My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Headscratchers/Season 1: Difference between revisions

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== 1.01 The Mare in the Moon ==

 

== 1.02 The Elements of Harmony ==

** [[Word of God|Lauren Faust]] has stated that Nightmare Moon was caused by an external 'evil magic' feeding on Luna's jealousy and hatred. Exactly what it is, no clue, maybe we'll find out in Season 2, especially since Season 2 is going to have villains.

*** {{spoiler|Unfortunately, Season 2 does not reveal whether Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon was her own affair or someone else's fault. Season 2 DID introduce a villain, Discord, but Celestia and Luna both defeated him together the last time he showed up so he's probably not to blame.}}

* When Spike and Twilight hide from the crowd of greedy ponies, Spike disguises himself as a hula dancer, complete with grass skirt and what appears to be a [[Seashell Bra|coconut bra]]. What kind of creature in Equestria could possibly have breasts?

** female dragons? my little human dolls?

 

* Rarity fantasizes about Prince Blueblood proposing to her with a ring she puts on her horn. So what if you're not a unicorn? Would you put it on your hoof? Wouldn't that technically make it a bracelet?

== 1.04 Applebuck Season ==

* There is a mule in applebuck season. a mule. As in, the sterile offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. That implies quite a bit... and the fan assumption is that donkeys are on the same level as wildlife, meaning some mare in Ponyville is very promiscuous. There is no other explanation.

** Why the assumption that donkeys would be on the level of wildlife? The mule seemed to be perfectly capable of holding a conversation and understanding basic social graces, so why assume that a donkey wouldn't be at least on the same level as the talking cows? Heck, ''Zecora'' isn't technically a pony either.

** So far it seems Bovidae (cows and bison) and Equidae (ponies and zebras) are fully sentient, along with griffins and dragons. Also [[Rule of Funny]].

 

== 1.05 Griffon The Brush Off ==

** It's made even worse when you consider the fact that, as far as we know, her actions may have been justified based on how griffons behave amongst themselves. However, the alternative of Rainbow Dash deciding to keep hanging out with her may be even more counter-intuitive to her element in the end, seeing as how she would split her loyalty between two groups. I completely agree on how harsh she was to quickly sever all ties with Gilda, though. There was clearly some lost potential there, hopefully we get to see more of her in the future.

*** I got the idea that it's more like Gilda is the one who severed ties. After she showed her true colors Rainbow Dash gave her an ultimatum - "These lame-o's happen to be my friends. If you can't accept that you're not the person I thought you were and I'm not so sure I want to hang with that kind of person." - and Gilda decided that she'd rather wash her hands (talons?) of Rainbow Dash than admit that she was wrong. So no, Rainbow Dash wasn't exactly being purest acceptance and virtue with her ultimatum, but Gilda is the one who decided to get out of town; Dash would probably have reconciled with Gilda if she'd apologised and admitted she was wrong.

*** I admit that does makes sense, but remember, Dash only introduced Pinkie Pie as a friend at first, and she did make an annoyance of herself when Dash and Gilda where trying to be alone, and when Dash introduced the rest of the Mane Cast you had already heard at least one of Gilda's nerves snap. (Please note the preceding sentence is ''not'' an attempt to justify Gilda's berating the ponies she met.) Griffin mythos are usually quite consistent in portaying them as either solitary or in close-knit family units, so to Gilda it would probably be sensible, if unfounded, for her to feel possessive of Dash and threatened by the new crowd. Wanting a person to hang out with only you is selfish and stupid, but that's life and relationships for you. I just interpreted Dash as taking Gilda's outburst as her not thinking ponies worth her time, including Dash, which wasn't the message Gilda was trying to project. And on the side, Dash should know by now that Gilda is a bomb that only needs the smallest spark to blow up, ending a childnood friendship over one overblown emotional outburst just seems like giving up to quickly.( Dash doesn't get told about Gilda's impassioned little tirade against Fluttershy, but even if she did know there is still room for the option of just talking a compromise out so Gilda could calm down and stop viewing the rest of Ponyville as a challenge, ultimatives only get negative results in these situations.)

** While I agree that this episode wasn't written as well as it could or should have been, Rainbow Dash never really gave Gilda an ultimatum, she just called Gilda out on her behavior. I don't think she could have known Gilda for that long and still expect her to roast marshmallows with the mane 6, but she did expect her to at least be civil. Notice how Gilda stutters after Rainbow's scolding; she ''knows'' she's in the wrong, but is too proud to admit it, and would rather pin it all on Dash for being a "flip-flop" than admit to being at fault.

