/pone/ - World of Equestria

ep21one png
(233.55 KB, 1197x633)

ep21two png
(434.37 KB, 1196x622)

This episode opens with the bizarre sight of several engineer stallions running along the tracks pulling the train that the mane six are riding out to Appleloosa – obviously it’s incongruent with how we see trains moving with the use of their own engines later in the series, and the immediate solution that comes to mind is that it’s broken down so it’s being pulled. I also considered that they might be doing it to avoid attracting attention from the buffalo, so the sound of the engine is not a factor, but they blow the whistle so that doesn’t work. The train also very much sounds like the engine is going. I think I’ve heard it said that this was perhaps the intended way for trains to work at the time, but if so the whistle, engine sounds and plow on the front are all very odd details. Poorly thought out, perhaps? Maybe. If so, it’s the first worldbuilding element that I’ve been unimpressed by so far.

Applejack reading to the apple tree is a great gag, though I don’t feel that this particular level of over-caring for her trees is necessarily going to be carried forward in future. It’s really more the sort of thing I’d expect Fluttershy to do – Applejack’s close to the soil, sure, but I never get the impression that she’s fond enough of nature to want to interact with it in such an impractical way. Besides, these trees are planted with an almost factory-type efficiency in her orchard, hundreds of them and no doubt sick ones have to be felled and the trees themselves, if we’re anthropomorphising them, I assume would be happier in the wild where they can freely let their roots beat back the competition for water, unlike at Apple Acres where they have to ensure all the trees are getting a roughly equal amount of water. However, this particular tree could very well be special to Applejack, and I could well believe that she’d want her cousin to get the very best of her trees. She does say the tree is “one of her favorites”, so I guess that checks out.

Next scene, we get both kerosene lamp and Fluttershy being ertree. The kerosene lamp has been noted as an example of a somewhat incongruous tech level shown in Equestria, but given the… Odd situation with the train’s engine, as well as Appleloosa clearly being quite out of the way, I could see this being an older train. Besides, even if newer magic/electric lamps are installed elsewhere in Equestria, I don’t know that it necessarily means it’s possible to install those things on a train. The train is very comfy, especially overnight. I’ve only been on a sleeper train once, it was going overnight up to Scotland. I don’t remember it that well, but it was similarly comfy, quite like sleeping in a ferry cabin. I actually enjoyed those parts of travelling more growing up than the actual holiday.

Then we come to the introduction first of Appleloosa and the settler ponies, then second of the buffalo, setting up the two sides of the conflict. I like the idea of showing ponies to have some flaws in some cases, but with as direct an analogy as this, and not only that but very nearly an ethnic analogy, I really dislike it. It makes it very hard to engage with the world as it is, which is what I want to do, because always my mind is trying to autocorrect to what I know the show is actually alluding to. It’s at times like this I wish I could actually erase good chunks of what I know about the real world and about history and politics, all things on which my opinion matters less than nothing and upon which I can affect no change – it would do me a lot of good in being able to engage more fully with the stuff I love without getting distracted, and I don’t really see a downside to not knowing about those topics.

ep21three png
(473.35 KB, 1201x645)

ep21four png
(299.71 KB, 1194x640)

 >>/12155/
Spike so enthusiastically applauding and congratulating Pinkie Pie, even as nobody joins in, is great characterization in my opinion. Spike’s interesting in that I feel that he’s characecterized both as afraid of actual dangers, but as very brave in a social sense – not afraid of awkwardness or being singled out. The fake-out joke with the Chief and the Sheriff agreeing on Pinkie’s performance being bad is still very funny to me, and it’s one of the things I remembered about this episode before rewatching it because I found it so amusing the first time. 

It’s not an especially high-stakes conflict (the ‘pie war’ stand-in euphemism for violence was also used on Veggietales), but a little detail that at least for me evokes something of urgency is how Rainbow Dash is still desperately trying to think right as the deadline approaches, seconds before it’s all too late. In a way that really sells the whole conflict for me, because the preparations of the Appleloosans are just a bit overblown and silly in how much they’re snubbing the mane six, and the pies they’re preparing give you the sense that there isn’t really going to be any meaningful conflict. There is a potential long-term consequence of conflict that would be possible: pies are obviously not going to prevent the buffalo from simply coming back another day, and then another, again and again until they remove all the trees and perhaps demolish the town for good measure. Unless the Appleloosans would be prepared to escalate beyond pies, there’s nothing between the buffalo and eventual victory.

It’s pretty much a consensus that this episode was a mistake, and I have to agree. The biggest reason I think, beyond any issues with analogy or historical representation, is that presenting what’s essentially a real-world violent conflict, that is, essentially, a war in the context of a show that is not allowed to show the actual violence itself is never going to work. So how do stakes even work in a kid’s show? Well, I immediately thought back to Dragonshy – that dragon could have killed the ponies, as could the Ursa Major in Boast Busters. The key is that the threat was established without ever having to actually show the threat being carried out – which frankly, I find in live-action and adult ‘entertainment’ that when these threats are actually followed through on, it’s often for me an order of magnitude more juvenile than even the pie-fight excuse in kid’s shows, so I much prefer the implied threat regardless of whether it’s a kids show or not, really. It’s a real shame, because I like so much of this episode, particularly the comfy train and the buffalo characters. So, I’m going to be giving this episode quite a low rating – 4.6. That is to say, still mostly good, but I think everything that’s going wrong for this episode is so wrong that the overall impact leaves it essentially as a bad episode, the first one I would say is actually bad, that they should have radically rewritten it or not made it, unlike somewhat lower-rated episodes earlier in the season that just needed minor fixes.
 >>/12154/
> Will happen later, ug, medical stuff started to happen right now. 
Replies coming soon on my end, for now I've got to get to work!

246681 png
(499.6 KB, 900x794)

 >>/12153/
> The new round of characters here I don't love as top tier but do want to see again and I am drawn to that dynamic.
I liked the Appleloosans and Buffalo as characters, the Buffalo chieftain was a particular highlight I'd say.
> As for the culture issue itself, let's just say while I can understand someone finding this offensive there was a certain honor and reverence that has died as we have paved over everything with pearl clutching and then being purposefully offensive as a response, I would take that world over the current one.
To me I'd say the issue is less so offensiveness, and moreso that there's a very direct comparison being made - that is, ponies to white Americans. I like white Americans, and ponies are clearly in many other ways a sort of mirror to the United States (not least of which being that literal mirrors from Equestria lead to the EQG USA), BUT in most of those cases it's clear that these are just similarities. I want ponies to be ponies, not any particular human group, and I want pony flaws to be pony flaws. When it comes to ponies settling on tribal lands, I'd very much like to think of that within in-universe terms, and I just find that very difficult to do when it's quite so direct an analogy. It's particularly frustrating to me in a way because I don't even find what the US did to the native Americans especially bad or horrifying in the grand scheme of things, not great but every European country has easily done worse. I like Appleloosans as old west types, I like the native American buffalo, but having the two groups fight over who gets the rights to ancestral tribal lands is just too close to irl, particularly when it's trying to both be a real war and a pie fight at the same time. We'll have to wait till the changelings to get MLP showing how war can be done right, even in a kid's show.
> Honestly, I am thinking of revamping my review style to be more like 5050s (on a good day) and more brief and quick (on a bad day)
The lengths and detail of the reviews varying is a good thing, in my mind. In the sense that reviews are a bit of a shared diary, the review we write being more/less detailed reflects the state of mind we were in when we wrote it. And as actual reviews, the level of detail could also reflect a reaction to the episode itself - a good episode with a short review, for instance, says something about an episode in and of itself. Plus I think it highlights when an episode is really special to us, like when I did a 4-part megareview for Winter Wrap-Up.
> Oh, and for my rating, 7.3/10. This was a pretty good episode!
Probably our most disparate ratings difference so far. I think I'd certainly say that prior to the Appleloosans and Buffalo presenting their sides of the argument, the episode is probably around that sort of rating for me too - I just can't get past the way both analogy and conflict are handled in the episode, to me the tone and subject matter are all extremely incongruous. I will say however that I think these are moreso things that bother me and make the episode 'bad' or overall unenjoyable for me to watch, my rating is not intended to be objective. As for whether it's objectively a bad episode or not, I really don't know - it's sort of half-and-half in a way because there's some great stuff in there. Maybe objectively speaking it would be closer to a mid episode? But even that is my subjective opinion of what it's objective quality would be. I don't know, it's complicated. I wouldn't want to go so far as to say I actively disagree with anybody who likes the episode, I think I'd just want to leave it at, I didn't like it, personally.

celluloid-shot0042 jpg
(85.53 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0035 jpg
(88.12 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0037 jpg
(97.64 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0034 jpg
(143.17 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0043 jpg
(121.73 KB, 1280x720)

 >>/12153/
 >>/12154/
Where was I? Oh yeah... Odds and Ends! I really shouldn't have posted that and then posted nothing, but I had an incident that spooked me a bit and I wasn't thinking straight at the time. 

Appleloosan Flag
I know I am overthinking this x1 billion, BUT, I cannot help but wonder how official this flag being raised is and what would the proper protocol be for whatever entity like    Appleloosa fighting in some sort of war with Equestria properly is, if such a thing exist. We get evidence later on of extensive regulations in some areas and I think with a monarchy some sort of royal code should exist but part of me goes with a different logical inference that a newly unincorporated place such as here the rules aren't well developed and their isn't some large structuring of subdivisions and regulations outside of the town level. That might be an onscreen inference we can make for Earth Ponies...
(This is a rambling mess).

Odd Shaped Characters 
Maybe it's just me, but some of the characters did different poses or looked a little odd in how they were drawn at small moments compared to other episodes. Rainbow Dash's head behind the rock for example, it looks a little more angler.

Slightly Lackluster Backgrounds
Also maybe just me, but some of the backgrounds here look more thrown together. Particularly the Appleloosan apple orchard. Considering a lot of this wouldn't be reused often I find this understandable; similar to the caves in A Dog and Pony Show. 

Horse Pulled Train
Now, don't have a source, but I have heard multiple times that this was because Faust didn't want steam tech to exist in Equestria and wanted it to be more closer to some sort of  medieval tech level. I recall seeing more than one fanfic using the excuse that the locomotive had broken down but I wonder if that would be the best excuse/reasoning? 

Female Buffalo
Is it only Little Strongheart? LOL, obvious budget constraints aside, why would she be the only female there?

celluloid-shot0040 jpg
(116.62 KB, 1280x720)

 >>/12155/
> obviously it’s incongruent with how we see trains moving with the use of their own engines later in the series, and the immediate solution that comes to mind is that it’s broken down so it’s being pulled. I also considered that they might be doing it to avoid attracting attention from the buffalo, so the sound of the engine is not a factor, but they blow the whistle so that doesn’t work.
enchanted whistle? :D I just checked and wrote this in my handwritten notes for the episode but had forgotten. Yeah, it's odd trying to pair that to canon in a way that makes sense. 

 >>/12157/
> To me I'd say the issue is less so offensiveness, and moreso that there's a very direct comparison being made - that is, ponies to white Americans. I like white Americans, and ponies are clearly in many other ways a sort of mirror to the United States (not least of which being that literal mirrors from Equestria lead to the EQG USA), BUT in most of those cases it's clear that these are just similarities.
I just might agree that the comparison is too direct. Though I do wonder if the root of any awkwardness is because of the fact that this particular setting became a touchy subject. Because other comparisons do arguably exists that are just as strong, maybe... I have to think on that.I do agree that I like my ponies to be more outside of our world and actual dislike Equestria being too much of an American stand in. Less romanticized of a setting.   

As for Pony culture. Yeah, heavily american influenced but I'd make the argument that Earth Ponies are the only true American analog directly and that the Pegasi and Unicorns have more going on that sets them apart.   

> Probably our most disparate ratings difference so far.
> But even that is my subjective opinion of what it's objective quality would be. I don't know, it's complicated. I wouldn't want to go so far as to say I actively disagree with anybody who likes the episode, I think I'd just want to leave it at, I didn't like it, personally.
Believe me, objectively verus subjectivity is something I've struggled with myself in the past. Back in the reviews in Season 8 and 9, a lot of times I thought a lot of Episodes were executed okay but if I rated my enjoyment it probably would affect my ratings significantly. Now I lean more into my personal enjoyment. One area where I am still split on that is lessons. A bad lesson is arguably a thing that makes something bad regardless of if I enjoyed it. In the past I really cared if lessons were "bad" because I thought people extremely oversold the importance of TV shows and morals. Also I considered some things to not be as bad as people would often be freaking out about. This was based on my own experiences as a child and with how I see others talk about lessons like this I think I was in the minority, lol. I still lean this way but have been giving more considerations to lessons and the influences they could potentially weld.

glowie1 jpg
(59.6 KB, 1024x544)

 >>/12160/
your destroying my screen

ep22one png
(252.63 KB, 853x475)

ep22two png
(309.72 KB, 846x475)

ep22three png
(383.76 KB, 851x470)

ep22four png
(137.07 KB, 847x473)

Usually not a fan of Angel, but I do like how he here is firm with Fluttershy to get her to go to the brunch with Princess Celestia, and we get the impression that this is something he’s used to having to do with Fluttershy. And of course the intro establishes the great lengths Fluttershy will go to in order to care for animals, here going so far as to give a mouse it’s own wheelchair, which will be important to the themes of the episode after the theme song. 

