Fridge Horror / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - Season 4

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Princess Twilight Sparkle, Parts 1 & 2

• One appears immediately as the premiere ends: what happens if an enemy threatens Equestria? Especially since the Elements are gone?
  • To give an example, it's heavily implied that, since the elements are gone, Discord might attempt to wreck havoc and become dangerous all over again. The only thing stopping him is Fluttershy.
  • Can't they borrow them for 10 minutes, like Celestia and Luna did, in case of great need? Why didn't the Princesses put them back anyway?
    • Because if another equally dangerous threat appeared, there was no guaranty the Princesses would have enough time to get back to the tree and take them; it's exactly what happened when Luna became Nightmare Moon, with Celestia almost dying at her sister's hooves; it was good for her that they kept the Elements at their own castle.
    • Waitasec... Their old castle was literally built on top of the Tree of Harmony. Even if they didn't want place defenses around the Tree itself, putting the Elements back in for a limited time everyday should have been possible.
  • The elements aren't gone. The jewelry is gone. The ponies (and human counterparts) are themselves the elements.
• Those black vines of evil were planted by Discord ages ago. How many other contingency plans does he have? And since even Fluttershy can't reel him in enough to stop, how will they deal with any of those?
• According to Zecora, the dark magic that Celestia, Twilight, and especially King Sombra used in the Crystal Empire premiere is called "Alicorn Magic". Start screaming.
  • Maybe it's just a kind of super-powerful, available-only-to-alicorns magic?
  • Which raises a great deal of questions, especially in Sombra's case...
    • For what it's worth, the weird horn aura magic was never actually called dark magic. That was used to refer to Sombra's Nightmare Door, and from context, it was referring to magic used for evil.
    • This does add some more horror to his character. He was apparently powerful enough to use alicorn level magic. Perhaps it was a good idea he died in his two parter.
    • No, no no, from the way she said it Alicorn magic is simply the only magic that can make the potion purple. That's it. Alicorn magic is not dark magic, dark magic isn't mentioned at all. This is all just extremely tenuous connections of Color-Coded Wizardry.
• Taking the events of Equestria Girls into consideration, if Sunset would have destroyed the gateway back to Equestria, leaving Twilight and the element of magic separated from the rest, Equestria would have been overrun by the Everfree Forest since the elements would be incomplete to save the tree (barring Discord's willful stopping of the forest himself).

Castle Mane-ia

• Part of the legend of the "Pony of Shadows" is that it's residual magic left over from when Luna freed herself from Nightmare Moon that's taking on its own form. The Stinger shows that the Pony of Shadows is apparently an actual entity. It's entirely possible that the whole "Left over Nightmare magic" bit of the legend might be accurate as well.
  • Actually, it was said to be a piece of Nightmare Moon's magic leftover from when she was banished. Not when she was freed. (Now whether or not the Pony of Shadows actually existed until Nightmare Moon was defeated in season one, is another question entirely.)
  • If a tweet from Jayson Thiessen is any indication, the entity of the Pony of Shadows seen at the end of the episode was none other than Tirek, the villain of the season 4 finale. Good thing he didn't have enough power at that point...
• Cinemare Sins points out a likelihood of why Princess Luna was banished to the moon for 1,000 years. The booby traps in the castle likely had something to do with Luna being tormented enough to turn into Nightmare Moon.
  • Not likely, as it was Luna who thought of the gags. Celie thought she was weird.

Daring Don't

• So the villain of a book series is actually real, is planning to throw the Tenochtitlan Basin into 800 years of never ending heat, and, with the exception of a single author/adventurer, nopony, not even the Princesses, are trying to stop him?
  • And one of Fluttershy's animal friends is helping him.
  • Heat is usually associated with the sun. Replace "heat" with "night", a word associated with the moon. Yes. He's essentially the "Nightmare Sun" that fans have speculated about. Or perhaps it contributes to a rather dark interpretation of Celestia...
    • And if he was talking about a different kind of heat...
  • Unlike most of the show's major villains, Ahuizotl doesn't have high level magical powers, and this must help him play it safe and under the Princesses' radar; it's entirely possible that Daring Do only found him by accident when they both were looking for the same relics.
    • The fact that he is not threatening all of Equestria but is only attempting to control one valley, called the "Tenochtitlan Basin" after the real-world Aztec city, has probably helped him in that regard. How manipulating the local weather conditions into a centuries-long heatwave is going to accomplish his goals, is another question.
    • Heck, the idea that Ahuizotl exists is pure horror. To elaborate, the ahuizotl is a creature from classic Aztec mythology, a semi-aquatic monster that attracts his victims by mimicking a baby's weeping, and then catches them with its prehensile tail before pulling the victim under the water to drown. It's also some Fridge Brilliance from the show's writers, as Ahuizotl, like his myth counterpart, is fond on death traps.
    • It would have helped him by making water sources scarce, meaning more victims would flock to his watery death trap of choice, giving him a sustainable source of food.
• The very fact that everything in the Daring Do books is now real should raise some eyebrows. Imagine all the things in the stories that readers could sigh with relief that "it's just a story." Now, what happens if they realize it's all real.
• With all the stuff left over to be found and used by adventure archeologists, what were the ancient civilizations like that they could make such artifacts? How far back do they date? Discord-Era? Hearts Warming Eve? Thousands of years before even Heartswarming?

