Saturday Synopsis: Filli Vanilli

Every fucking day this little faggot sits there and gives me this stupid look on his face.

Saturday has arrived, and a new episode along with it. Hope you like Fluttershite episodes, because that's what this one is. This week's story brings us a tale of fame, glamour and deep black male voices. And I don't mean the hood life. Hopefully you enjoy this recap, and if not, you can get the fuck out and watch the actual episode. Nobody's forcing you to read this. There ain't no gun pointed at your head. But that gives me an idea...

As of the time of writing, the best episode link is here.




The episode starts off with Fluttershy waking up to talk to a bunch of birds. As custom of cartoon characters, the pleasant day prompts her to sing some terrible song. Because in case you had forgotten, Fluttershy is and always has been a raging flower-wearing Hippie. After getting through the song, the O.G. crew are revealed to have all arrived at her house at the exact same time that she woke up, which is never actually explained, as they don't seem to have arranged to meet up there or anything. Chalk it down to "IT WAS A COINCIDENCE".

The gang seem shocked to learn that she can actually sing pretty well. Rarity takes the moment to tell her that she ABSOLUTELY MUST SING while seeming to forget exactly who she's talking to. Rarity explains that all of a sudden, she's part of some kind of Barbershop Quartet called "The Ponytones" that consists of herself, two never-before-seen characters... And Big Mac. Yes, Big Mac sings now. Rarity pleads with her to become part of the quartet, and Pinkie steps in, totally in-character, to explain exactly what it would be like in the most fucking terrifying description possible. Seriously. She goes the whole way explaining how she'll be up there in front of hundreds of people and how they'll ridicule her if she fails. One guy in the comment section complained about her being "inconsiderate and totally out of character"... If you ask me, she was entirely in-character.

Guuuuys, don't tease me, I'm shyyyyy!

Fluttershy refuses Rarity's offer, and everyone is absolutely shocked and confused as to why. Excuse me, do you know a fucking thing about your friend? Apparently everything you know about a person gets thrown out the window when the plot demands it. After they have to explain why she won't perform, they head off to watch the practice session.

After Rarity, Big Mac, Big Blue and Fire Field nobody is going to get that brilliant joke finish their session, Spike butts in to make his smooth moves on Rarity, telling her that she was great. When she draws his attention to the other singers, Spike goes full balla and gives them a dismissive "pretty good". Yellowquiet really seemed to get into it too, even spending animation on some good old fashioned pony ass.

SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE / SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE
SHAKE YOUR BOOTY / SHAKE YOUR BOOTY

After a visual representation of the next day in the form of a rapidly falling moon, Yellowass makes her way to the stage before the performance - where Big Mac is noticeably absent. When he does arrive, he fails to start the song. Upon being asked to start it, he responds in a very strained "nope". You could say he was a little hoarse oh god I'm not funny.

Why has he lost his voice? Well, apparently, the Apples have yet ANOTHER long-standing tradition of having a family "Turkey Calling Contest". You'd think the Apple branch would get sick of checking the calendar since they have so many family events. "Can't go out today, it's the Turkey Call Contest. And tomorrow is the Apple Rope Rodeo. And after that is Zigger Zappin' Day." Despite throwing out his voice, he still lost his 6-year-winning-streak to Piepone, who doesn't give a shit about the repercussions. Rarity decides this is the end of their performance, to Fluttershite's dismay, who protests. While thinking up a solution, she taps into her Druidic instincts and remembers the Shaman that lives not far from her. 

She probably worked for the Apples at some point.

Zecora, being a Level 13 Shaman, naturally has a remedy for his voice, but the drawback is that it will not work over the course of one night. She does however have a suggestion for where they find a replacement bass voice for their quartet... Calling back to the episode with the Poison Joke, she notes that Fluttershite's voice become far more... Black guy. Zecora offers to make the PJ into a brew to give her the same symptoms as before. To counteract her stage fright, Rarity suggests the age-old trick of lip-synching - Big Mac would move his lips, while Blackershy would hide behind the curtain and sing his part for him. Yellowquiet hesitantly agrees. Foolproof. What could possibly go wrong? 

To be honest, the musical number is pretty catchy. This is because Blu Mankuma ("Flutterguy's" voice) is extremely cool.

After the finish, Flutter is spotted creeping out of backstage. Rarity hastily adds that she was helping backstage, and despite her nervous-sounding excuse, they buy it. And that's when some foreign fucker turns up. I can't tell what his accent is, but he's wearing a turtleneck, has a feminine short haircut, carefully groomed beard, thick glasses and an annoying daughter... So he must be French. He asks the Ponytones to perform at his daughter's Cutesc... Cutesin... Cutescén.... Fuck it. Her birthday, which is tomorrow. Though Rarity initially refuses, Flutter encourages her to go ahead with it. So they sing there the next day. But after, the Mayor approaches, and asks them to perform at her ribbon-cutting ceremony... You see where this is going. Next is the Spa Twins, then for Cheerilee's class and so on, each time Flutter insisting they agree.

You know - For kids!

Come the next performance, Big Mac's voice has recovered, but Yellowquiet is disappointed by the news... So they agree for her to do one last performance. Just saying that out loud makes it obvious how everything was going to go wrong. During the performance, while she sings behind the curtain, she begins ad-libbing and getting too rowdy, inevitably knocking down the curtain, as seen in this article's top-page image. 

Caught in the spotlight, she goes through some rather mentally disturbing interpretations, before screaming in Blu Mankuma's formerly manly voice and running away. After Applejack explains the entire scheme in less than 10 seconds, they go to her cottage. They only last 10 seconds before Pinkie goes full retard AGAIN, describing everything horrible that she felt in full detail, causing her to run off in a fit of tears. They chase after her, bombarding her with flattery, thinking it will help. She finally stops running and thanks them, but including that she'll never sing again. This is followed up by the obligatory episode moral, that being "your worst nightmare isn't always as bad as you think it'll be".

Yeah. That wasn't so bad.

The episode climaxes with her singing - thought not in Blu Mankuma's voice - with the rest, effectively reducing the Barbershop into a Quintet. Yes, I said reducing. Barbershop groups don't have five. And that's the end of the episode. What did we get out of today's episode? Music, more reasons to dislike Pinkie, potential porn... What's the porn count for this episode, anyway? Let me check... Two pieces for the little girl, Futashy, a lot of Flutterass, and one of that red-headed singer. Not bad, but could be better. 

If I'm honest? This episode didn't really strike my chords. The writing was pretty lazy, especially since this was apparently written by the woman who wrote Pinkie Pride which aired only two weeks ago. All of Yellow's friends seem to forget that she's shy, Pinkie acts even more obnoxious that normal, Rarity was the only one of the 5 that accepted that she didn't want to sing... Character progression seems to have plain been lost this week. Well, hopefully next week's will be bett--

Oh shit. Next week's episode is a CMC episode. RUN WHILE YOU CAN.

- Grumpy Old Fart