History Recap / MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS8E9NonCompeteClause

* AdultFear: Played with. A student of your (almost) drowns on your watch, especially because of negligence.

* CallBack: You can say that again. This isn't the first time [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E13FallWeatherFriends Applejack and Rainbow Dash compete with each other...and then lost.]]

* VocalDissonance: Hearing Ocellus's soft, feminine voice coming from her big, fanged bite-acudas form is rather hilarious.

** After deciding to make both Applejack and Rainbow Dash leaders of the field trip, Twilight acknowledges that they've been competitive in the past, but adds that she's sure they won't let that get in the way of friendship education.

** After scolding Rainbow and Applejack, Twilight has them take the class on a nature walk, believing that they couldn't possibly argue over that.

* StatingTheSimpleSolution: When the teachers and students come to a chasm, Rainbow and Applejack insist on trying to build a bridge. After the bridges collapse and the teachers are narrowly saved, Gallus points out that they have enough flyers there that they could have simply flown everyone over the gap.

* CallBack: Yona stomps on the branches trapping Rainbow and Applejack in the same manner as [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E11NotAskingForTrouble the other yaks seen during their festival]].
* CommanderContrarian: Applejack and Rainbow Dash share this role as they try to win Teacher of the Month on the field trip. Vivually demonstrated when they have the students rowing against each other in the kayak.
* CompressedVice: The competetion between Applejack and Rainbow Dash has always been friendly throughout the series, even back in "Fall Weather Friends". In this episode, it becomes more hostile because of their desire to win Teacher of the Month.

'''Rainbow Dash:''' ''[Bitterly]'' Yeah. Me, neither.

* HopeSpot: When Rainbow and Applejack get trapped in the debris of their own bridges, AJ fashions one of the vines into a lasso, and it looks like she can use it to pull them to safety. Then the lasso proves too short to reach the target--then as it dangles over the water, a bite-acuda eats the end of it.

* RevealShot: When the canoe trip begins, the camera zooms in on the front of the canoe, then the back--before pulling out to reveal that the two sides are paddling opposite directions, and the canoe isn't moving.

* TimeSkip: Fluttershy winning the 'Teacher of the Month' award for the ninth time in the row reveals that it's been 9 months since Twilight opened her Friendship School.

* WaitWhat: Silverstream when Applejack and Rainbow Dash give the canoe team contradictory directions.
-->'''Ocellus:''' Which way do we go?\\
'''Rainbow Dash:''' Left!\\
'''Applejack:''' Right!\\
'''Silverstream:''' Aye-aye, captains! ...Wait, what?

** When Twilight suggests adding together two lesson plan ideas, Pinkie goes straight to AppliedMathematics. (And gets the right answer.)

* TimeSkip: Fluttershy winning the 'Teacher of the Year' award for the ninth time in the row reveals that it's been 9 months since Twilight opened her Friendship School.

* StatingTheSimpleSolution: When the teachers and students come to a chasm, Gallus points out that they have enough flyers there to simply fly everyone over the gap. Rainbow and Applejack ignore him in favor of trying to convince the students to build a bridge.

As the students gather, both AJ and Dash realize they have different ideas of what to do; AJ wants the students to practice building a shed together, while Dash wants them to go canoeing and break a speed record. During shed building, AJ has the students work carefully, but Dash wants to rush it, making a hastily-built shed that falls apart as soon as they try to put a roof on it. They move on to canoeing, where Dash wants them to paddle as fast as they can tiring the students out, while AJ suggests a more paced approach. Eventually, they get their act together and start paddling down a river. As they approach the finish line with the record still in sight, Dash tells the students to paddle the boat towards the left of a large rock, straight into a school of bitacuda fish. AJ tells the students to go to the right, the longer route but avoiding the fish. As AJ and Dash argue, the boat runs straight into the rock. Everyone is safe due to their safety equipment, but Yona's lifejacket gets stuck on a branch and tears off her, and she cannot swim. Silverstream and a transformed Ocellus rescue her as everyone makes it to shore, just as Twilight comes along to ask how the field trip is going.

Twilight chews out AJ and Dash for being too competitive and not working together, and tells them that their next activity will be a nature walk, something that neither of them can screw up before she leaves. AJ and Dash lead the students, overtly making sure they agree with each other at every branch of the path, which annoys the students. This ends up getting them lost among the woods outside of town, and with the day nearly over, Gallus finds they only have to cross one ravine to get back to Ponyville. AJ and Dash agree that they have to build a bridge to cross the ravine, but AJ wants to do it out of vines , while Dash wants to make it from sticks. They feign agreement while they each build a rather unsteady bridge across the ravine. Still feigning their agreement, they get into an argument and end up causing both bridges to fall on each other, trapping the two in a cage-like ball hanging precariously over the river where the bitacudas are waiting. The students work together to rescue AJ and Dash, with Ocellus distracting the bitacudas long enough for the others to pull the cage up to safety.

* FlyingSeafoodSpecial: While the biteacudas normally stay in the water like regular fish, they have bat-like wings instead of fins and -- at least in the case of changelings taking their form -- are capable of powered flight.

* HopeSpot: When Rainbow and Applejack get trapped in the debris of their own bridges, AJ fashions one of the vines into a lasso, and it looks like she can use it to pull them to safety. Then the lasso proves too short to reach the target--then as it dangles over the water, a biteacuda eats the end of it.

* MixAndMatchCritters: The biteacudas, fish with bat wings.
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: The biteacudas, having huge mouths chock-full of vicious fangs.
* MorphicResonance: Ocellus keeps her colors when she transforms into a seapony and a biteacuda. The only major change shows up in her eyes when she becomes a seapony: they look like a pony's eyes, in a darker shade of her natural blue-green.

* PiranhaProblem: The biteacudas are visually reminiscent of piranhas, being stout-bodied, river-dwelling carnivorous fish. As is typical for fictional piranhas, they're depicted as highly aggressive, voraciously carnivorous bundles of sharp teeth and bad attitudes waiting to devour anyone and anything that falls in the water with them.

* SummonBiggerFish: In a rather literal sense, the students deal with the biteacudas by having Ocellus transform into a much bigger biteacuda and chase them away.

* AccidentalAesop: InUniverse. Rainbow Dash and Applejack accidentally teach their students the importance of teamwork by fighting with each other throughout the field trip.

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: The students all think that everything Rainbow and Applejack did was part of their lesson of how important teamwork is, by showing them how ''not'' to work together.