Flight to the Finish

• At the end of the second act, a broken Scootaloo tells her friends they're better off without her, and they react with anger. When we see Scootaloo next, she's throwing away her posters and her scooter. Consistent with someone suicidal. If Dash, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle had been slower or Scootaloo faster...

Filthy Rich: Diamond Dazzle Tiara, you are as responsible for Scootaloo's death as if you had killed her!

• Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon know that their "Blank Flanks" taunt won't work on the CMC and they've seen how effective mocking Scootaloo's disability is. Who's to say they won't adopt this as their new form of bullying.
  • Well, even if they do, it likely won't work nearly as well for them because now the CMC know their friendship is stronger than any lack of ability the girls could choose to mock them over. Besides, what are they going to do? Call Applebloom uncultured? Maybe make fun of Sweetie Bell not being so great with her magic? Nothing else they have compares to Scootaloo's inability to fly and that utterly failed after a short pep-talk and a quick reassurance of friendship.
    • Diamond Tiara also doesn't care that much. She only escalated her taunting as part of a plan rather than because she cared about the CMC's feelings. She usually doesn't put any effort into taunting Apple Bloom or her friends. Unless she stands to gain, Diamond isn't going to go through the effort of coming up with more creative insults.
• Scootaloo gets bullied by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon on account of her inability to fly. Compare this to the "Rainbow Crash" insults, and "Fluttershy can hardly fly". Think about how much worse Scootaloo's life would have been if she had grown up in Cloudsdale instead of Ponyville.
  • Or worse, maybe that's why she doesn't live in Cloudsdale.
• Scootaloo's desperate attempts to get flying plus her dialogue with Rainbow Dash strongly imply that she was not aware of any medical condition keeping her from flying normally. Which, in turn, implies that she had not seen a doctor about her wings despite being well past the age when an average pegasus would start flying. Which does not reflect well on her biological family (or whoever's supposed to be taking care of her at this point).

