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We have quite a long cold open for this episode, around 2 minutes! But there’s several bits I like, and I think it’s worth the extra length. I like that we establish a clear one-on-one relationship between Rarity and Fluttershy, which, as the show goes on, I feel the commonly-used structure of a ‘pairup’ or spotlight on two of the mane six helps to establish precisely the relationship each member of this friend group has to every other member, which gives the mane 6 a lot of depth. I like the contrast – or perhaps I should say juxtaposition – between Fluttershy’s quite mild spa treatment as compared to Rarity’s. And I like the gag at the end of the sequence where Rarity goes through the whole process again at merely feeling as though there might be the onset of a pimple, to the delight of the spa-ponies who I’m sure cherish the patronage of such an obsessive customer. And it does a great job of establishing the fact Rarity has asked Fluttershy to model for her, as well as why, by demonstrating their personal relationship and getting Fluttershy into a sort of closed-off environment where it feels easier to agree to things like that.

After the theme song, we see that Spike, Pinkie Pie and Twilight are all helping Rarity to prepare, with Fluttershy modelling the dress of course and already finding it to be an ordeal. Interestingly, we can see it includes a sort of saddle motif with the pink scale-pattern there, something which seems to crop up frequently in Pony fashion and would be intriguing to know the origin of. And Spike, when asked if using himself as an impromptu pin-cushion hurts, mentions that he has thick scales – which I can’t think of any immediate ramifications of, but it is a detail of interest. In the background of the shot where Photo Finish enters, there’s another saddle, either a saddle on a sort of temporary mount, or a saddle stool, and dangling from it is a design which could be anything from Chinese characters, the poses from the Avatar opening, or even Loss quite frankly. I guess I’ll assume it was going for the look of Chinese characters? I also find her odd pair of helpers entertaining, looking like one of the Fantastic 4 and Freddy Mercury. During Fluttershy’s runway… Walkway scene? I don’t know what the thing is called, it’s the thing where you walk back and forth on a platform thingy. Anyway, during that, we see ponies doing the stomping-the-floor clapping again, just noting it to myself as I stay watchful for when the more humanistic clapping makes an appearance, even if it might still be a few seasons away. From there, we get into just… All the part of the episode where Fluttershy’s doing it because Rarity urged her to, hating it all the while, and Rarity getting jealous in spite of causing it, thinking she only urged Fluttershy to do the star stuff out of generosity and not comprehending the idea that Fluttershy might hate it. This type of dragged-out-misunderstanding stuff is something I really just can’t stand wherever it pops up – I was watching the New Adventures of Gilligan yesterday and there’s a scene halfway through episode one where Gilligan’s monkey tries to tell him there’s instructions on how to build a rescue boat on one of the film reels they found, but Gilligan misunderstands him and starts running to tell the others that a rescue boat has arrived on the island… And I turned it off right then and there, I knew already I’d hate watching this drawn-out misunderstanding. I’d frankly rather only see one side of the story and get the other in flashback, this is one area where I don’t want to have the extra knowledge granted to the audience that the characters are not privy to, it’s just very irritating to me.