My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2 E26 a Canterlot Wedding Part 2/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

 * Crossover with Brick Joke. Cadence's talent, her unique spell is the ability to remind ponies of who they love and why they love them. Twilight has the ability to copy spells she's seen. In Return of Harmony Part 2, she uses a spell to remind her friends of why they care about each other to break Discord's control. Where did she learn it? Cadence, obviously.
 * Cadence acted like a Control Freak in Part 1. The makes perfect sense with The Reveal that she's actually
 * The Damsel in Distress rescues the brave knight.... and you don't even realize the trope's been reversed till you have it pointed out. THAT'S good writing.
 * Why are the royal guards a Redshirt Army again? They may have received a proper military training but otherwise are stuck Bodyguarding a Badass - the mane six on the other hand may be civillians but they are also the closest Equestria has to an adventuring party
 * Why is Queen Chrysalis so powerful?
 * Shining Armor seems to have magical muscle on par with his little sister, though possibly with a narrower focus Also, if all alicorns are physical goddesses then Cadance seems to be a
 * Just to point up, most people are complaining that Celestia lost, but take a closer look.
 * She probably preferred the name "Mi Amore Cadenza" because.
 * A very subtle one, but when Cadence throws Applejack's treats to the trash, it at first seems just her being a jerk some more. But
 * Spike's remark about a "bachelor party" is Played for Laughs, as Shining Armor and the real Princess Candace had already tied the knot just before this. However, he was really talking about his dream bachelor party before his dream wedding with Rarity.
 * Suddenly I realise exactly why ponies in general appear to be so paranoid and panicky. YOU COULD BE ONE OF THEM.
 * "Ya know, that Pie kid down at Sugarcube seems to get a lot out of other ponies being happy and loving her, every second of the day if possible. Ya don't think...?"
 * Queen Chrysalis is the only Changeling to really act like Cadence describes them (basically a shape shifting succubus); the rest just capture their prey straight up to feed and don't seem to be able to maintain their illusion enough to be effective long enough to succeed (getting knocked out shatters it). This makes sense if you think about where Cadence probably got the information: Chrysalis herself. Chrysalis could have described her own feeding method to taunt Cadence with the knowledge of what she's doing and Cadence is unable to do a thing about it, and Cadence attributed Chrysalis' because she was the only one she knew.
 * If Cadence was a Physical God like the other Winged Unicorn sisters, then it's possible that she could be a sort of avatar of Equestria, living a cycle of rebirth as opposed to immortality. The Sun and the Moon are forever watching, but Love, while eternal, is fleeting.
 * A lot of people bring up how the villain was defeated.
 * Additionally,
 * Essentially the idea is that
 * If the Changelings feed off The Power of Love, why was their attack seemingly focused on causing fear and panic?
 * The Changelings manage to ram through a magical shield and make their arrival by slamming into the ground at high speeds, but get easily knocked out by the Mane Cast during the fight. Why? It's possible to brace yourself for a headbutt, and build up tolerance to it, but that doesn't mean getting punched anywhere else on your head isn't going to hurt, or can't knock you out. And for the latter, they form a cone of energy around their bodies, starting with their horns, that probably protects them from the impact.
 * Or because Changelings are Fair Folk who are normally weak against iron--which is often used to make horse shoes.
 * In "It's About Time" Twilight is sneaking around in the dark and is let into a restricted section of the castle without question. Likely this is a combination of being a national hero, Princess Celestia's personal protege and the sister of the captain of the guard. All of the soldiers either know her or know of her well enough to let her go wherever she wants. However when she runs up the palace in full view and in broad daylight they all point spears at her. Its a subtle hint that nopony can be trusted by their appearance because there are shape shifters lurking in Canterlot.
 * Chrysalis was powered up enough feeding off Shining Armor's love to.
 * The fact makes a lot more sense when you think about just what happened to them. The Changelings just suffered a major defeat, and on top of that, if you watch
 * There's another likely reason Celestia
 * Celestia takes care of the day. Luna takes care of the night. Cadence takes care of Twilight.