Power Ponies

• There is a shop that sells comics that can transfer ponies into another dimension. Also, the only way to escape is to defeat the main antagonist, but what happens if the pony doesn't defeat the villain? They'll either be killed or trapped forever!
  • Spike was able to get hold of one of these comics without suspecting a thing. How many colts and fillies do you think have been trapped inside these magical comic books?
  • So there's just a store somewhere that sells enchanted comics to children without either an age limit or at the very least a warning or explanation that reading the darned thing will suck you into an alternate world where you might end up using superpowers you hardly know how to use while fighting for your life against a maniac? It also makes you wonder if there is an, ahem, adult section in that store and who shops there^note Five bits says Blueblood!.
  • Here's a thought: don't think of the villain in those comics as the villain. Instead, think of them as the in-character Dungeon Master. Their job is to make sure the player ponies reach the end of the story. If a player is having trouble, the villain dials back a bit to make things easier on them. If a player is unsure of what to do, the villain holds the Villain Ball long enough to point them in the right direction. If a player, for some reason, cannot perform as the plot demands, the villain fixes it so that they can. If you watch the episode again with this interpretation in mind, you can actually see the Mane-iac doing this with Spike and the Mane Six.
    • The plot calls for a fight scene between the Power Ponies and the Mane-iac right at the start of the comic. However, when the Mane-iac makes her entrance, the Mane Six respond by listening to Spike's exposition instead of meeting her challenge head-on like they are supposed to. So the Mane-iac starts throwing nearby objects at them to get them to fight back and get the story underway.
    • The plot calls for Humdrum to bail the Power Ponies out in time for the climactic showdown. However, Spike is still moping about being the useless sidekick. So the Mane-iac uses a suspiciously-well-timed "The Reason You Suck" Speech to coerce the Mane Six into sticking up for him and inspiring him into action.
    • The plot calls for Saddle Rager to hulk out and deliver the final smackdown to close out the story. However, Fluttershy can't get herself mad enough to trigger the transformation on cue. So the Mane-iac swats a random firefly to MAKE her get mad enough.
  • Maybe failing the mission results in a Game Over and possibly a "Groundhog Day" Loop back to the beginning? I doubt the store would have been allowed to exist for long if any ponies actually died inside the comics.
    • They wouldn't last long if their comics forced players to replay the story from the beginning every time they screwed up, either. It would make more sense if the comics had no failure condition, and simply adapted the story around the players so they could complete it and leave the comic. If the players needed to punch out early, the comics would have an Escape Rope option available. In short: there would be nothing forcing the players to stay in the comic book if they didn't want to.
• Pinkie Pie managed to pull something out of the comic book world. What if a villain or super weapon escaped?
  • Unlikely. The episode implies rather strongly that the villain and the comic book are very closely connected, if not the same entity. Plus, that would contradict the way the episode says the comic books work. The only way out is to defeat the villain, usually by putting them in a state where they couldn't escape even if they wanted to. In most superhero stories, this also includes destruction of the villain's doomsday device, so by the time the comic ends, there is no superweapon to escape with. It's also likely that the enchancements on these comic books disallow players from taking things out of the comic book when they leave. Pinkie Pie was only able to get away with it because she's Pinkie Pie; Rule of Funny takes precedence.
  • No, the REAL Fridge Horror is in the enchantments facilitating these comic books. Somepony is putting those enchantments on those comic books. Whether it was their original purpose or not, it wouldn't take much to modify them to remove the exit condition and make them into the perfect prison. Now consider that Equestria has its own share of actual villains who would be all too happy to make those modifications and use them for that very purpose.
    • Take it up another level. What happens if the comic is destroyed while someone is still in it? Do the enchantments have the ability to emergency eject someone if the actual comic is damaged enough? Best case scenario, you live out the rest of your life inside the comic's story, but worst case scenario...
  • How does Twilight defend Spike in his Sidekick role? By saying he's "not Humdrum", he's Spike, which will let him save the ponies after all. Is there a real Humdrum, and is he going through what Spike did but without the help of being someone else with slightly more useful skills than his character alone has? Just think: the guy's whole existence is to be the screw-up comic relief, according to the only person we see read the scripted part of the book.
    • For that matter, the people in the comic seemingly being real. It has a very Animal Man feel to it. What happens when only one or two are sucked in? Are the "Power Ponies" members who aren't replaced there to fill the role? Or do you have to fight the Mane-iac with a smaller team.
    • Spike was the first one sucked in, and he got put into the role of Humdrum. So presumably that's what was supposed to happen. The entire issue was about Humdrum messing up, and if we go with the assumption that the Mane-iac was acting as a kind of Dungeon Master, she kept leaving Humdrum alone and gave a speech about how Humdrum was useless. Maybe the issue was Humdrum's time to shine?
• This might be more of in-universe horror, but how do we know the Mane-iac was made by accident? What if the accident was set up? Or if that was her attempting suicide?
• Fluttershy not being able to Hulk Out in her identity as Saddle Rager until the Mane-iac swats a random firefly is played for a mixture of drama and laughs. But still, the fact she can see her five best friends in mortal peril and not be able to freak out, only to do so when some bug she's never met before get swatted... well, that offers some very negative possibilities about her attitude towards ponies in general. Like the implication she values the lives of even strange insects more than she values the lives of her five pony friends.
  • It's possible Fluttershy was just mainly scared and sad then actually angry. She does care for them and was probably angry and wanted to help, it's just that fear was mainly what she was feeling then.
  • It also helps to keep in mind that Fluttershy is still Fluttershy, and is used to all her friends, even Twilight, being much more physically capable and effective than she is. Her main weapon up to this point has been The Stare. There's a certain amount of situational irony in making Fluttershy The Big Guy.

Bats!

