Griffon the Brush Off

Dear Princess Luna...

I do recall a griffon on that 'villain' poster, so I'm guessing this is where it will be. =]

We begin with Pinkie Pie annoying Twilight out in a park while she's reading a book.

"For Celestia's sake, Pinkie, act like an adult, And keep it down, will you? I am trying to get through an article on vintage Camaros, and I've been on the same dang page for twenty minutes."

Rainbow Dash flies overhead and draws Pinkie's attention, Twilight is relieved. Poor Pinkie, like Twilight, Rainbow is annoyed at Pinkie talking to her.

"Oh, great, she saw me."

 Rainbow tries to fly away, claiming she's in the middle of something, and smashes into a mountain.

"Sweet embrace of unconsciousness, save me from Pinkie Pie!"

Scene cuts to Ponyville, where we then hear some pony humming, Pinkie Pie? and see Rainbow trying to sleep on a cloud.

"Why me?!"

 Rainbow hears Pinkie is looking for her, tries to hide in the cloud, and Twilight narks on her position. Rainbow takes off flying, hiding behind the barn at Sweet Apple Acres, and turns around to see Pinkie is right there. Foolish Rainbow Dash, you can't escape Bugs Pinkie.

"Found you!"

Alright, I have to ask: why is Rainbow always sleeping on random clouds near Ponyville, when she has that badass cloud mansion in Cloudsdale? Rainbow flees again, hiding in the branches of Twilight's Library, and Pinkie finds her.

"Oh, Rainbow Dash! Your face looks all melty!"

Rainbow flies away again, landing near a lake. Pinkie emerges from the water in diving gear and says she needs a favor. Say what you may about Pinkie, but if this had happened to any other 'mane 6' pony, you know they would have been home crying about their friend constantly ditching them.

"Am I in hell? How does she keep finding me!"

Rainbow gives up and agrees to help Pinkie. Turns out she needs Rainbow to manipulate a cloud. After doing the old 'move it right, no, too far, back left, no, too far, back right' etc. routine, they get it in position and Pinkie tells her to wait for her signal. Spike is seen inside this building and walks out with a bunch of scrolls. Pinkie gives the signal and Rainbow blasts Spike with lightning. He is so startled he gets the hiccups and they both laugh at him.

"Pinkie! If you want to boss someone around, get Fluttershy, otherwise let's move on, shall we?"

He accidentally 'mails' a scroll to Celestia and we get to see her private sanctum again.

Celestia's room does look pretty badass.

Then Spike hiccups and torches the entire thing of scrolls, sending them raining down on Celestia.

"TWILIGHT SPARKLE!"

Pinkie and Rainbow are laughing it up and Pinkie asks if she's ever seen anything funnier, Rainbow says she knows one thing, and kicks the cloud, scaring Pinkie so she gets hiccups. Rainbow is amazed that Pinkie is a prankster. Pinkie says they are all in good fun, and she loves to have fun. Rainbow says she's not as annoying as she thought and wants to hang out with her. They go to a joke shop and load up on supplies, then I guess are going to go prank all their friends. They start with Rarity. They leave flowers outside her door, Rarity smells them and starts sneezing, they put sneezing powder on them.

"I've been poisoned!"

Twilight is performing science and writing down her findings. She turns and her writing disappears. Pinkie and Rainbow switched her ink out for Invisible Ink. As Twilight is distracted, the chemicals she was mixing explode in a puff of purple smoke.

"I can smell sugar in the air, Pinkie must be near by."

At Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack comes out of the barn to see all the apples on the trees are crazy colors. Rainbow and Pinkie painted them all. Applejack starts kicking apples at them and they flee. One falls in water and the paint comes off and Applejack laughs.

Better hope it rains soon or Pinkie and Rainbow just added a ton of extra work for the Apples if they didn't wash them off before as part of their normal routine.

Their next prank apparently was to just sit at a lake until someone investigated their fake turtle so they could squirt them. Rainbow says Fluttershy is going to be the mark, and Pinkie refuses, saying Fluttershy is too sensitive. Instead she says they should prank the toughest pony around, which is Rainbow, who got hit with the old 'black stuff on an eyepiece' prank, on the telescope they were using to watch for victims.

Fluttershy is left staring at this thing.

I could have sworn Rainbow's home was up in Cloudsdale. It is made of clouds though so can probably be moved around. We see Pinkie walking down a road and she arrives at Rainbow's house.

 Pinkie calls for Rainbow and sees a griffon.

 The griffon is Gilda, Rainbow's best friend from Junior Speedster flight camp. Rainbow wants her to recite the Junior Speedsters chant, which she does 'Only for you, Dash.' This reminds me, I almost always use Rainbow for the character, characters themselves seem to prefer Dash or Dashie. Either way works, especially since there's a Dash Rendar tie-in for the latter. =]

Junior Speedsters are our lives,

Sky-bound soars and daring dives

Junior Speedsters, it's our quest,

To some day be the very best!

Poor Pinkie. She was so happy to have one of her 'mane 6' friends actually wanting to hang out with her, but Rainbow ditches her to hang out with Gilda, because she promised her they would do a morning flight session.

