Ginger Mint

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I didn't want to cut in line too badly, but I wanted to get something down before the weekend, so I kept it short. Besides, there's not a whole lot going on, so hopefully you can build on that.

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[colour=#773344]"...And then I s-said, 'Are you crazy!?' But he d-didn't wait..."[/colour]

Ember Spark used her new helmet to push the door open, which in her current state, was a whole lot easier than using her hooves. Between the metal plate and her fluffy mane, she barely felt a thing, which along with her cloaked back, was a sharp contrast to the sharp stinging, burning sensation she felt in her limbs once the feeling had started to return to them.

Ember Spark wasn't so oblivious that she missed Commander Gale and her guards, but she was in the middle of telling a story, so she just politely nodded circled around to face Pocket Change and Emerath so she could emphasize the finale.

[colour=#773344]"...He j-just smiled and proceeded to eat-t the whole thing, right there on the spot. T-the. whole. thing. All by himself. My s-stars, I couldn't even believe it."[/colour]

After she'd finished her story, Ember Spark turned her attention back to Commander Gale and bowed deeply, which allowed the helmet to slide off her head and clatter across the stone floor. Before it rolled to a stop though, she was already following suit, and with a set of wobbly legs, she lowered herself to the ground and flopped onto her side. Looking up at the now towering griffin, she was glad the world had stopped spinning quite so much.

[colour=#773344]"A moment for me to rest, please give. A warm bath later, I can find..."[/colour]

She wasn't sure she was making any sense, but the journey back to the living, breathing Stormfast had taken a lot out of her. Right then and there, she wouldn't have worried if the sky was falling, she just wanted to sit still and bask in the warm glow of the flickering lamplight.

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I thought that most of the fan service was in the extraneous stuff, a lot of which is put in during the animation phase. Episodes do take a long time to make, so right up until the end, they're still working on making them. And as we know from season two, its never too late to make changes, even after an episode has already aired.

I'd be curious to know what the full life cycle of an episode is, but I know that animation didn't start until this year.

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This actually doesn't surprise me at all. I'd said from the very beginning that the technique of keeping a villain at the edges of the story, hiding in the shadows and lurking as an ever-present but rarely seen threat, is a classic suspense/horror movie technique. It might have worked better on adults if they hadn't thrown in the confrontation at the beginning with Shining Armor, which lessened some of the "unknown factor," but I can see a child's imagination taking the role that was left unfilled and filling it in with their imagination.

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I'm pretty sure their technology isn't emotionally impaired. Seriously though, its magic. Our own classic iconography was created as is for a reason, in that the symbols are easy for anyone to understand. And speaking of icons, what about cutie marks? We've seen ponies with arrows on their flanks, and Trixie has a magic wand on her rump, even though we've never seen a magic wand in the show yet.

Perhaps somewhere in the musty old tunnels beneath Canterlot sits the ancient Luminiferous Engine, which can be powered by unicorns to tabulate polynomial functions, and the arrow and trash imagery is the old interface for removing unwanted answers.

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Rock farming is a profitable business.

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While Griffin the Brush-off did involve some bullying on the part of Gilda, it really wasn't the core of the episode.

Griffin the Brush-off was about choosing your friends wisely; not letting yourself be used or isolated by people who only have their own self interests at heart, how loving and tolerating someone who isn't very nice doesn't mean you have to enable their bad behavior, and in Twilight's own words "finding the difference between a true friend and a false friend."

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Trixie wasn't cheating in this episode. Using other things was explicitly part of the magic duel. Twilight Sparkle used her friends, they both used random bystanders. When Twilight Sparkle accuses Trixie of cheating, Twilight was baiting her.

Space Ghost was hardly the first story to ever use a 5 act play structure. It worked for Shakespeare, it worked for Quintus Horatius Flaccus, it can work for ponies as far as I'm concerned.

• Act 1 - Exposition: The shopkeeper explains the basic themes of the episode, power, danger and by blithely accepting the money, corruption as well.

• Act 2 - Complications: Twilight is introduced, Trixie's nemesis for the story. We're shown that she is a powerful magician. And we get a glimpse of all the horrible things Trixie can do.

• Act 3 - Climatic Action: The first magic duel is the scene with the most dramatic tension in the episode. The audience really has no way of knowing what the outcome will be.

