Friendship is Card Games: It Isn't the Mane Thing About You · 11:35am Sep 17th, 2017
This week we have the grand return
Of one whose presence long I’ve yearned.
Zecora’s here to speak in rhyme
Though Rarity’s the star this time.
Wow. We open with a veritable continuity cavalcade. Not just Burnt Oak and Grand Pear, but also Davenport and Mr. Breezy of all ponies. We haven’t heard from him since “The Show Stoppers.”
Huh. Mare’s Day. Add that to the calendar, though the specifics aren’t clear. Mothers, significant others, both, more still?
It does tie into a later theme of the episode, but what’s up with Rarity’s literal glow when she first appears? A bit of illusion magic to accentuate her entrance, perhaps?
I do love Pinkie working the accordion with her mane and tail. Though the sneeziversary is more than a little ridiculous in terms of making the timeline work. It’s likely not more than a few days after the twins’ birthday, which would mean that everything from “Baby Cakes” to now would be one year. As if the alleged three-season crunch at the start of the series weren’t bad enough. Heck, I don’t think there’s enough time for Flurry Heart to gestate in there!
Is it just me, or was that one of the longest pre-theme openings the show’s ever had?
Interesting to note that Rarity’s magic can penetrate the layer of sticky string coating her horn. That’s not a given.
I do love how Rarity is not putting up with the Everfree’s sinister aspects trying to make themselves known. She is the middle of a mane emergency, and they will simply have to wait for a time when she can work them into her schedule!
Huh. I guess Zecora does have to maintain that mohawk. Also, I love the Rube Goldberg alchemical equipment.
Mare-pattern baldness is apparently a thing. I wonder if this means that Rarity’s mother wears a wig.
The episode revolves around the incredible finickiness of trichtomancy, which makes me raise an eyebrow. While there are a few Season 1 callbacks in this episode, it seems to have forgotten about the mustache spell. Though I suppose manes and mustaches are technically distinct. Still, what makes scalp hair so special in magical terms?
Note that Rarity was the one who hit the table and mixed up the potions. While Zecora carries some blame for not labeling the strangely identical substances, Rarity still literally kicked things off.
So… I suppose a wig or hat is out of the question while Rarity does her errands? It won't do for the shoot, but she'll be presentable when just going about town. Heck, she’s made wigs, including Cranky Doodle’s toupee.
Shades of Fluttershy in Rarity’s demeanor when trying to get shopkeepers’ attention. Makes sense; her confidence is shot to heck, especially after making that child cry. Every failure to get herself notice only worsens the problem, and that's saying nothing of getting called nonfabulous to her face.
Hmm. No creating matter? Pretty sure we’ve seen magic violate equivalent exchange in the past. Again, mustache spell. Though to be fair, the two *lights do manage to break that rule, just not for Rarity’s scalp. (That or they just shaved an entire town.)
Still, neat to see the mane grabbed from a crystal pony shatter.
Really, Zecora. I’d expect you to be more careful with spacetime. Even Starlight knows better.
Sugar Belle! They’re really going all out with the callbacks this episode. Which only highlights the sneeziversary issue.
I do like the others’ attempts at solving the mane issue, no pun intended. Especially Harry’s styling attempts and the brick joke with the one bird.
“She’s not a lemon. She’s our friend.” I just want to preserve that line for posterity.
Good to see the episode point out that it wasn’t Rarity’s sudden loss of beauty that made others treat her differently; it was her change in demeanor.
Okay, now that is what I call making it work.
Interesting note: In the opening had Rarity going the reciprocity route, offering advice to the various businesses around town then asking for work-intensive favors in return. In this montage, she’s paying those favors forward and asking for nothing in exchange.
And yes, Filthy, lavender is purple. Just ask the average story that involves Twilight. 
So… has Pinkie been scrubbing for literal days? Where have the Cakes been this whole time?
Hmm. I wonder what styles Rarity employed as her mane grew back. That’s one for the artists to consider.
Huh. Photo Finish is a lot stealthier than I thought. If nothing else, you’d think she’d spout “I HIDE!” at some point.
In all, there are a few dubious bits in this episode’s premise, but… well, they aren’t the main thing about it. It’s still an excellent look at Rarity’s highs and lows. Indeed, the resolution is such a celebration of her best attributes, I'd half-expected her to sprout wings by the end.
Now, take an honest look and tell me how bad these are:
Make It Work 1W
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast Make it Work, exile an artifact or enchantment card from your graveyard.
Return target artifact or enchantment card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Once Rarity accepted that she couldn’t restore her old look, she saw a way to craft an even more striking one.
