#mylittlepony - #Analyzing Lessons - What Twilight Was Fighting For After One Season

Analyzing Lessons - What Twilight Was Fighting For After One Season

Return of Harmony

We've learned that friendship isn't always easy. But there's no doubt it's worth fighting for.

Twilight learns this lesson when reading some of the friendship letters she wrote in season one.

So what did Twilight, and the mane 6 overall, get out of their connections? What were their reasons for coming to one another throughout the first season?

There are many, of course. And I'm gonna look at, well, all of them. Every thing that any of the mane 6 are fighting for from their first season of being a group of six friends.

First up;

Safety in numbers:

Banding together in the Pilot episode, Dragonshy, Bridle Gossip and Swarm of the Century. This is the most basic and primal herd response of them all. A more specific extension being:

Looking out for one another:

It's the very initial moment that lit the spark of friendship in Twilight's eyes, when Applejack and the others re-united her while facing Nightmare moon. It's everyone looking out for Fluttershy in the third act of Feeling Pinkie Keen, Rainbow Dash in Sonic Rainboom and Rarity in Dog and Pony Show. And Pinkie making sure Twilight keeps a secret in Green Isn't Your Color.

Next, there's the more social, and emotional reasons like;

Someone to talk to/share experience with:

Pinkie Pie looking to share her problems with Twilight in Griffon The Brush Off, even if at that point Twilight didn't really listen. Or Twilight, AJ and Rarity playing games and enjoying company in Look Before You Sleep. Sharing new pets in Swarm of the Century, watching shooting stars in Owl's Well that End's Well, venting frustrations around the hot tub in Green Isn't Your Color and sharing disappointment in Best Night Ever.

Then there are the more specific inter-personal acts like;

Favors/gratitude (Usually lending skills/services/possessions or helping out with their work):

The first act of friendship from Twilight after being assigned to her studies is helping Applejack with the harvest in the beginning of Ticket Master. After that she's a score keeper in Fall Weather Friends, and helps with Winter Wrap-up and later in the season goes to Fluttershy's house in A Bird in the Hoof just to express gratitude then helps with Celestia's bird. Rarity may be the first to return Twilight's help by not only fixing her old dress in Suited For Success, but making dresses for everypony. It actually takes until Sonic Rainboom until we see the rest of the mane 6 helping Twilight in return, when they're helping to clean up her library. Fluttershy gives Rainbow Dash more one-on-one support in that episode, and helps Rarity in both Stare Master by babysitting and Green Isn't Your Color by doing the fashion shoot. The latter episode also sees Pinkie Pie famously looking out for her friends secrets.

We see Applejack helping everyone and them helping her in return in Applebuck Season, and Applejack lending apples, and a Harmonica, in Swarm of the Century. There's an interesting closeness between AJ and Twilight early on. AJ is the first to declare she's sticking by Twilight going into the Everfree forest, the one to yell the battle cry that let Twilight know they were coming when she was facing Nightmare Moon and, being the honest one, the first to admit to and acknowledge over-burdening Twilight at the end of Ticket Master.

This seems to be the thing by which the show defines friendship, it's how friendships are started, from Ember to Thorax.

The last real category is the one thing many people look to in order to find new friends and unite with others;

Common interest:

Pranking in Griffon The Brush Off, Applejack helping Rainbow Dash with a stunt in Applebuck Season (At least I assumed AJ thought it was cool too), and the two of them competing in Fall Weather Friends. The fashion show in Suited For Success, the gala in Best Night Ever, there's even the more idle common interest of the sleepover games at the end of Look Before You Sleep.

Even their common interest in the gala tickets in Ticket Master brought them together, if divisively.

Common interest comes up repeatedly, but a lot of the time just seems to put the mane 6 in the same vicinity as often as it creates bonding. In the show, it doesn't seem to be the pillar of bonding that many, including myself, have instinctively held it up to be.

In fact, a lot of times it can resemble another category of bringing ponies or people into the same area;

Happenstance/familiarity:

Them all running into each other in Ticket Master, gathering at Trixie's show in Boast Busters, caught in the rain together in Look Before You Sleep, etc. Feeling Pinkie Keen, Cutie Mark Chronicles and other episodes all have them kinda gathering together for either plot convenience, or just because they know each other (i.e. watching Trixie's show together instead of being in separate spots iudn the audience).

Finally, there is the Unexplained:. All of them going together in Over a Barrel, for example.

Lastly, I want to point out the episodes with dinners/picnics/parties: Ticket Master, Griffon the Brush Off, Bird in the Hoof, Party of One.

That said, as Twilight reads the letters and flashes back, many of the bonding moments take place after the conflict of the episode, obviously, since she's remembering the episode's conclusions. She's remembering sharing drinks at the end of Applebuck Season, walking back after Dog and Pony Show, sitting in the hot tub after Green Isn't Your Color and Bridle Gossip. A number of episodes would've ended in off-screen bonding like walking back from the mountain together after Dragonshy, tea with Fluttershy after Stare Master, or them all going to dinner at the end of Ticket Master.

Here's what there was friendship-wise between each member of the mane 6 and the rest of the ensemble by the end of season 1';

Twilight

Helping her in the pilot episode (and subsequent Equestria-threatening events)

They helped Twilight clean up the library in Sonic Rainboom

Rarity helped Twilight in Suited For Success

I actually don't recall much Twilight help in the first season other than those big moments. Twilight usually did most of the helping, from trying to set Applejack straight, to helping organize the festival in Swarm of the Century.

Fluttershy

Twilight was an ear to her in Green Isn't your Color

Rarity has spa dates with her

Twilight stopped by her cottage in Bird in the Hoof to show gratitude to her and helped with the bird situation

Pinkie made her sure Twilight kept her secret in Green Isn't Your Color

Rainbow Dash

Other's gave her moral support in Sonic Rainboom

AJ plays sports with her

AJ was supposed to help her with a stunt (but was exhausted)

Pinkie plays pranks with her

Pinkie Pie

RD plays pranks with her

AJ was to help her bake (but was exhausted)

AJ lent Pinkie apples and a harmonica in Swarm of the Century

Rarity

Fluttershy helped her in Stare Master

Twilight and Pinkie helped with the photo shoot in Green Isn't Your Color

Fluttershy helped her in Green Isn't Your Color

Twi had a sleepover with her and AJ

They all came to try to rescue her from Diamond Dogs

Pinkie made sure Twilight kept her secret in Green Isn't Your Color

Applejack

Twilight helps Applejack in the beginning of Ticket Master and they all help her out at the end of Applebuck Season

Twilight offers shelter and a sleepover and she and Rarity have fun together in Look Before You Sleep.

Rainbow Dash plays sports and practices stunts with her

They also all come together to save each other's flanks and save Equestria together, making them more like a "band of brothers" in the army than acquaintances.

Last week, /u/TheKnackerman suggested I make these write-ups more open ended . . . and I'm not sure how to do that.

. . . uh . . .

. . . Discuss?

Submitted July 04, 2019 at 07:07AM by Crocoshark
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