History Recap / MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E19BuckballSeason

* FlatJoy: When Applejack and Rainbow Dash mention they went around town talking up the team, Pinkie responds with an unenthusiastic "greaaaaat".

* OutOfOrder: This is the nineteenth episode in production order but is the ''eighteenth'' episode in broadcast order.

* GirlishPigtails: Pinkie Pie sports some incredibly poofy ones when she's playing.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: [[ShrinkingViolet Fluttershy]] is the one who [[UnstoppableRage blows her top]] after the pressure RD and Applejack are putting on her and Pinkie gets too high.

* UnstoppableRage: Fluttershy goes absolutely ''ballistic'' when Dashie and AJ's training crosses the line.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: [[ShrinkingViolet Fluttershy]] is the one who blows her top after the pressure RD and Applejack are putting on her and Pinkie gets too much.

* UnsportsmanlikeGloating: Dash claiming that Ponyville "whooped the hooves" off of Bareburn's team despite the fact that it was a very close game.

* KickChick: Applejack naturally is this trope given that buckball revolves around bucking, an activity that she's been doing ALL series long. However, Pinkie Pie also becomes this trope and even surpasses Applejack as she not only uses bucking, but uses several types of acrobatic kicks: such as a backflip kick, an upside down buck, [[AssKicksYou a bumb with her flanks,]] and even juggling the ball with her hind legs.

** The whole episode was caused by Braeburn openly bragging about his Appleloosa team being better than the Ponyville team recruited by his cousin Applejack. Braeburn ends up eating his words by a close loss.

* JawDrop: Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy's reaction just after the GilliganCut, on seeing the many Ponyville ponies cheering them up for the upcoming game.

* GilliganCut: Pinkie says that nopony in Ponyville has even heard of the buckball game. Cue a cut to the train station where many enthusiastic buckball fans are there to see them off. Later it's explained that Applejack and Rainbow Dash went through town hyping everypony up.

* VaugeAge: Snails is still enrolled in Ponyville Schoolhouse but is apparently old enough to be in the Ponyville Buckball Team which seems to imply that he's a young teenager.

* {{Irony}}: Rainbow Dash is a natural athlete who knows a lot of sports games yet, she's never heard of buckball prior to the episode. She later implies that it's a fairly new game.

* RetCanon: Snails portrayal as a GeniusDitz was actually established in the IDW Comics before the airing of this episode.

* RedOniBlueOni: Extremely rare for Pinkie Pie, but this episode has her as the ''blue'' to the red of Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy, of course, is still very much the blue.

* ToTheTuneOf: The melody of Snails' "Carrying My Water" ditty is based on the nursery rhyme "Itsy Bitsy Spider".

* FictionalSport: Buckball, of course, which comes with the following rules: the game is played between two teams, each consisting of an earth pony, a pegasus, and a unicorn; the earth pony (offense) bucks the ball into a basket held by their unicorn (catcher), while the pegasus (defense) blocks the opponents' basket and passes the ball to their earth pony. It also mixes in the opening face-off of basketball and full contact with the ball with any part of ts the main lesson of the story, which is what's required for AnAesop.he pony's body like football/soccer. First team to score six goals wins.

* AnAesop:
** Some people thrive on pressure, others don't. Winning a game shouldn't come at the expense of having fun playing it.
** Braeburn got carried away with openly boasting about how his Buckball Team would be better than Applejack's Buckball Team, essentially provocating the duel between Ponyville and Appleloosa. Friendly competition is alright but having somewhat obnoxious behavior being the cause of a challenge is not alright since Braeburn ends up losing the game for Appleloosa, causing all of his boasting to backfire on him.

* FictionalSport: Buckball, of course, which comes with the following rules: the game is played between two teams, each consisting of an earth pony, a pegasus, and a unicorn; the earth pony (offense) bucks the ball into a basket held by their unicorn (catcher), while the pegasus (defense) blocks the opponents' basket and passes the ball to their earth pony. It also mixes in the opening face-off of basketball and full contact with the ball with any part of the pony's body like football/soccer. First team to score six goals wins.

* AccidentalAthlete: All of Ponyville's debut Buckball team is selected from ponies displaying an unforeseen natural talent for the sport. Notable because the first act emphasises how new it is, and two of them were recruited after initially being picked as opponent stand-ins for the tryouts.

** Snails is selected as the buckball team's unicorn after displaying a natural talent at catching balls in water buckets he's carrying. His empty headed attitude gives him a zen state of mind free from all distraction and high telekinetic skill. He's seen orbiting multiple baskets around himself at one point.
*** Playing on the same side of the field they mop the floor with seasoned athletes such as Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and Snails takes a nap from lack of balls making it past Fluttershy.
* AnAesop

* CanonImmigrant: Snails portrayal as a GeniusDitz was actually established in the IDW Comics before the airing of this episode.

* {{Irony}}: Rainbow Dash is a natural athlete who knows a lot of sports games yet she's never heard of Buckball prior to the Episode.

* TemptingFate

* VomitDiscretionShot: One of the unicorns trying out for the buckball team suffers a case of self-induced dizziness and ends up [[GreenAroundTheGills looking rather sick]], putting her hoof to her mouth just before the montage cuts to the next pony.

* FlatJoy: When Applejack mentions she went around town talking up the team, Pinkie responds with an unenthusiastic "greaaaaat".

** Derpy's hat looks like a PaletteSwap of the one belonging to ''Literature/TheCatInTheHat''.
** A sport that requires one member from each of the setting's three "ethnic groups" is reminiscent of pro-bending from ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''.
** Fluttershy's brainsnap of highly expressive angry faces is too similar to what you find in the ''WebAnimation/PonyDotMov'' series to be a mere coincidence.

* AnAesop: Some people thrive on pressure, others don't. Winning a game shouldn't come at the expense of having fun playing it.

* TemptingFate: When Pinkie tries to help Fluttershy relax by saying that nopony else in town knows about the game, it cuts to them being cheered on by the ''whole town''.