• What would've happened to the Vampire Fruit Bats if Twilight's spell had worked? Did she make them decide to eat something else that wasn't fruit, or were they going to let the bats starve?
  • After the parasprite debacle, she's probably researched how to do those sorts of spells without causing horrible side effects. In this case, she probably just removed their taste for apples specifically, leaving them free to eat other fruit that isn't a major staple of Ponyville's business.
  • Most likely, they would have started eating like normal fruit bats, who don't cause problems by overeating.
  • Who says they need to eat apples anyway? They could eat other fruits, probably. All the spell did was get rid of their desire to eat apples.
    • It didn't even do that. The spell made them stop wanting to suck the juice from apples.
    • Four above entries are examples of You Fail Biology Forever. Specialized feeding mode evolves because it's more productive - and restrictive. If you remove ability to eat fruit juice from species evolved to the point it has specialized jaw, it can't just go 'eat another fruit' or 'eat apple normally' (and this besides fact that any fruit bitten by animal is thrown out, not sold). It will just starve and die. Congratulations, Twilight, first real test of your leadership skills and you already ordered species-cide.
    • Seriously? This very episode showed that the spell that Twilight used on the fruit bats was capable of altering their physiology. Given what happened to Fluttershy, what makes you think that Twilight didn't alter their bodies? And we know that alteration to their ability to eat can be subtle, as the parasprites didn't looks any different after Twilight altered them.
    • Imagine someone cast spell on you that forced you to eat grass, and only grass (by changing your physiology). This, if anything, is even more wrong, not less. Also, let's think for a second when real animals have feeding frenzies - when they try to gather nutrients during pregnancy. So, it's possible the spell doomed a whole new generation of bats to any combination of malnutrition and stillbirth. Fluttershy really had a big point in that AJ and TS tried to mess with something neither of them understood or even cared for, with potentially disastrous consequences.
    • There is another source of fruit that are on Sweet Apple Acres. Those cute Fruit Bats.
    • But if the fruit bats are part fruit, then they were already on the menu... Vampire fruit bats only eat fruit fruit, right? Did Fluttershy just get them eaten?
  • Even if the bats found another food source, what consequences could that have? When Twilight changed the Parasprites' nature, they wound up destroying Ponyville. If the bats found another food source, whatever it would be, they might have wrecked society, or the ecosystem, or who knows what?
• The idea that even the rest of the Mane Six would straight up strong-arm Fluttershy into using her Stare on the bats. Fluttershy has always prided herself on only using her Stare in the most dire of emergencies; to ask her to use the Stare on a swarm of bats just because they're ugly and destructive would be like asking her to commit Mind Rape on them, for the unfair 'crime' of simply acting on their natural instincts. Knowing that she could be partly responsible, if Twilight's spell had worked properly, for the bats' possible starving to death would shake her to the core.
  • Also, she knows all too well what it feels like to be mind-raped and act against her will, back when Discord brainwashed her into being cruel to her friends. The very thought of doing the same to a group of animals who are just acting the way animals are supposed to act would be unthinkable to her.
• Now can you imagine what would had happened if Twilight couldn't save Fluttershy? She'd be stuck as a vampire bat with no control over her instincts, no way of even communicating with her friends, and she may have effectively Mind Raped herself into thinking that she's a feral bat forever.
  • Or until morning came. Fluttershy wasn't affected during the day.
    • That, of course, assuming with change progression she wouldn't be stuck in the bat-pony form permanently. Her teeth at the end of the episode stayed at daytime.
• Oh, did we mention that Fluttershy's fangs stuck around even after we thought all was done with? It hasn't come up again, but...
• So, it's wonderful Fluttershy got her way and all, but... well, as mentioned on the YMMV page for both the series and the episode, Strawman Has a Point in this episode. Applejack has very real concerns that her orchard and thusly her family may not survive if the vampire fruit bats remain infesting the orchard. They barely survived a past infestation, as she mentions, and they are repeatedly shown as having monetary concerns. Fluttershy is right not to want to be forced to use the Stare to make them leave, but, well, if the bats won't be reasonable, then drastic measures are warranted; it could cost Applejack's entire family their livelihoods, just because Fluttershy doesn't want to inconvenience a bunch of animals who'd just migrate on after they were done anyway. So... as in the vein of Power Ponies above, is this an episode of Fluttershy showing she cares more about random animals than her own friends?!

Rarity Takes Manehattan

• So as pointed out on the Fridge Brilliance page, Suri Polomare would be getting some Laser-Guided Karma as a result of Coco leaving. Of course, she'd know it was Coco's fault her life is now ruined. Who's to say she wouldn't seek revenge?
  • And do what? She can hardly blackmail Coco with anything - the truth of Coco's prior employment and what was really going on there coming out would be infinitely more damaging to Suri than it could ever be to Coco. Try to make Coco knuckle under to emotional intimidation? That's clearly Suri's best skill, but now that Coco's found the strength to defy her once its not something Suri can be sure of working anymore... after all, Coco would still be there if it hadn't stopped working already. Have Coco attacked by thugs? Suri's an emotionally abusive plagiarist fashion designer, not an organized crime kingpin, and it would be a bit out-of-genre for the show besides. (Even if it's probably being written into a fanfic as we speak.) Try to pull strings to wreck Coco's life or limit her career opportunities? Seems to be the only method with any real possibility, but that would just get us another episode if Coco didn't clutch the Idiot Ball and instead simply wrote Rarity a letter.
• We got to see first hand just how verbally and emotionally abusive Suri was towards Coco. But who's to say she didn't physically abuse Coco behind closed doors either?

