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Recap / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S4 E20 "For Whom the Sweetie Bell Toils"
aka: My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic S 4 E 19 For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils

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Sweetie Belle: Dresses! Dresses! Dresses! DRESSES!!

Written by Dave Polsky

Sweetie Belle has written, directed, and is starring in the school play, but she needs Rarity's help with the costumes. Rarity is very busy working on a special order for Sapphire Shores, the Pony of Pop, but she makes the time to produce three stunning outfits for Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo. The Cutie Mark Crusaders perform their play to lavish applause, but when they go out to mingle with the audience, they find that their sisters didn't make it because they were helping Rarity. On top of that, the only thing anypony remembers about the play is the costumes. Sweetie Belle returns to Carousel Boutique, full of anger, and accuses Rarity of making the dresses too good on purpose. Rarity says she only did what she thought her little sister wanted, but Sweetie Belle has none of it, storming out in a huff.

That night, Sweetie Belle is still angry and unable to sleep. While getting up for some water, she sees that Rarity left her door open. In her anger, she decides to sabotage Rarity's own work — namely, by removing a key stitch from the elaborate headdress which will be the centerpiece of Sapphire Shores's costume. Satisfied, Sweetie Belle goes back to her room and falls asleep, soon finding herself in a dream about accepting an award for her play. Even there, Rarity is able to ruin Sweetie Belle's happiness, raining and thundering at her until Princess Luna enters the dream to intervene.

Luna says that she understands what it is like to have a sister who sometimes outshines her. Within the dream, she takes Sweetie Belle back to a birthday party which she remembers as a time Rarity deliberately upstaged her. Sweetie Belle had put on her best outfit to impress her party guests, but they ignored her and paid all their attention to the party favors that Rarity made. One filly even said that they didn't need the birthday girl when they had the birthday's girl's "amazing older sister," which sent Sweetie Belle back to her room in tears. However, Luna rewinds the memory to reveal that there was another side to the story: the guests were so bored with waiting while Sweetie primped and preened that they had nearly walked out, forcing Rarity to break out the favors early to save the party. Further, she had told all of them that the party favors were Sweetie Belle's idea.

Luna then shows Sweetie Belle what had happened earlier that evening: Rarity was rechecking all of her work, second-guessing herself and becoming increasingly stressed, which Sweetie Belle admits she also does. Finally, Luna takes Sweetie Belle to what will happen if the sabotaged headdress is not fixed: Rarity is not only humiliated in front of Sapphire Shores, she becomes a laughing stock and a shut-in, obsessively rechecking everything and afraid to let anyone see her work. As she watches her sister descend into madness, Sweetie Belle can only beg for it to stop. When she finally wakes up, she rushes to Rarity's room to fix her mistake. But Rarity has already left for Canterlot!

With the other Cutie Mark Crusaders in tow, Sweetie Belle heads for Canterlot, making it to Sapphire Shores's dress rehearsal. Rarity is just about to show off the headdress when the Cutie Mark Crusaders enter through a window, grabbing the box the headdress is contained in and fleeing. Sweetie Belle manages to get out of sight just long enough to fix the stitching, with the unexpected help of the real Princess Luna. Rarity finally catches Sweetie Belle, who explains everything and apologizes to her sister.

Sapphire Shores is getting uneasy about the weird delays, but her concerns are instantly swept away when she sees the final piece, which has the image of a dolphin stitched on the front. Neither she nor Rarity can tell how Sweetie Belle knew her lucky animal, which swims with her in her dreams. (Luna, off to one side and out of sight, nods at Sweetie Belle.) Rarity then apologizes for being so caught up in her work that she missed Sweetie Belle's play, and asks for an encore performance. Sweetie Belle admits that the play wasn't that good, and the costumes were the best part.


