Truffles

On 4/3/2018 at 5:04 AM, Justin_Case001 said:

Maud's alicorn joke at the comedy club just killed me.

The funny thing about it for me was, I saw the punchline coming a mile away.

On 4/3/2018 at 8:07 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

I could barely find the motivation to even write about this episode,

I hear ya. I decided I had to dangle the stuff I liked about the episode like a carrot in front of me just so I could get through writing some comments on the dull parts first. XD

However, you managed to write a ton of stuff anyway. Not as much as usual, but far more than I could for this episode.... o_o

On 4/3/2018 at 8:07 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

So, of course, to add to this, Mud has an inanimate object "pet" too, and his stick is also supposed to be taken seriously as a living being that plays with a rock. In the real world, if a grown adult seriously believed that inanimate objects are living beings, or even sentient beings, and treated them that way, would the appropriate response be to affirm that and go along with it?

I found it strange that Pinkie reacted to Mud's pet stick the way she did. Pinkie has always seen the world a little differently, and I always thought that is why she treated Boulder as real. Plus there has been evidence that there was more to Boulder than meets the eye. We seemingly saw him take a bite of Maud's sandwich in her intro episode, and again last season he seemingly duplicated himself in the mirror pond.

What is not clear is whether we are supposed to take those events literally, or whether it is Maud pretending to be him in the camera cutaways and doing those actions for him when we're not looking?

Either way, I didn't expect Pinkie to have such a negative reaction to him having an inanimate pet object, but perhaps that is just the story showing the negative bias she had toward him early in their relationship?

On 4/3/2018 at 8:07 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

Finally, apparently a bunch of residents of Ponyville are attending a birthday party for Maud that she didn't even want and is deliberately not attending, and even shouting "Surprise!" to a presented cardboard cutout of her - since, you know, she isn't even there. Does this strike any of the attendees as being weird? Are any of the attendees stopping and thinking "Wait, what are we all really doing here?"?

I figured they thought it was just another case of "Pinkie being Pinkie." That is, Pinkie tells them she's holding a party for Maud, but she won't be showing up. They have probably attended so many Pinkie parties by now her setting up another one for her sister's birthday even when she's not going to be present is just par for the course. They all did really seem to be into it, however. Maybe she just explained she'd be watching from afar and they decided to be nice and show her how much they appreciate her by playing up their roles as partygoers?

In any case, it was a nice to to see a bunch of the town get together to pull this off for Maud.

On 4/3/2018 at 8:07 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

As soon as Mud is done with his business at the store, why doesn't Pinkie just take care of buying whatever she needs to buy? If some random person at the store is being stupid or obnoxious or whatever, I don't see any point in interrogating him. I would think the easiest thing to do would be just to try to ignore it and go about your own business.

It seems pony stores (some of them, anyway) are like computer RPGs and you can only buy the goods you want by interacting with the store owner?

On 4/3/2018 at 8:07 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

Why doesn't the pony at the register react to Mud's silent standing and staring for several seconds? It seems pretty obviously awkward and inconvenient. So why wouldn't the pony at the register say something like "Do you need any further help?" or "Could you please step aside and allow me to serve the next customer?", rather than just silently staring back?

Yeah that's one of the reasons I found that scene so tedious to sit through. The "joke" only works by having the third party in the exchange stay silent.

On 4/3/2018 at 8:07 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

After Maud's set, Pinkie gets up on stage and says "Isn't my sister Maud the most hilarious, entertaining, amazing comedian ever?", after which the audience bursts into laughter. But why?

I guess they thought she was being facetious? At least that was my take on their laughter - that she was poking fun at her sister to lighten the mood again. But for me that even joke felt flat, too.

Heh, apologies to anyone for sounding like Twilight in "What About Discord" for those last two comments. Roll them eyes, Spike!

56 minutes ago, MegaSean45 said:

 

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Smolder might've been too sensitve to talk about her possible lost sibling which could be why she never mentioned it, but even if her family did lose the egg, she probably assumes the egg was lost and she never even thought about Spike being the sibling, that is unless Smolder finally talks about her past in Hearth's Warming Club and the flashback shows the egg.