• Act 4 - Falling Action and Reversals: The consequences of the first magic duel are played out, we see how bad things in Ponyville become, momentum slows while Twilight studies, and the tension is heightened by false hopes and fears. For Trixie, it seems that all has been won, and for Twilight, all is lost.

• Act 5 - Resolution: The conflict is resolved, Trixie meets her downfall as a result of the actions that took place in act 4, and both Twilight and Trixie reveal that they have been transformed by the events.

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Well, the mane RP can do whatever it wants, no argument here. I'm just using what I see to infer things about the magical land of Equestria. There's lots of different types of magic besides just unicorn magic, like Hearts Desire, which not only was a crucial ingredient in giving Applebloom lots of special talents, but it also bolstered a rooster's heart. (magically I might add)

Someone's emotional state has a clear effect on their magic, and Discord showed us how magic can effect someone's emotional state. So its really just a matter of putting two and two together. Seems to me like the cruelty involved with the alicorn amulet might have been an integral part of the desire for power, and the ability to reach that power.

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None of those artifacts may have been in and of itself a specifically magic enhancing artifact, but its just a matter of employing basic logic. If I'm not mistaken, syllogisms are valid logical constructs.

a: Artifacts can mimic magic.

b: Magic can enhance the magic of others.

c: Artifacts can enhance the magic of others.

If a then b, if b then c, therefore if a then c.

The Crystal Heart was powered by the spirit of the people, however, the effect that it produced was something that the spirit of the people could not have produced without it. Furthermore, the Crystal Heart almost exactly mimicked the protective magic that Princess Cadence was using, and was only powered up once for an entire year before they needed to have another crystal fair. So there was an indeterminate period of time in which it could produce a magic effect without constant input. Princess Cadence's magic enhanced Shining Armor's ability in Canterlot Wedding, and Twilight specifically says that it is Cadence's spell.

In look before you sleep, Twilight Sparkle had a magical lightning rod to protect her tree house from lightning, mimicking some of the weather control abilities of a pegasus. Additionally, in Cutie Mark chronicles, Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom was explicitly not unicorn magic, and at the time Rainbow Dash was not friends with any of the mane six except possibly Fluttershy, but it inspired everyone to get their cutie marks and improved Twilight's magic performance.

(The alicorn amulet is even consistent with this, because it also conveys an emotion onto the user.)

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Oh, mane RP. Why you so silly sometimes? Other than the Elements of Harmony, there's been a number of magic enhancing things in the show prior to this episode. You've got other individuals who can enhance magic (Canterlot Wedding, Cutie Mark Chronicles), you've got artifacts that can replicate individual talents (Look Before you Sleep, Crystal Empire), plants that magically improve talent with occasional consequences (Cutie Pox), and artifacts that are enhanced by magic (Best Night Ever, Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000). I guess I better stop here before I dig myself an early grave.

Fluttershy seemed about as timid as she does around dragons, so maybe it would have been nice to have her mention exactly why she was so afraid rather than implying it, but I did like how her friends didn't have to try too hard to get her to go along with the plan. They just smiled and gave her the opportunity to join up on her own, and it made me smile when she put her hoof in.

I was guessing that the delegates from Saddle Arabia were actually horses, not ponies. We've heard lots of references to horses existing in the past, so I think it'd be nice to actually see some that weren't mice originally.

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Its a magical world, I'd be surprised if there weren't lots of different magical things, both big and small scattered about. A little creativity can go a long way, even if its just simple tricks and nonsense.

Just look at what Twilight was able to do with some pink smoke and a little bit of paint.

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I would not be surprised if Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon get an episode where we get a chance to see them in a sympathetic light, eventually. In fact, I think they're probably setting up the groundwork for it already. Silver Spoon wasn't entirely rotten in Family Appreciation Day, she was one of the first to applaud Granny Smith after her story, and we got to see that Diamond Tiara's behavior isn't entirely overlooked by her father. I think there's been some hints that Silver Spoon actually cares about what Diamond Tiara thinks, and that it might be part of the reason why she acts that way.

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While I think they were trying to go for some kind of metaphorical "Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon defeated themselves, because nopony laid a hoof on them," angle at the end, I think you're right anyways. It does sort of... muddy the issue. *ducks for cover.*

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I think I'm just going to have to get used to the fast pace that the episodes in season 3 have been run at. Although I prefer the slower, more down to earth feel from the earlier episodes, I don't think I can say that its anything but personal opinion on my part. It kind of felt like the episode started, and then suddenly it was over, but that is far preferable to having it drag on and on like one episode I know. (which will not be named) I also have to admit that callbacks and shout outs don't really do anything for me, but as long as an episode can stand on its own, it doesn't feel weird.

