My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E26 A Canterlot Wedding Part 2/Fridge

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Fridge Brilliance

  • Crossover with Brick Joke. Cadence's talent, her unique spell is the ability to remind ponies of who they love and why they love them. Twilight has the ability to copy spells she's seen. In Return of Harmony Part 2, she uses a spell to remind her friends of why they care about each other to break Discord's control. Where did she learn it? Cadence, obviously.
  • Cadence acted like a Control Freak in Part 1. The makes perfect sense with The Reveal that she's actually the Hive Queen of the Changelings.
  • The Damsel in Distress rescues the brave knight.... and you don't even realize the trope's been reversed till you have it pointed out. THAT'S good writing.
  • Why are the royal guards a Redshirt Army again? They may have received a proper military training but otherwise are stuck Bodyguarding a Badass - the mane six on the other hand may be civillians but they are also the closest Equestria has to an adventuring party
  • Why is Queen Chrysalis so powerful? She's been feeding off The Power of Love. If The Power of Friendship can One Hit KO gods, it makes perfect sense someone powered by it would be this powerful! This is also why the real Cadence and Shining Armor's combined spell was able to defeat her, her own power source was turned against her.
    • Also, that's not just any love she's been feeding on. Shining Armor seems to have magical muscle on par with his little sister, though possibly with a narrower focus and the queen had been draining him of that. Also, if all alicorns are physical goddesses then Cadance seems to be a young goddess of love. So, a love that captured the heart of a goddess of love coming from one of the most powerful unicorn stallions in the series may make for the biggest power-up the changelings have ever seen.
    • Just to point up, most people are complaining that Celestia lost, but take a closer look. Even with that massive power up, Chrysalis was still visibly straining against Celestia's attack. Her power up let her win, but not by the amount that people think she did.
  • She probably preferred the name "Mi Amore Cadenza" because "Cadence" sounds similar enough to "Chrysalis" that it might cause a reactionary slip-up on her part, destroying her facade prematurely.
  • How Queen Chrysalis is beaten may seem like a Deus Ex Machina, but remember back to "Hearth's Warming Eve", which established that, while the Elements are needed for acts of power like sealing Discord and Nightmare Moon away, the bond between ponies is powerful enough to defeat extremely powerful beings without them. How Cadence and Shining Armor defeated her was essentially exactly how the Windigos were beaten, except replace The Power of Friendship with The Power of Love. Also, it was mentioned earlier that Shining Armor's love for Princess Cadence was incredibly powerful.
  • A very subtle one, but when changeling!Cadence throws Applejack's treats to the trash, it at first seems just her being a jerk some more. But as a changeling, she most likely doesn't need to eat, and so had no more use for the food.
  • Spike's remark about a "bachelor party" is Played for Laughs, as Shining Armor and the real Princess Candace had already tied the knot just before this. However, he was really talking about his dream bachelor party before his dream wedding with Rarity.
  • Suddenly I realise exactly why ponies in general appear to be so paranoid and panicky. YOU COULD BE ONE OF THEM.
    • "Ya know, that Pie kid down at Sugarcube seems to get a lot out of other ponies being happy and loving her, every second of the day if possible. Ya don't think...?"
  • Queen Chrysalis is the only Changeling to really act like Cadence describes them (basically a shape shifting succubus); the rest just capture their prey straight up to feed and don't seem to be able to maintain their illusion enough to be effective long enough to succeed (getting knocked out shatters it). This makes sense if you think about where Cadence probably got the information: Chrysalis herself. Chrysalis could have described her own feeding method to taunt Cadence with the knowledge of what she's doing and Cadence is unable to do a thing about it, and Cadence attributed Chrysalis' because she was the only one she knew.
  • If Cadence was a Physical God like the other Winged Unicorn sisters, then it's possible that she could be a sort of avatar of Equestria, living a cycle of rebirth as opposed to immortality. The Sun and the Moon are forever watching, but Love, while eternal, is fleeting.