 

I'm not saying it's certainly gonna happen, but don't underestimate these writers! Similar unexpecting scenerios have happened! With Nicole Dubuc in charge, who knows what'll happen! She brought back Star Swirl! What were the odds of that happening?!

And I'm not saying it isn't possible - just unlikely based on the evidence I've seen so far. I guess I would also say it seems limiting to me to make it that the only other dragon with nominal sociability turns out to be a direct family member of Spike. Doing so perpetuates this notion that only he and his family are capable of being integrated into pony society. (Ember is getting there, but she still has a ways to go by what we saw in the season premiere.)

10 minutes ago, CypherHoof said:

Assuming that is even the process - it is possible that there isn't an actual mating (eggs externally fertilized, say) and we don't know what the incubation period is unless magically assisted; it is possible Spike wasn't meant to hatch for hundreds of years yet, and possibly even it was a test Twilight was meant to fail, except.. rainboom, massive surge in magical power level, parents into cacti, and sudden cutie mark....

All very possible. Though if that's the case, then dragons must have the worst experience of child-rearing among any species around Equestria. XD No intimacy or fun whatsoever in producing or raising the child, and then

Your theory might infer then if the eggs are unhatched for so long, that any affection they have for their kids might be in the form of the egg being just another "treasure" in their hoard, and once it hatches it's less of a treasure and more of a burden.

Admittedly, it does all fit in with the "loveless" nature of MLP dragons (other than Spike), though that does fly in the face of much historical dragon lore from other franchises. In this episode, (to try to get back on topic again, lol) Ember did say the most important thing to a dragon (besides their hoard) was competition. Maybe I'll have to go off and think of a way procreation that is competitive could work? XD

On 3/26/2018 at 10:29 PM, MegaSean45 said:

She coulda chose Garble! No she chose Smolder!

Yeah.... No. Picking Garble would have been a disaster for the ponies and would likely have ended with him getting locked up in Tartarus. XD

The truth is there just aren't any previously known small dragons who are friendly enough and small enough to fit into a pony-built school. If it wasn't Smolder, it would be some other newly invented young dragon character that would become part of the group and we'd be wondering the same thing: Are they related to Spike.

At this point its just too early to say, though I'm leaning toward it being unlikely due to the story

Plus I'm sure she must have asked Spike how he came to be with ponies by now since that situation is unheard of among dragons. If her family had a missing egg his origin story with Twlight's entrance exam would have raised flags that he might be a long-lost brother.

10 hours ago, Justin_Case001 said:

Okay, picturing what this would look like with Ember definitely gave me the lolz.

I pictured her laying on her stomach with her head propped up by one of her elbows, looking bored, wondering when the guy was going to be be finished back there contributing half his DNA to her cause.

10 hours ago, Justin_Case001 said:

Ooh, mind blown.  I never thought of that.  That's really cool.  She probably is a lot older than we intuitively tend to think.  I've always assumed that dragons in FIM age like Tolkein dragons--effectively immortal, like natural born alicorns.  Spike is....what....15-ish years old?  I'm guessing that the giants like the dragon Fluttershy chewed out in S1 are at least 1000 years old.  Ember could well be a century old or more.

All those ages fall in line with my thinking as well. I did think of one possibility that would allow Smolder to be around Spike's age: It could be that her egg was berthed a century ago - an egg created during the migration before the one Spike attended. But perhaps she wasn't hatched until recently, well before Spike but not long ago to make her a century old. We really don't know anything about how long dragon eggs sit around incubating in their shells before they hatch. And who knows how long Spike's egg sat around, for that matter.

But as it is with dragons, she could just as easily be around 100, too, lol.

10 hours ago, Justin_Case001 said:

I call this phenomenon The Creative Mode Effect, which is a minecraft reference.  I'm going to go ahead and assume that even if you've never played MC, you at least know what it is, and basically what Creative Mode is.  I loved MC, but after awhile playing in creative mode, I started to feel like there was no point, because it was just infinite.  Infinite power to create, but with no real purpose other than to create more and more.  Build an epic thing, do nothing with it, build a bigger epic thing, do nothing with it, etc.  (I guess the purpose is to start a MC youtube channel and make ad money...)  I started feeling a lack of motivation to do anything because it was infinite power that didn't require earning.  I then tried to start new games in survival mode, but after a few minutes I would inevitably succumb to the temptation to give myself just one thing with creative mode, because it was too much of a pain to craft, and so it would begin...and end.

