Fridge Horror / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - Season 7

Celestial Advice

• While Celestia's worrying about Twilight not making friends is intended to seem goofy next to the other worries, think about what was riding on it — Twilight being able to defeat Nightmare Moon, plus any future threats like Discord or Tirek, and her eventual ascent to alicornhood. With that in mind, Celestia's third fear is every bit as severe as the first two.
• Celestia planned on giving Twilight a lot more time to form unbreakable bonds with the rest of the Mane Six but because of her fears, she was forced to send Twilight away at the very last minute. Celestia is very lucky that Twilight still became best friends with the rest of the Mane Six, given that she had very little time to do so.
• Even though it's a paranoid delusion in a hypothetical illusion, the fact that Twilight Sparkle imagined Garble grabbing Starlight Glimmer and diving into lava and believes it to be a possibility... means that Twilight Sparkle believes that Garble is willing to murder ponies. That's a pretty strong vote of no confidence from the Princess of Friendship.
  • Also notice that Spike specifically said that Starlight Glimmer would just teleport if she found herself in this kind of danger instead of protesting the idea that Garble would actually do something like that. That's because Spike also believes that Garble is willing to murder ponies.
  • Given that Garble was planning to plunder and raze Equestria, it's not exactly a far-fetched worry.

All Bottled Up

• The fact that people can LITERALLY bottle emotions. That can mean that there are individuals who can be sapped away of their entire emotions with a single spell.
  • Unlikely to be so simple though, given the spell didn't keep her from getting angry afterward. She had to use it consciously again and again every time she got angry.
• Starlight's magic is tied to her emotions, the stronger the emotion the more powerful the magic. Considering what happened the last couple times she's let her emotions get the better of her, it becomes easy to see why she was so determined to not get angry at Trixie.
• As the episode goes on and Starlight bottles up more and more of her anger, she appears physically weaker and soon she's speaking in an exhausted, emotionless monotone. If her magic is tied to her emotions, it's safe to assume she wasn't just bottling up her anger, but all her magic as well.
• This episode shows a VERY possible origin for the 'Cutie Mark Removal' spell that Starlight used to slave a whole town; Starlight is very good at combining spells, so she could modify a 'bottling spell', like the one shown here, to affect Cutie Marks. And since Starlight's magic is tied to her emotions, that means the 'CM Removal' was surely fueled by her own resentment against Cutie Marks.
• The link between emotions and magic means that unicorns can be stronger from extreme emotions - which is bad in and of itself, as it can grant a random power boost to unstable individuals. But the fact that strong emotions can cause a unicorn's magic to go haywire and cause harm, means that above a certain level of power, you might literally turn into a monster from being unhappy enough - this is probably what created Nightmare Moon.
  • Which is even worse because Luna is an Alicorn, which are way more powerful than unicorns.
• Anger is a dangerous emotion that becomes even more dangerous if it's suppressed. Even though Starlight's anger only reached the tirade-level of potency, it would've been possible for it to go to a higher strength rating. Specifically assault and battery and murderous rage which are the two highest levels of anger. Trixie is so lucky that she didn't push Starlight far enough into putting her in the Ponyville Hospital.
  • It's possible that the only reason it wasn't that bad was because the bottled anger ended up distributed between three ponies, and their tirades released some of it before Starlight took it all back. Imagine if, for example, Bulk Biceps was the only one there when the bottle broke, or if it broke right at Starlight's hooves.

A Flurry of Emotions

• The foals in the hospital sick with Horsey Hives, which looks to be a form of chicken-pox. We don't know much about it, but if it's anything like chicken-pox, it could be very contagious. Now let's remember, Twilight was babysitting Flurry Heart, a BABY pony, and brought her to the same area as those foals.
  • Good thing Twilight picked up a spell from Cadance that protects against infectious diseases! Too bad we don't see if Twilight remembered to cast it on Flurry, first.
  • Now imagine Shining Armor and Cadence's reaction if they ever found out that Twilight brought their daughter to a hospital room full of sick and possibly contagious children.
    • Provided they haven't considered doing it themselves in order for Flurry to catch the pox at an early age and be immune to it later on.
  • Bonus Horror Points: Chicken pox typically doesn't require hospitalization unless you're super unlucky, and it's unlikely that every foal in a class would have a bad roll on that front. Meaning Horsey Hives is more likely to be analogous to something worse, like measles or smallpox. And all three possibilities come with the unsettling implication that vaccines don't exist in Equestria.
  • To say nothing of the fact that Flurry teleports in and out of several other rooms, only two of which we actually see inside of, while looking for her toy. Who knows what else she could have been exposed to!
• It is well known every myth in MLP has a basis in their real world..... Meaning Grogar, an established NECROMANCER, likely DID exist... meaning there's a Tambelon out there just waiting to return to its former glory. And this is no theory, dear viewer... it's been confirmed that Grogar is RETURNING in Season 9.
  • Or not.

Rock Solid Friendship

• Maud not noticing the Quarry Eel trying to eat her. Is this inattentiveness a symptom of the unspecified mental disorder she seems to have or just the subtlety of the predator? Either way, it makes one wonder how many other ponies may not have been so lucky.
• While it ended happily for everypony, Maud was somewhat responsible for Our Town's suffering at the hands of Starlight, back when she was evil, by telling her what she wanted to know. And remember that this was some pony she met not even a minute ago and she still told her about a powerful and magical rock that could aid her in taking away Cutie Marks.
  • The worst part? Pinkie Pie has a very good reason to tell Maud to never tell the other ponies about how she first met Starlight. For all the easy forgiveness they give, the Mane Six (and other ponies) hold up the crimes redeemed villains commit very highly, to the point where some characters are harassed for even the slightest mishaps.
  • Starlight might not be the only pony Maud has shared this kind of knowledge with either. The rock farm Trixie had to get a job at between "Boast Busters" and "Magic Duel" is widely assumed to be the Pies' due to the presence of Igneous Rock Pie in Trixie's flashback, and Trixie had to learn about the Alicorn Amulet from somewhere.
• Maud is very lucky she left Our Town before Starlight decided to kidnap her and take away her Cutie Mark. And knowing how Maud really feels, she might have actually bought into Starlight's idea of a utopia back then and willingly give up her Cutie Mark in an attempt to be like everypony else.
  • And if Maud was brainwashed by Starlight? Well, let's just say that one pony would have a hard time forgiving her.
    • One pony whose job imparts minor Reality Warper abilities, no less.
• Even though it is passed off as Maud possibly messing with Starlight, what if there really IS a rock that could store enough magic to allow a unicorn or an alicorn or even a changeling queen with a personal grudge against Starlight that can disguise herself as literally any creature or object in that scene to rule the world? The real horror is that there is no "if"s because we know they exist. Chrysalis' throne was exactly such a rock. The Alicorn Amulet could also be described as such.

