Friendship is Card Games: Horse Play · 11:45am Apr 29th, 2018
She governs one of the most powerful nations in the world. She ensures the continued survival of the entire planet. She has thwarted some of the greatest mages and monstrosities in the world.
But can she act?
The ones-versary is very interesting. It concretizes the timeline in a way and to a scale unprecedented on the show: 1,111 years since Celestia’s first sunrise means that Luna went a bit over a century between that point and succumbing to Nightmare. It means a hundred-year window for all of the other “a thousand years ago” events to occur, and as a result may cap Discord’s reign unless we go with the “No one knows how long it’s been, so let’s pick up where we left off” approach. It means that most if not all still-intact fan fiction timelines just got blown out of the water. Such is the life of a fan author.
Giddy Prancelestia is a thing of beauty and joy. Bizarre, disconcerting beauty and joy, but beauty and joy nonetheless.
Good to know that Celestia did have friends as a filly, though I do have to wonder how many were social climbers and how many liked her for her. Also, this apparent love of theater puts a new spin on her casting the Mane Six in the Hearth’s Warming play back in Season 2. Celestia likely did intend it as another, subtler reward to the saviors of the world.
I wonder what surprised Spike more: Twilight’s spontaneous decision to cast Celestia as herself, or the fact that Twilight actually made a spontaneous decision outside of a life-or-death situation.
It’s funny. Twilight’s motivation in her decision is trying to treat Celestia as a friend rather than a princess, but that won’t do anything to lessen the fact that she’ll still see her as Princess Celestia rather than just Celestia, her taller-than-average friend.
I did like the “over the shoulder” gag.
Over eleven hundred years of life and Tia’s never acted once? I suppose she was doing the work of two princesses for the vast majority of it.
Another bit of Apple family profanity for the file: “Wormy apple cores.”
I really like Fluttershy’s attitude towards performing. Nothing reality can throw at her can compare to the horrors in her own mind, and she’s been coping with those for years.
Also, between Fluttershy overcoming stage fright, Rarity providing costumes, and AJ building sets, we have some more pony-human parallels.
I hope those costumes are period-accurate, because they are clearly not Rarity’s best work.
Casual rainboom as Dash ascends. (No, not that kind of ascension.) Yeah, we saw her do that at Cadence and Shining Armor’s wedding, but it’s a weird blend of disappointing and amusing to see how the speed barrier is barely even a suggestion for her anymore. It’s become her answer to Super Saiyan, the legendary become commonplace.
Starlight’s “not all princesses are created equal” comment (heh) does make some sense. She hasn’t been there for Celestia’s attempts at more casual time spent with Twilight and company; that sort of thing happened more in the earlier seasons… with the notable exception of “A Royal Problem.” I suppose having the fear of Daybreaker put in her will make her a bit more cautious around Sunhorse.
Directed and produced by Twilight? Then what’s Spike doing?
Oh. Of course. Number one assistant director. 
Nice use of the Student Six. I wonder if they’re getting extra credit for this. Also interesting to see continuity with the Journal of the Two Sisters… especially since that doesn’t play well with “Shadow Play.”
Also also, some interesting notes on those costumes, as seen here:
• Smolder has a wheel in the back of her costume to account for the whole “biped” thing. Presumably there’s some more construction back there to fill out the costume’s hindquarters.
• Gallus is the only one who has to wear hoof booties despite being far from the only one with talons. Odd.
• Between the color and the cutie mark, Yona might be dressed as Clover the Clever… though given the burnout caused by raising the sun, that raises further questions.
I wonder if Twilight tried to cast Star Swirl as himself. That couldn’t have gone well.
And so we hit the central issue: Celestia cannot act. At all. Which is weird, because you’d think she’d have some of the requisite tools at her command. Between ceremonies, speeches, pranks, and so forth, she has experience with choreography, projection, presenting a false face, and other acting fundamentals. Of course, that complete lack of acting experience can mean that she doesn’t know what she needs to bring to bear to get the job done here. Another possibility, presented to me secondhand by Loganberry, is that Celestia internalized those maneuvers in a political context long ago. Now she finds herself thinking about them, and the Centipede Dilemma is kicking in.
Heh. Well, that is what the Royal Canterlot Voice is for.
Oh crap, CelestAI’s voice modulation bugged out for a bit there. That can’t be a good sign for this shard.
While Twilight setting herself up for failure is frustrating to watch, at least the episode acknowledges that she’s doing so. Between Applejack’s chastisement and Twilight’s own hesitance and acknowledgement that she’s picking what even she sees as the greater of two evils, no one pretends that this is a good idea. She even tries to walk the middle ground between blunt honesty and baldfaced lying as smoothly as she can with the acting lessons.