Heh, that's funny. I always play in survival mode because it just isn't fun to not have the fear of getting blown up by a creeper always present. Of course, I hardly build anything at all (besides powered railroads), even making my "home" out of whatever cave opening is handy and lighting the surrounding area sufficiently. I just enjoy spelunking in randomly generated caverns to see how far down the proverbial rabbit hole goes, I guess.

But that's a good point about Q - I do recall on ST:TNG how Q kept trolling Picard to try to get him to get the ship out of a precarious situation, and Picard generally refused because it would make things too easy.

I could see Twilight and the rest of the Mane 8 feeling the same way. While it would be a boon to have an instant school built with no money down, they may want the challenge of building it themselves. Though I admit, the one difference is there is a relationship between Discord and Fluttershy, and no such relationship existed (I think) between Q and a member of the Enterprise crew. So he may have felt compelled to do the ponies a favor because of her, even if they may have not asked for it.

And of course, with favors from Discord, there's probably always a price to pay at some point in the future. Just ask Garbunkle and Sir McBigguns. XD

Yay, I get to be the stick-in-the-mud, just like Mud Briar. XD

Oof. The "jokes" between Pinkie and Mud Briar were tedious and repetitive. They must have used that "Yes, yes" joke at least twice and a couple others during their scenes together. The scene at the cake store was worse than having Twilight make you watch paint dry. X3

Also not sure why Pinkie didn't bake the cake herself? Or maybe she was just there for cooking supplies?

Anyway, everything was so much better after (and including) the "opposite day" visual with the Mane 6 hallucinations. Twilight's line had me in stitches. The switch to the Pie farm with Marble and Limestone was refreshing and funny, while being heartwarming at the same time. I wish that feeling had been carried through the first two acts. Even the cold open at the comedy club was dull.

I was wondering if Mud was going to bring up Starlight's evil past when they first met at the kite flying. It seems like the kind of thing he'd do. XD

It seems like Fluttershy must have been tasked with doing the artwork for the Maud cutout at the party. It certainly resembles her manga style. =)

I haven't decided how to vote on this episode. It would be a definite "meh" if it weren't for the last act which may have raised it to a "like". But I'm not sure I like it enough to want to watch it a third time. It's not as bad as how I felt about "The Cart Before the Pony" for example, where the episode did something to make me actively dislike it. But I don't know if the last act is good enough to make up for the first two that I found disappointing. Maybe some other reviews on here will help me decide?

Anyhow, I'm glad we finally get the new intro at last. No need to keep it behind spoilers anymore for those of us who had already seen it. I like how it opens with the fast-action of the Wonderbolts and even promotes shipping like SugarMac, and we even get cameos by fan-favorites like Ember and Thorax.

21 hours ago, Justin_Case001 said:

I suppose Ember could have a kid, but it seems like we would have known that by now.

Considering how uncomfortable she still gets every time Spike hugs her, I don't know how many hundreds of years will go by before she has any kids.

Unless, dragon courtship rituals are purely functional experiences with no emotional attachment and the only aim is to get pregnant and pop out an egg when the time comes during the great migration?

It makes me wonder when Smolder was born since the last migration wasn't that long ago, and she's definitely older than Spike, though not by much (probably). Migrations are once-in-a-lifetime thing for ponies, so does that me she like around 100+ years old?

21 hours ago, Justin_Case001 said:

Holy dammit, that school went up FAST.  I mean, I know magic greatly speeds up everything in Equestria, but still, DAMN.  Was there any time lapse at all?

It just occurred to me that maybe Discord created it for Twilight? That would certainly explain how it could just pop into existence and how it could get built for no money down.

21 hours ago, Justin_Case001 said:

Celestia was in the episode!  Happy Day!  Man, I never care if it's good or crap; I just love it when Celestia is onscreen instead of the usual forgetting-she-exists thing.

I figured you'd enjoy that aspect, at least.

Spike even manages to make a look of concern completely adorable:

17 hours ago, We. said:

When Silverstream saw the stairs at the Royal Sister's old castle and switches to Seapony form. She touched her necklace right there; it should have be obvious. 