Does that mean I dislike the episode? Nope. At this point, comparing the new episodes to ones in the past seems like comparing apples to oranges.

There was a lot of good stuff in this episode, like Fluttershy and her woodland creatures being awesome, Twilight's friends having to solve problems without Twilight as a leader, tons of cool new magic spells...

Oh, and also, the message that power isn't everything. Seriously, I've been waiting for this episode ever since people started making a big fuss about Twilight's ability to pick a whole bunch of apples at once in Applebuck Season. I say, let big burly guys grunt at each other and banter endlessly about power levels in Dragon Ball Z, I'll take a show that demonstrates creativity and teamwork over brute strength any day. (also, coincidence that Spike got turned into a dragon ball? You be the judge.)

Other stuff I liked:

• The pen is mightier than the amulet. Sharing knowledge between each other was vital to winning.

• Trixie was delightfully absurd, which I think helped the writers get away with what might have otherwise been some pretty dark stuff.

• Twilight Sparkle refusing Trixie's taunts at first. Everything that people didn't like about the challenge in Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 wasn't a problem here.

• Zecora. Everything about Zecora. Its nice that they give other kinds of magic besides unicorn magic a chance to shine.

• Good characterizations, especially Twilight who I think is at her best when she is forced to really work to overcome her problems, rather than just zapping them away with a convenient spell. (even though spells were involved in the solution.)

Also, new head canon on Princess Luna and Celestia: Their immortality is the product of age magic, which they are skilled enough to cast.

Edit: Stuff I don't like - Aaaalicorns!

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I've started digging a hole in my backyard, flutterscotch. The neighbors are starting to stare, but I'm sure it will all be worth it in the end. (disclaimer: I am not actually digging a hole in my backyard.)

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I don't know if anyone else has heard about this, but I was looking through some of my regular, non pony related news sources and I found this story hailing from North Korea. Supposedly archeologists have discovered a thousand year old unicorn lair.

Gateway to Equestria soon to follow?

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Maybe once Ember Spark gets back to the Stormfast proper, she'll have a chance to take a nice warm bath, but until then she'll probably be a little bit more uncoordinated than usual. (Chilled through flesh and bone has got to be moderate hypothermia if nothing else.)

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Ember Spark wrapped Pocket Change's cape around her as best as she could, though her movements were sluggish and her shaking hooves caused the fabric to continually slip out of her grasp as she tugged on it. [colour=#773344]"T-thanks, j-just allow m-me a moment-t to f-find some warmth t-t-to k-keep."[/colour] She forced a smile to her lips and remained laying on the ground for a while longer as the cold slowly released its grip on her heart. [colour=#773344]"I t-think that-t s-shadow has s-some mulling t-to do."[/colour]

She saw Emerath out of the corner of her eye and turned her head to look away. Although she listened carefully to what he was saying, she still felt like giving him some semblance of privacy for the moment. [colour=#773344]Is this good or bad timing? I'll have to make sure to ask about that later. How does one know whether to wait for somepony to finish or whether to jump in the middle? Emerath would probably play it safe and wait, so its probably best to follow his lead and wait.[/colour]

Once Pocket Change started packing up the armor, however, Ember Spark decided it was time to spur herself into motion. Slowly and laboriously, she picked herself up and got on her hooves. Without any feeling in her legs, it was a strange cross between walking on stilts and floating in midair. [colour=#773344]I wonder if its like this for pegasi when they're flying.[/colour]

She stumbled a little as she made her way over to the remaining pieces of armor, pausing briefly with each step to re-test her balance. Pressing down with one hoof, she tipped the armored helmet onto its side and stooped over. When she stood back up, the helmet was resting loosely over her head, and being a couple sizes too large, it swayed back and forth a little as she shivered.

[colour=#773344]"I've g-got this piece."[/colour] she chirped as enthusiastically as she could. She didn't trust her shaky hooves with anything that didn't come in a single piece.