  • You'd think that Chrysalis would return at some point thanks to the fridge horror, but recall the fact that she was gathering food for her minions. Meaning they'll probably starve to death after they get sent the far reaches of Equestria. Couple that with the injuries mentioned below, and this might be a fitting end for the queen.
  • A lot of people bring up how the villain was defeated. They view it as strange that Chrysalis so easily dismissed the idea that Cadence and Shining Armor could overpower her with love when she had just used the power of love to defeat everyone. This makes more sense when you realize that the changelings would only view love as a source of food for them, and otherwise being useless for everyone else. The idea of someone besides a changeling claiming to be able to defeat her using love would be like walking up to someone and claiming you can beat him with a sandwich.
    • Additionally, her getting hit by the huge shock wave of love magic and not makes sense when you realize there's a major difference between eating or drinking something and being blasted with it. We can drink water just fine. But getting hit full on by a tidal wave? Yeah, good luck drinking that. If the impact doesn't get you, you'll drown from swallowing more than you can handle.
    • Essentially the idea is that while a steak can't do anything to hurt you, the cow can still trample your ass.
  • If the Changelings feed off The Power of Love, why was their attack seemingly focused on causing fear and panic? Because in those kinds of situations, one's thoughts often turn to their loved ones... a parent wishing to protect their child, someone hoping their lover or family is okay, and so forth.
  • The Changelings manage to ram through a magical shield and make their arrival by slamming into the ground at high speeds, but get easily knocked out by the Mane Cast during the fight. Why? It's possible to brace yourself for a headbutt, and build up tolerance to it, but that doesn't mean getting punched anywhere else on your head isn't going to hurt, or can't knock you out. And for the latter, they form a cone of energy around their bodies, starting with their horns, that probably protects them from the impact.
    • Or because Changelings are Fair Folk who are normally weak against iron—which is often used to make horse shoes.
  • In "It's About Time" Twilight is sneaking around in the dark and is let into a restricted section of the castle without question. Likely this is a combination of being a national hero, Princess Celestia's personal protege and the sister of the captain of the guard. All of the soldiers either know her or know of her well enough to let her go wherever she wants. However when she runs up the palace in full view and in broad daylight they all point spears at her. Its a subtle hint that nopony can be trusted by their appearance because there are shape shifters lurking in Canterlot.
  • Chrysalis was powered up enough feeding off Shining Armor's love to defeat Celestia. In the end, she's defeated by the love Shining Armor and Cadence have for each other. She was hit with probably twice as much love based magic as she had obtained!
  • The fact the shield isn't put back up after the Changeling's defeat makes a lot more sense when you think about just what happened to them. The Changelings just suffered a major defeat, and on top of that, if you watch after they're thrown out of Canterlot at what was probably supersonic speeds, they're hurled in all directions, spreading out as they go, with Queen Chrysalis having been hit the hardest thanks to being right in front of the blast. Even if they survived, the Changeling swarm has been scattered to the winds. Even if Chrysalis could regroup her swarm again to that size, there's no way she'd be able to do it quickly. Considering all this, Chrysalis was hit a lot harder than it seems and the ponies have good reason to consider her defeated.
  • There's another likely reason Celestia lost to Chrysalis. Celestia was indoors, surrounded by her subjects she was likely unwilling to harm. If she has stronger powers we haven't seen yet (which Luna on Nightmare Night somewhat implied), she couldn't use them without risking her subjects.
  • Celestia takes care of the day. Luna takes care of the night. Cadence takes care of Twilight.
  • Why did Chrysalis reveal her true form as soon as she was called out by the real Cadence? Obviously, the deception is now pointless and it makes sense to drop the illusion. Why take her true form, though? Maybe maintaining another form would use up energy Chrysalis would have needed is she was to have any chance of defeating Celestia. The fact that the changelings revert to their true form when knocked out suggests that maintaining a form might require the active expenditure of energy.