It would have been - if I hadn't been looking away from the TV so often to live-type comments as it was airing.... <_< XD

17 hours ago, We. said:

Also I can't be the only one who noticed how when Angel Bunny actually tried to give a depressed Twilight a hug, he immediately turned sad. I think that's the first time we saw legitimate tears of depression from our Jerk with a Heart of Gold ( or Jerk with a Heart of Jerk depending on your opinion of him)

It was a nice change of pace for Angel to try to be supportive of somepony besides Fluttershy for a change. I actually felt a little bad for him - Twilight's depressed mood was overwhelming and spread to him instead of his mood spreading to her!

16 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

So what if, say, Chancellor Neighsay were to show up at the school with a group of guards to arrest the Mane Eight for violating his decree as head of the EEA to shut the school down? Could Chancellor Neighsay carry that out under his own authority, or would it need to be "cleared" with some other authority, such as Celestia or Luna?

My thinking is most of his authority is to put those magic locks around the schools that are not following the guidelines to prevent the school from being used anymore. Under normal circumstances, most ponies wouldn't be able to break that spell and I imagine if it were a regular public school the townsfolk would be upset that the school is no longer in operation and they may work via political means to change the teachers and/or principals to get it re-opened.

But Twilight being Twilight, she of course didn't have any trouble casting a counter-spell to disable the lock. And even then, the spell being broken immediately alerted him to the fact, which, again if it weren't the Elements who were involved, might be enough to get whoever breaks such a lock arrested.

But I don't think he had enough political capital to spend to have anything like that subjected on the Mane 8, which is why all he could to is give up in a huff and regroup to try and take control of the school at some future date. Now he probably has a conversation with whomever his assistant is every night when he goes to bed:

"What are you going to do tomorrow, Neighsay?"

"The same thing I do every night - try to take over The School of Friendship!"

16 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

And I think it would be prudent for the Mane Eight to still be prepared to physically defend themselves and/or the students in the worst-case scenario of Chancellor Neighsay attacking them, even though I'm sure that afterward

Agreed, especially if he's some minion of a much greater evil. He does kinda resemble Sombra in a way.... <_<

On 3/25/2018 at 6:52 AM, We. said:

Other than Spike, Fluttershy hasn't interact with a dragon since Season 1. It's been several years, and she's obviously grown used to them. Not to mention that she's among creatures and friends she trust. In fact, whenever dragons were brought up after that Season 1 episode, Fluttershy is never present to "Freak Out in Fear"

The Hippogriff thing isn't hard to figure out when you look at what they're wearing in Hippogriff form. 

On 3/25/2018 at 3:23 PM, Ganondox said:

Also, Ember is a small dragon, it's only the huge dragons seen in Season 1 that Fluttershy was terrified off, with good reason.

Not a real dragon, anyway - she did get scared by Rainbow Dash pretending to be a small dragon in "28 Pranks Later," though in that instance RD was trying to be scary whereas Ember is pretty chill around ponies for the most part, so that could be the difference.

On 3/25/2018 at 3:23 PM, Ganondox said:

I'm guessing Novo empowered the necklaces the hippogriffs all wear with limited power from the pearl so that they can transform.

Heh, I didn't notice the amulets they wore until the both of you pointed that out. Cool!

On 3/25/2018 at 11:07 AM, Music Chart Fan said:

All of those things are reminiscent of high school (or younger), rather than college, where class attendance often isn't mandatory and students can usually come and go from campus as they want.

True.

On 3/25/2018 at 3:23 PM, Ganondox said:

The subject matter seen on the boards appears to be either highschool or college, the fact the teachers are referred to as professor suggests college, and the class schedule structure suggests highschool.

I've come to lean towards it being more like a high school; or, at least the 6 students the season is focusing on are of high-school age. It wouldn't surprise me, however, if Twilight's school is pretty much open to any age group - from kindergarten to post-graduate level.

On 3/25/2018 at 9:54 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

First, I can't help wondering not just about how this new Friendship School was built, and over what period of time, but also who paid for it. Does Twilight have voluntary financial backers/investors? Did Twilight just take out a giant loan? Did Celestia appropriate government funds to build the school? I would expect that whoever supplied the funds to build the school would hold Twilight accountable for ensuring that the school is fulfilling its mission and that the investment to build it was prudent.

