A Friend in Deed

Dear Princess Luna...

If memory serves, this episode was mentioned as containing Daring Do's only other appearance so far, so if you've read the previous post, you can probably guess why I picked this next. =]

Also, greetings to our Russian viewers! I don't know why you far outnumber any other country's, but hey, nothing wrong with Russians. =]

So, looks like another Pinkie Pie focused episode. There's some continuity here, as Pinkie is back at the Cake's, entertaining the Cake twins. My comment about Pinkie wasting all that flour and costing the Cakes money must have been correct, as now she is trying more traditional methods.

As we know from Baby Cakes, traditional methods fail, and the only thing that these twisted twins desire is to see Pinkie humiliated or hurt. After driving herself to exhaustion trying to please the twins, she sits down. I'm not sure if it was part of her plan or not, but she sits on some jacks, jumps up into the ceiling fan, gets whirled around and slammed into a corner full of toys, which then rain down on her head.

Only Pinkie's pain will bring pleasure to the Cake twins now! Muahahah!

 That's disconcerting. The cows are sentient too, and this one drinks her own milk, with oatmeal cookies.

Pinkie sees a pony named Rose and compliments her flowers, Rose asks if she wants one, and Pinkie eats it. She then continues merrily down the street, complimenting that old pony with the pipe mark, wishes Cherilee a happy birthday (you'd think Pinkie would give her a gift or something), wishes Zecora the zebra a happy 'day after your birthday', and then wishes Matilda the donkey happy birthday, in 132 days.

Matilda asks how she knows everything about every pony, and Pinkie replies that every pony is her friends and she loves to see her friends smile. Nothing wrong with that I suppose, except she's, well, Pinkie Pie and has all the 'magic' abilities of Bugs Bunny with the craziness of Daffy Duck. I guess Daffy may have that kind of stuff too, actually, from what I can recall.

Anyways, it then goes to a song about Pinkie Pie greeting and helping all her friends just to see them smile.

Some sunbathing pony was sitting under a tree, looking upset about being in the shade.

 We then see two sad looking little kid ponies, Pinkie kidnaps them from their home, throws them into a cart (pulled by Applejack's brother if I recall) and as soon as they smile she leaps clear with a Twilight level rage look. Hmm, what was it about the Ponyville roads we learned about in Mare Do Well? Oh, yeah, they are death traps. Good luck Big Mac and unknown pony kids.

Unfortunately the video of this episode I'm watching has that Transformers promo down there so I can't get a good screenshot of Pinkie's Twilight-esque anger as she is jumping out of the cart, nor do I feel like finding another one of this episode, but yeah, Pinkie probably just kidnapped and murdered those kids.

Oh, dear lord. She's after more!

Next Pinkie is jump roping with some more kid ponies. She grabs another pony to join her, then the two that are twirling the jump rope, her Daffy Duck powers kick in and the jump rope proceeds to go on its own, somehow.

So, yeah, probably another 4+ victims here, as this possessed jump rope picks up in speed and eviscerates any that try to escape.

Applebloom, Applejack's sister, is sad that she isn't confined in her own jump rope prison. Pinkie puts her on her shoulders and just jump ropes herself. Lord only knows what horrible fate Applebloom had as it immediately cuts to Pinkie walking down the street again.

She then teleports to Applejack's side, where she is painting a barn and looking pretty tired. Now we're seeing why people want Pinkie to be there friend, as she Daffy Ducks and has the whole thing painted, with an image of her no less.

"REMEMBER ME!"

 The song lyrics then take kind of a somber tone, talking about how some days are dark and lonely, and -

There's two Pinkies?! Maybe she doesn't have Daffy Duck powers, and just shows up everywhere because she's a Nazi cloning experiment, designed to infiltrate and eliminate Allied morale, but some wires got crossed and now they just want people to smile. Smile, or die.

I wrote the above caption, unpaused, and immediately see lines of ponies smiling as soon as she approaches. So, yeah, that whole 'crazy Nazi smile obsessed murderer' bit may not be too far off.

She then continues down the street, a legion of fearfully smiling ponies in her wake.

 She then jumps across the rooftops, then back into the street where all her 'mane' friends appear and carry her. Confirming the 'she's a psycho, smile if you value your life' aspect, she inexplicably ends up in a parade. Ponies line the street, smiling, as confetti rains from above, while Pinkie tells every pony to smile.

SIEG SMILE! SIEG SMILE!

The song ends with a crowd of ponies standing on two feet and holding onto one another in a big singing/smiling circle around Pinkie. She then immediately stares at a donkey that has somehow wandered into her Sieg Smile rally.