Tropes:

  • Ageless Birthday Episode: Actually averted this time around. Sweetie Belle's birthday shown in the past was specifically her fifth one, thereby making her at least older than five. It's also evidence that ponies age at a somewhat similar rate as humans.
  • All Cloth Unravels: Rarity's headpiece for Sapphire Shores is held together by a single key stitch.
  • All Just a Dream: Defied towards the end. After Sweetie Belle wakes up from her dream she and her friends head to Canterlot to save Rarity from her sabotage. After Sweetie snatches the headdress and hides in one room she unexpectedly meets Princess Luna, and calms down thinking she is still dreaming. Luna immediately dashes that hope though, saying that everything is very real.
  • Always Someone Better: After the misunderstanding at Sweetie Belle's fifth birthday party, she learned to "never try to shine with her big sister around".
  • Bad "Bad Acting": Maybe. Sweetie Belle's line in her play sounded pretty forced but she's still just a filly so it might be purely inexperience.
  • Bad Future: Princess Luna shows Sweetie Belle a potential future where, should Sweetie Belle's actions go unchanged, Rarity will become a complete laughingstock in Equestria's fashion community and become an insane recluse.
  • Best Known for the Fanservice: In-Universe example, regarding the costumes in Sweetie Belle's play.
  • Body Horror: Part of the Nightmare Sequence has Sweetie Belle's hooves stuck to the floor as Rarity is about to unveil Sapphire Shores's headdress, preventing her from warning everypony that she sabotaged it. Her hooves stretch and even show holes in them similar to a changeling's.
  • Brick Joke: During her rant about assisting Rarity the previous week, Sweetie Belle mentions an exchange regarding various shades of red, including cherry and cinnamon. When she swipes the box with the headdress at the dress rehearsal, she says "You've gotta see this with the cinnamon ribbon! You'll love it!"
  • Brief Accent Imitation: Sweetie Belle, pacing around her bedroom, alone:
    Sweetie Belle: Ugh, I don't believe it. After everything I put up with all week long! [imitating Rarity] "Sweetie Belle, get me some red ribbon! No, that's not red, that's cherry! No, that's not red, that's cinnamon!" [normal, cut to other side of the door] For Pete's sake, it's all red!
    Rarity: [to Opalescence, overhearing the rant outside the closed door] I should probably go talk to her, hm?
    Sweetie Belle: [still inside] At least Sapphire Shores won't be all like, "Ooh, who fetched you that red ribbon? Because I don't care about anything else you made. All I care about is that amazing red ribbon!"
    Rarity: Perhaps waiting would be best.
  • Call-Back:
  • Catapult Nightmare: Sweetie Belle wakes up this way from her Bad Future nightmare.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Dolphins appear throughout Sweetie Belle's dream, with her swimming with them in the transition to the present, and a dolphin design appearing on Sapphire Shores's stage during the Bad Future portion. Guess what Sapphire Shores's lucky animal is.
  • Comically Missing the Point: When the Crusaders consider how they should behave toward the audience after the play, Sweetie (the clumsiest of the three) suggests "gracious", Scootaloo (the most arrogant) opts for "modest", and Apple Bloom (the sassiest) goes with "classy".
  • Continuity Nod:
  • Control Freak: Sapphire Shores has perfectionist tendencies, which puts a lot of pressure on Rarity. Though possibly justified, as a lot of famous musicians and performers have to very meticulous about details in their appearance and performances (mostly to avoid upsetting "that one guy who will notice if something's off").
  • Cosmetic Catastrophe: To primp for her fifth birthday party, Sweetie Belle applies a giant, irregular smear of lipstick.
  • Crying at Your Birthday Party: One of the reasons Sweetie Belle thinks Rarity is trying to humiliate her all the time is because of a ruined birthday party when she was a filly. Sweetie Belle spent a while making herself look beautiful, but when she came down to the party, she heard the others talking about how cool Rarity was. From her perspective, Rarity had intentionally stolen the attention. From Rarity's perspective, she was trying to stop the guests from leaving, and even tried to make them think Sweetie Belle was the one who prepared the whole party. Either way, it ended with Sweetie Belle running back to her room in tears.
  • Damned by Faint Praise: Noteworthy tries to give Sweetie Belle a compliment about the play, but he can't remember a single line from it.
