fixing the dam. {{spoiler|It's just Twilight and Fluttershy switching places. Thanks to the hat and cape, no one can tell the Mare Do Well doesn't always have a uni-horn or pegasus wings all the time.}}

[[Category:My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap]]

[[Category:My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic S 2 E 8 The Mysterious Mare Do Well]]