I guess I should have just found another video, hopefully without the Transformers logo, cause it does tend to get in the way of some shots, oh well.

"What's this you're saying about Sieg Smiler?" "I wasn't saying anything about Smiler, I was talking about some other smiler." "Och, you can't fool me, there's only one lousy Smiler, and we've got 'em/" (If any one else knows what this is referring to, kudos to you, as I'm sure it's obscure to the extreme)

The donkey doesn't seem amused by Pinkie, and he is pulling a cart full of items. The donkey is almost  immediately driven into Twilight level homicidal rage as Pinkie barrages him with names, trying to discover what the donkey's name is.

I don't think I commented on it when we saw Matilda, but, yeah, there's apparently talking donkeys too. Makes you wonder why some animals are 'human' while some animals, like in the pet episode, are only sort of 'human' in behavior.

The donkey's name ends up being Cranky Doodle Donkey, and Pinkie bursts into song. She's singing to Yankee Doodle, which raises all kinds of questions. Obviously it's there for us as the viewer, but how would Pinkie know that song to make a parody of it? Oh, god, are we in Equestria right now? Did, did the ponies wipe us out? RIP humanity. As I was writing that bit about the Pinkie Smile song, I was reminded of that bit in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, where Pseudolus is spinning a lie about a plague where everyone smiled themselves to death. I guess Pinkie is the plaguebearer, and that's probably what took us out.

Pinkie decides to call Cranky by his middle name while physically pulling his face into a smile, which enrages him. Apparently Pinkie gets all her friends by singing them some random song. This is apparently the first time doing so has failed, so Pinkie is confused and vows to make him be her friend.

"I messed with his face, sang a song sort of mocking his name and race, and called him by his middle name for no reason, what went wrong?"

Cranky is clearly not interested in friends, explaining that he's moving to Ponyville after travelling all across Equestria. and tells her to go find friends somewhere else. Pinkie responds by doing this:

I don't know what special abilities donkeys in the Ponyverse have, but Pinkie may soon find out.

Hahah, I love how there's random Yankee Doodle bits played in the background. Pinkie, not giving up, decides to rummage through his cart of worldly possessions. He scares her off, then she goes and grabs her wagon she uses to welcome people, so they can be wagon buddies.

Getting desperate, Pinkie decides to show Cranky her crotch. Cranky is still not amused.

Her welcome song and dance ends and her wagon's finale backfires. Pinkie put the cake mix in the confetti launchers and confetti in the oven, and not the first time she admits. The blast of confetti knocked Cranky's toupee off. It somehow got stuck to Pinkie's rear, who was in front of him. She thinks it's a spider and smashes it.

She then scales a flag pole with a megaphone and shouts out to Ponyville about Cranky being bald and needing a toupee. Are you trying to make him your friend, or your mortal enemy? Cause if it's the latter, well, you sure as hell are succeeding, Pinkie.

To apologize, she forces him to go to the local spa. This does little to change his mood, but Pinkie then gives him a gift: a 'dreamboat' toupee made by Rarity.

"Hmm, I just got him a deluxe spa treatment and a better toupee, still no smile. He's not still mad that I just embarrassed him in front of most of Ponyville, is he?"

She then appears at Cranky's new home, and almost causes him to drop his Victrotta or whatever the pony version of that would be called. She then thinks he is having a yard sale because all his stuff isn't moved inside yet and wants to buy a snowglobe.

Oh, god. Manehattan? I was right. Damn it. All this time, we thought it would be aliens, or ourselves, and it was ponies that would wipe us out. Cranky tells a story about trying to find his special friend, and Pinkie thinks being called 'extra special' was a compliment.

She then proceeds to mess with another fragile looking object, and it's from Fillydelphia. Yep, the America we know and love is no more, Sic Semper Ponies!  Cranky's special friend is apparently female.

Apparently Pinkie has decided to ask Cranky 'where he got' every single item he owns. She picks up a photo album looking thing, sees something that intrigues her, and yells for Cranky. As she turns around, she stomps on a loose floorboard, sends that fragile ornament thing flying, which ricochets and sends a lantern falling onto the book. Didn't we see that the lanterns were run by fireflies in Read it and Weep? I suppose they may have normal lanterns too, though, since there were flaming torches in Daring Do's temple.

"What? Who could have thought my Daffy Duck nature would result in bad things happening too???"

 Cranky is enraged that his book was destroyed and pushes Pinkie out of his home, while telling her he will never, ever, ever, ever, ever be her friend.