Rainbow Dash messing with the Royal Guards made me think of the Queen’s (now King’s, I suppose) Guard. I tried to discover the rationale for why exactly the Queen’s Guard are required to be so stoic so I could analyze why Celestia’s Royal Guard would be behaving similarly, but the best I could glean is that it’s basically meant to project a sense of discipline and power. Even when the Queen’s Guard faint they’re required to ‘faint to attention’, that is, in a stiff standing position, and they’re instructed to just urinate into their trousers rather than take bathroom breaks, so the strict discipline is a little nutty really and honestly I don’t understand it. It might be of note here that these two guards are Pegasi. I don’t feel like Celestia’s guards are as stuffy later on as we meet Shining Armor and the dreaded Flash Sentry. I guess these two as Pegasi would be her personal travelling bodyguard so, it would make sense for them to be a cut above the Palace guards. 

Celestia messing with the Cakes and tricking them into overfilling her teacup is wonderful, in general I really enjoy Celestia’s character in this episode. Guessing at what a 1000-year-old person would be like is difficult, but I’d like to imagine that a creature like Celestia could be the way that she is. It’s also nice to see that a Mayor has the right to request an audience with the Princess, even though at this stage Equestria may still be quite small – although we got our first glimpses at it being larger last episode, with Appleloosa out beyond the frontier. Also at this social function we see various ponies wearing this sort of skirts that just about cover the cutie mark and flank – unsure if it’s for fashion or some other reason. If it’s for fashion then Rarity’s quite overdressed compared to everyone else. Amethyst Star is wearing hers with a saddle and also a flower in her hair, so she’s the closest to being as dressed up as Rarity – she looks quite cute with the flower in her hair, actually. Also we see a pony carrying a teacup, but not using the handle – wouldn’t it be better to use the handle to place the teacup on your back and carry it that way? I don’t know. Maybe it’s so she can drink her tea while walking. A moment later we see another two carrying their teacups on saucers, that seems like it would be the most sensible. When Celestia leaves and the party wraps up, I’m glad Applejack got to take home some food after all. I wonder if the Cakes gave it to her, or Pinkie? It seems like Mr Cake just ignored Applejack’s eagerness to eat so he could wrap everything up quickly. Spike’s presence as a cook and Twilight’s eagerness to introduce Celestia to her friends as well as knowing who is and isn’t on the ‘list’ when she talks to the guards makes me think that perhaps the whole social gathering is something Twilight organized, perhaps paying for the use of the Cake’s premises and catering. 


I’ve been torn on slapstick, disliking it in Fall Weather Friends and with the pies in the previous episode, but liking it a lot elsewhere. I love all the gags with it in this episode, mainly involving Philomena. Her blank expressions are very amusing, it’s a great bit of character design really. And it gets even better with Twilight’s tough love treatment. There’s also something very funny about seeing Philomena run on her gangly, bendy legs.

ep22five png
(287.25 KB, 850x474)

ep22six png
(223.2 KB, 840x470)

ep22seven png
(246.11 KB, 847x477)

ep22eight png
(293.4 KB, 851x472)

 >>/12166/
Twilight brings up banishment to Fluttershy, and we know banishment is a punishment since Celestia banished Luna. I’d be curious to know more about Equestrian dungeons. I wonder which is more common? In a lot of ways, banishment seems more humane, I could almost see that as the go-to punishment in Equestria. It’s also interesting that Twilight says Celestia will go ‘easier on her’ than on Fluttershy. I suppose that means Celestia has the power to make summary judgements. In general we seem to get a picture of Celestia as an absolute monarch (fits since Louis XIV was the ‘sun king’), but possibly the one being in the universe old enough, wise enough and kind enough to actually be able of responsibly using that power. I like it as an idea, it’s interesting and it permits for the kind of fantastical just and noble rule that wouldn’t be possible in our world. I wonder though, as the size of Equestria increases over the course of the show, whether it’s the type of absolutist government where Celestia’s input is actually required, or if it’s the type where the government and industry run themselves but Celestia has a free hand to intervene wherever and however she sees fit with impunity – sort of closer to a feudal-monarchical arrangement only with a more modern underlying structure instead of the manorial system. 

Great conclusion to the episode, fantastic characterization of Celestia, no notes. It’s not an episode where I get quite as sucked in, but it’s a lot of fun and very funny with Philomena, a solid ‘just for fun’ episode overall for me. I think I’ll have to put it with the rest of the 8s – that’s where I think the show’s quality baseline sort of rests for this season, with Applebuck Season, Boast Busters and Look Before You Sleep all being smooth, sleek, solid fun throughout without really any visible flaws. And then all the episodes above that rating edge it out to be outstanding, transcending even the consistently good quality of the rest of the show. So yes, a simple rating of 8 out of 10 for this episode. 
 >>/12158/
> but part of me goes with a different logical inference that a newly unincorporated place such as here the rules aren't well developed and their isn't some large structuring of subdivisions and regulations outside of the town level
I'd go with that inference personally - I'm not sure it's actually completely clear that this town even is part of Equestria, at least yet or in a formal sense. 
> why would she be the only female there?
Might be "dwarf logic", where some of those male buffalo are actually female? It's a weak excuse, not least because since he'd actually read the Poetic Edda in which there's Dwarven seductresses I doubt even Tolkien himself intended for Dwarven women to be mistakable for men. 
 >>/12159/
> Though I do wonder if the root of any awkwardness is because of the fact that this particular setting became a touchy subject.
I think also it's jarring for such an early season - if we got Saffron Masala this early that would bother the hell out of me too, whereas in context of the later seasons I don't mind that episode as much. But also it's the species divisions, where here it isn't different cultures of ponies, but two different species based on each culture. I THINK I would have minded it less if it had been Native American ponies, but this is still the era of the show where it's more fantastical and so we explore different species interacting. But I think most of all it's that I feel like this episode opened a bit of a Pandora's Box - the Diamond Dogs and the dragon weren't drawing from IRL cultures, they were just who they were, same as ponies. But with this episode we get our first really blunt parallel and it's a trope I dislike going forward, so, maybe that's why it bothers me.

celluloid-shot0044 jpg
(160.5 KB, 1920x1080)

celluloid-shot0045 jpg
(358.66 KB, 1920x1080)

celluloid-shot0048 jpg
(259.35 KB, 1920x1080)

celluloid-shot0049 jpg
(274.88 KB, 1920x1080)

] I'm late for a very important date! The big brunch for Princess Celestia at Sugarcube Corner. Oh, the princess is here in Ponyville for a party, and we all promised we'd be there. But I'm not there! Oh, do I look all right? Do I need to bring anything? Maybe I shouldn't go.

I, for whatever reason, really enjoyed the cold open to this episode. Angel playing charades while Fluttershy honed in slowly on what he was trying to covey: that she was late for the party with Celestia. Nice seeing a bit of Fluttershy doing her own thing alone too. 

Theme song that isn't my favorite but has slowly grown on me throughout the years.

At the brunch itself. Twilight Sparkle is quite nervous around Celestia hoping her friends make a good impression. I know this episode is used to give context to potential trollestia/tyrantestia in canon, and while it is certainly meme fuel I partly disagree. While Celestia showed a joking side here."Gotcha!" and her little tea prank while Mr and Mrs Cake were fussing over her. I think the dynamic of this episode is that Princess Celestia is actually pretty laid back and everyone takes her roll as the immortal monarch of the realm a bit too seriously. I do agree it is a bit weird she didn't immediately explain Philomena but I don't think it crosses over into troll territory. She was soon interrupted by Mayor Mare's request with a personal audience after all. 

Fluttershy fussing over Philomena was fun, I see an alternative episode where this could've been some sort of lesson on animals departing and accepting loss, but as is, I enjoyed it. This  goes into overdrive when Twilight Sparkle arrives. Now, this is where Tyrantestia comes into play as Twilight rattles off potential punishments. The fandom started to play into that, and in some cases, really ask, why would Twilight be so afraid of banishment? I think here it is more of the innocence of this setting here and Twilight's obsessive personality over any basis for anything rational in universe. The slap stick was pretty good here too, though not as good as the previous sequences of Fluttershy and Twilight's hapless attempts to forestall  Philomena's deterioration.

The conclusion, I enjoyed it enough, but not spectacular. It got a couple of chuckles but the main thing I noticed here was this one line:
> And I do appreciate that your heart was in the right place, child. But all you had to do was ask me and I could have told you Philomena was a phoenix and saved you all this trouble.
This not only places Celestia as an somewhat of motherly authority figure which is the roll she is sort of playing, but this is the strongest I've seen it. It will be interesting if we will see any other instances of her referring to the mane 6 or any of her subjects this way. 

Alrighty, now for my rating: 7.5/10. It is a very good episode for what it is, even if I found the last third slightly less interesting.

celluloid-shot0056 jpg
(198.96 KB, 1920x1080)

celluloid-shot0053 jpg
(267.1 KB, 1920x1080)

celluloid-shot0054 jpg
(247.18 KB, 1920x1080)

celluloid-shot0052 jpg
(219.54 KB, 1920x1080)

celluloid-shot0050 jpg
(231.42 KB, 1920x1080)

 >>/12168/
Rainbow Dash and Philomena
A cute little interaction where Rainbow Dash gets Philomena to prank the guards. 

Philomena seldomly appears
Correct me if I am wrong, but, I think this was Philomena's only appearance in the show. I just might check, but I kind of like to avoid wikis and such and go in sort of blind, even if I am researching some things during these reviews. Trying to keep a perspective somewhat local to the season.

Lots of meme screenshots
Twilight's face seems especially exaggerated more than normal, lol. I remember, and still sometimes see, the Twilight Sparkle with the pill circulating in different contexts.

Animation notes
They reused the background from the underground in A Dog and Pony Show for the imagined dungeon. This could easily be headcanoned, if not an outright logical inference, that Fluttershy pictured the recent experience when imagining a dungeon.

Notice how the front door view the door is a normal stable/horse stall door but from the side view it lacks the detail of the middle line denoting that and the handle is reversed? 


 >>/12167/
> I’d be curious to know more about Equestrian dungeons.
Agreed. Presumably they do exist. 

> In general we seem to get a picture of Celestia as an absolute monarch (fits since Louis XIV was the ‘sun king’)
Nice reference there. I think Celestia certainly is a powerful monarch, with absolute power on paper, but perhaps delegates/treaties govern Equestria in a slightly "confederal" structure. This goes into somewhat later season contexts though. I think she has that type of power even if she doesn't always use it in practice. 

> , a solid ‘just for fun’ episode overall for me
That is a pretty good way to word this episode. 

 >>/12167/
>  I'm not sure it's actually completely clear that this town even is part of Equestria, at least yet or in a formal sense. 
For me it has to be until proven otherwise. Considering this is Season 1, we don't really have evidence of any pony political powers with some antonomy outside of Celestia and I think it would be reasonable to assume all ponies are her subjects. 

> But with this episode we get our first really blunt parallel and it's a trope I dislike going forward, so, maybe that's why it bothers me.
I keep thinking on that and I lean towards your point BUT a couple of examples in Season 2 I might raise as a counterpoint. If I remember it. 

Typing while exhausted, hope I am not forgetting anything!

ep23one png
(390.84 KB, 849x474)

ep23two png
(409.52 KB, 844x475)

The zipline opening is funny and a quintessential CMC trademark of ill-advized antics, enjoyable to see as always! Scootaloo also mentions that Spike told her that ziplining is awesome, and I could definitely see Canterlot having ziplining.

After the intro, it’s amusing that Apple Bloom doesn’t know what a varmint is when her big sister uses the term. And her story gives us our first look at Manehattan, ‘the most cosmopolitan city in all of Equestria’. The first reference to Manehattan, I believe? I think it’s singularly appropriate that homesickness would drive Applejack’s realization of who and what she wants to be in life, it’s a very strong feeling. We also seen the sun rise in the direction of Ponyville, so perhaps Manehattan is west of Ponyville. Fluttershy in her flashback appears to be older than Applejack was in hers, and that’s where we start to get the whole comparative age debate with the Mane 6 – although most of the others seem around the same age so perhaps Fluttershy is just lanky or got an early growth spurt. Fluttershy being seemingly unaware of her own shyness, thinking that was more of a phase in her youth, is a funny idea but it clearly got dropped quite quickly. In Rarity’s flashback we see Cheerilee, looking about the same age as Rarity in the flashback, which contradicts a small theory I remember DWK having a minor tangent on, namely that he thought she was the teacher at the school even back when Applejack and Rarity went there, but this shows that’s not the case. When her horn starts acting on it’s own, Rarity mentions how unicorn magic doesn’t happen without a reason and connects it to her destiny when it brings her to a boulder, suggesting an interconnection between magical talent and cutie marks within unicorns. In Twilight’s flashback, we learn of her eagerness to see Princess Celestia to raise the sun, and how this inspired her to pursue magic for herself, which I think goes some way to explaining Twilight’s sometimes quite extreme loyalty and devotion to Celestia, as well as the neuroses that sometimes crop up from that as a result. With how the Sonic Rainboom affected her, at first what I thought was going on was that the Rainboom itself somehow imbued Twilight with her power. I rather disliked this idea – but on rewatching the episode I wondered whether her inability to perform magic in front of the examiners was perhaps due to her nerves and the Rainboom, which she clearly hears, knocked her out of her nervousness and in a moment of unchecked desperation she then managed to sort of break through the barrier and get that moment of unicorn-magic unlocking like Rarity’s experience. Or perhaps the power of the Rainboom brought out just enough of Twilight’s magic for her already innate ability to manifest.  The Sonic Rainboom has some rather odd and mysterious properties and I don’t feel like we actually know all that much about it (it’s referred to as an ‘old mare’s tale’ after all), but I still feel it would be a stretch to say it can actually imbue a previously weaker unicorn with some of the strongest powers that we regularly get to see in the show, even IF that’s the interpretation that was in mind when the scene was made. So long as that connection isn’t explicit, I’m happy going with more or less any alternative. In Pinkie Pie’s flashback, I really can’t even guess as to the function of the rock farm. I’ll have to look up theories after because I’ve never really thought about what exactly the rock farm does or produces before.

ep23three png
(367.63 KB, 848x472)

ep23four png
(410.31 KB, 851x470)

 >>/12176/
> And that’s how Equestria was made!
Iconic.