    Noteworthy: I liked some of those lines you said.
    Sweetie Belle: Oh really? Which ones?
    Noteworthy: Uh, I don't really remember, but you were wearing a pink taffeta dress with lots of chiffon when you said them!
  • Desolation Shot: The end of Sweetie Belle's Nightmare Sequence shows Rarity cowering in the decrepit remains of Carousel Boutique with spiders crawling across cobwebs around her.
  • Disaster Dominoes: Pretty much how the sequence to the bad future will work if left unchanged, and all because of a pulled thread.
  • Dolphins, Dolphins Everywhere: Sapphire Shores's spirit animal.
  • Do Well, But Not Perfect: Sweetie Belle wanted Rarity to make good dresses, not jaw-droppingly amazing ones, though she's mainly upset because her play looked worse by comparison.
  • Dramatically Missing the Point: When Sweetie Belle learns that the costumes Rarity made were praised over the rest of her play that she wrote and acted in, she blames Rarity for 'upstaging' her rather than admit her work wasn't that good. She comes to realize her mistake at the end.
  • Dream Walker: Princess Luna clearly understands why Sweetie Belle would think she was still just dreaming when they meet backstage since they had previously met in a similar setting in Sweetie Belle's Dream Sequence.
  • Dream Weaver: In addition to entering Sweetie Belle's dream, Princess Luna is able to guide the dream to help Sweetie Belle realize the possible consequences of her ruining her sister's work. This includes showing Sweetie Belle an alternate perspective of her fifth birthday party and Rarity fretting over the final changes to Sapphire Shores's costumes earlier that night.
  • Eat the Camera: When Rarity is shown in tears during the nightmare sequence, we get a Point of View shot of Sweetie Belle heading straight for her mouth. And hanging on to her uvula for dear life.
  • Eye Twitch: Rarity in the last of the Bad Future nightmare as she's huddled in the middle of her ruined boutique.
  • Face Plant: Happens to Sweetie Belle when she's trying to walk in her dress during the flashback to her 5th birthday.
  • Figure It Out Yourself: Luna could send a message to Rarity that the headdress was sabotaged. She instead leaves it up to Sweetie Belle to fix her mistake because Rarity finding out from another source could ruin the sibling relationship forever. With that said, she comes to Sapphire Shores's house with a needle and thread, hinting she would have intervened if Sweetie Belle hadn't made it in time.
  • Geographic Flexibility: The train to Canterlot — which is within sight of Ponyville, remember — goes through the Appaloosan desert for some reason.
  • Glass Smack and Slide: After their Improvised Zipline moment, the CMC smack against the window of Sapphire Shores's studio. The window swivels and lets Sweetie Bell falls inside, but Apple Bloom and Scootaloo stay stuck outside and slide down.
  • The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Touched upon for both Princess Luna and Sweetie Belle. Luna, who shows traces of The Smart One, tells Sweetie Belle about the resentment she feels when she gets compared to Celestia, the Popular One. Sweetie Belle, meanwhile, expresses her jealousy over Rarity and Luna has to show her why she shouldn't plot revenge.
  • Gratuitous French: As usual for Rarity.
    Sweetie Belle: I have to leave for dress rehearsal soon, Rarity! Is it finished yet?
    Rarity: Uh, not quite. I still feel it needs a certain je ne sais quoi. Perhaps it needs... appliqués.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Points for Sweetie Belle actually having green eyes.
  • Heel Realization: Once Sweetie Belle learns the truth behind what happened on her fifth birthday, she starts feeling remorseful over the way she treated Rarity about it.
  • Hidden Depths:
    • Luna apparently knows a thing or two about sewing, and Sweetie Belle says she likes show tunes.
    • Sweetie Belle writes and directs an entire play, as well as acting in it, indicating a budding interest in the creative arts.
    • Apparently Sweetie Belle resents Rarity for being better. This puts her Big Sister Worship from previous episodes in a whole new light.
  • Human Ladder: The Cutie Mark Crusaders do one to try to get into Sapphire Shores's studio, but it doesn't go very well. Then we get...
  • Improvised Zip Line: The Cutie Mark Crusaders use a rope of hanging banners as a zipline to get into Sapphire Shores' studio, using Apple Bloom's tail to slide.
