Review and Implications for the Shadow Wars Universe - S2E13 "Baby Cakes" · 6:00pm Jul 19th, 2014
Introduction
"Baby Cakes" is the episode in which we first see Pinkie Pie attempt something out of her comfort zone, which surprises her by the extent to which it turns out to be out of her comfort zone. This is "babysitting," and what Pinkie Pie at first does not grasp is that this is not playing with small children (something which the hedonistic and innocent Pinkie Pie finds enjoyable) but rather taking care of small children -- which is a serious responsibility.
Synopsis
Pound and Pumpkin Cake are born to Carrot and Cup Cake. Astonishingly, Pound is a Pegasus and Pumpkin a Unicorn Pony, despite the fact that Carrot and Cup Cake are both Earth Ponies. At least one Unicorn ancestor is known to exist, but no direct Pegasus ancestors.
A month later the Cakes have a big order and need a babysitter. They try all five other members of the Mane Six (and possibly other Ponies not shown) before they pick Pinkie Pie, who wanted to babysit from the beginning.
Pinkie has a horrible babysitting experience, both due to her extreme naivete and the fact that the Cake Twins are precocious. Pound Cake, the little pegasus colt, has a flight field strong enough to pull Pinkie Pie around. Pumpkin Cake, the little unicorn filly, cannot only telekinese but can apparently phase herself through solid objects. The Cake Twins are rambunctious and at first afraid and then excited by the absence of their parents, so they run wild around the house.
In the end Pinkie is exhausted but successful. She is a bit afraid of babysitting again, but then when she realizes that the babies have come to love her, wants to make it a regular thing.
Important Revelations
Ponies are much more precocial than are Humans. While the Cake Twins are clearly too small and innocent to survive on their own, they have a degree of mobility which would, even without their special powers be closer to that of 1-3 year old Humans than to 1-3 month old Humans.
Ponies clearly can't have a Free Love based society, because Carrot Cake is clearly upset at the implication that Cup might have had sex with other stallions (the most obvious way she could have given birth to non Earth Pony offspring). This is an important point because this is one of the most direct references the show ever makes to the issue of characters having sexual intercourse.
Power surges are common among foals -- they can sometimes do things which they won't be able to do again until they are adolescents. The degree of power surges shown by the Cake Twins, however, must be unusual, as Pinkie Pie is not merely dismayed but actually shocked by what she is seeing.
Consequently, the Cake Twins must be special -- they have unusual degrees of power as foals, and will probably have unsual degrees of power as adults. This has some implications with regard to stories set in the Shadow Wars universe around 15+ years in the future -- which, interestingly enough, includes the climactic phase of the Shadow Wars.
Pinkie Pie at this point is still extremely immature -- this is the sort of personal discovery one would expect a filly in her early teens (CMC-age or a bit older) to make, not a mare of around 20. Coupled with her demonstrably great intelligence and the fact that she is not the youngest of the Mane Six, this supports my contention that she is highly-neotenous -- that she matures slower -- compared to most Ponies.
Chronology
The bulk of the episode takes place in May 1502, almost two years since Luna's Return (June 21st-22nd 1502). Since the twins are just over a month old that means that they were born in April 1502 (a little before "Sweet and Elite") and conceived in May 1501 (sometime after "The Show Stoppers" -- it's rather amusing to imagine Carrot and Cup Cake running home after the show, inspired to make mad passionate love by the brilliant song styling and choreography of the Cutie Mark Crusaders -- though prosaically, the timing was probably more a matter of Cup's estrus cycle).
Maud Pie was born in YOH 1476 and sororal twins Claire and Pinkie in 1481; their half-sisters Marble and Limestone in 1483 and 1485. The ages of Pinkie's sisters are relevant here, for reasons into which I will delve.
The first point here is that Pinkie is a 21 year old mare at this point. As I said, she's very immature for her age.
The second point is that Pinkie was probably not the one to babysit her sisters. The five-year-old Maud was there helping her grandmother Goldie and her mother Cloudy when Claire and Pinkie were born in 1481, she was probably around a lot when Goldie and her husband Jasper babysat them over the next few years. By the time that Marble was born in 1483, Maud was seven and -- between her exceptional physical strength and her exceptional psychological maturity, strong sense of responsibility, and meta-Pony strength -- more than capable of looking after her twins (Claire, in any case, was by then the size of a small cow and close to indestructable owing to her powers of regeneration).
While neither in modern early 21st-century AD America nor in urban late 15th-century YOH Equestria would a 7-9 year old girl babysitting her newborn to 4 year old siblings be considered acceptable, in rural late 15th-century YOH Equestria such things would not be uncommon -- and filly-Maud was an uncommonly-competent child. In the social analogue of America c. 1900, such responsibilities were quite often given to older siblings who were still pre-adolescents, especially on farms.