In Sugarcube corner, Rainbow Dash tells her story and the Mane Six all realize that their stories were interconnected. I love the way they all react to it, and Twilight’s letter to Celestia about it at the end. It’s an interesting early example of a literal connection between friendship and magic in this world, after the pilot that is. Fate linking these six ponies together is an idea which perhaps takes some of the wind out of the sails of them befriending eachother earlier, and I feel as though I’ve heard it said that this sort of fateful connection between them all is perhaps a little too convenient, but in a world where fate and magic are intertwined with all aspects of reality and fate itself doesn’t feel too overused in the show as a whole, I think it works well (provided we don’t assume that these six becoming the Elements of Harmony was also predestined, that I do agree would be a little overly convenient. I prefer to think that this sort of thing happens for a lot of ponies, fateful friendships – in this case it just so happened to be extra significant). It’s not necessarily much of a lesson – moreso an idea of hope, that perhaps good things are fated for the future, a sort of lesson of optimism. I really like this episode a lot, mainly because it solidifies the idea of the Mane Six all being really close friends with one another. Much like the famous Kirk-Spock-Bones trio of 60s Star Trek, the bread and butter of this show really is these six and their relationships to one another. There are a lot of shows, particularly western cartoons, where if you think about what each character thinks of every other character, there are lots of gaps where you’re not really sure what two characters would think of one another, and they just don’t interact that much – and I believe I’ve brought this up before in terms of it being really quite impressive to me that this show juggles six characters all having strong, explored relationships with each and every one of the other six. I also like the CMC in this episode, they’re used perfectly as a framing device, it’s very well conceived and executed all round. I’m going to give it a 9.2 – in my mind it’s comparable to the pilot, coming close to that great group dynamic we got to see there but not quite reaching the same level, with a couple of rough patches in terms of how you interpret this episode compared to the pilot too.

8041 png
(415.43 KB, 1280x1100)

 >>/12168/
> I know this episode is used to give context to potential trollestia/tyrantestia in canon, and while it is certainly meme fuel I partly disagree. While Celestia showed a joking side here."Gotcha!" and her little tea prank while Mr and Mrs Cake were fussing over her. I think the dynamic of this episode is that Princess Celestia is actually pretty laid back and everyone takes her roll as the immortal monarch of the realm a bit too seriously. I do agree it is a bit weird she didn't immediately explain Philomena but I don't think it crosses over into troll territory. She was soon interrupted by Mayor Mare's request with a personal audience after all. 
Absolutely. And from how the Summer Sun Celebration is treated both in the pilot and Cutie Mark Chronicles, I feel as though the pageantry of Celestia's rulership is almost more for the pony's sake than for Celestia's. Perhaps part of that is education and the culture of the past 1000 years, but I still get at least the impression that Celestia's political and social power stems primarily from the extremely high regard that almost all ponies hold her in. 
> The fandom started to play into that, and in some cases, really ask, why would Twilight be so afraid of banishment? I think here it is more of the innocence of this setting here and Twilight's obsessive personality over any basis for anything rational in universe.
Twilight herself admits she doesn't think that would happen - if she of all people had reason to think it really could happen she could just cite her reasons why, I'm sure she has a fairly good understanding of the Equestrian legal system, especially since she's still technically a kind of public servant. 
 >>/12169/
> Correct me if I am wrong, but, I think this was Philomena's only appearance in the show. 
I certainly don't remember her appearing again - but even background appearances could count. Another thing to keep eyes open for going forward. 
> Agreed. Presumably they do exist.
There will be precedent for imprisonment with Discord - a bold statement I could make so far for this first season is that we don't actually KNOW that imprisonment even exists in Equestria. It seems like a sort of societal universal, but at least at this stage in the show perhaps it's not necessary to criminally punish ponies. In fact, even after Discord I think it will be a while before we see a criminal or wrongdoing pony. 
> I think Celestia certainly is a powerful monarch, with absolute power on paper, but perhaps delegates/treaties govern Equestria in a slightly "confederal" structure. This goes into somewhat later season contexts though. I think she has that type of power even if she doesn't always use it in practice.
The fact that Luna is a co-ruler already hints at that federal/confederal structure, so I agree there. Plus I think with her absolutism, negative interpretations of Celestia obviously emphasize it but even if we take the most charitable and positive interpretation of Celestia, her subjects are so adoring of her that I cannot imagine many of them being willing to circumvent or limit or oversee any of her powers as ruler. Given her position both in the eyes of her subjects and as a being as powerful as she is, Celestia's really always going to have to exercise her own restraint in governing with a light hand no matter what. Since we clearly see that government structures are far from overbearing in Equestria, I think it's fair to say that speaks to how she prefers to govern.
> For me it has to be until proven otherwise. Considering this is Season 1, we don't really have evidence of any pony political powers with some antonomy outside of Celestia and I think it would be reasonable to assume all ponies are her subjects. 
I would agree, but for the attention given to Appleoosa's flag and their ability to essentially start a war with the Buffalo without consulting any higher official. If they are part of Equestria, it's on paper and not so much in reality, they're clearly extremely autonomous. I see Appleloosa as like an unincorporated territory.

3f0895fe3140c6460be2a... gif
(2.2 MB, 400x225)

 >>/12136/
I absolutely loved this episode.  It was the first episode that I watched, and it immediately made me like Rarity who comes across as an absolute bro when she rescues (and accidentally dooms) her best friend on stage despite her own jealousy.  In a show about friendship, that was peak.  

I also enjoyed Anna Wintour with Arnold Schwartzenegger's Austrian-Californian accent.  Whenever the subject of fashion came up in the show, the writers, animators, and voice actresses would regularly insert their own caricatures of industry figures, and this episode was full of them.  The were in-jokes that flew over the heads of 90+% of the audience.
> 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
Yeah, one thing that I did dislike about the episode--and it was a complaint that I had about several Season 1 episodes--was how utterly frustrating Fluttershy often was.  Just say something instead of dragging the story on by being a wimp until the last possible second!  Why did she even think that Rarity was goading her on?  Of course it's because she wants her friend to succeed.  I get that Fluttershy is a push-over, but how could she miss that?

a814f3447db9127792f62... gif
(996.87 KB, 270x212)

 >>/12168/
> Usually not a fan of Angel, but I do like how he here is firm with Fluttershy to get her to go to the brunch with Princess Celestia, and we get the impression that this is something he’s used to having to do with Fluttershy.
I really wish that we could have gotten more of this version of Angel Bunny, even if the pimp hand was funny.
> Fluttershy fussing over Philomena was fun, I see an alternative episode where this could've been some sort of lesson on animals departing and accepting loss, but as is, I enjoyed it.
That had been the original intention, so that figures.
> Now, this is where Tyrantestia comes into play as Twilight rattles off potential punishments. The fandom started to play into that, and in some cases, really ask, why would Twilight be so afraid of banishment? I think here it is more of the innocence of this setting here and Twilight's obsessive personality over any basis for anything rational in universe.
Twilight's punishment fantasy is likely Twilight being an irrational bundle of nerves, but it does establish that dungeons and banishment are things that are not unknown to the tiny horses, and given that Celestia had reigned for a thousand years it would seem likely that she herself would have prescribed those punishments at some point in history.  There is some lampshading in the show's humor in Season 1, but Faust's Equestria was a fairly narratively consistent place where the society's inner workings were hinted at when not outright stated.  Also consider that imprisonment and banishment, while certainly unpleasant, were less brutal than Queen Majesty's apparently lethal punishments from Gen 1.  Gen 1 ponies were on-the-sly metal like that.  It would figure if Faust, Gen 1 fangirl that she is, retained some of that early-80s brutality.
> This not only places Celestia as an somewhat of motherly authority figure which is the roll she is sort of playing, but this is the strongest I've seen it.
There is another interpretation there, namely that Fluttershy actually is a child and Celestia is just calling her what she is.  To quote Faust in her show bible, "(O)ur ponies, though independent, have an emotional range of anywhere between 10 and 15 with most seemingly about 12."  The Season 1 Mane Six were early adolescents.  If you look at the episode within that context, it makes a lot more sense.  It's why Mr. and Mrs. Cake were handling the real prep for the brunch while the Six were mostly just getting in the way and being silly.  It's why the moral of the story is about asking for permission before trying to do the right thing.  It's why Fluttershy's care-giving for Philomena is so pediatric in nature.
 >>/12169/
> This could easily be headcanoned, if not an outright logical inference, that Fluttershy pictured the recent experience when imagining a dungeon.
Good point.  I can see that.

sample_cd4... png
(719.44 KB, 850x1960)

 >>/12176/
> The zipline opening is funny and a quintessential CMC trademark of ill-advized antics, enjoyable to see as always! Scootaloo also mentions that Spike told her that ziplining is awesome, and I could definitely see Canterlot having ziplining.
Now that you mention it, that makes sense.  You have this city on terraces attached to the side of a mountain, and most of its residents cannot fly.  They have balloons for traveling upward and presumably downward, but ziplines would be a faster and more practical method of traveling downward.  From there, it would stand to reason that Spike would know quite a bit about them despite being a toddler.
> Fluttershy in her flashback appears to be older than Applejack was in hers, and that’s where we start to get the whole comparative age debate with the Mane 6 – although most of the others seem around the same age so perhaps Fluttershy is just lanky or got an early growth spurt.
See: above.  We know that Fluttersy is a year older than Pinkie Pie, and that is the only thing that we know about them age-wise from the show itself and not the word of Faust.  Even there, we do not know if that is a human year or a horse year, which is rather significant for fillies in terms of development. Another possible reason for Little Fluttershy's unusual size is that Faust had originally wanted the ponies to have different body types but the idea got scrapped due to budget constraints  Thus Little Fluttershy's height was a call-back to that early concept.  I have heard it mentioned (can't recall where) that Rainbow Dash was originally supposed to be very short.
> When her horn starts acting on it’s own, Rarity mentions how unicorn magic doesn’t happen without a reason and connects it to her destiny when it brings her to a boulder, suggesting an interconnection between magical talent and cutie marks within unicorns.
"Dumb rock" began Rarity's rocky romantic relationship with large mineral deposits.  I love it just for that.
> In Twilight’s flashback, we learn of her eagerness to see Princess Celestia to raise the sun, and how this inspired her to pursue magic for herself, which I think goes some way to explaining Twilight’s sometimes quite extreme loyalty and devotion to Celestia, as well as the neuroses that sometimes crop up from that as a result.
It is notable that this is a wildly different origin story than Twilight Twinkle's which involved a late-night study session after she had already become Celestia's student.
> The Sonic Rainboom has some rather odd and mysterious properties and I don’t feel like we actually know all that much about it (it’s referred to as an ‘old mare’s tale’ after all), but I still feel it would be a stretch to say it can actually imbue a previously weaker unicorn with some of the strongest powers that we regularly get to see in the show, even IF that’s the interpretation that was in mind when the scene was made. So long as that connection isn’t explicit, I’m happy going with more or less any alternative.
I honestly do not know why they went with the Sonic Rainboom for Rainbow Dash's cutie mark story.  It does give the six main characters a connection, but was that even necessary?  I greatly prefer the original concept where Rainbow Dash flies fast enough to create a vapor trail that causes a rainbow to appear.  The idea was that pegasus ponies gathered bunches of clouds to create rainbows that would then serve as solid bridges, which is why Cloudsdale looks the way it does.  Apart from just shamelessly ripping off Olympus from Disney's Hercules, that is.

PrettyCool... gif
(820.49 KB, 386x602)

Review finally coming soon. PoLS for now. 

Test
Test

celluloid-shot0062 jpg
(131.83 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0063 jpg
(144.05 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0064 jpg
(161.78 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0065 jpg
(99.61 KB, 1280x720)

Alright, brain disorderly, but want to get this review out!

This episode was charming. The CMC feel a little more childlike here again for whatever reason compared to  some earlier appearances. I guess, seeking wisdom from adults (or should I say, older teens/tweens?)

Applejack's Cutie Mark Story
> It was amazin'! A rainbow pointin' right back to... home. In that moment, it all became clear. I knew right then just who I was supposed to be. That's when this here appeared.
Foals in Equestria are given greater leeway it seems, Applejack appearing to travel on her own. The social conformity and slight embarrassment over Applejack's mention of roosters I didn't find strongly funny or annoying. Applejack's realization that the city life wasn't for her and her return to her home is a classic moral that I don't mind seeing. 

Fluttershy's Cutie Mark Story
> I had never seen such beautiful creatures. Butterflies don't fly as high as my cloud home. And I'd never been near the ground before.
It seems like a lot of ponies really do keep to themselves and their own spaces. City ponies not knowing of roosters, and Fluttershy has never been to the ground. I could read way to much into: Oh, that would be interesting. You know, I wouldn't have gotten my cutie mark if it weren't for her. C'mon, she'd have to go to the ground at one point if it was her natural talent and place in life, right? Can a pony avert fate from making the wrong choices or never doing anything? Analysis mode over. Her song is alright, liked it and cute they put a little song there (though it brings to mind a certain famous remix of it). 


