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[Sordid]

She had a cutie-mark breakdown, which is a monumentally well-established concept in every mane-cast pony.  When you fail to achieve your basic nature (Pinkie Pie's parties, Fluttershy's getting along with animals, etc etc) you go utterly fucking ballistic and rain hell on everything around you.  Luna's sine qua non was having her night appreciated.  Nobody appreciates her night.  Therefore, Luna goes berserk and /is not herself/.  It's a mental breakdown that all ponies are vulnerable to, except maybe our lovable blankflanks.

Again, clever. It didn't even occur to me this was her CM breakdown. I like this too.
And personally I'm really looking forward to the blankflanks' CM breakdowns. I hate those little twerps.

Just ask the common sense question: A girl is given two tickets to a formal ballroom dance. Who is the other ticket for? "A date" is the obvious answer.

Um, what part of "socially inept shut-in" did you not understand?

In any case, I think the implications of Celestia anticipating that Twilight might want to take a date (or perhaps, encourage her to) are hardly unfortunate. Taking a date to a dance isn't exactly creepy or sinister. Especially compared to stuff in any standard Disney princess story: Snow White was cursed by her (aunt?) to sleep forever until some guy comes along and kisses her in her sleep, she wakes up, he kills the aunt then marries her. What's the lesson here? Your family is out to get you, and marry the first guy who takes advantage of you while you're helpless and murders one of your relatives.

Yeah, I guess you have a point there. Personally I find it astonishing just how screwed up most children's stories actually turn out to be once you take a closer look at them.

[Jimmy]

Personally I find it astonishing just how screwed up most children's stories actually turn out to be once you take a closer look at them.

Heh, too true; go read some of the original children's fairy-tales for pure nightmare material. Did you know Hansel and Gretel's stepmother was, in one version I read, sealed inside a barrel with nails driven into the sides and rolled down a hill? Dwarven technology has a ways to catch up, sadly.

[Bohandas]

* Celestia gave Twilight two tickets to the gala, not to troll her because she knew she had 5 friends, but because she expected Twilight to bring a date, and sending two tickets was completely appropriate.

Possible, but then that would be a lapse in judgment on the part of the show's writers with some rather unfortunate implications, IMO. I mean, it's a cartoon for little girls, right? Typically, shows have protagonists that are the same age as the target audience, so... um...
But then again, I am an old, socially inept shut-in. When do girls start dating these days?

Twilight lives by herself (except for her familiar). "Studying friendship" is clearly a college blow-off class. It might even be a bit late for her to start dating.

[Sordid]

Heh, too true; go read some of the original children's fairy-tales for pure nightmare material. Did you know Hansel and Gretel's stepmother was, in one version I read, sealed inside a barrel with nails driven into the sides and rolled down a hill?

Holy Christ! Seriously? That's just fucked up.

* Celestia gave Twilight two tickets to the gala, not to troll her because she knew she had 5 friends, but because she expected Twilight to bring a date, and sending two tickets was completely appropriate.

Possible, but then that would be a lapse in judgment on the part of the show's writers with some rather unfortunate implications, IMO. I mean, it's a cartoon for little girls, right? Typically, shows have protagonists that are the same age as the target audience, so... um...
But then again, I am an old, socially inept shut-in. When do girls start dating these days?

Twilight lives by herself (except for her familiar). "Studying friendship" is clearly a college blow-off class. It might even be a bit late for her to start dating.

Huh. I suppose. I dunno, all of the mane cast have always struck me as rather childish.

[Dsarker]

I'm sorry, have you watched the first two episodes? Where exactly does it say she thinks she should stop reading it because it's too old? That is never stated or even implied as the reason. You're just making things up out of whole cloth.

"But you simply MUST get your head out of those dusty old books!"

Your evidence for the other thing is that there is no proof that X is Y, therefore X cannot be Y.

Wrong again. My reasoning is that there is no proof that X is Y, therefore there's no reason to think that X is Y. Not the same thing.