I was not expecting to see members of the Method Mares again, but I suppose if you need a drama coach for the Actress Formerly Known as Princess, Raspberry Beret is a thoroughly suitable choice.
Interesting to see that the stage is a natural cavern in the slopes below the School of Friendship. It’s a convenient bit of set work, allowing for similar unseen outbuildings later should the need arise. Still, smoothing the thing out ahead of time would’ve been advisable.
Hmm. Thinking about it, especially as we see Celestia struggle with the acting exercises, this could be a case of sisterly distinctiveness: Luna’s the imaginative one. There’s a reason she’s the dream therapist.
That or Celestia is fully aware of how terrible she was during the rehearsal and is seeing if Twilight will ever dare to say a bad word about her. Or a little of both.
So, did Pinkie make the spontaneously combusting marshmallow herself?
Trixie as a back alley fireworks vendor? Sounds about right. And reminiscent of the Infinite Loops. She should talk with Dash’s parents; they could make some incredible pyrotechnics together.
Celestia’s reaction to the inevitable reveal does seem to support that at least some degree of this was a test for Twilight. After all, it’s the deception, not her own lack of skill, that upsets her.
Yes, Applejack, stall. That worked so well for you in the Crystal Empire.
… or make Spike do it. They owe that dragon big time.
The conversation between Twilight and Celestia was beautiful, both visually and emotionally. Always nice to see these two interact. Celestia is, has been, and likely will continue to be Twilight’s blind spot, but they made steps to address the problem here.
Yes, Celestia, I suppose you do know how to deal with disasters, if “throw Twilight at the problem” counts as dealing with it.
In all seriousness, this was one of Celestia’s best moments in the entire show. We finally get to see her lead. In the show.
Huh. Neat callback to “Testing Testing 1-2-3.” And another costume for Fluttershy.
Given how Celestia is able to apply the acting lessons in the resolution, it seems like she has a much easier time doing things for the benefit of others than for herself. (Except pranks, anyway. Indeed, one might read this whole exercise as Celestia trying to dismantle Twilight’s pedestal for her.)
Oh, I see how it is, Celestia. You won’t move the sun for your student’s first Friendship Festival, but a play about you, sure that’s an acceptable reason.
I kid, I kid. (Though I do love how Luna is terribly put off by these unscheduled solar shenanigans.) This was fantastic stuff. The world building introduces some fairly major chronological ripples, but it’s the characterization where things really shine. Not just Celestia, but also the Mane Six doing Mane Six things in the background. Great stuff, even if seeing Twilight trot down a road paved with her own good intentions got a bit exasperating at times.
Now, time for Act Two:
Unicornian Sunraiser 1W
Creature — Unicorn Wizard
T: Untap target creature.
Put a -1/-1 counter on Unicornian Sunraiser: Untap Unicornian Sunraiser.
”We mortals were never meant to be so close to the heavens for so long.”
—Queen Platinum
1/2
Celestia’s Glee 2W
Instant
Target creature gets +2/+2 and gains lifelink until end of turn.
Flashback 3WW (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
Beneath the centuries of plotting and maneuvering lies an innocent filly waiting to frolic again.
Upbraid 2W
Instant
Upbraid deals 3 damage to target attacking or blocking creature.
Retrace (You may cast this spell from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)
“Keep being foolish and I’ll keep telling you you are.”
—Applejack, Bearer of Honesty
Solar Shout 3WW
Sorcery
Destroy target creature with the greatest power among creatures its controller controls. Tap all other creatures that player controls.
Celestia’s Royal Canterlot Voice is the auditory equivalent of staring at the sun.
Celestia’s First Sunrise 4W
Legendary Sorcery
(You may cast a legendary sorcery only if you control a legendary creature or planeswalker.)
Untap all creatures you control. They get +1/+1 and gain lifelink, vigilance, and indestructible until your next turn.
Centuries ago, one filly saved a world from eternal darkness.
Avatar of the Diarchy 5WWW
Creature — Avatar
When Avatar of the Diarchy enters the battlefield, you become the monarch.
Avatar of the Diarchy can’t attack unless defending player is the monarch.
It is an expression of Equestria itself, using its devastating strength only to retaliate against those who threaten it.
11/11
Spreading Gossip 2U
Sorcery
Choose a color. Each player draws a card for each creature of the chosen color they control, then discards a card for each card they drew this way.
