My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 303 - Too Many Pinkie Pies

Rating:

Ai, yai, yai.  In a more stunning development than anything else that has happened on the show, the writer of the worst Pinkie Pie (and overall) episode returns from the dead to write the best one, even if that re­mains by default.  Dave Polsky was absent for the second season after penning two episodes, so it's unclear if this is a new script or a two-year-old unused one.  The episode itself offers no hints, since it contains a dose of rawness that has otherwise long since vanished.  If Too Many Pinkie Pies was a leftover, it’s one that should’ve been picked up over the many disastrous episodes made in its place over the first two seasons, even if Polsky didn’t explore the premise to the depths it could’ve gone.  The phil­osophical implications are likewise ignored, which was probably a good idea given the whole children’s show thing.  Disappointingly, Too Many Pinkie Pies isn’t as much “fun! fun! fun!” as it could have been, but Polsky finds enough to at least provide an enjoyable experience and end up with a decent lesson by the end.

Although I’ll never have this problem, apparently it’s possible for someone to have multiple friends who makes plans for the same time.  Such is the di­lemma Pinkie Pie faces, when she discovers that the other mane six mem­bers all have activities planned for that afternoon or whatever and she can’t possibly attend all of them (yes, not even with her godlike cartoon pow­ers, even though she tries).  With plenty of spoilers around now (not the least of which is the title), there’s little drama as to what is about to hap­pen, but at least it makes sense given the action so far.  Remembering some totally not convoluted story she heard from her “Nana Pinkie” (likely her real mother given what we saw of her “parents” and “sisters” in The Cutie Mark Chronicles), Pinkie heads off into the forest and stumbles into a magic cave with a pool in it.  This pool is actually some sort of Great Link that has the capability of copying DNA and insta-cloning, provided you say the right words first.  One nursery rhyme later, and Pinkie Pie has a ready-made clone that can go out and have the fun she can’t.

However, these clones apparently only come with Pinkie Pie instincts (mostly just the desire to have fun) and not with most or any of her memo­ries.  This becomes evident later when the clone can’t remember Apple­jack’s name (or Fluttershy’s) and calls her Apple-something else.  Pinkie also finds her clone harder to control than the mane six do her, but the prom­ise of fun in Ponyville leads the both of them out of the cave.  While neither event sounds particularly exciting, the clone chooses Applejack’s “barn-raising” apparently because she heard it first, which leads the real Pin­kie to meet Rainbow Dash at an actual pool.  Dash’s plan includes read­ing and sleeping, but Pinkie certainly couldn’t miss out on that (Dash did invite her for some reason, although she didn’t care if Pinkie Pie blew her off for now obvious reasons).  The best moment comes when Dash announces she is going to sleep, which leads Pinkie to frolic in the pool quietly.  She lets loose a soft “whee” before magically slowing her mid-air descent so that she dips into the pool instead of splashing.  Dash has to ask how this complete violation of physics laws is possible, but Pinkie’s great response is that she is only trying to “show some consideration” for her friend.

Before the clone can make it to Applejack’s, she runs into Fluttershutter hav­ing a picnic with her animal friends.  Given the other two activities the Pinkies are trying to be involved in, it’s completely understandable that the clone can’t resist joining this one instead.  But of course, that means she can’t be at Applesauce’s either, so she freaks out and returns to the real Pin­kie at the pool.  Both quickly realize that two of them aren’t enough to cover everything going on in Ponyville (especially with five other friends), so they head back to the cloning pond to make a couple of more Pinkies.  Four should be plenty, but these new clones are no better than the first one.  Eerily like cell division, the Pinkie clones repeat the rhymes and process (fortunately only a couple of times), until there are around 12-15 Pinkies.  It feels like more though (and eventually is), but instead of fan­ning out through Ponyville, they all gather together at the various activity spots shouting the only word they know.  This quickly and unsurprisingly gets out of hand, especially after they knock Applejack’s new barn down (for what won't be the last time).

As apparently the town’s de facto mayor in times of crisis, the citizens of Po­nyville complain to Twilight for a solution to the Pinkie problem.  Check­ing her history books for the word “solution”, Twilight embraces a plan to round up the Pinkie Pies into a concentration camp and mass mur­der them all and send the clones back to the pond in a totally non-hurtful way.  In situations like these, the big question is always which one is real, al­though in this case it should be painfully obvious since the clones have lit­tle intelligence.  Mercifully, the audience is able to easily rec­ognize the real Pinkie, especially since this ordeal has caused her to act in a decidedly un-Pinkie-like way.  She has doubts that she is the real one, which hints at a possible issue regarding cloning.  Who can decide if a copy is real when they’re all the same?  After all, we all started as one cell that duplicated itself many more times than the Pinkie Pies did.  How is this any different?  Here though, the real Pinkie has memories and experiences that the others don’t, which easily makes her stand out.  Considering how most of the issues regarding cloning are completely disregarded, it’s nice to see Pin­kie Pie having a rare introspective moment, and actually makes the point that her character is much more than the party animal exterior of the clones.

Of course, the others all claim to be the real one as they usually do, al­though Twilight decides on a bizarre “contest” instead of just asking the clones about “that one time” and executing sending the ones back who can’t answer the questions.  After consulting a book of clichés (and the real Pinkie Pie, natch), Twilight invites the Pinkies to watch paint dry, with the apparent hope that only the real one will be able to do it.  Any Pin­kie Pie who inexplicably shows the slightest disinterest in this boring and unnecessary activity is disposed of through a hastily-learned spell that Spike found in a gratuitously hidden away book.  Even though Spike ad­mits they could send the actual Pinkie Pie back this way, the plan is contin­ued despite him easily finding the real Pinkie and not thinking it strange that she acts com­pletely different from the others.