Rarity's Cutie Mark Story
> A rock?! That's my destiny?! What is your problem, horn? I followed you all the way out here for a rock?! 
This one interests me more than the first two. Like, I feel like I have something to point out that isn't just me grasping at straws/overthinking. Rarity's cutie mark is technically finding gems, but it didn't appear until not only had she finished her costumes but also had preformed in the play. This is an interesting timing to me; if her cutie mark is just finding gems I would expect it to appear right after finding the gems! So, it is connected to fashion (or maybe art and performance) in a way despite being a specific ability that could apply if Rarity also wanted to be a miner, or fashion gem weapons to fight giant crabs. I overall liked this one more than the first two. Maybe the comedic tone? Rainbooms are dangerous considering they can split rock!

celluloid-shot0061 jpg
(72.08 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0066 jpg
(121.55 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0067 jpg
(143.15 KB, 1280x720)

 >>/12206/
Twilight Sparkle's Cutie Mark Story
> Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes
Twilight Sparkle's story I probably could find a lot to comment on, and I did! I like the Summer Sun Celebration and... whatever that happens with Celestia. Looks like a flag or a code of arms. A cool one! It projects power. I don't know if it was intended to resemble a flag or if it was just something born out of the limitation of their medium/chosen art style(let's make Celestia be in a silhouette! Solid flat color with no shading or gradient that gives shape to her). Anyways, it gives an important moment, both in Twilight's love/reverence for Celestia and mgaic itself. Cool moment. Now onto the entrance exam! Spike's egg. This has been theorized to death but I'll leave my too bits here. Baring weird implications from dragon's being a sentient race, if a hatching a dragon egg is a requirement to enter the School for Gifted Unicorns, why aren't their more baby dragons like Spike running around?  (cool alt universe fanfic idea: ponies raise dragon's because they are too greedy and selfish to raise their own as adults. Conflict for Spike. Fits into ponies being stewards of world better. OH, WHY ISN'T THAT CANON!?) Does this go into the theory that Twilight brought Spike to life and the hatching test is supposed to fail or not go that exact way? Heh, maybe a point for Twilight being Spike's mother afterall, though still mostly hinging on a question that we don't have much information on right now and pure crazy speculation. 

You have a very special gift. I don't think I've ever come across a unicorn with your raw abilities.
Even in the limited context of the show we have at this point. This is a very big compliment from Celestia, a being who is at least 1000 years old and runs a school for gifted unicorns. I enjoy how Twilight awkwardly realizes she got more than a little carried away at her reminiscing, too.   


Pinkie Pie's story
> I'd never felt joy like that before! It felt so good I just wanted to keep smiling forever! And I wanted everyone I knew to smile too, but rainbows don't come along that often. I wondered, how else could I create some smiles?
Pinkie Pie, I liked seeing all the details of her life. More than the others: her parents AND siblings, their occupation and living conditions. I do like Pinkie Pie this odd happy pony and them accepting her. That reaction to her party though seems suggestive that smiles are seldom and almost hard to process. Rock farm. Never decided if  I wanted to to accept it as some sort of mining or rationalize it as earth pony magic working the ground.  Though lately I've also had sympathy  to just saying: "Hey, this is a whimsical kid's show, who cares?" but I still enjoy trying to make it work. I guess because I did a lot of fanfic writing in the past, and, as I've stated before, I think this is both fun and people can be overly dismissive on certain implications and logic. 

Speaking of logic, 
> And that's how Equestria was made.
It is Pinkie Pie after all.   

Rainbow Dash
> Most people thought that the sonic rainboom was just an old mare's tale. But that day... The day I discovered racing... I proved that the legends were true. I made the impossible happen!
Where it all unites. This story is the first sonic rainboom! My first thought is of course the fact that this conflicts with the episode Sonic Rainboom. Continuity broken! I might pick this up more in Odds and Ends on how one might try to explain it away. As the story itself. No complaints. Rainbow Dash is young Rainbow Dash here. Her bullies, the same from Sonic Rainboom, are humiliated pretty handily. I think the Sonic Rainboom here is a more impressive looking then the one in Sonic Rainboom the episode, albeit they were just reusing the same effect and it has more to do with the scale of things I bet.

celluloid-shot0068 jpg
(187.48 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0069 jpg
(126.56 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0070 jpg
(178.06 KB, 1280x720)

 >>/12207/
I think overall I'd rate each of the Mane 6's Cutie Mark stories in this order:
1:Rarity, don't ask me why this edges out, just barely, Twilight Sparkle's, but I for whatever reason enjoyed this the most.
2:Twilight Sparkle's. Lore! and pre Season 1 Canterlot. Haunting from a certain point of view.
3:Rainbow Dash's, very important to harmony or whatever. I liked the Rainboom. 
4:Pinkie Pie's, though the latter three I'm not sure I have much placement or reasoning. I am just placing this here because of all the characters and backstory we get.
5:Fluttershy's, barely edges out Applejack's because of song. 
6:Applejack's, themes of family and home should put this one higher. 

Okay, now with that little notation aside, time to wrap up this way longer than expected review. This was very cool in how it was an anthology that was, in my mind, pretty well put together without being hard for children to follow. I thought this won an award but cursory googling (and duckduckgoing) have yielded no mention of one. 

Okay, how do I rate this episode? Right now, I feel like 7.9/10. Part of me wants to put it higher but that is where I am arbitrarily at.

< LOL, I can see my usual train wreck grammatical inconsistencies is back, at least this time I my formatting is good.

celluloid-shot0071 jpg
(177.38 KB, 1280x720)

WelcomePrincessCelest png
(707.29 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0060 jpg
(190.92 KB, 1280x720)

 >>/12208/
I wasn't sure I wanted to do an Odds and Ends but had enough side observations to go ahead.

Sonic Rainboom Continuity
This episode does seem to contradict with Sonic Rainboom. I think I can explain away no one knowing or making the connection of Rainbow Dash being the one to have done the sonic rainboom and ponies relative disbelief in it as it being taken as a freak accident or odd thing that happened. Not many believe Rainbow when she claims to have be at the center of that because she was just a filly and a braggart at that. The problem with this view is her bullies, who were present in both episodes. I guess I could say that if no one else believed it, why would they tell otherwise? If Rainbow Dash couldn't replicate it, they probably would go ahead and might even decide that themselves regardless of their own eyes. 

< but what about Fluttershy?!
Surely Rainbow Dash would've bragged about it to her, why wouldn't she put two and two... er, nevermind. 

Sonic Rainbooms as a weapon
Even if we take Equestria as a smaller land in this, being able to split rock from miles away ain't no small feat. My sometimes militaristic mind can't help but think in the ways that this could be weaponized.  This Rainboom seems special though compared to most of the others I can recall in the series, I will note for now. 

Latin Alphabet!!!
I don't think many remember this. I have seen some bring up the point that this and the poorly made welcome Princess Celest sign from Swarm of the Century. Wow: >>/10841/ can't believe I didn't note that in Odds and Ends there, so here it is here. I will be on the look out for more instances of the latin alphabet for sure though!

Pinkie Pie's family
Looks very Amish. Going from a strictly Season 1 perspective, I think it was mainly done to make them out to be serious and not ones to normally smile. I wonder how many other cultural inferences I can make with that though?

Spike's Previous Zip Lining Experience
Scootaloo at the beginning of the episode mentions that Spike told her that zip lining was awesome. Possibly he was the source of that idea. I wonder where and when would've Spike have done zip lining and this feels like something that goes with previous implied lines of him having some sort of life outside of being Twilight's assistant as it feels something that would be weird for for him to have done with Twilight Sparkle at any point before Season 1. Heck, it feels a little weird that it would've been something Celestia would have taken to personally, but that information is more vague and she clearly is more laid back than she is treated. 

Stupid Crack Theory
Hornless Lyra is Lyra's earth pony mother. 
< occams razor, a logical enough in universe explanation is that she is some random lookalike. Same for the others. 

Bonus observation 
 >>/12176/
With how the Sonic Rainboom affected her, at first what I thought was going on was that the Rainboom itself somehow imbued Twilight with her power. I rather disliked this idea 
I think the most logic is what you state, that Twilight Sparkle was startled. I never took it that the Rainboom imbued her with power so much as it being awakened at that moment. Fate and their connection.

quietlythinking png
(352.58 KB, 1263x691)

 >>/12206/
 >>/12207/
 >>/12208/
 >>/12209/
This review was a lot bigger than I expected. I wanted to do something slightly special since this episode is kind of important (Arguably the most important besides the opening two parters in lore this season.). Though I also didn't want to do anything overly complicated. So I figured, "eh, I'll just write down my thoughts on each Cutie Mark story as is in a casual manner." Probably with some rewording for succinctness I could've fit this into two parts over three (or four, if you count Odds and Ends). 
> Alright, brain disorderly, 
*Cough:
> first four stories are labled "cutie mark story" but Pinkie Pie's is labeled "Pinkie Pie's story".
> Rainbow Dash is just Rainbow Dash in Rainbow text
> Inconsistent capitalization of my lists
> Sonic Rainbooms as a weapon
> Spike's Previous Zip Lining Experience
Along with some grammatical errors like this. 
Yeah, I've been scatterbrained. Though a lot of my reviews are trainwrecks a bit this one feels more glaring for whatever reason. I am often in a bit of a rush to do it before being distracted, I will note.  Maybe I should finally take the chatgpt pill for copy editing? (Or could I use a local LLM? Will see what I can run on weaker hardware). Anyways, I still like this format and will be trying it again if the opportunity arises, just with a bit more quality control hopefully. 

 >>/12176/
 >>/12177/
> Spike told her that ziplining is awesome, and I could definitely see Canterlot having ziplining.
Perhaps overthinking this my point on that, it is a mountain city after all. 

>  explaining Twilight’s sometimes quite extreme loyalty and devotion to Celestia
Heck, if it had been just a flashback devoted to that it probably would still be number 2 this season for lore importance!

> I really can’t even guess as to the function of the rock farm. I’ll have to look up theories after because I’ve never really thought about what exactly the rock farm does or produces before.
As I've stated earlier, I've heard mainly, or I guess I should say, seen in fanfics, either some special earth pony function or just mining of sorts (or just a strange thing that nopony outside of the Pie family/maybe Earth Ponies have any understanding of). But, I've only read fics haphazardly since 2014 and haven't kept up with anything new on that front. 

> Fate linking these six ponies together is an idea which perhaps takes some of the wind out of the sails of them befriending 


> provided we don’t assume that these six becoming the Elements of Harmony was also predestined, 
> I prefer to think that this sort of thing happens for a lot of ponies, fateful friendships – in this case it just so happened to be extra significant). 
Interesting, I've always sort of thought of it as predestined to some extent but never gave it much thought. As in, I took it for granted. I guess because of episodes like this, and certainly fanfiction. I can understand this view though and it is...
> We were meant to do this
> We did this!
Does have a different feeling. Choice and agency. Is my friendship genuine? Lots of food for thought, lol.    

>  I’m going to give it a 9.2 – in my mind it’s comparable to the pilot, coming close to that great group dynamic we got to see there but not quite reaching the same level, with a couple of rough patches in terms of how you interpret this episode compared to the pilot too.
Storywise, it is certainly a 9/10 for sure! My 7.9 is just based on enjoyment levels.

298799 png
(195.92 KB, 1500x1880)

 >>/12191/
 >>/12192/
 >>/12193/
Howdy, and welcome to the thread! As you can see, it can be quite slow at times. I do have some stuff to comment here too but will get so in a bit. 

Also, you're welcome to join in if you wish, the more the merrier (though we might have to start namefagging, lol).

ep24one png
(353.24 KB, 845x475)

ep24two png
(226.83 KB, 847x471)

ep24three png
(253.94 KB, 848x475)

ep24four png
(174.87 KB, 849x474)

The sunset (heh) establishing shot is comfy – early evening as Twilight and Spike prepare for the viewing of the meteor shower. Spike sneezing and burning the book is something I would have thought would happen more often. In a way, it’s impressive that he manages to be such a good assistant in a library that’s entirely made of flammable wood and is filled with flammable materials in the form of books. There’s a beautiful view from the hilltop as Twilight and Spike make their way to join the other ponies, with some foothills rising into mountains in the distance and what looks like a river running down from them. There’s only so many ways to say it, but the whole beginning of the episode is some peak comfy, some of the best we’ve gotten in season 1 – even the BGM stands out to me as comfy here. Owlowicscious’s introduction falls within the same comfyzone.

The next morning, Spike among other things suggests grass pancakes for Twilight’s breakfast, I’d be interested to see that particular dish. A cursory search suggests we never actually see them on the show.

Spike’s anxiety about being replaced, his eagerness to help Twilight and be part of her life all strikes me as the sort of thing that might reflect the behaviour of little brothers – younger siblings often want to feel included, and getting to ‘help’ is a way to be included. Ultimately though I’m the oldest sibling, so I wouldn’t really know. 

Spike’s Snidely Whiplash get-up made me chuckle, along with the silent-movie style piano sting. It’s an almost unrelated note but I love all of Joe Rinaudo’s videos of him playing the American Fotoplayer, the all-in-one piano-roll based instrument for both musical and sound-effect accompaniment to pre-talkies. 
https://youtube.com/watch?v=eRGVYwobPDk
This one’s my favorite. I don’t know if anybody ever figured out what The Big Chase was from though – I would be interested in knowing, but I’ve never been quite interested enough to dig into where it could come from. Perhaps one day.