** Twilight was quite right to apologize. She didn't pay much attention to what Pinkie was saying, preferring to page through a book instead. Then she made no attempt to find out if Pinkie was right about Gilda or not, she just brushed Pinkie off. She was apologizing for not taking the time and effort to find out if Pinkie had a case or not before dismissing it as jealousy.

*** To be fair, Pinkie seemed to visit Twilight just to vent about Gilda making her leave her and Dash alone for the day, rather than discuss how aggressive Gilda was behaving towards her. That would come off as rather clingy seeing how much time Pinkie had spent dragging Dash around in a pranking spree before Gilda showed up. Pinkie herself didn't yet really know how much of a [[Jerkass]] Gilda can be, and was only fuming over not being able to get to spend time with Dash yet. She didn't even mention Gilda pushing her around in the clouds, and didn't even seem to be as offended by the bullying as much as being pegged as a third wheel. Twilight probably assumed that Pinkie was ejected from a scenario she had forced herself into, and offered the advice "Stop trying to monopolize Dash when she has other company," which is a completely sensible thing to do if all that Pinkie told her was that Gilda was occupying Dash when Pinkie wanted to hang out with her, which, let's face it, was probably all she told Twilight, Pinkie almost never bothers with the whole story.

** Their problem was that the advertising did not match the product. Bragging that includes "she's got '''more''' magical powers than any other unicorn ever", she "performs the '''most spectacular''' feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes", and "the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria", especially when the latter two are said in a voice that practically screams insufferable show-off, is just asking for it. Note that the few ponies who are skeptical of her claims have recently dealt with a [[Physical God]], are friends with a unicorn whose defining attribute is magical power, and actually can follow up their own boasts.

** The key word here is 'skeptical': they don't actually make a scene, they pass comments among themselves, and RD makes the scene by shouting boo. The others don't insult her beyond comparing her to a school filly with fancy ribbons, the implication being that her announcing her magic using so many superlatives is simply immature. This is while she magics flowers out of thin air, so it is implied that this sort of thing is more mundane than Trixie makes it out to be. Plus, whatever else her failings are, Rainbow Dash actually asks the sensible question: what makes her think she's so special? Their skepticism pays off because the answer tells you everything you need to know about Trixie. Long story short, they're reacting to Trixie's overblown advertising.

*** Well, I certainly understand what you are saying; my whole issue is just how the conflict and message was carryed out. Go on a message board and look for a comment complaining about whatever the topic is, and I gurantee you that there will be at least four comments along the lines of "go look at something else then," it's the same principle in a live show; you're supposed to just walk away quietly when it isn't what you wanted to see, it's a bastard move to throw rotten tomatoes.

*** [[Dont Like Dont Watch]] is not a fair response to complaints unless the complaints are persistent, especially complaints that have a strong basis in fact. Considering they'd just pointed out, and subsequently proved, that Trixie was considerably less powerful than she had advertised herself to be, telling them to go away for voicing their scepticism would be downright rude. The only one who actually did "throw rotten tomatoes" was Dash. Applejack and Spike made one complaint each (Rarity two) before Trixie actually noticed them (after Dash shouts "BOO"), and two of those 'complaints' were explanations to Twilight - who had, after all, asked why they were unimpressed.

** What did Pinkie do wrong? She was still gathering materials for her solution, and very much did NOT want her cymbals sucked into the tornado. There's a reason she calls herself the ruinee (or whatever). I wouldn't blame her for that; it was just an accident. And one could even suggest that if it wasn't cymbals, it would've been some other chunk of metal lying around Ponyville.

** Pinkie Pie accidentally ruined the tornado, but would it really have worked anyway? What happens when you get the tornado all the way over to the forest and then stop tornado-ing? What's to stop the parasprites from just flying back over to ponyville? (Apparently Pinkie Pie's solution makes them ''stay'' in the forest for some reason.) And it's not like Dash could keep up the tornado forever.

*** Also, Applejack herded a whole group to the forest, and they stayed. It was only due to Fluttershy keeping one (which multiplied very fast, assumingly due to Rule of Funny) that the problem wasn't solved.

