To apologize, Rarity may not have to Say Anything....
Written by Josh Haber
Early one morning, Rarity goes into Spike's room to get him to travel with her to the gem caves to gather jewels. However, Spike is uncharacteristically ignoring Rarity, distracted by a letter he has to take to the post office. After attempting to do her chores with replacements for Spike but to no avail, Rarity confides in Twilight, wondering what she could have done to make Spike mad at her. Twilight suggests that Rarity has perhaps hurt Spike's feelings in some way, which makes Rarity rush to the post office, ready to apologize... Even if she doesn't know what she's apologizing for.
At the post office, Rarity meets Gabby, the mail-delivering griffon of Griffonstone. While there, Spike enters, and Rarity gives an overly-dramatic performance to say she's sorry to Spike. However, Spike's not mad at Rarity at all; the reason he rejected her offer is because he'd already made plans with Gabby. The two had been pen pals for a while, and enjoy each other's company. As time passes, Rarity has to watch Spike and Gabby hanging out more often, while she struggles to do her chores alone and grows more jealous of them. Eventually, Rarity convinces Spike to abandon his plans with Gabby to go gather a hoard of gems, go to a Power Ponies convention, and play Ogres & Oubliettes. While Gabby is okay with this at first, she eventually grows to resent Spike constantly calling in a rain check, and breaks ties with him.
Spike then begins going on his rounds with Rarity, but he's so depressed over losing Gabby as a friend that his heart clearly isn't in it. Only after seeing that she's driven a wedge between Spike and Gabby does she realize how badly she's been acting. She apologizes again, although she does tone down her dramatics this time. Both Spike and Gabby accept the apology, and the three of them reconcile.
Tropes:
- Accent Slip-Up: When apologizing to Spike and Gabby in the final act, Rarity's accent changes to a more casual tone, highlighting how ashamed she is.
- An Aesop:
- For Rarity: You can't be clingy and demand your friend's attention if they don't want to hang out with you. Just because one of your friends hangs out with people besides you doesn't mean that they don't want to be friends anymore.
- For Spike: Just because you make a new friend with whom you love to have a great time doesn't mean you can forget you have other friends who enjoy your company.
- Animation Bump: The sheer amount of new expressions for Rarity really shows here, especially when she's Milking the Giant Cow with her apologies.
- Apologises a Lot: Rarity initially puts on a dramatic performance when apologizing to Spike when she thinks he's mad at her. She later does the same thing to both Gabby and Spike when apologizing for damaging their friendship. Gabby even says Rarity apologizes a lot.
- Blatant Lies: During the Cold Opening when Spike finally notices Rarity and she says it is like he hasn't been listening to her, Spike assures her he was... but asks her to repeat everything she just said anyway.
- Blowing a Raspberry: Rarity blows one to Twilight when she dismisses knowing what she needs to apologize to Spike for, as long as she makes a grand gesture when apologizing.
- Blush Sticker: Spike gets these when he asks Gabby if he can join her on her rounds again.
- Book Ends: The episode starts with Rarity mining for gems along with one of her friends and getting chased out of the cave by bats. The ending is the same, but this time Spike shows up.
- Brick Joke: During her first visit to Twilight's castle, Rarity drags in a couch to lay on and leaves it behind when she sets off to the post office, much to Twilight's annoyance. When Rarity returns late in the episode to seek Twilight's advice, the latter is in the middle of dragging out the couch.
- The Bus Came Back: After having non-speaking cameos in "The Hearth's Warming Club" and "The Last Crusade", Gabby makes a return in this episode with a major speaking role.
- Call-Back:
- Rarity calls Spike her favorite "basket holder/bodyguard", as she and Spike both respectively referred to him as in "Gauntlet of Fire", which was also incidentally the first time the gem caves appeared.
- Spike and Gabby first form their friendship due to Gabby writing about how she lied about gaining a cutie mark in "The Fault in our Cutie Marks".
- The Cameo:
- Cheerilee appears in one of Rarity's flashbacks with her and Spike hauling stuff out of a store.
- Gallus, Silverstream and Yona appear briefly, with Gabby giving a letter to the former.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: When Spike starts ignoring Rarity in favor of Gabby, Rarity goes to increasingly extreme lengths to get Spike's attention.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Rarity thinks Spike might be mad at her about something she proclaims she must apologize to him. But whenever she is asked what she is apologizing for she continuously dismisses it as "not the point".
- Commonality Connection: Spike and Gabby became fast friends due to them being kind-hearted members of races known for being aggressive, and being responsible for sending letters.
- Continuity Nod:
- Many of Spike's favorite stuff is brought up, such as Power Ponies and Ogres & Oubliettes.
- Rarity's fainting couches make a comeback.
- The Ponyville jewelry store makes a return, having last been seen in "All Bottled Up".
- Rarity and Spike wear their winter clothes from the Best Gift Ever special for their trip to The Great Gem Crevasse of the Crystal Mountains.
- Pinkie Pie is still afraid of bats.
- Contrived Coincidence: Spike mentions a literal Green-Eyed Monster in the game of Ogres & Oubliettes without realizing its relevance to the present situation.
- Crash-Into Hello: Gabby bumps into Rarity while she and Spike are flying through Ponyville, discussing the trip to the Crystal Crevasse.
- Damsel out of Distress: Princess Shmarity, the Expy of Rarity that Spike created for Ogres & Oubliettes to be the Squizard's captive, is now capable of fighting monsters herself (courtesy of Rarity).
- Delayed Reaction: When at the post office, Rarity doesn't notice that Spike's entered until a few moments after she begins talking to him. The same thing happens in the third act when Rarity apologizes to Gabby.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- Rarity constantly being jealous of Spike and Gabby hanging out depicts her more as a possessive lover who can't stand that their significant other spends time with other people.
