Boast Busters

Dear Princess Celestia (CC: Princess Luna)..

These early episodes seem to have a ton of new uses for magic compared to some later ones, and considering I'm watching them in reverse order... Twilight uses magic to create a moustache for Spike right off the bat.

"Spike, just because you have a mustache doesn't mean you can speak Istallion!"

Spike says this is the 25th 'trick' she has perfected, and starts fantasizing about showing off his mustache to Rarity. Twilight poofs it away, saying it was just for 'practice.' She laughs at Spike's sadness over losing it.

"Too bad, Spike! You want a mustache? Alter time and history so you can be the Anakin Skywalker instead, oh, wait, you can't use magic!"

We learn something sort of knew, or have something confirmed I should say, as I believe I've said something about it before. Spike says he thought unicorns only have access to a little magic that matches their special talent. Twilight says that is true for unicorns with talents in things like cooking, math, or singing, but asks the rhetorical question of, "What if the unicorns talent is magic?" Spike says she knows tons of magic and doesn't think any other pony can compare. Twilight tries to downplay her Anakin Skywalker-ness and says she's sure plenty of others have as much talent as her.

Snips and Snails come racing through, excitedly explaining there is a new unicorn in town with tons of magical power, supposedly more than any other unicorn ever.  Spike doubts this, saying that honor goes to Twilight. Twilight blushes, and they set off to go see this unicorn, who is in the town square.

They get to the town square where a large crowd has fathered around a wagon, which unfolds as some pony announces, "Come one, come all! Come and witness the amazing magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie!" Well I recognize her from that 'villains' poster, so she's either a bad pony or is like Iron Will/Cerberus and just thrown on there for being vaguely evil.

I've got a bad feeling I'm going to end up with a ton of screenshots for this episode.

So Trixie proclaims, "Watch in awe as the Great and Powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes!" and we actually see a reverse polarity Twilight Worth moment, as Rarity, Spike, and Applejack start complaining that she's 'boasting' and Twilight confusedly wonders if there's something wrong with being talented.

 

Awesome.

We've got a serious case of horn envy going on here. Trixie is performing a free magic show, and they are just ragging on her non-stop. Rainbow Dash brags about herself and gets glared at by Applejack, then starts openly booing Trixie and draws Trixie's attention.

"Look at her, she's so stupid she is using magic on nothin'!"

"Oh, a bouquet of flowers out of nowhere? She's still garbage!"

"Well, well, well, it seems we have some neighsayers in the audience. Who is so ignorant as to challenge the magical ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie? Do they not know that they're in the presence of the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria?"

Rarity talks more trash, Spike starts saying Twilight is the best, and Twilight pulls him aside, saying to cool it because she doesn't want her friends thinking she is also a 'show off.'

We've got Trixie who is looking pretty awesome, but then the rest of the cast is just pulling Twilights and hating on her for no reason. Rainbow gets all up in her face, as if causing the show to be interrupted wasn't bad enough, and asks her why she is so great.

"Heh, why, only the Great and Powerful Trixie has magic strong enough to vanquish the dreaded Ursa Major!"

Not only can magic create fireworks, it can animate them too. Trixie tells the tale:

"When all hope was lost, the ponies of Hoofington had no one to turn to, but the Great and Powerful Trixie stepped in, and with her awesome magic, vanquished the Ursa Major and sent it back to its cave deep within the Everfree Forest!"

Snips and Snails begin cheering for her, Spike starts talking trash about how no one knows if that story is even true, and Twilight uses magic to conjure a zipper on his mouth.

"It's true, my enthusiastic little admirers. Trixie is most certainly the best in Ponyville."

Trixie issues a challenge to Ponyville: Anything they can do, she can do better. If at this point Rarity and co. started whining about her, yeah, sure, you may have a case. However, they were hating on this poor pony for pretty much no reason from the get-go. She was just putting on a stage performance as 'the best ever' and may in fact still be putting on a performance. Or she thinks she really is that good.