*** The probable answer is that Pinkie's method was the only way of ensuring ''every'' Parasprite was collected and sent back to the forest. The other attempts by the rest of the mane six consisted of gathering them up and forcing them back into the forest. They would work, but only if they managed to gather every single Parasprite, and if they missed just one (or [[Cuteness Proximity|kept one as a pet]]) then the problem would repeat itself. Pinkie's method caused lured the Parasprites out en-masse instead of gathering them one by one. Unless there was one hiding where it couldn't hear the music, her music would collect every Parasprite in town with relatively little effort.

*** Um...just because ponyville was founded by Earth Ponies doesn't mean that the founders weren't ''aware'' of the existence of other types of ponies.

*** This is disproved by the second season: [[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap/S2 E11 Family Appreciation Day|"Family Appreciation Day"]] places the founding of Ponyville in the period of Celestia's reign over Equestria, within the lifetimes of Granny Smith and Diamond Tiara's great grandfather, while [[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap/S2 E13 Hearths Warming Eve|"Hearth's Warming Eve"]] shows that the three pony races were aware of each other even before the founding of Equestria, let alone Ponyville.

** The fanfic [http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/02/story-first-winter-wrap-up.html "The First Winter Wrap-Up"] proposes one possible answer: {{spoiler|The restriction against magic was actually ''self-imposed'' by the unicorns who were involved in the town's founding, after a feud among them resulted in members of each of the three pony types discovering they couldn't live without the other two. The unicorns saw it as a way to make sure that all three types of ponies work together rather than relying on unicorn magic for shortcuts. Pegasi would have been exempt since there isn't any non-magical way to control the weather, hence using their own abilities isn't a "shortcut"}}.

** Another possible interpretation is that usually (in Canterlot, for instance) the winter wrap-up is performed simply by casting a single Winter Wrap-up spell. Doing things the "Earth pony way" just means not casting that particular spell, while lesser magics are fair game. Perhaps Twilight misunderstood the restriction; note that Rarity quite casually uses her telekinesis at one point.

** The character of Photo Finish suggests that not all ponies have the same native language and actual French is spoken by Apple Bloom in a later episode, so I think it's safe to assume that Equestria/the world of ponies (I'm still not sure if the word "Equestria" refers to their entire world or just a single country/continent within a world) contains [[Fantasy Counterpart Cultures]] for at least France and Germany (as well as buffalo as Native Americans and zebras as Sub-Saharan Africans).

 

** That line was interesting, to say the least. However, once we do get to see Rainbow Dash wear her 'dream' outfit, something more reminiscent of a royal guard's armor than an actual dress, the line could be seen as clever foreshadowing.

** ''Of course'' Equestria has tanks. It's pretty easy to stop a pony charge with some trenches and barbed wire. If the ponies are to effectively make war against a fortified enemy, they pretty much ''need'' vehicles.

** It seems even weirder now that Rainbow Dash {{spoiler|has a pet tortoise named Tank.}}

** Well... it's just like [[Harry Potter|Hermione's]] dismissal of Divination and her earlier dismissal of Zecora and curses, isn't it? Twilight won't believe in ''anything'' that can't be verified in books as 100% fact, just like Hermione. Hermione's opinion on Divination matches with Twilight's original opinion about Pinkie Sense.

 

** My best guess of what they were going for is that Twilight should have just accepted her friends' explanation of the Pinkie Sense because they had known Pinkie for longer and she could trust them. There's also the fact that Twilight's approach to the whole situation was "I know I'm right and I'm going to prove it" rather than "I don't know what's going on and I'm going to find out". She cared more about proving Pinkie wrong than actually figuring out what was going on.

*** An explanation worthy of a Dear Princess Celestia prefix, thanks!

*** She wasn't telling them where to dig, she was marking an X on the ground with a stick. A gag wouldn't stop her from doing that.

** This troper thinks that if Rarity was gagged, she'd probably get angry or desperate enough to use the gems as a [[Flechette Storm]] against the Diamond Dogs.

 

* The captors and ponies were all pretty good on all sides, especially when the captors did stand up to Rarity and Rarity's reactions throughout to her manipulation, but something come to mind in a combination of [[Distressed Damsel]] and [[Fridge Logic]]. 1) If the captive one was Fluttershy or Twilight Sparkle or Spike, would they have able to come up with a way out? I mention this because while I believe they deconstructed the idea of the [[Distressed Damsel]] into the evolution of the [[Badass Damsel]], they also played it pretty straight with the 'hero and heroines' thoughts as well as Rarity's initial reactions to captivity. I mean, when the girls as much as the boy of the group think you're in immense danger, then someone's playing with the trope or you're lampshading with the purpose to not show hatred against [[Distressed Damsel]], but to appreciate and use it your own way while playing it straight. I think this episode was actually put in for a very real discussion about [[Distressed Damsel]] between parents and their children as well as the [[Periphery Demographic]]-not meant to detract or glorify the trope, but to make it a [[Discussed Trope]]. Well done, Faust.