During the later part of the 1480's, when Pinkie was no longer a foal but instead a "little filly," Maud may have sometimes deputized her to watch her little sisters while Maud did something else (by this point, Maud was probably one of the major supports of her family farm in that her physical strength far exceeded that of her mother and stepfather), but this was mostly "play with them and keep them from running off a cliff" rather than serious babysitting.
Pinkie left home to move to Ponyville in 1490, when she was 9 years old (this is far younger than normal for an Equestrian filly to move out on her own, but they always knew she had to pursue her special destiny). Claire remained home with Goldie and the Friends of Paradise, to study and practice her Gate magics. At this time Maud was 14, and about to go off to attend a secondary school in Canterlot (one of the reasons why the Pies are less wealthy than they might otherwise be is that they've been putting their scientific-genius eldest daughter through an advanced education).
Marble and Limestone Pie were 7 and 5 respectively. Probably when not in school or with their parents in the fields (Marble starting to help with the work, Limestone mostly just tagging along at this age), and when Igneous and Cloudy had chores that took them somewhere the children couldn't go, Goldie and Jasper sat them. When Jasper was slain by the Shadow Drake, and it in turn was slain by a furious 17-year-old Maud, in 1493; Marble at 10 and Limestone at 8 would have been sufficiently grown that they no long really needed babysitting.
Point is, Pinkie's never really babysat anypony before this episode. But she has had enough experience as a little filly being told by Maud "Watch your baby sisters, I have to go do something" that she thinks she knows how to do it. Unfortunately for Pinkie, Pound and Pumpkin Cake constitute a particularly steep learning curve.
Speculations
By the end of the episode, we see that Pinkie has specially-bonded with the Cake Twins. They probably grow up considering her, more or less, their "Aunt." This relationship is probably lifelong, with all this implies given Pinkie's own special nature. They grow up in constant contact with somepony who becomes an Alicorn Princess, and whose family becomes The Pie Sisters, Inc., lynch-pins of the Equestrian war effort and eventually of the Equestrian colonization of other worlds.
The Cake Twins themselves have fairly awesome abilities. They probably lose them to some extent in colt and filly-hood, but regain them -- more powerfully -- during Marking and adolescence. Pound Cake seems to have a broad and high-powered flight-field like Scootaloo's, possibly more powerful than Scootaloo's. Pumpkin Cake seems to be instinctively good at phasing -- as an adult she may be able to phase not only through solid objects but possibly between dimensional barriers as well.
I've already decided that -- despite many harrowing adventures -- the Cake Twins will both survive their contributions to the last decisive decade of the Shadow Wars, and go on to take their place among the leaders of Equestria as Ponies go beyond their world and begin to colonize the rest of the Universe.
"Pound and Pumpkin Cake are born to Carrot and Cup Cake. Astonishingly, Pound is a Pegasus and Pumpkin a Unicorn Pony, despite the fact that Carrot and Cup Cake are both Earth Ponies. At least one Unicorn ancestor is known to exist, but no direct Pegasus ancestors."
I LOVED the short fanfic drabble that had Cupcake get fed up with ponies thinking her foals were adopted or that she had been cheating on her husband. To the point where she does gene testing, and puts up the results on a giant banner above Sugarcube corner along with a copy of their family tree (turns out there was a dragon in there too!).
2299896
Indeed -- in the episode the Pegasus named can't be a direct ancestor unless there's a later cross in from that line (because he or she is "removed"), but Carrot's only relating what he and his wife have so far been able to remember of their lineages.
I haven't actually decided yet what the significance of the oddness of Pumpkin and Pound's Kind should mean in terms of my story arcs. I have a lot of problems seeing Cup Cake as not only cheating on her husband, but doing so twice with two different Ponies within three days of each other (the likeliest way biologically for this to have happened). Cup Cake was carrying them as fetuses during the Day of Discord, so a transformation is possible, but why wouldn't it have been reversed like the other transformations on Discord's defeat?
There's also an interesting allegorical significance here in that this is a family of four Ponies containing all three major Kinds. And the Cake twins are, as I pointed out, not all that normal ...
So I don't know. I think there's something more going on here than a scandal ...
"'Great God, what simpletons! Show them Arthur Machen's Great God Pan and they'll think it a common Dunwich scandal!'" (as Lovecraft put it in reference to the Humanified and Darker and Edgier versions of Pinkie and Claire) ...
but I don't know just what.
2299950
Discord might be a good set up. That increases the amount of forces acting on the children. As for why it did not get reversed here could be many reasons but how about this one...