Anyway, that tangent aside – even if plausibility is stretched a little bit (ketchup lasting long enough on Spike’s feet to leave tracks all the way to the Everfree, a dragon seemingly so nearby to Ponyville when the last time a dragon was this close it was a much larger problem) I enjoyed the conclusion to this episode. There isn’t as much that I can say about it perhaps, but Spike deserved his spotlight episode and it was a pretty good time all round. I’d give it a rating of 8.3.

celluloid-shot0074 jpg
(43.77 KB, 640x360)

celluloid-shot0082 jpg
(54.36 KB, 640x360)

celluloid-shot0088 jpg
(48.87 KB, 640x360)

celluloid-shot0090 jpg
(90.63 KB, 640x360)

celluloid-shot0091 jpg
(41.64 KB, 640x360)

Who?
Owl's Well That Ends Well!

Hehe, sorry for the slightly stupid joke. This episode was one I really did not remember well. I mean, vague outlet, yeah, but a lot of details I forgot, more so than other episodes. I think this episode has a slightly negative reputation... IDK, I recall people being against Twilight Sparkle actions somewhat, but not strongly so. I don't remember the fandom reception very well though. 

As for my feelings? I think the lesson is handled okay. Not great, not terrible. My best guess is people who would intemperate Owlowiscious overshadowing Spike and Twilight Sparkle's ignorance of it in comparison to various IRL slights and high school drama (or high school style drama still being carried on into the adult age). I don't Twilight Sparkle necessarily committed any wrong action other than being ignorant. Spike clearly derives meaning and purpose from being her 'number one assistant' though I suppose there could be some psychological childhood abuse dynamic thing that someone might nitpick, to which I think we read too much into fiction having to conform to our are reality here and Twilight was just technically trying to help Spike. I am not sure I'd call myself a full throated  Twilight Sparkle defender here, but that is the framework I look at this. Spike is just being a dumb kid and Twilight is just being a ignorant older sister/teen mother/friend/pet owner and she can be a bit ignorant in some situations (Rarity and Applejack's tensions during a slumber party come to mind). 

I enjoyed this episode moderately well, actually, I did like the mix of drama with mild adventure at the end and the slightly mature jokes surprised me; "Spiked the punch" yeah, I think I recall some mentioning this one and yeah, I agree that is one of those jokes that does go over children's heads but is a bit mature for what the show is in Season 1. Spike trying to fake a field mouse being killed and partly eaten using ketchup as blood I had completely forgotten about it. They may have not used the word "blood" and it was completely kid tier but feels.. IDK, darker than I would expect. Not calling it amazing or bad, just noting it.  

Humor was fine. I understand the "who" joke not being everyone's cup of tea but it got a chuckle out of me. Lesson is okay but maybe suggestions for better execution. Like the touch of adventure, even if the green dragon (very forgotten Season 1 character, do we even know his name!?) was a recycled and recolored villain (actually, I like characters who are like this!). I am going to place it at a 7/10 for now, though I feel like I really could raise or lower this later.

celluloid-shot0098 jpg
(47.38 KB, 640x360)

celluloid-shot0095 jpg
(44.96 KB, 640x360)

celluloid-shot0078 jpg
(46.84 KB, 640x360)

 >>/12215/
Comfy Scenes
A whole, whole lot of comfy scenes in this episode. I like the Golden Oaks Library, so Twilight Sparkle waking up, or studying at night there, is automatically comfy. Though the highlight of comfy scenes is probably the meteor shower. Probably the most screen caps and references to this episode I've seen is actually this. I think it's because it provides a lot of group shots of the mane six with some family and leads itself for use in PMVs and what not. 

Spike in Sugercube Corner or...'
This is me probably overthinking something, but bare with me...
Spike is has 4 scenes looking for a quill for Twilight before leaving Golden Oaks Library to look around Ponyville for a quill. One of these scenes though appears to be in Sugercube Corner. Yet, it is clearly established afterwards of him leaving with Twilight Sparkle trying to tell him to wait after this scene and Spike went to Sugercube Corner later and tried to ask Pinkie Pie for some quills. Was the scene in Sugercube Corner out of sequence or did they just reuse Sugercube Corner for a kitchen scene possibly intended to take place in Golden Oak's Library?  

Rainbow Dash Recognizing Spike's Jealousy.
A small moment, but, considering how Rainbow Dash can be a bit dense and insensitive (remember Pinkie Pie being the one telling her not to prank Fluttershy? Her lifelong friend?) so I am surprised at Rainbow Dash being the one to notice that in Spike here. Show a slight perceptive side. Maybe she knows jealousy all too well? 

Comets
Twilight's scientific description of comets is only interesting in the context of magical horses with stars seemingly under Luna's command. Some celestial objects are natural and what we expect them to be (or close).   

Green Dragon
I wonder if this Green Dragon has any names or fics about him? He certainly seems like a forgotten character. Maybe I can do something? lol!

Spike. Sure, I was disappointed, but you are my number one assistant! And friend. And you always will be
I consider this line in the context of Twilight having a familial relation to Spike, this doesn't disprove it, clearly Spike is close to Twilight like family, but where fandom and show sometimes went later, I consider this phrasing interesting. Again, IIRC, Faust said Celestia was a mother figure to Spike. 

Animation
...seemed slightly choppier in some of the action scenes, might just be my tired eyes. Don't have time to rewatch it intently right now. 

 >>/12215/
> Who
Or should I say, "Hoo!" I guess it would be better phrased as a hoo joke.

celluloid-shot0086 jpg
(58.53 KB, 640x360)

 >>/12213/
> The sunset (heh) establishing shot is comfy 
It really shimmered, didn't it?

> There’s only so many ways to say it, but the whole beginning of the episode is some peak comfy
> even the BGM stands out to me as comfy here. 
> comfyzone.
We're on the same page here! Lots of comfy scenes. I especially enjoyed when Owlowiscious showed up with Twilight studying at night. 

> pancakes for Twilight’s breakfast, I’d be interested to see that particular dish. A cursory search suggests we never actually see them on the show.
Yeah, because (I think) we have seen what appears to be normal pancakes already and flour being an ingredient. Inconsistent levels of horse realism is afoot (ahoof). I would reckon that grass pancakes might be a more traditional dish before flour (or a fancy Canterlot trend pretending to be?).

> I would be interested in knowing, but I’ve never been quite interested enough to dig into where it could come from. Perhaps one day.
Might take you up on that. 

> Ponyville when the last time a dragon was this close it was a much larger problem
This was a low smoke dragon. :D Though, for an attempt on my part to rationalize/theorize, that dragon was taking a very long nap on a mountain (and the weather is different in the everfree?).

> Spike deserved his spotlight episode and it was a pretty good time all round. I’d give it a rating of 8.3.
Yeah. My memories of this episode being slightly controversial are very hazy, I must point out. 

> Ultimately though I’m the oldest sibling, so I wouldn’t really know. 
Me as well, and weirdly, I could somewhat relate to Spike's plight as someone who was often a caretaker and derived meaning from that perhaps too much at times.

GoodvEvilInSeason1 jpeg
(973.12 KB, 3000x1688)

Alright, anon, now finally replying to you, like I said earlier: >>/12211/
 >>/12191/
 >>/12192/
 >>/12193/
> I absolutely loved this episode. It was the first episode that I watched, 
Interesting first episode! I know a lot of the Season 1 first episodes have people who came in at specific  points like that but this feels like an interesting minor one to come in and decide you were hooked. 

>  but it does establish that dungeons and banishment are things that are not unknown to the tiny horses, and given that Celestia had reigned for a thousand years it would seem likely that she herself would have prescribed those punishments at some point in history. 
I take the show as a bit more innocent but you do make a good point there. Early on, a lot of the fandom would portray Equestria as some sort of utopia that did not know these things at all. My argument has been that they did, but much less than earth, at least, now.   As for prescribing punishments, I think it's plausible that those things still existed but were rare and the upper end of what Celestia would dole out on somepony. 

> Faust, Gen 1 fangirl that she is, retained some of that early-80s brutality.
IRRC, Faust didn't like the G1 show much. 

> that Fluttershy actually is a child and Celestia is just calling her what she is. To quote Faust in her show bible, "(O)ur ponies, though independent, have an emotional range of anywhere between 10 and 15 with most seemingly about 12." The Season 1 Mane Six were early adolescents
10 star point right there. Yeah, that is another context to look at it. (I suppose another is that Celestia is so freaking old that all the young ponies are children to her). 

>  I have heard it mentioned (can't recall where) that Rainbow Dash was originally supposed to be very short.
Yeah, I recall that Faust wanted the mane 6 to have slightly different heights and body shapes but couldn't easily make it work for animation, don't recall where either. 

>  Twilight Twinkle's which involved a late-night study session after she had already become Celestia's student.
Show bible reference here I presume? Interesting. I don't recall that one. 

>  I greatly prefer the original concept where Rainbow Dash flies fast enough to create a vapor trail that causes a rainbow to appear. The idea was that pegasus ponies gathered bunches of clouds to create rainbows that would then serve as solid bridges, which is why Cloudsdale looks the way it does
I still like the rainboom, but fair.

twiful png
(1.58 MB, 1900x1200)

 >>/12191/
> The were in-jokes that flew over the heads of 90+% of the audience.
They certainly went over my head!
> Yeah, one thing that I did dislike about the episode--and it was a complaint that I had about several Season 1 episodes--was how utterly frustrating Fluttershy often was. Just say something instead of dragging the story on by being a wimp
I think I've come to appreciate more the balance the show had with the mane 6 in their paired up episodes, trying to be evenhanded - because I would side much more with Fluttershy in this episode and it was Rarity I found annoying. So really, the episode had to be fair to both otherwise one side of the viewers would end up feeling alienated, I think. 
 >>/12192/
> It would figure if Faust, Gen 1 fangirl that she is, retained some of that early-80s brutality.
From her other work I think she also understood why that brutality was present to begin with - there's few tools as powerful as juxtaposition to illustrate your themes, and having the dangers present in both g1 and g4 make the fun, innocent moments all the more safe and cozy. It's the same principle as snuggling next to a warm fire during a storm: you could do it on any night, but the wind and rain make it cozier. 
 >>/12193/
> You have this city on terraces attached to the side of a mountain, and most of its residents cannot fly. 
I was actually thinking more from the perspective of how Canterlot is more modern and cosmopolitan (but in a good way) and so more likely to have ziplining hobby-type areas, but that idea works too!
> Apart from just shamelessly ripping off Olympus from Disney's Hercules, that is.
I would posit that Cloudsdale looks Greek because the Pegasus is a figure of Greek legend - iirc, the Pegasus rises from out of the fallen corpse of Medusa? Regardless, it's part of classical Greek mythological canon, so the same origin point as Olympus - and since Olympus is the home of Gods who are Greek, a Greek flair to cloudy architecture naturally makes sense for any Olympian-type imagery, not just the movie Hercules - though I do quite like that movie's take on aspects of Greek myth!
 >>/12206/
> You know, I wouldn't have gotten my cutie mark if it weren't for her. C'mon, she'd have to go to the ground at one point if it was her natural talent and place in life, right? 
It is a character's statement, so it could reflect a mistaken belief about how cutie marks work - I don't know if even during the later seasons we ever got an answer to whether adult ponies without cutie marks exist or not. I also wonder whether cutie marks preexisted the advent of Harmony with the first Hearth's Warming - if cutie marks are a function of Harmony, then like Harmony itself they're malleable rather than tied to a deterministic idea of fate, and I would assume your cutie mark would vary based on the talent that best suits the path one is going down and the most opportune time for you to discover it. I'm not so married to that theory that I'd be upset to see it proven wrong, though.
 >>/12207/
> I don't know if it was intended to resemble a flag or if it was just something born out of the limitation of their medium/chosen art style(let's make Celestia be in a silhouette! Solid flat color with no shading or gradient that gives shape to her). 
I'd assume it's meant to look like it's being presented as something like a symbol or a flag, since the stage deliberately frames Celestia to be silhouetted against the sun relative to the audience.