 * Why did Chrysalis reveal her true form as soon as she was called out by the real Cadence? Obviously, the deception is now pointless and it makes sense to drop the illusion. Why take her true form, though? Maybe maintaining another form would use up energy Chrysalis would have needed is she was to have any chance of defeating Celestia. The fact that the changelings revert to their true form when knocked out suggests that maintaining a form might require the active expenditure of energy.
 * One might wonder why the changelings copied the forms of the Mane 6 during the battle in Canterlot. Remember that the changelings' forte is shapeshifting into someone their target loves and draining their love for them; not physical combat. They probably shapeshifted because it was what they were comfortable doing, rather than for a tactical advantage. They didn't try to get into character because this wasn't a situation for deception and weren't sure how to handle the fight.
 * Or, they did know how to handle the fight, and began attempting to go for tactical advantage from the get-go. As stated, the Changelings' forte is indeed shifting into a form their target loves. Their targets for the fight were the Mane Six. The Changelings morphed into multiple copies of the Mane Six, meaning that each of the Mane Six actually loves the other five, most likely as family.
 * Where has Pinkie seen a better copy of herself? Right here.
 * Using the Mane Cast to handle wedding preparations was just a quick way to get them involved in the plot, right? Well, no. Shining Armor hasn't had the chance to talk with his sister much since she moved to Ponyville, and he certainly hasn't had the chance to meet her friends. Celestia's decision to have them help with the wedding not only gave Shining Armor and Cadance a chance to get to know them, but they also got to see the Mane Cast at their best. Parading their talents like that isn't something that Twilight would think of, which is why Celestia set that up.
 * Where has Pinkie seen a better copy of herself? Right here.
 * Using the Mane Cast to handle wedding preparations was just a quick way to get them involved in the plot, right? Well, no. Shining Armor hasn't had the chance to talk with his sister much since she moved to Ponyville, and he certainly hasn't had the chance to meet her friends. Celestia's decision to have them help with the wedding not only gave Shining Armor and Cadance a chance to get to know them, but they also got to see the Mane Cast at their best. Parading their talents like that isn't something that Twilight would think of, which is why Celestia set that up.

Fridge Horror

 * More importantly,
 * If a scuffle between friends was all it took to release Discord in the season opener,
 * This Troper believes it was because the Elements of Harmony were no longer synced to Celestia and Luna after the later became Nightmare Moon that Discord's seal weakened.
 * Specifically (different troper here), it's entirely possible that the original spell already started to fail around the time of Nightmare Moon's banishment -- and that it then still took the thousand-odd years since then for it to weaken enough that Discord could finally break free. (Yes, this is straying into WMG territory a bit, but let's give the Elements of Harmony their due: in the right hooves at the right time, they should be able to do better than just "turn this villain into stone until the next time somepony has an argument nearby". If that was the case, Discord would likely have been free again already circa mid-season...)
 * This Troper thought it was a combination of the above, so Discord is still safely Taken for Granite.
 * For that matter, if
 * It seems likely that Chrysalis wasn't just fooling on Shining Armour's love for Cadence. This was the capital city of Equestria during the run-up to a royal wedding; romance and romantic love will be going into overdrive. That was noticeable in Vancouver during the run-up to Prince William's wedding; how much stronger would it have been in London? Now scale that up to suit Equestria, the most love-filled land in that world. Small wonder Chrysalis had enough power to match Celestia. To dilute the nightmare fuel potential, remember that this would be Chrysalis, probably the most powerful of changelings, can do at the absolute peak of her possible power. If the changeling make return appearances, Chrysalis might be on Twilight's level at the most, and probably well below that.
 * Celestia was
 * A Chrysalis is used to incubate an entity to bring it into the world in its mature form. What if Crhysallis herself was incubating another entity, and if so, what was it?
 * Chrysalis is probably meant to be a Meaningful Name in that it's what insects use to change into another form.