If you saw my earlier post in the thread, I was knocked for a bit of a loop when it was instantly built without any explanation. We know from "Fluttershy Leans In," structures don't get built by magic (though I suppose between Twilight and Starlight they could probably do some of the work that way). So it must have been built the standard way for the most part. That means they either had to paid contractors to build it, or it was build entirely by volunteers.

Is Twilight still popular enough around the kingdom to pull a favor from her fans and have them do much of the work? If so, that could have helped defray the costs. If she could convince Ember to have some of the larger dragons lend assistance, that could go a long way to putting up the larger parts of the structure and they'd probably just want a bunch of gems in return (which seem easy to come by thanks to Rarity's special ability.)

It might even be that if there was money required, she may have emptied her coffers (wherever that gets sourced from is a whole other discussion, lol) and maybe even asked the rest of her friends whether they'd be willing to pitch in with a loan. If they did, then she may be free from any influence as to how to run the school. If it's her friends, however (and the money wasn't a gift/grant) then it's not clear how she'd pay them back since the school seems to be free to attend. For that matter, as you alluded to later in your message, the mane 6 must be taking time off their regular jobs to teach. Is it all volunteer? Or is Twilight paying them? Keeping the school running requires additional income and food for the cafeteria (I wonder what Gallus eats? lol), but then again, a lot of things in Equestria seem to run without knowing where the cash comes from to pay for it.

I guess my takeaway from the way the school came together is the show is trying to tell us not to think too much about it, and the only thing Twilight has to worry about concerning curriculum is the EEA and no one else (for now).

On 3/25/2018 at 9:54 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

So are they all relatives of the leaders of their societies, perhaps in line to become the leaders themselves one day? Were they judged to have the most potential talent for learning about friendship, or for being able to teach it to their respective societies upon returning from school?

My guess is Twilight asked the leaders of the other species to pick one student they felt would benefit the most from attending. As for all the ponies, that's a good question. Since Twilight has better access to their records, she may have offered them a chance to attend herself, if they wanted to. Or perhaps she put out a general call for pony students and then had some kind of testing like Celestia has for her school. One thing is for certain - everyone at the school doesn't seem to have serious friendship issues since the main characters all became friends on their own.

On 3/25/2018 at 9:54 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

The first mention is when Spike brings up "two small problems", one of which is that the school is still unaccredited. Following that, Twilight says that she'll take care of the lack of accreditation if the rest of the Mane Six round up the students. But what exactly did Twilight do about that? We later see her sitting in the throne room with Celestia and Luna as the leaders of the other societies of species confront them. So was Twilight trying to convince Celestia to get Chancellor Neighsay to back down?

That's a good question. The story didn't really answer what the solution to a lack of accreditation is, other than for her to go ahead unaccredited and believe in Starlight's advice that the school should forge it's own path.

On 3/25/2018 at 9:54 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

He could presumably order guards to physically prevent the teachers and students from meeting, have the Mane Eight thrown in jail, or, if he goes off the deep end, even personally attack the Mane Eight or the non-pony students.

...

I can imagine a negative spin that could be put on that: "Princess Celestia fires/arrests head of EEA so favored student Princess Twilight Sparkle doesn't have to follow the same rules for her school as everybody else".

I think these two things cancel each other out. If there was a threat against the Mane 6 by a government official, the population would probably support having Neighsay arrested. They are still the Element Bearers who have saved Equestria on multiple occasions after all, even if the actual elements are back with the Tree of Harmony.

On 3/25/2018 at 9:54 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

I've never liked this show's use of words like "everypony" when words like "everyone" and "everybody" already exist, are as easy or easier to say, and are more inclusive. But now apparently we're going to have characters saying "every...creature" instead of just using already existing and more serviceable words.

AJ caught and corrected herself by calling the students "everyone" after realizing she can't use "everypony." Perhaps they will switch between the two - everycreature and everyone - when it makes sense?

On 3/25/2018 at 9:54 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

Does he just not remember having seen or used stairs as a hippogriff previously?