We see Rainbow and Gilda flying above Ponyville then they land on a cloud. Pinkie pops up through the cloud, using a trampoline to jump up. Gilda doesn't seem to like Pinkie, as she ignores her and tells Rainbow to race her to a cloud.

As they argue over who won the race, Pinkie floats up via balloons.

"I whooped you fair and square!"

Pinkie says Rainbow won, Gilda is not happy and tells Rainbow to race her to another cloud.

"What goes up, must go down. Hard."

Gilda stays behind and menacingly tells Pinkie that 'the high altitude is making you dizzy' and starts popping her balloons with her talons.

"See you in Tartarus, loser!"

 Pinkie follows them up there, using a gyrocopter. Gilda looks pissed. She asks Rainbow if she knows any new tricks, Rainbow flies off and Gilda goes after Pinkie.

Gilda claims that Rainbow doesn't need to hang out with a 'dweeb' like Pinkie since now Gilda is there, and tells her she's 'dorking' up the skies while calling her 'Stinkie Pie' and telling her to 'make like a bee and buzz off. '

"I like your contraption. You know, if you were to say, have a little accident, I'm sure I'd get off scot-free, 'cause they'd just blame it on your weird machine malfunctioning."

She then grabs hold of the rotor and the machine spirals down out of control. Honestly, was anyone surprised that one of Rainbow 'Cheating Douchebag' Dash's non-Fluttershy childhood friends is as big, or bigger, a douchebag than Rainbow herself?

The ambulance was on the spot, the jeeps were running wild. The medics jumped and screamed with glee, rolled up their sleeves and smiled. For it had been a week or more since last a chute had failed, and she ain't gonna jump no more!

Pinkie goes to see Twilight Worth for her opinion, and gets told she's just jealous even though Gilda could have killed her by crashing the gyrocopter. Pinkie leaves in a huff. She starts talking to herself and even though Twilight had no idea of the situation, she starts to think maybe she is right about things. She goes to get a smoothie in town and hears Rainbow and Gilda flying overhead.

"It says you're just jealous, Pinkie." "Why must you turn your library into a house of lies, Twilight?"

Rainbow leaves Gilda on her own in town while she goes and does some weather related tasks. Gilda immediately pranks Granny Smith by putting her tail in a produce stand, which Granny thinks is a 'rattler' and runs away from it.

"This food sucks anyway."

Pinkie is upset because Granny didn't know it was a joke. She then lets Twilight Worth's unwarranted criticism get to her, and she says maybe it was a funny prank. Gilda then steals an apple with her tail and Pinkie is pissed that not only is she mean, she's a thief too, but let's Twilight Worth get to her again, saying maybe she'll give it back. What's really interesting here is that no one seems to give a damn that there's a griffon wandering amongst them.

"That bastard!"

Fluttershy is helping a family of ducks get through town. Gilda stands in the way then yells "I'M WALKING HERE!" when Fluttershy bumps into her. Fluttershy starts apologizing and Gilda roars at her, sending Fluttershy and the ducks scattering.

Gilda says all these lame ponies are driving her buggy and flies off.

"This place is for steers and queers, and I don't see any cow horns on ya."

 Pinkie tosses Twilight Worth's poisonous words aside. Pinkie has had enough.

"She's a grump, and a thief, and a bully. The meanest kind of mean meanie-pants there is. I can take it, but no one treats Fluttershy like that. No. One. This calls for extreme measures, Pinkie Pie style."

Pinkie's plan? To throw a party for Gilda. Random ponies and the 'mane' ones are in attendance, except Rainbow Dash I believe. Twilight says Fluttershy has met Gilda and asks what she's like. Fluttershy says she'll tell her later. She then goes to Pinkie and asks her if this is a good idea. Pinkie uses vaguely condescending language, calling Fluttershy 'little' and herself as 'Auntie Pinkie' and Fluttershy remarks: "I'm a year older than you."

"G-G-G-Gilda! Oh, my!"

 Gilda arrives and Pinkie welcomes her. They shake hoof/talons and Gilda gets electrified.

Griffon, tastes like chicken, if chicken was a griffon.

Rainbow thinks it was a good prank, Gilda is not amused. Rainbow wants to introduce her to her other friends, and shows some Twilight level naivete by letting Gilda lag behind. Gilda informs Pinkie that she knows what she is planning and trying to do, Pinkie plays it off like she is just talking about the party.

"I'm watching you, too. I know where you live. I know where you sleep. I know what you owe on your stuff. I know everything about you."

 Pinkie interrupts Gilda's veiled threats to her by telling everyone to welcome her to Ponyville.

Pinkie invites Gilda to help herself to the food, Gilda eagerly eats a vanilla lemon drop, which has been booby trapped into being spicy.

She breathes flames, and Pinkie gleefully roasts a marshmallow.

SPOILERS:We learn that that Rainbow did all these pranks, so how did Pinkie know to have a marshmallow and stick prepared? Or did she just Bugs Bunny conjure it up in few seconds to capitalize/feed her ravenous appetite.