Fluttershy Leans In

• Putting animals (that seem to have some level of high intelligence) into a cage is seen as 'safe'?
  • Intelligent or not, some of the wildlife around Equestria is still very dangerous. They have to have some way to contain those creatures safely. If a manticore ends up lose in Manehatten and there's no Fluttershy's around to calm it down, somepony has to have a way to contain it so they can transport it back into the wild safely.

Parental Glideance

• Scootaloo says she wishes she had had parents who were as supportive as Dash's mom and dad. There are a number of ways that can be taken, none of them good...and it just makes her sad scenes in the past even Harsher in Hindsight.
  • How bad is it? Seeing Rainbow Dash disrespect her parents causes her to (briefly) lose her respect for Rainbow Dash. Remember, Scootaloo's devotion to Rainbow Dash is perhaps her defining character trait, what partial issues does she have that can challenge that?
  • Not helping matters is the legitimately inappropriate behavior of Rainbow Dash's parents. Their memorabilia display included a used diaper, they were constantly heaping praise on their daughter as if talking to a small child, and they were shooting off fireworks during an airshow (one of which came within a few feet of hitting Rainbow Dash). Yet Scootaloo never saw anything remotely wrong with any of that, siding with Rainbow's parents throughout the episode. Either Scootaloo has no concept of appropriate and inappropriate ways of expressing love, or she's so jealous of somepony having parents who actually parent that she was blinded to what should have been major red flags.
  • Season 9 episode "The Last Crusade" has introduced us to Scootaloo's parents, Snap Shutter and Mane Allgood, and it looks like Scoots is really on great terms with her parents and all of them really love each other dearly. This episode also states, however, that they constantly travel the world in search of unknown animals and rarely ever come home. This is probably why Scootaloo still envies Dash's parents. Her parents could never support her because they're just to busy to do so, which makes their daughter seemingly feel a little sad about it.

Hard to Say Anything

• Some of the stunts Big Mac and the CMC pull to woo Sugar Belle could get him in jail (namely, stealing her bag and kissing her while she is asleep and unable to give consent).
  • Actually, since Scootaloo was the one who actually stole the bag, it'd probably be her, rather than Big Mac, who wound up doing time for that one. Big Mac is a rather large, exceptionally strong stallion who doesn't talk much, so it's hard to think anypony would be in a hurry to mess with him. Scootaloo, on the other hand, is a mouthy little pegasus filly with poor impulse control who can't even fly. The abuse she'd get put through in juvy would make Babs Seed look like Rainbow Dash's parents by comparison.

Honest Apple

• Once you watch "The Perfect Pear", it's a little mortifying that Applejack came this close to potentially repeating history and getting into a feud with Strawberry Sunrise. If Rarity hadn't been supervising to give Applejack a taste of her own medicine, who knows how long and how ugly her fight with Strawberry Sunrise would've gone on? Days? Weeks? Years? It would be Apples vs. Pears all over again.

A Royal Problem

• The show has now confirmed again that Celestia is incapable of interfering in the dream world. If, as some people have guessed, Luna in her Nightmare Moon persona had attacked any of the other ponies in their dreams, Celestia would have had to stand by, helpless to help her subjects.
  • To say nothing of Celestia herself being vulnerable on the dream plane. She's been shown to be in need of sleep just as much as anypony else. She couldn't stay awake forever, and Nightmare Moon could have struck at her from the dream plane. Almost an Equestrian A Nightmare on Elm Street.
  • Luna flat out states that Starlight's nightmare, if left unchecked, could have "grave consequences on Starlight's psyche". This out and out confirms that a bad enough nightmare can do permanent psychological damage to the hapless pony. How many ponies were permanently scarred by nightmares that could have otherwise been stopped in that millennium? Was Starlight one of them?
  • Luna only watches over the dream realm at night. If you're asleep during daylight hours, you're on your own. This is bad news for ponies who work the late shift or stay up partying, or even those just trying to catch a quick nap.
  • After banishing Nightmare Moon, what was Celestia doing for 1000 years to help ponies with their dreams? Was she able to do anything?
    • ''It is said that in the thousand years of Nightmare Moon's exile, everypony had bad dreams.''
• We have seen Equestria under Nightmare Moon's rule, and for all her hamminess, she tended towards Pragmatic Villainy once she established control. In contrast, Daybreaker's theme is "not holding back" - she's a destructive pyromaniac Drunk on the Dark Side.
  • That also reveals a scary thing with Celestia: She is always holding back. Literally ALL the times we have seen her fight, she's always with holding back all of her power to do basic things like blasting energy. What kind of raw power is Celestia bottling up...and given how powerful Twilight became when fighting Tirek, is that what put it into an equal terms with someone who has literally taken almost ALL of the combined power of the entire country?
    • And that door swings the other way, too: if Celestia is always holding back, the question of how much comes up, and with it the question of how many times she's held back too much and failed to prevent disaster from striking... Incidents which would surely haunt her for a long time to come.
  • Remember the barren, uninhabited, ash-filled wasteland that was the worst of the Bad Futures in "The Cutie Remark"? Guess we have a suspect for that...
  • Remember that in A Canterlot Wedding, Chrysalis was strong enough to defeat Celestia? Think about that. She grew even stronger than THIS!
    • During their beam of war, Chrysalis was still struggling against Celestia, despite Shining Armor's love powering her up. If what Daybreaker implied is true, that if Celestia didn't hold back, then not only could she have defeated Chrysalis, she could very well have caused massive collateral damage.
  • The scariest thing of all? The sun isn't just a ball of fire. It's a naturally-occurring thermonuclear fusion engine. Daybreaker is a nuclear destructive pyromaniac Drunk on the Dark Side.
  • Likewise, is it possible that Celestia may be holding back because of an incident that may have happened while Luna was banished to the moon?
  • Luna's guilt manifested in her own dreams as the Tantabus, which actively tried to escape the dream realm into reality. Could Daybreaker try the same thing?
    • It was Starlight's dream, and not Celestia's that Daybreaker appeared in, and she was not created intentionally like Luna did for the Tantabus. Are these differences enough to prevent Daybreaker from becoming more than a mere dream? ...I'd like to say yes, but I don't know if we can rule it out.
• Luna apparently seems aware of Daybreaker, and Celestia's line, "You will never exist again!" seems to imply that Daybreaker may have previously existed somehow before.
• Daybreaker has the power to move the sun. She can theoretically force her subjects to obey her orders either by refusing to bring up the sun, which would cause many problems, or even worse, moving the sun closer to Equestria...
• Starlight's spell seemed more to be a panicked reaction to seeing what was, for her, godlike figures fighting. We know her magic responds to her emotional states. What would happen if Starlight were caught in a crisis situation and reacted out of fear rather than taking the time to plan out a strategy? She messed with the magic of Alicorns, after all, from a mere moment of panic. Imagine what genuine terror would make her capable of.
• Luna tells Celestia that if the nightmare continues unchecked, it could cause permanent damage to Starlight's psyche. Is this just theoretical knowledge, or something she's witnessed before?
• If Celestia could potentially become Daybreaker, does that mean Twilight might become a pony version of Midnight Sparkle?
  • On that note, could an evil version of Princess Cadence exist?