I went to YouTube (I don't own a copy of the movie yet) and watched the scene at Mt Aris. There are indeed stairs - a LOT of them in fact - to get to the top. So you're right - it doesn't make any sense for Seaspray to not know what they are. Silverstream I could see her not knowing since she's young and was likely born after they went into exile. Unless they went into exile a really long time ago - but the Storm King and his imperialism doesn't strike me as something that is particularly ancient compared to the scale of Celestia and Luna's age, which it would have to be for the hippogryphs to no longer be familiar with the concept of stairs.

8 hours ago, AlexanderThrond said:

The inclusion of a pony student, and the fact that all of the students are mere children, does help counter those implications, however.

Are they? One of the things that was not clear to me is whether this was a primary school or a college, or perhaps the equivalent of prep school. It's hard to tell with the non-pony characters, but Sandbar doesn't use a foal model and seems to be a young adult.

6 hours ago, We. said:

Rarity speaks to the Dragons due to their affinity for gems and because of Spike. 

I was a bit surprised by this since she's stated disdain for traveling to the dragonlands in the past. Perhaps since meeting Ember she's had a change of heart?

Also the absolute non-reaction from Fluttershy to Ember means she doesn't seem to be afraid of them so much now. Or it's a continuity goof.

5 hours ago, Carolina said:

Also, thought it was weird that Silverstream could just switch back and forth from hippogriff to Seapony when the movie established that Queen Novo's magical orb was needed to transform.

Yeah that seems to be stretching the lore the movie established. Maybe there will be some kind of explanation that they broke thenorb into small fragments and gave every hippogryph a piece so they could change at will?

3 hours ago, Ganondox said:

don’t think the EEA’s requirements are actually terribly rigid, they seem to work well as an academic standard, it’s just that that model doesn’t fit Twilight’s model for her Friendship School, which isn’t about academics. Likewise, while Neighsay is a bigot, I think he is an effective board member and is perfectly qualified for is position.

It's hard to say how much of the students' boredom was due to the EEA rulebook and how much of it was due to the Mane 6 being inexperienced as teachers and Twilight's insistence on following the guide to the letter. Hearing Cheerilee's thoughts on the EEA and how she manages to keep her students engaged would have been very enlightening, but I suspect she would have short-circuited the story.

Neighsay is qualified to head the board, to be sure. The issue I have is why there are no dissenting members there, effectively giving one pony complete control over the entire Equestrian education system.

They are more capable of using smooth shading on the characters than they were in the first season. Compare the scene in the dark on the train in "Over a Barrel" compared to later episodes. Even in today's S8 premiere, I found it amazing how they shaded Twilight and Spike during the EEA meeting. It looked as good as anything they did in Toonboom in the movie.

Even though didn't do it as often as they do now, you can go as far back as S2 and see they were making great strides in lighting effects. One of the most awe-inspiring moments to this day is the effect they did when Twilight lit her horn to light the cave at the start of "A Canterlot Wedding, pt 2".

Thinking about it some more, I guess I do have one complaint that goes a little above a minor level. I have having a hard time trying to figure out how Neighsay rose to acquire so much power without anyone complaining. I can't believe after who knows how many years, no teacher ever came to Celestia and told her how rigid the EEA rules were. Celestia mentions that she doesn't want to be a dictator (paraphrasing) but somehow Neighsay managed to do just that even though they are technically a board and should have a mix of attitudes.

I don't know what's up with the other members - did he surround himself with a bunch of yesponies so whatever he believes they go along with? They certainly seemed to agree with everything he said when Twilight and Spike were at the initial hearing. Doesn't Celestia worry about his control over all students of Equestria as being a dictatorship in itself?

I suppose as long as the schools keep churning out students with good grades and the crime rate remains relatively low (aside from the random monster attacks that seem to happen from time to time) maybe she figures the system is working? It does seem to be another indicator Celestia isn't as in touch with her subjects as she believes she is if she allowed this guy to grab so much power that he is capable of leading to a world war with his words.

43 minutes ago, Lambdadelta said:

F*&k your Apple product placements, Applejack,this is a school to teach kids, not to teach kids Apples are better than anything else........................................ How about Apples and PEARS, huh?, huh?

