Pinkie
Pie tries her hooves at babysitting only to find the responsibility
more difficult than she expected.
She's
crazy, she's weird, she's almost always happy no matter the
situation. She's Pinkie Pie. The only character on the show who
actually seems somewhat self-aware of being a cartoon. As such she often
defies certain laws of physics or pops out of something unexpected,
among other cartoonish things. Due to that she may seem like a comic
relief character or a one note character, neither of which is the
slightest bit true. Pinkie Pie has just as much depth and emotion as
the other characters, it's just not seen quite as often. That fact is
why it's great to see a Pinkie Pie episode that shows more sides of her than just silliness.
The
episode starts at the hospital with the six main characters all eager
and excited about the birth of Cupcake and Carrotcake's new baby,
wondering whether it will be a colt or a filly (male or female for
those who know nothing about horses). It's revealed that the baby is
actually two babies, twins: a pegasus named Pound Cake (the brother),
and a unicorn named Pumpkin Cake (the sister). Pinkie Pie is hyper
excited to have not just one but two new ponies to play with, while the others are
more perplexed by how one baby can be a pegasus and the other a unicorn.
However, that is quickly explained away; one far removed family
member was a unicorn and another far removed member was a pegasus.
Next the show moves to a month later at Sugarcube Corner, which is a
sweets shop run by the Cakes. It's also where Pinkie Pie lives and works, and she even watches
over the shop at times when the Cakes are out. She's most likely the
Cakes' apprentice, but the show has not yet to state this directly. Anyways, Pinkie
Pie is having a great time playing with the twins and keeping them
happy while their parents do the actual work of feeding them,
changing them, etc. When something comes up and
the Cakes have to find Pinkie Pie immediately volunteers, but the Cakes ignore her
and look for a sitter. However the other five main characters all
have (mostly humorous) reasons why they're unable to do it, so the Cakes have no choice but to let Pinkie Pie do it. But they warn her that she has to actually be responsible and not just play
with them.
As
soon as the parents are gone the babies begin crying and Pinkie Pie
scrambles to find a way to stop it. She then goes about feeding them, bathing them and changing them, though each task is challenging and causes Pinkie Pie more annoyance and stress. She's relieved when Twilight Sparkle arrives to help, but unfortunately Pinkie is offended when Twilight talks about how difficult it is for some ponies to handle the responsibility. Pinkie proceeds to
kick out her friend and gets (almost completely) serious, determined to prove she can handle things on her own handle
the responsibility on her own. But soon after she puts the twins to bed, she discovers that they've disappeared! And so begins a frantic search to
find them.
This episode, like most, doesn't disappoint as the show
adds its own unique twists and creates something that is much more
original than it looks on paper. “Baby
Cakes” is another solid episode which introduces two new
characters, the twins of course. I do love the idea of twins where
one is a pegasus and the other a unicorn. Pound Cake lives up to his
name as he likes to hit things, and he also seems rather strong for his
age. Pumpkin Cake, meanwhile, likes to chew on things. Both of the twins are
quite intelligent for their age, a fact which is well portrayed and
enjoyable.
Another thing I loved is that even as the episode showed a more serious side to Pinkie Pie, there was a balance as she still retained a certain amount of characteristic silliness. This was quite entertaining and made perfect sense for her character. The scene where Twilight came over
to help Pinkie was a nice way to take a break from the babysitting
scenes for a moment, and it did an excellent job of providing Pinkie
with the determination she needed to do as she did in the next scene.
The episode also contained a great running gag involving flour. I
found nothing to complain about in this episode, it's well done with
plenty of attention to both the small details as well as the big
picture. When
the episode reached its end, there was a nice lesson about
responsibility and I was satisfied by how everything was wrapped up. Once
again this show proves there are no great stories, only great
storytellers.