The donkey's special ability seems to be some kind of breath based attack, as seen here with Pinkie's hair blown back after he raged at her.

Aww, Pinkie is really hurt about that, and goes to Twilight's for support. Twilight tells her she'll just have to accept that Cranky won't be her friend. Rainbow 'tells it like it is' and says Cranky probably doesn't want to be her friend due to her insanity. Pinkie accepts her friends advice, but will leave Cranky alone only after he accepts her latest apology.

That has to be the Daring Do reference in this episode I reckon, shame it was just a book cover (and no more references in the rest of the episodes) but you gotta take what you can get I suppose. Also, Rainbow is now hanging out in the library.

 Pinkie then busts into Cranky's house, while he was still depressed over losing his book. He tries to run away but she chases him, 'to the ends of the earth' so to say, Daffy Ducking all over the place as Cranky tries to hide.

He eventually makes it back to his house as Pinkie Pies "Really really sorry!" echoes around him. He barricades the door, but that is not enough to stop Pinkie. She goes down the chimney, then shoves her eye through the door's keyhole, somehow. Cranky explains there's nothing she can do for him, she ruined his book which was everything he had left of his special someone. Pinkie finally figures it out that the special someone is a 'lady friend.'

Donkey's special ability confirmed: they have some kind of breath weapon attack, seen here is Cranky's Breath of Confusion.

In the time it takes for Cranky to turn around, sit down, and pull off the toupee, Pinkie has returned. Being the generally good-natured pony she is, she has brought one last thing to try and make it up to him for ruining the book.

He, wisely, retorts that anything she gives will probably lead to disaster. Another female's voice comments that he really is cranky. Pinkie has discovered Cranky's secret friend is really Matilda, because she had the same scrapbook and she had seen it before.

'Secret friend' wink wink, nudge nudge.

 It then goes to a flashback of Matilda and Cranky at a Grand Galloping Gala.

Considering the flashback is in black and white, with some 'old timey' music playing, I'm guessing Cranky is actually an old man in Ponyverse terms. Way to go Pinkie, harassing some random elderly man.

Matilda left a note for Cranky explaining where she had gone and whatever else, taped to the back of the door into her room. Somehow, she expected him to find that, and of course he didn't. So, instead of laying it on the bed, or leaving a message with the hotel or whatever, she doomed Cranky to his miserable life of wandering Equestria just to try and find her. He had finally given up, and chose Ponyville to retire in. So, presumably he never searched there before, you'd think he'd pick some cool town he had traveled to, but I suppose picking one you hadn't works too, since there's a chance she would be there. She gives him a kiss and:

Cranky finally smiles.

Cranky tells her he finally accepts her apology, and is honored to call her his friend. Pinkie Daffy Ducks herself, launching like a rocket into the sky, overcome with joy.

She can't resist showing off her nethers once more.

Pinkie realizes that her super crazy, hyper antics aren't really what these elderly donkeys like, and respects their choice, sort of.

She writes to Princess Celestia, about how friends and ways to express friendship, come in many forms, and that some like to be left alone. (Gee, I wonder why they want to be left alone by Pinkie? Couldn't be that she sows plague and chaos in her wake.) But she adheres to her belief that the best thing about friendship is just making friends smile. Aww...

As Cranky and Matilda are moving in to kiss each other, Pinkie interrupts, singing a parody of Yankee Doodle Boy. After apologizing, having forgot the donkeys wanted privacy, the credits roll as Yankee Doodle plays. Pretty nice touch.


What I learned from this episode:

• There is some good continuity upheld, as seen here with the Cake Twins/Pinkie babysitter, Daring Do/'Reading Rainbow' =] so that should hopefully mean more Daring Do in future seasons, if there will be any.
• Cranky originally made the right call in not wanting anything to do with Pinkie, as all her interactions with him did seem to end in rage, but she did bring him the 'secret friend' he'd been searching for for decades. Most likely though he would have found her anyway, since they now lived in the same town, but Pinkie expedited it at least.
• If we thought Twilight's vengeance was bad, Pinkie's seems to be far worse, hounding Cranky across the realm just because he didn't want to be her friend. I suppose we did see some of her unbridled, murderous rage in that rodeo episode though.
• I think this may be the first episode with 0 usage of magic that I have seen. Unless it was used in the spa, during Pinkie's Smile song, or Twilight used a little in the library scene. Presumably there was some off screen usage though, as Rarity made that toupee for him, since I'm not sure a non-unicorn could craft a toupee with hooves and/or mouth, so there's another one for good ol' magic.