Before the trio left the room, she carefully lowered what was left of her little box of peanuts to the floor. It may have been only half full and partially crushed by now, but it was something. [colour=#773344]"Its not m-much..."[/colour] she spoke softly, [colour=#773344]"b-but that armor isn't-t yours."[/colour]

As they left, Ember Spark struggled to keep pace with Emerath, figuring that she'd given him enough time to think. Her voice was solemn, although she tried not to sound too gloomy, [colour=#773344]"Loneliness and failure is what it knew, its been stuck down here brooding over this tin can for who knows how long,"[/colour] she tapped a hoof on the side of her helmet to for emphasis, and winced as she felt pins and needles shoot up her leg, [colour=#773344]"Maybe now it'll have a chance to move on, maybe meet some nice, friendly shadows? The iceguard certainly got along just fine without it all of these years."[/colour]

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People tend not to think rationally when they're angry, especially not kids. They did state that they wanted to humiliate Babs, but the motivation and the intent was to pay her back for two weeks worth of suffering in a single moment. Furthermore, although Featherweight did take a photo of them after they crashed, it is worth pointing out that nobody in the crowd laughed at them when they crashed, onlookers were worried and concerned, so its not like the episode was implying that it actually would have been an embarrassment. The writer is acknowledging that it was a dumb idea and didn't make sense, which is pretty typical of revenge.

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Not liking stories that portray revenge is fine. I'm not saying that anyone needs to like the episode. I just don't think its fair to the writer to say that these themes are a sign of bad writing. Personally, I didn't like The Return of Harmony, and I avoid sad fiction like the plague, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are poorly written or mistakes. Revenge is a powerful and primal motivation that lots of people understand, and I think that's why it has a place in so many well respected works of literature and film. (Like Hamlet)

We can only guess at the writer's intent, because without an artist statement or a heavy handed letter to Celestia at the end to tell us the message we were supposed to learn, all we can really do is piece together what is said in character during the show. I certainly don't think anyone is arguing that Applejack was incorrect to suggest that talking to an adult is preferable to sabotaging a parade float, or that the plan was not dumb.

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In other news, film has been around in some form since at least Green Isn't Your colour. It may not have been motion picture, but they certainly weren't lugging around dry plate cameras.

They probably could have done some things to make the theater more ponyesque, though they're clearly not too concerned about tech levels these days. Although the first public showing of a motion picture was all the way back in 1896, this place had more of the feel of the bowling alley from Cutie Pox. (Which I suspect is more the target feeling they're aiming for these days.)

I suspect if this had been in early Season 1, it would have been a live performance of some kind, maybe a play or a concert, and instead of doing something to a drinking cup something would have happened to the performers.

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The way I see it, malicious intent is an integral component of revenge. They could have done something else that didn't involve the Cutie Mark Crusaders being malicious, but I think the story is better because they chose to do so. When I was little, I did some incredibly stupid things too while trying to get back at my brother, like when I tried setting up a booby trap that involved a glass of water falling on him. Well, the glass tipped over on my mum instead, and I was left to explain what I had been doing. Kids get angry just like anyone, and people are notorious for making bad decisions when they're angry, and I think that is important to address.

Yes, there could have been more serious repercussions at the end, but I didn't think the Cutie Mark Crusaders got away with it. They did end up rolling into a pile of mud, and I suspect that if I'd knocked my glass of water over on myself instead of my mum, I wouldn't have gotten in quite so much trouble either. They didn't have to tell anyone that they sabotaged the float, Applejack and Babs didn't know about it until Scootaloo said something, and by then, they'd already explained how they knew what they did was wrong, including their reasoning as proof. I think Applejack's backhanded, "If you'd have come to me in the first place," line was acknowledgment enough. Think of it like this, if you're going to the beach and there are sharks in the water, someone could say "Hey, don't go in the water you dummy," or "Hey, there are sharks in the water," but the latter example is more likely to produce the desired result and doesn't insult anyone's intelligence or independence. If the CMC's hadn't just gotten finished explaining why they realized they were wrong, then maybe it would have been different.

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I can agree that the plan to crash the float was not a good plan for humiliation. It was dangerous and stupid. But I still don't see how that equals bad writing. The Cutie Mark Crusaders didn't write the script. Suppose if, at the end of the episode, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had said, "Aww shucks, Babs didn't deserve that, but if she had deserved it, it would have been a super duper plan." Would that not constitute a mixed message?

