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Leap of Faith


Fhaolan

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See * for disclaimer

 

Leap of Faith (March 29th 2014 22 minutes)

 

Big Mac has the floating ring again. Is he actually a weak swimmer, or does it just amuse him?

 

Heh. Big Mac showing his sense of humor again. He's getting a lot of characterization this season.

 

So is Granny for that matter. So she was a shallow diver when she was younger. It used to be called 'high diving', like they are here, but due to a different event being adopted into the Olympics under the name 'high diving', enthusiasts have given the sport Granny's talking about a new name. Shallow diving is to go from the highest point, into a shallow depth of water, like a kiddie pool or whatnot, and it used to be a big thing with travelling circuses.

 

Woah, back up there. That's a pony in a full support cart. In real life, that kind of thing is made for dogs and the like. There's various reasons why they don't make them for horses, but it's interesting to see them here.

 

No, actually, she isn't. That seems to be a reoccurring thing with Applejack. She's rarely curious.

 

Flim & Flam. Interesting, I just noticed their cutie-marks. I didn't notice them prior. I wonder if these two are actually Apples. Yes, I know they're unicorns, but that doesn't mean much.

 

What an odd device. It's like a magic lantern turned on it's side, combined with a calliope.

 

Ha! So they're snake oil salesmen for true this time. Back to their roots, as it were. Snake oil salesmen regularly peddled 'tonics' and 'patent medicines', most of which were just turpentine with red pepper oil or other similar things added. I have an old medical journal from the Victorian era that is full of 'cures' based on drinking turpentine and kerosene, so this wasn't just con-men peddling this. Honest medical practitioners believed in this stuff. Technically 'tonic' (of gin and tonic fame) was originally carbonated water with a large amount of quinine in it, and is actually a real medicinal treatment for malaria. Quinine is exceptionally bitter, so people got in the habit of mixing it with alcohol in order to stomach it. What you get as tonic water now has very little quinine in it, and a lot of sugar-equivalents to counteract the bitterness. So your gin and tonic doesn't actually taste anything like the original. :)

 

Just as a note, patent medicines usually were in fact patent. Patents don't verify the thing actually works. Just that it's a new formulation/technique not previously used.

 

Uh. What's with the heavily made up mare with the parasprites covering her hat?

 

Okay, bear with me as I try to list the odd conditions:

 

The reins, the spurs, and the Clydesdale fur blight, hooferia, and horsentery, bridle bit cleft, Saunter sits, and gallop plop... the rest are normal.

 

None of these RL horse conditions but some of them are simple puns based on real conditions, or so close to real conditions I can see them. The reins is a pun on the runs. Spurs seems to be something like burrs getting tangled in your hide in a very specific area, or something gone wrong with the chestnuts (Chestnuts is the equine equivalent of the dewclaw, a growth on the leg that is the remnant of the animal's fifth toe's nail). Not sure why Clydesdales are being singled out for the mange, but okay. There are breed-specific conditions like Lethal White Syndrome, but I'm not aware of anything specific to Clydesdales. Hooferia and horsentery are punnery of hysteria and dysentery. Bridle bit is likely to differentiate it from the currency bit, and cleft means an unusual split in that area, so a malformation of the mouth back behind the rear molars. Saunter sits sounds like some kind of rear-leg nerve damage, and gallop plop... well, let's leave that one alone shall we?

 

The details don't really matter though. The point is that there are specific diseases and conditions that are considered in some way debilitating and current medical practices are not effective for them. That's bad from a pony's point of view, but good from a worldbuilding point of view. More evidence that magic isn't a cure-all.

 

Flim and Flam immediately admit they recognize Granny from before.

 

A 'Shill' is also known as a stooge, a person planted in the audience to give the impression of an independent voice advocating a product or act. Modern usage has dilute this into any kind of salesperson, but technically it's someone who is pretending to *not* be a salesperson while selling you something.

 

It looks like they have a secondary 'magic lantern/calliope' that's either being re-rigged or is under repairs there.

 

Flim and Flam seem to have done some research on the Apples since their last encounter. They know a lot of background details about Granny. Though... they might have done this research before. They did seem to know how to press the Apple family's buttons then, and were specifically geared to the cider issues... These guys are more dangerous that I thought. They may have dropped the ball because they got too greedy, but they actually seem to plan ahead.

 

Placebo effect in full force.

 

I know nothing about synchronized swimming, so I'm no judge here.

 

That's gonna hurt.

 

Applejack's rope is made of rubber. :)

 

No, she didn't, actually. Everyone just assumed.

 

And that's the Placebo effect in a nutshell.

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