 * Chrysalis and her Changelings
 * Unlikely. The Changelings were shown smashing into the ground at high speed during the attack, and they were fine. They're also insectoid, and thus, presumably harder to kill. Plus, they can fly, and they were hurled quite a horizontal distance; plenty of time for them to recover and get their wings going. And that's just the Mooks; Chrysalis is presumably much more powerful than the normal Changelings even by default, and still probably had a good bit of 'charge' left from Shining Armor. Never mind what she may have absorbed while Shining Armor and Cadence supercharged their Power of Love...
 * And yet getting tripped by Fluttershy cowering in fear was enough to knock them out. When they fly into the ground, they form a magical cone around them beginning with their horns that probably protects them. The former point also brings up more Fridge Horror, if that was enough to knock one out, then what are the odds any of them were conscious enough to recover with their wings after being hit with enough force to launch them over the horizon?
 * Did those bridesmaids ever get out of the mines?!
 * Rest assured, they did. They're the ones Rarity shoves aside when she goes after the bouquet.
 * The love of your life? Could be a Changeling feeding off of your love whilst your real love of your life is trapped somewhere.
 * This is slightly less frightening since it seems the rest of the Changelings revert to their true form upon being knocked out and it didn't take much to do so.
 * Depending on how long the whole impostion has been going on; did Shining Armor do.. that.. pre-engagement.. stuff with Chrysalis?
 * Maybe he saved himself for marriage.
 * Knowing Lauren Faust, this is most likely. She states that ponies don't even create alcoholic beverages, much less get drunk on them, so premarital... intimacy is almost certainly out of the question.
 * Faust said that "Nopony approves of boozing it up," which actually kind of implies that alcoholic beverages exist for them to be disapproved of in the first place. At any rate, Shining Armor and Cadance had already moved in together, and even if they were abstaining, the Queen was laying the mind whammy on him, so what he wanted may not have been relevant.
 * The Changelings beat the manes to the Elements of Harmony. The Changelings had first shot at the most powerful artifacts in Equestria and the ultimate tool of peace, and they were on. Their. Doorstep.
 * If Celestia remotely unlocked the barrier, or allowed the Mane 6 access, then all somepony would need to is to waltz right in, mimic the spell keeper, and empty the vault, and nopony would be the wiser, provided there was a big enough distraction to completely lose track of them. Wait...
 * Does anyone else wonder why Celestia doesn't just let the Mane Six keep the Elements with them, seeing as how they're, ya know, The Freaking BEARERS of the Elements of Harmony?
 * The Mane Six don't need the Elements most of the time, and wouldn't be able to keep them as safe as Celestia.
 * Oh really? And how's that working out for her?
 * Calm down. While the elements are with Celestia, there's not only a powerful sun-moving alicorn protecting them, but the entire Royal Guard. Even if all the elements were given to Twilight, she wouldn't be nearly as powerful as them lot combined, and they'd still need Celestia to give the mane cast their instructions. The only two cases where this didn't work was when a superpowerful draconequus (who wasn't expected to escape) beat Celestia's defenses, and when a changeling queen overpowered Celestia (something that even the changeling queen hadn't expected). The elements are weapons of last resort, so they can't be entrusted to anything less than maximum security.
 * The background errors involving Pony clones become much less amusing when you find out about the Changelings.
 * How many Changelings weren't involved in the attacks and may have very well been living entirely peaceful lives that would have been evicted from Canterlot just for being Changelings?
 * The implication is that they're Always Chaotic Evil.
 * Wait... what if...
 * The "Holy Shit" moment after . Anybody else wondering what it would've been?
 * Celestia showed back in "Lesson Zero" that she has considerably more power than even Twilight, being able to neutralize a spell on the entire town Twilight couldn't with barely any effort. At the end, she tries to blast Chrysalis with an energy beam. Remember that Twilight's magical energy beam can vaporize crystal at full power and consider how powerful Celestia's beam probably was. Just imagine what would've happened if she'd actually hit with it. Not that Chrysalis didn't deserve it but still.
 * Knowing Lauren Faust, this is most likely. She states that ponies don't even create alcoholic beverages, much less get drunk on them, so premarital... intimacy is almost certainly out of the question.