  • One might wonder why the changelings copied the forms of the Mane 6 during the battle in Canterlot. Remember that the changelings' forte is shapeshifting into someone their target loves and draining their love for them; not physical combat. They probably shapeshifted because it was what they were comfortable doing, rather than for a tactical advantage. They didn't try to get into character because this wasn't a situation for deception and weren't sure how to handle the fight.
    • Or, they did know how to handle the fight, and began attempting to go for tactical advantage from the get-go. As stated, the Changelings' forte is indeed shifting into a form their target loves. Their targets for the fight were the Mane Six. The Changelings morphed into multiple copies of the Mane Six, meaning that each of the Mane Six actually loves the other five, most likely as family.
  • Where has Pinkie seen a better copy of herself? Right here.
  • Using the Mane Cast to handle wedding preparations was just a quick way to get them involved in the plot, right? Well, no. Shining Armor hasn't had the chance to talk with his sister much since she moved to Ponyville, and he certainly hasn't had the chance to meet her friends. Celestia's decision to have them help with the wedding not only gave Shining Armor and Cadance a chance to get to know them, but they also got to see the Mane Cast at their best. Parading their talents like that isn't something that Twilight would think of, which is why Celestia set that up.

Fridge Horror

  • Did the Love Spell kill any of the changelings at the end, or are they now simply all over Equestria?
    • More importantly, Chrysalis wasn't imprisoned or otherwise permanently defeated, she's still out there somewhere!
    • Potentially still with her changeling army (they can fly, so simply getting spontaneously kicked out of Canterlot isn't likely to kill them), who can still impersonate anypony at a moment's notice and who are likely still hungry...
    • It should be noted that Shining Armor was able to calibrate his spell to only effect the Changelings and no one and no pony else. Even if it was supercharged by The Power of Love, that proves it would be possible to make a spell that only effects them, which could be used to detect and stop them.
      • On that note, since the spell repelled the changelings (with great force), but didn't damage any of the buildings, what happened to any changelings that were inside when the blast hit?
        • Well, at some point the residual mush would no longer be a live changeling ...
  • Just how long was poor Cadence kept prisoner down in those caves?
  • Now that we know about the Changelings, think back to the many times you've seen duplicate character models in the same seen at once? Were the animators just being lazy? Or were the Changelings planning their takeover for a very, very long time?
  • If a scuffle between friends was all it took to release Discord in the season opener, what would this military invasion do? Hopefully his petrified self was stored where such conflict couldn't affect him.
    • This Troper believes it was because the Elements of Harmony were no longer synced to Celestia and Luna after the later became Nightmare Moon that Discord's seal weakened.
    • Specifically (different troper here), it's entirely possible that the original spell already started to fail around the time of Nightmare Moon's banishment—and that it then still took the thousand-odd years since then for it to weaken enough that Discord could finally break free. (Yes, this is straying into WMG territory a bit, but let's give the Elements of Harmony their due: in the right hooves at the right time, they should be able to do better than just "turn this villain into stone until the next time somepony has an argument nearby". If that was the case, Discord would likely have been free again already circa mid-season...)
    • This Troper thought it was a combination of the above, so Discord is still safely Taken for Granite.
  • Changelings feed on love, and Shining Armor's love for Cadence already put Chrysalis past Celestia-tier. What if Cadence and Shining Armor's combined Power of Love had supercharged Chrysalis? Seems like a hell of a gamble on Cadence and Shining Armor's part.
    • For that matter, if just the love between two ponies was enough to make Chrysalis more powerful than Celestia, how powerful would she and her armies have gotten by feeding on the love of every pony in Equestria?
    • That's assuming she can absorb an infinite amount. It's entirely possible she got blasted into the distance for the simple fact that she blasted was too much at once for her to absorb.