  • Informed Attribute: This episode describes Sapphire Shores as the Pony of Pop with numerous hit singles, two of which are named by Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. Nevertheless, Sapphire Shores doesn't sing at all in this episode and the closest she comes to it is counting measure beats.
  • I Need to Go Iron My Dog: When Sweetie Belle storms in and glares at Rarity, the rest of the Mane Mares use "take that moment to relax" as an excuse to leave the room so the sisters can talk in private.
  • Innocently Insensitive: Everypony praising the play's dresses, unknowingly, hurts Sweetie Belle's feelings, as nopony paid any real attention to all the other aspects of the play.
  • It's All About Me: Sweetie Belle before the CMC perform their play. It may be true that she took the lead on this project, but she couldn't put on the play without her friends' help.
    Sweetie Belle: I worked so hard on this play. I wrote it especially for the three of us. I directed it, I'm in it, I made the costumes—it's just that this is really my time to shine doing something completely myself!
  • Jacob Marley Warning: Most likely Luna's reason for helping Sweetie Belle.
  • Keep Away: The CMC do this with the box containing the headdress to get it away from Rarity so that Sweetie Belle can fix it before it ruins Rarity's career.
  • Literary Allusion Title: To John Donne's phrase "for whom the bell tolls", where the "bell" is a warning sign from God to the individual to stop their destructive behavior.
  • Madness Mantra: In the Bad Future Nightmare Sequence, Rarity obsessively checks and rechecks each of her dresses to ensure they're perfect, bringing her career to a standstill.
    Rarity: Check, recheck, recheck, and recheck...
  • Moment of Weakness: Sweetie Belle's undoing the hidden stitch, done when she was furious with Rarity despite knowing how important it was.
  • Morton's Fork: If Rarity had stood by and let Sweetie Belle's bored party guests be on their merry way, poor Sweetie Belle would've been devastated to see no pony stayed for her fifth birthday. And when Rarity did do something about it by giving out the party favors early, it inadvertently hurts Sweetie Belle's feelings and plants some resentment towards her sister. Either way, there was no way Sweetie Belle's fifth birthday party wouldn't end with her feelings hurt.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Sweetie Belle first feels this when she didn't learn the complete story behind the fifth birthday incident with a Heel Realization. She feels it even stronger at the end of the nightmare over ruining Rarity's reputation. And finally, she feels it strongest when Rarity has headed off to Canterlot, possibly too far to remedy her misfire.
  • Nightmare Sequence: The first part of Sweetie Belle's dream before Luna arrives. It returns for the final part of the dream interlapping with a possible Bad Future for Rarity.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: The feathered headdress Rarity designed for Sapphire Shores, and Rarity's status as Sapphire's favorite designer, bring to mind the designs Bob Mackie has made for Cher.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Rarity didn't have to make those lovely dresses for Sweetie Belle's play, as she already had a lot on her plate. Turning down the request would've made her work load that much lighter for it. But Rarity did it anyway out of sisterly kindness towards Sweetie Belle. As a result, much to Rarity's confusion, Sweetie Belle repays her generosity that very night with hostility and accusations of "upstaging" her. And to make matters worse, she also sabotages Sapphire Shores' headdress to "take back" her own kind deeds.
  • "Not So Different" Remark:
    • Sweetie Belle is genuinely surprised to learn that Rarity suffers from the same insecurities she does.
    • Princess Luna also compares Sweetie Belle's relationship to her sister with that of her own.
  • Once More, with Clarity: Sweetie Belle's flashback of her fifth birthday party shows how Rarity gave out the party favors and seemingly basked in her guests admiration and praise. But Luna shows that in-between what Sweetie Belle witnessed that day, Rarity was between a rock and hard place as she gave out the party favors in order to make the guests stay. And she didn't accept their praise or adulation, for the sake of making it all about her little sister. This helps Sweetie Belle see Rarity in a new light.
  • Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: At Sweetie's fifth birthday party, her guests were all distracted by the cake and party favors that Rarity handed out, so Sweetie thought Rarity was deliberately upstaging her. As Princess Luna shows her later, the guests were in fact bored waiting for Sweetie Belle, and Rarity was just trying to keep them interested until Sweetie Belle arrived.