 * Faust said that "Nopony approves of boozing it up," which actually kind of implies that alcoholic beverages exist for them to be disapproved of in the first place. At any rate, Shining Armor and Cadance had already moved in together, and even if they were abstaining, the Queen was laying the mind whammy on him, so what he wanted may not have been relevant.
 * The Changelings beat the manes to the Elements of Harmony. The Changelings had first shot at the most powerful artifacts in Equestria and the ultimate tool of peace, and they were on. Their. Doorstep.
 * If Celestia remotely unlocked the barrier, or allowed the Mane 6 access, then all somepony would need to is to waltz right in, mimic the spell keeper, and empty the vault, and nopony would be the wiser, provided there was a big enough distraction to completely lose track of them. Wait...
 * Does anyone else wonder why Celestia doesn't just let the Mane Six keep the Elements with them, seeing as how they're, ya know, The Freaking BEARERS of the Elements of Harmony?
 * The Mane Six don't need the Elements most of the time, and wouldn't be able to keep them as safe as Celestia.
 * Oh really? And how's that working out for her?
 * Calm down. While the elements are with Celestia, there's not only a powerful sun-moving alicorn protecting them, but the entire Royal Guard. Even if all the elements were given to Twilight, she wouldn't be nearly as powerful as them lot combined, and they'd still need Celestia to give the mane cast their instructions. The only two cases where this didn't work was when a superpowerful draconequus (who wasn't expected to escape) beat Celestia's defenses, and when a changeling queen overpowered Celestia (something that even the changeling queen hadn't expected). The elements are weapons of last resort, so they can't be entrusted to anything less than maximum security.
 * The background errors involving Pony clones become much less amusing when you find out about the Changelings.
 * How many Changelings weren't involved in the attacks and may have very well been living entirely peaceful lives that would have been evicted from Canterlot just for being Changelings?
 * The implication is that they're Always Chaotic Evil.
 * Wait... what if...
 * The "Holy Shit" moment after . Anybody else wondering what it would've been?
 * Celestia showed back in "Lesson Zero" that she has considerably more power than even Twilight, being able to neutralize a spell on the entire town Twilight couldn't with barely any effort. At the end, she tries to blast Chrysalis with an energy beam. Remember that Twilight's magical energy beam can vaporize crystal at full power and consider how powerful Celestia's beam probably was. Just imagine what would've happened if she'd actually hit with it. Not that Chrysalis didn't deserve it but still.

Fridge Logic

 * Bachelor parties happen before the marriage.
 * ...That was the joke, that Spike had missed the point of them.
 * Where do non-unicorn mares and stallions wear their wedding rings?
 * Well, Pegasus ponies their wings, but the questions stand for Earth ponies...
 * Earth ponies could just put the ring on a necklace and wear it that way.
 * Both Twilight's and Rarity's parents (or at least her mother) are unicorns, but they don't have visible wedding rings on their horns, as with Shining Armor and Princess Cadence. Are wedding rings a temporary formality in Equestrian weddings, are they just for royals, or have the other couples never been married?
 * Considering traditions such as Handfasting do exist in our world, it most likely is a temporary ritual for the duration of the ceremony. I would imagine sizing rings for a horn to say where they are full-time would be difficult to pull off... No clue on Earth Pony/Pegasus wedding rituals, though.
 * We know the Cakes are married. They're referred to explicitly as Mr. and Mrs. We've seen ponies wear necklaces. Maybe the wedding rings are necklaces. Or maybe they're tiny and braided into their manes in a way we can't see without looking very close.
 * We see Big Mac shopping for a diamond for Cheerilee in Hearts and Hooves Day. While this was more like an engagement present than a wedding one, it does suggest a few alternatives, since they were intended for an Earth Pony. We see a couple of oversized rings that look like they could be worn like bracelets, a necklace, and a couple that are harder to identify (brooch, maybe?). So perhaps any sort of nice jewelry will do.