Not Asking for Trouble

• The snow sculpture food keeps the Yaks hydrated, but dihydrogen monoxide is only one of the nutrient classes. The Yaks would have starved. ^note  I don't think that's meant to be fridge horror *rimshot* Eating snow in a freezing climate is also not good for homeostasis.

Discordant Harmony

• This episode reveals that if draconequui become too Orderly, they literally disappear. Could Discord be the Last of His Kind due to this? How many other draconequui died in the past from trying to be normal?
  • What's more, the reason why Discord was unaware of this weakness could be because Draconequui don't interact with one another, given they know little about friendship. Like some predatory animals, it seems they are happier when they have their own territory. Imagine other Draconequui who tried to be normal, then disappeared with no other of their kind to witness their demise and mourn over them...
• If Discord had faded away, Fluttershy would have been stuck in Discord's dimension with no way to get back. It's possible that her friends could figure out that she was stuck there and how to get to her, but that would take time. In that time, two possibilities could happen: A) the dimension can't sustain itself without Discord, and collapses with Fluttershy in it, or B) Fluttershy leaves the house and enters the pure chaos of the dimension, which could lead to her getting lost and/or going mad.

The Perfect Pear

• Why hasn't Fluttershy 86'ed Goldie Delicious from her pet center yet!?
  • There's nothing to suggest that Fluttershy's pet center is the only one in Equestria, or even in Ponyville. Either Goldie is cycling between pet centers as she's blacklisted from each one, she found a pet center that will adopt out to anyone for the right price, or she's just picking up any stray she finds. Neither option is that pleasant, but Fluttershy is likely innocent.
• When one thinks about the relationship between the Apples and Pears, how would one think of some of the other fruit-based families out there? It's likely either Aunt or Uncle Orange is related to Granny Smith in some way, as well as the Seeds with Babs being their cousin, but what about the other fruit-based Ponies? It's already implied that the Strawberries, it seems, don't like the Apple families either. So is there this strange long-standing feud between fruit-farming families?
• Grand Pear and Granny Smith's determination to keep their children from seeing each other takes on new light if one considers that Pear Butter's mother and Bright Mac's father are nowhere to be seen.
• How long has it been since Buttercup and Bright Mac have passed away? It's not ever fully stated, but it seems that to those closest to them, it likely hit the hardest for the Pears when they finally caught wind of Pear Butter's death. Plus lets think about it like this;
  • Burnt Oak has likely lost some ties with the Apple family after Bright Mac passed away, given he likely knew that they would come to visit when they wanted to learn more about their folks.
  • Mrs. Cake is about the same age as their parents, so that would mean they were VERY young when they got married and had Big Mac, Applejack and Apple Bloom. Especially given she just recently had her own foals and her best friend never got to see them. ^note  Mr. and Mrs. Cake are stated by Word of God to have "basically adopted" Pinkie Pie because they thought they couldn't have children, and their twins were a surprise; so it's unlikely Bright Mac and Pear Butter were much younger than Cadance and Shining Armor when they wed, which isn't that young.
• Big Macintosh's insecurities and quiet nature may be due to depression; he's the oldest and would have known about Bright Mac and "Buttercup"/Pear Butter the longest before their death/disappearance, and shows the most emotion whenever he hears the tales. He's also the one who goes back to ask Burnt Oak if he could hear more stories, implying he may be the one who wants to know the most about the family and isn't entirely as over it as he lets on.
• Grand Pear and Granny Smith may have finally ended their rivalry, but what about the rest of Apples and Pears? Do they still hate each other, or did they ever bury the hatchet?
• Ponies, especially earth ponies, are tough and long-lived beings. It can be more than a little troubling to wonder just what could have happened to cause both Pear Butter and Bright Mac to die so young, perhaps even at the same time.
  • It was most likely an accident of some sort, seeing as it's unlikely that an illness would take two healthy ponies in the prime of life but spare the elderly and the young. A monster attack or disaster could also be a possibility. In fact, losing her parents to a monster attack might be exactly why Applejack is so willing to stand up and fight for others - She doesn't want anypony else to suffer the way she and her siblings did. It also might put her overprotectiveness of Apple Bloom from "Somepony to Watch Over Me" in context - She is terrified of losing another member of her family and as a result is Crazy-Prepared for both common accidents as well as monster attacks.
• As mentioned on the Tear Jerker page, Grand Pear disowned Pear Butter for choosing the Apples over the Pears, before leaving for Vanhoover. Come years later, he regrets what he did and returns to make amends with the Apple family, having lost the chance to reconcile with his daughter. But you really have to wonder: Just how much time passed between him disowning his daughter and hers and Bright Mac's deaths/disappearances? Did he ever try to reconcile before then? It's possible he never did because he feared Pear Butter would never want to see him again.
  • Also, how or when did he even find out that his daughter had tragically passed away? Did he already know for sometime or did he not even find out until he returned to Ponyville?
    • Grand Pear having apparently cut off all contact with his daughter combined with her relative youth means that he may never have been informed of her death, and his return to Ponyville may have been an attempt to reconcile with her, not her children.
  • How did the rest of the Pears react upon finding out that Grand Pear actively kicked his own daughter out of the family simply for marrying an Apple?
    • If what Goldie Delicious says is true, the Pears hated the Apples just as much as Grand Pear. So it's possible they felt mixed feelings between regret for leaving Pear Butter behind and injured pride that says she's dead to them.
    • It's also possible that, assuming the Pears really did regret abandoning Pear Butter, they all turned on Grand Pear and kicked him out of the family. Conversely, given that Grand Pear is the grand patriarch of the Pears, it happened the other way around: most of the Pears were so mortified by what Grand Pear did, they left the Pear family and let him move to Vanhoover by himself.
• It could have been really easy for any of the Apples to shrug off Grand Pear's apology as something akin to "too little, too late", especially with the knowledge of the what he did to their mother.
  • That's why Apple Bloom is The Heart out of all the Apple Siblings: she's the pony who gives other ponies the benefit of the doubt.
• Go back to the secret wedding scene and imagine the situation reversed with Bright Mac and Granny Smith. Would she have forced her son to choose families the same way Grand Pear did with his daughter?
• Pay close attention to how quick Grand Pear was to blame Pear Butter for the destruction of the water silo before Bright Mac stepped in and took responsibility. And seeing how he was actively trying to keep her from seeing Bright Mac, could this mean that Grand Pear was abusive towards his daughter?
  • There are some signs. We never see him tell Pear Butter that he loves her or remind her how important she is to him. He didn't even seem to care about his daughter's happiness either. All of his interactions with his daughter involved him forbidding her from seeing Bright Mac, getting angry at her when she does, and finally, disowning her when she chooses the Apples over the Pears.
    • We never saw Granny Smith tell Bright Mac she loves him either. Should we assume that she was abusive to him? It was likely the feud that kept the relationships with their children not so good, not any type of purposefully abuse.
  • Who's to say that he still (initially) refused to accept his daughter's love for Bright Mac upon discovering that they had children, and only had a change of heart after she and Bright Mac died?
• The feud kept Granny Smith and Grand Pear from bringing out the best in themselves, all those years. It kept her grandchildren from learning about their parents.
• If Grand Pear had been successful at keeping Pear Butter away from Bright Mac (by moving to Vanhoover), he might've been successful at preventing his future grandchildren from being born. Worse yet, he almost prevented the Element of Honesty from being born.
• How many of the older ponies, who remembered the events, greeted Grand Pear with something like "You bastard", "Look what the cat dragged in", or "You've got a lot of nerve coming back here now"?