    Background Filly: Who needs a birthday girl when you have the birthday girl's amazing big sister!
    [Sweetie Belle runs away, in tears.]
    Rarity: Oh, no, no, no! All of these things were Sweetie Belle's idea! I just...assisted with the execution.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: How Sweetie Belle feels for most of the episode.
  • The Perfectionist: Sapphire's fair, but she wants the best from her ponies.
  • Photoshop Filter of Evil: Just before Sweetie Belle's dream takes a serious turn, she and Luna are shown as photo negatives.
  • Plot Parallel: Luna briefly contrasts Sweetie's situation with Rarity as hers with Celestia.
  • Poor Communication Kills: In the presence of the episode, the fact Sweetie Belle didn't tell Rarity about this play weeks ago leads to needing her to rush it and get her own work done in time. In the past, Rarity failed to explain why she passed out the cake and party favors early at Sweetie's fifth birthday party, so Sweetie Belle just assumed she did it on purpose and refused to discuss it further.
  • Popcultural Osmosis Failure: Apple Bloom and Scootaloo mention a couple of Sapphire Shores's song titles, one of which Sweetie Belle mistakes for a snide comment about her sister. Sweetie Belle explains that she doesn't know Sapphire Shores's pop songs because she prefers show tunes.
  • Prehensile Tail: Apple Bloom hooks her tail over a pennant banner and suspends the weight of all three Crusaders from it, using the banner as a zipline.
  • Reset Button: Averted. When Sweetie Belle says "I wish none of this ever happened," Luna shows her a way forward to resolve her dilemma and face the consequences of her actions.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: You thought regular Sweetie Belle was adorable? Five-year old Sweetie Belle manages to be even cuter.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: This isn't the first instance of Princess Luna appearing in a sleeper's dream, but this time she actively shapes events within the dream, and she's ready and waiting to help Sweetie Belle right her wrongs in the waking world.
  • Sanity Slippage: Rarity in the Bad Future nightmare, the whole embarrassment over the head dress leads her to obsessively double check everything to the point she eventually can't even make any dresses anymore.
  • Sassy Black Woman: Sapphire Shores returns in full style, sounding much like a ponified Aretha Franklin.
  • Scare 'Em Straight: Rather than simply chew Sweetie Belle out for her sabotage of Rarity's hat, Luna instead puts her through an eye-opening Nightmare Sequence to show her just how awful and misguided her behavior is/will be if she persists.
  • Schizo Tech: Sapphire Shores's security guard is wearing an earbud.
  • School Play: Written/directed by Sweetie Belle and starring the Crusaders. Costuming, however, is Rarity's department.
  • Self-Deprecation: Apple Bloom and Scootaloo are not impressed by Sweetie Belle's love for show tunes, the style most often used for the show's own songs. Sweetie Belle, for her part, isn't particularly into the Pony of Pop.
  • Seven Deadly Sins: An Envy-centered episode, with a side of Pride and Wrath.
  • Shout-Out:
    • At one point, Sweetie Belle rants at Rarity about her dresses in the same manner that Jan does about Marcia.
    • Sweetie Belle learns a lesson through visions of the past, present, and future in a dream.
    • Rarity asks, "What in the wide wide realm of Equestria" similar to the way Slim Pickens says, "What in the Wide Wide World of Sports" in Blazing Saddles. Twilight previously said a similar line in "Feeling Pinkie Keen".
    • The Violin chord played during the dream sequence as they descend through an ocean sounds very similar to a piece played during another oceanic descent.
  • Sleep Mask: Rarity wears one at night.
  • Stealth Pun: Luna, princess of the moon, tells Sweetie Belle that she knows how it feels to have her sister "outshine" her. Her sister is Celestia, princess of the sun.
  • Swallowed Whole: Sweetie Belle flies into Rarity's screaming mouth during her Nightmare Sequence.
  • Unwanted Assistance: When Sweetie Belle tries to explain to a security guard that she's not trying to see Sapphire Shores because she's a fan, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo both cheerfully exclaim that they are. ("Not helping.")