    • No. Firstly, Cadence had broken Shining Armor out of Chrysalis' control so she could no longer feed on his love. Secondly, Chrysalis wasn't defeated by a wave of love magic, she was propelled by the shield spell made successful by the combined love. You see Shining Armor trying to perform the spell a moment before, that is why Cadence helps him.
    • It seems likely that Chrysalis wasn't just fooling on Shining Armour's love for Cadence. This was the capital city of Equestria during the run-up to a royal wedding; romance and romantic love will be going into overdrive. That was noticeable in Vancouver during the run-up to Prince William's wedding; how much stronger would it have been in London? Now scale that up to suit Equestria, the most love-filled land in that world. Small wonder Chrysalis had enough power to match Celestia. To dilute the nightmare fuel potential, remember that this would be Chrysalis, probably the most powerful of changelings, can do at the absolute peak of her possible power. If the changeling make return appearances, Chrysalis might be on Twilight's level at the most, and probably well below that.
  • Celestia was held captive in a chrysalis; i.e. the cocoon in which a caterpillar goes to metamorphose into its adult form. And didn't Chrysalis look a lot like a standard Princess pony, albeit corrupted...?
    • It might have just been like the cocoons spiders use to hold their prey before eating them. Okay, that's not much better.
  • In all likelihood, Chrysalis intended Twilight to kill the real Princess Cadence. I mean, she goaded her into blowing up the very wall Cadence was trapped behind. Sure, she said Twilight would only have to "catch" her, but given how rage-filled Twilight was at that point...
  • A Chrysalis is used to incubate an entity to bring it into the world in its mature form. What if Crhysallis herself was incubating another entity, and if so, what was it?
    • Chrysalis is probably meant to be a Meaningful Name in that it's what insects use to change into another form.
  • Chrysalis and her Changelings were last seen being blasted into the horizon at what was likely super sonic speeds. If Rainbow Dash crashing into the ground during a normal stunt training session put her in the hospital, it's a very likely possibility at least some of them were heavily wounded, if not killed on impact. That's assuming the impact alone didn't do the job. Not to say Chrysalis doesn't deserve it.
    • Unlikely. The Changelings were shown smashing into the ground at high speed during the attack, and they were fine. They're also insectoid, and thus, presumably harder to kill. Plus, they can fly, and they were hurled quite a horizontal distance; plenty of time for them to recover and get their wings going. And that's just the Mooks; Chrysalis is presumably much more powerful than the normal Changelings even by default, and still probably had a good bit of 'charge' left from Shining Armor. Never mind what she may have absorbed while Shining Armor and Cadence supercharged their Power of Love...
      • And yet getting tripped by Fluttershy cowering in fear was enough to knock them out. When they fly into the ground, they form a magical cone around them beginning with their horns that probably protects them. The former point also brings up more Fridge Horror, if that was enough to knock one out, then what are the odds any of them were conscious enough to recover with their wings after being hit with enough force to launch them over the horizon?
  • Did those bridesmaids ever get out of the mines?!
    • Rest assured, they did. They're the ones Rarity shoves aside when she goes after the bouquet.
  • The love of your life? Could be a Changeling feeding off of your love whilst your real love of your life is trapped somewhere.
    • This is slightly less frightening since it seems the rest of the Changelings revert to their true form upon being knocked out and it didn't take much to do so.
  • Depending on how long the whole impostion has been going on; did Shining Armor do.. that.. pre-engagement.. stuff with Chrysalis?
    • Maybe he saved himself for marriage.
      • Knowing Lauren Faust, this is most likely. She states that ponies don't even create alcoholic beverages, much less get drunk on them, so premarital... intimacy is almost certainly out of the question.
      • Faust said that "Nopony approves of boozing it up," which actually kind of implies that alcoholic beverages exist for them to be disapproved of in the first place. At any rate, Shining Armor and Cadance had already moved in together, and even if they were abstaining, the Queen was laying the mind whammy on him, so what he wanted may not have been relevant.