2364385 png
(698 KB, 1276x1790)

 >>/12207/
>  Baring weird implications from dragon's being a sentient race, if a hatching a dragon egg is a requirement to enter the School for Gifted Unicorns, why aren't their more baby dragons like Spike running around?
So, I would assume there's several schools for gifted unicorns in Equestria - this, however, is THE genuine article, a school for gifted unicorns in the capital under the personal tutelage of Celestia. Even at this stage of the show where Equestria is a perhaps slightly smaller nation that it will be depicted to be later, it's still a nation of multiple cities. Cities too were smaller in the human past so we can reasonably infer that pony cities might also be smaller than modern human cities in terms of population, however! Even with all that, you're dealing with a population at least in the low millions, I think. We only see Celestia take Twilight on as a personal protege, that is to say, one apprentice at a time at most. All of this is to say that I think it's likely a school with a minuscule student body, as elite as Oxford or Cambridge during the most elitist eras of their history but without the fast-track system of money, clout or class, instead an examination system that a middle-class unicorn like Twilight is able to gain entry from. So: I imagine that the exams aren't set, that is, that they're not all the same. If it was the same test every time, you could practice for it, which would not be optimal for identifying really, truly outstanding talent. It's not like the Imperial Chinese civil service, you really are wanting to minimize the number actually passing the examination. All of this is strictly speculative, of course, but at least my interpretation or headcanon is that it's sort of like a short assigned dissertation, examiners deliberately setting new, somewhat random and creative challenges for potential entrants to try and solve. If I'm honest, I also like the idea of this interpretation, I'm biased on it; it would also make Twilight's background with Spike potentially unique and a happy coincidence, which I like as an idea.
> Rock farm. Never decided if I wanted to to accept it as some sort of mining or rationalize it as earth pony magic working the ground.
It's also a question of what the rocks are actually useful for, since they're not being refined (which would make the 'farm' either a kind of factory or a mine) - I think in later seasons we see them eating rock soup? There's an old story of a soup-stone where a homeless person tricks someone into giving him soup by pretending his rock makes soup taste better, from that idea could come special rocks that absorb energy from the sun and somehow through that process give out edible flavor and nutrients when boiled in water. That's about as charitable a reading as I can possibly give it I think!
> Though lately I've also had sympathy to just saying: "Hey, this is a whimsical kid's show, who cares?" but I still enjoy trying to make it work.
Oftentimes the two can work together to some extent. Magic lets you bend a few rules in a useful way too. Charles Fourier, a fully grown reasonably learned man, once suggested in all seriousness a project to turn the Earth's oceans into lemonade, so with a little bit of fiction and magic to smudge the details I think applying aspects of deeper thinking and reason to these things can make them come alive to a certain degree without simply deflating them with a 'that's not realistic'.
 >>/12208/
> 2:Twilight Sparkle's. Lore! and pre Season 1 Canterlot.
I don't know where the rest would be for me but Twilight's adorable "yes yes yes yes yes!!" would absolutely put it at number one!

FavTSFindingARobotI... png
(1.86 MB, 1480x1600)

 >>/12358/
Whoops, forgot the name field... Old habits die hard, as they say.
 >>/12209/
> I guess I could say that if no one else believed it, why would they tell otherwise? If Rainbow Dash couldn't replicate it, they probably would go ahead and might even decide that themselves regardless of their own eyes. 
Being charitable here as I was with the rock farm: how many ponies actually saw Rainbow Dash directly causing the sonic rainboom, and how many saw just the sonic rainboom? The way the sonic rainboom is framed in every part of the show where it's been brought up so far, it is presented as something a pegasus directly causes, but at least theoretically it could either be something which can also occur as a freak accident of nature or is BELIEVED to sometimes occur as a freak accident of nature (I could possibly see some snooty unicorn scientists proposing this purely out of disdain for theories of earth pony and pegasi magical abilities, at least those beyond the ones that are indisputable (and arguably none of earth pony magic is indisputable!)). So, again being extra charitable and stretching my suspension of disbelief to the limit, MAYBE the spectators and even the bullies were for the most part convinced/convinced themselves that it was all a big coincidence. It's flimsy but that's all I got - if I treat this as a reality that I've been presented with rather than a show that's been artificially constructed, then I'd simply say that there's clear a deficit of information somewhere, that there's some big missing pieces that create, in their absence, this apparent contradiction. That's I guess the second way I could be charitable, simply assuming the world is real in the same way we assume our world is real and going from there. In fairness, there are irl plotholes (such as the incongruities between general relativity and quantum mechanics, or the uncertainty principle)
> My sometimes militaristic mind can't help but think in the ways that this could be weaponized.
It's sort of the question of weaponizing superheroes in a way, since (iirc) only Rainbow Dash is ever able to perform a rainboom. The Super Mario series raises a similar question: are the Toad Guards effectively a ceremonial military (given their perfect track record of failure in even slightly hindering the Koopa armed forces) and the Mario brothers essentially the two-man army of the entire (rather large!) Mushroom Kingdom? There's a couple of exceptions possibly but seemingly Princess Peach's defense policy rests entirely on relying upon two superheroes. Luckily, in spite of Equestria's occasional reliance on the elements of harmony, it never gets quite as silly as aspects of the Mario series do, we can clearly extrapolate that the Equestrian military exists and does effectively deal with some threats even if we see very little of it. 
> I wonder how many other cultural inferences I can make with that though?
We have a bit of a precedent for it from Winter Wrap-Up, where Ponyville traditions bar the use of magic (which I believe I theorized at the time later had an exception added for Pegasi, since weather manipulation seems rather obviously to be Pegasus magic at least to me) - if we just make that principle slightly more extreme, and assume that Ponyville was founded on those principles for a reason, it would make sense to me that Pinkie's family might well be purists of this kind of philosophy. In fact, I could even see this potentially justifying the rock farm: Earth pony magic primarily deals with plants and animals seemingly, so farming rocks could potentially be a way of subsisting without even the use of Earth pony magic, a totally nonmagical way of life. As to what the reasons or rationale for this way of life would be, I have absolutely no idea, and I don't even feel that I have enough of a basis to speculate really.

1cb1b3ab6a8a8... png
(1.97 MB, 1090x1500)

 >>/12209/
> I think the most logic is what you state, that Twilight Sparkle was startled. 
There's some precedent for the idea that being panicked or startled can 'boost' Twilight's abilities from The Ticket Master, where she's able to teleport away from that crowd, so maybe possible?
 >>/12210/
> Maybe I should finally take the chatgpt pill for copy editing? 
It's totally your choice, though for my part I think it would be a shame to use any AI at all. I'm interested in what you have to say, not some computer, and even if it's just an editor, editing has a much bigger impact on what's said than many people realize. As I say though, it is totally up to you and I won't begrudge you using AI either - I won't even begrudge the AI, since I doubt it would care for my grudges one way or the other. 
> As I've stated earlier, I've heard mainly, or I guess I should say, seen in fanfics, either some special earth pony function or just mining of sorts (or just a strange thing that nopony outside of the Pie family/maybe Earth Ponies have any understanding of). But, I've only read fics haphazardly since 2014 and haven't kept up with anything new on that front. 
The soup idea I suggested earlier is honestly my best crack at it. I'd be surprised if a fan theory really changed the way I looked at the rock farm - but then, I have been surprised before!
> Storywise, it is certainly a 9/10 for sure! My 7.9 is just based on enjoyment levels.
My ratings are all based on enjoyment levels too. If I were trying to judge quality, my inclination would be to say everything in season 1 is 10/10 and that it's my enjoyment which is falling short of it, which is why I just judge my personal enjoyment instead!
 >>/12215/
> I don't Twilight Sparkle necessarily committed any wrong action other than being ignorant. 
This is very much my view too. I wouldn't want to blame Spike, per se, but everything that went wrong was due to him overreacting and blowing things out of proportion, and I think putting the emphasis on Twilight to defuse the situation before it gets out of hand is applying audience knowledge. We see things from Spike's perspective here, so naturally we ask why Twilight can't see what's going on and intervene, because that's what Spike is asking. But that's not seeing things from Twilight's perspective. I think then that at best you could argue Twilight should have been more empathetic and spent more time with Spike, but that's all very general. 
> I am not sure I'd call myself a full throated Twilight Sparkle defender here
Not even Twilight Sparkle would be a full-throated TS defender here I think, considering she apologized to Spike at the end of the episode!
 >>/12216/
> Was the scene in Sugercube Corner out of sequence or did they just reuse Sugercube Corner for a kitchen scene possibly intended to take place in Golden Oak's Library?
They might mention it on the DVD commentary, but I expect they just thought looking through cupboards in a kitchen would work well for the scene and put it in without thinking so much about whether the assets fitted the scene properly, and then it just slipped by into the episode from there. It almost certainly can't be implying he went and searched around in Sugarcube Corner, since he went there later and asked Pinkie for a quill, as you pointed out. I'd chalk it up to a complex animation/continuity error, of sorts.

1758233240392270 png
(2.41 MB, 3602x3450)

 >>/12217/
> It really shimmered, didn't it?
One might say that!
> Might take you up on that. 
Sadly, the best bet is it goes with a silent movie which has since been destroyed, since that was the fate of pretty much most of the old silent films. The other complicated element is that musical accompaniment for movies, if any particular instructions came from the studio at all, would essentially be mere suggestions since the 'soundtrack' back then was just a guy playing music live, which was Joe Rinaudo's old job and how he knows how to play the Fotoplayer! So even if one finds a movie that was paired with that piece, it could just be reusing it from a previous movie and we'd never know, music was just sort of used where it fit serviceably enough. You can even see this same sort of thing happen today - there used to be (might still be up) an upload of the 1916 movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea on youtube which used Kevin MacLeod music, because of course the movie itself doesn't come with music, so the uploader just picked whatever fitted well enough. Very good movie by the by, it mixes sources a bit drawing from Verne's The Mysterious Island as well as 20,000 Leagues, but nonetheless very technically impressive for it's day and most likely the very first movie ever to feature genuine underwater footage shot on location. 

Gonna watch the next ep now!

3355277 png
(1.5 MB, 1920x1080)

PoLS. Working on getting things back together after a minor technical issue. The gist of it is just the main computer I was doing reviews and /endpone/ stuff on got damaged. Not serious and I am working on fixing up my replacement for it.

ep25one png
(233.34 KB, 845x473)

ep25two png
(279.95 KB, 845x471)

ep25three png
(400.92 KB, 849x468)

ep25four png
(214.68 KB, 847x471)

The Pinkie episode! I love the singing party telegram (even though I would hate to actually have to receive one) and notably, Pinkie gets tired out from doing it, even with the Twinkling Balloon to help her get around. In a meta sense this is when Pinkie’s reality-bending powers are less a relied-upon cliché, making her efforts more real – but could this also be in-universe her being not yet as acquainted with her unawareness-dependent Earth pony magic as she will be later in the series, carrying on from my earlier theories about her abilities??… No, I think stretching it that far is silly, though I do still have my eyes peeping around for anything that confirms or indeed denies my pet theory on the subject. Having said all that, this episode is where I think things perhaps start to really take a turn for the worse with Pinkie Pie’s characterization: not in terms of within this episode specifically, as such, but for a potential precedent being set. I think within this episode the paranoia angle is really about playing out overthinking such a low-stakes problem as comedy, and Pinkie Pie’s repeated use of her reality-bending powers to a more extreme extent than usual also I think goes along with the overall comedic theme of the episode, but these both help establish two things that later become much more core parts of Pinkie’s character, namely her paranoia and her ‘powers’. Having said that, I think an alternative interpretation is also possible: namely, that perhaps this is sort of always what she was planned to be, and this is an early manifestation of that. Later in the show’s development, this becomes the staff’s answer on Magical Mystery Cure, so I have a feeling the same might be said by them about this episode and Pinkie Pie’s later characterisation. So I suppose it’s ultimately a matter of interpretation. Furthermore, this kind of paranoid thinking is the kind of thing I’m very used to doing, and it leads me to be more isolated and I was an introvert to begin with, so for Pinkie Pie to manifest it is unusual, perhaps comedic in juxtaposing it with her more normal nature (the way she interrogates Spike and the party she holds with the inanimate objects, for instance, show that even in her biggest breakdowns she can only think within quite innocent, Ponylike parameters, reinforcing the comedy of Pinkie of all people acting this way). Although of course, the extremes of her hyperactivity does also lend her character to that kind of interpretation even before this episode, as Cupcakes (which came out before this episode) demonstrates. I guess, frankly, I would have redone Pinkie’s character just slightly even for season 1 if I could have, because she’s already edging closer to flanderization already just with this episode and the show’s only in it’s first season. Though again, outside of the context of the wider show, I don’t think this episode breaks Pinkie’s character (just lays the foundation for it to be broken later) and the whole setup is very funny. I think if it weren’t for the comedy potential of having this situation happen to Pinkie, this would have been a Twilight episode.

Other highlights: the rest of the Mane 6’s refusals being set up as if they genuinely don’t want to attend by having Pinkie pull pranks on Applejack and Rainbow Dash (resulting in Gummy getting to essentially kiss Rainbow Dash – I wonder if Dashie waifufags get jealous during this scene), gross out Rarity, and knock down Twilight and Fluttershy; Spike taking Rarity’s bins out and being smitten even by her insulting description of his smell; and Pinkie Pie doing all the voices for her imaginary friends. I rate this episode 7.4, solidly enjoyable and funny.

celluloid-shot0008 jpg
(138.38 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0009 jpg
(132.47 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0010 jpg
(154.9 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0011 jpg
(116.14 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0012 jpg
(134.11 KB, 1280x720)

I'm FINALLY BACK!

Starting out, once again I am greeted with the prospect of finding little moments from Season 1 that I used to not think much of I now find more charming than I recalled. In the form of Pinkie Pie’s singing telegram invitations. It is not an amazing moment, but it is cute and endearing. It was also kind of nice to see Pinkie Pie actually get tired from doing it she had a different outfit each time, of course she would! My reasoning for liking this will be explained in a moment. 

The party goes on okay. I mildly chuckled Pinkie’s antics. Not even sure it’s worth noting but in the battle between wanting to organize this into some list format and just type freely I am just choosing to type freely today. Anyways, main conflict: Pinkie Pie slowly figuring out her friends are up to something. Of course the first couple don’t phase her much, but after everypony does she gets naturally suspicious, and like any sane person on the way to conspiracy town, there is something that rightly doesn’t add up. Her detecting something off is completely correct even if she is starting run with it. 