I can tell this was meant as a one-shot visual gag in the scene in question, but you make a good point that in a real-life scenario where a teacher is promoting a product they sell from a business they own to their students is a major conflict of interest.

43 minutes ago, Lambdadelta said:

Twilight become Rarity in this ep, crying in the dark.

I was practically expecting Spike to unbury her and find her snarfing down cartons of ice cream. XD

41 minutes ago, King of Canterlot said:

Because the left in it of itself, is racist and full of hypocrites.

Thanks for that sentiment. I love you too. =P /s

I thoroughly enjoyed this opener, though it does have a few faults:

Continuity issue with the school entrance. Right after it's built, there are stepping stones to the door (not very accessible for ponies in wheelchairs) but later it's a continuous bridge. Maybe someone clued Twilight in about getting sued? XD

Smolder and Spike shouldn't be scared over the puckwudgie's quills thanks to what Spike said and did way back in "Green Isn't Your Color," though the teeth might be a problem depending on their hardness.

Neighsay was rather one-dimensional. Maybe if it's revealed his xenophobia makes him insecure then that will help, but LaMarche vocalizations made the character interesting, at least.

I didn't get Ember being accusatory towards Thorax. While I could see a reason for her to be suspicious of Rutherford due to the bad blood between dragons and yaks (from the comics), her yelling at Thorax took me totally by surprise. In fact, why was she so concerned about Smolder, anyway? Unless Smolder is a family member? Dragons are solitary and

Then there was a lot of stuff that was just interesting to note and some of it really cool:

Smolder and Gallus weren't the antagonists like I expected they would be and providing some of the conflict in the episode. I suppose they did bully a bit when they announced they were going to play hooky, but the scene is short and we get a great scene soon after at the lake (maybe the same one where Thorax and Ember became friends?) where all six students do some really heartwarming bonding.

Still no official job for Spike, other than school scribe? XD

Heh, AJ caught herself and had to say "everyone" instead of "everypony." And Celestia even used "everycreature" later on.

I'm trying to figure out Sandbar's character - he's laid back, but is concerned about rules and fears getting into trouble. Sadly, he's the least interesting of the bunch at the moment though I still like him.

Ocellus' Rarity cracked me up, and the looks on the other students' faces after her speech were priceless. That must have been fun for Tabitha to play her in such an over-the-top manner. Angel apparently isn't fooled by changelings, though it make me wonder what happened with him in the S6 finale.

I agree that the pacing for the first part was fast, but it held enough details to make it easy to follow what was going on. I imagine it was difficult once again for Haber and Dubuc to juggle all of these characters and leave time to let their personalities shine.

Spike pulling Twilight's pillow away and revealing she was crying under there was heartbreaking. I loved how he had a plan to cheer her up, though.

Twi's eye twitch when Spike mentioned her school was still unaccredited tickled my funny bone. XD

The Pharynx cameo was a nice touch. Would have liked to see a Gilda cameo, too!

We learned at least Silverstream is Novo's niece, and I like how Ocellus is a mix of Twilight's bookishness and Flutters shyness. It will be interesting when we learn the rest of the backstories for these characters later in the season.

Good job Twi - that's the second war you managed to almost start. XD

Silverstream and Gabbie totally need to meet each other. XD Egon would probably disapprove. :-)

So musical numbers are kryptonite for dragons? Now they know how to beat Garble should he ever try to invade. XD

The power of music however is apparently only matched by the power of Gallus' puppy dog eyes!

Pinkie had a really great quote that was my favorite of the episode when I saw it live, but I couldn't find it on the rewatch. I'll have to look for it again at some point.

And finally:

STAIRS!

2 hours ago, Dark Qiviut said:

So, how long did it take for the new school to be constructed? Popping out of nowhere isn't that big of a deal, but maybe a couple of brief scenes within a montage to show the construction's progress would better indicate how much time it took to build it.

When the school was just built instantly like that, I immediately flashed back to an ill-fated show called "Supertrain" (all you kids can Google it if you want to know more about that wreck of a show XD ) because the pilot of that series started out in a similar fashion - it opens with a CEO saying he's going to build the worlds first supertrain, and then it immediately cuts to a scene of the train picking up passengers in the station. Unlike "Supertrain", the story and characters in this two-parter were excellent, however. XD

15 hours ago, Jeric said:

No real surprises so far. Though can you imagine if poor Sunburst winds up on a team with both Crackle and Smooze? Poor pony!

