eptwelve4 png
(331.75 KB, 852x487)

eptwelve5 png
(240.6 KB, 847x478)

Rarity using her mouth rather than her horn is great attention to detail. In other hands I guarantee she would have been using magic and it would have just been ignored, and if asked, the creators would have said “oh well it’s only for the other, bigger tasks that the no magic rule applies.” Not a major note, just a sign of good craftsmanship. And goodness me, what luxury these birds are living in! Presumably by the end of the year their old nests aren’t reusable, given that Rarity’s making new ones. I wonder if ponies clear out the old nests over the course of winter, too? I’d imagine these wouldn’t need much renovating, either. Given an intelligent and relatively physically articulate creature is making them, I’d imagine the twigs are more closely intertwined, plus it’s got ribbons holding the structure together. Twilight instantly organising them is another good nod to the later solution to this episode’s problem. I also enjoy how it’s clear that Twilight is not used to using her hooves. Also Spike references outhouses, which I would guess is the reason that I sometimes see ponies depicted as using outhouses in fanworks. 

As we move onto Pinkie, we have her line about having been doing the ice skating since she was a little filly. Was she doing that on the rock farm? Again I’ll assume this is canon for when it was made, but I wonder how that jives with the later canon. The line “there’s quite a few lakes in Ponyville” immediately made me think of Finland. As we meet Fluttershy and she explains hibernation, I wonder whether it was thrown in there to be educational, or whether it just naturally worked out that way. Leaning towards the latter. 

After Twilight gets stung, I’m not sure why she bathes in tomato soup/juice. Is it for the smell, or the stings? Regardless, I like the bathtub they have. I wonder whether they boil the kettle for water, or whether Twilight just heats the water magically? Also, does Twilight normally wash herself with magic, or does she always have Spike do it as he’s doing here? He is effectively her manservant, so the latter would make sense, but all the same. 

When Twilight goes to help Applejack, the fact that Applejack doesn’t immediately notice that Twilight’s using her magic suggests to me that it really is just unicorns that can see magical auras, as we discussed in Boast Busters. That, or the other interpretation I had, which is that it’s a purely visual aid for the audience, representing a feeling or sensation the unicorns have, as though they’re using their magic like a limb and thus can sort of ‘feel’ what their magic is doing. Then again, it looks a bit as though Spike looks at her horn and realises she’s using magic. Whether he’s noticing a glow or just putting the pieces together though, I don’t know. Additionally, I’m not really sure why Twilight loses control of the spell. Obviously for the point of the episode, but for an in-universe explanation, the best I can think of is something like the anxiety of getting discovered is distracting her thought process such that she loses her concentration on her magic. Then again, it was stated as a come-to-life spell, so perhaps it’s the snowplough acting on it’s own? Though that seems a bit unlikely to me. It wouldn’t be a particularly useful spell if you couldn’t deactive or counteract it. Or maybe she’s just not used to controlling snow ploughs with the spell in particular? Who knows. 

Mayor Mare says they were late for Spring last year, and the year before that, and the year before that. Maybe she’s leaving some out, but it’d be interesting to think that they’ve been late 4 years running, and why that might be. I don’t really have a guess as to the reason though, just something I thought about. And the pegasus that tells Rainbow Dash that Ditzy Doo went north, I don’t know whether it’s an easter egg or what, but she speaks in near-exactly the style of speaking the generation one ponies do.