I can't stress this enough: bullying hurts people. The injuries may not be as obvious as falling down a hill, but they are just as real, and often times longer lasting. (If I had to choose between getting hit by a car at low speeds while biking to work again or going through another day of middle school, I'd choose the former.)

Television is a visual medium. In film, it is often better to show the audience something rather than telling them something. The sense of motion, the extreme camera angles, and the pacing were all crafted to emphasize and even exaggerate the danger. They showed us that thoughtlessness can lead to unintended consequences. They didn't intend for Pinkie Pie to get run off the road, they didn't intend to put any hapless pigs in danger at the end. They showed us how seeking revenge is reckless, stupid and dangerous; how retaliation can quickly escalate in a way that was crystal clear. I cannot imagine that this was a mistake, it seems far more likely to me that this was an intentional feature of the story. They already showed us how bullying can be emotionally hurtful in the first half of the episode by chronicling the plight of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and I think that comparing the two and addressing how it can be physically hurtful as well was a good thing. This episode wasn't just about bullying, it was about revenge as well.

I can't say much else about the premise that reckless and dangerous things shouldn't be in the show, except to say that reckless and dangerous things happen a lot in this show already, and that I fail to see how this in particular was contrarily unacceptable.

• Telling a friend to let go, even though there was no explicit indication of why she couldn't have been picked up while she was still holding on.

• Luring an Ursa Minor into town for entertainment.

• Jumping across a chasm, or kicking a dragon in the face.

• Casting a spell to sabotage a rampaging bug's eating habits.

• Leaving a baby dragon on a chunk of melting ice in the middle of a lake.

• Sending an inexperienced filly off a cliff in a hang glider.

• Sabotaging the road signs along a race course.

• The entire Feeling Pinkie Keen episode.

• Flying recklessly on fragile wings and nearly plummeting to death.

• Walking into the Everfree forest alone for some tea and getting turned to stone.

• Running around on top of a moving train, and nearly derailing it with passengers inside.

• Giving an animal medicine without knowing what kind of animal it is.

• Jumping out in front of a moving vehicle without looking.

• Trying to catch a tumbling stone statue.

• Drinking home made chemical concoctions

• Ghastly Gorge

• Conspiring to try to save the day one at a time, when an entire group could go at once.

• Not accepting help when overwhelmed by child care-taking.

• Trying to race an oncoming train through a crossing.

• Purposefully disengaging the safety mechanism on a piece of agricultural machinery.

• Half of everything Pinkie Pie does.

• Fighting an entire army with just five others.

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I'm pretty sure that Griffin the Brush-off was controversial. Lots of people didn't like how Rainbow Dash treated Gilda, lots of people thought Gilda deserved worse, some people thought that the pranks were cruel, some people though the pranks were not. I didn't really care much for the episode when I first watched it, though it had nothing to do with controversy or anything. I appreciated it a bit better after going back and watching it again in the context of those arguments though.

Also, what do you mean you're on nobody's side? I've never seen that musical, but the song provides precious little context. You don't really think that nobody can ever be trustworthy do you?

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Well I'll be...

I don't think the friends and family of someone who dies because they were bullied are going to be any less in pain than someone who dies because of a motor vehicle crash. It is still just as hurtful.

But if we're going to compare the two: A parade float made out of wood and cloth traveling slower than a child can run is going to be significantly less dangerous than a 1.5 ton steel automobile. The average child can run 15 mph, and the even Sweetie Belle, who's not particularly athletic, was able to catch up to the float while on foot. Colliding with something at 15 miles per hour is roughly equivalent to falling off a step ladder. (7.5 foot drop) The risk of dying from a collision at 15 miles per hour is less than 1% ((Even for pedestrians with no safety devices!)) Furthermore, it is precisely the inelasticity of automobiles that causes the majority of injuries in low speed collisions, because the vehicle does not begin to crush and absorb the impact until 15-20 miles per hour.[1] However, a float made out of wood and cloth will not remain static at any impact speed. On the other hand, according to that link, around 11.5% of bullying victims have attempted suicide, but thankfully as few as 1% of those actually succeed.

So the danger of being in such a low speed collision is actually quite comparable to... Aww, ok Rosewind. How can I say no to that? (Next time Gadget... next time.)

1. Navin FP, Romilly DP. An investigation into vehicle and occupancy response subjected to low-speed rear impacts. Proceedings of the Multidisciplinary Road Safety Conference VI, 1989.