I perhaps could make a point about this being almost the inverse of Twilight Sparkle with Pinkie Pie following her friends somewhat covertly but I am not sure the comparison with Feeling Pinkie Keen holds fully. Pinkie Pie isn’t being humiliated and is still, especially with Rainbow Dash, the one being contended with rather than the one being on the receiving end of "punishment". The most I laughed during this episode  was when Rainbow Dash casually said, “Hey Pinkie” when Pinkie Pie was in the hay bale disguise, no doubt used to seeing her in such a get up from their mutual pranking. I had forgotten that detail.

celluloid-shot0013 jpg
(150.85 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0014 jpg
(95.62 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0015 jpg
(80.48 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0016 jpg
(159.9 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0017 jpg
(225.14 KB, 1280x720)

 >>/12411/
This next scene is very important for Pinkie Pie's character.At least in the sense of illustrating something that is lost on many (including the show latter on to some extent).

I couldn’t help but notice in Pinkie Pie’s interrogation with Spike, while Pinkie Pie is acting with a relative impulsive manner, she isn’t outright stupid. Spike is, understandably clueless, and confesses to his various “sins”, Pinkie Pie gets more frustrated. While Pinkie Pie is a naive and carefree, she isn’t stupid and random. This is one of the things that does set the show apart from others at the time, and even now, Pinkie Pie was a certain archetype but not the stereotype that the silly carefree happy character had turned into even at that time: stupid for stupid’s sake. She isn’t even the most naive one here. Spike doesn’t fully understand that conversation and him taking “taking about his friends” literally is something that would be associated more with Pinkie Pie (even in this season perhaps!). 

The short of everything I just said is, I think Pinkie Pie is a real rounded character here and this is her at her best in this episode, even with her freakout. This is also why I liked the detail of her getting tired with her singing invitations. She is silly, carefree and a little weird but not just stupid and random. 

Speaking of her freakout I do enjoy this scene still, the most famous moment from this episode. Pinkie Pie is in her own imaginary world acting out things. I associate this with more of a soft mental break from betrayal and just a more extreme version of the sort of fantasy a lot of people have after being bullied or hurt, over implying any in universe lee creepy pasta mental illness. Albeit, the theory of when a pony cannot fulfill their cutie mark causing severe mental distress is still one that has appeal to me.  


This episode’s enjoyment level for me was a 7.5/10. This is one that could rise through the ranks on rewatch I feel like. I can’t complain in the slightest!

celluloid-shot0018 jpg
(119.7 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0019 jpg
(150.37 KB, 1280x720)

celluloid-shot0020 jpg
(119.26 KB, 1280x720)

Heh, accidentally left board owner on again. Forgot to namefag too. 

 >>/12412/
>  I can’t complain in the slightest!

...except I’m mixed on the lesson. At least the wording.
> Always expect the best from your friends, and never assume the worst. Rest assured that a good friend always has your best interests at heart.

Part of me thinks this is, while not bad in intend, bad phrasing, as kids, especially in this day and age, your friends certainly NOT have your best interests at heart even if you think there your good friends. Yet… how many times have I see (from afar usually) friendships destroyed over stupid assumptions and or buying into some stupid rumor? Plenty! It is either perfect and I am a little too low trust, jaded and calculating or it is something that needs a significant tweaking. Regardless, as I have said I often think that people over scrutinize the phrasing of this lessons and don’t think it’s a major blow but part of me would’ve liked the wording there to have put more emphasis on not jumping to conclusions with limited information.   


Odds and Ends!

Party Music
The party music from the Call of the Cutie is once again reused here at Pinkie’s birthday party. If I can get my act well enough together I will try to track these motifs better. Call of Cutie, The Showstoppers (probably most famous use where it was sometimes a defacto secondary theme for the CMC within the fandom. Someone had even wrote lyrics to it but I have already searched for it before I couldn’t find it). I thought another episode this season I also noticed having this music but I can't recall. 

Hair
Hair! Rarity calls her mane, her hair! Not the first time this season someone has refereed to mane as hair. I look forward to seeing what human terminology still coexisted and what was later ponified in future seasons. 

Streetlight
I spy with my little eye a streetlight, or I guess what maybe more propperly termed street lantern?. I don’t recall noticing these before. They could have easily been in the background and I could’ve missed it. I wonder, magical, oil, gas, or electric? 

Liars
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were the best liars of the bunch. They even improvised and Pinkie Pie bought the lie as legit. Applejack was the worst and most hilarious.

Pinkie's Peculiar Party Pals  
I need to check on what other appearances on MLP media they had, if any. I am drawn to obscure secondary characters (if they could be called characters) like this because in a fandom that ran with background appearances and small implications, there is a lot more material for us to work with. My favorite is probably  Madame le Flour followed by Mr Turnip. I just like the voice she does for Madame. For Mr Turnip it is more of his “design” that I like.

celluloid-shot0007 jpg
(184.5 KB, 1280x720)

 >>/12370/
>  this episode is where I think things perhaps start to really take a turn for the worse with Pinkie Pie’s characterization: not in terms of within this episode specifically, as such, but for a potential precedent being set. 

Wow! Funny that two people can watch the same thing and come with completely opposite conclusions. That is the fun of talking with others though! 

> I think within this episode the paranoia angle is really about playing out overthinking such a low-stakes problem as comedy, and Pinkie Pie’s repeated use of her reality-bending powers to a more extreme extent than usual also I think goes along with the overall comedic theme of the episode, but these both help establish two things that later become much more core parts of Pinkie’s character, namely her paranoia and her ‘powers

For her powers, I disagree, I think here these things would be more of gags in a season 1 context and not be definitively reality bending    and more of a cartoon "gags". Now keep in mind I do look at things from a similar lens where I try to figure out how cartoon gags work in canon and certainly latter canon did imply more to this. I would aruge that Feeling Pinkie Keen still is what broadly established Pinkie Pie having said powers that they would run with later. 

On paranoia, you have a point there for sure. 

> Furthermore, this kind of paranoid thinking is the kind of thing I’m very used to doing, and it leads me to be more isolated and I was an introvert to begin with, 

You're not the only one.

> I think if it weren’t for the comedy potential of having this situation happen to Pinkie, this would have been a Twilight episode.

100% agreed. 

>  and Pinkie Pie doing all the voices for her imaginary friends. I rate this episode 7.4, solidly enjoyable and funny.

Our ratings are close despite our wildly different takes. This does give me something to think about in future appearances going forward with Pinkie's appearances.

...wow, has it been over a month since I was last in this thread? Goodness, though I know IRL stuff happens to both of us more in a PM sooner or later. I am just happy to be back. Will try to get to some of the other stuff soon!

izuchiTwilight jpeg
(1.28 MB, 2048x2048)

 >>/12358/
> is that it's sort of like a short assigned dissertation, examiners deliberately setting new, somewhat random and creative challenges for potential entrants to try and solve. If I'm honest, I also like the idea of this interpretation, I'm biased on it; it would also make Twilight's background with Spike potentially unique and a happy coincidence, which I like as an idea.

As cool as having several dozen dragon assistants would be runing around and as Season 1 kino it would be to have the dragon's own reproduction dependent on the ponies I think I might prefer this as well. Plus or minus my partial temptation of Twilight Sparkle being Spike's mother somehow by creating life in the egg. Though I suppose those could coexist.


 >>/12359/
> how many ponies actually saw Rainbow Dash directly causing the sonic rainboom, and how many saw just the sonic rainboom? 

> but at least theoretically it could either be something which can also occur as a freak accident of nature 

> MAYBE the spectators and even the bullies were for the most part convinced/convinced themselves that it was all a big coincidence. 

Actually, now that I think about it:
> Rainbow Dash does a Sonic Rainboom

 but most don't see her.
> Even among those that do, they may not believe a filly pulled that off.

> Bullies lie to themselves enough to dismiss it.

> Especially if nearly everyone doubted her. 

> Rainbow Dash is a braggart after all. 

Yeah, that might work after all. 

> Whoops, forgot the name field... Old habits die hard, as they say.

Hey, not as bad as:
 >>/12411/
 >>/12412/
I'm the BO anon.
 >>/12413/
Now I'm Bridge.
 >>/12414/
Now I'm just anon (often don't post with JS enabled, which is what got me that time). 


 >>/12361/
> though for my part I think it would be a shame to use any AI at all. I'm interested in what you have to say, not some computer, and even if it's just an editor, editing has a much bigger impact on what's said than many people realize. 

I'll be upfront in saying that I am afraid of AI robbing me of my voice, my skills, and what it means to be human  by the outsourcing of our creativity and all of its messy imperfections and sincerity to a machine that speaks with it's own voice, and style. I don't hate the components themselves; the pursuit of AI art, agentic assistants, and automation of certain tasks is helpful/might be a worthy ends unto themselves but it's all happening too fast and in a bad way (all controlled by a handful of companies with lots of compute.) So, my thoughts on this is less chatGPT and more like running the leanest and somewhat stupid LLM that I can get on the best CPU I have as a glorified spell checker that would catch obvious grammatical mistakes but not change whole sentences (it's "there, not they're").

ep26one png
(271.06 KB, 842x474)

And here we are at last, the end of season 1. What we do past here in the thread I imagine will be up for reflection and discussion – whether we need a new thread, whether we keep going or not, etc, but for my part I’d like to keep going into season 2, even if it’s just me and we then just discuss the episodes, although I imagine others will still want to join in. Possibly we could go for more of a pick-and-choose model going forward where people chime in for episodes they’re interested in whilst skipping over others. But for now, I’m going to focus on the actual episode. 

We’ve been waiting for it ever since episode 3, and it’s finally here, the Grand Galloping Gala! The intro sets us up with an allusion to Cinderella, which I think sets the mood for what the Gala is going to be like fairly well: this is a night where our six mares get to feel like princesses – at least in theory! An aspect of this I really like is that in contrast to Cinderella, here a whole group of friends get to be special. Cinderella doesn’t go to the ball along with her sisters, albeit through no fault of her own, and with her magical assistance she’s really the sole beneficiary of all the attention. It also, intentionally or not, gives us a clue as to the outcome of the episode: just as Cinderella loses track of time and so feels she has to flee the ball at midnight, thus ending her evening in disappointment, our Mane Six will also end the night feeling disappointed. The intro also rather skilfully gives most (not all, but that would be a tall order in the tight time window) of the Six something to contribute. Pinkie introduces the scene, Twilight’s magic is the focal point, Fluttershy provides the mice, and Rarity provides the replacement for the mice. We tend to not get all six in one opening, and I think that’s because it’s a hard act to pull off, but it’s done great here and I appreciate it for that – one of my favorite aspects of Cutie Mark Chronicles was how it kept all of the Mane Six in focus for the story, and I think it’s something that I enjoy very much in general. When all of the Mane Six are given relatively equal focus, it reminds me of the first three episodes, as well as Dragonshy, and feels somehow more like the ‘core show’, rather than a spotlight episode – which is not to say I don’t enjoy spotlight episodes, but I’ll confess that I think I slightly prefer the ‘equal focus’ approach, at least in balance (I.e not every episode) and absent other factors of a given episode.

ep26two png
(352.47 KB, 849x476)

After the opening is over and Spike is let into the room the Mane Six are preparing in at Carousel Boutique, Spike refers to Canterlot as his and Twilight’s ‘hometown’. I think it would be fair to say, taking off our Season-1-Canon goggles for just a moment, that at some point down the line Spike and Twilight come to see Ponyville as their hometown – I wonder at what point that would be? It’s probably not possible to pinpoint exactly, but it occurred to me as a question. It also, from that, occurred to me that by the end of the show, Twilight has returned to Canterlot, and goes on to rule from there. In the grand scheme of her life, the years in Ponyville would then make up a gap between growing up in Canterlot, and ruling in Canterlot. Anyway, aside over, goggles back on. We cut to Spike as the driver of the carriage in his tuxedo, and he says he wants to show Rarity the crown jewels. Celestia of course wears her crown and her collar (best term I can think of for whatever the gold thing round her neck is), so I think this is suggesting the existence of other, accompanying items. Common ones I know of would be things like an orb, a scepter, and/or a sword. I’d love to know the history of them, I quite like those sort of artifacts – like the Iron Crown of Lombardy, so called because it was said that it contained a nail from the True Cross, and it was won (later to be joined by, I believe, every other nail of the True Cross, in various other artifacts – at least according to legend) by Charlemagne when he came to the aid of the Pope against the King of Lombardy. Later chemical analysis showed the crown didn’t contain any iron, sadly – but the point is, these sort of things always have very cool histories. I’m sure the Elements of Harmony, also, have a fascinating story to tell, even just the crown and necklaces they currently inhabit. 

The song is excellent, and whilst it was going, I was considering all the unique hopes the Six had for the Gala, and how they had been set up in The Ticket Master, an episode that I liked but wasn’t as keen on as others when I looked at it earlier in this thread. However, something I think I didn’t consider at the time was quite how well that episode sets up this one, which is very much a point in it’s favour. On the other hand, I think it also makes a criticism I had surrounding that episode a bit more pertinent too: it might have been better placed just a bit later in the season so that it’s not quite so far removed from the Gala. I think I’d put Boast Busters as episode 3, then Applebuck Season as episode 4, and then put The Ticket Master as episode 5. 