The only thing that moves faster than Rainbow Dash is a juicy rumor.
Equestrian Thespian 4U
Creature — Pony Citizen
Improvise (Your artifacts can help cast this spell. Each artifact you tap after you’re done activating mana abilities pays for 1.)
You may have Equestrian Thespian enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield.
Many a novel pony technology has made its debut on stage.
0/0
Coerced Outburst 1B
Sorcery
Buyback 2B (You may pay an additional 2B as you cast this spell. If you do, put this card into your hand as it resolves.)
Target player discards a card. If that player can’t, Coerced Outburst deals 3 damage to them.
Problem after problem wore at Twilight’s sanity until she screamed.
Coring Worm 1B
Creature — Worm
Whenever Coring Worm blocks or becomes blocked by a Plant or Treefolk, Coring Worm gains deathtouch until end of turn.
”Nasty things. Teeth that chew through wood ain’t much kinder to ponies.”
—Applejack, Bearer of Honesty
2/2
Snuff Hope 1B
Instant
Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn. If that creature is green or white, it gets -4/-4 until end of turn instead.
The brighter the promise, the darker its breaking.
Abdicate 2B
Sorcery
Target opponent sacrifices a legendary creature and a nonlegendary creature.
”If another could take my place… Well, an old mare can dream.”
—Princess Celestia
Ember’s Jester 1R
Creature — Dragon Rogue
1R, T: Goad target creature an opponent controls. (Until your next turn, that creature attacks each combat if able and attacks a player other than you if able.)
“I can’t expect ponies to understand the sophistication of dragon humor.”
—Dragonlord Ember
1/1
Great and Powerful Burst 2R
Sorcery
Great and Powerful Burst deals X damage to each creature target player controls, where X is 1 plus the number of cards named Great and Powerful Burst in all graveyards.
As bombastic as Trixie’s ego.
Overcompensate 2R
Instant
Target attacking creature gets +X/+X and gains trample until end of turn, where X is the greatest power among creatures defending player controls.
”Still not as bad as my first few attempts at legislature.”
—Princess Celestia
Rioting Audience 2R
Creature — Pony Citizen
At the beginning of each opponent’s end step, if that player didn’t cast a spell this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on Rioting Audience.
Ponies are easily entertained, easily bored, and easily whipped into a violent frenzy.
2/2
Spur of the Moment 2R
Sorcery
Target opponent may have you draw two cards. If that player doesn’t, put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard, then Spur of the Moment deals damage to that player equal to the total converted mana cost of those cards.
Disastrous Mishap 3R
Sorcery
Target player sacrifices an artifact. Disastrous Mishap deals 2 damage to each creature that player controls.
”I have never related to Celestia as much as I do now.”
—Ditzy Doo
Honest Advisor 2G
Creature — Pony Advisor
Play with your hand revealed.
Honest Advisor’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.
”You can tell ponies the truth all you like, but that won’t make them listen to it.”
—Applejack, Bearer of Honesty
*/*
Big Bertha 5
Legendary Artifact
4, T: Big Bertha deals X damage to any target, where X is the number of artifacts you control.
”I only use her for the specialest of special occasions.”
—Pinkie Pie, Bearer of Laughter
Sugarblaze RW
Instant
Lifelink
Radiance — Sugarblaze deals 1 damage to target creature and each other creature that shares a color with it.
Sickly-sweet justice rains from above.
Wooden Delivery GU
Instant
Counter target spell. That spell’s controller creates a 2/2 green Treefolk creature token.
Ungula leads the Multiverse in pun-based magic.
I feel like you missed a golden opportunity to make a saga for this one. That said, I haven't seen the episode, so I don't know how it would end up working.
4849865
It was a tossup between a Saga and a legendary sorcery. Given how the play seems to focus on a single key moment in Equestria's history that readily lent itself to the "Name's Adjectival Action" naming convention, the latter felt more appropriate. That, and I haven't done a legendary sorcery yet.
Hmmm, some great points here. For one, yeah I can go with "Discord just bucked everything up so bad they stopped trying to count time" bit. Hell, if one wants to really stretch things, could go with nothing before his rule has a clear timeframe anymore, so everything restarts after, including the count. Given even Tia was rather "It is? Well okay." about the timing. Luna being more creative and imaginative, can fully get behind, and betting if she were in the play she'd be overacting and hamming it up in glorious fashion.
As to Tia not being a good actor, I'd say it's because she's trying to hard to 'act', versus knowing to use the skills she does have that work much the same.