Quest for Success 1W
Enchantment
Whenever you cast an Aura or Equipment spell, put a quest counter on Quest for Success. Then, if there are three or more quest counters on Quest for Success, remove all quest counters from it and transform it.
Fashion Empire
Land
T: Add W to your mana pool.
2W, T: Return target artifact or enchantment card from your graveyard to your hand.
”I started with a lease and a dream. Now I’m looking into expanding into other universes.”
—Rarity, Bearer of Generosity
Fleeting Trend 1WW
Instant
Choose target Aura attached to a creature. For each creature with the same controller as that creature that that Aura could enchant but doesn’t, create a token that’s a copy of that Aura attached to that creature. Exile those tokens at the beginning of the next end step.
Cohesive Twins 2W
Creature — Pegasus Unicorn
When Cohesive Twins dies, create a 1/1 blue Unicorn creature token and a 1/1 white Pegasus creature token with flying.
”Good thing they get along so well.”
—Pinkie Pie, Bearer of Laughter
2/2
Overflowing Locks 3WW
Sorcery
Each player returns all enchantment cards from his or her graveyard to his or her hand.
”And to think, not one strand of it in my color!”
—Rarity, Bearer of Generosity
Sales Boost U
Sorcery
Join forces — Starting with you, each player may pay any amount of mana. Then each player creates X colorless Treasure artifact tokens, where X is the total amount of mana paid this way. Those tokens have “T, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.”
Cloud Coiffure U
Enchantment — Aura
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2.
When enchanted creature attacks, sacrifice Cloud Coiffure.
”It looks great! Just, uh, don’t move.”
—Rainbow Dash, Bearer of Loyalty
Contagious Frizz 1U
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets -5/-0.
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under an opponent’s control, you may attach Contagious Frizz to that creature.
Material Transfer 1U
Instant
Choose one —
• Attach target Aura attached to a permanent to another permanent.
• Move all counters from target permanent onto another target permanent.
Sticky Celebration String 1U
Sorcery
Tap up to two target creatures. If you gained life this turn, those creatures don’t untap during their controllers’ next untap steps.
Forecast — 1W, Reveal Sticky Celebration String from your hand: You gain 2 life. (Activate this ability only during your upkeep and only once each turn.)
Extra Bounce 1UU
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and has “Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability for the first time each turn, counter that spell or ability.”
Timid Demeanor 2U
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature you control.
Enchanted creature has hexproof and skulk. (It can’t be blocked by creatures with greater power.)
“We wanted Fluttershy for this flavor text, but we couldn’t find her.”
—Pinkie Pie, Bearer of Laughter
Stealth Photographer 2U
Creature — Pony Rogue
Shroud (This creature can’t be the target of spells or abilities.)
Whenever another creature enters the battlefield, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.
Like any hunter, she lies in wait for the perfect moment to shoot.
0/2
Crossbreeze 3U
Instant
Return target nonland permanent to its owner’s hand.
Draw a card.
Mr. Breezy’s wares can all too easily go from refreshing to propelling.
Punk Chic 3B
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has deathtouch and menace.
”When ponies look at me, I don’t want them to even dare think the words ‘bad mane day.’”
—Rarity, Bearer of Generosity
Sulk 3B
Sorcery
You may exile a black card from your hand rather than pay Sulk’s mana cost.
Target player discards two cards.
Despair clouds the mind, eliminating all possibilities but more ice cream.
Chase Off R
Instant
Chase Off deals 1 damage to target creature. That creature can’t block this turn.
”If some slinking menace thinks it can get between me and proper mane care, it has another thing coming.”
—Rarity, Bearer of Generosity
Hidden Pack 1G
Enchantment
When a creature enters the battlefield under an opponent’s control, if that player controls more creatures than you and Hidden Pack is an enchantment, Hidden Pack becomes 5/4 Wolf creature that can block an additional creature each combat.
Pine Pompadour 3G
Enchantment — Aura
You may sacrifice a Forest rather than pay Pine Pompadour’s mana cost.
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each Forest you control.
Some cases of helmet hair are more extreme than others.
Ursine Stylist 4G
Creature — Bear
Whenever Ursine Stylist attacks, you may return target enchantment card from your graveyard to your hand.
His eye for detail is matched only by his taste for carnage.
3/4
Practical Crowbar 2
Artifact
Equipped creature gets +2/+0.
Whenever equipped creature blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, you may unattach target permanent attached to that creature.
Physicist tested, Pinkie approved.
Equip 2
Depilitate WB
Instant
Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn. Destroy all permanents attached to it.
The sound of ultimate suffering echoed through Ponyville.