 * Twilight became convinced that the Cadence in the caves is real, when she did the little dance they used to do when Twilight was a filly. But the impostor knew the dance as well! Twilight showed it to her, when they first met, and was implying that it's very important to her. If the changeling queen wanted to pretend she's real Cadence now, the dance would be a perfect thing to do.
 * Except she'd have no reason to, and the mean "Cadence" wouldn't even think of it. She's powerful enough to defeat Twilight straight-up. As someone theorized above, she may have been trying to get Cadence killed by Twilight, which may well have happened if Cadence hadn't thought fast. Chrysalis knows the dance means something, but not precisely what, or how important. It could just be a minor injoke, AFASK.
 * Also, people rarely remember things well when they have only happened once, as opposed to when they happen frequently. And Chrysalis was blatantly confused at the time, so it's unlikely she'd remember the details as well as the real Cadence.
 * How would Chrysalis, an outsider, know of a chamber inside/below the castle that Princess Celestia herself didn't know about? Then again, The Legend of Dragoon did something similar in Disc 2...
 * There's nothing to suggest Princess Celestia doesn't know about it. There's also no reason for her to mention the caves or enter them, so it doesn't come up.
 * It's mentioned that they're forgotten. And you're assuming Chrysalis is an outsider when she may have very well been there longer than Celestia.
 * The actual words Chrysalis uses are, "Most ponies have forgotten these caves even exist." That means Celestia probably does know about them.
 * Does anyone else think Chrysalis, powerful as she had become, was doomed from the start? After all, the silly not-a-pony forgot to account for Luna, whose first act once she found out they were being invaded would likely be to free her sister. Could Chrysalis have taken both alicorns at once?
 * If she could, then hoo boy.
 * The Queen's original plan was derailed when the real Cadence arrived. We don't get to see her original plan in its entirety, but she didn't want to face Celestia until after the wedding, at the earliest. Assuming that she had been able to pick and choose her confrontations, she could have abducted one sister, then taken her form and led the other into a trap.
 * The Queen expected Twilight to take out the real Cadence, but didn't count on The Power of Friendship stopping Twilight in the nick of time.
 * How does having Twilight take out Cadance help fight Celestia? Especially since having to dispose of Twilight didn't seem to be part of her original plan. Actually, it's more likely that she wanted Cadance, and later Twilight, alive, since she would be able to use them as hostages to ensure Celestia's compliance for long enough to neutralize her. Tossing Twilight down there just mucked things up, and if she wanted Twilight to off Cadance, you'd think she'd have someone or something in place to check if that happened, not to mention that she could have killed either of them herself.
 * Of course the Changeling Queen would kidnap Cadence. Changelings feed on love, and Cadence spreads it. She's a food synthesizer.
 * Why are the Cutie Mark Crusaders the flower girls at the wedding? They are never brought up, and it's not like they know Shining Armor or Cadence.
 * The reason isn't obvious? CUTIE MARK CRUSADER FLOWER GIRLS!
 * Twilight can perform the same spell Shining Armor used to protect Canterlot. Why didn't she ever try using it at all, even if she could only do it on a smaller scale?
 * Shining Armor seems to be able to calibrate it to leave ponies non-affected, while her version(shown in "ponyville confidential" might not have that feature.
 * Using the spell on a small scale would have only protected a small amount of ponies, and attracted the attention of the changeling hordes, who would just break it down like they did with Shining's barrier. It would probably even draw the attention of the Queen, who had just beaten Celestia, and she would probably decide put Twilight into one of those containment dealies, rendering her incapable of further action.
 * Just where exactly did Cadence find that boquet to distract the bridesmaids? It's not exactly something you'd find lying in a cave, or even something you'd be carrying around with you. And there is no sign of it during the song.
 * It's possible that one of the bridesmaids was transported into the cave while she was arranging the bouquet, and then dropped it after her arrival.
 * On reviewing the scene, Cadence and Twilight are both backing up worriedly and looking around for something to use, and then as Cadence turns her head her expression goes 'a-ha!'. Then she pulls the bouquet into frame. It does very much look like one of the bridesmaids had just absent-mindedly kicked it into a corner.