*** The idea of Pinkie Pie having access to explosives is both hillarious and terrifying.

** Either a 'rock farm' is a 1) Quarry, 2) Geode/magic gemstone growing farm, or 3) 'Rocks' grow due to gravity when the solar system forms. Thus Pinky Pie helped create the planet! And that's how Equestria was made! (Also, her sisters were light grey and purple. Which god-tier ponies are also respectivly light colored and purple?)

** This is a world where they have to wrap up winter. Perhaps the rock farming is how raw rock materials are gathered to make certain landmarks or natural designs. Earth-shaping, in a sense. Though in practice I'd go for the rock-farm=quarry idea.

** It's also possible that it was simply a more traditional quarry or mine, and Pinkie Pie just called it a "rock farm" because she figured that's what her audience--children from a rural farming community--would best understand as a metaphor.

** He's pulling an all-dayer (the opposite of an all-nighter.) Maybe got really tired of this by the end of the episode, which is why we don't see him in later episodes.

 

** Well, what immediately comes to mind is that there's never been any actual indication that the former is the case.

*** Or does it? If Equstria is just a country within a bigger world, it could work if she wanted to bring the eternal night just there. The other side of the planet would have eternal day, but Nightmare Moon might not care -- she wants the admiration of her subjects specifically.

** Equestria could simply be a geocentric system. Never mind that that's not how star systems form naturally in our universe--what if Equestria has artificial sun and moon satellites kept in their stable orbits by first the concerted effort of unicorns ritually performing the same spells they always have, and later by the Princesses? They could be the last remnants of an ancient civilization, now long gone. It would explain why they have to so carefully manage seasons and nature--without a long, slow revolution around the sun, any axial tilt will be meaningless--heck, it's even possible that the planet doesn't spin at all! In that case, Nightmare Moon could have caused eternal night for Equestria simply by spinning up the planet so the sun's orbit became geostationary--causing rather a high temperature increase on the opposite side, and decrease on the Equestria side. No mention of time zones or differences is made in the series and it's implied that when Celestia raises the sun, it rises at more or less the same time everywhere that matters, so it may be assumed Equestria is not globe-spanning.

*** Night shift would at least explain why she's never had a reason to appear at any other point during this season.

** It's likely that Luna would have kept her distance during the Gala because she's still uncomfortable about her public image (a concept soon to be explored in [[S 2 E 4]], ''Luna Eclipsed''). If you were essentially an ex-criminal, would you show your face at a grand event attended almost entirely by the judgmental upper-class? Considering that we ''see for ourselves'' what dicks they can be?

*** Including language lessons. A thousand years of linguistic drift is a LOT to catch up on. We're lucky she didn't gallop into Ponyville on Nightmare Night and start belting out Middle Equestrian (referencing Middle English here), unable to explain anything intelligably to any but the most devoted of language scholars.

**** That would also explain why she didn't understand "fun". She understood the concept perfectly, but the word used to describe it was unfamiliar. So when she realized they were describing what she thought of as, I dunno, "fhynne", she feigned ignorance to cover up the gap in her vocabulary lessons.

** The Grand Galloping Gala is quite literally the biggest annual event in Equestria. Tickets were no doubt received WELL in advance, it's not unreasonable that planning for the next Gala starts as soon as the previous one ends. While it might seem odd that Twilight takes her dress to Rarity well before the event, it seems most likely that the dress was her usual formal outfit, and she damaged it recently, and that she mentions the Gala because that's her next scheduled formal event where she would wear it.

 

** They overreacted. Simple as that. Applejack had her heart set on getting money for helping out the farm, and when that didn't play out, she got upset and started doing things that clearly wouldn't work because she stopped thinking. Fluttershy lives for helping animals. If you suddenly proved useless at what you literally live for, how would you feel? Rainbow Dash had her heart set on spending time with the Wonderbolts. To have that torn away CONSTANTLY would be aggravating, I'm surprised she didn't come as close to swearing somepony out as a kids' show would allow instead of just trying little things. Pinkie simply expected something better and didn't think to stop and check out the surroundings.

