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Episode Review
“They sang the praises of nature, of the sea, of the woods. They liked making songs about one another, and praised each other like children; they were the simplest songs, but they sprang from their hearts and went to one’s heart. And not only in their songs but in all their lives they seemed to do nothing but admire one another. It was like being in love with each other, but an all-embracing, universal feeling.”
~Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”
(Source: en.wikiquote.org)
After drawing that picture of Pinkie Pie I was thinking a bit about how FiM handles inspiration and encouragement in general. I felt that the quote used there typifies Pinkie Pie’s methods and worldview quite well. With few exceptions, she pretty much loves everything. Consider how she happily ate Apple Bloom’s cupcakes in Call of the Cutie, for example. Pinkie Pie is very much about seeing, and celebrating, the good in everything and everypony.
But! That’s not the entire show. Rarity, for example, is absolutely nothing like that. She might be as much the opposite of that as you can get. Rarity has very precise tastes and is frequently critical of things that don’t fit those tastes. Does this mean she’s a jerk while Pinkie Pie is good? Well, sometimes. Consider Sisterhooves Social, where Rarity has to learn to be not quite so demanding towards Sweetie Belle. But it’s not JUST that Rarity shouldn’t be so demanding. In the montage at the end of the episode one of the scenes shows Sweetie Belle filling the kitchen with smoke again, but then pulling out a perfectly lovely pie for Rarity. Sweetie Belle learns something too.
Pinkie Pie would look at Sweetie Belle’s or Apple Bloom’s burned treats and gobble them up and say they did great. And that’s good. Rarity would help Sweetie Belle make something better. And that’s also good. This, I believe, is one of the core messages of the show: Good is not just one thing. There isn’t one singular ideal we must uphold, forsaking all others. If somepony feels like crap about what they do no matter what they make, they probably need Pinkie more than Rarity. If somepony offers up their work for criticism, they probably need Rarity more than Pinkie. And some people just react better to one or the other for personal reasons. Rarity and Pinkie are both good and they both have their place, and we all need a healthy dose of self-love and self-criticism in order to stay sane.
Rarity was so outmatched. Applejack played a variety of instruments, most famously her fiddle. Her performance at Shining Armor’s and Princess Cadence’s wedding brought down the house! It wasn’t unlikely that her older sibling Big Macintosh shared some of that musical talent. Then even worse, there was Twilight, the pony who had sang in front of all those nobles and guards and the Princesses! Ponies loved it, Tartarus, some respected music critics were there and they lauded her performance! She wrote the lyrics and notes herself!
But even she paled to Pinkie. Pinkamena Diane Pie, AKA the pony who sang every day of her life, the pony who played every instrument known to ponykind and played them so well, so soothingly that she led an entire swarm of Parasprites out of town. How could she compete with that? The only ponies who were as inexperienced as she was were Dash and Derpy, and Derpy was only a maybe. That mailmare was chock full of surprises. Rarity wasn’t classically trained, or amateurishly trained, or trained in music in any way whatsoever. Really, it wouldn’t be unfair of her to just call the whole situation “The worst. Possible. Thing!” and cry on her couch.
Here is the compilation for Prompt #44, “Shattered Glass,” from July 13, 2012, lucky Friday the Thirteenth, featuring thirteen lucky stories for your enjoyment.
The prompt: Rarity breaks a mirror.
Stories are linked in the order we received them.
“Lady Luck Is A Foul Mistress” by A Typical OC Pony
“Twitcha-Twitch” by The Grey Potter
“Happily Ever After” by Shingo
“What a Lucky Day” by crepuscular1ty
“The Type of Pony Everypony Should Know” by Bombastic Bookman
“Friday the 13th” by Obscure Reference
In addition to the fact that we coincidentally received 13 stories on Friday the 13th, yesterday’s prompt just happened to be Thirty Minute Pony Stories’ 777th post. We’re very lucky in our bad luck.
Rarity had a problem.
But Twilight had a plan.
And together the two unicorns conspired and conspired until they finally came to an agreement on just how the plan should unfold.
Twilight nodded, content at the diagram laid before her on the library desk. “This is fool proof, Rarity. I think we have at least a ninety percent chance of success!”
Rarity looked dubious. “Darling, how can it be fool proof if there’s a chance this could fail? Honestly now, don’t sugar coat things.”
Twilight rolled up the sheet of parchment with her magic and tucked it gently into her saddlebag. “We just have to leave room for the one variable that neither you nor I can really predict. I assume you know full well what I’m talking about?”
Rarity let out a melodramatic sigh. “But of course. Alright. I’ll trust you. Lead the way, dear.”
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I really loved this story and I wanted to see it posted at a more reasonable hour so more people would see it. It was so much fun!
Artistic analysis of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic for the purposes of understanding how and why it succeeds and how this can be applied to other works, as well as other thoughts about the show and the fandom surrounding it.
Also check out my art tumblr here.