Twilight zaps the first Pinkie who notices a nearby bird, which causes her to horribly disfigure into a ball before turning into a cloud of smoke and re­turning to the pond.  All of the other Pinkies see Twilight coldly murder this clone, but that doesn’t inspire any of them to stay focused with the prom­ise of imminent death for the simplest moment of distraction (which includes acknowledging what the Pinkie Pie next to you said).  After going on a homicidal rampage, we’re quickly down to the last two Pinkies.  Sadly, they don’t start insisting that Twilight zap the other instead since they’re clearly the real one.  Dash can’t take the contest either, and creates a distraction instead of waiting even longer (and without suffering Twi­light’s wrath).  One Pinkie Pie is distracted and disposed of, while the other seems stunned to have survived the test (but not because she is a clone).  Despite the silliness/horrificness of the last scene, it is actually a touch­ing moment when the real Pinkie Pie is reunited with her friends.  Af­ter dictating the requisite letter, Pinkie opts for just resting instead of the myriad of activities her friends invite her to.  Considering she was one flinch away from being killed, Pinkie will no doubt have to schedule an appointment with her therapist instead.

Although a bizarre way to show its lesson, Too Many Pinkie Pies de­scribes the problem of trying to do too much, which needn’t necessarily be hanging out with friends.  I am usually guilty of this, which contributes to me getting little done, although I would theoretically have time for most of it if I just concentrated on tasks one at a time until they were completed.  In es­sence, it’s better to accept that you can’t do everything and finish what you can, which is a better point than found in Polsky’s previous two episodes.  While of secondary importance, wishing for clones of yourself to do the tasks you don’t want to do would certainly end in failure, since they'd turn out exactly like you in theory.  If you don’t want to do something right now, your clone won’t either.  This isn’t exactly a unique sentiment to the episode, but Pinkie still found it impossible to accomplish all the tasks she wanted no matter how many of her there were.  These lessons weren’t necessarily obvious throughout, but the points are made all the same, and that they are is one of the episode’s strengths.

Most of what holds Too Many Pinkie Pies back from a higher rating mostly comes from Polsky’s writing, which seems a bit out of step with the rest of the series.  That’s not to say it was poor, although there were a number of spotty parts (the “paint dry” task, “quadruplicates”).  Even despite this, there is an odd sense of the characterization feeling more like a first season episode.  Twilight’s preoccupation with turning an apple into an orange (apparently a half-hearted joke) seemed pointless and un­likely, and most of the characters outside of Pinkie Pie are treated in a su­perficial manner.  This is especially true of Rarity, who only stops by long enough to put the words haute couture and ensemble into a sentence, and then later swoons about cucumber sandwiches.  Admittedly the fo­cus was on Pinkie Pie, but the characters all felt sequestered from each other for most of the show.  The way they related to each other was as if they were still feeling each other out as friends and weren’t com­fortable yet, which is exactly how it was early in the first season.

Pinkie Pie does author the letter at the end, which wouldn’t have been al­lowed two seasons ago, but it’s possible that Twilight was originally writ­ten to do so (the wording of the letter makes more sense coming from her) and that the character was swapped out in production to fit the new rules.  Other than that, Too Many Pinkie Pies feels exactly like a first season epi­sode, which makes it unsettling and something of a step backwards.  This lost first sea­son episode absolutely deserved to be made though, and should have replaced Polsky’s own Feeling Pinkie Keen if it indeed existed then.  That the series would import a possibly rejected script for a shortened third season creates the impression of filler, which shouldn't exist for a half-run of shows.

And yet, despite all of the problems mentioned above, Too Many Pinkie Pies becomes the best Pinkie Pie episode if only for not being completely terrible.  Polsky finding a neat solution to the Pinkie Pie “problem” by having her be annoy­ing and introspective at the same time is a large part of the reason why.  The clones took on the perception of Pinkie Pie’s persona, while the real one was left wondering if that’s all she is.  Even if one would think she should easily realize she is the original Pinkie Pie, these moments made some sense on a deeper level, and prove bet­ter than anything seen in a Pinkie Pie episode outside of the iconic crazy party in Party Of One.  We see actual development in Pinkie's character (unlike say in A Friend In Deed), and there’s a clear disconnect between her outside and inside personalities, which is something that is likely true for just about everyone. 

Fortunately, Too Many Pinkie Pies resembles Over A Barrel more than Polsky’s first effort, as both have a surprising amount of depth hidden be­hind a silly story and some questionable dialogue.  There are too many flaws to be forgiven completely, and too many glossed over points (like are the clones actually alive, and are they all dying in the end?), but Polsky gets by on spirit and the insight he offers into Pinkie Pie.  None of the writers (ironically including Polsky himself) found a way to do this before, which makes it strange that the weirdest premise of the five so far has produced the best results.  But Polsky did at least succeed in that area, along with cre­ating a mostly entertaining episode (outside of the mass murder scene in the third act).  Considering the shows with which it shares a focus, Too Many Pinkies Pies is recommended even if it isn't quite able to match the best episodes of the series.