Fame and Misfortune

• We saw how bad it is for Ponyville when the Mane Six aren't able to do their jobs properly in Magical Mystery Cure. How long are the crazy fans going to keep them from doing their actual jobs?
  • Crossed with Fridge Brilliance, this also explains why the Mane Six rarely assert their position as national heroes and having saved Equestria multiple times; if the 'normal' fame that comes from authoring a popular book brought them to this episode's events, then the 'heroic fame' would be much more persistent, messing up with their jobs and probably even with their missions.
• Lemon Hearts' sudden dislike of Rarity could precipitate a falling-out between her and her old school friend Twilight.
  • Fridge Brilliance: Maybe all this time, she's been a Stepford Smiler trying to pretend she doesn't mind that Twilight is friends with some pony she doesn't like.
  • She got carried away by the fandom. She'll come around and realize she doesn't hate Rarity as much as she thought she did, once the heat dies down.
• Discord. Good god. Can you imagine the mixed emotions tearing at his heart if he showed up to see the pitiful amusement of ponies arguing among themselves and his best friend Fluttershy being harassed to the point of verbally exploding?
  • What might he do to the harassers?
• If Spike had been there, he would've been reduced to tears at seeing Rarity being boycotted and being unable to do much to help her.
• It's bad that Applebloom had to help her family put up with a load of complete strangers taking advantage of Applejack's hospitality but Sweetie Belle could've had it worse if she saw the Rarity-haters and the emotional wreck that they turned her sister into.
  • Speaking of the Apple family, assuming he's moved back to Ponyville for good, let's just hope Grand Pear doesn't get caught up in all the hubbub too. Especially if the tale of Pear Butter was published. The best case scenario alone would leave Grand Pear unable to reach his grandkids without having to swim through fans. Another worse case scenario would be him having to deal with ponies constantly berating him for disowning his daughter. ^note  the worst-case scenario may not happen, since the journals only cover Seasons 1 through 4. So thankfully, his story and Pear Butter's story are safe from the loony fans. Still, it stands: it won't be pleasant for Grand Pear to stand by and watch his grandkids and their granny slaving to please the Sweet Apple Admirers.
• It's a good thing Scootaloo wasn't there, too. Seeing how all of Dash's new fans were acting could have made her start wondering "Sweet Celestia, is that really what I'm like?"
• Imagine if the fans read about the changelings, visited their kingdom and began pestering them about how their "old selves" was "better".
• If "Mare-Do-Well" created so much controversy on a meta-level, imagine the controversy it creates among the crazy fans in this episode.
• Diamond Tiara. She may be good now, but the journals only cover the first 4 seasons of the show. Her reformation didn't occur until the following season. So now imagine how hard the fans will reprimand her and Silver Spoon, (too little too late). Let's hope her parents are rich enough to buy them privacy until the whole thing blows over.
• Why isn't Spike here? Considering that he already had an adoring fanbase in the Crystal Empire, what if the Friendship Journal caused such a stir he had to be teleported over there to calm it down?
• Starlight Glimmer should consider herself extremely lucky that the journal got no new entries after the Tirek incident. If Rarity garnered so much hate just because she had a few selfish moments, it's not a good idea to imagine what Starlight could have suffered if her dictatorship had been disclosed.
  • Considering that, it is good then than nobody knows about Sunset Shimmer^note It is unlikely Twilight included the events of the first Equestria Girls film in the published version of her diary, as there's no way to tell what would happen if everybody knew about the portal and the human world. Given how horrrible she felt when everybody at CHS hated heer for both her years as a bully and her attempt to turn them into her personal army, everybody in Equestria hating her for that and ditching Celestia would drive her to either tears and depresion, abandon Equestria permanently, or to suicide.
  • For that matter, there are a couple of characters who dodged a bullet simply because they appeared later in the series. There's Trouble Shoes who would've been harassed as an ex-outlaw, Zephyr Breeze who would've received too much criticism as a slacker, Sassy Saddles who would've been caught in the crossfire between Rarity and her haters. Not to mention if "Top Bolt" had been in the journals, ponies would've mistaken Sky Stinger and Vapor Trail's friendship as the former using the latter to cheat.
• One should consider that Trixie narrowly dodged the bullet as well. If she had been in Ponyville during the Friendship Journal craze, she could have gotten it just as bad, if not worse than Rarity with the fan ponies harassing her for being an arrogant and boastful braggart. Her behavior in both of her appearances which are covered in the journal, as well as how she still has shades of her arrogant and selfish behavior even after she changed her ways really won't help the case. She is extremely lucky that she works as a traveling showmare, providing a reason why she wasn't in Ponyville during the whole episode.
  • For that matter, she is also lucky that the journal has no entries past Season 4, because it would give the fan ponies another reason to harass her based on how she befriended Starlight just to beat Twilight in "No Second Prances" and gleefully admitting it as she got taken over by her ego again. It's even worse because Trixie really had no intention of doing this, and that she heavily regretted saying this as she genuinely liked Starlight.
  • Starlight herself already showed to the fan ponies that they really shouldn't mess up with her friends, as shown with how she levitated one of the ponies who were bullying Fluttershy for not being assertive. Imagine if this happened to Trixie, and the fan ponies might as well earn the fullest of Starlight's wrath.
• In light of the Rarity Haters "boycotting" her, let's hope this does not negate all the hard work she put in spreading her generosity in "Honest Apple". If Lily Lace, Starstreak and Inky Rose won Rarity's Fashion Contest, only for their efforts to backfire, it would be literally "Ugh"!