** Maybe I need to watch it again, but I don't think Rainbow Dash and Applejack did anything inexcusable either. Okay, Rainbow Dash shouldn't have kicked that other pony into the air so she could rescue him, but other than that she didn't do anything wrong, and all Applejack did was bring in the cake that Pinkie jumped into. So you can blame it all on Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.

*** Very Silly [[Wild Mass Guessing]]: The gardener offered her a drink of Wiskey from a hip flask to cheer her up after her first attempt to befriend the animals failed. He kept giving her a drink after each failed attempt, leading to a drunken rampage by the end of the night.

*** This. Can this be canon?

** But to answer the original question, I agree that it most likely won't be brought up again in Cannon. But we can still have fun with the meme it generated!

** Wasn't it said by [[Word of God]] that Princess Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon was caused by "something or someone"? Maybe he/she/it was behind Fluttershy's breakdown...

** Fluttershy strikes me as the kind of pony who, due to her incredible shyness, bottles her outspoken negative emotions inside. Then, when things really start to get irritating, it causes any bottled up anger to overflow.

*** Fluttershy seems to run on [[Beware the Nice Ones]] -- look at what she does to the dragon and the cockatrice. Intimidation tends to be somewhat handicapped when your target has every ability to destroy you without even thinking, but it works. Oh, and I did see a fic somewhere that suggested the earlier idea. For one, Fluttershy had built up the idea of how things would go ... and for another, she wasn't actually ''using'' her special skill and ability to soothe creatures, thus shocking the hummingbirds out of humming and the buzzard out of buzzing.

*** Actually, when one does a close analysis of Fluttershy's character, and picks up on a couple hints, the 'Flutterrage' outburst doesn't seem like an [[Out of Character]] moment, instead seems like a bad mixture of variables to produce a 'powder keg ready to blow' situation. Let's go over them:

####First off, as seen in 'Dragonshy,' 'Stare Master,' and 'Suited for Success,' Fluttershy can be very assertive, even borderline aggressive when pushed to the point that she's forced to come out of her shell of shyness, instead of just breaking down and crying, or something like that.

####Thirdly, Fluttershy was following the 'advice' Twilight had given her in 'Bird in the Hoof' (“I just have to be more bold, like Twilight says.“-Fluttershy, as she's setting up the stereotypical box and stick trap) This is similar to when she did the 'hop-skip-and-a-jump' in 'Feeling Pinkie Keen.' Pinkie had given that advice all the way back in 'Dragonshy' but at the time, Fluttershy didn't take it in.

####Fourthly, there is the common pattern and fan-theory of Cutie Mark Failure Insanity Syndrome (or CMFIS for short) in which, whenever a pony's special talent comes into question (like when Fluttershy has trouble getting animals to love her) it can trigger a breakdown that causes the pony's personality to temporarily become the opposite of what it normally is.

** The problem with her behaviour oviously stems from how it didn't get enough buildup. There wasn't a whole episode to explain it (or what caused the factors that caused it) like for, say, Pinkie Pie's psychosis. I assume it would have made sense if fully explained.

** ...That said, some of the explanations here almost seem to make it make less sense. For example, Fluttershy taking in the CMC or Philomena seems more naivety than arrogance, and not even based on unreasonable assumptions, since she usually just ''is'' freakishly good with all sorts of critters. (And really, the problem is that the critters on those occasions are willfull and "intelligent"; animals may be sort of intelligent in this series, but they react much more simply regardless. Except Angel, and, though he likes Fluttershy, she can't just wrap him around her hoof with her natural charm, either.) That same assumption is certainly present in "The Best Night Ever", but is it arrogance? This, of course, makes the biggest question just why those animals don't automatically fall for her. And, again, an excuse would have been easy to come up with with some time for buildup.

*** As to "why her gift with animals failed so horribly," I think many people are overlooking the obvious: most of the time, she is helping animals. She feeds them, tends their injuries, protects them, wakes them from their hibernation, even reassures them when they are frightened, etc. They love her in no small part because of what she does for them. At the gala, she simply shows up in the royal gardens and expects to be loved.

*** Agreed. I always figured the animals' flippancy was supposed to be analogous to the way the ''actual'' Gala guests treated the common folk, as if to suggest "arrogant royals, from the king himself right down to the animals in the courtyard, are arrogant royals." Or... [[Wild Mass Guessing|maybe not]].