Pinkie Apple Pie

• Goldie Delicious is a lonely, old, weak lady who keeps a ridiculous number of cats, and they all live in a horribly cluttered (to the point where opening the door is a feat in itself), dirty and dilapidated house. In real life, these tend to be symptoms of animal hoarding and compulsive hoarding.
• So why would somepony go to such length to make sure any and all records of relation between the Pies and the Apples was rubbed out?
  • Consider where the records were,one was a scroll that, when unrolled exited the Library ,and the other is in the house of a compulsive and animal hoarder. It might seem a bit of a stretch that it'd be the exact same. place that was smudged just from this, but it could happen. The alternative is one's a copy of the other and it's a long standing error. Both seem more likely than someone trying to hide a relation that distant.
• I could be taking this too seriously, but Pinkie is extremely excited at the thought of being part of the Apple family, and feels so much joy when Granny Smith says she's "always welcome with your Apple kin". She loved traveling with them as family, while being extremely eager to take photos to keep the memories. Later, when she finds out she might not be an Apple after all, she is thoroughly crushed. This and the fact Word of God shows the Cakes see Pinkie as a surrogate daughter, kind of brings up the question on why she wants to be family with them so badly, and yet never visits and very rarely mentions her actual family. She never even gives a reason, like living too far away, and Pinkie Pride shows she moved to Ponyville when she was a filly, while her family is still evidently on the rock farm. So, if she has a family, then why does she never visit or mention visiting them? Why does she need the Cakes as surrogate parents? Why is she so excited at the thought of being part of the Apple Family, not just "blood related excited", but excited at the prospect of being an actual member of their family, and them accepting her as such? What happened on the rock farm that made her leave?
  • We see later that she is close to her sister. Her family looks borderline Amish in her flashbacks, I'm guessing it's simply that her lifestyle doesn't mesh with them in the long term and that she wanted to move somewhere more populated to spread more laughter. As, far as why she's so happy to be related to the Apples, we know from Party of One how insecure she can be and she may have just been really happy to have a tangible connection to one of her friends, besides the Elements of Harmony.
• So, the Slender Man is canon within the MLP-Verse. And, since there's no internet in Equestria nopony will ever know what is happening to his victims. (Downplayed, however, by the fact that they do have cameras.)
  • On top of that, if there's a Slender Man, who's to say there isn't an Order? Or, worse, a Collective?

Rainbow Falls

• Soarin injures his wing in a practice, and it really looks awful; luckily, in the end, is just a minor injury. What makes this real Fridge Horror is remembering how in Real Life many athletes' careers get completely ruined when suffering accidents like this; in some of these cases, even if they heal, they never fully recover the athleticism level they previously had. Considering all this, is a bit easier to understand why Soarin's teammates were so quick to find a replacement even after knowing the accident was less serious than it looked like.
• Bulk Biceps' wings had atrophied a lot since the events at Wonderbolts Academy, and we'd all seen how flight deficiencies are often mocked by other pegasi, and not just by young ones but by adults.

Three's a Crowd

• Horses have an eleven month gestation cycle. Cadence was definitely pregnant during this episode, though she apparently wasn't aware of it yet. Now, think about the number of times she was put into danger of infection or even death. Even if she wasn't killed, she could have lost Flurry Heart without even knowing it.
  • This episode aired over a year before "The Crystalling". Even then, we don't know how much time has passed between the former and the latter.
• It was feigned, but the results of Discord's Power Incontinence—which really isn't noticeably different from what he does his with abilities when he in complete control—have some really unsettling implications. Witness the inanimate objects he brings to life (possibly granting some measure of sapience to the lamp post), or the Ponyville cottage that floats away to never be seen again.
• Early in the episode, there's some real fears to be found when Pinkie Pie, the most childlike of the main characters, has her eyes closed while humming loudly and chasing a balloon directly down the railroad tracks moments before the next train arrives!
• Is there any doubt left that Discord's "reformation" has merely exchanged one sadistic game for another?
• According to folklore, a Tatzlwurm's breath is a lethal. If this applies to the beast in MLP as well, Discord's power might be the only reason he got away so lightly. And just imagine if Cadence hadn't had that shield up. The fact that afterward Discord is encased in a plastic bubble pretty much confirms it: Whatever contagion is capable of making the spirit of Chaos and Disharmony sick, the ponies don't want at any cost being exposed to.
• Discord saying the "blue flu" was highly contagious. He told Twilight and Cadence that he infected Applejack and Rarity with it but we don't see them until after he admits that he was faking it. What if Applejack and Rarity were sick? Twilight and Cadence didn't even check on them to see if they were all right, instead catering to Discord's whims.