Also crisis-management pro Celestia was amazing, and shows that yeah, she's in charge for a reason. Sure she's not the one who defeats the bad guys, but what ruler really is? Thinking that should be the case is just ridiculous. Where she excels is in implementing Maxim 63: "The brass knows how to do it, by knowing who can do it." She's amazing at knowing where a ponies strengths and weakness are, and what they can do, and getting the right pony in the right job to get things done.
Yeah, I get the feeling that Celestia's tripped up by being on a stage and deliberately acting in a play, instead of, you know, playing the international politics at some summit or something.
And between Twilight and Celestia, it's always a possibility that things turn into a teachable moment, even if it wasn't intended as such from the start. Either because Celly decides to see how Twilight deals with things, or Twi deciding on her own that this must be a Test, and going all hyperstudent again.
while it was overall a great episode for characterization, I feel like it really came at the expense of ponk. like she seriously had the idiot ball this time around.
I've only seen it once yet, and I have... very mixed feelings. There is so much in here that I should love, but... it's all packed into a plot about being publicly humiliated over and over again
The part of the play that talked about the unicorns raising the Sun as some serious implications the more I think about it. It wasn't simply that five unicorns per day were losing their power -- the dialogue specifically describes it as taking "five great sorcerers plus Starswirl the Bearded to do it". Since Starswirl was the only one not to be permanently sucked dry, because he's evidently just that awesome, this meant that the old unicorns were going through their best, brightest and most powerful at a rate of five per day -- perhaps even ten per day, if setting the Sun and raising the Moon was as difficult as handling the sunrise.
Considering that the time to wait for new powerful sorcerers to be born, grow up and be trained in magic enough to considered "great" must necessarily take a lot longer than a day, this could not possibly have been a stable state of affairs or gone on for very long. Depending on the number of unicorns before the fact and assuming that they could have started using a larger number of less powerful unicorns after they had drained all the powerful ones, I give it a year -- two at the most, and even that seems a strain -- that this arrangement could have lasted.
Now this begs even more questions: if the unicorns couldn't manage this for very long, how was this done before them? Was someone doing this before them? Were the Sun and Moon self-managing originally, but something caused them to lose their ability to look after themselves and require deliberate control of their orbits? Was someone else handling the raising and setting of the celestial bodies but become unable to do so for some reason?
4849890
I really like this analysis of Celestia, I have to say.
4849956 Well, since this is mostly based off the Journal of the Two Sisters, it wasn't a case of they burnt out each time, losing several per day, but an overtime thing that they would eventually burn out their magic. Starswirl being the exception just due to how OP he was, to the point he managed to actually move the Sun all day on his own once, and that was what caused him to go grey.
But still, does beg the question of what was going on before ponies took over.
You know, that's a very good point. Never thought of that, and now I see their relationship differently
4849976
Hmm. I wasn't aware of that specific detail -- no surprise, I've never read the physical Journal myself -- but that does sound more reasonable. Still, even if the wizards were burning themselves out over an extended period of time rather than all at once, it doesn't seem like a very sustainable arrangement to me. It definitely extends how long they could keep things up, perhaps indefinitely so if they had time to train replacements by the time the previous team was drained, but at the same time there's still the issue that the most powerful and skilled magic users of the unicorn nation were a) permanently removing their ability to use magic, and consequently b) relegated to this specific task that prevented them from using their magic for anything else -- because if they did, then there wouldn't be a day-night cycle anymore.
A workable solution if you have no other option or are simply hoping to buy time until something better comes up, but it still seems inefficient and wasteful of a very limited resource. No wonder the alicorns manage the celestial bodies nowadays.
Spur of the Moment is glorious, and Honest Advisor uses one of my favorite green drawbacks.
And yeah, a century is a crazy short time to rule. At best, I can figure it was an extreme monsterfightan century, coupled with the first generation of friends dying off, plus peace that caused NMM, but it still puts sunbutt way ahead of the experience and knowledge game.
I haven't watched this episode yet, but it sounds good. Although the time frame does offer a narrow window for Discord to have taken over Equestria. OTOH, maybe Starlight's meddling messed up the time stream.
Aaaand, my take-away from this episode is that Twi is even more messed up about Celestia than we know, and it's a wonder we haven't had more Lesson Zero type episodes. Pathological behavior is something that doesn't improve by "learning lessons."
4849956
4849976
Right now, I'm going with the idea that it was working fine on it's own until Discord broke it. The narrow timeframe needed between the panicked "OMG, we've got to magic the heck out of this!" first reaction, and Celestia taking over, would also explain why there were still any unicorns capable of doing magic left in the kingdom.