** Plus, who has she got as a role model for being assertive and bold? Twilight? Think "Feeling Pinkie Keen" and "A Bird in the Hoof". Rainbow Dash? Think [[Leeroy Jenkins]] meets [[Brutal Honesty]]. Honestly, rewatch Fluttershy's scenes and imagine she's mimicking one of them two as her role model for being bold.

 

** It's called ''noblesse oblige''; the idea that those in privileged positions have a countervailing obligation to act honorably and responsibly. Rarity does her best to live up to that trope despite not actually being nobility; Blueblood is a walking negation of it despite having been handed high noble status just for being born. (As opposed to, oh, Celestia, who is the walking incarnation of ''noblesse oblige''.)

** Frankly, gender and other roles do seem to play a part. But even without that, Blueblood is so self-obsessed he barely even sees anyone else even when he's interacting with them. Even when being told off royally by Rarity, all he seemed to register was that she was messy. Everything around him was just an accessory to himself.

** Having no sense of romance is hardly a genuine fault, and Rarity was just as self-centered in those two instances, insisting that he put down ''his'' cloak and open the door for ''her''. Blueblood is a [[Jerkass]], no doubt, but gender roles ''definitely'' come into play.

*** OK, I'll throw my hands up: having no sense of romance isn't a fault. It does have a lot to do with gender roles.

*** I've always liked the fanon that Blueblood was deliberately [[Troll|screwing with her]], because he knows what she's here for and having dealt with countless other mares with the same vapid dream, refuses to play the part.

** Rarity is defined by her generosity. If Blueblood had offered to pay for the food, Rarity might well have insisted that she pay anyway, but instead 'he expected her to do so from step one'. Likewise, he couldn't be generous in words or even in with something as inexpensive as a flower.

** In this Troper's opinion, there's an additional element that makes Blueblood's behavior much worse. Most of what he did was petty annoyances, but the CONTEXT made it much worse because he was "leading Rarity on." He was polite to Rarity and intentionally gave off an impression that he wanted Rarity's company when they first met, even if only so Rarity could flatter him. THEN he treated her like trash. If he hated Rarity's company he had the option to tell her, "Please leave. I'm not the stallion you think I am. I'm actually a jerk." Rarity probably would have been crushed but understood and taken it like a mare. Instead, Blueblood kept Rarity around and used her crush on him to make her wait on him hand and foot. So it's not so much some specific thing Blueblood did that made him so awful, it's the fact that he had better options for how to behave and didn't take them.

*** Also, coming from this same Troper, there's something else: Most of what Blueblood did was rude in a petty manner...except that's a lot of "most." Meaning, he was rude the whole time! If someone you care about uses you as a shield to block a cake once, you could chalk that off to him being in a bad mood. But if he does that after spending the entire evening engaging in petty but jerkish behavior, that involves an "underlying mindset" that no one matters but himself. Just like, for example, if your boss insults you once, it's an off day, but if he insults you every single day for little to no reason, he's probably a dominating tyrant.

** I got the impression that pulling someone's carriage is the equivalent of driving someone somewhere. Sure, in that case, there's actual physical labour involved, but it doesn't seem to be too extreme. The real life equivalent would be that the girls rented a limousine and asked the guys to drive them because they can't do it themselves in their fancy get-ups. It's not the equivalent of carrying them in a litter.

 

** Hoofs are less vulnerable than normal feet. And imagine what she was thinking when this fact was pointed out to her. She obviously understood the reference and the meaning. She was frightened by the meaning.

** Also, [[Rule of Funny]].

** It might have had a more interesting origin - perhaps originally it was a celebration of harmony after Discord or Nightmare Moon were defeated, and over the centuries it stagnated.

 

** Like you said, Celestia most likely had no way of knowing they'd go that far. Also, [[Rule of Perception]]. We're not really given insight into most of the party-goers, and the few that are given focus are portrayed unsympathetically, with the exception of the Wonderbolts. Still, it doesn't explain everything else you mentioned, so I'm assuming that the writers just didn't want you to look that closely. While it's a very unsatisfying answer, I don't think there's a better one then "it's just a show, I should really just relax."

** Most likely, Celestia was under the impression that the ponies would stay as a group and have a good time. They probably would have upsetted the other guests just the same being loud and stuff, and that was how she planned to have things spiced up.