Pinkie Pride

• This could be reading a bit too much into things, but Cheese Sandwich ran away from home and started Walking the Earth as a little colt because he was so shy that no one noticed him. What does this say about his parents?

Simple Ways

• More "Fridge Depression" then fridge horror, but the way Applejack was treated throughout the episode by both Trenderhoof and Rarity is a bit disconcerting. Trenderhoof (a unicorn) admits that part of Applejack's appeal to him is that he "Appreciates the earth pony work ethic". Then we see Rarity acting out what we can assume is her ideas on earth pony, or at least farm pony stereotypes. What exactly does this say about relations between unicorns and earth ponies as a whole? No wonder Applejack detested Trenderhoof's advances.
  • To be fair to Rarity, she wasn't acting out "Earth Pony Stereotypes" so much acting like the type of pony she thinks that Trenderhoof would be interested in. He stereotyped earth ponies as hicks, so Rarity tried to act that way to impress him. Still doesn't speak well to either his or Rarity's sensitivity though.

Filli Vanilli

• During Big Mac's flashback, as Big Mac prepares to do his turkey call, there's a quick shot of Pinkie slowly rising up in the crowd then sinking back in, grinning evilly all the while. Few seconds after the flashback, she passes the Ponytones with the turkey call medal around her neck. Did Pinkie sabotage Big Mac's voice?!
  • Considering this is Pinkie Pie we're talking about, this 'evil grin' can be interpreted as 'Oh, you'll see how I'm gonna win this year, Pinkie Style!' rather than 'Oh, you'll fall in my trap and I'll dethrone you' mentality; it's pretty much her default expression whenever she's gonna try something very difficult or important for her, like when she tried impressing Gilda with a party; her expression made the viewers think she'd perform a complex scheme at the party, and in the end she didn't do anything but trying to throw the best party she could. We later hear Pinkie doing the Turkey Call, and she does it quite well. It's entirely possible, however, that Pinkie improved her call to the point Big Mac put an even bigger effort to try outmatching her, and that gave him the hoarse throat.

Twilight Time

• Twi's disappointment in the fact that most of the fillies who wanted to meet her are only doing it for the sake of meeting somepony famous and the fact that some of them are basically only using the Cutie Mark Crusaders to get close to her may harken back to her time as Celestia's personal student, when it would have been likely that some of her peers and perhaps even some nobles might have tried to play nice with her only for the sake of currying favors from the Princess.
  • Maybe WMG but maybe this is why Twilight was never interested in "friends".

It Ain't Easy Being Breezies

• Seabreeze's companions were so happy staying with Fluttershy that they didn't care about him not returning home with his wife and kid, and doing this travel alone is pretty much a suicide mission. When he accidentally crashed in the beehive, the bees were more than willing to sting him to death.
• The breezies are, to put it lightly, very fragile, to the point that all it takes to disrupt their migration is a leaf. Given all the monsters and dangerous creatures in the setting, Equestria is nothing short of a Death World to them if they don't have ponies watching out for them. It's really hard to imagine the group making it all the way across the world without some casualties.

Somepony to Watch Over Me

• Apple Bloom sneaks out of her house and is saved by a conveniently placed stack of hay bales. Suppose Applejack wasn't Crazy-Prepared enough to do that and also consider Apple Bloom's bedroom is on the second story of her house.
• Applejack's sudden overprotectiveness of her sister takes on some much darker tones if one remembers that her parents are believed to be dead.
• The Chimera snake head at one point displays Hypnotic Eyes. While it was used for a quick gag, imagine if she really did have the power to hypnotize. Apple Bloom would be frozen still in a trance and would be eaten by the Chimera then and there.
• When Apple Bloom is cornered by the Chimera on the hilltop at the geyser swamp, she does nothing to try and escape. Considering that the beast is huge enough to block any exits from her, it makes sense that she should just stay where she is. She is basically accepting death.