4850130 Except that doens't match the time frame, since Unicorns were doing it looong before Equestria, when it was just the three tribes. It was what the unicorns had to hold over the other two to exchange goods and services with. So if it was Discord, what was he doing all that time till he showed up?
4849916
Right. Pinkie was the one with the idiot ball this episode.
4850069
On the plus side, it explains some of the haughtier elements of unicorn culture that persist into the modern day. You have a part of the population that is trained from birth to make an enormous personal sacrifice for the benefit of the whole tribe and indeed all ponykind, after which they will have to have their every need seen to by others. This is a fertile breeding ground both self-regard and entitlement, no? And the latter can persist after the reasons for them have disappeared; this can be seen time and again in history - for example, no one carries a sword anymore, but we still shake with the right hand to show that we aren't about to use one.
4850137
Good point. Unfortunately, that means there is no way any unicorns could have survived with their magic intact. At a rate of ten per day, their population would have to have been ridiculously huge by medieval standards to survive more than a few years. And that's assuming that any old unicorn would do, not just the most powerful magic users, as stated in the play.
It's almost as if (*gasp*) the writers just don't give a sh!t about logic and continuity and are just throwing carp at the wall! (Say it ain't so!
)
4849976
I went back and checked the transcript, and "Horse Play" does specifically say that it was five unicorns burnt out daily:
That plus Fluttershy saying that this would cost Equestria all its wizards in short order does make it seem like a temporary way to try and hold things together more than a long-time tradition.
4850137 4850163 4850174
(Of course, it could be that the equine mind cannot conceive of a work of theater that isn't a musical to one degree or another.)
I'm willing to say Twilight exaggerated the situation for the sake of drama and expediency if you are. After all, she wrote the play, which means that she's the one who thought a musical dance number for Star Swirl and the drained archmages was entirely reasonable. That puts all kinds of things in doubt if you ask me.
4850212
Well, both unambiguous looks we've had into the period where the unicorns actively raised the sun and moon are in the form of theatrical productions, so in-universe inaccuracies and dramatizations can certainly be at play. And I wouldn't put it past Twilight to subconsciously... nudge... her account of the historical record to make Celestia's big moment more impressive.
(Not that she'd consciously and deliberately skew things, but her urge to idolize Celestia might creep in when she's not looking, so to speak, and perhaps affect how she absorbs her history readings.)
Wish I had time to comment on this, but I will say that it's probably the most interesting follow-up I've read of this episode.
4850174 What Fan said, this isn't a pure, fully accurate, no way it could be wrong presentation of facts, it's a school play written over a millennium after the fact. Hell, just look at the summerization and simplification of events that happens in school plays about things that were only a century or two ago and didn't have a period of the entire world being the plaything for a Chaos God for a time to mess up details in between.
Plus that idea just does not stack up to other facts as we've seen them. So yeah, bit of dramatic license at work.
4850254
Having seen bits of Hamilton recently... yeah, this.
The Sonic Rainboom made sense because everybody was illustrated as being hyped/freaking the hell out that Celestia was coming.
TheworstI could say about this episode was how far they took it with the workshop ponies. But it still had me laughing, AND I looked up and learned about antidisestablishmentarianism! And then disestablishmentarianism! And establishmentarianism!
They still made a good point about how having the eyes and attention of thousands doesn't mean you're cut out for a certain kind of production. Other wise we'd have more recording artists acting.
camo.derpicdn.net/3c89186965c5f65fe16b8a359f2060034e0cf005?url=https%3A%2F%2Fvignette.wikia.nocookie.net%2Frihanna%2Fimages%2F2%2F26%2FBattleship-poster-rihanna.jpg%2Frevision%2Flatest%2Fscale-to-width-down%2F360%3Fcb%3D20120417063404
And more politicians hitting the stage.
Also got to give props to how it handled everyone outside Twilight and Celestia. Every few seconds is telling you something about at least one character. Like how people don't feel the same royal obligations to Twilight, or how Fluttershy was completely locked up in a fetal position after the fireworks exploded. Heck, Trixie isn't even on screen, but just from how that explosion ends, it still tells you every thing you need to know about her. This one is worth rewatching and pausing.
4850331
Rightly. What has she ever done to deserve deference?
Is that... Is that a reference to Muscle Burst I see?
Also, Wooden Delivery is a beautiful card. Especially the flavor text.
I was about to mention Xanth as competition, but then I remembered that it wasn't the magic that was pun-based but the whole world...