Triple Threat

• Thorax has confirmed that there are still a few in the Changeling Kingdom who refuse to accept his new ways, indicating a possible danger that Chrysalis could use their help to make another vengeful return.

Campfire Tales

• The flyders are shown to be very aggressive and even appear to feed on ponies. Just how many ponies have they attacked? Not to mention they can fire web shots with pin-point accuracy, enough to stop a fleeing pony from escaping.
  • There's also the fact that they attack in very large numbers, and trying to fend off a swarm would be fruitless. There's also the very realistic chance of developing an allergy to their bites/stings if attacked enough, and all it would take is just one sting. Did any ponies die from a single flyder bite due to allergies?
• The color of the flyders' swarm clouds is very similar to the blue/green motifs of the pre-reformed changelings. Is it possible that Chrysalis sent the flyders after the ponies and their sisters, knowing that they were friends with Starlight Glimmer, the very pony whom she swore revenge against?
• Sable Spirit became a tyrant because she was jealous not just because Mistmane was selected to study at a magic school and she wasn't, but also of Mistmane's beauty and powers. Suppose that Sable had been selected first. She would still likely be fueled by her envy of Mistmane and attempt to cast the beauty spell on herself anyway.
• Scootaloo had a good point: it didn't seem like a wise idea for Rainbow Dash to block the exit, even if it was meant to save them from the Fly-ders. Did any of them have any doubts the cave would have enough oxygen to provide them? What if, between telling stories and lighting a fire, they used up their oxygen faster? It was only lucky the cave had another opening.
• Poor Scootaloo may have a form of PTSD. Her being scared about the camping trip, refusal to enter the cave, and trepidation about the river almost all include mentions of "Sleepless in Ponyville"s incidents. Crosses into Tear Jerker if you realize she's got a complex anxiety disorder when she's just a filly.

Daring Done

• Could the title possibly imply that the In-Universe "Daring Do" series is about to be cancelled?
  • Yep, Rainbow and Pinkie trying to prevent that is the exact plot.
• Some people have noted Dr. Caballeron seems a bit more unhinged with this episode. He was a fairly competent and sensible second to Ahuizotl in "Daring Don't", but his more exaggerated facial expressions (even compared to Pinkie's usual) and his moments of boiling rage against Daring Do and Rainbow Dash may mean he's possibly going insane.
• What about the Sphinx? Like Queen Chrysalis, she's still out there doing who knows what.

A Health of Information

• So, now we know there's a disease in Equestria that can turn the victim into a tree. Some of the trees we've seen beforehand might have been sapient beings once.
  • It could be worse still. The flowers are seen deliberately poofing on bees, suggesting that the stuff is, in fact, their POLLEN. Maybe the victims don't change into trees — maybe they just become fertilizer for a parasitic plant.
  • This also leads into Fridge Brilliance as to why the Flash Bees' honey has a curative effect. They ingested the pollen just like regular bees do, then regurgitated the honey mixed with the anti-poison chemicals from their body.
  • Just to cap it, one victim that didn't get cured makes an appearance in the episode.
• There are two possibilities regarding the fate of ponies afflicted with swamp fever, both quite dark by this show's standards: once they turn into a tree, either they "die", or they don't.
• So after examining Zecora and diagnosing her with Swamp Fever, the doctor tosses a "See ya!" and leaves. Having just been in contact with a patient infected with a contagious plague with no known cure. Then he allows ponies that have been in contact with said patient to leave his office. And then he permits the patient to have visitors. How much of Ponyville came down with this disease because this one stupid doctor didn't follow proper quarantine procedure?!!
• Remember that spell Twilight learned from Cadance that protected against contagious diseases? The one we never saw her cast on Flurry Heart in "A Flurry Of Emotions" before taking her into a ward full of foals sick with a contagious disease? We don't see her use it on herself or anypony else in this episode, either.
• Fluttershy was infected from being near Zecora. What's to say that Twilight Sparkle and Cattail didn't get infected before they wore the masks? And what of Spike when he stood next to Fluttershy? In Spike's case we can at least hope that it isn't contagious unless it's become symptomatic(which not only isn't guaranteed but is relatively rare), or that the disease can't jump the species barrier from pony to dragon. But considering Twilight and Cattail were right next to Fluttershy sans masks when she wakes up, and even have bubbles coughed in their face, all we can do is hope they thought to grab some extra honey before departing.
  • Dr. Horse was also infected from being near Zecora. Consider the fact that Dr. Horse was checking up on other patients and probably spreading the disease to them in turn before he started showing the symptoms... and you'll realize that most of Ponyville would've been infected and martial law would've been declared in order to put the entire town under quarantine.
• What if Doctor Whooves had been on the scene? He's faced Transflormations before, always from the dreaded, potentially world-ending Krynoid, or else from a Davros special called the Varga. He might have thought he had to kill Zecora to protect the world.
• There hasn't been a cure for this disease for at least a thousand years. Who knows how many ponies have been turned into trees and remained so for years or centuries. Never mind what would happen to them when other ponies cut them down.
  • Though if being turned into a tree isn't instant death, cutting the tree down would probably be doing the poor ponies a favor.
• Another bit is the possibility that these ponies-turned-trees is where timber wolves come from.
• Any tree with the flowers, including the ones in this episode, could be a transformed pony, dead or suffering from And I Must Scream.