"Don't believe the Great and Powerful Trixie? Well then, I hereby challenge you, Ponyvillians -- anything you can do, I can do better. Any takers? Anyone? Hmm? Or is Trixie destined to be the greatest equine who has ever lived!?"

 

Spike unzips his mouth and falls before Twilight, begging her to challenge Trixie. Trixie scans the audience and picks Twilight to challenge her. Only a couple minutes in and I've already got more images than some entire episodes. Yep, I've found a new favorite character. =]

"Hmm, how about you!"

Twilight is too nervous to respond, Trixie calls Applejack a hayseed and Applejack is pissed, and challenges Trixie to use magic and beat her lasso routine.

"Well, how about it? Hm?

 Is there anything you can do that the Great and Powerful Trixie can't?"

"That's it! I can't stand for no more of this!"

Applejack finishes her routine by lassoing an apple off a tree and eating it, the crowd goes wild. Trixie is not impressed.

"Oh ye of little talent.

Watch and be amazed

at the magic of Trixie!"

Trixie uses her magic to enchant the rope as 'snake charmer' music plays. The rope sways in front of Applejack and dazzles her, the other end grabs an apple from a tree, then it hogties Applejack and puts an apple in her mouth. Trixie is awesome.

"Once again, the Great and Powerful Trixie prevails."

Rainbow Dash flies onstage again and starts whining about Trixie 'strutting around and showing off like that!' Wait a minute! The 'mane 4' and Spike were starting all this, Trixie is just defending herself against hecklers who interrupted her performance. Rainbow says the 'strutting and showing off' is her job, and performs a pretty badass routine, spinning a wind mill, flying through clouds, posing in front of the sun, going back through the clouds, spinning the wind mill again, then landing on stage, producing a rainbow.

"Oh?"

"They don't call me "Rainbow" and "Dash" for nothin'!"

The crowd is amazed and cheers. Rainbow says, "They don't call me "Rainbow" and "Dash" for nothin'!"Trixie is not fazed.

"When Trixie is through, the only thing they'll call you is loser."

Trixie zaps Rainbow with her magic and makes her spin rapidly up into the air then back onto the ground. Rainbow says she's going to be sick. Trixie is not through destroying her though, and conjures a storm cloud and nails Rainbow with a bolt of lightning. 

"Seems like any pony with a dash of good sense would think twice before tussling with the Great Trixie."

Trixie and the crowd laugh at Rainbow. Trixie's mark has been mostly concealed, but I believe it is a star wand and a crescent moon. It would be awesome if Trixie is the personal protege of Princess Luna.

Spike, Applejack, and Rainbow try to strongly hint at Twilight to challenge Trixie. Twilight doesn't want to. Rarity thinks they were talking about her, but says she's above such nonsense and conducts herself with beauty and grave, unlike the ruffians Applejack and Rainbow.

"Ooo, what's the matter?

Afraid you'll get a hair out of place in that rat's nest you call a mane?"

Rarity is enraged and goes on stage. She tells Trixie a unicorn needs to have style, and there's more to magic than Trixie's 'brutish' ways. She transforms Trixie's curtain into an outfit.

Hmm, wonder if she wears this in Sweet and Elite like pretty much anything else she had been seen wearing.

Trixie is not fazed, in fact, she's amused. She uses magic on Rarity and the crowd gasps. Rarity demands a mirror, knowing Trixie did something to her hair, her friends deny it until Spike blurts out that it is green.

Rarity runs off crying about her hair, and Spike tries again to get Twilight to go against her.

Twilight refuses, saying she isn't better than anyone, and Trixie is amused. She strides forward, challenging Twilight again.

"Hah! You think you're better than the Great and Powerful Trixie?

You think you have more magical talent? Well, come on, show Trixie what you've got. Show us all."

Twilight says she's just an ordinary citizen of Ponyville, and runs off. Okay, I really like this character, we're already at 50 screenshots not even 10 minutes in. I guess it's a combination of: unicorn, badass magic ability, and feeling sorry for her since they all started hating on her for no reason.

"Ha!

Once again, the Great and Powerful Trixie has proven herself to be

the most amazing unicorn in all of Equestria.