  • The Changelings beat the manes to the Elements of Harmony. The Changelings had first shot at the most powerful artifacts in Equestria and the ultimate tool of peace, and they were on. Their. Doorstep.
    • If Celestia remotely unlocked the barrier, or allowed the Mane 6 access, then all somepony would need to is to waltz right in, mimic the spell keeper, and empty the vault, and nopony would be the wiser, provided there was a big enough distraction to completely lose track of them. Wait...
    • Does anyone else wonder why Celestia doesn't just let the Mane Six keep the Elements with them, seeing as how they're, ya know, The Freaking BEARERS of the Elements of Harmony?
      • The Mane Six don't need the Elements most of the time, and wouldn't be able to keep them as safe as Celestia.
      • Oh really? And how's that working out for her?
      • Calm down. While the elements are with Celestia, there's not only a powerful sun-moving alicorn protecting them, but the entire Royal Guard. Even if all the elements were given to Twilight, she wouldn't be nearly as powerful as them lot combined, and they'd still need Celestia to give the mane cast their instructions. The only two cases where this didn't work was when a superpowerful draconequus (who wasn't expected to escape) beat Celestia's defenses, and when a changeling queen overpowered Celestia (something that even the changeling queen hadn't expected). The elements are weapons of last resort, so they can't be entrusted to anything less than maximum security.
  • The background errors involving Pony clones become much less amusing when you find out about the Changelings.
  • How many Changelings weren't involved in the attacks and may have very well been living entirely peaceful lives that would have been evicted from Canterlot just for being Changelings?
  • Wait... what if...
  • The "Holy Shit" moment after Chrysalis defeated Celestia. She clearly hadn't expected to win that fight. Considering her track record (do we actually know HOW LONG Cadance was under Canterlot? Because it certainly LOOKED like it had been awhile), she probably had a backup plan. Anybody else wondering what it would've been?
  • Celestia showed back in "Lesson Zero" that she has considerably more power than even Twilight, being able to neutralize a spell on the entire town Twilight couldn't with barely any effort. At the end, she tries to blast Chrysalis with an energy beam. Remember that Twilight's magical energy beam can vaporize crystal at full power and consider how powerful Celestia's beam probably was. Just imagine what would've happened if she'd actually hit with it. Not that Chrysalis didn't deserve it but still.

Fridge Logic

  • Bachelor parties happen before the marriage.
  • Where do non-unicorn mares and stallions wear their wedding rings?
    • Well, Pegasus ponies their wings, but the questions stand for Earth ponies...
    • Earth ponies could just put the ring on a necklace and wear it that way.
  • Both Twilight's and Rarity's parents (or at least her mother) are unicorns, but they don't have visible wedding rings on their horns, as with Shining Armor and Princess Cadence. Are wedding rings a temporary formality in Equestrian weddings, are they just for royals, or have the other couples never been married?
    • Considering traditions such as Handfasting do exist in our world, it most likely is a temporary ritual for the duration of the ceremony. I would imagine sizing rings for a horn to say where they are full-time would be difficult to pull off... No clue on Earth Pony/Pegasus wedding rituals, though.
      • We know the Cakes are married. They're referred to explicitly as Mr. and Mrs. We've seen ponies wear necklaces. Maybe the wedding rings are necklaces. Or maybe they're tiny and braided into their manes in a way we can't see without looking very close.
    • We see Big Mac shopping for a diamond for Cheerilee in Hearts and Hooves Day. While this was more like an engagement present than a wedding one, it does suggest a few alternatives, since they were intended for an Earth Pony. We see a couple of oversized rings that look like they could be worn like bracelets, a necklace, and a couple that are harder to identify (brooch, maybe?). So perhaps any sort of nice jewelry will do.
  • Twilight became convinced that the Cadence in the caves is real, when she did the little dance they used to do when Twilight was a filly. But the impostor knew the dance as well! Twilight showed it to her, when they first met, and was implying that it's very important to her. If the changeling queen wanted to pretend she's real Cadence now, the dance would be a perfect thing to do.