That's why he's wearing the expression he is in the group 8 picture! 

10 hours ago, Lord Princess Panzy said:

Totally, and It could be through Spike's eyes. (Being Frank, anyone?)

I see what you did there. 

Spike slept with Bloomberg, ergo Bloomberg gets my vote!  

16 hours ago, AlexanderThrond said:

I get the sense he only speaks up when he needs to, but being less strong-willed than Applejack doesn't necessarily indicate much. 

True enough. AJ is so assertive/stubborn she was not afraid to stand up to Celestia back in "Lesson Zero" on Twilight's behalf.

15 hours ago, sweetolebob18 said:

What I meant was "if it was absolutely unheard of for dragons to be able to send and receive things that way, surely one of them would have been at least a little impressed"

I'm not sure there's anything about "pansy ponies" that would impress Garble and his ilk. Except maybe having the sun dropped on their heads?

6 minutes ago, CrystalBloodMoon said:

Why cant this just be a normal draconian ability?

It could be, but we just haven't seen any other dragon perform the same trick. Since we are getting a new recurring dragon character for season 8, perhaps we shall find out once and for all how this ability works?

7 hours ago, AlexanderThrond said:

Kinda strange, that; Big Mac doesn’t strike me as a particularly passive or childish individual. 

I've always felt he's been kind of passive, myself. Even when it's him and AJ running the farm, it seems to me that AJ is the one who is more in control of the everyday decisions than he is. Even though, they are both technically co-workers working underneath their grandmother's supervision.

I suppose part of the problem is he's limited by his schtick where he usually only talks with a yes or no. By definition, he always has to be either agreeing or disagreeing with the character he's talking with. He's rarely ever the one who comes up with the idea itself.

9 hours ago, CrystalBloodMoon said:

Still, she's sent letters, and they appear in flames. By way of logic, she has "something" with the ability

Well, that's something is that she's magical. I mean, she can raise the Sun and Moon, so it stands to reason she should be able to teleport a scroll that triggers a dragon's gullet to emit flames and rematerialize that scroll for the recipient.

It does make me lean towards the idea that whatever spell is on Spike was cast by Celestia, and this is not something that was caused by Twilight hatching him as was speculated in the original post.

6 hours ago, sweetolebob18 said:

Garble seems to have at least heard of it (He mocks Spike for belching up a letter from Princess Celestia) This implies that the ability isn't unique to Spike

Garble knew it was from Princess Celestia because her name and title were on the letter. I'm not sure how that says anything about the ability to send scrolls by fire.

6 hours ago, WiiGuy2014 said:

We actually saw at the end of S1's "Griffon the Brush-off" that she had a special message tube installed so the letters no longer drop on top of her.

Ha, that was a great inside gag! XD

However it seems by the time of "28 Pranks Later," she uninstalled it.

5 hours ago, CrystalBloodMoon said:

We've seen that Celestia can send letters and has her own dragon with the same ability. I dont think its anything special

I think if Celestia had her own dragon we would have seen it by now, especially when you consider all the times Twilight has lacked dragon knowledge. She certainly would have wanted to talk to this dragon if it were around.

8 hours ago, AlexanderThrond said:

Given how that impacts Starlight's behaviour, I think she would generally wouldn't treat Spike like a child, which we often see the mane six doing, and which I wouldn't be surprised if even Big Mac does from time to time.

Indeed, in "All Bottled Up," it was Spike Starlight confided in when she was putting all of her negative emotions into a glass jar. She treated him like the authority figure around the castle since Twilight wasn't there. If she thought of Spike as a little kid, she probably would have told him to mind his own business and go back to washing teacups.

As for Spike and Big Mac, while I wouldn't rule out Big Mac scolding Spike if he did something really bad, it feels like Spike is the authority figure akin to an older brother figure in their relationship. Just from the way he's usually the dungeon master in their games, or ironically (considering the topic here involves Starlight), in the season 5 premiere when we learn he's going to try to sweet-talk a hoofball card from Big Mac leads me to believe that he's the dominant one in between the two of them.