To Change a Changeling

• Thorax states that Pharynx is the last changeling to not accept the new regime and transform. He's wrong. Queen Chrysalis and possibly the changelings who impersonated everyone have not accepted the new changeling way, and they're still both hostile and at large.
• This episode is the second time that Starlight Glimmer's Fatal Flaw of not thinking through her plans before executing them has made things worse for a major political and/or authority figure. At the end of the previous season finale, Queen Chrysalis swore revenge on Starlight specifically, meaning she may very well be stalking Starlight throughout the season in preparation for her next appearance, just like Starlight stalked Twilight. The second season finale showed that Chrysalis is really good at countering plans that haven't been given much thought, managing to pull a complete reversal on Twilight's ill-thought attempt to oust her with very little effort. Starlight Glimmer's likely going to be screwed when Chrysalis acts.
• Could it be the one changeling who didn't want to "live a lie" was one of the changelings in "To Where and Back" who impersonated Fluttershy? It would explain why she doesn't want to use her shape-shifting powers to be purple or blue: she's guilt-ridden by how she misused her powers to break Discord.

It Isn't the Mane Thing About You

• For ponies like Rarity who place a lot of importance on their appearance, suddenly going almost-bald from losing most of your mane can be a truly terrifying experience.
• If magical attempts to restore hair just take the new hair from elsewhere — like the first spell stealing a crystal pony's hair and the second carving a chunk out of a door — where did the ridiculous amount of hair the third spell created come from? Did an entire town somewhere just suddenly go bald with no explanation?
  • "You can't just make a mane with magic. The results could be disastrous!" Presumably that was just the uncontrolled end result of trying to conjure a mane purely from magic instead of a glorified teleport from elsewhere, so we can hope that no-one went bald as a result of that last attempt, but the possibility is there.
• A Crystal Pony's mane is made out of glass. What is that actually implying? That the Crystal Ponies aren't really flesh and blood creatures and are actually a golem-like species?
  • It merely implies that the Crystal Ponies are masters of crystals and only they can control what composition their bodies take, be it mane, blood, flesh, or crystal.
  • Also, the mane may have responded to what its owner was feeling at the time. And it turned brittle in response to the fear that crystal pony felt.
• Also regarding the crystal pony scene, if a pony's mane can randomly disappear because of Twilight's spell, what other kind of random unpleasant effects could happen simply because a unicorn somewhere messed up a spell? You're never safe from magic, no matter where you are.
• Why is Rarity wearing a leather vest? Let's give Equestria the benefit of a doubt and assume that they don't have a natural leather industry. Does the necessary technology and industry even exist for artificial leather to be made in Equestria? Or maybe... that leather is only partially artificial?
  • Pony technology doesn't work the same way real-life technology does, and it doesn't conform to any uniform technology level. If Rarity puts on a faux-leather vest, then the technology exists to make faux leather.
  • Disregarding the tech needed to produce such an outfit, the fact remains that Rarity put on an outfit that was meant to convey the look and feel of leather, which has serious implications for Equestrian society (as in, its equivalent to the sorts of things Buffalo Bill or Hannibal Lecter would do). So why is nopony bothered by it? We can only hope that leather has a different meaning and history in Equestria than real life.
• When Pinkie gets home with her remover potion, she decides to have the Cake twins pitch in to help with cleanup. The first thing they do is start slathering each other in the potion. Good thing the remover potion got switched with Rarity's shampoo, or Pinkie would have a much, much bigger problem on her hooves than Rarity missing a photo shoot because of a bad hair day.
  • Perhaps, it was Pinkie's Pinkie Sense that told her today was a good day to get the potions mixed up on purpose.
• Perhaps Rarity isn't just worried for her mane because of the magazine. What if she's worried because of what happened in "Fame and Misfortune"? She could've been trying to get back into the good graces of Equestria, and she could be afraid her bad mane will garner haters again.

Once Upon a Zeppelin

• The synopsis makes it sound like Twilight Sparkle had been set up by the organizers of the cruise who didn't ask for her permission or give her knowledge of the event beforehand. Not only is this a publicity stunt, it could be a crime as well as it is using a member of the royal family for a promotional advertisement and profit scheme.
• Iron Will was the designated Captain of the luxury cruise and he jumps out at the first sign of hostility. Wait... so who was piloting the airship afterwards!?
  • There's also the fact that Iron Will would have ended up landing in the middle of the wilderness. Considering the kind of dangerous creatures Equestria has to offer (Timberwolves, for example), he may not have made the best decision in jumping ship like that.
• Cadence has every right to be disturbed at the other parents when they encourage their foals to "make a princess friend", given that at such a young age, the foals are already being used by their parents in social climbing.
  • Worse yet, she has a reason to intervene when her daughter "plays" with the other foals, especially with the other parents encouraging it. Flurry Heart is to be a princess one day, and the parents are unwittingly giving her the wrong message that it's okay to treat her future subjects and/or friends like toys or play things.
  • One can't help but worry that this won't be the last time Flurry Heart will be surrounded by ponies who will want to "make a princess friend".