Rainbow tells her to go drink the punch. She races over and tries to relieve her scorched mouth, but it was a 'dribble glass' aka has a hole in it so the liquid dumps out on you.

This doesn't really seem like the safest of things to be doing, we already know Gilda is one mean S.O.B. that doesn't care about others' safety, except maybe Rainbow Dash, and especially doesn't care about Pinkie's.

They laugh at Gilda and she finds something to drink. She is not amused. Rainbow is enjoying it though.

"I'm part lion, lions eat ponies. Just letting you know."

 Rainbow points her to a table full of presents and Gilda eagerly opens one. It launches out 'snakes.' Applejack say some pony pulled the 'spittin' snakes' prank on her last month, Gilda sneers and says she bets she knows who that was. Pinkie innocently blinks, asking, "You do?"

Pinkie brings out a cake and Spike asks if he can blow out the candles. Twilight says no, Gilda should since she's the guest of honor. Gilda elbows Spike out of the way, saying, 'Exactly.'

"Out of my way, chump!" "Hey! I'm the only one who can abuse Spike!"

Gilda blows out the candles, they relight. She keeps trying to blow them out, they keep relighting. Spike says he loves that prank and burrows into the cake, disgusting everyone.

"Why won't they go out?!"

 Rainbow tries to make sure her friend's feelings aren't hurt, Gilda lies through her beak saying she loves a good prank. Rainbow invites her to get some cake, and leaves her behind once again, where she then grabs Pinkie by the throat and tells her she's watching her.

"Go ahead, keep playing your little games. We'll see how much of a tough guy you are when there aren't any witnesses around."

Applejack wants them to play pin the tail on the pony. Rarity wants to go first and use the purple tail. Gilda snatches it from her and apparently has never played it before, as she is surprised when she gets blind folded. They spin her around and Pinkie puts her in front of the game's poster. Gilda thinks it is a trick and walks the opposite direction and crashes into the ktichen.

 She walks out with the 'tail' on her beak like a mustache, and they all laugh at her for 'pinning it on the wrong end.' Gilda enters rage mode.

"MEET ME SOME WHAIR!"

 She starts ranting, "This is your idea of a good time? I've never met a lamer bunch of dweebs in all my life. And Pinkie Pie, you! You are queen lame-o with your weak little party pranks. Did you really think you could make me lose my cool? Well, Dash and I have ten times as much cool as the rest of you put together. Come on Dash, we're bailing on this pathetic scene. Come on Rainbow Dash. I said, we're leaving."

"We don't need these chumps, right Rainbow?"

Rainbow says she was the one that set up all the pranks, not Pinkie, and it was just dumb luck that Gilda happened to be the victim of them all, which would make Rainbow 'queen lame-o.' Gilda can't believe it, and swears it had to have been Pinkie, trying to make her look like a fool. Pinkie says she just threw the party to try and improve Gilda's attitude. Rainbow says Gilda didn't need any help looking like a fool, she thought her old friends would treat her new friends better, and that if all Gilda cares about is being cool, she should go find some new, cool. friends, somewhere else.

"Why don't you make like mint jelly and go on the lam?"

Gilda calls her a 'flip-flop' cool one minute, lame the next, and tells her to call her when she decides to stop being lame, and flies off. Rainbow apologizes to everyone for bringing Gilda to Ponyville and she and Pinkie shake hooves, joy buzzer'ing each other.

Twilight apologizes for being wrong about Gilda and Pinkie forgives her, telling her, 'Even you can't be a super smart smarty smart-pants all the time.' As the party continues, Twilight narrates her letter to Princess Celestia. She says she learned it can be hard if some pony you like wants to hang out with some pony that's not so nice. It's impossible to control who your friends hang out with* but you can control your own behavior. Continue to be a good friend, because in the end the difference between a true and false friend will come to light. (*Of course we know Twilight tries to do that anyway)

We actually see I believe a first ever here as the episode ends. The letter is delivered to Celestia and she starts writing a response back. Twilight, Spike, or some pony, included the invisible ink (with a label for real ink) inside the scroll, and Celestia started writing the response with it. The episode ends with Celestia chuckling about using the wrong ink, and continuing to write the letter with another ink bottle.

What I learned from this episode:

• Griffons are said to be 'rare' according to Rarity, yet no one in town seemed to care that one was there. Griffons are also 'human' so that should mean there's a whole nother culture out there, that is also quasi-allied with ponies, since Gilda went to the same flight camp as Rainbow.
• Ended up with a ton of images for this episode. Not Trixie levels, but close to Daring Do/Luna. I guess Rainbow Dash plus Pinkie Pie plus new griffon Gilda plus random shenanigans equals lots of pics. =] I liked this episode, unlike with Trixie, the 'villain' here was actually doing something 'bad' first.
• If something goes wrong, everyone in Ponyville probably assumes Pinkie Pie is responsible.
• Pinkie Pie should be on the Ponyverse's 'Untouchables' as she would relentlessly pursue criminals until they are driven insane and willingly surrender.
• It's sweet how Pinkie tries to protect Fluttershy. With Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie backing her up, Fluttershy should never have any problems.