Season 7 Episode 23: Secrets And Pies
We begin this episode with Pinkie Pie baking with Twilight. It's revealed that she's baking a pie for Rainbow Dash in order to celebrate her seventy-third Wonderbolt training session. When Twilight comments on the amount of effort Pinkie is going to in making the fairly complex pie, Pinkie reveals that her pies are Rainbow Dash's favourite, and it's worth it just to see her happy. After a quick joke about needing one of the ingredients as fuel for herself rather than the use in the pie, the opening credits roll.
After the credits, Rainbow Dash is at Wonderbolts HQ finishing up her training session when she is accosted by Pinkie. She is presented with the pie by Pinkie, and expresses sincere gratitude for the thoughtfulness. Claiming to spot something behind Pinkie, she calls out, and Pinkie turns around. When Pinkie turns back around, Rainbow has apparently had a bit of pie, as she remarks on how good it was. Pinkie states that she should have the rest, though Rainbow makes up an excuse to leave, and says she'll take it with her.
As Pinkie is leaving, she spots a janitor taking out some trash from the building, and it would appear as though the pie she just gave to Rainbow Dash is sitting atop the pile. She chases down the garbage-pony, though is just too late to stop him emptying the bin down a chute. She questions him about the pie, though he saw nothing.
Back at Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie begins to wonder if she's ever actually seen Rainbow Dash take a bite of one of her pies. She realises that she's made a fair number of pies for Rainbow in the past, and flashes back to several of these occasions. On each one, Rainbow is shown to create a distraction for Pinkie, ditch the pie, and then pretend to have eaten it.
Pinkie hunts for answer, and begins by interrogating Spitfire. Strangely, Spitfire appears to buckle under pressure from Pinkie's interrogation slightly, stating that they receive monthly pie donations. Next up is a visit to Dr. Fauna, who Pinkie interrogates as Tank's vet. It turns out that Tank has been suffering from sugar overload, and his x-ray shows that he ingested a pie. Finally there's a visit to Cheerilee, who reveals that the class hamster has gotten sick after Rainbow had dropped off a pie for the school foals.
Pinkie returns to Sugarcube Corner, where she begins to piece things together, coming to the conclusion that Rainbow doesn't like her pies. Applejack shows up looking for her, hearing Pinkie's muffled screams and thinking she's in danger. She manages to find her way into Pinkie's secret underground party-planning cave, where Pinkie explains the situation. Applejack swears that she's seen Rainbow eat one of Pinkie's pies before, though Pinkie questions this statement, yet *again* bringing Applejack's honesty into question.
There's a scene wherein Pinkie Pie imagines a more evilly-accentuated Rainbow Dash deliberately destroying her pies in an attempt to free the land, though Applejack doesn't think that's actually the reason for Rainbow Dash's actions. Devolving into a fit of madness reminiscent of Party Of One, Pinkie comes up with a plan to make so many pies for Rainbow Dash that she will either force her to open up, or be caught in the act of disposal.
Pinkie heads to Rainbow's house to wake her up with a pie in celebration of "Wake Your Friends Up Day". Apparently the most important part is acceptance of gifts and then enjoying them immediately. Rainbow quickly looks around for an out, and provides Pinkie with some flowers from her windowsill. These cause Pinkie to sneeze, and while she does, Rainbow quickly throws the pie through a secret chute behind her Wonderbolt poster. Yet again, Rainbow thanks Pinkie for the delicious pie, as Pinkie wonders where it went.
She later accosts Rainbow at her next Wonderbolt training session, where Rainbow tells Pinkie to look out behind her. Not falling for that trick again, Pinkie refuses to take her eyes off of Rainbow, and is struck by a collision from Spitfire as a result. Rainbow quickly ditches the pie, as Pinkie is carted away in an ambulance.
Later on, Pinkie is shown crying to Rainbow Dash for help, before clambering atop a giant pyramid of pies. Pinkie claims that the only way Rainbow will be able to save her from the pyramid is to eat them all, though forgets that Rainbow can simply fly up to grab her. Afterwards, she accosts Rainbow in the street. Looking around, Rainbow notices a group of foals, and calls out to announce the pies. They storm over, and Rainbow Dash presumably ditches the pies with the foals as they run past.
Cut to a pie fair, where Pinkie is seen to be significantly more disheveled due to a lack of sleep. Pinkie hands another pie to Rainbow Dash, and with no easy outs, Rainbow questions Pinkie on the fact that she seems to be staring. Picking up on this, Rainbow deliberately stalls for time, until Pinkie inevitably give sin and blinks. During her blink, time is shown to slow down, and Rainbow manages to ditch the pie yet again, this time by attaching it to a balloon floating by.
Pinkie exclaims that she can't take it anymore, and Rainbow asks what's wrong. Pinkie finally admits that she thinks that Rainbow hates her pies, and Rainbow claims that she's crazy. The pie from before falls out of the sky, landing on Pinkie, and catching Rainbow in her lie. Even caught, Rainbow tries to come up with an excuse, claiming that she wanted to share the pies with the folks in Cloudsdale. She follows this up by pretending to have amnesia and claiming brainwashing (but not conditioning), though these excuses don't fly for a second, Angry at her friend, Pinkie runs off.
Cut to the Castle of Friendship, where Rainbow Dash explaining the situation to Twilight and Applejack. She states that she just doesn't like pies, and couldn't tell Pinkie because she thought that if she told her it would crush her. Rainbow comes to the conclusion that she shouldn't have lied to her friend, and should have just eaten the pie in the first place. To make up to Pinkie, she bakes a monstrosity of a pie herself, and proceeds to eat it in front of Pinkie. Just as she's about to take a bite, Pinkie stops her, stating that she thinks she knows why Rainbow lied.
There's a repeat of the previous flashbacks, each with a slight addition to the end. In these additions, Pinkie expresses real happiness at Rainbow eating her pies (even though she actually didn't). Pinkie comes to the realisation that Rainbow was going to all of the hassle to pretend to like the pies because it made Rainbow happy to see her happy. She forgives Rainbow, and the two hug, as Pinkie tells her not to lie to her again. There's a joke about Rainbow claiming that Pinkie's hug is too tight, and Pinkie disagreeing, as the credits begin to roll.
This was another great episode. The very title played on a quote from Party Of One, and Pinkie's breakdown was certainly reminiscent of that. The mystery surrounding Rainbow's reasoning was genuinely intriguing, and the conclusion was wrapped up in an epic ending (in all albeit messy and unpleasant way). All of the jokes were on point, and there were some very funny scenes with Gummy as Pinkie started to break down. The moral was obviously 'honesty is the best policy', though ironically it was only actually due to the lying that Rainbow's loyalty shone. And speaking of characters not adhering to their elements, has Applejack *ever* been brutally honest? Either way, it was great to see Pinkie thinking she was making Rainbow happy, and Rainbow thinking she was making Pinkie happy, while both of them were actually doing the opposite. Honesty really is the best policy!
Back To My List Of Reviews