Out of all the things Nightmare Moon could've done to impede the heroes' progress, why attack a mustache?
I imagine the scene went thusly: Nightmare Moon came across the river as she raced ahead and thought it'd make for an insurmountable obstacle if properly prepared. All she'd need to do is rile up the local sea serpent (it's a wild river in the Everfree Forest; a sea serpent being present is a reasonable assumption to make). It wouldn't be difficult - she'd already done something similar with a manticore, and an aggressive sea serpent would be even more dangerous.
In short order, she finds the sea serpent of the river and whisks past him sharply, only knocking off a few hairs to get his attention. It definitely takes notice. She gets ready to attack again to further agitate the creature... when it breaks down into tears, lamenting the loss of its mustache. He throws such a fit, such great heaving sobs and tantrums, that the river is made almost impossible to cross by his thrashing.
Not what she expected at all, but... mission accomplished, one way or another. With time being of the essence, she moves on and leaves the serpent be.
And that's how Steven Magnet got his mustache chopped off.
NMM: "... Well, while not exactly what I intended, it does seem to be keeping those ponies from crossing, so... I guess I win?
Ah well, at least they shouldn't be able to get past this. I mean really, unless one of them knows some sort of spell to grow mustaches, then I don't see how they can catch up..."
And thus Twilight resolved to learn a mustache growing spell in case this ever comes up again, cause she's Batmare and if given time to prepare she can solve any problem. Let's look at two examples shall we?
Damaged Mustache which she wasn't expecting: Has no idea what to do.
Reads a book on Ursa Minor out of curiosity: Wins in less than 3 minutes.
I don't think she knew it at the time, I think she was just learning it in Boast Busters. For that matter, (Fridge Logic) she's probably learning that spell specifically BECAUSE of this incident here.
I always assumed that the reason Twi learned #25 in the first place was because this happened - I mean, why else would you learn how to grow facial hair if not to appease the local sea serpent, right?
I envision Twi's player being indignant at the thought of the rogue having a spell/ritual she couldn't cast yet and taking it later on, only for it to become useful much, much later. :-)
I don't think the Insight was to find gender (that would be Perception easily), but to discern without having to ask why he was crying. Insight is basically Sense Motive from 3.5, so it's used to determine if someone is lying or their motivations for their actions. The reason "sir" was emphasized the second time around was because she failed the roll hard, and wanted to "get his attention" better to get an answer.
Not even the Pinkamena design. Not straight haired, wet haired. I'm happy the animators cared enough to differentiate. It's all wet and clingy, not just having all of the puff taken out of it. Pinkamena's hair is flat edged at the bottom, this is pointy.
The first step in courting a dwarven maiden, either in the mines or on the big city streets of Ankh-Morpork, is ascertaining that she is, in fact, female.
If there WAS one, it'd smooth out 90% of the problems 4e's skill system has, since cutting so many 3.5 skills left noticeable gaps in the usefulness of skills. As a DM, when one of my players ask "What should I roll?" and I've got no clue and have to tell them to roll a flat STR/DEX/INT check, there's a problem.
while im waiting Ill give one example, Profession: Sailor - think on why a character would use that skill. the most likely answers are either A: using rigging on a ship or B: safely maneuvering on said ship. in 4e both of those can be covered by skills in the list. A by Thievery (which covers everything that requires fine motor skill) and B by Acrobatics
Although it's a pretty bad fit, I use Diplomacy where Perform would go since they're not *too* dissimilar.
Profession: Sailor is actually a better example of a skill that would fill in some gaps, actually. Since rigging a ship is a difficult task, and sure Thievery *could* be used for tying the ropes, but maintaining the ship and operating the many moving parts is not something a trained Thief would necessarily be good at.
It's not so much that Profession itself would be a blanket fix for all the gaps in skill usage, but that every character being able to train a profession would mean that you don't have to fudge it quite as often. The problem isn't Profession itself, it's that SO many skills got dropped when making 4e that it creates gaps you don't really foresee until you actually run into them.
I dunno, I kinda thought Applejack's was the weakest of the Mane Six's Element scenes, not Rarity's. While Rarity's isn't all that strong either, relatively speaking(Pinkie Pie dominated with her song, of course) it's still a good demonstration of the concept.
Of course, they were limited by the air time...to be frank I think they easily could have made several episodes for each of the Mane Six demonstrating their Element, if they had been able to take the time to do so.
I have to agree. I really don't think that Applejack's "element moment" really has anything to do with honesty. Rarity at least did something generous, even if it makes almost no sense in hindsight, while Applejack just told the truth, which while it's something you'd expect of someone who embodies honesty it's also something you'd expect of anyone in any situation except one where lying is beneficial.
Well I don't think she gets the short end of the stick. Sure she can't fly, do magic, and has money problems, but she has a large family. In her season one episode...she became sleep deprived and needed help. OK, bad example. But in her next episode.....oh wait. Well that race...she tied for last place and Twilight got 5th...dang I think Faust hated AJ or something.
Also relevant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FjMQBN2Ls8&t=5m22s
But I only kid. I think part of the problem with Applejack's definition as "Honest" and Rainbow Jack's definition as "Loyal" (when really she's honest and straightforward to the point of sometimes being offensive) was that I'm not certain they had the characters entirely worked out yet as of the first episode or possibly they just grew organically away from those original plans. This happens to series sometimes and as long as the growth is an improvement and not too abrupt it presents no real problem. Not that Applejack isn't honest and Rainbowdash isn't Loyal, I just probably would have switched them judging by their later actions.