Maud Pie

• Is Maud clinically depressed or something?
  • Um, no? It's never really implied that she isn't content with her life, it's just that she's The Stoic and doesn't really show her emotions. Just because she isn't particularly expressive hardly means that she doesn't feel fine.
  • It actually goes with her motif of rocks. Rocks. Dull. Stone cold. Get it?
• While Maud herself having some kind of condition is debatable, it is a bit distressing to think that there are limits on who the Mane Cast can accept as a friend. Somehow, Maud failed to meet that standard. Its especially heartbreaking for Pinkie, who obviously loves Maud, but due to Maud's personality and character, the others simply cannot make a real connection to her. This is the same sort of problem that loved ones of those with mental disorders face: They want to show that they are worthy of being loved, but the rest of the world is less then accepting, all they immediately see are the flaws.
  • The problem wasn't that the main cast didn't accept her. They did; the entire episode consisted of them trying to become friends with Maud. Acceptance was never the issue; the problem was simply that they didn't really have enough in common for either party to enjoy things. None of the mane cast are into rocks enough to find it interesting, and Maud has a similar disinterest in their own subjects. That was the entire point of the episode: you won't be able to be friends with everyone, not because there's anything wrong with you or wrong with them, but because you just won't have common ground with everyone or have compatible personalities. It's not exactly a happy lesson, but it's entirely true: you won't be friends with everyone you meet, just because you don't have the same interests, and that's okay.
  • Well, some people in Real Life have standards as well. And, as said above, it was more about a lack of common interests. Though it is kind of Fridge Logic as to why Rarity didn't think of gems seeing as that happens to actually be her Cutie Mark.
• Maud puts the rock candy necklace Pinkie made for her in the box where she keeps all of Pinkie's other necklaces, but she doesn't do the same with the necklaces made by the rest of the Mane 6, and she says she doesn't like candy. Is she just going to throw the other necklaces away?
  • She probably doesn't have as much incentive to keep them. Or she may just not have enough room; she might have to get a different box for the Mane Six's necklaces. Failing that, she did just tell them why she doesn't eat the necklaces. She might just give them back without Pinkie knowing.

Trade Ya

• Rainbow Dash almost willingly trades away Fluttershy for a Daring Do book. Let that sink in on how desperate she was for a moment there.

For Whom the Sweetie Belle Tolls

• Think about this episode for a second. You have omniscient morality police that can either look into past/future or tear memories from other pones memory to show you why you're wrong. You will then be locked into a nightmare torturing you with (possibly) exaggerated visions of what will happen if you don't correct your ways immediately no matter how much you scream you want to wake up. That without even considering they read everything you think when they want to. And yet, majority of the populace was stupid enough to piss off holder of such powers to the point they become Nightmare Moon... Wait, on second though, just 'eternal night' sounds infinitely less evil than what Luna can do with her powers, so maybe they were right, after all.
  • Just to nitpick, it's never made clear how much of the dream was Luna's manipulation and how much of it was just Sweetie Belle having a guilt-induced nightmare. It's entirely possible that Sweetie Belle was having bad dreams either way and Luna just decided to make the nightmare useful instead of dispelling it entirely, especially after she heard Sweetie's point of view and decided to make sure the filly didn't make the same mistakes she did.

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

• Rainbow not realizing how hard the test was going to be and that she needs to take it seriously until she has less than a day to prepare for it. It's not exactly "rampaging monster"-levels of horror, but fear of failing a test that will affect your future career choices is going to hit very close to home for some people.

Inspiration Manifestation

• What exactly happened to the clown and mariachi ponies that Rarity turned into a waiter and classical music ponies?
  • Twilight said that she, Cadance and Luna changed everything back to normal in the end.
• The magic went away when Spike told Rarity the truth. Where did it go? And why does this time Rarity doesn't remember while Trixie under the Alicorn Amulet did?
• Rarity does not eat or sleep after she is possessed by the "Inspiration Manifestation" spell. Would it have kept her alive indefinitely, or would she have artist-ed herself to death?
  • Given how much ice cream she consumed, she obviously had severe colic that night. Yet she didn't even notice.
• If the spell had possessed a pornographer, the result would have been a very squickily redesigned town—and very traumatized foals.

Equestria Games

• Imagine for a moment just how badly things might have turned out had another enemy like Discord, Chrysalis or Sombra chosen to attack during the games, given that it appeared that even the princesses and Shining Armor were under the effects of the unicorn-disabling anti-cheat spell at the time.
  • Not to mention that the secret service ponies simply said that there was no time to cut the spell.
• Once again, Spike ends up singed from the effects of a spell cast by Twilight. It's been established that he's supposed to be fireproof. Just how strong was that fire spell Twilight used to light the flame, and what would it have done to a non-dragon?
  • More than the fire's intensity, what affected Spike was the magic on it. Twilight often practices harmless spells on him, and Spike had been affected by an adult dragon's fire, that is magical as well. The series has established that dragons are vulnerable to magic; while Spike probably resists magical fire much better than a pony, it still can harm him to a certain extent.