Zecora’s Solvent X
(BG) Sorcery
Choose one —
• If B was spent to cast Zecora’s Solvent, destroy target creature with converted mana cost X.
• If G was spent to cast Zecora’s Solvent, destroy target noncreature permanent with converted mana cost X.
I loved this episode
Somehow I missed them. Good to know they're still around. This means that this episode definitely takes place after “The Perfect Pear.”
I suspect that was the writers' failed attempt at keeping the timeline vague. This timeline is starting to get as ridiculous as Once Upon a Time if you ask me, although at least MLP took more seasons to get noticeably silly. This is probably due to having animated characters that can be kept consistent as opposed to real live actors with changing hairstyles and weights.
The ending of this episode reminds me of a scene from the PBS movie “Anne of Avonlea.” Anne writes a story and submits it to a publisher, but they reject it. Diana asks if she can hold onto it and look it over. Unbeknownst to Anne, Diana enters the story in the Rolling's Reliable Baking Powder writing contest. Weeks later, random people come up to Anne and congratulate her. Anne has no idea what's going on until Diana explains that she entered Anne's story in the contest and it won first prize. At first Anne is disappointed because Diana overstepped her boundaries, and more importantly, Anne had higher aspirations than writing a baking powder ad. Then she decided to let it go because Diana meant well and thought she was doing something really nice for her.
This episode didn't have enough time for Rarity to go through all of these conflicting emotions, so she simply accepted what happened and everyone was happy. "Not the Mane Thing About You" feels like a season one or two episode in terms of its simple plot and somewhat slow pacing. That's not a bad thing, though. Sometimes it's nice to revisit simple times. And it was great to hear Zecora speaking again.
If I may import a catchphrase from another fandom, "the Time War made the timeline go all wibbly". The only thing that comes close to making sense about this timeline anymore is if we just say that Starlight Glimmer borked the time stream, and any chronology marker from before Season 5's finale is meaningless.
Don't tell Oliver.
Clearly the Cake twins were very late sneezers.
But WHO took the picture of Photo Finish!?
Nice way to mitigate the hybrid cost of Zecora's sorcery. I had to read it multiple times to make sure it didn't violate the color pie. Its sort of like pernicious deed and abrupt decay' cousin.
Have to wonder if Soulbonded creatures could be affected by the crowbar.
This was a really great, fun ep... but ye goddesses the timeline issues!
I'm getting more and more certain that Equestria is a Discworld. Not only does that explain so much, and fit so perfectly, but Discworld has two different types of years. One for a full passage of the seasons, and then one for a full rotation of the disc, which takes two passes of the seasons.
But yes, loved that it really was Rarity's change in attitude that made ponies act different not her looks.,
And I figure by the Pinkie thing, this was meant to all take place over a single day... I am also convinced an Equestrian 'day' is significantly longer then and Earth one.
Now that you mention it, I wonder if the Lavender/Purple was a subtle fandom nod?
It would actually be hilarious if Pony Rarity fronted the bits for Human Rarity to open up a professional boutique in exchange for partial ownership of the business or something. Interdimensional companies for the win.
That said, I feel like this was an episode of highs and lows. In terms of entertainment value and writing quality, this is probably my least favorite episode of the season. However, it does do something extremely important by addressing what I think is a critical issue: the ridiculously high standards of beauty we have for women these days. In the media, almost all women - especially models and celebrities - have perfect hourglass figures, which is an unreasonable expectation to impose on actual people. But any girl who watches this episode will realize that it doesn't matter how you look as long as you feel beautiful and have confidence. This is arguably the most relevant moral they could have used in an episode, and I wholeheartedly approve.
Also, Punk Rarity is amazing and I need a figure of her ASAP.
Huh. I hadn't noticed that. Interesting point, actually.
On another note, did Rarity's new look make anyone else think of the guitar solo she shredded out in "Honest Apple"? Seriously -- fashion designer, businessmare, hero of Equestria, amateur detective, rocker... is there anything this mare can't do?
Sulk, Zecora's Solvent, and Cloud Coiffure are my favorites, though I'm hesitant on Sales Boost in blue. Seems more like a mana ritual than an artifact angle.
Well, would you rather have hair grow inward from your lip (due to an accident in the spellcasting), where it would be concerning, but not life-threatening? Or hair growing inward from your scalp (due to an accident...again), penetrating your skull and piercing into your brain? (I read a manga involving that. "Tomie" or something.)
How many times does it need to be said that each season (with the possible exception of season three) is approximately nine months to a year? Not to mention the fact that unless Flurry Heart hasn't even been born yet in this episode, a LOT more than eleven months have passed since "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows".