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The two bitchiest fillies at Sweetie Belle's fifth birthday party — the one with lavender hair and the one with glasses — act like they could be younger versions of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, but they don't have the same colors.
  • Tooth Strip: Averted during Sweetie's Nightmare Sequence, specifically when she falls into Rarity's mouth. Rarity's teeth are drawn individually.
  • Too Upset to Create: Luna shows Sweetie Belle what the consequences of her actions in sabotaging Rarity's headpiece for Sapphire Shores will be if she doesn't fix things. Namely, the headpiece falls apart when Sapphire tries it on during a dress rehearsal, Rarity loses her credibility due to it, obsesses over the mistake to the point she won't even speak to her friends anymore, and ultimately stuck in a fetal position while her dress shop falls into ruin.
  • Tough Love: Pretty much how Luna's operating here. Scolding Sweetie would be way too easy, showing her what her actions could lead to is much more effective.
  • A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Sweetie Belle pulls one thread out of the headdress in a fit of pique. It turns out to be the thread holding the entire thing together, setting off the chain of events which would ruin Rarity's career.
  • Traveling at the Speed of Plot: You have to wonder about how often and fast the trains are from Ponyville to Canterlot if the CMC are able to arrive in time to stop Rarity from giving Sapphire the sabotaged headdress, on an indeterminably later train than the one Rarity took earlier in the day. Especially after the train detoured through a desert for some reason. Possibly justified, as we see Rarity watching Sapphire and her troupe rehearse for what may have been a rather long time.
  • True Companions: This is Sweetie Belle's mess to fix, but Apple Bloom and Scootaloo come to help because they're friends.
  • Vocal Evolution: Luna sounds noticeably different here compared to in "Luna Eclipsed".
  • The Voiceless: Twilight and Pinkie Pie don't speak at all.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Rarity tells off Sweetie Belle for crashing the dress rehearsal since it could cost her the job, and gives a Death Glare when her sister confesses she sabotaged the headdress. Being Rarity, she forgives Sweetie Belle since her little sister made up for the error.
  • Who's on First?: When Sweetie Belle mistakes a Sapphire Shores song title ("Serves Her Right") for an insulting comment directed at Rarity's future being ruined.
  • Wilhelm Scream: Heard as the crowd flees the rainstorm at the award ceremony near the start of Sweetie Belle's dream.
  • Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: "Forsooth and anon, I cometh forthwith and posthaste," begins Sweetie Belle's play. Major Stylistic Suck for anyone who knows anything about Elizabethan linguistics: forsooth means "truthfully", expressing an opinion; anon means "shortly"; cometh is third person conjugation; forthwith means "immediately", contradicting anon; and finally, posthaste means "with great speed". So, basically, Sweetie Belle says, "In my honest opinion, very shortly now, I comes immediately and quickly," as she's casually strolling onstage.
  • Yet Another Christmas Carol: Except without the Christmas (or Hearth's Warming) element. Princess Luna plays the part of all three ghosts, showing Sweetie Belle her past, the present, and the future in a dream.
  • You Know What You Did: Sweetie Belle blames Rarity for deliberately upstaging her, both at her her disastrous fifth birthday party and at the just-finished play. But when she confronts Rarity, she fails to explain what she's blaming Rarity for, leaving Rarity completely befuddled about the source of Sweetie's sudden outburst.
  • Your Door Was Open: Despite having no luck with Sapphire Shores's security before, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom are able to run right in once Sweetie Belle gets in through the window.

 
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Sweetie Belle's 5th birthday

On Sweetie Belle's fifth birthday, she was upset to see what appears to be Rarity stealing the attention from everypony, which left her upset. Luna then shows Sweetie what really happened during the time she was getting ready: the guests were getting bored and Rarity tried to stop them from leaving by letting them play with the favors early. In other words, Rarity wasn't trying to steal the spotlight, she was trying to save Sweetie's party, and she didn't even know it.

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3.8 (10 votes)

Example of:

Main / OnceMoreWithClarity

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