Amending Fences - A Corpulent Analysis

Written by Corpulent Brony

 It’s Spring of ‘99, pretty late at night, on a dark road [sound of car on road].  My prom date sits next to me as I drive her home in my mom’s Thunderbird.  I think she’s been interested in me, she’ll probably even let me kiss her if I try, but I haven’t really found myself attracted to her.  My mind was still on another girl, 3,000 miles away, and my plans to move there almost immediately after graduating in a few months.  [pomp and circumstance]

 I stop at a light, and speak with her a bit. [brakes, car noise stops]  I’m getting ready to make a right hand turn [blinker noises], but then decide last minute that going straight would be quicker.  Oncoming traffic from the left was clear, so in my head I was good to go.  I hit the gas and realized too late the light was still red and I was running a red light.  Before I could even think “shit”...[car crash sound?]

 Now I’m sobbing in the passenger seat of a police cruiser as I explain what happened, still in shock at my first car accident.  My date’s parents show up and take her away, glaring at me.  [dramatic music crescendoes]
A lot of the concepts in this episode may be a bit foreign to children, but I know personally I’ve experienced the loss that happens when you leave friends behind and later try to reconnect.  In my experience it seldom turns out with quite the storybook ending here, but I thought these feelings were portrayed very well in this episode.

 First, I want to let you all in on a little secret: I like Twilight Sparkle and live for episodes that feature her.  But outside of premieres and finales, she really doesn’t get much love.  Sure there’s Lesson Zero, It’s About Time, and...what?  In four seasons of pony, that’s...all I got.  Enter MA Larson and the last pony episode he’s written ([quietly] for season five), Amending Fences.

 The writing, animation, and post-production in this episode are first rate, substantially better than one experiences on an average Saturday morning pony outing.  For the first time, Princess Twilight finds herself having to fix a friendship problem she inadvertently caused herself.  The purported Mary Sue is brought to her knees as the guise of infallibility foisted upon her by the brony fandom falls away and reveals to us all she is still the same Twilight from before.  At least, that’s what I get out of the episode.

 As her reflection stares back at her in the picture framing her current friends, Spike’s big mouth brings about a moment of realization and reverie wherein Twilight recalls faintly the time that was before her pivotal move to Ponyville.  Albeit obviously they were never as close as she now is with her Ponyville pals, the fact the Princess of Friendship could so quickly and completely forget her old friends is a shock, to both her highness and the viewer.

 Allusions to the past predominated throughout the episode.  The contemplative conversations Twiley held through reflections were beautifully animated and helped transport me into a nostalgic state of mind similar to what she must have been experiencing in those moments.  I’ve noticed in my life that regret has a tendency to accumulate in my sentimental thoughts in much the same way as the dust in Twi’s old tower room.  
Finally, we were treated to the portrayal of three flashbacks from her memories, even one that recalled the first episode of the series.  [cats in the cradle thing]

 But, for me, the most poignant scene of this story was first seeing Moon Dancer and immediately realizing, there but for the grace of Celestia goes Twilight.  Surely, if not for the fact she was forced to make friends by old Sun Butt, this could have been Twiley, holed up in her house with no company but her dusty old books.  I’d be lying if I wrote off my watery eyes to a wayward dust particle.

 Truly, Amending Fences is an episode I would feel confident placing next to the other great purple smart episodes, Lesson Zero and It’s About Time.  It’s a great episode to go out on.  In a related note, I’d like to take a moment to once again sincerely thank Mitch A Larson for his remarkable work on the pony series and to wish him all the best in his future endeavors, whatever they may be.

 Back to the story about my prom date from so long ago.  Neither me nor my date were injured, luckily.  And I was in the police cruiser just to give my side of the story, I wasn’t under arrest or anything..  A few months passed, and I did leave home and moved 3,000 miles away to be closer to this other girl, who it ends up really wasn’t interested in me anyway.  After a year I visited home again and sort of blew off my prom date from before.  She’s pretty upset, but I don’t learn until later how much she had been awaiting my return, counting the days until I might come back.  I had no idea.  But by this point, the damage had been done.

 In recent years, I’ve felt very bad about this and have tried contacting her again to apologize for the way I behaved.  I’ve never received a response, and I still find myself wracked with guilt over the way I nonchalantly shrugged off her affections.  I wish I was able to mend things up with her as Twilight was able to do with Moon Dancer.