Right. We see Pinkie defying gravity. Therefore gravity doesn't exist?

[Sordid]

I'm sorry, have you watched the first two episodes? Where exactly does it say she thinks she should stop reading it because it's too old? That is never stated or even implied as the reason. You're just making things up out of whole cloth.

"But you simply MUST get your head out of those dusty old books!"

Yeah, because if she doesn't then she won't make any friends and won't be able to stop Luna. Do I really need to spell out everything?

Right. We see Pinkie defying gravity. Therefore gravity doesn't exist?

I don't recall the specific incident, but if she indeed defies gravity without any kind of aircraft or means of propulsion, then yeah, pretty much. The thing about gravity is that it sucks, all the time. You can't just decide to make it not apply to you, and if Pinkie is able to do that, then clearly Equestrian gravity works rather differently than ours.

[Dsarker]

Heh, too true; go read some of the original children's fairy-tales for pure nightmare material. Did you know Hansel and Gretel's stepmother was, in one version I read, sealed inside a barrel with nails driven into the sides and rolled down a hill?

Holy Christ! Seriously? That's just fucked up.

Let me just pull out my book of stories for children...


Ehud the left handed man.

Liberates a nation because he's left handed.


Right, so he takes the tribute to the king, and you'd better believe it's a lot. And this king is a right fatty. And he says to the king, "I've got a secret message to you!" and the king yells to his servants and guards to get the hell out. Then the leans close, and the guy pulls his sword from his right side, which is where you'd usually carry letters. But because he's left handed, he's got his sword on the other side. He draws his sword and stabs it into the king. He's really, really fat. He slides his sword in, and the fat rolls over the hilt of the sword and swallows it, and the guy leaves without being able to pull out the sword.

[Bohandas]

so now it's slavery and racism in this children's cartoon?

Racism is already established canon. Zecora is an outcast. Celestia and Luna rule. A racially based caste system has been heavily implied: Only earth ponies work in food service industries, for example.

Don't forget about the various comments that some of the characters have made about mules as well.

[Dsarker]

I'm sorry, have you watched the first two episodes? Where exactly does it say she thinks she should stop reading it because it's too old? That is never stated or even implied as the reason. You're just making things up out of whole cloth.

"But you simply MUST get your head out of those dusty old books!"

Yeah, because if she doesn't then she won't make any friends and won't be able to stop Luna. Do I really need to spell out everything?

Right. Because, you know, Celestia wasn't able to do it the last tim-Oh, wait.

Right. We see Pinkie defying gravity. Therefore gravity doesn't exist?

I don't recall the specific incident, but if she indeed defies gravity without any kind of aircraft or means of propulsion, then yeah, pretty much. The thing about gravity is that it sucks, all the time. You can't just decide to make it not apply to you, and if Pinkie is able to do that, then clearly Equestrian gravity works rather differently than ours.

First two episodes. Remember her song?

[alexwazer]

I assert that:

 * Celestia gave Twilight two tickets to the gala, not to troll her because she knew she had 5 friends, but because she expected Twilight to bring a date, and sending two tickets was completely appropriate.

I completely disagree on this one. Clearly, the second ticket was meant for Spike. The letter sent by Twilight with the 2 tickets didn't mention a word about him, but Celestia still sent him a ticket. She knew that wherever Twilight goes, Spike goes; which is probably a very common occurance with baby dragon hatched by unicorns. Unless you prefer to think that Celestia read his mind or trolled him because he was pretending that he did not want to go.

[Sordid]

Right. Because, you know, Celestia wasn't able to do it the last tim-Oh, wait.

So I guess you missed the bit where Celestia says she's no longer able to use the Elements. I guess you should pay more attention when watching the show.

First two episodes. Remember her song?

Yes. What about it?

[Bohandas]

totalitarian vibes from Celestia
let's not forget, shall we, that it's only Twilight who's had any real contact with her and knows her.