Huh, was there ever any doubt?"

Sometime later, Trixie's cart is packed back up and she's brushing her mane

Snips and Snails show up with a smoothie for her, and ask her to tell them another story. She gets annoyed and tells them to leave and come back in the morning.

Trixie likes extra hay in her smoothies. =]

"Guh! Trixie is far too exhausted from performing feats beyond imagination.

Begone with you until morning."

Spike sees them and asks what they are doing. They say they were just bringing the G and P T a smoothie. I really don't get why Spike and the rest are hating so hard on Trixie. Despite her owning all the ones brave enough to challenge her, Spike is claiming she is lame and just a show-off. I'm not sure what an Ursa Major is in the Ponyverse, but apparently Trixie vanquishing one is so far fetched for Spike that he refuses to believe it until he sees her do it himself.

Spike again starts harping on Twilight to try and show off to Trixie. We just saw Trixie turn a pony's hair green, animate a rope, put on a firework demonstration, summon a bouquet of flowers, summon a storm cloud, and spin Rainbow Dash into the air, and Spike thinks even the teeniest trick Twilight knows will be enough to beat Trixie. Twilight doesn't want to because she thinks her friends will think she is a braggart and stop liking her. Twilight summons a door and slams it in Spike's face.

Spike begs her again, claiming she is the best, and she reiterates that she said no. He storms off.

Snips and Snails are out in Everfree Forest looking for an Ursa Major. They enter a cave and Snails uses his magic to make light. They find themselves in front of an Ursa Major.

Snips and Snails run into town where they see Spike, who had been moping and kicking a rock around, they run in screaming for Trixie while Spike yells for Twilight. Snips and Snails wake up Trixie, who is annoyed.

"Trixie thought she said the Great and Powerful Trixie did not want to be disturbed! What is so important that you cannot wait until morning to disturb Trixie?"

Trixie sees the Ursa Major heading their way and is terrified, fleeing mere moments before the bear beast smashes her cart. =[

I know someone's got to be thinking, "But KT, if she's all that, why not just take him down with magic?"

Trixie's awesome, but she's not going to go 'hoof to hoof' with this thing. As we have seen, magic requires concentration. Which is a little hard to do when the thing is destroying your worldly possessions and home.

Spike runs to tell Twilight, she snaps at him, telling him she doesn't want to show up Trixie, then realizes there's a bigger problem. The Ursa Major has Trixie, Snips, and Snails cornered, and they tell her to take it down, mentioning how hard it was to get it here. Trixie is gobsmacked that these little cretins just risked their own lives, her life, and their entire city just to see her in action.

"Yeah, vanquish so we can watch."

"Wait, you brought this here?  Are you out of your little pony minds?"

"Stand back."

Despite being unprepared for battle, not even having her cool cloak or hat, Trixie attempts to fight the Ursa Major.

"Heh. Piece of cake."

First, she uses magic to 'snake charm' a rope and tries to bind the bear beast's paw. She only had enough rope to bind his toes(?) and he easily breaks it.

 Snips and Snails tell her to stop goofing around and just vanquish it.

 Trixie is undeterred and uses her magic to conjure up a storm.

The cloud ends up being pretty small compared to the Ursa Major, not that that matters since it's you know, lightning and doesn't need much to fry something, but the Ursa Major just gets angered when it gets zapped. Trixie and the boys flee and the bear starts rampaging through town.

Trixie, Trixie old top, you let me down. Twilight rushed out and asks what is going on, she too is just gobsmacked that the boys dragged an Ursa Major to town. They say Trixie can just vanquish it. Trixie says she can't, no one can. She just made it up to make herself look better. Aww, come on Trixie! You should have at least said you made it up to go along with your stage persona.

"Oh, I can't, I never have. No one can vanquish an Ursa Major. I just made the whole story up to make me look better."

 With death imminent, Spike prods Twilight again, who steps up to face the Ursa.

Twilight uses some crazy magic to make a strong wind which produces music and soothes the bear beast.

She then overloads her horn, emitting massive magic energy.

 

She picks up the town's water tower, dumps it out, and fills it up with milk from the Apples' (?) farm.