We go through each of the girls starting their nights off not too badly. When Soarin comes along hungry for something, Applejack lists off some of her items and mentions apple fries, so I looked up apple fries out of curiosity. They look really quite good, I might have to make them sometime. I’ve been planning to make apple butter for years now as well, I remember it being one of the first items you’d get on My Lego Network so it’s stuck in my memory from that. Soarin goes for the pie instead, and takes it in it’s tin – so I guess he’s keeping the tin.

ep26three png
(426.17 KB, 852x475)

ep26four png
(277.26 KB, 854x482)

Pinkie presents our first major sign that things are starting to go wrong as she has her big happy spergout and gets the wrong kind of attention from the other guests. Prince Blueblood’s title is intriguing, theoretically it puts him on equal footing with Luna, Celestia and later Cadence, except of course that they’re all female and he’s male – is that the difference? I don’t think this works too badly, despite Faust’s stated wish that Celestia had been a Queen instead of a Princess. However, as I’ve mentioned previously I like the title when I think of it pertaining to a ‘Principality’, or a particular domain of rule, such as the raising and lowering of the sun. However, Celestia is clearly the foremost of all these Princes and Princesses in Equestria – if anything her and Luna act a little bit like President and Vice President. So I propose an additional theory – Queen Victoria, feeling slighted at some of her royal relatives ruling over in Europe styling themselves as Emperors and such, asked Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli to create for her an Imperial title. And so Disraeli had parliament establish the title of Empress (or Emperor) of India. Of course, we all still refer to her as Queen Victoria, and that was common at the time too, since the styling of Emperor felt a little bit tyrannical to the English ear. I suggest that Celestia has something similar, only I imagine she uses the title of Princess willingly, owing to her being rather more humble than Victoria was. So perhaps Celestia, Princess of the Sun, also holds the title of Empress of Equestria, but chooses not to use this latter title as her title of address. This would also make a little more sense out of Cadence, who comes to rule the Crystal EMPIRE yet remains a Princess – of course, if Cadence, as a sort of Equestrian puppet-regime ruler, were to style herself as ‘Empress’, this would raise quite a few eyebrows in Canterlot, so whilst I’m sure she too is humble, she couldn’t really call herself Empress even if she had the right and even if she wanted to. The mane six, faced with disappointment, are determined to make the night special in spite of everything, and of course as their harebrained schemes converge it all results in disaster. We then join Spike in Pony Joe’s having donuts and a hot chocolate. Joe seems to recognise Twilight, so she and Spike may have come here together somewhat regularly back when they lived in Canterlot. Then, after the Mane Six have been sat around discussing their night together for a while, Celestia enters – if she hasn’t been to Joe’s before, I can only imagine he’d want to get a photograph of Celestia at his establishment. And I’d imagine Equestria would have something like the royal seal that gets put on products and shops used by the royal family here in the UK, so maybe he could put the Princess’ crest up above his sign or something. 

The conclusion of this episode is pretty great. All the expectations that were built up were subverted in a way that felt both clever and satisfying, and it illustrates a great lesson that I think many other shows wouldn’t quite be courageous enough to attempt to communicate. Sometimes life is really disappointing, to the point even of your dreams getting crushed. I give it an 8.4 – it’s comparable to Dragonshy, another episode where all the Mane Six get to shine, but I find it slightly less rewatchable than Dragonshy so it’s just a point below it. 

And with that, we’re just about reaching the end of Season 1! It’s been a lot of fun so far, I think it’s taken about a year from start to end of this season. It’s been a consistent presence in my thoughts this year, and I think in future when I look back, it’ll be one of the specific things I recall about 2025.

4511 png
(3.02 MB, 2881x3909)

 >>/12411/
> I'm FINALLY BACK!
Woo!
> Her detecting something off is completely correct even if she is starting run with it. 
This can be so tricky - intuition can be very good at telling that something's 'off', but then deducing the reason or cause for that 'offness' can get way into the weeds and overcomplicated, as Pinkie finds out. 
> The most I laughed during this episode was when Rainbow Dash casually said, “Hey Pinkie” when Pinkie Pie was in the hay bale disguise, no doubt used to seeing her in such a get up from their mutual pranking.
The casualness of the remark, I agree, comes from their mutual pranking activities - however, another thing I find amusing about this moment is that Pinkie, by wearing a disguise like that, announces to everyone that it's her since she's the only pony in town who would disguise herself like that! Real pony disguises would either be the province of Unicorn magic, or painting over cutie marks and perhaps gluing cosmetic horns onto the forehead.
 >>/12412/
> over implying any in universe lee creepy pasta mental illness.
it's also her cutie mark to focus on friendships and parties, part of which I imagine is having a close friend group. it is a rather sudden onset of her purpose going unfulfilled leading to delusional behaviour, true, but then, Pinkie IS unusual. 
> Albeit, the theory of when a pony cannot fulfill their cutie mark causing severe mental distress is still one that has appeal to me. 
It's clearly something ponies are not at all used to, and the same goes for not having their social needs met in general. I think it makes pony villains particularly interesting in the show, since they're both equals for the abilities of our main cast and are inherently interesting in terms of exploring how villains can emerge even from a utopian society like Equestria.

3597 png
(226.52 KB, 860x856)

 >>/12413/
> Part of me thinks this is, while not bad in intend, bad phrasing
Agreed. As well as not really what the episode is demonstrating. All it really needs is a tweak from a 'do' to a 'don't', though I understand if the show prefers to give positive affirmations rather than advice that can sound like rulegiving: don't assume the worst of your friends and overthink things! However, it does helpfully clarify things by stating that a *good* friend will always have your best interests at heart, which I think can be true, when there's a particularly strong basis of mutual trust. 
> The party music from the Call of the Cutie is once again reused here at Pinkie’s birthday party. If I can get my act well enough together I will try to track these motifs better. Call of Cutie, The Showstoppers (probably most famous use where it was sometimes a defacto secondary theme for the CMC within the fandom.
Personally I primarily remember it as the music that got swapped out for an All Star instrumental in Friendship Is Witchcraft. They kind of hit on something there, there's an interesting similarity of sorts between the two, even if it's perhaps something to do with the synthesizer/production or whatever the music term would be. 
> I spy with my little eye a streetlight, or I guess what maybe more propperly termed street lantern?
Or even streetlamp?
> I wonder, magical, oil, gas, or electric? 
I'm going to immediately suggest gas just because even if another system is available, Equestria is the kind of place where society's priority is placed more on making sure everyone has something relatively unique they can do for society, and lamplighting fits that bill quite nicely. I'm sure there are some parts of Equestria that buck the trend and use a different solution, however.

7222 jpeg
(138.05 KB, 2048x1941)

 >>/12414/
> For her powers, I disagree, I think here these things would be more of gags in a season 1 context and not be definitively reality bending and more of a cartoon "gags". 
My counterpoint is the scene where Rainbow Dash flees from Pinkie Pie into Applejack's barn: we see Pinkie Pie clearly keeping up with Rainbow Dash and we know Pinkie Pie is close behind because they don't have really any time to prepare for her being there, to come up with a better cover or ruse or such. I would posit that Pinkie's powers are actually meant to straddle the line between cartoon gag and legitimate in-universe ability, a manifestation of hammerspace powers as it were. 
> Now keep in mind I do look at things from a similar lens where I try to figure out how cartoon gags work in canon and certainly latter canon did imply more to this.
Agreed - in this case I'd simply delineate between cases where Pinkie's actions have little direct tangible consequences, which can be safely disregarded as mere gags, and then cases like her managing to keep even pace with Rainbow Dash, where if we try and argue that Pinkie isn't LITERALLY that fast in the scene, the continuity  of the scene all breaks down. 
> ...wow, has it been over a month since I was last in this thread? Goodness, though I know IRL stuff happens to both of us
I think this time of year always gets busy. It always has for me at least, ever since we moved, which happened in autumn of 2009. Not long before this show started, actually. 
 >>/12419/
> Plus or minus my partial temptation of Twilight Sparkle being Spike's mother somehow by creating life in the egg.
The examiners would have had to provide an unfertilized egg then, which if they had done so knowingly would mean they essentially want Twilight to become a parent just to pass an entrance exam? Wet nurses aren't biological mothers and yet there's the tradition of 'milk-kinship' between children reared by the same wet nurse, oftentimes related to neither child and neither child related to eachother - in a similar way Twilight, who was present to hatch the egg and potentially aided curing a late or dormant hatching condition in Spike's egg (which could partially explain his diminutive form compared to other dragons of similar age later on) is Spike's mother in a much more significant and important way than the question of Spike's genetic ancestry, although both remain important to Spike. I prefer Twilight being adoptive, personally. It allows the show to explore those sort of themes and issues. That's not to say that I dislike your idea, rather that on the whole I tend to prefer the show's approach. 
>  So, my thoughts on this is less chatGPT and more like running the leanest and somewhat stupid LLM that I can get on the best CPU I have as a glorified spell checker that would catch obvious grammatical mistakes but not change whole sentences
Perhaps, and I'll admit I find egregious grammar and spelling mistakes hard to swallow when reading something, but by that same token there's a very similar quality to AI-written stuff, an instant sense that I'm reading something written by a marketing department that feels at least as 'off' as something with awful spelling and grammar. If one were to use chatgpt for this purpose I'd make sure to prompt it to make minimal changes, and to split changes into mere suggestions that it lists in a bullet point for you to then apply yourself, and then actual changes it applies to the text that you provide it.

 >>/12429/
sunset goes to the fridge
 >>/12430/
she has acquired food from the fridge
also, darn it I forgot my name for the replies! yet again!

Dont-Notic... jpeg
(143.97 KB, 732x1334)

 >>/12428/
> but then deducing the reason or cause for that 'offness' can get way into the weeds and overcomplicated, as Pinkie finds out. 
100% agree.  

> Real pony disguises would either be the province of Unicorn magic, or painting over cutie marks and perhaps gluing cosmetic horns onto the forehead.
Depending on how one takes Call of the Cutie: >>/11188/ Maybe glue is completely required and no magic can do? A potential avenue for camouflage is something like the Don't-Notice-Me-Field one of the concepts I really liked from the comics. Now I've jumped too far in the past and ahead, lol. 

>  I think it makes pony villains particularly interesting in the show, since they're both equals for the abilities of our main cast and are inherently interesting in terms of exploring how villains can emerge even from a utopian society like Equestria.
An interesting lens that some characters fit comically perfect in (to the point of somewhat stupid, sorry Dolores our bridge of the board.) Nightmare Moon too, some don't fit as well but that is... bleh, a half formed point exists in my head, I want to get back to this later.

 >>/12429/
> positive affirmations rather than advice that can sound like rulegiving: don't assume the worst of your friends and overthink things! 
I think in some cases that is taken too far. Overcompensation for shows talking down to us.

> However, it does helpfully clarify things by stating that a *good* friend will always have your best interests at heart, which I think can be true, when there's a particularly strong basis of mutual trust. 
This is why I am not sure it's just me, looking at this wrong, as an adult. When push comes to shove I don't think this would've even a minor negative impact on anyone even if taken slightly wrong. It wouldn't be solely at fault for a child in a situation being hurt if a friend was bullying/abusive to them. And if taken like you describe here, it has just as high a chance to help. (A real friend wouldn't treat me like this). 

> Rainbow Dash, where if we try and argue that Pinkie isn't LITERALLY that fast in the scene, the continuity of the scene all breaks down. 
I'm debating if the cartoon teleportation would be more irregular for her. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. I do understand where you come from. That the continuity of the episode is set with her powers and weirdness being more than a gag. Not sure I would put the dividing line here over say, Feeling Pinkie Keen, where it is outright stated she has powers while here it is still something that is just kinda there. Pinkie being Pinkie, versus Pinkie being more than Pinkie? I think you probably could argue you it both ways, tbh.

> I prefer Twilight being adoptive, personally. It allows the show to explore those sort of themes and issues. That's not to say that I dislike your idea, rather that on the whole I tend to prefer the show's approach. 
I have always thought that some sort of brother/friendship thing fits better with the dynamic, but Twimom has always had a side appeal to me, lol. Though that is a different dynamic. Adoptive versus biological I find the idea of biological to be interesting but from a hard canon perspective, adoptive is better.

3656620 jpeg
(822.66 KB, 2480x3508)

Okay, HOPEFULLY, I'll get my review out next week. I think I will but it depends on how much effort I want to put in. This is the final to Season 1 comfiness and I won't rush /comfy/ regardless of what life throws at me. Thinking I may aim to have the next season thread posted on New Years Day, BUT, with a hiatus/no expectation for us to jump in reviewing depending on life status for us. So it would be a mostly empty thread. What say you? ...and considering this thread is your idea, if you wanted to take the lead and post, whether new years or later, I would welcome in!



 >>/12430/
> Perhaps, and I'll admit I find egregious grammar and spelling mistakes hard to swallow when reading something
I can be torturous at times I bet!

> very similar quality to AI-written stuff, an instant sense that I'm reading something written by a marketing department that feels at least as 'off' as something with awful spelling and grammar. 
It is at the very least the new language of insincerity. I personally fear people offloading too much of there cogitative functions to it and it causing the ability to have a real conversation like this to be difficult. Think what cellphones did to everybody. I don't want to blindly join the anti-AI crowd (even if I count myself a skeptic) or be a doomer though. Nor sully a fun conversation with slightly apocalyptic semi-political musings, lol. 

> I'd make sure to prompt it to make minimal changes, and to split changes into mere suggestions that it lists in a bullet point for you to then apply yourself, and then actual changes it applies to the text that you provide it.
I was thinking of a local LLM and having it point out and tell me mistakes one paragraph at a time. Right now I am stuck using a couple of Chromebooks but when I either get my laptop fix or my plan B assembled I'll see what sort of small thing I can run on there. 

 >>/12431/
Sunset eats meat, even as a pony. Equestria Girls corrupted her in a unique way!

> also, darn it I forgot my name for the replies! yet again!
Will get the hang and norms of it down next thread.

 >>/12433/
> I can be torturous at times I bet!
*welcome it!
*laptop fixed
*New Year's 
Yes.