Unfortuantely yes, and this episode changed Twilight's character, probably irrecoverably. Previously she's expressed fear and concern for pleasing Celestia that is unjustified by anything Celestia has ever done. Until now.

Think about it: it was always cute watching Twilight overreact about every little detail trying to make Celestia happy, despite her being completely benign and gentle.  But now, Celestia's demonstrated that she can and will at any time magically appear in a ball of light over Twilight's head and start talking about punishment.

That effectively retcons all of Twilight cute, paranoid "overreactions" like in the parasprite episode, to the implication now that there's probably some history there. Twilight might have very good reason to fear the princess and go to paranoid lengths to insure that everything is perfect. Or else.

That's not a good change.

Yeah, and then it'll turn into something more like one of the parody videos, like this, and this, and of course this

EDIT: Also This

[Dsarker]

Right. Because, you know, Celestia wasn't able to do it the last tim-Oh, wait.

So I guess you missed the bit where Celestia says she's no longer able to use the Elements. I guess you should pay more attention when watching the show.

She never says that in the first season, and in the second season, this is AFTER the mane 6 have 'acquired' them.

First two episodes. Remember her song?

Yes. What about it?

She defies gravity, hovering in the air.

[Crazy Cow]

Guys, guys, guys...
I just figured out how to troll Bay12, by the way. Draw out an argument as long as possible.
:p

Really. Neither side has sufficient evidence to sway the other, so give it up and wait for new evidence to show up in the show. Also, any argument that provides Pinkie Pie as evidence is automatically void. She's Pinkie Pie :p

[LordBucket]

I don't recall the specific incident, but if she indeed defies gravity without any kind of aircraft or means of propulsion, then yeah, pretty much. The thing about gravity is that it sucks, all the time. You can't just decide to make it not apply to you, and if Pinkie is able to do that, then clearly Equestrian gravity works rather differently than ours.

Pinkie routinely hold herself stationary in the air for several seconds at a time by suspending herself on the edge of the screen. For example, during Giggle at  the Ghostie at :22 :25 :56 1:02 1:04 and 1:09. She rotuinely demonstrates both Medium Awareness as well as the ability to interact with the medium.

Pinkie also routinely demonstrates other apparent physics-defying feats: Offscreen Teleportation, eating significant fractions of her boldy volume within a few video frames, Hammerspace, etc. And like mentioned just a few pages ago, Pinkie apparently has Hammerspace access to technology that doesn't otherwise exist in the verse, such as her bicycle/helicopter.

For a recent example, watch the picnic scene of season 2 episode 3 from approximately 12:54 to 13:00. Pinkie is on her back on the ground laughing, Twilight turns her head, and Pinkie is standing on the far side of the picnic blanket. These are not animation errors. Pinkie does stuff like this all the time, and some of is so subtle that I've occassionally noticed Pinkie Pie fourth wall events only because I was freezeframe pausing the video to get a screen capture. For example, in season 2 episode 1, when Discord takes Twilight back in time in a visibly distorted apparently invisible state, Pinkie Pie looks directly at them as soon as they arrive, blinks, and then looks forward along with everyone else. Pinkie saw Discord and Twilight, reacted to them, but chose to ignore them and not inform anypony else of their presence.

There are many theories to explain this, but I don't think blaming it on Equestrian physics is the answer.

You can't just decide to make it not apply to you

As I've mentioned previously, my personal theory is that Celestia is an ascended spiritual being who's created the MLP universe to give her unascended pet Twilight Sparkle a world and physical body to play in. The whole thing is a charade for Twilight's personal benefit. Some of the characters, like Pinkie Pie and Discord, are also ascended beings like Celestia, probably friends of hers, and they play along with the charade because it's fun. They're not bound by physical law anymore than an actor on a stage is bound by the legal fictions of a script they're reading. Other ponies are generally either conscious entities similar to Twilight, or artificial constructs created by Celestia to populate the world.

Probably not what the writers intended. But it does explain just about everything that's happened in the show.