 

The bear starts to fall towards Trixie, and Twilight picks up the bear too.

 

She gives the bear the water tower-milk bottle and sends him back to his cave.

The crowd cheers for her and Applejack says they knew she had magical ability, but not that much. Aww, Twilight is concerned, hoping that her friends don't hate her now.

"I'm sorry. Please, please don't hate me." =[

Her friends are confused, and Twilight says she doesn't want them to hate her like they hated Trixie for her magic tricks. Her friends say it wasn't that, it was because of Trixie's personality. I call shenaigans on that. Let's see: Spike starts talking trash after Snips and Snails said the rumor was there was a really powerful unicorn, and Rarity and co. immediately started hating on her after she introduced her show, as if an entertainer claiming their show was going to be the most spectacular thing ever witnessed is some horrible crime. Unless it was terrible, but Trixie's show was showing promise until it got interrupted, then she was still wowing the crowd while also giving her hecklers what for.

It turns out that the only reason Twilight knew what to do was she was 'so intrigued by Trixie's 'bragging' that she went and researched them. It also wasn't an Ursa Major, but a Minor, and a baby. It also wasn't 'rampaging' but was just cranky that it got woke up. Trixie is shocked that that was just a baby.

"That was just a baby?"

Spike wonders what a Major is like if that was just a Minor. .

Yeah, Trixie, darling, you probably should have chosen something less juggernaught-y and just said you took out dragons or something

Trixie can't resist talking trash to Twilight, saying she'll never have the amazing, show-stopping abilities of the Great and Powerful Trixie. She then runs away after conjuring a smoke cloud. Rainbow wants to go beat her up but Twilight tells her to just let her go, maybe Trixie will learn her lesson some day.

"Huh. You may have vanquished an Ursa Minor,

but you will never have the amazing, show-stopping ability of

the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

Twilight, feeling empowered, has suddenly proclaimed herself judge, jury, and executioner and takes it upon herself to punish Snips and Snails, telling them they have to clean up this mess (cutting to Trixie's cart wreckage) and asks Spike if she should give them 'number 25.'

Spike agrees and says he deserves one too. Number 25 of course means the 'trick' at the very beginning, aka mustache conjuring.

All: "Sweet!"

Twilight writes to Princess Celestia and says she learned a very valuable lesson about friendship. She says she was so scared of being thought of as a showoff that she was hiding part of who she is. She says her friends helped her be proud of her talents and that there are times when it is appropriate to show them off, especially when you're standing up for your friends.

That's a load of BS right there. Twilight's friends started it all. If they can't take the heat, get the hell out of Trixie's kitchen!

Spike enters and comments about Twilight finally admitting she's the most talented unicorn in Ponyville. Twilight says she is, but it's nothing to brag about, and asks what Rarity thought of his mustache. She didn't like it, and Twilight says he should try being himself. The episode ends as Spike figures he needs a beard too, with Twilight commenting 'Not this again!' and Spike imagines what kind of facial hair he needs in order to impress Rarity.

What I learned from this episode:

• As you might have guessed, I really loved Trixie. I guess I just have a thing for 'evil' magic-wielding unicorns.
• So..many...images... 91 I believe, crazy amount, I believe that is the current record holder now.
• I'm really torn about this episode. On one hand, it starred the lovely Trixie, Twilight proved herself and learned she can be proud of who she is, and it was almost all about magic. On the other, there was the needless hatred for Trixie, all because she promised a good show. Which, might I reiterate, I'm pretty sure she was performing for free.
• So much magic in this episode. Mustache conjuring, door conjuring, wind and music creation, levitating and moving large objects from quite some distance away, storm summoning, rope animation, mane alteration, fireworks, light shows, probably some more I'm forgetting.
• Twilight got credit, but either she really is the Anakin of the Ponyverse, or Trixie could have done the same thing if she had researched Ursas like Twilight did. I guarantee Twilight would have failed like Trixie had she been woken up in the middle of the night (instead of up reading about Ursas) to find a giant bear beast bearing (no pun intended) down on her.