- Twilight's "talk" with Rarity about what's going on between her and Spike sounds an awful lot like a couples' counseling session.Twilight: Did you two have some sort of fight? [...] Do you think you could've done something that unintentionally hurt his feelings?
- Gabby walking in on Rarity and Spike seems very similar to someone walking in on an affair.
- The Dog Bites Back: Unintentionally, Spike does that. After all the times Rarity flirted with other ponies (and non-ponies) and triggered Spike's jealousy, for once it's Rarity who gets jealous of Spike hanging out with another friend.
- Don't Wake the Sleeper: While in the Gem Cave, Rarity talks softly and tells Applejack not to make any noise to avoid waking up the bats in the cave. After getting frustrated with Rarity telling her she's not being as helpful as Spike, Applejack cries "In case you hadn't noticed, I! AIN'T! SPIKE!", which results in her and Rarity being chased by the bats.Rarity: Actually, Applejack, I had noticed!
- Drama Queen: Not that this is anything unusual for Rarity, but she certainly takes it to another level here. After assuming that Spike must be angry at her, she goes to the post office with a box full of his favorite things, and prepares an overly-dramatic speech to apologize to him. Twilight, Gabby, and Spike all ask Rarity exactly what she's apologizing for, but Rarity brushes it off each time by saying that it's not important.
- Easily Forgiven: After Rarity apologizes to Gabby and Spike for damaging their friendship due to her own jealousy, they both immediately forgive her. Gabby is also quick to resume her friendship with Spike since she missed spending time with him.
- Friendless Background: While she encourages Spike to go and spend another day with Rarity, Gabby is clearly upset over it. Considering her backstory, it's only natural that Gabby would be sad over not being able to spend time with one of the few friends she does have.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Rarity becomes increasingly jealous of how much Spike and Gabby hang out. She ends up accidentally driving a wedge between them over it.
- Heroic BSoD: After Gabby ends her friendship with him, Spike falls into an extremely deep depression. In fact, he is so heartbroken he can't even enjoy a moment with Rarity.
- Hypocritical Humor: Downplayed with Rarity. Way back in the Season 1 episode "Boast Busters" she showed absolute horror at having green hair. When she and Spike return from the Power Ponypalooza, she is seen cosplaying as The Mane-iac, who of course has green hair.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: While Gabby is clearly upset over Spike being unable to hang out with her again, she encourages him to go to the Power Ponypalooza with Rarity.
- Innocently Insensitive:
- During the Cold Open, Spike is too busy writing his letter to Gabby to realize Rarity is talking to him.
- In both their first and last scene together, Spike and Gabby fly away while Rarity is still talking.
- Rarity ends up sabotaging Spike and Gabby's friendship only because she misses hanging out with him. Rarity does eventually realize what she's done, though.
- Irony: Spike has had a big crush on Rarity by the entire show, sometimes using questionable means to try to win her affections. When he's enjoying hanging out more with his friend Gabby though, Rarity feels abandoned and plain needy of Spike's company, using her own means to have it back.
- Jeweler's Eye Loupe: Rarity is seen several time examining gemstones with an eye loupe, both in flashback and present.
- Late to the Realization: Rarity needs to openly admit that she misses having time with Spike for him to notice she actually means it.
- Milking the Giant Cow: When Rarity does her overly dramatic apology in the post office, it's done with very exaggerated movements and cartoonishly expressive faces.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Rarity realizes that she was so desperate to have time with Spike again, she ended up stealing him from Gabby and accidentally damaged their friendship.
- Not What It Looks Like: When Gabby finds Spike playing O&O with Rarity, she assumes he lied about being too tired to hang out with her so he could hang out with Rarity instead.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Spike ignoring Rarity is odd enough to cause Rarity some serious angst. For comparison, Season 1 to 8 Spike would be overjoyed about Rarity waking him up, but Season 9 Spike looks visibly annoyed.
- Replacement Goldfish: While trying to deal with Spike's absence, Rarity at various points enlists Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy to take his place as her assistant, telling them to act like Spike would. Predictably, each replacement fails.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: As part of a Funny Background Event, when Rarity pushes a huge crate of things that Spike likes into the post office, Derpy has a panicked expression at the sight of it and quickly closes the gate to the counter.
- Series Continuity Error: Rarity doesn't recognize Gabby despite having already met her in "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks", when Gabby helped clean Rarity's boutique during the montage.
- Ship Tease:
- The episode makes Spike and Gabby into close friends who love spending time with each other and write each other letters.
- Rarity is jealous because Spike has been spending more time with Gabby than with her. It doesn't help that Rarity's behavior can be read as a clingy girlfriend who wants to control her partner's life. Pinkie Pie even slyly notes "So that's how it works" when Spike joins her and Rarity at the gem cave, saying that he still wants his "Rarity time".
- Shout-Out: Rarity holds a record player over her head just like Say Anything....
- Slasher Smile: Rarity sports a massive one when she appears standing over Spike in his bed.
- Suddenly Shouting: When Applejack gets annoyed with Rarity in the gem cave, she initially talks in a whisper so not to wake the bats. At the end, Applejack gets so frustrated with Rarity that she screams "I! AIN'T! SPIKE!" and accidentally wakes the bats.
- That Poor Cat: When Rarity throws away the record player she was holding above her head for the "apology", we hear a cat screeching from off-screen.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Fluttershy suggests to Rarity that maybe she should show Spike how much she appreciates him and his help, which leads to Rarity taking up Spike's time with various activities and damaging his friendship with Gabby in the process.