In at least one thing I read (might have been a comic or a fan fic not sure which) it was understood that the Cakes conceived DURING Discords brief feign (and they do not speak of it). The result was a conception that is slightly warped by the chaos energies around them (perhaps also protected by the energy Pinkie may leave around without thinking about it depending if that is something she can do which may be one reason Pinkie was so surprised Spike destroyed Sugar Cube Corner as it broke her wards on the building). This warp effect changed their pony type (or perhaps they are honestly earth ponies but have pegasi and unicorn traits so everyone assumes they are standard unicorns and pegasi) and gave them their well known power boost. This could also affect their growth rate in the womb which may increase the surprise on the cakes not just in being pregnant but also how fast the pregnancy is over thus making them come up with stories hastily to describe their situation (they may not know or may not be comfortable to have children that were born from chaos).
As for why they stayed warped rather than revert my thinking is that everything reverted to what it was before their transformations safely. The problem is that since they were born during the chaos they had no safe former existence to revert to as they were an egg and sperm to begin with and they now cannot go back to that existence without killing the embryos. Since could not revert to anything they stayed and thus were born with their touch of chaos.
If the the genetics of pony-type are complicated (Gregor Mendel deliberately chose simple traits for learning the basic stuff, but many traits depend on complex networks of interacting genes with epigenetics and environmental influences), it might be very hard to predict what sort of pony the offspring of 2 ponies mixed heritage will be.
In my headcanon, Pound's special talent is actually demolition, in the manner of Rainbow Dash in "Lesson Zero." He'll need the extra-strength flight and impact resistance.
Pumpkin, meanwhile, I see as specializing in ontolomancy, the magical manipulation of what does and does not exist. This includes ponies' perception of her, which will often prompt them to ask, "What pumpkin?" However, there will be one pony who won't be fooled, Pumpkin's dread teacher, perhaps the greatest anti-magic unicorn the world will ever see: Dinky Doo.
As for the Cakes producing especially fraternal twins? Yeah, pony genes are a crapshoot. Especially given the desperate need to perpetuate the species during Discord's reign, there's a little of every pony in everypony.
Just my two cents.
2301544
I like your interpretation of Pound and Pumpkins' talents. One interesting thing is that this makes Pumpkin a sort of Reality Warper -- with essentially a more limited version of Pinkie Pie's talent. Of course, given the names and the fact that the Cakes treat Pinkie as if she were kin, there is a good chance that the Cakes and Pies are allied families who have often married into each other's lineages, and the Cakes might also be in part descended from Paradise.
Something here caught my eye. Pinkie turns into an Alicorn Princess?
2301875
Well, yes. Pinkie is an Aspect of Thalia, the Concept of Comedy or Laughter. And, of course, she's the Herald of Paradise. She holds down two spiritually-significant jobs, in addition to party-catering and baking.
2301893 Oh. Why do you call it the Aspect of Thalia? I know it's the Greek muse of comedy, but why that? And what are the names of the other Aspects, if Pinkie is Thalia?
What is this about Scootaloo's flight field?
2316854
Ok ....
Having watched the show, the only possible way the Pegasi are flying is by means of "flight fields" -- projected force fields which allow them to levitate, propel them, shield them against the effects of high speed flight, and protect them against crashes. The flight field can also be used in a limited offensive fashion to project a cutting edge (as shown in "Secret of My Excess").
I've also figured out what's wrong with Scootaloo.
Scootaloo has a very strong flight field but she has trouble focusing it. When she tries to fly she is generally trying to levitate not only herself but a wide sphere of her surroundings, including usually tons of Earth. This is why she doesn't get anywhere.
As she gets older her flight field will get stronger and better focused. Not only will she be able to levitate herself, but tons of her surroundings -- for instance she will be able to use it to perform impossible maneuvers in an aerospace fighter. Furthermore, when she really pushes the field, she'll be able to focus it like a tractor beam to pull other objects.
That's how she's going to perform her Samson-in-the-Temple like destruction of Windvane's main base, by literally ripping the Pegasus Device off its moorings and slamming it into the main paramagnetic storage battery. But that's another story.
2316854
And yeah -- Pound Cake's may be stronger.
2316854
Ooh -- you've just made me realize why this is the case, and why Pound and Pumpkin Cake are so strange.
They've been exposed to Pinkie Pie since conception.
2316913
So that's why she's really fast on a scooter -- she's using what would normally be pegasus self-levitation to push the whole scooter. Interesting.
Reminds me of Jaenelle Monae's early failures in Anne Bishop's Dark Jewels series. This was a character who was so godawfully powerful that when asked to move an object to test her telekinesis, she failed... because she had in fact moved the entire building she was in, smoothly enough that no one could tell what she'd done at first.
2316928
Yes. This is explicitly shown on the TV show, though I'm not sure it's what the writers intended. Her little wings are whirring like an outboard motor pushing her and the scooter. But, really, what the wings do is serve as the radiator for her flight field, just like the horn does for unicorn magic.