And that "three-season crunch" thing is a myth, and one that needs to die. The first three seasons ARE NOT ONE SINGLE YEAR. I don't care what anybody THINKS Celestia says in the season four premiere, they're just not.
The writers do things like this without thinking and the fans decide "Oh, then this canonically means this much time passed since--" and no. JUST. NO.
Sorry, pet peeve.
"I SNEAK!"
Good day for green in the realm of FOME. Even if a 3/4 bear is utter blasphemy, it's still a fun card, and the Pine Pompadour he weaves is an amazing card I would hate to see in the hands of my brother-in-law.
4671060
I usually blame Discord and/or Star Swirl, but I won't say no to throwing Starlight on the pile of time wibblers.
4671068
Very late indeed. In both human and horse infants, the first sneeze is usually within hours if not minutes of birth.
4671086
I'm going to say either Pinkie Pie or Featherweight.
Also, emotional and spiritual bonds don't respond to crowbars. Though Granny Smith and Grand Pear might have been willing to try when their children were courting one another.
4671095
Strictly debunked. When Rarity returns to Zecora's, Zecora explicitly says she took the wrong potion yesterday, and Rarity says the shoot is tomorrow. No, Pinkie was scrubbing the shop for the better part of three days. At minimum.
As for the eight-season year model... Well, it'd certainly explain things.
4671111
And why stop at just one other instance of herself? Rarity Interdimensional, LLC may go on to be the first industry to be regulated by the ETSAB. No one else is equipped to handle it in its entirety.
4671119
Don't forget martial artist!
4671120
It could believably be blue or red. Blue gets more Treasure focus in Ixalan and is the color of harmonious Generosity, so I went for that.
4671154
I have a different hypothesis. It may find itself in Dueling Keyboards soon.
4671171
I agree, which is why I called it an alleged crunch. Still, we have to work with what we're given when trying to puzzle out what happened when.
4671225 Except that at the end, when the group confronts Rarity and snaps her out of her drama fugue, she says
So... wibbly wobbly.. timey whimey plot holes.
Unless the whole silly string thing took place really late, and by the time they got back from Zecora's it was to late to start cleaning up?
Any particular reason that Zecora's charm isn't X(bg) and destroys an appropriate thing "With converted mana cost equal to X+1"? Also, you should probably note that you get both effeects if you paid a B and a G in the cost like similar cards in the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block.
That's hilarious.
One mana 5/4 is broken as fucking shit.
Those are the only two that caught my attention.
4671338
Here's the thing: It doesn't do both. Note the "Choose one."
Why did I do it like this? Because sometimes it's really fun to make bizarre designs.
She did, obviously. But no one would be so rude as to notice. How uncouth.
EDIT: Okay, I don't use the embed feature enough, I guess. Anyone familiar with the movie probably knows what I am going for, but it's at 3:32 for the curious.
Holly Carp, dat punk Rarity. She's been flooding the drawfriend and I love it.
I would not put it even slightly past her.
Maybe it's like in Dresden Files, where it's okay to lose track of shorn facial hair but not cut scalp hair because of how the facial hair lacks the more intense magical connection to identity that scalp hair has?
Alternatively, the Pink One has no real concept of time and just makes it up as she goes along.
Liar!
So, who else wants to see cloud wigs be the pegasus equivalent of powdered wigs?
That is some great flavor text.
Dunno if I like Sales Boost. Seems like it'd be a way-too-quick win with that treasure alt-win card. (Y'know, provided you played the win after.) Perhaps change ot to gold tokens instead?
Missed an opportunity by not having Timid Demeanor's flavor text not come from Bucky, Flavor Text Writer.
Paging Dr. Freeman...
I enjoyed this episode. Rarity episodes never seem to disappoint. Thanks for the cards!
This episode was incredible fun, but it's just another point that the show does not care about timelines.
I really want to cast Fleeting Trend on Reality Acid!
Honestly, the continuity this past season has been atrocious, and this episode's approach to the timeline especially... but it's still not the worst one for it. That would be the finale. Which I won't elaborate on, in case you haven't seen it yet, but you'll know what I mean when you get to it.
4694508
I rather wish you hadn't even said that much. Still, I suppose it's better to go in knowing to expect some kind of temporal shenanigans. (I know Star Swirl is involved, so that really goes without saying.)
4694514
Well, sorry then. I'm not spoiler-sensitive myself, so I'm unsure where to draw the line sometimes.
That said, you may want to hurry and watch the leaked episodes, because we've got weeks to go until their official airing, and if I can spoil you by accident while trying to be vague, then the people who just don't care are going to have plenty of opportunity to get you. I know Derpibooru has good spoiler filters, but that's a feature that FimFic sorely lacks.