| FiW: Neigh, Soul Sister | |
|---|---|
| |
| Creator(s) | SherclopPones |
| Date added | January 6, 2012 |
| Duration | 18:15 |
| Transcript | Available |
| Part of | Friendship is Witchcraft |
| Show connection | Sisterhooves Social |
| ⇐ Cute From The Hip |
⇒ Lunar Slander |
Neigh, Soul Sister is the fifth episode of Friendship is Witchcraft. It uses video material from the episodes Green Isn't Your Color and Sisterhooves Social, primarily following the general plot of the latter.
Summary[]
Rarity is woken from dreaming about her time in the war by smoke coming from her kitchen. The source of the smoke is Sweetie Belle's chassis, though the rest of the episode does not mention the incident or have one of the characters recognize Sweetie Belle's robotic nature. Implausibly, their parents arrive despite having died in a crash six years earlier, and remind Rarity that this is the week of the eclipse.
To get her sister out of her hair, Rarity sends Sweetie Belle to the woods, where she sings a stanza of a song about her love for Rarity; the song can be heard in full later in the episode, with Rarity's name switched out for Applejack. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom find her there, in a clip from The Show Stoppers. The earth pony remarks that her compass always points to Sweetie Belle, and the robot eventually returns home.
After a scene in which Sweetie Belle repurposes an animal carcass meant for a religious ritual for an arts and crafts project, Rarity meets Fluttershy at her "Conversion Spa", depicted with clips from Green Isn't Your Color. They discuss said ritual, which is supposed to bring about the return of the Smooze (a villain from the G1 movie), and with him the apocalypse.
Meanwhile, a dejected Sweetie Belle wanders around Ponyville, where she meets Apple Bloom. She suggests inviting Rarity to the Sentient Social, an annual competition/free labor scam hosted at Sweet Apple Acres. Rarity refuses, causing a falling-out between the two sisters. While she quickly realizes her mistake, Sweetie Belle is not so quick to forgive, going so far as to accuse Rarity of being a robot for having difficulty expressing real emotions.
As in the original episode, Sweetie Belle is led to believe that she can participate in the Sentient Social with Applejack as her sister-for-a-day. Partway, Applejack switches with a disguised Rarity, who chose to forego Fluttershy's resurrection ritual to be there for her sister.
There are, in fact, several apparent resurrections in the episode: beside Rarity's parents (who, it is implied, crash again off-screen directly after they take their leave), there's also Fluttershy's father from "Dragone Baby Gone", Granny Smith, and a bird. They all appear in a visual effect similar to the one caused by Pinkie's spell in "Cute From The Hip". Each time, a counter in the lower left-hand corner of the screen increases. At the end of the episode, the counter stops at 5 out of 9, a number specifically called out in Pinkie's song: "they say a kitch-en time saves nine / but I'm just saving two".
Sherclop Pones have mentioned that the running gag originated as a reference to the pre-Sisterhooves Social "fanon" idea that Rarity's parents were dead, and that there is no "big climax" planned once nine parents have been brought back to life.[1]
The episode ends with a final scene in which Rarity and Sweetie Belle listen to a tape recorder swallowed by the younger sister. There are two recordings on it: a friendship report by Twilight that resembles the one given by Rarity in the original episode, and an "audition" by Spike for a play. The latter references yet another Disney song, "Reflection" from Mulan. Like "Hellfire" in the first episode (but unlike the instrumental snippet from Hunchback's soundtrack in "Dragone Baby Gone"), the song is not credited either in the video or the YouTube description.
Sentient Social[]
The Sentient Social is an annual event located at the apple farm and hosted by Applejack and Apple Bloom, in which teams of two sisters compete in a variety of competitions. The main focus of the event is to get free labor on the farm, but it also serves as a location for soul scanning and sentience scanning in the search to expose robots. Events include:
- Sisterly Double Dutch
- Sisterly Bobsled Derby
- Sisterly Turing Test
- Sisterly Soul Scan
- Sisterly Do-The-Apple-Family's-Chores-Extravaganza
- The Big Race