He did it because it made a funny sight gag.

The Sapphire cupcake that the Cakes made for Spike.

I wonder if the recipe was actually made FOR dragons. You know, like they were looking through an old stack of cookbooks one day and found a list of meals that you can prepare for other species.

Didn't they mention that it was an experiment they tried?

Pinkie totally had a hoof in the gemstone confectionary recipes.

So what, the gem would react based on the pitch it was exposed to or something?

They call it a NEW recipe, but that could just mean it was new to them.

I can't imagine any other type of use they'd get out of it

btw, am I the only one who thought that that cupcake looked REALLY tasty?

edited 10th Dec '11 5:29:21 PM by gingerninja666

Not unless a tribe of Gorons moves into Ponyville sometime in the future.

Well, it's good to see Carrot again, anyway.

@kegisak: I guess the idea is that a 'ripe' gem would vibrate sympathetically at that pitch.

Btw, for some reason I found the bit where Spike nicks all of Zecora's shit to be the funniest gag of the episode

No, if the gem's innate frequency matches the tuning fork's then you should feel it vibrate. If the gem is pure and wholesome then the whole gem should resonate to a single wavelength.

...I don't know. I'm still googling it if this makes sense in real life. I'm pretty sure Spike is just doing that because it makes a nice sight gag, but still...

^I'm still trying to work out how aging a gem could work at all. Let's call it a sight gag and have done, eh?

edited 10th Dec '11 5:35:59 PM by RedSavant

Oh, yes. On the other hand it's sparked a scientific curiousity in me since I know that there should be a research somewhere about the correlation between a material's qualities (don't know what yet) and its innate acoustic resonance.

By the way, Spike uses the C4 tuning fork for that gag.

edited 10th Dec '11 5:38:15 PM by Crowind

Bah! MY watsonian hat will not be denied! And aging a gem could just be making sure it's pure. A lot of gems are made from compressed rock, after all - nobody wants coal in the middle of their diamond. And since Amethyst is an impurity of quartz, you wouldn't want ot mix tastes there, maybe.

edited 10th Dec '11 5:39:29 PM by kegisak

Gems are fossilized chunks of alcohol

This episode gets kinda weird when you realize that Celestia probably knew all about Dragon puberty when she decided to let Twilight keep Spike.

You'd think she would've mentioned this to either of them at some point. You know, it'd put less lives at risk for one

Even then you would think having a Dragon assistant (and raising him) Twilight would have researched something like this at some point.

She was probably aware, but thought that Spike was stable enough that the greed thing wouldn't get triggered until way later on.

Yeah, like Spike's NEXT birthday.

Alternativly, Celestia knew Spike would never go into hoard mode from his birthday presents beacuse Twilight always gets him books.

edited 10th Dec '11 5:50:38 PM by WillKeaton

All right, let me try to reply to THIRTY PAGES IN ONE DAY SHEESH:

I think our "parade balloon" guess would have been better.

This might be the reason Granny Smith has gotten so many appearances this season, so that regular viewers will already be more aware of how she speaks and how she could be embarrassing.

I don't know how she does it! They have the same voice!

Well, before she was able to teleport with Spike... So what is the deal with Twilight Sparkle only using teleportation for the most frivolous things?

Oh, right, Pinkie Pie would always use her dark powers to mess up the teleporter somehow.

But Twilight still uses candlelight!

Pinkie Pie should have learned from Fluttershy in "Swarm of the Century" that appeasement isn't the answer! ...Wait, wasn't Pinkie teaching the lesson of that episode? I don't know anymore!

Yeah, great way to state the problem. Now wait, was he just making a generalization about dragons being like that, or was he under the impression that Spike was a pony that turned into a dragon as some kind of disease? I was reminded of when Daffidazey blamed her hairdressing foul-up on forgetting that Spike wasn't a pony.

Of course the "Fire Ruby" also reminded me of the Heart Stone from "Crunch the Rockdog". Always gotta make the "Have a heart" message as literal as possible, eh?

Oh... I thought Spike might have been cutting the ruby.

That was their guess in "Spike's Search".

Aw, then G3 Spike really was a nice guy.

So what Twilight really needed to do at the exam was conjure up a big pile of gems...

I took it as the animators making fun of it: They show you the pair together, then Derpy appears as if to say "You think this means something, don't you?"

Is this the original Junebug?

Maybe they're supposed to be like the new, slightly-more-feminine-looking boy pony toys from the blind bag line? (But just watch and see them release a G4 Lickety-Split toy that looks nothing like him.)

I think a better gag would be to hire Nancy Cartwright to voice the new Minty.

Awww, but that would be a funny way to explain the commercial where Princess Celestia came wrapped up in a scroll! "Yes, I can handle being cremated alive, what of it?"

Nancy Cartwight voicing a pony?

DO WANT!

No really, I do, because that would be great!

edited 10th Dec '11 5:58:00 PM by ApplelightLimited

I LOVED Junebug. She seemed so sweet

That Vet also sounds like a badass. She's been around so many snakes that she can diagnose them faster than she can dogs now

Trying to find simple correlation model between chemical structure and natural frequency has yielded hilarious gems such as crystal therapy.

Anyway, in that scene Spike clearly expects the gem resonating with the tuning fork to be evidence of its pureness. Pretty sure gems aren't supposed to have that low of a natural frequency, but oh well.

So you agree that Nancy Cartwright's voice would be the best Mythology Gag possible?

Fuck yes.

Think she would, if asked?