Twilight's Kingdom, Parts 1 & 2

• Lord Tirek, the villain in this 2-parter is so powerful it's Godzilla Threshold to the point that the other 3 princesses have to give Twilight their power. What in Equestria could be that powerful?!
• Lord Tirek escaped from Tartarus, and unlike the previous escaped evil, Tartarus isn't just his can but a prison for the worst evils in Equestria. Tirek is capable of sucking ponies dry and is so ungodly powerful that sending freaking Discord to stop him is considered the best solution and the Princesses are forced to give their magic to Twilight just to keep it safe from him. Just one of the evils sealed in Tartarus is that powerful. Just what else is down there?!
  • Fans have pondered that Chrysalis might have been one of Tartarus' prisoners. Or that Sombra might have been one. Both of them did make first appearances relatively soon after "It's About Time".
• So Tirek drains the Mane Cast, including Spike. Remember, just a few episodes prior, Spike had eaten a book of dark magic. It's possible that Tirek managed to drain that out of him. Now it's probably pretty minor compared to all the other magic he'd drained by then, but just immagine the horrors Inspiration Manifestation combined with Discord's magic could cause.
  • Actually, Spike seemed to be unaffected by the drain. He was the only one in the cage who's eyes didn't get washed out.
• Twilight Sparkle's library gets completely destroyed. She gets a new castle at the end to replace it, but this goes into Esoteric Happy Ending territory since this doesn't replace all of the books that were inside the library, which were said to be of great sentimental value to her. A whole episode is dedicated to showing such consequences.
  • It would be appropriate for this show to display an Aesop of 'Treasuring things that have meaning to you is all right in its place; but if push ultimately comes to shove you should first choose to save lives, not objects.' Which is why the scene is framed to show Twilight passing up a chance to grab any of her posessions to instead shield Owlowiscious from the blast with her own body. He didn't have to be in that particular scene, after all; reassuring the audience that the owl didn't die could be done as simply as showing him during the group musical # at the end. Instead, screen time is devoted specifically to Twilight saving him.
  • As pointed out in this comic, did Twilight know Spike wasn't there when the library was destroyed? Did she think he was killed along with it?
• The mere idea of Tirek winning. Obviously the other villains have had horrible designs, but for him, the fact that he plans to drain the magic from every being he can find brings something even worse to mind. Celestia states that if he wins, there will be nobody to control the weather, liking leaving it completely stagnant, nobody with the strength to work the earth to grow food, and he aimed to the magic to control the sun and moon. Not only would he leave all of Equestria too weak to lift a finger against him, futile as it would be, but his take over could easily be the end of life in Equestria with the weather and the sun and moon left unchecked, and the ponies would not be able to support themselves. Tirek either never seemed to consider that, or he didn't care as long he got power.
  • We are to assume that if he won, he would have had the power to control everything in Equestria like an omnipotent god. Whether he would even care enough to let the ponies survive, though, is unclear.
  • Tirek is the most barbaric villain we’ve seen in the show at this point. He is the only one that actually goes out of his way to DESTROY-not enslave or play with-parts of Equestria. He doesn’t just want to rule the ponies, he wants to completely and totally conquer them.
  • To make it even scarier, Tirek nearly won because of ill-thought decisions. Overestimating Discord's value of friendship, not taking Tirek's lack of knowledge of Twilight to their advantage, and not warning Twilight's friends of Discord's betrayal were all major mistakes that could have been their last had it not been for the box. Considering the track record of how many times a mistake put some major kingdom in jeopardy, this makes Celestia's rule scary. Whenever she makes mistakes, there's a good chance the whole world's doomed because of it.
• When Tirek stole flight, he would also have stolen inertial damping. First, this means that some of the low-flying pegasi we see have massive injuries. Second, many pegasi (and griffons) would have been higher up. It is a given that nopony in Cloudsdale has survived, and that nearly every pegasus and griffon in the world is in mourning for some loved ones.
  • It is possible — and given that they likely want to use Cloudsdale in season 5, as well as avoid the social and political consequences of dealing with The Great Pegasus Die-Off, also probable — that pegasi still get enough glide angle from their wings, sans magic, to turn 'fatal crash' into 'rough landing'. Even so, that's still a lot of bruised pegasi laying around the landscape. Ditto griffons.
    • And it's still a lot harsher in hindsight when you see what Griffonstone is like. How many griffons died of thirst in that gorge because they broke wings on the way down and lost their money?
  • Note that Tirek cannot drain power from a very long range. It's likely that he just had Discord gather them all up and dump them on the ground next to him, ripe for the taking.
  • Did Tirek even get to Cloudsdale? It looked like he attacked the Wonderbolts Academy.
• What if the Mane Six had gotten their keys and opened the box before Tirek attacked? Then they would've wasted the Rainbow Power (which is implied to be a one-time use), and they wouldn't have been able to defeat him.

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