I wouldn't have, and I'm not sure why so many people would. Rainbow dash is blunt and truthful... but she's also shown as being willing to lie, cheat, and manipulate to avoid losing or embarrassing herself. None of this is honest
Applejack is mostly dependable and eager to help out... but when push comes to shove, she just isn't genuinely loyal -- when it comes down to it, she'll put her own pride before her obligations to others, as in "Applebuck Season" or "The Last Roundup."
Meanwhile, Applejack is consistently honest in her dealings and habits. She rarely outright lies, and always tries to treat other ponies fairly.
As well, Rainbow Dash will not abandon her friends given the choice. In the abovementioned Last Roundup, she's the first of the ponies to suggest finding Applejack, and the most insistent on getting her to come back no matter what -- even when given the choice between rescuing Pinkie Pie and Rarity and pursuing Applejack, she makes the truly loyal choice to continue the pursuit. They knew what they were getting into, and they would have been lost for nothing if Applejack managed to escape. Her leaving Gilda is also very loyal -- she's willing to stick with her true friends, even if it means turning away from someone she knew for a long time and considered a friend, and who she definitely considered cooler than her pony friends. Loyalty is earned, and the other ponies had earned Rainbow Dash's loyalty, while Gilda had proved herself unworthy of it with her mean-spirited behavior and insistence that Rainbow Dash choose between Gilda or her other friends.
Honesty means "telling the truth" only in the most basic sense of the word. Webster identifies it as "straightforward of conduct," so it's more of a "doing the right/logical thing." In the cliff scene, knowing that the "right" answer was for Twilight to fall and be caught demonstrates the honesty.
...Of course the "Friendship is Witchcraft" version of this scene makes a lot more sense for a rogue who values her appearance. Especially considering the new mustache didn't even match.
I come from many years in the future to say the punchline here is pretty gross. "This guy cares about his appearance therefore 'he' must actually be a 'she'" ba-dump tish. You're better than this, and so's AJ, RPG character or not.
Ah well, at least they shouldn't be able to get past this. I mean really, unless one of them knows some sort of spell to grow mustaches, then I don't see how they can catch up..."
Damaged Mustache which she wasn't expecting: Has no idea what to do.
Reads a book on Ursa Minor out of curiosity: Wins in less than 3 minutes.
(Ba-nanana-nananana BAT-MARE!)
Call MW."
Actually, given how eccentric the main characters are, Darkwing Duck really did make a better analogy.
Or at least, that's what I think is goin' on.
RD: Ugh, we don't have time for this! This stupid lizard is holding us up!
Fluttershy: He's a serpent.
Twilight: Wait, why do I have to make Perception to figure out what gender it is?
RD: Well it IS a reptile.
And I would think the gender should be kind of obvious because, you know, mustache.
http://www.infrno.net/forums/13-seeking-players-for-a-game/topics/431-fate-my-little-pony
Profession: Sailor is actually a better example of a skill that would fill in some gaps, actually. Since rigging a ship is a difficult task, and sure Thievery *could* be used for tying the ropes, but maintaining the ship and operating the many moving parts is not something a trained Thief would necessarily be good at.
It's not so much that Profession itself would be a blanket fix for all the gaps in skill usage, but that every character being able to train a profession would mean that you don't have to fudge it quite as often. The problem isn't Profession itself, it's that SO many skills got dropped when making 4e that it creates gaps you don't really foresee until you actually run into them.
Of course, they were limited by the air time...to be frank I think they easily could have made several episodes for each of the Mane Six demonstrating their Element, if they had been able to take the time to do so.
She doesn't have an episode all of her own, but she's had 1/2 or 1/3 of some of the best episodes of the whole show.
But I only kid. I think part of the problem with Applejack's definition as "Honest" and Rainbow Jack's definition as "Loyal" (when really she's honest and straightforward to the point of sometimes being offensive) was that I'm not certain they had the characters entirely worked out yet as of the first episode or possibly they just grew organically away from those original plans. This happens to series sometimes and as long as the growth is an improvement and not too abrupt it presents no real problem. Not that Applejack isn't honest and Rainbowdash isn't Loyal, I just probably would have switched them judging by their later actions.
Applejack is mostly dependable and eager to help out... but when push comes to shove, she just isn't genuinely loyal -- when it comes down to it, she'll put her own pride before her obligations to others, as in "Applebuck Season" or "The Last Roundup."
Meanwhile, Applejack is consistently honest in her dealings and habits. She rarely outright lies, and always tries to treat other ponies fairly.
As well, Rainbow Dash will not abandon her friends given the choice. In the abovementioned Last Roundup, she's the first of the ponies to suggest finding Applejack, and the most insistent on getting her to come back no matter what -- even when given the choice between rescuing Pinkie Pie and Rarity and pursuing Applejack, she makes the truly loyal choice to continue the pursuit. They knew what they were getting into, and they would have been lost for nothing if Applejack managed to escape. Her leaving Gilda is also very loyal -- she's willing to stick with her true friends, even if it means turning away from someone she knew for a long time and considered a friend, and who she definitely considered cooler than her pony friends. Loyalty is earned, and the other ponies had earned Rainbow Dash's loyalty, while Gilda had proved herself unworthy of it with her mean-spirited behavior and insistence that Rainbow Dash choose between Gilda or her other friends.