    • Except she'd have no reason to, and the mean "Cadence" wouldn't even think of it. She's powerful enough to defeat Twilight straight-up. As someone theorized above, she may have been trying to get Cadence killed by Twilight, which may well have happened if Cadence hadn't thought fast. Chrysalis knows the dance means something, but not precisely what, or how important. It could just be a minor injoke, AFASK.
    • Also, people rarely remember things well when they have only happened once, as opposed to when they happen frequently. And Chrysalis was blatantly confused at the time, so it's unlikely she'd remember the details as well as the real Cadence.
  • How would Chrysalis, an outsider, know of a chamber inside/below the castle that Princess Celestia herself didn't know about? Then again, The Legend of Dragoon did something similar in Disc 2...
    • There's nothing to suggest Princess Celestia doesn't know about it. There's also no reason for her to mention the caves or enter them, so it doesn't come up.
    • It's mentioned that they're forgotten. And you're assuming Chrysalis is an outsider when she may have very well been there longer than Celestia.
    • The actual words Chrysalis uses are, "Most ponies have forgotten these caves even exist." That means Celestia probably does know about them.
  • Does anyone else think Chrysalis, powerful as she had become, was doomed from the start? After all, the silly not-a-pony forgot to account for Luna, whose first act once she found out they were being invaded would likely be to free her sister. Could Chrysalis have taken both alicorns at once?
    • If she could, then hoo boy.
    • The Queen's original plan was derailed when the real Cadence arrived. We don't get to see her original plan in its entirety, but she didn't want to face Celestia until after the wedding, at the earliest. Assuming that she had been able to pick and choose her confrontations, she could have abducted one sister, then taken her form and led the other into a trap.
      • The Queen expected Twilight to take out the real Cadence, but didn't count on The Power of Friendship stopping Twilight in the nick of time.
      • How does having Twilight take out Cadance help fight Celestia? Especially since having to dispose of Twilight didn't seem to be part of her original plan. Actually, it's more likely that she wanted Cadance, and later Twilight, alive, since she would be able to use them as hostages to ensure Celestia's compliance for long enough to neutralize her. Tossing Twilight down there just mucked things up, and if she wanted Twilight to off Cadance, you'd think she'd have someone or something in place to check if that happened, not to mention that she could have killed either of them herself.
  • Of course the Changeling Queen would kidnap Cadence. Changelings feed on love, and Cadence spreads it. She's a food synthesizer.
  • Why are the Cutie Mark Crusaders the flower girls at the wedding? They are never brought up, and it's not like they know Shining Armor or Cadence.
    • The reason isn't obvious? CUTIE MARK CRUSADER FLOWER GIRLS!
  • Twilight can perform the same spell Shining Armor used to protect Canterlot. Why didn't she ever try using it at all, even if she could only do it on a smaller scale?
    • Shining Armor seems to be able to calibrate it to leave ponies non-affected, while her version(shown in "ponyville confidential" might not have that feature.
    • Using the spell on a small scale would have only protected a small amount of ponies, and attracted the attention of the changeling hordes, who would just break it down like they did with Shining's barrier. It would probably even draw the attention of the Queen, who had just beaten Celestia, and she would probably decide put Twilight into one of those containment dealies, rendering her incapable of further action.
  • Just where exactly did Cadence find that boquet to distract the bridesmaids? It's not exactly something you'd find lying in a cave, or even something you'd be carrying around with you. And there is no sign of it during the song.
    • It's possible that one of the bridesmaids was transported into the cave while she was arranging the bouquet, and then dropped it after her arrival.
    • On reviewing the scene, Cadence and Twilight are both backing up worriedly and looking around for something to use, and then as Cadence turns her head her expression goes 'a-ha!'. Then she pulls the bouquet into frame. It does very much look like one of the bridesmaids had just absent-mindedly kicked it into a corner.