Marks and Recreation

• Fans have already realized from the brief clip released that Rumble is the perfect Foil to Starlight since his philosophy is the exact opposite of hers...and if it caught on, would spell the collapse of Equestrian society just as readily as hers would have. And Rumble is a kid, making this even creepier; at least Starlight built her philosophy as she grew into an adult but Rumble's already ready to shatter Equestrian society at whatever age the CMC are. And considering how easily he dismantles their camp, society as a whole isn't as big a stretch as it might seem...
  • And if that's not bad enough, Rumble could prove to be the Foil to Diamond Tiara (before she reformed, that is). What if he comes to make fun of ponies for having cutie marks? It's one thing to be mocked for something you don't have yet; at least you know you won't be a "blank flank" forever. But you can't take back having a cutie mark.
    • Subverted, but it doesn't help to wonder if there really are bullies out there who pick on you for getting a cutie mark.
• If a pony's talents go beyond what cutie mark they get, then it may be unnerving to imagine Starlight's equal cutie mark spell back in "The Cutie Map". Her spell doesn't just take away your cutie mark or the special talent it assigns, it also equalizes all your other talents connected to it.
  • Then again, maybe it doesn't equalize all your talents all at once (Twilight could still make a plan at the time). But it's possible that it spreads gradually through all your talents.
• Had this scenario occurred before "On Your Marks" already showed the CMC this episode's moral, while they were still agonizing over what to do between helping other ponies with their Cutie Mark problems, they might have had a harder time countering Rumble's arguments and might have begun to doubt just like Kettle Corn did. Since their Cutie Marks have to do with Cutie Marks in turn, this could have put them on the path to their own cases of Cutie Mark Failure Insanity Syndrome.
• Rumble's idea that cutie marks are essentially railroading ponies' destinies, while flawed, does get a specific example within this very episode in the form of Kettle Corn. Her cutie mark is in composing haiku. Making a career of composing poetry is already challenging, but to find that career in a highly specific subset of poetry... it's fair to say that Kettle Corn is going to need to be very creative to get it to work, or else she will have a very difficult life.
  • It's possible she could be a writer. Or better still, she could be famous for being a painter whose art is made up of her haikus.
  • The whole point of the episode is that it's possible to like, and be good at, more than one thing. It's still possible for her to find something else she can do well that she can make a career out of, while still writing haikus as a hobby.
• When Rumble points out to Apple Bloom that her cutie mark of being a Cutie Mark Crusader has kept her from visiting Zecora recently, he isn't doing just to Kick the Dog. He's projecting his own personal fears that if he gets a cutie mark in something other than being a Wonder Bolt, he'll never get to spend time with his big brother Thunderlane.
• There was a time when Apple Bloom almost became just like Rumble. In "Bloom and Gloom", Apple Bloom at one point yelled she didn't want to see a cutie mark as long as she lived. Here, we're seeing what she might've become if Princess Luna hadn't intervened: a young pony so embittered by their own personal fears of their cutie marks keeping them from their friends and loved ones.

Secrets and Pies

• Rainbow Dash made a HUGE mistake of a "Pie" and was willing to eat in front of Pinkie to redeem her Honor and Loyalty to her. Although Pinkie stops her from going through with it, Rainbow Dash nearly hospitalized herself for it... or even died as a result of it! So essentially, Rainbow Dash was about to commit Seppuku.
  • To say nothing of how Pinkie might have felt if her best friend basically poisoned herself because she'd gotten so angry with her, even if Rainbow did survive.
  • Combining this with Fridge Logic is the fact that Twilight and Applejack are there too, but just stand there as Rainbow is about to take a bite, making no effort to talk her out of it. Would they really have been OK with that outcome if Pinkie hadn't stopped her?!
  • It's doubtful that anything that would actually kill or make her sick would be in it. I think they made it as gross as possible without it being fatal or sickening. She mentioned making Pinkie happy, so I don't think she intended to die.
    • She wouldn’t intentionally put something dangerous in the pie, but she does say she has no idea what the crust is made of. It’s entirely possible she accidentally put something deadly in the pie and was about to kill herself without even knowing it.
    • Also, it's possible Twilight would have been there when Rainbow was making the pie. Knowing how smart Twilight is, it's entirely possible she may have warned Rainbow if the latter was about to put something dangerous in the pie.
• Remember how Pinkie initially suspected Rainbow of being replaced with an imposter or brainwashed by an "evil queen"? Given what we've seen in previous episodes involving the pre-reformed changelings, we also know that Queen Chrysalis (and still a few other changelings) is still at large, still planning revenge on Starlight Glimmer, and probably looking for ways to indirectly get revenge on her by hurting those close to her.
• The Episode is a good and unfortunate example of how lie becomes truth and truth becomes lie. Dash "accepting Pinkie's pies and liking them" was a regular part of her image and became so embedded over time that the sudden revelation that "Dash actually hates pies" becomes very upsetting since anypony who knows Dash well will become disappointed to know that Dash had been actually lying to them about liking pies.

