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A Dog and Pony Show (March 11th 2011, 22 minutes)

Summary: Spike to the rescue, as Rarity is captured by Diamond Dogs!

Sapphire Shores, the pony of pop. She doesn't seem to be modeled after any specific celebrity, but she is very brash and 'on' while still being friendly. Her accent is African American, and honestly sounds Milwaukee to me but I could be wrong. She is physically quite imposing, being at least half a head taller than Rarity if not more, while not having on any footwear to disguise lifts. The ruffled blouse, odd collar, even stranger spiked skirt, plus the tiny top hat, but with the simple color choices marks it as being a very subdued version of the 'post-modern' fashion range from the 1990's on. She mentions Zigfilly Follies, which is a pun of Ziegfeld Follies, a lavish theatrical production from the early 1900's that was a collection of singing, dancing, comedy, magic, etc. Basically an expensive version of vaudeville. Both vaudeville and follies were *not* marketed to the more puritan middle-class of America, but to the rowdy and less restrained low and high classes respectively. The reference to Pop doesn't necessarily mean pop music, and could refer to any entertainment media, but likely we're looking at an old-fashioned performer who sings, dances, acts, etc. and dominates the stage on a variety of tours around Equestria.

The outfit Rarity shows Sapphire is extremely 70's Elvis. Elvis actually designed that famous jewel-studded outfit himself, interestingly enough.

I'm tainted by Ponies: The Anthology I. I keep expecting the rainbow to explode out of the letter to Celestia during the opening credits.

Rarity's gem-finding spell. The gems are already cut and polished, and are occurring in clusters of multiple colors and shapes. And either Spike is capable of digging through *rock* that easily, or that was just dirt. Either these are planted in some way, or they are not gemstones as we understand them.

Spike demonstrates the dragon need to eat these gemstones, indicating that dragons have a quite different metabolism than any real animal. Unless of course those gemstones are something other, like I mentioned before.

And now we have the Diamond Dogs. As bipedal canines, they are structured in an interesting way. Very heavy forearms, paw-like hands, slit eyes like a cat with iris muscles that are taking up most of the eye (indicating that the slit pupil opens up quite far to see in very dark locations). Very short haired, and possibly the 'spikes' on their tail is what little long hair they have.

The behavior is more mole or gopher than canine.

I get hints of the movie 'Labyrinth' in this episode.

The armor plating on dream-Spike is interesting as it appears that some parts are riveted right onto his arms without any supporting structures. Of course, dream, so *shrug*.

Lot of tunnels, so again Diamond Dogs, like Spike, seem to be able to tunnel through rock just as easily as soil.

Twilight can duplicate Rarity's singular spell with only a few minutes of concentration. That's another tick on the 'magic is too good' slate.

Rarity's hoof hitting the ground is folyied like a horse hoof hitting rock, which the Diamond Dogs then grind through with relative ease. I think that finally proves that the both Diamond Dogs and Spike can dig through stone. As such, they're not really canines and are probably distantly related to Dragons and want those gems to eat.

Mules are stereotypically considered ugly. Even if this is Rarity just taking advantage of the opportunity presented to act up, if the idea occurred to her that means that there is, or was, some kind of stigma against half-breeds or donkeys in general.