Uncommon Bond

Shadow Play

• Imagine if the Pillars of Equestria had discovered Stygian's true intentions, but were too late to rescue him from the darkness. They were already feeling guilty for having misjudged him, and would've never gotten the chance to apologize.
  • Worse, the Pillars would've probably all turned against Star Swirl, blaming him for not only letting pride cloud his judgement and causing them to banish an innocent pony, but for his treatment of Twilight and Starlight.
• Judging by the "before◊" and "after◊", Rockhoof's village didn't last long after he disappeared. Remember he was the one who protected it from the volcano, without him... Worse, it turns out the reason Rookhoof disappeared was avoidable. What would Rookhoof think about this when he finds out?
• Star Swirl is only one of the Pillars who believes in the "once a villain, always a villain" concept. The other Pillars seem to just go along with whatever he says. Could it be that the others initially believed that Stygian was not evil, but Star Swirl forced them do what he said?
  • It also raises the question as to why Mistmane never thought to speak out against Star Swirl. She was able to reform her friend, Sable Spirit after she became a villainous tyrant, so she'd know from experience that villains CAN be reformed if given the chance.
• How's Starswirl going to react if he sees the mirror to the human world in Twilight's castle? If parts of the Reflection Arc of the comics is canon, then Starswirl might just destroy the mirror to stop the dimensions from overlapping, forcing Twilight to abandon Sunset in the human world. Or he'll learn about the leaking magic and destroy the mirror to prevent any more Equestrian magic from leaking into the human world and causing trouble. Either way, Twilight might receive yet another scolding from her role model and Sunset would be stuck in the human world forever (or have to abandon her best friends and be forced to go back to Equestria).
  • If Star Swirl so much as scratched that mirror, Twilight would probably flip out.
• The portal opened up to banish the Pony Of Shadows looks awfully similar to the one Starswirl used to banish the Sirens. What if, instead of banishing it back into limbo, the Pony of Shadows was banished into the human world, where it can take advantage of the leaking magic to regain its power if it's forced into a human form? Sunset and the rest of the Humane Seven may have to have a serious talk with Star Swirl and his preferred way of dealing with Equestrian threats.
  • Over in Equestria Girls, we see that Equestrian magic—even inherently good magic, like the Elements of Harmony—can turn non-ponies and creatures from other universes into Ax-Crazy monsters reflective of their innermost feelings and desires, the most extreme of them powerful enough to tear the fabric of the multiverse to shreds by accident. Now, how many magical Equestrian villains, artifacts, and monsters did Starswirl banish into other universes?
  • Furthermore, Starswirl's solution of banishment doesn't so much as fix the problem as it does just create a new problem for somepony else. How many of those villains and monsters were innocent ponies or creatures that could've been redeemed, had it not been for Starswirl and his cynical black-and-white worldview?
  • If the Pony of Shadows ends up in the human world, there’s two possibilities for what form it’ll take. It could be forced into a powerless human form but given the leaking magic problem currently going on, that won’t last long. The other possibility, and the much more horrifying possibility, is that it takes on the form it had before it merged with Stygian. Which would mean that our heroes lost to an Eldritch Abomination capable of resisting the Elements of Harmony into the human world.
    • It may need a new host, and it would only be a matter of time before it found one. They could just be some desperate soul too weak to resist the darkness, but there's a much worse possibility: It could find one of the Dazzlings.
• Although it would be obvious that the Pillars would come back to their old homes with all the people they knew dead with meeting their descendants as the best case scenario, you soon realise that Mage Meadowbrook would get hit the hardest because as evidenced by the lack of information about Swamp Fever in modern times meant that she would have to live with the regret of all the lives that could have been saved if it wasn't for her having to seal the Pony Of Shadows and taking the knowledge of the cure of Swamp Fever and many other "incurable" diseases with her and not being able to make it public knowledge in time. The guilt would crush her. Princess Luna will need to schedule an appointment for her very soon...
  • Even before that, she is clearly eager to see what became of her old home. She probably won't be expecting it to be mostly abandoned and left to rot with a descendant of hers as the sole inhabitant. Not as horrifying as the above, but it will still be a massive letdown.
• Speaking of descendants, Meadowbrook is confirmed to have several (Fluttershy says they found one of Meadowbrook's descendants when she and Twilight meet Cattail) and it's implied that the old mare tending to Mistmane's old garden is a descendant of hers. This means at least two of the Pillars that vanished left behind spouses and children when they went to Limbo, and of the remaining Pillars only Starswirl doesn't seem like one for romantic relationships and siring children, meaning it's entirely possible that Flash Magnus, Rockhoof, and Somnambula also left behind families. Imagine being the spouse or even the child of one of these now vanished heroes — your spouse/parent has suddenly up and left you for an unknown reason and is basically as good as dead. Even if we're talking indirect descendants (as in descendants of siblings or cousins of the Pillars, meaning we could have potential descendants of Starswirl's lineage), that's still family to have to cope with what was essentially their heroic relative's sudden death.
  • It is possible they already knew the Pillars were going to sacrifice themselves to stop the Pony of Shadows. However, that still keeps the idea that they knew they would never be coming back...
  • Adding onto this, descendants doesn't really even mean you have to be a child of a specific person to be their descendant. Cattail could've very well just been a descendant of Meadowbrook's cousin or whatever, still a descendant!
• Star Swirl has a very cynical black-and-white worldview, and firmly believes that villains can never be reformed. Given that he was said to have been around during the Windigo crisis, just what happened that caused him to develop this mindset?
• In "Castle Mane-ia", the Pony of Shadows was adapted into being a bit of Nightmare Moon's dark magic given pony form (which this episode soundly discredits as being a myth). However, King Sombra proved that they haven't been the only shadow-swathed darkness-themed pony villains to ever try to plunge Equestria into eternal darkness. There could be other villains whose legends have also disappeared into Nightmare Moon's shadow, waiting for their turn at bat.
• Who or what built the Well of Shade? It was apparently around for at least a thousand years, as Stygian found it shortly after being cast out by the Pillars. And whoever they were, they placed a bas-relief with image of emotion eater eldritch abomination across the wall like the Well of Shade is a temple dedicated to it. The stars, Windigos and now this... My Little Pony gets more and more lovecratian.
• The first Legends of Magic comic involved a young Luna opening a portal to another world, where she found herself tempted by otherworldly voices who told her to "embrace the darkness". Said voices are implied to have had a hand in her eventual transformation into Nightmare Moon. Normally this could easily be brushed off as a coincidence but considering that the Legends of Magic series is confirmed to be canon, and that it is very closely tied to the season 7 finale, it's hard to ignore the blatant similarities between the Pony of Shadows and Nightmare Moon. Could it be that the darkness responsible for the Pony of Shadows was the same otherworldly force responsible for the creation of Nightmare Moon?
• "Once a villain, always a villain", huh? Good thing Princess Luna wasn't there to hear that. Her heart would've been crushed, especially to hear that coming from her former mentor.
  • Screw that. What if Celestia heard it? She was the one that banished Luna to the moon, then spent the next thousand years secretly tearing herself up over having to do so. To hear her old mentor casually dismiss a thousands years of anguish over the very real possibility of her sister being lost forever if all the little cogs in a centuries-long Batman Gambit weren't in place in time to save her? She'd be even more crushed than Luna.
  • How about Sunset? She's been dealing with guilt over her actions ever since she redeemed, and, unlike Starlight's, that guilt is still very much present in her mind. And then there's Discord, who not only was a villain before but experienced a huge relapse.
  • And that's not the worst thing that could happen. Imagine if Thorax heard Star Swirl said that.
• Applejack mentions that a branch of the Apple family settled down in the Hollow Shades (which was also stated by Apple Bloom in "Apple Family Reunion". When the group travel there, the place is completely deserted, and even suggested to have been twisted by the Pony of Shadows to suit his needs. This raises the question of what happened to the Apples who settled there...

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